One of THOSE weeks....fun but crazy
LOOK AT THESE THREE COVERS!!!
THEY CREATE ONE PICTURE!
I DIDN'T KNOW THAT UNTIL SOMEONE
POINTED IT OUT TO ME ON FACEBOOK!
I REMEMBER DISCUSSING SUCH A THING
WITH MY PUBLISHER BETHANY HOUSE
BUT I DIDN'T KNOW THEY DID IT!!!
I THINK IT'S SO COOL!
Okay, on to today's topic.
So on August 31, I turned in a revised book.
I am wrapping up my book due October 1st.
I also got notes about the book BEFORE the revised book, a few changes, before the book is sent to the (searching in my fevered mind for the phrase) I think it's the page designer.
So I'll soon get that back and get one more read-through and have to get it back.
And I'm also working on a proposal. I need to pitch my next series!!!
I also have a beta reader (okay a daughter) who goes through my revised books and finds THE MOST RIDICULOUS MISTAKES!!!
God bless that girl. I told her when last I talked to her, in the middle of me fixing all the junk she'd found to never, ever again in her life, when I offered to buy her a meal, lunch, coffee, whatever, say no. She's earned it.
I seem to have some finger twitch that makes be type built when I mean build. Sent when I mean send. Think when I mean thing. I just do it so much it's a little scary. I have tried to pay my daughter but she sort of gives me a scary look and refuses. I get the feeling this qualifies as one of those things she'll do for love that she would NOT do for money.
Oh, and WOMEN when I mean WOMAN. That happens so often it's almost a compulsive thing at this point. What am I thinking? Occasionally men when I mean man, but not near as often as the woman/women thing.
So the trick with all this piling on at the same time is just the pure juggling of ideas.
Uh, which book is this again?
Anyway, this week I've finally got the revisions turned in and am writing the grand finale, the black moment, the final explosive ending of my book. And I try to challenge myself. I remember a few books back thinking, "You know, I've never just written a flat out fist fight before. Sure a punch now and then, but a fist fight that goes on a while."
So I can face these things I've never done before and feel myself shying away from them because I am a coward and a colossal loser. So these days when I feel that shying reflex I think, okay, this is good, this is something I'm afraid to do because it's TRICKY. And then I force myself to do it.
The grand finale is a fight on top of a rushing train. How many times have we seen that in a movie? Men running along on top of a train, dangling over the edge of a speeding passenger car. So I'm doing that. I've got TWO fights going on the opposite ends of the train and the hero is trying to shake off the man trying to kill him so he can rush to save the heroine. Anyway, my heart is pumping a little just telling about it.
TRAIN FIGHT!!!!
Think about historical trains. Steam engines right? Wood burning? Coal burning? Where does the water come in? Where is the steam being boiled. In the engine right? It has to be, that's where they're stoking the fire, but does that water tank alongside the train station pour into the engine? Or is there a water tank feeding water into the engine?
Hey, I'm busy with fist fighting, running and dangling. Why do I have to figure out where the water is? I just do, I found out. So... research. Which is fun but time consuming.
I'm having a good time with it but as is my way, I'm writing it BADLY, then I'll need to go back and fix it. And no doubt loading it down with typos. Which I will take out when I'm revising, then add new ones in just because that seems to be an uncontrollable reflex on my part.
And all of it needs to be done FAST.
Faster than a speeding train.
So action scenes...do you write them? Are they hard for you? Tell me your favorite action scene in a book, either one you've read or one you've written.
And NEXT MONTH I'll have a new book releasing
Love on the Range
Book #3 of the Brothers in Arms series.
Wyatt and Molly's story. (hint...there's a serial killer...no way! YES WAY!!!)
Wyatt Hunt is temporarily bedridden and completely miserable. Somehow Molly Garner's limited skills have made her the most qualified in their circle to care for Wyatt. But by the time he's healed, she's fed up with him and the whole ungrateful family. For even worse than his grumpiness were the few unguarded moments when he pulled at her heartstrings, and she has long determined to never marry.
Molly gets a job as the housekeeper at Oliver Hawkins's ranch. But really she's with the Pinkertons, spying to find out if Hawkins has abused women and if he's guilty of murder.
Wyatt refuses to let her risk it alone, convincing Hawkins that he's abandoning his own ranch, angered by his two brothers' coming to claim a big chunk of it.
But when another Pinkerton agent gets shot, they realize Hawkins isn't the only danger. The Hunt brothers will have to band together to face all the troubles of life and love that suddenly surround them.
