About The Upcoming Short Story "Secrets of the Bayou"

Photo: my own, from my visit to Destrahan Plantation in May 2015

In my previous blog post, I announced that my next publication would be my first short story, "Secrets of the Bayou." It was inspired, actually, by a trip a couple years ago when my mother and I visited a number of plantations in Southern Louisiana, including the famous one, Oak Alley.

It wasn't Oak Alley, or the famed "Sugar Palace" Houmas House that captured my imagination, though. It was Destrahan, a plantation very close to New Orleans, and the history we learned from our tour guide, Frank. Frank was, to put it mildly, an effing encyclopedia.

Destrahan, as it happens, pre-dates the American take over of Louisiana Territory. It dates to the 1770s, and as such, the system set up there including slavery very much reflected European social mores rather than English colonial society. The system of "slavery" was a variation on Roman bondage where a slave could earn money from work not done for the plantation master and eventually buy his freedom. Families were expected to stay intact with enslavement passing through the mother, and the families were expected to provide for themselves.

This is not the image of slavery that popular culture gives us.

In fact, in school we rarely learn about slave revolts, let alone the one in Louisiana in 1811 which was a direct result of the American takeover, and the imposition of the much less humane American system of slavery. We also don't learn much about the culture of the plantations where company was scarce for the plantation owners, and after a while sisters started looking really good to their brothers. In that part of the country, every plantation had a place for the boys to live after puberty until they were married known as the garconnierre. It was generally placed away from the house, and the only time the boys were allowed in the big houses was for dinner.

That was something else that was different about Destrahan. Unlike the newer plantation houses, Destrahan's dining room was on the ground floor and the stairs were outside the house going from veranda to veranda. Staircases in some of the other houses had grand architectural features on the interior.

Given that "Secrets" is a "mini" all of these details could not be worked in, but many were, including the role of "Mammy" who had the charge of raising the household children. According to more than one guide, on every plantation Mammie was the sort of woman no man argued with. (Hattie McDaniel wasn't that far off in "Gone With the Wind".)

I just wanted to give some background to my regular readers as the truths of popular culture and actual records never seem to be the same.

Reminder of upcoming releases:

November 2017 - mini "Secrets of the Bayou"

December 2017 - Book 8 of the Turn My Head series, "High Maintenance"

January 2018 - release of the original book "Turn My Head" to Amazon readers

February 2018 - mini "The Walkabout"

March 2018 - Book 9 of the Turn My Head series "No Turning Back"

Also on the horizon:

June 2018 - Book 10 of the Turn My Head series. This is Gabriel and Alicia's story which is resting.  With their tale, a short story that is yet unnamed will come with it as a bonus.

Yes, Loneliness Is The Constant Companion Of The Artist

Of late, for a variety of reasons, this writer/singer/crocheter has been feeling the sting of loneliness. The whole thought is rather odd since I do not live alone, and do have regular contact with the outside world even not working in an office, but the lack of someone to talk to who will not judge started to wear in the last couple of weeks. As luck would have it, I had a weekend away in a quiet place to try to put the feeling behind me, but experience tells me it will return.

Why? Because the work of an artist - the actual hours spent creating, perfecting and polishing - art in multiple forms, is done alone, preferably with no extraneous noise, and no interruptions. And what's more, in today's work environment, that is an anathema to those with nothing but office experience.

The current bout of loneliness did not begin with writing, romance writing or anything of the sort. It began with the most selfish and demanding of all art forms, music. In a previous life and having a Queen of the Night range (that means all the REALLY high notes), I trained in classical singing. After leaving the flashy professional choruses and choirs behind - season after season of singing in two groups with a full time job was exhausting - my only music commitment is to the parish choir.

Well, long story short, we are preparing for a big concert during Lent, and yours truly is the main soloist, and possibly the only soloist, for a masterwork. I've been woodshedding the music, as we say, for weeks. Even longer story short, the date of said concert was revealed week before last: March 18. That means...I can't join the friends and family hoard headed for the St. Patrick's Day Parade. Either one of them. Due to the uncertainty of the weather, the three mile walk, yelling screaming and a fifth of Jameson...yeah, no. Not the day before the concert.

That didn't go over well with one person who decided to try and guilt me into going to the parade instead of singing the concert.

Sorry, but, no. These chances don't come along very often, and that is something the non-artist who disagreed with my choice did not understand.

And that was the beginning of the week of loneliness that went beyond being an artist. For days, I remembered the platonic friends I jettisoned, and the combination of mutual desire and interest that never materialized with all the guys I've known over the years. It may be out there, but at this point, there is no reason to sit by the phone. (And then there was the young adult group at church which I'm too old for. As if the singles in middle age aren't the better fundraising targets.)

On top of it, I can never seem to forget that the friends we make that are supposed to be the ones we know for life...my childhood group was gone before I was nine. Most of their dads were transferred away, and more than one set of parents split up. Not that most of them would have been artists or understanding of the loneliness dilemma. Okay, maybe a couple would. We were all in dance together.

This is the main pitfall of being an artist: a lack of someone to understand. If artists didn't love to create, there would be no art, loneliness and all. For us, it is all about feeding other people's souls by feeding and baring our own - and if that means skipping parades and letting friendships lapse, then so be it.

It is not something everyone understands.

Coming up:

November 2017 - At some point, I will put out my first mini-story (it's too long to be "short") titled "Secrets of the Bayou". It's not a full length book by any means, though. This mini takes place in Louisiana just a few years after the American government purchased it. It was inspired by a tour of Destrahan which is a plantation very close to New Orleans where I learned that much of what we know of historical slavery in the United States is distorted and leaves out a lot of historical detail.

December 2017 - By the 15th, Book 8 in the Turn My Head Series will be published. "High Maintenance" is the story of how Mickey Dolan figures out that his new hot shot interior designer, Tara McKenzie, may look like she's high maintenance, but really isn't.

January 2018 - "Turn My Head" the original should be published to Amazon. It will still be free, and I will let everyone know when that happens.

February 2018 - With all luck, the second "mini" titled "The Walkabout" should be published around the Feast of St. Valentine. This is the meeting of Manon Beauchamp and Stephen Pernoud. I apologize in advance for all the religious detail.

March 2018 - Book 9 in the "Turn My Head" series WILL be out by Holy Week. I have a concert to sing (see above), but Sean Dolan and Marianne Drummond were so much fun, I can't wait to dive back in, really serious topics as part of the plot and all.

As always, check my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/PatriciaHoldenAuthor/ for updates, and more news.

Studying The Masters (Or Is It Mistresses?)

In my quest to improve my writing and make stories more irresistible for the readers, I've been doing some research. It's amazing the number of online resources there are for writers who give away some of the secrets of creating interesting characters and keeping the plot going. Much of what exists online is applicable to any genre, but, like all the others, there is a secret sauce when it comes to romance that keeps the readers coming back for more.  What is it? What need in life does romance fill?

After perusing several websites that did not exactly answer the question but did give a name to the climax of a romance novel (dark moment, remember that), the mentions of an old classic, Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women, caught my eye. It seems that this is as close to a go to textbook on how to write romance as exists.

And, as it happens, I had a copy on my bookshelf, unread until now, from when I first thought to be a romance author over twenty years ago, before I rehabilitated my singing voice and gave opera a try. (Seriously, talk about an obsequious world. Stuck in the 18th century, and full of blood suckers.)

Imagine my delight to find on the front cover that the small tome was edited by my (now) idol in romance authorship, Jayne Ann Krentz. I'm not sure what it is, but her books are like crack. You just can't get enough. (Incidentally, I think the same of roasted cauliflower and sparkling water, so it's gotta be more than just a drug.)

This monograph (did I mention I used to work in a library?) is over twenty-five years old, before the internet was really a utility, and when connecting to other computers was done pretty strictly by modem. Publishing at the time was a matter of standing out in the slushpiles of the New York City publishing houses, not just signing up for Smashwords or B2B and pressing publish when you were sure the thing was polished enough. Seriously. You had to really put the time and effort into a submission.

It's that time and effort that needs to be honed for true artistry. That I know from being a singer. It takes study and practice of technique to perfect an art form.

So, now that I have some direction, let the study begin!

By the way, I've been busy.

• I put a draft of my first short story, Secrets of the Bayou, in the can this week. It takes place on the Mississippi Delta a few years after the Louisiana Purchase and the American takeover of sugar plantation life. I'll have more on that later.
• By reader request, Stephen and Manon Pernoud's story is developing. It will be a short story and out probably sometime early in 2018.
• Gabriel and Alicia, also by reader request, is in production. Figuring out their "dark moment" is giving me a run for my money.

Planned releases subject to change depending on this household sheltering more hurricane evacuees, and family members having medical crises:

December 2017 - High Maintenance, Mickey Dolan and his southern belle, Tara McKenzie

March 2018 - No Turning Back, Sean Dolan and quartet member Marianne Drummond

Until next time!

Detailing The Flavor Of A City

At the top of Art Hill in Forest Park

Yes, I'm somewhat into self-mortification. Last week, before I pressed "publish" on my latest novel, I actually looked at the reviews of the first one. The one that started it all. For a variety of reasons, I'm reworking it, and since it is free, I need to add it to an online retailer that hasn't ever carried it. So, I wanted to know what needed to be fixed.

One review was amazingly disheartening as the reader completely missed the interplay between the characters and went straight to objecting to their faith demonstrations. Okay, maybe I overdid it with all of that, but when it comes to "write about what you know," that's what I know.

In a way, though, all of that detail was supposed to be a reflection of the character of the city. My hometown of St. Louis was founded in 1764 by Pierre Laclede, a Frenchman who came up the Mississippi to set up a fur trading post. One of the first buildings built was a church. As a friend who is not a native put it, in STL Catholics still rule the roost. We have two St. Patrick's Day parades, a Mardi Gras celebration second only to New Orleans and maybe Carnival in Brazil, the open container law in the state is you can't be the driver and have an open container...and then there are the Lenten Fish Fries.

Yes, I poured on the fish fries a bit thick in the first book, but when I say there are websites dedicated to posting which parishes have one which week during Lent, and listings in the newspapers, I'm not kidding. Radio stations do remotes from them. St. Ferdinand, which is mentioned in the book, is legendary for being the best of the best. St. Mary Magdalen actually has a drive through every week. My parish does two. They're big fundraisers where everyone pitches in and has fun - and it is part of the culture.

Perhaps that wasn't explained well, but there it is. EVERYONE goes to the fish fries. EVERYONE.

And so it is, as I go to write the tenth installment (started the first draft today), this one takes place in August and September. Honestly, for the first three weeks of August NOTHING happens around here. It's hot, and a lot of people are out of town. September, on the other hand, is one festival or event after another. Trying to work all of that in is going to be a challenge. Greek Fest, the Japanese Festival, the Clayton Art Fair which is a nationally judged event, the Great Forest Park Balloon Race. These are the weekend events by which we mark time.

It also speaks very much to the culture of the city, one that is not well understood outside of it. There is so much to do here, it's not even funny.

I'll try to work more of that in.

Pressing "PUBLISH" And Avoiding The Reviews

Well.... It happened. Whether the book or the cover was ready or not, I pushed "PUBLISH" today. The plain and simple reality is that I need the income from it, and the boost of book buying that I get whenever I put out a new installment of the series.

What was maddening today, though, was that, in the pit of my stomach, I really wondered if the final product was too racy to be considered "clean romance" even if the characters never take off their clothes in front of each other. The premise is that they are attracted to each other and do a lot of dirty talking before giving in. Yes, all of that is natural and healthy, but was it enough to spin a book?

The thing is, in a series, there will always be one or two stories that don't quite add up to the angst of the others. I fear this was one of those times. The next one is in a different category when it comes to that. (Yes, there is a tease at the end.)

There is always a chance to revisit a published work later (and a definite opportunity to put a new cover on it), and make necessary changes. The problem is knowing what changes to make. That usually involves reading the reviews.

And just like in my other artistic endeavor, classical music, avoiding the reviews is a good thing. No one wants to read trash talk about what amounts to their baby, even if reviews - good ones, anyway - are how new readers find new authors. Good reviews are always appreciated, so are politely honest ones. Snippy and snarky ones, not so much

So, today I pressed "PUBLISH" on Talk Dirty To Me, the first book in the second half of the Turn My Head series. Now the waiting begins as the distributor takes it the rest of the way.

The first six books of the Turn My Head series are:

Turn My Head – Adam Pernoud and Mae Jones

Break Through – Ben Pernoud and Darcy Platt

Third Time’s the Charm – Christian Pernoud and Sarah Jane Rappaport

Conflict of Interest - Damian Pernoud and Margot Dolan

Romeo Night – Ed Pernoud and Beth Hartke

Last Man Standing – Francis Pernoud and Rosemary Fallon

Getting Ready For A New Book

At the end of a rather stressful summer, it was time to face some facts about my published ebooks. Frankly, for some reason, readership has been less than stellar. I'm really not sure if the reality is that I was taking too long between publications, or if it was something else.  Like marketing.

Argh.

Trying to break into an established novel genre, like romance, even in the indie market is difficult. There's a lot of people out there trying to do the same, and trying to break through all the barriers put up to be sure material that publishing houses would most likely reject actually reaches the readers. (Like clean romance that many readers prefer over books with soft porn scenes.)

And so, I'm investing time in learning how to get the word out. This is not as easy as it looks.

In the meantime, "Talk Dirty to Me" is the first book in the second half of the "Turn My Head" Series. Here's the blurb that will appear at the beginning of the book when it is published right after Labor Day.

Welcome to the second half of the “Turn My Head” series!

In the first six books, we meet a family of seven amazingly hot, and wealthy brothers – and their brides – the Pernouds. The boys all inherited the family trait of falling in love forever at first sight, a phenomenon known as “head turning” in their family.

Along the way in the first six installments of this series, we meet several friends and in-laws who have just as muxed up lives as every other human family out there. In the second half, we get to know Ryan Fallon, Josie Miller, Mickey Dolan, and his southern belle, Tara McKenzie. Sean Dolan capitulates on pursuing Marianne Drummond, and her big brother Linus and Sean and Mickey’s sister Maureen spend a lot of time dancing the night away.

Along the way, Gabriel Pernoud and Alicia Drummond FINALLY get married, but not without massive Drummond family drama better suited for the stage than a wedding. Picking up the rear, is a Pernoud cousin, Declan Collins, whose head turner slapped him across the face when he approached her. She was attached at the time, but is no longer.

Watch for the next installments of the Turn My Head series – the brainchild of this author and the product of her hard work, imagination, and observations of human behavior over the years – at this ebook retailer.

For updates, news, and the occasional snippet of upcoming installments, follow my facebook page at www.facebook.com/PatriciaHoldenAuthor.

The first six books of the Turn My Head series are:

1. Turn My Head – Adam Pernoud and Mae Jones
2. Break Through – Ben Pernoud and Darcy Platt
3. Third Time’s the Charm – Christian Pernoud and Sarah Jane Rappaport
4. Conflict of Interest - Damian Pernoud and Margot Dolan
5. Romeo Night – Ed Pernoud and Beth Hartke
6. Last Man Standing – Francis Pernoud and Rosemary Fallon

Permission to Relax

One of the hardest aspects of transitioning from office work, chasing after kids, staying up on current events so as to be an effective blogger, etc., to almost a pure artist in terms of writing, music, and crochet, is learning to relax. Well, not so much relax, but learning to shut down and do nothing as a means of recharging the creative batteries.

I'm lucky enough to live in a hidden gem of a city where we have world class cultural institutions and amenities accessible year round thanks to them being on a tax base. Truly, taking advantage of the proximity is something I enjoy. However, escaping the guilt of living in a society where work is often placed above family and God - let alone mental health and natural stress relief - is much harder. Just sitting at the pool and watching people I've known for decades sunning themselves is a challenge.

After a challenging summer, that is where I find myself. I need to finish up a book, and get it published, but am only good for editing for about an hour and half. Composing I can last longer, and frequently do, but an hour and a half of work in a day?  Huh? I'm an American. How is that possible? So many people here are fond of saying "if you don't work, you don't eat."

Well, in writing, some realities just have to be worked around, and is something I have to reconcile, just like only being able to sing for so long before the voice and the rest of the body needs rest. The brain and the creative juices need it too.

And I have to take it. It's a learned skill in a family of people who have a tendency not to stop.

That's where I am. Learning to make a schedule that includes rest and relaxation as part of the work cycle.

News:

I started sketching out Alicia and Gabriel's story today. Will begin composing when I have "Talk Dirty to Me" published, and Draft 2 of "High Maintenance" in the can.

Draft 3 of "Talk Dirty to Me" should be done within the next week. Looking at the second week of September or so to publish depending on Draft 4.

Sketching

Now that life is back to normal, whatever that is, and this writer is back home and working after over two months of chaos, work has taken a new path.

My sister and I were chatting about, of all people, Jo Rowling and how impressive it was that in her seven tomes - and those last four were tomes - of the Harry Potter series, there was not one plot inconsistency. Being a pop culture junkie, my sister said, that's because she had the whole series sketched out before she started with detailed character studies. (Sis actually read up on this.)

Well, of course it is, because that is the way we are supposed to write fiction, right?

Yeah, some of us started our fiction writing careers by flying by the seat of our pants and making it up as we went along. The problem with that is that at certain points of the writing process, I had to go back and fix plot points before publishing, especially in book 6. After a while, all the details start getting confused, and things like how someone died change.

Hence, writing it all down.

So, now that my task is editing book 7 (Talk Dirty to Me) so that I can publish it soon, what do I spend an hour doing? Sketching out the ideas for the next series which won't see publication until 2019. See, I've only got three more first drafts to write in the Turn My Head Series, and I was fretting about which way to go next.

A page and a half of notes later, I now know the answer. The second series will need some time to sketch out and incubate, and hopefully will have some different issues in American life and dating surface. Finding the right person really can be difficult, and sometimes, the right person falls in your lap.

Back to Talk Dirty to Me, and Ryan Fallon and Josie Miller. How long can they talk a good game before actually giving in? Everyone will find out soon!

Turn My Head Series

Book 1 - Turn My Head (Adam and Mae)
Book 2 - Break Through (Ben and Darcy)
Book 3 - Third Time's the Charm (Christian and Sarah Jane)
Book 4 - Conflict of Interest (Damian and Margot)
Book 5 - Romeo Night (Ed and Beth)
Book 6 - Last Man Standing (Francis and Rosemary)

In production

Book 7 - Talk Dirty to Me (Ryan and Josie)
Book 8 - High Maintenance (Mickey Dolan and Tara McKenzie, a new character)
Book 9 - No Way Out (Sean Dolan and Marianne Drummond)

3 more will follow.

Real Life May End Up In A Book

This writer is very fond of a saying: "Careful or you'll end up in my novel."

Funny thing that, when it comes to making sure that readers can relate to characters and what happens to them, everyday experiences and real life situations work well for demonstrative purposes.

Take the summer of 2017, for example. In this writer's family, a sibling had to have some pretty major heart surgery, so all the rest of us pitched in. Yours truly did probably more than her fair share, but being the one working from home, that was just the way it had to be.

And then, the favorite son arrived for his two weeks at the homestead.

Now, there are those who will say, oh, come on, there isn't a favorite son...you have to see the tail feather and peed on fire hydrants to understand.

So, anyway, this one walks in the front door and does something that is a massive pet peeve among the women in the family: he decided to do our laundry, and put stuff in the drier that doesn't go in the drier. Then, on a Friday, towels only used once went to the laundry area. Towels are washed on Tuesdays. This has been a schedule in the house since the old man retired and took on that job. Aluminum pans and wood handled knives were run through the dishwasher...not describing how things ended up in the kitchen cabinets.

And, of course, there was a problem with us not having a microwave.

Essentially, as usual, this brother walked in the door and started to rearrange the furniture. Again.

Ticks us off.

This is the sort of behavior that ends up in novels. It's not the crazy stuff so much, but what pushes buttons. And doing my laundry wrong pushes my buttons.

Why Clean Romance?

It's a little odd for someone who fell in love with the romance genre on bodice rippers and pirate stories to be writing what is now termed "clean romance" meaning no between the sheets action in the pages, but there is a method to the madness.

After years of being a connoisseur, being a member of writers' forums on and off for the last twenty years, and reading lots of reviews, it's very apparent that there is a whole swath of romance readers out there who really don't like the steamy sex scenes.

Really.

To an extent, I'm one of them.

See, the bedroom can be quite distracting from the actual story, and yes, a lot us writers know this.

The first time I realized that the sex scenes were not "all that" was some time ago in the middle of a Virginia Henley novel. Seriously, this was the soft core porn precursor to "Fifty Shades of Gray." And the sad thing is...not too long ago I read a novel by a different author who outdid Henley on the descriptions, and none of it was germane to the story.

Honestly.

And the big push on sex in romance novels isn't coming from the writers necessarily. Reports are out there that the publishing houses have been known to send manuscripts back to the authors asking for the scenes to be "hotter." Guess they haven't read the reviews where reader write notes saying that such interludes are unwanted.

So, when I started self publishing, I took the chance on clean romance and while there are some steamy scenes (one of them was actually in a steam shower), the characters remain covered. Hopefully. (If I slipped up, readers, please let me know.) The idea is to tell the story, not to get the reader all hot and bothered.

(For more on this idea, the legendary Mary Balogh had a good piece and discussion on her website a few years ago.)
  

New Beginnings

It's time in my life to close a few doors and open some windows. It's time to really make a decision on taking a single path of writing creativity rather than trying to make several different ones work all at the same time.

You see, thanks to the efforts of the owners of various social media platforms, the blogging infrastructure that had built up around politics not as usual was pretty much destroyed. There is no longer an efficient way to get enough views to stay viable.

That being the case, it's time to move on to the one part of my writing that has actually started to build a following: clean romance, as it is called. These are the romance novels that are all story, no sex. Well, at least none that the reader sees. 

In making a go of this, I'm learning along the way. Being from the American Midwest, tooting my own horn has never been looked at with any sort of favor. It was pretty well beaten out of me. Now, I find myself needing to market my own work, speaking of it in glowing terms. What works in political blogging to get the word out, definitely does not work for promoting novels. Plus, when looking around for internet tools to help with the "spread the word" efforts, there are countless ways to do it, and no shortage of advice on how to make it happen.

In short, I'm taking a little bit here and a little bit there, and cobbling together a way to find the clean romance audience and let them know when my new books come out.

It's going to be one heck of a ride.

PH