Keith R. Baker's Blog

Book #3 of this series, (whose working title remains elusive and has changed a few times), is currently in its third re-write.  The first attempt at getting the story down failed seven chapters in. This was a result of trying to follow some well-intended advice to shift the voice (story-telling perspective) to the first person; in other words to write as though the character(s) were telling it.  Thus, 'He eased back his shoulder' would become 'I eased back my shoulder', etc. This just did not work out for me or Rob, (or any of the other characters for that matter).

So, I attempted to edit those first seven chapters of that draft to put it into the usual voice that I write from.  That turned out to be a disaster, as it took all the "freshness" away from the action and dialogue as they were first written.  After about three and one half chapters of re-writing, I couldn't take it anymore.  I scrapped that original manuscript and the re-write.  Label this one, Effort Number One.  

Between Effort Number One and Effort Number Two, the keyboard operator was downed with a case of serious bronchitis for two weeks.  I hate when that happens, but so long as I recover, I figure things could always have been worse.

The second attempt was to start over anew with a very similar plot and story line, and only a few new twists, etc.  My keyboard and its operator fiddled and faddled with that approach for over a month before it, too, was abandoned.  We no longer had enough connection with what was left of it to continue.  And, the keyboard needed a new perspective.  Label this one, Effort Number Two.  

The keyboard and its operator found a happy medium: Why not create an AudioBook of Longshot In Missouri  (Longshot book #1)? The idea seemed to resonate with us, so the keyboard and I set about learning how such a project would be accomplished.  Voîla!  We received a couple of high-quality auditions from several professional actors and selected the one whose performed most delighted the listener's ear.  His name is Aaron W. Miller and in addition to being an author and actor himself, he works as a theater director for a local high school.  The man is very talented–I love hearing the voices and accents he brings to his performance, as well as the dramatic emotion he imparts.  I'm hopeful you will also enjoy it.  As of this week, the first chapter of Longshot In Missouri is complete in AudioBook form.  We will continue to carry this project forward with a target completion date being the first part of June.  Meanwhile, working on this Audiobook project was just the break that Keith's keyboard and brain seemed to need.*whew*

So now the two of them, (keyboard and brain), are just musing right along as Longshot #3 write's itself without others getting in the way.  This is Effort Number Three and we are all, (Rob, keyboard, and Keith), determined that "the third time will be the charm!"  And because it has taken me longer than my writing plan for 2016 called for, I'll share just a couple of things for those of you faithful enough to subscribe.  Longshot #3 opens in a gold-mining camp; Rob becomes a grandfather; a circus is involved somehow along the way; Rob has another child (or is that two?); not everyone nor everything is as they seem; treasures are where you find them.  Let's go looking!

We're giving away free downloads of the Kindle version of Longshot Into The West (book #2 of the series) today, April 11 and tomorrow, April 12th.  But THAT is NOT ALL.  Five other authors are also having free Amazon Kindle Book downloads right along with me.  And you can find all of their books by clicking here.  Authors spend a great deal of time, energy, and money to give away books to readers–it is how we advertise!  So please! Download the free books we make available, read them, review them.  Encourage friends and family to do likewise.  We thank you for reading, reviewing and sharing our work!

For those who may be interested:

Part 2 of "An Irish Woman's Joy" is nearing release.  Ssubscriber's will be able to download this Kindle version book for free.  When it is completed, it is my plan to release the combined Parts 1 & 2 as a Novella or Novelette under the title: Bridget's Story. It will be a prequel to the Longshot series, though it can be read anytime along the reader's journey without loss of content.

Okay, okay.  I know that not every one is a fan of non-fiction, (other than cookbooks, of course).  But my first non-fiction book, The Beginner's Guide To Your First Handgun, has received enough interest that I am working on a follow-up to it titled: Why The Youth Model 20–Gauge Shotgun Should Be In Your Home.  If you have reasons why you believe it shouldn't, that's fine, but no need to argue about it.  Keep those to yourself and we'll continue to get along just great.

... and then there's the Science Fiction thingee ...  There!  I've done it!  It's out there!  No more secrets between us.  In those times of thinking about plots and characters and scenes and such, I sometimes retreat to my formerly secret, Science Fiction Novel.  Its working title is: EL - 4, but that's all I'm sayin'.  For now, at least.

Feel free to contact me via the Facebook page, or the website, or even my everyday email address at: ccconvert@yahoo.com .  In fact, I encourage it.

Thank you for reading,

~ Keith
 

Dear Reader (for dear you are),

My hope is that you all had a very happy and safe Christmas and New Year celebration that included family and friends.

Here we are in the second full week of 2016 already, so it seemed time to do a little updating.

First, allow me to share a few obligatory lines with you about the plight of authors the world over, specifically including my own.

Many claim that there is "no time like the present" to be an author, and this is true in many, many ways.  But because that is so, there has never been a time when so many authors and their books surged into being at the same time.  This condition creates many problems of its own, including survival of the author(s) who brings their work to the attention of the largest audience.

Thus, we write, (in addition to our books), all these other such things as blogs, FaceBook pages, newsletters and websites, all in the hope of growing our list of devoted readers.  In this regard, YOUR help is needed.  You see, I can only reach YOU.  I need YOU to reach others.  So do please Forward and Share and Retweet and talk with your reading friends and relatives - I need the business.

To that end, let me help you to help me.  I've written a short story, (some call them Chapter Books), which is an adjunct to the Longshot Series.  This first one is titled, An Irish Woman's Joy, and introduces Rob Finn and his wife Bridget in the beginning of their relationship more than ten years before the beginnings of Longshot In Missouri takes place.  Like I said, it is a short story, meant to be read in one sitting.  It is available FREE as a PDF or Mobi download in exchange for the simple act of signing up for the mailing list there.  My promise to you is that I will never sell your name nor will I bombard you with sales, etc.  I will send out occasional announcements and occasional FREE STUFF to those on that mailing list.  You don't need to BUY anything to get the FREE STUFF, you just need to make certain your name is on the list.  

Is there a catch?  Don't be silly.  Of course there's a catch.  The FREE STUFF, including this first short story, will normally ONLY be available to those of you who have shown the good judgement of subscribing there.  Since I'm already writing the second part to An Irish Woman's Joy, you might want to sign up right now, while you're thinking about it.  Here's the link: http://eepurl.com/bCTQiH. Please be sure to forward to your reading friends and family.

More good news!  Rob will definitely be heading West again and soon!  Unfinished business in the Montana Gold Fields and with Henry Plummer and his Indian friends demand it.  I sure hope you plan to be along for the adventure.  People so often turn out to be different than what we've been told ...

~ Keith
 

Last year on the night after Christmas, even though it had been an exceptionally busy day, I drove a car-load of family members around the streets of our town. For two and a half hours we drove up and down roads searching out the brightest, most illuminating lights on people’s houses and lawns. My eighty-six year old passenger in the back seat, wrapped in a blanket and clutching a mug of hot chocolate, smiled the whole time and asked me pull over and look at every light on every street. Two days later we took her into hospital and three weeks after that we lost her.

Doreen Clark was diagnosed with cancer when she was thirty years old. It was a form of cancer that took ninety-five percent of its victims. She beat it. In the following fifty-six years she lost a kidney, suffered heart failure, lost the ability to walk without a walker and overcame it all. She beat everything that was thrown at her. Some people are resilient, she was more than that. She was unbreakable. Read more...

Martin Crosbie

In a press release, Amazon called Martin Crosbie one of their success stories of 2012. His self-publishing journey has been chronicled in Publisher's Weekly, Forbes Online, and Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper. He’s the author of six books including the Kindle Scout winner “The Dead List – A John Drake Mystery”.

Martin was born in the Highlands of Scotland and currently makes his home just outside Vancouver, on the west coast of Canada.

Learn more about The 12 Blogs of Christmas.

There is certain magic I experience right at midnight on Christmas Eve. The entire world seems to pause and the air is different somehow. I relax completely, despite the recent whirlwind of activity over the past few days and the maelstrom which is to come Christmas morning and continue until New Year. My spine tingles with anticipation as the hour and minute hands join; I almost want to cheer, “It’s here, it’s here!” I look forward to it every year. I cannot recall ever going to bed earlier than midnight on that auspicious night— especially as a child, waiting up for sounds of bells and scraping hooves on the roof.

When my son and daughter were young, it was the same performance each Christmas Eve; I knew my cues perfectly and waited until I heard regular breathing through my daughter’s bedroom door. She was always last to fall asleep. Her father had been the first. I collect the presents hidden under my bed, in closets, above bookcases and wedged between storage containers. I tiptoe towards the tree with an armful of brightly papered boxes with colour-coordinated bows (and extra tape) . . . then freeze as the ball of my foot puts pressure on that part of the floor that squeaks. I imagine the cracking of wood sending shudders through the hall, and under the beds of my sleeping children, jarring them awake. Read more...

Cate Pederson

Cate Pedersen is a freelance writer, editor and social media manager. She recently published her first novel and is working on books two and three in the Sister Spirit Series. She is also a contributor in It’s Really 10 Months: Special Delivery, an anthology of birth stories (Special Xmas Sale NOW on Amazon) and an upcoming anthology: Adventures in Potty Training. Cate’s children are now almost grown, so Christmas is not quite as busy, but will always hold a magical place in her heart.

Website: www.copycate.ca

Facebook: Copycate Writing, Editing & Communications

Learn more about The 12 Blogs of Christmas.

Happy holidays to all and a huge thank you to Martin Crosbie for inviting me to be part of the 12 Blogs of Christmas. It’s quite an honor for me, a fledgling author, to be included in such accomplished company, and I’m thrilled to have this opportunity to share a tale of my Christmas past.

At an office holiday party a few years ago, I decided to forego the ubiquitous Santa hat and donned a fur-trimmed tiara instead. One of my co-workers dubbed me the “Queen of Christmas”, but I’m merely a pretender to the throne, a princess at best. The title was always owned by my mother who reigned over our family Christmas party like a benevolent dictator. She did all the decorating, the cooking, the cleaning—everything necessary for us to eat, drink and be merry. She provided the playground; we came to play. Read more...

Jordan Buchanan

Jordan Buchanan was born and spent most of her life in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Now residing in northern Michigan, she misses the Shenandoah Valley but living in the home state of the mighty Detroit Red Wings helps ease the pain.

4Play, her debut publication, is a collection of erotic romance short stories. She is currently working on two novels -- For Love or Money and Xander's Garden.

When she’s not reading, writing, or watching hockey, she enjoys time spent with her charming husband and their three Lab mixes.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/JordanBAuthor

Blog: www.eroticablues.blogspot.com

Learn more about The 12 Blogs of Christmas.

Before hate. In spite of war. A few years back I was fortunate to visit the Yucatan, now referred to as the Mayan Riviera. An anthropology buff, I was thrilled to tour the ruins of Tulum and Chichen Itza . It was Christmas and I was astonished by the degree of Maryolotry, the inspiration for this poem from my collection Three Blocks West of Wonderland.

It bears repeating, especially…Read more...

Heather Haley

Trailblazing poet, author and media artist Heather Haley pushes boundaries by creatively integrating disciplines, genres and media. Her writing appears in numerous journals and anthologies including the Antigonish Review, Geist and The Verse Map of Vancouver. Haley was an editor for the LA Weekly and publisher of the Edgewise Cafe, one of Canada’s first electronic literary magazines. She is the author of poetry collections Sideways, Three Blocks West of Wonderland, and debut novel, The Town Slut’s Daughter. Haley’s videopoems are official selections at dozens of international film festivals and she’s toured Canada, the U.S. and Europe in support of two critically acclaimed AURAL Heather CDs of spoken word song.

Find Heather’s blog, One Life at: www.heatherhaley.com

Twitter: @heatherhaley

Facebook: www.facebook.com/HeatherSusanHaley

Amazon: Amazon.com/author/heatherhaley

Learn more about The 12 Blogs of Christmas.

Emma Claus looked from the crackling log in the fireplace to the cheerful cards on the mantel and the string of twinkling lights she’d woven among them. But the yuletide trappings still left her cold. She’d tried everything to awaken her Christmas spirit: hitting the Black Friday sales online, reading letters from the children, baking tray after tray of cookies. Even the sappiest of holiday movies failed to lift her mood. Even the ones with Colin Firth.

Just to make sure she’d given Hollywood a fair shake, she clicked the remote to the Hallmark Channel, which was showing the same snowed-in romance brewing at the same over-decorated country inn. Emma merely clucked her tongue. “Fools,” she said. “Do those innkeepers ever sleep? All that work! Cooking and cleaning! Sweeping up pine needles, drizzling everything with tinsel just so, tending the fires in every room and dusting twice a day from all the ash…what kind of life is that?” Read more...

Laurie Boris

Laurie Boris is a freelance writer and copyeditor. At one time, she was a magician’s assistant, although she was very bad at it. She has been writing fiction for over twenty-five years and is the award-winning author of six novels including her latest, A Sudden Gust of Gravity. When not hanging out with the universe of imaginary people in her head, she enjoys baseball, reading, and avoiding housework.

Website: http://laurieboris.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/laurie.boris.author

Learn more about The 12 Blogs of Christmas.

I’m once again participating in the 12 Blogs of Christmas with eleven other writers, organized by Martin Crosbie. As part of the event, we are to write about—not surprisingly—Christmas. Many of the other eleven bloggers have written about fond or funny memories of Christmas. Last year, I wrote about my fraught relationship with Christmas—acknowledging the magic of Christmas but also the busy-ness, commercial aspects, and guilt associated with Christmas (we have so much, and so many people have so little). So I can’t do that again. Most of my stories about Christmas go something like… we got too much, ate too much, spent too much (even though we don’t spend that much), stressed about a turkey, and were really happy to be able to go skiing and eat leftovers on Boxing Day.

I exaggerate. I’m sure I’ve had some nice Christmases, but since I’m often up to my elbows in a turkey, and have not had any famous disasters, they are not the stuff of stories. Then again, my memory is famously poor—all that living half the time in another world. This year I’ll be sure to burn the turkey, so I have something to tell you about next year (Hmm, I’m getting a strong turkey vibe here. It might be time to start serving Christmas steak).

To me, Christmas is about gratitude and reflection on a year gone by. In an effort to dredge up some Christmas spirit (and not seem like cross between Eeyore and the Grinch—I promise I’m actually not—Christmas commercials make me cry), I decided to do a post on the 12 writing things I’m most grateful for this Christmas. That’s not to imply that there are not a lot of non-writing things I am grateful for (there are so many of those things), but this is a writing blog (and I think this sentence is a triple-negative) so…Read more...
 

Jennifer Ellis

Jennifer lives in the mountains of British Columbia where she can be found writing, hiking, skiing, borrowing dogs, and evading bears. She also works as a climate change researcher, evaluator and strategic planner. She has wanted to be a writer since she first read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and didn’t want to come out of the wardrobe.

Jennifer writes science fiction, romance and dystopian fiction for children and adults, including In the Shadows of the Mosquito Constellation and A Pair of Docks, which was a bestseller in children's time travel fiction. She has also contributed to several anthologies, most notably Synchronic: 13 Tales of Time Travel, which hit #16 in the Kindle Store.

You can subscribe to her blog for writing tips, industry insights, and two free short stories at www.jenniferellis.ca, and check out her writing on Amazon at: http://bit.ly/jenniferellis. She tweets about writing, cats, and teenagers at @jenniferlellis.

Learn more about The 12 Blogs of Christmas.

Bah, humbug!

There, I said it.
 
I know. It’s the Christmas season. Everything is warm and fuzzy like in greeting cards, sappy viral videos and TV movies. Only, it’s not all warm and fuzzy all the time, because greeting cards and video specials aren’t real life. Everyone feels like saying, “Bah, humbug,” at least once during the holiday season. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

It’s not that the season isn’t full of joy. It’s just that the season is also full of commitments — clashing office holiday parties, school parties, recitals, plays, church performances, family gatherings, and the list goes on and on. Sometimes you just want to shout, “Bah, humbug,” hop into bed, and huddle under the covers with a flashlight and your favorite book. (Those old enough to remember, may even want to hop into a tub, and shout, “Calgone, take me away.”*)

So, this is just a little post to remind you that you get to have a “Bah, humbug” moment or two this holiday season. Not everything will go the way you want it to. There’s someone you’ll want to see, who you can’t see. You’ll have family you don’t want to see, who you have to see. Read more...

RJ Crayton

RJ Crayton is a little young lady who writes fiction when she’s not parenting her two children or wifing her one husband. She writes about characters in peril, who sometimes find a moment for romance. Crayton is occasionally humorous, often right, and always curious. She loves the Christmas season and baking. Due to her severe cupcake addiction, Crayton tries to avoid baking cupcakes, except during the holidays. (As an aside, for the perfect mesh of holiday cheer and cupcakes, check out this recipe.) Crayton has published a three-book dystopian series (Life First), a book on self publishing and a short story collection about motherhood. She also is a contributor at Indies Unlimited, a site for independent publishers. In 2016, Crayton plans to release a novel about a deadly virus and a humorous book on motherhood. You can learn more about her at http://www.rjcrayton.com.

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My transportation for the Christmas of 1967 was Dad’s 1958 Mercury pickup. It was one of the first “full box” pickups, instead of the old “step sides,” and I thought it was pretty classy. Think of the picture above with a front bumper and a two-tone paint job: white above, teal below. I was home from university, and Dad was out of the bush because it was too cold to work, so I was pretty well free to drive it around. Loggers can’t work below about -30 because metal gets so brittle that equipment breaks. It’s rather hard on people, too.

Yes, the Christmas of 1967 was rather cold. I came home from visiting friends on Boxing Day, and the weather report said it was going to be -60F that night (That’s -51 for you Celsius types). I plugged in the block heater of the pickup and waited for that reassuring gurgle that told me it was working. 

No gurgle. Read more...

Gordon Long

Brought up in a logging camp with no electricity, Gordon Long learned his storytelling in the traditional way: at his father’s knee. He spends his time editing, publishing, travelling, sailboat racing and writing fantasy and social commentary, although sometimes the boundaries blur.

Gordon lives in Tsawwassen, British Columbia, with his wife, Linda, and their Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, Josh. When he isn’t publishing, he works on projects with the Surrey Seniors’ Planning Table.

He has published two books this Christmas:

“Mountains of Mischief” Book 3 in the World of Change series,

“Storm over Savournon” a novel of the French Revolution

Learn more about The 12 Blogs of Christmas.