Laura Susan Johnson's Blog, page 2

I re-did Armour's first book trailer, and...

I looked high and low for better music for the teaser trailer for ARMOUR, but I honestly couldn't find a better piece of music than the one I used (a copyright free piece I found from Youtube's library). I added some new imagery, but other than that, the teaser trailer is virtually the same for now. More book trailers are on the way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWbsx...

I've been agonising about the fact that back when I wrote Crush (2010), I didn't even fathom that Lloyd would end up having a romantic partner in his life. I asked my editor if I should go through Crush and add the character Derek in so that things make more sense in Armour. But my editor did not recommend a rewrite for Crush because it's done so well over the years.

That got me to thinking about all kinds of things. In the Star Wars sage, there were so many plot holes between the "sequels", which were released in the late 70s-early 80s and the late 90s-2000s when Lucas finally came around to finishing his story. He presented the story from the middle, and yet everyone accepted it. Of course Jar Jar was hated by most, but other than that, (and the horrendously overdone CGI in Attack of the Clones), I actually enjoy all 6 movies and I'm willing to forgive the question: Who the fuck is Qui-Gon Jinn?

I have so many surprises in store for the long journey that Lloyd Tafford and Derek Rollins go through in their search for their missing brother. They travel all over the United States, even into Mexico, chasing clues, meeting new people that will shock the reader with the connection they have with this family. I don't want to give the names of these guests away, but I guarantee, the reader will be shocked and happy to see them involved, caring, volunteering in searches, calling the police the report suspicious odors coming from houses...

Crush, Bright, and Armour are indeed a trilogy, and even though they happen from present to past, they are meant to be read in that order. Crush is book #1, Bright #2 and Armour#3. There will be 2 short story collections: Book #4 will be The House On Glass Beach: Strangers and Book #5 will be The House on Glass Beach: Dreams. I've forgiven George Lucas for supposedly "screwing up" his stories. I hope my readers will forgive me for not knowing that Lloyd Tafford had a lot more story to tell than just that piddly amount in Crush :)

ARMOUR's first book trailer is up!

I made it a respectable 3 minutes long and used copyright free music. I want it to be mysterious but also to give hints about what it's about. Again, it's a romance, but not like Crush and Bright. And I hope that like in Crush and Bright, you will find people within this book when I have it ready, not stereotypes or cariactures.

Here is the link but I'm also adding it to my vids here on GR if I'm allowed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Uh5f...

bye for now :D

Chattering about Armour

Right before New Year I had another episode with my heart, but for the moment I'm fine. I made a video about it, but also about the decisions and directions I'm taking Armour into, along with a discussion of homoromantic asexuality in fiction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CiC1...

ARe closing at end of 2016

Hello everyone, I'm sorry I haven't posted here on my GR blog in forever. I have a few announcements.

Firstly, the ebook retailer ARe aka All Romance Ebooks is going to shut down operations at the end of this year, which is days away, due to declining sales and financial troubles. I'm paraphrasing, amidst a few complaints I've seen on social media of late from authors and readers alike.

Here is a link from my publisher, Beaten Track Publishing, for any readers who have purchased any books from me or any BTP author and been unable to download your purchase:

http://b10track.blogspot.co.uk/2016/1...

My 2nd announcement is that I have been blogging snippets, or for lack of a better word, excerpts from Bright and my work in progress, Armour, on a new Wordpress blog I created this past summer:

laurasusanjohnson.wordpress.com
It's called "The House On Glass Beach

The old site: thehouseonglassbeach.com
no longer can be reached under that domain name. You can only reach it by typing this exhausting damn thing out:
angelfire.com/ca5/unspokenrequest/hom...

3rd, I'm working on perhaps publishing a short volume of the short stories I've completed so far, on Smashwords and with BTP, if they'll have them. Sometime before this coming spring.

4th, I might be doing an interview soon with beatentrackradio.com !!!! Please visit our new radio station (we launched in November)!!! I'm excited about this. My publisher had their own radio station and I'm so proud of them!!!!!!!!!!!!
More details as they become avail :D

Here's to a happy and healthy 2017 keeping fingers crossed tightly!

Short story OLD CARS finally published!

Hello all! Just writing to report that the short story OLD CARS is finally officially published on Smashwords eBooks! Some weirdo torrent sites claimed to have OLD CARS avail for download, but they claimed this BEFORE I had even published the story, so anyone who tried to download either got nothing, or got some stolen unfinished version of the story, perhaps stolen during the hijacking of my old laptop last February. Anyway, I didn't bother trying to download off of either of these sites because I was afraid I'd pick up a bug or a trojan, so I will post the links to warn you to beware of them:

http://my-lib.tk/read-book/23637706-o...

http://sacros.tk/ePUB/77664-old-cars-...

OLD CARS is a short story featuring Jamie Pearce and Tammy Mattheis of Crush. They are in Northern Michigan (The UP as the locals would call it), visiting Jamie's Uncle and 17 year old cousin. The story centers on a very important request by the Uncle, and a very important decision to be made. Are Jamie and Tammy ready to become parents?

To get OLD CARS for just $0.99 on Smashwords, go the REAL place to safely download: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...

More shorts on the way!

New stuff for ARMOUR

Hello all, I am finally turning Armour into more than just an idea. Just a heads up, I'm doing something different here: This isn't an m/m in the same vein as Crush and Bright were. I've pitched my 2 contributions into that genre, and now I'm going to write a book about my own sexual orientation: asexuality. My MCs are Lloyd Tafford, whom you met in Crush, the heroic policeman who literally pulled Jamie Pearce off his death bed, and Derek Rollins, a character previously unheard of because apparently I'm the obscure George Lucas of lgbtqia indie fiction. Let's pray I don't fuck this up! Starting a story from the middle; Why didn't Jamie ever mention this Derek?; I can hear it now. I'll do my best not to bomb this "prequel."

This IS a romantic story, but there won't be any hot and heavy boy on boy action like there was in the first 2 books. It is a love story every bit as sincere, but it's a different kind of love story. Ace love needs a bone thrown to it now and then (pun not truly intended! ;)

Here is the newish Facebook for ARMOUR:
https://www.facebook.com/armourbylaur...

ARMOUR Dream Playlist on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

ARMOUR on Pintrest:
https://www.pinterest.com/peachhambea...

And finally for today, here is a 6-sentence "rainbow snippet", just six sentences from my new WIP. Please tell me what you think!

"When darkness cloaks the sky, my horror has taken absolute control. Reason has abandoned me. I’m more determined to hide myself from the devil who hunts me. To my north and east, and growing larger, there is the huge, cursed beacon of Houston, a town I am now terrified of, but must get to nevertheless. That is the direction I last saw Joe William going in. As it gets darker, I begin to shiver in my dampened thin nylon jacket and tee shirt and jeans. I must keep moving."

Reworking ARMOUR

I've decided that I'm going to rework the story line of my third novel, Armour. Not to the point where it's so changed that it's unrecognisable to me, but I just can't write about certain things anymore. I feel I have talked about certain issues in Crush, and again in Bright, and it's time to talk about new things about my life that still need to be tackled and exorcised. There is still a tornado, a child abduction, and asexuality, but honestly, there are things I just don't want to write about anymore. Thinking about the loss of my stepmother, who was also once a dear friend of mine, is just too hard. Her life was so difficult before she died so tragically. Sex crimes are just too horrible. There was enough horror in Crush to traumatise readers for the rest of their lives. It's time to move past that and confront something else.

This means that I have un-published my short story A Bridge Between, and will rewrite it, so that it makes sense.

More details later. Stay tuned...

FAQS/Still no laptop!

I've made several new FAQ videos for both Crush and Bright on my youtube "Laura Susan Johnson" but have no idea how to share them with my goodreaders via this blog! Hope to have my new laptop by summer. I sure took that thing for granted.

The FAQs are:

Why did you remove the cheating from Bright?

Why is Crush so lengthy & preachy?

Does Bright encourage people to hate religion?

Is Crush only a Faerie story?

Hopefully I will figure out how to share my videos on this blog as I used to, but until then, I hope your questions will be answered over on my youtube. Please subscribe while you're there :)

Question for Crush fans/readers: humourous scenes?

We all know that Crush is a dark book for much of the story, but I've always been curious: Has any of you a favourite scene that you lol'd at, whether just once or every time you read the book? Let me know here :D

Crazy New Year Thus Far

Hello all,
Sorry I haven't been sociable lately. It's just been a tad crazy and scary the past couple of months. Once the lift of the holidays had passed, the usual inevitable depression and anxiety began immediately. I was saddened by the death of country singer Craig Strickland, and at about the same time, there was so much bullshit going on with Donald Trump and his farce of a campaign (no offence to anyone who supports the man among my friends or readers), and just the imbalance that comes with running out of anxiolytics and antidepressants at the same time. The first part of January was quite awful, but improved once my brain was back in order. February was a yoyo, up, down. A member of the family had been dating someone who imo was such a creepy nutjob that I was convinced that she'd become another Jodi Arias and do my family member in. It appears that he's she'd of her after four tense months. I sure hope so. Eww! The cherry on the sundae of this trying few weeks has been the loss of my computer that I got in 2012. Bye pal. Luckily, I saved my work on book #3 to a flash drive, but what little I lost I have memorised for a new book called "Origins" and it will be about Lloyd Tafford's mother and a long journey she takes thru eastern Europe to Wales. I want it to be reminiscent of Victoria Holt or Madeleine Brent but with a lesbian love story that withstands obstacles of all kinds. I can't wait to get back to work. Maybe the house on glass beach will have lots more books than I can imagine!