Tag Archives: writer life

July 6, 2020 · 1:15 pm

Lessons from writing a trilogy all at once–THE MARTINIERE LEGACY

Once I realized that the basic story of The Ruby Project had expanded into a trilogy arc, I decided that instead of writing one book, then releasing, etc etc over the course of a year or two, that I would just sit down and write all three books sequentially. One reason for doing this was utter frustration, based on my previous experience with writing series (The Netwalk Sequence, Goddess’s Honor).

When I wrote Choices of Honor and Judgment of Honor, I found myself needing to go back to previous books to maintain continuity in the Goddess’s Honor series (we won’t talk about the continuity messes in The Netwalk Sequence, which I plan to go back and fix in the ten-year-reissue in 2021). Yes, I’d been writing side stories to fill out the backstory of the series, but there were the niggling little details and things I would have done differently based on what I knew about the main characters by the end of Judgment. At that time, I swore that I would either have the full arc of the series in mind and create detailed bibles and synopses to make the damned thing work over the course of several years, or else I would write them all first and then release them. The Ruby Project-now-The Martiniere Legacy appeared to be the sort of series where writing them all first, then release, would be effective. I had several reasons for doing this.

First, I had a strong conception of the overall series arc as well as the individual book arcs. I knew where I was going to end up, and that goal became clear toward the end of Inheritance. The stories divide neatly into parts of Gabe and Ruby’s story in their progression toward that goal–and it is both their stories, from Ruby’s point of view. Both Ruby and Gabe grow and change within each book, as they meet each challenge thrown at them while focusing on the overall goal. This series was particularly easy in that respect. I don’t know if that reflects experience on my part or the nature of the story. Legacy does fall into nice, rational divisions. It might have been a more difficult endeavor to do this with the Netwalk books, but then again, that was my first series and I was still figuring things out.

Second, the overall word count of The Martiniere Legacy is around 280,000 words, similar to that of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. I read Steinbeck’s Working Days (his diary of writing Grapes) while writing Ascendant, and noticed significant process similarities, particularly in daily word count and the concern about pacing myself too quickly toward the end. 280,000 words is doable in six months, which fits my typical drafting pace.

Third, instead of poring over 3-4 books while writing the last one, I could simply refer back to what I had written in the previous two. While writing Ascendant, I had Inheritance up on my desktop screen while composing on my laptop. While writing Realization, I had both books up on the desktop. This was a huge change from my previous process. Not only could I refer back to what I’d written in a previous book, but if I needed to change something to fit the turns that the other books took (I had waaaay too many consecutive conspiracies at one point and needed to prune them back as some were stronger in the end than others), I could tweak it. I didn’t realize how big a deal this could be until I was actually going through the process of laying down breadcrumbs to hint at future developments. While I tried to write each book so that it could be read alone, I really needed to have those links to get it done at the end.

There were other bits and pieces that came along with this process. I planned book and series arcs for each character, though some drastically changed (Justine, for one). There were still pieces that didn’t get explicitly fleshed out (Justine as the Rescue Angel, though there’s a lot of hints). I had a 5″ x 8″ notepad where I made a lot of these notes and I liked that process so well that I think I may buy a replacement pad when it’s gone. Not just the size but the weight of the paper as opposed to legal pads really was noticeable. A little thing, but it can make a difference when organizing and shuffling papers while working.

It also didn’t hurt that I was in Covid-19 lockdown while writing the Legacy. There have been days when I wanted to escape from this world into that of the Legacy. Even with all its problems it just was a cheerier place to be.

Will I do this again? Probably. Not so much with the next book–the probable sequel to Klone’s Stronghold, which will be Stronghold Defender. At this time I don’t know if I’ll have a followup book to Defender, or if Klone turns out to be a prequel for another trilogy. Still thinking about that. I need to rough out what Defender is going to look like. One drawback with this process, for me at least, is that I end up not being able to do a lot of other writing. Again, I don’t know if it’s reflective of circumstances in the world around me or if it is a comment on the nature of the Legacy.

I do plan to write another book in the world of the Legacy, however. It’s going to be short and probably stylistically different, perhaps nothing more than a novella. But a character that comes on board late in Realization has a story to tell, so I’m going to try to write it. I’m also going to be writing and releasing little sketches tied to pieces of the Legacy as well. We’ll see how it goes.

The Martiniere Legacy: Book One, Inheritance; Book Two, Ascendant; and Book Three, Realization will be released in Fall 2020, along with side stories and sketches. More specific information can be found in my newsletter which comes out toward the end of each month. Sign up for my newsletter at https://tinyletter.com/JoyceReynolds-Ward for release dates.

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January 1, 2020 · 4:40 pm

Ten years, 2010 to 2020–teaching, writing, skiing, and other things

I reviewed my 2010 blog for the previous entry, and boy was it an eye-opener to see where I was ten years ago. Lots of changes have happened since then. A look at things, topic by topic.

Teaching

First of all, it was the beginning of the end of my teaching career. Serious cuts due to budget issues significantly impacted my little mountain school, and that was the first of three years where we went through a lot of principals in the building. My left foot developed capsulitis in a metatarsal joint, which has left an ongoing legacy of arthritis there. My hours were reduced to part-time from full-time. I ended up unofficially retiring from teaching except for substitute work in 2014, after applying at a lot of other schools. I suspect ageism but (except for a couple of interviews where it was blatant) could never prove it. Changes in teacher evaluation meant that as a special education teacher, I was penalized for poor student performance on high stakes assessment scores when it really wasn’t their fault. It was pretty darn obvious when I looked at my evals. Dropping caseloads also meant that if I tried to keep working for this district after that year, I’d be traveling to other schools–a miserable prospect when one considers that there were 20-30 miles between buildings.

So I retired in 2014. 18 months later, the district called me back, first to fill in by doing special education evaluations, then to work quarter-time online as a PE and Health teacher as a long-term sub. The eval work lasted for six months, the long-term sub for two years. It was the third time I’d been asked to help with evals beyond my caseload. The long-term sub made renewing my license easier, but I’m going to let it expire in the fall of 2021. I’ve done some substitute work in Wallowa County, but not enough to justify the hassle or renewal expense, especially since I’ll be 64 years old by then.

I’d also signed up for tutor work through a private company, but except for one client, nothing ever came of it. I enjoyed working with that student and clearly turned his writing around, which was a joy in itself.

I’d had hopes for more–perhaps research, perhaps consulting, but none of the prospects ever came together. Oh well. It has landed me some editing work, and I’m happy with that.

Writing

In 2010, I was almost at the point of having 20 stories out and circulating. I’d earned placements in Writers of the Future and another contest, I’d written several books that I was shopping around to publishers, and was exploring the prospect of writing blogs about teaching. That didn’t go anywhere. However, in 2011 I started self-publishing. After one fling with a now-defunct micropublisher, I kept my books and published them myself. I now have the Netwalk series completed, the Goddess’s Honor series almost completed (last book out at the end of January), and a couple of standalone books out. One of the books that I fought to get my rights back to, Pledges of Honor, is the “little book that could.” It keeps on selling, and in 2018 was a Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off semifinalist. That makes me very happy. So that’s about 13-14 books I have out right now (depending on how you count a couple of compilations).

The upcoming book, The Ruby Project, is probably one that I’ll ship out to see if there’s any interest. It’s sufficiently different that I have hopes it will catch the interest of a regional press, if the first one I queried isn’t into it. I am excited about it because it’s a near-future agripunk story that has some interesting elements in it.

I’ve yet to break into any big short story markets but at this point I’m kind of “meh” about the prospect. I’m an old white lady who doesn’t necessarily write what is currently popular–and honestly, I’m not into arm-wrestling with 40-something white male writers who beat their chest and whine about being pushed out of the market, so they target older white ladies as easy prey to shove out. Short stories aren’t exciting me right now, anyway–I’ve got lots of things to think about on the novel front and that’s where my energy is going right now. I’ve gotten a couple of professional-level payments but I’m not beating down the door to get into SFWA. At this time, I use short stories as a world-building tool. That may change but right now I don’t have a compelling reason to divert my attention from book projects.

I’m going to keep writing but at this point I’m rather cynical that I’ll be anything but a small fish. I’ve gotten praise for my work, including from a New York Times bestselling author that I workshopped with, but praise is nothing new and it’s not earned me a damn thing except misery over rejections afterward until I get my head back on straight. It will take a stroke of lightning and sheer luck for me to make it big in writing, and I’ve somewhat resigned myself to the prospect that I’m one of those “almost made it” types. Now I focus on telling good stories, not selling to the big markets or trying to land an agent. If it happens, it happens. Perhaps if I hadn’t had those last horrible years of teaching where I lacked significant energy to put into writing things might have been different. I’ll never know, and it’s not worth crying over what might have been.

Skiing

I don’t think I’m going to be skiing any more. My last year of a full season of skiing was 2014. 2015 was a low snow year and we were moving to Enterprise. I struggled with the foot and hip issues, and just could never get the rhythm going again. Last year we bought snowshoes and got some snowshoeing in. I’m sad, but one knee catches unpredictably, and I don’t trust it.

Horse

This almost deserves an entire post in itself. By 2010, Mocha’s training was to the point where I felt comfortable showing her. She responded positively to show life, and we had several great years with limited showing in the metro area until she developed a severe case of white line disease in January of 2014. That essentially took her out of commission until we moved her to NE Oregon in May of 2015. By then she was in significant pain from hock fusion, hoof issues, and the trauma of a drastically different change in life set her back for a while. She went from 24/7 stall life to living outside 24/7 and it was quite a shock to her. But between excellent pasture boarding care, excellent veterinary work, and excellent farrier work, she got past the pain and adapted. One discovery we made was that she needed a drastic change in shoeing because what looked to be the correct angle was in fact causing her pain, which we didn’t know until we x-rayed her feet. After a year of corrective farriery and several years of slow conditioning work, she’s now back to what she was in 2010-13.

We don’t do any shows beyond a local schooling show that’s a 4H fundraiser, but in 2018 they had Ranch Horse classes and we ended up as Ranch Horse Champions. Last year we were Reserve Adult Champions. She’s proven to be a good trail horse and road horse, even if she does silly stuff like adopting an elk calf as her baby. At almost 20, she lives in a big pasture 24/7 with a herd, and has no desire to go back to stall life (something she’s shown us several times). Heaven forbid I approach her with a blanket (she who used to be the Blanket Queen!) unless we’re prepping for a show and I want to keep her clean. The good grass she has here has put weight back on her and she’s happy.

We may take up barrel racing this year–it all depends on what happens with her soundness. At 20, you don’t take that for granted. But especially after reading my 2010 training blogs, where I see the seeds of her later problems, I think that with careful management she’ll be rideable for a few years more.

I’ve lusted after several young horses that have been raised at the ranch, but to date haven’t bought a replacement, simply because of expense. If the books sold better, that might make a difference. I have no idea how long we have together. She could drop dead tomorrow or she could keep on being a good riding horse for another 5-8 years if managed carefully. A couple of years ago I wouldn’t have thought it likely, but life on pasture with good grass really has made a difference with her.

Other

We had several tough years, family-wise and life-wise. I’m not going to talk about some of it because it’s private. 2012 was a particularly difficult year, because we lost several close friends, the son’s Crohn’s Disease progressed to significant surgery, the husband had problems with his blood pressure medications, and I was fighting with some difficult work situations. I was the skinniest I ever had been but it wasn’t a healthy loss. Once the stressors disappeared I gained weight.

One result of the tough times was buying the house in Enterprise, where we spend a lot of our time these days. We had dreamed of returning to this small community that we lived in briefly during 1981-82, but it wasn’t until the fall of 2013 that it even seemed possible. We found a nice small house in town with a mountain view, and spent a year fixing it up before hubby retired. The timing was perfect as we bought at the bottom of the market and before all the local contractors got busy.

We cultivated a garden with a friend in Clatskanie for four years, until the back and forth (6+ hours) became too much.

The son has a serious relationship with a woman who has two kids. She and her daughter now live with him in the Portland house, and we’re really happy about that. Plus suddenly we’re kinda grandparents and that’s fun. I sell books, quilted goods, and jewelry at some local bazaars. Both of us participate in local volunteer work and enjoy it.

That’s pretty much it. In ten years, I’ll be 72. If I make it to that age, I’ll have outlived my mother and will be approaching my father’s age. Who knows what will happen? In 2010 I was very aware that at 52, my mother had 17 more years left.

I don’t count like that any more.

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· 3:15 pm

Looking back ten years to 2010–writing, skiing, horse, and so on

Well, it’s the first of the year, and considering that the decade digit has flipped, a lot of folks are doing a retrospective of the last ten years (I’m not going to get into an argument about whether this is the 20s or not). So I went back to old blogs to get a better feel for what was going on, because as I’ve tried to remember things, I’m discovering that I have to think harder about what year it is. Age, or just a lot of stuff going on?

Ten years ago, I was having a gut attack but not so bad that I couldn’t join hubby at a New Year’s Eve concert, Railroad Earth.

I had bought the iMac I’m now using (which has outlived the printer I bought at the same time). I was also determined that I was going to do something with my writing. I was going to buckle down and get things done. Back then, I was convinced I couldn’t write a sf teaching story as well as Zenna Henderson. Still not sure about it, but Klone’s Stronghold was a solid attempt. I also attempted to write some blog content and teaching articles, but that fell by the wayside. Nonfiction is not where my heart lies. But I was writing short stories like crazy, and was on track for my goal to have 20 stories circulating. I was also working on Netwalk and sending it out for submission–not quite ready to take the leap into self-pub, which happened the next year.

Midway through my special education career, I was starting to detach myself from the label. The previous September was also the beginning of the three bad years of teaching, where we went through six principals in that time. But I was having good moments, especially (to my surprise, since I am notnotnot a math person) my Resource Math class. That class was actually at a higher level than previous classes I’d taught, so I was learning new things. It was, however, the year I was reduced to part time work starting in the fall. For some reason I thought I worked five years part time–no, only four. But my Resource English kids did well in their reading AND writing statewide assessments in the spring. Then the fall was the beginning of the really problematic period. At this time I was horribly burned out, taking coursework in interpersonal neurobiology/relational psychology and hoping to parley the combination of training in this field and special education certification into something more (which never really unfolded, in part because I was dealing with the work crap).

Mocha was favoring her right side and while her hock issues had been identified, I still had no idea about the issues with her front foot issues. But it was the beginning of the four years that I kept her barefoot, in hopes that would improve her hoof walls and overall hoof conditioning (which ended with the white line disease). I was working with her shoulders and starting to get a good floaty trot out of her. At that time she would arch her neck and raise her back to stretch when I started to put on her leg boots. I had started to introduce her to road riding (perfect location, with a 20 foot shoulder, the only way I would have done that on a road populated with homicidal cyclists in training, partying drunks racing between river parks, and general idiots). She had demonstrated her unflappableness by being one of the few horses not to freak out when a tree was fallen outside of the barn, and was also showing a lot of energy. I was clearly the high point of her day when she lived in a stall, though we are starting to get back to that now (working on it, probably will have a setback due to being sick and away from her for over a week). She went to her first big horse show and earned blues (and one red) in Dressage Suitability against more experienced horses, earning positive comments for her big gaits, along with mutters about “that reiner mare.” This was the show where she showed her competitive nature and focus, as well as her enjoyment of performance. We were finally figuring out training and she was settling into a groove.

2010 was one of my big skiing years, though I was fighting foot pain and cramping in between euphoric moments. That was the year I got cortisone shots in my left foot because of an inflamed metatarsal joint (I still feel that ache pretty regularly these days, a lovely teaching legacy–NOT). But I ended up buying boots that worked for me in February, which did well by me until I packed out the liners a couple of years later and started having problems again. This was also the year I saw the singing Scandinavian singer–from the blog, “Early on, there was one guy cruising down the Mile, singing at the top of his lungs as he danced with the flow of gravity. A respectable baritone, but the language most definitely was not English. It sounded Scandanavian, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if that were the case. Of course, Swedish and Norwegian ghosts probably stride those slopes; if not haunts, then memories from the early days of Timberline and European exiles wandering on Hood’s slopes. I heard the singing guy twice–once when he went down, the second, while I was skiing down and he was on the chair lift. Not hymns; not contemporary song, either. Not a drinking song. It was strong and rhythmic, matching the flow of gravity, celebratory in a marching way but not a militaristic tune, either. Whatever it was, it matched the setting. It was a skiing song, singing the snow and the sky and the clouds.” Still one of my favorite ski memories. That fall I got to ski on my late October birthday, which started the epic year where I got over 60 ski days in.

Beside the foot problem, this was the year that the zero-to-sixty UTIs in 2 hours started appearing. Several blogs about going into the ER at unpredictable intervals. I had dropped a lot of weight very quickly (probably tied to the UTIs and a long-term antibiotic I was taking).

This was the year that we started a four-year period of camping near the Oregon Country Fair and rediscovering our hippie selves–as well as going to several concerts at venues such as Red Rocks and Bob’s Ranch near Marcola. I was still a practicing Catholic, and confident enough to engage in faith discussions online.

Interesting to look back at those days. I’ll summarize what has happened over the last ten years in the next post.

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November 16, 2019 · 11:06 am

First Draft Completion Thoughts–JUDGMENT OF HONOR

Yesterday, I finally finished up the last chapter of Judgment of Honor, wrapping it up at about 103k words. If I consider it as a whole with Choices of Honor (which, in a sense, I should), it’s been a long, hard slog since March when I started work on Choices. As it were, I started the actual writing of Judgment in August, once I’d finished production on Choices.

I hadn’t intended for it to take this long. Unlike Choices, which threw me the middle finger about a quarter through the outline, Judgment has been rather well-behaved as far as the plot is concerned. The biggest challenge was the move from a quasi-Pacific Northwest Plateau setting to an entirely new setting on the other side of an ocean. Three of the viewpoint characters end up in this environment while the fourth is in a new part of the old location. Even more so, the climate varies from tropical island to temperate mainland and–surprisingly difficult–visualizing an east-facing coastline. You wouldn’t think it would be that difficult to conceptualize where the ocean lies in proximity to north, but it was, indeed, much harder than I had thought. I guess that reveals me to be a hard core Westerner.

And setting is important because for at least the Empire, control of the land’s magic becomes an issue. The land itself becomes a secondary character (I had started that exploration in Choices, and am playing with it a bit more in Judgment). I know that’s going to be a huge factor in rewrites.

The process for this draft has been slower than usual, though, probably due to the multiple viewpoints. This is only the second time I’ve used this many POVs (four). The last time, in Netwalking Space, things were made easier by having a heavy suspense-laden plot where things could happen a lot faster with fewer issues caused by the environment. This time around, not only was I limited to fantasy structures, but I had a LOT more travel time to account for. Plus meddling Gods, Gods gone bad, and a megalomaniac sorcerous Emperor ripe for overthrow by distant relatives.

But the setting, oh Gods, the setting. I spent a lot of time thinking about how to show it, especially the huge differences in the new land’s culture for two of the characters. I have this distinct feeling that the rewrite is going to reveal that now I need to go back and work on characters. Or not. I won’t know for a while, especially since I’m going to let the book sit for a month while I start development on the next book.

For the most part, I was able to stick to a discipline of 2000 words a day. I just didn’t always write every day, and toward the end, sometimes I only got a few hundred words in. Some of this was due to just plain Life. We traveled to Glacier National Park for a week in September. After returning from Glacier, we focused on wrapping up woodcutting for the winter. Helped move the son’s girlfriend in with him. Did some pleasure drives in the woods (also known as scouting for next year’s woodcutting). All the same, October writing turned into a slog. I was getting tired of the characters. Tired of this world. At one point I was honestly starting to wonder just how the heck people manage to write multiple books in a series before releasing any of them, because I was certainly sick of this otherwise well-loved world I’d built. Flip side, I was wondering how someone manages to take longer than this to actually write a single book for longer than four months because I was definitely Sick. To. Death. of this world, more so than my usual end-of-book ennui.

I guess that speaks to my typical process. Or perhaps the reality that these two books have eaten up most of my writing production this year (we shall not speak of the Problematic Climate Change Novel that ate the end of 2018/first part of 2019. It has many many issues, and if the foundation novella of it hadn’t sold well for the small press that I have nothing but nasty thoughts about, I’d have gotten the rights back and dropped the damn thing. But it has some good stuff at its core–it’s just not working as I set it up. And I won’t release the version the press had because oh God, it’s horrible).

For the first part of the book, I kept up a handwritten journal where I explored thoughts and ideas related to the story (and noted new ideas). But after I got into the last 30k words, that discipline faded off. Maybe that failure of discipline had to do with my book exhaustion. In past books, I’ve been able to juggle other stuff going on. Age? Story? I have no idea. Each book is its own creature.

At least it is done and ready to rest. The next book is going to be science fiction, and a drastic departure from this world. I have research to do, most of which is local. I’m also going to be worldbuilding on the rather complex world for the book after this, which is going to be Weird Western/multiverse/time travel.

And with this completion, I can safely say that the Goddess’s Honor series is finished. Will there be other stories in this world? Yes. There’s room for at least two more series. Goddess’s Honor ends with the death of one Goddess and the rise of a new Goddess to replace her. But for now, those stories have to ferment and age before they’re ready to be written–and I have other stories that have been patiently waiting their turn to be told. It’s their time as well.

Meanwhile, I have things to sew for the three weeks of holiday bazaars starting next weekend. A book-to-quilt piece to conceptualize and create. Two quilting challenges to meet for the local guild. And Miss Mocha is making it clear that she is very, very happy to be returning to a veneer of quasi-show horse training as part of her riding routines. Snow and ice appears to be holding off for a while, so I’m taking advantage of that to get riding time in.

I’m definitely not lacking for things to do.

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December 31, 2018 · 10:34 pm

Well. That was 2018.

This is going to be one of those yearly summary posts–some good, some bad, some whatever. 2018 has been another one of Those Years. You know, the sort where you’re flailing about at everything, trying to get things going and stuff just keeps happening…and happening…and happening. I made some book sales, found some cool new fans as well as kept up contacts with old fans, did stuff with the horse, and etc.

Not that it’s been a particularly bad year…it’s just been one of Those Years. Crappy moments and shining moments, all wrapped up together.

Part of the reason (besides politics which is absolutely horrific, horrible, crappy, ick, and I’m totally back in fretting about apocalyptic scenarios–well hey! I’m writing an apocalyptic book right now and the next fantasy book will also be apocalyptic in tone so I’m right on track here!) is that I think I really started kind of feeling my age this year. The area that has suffered the most has been this blog. Writing-wise, I’ve been chugging along, though not as faithfully as I would like. I think the sales of Pledges of Honor are finally slowing down…but I’m not going to gripe, because it has been selling steadily over the past three years, ever since I published it back in 2015. Sales still occasionally pop up for the Netwalk Sequence series, though no one really seems to go too far with it. I…have plans to do something about that.

Pledges did earn itself a Semifinalist position in the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off. I had hopes for higher, but c’est la vie. A review is supposed to come out for it next week from one of the reviewers.

So let’s look at Joyce’s Year in Writing, Horses, and Health.

Writing:

I published two books and edited an anthology, for starters.

Challenges of Honor, the second book in the Goddess’s Honor series, came out in the spring. It hasn’t sold as well as the first book, but you know, things can change.

Blurb and linkage for Amazon here.

Linkage for Books2Read here. (Apple, Nook, Kobo, etc)

Klone’s Stronghold, a contemporary fantasy featuring a mix of supernaturals, cryptids, and family issues in the isolated Bucket Mountains of NE Oregon, came out in the summer. It’s not done as well as I had hoped; nonetheless I’ve got some ideas for a sequel to it.

Blurb and linkage for Amazon here.

Linkage for Books2Read (Apple, Nook, Kobo, etc) here.

I’m currently working on a rewrite of a previously published novella, Seeking Shelter at the End of the World. The new title is Beating the Apocalypse. It’s not going to look much like the original. I’ve added two viewpoint characters, eliminated at least one and maybe two deaths in the course of the book (though I do kill others), am at about 20k additional words, and am making it a MUCH more complex book.

I also edited a themed anthology, Pulling Up Stakes, (includes my Oregon Country story “To Plant or Pull Up Stakes”) and am working on a second one, Whimsical Beasts (which will include my story “The Wisdom of Robins”).

Pulling Up Stakes Amazon details here.

Short stories also happened this year. I wrote the following Goddess’s Honor tie-in shorts:

Return to Wickmasa (post-Pledges of Honor) B2R (includes Amazon), Cleaning House (post Challenges of Honor) B2R (includes Amazon), and Unexpected Alliances, B2R (includes Amazon). I’ve decided not to mess with loading short stories directly to Kindle but will load them into Kindle via Draft2Digital.

I wrote Going Gently for the Netwalk Sequence universe. B2R (includes Amazon).

“The Cow at the End of the World” came out in Well, It’s Your Cow, edited by Frog Jones. Amazon.

I have two new stories in circulation (“A Quilter’s Stellar Sandwich” and “My Woman Left Me, My Dog Hates Me, and There Goes My Truck”). I’m also marketing a novella, Bearing Witness, which is a weird alt-Western set in a universe I’m now calling the Vortex Worlds. I was originally going to self-publish it but decided to try my luck with the trad pub market so far. I’m underwhelmed, so it may go on the publishing schedule this spring.

Then I started playing around with Medium. I’m not very diligent about posting essays there yet, but I do have a few up. I’m also toying with writing a poem a week and posting it on a separate blog page. I plan to switch hosts in this coming year, and have temporarily set up a site on wordpress.com. I’ll be transferring the whole domain at some point here. Just works better for me than what I’ve been doing.

Horse:

Mocha turned 18 this year, and is fully a mature, opinionated mare. But we achieved a bucket list goal by winning a show series buckle in the local show series in the Ranch Horse division. So I now sport a genuine, honestly-won, silver belt buckle.

She was pastured up by the east moraine of Wallowa Lake this summer, so we spent some time riding the moraine and doing Real Trail Horse stuff. She loves it. One day she was edgy and energetic so I sent her straight up the side of the moraine (actually a fairly steep climb), with plans to sidehill it if she encountered problems. She didn’t.

She went into the winter looking the best I’ve seen her in a long time, her back completely filled out around the spine and minimal sign of rib. Nonetheless, she’s getting up there in years so I’m not pushing her. She’s let me know that she really, really likes the idea of gaming as opposed to rail classes but OKAY WE WILL DEAL WITH STUPID RAIL STUFF IF THERE’S GAMING (keyhole and barrels are her favorites). As long as she enjoys the notion of “turn and burn” we’ll keep doing it. We did our first winter lope under saddle a couple of days ago (it’s been a not-so-good winter for riding outside) and she was full of energy, ready to go, and everything you want to feel with a mature horse living outside 24/7.

Health and Other Stuff:

This is the year that the teaching stuff has pretty much gone away. I substitute occasionally, and will be teaching a writing class in February, but otherwise–my long-term substitute gig abruptly ended at the end of the semester in January, and I’ve not been actively drumming up anything other than writing coaching business. I think it’s time to move away from K-12 teaching–I’m ready.

This year I feel like I’m really starting to get with it in quilting. I’ve made two small quilts and a bigger one as well as several small wall hangings. I think I will start working toward art quilt wall hangings for the science fiction and fantasy market. Other craft work is “meh”. I do have a few fans of my jewelry but not enough to put much energy into it outside of the occasional bazaar. Well…I might start trying the science fiction art show circuit again.

Health-wise, I had a real wakeup call in the fall of 2017 when I had problems hiking because my hips were too tight and I had issues. Plus I was having leg spasms bad enough that I could watch them go in waves down my right leg at their worst. Things were not good. I hurt a lot. Not the earth-shaking, major pain-killer pain, but that dragging soft-tissue coupled with arthritic pain that no traditional doctor takes seriously in a woman, especially if you can’t/won’t handle muscle-relaxants for the soft tissue stuff. And then there was the persistent shoulder issues.

Then I discovered a shiatsu massage pillow. That led to acupuncture and chiropractic work in addition to my regular massages because I realized part of the relief I was feeling came from adhesions getting broken loose. I also got smart about living in the world of ice/snow and bought hiking sticks and Yaktrak shoe chains to reduce the risk of falling (still happens but not as much). I started using a neck pillow for any drives over two hours. Additionally, I started using CBD and THC topicals, as well as oral CBD. Things aren’t perfect, but I can move again. There’s one troublesome spot in my right hip which has plagued me for thirty-eight-some years, thanks to a fall while jogging, but it’s much improved from what it’s been over the last ten years. What’s even more encouraging is that I have the urge to move again. I want to work out. My muscles are tight on a three-day cycle, but it is absolutely not the same sort of thing as I was experiencing before.

I’ve also gone back to using moisturizer and makeup. Part of it is that I have an excellent source of mineral-based makeup here in Enterprise–Wild Carrot Herbals has their company store here (as well as their warehouse/manufacturing headquarters) and they carry a nice line of makeup. I went back to my favorite Elizabeth Arden Ceramide-based moisturizers and foundation. It really does make a difference, and the moisturizer holds up to a lot of winter weather. I do need to find something different for hot summer days, though….

In any case, it’s been a year. I’m hoping to be more energized in 2019–if anything, that’s my goal for the year ahead. I want to advance my writing, perhaps expand my craft work into art shows, and otherwise.

I’ll probably put up another post about 2019 goals tomorrow. We’ll see.

 

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November 14, 2018 · 9:28 pm

That moment when you realize…

…that dang, you have been working.

One of the things that happened today was work on a couple of press releases, one for a book reading/signing/informal Q and A about self-publishing at JaxDogCafe in LaGrande in December, and the other for a three-hour self-publishing workshop I’m doing with Fishtrap in February. I decided that perhaps for the bio I should mention how many anthologies I’ve been in, how many books I’ve published, and how many short stories I’ve published (some of which are anthology repeats).

The numbers startled me.

Twelve books. Doesn’t count the one I pulled from eTreasures publishing.

At least twelve anthologies (I think I missed a couple that aren’t on Amazon).

And at least twenty self-published short stories…many of which are either series world-building stories or anthology reprints. That doesn’t count the ones that I’ve published in various magazines–so add at least ten-twelve more that don’t show up in my Amazon page.

Um. Okay. Wow. Does this mean I’m at the point of accumulating a sufficiently significant body of work that I might someday become an…overnight success? Dare I hope?

We shall see.

Meanwhile, even though I’m not officially doing Nanowrimo, I’ve been productive. As in I’ve blocked out a full story, written an essay, written a story, and am getting ready to write that blocked-out story (and wrote a story in October). I think I’ll be starting Beating the Apocalypse in December…somehow I just couldn’t do it in the heat of summer.

I think things are getting back on track writing-wise. Yay.

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September 2, 2018 · 4:35 pm

“Going Gently” is pretty much finished

Or so it seems. It’s a rough draft finish, of course, and I think that I’ll probably polish it and release the polished version for sale in December.

Meanwhile, I’m going to make it available to my newsletter subscribers in rough draft form, with a cover that reflects that status. In some ways, this was a tough story to write while also being compelling. It was about death, and transition, and aging. Not sure I’m completely satisfied with the ending–I never am, especially in the roughs–but it did come to an end.

Will this be the final Netwalk Sequence work? To be honest, I’m not sure. I left some loose ends hanging because they’re relevant to the backstory in Star Shepherds (which is not going to be started until I get some other projects out of the way and do some necessary research). I may go back and tweak a few of those because one new character (who will be very relevant to Star Shepherds) doesn’t get enough foundation. But I couldn’t do that until I finished the story, and, well, gotta have time to format it into reading form and get it ready to go on BookFunnel.

But make no mistake, this is a transition story between Netwalk Sequence and Star Shepherds. I may write a few more stories set in this time period as world building for Star Shepherds. I just don’t know yet. There’s other writing I need to get done, which also includes some work on getting spec stories out instead of self-pub stories. And then there’s Beating the Apocalypse, which I’ve delayed starting because I thought I was going to have some conflicts that have now gone away.

I may still put off starting up Apocalypse until later in the month so I can get some short writing done. We shall see.

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August 26, 2018 · 11:07 pm

Going Gently…the new Netwalk Sequence story

Like I said yesterday, I had no real intention of opening the Netwalk Sequence again.

But this story, I tell you…it’s at 4300 words and growing. At this point, I’m looking at a probable novelette length. I don’t think it’s a novella, but I’ve been putting down a lot of breadcrumbs that could sustain a longer story than just 5000 words.

In this story, we’re seeing Melanie after a stroke, with her brother Andrew near death from cancer, and…one more crisis is thrown at them, at the end of their lifespan. I started moving past the basic mechanism of that original story concept to deal with these characters who are facing the question of “do I upload into digital life and why”–where the why may affect the long-term survival of humanity.

The question of aging, in a world where digital life is possible. It’s…interesting.

In any case, I expect to have it ready in rough form for a newsletter giveaway. Actual publication will be probably in November or December. Totally unplanned, but…worth it, I think.

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August 25, 2018 · 12:20 pm

Netwalk Sequence…redux, and introducing Star Shepherds

I hadn’t planned to write anything further in the Netwalk Sequence after I finished Netwalking Space, at least not for a while. Oh, a far future version was on the publishing schedule (Star Shepherds),  but as for anything immediately after Space?

Not really.

And then a particular scene kept popping into my head when I drowsed off to sleep. An old Melanie and Andrew on the Moon, Andrew near death, and in need of Melanie’s assistance.

The scene kept haunting me. Why did Andrew want Melanie to come to the Moon so urgently, at an age and fragility when it would be daunting? To say goodbye, true–but there was something more going on.

Well, it’s a story. Possibly an introduction or worldbuilding for the foundation of Star Shepherds. I should be done with it in time to give it away for my next newsletter release. Let’s just say it’s an interesting premise.

(and if you’re not already subscribed to my newsletter, leave a comment or message me)

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August 10, 2018 · 5:19 pm

Wrestling with a story–Beating the Apocalypse

This summer has been about the complete rewrite of a novella as I expand it into a full-length novel. Seeking Shelter at the End of the World came out from eTreasures Publishing over three years ago. It wasn’t one of my premium projects at the time (that honor went to a series, Netwalk Sequence) and I had been recruited to submit something to this small press because of my placement in an anthology that was an award finalist.

Well, cool. I had a short story and a novelette set in the same world, so I stuck them together to make a novella and sent it off, along with Pledges of Honor.

The writer-publisher relationship didn’t go well. I took the rights back to Pledges based on several technicalities, but I left Seeking Shelter alone to ride out the rest of the three-year-contract. It hadn’t been a priority and I had other projects ahead of it on the to-do list, certainly not enough to justify buying out the contract for early rights reversion. As near as I could tell, it wasn’t exactly selling that much, so I focused elsewhere–finishing the Netwalk Sequence, expanding Pledges into its own series (Goddess’s Honor), writing a fun short contemporary fantasy novel (Klone’s Stronghold).

Then things blew up a little over a year ago. I discovered that wait a minute, the story WAS selling (I had to make a right royal witch of myself to get a royalty report), and in the meantime I’d been noodling around with some concepts that would dovetail very nicely with the ending of Seeking Shelter. I thought it would be easy to repackage and get that story right back out there. But I wasn’t going to touch it until I had my rights back in hand (which proved to be a Very Good Idea, for Reasons–getting those rights back took a fight and I walked away from the promise of print publication, and for the record, I’m really glad I did). Still, I thought turning the book around and getting it out again wouldn’t be that hard.

Uh–no to the easy.

Seeking Shelter had suffered from a crappy first edit, of the sort where you send it back with blistering comments about how editorial recommendations don’t match the industry-standard basics (um…punctuating speech tags as action tags and vice versa, for one). Even as a less-experienced editor at the time I knew this editor screwed up. Fortunately, the second editing round was better, but I winced when I finally took a look at the story once the paperwork was done and I had rights back in my hot little hand. Dear God, it was a mess.

At the time Seeking Shelter was released, cli-fi was just starting to become a thing. The two stories had never quite been fully integrated–the short story piece, “Canaries,” was good enough to earn an Honorable Mention in Writers of the Future but it lacked sufficient worldbuilding to carry the premise. I could see where adding on the concepts I’d been noodling with over the past three years would be enough to make it a longer, better, book.

All right. I had the extension premise to work with. Slap that onto the back end of the existing story and get it back out there, right?

Uh, no.

Characterization of the antagonist reared its ugly head, since he was created from the finest cardboard. Ick. So I started digging around in what might motivate this guy (as well as fixing up a few things, bringing a dead secondary character back to life, creating the antagonist’s love interest, and…and…and.).

One thing kept leading to another. There’s been times when I’ve thought about walking away from this project, but on the other hand, the more I started poking at this world, the more promise I saw in it. Over the course of the last month or so, since Fishtrap, I’ve taken a deep breath and decided to go big with the story. It deserves much more than a slapdash, half-assed rewrite.

But finding the right path for this book hasn’t been easy. Various notes on paper and in Scrivener tell the tale. I decided the antagonist needed to have a voice. I went down various plotbuilding rat holes and dead ends. Meanwhile, we’re going through a horribly hot and dry summer which makes my brain fuzzy (I am SO not a hot weather person), while giving me inspiration.

All the same, I’m now at the point where I feel as if I can wrap my hands around the basic plot. I’ve added one more point of view, and today I did preblocking preparation so that I can sit down with my favorite yellow legal pad in landscape layout to block out the entire book. I still need to build elements of this world but now I KNOW the backstory and can go from there with it.

It’s a complete rewrite now. The first round rewrite just wasn’t enough. Bandaids and warts are visible. I’m going to start fresh, though there will be copying and pasting from the latest version into an entirely separate document. I may do this one in Scrivener to make things easier on me; at the very least things are going to be swapped back and forth between Word and Scrivener as the situation requires. Portions of the first 2/3rds of the book are written but as it stands, instead of 20,000 to 40,000 more words, I need to add about 60,000 words.

But I’m going to do it. This book is going to be much more kick-ass than its progenitor. Instead of Seeking Shelter at the End of the World, it’s now Beating the Apocalypse. I still intend to end it on a positive note–but there’s going to be a lot more to it than there was before. I’m projecting a late 2018/early 2019 publication date, just because I don’t think this one is going to come along easily. I may end up doing like I did with Klone’s Stronghold and putting it aside to get a Goddess’s Honor book, Choices of Honor, done (along with short stories, essays, and poems. It’s time to get back into spec short story writing). Choices is already semi-blocked out and I just need to do a few more prep things before I get rolling on it.

I’m still planning to put out the middle-aged ski bum memoir, Ski Days, this November. Most of that is taken from blog posts I wrote over the years about skiing.

It’s gonna be a fun ride.

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