Selected Readings

This week Iā€™m going to take part in a live reading event called Noir at the Bar.  Itā€™s a fun event that focuses on crime tales and the forties pulp-fiction style.  Iā€™m excited to participate, but as usual it throws me into a tizzy of what to read.  Short stories come in all shapes and sizes but reading for an audience is quite different.  Not every story translates well to an audience thatā€™s slurping their way through cocktails and appetizers. I would, of course, love an audience to hang breathless on my every word, but even when an audience comes specifically to see an author itā€™s very hard to get that level of studiously quiet audience participation. 

Through the variety of readings that I have experienced Iā€™ve developed the theory of ā€œjokeā€ short stories for readings.  Not that a reading has to be funny, but that it should be constructed like a joke.

There is the set-up. 

A man walks into a bar at the top of a rise building.  Itā€™s a swanky place, but thereā€™s a guy in a suit and glasses slumped at the bar.

The tale. 

ā€œI canā€™t believe this view,ā€ says the man, looking out the window.

ā€œYeah, but youā€™ve got to look out for the cross-winds.  Theyā€™re killer,ā€ says the drunk guy, brushing a curl of dark hair off his forehead.

ā€œWhat are you talking about?ā€ asks the man.

The drunk guy stumbles off his bar stool.  ā€œHere Iā€™ll show you.ā€  He opens the window and steps out, but the winds sweep in and he simply hovers in air and then steps back into the bar.

ā€œHoly cow,ā€ says the man.  ā€œI canā€™t believe that.ā€

ā€œGive it a try,ā€ says the guy in glasses.

The pay-off.

The man steps off the building and plummets to the ground.  The bartender looks up from polishing the glasses as the drunk guy sits back down.  ā€œJeez, Superman, you are mean when you drink.ā€

The story has to have a pay-off or the audience sort of stares at you like cows in a field.  It doesnā€™t have to be a funny pay off, but there has to be some sort of solid finish that gives an audience a feeling of conclusion.  Usually, it’s some sort of twist that reveals the truth or that gives the audience the key to understanding the story. I’ll be reading a condensed version of a short story from my Shark Santoyo story.  Hopefully, Noir at the Bar enjoys what Iā€™ve selected for them.  Wish me luck!

New for 2018!

2018 is set to be a very big year for me.Ā  I have been working feverishly through 2016 and 2017 to bring out multiple projects and 2018 is the year that many of those projects are bearing fruit. Take a peek at my upcoming releases!

February 13 – Galactic Dreams (Just in time for Valentine’s Day!)

I will be part of a new series from my publishing company called Galactic Dreams featuring stories that are part science-fiction, part fairy tale, part romance and all adventure. Galactic Dreams Volume 1 will feature 3 novellas of fairy tales “reimagined for a new ageā€”the future,” including Soldier, Princess, Rebel Spy (Mulan) from Karen Harris Tully, Aurora One (Sleeping Beauty) from the Stiletto Gang’s own J.M. Phillippe and When Stars Take Flight (Thumbelina) by me.Ā  Pre-orders will be available next week, but if you want a chance two win 2 of the three stories for free, check out the rafflecopter below!

When Stars Take Flight – Kidnapped by the Toā€™Andans, tortured by the Moliter, and rescued by Sparrow Pandionā€”a spy who hides a secret painā€”Alliance Ambassador Lina Tum-Bel is up against a galaxy full of trouble as she attempts to rebuild the Interstellar Alliance. Her training says that she canā€™t trust her handsome rescuer, but maybe together, she and Sparrow can learn to fly.

April – Shark’s Bite

Book 2 of the Shark Santoyo Crime Series returns to the suburban underworld of teenage drug dealers and gang enforcer Shark Santoyo as he tries to figure out what to do with a bowling alley and an ATF Agent who is out to get him.

June – Against the Undertow

The sequel to An Unseen Current will finally be available in June.Ā  This quirky cozy mystery series features 87 year-old, ex-CIA agent Tobias Yearly and his granddaughter Tish bickering, tackling home improvement projects, and solving mysteries in the San Juan Islands of Washington State. In Against the Undertow, handsome Sheriffā€™s Deputy Emmett Nash, was just accused of murdering his ex-wifeā€™s boyfriend, and Tish and Tobias must face down hippies, cops, and psychotic event planners to solve the mystery and save their friend.

October – Shark’s Hunt

One Shark just isn’t enough.Ā  This time, Shark is back in the city and facing some serious problems as a gang war erupts.

December – A Christmas Short?

Maybe.Ā  We’ll see if I make it December.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Promo Blues

Yesterday, AB Plum talked about the woes of promoting. She’s not alone in finding that the grind of “getting yourself out there” is not fun. Most authors find that to be the hardest part of the job. We’re the kind of people who invent people to talk to. Talking to real people is just so, so, so much harder. Real people rarely say what we tell them to say for one thing.  She also mentioned that she’s working on her marketing plan.

I see your hands coming up.  “What is a marketing plan?” you ask.  Excellent question.

A marketing plan is a comprehensive document or blueprint that outlines a business advertising and marketing efforts for the coming year. It describes business activities involved in accomplishing specific marketing objectives within a set time frame.

So for an author a marketing objective would be something like get more people to sign up for a mailing list, or have more people review your book.  (Side note / Public service Announcement: if you love an author, review their books. It’s the nicest thing you can do!) To accomplish those goals, you have to take steps like advertise, blog, and/or hound your friends. A marketing plan collates these steps, ads assigned dates, and at least takes a stab at figuring out how much they’ll cost so that a budget can be created.

I don’t know how AB feels about marketing plans, but my thoughts are two-fold.  My first thought, upon completion of a plan, is incredibly smug.  I’m soooo organized.  Who wouldn’t want to be as organized as me.  My second thought is usually about two seconds later.  How did I miss that deadline?  Why is this going down in flames?  What do you mean the cost of that ad went up?  Ahhhhhhhh!!!!

All of which is to say that behind every successful book there is an author who is using a wet blanket to try and put out the dumpster fire of her marketing plan.  


COMING FEBRUARY 13: Galactic Dreams – When Stars Take Flight

When Stars Take Flight takes the story of Thumbelina into space and reimagines the fairy tale for a new ageā€”the future. 

Kidnapped by the Toā€™Andans, tortured by the Moliter, and rescued by Sparrow Pandionā€”a spy who hides a secret painā€”Alliance Ambassador Lina Tum-Bel is up against a galaxy full of trouble as she attempts to rebuild the Interstellar Alliance. Her training says that she canā€™t trust her handsome rescuer, but maybe together, she and Sparrow can learn to fly.

 

Free Turkey

Over Thanksgiving, my grocery store was giving away free turkeys for those who spent over $100. Thinking that it would be a small turkey, my husband who was shopping at the time, said, “Sure! Who doesnā€™t want a free turkey!”

And really, who wouldnā€™t?

And then he came home with a 23-pound turkey. That didn’t fit in our freezer.

We tried shoving it in six different ways from Sunday and then called up my mom and said, “Guess what? We’re providing the turkey!” And she said, “Guess what? I’m cooking a roast!” So we agreed to try it again for Christmas and I called around and found a friend with spare freezer space. Only Christmas arrived and mom declared that Christmas dinner was going to be small and simple. As in… no turkey. But I had sworn to my friend that her freezer would be hers again after Christmas. So now I’m looking up how to cook turkey and inviting my in-laws over.

They say that New Years is a time for trying new things and I guess Iā€™ll be starting early with turkey cooking. Wish me luck as I enter the world of large scale cooking.


SALE ALERT:

Smashwords, the independent e-book store, is having itā€™s annual year end sale featuring site wide deals, including some from me.

Check out all the deals at: SMASHWORDS
Check out my deals at: SMASHWORDS/BETHANYMAINES

 

Crunch Time!

Ack!  I should be baking. Or possibly cleaning my filthy office.  Or writing any of the multiple stories I’m supposed to be completing. It’s crunch time for me.  I’ve got a sci-fi novella that is due back from the editor at any second (more info to come after the holidays!), a Christmas short story that needs completing ASAP, and mystery novel that is supposed to be way more underway than it is. And my business partner at my day job is about to go on maternity leave at any moment. I could use a holiday.  Oh, wait, one has just turned up.  Now I get to add baking to the list.  So excuse me, if I just complain for a minute and then dash off to put a pie in the oven.

But in the spirit of the holidays, how about a chance to win a print copy of Shark’s Instinct?  Reviewers are calling it an “amazing mystery with loads of action.”  Click the link below to enter! 

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Shark's Instinct by Bethany Maines

Shark’s Instinct

by Bethany Maines

Giveaway ends November 30, 2017.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

 

Enter Giveaway

Incoming

Absolutely

Today Iā€™m discussing the absolutes of art.

Absolute number 1: artists must sell.  So toward that end, please consider purchasing my latest book! It’s a five-star, “highly-satisfying, high-speed thriller” that readers are calling “hard to put down.”

Sharkā€™s Instinct: Fresh out of prison and fresh out of luck, twenty-something Shark wants back into The Organization. But when Geier, the mob boss with a cruel sense of humor, sends Shark to the suburbs to find out whoā€™s been skimming his take, Shark realizes heā€™s going to need more than his gun and an attitude to succeed. With the clock ticking, Shark accepts the help of the mysterious teenage fixer, Peregrine Hays, and embarks on a scheme that could line his pockets, land him the girl and cement his reputation with the gangā€”if he makes it out alive.


$2.99 on sale today! BUY NOW!



Absolute number 2:  Nothing is absolute and artists spend a lot of time thinking about that.

In our current climate of politics, disasters, and protest, Iā€™ve been listening to what a lot of artists are feeling. And by artists I mean everyone from fellow writers and graphic designers, to fine artists and poets. I know from the outside that most people think of the creative set as a homogeneous mass of weirdos. Which, weird, Iā€™ll grant you, but homogeneous is not, in any way, accurate.

Like any family there are fractured in-fights, cultural differences between the ā€œcousinsā€ of fine art and design (or poets and novelists), there are fights over pecking order and definitions and what it all really means. But most artists when pressed will say that although they have their preferences, their set rules that they use, that most of the time, there is no absolute. Donā€™t ever pair two serif fonts, donā€™t ever write a novel in the first person, donā€™t use Papyrus for a logo (ever, no seriously)ā€¦ Unless it works, in which case, you should absolutely do that. Absolutes in art and artists are few and far behind.

Which is why I think our current political climate is striking artists particularly hard. Itā€™s as though weā€™ve all been toddling along enjoying the gray areas and weā€™ve run smack into the thirty percent of our population that only believes in black and white. Not that they live in black and white (because no one can). But they only believe in black and white and they want everyone else to bow before the almighty absolute and give them the peace of mind of being right. Arguing with someone who refuses to see the gray is pointless. Showing art full of color to someone who doesnā€™t see the subtle shades of the rainbow only makes them turn away. Many of the artistā€™s I listen to feel despair. They feel like their art has become frivolous when they see the colors being eradicated around them, but they canā€™t seem to make the leap to protest art. Nine months into a presidency that does not see the value in anyone who isnā€™t male, straight, or white, I would like to say that all art is protest art. To create joy, beauty, and harmony, to paint with many colors instead of the ones that have been chosen for us is protest art. I encourage my artist friends to follow their passion, take action, make art, refuse to go away or step back. Use every damn crayon in the box.


Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live. ā€”Oscar Wilde

Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known. ā€”Oscar Wilde

Beauty is the only thing that time cannot harm. Philosophies fall away like sand, creeds follow one another, but what is beautiful is a joy for all seasons, a possession for all eternity. ā€”Oscar Wilde