Judith Post's Blog, page 12

The 1st episode is up

I’ve been having fun writing another story about supernaturals. Magic Hills is a town filled with a variety of them–witches, vampires, and shifters all living together. I’m eight chapters in and have enough to post two or three of them a week on Vella, so I put up the first one. Vella is for serialized stories, so I’ve tried to make each chapter punchier than most of my cozy mysteries. In cozies, I can spend time on looking for clues and talking to suspects. I can enjoy a more leisurely pace. For HIDDEN MAGIC, I want the book to move faster, so I thought I’d post its opening here. I hope you like it:

A spot between Allura’s shoulder blades prickled.  She had the uncomfortable feeling that someone was following her.  She’d glanced over her shoulder several times, but no one was there.  She was nearly to the edge of town, walking home, when she heard footsteps pounding toward her.  She whirled to face who was coming but still saw nothing.  No matter.  She threw up her hands and blasted her magic.  She heard a smack and then something heavy hit the pavement. 

A man materialized and rose onto an elbow, shaking his head.  He glared at her and then sprang to his feet.  His tall, lean body shifted and a monstrous wolf narrowed its yellow eyes.  Its lips pulled back in a snarl. 

A shifter.  But more.  How did he make himself invisible?  She braced her feet, calling on more magic, then drew a circle around herself and waited.  He raced at her, hit her protective spell, and bounced backward.  His neck was at a crooked angle.  When he shifted back into a man, he looked really irritated.  He winced as he rubbed his strained muscles, and as she watched, his neck healed.  Even for a shifter, it healed faster than usual.  If she’d judged rightly, he’d broken it and should be dead.  But he wasn’t.  What was he?

With raven-black hair and eyes even a deeper blue than her own, chiseled cheeks and a square jawline, he was good-looking, but the stubborn slant of that jaw told her that he wasn’t going to give up.  He stood and put his hands on his hips. 

“If you give yourself up, we won’t have to prolong this.  I’ll just take you to High Court, and they can decide what to do with you.”

She frowned.  “Who are you?  And why are you bothering me?”

He reached into his back pocket, removed a wallet, and opened it, showing her his badge.  “I’m Chase Ayre, a ranger sent to track a supernatural killer who’s left a lot of dead mortals in her wake.  I’ve finally found her.”  He pulled a pair of handcuffs off his belt.  Not any handcuffs, the type that canceled magic.

“Don’t take a step toward me.  You’d better stop now,” Allura warned him, “before I hurt you.  And if I don’t, they will.”  She pointed to the people coming out of their shops to watch what was happening.

“Why are you trying to arrest Allura?” a man called from the sidewalk.  “She hasn’t left town for a decade.”

Chase lifted his head and sniffed.  “Impossible.  She has the scent I’ve been following through three states.  How do you explain that?” A good question.  People looked at each other, shaking their heads.  Could two people have the same scent? 

Gearing Up

Two of my best writing friends–M.L. Rigdon/Julia Donner and D.P. Reisig–went with me to hear a speaker at the writers’ group in Auburn. She knew her way around marketing, and we were hoping she’d inspire us. Which she did. She gave an awesome presentation. She spoke for an hour, and then the group had their regular meeting. One of their members read from her WIP–a mystery–and it was really good. I especially enjoyed meeting her because she’s planning on putting the finished book on Vella in episodes. I’m wishing her well. And this sounds crazy, but I only just met her, and I only know her first name–Dee. (And I hope I spelled it right). It was really nice meeting all of the writers in that group, though. There’s just something invigorating about meeting writers you’ve never met before. Their enthusiasm rubs off on you.

Anyway, after listening to the speaker, she lit a fire under us to check into TikTok more. I signed up for it, and I’ve watched some of the memes, but I sure don’t feel confident that I can create one. My grandson called and gave me grief about that. When I complained that it would take me hours to learn how to do one, he asked, “And how long does it take you to write a book?” Touche’. But I enjoy writing books. I’m not so sure how much I’d like making a video. But the speaker gave us lots of ideas of what makes them snappy. Not just a picture of us holding a book in our hands. Something clever. And I’m usually short on that.

Her talk also inspired me to look at Threads, but I want to be able to use it on my computer, not on my phone, and so far, that doesn’t look promising. I hope they create a download for desktops, but so far, it looks like it’s only good on phones and tablets. I love my tablet for reading, but I don’t really want to work on it. So, I’m dragging my feet on that, too.

But, since I’m talking about marketing, I should probably add that I made my

Magic Hills

I’ve written four chapters of Hidden Magic, and I reached a point where I really needed to “see” the town, and I wanted Allura to welcome Chase to her house and property, so I needed to “see” it, too. To help, I drew up Main Street and the shops that were on both sides of it. It’s a small town. Main Street’s about the main source of shops and businesses, but the town’s real to me now.

Allura lives a little outside of Magic Hills in a small bungalow on a huge property full of gardens and orchards. She has a chicken coop and a goat pen. I spent most of the day working on the story’s settings. I have a small start on a Pinterest board for the book. https://www.pinterest.com/judithpost/magic-hills/

When my dad was alive, he dreamed of retiring from his factory job and building a small house on property in the country and becoming self-sufficient. He wanted to have a windmill for energy and a well for water, chickens for eggs, goats for milk, and rabbits for meat. And lots and lots of gardens and orchards. He bought the property but didn’t live long enough to retire. Allura’s home would make my dad happy. Right now, it’s making me happy, because her witch’s garden can grow what she needs to heal almost anything. And that’s what Allura does. She’s a healer and a helper. And Chase is going to need all of the help he can get stopping the Harpies he’s been tracking.

Always

Okay, it happens every time. I reach the middle muddle of my book, and I’m trying to wade through it, and all of a sudden, I get ideas for all kinds of new books. My brain is trying to tempt me to skip the hard work and have fun starting something else.

Start-ups are fun. I never get the first chapters right and have to go back to them over and over again, but that’s normal for me, too. I’m used to it. But starting with new characters, new situations, just “new”, is fun. By the time I’ve lived with them a while, like 15,000 words in, and the plot starts getting more complicated, and I’m asking myself “Do I have enough to finish this book?,” the whole thing starts feeling like work.

I woke up last night at 6:30 in the morning, my brained cranked into full power. Not with ideas for Facing the Music, but with ideas for a new paranormal to put on Vella and a new Loretta and the Ghost, book 2. Unexpected, since I mean to write a Jazzi and Ansel after I finish my WIP. My brain usually toys with ideas for the next book, not two books out of the blue. Maybe because a Jazzi and Ansel book doesn’t “feel” new anymore. I know them so well, my brain sort of yawns. But I’m fond of them, so my brain can get over itself.

The thing is, the paranormal idea just would NOT stop coming, and I got out of bed dragging at 9:00. The old grey cells never clicked off. So today, instead of writing a new chapter that I had planned, I’m writing a few new chapters for Hidden Magic. I’ll post them on Vella as they come. And tomorrow, it’s back to Nick and Laurel. It’s time they start talking to more people in more bands, not just Laramie’s.

My plan is this: write on Nick and Laurel for four days, then write a new chapter for Hidden Magic and post it. Four days on my WIP, one day (or two if I cheat and use a weekend day) for paranormal. It might boost my energy. Sometimes, a change of pace does me good. This is an experiment. I guess I’ll find out. So, wish me luck!

What do you think? One of the cover ideas I had for Nick and Laurel. A woman fantasizes about men she sees in rock bands, but she doesn’t realize the men are fantasies. So when she sees them with someone else, even though they don’t realize she even exists, she thinks they’ve been unfaithful to her. And might kill them.

Is a mystery a mystery if everything happens off stage?

I love lots of kinds of mysteries–historical, traditional, cozies, and once in a while a thriller. To me, it breaks down like this:

Traditional mysteries focus on a crime, clues, and solving who did it. I think of Agatha Christie as a traditional mystery writer. Everything was about adding up clues to solve the crime. And traditional mysteries can be set in different countries and cultures, which makes them more fun. Scottish settings, the southwest with Indian lore, and British mysteries. I love most British mysteries.

Thrillers are more about adding tension to solving the crime. I’d put Louis Kincaid in this category. The crimes are more grim, more gruesome, more unique, (sometimes too unique?), and we always know someone else is going to die. The stakes are high. My blog friend, Mae Clair, loves thrillers and writes wonderful reviews for them. If you scroll down her list of blogs, a lot of them are thriller reviews. https://maeclair.net/ They all have, I think, a ticking clock of when is the next person going to die?

When I want something that’s going to take longer to read and demand more from me, I read a historical mystery. First, I love history. I’ve read Egyptian mysteries, Roman mysteries, Regency mysteries. Each plops me into the time period they take place in. Second, they have such a different feel than contemporary mysteries that I like that, too. I’m not sure if Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper or Nevermore (a take on Edgar Allen Poe, featuring Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle) would fall into historical or thriller, but I don’t care. They were fun reads. Some of my favorite historical series are Anna Lee Huber’s Lady Darby series, P.B. Ryan’s Nell Sweeney series, and C.S. Harris, my automatic buys, but there are many more I dabble with.

Every once in a while, when I want to challenge myself a little more, I read a literary mystery. I put Elizabeth George in that category. Her mysteries are as much character-driven as plot-driven.

There are many, many more types of mysteries, but I’m only adding the ones I’m drawn to the most. And one of my top loves are cozies. Hardly any angst. I read them for fun, sort of literary popcorn. And I think they differ quite a bit from any of the other types. Cozies, to me, are as much about the characters and their lives as they are about the crime. Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala is as much about being Filipino as it is about the mystery. Krista Davis’ Diva series is about life after divorce and lots and lots of family and cooking. Come to think of it, my Jazzi and Ansel series is as much about family and cooking as the crime. I’ve loved Lynn Cahoon’s Tourist Trap series, set in South Cove, California because of her characters and their lives, but when the mystery becomes the subplot and offstage to what’s happening at the bookstore and in town, is it still a mystery?

I really enjoyed Cahoon’s latest, Songs of Wine and Murder, but I kept having to remind myself that I was reading a MYSTERY. The murder happened offstage. I actually almost forgot about it among all the doings of getting ready for a band competition that weekend. Even solving the crime happened offstage, and that surprised me. The characters’ lives overshadowed the mystery. Don’t get me wrong. The book was still entertaining. But was it a mystery? I don’t know. What’s the balance for a cozy? Any opinions?

An AI Test Drive

Craig Boyack got brave and tried out AI for the rest of us. It’s coming. Are we ready?

Story Empire

Once upon a time, my father decided to retire. He was fifty years old and had been a successful businessman who earned that right. It was important to him not to learn one more damned thing after that. He passed away in December of 2021, and was successful at not learning about technology. He never once used an ATM, a personal computer, or smart phone and struggled to figure out how to use a card to fill his own gas tank. I have no intention of becoming that guy.

Hi Gang! Craig with you again today. Back in April, I made a cautionary post about Artificial Intelligence (AI). To be honest with you, it’s been on my mind a lot. This could change everything, but one thing is for sure… they aren’t going to ask me for permission.

I don’t want to be the guy who has no clue where…

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A writing prompt

WordPress sent me a writing prompt. I don’t think I’ve seen one before, but this one intrigued me. I’ve read it in one of my food magazines. If you hosted a dinner party and could invite anyone, and they’d come, who would you invite?

First, I love inviting people over to eat supper with us. Second, I love to cook, so it’s fun for me. Third, I love to talk writing. And fourth, I like to keep my dinner parties small. No huge cocktail parties. Just a few close friends getting together over food. So, who would I invite?

If you could bring back the dead, Agatha Christie would be my first choice. And I’d invite two of my best writing friends–Mary Lou and Dawn. When we start talking writing, HH leaves us:) He knows it might go on for a long time. IF I were feeling brave, Ilona Andrews. Ilona Andrews is a best-selling author team. It’s a woman and her husband. And she likes to cook, too, so that would make me nervous. I’d feel like I’d better not screw up. And she’s super smart about writing and marketing, and I might feel intimidated. Yikes! But I’d learn a lot.

If you could invite anyone and they’d come, who would you invite? And I’m not including people we loved and lost. We’d all love to see them again.

Am I spoiled? Yes, I might be.

Okay, this blog isn’t about writing or books. In fact, it’s sort of silly. But I love to cook. And I love to have friends over to eat supper with us. And I have a serious addiction to anything that belongs in a kitchen. Our kitchen is small–not the huge, gourmet kitchen of my dreams, because we can’t afford that. Not that much counter space. But I’ve cooked a LOT of food for a LOT of people in a pretty small space. So, after the kids and grandkids grew up and moved out, almost everything I had was chipped and beaten up, so I decided to restock almost everything I used.

I found three sets of plates that I loved, and unfortunately, bought all of them. Plus, I have a set of special holiday plates for December and Christmas. I have to store them upstairs and trade them out a few times during the year. Which is a decent amount of work, but worth it to me.

The thing is this. I recently went to a thrift store in a pretty poor neighborhood, and the selection of things that people could buy (for really cheap) was depressing. It made me feel so guilty, I took two OTHER sets of dishes that I’d stored in my basement to give to the shop. One set was antique, deep blue, glass plates that I bought forever ago when my sister Patty was alive for tea parties. Patty loved tea parties. She loved fancy, little nibbles on a three-tiered serving platter and deviled eggs in a matching blue glass plate. I only used the set twice a year when I went to the bother of making chicken salad, egg salad, and cucumber tea sandwiches, careful to cut off the crusts. I made scones and tea breads for the second tier, and fancy little eclairs and tarts for the top tier. Just saying, tea parties were a lot of work, but it made her so happy, it was worth it. I haven’t gone to that much bother since Patty died. So, I took the set to the thrift shop. The second set was really pretty red melamine plates with a European type design that I used for picnics. Now that HH and I are older, we’d rather stay indoors and eat in air-conditioning. Sad, huh? But life happens. So I gave them to the thrift shop, too.

Anyway, HH and I went through the house and boxed up things to give to the shop. Nice things that we just don’t use anymore. I hope someone else can use them. But visiting that shop made me feel really spoiled. I am really spoiled. We have to budget, but we’re not poor. And poor looked really sad to me in that shop.

Next to the thrift shop, there’s a food program. It’s in an old church, and the church supports 75 local families who can’t afford to feed their families AND pay bills. It’s depressing. At least, for me, a food addict, the idea of struggling to put food on your table is just sad. So now, I try to take food items to them once every two weeks. HH and I eat so well. If we’re in the mood for scallops, we buy scallops to cook. We can’t afford to eat out that often, but we sure eat well at home. And like I said, I love to cook. I’m not sure I buy the smartest things to take in, but I try to think of what would make a good meal for a family. I always take peanut butter. My daughters craved peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. I try to take cans of tuna and Tuna Helper because it’s a canned meat, and I think that might stretch and be filling. I take cans of beans because beans are protein and make great soups. The food pantry always has cans of vegetables, so I don’t bother with those. I buy boxes of pasta, because it’s filling, too, and boxes of easy to make mac ‘n cheese. I’m not sure if I’m the best food pantry supplier, but I try. And I hope sometimes, a family will get something they can’t get often.

Anyway, visiting those two shops was a humbling experience. I came away feeling richer than I probably am.

Too Many Choices

A lot of authors are leaving twitter. I still like it, but the truth is, it’s not what it used to be. I had a LIST of people I followed. Now, I don’t. Twitter stops me at a few. And I hate it. Sometimes, the analytics work. Sometimes, they don’t. And Elon Musk keeps changing his mind about what you can and can’t do. He’s a man who must like rules. I thought about paying $8 a month to use Twitter, but I couldn’t even figure out what I did and didn’t get from it. Because he keeps changing what I read. And now Twitter doesn’t connect to WordPress, so that’s a pain. It used to be so good. Not so much these days.

My friend asked me to join him on mastodon. And I tried. I signed up. I have an account. But I can’t find anybody. Not even Carl. Mastodon has lots of different servers, and it sounded like they all worked together. But I never did find Carl.

I’m not a huge fan of Facebook. I’m not sure who gets what I post and who doesn’t. I tried to do a few ads, but I never get it right. It doesn’t cost me a lot of money, but it’s a waste of time. I haven’t had luck with ads anywhere, not on Amazon or Facebook. I place a bid and nothing happens. I’ve bid high. I’ve bid low. Nothing.

My critique partner asked me about authors on TikTok. I signed up today, but I’m not sure it’s the right thing for me. I scrolled through it, and nothing really grabbed me. Lots of pictures with captions. I really wish Twitter was still Twitter. I loved it.

HH says the next best thing will be Threads, the Facebook version of Twitter. I haven’t tried that yet. It’s silly, but I keep hoping Twitter will get its act together and be as good as it used to be. But a lot of people have left it. And I don’t think they’ll come back. So, what’s next? I have no idea.

I’ve never done a newsletter and I don’t subscribe to any. It takes time to read everything good out there. More time than I have. Do any of you follow and love newsletters? What do you like about them? What doesn’t work for you? Or is everyone as overwhelmed as I am by everything that’s available.

I’m still posting on Twitter, in the hopes it gets back to what it used to be. But I’m not sure that’s going to happen. For the moment, though, I’m too confused by how many things are out there to change.

Series

If I really like a series, I try to buy the newest book in it when it first comes out. The reason? Publishers are happy to drop authors if their numbers fall. And almost EVERY author’s numbers fall after enough time.

If your numbers are always huge, like Ilona Andrews, it doesn’t matter. But for most authors, it does. I don’t know if readers get bored and leave a series after a while, or if they get comfortable and think it will just go on and on whether they buy or rate it or not, but once a writer’s numbers start to sag, the publisher drops you and looks for the next big seller, because it isn’t you.

If you take the time to look at some of your favorite authors and look at the numbers of ratings they receive, you’ll be surprised. Most of them start out high and then the numbers keep getting smaller and smaller. Once they hit a certain spot, they’ll be lucky if their publisher wants to keep that series. Which makes me sad. And makes me review every book in a series I particularly like. I want it to stick around. I love Lynn Cahoon’s The Tourist Trap mysteries, so buy and review them faithfully. I’m going to be sad if she has to start a new series, because I LIKE this one.

Some of my favorite authors keep reinventing themselves. Their publisher gets rid of one series, so they move to another. Some of them have two or three series going at once. I thought about doing that when Kensington dropped my Jazzi and Ansel series, but I didn’t want to. I still had stories with them that I wanted to write. So, I self-published. But that in itself is a labor of love. Because then, Kensington doesn’t do any marketing for you. You’re old news. You’re done. You have to do everything yourself. And fingers crossed, you still make a decent amount of money in the process.

Just saying, if you have a favorite author who writes a series you love, take the time to buy and review their books. Or else, they may be gone. It’s happened to me too many times to count. I find someone’s writing I love, pre-order their next book the minute I know it’s available, and eventually….the series is gone. It stinks! I might not like the new series. I want the OLD one. But book sellers just crunch numbers. And if your numbers are dwindling, in today’s market, you’re toast.

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