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A place for my non-novel stories and thoughts






So I did a thing...

1/24/2023

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I joined Goodreads. 
And I'm going to be posting reviews there of the books I read, and I'll try to link them here. 
I'm told authors should have Goodreads pages, and so although I'd been avoiding it, I finally caved. I've also been told that Goodreads authors shouldn't read reviews of their own books, though, so I'll have to find some way to resist that once my book is available for review.
Besides joining for authorly purposes, though, it will be nice to have a place to organize my thoughts on what I read. I'm hoping that will stop all the authors and books and series from running together in my mind the way they currently do! It's embarrassing to belong to as many groups as I do where people ask for reading recommendations and I can remember the plot and the characters but none of the names! So. Do better, Laura.
Anyway, here's my first Goodreads review: 
​Laura Moher’s review of Ship Wrecked | Goodreads
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The ARCs are here! The ARCs are here!

12/30/2022

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Well, it's almost the new year. I've got a lot to do and I've not been very productive this last couple of weeks, but I did have a lovely holiday with my son. We heckled each other (a must for our get-togethers), ate a lot of good food, watched Everything Everywhere All At Once, offered snarky opinions on old episodes of Chopped, and just relaxed and enjoyed each other.

And then today, an unexpected package arrived from Sourcebooks with a thrilling surprise: a paper ARC (Advance Reader Copy) of "Curves for Days"! ARCs are preliminary book copies that aren't for sale; the publisher sends them out for people to read and review or write blurbs for or, I guess, other things that can help generate buzz for an upcoming release.

I hadn't been expecting this at all because we don't have a cover design yet. I think the people at Sourcebooks have been working hard behind the scenes on all kinds of things including the cover, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with for that. I just hadn't realized that I might see an ARC even sooner!

It's an amazing feeling to hold in your hands a paper copy of a book you've written. To crack it open and to see your old friends, your characters, your words, there on the pages. To read it and think, "I like this," and to hope others like it just as much.

I've raised a child to adulthood and there comes a point where you have to let go and hope you've done a good enough job that they'll be okay and loved and treasured once they're out in the world beyond your control. This is kind of like that. Lovely, but scary.

Image is a photo of a woman holding a book beside her face. The woman is white, fat, and smiling, with graying dark hair and dark glasses. The book is an Advance Reader's Copy of the novel Curves for Days by Laura Moher. The book jacket is described on the Books page of this author's website.Picture
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Reading (and learning from) Liane Moriarty

11/29/2022

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Have you read Liane Moriarty’s books? I haven’t read all her works yet but they’re on my TBR list. Currently I'm rereading "The Hypnotist's Love Story" and am marveling at her mastery of characterization, plot, pacing– things I never noticed the first time I read it. The first time I read it, I just enjoyed it as a good book that captured my attention and held my interest from beginning to end, but this time around it’s so much more than that for me. It makes me feel like I’m growing right alongside the characters. It’s a master class.
 
The story is revealed (‘revealed’ is a better word here than ‘told,’ because Liane Moriarty excels at showing rather than telling) through the points of view of two characters: the hypnotist (whose point of view is written in 3rd person past tense) and her fiancé’s stalker (written in 1st person present tense) and it's FASCINATING how Moriarty makes them both so real in different ways.
 
Because the stalker is in 1st person, we see the intrusive stuff she does but we also kind of understand her through her memories and experiences and motivations. We grow to sympathize with her and, eventually, to root for her. She's an extremely likeable unreliable narrator who in some places realizes that what she's doing is wrong and crosses boundaries, and (sometimes) she wishes she could just stop, and ... It's amazing, what Moriarty does with her.
 
And the hypnotist– Moriarty writes her in such close, deep 3rd person POV that we are inside her head in ways that are not always flattering but really show her struggles and realizations and flaws and basic decency.
 
We don’t ever get to see things through the fiancé’s point of view but Moriarty lets us get to know him just as deftly as the 2 POV characters, through their observations and memories and interactions with him.
 
What she does in this book seems extraordinary to me. We start reading and think we know these 3 characters, and at times they seem unlikable, but as she builds the story, it's like she's doing one of those forensic facial reconstructions, starting with just measurements that make a basic frame and then fleshing that in, layer by layer, until we see who they really are and where we were wrong about them, and all of a sudden we're rooting for every one of these fully-fleshed out PEOPLE we didn't even like a few chapters ago.
 
She's humanizing her characters, is what she's doing, chapter by chapter, scene by scene, and somehow she's letting them grow at the same time, so that we not only care about the people they are at the end, but we also have new compassion for who they were before.
 
Extraordinary.
 
Rereading this book has given me new writing goals. “Show, don’t tell,” always, of course … but now I want to learn to REVEAL. Gradually, subtly, deftly, as Moriarty does.
 
I feel like something is being born in my head. Painful, but with potential for good things, for my current work-in-progress and for everything I write in the future.
 


PS: Here's the URL for that book on Liane Moriarty's author website:
https://lianemoriarty.com.au/Book/the-hypnotists-love-story-us/

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A little about my forthcoming book Curves for Days ...

10/24/2022

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Curves for Days is the story of Rose and Angus. It's a contemporary romance currently scheduled for release from Sourcebooks in late August 2023. 

What can I tell you about it without giving spoilers?

Hm. Well, if Rose had been the plus-size main character of a romance novel a few decades ago, her story would probably have included a big makeover with weight loss and a dramatic reveal.
This is not what happens in Curves for Days. It's not even what anyone WANTS to happen (Well, except cranky old Miz Ames, but she doesn't get a vote).

In a lot of novels, someone suddenly coming into a lot of money after a lifetime of poverty would result in a wild, showy, brand-name-dropping spending orgy.
Rose, the lottery winner in Curves for Days, wants to keep her new money a secret and live a normal life completely under the radar (Fancy new underwear, though--THAT's doable.).

In "insta-love" romances, the characters are smitten and filled with lust for each other from the start. In Curves for Days, Rose and Angus do not exactly get off to a great start and it takes them a while to recover from that. She thinks he's a big grouchy jerk who hates her guts. He thinks she's a real pain and a smart ass. He's SO glad she's just passing through his little hometown of Galway, NC.

Except she's not just passing through.

And she needs his help to fix up the old house she's bought.

And once they start to work together on it, things ... change.

But how can their lovely, new relationship have a chance, when Rose is keeping eighty million secrets--and using some of it to anonymously fund a project near and dear to Angus' heart --and Angus is the kind of guy who can't accept so much as a free soda without feeling massively guilty?


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September 24th, 2022

9/24/2022

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It's been just over three weeks, but a lot has happened since my last post.
Ten days ago my 3-book deal with Sourcebooks was announced in Publisher's Marketplace and I was finally able to shriek and leap about with joy (or, okay, wave both fists in the air and emit a kind of teapot sound (which you'll see Rose do in Curves For Days when she too receives exciting news).
Then I finished work on the second manuscript and submitted that a little early (my inner procrastinator doesn't know quite what to make of this).
And now I am alternately taking some time off and thinking about the manuscript for the third book. The one I think of as Sin Wagon. I've taken those index cards outlining each chapter back down off my planning board, and I carry them with me pretty much everywhere I go as I think about which kinds of situations and conversations and settings will best let me show what's going on with these characters, in their lives and their heads and their hearts but also deep down inside at a level maybe they themselves aren't aware of.
It's almost time for me to just sit down and do some writing on it. I know that however long I wait, however long I spend thinking about it up front, there will still be things I'll need to rethink and rewrite later. I wrote most of the first chapter a while back and I already know that part of it needs to change, and how that part should be different. It's just my process ... Think. Write. Reread. Think more. Revise.
Or at least that's my process now. It's changed some since I started and I imagine it will keep changing. I get great ideas from other writers on Twitter about how they go about things, how they work around obstacles, how they jar their ideas and words loose when they've become stuck, and that's fun. Shout out to Jenny Lane, who writes beautiful, swoony love stories with queer characters; I plan to use her "just write out the dialogue first" (no descriptions, no dialog tags--those can be added in later) method to get a jump start on several chapters, to get myself going and build up the kind of momentum that leads to enough progress that finishing the manuscript seems less overwhelming.
And then once I have it written, I can reread and fix things to my heart's content, at least until I hit a deadline. Shout out to whoever it was who clued me in to Word's immersive read-aloud feature to help with that; there's nothing like hearing a not-quite-robot voice read back your words to catch typos and awkward bits!
So, tomorrow, back into the writing I'll dive.
Happy Autumn, everybody.
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0 to 100 in 3.6 seconds

8/31/2022

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I'd heard that the publishing industry has its own unique schedule(s) in which it seems like nothing happens for a long time and then all of a sudden everything happens at once.
That is certainly my experience! You'd think I wouldn't have found it so surprising, since I'd been given prior warning, but I honestly don't know how a person could adequately prepare for this before ... well, experiencing it.
And then when things DO start to happen and you want to holler about them and rejoice, you often can't for awhile. That's where I am right now.
So let me just say that in this past month I have signed some stuff, received editorial notes, used them to edit and resubmit a manuscript, and now have just over two weeks to complete edits on another manuscript before submitting it too.
I have met some great people who are making my stories better.
I have learned more about what goes on behind the scenes in the publishing industry (and there is A. LOT.).
And I have been fortunate enough to receive feedback from multiple kind, brilliant, funny, creative people who make my life and our world a better place. They know who they are. I am deeply indebted to them and to the people who love and support me more generally.
Tonight I'm too tired to write much, and DEFinitely too tired to say anything funny or insightful. But I'm happy. Pleased with where all this is headed, proud of the work I've done, and blessed to have so many lovely folks along for the ride.
Happy Labor Day to you all. May we all, at some point, find joy in our labors.

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Slow progress is still progress ... right?

7/24/2022

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Today I finished plotting my next novel. I had started it a few years ago and gotten it about 3/4 of the way written before I decided that my earlier manuscripts needed a lot of work, and that while I COULD keep cranking out new and deeply flawed stories, it might be better to get some of them into respectable shape. I set this one aside and went back to "fix" the older ones, but this one--which, in my head, I call "Sin Wagon"--has been in the back of my mind the whole time.
So now it's plotted out on neat little index cards, one chapter per card, two scenes per chapter.
I didn't used to do this, this careful planning and plotting and making use of index cards; I just sat down and wrote what I was thinking, sometimes longhand and sometimes by typing. The change in method wasn't due to any big philosophical shift in my mind. I just learned new stuff about length and form and expectations for romance novels. Some other time maybe I'll write about the massive number of things I had to learn, and where/how I learned some of them.
But anyway, as I learned more, I realized I needed a better way of keeping track of all the things I was doing in my stories, so that they had a prayer of ending up looking and sounding like what people in the publishing world think they should. The index card method is my way of keeping track. Tomorrow after reading through the cards, I'll attach them to my story board, which is divided into 4 sections, each making up a quarter of the story. Then, when I start rewriting, I can either work straight through from beginning to end or, if I get stuck and bogged down and don't feel like writing the next chapter in line, I can pluck a card containing a scene I DO feel like working on and write that. Eventually they'll all get done. Progress is progress.
The other thing I've been doing lately, besides plotting my own next story, is reading lots of other good books. I enjoy mysteries, domestic and legal thrillers, speculative fiction, social science non-fiction, current events ... There's always way more interesting stuff than I can read, and thank heavens for that.
My own genre is no exception. I'm thrilled whenever I find a new romance author whose writing I love, especially if I then learn that they have many more books out for me to work my way through. My newest author "discovery"--though I feel like I was really late to the party on this one--is Emily Henry. I just finished and loved my first of hers ("People You Meet on Vacation") and am on the wait-list at my library for 2 more. Those are all contemporary romances, which is my sub-genre too.
I also love reading historical romance, and I've just finished rereading Grace Burrowes's "The Laird" and immediately checked out the other 2 in that series. Ms. Burrowes is a go-to author for me; I've read at least 20 of her books and found them all beautifully written with male characters who are thoughtful and well-meaning even when they're flat out wrong about something. I guess this is why I enjoy rereading hers.
Finally, I got my hands on a copy of Kwana Jackson's "Real Men Knit," which I need to read really fast before her new book comes out this week! So I'm looking forward to a busy productive week.
I wish you the same.
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My first short story in forever: Garden Club (okay to share if you give me proper credit and link this page)

6/24/2022

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Garden Club  

by Laura Moher
 
It’s an ungodly hot and steamy day, the sun burning a stripe on my neck between my collar and hairline. I edge my chair farther under the shade of the awning, wincing at the scrape of iron on flagstone. My fellow garden club members don’t seem to notice. They’re discussing grafts and shoots and pollination, how much manure is too much, how to get rid of weeds and pests without contaminating land and water, and what tools are highest quality, least expensive, and most accessible for people with limited strength or mobility. How to do the work so that next year’s garden will be better.
 
I listen and watch and think what an eccentric bouquet they make. What an eccentric bouquet we make.
 
Anne would be lily of the valley. She’s tiny and pale, delicate and gently curving, always sweet-smelling, her head often lowered in thought or in deference. Her voice is soft and Southern, blurred with honey and time and good manners. When she first joined the club, she rarely spoke or moved at all; she’d spent forty years yoked to an overbearing man and silence had become her habit. Now when she talks, her pale hands flutter like the bells of Convallaria majalis in a breeze. She’s an unlikely one to be taking part in a conversation about eradication of weeds, being raised as she was in a church that taught her all God’s creatures—including weeds—deserve love and care. That belief probably explains her long marriage to her late husband.
 
Tamara is oleander, all vivid coloring and long, lean, limbs and a beauty that leaves you breathless if you look at her too long. She laughs more than all the rest of us put together, her rich chuckle burbling up out of her at unexpected times, her eyes flashing with heat and amusement and sometimes a tiny brief glint that might be pain or despair, covered over in the next second with a wink. I figure she probably had to learn to take enjoyment wherever she could find it, growing up on the wrong side of the tracks, always having to steer clear of people with badges and hoods and wandering hands.
 
I don’t think Abril and Breza ever expected they’d be doing this together; garden club hour was supposed to be their time apart to cultivate separate interests. And at first glance they’re as different as azalea and foxglove, Abril always covering herself with bright clothing and bangles, eye-catching glasses and shiny dangly earrings, while Breza stands tall and austere beside her in plain white. But they are a love match if ever I saw one, and if Abril insisted that Breza not spend all her time care-giving, saying she needed to have something else to do that would give her real pleasure, something she could continue and find solace in when Abril’s gone, well, that insistence melted away when Breza got her own diagnosis.
 
I’m another unexpected gardener. Sure, I’m tall and strong and limber, but people who know me know I have trouble sitting still. Staying quiet. Slowing down. Keeping my temper. Sometimes I wonder how I might be different if I’d had a real partner. More love. If I hadn’t spent so much time alone with plenty of hours to study how people treat each other, especially those they deem lesser beings. I’ve gotten myself in trouble a few times, pointing out people’s bullshit at work. At home. In stores and parks and movie theaters. And when they reacted by yelling, I yelled louder, and when they responded by hitting, I hit back harder. So. Got myself in trouble once or twice. But I did my time and I’m out now, and I’m not going back. Gonna spend the rest of my life doing something worthwhile. Hence the gardening. I guess in our bouquet I’d be something tenacious and unpleasant. Maybe poison ivy.
 
Anyway, we’ve identified the weeds we need to concentrate on, and now the talk has moved to tools. Tamara and Breza are still strong enough to handle those AR-15s you hear so much about. That’s what I’ll have too.
 
Abril still has a fair amount of hand and arm strength, from hauling herself out of her wheelchair. She wants a pair of Beretta 92 FSs. Not as flashy as she’d like, she says—they don’t come with pearl handles—but they make up for it in accuracy.
 
Anne’s too weak to carry a weapon, and it would be near-impossible with her walker anyway. She gets a scary light in her eyes now as we talk about how to wire her, where best to place the detonator switch so she can reach it when she’s ready. “I’m goin’ out like fireworks!” she says, her unexpected laugh a sharp cackle.
 
We’ve kicked the younger, healthier women out of Garden Club for their own good. Most of them would want to help if they knew our plans, but they’re going to be needed to care for the seeds we’ve planted, help protect and feed the young saplings once we’ve done most of the weeding. Still, without knowing what we’re up to, they’ve provided all kinds of helpful information we’re using to infiltrate custodial crews in legislative offices and courts and smug shiny glass towers of misinformation. That’s where most of us will do our weeding, but not Anne. She’s going to “pardon me, excuse me honey, thank you so much” her way right into the middle of the biggest crowd at the political action convention tomorrow.
 
The meeting ends in giggles as we share the messages each of us has decided to leave in our homes and apartments. Anne’s is going to say, “My body, my choice, weren't you silly for not respecting that, bless your little hearts.” Abril and Breza wrote a joint message to leave on their bed: “Our love and our bodies are as valid as yours. Guess you’re regretting keeping these guns so readily available now, huh?” Tamara’s message, in her bold slanted handwriting, says “Black/brown/women’s lives matter. We are not your colonies, not your captive incubators.” And mine just says, “Fuck y’all for all these years of punching down, keeping people down, abusing everybody within reach. Fuck all y’all.”
 
Early on someone had asked about body armor (for everybody but Anne, of course), but we all decided we didn’t want to try to survive. Let our bodies nurture the gardens we’re protecting from these weeds. They always have anyway.
 
We’re only one of many garden clubs in town. Sometimes I wonder how many there are in our state. In the whole country. I wonder if they take their weeding and pruning and planting as seriously as we do. If they make their plans with the same meticulousness. If they take to heart, as we do, the adage that “as you sow, so shall you reap.”


The End

(okay to share if you credit me properly and link this blog)

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    Author

    Laura Moher, navigating this new world of writing and publishing her stories.

    Image description: Closeup of an old piece of wood or metal with a heart-shaped cutout in the center. The surface is painted pale blue, but the paint is peeling to reveal bits of the original brown of the surface beneath. The cutout reveals a blank white surface below.

    Photo credit: "A Hole Heart" by cogdogblog is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=openverse.

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