Robin Barefield's Blog, page 8
December 23, 2018
Happy Holidays
Wherever you are and whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year, I wish you peace and happiness. I celebrate Christmas, and I thought this year it would be fun to follow my friend, Author Mary Ann Poll’s lead. For my Thanksgiving post, Mary Ann sent a note from her protagonist, Kat, describing how Kat celebrates Thanksgiving in Ravens Cove, Alaska. So, for my Christmas post, I decided to look in on my main character, Jane Marcus, and see how she celebrates the holiday.
For those of you who don’t know Jane, she is a fisheries biologist at the Kodiak Marine Center. She is unmarried but has a long-distance relationship with an FBI agent who lives in Virginia. Let’s see how she’s doing this holiday season.
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I disconnected with my father and wiped the trickle of tears
from my face only to open the dam for a full flood. I knew now I should have
flown back to Kansas for the holidays. Nothing happens at the Marine Center
during the Christmas break, and I could have taken leave for a week or two to fly home to see my father. He sounded
lonely on the phone, and although he told me he’d spent a nice afternoon with
my brother and his family, I could tell he missed me, and I missed him. I hadn’t
seen him in a year.
I’d made the trip to Kansas the previous year for Christmas,
but I hated flying during the holidays, and the family obligations overwhelmed
me. This year, I wanted peace and quiet,
so I stayed in Kodiak, and now I wanted my family. I laughed at myself. I
needed to adopt a cat or maybe a goldfish.
I didn’t plan to spend the entire day at home alone. My
friend, Dana, invited me to a Christmas party. I think Dana and her current
boyfriend, Jack, invited half the town of Kodiak to their Christmas buffet.
Jack volunteered to host the event at his place since Dana’s tiny house wouldn’t
hold a crowd larger than three.
As I walked down the hall to my bedroom to change my clothes,
I heard my phone chirp in the living room. I hurried back, grabbed the phone
from the coffee table, and felt a smile play across my mouth when I read the phone’s
display.
“Merry Christmas, Agent Morgan,”
I said.
“Merry Christmas to you, Jane. Where are you?”
“I’m at home in Kodiak, and you?”
“I’m in my apartment in Virginia right now, but I’m flying
to Miami tomorrow on a big case. I’ll be
there for a few weeks,” Morgan said
“I thought you were working on a string of murders in
Indiana.”
“I was,” he said. “My involvement in the case ended
yesterday.”
“Did you catch the killer?”
“We did, but not until after he’d murdered six women.”
“At least you got him,” I said.
Morgan didn’t say anything for a moment, and then, “I’m
sorry Jane. I have another call, and I need to take it.”
“Maybe I’ll see you one day again.” I hoped I hid the
bitterness I felt.
“You will,” he said. “Take care.”
I sank into the couch and began to cry again. Once the tears
stopped, I realized I was in no mood for a party. I called Dana. She must have
been busy because she didn’t answer until the sixth ring.
“Where are you?” She asked.
“I’m sorry Dana, but I don’t feel well. I won’t be able to
make it to your party.”
“What? Nonsense. I’ll send Jack to pick you up. He has
agreed not to consume alcohol tonight, so he is our designated driver for the
evening.”
I thanked Dana but told her I was in no mood for a party. I
headed to my kitchen, grabbed a bag of potato chips, poured myself a glass of
wine, and turned on the television, quickly flipping past a parade of holiday
shows until I found an old episode of Dateline. I settled on the couch and
tried to concentrate on the show.
Fifteen minutes later, my doorbell rang. I opened the door a
crack, and saw Jack’s smiling face.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. “I told Dana I wouldn’t
be able to make it to the party.”
Jack smiled and shrugged. He looked even more handsome than usual.
His black parka matched his eyes, and even in the fading light, I could see the dimple on his right
cheek.
“You know Dana,” Jack said. “She gets what she wants, and I
do as she says. She told me to collect you using any means necessary and bring
you to our party.”
I laughed. “Do you plan to kidnap me?”
He shrugged again. “Speaking of kidnapping, Dana said to
tell you we are discussing the recent abduction in Anchorage.”
“What abduction?” I asked
“You didn’t hear about it?”
I shook my head.
“A big oil executive. I can’t remember which company, but
anyway, three masked men entered his house while he and his wife and kids were
celebrating Christmas Eve. One of the guys pulled a gun and told him to come
with them, or they’d start shooting his family.”
“Whoa,” I said. Then I took a step back and narrowed my eyes
at Jack. “Are you making this up just to get me to go to your party?”
Jack held his hands in the air. “It’s true. You can check
the Internet. Dana says with your detective skills, we need your input on the crime.”
“You’re playing dirty, jack,” I said. “You know I can’t resist discussing a crime.” I pushed the door open and let Jack into my house. “Have a seat,” I said. “I need to change my clothes.”
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Have a wonderful holiday, and I will be back here next week to discuss my New Year’s resolutions. Meanwhile, leave a comment and tell me about your resolutions.
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Robin Barefield is the author of three Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter. To download a free copy of one of her novels, watch her webinar about how she became an author and why she writes Alaska wilderness mysteries. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska.
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The post Happy Holidays appeared first on Robin Barefield.
December 16, 2018
Introducing Author Masterminds’ Readers and Writers Book Club
As a way of saying THANK YOU for supporting me as an author, my publisher has authorized me to give my blog readers a free gift—a LIFETIME membership to the new Readers and Writers Book Club.
Memberships will soon be selling for $99–but you’ll never have to pay, as long as you accept my gift and sign up soon.
Your free lifetime Readers and Writers Book Club membership includes:
– Member Newsletter: Hear directly from authors in your inbox!
-Members Only Access: Unlock the private members’ area and exclusive content from the club’s authors.
– Community Access: Inside our private Facebook group you’ll have direct access to authors and will be able to share in the fun with other readers as well!
Here’s how to claim your gift (worth $99) to receive a lifetime membership for FREE!
Step One: Go here>> http://www.readersandwritersbookclub.com/join-the-club and enter your email address to claim your FREE lifetime membership to the club.
Step Two: Create your username and password on the following page.
Step Three: Login to the members’ area and enjoy the goodies published there!
You’re also allowed to give these memberships as a gift, as long as you forward this email or the link to whoever you’d like to share it with!
The club is expected to close free memberships after the first 2,000 people join, so make sure you grab yours here: http://www.readersandwritersbookclub.com/join-the-club
I hope to interact with my readers in several ways. I would love to read and discuss wilderness mystery novels, and perhaps we can choose a different novel every month. I encourage readers of my true crime newsletters to stop by the Facebook group and discuss the latest crime I’ve profiled. The Facebook groupwould also be a great place to talk about wildlife and Alaska, so please signup, and enjoy the fun. We have authors in our group who write in a wide variety of genres, so we have something for everyone!
Send the club link to anybody else you’d like to gift a gift to this season.
Thank you once again for your support!
I look forward to meeting you at the club.
Robin
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Robin Barefield is the author of three Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter. To download a free copy of one of her novels, watch her webinar about how she became an author and why she writes Alaska wilderness mysteries. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska.
[image error]
Mystery NewsletterSign Up for my free, monthly Mystery Newsletter about true crime in Alaska.
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The post Introducing Author Masterminds’ Readers and Writers Book Club appeared first on Robin Barefield.
December 9, 2018
Mary Ann Poll’s Journey to Becoming a Published Author
Three weeks ago, I introduced you to Mary Ann Poll when she generously shared a post about her character Kat’s Thanksgiving in the small town of Ravens Cove, Alaska. This week, Mary Ann has written a guest post for my blog about her journey to becoming a published author. Mary Ann writes Christian-based, supernatural thrillers. I’ve read Ravens Cove, and it is a thrilling ride. I’ll let Mary Ann explain her books to you.
My Journey to Becoming a Published Author
by Mary Ann Poll
[image error]There is one thing to be said for coincidences. There aren’t any. And, before you think I’m crazy or just ‘narrow-minded’ consider the following story of how I became a published author.
A day came when I was confronted with an indisputable fact: My eternal soul lives in nothing more than crockery. That day came in May 1998.
I awoke for another day of work. Hands reaching toward the ceiling in that wonderful morning stretch were stopped instantly by sharp, tear-producing pain. As the initial pain subsided, I downed a pain reliever and was at my desk by 9 am. The pain returned with a vengeance by noon. At 1 pm I found myself in the emergency room. A disc had herniated in my neck, and I faced surgery with a long recovery.
This small writing is from a piece I wrote several years ago when I was asked to describe how I became an author. As they say, “The Lord works in mysterious ways.” Indeed, He does. Because if a disc in my neck had not herniated, if I had not read 100 books in ninety days because I could do nothing else while I healed, and if I had not listened to a good friend who suggested I write a novel, I would not be writing this article today.[image error]
My first book in what is now the Iconoclast series took many more years before it saw the black and white of printing. That journey was full of trips down other paths – going back to work time and again to make the almighty dollar and avoid the emotions and mental weariness that writing took. I took courses, joined online chat groups and talked about writing until I was blue in the face. In the end, I accepted the idea of writing was not going to go away. That was the day I sat down to write a book. It took twelve years to summon the courage and face the passion that would not leave, no matter what I did.
In all of the trips down other pathways, one helped me. I found out about National Novel Writing Month from a contact I made on a Christian writers forum. This is a yearly event where over 300,000 writers come together and grind out a novel in 30 days. I had tried everything else, so what was there to lose? So, I committed to the project. Low and behold, Ravens Cove was born.
Once written, then I was faced with the frightening and somewhat overwhelming question every writer has: “What now?” My answer for several months was, “nothing!” This was when I first discovered that writing a book is akin to giving birth. I wasn’t putting my ‘baby’ out into the world for criticism and rejection.[image error]
So, I let the book sit in the dark for several months. It stayed in the rawest of formats, and I think I was actually in denial that I had written an entire novel. I didn’t have (or make) the time to edit it because I had no clue where to go and who to trust with my ‘baby.’
My husband read the prologue and told me it was great. Of course, he did. He wanted dinner and to sleep in his own bed – what else would he have said? I knew he meant it. I also knew he loved me, so I dismissed his compliment.
It just so happened that my father-in-law came to visit the summer after I wrote Ravens Cove. He asked if I might allow him to read it. His reading it was not such a frightening thought, and, to be honest, I really wanted his opinion. And, I trusted his view because he has a Ph.D. in education and had published works of his own. He also happened to be the most avid reader I had ever met. So, I thought if anyone could
I gave him the book. He and my husband left that weekend for our RV in Anchor Point. He read it there. He came back and told me he really liked it. He said he had read authors he thought should have never been published. And, he thought mine should be.
My husband, with the I-told-you-so-look, agreed. Then, he took it a step further and emailed links to several publishers and publishing houses with information on what it took to get the book to press. And, here’s where Providence is again disguised as coincidence. One of those names was Publication Consultants.
I debated sending out query letters to the ‘big houses.’ I heard stories of books that were [image error]tied up for months, even a year or more, by those ‘big houses’ that had initially accepted the author’s work and then left them hanging forever. I debated the self-publishing houses and again read and heard of the horror stories of authors that were taken financially to the point it wasn’t worthwhile to pursue marketing their books. With all this, I decided I wanted to be able to look a publisher in the eye. So, I met with Evan Swensen of Publication Consultants.
Before I did, I reviewed the website and the different contracts available to an author. They all seemed above board and fair. I reviewed what authors had said about them, and it sounded good. So, I called.
Evan reviewed the first few pages of what was to be Ravens Cove. There were some problems but he told me the story was good and he would publish it-after I took it to an editor to fix the ‘boulders’-his word for problems. The rest is history. Since 2010, I have been privileged to call Publication Consultants my publishing house.[image error]
Publication Consultants was and still is invaluable to this me. They have taught, and are still teaching me, the ins and outs of the road to becoming a successful author. There have been numerous mountains to climb and valleys to traverse. They have stuck with me throughout the process and have opened doors that self-publishing could not. Without Evan Swensen and his staff, I would not have reached the goal of becoming a published author.
As I stated when I began this article, there are no coincidences. Each occurrence that seemed so small in and of their selves led me to Publication Consultants and the adventure of being a published author. To date, the journey continues. The entire Iconoclast Thriller series is complete. And, when ready and God willing, the next book will be published with the assistance of Publication Consultants.
Thank you, Mary Ann, for sharing your incredible journey with us. In my experience, writing a novel is the easiest part of the “author” process. The true work begins with editing, followed by publishing, and finally, the never-ending, tedious job of promotion. Mary Ann and I work very hard to promote our books, and we both belong to a promotional group called Author Masterminds. Our group is opening a reading club, and soon, I will invite you to join us. In the meantime, check out Mary Ann and her books. If you would like to know more about Mary Ann’s journey to becoming a published author, watch her webinar. At the end of the webinar, you will be able to download one of her books for free!
By the way, Mary Ann’s books would make perfect Christmas presents!
[image error]Robin Barefield is the author of three Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter. To download a free copy of one of her novels, watch her webinar about how she became an author and why she writes Alaska wilderness mysteries. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska.
[image error]
Mystery NewsletterSign Up for my free, monthly Mystery Newsletter about true crime in Alaska.
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The post Mary Ann Poll’s Journey to Becoming a Published Author appeared first on Robin Barefield.
December 2, 2018
Karluk Bones
Karluk Bones is the title of my fourth Alaska wilderness mystery. The book has taken me longer to write than I had planned, but I think it will be worth the wait. This week, I want to share a portion of the opening scene with you.
Those of you who have read my other novels know Dr. Jane Marcus is a biologist at the Kodiak Fisheries Tech Center. In this scene, Jane and three of her friends camp near Karluk Lake on Kodiak. The next morning, they plan to float the Karluk River, but a fire in the middle of the night derails their expedition.
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Karluk Bones
Saturday, May 24th
“Fire! Wake up! Fire!”
The cry yanked me from a pleasant dream where my camping companions and I sat around the campfire roasting marshmallows. Now, I realized the smoky inspiration for my dream emanated not from a campfire but a forest fire.
I struggled to sit in my sleeping bag while my fingers fumbled with the zipper. Did we leave our campfire burning? No, I remember Geoff throwing water on it, and then we all watched until the last curls of smoke evaporated.
I’d worn my clothes to bed, and as soon as I struggled out of my bag, I crawled through the fly of the small tent. Smoke filled the air, and my friend and colleague, Geoff Baker, my friend, Dana Baynes, and her new beau, Jack Parker, all stood, staring to the north. I followed their gazes and saw the flames, but the fire had not yet spread far.
“What do you think?” I asked.
“It looks like a campfire got out of hand,” Geoff said.
“It’s so dry,” Dana said. “It’s bound to spread before they can put it out.”
“And the wind is blowing this way,” Geoff added.
“We’d better help them,” Jack said.
“You’re right,” I said, “but I fear only Mother Nature will be able to extinguish a blaze in the midst of all this dead, dry vegetation.”
“I’ll dump out our food buckets,” Geoff offered. “We can use those to scoop up lake water to throw on the fire.”
“Sure,” Dana said, “We’ll do a bucket brigade.”
I doubted anything we did would help, but if we stayed where we were, we’d be burned alive. “I suggest sticking anything you can’t live without in your pocket,” I said.
“Good point, Doc. I’ll grab my phone,” Geoff said.
“I’m grabbing my raincoat just in case,” Dana added.
I nodded. “I hope we need our raincoats. Rain is the one thing that will extinguish this fire.”
Geoff, Jack, and I carried our bear-proof food buckets now empty of their contents, and Dana shouldered a pack full of first-aid gear. She also carried a small camp shovel.
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We hiked along the shore of Karluk Lake. It was a dark, chilly night. Correction, it was a dark, chilly morning. Darkness is an infrequent visitor in late May on Kodiak Island, but I can testify it is dark at 3:00 am. We wore headlamps to light the beach along the lakeshore, and I glued my eyes to the ground so that I wouldn’t stumble over a large rock or a tree branch. The smell of smoke grew stronger with each step.
As we neared the fire, I could see the flames growing in intensity and slowly but steadily spreading toward the south and our camp.
“We should have packed our stuff and moved it out of the line of fire,” I said.
“I don’t think we could move our stuff far enough to get it out of the fire line unless we brought it with us and stashed it upwind from the flames,” Geoff said.
We clung to the lakeshore and skirted around the edge of the fire. As we neared the tent camp where the blaze had started, we saw four young men frantically packing their tents and gear and moving everything down the beach. Miraculously, it looked as if the flames had not touched their camp.
Dana ran toward the men. “Is everyone okay?” She called.
One of the young men stopped in his tracks and looked toward her, obviously surprised by her presence. “Our campfire got out of control,” he said. “I thought we put it out but guess we didn’t.”
The man slurred his speech and seemed confused. At first, I thought he had a natural physical or mental impairment, but then, I realized he was drunk, or to be more accurate, he hadn’t completely sobered up from being drunk. I took in the entire scene and watched his camping companions stumble to move their gear, their actions clumsy and awkward. They were all in the no man’s land between drunk and sober, the period of the night when you wake up and curse yourself for drinking too much alcohol. I admit I’d been there a time or two, and now I tried to muster some forgiveness for them stupidly getting drunk and letting their campfire burn out of control.
Forgiveness was not on Dana’s mind, and she immediately understood the situation. She dropped her pack on the ground and stood, hands on hips, glaring at the young man who had spoken to her. “Are you drunk?”
“Maybe,” he said. “I’m not quite sober.”
“You are camping on an island with 3500 bears.” Dana walked toward him, her voice as loud as I’d ever heard it. “Many of those bears live near this lake.”
The young man looked at the ground and said nothing.
“If you want to camp on this Refuge, you need to be responsible.” Dana gestured to the spreading fire. “You started a fire by not putting out your campfire.”
“We tried to put it out,” the young man said.
“You tried?” Dana was now only about four feet away from the poor guy, all five feet nothing of her intimidating the young man as she screamed up at him.
Although the situation was dire, I nearly laughed as I watched the much larger man cower while petite Dana approached him. He flinched at each of her words as if she were slapping him in the face, and I thought she might slap him in the face when she got a few steps closer.
“I saw a video the other day,” Dana said. “An observant camper watched and videotaped a bunch of yahoos like you and your friends. They ate breakfast around their campfire, threw a little water on the fire, packed their gear, jumped in their raft, and headed down river. A few minutes after they’d left, a curious bear began sniffing their campfire. He put his paw on the hot embers, burned his paw and limped away, holding his burned paw in the air.” She took another step toward the young man who was now backing away from her. “I thought their lack of regard for the environment was disgusting until I see what you idiots managed to do here.”
I stood, caught up in the drama of Dana and the young camper when Geoff thumped me on the shoulder.
“Here, Doc,” he said, handing me a full bucket of lake water. “Let’s get this bucket brigade going.” He looked at Dana and the cowering campers. “Yo!” he yelled. “We need some help here; we have a fire to put out.”
The campers seemed happy for any excuse to escape Dana’s withering gaze and sharp reprimand. They found two more food buckets in their gear, emptied the contents, and hurried to stand in line between the lake and the burning fire.
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I knew I couldn’t be the only one in this group who saw the futility of fighting a spreading wildfire with buckets of water, but buckets were all we had, and we needed to do something. There was no firefighting agency to call in the middle of the night to help put out a fire on the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge. If the fire hadn’t been extinguished by morning, we would notify the National Wildlife Refuge office in Kodiak, and perhaps they could ask for assistance from the Department of Natural Resources. Dana was a biologist for the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge, so she would know what to do. At present, Dana stood in the bucket brigade between the four campers, still lecturing them. If they weren’t sober by now, they would be soon, and between excessive alcohol, smoke, and Dana’s piercing voice, I didn’t envy any one of them the headache he would have for the next several hours.
We continued the steady progression of bucket passing as the sky slowly lightened. At 5:00 am, my arms were numb, my shoulders screamed with pain, and I had one of the worst headaches of my life. My comrades and I silently passed buckets, refusing to admit defeat. At 6:00 am, Mother Nature decided to lend us a helping hand. It started as a drizzle, but soon the rain pelted us in sheets.
I stepped out of the bucket line and said, “I think we can stop now.”
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While hiking back to their campsite, Jane and her friends stumble across human bones exposed by the burned vegetation. Are the bones ancient or modern, and how did this individual die? These are the first of many questions Jane asks Alaska State Trooper Sergeant Dan Patterson, and Jane won’t rest until she uncovers the answers and learns not only the identity of the man whose bones she found but also what or who caused his death.
I will share other outtakes of my novel at intervals over the next few months. Please let me know what you think. The above scene is the beginning of the book. Did it grab you and make you want to read more?
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[image error]Robin Barefield is the author of three Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter. To download a free copy of one of her novels, watch her webinar about how she became an author and why she writes Alaska wilderness mysteries. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska.
[image error]
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The post Karluk Bones appeared first on Robin Barefield.
November 25, 2018
Author Rich Ritter is the New Voice of the American West
Rich Ritter is another friend and author in my Author Masterminds group. Rich writes edgy historical fiction and many consider him the new voice of the American West. I don’t need to add anything else to hook you on Rich’s writing. Read this post, and I guarantee you will be an instant fan, clambering to buy all his books. _____________________________________________________________________
Rich Ritter: My Journey to Becoming an Author [image error]
Although I resented it at the time, I must now thank my eighth-grade English teacher for two excruciating months of lessons on the arcane subject of sentence diagramming. She aroused a latent desire to write, which eventually blossomed in high school when I was mistakenly chosen—along with two other students—to represent the school in a district-wide writing competition. The contest did not go well because the teacher in charge of our team loathed my uniquely-chaotic prose and forced me to write in the dreary style he preferred. Stunned by failure, but mostly due to a five-year diversion to study architecture, I did not submit my first short story for publication until the year after college. I would offer proof of this significant event, but I have since misplaced the rejection letter from the Atlantic Monthly.
I wrote extensively during the next twenty-five years, producing many important works of literature including A Proposal for Professional Services for the Dzantik’I Heeni Middle School, The West Douglas Planning Study, and Technical Specifications for the New Juneau Police Station, to name a few notable works. I did not rediscover fiction—although my competitors might argue this point—until the age of 49. My wife and I adopted our sons in 1983 and 1985, which eventually led to family upheaval and the attendance at four multiday sleep-depravation seminars. During the second seminar, the facilitator challenged us to commit to a “big bodacious goal.” This goal theoretically represented our true purpose in life. When I awoke the next morning, I foolishly scribbled on the little piece of paper next to the hotel phone that I would write a novel. However, I may have overdone the exercise because when we each announced our goals at the seminar the woman sitting next to me promised to take a multi-vitamin every day for a year.[image error]
I commenced within the week. Five long years later, I self-published Toil Under the Sun, a novel of the Korean War and an adopted son who does not believe he is worthy of love. Although I spent countless hours researching (even learning to operate and shoot an M-1 Garand without cutting off my thumb), much of my inspiration derived from my father, who served as a First Lieutenant with the U.S. Army in Korea, and my oldest son, who served as a sergeant with the U.S. Marine Corps in Iraq. My younger son provided source material as well, in his own way. When book sales did not go well, I embarked on a six-month effort to find a literary agent. I wrote numerous query letters, sent numerous emails, made numerous phone calls, and produced only one glimmer of interest from a New York agent who was on a desperate search for “Chic Lit approximately 80,000 words long.” When I told her that Toil Under the Sun clocked in at 133,000 words, our conversation quickly ended.[image error]
Undaunted, I decided to plunge into my next project: a novel of the west set in Silver City, Idaho during the late 1800s. Concerned about the effort required to produce Toil Under the Sun, my wife suggested I take a break and write something “smaller and funner,” possibly set in Juneau during the time of the great gold mines. I followed her counsel, and one year later completed the manuscript for Heart of Abigail: A Lyric Novella of Juneau, Douglas and Treadwell. At 28,000 words though, my writing speed had not increased. Unsatisfied with the previous self-publishing and literary agent results, I began fishing around for a publisher in Alaska by reading the “published by” information on book covers at local bookstores. I eventually found an interested publisher in Homer, but I declined after the editor told me that she would “…bleed all over my manuscript, but I can’t start until next spring.” A bit discouraged, I found myself wandering down the book aisle (after browsing the food carts) at the local Costco. A very handsome paperback caught my eye, and when I looked on the back I noted “Publication Consultants” in Anchorage. I called the owner, a man of integrity named Evan Swensen, and Heart of Abigail was published four months later.
[image error]Having satisfied my wife’s desire for something “smaller and funner,” I embarked on Nor Things to Come: A Novel of the American West. Another five years and more than 268,000 words later, I submitted the manuscript to Evan. He reviewed my work, then called me on the phone to let me know that no one would pay for a book this big from an unknown author. My wife stepped in once again to propose a solution. She suggested I publish the book as a trilogy because the story was already organized in three parts. Evan declared the idea “brilliant” and prompted me the get to work right away. I originally assumed very little [image error]effort would be required, but four months and five revisions later I submitted The Perilous Journey Begins, the first book of Nor Things to Come: A Trilogy of the American West. The second book, Gathering of the Clans, followed in six months. I do not yet have a title for the third book, but I know something interesting will eventually pop into my head—or maybe my wife will suggest a title: she has come through before when I needed help.
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Thank you, Rich! I think it always pays to listen to your wife! Be sure to check out Rich’s books, and while you are at it, you might want to buy two copies of each book because they would make great Christmas presents! You can find Rich’s books at Author Masterminds, Amazon, and other online booksellers.
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[image error]Robin Barefield is the author of three Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter. To download a free copy of one of her novels, watch her webinar about how she became an author and why she writes Alaska wilderness mysteries. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska.
Mystery NewsletterSign Up for my free, monthly Mystery Newsletter about true crime in Alaska.
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The post Author Rich Ritter is the New Voice of the American West appeared first on Robin Barefield.
November 18, 2018
Thanksgiving in Ravens Cove
Happy Thanksgiving to those of you in the U.S. I think it’s a wonderful idea no matter where we live to take a day, or better yet, several days throughout the year to consider everything and everyone in our lives for which we are thankful. We are all busy and are bombarded by negative news reports, political scare tactics, vicious elections, and the knowledge violence can happen anywhere at any time. It is easy to lose track of what is important and good in our lives.
This week, in honor of Thanksgiving, I have a special treat for you. My friend and fellow author, Mary Ann Poll, has shared with me an inside look at how the residents of Ravens Cove, Alaska celebrate Thanksgiving.[image error]
Mary Ann writes spine-tingling novels about the clash between good and evil. Ravens Cove is the first novel in her Iconoclast Mystery series, and it takes place in the fictional town of Ravens Cove, Alaska.
Kat, the protagonist in Ravens Cove, wrote this post, and she describes Thanksgiving in a small, Alaska town. Kat mentions that the dishes her relatives serve for the Thanksgiving feast come from a variety of cultures and traditions, making the meal truly Alaskan and emulating the “first” Thanksgiving which was also a blending of cultures.
Mary Ann will write a guest post for me in a few weeks, and I know this post by Kat will have you excited to read about Mary Ann and her books. Take it away, Kat.
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Happy Thanksgiving from Ravens Cove, Alaska
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Today is a cold one for this time of year. Usually, we are around thirty-four degrees, but today our forecast is for the mid-twenties and a north wind, which means I’ll be pulling out the Army-green parka and clunky boots. On the bright side, the cold means fair skies…after 9:30 a.m. when the sun peaks out from behind the mountains. But, I digress. Today the cold is really last on my list of concerns because this is one of my favorite events of the year – Thanksgiving at Grandma’s house.
It seems like half the town gathers at Grandma’s (Alese Bricken for those of you who do not know her) for Thanksgiving. It is the time to catch up with my neighbors. Funny how we live in a small town and in the winter we can still go months without talking to each other.
We will have the traditional American feast but with parts of my Alaska native heritage thrown in – Grandma cannot seem to cook a meal without adding moose to the menu and, of course, smoked salmon for the appetizer. And, there is the pumpkin pie and mincemeat – does anyone know how a mincemeat pie became part of this? – Not my favorite, I’ll tell you! But, I will have a small sliver because Grandma thinks it is good for my bones. And, I choose my battles with Grandma.
May your turkey day be blessed!
Until next time…… Chin’an gheli – for my English-speaking friends: Thank you very much.
Kat
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Thank you, Kat, and thank you, Mary Ann. I am very thankful for you both for writing my [image error]post this week, and I love the idea of imagining how my characters spend their holidays! I am also thankful for my blog readers. A few of you have been with me from the beginning, and you hold a special place in my heart, so as Kat said, Chin’an gheli!
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[image error]Robin Barefield is the author of three Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter. To download a free copy of one of her novels, watch her webinar about how she became an author and why she writes Alaska wilderness mysteries. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska.
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November 11, 2018
My Life as an Author
It has been a while since I’ve posted about my life as an author, and I’d like to share news about some exciting writing opportunities I’ve been offered in the last few months.
Autumn is a busy time at our lodge, and I have little extra time to do anything. When I take a break, I usually fall asleep, so I haven’t written as much as I’d planned this fall. I have received some interesting invitations, though, and they have reignited my passion for succeeding as an author.[image error]
I was surprised and honored when Krishna Prasad, the editor for The Wagon Magazine, invited me to publish my mystery newsletters as a monthly column in his magazine. He even provided this logo for me to use. A few weeks later, the editor of True Crime: Case Files ezine asked me to submit an article. I sent her one of my mystery stories, and she accepted it for publication in the winter issue.
As the number of subscribers for my newsletter grows, I feel I’m beginning to reap the rewards of the many hours of hard work I’ve put into writing the newsletters, and I can’t wait to see what awaits down the road for my true crime stories. I hope before long to compile the stories into a book (or two).
Several of the authors I’ve invited to write guest posts on my site over the last few weeks[image error] are members of a group I belong to called Author Masterminds. We all have the same publisher (Publication Consultants), and the group consists of approximately thirty authors. We meet once a week via Zoom, an Internet meeting interface. Our group includes authors from Alaska, Texas, Florida, Michigan, Idaho, and other U.S. States, as well as from South Africa and Gibraltar. We write in many different genres, and I don’t think any two of us write in the same genre. We range in age from 16 to 75 and have very little in common other than a passion for writing and a dream to have others read what we write.
When I first joined this group, I felt honored to be invited. Our first meetings were quiet as we got to know each other, but as the group has expanded, we’ve all become more verbose. I have grown attached to the people in this group and feel especially close to the few I’ve been with since the beginning. We have supported each other through medical issues and family worries, and we’ve laughed a great deal as we’ve shared our clumsy attempts at marketing. A few members of the group make me laugh whenever I hear their voices.
It’s always nice to form a bond and belong to a group with others who share your passion, but for me, it’s a special treat. I live in the middle of the wilderness, and I have no one to talk to about writing and promoting my writing. It is invaluable to spend an hour a week with other authors who understand my dreams, confusion, and insecurities when it comes to the modern world of writing and publicity. I look forward each week to our meetings, but with our limited Internet out here in the wilds of Kodiak Island, I can only attend the meetings by audio, not video, so I refer to myself as the voice in the darkness. Some of our African colleagues face the same bandwidth restrictions I do, so we hang out with each other in the shadows.
Our publisher has recently hired a marketing specialist for us, and we are developing a book club Our club will differ from most book clubs because we, the authors, want to interact with our readers, get to know them and find out what they think about our books. I’m excited to invite readers to join our club, and I hope we can pull together an involved group. I’ll let you know how it goes, and I will provide a link to our club once we are organized. I hope all of you will join us.
Next week, Rich Ritter, a member of our Author Masterminds group who writes edgy historical fiction, will be my guest blogger. Rich is a talented author, and I know you will find him as fascinating as I do.[image error]
For now, my wilderness friends and I want to wish you a great week.
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[image error]Robin Barefield is the author of three Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter. To download a free copy of one of her novels, watch her webinar about how she became an author and why she writes Alaska wilderness mysteries. If you like audiobooks, check out her audiobook version of Murder Over Kodiak. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska.
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The post My Life as an Author appeared first on Robin Barefield.
November 4, 2018
What Do Sea Otters Eat?
As I told you last week, a sea otter burns calories at a rapid rate to help maintain its body temperature in its home in the cold North Pacific. It consumes between 23 and 33 percent of its body weight per day, so a fifty-pound otter eats 11 to 16 lbs. (5 to 7.3 kg) of food every day. Where does a sea otter find this much food, and what do they eat?
Sea otters are known to consume more than 150 different prey species, mostly slow-moving benthic invertebrates such as mollusks, crustaceans, and echinoderms, but if they are hungry enough, they also sometimes eat fish and even seabirds. Sea otters are the only marine animals capable of lifting and turning over rocks in search of prey and the only marine mammal that catches fish with its forepaws rather than with its teeth.
[image error]Sea Otter Eating an Octopus
Studies done in southeast Alaska, Prince William Sound, and near Kodiak Island indicate that clams are the primary and preferred prey of sea otters in these regions. Clams constituted anywhere from 34% to 100% of the diet of sea otters near Kodiak. In areas where clams are less plentiful, and in areas where otters have depleted the clam populations, mussels and sea urchins comprise a larger percentage of otters’ diets. Crabs are also important prey species where they are available. On the west side of Kodiak Island, we see otters eating clams, scallops, crab, and octopus. Sea otters’ diets vary not only from one location to another and in response to available prey species, but also because individual otters have different food preferences, and a mother often passes on her fondness for certain foods to her pup.
A sea otter has a loose pouch of skin under each foreleg where it can store food collected on a dive. When the otter returns to the surface, it can rest on its back and leisurely retrieve one piece of food after another from its pouch. In addition to food, the sea otter also stores a rock in one of its pouches. The otter can use the rock underwater to pry loose mussels or other attached bivalves or to dislodge sea urchins wedged in crevices. When floating on the surface, the otter places the rock on its chest and pounds crabs, snails, clams, and other prey against the rock to break through the tough shells. Sea otters are one of the few animals other than humans known to use tools.
[image error]Sea Otter Eating a King Crab
Sea otters are very efficient at finding and eating shellfish, and where large groups of sea otters reside, they reduce populations of abalones, clams, and sea urchins to the point where a commercial fishery for these species in the area is not viable. This competition between sea otters and fishermen creates a conflict which cannot be easily resolved by fish and wildlife managers.
Sea otters are considered a “Keystone” species, meaning they affect the ecosystem to a much greater degree than their numbers would suggest. Sea otters protect kelp forests off Northern California by eating herbivores such as sea urchins that graze on the kelp. In turn, the kelp forests provide food and cover for many other species of animals, and kelp forests play an important role in capturing carbon and reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Without sea otters, urchins over-graze the kelp, throwing the ecosystem out of balance.
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Robin Barefield is the author of three Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter. To download a free copy of one of her novels, watch her webinar about how she became an author and why she writes Alaska wilderness mysteries. If you like audiobooks, check out her [image error]audiobook version of Murder Over Kodiak. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska.
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October 28, 2018
How Do Sea Otters Stay Warm?
Northern sea otters (Enhydra lutris kenyoni) are common in the waters surrounding Kodiak Island. Our summer guests love watching and photographing these cute, curious animals as we pass by them in our boat. Some otters lie placidly on their backs and watch us motor past, and others dive from the perceived danger we create. A few otters repeatedly twist and turn in the water or turn summersaults, and we laugh at their comical antics. The truth is, though, sea otters don’t turn summersaults because they are having fun; these movements have the much more practical application of keeping the animals warm.[image error]
A marine mammal must maintain a body temperature near 100° F (37.8° C), and in Alaska, where the water temperature drops as low as 35° F (1.67° C), keeping warm can be a challenge. Other marine mammals have a thick layer of blubber to insulate themselves from the cold, but sea otters have very little fat and depend mainly on their fur for insulation. Sea otters have the thickest fur of any animal, with 850,000 to one million hairs per square inch (up to 150,000 per square centimeter). It is their dense, beautiful fur that made them so valuable to fur traders in the 1700’s and 1800’s.
A sea otter’s fur consists of two layers. Long guard hairs form the outer layer, providing a protective coat to keep the underfur dry. The extremely dense underfur provides warmth, but for the fur to insulate efficiently, it must be clean, so sea otters spend a large portion of each day grooming and cleaning their fur.
In addition to cleaning his fur, an otter will somersault in the water and rub his body to [image error]trap air bubbles in his fur. These bubbles not only provide insulation but also help to keep his skin dry. An otter’s underfur ranges from brown to black, and the guard hairs vary from light brown to silver or black. Alaskan sea otters often have lighter fur on their heads, and the fur usually lightens as an otter gets older.
In addition to their warm fur, sea otters maintain their body heat by burning calories at a rapid rate. A sea otter’s metabolism is two to three times higher than the metabolism of a similar-sized land mammal. Because its metabolic rate is so high, a sea otter must eat 23 to 33 percent of its body weight each day. This means a fifty-pound otter will eat 11 to 16 lbs. (5 to 7.3 kg) of food every day.
Because very little fur covers an otter’s paws, they lose heat rapidly when submerged in cold water, otters conserve heat by keeping their forepaws out of the water and their hind flippers folded over their abdomens when resting and floating.
[image error]Since sea otters are dependent on their fur to keep them warm and insulated from the cold ocean water, and because they must continually groom their fur to maintain its insulating properties, they are extremely vulnerable to the effects of pollution. When oil or another pollutant soils an otter’s fur, the fur becomes matted, and it can no longer keep the animal warm. Matted fur can lead to hypothermia and death from exposure. When the otter tries to clean his fur to remove the pollutant, he ingests the toxin, which is also often fatal.
When the Exxon Valdez struck a reef in Prince William Sound in 1989 and spilled eleven million gallons of crude oil, nearly 1000 sea otter carcasses were recovered, and biologists estimated the actual number of sea otters killed by the oil spill was anywhere from 41% to 80% higher than the number of dead otters observed.
Sea otters have many interesting adaptations to a life spent in the ocean. In this post, I told you how much sea otters need to eat each day just to stay warm, and next week, I’ll write about what sea otters eat and how they catch and eat their prey.
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[image error]Robin Barefield is the author of three Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter. To download a free copy of one of her novels, watch her webinar about how she became an author [image error]and why she writes Alaska wilderness mysteries. If you like audiobooks, check out her audiobook version of Murder Over Kodiak. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska.
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October 14, 2018
Steve Levi, Author and Historian
This week, I want to welcome my friend and fellow author, Steve Levi. Steve is an Alaska historian and a fount of information about Alaska, past, and present. When I need an idea for one of my true-crime newsletters, I ask Steve, and the ideas fly from him so quickly, I can barely keep up with him. I know you will find Steve and his books as fascinating as I do, so take it away, Steve Levi!
Steve Levi: Master of the Impossible Crime
My motto is simple: “If you do not write something unique you have nothing.” As a writer, I look for what has not been done. After all, the last thing the world needs is one more biography of George Washington or the personal tribulations of a retired detective fighting alcoholism and struggling through a divorce when he/she gets called back for his/her ‘greatest case.’[image error]
Keeping with my motto, I want every one of my books to be different. In nonfiction, as an example, I am the only writer to have completed a book on the CLARA NEVADA, Alaska’s ghost ship. It sinks in the Lynn Canal in February of 1898 and ten years later comes back up – missing about $17 million in gold in today’s dollars. My biography of bush pilot Archie Ferguson – dubbed “The Craziest Pilot in the World” by the Saturday Evening Post—was and is the [image error]only one in existence and only possible because I took a dozen trips north of Arctic Circle to interview Inupiat Eskimo and whites who knew him. Ferguson died in 1962 and my interviews, on tape, will be around for the next century for anyone who wants a birds’ eye view of the Arctic from the 1920s to the 1960s. I am one of the few people in America – and possibly the only person – who has studied the long-term impact of a terrorist bomb on an American civilian population and my history of the Alaska Gold Rush was the first to make certain readers knew the Klondike Strike in the Yukon Territory of Canada was not the Alaska Gold Rush AND the stories of Jack London and poems of Robert Service have nothing to do with the Alaska Gold Rush.
Just as in nonfiction, I want my fiction to be unique. As far as I know, I am the only writer who produces “impossible crime” novels. An impossible crime in one where the detective has to solve HOW the crime was committed before he can go after the perpetrators. In THE MATTER OF THE VANISHING GREYHOUND, the San Francisco Police are following a Greyhound bus filled with $10 million in cash, four bank robbers and a dozen hostages. The bank robbers demand to cross the Golden Gate Bridge and the police simply allow the bus to roll onto the bridge and then close off both ends. But when they send their hostage negotiators out to the bus it is not there. It has vanished. How can you make a Greyhound bus disappear off the Golden Gate Bridge? You’ll have to read the book to find out! [www.authormasterminds.com.]
[image error]When I have to be conventional – as in a mystery with a murder – I make it as convoluted as possible. My novel DEAD MEN DO COME BACK has a murder but the murder is not the focus of the book. The murder – and subsequent reappearance of the cadaver twice – is simply the cover for two robberies of 250 pounds of gold from a mine in Juneau. Thus DEAD MEN DO COME BACK is unique as it offers the reader an on-the-ground look at the Alaska Gold Rush in Southeast Alaska where 250 pounds of gold was simply one-week’s shipment from one mine. Additionally, DEAD MEN DO COME BACK is a novel where the villains, multiple, get away with it because it is a “silent robbery,’ one where the insurance company pays and ‘everything goes away.’ That, in the real life, is a lot more common than one would believe.
If you are a writer, I have some VERY, VERY good news for you! We are entering a golden age of literature. Why? Because, to date, big publishers do not publish good books. They publish books they think will sell. So good books sit in author’s computers. If you don’t believe me, try to find a “mystery” book in a bookstore that is not a murder. If it is not a murder, the big New York “mystery” publishers will not consider it. So I had to go around the Big Publishers. And I was successful because now readers are looking for unusual novels. Readers are no longer satisfied with the same old/same old that has been offered by the bookstores and silver screen. They want different. And they are lucky. Today, with the advent of Netflix, YouTube and other low-budget entertainment outlets, there are increasing opportunities for writers – as long as those writers have unique offerings. And allow me to finish where I began. If you want to be successful in this brave new world of literature, you have to be different. To quote myself, “If you do not write something unique you have nothing.”
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Thank you, Steve Levi! Check out Steve’s website, his Author Masterminds page where you can buy his books, and his Amazon author’s page. If you would like to learn more about Steve, watch his webinar about how he became a published author, and if you stay until the end of the webinar, you will be able to download one of Steve’s books for free. Don’t miss Steve’s Impossible Crime books because they truly are unique.
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