Well I'm glad I asked! It's been a couple months since I posted anything here, but I have been busy throughout that time. I have been consistent in getting my writing done 4-6 days a week for 4-6 hours in the afternoon most days. Now and then I will boot something up on a day where I had other, non-writing projects going and at least get in a couple more hours. And all that pushing out work has paid off too. I have 3 novels completed this year in rough draft, and I went over a short story I wrote last year in the Chandra Smoake paranormal investigator series and was able to have that turned into to an eager publisher within a few days. Plus I wrote a healrtfelt essay about a late writer friend that is supposed to appear in a fund-raising anthology where the proceeds go to his next of kin.
I've also done some gardening; mostly potted plants that are lining the cement steps and walkway alongside the house, and covering a utility table out in the yard. Plus I try and visit with the adult sons, daughter-in-law, and grandkids at least once a week. Evenings are generally spent in front of the TV with Jeopardy and the Red Sox ballgame, or something else we all enjoy watching. I do belong to an online writer's group that meets once a week in the evening to share our latest creations as well as news, publishing hints, and what's happening in our lives. So yeah, I keep busy in these almost 'Golden Years'. (I'm 64 and proud to admit it.)
I want to focus on the novels here, because they are all longterm projects. That means they require a serious commitment over a far lengthier period of time than the occasional short story I put out. Regardless, I take any writing I do seriously. I have not had any hard deadlines on books this year, but I've been plugging away regularly and I'm farther ahead at this point than I expected to be. Three books that are finished in at least rough draft by the middle of summer is nothing to sneeze at. So let's see what we have...
First done was my latest contribution to the Airship 27 series Sinbad: The New Voyages. This one is a novel titled SINBAD AND THE MINOTAUR. Yes, it's that Minotaur, the one associated with King Minos the First, the labyrinth, and the hero Theseus. This is my third Sinbad tale for the series, the first was a short story in Volume 1, the second a novella in Volume 6. I've kind of had my own story arc going within the series, with the magical etheric devices that were developed from the formula Sinbad found in the first short story I wrote, and which got implanted in the Blue Nymph's figurehead and transported them all to an Ice Age destination in the novella. In this tale, Sinbad & Company are taken to early Minoan Crete and play a part in what happens there with the current sacrifice of innocent Athenian youths to the monster of the labyrinth. I tried very hard to work in as much historical detail of the era as I could find along with the mythology of that time, and it's a pretty interesting tale. Plus it has that bloodhthirsty Cretan mostrosity that is half bull/half man along with the bronze giant Talos, and a cameo by Poseidon, so how can you go wrong? As usual, my longtime love of the Ray Harryhausen animated movies comes through loud and clear in this one. I'm about halfway through my second and final pass, so am hoping to turn this one in soon. This was a story I started back in late 2019, and had to keep setting aside to work on other projects. Finally got it done, and frankly was surprised it turned out to be book length.
Just recently completed in rough draft as well, and also aimed at Airship 27, is the eighth Jezebel Johnston pirate novel, subtitled REVELATION. I don't want to totally spoil it, but in this one Jez finally acquires her own ship and plans on sailing away from the East Indies and back to her Caribbean homneland to continue her pirating. But things don't go quite so smoothly and she finds out that it's far harder to be the one in charge than she expected. Plus there are some surprises along the way, and I also included the exploits of the last folks she had gone a-pirating with. None of the tie-in plots are put into the books randomly or as fillers, for some of these people will cross paths with Jez again farther down the road. A select few will be allies for life. There are at least four more books in this series, and there could be more than that, depending on how well these do. I have been developing some ideas that could expand the series even further. I'll continue writing them as long as they are well received.
Also recently completed was a novel that another dear writer friend had been working on before his untimely passing, a manuscript that co-editor Lee Houston Jr. and I decided to finish for him at the request of the potential publisher. Lee and I had been asked by the original author to go over it and make suggestions, which we did, and then the individual's health began failing and we lost contact. This one was a labor of love for both of us, because as writers, we understand how tough it is to get work done when you have such extenuating circumstances as chronic health issues. I can't talk much about the actual story itself, other than to say it was written as a period piece set in the 1930s with a classic-style pulp hero who gains abilities beyond the average human being. Yet these abilities must be learned and perfected. And there are ruthless enemies of society out there who will stop at nothing to become the dominant organization of this location—with eyes on expansion over time to a far larger territory. The story was over half-finished when we got it, and Lee did a lot of editing work on it before he sent what he had to me. I started at the beginning, initially just rereading it and trying to get a feel for what the original author intended. Yes, this is a bit out of my usual writing wheelhouse, but all well-told tales have a similar working formula, it was just the specific genre that I had to bone up on. As I started to write additional material and researched topics, I found ideas coming to me frequently of how to use what was already there to move the story forward toward a conclusion. For a long time this was a one day a week project, but as I got closer to what was going to be the grand climax of the book, I set everything else aside for several days at a time to focus on it. The day I wrote THE END was an emotional one for me, because I pictured that friend smiling about having the book done at last. I need to make a second pass, and I will do that once at least Sinbad is turned in. Then Lee gets it for a going over. While this book can be a 'one and done' standalone novel, Lee and I have talked about continuing the series if the publisher likes it and thinks that would be viable. My only caveat is that our friend, the original author, gets his name on those covers too, if that is doable. It was his brainchild after all.
Every book or story we have in print is part of our legacy as writers. It is something special to be recognized for having accomplished, something we did outside of the things we must tackle in our everyday life. For me, it's a later life career that I built story by story—by myself, for myself. I might not be getting wealthy with my writing, but I have a whole bunch of stuff that I've created that will hopefully outlive me. It's fiction that entertains and at times uplifts, something I can offer to others when life gets too real. Like last year during the worst of the pandemic and the social-political upheaval. To be able to escape all that online hoopla and the ever-screaming headlines and news bulletins with a good book is a priceless thing. When I was young and times were hard, books were always my go-to antidote for bad or sorrowful days; a way to travel outside my life to places I'd never been. They still are, and I read just about every night before I sleep. How wonderful it has been to have the opportunity to create new and entertaining fiction that can actually reach an audience. That's why I work so hard at writing, I'm paying it forward for all the books I have read that got me through the tough times by giving me somewhere else to be and something else to focus on for a bit. Between those covers were people I would like to have known, places where the good guys can triumph, the bad folks get their due in the end, and the resolution makes some sense after all. My gift back to the world around me now is in those carefully chosen words I put on every page.
Writing ever onward,
~NANCY
