Down time or so you think by Paty Jager

I recently finished a first book in a new series and jumped right into the next book of my mystery series, with the goal of getting it written in a month. It is possible, I can write enough words every day to get it done.

The problem is keeping the other stories bouncing around in my head at bay. Writers know what I'm saying. If you aren't a writer, think of a time in your life, like maybe you are going to have family visiting for a week at Thanksgiving or Christmas. Every night when you lay down to go to sleep or as you are driving somewhere or walking the dog or watching your kids play- all the things you need to do to prepare for their visit and the big day keeping popping into your head. Which should I do first? How should I arrange where people sleep? Who can I get to help me prepare meals? What are we going to do with loud uncle Merv when the babies are trying to nap? How much toilet paper do I need to have on hand with that many people in the house? If we have tuna fish sandwiches for lunch one day, how many cans of tuna do I need?

Most nights while trying to sleep and as I am driving long distances (which I do often living in the boonies) I have stories with as inane questions as above running through my head. These questions might be... Did I tie up all the loose ends in the book now with CPs? Should I make the next amateur sleuth a woman or a man? Who is going to own the isolated ranch - the female or male character? Who should be the next heroine in the next Saloon book? Did I give just enough and not too much information to give clues to the murder without giving it away? How can I make a prequel with a romance for a character who needs to be single for his own book? How do I tie my Silver Dollar Saloon series to Deadwood for a story going into a book for a cause? When do I need to change some things on my website? Did I do the right wording for an ad? Can I swing another conference? What the heck am I thinking trying to write so many series?

Stephanie Berget, me, Mary Vine

I went away for the weekend to sell books and enjoy the Blue Mountains of Oregon. I stayed in a 10 x 16 cabin with another writer and we sat all day long for three days with another writer. There wasn't down time. We talked writing, the business of writing, the life of being a writer and several other things, but 80% of the time it was about writing.

For those who think writing is  a hobby, think again., Writing is whole different mind set and when we had some people come up and mention they were writers we encouraged them to join writing groups either in person or online because, as all writers have learned, there is nothing as validating as getting in with a group of writers and finding out there are others who have the same voices in their heads and we aren't all crazy!

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 32+ novels, novellas, and anthologies of murder mystery, western romance, and action adventure. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. This is what Mysteries Etc says about her Shandra Higheagle mystery series: “Mystery, romance, small town, and Native American heritage combine to make a compelling read.”



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Writers at Work

by M.L. Buchman

When my kid was little, she was riding with her mom in the car. A flagger stopped them at a construction site and they both watched the happenings around them in a comfortable silence. Then my kid turned to her mom and delivered her first-ever complete sentence with absolute seriousness, "Men move dirt."

I've done a lot of jobs over the years; some fairly normal, some rather peculiar, and yes, some moving dirt. I spent five years odd-jobbing in restaurants, rebuilding a 50' sailboat, as an electrician and technical director in live theater, etc. Then I stumbled into corporate and for the next few decades I did a wild array of law, computers, construction, opera, and even designing tourist maps. I was on the leading edge of IT, Lean, Project Management, and a dozen other things that have turned into a blur.

And then 2-1/2 years ago, I became a full-time writer. That's not a leap you make idly, or should make at all without massive savings or a large retirement fund. We had neither but by dint of hard work (and totally awesome fans), it's working out okay.

So, we decided to take our first vacation in a long time. Let's just say that having a kid in college during a recession that cost me two different jobs and the loss of a house I'd designed and built to last as long as we lived, we haven't had one in a while. But we checked the bank account, and then we checked it again, and it said, "Sure, but don't go wild."

Oddly enough, that was easy. We live in the Pacific Northwest and it is one of the most beautiful places on the planet (No, wait! Don't move here. It rains all the time. Honest...No, really!). We thought about it a little and I also happened to think about the book I was presently writing. The lead female character was being reluctant about revealing her past...in other words, she didn't have one and was falling flat on the page due to the lack.

And then I thought about a nice trip and I turned to my wife, "Victoria, BC on Vancouver Island seems like a nice place to visit, doesn't it?" We've both been there several times and it is truly one of the highlights of the Northwest. "Sounds like a good place to come from as well," my stumbling character stood upright and nodded knowingly to the north.

It did.

So we drove from our home on the Oregon Coast, up along the Olympic Peninsula, and took a ferry over to Victoria. And that's when things started getting strange. As the ferry was pulling in, I looked out the window and saw the town's gorgeous skyline. Which I didn't get a picture of, because I was taking this one instead.

Little known fact, Victoria is the second busiest seaplane port in North America (the busiest is Skagway, Alaska because it's the only way in or out). And parked right there was the plane that I had already decided would be the featured aircraft in my current novel (a DHC-6 Twin Otter). At this point my character was chortling over my shoulder, "That's where I learned how to fly." I'd been wondering.

Then we visited the BC Royal Museum, one of the nicest small museums anywhere. My wife had arranged a behind the scenes tour where we, by pure chance, managed to meet the Head of Exhibits, the guy who heads the group that builds, installs, and maintains all of the exhibits. No pictures, but a great half hour conversation. My character thought this was almost as cool as I did and insisted that she wanted to work here before joining the military.

Then we wandered down to the docks where I was able to see my planes a little closer.

Even a lot closer.

I also spent about a half hour chatting with a pilot about handling characteristics and a tricky landing he made in Malta that is definitely going to end up in the book somehow.

We drove all over Victoria to find out where my character lived. We explored libraries and finally took a little ferry ride to see what her daily commute would be like. These ferries are just too cute for words. They're so cute, they even do ballets. Watch this, you'll thank me. (Ballet begins around 1:00.)

As we were taking this tiny ferry tour along the harbor, my wife and I were taking photographs and discussing what my heroine might see and think as she passed different sights. We were afloat in a beautiful harbor on a gorgeous day and would soon be out having a nice English tea in the middle of our first vacation in seven years.

Then I was struck by an interesting thought and I turned to her in astonishment and said:
"I'm working right now."

Let's hear it for being a writer!

My character who grew up in Victoria, won't actually have her book out until next September...it isn't even finished yet. But my next Firehawks book will be out in two weeks, so you might want to catch that in the meantime. It's set in another lovely part of the Pacific Northwest.

Release August 4th - available for pre-order now

This is definitely my favorite job yet!

Focusing Forward!

by M.L. Buchman

We're in the depths of our tax season. Everyone's whining about them. My accountant called in desperation for three additional numbers he needed. He probably hasn't slept in two months, so it's hard to be upset by the desperation aspect. A friend has decided that starting five new businesses in overlapping segments of the market may have made sense in 2012, but certainly doesn't during tax time of 2013.  (The businesses aren't the problem, it's the tax work that's making him grumpy... We're all avoiding him this week.)

My plan? Focus forward. I finally learned, after many harrowing years, long extensions and poor calculations (on my part), to turn my taxes into an accountant on the very first day I have all of the information, around February 5th. Whew! Glad to be done with that.

Why especially? So that I can focus forward. I used to let the prior year dribble 2,3,4,5,6,7.... months into the following year. So, then what am I thinking about? Last year! I'd do that with the tail end of projects as well. Now I finish them as thoroughly and quickly as I can. Me? I'm looking ahead.

Right now I'm entering my third month as a full-time writer. And here's a report on what that's like:

Month 1: Cut expenses, cut expenses, cut expenses.
Dump the house that we can't afford to live in and had rented out for far too little money. Move to somewhere significantly cheaper. Get rid of all that crap (then we don't have to pay to move it or have a bigger place so that we can keep it.) Plan to live cheaper in every aspect. Sell a car that we don't really need. Anything to cut down.

Month 1-2 Interlude: Clean up the past.
I took ugly covers, updated them. I found indie pub channels that I liked, I published to them. I found indie pub channels that I had always been meaning to check out, but ultimately didn't feel they were worth the effort for me at this time. I had eight indie-pub novels and we dug through them to make sure they were as clean and well presented as we could (my wife is AWESOME! and helped a lot with that).

Month 2: Start writing.
It was still pretty jinky, bits of the past kept leaping out of closets and trying to tackle me. Being only so quick on my feet, I get hammered to the ground more than I'd like to admit. But, that old Japanese proverb kicks in, "Fall down 7 times get up 8."

This last 2 weeks, I did as much writing as I normally did in 2 months. Now that is really exciting. That's the key to my plan from here on out.

Focus Forward.

M.L. Buchman's military romantic suspense was named Top 5 Romance of 2012 by NPR. The next novel in his contemporary romance series "Angelo's Hearth" will be out in mid-April. He also writes fantasy under Matthew Lieber Buchman and has a foodie thriller as Matthew J. Booker.