#IWSG August ~ Surprises! #amwriting

Happy Insecure Writers Support Group Day. IWSG is the brainchild of Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh.

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds! Thanks, Alex, for starting this group and keeping it going. 

Thanks to this month's awesome hosts:  Renee Scattergood, Sadira Stone, Jacqui Murray, Tamara Narayan, and LG Keltner!

This month's question: Has your writing ever taken you by surprise?

Although I’ve been surprised by things that pop in my head while writing, nothing hit me as hard as when I was writing the last book in my science fiction romance Switched series, Switched Resolution. The premise of the series is twins separated before birth by an unethical, alien scientist. One is raised on Earth, the other on an alien planet. As adults, they find each other and switch places.

In this book, I knew Marcus, would meet his biological mother for the first time. She knows immediately he’s not his twin (whom she raised). When I wrote she touched his face, I started crying. I was so overwhelmed by what she must be feeling. As a mother, I must have put myself in her place, reunited with a long-long child. She’d known instinctively that part of her was missing when she was pregnant. The doctors and her husband had dismissed her anxiety as hormonal emotions. At last, she has the answers. 

A few years later, I reread that passage, and it still got to me. I choked up again. I never expected to feel that strongly about something I’d written. It hasn’t happened again. Yet.

Actions have consequences as Space Fleet Captain Marcus Viator and NASA reject Scott Cherella discover when they switch places. Switched Resolution, which wraps up the Switched series, takes the reader from Earth—where Marcus adjusts to a pregnant Jessie—to the starship Freedom hijacked by rebels, to the chase ship with Scott and Veronese aboard.

Amazon ~ Amazon UK ~ Barnes & Noble ~ iTunes ~ Kobo ~ Smashwords

Check out our latest anthology contest.

Guidelines and rules: 
Word count: 3500-5000
Genre: Middle Grade Historical – Adventure/Fantasy
Theme: Voyagers
Submissions accepted: May 1 - September 4, 2019
How to enter: Send your polished, formatted (double-spaced, no footers or headers), previously unpublished story to admin @insecurewriterssupportgroup.com before the deadline passes. Please include your contact details, your social links, and if you are part of the Blogging, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter IWSG group. 

Click here to find others on the Insecure Writers Support Group Blog Hop. Or go to IWSG on Facebook to see who’s blogging today.

#IWSG: Back to Normal

It's the 1st Wednesday. Happy Insecure Writers Support Group Day. IWSG is the brainchild Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh.

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Thanks, Alex, for starting this group and keeping it going. And thanks to this month's awesome hosts:  Tyrean Martinson, Tara Tyler, Raimey Gallant, and Beverly Stowe McClure!

Back to Normal

Back to school time? Home Alone? Are we back to normal? Hah! After two months of sharing our home with Son, Daughter-in-Law, Toddler Girl, a Great Dane, and a yellow Lab, our house is ours alone again. The summer flew as I discovered chasing after a two-year-old exhausts me. Don’t get me wrong. I loved every minute of their extended visit. Okay, maybe not the barking or whining. And maybe not Toddler Girl exhibiting the definition of “Terrible Twos.” Watching TG’s vocabulary increase and her sentences grow longer has been a real treat. Best of all were the hugs and kisses at night and the cuddles as we watched “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” and Finding Dory. I was amazed at her attention span. We only had to take two breaks.

The downside. They moved into their new home. It took them all of last week to get their place ready so they could leave ours. I’m sure I’ll keep finding items left behind, besides a lot of dog hair. The upside is their new home is only two miles away. So now all of my family is close by. Daughter and her family are twenty minutes away. The grandkiddies can visit often, and we can visit them.

Now I have no excuse not to write. Rather than stress out over the upset routine for the summer, I accepted the fact that I wouldn’t write much. I kept up with my blogging obligations (except my Monday Morning Musing) and considered that good. Then the leader of a group newsletter I participate with thought up a “wonderful” promo to increase our readership—an anthology of short stories that we’d offer free. Surely, we all have short stories lying around. Wrong. I don’t write short. My stories run 80-100k words. And don’t call me Shirley. (I couldn’t resist.) I had one story that was about 3,000 words. Not long enough. So last month I had to write a 15k short story, in my spare time between babysitting TG. Hahaha. Mornings (my best time to write) were spent keeping her out of trouble, playing, reading, etc. By the time she went down for a nap, I followed the advice given to new mothers—when Baby sleeps, you sleep. I took naps almost every day.

I surprised myself by finishing a 14k word short story on August 31^st. I even polished up the 3k Christmas story and added that to the anthology. Goals are great. Peer pressure works better. LOL We have a cover and the book will go up on Instafreebie shortly. What a deal. A free book just for signing up for our newsletter.

Besides amazing myself that I could write 14,000 words in 31 days, I discovered I could write during chaos. It’s always fun to learn something new about the writing process. Shutting out our surroundings, concentrating on what’s in our imagination, and putting what’s there on paper or a computer screen is an accomplishment. Some people use noise-canceling headphones. Or listen to music to drown out the noise of everyday life. Whatever works. I also learned to write during my least optimal time—evening.

The optional question this month is Have you ever surprised yourself with your writing?

I’ve already answered most of the question. My most memorable surprise was while writing Switched Resolution (book 3 of my Switched series). As I wrote a reunion scene, I cried. When I reread it as part of the final proofread, I got choked up. While reading the story again (months later) before submitting it for the print edition, I cried again. That I could elicit that kind of emotion from myself amazed me. I hope the readers experienced that, too.

I hope you have a great September. That you meet your goals. See you back here in October.

Speaking of anthologies . . . Do you know about the IWSG anthology contest?

The next anthology contest is here! All details are posted at the IWSG website!

Click here to find others on the Insecure Writers Support Group Blog Hop. Or go to IWSG on Facebook to see who’s blogging today. 

Aliens

What is it about the word "aliens" that sends people into a tizzy and makes politicians talk about building electrified fences or walls? Unless we're one hundred percent Native American, our ancestors were aliens.

Since I steer away from political issues, that's not the kind of aliens I write about. My aliens are from another world. Outer space. That conjures up Devil Girl from Mars. Men in Black. Invasion of the Body-Snatchers. Planet of the Apes. Alien.

Hold on. I do not write about creepy aliens. I write science fiction romance. My stories are more like Buck Rogers, Star Wars, and E.T. with some Star Trek for good measure. Space adventure. My characters are people, more like you and me, living and working on starships or planets in other galaxies. Why, you may ask, do I write about them?

Because it's fun. I love a good adventure. Space exploration has fascinated me since we finally put a man on the moon. No, wait. Even before that. During every space launch, I was glued to the television set—black and white, at first, but that didn't make it any less exciting. The possibility of exploring beyond our universe intrigues me, captures my imagination. What if . . . Isn't that the way all stories begin in the author's mind?

What if people from an advanced society in another galaxy parked a starship above Earth? Does that sound like Independence Day? Nothing like that. This starship wanted to research our civilization? While the serious researchers examine Earth because of its similarity to their own world of the past, the younger, more enthusiastic crew members become enamored with  transmissions of our communication satellites. Forget War of the Worlds. How about Galaxy Quest meets Desperate Wives? Throw in a deranged scientist and a rebellion and you have the beginning of my Switched series.

What happened to the romance part of science fiction romances? Well, of course, there has to be hunky heroes (aren't they always?) and beautiful (ditto) heroines. (As we all know, hunkiness and beauty are in the eye of the beholder.) What if the hero and heroine are from different worlds, different cultures? The possibilities of conflict increase. The series revolves around two sets of twins, separated before birth. Yes, you read that right. Before birth.

 What if these twins switch places? Not once, twice. Will anyone figure it out? Can the "impostor" fool their twin's best friends, mother? 

Each book in the series demanded a sequel. Until the last one. "What if . . ." guided the stories. Just as we look at space exploration and wonder what's next. 

As our own space exploration ramps up with NASA pushing ahead on deep space exploration and private enterprise venturing forth, we might just come across those aliens. They're probably sitting back, watching us take our first steps, waiting for us to catch up with them.

To find out more about my Switched series, visit my website or my Amazon author page. 

The Reluctant Hero

Before Christmas, I fell for the worst ploy. Sign up for a free month of Amazon Prime and enjoy all the benefits—free two day shipping (I really needed that for gifts), unlimited free movies and TV shows (sounded good), over 500,000 free books (even better), 20% off diapers (didn’t need that). If you like Prime, do nothing and we’ll bill your account. If you don’t, cancel before the end of the trial period. Ri-i-ight. Did I remember to cancel? Of course, not. So there I was with something I really didn’t need and had already paid for.

Flash forward to this summer. Hubs discovered Falling Skies. I remember watching the first episode when it began four years ago. Slow, boring. Still, when you have 800 channels and nothing’s on . . . Suffice it to say, we watched the show. I have to say it wasn’t boring. However, this was worse than coming into a play after the second act. Who were these people? Everybody hated Karen. She seemed okay to me. Then the season ended—on a cliff-hanger, of course. The new season hadn’t started for our favorites. Desperation again.

So how are the two paragraphs above connected? Remember the unlimited free movies and TV shows? Ah, hah! We figured out how to get them on our television. We could watch all the previous episodes of Falling Skies. Again, when there’s nothing on besides endless reruns . . .

So here’s where the title of this post comes in. I’ve never thought of Noah Wyle as a hero. He looks too . . . cute. After watching Falling Skies, I finally got it. In the show, Earth has been invaded by aliens with a conquer-and-kill-the-natives mentality. The natives didn’t think too highly of that scenario so after being stunned by the brutal deaths of family and friends, they decide to fight back.

Before the attack, Noah Wyle’s character, Tom Mason, was a history professor. Sure he knew all about revolutions. In books. What did he know about actual fighting? That’s what our military is for. But who were the first casualties of this war? The military, with a few exceptions. So who’s left? Regular people like you and me. People who escaped and hid from the invaders. People who lost family, friends, their homes. People who were scared to death. Ordinary people looking for somebody to tell them what to do.

Their military leader is more concerned about fighting than protecting the civilians. A reluctant Tom Mason steps forward. What good will it do to fight the invaders if there’s no one left to begin again? Tom’s not a natural leader. He’s more concerned about the safety of his three sons. Slowly we watch him become stronger, more confident. He’s not just a hero, he’s Every Man.

When all is lost, we either give up or fight back. Who among us wouldn’t fight to save our children? I’ve never handled a real gun. At a demonstration, I fired an AK-47 fitted with a laser instead of bullets and shot at a screen. Didn’t hit a darn thing. But that wasn’t real. Could I shoot to kill a living thing? If it threatened my family, I not only could but would, for sure. (Did you just hear the Mama Bear in me come out?)

I now see the appeal of Falling Skies. Tom Mason could be you or me. Someone with the courage to fight, to lead. Someone to protect the children. Someone to fight for the future.

I don’t usually have reluctant heroes or heroines in my stories. But in Switched Resolution, a secondary character becomes one. Shy, quiet Communications Officer Lilliam Cabbeferron is caught aboard her starship when rebels steal it. If they find her, they’ll shove her out the airlock into space. She does what anyone would do in the situation—she hides. Until she realizes someone has to do something. Someone has to take back the ship before the rebels kill her captain. Since there’s no one else, that someone has to be her. She mounts guerilla warfare against the bad guys. Like Tom Mason in Falling Skies, Lilliam is a reluctant hero.

Switched Resolution is available at:

Amazon

iTunes

Smashwords

Am I glad I signed up for Amazon Prime? You bet. Now I can (finally) watch Downton Abbey and Doctor Who (the reboot) from the beginning.