Welcome to my New Year and A New Look review and reveal. To say 2021 was difficult is an understatement. But there were surprising, positive moments, too. I’ll be posting my review of 2021 soon as well as my goals for this new year. But 2022 is a new year and I’m starting out with a new attitude and new looks for my website and my books.
New Look
Have you visited my home page lately? I took the last week of 2021 to make some changes. Take a look. Scroll down the page a bit and you’ll see that my books also are wearing new covers. Please, feel free check it all out. Tell me what you think.
Unfortunately, the transformation is incomplete. So, if you would please, be my second pair of eyes and let me know if you find “debris” from the old website, typos, or other errors. Leave a comment or use my contact form.
New Covers and a Reveal!
There are new covers for My Soul to Keep and Fellowship, but the big news is the reveal for If I Should Die.
The custom covers are by MiBlart.com. They are a team of designers located in the Ukraine. They were easy to communicate with despite the time difference. They were also incredibly fast and good.
The ebooks should be available in all online stores. Let me know if you have a problem with a particular store. The paperbacks are available on Amazon but taking a little longer to get processed on the other stores. Please be patient a little longer. They are coming. I’ll let you know when they are ready.
If I Should Die
A choice between sister or brother, life or death, war or peace. Prayers won’t help her now.
Many of you have been patiently awaiting the next book in the series. I’m happy to report book two of the Fellowship Dystopia is moving forward. Beta readers have given me helpful feedback and I’m smoothing out the rough spots. I’m working on a tight deadline so I am able to get it to my editor when she’s available.
I have a basic page for the book on my website now. Over the next month or so, I’ll add more information to it.
By the end of this month I should have an idea of when it will be ready for publication and I’ll put up a preorder.
Happy New Year!
You presence here, your comments and good wishes over the past year, have meant more than you can know. Yes, that’s a cliché, but that doesn’t make it less true. And I’m looking forward to new challenges and experiences. It’s a new year. Time to write new stories.
It’s the end of June and time to evaluate progress for the first half of 2021. These have been among the top five most difficult months of my life. I’ve always had a never give up-never surrender attitude. That has kept me moving forward, though at a much slower pace than normal.
Intentions
Instead of goals or resolutions, I use intentions. You can miss a goal. You probably break most resolutions. But an intention is a focus. When life gets in the way of your plan, take care of that event or disturbance intending to return to your primary plan. Every morning begins with a renewed intention.
Making
I started working on the second draft of the last half of the book at the end of January.
As of today, day 188 of the year 2021, I’ve averaged 2.6 house per day for 125 days working on If I Should Die. The number of words produced are slightly less than half the number I produced the first half of last year.
The last half of my first draft is always full of plot holes and snags and snarls. In five months, I’ve rearranged chapters and plugged holes, untangled snarls, and smoothed snags—at least in the outline. Much of that work is behind the scenes, so to speak. The reader will never see it. And that re-visioning always requires adjusting details in many early chapters.
It’s taken half the year and I’ve only gotten a quarter of the way through the second half of the book. Disappointing, but under the circumstances, I’m trying to be satisfied with having any progress at all.
Managing
Many my intentions for managing my writing business have fallen undone.
I revised the blurb for My Soul to Keep and sales have slightly improved. Thanks to all you who’ve reviewed the book. And a special thanks to those who help promote it. (I see you!)
Marketing
My small efforts to market my books have continued. Those efforts have given me information I hope to use to good effect when book two comes out.
Home
Life happens. That’s why I use intentions rather than goals.
It has been 140 days since my husband died. Forty-five of those days I’ve had vertigo. The symptoms were severe at first and are slowly improving. My physical therapist says I’m one of the “lucky ones” whose case is “stubborn.” I wouldn’t call it lucky. Both those events have affected impacted my concentration and energy levels. SIGH.
Four unexpected problems surfaced this month. Two separate plumbing issues took my time and lots of money. Two separate power outages reduced my computer time.
In an attempt to focus on my writing, the bare minimum has been accomplished in the area of intentions for home. I’m surprisingly okay with that.
My immunity day (the day when my COVID-19 vaccinations were fully effective) was April 14th. I managed to get out a couple of times before the vertigo hit. I hope to do so again soon. But until all COVID variants are gone, I will be using social distancing and masks in crowds or with unvaccinated people.
I did manage to participate in two panels for our local science fiction convention, ConQuest, which was virtual this year.
In the past month, the area gas company replaced the gas line from the main line to inside my house. When they turned the gas back on, my clothes dryer would not work. Since it (and my washer) was about twenty years old, I took the opportunity and bought a new appliances. And now, I can finish laundry in a timely manner.
Last Month & Last Year
Typically, I like to compare my progress to past progress. But the past six months have been unlike any other six months in my life. Therefore, a comparison isn’t helpful.
What I Learned
I’m learning to give myself permission not to do it all—and trying to be okay with that.
Joslyn Chase introduced me to Euphonics for Writers by Rayne Hall. It focuses on choosing words with sounds that support the mood, tension, and or character trait the writer wishes to express.
My friend, Dora Furlong, uses Scrivener in ways that hadn’t occurred to me. I now have a Fellowship Dystopia Series Bible in a Scrivener file and a collection of tips for writing in a Scrivener file. Those two files took time to collate, but have saved me bundles of time since then.
Looking Forward
I will finish If I Should Die. Look for future posts about some of my research and eventually a cover reveal.
I still have a lot of my husband’s things to sort, store, or sell. Many items will find new homes through the Vietnam Veterans of America organization.
A never give up-never surrender attitude will continue to help me move forward. If you use that phrase and attitude, remember it doesn’t mean ignore yourself. And it doesn’t mean be perfect. Persevere, plod onward, follow your own pace…the journey is as important (more perhaps) than the destination. How has the first half of 2021 been for you?
As a blogger and science nerd, I try to keep up with science news from a variety of sources. Oddly, that curiosity rarely benefits my writing. My writing style follows a diagonal on the chart below: Lawful Plantser, True Plantser, and Chaotic Plotter. And that’s pretty much how my research goes, too. I start with a plan and end going off script. This is the story of a writer’s serendipity or how research saved my book.
My Research Method
Targeted research is when one narrows their topic and is very selective in choosing books and articles for said research. Targeted research is always my intent, it rarely is what gives me the most inspiration.
I love Google Maps. They allow me to “travel to” areas I’ve never visited. But the maps don’t give me the smells, the texture, or the mood of the place. For those, I search out travel blogs, expat blogs, and personal blogs. Sometimes, I reach out to a blogger for more details. Usually, bloggers respond with more information than I need. And that’s a lovely thing.
Sometimes, I need more hands-on research. That may mean a visit to a museum or a road trip to a location.
Be Prepared
Serendipity has been a big part of the Fellowship Dystopia Series. Although it isn’t quite serendipitous if you’re looking in the correct direction.
For example, I had selected Lynchburg, Virginia as a location in the first book, My Soul to Keep, because of its history and location. But until I visited Lynchburg, I did not know about the former Virginia State Epileptic Colony.
I happened upon the historical marker as I drove through the area around Lynchburg. After researching the Colony, it became a source of inspiration and an important location in the book.
Don’t Research Everything
When I first started writing, I would research the heck out of every topic and location I wanted to include in the book. It was a tremendous amount of work and I would amass more files than I could store (both physical and virtual).
You know what all the research did? Squat. Typically, I used very little of the research I collected before I started writing the book. Often, in writing the story, I’d find the research didn’t fit the book. Not only that, no matter how much I think I’ve planned the book, more than one thing changes during the writing. All that research work was a waste of time.
These days, I will research a general topic or time period or location. When I accumulate three or more pages of notes, I move on to another topic or I write.
It’s when I write the first draft that the real serendipity research happens.
Everyone Must Follow Their Own Best Flow
Legions of writing mentors will tell you not to stop writing once you start your first draft. Their belief is that if you interrupt the creative process, you will lose your way. That was true of me when I first started writing. Anything that interrupted my writing threw me off course or straight into what many refer to as writer’s block.
What works for me now is to research as I go. I write as far as I can based on my imagination or memory. When the writing stutters and I can’t seem to get through the next scene, I take a few hours to a few days for research.
When I’m in the middle of a draft, my head is full of possibilities. Maybe my character will go here and do this. Or do that and go there. Or…. It’s nonstop and a bewildering plethora of possibilities. But with a bit of research, my writer’s brain (some call this their muse) will latch onto some bit of information. That piece of information focuses my writer’s brain and writing the draft takes off again.
Serendipity Strikes Again
Recently, I was researching a blog article I wanted to write. I needed more scientific research to back up my story. I turned to one of my frequent sources, Sciencenews.org. My search of their website was fruitless. But the site was celebrating their 100th anniversary.
My curiosity overcame what little resistance I had. I clicked on one of their original stories, and that resulted in another bit of writer’s Serendipity.
Stay tuned to this blog to see if the final version of And When I Wake, the third book of the Fellowship Dystopia series, will use this bit of a writer’s serendipity or how research saved my book.
The character reveal is a feature on my website. Characters from my books (in print or works-in-progress) answer questions from a standard personality assessment test. Today’s character reveal: Beryl Lucille Clarke Mitchell. Beryl is Miranda’s aunt and mentor, and a protagonist of the Fellowship Dystopia series.
Who
Beryl had just turned fifty-two when she appeared in the first book of the series, My Soul to Keep. Younger sister to the Fellowship’s premier preacher-politician, Counselor Donald Clarke, Beryl learned to hate him when he betrayed her. She and Miranda escape Redemption in My Soul to Keep. Now, fifty-four at the beginning of If I Should Die, she is the First Mate aboard the Lady Angelfish. She’s sworn to protect her niece, Miranda. And she will, even if she never learns to love the water like Miranda.
1. Who is your role model?
As a kid, I read everything I could find about Annie Oakley. I was thirteen years old when my father took my older brother, Donald, and I to a shooting contest in Pinehurst, North Carolina. I saw Annie Oakley shoot 100 clay targets in a row at sixteen yards. Man, I wanted to shoot like her, to be like her. She was one sharp-eyed sixty-two-year-old. But Pop started going to the Fellowship rallies. By the next spring, he’d become a member. Mrs. Oakley was anti-Fellowship, so Pop forbade me from reading anymore about her. I didn’t even know when she died just four years later.
2. Who knows you the best?
Long ago, I would have answered, my husband. Now, there’s no one.
3. What would your friends say about you?
Friends? I don’t have friends. What about Miranda? She’s my niece. My student. My responsibility.
4. What is the question people ask you most often?
Did you have to shoot him?
5. What is the thing you’d never say to another person?
I never betray a secret. Other than that, I say what’s on my mind.
6. What is your greatest achievement?
That I survived ten years of isolation and torture in the hell-hole they call Redemption and never revealed my secrets.
7. What is your greatest failure?
My daughter, Anna.
8. What did you learn from your greatest failure?
What did I learn? Never to trust anyone who says “trust me.”
9. What is the thing you are most proud of?
You mean some thing I’ve done?I don’t know. Proud is something you feel when you’re a kid and you make straight A’s.
10. What would you like to change about yourself?
I’d like to forget some things I had to do.
11. If something in your house breaks, what is the first thing you do?
My house? I haven’t had a house—a home—in almost fifteen years. Being on the run you don’t stop to fix things, you just keep moving. What about the boat? It’s not a house.
12. What is the greatest obstacle you’re facing right now?
Disbelief. No one can believe the Azrael have somehow survived the destruction of the island. I’m not sure I believe it. But I’m going to find out if they have.
13. How do you like to “waste” your time?
Sitting in the sun, not thinking.
14. What is the ritual that helps you calm down?
Cleaning my guns.
15. What is your favorite place in town?
I don’t go to town unless I must for a mission. Someone would recognize me. They won’t arrest me if they catch me again. They’ll shoot-to-kill on sight.
16. What do you prefer–a book, a movie or a theater play?
It has been a long time since I’ve done any of those. I used to enjoy going to the theater—but that was another lifetime. I can’t imagine doing any of those soon.
17. What was the happiest period of your life?
When we brought my daughter home from the hospital. We were in love with her and each other. But we were willfully ignorant of the terrible things the Fellowship did.
18. What is your most treasured memory from childhood?
Watching Annie Oakley.
19. What was your favorite game when you were a child?
Anything with shooting—preferably with my BB gun, but most often it was my finger or a toy gun (as long as Mother didn’t catch me.)
20. What is the greatest injustice you’ve lived through?
Being accused of murdering my daughter. But Weldon murdered her first—he manipulated and warped her mind and sent her to kill her own parents. And she almost did.
An Invitation
If you missed them, read the two previous character reveals: Irene and Miranda.
Are you an artist or doodler? Have you drawn an image of Beryl or any other character in one of my books? Please, send me a digital copy. With your permission, I’ll post it on the character’s page on this website and share it on social media.
Did you enjoy Character Reveal: Beryl Clarke? Based on Beryl’s answers above, what additional question would you ask? Is there a character from My Soul to Keep or Fellowship you’d like to see answer these questions in the next character reveal?
The character reveal is a feature on my website. Characters from my books (in print or works-in-progress) answer questions from a standard personality assessment test. Today’s character reveal: Miranda Clarke, the protagonist of the My Soul to Keep series.
Who
Miranda Rose Clarke was about to turn twenty-five when she appeared in the first book, My Soul to Keep. Daughter of the Fellowship’s premier preacher-politician, Counselor Donald Clarke and his wife, Kara Louise Lancaster Clarke. She made a break from her parents and the Fellowship in My Soul to Keep. Now, twenty-seven at the beginning of If I Should Die, she is the captain of the Lady Angelfish and the Freedom Waterway.
1. Who is your role model?
By Powelson, Benjamin F. 1823 – 1885 – Collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture shared with the Library of Congress, Public Domain
When I was in grade school I found and read a banned book about Harriet Tubman. Brave, resourceful—she escaped slavery then went back and saved other slaves. And when the Civil War broke out, she was a nurse, spy, and scout. And she rescued more slaves. I can only hope to be as successful and brave as she was.
2. Who knows you the best?
My crew—Aunt Beryl and Wanda. You can’t live 24/7 on a smallish yacht and not know each other.
3. What would your friends say about you?
Oh, my. I hope they say good things, that I’m a good friend, kind, and have done good for the refugees.
4. What is the question people ask you most often?
There are two questions people ask me all the time. Where are we going? And why are you doing this? Refugees have spent so much time hiding and being afraid, they have a hard time accepting that I just want to help them and that I’m taking them to a safe place.
5. What is the thing you’d never say to another person?
I—I wish I could say I would never say anything hurtful. I try not to, but I know I have.
6. What is your greatest achievement?
The Freedom Waterway. When I started rescuing refugees, I had no idea that it would become a network of boats and marinas and everyday folk that reach all across America’s waterways.
7. What is your greatest failure?
Hmm. My first thought is that I failed at my escape plan… But that wasn’t my greatest failure. I—I thought I could be a soldier. I wanted to fight, to be like Beryl. But, I’m not as strong as she is.
8. What did you learn from your greatest failure?
That I had to find my own path in this conflict, heck, in life.
9. What is the thing you are most proud of?
The Freedom Waterway. It wouldn’t exist if I hadn’t started trying to help people.
10. What would you like to change about yourself?
Oh boy, you ask some hard questions. I wish I could face the truth head-on like Beryl does. I have to sidle up to it, look away, get used to it, before I can really deal with it.
11. If something in your house breaks, what is the first thing you do?
Remember, Lady Angelfish, my yacht, is my home. She’d been abandoned. I rebuilt her. Every inch of her. And if you’re at sea and wanted by the Fellowship, there’s no one to call. I fix whatever’s broken. Though I have to say that Wanda’s a genius with the engines. If it’s an engine problem, I let Wanda handle it now.
12. What is the greatest obstacle you’re facing right now?
I owe Beryl my life many times over. I will help her on her quest. But I’m afraid that means I need to be a soldier for a while. I don’t know if I can do that.
13. How do you like to “waste” your time?
Reading and listening to beautiful instrumental music.
14. What is the ritual that helps you calm down?
Breathing. Sometimes listening to soothing music.
15. What is your favorite place in town?
Um, you understand that I can’t visit places “in town,” don’t you?
Then what’s your favorite place? On a calm, clear day—I love sitting on the Fly Bridge at sunrise or sunset. There’s a moment of release—not holding your breath release, but the release of tension and fear and the in the beautiful colors of the sky reflected on the water there’s a breath of a promise.
16. What do you prefer–a book, a movie or a theater play?
I used to enjoy the theater, but I’ve always preferred a good book.
17. What was the happiest period of your life?
Happiest? I guess that’s a relative term. Happiest compared to what? I think I must have had some happy times as a child. We’ve had some pleasant times on the boat, times when we’ve laughed our heads off. And I’m happy every time I see Nick. But I don’t think happiest applies to any of those times. Ask me again when this conflict is over.
18. What is your most treasured memory from childhood?
My childhood was a lie. I don’t treasure it.
19. What was your favorite game when you were a child?
I didn’t like playing games. My family’s—my parent’s—rules were too—ruthless.
20. What is the greatest injustice you’ve lived through?
Everything the Fellowship does is an injustice. But I’d have to say the greatest injustices are the deaths of my friends. They shouldn’t have to give up their lives because evil, immoral men rule the country.
If you are an artist or doodler and have drawn an image of Miranda or any other character in one of my books, send me a digital copy. With your permission, I’ll post it on the character’s page on this website and share it on social media.
Did you enjoy Character Reveal: Miranda Clarke? Based on Miranda’s answers above, what additional question would you ask? Is there a character from My Soul to Keep you’d like to see answer these questions in the next character reveal?
