It’s The Focus, Stupid!

The editor’s fingers drummed on top of her desk, her eyes steady, friendly enough, but not kind, “You have been claiming you’re going to get four books out this year—three of your novels and the next Land for Love and Money.”

I felt myself blink. “Yep!”

“Where are they?”

I launched into my mantra. “Well, the Sandy storm shut you folks down, and then I decided to rewrite the last third of Uncompahgre and, hell, this is only December…”

She brusquely cut me off, “Are you making improvements to your ranch this year?”

I felt my eyes widen. What the @**# does that have to do with this? “Yes—irrigation and field work on two fields on the spread…”

“Just two?” she interrupted me again with a wry smile.

“Yep. Try to do more and nothing will get installed.”

She nodded. “Exactly. So if that’s true for the cowboy and his ranches, what makes you think it’s less applicable to the author and his books?”

Of course, she was right.

“It’s the focus, Stupid.” That has been my grimaced message to myself in the mirror the past month.
There’s a host of things to attend to on the ranch side of my equation, compounded by the morons in Washington DC – and I include all of them, both parties, left or right. But that is yet another tale. And then there’s life, and the never ending promotion of the books.

When I finally do sit down to write, and those first several paragraphs setting the scene are on the page, it’s as if I’ve stepped through a portal. I am on the stage, it is 1855, and there is the smell of sage, gunpowder, perfume and the land. The characters smile, nod their heads as if they have missed me, and begin to again tell me the story. Then I can write like the wind – three to six thousand words a day, and sometimes more. The problems are two-fold. First, finding the time to sit down and do the first two transportive paragraphs. Second, now that the single cell in my thick cowboy skull has acknowledged that more focus on fewer books, and a set schedule taking into account the incredible myriad of mandatory steps will actually result in more “walk” and less “talk” in getting the highest quality books out and into your hands!

It wasn’t until we sat down during January and really mapped out the schedules to some of the smallest details (though even then not to the nth degree) that I realized how right they were. There are more than one hundred critical steps between story concept and the pages in a reader’s hands. The Cowboy had blissfully and woefully underestimated.

I’ve tipped my cowboy hat back and I’m scratching my forehead vigorously. “What the hell was I thinking?”

So in summary, apologies for getting Book 3 out later than I wanted or you anticipated, but taking a step back now means ten steps forward in the future. Adjusting the Uncompahgre release results in a schedule and structure critical to a realistic two Threads West books per year—still more than the typical big series schedule of a single novel per annum.

Yes, I write because I love to write. I pen because I have a story to tell.  I bond with the characters that live in the pages because they are me, and you, and real people we all know. I immerse myself in the tale because there are multiple messages on many levels that I want to send. But above all, I write because you like to read.  Thoughts, comments, or what have you are welcome!

Part 3 - Romance Writers Interview!

Reid:  So, all you folks, you thousands of listeners out there who are libertarian persuasion, I get emails from many of you all the time, you know, this is something to, kind of, investigate. I bet you did not know that the Amish, kind of, shun all government assistance and stand on their own two feet. I mean, you got to respect that. Isn’t that the basic values that built this country? Self-reliance, self-sufficiency, if you need a hand you look at the end of your arm. I mean, here it is right there for everybody to see in print, in the form of great story. Joy, in the paranormal

Joy: Yeah.

Reid:  I would imagine that you also have community groups. They may be blood suckers, werewolves, dragon makers, whatever but, I mean, it’s that same sense of good and evil, you know, honor and lack of honor, right from wrong. Tell us about it.

Joy:  Actually, mine go a little differently. Most of my main characters come from the homes that are not, they are either broken homes. They don’t have a father. Some things have happened that they come from a family that’s not a very strong family and, in the process, the romance they discover what family really means. So, I’ve got - for instance in Tawny’s Rose, she lost her father at age of 2 and in the process of finding out who her ghost is she finds a strong bond and a family that she can trust. And the same thing is in Quicksilver, this girl was raised by her father alone. And in Phantom Wolves, the main character has lost both their parents when she was in high school. So, all of these main characters come from, basically, a broken family situation and they discover how much that means to them.

Reid:  Well, you know, but that still comes down to this, kind of the same thing, right? I mean, many, many, many people into today’s society have some kind of dysfunction in their family.

Jennifer:  Right.

Reid:  No father, no mother.
 

Jennifer:  And it shows the possibilities. It shows the possibilities that even if you come from a home like that you can find, you know, a strong family bond.

Reid:  Exactly, and a strong family bond is a basic value of, you know, the old American culture, folks, as we knew it and as we would like to see it returned. So, I really like the fact that the four of you speak from families that exist and are strong, like in the Amish books. And families that are broken but, kind of reunite in various forms as Joy was just speaking about. And in the terms of Clancy, a family that, perhaps, is not the familial unit that we all know, you know, mother, father but it’s a family of workers; it’s a family of people with vested and shared interests.

Similar to many of the communities that most of us live in, in small towns throughout the West, these terrific ladies when we come back what I want to talk about is, how the universal energy of romance, you know, guys and girls, how that can bridge all sorts of gaps, can heal the division in this country. And, I want to talk about honor, loyalty, right, wrong, good, evil and faith because those are the pillars of American society which, shall we say, are under attack right now? I put it mildly. I am going to try and keep as much political stuff out of this show as possible because this is a show about good things, about healing things. 

This is Reid Rosenthal, On the Right Side Radio, broadcasting to you at a KGAB AM 650 on your dial Cheyenne, Wyoming and Intermountain Network of the Townsquare Radio Stations, and KFEZ Colorado springs will hunt the Walsenburg, Southern Denver and Northern New Mexico.  Now, that I’ve done my little ID, the engineer has been winking at me. We are going to come back to these girls because you guys don’t want to listen to me. You want to listen to them. 

Alright, here is the deal, folks and I’m going to start off with Lisa. Lisa, in your books, those basic values of American society, you know, those basic values we see that wine through the history of America and American Literature and American thought, do you work consciously to bring those out in your books? I mean is there a strong theme of good and bad, right and wrong?

Lisa:  There are themes of trust and loyalty. There is fabulous work ethic. One of my characters their heroine is not only not religious but she is, kind of, mad at God because of the trials and tribulations that she’s been through. While the other one has not only put his faith in God but is part of the problem with their relationship as he’s made a bargain that he will take care of her for the rest of his life and her life if God will only allow her to live after a horrible accident she was in, which is in the beginning of the book. So, many of …

[Crosstalk]

Reid:  And … go ahead, go ahead. Go ahead, Lisa. 

Lisa:  Many of the characters are very supportive of each other. It doesn’t matter what their personal relationships are because I am all inclusive, I believe everyone is entitled to having a relationship, love and affection whether they are gay, straight, you know, whatever their religious views are, anything like that. Everyone is entitled to love …

Reid:  Well, it’s a universal energy, right?

Lisa:  Yes, it is.