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That Saturday Matinee Feeling

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Sometimes, all I want from a book is a good clean read with some fast-paced action and a hero/heroine without a lot of angst. The kind of story that makes for a good Saturday afternoon movie – Stagecoach, Indiana Jones, Star Trek (the new ones), or Twister. I just want to read something that takes me away for a couple hours and leaves me content to have spent the time.

Thirty years ago, I couldn’t get enough of Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum, and James Michener. I wanted to be buried in history, intrigue, and details. Great stories and great books. But now, I’m happier with something a little less laden with those things. I’ve gone back to re-read the stack of Louis L’Amour books in the back of my closet.

I’ve tried other western writers, but the only one I really like is L’Amour. He wrote in a clean, crisp style without any fuss or ambiguity. L’Amour kept it simple. His heroes are men who sit tall in the saddle and do the right thing. They’re generally men who read and care about the law. They’re honorable and loyal. All things that I admire. Perhaps that’s why I like them so much. I’m tired of anti-heroes and people with too many “issues.”

Writing a clean lead character like that is hard. We’ve come to expect the complex character and anything less makes them feel “cookie cutter.” Your hero must display an emotional depth under their cool veneer without a buttload of angst to go with it.

Don’t we all just really want a good guy who rides in, gets rid of the bad guy, and saves the ranch for the girl? Throw in a good fist fight, maybe a shoot out, and an Indian attack for good measure and you’ve got a book and movie. A good example would be Hondo . Written in 1952, it was a Louis L’Amour short story (original title The Gift of Cochise) that became a movie in 1953 starring John Wayne. Hardly the best John Wayne movie, but a strong tale, well told.

In watching Hondo again, I realize that I’m frequently trying to just write another variation of one of the many Louis L’Amour’s heroes I enjoyed reading about. I’m good with that – the world needs more uncomplicated heroes. Now if I could just channel a little more Louis L’Amour in my writing, I’d be golden.

“Why did the young think that dreams were only for them? The old dream also, with less hope, less anticipation, yet they dream.” High Lonesome, 1962

It’s All About the Color

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Once again, Dean from Liquid Reality Studios has come through again. I call and whine and make inarticulate suggestions – Dean nods and smiles (internally pointing and laughing) and comes up with something terrific in a very short time.

8 June – We decide to make a change to the site.
Dean – Do you have a theme in mind?
Me – Ummm… theme?
Dean – Theme. You know… what it looks like when you open the site.
Me – Ummm… something different, but easy and not fussy.
Dean – Have a look at this and see if you think it might work? (Sends link to a theme. I spend the evening going through the demo and looking at options.)

9 June
Me – I don’t know about the gray border.
Dean –We can change that. How about the layout? This could work really well with the book link buttons.
Me – Buttons?
Dean – On the pages that displays the book and descriptions. We can link to all the sellers. We can even set up a link for you to sell your own books that you sign if you want.
Me – I saw those. That’s cool. Is this theme easier for you?
Dean – Yes. (Spends several minutes telling me about stuff I don’t understand. He seems pretty excited about some of it.)
Me – Okay. Let’s use it.

11 June
I received a link to look at my new site. I wasn’t too excited by what I first saw. It’s got the gray border of the sample and the first block on the Home page is the “About Me” block. Ick! However, the more I look at the other things on the site, the more I like the layout and the ease. I spent some time working my way through all the stuff and clicking all the new buttons.

12 June
Me – I like a lot of it, but can we change the home page around?
Dean – Sure. (We do the Any Desk thing and he takes over my desktop so I can see what he’s doing while he asks questions.)
Me – I don’t like the gray border.
Dean – What color do you want?
Me – Ummm… not pink or purple.
Dean – Earth tones? (He does some sand colored things and I’m not excited.) How about greens?
Me – I kinda like that sage green color from the cover of Saving Emily.
Dean – No problem. (Thirty seconds later, he’s made the changes and the colors work.)

I drink coffee and answer questions as he clicks and types. As usual, I don’t have a clue what he’s doing. Fifteen minutes later, the site is basically done. We ended the call and he went to work adding new images for the books so they’d display properly. He also created a couple images for me to use on the blog to replace things that would now look wonky because of the size changes. My job was to replace the featured images on the blog pages and make sure all the text showed properly.

2 hours after we end the call, I sent him mail:
Me – Ummm… you shouldn’t trust me… I managed to delete the cover for A Shared Fear. Yes… I am a loser and embarrassed….
Dean – Fixed it. 🙂 Try not to delete ANYTHING in the top 3 rows. 🙂 Thanks.

3 hours after that mail, I received mail from him:
Dean – You apparently deleted the Parker image that I was using for the coming soon counter page. 🙂 I went ahead and updated it with the new Boots Image. 🙂 I think it looks really good. Just figured I’d let you know.
Me – Hahaha – I am a total loser.
He had the good grace not to reply.

13 June – My new site goes live and looks terrific.

There aren’t enough words to thank Dean for all he does for me when it comes to my websites and getting my books out there. There might not even be enough money for all he has to put up with from me. The poor man will have to go through it all again in a week or so when we change and upgrade my genealogy site.

Me – What does that button do?
Dean – It will make me hang up and never answer another call, email, or text from you.

Website Changes Coming

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It’s about that time again. I know it seems like we just changed the site, but it’s actually been a few years. As the styles change and themes age, things seem to start breaking down. Dean’s had to work a lot harder recently to keep this particular theme up and operating properly. With that in mind, we’re planning on changing the look and style… again

We could probably keep this theme going for a while longer, but we’ve talked it over and the timing makes sense. He’s available now, and I’m in final edits on The Loose End. We might as well have a new killer looking site to go along with the release of the new book.

Notice the use of the royal “We”? Like I have any kind of a clue about what he’s doing.

Dean is always so cool and confident when we undertake this stuff. Even though I know he’s got a handle on it, my inner control freak absolutely loses her sh*% and begins to run screaming around in my brain like her hair is on fire. As I sit quietly and listen to Dean talk about the changes, inside my head there is full scale chaos and pandemonium. A thousand questions pop into my head – each one seemingly more important than the last. None of which I need to actually ask. As my mental breakdown takes on a life of its own, I nod, smile, and thank him for doing it. This is what he does for a living and he’s been taking care of all my stuff for the last umpteen years.

When Dean’s finished, he’ll have the site in test mode, and I’ll get to go in, look around, ask him to adjust a couple small things, and he’ll explain everything to me in language I can understand. Yes, he’ll have to dumb it down for me. Then I’ll tell you all how great MY new and improved website is, as though I actually had something to do with it.

I’ll let you all know when Dean’s done doing whatever it is that Dean does. Until then the current site will continue to function and you can still get in touch through here, via email, or through my Facebook page.

Blood Link VII: The Lonely

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Blood Link – where the military and vampires meet.

Tobias Evans struggles with his knowledge of the coming battle with Margaretta. In his visions, he’s grievously wounded by a silver blade in his back. The gore covered stone floor is cold and hard beneath his knees, and a chill settles between his shoulder blades as weakness overwhelms him. Tobias has been devastated each time he sees and feels the event, but it isn’t the battle, the blood, or even the pain that causes him distress. His anguish comes from the clear and certain belief that he could be leaving someone behind—someone he loves and who loves him. Tobias doesn’t know if he will survive the maelstrom of carnage and death surrounding him, but as darkness begins to crowd his sight, he begs God for something he has never asked for before—another day above ground for the sake of his unknown love.

112,000 Words
Editor: Arwen Newman
Cover Design: Liquid Reality Studios

Available from Amazon for your Kindle or in paperback.
Blood Link VII – The Lonely is also available at CreateSpace in paperback.

Q & A From No Safe Haven

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I often get asked questions about the books, so here are a few about the most recent one.

Q – Where did the idea for this story come from?

A – I had lunch with my friend Kit Dodd who played viola with a symphony. We went to high school together, but hadn’t seen each other in years. He and his wife live in a world of music and the arts, and I spent most of my life in the military and then had a construction drafting business. It’s hard to imagine two people with less in common, but we’d always gotten along well. I wondered how I would manage if I tried to live in his world. It might be amusing, but hardly interesting for a book. Then I questioned how Kit would manage if he was dropped into a world of cops and military people? Now that had potential. Then it became about creating a plausible story line. As a side not – Kit would have adapted an overcome just as Ben does.

Q – So is the hero based on Kit?

A – Inspired by is a better choice. Kit provided a lot of background and was generous with his time in answering questions. Certain things that he said made it directly into the book. Kit was such a positive and decent man and irrepressible in many ways that I tried to carry that into the writing. The book is dedicated to him.

Q – Most of the men in your books cook. Does Mr. Scott do the cooking?

A – Not at all – this why it’s called fiction. He’s capable of preparing quality ramen and outstanding fried egg or grilled cheese sandwiches. Anything beyond that is not happening. I’m not particularly fond of cooking, so I fantasize about men who do that sort of thing. I like to think of them as warrior chefs.

Q – The photo on the cover looks like the described cemetery. Is that a real place?

A – Yes. The photo is from a small family cemetery in Southern Arizona and was taken by the editor for this book Arwen Newman. We walked back into this cemetery one afternoon and I fell in love with the place. I’ve visited it several times since, and I try to go in the spring when the irises are blooming. The description of the cemetery is reasonably accurate, but I took a lot of liberties with the ranch itself. There are loads of these small ranch/family cemeteries out here and we’ve visited many of them. This particular one is my favorite and that’s why I incorporated it into the book.

Once again – write what and who you know.

Some Days…

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I get a little weirded out when someone that I’ve known for years and is a Facebook friend suddenly asks, “Are you a writer?” This happens pretty much every time that I post a link to my latest book. There are a hundred responses although none of them are really polite.
Did you not see the other twenty comments congratulating me?
Did you not see “Works at Author” on my page?
Did you not see all the posts about writing and where I was at in the process?
Did you not pay the least bit of damn attention to anything in the last ten years that we’ve known each other?

Instead, I type, “Yes. Here’s a link to my website.”
I don’t really trust myself to say anything else.

The other one that sort of sends me into a corner shaking is, “Are you a good writer?”

What? Are you kidding me?
Truthfully, I always have the urge to respond with, “No. No, I’m not. I suck stinking, oily, feces-laden, bilge water. Thanks for fucking bringing up, you Asshat.”

Instead, I type, “I’m not bad.” Or “I’m pretty good.”

This will without a doubt be followed by the question: “What do you write?”

Jeeeeezzzzzeeee… do you not see the freaking link right there in the post that will take you to the damn book? Or how about clicking on the damn link to my website that I just freaking posted. Make a damn effort. Books, you jackass. I write freaking books. Guns, explosions, sex, more violence. What do you want from me?

Instead, I type, “I write contemporary fiction featuring strong women with military or law enforcement backgrounds, containing elements of action, suspense, and romance. I also write a paranormal series about military vampires under the name L. Scott.

Some days it is incredibly hard not to just say what passes through my brain, but then I remind myself that this is Facebook. These aren’t people that I see every day or even every year. We’re people with a common past and at least they’re asking.

It’s fine…