Brevity by Paul Grant

 

https://www.bookswelove.com/search?q=Paul%20Grant

Brevity

           “I just leave out the stuff people don’t read.”

That was Elmore Leonard’s response when I asked him how he keeps his stories moving and his dialogue crackling.   Leonard is a master of brevity, which is why his material is so well-suited to be filmed.  The TV series Justified is based on his short story Fire In The Hole.  His crime novel Get Shorty was made into an Oscar-winning movie starring John Travolta and Gene Hackman.  And one of his five western novels, 3:10 To Yuma, was filmed in 1957 and again in 2007.  The hallmark throughout is brevity.

I spent more than thirty years editing stories for radio, taking out the aural equivalent of the stuff that people don’t read. My inner editor is always present when I write, decluttering and removing the unecessary. I’ve tried to take Elmore Leonard’s mantra to heart in my novel Astraphobia, part of BWL’s Paranormal Canadiana Collection.  The story follows three generations of the McKenzie family as death by lightning stalks them from Scotland to Ottawa to Moose Jaw.  The McKenzies grow and thrive over the years, from the birth of Saskatchewan in 1905, through a world war, a decade-long depression, another world war, the threat of nuclear annihilation, and the anarchic sixties and seventies.   But they are always looking over their shoulders, wondering who will be the next victim of the McKenzie Curse.

 https://www.bookswelove.com/shop/p/astraphobia

 

Playtime, The Paranormal Canadiana Collection - Prince Edward Island

 

 https://www.bookswelove.com/search?q=Eden%20monroe

     I was excited to write my first paranormal novel for The Paranormal Canadiana Collection.  I call it Playtime and this is the back cover blurb:

“Darkness is often the playground of the supernatural … the eerily unexplained.

Yeo House is a haunted country home in Eastern Canada’s beautiful province of Prince Edward Island. The stately seaside mansion of a shipbuilding magnate and his family in the 1800’s, it was given new life in the twenty-first century. During renovations something unusual was found hidden in the walls — a little toy dog on wheels. Now freed from his wall prison, it seems he’s still being played with by the ghost of the child who once owned him.

When little Della Sayer and her parents visit the historic Yeo mansion to see the famous Wheelie, the little girl makes a strange and powerful connection with the antique toy. It is an unsettling paranormal knowing, a kindred ethereal awareness….

Life for the Sayers will never be the same again.”

I should point out that Della’s mother, playwright Jill Sayer, is a bona fide skeptic in Playtime, determined to explain the unexplainable even when it becomes increasingly difficult to do so:

“The storm continued and Jill felt every clap of thunder as though it was right in the room. It very nearly was, only an attic and roof away. By now she was wide-awake, toying with the idea of getting up after all and working on her laptop. She could grab a short nap during the day. Lying there looking around, a brilliant flash of lightning illuminated the room as bright as midday, followed seconds later by thunder. Would this storm never end?

Watching for the next lightning bolt, it came, flooding the window with light and her heart leapt into her throat, her scream reverberating throughout the room.

That woke Brody up! He bolted to an upright position, switching on the bedside lamp. ‘What’s going on, Jill? Did you scream?’

‘Yes I screamed! We’re having a really bad electrical storm. The lightning made everything look as bright as day, and I saw a child’s face at the window.’ “

I had fun writing this novel and was delighted to visit Prince Edward Island, a province that has long been dear to my heart. My affection for Anne Shirley, Lucy Maud Montgomery’s much-celebrated fictional character, has been unwavering since I read Anne of Green Gables at the age of fifteen. Confined to bed at the time with pneumonia, a neighbour kindly lent me several books, including The Lamplighter, A Girl of the Limberlost, The Yearling and Anne of Green Gables. When Matthew died in AGG I cried a river, and it was that Lucy Maud Montgomery classic that awakened my desire to become an author. I also fell completely in love with the Island.

So when the opportunity arose to write about paranormal phenomena on PEI, I was delighted and chose something quite recent that had captured my imagination. Enter Wheelie, the toy Pomeranian dog on wheels at Yeo House in Tyne Valley, Prince County, in the western region of Prince Edward Island.

 

And so a trip to Yeo House was in order, although the prospect of visiting a site of a documented haunting wasn’t all that enticing to me. But visit the mansion I would, and so what follows is my own personal account of that experience:

It was an idyllic August morning when my best friend and I arrived at Green Park Provincial Park and Yeo House. After first stopping by the shipbuilding museum and listening to a fascinating account of shipbuilding in that area during the 1800’s, Yeo House was next as we covered the green space between the two buildings.

My first impression upon entering the mansion, constructed in 1865 by James Yeo Jr., was the refreshing chill of the interior given the warm summer day outside. Like Playtime’s Jill Sayer (and countless others), I too have toured any number of historical properties over the years, and I was struck by the remarkably good condition of Yeo House and its artifacts, considering the advanced age of both.

Met by a dapper young interpreter with an engaging smile, the tour was soon underway. There was a wealth of photo opportunities and I snapped to my heart’s content, choosing subjects that would best describe the site. After checking out the sitting room, little kitchen, pantry, dining room and so on, we finally climbed the beautifully carpeted staircase to the second floor. The first stop was a child’s bedroom where the world famous Wheelie glared at us from within his protective plexiglass box. I quickly discovered his appearance was as off-putting in person as it had been in the media photos I’d seen online. Sorry, Wheelie, but there it is.

Logically, all rooms in the mansion had to be observed from behind rope barriers in order to protect the home’s invaluable heirlooms. However the barrier in front of the children’s room that housed Wheelie was inexplicably standing off to one side, which seemed to surprise the interpreter. I snagged an up-close shot of Wheelie.

Continuing on, we (my friend had returned to the car) went from room to room on the second floor, as I peered into bedrooms where time had stopped in the mid to late 1800’s — the days of the wealthy Yeo family. There was even the much-storied maid’s quarters, the two narrow beds sitting innocuously beyond the barrier. The interpreter explained that that area was where repeated paranormal incidents had been observed by both staff and visitors alike.

•  

    

Next we made our way to the foot of a steep flight of narrow steps leading to the cupola above that promised a sweeping view of the surrounding countryside. While we were standing there in conversation I began to find it increasingly difficult to speak because of an uncomfortable heaviness in my chest. I was becoming noticeably short of breath. The interpreter smiled, telling me that several guests visiting the mansion, like myself, had experienced that very same sensation while in this particular area of the second floor. The idea was a possible presence, but who knows?  Now I hasten to add that I do not have any health issues that would explain such a feeling, nor was I anxious or frightened. Our conversation was actually light … humorous. Also, once we’d moved to a different location on the second floor, the sensation had disappeared.

The rest of the tour was uneventful. No, I didn’t hear the oft-reported gasp, shriek, heavy footsteps or slamming door. Thankfully. The weight of that presence was curious enough, thank you.

So that was my actual experience at the mansion that served as the backdrop for my paranormal novel, Playtime. I’d done the requisite research, but nothing quite compared to that feeling of heaviness that overtook me on that sunny Wednesday morning. Hmmm…

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorEdenMonroe/

https://edenmonroeauthor.com

https://boos2read.com/Playtime

Ixchel and The Water Pots of August by Juliet Waldron

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So many gods and goddesses lost throughout the long stretch of human history! 

Many gods of our European past were lost during the violence of Roman colonization, or absorbed, their ancient lineage lost when these divinities were given Roman names. After the Romans, came the new religion, Christianity, and the old gods and goddesses were this time baptized as "saints," which either cloaked their origins in a doctrinally acceptable story, or simply twisted the story until it fit--often uneasily--with the new religion's teachings. 

When European colonizers reached the Americas, the same thing happened to the divinities of these "newly discovered" lands. Some of those stories are lost forever, but a few kept their names. Among these surviving rarities is IxChel, a Meso-American goddess, who could be maiden/mother/crone depending on the season of the year, the age the devotee, or the phase of the moon. 

IxChel was a goddess whose survival partially rests on the written record left by priests who observed what remained of her original religion after the Spanish conquest. From what we can glean, she was a lunar goddess, and, like so many others around the ancient world, the animals which are associated with her worship, are the rabbit (fertility) and the serpent (bringer of rain.) Below is a modern rendering of the goddess from Sacred Source's catalog. To synch with our modern preoccupation with youth, this IxChel appears as a young woman, although in the few remaining Mayan texts, her "rain" hieroglyph depicts her as Crone.

https://sacredsource.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoogCd36tvDfkvTP9t_CCNoPGWpntD6DE7UZFj9UNwT0lpuIFBYC

Like the Moon, however, Ixchel waxes and wanes; she changes. She, like so many European Great Goddesses, is a triple goddess. She was a special patroness of women, whose reproductive cycles are governed by the moon. Young women prayed to her maiden self for  beauty, or for a husband. To the married women, she was Mother Ixchel, to whom you prayed for sons to please a warrior husband or for continued fertility and good health. Women of all ages prayed to Ixchel as Life Giver, asking this fruitful deity for the blessing of good harvests, as well as for good fortune and for safe delivery during the travail of childbirth. She knew the secrets of all herbs, and was known as a skillful healer.

In Meso-America, where droughts could (and historically did) bring famine and collapse to powerful city states, IxChel's sacred serpent governed the powerful hurricane rains, whose appearance was necessary to "fill the water pots"  (the cenotes which dot the permeable limestone of the Yucatan) with the precious liquid which nourished the maize, beans and squash upon which the communities depended. "Water is Life" was as real then as it is now.

As the Moon, Ixchel governed the night. She opened the womb and then cared for the child growing inside. Her pale face radiated blessings upon her sister-children here on earth; the stars were her offspring.  In some of the surviving stories, she dies and is reborn again, a miracle that, in so many religions, only male gods perform. As a goddess of vegetation, she is a kind of Persephone figure, entering the underworld and then being reborn again.

Ixchel is also said to be first weaver, the woman who taught her human children this civilizing skill. The spindle she holds and the thread she spins governs both life and death. Like the Fates of ancient Europe, she creates the fabric of our lives, and ends them when she wishes, breaking the threads. As a destroying goddess, she is called "Keeper of Bones" and crossed bones often appear in her iconography.

Cozumel, as it is known today, was once Isla Muheres, the Island of Women, sacred to Ixchel, the home of her temples. Mayan women were supposed to make pilgrimage there at least once in their lives. If you today are a fortunate traveler, you might still go and visit Ixchel there today. Offer her copal incense, cocoa beans, or small clay female statuettes, as her devotees once did on that lovely island so long ago.

Goddess Knowledge Cards,

Pomegranate

Art by Susan Eleanor Boulet

 Here she is with an avatar--her powerful jaguar self, a creature who hunts on land and in the water--for she is a shape-shifter too. Though she was married to the Sun, she, like the cat, was a law unto herself, coming and going as she chose. Not even the Sun God could own her.

~~Juliet Waldron

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Making a Story Seem and Feel More Realistic to your Reader By Connie Vines #AudibleAudiobook #Rodeo Bull Rider, #Silver Buckle

 Making a Story Seem and Feel More Realistic to Your Reader.  

The challenge for every fiction writer or non-fiction writer creating a fictional story is to craft a believable one. This challenge is taken to new levels for writers of realistic fiction. These stories, which are woven around real events that have occurred, can be formed from memoirs, historical moments, and even horror stories if desired. Realistic fiction doesn't blend well with other genres of fiction. It must stand on its own.

That's why it's essential to know how to write realistic fiction in a way that can relate to the reader, be realistic, yet avoid including fantasy elements that may drive readers away. Here's how I keep it real for my readers.

#1. Don't go crazy with your characters. Most people in real life don't have crazy names (though spelling names phonetically is the latest craze).  If a parent wishes his/her child to go through life spelling his/her name, that's their business.  However, I don't give my characters unusual names. Sometimes a guy named Joe, Jacob, or Chris is good enough for realistic fiction.

#2. Give your story a good structure. Realistic fiction requires characters to be fully developed and engaging. People like to see what happens to them because realistic fiction puts the reader into the character's shoes.

#3. Create a good introduction. You want your readers in realistic fiction to begin developing relationships with the characters immediately. This will help to draw them into the story. Let the first couple of pages be the setting where your readers develop a dialogue. Then let the events of your story begin to unfold for your characters. This will lure the reader in so they don't want to put the book down.

#4. Make sure your settings are realistic as well.

#5. Create conflicts that are integral to the character's dialogue. Even close friends will inevitably experience conflicts from time to time. In realistic fiction, these conflicts must also have a touch of realism.

#6. Build to a solid climax. The most common error seen in proposed realistic fiction is that the entire story builds up to a climax at the very end. Remember to include plot points, dark moments, and mini-resolutions in your subplots.

#7. Create a conclusion with a twist. Have you ever worked hard for something only to have something unexpected happen?  Sometimes the conclusion of a realistic story is predictable, and that's a wonderful thing. Readers love it when everything works out as it should. For some characters, life throws them a twist.

By keeping things real, you create stories that will help readers relate to your characters in a very personal way. There is no better method to create a story that people won't want to put down until they've finished it.

I don't wish to give too much away in my works-in-progress or my published stories.

But here are a few teasers and hints of what is to come in my novels:

Current (work in progress):

"Perfume Paradise" is a sweet romance...with a hint of mystery.

"Gumbo Ya Ya," an anthology for women who like Cajun romance, is a current release (4 stories).

Each story has a 'Cajun' main character.  And, of course, food is also part of the realistic slant of each story.

Read a sample:https://www.amazon.com/Gumbo-Ya-Connie-Vines-ebook/dp/B091D27R4Y 

https://www.amazon.com/Lynx-Rodeo-Romance-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00ATSATM2/ref=sr_

Everyone Loves a Cowboy...one reader wrote, "Some romances smolder. Others spark with grit, danger, and tenderness all at one...

Another reader wrote... "a cowboy worth falling for..."

"Keep a box of tissues close at hand..."

**Audio Release **

"Lynx" Rodeo Romance, Book 1, is now available in Audio!

(currently FREE for those who sign up) 

Lynx: Rodeo Romance, Book 1  Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

For readers of Romantic Suspense:

Rodeo Romance Book 2,

Happy Reading!

Or, listening to my audiobook

Connie

Where am I?

Website:https://connievines-author.com/

Blogger https://mizging.blogspot.com/

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Are sci-fi authors creating new worlds? Or has every story been written? by Vijaya Schartz

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If every story has been written before, isn’t it the same for the worlds we create in our books? If life is universal, does it develop everywhere in the same pattern? Of course, not. There is also the possibility of worlds and beings so outrageous that they are impossible for us to conceive or imagine. They could even be invisible to us. But then, would they be relatable to the reader?

When we consider Star Trek’s original thinking, it’s about exploration, and the main characters are still human and relatable… like the Vulcans, the Klingons, or the Romulans… even the Borg. Their motivations, although different from ours, are still within our comprehension.

Then, there are entities of pure evil, destructive, without empathy... but although they affect the lives of the crew, they are impossible for us to fathom.

Star Wars main characters are from different worlds, but mostly human as well with human flaws, like the diverse patrons of some outpost bars with weird Jazz music and alien fringe clientele. Even the robots display human feelings.

When Frank Herbert wrote DUNE, he lived in Egypt and took his inspiration from the Tuaregs, a desert tribe of the Sahara. There are so many diverse cultures in this world, that one needn’t go very far to find interesting societies with different sets of rules… especially if you consider the past.

Check out this award-winning universe of mine, Chronicles of Kassouk
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Cultures like the Greeks, the Romans, the ancient Egyptians, the Vikings, the Mongols, the Samurai, the mid-eastern tales of a thousand and one nights, the ancient Silk Road, all can inspire us to create new worlds, slightly similar yet different.

In CHI WARRIOR, Book One of the PROTECTORS trilogy, scheduled for release this November, I created a medieval post-apocalyptic world, where simple communities survived far apart, separated by wide deserts, high mountains, vast steppes, and uncrossable rivers with dangerous rapids.

As for the culture, it would be basic, simple, but lawless, and the strongest leaders would fight for supremacy, oppressing the weak to gain power.

On such a planet, imagine an oasis of harmony, a self-sufficient monastery in the middle of the desert, devoted to the study of martial arts, with fearsome fighters… and some ancient technology left behind by Immortals who came from the stars.

When the fictional world you created is a character in the story, it also must have a past, and this one is no exception. I will not tell you what it is, because it’s an important twist in the book.

CHI WARRIOR is scheduled for release November 2025. Here is the most recent blurb, still subject to change.

Anila, spiritual warrior woman, trained all her life in the desert, at the monastery of the Celestial Gate, to take the vows of the mighty Protectors. That’s all she’s ever known, all she ever wanted. But a black cloud with wings haunts her nightmares.

When a barbarian horde descends from the north, Bayor Khan seems unstoppable, determined to destroy everything in his path. Rumors of his cruelty make the most powerful princes tremble in their stone fortresses.

Anila is pulled into the inevitable clash as a prophecy unfolds, blurring the lines between good and evil. But nothing is as it seems… not even her, or Bayor Khan. An ancient enemy rises in the shadows, and the falling darkness threatens Anila and everyone she loves.

In the meantime, check out my latest epic sci-fi fantasy series, available everywhere online: 

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Happy Reading

Vijaya Schartz, award-winning author

Strong Heroines, Brave Heroes, Epic Adventure

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Opera, gyms, and shredded carrots – some of my unfavorite things by donalee Moulton

https://www.bookswelove.com/search?q=donalee%20moulton

I was recently interviewed about being a writer – and being a whole bunch of other things. Quick answers to fun questions. I’d like to share them with you.

 

Things you never want to run out of: Chocolate, sweat pants, downward dogs

Things you wish you’d never bought: White chocolate, stilettos, a gym membership

 

Hardest thing about being a writer: Writing
Easiest thing about being a writer: Talking about writing with other writers

Favorite foods: Miso chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, baked gnocchi with Italian sausage

Things that make you want to gag: Snails (even if you call it “escargot”), lima beans, coconut

 

Favorite music or song: I like music I can move to or with lyrics that move me

Music that drives you crazy: Opera (sadly)

 

Last best thing you ate: Cider doughnuts
Last thing you regret eating: Some waxy wrap thing with shredded carrots

 

The last thing you ordered online: A catio for Wiley Bob so he can safely go out in the sunshine

The last thing you regret buying: A wool winter coat that’s itchy to look at and itchy to wear

 

Things you always put in your books: Humor
Things you never put in your books: Blood, guts, gore (at least so far)

 

Favorite places you’ve been: Sable Island, Thailand, Sweden
Places you never want to go to again: Retreats with yurts

 

Favorite books (or genre): Charlotte’s Web, Where the Crawdad’s Sing, The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five

Books you wouldn’t buy: Horror

 

Best thing you’ve ever done: Written books and stories and poems and articles
Biggest mistake: Going to the opera ties with joining a gym

 

The nicest thing a reader said to you: One reader posted a picture of themselves lounging in the sun reading Hung Out to Die. They captioned it “Perfect afternoon.”

The craziest thing a reader said to you: Some readers see sexual tension between two characters in Hung Out to Die. I just don’t see it.

 

Some real-life story that made it to one of your books: I can get up off the floor without using my hands. So can one of my characters.

Something in your story that readers think is about you, but it’s not: Love of coffee. I don’t drink caffeine.

 

Book Reviews by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

https://books2read.com/West-to-the-Bay-Yarmey

Review: A delving into history and the Hudson Bay Company. Tells the story of one young man Thomas and his experiences after leaving his home to travel to the New World. Full of adventure and history. I enjoyed the book and the ease of reading.

Review: I have visited Churchill on the Hudson Bay and this book took me back 300 years to what it was like? A good read cannot put it down

 

https://books2read.com/West-to-Grande-Portage-V2

Review: This book was exactly what I needed to read. It took me away to a completely different world in another time. I followed along, very intrigued by the detail Ms. Donaldson provided about Quebec and the voyageurs of the 1700s all the while creating a very compelling story. I loved this book so much that I immediately began West to the Bay after I finished it. I look forward to reading more and more of Ms. Donaldson's stories.

 

Book Reviews

Book reviews are very important for writers especially in today’s flooded book world. In the past there were traditional publishers, and a few writers who self-published, who send their new releases to book reviewers working on the newspapers. The reviewers would then read them and write reviews for the public. Or the publisher sent the manuscripts (ARCs) to other authors before the book was published and would get a review to add to the front of the book.

But things have changed drastically. While the big five publishers still do a lot of the publicizing and marketing, the smaller publishers are now requiring their authors to take over that job. With the Internet making self-publishing cheap and easy, there are a lot more books on the market. So this is why reviews are so important—authors need readers to tell others why they should read that particular book. And most of that is done on Amazon. The algorithms on Amazon don’t care how long or what was said in the reviews, they just look at the number of reviews. The more reviews, the higher up the book is placed.

Unfortunately, many readers seem reluctant to leave a review. And there are many reasons for that. They think they have to write a long one giving some of the storyline. But that’s not necessary. All they have to say is that they liked the book and hoped the author was writing another. Some get busy and forget or they don’t think their opinion is important. Also, if they didn’t like the book or it wasn’t what they expected, they feel a little uncomfortable leaving a three star or less review. But, just because one person didn’t like the subject of the book, that doesn’t mean the next person will think the same way. Liking or disliking a book is subjective. And, hopefully, readers realize that when they look at the reviews of a book they are interested in.

So, it has become necessary for authors to actively ask for reviews. Publishers and self-published authors now add a note at the end of the book reminding the reader to leave a review. Also, writers who send out newsletters prompt readers to go into their book’s Internet site and write a quick assessment of the story.

Even though this way of getting reviews is all free it does seem like a lot of work and seldom pays off. In the end, some authors opt for another way to get reviews, and that is to pay for them. There are businesses that accept books for review and authors can submit their work to them. But it costs and some charge up to $450.00. The questions I have about this are: Is this ethical; does it mean that the more you pay the better the review; does this give the reader a true, objective opinion of the story and of the writing?

The thing is that it is easy for readers to leave a review of my, or any author’s, books on Amazon. And you don’t have had to purchase it through Amazon. Just go to the book’s Amazon page, scroll down to review this product, select the number of stars you give it, and click on the write a customer review button. You can write as many or as few words as you wish.

Just a note: if you are a friend of the author on any social media, Amazon may reject your review and may even delete previous reviews left by other readers.

A Short Story Competition by Victoria Chatham

 

AVAILABLE HERE

My dear departed husband (henceforth, my DDH), tired of hearing me say that I would write one day, signed me up for short story writing classes. Once I had completed two or three stories, he encouraged me to enter writing competitions. Some people are natural competitors. I am not. I declined. However, after reading a short story in a local paper, he said, “You can do better than that.”

He handed me the newspaper with the pages already folded back so I could read the winning entry of a western-themed short story competition. The year was 1999, and I don’t remember now what that winning story was about, but it sent my little grey cells into overdrive. My DDH told our friends that I was going to enter the next weekend-long Write ‘Em Cowboy competition, and soon my cheerleading section of one had blossomed into a dozen or more. I finally agreed to submit an entry, simply to shut them all up. 

The entry rules required submitting a one-page outline of a western-themed short story, a page of unpublished prose, and a $20 entry fee. The first prize was $1,000, but I didn’t get excited because I didn’t expect to be selected. Well, how wrong I was. My story was titled The Red Bull, and I expected nothing more than a receipt for my entry fee when I opened a letter from the competition organizers. The first word I read was “Congratulations!” I could hardly believe I had been chosen as a finalist.

The whole weekend was a writer’s delight. No phones to answer, chores to do, people or pets to care for. The event kicked off with a Friday evening reception. There was a short presentation by the chairperson of the organizing committee, and then the guests and the finalists were free to mix and mingle. To prevent the chance of any sneaky notes, all the computers, along with a couple of technicians to ensure there were no problems, were donated by a local company. Each finalist chose a workstation, and writing commenced at 9:00 am on Saturday morning, continuing until 9:00 am on Sunday.

Image courtesy of Pixabay

The story was to be no more than 7000 words. By the time my DDH came to see how I was doing on Saturday evening, I had already hit the 10,000-word mark. I was not prepared to burn the midnight oil to edit out 3,000 words, so I went home to sleep on it. Which, of course, I couldn’t. We were on the road back to the venue by 5:30 am and arrived just after 6:00 am on Sunday. Yes, I beat the deadline with 6,865 words at 8.55 am.

 We waited for the rest of the day as the judges deliberated. Once the Sunday evening banquet was finished and the tables were cleared, the winners were announced. I was placed fourth, earning me a prize of $100 and an excellent critique. Each of the six judges made the same comment: My story was not a short story; it was a book. Because of that, plus the encouragement from my DDH and support from BWL Publishing Inc., it saw the light of day as a contemporary western romance, Loving That Cowboy. I have entered a couple of competitions since, but the heady heights of that first competition remain with me.

Victoria Chatham

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An author walks into a library and asks...

 That sounds like the opening line of a joke. In reality, it's a regular discussion for most authors. I didn't "walk" into the library, but emailed one of my favorite librarians, and asked, "Is your library haunted?"

Madeline replied, "There are some strange unexplained things that happen (in our one-hundred-year-old library), but I've never ascribed them to a ghostly entity. She went on to explain that most of them involved books falling off of shelves, lights being on or off when they shouldn't be, strange noises coming from the older parts of the library. They occur most often to the assistant librarian and volunteers when the head librarian is away. Some volunteers apparently refuse to investigate any of the book falling off the shelf incidents unless accompanied by one of the staff.

"Do you know who the ghost is?" I asked.

"We jokingly refer to her as Anna, who was the first librarian. We don't know that anything bad happened to her, which would make her haunt the library."

"Have you ever had a seance in the library?" I asked.

Since this conversation is going on via email, I wasn't surprised when I didn't receive a response for several days. "I have not personally been involved in a library seance." 

I explained that my co-author, Anne Flagge, and I were outlining a book featuring the haunted Two Harbors Library, where Madeline is the head librarian. "Would you be disturbed by us creating a fictional ghost in a fictionalized version of your library? And maybe having a seance to initiate a conversation with the ghost?"

Madeline was totally onboard with the ghost and seance. She suggested a location for setting up the seance and its special effects and even consented to the use of her real name as the book's fictional librarian. We went on to discuss the core of the plot, something stolen from a locked library table drawer, who's key had been missing for decades.

A few weeks later, Madeline contacted Anne and me to say the library is having a summer reading competition. She asked if she could offer the opportunity for the winner to have her name included in the upcoming book, "Whistling Librarian". We agreed, and Paula Pettit (the winner) is the book's assistant librarian.

My message to all of you is, talk to your librarian. They're a great resource for many questions, some they'd never considered. The most important from me was, "Will you host a book event for us?"

Anne Flagge and I were at the Two Harbors library yesterday. Madeline and Paula were delighted to see us, as were Shannon Walz and her friends of the library group in Silver Bay.

What's a good book event?

 I recently did a "meet and greet" at a bookstore in a medium-sized northern Minnesota city. Sherri, the events manager, set me up with a table, a couple of book stands, and a selection of pens. Stepping back, she wished me luck and assured me there would be somewhere between one and one thousand people buying my books. Hmm, somewhere between one and a thousand people offers a lot of wiggle room. 

As is usually the case the sales were closer to the one than the thousand. However, that doesn't represent the fun I have talking about books to intelligent, well-read people, like those who frequent bookstores and libraries. One young gentleman who was dressed like a lumberjack, paused when he saw me. Roger walked over and read the "A Bourbon to Die For" blurb, then looked at me with a very serious expression. "What's it like to write a book? I mean, so you sit down and write it from beginning to end without thinking about where it's going, or do you have a skeleton?" He went on to explain that he was a professional musician and composer. As he put it, "There are times when I've been commissioned to write a song and there's literally nothing musical that comes to mind. Other times, I'll be doing something mindless and a whole melody and lyrics come so fast that I can't get them all on paper."

His comments brought to mind my friend, Terry. He'd worked as a roadie for a big-name country star while he was trying to decide if he was going to be an engineer or a truck driver. (He became an engineer). As Terry explained it, one night the roadies and the band were drinking beer and jamming when Terry overheard something that made him start picking a song. Kenny O'Dell developed the melody and Terry sang three verses of "Behind Closed Doors". Charlie Rich heard them singing it, had them write it all out, and he added it to his next concert. Terry and Kenny won a Grammy Award for a song they wrote in half an hour.

So, this young songwriter and I talked about books and songs, dungeons and dragons, and what it's like to live in a city with nine months of winter and three months of "poor sledding". (Yes, we were that far north.)

Roger bought a book, then thanked me for sharing my story, and for listening to his. It was the sale of one book, but it made my day. I hope Roger went home and wrote a hit song! 

Sometimes, a book event isn't about how many books you sell. It's about meeting and connecting with people. Yes, I'd love to have another event like the one where I sold eighty books in an hour. But even without that type of sales, there's so much value to talking to people, sharing ideas, and maybe strumming a guitar.

In the end, Sherri was right. I had somewhere between one and a thousand people buy books. But better than that I met Roger, and a woman who was spending her children's inheritance by filling her new house with books, and another woman who was awestruck to meet an actual author and get MY signature in her new book. How do you put a value on those things?

Check out my books at the BWL website. I might be prejudiced, but I think "Skidded and Skunked" and "A Bourbon to Die For" are pretty good reads.

A Bourbon to Die For — BWL Publishing

Did People really kill over Oysters? The 1950s Oyster Wars, by Diane Scott Lewis

 

To Purchase this book click HERE

A friend of mine said her boyfriend had been a witness to some of the dangerous antics on the Potomac River in the 1950s. Maryland owned the river and shot at any Virginians who were dredging for oysters, a profitable practice but it ruined the oyster beds. My protagonist, Luke, is involved, anxious to make money to support his family.

My critique group said this couldn't possibly have happened, but it did.

Enjoy an excerpt:

Colonial Beach

Spray dampened Luke’s face and shoulders as he held onto the boat’s rail, balancing with the slap of the river. On shore, as the sky lightened further, the sun straining to shine through the murk, people gathered. They cheered for Harvey and cursed at the police.

Bullets flew. Luke and Bobby ducked beside Frank on the slimy deck. Jim navigated near the shore, toward a creek’s mouth they knew about. Up on the bank, tree trunks splintered, struck by gunfire.

Harvey careened around bars and in and out of coves, then he cut a hard turn as the seaplane lowered to the water’s surface. The Miss Ann revved, and Harvey steered her right at the plane.

“Oh, shit,” Jim muttered. “He wouldn’t.”

In a splash of flying water, Harvey gunned his boat. The people on shore gasped. The seaplane lifted just as the Miss Ann swerved beneath her pontoons.

“He’s as insane as Bozo.” Luke gripped one hand to the port rail as he still kneeled.

A boat roared up behind them, lights flashing.

“We’re spotted.” Jim slipped Sally into the creek, amongst thicker foliage. Little sunlight had penetrated in there yet. The mist clung like a smoky curtain.

A sudden shift in water again, and a low engine sounded behind them. The police had followed! A spotlight lit up their boat. “Stay where you are!” a disembodied voice shouted. “We’re coming aboard to check your equipment.”

Luke cursed. Their boat pushed into deeper shadows, scraping the starboard side.

“Dammit. Jump overboard. All of you.” Jim flicked his cigarette away. “I’ll take the heat.”

Luke hesitated, but he urged Bobby and his cousin—though they both cursed—to crawl over the side and slosh through the shallow water.

“You got a young family,” Silas hissed and pushed at Luke’s shoulder. “Get goin’. Now.” 

Luke couldn’t be any help to anyone in jail. Especially his family.

For more on me and my books, visit my BWL author's page

https://bwlpublishing.ca/lewis-diane-scott/

Diane lives in Western Pennsylvania with one naughty dachshund.