Another July, another InConJunction!!
This will be my… I don’t know…. several-eth year at InConJunction SF Convention as an author, and nearly thirty years since I attended the con (my first ever) on an early date with the future Mrs. RJ! For all these reasons, and more, the con holds a special place in my heart. If it’s not the biggest, or fanciest, it is the WARMEST con of the year, and I’m not talking about July weather. This convention is run by the sweetest bunch of awesome nerds in the galaxy, and I say that from the bottom of my heart. So without any further ado, let’s get to the details.
InConJunction is on the east side of Indianapolis at the Marriott off Shadeland Avenue Fri, July 5-Sun July 7. Here is the website with all the details.
Tag: announcement
Haunting Obsession Audiobook Coming This Summer (Video Teaser)
I’m super-thrilled to announce that my Amazon top-40 bestselling sexy ghost story Haunting Obsession will have an ACX (Amazon) audiobook version released later this summer. The new format release is in partnership with Seventh Star Press as one of their first titles being adapted to audiobook.
I’m super-excited about this development for a couple of reasons, the first is that I’ve been hoping to adapt Haunting Obsession to audiobook since the initial book release in 2012. I think the novella length and finding the right voice talent to take on the Maxine Marie / Marilyn Monroe voice will elevate the drama to new heights. It will also open the material to an audience that just plain prefers audiobooks over print (Something I am coming to understand in recent years).
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Haunting Blue, a look back, a look forward
I spent the last part of Memorial Day Weekend and thru Wednesday night re-reading Haunting Blue front to back, checking the publisher proof against all revisions, ensuring that this will be the final, most accurate version of the story. It’s an odd thing for a writer, looking back on an earlier work.
Because our craft is one of constant growth, I can say without apology that if I were to start over from scratch, if I were to pen the first book in the Adventures of Blue Shaefer today, it would be a very different book than what it is now. I’d like to think it would be a better book.
An author’s writing is like a time capsule, at least to the author. As we gain experience, beginner’s mistakes become more obvious, tangents that we might have thought better of stand out more clearly. I have heard that some authors, at least privately, have a tendency to disown, or try to disassociate themselves from, their first works.
And while I “get it” to some extent, as I reviewed the work, head to toe, I can honestly say I am still very proud of Blue Shaefer’s premiere adventure. Yes, she’s melodramatic, over the top, and, yes, I roll my eyes at certain moments in the novel. When the time came to re-release the book, I had a choice to make–I could have gutted and rewritten the tale, or simply tweaked the text to address the bigger errors but otherwise let it stand as a time capsule of the start of my journey as a published author.
The great Harlan Ellison recently observed about his own early work (and I’m not comparing myself to a genius whose career goes back decades–this just happened to resonate) “I look back over my earlier stories and say, ‘eh, the kid did the best he could with the tools he had at the time.'”
I think this is very true, along with other factors. One that is obvious to me is my “everything plus the kitchen sink” approach. I thought of Haunting Blue as my one shot, maybe the only novel that I might ever put out, and I put my all into it, because who knew when the next book might get published. This is another factor that contributes to the drama of the tale.
Of course, I now know, and am blessed to be assured, that I have plenty of readers and a publisher very anxious for my next story. And my next, and my next. I don’t need to “put it all out there,” which brings far greater focus to my later stories, a benefit to my readers as much as myself.
Another reason to tweak rather than gut: it’s fair to observe that when I drafted my angst-driven high school punk girl, I was much closer to her age than I am now. Who am I to second-guess how much of my narrative is genuine, when I’m much further from the source?
So starting tonight, and into tomorrow, courtesy of Seventh Star Press, Haunting Blue goes back into print, with the major ebook formats, and the softcover hits a couple days later. It is slightly tweaked, with a new cover and interior art by Bonnie Wasson, a new poem by Nicole Rinaldi, (who also wrote the pieces in Virtual Blue). The softcover will look quite spiffy next to Haunting Obsession and Virtual Blue, giving the trilogy a unified series look for the first time.
Haunting Blue is a paranormal thriller, an edgy first novel by a new voice who did the best he could with the tools he had at the time. Having just re-read it, it still moves me and accomplishes what I intended. I still love it, and if you’re experiencing the story for the first time, I hope you will, too.