Susan Buffum's Blog: Welcome to My World, page 29

More Giveaways Scheduled!

I am offering 6 copies of The Archetypes-First Generation in a giveaway that opens January 12th. I am also offering 6 copies of Miss Peculiar's Haunting Tales, Volume II which has three novellas in it in an upcoming giveaway scheduled to begin January 16th. I will be offering copies of Miss Peculiar's Haunting Tales, Volume III in a February Giveaway. Lots of good stuff coming up!!

Encouraging Young Writers

My hair stylist's daughter is one of my most ardent fans. She's in middle school. She recently mailed me a nice card telling me I inspire her and she hopes she inspires me in return. She does. I like that she writes and shares her work on wattpad. Kelly checked it out this evening and I heard her laughing and enjoying Mackenzie's work. I'll have to get on there and find her stories and read them so one day in the near future she, Kelly and I can get together to discuss writing. I am all for keeping the written word alive and the younger generations are the writers of the future.

I've been writing since at least the fourth grade. The earliest material I still have are books of poetry I wrote beginning when I was thirteen years old. I wrote poetry and short prose in high school during study halls. I also developed a flare for writing satire in high school. I liked writing essays- how weird is that? In college I worked on the college literary magazines and contributed some pieces.

I wrote all the time when growing up, just lying on my bed and writing for hours on end. I wrote in longhand on lined paper. Eventually I used my Mom's electric typewriter, finally sick of my manual typewriter. When Kelly was little I used Mom's typewriter and wrote stories for her when we ran out of books to read (she had a library of 1000 picture and storybooks in her room when she was little!). I remember when she was sick for several weeks with an upper respiratory illness. She would nap on the spare bed in the den and I would type new pages to a never-ending action-adventure story about a young boy named Minnow and a fox who could talk. He had all sorts of adventures. Minnow is still now finished even though Kelly grew up and spent hours typing the typewriter written story into the computer I was slow to adapt to.

Finally I discovered the computer and since then I have never looked back. I still occasionally write something out longhand but mainly, I write on the computer. This is my third laptop. My Dell netbook was a workhorse. My original Dell laptop died a slow death and was just recently put out to technology's pasture with other dinosaurs of the technological age. I will never let Mahue, my little netbook go. I have a special bond with that computer. I write on an HP Stream now.

So-having been a kid who liked to write and never had a shortage of imagination, I encourage all young writers to write and write often. I have seen how my own writing has developed, improved and matured over 44 years or more. As Mackenzie grows and matures I expect her writing to follow in her footsteps and grow in leaps and bounds as she gains more insight into the world around her and experiences life to the fullest.

I will challenge her to find a new word everyday and work it into her story. I have a passion for language and I hope she does, too. Kelly always surprises me with her word choices. She and I sort of compete to find obscure words that fit and work in the context of our writing.

When I'm an old lady in an assisted living facility I want to be able to download one of Mackenzie's books to my e-reader or computer or whatever new device will be around then and enjoy her work- remembering her from the days when she played at the hair salon, the day I gave her Miss Peculiar's Haunting Tales, Volume 1 after she'd read Medea (published under my pseudonym Victoria Bell). I gifted her the three volumes of collected Christmas stories just before Christmas, which was what prompted her to write to me. One day I will write a fan letter to her!

First Talon Giveaway is in Progress

Three signed first editions of the first book in the Talon supernatural/grim reaper series are currently up for grabs in this giveaway. This book underwent a humongous metamorphosis between its 2012 Golden Heart romance novel entry when I totally rewrote it from third person to first person from Bryce's point of view. There are elements of romance still clinging to it because Dr. Giles Talon and City Morgue night clerk Bryce Briscoe have had this thing for one another right along, it's just that he's a supernatural being and she was born half human, so he's had to wait for her to grow up. They have a volatile relationship that rocks the Heavens and gets the gates to Heaven closed against them because no one up there expected these things to happen when they finally did get together- for Bryce is Talon's portal, the doorway through whom the souls he harvests must pass in order to reach Heaven. Book One in the trilogy is all about Bryce who has grown up under the Freak label discovering who and what she really is and working out her relationship with Dr. Talon, her reaper. Find out for yourself why readers couldn't put this book down and hounded me for Book Two...and now want Book Three tomorrow, if not sooner!! I'm working on it!!

Giveaway #3

Three signed first edition copies of Talon: An Intimate Familiarity are available beginning January 3rd during my 3rd giveaway. As usual this book is among the novels that people who have read it tell me they can't put down once they start reading it. There is just so much happening throughout the two published books in this series and continuing in the third and last book in the trilogy, which I should be finishing up writing this month. I just reread the first two novels in the series and what's written so far of the third one over Christmas and this weekend. Whew! That's all I can say! Good luck!

If I had to describe the books I would say that they are action/adventure, supernatural romances...my novels tend to blur the lines between genres. Talon: An Intimate Familiarity was a 2012 Golden Heart entry in the romance genre in its original third person format. It under went a major revision in 2013-14 and is published in its first person from Bryce's POV format which added more depth to her character as well as all the other characters, too.

Life Skills

Life Skills, my 2015 NaNo Novel is now available on Amazon.com. It is the story of Lissa Beresford, a young woman who has been abused by her father for eight years. One night she cracks and spills her story to a young man who has suffered physical and emotional abuse in his own past. Remy Brice and Lissa were paired as partners in Life Skills class in high school, a class designed to help students develop and learn the skills necessary to live in the adult world. Remy is determined not to the let the girl we has carried a torch for for years slip into the abyss. The road ahead of them is littered with acts of violence, the mending of relationships, misunderstandings and the development of family bonds that will help them forge a path into a happier future together. This novel includes a bonus chapter at the end which is Remy and Lissa's Christmas story set five years into their future. A Christmas story tied to characters in a particular novel or series of novels is a trademark of mine and can be found in both The Archetypes series and the Talon series.

Fan Mail

Had a nice email today from JoAnn who bought the three Christmas volumes. I sent her a fourth book, Love Me Knots, as a thank you, plus a manuscript copy of this year's annual Christmas Story, The Christmas Angel. She's read the story, Love Me Knots and most of Yuletide story and wrote that she feels as if she's won the lottery!

That makes my heart happy, makes me feel like I am doing something good. I love writing, and I like making people happy.

I like hearing back from people who've read my books/stories- that makes me happy!

Merry Christmas!

Today was holiday book giveaway day at work for my co-workers who also had to work. I had some copies of Yuletide Stories, Always Christmas in My Heart and Together for the Holidays kicking around the house so I loaded them into my car and gave them away to the receptionists, medical assistants, doctor and business office girls who worked today. They were all excited to get books and I was happy to treat the people I work with to something I created for the holidays.

I'm thinking about another book giveaway in the near future but haven't decided which book to offer yet.

Wishing you all a very Wishing you all the best in the coming New Year! Merry Christmas!

A Novel Experience

I was at work today when I received a phone call from a friend's husband. He had purchased the first of my three collected Christmas story volumes, Yuletide Stories, on Amazon.com. He was calling to ask me if he could swing by the medical office where I work so I could sign it for his wife. It was so strange...I'm still new to this being an author with books out there that people can buy. I am more used to writing something and handing out copies that I've printed out at home to my friends and family. He came in and seemed a little nervous talking to me...but, hey, really...I'm still me- easy going, approachable, nice, friendly. I think it's my acute awareness of how people's perception of me has changed even though I've been writing for forty years or more, I just never shared that with many people. Now they know my secret and I am suddenly, to them, a different person, although in actuality I am no different than I was on May 31st the day before I plunged into self-publishing. Even at work, if I have one of my books in my hand for whatever reason I am no longer Sue the medical secretary I am Susan the author. I am just one person with multiple facets. I also do pen and ink drawings, collect antique clothing buttons, support the local rescue cat shelter (where our boys came from) and do a hundred other things. Guess I'm no longer one dimensional! And that is a novel experience to me, to observe how people react to me now that this longtime facet has been revealed.

Holiday Movies

We had a few snow flurries today. It's cold and windy, starting to feel more like a traditional New England Christmas, although it certainly doesn't look like we'll have a white Christmas this year.

I have rheumatoid arthritis and am having a huge flare-up (it's been ongoing for a week and a half so far) so it was the perfect day to cuddle up beneath my favorite flannel blanket and watch Christmas movies. Our DVD player died the other day so my husband brought up a new DVD player, a family Christmas gift he'd gotten. He hooked it up and we watched the George C. Scott version of A Christmas Carol (during which we ate a delicious chicken stew) and then White Christmas with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye.

When Kelly was younger we used to try to watch all the Christmas DVDs we own- the three Santa Claus movies, A Christmas Story, every version of A Christmas Carol that I've ever been able to find, including the horrible Scrooged and the epic Albert Finney Scrooge musical, Miracle on 34th Street (B&W and colorized versions and the newer version), Christmas Vacation, Christmas in Connecticut, plus all the kid favorites like The Grinch (not the Jim Carrey one but the original cartoon one), Rudolph, The Year Without A Santa Claus, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Frosty...all the classics.

I guess that's why I started writing an annual Christmas story- I am just so steeped in Christmas movies and books that I want to leave my own Christmas story legacy behind.

The biggest thrill was last night when I opened my email and found a message from the husband of an old friend. He bought a book on Amazon and asked if I would be willing to sign it for his wife. They live in town so of course I called him today and said I'd be very happy to do that so we set a place and time. I'll bring a copy of this years' annual story so he can give that to her too. She'll be surprised! (She's not on Goodreads as far as I know so I doubt she'll see this or even if she does she won't know it's her because I know a lot of people in town having worked in retail and in a huge medical practice and having lived here for two thirds of my life at least!)

Feeling more like Christmas here and in my heart.

A Christmas Haunt

I have been home for the past two days after a bad knee strain at work so, unable to do much but stay off my leg, I sat down and wrote this year's annual Christmas story- A Christmas Haunt. It's about a young woman who inherits her late great-grandfather's Massachusetts coastal estate. On a stormy Christmas Eve she fulfils a promise to hurl is ashes from the cliff walk at the mansion and nearly falls over the edge herself, but is rescued by the property caretaker who just happened to have come home to the gatekeeper's cottage after a less than stellar Christmas Eve at his parent's home. Camberly wants to find the beautiful Christmas ornaments she remembers being on her great-grandfather's tree when she was a child but though they search the mansion they cannot find them. On Christmas Day she has an encounter with her grandfather's ghost while again searching for the ornaments. It isn't until two years later that the ornaments are found, when she has found her own Christmas joy at last.
This story will eventually make its way into a future collected Christmas stories volume. It still needs a final edit and proofreading, but at least I feel as if I accomplished something while only being able to sit and rest my injured knee!