Author Finances - From Gold Rush to Tidal Wave to Steady State

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Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is writer finances and such issues as how do you budget for uneven income? What’s your biggest expense?

First, a little history. I sold my first book to Carina Press in late summer 2011 and Priestess of the Nile was published in January 2012. It obviously wasn’t the first book I ever wrote, but it sure was the first one I ever sold. I also self-published my first science fiction romance Wreck of the Nebula Dream in March 2012. At that stage of my career as an author, I was thrilled to have actually been published, to have readers and reviews, and to be able to say “I did it!” Lifelong dream of becoming published – realized.  I was immersed in my day job as NASA/JPL on the business side of the house and I knew next to nothing about the publishing or the self-publishing world. I was happy just being published.

My career path lay at NASA/JPL and I had no expectations as far as the books.

In 2013 Carina Press published the second and final book of mine that I would be doing for them and we amicably parted ways. I self-published a second scifi romance and started to believe hey, maybe I could chuck the day job (no offense to NASA/JPL) and be a fulltime writer. Day dreaming commenced...

2014 – self-published two more scifi romances, was much more involved in the online author world, had been to conferences (what a rush on so many levels), won several awards for my books, was contributing to the USA Today Happy Ever After blog and a few other places…the world was my oyster, I was sure. The day job, in an office dealing with contracts, audits and process improvement and the like was less and less what I wanted to do or where I wanted to be. I decided to go for the new dream. Serious planning ensued...

2015 – I left the day job to become a fulltime author. I had a best-selling scifi romance that went to number one in its category on Amazon.  I chaired a panel at a big conference…I thought I had it made and wow I was sure my decision was the right one.

Umm, guess what I was totally and blissfully unaware of? The whole ebook self-publishing situation was a gold rush and not only had I come into it at the tail end, the entire industry was about to be rocked by the tidal wave that was Amazon Kindle Unlimited (KU).

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Kristine Kathryn Rusch has written several excellent blog posts about the gold rush situation and the effects of KU, if you’d like to read them. Here’s the 2015 post and then a follow up in 2017 after a major outlet for indie ebooks (All Romance eBooks) had just gone out of business. According to KKR, the gold rush actually began tapering off in 2012 and pretty much crashed in 2015, when available content caught up to the demand and then KU hit. Note the amazing alignment to the fledgling career of yours truly.

One of her key points is that an indie author must stay flexible because the situation is always going to change. You have to adapt. You also have to write good books that the readers want to read.

So, to back up a bit and track to the original SFF7 topic for the week, in the beginning my day job salary supported the books. Even when I went fulltime as an author, I was still using my savings to support the writing. A big no-no by the way but I was naïve. I thought that was temporary and I could absorb the costs for a while and surely my royalties would skyrocket and cover everything. I might not ever become a J. K. Rowling with theme parks and movies but I’d be doing okay. Right?

I also blithely expected the arc of my writer career to be like the arc of a more classic career (the one I had at NASA/JPL), where each thing leads to a bigger thing, more responsibility, a better office and title and oh, more money. Well, the author world really doesn’t work that way for most of us, as it turns out.

I see you shaking your head and telling me I ought to have done a whole lot of intense and focused research before I jumped. Well okay, but it was a gold rush even if I didn’t know it and the mentality of the moment grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. I have a tendency to succumb to magical thinking at the drop of a hat. It was the chance to live that glorious fulltime author dream life, people!  No more commuting on the freeways, no more staff meetings, no more scrutinizing of fine print in the tech specs for spacecraft… And I did do a certain amount of financial planning but I didn’t know what I didn’t know and I probably didn’t want to hear it anyway by then.

I had a LOT of fun though. I truly have no regrets about the choice I made to go fulltime as an author.

Things began to look brighter for my author career right on schedule in 2015 with that big hit, Star Cruise: Marooned, which is the book I mentioned above. My sales continued to be strong while a lot of other people’s sank. I think I got about three extra months of great royalties before the inevitable happened and the tidal wave hit me too. (Yes, we used to get 90 days of sales ‘lift’ from a new release – wow, those were the days. Now it’s a week, maybe.)

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Soooo….I began cutting back. And back. I stopped doing audio books. Too expensive and they didn’t earn out the costs for me. I quit going to conferences. I stopped doing the big pretty promo in magazines and on prestige romance sites. I cut back on some of the things I’d been spending time on that were so much fun but took away from the writing time (like being a TV blogger for USAT/HEA, recapping episodes for several scifi shows, interviewing the actors, etc.). “Does this pay the rent?” became my mantra. I made other adjustments in my personal life, including downsizing my living space. Out of necessity I also got more efficient at writing the books and had seven new releases in 2017, one of which was Aydarr, the first book in my very successful Badari Warriors scifi romance series. (Thank you, readers!).

The end of the gold rush really forced me to become much more serious that the writing was the thing. Plant myself in my chair and get the words onto the paper.

I have about forty books published at the moment, released 11 in 2019 alone. I was on track to do about the same this year until we all got hit with the pandemic. It’s proving to be hard for me to focus on writing in this stressful time, although I am managing about 1K a day on the new book. Thank goodness for the extensive backlist.

Amazon accounts for about 85% of my sales, although I remained ‘wide’, keeping my books at all the major ebook sellers, versus going into KU. I personally don’t like having all my eggs in one basket. Your mileage may vary. Amazon pays royalties every month, which does amazing things for me paying my bills, and the amount is from the sales 60 days ago. I check my dashboard every single day and monitor my royalties closely, so I can budget ahead and know pretty much what I’ll have to work with in two months’ time. It's a rolling balancing act.

Household expenses and bills come first, then the cost of the books. I set aside a fixed amount every month in the budget to cover certain book-related expenses. When I was writing on the 9 to 11 new books a year schedule, I knew what the monthly book-related income and expenses were going to be pretty reliably. Right now sales are down and since I’m not turning out books as rapidly (which could be a self-perpetuating loop because readers want new books but pandemic happening and my Muse is struggling…) it’s balanced out, although I am continuing to commission book covers. I know what my next few books will be and it helps incentivize me to write if I already have a gorgeous cover from Fiona Jayde to stare at.

My biggest expense is editing, followed by covers, with the formatting third. I’m not techy and can’t do my own formatting. I use the wonderful Formatting Fairies who work for Marie Force and they’re very calming to my anxiety and so helpful in general! Worth every penny.

(My high powered CPA is a once a year expense and I’m thrilled to pay that fee because I can sleep at night thanks to her, with no nightmares about the IRS.)

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I’m doing very little paid promo right now. I did just put my Badari box set on sale and paid for some promo this month in connection with that, plus generous author friends helped spread the word. The SFR community is a really good place to be, pretty supportive of each other.

I have a newsletter and a blog. I’m active on social media and in various author and reader groups for my genre. I write about scifi romance for several national outlets (USAT/HEA sadly is no more.) I don’t get paid for those posts, which I know many people say is a no-go but I feel the exposure to potential readers in the SFR genre is definitely worth the time I put in. You never know what other opportunity may arise because of a post going viral. And a big part of my efforts is always spreading the word about the entire SFR genre. I believe the more readers we have for our SFR novels, the better it will be for all of us who write them. Romance readers are wonderfully voracious!

I have a strategic plan, which I’ve been working to since 2015. I update it once a year and then review it every quarter and make changes as needed. It’s an important tool for me to stay flexible and to watch out for changes that I need to make in my thinking and my author activities to respond to the industry itself. It's the opposite of magical thinking but reassuring in its own way and  makes me feel more in control. I feel like I'm in a steady state right now as far as income and outgo but I need to get back to regular new releases pretty quickly and I'm counting on the readers to want more books in my various series.

The writing is the writing, thank goodness. Once I sit down and focus, the words flow and the stories tell themselves to me. If I can just keep myself from spending too much time staring in bug eyed disbelief at the news or going down social media rabbit holes – or binge watching TV shows and movies – I’ll be okay.

Always assuming the readers continue to enjoy the stories I offer!

Amazon     Apple Books     Kobo     Nook

Tropes Are Like A Box of Chocolates

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Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is "What trope/theme did you think (or wished) had "died" only to recently reappear?"

From Wikipedia: The word trope has also come to be used for describing commonly recurring literary and rhetorical devices, motifs or clichés in creative works.

So here’s the thing – I don’t think in tropes. I don’t pay attention to them, I don’t read for them or despite them. When I saw this topic of the week, I thought of a See’s Candy Shop, with all the flavors and varieties. (Alas for the good old pre-pandemic days when their stores were open.) I know which ones I like, I usually order the same ones (dark chocolate vanilla buttercream is my favorite, followed closely by dark chocolate butters and many more…) but occasionally I’ll try a new one, which is how I discovered my love for raspberry truffles. I don’t even glance at the flavors I don’t like and I politely refuse a free sample if those are the ones on offer. I’m perfectly happy for the other flavors to exist, for whoever enjoys them, but they’re not on my list.

True story: when I was in college, I worked for the May Company as a housewares department manager, I used to stroll down the mall on my dinner break and have See’s candy. Now I’m not saying I did this every day, but I did it often. This became a problem when my husband came to keep me company for dinner one evening and suggested as a treat we get some See’s. Uh oh. The clerk greeted me enthusiastically and put my usual order into a bag without my ever opening my mouth! Busted! My spouse was concerned for my health more than anything else and we laughed about it later but I guess I might have overdone my “dinner at See’s” routine a bit.

Yes, I know I digressed but See’s candy….yum.

So tropes can be overused to the point they become clichés – the black hatted villains in cowboy movies come to mind – but even then, if a reader enjoys reading cowboy novels with black hatted villains, is it really a problem?

One of my favorite web sites is TV Tropes, “The All Devouring Pop-Culture Wiki”, which despite the name does cover other areas than just television. You can browse, search, look at the indices and otherwise roam this site for far too long, finding fun examples of every trope under the sun. I picked a few at random from the “Overused Sci-Fi Plot Devices” list, which is extensive:

Time travellers go back in time to prevent some Bad Thing from happening and in the process actually cause the Bad Thing to happen.

Time travellers go back in time to prevent some Bad Thing from happening; they succeed, but cause something worse to happen.

When a player gets "killed" in a virtual reality simulation, they also die in real life.

A war gets started over a stupid misunderstanding between two sides that otherwise have no reason to fight, and no effort is made to resolve the crisis diplomatically.

The two opponents in a war have been fighting for so long that they've forgotten how the war got started in the first place, but no effort is made to resolve the crisis diplomatically.

The two opponents in a war have been fighting for decades/centuries/millenia; the main characters end the war peacefully in a matter of days or hours.

Humans have a special quality that makes us unique, so that even superbeings can learn something from us.

A pet survives the disaster, and is discovered at the end of the story.

(I think I’ve seen every one of those on a Star Trek episode!)

Some of the entries on the list have links to other essays and there are folders of examples in every field from anime to music to toys live action films.

In my own writing I have certain tropes I go to just about every time and here are some examples – the weary but deadly Special Forces soldier, the high powered business woman, the Ancient Aliens, the extremely dangerous or catastrophic situation (Wreck of the Nebula Dream, my first published science fiction romance contains a number of these tropes of mine), a dream space or alternate form of reality where the characters can connect, maybe a pet, sometimes a child, an interstellar crime syndicate,  the evil implacable alien forces, a benevolent galactic civilization with bureaucracy, Artificial Intelligences, true love, a Happy ending (whether For Now or Ever After)…

But the thing is, this is the type of book I enjoy reading myself and therefore the kind of book I want to WRITE. And I’m blessed to have readers who enjoy the same ingredients.

The key is to tell a good story each time out, to mix and match elements – maybe this time the weary soldier is a kickass woman or the ancient alien is a tree, who absorbs the characters to talk to them – and be sure to tell an exciting tale.

I also keep my eye out for new concepts to work into the stories. Some of my most novel plot elements have come from reading articles in business magazines. Refresh a trope with a new take!

My Badari Warriors series is at thirteen books and going strong. The basic trope is the same in every one, since the novels are about genetically engineered soldiers of the far future, fighting alien scientists for the right to live and to love. They each find their fated mate in the course of the book’s events and together the couple battles the enemy. The key, however, is that each time I consciously challenge myself to find new elements and new ideas to differentiate the plots, and of course the characters in each book are different people, each with their own characteristics, background and likes/dislikes. So far the readers seem to find the books satisfactory.

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Going back to my See’s Candy analogy, their recipes use the same ingredients – chocolate, sugar, cream, butter, flavorings, nuts – to create that entire store full of delightful delectable different offerings. Tropes are the same – ingredients that can add up to an infinite number of stories and there will never be enough time in the world to read them all.

Stay safe, sending best wishes to you and your loved ones for good health in these stressful times! Happy reading…

My Portals to Escapism

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Our topic here at the SFF Seven this week is: books vs movies vs games vs comics.

In ordinary times and in these pandemic times, my first escape when not writing my own books is to read books by other people. Currently I do all my reading on my kindle and I’m very eclectic in my choices, although science fiction, SF romance, paranormal romance and fantasy do predominate. I always have a large To Be Read list, both on the kindle already one-clicked and waiting for me to be in the right mood and also in a wish list of books I might try at some point. If I discover a new-to-me author that I love, I might end up reading their entire backlist in a big binge before moving on to anything else.

I also re-read books like Shield of Winter by Nalini Singh, which is one of my all-time favorites. Sometimes I go all the way back to my favorite Andre Norton books, or Anne McCaffrey’s, although I do tend to skim a bit when reading a book I’ve practically got memorized. I found myself re-reading Pat Frank’s Alas, Babylon earlier this year when the apocalyptic nature of our current situation became clear to me.  Randy Bragg’s trip to the grocery store on the eve of nuclear war, although different than what we’re dealing with, resonated, shall we say! I always remember the ladies watching him shop and commenting on his fifteen cans of coffee…

I also worked my way through the Flashpoint series by Mike Kraus and Tara Ellis, who were a new writing duo for me. Additionally I really enjoy Kate Morris’s Apokalypsis series, which led to me reading her McClane Apocalypse series.  Yes, I was definitely in an apocalyptic mood.

I guess I still am but as the pandemic deepens, I find I’m going more for scifi romance.

But having said that, my last two reads were This Is Chance! By Jon Mooallem, a nonfiction book about a woman reporter on the front lines at the 1964 Alaska quake, and other Anchorage citizens, and how they all coped. I actually knew two people who survived that quake, one of whom was inside the JC Penney’s store at the time. The other was standing outdoors and watched the ground running in waves and going up or down, with crevasses opening up around her. The book was an interesting read, definitely the 1960’s were another time, especially as regards women working outside the home. It was a bit jarring to be back in that era while reading the book, frankly. Then right before that I read In Five Years: A Novel by Rebecca Serle, which is a romance with one ‘time travel’ element. And before that was Paladin, a Galactic Gladiators novel by Anna Hackett, who is a must-buy author for me.

In the middle of all that reading, I also re-read the first few books in my own Badari Warriors science fiction romance series. I’m about to start on the next book, Ivokk, which will feature characters who have been mentioned off and on, so I wanted to refresh my memory.

The only thing I watch on live television any longer (which gets us to my second form of escapism – movies or TV shows) is cable news. For everything else, I go to the kindle and stream or binge watch. I enjoy the “skills-based” reality shows – all manifestations/imitations/spinoffs of Project Runway for example. I never get enough of those, maybe because I used to sew a lot of my own clothes and my daughters’ Halloween costumes and doll clothes, so I feel I can relate a little. Some of the shows are better than others but I enjoy them all.

Also Top Chef is a favorite of mine, although right now I’m struggling because the current season is in Los Angeles, filmed last year, and it’s jarring to see the contestants bopping around SoCal, going in and out of a Whole Foods grocery store with fully stocked shelves, eating at small niche restaurants that probably went out of business in March 2020…yeah, a bit hard to take.  Oddly enough, I haven’t fallen in love with any other cooking shows I’ve sampled. I did watch a few seasons of the one with Food Trucks but that got depressing to me. I watched the Great British Bakeoff with my daughter and her husband and am sad to say it didn’t grab me either. There must be some ‘magic’ to Top Chef that keeps my attention.

I loved Face Off, the long running SyFy show where special effects artists competed to create the most amazing things. I have a years’ long, mild crush on Tate, the Season One finalist and always wanted him to WIN, not come in second. Which he finally did triumph in the spin off Face Off: Game Face show and I was so happy for him. (Oh yeah, I’m a devotee of that program all right.)

I have all the seasons of Making the Team – Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (or DCC as they’re commonly known), although right now it’s hard to fully immerse myself in the pro football world, since in my opinion the NFL will have to postpone the coming season, hence no need for cheerleaders either.

During the season, I do watch NFL games, although it’s hard for me to fully enjoy the game anymore, knowing what we know about concussions and CTE brain. I think I’m drifting toward abandoning the NFL if they don’t do better at safeguarding the players’ brains. But wow, when a play goes just right and the pass is caught and the runner gets into the end zone, it can be a thing of beauty…I especially love it when some burly defensive player catches an interception and lumbers (they always lumber) into the end zone…I personally hate all the reviews by the officials. It’s a game, let them play, you know?

Most of the time I forget who won the contest in any specific episode of an old season of a reality program like those, so I do re-watch seasons sometimes. I never remember jokes, who did it in mystery novels or the winners in these shows! So it’s all mostly new to me when I do re-watch.

I used to be a Dancing With the Stars devotee but gave it up about a year ago when the choices of who got eliminated became pretty obviously messed up in MY mind anyway, with good dancers who deserved to be there passed over in favor of some people who could barely put one foot in front of the other but who made ‘good TV’ I guess. Yeah, I was done caring. Although I did always love their Disney Theme nights. My all time favorite clip from DWTS is Riker Lynch's paso doble to "He's a Pirate."

I have Lego Masters queueing also but have yet to sample it.

I’m watching ‘War of the Worlds’ on Apple+ TV…grim but engrossing limited series. I SO want the French military commander and the astronomer to have a romance. I’ve convinced myself there’s definite attraction going on, but it’s not clear to me they’ll ever act on it in the midst of their End Of The World As We Know It situation. The series keeps me on edge inagoodway because they don’t hesitate to kill off people you thought would live and also to insert some pretty shocking plot twists. I also appreciate the European setting.

I’m not watching any other series right now although I have ‘Manifest’ episodes accumulating. Season one of that was intriguing.

I was a huge fan of ‘The Big Bang Theory,’ partly because I was a Caltech employee for years  and the series did nail what some Brainiac scientists can be like…they’d also refer to JPL sometimes, which is where I actually worked. (Caltech runs JPL for NASA.) It was absurd, it was amusing, it was frustrating…sometimes it was just so spot on…

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I find right now I’m watching a lot of reality series on the kindle that center around zoos and what goes on behind the scenes. There are a TON of those, some with multiple seasons. The variations between the zoos are fascinating to me. New York versus Tampa versus Columbus… I think the zoo shows are feelgood TV to me right now. Usually the animals get through whatever the crisis is or give birth to the darling babies, although every once in a while a much loved creature does pass away, which is always sad. The keepers are so attached to their charges, which is heartwarming. There are some dizzying time jumps – the babies are finally born, (blink) oh here we are six weeks later when they’re bigger, (blink) now it’s a year later….wow, the miracles of editing.

When it comes to movies, I have a lot of favorites that I re-watch, like “Aliens” and the 1950’s version of “The Thing From Another World.” I still have a cabinet full of hundreds of dvd’s but tend to buy the movie on the kindle if it’s available now so I can sit and watch it up close. I like musicals, action/adventure and obviously science fiction! I’m not much on the newer movies, although I’m going to watch the sequel to the Rock’s “Jumanji” this weekend. I loved the first one and of course I adored the Robin Williams version. Each film has its own charms. The last movie I actually went to the theater for was “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom”, with my teenage grandson.

I browse Netflix for movies and offbeat series to try…

I think with movies and scripted TV shows my basic problem is that as a writer myself, I want the plot points to stay settled. Don’t spend season two undoing every single thing I loved that happened in season one! Don’t have your sequel start as if the first movie never happened. Don’t give me movies with no romance…so I kind of gave up on scripted, open ended series and sequels. Also, while SyFy's ‘Killjoys’ managed to have its full five years of shows to tell the entire story, ‘Dark Matter’ and other shows I was addicted to got cancelled and I hate to feel cheated as far as “what happened to the characters???”

I’m not a gamer at all, although I find computer games fascinating to read about and to see discussed on social media. I’m not good at them either, which probably has something to do with my lack of interest! I’d rather read. Or write.

I read comics voraciously as a kid but I stopped when DC Comics started writing too many alternate universes and “Hero X actually dies in this issue!” plots. See my comments above about scripted TV shows undoing what had been done LOL. Just not for me! I have vintage Brothers of the Spear and Magnus, Robot Hunter in the Dark Horse compilations and I do browse through them on occasion and sigh for the old days a little…

I’ll add that many authors I know are doing jigsaw puzzles these days to pass the time. I thought it sounded like a great idea so I got a couple to try. In the old days when I didn’t have an empty nest we used to keep one going nearly all the time on the dining room table and people would work on it as they passed by. What I discovered to my surprise now is that (a) it’s not as much fun when no one else is working on it too and (b) OMG am I compulsive about wanting to finish the darn thing! Which is ridiculous but I just felt compelled to slog away at it – the one I was doing had beautiful tea cups in many pretty patterns and I found I wasn’t enjoying myself at all. It had become a chore, almost enough to fit on the weekly To Do List – “finish the darn puzzle!”. So I gave that up. Not for me apparently.

So there you have it as far as my chosen forms of escapism.

Speaking of which, I just put my boxed set of the first 3 books in the Badari Warriors on sale for $.99 so if you've been wanting to try the series for your escapism reading, here's your chance! Featuring genetically engineered soldiers of the far future, the Badari were created by alien enemies to fight humans. But then the scientists kidnapped an entire human colony from the Sectors to use as subjects in twisted experiments…the Badari and the humans made common cause, rebelled and escaped the labs. Now they live side by side in a sanctuary valley protected by a powerful Artificial Intelligence, and wage unceasing war on the aliens.

Buy Links: Amazon:    Apple Books:    B&NNook  Kobo 

Murder Mysteries of All Types From SF to PNR To While Away the Hours

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Much as I like to respect the topic of the week here at SFF7, this week I just can’t. It’s something about methods of murder. Well (a) I don’t write murder in my books – characters die in the course of the plots but that leads to (b) I am TOTALLY not in the mood to discuss death this week. Enough of that grim stuff going on in the real world right now, thank you. And to be fair, we here at SFF7 develop a list of 52 blog topics months in advance and then it’s fixed on the calendar for the year ahead, so I don’t mean to sound critical of whichever member proposed the one for this week.

One thing we’ve all got too much of on our hands right now is time and we’re looking for diversion. Well, at least I am! So it’s a good time to binge watch series and movies, and to work through that To Be Read stack of books. In the spirit of honoring the weekly topic AND doing something at least a little bit useful (I hope) as an author in the current situation, let me offer some mystery diversions.

The classic TV show would have to be “Murder She Wrote,” with Angela Lansbury. The series ran twelve seasons, 1984 through 1996 and also included four movies. I did a quick Google search and it can be found in various places like Hallmark Channel and on Amazon Prime (a few seasons and only through March 31)… I swear over the course of the show every single movie and TV star of any recognizable stature appeared and it was fun to see them pop up. Of course anywhere the Jessica Fletcher character travelled, murder and genteel mayhem soon followed. I enjoyed the early seasons in Cabot Cove, ME the most but it was probably a good idea to open the plots up more and make her a world traveler.  No offense to Kevin Bacon and his six degrees of separation (I myself have two degrees of separation from him) but I think Angela Lansbury/Jessica Fletcher met everyone in Hollywood  in those twelve years.

A recent murder mystery movie with rave reviews is "Knives Out," which is in my queue to watch soon.

My personal all-time favorite mystery novel series is the Chronicles of Brother Cadfael by Ellis Peters, set in England in the first half of the 12^th century. The author created a full and complete world that I happily went to live in (and I frankly don’t want to know if there are historical inaccuracies or anything else because I love those books…not saying there ARE because I frankly have no idea and am not an expert on the 1100’s in England.) You might think stories about a monk wouldn’t be all that adventure and action filled. Fortunately he’s an ex-Crusader and a bit rebellious, within limits and there’s a wonderful supporting cast that grows along with him as the books take us through the years. St. Peter’s Fair and The Sanctuary Sparrow are two of my favorites.

Of course when I was young I read Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden and more. At a somewhat older phase I went through a spell of reading all the Ellery Queen and Nero Wolfe mysteries, Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, Sue Grafton, Diane Mott Davidson, Ed McBain’s 87^th Precinct books…I don’t know, I almost never read mysteries anymore but for a while I was really immersed in them. Of course being a full time author now does cut into my reading!

Despite the title the Murderbot Diaries by New York Times and USA Today Best Selling author Martha Wells, the science fiction series isn’t precisely a classic mystery but is wonderful and the title character is out to solve and resolve some weighty interstellar issues. I highly recommend these books.

Confession time: I’ve never read any of the Eve Dallas scifi detective series written by New York Times and USA Today Best Selling author Nora Roberts. I know so many people who never can get enough of her books under any pen name and this particular series is hugely beloved. Set in the mid 21^st century, mostly in futuristic New York but also occasionally going off the planet, there’s also a focus on the romantic relationship between Eve and her husband. Hmmm, maybe I should give this series a try again, probably with the first book, Naked in Death.

Famed science fiction author Isaac Asimov also wrote mysteries, including Caves of Steel (The Robot Series Book 1), dealing with a New York City Detective and an android who have to learn to work together.

USA Today Best Selling science fiction romance author Pauline B. Jones also writes a mystery series set in New Orleans, The Big Uneasy series. Ms. Jones is a former resident of NOLA and her ability to transport you to the city in her novels is part of the allure for me. She’s very good at devising intricate plots and infusing moments of humor.  The latest book in the series is Fais Do Do Die about a caterer and a disgraced SWAT team member and here’s the book’s teaser: He kicks down doors, and she serves hors d’oeuvres. And the Big Uneasy delivers them both a huge helping of high stakes danger—and a chance at romance.

SFR author S. J. Pajonas has the Miso Cozy Mysteries series set in Japan, which I thoroughly enjoy. I love the way this genre can transport the reader to an entirely different place or time and Ms. Pajonas’s books don’t disappoint. Here’s how the author describes her first book and the series: The Daydreamer Detective is the savory starter to the Miso Cozy series of cozy mystery novels. If you like twisty plots, delectable food descriptions, and rural Japanese towns, then you’ll love S.J. Pajonas’ culinary tale.

Since I’m not trying to do any kind of exhaustive survey of the literature here, merely to present some brain teasing reading material to help divert socially distancing readers in these trying times, I’ll finish with a few more entries in the cozy mystery genre, only these come with a paranormal twist. I haven’t read any of these myself, but the authors are very well regarded in their niche and are consistent best sellers in the category. And if you enjoy the books, there are many more in each series to choose from.

Amanda M. Lee is HUGE in this genre and has a number of series going as well, including Spell’s Angels, Moonstone Bay, Charlie Rhodes, Wicked Witches of the Midwest…her latest was No Crone Unturned (A Spell’s Angels Cozy Mystery Book 3) and here’s the beginning of the blurb to give you a flavor of the offerings: Scout Randall is on the verge of getting information about her past. Patience has never been one of her virtues, though. As she’s waiting for her source to get settled, a new problem arises … and it has fangs.

When she was a kid, a chance encounter in a park left Scout questioning the existence of monsters. Now, one of those potential monsters is back … and he’s taken up residence in Hawthorne Hollow. He isn’t alone either.

Vampires are on the prowl and it’s up to the Spell’s Angels to figure out what they want and eradicate them through any means necessary…

Lily Harper Hart has several paranormal cozy mystery series going – Hannah Hickok Witchy Mysteries, Ivy Morgan Cozy Mysteries, Supernatural Speakeasy – lots to choose from…her most recent was Wicked Reunion (An Ivy Morgan Mystery Book 16).

CC Dragon is another well-established author in the cozy paranormal genre and her latest is A Nursery, A Necromancer, and a New Chapter: Deanna Oscar Paranormal Mysteries Book 13 (Deanna Oscar Paranormal Mystery).  The blurb: The house is clean and safe for the newest member of the Oscar family…but when a necromancer starts circling the mansion, Deanna knows she must empower a new team while she tackles the challenges of motherhood. She’ll supervise and help but one way or another, she’s taking a break and this is her last case while her little one is vulnerable. Passing the baton isn’t easy but the legacy of Oscars in New Orleans must go on.

I’m sure I’m missing any number of mysteries and mystery series that are much beloved so please feel free to share your favorites with us in the comments!

Best wishes to you and your loved ones on staying safe and healthy during this current crisis situation…

Fishboning Clears Story Tangles For Me

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is: "The most difficult scene you ever wrote and why."

If I have a scene that for some reason isn’t flowing well, I remind myself that the first draft is supposed to be ugly. It’s allowed to be fragmentary and lacking details and maybe even full of X’s here and there or notes to myself like “add more here”. I just have to get words on the paper (or into the computer file) and build from there.

(Time for my standard disclaimer that there is NO one rule for how to write and everyone should write their books in whatever way works for THEM.)

I do as much as I have creativity for on the first pass and then each time I re-open the file thereafter, to keep writing the rest of the narrative rather than obsess over the one scene, I do go through the specific moment again and build upon it, refine it, in a process I think of as ‘layering’.  Each time I touch it, I end up adding words and depth and color and actions and…by the time I finish the entire book, each scene inside is finished.

DepositPhoto - A classic fishbone diagram.
The ones I do for my writing do NOT look like this.

If I’m really at a standstill, I fall back onto what I call ‘fishboning’, in honor of a very useful process improvement technique from my days at NASA/JPL.  I end up building a structure with the possibilities that flow from any decision a character could make in the scene’s situation (or that I, the omniscient author might drop upon their heads) and as I brainstorm and work through this, the path with the most possibilities or the most exciting-to-me events along the way becomes clear and off I go to write. I can’t tell you how many times this has worked infallibly for me. I use my trusty, very sharp No. 2 pencil and a pad of legal sized yellow (or lavender) paper. Something about doing this just really clears the way for my Muse or my creativity or whatever one chooses to call it, to break loose and enhance the story telling.

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In actual fact, it’s a combination of true fishboning for root cause analysis and “The Five Whys” technique developed by Sakichi Toyoda, where you drill down and down to what the ultimate root cause of any problem may be. The fishbone is a cause analysis tool, which a trained facilitator (which I used to be) might pull out to use when a problem solving team has hit a dead end or finds itself in a rut.

I am a NASA Lean Six Sigma Black Belt so trust me, I’ve had training in these and many more process improvement techniques. I’ve amalgamated and adapted them for this creative purpose of mine and it leads my Muse through the cluttered field to the right path for the story.

Now most of the time I just sit down and write the book, and don’t do any fishboning or anything else. The story flows, I type and it’s all good. But every once in a while, perhaps once or twice per book, I resort to pencil and pad and brainstorm.

As far as the most difficult scene to write because it affected me so much – there’s a scene in  Timtur, book 2.5 of the Badari Warriors series, where Lily the human heroine sits through the night with a dying soldier and does her best to comfort him, even forgiving him for participating in kidnapping her. (And no, this is a supporting character, not the hero.) Folks, I cried writing this scene. I’ve never had that happen to me before or since on a book I wrote.

I have a feeling the scene might be mining an experience in my own past where I sat vigil through the night by a person beloved to me who was not going to survive. (I’m not normally too self-reflective or even conscious of where and what influences my Muse is drawing upon deep inside my own memory and experiences to spin the stories I write. Sorry if it seems weird to discuss my writing process as disengaged somehow from my everyday, entirely rational ‘thinking’ mind, but when I write, I’m in the flow.)

So anyway, here’s a portion of that scene. Lily and the dying soldier are both imprisoned within an alien lab:

Hastily, Lily ran to the sink and filled a piece of lab glassware with water, before going to the table where Hilkirr was restrained.

He lay still, fangs and talons extended, all the veins in his body standing out and glowing blue as if filled with liquid phosphorescence. As she approached the table she observed his eyes were open and his breathing was labored.

“I brought you the water,” she said in a near whisper. “Can you raise your head enough to drink?”

“Teacher?” He blinked as if his vision was impaired, although even in the darkened lab he ought to be able see so much better than she could.

“Yes, it’s me.” She slipped one arm under his head and helped him get the right angle to sip at the water, although he didn’t take much. His whole body trembled.

“Thank you,” he whispered. “Stay?”

Lily shot a glance at the door, assessing the risk.

“Please?” His voice was a raw thread of its former volume. “I—I don’t want to be alone, and I can’t hear the pack in my head anymore.”

“All right.” She searched for a stool or a chair and found one shoved into a corner. She went to retrieve it then sat next to the table, wrapping both of her hands around one of his, mindful of the extended talons. “I wish I knew how to get these restraints off so you could lie more comfortably.”

“No. It’s better this way.” Hilkirr shook his head feebly. “Might hurt you.”

“I don’t believe you would,” she said as warmly as she could. “Do you need more water? Are you cold? I could try to find a lab coat or a blanket.”

“Just your company.”

“Okay.” She sat and closed her eyes, unable to bear looking at his abused body for too long. His grotesquely expanded muscles and tendons were distressing, as were the brownish-yellow bruises spreading over his body as the experiment slowly extinguished his life. The glowing blue of his veins was fading, to be replaced by more ominous colors, a vile mix of purple and black.

Hilkirr’s clasp grew lax, and she sat up with a start, afraid he’d died, but he’d only dozed off. She went to the sink and got a wet cloth. Back in her place beside the table, she brushed his hair off his face then bathed his upper body carefully, as much as she could reach, drying him off with another, softer cloth.

With obvious effort, he turned his face toward her. “Feels good.”

“I wish I could do more.” After dropping the cloths in the refuse bin, she resumed her spot in the chair and clasped his hand again.

“I’m sorry, teacher. We shouldn’t have kidnapped you. That was wrong.”

“I forgive you,” she said and found she meant it. Hilkirr had suffered so much as a result of following Vattan into this hellish lab that she only had pity for him.

“Swore a blood oath to my Alpha,” he said. “Had to obey.”

“I understand.” Lily wasn’t sure she truly did but pack meant everything to the Badari, and blood was the magic used to seal all their most important bonds and agreements.

“Wish Aydarr had been my Alpha. The valley was so beautiful.” Now his voice was wistful, and Lily had to blink back tears.

“I’m glad you got to live there in freedom for at least a little while.” Sorrow in her heart like a stone, she patted his hand and wished she could do more.

“Do you think the goddess will forgive me? Can she forgive me?” His whisper was intense.

Lily bit her lip, throat tight with repressed sorrow, pondering how best to answer the question. What would Timtur say to comfort a dying comrade at a time like this? Words came to mind. “I don’t know much about your goddess. But I know you call her your Great Mother, and I know a mother loves all her children equally and forgives them. So, you hang onto that thought.”

“You should be a mother,” Hilkirr said a minute or two later, surprising her. “The cubs all love you, did you know that? The boys think the Great Mother sent you to them.”

“Maybe someday I’ll have a baby,” she said, thinking of Timtur and what a child born of the two of them might be like. Motherhood was a dream far removed from her current situation and she pushed the happy subject to the back of her mind with regret.  Her muscles were complaining at the awkward position so she shifted a bit and stretched, while hanging onto Hilkirr’s hand. “Do you need more water? Are you in pain?”

“Can’t see anything. Can’t feel anything.” His hand twitched. “Other than your fingers. Warm. Nice. Would you sing? Like you do for the cubs after classes, if they’ve been really good?”

Happy to have something she could do to comfort him, she said, “Of course.”

******************************************************

There's more to the scene in the novel but I think this gives the flavor...

Lack of Trust Isn't the Issue

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This week at the SFF Seven, we're asking: how do you know who to trust with your writing, especially early drafts and idea bouncing.

It’s not a question of trust for me, it’s a question of the way I work, which is that I never share a work in progress with anyone, ever. I’m not afraid of ideas being stolen but rather that whatever story I’m telling is MY story, with my characters and I’m not interested in how anyone else might think the story should go. Ooh, you might be saying, crochety much? No, just stubborn and confident in my story telling abilities. Not trying to sound arrogant but I don’t need or want other opinions when it comes to exercising my creativity and telling my version of a story at the ancestral campfire. (For sure no one beta read or critiqued those first story tellers LOL!)

 I brainstorm with myself if I encounter plot challenges along the way- I actually use a couple of techniques I was taught when I led teams and did process improvement, although in a much scaled down way since it’s only me in the room now, thinking through the alternatives and the ‘If this, then what?’ and the ‘Why?' questions, with the occasional Venn diagram thrown in.

 I also don’t feel any need to share my writing until the point where I regard it as being a complete and finished work. When it’s done, I’m thrilled to put the book out into the world, let it receive reviews from readers as to their experience with the story, and move on to writing my next novel.

Part of this attitude of mine may be that since I’m not a person who plots in advance, the story unspools for me as I write it and therefore it’d be pointless to show the manuscript to anyone else prior to the work being complete because even I don’t always know all the ins and outs of the plot ahead. I do always know the ending, however.

Writing is kind of a fragile thing to me and the finished story is a strong enough edifice to withstand reader reviews and the opinions of others, whereas a story in progress doesn’t yet have that strength and if I got feedback that derailed or distracted me, I’d probably never finish the thing.

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Maybe I’m missing out on a whole set of wonderful, rich experiences by not gathering with other authors and exchanging ideas on WIP’s…but I can only do me and my Muse doesn’t think writing is a group activity. She shuts down and goes into silent running mode. I'm happy for people who flourish in that collaborative group environment and find writing partners who share and enhance each other's creative sparks but I know my own limits.

(Pretty much Rule One of Writing to me is that there's no one perfect or right way that everyone MUST write...thank goodness!)

I do give the book to my developmental editor once it’s complete and has gone through several edits by me. She provides very useful feedback and I have made changes or added or deleted things in response at times…but I’ve also chosen to ignore the inputs completely at other times where I’m happy with the story as it was. Having the dev editor’s comments certainly enables me to grow as a writer and to avoid repeating some mistakes as I go forward with more books.

I don’t do beta reading or critiquing for anyone else either with very rare exceptions that had unique circumstances. I can probably count those instances on one hand. Normally I refuse requests to beta read as kindly as I can.

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I’m a solitary person up there in my cold garret, writing away and telling my stories! (Well, okay sitting here in my cozy and warm apartment if you must know…)

Happy reading to everyone!

Galactic Civilization Hums Away in the Background in My Novels

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This week at the SFF Seven, we're asking:  How do you decide your world's structure of authority and/or governance?

The first thing to remember about me is that I imprinted on Andre Norton at a very young age and when it comes to the kind of science fiction I wanted to write, that was very much the flavor. I’m always at the micro level, the personal level, the man and woman (and maybe some comrades) battling the odds, respecting each other as they move through the adversity and falling in love as the adventure gets resolved. That’s what I enjoy reading (Ms. Norton didn’t have enough romance for me but she wasn’t trying to write romance either.) It’s what my Muse or my creative mind or whatever you call it has served up since I started writing at the age of 7.

I’m not wildly interested in the macro level – the interstellar civilizations and the intricacies of governments, etc. I’ve read grand sweeping books which explore these themes…but it’s not me. And if there’s not a couple to care about (M/F, M/M/ F/F or any other love is love duo…on occasion a trio) I’m usually gone at hyperspeed.

I liked how Ms. Norton’s science fiction novels occurred in a galactic civilization that was never defined in too much detail but which seemed vaguely familiar to me.

To tie back to my blog post title, the government of the civilization hums away in the background and doesn't insert itselt into the stories in much detail.

When I established the Sectors in my world building, I very much went for that model. It’s like the science in my novels – I don’t bother explaining how the blasters work and I don’t bother explaining how the government of the Sectors operates. Any more than I deliver a mini lecture on how the State of California governs itself when I talk about living here and some cute thing my cat did. It just is and let’s get on with the adventure and the romance.

I guess if pressed, I’d tell you the Sectors is democratic (no, don’t ask me how that works across the galaxy) more or less, with bureaucracy and a functioning, ethical top notch military and an interstellar crime syndicate and all kinds of corporations of varying influence, Non Goverment Organizations; rich people (“Socialites” are usually their children), poor people and people in between…there’s also the Outlier Empire, which is sort of Tsarist Russian in the way it operates; the Hinterlands; the frontier; unaffiliated worlds and systems…lots of room for yours truly to play. 

And we haven’t even discussed the other influences at work, like the Red Lady of D’nvannae, an ancient alien goddess who runs an order of assassins who can be bodyguards at her whim. Or her sister, the White Lady. Or the mysterious Mellureans…

(Waves hands although reader can’t see her.) It’s PEOPLE. Doing human things.

And some aliens and Others….

My characters may visit a world ruled by an emperor, as with Mission to Mahjundar, or be an undercover cop in the Sectors Criminal Investigation Agency (nope, not doing a spoiler and telling you who in which novel – sorry). It’s whatever the story needs, in the general worldbuilding of the Sectors, which frames it all for me.

But I think it’s all heavily influenced by the world in which I live.

My mind doesn’t run to outlining all the details of a government, whether it’s led by a king or a president or something/someone else. I build what I need for my story, or build out what’s already been done for the Sectors in earlier stories and thinking. I do stay consistent with myself.

I’m playing with a world ruled by an Alpha in my Badari Warriors. As I described it in the most recent release, the power to rule over all other Badari is buried in his DNA – these soldiers are genetically engineered but there’s a LOT of plot to this series. If/when these soldiers and their mates and allies manage to defeat the aliens who created them, and take the planet for themselves, he’ll be the unquestioned ruler. I’m enjoying playing within these boundaries and have already introduced some issues with the humans, who like to rule themselves, or at least to feel they could come to power someday. And unless you’re a Badari, it isn’t going to happen, not on this planet. So I’m having fun with all of it but this is on one specific planet, and they do hope to join the Sectors someday.

Now the ancient Egyptian books are a piece of cake, comparatively speaking because their civilization was so detailed. I have a Pharaoh and he has various officials to do his bidding, plus generals and high priests and priestesses…and the gods keep a mostly benevolent eye on all of it.

My fantasy world of Claddare has many parts and some are classic ‘kingdoms’ but others are clans or packs…I’m in a medieval mindset when I write those stories.

My new release HONEYMOON FOR THE ALPHA: A BADARI WARRIORS NOVELLA:

The blurb: Thrown together as helpless prisoners in the punishing conditions of a Khagrish lab, Jill and Aydarr fell in love. Claiming each other as mates despite only having one night alone in a cell, they formed a deep, loving mate bond. 

Now, a planetary year later, after escaping the lab and leading the ongoing rebellion against the enemy together, Aydarr longs for more. He wants a chance to show Jill how much she means to him.

He decides to risk everything to take his mate away from it all for a few days. But will the Khagrish, the threats lurking in the planet’s unexplored wilderness and the Badari goddess allow them to complete A Honeymoon for the Alpha?

Amazon      Apple Books      Nook      Kobo      GooglePlay

Salute to My Cover Artist Fiona Jayde

Our theme this week is a shout out to the non-author creatives we collaborate with, or who enrich our lives. I'm going to keep my focus on the author sphere of my life and mention the wonderful Fiona Jayde.

She's always done my scifi romance covers and in the last year or so has also given me my fantasy covers and new Egyptian paranormal covers. Getting my new cover from her is a treat for myself, an encouragement to keep working on the book in question and FUN!

I highly value her professional opinion on the various genres and what's in, what's out, as well as her creativity...and her patience! I'm not a patient person but I admire the quality in others. Fiona has always been so patient with me when I pick stock photos that totally don't work (Me: "This one is great if we could airbrush out these three things, change the background, add a supernova and give her red hair..." Fiona: O_o, followed by a patient explanation of why we can't do any of that to the photo in question, followed by specific suggestions to achieve what I'm going for in a different manner, or alternate stock photos or...)

I think Fiona is really REALLY good at capturing the 'flavor' of the book in question from just my few notes and any inspiration photos I may send along.

I'll always remember the thrill of getting my first cover from her, for my first scifi romance to be published,Wreck of the Nebula Dream ("Titanic in space..." as one reviewer called it). That cover established what was to become my 'look' or brand for the books set in this universe.

My first REALLY huge seller was Star Cruise: Marooned and I've always thought the fabulous eye catching cover from Fiona was a key factor in getting readers to give the book a second look and maybe even a third one.

When it was time to start my Badari Warriors scifi romance series, she developed the series branding, with the ominous alien lab in the background and the sexy genetically engineered soldier in the foreground. Here's the entire series (including one we did under the In the Stars Romance logo, which frankly doesn't work as well for a book in a series.  Sigh. I confused everyone by writing that book outside the series! Never again! It's a perfectly fine logo for books written for that imprint and I might just be writing a few more for them....but not Badari Warriors.)

For my fledgling fantasy series, I asked her to have fun and sort of surprise me. Usually when we're doing the SFR I've at least tried to select the cover model or models and sent her anywhere from 3-10 possibilities. (I'm still not too good at not falling in love with photos that just don't work for a romance cover.) But I had no idea where to begin in fantasy romance.

I'm very happy with my two sparkly fantasy covers (and I have a third one already, for the next book, which I just have to write LOL.)

My original ancient Egyptian covers were mostly done by the amazing Frauke Spanuth of Croco Designs. I love her work and she did my first ever published book cover, for Priestess of the Nile, which I believe I may have cried when I saw it - so perfect.  But when the rights for the first book reverted to me, Harlequin kept the rights to the cover art.

Fiona and I had been working toward that day by designing a 'brand' image for these paranormals going forward.  Here's are the three recent covers she's created for me in the loosely connected series:

I have 38 books published, so it's tempting to give you all 38 pieces of eye candy but I'll restrain myself. (Book #39 coming soon...)

For more about Fiona and her services you can visit https://fionajaydemedia.com/

Note: Background graphics behind the multiple cover displays are from DepositPhoto