Blood Link

Question: How do you know if the book really works?

Answer: You don’t. You think it does, but it’s just a delusion brought on by too much Jack Daniels, too many late nights, and an inflated ego.

The truth is that you don’t really know if your novel works until you send your little disaster out to a small group of people you trust and let them look at it. I usually consider drinking heavily before doing it, while they have it, and before reading their comments, suggestions, corrections, and, in some cases, outright abuse of my talents. I sent Blood Link VI – The Slayer out to the betas this week and we’ll see if I’ve done well or if I suck oily bilge water.

I’ve talked about Beta Readers before. These are the brave souls who volunteer (okay, I coerce them) to read the manuscript after I’ve done all I can to make it readable. These people must love you enough to do it, but respect you enough to tell you the truth as they see it. Not everyone will like what you’ve written. What matters is that they are capable of articulating what works or doesn’t work.

My regular Betas are a diverse group. There are about a 8-12 per book and it’s a fairly even mix of men and women. A hair stylist, two retired attorneys, a gun shop employee, a librarian, a truck driver, a schoolteacher, a great-grandmother, a fitness instructor, an administrative assistant, a housewife, an assembly line worker, and several retirees all read the same book at the same time and provide their own unique perspective. About 2/3rds have prior military service and most are currently employed.

Diversity is important. A novel with a strong military component has to be written so a housewife in Pocatello, Idaho, with no military background can follow the action and still be technical enough not bore the hell out of a former Marine in Miami, Florida. The love story has to excite those that enjoy a little sex and romance, without ruining the action by overloading the pages with batting eyes and ripping bodices.

Betas also have to work for free because I’m poor and can’t pay them. The betas appear in the acknowledgements and they get a copy after publication for their e-reader. That’s not much considering the amount of time and energy some of these people devote to my books. I usually promise them beer or food if we’re in the same place at the same time, but I try not to visit any of them so I don’t have to pay up.

Within a week of sending out the manuscript, I have the first responses back. There are three Betas who don’t worry about anything but the story. They might note a missing word or an awkward sentence, but they aren’t there to correct grammar. Their job is to devour the book as though they picked it up in a bookstore. Their comments within the manuscript are generally short and pointed:
“I liked it right up to here, than you bored me.”
“This character is a caricature.”
“You rushed the ending.”
“You left this plot line unresolved.”
“This chapter has no valuable content”
“Loved this”
“Hate this”
“Where’s the threat?”
“Who is this?”
“Great dog!”

Their overall comments are no less succinct:
“It works and I liked it a lot.”
“Much better than the last book.”
“It’s okay. I think you need to spend more time on XXXXXX to fully develop the plot.”

The rest of the readers take two to three weeks to finish. Some catch a little, some catch a lot, some are really into the language. I have at least two who are talented enough to be paid editors. I love the grammar people since I suck at it.

I truly adore the people with the courage to challenge me. One reader pointed to a particular spot and told me that she was bothered by what my character did. She didn’t feel that my heroine would cry at this point, but would instead remain strong until later in the day when the problem had been resolved and then cry. After mulling it over for a few days, I concurred with her and adjusted the chapter.

One marked a spot and wrote, “You pissed me off as a reader. This is it? This is all he has to say? What the hell is wrong with you?” Needless to say, I reworked that section of the story.

The story isn’t finished until the betas say it’s finished.

I’m now going to go add some Jack to my coffee and wait impatiently.

I’m very proud to announce my newest release is now available. I hope you all enjoy it.

The Healer – Blood Link V

Where the military and vampires meet.

What Holly doesn’t know is that there’s a hacker out there looking for a way into Camp Revells, and he’s sure she’s that way in. “Invicta” is chasing “Portunes” through cyber space and he now wants Holly almost as much as he wants to destroy the vampires of Camp Revells. What “Invicta” hasn’t counted on is that once Mac meets her, he will want her too.

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

Available now for your Kindle at Amazon through the link on the right.
Also available in paperback at CreateSpace or Amazon.

Yes, it has happened – the two lone particles in my brain have collided and an idea has formed.

Hot Deputies Boffing in Utah

Yup! That’s the story for NaNo 2013. I have no title yet, so this is what I’ve been calling it since the idea first started forming several years ago. It’s not a pretty working title, but at some point we all know that this is what will be happening when the lead characters get together. How did I get here? Well… it’s a little convoluted.

When I was writing Blood Link back in 2009/10, I called to talk to my friend Darryl (Del) LeBouef. The original question was about terrain models, and this turned into a discussion about continuity of training in the military and the Rangers in particular. Somehow, we wound up talking about the desert phase of his Ranger training at Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah. Dugway is where our country tested all of our chemical and biological warfare stuff. It’s also picked up the nickname of Area 52 since NASA crashed a damaged satellite there a few years ago. As usually happens with Del and I, the stories began. (Have I mentioned that I love to hear men tell stories?) Anyway, Del is a master storyteller and this one had just the right amount of cool and freaky. The vivid picture he painted with his words has stuck with me and was what sent me researching and digging. Dugway was and is the ideal setting for some kind of bad crap to happen. But what?

Then in 2011, my friend Arwen and I were zipping up the highway heading for Salt Lake City to do some genealogy research, and she had slowed to pass through a piddly little town in Kanab County. I spied a group of men clustered outside one of the small gas-and-go type places. This was a group of about eight rancher/farmer/hunter types just standing around with their coffees or sodas talking about whatever it is that men talk about in these clusters. In the center of the group, was a damn fine specimen of a man in blue jeans, tan sheriff’s shirt, and a cowboy hat. He was laughing with the others, but his eyes were on the passing traffic. I have never been able to ignore a damn fine specimen of a man. However, I have learned that when you see one in the wild, look only with your eyes and not your hands. Touching leads to AARP issues – Arrest, Arraignment, Restraining orders, and Pointy comments from Mr. Scott because he had to come get me. Again. Thank goodness Arwen didn’t stop the car and my confinement was averted. And thanks to that little drive-by, I now had my hero firmly planted in the back of my empty little brain.

Not too long after the Utah trip, my friend Teresa McCormick announced she had joined the Army Reserves and would be deploying to Afghanistan. Teresa is a former Air Force Security Policeman who was now going to be in an Army MP unit. She LOVES the military. She’s great on the range firing weapons, but at the same time, she’s very much a “girl.” She loves shoes, clothes, dresses, shopping, wine, Skittles, and wears makeup! She even had the audacity to look good deployed! I had the brilliant thought that my female lead character could be a former MP who’s also a cop, and moves to Utah. I could come up with a lot of stuff for that. And I might even let her own a pair of heels and wear makeup as a nod to Teresa. All I needed to do was come up with a story that placed her in front of a smoking hot deputy and surely something good would come of that.

As I researched my location, the people who will populate the fringes of my story have emerged. As it always is with me, the more I read and learn, the more questions I have. I sent off for maps of the area, and emailed and made phone calls to other Rangers that Del knew. More stories have been added to my catalog about Dugway over the last year, and I was pretty close to where I wanted to be.

I know I can create a good book with the elements of Dugway as a character, the old Ranger stories, the deputy who can laugh, but never stops being watchful, and a smart, tough woman who has to look forward not back. But the sticking point has always been that I don’t write straight romance. There has to be an outside factor or threat that brings them together in a certain place at a certain time.

It turns out that I knew what that threat was the entire time.

Question: If you wanted to steal, build, or store a weapon containing a dangerous chemical or nerve agent, where would you do it?

Answer: Wherever there are chemical or nerve agents already.

We’ll have to see if this premise works out, or if the story leads me down a different path.

Stay tuned.