Pull Out the Strait Jacket. It's Official. I've Lost My Mind.

I felt good about releasing Emberlin.

Good, in between panic attacks anyway.

But, then I started to feel guilty.  Who launches a three volume novel that is over 100,000 words at people they call friends and family?

Me.  Apparently.

So I decided to turn into a publishing monster and release one of my novellas.  It is only 18,000 words and has a handful of characters to keep track of.  Just in case someone doesn't want to spend the next four years reading one book.  You can try Domino instead of Emberlin.

Here is a brief synopsis:

Domino, a Novella

After exchanging love letters with the shy bartender, through her new friend, Amaryllis, Ashley follows her friend's advice and marries him.

James married the girl that his mother asked him to, for the sake of a legal issue.

Too bad they married each other, both under mistaken understandings. And, to make matters more complicated, the person who orchestrated the union, has mysteriously disappeared.

Will Ashley and James come together to unravel hurt feelings, confusion, and the legal wrangling that comes with divorce?

A special shout out to my readers for this project: Emily, Heidi, Chelsea, and Abe.

And an extra special shout out to Chelsea Romney who has always encouraged me (for good or bad - it's your call) in my writing.  She has read more versions and more manuscripts than anyone, even my husband.  

Even if these fail miserably and I never publish again, I am grateful to Chelsea and all my other readers for putting up with my quirky tendency to force ms's on them.  You are the best!  

I Just Jumped Off a Cliff...Without Any Safety Gear

For my birthday this year, I wanted to do something exhilarating and frightening all at once.

But I didn't want to cause any actual bodily harm.

Just do something that I would normally never do.  Something that would take me so far out of my normal comfort zone that I would remember the great 36 for a good long while.

I wasn't sure what to do.  Until my boys picked up some of my books off the dusty shelf, read them, and gave me feedback.  They told me that others should have the option to read some of my books.

Enter a complete meltdown.  It is one thing to share my books with a friend now and again, it is quite another to send my creation out into the cold, hard world.

And even more so, to send one of my favorites, but probably the least commercially viable of my stories, out into the great beyond.  I have long since known that Emberlin: A Heavenly Adventure is not a story for most people.  I take so many liberties with the afterlife that I probably tick off all people that believe in some sort of after existence.  And I paint such a detailed picture of an afterlife that I probably turn off everyone who thinks the idea of an afterlife is a joke.  Any reader would have to take the story as a fictional adventure and just roll with the world I created.

But, Emberlin was the loudest.  I would almost say shrieky, but I would hate to have her haunt me.  She demanded her literary wings.

The first draft was completed in January of 2009.  Since it is 2015, I suppose it is time to let her free.

And my two oldest boys were able to get through the story and enjoy it (although not the kissing scenes - sorry boys!) so I figured she might be readable to the genre she was created for in the first place, which is female young adult.

Emberlin is a completely fictional adventure that I had an immense amount of pleasure in creating.

Here is a brief synopsis.

In the words of Benjamin Franklin, "A man is not completely born until he is dead."

Emberlin Avery, bright, athletic and filled with all the potential of youth, looks upon her own empty body, a separation created by her recent, unfortunate, and untimely death and wonders, "Does anyone choose to die?"

Understanding that she is dead, but not understanding what death is, Emberlin leaves her body and ascends to Paradise Holding, a place where, even in death, adventures may be had, sorrows may come, and surprises may delight. Learning to live, even if one is dead, may be the hardest thing she will have to do in her life.

I am under no delusions that the story is perfect in any way.  I just hope that it is readable to any who are interested.  And if no one ever reads it...well...at least I can tell Emberlin that I did the best I could by her, in my own flawed way.

And in the meantime, I will be alternating between hyperventilation in a dark closet and patting myself on the back for doing something that scares the hell out of me.  Happy Birthday to me...

Check out Emberlin Here

Through the Eyes of a Book Agent

I was clearing up old stuff on the blog and I came across this old post about the agent's perspective.

I laughed out loud.  Writers are pretty odd, as a people.

Thought I would repost here in case anyone wants to see what agent's probably deal with in regard to writers and their creations.

Same Old, Same Old

I haven't blogged about my writing in a while but I still do quite a bit of it.

Here is how it works:

I get an idea.  The characters nag me until I write about them and their adventures.  I edit the story the best I can.  I send the story to readers to edit.  I fix what they suggest.  Then I put the book on a shelf to gather dust.

Over and over.  And over.

I have some characters that are getting pretty angry with me.  I try to tune them out but I hear snippets of, "This is not my destiny..."  or, "I have an allergy to dust..." or, "you promised me literary wings."  I am beginning to hear stirrings of a mutiny.

I have four sons and since my books (excepting the Halloween stories) are written for females, mostly the young adult genre, I long ago gave up the idea that any of my kids would read my creations (except the Halloween stories).

Until this last week.  One of them jumped in and read a 406 page book in eight hours.  And then he told me I am an idiot if I don't publish it.  He gave me an 8 out 10 score.  He said he would have given me a 9 out of 10 but there were too many kissing scenes.  He is an eleven year old male.  So, considering the fact that he is not even close to the target audience, I will take that as a compliment.  Then he read five more books off the dusty shelf.  Some novels, some novellas.  He says they should all be available to others to read.

My oldest son, who has a much more normal reading pace, is three-fourths of the way through the three volume novel that the eleven year old found.  He is enjoying it as well and has been reading it straight for nearly three days.

I am not sure what to make of this.  

But, alas it won't stop me from what I am drawn to do.  Create.  Explore.  Journey.