Susan Buffum's Blog: Welcome to My World, page 6

Out is out!!

My vampire romance/social commentary/little bit of horror novel is finally available. I have been working on this for two years, have been through four different proof copies...and finally feel it's what I wanted to write.

This novel originated with a novelette that appears in Miss Peculiar's Haunting Tales, Volume III- Karpov Live. I wrote that novelette, but thought it could be much more than that.

So the rewrite process began. I wrote the novel. The novel was okay, but it was littered with a lot of characters- human and vampire. After the novel was written I shook my head, and then had an idea. I wrote a brief piece about each vampire as if taken from a media source of one sort or another, then inserted those pieces at the beginning of each chapter.

That lead to entire chapters being rewritten to make everything fall into place correctly- continuity challenges abounded!

That's what the four different proofs were all about- differentiating between two similar but separate incidents in Irina's life, then meshing the media excerpts with what is going on in the novel, and making sure characters matched up, incidents flowed smoothly and the whole book read smoothly.

A couple lucky beta readers got sneak previews and liked the book. A few more still have advance reader copies in hand.

The cover also went through four changes until I nailed it with the final covert with the deep purple roses on it- Midnight's Passion- they play a role in the novel.

I've ordered copies and will have a giveaway after they arrive.

It's not your typical vampire novel.

You can go to Amazon and read the back cover and description if interested.

Beta Reading X3

I just finished beta reading a new writer's first book. It wasn't bad. It needs some polish, but it was a humorous memoir of his life in the south as a young newspaperman/journalist. It was full of memorable characters! I have his marked up manuscript to return to him with a review and words of encouragement.

Next, I am beta reading a published author's new YA fantasy fiction novel. I have beta read for her several times in the past and always enjoy doing so. I'm four chapters in today and liking it so far. Making some notes in the margins and filling in those mysterious words that go missing, or drop letters as you type. I should have this project done by the end of the week.

And then there is Kelly's first time author friend who wrote not one but five connected stories set at a trolley museum. She formatted the stories for the book he hopes to self publish before September 30th. I'll add some pages and she hopes to get a cool picture of trolley tracks like he wants to put on the cover during her upcoming visit to ten transportation museums from the NE to mid-west. We hope to have his book back to him all cleaned up and ready for him to upload before the end of this month so he can get it self published and available for an event on September 30th.

Kelly and I enjoy beta reading and mentoring new writers. It keeps us grounded and humble as we continue with our own writing projects by remembering that we were new writers once with no one to help us navigate the literary world. Everything we've learned we love to share and pass along.

Life, Death, Love, Cats & Dogs

A new collection of 9 stories in which cats, kittens, puppies, and dogs play a role in uniting people will be released this week.

I've gathered 9 romance tales, several with supernatural;/paranormal overtones, from various story collections because there is nothing like the unconditional love of one's feline or canine companion, and in some homes there are one of each or multiples of one, the other, or both. The companionship of our feline and canine companions is unequaled.

In my own family we've had a few dogs, but we've been overall, a family of cat lovers. A photograph of Kelly's cat (a tuxedo) Revere, and my cat (fluffy gray with white) Riley Beans graces the cover of this volume. Both of our cats are rescue cats from the local cat rescue shelter just down the road from us. They are both the sweetest boys ever! They're both excited to be cover boys on this story collection!

Eight of the stories are from previous story collections, including Love Me Knots, Auspicious Beginnings, Cupid's Darts, Miss Peculiar's Haunting Tales, Volume I, and Miss Peculiar's Ghost Stories, Volume I. However, Franklin is a previously unpublished story. It's a paranormal/fantasy tale about a cat that is accidentally killed who steps outside his earthly vessel and chats with the young man who shot him with a nail gun that he fumbled. The cat becomes his constant companion, but really longs to be back with the girl who adopted him- this is Franklin's story of how he makes that happen, and also unites the young man and the young lady as well.

If you love cats or dogs or both, and like to read stories in which cats and dogs appear ads characters, then this collection of stories may be for you. It will be available on Amazon and as a Kindle book. A portion of proceeds from this book will be donated to the Homeless Cat Project here in my hometown of Westfield, MA.

Bending Birches

I have quietly launched a book that contains two connected novellas set seven years apart. The setting is close to my heart because I am western MA born and bred so Hadley, Amherst and the Berkshires have been my playground all of my life.

The first novella, Bending Birches, is primarily set at a Mount Holyoke-like college called Bircham College in the novella. Senior Jordan James is close to graduating from Bircham. One of her former English professors, Reid Lockwood, has been attracted to her since she was a freshman in his Dickens class. Jordan is from southern California and he is worried that she will immediately return to the west coast upon graduation and he will be unable to tell her how he feels about her before she goes. As he is on the verge of letting her know that he has more personal feelings for her a sex scandal erupts in the English Department. Jordan's elderly landlady, Mrs. Thayer, quietly plays matchmaker between the two when she realizes that Professor Lockwood is interested in more than helping Jordan prepare her senior thesis which is Dickens-theme based, his specialty. He's also trying to land her a job as a photojournalist for a magazine in Stockbridge where he has a summer cottage where he lives when teaching summer classes there and assisting with Stockbridge Playhouse productions. Romance blooms between the two prior to her graduation but they realize they must not let anyone know, other than Mrs. Thayer or else he'll lose his job.

In Seventh Year Itch, Professor Lockwood and Jordan have been married nearly seven years and they have a three year old son, Charlie. Charlie lives with Jordan in their Stockbridge cottage while Reid lives most of the year in their larger Amherst home while he teaches at Bircham. He joins them in Stockbridge during the summer and visits them on weekends when he can getaway. Jordan discovers that she's pregnant with their second child, and the stress and strains of basically being a single parent who works full time begin to fray her life at the edges until, on the night that Reid hosts the department's staff meeting at their Amherst home, and is on the verge of infidelity as he is seduced by a former classmate of Jordan's after drinking too much wine, that Jordan packs up Charlie and heads home to Amherst to let Reid know that they cannot continue to lead separate lives, that there has to be a change. He is unaware that she is pregnant again. Before she reaches home there is a terrible accident on the MA pike and she is critically injured. Charlie is hurt, but not as badly. Reid's world implodes as he struggles with the accident, guilt about how close he came to be unfaithful to the woman he loves, the realization that he nearly lost the two most important people in his life, and the fact that he has been unhappy about living apart from them for far too long. As Jordan recovers they struggle to find a way to save their marriage and their family, and forge a life together in one house.

I wrote the first novella back in 2015 when my elderly button friend Pauline Johnson was still alive. She loved the story and was thrilled to find herself fictionalized as Mrs. Thayer. The second story was partially written in 2016 and then abandoned until I recently found Bending Birches in a file box of binders and reread it, deciding to track down the sequel and finish writing it, and then combine them into one book.

It is now available- a little treat for lovers of the beautiful Berkshires in scenic western MA and lovers of little romance stories.

butterscotch News

butterscotch-a collection of stories has a new cover design on Amazon. It was uploaded to Kindle with the original cover, which I also like.

The collection of stories has been well-received. It's fairly unique for a story collection as the children's story mentioned in the first story in the book is a real story I wrote for my daughter, Kelly, when she was four or five years old and sick in bed. I originally made it up off the top of my head and told it to her while trying to get her to fall asleep. The next morning I wrote Prince Hubert, The Chicken in longhand. It's been kicking around in the file cabinet, so I thought it would be nice to tuck the story in at the end of the book.

butterscotch is in 5x8 format in print, which I like better and will be using for future books.

Amberton Paranormal Investigation Series Starts

Last week I released the first two novels in the Amberton Paranormal Investigation Society ghost hunters series. The Fairlawn Investigation and The Victoria Wayfarer Investigation are now available on Amazon and as Kindle books. butterscotch-a collection of stories is now also a Kindle book.

I've got book three started in the ghost hunting series. Fairlawn was my 2013 NaNoWriMo novel and was written two years after Victoria Wayfarer, so it needed some work for reasons of continuity and flow between the two novels. Now I'm back on track!

I also had some fun with Fairlawn by writing my office manager and anther co-worker into the story as ghost hunters from the Berkshires who assist with the Trinity Tavern investigation. It was only the second time I'd fictionalized real people from my life in my work-they got a kick out of it!

New Series Coming!

I have lived a mildly haunted life with a number of paranormal experiences happening. Because of this, I've been a fan of Ghost Hunters and other paranormal shows for many years.

In 2003 I started a story about ghost hunters working out of a college parapsychology research center. It never went very far because back then I was basically writing short stories and had never written a novel-and lost confidence in my ability to write a book. The few chapters I had and notes were put in a binder that Kelly would occasionally pull off the shelf and browse through, shaking her head in disappointment.

In 2011, when she was in college, I finally sat down and wrote book 2 in the Amberton Paranormal Investigation Society series- The Victoria Wayfarer Investigation. Kelly was incensed that I wrote the second book in the series when I hadn't written book 1 yet! But she liked the novel. It got put in a binder and has been sitting in a milk crate since that time.

Meanwhile, in 2013, the year she graduated from college, I wrote book 1 as my NaNoWriMo novel- The Fairlawn Investigation. She liked it, but it needed some work because it was a less than 30-day writing venture. So, Fairlawn was put in a binder and joined the Victoria Wayfarer in the milk crate.

I wrote more novels and put together collections of stories. In 2015 I began self-publishing a small mountain of novels and collections- barely skimming the surface of what I've written over the years. Fairlawn and Victoria Wayfarer continued to gather dust in the milk crate.

Finally, I reached the point where I could deal with polishing Fairlawn and revising Victoria Wayfarer since the books have to flow together book 1 aligning with book 2. Kelly helped me with the proofreading and edits. I did small rewrites in places so there was continuity between the two novels.

Last night I ordered print proof copies of both books for a final read through before releasing them. I'm happy with the way they came out and hopeful that there won't be any major rewrites in my near future!

In the meantime- I am working on book 3 in the series. Last night I was writing and printing every five pages I finished because Kelly has been reading and had caught up to me...impatiently awaiting the next page I wrote up until she finally went to bed last night. I left five more pages for her to read today when she gets home from work...and I'll continue writing tonight. She's just excited because she mentioned characters from this series in her novel, Parapsychology, and this time, I am mentioning and possibly writing in a couple of characters from her novel in this book, The Lakeside Manor Investigation. (That's what mother/daughter authors sometimes do-use one another's characters in books for fun!)

I have two more books planned in the series, one of them already partially written, but now I'll have to go back and check continuity because story ARCs change...book 3 is not like I imagined it would be way back when I was writing book 2 in 2011.

Anyway-the Amberton Paranormal Investigation Society book series books 1 & 2 will arrive as soon as mid-July for summer reading fun!

Motivational Words

I have a friend who has always wanted to write but is loaded with self doubt and low self esteem. This past weekend she began writing something that she and I have discussed on and off for years. And she was uncertain if she could continue. This is what I texted her to shore her up and keep her on track- "Just take a steadying breath and dive in. Lifeguard on duty-I won't let you sink. Sick of my motivational crap yet? Well, it's not crap. I'm here for you is all I'm saying. And I don't want you sinking into a mire of self doubt. Put some words down. Your journey begins with that first word, whatever it is. Let the words lead you. Don't stop to think. Write from your heart and soul, not your head. I know you can do this. And rules don't apply in writing. You can begin anywhere. Cut and paste puts it all in order when you're done!"

All writers go through slumps and wallow in self doubt and uncertainty at times. Writer's groups and retreats give writers an opportunity to connect with others who understand the writing process. Anyone who attends sports events, goes to parties, or is a member of any type of group will understand and agree that when people with shared passions gather there is an undeniable energy that flows through the arena, venue, room, concert hall, auditorium. That energy connects the individual dots that we are in that room and completes a circuit from which we draw power and recharge our own internal batteries and energy sources.

To have the support of other writers when you need it is important. There are some writers who prefer to be alone, but in the two years that I have been among writers and authors I haven't met one yet who has said, "Leave me alone. I want to be alone!"

I know from personal experience that when my battery runs low I am recharged by attending an author event, even if I just sit in the back row and listen to a reading or a discussion about a book the energy in the room follows me home where I can tap into it and continue my own work.

And I really do believe that we write from our hearts and our very souls. Our brains are just word processors that instruct our fingers as to what to letters to strike on the keyboard, or form in a notebook.

WhipCity Wordsmiths

My daughter and I have been in discussions about starting a writers group and it finally moved forward from discussions to a blog and contact with local authors to see if there was any interest. Without any formal statement of purpose or mission being published, just some posts on the blog, we are already 11 members strong.

I was pretty amazed because this is going to be a member driven group with all writers/authors and others bringing something to the table, not just a bunch of writers at different levels sitting around writing to prompts and critiquing one another's efforts.

This is a hybrid type group for socializing with other writers, camaraderie among local writers and writers at a distance who may also join and stay connected with the core group that will meet locally via the group blog, while also sharing information, word about local author events and read-ins, self-publishing info, insights into the mind of a book reviewer (one is already a member), how to write a query, how to submit to a publisher, finding an agent, copyrights, and all that writer/author stuff, and fun flash fiction assignments with off the top of our heads writing prompts. We'll also host local author book fairs, have a day-long writer's retreat, host read-ins at local bookstores, etc. We'll also mentor new and young writers, and be beta readers for group members who need some feedback on their work in progress (I've done this for four author friends already and have thoroughly enjoyed it!)

So, instead of writing, I've been working on putting this together (while beta reading for a new author and proofreading for Kelly, her second novel, and myself- one of the two paranormal investigation novels I have in printed proofs lying around the house). I did start writing the werewolf novel for a fourth time this past weekend, and a short store called Altered Reality at lunchtime at work the other day.

I'm hoping this group will be fun and more interesting than the typical writer's group with everyone being actively rather than passively involved.

We'll see how it goes!

Finally- 3rd Attempt Gets New Novel Rolling

I had a terrific idea for a new novel last month, started writing it twice and stalled both times because it was just not working for me. Last night I started the novel for a third time at 8:30PM and wrote 5,588 words in three hours, quitting (reluctantly) at 11:30PM so I could get a little sleep before getting up to go to work today.

Maybe this attempt will be the one that does it for me!