Spring Stream of Consciousness

Boy, the blog post was the furthest from my radar this week, and coming into this morning I looked at my to-do list and saw “Blog Post” and realized, I got nothing. So we’re going to go with a stream of consciousness.

I don’t know about where you are, but here in the Pacific Northwest, we’re going through the throes of spring madness. I got all excited about planting our garden. We had been waiting and waiting to even fill our new garden beds with soil because “it’s still winter” then all the sudden the trees are blooming, it’s 60 degrees out during the day, and people are talking about planting peas. And here we are with no soil, even. So while the weather was nice for a few days, we brought in four pickup loads of soil from Lane Forest Products, our local go-to for yard and garden products, and filled up nine raised beds and three old truck tires—shoot, I just realized I never bought the beans! We put in peas, but no beans, darn it! Told you this was stream of consciousness. Anyway, now I’ve also planted a beet (beat) box, a ton of onions, and started a bunch of plant seeds under a grow house. There’s even some tiny lettuce plants in there already.

I’m super excited, but I’m also very nervous. It’s been over 5 years since I’ve had a garden, and while I was never close to being an expert, I’m afraid I’ve forgotten most of what I knew about when to start plants, and spacing, and transplanting...all that good stuff. Hubby and I recognized that this year is going to be just a crap shoot as to whether we succeed or fail, but we’re hoping to have a good supply of our own green groceries. I plan to try my hand at canning some stuff, too.

As nervous as I am, I very much enjoy gardening. It is fun to get my hands dirty, and once things start peeking out of the ground, it becomes this satisfying miracle to nurture the plants and see them through to harvest. It’s still really early for it. March has really decided to come in like a lion this year. The temps have dipped, and the rain keeps falling, rain keeps falling down, down... (Hey hey hey hey!) (There’s the stream again, taking me down with Simple Minds...)

We still have much to do in the yard, too. We’re going to put in a small blueberry hedge, and some fruit trees, if we can find dwarf stock. Gotta make the best use we can out of our tiny lot. About an 8th of the yard still needs to be leveled out, and walk-on bark put down, and then (at last!) we’ll be able to gravel the driveway, which I can’t wait to do. (No more mud and sand getting tracked into the house!) But all of that depends upon the rain stopping long enough to dig in the dirt without creating a mud pie. Which we already did, once. What a mess that was! Then we can move the sheds around to their permanent homes, and tear down the last of the old shed. Oh, and by the time things dry out, we’ll want to have the well back up and running. That will be an advantage over paying for city water to water the garden.

So much to do, but you know what, I’m super glad to be home and working on it this year. This is the first summer since 2010 that we will be home, and I am totally psyched for it. I always got twitchy on the truck, wishing my hands were getting dirty with soil rather than grease and carbon soot and whatever else we got out hands into while loading and unloading the trailer.

What do you do in the spring? What are your plans for summer?

New Facebook group = What makes a Strong Woman?

I had something of an epiphany while I was at my sister’s house, after the Writer’s Conference. At the conference, I learned that I need to interact with people in my genre more, but I didn’t want it to be just about me, you know? I was trying to figure out how to encourage more interactions with people who, like me, enjoy a good suspenseful read with a strong female lead. Then it hit me: I could start a Facebook group for and about Strong Women in Suspense. 

It’s off to a pretty good start. We’re already up above 25 members (which was my 3 month goal) and having some lively discussions about what makes a strong woman, in life and in fiction. We’ve shared some inspiring stories of current and historical strong women. We’ve shared inspirational memes and held each other up to the light.

We’ve even shared a blog post from a man who is suggesting tips for dating strong women. After all, the group shouldn’t just be limited to women. There are men out there who encourage, support, and inspire strong women, and it was never my intention to be a hen party of women bashing men. (So by all means, if you know a man who wouldn’t be threatened by this group and would, in fact, contribute, invite him!)

I like to write my female characters as strong women. Maybe they won’t always start out as strong women, but by the end of their story arc, they will be. My stories may even have more strong women than weak, or I like the word undeveloped better. 

In my latest novel, I had two beta readers (out of four) say the teenage girls didn’t react realistically to the situation they were in. Part of me rebelled. How was the story supposed to move forward if all they did was scream and huddle together? Then I realized I was having a knee-jerk reaction to the perceived suggestion that my females were too strong, and I took a step back to look at it objectively.

I knew my girls were strong, especially the heroine, so what the beta readers were really telling me was that I hadn’t convinced them by showing why and how they could be so strong. Which led me to consider the kinds of things that make us strong.

First and foremost, education. In my book, Kylie is the daughter of a veterinarian, and her (single) mother brought her along when she’d go to special trainings, like disaster preparedness. In a small town where there isn’t a big hospital and most of the emergency crews are volunteer, it made sense to me that a vet, who has a base of medical training anyway, would want to be ready in the event of a tornado or a wreck on the highway. Janie isn’t the sort to just let Kylie sit in the car and wait. She was exposed to these clinics, and learned alongside her mother how to handle a crisis.

Second, I think, would be a loving and supportive family. Kylie’s dad only recently came back on the scene, but her mother was always there for her, as were her grandparents. She always had someone to look up to and receive love from. They encouraged her to be her own person, and even let her make her mistakes, but they were always there to love her.

This third element isn’t something every woman has access to, but Kylie grew up around animals that were larger than her. She learned to respect that size, but also not to let her fear of it control her. She gained confidence through the knowledge that she could work with a creature who outweighed her by hundreds of pounds, and bend it to her will. She learned that to give in to fear was to get trampled, hurt, thrown, and broken, and she learned to control her fear—not to say she never felt it, she just never let it control her.

I guess that could break down to learning about fear in general. I had a friend once who told me there are two kinds of people in the world. Those who are afraid and shut down, and those who are afraid and do it anyway. She and I were in the latter category, and so is Kylie.

What do you think makes women—or anyone—strong? What experiences have made you strong?

Review of Carter, by SJ McCoy (Remington Ranch #3)

This latest installment of the Remington Ranch series continues the trend of feel-good romances from SJ McCoy. Carter and Summer's romance is both hopeful and bittersweet, with a perfect happy ending. I could see what needed to happen to solve the lover's dilemma, but the way it happened was a bit of a surprise. If anything, though, I contemplated knocking off half a star for the few and--hmmm--rather lackluster sex scenes. They were, to me, far less steamy than the other books. I didn't mind so much--I know I may be in the minority, but I get tired of sex scenes. So maybe it was me more than the writing.

I have to say, though, I think I know what's going to happen in Beau's story. Or at least, WHO is going to happen to Beau. Should be fun. I predict seeing much more of a precocious little child named Ruth. 

And Now For Something Completely Different....

Did you know I have written a Young Adult Historical Fantasy trilogy? Since it is so different from my other works, I've been trying to decide how to proceed. I think I've landed on serializing the story before a summer publication. As a result, the Prologue and Chapter One are up on Goodreads right now. Not sure if I'll publish one chapter per week, or two. I can probably do two, and get them all up before a June 1 release date.

Does this even make sense? I don't know. You don't have to have a Goodreads account to read them, but if you do have one, you can comment on the chapters, let me know what you think, ask questions, and ask for more. Once all three books are out, I will release them together, and put them out as a paperback.

Read the Prologue and Chapter One of A True Prince, the first book in the Bonnie Isles Trilogy on Goodreads.

Here is the working blurb:

Aslynn and Sebastian have been friends nearly since birth. A friendship cemented by a tragic common thread: Aslynn's mother died giving birth to her, and Sebastian had been found floating in a sea chest after a storm. Though a magic spell had protected him, there was no clue as to his identity or his origins. Aslynn's father, King Isaiah, took the boy in to be raised by his swordmaster, and the two motherless children had shared a wet nurse, and a great deal of time over 15 years.

But now the forces of Change are moving, converging on the small island kingdom they call their home.

In a storm to rival the one that brought Sebastian ashore, a Stranger is shipwrecked, and rescued by Sebastian and Aslynn. In his gratitude, the traveling mystic offers to try to solve Sebastian's Mystery. In the course of his investigation the stranger uncovers clues, but events surrounding his arrival stir up more than just the past.

Review of Bait, by Kasi Blake

This wasn't a perfect 5 ***** for me, but it was pretty darn close. The first 3/4 was amazing. I was especially impressed with the opening scene. Then somewhere in there things got a little fuzzy. Not a lot, and I can't out my finger on what, exactly. Just stopped being amazing for a minute and became just really good. Then the unexpected happened - and that felt a little contrived - but things got back on track. I am definitely curious to know what happens in the second book, so it goes on my TBR, although I don't know when I'll get to it. 

Writer’s Conference = Productivity!

It’s a beautiful day outside the window of my writing cave. I wish I had gone for a bike ride instead of driving to the gym to work out, but let’s face it. It wasn’t this nice when my schedule dictated I head to the gym. 

What? you say. Kristi with a schedule? How bizarre. Tell me about it.

Last weekend I went to the 21^st Annual South Coast Writer’s Conference in Gold Beach. As usual. (I’ve only missed 5 of the 21, I think.) This year I got a lot of bang for my buck. Not that I don’t normally, but this year they had some great speakers on topics I really needed to hear about if I am going to take a proper crack at writing full time.

Managed to get SOME time on the beach!

I spent Friday in an all-day intensive workshop about the serious business of writing, facilitated by Jason Brick. One of many things he taught that really resonated with me is, “The more you don’t want to have a schedule, the more you need one.”

Sigh. So, here I am. Writing a blog post because it is on my newly developed schedule. But you know what, instead of resenting it and fighting it, I’m actually enjoying the process. This is coming off as more “stream of consciousness” writing, but that is part of the plan, too. 

Another presenter, Eric Witchey, taught that there are no wrong ideas. Or more precisely, the only wrong idea in writing is the one that never gets written down.

I came away with so many wonderful tools. Like how to use a Pomodoro timer to focus on my writing. To me it is comparable to what I learned in a 12 Step program: You can do for 30 minutes what you can’t imagine doing all day. Then you take a break and start the timer again. In this way you train yourself to focus and cut out the distractions.

Another tool is also courtesy of Mr. Witchey. Use a metronome to trigger ideas. Train yourself that with every tock of the metronome you come up with one idea – this is great for the brainstorming stage of writing. Each idea may be more wild and outrageous than the last, but something in that maelstrom of ideas will be the perfect torture to put my characters through. 

I anticipate not spending quite so long pondering plot points, but rather coming up with more gut wrenching plots for your entertainment. My goal for the future is to not just entertain you with my stories, but really affect you with them. It’s time to move beyond the fluff, the mind-candy, and make some seriously memorable fiction you’ll want to read again and again.

Part of my new schedule is a promise to myself, and to anyone who does me the honor of following me, to faithfully write a blog post every Wednesday, and to post a newsletter on the first Saturday of each month. I tend to worry about producing content that people will find interesting, but with these new tools, I’m confident I can entertain you. Yes. Confident. Really.

And what do you know—now it's raining! This is all I have for today, but I will surely expand on it for the Newsletter, so keep your eyes open for it. You can sign up on my website - or visit the page to see it posted. I will also post a link to it here in the Bounded in a Nutshell blog.

Until then... Thrive, my friends.

Review of Brilliant Secrets, by Dawna Raver

Quite an exciting story. A bit of a stretch at times, but what suspense story isn't?

I understand the work has undergone a new edit since I got my copy, so I won't comment on the challenges I encountered. 

I had my usual issues with first person - not much to do with the story, more my personal preference, although to me this highlighted one of the reasons I'm not a fan: I found the two character's "voices" to be very similar. If I stopped in the middle of a chapter for any reason, when I came back, it was hard to tell whose POV I was in until an external clue was given.

Other than that, it was exciting and quite well constructed - although I was a bit confused as to what, exactly, the villain's goals really were.