A couple of days ago I wrote blog content for my tour date tomorrow with the title

I won't write the same content here since you can go read it tomorrow, if you wish, but part of the gist of it was about issues I covered in my newest book. It is the most serious to date. I think it will turn some romance readers away, although several are showing interest. I'm being upfront on my tour about issues raised, as I don't want readers to expect "typical" romance and get a book that is actually very literary.

The biggest issue is abuse, specifically child abuse, and the lasting effect of it, not only on the victim but on those who care about her. It was hard to write, as emotional as it was in places. However, it is not detailed by any means. It's about the recovery process.

Why did I cross a romantic novel with child abuse issues? I don't really know, other than it is a big issue. Children's issues in general are huge with me. How we raise our children is a big issue with me. I have kids in every book I write. I can't imagine not featuring them. To set the record clear, I was not an abused child. However, there were people who said hurtful, embarrassing things often enough to have made an impact, including a couple of teachers. Having only that much to fight against left me wondering how those with so much more to deal with do deal with it. I have seen worse. I've seen negligence and meanness happen to children around me. Of course we all see it in the news.

At times, I wondered if I was giving my character too much to deal with. But then I see the news and read real stories and know it's not more than too many handle in real life. It is a realistic story for being romantic, but as all of my books, it stays hopeful, with plenty of fun stuff thrown in, and an upbeat ending. Always. Romance readers will knock my pacing; that's the literary part of it. I'll also hear about having only one POV character, the male. Still, the reviews I've received so far from the romance network have been very positive. My most recent review (actually an email comment) said I write a male AS a male -- very high praise and something I've been worrying a bit about, since ... well, I'm not male.

I read a blog this morning by another self-pubbed author on tour who received a best book of the year award from a library against traditionally published books. Her novel deals with mental health and health care issues. They chose it because of its in-depth look at such a prevalent societal issue. She mentioned being able to do so since she's indie and didn't have editors telling her to take stuff out they are afraid might offend someone. If you want to read it, it's here: http://morganmandel.blogspot.com -- scroll down to the blog tour (or maybe read the Harlequin self-pub post first).

That is one of the huge benefits of being indie. Publishing now is watered down and "politically correct" just like everything else. There are too many rules as to what you can and can't write. How is that free speech???

We, as indies, can write what we wish. Of course it's helpful to write it well and edit it well, although that should be a given, but our hands are not tied. We are leading the way to freer speech, to be able to say what we need without our pinkies tied together (yeah, it's hard to type that way).

If you're interested in my Pushing Boundaries post, it will be here tomorrow:
http://its-not-all-gravy.blogspot.com/

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Might as well post my whole schedule while I'm at it.

Nov 1: Judah Raine
Introduction - what is literary romance?
http://judahraine.com/romancewriteup/?p=673

Nov 3: Jane Richardson
Artistic Vision and Creative Doubt
http://janerichardsonhomethoughts.blogspot.com/2009/11/over-moon-to-welcome-lk-h...

Nov 5: Sue Perkins
Traveling Fiction: Places in Story
http://sueperkinsauthor.blogspot.com/2009/11/lk-hunsaker-blog-tour.html

Nov 7: Linda Banche
Interview: Will Reynauld (Ryan's brother)
http://lindabanche.blogspot.com/2009/11/crr-blog-tour-lk-hunsaker-and-off-moon.h...

Nov 9: Sandra Kay
Subplot: A second rescue
http://sandrakayauthor.blogspot.com/2009/11/subplot-another-rescue.html

Nov 11: Liana Laverentz
Behind the Scenes: An Army Brat
http://lianalaverentz.blogspot.com/2009/11/guest-author-loraine-hunsaker.html


Nov 13: Nancy O'Berry
Celebrities: Truth vs. Hype
http://obe-romancingtheblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/celebrities-truth-vs-hype.html

Nov 15: Sandra Sookoo
Metaphorical Reality
http://sandrasookoo.wordpress.com/2009/11/15/crr-blog-tour-with-lk-hunsaker-cont...

Nov 17: Lainey Bancroft
Interview with Ned
http://www.elaineforlife.com/LaineysBlog/tabid/463/EntryId/144/OFF-THE-MOON.aspx...

Nov 19: Lindsay's Romantics
That Special Fit: What Does Home Mean?
http://lindsaysromantics.blogspot.com/2009/11/off-moon-home-special-fit.html

Nov 21: Maryann Miller http://its-not-all-gravy.blogspot.com/
Pushing Boundaries with Trauma and Genre

STILL TO COME

Nov 23: Sandy James http://www.sandy-james.com/stable

Nov 25: Lizzie Starr http://starrwords.blogspot.com/

Nov 27: Classic Romance Revival [Release Date!]
http://www.classicromancerevival.com/blog/

Nov 29: Steph Burkhart http://sgcardin.blogspot.com

Dec 1: The Pen Muse http://www.thepenmuse.com/

[anyone who comments on at least 8 blogs has a chance to win the printed copy, personally signed]

I had to walk AWAY from the computer yesterday. My fingers cramped so bad I couldn't type. So, my daughter and I watched The Ugly Truth for the second time since we just bought the DVD.

Today they were better but I took a break in between to do some gardening. When I had hand/wrist issues as a teen, the doc said washing dishes would be good for them -- anything that uses the muscles differently than writing/typing. Shoveling and picking a bunch of rocks up out of the burgeoning (I like that word recently) flower garden that will soon host a flag pole in the middle should be the same idea. They are better tonight.

Of course it could have also been from squeezing the shamwow out for some time last night when my kitchen sink decided to leak all over the underneath of the cabinet and the floor. I found it when I stepped up to the sink to start dinner. Wet socks are just nasty, nearly as bad as wet jeans. Anyway..

I'm catching up with Nano (part of WHY my fingers cramped) and am at 19,166 -- still behind but not as far behind. I'm hoping I have enough story for 50K, which makes me chuckle considering the length I usually do.

But.. as tired as I am, I'm seeing results other than Nano. My blog tour is picking up people I don't know and although there aren't a lot of comments (average of 7 each so far) I know most people who read don't comment, so I figure the word is still getting out.

And, my bookmarks came in a couple days ago and they turned out well.

Plus, on a POD list I'm on, 'experts' in the field kept insisting that if you use LSI to publish your books, you have to hire someone to do your cover art to make it one piece and sized right because they are very particular and won't accept it if it's not just right. That had me a bit nervous. I've done covers but only the front. However, I wasn't going to pay $500 or so for a pro to do it when I have art experience and photoshop knowledge, and at least a few brains. So I read the specs, downloaded the template, checked the spine width for the size of my book, and just did it.

It went through fine. I shouldn't count chickens yet maybe since I don't have the proof in hand yet. I'll still be nervous until I see if it worked as I hope.

They also said you can't use M. Word and get good results because of the complicated formatting. Well.. I did. Yes, it takes time to learn how to set it up, especially with page numbering and putting your name on the odd pages and title on the even pages in the header and NOT having page numbers on the first page of each chapter. It takes time to figure out. But yes, it can be done without paying a professional.

I should put this in my publishing blog. Maybe I'll copy it there.

So.. I might seem quiet here but I'm actually talking my fingers off on my blog tour and my Nano.

Tomorrow I go get a hose to fix the sink. That'll be my hand break, I guess, although I think I'm meeting another local Nano at a coffee shop for a while. That should be nice. Glad to have my Netbook so I can take my file with me and type there.

Haven't touched Nano today.. better do that a bit before bed.

How's everyone else doing with yours? Or if not Nano, what else are you working on?

OH.. and I put up a website for my book yesterday. It's really pretty, I think. Wanna see it?
http://www.lkhunsaker.com/OffTheMoon/main.htm

I also interviewed a NYC pro/indie drummer and posted it to my site blog today:
http://lkhunsaker.blogspot.com
Come say hi to Gino!


 

Like many, I have been following the Ft. Hood Massacre. Like everyone, it saddens and hurts me to think of the innocent lives lost. And I can't help but flash back to more innocent days, before the massacre, before September 11th, and before the DC sniper.

I met my husband while he was stationed at Ft. Hood. I was young, 20 when we met, barely 21 when we married. I met him at the Sears garage in Killeen. I loved Texas. I loved Ft. Hood. The hugeness of it overwhelmed me since I'm from a bitty farm town, but the friendliness took me in. Back then, military was family. I'm afraid it's not as much now. Even while we were still in, toward the end our our term, the family feel wasn't there. Maybe it's because the overall family concept is so much less strong than it used to be. Sad.

Now investigators are trying to point fingers at the military for not knowing or acknowledging Hasan's possible Al Quaida/extremist ties.

I'd like to ask them a question: what would have happened if they did suspect him and did track his activities off-base because of that suspician? We all know the answer. They would have been jumped all over for racial profiling. There's a very, very fine line they have to be wary of -- innocent until proven guilty and all, PLUS the bandwagon these days to worry so much about possibly insulting anyone in any way to the extent we don't pay attention to what we should.

That can't happen. It leaves us too vulnerable.

Do we want equality or do we not? If we do, anyone of any race or religious preference MUST be able to be tracked the way any other suspect would be if there is any cause. That's equality. It's not profiling. It's profiling to not track them because of their race or religion just as it's racist to vote for someone only because of his race. It's not equality. So do we want that?

I think we don't.

I don't think we, as a nation, want actual equality. I think we care too much about making sure we have underdogs so we can feel better about fighting for them. Why else would we have set up our system to encourage having underdogs? Welfare only feeds into that. It doesn't pull anyone out. It doesn't encourage them to try to care for themselves. It's self-perpetuating.

So is this bit about "equality" and "profiling" -- it only helps it to continue. If they had tracked him, and others like him with suspicious activities, and stopped him as he should have been stopped, this wouldn't have happened. And we wouldn't have to worry about repercussions against the Muslim community. There shouldn't be repercussions against the innocent. Agreed 100%. And there wouldn't be if we worried less about profiling and more about prevention. How do you tell a population that has been terrorized it shouldn't be worried?

The DC sniper was finally executed. It's about time. I was in Northern VA at the time of the sniper. I was terrified to take my children out anywhere off-base. So was everyone else. I still cringe at white vans.

I was also in Northern VA on September 11th. Then I had to walk around the mall and DC seeing Muslims in full gear and tell myself it was safe. The problem was, and is, that there are still so many terrorists in the States. We all know there are. How do you stop that fear once it's built in?

It's much easier to prevent it in the first place.

So please, Mr. Big Media, let's not jump all over what the military did or didn't know about Hasan. What did you seriously expect them to do with no public criminal activity to act upon? We've tied their hands. Just as we've tied the hands of our police. What do we expect from them with tied hands?

And maybe let's cut the ignorant article about the violent history of Ft. Hood that includes someone completely unrelated to the fort and to the military as "evidence" of its violent history. Compare Ft. Hood and Killeen to any other city of its size and I'll bet anything the history of its violence is awfully low percentage-wise. Compare it to our nation's capital for starters.

How about praising them for how quickly the situation was handled and that the shooter did not escape as they generally do in civilian life? No one does such a thing on a military base with any idea he'll walk away. He knew he wouldn't.

If we can't profile suspected terrorists, we also can't profile those who didn't stop them.

Thank You, Veterans. Keep your heads up high.

 

Remember, it's first draft.

Abraham slung his backpack over his tired shoulders and headed down the dusty road leading to town. His father asked to take him. Begged, nearly. But Abe didn’t want his goodbye, which could be his final goodbye, to be at the train depot. He wanted it at home, on their farm, where he should be helping with chores. His father would manage. He always had. Even through the rough years of watching Abraham’s mother slowly leave them through the mind-dissolving dementia and then finally leave them for good, his father had managed.

Abraham hoped with every part of him he would return to the farm, to his father, and be there to help him manage during his own aging days. It would be soon. Father was showing signs of slowing. It hurt Abe to see it. It would hurt him more to have to watch his father watch him leave on that train, standing on the platform managing to control his sadness, his fear.

Kicking a rock out of his path, he figured the long walk into town would do him good, help prepare for what was to come. Not that he wasn’t prepared already. Constant farm chores without machinery to make them easier had built his strength and stamina well. Days of rising before the sun and sometimes before the roosters to take care of the crops, move lines in bitter cold air and in the hottest times of the summer, made him sturdy. He didn’t figure war would be much harder, physically. What he wasn’t sure about was how hard it would be to his mind. He didn’t mind fighting as needed. He was raised to stand up for himself and for those around him and would do so without hesitation. And now he was proud to do it for his country, as well. He’d never actually taken a life, though. He know how to stop before that risk.

Father told him to be someone else out there, to tell himself he was doing good and sometimes evil was necessary to prevent worse evil. His father told him never to let it feel bad about who he was, since his heart was in the right place and that’s what mattered. The heart. Protect the heart, he’d said.

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as of Nov.3: 6,063 words
 

Here's the first stop of my blog tour for anyone who wants to come in and say hello:
http://judahraine.com/romancewriteup/?p=673&cpage=1#comment-1063
Today is an introduction to my work in general and details about what you can win for taking the time to read and comment.

Tuesday I'll be talking about Artistic Vision and Creative Doubt with Jane Richardson!
http://janerichardsonhomethoughts.blogspot.com/

I took a quick break from touring, etc. and spent an hour and a half to jot down my main characters and my general plot in OneNote where I can refer to it while writing easily, and then got my word count in for today! The story just started to roll out and I'm enamored with it. Of course I know that'll change through the month.

I'll post the first bit of it here in the next couple of days, but today, I thought I'd post a small excerpt of Off The Moon in celebration of the first day of tour.

From Off The Moon:

“Do you want to shower before bed? It might help you unwind.”

She shook her head against him.

“Katie…” Ryan stopped, with no idea what he planned to say.

After a few minutes of quiet while she stood and held him, she met his eyes. “I’m sorry I scared you. I … seeing him … I’ve tried to forget…”

“That’s understandable. And I should have told you what we were doing. But I didn’t want your hopes up if…”

“You didn’t want to find him.”

Choking on his guilt, Ryan wished to hell he had never admitted that. “I uh … I only meant … I know, I’m a selfish ass. I always have been. But I can’t….” With a deep breath, he figured he might as well say it all and quit trying to pretend he was more than he was. “I don’t want him to take you away from me. I don’t want anyone to take you away from me. I … I have never felt as alive as I have since I met you and … I feel more for you than I wanted, than I should, and I’m trying very hard not to. I know I’m not … you need something better than this. I can’t….”

Her hands slid around from his lower back to his stomach, up, nearly to his chest. Her eyes were on his. “It’s okay.”

Okay. Ryan wanted to ask her exactly what was okay. That he felt the way he did or that he could kiss her the way he wanted to kiss her? Which did she mean? Why was so much of what she said in code?

When he didn’t answer or react, Katie pulled away.

He caught her hand. She didn’t look at him when he moved back in front of her, when he raised the other hand to her hair, again brushed it out of his way. And she didn’t stop him when he found her lips.

It was a soft kiss, wary, questioning, all on his part. Until she returned her hands to his waist, sliding them around to his back, pulling herself in closer. And he let go of shoulds, of Daws’s voice in his mind telling him to be careful, she was too young, it was too dangerous for his career, of Will referring to him as a big brother, of his mom accepting her as family, as a daughter, of his own misgivings. His hand wrapped around the back of her head, holding her into him, kissing her more deeply, watching for signs she wanted him to stop. He didn’t get any. No hesitation, no drawing back, no pushing away. She allowed him as close as he wanted to get.

Realizing he was starting to want way too much, he broke off the kiss and moved his lips to the side of her head, to just above her ear, to her ear lobe that she’d kept hidden from him for so long. Her head tilted back, fingers digging deeper into his skin, her breath becoming more rapid, raising her chest against his at regular, quick intervals. Her eyes were closed, trusting him. Wanting him.

Ryan studied her face while he moved his fingers against it, touched her closed eyelids, her cheek, her lips. And he realized how blind he’d been. She wanted him. Possibly more than any girl he’d ever known, Katie wanted him honestly.


ElucidatePublishing.net
release date: November 27, 2009