December 2013

Time for an update! Let's go book by book, shall we?

Going Home, Again

I've enabled some new sharing options for Going Home, Again. I've also created an author profile on Amazon, and will (soon) be doing the same on Goodreads. And I got my first ever royalty check!

Handsome Prince Stephen

This is looking like it's going to become a series of books in the upper middle/YA range. It is based on stories I made up for my children when they were wee. Think Lemony Snicket, only with princes and gypsies and talking dolphins. It's been a few months since I did any writing on this one, but it's moving closer to the front burner all the time.

I've been doing a little research and it looks like I'll be aiming for a word length goal with these. Considering what I've written so far and what is still in my head, it's looking like it will work out to be three books. I'm looking for a proofreader - hoping my daughter will do it. She's bright and capable and has heard most of the stories before.

Wild Blue

My second go at an historical romance, Wild Blue starts just before World War II in Dover Delaware. Its main character, Joy, my favorite female character so far (thanks for the apt name, Amy!), wrote herself to be awesome and strong and just plain amazing. I love her like a sister!

Wild Blue was this year's NaNoWriMo novel. It's currently in what I consider "phase one." It's written, it's about 65,000 words long, and I am pleased with the beginning and the end. I need another 10-20,000 words to get it to where it should be for a novel of this type. The first re-write should be starting any day now. I was going to dedicate this week, while I am on vacation, to this but Mount Hope cried like a baby...

Mount Hope

My current love. This is the story of a woman in her 40's who meets and falls in love with a transporter at her cancer treatment center. I love this story. It's in the first re-write now. I've spent the last two days on it. The first thing I did was trash the horrible ending and then I replaced it with about 15,000 words (pretty good for two days). My word count is far shy of where I want it to be, but I think that will have to wait for the second re-write.

In other writing news...

I've decided to go for professional copy-editing for Wild Blue or Mount Hope. Once I get both of them to the point where I am ready to share them, I'll give them to a couple people (probably my mom and my bff Amy) to read, and then get them to tell me which they love more. That one will get sent to a copy-editing service, and after revision I am actually going to send it to an agent of two.

I know

Also, I have an idea for what's to come after I get the current ones written and/or edited. I do like at least two going at a time, so the next one will be sharing brain space with the rest of Handsome Prince Stephen. Here's where my brain is:

• Through the Trees: An idea I had that is loosely based on a dream. If I can flesh out the idea a bit more, I think it would be another YA-type novel.
• Romance novels: I've been thinking a lot about the old-school romance novel, the sweetly innocent ones where the girl (from the typing pool, or the paid companion, or the brand new nurse) somehow runs into the rich guy and he pulls her up out of the gutter. I won't tell you what I am thinking, because it's a fan-tabulous idea, but yeah - I'm stoked.

I am hoping to get a whole lot of good writing and editing done over the Christmas break. In my dream world, I'll have at least one book ready to send to one or two of my target proofreaders just after the first of the year.

And even though it is only December, I need to start thinking about next year's NaNoWriMo. I have already decided that it's going to be another historical romance, since the last two were. One idea is to set something in Princess Anne, Maryland in the 50's. Another is to tell the story of one of the minor, supporting characters in Going Home, Again. I think the decision will come down to how much prep time I have. The research for the Going Home, Again time period has already been done, after all.

NaNoWriMo Update

Greetings! It's Day 6 of NaNoWriMo and Wild Blue is getting it done. Word count is 8940, which means I'll have to write 1711 words a day to finish on time. I'm considering making it even harder on myself and aiming for November 25, which means 2161 words a day. I think both are do-able.

With the planning and research I did last month, the book seems to be pretty much writing itself at this point. I've done something I normally don't do, too - I've planned out the upcoming ten or so chapters. The plan is really just a sentence and a date, like "October 1942 - Joy and Hazel read Tom's letters" (I made that up, I didn't copy it). I'm hoping this will keep from from Googling "Battle of Sicily" every time I sit down to write.

I'm planning a mini-write-in this weekend, attended by yours truly and copious amounts of coffee. I have an obtainable goal of 20000 words by the time I go to bed Sunday night. Of course, a whole lot of other stuff will get pushed aside but that's what NaNoWriMo is all about!

Because I am a real glutton for this stuff and want November to be as "interesting" as possible, I am also participating in NaBloPoMo on my other blog. NaBloPoMo is a BlogHer thing where you post something every single day of the month. November is a very writing-filled month!

And on a non-writing, personal note: the cat bit the daylights out of the index finger on my left hand yesterday morning, so I have to type with it up in the air. I'm finding I am making more mistakes and typing slower in general because of it. At the same time, though, it is still really painful, so painful that I am skipping my runs until it heals a bit, so I have extra time for writing.

When I get a bit more written, I plan to post a snippet on here, so be looking for that relatively soon.

Happy November, everyone!

Wild Blue, and NaNoWriMo

Good morning, wonderful people! It is October third - which means less than thirty days until November 1 and the official first day of NaNoWriMo 2013! I updated my NaNo profile and posted the synopsis of this year's book this morning. I am in full-on prep mode now, and will be for the rest of the month.

I feel a little sorry for Going Home, Again. Any effort to market or push or distribute is definitely on hold until December. Any book-related time I can work into my schedule goes into Wild Blue for now. Of course that also means the in-progress books are on hold. Mount Hope and Handsome Prince Stephen will get some love after November, too. Nothing is getting dropped, just moved to a less prominent spot on the to-do list for now.

So how about a bit of love for my new baby, Wild Blue? It's the story of a little family, and I am already loving these characters. Joy is a farm girl who finds herself in what passes for a city in Delaware. Henry is the Army guy she falls crazy in love with. Hazel, Henry's aunt, who becomes something of a second mother to Joy. Pete, Henry's Army buddy - they meet in France and fight together in Sicily. June and Bea, two sweet little girls who become the center of a few folks' worlds and the point around which they pivot.

There are elements in Wild Blue of family folklore, my family and Wayne's. The girls' names are a direct nod to our grandmothers, who lived through some of what I will include in the book. To thank them, I am giving their names to the girls. While there may be bits of their stories here and there, this is definitely a work of fiction. The bits I am going to use are ones that could apply to anyone - I happen to know some of them because people love to talk. :)

Of course, I didn't live through that time period I have to research. And there is so much to sift through. I am planning to take some time this weekend to sort of map out what I need to learn and divide things up over the rest of this month. Otherwise, I will probably jump around so much that I'll not get to everything! Here's a sample of what I need to learn about:

• Life on a farm during the Depression
• Clothing in the early 40's - men's, women's, babies, uniforms
• Transportation on Delmarva in the early 40's - how would someone get from Dover to Salisbury if they didn't own a car?
• Entertainment during the time period - what books did people read? What movies did they watch? What was a date like? What did they listen to on the radio? (this might be the easiest part because I'm totally in love with Big Band and Lucille Ball)
• Army MOS's in World War II
• How someone could go from the Corps of Engineers to the Army Air Corps
• Life in a replenishment depot
• The Battle of Sicily
• Running a store in the 40's - I am thinking a 5 and 10 cent store would suit (This one might be pretty easy too - there was one in the town where I grew up that my mom told me was very much like the ones she had gone to with her mother as a child, and I definitely remember that!)
• Knitting in the 40's - what sort of yarn would be available, what kinds of things would my characters make
• Food - what would they eat, especially during rationing? I'm hoping to find some personal accounts on this one. I have a feeling that rationing wasn't all that hard on most people because the memory of the Great Depression was still really fresh.

I'm sure there's more that I haven't even considered!

I'm starting with the Army parts. I may even write that first, even though it doesn't fit at the beginning of the book. I'd like to get it all researched and get the relevant parts - Henry and Pete meeting at the depot and the battle - taken care of early on. Then I can focus on life at home, which is the major bulk of the book.

Thoughts? Comments? Well-wishes? I am open to anything!

How about a giveaway?

Greetings! I promised a giveaway, didn't I? I have two brand-spanking-new copies of Going Home, Again all ready to sign and mail to two lucky winners. Of course, I'll expect you to work for it!

I'm sure I've mentioned that there are a couple books being written right now and another "on deck." One of the things on my writing to-do list is to start character sketches for the next book. I have some of the general ideas of the main characters and the time period figured out. What I need to do next is work out the details, to make them real people (in my head anyway!). I find it easiest to start from the name fill in the details from there. I think I'll let you help me with some character names.

The main part of the story starts in 1941, when Dover Air Force Base was being built. There are flashbacks to the 30's and the main part of the story will end around 1946, although loose ends will be tied up in "today" time. I'm taking bits and pieces of the lives of some of my favorite grandparents and weaving them into the tale.

General information about the four most important characters:

• A 19 year-old girl from Kent County Delaware who grew up on a farm. She has brothers, no sisters, her parents are both alive, and she just finished high school.
• A 22 year-old man from Wicomico County Maryland. He was raised by his aunt and uncle who ran a sort of general store - hardware and dry goods - in Sharptown, MD. He's in the Army Corps of Engineers.
• The man's aunt. She grew up in Delmar and met her husband at a church picnic when she was 16. Her husband died in 1939. She and her youngest daughter are trying to keep the store going.
• The man's best friend in his Army unit. He's from a small town in a big state (bonus entry if you can tell me where he's from, although it's not important to the story).

Two names are off-limits: June and Beatrice. They've already been slated for some other characters. Everything else is fair game. You can be silly if you want, but if you're serious and I choose the name(s) you suggest, you'll definitely get a mention in the acknowledgements.

So what do I want from you? First and last names, and which character you think the name goes with. For example:

Vaughan Peterson - best friend

Simple, right? You can post your suggestions in the comments here (I have comment approval enabled so it won't show up right away), email them to me, post them to the Going Home, Again Facebook fan page, send them to me in a Facebook message, call me and tell me - I don't care!

Every suggestion will get entered on a spreadsheet. On August first, I will use a random number generator to select two people and contact you for shipping information and name(s) for the signature. I'll post reminders on Facebook up until August first.

After the contest ends, I may share some of the more interesting names. And, of course, I'll post a big old public THANK YOU if you name any of the characters!

Confronting issues with self-promotion

It's been a month since I talked about marketing and I have not done any of it. I blamed the fact that my son was staying with us and adding to my stress but he's gone and I still haven't made a move. What's the deal with that?

I could use some encouragement. I get suggestions from time to time - keep the Kindle price low, push it on social media (Reddit, Facebook, Instagram - what else?), talk to the manager at the local Barnes and Noble, do some giveaways. Maybe I should take some time this weekend to sort of map things out with timelines and deadlines.

And I need to push past my fear. So far, everyone who has read Going Home, Again liked it - this tells me I've done a good thing and I should be proudly pushing it, not shying away from the exposure or possible (but definitely not probable) rejection. Since when am I shy?

Getting the word out

I've decided that this book I love needs to be shared with the largest number of people. To get the word out, I'm trying a bunch of different things like this blog and a Facebook page for Going Home, Again. Next on my list is a press release. I have one rough-drafted, but this is a great big deal and I want to be sure it gets read and not just shift-deleted, so I'll definitely be sitting on it for a bit before I send it out.

I'm pushing the Delmarva aspect of the book and plan to send it to our local television stations and newspapers. I'm also considering sending it to local radio stations, but I'm not sure if that's a good idea in general and if it is, if I should focus on the talk stations over the music stations. I'm hoping Going Home, Again of Facebook gets enough likes that I can put up a poll and get some feedback.

I still can't believe how quickly doing a little writing for myself by challenging myself to write 50,000 words in 30 days has turned into this. Self-publishing is fun, but when you're new at something it's hard to know how to go about making things happen. I'm going to keep reading about it and writing about it to get the word out.

Of course I am open to suggestions. Send me an email, post a comment here, or post on the Facebook page if you have any ideas or suggestions on how to get my baby out there! Thank you!

Special sale on the Kindle version of Going Home, Again

Because it's July, the month Emily travels back to colonial Maryland, I've lowered the price on the Kindle version of Going Home, Again. The price drop was entered into Kindle Publishing this morning and will be available no later than 8:00 AM tomorrow, July 6th. This price cut will last until the end of July.

Going Home, Again - The Synopsis

Going Home, Again is the story of Emily Ann Franklin, a middle school history teacher from Salisbury Maryland. Emily is dating a guy named Jake, a computer tech at PRMC. She has two best friends - Amy works at the Nabb Research Center and has almost finished her doctorate in Colonial history. Nat is a nurse at PRMC, and the one who introduced Emily and Jake.

Emily and Amy create this awesome colonial immersion program for middle and high school students in Wicomico County Maryland. They get to spend two weeks in the summer, living as Maryland settlers did, on the grounds of the Furnace Town Heritage Museum outside Snow Hill, Maryland. At the end of a terrific two weeks, a freak accident happens and Emily finds herself lost in the woods.... and soon discovers that the cabin isn't the only thing that's gone. Her whole life has been flipped upside down and shaken. When she stepped out of that cabin door, she stepped into 1733.

She's hired as an indentured servant for a local farmer named Luke, obviously an ancestor of her boyfriend Jake. She soon discovers ways that she can fit in, and learns to love not only the life she is living but the people around her. Before long, Emily and Luke are married and her memories of her life before walking out of that cabin are starting to fade.

Of course, things can't be easy in colonial Maryland, can they? Deaths, fires, and losses are commonplace and Emily lives through it all. Then there are trips, long and arduous compared to the twenty-first century, to spend time with Luke's relatives in Annapolis, to meet new friends in Williamsburg, to New York and Boston. In time, Emily learns that there are others like her, other time travelers. And she learns that she will go back to her own time. In fact, she could do it whenever she chooses. But the way to go back isn't easy and isn't reversible.

Will she choose to go back? Will she stay where she is? Is the return trip inevitable, and if so what will happen when she returns? Well, you'll have to read the book to find out!

Going Home, Again - the back story

Now that my first book is finished and for sale on Amazon and Kindle, I've been asked a few times where the story came from. Since this book has been long in the works, the answer is a little on the complicated side, but I'll give it a go anyway.

Many years ago, I spent some time in the National Guard. One year, we did our two weeks outside Boston. While there, I went into the city with a group of fellow soldiers and immediately fell in love. My inner history geek was in heaven. Soon after that I story started taking shape in my head. The general idea was a young woman, for some reason in period costume, mysteriously finds herself deposited in pre-Revolutionary Boston.

The story sat in my head for years, not really going anywhere and not really wanting to be written, until I met the love of my life (I know, I'm squishy) a couple years ago. I told him about it and he suggested some modifications. We spent a number of hours tossing it back and forth - move her to Delmarva so I can stage it where I am familiar, make her a history teacher so she won't be flummoxed by the time travel, figure out a way to prove that it really happened.

I guess you could say that the story grew legs, sitting in his backyard on summer evenings after we both got off work. She got her name, Emily, out there. She got her grandmother and her best friends Nat and Amy. The idea that she would fall in love with an ancestor of her boyfriend happened out there, too. I wasn't kidding in the book dedication when I said I couldn't have done this without my boyfriend.

The next thing that happened was receiving a gift - my Chromebook. The wonderful thing about a Chromebook is that everything is cloud-based by default. I could start writing and not worry about pesky things like backups. I started doing some research. I did a ton of reading on colonial Maryland, indentured servitude, colonial dress, colonial travel, typical diet on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in the early 1700's. All of that information was at my fingertips - I could crawl through the Maryland Archives or spend half a day reading every last thing on the Colonial Williamsburg website. The Internet is an amazing research tool.

Even with all that, though, I still wasn't writing. I was afraid of it, quite honestly. What if the story didn't come out of me the right way? What if it wasn't good enough? Something else had to happen to give me a big push. And that something was NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It happens in November each year. You sign up and get all sorts of encouragement and suggestions to help you write 50,000 words in a thirty-day period. I signed up, and with the self-imposed pressure of a deadline, the book came flying out of me. It was an amazing process.

So I wrote a book. A book that lived on my Google drive, that no one but me would ever see, at least in theory. I thought it was pretty good, but there were some parts I wasn't in love with. It didn't matter, though. I had reached my goal. I had written a book.

A book that I just left there, doing nothing and going nowhere, until June third of this year (2012), when I got an email from NaNoWriMo telling me that as a winner, I could get five free copies of my book from CreateSpace, if I ordered them before June 30. It was like November all over again. I was on fire to revise. It took me about a week and a half to overhaul a couple chapters, check for things like consistent character names (some of the less-prominent characters got a little mixed up - I was writing in a hurry after all!) and correct some really obvious issues.

Next was submitting my book to see if it suited the format for CreateSpace. It did not (no surprise there) so I spent another couple days reformatting it, writing the dedication, writing the disclaimer, and designing a cover. I then sat myself down and read through it. I'm pretty sure there are still little errors here and there (I did edit my own book, after all) but I feel pretty good about it, in all.

Then it was the second submission, and a new cover that I feel is more representative of the story. And a second submission for formatting. Once that was approved, I got a chance to look at an electronic proof of the book (with a bit of SQUEEing). I approved the proof and ordered my copies and then there it was - I could sell it on Amazon and Kindle for free. Well, of course I will, thank you very much.

It's amazing how the "I could see my book in print how cool is that" morphed into "I have actually sold books!"