Resolutions for 2013

My last post was on Old Year Resolutions, but I have a few for the New Year, too. These are all about my writing life (those for my personal world I've written down elsewhere), and they're more nebulous than I'd like, since much involved in traditional publishing is not in my hands, but I have them. Perhaps you can compare to see if any of yours are similar.

1. I have a book coming out this year, published by Covenant Communications, and I'm setting goals for how to get the word out. The story is about the Burnetts, a Mormon family struggling with a death, but it can apply to any family of any religious background. It has recipes in every chapter, but it's about a much bigger question: What recipe can you use to mend a broken family? Watch for A SECRET FAMILY RECIPE, coming in June.
2. I'm up to eight books available now for e-reader devices and I'm devising goals for publicizing these. I plan to grow my Twitter community, use Facebook and other social media to let people know about these sweet love stories, and trumpet the fact that I actually got a personal recommendation from Debbie Macomber. Really! Maybe that will help?
3. The eight mentioned above include six from the Rainbow Rock series. I'm currently writing a seventh. Set a decade or so from where the last book left off, RETURN TO RAINBOW ROCK begins with Marcie Carmody coming home in disgrace, ruined both socially and financially by her ex-fiance who has left her for another woman. She thinks she has it rough until she meets Ryan Fields, abandoned by his wife who has also taken their children. It's a story of growth and maturation, mistakes and second chances, or as William Faulkner once said about "the only plot there is," it's a story of "sin and redemption." I plan to have it online by June.
4. When I get Marcie comfortably settled in Rainbow Rock, I am going to marry off her step-brother, Danny, who is now an officer for the Arizona Highway Patrol. That story is already giving me delicious moments of anticipation.  ;-) 
5. MAGGIE RISING, which I previewed in my last column, is with my agent now. I'm making some revisions appropriate to a specific genre and audience (TBA) and I hope I'll have a contract for it soon.
6. Mostly I intend to spend less time at the "day job" and more becoming a full-time, professional novelist--my dream since I was eleven years old. Let's see how I do.

May you have success with your own goals for this Good Luck Year, 2013.


Susan Aylworth is the author of 11 novels--8 published, the 9th soon-to-be, the 10th contracted, and the 11th with her agent. She hopes to write dozens more. Connect with her here or at www.susanaylworth.com or follow @SusanAylworth.

Old Year's Resolutions

I'd like to focus for a moment on one goal for 2012 that I actually achieved. I had promised myself I would complete the first draft of MAGGIE RISING, my first attempt into paranormal detective Y.A. Maggie was there with her psychic reading business and her friend, Lauren, who just happens to be a ghost, and her problems with the law. She just needed me to get busy.

I did. And I finished the last line of that first draft on the last day of last year. That leads me into one of my first goals for 2013: to get Maggie and her paranormal friends off to my agent. The book has been out to six great alpha readers who have given me all kinds of helpful comment. I've been revising, tightening, editing and clarifying. The book will be office to my agent this week.
To give some sense of what Maggie and Lauren have been up to, here's an excerpt from the first time they chat in one of Maggie's dreams:

I stood in the Children’s Playground next to Bidwell Presbyterian. ...

I looked around, wondering how I’d gotten here and why I’d come. That’s when I noticed a pretty blonde girl watching me. She was leaning on the uprights for the swings, but as I looked her way she separated herself from the contraption and walked toward me. She looked familiar, but I couldn’t place her. I looked behind me to see if maybe her focus was actually directed elsewhere, but we were alone. As she came toward me, she gave a half-smile and asked, “Remember me?”

“You look familiar,” I answered, searching my memory.

“Lauren Hall,” she said. “I was in the high school class just younger than you, but at Chico High instead of Pleasant Valley.”

“Lauren Hall?” I didn’t yet remember her from high school, but I certainly remembered the name. “The missing Homecoming Queen?”

“The murdered Homecoming Queen,” she answered. “I met my murderer right here in Children’s Park during lunch last Wednesday.”

I swallowed, unsure how to speak to a murdered girl, let alone a murdered Homecoming Queen. “So…you’re dead?”

She rolled her eyes. “And everybody said you were smart.” She plunked down on the bench a little way from me. For a ghost, she seemed to have substantial mass, since it gave under her weight. “Do you want to help me out or what?”

I've had a good time working with Maggie and Lauren and I'm eager to see what happens with them next. I'll keep you posted.

Susan Aylworth's first eight novels are available as e-books for Kindle (Amazon), Nook (Barnes and Noble) and other e-readers or computers (Smashwords). Her ninth, A SECRET FAMILY RECIPE, is due out from Covenant Communications in June.

An image poem

Here's another quick image. I seem to be in a melancholy mood just now:


Disconnect

She wants to share her loss

With friends from long ago

And so she calls their number,

Held in long-term memory.

“I’m widowed now,” she practices.

“My husband died in autumn.”

Recorded voices stop her:

The number’s disconnected.

Susan Aylworth's novels are available for digital readers at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords and other digital websites. 

Two Poems

Any of you who have followed my blog know that I'm primarily committed to long fiction, by which I mean novels. Though I don't usually think of myself as a poet, now and then a poem gives itself up to me. Two did that last week, so I thought I'd share:


TEACUPS

Her teacups cover the room—

Étagère, sideboard, china cabinet.

She collected them carefully,

One tender purchase at a time

Over many decades and travels.

Each had a story she loved to tell.

Each was a keepsake and friend.

Today her granddaughter photographs a few,

Hoping to sell the lot on E-Bay.

The auction will last seven days. 

AT THE CORNER OF THIRD AND BROADWAY

He spied her as she squatted in a doorway

wielding a bit of canvas to keep the rain at bay.

She stared unseeing, eyes unfocused.

He wondered if she looked into the past.

He too looked back, seeing her as she was–

Clad in white satin,

Hair spread across his pillow,

Sweet voice murmuring his name.

If you enjoy them, please feel free to direct others to this blog, but please respect my copyright. Don't share them without my permission. Thanks much!

Susan's Aylworth's novels are all available in digital form at Kindle, Nook, Smashwords and other ebook sites.

The Detail Dilemma

One of the common problems for authors well schooled in "Show, Don't Tell" is deciding how much to show: Which details matter and which are overload? I'm having that problem right now with a current WIP.

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about my visit to Butte County Jail. Main character Maggie is falsely accused of a crime and hauled off to jail awaiting formal charges and such. To get the details right, I arranged a tour with the jail director, Andy Duch.

Andy couldn't have been kinder, and Janice Young, the deputy who walked me through booking procedures for a female prisoner, was equally helpful. I walked away with five pages of single-spaced notes.

Now I'm writing the booking scene and I'm overwhelmed with details. Yes, it's important to show rather than merely telling. It's important to walk readers through the actual procedure so they can project themselves into Maggie's situation and empathize with what she's experiencing. But if I give them everything I have, they're going to be so bogged down in details, they'll lose the story line--or worse yet, give up reading.

So the trick is deciding how much is enough. Some details from the strip search are important, just so readers know how demeaning the whole process is, but there are other parts I didn't particularly want to know and would prefer not to repeat. Decision made. How about the rest?

Is it important to know that the bag of toiletries is called a "fish kit," that the roll calls only use last names, that the bedroll includes three sheets? I'm still deciding how much detail is enough and how much is too much.

I have already written the scene where Maggie's living nightmare begins. That part seems to have gone fairly well:

             “You have the right to remain silent,” Sergeant Russell was saying. We’d already gotten through the first part of the script, the part about how I was under arrest for murder. Now he was pulling out the handcuffs. “Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”

“I didn’t . . . I didn’t kill anybody,” I said, but no one was listening to me anymore. I staggered through the procedure as my hands were fastened behind my back while the rest of my Miranda rights were read. My ears were buzzing and I thought there was a good chance I’d faint. The first time the lieutenant pulled me to my feet, my knees wouldn’t hold me and I dropped back into the chair. He gave me almost twenty seconds before pulling me to my feet again. He wasn’t rough, exactly—just insistent, and I knew I wasn’t going anywhere except where he said. 

             Maybe it was a weird reaction, but all I wanted was sleep. That’s the place for a nightmare, right? When you’re sleeping? 

Soon Maggie will tell me how much more to include. I'm counting on her. 

Susan Aylworth's first eight books are now available as digital downloads for Kindle, Nook, Smashwords and at other web sites.