Supposed to be…

I’m not supposed to be writing this.  I have a pretty stiff yearly schedule on what I intend to write.  And while blogs are on my schedule, I have currently abandoned all sanity and schedules and have started committing time to a project that is NOT on the calendar.  I should currently be writing my San Juan Islands #3.  Unfortunately, while I had a fantastic idea for the opening, my idea pretty much stopped there. And an inciting incident does not a plot make.  But after I stared and stared at the screen and then stared some more, nothing was coming to me. So I started doing a writing exercise to get the creative juices flowing and now… I can’t stop. 

I think I’ve fallen in love with my own characters.  They keep popping up with more things for themselves to do.   And I keep thinking, ā€œWhat a great idea!  I’m sure that will only take me twenty minutes to jot that down.ā€  Note to self: nothing you want to write takes twenty minutes.  And now my cushion of time for making my deadline is whittling down and I’m actually starting to worry.  So if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to stop writing this and stare at my screen and try and figure out why Tobias is in jail.

The Bag of Tricks

Originally posted at the Stiletto Gang on 4/27/16

On my last blog I discussed how I keep the fictional worlds of my books organized (answer: spreadsheets and lists!), but recently I gave a talk on writing to a local high-school and they wanted to know the more nitty-gritty details. Since they are at the start of their writer journey they have yet to discover that many of the struggles of writing are shared by all writers. What’s that? You have two great scenes, but you’re not sure how to connect them? You have half a novel written, but you don’t know who the bad guy is yet? You really need the hot guy to land in the heroine’s life, but you don’t know how he gets there? These are all questions with many possible answers, and like common core math, many possible ways of getting to the answer.

I thought Kimberly Jayne’s recent post about Mindful Daydreaming was a great way to answer many writing questions. And yesterday’s post from Sally Berneathy’s post about ā€œpantsingā€ vs. plotting a novel showed how she dives and discovers her book as she goes along. I have discovered that being a plotter is usually a faster more efficient way for me to write. When I have all the answers before I start writing, I can write even when I’m not feeling very creative or if I only have five minutes. But recently, I found myself stuck on the outline. I stared. I hammered. I picked. I ignored it. Nothing happened. And at some point I decided to start writing because you know what happens when you don’t write? Nothing. So I wrote all the way to where I had outlined and I was just as stuck as I was on the outline. I was back to being a high-schooler – how do I connect those two scenes? How do I get the hero from point A to point B? Dear God, what happens nexxxxxxxt????

Which is when I decided to take my own advice. I grabbed a notebook and a pen.

Changing the medium can sometimes change my perspective. I wrote a synopsis of the story from the villain’s point of view. I wrote a synopsis from the love interests view point. I drew little diagrams about how the storylines connect. I wrote a few paragraphs about the villain’s history and motivation, really diving into what he thinks about the events of the story. It’s an old saying that each of us is the hero in our own story, and that goes for villains too (see the great post from Jennae Phillippe about A Villain’s Voice). How does a villain think that his actions are justified? As I answered that question, I discovered more and more about how my story moved forward. Which is when I put down the pen and typed up my scrawling notes.

Organizing a novel isn’t just about filing systems; it’s about herding all your characters and ideas into a coherent plot and making sure that everyone gets to the end (or the right end if they happen to be the designated dead body) in a satisfying manner. But sometimes a writer needs to reach into her bag of tricks and try more than one technique to get the job done. As I told my room full of high-schoolers, when in doubt… try, try something else.

Sunburn & Books

Last weekend I participated in a ā€œLiterary Cornerā€ at a local arts festival.  It was a chance to sell books, meet readers and network with other authors.  It’s always so great to see how other authors sell and a chance to learn some pointers.  It was also, as it turned out, a chance to sunburn my feet.  No one warned me that part of being an author would be having to be cognizant of my sunscreen and footwear choices.  So, if you are also in a summer sun situation, here are some sun burn tips.

  1. Act Fast to Cool It Down

Take a quick dip in a pool or other body of water.  But don’t stay in too long and get more burned!

  1. Moisturize While Skin Is Damp

Use a gentle, but non-oil based, moisturizing. Repeat to keep burned or peeling skin moist over the next few days.

  1. Decrease the Inflammation

At the first sign of sunburn, taking an anti-inflammatory drug , such as ibuprofen. Aloe vera may also soothe mild burns.

  1. Replenish Your Fluids

Burns draw fluid to the skin’s surface and away from the rest of the body. It’s important to rehydrate by drinking extra liquids.

Selected Readings

This week I’m going to take part in a live reading event called Noir at the Bar.  It’s a fun event that focuses on crime tales and the forties pulp-fiction style.  I’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 that’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 it’s very hard to get that level of studiously quiet audience participation. 

Through the variety of readings that I have experienced I’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.  It’s a swanky place, but there’s a guy in a suit and glasses slumped at the bar.

The tale. 

ā€œI can’t believe this view,ā€ says the man, looking out the window.

ā€œYeah, but you’ve got to look out for the cross-winds.  They’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 I’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 can’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 doesn’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 I’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 age—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 To’Andans, tortured by the Moliter, and rescued by Sparrow Pandion—a spy who hides a secret pain—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 can’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 Sheriff’s Deputy Emmett Nash, was just accused of murdering his ex-wife’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 age—the future. 

Kidnapped by the To’Andans, tortured by the Moliter, and rescued by Sparrow Pandion—a spy who hides a secret pain—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 can’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 doesn’t want a free turkey!”

And really, who wouldn’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 I’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 it’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