Education-Just Say No!

It's rare that I enter into political discussion on my blog or post political viewpoints on my social media sites, but this has been bugging me every day when I drive around my neighborhood so I have to say something. I'm sure most of you have seen them: "Vote Yes for our Schools," "Vote Yes for Education," and "Vote Yes on Prop XXX."

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a HUGE proponent of education. My mother worked in the school system as a registrar for over twenty years, my in-laws (all of them) are in education as teachers, principals, or counselors. Public education is one of the most important programs we have for our children, our communities, and our future as a country. It's not perfect, but it presents opportunities for children of all socio-economic structures, and with charter schools, those opportunities are multiplied. So, why am I saying NO? Because government got involved and they've become too involved.

I don't think government is bad, and I think a lot of inconsistencies have been addressed through government involvement, but when we become too dependent on their funding we put ourselves in a tough spot. We have to have their money to run our schools, though, right? Eh...yes and no. I think there are programs that might get cut, and problems that might have to be solved, but we could manage without the full funding we receive from the federal gov't and it might be worth the autonomy. And the thing is, all of these propositions are like playing a shell game.

When you play a shell game, you see the shell go under the cup and you know where it is, but as the experienced magician moves the cups then the shell seems to disappear. It still exists, but not where we thought it would be. That's what these propositions and bonds do. The schools say they need money, and they do, so we pass an extra tax and here's what happens. That money is earmarked for education in that district, but then the legislators can look at the money in the school system and say "they have this earmarked money we can't touch, but we need more money for program XXX, so we'll take the money that isn't earmarked." And the cycle goes on and on. What happens in the end, we give the government more money to play with and our schools have less money to work with. I think it's time to say NO.

But then what will our kids do until the legislators wake up? It's called parent involvement. I know there are single parents out there, working parents, and illiterate parents for whom this is especially difficult, but studies have shown that the kids who learn the best are those with parent involvement. But what about the kids whose parents aren't involved? This is the hard part; we need to all get involved. Instead of letting the government take more of our money, we can (whether we have kids in school or not) get involved in our communities and in surrounding lower-income communities. Right now, my hands are full with my own kids and helping in their education, but helping in schools is something I look forward to when my kids are no longer at home. And one of the most rewarding experiences I've had was serving as the performing arts booster club president at our local high school. This might seem a simplistic solution, and I'm sure there will still be kids left behind, but I think we'll do a much better job than if we keep throwing money at a wall and seeing if it sticks or watching as the government picks up all the scattered bills on the floor.

So, my appeal is this: if you're not involved in education in some way, please get involved. Even if it's only a couple of hours a week, we can make a difference. And as for those propositions, consider just saying NO.

SLC Comicon in 22,000 words (more or less)

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here's what I have to say about SLC Comicon:

Our first encounter of the cool kind
 as we were leaving the parking lot.

Most awesome guitar EVER!

We found Middle-Earth...

where Smaug opened and closed his menacing eyes

Hobbits roamed the land,

And great orcs terrorized the populace.

In the upcoming theme park, Evermore...

Morbid ladies towered above
 the participants.

We fell into the clutches of Osiris...

Someone wouldn't stop thinking of the
Stay-puff marshmallow man. 

Cthulhu wandered in our midst.

Minions overran the walkways.

Studio C made us laugh.

And gods rained down with thunder...or just some flickering lights.

Iron Man was there to save the day...

...from the mass numbers of purple
unicorns in person...

...and in print.
(We sold enough copies to fund a scholarship to
Superstars Writing Seminars. If you're interested,
applications will be accepted soon at: www.superstarswriting.com)

Even Wonder Woman and Batman were there to save the day.

Friday evening, my daughter and I enjoyed an interesting dinner
with James A. Owen, Heidi Berthiaume, Brian Scott.

Helping in the Coppervale booth, and Wordfire Press satellite
booth was a fantastic experience.

What if We Watched in Wonder?

There's a song that I love, by Julie de Azevedo, called "What If?" Part of the lyrics read,
What if I let my children be
Who they are, not what I need?
What if I watched in wonder as their tender wings unfold.

Sometimes people ask me how I got started as a writer. I've mentioned this on the About Me page of my website, but I wanted to do a more in-depth thank you to my children in today's post. I have watched my children's tender wings unfold over the years, and I became a writer because they returned the favor.

When my oldest daughter was fourteen, she discovered my fiction ramblings on my computer. Between her and her sixteen-year-old brother, they forced me to admit that I loved writing. My son loaded "Writing Excuses" onto my mp3 and the rest is fiction. What isn't in the blog is that I wrote my daughter her own story to thank her for opening up this world for me. I hadn't believed in myself, and it wasn't until I started seriously writing that I felt completely free and, as corny as it sounds, like I'd found myself. So I wrote her a story about a woman living in a gilded cage of her own making, her daughter finding a key, her son finding the lock, and the woman discovering she has wings to fly.

But that's only the beginning of the story. Two of my published horror stories have come through the morbid horror scenarios my middle daughter and I like to throw back and forth. The twist ending to my recently accepted story, "Menagerie Violette," came through a conversation we had after she read the original story. It was good to begin with, but she helped me make it worthy of publication in what is going to be an amazing anthology.

My youngest boy used to take up guard duty at my office door. During my writing time he would tell his sisters that they couldn't bother me, which also meant I didn't have him coming in every five minutes to ask me a question. Win-win. Recently, he reached a reading level so he could read Noble Ark. He's now one of my biggest fans and keeps asking when the next book will come out. He's adorable.

And, of course, there's my husband. He's shouldered not only the financial strain of conventions and workshops and publishing ventures, but he's also bolstered me through my times of discouragement and self-doubt. I couldn't have made it this far without him.

So, this is a little long-winded, and probably of little interest to those who don't know me personally, but how I became a writer is the same as how I manage to continue as a writer. As Buddy says in a program my youngest daughter and I have recently become addicted to, Cake Boss: "It's all about family."

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Space Opera OR Galactic Fantasy

There's a debate in the science-fiction/fantasy world about the terms "space opera" and "galactic fantasy" as genre descriptions. Okay, so it's not much of a debate. Space opera has been around for forever, and though I don't even know how the name was generated, it's a widely accepted term for the type of science-fiction which is focused more on character and story, and less on any actual scientific elements. The other main categories are military sci-fi, and hard sci-fi (the science heavy stuff). But I think space opera is obsolete and the genre description, in order to garner more fans, should be changed to galactic fantasy. Here are my reasons why:

1) Growing up, I had a love-hate relationship with science fiction. Like most fans, I didn't recognize different sub-genres within the genre. I didn't know about epic fantasy versus traditional fantasy. I just knew some books were longer than others. I also didn't know the differences in science fiction. I'd pick up a sci-fi book and love it then pick up another and hate it. I had no clue how to distinguish from one to the next until I'd gotten into it, so reading sci-fi felt like a gamble. I eventually figured out that I enjoy space opera much more than the other sci-fi subgenres, but if they'd called it galactic fantasy, I would have gravitated toward it naturally, because I already loved fantasy.

2) Space opera sucks as a name. It makes people think of soap operas and there are few distinguishing readers who are going to want to associate themselves with something that has that connotation.

3) The storytelling style of space operas is more similar to fantasy, in my opinion, than it is to science fiction. The entire tone of the story lends itself toward fantasy readers. So why not call it fantasy!

4) My series, "Mankind's Redemption," is galactic fantasy. Sci-fi fans tend to like it alright, and fantasy fans tend to love it. I wish, wish, WISH that the term, galactic fantasy, could take off as a sub-genre. I have no idea how to make it happen, but if I had the power....

When You Have Food Allergies

I love it when we make friends through fb, and I love it even more when those friends and I share a passion. Lea Carter is a fellow writer and when she saw my post on mental health she asked if she could share her experiences with food allergies. So, without further ado, Lea Carter:

When you have food allergies, a dinner date starts with research.  A lot of information can be found online, but when you’re already in the car the direct approach can be faster. 

My sister and I went out to dinner last night.  She is highly sensitive to Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), but was craving Italian food.  Does Italian food have MSG in it?  We weren’t sure.  A phone call later, we had learned that Johnny Carino’s, the restaurant we were considering, had an allergy menu!

Armed with that information, we braved the restaurant.  As we entered, two smiling women greeted us.  Neither of them was the woman with whom my sister had spoken, but she had left instructions for them to have a copy of the allergy menu ready and they handed it to us promptly.  There were no pictures, but across the top of the printout was a list of ingredients (eggs, milk, MSG, and wheat) and whether or not the dishes, listed down the left side of the page, contained those ingredients.

A short way inside the restaurant we were seated at a table for four, nestled in a corner with privacy walls on either side.  From where we sat we could see two rows of booths and the open kitchen.  The music was what I would call “soft,” and played just loud enough to be heard over all of the conversations simultaneously taking place.

We were still inspecting the menus when our waiter approached and introduced himself.  One of my primary reasons for suggesting the restaurant had been the wide range of Italian sodas that they carry—ten flavors!  After deliberating between orange and cherry, I decided to try black cherry, just for the fun of it.  The first sip was like ordinary black cherry soda.  Then I remembered that I hadn’t stirred the cream in; it was still floating lazily in the top two-thirds of the glass.  Ah, much better!  A creamy black cherry soda is an experience I recommend enthusiastically!

After a delicious soup and salad (hearty minestrone for my sister, house salad for me), our main dishes arrived.  I had selected chicken fettuccini, a dish I had tried before and liked.  My sister, this being her first meal at Johnny Carino’s, selected the spicy shrimp and chicken pasta and carefully cross-checked it against the allergy menu.  Beware the spicy shrimp and chicken!  It’s loaded with garlic and so good that my sister had to force herself to stop eating it.  She was full, but was enjoying it so much that it was just hard to put her fork down.

The bread was crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.  The minestrone was *; the chicken fettuccini was rich and creamy; the spicy chicken was unbelievably tasty.  The black cherry Italian soda sparkled.  Then we ordered dessert.  A lemon cream cake with gorgonzola cheese.  I suppose it was my high expectations that made it fall flat for me.  I was expecting a burst of lemon flavor, not tart, but (almost) overwhelming.  The cake itself tasted liked a medium-quality cake mix, a tad dry and given to large crumbs.  The lemon flavor was there, but the faint—worse yet, the flavor was overshadowed by the powdered sugar that the cake top had been dusted with.  Being a practical person, I tipped the cake over and tapped the top with the handle of a utensil until most of the powdered sugar had been knocked off.  Then I tried it again.  I finished it, but I can’t say it was $6 worth of good.

That was the only disappointment, though.  The waiter was pleasant; the allergy menu was above and beyond the efforts I have seen other restaurants make; and 98% of the meal was rave-worthy.  In fact, to quote my sister as we left, “Oh, that was good.”

New Release from Lea Carter:

"Prince Cambrian is on a boringly routine assignment at Fort Bakarti when a much more interesting mystery finds him.  A Sky Fairy Fleet windship—lost and presumed crashed during the pirate offensive—is discovered intact on the beach near the remote Port Herio. 

How did the Talon get there?  Where has she been for the last two months?  Where is her crew now?  To answer these and other questions, Cambrian sets off with the lovely Captain Kimberlite to investigate a small nearby volcanic island, which is the only thing the meager clues have in common. 

Sabotage, betrayal, and escape all play a part in the unraveling of the mystery.  But when they finally begin their return voyage, they find themselves bringing home more questions than answers.  Not the least of which is how will the rest of the Sky Fairy Tribe react to what they have discovered?"

Contact Lea: 

Website

https://sites.google.com/site/leasbookshelf/

Blog

http://leasbookshelf.blogspot.com/

Is She Your Youngest?

When my daughter was young, her extreme sensitivity to bright lights, loud noises, smells, and sudden movements led me to shield her from situations I knew would set her off. In doing so, I often heard the question, always with an accompanying all-knowing smile, "Is she your youngest?"

My answer? "No," but you're an idiot.

Of course, I didn't say that last part, but it was hard not to think it. My daughter deals with anxiety, she has since very small, and she had her first full-blown anxiety attack at barely six years of age. The hospital diagnosed her with an upset stomach and told me I shouldn't bring my child to the ER unless there was really something wrong. I'd never seen an anxiety attack. I'd always assumed her sensitivities were a more acute version of the common ones held by her gifted siblings. With some research and the help of a psychologist, we we helped her learn to cope with the anxiety, and we've prescribed medications at appropriate times. 

But even the professional medical staff of a hospital presumed my child pampered rather than recognizing her difficulties!

Between the recent indiegogo project, Altered Perceptions, a fb post I read from James A. Owen about chemical imbalance, and a meeting I had with one of my daughter's school administrators, mental health has been on my mind lately. Mental health awareness has improved over the years, but there are still so many people out there who tend to judge rather than understand. As someone who struggles with depression, and has needed medications at certain points in my life, I find this personally frustrating as well as narrow-minded.

I had someone say to me once, "If people had more faith then they wouldn't get depressed." 

Ridiculous!

I was going to go on my own rant/explanation on this, but I found James A. Owen's experience and explanation via fb says everything I wanted to say, and probably better, with less ranting. He focuses on a chemical imbalance, but that's essentially what mental health problems such as ADD, anxiety, and many others are...a genetically inherited chemical imbalance. With his permission, here it is: 

I'm a pretty big proponent of both individual free will and individual accountability, and yesterday I had a discussion with a mentor about how both of those things relate to someone dealing with a chemical imbalance. Not a mental disorder or illness - but a chemical imbalance, specifically speaking, some of the mental and emotional cloudiness I have dealt with over most of the last year, due in large part to a big thyroid problem.

With proper treatment, I've been doing significantly better in every way the last couple of months - but the problem I've been grappling with now, and the question I posed to him, involves the fact that I still remember every choice I made, and I wondered how I could have made some of them, which seem impossible to countenance now. I told him I know that when my thinking is clear, I definitely make better choices - but that I also remember making some really lousy ones. Choices I would not make now, six months later.

How, I asked, could I take accountability for those choices that I made, when I don't recall my own reasons for making them? Because I want to be accountable - which is the only way to learn and improve - but I also don't want to beat myself up over choices I made because my damaged thyroid was having a negative impact on my judgment. How could I reconcile the fact that my thinking was affected, but that I still want to take responsibility for the choices I made at the same time?

He said that first, sincere understanding of and regret for the lousy choices I knew I'd made, along with a sincere effort to change, and do better, was all the accountability needed for those choices, full stop.

And as to the choices I made that were the result of the thyroid imbalance, he repeated one of my own stories about when I first realized I needed glasses. I was sitting on a balcony in San Diego and I pointed to a Nike sign atop one of the buildings, and made several shoe jokes that no one else laughed at. And they were GREAT shoe jokes. The reason no one got them is that it wasn't a Nike sign - it was a Coca-Cola sign.

Once that was pointed out to me, I switched to cola jokes, and made an appointment for an eye exam. His point being, it was the clarity of my vision that was the main problem, not my joke-telling judgment. I didn't regret telling jokes that fell flat - I simply switched behavior when I understood why.

On that same line, he said, I shouldn't regret the choices I don't understand making, because my thyroid clouded my vision, so to speak. Those choices were not errors in judgment as much as they were an inability to see clearly, and now that I can, I'm simply making better choices. The benefit of having clearer vision is that there is also - hopefully - an improvement in the quality of the choices that were all mine, too. And the reason I am sharing all this personal information is so you understand the end of the discussion:

"Have you taken the steps you needed to clarify your vision? Have you taken responsibility for all of the choices you made, no matter the cause? Are you trying to be better today than you were yesterday? If your answer to all of these is yes, then that's all the accountability you need."

If someone needs counseling or medication for their illness, please understand that it's not much different than someone needing an optometrist and a pair of glasses, and be understanding of their "near-sightedness" while they're trying to find the right pair. 

I'd like to put in one more plug for the short story collection, Altered Perceptions. It looks to be a fabulous book, with some of the best and most famous writers in the business, and it could really make a difference in one family's life, and possibly help many more. It's 55% funded and only has 11 days left to meet the goal. 

Blog Hop-The Writing Process

My good friend, Scott Eder, tagged me as part of The Writing Process blog tour. He's a fabulous author with his debut novel, Knight of Flame, receiving rave reviews on amazon and other formats. So, here are the questions, and here are my answers:

Q1: What are you working on? 

I'm usually working on more than one thing at a time. Right now:

*I'm nearly finished with the third book in the Mankind's Redemption series, titled Mwalgi Justice.

*I'm writing a Sojourner Tales module in the Mankind's Redemption universe (or five systems) titled Hologames.

*I'm preparing for my Noble Ark launch party next week, which takes more time and preparation than I ever imagined.

Q2: How does your work differ from others in your genre?

I enjoy YA fantasy and it shows in my New Adult science fiction. My books have less techno-babble, less military strategy, and less time focused on ships moving through space than many similar sci-fi books. I focus on the interpersonal relationships and personal struggles of my characters, while they not only struggle to survive the physical challenges surrounding them, but struggle to resolve deep personal conflict. Most good stories do that, but I tend to spend less time on the technical accouterments.

Q3: Why do you write what you do?
I think this answer has come up before on other blogs in this series. Because I'm strange. But really, I enjoy exploring the fantastical and how ordinary people might respond to it. When young, I used to have dreams of flying. It was so realistic, my stomach would drop and I would wake out of breath. Now, my dreams are of magic--whether supernatural or technological. Many people call my version of sci-fi space opera, but I call it galactic fantasy, because I delve into worlds that are fantastical. And imagining people moving through those worlds, with challenges that hold parallels to what we face in our contemporary world, is what I love most about writing. 

Q4: How does your writing process work?
That's a loaded question, and definitely subject to interpretation. My brain is constantly playing with stories, and scenes within stories. Aprilynne Pike said something similar to this once, "The stories that stick,are the ones I bring to life." That's how it is for me. 

I usually outline my stories, especially novels, though I'm still playing with the degree of outline I engage in. There's a lot of research that has to take place, some of it before the outline, some during, and some in the process of writing. That research process seems to work best for me. I write during the day while my kids are at school, so usually mornings are "writing time," and early afternoons--when I'm drowsy and trying not to fall out of my chair--is when I handle other aspects of the writing business. If I'm lucky, I get some time to write in the evenings, which is usually when I'm the most creative. With a family, that doesn't always happen, but we work it out so everyone gets the time they need. 

Participating in this tour has been a lot of fun. Thanks you, Scott. I now pass the baton to three supremely talented writers: 

1. Brad R. Torgersen is a multi-Hugo award nominee, is a Writers of the Future award winner, and has also won the Analog magazine AnLab readers’ choice award.  A regular in the pages of several magazines, Brad’s first novel, THE CHAPLAIN’S WAR, comes out from Baen Books in October 2014.

Discover Brad's Writing Process next week at: http://bradrtorgersen.wordpress.com/

2. Freelance writer, novelist, award-winning screenwriter, editor, poker player, poet, biker, roustabout, Travis Heermann is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop and the author of the Ronin Trilogy, The Wild Boys, and Rogues of the Black Fury, plus short fiction pieces in anthologies and magazines such as Weird Tales, Historical Lovecraft, and Shivers VII. As a freelance writer, he has produced a metric ton of role-playing game work both in print and online, including Legend of Five Rings, d20 System, and the MMORPG, EVE Online. He enjoys cycling, martial arts, torturing young minds with otherworldly ideas, and zombies. He has three long-cherished dreams: a produced screenplay, a NYT best-seller, and a seat in the World Series of Poker.

For interviews about the Writing Life, and for his Writing Process blog next week, check out his Author Interview Series at the Ronin Writer: http://travisheermann.com/blog/

3.D.T. Read is the author of The Sergey Chronicles, a military science fiction trilogy. The Sergey Chronicles is the story of a military family caught at the center of politics during an interstellar war.

Diann is currently working on Running from the Gods, the first book in a new young adult space fantasy series, The Seventh Shaman.

Diann served for 23 years in the U.S. Air Force, a career that included tours of duty in South Korea, Bosnia, and Iraq, and that indelibly influenced the stories she tells. She learned her craft from such mentors as Orson Scott Card, C.J. Cherryh, Elizabeth Moon, and David Farland, and is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

Diann is married to NASA scientist and martial artist Jon Read. They live in Houston, Texas.
You may reach her at:

Website: www.DiannThornleyRead.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DiannTRead
Facebook: www.facebook.com/d.t.read.author
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/dianntr
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/7092084.Diann_Thornle

Legal Bickering

I'm just going to vent a little bit today. In my home state of Arizona, there's been a bit of an uproar the last few months that reminds me of my children. To my understanding, it started when a baker and a florist refused service to homosexual couples for their marriage ceremonies. The couples were upset, probably feeling slighted, discriminated against, and judged. My honest views on the subject are that a person shouldn't deny a person business service just because they don't agree with how it will be used, but that they should have that choice. It's their business, their flowers, and if it makes them uncomfortable, their patrons are better off without an unwilling participant.

Either way, I think there are a dozen ways the customers could have handled the situation. Using social media, they could make sure the world knew how they'd been treated, they could post reviews on the multiple sites that give businesses ratings, and they could go someplace else with their business, spreading the word as they went. But they went to gov't mommy and complained... meaning they filed a "Stop it!" lawsuit. Really? A business slights you, so you're going to play the lawsuit card and get them closed down?

Then comes the retaliation.  Anybody else feel like you're watching children quarrel in the backseat of a minivan? So friends or other business owners (I'm not sure which), pushed a bill put through congress saying, "We don't have to if we don't want to."

And then all the siblings took sides and started whining to their parents about the unfairness of it all, making the entire minivan (Arizona) erupt into petty, squabbling, children... all of it aimed at the parents, the lawmakers.

Solution? When our kids squabble during the road trip we tell them they can settle down and leave each other alone, or they can stand outside the car for ten minutes until they cool off. I only wish we could kick people out of the state for a year until they calm down and learn how to deal with one another in a civil, respectful, way. I only wish.

In the Eyes

Yes, I have an eye fettish.
When I was seventeen, working at the register in a local drug store, an old couple came to the counter with beaming faces.
"You're a nice girl," said the woman.
I had never seen this lady before in my life. "Um...thank you."
Smiling at my nervous embarrassment, she explained. "I don't have to know you to know you're a good, nice girl. It shows in your face and in your eyes."
The woman was sweet, and I appreciated the compliment. As a religious person, I'd always believed that the way a person lived was reflected in their countenance, but I don't think I'd ever had someone compliment me on that "inner glow" before.
Later, I came upon the passage of scripture which states: "The light of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." It's been my favorite scripture for years.

It's no wonder that I love stories in which people's eyes play a major role, most of which are science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Dr. Who is particularly good at playing with this. It's also no wonder that eyes play a major part in the stories I write. Even if eyes don't change color, the shape, color, and movement of a person's eyes often have metaphorical meanings for me. Sometimes I don't even realize I've written in those meanings until I come back later to critique my writing. I wouldn't be surprised if other people have caught meanings that I haven't. If so, I'd love to hear about it. What are your thoughts on eyes being the windows to the soul?

Exactly what I expected

My anthology became available on Kindle exactly on time: March 1st. Between figuring out the graphics and the formatting, I barely made my self-inflicted due date. Of course, it released with an error in the description and my illustrator appears as the author, but I expected that. Not exactly that, but something like it, which is why I put out my anthology before my novel. See, it's my practice run. I knew I would make mistakes, in formatting, in printing, and throughout the whole process. I did the anthology first, so I can learn from my mistakes, and I hope the release of my novel will go forward without any glitches. It won't.

Before I went into this publishing adventure, there was one thing I was absolutely sure about--it would be harder than I expected. Like I predicted, it has been, and since I expected that, it's actually been exactly what I expected. When I feel like pulling all my hair out and screaming, I remember, I knew it would be like this before I went in. I just have to grit my teeth, do more research, and figure out how to fix the problems.

I think if I approached more of my life in that manner, I'd probably have a lot less frustration. Moving has been harder than expected, raising kids, the list goes on. But don't we all figure out at one point that life is going to be a bit harder than expected? So, let's just buck up, remember to smell the roses, and ease off on the frustration. So, it's hard. It's not like we expected anything less. Keep smiling, world! :)

What's in a name?

I decided I need a publishing company for my self-publishing endeavors, for a lot of reasons, and started trying to come up with a name. Easy, right? No. First, I wanted to name it after my oldest son and daughter, who were instrumental in giving me the confidence to start writing as a career, but BS Publishing didn't seem like a good idea. Cartwheel sounded fun. Taken. I tried a few sci-fi words--all taken. I thought I might name it after my dad, as a kind of memorial since he always wanted to put out a self-help book and never got around to it. Drexel should be easy since it's such an uncommon name, right? Nope. It's a well-known university. Tried a combination of mine and my husband's initials. Nope. I think there must be a million publishing companies out there. And then it hit me. The name that I knew would be available: Drupokamo.

Drupokamo isn't a word, you say? I'm a writer... I'm a FANTASY writer. I make up words all the time. Names for places, people, things, races. What better name for my publishing company than the made-up word that my oldest son and his friend came up with, that means a made-up word. Yes, you read that right. Drupokamo (still not sure I'm spelling that correctly) is a made-up word that means... a made-up word. Perfect for my made-up publishing company that exists solely as a device for my made-up books.

Now for the next obstacle: How to fit Drupokamo on a spine cover. Hmmm....

On crying

We all have our triggers, and I have my emotional moments, but I found myself crying today and feeling embarrassed about it. While I went through yet another box of odds and ends (we're in the process of moving), trying to figure out where to put everything, I watched What to Expect When You're Expecting on Netflix.  At the end, I cried. Not just a few tears down the cheeks, either. There were cough-to-hide-the-sob moments.

I'd like to blame it on the stress of moving,  or the emotional drain caused by reading my editor's comments on my latest manuscript (I think he must have found a way to digitally slit a wrist into a Word file). If I'm honest, though, the movie just found one of my emotional triggers. Without the stress in my life, I still would have had to hold back the tears. I have five kids. If I watch a movie about the ups and downs of pregnancy and the beauty of childbirth, I'm going to get emotional. Even the adoption scene got to me, because I just love the joy children bring and the sacred trust we take when we bring them into the world and promise to care for them.

It's worth it to have these moments. There are times when I cry with joy, times when I cry from pain. In the end, I draw on these emotions when I write about my characters. I hope it makes them more real and they can remind us of the things that matter most, whether  trials include CSF-draining aliens or just moving a bunch of boxes from one house to another.  We will find a way to prevail, and we must always believe in that strength.

The Out-of-the-ordinary Thanksgiving List

On facebook I'm doing a countdown to Thanksgiving of the things I'm most thankful for, but this is a list of those things that might not come immediately to mind for most people. I'm a bit strange, and here's proof.

1) Washing Machines: I lived in the Philippines while serving a mission for the LDS church. For many reasons that I won't go into here, we hired someone who bought most groceries, cooked, and did laundry. But there were plenty of times when we did our own or we stopped to help someone with their laundry. I learned to use a washboard or my knuckles and a bar of soap to get my clothes clean and I can definitely say, I appreciate washing machines. (I'm the one on the right.)

2) Kitchen Sinks: When my husband and I married, we were both poor college students so when my uncle offered to let us live in the 1940's house/office building that had once belonged to my grandfather, we gratefully said yes. Unfortunately, the kitchen had no sinks, stoves, or any appliances besides a refrigerator. We used a hotplate and crock pot to cook and we had a couple of little blue tubs that we could just fit under the bathroom faucet to fill with hot water so we could wash our dishes. I still have one of them.

3) Pooper scoopers: I've bought all the fancy ones. They break. The one we have now is like something from an old 50's movie, where the guy goes around with the garbage bin that flops to the ground and the person sweeps garbage into it, only we use a rake. May be archaic, but it beats grabbing the stuff with a plastic grocery bag.

4) Toilet paper: See time spent in the Philippines from above. 'Nuff said.

5) Disneyland: No reason. I just love Disneyland.

Anyone else? What are the unusual items on your gratitude list?

A Short Shout-out

Yesterday was Veteran's Day. I spent the day with my family, thankful to live in a free, thriving country. If you question that second part  then I suggest you visit a third-world country, or one run by a dictator. We have our problems, but we're still relatively free to do with our lives as we please, to strive for opportunities and make of ourselves what we wish.

As far as I know, no one in my ancestry served in the armed forces. My dad was recruited for the Vietnam War then turned away because of a funky metal plate he'd had in his chest since he was a child. And yet, I'd always been raised to respect the men who have fought for our country and our freedoms. I was raised in the 70's, so I wasn't raised to respect the women who fight for our country, but I equally appreciate their work and sacrifice.

I don't want to go on and on today, but in the month of Thanksgiving and veterans, I just want to raise a civilian salute to all who have served and do currently serve. I have friends among those ranks, and thanks to my nephew's enlistment last year, I have kin among the few, the proud, the marines. Thank you for your service.

Funded! A Scary Halloween.

Kickstarter, Kickstarter, Kickstarter. Yes, you could say that word has dominated much of my thinking for the last 4+ weeks. I find it somewhat ironic that we reached our Kickstarter funding goal for Noble Ark on Halloween day. That's not irony, you say? No, it's not, but my terror at reaching my goal could go into the is-it-irony debate arena. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled. It's just that I'm also terrified. All of these people have stepped up to the plate in absolute support, and I have to deliver what I've promised by the time I promised.

Can I do it? Yes. Everything is in order. I've talked to the artist and though the contract isn't signed yet, she sounds eager to get started. The contract is signed with the editor. I'm in the process of self-publishing a small short story anthology as practice, and if that doesn't go well, I have several typography quotes from reliable companies and I can hand the mess to them for some money out of my pocket. It's all good, but I'm still scared because this is something I've never done before.

I think this hits all of us a few dozen to thousand times in our life; the step into the dark unknown. The point where all our preparation comes down to one thing...doing something we've never done before. Without human being's ability to risk and try, none of us would know how to walk, throw, swim, or a dozen basic things that we do in life. At one point, we decided the risk was worth the cost of failure, and we tried. It amazes me how many of us lose that ability to risk. Of course, we don't want to risk death because we'd like to try flying from a building. There are stupid risks that shouldn't be considered, but so many times we won't try something new, or attempt to learn a skill, or make steps to improve ourselves. Is it a fear of failure or is it fearing the responsibility we associate with success?  For me, I think it's a little bit of both. I should have started this Kickstarter months ago, but I had to work up the gumption to risk the consequences.

Now, it's time for the next risk, to publish the book. Again, I'm not sure which I fear more, failure making me obscure, notorious success, or some mediocre level in between. I know this, the risk is worth the rewards. If there's anything out there you want to do, learn, or become, I hope you can gauge your opportunities with a level-minded, hopeful eye, put fear aside, and take the risks that move you in the right direction.

Why Sojourner Tales?

I was moseying through my emails when something different caught my eye: A Kickstarter by Tracy Hickman. I've always loved Tracy Hickman's writing, and I'm one of the fortunate people who not only has met Tracy, but been privileged to have some personal conversation time with him. He's an amazing guy and one of the kindest people I've ever met. So, I immediately clicked on the link to check it out. I watched the Kickstarter video, and fell in love with the concept. 

One thing that seems to be common among most Sci-fi/Fantasy writers is a love of games. I enjoy the occasional RPG or X-box, but I particularly love board games and card games. I like to interact with the people playing and the round-the-table, taking turns, method is my favorite. Sojourner Tales is even better. You have a game board with all the cool pieces, people roll dice and take turns, but the play is based on decisions people make in the accompanying story. One story module offers dozens of game scenarios and if you get multiple story modules, you've got a lot of games, and every one different. It's like one of those books where you make the character's decisions in those turning-point moments, then skip to page X to see what happens. Except this is putting the concept into an interactive board game. THAT IS COOL. So I signed up. I wanted the game, but I didn't realize there was more being offered until Tracy talked about Add-ons. I could get in on the game design.

For a very reasonable price, Tracy allowed contributors to create their own story modules to go along with the game, and gave us license to sell those modules. When he offered a limited number of openings to be part of the original experiment, putting together the modules, getting the kinks out of the system, and being among the first stories available in the store front, I said, "Please?" And Tracy said, "Yes." I am SO stoked!

I already have some ideas. I'd like to use Sojourner Tales to do prequels for characters in my book, Noble Ark Something along the lines of: Aline's journey after her parents died, Ichiro and his black market activities, Nathan's escape from Daerli, and the list of possibilities goes on. None of these will be spoilers for the book, but having read the book will make the Sojourner game even more fun, and playing the game will give you a more in-depth understanding of the characters--the kind of information that would slow a story down, yet makes a great story in and of itself. Can't wait! Because I already know where I want to go with this, I'm able to make the story module available as an add-on in my Kickstarter for Noble Ark. As soon as the story modules start becoming available to the public, I'll be near the front lines to get mine to my fans.

So, why Sojourner Tales? Why ever not!

A Blessing and a Curse

We're two weeks into our Kickstarter for Noble Ark and everything is going nothing like I'd expected.

A number of contributors have donated funds without asking for rewards. That is such a blessing. I'm getting closer to the goal, and I'll have extra funds to put toward publishing the next book. I've sworn that every penny would go to publishing and I mean it, so nothing goes into my pocket.

The curse part: it means I overshot the amount I need. I'm preparing a financial report to put on the Kickstarter page and it will show that I actually need a lot less money than I'm raising funds for. If I could change my goal, I would, but Kickstarter doesn't allow it. So, I really only need about $600 more to publish Noble Ark, but if I don't raise the full $1200 then I get nothing.

The solution: full disclosure to the participants and an extended publishing plan that includes the second book.  And hope.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/203246974/noble-ark-how-it-should-end

The Plateau

Plateaus happen. When you're trying to lose weight (something that has been part of my life since childhood), there are plateaus. When you're trying to learn a new skill, like writing amazing fiction, there are plateaus...a lot of them, by the way. And in my ongoing Kickstarter, there are plateaus.

Because of some amazing contributions, the Noble Ark Kickstarter reached 60% funding in less than a week. That's incredible! And then it plateaued. That's depressing. But understandable. Plateaus happen. I reached all the people who were going to immediately jump behind me and give me full support, and now I have to work for the rest. Sounds a lot like losing weight, huh?

So, as I'm kicking myself to get going again today, I encourage you to keep going toward your goals. Don't let the plateaus get you down or even slow you down. A plateau is the level bit before the next drop or rise. As long as we keep working, we'll attain the goal. As the upcoming holiday season reminds us (and yes, I'm already listening to Christmas music), just believe.

You Can Never Please Everyone...So Just Move On Already!

Last week I talked about the necessity of waiting, but today it's all about moving on. I also mentioned the video for Kickstarter that we could talk about another time. Well, it's another time.

For the Kickstarter video, I thought it would be fun to put together a HISHE-style video about how I started writing, which is when my work on Noble Ark began.When my daughter saw it, the look of fear and revulsion told me what she thought before I could ask. It was cute, but it was also horrible.

Scene 2:  My daughter is a make-up guru so she helped me get ready and I performed a scripted monologue. I set up the camera for nice lighting, practiced (and performed) a hundred times and then packed it all up. Done!

Not!

Looked at it later. The way I'd done my hair made me look ten years older, the background was dull and washed me out, and I didn't have to ask anyone. It didn't work.

Scene 3: Different outfit, hair done nice, bookshelves as a backdrop. Everything went well, but when I looked at it later. Plain boring.

We continued on like that. I started getting people's opinions. Most of the feedback was positive, but some wasn't. We worked at it some more. I asked for more opinions. Most of the feedback was positive, but some wasn't. Repeat. Repeat.  (You get the idea)

The thing is, if I don't get 100% Love-Its on my writing, which I've spent thousands of hours studying and practicing and which I love, why would I expect to get that response on something I'm a novice at and have little interest in. With that realization, I hit the SEND button, placing the Kickstarter, and the  conglomerate video, into the review pile at Kickstarters.

The point: there's a time to wait while you get everything in order and there's a time to close your eyes and jump in. Never hesitate to the point of paralysis. I almost did, but comfortable with my face or not, with my daughter as my biggest fan, and a poor HISHE-style video, this Kickstarter tells the story and presents the possibilities. People will look beyond the flaws and see the book's potential or they won't. I'll continue moving forward.

On Time

The trip to the grocery store always takes longer than planned, the writing of a book always requires days or weeks of meditation to get that next scene or plot twist just right, and getting a Kickstarter ready...let's just say, *sigh.*

I'm still working on the progress bar for my website. I've seen these things in a number of places. It shouldn't be so hard. But, for me, it is.

I'm still working on the video for the upcoming Kickstarter. I've dressed up three times, made three attempts, and after viewing each one I was finally happy with the last one. This was the one that was practically unscripted and my daughter and I bantered with one another while telling the story of how my writing career began. I think it's a good story, but maybe that's a subject for another day.

I'm waiting on a contract with my editor, Evan Braun, and my artist, Suzanne Helmigh, is waiting on the contract from me. I finished drawing it up, but wanted someone to review it. A friend said he would...and I'm still waiting.

I did all the bank forms required for the Kickstarter, but they have yet to tell me the bank account has been verified.

Thumbnail pictures should be finished today. Let's hope that comes in on time, but I wouldn't be surprised, or upset, if it takes another day.

See, that's just life. We can plan all we want, but there will be hitches. What matters is if we let them stop us from getting done what we need, or want, to get done. As long as we keep moving forward, we will eventually reach the end of the trail, the light at the end of the tunnel. I think we all have a time when we recognize that whatever we're waiting for will eventually arrive and then we'll be surprised that the moment has come, whether it be in anticipation or dread. In the case of bearing children, both.

I remember having that a-ha moment as a kid. I was jittery, excitedly awaiting the time for some performance or reward; I don't remember what it was, but I remember that bitter pang that I couldn't wait and it felt like the time would NEVER arrive. And then I remembered all the times I'd felt the same, but then the day had come and it really hadn't taken as long as I'd thought it would, and for all my anticipation, the moment was over too fast.  That was when I started learning a new word, pragmatism.  It does no good to worry and fret when that energy is much better used to plan and prepare. Time passes regardless of what we do with it. I'm still human, I still worry a fair amount, but I can usually put at least some of that worry aside and get the job done.

With that pragmatism in mind, I asked another friend to look at the artist contract. I emailed my wonderful editor about the contract we need to put together. I sent an inquiry to the Kickstarter people about the bank account verification, and I'm going to get back to work on the video.  Will the Kickstarter finish "on time" as I'd planned? Probably not. Instead of Oct. 1st, we're now looking at Oct. 4th. Doesn't matter. We will still move forward, we will still run the project for 28 days, and we will fund. Sometimes, "on time" is relative.