Not Painting Myself into a Corner Plotwise

DepositPhoto

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is "World Rules and Painting Yourself into a Corner: What's a rule of your world established in a previous book that complicated things for you in a later book?"

Re-upping a post I wrote for this blog in early 2018, here’s what I said the last time as an opener:

The best example of this I’ve ever seen is the opening sequence of “Jewel of the Nile”, where romance author Joan Wilder is writing the most fantastic pirate scene and it keeps building and building upon itself, more complications and worse problems for the plucky heroine and then…she’s trapped alone with a ship full of evil pirates and NO escape.

“I don’t know what the pirates do any more,” she says basically, in despair.

I have never, to the best of my recollection, painted myself into a corner in a book.

I sit down, I write the book over the course of a few weeks (now that I’m fulltime), I don’t have Michael Douglas in his prime to distract me, as ‘Joan Wilder’ did…I start out knowing the beginning, the ending, and a few key scenes along the way. I don’t end up in box canyons like the bad guys in old movie Westerns and I don’t have to rely on suspension of disbelief, as people had to do sometimes with the old movie serials, like Flash Gordon, as embodied by Buster Crabbe. One week the serial would end with him facing certain death or Dale Arden facing certain death and there’s no way Flash can reach her in time…and the next week’s episode starts off with her safe in his arms and no explanation given because of course, he’s FLASH. What? Eat your popcorn and don’t ask questions.

Yup, doesn’t happen to me when I write.  Somehow my faithful Muse and I avoid those issues. We might have other issues perhaps but not that one.

DepositPhoto

Moving on from my 2018 thoughts to the present day, I did get a little too conservative with my Badari Warriors series when I began writing it. This was my first ever actual series and I wasn’t sure how it would go, or how readers would like it, so in my head, I was doing three books. Okay, fifteen or so books later and with wonderfully enthusiastic fans (yay!), I’m still spinning out the overarching plot. I’ve sat down more than once and done a really rough sketch of what else could happen before we get to that last book. I do have the final book plot in my mind, as much as I ever do any plotting in detail ahead of time.

So where is the problem, you may ask? Well, I made the original packs pretty small. I believe I said about ten men each at one point.

So as it became clear to me I was going to want to write tons of books about my Badari Warriors, I had to find ways to open up the possibilities. I like wide ranging stories. I’d had in my head from the beginning that …..SPOILER…..

…despite everyone being so adamant there were no Badari women, I knew that yes, there were, and I planned to write a book for them at the right time. The book was GABE. I did plant some hints about this in an earlier book, where one of the human characters overhears two of the alien scientists laughingly discussing an old rumor that perhaps a few Badari women might have been created, early in the 800 year old experiment’s history.

So that was one way of expanding my boundaries. Then in KIERCE, I created a Badari from another lab entirely, in the south seas area of the planet, and gave this set of Badari a few new rules, while keeping the basic parameters. Now I’ve written about this southern pack in DAEGAN and the most recently released book, IVOKK.

If I’ve established a rule or a condition as an absolute, I won’t annoy my readers by breaking the rule in a later book. That can really set my teeth on edge as a reader when I’m reading someone else’s series so no way am I going to do that. But I’m pretty creative about working within my existing universes and trying to tell a good story. It’s not my nature to sit down pre-writing and draw up some gigantic, rigid structure of commandments and rules my characters and

I Must Live By.

So no, won’t be painting myself into any corners!

Here’s the newest book I mentioned above:

IVOKK: A BADARI WARRIORS SCIFI ROMANCE NOVEL (SECTORS NEW ALLIES SERIES BOOK 12)

The blurb:  Proud enforcer of the Badari South Seas pack, Ivokk undertakes a secret mission back to their former home, in search of a cure for a mysterious illness affecting his soldiers, now in exile in the north. He’s ready to make any sacrifice to find the answer and help his pack brothers stay strong. He’s even willing to accept responsibility for the human woman assigned to the mission, although she’s a headstrong civilian, difficult and rumored to dislike his kind.

Sandara DiFerria was once a three star chef in the Sectors, but that was before the alien enemy kidnapped the entire adult population of her colony to use for experimentation. Rescued from the labs by the Badari, she does her part to support the rebellion now by running the vast commissary operation in Sanctuary Valley. All she asks is to be left alone until she can get back to the Sectors and pick up her old life again. Her one previous romantic brush with a Badari soldier turned out badly, ending in public humiliation. Add to that post-traumatic stress from her life before moving to the colony and she’s the last person to pick for a top secret mission. Or so she believes.

The Alpha running the pack disagrees and sends her to do the job under Ivokk’s watchful eye. Thrown together by the nature of the task they must undertake, the undeniable attraction they both feel grows. Will the dark secrets of Sandara’s hidden past create an insurmountable barrier between them? Can Ivokk and the tempestuous human chef find the answer to the Badari illness in time? Or will the elements and the enemy bring disaster?

Amazon      Apple Books      Kobo      Nook      Google Play

Notes for Stories Collect Dust While I Write Other Books

DepositPhoto

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is all about Ideas. How do you write down or remember those great ideas that you get mid-shower/dream/car drive? If you lose them, how do you get them back?

As an author, I have wisps of ideas and plots running around in my mind all the time (I’m good at multitasking!). Sometimes I’ll read an article that inspires a plot idea or occasionally one will come to me out of the blue. I usually write myself a one sentence note with the gist of the idea and then I have a folder stuffed full of these. The thing is, I almost never refer back to them.

I’m always working on a book and I’m always thinking about the next two books to come, even if they aren’t in the same series or even the same universe. I keep a constantly simmering ‘pot of stew’ going in my head with ideas for these books and will rarely allow myself to get distracted by anything newer or shinier. These three books – the one I’m writing, the next one I’ll write and then the most likely one after that – ARE the shiny for me. So for example, right now I’m writing a Star Cruise story set on my interstellar space liner, which is for the Pets in Space® 5 anthology, due out in the Fall. The next book will most likely be either JAMOKAN or TRATUS, which are both in my Badari Warriors science fiction romance series. I’m debating between the two of them as to what’s up first. The third book in my mind’s queue at the moment is either one set in my fantasy world of Claddare, or maybe an Egyptian…or one of these could be my fourth in line, if I write Jamokan and then Tratus.

BUT, this week I’ve become enamored of one of my older ideas and am severely tempted to write it after Jamokan. I have to go where the Muse has the energy to be in order to write my best books and to have the creative flow. I’ve learned my own process pretty well over the years! This particular plot is one I’ve been mulling for years, off and on, but it never bubbled up to the top of the list for whatever reason. The same thing happened with COLONY UNDER SIEGE: INTERSTELLAR PLAGUE, which I released in June. I’d had it in mind to do forever but then the pandemic made it the only thing I was in the mood to write and so I did.

This portion of the writing year is a bit under constraint because I can’t release a scifi romance in the same time as Pets In Space (we don’t compete with ourselves), but I do have to keep paying the rent and the bills, so I need to keep my releases coming on a more or less regular schedule. So, the fantasy or the Egyptian might come next after JAMOKAN  purely due to scheduling concerns. Luckily I love writing in both worlds but my fan base is smaller than for the SFR.

If a random idea really strikes a chord with me, I won’t forget it. I may take years to actually use it in a book, but it’ll always be there, in the Muse’s list of ingredients.

My first "woke up in the morning,
gotta write it" title and my first really BIG
 seller!

On really rare occasions I might wake up in the morning with an entire book in my head (well, as completely as I ever plot in advance – the beginning, the ending, the hero and heroine and a few major scenes) and I know I have to set aside everything else and just write this book. Those plots are a gift not to be squandered and they kind of write themselves. This is where it’s helpful to be independently published as I don’t owe anyone anything under a contract with a hard date. Pets in Space is an exception.

The other thing I have to be careful of is not thinking through an idea too much before writing it. I used to have a two hour commute that could become three hours or more on the Southern California freeways. I also used to get anxiety attacks after a really bad 1982 accident (long story, on a freeway offramp, locked the brakes, rolled the car three times, ended upside down after knocking over a tree, broke three ribs..). One day I was stuck in traffic, on the way to work, anxiety giving me hell…so I told myself a story. You can safely do that if your car isn’t moving or only inching forward in occasional bursts. It was a scifi ghost story, set in space on an abandoned colony. I seriously gave myself goose bumps because it was so darn scary. And then the traffic eventually opened up, I got to work and was late for meetings that day, etc., so I never wrote any of it down. It was one of those shining magic stories that I should have dropped everything to actually write but at the old day job that certainly wasn’t a possibility. Bosses paying you to work don’t exactly resonate with you shutting your door and writing a novel on their time.

Will I ever write it? I haven’t forgotten the essentials and at one point I did write maybe the first 1000 words but the magic of it was gone. The Muse felt we’d been there and done that and weren’t going back. If I think about a story too much, I can’t write it, and on that commute from hell, I’d let myself develop the entire story, like a movie, down to the details so I wouldn’t have a major anxiety attack and pass out in the (allegedly) fast lane. Soooo, I kinda doubt it but never say never. If I got a new wrinkle or twist to add, then maybe. But for now the few notes and words there are on it reside in that bulging, never opened “Note for Stories” folder in the old beige file cabinet.

8 SF&F Books by Black Authors + Further Recommendations

We went silent last week at the SFF Seven to give space for the voices that needed to be heard in the world...

#BlackLivesMatter

Our theme for the week is to suggest resources for finding Black authors to read...

A source I turn to often is the WOC In Romance webpage …they update periodically and have the books slotted into genres/tropes for easy searching.

May Sage writes all manner of stories but her fantasy romances have a huge following.  Her Court of Sin series, which begins with Frostbound Throne is a good entry point to her work.

Another favorite of mine is A. M. Griffin, with her The Hunt series. Book one is The Game Warden’s Mate.

I first discovered Deborah Bailey when she released book one in her Hathor Legacy trilogy, which was Burn…and I loved her Once Upon a Princess: Beauty and the Faun fairy tale…

I’ve mentioned P. J. Dean before, because I so enjoyed her scifi romance series The Felig Chronicles, and she writes in other genres as well…

Alyssa Cole just released the ebook version of The A.I. Who Loved Me, which is thoroughly enjoyable and her post-apocalyptic Off the Grid series is a classic. The first book is Radio Silence.

Hugo And Nebula Award winning author N. K. Jemison’s The City We Became is an amazing book, as is The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth Book 1).

I can’t say enough about the Hugo and Nebula Award winning Binti trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor.

The Deep by Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes is a timely, tough fantasy…

Rita Wood has written “Ode to Black Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers” for Tor.com and has specific book suggestions…

Don’t overlook FIYAH, the magazine of Black Speculative Fiction….check them out!

Hopefully this small list will provide a few new-to-you authors to check out and some resources for finding more, because a voracious reader always needs fabulous new books to read, right?

Please feel free to add your suggestions in the comments!

As it relates to the times we’re living in, I’d like to add one more book that I personally found immensely helpful. It was hard homework but insightful and eye opening, even after all the many hours of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion training I'd had at various times with my previous day job employer. This book, which I read earlier in the year when the RWA was imploding (wow, that seems like last century!) is challenging but turned on many light bulbs for me. White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin J. DiAngelo, Michael Eric Dyson (Foreward).

Sending my best wishes to you and your loved ones to stay safe and healthy because we’re not out of the pandemic yet, that’s for sure.

New #Sci-Fi #Romance Release: INTERSTELLAR PLAGUE by Veronica Scott

We're celebrating our Saturday blogger Veronica Scott's latest Sci-Fi Romance release in her The Sectors series. Unlike our COVID-19 pandemic, this trip to the far, far future promises a Happily Ever After!

COLONY UNDER SIEGE: INTERSTELLAR PLAGUE

Newly graduated from a prestigious interstellar medical school, Dr. Saffia Mandell has been assigned to the Haven Two colony on the galaxy’s outer rim as the only doctor for some 2000 human residents. She’s counting the days until her five years there is up, trying to adjust to rural living after life in the crowded Inner Sectors and fighting her attraction to Chief Ranger Micah Navonn. She’s dreading the upcoming tourist season when the rich and pampered will descend on the planet for the scenic wonders and novel sports opportunities and no doubt inundate her little clinic but the colony depends on the seasonal income to survive.

>As the senior official for his people, the Calinurra, the indigenous inhabitants of Haven Two, Micah enforces the treaty, regulates the tourist permits, patrols the forests, and resists his fascination with Dr. Mandell. He never expected to be involved with a human woman and doesn’t want to believe in the concept of a fated mate. He wants to keep his life simple and isn’t ready for any long term commitment. Besides Saffia keeps proclaiming she’ll be leaving when her appointment is up in four and a half years so why should he risk his heart?

Then a ship arrives unexpectedly carrying a very ill little girl and soon the deadly virus is spreading through Haven Two. The colony authorities are desperate to cover up the problem to preserve the all-important tourist season and Saffia and Micah have to work together to battle the outbreak, the local administration, and their undeniable feelings for each other.

Can the colony survive? And will Micah and Saffia be able to move past their fears about entanglements to act on the mutual attraction?

BUY IT NOW:   Amazon   |   Apple Books   |   Kobo  |    Nook  |   Google Play

∽∽∽

Last week, dear Reader, we were radio silent on the blog because there were voices with powerful messages who needed to be heard loudly and clearly without us adding to the background din. Demanding diversity, pursuing equality for all, and dismantling white supremacy are goals toward which we strive. Pride Month and the BLM Movement are reminders for us to use our privilege to promote diverse authors and artists. To that end, here are three intriguing fantasy books I can't wait to read:

FRESHWATER by Akwaeke Emezi: An Igbo girl is a living prison for vengeful gods who grow more powerful with every trauma their vessel endures on the journey from troubled child to empowered young woman. 

QUEEN OF THE CONQUERED by Kacen Callender: A fantasy murder mystery set in a colonized Caribbean with a Black noble using all the magic she possesses to stay alive and maybe even inherit a throne from a childless king.

DAUGHTERS OF NRI by Reni K Amayo: Twin child goddess separated when the old gods left the earth are raised as humans until each takes her own path to the villain king and the truths of family, power, and identity.

Which Character Do Readers Ask Me To Write for?

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is the Character your readers ask you to write for or are waiting for to get their own story.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have readers become really fond of several of my supporting characters over the years beginning with Wreck of the Nebula Dream, my first published scifi romance in 2012. Almost immediately I started getting questions about what happened next for Twilka, a spoiled rich girl, and Khevan, the D’nvannae Brother she fell in love with. (He serves an alien goddess and can be an assassin or a bodyguard at Her whim.)

The thing for me is that I very much only write what the Muse is in the mood for, or feels strongly about. So even for a much beloved supporting character, I have to wait until the right story occurs to me or strikes my fancy. It was especially hard for Twilka and Kevan because there were a lot of moving parts to the D’nvannae Brotherhood but eventually I decided to come at it from the angle of what would someone like Twilka do after surviving the worst interstellar disaster in centuries? For a reference point I asked myself what did people do after surviving the Titanic’s sinking? Researching that was fun (I’m a huge Titanic buff) and gave me the ideas I needed to spin the story, Star Survivors. I also found a way to meaningfully incorporate Nick and Mara from the first novel as supporting cast here.

Shall we say the goddess didn’t give up easily when it came to Khevan’s service in her order? I pulled out another character who I actually have a novel in mind for, the Renegade, a Brother who did manage to escape the Red Lady’s grasp, and made him a supporting member of this book’s cast. He fascinates me and I’ve had bits and pieces of his story on scraps of paper for a long time but it needs more thought before I can write it. So I was happy to have a good reason to bring him into ‘reality’ in this novel, using the backstory I already know about him.

Another supporting character readers loved was Johnny in Mission to Mahjundar. He was loyal, brave, smart, strong and clearly deserved his own book in which to shine. Eventually I got a terrific plot idea about a Special Forces hostage rescue mission gone wrong and sent Johnny off in Hostage to the Stars to find his own love interest and future direction.

Mitch, a Special Forces sergeant and the hero’s best friend in Escape From Zulaire is another supporting character rather similar to Johnny. Readers love him. I love him. I even have a plot in mind developed for him but…the creative spark or fire that makes me have to write the book just hasn’t happened yet. I’m confident this will occur at some point because he’s too good a character not to write for, off key singing and all.

Readers often ask for the story of Captain Fleming in the Star Cruise series of books but I’m not ready to tackle that one yet. It’s on my mind and elements are there but the whole thing hasn’t jelled yet and I can’t write the book he plainly deserves until the Muse is fully engaged and ready.

I have a somewhat different set up in my Badari Warriors series about genetically engineered soldiers of the far future. I knew going in that I’d be writing many books and that each succeeding novel would feature a different member of the pack. What happened there was I wrote about Aydarr the Alpha and Mateer the first enforcer and then Jadrian, a senior soldier, popped into my head one morning with a full-fledged story and I had to write it. When a book shows up in your mind complete and ready to roll, you should never look that gift horse in the mouth – you should write! Which I did. But that meant I’d kind of short circuited Timtur the healer and his turn to shine. By the time of the events in Jadrian he was already mated and settled down. Fortunately I did figure out a way later to go back and write Timtur’s story and then a second novella about him and Megan, his human mate.

Currently I get requests for Sandara, the human chef, who is actually the heroine of the book I just started writing yesterday, along with Ivokk the enforcer from the South Seas pack. Sandara didn’t get treated too well in Jadrian’s book so I’m having fun figuring out her back story even before the aliens kidnapped her along with the rest of her colony, and brught her to the planet where the Badari were imprisoned. I've got what seems to me to be a logical way for her to move on from the events in Jadrian and for her and Ivokk to come together. In the midst of adventures of course!

There’s a lot of world building in my Sectors galactic civilization universe and that’s been so helpful to me so many times in spring boarding from a story into another novel. It’s all kind of organic as you can probably tell – I don’t outline and I don’t think a book through before I start writing it. I’ll know the beginning, the end, a few key scenes in between, the hero and the heroine and then I WRITE. The rest comes to me as I’m in the flow, sitting here pounding on my keyboard, and plot twists and turns can surprise even me at times.

 Readers also want to know the story for Jamokan, Alpha of a Badari pack with alien canine predator DNA infused into the humanoid structure. I have thoughts about this one, but so far the plot elements would probably only be novella-length so we’ll see. I’m not opposed to writing novellas if that’s the proper length the story calls for but I like to give a character a novel for his or her first appearance as leading protagonist if I can, then maybe a novella later to share more adventures.

A character I love and who readers seem to enjoy is Yonn, the Alpha-born in Generation 11. The current generation of fully mature Badari heroes led by Aydarr is #8 so you can see my challenge – with generations 9 and 10 between him and the men and women headlining the series, Yonn’s not old enough to have one of my typical books written about him! He may be mature for his age and possess a high level of dominance and power already but um…a little on the boyish side still. I’m thinking for him I might write a standalone novel, after the series ends (which won’t be for a long time, plenty of stories left to tell), set it in the future ten years or so and delve into Yonn’s further adventures. I think it could be fun and perhaps kick off another, related series.

So we’ll see!

One Track Mind for Writing Tools and Apps

DepositPhoto

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is "Updated writing tools/apps - what's new and different in your writing world."

I don’t use any tools or apps in my writing other than the keyboard (which gets replaced several times a year since I literally bang away on the keys as if I was still typing on the old Royal typewriter I got when I was 8!), the laptop and WORD. Sometimes I might actually use a pencil and a piece of paper for the odd note here and there.

Everything else is up to my Muse…who is housed in my own brain, not on a computer or other device.

I’m not much for apps in the rest of my author life either. I’m on Facebook and Twitter as places to connect with other authors and my readers. I have an old fashioned Wordpress blog but it works for my purposes. I have an Instagram account, where I post daily (usually earrings of which I have hundreds of pairs, cat photos, book snippets and flowers) and a Pinterest account where I forget to post. I tried Books+Main (exactly – who has really heard of it, especially in the scifi romance world???) I’m open to new things but not exactly a person who rushes out to seek and exploit them.

I use Canva a lot. It’s a program for making designs, documents, graphics etc. In conjunction with that and my other social media I also use DepositPhoto for stock photos to give my posts pizzazz without worrying about copyright infringement issues. (They license the photos and I trust them. So far, so good.)

I like Canva as for me it’s pretty self-intuitive and it fits my skill level. And my patience quotient! Which is really important because I am not at all patient. I want to get in, do the thing I came to do, download it and exit the program. I’m sure Canva has all kinds of potential and capabilities I never touch but I’m not the type of person to log and play and try things out. I’m very mission focused. I need a promo graphic for the new book – GO. Make it, post it, move on to the next thing.

There’s a tool named Book Brush which many of my fellow authors swear by and I did sit through an excellent private demo by one of their inhouse experts. I saw all the cool features and the “overlay this/tint that/animate the other thing and here are our 10,000 backgrounds”…but for me it’s just too much. I did try it out, but it’s not self-intuitive on my level, whatever weird and idiosyncratic level that may be, so I got frustrated, I knew I could have done what I needed to do on Canva faster and been done…so I didn’t pursue Book Brush any further.

I have used Book Funnel maybe three times, when author friends invited me to join specific scifi romance giveaways. The thing is, I have a newsletter but I only send it out when I have a new release of my own. It’s also a very small, organically grown list. So on the list of ‘sharing’ that BF tracks and reports back to organizers, I show up as pretty much a freeloader – I’m there but not sharing. Except I am, just on my various other platforms BF doesn’t track! I’m always very clear up front with the organizer about where I will share the BF if they include me.  So I don’t do many BF’s and that’s fine with me, although I’m always honored to be invited.

I use Mail Chimp for my newsletter but I don’t actually use it – I have a lovely person who prepares my NL for me after I write the content and sends it out. She swears laughingly that it’s too complicated for me and she’s probably right.

I still use Triberr (a social media sharing tool) to share blog posts but it’s basically a legacy tool that I expect to go away at some point. It’s time has passed, at least in my humble opinion.

I’m going to have to learn to Zoom and fast, because I’m doing both a book reading and a scifi romance panel for the upcoming online, free AMAZINGCON being put on June 12-14 by the AMAZING STORIES MAGAZINE. "A different con for a different world." I contribute to their online blog and I’m excited about doing the reading and Q&A session (I’m going to read from Aydarr, the first book in my award winning Badari Warriors series about genetically engineered soldiers of the far future and the human women they love) and the panel discussion. I have New York Times and USA Today Best Selling Author S. E. Smith and USA Today Best Selling Author Pauline B. Jones on my scifi romance panel – WOOT! 

Lots of other fun content on the conference’s schedule too, weighted more to science fiction than the romance.

So far I’m totally inexperienced with Zoom but I know I need a good background and that there’s a mute button. Wish me luck!

(And check out the AMAZINGCON site for more information…)

Writing Is Like Polishing an Uncut Gem

Detail from  rug woven by Author's late Father-in-law

Our topic today is whether we write scenes piece by piece and knit them together, or if we have ever had to knit-in scenes?

I don’t knit, I don’t weave, I don’t garden (because the other metaphor for writing books is often gardening) and although I loved Marcella Burnard’s dinosaur bones analogy in her Friday post, I don’t do that either.

I sit down at the keyboard and I write. I start at the very beginning and I go straight through the story until the end. When I begin working on a book, I usually know the overall situation, the two main characters and several key scenes. The rest comes to me as I write and as I’ve said many times, I’m superstitious about my process and I never examine it too closely. The Muse is as the Muse does and the words flow…I’ve learned to trust the creative process I was lucky enough to be born with and that as I write on into the story over the days, the plot developments, other characters and insights I need will present themselves. And they always do. It’s been working that way since I was seven years old so why mess with success?

I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve had one scene I was so super excited about that I wrote it out of sequence and fit it back into the narrative. Or else then proceeded to write the events leading up to that now semi-completed scene.

DepositPhoto

I’ve had a few occasions in the developmental editing phase where the editor made a really good point about adding something else to the book, or a comment from them set off a train of thought in my head which caused me to write a chunk of new scene or scenes. I think the biggest case of this was in Warrior of the Nile, where the editor really wanted a specific thing to occur between Khenet the warrior of the title and Nephthys, the Egyptian goddess. I wasn’t quite on board with all of the suggestions but I did write an entirely new scene, which then rippled through the rest of the book and probably did make it stronger. (This was my second and last book written under a contract.)

After I finish the first draft of a book, I immediately start over on page one and go through in my own editing process, adding depth, more action, more feelings, more everything. I’ll be doing that today in fact on my next scifi romance novel, having finished the initial draft at 64,330 words last night. I always say the first draft is meant to be ugly and clunky (speaking for myself). It’s “get the words on the page” time and then in the edits I smooth everything out. The process takes me a few days and then I set the book aside for two or three days to cool off, after which I read it again, make a few more tweaks and send it to the editor.

The story's in there, somewhere! From the Author's collection.

So if we must have a metaphor, and since I love jewelry and shiny sparkly things, maybe for me the process is more like being a jeweler, who takes a raw clunky gemstone surrounded by rocky material and shapes it and polishes it to be a thing of beauty. I assure you, I have never explained myself in those terms before when it comes to writing and probably never will again!

Luckily, there is no one perfect process for writing a book. An author has to do what works for them and not worry about anyone else. I totally get that for some authors it’s very useful for them to consider what other people do, and/or to adopt or adapt a recommended structure or technique. More power to them! For me, sitting down and writing is what works.

And taking long drives on the SoCal freeways, with music blasting also helps whenever I have a plot issue to ponder. This probably developed because at one point I had a three hour commute home from the day job, which was boring and stressful, so I’d think about my stories as I went. Usually at an infuriating 0 to 25 mph too, given the traffic! Well, at least I had my music…

Not the Author, not her purple car either but sure looks like fun!
DepositPhoto

Let's Make My Science Fiction Rock Star Romance into a Musical!

Our topic this week at the SFF Seven is "Your book as a musical: which book would you choose to have made into a musical and which composer/lyricist/songwriter would you have score it?"

No problem answering this one – I wrote a science fiction rock star romance so let’s make that one a full blown musical! Here’s the story of Star Cruise: Songbird: Grant Barton, a Security Officer on the Nebula Zephyr, is less than thrilled with his current assignment to guard an Interstellar singing sensation while she’s on board the ship. It doesn’t help that he and his military war bird Valkyr are dealing with their recent separation from the Sectors Special Forces and uncertainty over their future, with their own planet in ruins.

Karissa Dawnstar is on top of the charts and seemingly has it all – talent, fame, fortune and devoted fans, but behind her brave smile and upbeat lyrics she hides an aching heart. When a publicity stunt goes wrong, Karissa finds herself in the arms of the security officer assigned to protect her – and discovers a mutual attraction she can’t ignore.

Trouble continues to plague the pair, driving a wedge between them and leaving Grant certain that Karissa is in more danger than she realizes, from overzealous fans and her own management. Grant is determined to protect Karissa whether she wants his help or not. Can he discover the truth behind what’s going on before he loses Karissa or is there someone else plotting to keep them apart – permanently?

I love the rock star romance genre and among my favorites are Nalini Singh’s Rock Kiss series, J T Geissinger, Liora Blake…plus movies such as “The Bodyguard” and “Beyond the Lights”.  That, and my fascination with any number of behind the scenes documentaries about rock tours, helped influence me when I was writing this book. I think it’d be fairly easy to turn the storyline into a musical, with Karissa, the rock star in question singing full out production numbers during the stage shows and a pensive ballad or two when the romantic hard times occur. I’d love to have someone create the pulse pounding finale song, which Karissa has written as a tribute to her love for Grant.

Can we get the antigrav dancers too? Oh and the two alien birds?

I’m not too up on composers and etc. I like what I like and I don’t analyze the details too much. Probably if one of the current rock stars could be interested in creating songs for the movie, we’d be in great shape! Katy, Taylor, Beyonce, GaGa….I kind of rattle around in my musical tastes from vintage rock to Disney tunes to 1930’s and 1940’s musicals to Rodgers & Hammerstein to country to Backstreet Boys to certain current artists to…well, you get the picture. So I say let’s put together the movie deal and see what happens! Let’s make a musical!

(Too bad the composer of the "Fireball XL-5" full theme song isn't available...)

Now if we wanted a musical that was more about the dancing, Star Cruise: Mystery Dancer would be ideal and could feature different dance production numbers from the audition montage to the finale, as well as a ballad or two for those moments when the heroine reflects on her tragic past or the destiny facing her or the impossibility of her love for the hero (but of course we all know that turns out fine by the closing curtain)…

Here’s the plot: Tassia Megg is a woman on the run after the death of her elderly guardian. She needs to get off the planet in a hurry when chance directs her to an open dance audition for the luxury cruise liner Nebula Zephyr’s resident troupe. One thing Tassia can do is dance.

Security Officer Liam Austin is suspicious of the newest performer to join the Comettes. She shows all the signs of being a woman on the run and seems to fit the Sectors-wide broadcast description of a missing thief, accused of stealing priceless artifacts. As he gets to know Tassia during the cruise, he starts to wonder if she’s something more – a long vanished princess in hiding from deadly political enemies of her family perhaps?

And what’s the story with the three eyed feline companion other crew members swear Tassia brought aboard the ship? Does the animal even exist?

As the ship approaches its next port of call, all the issues come to a boil and Liam must decide if he’ll step in to help Tassia or betray her. F’rrh the alien cat is the key to the mystery and Tassia’s fate.

A science fiction romance take on the Anastasia tale...

If it seems like I’ve had it too easy answering this week’s question, I’ll offer you a third choice that doesn’t ‘star’ a singer or a dancer – Trapped on Talonque.

Here’s the plot and then I’ll explain my vision for the musical: Will an alien sleeping beauty awaken to save him, or to destroy everyone around her?

Space Marine Nate Reilly and his Special Forces team are in deep trouble. Prisoners on a backward alien planet, they're brought before an alien 'goddess', sleeping in her high tech seclusion. Nate is astonished when she awakes and establishes a psychic link with him. But her news is not good--he and his men must win a brutal challenge set by their captors, or they will die. She'll give her aid, but in the end their courage and strength must win the contest.

Bithia sleeps in her chamber, as she has for thousands of years, since her own people unaccountably left her there. Viewed as a goddess by her captors, she must hide her ancient secrets to survive. But only the bravest of men may free her. Can she use her psychic powers to keep Nate and his men alive long enough to help her escape, or will her only hope of freedom die with them?

I could envision some really heart rending duets, with the trapped alien heroine and the stalwart human Special Forces soldier, as they meet in dreams, and of course a triumphantly happy one at the end of the book. I could see a certain sporting event set to music, lots of quick cuts and pulse pounding rock beats…the soldier vowing revenge after one of his men is murdered in their captivity, which could make for a powerful song of defiance and determination…perhaps one of the scenes with the planet’s inhabitants conducting a ceremony which would allow for a fantastic set piece…there’s a sort of light hearted village dance toward the end…of course a love song, on the beach…and a rousing instrumental anthem as the happy ending is achieved (no spoilers from me).

I’m not as excited about this one, probably because I never envisioned it as a musical but hey, if Lord of the Rings can be done as a stage musical, why not?

Happy reading!

Note: All book covers done by Fiona Jayde.

Why Independent Publishing Works For Me

DepositPhoto

Our topic this week is "Choosing your freedom - Traditional or Self-Publishing?" We seem to address this subject here at least once a year but that’s actually pretty appropriate, as fast as the publishing world changes nowadays!

The post below has been somewhat edited and updated, but I feel the same way I felt in 2018, which is when the post first appeared:

I’m in the independently published camp all the way, but that’s  because I’m me and this method of publishing suits my needs. There’s no one right answer for everyone so I’m not going to try to persuade, dissuade or make lemonade here today.

When I decided to work toward being a published author in 2010, I was focused on traditional publishing because that was really all I’d ever heard of. I wasn’t tied into the author community – it wasn’t as easy then to be connected and to research the ins and outs of various methods of becoming published as it is nowadays with Facebook author groups and author loops and twitter and etc. So I submitted a story to Carina Press (a Harlequin imprint) over the transom as they used to say, in response to an open call on their part for ancient world romance. I wrote a paranormal romance set in 1550 BCE Egypt and the rest is (a very modest footnote to) history. Published author here, as of 2012!

I learned so much from my experience with Carina and really enjoyed the association. They gave me a beautiful to die for cover from Frauke of Croco Designs, I loved my editor and she really ‘got’ the book, I lucked into a wonderful community of Carina authors (which is where I met Jeffe) and things seemed good. As a long time romance reader, I was thrilled to be part of the extended Harlequin family as an author.

Carina acquired the second book in the Egyptian series. Although everyone was again lovely to me and professional to work with, I got to see a different side of traditional publishing – the cover by someone other than Frauke was not my favorite, shall we say. (The second cover on the top row, below.) My editor left and while I was quickly assigned to a new editor, they didn’t really seem to resonate with my story or me. I couldn’t believe how much time was elapsing between book one’s release and book two’s release. Which to be clear wasn’t an inordinate amount of time at all for a trad published book (although Carina was primarily ebook at the time and my books never made it into print with them although there were audiobooks), but for impatient me, it was an eternity!

My entire ancient Egyptian backlist at the moment. I no longer have the rights to the original cover for Priestess of the Nile so this is my new cover. 3 by Frauke, 4 by Fiona and the one I can't wait to replace when I get the rights back hopefully!

In a good, non pandemic year, I can write and release eight or nine books on my own as a nimble self publisher, which does include professional editing.

 I discovered I didn’t like working to a contract, in terms of what book to write next. My Muse is a flighty being and likes to work on what appeals to her most. Looming schedules make her tense. Some mornings I wake up with an entire book plot in my head, out of nowhere, and if I don’t write that book right now, forsaking all others for a while, I’m making a serious mistake. My biggest sellers have been those books. They certainly weren’t anywhere on even the gauzy schedules I keep for myself.

My first self published novel
Cover by Fiona Jayde

Oh and did I mention Carina decided to leave the ancient world romance genre at that time (they may have gone back into it since for all I know) and didn’t show any interest in acquiring my scifi romance, although they were venturing into SFR then. I’m extremely glad they passed now of course. So I couldn’t have continued with them, not writing the only two types of novels I wanted to write.

Conveniently, I had also self-published my first scifi romance two months after the initial Carina book released. I LOVED everything about self-publishing. I picked the cover, the price, the distribution channels, whether to make certain edits or not, the schedule, the promo…the royalties came straight to me me me with no extra % taken out for a publisher in between me and the seller’s platform…

I’ve written my entire life and been seriously pursuing publishing since 2010. I had a long career in the business side of the house at NASA/JPL so once I was able to become a fulltime author (which didn’t happen right away – took three years, until 2015) I was ready to step right into the multitudinous tasks of being a small business owner in effect, publishing and managing my own books. And I’ve been a happy clam ever since.

I admire authors who can be hybrid and work within the traditional publishing framework and self-publish as well. I think there can be advantages to having a big, successful publisher behind you. I can’t envision it for myself at this time, but I wouldn’t necessarily say no if the right offer came along. I would negotiate the heck out of the contract to keep my intellectual property rights and to make sure there were no issues or constraints on my continuing to also self-publish.

I never had a desire for an agent, although I will say I’d love to see one of my books made into a movie or a TV show and I understand how having an agent can move an author into that world, as well as into other rights, such as foreign distribution.  Having someone actively working to gain new opportunities for your books would be cool but I’m not in a place where that fits my business model. A downside perhaps to being independent the way I prefer but not one that causes me too much angst.

Obviously a big publishing house has the resources to give a book a lot of high visibility promotion that I could never afford, although there are so many cautionary notes on that one point – too many to repeat here. I guess I’ll say as I understand it very few authors actually get the glam promo paid for by the publisher and the vast majority are left to do their own promo just like the indies BUT without the freedom to control the price of the book, etc.

I’ve been truly shocked in some of the author groups I belong to online when high flying very famous romance authors have shared what their monthly promo budgets run. After picking myself up off the floor, I knew the high stress of being at that level of name recognition and sales was something I was probably better off without.

I think an author always dreams of one of their books becoming a viral hit, leading to all the nice consequences like movie offers and mainstream media interviews and promo, and I wouldn’t say no. I’d find a good agent for sure and try to maximize the moment! But I’m very happy and content self-publishing and running my own business. I feel fortunate to have come along when I did, just when indie publishing was a real avenue that could be pursued successfully.

Yes, let's make my STAR CRUISE series into a TV show!
All covers by Fiona Jayde

I had the classic career/day job at NSA /JPL for a very long time and successfully supported my family until they were all out of the nest, so I probably came to this second, later in life, unexpected career with a different set of expectations and needs than I might have at an earlier time. I’m a very competitive, highly motivated person but it just isn’t in the same ways as it might have been had I been a fulltime author decades earlier, when the traditional publishing model was the only way to go. I also had more energy then and fewer chronic health challenges to work around, versus nowadays. I’m intensely grateful for this opportunity to write and sell my books now and for me, indie publishing is the way to go.

I've had a lot of fun along the way, fulfilled some goals and dreams that were important to me (and I have lots of stories still to tell).

So that’s my story, as told in 2018 and again now in 2020, and I’m sticking to it!

Voracious Reader Here, A Consumer of Books

DepositPhoto

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is reading! Do you set aside time for it each day? How do you decide what to read next?

I’ve always been a voracious reader, ever since I learned to read. I get anxious if I don’t have things to read and almost always have a book with me (although nowadays it will probably be on my kindle rather than a physical book). I’m the kind of reader who likes to devour a book in one sitting and I get very immersed in the world the author created or revealed. It’s hard for anyone to reclaim my attention (although Jake the Cat manages) and if I love the story and it’s part of a series, I’m quite likely to work my way through the author’s entire backlist before I’m done.

There was a break in my reading habits when I had my two children. As the mother of little ones I would only get quick chunks of time to read and so I turned to magazines, where I could read an entire article over lunch and then move on to the next maternal activity without feeling cheated or left wondering what was going to happen next. I didn’t read very many if any books for a few years there. Well, not adult books anyway. One of our favorite shared activities was curling up together and reading age appropriate books!

Children do grow up, however, and I got back to reading novels eventually.

One of the reasons I’ve always written – since I was 7 – is that I could never find enough books of the kind I wanted to read, and so I wrote my own. As Jeffe said earlier this week in her post, reading a really good book and writing my own book seem to take up the same creative space in my mind.  Both activities satisfy the same need. Sometimes after reading a book that really grabs me, I’ll be full of the energy and desire to write my own, maybe exploring similar broad themes, or taking off on a tangent or wanting to ‘play’ in a new genre. More often though, reading a good book leaves me content and without the urge to write, at least for a while.

Which isn’t a good thing for a fulltime author.

I can’t be all dreamy eyed re-reading Nalini Singh or Anne McCaffrey, or even Jeffe’s books for too long because I have the rent to pay and cat food to buy.

DepositPhoto

The other consideration for me is what type of book I’m writing at the moment. I’m published in science fiction romance, ancient Egyptian paranormal romance and fantasy. If I’m deep in writing about 1550 BCE Egypt, for example, I can indulge myself and read an Anna Hackett Galactic Gladiators novel, or one of Tiffany Roberts’s inventive Infinite City series or Pauline B. Jones’s Project Enterprise novels. They satisfy a different part of my creative nature than writing the Egyptian is doing, even though it’s all romance and adventure.

I can’t read SFR while I’m writing SFR. I just cannot. Not even excellent ones like Cynthia Sax’s  Cyborg Space Exploration series. So I one click the new books and let them sit in the virtual TBR until I have the finished draft of my work in progress complete and then I go on a binge of catching up. While writing SFR  I can read ‘hard science fiction’, post-apocalyptic novels set on planet Earth (I don’t write those), Regency romance, nonfiction, paranormal romance, military adventure….

I don’t write in the fantasy romance series that often, so I have no idea what books I can and can’t read if I’m working on my Magic of Claddare novels.

I will, on occasion, if a new book is one I’ve been anticipating keenly, break all my rules, throw caution to the winds, the WIP be darned, and spend the day reading as soon as the book hits my kindle. Patricia Briggs’s Smoke Bitten was the most recent title like that for me.  Any Nalini Singh new release has the same effect on me. Of course then I often go back and re-read the other books in the series, which encroaches on my writing time but hey, a person has to break their own rules sometimes!

When do I read? Given that I tend toward compulsive in my reading habits and want to read an entire book start to finish once I begin, I don’t let myself read novels during the day. I dip in and out of magazines or nonfiction research tomes (usually about ancient Egypt) at my meals and snacks.

When the day is over and my energy and creative energies wane because I’m a morning person and go downhill all day from a peak at about 5am, I sit in bed and read. I read very fast, always have, and can finish a book in a few hours. If it’s a long book but really engrossing, I’ll stay up as late as it takes to reach that satisfying Happy Ever After ending, now that I don’t have a day job that involves commuting and interacting with other people face to face. I can sleep in!

When I finish writing a book, there’s a time period from two days to a week where I’ve exhausted my Muse and I do a lot of reading, all day and all evening long. Then when I know I’m ready to dive into my next project, I revert to the ‘reading only at night’ routine.

What do I read? EVERYTHING! Well, not actually – I rarely read murder mysteries any more although for a long time I was a huge fan of the genre. I never read true crime – too grim and sad for me. I’m not much into ‘dark’ romance, reverse harem, Omegaverse, thrillers, Scottish Highlanders…but even having said that, there’s always an exception if the book sounds good and is really well written.

I pulled out my kindle and here’s a partial list of my most recent reads. I don’t mention any that I DNF’ed or deleted from my kindle after I read them, because there were some but they shall remain nameless:

Cat Pictures Please and Little Free Library, both by Naomi Kritzer

Bone Dry, Buried Bones and Good Bones, The Dance and Dei Ex Machina all by Kim Fielding

The Lasaran by Dianne Duvall

North Bound and Warlord Reunited by Cynthia Sax

Storm’s End by Justin Bell and Mike Kraus

Solitude by Dean M. Cole

Cold Storage by David Koepp (I so wanted more books by him but this is apparently his first)

Culture Shock by M. C. Herron

The Summer I Dared by Barbara Delinsky (a re-read of one of my favorites)

It’s Not All Downhill from Here by Terry McMillan

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

Problem Child by Victoria Helen Stone

Paladin by Anna Hackett

Smoke Bitten by Patricia Briggs

Rock Hard  (a re-read of a favorite) and Love Hard by Nalini Singh

Ull by M. K. Eidem

Break the Fall by Jennifer Iacopelli

The Matrimonial Advertisement by Mimi Matthews

Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank (I've re-read that one SO many times)

Mercy by Tara Ellis and Mike Kraus

Lethal Game by Christine Feehan

Dauntless by Lisa Henry

The Women in Black by Madeleine St. John (I’d seen the movie, set in Australia, post-WWII)

Sweep With Me by Ilona Andrews

Shards of Hope and Shield of Winter by Nalini Singh (more beloved re-reads)

Malice by Pintip Dunn

Thanatos by Kris Michaels (I love this romantic suspense series)

Fais Do Do Die by Pauline B Jones

On A Sea of Glass by Tad Fitch, J. Kent Layton, Bill Wormstedt

The Ship of Dreams by Gareth Russell

Fate of the Tala by Jeffe Kennedy

The first ten books of the McClane Apocalypse series by Kate Morris

A few of my own backlist, checking on plot points or for other reasons, including Star Cruise: Marooned and Aydarr…

…and more!

DepositPhoto

I have a HUGE To Be Read list on the kindle, including lots of new SFR I can’t wait to dive into when I finish the current WIP. There’s no science, logic or criteria for what order I follow when reading the waiting books. I kind of riffle through the list and grab what seizes my fancy at the moment and off I go. So it might be a title newly arrived on the kindle or one that’s been waiting a month or two. I check my Amazon Devices & Content list from time to time to ferret out books I’ve held unread for so long I forgot them (horrors!) and bring them up to read and enjoy.

Happy reading to you!