Cover reveal and backstory

When I was touring around Seville, I did a paranormal tour for ideas. While several things tickled my imagination, including a little stray dog that followed us all around the city, I only had random notes to go by. I found myself enjoying the sights more than tuning into story ideas (as it should be!). Then, on one of our last nights there, we passed a window. We'd walked by this same window dozens of times while we were coming and going, but apparently the lights weren't on previously. This particular night, it stopped me in my tracks. Next to the tapas bar. Next to the Mexican restaurant. Next to the hair salon. Next to the souvenir shop. But what was it? A warehouse? A fix-it shop? It wasn't accessible from the courtyard, but with the lights on, everything in the window sparkled. The clicking of my camera is the sound of my imagination tuning in.

Chandeliers

How to fit it into the story? I SO wanted to make this my cover, but it doesn't scream supernatural in any way shape or form. This picture looks more like a regency romance than a haunted house/ ghost/ demon novel. But I wanted to share it, so I'm sharing it here.

INSTEAD of the glittering chandeliers, I chose another picture. One that more accurately displays the genre you're getting with THE DEMON FROM THE CRYPT. Something dark and mysterious, and yet still representative of Seville. Something like...

Amazon | BN | Apple | Kobo | Others

You like? This photo is from the Baths of Maria Padilla at the Real Alcazar (the royal palace). Oh yeah. The book is available for preorder, just in case you want to encourage me to keep writing 😉

Oh, and I should mention, personal appearances are being scheduled. First one will be at the Gail Borden Library in October. Check my "Karla in the Wild" page for updates.

 

Research - when not to use what you learn

As I'm editing, I'm circling back on the research I did to make sure I'm presenting things as they are (or at least close enough that artistic license doesn't make it unbelievable). I'm also weighing what needs to be on the page versus what doesn't. 

Today's example lies in one of my venues. There is a crypt. An underground vault. It is very singular, and a fascinating place that was used in Game of Thrones. The main vault has vaults on either side that are presently closed to the public. I confirmed that knowledge, although I didn't know why they were closed until I went back to double check my research. The main vault holds a cistern that captures rainwater that was once used as the water source inside the palace. The vaults on the sides are known as galleries because they were lined with paintings. Interesting! The sides are closed off to visitors largely because the paintings have been moved for restoration. In the environment they were kept, they were deteriorating rapidly. Can I incorporate that into the story? Should I?

No.

First, my character is unfamiliar with her surroundings as it is. The paintings aren't there, so she wouldn't know they were supposed to be. Secondly, she doesn't know the history behind the locale. The setting in my book is a meeting place, one she didn't know existed until she was told to go there. She can see the galleries--the passages alongside the main vault--but access is closed off. She doesn't know why and she doesn't know what's missing (the paintings) so this little bit of research, while interesting, has no place in the story. What DOES have a place in the story was the research I couldn't find. The cistern is the central focus inside the crypt. I was doing verification to find out how deep this cistern was, which at one time was rumored to be a bath for a king's mistress. Yeah, that story doesn't belong in my story, either, but that was something I learned. How deep was her bathtub? Swimming pool size? Or bathtub size? I couldn't find that information online, so I went to my local source for help. Someone who lives there, someone who knows (thank you, Stephanie!). A pivotal scene in my book takes place there, so I really kinda need to know that information, as does the reader. An additional bit of information Stephanie shared with me, she could see coins in the cistern (tossed in to make a wish? Or for luck?). Should I include that in the story? Hmmmm. Need to muddle that for a bit. My brain is racing to Three Coins in a Fountain, or other movies that include fountains with coins. Unless the story revolves around the coin(s), not sure they're worth mentioning.

Or are they?

That's the fun of researching. You learn interesting tidbits. What's interesting to the author, however, doesn't always move the story forward. 

One of my critique partners wrote a couple of western books set on ranches. She added dead cows in all the books because there are dead cows on ranches. True fact. But as a reader, I don't need to see those dead cows unless they have a reason to be there. Her rationale is that it shows the rancher doing his job. Agreed. But to me, it's like saying the main character has to pee. I don't need to know that/need to see that unless it creates conflict or tension. There are plenty of other things a rancher does rather than notice dead livestock. Keep in mind I read about her cows in the development process, first drafts. Some of those dead cows did relate to the plot, so they DID have a reason to be there.

And then there's Anne Rice. When I read The Witching Hour, there were chapters and chapters filled with backstory/research. Long, tedious chapters which, when I'd finished the novel, I reflected on as interesting. 🤷 What can I say?

I have included unnecessary research in some of my stories, sure. In the early drafts. Only later, while reviewing what I've written, have I looked at it and realized the information is superfluous. It doesn't need to be there. Or maybe only a sentence instead of two paragraphs. Yes, the information adds authenticity, but if it doesn't move the story along, it turns into "blah blah blah." 

Have you read a book that had fascinating research to share that had nothing to do with the story?

Street Teams

I have to tell you -- while writing books is what I love to do, there is SO MUCH MORE that goes into getting those book into peoples' hands. 

While I've been editing the next Elle Barclay book, I've also tried to juggle marketing the first one. And the production of the audiobook for Horned Owl Hollow. While the audiobook was a fairly seamless process overall, distribution ran into some snafus. It passed through the QA process pretty quickly, and started distributing. They tell you it can take up to 30 days, but the audiobook was available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon within two weeks. I was very excited things were going well. Until they weren't. At the 29-day mark, I was notified that the audio files were corrupted. Wait. Didn't they pass QA? So I reuploaded all my files and waited. Two more weeks and they told me, again, that the files were corrupted. After they passed QA AGAIN. I ran the files through a validator, and they were fine. So THEN I downloaded the files from the distributor and found some that were corrupt on the site. How does that happen? I replaced the corrupted files, downloaded them again after I'd uploaded them again and validated them. Again. This time all was good. I'm happy to say the audio is now available everywhere it's supposed to be. But all of this takes time away from writing. 

I'd planned more marketing, because people can't find your books unless you market them - I mean, there's only like a bazillion authors out there competing for your attention. But I was holding off on marketing until the audio was ready. Which it is now. So marketing restarted. 

And now I'm back to trying to get the next book ready for market (September release date, for those of you anticipating it!). The working title is The Demon from the Crypt. This is where I always consider if it wouldn't be easier to have a traditional publishing house do the heavy lifting for me, but then I remember. Traditional publishing houses expect their authors to do the heavy lifting, too. So what would I gain? And I'd have to share my royalties with them. Which brings me to the subject of this blog post.

The one BIG marketing option all authors DEPEND ON is word of mouth advertising. Did you like the book? Would you recommend it to a friend? There are a bunch of gimmicky ways to get folks interested, like building street teams, or fan pages, and the like. I'm an introvert by nature, so reaching out is a challenge for me. I try to do my part, to wear all the hats publishers expect me to wear, but I always wonder if it's enough. So this is my call to action today. 

Do you like my books? Tell your friends! I see authors like Jill Shalvis telling people to buy her books so she can keep writing and doesn't have to get a job at Taco Bell. I doubt she'll ever have to go to that extreme. So this is me. Asking you to share the love so that I can keep doing what I love. Mount up, people. Hit the streets. I would be ever so grateful!

Recharging - Field Trip

As I prepared for the next editing pass, I took a field trip to get out of the house and clear my head. The best way to go back to the work in process is to forget about it so I can come back to it "fresh." 

I met up with a long-time friend to walk around the arboretum, which is displaying new sustainable art. The weather was perfect, the company was great. We walked through the hedge maze, climbed the treehouse in the middle, and I found several of my favorite beech trees. I think this is the first time I've been back since I wrote The Garden, and I saw Bryan and Gwen everywhere I looked. 

We found four of the five sculptures on our scavenger hunt around the arboretum. 

Ear to the Ground

Strata 

Stillness in motion

Oculus

Ona (we didn't get to this one, but isn't she beautiful?)
(a reason to go back, eh Janet?)
Photo courtesy of mortonarb.org

A successful diversion! 

In other news, the audio for Horned Owl Hollow seems to be having issues at the distributor end, but I think we've ironed all that out. Now it's just a matter of finding its way to the proper channels again. For my newsletter subscribers, I expect to send your codes by the end of the month. Thank you for your patience. 

The truth is out there

I'm going to be honest. Every time I finish writing "the next book," I take a long hard look at whether I should continue. The market is down. Artificial intelligence is threatening the future of human creativity (Yes, I know, AI has no depth of emotion.) Angry people are writing nasty reviews for authors whose books haven't even been published yet based on subject matter alone. Let's face it, the world is coming to an end.

I'm in the editing phase with the next Elspeth Barclay book, which means I'm also thinking about what comes next. Do I want to go through all the writers' angst again? Do I have the fortitude to write another book? 

And then something taps me on the shoulder, a little something called imagination. Did you see that? Did you hear that? Remember that story so-and-so told you? Wouldn't that make a great start to your next story?

The news headlines no longer hold "topical ideas." They are filled with vitriol and people doing unthinkable things in a world where people believe empathy is a bad thing. Finding a human interest story that sparks the imagination is difficult among all the finger pointing and verifiable lies that people insist on perpetuating in hopes of making them truths. There are more storytellers out there than I'd ever imagined. The difference is I only hope to entertain you with my stories, not to convince you that my fiction is actually fact. 

I just read an interesting book. It's several years old, written in a different century, even. It's a fictional historical account of a city that I've visited and am familiar with, written by a lawyer. While it was slow getting out of the starting blocks, it grew more interesting as the story went on, and for most of the book, I was able to suspend disbelief, enough verifiable historical facts turning up that some of the not verifiable ones went right over my head. It wasn't until I was done that I realized the author had thrown in a president from before my time as a child in the story's city--a president who grew up in New York. He had no place in this book other than as a marker of the time period. I forgive the author, because the book is fiction. Some of the things happened, but because the characters came from his imagination, I'm willing to give him a pass on the historical hiccup. 

Which brings me back to "what next?" 

I had a thought to interview someone who had a ghostly encounter. Maybe incorporate that into the next book. And then I started thinking about fairy gardens and if there was a way to incorporate that into a ghostly story. I'm also planning a trip to New England with one of my first critique partners, a place where ghost stories abound. The possibilities are expanding. Will I write another book? Most likely. It's part of my original programming, after all. I see something, I see a story behind it. My imagination is going to make up that story whether I want it to or not. And it takes my mind off the next news cycle, which consists of people fighting reality. Me? I'd rather escape reality in a more constructive way. Even when I don't like the news cycle, "the truth is out there," and there comes a point when you have to see it as it is, and not through the lens of imagination.

What do you look for when editing?

I've done numerous blogs on editing, and every book it seems I approach it "just a little bit" differently.

I'm pleased to tell you I've finished the next book! Well, almost. Aside from editing. The difference in this book lies in the fact I haven't been doing "interim" editing. Generally speaking, there comes a point where I get stuck and have to refresh my memory, so in the writing process, I very often will go back to the beginning and read what I have to get a running start. And sometimes, my characters take an unexpected turn and lead me another direction, which means going back to the beginning to adjust for their poor sense of direction. In any event, by the time I finish my first draft, it isn't unusual that I've read the book a couple of times already in various iterations. That wasn't the case with this one.

I had a fairly clear plot line, and I'm working with characters I know. Yes, I had the occasional "I didn't see that coming," but nothing that required a do-over. I didn't have to go back and readjust the course of the novel. That's good, right? Well, maybe.

As I got to the end, I decided I'd better go back to the beginning and read for continuity and "holes." One of my standard editing passes. Because I haven't been backtracking along the way, I found a lot of sloppiness! I took my time, filling in holes and fixing the careless errors, and got pretty close to the end before I found "THE HOLE" that would require backtracking and foreshadowing. It was the one part of the story that as soon as I'd written, I sat back and did a "Whoa! Didn't see that coming!" Yes, even as the one making this stuff up, my characters still surprise me. Despite having a general idea where I'm going and what's going to happen, every now and then the words come out unexpectedly. Even after I'd written it, I didn't stop to consider readers would want some sort of heads-up. That's the point of an editing pass. Seeing those kinds of issues. It's a reference back to book 1 (Horned Owl Hollow) but I'm willing to bet a lot of readers wouldn't remember. It was a small point, after all. It became a much bigger point in this book, and for those readers who didn't read book 1, they aren't going to have any idea what I'm talking about. Not to mention returning readers will want a reminder. So the "memos for next time" (the next editing pass) include dropping in hints about the "Whoa!" moment. Foreshadowing. 

With that pass completed, it will be on to see how I did. Does the foreshadowing work? Or have I overdone it? Does the story flow? "Regular" editing will ensue, the proofreading end of things and "scrubbing" of unnecessary words. 

I'm looking at a September release date. In the meantime, Horned Owl Hollow is out in audio (in case you want to refresh your memory while you're waiting). 

Is Artificial Intelligence Intelligent?

On my soapbox today.

You see the stories everywhere. Is AI safe? Will it take over the world? Will computers finally replace humans on the planet?

There are very few applications for AI that I think are necessary. One person's opinion. Already, computers are doing things for us that diminish our ability to think and create and process information. I used to know the phone numbers of all my friends and family. Now, I hit a button. If you asked me for one of those numbers, I'd have to look it up. I do NOT think that is a step in the right direction. What if I don't have my phone with me and I'm in trouble? What if I need someone to call my family for help? I can't tell them the phone numbers, because I don't use them anymore. A computer does it for me. 

Yes, I believe computers can be helpful tools, but they have gone so far beyond helpful. Now they are intrusive to the point where we don't always know what the truth is (because AI is so convincing) and people don't have to think for themselves. We NEED to think for ourselves. 

Here's the link

With all that being said, I don't want to be left behind and ignore progress. I will NOT use AI to write my stories for me. It's my imagination, after all. But recently I was given the opportunity to have AI read one of my books into audio format. Why not? I mean, it was worth checking out, right? So I did. The narration of Heart for Rent, With an Option isn't horrible, although I'll admit I haven't listened to the whole darn thing. It's only available on Apple, but you're welcome to give it a listen. I'm not an audiobook kind of person, personally, and of the handful of audiobooks I've attempted, I've only actually enjoyed one of them--and that one was read by an actress who was VERY engaging. We're talking some of my favorite books, and I was only able to stay awake through the one. 

So where does that leave me? It was an experiment. I can't see myself using AI for the rest of my books. Where is the artistic control? I really should listen to the whole thing to see if they were able to pronounce some of the French in the story, or if they emphasized words in the right places. While the voice isn't "flat," it doesn't carry the same engagement. It's someone reading the story to me. I'd rather have someone acting it out. 

What do you think? Is AI going one step too far? Is it useful in some scenarios? Or are we moving into an Isaac Asimov story where AI takes over the world?