Monthly Archives: August 2024

I learn something new from every book I write, even after twenty-five odd books out there.

Sometimes what I learn is a writing craft detail. Other times it’s a production or promotion detail.

I’ve learned a lot from the last four years of writing the assorted Martiniere Family Saga books. But I had several explicit reasons for working on The Cost of Power. First, I wanted to finish some loose ends left in the other series, most explicitly the hints at a multiverse and how that works. Second, well, I’ve written about taking a villain and turning him (Philip Martiniere) into a more shades-of-gray protagonist capable of redemption. Philip can still be a jerk, but he’s not the irrationally sociopathic character he was in the other Martiniere books. In some aspects, The Cost of Power is in part Philip’s redemption story.

Also, I decided that there was one big universe story left in this book world, and that I could accomplish what I wanted to learn best with familiar characters. A writing exercise, you might say, where I could focus on my story goals.

The most important piece, however? For the first time, I mindfully sat down to write an entire series–in this case a trilogy–before publishing it.

Why would I want to do that? Well, for one thing, I’ve learned in my years of writing that I have this…ahem…tendency to throw completely new notions into a series about two-thirds of the way through. I did it with Goddess’s Honor and with the Netwalk Sequence. The first Martiniere Legacy series was somewhat of an attempt to write a series but the fourth book really threw things into a whiplash. Not only that, I didn’t originally conceive of the books in this manner, and really didn’t have a coherent series arc. Oh, I fixed it in rewrites but there was a lot of pain and agony in the process. I wanted to cut back on the agony.

How best to change this, especially since I wanted a flexible structure to reflect inevitable diversions from the original plan?

First, I roughly devised book and series arcs. I knew what the endings were more or less going to be for each book, and how the series was going to wrap up. I wrote chapter synopses for each book.

Then I turned to Scrivener as an organizing tool. I’m not fond of drafting in that program, but it’s a great place to keep my research notes as well as a chapter-by-chapter version of the work in progress. I drafted chapters in Word, then pasted them into Scriv. That served a couple of purposes. First, if I wanted to look something up, instead of searching or scrolling an entire document, I could look at the chapter or synopsis to find the information. Second, this allowed me to establish the Scrivener version as the definitive first draft. I did corrections and edits in Scriv.  Finally, I had my research and character notes as well as the synopsis under Scrivener’s Research tab.

When I revised the synopsis, I used strikethrough to eliminate the old stuff without deleting, just in case I needed to recover it or place that concept in a different chapter. If I wanted to look at my original draft, I could pull up the chapter file from Word. I didn’t have to mess with complex versioning methods while in that particular book. When I came up with outtakes and snippets that helped me understand a particular character or scene, I stuffed it in its own file under Research in Scriv (about the only time I drafted in Scrivener).

That’s just the drafting lessons I learned this time around.

Production issues–as always, I learned little things about details. Today I got annoyed when I learned that I have to produce an entirely different-sized cover if I want to produce a paperback in Amazon as well as Ingram. Um, I’ll stick with Ingram. It’s just a tiny difference in size because Amazon produces thicker covers, but I’ve heard enough quality and packaging complaints about the ‘Zon that I’m not gonna go into the hassle of making a different cover entirely, just over fractions of sizes (I make my covers in BookBrush). Plus if I decide to go with a cover artist, I’m not paying for TWO different paperback covers. Nuh-uh.

I’m also going to have to do some different things when it comes to saving file structures as well, because my files are a mess that desperate needs fixing. Well, that will be the next project.

Meanwhile?

The Cost of Power is out there in the world. Return and Crucible are available at all ebook retailers, and Redemption comes out on September 10th. The Return paperback is now available. Crucible will be available soon, and Redemption as well. I…um…made a mistake when loading Crucible and didn’t put it on preorder with one vendor. That threw off the release timeline.

Linking to the Amazon series page here for convenience–it’s also available on Apple, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.

And, as always, if you want to help me keep the horses happy with a cookie or two, you can contribute to the Poor Cookie-Deprived Horses Fund here.

(note: they aren’t really Cookie-Deprived, much as they will claim otherwise.)

For some reason, I end up buying horses in August. Maybe it’s because prices are usually better since people want to get horses off of their books before winter, but probably it’s just because that’s when the timing is right for me to buy.

Mocha came into my life nineteen years ago. Marker a year ago.

It’s been a ride. Mocha was my show horse and she was pretty decent at that. Marker is…well, we’re still figuring it out. Mocha is royally bred for cutting and reining, but I decided years ago that her bloodlines were common enough that I didn’t need to breed her, plus she was my only riding horse and I didn’t feel the need to be raising a foal (plus the expense, plus until nine years ago I wasn’t in a good place to raise a foal the way I would want to). I didn’t get Marker until after Mocha retired due to arthritis in her knees that led to her starting to trip and fall during our rides. More than that, she just didn’t have energy to do what she loved–and it broke my heart to feel her try to GO when she just didn’t have it in her, at age twenty-three. She is now settling into a nice retirement, getting handled daily and fed treats, with good days and bad days. Still more good days than bad, but the bad days hurt. On the other hand, in summer pasture with Marker, she is definitely the Queen. Besides her Very Own Gelding, she has the over-the-fence buddy retired gelding who has been madly in love with her for the past several summers. The old girl shows a definite preference for the quiet company of a small number of geldings over other mares–she is quite happy this summer with Her Boys. While Marker will try to boss her around occasionally, it’s still clear that She Is In Charge and that the pasture rules are Hers. Her weight is good. Her teeth are excellent. She still comes up with Cunning Plans to get treats, and it’s clear that there is The Mocha Way and The Wrong Way even in her retirement. She’ll be strong-minded until she dies.

Enter Marker. The horse of mystery, starting with just how old he is–somewhere between seven and nine is the best guess now, based on vet assessment of his teeth. No papers. He was sold to me as Quarab–Quarter Horse and Arabian–but over the past few months, as he’s matured physically and come into condition, I’ve been wondering about the Arabian piece. I thought that perhaps it was Morgan because he didn’t quite look Quarter Horse, either. But he gaits–and while gaitedness happens in some lines of Quarter Horses (and Arabians as well, though the gaited Arabian I knew was in the hands of someone who managed to get darn near every horse in her barn to gait, so…), it’s more common in Morgans.

I pulled hair and sent it off to Texas A&M for DNA typing. Those results were fascinating–and came back (in order of probability) 1.) Quarter Horse, 2.) Missouri Fox Trotter, and 3.) Tennessee Walker. Not a hint of Arabian in the mix. No Morgan. A little searching revealed that there are people who cross QHs with Fox Trotters. He has more of a flat-kneed movement common in Western Pleasure-bred Quarter Horses than any elevated movement you see in Arabians or Morgans, which kept throwing me a little bit (a daisy-cutter rather than high knees). His head carriage is NOT Morgan or Arabian, but the level top line of a Quarter Horse. But…the way he’s put together doesn’t match a lot of Quarter Horses, either. And his butt isn’t a QH butt. I figured that since the second two options were gaited breeds rather than what you would expect from a straight QH (which would be Thoroughbred or Morgan), that he definitely wasn’t all QH but QH mixed with a gaited horse.

After the results, I kept eying the way he’s put together. Hmm. There are certain physical similarities to the Impressive-bred Western Pleasure horses I’ve known, and some of his temperament quirks match one particular tough Impressive-bred gelding I knew in lessons. But. No real way to know. My best guess is that he is a WP-bred Quarter Horse crossed with Fox Trotter (he doesn’t move like a Walker. I think his gait is a fox trot). Nonetheless, he’s matured over the summer so that leans more toward the younger side of his probable age range. I’ll never know for certain, most likely.

Some things I do know. He naturally parks out and will take that stance frequently when saddled up. He looooves people and treats, but will happily settle for scratches and petting. He’s pushy on the ground, but that has improved a LOT. One of the things that made me question the Arabian side was the way he handles being reprimanded, especially as we moved past the “getting-to-know-you” stage. He didn’t react the way I would expect an Arabian or Arabian-cross to behave, and as we settled in together he became much less anxious about reprimands. He responds to reining cues when asked to spin, as if he’s been trained (and I don’t think I’m that good at putting on those cues). His undersaddle behavior can be better than his ground behavior, though the ground behavior is improving. One biggie–early on he would rebel by bulging his shoulder and trying to push into me. That behavior is long gone, thankfully.

He is a smart horse and learns quickly. Unlike Mocha he doesn’t do well with repetitive drilling. And since I don’t have the show horse pressures, I’ve been taking my time with him. He likes the fox trot gait and will hold it easily without needing to be cued for quite a distance, even up steep uphills. He doesn’t have the body bracing that Mocha did from early days even in the snaffle. Putting him in the curb was a non-event, probably because I’ve been developing indirect rein in the snaffle so he pretty much neck reins without a lot of drama. We’ll be transitioning to a single curb rein and only using snaffle and curb when schooling soon. Once the ground gets softer we’ll go back to schooling canter, which seems to be an issue with him.

His biggest issues are mouthiness (I suspect again that this is a factor of age) and dropping his–ahem–male appendage at the end of a ride. I think he sees it as a game so I’m taking measures to make it less enjoyable. Because he’s very treat-motivated, if he drops, he doesn’t get a treat. Plus instead of capering in a circle around me, I’m making him back up. That’s not fun.

But. He is a bold horse when riding out, especially with more exposure. At first he was worried about seeing road equipment, but now he wants to go inspect it whenever we see a parked one (Mocha always was suspicious and snorty). If something worries him, I can talk him through it. He’s a fun horse to ride on the gravel roads and that smooth gait of his is so nice.

A good horse for my senior years.

It’s a book birthday! The Cost of Power: Return is out today, both in ebook and in paperback through Ingram Spark. I haven’t set up the paperback link in Bookshop yet, because my experience has shown that I need to give the listing about 48 hours after it clears at Ingram before Bookshop will pick it up.

The Cost of Power is a trilogy. Books two and three will be releasing in September, plus an omnibus ebook-only edition in November (though I might bite the bullet and see if anyone wants the whole saga in one book…at around 270,000-some words, though, it will be expensive). So yes, the series is complete and you’ll have the whole thing in your hands soon. Book Two, Crucible, releases on September 10th and Book Three, Redemption, releases on September 24th.

I’m calling this trilogy a science fantasy NeoWestern. The science fantasy part is because it’s a mix of science fiction and fantasy elements; the NeoWestern is primarily based on the setting on a ranch in rural Eastern Oregon. There’s also minor tropes from classic Western stories–the bad banker and the corrupt sheriff, primarily. But there’s also wildfire sparked by an angry spirit, horses (of course, I try to get horses in everything I write), a nasty blizzard, and everyday life on a ranch. Plus main character Ruby is heavily into agricultural technology and designing her own nanobiobots to improve crop drought resistance as well as provide detailed feedback on what’s happening in the fields.

Power was one of those books that grew in the making (well, don’t they all, but some more than others). I originally wanted to examine the whole mind control programming issue I introduced in The Martiniere Legacy series, as well as the multiverse elements that emerged in the last book of that series, The Enduring Legacy. Then I started playing with the concept that in this universe, the primary villain of the other Martiniere books, Gabriel Martiniere’s father Philip, was as much a victim of mind control manipulation as his son was. Which meant there needed to be other villains. I pulled on a common trope from more literary Westerns, the bad banker, as a minor villain. Philip’s adopted son Joey turned into a bigger villain, but…there needed to be more. I had the Braun family and their Zingter Enterprises as corporate opponents, but…there needed to be more.

(There needs to be more seemed to be a consistent theme of this trilogy when I was drafting it!)

That’s when I realized I had unconsciously been thinking about La Chanson de Roland and the entire Carolingan mythos. Plus a dose of the Melusine of Lusignan mythos. The Martinieres have always been a cadet/illegitimate branch of the Valois French nobility, but I tied them directly into the Lusignans in this story. But I couldn’t have just one European water spirit floating around in this story. There had to be an opposing spirit, so…I brought in the Lorelei, who is the patron of the Braun family just as the Melusine is the patron of the Martinieres.

However, I also didn’t want this story to be all about European spirits. It is set in the Pacific Northwest, and Ruby, the female lead, has Native ancestry, albeit somewhat diluted. Ever since her great-great grandfather claimed the ranch, the Ryder family has made small offerings to the wild creatures of the Double R Ranch, very quietly and without any fanfare. That led to the subplot where Etienne Martiniere was a fur trapper in the Oregon Country, married a Native woman of Nez Perce/Cayuse affiliation, and left daughters in the country. He was tasked with protecting the Melusine and she found refuge with a Native spirit, Bear.

But that’s not all! We have digital thought clones, including malign ones. Lots of secrecy including the recent past history of Martiniere involvement in the MK-Ultra program, a feud between the leaders of the Martiniere and Braun family tied to that involvement, and more. One of the obstacles that protagonists Ruby and Gabe struggle with is the slow feed of information from the Melusine, Bear, and the digital thought clones about the impact of history on their current situation.

Then there’s the relationship between Ruby and Gabe which parallels their experiences in other universes. A betrayal in Book Two leads to disaster (hey, there’s a reason it’s titled Crucible) and recovering from that disaster is part of the story of Book Three, Redemption.

Ultimately, there is a cost to gaining power. Yes, Ruby and Gabe are powerful. But they pay a price for it, especially Gabe.

This is my last visit to the Martinieres but I wanted to end their saga with a bang.

I think I did.

Here are the links for Return. Click on your preferred ebook distributor to buy it.

Amazon Apple Barnes and Noble Kobo Smashwords

Sometimes you just can’t keep a good character down. Mike Martiniere sandbagged me when I wrote the first Martiniere Legacy books, appearing as the five-year-old clone of Philip Martiniere in Realization. He kept nagging at me until I wrote his own book, The Heritage of Michael Martiniere.

One thing that intrigued me was the thought of what it would be like to grow up as a clone. Mike is brought up on an isolated Eastern Oregon ranch, but he also spends time in places like Paris and Los Angeles as part of a wealthy, privileged, powerful family. He was originally created by his progenitor as a blood donor, though it later comes out that maybe, just maybe, his progenitor had notions of trying to possess Mike in order to achieve immortality. At the very least, Philip Martiniere in that universe viewed Mike as a source for spare parts.

All of this was based on choices as the author. I had Mike think of Philip Martiniere as his progenitor, because that seemed to be the best descriptive option, especially since Mike hates Philip’s guts for what was done to him before he was rescued from Philip’s clutches. In the climatic conclusion of Realization, Mike spits out defiance against Philip by threatening to bite him—the only weapon he had available as a five-year-old.

Mike is also subject to all the ailments of the man he was cloned from. That means osteoporosis at a young age, cardiac and lung problems, arthritis, and a lot of other issues. Not all cloning is like this—equine clones, for one, don’t seem to have the same issues that Dolly the sheep had. I went with the Dolly methodology because that made a better story.

His medical struggles make up a big part of Heritage. But it also deals with the malign influence of his progenitor, especially since Philip, although dead, manages to reappear as a digital thought clone. Philip is a rather nasty Big Bad with megalomaniac ambitions, and he had the money and power to try to implement them.

Which…brings us to multiverses and The Cost of Power.

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I didn’t originally set out to write a multiverse. However, in the last book of the main Martiniere Legacy series, Gabriel Martiniere, Philip’s son, starts speculating about what if. What might have been if…and the concept intrigued me. I wrote a couple of rather romantic books where one of the foundational premises of the Legacy changed.

Then I started getting other ideas, including the digital thought clones that popped up in Heritage and another book in the character-focused side series, People of the Martiniere Legacy. Things kept brewing, and I had the notion that digital thought clones could cross universes.

I had wanted to play further with the implications of mind control. That was the original concept of The Cost of Power. Then I decided it would also be interesting to look at a different version of Philip Martiniere. But what made things different? Well, that’s when the digital thought clones came in—digis. Then a bunch of other stuff that I’ll discuss another time.

Originally, a digital version of Gabe was going to be the dominant good guy digi. That got confusing, especially since Philip had an evil digi counterpart. Who else to bring in but Mike? The more I thought about Mike as the lead digi, especially in the later books, the more I liked it. Plus that allowed me to stage a confrontation between Mike and Philip. I thought there was more to Mike’s story than what shows up in Heritage, but there really wasn’t enough beyond that to write another book, until now.

So. Mike is the leader of the good digis as we move through The Cost of Power.

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Now this is the point where I slide into shameless self-promo. The Cost of Power trilogy releases in August and September. The first book, Return, comes out on August 20^th and it’s now up for preorder. As a preliminary, I’m running a sale on The Heritage of Michael Martiniere. $2.99 for the ebook at all ebook vendors, starting on July 15^th. So if you want to find out more about Mike’s background, check it out at the links below.

Stay tuned to find out more.

Heritage Book Links:

Books2read link

Amazon link

The Cost of Power: Return Book Links:

https://books2read.com/u/4EaEPe

Amazon link