April 2017

Three of my Bill Beatty stories were released in the collection Hell Down Under:   

The stories are about supernatural forces underground that can steal people from…  

• a retirement community in the desert southwest in “Retirement in Hell”
• abandoned cliff dwellings in “Land of the Under People” 
• a Brazilian gemstone mine in “Missing Miners” 

March 2017

The third novel of my Centauri series was released in March.  

In this book, the mission finally reaches Proxima Centauri, and oh the surprises they find there!

February 2017

My publisher released a collection of 3 of my short stories by Sue Star:  

The stories take place in Nell Letterly’s world of eccentric Boulder.  

“Creek Squatting”:  trouble along the creek.  

“R.E.S.P.E.C.T.”:  trouble follows martial artists. 

“Death of a Prairie Dog”:  trouble with land developers.   

Catching Up (Again): Africa!

2017 was the Year of No Blog.  I was too busy writing fiction.  It was a 3-book year (6, if you count the collections of short stories)—that’s a record for me!  

In between releases, I wrote new stories and worked on filling the well for more stories, i.e. “research.”  Sometimes this just means gathering interesting information, without having any idea at the time how it will be used.  It gets filed away and may or may not come out later in the form of fiction.  

The year started off like this, with well-filling.  We went to South Africa, a month filled with fantastic experiences.  Here are a few memorable moments from safari:  

The safaris made such an impression on me that I wrote my first story of the year about this setting.  

Part 2: Adventures on the Canal

5 more reasons why we're glad we bought our tiny canal boat:  

1.  The Queen's swans cruise along with us.

2.  We are gongoozled as we navigate the locks.  

3.  We tie up at public moorings at the end of a day of cruising...

4.  And visit another amazing pub.

5.  But the best reason of all is that our tiny home-away-from-home is closer to family!  

I can't wait to see how these adventures will show up in my writing!

Adventures Feed the Muse

Recently I grabbed a wild and crazy opportunity to feed my muse.  Hubby and I bought this canal boat in England:

Outside, it's thirty feet long and six feet wide.  Inside, its 85 square feet of livable space has all the comforts of home. 

We're not boaters, we're not campers, and we live half a world away.  Yet, when the opportunity arose, we thought about it for approximately ten minutes and then jumped.  Here are a few reasons why we're glad we did:


1.  The secret garden at our mooring buffers us from urban London.  

2.  We test our steering skills

3.  On our way to the local store for groceries.  

There's plenty to watch along the way, but I'll save more of that for next week's post!  

Why Did It Grab Me?

Over the weekend I watched The Ten Commandments.  I hadn’t seen that Charlton Heston movie for many years, and I didn’t mean to watch it this time.  I wanted to paint instead, but I turned on the TV as background noise.  Every once in a while the movie pulled me away from my art.  Before I knew it, I got completely sucked into the story, in spite of how dated that movie is in oh, so many ways.  So, why did it grab me?  

1.  It’s familiar.  The story of Moses is a story I grew up with.  It’s appeared in books, songs, and lessons that I’ve heard and read over and over.  Moses is a role model, and his life has become almost a formula.  It’s part of my cultural heritage.  

2.  Passion.  The three major characters—Moses, Rameses, and Nefretiri—are all driven by an almost over-the-top passion, and of course their goals are in opposition to each other.  This makes a recipe for conflict and disaster.  

3.  Unrequited love.  For various reasons, the major characters desire someone he or she can’t have:  

• Nefretiri desires Moses but can’t have him
• Rameses desires Nefretiri but can’t really have her
• Moses’ wife desires Moses but can’t have him (and doesn’t complain—how do you compete with God?)
• The slave girl desires Joshua, and Joshua desires the slave girl, but they can’t have each other, thanks to…  
• The governor, who desires the slave girl but can’t really have her, either. 

Am I missing anyone else?  

4.  Theme of persecution.  This is a personal favorite.  I love stories dealing with persecution in its many forms, maybe for the conflict, maybe to see justice win in the end.  Or at least to root for justice over adversity.  

3 & 4 especially create strong feelings of sympathy for the character.  They increase conflict and the threat of disaster and pull me through the story.  I want to see those sympathetic characters win in spite of the odds against them.  And in spite of knowing how the story ends.  

These are all good lessons I can apply to Good Storytelling!