You Are a Writer, but Why Do You Write?

So many authors say they couldn't live without writing.  There are others who have so many stories in their head that they have to tell them.  There are multiple other reasons why people write, but those aren't my motivations for telling a story. I write because there are issues I'm concerned about, and I put those problems into fiction format.  It is a way to be heard without browbeating people with the subject matter.

My Odyssey Mysteries series has social issues in each book.  In my first book, The Catalyst, I address the problem of rape, abuse and alcohol.  This story explains why so many rape victims do not make reports against their rapists.  It's, also, about family and secrets.

In my second novel, Addiction, the issue is alcohol addiction with a serial killer thrown into the mix.  It's the villian's story as much as the hero and heroine's. This book gives you an idea of how alcohol can affect family members. It, also, helps you to understand the struggle the alcoholic fights every day. 

The third book, The Deceived, is about gambling addictions and the extremes some groups will go to in order to stop gaming.  It shows that some factions may be as bad as what they are fighting against.  Even good people can come under the influence of cult-like groups.

Even my novella, A Fool's Fool, is about those who have the power to harass and intimidate employees in the work place.

Why do you write?

Sandra K. Marshall, author at Eirelander Publishing

http://www.eirelander-publishing.com
http://www.sandramarshallblog.blogspot.com

You Are Published: When Will You Publish Again?

I have published three books and a novella, but I'm a slow writer.  I have a finished book, but it needs revision, and there isn't any time to do it.  Every week, I post a blog, which is a form of writing and I'm reading a finished book (not published) for a friend.  Both of these things are writing related, but they don't help me to finish my book.  They do keep me learning to write.

My husband has a bad knee, which he aggravated by falling from a ladder, and will probably need knee replacement sometime in the future.  After his fall, he was okay the first day, but the next two days it got worse and he finally took some pain pills for it.  The knee is better, but for how long we don't know.

The week before, I had to go to the doctor with my brother to make sure to get the straight scoop.  He had neck surgery seven years ago, and he's been losing the use of his left arm gradually over the last year.  They are going to try some shots in his neck to see if that helps, but if it doesn't work they'll try something else.

These are only two things that have interfered with my writing in the last few weeks.  A lot of things have hindered my writing over the last few years; even my health issues. It just doesn't seem to end, and I don't know what to do about it.  I know others go through periods like this, but how do you get passed it?

I'm terrified that I'll never get published again.  Have you ever felt like this?

Best always,

Sandra K. Marshall

http://www.eirelander-publishing.com

What Do Author's Blog About?

Everyone expects authors to promote their books when they blog, but what if they don't have a book coming out, and the ones out are two to three years old?  Do they keep blogging and promoting, or do they stop until the next book comes out?

Here's my story, I wrote three books, The Catalyst, Addiction and The Deceived.  They are still up at my publisher, Eirelander Publishing if you care to check them out.  I call them, The Odyssey Mysteries trilogy, and they are set in the Midwest riverboat casino industry, which has now become mostly grounded. The books have been taken down from Amazon and other places because my publisher is redoing the covers. 

I also wrote a short story titled, A Fool's Fool, a humorous contemporary romance about harassment in the work place.  It can be found at Eirelander Publishing too, and in audio at Audio.com.  The link is below.

http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_1?asin=B00945MFMI&qid=1347906078&sr=1-1  

Okay, here's my take on this topic.  At my blog, http://www.sandramarshallblog.blogspot.com, I promote only if I have news or have a contest.  The rest of the time I blog about anything that interests me.  Sometimes, I even write about writing topics, but most of the time I don't.

You're probably saying to yourself, 'she's a writer,' and I say, 'I am.'  Now, my question to you is: Do your blog followers want to hear about how to write?  My answer is: NO!  There is one exception and that is if they are aspiring authors.  I remember reading everything to help me learn how to write a story. 

Okay, I have strayed from the topic.  What I'm getting at is that most of my followers are readers not writers, and they aren't interested in reading about how you write a story.  For me, I'm fascinated by all sorts of things, and I think the people who follow me on my blog are too.  A lot of people don't follow me on my blog, but I know they go there every Sunday because I receive private messages from them instead of comments on my blog. 

Your blog followers' attention can be captured by many different subjects and you can keep them coming back for more.  Many of those people will be there when your next book comes out.

 

Now, I know some of you will disagree with me, so I'm eager to read your comments. Wink!

Sandra Marshall 
You can find me at Facebook, LinkedIn, Blog

Leap Year

In February I don't have to write a blog for Romance Books Or Us because my turn is always the 29th of every month.  This year is leap year so February has 29 days in it, and it's my turn to blog.

A leap year (or intercalary or bissextile year) is a year containing one additional day (or, in the case of lunisolar calendars, a month) in order to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical or seasonal year. Because seasons and astronomical events do not repeat in a whole number of days, a calendar that had the same number of days in each year would, over time, drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting (or intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. A year that is not a leap year is called a common year.

 February 29 is a date that usually occurs every four years, and is called leap day. This day is added to the calendar in leap years as a corrective measure, because the earth does not orbit around the sun in precisely 365 days.

Here are some traditions for leap day.  In the British Isles, it is a tradition that women may propose marriage only on leap years. While it has been claimed that the tradition was initiated by Saint Patrick or Brigid of Kildare in 5th century Ireland, this is dubious, as the tradition has not been attested before the 19th century. Supposedly, a 1288 law by Queen Margaret of Scotland (then age five and living in Norway), required that fines be levied if a marriage proposal was refused by the man; compensation ranged from a kiss to £1 to a silk gown, in order to soften the blow In some places the tradition was tightened to restricting female proposals to the modern leap year day, February 29, or to the medieval (bissextile) leap year day, February 24.

According to Felten: "A play from the turn of the 17th century, 'The Maydes Metamorphosis,' has it that 'this is leape year/women wear breeches.' A few hundred years later, breeches wouldn't do at all: Women looking to take advantage of their opportunity to pitch woo were expected to wear a scarlet petticoat—fair warning, if you will."

In Denmark, the tradition is that women may propose on the bissextile leap year day, February 24, and that refusal must be compensated with 12 pairs of gloves.

In Finland, the tradition is that if a man refuses a woman's proposal on leap year day, he should buy her the fabrics for a skirt

In Greece, marriage in a leap year is considered unlucky. One in five engaged couples in Greece will plan to avoid getting married in a leap year.

A person born on February 29 may be called a "leapling" or a "leaper". In common years they usually celebrate their birthdays on February 28 or March 1. In some situations, March 1 is used as the birthday in a non-leap year since it is the day following February 28.

Technically, a leapling will have fewer birthday anniversaries than their age in years. This phenomenon is exploited when a person claims to be only a quarter of their actual age, by counting their leap-year birthday anniversaries only. In Gilbert and Sullivan's 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance, Frederic the pirate apprentice discovers that he is bound to serve the pirates until his 21st birthday rather than until his 21st year.

For legal purposes, legal birthdays depend on how local laws count time intervals.

For additional information you can go to Wikipedia. 

Contest News: Romance Books Or Us will be having contests for the next few months.  The first will be a St. Patrick's Day contest.  Be sure to visit Romance Books Or Us website at http://www.romancebooksrus.com.

Also, this is last for the sale of all of Eirelander Publishing's catalog is 30% off at the Coffee Time Romance Store!  My books can be found there. 
http://www.facebook.com/l/jAQG5ejlSAQEYYOCpkn86ElhnRnU4Nv7CnQ-CUd9T2HZMrA/www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookStore/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=116

Have a Happy Leap Year!

Sandra K. Marshall, author of The Odyssey Mysteries Trilogy
http://www.skaymarshall.com

Why Read Fiction?

Why read fiction . . . it has no redeeming value. It has no basis of truth. So why read something that never happened?

Fiction is considered imaginary and made-up whereas non-fiction is supposed to be factual and indisputable. I am a writer of fiction. The ideas for my stories come from real life, so that element has to be realistic.

My story, ADDICTION, is made of truth and fiction. The heroine is being stalked by a serial killer, she has low self-esteem and is an alcoholic. All of these things are real, they happen. The difference is in how they play out, but even in real life the heroine can survive the killer and gain self-esteem. She would always be an alcoholic but she can conquer the disease by staying away from those beverages.

The hero in ADDICTION is handsome, Irish and a FBI agent. He understands women because he has younger sisters, and he wants to protect the heroine. Do you think this is stretching the truth? Maybe, but haven't you known men like this? I have.

Many people like to escape real life and others want to see real life turn out differently from the one they live. It's all the matter of the choices we make and this holds true of the hero and heroine in my story.

I'm going to throw down the gauntlet here and suggest non-fiction readers pick up a fiction book to read and vice versa. I have read both and enjoyed both.

I am posting a blurb and a excerpt from ADDICTION below.

Blurb for Addiction

Two men are after the same woman but for very different reasons.

Dark-haired beauty, Jolene Dubois has a serious problem, and it's not just battling alcoholism. Late at night, she receives whispered calls. "Jolene, I want you. I'm coming for you." Shivers climb up her spine and ice flowed in her veins. What does he want? Who is it? She must figure it out before she trusts the wrong person.

Jake Farrell, the handsome rogue is an operator with women, but is he hiding something dark and sinister under his cheery facade. The detective, Andy Martin, who investigated her father's murder, continues to ask her out. Les Voodré, an alcoholic she met at AA follows her everywhere, and Ron Keisler, her AA sponsor is always there when she needs him. Could her caller be one of these men?

To further complicate her life, she fights a host of addictions, alcoholism, smoking, gambling and sex. Jolene is determined to beat the alcohol and to stay out of the clutches of the fiend who phones her.

Excerpt:

Ring. Ring.
Her heart pounded frantically. Jolene pushed her covers off and jumped out of bed, her gaze on the clock. Four o’clock in the morning. She had a caller. Horror pulsed through her veins, and then she grabbed her purse.
It can’t possibly be him.
Come on, Jolene, answer it.
Her hands shaking, she dug in her purse pulling out the cell phone and flipping it open. “Hello.” He’d blocked the caller ID.
“What took you so long, Jolene?” a muffled voice asked.
She tightened her grip on the cell. No. How did he get this number?
“Come on, speak to me. I know you’re there,” the whisperer said in a low raspy voice. “Don’t make me come in there.”
“What do you want?” He knew where she was. How could he? “How did you get this number?” she demanded, rubbing her palm on the pale floral bed cover. Was he outside? She wanted to hang up, but that never worked. He’d call all night then.
“Jolene, I’m disappointed in you. You were around too many people tonight for me to get to you.”
She rose and walked to the window, feeling cold in spite of her olive green cotton pajamas. If only he’d talk in a normal tone, she might recognize the voice. “Why are you harassing me?” she asked, sliding the light green curtain aside so she could peek out. There weren’t any new cars parked on the street, but he could’ve parked anywhere and be outside the house.
“I thought we were friends. Don’t you like it when I tell you all the things I’m going to do to you?” He cackled loud and long.
His maniacal laughter sent shivers up her body, and she wrapped her free arm around her waist. Did she know this person? Surely, she didn’t know anyone like this except for Les. That guy was just downright crazy. Quiet.
She held her breath and listened. Was he still there? No sound. He must’ve hung up. Softly, she started to close her cell.
“Don’t hang up on me, Jolene.”
Startled, the phone slipped out of her grasp, but she scrambled to catch it. The darn thing hit the thick beige carpeted floor. Down on her knees, she grabbed the cell, putting it to her ear.
“Hello.” The buzzing told her she’d lost him. What would he do now? Call her back. She stared at the phone, her shoulders hunched, and the tendons in her neck tightening.
After a few moments, she rose, went to her bed and climbed in pulling the covers around her. She knew she wouldn’t sleep, but she didn’t want to wake her sister or call her brother to talk to him. This was her problem to take care of. She would call the police later this morning and make a report.
Ring. Ring.
Jolene grabbed the phone; she knew it was him again. She’d made him mad by hanging up on him even though it had happened accidentally. Without saying anything, she listened, hoping it wasn’t him.
“Don’t ever do that again.”
The loud click told her he was finally gone. Her hand shook so badly she could hardly reach the oak end table to lay her cell on it. She’d never sleep the rest of the night. She had to figure out who this person could be.
The only person she knew this crazy was Les, but she didn’t know how he could’ve gotten her numbers. She’d never met him before tonight.
Pulling the covers over her head, she burrowed deeper into the bed. She’d always been afraid of the boogie man, and now he was really after her.

ADDICTION will be in print July 1st at Eirelander Publishing, http://www.eirelander-publishing.com/addiction.htm

To learn more about me you may visit these sites: http://www.skaymarshall.com
http://www.sandramarshallblog.blogspot.com http://www.myspace.com/s_zinn_marshall

I'll be waiting eagerly to hear why you read or don't read fiction.

See you next month.

Sandra K. Marshall, Author of Addiction
http://www.skaymarshall.com