OG is Bored - Heaven Help Us!

Hopefully by now you are well enough acquainted with OG to grasp the importance of that statement. Before we moved to California, he had an entire sixty-year-old house to work on. There was never a shortage of projects to keep him out of trouble. Since the move he's been cooped up in a condo half the size where most of the work has already been done by professionals.

You'll note I said most. Until last week, there remained one potential do-it-yourself project--the shower in the master bath hadn't been touched in forty years, and the tile was starting to buckle. No longer! Our daughter visited us for Car Week on the Monterey Peninsula in the middle of August, and two days after she left OG ripped out our shower. It turned out to be a very good thing.

Beneath the tiles, we discovered plywood--nothing more. No waterproofing of any kind, just soggy, moldy plywood. If you know anything about construction, you know this was not an approved method even forty years ago. OG cut out the plywood, re-plumbed the shower with a non-scald balancing valve (yaaay!), and is putting up concrete backer board. Next comes the tile, then a new shower door. 

I have no idea how long this may take, but I told him I'd like it finished by my birthday the first week of October. He laughed, but I have enough experience with his home improvement projects to be cautious. When he remodeled the master bath in our last house, it took six months. He's quite skilled, but (oddly) not quite as young as he used to be. Besides, with any construction project things happen. They just do. You might as well expect it and make peace with it.

Since he started this project, OG has taken a bit of a physical beating. The shower stall is small, and it's hard on the legs to spend a lot of time working in a crouched position. His hands are scraped from cutting and screwing the backer board, but having a project with a goal is well worth the aches and pains.

OG retired a number of years ago and has always struggled to keep himself occupied. In contrast to the many years he spent working in an office, he prefers to work with his hands on projects that produce a tangible result. Since I retired from insurance and we moved, I've been very busy with my career as a writer and designer, but OG hasn't had much to do. The shower project has been good for his psyche, if not

his body.

Our contractor is building him a workshop under the family room in our new house, where I hope he'll find enough interesting things to do to keep boredom at bay for several years to come. If he can't stay busy at home, I might have to resort to renting him out just to preserve my sanity.

My Biggest Project Yet

In January, I began the journey to a new portfolio career comprised of writing, book cover design, and editing. My first several projects were cover designs I've shared previously on this blog. I really enjoyed the challenge of learning a new set of skills and applying it to a new creative medium. I'm pleased with the results and look forward to enhancing and refining my graphic design skills in the future. My current project, however, has been a much larger undertaking.

I'm thrilled to announce the release of my fourth book Unwritten Rules. After publishing three books with a wonderful small press, I decided to take the plunge into the world of independent publishing with this new one. For a number of reasons the time seemed right. I was switching sub-genres from Western historical romance to contemporary romantic suspense and would no longer be able to work with my previous editor. Also, after designing several book covers for a friend, I wanted the opportunity to design my own. In my new business, I will be helping other independent authors realize their dreams, so I wanted to be familiar with the entire process.

It's been an exciting journey with a few bumps along the way (formatting is not my friend), but I'm satisfied and proud of the final product. And after all is said and done, that's the greatest reward.

Here's a blurb about the story:

Things aren’t going Madelyn Li’s way. Her bodyguard agency is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, her grandmother keeps hatching plots to marry her off, and someone is trying to kill her latest client. All she wants is to safely escort thriller writer and former CIA agent Carter Devlin on his cross country book tour and collect her check, but two obstacles stand in her way: a shadowy assailant and her own growing attraction to her dashing client.

Carter Devlin has agreed to accept the beautiful and determined Ms. Li as a bodyguard primarily to appease his publisher. After all, who would want to kill a beat-up, retired ex-spy on a book tour? But when the attacks turn deadly, he soon learns there’s more to Madelyn than a pretty face and tempting body. Will the spark become a flame before a killer snuffs it out?

What have you been up to lately? What projects are you most proud of?

Switching Gears - Another Benefit of a Portfolio Career

For the past few weeks, I've been working hard on the edits for my contemporary bodyguard romance Unwritten Rules. It's now with one of my beta readers for what I hope will be a last read-through before I publish it later this month. Even when I'm satisfied with the text, I still have a major hurdle ahead. I'll need to format the manuscript for ebook publication--something I've never tried before. I've read articles on the subject and taken an online course, but I know I'm in for several days of hair-pulling frustration. 

To give myself a break before tackling the challenge of formatting, I decided to switch gears and work on cover designs. After living, breathing, and dreaming words for weeks, spending time with visual images was a welcome change. I came up with a couple of preliminary options for a Christmas novella I hope to publish this fall. If I don't finish it in time for the holidays, I'm not going to beat myself up. It will still be a wonderful story next year. That's one of the best things about self-publishing--I write to my own schedule.

I also started work on samples for pre-made covers I hope to offer through my new business, Creative Author Services, once I get it up and running. Although I expect to custom-tailor covers for each individual author, I want to give potential clients an idea of my artistic vision and graphic style. Ebook covers need to make a strong visual statement to attract readers even in thumbnail format, so I've tried to put together simple, striking images. By the time I open CAS for business, I hope to have a full array of examples. Here are a couple of early mock-ups.

 

Some people create a portfolio career from multiple jobs out of necessity, as a way to achieve full time employment. That wasn't my objective. After retiring from my full time job, I was looking for a satisfying variety of pursuits. I love being able to switch gears and engage both sides of my brain, and I expect to continue to enjoy it for years to come.

Progress at Last!

I promised to keep you updated on the progress of our mammoth remodeling project, and I'm proud to report that I finally have something to report! After weeks of delays, Monterey County approved our building permit for the additions last week, so work on the master bath and family room additions has begun. The contractor had told us he planned to dig the footings yesterday, but when OG and I went out to the house Sunday afternoon, this is what we saw:

Here's a picture I took yesterday of the foundation guy jackhammering into the rock for the footings for the family room off the back:

And here's my new office:

A big mound of lumber has been delivered, the roof has been removed, and carpenters were framing the skylights this morning. The contractor assures me they will now make record progress, but he tends to be a very optimistic fellow. We're a few weeks behind schedule, but I plan to remind him regularly how much I'd like to be in the house by the first week of December. After 24 years of living in Minnesota--where no one in their right mind would consider moving in December--it sounds funny to even talk about it. However, as long as I have time to unpack the Christmas ornaments and decorate the tree before our daughter arrives, I don't care.

This week is Car Week here on the Peninsula, and our daughter is flying out from Chicago this evening to attend several auto-related events leading up to the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance on Sunday. She and OG are both car nuts (I have minimal interest), so they should have lots of fun together.

I'm Not as Young as I Think

How can that be? I'm pretty active, and like all baby boomers, I think I look younger than my age. Why do I feel like an old woman today?

You may recall I reported I'd taken up yoga a couple of months ago. I loved it, and things were going well. For some unknown reason, this week has been different. Tuesday, I couldn't stretch as far, and my hamstrings were unusually tight. No problem, I thought. I'll just stretch them out, and they'll be fine. Thursday, they were a bit tighter and threatened to cramp when I did the same routine I've been doing painlessly for two months. Today I couldn't even make it the whole thirty minutes. The muscles and tendons felt like they were tearing loose from the bones. Yeow!

Fortunately OG is an old hand at athletic injuries as a result of running track and playing football in high school. He diagnosed over-stretched hamstrings, slapped an ice pack on the worst one, and prescribed ibuprofen. Ever the good patient, I complied and it seems to be working. I can climb stairs, and I successfully managed to shave my legs in the shower. I'll take a couple of days off to heal and see how I do.

I have no experience with sports injuries (can you count yoga as a sport?). I've never broken a bone or even sustained a serious sprain. As a result, the pain took me by surprise. At first I simply chose to ignore it. I'm used to discomfort going away if I ignore it. After all, I'm young, fit, and flexible. Right?

Not so much. For the first time, I have to face the fact that my body is aging and learn to listen to it. I need to accept it--maybe even learn to like it. More important, I need to learn to take care of it. One of the most sobering realizations of reaching the mid-century mark is that we only have one body, and we have to live with and adjust to whatever happens to it. I'll keep exercising every day because I want to remain as active as possible for as long as possible, but I'll treat my body with the kindness it deserves. We have a long way to go together.

Updating my Author Brand

There's a lot of talk in writer circles these days about the importance of defining your brand. Much like a wireless phone provider or auto manufacturer, an author's brand encompasses the the desired public image of his or her product. T Mobile wants customers to identify their service with a hip, young brunette sporting hot pink. Chevrolet targets their truck ads at rugged, hardworking men like farmers or ranchers. S.C. Johnson describes itself as a "family company", a definition that emphasizes the trustworthiness and quality of their products.

So what is my brand, and why do I need to update it? I never gave the concept a thought when I began writing decades ago. I wrote the kind of stories that appealed to me as a reader, and my first three published books were Western historical romances. However, my tastes as a reader and writer have changed, along with the tastes of the majority of romance readers. Western historicals still enjoy a certain dedicated readership, but they are no longer as popular as they once were. My newest book is completely different--a humorous contemporary with strong suspense elements--and because I've decided to publish it myself, the issue of developing an appropriate author brand is even more important.

When changing genres, as I'm doing, many authors choose to write under a different name. But unless you abandon all earlier titles, that requires multiple websites and online personas--way too much work for me compared to the potential payoff. Realistically, I was never a big enough name in Western romance to worry about damaging an existing brand. I decided to establish a new brand that would reflect my new style but which could also encompass my earlier work. Besides, I might decide to write historicals again someday.Should I decide to abandon romance entirely for mysteries or family sagas in the future, I would probably use a pseudonym, but for now my own name will suffice.

To prepare for the task of creating a brand, I took an online course for authors on Creating A Marketing Plan, which included a lesson on branding. I also read several articles on the subject. Then I set out to define myself, starting with the question: What words do you want readers to associate with you and your books? I took into account self-defined strengths, as well as comments from readers and reviewers, and came up with the following: warmth, wit, and a touch of whimsy. I think those words describe me as a person and a writer, regardless of the sub-genre I choose. And putting my brand into words helps me keep it in mind as I write.

Finally, there's the issue of visual branding. Our products--books--have a certain look that tells readers what to expect. It might be softly romantic, darkly sensual, or lightly humorous. Historically, large publishers and their marketing departments have commissioned covers to promote an author's brand (although I know many authors who have been disappointed by a cover). Small presses usually take less care. The covers for my Westerns are lovely but do not suggest any type of author brand. 

By self-publishing, I can control that. I choose the look and content of my covers. But with control comes responsibility, and it's scary. I have to do it right or risk compromising and weakening the brand I'm working so hard to develop. I'm also re-doing my website to reflect my new brand. I'll unveil it here when it's finished, and you can tell me what you think.

It's a brave new world, and I'm jumping in with both feet!

Copyediting for the Twenty-first Century

I'm old-fashioned and willing to admit it, but I didn't realize how far behind the times I was until I began the copyedits on my upcoming release, Unwritten Rules.

In January I announced my plan to self-publish my next book. I loved working with the small press that published my first three books, but I wanted to spread my wings and try something new. My main impetus was the desire to create my own cover and hone my editing skills--both necessary since I plan to start my own business offering those services to other writers as part of my new portfolio career. 

Last week I finalized the cover design and am delighted with the results. Unwritten Rules is my first contemporary romance, and the cover captures the sassy, modern tone of the book perfectly. If only the copyedits were as easy.

For the past several years, I had noticed what appeared to be the demise of punctuation in printed material of all types and assumed it was a question of style and author preference. Turns out I was right. However, those preferences are no longer individual; they have gained the weight of printed authority in no less than The Chicago Manual of Style and other influential style manuals.  

When I began writing decades ago, I used Strunk and White's slim little volume, The Elements of Style. It was chock-full of common sense advice and recommended using commas every place you would normally pause in verbal speech. I added that to my existing arsenal of absolute rules drummed into me by years of junior high and high school English teachers. Unfortunately I graduated from high school a LONG time ago. Practices and standards have changed, and I missed the boat.

Two of my first purchases when I decided to embark on my new portfolio career were The Copyeditor's Handbook by Amy Einsohn and my own copy of The Chicago Manual of Style. I suspected (correctly) I needed updating as well as authoritative references. These resources introduced me to the concept of "open punctuation" and convinced me to give it a try. I can't begin to count the number of commas I've removed from my manuscript: after introductory adverbs, before terminal adverbs, between co-ordinate adjectives. Thank heaven the punctuation gurus still allow serial commas. I need to be allowed to retain a few favorite old habits.

I now recognize the kindness of my previous editors who made no effort to reign in my comma addiction, and I'll do my best--in my own work and that of my clients--to keep modern and up-to-date. Even in the face of near-fatal comma withdrawal. I promise.