Social Creatures

Man is classified as a social animal, some more than others, and that is readily apparent more today than in the past.

Me? I'm an introvert. That means I don't mind *not* being social most of the time. In fact, I generally prefer it. With that being said, I still Zoom and/or video chat with my friends and family. I live with The Big Guy, and while we stay out of each other's way a good portion of the day, when we have those rare moments of I-haven't-talked-to-anybody-in-days-and-I-have-diarrhea-of-the-mouth, we have each other to talk at in between regular interactions. I'm lucky. The extroverts I see and/or talk to are really struggling - and I completely understand that! Heck, if I'm getting stir crazy, I can only imagine what they're going through.

The thing I miss the most about the seclusion of the day is observing, and yet the people I AM observing are "different." They are interacting in new and different ways. With face coverings, I miss seeing expressions that make me wonder what people are thinking (but I wouldn't change that right now). People are at once more friendly and more reserved. Everybody waves, everybody says hello, but there's a hesitation to go beyond that, a wariness.

Still, while I'm out and about, I continue to look for a setting, an interaction between people, an expression, sometimes even a smell. Those are the things that activate my imagination. I certainly have a storehouse of things to draw on from "before." Even though I'm covering the same familiar territory when I go walking every day (you can see what I see on my Instagram), I miss exploring new places and seeing new things. With that being said, even everyday things can spark my imagination. Today I saw the underside of the leaves. There's an old wives' tale that tells you that's the harbinger of a storm. Storms often make for good stories, don't you think?

Counting my blessings instead of sheep, to coin a phrase.

Current music: Count my Blessings
Current mood: 🍀
Currently working on: Hillendale 4

Heroes and villains

 So I was working on a thing. I call it my pandemic project. For those of you who are newsletter subscribers, you'll be getting news next week. For those of you who are not, now's your chance to sign up.

I've also been reading up a storm, books to distract and inspire. The last movie I saw in a theater was LITTLE WOMEN, and I appreciated how Jo was constantly writing, and how by the end of the movie she'd taken control of her career. It was also an illustration of how much the world has changed with time, and a reminder that it will continue to change. Through it all, we rely on the tales that are passed along, from the times of bards in the kings' courts to the dawn of the industrial revolution and continuing through today. We listen intently to stories of heroes and villains, both real and imagined.

With the crazy news cycles constantly vying for attention, my creative mind has been struggling. One of my friends nudged me to resurrect an old story I'd written several years ago, one that is a little out of my normal scope. It's more of a fantasy-type novel, about mythical beings and airline pilots that I wrote after a trip through canyon country. When I pulled it out to read it again, I decided it wasn't half bad, so I'm working on fine-tuning it before I take another trip to Hillendale. 

Antelope Canyon

One of my critique partners suggested I might be straying too far from the legend that inspired my fantasy novel, which got me to wondering how far is too far when you're making stuff up? How much is "appropriating" someone else's culture and how much is fair game for a vivid imagination? Then I started thinking about Bram Stoker's DRACULA, one of my favorite books (and movies - Bela Lugosi era). Fast forward a billion years and we have Twilight, which says vampires sparkle. Is that appropriating Transylvanian folklore? Is that twisting a legend to suit an author's vision? (Here's a Facebook link to the canyon legend.)

 

Bryce Canyon

Are you, my readers, interested in reading the fantasy novel I've written? (Inquiring minds want to know.)

Wherever the changes we're currently living through take us, we will have stories to pass along to the generations that follow, either as cautionary tales or as beacons of hope. While we wait to see how all this turns out, I'll do my best to give you something else to think about for a few hours. Thanks for sitting around the fire with me while I spin my yarns.

Current music: Tusk (Fleetwood Mac)
Current mood: 🤔
Currently working on: Hoodoo Awakening

Crittercide - meanderings of the mind

I live fairly near a forest preserve and there are often animals that forget to look both ways when crossing the highway. I have seen several baby Bambis recently which makes me sad - poor babies - along with baby 'coons. The big ol' guys you figure have at least lived their lives and if they decide to commit crittercide in front of a car, they've had their chance at life. I was driving home from work a while back and came across just such an animal. I think it was an opossum - didn't really get a good look, only long enough to see it step into the road, start back, hesitate, and in that indecision, lose his life. There is something very unsettling about critters getting squished in the middle of the road - and this guy actually did the roll off to the shoulder instead of the pizza on the center line, but all the same, it's ugly.

Which brings me to my other point (going back to Bambi). Do deer run into other animals in the woods? I mean, really. They see a car zooming down the road, running, if you will, and figure they'll just dart on an intercept course? Tag, you're it? Is this some kind of woodland creatures game like cow tipping? Kind of like my cat that likes to head butt. He jumps up beside you and BAM! there's that little head smashing into whatever body part he's closest to. Does he think he's going to knock me over????? I realize that at night deer can't see with headlights shining in their eyes, but I've seen these guys crossing the road in full daylight, in the middle of rush hour traffic. Usually they race along the side of the road first to see if they can outrun the car, but when the cars slow down to avoid being dented and furred, they figure it's safe to shoot across. *sigh*

Oh well. Whatcha gonna do?

More exciting news on the writing front next week. Stay tuned!

The Law of the Garbage Truck

Had to share this - For a lot of us, life has been overwhelming for an excessively long period of time. As we all deal with our own garbage, here's a reminder that we aren't the only ones.

Law of the Garbage Truck

One day, I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches!

The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly.

So I asked, 'Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!'

This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, 'The Law of the Garbage Truck.'

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment.

As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you. Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.

The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so...

Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don't. Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it!

Have a blessed, garbage-free day.

Looking back before looking forward

There’s always a moment as I finish a book where I look ahead to what’s next. Occasionally, I don’t have a fully formed idea, or I have too many, at which point I stop to look over everything I've ever written.

Some time ago, my first two books were remaindered, i.e., delisted. They’d fallen into the irrelevant category and being my first two books, showed dreadful growing pains. After 20 years, I’ve actually learned how to put two sentences together! I’m very proud of how far I’ve come in nearly 20 years at this job. Having recently completed a novella (more news will be forthcoming about LANDSLIDE), it was time to consider what comes next. The state of the world being what it is, I’ve been fairly overwhelmed, so I picked up book #1 to see if it was worth a reissue. Reading my first, unpolished story was difficult, and I decided it had had its day and it was time to move forward. 

Another thought was picking up a story I’d tucked away in a drawer. I didn’t feel it was strong enough when I’d originally finished the first draft. I have a writer friend who keeps encouraging me to resurrect it, and looking it over, it isn’t half bad! EPITAPH suffered that same fate for several years until I found the right path forward.

I'd also considered another Northwest Suburbs story.  And there’s the new series, Hillendale. A case of too many ideas.

Looking back at the old books reminds me that in writing, as in life, I should keep moving forward. 

 

Reader expectations - Romance novels

Recently, I saw a freebie advertised for an author I like, an author I met at a conference when her first book had been published. She's very prolific, and market savvy, and I've enjoyed most of her books, so I clicked through figuring to download. Then I hesitated.

Authors like reviews. They need to see where they're hitting the mark and where they're missing, so even 1 star reviews, while demoralizing, have value. 

We (authors) don't get it right every time. Sometimes we hit a sour note with our readers, and based on the reviews I read of this author's latest promo, she missed the mark. The first review (and I hate when something like this is the first review you see because it's very subjective) said, "... no one had mentioned the 2 sex scenes near the end." She gave the book 1 star. I tossed that review aside because--come on--this is a romance. You have a better than 50/50 chance it's going to have sex in it. Or have reader expectations changed? 

I went on to read more reviews, because that one seemed out of touch with the market. There were other complaints about the book, things I believe should have been in the book description--the blurb. Based on what the reviews said, the cover was also grossly misleading, so now I'm getting a better picture of "what's wrong with this book?" The whole first page of reviews were three stars or less.

So, two points I want to make. 

• First - Books are put into categories. Romances often include sex. Some people buy them expressly for that reason. The level of stuff "on the page" varies, from erotic, which is all about the sex, to steamy, which means the sex has to be a natural evolution of the romance (but should NOT be gratuitous). These scenes have been part of the romance genre for decades. In the old days, they were referred to as bodice rippers. Nowadays, the women in the stories have much more control over the action (as well they should!).

For readers who don't want the steamy stuff on the page, they can choose a category called "Sweet." There is also the "door closed" phrase, which means when the characters get down to business, they close the door and don't invite the reader in.
 

HOWEVER, going back to that gratuitous thing - Some authors believe readers expect a sex scene from them and it becomes "obligatory." I'm here to tell you I don't buy into that. Maybe readers are looking for something steamy from certain authors, but if it doesn't flow naturally with the rest of the story, it feels obligatory. It shouldn't be there out of obligation, but rather as a natural course of events between the characters, something that moves the story forward instead of "and then they had sex." (I just read another of this same author's books where she threw in a sex scene near the end because she probably felt obliged to and it ruined the book for me--I'm sensing a pattern...)

• Second - The blurb tells the reader what the book is about and helps them determine if this is something that would appeal to them. If you leave out an important detail, readers are going to be unhappy. End of story. In the example I'm using, the hero is disabled. He lost a leg in the war. The book cover shows him standing on two feet embracing the woman. Nice romance cover, but misleading. Nowhere in the blurb does it mention the hero is disabled. I learned that detail from the reviews. In fact, in reading the reviews, much of what readers highlighted that made them unhappy was not covered in the blurb--unpleasant surprises. That's a problem. I've read disabled heroes before and enjoyed the stories. Mary Balogh is very good at making this type of man both sympathetic and heroic. Here's one of her blurbs:

"Desperate to escape his mother’s matchmaking, Vincent Hunt, Viscount Darleigh, flees to a remote country village. But even there, another marital trap is sprung. So when Miss Sophia Fry’s intervention on his behalf finds her unceremoniously booted from her guardian’s home, Vincent is compelled to act. He may have been blinded in battle, but he can see a solution to both their problems: marriage."

Marketing books is about setting reader's expectations. It's not an easy balance, but withholding important information isn't always preventing a "spoiler." Giving your reader an unexpected surprise might not be appreciated. 

Readers need to understand what they're buying, what to expect from a genre - that's on the reader. Authors need to properly market their books and let the readers know what they're getting - that's on the author.

 **Newsletter subscribers - winners were picked yesterday.

Congratulations Susan B, Sue G, and Teresa!** 

The joy of writing

There are times, as an author, when I feel stuck in a rut. Some folks might call that writer's block, but me? I don't believe in writer's block. For me, it's more like mood of the day. Hey, sometimes I wake up ready to take on the world, and other days I feel like the world is dragging me down. Writing isn't much different. You push forward, because that's really your only option.

By now, you'll know that the next Hillendale book went on sale early (Woo-hoo! Did you get your copy of THE HIDDEN GRIMOIRE?). I have had a great deal of fun writing those books, but after three in a row, it's a little like hanging out with the same person every day for a year-- and we all know what that feels like right about now! I love Brynn and Nora, but I need a little vacation from them, so I started off on something different for my next book, and just like being on vacation, I'm having a ball "visiting" the Cascade Mountains in Washington State!

I've written a novella that is a stand-alone romance and is inspired to a certain degree by recent events. The characters spoke to me and insisted I tell their stories, but as I was writing, the story began practically writing itself, which is energizing. I hit a point where I stopped to wonder if people would think I was writing about myself. My main character is an author and she writes books "on the fringe" of supernatural. So as to clear up any doubts - IT IS NOT ABOUT ME. There's always someone who thinks my books are autobiographical, no matter what occupation my heroine is assigned. Imagine living all those lives - but that's the point. Imagine living all those lives!

So what about Hillendale? Are Brynn's adventures over? I don't think so. She and I have become BFFs, and judging by reader feedback and sales, there need to be more stories there. Now. With that being said, I can hear you wondering if I'm bored with Hillendale, which would most certainly reflect in my writing. The quick and easy answer to that is no. More ideas for Brynn and friends are crawling around in my head, and taking a break from them provides me the time I need to approach the next story with fresh enthusiasm. I have forward-thinking threads yet to be addressed that you will see after reading THE HIDDEN GRIMOIRE. So will there be a Hillendale 4? Yes, I can confidently say so. How long will you have to wait? Judging by the extra time I've had to write over this past year and by the ideas pouring out of my fingertips, there's better than half a chance it could be by the end of the year.

For now, I'm still on vacation with these new characters and rediscovering the joy of a fresh story. Have I mentioned how much fun I'm having? Just wait til you read what I've come up with!