Lori Drake

Urban Fantasy Author

Urban Fantasy Author

Postcards! New Mexico Edition

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On my last trip to New Mexico, I picked up some postcards to send out to readers. I couldn’t let go of them without taking pictures, though! By now, everyone has received their postcard, so I thought I’d share the collection.

When was the last time you received a postcard from a friend? I try to pick up a few whenever I travel. If you’re interested in getting one from me, sign up for my mailing list and keep an eye out for future opportunities.

Don’t let being outside the USA stop you—I’ve got International stamps!

What I’m Playing: Graveyard Keeper

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I’ve been in the mood for a crafting/farming game lately, but have had a hard time scratching that itch. I can’t say that Graveyard Keeper does that, per se, but it has been a delightful adventure.

In Graveyard Keeper, you play… a graveyard keeper. But it’s not all landscaping and corpse-planting. You’ve been transported to a strange world through some method you don’t truly understand, and are stuck on graveyard duty while you do a wide variety of dubious favors for some pretty strange people as you try to figure out how to get home to your beloved.

If you’ve ever played Stardew Valley or Harvest Moon, this game will seem immediately familiar to you. I don’t know if they all use the same graphics engine or what, but they’ve got a very similar look and feel to them. You explore the world, chop down trees, mine rocks, plant crops, talk to villagers… very similar.

But there are a number of things that set Graveyard Keeper apart. The first of which is, well, you’re a graveyard keeper. A communist donkey delivers a corpse to you each day and you have to deal with it somehow. You can bury it. You can burn it. You can autopsy it and harvest cartoony organs for alchemical experiments (or, um, food). If you can’t be bothered to do any of that, you can chuck it in the river and be done with it.

You’re also a clergyman for a strange flock. The local bishop tasks you with fixing up not only the graveyard but also the church. Once a week, you can deliver a sermon to earn a few coins and faith points, which can be used to create new sermons, research the various resources of this strange world or… make zombies.

Yes, that’s right. If you decide not to burn, bury, or float your daily corpse, you can turn it into a zombie and put it to work harvesting resources, farming, even making wine. Yes, that’s right, you can have a zombie vintner.

On the whole, Graveyard Keeper is a fun little adventure for people with a semi-dark sense of humor. The storylines are quite funny, and there’s always something that needs doing (and usually something you have to do in order to do something you have to do to take care of that something).

How will it end? I dunno. I’m 33 hours in with no end in sight.

Mind Mapping

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A couple of years ago, I took a trip to New Orleans with a few fellow authors, and while I was there I was introduced to the concept of mind mapping by one of my cohorts.

What is a mind map? You’ve probably seen one before, you just didn’t realize what it was. According to mindmapping.com, “A mind map is an easy way to brainstorm thoughts organically without worrying about order and structure. It allows you to visually structure your ideas to help with analysis and recall.”

Here’s an example of a mind map drawn by a friend of mine about… wait for it… mind mapping!

The general theory behind mind mapping is that your brain doesn’t work in a linear/logical fashion. Different parts of the brain are responsible for different activities, and we process the world around us by taking in and categorizing everything we experience. By breaking a big topic down into related sub-topics, you’re actually making it easier for your brain to process. And the more parts of your brain you involve, the better.

Sometimes mind maps are drawn like branches of a tree. Sometimes they’re just clusters of ideas grouped together. Colors link related ideas, which can be a helpful mnemonic device. Yes, mind maps can help you memorize things!

Check out this super cute gingerbread cookie recipe mind map I found. I think it’s in Italian?

Anyway, inspired by my colleague’s colorful mind maps, I immediately set out to make mind maps of my own. I mapped out my writing & publishing goals for the next year. I mapped out character traits and motivations. But, more recently, I started using mind maps as a brainstorming tool for plot & story. (Because in my life, everything I learn tends to turn into ‘how can I use this in/for a book’?)

You see, mind mapping is all about breaking big concepts down into smaller, related concepts. While planning Secondhand Magic #2, I created an Act I map, two Act II maps (I ran out of room), and an Act III map. I was able to create “branches” off of the act for the various plot threads I was keeping track of, and fill them out. It really helped me flesh out Act II and figure out where the investigation part of the plot was going.

I looked through my existing mind maps for various books I’ve written for an example I could share, but they all had massive spoilers. So, instead I created a new one for Early Grave, Chapter One, so you can see my process in action. (Okay, so it’s a little spoilery if you haven’t read it, but everything here is in the free sample on Amazon!)

Early Grave Chapter One Mind Map

As you can see, my mind maps are a little different from the “traditional” ones (I am really not much of an artist), but in the end you have to do what works best for you. Usually my subtopics have more branches, but I was working with fairly limited subject matter.

So, next time you’re mulling over something, I encourage you to grab a pen and paper (or a tablet & stylus, which is what I prefer) and go to town. Whether it’s a personal, professional, or scholastic problem, mapping it out might just help you get your thoughts (or the facts) in order.

What I’m Watching: Queer Eye Season 5

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Season 5 of Netflix’s Queer Eye recently dropped, and the timing couldn’t have been better. I’ll admit, I wasn’t super interested in this series when it first came out. I’m not even sure what made me decide to give it a try, but it hooked me from the very first episode of season 1.

I remember Bravo’s original Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, though I’m not sure I ever watched more than one episode. I remember it being a little campy, that the Fab Five would teach hapless straight guys how to be a little more metro. This version is so much different.

I mean, for starters… they don’t just makeover straight men. Men, women, gay, straight, trans, it seems like they’ve done it all. And there’s such a positive message to it. They don’t teach people how to be fashionable, they teach them how to shop for clothes that look good on them based on their body type. (And what sizes actually fit them!) They teach them about self-care and tackle social, professional, and/or personal problems they’re facing. And they do it all with compassion, flair, and a generous dose of humor.

This show makes me laugh, and it make me cry. I’m two episodes into season 5, and it’s already choked me up once. At a time when so many bad things are happening to good people, it’s incredibly refreshing to see good things happen to good people for a change.

So, if you need a little pick-me-up, this show is a great place to start. I’m trying not to go through the season too quickly, so I can drag out the feel-good effects as long as possible. This goes against my bingeing nature, so we’ll see how long my resolve lasts.

Stormy Weather

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I love storms. I can’t remember ever being afraid of them. My mother might be able to tell another tale, but she’s not here. I am.

So… I love storms. I’ve always loved storms. I took a meteorology class in college (during which I quietly fangirled about the professor being a local meteorologist I’d watched on TV for years), and one of my all-time favorite movies is Twister. (And in case you’re about to tell me what a shitty movie that is, save yourself some trouble because you’ll never change my mind!) I’d like to go storm chasing one day, so I can see a tornado in person.

From a distance. In broad daylight. Because I’m not suicidal.

But it turns out that storm touristing is actually rather pricey (several thousand dollars per person). I have a friend who has gone a few times, and she seems to think it’s worth it. I’d like to go with her, but I am more miserly. But maybe some day I’ll save up and go do it. Doing it with a tour group is probably more responsible than driving to Tornado Alley on my own. (Side note, that friend also wrote a great storm chaser romance.)

Anyway, nothing puts me to sleep faster than the sound of rain on the roof. I used to have a noise machine that would play rain and thunder sounds at night. At some point, it broke and I never got around to replacing it. These days, I wait for mother nature to make her presence known, but I greatly enjoy listening to a storm at night. Some of my most productive writing sessions have been during rain storms.

I do get nervous about severe weather, especially now that I have cats and live in a house where the only ground floor room with four internal walls is a tiny half bath. In a pinch, I think my husband and I could shelter in there, but the odds of getting all three cats in there with us are not great. I keep thinking I should get a weather radio, but haven’t pulled the trigger.

My father had a brush with a tornado a few years ago. It ripped right through the tiny town he lived in, knocking down power lines and disrupting phone (and cellular!) service. It took me days to get in touch with him afterward, and that was scary. A cinder block crashed through the roof of his apartment, and he had to vacate until the building could be repaired and inspected.

Fortunately, the closest I’ve ever come to a twister is one touching down a couple of miles from my house. That’s one of those things you don’t hear about until the next day and you’re like… holy crap, I am sooo lucky. But I’ve had hail pound dents into my car. (Like a good neighbor, State Farm was there.) My neighbor’s tree was struck by lightning last year.

Hopefully that’s not Mother Nature slowly zeroing in on me, because I just put a new roof on the house. Oh well. It’s under warranty.

What I’m Playing: Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

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I don’t play a lot of single-player games anymore. Sure, I cut my teeth on Super Mario Brothers and Duck Hunt as a kid. But the rise of Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) games like Everquest and World of Warcraft got me more into the social aspect of gaming as an adult. I’ll take a fun co-op game like The Division, Borderlands, or Minecraft over most single-player games.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was strongly recommended to me by a friend, and it was on sale on Steam for something like $15 a couple of weeks ago, so I decided to give it a try. I’ve tried Assassin’s Creed before and it didn’t quite grab me. The biggest lure for me this time around was the option to play a female character for the whole story, which was a first for the franchise (and it must’ve been popular, because they’re doing it again for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla this fall).

I’ve put 42 hours in so far, and I’m just over halfway through the main storyline. It’s rather easy to get distracted by side missions, because it’s an open world game. Needless to say, I wouldn’t have put 42 hours in if I wasn’t enjoying it, but… I’m really enjoying it!

The graphics are terrific, and the world is just so, so beautiful. Kassandra is an amazing character, and I love how they made her tall and strong, as opposed to a skinny little waif that looks like she shouldn’t be able to lift a sword.

The story is also captivating. I minored in Classics in college, so that probably contributes to my fascination with the story. You brush elbows with historical figures and see ancient locations as they once were—full of color and life rather than ruins scrubbed to bare stone by time and the elements.

My only complaint? Snakes, snakes, SNAKES. I have a serious snake-phobia, and the first time one attacked me out of nowhere I came out of my chair like a bagel from a toaster. (Suddenly, violently, and utterly without warning.) Then I started noticing them everywhere, from frescos to stonework to jewelry… I never realized how into snakes the Greeks were.

Anyhow, that’s what I’ve been up to for the last couple of weeks when not busy writing and editing. My adventures in ancient Greece (and Sparta!) have been giving me some story/plot ideas, too.

And I’m 99.99% sure those stories/plots won’t involve snakes.

What I’m Watching: Upload

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I saw an ad for this new Amazon Original shortly before it came out and made a mental note to watch it, then got completely absorbed in other things and forgot about it. Fortunately, I did remember it before too much time had gone by, because it was a delight! Here’s a quick synopsis from Amazon:

“In the future people can upload their consciousness to a luxurious digital afterlife. When party boy Nathan gets uploaded to a virtual resort he meets the down-to-earth Nora who starts as his customer service “angel”, but becomes so much more as she helps him find friendship, love and purpose.”

Of course, a little blurb like that can’t cover everything—like the fact that that “luxurious digital afterlife” is only available to people who can afford it. That even once you buy your way in, there are still the equivalent of “in-app purchases” everywhere. That if someone pays for your upload, they also control your afterlife.

I expected Upload to be a little cheezy, but it was surprisingly thoughtful. There were laugh out loud moments in almost every episode, but the writers didn’t go for the low hanging fruit. Some of the jokes are extremely subtle, and their vision of the future isn’t so far removed from our own that you can’t see things evolving (or devolving) that way. The protagonist, Nathan Brown, starts out as a cringe-worthy self-absorbed douchebag but very quickly becomes relatable—even likable.

I won’t ruin the story for you, but I will tell you that this is a great show and if you like tongue in cheek sci-fi and comedy… take the plunge. It’s already been green-lit for a second season, so no worries about getting hooked only to have it canceled after one season! However, the way the pandemic has film/tv production shut down… it might be a bit delayed.

What’s in a name?

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Naming characters can be hard, even when they’re one-off side characters. This is even more true when you’re writing in a series, because every name you use… you can’t use again. Or, at least, you shouldn’t. Hell, even using the same first letter too often can create confusion for readers.

Ask me sometime about how long it took me to notice the “J” problem in Grant Wolves (Joey, Jon, Justin, Jessica, Jenny, Jack, Julie, and Jim—fortunately better known as Harding).

Okay, don’t ask me. I’ll tell you. It took me four books and a character spreadsheet to truly appreciate the scope of that one.

A lot goes into choosing a name at times. Sometimes, the name reflects a bit about their origins. Colt, for example, is a very southern name. Colt is from Texas. The Grant siblings (Samuel, Jonathan, Benjamin, and Josephine) all have old-timey names because their parents were 100+ years old before they were born. Emily, the witch without magic in my Secondhand Magic series, has a very plain name while her siblings (Daniel, Juliet, and Liam) have somewhat more dignified ones.

And sometimes, you just need a name for a random side character that may not appear again… but you don’t want to give them an awesome name you might want for a more evergreen character, and if you start re-using names, people email you to ask if that was the same Tim from book whatever.

Then there is the real-life connection problem. If you give a character the same name as someone you know, they tend to assume you named the character after them and should have something in common with them. For example, Matt, Emily’s ex-boyfriend and current bff. My husband is also named Matt, and he found it a little strange that I named my protagonist’s gay ex after him—but I didn’t name Matt after him. I named him after another Matt in my life—who is also not gay, but is one of my best friends. (I call him my Platonic Life Partner [PLP].)

Another worry? Using a character name that have become synonymous with an infamous character in another work. For example, I would never name an urban fantasy protagonist (especially a wizard) Harry… which makes me wonder: Which came first, Harry Potter or Harry Dresden? Hmm. Looks like the first Harry Potter book came out in 1997, and the first Dresden Files was in 2000. Interesting. The more you know!

I mentioned my spreadsheet earlier. I have a massive one for Grant Wolves (and a smaller one for Secondhand Magic) that contains the details of every character I’ve introduced, be they recurring or one-offs, so I can avoid future mishaps as much as possible. I didn’t create that spreadsheet until book 3 or 4, and that led to some amusing anecdotes, such as using the same last name for two recurring characters that weren’t related—which shouldn’t be a big deal. I mean, there are probably six million Smiths out there. But when it comes to fiction, when names get reused, readers have questions. I want readers engrossed in the story, so I avoid anything that throws them out of it.

Maybe I’ll make it a running gag in Secondhand Magic that every other Pueblo woman Emily meets is named Maria. That couldn’t possibly go wrong, right?

Updates Galore

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Ghost Magnet review copies available!

I threw this up on Facebook earlier this week, but I figure I might as well toss it out here too. I’ve put a few review copies of Ghost Magnet up on Booksprout, and there are some still available!

So, if your book budget is tight right now due to the pandemic—or just life in general—head on over to Booksprout and claim a copy of my latest release for the low, low price of an honest review.

Click here to claim your ARC!

If you don’t already have a Booksprout account, you’ll have to sign up for one. Don’t worry, it’s free. Booksprout is a great place to find books to review. I know quite a few indie authors who use it.

Hear me read Ghost Magnet!

I sat down with the lovely Melissa Banczak of the Books Cubed Show recently to catch up and read a couple chapters from Ghost Magnet.

Check it out here: https://youtu.be/JPyOOEVaCrU

If you like what you see/hear, follow Books Cubed on YouTube or your Podcast app of choice for more interviews, raves, and reads!

Thanks for having me, Melissa! It was a pleasure to chat with you, as always.

Grant Wolves #6 is a beast.

I’m still working hard on Grave Rites, the sixth and final installment of Chris and Joey’s story. This book has been a long time coming. I started it, tossed it, rebooted my outline and started again, set it aside for a few months…

Yeah, it’s been a beast to write. It’s going to be worth it in the end, but I think I have more blood, sweat, and tears in this one than anything else I’ve written. People sometimes ask me if I’m going to be sad to move on, and I don’t know what to say. Right now, it feels like I’ll be so relieved to finally be done that I won’t have time for anything else!

What I’m Watching: The Magicians

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I spent far too much time last weekend trolling for something to watch. It turns out, my Netflix queue is pretty dark, and I wasn’t in the mood for anything too grim. I ended up picking up The Magicians again, which is a show I have a bit of an on-again off-again relationship with. Whenever I come back to it, I fall in and wonder why I kept putting off watching it.

In case you haven’t heard of The Magicians, here’s what IMDB has to say: “After being recruited to a secretive academy, a group of students discover that the magic they read about as children is very real-and more dangerous than they ever imagined.” That… sums it up rather nicely. I wish I’d thought to check IMDB for the other shows I summed up awkwardly. What can I say, long form is more my thing. 😉

I’ve tried watching The Magicians when it airs on Syfy, but as you may recall from a previous post… weekly viewings are not my favorite way to consume TV shows. So, I tend to wait until a new season pops up on Netflix to catch up. I’m not sure how long Season 4 was available before I realized it, but apparently Season 5 wrapped up this month, so… I’m a bit behind. I started watching Season 4 but after few episodes ended up rolling it all the way back to the beginning of Season 1.

Watching the pilot, I remembered how I stopped and started it a few times, having trouble getting into it until the very last scene… which completely hooked me. If you’ve ever tried watching The Magicians and couldn’t get through the first episode, I urge you to try again. Watch it all the way through, and if you still don’t want to advance to Episode 2, then the show may not be for you.

There’s something about re-watching a series you like that’s almost magical, especially if it’s been a while. I discovered I’d forgotten so much of what happened that it was almost like watching it for the first time again. And yet, I still noticed things that I didn’t pick up the first time around and reasons behind things that happened that I didn’t quite get before, probably because there were long gaps between binges.

But I think the thing I like most about The Magicians is it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Sure, it can get tense, but there are quips and pop culture references that make it entertaining, relatable, and relevant. If I had a nickel for every Star Trek or Game of Thrones reference… okay, I’d probably have about a dollar. But they do pop up. The show is also inclusive, with one of the principal characters being gay, and it doesn’t shy away from depictions of love between men. (Granted, poor Eliot sure has bad luck when it comes to love.) It also has a unique magic system involving mathematics and hand gestures that is super cool.

In the end, The Magicians may not be Emmy-winning television, but it is one of my favorite shows. And I’m glad I discovered two new seasons waiting for me when I needed something a little lighter. (Not that it doesn’t get pretty dark at times, but there’s always light to be found somewhere!)

What I’m Watching: Outlander

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Okay, technically this is what I was watching until I accidentally caught up to where we’re at in the current season. All I have to say about that is: I’ve come to loathe episodic time-gated television. Netflix has spoiled me. I like to binge entire seasons. As a result, I tend to fall behind on things that air over the course of a traditional (outdated) season of programming and catch up on them once the season is finished.

Alas, this time I was… impatient? More like unobservant. I don’t find Outlander to be completely riveting, but it does have its charms. (And by charms I mostly mean Sam Heughan with his shirt off. And the accent! Shiver.) I mean, there are reasons why I stopped reading the books, and I suspect I’ll probably lose interest in the live action version once we get to that point too. But for now… I’m still on board. For infrequent subscribe-for-a-month-and-binge sessions.

So, here I am. Caught up and waiting for the next installment. There are only 2-3 episodes left in the season, so it’s not like this is going to drag on indefinitely. But it still sticks in my craw.

Outlander. Okay, so if you just crawled out from under a rock… Outlander is a historical time travel series involving a woman who travels back in time a couple hundred years. While she’s there, she ends up meeting the love of her life and they absolutely do not live happily ever after. That’s why I’d never call Outlander a romance. I mean, the relationship between Claire and Jamie is the foundation of the show, but the story gets so much bigger…

And that’s where the original material lost me. I was all in on Jamie and Claire and their story against the backdrop of history, but as the story got more complicated with trying to also tell a secondary love story (I won’t spoil anything) involving another pair of time travelers… it started to lose me. It lost me even more when a certain side character came of age and earned himself a POV. Sigh.

One of the things the show/series does well is take some of the romance out of time travel. By that, I mean, the characters recognize just how dangerous the past really is, how it lacks all the conveniences that we take for granted, like running water, medicine, and not having to grow our own food. There’s a lot of hard work involved, and fortunately our heroine(s) aren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves and get to work. Still, it doesn’t seem to bother them as much as you’d think. Why? Love.

I’m not sure there ever was red-headed highlander compelling enough to get me to stay in the 18th century. It’s dirty, it’s scary, and it’s a lot of damn work. I have enough trouble motivating myself to do the minimal tasks that are required of me as a modern day human. What if I had to carry all my laundry down to the creek to wash, and then back to the house to… hang it out to dry? Ugh. What if cooking dinner meant growing the vegetables and butchering the pig first?

Yeah, I am so spoiled. And not just by Netflix.

No Offense, But…

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I met someone once who felt they had to preface a lot of statements with “No offense, but…” At the time, I found it amusing because a lot of the things that followed that little disclaimer were fairly innocuous and unlikely to cause offense. But I remember thinking that throwing that out there before saying something truly offensive to someone probably wouldn’t help. It’s like saying, “I’m not racist, but damn those n-words.”

That’s just an example, for the record. Not something I actually think. But the fact that I feel a need to explicitly tell you that was just an example and in no way reflects the views and opinions of yours truly underscores what’s on my mind today: I worry a lot (probably too much) about offending people.

Oddly, that worry doesn’t seem to extend to my writing all that much. That’s fiction. My characters aren’t always politically correct. The cuss and fight and make poor decisions and have their own ideas about everything. Where it crops up for me is where I’m speaking or writing for/as myself, whether that’s here in this blog, on social media, in an email, or in person.

I used to go out of my way to avoid talking about anything of substance on Facebook. Politics? Nope. Religion? Hell Heck no. After the 2016 election, I told myself (and my Facebook friends/family): No more! I’m going to speak my mind and champion the causes that are important to me. Period.

Did I? Eh. Timidly. For a while. In the end, I just don’t like to make waves. I don’t want to get involved in those infamous Facebook arguments. I just wanted to look at cat memes and recipes and photos of family and friends living their lives.

Yesterday, I was preparing a promotion announcement for my author page. The theme of the promotion is “dead things.” Vampires, necromancers, ghosts, etc. I came up with something I thought was reasonably clever, but when I read through it again… I was suddenly plagued with worries that it might offend someone at a time when people are dying left and right of COVID-19.

“Mortality is overrated.”

“If death is a doorway, are you ready to see what’s on the other side?”

Is it good ad copy, or in poor taste? Where is that line, now or any other time?

I also ran into trouble with my recent post about The Handmaid’s Tale. The original draft had a reference to Mormon polygamists and child brides. But there’s more than one type of polygamy out there, and what consenting adults do I generally consider none of my business. And if I didn’t word it right, I’d piss off Mormons in general, most of whom do not practice polygamy at all.

Lather, rinse, repeat. This shit tumbles around in my mind like towels in a dryer, day in and day out.

If I tell you I like goth music, will you hold it against me? What if I hate dogs? What if I am indifferent to disinterested in Star Wars? What if I said Sting makes me want to claw my ears out? What if I prefer Pepsi to Coke? What if I read bigfoot erotica? (I don’t. Not that there’s anything wrong with— Gah, I did it again!)

No offense, but sometimes I hate being so empathetic.

What I’m Watching: The Handmaid’s Tale

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Picked up a free 30-day Hulu subscription recently, and I’ve been using it to catch up on seasons 2 & 3 of The Handmaid’s Tale. I was skeptical about the show continuing past the original book, but they’ve done a really good job.

In case you haven’t read the book or watched any of the series, here’s a (very) brief overview: The nation of Gilead exists in much of what was once the United States. They are governed by the Commanders, Christian extremists that have established a new world order when it comes to the women in their country. Women are no longer permitted to read, write, or have jobs. They serve as wives, domestic servants, aunts (handmaid jailors/trainers), slave labor, or whores. And then there are handmaids, proven fertile women who are unfit to be wives for whatever reason but are still valued for their ability to bear children in a world where fertility has been in steep decline. Handmaids are assigned to commanders and expected to bear children for them to raise with their wives.

This may sound extreme. It is. The handmaids are imprisoned, reconditioned, and tortured. Their children are stolen from them. Anyone who steps out of line suffers horrifying consequences, including disfigurement and, for the worst offenses, death. But at its core, The Handmaid’s Tale is a story of the human spirit, of the bonds between mothers and their children, and of one woman’s refusal to be fully broken no matter what they throw at her.

I’m always impressed by shows/films that can bring me to tears. I don’t cry super easily, but this show hits me in the feels. It makes me angry. It makes me sad. At times, it horrifies me. It makes me grateful for the life and freedom I have, and keenly aware of how much I take for granted.

Women are still second-class citizens in some cultures. They’re kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery all over the world. It’s totally okay for men to beat their wives in some countries. Women are cruelly mutilated or disfigured for breaking religious laws. Even in the USA, women are frequently victimized by men in positions of power.

And I won’t even go into the rights and privileges that I, as a heterosexual woman, enjoy that the LGBTQ+ crowd don’t.

I don’t always like tv shows or movies that make me think too much. I show up to be entertained, and I’m not usually looking for deeper meaning or to explore the human condition. This one is a glaring exception. I think what troubles me the most is how easy it is to see parallels between how Gilead justifies its actions and the rhetoric I see flying around on the internet today.

I’m not saying it’s necessarily realistic that the United States could become like Gilead. But when it comes to giving up your rights… it’s a slippery slope. Be vigilant, ladies.

Cliffhangers

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I’ve been thinking a lot about cliffhangers lately. As a reader, I used to hate them. But over time I came to realize that I didn’t really hate them. If I could gleefully dive into the next book to find out what happened next, I was okay. What I hated was the long wait between books if I reached the end of an in-progress series, spending weeks, months, even years to find out what the resolution would be.

Then what did I do with Grant Wolves #1? I wrote a cliffhanger ending. I didn’t think of it as a cliffhanger when I wrote it. It wasn’t until I set some beta readers loose with it that I realized what I thought was a cool surprise was a total cliffhanger.

I published it that way anyway.

I’ve never regretted it. I was braced for backlash, but other than one semi-annoyed review the book was very well received. I still think it’s a great twist, and the book wouldn’t be the same without it. But I’ve shied away from cliffhangers since then. Grant Wolves #2 doesn’t have one. #3 almost had one, but the response from my critique partners was so strong that I decided to bump that scene to the next book.

Authors tend to fall into two camps when it comes to cliffhangers. Some say you should avoid them entirely because they just piss off readers. Others say they’re great tools to keep readers hooked, to make sure they want to buy the next book.

I think I lean more toward the “don’t piss off readers” end of the spectrum, but I can’t say I’ll never write another cliffhanger. I’ll write what the story needs, but I won’t go out of my way to leave readers hanging.

But, seriously, book one needed to end that way.

Ant-Man and the Wasp

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Ant-Man and the Wasp poster(Spoiler free, I promise!)

Had the good fortune to catch Ant-Man and the Wasp this week. Even though I’ve been a little burned out on superheroes, I enjoyed it a lot. I’ve been trying to nail down why, and I think I’ve figured it out:

The stakes are very high, but they’re also very personal—and not just for the protagonists.

This isn’t a “save the world” movie. There aren’t aliens invading or a powerful bad guy trying to conquer the world or unmake the universe.  At it’s heart, it’s about family. It’s about decisions that come back to haunt you, and how they affect the people you care about—not to mention the people you didn’t even know.

I’m not saying it isn’t action-packed. It certainly is. But it’s character-focused in an extremely refreshing way. Even the antagonist is compelling, and not just because Hannah John-Kamen is amazing (which she is, and I’ll admit I’ve been nursing a girl crush on her since Killjoys Season 1).

In the end, it’s just nice to see a superhero movie where the stakes aren’t raised to comic (pun mostly not intended) levels.

I guess you could say that with Ant-Man they’ve never been smaller.

Fourth of July

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Today is July 4th, which doesn’t mean much outside the USA but it’s kind of a big deal around here. It was always a big deal for me when I was a kid, too. I remember family barbecues and going to watch the fireworks with my parents & cousins every year. We’d put the tailgate down on Dad’s truck, and we’d all pile in the back and joke about whether or not A Mountain would get set on fire again that year. (It did, more often than not.)

No, not just “a mountain” but the peak known as “A Mountain” to the locals on account of the giant “A” on it. Don’t believe me? Here’s a picture:

"A" Mountain

I didn’t know until just now that this peak is actually named Sentinel Peak. A Mountain had always been enough for me. Believe it or not, it’s not the only peak with a giant A on it in Arizona, either. Tempe Butte, which sits pretty much right in the middle of Tempe, AZ has a big A on it too.

Arizona, I tell ya. There are interesting stories behind both of these peaks and how they came to have A’s on them, but I’ll leave that to you to discover. I didn’t actually set out to talk about the Mountains A, that’s just where I ended up. (That’s kind of how my fiction writing goes too, more often than not.)

I wanted to talk about the Fourth of July. Independence Day. The day dogs don’t know they should fear until it’s too late and the big scary booms are going off. I don’t get together for family barbecues anymore, because I don’t have any family locally. My husband and I usually grill something (today he’s smoking pork ribs, yum) and when I start hearing the fireworks going off I’ll wander down to the end of the driveway to watch—a benefit of living a mile away from our town’s “Liberty Fest” site: I don’t have to do crowds or nature to get my fireworks on.

Anyway, the 4th is usually just a day off work, a day of rest, video games, and Netflix bingeing. This year, the 4th is a chance to catch up on writing (or write blog posts, ahem) and live my dream of working for myself for a day. I guess that’s kind of a celebration of independence, now that I think about it. Sitting at my favorite coffee shop in the middle of the week, drinking “freedom chai” and writing my ass off is a holiday tradition I could get behind.

Maybe later I’ll do something patriotic. For now, I should probably get some of that writing done.

Ambien vs Ambient

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Okay, stick with me here. This one’s a little random, but I got to thinking recently: Which came first? Ambien (the drug) or Ambient (the music)?

According to Wikipedia—yeah, yeah, I know it’s not a trusted source but this isn’t exactly scholarly research here—Ambient music has been around since the 1970s, while Ambien popped up in the early 1990s.

Now for the best news of the day. One of Google’s little search widgets is an etymology one. If you enter “<word> etymology” in google, it’ll pop up some interesting info about the word, including its definition, pronunciation, origins and use over time. So, check this out:

Congratulations, now we both know the origins of ambient as a word. (Don’t worry, chances are you’re still only half the “word nerd” that I am.)

Now, as for use over time:

Well, would you look there? Started seeing a big spike around… the 1970s. Gosh, I wonder why. 🙂

P.S. Here’s a nice Ambient playlist to go with your Ambien:

Stress Relief

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Is your daily commute killing you?

I don’t want to sound dramatic, but stress has been linked to all sorts of health problems, physical and mental. I recently came to the realization that a significant source of stress in my life is my daily commute.

For the last ten years or so, I’ve been spending roughly 2 hours per day, Monday through Friday, sitting in traffic. I’ve managed to turn an awful, boring, stressful activity into an opportunity for brainstorming and self-improvement (through podcasts on writing & publishing).

You know what? That daily drive is still stressful.

This week, I did something about it. No, I didn’t quit my job (yet). I started riding the bus. Austin has these great commuter buses that go to/from the ‘burbs. They’re more like riding a Greyhound than a city bus. It’s reasonably comfy and not as crowded as the train tends to get during rush hour.

Now I have an hour in the morning and afternoon to look forward to instead of dread. I can still listen to podcasts. I can still brainstorm. Heck, I could even write if I want to get ahead. I’ve taken these two hours of my life back, and said goodbye to all that stress.

I may not live significantly longer as a result of this small change, but I’m going to be a whole lot happier.

I challenge you to pick one thing that stresses you out and try to figure out a way to alleviate it.

2018 – Looking Ahead

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I’ve never been a new year’s resolutions sort of girl. Sure, it’s a new year, a chance to make a fresh start and cast off whatever bad habits you want to rid yourself of. But every day is an opportunity for change, right? Why wait until the end of the year to make a change, if it will improve your life?

I won’t even get into how long these best of intentions typically last.

Anyway, instead of making resolutions at the beginning of the year, I set goals. Measurable, attainable goals. My big goal for 2017 was publishing A Turn for the Worse. Nailed it. So, as I sit down to record some goals for 2018, I’m starting on a high note.

  1. Publish 3 books. That’s right, I’m blowing right past two and going for three. I’m reasonably confident I can release every four months, so that’s my target. With Out of Step coming in less than a week, I’m getting an early start on this one!
  2. Publish at least 1 short story or novella. Back in November, I wrote an 8,000 word short story set in the Grant Wolves world. I haven’t touched it since then. I’d really like to find the time to edit it and put it out there. I also have ideas for evolving it into a novella, or maybe a mini-series. I don’t know how much time I’m going to be able to carve out for side projects, but at the very least I want to get this story out there.
  3. Organize & optimize publishing process. If this month has taught me anything, it’s that I need a better process for editing & release. I’d like to have the book finished a little sooner so I have more time between when the book is completely finished and release, for a variety of reasons. This means writing and editing a little faster, but I think I can do it without sacrificing quality. My goal is to make everything that comes after writing/editing the book less like running around with my hair on fire, and give my advance readers more time to read the book before release.
  4. Network with more authors. I’m awful at networking. Completely dreadful. But it’s important, and I want to connect with more authors—especially Urban Fantasy authors. (Are you a UF author? Hit me up on social media or drop me an email!)
  5. Get a passport. This one has little to do with my writing, but it’s one of those things I’ve been meaning to do for years but keep putting off. This year I’ll seal the deal and maybe next year I can plan a trip somewhere cool.

That’s it for me. What about you? Comment and tell me about one (or more) of your goals for 2018.

Granny Kern’s Rum Balls

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This isn’t technically a holiday recipe, but for some reason it always gets trotted out around the holidays in my family. Fair warning, the alcohol is not cooked off. This is an adults-only treat. From my kitchen to yours, enjoy! -Lori

Ingredients

  • 3/4 Cup Evaporated Milk
  • 6 oz Semisweet Chocolate
  • 2 1/2 Cup Crushed Vanilla Wafers
  • 1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar
  • 1 1/4 Cup Crushed or finely chopped nuts
  • 1/3 Cup Rum or Brandy

Directions

Cook milk and chocolate in 2 quart saucepan over heat. Dump everything remaining in, stir, and let stand in refrigerator. Teaspoon to shape. Roll in additional nuts or powdered sugar (or both) and let sit overnight in refrigerator.

Makes 4 dozen.