e-Book

Aurora Rescue is now an e-Book on Barnes & Noble. Click the link to the right. If you want a reader app for a Mac computer, buy from Barnes & Noble.

For a story summary, click the link to the Aurora Rescue blog.

Hope you enjoy the book!

Aurora Rescue is Published

It is official! My novel, Aurora Rescue, is published. It is available as an eBook on Amazon.com at the following url:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004A157GW/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_dp_H7HZmb13NY9TJ

Or, click on the link on the right side of my page. From the same page you can also download a Kindle reader for PC, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, iPad and Android if you do not already own a Kindle reader.

The same page also has a link to the first two and a half chapters that you can read for free. I hope you will enjoy the first part so much that you will want to read the rest of the book.

Sign up to follow my blog or check back often to learn more about the latest contests, releases of other books in the Aurora series, Aurora gear and and ways you can buy the Aurora Series books.

I had fun researching and writing this book ~~ I hope you enjoy reading it!

Thrown Into a Quandary

My Aurora Rescue novel is off to my chosen publishers for consideration which left me trying to decide what to work on next. I was so excited about finishing Armitage. But, questions and doubts snagged me and threw me into a quandary.

• Do I want all my voices in Armitage to be in first person? Or, would it be more effective if my modern characters were in third-person. (I really like my historical characters being in first-person.)

• Do I even want there to be modern characters? I started this as part of a series, with my amateur family history researcher, Jennie Graves, looking back to learn about her ancestors. I've got this love affair with book series -- love to read them and love to write them. However, I know that this book could stand on its own strength as a historical novel.

• Do I want this series, with or without Armitage as part of the series, to be about Jennie researching her family and maybe the families of a few friends, or do I want to turn this series into a "block party?" Do I want her to get involved with a small club and involve the members -- each with slightly varied interests and approaches to preserving family records and histories -- and broaden the base on which to base my series?

• Do I want to work on my own non-fiction genealogy-based how-to series, The Short Version, and see if I can find a publisher or self-publish on CDs?

So many choices -- so little time or conviction on what direction I want to go.

I did my usual trick to deal with my indecisiveness. I took a vay-cay from writing.

I set it all aside to give my sub-conscious time to work on it. Other than look at past templates, outlines, notes and sections I have written, I did not do any actual writing. Instead, I sewed and quilted. I cleaned out my garden, baked and froze food. I prepared two new PowerPoint presentations I am giving at a genealogy computerized seminar in Fresno this Saturday. I continued research in the science magazines for future books in the Aurora series. I read.

But, it started a few days ago. I suddenly got anxious to look again at my Jennie Graves series I had organized a year and a half ago. I saw where I had fit in the story that evolved into the book Armitage. I still have not completely decided on the "voice" issues. I went over my The Short Version notes and updated the outlines.

I have an overwhelming desire to start writing again. I must write!

Pumpkinis, or a Practice Contest

Okay, when I start marketing my novels, I need to sponsor some contests. Here is a trial contest. It has nothing to do with any of my novel ideas, but it sets a precedent. To qualify, those who want to play will need to answer a question correctly.

So, here is the question:  How many pumpkins in this picture?

Answer:  Three that I can be sure of. Three are what are better known among some of my friends as "pumpkinis" -- the result of my volunteer squash plants that were pollenated last year by a "tree bee" that did not discriminate between my pumpkin blossoms, zucchini blossoms or my yellow straight-neck squash blossoms. The tall, skinny yellowish one may be a pumpkin-yellow squash baby or it may be an anorexic pumpkin--not sure which. What it is now is part of some pretty tasty squash bread. Then, of course, there are the three tomatoes for color and contrast.

Oh, there is no prize if you guessed right -- this was a test, only a test.

Ever the Optimist

I already have a blog for the first novel I wrote, Aurora Rescue. However, I am ever the optimist. I expect that novel to be published along with many more.

So, I have started this blog for the intent of having a centralized place to discuss all of my writing projects.

As I just wrote in my Aurora Rescue blog, I was a in a quandary for several weeks about my next step. Here is what I did about it. (Do I now seem a little bit like Cy Riverton in Aurora Rescue? Read the book when it comes out and decide for yourself.)

1. I started working on another novel. It is not part of the Aurora series. In fact, it could fit into the series I considered before Aurora Rescue. I wrote a vignette as part of my Jennie Graves series of novels which for the most part I have since converted to the first chapter of the book I have titled Armitage. However, in a three-day time span, I wrote four more chapters of the book (okay, one chapter was real short.) I very much want to focus on this novel and complete it, but I knew I had to get Aurora Rescue on it way go being published first.

2. I started researching the Civil War and Reconstruction eras like crazy. It was information I need for both the Aurora series and Armitage.

Exactly what have I been reading? Here goes:

Actually, I checked out about seven books from the county library. One of them happened to mention an aurora seen by the Civil War soldiers the night after the Battle of Fredricksburg. That was a very nice detail I need for a future novel in the Aurora series. I have not found that information anywhere else, so far, so I was happy to read about it. I also purchased these Civil War books for a reasonable price at the local book store.
 

I made a point to read The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks which is based on  a real life experience from the Civil War and after.

The local library has shelves of books on the Civil War but I did not find even one on the Reconstruction period. So I purchased this one. I love the Remington artwork on the cover. You can see how I tab pages that contain information I want to refer back to and take notes of later.  

To double-check some facts for Aurora Rescue, I reread parts of Crucible of War  by Fred Anderson. I also went back to my well-worn edition of Empire of Fortune by Francis Jennings.