“Ain’t Misbehavin'” on Online Book Tour

Oh, yes I am. I have officially misbehaved. I note this so you’ve been warned.

I heard your comment, “That’s unusual—the misbehaving.”

Precisely. You’re wondering about the cause of this misbehavior? Laziness!

“Laziness?”

Your stare is making me uncomfortable. Please make this little confession a little easier on me: Glance away from the computer screen. There, that’s better.

Yes, laziness, and here’s the story: Author Robin Nolet invited me to join a book tour. I told her I would. I was supposed to answer some questions (and I will momentarily), and point you on to three other websites of authors who I contacted in advance to invite on the tour. Didn’t do it.

“Surely, you just forgot.”

I appreciate that a kind gaze and your giving me the benefit of the doubt (Very charitable!), but I didn’t forget. It was that laziness I confessed to earlier. Is that disappointment I see in your expression?

“If you’re too lazy to follow the rules, maybe I should be too lazy to read anymore of what you’ve written here (or your books)! After all, there are lots of other authors I could be reading about, authors who follow the rules and aren’t lazy.”

You’re right, and I wouldn’t blame you if you click to some other site right now. Might I suggest one: Robin’s blog (www.robinnolet.blogspot.com). She’s got a couple of books under her belt, and she’s working on a sequel to her first The Shell Keeper, a look at women’s lives and relationships. That’s not a genre I visit, but her second book—a mystery—Framed is a good escape, quick read and fun who-done-it. I am a huge fan of mysteries (mostly the British television versions, although I am currently reading the English detective genre’s first and influential effort—written in 1868: Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone; free Kindle version available), so I had a good time in Nolet’s book, trying to guess the guilty, clear the innocent and avoid murder in the small town of Tallman, Colorado. I’m looking forward to her next Kay Conroy Mystery.

Now here are the questions I’m supposed to answer:

What am I working on?

We had a great time and met some new friends last week at a book club in Castle Rock, Co. Its members wanted to make sure I tied up all the loose ends in the Beyond the Wood Series.

I’m writing the final installment of the Beyond the Wood Series. I’ve got a working title, but no final name. I was with a book club in Castle Rock, CO, last week, and our conversation, besides being very fun, reminded me how careful I need to be in finishing the series. I assured them my wife had already given me a list of loose story strings (a page long!) that have to be tied up by the end. (I fear I’ll have to spend entire book just answering the as-yet unresolved.)

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I try to thread the needle of appealing to a broader audience by including both Civil War social and important war scenes and try to make the backdrop as accurate as I can. A while ago I got an email from a woman who enjoyed the book and was asking how to pronounce my name (pronounced to rhyme with touché). She told me she had just given the book to her Civil-War-bluff husband to read. Several days later I got another email from her, indicating that her husband had pronounced it a “worthwhile read.”

Why do I write what I do?

Pure happenstance at the confluence of three experiences:

Over a several-year time period, I’d been reading extensively about the Civil War.
During that time, a friend randomly handed me a replica of a Virginia Militia uniform button, insisting I keep it. (You can see a photo of the button on the spine and back cover of Beyond the Wood.)
And finally, during a spur-of-the-moment drive toward Virginia’s Manassas National Battlefield Park, we met a man just outside the park. He was missing a leg—reminding me instantly of Confederate General Richard S. Ewell who lost a leg at the battle at Brawner’s Farm, prelude to Second Bull Run. Meeting the man was an interesting coincidence, not extraordinary. But the man’s sudden disappearance was. (Yes, I’ve since figured out how it could have happened.)

The outline for Beyond the Wood came to me at the moment our new friend disappeared.

How does your writing process work?

Randomly. It is a great pleasure to be in the 19th century, but it’s difficult to get there. Almost anything distracts me, because almost anything is always easier than creating and structuring a story. I especially get distracted with questions, e.g. “When was gas light added in Winchester, Va?” Such questions lead to hours of searching and peripheral questions that come up along the way and are just too interesting to leave unanswered. Research is just much too easy with the internet. I write in the morning and can write late in the evening, but my mind is too muzzy in the afternoons to write.

In keeping with breaking the rules, here are a couple of author sites and books you may want to check out (even though I didn’t invite them to participate in the book tour):

Tracy Groot just released a Civil War historical fiction book about notorious Anderson Prison—The Sentinels of Andersonville. Booklist Review calls it “well-researched, inspirational, historical tale…compelling and memorable for a diverse audience.”

Julianne Donaldson has two books out, including her latest Jane Austinesque novel, Blackmoore, which Publisher’s Weekly rates as “riveting and evocative.”

The post “Ain’t Misbehavin'” on Online Book Tour appeared first on Michael J. Roueche.