Category Archives: Plans

What the?!

I missed yet another Monday Blogging? For crap’s sake! This does not speak well of my consistency. Maybe the only thing consistent about me is my inconsistency.

So what have I been doing? A lot of NOT writing. American Legion Auxiliary, changing over to AT&T U-verse, teaching knitting, spring cleaning, spring training (way out of shape!), getting my tiny child ready to graduate high school, and all those tasks that needed doing before the list above could be done.

Sounds like a lot of excuses dressed up like reasons.

I’m not a big fan of excuses. Now that a few big events are done, I can focus on getting to the halfway mark of Undesirable. One of the huge positives to come out of not writing is how there’s been a book trailer created. It is amazing! My daughter and I have been fine tuning it, and now we need to buy the stock footage. We reviewed a lot of other book trailers and this one is terrific. Vicky has made more small movies since then and the kid is really super good. I’ll have to get her to post a few on here later.

Yes, I’m all over the place in this post. Mainly because my mind is still on Undesirable. I’m a few paragraphs away from being done with the current chapter and I’m all like, “Write this post faster so you can get back to it already!!” Time to obey my inner slave driver.

I Need More Sex

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I’m halfway through with writing a book, Undesirable. The plan? To have it chock full of hot, romantic, adulterous pioneer sex.

The result so far? Not even a kiss between the two main characters. This is a romance, they’re supposed to at least kiss.

Not until chapter six, I guess.

So, the question on most non-writer’s minds is most likely why can’t I just force the issue? Aren’t I, as the author, the one in control?

To which I answer, I was in control, but now I’m not. I created the setting and conflict. I created the characters, each with their own lives and motivations. They’re not 3-D, more like 100-D, with that many dimensions to them. Again, why can I not ‘write’ them what to do?

Because my work with creating them is done. It’s kind of like having adult children. You can set things up to be easy or difficult, but in the end, character drives their actions. I think in the best stories I’ve ever watched or read, the characters are always true to themselves. Sam in Undesirable is a straight arrow, intent on right and wrong. Even if wrong is where he wants to go, he won’t because that’s not who he is. Marie, his love interest in the novel, is also an honest person. Her feelings for Sam are growing but her love for her husband is keeping her from giving in to them. Me? I’d planned on them having a make out session in chapter one, and yet, it’s in chapter six that they kiss. I’m not even sure they’ll do that, to be honest.

So now I put it back on you. Are readers in an instant gratification world fine with extended sexual tension? Can characters be truly that strong in a writer’s mind that they call the shots? Is adding violence a good way to substitute for the lack of sex?

Where I am in writing Undesirable is shown in this photo. Lovely, and I wonder how cold is that water? Can you imagine this being your only way to bathe? And in July? It’s too early for this part of the United States to have snow melt runoff raising the water level. That happens in August.

Growing up on a farm with well water helped me appreciate turning on a faucet for clean water. Especially when the electricity would go out and the water pump didn’t work. I’ve not had to melt snow for drinking or to flush the toilet ever while living in town. Even with the well going out at times, we had ways of getting bottled water, something I’m sure the people on the Oregon Trail would appreciate. Every drop they needed had to come from surface water. Have you seen surface water? Mosquito larvae, silt, other little floaty things I don’t even want to know about all are scooped up in a bucket or pail. Plus, people back then didn’t really know about germs. Bathing and drinking were done at the same source. Doing so probably wasn’t as bad as it sounds. People around the world still think of water as magically self cleaning.

Parts of the Oregon Trail had pools of alkali water, poison if too much was ingested by anyone. Thirsty and unruly animals drank with deadly consequences and people not heeding the warnings grew sick as well. Springs of good water occurred among these, causing a trial and error of sorts for the first trailblazers. Later travelers avoided death by heeding the signs and guidebooks’ warnings.

Every time I get clean, cold water from the tap, I think a silent “Thank you!” to everyone who made it possible.

Link

Another Avenue!

Thanks to the very hard work of my husband, my books are available from Barnes and Noble. You’ll find them in paperback and ebook format for your Nooks. iBooks on Apple is taking a lot longer, maybe because they’re music focused and have a lot going on in that area.

I think the big thing going on, other than that, is still writing on Undesirable. Being a “Want it done YESTERDAY!” person is tough when facing, “It’s not done YET?” It’s all on me and my butt in the chair time. That, and I’m enjoying the Twittering/Facebooking/Marketing stuff a little too much.

Wyoming

Credit due goes first. Photograph by Drew Rush for National Geographic.

It’s super tough to find a great photo of the middle of Wyoming. I may have to go on an epic journey, taking amazing photos of the interior of this state. After driving from Caspar to Independence Rock, I know there’s great scenery. All I need is just the right light.

Lucky’s Christmas Wish releases today!

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A sweet winter romance.

And oh my gosh, I LOVE the cover! My daughter and husband helped me pick out the photo and it’s perfect. Click on it to go directly to the Amazon store. By all means, try the “look inside” sample. As with any of my books, I encourage everyone to read the sample and if you don’t like that bit, don’t bother reading further. Life is too short and expensive to buy a book you end up disliking. So check out the sample!

Whew! Now that this story is out of my system, it’s back to work on Undesirable and trying to get Sam and Marie to the middle of Idaho.

It’s Monday!

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Of course, since it’s 1:00am, there’s something I need to do, called ‘sleep.’

After that, though, I’m going to be cranking out words on my next novel, “The Very Best Man.” It’s a short, sweet, sexy story. Totally contemporary and it’s really fun. Sure! There will be drama, and since the time is more modern, I can get away with adding some serious spice to the story. This will be a five day to a week detour, then I’m back at work on Undesirable.

Something odd I’ve noticed is how much Dave from “The Very Best Man” and Nick from “Undeniable” resemble each other in past histories and somewhat in looks. While I’d rather there be variety, especially in my first two self-published books, there’s been a lot of words written between the two heroes. After I hit my National Novel Writing Month goal of 50K words with “Undeniable”, I hit it a year later with “Undesirable”, and two years after that with “Uncivilized.” Then came “The Very Best Man”, the “Supermarket” screenplay, and “Fifty Shades of Chick-fil-a”, a South Park spec script. These are just the half to completed works. There are other ideas with other protagonists, all waiting for me to type up their stories.

This is going to be so much fun!

Center Stage on the Mic

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Welcome to my professional blog. Here will be the latest and greatest in what’s going on in my corner of the literary world. WordPress is so different from Blogger, so expect there will be changes, enhancements, upgrades, and other fun things happening.

What do I have planned? A lot, really. Undeniable, the first book in my Oregon Trail series is already available for Kindle and paperback. Amazon is the quick and easiest way to get it, while Createspace is a great avenue, too. I’m still thinking about handing it over for Nook readers, since I don’t like them being left out of anything. Actually, I don’t like leaving anyone out of anything. I’m very inclusionary that way.

But, back to the plans. The Oregon Trail series is a set of three books that are part of my bigger series of the American West. I have plans to write novels about the Santa Fe trail, orphan trains, and the Pony Express, too.

I’m not sure if I have ADD or just a vast variety of interests. I do know for sure I’d love to publish a few contemporary romances that are short and sweet. While I like the right here, right now of them, I also have at least three science fiction novels planned, probably romantic if the story dictates. There’s a lot on the appearances can be deceiving aspect I’d like to explore in them.

But wait! There’s more! I have novels planned with settings in eight other countries just for the armchair traveler. The goal is to have eight books where when the reader looks up, they’re amazed to find themselves still in their home country.

Most advice to writers has been stick to one genre, build your brand, and readers will love you. I’d like to think people can be more versatile than that. Comment below on your own thoughts of reading more than one genre in fiction. Love it, hate it, or don’t care? Tell me, because I’m totally curious.