Yom Kippur

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I found this poem, written what feels like a lifetime ago, when I lived in another place, with another man, with other sins. Reading it makes me feel like I've come a long way in the years since. 

May you have an easy feast this year. 

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Yom Kippur, 2001

They might as well have hurled the stones at each other:

the intent was to wound.

A ceremony of forgiveness,

the secular Jew seeking the trappings of faith

to ease her troubled mind:

throw the rocks into the sea

and, with them, the things you need to let go.

She threw first,

a safe one, troubles at work,

nothing to do with him.

He started at a distance, too,

though not so far,

mother-anger.

It didn't take long and she was crying,

he was red with hard set jaws.

Anger and hurt,

his harsh words and her thin skin.

As suspicious of each other

as of strangers.

In the end,

she was alone. She wrote her fears into the sand,

and watched the sea wash them away,

wishing it were that easy.

Cover Reveal: Inconceivable! By: Tegan Wren

Fellow Curiosity Quills writer Tegan Wren's new novel, Inconceivable! comes out November 15, 2015. But today, I am happy to show you: the cover!

Isn't it a beaut?

It really captures a lot of the themes of the book. The silhouetted almost-kissing couple gives you the romance. The clock tower gives you the European setting. The newsprint gives you Hattie's career and the backdrop of the lovers' lives. So whether you should judge a book by its cover or not, this cover is a fitting one for the story. And I think Curiosity Quills has yet another winning cover!

I've read and reviewed this novel on Goodreads: 

"First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Hatty with the baby carriage." That's how it's supposed to go, right? So, what about when it doesn't? There's love, there's marriage, but there's no baby, despite the wanting and trying. And what if the husband is a crown prince?

Inconceivable! balances a light, romantic feel with the grittier realities of a couple in crisis over fertility. Since the groom in this story is a crown prince, the pressure is even more intense than for more ordinary folk. Wren's main character, Hatty, is now one of my favorite fictional people. Throughout the book, she felt very real in her reactions first to a courtship with a prince and the impact that had on her career and future plans, then with her struggles to become a mother. I was in suspense throughout, worried about what might happen next, what additional roadblocks and obstacles Hatty and John would have to overcome.

I loved reading a romantic story about royals that didn't end at the wedding, showing us that there's more to love than falling in it. There's also staying in it, even when troubles come. For better and for worse.

Here's the book blurb:

A popular, young royal couple can't produce an heir? INCONCEIVABLE!
When Ozarks native Hatty goes “whole hog” during karaoke, she catches the eye of Prince John. He isn’t what she expects the heir to a small European nation to be: he's affable, witty, and isn’t put off by her tell-it-like-it-is demeanor. Their flirtation should be short lived, but a force stronger than fate—Hatty’s newspaper editor—assigns her to cover the royals. After spending time together, she and John soon begin dating, and Hatty finds herself making headlines instead of writing them.

But challenges loom that are even more complicated than figuring out how to mesh Hatty's journalism career with life at Belvoir Palace. Hatty and John soon find themselves embroiled in an unusual sex scandal: they can't produce an heir. Tabloids dub Hatty a “Barren-ess,” and the royals become irate. Hatty politely tells them to shove it. But beneath her confident exterior, she struggles to cope with a heartbreak that invades her most intimate moments with John. Pressured to choose between invasive medical procedures and abandoning John’s claim to the throne, the couple feels trapped until a trip to Ethiopia shows them happy endings sometimes arrive long after saying “I do.”

And Tegan herself:

The best compliment Tegan Wren ever received came from her sixth grade teacher: “You always have a book in your hand!”

Guided by her love of the creative process, Tegan grew up acting in theatre productions and writing poetry, short stories, and plays. She turned her eye to writing about real life when she worked as a journalist, producing reports for various radio and television stations in medium and large markets in the Midwest and also filing some stories for a major national news network. Wren has both a Bachelor’s of Journalism and a Master of Arts in Communications. After completing her graduate degree, Tegan had the opportunity to teach journalism courses at a major state university. She absolutely loved training the next generation of journalists.

Tegan’s thankful that she’s had the opportunity to travel overseas, and uses those adventures to inform her writing. She also draws inspiration from her own struggles, joys, and life experiences. Tegan and her husband, Patrick, experienced infertility for five years before becoming parents through adoption.

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Here are the links, if you're interested in learning more about Tegan or her book: 

Amazon US    Amazon UK    Goodreads   Blog    Twitter    Facebook   Instagram

Life in the Aquarium

As I write this, I have been sick for eight days. I have a 101 degree fever and I feel as if I'm underwater. My poor husband has been doing his paying job and the jobs of both parents all this time. 

I'm not nearly as cute as that cat. In fact, I just had to call in the calvary. 

No, not her. This is not the kind of fighter we need for this. We've sent for Grandma. The husband has to leave on a business trip, and I'm not up to being me, let alone being me and him. So Grandma to the rescue!

For the record, our Grandma is much younger and never wears spandex. She's a jeans and paint splattered tee shirt sort of gal. And we are incredibly lucky to have her! Thanks Mom!

Cover Reveal! Ann Noser's Dead Girl Running

I'm pleased to host Ann Noser today to reveal the cover of her exciting new book. See her post for details! -SB

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Cover Reveal:




Dead Girl Running is a Young Adult/New Adult Crossover Dystopian, and a cross between The Giver, The Handmaiden's Tale, and Agenda 21.





In case you can't read the small print, here's the Back Cover Blurb:

Eight years ago, SILVIA WOOD's father died in an industrial accident. After suffering through years of Psychotherapy Services and Mandated Medications for depression and multiple suicide attempts, she longs to work in Botanical Sciences. When the Occupation Exam determines she must work in Mortuary Sciences instead, she wonders if the New Order assigned her to the morgue to push her over the edge.

To appease her disappointed mother, Silvia enters the Race for Citizen Glory, in an attempt to stand out in the crowd of Equals. After she begins training with "golden boy" LIAM HARMAN, she discovers he also lost his father in the same accident that ruined her childhood. Then Silvia meets and falls for Liam's older cousin, whose paranoid intensity makes her question what really happened to her father. As the race nears, Silvia realizes that she's not only running for glory, she's running for her life.





Scheduled release date: October 26th, 2015

Want to reserve a copy? Here's a PRE-PURCHASE LINK Add to GOODREADS.

Meet the Author:



Just kidding, here she is:




Ann M. Noser's Bio:

My to-do list dictates that I attempt to cram forty-eight hours of living into a day instead of the usual twenty-four. I’ve chosen a life filled with animals. I train for marathons with my dog, then go to work as a small animal veterinarian, and finish the day by tripping over my pets as I attempt to convince my two unruly children that YES, it really IS time for bed. But I can’t wait until the house is quiet to write; I have to steal moments throughout the day. Ten minutes here, a half hour there, I live within my imagination.

Like all busy American mothers, I multi-task. I work out plot holes during runs. Instead of meditating, I type madly during yoga stretches. I find inspiration in everyday things: an NPR program, a beautiful smile, or a newspaper article on a political theory.

I’d love to have more time to write (and run, read, and sleep), but until I find Hermione Granger’s time turner, I will juggle real life with the half-written stories in my head. Main characters and plot lines intertwine in my cranium, and I need to let my writing weave the tales on paper so I can find out what happens next.

Where to find me:


BLOG


FACEBOOK PAGE


TWITTER


GOODREADS


And now what you've all been waiting for...


Enter the Rafflecopter here:


a Rafflecopter giveaway

IWSG: But, All of This is Important!

Generally speaking, I am a decisive person. I make a goal, a plan to get there, and I see it through. This is not to say that my goals are always met or my plans always work, but I'm not a ditherer.

So, the past six weeks or so have been really out of character for me. I've had trouble deciding where to focus my energy. I've started things and dropped them, not feeling like I was able to connect with the idea. It's felt like a lot of balls were out of my court and I was left swinging my racket at the breeze. (See last month's post on Waiting). Some of the waiting is over now (my sequel has been accepted for publication and I'll be moving to editing on that one; one of the anthologies is complete with print copies coming in the mail next week), and I know that's going to help.

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My issue now is prioritizing. School has started. (I'm a middle school Spanish teacher by day). I have one or, if I'm lucky, two hours a day to focus on writing related tasks. My family is in an especially demanding phase, so really it's probably one. So, what do I spend it on? Drafting new material? Revising near-finished material? Completing edits? Participating in promotional activities? Networking? Reading?

They ALL are important. So far my strategy has been to prioritize by the following criteria:

1. Does it have a deadline you'll need to meet?
2. Is it close to done and could be crossed off the list if you just finished it?
3. Will it sell books?
4. Is it what your heart wants?

Sadly, these criteria often don't help. They circle back around to: ALL OF THIS IS IMPORTANT.

I miss my laser focus and decisiveness. Any advice on how to get that mojo back?

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This posting is part of the Insecure Writers Support Group blog hop. To check out other posts by writers in a variety of places in their careers, check out the participant list. This group is one of the most open and supportive groups of people I have ever been associated with. If you write, you should check them out!

the 777 Challenge

So, I'm friends with Tegan Wren, author of Inconceivable! due out in November 2015 (which I reviewed here on Goodreads). She tagged me in a writer game that's been going around the blog-o-sphere: the 777 Challenge. The idea is to share seven lines from the seventh page of a work in progress. Then tag seven other writers to do the same.

Tegan asked for lines from the sequel to my debut novel Going Through the Change: A Menopausal Superhero Novel.  So, these 7 (ish, I cheated a little) are from the first chapter of that book (working title: Change of Life). This section features Linda Alvarez, a crowd favorite character. When Linda went through the change, she changed more than most people do. In fact, these days, most people know her as Leonel. 

Linda/Leonel Alvarez as drawn by Charles C. Dowd

So, here's a bit from page 7, when Linda is in a training session for her new job with the mysterious Department (of what? That's the mystery!). She's pumping her trainer for information while she's pumping iron (a LOT of iron). 

She kept her questions vague, as if she didn’t know the names of the other people involved. “I hear that they took the fire-throwing-lady someplace. Did they get anything out of her to help with the search for the crazy doctor?” Linda didn’t say it aloud, but she had been plagued with bad dreams about that day. She was especially worried about the part she had played in Jessica’s injuries and, even though it had been in defense, she regretted the force she had applied to Helen. She should have been able to solve that problem in some other way. Throwing a sixty-something-year-old woman into a brick wall was just wrong. She’d been praying that the woman had survived her injuries. She didn’t want murder on her list of sins.

Now, whom shall I pick on?  I'll tag:

Jason Feingold
Elizabeth Hein
Clare Dugmore
Kimberly Workman
Lia Mack
JH Moncrieff
Rebecca Leanda

Another Summer Over, and What Have You Done?

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Whoosh! That was quick. I swear that summer (and life in general) goes by more rapidly with every passing year. Even my children seemed to feel like this season of rest and rejuvenation was too brief. The way I remember it, when I was a kid, summer was endless, to the point that you were actually starting to get bored and anxious to go back to school.

Although I chose a cartoon that suggests I don't like school, I actually do. And the beginning of a school year is like a clean slate and fresh start every year. Each year, I get to take what I did in the previous year (and all the years before that), pull out the good stuff to reuse and reshape the rest of it into something that will work better. It's like having a re-do button once a year.

And I really do love teaching, even though it wears me out and frustrates the heck out of me sometimes. Kids are way better people than adults sometimes. There's something just this side of magical about being there when they make a leap and grow, and that's an experience I often have eight or ten times a day.

Plus, it's work that matters. Capital M Matters, in that deep, cosmic sense. I make a difference. I've been a teacher for twenty years now, so that's something like two or three thousand people (at a minimum) whose lives I've been a part of. Enough of them keep in touch, that I know I've had some positive effects.

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So, I'm happy to be back in the classroom. But I still mourn the open space of summer. It amounted to something like seven weeks this year, and, while that helps, it's not enough to smooth all my edges and build my stamina back up. So, I'm looking back at what I said I wanted from summer.

1. Writing, lots and lots of writing. Finish the sequel and submit it. Revise the opening to Cold Spring and resubmit it. Finish writing the novella for the superhero novella and submit it. Write a few more short stories. Resubmit (revising if necessary) everything that has come back rejected. Decide which of my projects will get my hard focus next: the second book in the Cold Spring trilogy? the third book in the menopausal superheroes? the middle grades novel? 

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Well, I did a lot of these things. Sequel? check! R&R for Cold Spring? Check! Novella? Check! a few more short stories…well, no. I've begun one but not finished it, though I did revise three others. Resubmit? Check! Though some rejections have cycled back around again and it's time to resubmit yet again. Decisions? Well, sorta. I've begun work on the Cold Spring book, but it's slow going. I'm not going to do any big work towards the three-quel for my menopausal heroes until the second book has made it through to editing. Apparently, that middle grades novel is still sitting in the drawer waiting for its moment in the sun. So all in all, I'd say I did pretty well on this front.

2. Reading, lots and lots of reading. I struggle to find time to read during the school year, and I love to swim in the sea of books all summer long.

I still want more reading time. But that's the way of it when you love books. According to my

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Goodreads stats, I read fifteen books this summer. I also beta read two books. I'm nine books ahead on my challenge to read fifty-two books this year (one per week). Of course, I didn't really put a dent in my TBR list, because I picked up just as many new books as I read! Still, all in all, I feel good about the amount I read this summer.

3. Summer outings: swimming, beaching, farmer's markets, berry-picking, hiking, visiting grandparents, GEN CON!

This was probably the part I felt most disappointed in. Making all that writing progress kept me at my computer a lot. Coupled with some really really hot weather and high humidity all summer, I didn't hike, berry pick, farmer's market, beach or anything else outside much. I did help teach the little one to ride her bike (which wasn't on my list, but was on hers), so there's an extra. Me and the youngest spawn also got some nice time with grandparents and I did get my trip to Gen Con (which was awesome). I wrote some articles for GeekDad about various things there, too. Next summer, I vow to get out more though. We'll just have to go early, before it gets too hot!

4. Sleeping and resting: let those days start a little later and actually wake up feeling rested. Take naps. Watch a little TV.

I slept till eight or nine o'clock nearly every day. That may not sound late. But I have a kid under ten years old. And during the school year, I get up between five-thirty and six. So, it was a slice of heaven for me. I didn't take naps, but I did get to watch all of Orphan Black with my teenager, and some of Agents of Shield, so, for me, that's a lot of TV.

5. Household catch-up: All that stuff that piled up all year and is now a fire hazard in the garage. Yep, time to bring out the backhoe and deal with that stuff. 

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 So, I can claim only minimal progress on this front. Truth be told, as much as I hate living with the disorder, I also hate the work of handling the disorder. It makes me hate my previous self who thought it was okay to let things pile up. So, there's a path begun through the garage, but it's still one onerous task. (sigh) It might be easier to just to move.

I can drive myself crazy sometimes, focusing only on what is still on the to-do list, instead of knowing how much is on the "done list" (like one of my online friends advises). So, this post was a good one for me. It was a good summer. Next summer will be even better!