T.C.'s Thought of the Moment

What comes first, plot or characters?

2012-01-21T10:48:00.004-05:00

The very first book signing I did, I remember one customer asking me: what comes first, the plot or the characters? Without hesitation, my answer is and will always be the characters.

It is my opinion that without strong characters, a story feels empty. Readers must be able to relate to those in the tale; to build a level of concern, sympathy or at least curiosity for the person they are meeting within the pages. That requires a character to have as much depth as a living, breathing person.

To build those characters, I first decide where they've come from; what is their background? Then the question is: how do they feel about that, how did it shape them? From there it's time to decide what their dreams and fears are, what kinds of things fuel their anger or fear or give them peace. What do they love, what do they dislike. And of course, it never hurts to learn their favorite foods, music, entertainment, whatever is relevant to the tiniest detail of their lives. It's different building a character for a story set in the here and now of what we all know than it is for developing a character to populate a setting hundreds or even thousands of years in the future, but the principles all stay the same. It's imperative for the author to get to know them like a best friend. What kinds of foods do they order at a restaurant or carry in their supply pack, what do they do with their free time, how do they react to uncomfortable situations? And the list goes on and on.

That is where all my stories start. From there I throw a few incidents at them, ones which start propelling a story forward. It is their reactions to the few set things I know the story needs - dictated by what I know about them and their world - that drives its every step. And that is how my stories are known for twists and turns and surprises that are true to the characters, but unexpected all the same.

Why do I write so often in a male point of view?

2012-01-12T19:56:00.003-05:00

Over the years I've been asked many questions about my writing. I've been writing -- seriously working the craft -- since the early 1990s. During all this time, some questions have been asked over and over - why I write in the point of view of so many male characters is one of them.

My first book featured 17 year old Codey Mathews as the star character. He was center stage and did not share it with a female lead. I don't know why, it was just the way the book unfolded. My second book featured a young mother, Cierra Lancing, but she shared the main stage with her confidant, Tristan Durant. It was important to show readers what was going on when Cierra wasn't with him. The Manipulated Evil Trilogy balanced out between female and male points of view but the girls won out by one in the end. Rise of the Arcadians, Desire and Rand shared that stage evenly, like Bryce and Kynly did for Among the Ancients. With the Disillusionment Series, it's also been fairly equal, but I have to say Tarenek has been the most fun to write, and yes, he's male.

I guess the answer is that I really don't have an explanation for it. I've never had anyone complain, but a few have been surprised when they discover I'm a woman. I write the characters as they come to me, not paying any attention to gender - only to character personality. The owner of any particular scene is the POV I write. In all my stories, I use multiple POVs to show readers the full scope of what's happening to change everyone. From there, it's just how it all works out.

The Beginning of the End

2012-01-03T20:08:00.002-05:00

By now most everyone has heard at least a mention of the Mayan Calendar and the general assumption is that the end of their calendar, which falls on December 21, 2012, is also the end of our world. Then there is the prophecy of the Hopi Indians. And of course there was the movie 2012. There are dozens and dozens of other stories, articles, Youtube videos, and blogs on the subject. Theories ranging from world ending events to the arrival of a higher consciousness abound.

I would like to believe some ability of deeper understanding for us humans could come about by the end of this grand new year, but my logical side is more inclined to believe any change that may happen will be so undetectable it won't be noticed.

It doesn't mean it's all lost though. 2012 sure can fuel ideas for a fiction author, especially one of fantasy and thrillers like me.

So, while theories continue to build about the true meaning of December 21, 2012 (maybe they merely ran out of room on their stone, or the stone containing 2013 and beyond was lost), I'll work on finishing Retribution: Disillusionment Book Seven, the final book of the series before December, and starting on a new tale. Not sure if I hope for another series so soon or not, but I'll go where the characters lead. Whether there's an end looming on the horizon or a beginning, or maybe both, I'm looking forward and forging on with new goals and projects.

Hopefully you can do the same with your year. Make 2012 a good one.

Amazingly... stumped

2011-11-30T19:07:00.003-05:00

Mankind as a whole tends to be viewed as advanced - right? I mean, we've populated a planet, erecting houses, skyscrapers and other constructions. We've electrified and lit up a good portion of the dry land so brightly it's seen from space, we've connected households around the world by the world wide web and multiple other miraculous achievements.

Yet, we misunderstand each other daily and fight over differences in opinions, religions, and just about any other thing we can disagree about. And on another level, one computer program to another can't run peacefully together, each car takes a different kind of wiper, oil filter, and the list goes on and on. Things are not made to work together, but to compete. Personally, I think, life is getting harder and harder because of it. Why can't we all just work together?

Oh, this latest run through philosophy my brain has taken, it all started with computer troubles. I pondered how nice life was before these horrible finicky contraptions we spend so much time on these days. I would have a little bit of an issue going back to an old typewriter or pen and tablet to get the stories that grow in my head out, but I could probably adjust and be better for it for having removed the stress of getting the programs all to play nice together - online and off.

So I sit and wonder just how far we have really come as a species. Seems like we still have eons of learning to do.

New Release

2011-11-17T16:59:00.003-05:00

My twelfth novel has just come out. I have the first copies in my office now and expect the purchase links to show up for Curse of the Gods: Disillusionment Book Five to appear soon. I'm eager for others to read Tarenek's story, but am diving right into the polishing of book six and the writing of book seven to hopefully finish the series next year and start something fresh.

But for now, I'm focused on the Disillusionment Series - futuristic fantasy where mortal humans are fighting the gods to save their world. If you aren't familiar with it yet, take a peek. You might like what you find.

Chipmunks and Recovery

2011-11-03T12:45:00.002-05:00

In 2003, we cleared out a small patch of woods and built a foundation for a doublewide trailer. We attempted to keep a couple grown trees in front of the house, but ice had different ideas and took one down the first few months we were in the house. It was the following summer that I realized a chipmunk (at least one) was living in the flower bed I built around the stump and remaining tree. That chipmunk, while adorable to watch proved to terrorize constantly over the years.

He caught my car on fire by bunching up a cluster of dry grass and sticks against the engine. He chewed off wires to throw the car sensors into a mess. He dug up roots to perennials I tried to plant, and bulbs never came up. He terrorized more by jumping out from under the porch each time you went out - squeaking and chattering to startle even when we expected it. I wondered when he would get bored of those pesky instances and move into the house to cause some real damage.

Our dog tried to dig him out. I tried to persuade him to move down back. We even transplanted one to my parent's house - completely by accident since he hitched a ride under the car somewhere. For a bit I had hope that the chipmunk was gone. It didn't take long for another to take its place. They were safe up here in front of the house, away from any predators. My daughter and I had standoffs with the chipmunk, attempting to chase him down, but those things can climb trees far too fast. The thing bordered on the fringe of funny to a little scary. I tried filling up his little tunnels all through my front flower garden. Tried laying big rocks over them, tried everything.

In amongst that time, my twelve year old suffered the loss of three dear pets to multiple skunk attacks - ducks she had gotten after a school project. Her oldest sister moved out. We lost a dear friend who walked out of our lives for no reason other than misunderstandings that left us fully in the dark. We lost security when my dad nearly died and his health remained hampered. We lost great grandparents, and had our faith in humanity shaken to the foundations for the mess that happened over my dad - a mess still not untangled yet. And there were dozens of dark little things too.

My youngest would grip me often in a tight hug and whisper "why does it all have to go bad at once?" I had no answer for her other than "I don't know, all we can do is carry on - try to focus on the small good things" while my heart broke again. She's only twelve and so kind-hearted. How do you make anything all right again, how do you help her feel safe again? I just hug her back and keep my teary eyes well hidden. Too much change or hurt too fast for all of us, especially my youngest.

Things are better now, but we are still balancing on a board that could tip one way or the other at any moment. The bad isn't done for any of us yet - things will continue to change drastically and leave empty spots for a year or so yet. I'm ready. I can only hope my youngest will be too.

This past week a family of four cats stopped by for a visit. One adult, a larger kitten, and two small kittens. I have no idea where they came from. They were not tame, running from us the moment they saw us. But my youngest would rush home from school and sit out on the porch to watch the kittens. Each day she did this until the one would go to her and purr under her hand. The other is close but still a little skittish. Then one day they were gone.

Cats don't stay around here long. We've lost more than I care to count either to wild animals, sickness, or other cats in fights. That's why I wouldn't get her one. I didn't want to see her heart broken again. She wondered about these two kittens she had befriended, but since they weren't technically ours, she wasn't painfully attached. Two days later, as I was making supper, I looked up to see the two little cats prancing across the road, headed for our driveway. I hollered to Shay that I found the cats. She rushed out and spent some time with them. Our visiting cats.

The chipmunk that has terrorized seems to be gone. Whether the cats "got 'im" or just chased him off, I don't know. I'm just thrilled to not have the little critter sitting all pretty on the stump, cleaning himself after he chewed off another plant or car wire. A constant little nag - now gone.

The cats seem to have gone back to wherever they came from again, but I'm fairly certain they'll be back for visits now. Could be they like Shay's company or the chicken bones she gives them. Either or, it works. And she's genuinely smiling again. For at least a little while, her mind is on something good again.

The chipmunk is gone for the moment and my youngest is smiling. All over the family of cats that just happened upon our house one day before the freak October 2011 snow storm.... Life is a mystery...

Ravyn of Tiernaine - The Unseen

2011-05-21T11:31:00.002-05:00

Ravyn of Tiernaine (first person point of view, but the books are written in 3rd.)

Seriously, you want me to talk about myself? Are you kidding me? I don’t stick around long and am only here for one purpose. Things aren’t right. Something isn’t right, and I need to make sure it’s not what I think it is. Because if it is, if Rhynon has arrived, things won’t end well.

I don’t have time for things like this either. Have to look after my kid brother and sister. Promised I would. Promised who? Our mother, if you must know. No, she’s not around, hasn’t been for a long time. Enough about that.

I need to keep moving, make sure they don’t find me because if he gets close enough, I’ll have to break for it and keep him from finding the other Guardians. Don’t ask me about them, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you. Few ever do, course, not like we go around announcing who we are. Better if we don’t. Hope you never need to know about us.

I hope the same about D’Arcy, but he’s poking around, poking where he shouldn’t be. I tried to warn him off nicely, but it apparently didn’t work. I’ll have to stop him, somehow. If he can be stopped. I swear, sometimes people just aren’t all that smart.

######

Read the first short piece I (the author) wrote for this character HERE. The Escape didn't get a spot in the print book, but it was the first building block for Ravyn and her background.

Character Ramblings One

2011-04-26T20:38:00.002-05:00

As requested, I've written up some small pieces from each of my characters to introduce them to the world in this blog. Characters are the most important thing in my writing. They drive my plots, keeping them fresh and unpredictable because the characters control it with their choices, choices that change as the story changes them.

I didn't realize how many characters I had until I started trying to do a small piece in first person (even though all my books are in third person) for each of them. Then the question became where to start. I decided to start with my well known Manipulated Evil Trilogy. The three books have several characters you will experience the story through. Kyle D'Arcy is the first and main character...

The Unseen, Scattered Souls, and Scorching Eden - the three titles of the Manipulated Evil Trilogy:

From Kyle D’Arcy of Earth, young college student from Pennsylvania, Altoona, Johnstown area.

~~~~~~~~~

Having your life ripped apart isn’t fun. I mean, if someone would’ve told me my old man was going to be murdered, I would’ve laughed at them. That stuff doesn’t happen, you know? Except it did, and then this woman shows up, I’ve never seen anyone like her, but man, did she have me. She flat out disappears, vanishes, but my old man had her picture in his wallet, and he’s not the type to go around with anyone like her. He’s a geneticist, cancer research, mostly, I think. Or he was anyway. Back when life was normal.

Now I need to find out who killed him and why. I have to find those answers. Can’t explain it really, but the second I saw that girl in person, things aren’t right, not as they should be, and that warning she gave me. What the hell was that, right? Appearing out of nowhere right on top of me after she vanished from in front of me with that threat she claimed was a warning – to not trust anyone in authority, to let my dad’s death go, that she’ll deal with the one who murdered him. Yeah right, and I’m not supposed to think she’s involved, or maybe even pulled that trigger.

I have a responsibility to find the answers. I may not have gotten along with Dad all the time, should’ve talked to him instead of avoiding him when he told me he had something he needed to tell me a couple weeks ago, but I’m sure going to make it right. She’s not going to get away with whatever it is she did…

~~~~~~~~~

Tarenek Brye Annis has arrived!

2011-04-17T18:35:00.004-05:00

The Freedom Wars: Disillusionment Book Four is freshly released, just now popping up at the online stores such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The first printed copies of the highly anticipated book arrived on my doorstep last week for those who ordered autographed copies, and those who will order.

The Freedom Wars is the first title of the seven book series to showcase the grown son, Tarenek, of demigod parents and the harborer of a vicious power never before successfully contained in a "human" body. The question is, will Tarenek be able to defy the odds and his predicted demise, and will he be enough to keep Earth's people free of the slaving race that considers themselves the Pure Ones and the gods of the galaxy.

If you are interested in purchasing this or any of my titles autographed for yourself or as a gift for someone else, please visit my website at www.tcmcmullen.com or email me at tcmcauthor(a)hotmail.com for details on how (I removed the @ symbol to protect against spammers).

The natural order of things...

2011-03-23T21:17:00.002-05:00

If I've learned anything lately, it's to not speak a date or time I plan to have something finished. I'm not sure why - if I'm being taught patience or if I'm subconsciously sabotaging myself, but ever since my return to work after some time away, nothing has gone as I'd like it to go. I'm still finishing things, just not to a schedule anywhere near where I first plan.

Then there are days like today. I awoke to a ringing phone after a night trying to sleep off a migraine. I struggled to pull my sleep-fogged mind to awareness and answer only to have someone ask for my husband. Um, no, he works. What time is he available? After dark most likely. Also most likely a lot later than I care to have the household phone ringing. So I gave the person his cell number. And that set the mood for the day.

The phone rang at least once every hour for my dear husband pertaining to a new business venture he is pursuing. At one point I had my business phone ring the same time the house phone rang at the same time I was trying to get my noon meal. After a while, at around 2 or 3 pm, I finally decided the answering machine could do the message taking job. I actually started to get some work done. I have a format on task, a cover to finish, my own book to finalize, a media release to prepare and pages on a website to update, and those are just the biggest things. I have no lack of work to occupy me. Then, as if by fate, thunderstorms rolled in.

At first, I ignored it, but then it started to hail and the lights flickered. And my internet went blank with the red light of death showing no signal. I'm not one for risking the computer, so I quickly saved the files I was working on and shut it down, grumbling. I was shut down from working by the weather after a day of trying to answer the annoying ringing phone. So, was that a sign I needed to veg-out for a bit? I don't know. I did get the kitchen cleaned, the dog brushed out (for a cockapoo, that's no easy feat), my art lessons organized, and the next lesson started. I suppose that counts for something.

I had a fleeting thought that I should write. I am a writer, and characters have kept me company often in the times of limbo between jobs or in instances like today. But the muse just hasn't been with me and writing without the muse is like pulling teeth. I also have two books of my own I must get out this year before fans start hollering too loudly. Next year I'll worry about finishing the final book of the Disillusionment Series. I did just recently finish a video for the series, so I am thinking about it and working on it. Just not writing it at the moment - or any moment longer than an hour or two in the last three months. Ugh.

Is there a message in the mess life seems? Should I revamp priorities, or slave from dawn to midnight to get things done? I don't know. I'm grateful for the things that are going right, for the good stuff, the cardinal and bluebirds in the yard, the food on the table, the clean water from the facet - and the fact that spring will arrive at some point. And the fact that the storms that came through here did not bring any hail larger than a dime or quarter and no tornado moved through unlike just a little west of us.

Gas prices, freaky storms, earthquakes, tsunamis, and more ... and all of that feels so much like what I researched to build my fictional Rise of the Arcadians. Oh - and mass deaths of migrating animals (fish and birds), and some are still laughing at the mis-named global warming that should have been called global climate change. Would it make a difference, probably not. But it doesn't matter. Life as we know it is absolutely changing. It's just that we don't all realize it at the time...

Now, I'll stop my nighttime rambling and go hug the pillow with hopes I don't dream of ringing phones.

Spring is in the air!

2011-03-17T21:25:00.002-05:00

It warmed up again today here in central Pennsylvania, the sun beaming bright and warm through all the south facing windows - which is all but two at my house. We sure didn't need any heat on and it felt good to see things greening up just a little with the first emergences of daffodils lifting above the soil. Not so good is the piles of driveway shale that got plowed into the yard with the snow or the trees and limbs that came down over the winter. It's all visible now that snow isn't covering it.

I've also finished The Freedom Wars: Disillusionment Book Four and expect it to arrive on my doorstep early next week, about March 22nd. I'm really pleased with the cover and the first full color painting I pulled from my imagination and transferred to cover. Now I get to work on the 392 year old Tarenek for the cover of Curse of the Gods. I best get busy :-)

Unsteady Ground

2011-02-11T20:48:00.002-05:00

Life changes. I mean, we all know this - right? Things can never stay the same forever. Children grow up. We grow older. Jobs change. Relationships fluctuate. Friends fade away. Loved ones pass away.

It's when everything happens at once that it gets harder.

In my younger years, just after I was of age to legally enter a bar, my cousin and I went out one night. We both had our first daughters at home but we took an evening every so often to get away for a little while. On this particular night, we weren't carded. In the car later, going home, we pondered this. Did we look old? No, that wasn't it. But we did act differently from others our age who had yet to get married or have children. Through the discussion we came to a conclusion.

It wasn't our appearance that labeled us older. It was that the younger ones still believed they controlled their lives. Us, at that point, we had learned that we didn't control a thing other than our reactions to the runaway train life really was. It was all about our attitude. And by 21, we had both been disillusioned to the fantasy that we controlled anything other than ourselves.

I've never lost that lesson. But I had come to believe in a certain safety - that things had a way of not coming faster than someone could handle. Recently, I've been disillusioned to that belief as well.

At certain times in life, things will lash at you. They will lash and lash until you are a mental bloody heap on the ground of life, begging for mercy, for it all to stop and let you catch your breath. And just when you think you can catch your breath, you'll get sucker punched again.

The key is to keep going, to pick yourself up and trudge on....

As the saying goes - What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Stray strong out there.

Tis the Season

2010-12-16T19:42:00.004-05:00

The holidays have always been a special time for me and my family. From the time I was a little girl, Christmas was a season where everyone packed into the same house - aunts, uncles, cousins at Grandma and Pap's house.

My memories of Christmas are of delicious food, rounds of laughter, and of watching how happy my grandparents were with giving to us grandchildren. As a kid, I suppose I never considered how lucky I was to be at two houses each holiday full of family, laughter, and love. I also never thought about how it would all eventually change.

It's been a slow metamorphosis, drifting away from the holiday at my grandparents house to being holidays at my parents' and my husbands'. As my oldest daughter now starts her own life, I realize things will soon be changing yet again.

Despite the changes, there are things I hold onto or do that began with my grandparents, and possibly with my great grandparents. The most elaborate is the village I do under my tree. While a lot of people, my childhood friends included, put their gifts "under" the tree, we always put ours "around" the tree. The reason is the full winter village that began with my grandmother making one gingerbread house for under one of her first trees. She told me once that her kids (my mother and aunts and uncles) liked it so much she continued to add to it each year. The houses changed to styrofoam structures that could be reused with small plastic people on tiny plastic stands, then to balsam wood with full figures of people. Mine is a village of balsam wood buildings I made from designs I came up with myself.

There has been a year or two where I considered not putting the many hours it takes into building my village but I heard quite loudly "you have to do the village" from at least one of my kids.

Then there's the sugar cookies that we can only make with certain cookie cutters that can no longer be purchased, so I have to borrow my mom's each year. The stockings and Santas are a must, but also a lot of work, first to get them shaped just right, baked, then painted with colored egg white then quickly covered with colored sugar and tapped to shake loose the excess. The stockings have three different colors - red, green, and gold.

And then there is Christmas supper (yes, here we call the evening meal "supper"). It's not ham or turkey - not those alone anyway. My dad's mother always did her "pigs" - pigs in the blanket. That's what we always called them - porcupine meatballs (meatballs with rice) wrapped in cabbage and cooked in a sauce that was mm'mmm just delicious. She always had a bit of vinegar sitting next to the stove in a fancy little flask easy to pour just a dash from. That crystal flask now sits on my kitchen windowsill, a treasure I will remember for always as being a part of Christmas.

This holiday I remember with great joy the smiles of my grandparents, of the parent and friends my husband and I have lost, and take in the new memories, passing on the simple joys of being with family and carrying on traditions.

For us, it's not about the gifts, but of the family and friends and fun we have together, not just on Christmas day, but through the entire season. I will miss those who are gone, and those who choose not to visit this year, but I'm very thankful for the new friends, and all my family.

Merry Christmas everyone! Make this season a good one.

Getting through

2010-11-08T21:18:00.002-05:00

For all of us, there are times when life insists on being difficult. There's rarely anything we can do to avoid it or any secret recipe for getting through the rough stuff. The key to persevering is how you pick yourself up after the beating.

I've had my share of difficult, possibly more than my share. Some have left what feels like a dark mark on my soul and some have left me feeling stronger. All have taught me much.

Whatever life throws at you, just be sure you plow on through, reach for the future, keep your eye on family, friends, and small personal goals that can be as small as sweeping the floor one day and laundry the next. And remember that nothing stays rotten forever even if it feels like it will at the time.

After a few rough weeks here, I'm finally able to let my characters speak again. Even wrote a few hundred words last night. Starting small, and getting back into the groove...

That's interesting.

2010-10-21T21:17:00.002-05:00

I've always loved the quote "Writing is the socially acceptable form of schizophrenia" from E.L. Doctorow. Considering I have several voices in my head at any one time telling me their stories, that quote fits quite nicely.

Tonight I've been informed that I also have CDD. I was wrong in my first assumption of what "CDD" meant, to which my daughter was quick to clarify. I apparently have "Character Divergence Disorder."

Okay, that certainly fits too. But I didn't earn this label until said daughter poked her head above my screen as I typed saying "oh no you didn't.... Nooooo..." and proceeded to tell me how bad I was for writing the beginning few paragraphs of a story that has been growing in my head for weeks while I've been trying to write Retribution - the seventh book of my Disillusionment Series.

Trust me, no one wants that seventh book written more than I do. But Aliski and Egan keep butting in to the point where ignoring them is nearly painful. My dilemma was made worse - ironically - by my daughter who took it upon herself days ago to describe a cartoon scene with me sitting at a desk, all the characters (seven of them and possibly one old half-blind dragon) from Retribution huddled together in a far corner, and Aliski with her vicious pet fisher standing in front of the desk giving them the evil eye. Nothing like giving bad-attitude antagonistic Aliski even more power. (A character whose name may continue to change considering she started out "Kaliska.") So this problem I have was reinforced by my wonderful daughter who has now labeled me CDD.

That's how it goes for me. To be honest, I'm surprised I've gotten through the first six books of the series before anyone else poked their head up from the mass of ideas always whirling through my mind. When Aliski did, it was to show me she had a very different kind of story than my usual. One that is looking to be an interesting one to do.

So which book will I work on tonight - that is to be determined by which characters yell the loudest.

When a Writer Gets Bored

2010-10-09T19:16:00.002-05:00

My house is a funny place on weekend evenings. It's usually full of teenagers and a friend or two. My girls aren't typically aching to run out anywhere but are happy to stay home. For years, Friday and Saturday nights were good writing nights for me too - with one exception. The muse isn't all that thrilled to come out and play when I'm trying to force it to stick to something it doesn't want to do.

So here I am, the most entertaining thing on television being my girls playing Resident Evil 5 on the XBox (I mean that sincerely - they are entertaining to watch) - this after we cleaned and took care of some typical household things. When I watched my eleven-year-old dust happily away on the entertainment stand this morning, it felt good to know she actually enjoys shining up glass candle holders and polishing wood. We work as a good team in this house. A good thing or I wouldn't be able to accomplish half of what I do. But anyway, back to the subject...

I sit down with the intention of getting to work on my book. My muse is not happy with me though. It has taken off to create a book that was suppose to stay in the background until Retribution: Disillusionment Book Seven is complete, finishing the series. But my muse is telling me it's bored with the series and doesn't care that readers would be very unhappy if I don't finish it quickly.

So as I sit here Saturday night trying to occupy myself, my mind is at war. I have Retribution open, but there is no enthusiasm driving me to write it. I feel sad about that because I do love the characters. I'm just ready to move on to a different kind of story, one that doesn't appear to be quite so light and the plot looks to be a much more complicated weaving of character threads than Retribution.

Only time will tell which story will win out this evening or if I'll give up and go find something else to do...

All About Perception

2010-09-29T22:39:00.003-05:00

We're preparing for our third annual Halloween party this year. We decided to move it forward in the month of October for a few reasons, the biggest being the weather. See, along with the party, we do a trail through the patches of woods on our acre and a half of property. It's not much, but with the trees and the paths we have, it leaves lots of options for some creepy little set-ups. Of course we have our graveyard. And we have our boneyard. We also have an infestation of spiders and madmen this year.

It's gotten bigger and more extravagant every year. This year more so than others because I've been working on ideas for it for months and I plan to be working on what I don't have time to finish for this years' party for next years'.

When I first started writing and my books were full of ghosts and psychos, people who knew me were a bit confused. Those closest to me of course weren't confused in the least, but so many saw me as a person who would like and write kids' books or romances. I like kids' books all right, read many to my girls over the years, but I could never write one. I like the darker, scarier sides of storytelling, even while writing my fantasy novels.

I had one reader ask me why I wrote things so dark. Dark - that word can mean so many different things, and after the conversation, I had to wonder if the reader missed the message of the story. Yes, the characters were subjected to some terribly scary things, but in the end, they prevailed. So is that really a dark story or is it a story of hope that any obstacle can be tackled, real or supernatural? I guess it's all in how you look at it.

So here's to all of us who like the spooks and monsters of the fall season but who look to the brighter side of things all the same.

Some days

2010-09-28T10:43:00.002-05:00

I'm an optimistic kind of person. I mean really, I'm lucky enough to have several worlds to run to if one or the other isn't cooperating. During the school year it was never much of a problem. While the house is empty of everyone but me, I work. I consider work the jobs I do for other authors, the dealings with bookstores and distributors, the non-creative part of my career. The problem lately is that I'm never totally alone.

I'm hoping it won't take long to adjust because I have quite a few people who are not going to be happy with me if I can't get my mind on work to get it done in the quieter hours and start "work" on my own books.

I have a little difficulty calling my writing, revising, and art "work." It is - I have to treat it as such or else it never gets done because I'll be forever bugged by people who only leave me alone when I'm "working." And if I can't unload the bundles of ideas my characters heap on me daily, it's not pretty by the end of a week. Still, writing my own books, doing art that brings to life the images in my mind - it's fun. No, not all aspects of my chosen profession are fun. It gets tiring to constantly prove your quality of work to stores and readers. It gets tiring fixing database glitches in places that should be watching their own dealings.

Just the same, I still have days when nothing clicks, where my brain won't focus on writing, revising, editing, database listings, emails, or even reading for research. It's not anything so fancy to need a name like writer's block because it never lasts too long. This is one of those days. So, it's best just to move away from the desk and dive into something purely physical - you know, cleaning house, gardening, monster building (I'll save that explanation for another day) the kind of things that let my mind rest and reboot. At least I hope so.

Fresh starts

2010-09-27T21:06:00.002-05:00

I've not done well at keeping up with this blog, despite my best intentions. I hope to be able to change that soon, and go back to what I meant to accomplish here - blogging about my wild imagination.

I recently finished the sixth book of my seven book series. I have to admit it was one of the most entertaining to create. It all started in the front seat of my Chevy Impala on the back of a receipt with a pen dug out of my 16 year old daughter's purse while we waited for my oldest to accompany her boyfriend out of the dentist's office. It was the first time I was ever thankful for our ridiculously long grocery store receipts.

I'm sure every person who passed my car along the side of the small street that day thought for sure it was filled with two crazies. After ransacking everything in the car to find something to permanentize our thoughts (resulting in finding the old grocery receipt) we laughed, we mimicked what each character would say to the others, and had the ages, personalities, and purposes for seven new characters.

I came home and jotted it all down in the tablet I had for the Disillusionment Series. But I kept the receipt too, despite the fact that if I looked at it now, I couldn't make sense of the scratching and scrambling scrawls of ink. I still won't part with it, just in case I might, at some point, need something on it again.

And while I'm writing this, I'm reminded that, while I have managed to stock my own purse with several writing utensils, I have yet to throw a few tablets into my car. I'm an odd writer that way, I suppose, but usually when an idea hits, it bubbles and grows happily in the back of my mind until I sit down at my laptop. The day Descended was begun was unique because my daughter and I both needed something to occupy ourselves. And while I could remember what I came up with, I wouldn't so easily hold onto my daughter's input.

And now my only chore is writing Retribution. The characters my daughter and I created that day outside the dentist's office star in it as well and help me bring the series I've worked on for several years to a conclusion I hope will continue to please the readers who have loved the first three in the series.

Another summer gone by

2010-08-27T19:35:00.003-05:00

The summer days are at an end. Today was the last of the coveted official summer days off from school. Monday starts the crazy school schedule. I know I might be one strange mom, but I'm not looking forward to it at all. To start, I'll need to set aside time to sign the dozens of forms for one thing or another for each kid (one less this year than last) then hours for making sure everything that needs to be done for homework and chores is taken care of. Some days I find that harder and more stressful than when we are all home. I guess that's a sure indication that I like my family, and that my family does not consist of any very young children because a few years ago, I wasn't saying quite the same thing. Strangely enough, my teens aren't scary.

It would be nice to have just another month to do all we wanted to do. This summer wasn't kind in a few areas which left us wanting to do anything but take a trip for fun. It was good for life lessons, I suppose, ones I have learned before and didn't need a refresher course on. I'm very thankful for my girls and husband, and also thankful for my tenacity and ability to weather the storms, no matter how vicious they become. I can only hope I'll recover as a better, stronger, and smarter person from it all.

As the house goes quiet after the yellow bus comes Monday morning, I will set to work with Star Publish to get a few jobs finished that I couldn't focus on this week. I will also be refocusing on my writing and continuing on with the Disillusionment Series. Starlight and Judgment is just released and I'm working on the fourth book, The Freedom Wars. I hope to soon be meeting more readers soon and introducing them to the worlds in my mind. And just for some extra fun, I'm continuing on with a two year course to better my art skills.

Bored is not a word we say often in my house. "If it's not one thing, it's another" is more like it :)

In the deep of night...

2010-06-16T23:14:00.002-05:00

As I sit here with my Macbook in a completely dark room after midnight with my current WIP (work in progress) opened and written up to page 122, I can't help but hope everyone I'm thinking about is all right. Life is such a finicky thing especially mixed with the raging rapids of human emotions - or as my goddess character calls it, our human "condition." Age and experience has tempered me greatly over the last thirty some years, though not completely.

Some things still stir my blood into a frenzy, things like watching people in power make ridiculous decisions so obviously not with the good of the people in mind is one. People who judge others is another. But even those two things don't get a lot of my attention anymore. Life is too short to spend it fired up over things I can not change. Those I can change, I will do when the time is right and let it go. Yet, as I watch those who are younger than I am now coming into their own, I can see so very clearly the patterns in behavior, what will come and go. What can't be guessed is the choices each of my loved ones will make. All I can do is sit on the edge of my seat and hope for the best outcome for everyone.

Is that maybe why I give my characters full reign to do as they please without outline, allowing them to drive the plot often to surprise twists even I don't see coming? It's the thrill of not knowing, but hoping for the best. With my characters, I can steer them to whatever decision I want them to make - for the most part. In real life, I will voice my opinions if asked, but keep them to myself if I'm not. Free will is not something to be manipulated by a woman in a mere human condition, after all. So I'll stick to writing my stories and hoping for the best.

2010-05-25T21:18:00.002-05:00

Mother Nature seems to have dumped summer on us yet again. The warm temperatures wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't days removed from days that were downright cold. Which makes me wonder just how flexible we humans are.

But, as we plan our first weekend away of the summer, I'm glad to see temperatures should be pleasant and not too extreme either way. We can only hope rain of any big amount will also stay away. And I hope my muse will bug me while I actually have the opportunity to let it and write on my current WIP (work in progress) Descended, the sixth book of my Disillusionment series.

I have to say this book has been fun to create. I've been told that the older I get, the more lighthearted my books are becoming. I suppose that is not all bad as fun books are, well, fun.

I can handle that :)

Are you laughing at “Global Warming?”

2010-02-15T12:45:00.001-05:00

I remember many a time, laughing at the experts for shouting “Global Warming” when the summer or some winter was colder than usual. But after hearing about it enough, my muse got hold of it and ran with it. From 2005 to 2007, I researched the topic of global warming for my Rise of the Arcadians, published in 2008. When I say researched, I don’t mean a quick trip to Wikipedia. No, I dug up scientific articles, studied past climates, researched into ancient cultures and what their lives (and climates) had been like. I went back in history to Pangea and followed things forward to present day. Everything I found, I backed up with two or three sources. National Geographic and the Smithsonian magazines were good jumping off points. Unfortunately my overworked mind hasn’t fully retained all of it, but I knew it when I wrote the story.

I created Rise of the Arcadian’s setting in 2122, years after the world fell apart, but the world the story encased was built strongly on my hours and hours of research. Each change I made to my future Earth was made on the basis of some fact or some slight twist of fact, but all of it was “this is possible” stuff. I studied topographical maps to guesstimate where water levels might rise, found fault lines to help me shape my world. The Mississippi Sea in the book is very possible if ocean levels rise – which is also very possible if all our ice melts. The cold climate – Earth has cycled through ice ages since its beginning. Its not going to stop simply because we humans are here and want it to. Places in our North American continent, the Sahara desert, were very much different at one time. And we have that oceanic conveyor belt (http://oceanmotion.org/html/background/ocean-conveyor-belt.htm) that could slow down if enough cold fresh water floods into our oceans.

I also researched Earth’s ice ages. (http://www.aip.org/history/climate/cycles.htm) Many have happened. Do we really believe they’ve just stopped because we’re here or that we have the power to control them? It is related to the Earth’s tilt on the axis, the wobble (we are not a perfect spinning top in space) and many other variables. Earth also makes enough of those nasty greenhouse gases we all hear about all on its own. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be more responsible. We absolutely, positively should, as we have just this one world (that we know of) to call home, so we best take care of it.

Nothing irritates me more than to hear some expert claim something of some past time couldn’t be possible because the current conditions wouldn’t support it. They have found whale skeletons in the Sahara. (http://www.physorg.com/news182450123.html) Can’t get much more different from then to now, can we? Things have changed on Earth tremendously and it is still changing. We shouldn’t sit and argue about whether it is happening or not or what is causing it or not. We should simply acknowledge change is imminent. Now, a hundred years from now, who knows, but our Earth won’t always be as it is right now or even as it has been since our recorded history.

So, how does it all relate to global warming and how does global warming possibly relate to the fact we’ve had a record of all 48 connecting US states having snow on the ground for the same day this year? To put it simply: Dump an ice cube in a hot cup of tea. You heat up and melt the ice, but what happens to the tea? It won’t stay hot – will it? Despite the fact the ice was “heated up” the tea gets cold. That is how global warming could lead to so much snow or even an ice age. Climate change.

Whether our glaciers and icebergs are melting at an alarming speed or not, and whether we are causing it or not, is not what I’m disputing. I’m simply saying it can and most likely (due to past cycles) will happen again. Ice ages are natural. Shifting tectonic plates are natural. Disasters are natural, and they are happening (Haiti’s earthquake, the 2004 tsunami, Katrina, the recent snow storms, droughts in the western US, Australia, and that’s just to name a few).

It does no good to fear it but it does equally no good to deny and ignore it. We should be aware of the ride we are along for and prepare ourselves that life does not go on unchanged. We are not masters of our Earth. In fact, I often wonder just how little we really know. For all our experts and great accomplishments, there are so many things we still can’t answer but are quick to dismiss and ignore because we can’t answer them.

The bottom line is, don’t laugh off or dismiss global warming until you really understand it. Maybe it should have been labeled “global climate change.” Then maybe it would have made more sense to those of us who don’t or didn’t fully understand it at first.

I’m not writing this to lecture, or providing the links here as absolute fact. They are just quick things I found to hopefully help people understand things. If you wish to learn more, I suggest searching for the answers in trusted places yourself and be aware of the arguments you will find on things. Build your own conclusions with good knowledge and facts.

We would do good to show modesty and understand, for as advanced as we think we are, there are many more things we simply have not or cannot yet grasp. We as a species tend to believe we are intelligent and know it all, then go in and destroy or warp things to our use with no regards to what we might be destroying in our ignorance. We have but this one world to take care of and leave for the children of the future. Let us be responsible enough to acknowledge there is much we don’t know and tread carefully as our understanding grows. And most of all, let us be aware of what changes are possible so that we may better handle what Earth throws at us as it continues on its cycle of life.

A sick nation...

2009-12-16T10:23:00.003-05:00

Sometimes in the deep of night I lay awake staring at the dark ceiling and thoughts of what's happening with society and the world run through my head. It's these times when I often stumble across good tidbits to use in my writing. Last night though, what I stumbled across was a terrifying realization. The largest part of it was stirred by the supposed Health-Care Bill.

My nation, my country of the USA is sick, very sick, and just like when I have to watch my children suffer through an illness, powerless to fix it, I am powerless to fix anything now. This country was once great. I'm still very proud to belong to her, but the foundations are crumbling so badly, the strong pillars she was built on are hardly recognizable.

I ask myself over and over if everyone has lost sight of what's really important and while I see some glimmers of hope, I'm more often served a dose of proof that we have.

One huge dose of truth: Both bills require all Americans to get health coverage or pay a penalty. A PENALTY for not having health insurance? WHAT THE HECK IS THAT! Not right, not right at all and the marrow in my bones twists in agony at the thought of it. It's one more dose of poison to kill just a little more of this great nation.

Oh, some may think it's no big deal. Everyone should have health insurance just like car insurance. Except we can choose to not have a car, how do we choose to not have health or life without ending it? This is the most ludicrous thing I've ever heard of. And this might surprise you, but I do have health insurance as does my immediate family. But I know people who don't and they don't because they can barely afford to put food on the table let alone dump money into an insurance they may never collect on or if they try to, the insurance company will weasel out of it and give reasons why they won't pay or will pay just a little bit.

Come on "We the People" wake the hell up, will you! I'm begging you.

Something that might look wonderful, like some undoubtedly think of this health care bill, is never what it first appears. This fine for not having health insurance, what the heck is it for? Think really hard on why they would need that. And what happens to the person who makes just enough to cover food, shelter, and heat when they can't afford either. What kind of prices will be on these new health insurance plans? Who gets to decide what is affordable for a person? People behind a desk most likely who have nice cushy incomes and have no idea what it is to have absolutely nothing. It's my experience, living in poverty much of my life, that government pays little attention to the fact people must live - paying attention only to how much money they can squeeze out of each of us.

It's making me angry. Especially since my daughters are just getting old enough to have to deal with all this crap - crap that no one I know has caused, yet we will suffer the after affects of other's stupidity.

What's next, after they have forced us all to pay out the butt for health insurance or shovel over hundreds in fines and still can't support their deficit? What happens then? How far will things go in the name of fixing things?

Here's an idea - quit trying to make things better and go backwards a bit to fix up the foundation again so we can stand with our heads high.

Yeah, I know, crazy, right. That's why I'm a fiction writer...

Curse of the creative mind

2009-10-26T20:01:00.002-05:00

Okay, this must be every writers best and worst dream all in one.

I now have four complete novels written from beginning to end. They are the books of my new Disillusionment series, some I've written about on this blog before. As I read through them again, I can't believe how much I'm being pulled back into the stories and I wrote the darn things. But that's not the problem.

The problem is, book four isn't completed yet because I started it wrong and got hung up so I need to go back and find the true beginning before I can call it finished. Book five is written, edited, good to go. Book six is well on its way with more humor and crazy characters than I've ever had all together under one cover. So what do I do - I go planting more seeds.

I got into a conversation about all that's wrong with the world, pondering fixes and why it won't get fixed and my crazy creative mind took that and did one heck of a crazy S turn--not unlike our scenic Pennsylvania roads that started as cow paths -- and landed in among the thought of something like this "what if Earth is always in misery and at war because we as a species are being prepped for some bigger battle" and there it was. ARGG - the seed for book seven now growing in my head like a bad fertilized weed.

Meanwhile, the character's from book six watch out at me from their sketches hanging on my office wall and laugh (not really, use your imagination here!) at me because I thought they would only star in one book. HA, the bumbling idiots from book six - as I and my middle daughter so affectionately call them - apparently had a whole other story ready for themselves to prove they might not be so bumbling.

The good news is, Daughter of Gods: Book One will be out for November. Yes, this November. It's hitting the presses within the week, I expect. I'll let you know exactly when it's available. Revenge of the Gods is hot on its heels for next spring and Starlight and Judgment for fall of next year (2010). Freedom Wars --- well... Not so much. I'll get it there, the whole thing is worked out in my head, I just can't keep my eyelids open long enough or my stiff fingers to type it all fast enough while taking care of household, sick kids (who shared the bug with me for a few days) and a day job as publisher. Curse of the Gods (book five) is good to go, just needs one last proofread. Then Descended (book six) is well on its way. And apparently there will be a book seven.

The funny thing is, sometimes I ponder the possibility of having no more ideas like I did recently when I wondered what I would do after Descended was written. So, something like this happens as if to laugh in my face.

As I've said often today -- at least I won't get bored in the near future. I just have to work like a frantic idiot to do everything life insists I must do, and everything I want to do (oh, I donno, take care of my kids) and the things my creative mind refuses to not let me do.

There's not enough hours in a day or energy in this body some days. Guess I'll just keep doing what I can as well as I can and that will have to be enough.

The Twisted Things...

2009-09-07T11:11:00.002-05:00

I recently stumbled across an article disputing our new president's birth certificate. To quote: "Part of the problem for Mr Obama is that he has not produced his original birth certificate." And I felt absolutely, totally, and completely ill. How does crap like this happen when honest to goodness people like my family have to fight and claw just to get our teen-agers a driver's license? I can guarantee you, when we take our daughter in, they won't want a digitized version of her birth certificate. She also recently couldn't cash a check written out to her at any of three banks she tried because she had no "photo" identification. Yet someone can be elected to lead our country with a digitized representation of his birth certificate?

I work with photo images and in art programs on the computer all the time. I know how easy it is to create something, and while I don't know all the details or what not on the president's birth certificate, it bothers me no less to hear things like this.

Why? I don't know. If anyone has read any of my latest books, I've been writing about the fall of civilizations for a while now. I've studied ancient societies, their rise and falls and have learned that nothing good can stay for long just as nothing bad can. I just hate watching it happen so stupidly, I suppose.

I sit here in my office and am glad for my flamboyant imagination that can whisk me away into another world where my characters have the power to actually do something about the messes they are in...

Money Things

2009-08-04T12:45:00.002-05:00

Times are tough all over - who doesn't know that by now? Quite a few states do not have budgets balanced, including my own. I've tried to follow the budget talks but it's a muddled up mess and I'm a person who can understand philosophy talk from Arthur Schopenhauer and the World as Will and Representation. I thought his "will" was difficult until I tried to weed out some useful information about the state budget.

And my fifteen year old who took a summer course studying 1920's history came home and asked me why they are still bothering to call this thing we're in a "repression" when to her, after studying all the signs in class, it seems far too obvious that we are already in a "depression."

The two different words mean nothing to me. I know it's time to make the garden bigger, get the hunters in the family to improve their aim, buy only the bare basics (raw meat and veggies, flour, sugar, salt and eggs) at the grocery store, and cut back on things we don't need to survive. Maybe it's because of how I grew up that my idea of what is "needed" is far different from some others, I don't know. And at the same time, I have to chuckle because "city folk" would probably consider me at the lowest rung on their ladder of life.

Does it matter? Not really. I'll do what I need with the knowledge, stubbornness, and ability to improvise left to me from my grandparents and parents and hopefully teach my kids what the true meaning of "need" really is.

How far down and for how long we go, who knows. Corruption and sloppy handling of funds has states and the entire nation in a tangled mess of impossible debt, and there is no way to fix it in my opinion because there are two types of people. There are those who have never been at the bottom (even if they think they have been) and can't make the sacrifices or see past the false lies of people in power to allow someone who knows how to fix things (because it won't be easy or pretty or comfortable), and there are those who know what it takes to improve things. We'll need to get our hands dirty and stop living with luxuries people - to get out of this mess we are in. We could do it voluntarily the easy way - not pleasant but possible - or we'll be forced kicking and screaming to do it. So as a whole, we'll have to learn things or do things the hard way - kicking and screaming with much suffering.

It stinks, I hate to see it happening when my kids will be forced to suffer it, but common sense does nothing to open people's eyes. They have to be beaten into the mud face first before they'll realize—if they will even then. We've got the "blame game" down to an art, and the removal of personal responsibility perfected.

I've studied ancient cultures for too long now to be surprised. I just wish everyone else would stop being so blind or greedy or whatever you want to call it. And maybe we should all return to doing what's right even when it's not pleasant.

Tired Writer

2009-07-02T14:09:00.004-05:00

There come times when kids, work, and my creative mind wear me down to a point where I must just stop for a bit. Unfortunately sometimes when I try to stop, my creative section of mind refuses to cooperate with the "down time."

Well, I refused to touch the memory stick that has all five of my current books in progress stored safely on it. Still, my creative side nagged - nag,nag,nag,nag.

To skip around the long story, the result of my two evenings "off" is here: http://www.tcmcmullen.com/disillusionmentseries/

I fed my creative side by doing something that was basically just a compilation of what was already done (didn't work the brain). The site is far from finished but if any of you get board, there's plenty to keep you reading for a while :) Hope you enjoy.

Growing up old fashioned

2009-06-26T10:09:00.006-05:00

I received an email today that seemed right on time. I was talking with a friend of mine (my grandfather's niece) who is a little younger than I am and has a daughter a few years younger than my youngest daughter so we got the two of them to play yesterday. We also got on the topic of how hard it was to raise our kids with people saying so often that we should have them doing all the activities available and things like that.

When my friend called to ask about getting the girls together, I had to holler down to the swing set in the back yard from my garden in the front yard. We were both outside, but my older two were off, one paint balling with her boyfriend and the other up at the college for a summer course she chose to take, so I had only one lonely child. We walked to get there and my friend walked her home.

I'm not a total stickler. We do have an X-box (not a 360) and a Play Station 2. We have a collection of DVDs and got a satellite dish about two years ago. The television wasn't on at all for the past two days except for the hour or so my husband watched it yesterday.

We keep busy with other things. My youngest helps with the dishes, takes care of all her animals and sweeps floors and helps sort and fold laundry. I also have her busy in the kitchen stirring what needs stirred and grabbing ingredients. My girls are not involved in sports or clubs or any summer programs to keep them busy. And they are not bored. I raise them like I was raised, kicking them out to play in the yard if they don't do it themselves, giving them things they must do - be responsible for - so they have a sense of accomplishment. I trust them to make their own decisions with me there keeping an eye on things, but not interfering unless I have to.

Now I hear "school all year round" and "summer school, why don't you have your daughter in it, it's a great program, you really SHOULD do it." And all I can think is "do not take my kids more than you already do!" and whatever happened to parents raising kids? What ever happened to letting a child learn how to occupy themselves? Game systems and televisions can all be unplugged and/or put off limits. But I'm very aware I live in a wonderful place, especially in this day and age. We're stuck in a time warp, changing only marginally from one decade to the next. This became very evident to me the day we had someone here from Harrisburg and they stared as if their eyes would pop out when I told my kids to go play outside. In our yard, the worst thing that might happen is they will get sprayed by a skunk.

So when this arrived in my email box today, it hit just the right note. I still raise my kids like I was raised in the 70s (and 80s but remember the time warp thing here) and everything here applies.

To Those of You Born 1930 - 1979

At the end of this email is a quote of the month by Jay Leno. If you don't read anything else, please read what he said.
Very well stated, Mr. Leno.

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE
1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-base paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes.

Riding in the back of a pick- up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. (Oh YES, so very true. Now we "must" be strapped inside so we can't move more than a few inches and we ride along side motorcyclist who no longer have to wear helmets - someone please explain that one to me!)

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar. And, we weren't overweight. WHY?

Because we were always outside playing...that's why!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And, we were O.K. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Play stations, Nintendo's and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet and no chat rooms. WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them. Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.

Imagine that!! The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever.

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all. If YOU are one of them? CONGRATULATIONS! You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good. (I HEAR THAT LOUD AND CLEAR!)

While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it ? (Not really, but it makes me sick to see what our society has become.)

~ The quote of the month is by Jay Leno:

'With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of swine flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?'

For those that prefer to think that God is not watching over us...go ahead and ignore this.. For the rest of us....pass this on.

Killing Characters

2009-06-23T16:30:00.002-05:00

I have to ask myself why my characters seem to run full steam in demanding their stories be written when my life is getting ever busier. I have other things I need to do. Weeds need pulled from gardens and trimmed around trees. I have mulch to spread, meals to cook, and laundry to do but my characters don't care. They muddle my mind until I'm left with no choice but sitting down with my laptop and racing through chapters of scenes. I suppose that should be a good thing considering the book I was stuck on and seriously considered tossing in the trash is the very book I'm over half way through now.

At some point in reading through the books I have written, it occurred to me that I was avoiding writing Revenge of the Gods because of something that has to happen in it. In most of my books, the plot is open for twists and turns but in Revenge of the Gods, two major events have to happen to torture the main characters and put them on the paths that carry them into the books I have already written (book three and five of the series). My daughter convinced me not to ditch Revenge of the Gods saying that what happens in it is needed to make the following books even stronger. She isn't wrong. But I hate writing such painful scenes.

I had to create a character that becomes very important to a main character's personal growth. Without giving too much away, I'll say this: I had to create this character knowing the life would be short and have a very violent end. That is what held me up - I couldn't write a character I didn't like, but I didn't want to kill a character I did like. It's like killing off a dear pet, especially since this character and the story situation grew to bring up painful memories in my own "real" life. I didn't do that on purpose - not consciously at least - but that's how it happened. And for twenty-four hours after I wrote the terrible scene I felt lost and depressed just like my surviving main character. But I managed to wax my car while I tried to recover from the tragedy.

My best friend always told me I was good at getting into people's heads. To put it simply, I can empathize with people I meet and with the characters I create. I like to think that is what helps me make my characters so dynamic and likeable. But—darn—it kills me when I have to kill one of them. In the back of my mind I'm screaming - SAVE HIM - and I could easily do it, but then my main character wouldn't have a reason to dive down a completely different path she chooses because of it and the third book would make no sense.

So, tonight I will return to my laptop to write the final scenes of Revenge of the Gods knowing they'll be very hard and sad and I'm glad I'll be alone so no one will see me bawling. And I'm glad I'll be able to go right into proofreading Starlight and Judgment to pull the character and myself out of misery.

So there's your hint - I promise to try to get the two books out as close to each other as I can to ease the sorrow...

Setting Records

2009-06-05T10:10:00.004-05:00

Over the past few weeks, I wrote a 99,000 word novel from beginning to end. That is a record for me. It started with two sentences that popped into my head one day and I had to type them out right away. It went like this:

The moment Tarenek sensed energy in the storm that had nothing at all to do with drumming thunder or slashing lightning, he knew his nightmares weren’t only dreams. No, this energy linked to a soul, the soul he killed every night moments before waking breathless in a sticky sweat.

Actually, the original didn't have Tarenek's name included. It was just a couple sentences about a "he" that I expected to stash away in my hard drive. Then I got bored one night and started drawing. Coralie Angenil (new) and Tarenek Brye Annis (all grown up from the first books of the Disillusionment series) came to life so easily that it was scary, and if I ever get my scanner out from under papers and manage to plug it back in again, I'll post them.

A little background: in Daughter of Gods, the parents, Tryn and Cedrik, are young and just meeting. In the second book, Revenge of the Gods, which includes their children Kira and Tarenek, the consequences of the first book come back to get them quite literally. I've yet to get it beyond page 55. In the third book, Starlight and Judgment, Kira is 23 and struggling to find her way. She manages in part because of 14 year old Tarenek. I wrote it in about 7 months and thought that was good. I enjoyed her character a lot too. In the 4th book, Curse of the Gods, Tarenek is the young age of 392.

That's not a typo. It's also not old for an immortal, is it? The fourth book skips about 150 years of Freedom Wars and a couple hundred years of peace. I started it somewhere at the beginning of May this year and finished the last chapter two days ago, June 3rd. I only wrote during the night, after 9 p.m. and I managed to snag a couple Saturdays.

From those first two sentences, the rest of the story unfolded as easily as thread unrolls from a bobbin. Emotionally wrenching and uplifting all in a few weeks - definitely a record for me and I loved every moment of it. The speed of it was due in part to returning characters (Kira who is 6 years older than her brother, but after 392 years, who's counting?). It was also due in part to my middle daughter having a photographic memory and what she learned in science class this past school year. I knew what Tarenek could do, what internal demons he constantly fought (it made him so very interesting to write), but I didn't know how to make it concrete. I expressed my concern about his abilities one night and she responded with a huff and: "Molecular combustion and molecular dispersion should take care of it all." Surprise! She was right, and all I had to do was ask her for explanations and review a bit of her notes.

When will it be released? Hmmm, well, Among the Ancients and Daughter of Gods come out this year, 2009. I'm hoping to have Revenge of the Gods complete for next year to put before Starlight and Judgment- then they will fall as they may so I hope to see Curse of the Gods in print by 2011. And to think, that used to feel like a long time into the future...ugh.

Till next time,

T.C.

It's Spring time

2009-05-14T09:07:00.004-05:00

Spring is here. The yard is mowed, the gardens are...started. I have cleaned out the front flower beds (two small ones and one large one about fifty feet long). I also have my peas planted in the vegetable garden, managed that in between rain showers so they should have a good start. And I have my tomato plants ready to go on as soon as I'm sure all threat of frost is past. I need these plants for the spaghetti sauce I'll make. I need it now because since I've been doing the homemade sauce my family refuses to eat the "store bought" stuff. We also have three additions to our family.

My daughter's fourth grade class raised ducks from eggs this year. The children who were able to offer them a good home were to fill out a paper to be put in for a drawing. Ducks - I thought - need a natural pond - which we do not have although there is one close. I told her I didn't think it was a good idea. She asked dad. Then, the other night I got a phone call from my youngest's teacher. Her name had been pulled - she was the new owner of three baby ducks. And the first thing that popped into my head was "who filled out that paper?" See, we already have two dogs, eight fish, one rabbit and a slew of wild birds we feed. When my husband came home, the only thing I could say was "what did you do?" LOL.

Turns out my oldest's boyfriend knew a few things about ducks. Within two days, we had a pen fit for royal ducks and I now know they don't really need a pond, just fresh water. We can manage that. And our littlest dog, a cockapoo, has taken on the rule of surrogate mother even annoying my middle daughter (Bambie's main caretaker) with waking her up in the middle of the night so Bams could go check on the peeps in the front room.

As always, we've adjusted. We're so very good at doing so. Onward and forward - as always no matter how muddy the road ahead.

I'll forget we have no wood to burn and the furnace quit. I'll forget that allergy season is in full swing, work is slowing way down, and the checkbook is nearly empty. Life is much better when you just focus on the good things like the joy a 9 year old gets from holding a fluffy yellow duck or the fresh new leaves uncurling on the trees.

Why Writers Write

2009-04-02T21:13:00.004-05:00

I've been doing this "writing thing" since the early 1990s. I've been online since 2002. In that time, I've worked and networked with more authors than I can count. I've also learned a few things about writers.

Generally there are two categories - those who write for fame and fortune (who are quickly and completely frustrated right from the start) and those who write because they have no other choice.

Today I took another blow to my writing ego. I shared the devastating "returns" syndrome with so many other writers and the thought "why the heck do I even bother" screamed through my mind as I unpacked the unexpected boxes with the unexpected bill. Yet, here I sit at my computer, another window up behind this blog, one with the first three chapters of my next book. Crazy - yeppers. I would like a room with a window please.

I slave over my writing, getting lost in the characters' lives, making sure every word, sentence, paragraph and chapter has a purpose and the right emotional punch. Why? I do not, nor did I ever, expect fame or fortune. In fact, fame would flat out terrify me. Fortune would be nice, but I'm not delusional - I know how the book business works and the author is at the bottom of the totem pole after everyone else (printer, wholesaller, stores) has taken a huge bite.

So, what do I write for? I suppose the answer to that is I write for my characters and for the handful of people who I know will enjoy my tales as well as for anyone else who should find one of my books. And I write because I must.

I fit squarely into the category of writers who need to put stories to paper as much as they need to breathe. Sure I can "not" write. In fact, I have gone for long periods of time being busy with other things, but a really odd thing happens. My head jams full of scenes and characters and I get really cranky. I know that's true because this week, after sitting at the computer for two hours and writing out 6,000 words straight, my kids said "PHEW - no more grouchy mom now." And I sink into my chair and wonder if I was really that bad.

Here looms another night well into the wee hours of the morning spent with two new characters who are a lot more fun than my "real" life right now because I know what the next several chapters are going to be and won't be able to sleep until they are purged. I get a lot of enjoyment out of that just for the experience of it. I get to escape into creation with the hopes that others will escape with the characters when they are released and ready for order. Whenever that might be.

Ponderings and Challenges

2009-03-23T11:34:00.002-05:00

I look back over the last few months and wonder how one person can feel so beaten and exhausted from constant work yet show so little for it. And my husband thinks I don't understand. *sigh*

I've worked and worked on everything from my art and writing to others' books to keeping my publishing company Star Publish LLC running yet very few things have landed on my totally "finished" list for anyone else to see. Still, I know what I've accomplished, the bills that I've managed to keep paid, the house I've managed to keep from becoming a barn, the book I've managed to write a few chapters in, the covers I've designed, painted and finished for myself and for others, the formats I've done, the proofreads, the hours spent helping with homework (don't get me on the homework subject unless you want to read a book in a blog). And it's not even summer yet - ack.

Yet, I come in here and here sits my blog as if I've drifted from the face of Earth to be sucked into the void of space. And I wonder —why can't I do it all? My intentions were to keep up with the blog and to more quickly pursue all the other things on my "want to do" list.

And there sits spring, right on my front door step with the garden work that needs done and a need so thick and pressing sitting in my gut that my back and shoulders already ache just from the very thought of what my mind wants to do with everything. I really must get my acre and a half of yard under control again this year. It's been out of control since we replaced an old trailer with a newer double wide in 2004. Been a while.

So I struggle with the frustration of not knowing if I can do everything I want - I'm not 25 anymore like I was the first time I landscaped this yard and I've sat in a computer chair too long instead of toting kids on my hips like I did back then - add in the frustration of knowing days are still only 24 hours long and I'm still in need of 8 hours of sleep - and well, it's not the most pleasant of things. Of course my only choice is to plod forward, knocking things off my to-do list and my want-to-do list and hoping to fill up my finished-doing list real soon.

Wish me luck. I'll need it :)

Breaking Novel Writing Myths

2009-01-09T08:40:00.004-05:00

Myth #1 Authors work on one book at a time.

In 2005 I started a book that fell to the wayside, Among the Ancients. It was the rough time, right after I finished my Manipulated Evil Trilogy. That trilogy had characters and a story so big, everything I wrote after it felt flat to me. The second book I started after it, Rise of the Arcadians, had ties to Global Climate Change that helped me keep it going to the end but was a simpler story. I wasn't sure about it, but many have told me now that it's their favorite of my titles so far. So I learned not to judge my own work by what I felt about it. I picked up Rise a few months ago and was shocked to find it really is very good.

Fall of 2008, I finally finished Among the Ancients. Only took me five years. (Can you hear the sarcasm there?) It will be released by summer 2009 - my fingers crossed -, and I must admit, it's turned into an exciting tale. I simply had to work through some plot glitches.

In late 2007, with the other two lingering as Works in Progress, I started on another series, different than the trilogy. It has developed into the Disillusionment Series with Daughter of Gods: Book one, finished and due out this year, 2009. It was a breeze to write in just about 7 months, the characters practically dictating their story, much like the characters of my trilogy did. The third book of the series is also written - Starlight and Judgment.

Now, I have to write the book linking the two of them together. This series is nothing like the trilogy. Each book stands alone, happening years after the previous but with a family who grows through the years. Starlight, Kira, 23 years old in the third book all about her trials, is the 6 year old daughter of Cedrik of the first book and his reason for taking the steps he does. In the middle book, yet untitled, she shares center stage with her parents as a 16 year old.

Does it sound strange that book one and three are done and two isn't even titled or past chapter 3 yet? I really tried not to do it that way. I was unwillingly driven to write Starlight and Judgment, leaving book two with only three chapters done. It all happened because of an annoyingly nagging character. Every time I tried to sit down and write 16 year old Kira, 23 year old Kira would butt in and sketch out her adult scenes in my head. Now I know what events happen to her in the second book to turn her into who she becomes. Now, book two is ready to be written. It's the first time I've ever developed a character backwards.

I have to admit I'm enjoying the character developments happening in the Disillusionment Series and looking forward to moving ahead with their lives as well as the conflicts as the indigenous people of Earth fight against their creators to keep their planet whole and well, not broken and abused. I have at least 5 books planned for the series based on the characters I want to focus on.

So, at one time, I had four books in different stages of development. Not something I would suggest, but whatever works it what an author has to do. Follow the muse :)

Until next time...

What harm we do...

2008-12-09T10:28:00.002-05:00

I recently came across some images online where people held signs saying not so nice things about our troops. I've also had the pleasure of corresponding with a veteran from a war long past who lived through the pain of not being welcomed with open arms when he returned.

Are we really that blind? It gets under my skin to hear and see of such things, people treating another badly, someone who gives up so much for us. As I look back through history, I wonder just how different things would be if everyone took the stance that war is always wrong and that no one should fight.

As long as there are people wanting to rule over and take from others, we can't stop the fighting. For whatever reason some leader thinks he needs to take more from the people, I don't know. What I believe is that government should be more open about it, show that they are helping the people, not lining their own pockets - but can they do that? Or do they not want us to know?

We are now on the path of bigger government. I hear people screaming "Take away the guns! Stop the violence!" and again I find myself thinking are we really so blind? And there are days where I don't care if people are so blind anymore. What can I do about it? They will argue until they pass out from lack of air that they are right. Guns cause the violence, not frustration because our young people are being pushed harder and harder and parents are working harder and harder and no one has available time to actually spend with the frustrated child to teach them how to handle that frustration properly. Noooo, just take away guns from everyone, then take everything that could possibly be used as a weapon (chain necklace, a cord on a bookbag) - what? Put us all in a big bubble. Last I heard, everything from a pencil to a fist can be used as a lethal weapon. How do we take away their fists?

Why not attack the problem at the root? Pay attention to our kids, teach empathy, respect of other people whether we agree with them or not. It's not all boiled down to God but to values and morals that encourage more decent behavior.

Let's stop listening to the media as if they are the information gods and deserve our complete worship. They report what is written and as a writer, I know one change of a word can make something seem to lean one way or the other, whichever way they believe they will get more ratings.

Let's stop looking for an easy fix to all the problems (government will save us - not) and look deeper to the root. I see the foundations crumbling. I see people refusing to take responsibility for their actions. I see people forgetting why we have so much freedom and taking that freedom for granted. It's freedom that has been won for us on the blood and emotional turmoil of many - many that don't get a thank you from some of us.

I appreciate the hard work and total sacrifices our American troops give to their country so that I can live in the way that I do and raise my girls as I can. I may not agree with every war, but I know sometimes there is no choice. And when there is a choice, it can't be made only by what the media tells us.

As the 2008 holiday season comes, my wish for Christmas is for people to see the truths and be bigger than their opinions. See deeper to the people you are thinking badly of. What do you really know about them? Why must you make their job all that much harder? They are fighting for us, trying to save what's left of our great country, a country built by people who had nothing, who fought impossible battles to gain their independence and who built their businesses and livelihoods from dirt and sweat. They knew where they wanted to go and they worked hard to get there. Why have we stopped doing that on a grand scale?

I'll never know, and I mustn't think about it too long or my own frustration sets in...

Until next time.

Pennsylvania - STOP - THINK

2008-11-03T08:08:00.003-05:00

I love my state. I've lived here all my life and have roots going deep into these mountains back into great grandparents and beyond. My heart and soul is in the trees, the terrain, the wildlife and blocks of untouched nature.

With that said, I get sick every time there's an election of any kind. Pennsylvania isn't a tiny state, but it seems to me we are deeply segregated. There are the cities and then there are the rest of us. Unfortunately, for as far back as my memory goes, the cities have dictated where Pennsylvania goes with government. It makes me very sad.

I can't really pinpoint why there's such a distinct difference, but I have my theories. Where I live, we count on ourselves, our neighbors, family and friends. The power goes out, we pull out our generators and find ways to dig ourselves out of the ice or snow or whatever it is we're dealing with. In the cities, is it possible they count on government and other officials? Is that why they vote the way they do? They always seem driven by money and what the candidate promises to do for them without thinking of the deeper consequences.

Out here in my area, money is great, but it has never come easy and it's certainly not everything. What we want is work, a way to earn a living. A way to run our small businesses without red tape and government butting in. That's very important as we have a high rate of self employed people around my home town. We're independent and we look at things with a more open attitude, not judging someone by what they feed us in some line of bull.

My opinions I usually keep to myself, but I'm going to reveal some of them here in the hopes to make someone think beyond the surface of what they are being fed by a candidate or the media.

Some people say Clinton was one of our great presidents - the man who nearly got impeached due to his sex drive. Really?! I nearly vomit every time I see that statement. What about his terms was great? It was a time I hated to let my girls watch the news. That is not the type of person I want representing what my country stands for. Come on! It's my opinion he was riding on coat tails of presidential greatness that happened several terms before him.

Some say the Iraq war is drowning us in debt. Is it? Have you looked at all the facts in where the government is really putting tax money? Don't let some newscaster who gets paid to make ratings for their news show tell you what's going on. Look it up for yourself. Do you really think we'll be safe and left alone here in our own country if we back down? How in debt will we be with attack after attack on home soil?

Don't believe everything that comes out of a candidate's mouth. Heck, in one instance locally, a candidate has even stooped so low to change what he's calling himself after he managed to alienate quite a few hard working "rednecks" here in western PA. Is anyone really falling for the switch, Jack? I sure hope not.

This country was built on blood, sweat, and pure determination for independence. Now, it seems no matter where I look, people are looking to the government to fix their miseries - no independence about it. If we could go back in time to those beginning days, what do you think they would say if they knew what would happen in the future - our current time? Are we honoring the memory of the great people who stood up and were willing to lose everything including family and life to make our country great - a place free, safe, and for the people.

We need principles. We need a code to live by and I've been watching people whittle away at the code that had served so well since the beginning times. We allow someone to change something just because of their opinion or because of things like the "In God We Trust" on our paper money offends them.

Well, America was built on "In God We Trust" and if you don't like it, then maybe this isn't the right country for you. I don't push any religion on anyone. I don't say one person is right or wrong over another or myself. We are all entitled to our opinions and who is to say who is right? But I wouldn't expect a country to change its code of conduct or what's on its money because I didn't agree with it. Again, I say, it's what the country was built on and when you start tearing that foundation down - it's just like a house - air can't hold it up.

I have my opinion about the upcoming election just twenty four hours away and I feel my heart breaking because I'm afraid the people have lost sight of the really important things, the foundation of importance, not just the surface junk. We've been operating on the surface for too long, we need to take care of some foundation maintenance or things are not going to be pretty.

I'm prepared for and even expecting the unpretty, but I'm not liking it. I just wish there was some way to truly open the people's eyes to actually see - not just assume at a glance.

Look deeper, think harder, think carefully because our future and our children's future are truly at stake if we can't get things fixed. Think about the country as a whole, not just your family or your city.

Stop. Look deep. THINK!

Think deeper

2008-10-02T14:06:00.003-05:00

Think deeper - beyond the obvious, beyond today.

That's what popped into my head this morning while I was watching television. You know, the election commercials, the news on the economy, all that "stuff" for lack of a better word.

I've never been a true day to day thinker. Some things have happened lately that made me realize just how far ahead I look before making decisions. I don't look at tomorrow or next year - twenty years, thirty, maybe. And I've come to realize that's why I don't stress as much as my other half does over day to day decisions. No, I stress over what people are doing to the world and what effects it's going to have on life for my kids, grandkids and so on. I worry about what we're going to live on in twenty, thirty years. Not just today. And I never count on government or any other entity to bail me out - just me.

Is it a side effect of writing the books I do? I don't know. I wasn't always this way. As a late teen and even in my early 20s everything was so devastating and day to day. Then life smacked me in the face and I had to straighten up or give up. I took the first path but it sure was not easy. It must've been somewhere around 1998 that I heard something along the lines of this:

Ask yourself if what's bothering you is going to matter in five years. If not, don't let it worry you too much and ruin the current day, if so, fix it now.

That's how I judge the decisions I have to make now. Of course there are more dire ones that don't have the luxury of not being worrying - car payments, mortgage - how to fill up the gas tank when you live in an area where you can't just walk to the grocery store or anywhere really. But in the back of my head I know those things won't be what defines me (unless I'm totally irresponsible and leave debt to haunt my family later). So those things don't dominate my life.

Anyway, my point about the think deeper thing is this, I wish everyone would stop worrying about only what's good for today and think about what's good for many tomorrows later. Any decisions that are made by us on who we vote into office and by the one who gets that privilege can't be made with such a short view of things. Not if we want what we have to continue on for our children and their children.

Oh, and you might be surprised after that statement that I believe drilling for oil and natural gas should be done here in the USA. I love nature, we need to take care of it. But we can do what we need and still be kind to nature. Honest. And here's another wild idea - ah - HELLO, we don't run Mother Nature or this planet, we're simply blessed enough to exist on it. Species have been going extinct and terrible things like drastic climate changes have been happening for much longer than recorded history.Sometimes it seems to me, from the things I hear and read, that we've elevated ourselves and our species to some godly level where we control the above. That our ignorance has caused the coming extinction of animals or what not. I don't dispute the fact we've sped things up. But I'm not able to think that without us, these things wouldn't happen.

Just something to keep a mind off the cold today...

I've done it!

2008-09-25T09:59:00.003-05:00

Some of you know I've been working on my novel, Among the Ancients, for a few years - I believe it was started in 2005. I lost interest in it because I couldn't find the research topics I needed to strengthen the plot. I moved on. I wrote the now available Rise of the Arcadians and the upcoming Daughter of Gods. Daughter of Gods is the first of a series, but this series is different from my Manipulated Evil trilogy. It's characters are different from book to book only related to the other characters in each book. I also wrote most of Among the Ancients after finding the research I needed while writing Daughter of Gods. Then I got to the climatic scene and hit a stone wall - quite literally. I couldn't get my characters around that wall to the next step the final one.

Yesterday I took a half day of my style of rest and relaxation. It has to do with resting the mind and working the body to sore misery. I tilled up half the veggie garden of what plants were already harvested. I weeded my back flower garden, some of the front flowers, did laundry, did everything but read or think beyond what weed to pull next. While cleaning up from my outdoor escapades and getting ready for supper, an idea drifted into my head, free and simple like I'd always known it but couldn't find it. It was THE idea I needed to get past the last hurtle of the story. Last night, I finished the last little bit of Among the Ancients.

Now, to get my sore muscles moving throuh today. Then to proofread Among the Ancients, edit it, then proofread again. Then I'll send it in for publication. Phew!

If you want to know more about my novels, I invite you to www.tcmcmullen.com to read the excerpts, reviews and all the goodies.

Technology nightmares

2008-09-22T15:03:00.002-05:00

Computers, cell phones, satellites, home phone, game systems.... Something in the air is causing interference when it comes to me and working with anything of the above lately. I've not had a Monday like this for many weeks. Thank GOD - because it wouldn't take many of these days to have me committed to the insane asylum my daughter's ring tone proudly announces instead of ringing: "welcome to the mental health hotline, if you are an obsessive compulsive press one repeatedly"... *sigh* Most of today's frustration is related to my internet/wireless/phone service provider. The satellite thing is all about the hubby changing the channel on the television without realizing it.

It once took me 6 months to realize no lines were goofed up or chewed through by some unruly critter - it was just my husband smacking some number on the remote and the television getting "misaligned" with the signal. He assured me the second time it happened that he had not done that. After looking through everything I went in, punched in the correct channel and WOW - it worked.

My DSL apparently has "bad days" here in rural Pennsylvania. Ever since the small-town ball park up the road had some excavation work done which resulted in phone lines that weren't properly marked being sliced through by a skidsteer's sharp metal bucket, we've had problems. Every time it rains more than an inch, the phone lines get full of static and the DSL runs molasses slow. A thunderstorm comes anywhere within 8 miles, I loose connection totally. Today it wasn't storming or raining, but apparently the cloudy conditions were enough to screw it all up despite the fact I don't have wireless. I've tried to tell the phone company, but each time I contact them I hear "Your computer..." even when I know it's NOT my computer. And I don't have two hours to run through all their "troubleshooting" which requires I download things, move files and in the end, screw up things to where it IS my computer and I lose days worth of time trying to get everything back in working order. So I just deal because around here, you have but one or two choices. I think come January when the sign up is due, I'll be looking at option number two and hoping they have come to availability on my road.

My other huge gripe about my current provider who is also my home phone provider and cell provider is this: I have three user names and three or four passwords written down in my little black book of user names and passwords. I put each site on an index card and have it all organized. I never have trouble with any of the other sites I deal with - which is a lot. I NEVER get into my provider's sites. I try and try, but I swear they must have fifteen sites for different things and they take great pleasure in saying "sorry, that username or password is not on file for the phone number provided." I'm the first to admit, I can screw up. I mean, I do work several jobs, run a household, and am raising three girls, two of which are teen-agers, of course I get things mixed up sometimes. I am only human. But it can't be every time and when I write it down, I'm very careful, especially with this place. And no, I don't use caps or punctuation that I miss when I try to sign in two weeks later. *humph* And what's even worse was the time it kept telling me the answer to my secret answer was wrong. HELLO, I know my mother's maiden name!! And it's not as if I could misspell it ten attempts in a row. So what the heck is going on - not a question, just a thought.

Today, I'm to the point where I can't care, I just have to deal. I scoff at their commercials that boast excellent customer service and manage to restrain myself from throwing something at the TV when I hear how "great" they are only because I like my television and couldn't afford to replace it.

Then, my daughter comes home and turns on our game system and every disk she put in came back with "disk not readable." So, did we get a frying power surge this weekend when we weren't home to scramble all our electronics? The moon isn't full, though I know 11:44 this morning was the shift from summer to autumn. Hey-maybe that was it. Whatever it was, I'm ready to throw it all out the back window (a 12 foot drop to the back driveway) and live in the dark ages again. I don't think I'm going to try turning my laptop on. Better not push my luck this Monday. If not for the ragweed and my allergies, I would sit on the back porch and read. My rocking chair will just have to do.

Signing off of everything electronic...until next time.

Rearview Mirror

2008-08-28T12:36:00.002-05:00

One more month in the rearview mirror. Oh, August still has 3 days left but the moment school starts, it feels as if it's over because the whole routine of everything changes and it seems fall is fast approaching.

This is the first year where it seemed to change for the better. I've never been one of those parents who can't wait for the kids to be back in school. Odd, I know, but odd's not unusual for me. This year though, the day they started school, I got more work done in seven hours than I had all the previous three weeks. And it wasn't really due to the kids. It was the places they had to be on times they had to be on. It was running to get them prepared for school. It was running to escape the noise of the sawmill that moved in right next door. Maybe it was just the noise and running as a whole.

For the past four days, I've had nothing on other than the computer and a light (and the noisy constant fridge) until the girls get home. The sawmill has been quiet. All has been quiet to where I could hear the birds and wind in the trees again. And I discovered I can think in full sentences again. Silence truly is golden, I realize now after two weeks of constant saw noise, where I sat in my living room and heard roaring and shredding of logs even with windows and doors shut tight and the television on extra loud and even if I wore earplugs in the house.

It reminded me of some research I did for my second book. Noise has been used as torture along with some awfully cruel devices and tactics through the years. I've studied it a bit from as far back as they have records but I never really understood. I sure understand torture by noise fully now. And I have to wonder, is there really any getting used to it like some people say?

All I know is I'm treasuring the quiet and getting much work done from gearing up writing courses I'm preparing to teach through Long Story School of Writing and their affiliates to finishing some books for publication through Star to working on my own books and just all around getting a grip on things that seemed wildly out of control before.

Within another week, if the sawmill doesn't start its roaring 6 days a week again, I should have my life pulled out of the pit of utter chaos and back into the "normal" chaos range.

Hey, I can hope, right?

Around and Around We Go

2008-08-18T18:24:00.002-05:00

It just hit me today that it's been a while since I posted anything here. Things have gotten a bit crazy from computer glitches to household messes and its funny how fast time can fly even when you aren't having fun.

It recently hit me that some are eagerly awaiting publication of my Among the Ancients so I'm working hard on finishing the final chapters. It's another of those story ideas that got pushed into the closet after I finished the Manipulated Evil Trilogy. I couldn't top that story or those characters from the trilogy. It took me two years to be able to move beyond that and realize I didn't need to top it. Match it - absolutely.

So, while I'm getting my girls ready for school (one a junior, another a freshman but my youngest still in the lower grades) I wonder where the time has gone. I'm reading the Earth chronicles from Zacharia Sitchin and shaking my head. Honestly, I have finished my book, Daughter of Gods - it's been finished for a few months now. Somehow, the circumstances I used to support my story seem to be in full agreement of Mr. Sitchin's hypothesis. So, since I won't be needing to change anything, Daughter of Gods is slated for publication now - as soon as I have the time to put all the finishing touches on it (I'm on chapter 12 of my read-through).

All the while, there's dozens of loads of laundry to do, school clothes to sort, corn to freeze, spaghetti sauce soon to be canned and the continuous tasks of house cleaning and my "day job" of running Star Publish.

Don't ask how I do it all - I really can't answer that, and to be honest, some weekends I best be left totally alone lest I go screaming insanely that I need silence and to do absolutely NOTHING. A person needs that once in a while I suppose :)

Mysteries and questions

2008-06-24T10:44:00.002-05:00

I'm doing this research into ancient cultures for my latest series, Disillusionment that starts with my soon to come novel Daughter of Gods. I'm hanging onto the book just in case I stumble across something I want to add to its plot line with the reading of a few books I've finally been able to get my hands on - and possibly a couple others if I can find them and time to read them soon enough.

But I want to throw a few things I've found in my research out there. Global Climate change isn't laughed at anymore. I've also researched enough to know it happens even without the human element (we're just adding speed to it). I also know many of the oldest myths - no one knows where they came from or what influenced their creators to make them - speak of great disasters all over the world in human populations who never knew the others existed yet their stories echo some very similar ideas. It was the ancient Sumers who recorded the first "Noah" story of great floods. There are so many others from so many different areas that have pretty much the same idea. Why? Where did the tales come from?

In all of our historical record, from the rise of the modern human, we've not been threatened with extinction or anything close. (That we know of.) So why do we have so many stories about it?

Then, would someone please tell me why the great Pharos builders of the Giza Pyramids thought it necessary to create the pyramids to such precision in angels that can't be done without extreme effort even to this day? This fact is totally outside the fact that moving the stones used in making the pyramids was a feat in and of itself - then to do such precision in angles and in such a line up to match Orion's belt in the stars. Why?

Then, would someone please tell me why the Mayans had such a magnificent calendar that far surpassed any and rival the one we use today, yet theirs went far far into the future from what they ever needed? And myths about wand waving Dwarves building the temple of the Magician in one day. Why?

Why would farmers take time out of the fields to drag monolithic stones miles to set them in a circle lined with the rise of the sun at certain times as is the most common accepted explanation of Stone Henge? I've been around farmers all my life. Even with today's technology on a small farm, it takes from dusk till dawn to care for the fields. It would have taken more men and man hours to do without tractors and all the other equipment available today. Why would they have stopped to drag dangerously huge stones? Just so they would know exactly what time of year it is? As a story writer, that's far out of character for any farmer to me.

Why would these people, the builders of the pyramids and Stone Henge and many other things around the world, need such precision?

My theory - it comes back to climate change if you ask me. I had the "epiphany" last night.

If you stop regurgitating what we've been taught by experts all our lives and think with a completely open mind - envision humanity is much older than previously thought (which they are discovering clues that support this) and think that maybe, maybe mankind was around in the last upheaval (the big ice age) and survived through the turmoil the earth went through, well, that could very well explain the myths of terrifying destruction all of the cultures have despite the cultures not having contact - wouldn't it? And if humanity had survived through such destruction, what if they had been advanced, as much or more so than we are today? Maybe they would have wanted to track what made the earth fall apart so they would have warning next time, or possibly to warn their descendants. And the changes that happened on Earth were closely related to its natural changes which could be tacked by time - so using the zodiacs, the sun, all of that to precision makes more sense then, wouldn't it?

Even today, with the setting of our clocks and such, as long as we are close to the businesses, schools, doctor offices, ect. we don't really concern ourselves too much with precision, do we? So why would the ancients have done so?

I'm not one of those people who think we rule the world. We are along for the great ride on this planet. Whatever Mother Earth throws at us, we're stuck with. It's our job to cope or....well...not to cope.

Some of the old "time keepers" such as Stone Henge confuse people to their importance because they seem misaligned. But in my research, they would not have been misaligned far back in history. We just have to step further back in time than we thought possible before.

The change in Earth's precession of the equinoxes is coming soon. I've not researched that enough for the details to stick in my head yet. But maybe, just maybe the Mayan calendar ends because the known line-up of things from the Earth would end. And so maybe life as we know it changes. The climate is a touchy thing. One volcano blowing its top drops the temperatures around the world. A slight little change in tilt or orbit or lining up will do...what? And are we being stupid and blind in not looking at the great stone time tables of the ancients just because we believe they couldn't be as advanced as we are?

It's now proven that we did not evolve from Neanderthal, we actually shared the Earth with them for a while.

We've lived in a great quiet in the Earth's history for the thousands of years we know about.

Sumerian civilization just "appeared" with a fully civilized way of life that included schools, law (divorce even) and a working system for business. They also had a higher belief system. Just like that - Poof there they were. Uh-huh.

The Kings List that was once thought total fiction now has a few names that are known as true and once living beings. - Why would the other names with them be fiction? Just because we can't yet explain it?

There is study into collective consciousness. A whisper shared in all minds. In my business, shortly after I wrote my trilogy, poof there they were, books in all shapes, sizes, genres with similar topics and people wanting to read them. Even authors who never thought to write a fantasy or a book on ancients or on the understanding of life are being driven to do so.

Believe or not believe - but do so with an open mind and make your own conclusions, not from what "experts" have taught you. Even experts don't know everything.

And even if you don't believe, reading the fiction fantasy inspired by it all can be loads of entertaining fun :)

I am what I am

2008-06-10T13:25:00.002-05:00

"You don't have to be super mom" -- my oldest said that to me one day after I had worked in the garden, answered several hours worth of emails, phone calls, set up a couple orders, worked on an author's book, cleaned the kitchen, helped with laundry and stood up to look around as if all my effort for the day had accomplished absolutely nothing because nothing was anywhere near the "done" stage yet.

That's pretty much how it goes around here. I have many people ask how I do everything that I do. And then I wonder if I do anything that I do well enough until something does reach a "done" stage and people start telling me how great of a job it is from neighbors driving by to see the landscaping to those who read my books. Yet I have snapshots I haven't yet developed from Christmas (2007) or the final painted stripe on my youngest's bedroom wall that was painted last summer or the border put up in my bathroom painted in February. I have piles of "gotta do that yet" things that have grown in the last several months. But I also have another book nearly finished, a growing garden, a newly organized office and a business that is keeping its head above a watery sea of bills - even though its just barely, it is only just begun.

I may not be the speediest person with some tasks, but what I do, I pace myself to do well. I don't rush for the sake of meeting deadlines. I let ideas simmer to create the best art designs possible. It's the way that I work, slow and steady, paced out and available to ponder things to find the absolute best in everything that I do that deals with design or creation, from books and writing to the landscaping of my yard or finishing of my basement (not even close there yet).

Yes, I handle a lot through the days. Mostly because I can delegate some jobs like doing the dishes, laundry, sweeping, cleaning bathrooms to my teen-agers and my now nine year old who I'm very thankful do so just to help me out. I guess you can say we are a household of multi-taskers and most days everything works out just fine in the end.

All in a day's work

2008-05-30T07:19:00.002-05:00

Warm weather hits and everyone is happy. It's great to get outside. I'll admit I am a homebody. But I don't necessarily like being in the house. Given the chance, I'll leave the cozy rooms behind to dig in the dirt, trim grass, cook over the firepit, or transplant saplings.

It's not been all that calmly enjoyable yet this year. It's funny how much work can pile up, and how much one year can take from a person's strength. My daughter laughed and made the comment to my spending too much time in the computer chair when I ended up with fists full of blisters from sinking posts. "Yes," I said. "I know I do." And after a few days of back breaking work digging up sod (in places I never wanted grass in the first place) and sinking 4x4 posts below frost line level (oh, about three feet or so) to make the garden fence look nice while keeping out nasty devil rabbits since it is in the front yard. We have an infestation of rabbits who believe everything from the saplings I plant to the peas, spinach and bean plants I nurture are exclusively for them.

I like my desk and computers just fine, but there's nothing like a hard day of sweat and strain to clear the mind and soul. Guess I get it honestly, my grandfather was a farmer, my other a coal miner. We're a hard working bunch :)

Now, if I could just find time to get my computer work done, website updates, stories written and the garden planted and the house cleaned (it's been rather neglected lately and I'm a neat freak), I'll be doing good.

Inspiration

2008-04-17T10:18:00.003-05:00

One of the most frequently asked questions I hear is "Where do you get your inspiration?"

It comes from many things, anything that moves me emotionally. People, music, a poem, another story, a storm, an argument, a walk in the woods, a movie, a game night with my kids. So much of it becomes a character and then the things around my character and sprinkles my stories with reality, yes even my fantasy.

My first book, Whispers of Insanity was begun when I was still in high school. I hated watching people judge others on their grades or their clothes or social status. Myself, I stood outside it all, not being the "in" crowd or the "out" crowd. The character in Whispers of Insanity grew from all of that to become one judged and misunderstood.

My second book came from a nightmare. The first scene in the first chapter of Gone Before Dawn (currently out of print, but I'm working on its reissue) is an embellished version of a nightmare I had. Nightmares have plagued me from as far back as I can remember. As a kid, they petrified me, as a teen and adult, I love them for story ideas and they've leant much to each of my books.

My Manipulated Evil trilogy and third story came from many different things. September 11th, the confusion and turmoil after, started it. A little of the tolerance issue I had with my first book went into the main character. The loss of one of my best friends happened while I was still writing Scorching Eden. He inspired my character, Jove, and I never got to share that with him. The soul searching after, that is what drove Scorching Eden to its finish. You know, what are we all doing here anyway?

My third story, sixth book, Rise of the Arcadians , now available, was inspired by Global Warming and human nature - what I've gotten out of studying ancient cultures - and family. I may be an only child, but my extended family is rather large. So Desire became the outcast of her huge family, but still affected by it.

My fourth story, Among the Ancients - or third, since it started before Rise, but is still yet unfinished was also inspired by global warming and mysteries such as the Bermuda Triangle and ancient cultures.

My fifth story was inspired by a small tale I came across in Sumerian myths and also by their Kings list. The brothers Enki and Enlil their hand in creating mankind, the Kings list and the impossibly long life spans of the first Sumerian rulers. What if? What if it wasn't myth, what if the life spans weren't impossibly long? And the story Daughter of Gods was born with Starlight following, now 40,000 words long and exploring the emotions of the characters touched by the gods and how they change. And that's where I'm at right now. That's why I'm a walking zombie from lack of sleep, catching myself talking to myself as my characters act out their scenes in my mind. I go to bed at night, exhausted, and all night my characters act out their story for me. The challenge for me is to feel refreshed and find the time to type those scenes out. Over ten thousand words in the past three days.

Meanwhile life goes on, taxes done, cars break down, bills come in, homework, laundry, dishes, friends over, birthday slumber party to plan, basement to finish before I can get a fully functional office. Somehow, it's all happening at once on this conveyer belt of life.

Petition to stop Amazon

2008-04-04T14:57:00.002-05:00

It's been a wild and crazy week and it doesn't look to stop any time soon.

The question yet to be answered is if the little guy has a voice against the giant. Only time will tell. But if we all sign the petition at this link below, maybe it will help.

Petition to the Washington State Attorney General

http://www.amazontroopsurge.com/

Speak up Consumers!

2008-04-03T16:31:00.004-05:00

When will big companies quit rolling over and picking the pockets and livelihoods of the "little guy?" Answer - When the little guy stands up and refuses to be anything less than a major unrelenting and ungiving thorn in the big guy's hind end.

And that is what I along with Star Publish and many other small publishers to not so little publishers like Booklocker and Publish America and all authors and readers must do against the mega giant Amazon.

Amazon believes they can tell us what printer to use, waving their little "purchase now" buttons in front of our faces and using them as leverage to try to make us use their printer, a printer known to create less than good quality products. It's my hunch that this is why Amazon has turned to such crazy tactics - they can't make the amount of money they want from BookSurge honestly, they have to resort to dirty tricks. Oh, if I'm wrong I apologize, but since all my questions left by phone and email have gone unanswered by anyone at Amazon what else am I supposed to think?

What else am I suppose to think now that I learn they've been skulking around cornering publishers who use print on demand singling them out and not allowing them to speak out for months before something did leak. Why would they be so secretive if they didn't think or KNOW what they are doing is wrong on so many levels?

And let me ask you - do you want to do business with someone that would do such things?

Do you want to do business with a company that puts at risk the quality of what you choose to spend your good money on just so they can keep more of it and the author who slaved over the story you want to enjoy or the information you want to study (if non-fiction) gets less also?

I realize this has happened in other industries but I'm asking - why do we put up with it? Why do we continue to give the companies who do this our hard earned money, our attention, and our support? Maybe sometimes it's because these dirty little secrets don't come out until far after the fact. That's not the case this time.

We've grabbed the flood lights. We're writers after all, this is what we're good at, and we're shouting it everywhere and asking everyone - please, let's work together and tell Amazon we won't put up with this action. Pass this information on, pass on the links I've posted here. Let everyone you know hear about what's going on.

And if you doubt what I'm saying, or have had the chance to see Amazon's nice open letter to interested parties that's not so easily found on their website and think I'm over reacting here's a link to a blog that explains all those niceties in a way that will hopefully clarify why all of us are still in an uproar. Oh, and if you have a few minutes, enjoy the April fools letter on this blog too - it's a good laugh :)
http://poddymouth.wordpress.com/

Pass it on readers, authors, and publishers alike! We all have a voice here. Let's let Amazon hear us and tell them we're not taking their abusive behavior.

I'll be waving at them in my rearview mirror and never looking back... As Star Publish LLC marketing Director Janet Elaine Smith said for all of us at Star Publish:
Thank you, Amazon, for pushing us to find a better way! -- Far from you.
The Executive staff of Star Publish LLC
--

Another interesting tidbit...

2008-04-01T08:58:00.002-05:00

http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-amazon-does-damage-control-on-its-print-on-demand-demands/

I especially like the comments that state pretty much what I said in my first post about Amazon. They claim they are doing this for their customers, to increase speed in delivery, yet I'm hearing all over how very few people get one package even if they ordered just a few things. They don't come from one place to begin with - how are we to believe them taking all print on demand books into their system will accomplish that?

There's also a petition here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/protectPOD/?e if anyone would like to sign it and maybe help change Amazon's crazy ideas.

Amazon Bully?

2008-03-31T20:18:00.002-05:00

It’s been a wild and crazy few days, err, more like a week. No one told me a puppy got sick just like kids. It’s ironic when a child is sick with the bucket handy and her dog is in the chair with her, looking just as miserable.

Meanwhile in the publishing front, the world has been a buzzing with the news Amazon is changing its policies that have been the same for as long as I’ve been in this biz going on 8 years now. I’m a “if it works don’t change it” kind of person and I really don’t see the intelligence in this decision of theirs.

It seems they are trying to get a little demanding and require any books printed by POD technology (print on demand) and sold on their site with a direct buy button, must be printed using their printer, Book Surge they purchased in 2005. Hmmm, seems a little off to me. They say this will enable them to ship books faster because they will be able to print them within a couple hours, package them with anything else the customer may have ordered and all is good.

I don’t buy it.

I have purchased things from Amazon, mostly Christmas gifts when I can’t find them anywhere else. The thing that strikes me as funny is this: I purchased a handful of things, thinking it was from Amazon because that’s where I bought it from, that’s who I paid, that’s who confirmed my order. All but two of the items were packaged and shipped from separate parts of the states with different store names on the letter inside the Amazon box. So I’m not sure I’m buying that statement in their release that if a customer buys a book and a toaster they can package them together and the customer gets exactly what they want and that is why Amazon wants to do this.

My other concern is quality. Quality is very important to me as it seems to be for Lightning Source - my current printer that also is owned by Ingram, one of the largest distributors to bookstores. The fact that BookSurge has many complaints about their lack of quality does not make me feel very confident about them keeping the standards I'm used to. And like I saw stated somewhere else, if a customer orders a title from Amazon and that title arrives to the reader with a missing page or something else wrong, it won’t be Amazon who looks bad, it will be the publisher because Amazon or BookSurge will not have their name on the product. The publisher who paid them for the service does. And this isn’t even about the double work this would cause to people who are already overworked and how about that double charge to have one book with two printers?

It doesn’t help that the very thought of being forced to have two printers if I want things to stay the same as they are with Amazon stirs my Irish blood into thinking how dare you tell me where I can or can not print my books and have them listed as they have been with Amazon since I published them (speaking of my personal titles). Oh, I know, Amazon is crying out “you don’t have to do this, you can sell as a 3rd party if I don’t print with Book Surge, and Star books will still be available on Amazon, just not with the shipping specials or any of that good stuff. Don’t get me started on that 3rd party thing. It ain’t worth it.

I’m inclined to tell them where to go, truly. Amazon has never been my most favorite place for my books, but some authors with Star Publish have had much better relations. So I suppose we’ll see how it all goes.

Myself, I’m waiting for Borders to get their new site up. I’ll jump on their bandwagon real fast.

I’m also by far not the only one a little bothered by this:
http://www.writersweekly.com/the_latest_from_angelahoycom/004597_03272008.html

100th Interview

2008-03-13T11:47:00.002-05:00

Quite a surprise it was when Joyce Anthony, author of Storm, told me the interview I returned to her was her 100th and a winner. In all my office work, organizing and reorganizing everything from actual papers to computer files, I had misplaced the interview after I answered her questions. It was more luck that helped me find it than any purposful action on my part. When I sent it, I was sure she had reached her 100th interview days before. She's forever adding new interviews, each wonderful reads from today's authors. But she surprised me with the news that I was the winner a few days ago. I'm just now slowing down enough to grab the moment I need to let you all in on it here.

Joyce's blog is here: http://joyceanthony.tripod.com/blog. Plan to stay for a while as reading the interviews is addicting. Mine is under the March 9th.

Character Curse

2008-03-05T13:31:00.003-05:00

I'm a writer. It is the core of who I am more than anything else. Every little thought that trickles into my head becomes something, some bigger than others, some remembered more than others. I know when I'm in trouble when a character develops from these bits and pieces so strongly they will not let me alone even to sleep.

I started a new series a few months ago set thousands of years from now using some ideas spawned from "What if" after research into ancient Sumerian beliefs and the Kings List and such. The Kings List was thought fiction because the age of some of the early kings named on it was beyond possibility. Oh really? Are we sure - what if it wasn't? And Daughter of Gods began.

In the story, a little girl became a very small secondary character. Six years old, she did little but follow others. Then I started working on the second book in the series, still untitled and just a few chapters long. Within the first chapter, this six year old pops up, only now she is 16 and a rebellious teen. I have two of those - teens that is, not so much rebellious. But I can still remember my teen years (and I'll let that be all I say). So writing this teen wasn't hard at all. Then, after the fourth chapter and she proved to be a main point of view character, she insisted on being 23 - to heck with the back story, to heck with the second book in the series. Kira wants her own, her nickname, Starlight, to be the title and she's not taking no or wait-your-turn for an answer. She's even presented herself to me in a full fledge sketch (above) that took me just hours to do but will be her book cover. And she has a character to share her story with that caught me by surprise. A child I didn't even know existed of a character from the first book. Surprise, there Dane was, all grown up and claiming the mighty Danik as his mother and out for revenge only he's not a vigilante but a scholar who's been sheltered all his life in a space station and suddenly dropped on the surface of Earth. He somehow stumbles stupidly into pulling Kira out of a mess she's gotten into and then ropes her into helping him only he has no idea who she is or how close to a dangerous mess he is.

And there the story goes, nag nag nag - no consideration for book two at all despite the fact 2 does come before 3. Characters, I have come to understand, care very little for their creator or for numbers or how things were planned.

And then there is Among the Ancients, Bryce and Kynly waiting very patiently for me to get on with polishing their story. Something tells me they will be patient for a few more years, but Kira age 23, not a chance.

Star Publish Has A New Address

2008-03-04T19:22:00.002-05:00

New Face, New Name

March 4, 2008

Star Publish remains outside the usual in the services it offers and its dedication to its authors with T.C. McMullen at its lead, but it now has a new website and business front at www.starpublishllc.com.

New and great things are coming to the Star website including authors’ blog listings, and a calendar of events. Visit Star and sample some of the most intriguing and fresh works available to readers today. Get to know the authors from the inside, who they are, why they wrote their books, and what those books offer to readers.

Don’t forget to check out the Star opportunities for writers as well. There is now an illustrator and artist on staff for original artwork in covers and interior images. As before, there is a full time staff including marketing director Janet Elaine Smith to help put books into public view.

For more information about all the opportunities for readers and writers, visit www.starpublishllc.com and bookmark it today!

Email contact: tcmcmullen@starpublishllc.com

# # #

Genre blending...

2008-02-27T08:13:00.002-05:00

Way back (ok, it wasn’t that long ago) in the 1980s, I started writing stories. I suppose to one degree or another, I was always creating stories, either with little drawings or with actual words. I never gave much thought to doing anything more than doodling with it. Then I graduated and somehow found my way to a writing course. From there I wrote my first novel which landed fairly solidly into a thriller category after some changes suggested by an editor and agents but with a truly occult touch I couldn’t completely remove like advised. My second book stemmed from a nightmare I had as a young mother and grew in my crazy imagination to a horror thriller or suspense. Then came my third.

The Unseen was the first book of my Manipulated Evil trilogy and defied easy categorization. Was it a science fiction? Not exactly. Was it a romance? Not exactly. Was it fantasy or thriller or action adventure? Sort of. How about coming of age? In truth it was a little of all of the above despite being labeled a science fantasy. And I’m told I do that blending a lot. My latest release, Rise of the Arcadians is a little bit Eco Thriller, little bit future fantasy, little bit action adventure with dashes of romance and a drop of magic. In general though, such mixing doesn’t sit well with big publishers or stores because they are hard to put in their place. But how about for readers?

I know I love a story that has many elements all mixed together. For me, it becomes more interesting and it’s not just me who’s doing the mixing. Authors like Laurell K. Hamilton are running along the same path, not building stories to any box easily tagged, but creating variety and excitement with a complicated recipe of story elements. So, are the big publishers learning what the small publishers have been promoting for years?

As an author, I don’t think it would be possible for me to write something that slipped easily into one cozy category. My imagination won’t hear of it and readers seem to love the mixing. As head of a publisher, it’s the stories that stretch the ordinary that stay on the desk at Star Publish and often those are the mixes.

So onward I go with Among the Ancients and Daughter of Gods, not trying to squeeze them into any category, but letting the characters do what they may for my readers.

It's good

2008-02-25T17:58:00.002-05:00

I don’t usually complain about life. At times, stresses will get to me, but that’s when it’s time to take a day and go for a hike or in the winter, go see a movie, take a breather. Life’s been good to me, not perfect, but good enough. Then all heck broke loose the last couple weeks, stretching me to the point I thought I was like some little cartoon existing just for the piano to fall on and keg of black powder to blow up on. I literally was to the point I thought another week like the last two would send me to the funny farm. (They’re coming to take me away haahaaaa!!)

Then I got up this morning, ready for battle again with companies who can’t keep records correctly and computers that can’t cooperate with programs that like to suck up RAM and freeze and the strangest thing happened.

Now, let me explain that I’ve spent more time on the phone trying to reach billing of a few companies (I won’t name names) for services both for my company and for my household than anything else the last two weeks. I got sent in so many circles it dizzied me with frustration. It was a case of one hand not knowing anything about the other or where one should be sent with a certain question. I finally got two resolved and another accidentally billed me for something I cancelled. I tried to correct it by email but was given a phone number instead. I tried for two days and couldn’t get through. So I figured today was a battle day with more dizzying circles.

Imagine my surprise when my first attempt got through to a very polite man who knew exactly what I was talking about and how to fix it, and yep, upon checking, it’s fixed. And in less than 15 minutes on the phone. That IS possible. Then my computer decided to cooperate again. I got more work done today than I did in all of the past two weeks.

So, was my sign misaligned with the stars for the start of February or something? I don’t really care, I’m just glad it’s over. I’m ready for things to begin working again so I can get back to regular work day hours with time left over for my kids and maybe even a little for me :)

A Little Respect

2008-02-12T20:44:00.000-05:00

I don't usual open my mouth about controversial topics unless specifically asked, but over the weekend, I saw an image that deeply disturbed me. It was an image of protestors carrying signs. I won't state what the sign specifically said, but the gist of it was a deeply hateful thing against soldiers.

I don't come from a military family although I've had relatives in the military. But still, I can deeply empathize with the families and the soldiers fighting today. All I have to do is think of the images of strong soldiers in a battlefield with tears in their eyes, a soldier holding an injured child amongst chaos, children running to a mother or father they haven't seen in many months - the list goes on.

The war in Iraq is something none of us like very much. War is ugly, terrible, full of horror, but sometimes necessary. Anyone who thinks it never is should really think hard about what this world would be like if tyrants were left to overrun without opposition. Don't judge quick by what you think you know. Truly imagine it - what if everyone refused to fight?

But, I digress, my main topic here was the pain I felt for soldiers when I saw that image a second time. As my daughter said, who would say such an awful thing about soldiers? I really don't understand it and I wonder if the person who made that sign or carried that sign ever stopped to think about the soldiers fighting overseas as human beings. And did they ever stop to think that not all of them are in Iraq?

It shames me to think people in my country can think so badly of the men and women that give up everything of themselves, sometimes even their lives to protect our country, protect the rights of people, no matter who they are. Those soldiers hurt from what they've experienced. They witness horrors most of us can't even imagine and somehow keep going on, some with hearts of gold, running to help anyone, even perfect strangers, while risking their own lives.

Sure, some of you might huff and state some of the horrible things that have been done by soldiers. I say don't judge all by a few. Nothing is fully perfect. Perfection is a myth. But stop and think about the type of person it takes to leave family, home, modern comforts and safety behind to help ensure the rest of us can enjoy all those things without worry. The least we can do is thank them and be glad for their returns.

I don't know if the war is right or wrong. It wouldn't matter to me if I did believe it was all totally wrong, I could never speak so badly of those making such sacrifices to help others and protect what they believe in even if I didn't believe in the same thing.

I thank each and every man and woman out there who have put defending our country and the people before anything else. I thank their families too. I deeply respect them and wish them all the best for what they've given of themselves and hope they never once have to feel unappreciated or let down by anyone they've fought for. I can only hope others do the same for them, or at least don't do anything to disrespect them.

It's Official!

2008-02-05T13:55:00.000-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Star Publish
tcmcmullen@starpublish.com
www.starpublish.com

After Global Warming!

January 28, 2008

Can you survive? This is asked of you when you turn to the back of T.C. McMullen’s new Thriller, Rise of he Arcadians.

It’s 2122, seventy-two years after the Upheaval changed the world. Continents, world-communication, and modern technology are no longer what they once were. Society struggles to reestablish behind walls along what’s left of the Eastern United States. Darvid Squire, the leader of the citadel protecting the wall, relies on a rogue woman, Desire, for information and supplies. She knows all about the wild outer lands thought too harsh to support human life, yet Desire knows the wild lands hold secrets of old, secrets of hope.

One common enemy has risen to threaten both the civilized and the wild lands – Oceaners, a race of cannibals who swarm the continents, stripping from it resources and people. Desire must turn to her past to help her allies. Secrets of her ancestors mix with the future, creating a family saga and coming of age tale inside a thriller.

It’s been over two years since McMullen’s last release, Scorching Eden, but Rise of the Arcadians and the characters it introduces are well worth the wait. McMullen resides in rural Pennsylvania with her husband and three children. She is currently writing her next novel, Daughter of Gods, with more in a series to come soon.

For more information about this novel and McMullen’s other titles, visit the author's website at www.tcmcmullen.com.
Email contact: tcmcauthor@hotmail.com

# # #

Media support kits available electronically or by mail upon request.

Release distributed by Star Publish, an elite publisher dedicated to giving authors the best services while upholding only the highest quality for readers.

Shared Mind Conspiracy?

2008-01-19T10:44:00.000-05:00

Last night, I settled down in front of the television under my afghan, not tired enough to sleep, so I turned to the sci-fi channel. The new Flash Gordon was on. I say "was on" because even when I'm in front of the television, I have a magazine, book, laptop, or sketch pad in front of me so I rarely just watch something.

Anyway, there's a new character in that show and when I heard his name, I slapped my forehead and thought "You HAVE to be kidding me!" Is nothing from my mind original? Is it all subconsciously known and just spit out when I think I'm being new?

Why? His name was Tarek. How they spell it, I don't know, but that's how I spell my Tarek. I assure you, "my" Tarek was born a few months ago, long before I heard the name on Flash Gordon. And it was a blend of his parents's names (I won't share yet, don't want to spoil the plot of Daughter of Gods.) This same thing happened when I was writing my Manipulated Evil Trilogy and gave the character Rania her name. I thought it sounded unique enough but within a few short months, I saw it in a few books and heard it on television at least once.

So I have to wonder, is there some thought-string we all share, the information tagging along through everyone's subconscious to spill out in clusters?

It doesn't really matter, I suppose. My Rania is still Rania and my Tarek will remain. Took me forever to come up with that combination of letters and actually like it, so I'm not going to chuck it just because the writers of the Flash Gordon series thought of it too. Though I do have to wonder if their Tarek is new or if I missed something about the original Flash Gordon because I really am not familiar with that one.

Ok, so maybe my characters' names aren't as original as I once thought and hoped they were, but hopefully they keep their individual identities just the same.

The Old and the Scary

2008-01-16T12:47:00.000-05:00

Every once in a while to make sure things are as they should be with my listings and where my name and books are found, I run a quick search through Google or one of the other popular search engines. I also keep an eye on where my website hits are coming from to see what's working and what's not. Today, I stumbled on a few things in my search - things from a year ago, things from several years ago and EEEK. Scary to say the least. I have things at places I don't even remember being a member of. What it would take to get back in those sites and de-amateur-ize my pages, I don't know.

It's funny to look back now on where I started - an uncertain youngster not at all certain my writing was good. How I managed to stumble along, tripping over my own feet with my lack of knowledge, I'll never know for sure, except that my writing is really good, good enough quite a few people took notice along the way and lifted me up when I needed it most.

What's even scarier is to think just how amateurish what I post on the web today will be next year or five years from now. But the lesson is this - be careful what you put on the web. You never know when it will creep back out from the crevasse of time and scream at you.

Another Goodbye

2008-01-15T08:29:00.000-05:00

Day by day, do any of us have any clue to how we are affecting the people around us - even those who don't interact with us one on one?

We've lived at our current address for ten years. From the time we moved in, I knew how lucky we were to have such wonderful neighbors. Our road is full of younger families and many kids grouped around the same ages. And right across the road was the dear couple we purchased our home from. Older, we viewed them as the road grandparents. We would wave at each other, stop to chat when we could, and watch out for each other. George was always busy taking care of his yard, his garden, or just enjoying the view. He offered yard care advice to me through the years and helped me several times in tackling things too large for me to handle alone.

I noticed recently that George's truck wasn't moving at all. This couple isn't a sedimentary couple, so this stood out to me. During the cold months, he usually drove, either their car or their truck, but I'd been missing seeing him. I'm not one to pry into the affairs of others, so I didn't ask, I just kept an eye out, hoping to see him wave again one day. Yesterday, we discovered he passed on after a stay in the hospital. Silly as it may sound my oldest daughter stood still when I told her and then said "who's going to tell my dog to be quiet?" Yes, George helped out more than we realized. He was a part of our lives even from across the road. We're really going to miss him.

Rise of the Arcadians Review

2008-01-07T21:04:00.000-05:00

Coming Late January 2008
Rise of the Arcadians
T.C. McMullen
ISBN 978-0-9754372-8-5
Published by
Open Reign Publishing,
a division of Star Publish

She's called Scout by the men of the Citadel, where no other woman is allowed except for the few who cook and clean. In a not-so-far-future world where the earth's very surface has changed, and civilization as we know it today is only a memory, Scout mysteriously comes and goes and carries out her self-assigned mission: to keep the Citadel's fighters supplied, so they can defend the remnants of what used to be the eastern United States against invasion by the cannibalistic Oceaners. Scout has a real name, though, and a home unknown to the Citadel although it's not that far away. A home from which she has all but exiled herself, and a destiny that calls her back just when her chosen allies need her most.

Once again T.C. McMullen blends speculative fiction elements with some of Humankind's most universal and potent myths, and peoples the resulting universe with characters whose flaws make them all the easier to care about. In Desire (otherwise known as Scout), she's created a memorable yet believable action heroine on whose coming of age struggle a continent's fate depends. The people surrounding her are just as real, and the best thing about Desire - in this reader's opinion - is how her developing relationship with one special man enhances instead of changes her. There's warning here, of what our own world's future may hold if we continue on our current pathway; but there's also hope.

I do hope this apparent standalone book is really the first volume in a new McMullen series, because I definitely want to read more about Desire and her people!

--Reviewed by Nina M. Osier, author of the Farthinghome series from eBooksOnThe.Net (first volume now available in paperback from Cambridge Books)

Star Publish Changes Ownership

2008-01-03T09:37:00.000-05:00

After almost four years as Owner & Director of Star Publish LLC
(http://starpublish.com), Kristie Leigh Maguire is retiring from the
publishing business.

Effective January 1, 2008, the new Owner & Director of Operations for
Star Publish is T.C. McMullen. Maguire will remain with Star Publish
as Publishing Consultant and an author.

A woman of all trades, T.C. McMullen has delved into areas of book
creation from authoring, editing, designing, illustrating,
publishing, marketing and teaching. She began writing professionally
in the mid 1990s after receiving her diploma from Long Ridge Writers
Group in Connecticut for completing the "Breaking Into Print" course.
Her first novel, a psychological thriller Whispers of Insanity, was
published in 2002. Shortly after, T.C. joined Global Authors
Publications as Senior Editor and Artistic Development Editor. In the
following years, she chose to go freelance with her services, working
for Global Authors Publications, Jada Press, and Star Publish as well
as providing services for individual authors for dozens of titles,
many award winning. At the start of 2008, T.C. steps into
leadership of Star Publish. To date, she has seen five of her own
titles in print including the reader acclaimed Manipulated Evil
Trilogy with two more titles soon to be released. She also offers
three writing courses at Long Story Short School of Writing. She
resides in rural Pennsylvania with her three daughters, husband of
seventeen years, and two canines to keep everything a bit more
exciting.

The year of 2008 promises to bring exciting challenges and changes
for both Star Publish under the leadership of T.C. McMullen, and for
Kristie Leigh Maguire. As Maguire stated, "I am looking forward to
getting back to my own personal writing career. However, I am so use
to multi-tasking that I created a new company geared toward authors.
If you are an author and need a customized cover for your book, a
professionally written press release, or a video book trailer
customized to your book and posted to YouTube.com, then check out my
new company, Book Covers and More!"
(http://bookcoversandmore.tripod.com/)

Where does time go....

2008-01-01T17:35:00.000-05:00

A new year. That's what it says when I scroll my mouse over the time bar on the computer so it must be so. As I sit here typing, I can remember back to when the roll from one year to the next meant little to me, yet I can't remember what food in the fridge is from the meal we cooked three days ago or three weeks ago.

I also didn't think it's been so long since I last posted to this blog. Shame on me.

A lot has happened since October after the fun I had at the conference. First, I was offered the lead of Star Publish. I've worked with Star Publish since its creation in 2004. When I was offered the reigns, it wasn't a simple thing at all. On one hand, it was a tremendous responsibility I was asked to take on for a wonderfully set up company. On the other, Star was my main source of employment. Freelance, I do much work for others, but Star was the most consistent and yes, sometimes easiest to work for because Kristie Leigh Maguire and I knew what to expect from each other. I debated for many weeks, then decided this is what I do - publishing, writing, books - all of that is my life second only to my children.

So onward and forward I go, taking the head of a fantastic company, trusting my skills and knowledge and ready to help others not only in the designs of books but in presenting it to the world as well.

The second thing that happened is I finished RISE OF THE ARCADIANS and it is ready for release any day now. I'll let you all know when and where it can be purchased. I have my next series begun with DAUGHTER OF GODS ready for editing and the asked about AMONG THE ANCIENTS is again in motion. I apologize to all those I've spoken to recently who asked of it. I didn't realize how much attention it gained when I announced I was working on it. I jumped the announcement of it a little early and hit a few snags in its plot but have worked through those and am now well on the way to "the end" hopefully before the finish of this new year 2008.

So I welcome the new year and new opportunities and hope all of you do as well.

Conference was Phenomenal

2007-10-16T18:36:00.000-05:00

I had very little idea of what to expect from the conference. I was pleasantly surprised when so many participated in the challenges and introduced themselves. Thank you. It was a joy to meet everyone who stopped by my board and all those who joined me at chat. It got a little sticky at times with my daughters not realizing mom was actually busy when chat time came around - alright, truth be told, that night cemented my determination to have an office and has me thinking a deadbolt, chains, and a locking doorknob will be necessary also.

I'll be back next year for the 2008 Muse Writers Conference, that's for sure. And hopefully I'll have an office I can close off to the rest of my hectic household :) If you are wondering what the heck I'm talking about, do visit my site and check out the Author Appearances page where the link is listed so you can read all about it for yourself :)

Just for fun...

2007-09-17T07:53:00.000-05:00

Monday mornings are never the fastest moving days around my house. This morning, being so chilly when we've been used to some heat, well, it isn't helping. I'm here, all wrapped up in blankets and flannel, and found an occupier for a few minutes. http://LinkTiles.com/concentration.php For this day, September 17th, my tile is included in the puzzle, but so are many others. Just in case you're between books, taking a break, or just browsing, take a gander at it.

And now that I've let you in on it and the clock hands have swept past 9 a.m. I'm going to get to my official work and see if I can't get Rise of the Arcadians out before Halloween.

The conference is nearing!

2007-09-12T07:59:00.000-05:00

The 2007 online writer's conference is nearing. This will be the first year I'm participating, but many of my fellow writers have presented before and are back this year. I'm really looking forward to joining them to meet new people and share what I know about the art of novel writing.

The Muse Online Writers Conference is exciting for its convenience and availability. Participants won't need to travel anywhere or shell out hundreds of dollars. I know I've gotten things in the mail about conferences I would have loved to attend, but with three kids and a skinny checkbook, it was never possible. What the Muse has done to make this available to anyone is phenomenal.

I invite you to check it out if you've ever had any interest in writing. You never know where the road may lead you.

http://www.freewebs.com/themuseonlinewritersconference/

A new perspective

2007-09-06T17:36:00.000-05:00

Accidents happen every day. Cars are smashed, sometimes people hurt. Yesterday, on a road not far from here, one I drive at least once a week, three cousins were on their way to the county fair. They never got there. Two were killed. A 13 year old boy and a 10 year old girl. My daughter was classmates with the boy. The whole of our small community is shaken.

As hard as it is to lose someone, it's harder when it's someone young. I can't help but worry and pray for the one survivor, the driver of the car yesterday. We've all done tremendously stupid things in our lives. Most of us live on to laugh about them without being haunted by them. Just this summer at a family get together, my aunts, uncles and cousins all stood around talking about some of the truly brainless things we did. One involved fire and gasoline, another an old gun found in a barn, another the pool out by the springhouse. Truly, a few of us shouldn't have survived. We did lose a teen in our family to a car accident many years ago. My uncle was the youngest brother. He wasn't one of the lucky ones to live through something stupid. Neither was the driver yesterday. I only hope she is able to get through so the family doesn't lose all three from that car crash yesterday.

Is it good luck for some of us, bad for others, or something else? I've seen very interesting and mind teasing things in my life, put with the skills of a writer, and it seems so designed, like a plot of a book. Seemingly stupid things, totally unrelated can create a reaction or action that causes something else, something that in hindsight just had to happen, even if it was horrible. So I'm reminded of a little card I found in a book given to me by my dad. Simply: There is a reason. Some people refuse to believe it, some hang onto it for all their sanity. Myself, I'm just here for the experiences, for whatever reason.

So today my girls got extra big hugs, and I truly hope my middle daughter meant it when she said "you just have to get a perspective on death" - I always thought she was an old-soul, wise beyond her years. Or maybe my trilogy really made an impression on her because, as she says, they were needed somewhere else, they learned and did what they needed to do here. It was time to go.

A day in the life...

2007-07-25T18:40:00.000-05:00

Rise of the Arcadians is back from edit. Now I just need to find the time to apply the edits and get all the artword ready for the cover. This year yet? Being that July 25th just hit (and that just hit me today) I really do not know. I want for it to happen this year. It just depends how much time I can scrape together for myself.

Add that into the super-productive garden this year and freezing all the veggies coming off of it despite lack of rainfall. Add to that three kids, two dogs, and one bunny coming for the daughter who felt left out with the dogs and one nagging need to write the next book and I'm spinning in my chair here. 173 single spaced pages are typed to (tentative title) Daughter Of Gods and last night it hit me, it won't be all one book. So help me, it won't be like my trilogy either, but more like a series. Yes, the very thing I swore I would never do a few years ago, somewhere around where I swore I would never write more than one book for a set of characters (hmmm, what was the three book trilogy?).

I really do need to stop saying "never."

And now I'm going to get back to work.... Until next time :)

Off to edit

2007-07-09T12:46:00.001-05:00

I've finally called one of the three latest projects I've been working on finished and wrote "the end" on Rise of the Arcadians.

I actually finished it a month or two ago, but at the time, it just felt a bit fizzled to me, like it needed more. The ending, that is. It wasn't until I opened the file and read the last chapter again while out camping that I thought it wasn't so fizzled at all. So today I transferred the file into my desktop, skimmed through to adjust some formatting, and clicked to print. Amazingly my printer gave no protest. And now off to editing it goes just to see if I'm the only one who thought at first it didn't work. I'm also including a preview of my next book. Hopefully by the time Rise of the Arcadians goes to print I'll have a title for the next :)

It's been a while...

2007-06-27T08:50:00.001-05:00

This way, that way, so many things to do, not enough hours in a day or days in a week. It struck me the other day as I crashed into my living room recliner just how little time there is for simple enjoyments, get togethers with friends and escapes from responsibilities. A recipe for stress? Do we all suffer from it?

I'm a writer, an author by trade and here I am, hardly able to squeeze out some creative moments at the end of the day. I used to believe it was due to my household of five, but I'm not so sure anymore. We are a busy lot, three kids going in all directions, but they seem to go with the flow more than the "typical" teens. In fact, they've been more of a help than a hinder.

This isn't to say I haven't gotten any writing done. In fact I have one, Rise of the Arcadians, finished and ready for edit and another as of yet untitled well on its way with another Among the Ancients sitting well begun on a back burner while I research more for its plot base. It's fine without that research I'm told, but I really need to do it, to set the base of the book solidly into knowing what I don't yet know. Sure, I could shoot it off to editing and start focusing on marketing, but it's not in me to do that until I'm satisfied with it. I need more time to devote to it.

There's been a discussion around my home about what we have coined "fluff." We use it both for books and for movies. I have nothing against "fluff" and even enjoy it at times. But I need more, stories that are layered with questions and puzzles to uncover. And I need much more than fluff when I'm writing. When my characters are "fluff" or existing in a plot of "fluff" I'm bored.

So what is fluff? For us, it's basically simple storylines that have one shallow purpose and no reverberating mood left when they finish. My middle daughter recently called Devil Wears Prada "fluff" but my oldest loved it. I haven't seen the movie, not one I would choose to watch really. My husband comes home every night and watches some show full of pranksters. Yes, it can be entertaining. It's also fluff.

I remember a question someone asked me when I first started with my writing. Why didn't I write children's books or some sweet romance? It's what was expected of me from acquaintances. I've always been known as sweet and quiet little me. Only a few of my closest friends expected what I do write. I have a new answer for this now. Mysteries/thrillers/horror/sci-fi/fantasy let you examine very deep life changing things from angles a character can reach and then play out for readers without seeming forced or feeling preachy. Two things I don't care to be towards others, especially readers. I have too much respect for them for that. I want it there for them to ponder if they wish or leave behind if they so choose.

Scams and Spams

2007-03-28T08:37:00.000-05:00

I'm naturally a bit skeptic of all things. Commercials rarely sway me. Emails never do. That doesn't mean I don't take notice of them. Some very official looking emails fall into my inbox, more and more lately. They often have links in their text, promising a quick fix to some ligitimate sounding account or order problem. I sometimes find it funny when I notice those links, when scrolled over, are not the same link that will appear in the address bar. If you click on a link from an email please – PLEASE – be sure the promised location is legit. Make sure the address is as you were told it would be to start. If at any time you feel a bit uncomfortable, there’s no shame in closing that window without giving a lick of information.

It's very important to be vigilant about checking the legitimacy of things these days. You never know when someone will think it all right to trick you into giving away a password or account information. A small shop in a near-by small town (actually if Hazelton Pennsylvania is considered small, this small town would be downright tiny) recently stopped accepting personal checks. Now where I’m from, we still use paper and pen, not plastic cards for the most part even if they do hand us that piece of paper back with words printed on it. I’ve been in that little shop enough to hold full conversations with the owner who also runs the place where I discovered just how many bad checks and false bills have been passed around lately. Not the large bills mind you, but small ones and for a small business even a small loss can be devastating.

I just have to wonder why people would do it.

Does anyone know the meaning of empathy anymore? You know, feeling of concern and understanding for another's situation or feelings.

When my first daughter was born and then diagnosed with ADHD, one of the main things I did – even without knowing – was teach her to think about how her actions made others feel. Like when she took her sister’s toy or shoved her down a hill. Even a three year old can comprehend how what they do has an effect on others. Funny, 14 years later and she’s a fine and compassionate, if a bit impulsive, teen. Empathy was the most important thing I taught her.

My best friend since the first grade (no kidding) always said I should be a counselor or psychologist because no matter how a person treated me or someone else, I could see their side, how they might interpret their right to treat someone that way. Instead I became a writer though maybe my knack for seeing both sides is the reason readers love my “bad guys” as much as my “good.” It doesn't mean I agree with both sides or even one side at all. It just means I understand why they would make the decisions they do. Then react not with emotions but coolheaded decisiveness.

I just wish the rest of the world would slow down enough to learn the same – both to not rush to judgment and to treat everyone as they would want to be treated.

Not Perfect

2007-01-26T09:35:00.000-05:00

I have a confession to make. I know I don't post often to this blog but there is a reason for that. I'm not perfect but I have a very bad perfectionism streak. Usually when I have the time to post here it's after I've done hours of writing, editing, formatting or illustrating and my brain function isn't top quality. That and I have a tendency to spell words according to how I say them (affectionately called mountain hick talk) rather than to how they are meant to be spelled when I'm tired or rushed. My fingers also like to hit keys I don't know they are hitting at times, making words which really don't fit in a particular sentence. So -- I hesitate to post until I have the time to spend 15 minutes to a half hour cleaning up my post. Is it the curse of being a published author -- everyone expects perfection with everything? Or is it my own curse?

My books are as clean as humanly possible, but they also go before at least two other sets of eyes besides mine and sit for months so I see them fresh again. Yes I do edit for others and I'm good at it, but my mind with my own work often sees "its bowl" when in actuality I've typed "it's bowl" -- yes, I know that's wrong -- its without the apostrophe is the possesive form of this pesky little word. Maybe because I KNOW that I don't actually SEE my goof?

I've also had my characters riding their creature and pulling on the "bridal" -- and flashlights throwing wicked "steaks" all over cavern walls. The first error my editor caught, the second, well, let's just say I promise to remove the "steaks" on reprint.

No matter how professional a writer, or editor -- of books, newspapers, magazines, whatever -- we aren't perfect yet I see so often someone being berated because of a mispelled word or missing or wrong punctuation. On one occasion an editor was told she should be ashamed of herself because of her mistake.

Then I came across another writer's blog with a disclaimer at the end of each post. I thought it a very clever idea.

THIS POST HAS NOT BEEN PROOFREAD BY ANYONE OTHER THAN THE OVERWORKED AUTHOR, SO PLEASE DISREGARD ANY ERRORS IN TYPING, SPELLING, OR PUNCTUATION. Thank you :)

Reviews are in!

2006-10-26T07:21:00.000-05:00

This spring I "googled" myself as I often do to keep track of where my books are listed and things of that sort. At that time I must have viewed more than the first several pages because I came across a site - TCM Reviews. I'm not one to ship my titles off for review anywhere, especially not hard copies, but this one had my initials so I thought - What the heck. So off I shipped The Unseen, Book one of The Manipulated Evil Trilogy. Not long after, a good review was up on their site so I requested reviews for the following two in the trilogy, Scattered Souls: Book Two and Scorching Eden: Book Three.

The reviews are wonderful and reconfirm I've accomplished with my trilogy what I set out to do. My goals with telling this story was to make people think about very important and soul-searching type issues as well as thoroughly entertain them. It's wonderfully to hear from readers and reviewers from Maine to Tennessee and even Australia that someone has fully enjoyed Ravyn and Kyle's story to the fullest and are left with resonating thoughts after they turn that last page.

And to top it off the great news for this month, the Manipulated Trilogy is finding its way to bookstore shelves at Waldenbooks (also Borders) Bookstores. If you have one near you, ask about them by title and author.

If you want a peek at the full reviews for each book at TCM Reviews, pop into my home site - www.tcmcmullen.com and scroll down to "News Flash." The links for each are there.

The Wonders of Halloween

2006-10-16T15:02:00.000-05:00

October. I was born in it, I enjoy it the most. It's a favorite month of many here in Pennsylvania because of the excellent views with the changing leaves. We've gotten some beautiful days lately, days that don't stir images of anything demented or dark. But decorations are popping up everywhere from ghosts and goblins to witches and foam gravestones. Halloween – it’s a favorite of mine, right up there with Christmas. Though Christmas wins top rank because of family gatherings, Halloween ranks because of its history and promises of mystery and intrigue.

Oh, the history. What I’ve learned of ancient civilizations I’ve learned on my own, digging in research for my novels and what I found surprised me a bit, especially because of the images and thoughts around Halloween today.

It wasn’t a holiday of evil things but rather a celebration of harvest. It is the time of year when the growing seasons come to an end. It’s a time to prepare and settle in for winter – the start of the new year by the Celtics.
Where did the images come from that we see today? It was thought on the eve of Samhain that the lines between the dead and the living would thin. Scary images and masks were used to frighten evil spirits away (though I have to wonder why anything evil would be frightened of anything).

I’ve never seen fall as the “end” of anything but rather a beginning, the same as I view the night. I’ve been told over and over how “backward” I am because I don’t truly come awake until evening hits and then my creative side soars late into the night. But I have to wonder, am I really the backward one? If fall was really the start of a new year and night seen the start of a new day, maybe I’m not so odd after all :)

Global Warming

2006-08-31T11:35:00.000-05:00

Inside a fantasy writer's head anything can become something. Things grow like flowers in spring from an idea or happening as tiny as a seed. And then there's a whole new world.

My worlds always stay tied tightly to the world I know. I've researched cultures from around the globe - our "real" world and imagine what things would be like if different cultures would have risen to the top. What if: the climates were different. What if things of legends really did exist. All of this and so much more goes through my mind.

I began Among the Ancients a little while ago, but the characters got lazy. They need reworked. While I was thinking on them and what would cure their blight, other characters in a whole new story came storming to my mind. What sparked it - the argument of global warming.

Global warming has been mentioned for years now as a purely human caused thing. Not true. We may be making it faster, I'm not a scientist so I can't say for sure. I'm a master of fiction. But I do know from my studies that the Earth we live on hasn't always been as it is. Why would it stop changing now just because we humans inhabit it so strongly now? We aren't gods are we? Mother Nature has a plan all her own and things are going to change despite the fact we would like them to stay the same.

So. That's what the new story is all about. The changing world -- and how civilization as we know it will be transformed. At least how it may transform. Could we survive if disasters like hurricane Katrina grow more intense and frequent? What about if the continental plates shift again? And a new ice age? How strong are we as a species really?

A friend of mine believes we've grown lazy - too dependent on vehicles, grocery stores, computers and other conveniences of our lives. Maybe so. I really couldn't say. But the people in my story, they were trained to survive before the upheaval due to arrive in 50 years...

Nothing and Everything

2006-08-09T09:27:00.000-05:00

My life is fairly boring. I know this. I don't hang out with girlfriends on a regular basis, I see movies at the theater maybe twice a year. I dislike shopping and large crowds of people. So maybe that's why I think nothing much in my life is worth blogging about.

At the same time, I'm always feeling like that proverbial headless chicken. Three kids always talking - I do only have two ears and for some reason they insist on working in unison instead of seperately. I'm also expected to often be in three or more places at once. I haven't quite mastered cloning myself yet. Shame. I also find myself fumbling with jobs that used to be simple though pleasantly challenging. Then something nasty happened. I remembered what my home was like before I spent all my time in front of the computer with one project or another. I regularly had clean dishes, clothes, and yummy meals. I grew tired of rummaging through the heap of clothes on the floor, scanning for visual spots or dirt, shaking out wrinkles, and running out the door. I also grew tired of purchasing cheap spoons because we would run out within a day if they weren't washed that evening. I also got tired of my floors looking like carpets of dust and fuzz. I once was a meticulous housekeeper. I once cooked each and every night. I once did laundry religiously, folding and hanging everything before wrinkles set in.

My husband has mentioned many times that I should look for a "real job." Funny, editing, writing, designing seemed to take up enough of my time and it sure feels like a real job. But I suppose maybe my sitting in the corner of my living room pounding on a mouse or keyboard doesn't much look like one. I haven't been doing near as much of that lately. No, I've been cooking real meals on the stove I've had for three years though it looks brand new. I've also been filling closets with fresh smelling clothes, pulling the millions of weeds from three 56 foot long flower gardens, and running all household errands. Funny, all that feels like a real job too. It sure takes a great deal of time.

2006-07-06T21:08:00.000-05:00

Trees young and old…

Three years ago, our home and property underwent a huge change. We had over a half acre of old woods, meaning some of the trees were 50 years old and up. Did you notice the “had”? On this property we lived in a trailer built in 1977. It reached its lifespan limit and space limit with five occupants. So we chose to put in a house. I gave up my trees, but to this day still feel sick over some of it. More was cleared than we ever meant because some of the 80 to 100 foot tall trees knocked out many others when they fell. Husband was quite pleased with the huge expanse of flat, perfect grass. I hate grass. No offense, the green is pretty, but it needs weekly mowing and it really offers no real interest or benefits that I can tell.

Last week, my creative side got the best of me again and for some crazy reason I started digging holes in the boring grass, peeling it off the old woodland soil. Funny how many saplings my daughters and I found in the remaining, slowly recovering woods. We added 30 feet to the existing woodline, a bird feeder, hostas, azaleas, some old stumps. And we’ve spent more time in that little area surrounded by saplings and things we managed to drag from the brush piles than we have anywhere else lately. We have a small “marshmallow roasting fire pit” some logs to sit on, a swing too. We have part of our “old” path and old woods back after a hand saw and some hard work dragging broken and discarded tree tops out of the way.

I’ve heard from men that I’m just creating a weed area because trees take forever to grow and that I might see them before I’m beyond old. See, apparently I mustn’t know much, despite the fact I speak words like hawthorn, hornbeam, beech, ash, and tell them growth rates and average mature heights. Maples and cherry they know because those trees are worth the most money to the loggers around here. What bothers me about the men telling me “trees take a long time to grow” is the fact I watch them knock down trees as if they turn 50 years old over night. Heck, if we didn’t plant trees just because they take forever to grow, would there be any left? As for weeds, is it possible these men haven’t heard about mulch? Might explain why none has found its way into husband’s truck and into my yard yet this year.

I realize I have a lot of years to go before my woods looks “old” again. But that’s why I’ve got a few locus mixed in the bunch with some ash, quaking aspens, maples. All faster growing types. Some call those trees “weeds” of the tree species. That’s just fine with me. All I’m looking for is more shade and less grass to mow by the time I’m old. :)

A Precious Gift

2006-05-05T10:18:00.000-05:00

A parent has so much to give their child. Love, acceptance, knowledge just to skip along the surface. But there is something I see so many parents today snuffing out for whatever reason, something natural to children, something that can set them free, take them on amazing journeys, open possibilities of dreams and assure they would never be bored. (Unless they are set on being bored that is.) It's imagination.

Imagination is a tool kids can use to escape for just a little while this crazy world we're all stuck in. To sit and watch the clouds, imagining the shapes of all kinds of things. To stare at the stars on a clear night and imagine things happening beyond our reach. C.S. Lewis, JRR Tolkein, Madeleine L'Engle, just to name a few big names, these authors knew how to carry their readers to new lands and make the story become real.

So why do I see so many children who wouldn't read one of these authors for any reason, why did the Chronicles of Narnia get a resounding "BOOOO" when the school chose it as the movie to show on rewards day? My girls loved it. I've nurtured their imaginations so nothing to them is "weird" -- it's fun.

But with more and more kids drooling over Survivor, Big Brother, Lost and the like and toys like tea sets and baby dolls no longer a big thing compared to electronic talking stuffed animals, mechanical pets and all, are we all coming dangerously close to erasing the value of an imagination?

Why shouldn't a tree limb become a horse, a backyard become another world in midieval times and a cloud become a dragon? Why shouldn't they enjoy Middle Earth and travel with Gandalf and Bilbo Baggins or Lucy, Peter, Susan and Edward in Narnia and enjoy it immensely?

I nurtured my own imagination out of boredom as a child. I admit, spending most of my time on an 1800's farm made it easy. As an adult, I'm glad it's still intact. I can see faces in the tile ceiling patters and in trees. Sure, I know it's just the pattern of bark, but it can really add some interesting aspects to a fictional story.

It's important to let kids dream, to encourage them to sail among the clouds in their day dreams maybe even more so today than it was years ago. Kids are under a lot more stress today than ever before. Nurturing an imagination to get their focus off tragedies, dangers and the ugly side of human nature could only be a good thing in my opinion.

Simple Things

2006-05-02T14:35:00.000-05:00

Things have come in waves lately. I'll have a few days were I twiddle my thumbs, accomplishing little more than some laundry and cleaning. Then I'll have days where I have three different tasks to do simultaneously on the computer. Mostly I do ok with juggling several things at once. I mean, I do have kids, juggling tasks is mandatory for moms. And I'm not complaining really, I appreciate the work and the challenges. And I also appreciate the down times.

This morning, since we are in a real dry spell in my area, I carried water to some new plants and trees. Putting it in buckets uses less than spraying the gardens with the hose. I found myself in my backyard, surrounded by a cluster of trees, and birds. Two Cardinals fluttering in a bush, Robins, House Wrens and more. No other noise.

This was a surprise. There's been more tree-clearing and shed-building going on all over the place here and I'd gotten use to constant chain sawing, lawn mowing, tractor roaring, and nail hammering. This morning, there was none. Just the sun, a breeze, the trees, birds, my slumbering dog and me. I learned all over again why I love my back yard :)

I had work to do, had to spend the afternoon in front of the computer again, but surprisingly the entire time, scenes for my next book came alive in my mind. I hit a sticking point with it a few weeks back when life piled other things on me. Made me glad I didn't set a deadline for this story, but it seems I'll be up late typing tonight. Another good thing.

All I needed was some down time away from everything to get back on track. Life is funny that way. Sometimes we just need to take a few steps back, away from all the other stuff. Something as simple as sitting under trees and watering flowers can clear a mind more than anything else I know.

The wonderful world of research

2006-03-24T12:29:00.000-05:00

It's odd, I know. I disliked school immensely when I was in it. They never seemed to delve into any areas of history or art, or creativity that I enjoyed. I'm not alone, I don't think, because it seems to me many artists had the same attitude about school. I do wish now that I had studied harder because many things link to others. But it's also fun learning it all now.

After I graduated, I discovered I could study into all the things no one touched in the classroom. And I found quite fascinating topics from philosophy of religions to world mysteries and psychotic psychologies. Researching these topics is a healthy boost to my imagination.

Druids seem to pop up in many areas of what I'm researching for my latest novel, Among the Ancients (http://amongtheancients.tcmcmullen.com) along with Paganism. It's interesting to ponder how different the world would be today had Paganism stayed prominent - if the ancient religions hadn't vanished. I don't claim to be an expert, far from it, but I have woven what I know into the fibers of my next book to create that possible world even more so than I did in my Manipulated Evil Trilogy (www.manipulatedevilseries.com).

I'm still studying, even as I write, and hope that the flavor of my stories improves with each new thing I discover.

T.C.

Book Signing

2006-03-07T10:54:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, I had my first book signing inside a large name book store inside a mall - Waldenbooks in my area, also known as Borders. I can't say I didn't love the look of my books next to titles from authors I've read for years or talking with the people who stopped by. I had fun doing it, despite my introvert personality, usually I much rather like being a hermit in front of my computer and my current WIP (work in progress).

But I've been working so hard on promoting my work, I'm not getting a chance to vent my creative side in writing or my art and it's driving me a might crazy lately. It's not enough that I'm constantly picking up after and cleaning after 4 other people every day. (Yes they help, but children and hubby can't seem to see what things are strewn across the floor or where the crumbs have fallen, or - my favorite - when something spills, it all goes DOWN, nothing sticks to anything vertical - don't you know?) This was never so evident as it was last week while I prepared for the book signing. I had four days to do it all. And when I came home and looked at the house, I wanted to cry lol. It'll take me at least a week to get things back in working order.

I'm asked a lot how I balance it all, and honestly, I do not know. I take it one day at a time, try to make sure the bills are paid, sites are updated, children are fed, homework done, and somewhere in between find time to write the scenes plaguing my mind down on something concrete whether in long hand or typed (I much prefer typing, much faster for me).

And there looming ahead of me is the promise of nice warm weather, this year with an actual yard, not a rock patch. There's the flower gardens that need tended or made from scratch. When we first moved here, I did all the landscaping myself, the digging the hauling, the laying of stone, planting of plants, mulching, everything. That was 10 years ago. We put in a larger home, - manufactured home, doublewide, whatever you wish to call it in fall of 2003 (I think). It's much bigger than the trailers we lived in for 11 years. But now I need to start all the landscaping again and I'm finding 10 years can do a lot for a persons body - not much of it good lol.

So when will I find some quality time to spend with my current WIP? I guess I'll just take it one day at a time...

A change in the air...

2006-02-15T08:23:00.000-05:00

Here it is, mid February. I've been more productive lately, at least it feels as if I am. I've managed to send bookstores catalog mailings for my books, printing more for libraries as I type. It's funny how one can learn to do fifty things simultaneously. The trick is, doing them well. Being a perfectionist, I can't say for sure if I'm doing anything well because if I stop and look long enough, I can always better myself. Which often stalls productivity. So I'm learning to let more and more things go a little. Just a little :)

I've set out to improve my art skills, though in my rural area, it's a little harder to find the right supplies. My latest book is to blame for this "need" to improve. I have so many images flowing through my mind and I want to get them on paper as realistically as possible. So I'm going back to study things I wasn't the least bit interested in during school years.

I sit and look at my girls, hear their complaints about classes, teachers, homework and I can totally relate. But I also know many of the things they are being forced to learn, though boring and seemingly ridiculous now, may come in handy later. Anatomy for one. How does an artist create realism? Knowing the skeleton and how the muscles work and form beneath the exterior helps a lot. And I only know the bare basics of it all. I've got a long road of study and practice ahead. I just hope I can find the time to accomplish this one.

Till next time,

T.C.

Fast Forward

2006-02-07T18:51:00.000-05:00

I swear, some higher power has hit fast forward on the world. Maybe they were bored, skipping commercials, or what not, I don't know, but I wish they would hit PAUSE once in a while. Just when I think I'm getting ahead, I glance at the calendar to my right and realize I lost another week somewhere. This time though I feel like I lost most of January and I had to write February 7th on a check today. NOT good.

I'm not getting far on my next book either. For some reason, my new character, Kynly, is insisting I get her sketched and painted just right before she'll talk to me. This means I had to do some more studying and self teaching in art techniques. Bryce, the male protagonist is being quite open, but then his life has just been ripped from under him. But I need Kynly to ground me in her world before I write much more. The other huge problem is my characters only come alive at night. Usually very late at night - after midnight. And I have to be up early to get children on a school bus. Not easy tasks to balance there.

Meanwhile, we've added an aquarium and six fish to our household. What a task that has been. Mostly in getting the above mentioned children to pry their faces away long enough to do homework and take care of the poor pup, who apparently is old now even though she just hit 8 months. I suppose though I wouldn't be too eager to go for a walk in 20 degree temperatures and snow flurries either. Thankfully, I don't have to, I have three other pairs of legs to order to do that *grin*.

And now I must go and continue to work on Kynly in my studies of what Photo Shop can really be made to do :)

Till next time,

T.C.

Filters

2006-01-27T12:27:00.000-05:00

The word "filter" meant the little cylindrical thing on the gas line of my car, the slide in sheet in the side of my furnace or the device in the basement, attached to my water lines. Those filters I appreciate -- at least when they are clean and functioning.

This month though, another use for "filter" dominated my thoughts. We released the first official issue of Silver Moon Magazine (www.silvermoonmag.com) and all seemed to go smoothly. That is, until the influx of emails informing us most of our customers did not receive the information they needed to receive their issues. A second day's worth of emailing and resending remedied the situation for most. To avoid spam, we sent each email separate, no bulk, but it appears even those ended up in Junk Mail heaven.

Yet, through all the successful fixes, I've found at least one who has repeatedly emailed, who we have repeatedly emailed back. It is clear our customer is not receiving any of our correspondence despite all our efforts. So what is one to do? Snail mail. Hopefully that will at least let our customer know we have not been ignoring her. Our hands are simply tied by the multiple types of email systems and spam filters out there. There is only so much we can do.

Then this morning I receive correspondence from an online vendor I do business with. My account, for a reason totally unknown to me, seemed to be frozen. No upgrades were showing up, nothing. I alerted them to this problem only to be told the account had been frozen because apparently I had reported them for spam and it was being investigated.

Really? I did? When? I still don't know. I never reported anything from them as spam on purpose and rarely report anything in the junk mail box, though I do check it often for the multiple important emails I have discovered there. I usually take out what I need and click to empty it. But now I realize somehow, some way I became one of those people who reported something legit as spam. Hmmph.

The moral of this story -- It's always a good idea to check the junk mail box, whether you activated it or not, and never hit "report" until you have closely looked at each address. Yet I doubt even that will stop email confusion.

Wake up calls...

2006-01-20T08:18:00.000-05:00

I've heard "wake-up calls" can be useful, especially for those who sleep through alarm clocks screaming at them. In all honesty, that's probably me. I am not a morning person at all but my wake up calls are built into my household and usually consist of "MOM, she touched my stuff" or the pleasant (can you hear the sarcasm here?) "Ruff Ruff" from our shepherd mix. This morning, someone decided to give me a new wake up call - they tried to fax my home phone. Mind you, I was already up, fumbling through the kitchen to pack my youngest's lunch and make her a breakfast she'll actually eat. I manage to push away the tissues, books, and pencils the phone is buried under, watching the clock tick away, wondering if it's my oldest telling me she's sick again, or hurt herself somehow. I say "hello." I'm greeted with silence and then an ear-splitting BEEEEEP.

Uh huh. So I head back to the kitchen brush daughter's hair, help her put shoes on and the phone rings again. This time I ignore it, but the machine announces another pleasant round of BEEPS. This has happened before, but I assure you, I don't have fax capabilities on my home phone. Wrong numbers are one thing, but I sure do wish, when faxing someone, people would make certain they have the correct number. Especially at 7 a.m. Can't tell a machine its made a mistake.

At any rate, I'm now wide awake and sure I won't catch up on any sleep this morning (not sure if the fax fairy has discovered they are trying a wrong number yet) despite the fact my characters from Among the Ancients had me up till after midnight typing out a few scenes. I suppose I should thank the person though. The beep and residual ear ringing blasted every last ounce of sleep from my head. In just half an hour, I've managed to get quite a few things done. I'm just glad it's Friday and hoping my girls sleep in tomorrow.

Until next time,

T.C.

Here it goes

2006-01-19T22:18:00.000-05:00

My attempt at a blog. I'm not one to jump into technology or the latest fad. It took me years to invite a computer into my home and I'm probably one of the few humans in this world who doesn't own a cell phone. But I do want to stay in touch with my readers. So I'm starting a blog and hoping it doesn't take too long to catch on :)

Till next time,

T.C.