So Second of All is all written, off to my beta-readers then I’ll be editing, revising, proofing etc.
As those of you who “like” my Facebook page know I’m working on a short story for the Thanksgiving holiday which I will post for free at all the usual channels. Yay for freeness and gratitude! đ
In the mean time, I’ve added a new (slightly SPOILERY) teeny tiny excerpt from Second of All under its tab to the right there —>
Enjoy!
I know I should be writing, and I have been, will be, so on, world without end…
But you all can blame my beautiful cousin Andrea for this flight of fancy. I spent some time just fiddling with a concept for the cover art for Second of All. So here’s an idea. The Celtic cross was designed by Aris Dervis (I don’t own it!) and if you all like it I will enquire as to whether I can use it on the next cover:[[ UPDATE!!! Aris said I can use it yippeee! So I’m thinking you’re looking at the cover for Second of All! ]]
So, after much cajoling by family members and friends who love the feel of a physical book in their hands I decided to give you that option for First, I Love You. Behold:
Coming soon, via CreateSpace. Hopefully we will all be happy with the end product as, obviously, I’ve never used a POD before.
Anyhoo, that sales rank on the digital version is kinda sad, but in my defense, I’ve been writing and editing more than I’ve been promoting, and I really think that has to take priority right now.
Speaking of which, here’s a little snippet from Second of All (unedited):
Once theyâd reached the living room, Seamus took out a pipe made of glistening rosewood. Its entirety, except for the inch portion that would rest in a personâs mouth, was intricately carved in a twisting woven knot work pattern. Seamus handed the pipe to Mickey and Mickey took it, wondering what it meant.
Seamus sat on the blanket covered chair by the large console television Mickey’s great uncle Bruno had given Mickeyâs father. Mickey twirled the pipe in his fingers and let the silence stretch. The feel of the wood in his hands seemed to keep his mind blissfully free of thoughts, the act of tracing the interwoven lines making his fingertips vibrate with an energy he couldnât explain.
âTis yours. Made it fer ye. Yer man of dâfamily now, time to put childish tings away,â Seamus said softly from the chair.
âCan you teach me how to carve like this?â Mickey found himself saying as if it were any normal day. As if today werenât the day his father had died, the day his hopes of going to college like none in his family had before him died, the day his childhood died.
âAye. That and more,â Seamus replied enigmatically.
Intriguing? Confusing? Exciting? I’d love to know what you think. đ
LOVE this!
Congratulations! Youâve decided to self-publish. Welcome to the wild and wonderful world of the fastest-growing segment of the publishing industry.
Fastest-growing, eh?
Yep. Seems like you canât turn around these days without someone sprinting off to publish the manuscript theyâve been working on for years. Or months. Or a couple of weeks. But does that mean that if you self-publish the rest of the literary world is going to âdial you down to dumbassâ, as my Dad likes to say? Does that mean youâve forever separated yourself from the realm of the serious author? Not anymore it doesnât. But it does mean that you get to navigate a minefield of potential mistakes and problems, and you get to do it all by yourself.
Now, I consider myself to be a successful self-published author. Iâve got three books out and one coming out the first weekend of November. And Iâve learnedâŚ
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It’s so maddening this social media thing. Everyone has their favorite site. ‘Oh have you followed me here?’ Gah! It’s exhausting! I get these requests all the time, add me here, add me there, and I try and comply but to be honest if it’s not on Twitter and Facebook, I probably only check it about once a week! But i’m probably on it … somewhere. I’ve got WAY too many internet timesuckers as it is.
For instance, there are a few sites that I periodically can just get lost for hours at.
www.FBI.gov is one of them. I’m not kidding. It’s really a great site for information gathering fiends like myself. Conspiracy theorists everywhere are cringing! Gen! Don’t you realize they’re tracking you?
Darlings, don’t delude yourself, there is NO WHERE private on the webbernets.
Where was I?
Oh yeah, blogs and websites I love to follow and want to share with you that aren’t currently hosted by WordPress and thus not easily re-blogged. (Or that was what I was about to say before I got sidetracked.)
Cosa Nostra News is one such place I’ll be sharing with you. It’s a little gem. I encourage you to check it out and show Ed Scarpo (that’s an ‘o’, not an ‘a’!)Â some love by officially following it instead of being one of the half a million lurkers waiting to peep some mobwatcher gossip from both sides of the fence.
http://cosa-nostra-news.blogspot.com/
Welp, that’s all for today, been writing and editing like a maniac. I keep teasing that I’ll post the first chapter of “Second of All” if I hit 200 likes on my FB author page, so people, if you want to see that happen ya gonna hafta show mama some sugar and scare me up some likes.
*smooches*
Ha! Yeah I went there.
Anyhoo, I have decided whoever invented Pinterest is made out of pure EVIL. Eviiiiiiil. As if I need any more timesuckers in my life! As. IF!
I find myself endlessly window shopping thinking about what would make good background shots for cover art or if I could just find a guy who is the perfect Tommy Gates. I mean that one I posted the other day is really very much how I picture James Hoffman (only of course James would have slightly darker skin tone).
Oh Hell, let’s just look at it again shall we?
Mmmmmn…
But anyway, in addition to the lovely pictures of shoes, and dresses, and food, and architecture, you get little gems like this:
Lord…
I suppose there’s things for straight males to look at as well… perhaps tools or … something.
Is that a Honduran cigar? Cuz I got a guy … No really…Â I do.
đ
/Random Over
I read everything he writes inside my head with a Scottish accent. #JustSoYouKnow
One of the strangest foibles of human nature is the lunacy of doing the same actions over and over again and expecting different results as a consequenceâŚpart of the discovery trail that Iâve been trudging so happily recently involves getting out of my comfort zone, changing my routine, doing what my betters exhort me to do, not just listening to them and nodding like the five-dollar plastic puppy on the car back window⌠Iâve been told, instructed, advised, âŚnay⌠ordered⌠to get out and about as an author and tell the world about my work as a writerâŚNow, most scribblers that Iâve met, both online and face-to-face (yes, that still happens), will aver that they write⌠plain and simply, write⌠The original wordsmith-y deal didnât come packaged with the duties of marketing, spouting in public places, book signings, launches, local newspaper and magazine pieces  and all of thatâŚ
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And that’s a good thing. I think. Or so a small but loyal group of people tell me. đ I’ve also read two books in the last week, been to a couple community events, survived family drama, and balanced my checkbook (immensely easy as 0-0 always = 0).
And now, I rather think, I’d like some feedback.
Would you like another excerpt from Second of All or more character background facts? A little of both?
Yes, I’ll keep writing either way.
Oh, and also, plus, too, in addition, I’m thinking of dusting off an almost completed short story I abandoned about Thanksgiving. Might just put that up for free if I can make the time. How about them baked apples?
As always, remember my motto:
Never settle for less than the best in booze, shoes, and men!
No seriously, I am very, extremely, completely, (insert adverb here), fond of the Happily Ever After. Just love it! Won’t even read or watch a movie that won’t guarantee me a HEA. Well … except for Gangster flicks. Every rule has to have an exception.
This may lead you to wonder… if Gen loves the Happily Ever After, but also loves writing about gangsters, how on earth can she reconcile the two? Well, given the theme of the Downey Trilogy is about a very moral cop who loves his gangster father, I think you should probably brace yourself for my even greater love of figuring out how two opposing ideas can live in harmony.
The truth is, it’s not about the HEA, it’s that I love a JUSTIFIED ending. And the HEA is justified in most plot lines when it’s been earned, just as the nonHEA is justified in certain endings, which in a way, if you think about it makes it a HEA ending for certain characters. If you give a HEA out when there was never any conflict to begin with isn’t it a bit anti-climactic? Likewise, making an unhappy ending for some characters while giving others one and not really explaining why just shows you have a love for the random and not necessarily a well deserved ending. See what I’m saying? No?
I know, I know … What the Hell is Gen rambling about now?
(I lobtser HATE Godfather III, but simply adore to the point of having it nearly memorized Godfather I & II, if that gives you a clue.)
Anyway, I love it when characters go through Hell. I think every author owes it to their audience to make their characters — whether these are dark characters or Mary Sue perfect characters — suffer a bit, actually quite a bit, before giving them their HEA. And similarly, I feel if you are going to write an UNhappy ending give me a damn good reason why that guy had to die alone next to a stray dog and not the OTHER ‘bad’ guy who died surrounded by his beloved tomatoes and grandchild. Bittersweet endings have their place, like the first in a series or an actual recounting of history, but not after you’ve already made the character suffer in other ways. I’m. Just. Sayin.
Similarly, I’ve always really hated Romeo and Juliet. No, it’s true. It’s not really because of the unhappy ending, it’s because of the inherent stupidity of the two main protagonists. I mean come ON! I’ve been fourteen. All passionately in luuuuurve. But faking your death, then not taking two seconds to doubt the veracity of what you’re seeing and offing yourself for real? I was never that dim-witted when I was fourteen. That’s taking hyperbole and a flair for dramatics to the extreme. No?
See, even as a teenager when first reading it I remember thinking, if I had written Romeo & Juliet it would go something like this:
Romeo gets his priest (who I think everyone realizes was on the take the whole time, right?) to secure passage out of town. Juliet sews a bunch of family jewels into their clothes to pay for the journey. If they have to do the whole over-the-top faking death thing they can stage an explosion/accident (ala Count of Monte Cristo) and they both fake out not only their families but the priest himself (no witnesses!) then they go hide out in a town in Sicily and create their own Mafia family and then decades later they come back to Verona and literally take over the town, round up their surviving ‘loved’ ones, all fuck you bitches, bet you wish you’d just let us get married now huh? See, then all the unreasonable warmongering ones got their just deserts and the ones who just wanted to get the hibbity on got to be together, but only after they worked hard for it. Not to mention your two main characters are no longer written as simpering morons but badass take charge entrepreneurs.
But … that’s probably just me.
I’m weird like that.
Romeo: Corleone’s that way, baby. I got a crib there and everything.
Juliet: Oh, Romeo, I lurve it when you strap your gangster on…
Genevieve Dewey 