Thoughts?
Advice
Thoughts?
Authors
Cover Reveal: Moose Tracks on the Road to Heaven
As promised in my last post…here it is, the cover art for Moose Tracks on the Road to Heaven! If you click the picture it opens to a bigger size, so you can read the print.
I chose the image and concept, and then Bri, (of Bri Bruce Productions), designed the cover and pulled it all together to a finished product.
The e-book will be up for presale soon; I’ll post again when it’s available. The print book, unfortunately, can’t be listed for presale but will be available for purchase February 3, 2015.
I’ll be posting another “sneak peek” from inside the book in the next few weeks as well.
Thoughts?
Try
This has resonated a great deal with me, lately. There have been a lot of changes going on in my life, personally and professionally. It also feels like I’m always juggling at least four and sometimes five or six different things that all need my attention, my energy, and my time, and it’s difficult. Often I feel like I’m failing at one or another.
Some are for my day job.
Some are for my husband and children.
Some are for my extended family or my friends.
And some are for my writing career…which is part of what comprises the things in my life that are “for me”, even though it doesn’t always feel like it’s something anyone in his/her right (write?) mind would undertake.
And there are times I think about just letting some things go (usually the “for me” things) and trying to settle into a life that is somehow more ordinary and therefore less stressful.
Except I’m not certain that’s even possible. We are who we are for a reason.
What drives us will do so and still be there, gnawing beneath the surface, whether we feed it with action and time or not.
So the only thing we can do, I suppose, is to keep trying. Even when it’s frustrating. Even when my energy is drained.
Because it is part of who I am, and if it truly is, then I can no more easily cut out effort or energy toward it than I can cut off my own limb.
If my life hangs in the balance, then yes. If not, then I guess the only choice is to keep trying!
Trust the Process
No matter how devastating or upsetting or bewildering…trust the process.
Everything happens for a reason.
Acknowledgements and Author’s Note
Blank (thus far) Acknowledgements Page for Moose Tracks on the Road to Heaven
I’m in the process of crafting the Acknowledgements Page and Author’s note for Moose Tracks on the Road to Heaven. The Dedication for this one was easy for me, since the novel is loosely (very, very loosely) autobiographical in nature. In fact, the only two “characters” who are truly similar to the “real” people they represent are the “Pa” and “Ma” characters – and that is to whom I’ve dedicated the novel (because without them there wouldn’t have been even the germ of the idea to begin with).
But the Acknowledgements and Author’s Note are stumping me.
This is my eighth published novel, so it’s not like I haven’t done this before. 
Here’s the one I wrote for the final book in my Templar Knights trilogy: The Templar’s Seduction.
But I always, always drag my heels at this part of the writing process.
Why? you might wonder. It should be easy to thank the people who have helped you along the way with the manuscript, and not too much effort to provide some background and “fill-in” information for readers in the Author’s Note, right?
Yes, of course.
And no, definitely not.
I’m always worried about leaving someone – or, in the case of the Author’s Note, something – out that should be there. There are so many who overtly or just in my mind and memories lent something to the creation of a book like this; and I always enjoy reading about those in other writers’ books. There is a great deal of background and information that might, with its addition, give readers something useful or enjoyable after they’ve just finished reading the novel; material that might add a bit of extra texture or layered emotion to what they’ve just read (since I tend to put my Author’s Notes at the end of each novel).
And so I put it off, and put it off, until my back is against the wall.
Sigh.
Does anyone else who writes novels – or books of anything – face a similar conundrum? How do you manage it?
For readers out there, do you notice Dedications, Acknowledgements, or Author’s Notes? If you do, is it something you enjoy, or something you just skip over?
On Handling Adversity
The rising sun peeking from behind a red barn
“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”
~Maya Angelou
Some Spooky Reading
It’s the right time of year for a little atmospheric reading material. I’m not much into gore, and “horror” movies are really hit and miss for me, since there is so much of that built into so many of them, so curling up with a good spooky book is more my cup of tea.
In the misty, chilly nights of October, my preferences lean toward novels that are suspenseful, eerie, know how to set the mood with imagery…and preferably feature a ghost (or at least the possibility of a ghost) in them.
Here are three novels that I can recommend. Well, only two, really, because I’m still reading the third. But the writing so far is good, and she’s the author of Book #2, so I’m going to predict it will be a good story as well.
Classic psychological suspense/ghost story by Henry James
Book #1 – The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James
This has got to be one of the most masterfully written suspense/thriller/psychological studies I’ve read. It’s short – a novella, really. And it’s Victorian in setting and style, so be forewarned that there is a lot of description and long, complex sentences. The author also leaves it to the reader to decide whether there is a ghost or a case of paranoid delusion, brought on by the stifling Victorian societal pressures/a case of sexual hysteria, so if you despise a story that doesn’t leave everything neatly tied up in a bow, then this one may not be for you. There is also a pretty good and faithful-to-the-novella film version put out by PBS and starring Jodhi May, with a smaller role played by Colin Firth.
The 1983 novel that spawned the 2012 movie with Daniel Radcliffe
Book #2 – The Woman in Black, by Susan Hill
Yes, this is the novel that inspired the recent film starring Daniel Radcliffe, of Harry Potter fame. However, the novel uses a framing technique (beginning in the “present” for one of the characters and then shifting to the story itself) and ends quite differently from the film. There was also a play made from the story, along with several earlier screen versions. The British television version from 1989, while low budget, has plenty of atmosphere and chills, and I saw it before I read the novel or watched the more recent 2012 film.
Another Susan Hill ghost story
Book #3 – The Mist in the Mirror, by Susan Hill
This is the one I’m reading now, and so far, so good. I don’t know much about it yet, except that I enjoy the author’s use of description to set the mood and tone. As a writer, I admire the development of atmosphere, along with character and plot, and Susan Hill seems to do this quite well. Stay tuned to hear more about this one….or if you’ve read it, feel free to tell me what you thought of it – or any of these texts – in the comments. If you have other recommendations that would be great too. 🙂 Happy reading!
The Real Things Haven’t Changed…
A favorite quote by one of my favorite authors:
― Laura Ingalls Wilder
M. Reed McCall, Author 