Sam's Interview

November is back on!!

Things have been going great with edits. I'm started (barely) on third edits already. :) I think, perhaps, today will be a treat: An introduction to a new character, Sam. Let's set up the interview room, shall we?

(Our Jot or a Lot (JOAL) interviewer is sitting in a big, overstuffed brown chair, notepad in hand. A giant window behind the chairs lets in natural sunlight. A steaming cup of hot chocolate sits on the table at her elbow. The door opens and a man walks in. He's tall, blond haired and blue eyed. He pauses in the doorway to take in the room before striding to the second overstuffed brown chair and sinking into with a sigh of satisfaction. He gestures for the interview to begin.)

JOAL: Hello, Sam, and welcome to the blog!
Sam: Thank you. I'm delighted to be here.
JOAL: First, what's your full name? Including your title.
Sam: *sighs*Must I include the title?
JOAL: It would really help the audience understand who you are...and what.*grin*
Sam: Fine. My name, including title, is Bloody Sam Roberts.
JOAL: "Bloody?"
Sam: An exaggeration of my enemies, to be sure.
JOAL: *a little wide eyed*Enemies?
Sam: *rolls his eyes* I'm a pirate. Just about anyone who sails in my waters is my enemy.
JOAL: Ooookay. I guess if something goes missing from the foyer I'll know who to ask.
Sam: *scowling*I'm not a thief! I'm a pirate! There's a difference.
JOAL: I'm sure there is. Okay, back to our questions...How long have you been sailing?
Sam: *chuckles*A long time.
JOAL: *arches eyebrow*
Sam: That's all your getting out of me.*smirks*
JOAL: Fine, then. Why did you become a pirate, of all things? You're bonded to a Phoenix, aren't you? Shouldn't you be a king or admiral or something?
Sam: *face darkens*Let's just say that there are problems with the family.
JOAL: Ooooh! You're the black sheep, are you?
Sam: Why do you accuse me of being this black sheep?
JOAL: Well, you're a pirate...
Sam: This is ridiculous. Are we almost finished?
JOAL: Not quite. There's still a few more...
Sam: *grumbling and standing*There isn't time for this. I have a mutiny to solve and a princess to protect.
JOAL: Wait, she's not a princess!
Sam: She is to me!*cheerfully said over his shoulder as he leaves the room*
JOAL: Hey! You haven't told us why you're in the story yet!*door closes*Well, I guess this concludes the interview. You'll just have to read the story to learn more about Sam.*grin*Thanks for coming!

The Internet

You don't know how much you use the internet until you don't have it anymore! This last month has been a hectic one for my family and me.

We bought a house (Yeah!). Because of how the loan worked, we didn't know until the actual day of signing if we were moving or not. Which means we didn't have anything packed because we still needed most everything for day to day living. So we signed and packed and moved in two days (Not so yeah!). At this point, we're mostly unpacked, but the move did put a bit of a delay on Totems: Clouds of War. Possibly end of November, although I'm still working my tail off.

We have started round 2 of edits. I have to say, I'm excited for this book. There are a few twists that I didn't see coming until I actually wrote the book. Very excited. :)

I'll keep you updated on how the edits are going. Have a good one!

Fathers

51,042! I'm very happy with that progress. In about a week and a half, I will do the first read through to smooth out transitions.

Happy Father's Day coming up! Some fun facts about Rael and Arianwyn's fathers.

Arianwyn: Her father had nothing to do with her rearing. Her mother died when she was born and her father descended into drunken grief, eventually dying from exposure when Arianwyn was very young. Arianwyn gets her looks from her father, but her size from her mother. Had she known her father, she would have developed the same temper and passion he had.

Rael: Having spent so much time training to be king, he didn't actually get to know his father very well. But in this book or the next, he's going to learn just how much his father loved him. Rael looks like his father in everything but coloring. Rael inherited his mother's temper and soft heart, his father's protective instincts and love of his people. Like his father, Rael would do nearly anything for those he leads as king.

Whether you like it or not (I do like it), you've inherited something from your father. If you never knew your father, take a moment to think about the person who became the father figure for you. What did you learn from them? There are good men all about us. This coming Sunday (and why not start now?), take a chance to tell them thanks.

Wish I Would Have Known

I think there's an ever growing list of things that we wish we would have known then...the "What I wish I knew then that I know now" list. I doubt it ends. And that's okay. We gain a lot of experience from our wish we would have knowns.

One thing that's been nagging at me lately that I wish I would have known is that I wanted to be an author not a doctor. Yup. When I was in school, I said confidently and on multiple occasions that I wanted to be a cardio-pulmonary surgeon. I should have known from the fact that I already had specific words in place that I should be an author. I think most kids say "A doctor" and then figure out what kind after they start school.

It's not like I didn't think I couldn't be an author, either. I knew I had a fair amount of talent writing. It was something I enjoyed. But as a lucrative career, it seemed silly. Maybe that's the other thing I should have known. How much "lucrative" I really needed (turns out, not as much as I thought when I was a teenager).

I'm lucky, though. I figured out that not only did I WANT to be an author, but also that I COULD be an author and went after it. I stopped making excuses and started writing. Then I took a deep breath and uploaded to amazon. Then I took an even bigger breath and hit the publish button. This year, I took the biggest breath of all and hired someone to design the cover for me (Erica Crouch did a FANTASTIC job!).

Maybe that's all there is to it to shrink the "wish I would have known" list. If you really want something, take a deep breath and do it. And if you don't need to take a deep breath before doing something, is it really what you want to do? If it doesn't excite and scare you all at the same time, are you going for what you want or safe? Don't do safe. You won't like it so much. You'll burn out. You'll spend your life wishing you could do, be, something, someone else. That you would have known better. Don't be that person. Be the person you truly want to be.

Eeek! One More Week!

I can hardly believe how time has flown! Totems: The King's Treasure is now under review with Createspace! Yeah!...yes, I know that's a lot of exclamation points, but I'm super-excited. :D

It's been an interesting process. I've learned a lot that I don't know. For one, I've learned that doing print on demand for a 490 page book is EXPENSIVE! For those looking at this option, just be aware of it. It's not something I was expecting. For another, it helps to have good friends who have done it before. It took me two days and many hours before I finally got the document to upload correctly.

On the other hand, I'm so excited to see my book in a physical copy! I love Rael and Arianwyn so much! I think you will, too, as you get to know them.

And just so it's clear APRIL 25 is the day The King's Treasure will be available. It will be available in print and as an ebook. :) So excited! As part of the release, the ebook will be discounted from the $5.99 price the first week, so make sure to get your copy soon.

Love y'all! Happy reading!

Totems Update

Coming next month: "Totems: The King's Treasure." I'm excited for this and you should be, too. Why? Because you're going to love Rael and Arianwyn. They're pretty awesome people. Who are they?

Arianwyn is a peasant girl. She just wants to disappear and be safe. She doesn't want to cause trouble. She wants to survive, maybe carve out a small slice of comfort for herself. Well, for her and the dragon she accidentally bonded.

Rael is the King of the Dragon Totem lands, bonded to his dragon Charon. He has to get married before war breaks out among his thanes. War already looms among the other Totems. He hopes to find a political ally, but dreads going against the tradition of wedding an unbonded woman.

The first time Arianwyn sees the king, she's terrified. She hopes he doesn't spot her.

The first time Rael sees Arianwyn, he's furious. He threatens to kill her.

Can the two of them come to terms in order to save the kingdom and those dragons to whom they are bonded? That's what you'll get to find out in April!

Also coming soon, the cover reveal for this book! :D Great things come to those who wait.

Shame

"The essence of poverty is shame," Anne Sullivan. Read this document about Anne Sullivan's time at the Tewksbury Almshouse (25 pages). It's incredible. BTW, she's the Miracle Worker, the one who taught Helen Keller.

www.tewksburyhistoricalsociety.org/Archives/StateHospital/sullivan.pdf

 

Her statement is true on so many levels. Have you ever felt ashamed about something? The way you looked? Your family? Reading in class? In each instance, the shame was a result of poverty. I have felt the shame, but never recognized the accompanying poverty.

 

Take some time to remember a moment of shame in your life (recent or otherwise). What was happening? Why did it make you feel that way?

 

For example: In high school, I hated social situations (yes, high school is a cliché and was a long time ago, but it's so convenient!). I was usually embarrassed and uncomfortable because I never measured up to the other girls--all of whom were beautiful, well put together, stylish, funny...you name it, they had it and I didn't.

 

Where's the poverty? That was just high school, right? Well, yes. I was uneducated in the ways of personal grooming (I'm still not stellar, I'll be honest). Oh, my clothes were cleaned, I bathed daily and did my hair, I brushed my teeth. But I had no clue about what to wear and how. (I have a very distinct memory of one of my friends untucking my shirt (after asking if it was a body suit). I was so grateful for the help because I didn't know). I didn't know how to do my hair all cute or my make up (seriously, either a clown did it or I didn't wear anything).

 

I was also poor in self-confidence. Yeah, I walked out the door looking somewhat freakish, but spent most of my time hiding behind books and hoping no one tried engaging in chit chat with me (unless they were my very close friends who understood the nerd that I was--okay, am). I was uncomfortable because I didn't fit in and I knew it. But imagine if I had the confidence to not worry about that so much, to know myself and wants without worrying about everything else.

 

Sorry this isn't a lovey-dovey post for Valentine's Day. I think you'll get over it. I know I am. And now that I'm aware of how impoverished I am, I can get to work on it. Because some types of poverty can be fixed without a mountain of money. :)