Now that my fifth book of the Other Worldly series, Alien Sensation, will launch this month, my mind travels back to all of the input, advice, criticisms and general commentary I’ve consumed and attempted to digest in the past four years regarding writing and the publishing process.
The whole gamut can be a daunting prospect, especially when the creative flow is interrupted repeatedly by a horrifically chaotic world, or by the constant needs of a sweet dog and a devious cat. My beloved critters star as themselves in my novels, and there’s a reason for that. Comic relief.
Funny thing is, I had no idea I was writing any modicum of comedy when I first drafted Alienable Rights. Someone in the profession had to tell me it was comedic. That was part of the uplifting input I received.
If the past five years since I began drafting that first novel around the autumn equinox in 2017 have taught me anything, it’s the need for more humor in life, and in my writing. Because crafting a tale with sociopolitical issues at the forefront can be agitating. But it can also be cathartic.
Writing is the way I deal with the world around me, and I try my best to make it palatable on the page. And while some insist that they just want to be entertained and want nothing thought-provoking in their chosen reads, the reality is the greatest stories ever told, from short stories to novels to screenplays, have a message instilled. A pointed, sometimes poignant, but always prevalent “moral of the story,” if you will.
My aim is to continue to write novels with a relevant point, and to do it with humor while sidestepping the will of those who are humorless (or otherwise want to bury their heads in the sand).
What I personally don’t find funny is folks giving writing advice who seem to have no idea what they’re talking about. It’s why I’m hesitant to comment on numerous Twitter posts from writers and wannabe authors requesting or giving feedback about anything and everything to do with writing.
First, I posit that social media sites might not be the best place to seek guidance for a craft that has myriad aspects and genres. Second, not everyone who claims to be a writer, or an expert, is one. Especially these days, when anyone can publish a book on Amazon whether they have writing skills or not. And even if they are a published author, it doesn’t mean they respect the craft enough to learn more in order to evolve as an author.
It can be angst-inducing and not at all funny to write a series and constantly wish you’d done better with that first novel. And the second and beyond. For me, I’ve simply kept writing and worked diligently to hone my skills as each book takes me further into a story that has gone places that I’d never dreamed it would. Into outer space and high-octane action scenes, yes, but also into steamy romance, albeit alternative. Not to mention into the DC area, land of my youth. Yikes.
To begin with, I was told by literary agents and others not to write a series. I heeded that advice about as well as I did those who told me not to put anything controversial in my novels. What would be the fun in that? Good has to triumph over evil somewhere, especially when it doesn’t seem to be happening in reality.
What’s sometimes fun and oftentimes challenging is to have my protagonist, Rowan Layne, evolve as a post-middle-aged-menopausal woman as I, too, have evolved while writing about her exploits in a world where aliens are among us and misogynist bigots—far too many of which are gun fetishists—are going batshit crazy over it.
Throw in the reality that everyone on Earth has otherworldly DNA and it’s a wonder I was able to make this funny at all. Because I’ve strived to be—gasp—original in drafting a tale about aliens set in present day. It’s no laughing matter to be constantly hit with decidedly uninformed comparisons to A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, or those who just can’t keep themselves from trying to force my book into their unoriginal idea of science fiction, fantasy, or worse, trying to shove their religious beliefs into my novels.
Yes, I tackle that prickly subject too. Although the gun-worshipping Armed Evangelicals in my Other Worldly series are anything but funny. Instead, they’re selfish, dangerous buffoons utterly bereft of a clue—or self-awareness. Just like they are in real life.
Kind of like some of those self-absorbed folks who’ve tried to tell me how to write, or people who try to force their fascist idea of patriotism on me as I’ve made my way to my fifth novel.
Hence, here’s to the good advice, the funny wit overcoming the witless, and a great editor, Ali Shaw of Indigo Editing, https://indigoediting.com. Without her, I wouldn’t have made it this far. And I’m still kicking myself that I didn’t enlist her stellar skills for the first novel. But one must live and learn, and hopefully chuckle, giggle, and belly laugh along the way.
It’s a great wonder, and a joy for me, that I continue to laugh out loud when I read certain scenes from Alien Sensation, coming soon around the summer solstice. It helps when you have snark communicated by precocious alien preschoolers who aren’t impressed with certain blowhard, illiterate, racist right-wing members of Congress.
Some of the wild and raucous rides in this latest Other Worldly offering don’t need flying saucers careening through space, or Rowan Layne flying through the atmosphere in the arms of her own personal super-alien bodyguard. Though that’s fun, too. Boy howdy is it ever.
So, humor me as I continue to find ways to chortle while embarking on the next Other Worldly adventure. We all need to laugh. Even if it’s snarky observations of our careening world.