Gearing Up

After more than a year of not being able to do much of anything creative, Sarah and I are gearing up for an exciting year in 2013. We are hard at work on our first novel together. Murder on the Mullet Express is set in the Roaring 20's in Homosassa Springs, Florida, and will feature the intrepid trio of geezers Theodora Lawless, Cornelia Pettijohn, and Professor Percival Pettijohn. The three of them will make their debut in a short story, "The Odds are Always Uneven"  this October, in the Speed City Sisters in Crime anthology Hoosier Hijinks.

Sarah is going to be pitching our joint novel at the Historical Novel Society meeting in St. Petersburg, Florida, this June on the same morning I am scheduled to pitch the new Nessa Donnelly novel, Concealed in Ash. It should be an exciting and busy weekend for both of us. We're looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones while we are at the event. We will also be distributing business cards for our new press, Mystery and Horror, LLC.

Along with our personal writing projects, our little cross-eyed bat logo is going to make several appearances on new books before the end of the year. We have decided on three anthologies this year and will be opening for mystery novels later this summer. Covers for Strangely Funny, All Hallows' Evil, and Undead of Winter are on the Mystery and Horror, LLC website. Strangely Funny, our paranormal humor anthology, and All Hallows' Evil, our Halloween Mystery anthology, are open for submissions. Undead of Winter isn't open yet. There are only so many hours in the day.

Our first non-anthology will be a series of collections of monster art and humor by Monstermatt Patterson - Ha Ha Horror! Volumes 1 and 2. Volume 1 is due out later this year. In the meantime, catch his podcast at 6 Foot Plus. He is truly a man of many talents.

Our plan for the press is to do a limited number of anthologies each year. We want to devote the rest of our time to working with our authors to develop and promote their books. In the world of small press publishing it isn't enough to create a great book, authors and publishers have to work together to get that book in front of an audience. Everything we do is geared toward the goal of getting our books noticed. It is an exciting, scary, and daunting course we've set for 2013. Together we've gone from planning to building, but every day I wake up asking myself what I can accomplish and what I can do better.

Concealed in Ash

Finally! The first draft of Concealed in Ash that I am willing to let anyone read is finished and in the hands of my spouse. I've done my happy dance.(Be grateful that you didn't have to witness that. I dance nearly as bad as I sing.)

Now comes part two of my writing process. I emailed the draft to Sarah. She will look it over for spelling and grammar errors, then together we will take this draft to a print shop to be printed and bound.

This is our read-aloud copy. Together we will be spending several days reading and listening to my words. We'll question word choices, and occasionally I'll exclaim "What was I thinking?" or "That was awkward." Mostly we will read and talk about improvements that need to be made before anyone else looks at my book.

Sarah is a great reader. If she stumbles or has to go back and look at another page, I know that I have work to do. That work isn't done while we're reading. All the way through, red marks are made on pages, notes are scribbled in the margin. By the end, our bloody fingerprints are all over my newborn baby.

When the reading is finished, it will be time for me to go back to the text and make those marked changes. It is perhaps the hardest part of my writing process. I can always disagree with the changes an editor tells me to make, but facing what I see wrong with my baby takes guts. It is particularly hard when a passage of good writing has to be cut because it just doesn't belong.

If I am brave enough to do this next part well, Concealed in Ash will be ready to face its next test...Beta Readers.

Beginning a New Project

The image above is the beginning of a grand Spanish style hotel built in Homosassa Springs, Florida in the 1920's. This hotel and the arcade across the street were the start of a new planned tourist town the likes of which had never been built in Florida. City plans called for a rail station, expansive streets, sidewalks nine feet wide, and a resort centered around a beautiful clear spring where manatees wintered.

Sarah and I are stepping back into this time as a setting for a new mystery story. For a while now, the two of us have been writing short stories involving two retired army nurses who served in France during World War One. We are thinking of bringing them to Florida during the land boom of the 1920's to look at a property in Homosassa Springs that they could use as a winter retreat.

Our big decision now is what length story. We both have a passion for short fiction, but are considering a traditional closed room mystery novel for this plot. Lots of wealthy investors were being lured to Florida by developers. Before the land bust of 1926, property on Florida's Gulf Coast attracted sportsmen, industrialists, the idle rich, and gangsters.

The idea of writing "Murder on the Mullet Express" has a certain appeal. There is one problem: from October of 1925 to May of 1926, Florida railroads placed an embargo on passenger trains. The demand for Florida produce in the North, and building materials in the South had increased rail traffic to capacity. Developers in Homosassa Springs resorted to bringing potential customers into Jacksonville by train, then transporting them to the hotel by limousine. A seven passenger Packard wouldn't have room for enough suspects for a novel. We would have to set this story earlier than our previous stories or make it a short story plot. Writing it after the embargo was over is not an option. By the time the embargo was lifted, the real estate market was in decline.

Back in the Saddle Again

Okay, I'm not literally back in the saddle. Injuries from my ill-spent youth prevent me from being able to ride. The saddle in question is the recliner in our great room where I sit typing this post. It has been too long since my last blog post. Real life got in the way.

My father-in-law developed pneumonia in February, which caused major complications with his sarcoidosis and pulmonary hypertension. The result was a choice between his going into a nursing home, or our moving to Florida to help look after him. Sarah and I chose to move.

Ours was a rather rapid exit from Kentucky. Within a month, and with a lot of help from our friends and family, we packed our belongings, left our jobs, canceled our scheduled appearances, and moved eleven hundred miles from nearly everyone we knew. As a result, writing in general and my blog in particular were put out to pasture.

We are slowly getting settled into our new lives here. Sarah's dad is much better than when we arrived. His memory isn't what it was before the collapse, and he is pretty much confined to a wheelchair. We've gotten ramps built, a handicapped shower installed, and other needed changes around the house finished. The two of us have sort of settled into the back half of the duplex, which gives us and her parents some privacy.

I think the move was the best decision for all of us. Her folks won't be able to live on their own again. At seventy-one, Sarah's mother can't manage his oxygen, wheelchair, walker, and the other necessities of getting him moved from one place to another. She also finds talking to all of his therapists and doctors a chore better delegated to us. The same is true of paying bills, shopping, dealing with ordering oxygen and medicines, and handling most problems that come up.

So what happens when a writer becomes the primary caretaker for a family member? Writing suffers. That doesn't mean writers stop writing. I started out small, doing a weekly column for Examiner.com, then went back to work on my book. Now, I am back to my blog. Stay tuned, and you might see a new book review soon.

Guest on Edin Road Radio

If you like books and haven't heard of Edin Road Radio, you should pay a visit. Jesse V. Coffey has a wide range of guest authors who read selections of their work, talk about what they write, and share a half hour on air with her. I had the privilege of being her guest on December 27 and am happy to say she has invited me back when my next novel, Concealed in Ash, is published.

Between readings, we talked about my love of Kentucky history and the great special collections at the University of Kentucky and Transylvania University. I also complimented the wonderful effort of Kentucky and Indiana historians in building the Kentuckiana Digital Library, and put in a good word for the Morris Book Shop here in Lexington. The Shop always has my book in stock.

When you have a half hour to listen, stop by and play one of the shows on Edin Road Radio. Jesse does a great job hosting blog talk radio. Her guests cover a wide spectrum of work, her show is great fun, and I look forward to listening to more of her broadcasts. Closing out the year on Edin Road is poet David Nelson Bradsher on December 29. Her website lists upcoming guests in January and early February.

The list doesn't go far enough to include Sarah E. Glenn, but she will be on the show next year. I'll be blogging more details of that closer to the date of her appearance.

Mystery and Horror at That Book Place, Saturday, Oct. 15

What do vampires, neighborhood associations, nano-technology, detectives, secret societies, university bureaucracies, corrupt police, hell-houses, and ghosts have in common? All these subjects have appeared in stories by the writers of Mystery and Horror, LLC. Sarah Glenn and I, the writers of Mystery and Horror, will be at That Book Place in Madison, Indiana this weekend talking about all these things and more. If you would like to ask us questions or hear what we have been up to this year, we would love to see you there.

Come by and pick up bookmarks, post cards, and a little chocolate. Stay and chat for a while. You don't have to buy a book to have a good time. Of course, if you do want one of our books, we will be there to sign it for you. We will also be reading a few selections from our work and maybe from upcoming novels.

Like a good mystery? Sit back, relax, and let me take you into Nessa Donnelly's world of secrets... secret identities, secret societies, and the secret plots hatched in Lexington during the 19th century. I'll bet you didn't know life across the river was so full of intrigue.

Sarah will introduce you to everyday horror and outrageous humor as Cynthia Leach tries to cope with life after death. It's not easy to be a vampire in an Irvine, California, gated community. Just don't let her humor fool you into thinking everything she writes is as funny as her novel, All This and Family, too. The mystery she's written for Pill Hill Press's Big Book of New Short Horror is one of the creepiest stories I've read in years.

Anyone in the mood for something truly different might want to take a look at a mystery the two of us teamed up to write. Emails at the end of time make up the ePocalypse anthology. For this book, writers teamed up to write apocalypse stories in an email format. I don't have any to sell, but we will have one on hand for you to look over. Drop by for a few minutes or stay until we leave, either way, we'll try to make sure you enjoy the time spent with us.

Weekend Writer: Visiting Harrodsburg

This weekend, Sarah and I paid a visit to Lexington's Pride Festival, then decided to check out the Harrodsburg Festival of Books and Art. This was the second year of the event and our first for attending. Since we had not originally planned to participate, we weren't registered for a table. Sarah's publicist, Bertena Varney, was there and had a table to promote her newly released book, LURE OF THE VAMPIRE. The book was supposed to be available at the festival, but unfortunately her copies did not arrive in time. She kindly offered to share her table with us, so we ended up being last minute participants in the festival.

Writers are so cool.

I went back to the car for the chairs we use at events and soon a stack of Sarah's book ALL THIS AND FAMILY, TOO was on Bertena's table.

I had a few copies of CIRCLE OF DISHONOR along, but I'm in serious need of reordering before doing another event. I put the few I had out and talked to lots of people about the book. The event had an open mic in the afternoon. Writers are a shy lot. Fortunatly, I'm not among the bashful. Sarah and I were very happy to read a selection from our books for the audience.

I am pleased to have had the unexpected chance to visit with Kentucky writers and learn more about this new arts festival. Deciding to attend allowed us to do readings, visit with new friends, and meet a bunch of nice people. Hydra Publications had a booth across the street from Bertena. Frank, who runs Hydra and That Book Place bookstore, came over and invited the two of us up to Madison, IN, to do a book event. We'll be emailing him later to work out the details.

We both gave our email addresses to Elane Hammons, the event organizer, and hope she invites us back next year. It is an excellent and much needed event in Kentucky. I expect it to gain a lot more interest from Kentucky writers as it becomes more widely known. I am really looking forward to seeing that happen. It is a lovely, historic Kentucky city and the perfect spot for writers and artists to gather.

Weekend Writer: She's Alive...Well, sort of.

After writing, rewriting, editing, and going down the long road to having her first novel published, this weekend I got to wake my spouse up to tell her that her book was live. Yes, Cynthia Leach, the reluctant vampire, stepped out of her coffin and onto the bookshelf May 1. She is out there, in broad daylight, and didn't burst into flames. Maybe fictional vampires don't really burst into flames in the sunlight. I'm not sure, though.

Dead or alive, Cynthia and her strange Southern family are ensconced in Slippery Elm and putting down roots, California style. The neighborhood association isn't happy about it. UC Irvine isn't all that keen about having a professor who can't keep daylight office hours either. What's a poor undead lass from North Carolina to do?

Pick up a copy of All This and Family, Too and find out.

How's that for shameless spouse promotion. What can I say? I'm so pleased to have my wife join the first novelist club.

My writing friends know what an awesome moment it is when that first novel hits the sales rack. They do their day jobs, confine their writing to evening, weekends, and wherever they can squeeze in an extra moment of time. They know the juggling act we go through to have time to write, query, submit, dive into the deep end of promotion while wait for the book to show up.

This weekend gave us the second coolest day in a writer's life. The first coolest day is still ahead. I'll probably be gushing again, and posting pictures too, when she finds that first box of books on her doorstep. I may need somebody to grab me though...she isn't going to be happy if I open the box.

Weekend Writer: Procrastinating or Promoting

This Saturday, instead of writing we had a photo shoot for Sarah's author photo: that all important picture that will appear in her book. You might think that it doesn't take a lot of time to get a picture made, but you'd be mistaken. Sarah had a visit with her hair dresser Saturday morning, and a former Miss West Virginia was brought in as a beauty consultant for make-up and wardrobe. The shoot lasted about two hours and involved several locations around Lexington.

Sunday, Sarah worked on updating my website while I worked on chapbooks for the Emerald Coast Writers Conference goodie bags. I can't attend the Emerald Coast Conference this year, but the chapbooks will be there representing me.

My chapbooks are hand-made, quarter-page books that contain a short Nessa Donnelly mystery story. Quarter-page chapbooks are just the right size to stick in a pocket, which made them very popular with travelers during the 1800's. For me they are a small piece of history that I can share with readers. It is a little something extra that I give to fans when I attend conferences, and sometimes send to conferences that I cannot attend in person. I love doing them, but they take time.

This was my writing weekend. I didn't get a single paragraph finished on my novel. There was probably a little procrastination involved. I am not above goofing off a little after a long week at the office. Still, there was a lot of promotional work accomplished this weekend. I don't feel too guilty about taking a weekend off to promote my book and help Sarah get her own book ready.

Weekend Writer: Writing with a Partner

This weekend I began working on a story with my spouse on a new short story. For those of you worrying about when my next novel is coming out, don't. I didn't take any of my usually writing time to work on the short story. I was just working extra hard (grin). You do believe me, don't you?

Sarah and I teamed up to do one other short story a couple of years ago. Working together tested our egos, but the result was a story we really like. So, here we go again.

I don't know how other people approach writing with a partner, but for us it works best for us when Sarah takes the lead. We pick a story that has two lead characters with different backgrounds. Before we start working we toss around ideas until we hit upon one that both of us would be comfortable with writing. Then we work out plot details and character backgrounds together. After that Sarah, who has a stronger grasp of the mechanics of writing, takes over for a while. When she is ready, I come in and write my character, tweaking hers when necessary. After that, there's a lot of tweaking each other's work until it becomes hard to tell who wrote a particular line.

Does that sound confusing? Sometimes it is confusing. There are also times when we disagree about how something should be written. The key to doing a collaboration successfully is to keep the disagreements from becoming fights. Writing together means leaving your ego at the door. It comes down to remembering that the overall story is more important than the line a writing partner thinks should be cut. We did this successfully once. I think we can do it again.

Weekend Writer: Two Minds are Better than One

My spouse's birthday was this weekend, so writing time took a back seat. This doesn't mean that I spent the weekend ignoring my book. Two more chapters went through the editing process, and since this is a holiday weekend, writing is on the agenda for tomorrow. Birthdays and holidays don't change the fact that there's lots of work to do and never enough time to complete every task on my list.

Even when we take a break from our respective computer screens, we aren't quite taking a break from writing. Over lunch, we discussed her work in progress and mine.

These discussions are important. The writing process is often a solitary effort, but too much alone time can lead to tunnel vision. Having someone to bounce ideas off of is a tremendous asset to me in developing my project. Putting ideas of how a character should feel or act into words forces me to clarify what I have in mind. Questions make me flesh out the character, adding depth and richness to my original idea.

My skills character building, world building, and plot building have all been helped by having Sarah here to listen and question my ideas. I would like to think that she finds my suggestions, comments, and questions equally helpful. 

Writers on Vacation

Sarah and I left our house in the care of a friend and are on vacation in Tarpon Springs, Florida until January 5. The trouble with writers on vacation is that there isn't really a vacation from writing. Ideas crop up when they crop up. Our Sisters in Crime chapter is putting together an anthology of stories about the bourbon industry in Kentucky. After each of us had finished a story on our own, the group suggested we try writing together. Now here we are discussing setting a novel in Florida that involves the characters we came up with for our short story.

No, the characters are not vampires. What we write is very different. For us to write together, she had to step back in time and do an historical mystery. The characters fit with my historical mystery writing, but were far enough removed from the time I usually set stories in to be comfortable for her to contribute equally to the research. The story was discussed for some time before we came up with writing a short story involving a couple of World War I nurses. She had a great aunt who was a World War I nurse, and we drew from her experiences in France to develop the idea. It worked so well that we are planning to visit the North Carolina archives, where here great-aunt's papers are kept, to do more research on what it was like to be a nurse at that time.

Does this mean either of us are giving up the characters we write?

No. Each of us will continue to work on the novels we have in progress. We each have short story ideas, on of which is an idea we may work together on.

Fortunately we work with the same publisher. We are hoping that when the book we are planning together is finished, Pill Hill Press will consider publishing it. If not, we will look for someone who is interested.

What matters is that ideas come from all sorts of places. Vacation or not, we are writers. Our minds are always asking: what if this happened. and this person got involved because...

All This and Family Too

For those readers who don't know, ALL THIS AND FAMILY TOO is the title of my wife's first novel. It will be coming out next year from Pill Hill Press. It is a very funny story of what can happen to a nice lesbian vampire who has to uproot her family from their home in North Carolina and move into a gated community in California to escape a vampire hunter.

Life after death isn't easy for a vampire with a heroic streak, but Cynthia wouldn't have been a vampire if she had been able to resist the urge to rescue women in trouble. Undeath hasn't taught her much. On the way west she impulsively rescues a teen and ends up saddled with taking care of the lovelorn baby dyke through the rest of the novel.

By now you are probably asking yourself why I am writing about this book in my blog. It is not my story, it is not a mystery and it is not historical. Aside from the fact my spouse wrote it, there is not much about ALL THIS AND FAMILY TOO that connects it to me.

Well, that's not exactly true. Professor Leach started out as a character I invented for a vampire role playing game my wife and I played with several other friends. The game ended years ago, but Sarah found the idea of a vampire uptight enough to have a stick up her butt outrageously funny. So, I turned Cynthia over to her. The result is an over-the-top romp through Irvine, CA mixed with the terror of bureaucrats protecting their turf.

What would a vampire story be without a little horror? Professor Cynthia Leach, the vampire, discovers the true meaning of horror when she has to deal with the president of the neighborhood association,  maneuver through the university bureaucracy, and manage to survive her unlife in a world where she no longer belongs. It isn't easy being an undead hero, but Cynthia does it with her own special style.