Susan Buffum's Blog: Welcome to My World, page 4

Annual Holiday Story

Now that NaNo is over and I plan on proofreading, editing and revising The Clockmaker's Son in January, it's time to turn my attention to writing my annual holiday story for family and friends. I had the idea for it while at work last week, but just got around to start writing it this past Sunday night.

I've been thinking about expanding the holiday novellas to novel length- 50,000-65,000 words and then submitting them to Hallmark. They'd make great made for TV holiday movies! Maybe that'll be something I work on this coming year. There is a fourth novella that would work also.

Spending some quality time curling up with some of my favorite local author's books while it either snows or rains outside- reading Melissa Volker's gorgeous new anthology of stories, essays and pieces on writing As We Go. I was actually reading Muse and crying at breakfast this morning. Had to wrench myself away from the book to go to work. I also picked up her YA fantasy novels The Thirteenth Moon and its sequel The A'Chiad. I beta read The A'Chiad and loved it! Also picked up Glen Ebisch's newest books The Eye of Mumbai, the Open Window, The Accident, and A Body in My Office- for my family members who love mysteries. Also bought Judith Sessler's Fifty Shades of Green Confessions of the Uncommon Joe and its sequel Fifty-One Shades of Green The Emerald Inn Behind Closed Doors. "Sandy" Sessler is an amazing writer and a dear friend of mine. Tucking books into vintage 50's felt stockings with homemade cookies and other goodies for my siblings and their spouses this year- something memorable and different. Stockings can be reusable besides!

Have other irons in the fire in the writing world...just hope my husband finds a job this coming year...being out of work for two years has been a financial strain, not to mention a source of continuing frustration as I burn myself out working, managing the house which he is clueless about...sigh. Writing is my sanctuary, my little nook of sanity.

I need to sit down and read some of my own past holiday stories to restore my Christmas cheer!

NaNo Novel Proofreading and Editing

December has arrived. I wrote my 2017 NaNo novel in 12 days and then dropped it onto the dining room table and haven't looked at it since. I finished a novella, wrote a ghost story, worked on two other novels and planned my annual holiday story during the last 18 days of November. Now it's time to haul out the binder with The Clockmaker's Son and start working my way through it checking continuity, adding material to improve the story, editing, finding typos and grammar issues...all the little tweaks and twangs necessary to give it the proper polishing it needs as it is basically the bare bones story of a young man who was turned into a lycanthrope at age 14, then fled the country immediately after graduation to distance himself from the lycanthrope that turned him. He's made himself a name as a mechanical clock tower maker in Europe, but now his clockmaker father's health is failing and he's been summoned home. The lycanthrope has been active. Now, friends and family of the girl the young man has been attracted to since he was a teenager are being attacked and killed, forcing him to stay and protect her, and find a way to stop the man who threatens to destroy all he loves.
I've got a lot of work ahead of me, but the book should be ready for an early 2018 released date! (I'm an eternal optimist!)

Christmas Books

My 20-year labor of love and joy for family and friends has been put into seven 5x8 books perfect for slipping into a stocking, gift basket, for gifting a holiday hostess who likes to read, for family and friends in assisted living or skilled nursing facilities, for senior relatives who are nostalgic for the season...shop for A Major Production, The Winter Solstice Ball, The Red Velvet Suit, Christmas Inspirations, Christ with the Family, Christmases Past and Christmases Present on Amazon.com or read them on Kindle.

I'm sitting here this evening trying to decide what my holiday story will be about this year. Besides the twenty-five or so stories included in the aforementioned books, I sometimes write a holiday story and include it as a bonus story at the end of a novel. The Achetypes-Shockwaves, Life Skills, and Talon:The Familiarity of it All all include bonus Christmas stories at the end of the novels.

Shop small Saturday here where I live was so much fun! I had a table at our local indie book shop and was selling my holiday books. I met so many wonderful people and heard a lot of their own holiday stories! Sales were brisk, and I shopped small by visiting the other vendors at their pop-up shops in the store between sales...but I never got my glass plum pudding from the glass artist who handmade a phoenix bird rising from a flame with a flame shooting from it's beak, a dachshund, and a vintage trolley car for Kelly. I also bought two handcrafted wands from another artisan, and a cloth bookmark from a third. The bookstore received 30% of my sales for allowing me to have the space and for handling all my sales that day. Everyone profited. Everyone was happy from the shoppers to the vendors to the shop owner and staff. That's what Shop Small Saturday is all about! Supporting local small businesses and local artisans who have amazing skills!

As December 1st approaches...I'll be dreaming of this year's holiday story!

Little Holiday Gift Books

I am most well known among family and friends as the Christmas story writer. I've been writing an annual holiday story since 1997. I've released them in three anthologies in 2015- Yuletide Stories, Always Christmas in My Heart, and Together for the Holidays. This year I've extracted three stand alone novellas- A Major Production, The Winter Solstice Ball, and The Red Velvet Suit, and then grouped the remaining stories, plus new ones written in 2015 and 2016, into four smaller volumes by story type. So there are little collections called Christmas Inspirations, Christmas with the Family, Christmases Past, and Christmases Present. All seven of these books are in the smaller 5x8 format and would be perfect for stocking stuffers, Secret Santa gifts, teacher gifts, co-worker gifts, gift basket inclusions, little gifts for elderly friends and relatives in assisted living or skilled nursing facilities, or senior family members who are alone at the holidays, gift exchanges and all those other holiday affairs where you need to bring a little something to give to the hostess. The books are currently available on Amazon and Kindle.

Day Seven of NaNo

Well, here it is day 7 of NaNoWriMo and I am 3500 words away from the target of 50,000 (in 30 days), and this was after cropping 4100 words yesterday morning.

The story is finally rolling after building up a head of steam. I'm not anywhere near finished by a long shot, so I'll keep writing.

And then I'll go back and fix all the typos, grammar and verb tense errors that fling fingers leave in their wake!

Pardon Me, I will be NaNo Writing

November 1st has arrived and I am one chapter into my NaNo novel- The Clockmaker's Son, which is it's tentative title. This is my 6th NaNoWriMo.

I've been under a lot of stress lately with my husband out of work for 21 months, our health insurance expiring at the end of this month, and all the stress causing a huge RA flare that left me nearly down and out last Saturday, but I fought it and read my ghost story during Ghost Stories LIVE! because I have taken a stance and will stick to it. This auto immune disease is not going to defeat me!

Had to work today, so late start to NaNo writing this evening. Taking a break as Kelly just got home from a fencing lesson- she's teaching the CT Trolley Museum President how to fence- once a week lessons. She's chatting with me as I type this. She's 200 words into her NaNo novel.

2012- Talon:An Intimate Familiarity, a grim reaper novel
2013- The Fairlawn Investigation; a ghost hunter's novel
2014- Medea- recently renamed The Unwilling Witch
2015- Life Skills- a contemporary novel about two young people damaged by dysfunctional families who forge a bond and a path into a happier future together
2016-Black Knight, White Rook, the sequel to shortlisted for the OZMA Award Black King Takes White Queen

Let's see what I can do this year!

On the Radio

Yesterday, Kelly and I had our first author appearance together on the local radio channel. Neither one of us is very vocal in person, so we were nervous about how this was going to go. Author Melissa Volker, a friend of ours for over a year now, and a fellow WhipCity Wordsmith, joined us via phone for the hour.

The program is early morning, so we had to be at the university where it is broadcast from a small studio there between 6:30Am and 7AM. Our host greeted us warmly and made us welcome, then quickly explained about the microphone and the headset, and pointed out where the camera was located across the studio. We hardly had any time to be nervous as the program began at 7 sharp.

I've known the host for over ten years, though not well. We're acquaintances. But he's easy to talk to and has been in radio for years so he was prepared with an agenda. Melissa was sick as a dog with an upper respiratory virus but phoned in and participated-and she was awesome.

The hour literally flew by. There was so much more ground to cover, but I got some info on the new vampire novel, Out, out there to the public. The official launch was this past Saturday.

We were finished at 8AM and headed home in windy wet weather.

There is a video of our appearance about an hour into the entire show. You can watch and listen at vimeo.com/channels/wskb if interested.

Writing Blurbs

I like to beta read for my author friends. I always write something about the book when I'm finished reading it- comments, my thoughts about the book, or whatever-feedback is important to any writer. Feedback serves as a means of checks and balances. A writer can get so involved in their own work they might miss something obvious to fresh, outside eyes. Every writer or author should have several people they can rely on to read with an open mind, have the ability to see the intent and purpose of the project, and the strength of character to comment honestly. We all like to have our egos stroked now and again, but should appreciate the willingness of that person who bravely takes on ones work and has the ability to shred it, pull it apart and fling it back at you and tell you, this doesn't work! Or, fix this, you totally wimped out at the end! Or, what exactly is it you were trying to do here? Bitter pills to swallow after long labor and a sense of having accomplished something great, but totally necessary. It keeps one humble.

Occasionally I'm asked to write a back cover blurb or inside blurb that can also be used on social media, in book ads, on websites, etc. I'm not a book reviewer, but I do know when I've read something that touches something within me or speaks to me on multiple levels. And I'm not shy about telling it like it is.

I think it's a honor that other authors value my opinion and insights into their work. I'm always happy to be asked and to supply a blurb.

Writing has always come fairly easy for me, but many writers work hard at their craft. So, if I can write a few lines that may catch a book browser's eye and spark their interest in reading a book, then I am glad to do it. There are so many people writing these days thanks to the vast realm of self-publishing. There's an ocean of books out there. While some authors don't rate a second glance, there are many talented writers and authors vying for the few publishing opportunities with publishing houses available...a lot of amazing books are flying under the radar. Readers can become quickly overwhelmed searching through book after book. If I can write a blurb that catches the eye and hooks a reader and reels them in, then I have done my job.

Blurbs aren't easy to write, but they can be worth their weight in gold to an author if they grab a reader's attention and make them buy the book!

Post PumpkinFest

A lot of preparation went into pulling off a successful author event at my city's first ever PumpkinFest- but it was well worth the effort and time invested to book local authors, create decorations to spruce up a perfectly vanilla empty room to give it an autumn/Halloween themed feel, and to put together a fun raffle prize table- in addition to getting some new smaller sized books created and printed in time for the event. The Magic of Cross and Crowe, The Girl with the Ivy Tattoo (both novellas), Isabel's Initiation (8-12 year old chapter book) , and The Unwilling Witch were created for this event, in addition to a volume of 19 ghost and paranormal stories written by daughter Kelly Buffum and myself that we titled Disturbing. This co-authored book was also made available for the first time to the public at this event.

We had a lot of fun with authors Judith Sessler, Sonia Ellis, and Connie Bombaci, the other authors at this even with us (Kelly and me)- and met a lot of wonderful people. We all sold books, always a good thing at an author event! And we met a few writers whom we invited to join WhipCity Wordsmiths. We'll see what happens! We have an upcoming meeting on October 21st during which author Melissa Volker will give a talk on How to Engage the Audience/Readers who Attend your Author Event and Hold Their Interest.

Highlights of the day were the inflatable dragon in the pumpkin patch overseen by the Headless Horsemen in his Hessian uniform. We saw Gandolf and a Jedi on the green, the Witches of Westfield danced on the green prior to the jack o'lantern lighting ceremony. And the little boy who won the Scooby-Doo LEGO set was as excited as a million dollar lottery prize winner when I called his home to let him know he was the winner. Photographer Danny Nason climbed 85 feet into the air on the fire department's ladder truck to take a spectacular shot of everything going on in the downtown area that afternoon! Awesome! (But you'd never get me up on that ladder!!!)

Preparing for the official launch on my vampire novel, Out, on the 21st. In researching vampires I found a curious tidbit of information. In the central Balkans they believe fruit such as pumpkins and watermelons can become vampires if not consumed in ten days, or before Christmas. These pumpkin and watermelon vampires, however, are not feared because they have no teeth. A drop of human blood on a fruit is a sign that the fruit will turn into a vampire. So, watch out for pumpkins and watermelons this Halloween!

Writing Ghost Stories

Now that preparations for the Author Event at Pumpkin Fest on October 14th are under control, and I'm partially ready for my book launch for Out on the 21st, I can get down to writing a new ghost story for Ghost Stories LIVE! which will be on the 28th. This is one crazy month, because also on the 21st is the second meeting of the WhipCity Wordsmiths I need to prepare for, although author Melissa Volker will be the speaker, I still have to have a game plan for the rest of the meeting.

I wrote a 3117 word story last night that had been kicking around in my head-Blood Doesn't Lie. Will be eating breakfast and proofreading it before work this morning.

Life never gets less busy...only busier!