new years

 Many of you met the new year before I did. I actually won't at midnight here in Arizona because I never stay up. Although if neighbors put off fireworks, I might hear that. I hope 2025 is a good one for the world. 

Edkhart Tolle is my new calendar for the coming year. Always good thoughts to consider.

Holiday Season

 Christmas is past for another year as it's one day. Hanukkah lasts eight, and it also began the 25th this year. It celebrates a military victory and the lasting of oil, when it should not have. 

Christmas, celebrating Jesus' birth in a manger, was chosen to be at the same time as other religious events and perhaps close to the Solstice. Jesus was unlikely to have been born at this time, given the shepherds with the sheep more likely in the spring. It's about what it means though more than just the physical aspects to it. 

Christmas is also a season and it lasts into January based on other spiritual beliefs for Christians. 

This is a difficult season for many people, if they celebrate it. Major gatherings both in churches and homes can be uplifting, but as times change, sometimes they do also. 

Our holiday season has been very quiet as, here in the desert, we live quite a ways from family. The important part for us, as elders, now is that they are doing well and are happy, as much as happiness can be found in today's topsy-turvy world. And that term well suits this time in history where some places seem fine and others very confused. We do the best we can with it.

Hope your holiday is special
however and wherever
you chose to celebrate it.

Christmas is a time of families
and friends coming together,
of imagination,
of magic,
of mysticism.

For my magical part, (you know, we can be

anywhere we want in our minds)
I will be in a plain mountain cabin,
horses and cows well fed down by the barn. 

 

Snow is falling, candles are lit 

and a fire is in the fireplace, 

good smells coming from the kitchen,

 dogs and cats lying by the fire. 

I am not alone there. 

Always, love is nearby.

 

No, I am not living there, but I am satisfied where I am with my husband and our three cats. No dog currently as it would be hard to maintain where we live and actually, we are better cat parents than dog parents-- at least for now in our old age. 

 

We took the photo December 24, 2024. Nice to take such photos to record us at different times of our lives. Hard for me to believe my next blog will be in 2025. Where does time go? It especially seems to speed by in old age.

 

An Audio Book?

 

For the blog, in the midst of the Holiday season, I hadn't planned to write about one of my books that had Christmas at its heart. But, then Ranch Boss, who does the marketing, had gotten information on having books also available in audio.

The reason I'd never done it was the cost and the fact the books, especially my smaller ones (novellas) hadn't sold that well. How would I pay for someone to narrate the stories? Why would they want to do it without a proven market for a possible share, which might be of nothing (and there is a lot of work involved for narration).

But Amazon approached us with another way to get an audio book that didn't require money up front, but did take a percentage of the book for Amazon. Since Ranch Boss liked the idea, I left it up to him.

On the creator end, it requires checking the book for where different speeds might be required; then listening to a selection of possible voices, all computer generated. Ranch Boss let me listen to some of them and the one, he had liked best, seemed like it fit the narration. 

He said that this is not AI but rather just computer generated. I do understand the difference that the story is mine, not artificially created.

As it turns out, I don't know a lot about the technical end of this, but the woman's voice sounded good. We were to listen to the reading and make sure it fit the story. There was, as was promised, no upfront cost, but a lot of work, which Ranch Boss did, since I've been editing another series. That one we aren't sure if it'd work as well for audio since it's much longer. One at a time is the best process anyway.

The way this works with Amazon is we establish the price, which if the customer has credits can be very little. It also is very little if the reader had earlier purchased the book, where Amazon will have the record, and the price then is $1.99. 

It's an interesting dilemma as a writer whether this is a good idea or not so much. I do like this story. It follows after a full-length novel, From Here to There, and is set on the same ranch where most of the earlier story takes place. The second one is about a family needing healing and ranch life around the holidays, plus the now married couple from the earlier romance.

I guess, I am being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century... Is that a good thing? 

If you had bought the Kindle, check out this link: A Montana Christmas, where you will find the novella and option for the audio book. There is a sample of the audio to listen if you are curious what computer generated sounds like. Since this is brand new to us, go to the link and Amazon will tell you what price any of it will be for this week since we are putting the Kindles on sale.

The book leading up to the story is at: From Here to There. It's both a romance and about what the American West is all about for those who may not already know. While the story takes place mostly in the modern West, it also is about what that has meant in this country, with much of it impacting values today-- some good and some maybe not so much. 

Both books are on sale at 99¢ from the 21st 'til the 30th.

This is a nice coincidence that today is the Solstice. The celebration for that happens to be in the novella/audio book. For those who don't know of such for the Solstice, it involves a fire to bring back the light. We are on our way from this day forward.

image from Stencil

Zen thinking

 This was not a good week for us as I got sick with some kind of stomach upset, which has improved, but not enough for me to write about my original idea for Saturday's blog. 

I decided instead to pull up some blogs from nearly 20 years ago and things I believed then, which I still do. Makes it handy to repeat it here for something fresh. Not sure how many of you read my blogs back then; but if so, even I'd forgotten these two. 

The key though is I still see things this way-- even as I no longer am that woman. Well I am mentally and emotionally but physically, not so much; but then, should I be? Life is about change, some decades more than others.This clearly looked like a good time for thinking about life. 

I still like all the quotes from earlier-- well except the one by Marsha Norman. If she was right, my soul is more confused than when I am awake lol. I like to dream though, one of the fun things for me about night-- although one of those recently was full of weird events. No nightmares but just what the heck was that about?

Friday, August 05, 2005

Zen Photographs

Photographs often are just recordings of events, places, but once in awhile one is what I call a Zen photograph-- they capture an idea, a feeling that is bigger than the individual elements within the photo. They are not greater art per se but carry a message which came not through careful planning but just a going with the flow or a lucky accident. They come out of a moment where the Universe flows through the camera to tell a story bigger than its parts.

This is such a photo. The woman has waded into the ocean, not way out, not swimming but she's in the sea of life. Her arms are opening to whatever she might want to hold. She is not afraid of the tides nor the huge sea behind her. She looks ahead toward life and what she can take into herself.

A Zen photo is a gift. This one shows what I wish my life to be.

August 2, 2005,

Favorite Quotes

Let my love like sunlight surround you and yet give you illumined freedom. Tagore

If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it is yours. If it doesn't, it never was.

Dreams are necessary to life. Anais Nin

I do not unmarry...... But I marry myself. I take my fate as within. Sena Jeter Naslund

Where we choose to be-- we have that power to determine our lives. We cannot reel time backward, but we can take ourselves to the place that defines our being. Sena Jeter Naslund

Dreams are ... illustrations from the book your soul is writing about you. Marsha Norman

The thing you have to be prepared for is that other people don't always dream your dream.  Linda Ronstadt

If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time.   Marcel Proust

The Talmud says, If I am not for myself, who will be? If I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?

What do they look like?

This blog will be carrying on the last topic about heroes. There, I discussed qualities of heroic men and woman. The code they live by is important in the book. Then, it comes down to what they look like where it comes to sales. Even if you use symbols or scenery, how will those impact the cover. Part of marketing is finding what will be seen. For some authors, covers happen before the book is written, for others, it's when it's finished.

When I began bringing out my romances as an independent author, I had to deal with exactly that since I wanted to make my own cover images for paperbacks and eBooks. I had described these characters in the stories, but hadn't tried to see them. as movie stars or people I knew.

To begin, I thought I could paint the cover images. After all, I was a sculptor and painter. Although I had also earlier written some historical romances, the ones I first put out were contemporary stories. It took time not only to figure out their faces but also their bodies. Sometimes, I wanted settings that fit the stories. Mostly, I did them in digital painting, something I'd been doing for a while. What could go wrong?

 

Turned out, apparently, a lot was wrong for readers. I was at that time in Amazon forum groups and learning more what not to do, than to do. The readers I talked to said they thought these covers looked too amateurish. I figured, since I was new to the game, that they probably knew better. 

 

To fit, what I was being told, was the beginning of my journey into the world of models for stories-- all kinds of characters but especially the main protagonists. It felt strange to be looking at faces and bodies while thinking-- nope not suitable enough or wow, that's the one!  I was rejecting people I would never know. It felt like a beauty contest. To begin, I didn't like it much, but I grew into accepting it.

Some of my characters had problems built into them. I had one heroine where she was no great beauty in the book, didn't care to be, and the images i found did not win favor when I used them. One of my heroes saw himself as ugly and had a very rugged look that the heroine saw as handsome to her. Now, I happen to know that to be true. People who might seem unattractive, based on features, sometimes have something that goes beyond that. Maybe it's charisma, but whatever it is, those kind of model images didn't exist unless they headed into villain territory.

 

Over time, I put together backgrounds with the closest models that worked for me-- kind of. I got better at the search as I went along... kind of.

 

 

How does one find that when what matters most for the readers will be some escapism? Sometimes they were okay with say a plump heroine but even then she had to be pretty. Ugly or plain wasn't good enough. While it works for life, not always for romances.

 

I recently read that Generation X (I think that's the right one), didn't like When Harry Met Sally because the hero wasn't good looking enough to attract the heroine who was more beautiful as a woman. As a much older woman, I have to wonder on that one if they had good eyesight. He was very attractive; but frankly looks aren't the bigger issue for many successful, romantic relationships. 

 

She's too pretty. He's too handsome. Come on, a lot of qualities matter far more in lasting marriages, but then that's not escapism, is it!

 

So,what I came to believe, is that for covers to attract readers, the models had to be ideal as a male or female type or forget the cover working. Interesting conundrum between the text and the images. Meanwhile, keep in mind why the readers need for what they are looking.  

 

When I began, the most difficult to find were blond males, who looked tough even to me. It's not like you can use a real movie star. I think there are more blond men now when I go to the sites, but I eventually found what I needed-- if not wanted.

 

When you write your book, you might create the cover first. It might even help you develop depth with the protagonists. I know those who do it that way as inspiration. 

 

Oh, add to that, getting the right fonts can be as important as the characters. Readers are quick to find something that makes them not bother to even try the book sample.  It has been claimed that potential readers only look for 2 - 4 seconds and go on-- hmmm.

 

Of course, many writers pay someone to do their covers and there are good sources for that. I personally wanted to do mine and still do, even if it loses some readers. To me, the art involved in a cover is part of the whole creative process. It expands the complexity of getting into it all. 

 

The images here are some of my original covers, all for my contemporary novels, which for a long time, have only adorned my computer. You know rules and marketing ideas have changed with time. I am reconsidering if maybe, for my contemporaries, which by the way aren't selling well anyway, these may reappear. For now, the current covers use models, you can find those with a search for Rain Trueax books, from contemporaries, to historicals, to paranormal/fantasies. If I make a change, with my editor's agreement, it will only be to the contemporaries. The others have sold pretty well.. for me. 

 

What got me was when I looked at the current cover for From Here to There, I expected to find a cover I didn't like as much. I liked this one better than what I had created and was considering changing-- which I didn't share above. 

 

This is a bit of a complicated story, with two love stories, one today and one in the past, the bigger one a love of the West. but still, now what to do? Maybe nothing, but this is the nature of writing and then publishing-- when it's all your choice. This one uses a model with a background photograph we took on one of our trips through the mountain west.

 

As a writer, what I like about using covers that I painted is they are not someone else's. They are the imaginary people I created. I like that. I do not want them to be a movie star or model. I want them to be these characters, the ones my imagination brought to reality, the issues they are facing. This one though does not tell you what she looks like, just her life.

 

Here's the big key to writing, in my opinion. Be flexible and aware of what works for your own imagination and muse. Trying to follow someone else is not being creative. It might sell, but it's not the joy of being a writer, not for me at least.