I have a bit of a reprieve from grading today, and I need it. Three classes plus an internship graded, one to go. And that one is coming in on Thursday, not Friday, so I will grade it on Friday.
Which brings me to the big event this weekend — our local library’s author fair. I sign and sell a few books there every year. It’s my experience to feel like a real author and talk about my books with people. It’s actually a bit difficult for me to talk about my books, because I have that midwestern female tendency not to want to “brag”.
If I ever get that lucky break, I’ll have to get good at talking about my books, because more people will ask. This would be a challenge for me, but a challenge I’d willingly accept.
I haven’t talked about my books in a while, and it’s an exciting season.
Kringle Through the Snow, my latest Kringle Chronicles book, came out on October 1. It is a Christmas romance involving Sierra DuBois, an energetic event manager and Wade Nelson, an affable engineer and nerd. They bond over his selection for the Chamber of Commerce’s first Annual Grinch, and his inclusion into Sierra’s highbrow charity ball. Sierra has a secret that very well may derail the relationship, and she runs away to hide it. They will have to weather some storms if they want to walk in the snow.
The other book coming out on January 1st is Reclaiming the Balance. This is the latest in the Hidden in Plain Sight series, which is either contemporary fantasy or magical realism depending on who you ask. In this story, Janice Wilkens flees Chicago by teleportation with two strangers who know more about her abusive ex-boyfriend than they should. At her refuge, Barn Swallows’ Dance, she finds out about the immortal Archetypes like her ex, and their half-human Nephilim offspring. While plotting for the return of her Nephilim son from her ex, she grows closer to Amarel, an androgynous Nephilim. A journey of transformation beckons both of them as they strive to remedy the collective’s prejudice against Nephilim and rescue Janice’s son.
Both book series have other books published. There are five total books published in the Kringle series: The Kringle Conspiracy, Kringle in the Night, It Takes Two to Kringle, Kringle on Fire, and the current publication. Hidden in Plain Sight series has three published: Gaia’s Hands, Apocalypse, and the upcoming Reclaiming the Balance. There’s also a published short story collection based on the Hidden universe, Stories Within Stories.
There are three upcoming books in the Hidden series: Avatar of the Maker, Carrying Light, and Whose Hearts are Mountains. Those are waiting to be published in the future. There’s also another short story book coming.
There’s also a standalone book waiting to be published, known as Prodigies.
Of course I would like you to pick up one of my books and read them. That’s what they’re there for.
My life, at age 61, has been calm. Big events have not happened this year; every day has been pretty much the same. I live a low-key life, and I think that makes up for when I was a high schooler and young adult and life was eventful with many events (some positive).
Events in my life are small now, with negative events like drained batteries and almost passing out (the latter a daily occurrence). Positive events are much the same; tiny things that get me through a day. Yay! I got through my least favorite class! Yay! It’s nap time!
There are two things I can think of that are major positive events. One is that I have gone another year without either hypomania or depression. Another year without throwing a wrench into the gears of my life. I can thank a good psychiatrist and good medication for that.
The other is that I have gotten Reclaiming the Balance through all the stages to publishing a book, from proofreading to cover to inserting it into the KDP (Kindle Desktop Publishing, I believe) system to be published on January 1. I didn’t think I would have the guts to publish this one, because the male protagonist is, in the most physical sense, non-binary.
As I said, not at all an exciting life. But overall positive with tiny little things and one big accomplishment.
I have been doing nothing productive these past few days– no writing, no grading, just reading Regency Christmas romances. The next couple of weeks will be brutal so I need the break.
It looks like I’ll start rewriting the Kringle novel when I’m on Christmas break in a couple weeks.
Today is Thanksgiving lunch at the Savoy Grill, followed by Wicked at the Screenland Armour. Very Kansas City.
Have a very good day, whether or not you celebrate.
I’m sitting in the controlled chaos of our living room next to a framed poster of the latest book in the Hidden in Plain Sight series, Reclaiming the Balance. It’s due out January 1st, with the usual little fanfare. I am thinking of having an online open house for people to drop in on, but the last time I did that nobody showed up. It is a bad time to expect people to show up, in the US at least.
The posters are a ritual, driven by the fact my cover artist, my niece Rachel, is quite talented and does iconic covers. I give her very little to go on, and it’s like she reads my mind. I have aphantasia, or the inability to picture things in my mind, so it’s very hard for me to imagine how she does this.
I write and I publish. I don’t have too many readers, so I feel discouraged at times. But I know there are so many indie books out there, and I can’t afford expensive marketing that has no guarantee of working. I have to accept things as they are, which is why I print the covers as posters. I want to feel like I’m accomplishing something.
I think I have the idea on how to re-re-revise this year’s Kringle novel. It’s going to be a little flexible with reality, but not in an unrealistic way. No, that didn’t sound so intelligent. Let me try again. I will have to introduce a slightly unrealistic scenario, but not one that requires a massive suspension of disbelief.
Oglesby Illinois – United States – April 26th, 2023: Exterior of the Starved Rock Lodge in Starved Rock State Park, built in 1933-1939, on a beautiful Spring morning.
The problem has been how to keep my aspiring writer in town and at the lodge for long enough that she actually has time for relationship development from meet-cute to growing interest to the peak, the misgivings, the breakup, and the reconciliation. The writing retreat has to be about two weeks long, and she’s not independently wealthy, so two weeks at the lodge isn’t something she can afford (even though it’s not exorbitantly expensive to stay there).
Enter an artist-in-residence program. This is not completely unrealistic; Amtrak had one a few years ago (that I desperately wished I was well-enough regarded as a writer to receive). There’s no reason the lodge couldn’t have this, and in the winter, which is not the prime tourist season. I know in reality that the lodge I am modelling this after never has a down time and thus would not sponsor an aspiring writer. But it’s theoretically possible.
In this scenario, my female protagonist, a writer, would be invited for a two-week artist-in-residence stay at the lodge, which would last through Christmas. During this time, she would give a book reading, talk to local aspiring writers, and write some features on the area. So she would interview the local Santa and visit the surrounding towns as well as the park. And she would fall in love with the executive chef.
How does she have two weeks for a writer’s retreat if she’s also college faculty? This is the end of her sabbatical, and she will go back to work after the break. Not unreasonable assumptions again.
I think this is doable. All I have to do now is write it.
My (American) Thanksgiving break starts today after classes, for which I am very thankful. The thing about being faculty at a university is that you don’t get to schedule vacations when you want, but the vacations you get are generous. A week at Thanksgiving and Spring Break, three weeks at Christmas, and the whole summer if you elect not to work summers. (Many, if not most, faculty teach at least one summer class; I handle internships.)
Often, our breaks aren’t work-free. Many faculty members, like me, will catch up on grading over the break, or will set up classes for next semester in the spaces between semesters. But the change in routine, and that we won’t be dressing up and meeting students, is a break enough.
I plan on resurrecting my Christmas novel over the break, grading three homeworks, and playing Christmas carols (I know it’s early, but I need a little Christmas now with all the political bad news we’re going through). My to-do list also involves a certain amount of lounging on the couch. I will be going to Kansas City for a writing retreat and Thanksgiving dinner over the weekend, so don’t feel too sorry for me.
I need this break, because when I get back to work, there will be three major assignments to grade and then finals (including an essay final) in two weeks. And then there will be Christmas break.
I can hardly imagine not needing sleep. Sleep feels like a blessed release from the mental demands of the day, and I enjoy going to sleep as if it were a chosen activity rather than a necessity. I have (because of my bipolar) had episodes where I couldn’t sleep, and it’s an aggravating feeling. For the sake of this exercise, however, I will imagine not needing sleep without consequences to my body or psyche.
The first thing I would do more of is read. Not the internet, but real books, because I would have time to get into them. I would find a comfortable spot to read and l would relax. My bed could be used for a place to relax because I would not be sleeping there.
I would look at the night sky more. All the interesting astronomical bits such as meteor showers and auroras happen late at night, when I am sleeping.
I would write. I wonder if inspiration would be easier at night when all was quiet?
I would meditate. As I would miss sleeping, it would be good to have that time when I can shut off my mind.
All of this is predicated on the belief that others would be asleep, and I would have the peace and quiet to pull off my plans. If nobody slept, this time wouldn’t be free. Bosses would expect more overtime and household chores would overtake us. Then I would certainly prefer sleeping.
I have given up writing my latest Kringle Christmas romance. I don’t like giving things up, but the premise of the book became untenable upon writing.
I had given up writing it once before, feeling that the timing was all wrong. Then I got an idea to expand the time period of the book so that I had more time to develop the relationship. It turns out it wasn’t enough; I don’t have enough time left in the story to develop the downturn of the relationship, where the couple starts second-guessing the relationship and their own fitness for it.
Let me explain: My Christmas romances generally run from a few days before Thanksgiving through mid-December. The relationship develops fast, but I have about three weeks of plot-time to develop the relationship. That’s enough to take them from developing relationship to devolving relationship and through the reconciliation. With Kringle All the Way (the book I just abandoned), the couple had from the 17th through the 25th to get through all those stages. Try as I may, I didn’t have enough time in which to develop the relationship. In a Christmas romance, the happy ending has to happen by Christmas. What’s more depressing than a breakup over Christmas? That’s why the timing is so important.
This is the first story I’ve given up! I have a story that I’ve set aside for a while with a promise to get back to it eventually, but that’s not the same. I don’t enjoy giving up, but this story is fatally flawed. To spend any more time on it is to waste that time. That’s why giving up is sometimes a good thing.
I’m in the busy time of year — grading upon grading; major assignments coming due — and that doesn’t bode well for writing. I am about 1/4 through the re-conceived version of this year’s Kringle novel and stymied because I just don’t have the mental bandwidth to write. I have plenty of time to finish it, as I’m not doing NaNoWriMo. I just don’t have time right now.
The thing I used to teach (and will teach again) in resource management — the importance of a task and the motivation toward the task should match. Nothing more motivating than angry students who need that assignment to be graded. Luckily I’m motivated to do the important task of grading, or at least motivated enough. Some music to motivate should help.
My top priority is to get the assignment graded. From there, other work. Maybe I will get to write this afternoon.
Words Like Me 