Thinker, writer, reader, detective

I look similar to this every night when I sit in front of my computer, working on my book or surfing the internet.

I'm in my own little world. Well, not so little. :)

It's more like I daydream, then think.

Sometimes it does seems to me that I over think things though.

I stare and sink into my mind and think, but then something happens and all the plans go up in smoke.

Writer. I'm a pantser but I still make outlines and plans. I just ignore them.:)  You got to be true to yourself.

I'm an avid reader. Once I start a book I usually finish it in the same day.

And being a detective. That comes with murder mysteries. You got to have a clue, in more than one way.

These four words describe what I think of myself.

How would you describe yourself?

Flames is still half-way done. The arsonist will be revealed and the chase will be on. Another fire and there will be a confrontation in the woods that will go pear-shaped. After this they're going to need a vacation--wait that's what this was suppose to be.

Wind. Still second chapter. Already introduced two suspects or are they just caught up in the murders? Is one of them the cause and the other the perp?  Is it a serial or is it purposeful?  Maybe all the above?

MVII. Second chapter. Gaea has dropped a bit of a bombshell on Jaci. There is a reason the land is seemingly recalcitrant. Jaci has to fix the problem before she can get real help, but she needs the land's help to fix it. a catch 22.

I got a new review on Earth Reader. A 5 star. Thank you.

Now if all 100 who took advantage of my free book would do the same. I'd love it.

Precis

100 people took advantage of my free book. YES!

 Hopefully, some will give me 'good' reviews on Amazon.

And go for my other books as well. They are all fast-paced and got at least 4 stars. An hour or two amusement, depending on how fast you read. I usually read books twice. The first time fast, the second time slower to make sure I get the nuances.

Flames is coming along. It's half-way done. The arsonist is about to reveal him/herself.

Wind. Into the second chapter. Cop shop talk right now. They'll head off to the club next where they'll meet one of the suspects. Or is she the reason for the murders?

MVII. Wrote out the burglary scene, but still working on chapter 2. Why is research into an old crime and disappearance so important? 

I straightened up my story folder. Now everything is in separate folders instead of all lumped in the misc. folder. There's still stuff in the Misc. folder, but I separated out the series. Looks much neater now. I wasn't working on a story so I decided to mess with the story folder. Sometimes during my 'working' time at the computer, I can't seem to focus on a story so I either mess with the bibles or create covers. But this time I decided to mess with the folders.

I was working on my stories, but not. So officially, I was working during my working hour(s). :)

The Alliance books are still knocking at the backdoor of my mind. But I need to finish Elemental Voice first. At least the next two books anyway. Then I might slip in an Alliance book.

My time-lost books have also slipped up a notch.

I got a review on Mortal Voice from Jan. 5 star. She likes this better than EV.  I hope others have the same opinion and it takes off so that the second book will have a following. EV has a small following and I'm hoping MV will have a larger one.

EV is the urban fantasy version of MV which is itself an urban fantasy. A play on a play.

Naming & Character Development

I've been asked how I come up with the 'perfect' name for my characters  and how I develop my characters.

As to the characters, I write down a list of who I need in each book, i.e. cop, bad guy, victim. Then I decide which is the ones that will interact the most with my main characters.  Those are the ones that get more development.  Most of this happens in my head, but I do put some of this in the story bible to remind me. Each character is basically developed in my head before I even start the story.

The names I choose from a baby book I have in my bookshelf near my computer. Each name gets said out loud until I happen upon the one I like best for the character.  I put the names down in the story bible next to who they are in the list (victim, bad guy, etc.)  And so they become that character.

Most of this is, as I said, done in my head,

I'm a pantser and I just write what comes to me.

Sometimes the storyline suprises even me.

I'll be writing along and suddenly the story takes a turn. I think what if this happens instead of this. And I write the new storyline and it changes the whole chapter or even the whole book. 

The 'What ifs'.

New scenes appear in my head. The characters even change a bit to fit the storyline.

All of my stories have been in my head for years so my subconscious has had time to develop these characters.  I have scenes for each and every book in my head.  The characters all have placer names like 'bad guy' for bad guys or Sara and Nick for every main character since I like those names. When I start writing that's when my characters get their names.

Names. Boys get boy names, and girls get girl names, of course. But most of the last names come from the boy section.  A lot of the time I flip through until a name catches my attention, then I build from it and deciding who it belongs to (victim or cop).  I usually have the bad guys name by the time I start writing. It usually has a meaning to it. Sort of like a spoiler. :)

Mostly by the time I'm ready to write, everything is already done in my story bible or in my head and I just sit down and write.

Mortal Voice is out!

Both the printed and Kindle editions!

The back cover is a little long, but it explains the story better than what I first had. As I've stated before I'm terrible at writing blurbs so good thing Sharon looks them over and fixes them. :)

I set up a freebie for the 18th thru 23rd of April to Celebrate the launch of this book. So if you don't already have Earth Reader on Kindle, that's the time to get it. Fire Walker is free on the 5th of May to coincide with my book signing so even those who don't attend get something.

I got two self-made books from Toby's blog that I'm taking to the signing. If anyone wants one, bring a bag of Meow mix. Toby has no use for money. :) 

Processing

Mortal Voice is coming out on Ebook/Kindle today.

Hopefully, it takes off once it launches. Isn't that what we all hope?

It took three years to get this one out. I had started it in 2015 and was to be my second book out. But I got distracted, I suppose you could say. The readers of Earth Reader wanted to know what happened next so I decided to work on Fire Walker and pushed MV aside. I did that for two more books, then decided I needed to get it out so last year I pulled it back out.

Right now I'm working on MVII, Deadly Flames, and Wind Whisperer.  Deadly Flames is about half-way done and the one I'm working on the most. But all three are always open on my computer so I can work any of them at any time.

As I said these are my 'urban fantasy' books or paranormal mysteries. I decided to get them out first before I get into my sci-fi books. The Alliance and Timelost books are next on the list. I listed the four Alliance books on my Alliance blog.  They're a bit different in that they paint humans in a negative light and I warn people about that. It's a very negative look at humans. What arrogance will do to the human race if it's allowed full reign.

The Timelost books on the other hand are positive look at what one good person can do. They are set in a different universe than the Alliance books. Humans are just humans, good and bad, plus we got evil aliens.  Just a normal sci-fi series.  Well, sort of. If Bio-mechanical changes and nanities are normal sci-fi. :)

So that's what's next.

 I also have some dragon books. The Fallborn series which is set in different worlds and some standalones that are set in modern day. I'll work on them as I work on the other books. These are on hold right now since I have one Fallborn book finished. As soon as it's published I'll open another dragon book.

Generally, I open three books on my computer and hop between them when I work. I write a few words or a scene, then I go to the next book and do the same. I have ADD and have a hard time keeping to just one story at a time. I get distracted easily. I play music or an old movie while I write. I used to do my homework to music and got better grades when I did. I seem to write better when my subconscious is engaged with the music while the rest of my brain is on my writing.

 Or is it the other way around?  :)

The processing part is getting the Alliance and Timelost books out of my old files and moving them to the Misc file folder where I can get to them more easily. All my old stories are stored in a large folder or are still on hand-written papers so I have to process them one way or another to get them to my Misc. file folder where my working files are located. I have to get all this together before I can work on them any further. Though I have four books yet to go on the Elemental Voice series I still like to get everything together ahead of time.

So now you're up to date with what's going on in my writing world.

A summinging up & Proofs

There are four more books to go in my Elemental Voice series:

Deadly Flames. Second book in the companion series. Half-way done.

Wind Whisperer. Fourth book in EV series. First Chapter.

Deadly Waters. Third book in the companion series. Bookbible.

With Aether at the end. The Epilogue of both series.

I had of course thought to get this series out by the time I turned fifty but that doesn't seem like that's happening so I just want the main part of the series (the four element books) at least out by then. The one companion book and Aether can happen after as long as those books have been out. They were the original set I wrote down, adding the three companion books and Aether after I had started working on book one.

And then of course, there are just two more books so far in the Mortal Voice series.

MVII After Long Silence. Second book. Chapter one done.

MVIII Earth Bound. Third Book. Bookbible started.

I had planned to get MV out just after Earth Reader. Sort of as an omiyage to Kathy Reichs. one of my fav mystery writers. The main character is an Earth Reader who writes the EV books and works with a PI to find missing people. 

After Elemental Voice Series is ended I plan to write a quadrilogy or a tetralogy of books set in my Alliance universe.  I also have a series of five Timelost books  that will be coming out of my Misc. file at about that time as well.  These books are sci-fi/fantasy, different from most of my books which are urban fantasy

Well, I call them urban fantasy since they fit more in that category than any other. Besides just fantasy and paranormal mystery of course.

I have several dragon books as well, both the what I call the Fallborn series as well as what I consider standalones. I usually have a dragon book open along side whatever main book I'm working on.

Just got the two proofs to look at.

I think they're gorgeous. They look just like I want them to. The color is just perfect and definitely captures your attention. Sharon said the pic would be out of focus which it is but I still like the whole.

For this series I wanted an eye-catcher. Both the color and the pic seem to do that.

Now I just got to get the one copy to my proofreader.

I'm just so excited!






I have literally hundreds of story ideas, but these are the ones that have priority. They are the ones I keep coming back to. I even have a blog set up for the Alliance books, though I only have four of them outlined in my head so far.

For some reason I have the feeling the Alliance books will take off.

We'll see.