Tag: Legends of Madeira

Some Velvet Morning #WIP Wednesday

Published on by Joan Hall32 Comments

Hey, readers. I haven’t written a WIP Wednesday post in a while, mainly because there was little to share. This week, I’m happy to report I’ve made progress.

Twelve of the thirteen short stories for my upcoming collection are written. All would have been done, but I didn’t like how I’d done the thirteenth story, so I all but scrapped what I’d written and started over. The words are flowing much better now.

Three stories have been edited and critiqued, and I’m working on the other ones now. As much as I wanted to publish this year, I’ve decided to wait until January. I didn’t want to rush through the edits. Not to mention there’s a lot of work to do in addition to writing and editing. Blog tour posts, promotional materials, and formatting just to name a few.

The book cover is done, and I’ll have a title and cover reveal post in a few weeks. Yes, it finally has another title other than A Book of Shorts. In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek:

In other writing news, I’m ready to begin the second book of my Legends of Madeira series. It’s been a long time in coming, but I would like to release Blood Red Dawn sometime in the first half of 2023. I’m also planning books three and four, and I might have an additional short story.

As many of you know, music often inspires my stories. While I already had the idea for Blood Red Dawn, the song “Some Velvet Morning” inspired the name of a character. I changed the spelling from Phaedra (as it is in the song) to Faydra, but she will be one of my historical characters.

Connor Hughes and Abbey Lane, minor characters in Cold Dark Night will take the lead in the upcoming novel. Somehow I think this song fits them. A character from House of Sorrow was named Lee Hazleton. I got that idea from the name of the singer/songwriter of “Some Velvet Morning.”

That wraps it up for now. In the meantime, I hope enjoy the video and the song.

The Retired Life AKA The Writing Life

Published on by Joan Hall48 Comments

Hey, Readers. Last Friday I promised an “I’m Retired” post. It’s a good thing I looked back because I almost postponed this until next week.

I also shared a photo of my new “office” which is really a writing nook. Years ago, I envisioned a separate room with a fancy desk. It would have large windows overlooking a green lawn with woods beyond where wildlife would often visit.

Instead, I have a small writing table that suits me just fine. There are windows where I can look out. My husband’s hobby (one of them) is feeding birds (I swear we may go broke buying feeders and bird seed). We have a variety, including titmice, chickadees, cardinals, nuthatches, indigo buntings, sparrows, and more. We even saw a painted bunting a few times.

Unfortunately, we have to deal with raccoons and squirrels. Don’t get me started on the pesky squirrels (pretty sure hubs has a squirrel feeder as well), but raccoons are opportunists. Using a live trap, he’s trapped and relocated four of them to a nearby wildlife preserve. John stopped doing that when a mama and her four babies were at one of our feeders. He couldn’t stand the thought of accidentally separating a family. So yes, I’m able to see wildlife from my windows.

But back to my retirement. The first couple of weeks has gone fast. I still feel like I’m on vacation. Last week was extremely busy. We ordered a new sofa, had it delivered, and the old one hauled away. For the first time in months, I went to the grocery store with John. He likes to shop (and cook) so most of the time, I’ll leave that up to him.

I shared a photo of my writing nook last week, so today I want to share a few things that are on the desk and wall.

The image on the left is, of course, my desk. It’s comfy and cozy, so that’s what matters. Last winter, when I decided to retire, I treated myself to a brand new Dell all-in-one desktop. Everything’s wireless and there’s only one cord for the electrical plug. We’ve come a long way from all those separate cords for printers, keyboards, speakers, and the mouse. And let’s not forget the phone line for dial-up internet. (Thank goodness those days are behind us.)

The second image was a gift from a coworker. She knows how much I love to read and of course my cats. She couldn’t have found anything that looked more like my Tucker.

The third image was a parting gift from my coworkers at the hospital. Several of them signed the mat and expressed their well wishes. The place I worked was once a World War II Army training base. At one time, German prisoners of war were kept there. The foreground is a photo of the Camp Fannin Veteran’s Memorial. That’s pretty special in itself because my father-in-law was discharged through Camp Fannin.

After the war, the U. S. Government deeded 600 acres and the old hospital building to the State of Texas. The hospital served as a tuberculosis sanitarium for years. In 1977, it became part of the University of Texas system.

A couple of other items on the desk are a small piece of pottery just to the right of the monitor. It was a gift from one of the doctors I used to work with. It sat by my work computer for years, so it’s only appropriate that it sits by my home computer now. The other is a coaster from another coworker (close-up image on the right). It’s raku pottery and came from Chama, New Mexico.

This brings me back to writing. My Legends of Maderia series is set in northern New Mexico. Although my plans to write and publish the second novel this year didn’t transpire, I plan to start writing it next month. The photo on my computer screen will be used in the book cover for Blood Red Dawn. The picture wasn’t taken in New Mexico but at Fort Griffin, Texas. However, it was just what I needed for the ruins of my fictional Fort McKittrick.

That’s it for now. More about writing including my short-story collection and Blood Red Dawn next week.

Tried and Failed #WIP Wednesday

Published on by Joan Hall38 Comments

Hey, everyone. It’s already the second week of April, and it’s been a while since I wrote a WIP Wednesday post. This one is more of a WIHW (What I Haven’t Written) story.

I thought by now I would have already written tons of words this year.

Wrong! So far, 2022’s word count is shaping up to be as bad as 2020. I don’t even want to think about that year. I believe most of us would like to forget it, so we’ll not go there.

But what happened with 2022?

I had high hopes for this year—publishing a book of thirteen short stories in the spring and my second Legends of Madeira novel in the fall. With my upcoming retirement in August, I had the audacity to think I might squeeze in a third project. I planned to submit more stories to Vocal.

After completing six of the thirteen short stories, I pretty much took the month of December off, except for a new experiment. Convinced the way to complete stories more quickly, I outlined the remaining seven short stories.

That’s right. The panster (planster) was going to become a planner. When I say outline, these were still what I call skeletal outlines. I just don’t understand those writers who plot every chapter and every scene of their book. To me, that takes all the fun out of writing, but some swear by it. They don’t understand pansters.

I even had one die-hard planner say I needed to start over with my first novel because I didn’t outline it. By that time, I was 75% into the first draft. No way was I going to begin again, only to write the same things. I finished and published Unseen Motives in 2016. Without an outline!

When January arrived, I was excited to begin writing again. It was hard to decide which of the seven remaining stories I would begin with, but I decided on one with the working title of Sterling House.

I liked the first draft of my opening paragraph:

Tendrils of fog drifted across the winding road—shades of gray against an ink-black night. Devlin Adams gripped the steering wheel tighter as he slowed the car. The sense of unease that began as a tiny seed when he left home this morning had grown…

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© Zacarias Pereira Da Mata | Dreamstime.com

January started out good. Over 700 words on the first day, more than 600 on the second. Then came day three. Sixty-five words. Things went downhill from there. Days and weeks passed without me writing a single word on the story.

There were a few triumphant moments—a 1300-word day in February. Another 2300 words in early March. But all of it was forced writing. I was determined to stick to that outline. Even though it wasn’t working, I refused to move on to one of the other stories, perhaps out of fear the same thing would happen.

It took until the end of March (and a fantastic post by Beem Weeks at Story Empire) for me to figure out I needed to put aside the story.

My original idea for Sterling House was ghost fiction. Since I plan for the collection to be mixed genres and had already written two ghost fiction pieces, I turned Sterling House into a modern crime story with an amateur sleuth.

“I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Thomas Edison

Planning and outlining didn’t work. I felt stifled. So, I ditched the 7200 words and resolved to start over. It may take me a while to get back to this one. I’m still recovering, but I plan to keep and revise that opening paragraph.

So far, April has proven to be a better month. I’m writing again. I may even use some of the ideas for Sterling House in another short story where many of them are better suited. I’ve started editing some of the already written short stories. I’ve scheduled my Mystery Monday and Legends and Lore posts through July. And I’ve written a few scenes for the second Legends of Madeira book.

Writing is tough. If you’re an outliner and it works for you, stick with it. But if you feel stifled, then stop. Reflect. Put the story aside. Sooner or later (hopefully sooner), you’ll realize what’s wrong.

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts.”

Winston Churchill (disputed by some)

My 2022 Writing Goals

Published on by Joan Hall29 Comments

Hey, everyone. We’re already well into 2022, so this is a good time to list my writing goals for this year. I’ll also tell you a bit about the projects I’m working on this year.

A Book of Shorts (working title) is a collection of thirteen short stories. I’ve shared a couple of excerpts in past WIP Wednesday posts. To date, I have drafts of six stories completed. I’m currently writing the seventh story. The remaining ones are outlined and ready to write. (Yes, this panster is trying to be a better planner.)

The collection is mixed genre—some are ghost fiction, some are mystery and suspense, there is one military/family fiction story, and at least one romantic suspense. Two of the stories will have dual timelines.

Blood Red Dawn is the second book of the Legends of Madeira series. I’ve also completed a loose outline, and I plan to begin writing it as soon as I complete the short stories.

In Cold Dark Night, I introduced minor characters Connor Hughes and Abbey Lane. They’ll take center stage in book two. Like the first book, there will be dual timelines and a legend.

My goal is to publish both the short story collection and Blood Red Dawn this year.

I have a third project that’s been on my mind, but it’s still in the thinking/planning stage. Suffice to say, it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but with plans to release two books this year, I don’t want to stretch myself too thin.

Last year, I joined Vocal. While I only submitted one story, I’d like to participate more this year. If you didn’t get a chance to read my submission, you can do so by clicking here. By the way, an expanded version of The Dare will be included in the short story collection.

As far as blogging, I’m continuing the Mystery Monday posts on the first Monday of each month. Those who have followed my blog for a while know that I did a series last year on the Native American names of the moons. To take place of that, I have a new series I’m calling Legends and Lore.

While somewhat similar to Mystery Monday, Legends and Lore will feature urban legends and folklore. I’ll post these on the third Monday of each month.

The first post is scheduled for next week, and the topic is a well-known legend from the city of Dallas in my home state of Texas.

I began sending a newsletter late last year and I plan to continue to write and send one every other month. To subscribe, just click the link on the sidebar.

Finally, a personal note. Big changes are coming for me. While I haven’t formally announced my plans (my immediate coworkers know), I’m retiring at the end of August. Needless to say, I’m getting excited. That means I’ll have more time to write.

Maybe I will do that third project…

On The Road With Teri Polen #BadMoonRising

Published on by Joan Hall

Hey everyone. I’m on the road today, visiting with Teri Polen for her month-long Bad Moon Rising series. If you don’t follow her blog or this series, I highly recommend it. Bad Moon Rising happens every October. Teri puts a lot of work into this event. I, for one, am grateful for her support of other authors.

To visit, just click this link. While you’re there, be sure to check out the other posts in this series.

Hope to see you at Teri’s place. In the meantime, I can’t resist this video. (You know me with music and moons!)