Finally! I'm so excited!!!

My wonderful editor, Jim Bahler, is finally at a point in his schedule where he has begun to edit the fourth book in the TIDES series, VORTEX. I'm not kidding when I say I am so excited. I am beside myself! I love all facets of writing, even the proofing and corrections, so I feel like I'm in my element again as I go through Jim's notes, suggestions, and our discussions about why I don't want to make a particular change that he suggests. He usually sways me, although I'm sure I exasperate him in the process, but there are times when he comes around to my way of thinking or we agree to disagree. On most things I am agreeable, but then sometimes, I realize that he doesn't have all the information I have because I forgot to put it in the manuscript! That would seem to be fairly idiotic, but with my mind racing in a hundred different directions, sometimes I just forget.

Regardless, that's what Jim's job is--not only to catch any errors I've made, but also to make sense of the story. I have mentioned before that I read and reread my books trying to catch every mistake I can find to make Jim's job easier, but the same ability that allows us to read deliberately miss-spelled words in a paragraph composed entirely of miss-spelled words is the same ability that makes proofing so difficult. For instance, in Vortex, Charlie says, "Here that?" Makes absolutely no sense. Of course, it should be "Hear that?" which makes sense even if you don't know what it applies to. Jim's comment after he pointed out the error was "You knew that, didn't you!" Yes, of course, I knew it, but I didn't SEE it.

My favorite author is Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. He wrote a book and then put it away for a year to get it out of his mind. Then, he went back and reread it, both to proof it and to edit it for content. In typical Mark Twain fashion, he commented that in rereading a novel he hadn't looked at for a year, he was amazed at how well written it was. Hmmm. Wish I could say that! I'll bet most authors wish they could say that. Even editors need editors!

Writing, like any skill, needs to be refined and honed to perfection. Another great author in my humble opinion is J. K. Rowling. I absolutely love the Harry Potter series. I bought the CDs first because I seldom have time to read, but I can clean house, fold laundry, mow the yard and do all the other mundane things one does to keep their space reasonably neat and listen to Jim Dale's presentation of all seven of the Harry Potter books at the same time. Not only do I listen to them, but I study them. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and while I have no intention of borrowing any of J.K. Rowling's phraseology, I can still learn from her writing style. I don't, at this point in time, have any desire to write a novel for boys, but J.K. Rowling's writing is bound to give boys of all ages the giggles as they read some of her more descriptive comments about finger gestures, vomiting, and other gross things that young boys would find entertaining. She writes it so beautifully that it isn't even offensive! Her writing goes way deeper than that and boys, from reading her books, learn the value of friendship and of how to be a friend. These are important things to learn in life and J.K. Rowling writes about them extremely well. When I listen to her books, I think I write better with her writing fresh in my mind.

I finally bought the Harry Potter books (thanks to Jim, I got a wonderful deal on them--only $20.00 and they were like new, still in the box) and am slowly reading them one after the other. I say slowly because I still don't have a lot of time to read--I've added learning to read music to my already crazy schedule so I have maybe twenty minutes a day to read. Sometimes I luck out and get to read an entire chapter in one sitting. That doesn't happen nearly often enough, but I still enjoy reading the books even though I can probably quote some parts of the books by heart since I'm on my 13th time of listening to the whole series. Like I said, I'm studying them. Jim Dale's voice is easy on my eardrums and pleasant to listen to--that helps considerably. J.K. Rowling's writing is so wonderful that I don't tire of it at all. I just hope I don't wear out my CDs!

I'll keep you posted on how Vortex is coming. Jim wrote to me that the chapters about Neptune's imprisonment on an arid planet were extremely well written. That's great, but I hope he thinks that of all the other chapters as we "improve" them! Smile!

Thank goodness for friends! I have wanted to update the header image to the new covers on the TIDES Series for ages, ever since Allen finished the new revised RIPTIDE cover. I fiddled around with it a couple of times, but couldn't remember how to change the header. I couldn't figure it out either. I simply don't spend enough time on my blog to retain whatever I pick up along the way so when I go back to it, I feel like I'm starting over. My friend, YaYa, helped me today and finally after struggling to create the image I wanted and getting a little help from Allen, graphic artist extraordinaire, I have the header on the blog just as I want it! Yeahhhhhhhhhhh!

Now, a couple of things: First of all, Jim (my wonderful editor) and I decided that RIPTIDE needed something more and I came up with an idea and wove it throughout the existing text. I'm much happier with it now. Then of course, there had to be a way to tell the old book from the new book so I asked Allen to come up with a cover. I told him the gist of the story and he came up with the perfect cover. If you hold your hand over the bottom half of the RIPTIDE cover, the top is serene, quiet, and lovely with just a hint of storm on the horizon. Now hold your hand over the top half. The bottom is seething with trouble, fear, and a merman about to be eaten by a deadly sargos. That just about sums up the book. Everything is wonderful on the surface, but if you watch for it, you'll find little hints of trouble to come. And come it does.

Secondly, an update on the long awaited sequel, TIDES -- Book Four: VORTEX:  Jim is, I believe, starting to surface from the daunting task he has been working on since last October--that of moving the entire contents of a very full 6000 square foot warehouse to other locations. He hopes to begin editing VORTEX the end of September if not before. I'm guesstimating that between making whatever corrections Jim suggests and working with Allen on the new cover, maybe the book will be out sometime within the first three months of the New Year. I hope. I'll keep you posted.

God bless!

Learning different kinds of patience... and the real purpose for snow!

February 1st already and my fourth book is nowhere ready to publish. I'm still waiting for the cover art on the second book, which I can hardly wait to see. Life is busy for my editor and my graphic artist and they are both teaching me patience in a way I have not learned before.

I have tons of patience with things I can control, such as knitting a lattice leaf afghan with baby yarn on size 4 needles that took 14 years to complete. Each knit row took 45 minutes so I couldn't pick it up lightly and knit a few stitches. Each pearl row took about 20 minutes because it was much less involved. The afghan is over six feet long and comfortably wide enough for one person--me. I was so glad when I finally finished it, but I store in the cedar chest. I don't dare put it on the back of the couch like I had originally intended. Well, that's another kind of patience...

My dogs. Oh, good grief! I have had dogs all my life. There has rarely been a time in my life when I haven't had at least one dog and often times, I've had two or three. I had two Great Danes, brother and sister, that I raised from six weeks old until death. I lost Worf prematurely when he was six years old because his kidneys shut down. Jadzia lived to be ten years, four months, and five days--a long time for a Great Dane. The average life span for a Great Dane is eight years. I consider myself blessed to have had her for so long.

People warned me before I bought my Great Dane puppies that they would tear my yard up and destroy my house. I had had Great Danes before, many years ago, and I didn't remember them being that bad. And by and large, they weren't. Oh, they did chew on my oak fern table that I had specially made, they chewed on the trim of my Pella French doors (grrrrrr!), and they ripped off the front ruffle on my brand new couch (note to self: never buy new furniture just before bringing home a new puppy! Or new puppies, as in this case) and they opened a hole on my favorite perch in my whole house, my "momma bear" size recliner, in which I am now sitting. BUT all this is nothing to the motley pair of dogs I now have.

Nimbus was free to a good home. He is part black lab and part beagle. I'm not fond of beagles--I find their bark irritating and Nimbus has learned to stop barking on command. Over a year later, my friend Mary called me and asked me if I still wanted another Great Dane as a companion for Nimbus. I did and Luna is part Great Dane and part American Bulldog--the tall kind, not the short, squat breed with the turned in front legs. Note the names of these two critters--they came with these names and since I'm a great fan of Harry Potter, I saw no reason to change their names.

On with learning patience. Nimbus would be content to eat, sleep, eat some more, sleep some more, and sit around letting me pet him for hours on end. He especially likes being pet under his chin.

Luna just wants to play, eat a little, play, sleep a little, play, and rough house constantly. Nimbus is fortunately her favorite target, although I occasionally come under fire. Luna, like my Great Dane, Jadzia, is a thief and very destructive. My notebook that chronicled over ten years of walking on my treadmill has been destroyed. I find pieces and parts of things that I sometimes can't identify--only knowing that someday when I may want to use it, it will be destroyed and I won't be able to find it. Now, I am constantly having to make sure that anything on my kitchen countertops is pushed way back and I have to wash off muddy paw prints several times per day or when I get home from work. The Great Danes never--and I do mean never--tracked in mud like these two. When I finally took a moment to ponder this, I realized the Great Danes had never totally destroyed the grasses and weeds that grew up in their compound. They had paths they stuck to and I had to mow the compound on a regular basis. Last summer, I mowed the compound once all summer! The grasses are totally destroyed and only a few weeds dared to grow over  a foot high and the rest died out. Hence, every time it rains, the compound is muddy and guess who tracks in as much mud as they possibly can...

However, I have noticed of late that I no longer have paw prints on the countertops, not that I can see anyway. I had vainly hoped that Luna was learning to not jump up on the counters with her front paws, but alas, it's not so. The reason I no longer have muddy paw prints all over my kitchen floor and my countertops is because there is this lovely thick layer of snow covering the compound. I still have to sweep and mop the kithen floor and I don't dare prepare any food without scouring the kitchen countertops first, but at least, I'm not seeing mud everywhere I look. I believe that is the real purpose for snow--to make the world (and my kitchen) look clean and bright--at least when it first falls. I truly hate cold weather and have every intention of moving to a more temperate climate in the next few years, and while I have always loved watching snow lazily falling to earth, I've never been fond of wind-driven snow that heralds a blizzard. However, at long last, I have a new appreciation for snow--it makes keeping my house reasonably clean easier--and I'm all for that. J

Old Friendships never die...

This past July, I went home for my 45th class reunion. My sister and I both had a wonderful time even though my sister and I never attended the same schools and didn't even live in the same county when we were growing up. It's a long story, but suffice it to say that we reconnected after our brother turned eighteen and was legally an adult.

Then I went home again in September to attend the wedding reception of my youngest niece, Sondra, who married Michael last April in Nevada. The reception was at the Inn Between outside Camillus and has for years been my favorite restaurant. The food was excellent, and my nieces and nephews kept me in stitches all evening.

Hugh, my "new to me" 1999 Honda Civic, made both trips without so much as a hiccup and averaged 48.597 miles per gallon. A friend who has a hybrid averages only slightly more than my Hugh!

Then last weekend, a friend I had lost touch with after graduation came to visit me. After having my email address for a year and a half, he finally emailed his way back into my life more than three years ago. We began emailing each other and a couple of years ago, when I needed an editor and simply could not afford one, I had the inspiration to ask Jim if he'd like to read the first chapter of my first book. He liked it and asked if I'd send him the rest of the book, and without my even asking him, he began editing the book for me. He has since edited the second and third books and will begin editing the fourth book after he re-edits parts of the second book to which I have added a new story line.

So, 45 years of not seeing each other, my hair is turning grey, he's bald, and we're both heavier than we were, but neither of us cared. Instead of 45 years, it seemed more like we hadn't seen each other for only two or three years. He likes trains and seemed quite knowledgeable about them so we went to Warther's Train Museum in Dover. I think he enjoyed the trains immensely--he bought a souvenir book that showed the beautiful carvings rendered by Mooney Warther. The carvings are incredible and they actually work. I'm saving a discount coupon for his next visit when I hope we'll go to the Warther's Sailing Ship Museum.

After a late lunch, he took me home and headed out for his next destination. I can't speak for Jim, but I thoroughly enjoyed seeing him again and I was sorry to see him leave. However, I can't wait to hear his reaction to the last book in the TIDES series--which, if he didn't go home, I might never hear.

Jim, thank you for a wonderful time and the HP hardbacks.

With the release of my third book, TSUNAMI, I decided that I wanted to revamp the first two books as I've explained below. I want everything to be ready for the release of the fourth book, VORTEX, so that the entire TIDES series will be consistent as to cover art, and that the first and second novels will reflect more of what I've learned about writing.

TIDES: Book One, my first book ever, has been loved by almost everyone who has read it. One glaring exception made some valid points and while I did not agree with everything she said, I did go back through the book and make some changes. The basic story remains the same, but I deleted some "he saids" and "she saids," some exclamation points, and removed extraneous direct addresses in two-people conversations. I did not remove any prayers--this woman attributed the prayers as "Christianity being shoved down our throats." Jews pray. Muslims pray. I'm sure there are other religions that have prayer as part of their doctrine; it doesn't have to be Christian. Regardless, the prayers are few and I will not remove them. They are part of my characters' lives.

I hope those of you who have read/purchased RIPTIDE will forgive me, but I'm about to make some changes to the book. I've already started writing the changes after a discussion with my editor, Jim Bahler. Jim feels that the romance in RIPTIDE should not minimize the overall adventure theme of the series, and I think he's right. Therefore, I am introducing another storyline that will be very tense and definitely an adventurous inclusion into the second book. I will also allude to what happened in the fourth book so you don't have to buy the second book again to find out what happened--although you might want to anyway. This new inclusion will fortify the existing story, which in itself, will not change. The wonderful thing about self-publishing is that there isn't a stockpile of twenty thousand books in some warehouse, so if you want to, you can make corrections and changes.

TSUNAMI is out and so far the feedback is that I have outdone myself in this novel. I don't really think my writing has changed. I think that the story is more involved, there are more storylines, and there are more characters telling the stories. The first book, TIDES, while it included the villagers in a big way, most of the story revolved around the two main characters and since Micah makes Katie promise to keep his existence a secret, it's not like they could throw a party and invite everyone. RIPTIDE answers several questions brought about in the first book, but hints that a storm is coming, which, the reason for the storm shows up near the end of the second book. TSUNAMI takes the storm to the next level, revealing that there are things going on in secret and from two directions. In VORTEX, everything breaks loose and two new species (and much more) are entered into the dyanamics. So, while I don't think my writing has changed all that much, I do think the complexity of the story changes with each book. As Jim noted recently, each book is very different from the others, but each is a continuation of the same characters and their stories.

I recently learned that TIDES' two youngest fans are a nine-year-old boy and a ten-year-old girl. They both love the books. The ten year old is my great-niece. I was concerned because I did not write these books for children and I know what's coming. My sister assured me that my great-niece will take the story in stride--she's a saavy, bright tomboy (much like Katie). As for TIDES' nine year old fan, his grandmother didn't know he was reading the books until after the fact. So, TIDES has become a multi-generational book, from age 9 to 93, both male and female alike, although I would caution adults to read the books before they let their youngish children read them--just in case there might be some issues. The books were primarily aimed at young adults and adults, both genders.

For those of you who have read TIDES and enjoyed it, I am grateful and humbled, as well as awed. I hope you'll enjoy VORTEX when it debuts later this year or the first of next year.

After months of editing and re-editing, proofing and re-proofing, TSUNAMI is finally "out there"--on Amazon.com. While this book is a continuation of Katie and Micah's story from the first two books, this book is very different in many respects. Good vs. evil abounds in this book and leads to the fourth and final novel where all hell breaks loose until the final resolution. Whether you read it or not, I wish you the best!

Now that I'm back to work full time, I'm busier than usual. My car died. Her name was Sadie and she was a 1999 Saturn SL2. I drove her for nearly eight years in spite of the fact she'd go through a quart of oil every thousand miles. Then after the second bitter cold spell this winter, Sadie wouldn't start. AAA couldn't get her started and in the end, they thought her battery had died. They took her to my favorite mechanic. Gail called me the next day to tell me that Sadie's timing belt went out and there was a good chance it bent the valves. I was looking at $800 to $1800 to repair an old car that used a lot of oil. I had also had two new wheel bearings put in last summer and I could tell that another wheel bearing was going. The driver side window motor had been replaced and some other things that I can't recall off the top of my head right now. The point is that at some point you have to decide enough is enough. So, while I confess I do get attached to my cars, I had to let Sadie go. The good thing is that Gail has a 1999 fastback in the same color as Sadie and he can use parts off her to keep his Saturn going for a long time. His Saturn is mint.

So, with Gail's help, I bought a Honda Civic, also a '99. I named him Hugh after a character in Star Trek: The Next Generation who had been assimilated by the dreaded Borg, a race of humanoids that were mostly machine after assimilation. Hugh was found in a space crash, and Geordi, the Enterprise engineer, taught Hugh that humans value their individuality and don't want to be assimilated into a hive mind. Through the friendship that resulted, Hugh found his humanity again and he had a big heart. That's why I named my Honda Civic after him even though the Borg freaked me out.

Hugh, being a Honda in very good condition, should be a part of my family for a long time. I'm looking forward to taking a couple of trips with him. I'm really looking forward to not having to feed him oil every thousand miles and I think he's going to make an appreciable difference to my gas budget. Sadie was pretty good on gas, but I'm betting Hugh will be better....