Another Character

My first romance novel was about Wanda, who had been very comfortable with her life before the readers meet her. She was very happily married, with a husband, Hank, who thoroughly supported her efforts to be a full-time author. Wanda wasn’t sure how much money Hank was making with his IT job, but he paid the bills without complaint, and he told her he was saving ‘as much as he could’ in case they ever had any emergencies. They had friends they got together with regularly and life was pleasant in their apartment in Chicago.

The reader meets her shortly after Hank has died in a traffic accident going to work in a blizzard. She is deep into grief, not just because Hank is dead, but because she knows she can’t pay the rent on their apartment on her own. She will have to move.

As she is going through Hank’s papers, wondering what she can get rid of, Wanda comes across a deed for a house in a tiny town in Nebraska. The house was an inheritance from Hank’s grandmother, given to Hank and somebody named Charles. Charles had apparently sold his half to Hank, or gifted it, but whatever, it looked like the house was entirely Hank’s. It seemed strange that Hank had never mentioned the house, but he didn’t talk much about where he grew up. Except happy memories of his childhood.

Wanda contacted a real estate agent in Nebraska who might be able to answer questions. The agent knew the village of Belgrade well and assured her that the house was in decent shape and fully furnished, although it was likely to be dusty, since it had been empty a couple of years.

So Wanda moved, without even seeing the house she was moving to. Or the town where she would be living. Not having rent or a mortgage to make payments on, she was confident she could make ends meet. She took herself from a place where she had been happy to a place where she was an outsider.

The first person she meets in Belgrade—a bartender at one of the two local bars—looks an awful lot like Hank. Besides fixing her some lunch, he makes phone calls on her behalf to get her utilities turned on.

It only takes a few days for Wanda to realize there are 3 men in Belgrade who look like brothers to Hank; Bob (the bartender), Charles (who had briefly owned ½ of the house she now owned), and Lyle, a drunk womanizer. Bob tries to make her feel welcome. Chuck seems too busy to run into her very often. She wants nothing to do with Lyle.

But this is a romance I’ve written, and it takes place in a very small community, where gossip is the normal method of entertainment for the residents. It isn’t long before people are wondering which of the town’s young men will catch Wanda’s eye. Even though Wanda is still grieving and trying to keep her distance from the men, in a town of less than 200 people, that doesn’t seem to be possible.

If I’ve piqued your curiosity, you can get an e-copy of Hank’s Widow at www.smashwords.com/books/view/1090836 Use the coupon code JN73Q when you check out to get it for half off.

And just to put a little icing on the cake, so to speak, you can also get “The Game”, a story that explains the relationship between Hank and his look-alikes. This short story is free at www.smashwords.com/books/view/1091675 .

 

 

Something Different

 And now we interrupt this series of blogs to bring you a commercial break.

I've often wondered what other writers talk about in their blogs, without it seeming like they are constantly pitching their wares. I solved that dilemma for myself by talking about the various research I've done, whether or not that research had anything to do with what novel I am currently writing or editing. I hope my efforts amuse my readers.

But I am an author, and a publisher, and so once in a while, I need to inform the world what I have been doing. Buckle up, this is a speedy re-hash of the past 6-8 months.

De-Evolution by John Lars Shoberg was published (MoonPhaze LLC) in November of 2020. It is a science fiction novel about humans who colonize a planet and cannibalize their ship to help build their colony. Then they find out that what they had thought was an example of native fauna was actually an intelligent species, although their culture had devolved in the past 100 years to that of cavemen. Will the humans be similarly effected? —It is available on Smashwords.com, Amazon, MoonPhaze.com, and possibly at your local book seller. It has been met with some success. You can find a review of it on https://jimsscifi.blogspot.com/, entry dated Saturday, June 19th, 2021.

The Stone Ship (The Stone Builders #2) by John Lars Shoberg was published in May of 2021. Although it is a sequel to The Stone Builders (Available from MoonPhaze.com), it stands on its own pretty well. It is a science fiction adventure. —The military found a large chunk of a spaceship made of stone while exploring a new star system. They assemble a group of scientists to study the artifact, and leave them there to their studies while the military ship goes off to finish exploring the system. Then an unknown ship is noticed approaching the scientists. Is it the Stone Builders, looking for their ship? Or even worse, the unknown species that managed to destroy a ship made of stone? —It is available on Smashwords.com, Amazon, MoonPhaze.com, and possibly at your local book seller. It has had the same amount of success as De-Evolution, in a shorter amount of time, although we haven't found any reviews of it at this time.

Meanwhile, I have written 2 romance novels and a short story. And I'm deep in the middle of getting them published.

Hank's Widow (Small Town Happiness #1) by Linda (NMI) Joy, my pen name for romances, will be published July 20, 2021, if I don't run into too many snags. I've already had a few, but right now I'm waiting for the cover to be finished before turning it over to the printer. —After her husband is killed in a winter traffic accident, Wanda finds in his papers a deed for a house in the middle of Nebraska. Unable to afford their Chicago apartment on her own, she decides to move to that house. In her husband's extended family, she finds 3 cousins who all look remarkably like him. Will she ever finish grieving when her husband's face is around every corner? —It is currently available for pre-order from Smashwords.com and MoonPhaze.com. I expect to get it uploaded to Amazon in the next few days, ready for that July 20th publication date.

"The Game" (Small Town Happiness #0.5) by Linda (NMI) Joy, will also be published July 20, 2021. It is a short prequel for Hank's Widow and my other romance, which is currently being edited. "The Game" is a short story happening about 6 years before Hank's Widow, which shows how the Four Cousins' close relationship fell apart. Because it is so short, (24 pages), it will only be in ebook formats, and will be bundled with Hank's Widow at no additional charge.

Waiting for Glori (Small Town Happiness #2) by Linda (NMI) Joy is hoping to be published in January 2022. I am currently doing a 2nd edit/rewrite, and I typically do 3 or 4 edits. —Gloria has finally escaped from her husband's abuse and neglect. Now she needs to figure out how to stand on her own, for her son's sake. Progress takes time, but she doesn't stop to wonder if her independence will allow her to find love.

And I have an artist working on the cover for And the Meek Shall Inherit, another science fiction novel by John Lars Shoberg. I need to go through it for one last edit, looking for pesky grammar mistakes that have managed to slip my attention before this. We are anticipating a November publication date.

AND I made a goal of publishing 4 books during 2021, so I need to find another... Perhaps one of ours that is no longer in print. There's 3 or 4 to choose from.

Wow. I tired myself out just going through the list and remembering all the stuff I still need to do. And on the other hand, I'm a little amazed at all I've accomplished. I'd like to remind all my readers, that if you've read a book—whether a MoonPhaze book or not—please help the author out by posting a blog. Goodreads is a good place to do it, if you belong, or maybe on your own blog.

Good reading!

Closing 2019

As 2019 draws to a close, I’ve been looking back over my daily journals to see what I’ve been doing. Let me explain that a little. I have my daily ‘To Do’ list, where I list all the things I’d like to work on that day. And things I don’t really want to do, but need to, like take my pills and brush my teeth. Fact is, if it isn’t on my list, I probably won’t remember to do it.

At the end of the day, I transfer everything I’ve crossed off to my journal and add some comments. Depending on my mood, those comments might be brief (‘I got some stuff done today’), or they could be long and rambling, touching on all sorts of things that happened during the day and how I feel about them. It’s just a method of proving to myself what I’ve done, a way of reflecting on what I’ve accomplished and how I feel about things.

In looking back over the past couple weeks, I’ve noticed that I’ve been writing, writing, re-writing, editing and writing. Oh, yes, and writing.

What does that mean? I’ve been working on a lot of different writing projects. I write 2 blogs and try to post those weekly. Now, that usually means research for one of them, writing and re-writing for both of them, before I can post them. About an hour a day for each blog serves the purpose for that. Maybe a little less.

I’m also trying to write some shorts in order to produce an anthology of Atlan shorts in 2020. I keep running into walls where I’m not sure exactly how the next section of the scene goes, but I give myself an hour a day to work on that. Sometimes that only produces 500 words, others I’ll get 1000 words done. I haven’t gotten to the re-writing stage on that, because I have 3 or 4 more shorts to rough draft to get the number of words I need for a book.

I’m editing John’s next book for a spring release. This is a 2nd edit, so it goes faster, since I’m mostly looking for grammar and punctuation. Hopefully, I found all the places that didn’t quite make sense in the first edit, and John fixed them. On the other hand, I’ve read this book before (during the first edit), and I tend now to start losing my focus after a time, so I only work on it an hour a day.

I’m also writing a novel (a romance). This is a straight rough draft at this point, and I usually give it an hour a day, more or less. If I don’t feel like working on that one, I have 2 other novels (a near-future sf and a paranormal detective) that I can move over and work on for a day or two.

That’s a lot of writing projects. Could I get more done if I concentrated on one? I don’t know. I seem to be able to focus for an hour or slightly more at a time, and then I’m ready to move on to the next project. By splitting up my day in such small chunks, it looks like I’ve accomplished a lot, because I can say I’ve worked on a bunch of projects. And I have ‘naturally occurring’ breaks when I can get up and do other things, like let the dog out or throw supper in the crock pot or even go outside and work on the yard. Except for letting the dog out, those things are on my to do list and can be crossed off.

I don’t know if any other writers work on so many projects at the same time. Yes, it takes time to get anything ‘done’ done. It will be a month or three before I get the romance rough draft done. It could be another week before I get this short rough draft done and can start on the next. But in a year or two, I hope to be churning out books regularly.

Wish me luck! And perseverance.

Learning From Others

Sometimes I edit for another publisher. These are manuscripts that they have already accepted, and it is my duty to make sure the grammar is correct, that there are no plot holes or inconsistencies.

I do it as an editor, but as an author, I have learned quite a bit.

For instance, one author – let’s call him Ace – usually writes historical (light) romance set during World War II. I have a few qualms about his writing style, but only one really made me impatient with the story line. I immediately recognized that Ace was telling the story of a couple - relatively minor characters he had introduced in his first book. The girl of this couple was raised in a different place from the others, and it was she he followed in this episode. What irritated me was that he didn’t introduce the male half of this couple until half-way through the manuscript!

Don’t get me wrong; Ace doesn’t write the usual, run-of-the-mill romance, and I don’t expect him to. Strongly interspersed among tidbits of romance are great explanations of the way life was during that time period, shown by what the characters do and expect. But I thought waiting that long to introduce the girl’s love – after spending so much time going through two earlier ‘boy friends’ – was a bit much. It may have me wondering about my own timing in my romances (which I write as Linda Joy).

And then there’s ‘Bill’, who writes contemporary romances. Or rather, one contemporary romance, which never seems to end. There have been five volumes so far, and he thinks the story line deserves at least another five. I find myself getting extremely irritated as I edit these manuscripts. Each one ends on what others would consider a ‘Happy Ever After’, and yet, during the next episode, the main characters immediately continue what they were doing before; jumping to conclusions, keeping secrets, not being truthful, and being super-jealous. They never seem to learn to not be stupid.

I can understand not wanting to set aside characters you’ve lovingly created and worked with for a long time. And many readers enjoy multiple volumes dealing with the ‘adventures’ of characters they’ve read about before. However, there is a reason why the typical romance novel is shorter than other fiction novels; there is usually only so much stupidity a person can tolerate in their love interest before they fall out of love, so to have an HEA ending, the couple needs to realize they are making mistakes and stop making them.

Is it possible to have too many volumes in a series of some other genre? Probably, although other genres offer a far greater variety of adventure types for the main characters to have to deal with and learn from. Still, when I decide to work on another volume for some series that I am writing, I will pause to consider whether the continuation makes sense, if it is significantly different in context from previous episodes, and if the main characters will be learning from it.

I thought I would be boning up on my grammar and punctuation. Sure, that’s happening, but I'm also learning so much more.

Love is in the Air

Do you read romances? I have. At times, I would read dozens of romances, one after another. Eventually, I would set them aside and move to another genre.

Mostly, I didn’t find romances very... satisfying. I couldn’t ‘identify’ with the characters.

For one thing, money never seems to be a problem in a romance. Whatever one of the protagonists wants, they buy. With hardly any thought about it. I can’t remember a single instance of the heroine realizing she needs a new coat, but doesn’t have the money for it. Or the hero’s frig is bare, so is his wallet and checkbook, and payday is still several days away. Or one of them has a sofa that’s missing a leg and a hole has duct tape covering it. Apparently, these types of things don’t happen in a modern romance.

That makes it hard for me to ‘suspend my disbelief.’ I grew up on the poor side of ‘middle class’, and I’m still there. I suspect the authors don’t want to anger their readers by making the woman struggling to make ends meet, because that would be ‘sexist’. And they can’t make the man financially struggling, because that might seem to be ‘man hating’. No, they figure both members of their couple need to be strong, independent, self-sufficient... equal.

But people can be strong and capable without having a fat bank account. The world is full of strong and capable people who have to pinch their pennies.

Another thing I find hard to identify with is the chosen location. As I remember, the vast majority of them happen in a huge city - New York, Los Angeles, London, Rome... Okay, I’ve attended conventions in Los Angeles and London, but I can’t say I really know anything about them. I can’t even imagine other huge cities like that, because the biggest city I’ve ever lived in is Kansas City. I remember just about enough about that city to not get lost... as long as I stay on the interstate! So, how am I supposed to identify with people who live in a place so alien to what I know?

You’d think, since I have such strong feelings about the romances I have read, that I would simply avoid the genre. Yet, from time to time, I find myself writing romances, using the pen name ‘Linda Joy’.

When I do write a romance, the location is usually a small town, often one I’ve actually lived in. My main characters may not obsess about money, but they are careful with it. They have jobs/careers that might afford them some degree of comfort, but if they suddenly find they need a new coat, or a new car, they’ll look for a bargain. And hope they don’t hate the color.

My theory is, Love can be in the air anywhere, not just in big cities. It can develop between the struggling and the have-to-be-careful just as well as the well-to-do. But if I can’t identify with the characters - at least a little bit - I won’t be happy with it. And if readers can’t identify with the characters, I will have wasted their time. My readers (AND my characters) deserve better.

Secret of Morris Valley

The first of my works that Alban Lake accepted was a paranormal gothic novella called “Secret of Morris Valley.” A novella is too long to be a short story; too short to be a novel. In this case, that means 16,500 words, or roughly 66 pages, depending on type size, page size, ect.

Do you remember gothics? I remember reading some, 3 or 4 decades ago, but I haven’t noticed any on the shelves recently. So when I saw a call for submissions in 2006 or 2007 for gothic stories, I admit my interest was piqued.

Gothics were romance stories where the woman falls in love with a handsome stranger who lives in some out-of-the-way place - usually far from civilization. Once the woman arrives at his home, it becomes apparent that he, his family, and his servants are all keeping some deep dark secret from her. As the story progresses, she becomes suspicious, worried and frightened, doesn’t know who she can trust... Of course, in the end, the secret is revealed, the woman doesn’t care, and the happy couple fall into each other’s arms.

Yep, that describes “Morris Valley.”

Unfortunately, that anthology chose not to accept my attempt at a gothic, although they did say it had been between mine and another for the final selection. As the saying goes, “Close, but no cigar.”

So I found myself with this overlong gothic story in a market where gothics were no long appreciated, apparently. I had added some paranormal to it, because paranormal was/is hot, but that hadn’t landed me in the anthology. I kept my eyes open, but I could not find a market to submit a gothic novella that had werewolves in it. Until I decided to take a chance and send it to Alban Lake.

We are looking for a July or August release. Stay tuned, for I’ll keep you informed as the details are worked out!

Looking Ahead

Okay, last week I looked back at 2013, so this week I'll try to figure out what I'm going to do in 2014 to get me closer to my goal.

The first thing that comes to mind is I've got to overhaul / reinvent the website. (www.MoonPhazePub.wix.com/MoonPhaze) I can't afford to hire anybody, so it's up to me. I've been gathering notes on what makes a good website, and I have people I can consult for their opinion, so maybe it won't be too bad. Still, it's not my favorite activity, so it will be slow-going.

Hubby and I will be attending the World Science Fiction convention in London, and the European Science Fiction convention in Dublin the following weekend. That has been occupying a lot of my time, trying to figure out the travel arrangements and all that. That long a trip will suck up a lot of our resources, so as far as personal appearances, the 'usual' local conventions may be the only ones I can plan to get to. Still, that doesn't mean I can't schedule some appearances at book stores, libraries or corn fields in the region that I can drive to in a day, so I will be trying to organize some of those.

MoonPhaze Publishing has wanted to print its first hard-copy book. We'll be looking at means of doing it that will not require thousands of dollars up front, like going with POD. Of course, if we happen to find a few thousand dollars to go to a regular printer, we'll switch gears again. In any case, having a paper-back book on hand could make those appearances mentioned in the previous paragraph more enjoyable, both for me and for anybody who attends them.

I've signed up for some classes in leatherwork! In at least two of my universes, I have a segment of the population who work with leather, and this will help me 'identify' with them. Besides, I like to learn new things.

As far as writing, I've got 4 contests/anthologies to submit to during the first 2 months of 2014. It's time for my second novel (romance) to start looking for a home. My third novel needs some rewriting & polishing, the roughs of 2 other novels need to be finished, and I've started a sf novel rough. If I keep finding more contests and anthologies, I should be plenty busy!

Maybe I should get an early start on some of that, don't you think?

Defragging a Story

Have you ever had your computer defrag its files?

I've done it many times. I used to get a kick out of watching little squares disappear from one place on the grid and reappear in a different place, but the defragging  program no longer has that entertainment possibility. But I digress...

On Tuesdays, I post a new scene from 'Mac', a story I've been working on for - oh - about 35 years. Back then, I didn't have a computer. Heck, I didn't even have a typewriter. I wrote my stories in longhand, probably with a pencil, on anything resembling paper; scratch pads, used paper, partially used notebooks, paper grocery sacks, even unused tissues (although those required I use a pen).

When I did get a typewriter, parts of this story got typed up. When I got a computer, parts of this story got typed into that. Over the years, I've had several computers, and almost all of them had some Mac scenes as files.

At one point, I had the foresight to print out what Mac scenes I had in that computer, and boy, am I happy now that I did that. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Technology changes, and when you use a computer until it just won't go anymore, you don't always get to save what you absolutely want from the hard drive. How many times have I had to rewrite important Mac scenes because I couldn't retrieve them? I forget...

I thought I was really being smart about 2 computers ago, when I started saving Mac scenes on external drives. When I had to replace that computer, I made sure the one I got could still read those external files. But when I replaced THAT computer last year, it just wasn't possible to get a slot that would read 3 1/4 inch floppies anymore. So all those dozens of disks holding Mac scenes (and many other stories I've worked on) got thrown out when I was cleaning up from moving my office.

But something else happened when I was cleaning up from that move. I kept finding hand-written versions of Mac scenes; a couple scenes in this notebook, half a scene on a scratch pad, a scene in a steno pad... Lots of scenes, with no clue whether they were included in what I had printed out or not. I already have a 2-inch stack of these bits and pieces to go through, and I've still got a couple boxes of old papers and notebooks to clean out.

So now, I get to defrag this story. I get to type all these scenes into my computer, and then try to arrange the scenes in their correct sequence. That should keep me busy for a while!

Superhero Romances

Not too long ago, I was reading Publisher’s Weekly magazine when I came across an article about Marvel Entertainment and Hyperion Books are teaming up to produce 2 novels. They will be aimed at women readers by starring 2 of Marvel’s super heroines, She-Hulk and Rogue, who will not only fight villains, but also search for a decent guy they can date.

My first thought was, ‘They have got to be kidding!’ Why does that old myth still exist, that even the strongest, most independent women are really just looking for a man who will complete them as a person?

Then I remembered that this was Marvel, the company that almost went overboard (in my opinion) in showing that their super heroes had the same emotional overload as regular people. And most ‘regular’ women do enjoy having people – and a particular partner – with whom they can share their life; someone they can laugh with who will be there to help them get through the hard bits that sprinkle everyone’s life.

Romance is the largest genre of books sold. So I suppose I can’t be too surprised if Marvel – who originally aimed to entertain males with tales of super heroes – now wants to broaden their audience by whispering tales of romance. I have been known to put some romantic tones in what I write, too.

On the other hand, both Marvel Entertainment and Hyperion Books are owned by Disney. Disney has taken some of the grimmest fairy tales by the Grimm Brothers and cleaned them up into quintessential romances, where the young woman in question is rescued by her very own Prince Charming, and they live Happily Ever After.

This is not what I want to happen to She-Hulk and Rogue.