Here's how the conversation usually goes ...
Interested reader: "Are you writing anything lately?"
Me: "I'm about to release the second book in my urban fantasy series."
Reader: "Really? What's it about?"
Me: "It's about Staff Sergeant Hester Trueblood. She's on duty in Iraq when she picks up a golden coin that activates a spell that makes her the embodiment of the ancient Mesopotamian goddess Inanna. It's the second book in the series."
Reader: ...stares blankly...
Me: "Sounds crazy, I know."
Reader: "No really, it sounds great! Oh my daughter would LOVE that!"
Me: "It's not YA. I mean, it's more of an adult urban fantasy suspense kind of story. Inanna was the goddess of war, and ... love, soooo."
Reader: Now, losing interest. "Oh, well...great. Congratulations."
As an author, you'd think by now, I'd have learned that the last thing people want to hear about is writing stuff. They politely ask. I should just politely say ... something, that doesn't put them in the position to ask anything else. But I have a hard time not talking about this series.
A wise young NCO once said to me, "change is never good or bad. Change is just change."
While in uniform I tended to agree with that philosophy. In the military, change usually meant you had to do it wrong the first, second and third time before you got it right. Change meant classroom training, hours of standing around while someone explained this bold, new change and more hours of everyone complaining that the new change didn't make any sense and then some old been-there-done-that guy explaining in great detail why we should just keep doing things the old way. Sound familiar?
As a civilian working for the Army I can truthfully tell you that the reaction to change hasn't changed much.
BUT, when it comes to this blog ... or more importantly, this website, where I continue to write about women in combat boots, change was necessary. Change was critical. Change had been on my mind for a long, long time and with the help of the lovely Natasha Wilson, change is finally here! (more…)
It’s January and the start of a brand spanking new year. I’ve searched Roku for free fitness channels and loaded them up. I’ve packed my refrigerator with tons of leafy greens with the focused goal of not letting any of them go to waste. I have a couple of large garbage bags full of clothes and shoes I didn’t wear in the last 365 days, and I’ve tossed out all the old shampoos, conditioners, lotions, makeup and beautifying products I acquired over the last year thinking they would somehow improve my life.
I spent money on all that crap and now I’m getting rid of it. As regretful as I may be for having purchased things I shouldn’t have, it feels good to start a new year with a lighter load.
Just as we all make resolutions at the beginning of a new year, writer’s set goals for the words they will produce and this year, mine are a bit ambitious.
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For the last couple of years, I’ve been working on the second book in my Desert Goddess Series. The Bonding Spell, released in 2015, was one of the most enjoyable books I’d ever written. Staff Sergeant Hester Trueblood picks up a shiny, gold coin while on duty in Iraq and her life is forever changed. As the new embodiment of the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna, Hester returns to her home in Minneapolis, and tries to come to terms with her changed circumstances and the bitchy goddess voice in her head.
It’s a wild, Jim Butcher-style, urban fantasy romp that is funny, sexy and filled with mystery. I couldn’t wait to dig into the sequel, but had no idea when I started it, just how much more story there was to tell. “The Bonding Blade” has opened my eyes to more of Hester and Inanna’s world, the warriors dedicated to fighting and sacrificing for them, and the demi-god, Gilgamesh who is devoted, by destiny, to love them, no matter what they do.
It’s a wild, Jim Butcher-style, urban fantasy romp that is funny, sexy and filled with mystery.
As the New Year begins, my greatest goal is to publish “The Bonding Blade” with as much perfection as I can bring to it. I’m aiming for a late June or early July publication date.
While “The Bonding Blade” is going through final edits, reviews and promotions, I’ll be rewriting a couple of stories that were originally published in Amazon Kindle Worlds. Kindle Worlds have gone away, so the rights to these novellas have returned to me and I’m going to make full use of them.
In the first novella, Archimedes Ford is an FBI agent who has slogged through life carrying a heavy secret. His latest case brings him face to face with someone who will make it impossible for him to keep hiding any longer. Major Corey Turner spent his entire career with secrets too, until the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy finally ended. Archie Ford has difficulty concentrating on solving his complicated case, but he soon learns he’s not just saving the life of a young girl, but also saving his own.
“Archimedes and The Soldier,” is the first of two Archimedes Ford novellas which will both become spinoffs of The Master Sergeant Harper three-book mystery series already in existence.
And if that’s not enough, I plan to at least outline a forth book in the Master Sergeant Harper series. All I know is that Harper will be going to the Sergeant Major’s academy in El Paso, Texas. It’s a huge leap in her career and one she’s been aiming for, ever since she put on an Army uniform. But the academy is a tough school. Not everyone passes and British Sergeant Major Harry Fogg isn’t making it any easier for her.
They say, if you make New Year’s resolutions you should write them down or tell others so you have some tangible proof of your goals and a need to hold yourself accountable. Well, I’ve done it now. I’ll check back this time next year to see how close I am to meeting them.
Win a copy of The Bonding Spell, either by commenting here or on social media. One winner will be selected by random draw.
The opposite of rejection is acceptance. I’ve had plenty of rejection in this writing life. The stack of letters I’ve saved over the years sits in a file drawer. I keep them, thinking one day I might go back and read them again, but I never do. I just collect more.
It’s partly because of that folder full of carefully worded and imaginative ways of saying no, that I’m so excited to be a part of The Sexy Librarian’s Dirty Thirty Vol. 2, released today. My story, ‘Spider Two Come In,’ is part of this steamy erotic anthology and I couldn’t be more proud.
Acceptance, no matter how rare, makes the rejections worth it. (more…)
Anyone who has served in uniform knows you can’t do it alone. From the moment you put your boots on, you’re taught there is strength in team and that lesson isn’t forgotten when you take the uniform off.
The team concept is especially apparent with veteran writers and the way we help each other. Kayelle Allen is a best-selling American author who pulled together a group of women veterans who write books and used Veteran’s Day as an opportunity to promote their work. Her Romance Lives Forever event will be live from 7 p.m. to 11:30 (or 2330 for the military folks) today, Nov. 11. Readers will have an opportunity to communicate directly with a long list of authors, win some prizes and hopefully, find out about some of the work being produced by women veterans.
Kayelle describes her stories as being about, “unstoppable heroes and heroines including contemporary every day folk, role-playing immortal gamers, futuristic covert agents, and warriors who purr.”
Sounds interesting! Read on for the interview. (more…)
The editor of the publication seemed interested in work from female veterans. She asked me to write a story in three hundred words or less. So I did. It was rejected. I wasn't at all surprised. Still, no reason why I can't post it here.
Triple-X, by M. L. Doyle
I stomp over and pound on the flimsy excuse for a door before storming in uninvited, strafing them with my senior-leader glare.
“Turn that shit down. NOW!”
They scramble up to face me. They are shirtless, in shorts, sweatpants, t-shirts and flip flops. All of them wear the shock of interruption. One dives and fumbles for the remote.
Oh yeah. Oh baby. Harder, harder, and the rhythmic slap of naked skin on skin weakens. The seams of the sharp night air, ripped open by the echoes of the graphic sex sounds, slip back together across the camp. (more…)