Posted in inspiration, my books

My Inspiration and Research

People often ask me where my story ideas come from. Sometimes it’s difficult to remember the exact moment something came to me or what inspired it. Much of what I write comes from life, my life or the lives of friends and family. I also get inspiration from the news, television, movies, other books, a picture or even a misunderstanding.

Recently I watched a movie called Tall Girl and I was reading a book called Beauty and the Baller by Ilsa Madden-Mills and I was thinking about my dad. My dad was a long-time baseball and softball lover. He lived for ball games. An athlete himself, he played ball growing up and when we came back to North Carolina to live, he started playing and coaching summer league softball. He even helped coach the school team with his long-time friend and fellow athlete.

Even though Beauty and the Baller was about a football player and Tall Girl was about a high school talent contest, they both had elements I related to: body image, peer pressure, other people’s opinions of us, our insecurities and baggage… How much of our adult lives are affected by things that happened to us in childhood or as teenagers? This kicked off memories of summer league ball and being the coach’s daughter. Wanting to play but not being very good, I dealt with my own insecurities. I still have a love of the game, but I’ve never had a talent for sports.

I’ve been thinking of doing a story about baseball players for years in honor of my dad but these inspired me to go in another direction. I’d like to work on a series, The Women of Summer League about women some in their mid-twenties and some older who play ball and what being part of the team and playing means to them. I want to add in a romance and I’ve been toying with the idea of suspense, I had an idea for a murder but I’m not sure if I’m going to go that route. Y’all know me, I love a good murder and if I get to blow things up, that’s even more fun.

It will take me a little time to do the research for these stories and I have one series to finish and another I’m already working on, so I’m planning to work on gathering ideas and that’s where you guys come in. I’m looking for people, mostly women but men are welcome to share their stories as well, about your experiences playing summer league softball. I’ve worked up a questionnaire but will probably have follow up questions. If you are interested in sharing your stories, I’d love to hear them.

I prefer first-hand account research whenever possible but I will also read biographies, and watch documentaries about other women athletes, not necessarily from softball. If you choose to share your stories, know that I will fictionalize them and they may not look the same when I’m done. The character who ends up with your story might be the victim or villain in the story. If you are not comfortable with that, thank you but it’s best not to share. I would not want anyone’s feelings to be hurt.

Just a little background on my process. Chrome Pink, Rae Lynne Grimes started out with a description of my husband for a writing class, and she morphed into a half-Hispanic female with a bad attitude. The motorcycle she restored was inspired by the bike my husband and his boss were restoring that had belonged to the boss’s nephew-in-law who’d passed away from cancer. The breast cancer theme came from my friend’s mother being diagnosed with breast cancer and the work my sister-in-law was doing with Relay for Life.

My sister-in-law was one of the people who inspired my character, Dana Windley in White Gold. Our fossil festival and pageant were another inspiration for that story, combined with North Carolina’s ranking in human trafficking.

Titanium Blue and my couple were inspired by married life and it’s difficulties, my son who’d served two tours in Afghanistan, my father-in-law a Viet Nam veteran and my friend who’d lost his leg in an accident.

Red Steel was inspired by my youngest son who was a volunteer firefighter and first responder. His relationship with his wife, a photographer and my research into drones and explosives.

Every story I write has a little bit of my life and a lot of fiction. I never know what is going to start a story. Inspiration is everywhere and I believe sometimes we just have to reach out and claim it. You and I might both have similar inspiration but we’ll interpret it differently. The filter of our own life experiences, personalities and talent changes how the story is told. It can change again when we choose which character is telling the story.

What inspires you?

If you’d like to be part of my research for the softball themed series here is a link to the questionnaire. Thank you.

https://us12.list-manage.com/survey?u=02208c17e9413d98dbaa0f006&id=9de3ae80c3&attribution=false

Posted in inspiration, my books, Thoughts

Change

Why do we resist change?

   Humans resist change… why? Are we preprogramed to want the familiar? As cavepeople, we took comfort and refuge in the familiar. If everything stayed the same, we stayed alive. But in modern times why are we still resisting change? Whether it’s changing our hairstyle or leaving a dead-end job, most of us put up with the out-of-date style and the hated job because we fear change. Or maybe we’re too lazy to make that change. I mean, really, change means we have to make an effort to do something different.

   I don’t like change. Familiar is easy and requires less effort. Pull the hair up in a ponytail or wrap it in a headband, it’s easier than trying to decide what style I want. But recently I made a change…I changed genres. This wasn’t a quick change. I’ve been taking classes for several years and planning this story and series for just about as long. Switching from romantic suspense to cozy mystery doesn’t seem like that big a difference, but when you go from contemporary to Victorian era, and make your main character a teenager, well, that is a rather BIG change.

   Something different means research, a lot of research, preparation, planning, and extra effort—at least that’s what I discovered when I decided to switch genres. For the past year I’ve been studying the cozy mystery genre. I discovered some great YouTube videos, one of my favorite authors to follow is Jane Kalmes, the Fiction Technician https://youtu.be/GNR0g60m0EI. I also researched the Victorian Era, everything from how to build a forge to a lady’s dress, to inventions and killers of the era. YouTube is a great place to start but when I needed information on steamer ships, I had to pull out the big guns and go to my friend, HCRW President, Cyn Haden who is a naval historian. I only needed one tiny piece of information to make my story believable, but I needed to check my facts before I could go any further.

   How resistant to change are you? Are you adventurous or do you like the status quo? What do you do to combat boredom and shake things up?

Posted in backstory, my books

Sleepless Night

Leeward Police Department

Mike McKenzie struggled to keep his eyes open. Too many sleepless nights were starting to take their toll. He sighed and saved the file he’d been working on. Standing he stretched. His jaw cracking as he gave into another yawn.

“You’re not going to get another cup of coffee,” Tar said barring his path to the break room. “Go home.”

“I need to finish the reports.”

“I’ll work on them, anything I don’t know you can finish tomorrow. Go. You’re about to fall out and all of that coffee can’t be good for your heart.”

“Yes mother.” Mike sighed and shoved a hand through his hair. Was it starting to thin? “How do you manage to deal with it?”

Tar lifted his chin and met Mike’s eyes. The two men were of a similar size and build. Tar had a little more bulk to his muscles, but neither was tall. Tar was just barely six foot and Mike fell just shy at 5’, 10”.  He was average. Average height and size, average income.

There was nothing remarkable about him so why did he push himself to be super-cop? Mike felt the overwhelming pressure to protect the town of Leeward and its citizens.

“How do I deal with the loss?” Tar asked his voice gruff with emotion.

Shit, he didn’t want to deal with the other man’s emotions, he didn’t want to deal with his own. He shrugged. “Yeah.” His mouth felt dry and his hands clammy. “How do you sleep at night?”

Tar took a deep breath and turned away. “Jenna,” he said and his dark skin reddened.

Mike wanted to laugh at the man’s blush but since they were talking about his sister, he kept his comments to himself.

Tar moved into the office and began toying with the pens and stuff on the desk. “Your sister is a pain in the ass when she wants something.” He sighed. “She won’t let me brood. She forces me to talk about things even when I don’t want to.” He laughed. “She’s the best but don’t you tell her I said that. She’ll just think it’s a license to nag more.” Tar grinned. “You need to talk about it.”

Mike nodded. He knew his brother-in-law was right, he did need to talk about what happened. So much had happened between the sex trafficking ring to the explosion, losing Jake but there wasn’t anyone he could talk to. A vision of Janie Harrell flitted through his thoughts, but he shoved that away. He’d blown that relationship before it ever had time to grow.

“You know, you could come over for dinner, let Jenna grill you for a while.”

Mike shrugged. “I’d hate to add to her list of chores. She already has you and Toby to look out for and soon this new baby. Do you know what we’re having yet?”

Tar grinned. “Jenna wants to have one of those gender-reveal parties. She and Dana have been making big plans.”

Mike’s smile froze. Dana. Jake’s fiancé. The new mayor. “How’s Dana doing?”

Tar shrugged. “You’ve seen her. She’s thrown herself into fixing this town…”

The guilt threatened to overwhelm him. “Losing Jake was hard.”

Tar agreed. “Unfortunately, it comes with the job.”

“Not in a small town like Leeward. Things like sex trafficking and explosions shouldn’t happen here.”

Posted in backstory, my books

A Recycled Novel

Janie’s Secrets is a recycled novel. I wrote the original a dozen years ago as Plain Janie. It has been a slapstick comedy i.e. I Love Lucy style, an amateur sleuth similar to Janet Evanvich’s Stephanie Plumb series, check out One for the Money and Two for the Dough (a couple of my favorites and what influenced my writing for a while). But as I was copying other writers’ styles, I was still searching for my own voice.

When I first started writing The Leeward Files series, I never thought it would be more than three books. I wanted to tell Rae Lynne’s story supported by her friends’ stories. As I was writing Dana and Jenna’s books, I began to learn more about each character and the town of Leeward. I knew I couldn’t stop until the bad guys were caught and each of these characters had their happy ending (even if it didn’t last). But don’t worry, those of you who have read all the books, there is another happy story in the works for our characters but I do feel the need to torture them once in a while.

As I neared the end of The Leeward Files Series, I knew I still wanted to live in this town. I like it here. I wanted to tell Janie’s story and I wanted to bring in her crazy, somewhat dysfunctional family into the mix. So Plain Janie turned into Janie’s Secrets (there were other names for this book before I finally decided on this), and The Harrell Family Chronicles became a spin-off of The Leeward Files.

Follow me to Leeward.

Posted in inspiration, quarterly goals

Q2 and Covid-19

My Q3 Goals

Quarter Three Begins

As I plan my goals and tasks for Q3, I stop to look over what I have and have not accomplished in Quarter 2. For those of you who aren’t sure what I’m talking about, I took an online program with author Sarra Cannon called HB90. In her HB90, she teaches us to break our goals down into manageable pieces to be completed over a three-month or 90-day period.

Last quarter was my first full quarter since taking the course and Covid-19 derailed a lot of my plans. I know that sounds like an excuse and it is. Like any self-employed business owner, you have to find a way to work even when the world is turned on its head.

That being said, I am still proud of what I accomplished. Some of which wasn’t on my original plan but due to the virus I altered it after I made it to try to salvage as much as I could. So, I’ll take you through the original breakdown and then tell you how I compromised.

Goal #1: Learn KDP Rocket and Increase Sales, Promote Older Books financial goal of $200, $300 or $500 (name has changed to Publisher Rocket)

https://kindlepreneur.com/

I tried to watch the training videos, but I needed to be at my computer in order to follow along. Not something I could do while at work. Excuse: too tired after selling booze all day to people who were staying home and drinking. Compromise: KDP YouTube Videos as well as D2D YouTube Videos and several other writing-business videos. I also joined All Author where I am promoting three of my books and I took out an ad with Bargain Booksy for Chrome Pink selling over 100 eBooks in one day.

My approximate sales for the quarter were $430, mostly in paperback sales locally. My Ebook sales were the best they have been: D2D: $14, Amazon: $50.

My AllAuthor profile page

While I met my second goal and wasn’t far off of my highest goal, the virus kept me from having a book signing and really promoting Red Steel, the book that came out in February. I’m going to count this goal as a win, but I will be watching those videos this quarter!

Another part of this goal was learning about SEO (search engine optimization) and META data. I think I’m getting a little better at this, but I still can’t say I understand it. This is all about the words you choose to describe your work in order to get the most attention. People cannot read my books if they don’t know they exist. So, promoting my books and my blog are an important part of the marketing I’m trying to learn.

Goal #2 Finish, Publish & Promote New Book to Increase Sales $200, $500 and $1000

Well, I finally finished writing, editing re-editing, editing again and last night I uploaded the printed book… Janie’s Secrets to KDP and ordered proof. I haven’t yet formatted and uploaded the eBook. I’m only about a month off of my goal but Covid! I really allowed myself to get derailed for about a month. At first, I was a little freaked out over the news, plus I was extremely tired both physically and mentally. People were coming in the store buying a lot of liqueur so afraid they’d close us down. It has just now started slowing down some but it’s still not back to normal.

The name was changed several times during the writing process until I settled on Janie’s Secrets. I’ve already worked out the title for the next book and I’m playing around with the third. I’m a little bit ahead here as I’ve already started planning the next two books. I’d like to be able to put out four books a year but right now, I’ll settle for three.

Since I just finished the book, I’ve not made any money from it or even planned any ads. I have started the cover reveal. I have a few things planned but I’ll add those to my Q3 goals. Have you seen the cover? I am so proud of the cover. I’m so thankful to my daughter-in-law Katelynn Hollister for taking such an awesome photo and to her friend, Raven Rayann who is such a lovely young woman and a perfect candidate for my Janie.

I love this cover!

Goal #3: Start a Newsletter, Get a following and Increase Blog following by 100, 200, or 500

Ha, ha! Yeah! Okay, I did the newsletter and I’m proud that I started with 14 and now have 48 in only three months. I call that a win. According to my website I have over three thousand followers but only 252 on WordPress.com, 14 have signed up to receive email notifications and nearly three thousand follow me on social media. Interesting and much more than I expected. I think they must include my followers on Facebook and Twitter.

Part of my goal was to have book signings and other appearances. Just before Covid restrictions I’d taken books around to different places hoping to get my name out and then everything shut down.

My author interviews for my website have increased this month with a free promo group I joined on Twitter, Shameless Self-Promo. I even had my own interview with Rebellion Lit. I submitted Red Steel to Kindle Review Reader’s Choice Award. If you get the chance, I’d appreciate your vote, I’ll post the link.

https://www.thekindlebookreview.net/2020-readers-choice-awards/

Thriller, Sherri Hollister, Red Steel

While I may not have accomplished all of my goals this past quarter, I feel that I have succeeded in accomplishing the bulk of them.

I’m working on this quarter’s goals and hope you will continue to be my inspiration and cheerleaders. My goals so far are to finish publishing Janie and start on her sister, Roxy’s story. I am determined to understand more about META data and SEO, and the business of writing and marketing. I’m hoping to build up my newsletter and social media following, and of course, sell more books!

Thank you all for you support. It means so much to me to have you on my team.

Proofs arrive next week!