In the Time of Water

As the world aged, the American deserts became hotter and hotter until they became similar to the the dune deserts of the Sahara. Alice hauls five gallons of water to her village on the edge of the desert. Without her water, the village people may not survive.

It is a short story of desert and survival.

My inspiration: This story was written for an online assignment about a year ago. It also helped that I wrote it in the middle of summer when we get 100 degree F heat. As I have pointed out before in my stories, water is gold in the desert. When I read about deserts, especially the Sahara and Death Valley, sand deserts tend to expand.
I have to admit that high-deserts are not quite the same. They do have plants and animals. I am not saying that the Sahara doesn't have plants and animals, but they seemed to be localized in oasis (can't remember how to pluralize this word) and where there is water.

So when I write about the desert, even high-deserts, I always come back to water.

You can find this story on Kindle and Smashwords.

Keeping Faith with our Readers

Dean Wesley Smith, one of my favorite bloggers for publishing advice for new and commercial writers sent his readers to a blog by Kristine Kathryn Rusch about writing for our readers. It has a lot of information on how the traditional publishing model works with new books and how traditional publishers have nixed series when they didn't sell as quickly as the business model dictated.

So where does this leave the writer/reader contract? I have been thinking about this relationship for a few days now since I started to publish some of my older short stories. Many of these stories I wrote before I became ill so my writing has changed some since then. Is it fair to show my abilities before I had to climb out of the pit and learn again?

I think not. Plus since I am older, my characters that I write today are aging as well. At least the characters that are not published yet.

The reason I am thinking about this subject is because I have been thinking about doing a series with one or two of my characters. So far I have written single novels and characters that don't go past the first book. Am I ready to put that much effort and energy into a timeline? Will it be a learning experience? (Yes... it is always a learning experience). And would my readers enjoy knowing more about what is happening with a character? (a yes also, because I love to read series and wait years to read more.)

And, do I have a character yet that would be interesting enough for a series? Therein lies the rub.

I try to be upfront with my readers. I have a serious illness. Some days I just don't get out of bed. Some days I am happy if I get the dishes washed. And, some days I am even happier when I write. I have decided that I will keep faith with myself and in the process I will do my damned'est to keep the faith with you.

I read Heinlein's Rules of Business daily:

1. You must write.
2. You must finish what you write.
3. You must not rewrite unless to editorial demand.
4. You must mail your work to someone who can buy it. (For an Indie-you must publish)
5. You must keep the work in the mail until someone buys it. (For an Indie - you must keep it published.)

So my readers, if you like a character please let me know. I will do my best if possible. I will not ignore your requests.

To other writers, keep the faith to your readers. Books do not spoil. They are not produce. They can be read and enjoyed many years and many times after the death of the author. Something my mother used to say that applies to this short time we have on earth to write: Make hay while the sun shines.

A Desert Rescue

This ebook is short story about "Living in the desert," which is a collection of short stories I will be putting together soon. In this story, Jude Potter, a desert rat, rescues a couple of tourists from the desert.

My inspiration: Well, thank you to all of the tourists that come to Nevada and the casinos and who want to learn more about our gold mines and ghost towns because this one is for you. Every year we have cautionary tales of people who go into the desert without water. It is a dangerous practice and doesn't always turn out as well as this story.

The cover: I took this picture in 2009 over the Humboldt salt flats on a trip to one of our smaller towns. The sky in this picture is really that blue.

I noticed because I am an avid reader that there are not too many modern stories written about the Western deserts. My parents moved to the Utah high-desert when I was young, and my sister and I used to play during the summer outside on our ponies. We would stop by the canals and ditches used for irrigation and drink the water. And yes, the water was silty. We used to jump in the water to cool off when the temperatures rose into the 90s.

The deserts in Northern Nevada, which are the basis of many of my stories, are very similar to the desert of my youth. The heat, the dryness, and the dangers of dehydration are very real when you live in that environment. Still there are animals, birds, and people who love this land. I try and write about them.

This short story can be found on Kindle and Smashwords.

Conjure Man

Conjure Man contains "The Wooden Seed," "Running to the Sun," and "Healing the Rift." It is a combination Navajo (Dine) myth and supernatural genre. The story centers around Tessa and her lover Taylor who are part-bred Navajos. Tessa finds a wooden box, which leads her to a part of her past.

Luce is the conjure man who is using a rift between dimensions to power his desire to bring the world into subjugation. Tessa, Taylor, and the seed-bearers are the only thing to stand between Luce and total destruction.

A little background of why I wrote this book: I started writing this book after I earned my degree in English Literature. My husband and I were living in Germany, and he was a contractor, repairing electronics for the US Army. We lived near Ramstein AFB and the weather was wet and cold. There were a lot of forests there. I think that in one way I was homesick for the dry desert air.

My opening scene in this book started from a dream I had and from personal experiences that I had when we lived on the Ute Reservation when my father was a foreman for one of their ranches. A few miles from where we lived was a campsite for the Basque sheepherders. When they ran out of essentials like coffee and cigarettes, they would show up at their neighbors and ask for essentials. I remember how beautiful they looked. So it started out what-if my character Tessa had lived out in the boonies, and what-if her step-mother had an affair, and what-if Tessa found out.

The rest of the story which includes Luce came about because I needed a villain. So what-if Tessa met this guy when she was young, but because the circumstances were so evil that she lost her memory.

The Native American motifs seemed to naturally thread into a Western story. The Navajo creation story, where they come through a rift to make it to this new world has resonated with me for many years. And, if you think Western States you normally think of cowboys, Indians, miners, and in the modern West casinos.

You can find this ebook at Kindle and Smashwords.

Hidden in the Sierras

Hidden in the Sierras is a short story I wrote for Halloween with a paranormal twist. Bertha who is the protagonist comes from a were-bear clan in the Sierras not too far from Lake Tahoe. Since the Native Americans in the West and North call bears brother, it added more juice to the story.

Also where I live, bears come down from the Sierras and wander the valley. Before Carson City was formed, bears would wander through the valleys and then the peaks to eat certain types of plants and animals. At the end of the year they would hibernate. Nowadays there are so many people living in the mountains and valleys near the Sierras that the bears scare quite a few people and can be quite dangerous. There are hunters assigned to kill certain bears who stray out of their territories and into people territories.

When I wrote this story I did some what-ifs. What-if the bears could turn into people, what-if they had their own society, and what-if the government knew about them.

I grew up with a foster child with a Navajo-Hopi heritage. I am still fascinated with the stories she used to tell us. Plus I was born in Northwest Canada in a reservation hospital in Bella Coola. In my teens I lived near a reservation in Northeast Utah that belonged to the Utes. Each culture has its own stories.

You can find my story at Kindle and Smashwords.

Listening to Acoustic Alchemy

One of my favorite, not sure if I can call them jazz, musical performers is Acoustic Alchemy. They just know how to bring out the mood of every piece without having to use those pesky things called words. When I feel sad, I pull out one of my CDs, well now IPOD, and just listen to the tones and intertwined melodies.

It gets to me. They like to use natural sounds as well and since I am a nature nut... so on and so forth.

So now I have to make a real confession. I downloaded my book on kindle and after reading it for awhile, I found that the story was fun and interesting. I really enjoyed the characters and the humor too. I didn't realize that I used humor in my stories. It was a revelation to me.

What surprised me was that I would add an extra "was" or forget a "to." I am an English Literature major and am very proud of my grammar and spelling skills so I was horrified that I kept adding and dropping important pieces of my sentences. I wondered if it was distracting to other readers. Since no one has said anything to me about it, I suppose that they liked the story, but were distracted by the grammar. So instead of giving me a review they decided not to say anything at all. It is what I would do after all. I know that I had a problem with a writer a couple of years ago. I did review it with the caveat that he showed a lot of potential and I bet that his second and third book would be much better.

The critical voice in my head is pressuring me to go back to that other book and grammarize it. But, if I do that I will stop the writing what I am writing now. I need to get my writing in place. I finally realized that voice is going to bother me until I do it. I have told it (the voice sounds remarkably like my mother when I didn't clean under the fridge with a knife) that when I decide to change the cover (yes, my cover is hand-made) I will edit the book so it will be re-released as a re-edited, re-vised, and re-covered book. So my voice is grumbling at the back of my mind, but is not driving me crazy.

Okay, I admit it. I have voices. So send me to the hospital. Stop. I have already been there with my disease and they don't want me. Too dangerous for my health. Besides they think the voices in my head are caused by the prednisone. So anyway, I have figured out how to fool that critical voice, now I need to convince my other voices that they are safe and want to be put on a blank page. Any ideas?

Coughing, Sneezing, and Still Standing

If you have been a fan of this blog and my Sierra Sage blog, you probably already know that I have had a Vasculitis disease for nine years now. Plus you probably suspect that when I cough, sneeze, or heaven help me, vomit, I am scared that I am in a flare. A flare in chronic illness speak is when the disease comes back in full force. I happen to be on 150 mg of Azathioprine and 5 mg of prednisone so that I can keep my disease in check.

These medications also cause some other distinct problems usually involving an immuno-suppressed system. So lately I have been meeting new people, and of course the first thing that happens is that I get sick. Yes, people literally make me sick. And of course, when I get sick I worry about getting a flare.

This worry has been reinforced in my mind when a close friend, another Vasculitis patient, had to go to the hospital this week because she had a severe sinus infection and an inflammed gallbladder. She will be in surgery today.

Now I am sure you wonder how I can write and promote my works when I can't meet people. And as the politicos say, I can't glad-hand. It does put a crimp in my authorial duties. So please forgive me if I cannot sign a book. And please forgive me if I cannot shake your hand. And, please forgive me even more if I have to wash my hands continuously. It does not mean I am obsessive-compulsive. It means that I am sick.

I listen to other Vasculitis patients daily. We have a little FB group where we can vent a little. It is surprising to me that many of the patient's families don't understand how terrible this disease is on the patient. They look at the fat produced by taking prednisone and tell them "you don't look that sick."

I just want to say "Come on folks, until recently this disease was life-threatening. If they don't get treated it is still life-threatening. And, yes, stress, weather changes, pains, and emotional distress can kill us. Really. I am not exaggerating. We are like babies in that our bodies cannot control our temperatures. The meds make us a little crazy. And, there are times when we are scared for no reason at all."

But, just having this disease is very very scary. I cope with it by writing. I take my pills and don't think of the side-effects. I cuddle with my husband and we laugh at his workplace experiences. I talk to the banana plant that my step-daughters sent us for Christmas. It is those little things that keep me stable.

I tried to work about two years into this illness. I learned quickly that I didn't have the stamina. When I talked to my doctor about working again, and not just working at the house on the computer, he asked me if I wanted to cut off ten years of my life. Since I was sixteen, I am now fifty, I have always worked a job. I went from being independent to being dependent in a matter of hours. It has been a huge adjustment for me.

I told my doctor that I wanted to live as long as I possibly could. I wanted to have a good life and I wanted my husband to have a good life. So I have quit pushing for a job. My job is staying well, is writing, and is loving my husband.

So actually I am disabled. I don't like that label. I am immuno compromised. Yes, another fancy way of saying that people make me sick, very sick.

How I Write

Since I finished the Conjure Man trilogy (The Wooden Seed, Running to the Sun, and Healing the Rift), I am getting my second wind for the next three books in my writing queue (She called it, wolf, Perchance to Dream, and Hilda's Inn for Retired Heroes). At this point I want to thank Stan Grimes (sag4444 on twitter) for his reviews. They gave me a boost.

Plus when I found that I turned into a best-seller for a few days when some of my books were free, I was able to get that extra writing done so that I will have some new books for the new year.

Okay, but my blog today is not for that reason alone. I want to talk about writing. When I was writing for Nanowrimo this year, I discovered something about myself. I like to write on more than one story. Plus I am a linear writer - beginning to end. Not everyone can write from the beginning to the end. I think it has something to do with how my brain is wired in story. I like to layer my stories and I need to see it all the way to the end.

Also I am not an editor type. I can edit, but when the story feels right with all the holes and threads plugged, I don't find it necessary to change the story. If I want a new story, then I write a new story. It was a revelation when I found out that I was not the type to bend. If the story wants something, I add it - pure and simple. If it doesn't want it - then I don't.

I had to learn about conflict. My life has been full of conflict so I am perfectly content to have a quiet life. It keeps stress and my disease at bay. However, I am learning that if I want a good story that someone else wants to read that I need to add problems. But, I don't want to fatigue the reader with too many problems and not enough solutions because the reader needs solutions too.

After I write my first draft, I go through and fix my spelling errors. There are many because since I have had to take chemo my brain doesn't always see the obvious mistakes - you're and your are but a few of the mistakes. At the same time I check to see if I have the story anchored to place. If not, I add some description and some action. If the character is in the kitchen, I have her wipe the table down or something like that. It anchors the reader to the place and to the character.

I add time if I have forgotten a time marker. And I check for holes. I am surprised when I find that my subconscious mind has already plugged those holes. I trust in my process because my process is not your process.

I know people that use outlines. I only used an outline for the first book or two. I now keep a sheet around with character names. I had to quit doing outlines because I would get involved with the fun of an outline and never write the story. Outlines are already a part of my inner process.

I found that if I listen, I can hear what comes next. It starts as a murmur as I go to sleep at night. Then when I see that blank page, I just start writing as fast as I can. The closest I can come to describing it is Wild Mind from Natalie Goldberg or a wild mind Buddhist meditation. When done right, my writing becomes a meditation.

 So that is how I write - fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or technical. I use the same process.

And when I don't write? They whisper to me in the twilight between waking and sleep.