Much thanks to Raimey Gallant for creating and organizing this blog hop where writers can share information and learn something new. Find the rules and a list of all participants here.
I learned a lot of things in January which was my first month participating in this blog hop. I'm sure this month will be the same.
As is probably the case with you, since I've become a writer, I've become a more discerning reader. Life is too short to read books or stories we're not enjoying. With a terrific library only a few minutes driving time from my house, I have access to a lot of books. I often pick up a book because I heard about it or saw it on some kind of list.
Sometimes, I find a new author that I've never read before this way and immediately gobble up everything that they've written. But then there are the ones that I can't finish. I try, usually for a few chapters or at least fifty pages. I don't have more time than that for a book I can't get into. But finding those books has helped me be a better writer. Or, I hope so.
Every time I don't finish a book, I analyze why it didn't work for me. At the very top of that list is unlikable characters. Then I have to figure out why I can't bring myself to care about those characters. Are they whiny, immature, selfish, or TSTL (too stupid to live)? They have fifty pages for me to believe they're going to grow or change.
The second thing that might turn me off is an unbelievable relationship. Did a couple fall in love for no reason other than the other person being pretty? Did one of them do something so mean or unforgivable yet they are forgiven because they're sexy?
Third are the flawless or totally dark characters. No one should be perfectly angelic and no would should be completely evil, at least not if they're human. Characters who are too good can be boring. Their ethics and morally need to challenged.
A fourth element that makes me put a book down is the setting. For whatever personal quirk, I can't read books about the entertainment industry or politics. I usually won't even start a book set in one of those arenas.
Coming in at number five is when nothing happens. No action, no drama, no tension, maybe not even a change in the weather. The story needs to move forward. Maybe the last one hundred pages are great, but the author is going to lose me before I get there.
There are many smaller things that turn me off to a book, but those above are things that guide me in my own writing. It gives me pause when a reviewer remarks that they didn't think the central relationship was realistic. I listen because that is one of my pet peeves. I like snarky characters with flaws, but I don't want my protagonist to be cruel or vicious. Each time I read a book, I try to figure how why it didn't work. Most writers will agree that reading is very important to being a writer.
"If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all else: read a lot and write a lot." Stephen King
I read at least two books per week of varying genres. Currently, I'm catching up with Jane Harper. I read her first book, The Dry and am into Force of Nature right now. I'll get her third book, The Lost Man from my local library. I love her setting and she surrounds her main protagonist with interesting characters. I also like reading about a law enforcement officer who isn't drunk and lacking in discipline and common sense but is still bringing personal issues to the table.
Another favorite author I read and re-read is John Hart. I never skim over a word in his books even when I'm reading them for the second time. If you haven't read him before, start with The Last Child.
Do you read a lot? Any good recommendations? What turns you off from a book? Does your reading help your writing?
We're bracing for another snowstorm today in PA, so I'll visit other blogs when I can.
Susan Kelley, dangerous love across galaxies & epic journeys of high fantasy adventure
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Monday, February 18, 2019
Corruption by Nick Wilford
Hi Susan! Thanks for hosting me as part of my tour. Today, we're going to go live to one of Harmonia's top investigative TV shows for an interview with the youngest member of the science team.
*
I’m Mark Tangleford from Harmonia Happenings, and today we’ve got something exciting for you – an insight into the hitherto secretive world of the Whitopolis science labs through the eyes of its youngest member, Dr Daniel Carrickson.
Let’s introduce you to our viewers. Can you tell our viewers a bit about yourself and how you got started in the exciting world of science?
(Clears throat nervously) Well, sure, Mark. Um, let me see. I guess I was always fascinated by science, all the wonderful things around us that make our lives better. Most people take them for granted, like the food transmission units – they just produce a delicious plate of food out of nothing, and it wasn’t always like that. When I was eight I tried to take ours apart at home to see how it worked. My parents had to spend five hundred dollars on repairs, so they weren’t too happy, but when I was leaving school my dad – who works as a government adviser – heard about an opening for a trainee scientist and put my name forward.
Yes, under the old system it seemed to be very much about having connections if you wanted to get anywhere in government. Now it seems they’re trying to make things a lot more open. Can you tell me about how things have changed?
Yeah, well, I’d only been in about my job for about a year you see when Wellesbury Noon overthrew the Reformers. So I wasn’t too set in my ways, unlike some of my older team members who, um, weren’t particularly happy about it! I don’t want to say anything bad, so I’ll leave it there. But yeah, it does seem more open, transparent you could say. We get groups of visitors who come round to see how everything’s done. It doesn’t seem like we keep secrets any more, whereas before people didn’t even know where the labs were. It was like a fortress.
Now tell me what’s coming up in the world of science. I hear you’re going to be part of a very special mission to Loretania.
That’s right, we’re preparing mass quantities of the disease antidote to help all the people over there who are suffering so much. That’s another thing I’m glad is out in the open. Of course, all of us who were behind the scenes, you could say, knew about what things were like there, but it was kept hidden from the population. It was the biggest secret of all. So yes, I’m really excited about that. It’s going to make a real difference and I hope it leads to some sort of interaction between the two countries.
Thank you for talking with us today, Daniel. I’ll let you get back to your important work now.
Thank you. It was a pleasure!
Title: Corruption
Author: Nick Wilford
Genre: YA dystopian
Series: Black & White
Series #: 2 of 3
Release date: 11th February 2019
Publisher: Superstar Peanut Publishing
Blurb:
Wellesbury Noon and Ezmerelda Dontible have found themselves in a position where they can make their native land somewhere that lives up to its name: Harmonia. However, they’re setting their sights further afield for their number one task: eradicating the disease that has plagued the neighbouring country of Loretania for generations and allowed the privileged Harmonians to live in a sterile environment.
After dispatching a team of scientists to Loretania, armed with cratefuls of an antidote and vaccine and headed up by their friend, Dr George Tindleson, Welles, Ez, and Welles’s brother Mal – who grew up in that benighted nation – start to worry when they hear nothing back, despite what they had agreed. Commandeering a fishing boat to follow the science team over the sea, they soon find that, while the disease may be on the way out, a new kind of infection has set in – the corruption they thought they had stamped out in Harmonia.
Can they get to the root of the problem and eliminate it before even more damage is done to an innocent people?
*** Warning – this book contains themes that some sensitive readers may find upsetting. ***
After dispatching a team of scientists to Loretania, armed with cratefuls of an antidote and vaccine and headed up by their friend, Dr George Tindleson, Welles, Ez, and Welles’s brother Mal – who grew up in that benighted nation – start to worry when they hear nothing back, despite what they had agreed. Commandeering a fishing boat to follow the science team over the sea, they soon find that, while the disease may be on the way out, a new kind of infection has set in – the corruption they thought they had stamped out in Harmonia.
Can they get to the root of the problem and eliminate it before even more damage is done to an innocent people?
*** Warning – this book contains themes that some sensitive readers may find upsetting. ***
Purchase Links:
Meet the author:
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
IWSG: February 2019
The optional question for hop participants this month: Besides writing, what other creative outlets do you have?
Not as many as I used to. LOL. Time being a factor. I love cross-stitch and have done some pretty nice projects with it, if I do say so myself. I also love to crochet and I love to bake and try new recipes. I don't do much of the latter anymore. With my kids all grown up, baking is a very bad idea for my husband and me. It's only us to eat those goodies. I have no one to crochet a blanket for either though my granddaughter is getting one as soon as she's old enough to pick her colors.
Hope you all didn't suffer too much in the recent deep freeze. It was really miserable. I'm dreading the electric bill which will probably be posted today or tomorrow. Could be a record for us. It's warmer than average now, but who knows what is on the horizon.
"A fair day in winter is the mother of a storm." English proverb
I've been reading a lot of statistics about publishing and how writers are faring in this ever more competitive field. Lots of numbers show that authors are making a lot less in the past year than they made a few years ago. Over-saturation of the market is one of factors most often cited. At a recent one-day workshop I attended, the presenter shared that 730 new romance novels are published every day. Wow! Romance readers are voracious, but those numbers are still unnerving. How does one get found by new readers?
Working on a new book and trying to keep my 1,000 words per day going like I have for the last four books I wrote. It took me a lot of years to figure out a process that works for me.
I'm enjoying the new FOX show, The Passage. It's a lot like the books, and the differences are working. It's getting the creep factor right. Another show I'm looking forward to in 2019 is the return to The 100, a CW show that gets better every year. Also, I heard this season of SYFY's Killjoys will be its last. This is a fun show if you haven't tried it before. In case you believe I only watch science fiction and fantasy show, I am really enjoying the new CBS show, FBI.
Saw on the news today that Pennsylvania's new budget is once again not increasing the funding to public libraries. What are they thinking. It's one of those things I'm glad to pay taxes to support. Hope your home states or countries do better than mine. On the other hand, my local county has found more monies for libraries. I can't express how important libraries are and how much I love my local one.
Stay warm, friends, and keep on reading and writing. Do you have many creative outlets? Do you love your local library? Did the polar vortex get you? Any TV keeping your warm this winter?
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
#Author Toolbox Bloghop Jan2019
I've been published by a small press for almost twelve years now. Much has changed since I first started writing. Back at the beginning, I was lucky enough to find a local chapter of RWA who holds monthly meetings. I learned tons about formatting, query letters, synopsis, and all those other things we have to learn that aren't writing the current WIP but that we need to do.
Eager for information that would help me get published, every year I would buy the latest version of Writer's Digest thick book of agents and publishers. It was also at that time that everything had to submitted by snail mail in hard copy to any of the Big Publishers. I wasn't published and had no budget. I look back at the records I kept then and am horrified at how much I spent on postage. I also remember the hours I spent perusing that Writer's Digest guide. I spent money every month buying writing magazines. Looking for the secret to breaking into the business. I had two shelves in my office filled with writing books.
I'm not sure I'm wiser now, and the industry has really changed. Submissions are digital. The savings in postage, paper, ink as well as avoiding the very slow local post office make me very happy. No reason to buy that thick Writers Digest Guide to Editors and Agents. All that information is online. The information I read all those magazines for is now free online. The Write Life website recently posted their annual list of 100 Best Writing Websites: 2019.
The Writer's Digest magazine still tempts me with special offers and I take them up on it now and then. One of the best issues they put out is their version of 100 best websites for writers. Again, everything we writers need is online and most of it is free.
Looking back, I know I was using reading those writing books and magazines was a form of procrastination for me. I still have a lot to learn and hopefully will continue learning throughout my writing career, but I know the most important thing I can do with my time is write. I've also learned that there is no secret hidden in those books. It's all about hard work and persistence.
"Luck is not chance, it's toil; fortune's expensive smile is earned." Emily Dickinson
Do you remember the days of snail mail submissions? Do you still purchase writing magazines or writing books? Thanks, everyone, for welcoming me to your group.
Monday, January 14, 2019
How To Build a Green Mars
My novel – my very first published one! – is “The Bride From
Dairapaska.” It is set on my vision of a terraformed Mars and incorporates a
lot of what I’ve learned about soil building, resource management,
colonization, infrastructure needs, and how to work without access to fossil
fuels.
There is a story, I promise. But before I could write the
first word, I had to build a green Mars, and that meant thinking about how it could
be terraformed.
There was one problem: After a lot of reading and thinking,
I concluded that it can’t work. It would be easier to turn the Gobi Desert into
a green and pleasant land, well-watered, fertile, and rich in agricultural
products of all kinds, than it would to grow a blade of grass on Mars.
For one thing, terraforming the Gobi Desert does not require
140-million-mile-long supply lines on average for your equipment. Earth has
fossil fuels. There is soil. There are plenty of people to do the work. There
are no problems with a breathable atmosphere. It has the gravity that the human
body and every other critter evolved with. Earth has a magnetosphere which both
holds in the atmosphere and repels the deadly, radiation-laden solar wind. Mars
does not. There are difficulties in traveling through space, starting with
outer space damaging the human body starting from the very first day.
So how do you build a green Mars? First, obtain a lot of
Handwavium. This important element was discovered by the first science-fiction
writers to explain faster-than-light travel, bug-eyed monsters, time travel, or
any other concept that science couldn’t explain.
Next, work out the terraforming process. The number one
issue in terraforming the planet is building soil so the colonists can feed
themselves. I decided that Mars could be seeded with genetically-modified
molds, algae, lichens, mosses, and fungi. Give them 100 million years to work,
and you’ll have soil. For my purpose, I made them fast-growing to cut down the
time!
Then I broke out the Handwavium to give Mars a magnetosphere
— by creating machines to make the core of the planet spin — and give it a
heat-trapping atmosphere.
The next problem was fossil fuels. It’s hard to imagine life
without coal or oil, yet people managed. However, a high-tech civilization
depends on coal and oil. Solar panels and wind turbines cannot be built without
fossil fuels. Solar panels are made from plastics derived from oil. The metal
needed for steel can be dug out by men with picks and shovels. It cannot be
smelted without charcoal (made from trees), peat (compressed plant material
that hasn’t turned into coal), coal, or oil. You can’t run a blast furnace on
electricity even if you can generate the electricity with your nuclear power
plant.
So, the colonists will make do with what they brought with
them, and get real good at fixing broken equipment and clever at coming up with
substitutes.
Once that was settled, it was time to figure out how the
colonists would organize to settle the planet. I developed a feudal, agrarian
culture built on the labor of peasants. I use men as draft animals, something
many cultures have done. What is a coolie but a draft animal? You’re going to
have people, you need people, they have to eat and so that muscle gets put to
work.
But not all of Mars will be settled. After a couple hundred
years, there’ll be enough people to cover less than half the surface, which
leaves lots of space for people to form horse-riding tribes similar to Native
Americans or Mongols. They’ll develop their own belief systems, customs, and
family traditions.
Next, I considered the distribution of wealth. In many
traditional empires, the closer you are to the capital, the more technology you
have available. The richer you are, the more technology you can use. A Roman
emperor could have ices in the summer; his lowliest subjects did not. Life in
the capital of Barsoom on the equator will feel very different from life with
the horse-riding barbarians in the northern and southern latitudes.
Relations with Earth also play a role in the stories. Immense
amounts of wealth had to be poured into terraforming Mars. The investors expect
a substantial return on their investment. All empires expect their colonies to
generate wealth that is returned to the empire’s elite. This is called a
“wealth pump.” The colonies of an empire are mined for their assets, and that
wealth pours back into the center of the empire, leaving the colony
increasingly stripped bare.
“The Bride From Dairapaska” gives you the answers, and introduces
you to a Mars you’ve never seen before. I’m looking forward to exploring it in future
books, and I hope you’ll come along for the journey.
For Writers
Writing is a business. If you aren’t getting paid, it’s a
hobby. The IRS says so and they’re right. As a functioning business, it should
provide you, the writer, with not just a current income (even if it’s only
walking-around money), but a future income as well.
For Everyone
If you want to see something sad, ask a room full of
freelance writers about their tax strategies. It’s like asking a pack of baby
kittens about space travel.
In a rural village on a terraformed Mars, a lonely young
wife takes her children and dog and flees into the vast open steppes. Debbie
only wanted to escape her abusive husband, but her encounter with the Steppes
Riders, and especially Yannick of Kenyatta, unwittingly ignites changes that
attract the attention of Mars’ ruling families. Left to her own resources,
Debbie must adapt to her new life and figure out how to defend her adopted
people.
“The Steppes of Mars” series imagines a transformed world
where a disaster on Earth decades ago cut off all contact with its wealth and
resources. Experience a Mars where its genetically modified inhabitants have
developed their own cultures, beliefs, and religions. A semi-feudal world where
ruling families control vast demesnes under a central government at Barsoom. A
world of limited resources where train travel is possible but cars and planes
are not. A world of free-cities — open and domed — villages, vast fields and
steppes, and people banding together to survive and thrive in this harsh new
world.
Odessa Moon has, at various times, painted, sewed, served in
the Navy, worked as a sales clerk and cashier, taken care of her family, and
gardened with enthusiasm. She reads extensively, especially about medieval
history, the class struggle, colonization, and resource depletion. She read
piles of science-fiction and fantasy in her youth and often wondered what the
authors hand-waved away about how difficult it really would be to terraform
another planet at the end of a 140-million-mile supply line. Her “The Steppes
of Mars” series combines all those interests.
When Ms. Moon is not writing, she is working on improving
the soil in her own garden and planting trees in Hershey, Pa., where the air
really does smell of chocolate.
Visit her website at OdessaMoon
Do you think we'll ever build a settlement on Mars? Would you go? Do you think mankind would take all the social problems of Earth with them to Mars? Have you ever been to Hershey, PA and smelled the chocolate in the air?
Monday, January 7, 2019
Guest Rachel J. Good: Blessings in Disguise
Please welcome Rachel J. Good today as she shares her writing journey and many reasons not to give up when your publisher closes or changes their plans without consulting you. She is a prolific writer and is a skilled navigator of this tricky business of writing. Here's Rachel:
Life isn’t always
easy, but sometimes the darkest times may turn out to be blessings. If I hadn’t
lost my library job, I’d never have become a writer. Once I did start writing,
I worked for years on
I didn’t count on
the publisher closing the fiction line and orphaning my third and fourth books,
especially not after I’d just given my editor ideas for continuing the series. I’m
grateful for my agent, who suggested I give those ideas a new spin and she’d
send them out. Several days later, she had requests from three different
publishers for a sample chapter. Two of them made an offer, so we went with
Hachette/ Grand Central. And the Love & Promises series was born. TheAmish Midwife’s Secret (Nov. 2018) is the second book in that
series. The Amish Teacher’s Gift (Apr. 2018) and The Amish Widow’s Rescue
(May 2019) round out the series.
Although I was
devastated by the closing, it turned out to be a major blessing because I moved
from a mid-sized publisher to one of the Big 5. Had I stayed where I was, this new
series wouldn’t have made the BookScan bestseller lists or be featured in USA Today. But that wasn’t the only
blessing. A few months later, I received a message from Harlequin, and they contracted
the orphaned books from the Sisters & Friends series. Gift from Above (Feb.) and Big-City
Amish (June) will be part of their Wal-Mart exclusives program in 2019.
That experience
taught me not to count on only one publisher or one genre. Lines close, editors
leave, genres wane. So, although I recently signed a six-book contract with
Kensington for more Amish romances, my agent is preparing to shop two other
series proposals—inspirational Westerns and sweet romances. I’m also working on
new MG and YA novels as well planning a mystery novella series. As I (and many
of my writer friends) have discovered, it’s important to give yourself multiple
options if you’re hoping for a lifelong career in writing.
An Amish
midwife and an Englisch doctor must embrace their differences
to rescue a baby in need in this uplifting romance that will “capture your
heart and leave you smiling” (Amy Lillard, award-winning author).
Kyle Miller never
planned on becoming a country doctor. But when he's offered a medical practice
in his sleepy hometown, Kyle knows he must return... and face the painful past
he left behind. Except
The more Leah
Stoltzfus works with the handsome Englisch doctor, the more
she finds herself caught between the expectations of her family and her own
hopes for the future. It will take one surprising revelation and one helpless
baby in need of love to show Leah and Kyle that their bond may be greater than
their differences... if Leah can find the courage to follow
her heart.
“The Amish
Teacher's Gift might have been the first book I've read by Rachel J.
Good, but it won't be my last.” - Shelley Shepard Gray, New York Times bestselling
author
**The Amish Midwife’s Secret can be
purchased at Walmart, Barnes & Noble, Meier’s, and other stores as well as
online at these sellers
and at ChristianBooks.com.
For international readers, Book
Depository offers free worldwide shipping.
** Readers can find out more about the hero,
Kyle, by reading the first two books in the Sisters & Friends series, Change
of Heart and Buried
Secrets, although the midwife story stands alone.
About
Rachel J. Good
Rachel’s Amish series include Sisters & Friends (Charisma House & Harlequin), Love & Promises (Hachette/Grand Central), Hearts of Amish Country (Annie’s Book Club), and the
forthcoming Surprised by Love and Unexpected Amish Blessings (Kensington). She
also has several anthologies
in print as well as the Amish Quilts Coloring Book. To learn more about Rachel, you can visit her website and sign up for her newsletter.
If you enjoy learning about Amish life and want to follow along
on her research trips to Amish country, you can join her private Facebook
group, Rachel J. Good’s Hitching Post.
Rachel can also be found here, and she’d love to connect
with you:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RachelJGood1
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14661177.Rachel_J_Good
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/racheljgood1/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Rachel-J-Good/e/B019DWF4FG
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/rachel-j-good
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14661177.Rachel_J_Good
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/racheljgood1/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Rachel-J-Good/e/B019DWF4FG
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/rachel-j-good
Thanks ever so
much for having me, Susan! And many blessings on your writing journey!
I've known Rachel for many years. She continues to amaze me with her accomplishments. Have you ever visited Amish country? Did anything about it surprise you? Ever own an Amish quilt or eat some Amish baking? Did you know how big the inspirational romance market is?
Wednesday, January 2, 2019
IWSG: January 2019 Edition
The optional question this month:
What are your favorite and least favorite questions people ask you about your writing?
I guess my least favorite is people asking me if I've paid someone to publish my books. My favorite is when they ask me when my next book will be out. Nothing like a fan eager to read my books to make my day, week, and year.
2019 saw a lot of writers facing declining sales. The ebook market flooded with more books than there were readers to buy them. Marketing continued to be frustrating and ever-changing. What works with one book may miss totally with the next.
On the upside for me, I wrote four complete novels in 2018, completing the final edits for The Alien and the Engineer on Christmas Eve. I also outline the next three novels I'll be writing in 2019 and have started a longer outline for my next epic fantasy series. My first romance novel was published by New Concepts publishing in 2007. The Alien and the Engineer is the 26th novel of mine published by NCP.
A few things I'm looking forward to in 2019.
My new Old Farmer's Almanac Planner. I'll share lots of its wisdom with you starting today.
"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." Unknown
Next week, the new show, The Passage, based on the book by Justin Cronin premiers on TV. Even though the third book in that series was an incredible let down, the show looks pretty good.
Of course, later in the year, we'll have the last season of Game of Thrones and End Game for the Avengers.
I recently watched three seasons of The Travelers on Netflix. I had started it a while ago but stopped for some reason after a few episodes. I'm really glad I dove back into it. The last episode of season 3 has one of the greatest twists in a series ever.
Happy New Year to you all. May 2019 be filled with joy, contentment, and adventure.
"It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness." Charles Spurgeon
What are you looking forward to in 2019? Did you meet your 2018 goals? Do certain questions from readers bother you?
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