Bethany Maines's Blog, page 11

Lipstick Part 2

Well first of all… Have you heard that I have a new book coming out in October?  The Second Shot is available on early pre-order ONLY on Apple.  I’m really excited about this romantic suspense novel with enough romance, family drama, and criminal escapades to make telenovela. If you haven’t already check it out: The Second Shot – Bethany Maines or learn more on The Deveraux page.

And now on to this weeks lipsticks.  Although, in this case it’s the battle of the glosses.

#1 – Pure Illumination – Color: ? Can’t find a color identifier.  Going with… Very light pink. – This lipgloss was a gift and is a winner for sheer cuteness in packaging.  It has a mirror on the side and a clickable little flashlight in the lid to help with applying gloss in those low-light situations. I never used it for actual lipstick application, but it did once help me find my keys. Sadly, my daughter also loved it and now the flashlight no longer works.

Decision: Toss it. The color is too baby doll for me.

#2 – Bare Minerals Marvelous Moxie – Show Off – Nice thick gloss, bit of a mint taste (which I like), and is a nice peachy pink.

Decision: Keep it.

#3 – Youngblood – Color: ? No identifier.  Going with beigey pink – I just realized that I got this gloss for my wedding, which was… awhile ago.  I don’t remember dates (that’s my husband’s job), but I’m pretty sure it was multiple years now.  Which makes both me and the lipgloss old. I probably ought to throw it out?  But it seems like it’s still good.

Decision: On the chopping block. If I’m tight on space it’s going.

Top Secret No More!

I have been slaving away at several different manuscripts (including San Juan Islands #3, more on that later), but I’m finally able to announce that my super top secret hush-hush book The Second Shot is going to be released in October!  I’ve been sitting on this action-adventure , mystery laden romantic suspense novel for months and it’s been sooooooo hard.  Today I am finally able to announce that it is available only on Apple Books for super secret pre-order! The coming months will have more announcements, including the cover reveal, giveaways, additional pre-order platforms (kobo, nook, kindle, etc) and a few “behind the scenes” teasers.

This novel has all the stuff I love: funny characters, tough girls, clever guys, mystery, action, and romance. My heroine, Dominique Deveraux, is a rich kid who has decided to pull herself up by her own bootstraps and start work from the bottom instead of vaulting her way to the top on her silver spoon.  The hero, Maxwell Ames, is a US Marshall who truly wants to be worthy of the title hero.  It also features the complex relationships of the Deveraux family as they attempt to overcome their past, their relatives, and their own doubts about themselves and each other in their search to find happiness.

The Second Shot: A drunken mistake in college cost US Marshall Maxwell Ames the love of Dominique Deveraux. Six years later, he’s determined to fix the slip-up, but there’s just one tiny problem – someone wants the Deveraux family dead. Now Max must make sure that the only one getting a second shot at Dominique is him.

Join my mailing list to be alerted when additional platforms become available for pre-order or pre-order now on Apple!

Lipstick Land

Recently I found yet another lipstick tucked in a purse and I went to put it in the lipstick repository in my bathroom cupboard.  Which is when I realized that I may have a teensy lipstick acquisition problem.  As in, I can’t stop acquiring them. Then I thought I would go through and clean them out, but as I lifted the first precious tube of tinted fats and mystery chemicals I realized that I couldn’t do it.  I couldn’t remember if it was one of the good ones!  Every woman I know has the slush pile of failed cosmetics and then the preferred pile.  But in the case of my lipsticks I have thrown them all together and can no longer remember which is which.  So in an effort to weed through my pile I have decided to wear all my lipsticks this month and test if it’s a keeper or a goer.  I’ll be posting my conclusions through-out the month.

#1 – Maybeline – Color Stay – Voyager – Goes on as a liquid with a fuzzy tipped applicator.  It does stay on for most of the lip.  However, eventually it wears off on the moister interior line of the lips and also if you eat something. Which isn’t noticeable unless you talk.  Unfortunately, I do talk, so…  Basically, don’t think you can apply and forget about it for the rest of the day.  On the upside, it does not feel cakey. On the down side, dries fairly hard and requires make-up remover to get off.  Other option for removal – apply chapstick on top and then wipe off.  My thought was that it might be useful for a short term work event, but required too much maintenance to be an all day look, which seems annoying for a long wear lipstick.

Decision:  It’s on the chopping block.  I’m only keeping it if I don’t have something else in a similar color.

#2 – Maybeline – Vivid Matte Liquid – Nude Flush – Like the first one it goes on with a fuzzy tipped applicator.  Pretty decent staying power and it doesn’t get tacky or cakey after wear.  Also on the plus side, it’s a clear container so you can see the actual color.

Decision:  It’s a keeper.

#3 – Revlon – Colorstay Moisture Stain – Shanghai Sizzle – Another liquid and fuzzy tipped applicator. Color is very vibrant, but kisses off on whatever it comes in contact for hours after words and never really “sets”.

Decision: Toss it.

Day in the Life…

This week I have officially sent my third San Juan Island’sMurder Mystery off to the beta readers, broken a client’s website, and took my daughter to her first karate class.  It’s been a busy week.  Tish Yearly, the heroine of the San Juan Mysteries also lives a busy, scattered life, hopping from emergency to emergency.  But that’s not really the kind of thing I want to emulate about my characters.  And I certainly don’t want to be finding dead bodies every time I turn around.  It would be extremely untidy if nothing else.

In fact, I think living the life of a mystery heroine would be extremely fraught.  You would never know when your next acquaintance was going to turn up dead.  There are some benefits of course.  There’s always some sort of hot police personnel person hanging around and who doesn’t like that?  But the number of friends hiding dark secrets must only be rivaled by the friends in a Romance novel.  Possibly less secret babies, but I wouldn’t want to place money on that.  And don’t forget that usually one of your other friends is the killer.  What kind of people are you associating with mystery heroine?!!  You need a better friend group!

So, to sum up… I’m glad I’m not a mystery heroine, but I really wish I hadn’t broken the website.  And now if you’ll excuse me I have to go spend some time on hold with the person who can access the website database.  But here is a quote from Unfamiliar Sea to make us all laugh while I cry over the hold music.

It’s Fra-Gee-Lay

In the Christmas classic, A Christmas Story, the father wins a “major award” which turns out to be a leg lamp that arrives in a large box marked “fragile.” His love for the major award is only matched by his wife’s hatred for the fishnet clad leg and the battle between the two has never stopped being funny.

This week, I was reminded of the leg lamp when I won my own “major award.” I recently converted my story Blue Christmas to a screenplay and submitted it to some screenplay contests that provided feedback to all entries.  As a first time screenplay writer, it was the feedback that I was pursuing.  In novel writing, it’s hard to find a beta reader that can help identify problems.  Most readers are not analytical and are really just there to enjoy the book (and that is just fine and there’s no reason to change!), but to advance a project it sometimes requires someone be more critical.  I’ve been fortunate to find a handful of good beta readers for my novels, but when it came to a screenplay I was at a loss! So I was excited to get feedback from genuine screenplay professionals.

The first contest said my script was “VERY close” and provided some valuable insights.  And this week I received notice from the second contest that I had been selected as a winner! The only way I could be prouder is if it came with a leg lamp. Winners have their screenplay’s opening scenes read by professional actors in a “table reading.” Which is pretty much what it sounds like – actors at a table doing a reading of the script.  The table reading is filmed and posted on the contest site, so obviously I will linking that here when the video goes live.  I can’t wait to see actors saying words that I’ve written!  And I’m excited to continue my adventures in scriptwriting.

And case you want a sneak peak at this action-packed romantic comedy before it hits big screens (I wish!)…

$1.99 – Amazon · Barnes & Noble · Kobo · Itunes

High-rise burglary to pay for her grandmother’s cancer treatments might not be ideal, but Blue Jones is determined to do what it takes to get her grandmother the best care possible. She just didn’t plan on being tackled by gorgeous Jake Garner. Jake, drunk and recently dumped, mistakes Blue for the dog sitter and begins shoving his ex’s belongings at her including her French Bulldog—Jacques. But soon Jake is being pressured to return the dog and Blue is being targeted by mysterious attackers. Can Jake and Blue stop these mystery men without also getting Blue arrested for theft? For Blue, Christmas has never been quite so dangerous. For Jake, Christmas has never been quite so Blue.

Bookstagram

For those not on Instagram you may be slightly mystified by the term “bookstagram” that has popped up recently in book circles. Instagram, land of a thousand hashtags, has spawned a beautiful and glorious trend in book circles: photographing books.  It’s hardly revolutionary, but as a graphic designer who has long thought that book covers are an underrated art form, I am all in.  Bookstagram spans a wide variety of looks – from the simple “what I’m reading” to the carefully curated wishful thinking lifestyle shots, bookstagram runs the gamut of what can be done with books.

I have also recently started experimenting with my own books. It’s fun to experiment with different props and filters to make insta-art. I think what I learned quite promptly is that lighting is everything.  Getting a good light source that doesn’t make a glare on the book cover seems to be the hardest part.  Why are book covers so shiny?!

Are you on Instagram?  Do you need more books and dog photos in your life, then follow me: @Super_Insta_B

Shark’s Hunt Release!

Today is release day for the third novel in my Shark Santoyo Series – Shark’s Hunt.  The series is a cross between Veronica Mars and Goodfellas.  It’s got violence (but no gore, I don’t do gore), humor, mystery and a hero and heroine who might be smarter than everyone else, but still might not be smart enough to get themselves out of trouble.  While each book follows a new adventure there is an overarching plot through the series that has been tricky to plot and fulfill in each new book.  The document that tracks my timeline is now multiple pages and the spreadsheet of characters is extensive as I have to track who lives and dies (and when) as well as their various affiliations. Writing this series has been an adventure and I hope that the readers enjoy it with me.

SHARK’s INSTINCT (#1) – $1.99: https://amzn.to/2W7Wx48

SHARK’S BITE (#2) – $2.99: https://amzn.to/2KUEmOt

SHARK’S HUNT (#3) – $2.99: https://amzn.to/2W4Hf0m

Also available to be read on Kindle Unlimited.

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Sequel-itis

Recently, I was discussing series and sequels with another writer.  The general question was how to connect an overarching story to an individual story.  If the books plotline makes sense how do I add in the greater plotline without frustrating the reader with not enough answers, or annoying them with too many threads that don’t pertain to the current story?  As we hashed through how to accomplish this we agreed that previous generations of writer’s didn’t have as much expectation to connect their sequels or series.

No one expected any of Jane Austen’s characters to pop up in her other books or link to each other to create an “Austen Universe.”  Hercule Poirot went on mystery after mystery, but his character didn’t evolve enormously and there was no evil mastermind to hunt book after book.  Even in the pulp era, Tarzan went on adventure after adventure, making incremental progress in his character development, until eventually we just had the Son of Tarzan because there was nothing else left.

The idea of a long running story arc seems more specifically tied to television and serial movies.  And with the rise of streaming television and binge-watching it seems more prevalent than ever.  When I can watch an entire seasons worth of TV at once I don’t have to worry that questions won’t get answered or miss the little clues from three weeks ago.  The advent of streaming television has made it easier for TV writers to include a “Big Bad” for the season or to have episodes that don’t include a “villain of the week.”  But novels don’t have the luxury of releasing all at once.  It’s very difficult to hoard up enough material to release like that for one thing.  And most writers can’t write at a pace that would produce quality sequels in a short span of time.

My Shark Santoyo Crime Series is an experiment in this over-arching story line and as we lead up to the release of Shark’s Hunt (#3) on April 23rd I find myself wondering if readers will enjoy the progression.  I’m excited to have the next “episode” out in the hands of readers.  Hopefully, they stick around for part four.

Pre-order Shark’s Hunt now on Amazon!

No More Changes

Recently, I took a workshop on how to convert a novel to a

screenplay. It was a fascinating workshop that gave practical tips on how to deconstruct and then reconstruct a novel into a new format. Plot, structure and character development are all core elements of any story telling method and it was interesting to see how a different mode of storytelling could affect a story.

I chose to experiment on my 2018 Christmas novella Blue Christmas. Blue Christmas is about a down on her luck college student, Blue Jones, who is determined to do whatever it takes to pay off her grandmother’s medical bills – including burglary. So obviously it’s a romance and there are diamond thieves and a dog.  Because… Christmas?

As I worked my way through my story, I saw several things that I would like to improve. And it was not so very long ago that I  loved every bit of that story!  What the heck happened to my perfect little morsel of criminal Christmas?! Why is it that an author / creative person can’t stop improving on a work?  I mean, we all hate George Lucas for going back and adding special effects and scenes to Star Wars, don’t we? When are we, or should we, be forced to say walk away?

My personal feeling is that once a work is in the public, then except for correcting typos or other blatant errors, that an author should not make  any “improvements”. People end up loving specific works and changing even a sentence or two can affect someone’s perception of a work.

But of course, none of that prevents me from making those changes in my screenplay.

Buy Blue Christmas today!


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Cross Genre

Cross-genre.  You’ll hear the term a lot in writing circles.  But what is it?  It’s book that melds the elements of more than one genre together.  Books are coded by something known as a BISAC code that allows libraries to appropriately shelve a book and search engines to find it.  The list is extensive and usually books can have two BISAC codes.  (You can check out the list for fiction here: bisg.org/page/Fiction But be warned—it’s extensive!)

My forthcoming book Shark’s
Hunt, book #3 of the Shark Santoyo Crime Series, can appropriately be filed
under FIC031010 FICTION / Thrillers / Crime, but it’s possible that it
could be filed under FIC027260 FICTION / Romance / Action & Adventure
or FIC022000 FICTION / Mystery & Detective / General.    Or I could just go for a broad category and
label it: FIC044000 FICTION / Women. 
Am I the only one who finds it odd that women are a category of
fiction?  There isn’t a category for
Men.  Or is all fiction assumed to be
men’s fiction and we need to let people know that this book over here is just
for women? Seems odd, but we’ll just leave that one alone for now.

But beyond the BISAC codes, which while useful, are not the
end all definition of a book, there is marketing and that’s where things get
persnickety.  An author and a marketer
need to be able to tell and sell someone on a book in 30 seconds or less. 

The Shark Santoyo
Crime Series is a witty, romantic saga about a violent suburban underworld.
Shark Santoyo and Peregrine Hays are the Romeo and Juliet of the criminal set
and they are determined to find justice, revenge, and true love. There’s just
an entire mob and a few dirty FBI agents in the way.

So from my “elevator pitch” you should know that there’s
going to be violence, romance, crime, and a touch of humor.  But all of those things are hard to encompass
in a single book description and a cover.  
Which is why you’ll see cross-genre books “pushed” toward one genre.  There’s a girl in the book – make it sexy on
the cover!  Don’t mention the humor –
humor doesn’t sell!  On the other hand,
when a book succeeds you’ll hear people knowingly say, “Well, it’s really
cross-genre.”  Of course, it’s
cross-genre! No book is ever one thing entirely.  It’s as though an author just can’t win. 

On the other hand, if you think cross-genre witty, romantic saga about a violent suburban underworld sounds fun, then check out Shark’s Instinct and Shark’s Bite and pre-order Shark’s Hunt today.