Wintery Writing Companion

 Ahhh a tribute to our furry writing companion(s)?

Checks the outdoor temp.

A balmy 21 degrees.🥶

Leans back in chair

Eyes the porch

Spots this winter baby and all her DNGAF glory:

Oh, I know it's cold out there. She's a husky. All that floof? Multiple layers of furry insulation. She'd rather be lolling in the snowdrift that's beyond the frame of the photo but is settling for the outdoor couch. This same girl leaps into bed at the asscrack of dawn during a snowfall to inform me that The Great White Wet is happening and that I ought to be joyful and when, oh when, am I taking her outside to frolic?!?

See that look on her face? That's the look of "unless you're bringing me a cookie, it hasn't been two hours since our last outing, so get back to work."  sigh Such a taskmaster.

I wouldn't trade her for the world. 💖

Furry Editors

This week's post topic is An Homage to Writing Buddies: Be they furry or friendly!

I'm pretty sure I've shared pics of my baby dogs before, but since we're bestowing a little special honor on those who help (and sometimes hinder) us through this writing gig, I'll be sharing a few more.

This is our old girl Harley. Harley is the sweetest German Shepherd in existence. She is 15 years-old and hates getting her picture taken. She's a beautiful queen. Super gentle. Astonishingly smart. And she's been at my side for a very long time, watching me write several books that will never see the light of day--and some that will. She's my best friend.

This is Roscoe the English Bulldog. Where Harley is my BFF, Roscoe is my child--the baby that cannot be without his mom. He's painfully cute and his hobbies are sleeping, eating, and shoving my laptop off my lap so he can plant his eight pound body on me. As you can see, he is ever at my side and constantly trying to figure out how to get closer.

And this is Nash, Roscoe's brother. Nash is...well, Nash. He's so sweet sometimes and a bit of a handful absolute terror at other times lol. He keeps things lively in our house, that's for sure! Sometimes he just wants me to be done with writing, and when that happens, he does this 'stare down' thing. It's what I call the HURRY UP stare. He's also been known to use his paw to slam my laptop closed if I don't pay attention to him. Needless to say, I unfailingly let him win.

And those are my furry editors, always at my side. I love them with my whole heart.

The perfect place to listen to The Mars Strain

 

I’m a mood reader, as evidenced in my most recent Insta reel with the stack of books I had to bring on vacation. I didn’t know what I would feel like reading, so I had to bring a variety! 

Mood Reader: someone who selects their 

reads according to their current state of mind

And since I’m a mood reader I’m loving the topic of the week: set the mood for a perfect read! Catching a few pages on the bus or in a waiting room is great, but being able to slide into a story when all you have to do for the next hour is read truly immerses you into the story. 

We all know you’re far more likely to keep reading when you’re cozied up in a comfy spot with a warm blanket while it rains outside.  But what if there’s no rainstorm or snowstorm? What if your next read is an audiobook about a lab girl who battles an alien organism alongside her astronaut ex? 

First Step: Download that audiobook and grab a comfy pair of headphones! 

Next: Drive, fly, hop a bus to Florida and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center—the place where the majority of The Mars Strain takes place!

Finally: Stroll through those front gates and hit play! Hear Jules’ story as you walk where she would’ve been! 

Of course…if you can’t listen to The Mars Strain while walking in Juliet’s footsteps—hello bucket list—it also works great during any commute, while repainting a wall, or gardening! 

How do you like to get into the reading mood?

Stay Warm This Winter: Bring Home A Fire Warrior

 Setting the🎶 mooooood 🎶 for delving into one of my books, eh? Since it's winter, and Mother Nature just dumped a bunch of hail, sleet, and snow on my turf, I'm going to recommend the following for my High Fantasy Larcout:

1. Pick a stormy day, one where the pitter-patter of the elements against your roof provides nature's white noise. (Bonus if you have a metal roof. Those acoustics...~chef's kiss~)
2. Light a fire in the fireplace (No, don't light one in that room. Finish the book, then you'll be suitably armed to address whatever growls and writhes within that festering space.)
3. Collect your favorite rocks, crystals, and geodes into a serving bowl. Place it near your snuggle seat.
4. Grab your favorite snowglobe. Yep. Snowglobe. Give it a good shake at the end of each chapter. Once you start reading, you'll understand why. 
5. Pour your libation. Absolutely no water, though. Keep reading. Reasons will be revealed.
6. Settle into your coziest chair/couch/bed. Burrow under your animal print, beaded, bedazzled, or straight-up sparkly blanket(s).
7. ENJOY!

Read the Excerpt

Witch Collector Vibes

This week's blog topic was more of a task, but a fun one! We are to suggest how a reader can set the mood to settle in while reading one of our books.

I'm so into this. I'm all about the Hygge lifestyle, a Danish/Scandinavian concept, though in all honesty, I had no idea it was a thing until The Little Book of Hygge came out. As I read that book, I kept thinking to myself...this is all very normal in my home and life, but I realize that it might not be for everyone. 

So how can you set the mood if you decide to read The Witch Collector?

Step 1

Choose a comfy reading spot. If it's cold where you are, and hopefully it is for the best vibe, find a cozy place in your home, maybe one with a view of the outdoors. Then grab your book and settle in. A warm sweater will help, as well as a soft blanket and fuzzy socks, and maybe even a fire if you have a fireplace, because this book will give you chilly, winter vibes!

 

Step 2

Light a candle! My recommendation is a wood wick candle with either scents of winter, the forest, or a sexy man ;) Sandalwood is my fave. The crackling flame will set the mood during all the scenes that have a little (or a lot) of fire.

Step 3

Be sure you have a warm drink and snacks on hand. My go-to is coffee, loaded with foam. But hot cocoa, warm apple cider, or hot tea will work just fine too! I don't always snack when reading, but when I do, it's usually a Biscoff cookie to dip in my coffee. I also love apples, which pairs well with this book. If you're a wine person, grab a glass of Oaked Chardonnay or Pinot Noir.

Step 4

Find a cuddling partner who won't interrupt your reading.

Step 5

Enjoy!! 

Wishes for Younger Writer Me

 If I remember rightly, this topic might have been my suggestion, and I think I suggested it because at the time I imagined it would be easy to drop a top ten list and waltz away.

You'll notice there's no top ten list.

I've spent the week contemplating what I'd tell younger writer me if I had the chance. It was stuff like 'being published doesn't equal success'. 'Being published does not mean you have it made.' 'Polish up your armor, you're going to need it.' It's all super depressing stuff and the key piece that finally made me pull up short on a "Hey. Wait a minute." was the fact that not a single thing I could think of to say to younger writer me is actionable. 

Maybe I've grown jaded, but cryptic advice without concrete, actionable goals/outcomes aren't worth the breath to utter them. Or the heartbeats spent listening to them. 

So I've had a rethink. What actionable things do I wish I'd known before I'd been published. Okay. I suppose the first piece is that I wish I'd known that agents could do as much harm as good - but the kicker is that there's no way (assuming you've done due diligence around knowing who you're hiring) to know until you're in the situation. The actionable piece to that is to enter into that business relationship with eyes wide open and with the full knowledge that a day may come when one or the other of you may have to sever the relationship.  I wish I'd known to have a plan for both best case AND worst case scenarios regarding options clauses. That means I wish I'd come up with a plan for what I'd do with book three whether my publisher wanted the book or not. I didn't. So I flailed. In hindsight, I perceive how devastating flailing is for me. A writer needs a plan and this writer in particular needs a plan, even if that plan is nothing more than drafting a novel just for the fun of seeing how the characters spark and ignite.

I notice that most of what I wish I could communicate isn't actually about writing, it's about the business thereof. I believed I had a reasonable grounding in the business of publishing because of RWA - and maybe I did, but in no way was I adequately prepared to face some of the challenges that came with being published. It is true that driven by those challenges I took a couple of crash business courses aimed at entrepreneurs. They helped - it was there that I learned to plan for both the best and worst case scenarios. I think if I could only give younger writer me a single piece of actionable advice, it would be to take those business classes before getting published. The ride might still have been bumpy, but it might have involved slightly less flailing. Or maybe different flailing.

That's the thing about changing the past. You never know what kind of snowball effect it'll have on the future. 

Huh.

You know what? I take it all back. If I could tell younger writer me anything, it simply be "Write. Never give up on it. Never give up on you."

What I'm Glad I Didn't Know When I Decided to Become a Writer

This week at the SFF Seven we're discussing what we wish we'd known when we decided we wanted to write.

It's an interesting question, and a fraught one. I first decided that being a writer would be the perfect career for me back in 1993. That's almost 30 years ago, so it isn't easy to think back to that younger self. At the time, I was completing a Ph.D. in neurophysiology and confronting the bald truth that I didn't really want to be a research scientist. I sat myself down, meditated, and asked the question: if I took away all the if's and's and but's, what would be the ideal life.

No one was more surprised than I was to hear that the answer was to be a writer. But I also knew it was a true answer and that, if I wanted to be happy, I had to do whatever it took to make that come true.

So, I cut bait on my Ph.D., got a Masters and a job as an editor/writer to start building my chops. I took night classes from visiting writers. I began writing, something, anything.

What do I wish I'd known then? It's tempting to say I wish I'd known how long it would take before I truly began earning a living as an author. My conception then of how long it would take was absolutely the largest lacunae of ignorance in my hopeful moonscape. I thought it would be a couple of years, not a couple of decades. I totally thought I'd hit it big. I thought my steady progression of successes, for which I am grateful, make no mistake, would have a steeper upward trendline. 

And yet... I'm actually glad the younger me didn't know how protracted that effort would be, how studded with setbacks and pitfalls. Had I known, would I still have done it?

I don't know.

Sometimes I think our ignorance at the outset of an ambitious enterprise works in our favor. Ignorance truly can be bliss, especially when it allows hope to flourish, hope that carries us through the difficult times. 

Maybe what I really wish I'd known back when I made that decision is that it was the right one. But then, I knew that anyway. 

Wish I'd Always Known: I'm a Plotter

 What, oh what, do I wish I'd known back when I'd started writing?

Plot. First.
Every. Time.
Damnitall.

I wish I'd known myself well enough to know that I *have* to craft the skeletal plot before jumping into writing. So, so, so many drafts of stories that could've been great if I'd known where the story was headed before settling in and writing now languish in the "never to be shown to the public" folder. Hell, even my first two published books would've been leaps and bounds better if I'd plotted them out first. Going back and fixing the broken tales is soul-crushing and...infuriating. By the time edits come due, I'm wedded to scenes that really ought to be cut and end up doing a full rewrite just to salvage the kernel of the concept and the shells of the characters. 

At this point, I know better. Alas, that doesn't mean I didn't just waste four months pantsing a story then trunking it because it fell apart. That lil' winter tragedy is confirmation that I gotta do the logical work upfront so the whimsy and wtfery can blossom while writing the actual story. True way back when I was a baby writer, true to this day.