Tag Archive for: writing

Fifteen Minutes

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by Bethany Maines
As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, this year is all about
trying new things for me. From submitting to contests and magazines to trying
different kinds of writing I’m attempting to push myself into growth. I truly
want to understand not just what makes good writing, but how to construct a
story. One of the things I’ve discovered is that forcing boundaries onto a work
can actually improve the work itself. 
From outlawing specific words (swear words, oh how I miss you!) in some
pieces to declaring that certain elements must be included (there has to be a
dog, OK?) by working against/with a constraint it forces creativity. But one
boundary that I consistently seem to be rubbing up against these days is time—I
don’t have enough. Particularly since the birth of my daughter, the effort to
carve out extended periods of time to be creative is monumental.
I have managed in some cases to do this by ignoring other
areas of my life (Dishes? What dirty dishes?) or through the understanding of
my husband who swoops in and carts our kid off while I’m furiously typing up
some scene or another.  But on many days,
there is no “vast, unbroken slab of time.” Which is why I found this article
about What You Can Achieve in 15-Minute Bursts of Creativity to be an interesting articulation about the approach
I’ve developed. Working on a project in smaller chunks does allow the project
to always stay fresh in my mind and churning away in my subconscious. It also
forces me to stop waiting for the perfect time to think or do something. I had
not realized that the “perfect time” was such an illusion or that I clung to
the illusion so much until I switched to a “do it now” approach. The
accumulation of tiny chunks of time allows for a productivity that would have
seemed impossible to me before the process was forced on me. This bit by bit
approach does work. It may be a constraint I didn’t want, but like many of the
other boundaries, it has forced me to come up with creative solutions that I
might not have otherwise discovered.
So if you’re out there despairing of finding the few hours
you want to do something – don’t give up. 
Take your fifteen minutes and do the thing (whatever the thing is) now.
It doesn’t have to be perfect. You can undo half of it tomorrow if you like,
but it’s still more than you had before.
**

Check out the most recent accumulation of fifteen minutes. (Cover reveal coming in September!!)

The Second Shot:A drunken mistake in college cost US Marshall Maxwell Ames the love of Dominique
Deveraux. Six years later, he’s determined to fix the slip-up, but there’s just one tiny problem – someone wants the Deveraux family dead. Now Max must make sure that the only one getting a second shot at Dominique is him.

Join my mailing list to be alerted when additional platforms become available or pre-order now on Apple

**

Bethany Maines is the award-winning author
of the Carrie Mae Mystery Series, San Juan Islands Mysteries, Shark Santoyo Crime Series, and numerous
short stories. When she’s not traveling to exotic lands, or kicking some
serious butt with her black belt in karate, she can be found chasing her
daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel. You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.

Clicking Our Heels – Writing or Reading Long or Short?

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Writing or
reading long or short? The Stiletto Gang members confess their personal
preferences when writing and when reading. They also share what each are
reading behind closed doors.

Linda
Rodriguez
– I prefer to write long and to read long. I’m a
novel reader as well as writer. I admire the artistry of good short story
writers, but whenever I come up with short story characters and situation, so
much more starts to unfold for me. I’m just a natural teller of longer stories.
And when I read, I want to be immersed in the entire world. This is something
novels give me. I’m currently reading to Fear a Painted Devil by Ruth
Rendell, Playing in the Dark by Toni Morrison, and The Collected
Poems of Muriel Rukeyser.

Judy Penz
Sheluk
– Long, definitely long. I can write short, and love to read it, but it’s hard
for me. Maybe because I’m such a pantser? Currently reading Laura Benedict’s The
Stranger Inside.

Shari Randall – I like writing and reading both! My current
read is One Night Gone by Tara Laskowski, who does fine short
stories and now novels.

T.K. Thorne
– For me, short stories are harder than a novel. Not sure why. Perhaps I feel
more that I need to have the story laid out prior to beginning it,  and
with a novel, I am more interested in who the character is and having the space
to explore that. As a reader, I like having a thick, juicy book and the
anticipation of more to come with a series.

Julie Mulhern – I am a short writer and prefer reading
shorter books. Right now I’m reading Caimh McDonnell’s Dublin Trilogy (there
are four of them). McDonnell also works as a stand-up comedian.

No surprise,
his books are funny and raunchy and filled with memorable characters.

Kay Kendall
– I’m like the baby bear in the children’s book who tried two beds–one too
hard, one too soft–before she hit the third one that was just right. The story
I’m reading or writing should take up just as many pages as it needs. It should
not be so wordy that it goes way too long, whereas conversely sometimes a story
can be too laconic and I want to read (or write) more detail.

What I’m reading now is the multi-award
winning historical mystery, THE WIDOWS OF MALABAR HILL
by Sujata Massey. At 400 pages (hardback version) it is just right.

Bethany Maines – I have been working on writing short. 
I feel like so much of my early writing was packed with details that were
important for me to know, but not necessarily important to either the story of
the reader.  So I’ve been steadily trimming my word count on my first
drafts which is making editing easier!  But in general I prefer novel
length over short stories in both my reading and writing.

Dru Ann Love – Right now I’m reading an ARC of Forgiveness
Dies by J.J. Hensley.

Debra H. Goldstein – “I love the one I’m with” because I write
both long and short and my reading reflects that. Presently, I’m reading Fishy
Business, an anthology of short stories by members of the Guppy Chapter of
Sisters in Crime and Murder On Cape Cod by Maddie Day.

Lynn McPherson – I like both. Right now, I’m reading a
really fun book called Survival of the Fritters by Ginger
Bolton. 

Mary Lee
Ashford – I
write short because I write a lot of dialogue my first draft. I think that’s
because I’m mainly interested in the people in the story. I tend to have to go
back and make sure I’ve included the right amount of setting and description.
In reading, I also am mostly interested in the story people and so I prefer
books that are very character driven. As far as reading, I read both short and
long. I’m currently reading a non-fiction book called Atomic Habits by
James Clear. 

 J.M. Phillippe – I do enjoy a single-sitting book (when I
get those rare “spend the day reading” days). I think I tend to write
something that I hope can be experienced in the same way — something you get
so into you don’t want to put it down. 

Cathy Perkins – I prefer writing novels because subplots that enhance the main plot are fun to develop and reveal so much about the characters. Those subplots plus the usual twists and turns of a mystery generate word count. I recently finished A Man Called Ove and really enjoyed it.

Can Writing Motivate Writing?

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by
Paula Gail Benson

When
your day job requires extensive writing, can the well run dry? Do you come home
from work and avoid the computer or laptop, just ready to let the words flow
over you from the closest television or other viewing or listening device? Do
you wake reserving your word skills for the workplace rather than spending an early
morning hour on a fiction project before heading to the office?

As a
legislative attorney, I’m constantly working with language. It’s always
fascinating to try to explain a concept with brevity, clarity, and
comprehensiveness. Like working on a puzzle, it’s usually a matter of figuring
out how to put the pieces together to create a picture everyone can see, appreciate,
and understand.

However,
after a full day of writing and rewriting, sometimes it’s difficult to convince
myself that I need to put in a few more hours at home, even if it’s on a
project I’m truly devoted to completing. I convince myself I need a break. And,
once I give myself permission to relax (to be ready for what tomorrow brings),
then it’s easy to keep depending upon that rest period.

So,
I began thinking about how to use my work writing to energize my fiction
writing.

Last
year, I started “bullet journaling” to organize my schedule and keep notes. I wrote
a message about it here at The Stiletto Gang. The official website was
established by Ryder Carroll, who now has a book called The Bullet Journal Method. Because bullet journaling is adaptable
to each practitioner, the ways to set up a journal may differ. I have used my bullet
journal not only to track appointments, work projects, and daily
accomplishments (like a mini-diary), but also for fiction. With everything in
one easy to carry notebook, I can capture ideas, phrases, bits of dialogue, and
other things I want to remember to explore in a story. For example, at dinner
one night, I had an incredible view overlooking the city. I wanted to capture
what I was seeing and wrote a description while I waited for the meal. Now, I
have the words to remember the image I found so intriguing. Maybe I’ll use it
in a story or maybe it’s just for my benefit, but it exercised those writing
muscles and that is always a good thing. Having the bullet journal made the
writing possible.

The
hand-written aspect of the bullet journal allows me to “think on the page” in a
different way from typing. In addition, because the bullet journals I use have
a “dot grid,” I’m not restricted by lined pages. I can write at an angle if I
want or use drawings to help illustrate what I mean. (I wonder if I should try
drawing legislative concepts?)

Another
“exercise” I’ve found myself using lately is to retell familiar stories from a
single character’s perspective. In particular, I’ve worked on a series of fairy
tales, starting with the prince’s viewpoint, then progressing to secondary characters,
and finally villains. I write examples on my personal blog, where I limit each
entry to 100 words (a drabble), forcing myself to make every word count and
meaningful, just like with writing legislation. It’s been a good motivator,
allowing me to focus on character traits and motivations rather than plot. For
one group (the villains), I used rhyme, another variation from my day job.

What I’ve concluded
is that filling that blank page, whether with a to do list or a story idea,
helps lead to more writing. In the bullet journal, I give myself the freedom to
let thoughts lead me. Sometimes, the road is a dead end. At other times, it’s a
great adventure. That’s the life of a fiction writer with a writing day job!

No More Changes

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by Bethany Maines
Recently, I took a workshop on how to convert a novel to a
screenplay. It was a fascinating workshop that gave practical tips on how to
deconstruct and then reconstruct a novel into a new format. Plot, structure and
character development are all core elements of any story telling method and it
was interesting to see how a different mode of storytelling could affect a
story.
I chose to experiment on my 2018 Christmas novella Blue
Christmas. Blue Christmas is about a down on her luck college student, Blue
Jones, who is determined to do whatever it takes to pay off her grandmother’s
medical bills – including burglary. So obviously it’s a romance and there are
diamond thieves and a dog.  Because… Christmas?
As I worked my way through my story, I saw several things
that I would like to improve. And it was not so very long ago that I loved
every bit of that story!  What the heck
happened to my perfect little morsel of criminal Christmas?! Why is it that an
author / creative person can’t stop improving on a work?  I mean, we all hate George Lucas for going
back and adding special effects and scenes to Star Wars, don’t we? When are we,
or should we, be forced to say walk away? 
My personal feeling is that once a work is in the public, then except
for correcting typos or other blatant errors, that an author should not make
any “improvements”. People end up loving specific works and changing even a
sentence or two can affect someone’s perception of a work.
Of course, none of that prevents me from making those
changes in my screenplay.
**
Buy Blue Christmas from Amazon * Barnes & Noble * iBook * Kobo

Blue Jones just stole Jake Garner’s dog. And his heart. But technically the French Bulldog, Jacques, belongs to Jake’s ex-girlfriend. And soon Jake is being pressured to return the dog and Blue is being targeted by mysterious attackers. Can Jake find Blue and Jacques before her stalkers do? For Blue, Christmas has never been quite so dangerous. For Jake, Christmas has never been quite so Blue.

**
Bethany Maines
is the author
of the Carrie Mae Mystery Series, San Juan Islands Mysteries, Shark Santoyo Crime Series, and numerous
short stories. When she’s not traveling to exotic lands, or kicking some
serious butt with her fourth degree black belt in karate, she can be found
chasing her daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel. You
can also catch up with her on YouTube, Twitter
and Facebook.

Wine & Murder

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by Bethany Maines

I want to kill someone in public.
I don’t have a particular person. Just someone.
Last weekend I volunteered for my business districts wine
walk event.  It was a fun event that
paired artists and wineries with local businesses.  Visitors bought a ticket which guaranteed them
ten tastings from the wineries of their choosing and then they walked to the
various locations ogled the art, tasted the wine and walked to the next
stop.  This puts visitors inside local
businesses, exposes an audience to new wines and gives everyone a chance to
enjoy a fun fall outing.  It’s also a
large crowd with people going every which way, no one is really paying
attention, and half the crowd is a wee bit tipsy.  That seems like a great place for a murder!
Could I slip something in their tasting glass? Could I stab
them quietly in pop them in a business’s back room while no one was looking?  Leave the body in their car apparently “sleeping
it off”?  Or is it better to kill them
and then stick around as a surprise witness. 
Oh my God? someone’s killed Kenny! 
And… surprised face.
It’s a bold move to go for a public murder, which makes it probably unpremeditated.  My motivation would have to be strong.  Lots of money or a truly horrible victim.  And then, perhaps the small town police chief could solve the mystery?  And bam, we’ve got a novel plot.  Although, in general, I should probably not tell anyone what I think about at
these events.  I’m going to end up on
someone’s list…
**
Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie Mae Mystery Series, San
Juan Islands Mysteries, Shark Santoyo
Crime Series, and numerous short stories. When she’s not traveling to
exotic lands, or kicking some serious butt with her fourth degree black belt in
karate, she can be found chasing her daughter or glued to the computer working
on her next novel. You can also catch up with her on YouTube,
Twitter and Facebook.

Running and Writing

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       By guest author, Jennifer Klepper

     I love the name of this group of writers: The Stiletto Gang. It’s sexy and fierce, and while the Stiletto Gang probably doesn’t actually wear stilettos while they’re writing their books (do they?), I can easily imagine them traipsing about in their spiked heels and drinking martinis after they’ve put their keyboards away for the day.
Seeing the sparkly stiletto on the page made me think of my own newest pair of shoes–purple and orange (yikes!) Brooks trail running shoes. They have a grabby sole for traversing unfriendly ground cover, they’re sturdy to help keep the ankles from twisting, and they are frightfully clunky-looking. Pretty much the opposite of stilettos.
The reason I even have these trail shoes is my writing. Next week, my debut novel, Unbroken Threads, officially releases. So of course I signed up to run my very first trail race and my very first 10k three days prior to launch. Why in the world would I do that? (I’ve asked myself this numerous times, including the day I sprained my ankle on an errant broken branch.) 
As any writer can attest, you have to sit on your duff to write. Not just that, but you have to sit on your duff an awful lot for an awful long time to write, revise, and edit a novel. Let’s just say my muscle tone hasn’t kept up with my word count.
Scheduling a virgin run right ahead of my launch was tactical. I knew my summer would be nerve-wracking, with the prospect of my book baby being thrown to the wolves–I mean, world–in August. Having a goal, one totally and completely different from writing and publishing a book, seemed a mentally healthy diversion. Plus there was that muscle tone thing.
What I’ve learned in the ensuing weeks is that…running and writing? Not necessarily totally and completely different. Runners on the whole might look better in yoga pants, and writers might be better at Words with Friends, but the process and the experience of each have at least a few important things in common. 
1.     Writing and running are both solitary endeavors. Both activities require you to be in your own head, pursuing your own goal. Neither is typically a team sport. No one can run your hills for you and no one can cut 10,000 words from your draft for you. 
2.     And yet, writing and running both benefit from their supportive communities. Ah, the writing community! I love it so much and have gained friends and knowledge and good vibes. I’m starting to see the same in the running community. Established runners have been enthusiastic in their support and patient in their advice, whether it’s recommending I use bag balm on my feet (since I have to run through a river, of all things) or assuring me it’s perfectly acceptable to walk part of the race (I will).
3.     There’s always a “better.” Running and writing start small–first mile, first chapter, but no matter the achievement, there’s always another shiny goal glinting in the distance. Did you finish a marathon? Well, how about winning your age group? How about running fast enough to qualify for Boston? Did you write a complete manuscript? How about getting a multi-book deal with a Big 5 publisher? How about making the NY Times bestseller list? The pursuit can be exhausting and never-ending–the shiny horizon will always stay out of reach.
4.     And yet, just doing the thing–finishing the race, writing The End on a first draft–is a tremendous achievement. I will not forget that. Ever. None of us should. No matter how far you get (qualify for the Boston Marathon or get a multi-book deal with St. Martin’s Press), that first achievement of finishing a race or finishing a draft is what got you there in the first place, and it’s much farther than most people to begin with.
5.     Finally, each activity needs another activity for balance. Any activity that taxes the body or mind needs a complementary activity to keep us fresh. Just as strained muscles and tendons need a break, so do word-wrestling brains. Allowing ourselves to focus on a different aspect of ourselves, to exercise a different aspect of ourselves, permits recovery as well as growth.

            So, within a week (if all things proceed as planned), I will have finished my first 10K and published my first book. And then I will continue working on my second book. Maybe I’ll train for a 15K, who knows? No matter what, though (and I know I won’t be able to run for as many years as I’ll be able to write), I’ll maintain some balance and try to ensure that I always have good shoes while I’m doing it.

Writing and the Pursuit of Happiness — T.K. Thorne

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      Writer, humanist,
          dog-mom, horse servant and cat-slave,
       Lover of solitude
          and the company of good friends,
        New places, new ideas
           and old wisdom.


Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
Thomas Jefferson felt those three things of such importance,
he wrote them into the Constitution of the United States and dubbed them “unalienable
rights.”
But what do they mean? 
“Life” isn’t a hard one. I like breathing as much as the
next person. “Liberty” may be more nuanced, but we know, at the least, it means
freedom from tyranny. But the “pursuit of happiness” has always kind of
confused me.
For most of my life, the desire of my heart was to have a
horse. My poor parents had to endure the steady entreaties of my obsession,
begging that did not wait for gift-giving holidays.  If only I had thought of it, I could have
declared it was my right as a U.S. citizen to have a horse because that was the
only thing that would grant me happiness.
My sharp mother would have most certainly pointed out that
having the horse was not my right, only pursuing it, which I was doing.
Still, the questions remain. 
What is happiness and why do I have a right to pursue it and just how do
I pursue it? This is not a frivolous question. Please bear with me for a tiny
bit of history.
Thomas Jefferson was a self-declared Epicurean. Epicurus was
a Greek philosopher who lived from 341 BC and 270 BC, about 2300 years ago.  He emphasized pleasure as the highest goal of
mankind. The word today conjures up words such as hedonism, luxury, and sensual
pleasure, all with a negative judgment attached. This misinterpretation may be
laid at the feet of the early Catholic Church who declared Epicurean philosophy
a pagan challenge to the Church and, therefore, heresy.   Very bad things happened to heretics.
The original teachings of Epicurus lifted up pleasure not in
the sensual, temporary sense, but in the long-term acceptance of oneself and
one’s nature that leads to serenity and inner peace. The journey toward that
goal actually called for temperance and moderation.  The Greek word worked its way through Greek
and Latin into English as “pleasure,” but perhaps in modern terms the word “happiness”
is truer to the original meaning.
For the sake of simplicity, let’s distinguish “pleasure” and
“happiness.”  Pleasure is the temporary
chasing and fulfilling of desire. [I must have a horse, now, or I will forever
be miserable.] Happiness is a state of inner peace and balance where life is
lived for the most part in the present. [I love and appreciate horses but if I
don’t  have the Black Stallion in my
backyard, I will still be a complete and fulfilled human being.]
Go tell that to my ten-year-old self. Ha! . . .Obviously, it
takes maturity to find happiness.
Where were we? 
So happiness is something way deeper than pleasure,
something so important and basic that it is our inalienable right to seek it.
Wow.
What does this have to do with writing?
Again, bear with me for a short backing up.  One of the components of finding happiness is
the ability to live, for the most part, in the present. We humans come with a
brain that has evolved with the capacity to plan.  That is a big deal and definitely made a
difference in our ability to survive.
Planning is not necessarily limited to humans. Squirrels
hide nuts for the winter. (I always thought ants stored food too, but unless Aesop was talking
about the Messor aciculatus species,
that was just a fable.) What we don’t know is if the squirrel is aware that the
tasty nut he hides will feed him come winter or if he just acts on instinct,
but whatever.  The important thing is
that we humans are wired to plan. In ancient days, we sought a cave for when it
got dark and dangerous or rained or snowed. We smoked meet to preserve it. We
learned to grow and store crops. Now we shop at the grocery store but usually for
at least a week’s worth of food.
That’s the good side of concern and subsequent rational
planning, but there is an evil twin lurking. 
Her name is “worry” on a light day, and “anxiety” on a dark one. Our
minds can go into hyper drive about the future or the past. Angst and regret
are children of the mind’s tendency to dwell in a time that is not the present.
[How’s that for mixed metaphors? *sticking
out tongue * It’s my blog and I can do it if I want.]
Memory can be a friend that saves us from repeating mistakes
and gives us direction for decision making. 
Or it can be a pleasant companion. It can also be a special hell on the
road away from happiness. [See above.]
The answer according to Buddha and Epicurus is to find a way
to live in the present because that is the only experience that is real, that
is truth. There are other aspects of this, but let’s stay with this one—living
in the present, also known as mindfulness. 
Step One used by Eastern seekers of happiness is meditation.  There are lots of ways to meditate, but the
primary goal is to practice bringing the wandering mind (lovingly) back to the now.
We writers are rarely in the now.  We are dreamers.  Our mind wanders as easily and naturally as
breathing.  [Sitting down to dinner and
noticing silverware while guests talk about politics of the day: How would I hide that knife in my clothing
if I were kidnapped—though I put up a brave fight and a breathtaking chase on
my black stallion—and a prisoner in the castle of an evil man who wanted to
marry me against my will?]
The present?  Very
funny. Impossible.
Writers spent a great deal of our lives dreaming and
“living” with characters and situations in made-up worlds, so engrossed that
the real world, the present, and the passage of time are completely unnoticed.  [Really. 
Ask my husband.] We are not in the here-and-now. You can’t get more
“elsewhere.”
That makes us failures at Step One, right?
Not so fast. 
Meditation is not an end of itself.  It’s a tool. We exercise and eat well in order to have a healthy body that can
do the things we want to do—walk, run, swim, not be in pain.  Unless you are a monk, meditating all day is
not the goal. The goal is happiness. 
Mindfulness is a state of attention that is conducive to the path or way
of being happy.
Wait.  Did you catch
that?  Directing our thoughts to what we’re engaged in. 
A potter absorbed in the feel of wet clay shaping in his
hands is living in the present. An
artist focused on the task of mixing the perfect color is likewise living in
the present. A child at play. A reader absorbed in a story. A parent intent on helping his child hold a bat. An athlete in the zone. A fruebd truly listening.
The purpose of meditation is to exercise our focus, so that
we can bring our full attention to the moment–to a scene of beauty, a moment of
sorrow . . . a task.
When I am writing, lost in the creating or the shaping of what
I have created, I am happy. I am not “aware” of my happiness. I just am. I am
not judging, not thinking about or worrying about the future or the past. I
just am.  It’s my inalienable right.

A retired police captain, T.K. has written two award-winning historical novels, NOAH’S WIFE and ANGELS AT THE GATE, filling in the untold backstories of extraordinary, yet unnamed women—the wives of Noah and Lot—in two of the world’s most famous sagas. The New York Post’s “Books You Should Be Reading” list featured her first non-fiction book, LAST CHANCE FOR JUSTICE, which details the investigators’ behind-the-scenes stories of the 1963 Birmingham church bombing case. Coming soon: HOUSE OF ROSE, the first of a trilogy in the paranormal-crime genre. 

She loves traveling and speaking about her books and life lessons. T.K. writes at her mountaintop home near Birmingham, Alabama, often with two dogs and a cat vying for her lap. More info at TKThorne.com. Join her private newsletter email list and receive a two free short stories at “TK’s Korner.”

Sock Stories by Debra H. Goldstein

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SOCK STORIES by Debra H. Goldstein
Have you ever
noticed the socks a person wears? Like the words a writers put on paper, each
pair tells a story or evokes images or feelings.

For example, my
husband wears dark socks to his office because he has bought into the theory that they look more  look more professional than gym socks, but his disinterest in how he dresses is reflected by his
unwillingness to take the time to match the color of his socks to the shade of his slacks.
He’s just as likely to wear black with brown as he is to grab a pair of brown
socks. Joel is most comfortable in gym socks and sneakers. To my chagrin, his yucky
looking tube socks and an old pair of slip-ons are the image indelibly pressed
into our neighbors’ minds when they seem him going outside every morning to
retrieve his precious newspaper.

A young man I
know tells a different story through his sock choices. He considers himself to
be a player. Consequently, he coordinates the sharpest socks I’ve ever seen
with tailor made suits and shirts, as well as specialized pocket handkerchiefs
or patterned ties.

Personally, I’ve
always been fond of wearing socks that tell a story or bring a memory back to
me. I wear Chanukah, Mah jongg, and other holiday socks to make a statement for
the moment, much as one does with a Christmas sweater. On a bad day, I choose
between the comfort afforded by two pairs of warm soft fuzzy socks.

Last week, when
we took a family cruise to Alaska, the socks I ended up wearing not only
created a story for the moment, but became part of memories I will pull up in
the future.

The ages in
our group ranged from five to seventy-five. I wasn’t the oldest, but I easily
was the group’s cattle herder. Before we sailed, I reminded everyone to bring
passports, cold weather and rain gear (and of course our coldest day was 72
degrees and the only time it rained was once while we were sleeping), and other
essentials. I chided, sent e-mails, and while packing managed to leave my air
pushed out of it plastic bag of socks on the dining room table.

I arrived on
the ship with only the striped sneaker socks I was wearing, but never fear,
cruise ships sell everything. That is why I am now the owner of pink and purple
socks that all say Alaska and have moose heads, full sized mooses, bears, and
something I’m not sure of on them.

Each morning,
as I pulled on a pair of these socks, they reminded me I was sharing Alaska with
people who matter to me more than anything else. The animals, background
mountains, and whatever it was on one pair that I wasn’t sure of, also made a statement
that this would be a day of new experiences and beautiful terrain.

Our most
varied day was in Juneau. For us, it was the day of the glaciers. Joel and I
took the most sedate way of seeing them – busing and hiking to lookout points,
but even from a distance, the beauty of massive pieces of ice broken from the
main glacier fascinated me. What I saw and the ranger’s movie made me ever so
much more aware of global warming because of how the glacier itself has
receded. My daughter and her husband kayaked out to the glacier; my two sons
took a float plane into the glacier area; and our five year old grand-daughter and
her parents visited a dog camp and rode a dog sled. Everyone came back to the
ship impressed by what we experienced.

From now on,
whenever I put on a pair of my Alaskan socks, I will remember the looks of
happiness everyone had while telling me about their day.

My initial
anger at forgetting my socks has been replaced by the stories my new ones will
always unlock. Whenever I see the pink moose or either “Moose Hug” or “Alaska” on my socks, memories and
scenes from the cruise will be triggered – much as words create mental images
in a good book, short story or poem.

Selected Readings

/in /by

by Bethany Maines

This week I’m going to take part in a live reading event
called Noir at the Bar.  It’s a fun event
that focuses on crime tales and the forties pulp-fiction style.  I’m excited to participate, but as usual it
throws me into a tizzy of what to read. 
Short stories come in all shapes and sizes but reading for an audience
is quite different.  Not every story
translates well to an audience that’s slurping their way through cocktails and
appetizers. I would, of course, love an audience to hang breathless on my every
word, but even when an audience comes specifically to see an author it’s very
hard to get that level of studiously quiet audience participation. 
Through the variety of readings that I have experienced I’ve
developed the theory of “joke” short stories for readings.  Not that a reading has to be funny, but that
it should be constructed like a joke.
There is the set-up. 
A man walks into a bar
at the top of a rise building.  It’s a
swanky place, but there’s a guy in a suit and glasses slumped at the bar.

The tale. 
“I can’t believe this
view,” says the man, looking out the window.
“Yeah, but you’ve got
to look out for the cross-winds.  They’re
killer,” says the drunk guy, brushing a curl of dark hair off his forehead.
“What are you talking
about?” asks the man.
The drunk guy stumbles
off his bar stool.  “Here I’ll show
you.”  He opens the window and steps out,
but the winds sweep in and he simply hovers in air and then steps back into the
bar.
“Holy cow,” says the
man.  “I can’t believe that.”
“Give it a try,” says
the guy in glasses.

The pay-off.
The man steps off the
building and plummets to the ground.  The
bartender looks up from polishing the glasses as the drunk guy sits back
down.  “Jeez, Superman, you are mean when
you drink.”



The story has to have a pay-off or the audience sort of
stares at you like cows in a field.  It
doesn’t have to be a funny pay off, but there has to be some sort of solid finish
that gives an audience a feeling of conclusion.  Usually, it’s some sort of twist that reveals the truth or that gives the audience the
key to understanding the story. I’ll be reading a condensed version of a short story from my Shark Santoyo story.  Hopefully, Noir at the Bar enjoys what I’ve selected for
them.  Wish me luck!

Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie Mae Mystery Series, Tales
From the City of Destiny, San Juan
Islands Mysteries, Shark Santoyo
Crime Series, and numerous short stories. When she’s not traveling to
exotic lands, or kicking some serious butt with her fourth degree black belt in
karate, she can be found chasing her daughter or glued to the computer working
on her next novel. You can also catch up with her on YouTube,
Twitter and Facebook.

Post-Publication

/in /by
By Bethany Maines
Me Before Publishing:
I just love writing and I would never bother anyone to buy my books.  In fact, I prefer not to talk to people at
all.  I’ll just stay in my writing cave
over here and type some more.
Me After Publishing:
BUY MY BOOKS!!!  REVIEW MY BOOKS!!! I
NEED A STREET CORNER AND A BULLHORN STAT! 
WHY DON’T YOU LOVE MEEEEEEEEE!!
You would think that the amount of sales affected that
post-publishing sentiment, but they don’t. 
Not a bit. Publishing a book, or presenting any piece of artwork for
public consumption, is to lay bare some piece of the soul in a very public
way.  It’s very difficult to maintain any
sort of equilibrium as reviews from readers trickle in.  Some of the reviews can be wonderful and have
you floating high in the sky and others have you raging and stomping around the
house.  But even the angry-makers are a
validation of a kind.  Someone read my
book and cared enough to leave a review! 
Yes, they thought my main character was snarky, but they cared enough to
comment, damn it!  The worst is
silence.  You, you invisible people, you
bought the book!  I know you did.  It’s right there in the sales report.  You didn’t read it?  You read it, but didn’t love it?  Why don’t you love meeeeeee? 

And we’re back in the loop.
Which is when it’s important to take a breath, step away
from the computer and go for a walk.  Or
talk to the dog.  And Kato says that it’s
time for a walk, so off I go.
Erm… by the way, have I mentioned I have a new book out (and book 1 is still ¢.99)?
Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie Mae Mystery Series, Tales
From the City of Destiny, San Juan
Islands Mysteries, Shark Santoyo
Crime Series, and numerous short stories. When she’s not traveling to
exotic lands, or kicking some serious butt with her fourth degree black belt in
karate, she can be found chasing her daughter or glued to the computer working
on her next novel. You can also catch up with her on YouTube,
Twitter and Facebook.