NEW RELEASE! Keeping Mhairi

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Stephannie Beman

Keeping Mhairi: Descendants of Edyn Series by Stephannie BemanDescendants of Edyn Series
Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Romance

Kairos didn’t come to the Sharli compound looking for a woman, he just wants to do his job and go home. Only he’s been duped by Synol, his family’s patriarch, and Mar’kos, who seem to think that he needs a woman in his life. Not bloody likely. The last woman to enter his life extracts a hefty price from him every year. But they’ve made sure he can’t refuse this woman by placing her life in his hands, either he keeps her or she dies.

The Sharli have one purpose to the people of Gatlantis: ensure their survival. Most Sharli enter the compound as babes and are trained in the arts of seduction. But Mhairi is like no other Sharli. She wasn’t given to the compound, but taken by force. She wasn’t bred into submissiveness, but taught to protect what is hers. She is a fighter by nature and her instincts tell her that Kairos’ lethal arms is where she belongs. There’s only one problem: Damia. Continue reading →

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Work-at-Home Obstacle #2: Working From Home is Distracting

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Stephannie Beman

After my post mentioning of some of the obstacles I run into working at home, I had someone (who does not wish for me to name them) ask me how I get any work done as a writer. Part one talks about family, kids, and pets, now I want to talk about distractions.

ArticlesThere is so much around us that distracts use from work, all the shiny new books and beautiful blogs we’d like to read, all the house work we’ve been neglecting, the lovely bed we’d like to visit, maybe even a show we want to watch on the TV or online. There’s also the people and pets in your home, the refrigerator, even the nice weather outside with the half-wilted flowerbed that still needs to be weeded. Yep, there’s a lot to distract us and because we work-at-home there’s also no one looking over our shoulders to keep us on track so we don’t slack off.

When you work at home you have to be more motivated and self-sufficient than when you are at the office. There’s more noises and interruptions such as email alarms, mail deliveries, and your neighbor yelling at her kids to come in for dinner. One of the hardest things about working at home is the distractions. And there are a lot of them. So how do I keep myself disciplined and on track?

Remove the distractions I can. Removing those distractions from your space will help. I can’t have my ereader or fiction books anywhere near where I’m working. The temptation to read is too strong. Some writer’s like to have two computers, one for writing and one for Internet and business related work. I don’t have the room in my house or the urge to spend the money, so instead I use the Cold Turkey app (which is free, although a donation to the creator is always nice if you like it) when I find myself slipping back into my unproductive state of Internet surfing. I can sent it up each night after work with a set time and it blocks me from the Internet for the specified time.

Scheduling “like” tasks. I thought multitasking meant I was getting more done, studies show this is a lie. It takes time for your brain to switch from one task to the other because most tasks occupy different parts of the brain, which means multitasking takes up more of your time then just working on one task and then moving to the next task. Grouping “like” tasks together or taking a break between tasks helps the brain focus more on what it needs to do.

Use your time wisely. Figure out when your optimal time to work is and schedule tasks that need more brain power at that time. Reserve lighter tasks for those times that aren’t optimal. For me, checking my emails in the morning, gets my brain working towards work which allows me time to write when I’m more awake. This can also be used toward tasks that take time away from your work, like meals. I make dinner in bulk and freeze part of it for another day when I’m busy. That way I can pull something out of the freezer and pop it in the oven for a quick meal.

To Do Lists and Calendars. I love to-do lists. It means I don’t forget what needs to be done and then have to rush to do it or be reminded to do it by an irate customer. I keep a notepad on my desk with a list of things that need to be done. If there is a time limit on something I write down the due date. I’m also a fan of Google calendars. It’s free and I can sync my appointments and tasks between my cell, laptop, and tablet. It will also notify me ahead of time or email me a list of the days tasks that need to be done.

Take small breaks, not vacations during the day. It’s proven that taking a break can boost productivity. It gives you a moment to regroup before you dive in again. During these breaks I stretch and get myself water, tea, or coffee. Then it’s back to work. You can also try setting up–and keeping to–a firm schedule, blocking out your work hours into 90-minute or 25-minute spurts with 5 to 10-minute breaks. Use a timer to keep yourself on track.

Work somewhere else. Some people find it productive to work somewhere other than home. A coffee shop, bookstore, library, etc. Personally I find it more distracting. Too many people to watch and things to do. I prefer an out of the way place in my house, although there are times I work on the couch while my daughter watches TV. It’s more distracting for me, but less so then her popping into the office every 5 seconds to tell me what is going on on the Tele.

Working from home can be a big distraction if you don’t respect your work time enough to remove the obstacles sitting in your way. Things will still crop up from time to time, distractions don’t magically disappear, but knowing how to handle them is half the challenge.

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Brains a little fuzzy as the hour gets later. Maybe one day, when I don’t have to get up early for kids (so in about 18 years), then I can be the night owl that I really am instead of the early bird I’m being forced to be.

Regardless I accomplished far more than I thought I would. Started to edits to For Love of an Oracle this morning. Already it’s proving to be more difficult than I planned. I need to work through so plot points before I continue with the story. There are also some plot points I’m debating taking out even though I really like them.

I like simplistic plot threads. To often when you stick too much into the mix, it becomes a jumbled, tangled mess that’s hard to work through. I’d rather add the layers after when I know where the story is heading or what needs to be added. For Love of an Oracle seems to be one of those stories where I added all the layers and now have to remove some of them to make a clearer book.

I also started working on The Stagecoach Bride with Ruth Ann Nordin tonight. The first chapter is in the heroine, Lillian’s point of view so Ruth has taken over the writing of her character for the moment, with my input of the hero’s actions and words. It’s working out nicely. We’re about 2,300 words into the story and I’m enjoying the flow.  However, the hero Mic might pose a problem for me.

During our planning sessions, I thought Mic was going to be the arrogant, overly protective, defender of the weak. Rather he’s becoming something else. Possibly something that the heroine Lillian might need in her life. Although at the moment I imagine she wants a gun to shoot Mic and his brother with, after all they’re kidnapping her, and Wade isn’t being a gentleman. He’s got a good reason to be angry, but getting into a cat fight with a girl, even if she started it, isn’t proper. :D

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Stephannie Beman | 1 Comment

Diversifying my Author Career

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Stephannie Beman

After reading the book Freelancer’s Survival Guide by Kristine Kathryn Rusch a few weeks back I’ve been thinking long and hard about my career as an author and what I want out of it. Then Dean Wesley Smith’s had 11 blog posts on ghostwriting anovel that hit home some writing myths I had standing in my way to accomplishing my goals.

My destination is now chosen, my new goals are in place, and I’m heading for my dreams. Part of this is diversifying my writing and genres.

The first stage is finishing the series of books co-written with a relative of mine, Jonathan Arvidson. They’re thrillers with a romantic touch, although I hesitate to call them Romantic Suspense because it doesn’t quite fit the bill. The first book is  Death’s Beach (working title) and is about a four people trapped on an Island with the killers are closing in. Les knows he has to protect his people until rescue arrives or they can escape.

I will also be co-authoring a series of books with a writer friend of mine that I’ve worked with before, Ruth Ann Nordin. They’ll be Historical Western Romances taking place in Wyoming during the Range Wars of the 1890′s. We’ll be starting the first book, The Stagecoach Bride (working title), Tuesday. We decided to split the work by her taking the heroine’s point of view and me the hero’s so that the voices will be distinct as the thoughts rambling around their heads.

Lastly is for me to get more books out onto the market for you who read faster than I write to read. I’ve never liked the one book a year when I have over 40 books in various stages of completion in my files. And no I’m not exaggerating. I’ve started and stopped so many books over the years because I’ve lost interest in them 20,000 to 40,000 words in. So I’m pulling them out, reading through, adding to them, and cutting out what doesn’t work. In other words I’m finally completing what I started while writing new stuff at the same time.

Besides the two books I’m co-authoring, I’ll be working on my next release due out in August for the rest of May and June. For Love of an Oracle is going to be from The Sha’Madr Universe. A break away series related to Descendants of Edyn takes place on an undeveloped planet where colonist from Edyn crashed. I was going to make it a Children of Khaos novel but it took me a while to realize it doesn’t fit into that Universe and would just cause me troubles later. :D

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The Story Behind Keeping Mhairi

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Stephannie Beman

I’ve always loved the story of Atlantis. The technologically advanced race. The beautiful sprawling city with red pillars that sunk into the sea. A city and a people that captured the attention of every archeologist whose ever gone looking for it and thought they’ve found it.

So I had to put it in a story.

Keeping Mhairi started with two questions, “Did anyone survive the sinking of Atlantis? And what happened to their descendants?”

When I wrote the rough draft Atlantis was on Earth and the survivors were dragged from the sea by a Tribe of wildmen. Later I moved Atlantis into space, to a world called Gatlantis. The major city being, you guessed it, Atlantis.

Because of the destruction on their home planet, some of the people fled into space and they survivors of Atlantis crashed on Earth. Their story survived.

Mhairi is a child of Gatlantis, a mutation in the genetic code, and slave to the Planetary Alliance, although the Council who rules the eleven planets refused to call her and those like her a slave. So starts the story.

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The World of Gatlantis

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Stephannie Beman

Once a thriving, peaceful world, Gatlantis was nearly destroyed by a series of volcanic eruptions, catastrophic tectonic activity, melting ice caps, severe weather shifts, and the eventual disappearance of valuable water sources. A single ship was launched into space from the main city of Atlantis, carrying the royal house of Gatlantis, and leaving millions behind to die.

The atmospheric changes forced the planet bound survivors to move into self-sustaining dome-like structures, but with limited space and resources chaos ensued. The military stepped in, taking over the inadequate governing body. Laws were imposed to maintain the order and security of the people. Vital health services were provided by military doctors. Crime was not tolerated and justice was severe and swift, a death sentence for the worst offenders.

DescendantsofEdynHeader

Common birth control procedures were set in place to regulate the population’s growth. Death of one meant the birth of another. Those found to be genetically flawed were sterilized to protect the Gatlantaen genetic code.

Even with everything they tried, every year brought them closer to death. Other domes descended into chaos and failed, until only a few survived.

Into this new world, emerged a mutation in the genetic code. Previously dormant cells injected into their systems by the scientists of Edyn allowed the children of Gatlantis to adapt to their new way of life. The Sharli were born and thrived.

The arrival of aliens from space changed their world forever. The Council accepted the dying world of Gatlantis as a sub-member of the Planetary Alliance and saved them from near extinction. But the payment for their services was far higher than they realized.

 

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Work-at-Home Obstacle #1: Family, Pets and Friends

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Stephannie Beman

After my last post’s mention of some of the obstacles I run into working at home, I had someone (who does not wish for me to name them) ask me how I get any work done at home as a writer. This is a four-part series and I thought I would start with one of the biggest obstacle that writers run into: children, family, pets, and friends who demand or disturb you while you are working.

ArticlesThere is nothing more annoying than talking to a client or taking a business call and have a child or spouse interrupt you, or have the cat jump on the keyboard and send an email before your done, or be in the moment, typing out that story for all your worth and have a child demand you help them with something. Or the biggest one at my house, my hubby wanting me to see something on the Tele or help him with something, not because he needs the help, just because he wants to company.

There is nothing as potentially harmful to your productivity then having your sweet child crawl into your lap for love, having to deal with a sick animal, or friends calling wanting your to hang out and go to lunch. So how do I work around this obstacle?

I’m honest with my family and friends. Explain to them that this is your job. Talk to your family and friends about what you do. Don’t get discouraged if they don’t understand, most people who aren’t writers don’t. Tell them that this is how you make, or will be making, your money for your future. Even if it’s just a supplemental income right now, this is your business and should be treated as such.

Schedule my time. I’m not one for schedules but I’m learning to schedule time to get my ranch chores done, meals prepared, and house clean. I schedule in time to be with my darling kids and lovely spouse. I schedule my writing hours. I schedule my book design hours. I schedule time to read emails (early morning before the eldest heads to school) and time to answer them (before I end work for the day). I schedule time to hang out with friends.

Take breaks. If you are one that has whole blocks of time to write, breaks are good for you. Breaks aren’t killers of productivity, that’s a myth. Breaks actually help you out. They give you a moment to regroup before you dive in again. During these breaks I stretch and get myself water, tea, or coffee. Then it’s back to work.

Use a timer. When my kids come in wanting something, I start the timer. I tell them I’ll help them in 30 minutes, hand them the timer so they can see the time counting down to zero, wrap up what I’m doing, and then help them.

Spend time with the ones you love. When spouses or children feel neglected they act out, seeking your attention. When you schedule time to be with them and watch a movie, take them out for a walk or to the park, or just sit with them, they’re less like to feel the neglect. This doesn’t mean you can’t still be working. Watching a movie can be a boost to your creativity. Taking a book outside to read while the kids play at the park can be a book for fun (which helps the creative mind) or a business related book (which can energize you).

Let your kids imitate you. I have two of those TV dinner tables, not sure why since meals are not eaten in the living room, but I have them and didn’t know what to do with them for the last few years they were collecting dust. Now they are collapsible desks for my girls to work on. Since my office is only 3 by 7 it’s a tight fit, but it allows them to spend time with mom while she works and while they pretend to work. :D

Taking phone calls. If I know that I’m on going to be on the phone for a business call, I warn them not to disturb me for a set amount of time. I might put on a movie for them ahead of time. Then I make my call. If I receive a call, I shut the door and use the timer to pacify my kids until I’m done. I might even give them a treat for being good about not bothering me. Yes, I’m not above bribing my little ones. :D

Treat it like a job and set Office Hours. This is more important than you think. If you treat your work like a job others will eventually do the same. It’s part of our programing. Office hours let people know that these are the times that you are working and that there is an end to your day.

Working from home may need to be a team effort for it to work. And it might take some time.

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Keeping Mhairi is back from my beta reader and I’ll be going through the comments starting Tuesday. It’s my number one priority and everything else will be put aside until it’s done. Since it’s ahead of schedule and looks to be out in the next week or so. I’ll announce it as it comes closer.

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Posted on May 13, 2013 by Stephannie Beman | Leave a comment

All the Muckity-Mook, or What’s going on

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Stephannie Beman

Wow! This weeks been busy, although less so than last week. I’ve adopted an orphaned calf, a first for me in the 8 years I’ve been a ranch hand here at the 2/2 Ranch (hubby’s name for the ranch). We tried to put it on another cow, however, that backfired in the worst possible way, so now I’m bottle feeding the half-starved calf three times a day. She’s starting to fatten up nicely. The kids have named her Princess Cindy (Cinderella) Maria. :D

Keeping Mhairi: Descendants of Edyn Series by Stephannie BemanEditing Keeping Mhairi

I finished my edits of Keeping Mhairi earlier than planned and sent the manuscript off to my beta readers so they could tell me what they love and hate with the book, about typos or tenses I might have missed, unfinished plot threads, or anything I didn’t catch in the editing process. I should have it back from everyone by May 17th and then I’ll work through the corrections and formatting before I upload it to stores. I’m hoping for a June 1st release date. This means everything gets pushed back a month.

Coming Soon! Death's Lover (novel)Writing Death’s Lover

I’ve been working on this on and off for the last few weeks while editing Keeping Mhairi. Now that Keeping Mhairi is off my plate I’ll be focusing on it more. This is a project that I would like to have out by February 2014. There’s been a few requests for it. :D

Editing For Love of an Oracle

This is the next story up for publishing in November or December this year, so I’m reading through the manuscript now to see where the holes are that need filling and what needs deleting. So far it’s a mess and I’m not really certain if I want to make it a Children of Khaos novel or a Descendants of Edyn novel. It would work for either. It’s probably something I’ll have to decide on when I reach the end and before I start editing and writing in the new scenes. This is the bad part about having a manuscript written before I know where it’s suppose to go.

Collaboration Project ~ Suspense Novel with Romantic subplot

I agreed to a collaboration project with a family member and while the manuscript is written, it’s time for the editing process, and now I’m really going to have to work on it. The title of this story is still in the works, since the original name of the manuscript is unusable. I’ve been hashing a few in my head, but haven’t hit the one that speaks to me. So it might be a while before I find it. Might have a poll on this website where commentators can win a free ebook copy of the book.

This book is also a departure from my normal romance, although there is a romantic subplot in the story. It’s also made me realize that I’ve started to pigeonhole myself into the romance genre and this isn’t good for me.

Reading ~ Finding Author Success & Cross Marketing Magic for Authors by Deborah Riley-Magnus

I’ve really enjoyed reading Deborah’s informative blog for authors over the years and I finally broke down a purchased both her books. I’m mentioning these two books for two reasons: 1: because I recommend them to any author looking to promote or market their work, and 2: because they opened my eyes to a problem that’s been plaguing me of late.

You see I hate being restricted to anything. If I want to do something I don’t like to be told I can’t or shouldn’t. In my case, I started writing romance because I love the genre and I had plans to write more romances. However, this has caused some problems because there is the occasion that something I want to write isn’t related to the romance genre and my options were to pick up a pen name (don’t have the time to market or promote another name as I’ve learned over the years), write it all under one name and confuse readers (at least this is what I’ve been told by most of the writing gurus), or not write it and have it plague me for the next few years.

Deborah gave me another way to look at it that is going to change some things around here over the next few weeks. Rather than brand myself as a romance writer (my mistake), I should be branding myself as an author. This way my brand will support any kind of book I write. (Read the article at http://rileymagnus.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/author-success-a-well-business-planned-future-part-4/ for more in-depth explanation.)

Hope you have a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend! I know I’ll be busy. :D

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Life as a Rancher, Doctor Who, and Creating Stories

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Stephannie Beman

Ever have that moment when your so busy and tired you can’t really function or think straight? I feel like my head is wrapped in fuzzy cotton and the bed is beckoning for me to lie down and sleep for a week. Why am I not there? Because the kids are still awake and it’ll be an hour before bed time. I also had an email to send a book design client for work already finished.

I was hoping to have the invoice sent out this morning, however, it’s Saturday and my other job awaits. While I enjoy my jobs as an author and book designer, my weekend job entails working at the 2/2 Ranch and with the coming of warmer days it means lots of work. This weekend in about a week worth of work and three days to accomplish it.

Somehow needing to get things doesn’t translate to kids. They were excited beyond belief and like I haven’t seen them since the orphan calf came to be their pet last week. Children are so fickle. :D

Today was a rush to get to the back fence and fix it before the water levels of the rivers and streams running through the other place rose too high to manage. If the river gets too high, the fence can’t be fixed and the cows moved to their summer pasture. Yeah, not something we like to have happen.

(Which makes me think of a historical romance. Humm…Might need to branch out into the western romances. Today’s provided a few events that could make interesting plot threads when tweaked.)

I never did understand why kids see work as as fun, like a day at the water park instead of miniature day laborers. I can understand why a picnic in the forest would be cool. Or how my pyromaniac family could enjoy an afternoon starting fires.

Yeah, not as bad as it sounds, although I was waiting for the fire department to show up due to the amount of smoke. Our efforts weren’t to burn down anything, and I promised that we didn’t. (grin) The burning was controlled and we do it every year.  It has to do with better water flow through ditches after the very long grass has been burned out. I spent most of the time waiting for one of the little ones to burn themselves. Never happened to my maternal relief. They remained perfectly safe and happy.

So now I’m a little more awake then when I started this post and I’m watching a DVR recording of Doctor Who. Not sure why but Doctor Who has always fascinated me, kind of like Star Trek (plus off shoot series) and Firefly. Something about the characters and conflicts makes it hard for me to miss, and considering I’m not much for watching TV that’s saying something.

Right now I’m wishing that I could travel with the Doctor. I mean how cool would that be to travel the Universe and explore different times with a crazy man with a blue box? Although, that would never really happen as I’m not much a runner and all the running would make me a little cross. Then there is the fact that I’m very aggressive when cross, so I’d probably be more like River Song and just carry a weapon to hurt people who piss me off. Not a very Doctor’s Companion attitude. And lastly, I’m a writer and would probably spend more time writing down everything until the Doctor finally tired of it and traded me out for another Companion. (sad face)

Other than my soothing my crushed ego at not being the next Doctor’s Companion, I’m doing something I rarely do and watch the Doctor run around, and getting a handful of ideas for stories for when I have the time to write them, which will probably be in about 30 years. (grin)

Doctor Who is definitely good for recharging my creative mind, although I’m really too tired to write more than this post and a few ideas on a scrap of paper that I fear will not make sense upon the morrow, or in may case Tuesday morning when the craziness of the weekend ends. :D

Now I better head to bed and get some sleep before I have to dig sediment out of a ditch, burn a few more ditches, and possibly fix more fences. Ick! Sometimes being a rancher is a pain, although I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

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