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.

Descendants of Edyn Series

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.

Read the first three chapters of “Keeping Mhairi” by Stephannie Beman on Keeping Mhairi‘s book page or get it on sell for $2.99 through the month of May 2013 at Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, Amazon UK, and in other e-bookstores.

Keeping Mhairi

Stephannie Beman

The west door opened and Mar’kos strode into the room followed by a Sharli woman in a ruby robe. She glided into the room, graceful as a long legged Lidra, and closed the door behind her. She stilled, her glazed gaze roaming the faces around her.

She appeared no different than countless other Sharli Kairos had seen over the years: young, serene, lacking in scent and expression, and devoid of color. The younger they were the more they reminded him of walking corpses, and not the parasitic, blood sucking kind.

“Gentlemen, anyone for a refill?” Mar’kos asked, breaking the spell the Sharli had cast over them.

Kairos jerked his glance to Mar’kos although he never let the woman out of his line of view. She folded her hands inside her sleeves, bowed her head slightly, and kept her eyes downcast in a way that screamed submissiveness, and yet Kairos had the impression that she was aware of everyone in the room and wouldn’t hesitate to leap into action at the slightest provocation.

Had Mar’kos brought a warrior trained Sharli into their midst? And if so, why?

Zekdor raised his full glass. “I’m good.”

Aldro lifted his nearly empty crystal wine glass. “I’d like another.”

Jahn licked his lips, his eyes swinging toward the Sharli beside the door, roaming over her body. “How about a taste from her while we wait?”

Kairos grimaced. How anyone could drink the concoction of red wine and the beneficial blood of a certain species was puzzling and gross. That Jahn would even suggest that they bleed the woman for that blood sickened and angered him.

A minute movement to his left snapped Kairos’ attention to the woman and put him on high alert. While her posture hadn’t changed, her entire stance spoke of lethal grace and the glint in her eyes of possible violence. Kairos had the feeling if anyone even tried to drink her blood she’d harm them, maybe even kill them.

Aggression in a Sharli? Unheard of, and odd. He kind of liked it. Meant she wasn’t as cold and serene as she appeared. There was passion in her. He was curious to know what other emotions she would display today.

“Sorry, gentlemen,” Mar’kos said. “She’s meant for another and I don’t think he’d be pleased to share what is his.”

Despite the friendly smile on his face, Mar’kos’ eyes were cold and a hint of annoyance had entered his voice. In all the years Kairos had known him, he’d never showed an emotion he didn’t want to. He was too skilled at deception to make such small mistakes. Something was amiss.

“Keeping Mhairi” copyright @ 2013 by Stephannie Beman
Published by Ruis Publishing

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.

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.

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.

There 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.

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.

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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Editing 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

As for my goals this week, I’ve both succeeded and failed them. As a refresher they were to: 1) Edit 5 Pages of Keeping Mhairi everyday, 2) Write 500 word of Death’s Lover a day, and 3) set up the zip files for one of my books. I never got around to 3.  I probably wrote 500 words on Death’s Lover the whole week. And I averaged 5 pages of editing on Keeping Mhairi a day.

Unlike previous times when I’ve made my goals and had that feeling of failure when I didn’t meet them at least half way, I’m actually shocked that I accomplished as much as I did. Now if this had been a normal week I’d be mad at myself for not meeting my goals.

However, when I made the goals for the week I didn’t plan on having to put a cow down. I didn’t plan on having a 9 day old, half-starved calf on my hands. I didn’t plan on having to fight a cow that outweighs me by at least a 1,000 pounds so that the calf could nurse. Or having to check on the cow’s hay supply, refill her water bucket, and giving her grain so she’ll produce enough milk for two calves. I didn’t plan on having to supplement the calf with milk from a neighbors cow until the new mom, who wants nothing to do with the calf at this time, comes into more milk. Hope the cute little shit survives.

My Goals for May Week #2

1) Edit 5 pages of Keeping Mhairi a day

I decided to keep this goal this next week and push myself hard to get more done. I don’t want to have to push the release date back any more than I already have. Right now I’m a month behind schedule.

2) Write 200 words of Death’s Lover a day.

I’m lowering my word count because this book isn’t my priority, just one that I want to work on to get ahead. The other books are further along but some of them are still in percolation mode and not ready for me to work on them yet. Death’s Lover is easier because I know were the book is going and what I need to write to get it done.

So there’s my goals for this week. I’ll let you know next week how they went next week. What goals do you have this week?

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