P.J. MacLayne - P.J. MacLayne

When I Was A Child #OpenBook Blog Hop

By P.J. MacLayne December 12, 2021 December 12, 2021 Open Book

Dec 13 2021

How did you picture your life as a kid versus how it turned out so far?

When I was a child, I measured the world in a different way. How high could I climb up the oak tree? How far up the hill could I pedal my bike? How far could I go in the back pasture before I lost sight of the top of the willow trees beside the house?

I remember standing in the kitchen when I was 8 or 10, trying to figure out how old I would be in the year 2000. Couldn’t make the math work. Decided it didn’t matter; I’d probably be dead by then.

What I wanted to be when I grew up changed on a regularly. I had a short-lived fantasy of being a hermit. Then I was going to be a librarian or forest ranger. It upset my high school teachers that I had no desire to get into one of the science or math fields.

It turns out that the field I eventually excelled in didn’t exist at that time. Computers took up entire rooms. I discovered my passion for ones that fit under the desk. Now we hold them in the palms of our hands and call them phones. I can see and talk to my 93-year-old mother with a simple device that allows her to bush one button to communicate with her children and grandchildren across the country. We are living in the age of science fiction.

When I was a teenager, I had an accident on my bicycle and spent nearly a week in the hospital. One of my injuries involved my left ear. A few years ago, I was undergoing a series of test for vertigo, and the technician asked about my inner ear injury. I explained it to him, and he asked “Didn’t they do an MRI?” I smiled and said “MRIs didn’t exist back then.” We are living in the age of science fiction.

Once upon a time, authors laboriously wrote their books out by hand or typed them on a typewriter. Then they repeated the process to make corrections. Once finished , they stuffed the final copies into oversized manila envelopes or boxes to mail off to an agent or a company’s slush pile. Now they can see their edits on a screen and never have to touch white-out or correction tape. Instead of mailing them, the documents can go electronically to their destination. We are living in the age of science fiction, and there’s no going back.

I wouldn’t want to, either. Go back, that is. It’s not all roses and sunshine, but I have too many friends and family members who wouldn’t be alive today if it weren’t for the advances in science and medicine. Maybe I wouldn’t have made it to the year 2000 if it weren’t for the changes. My life doesn’t resemble what I expected as a kid, and I’m good with that.

What about you, reader? Has your life turned out differently from what you expected? Tell us about it in the comments. And to see how the other authors on this loop feel, follow the links below.

As always, until next time, please stay safe!

Dec 13 2021

How did you picture your life as a kid versus how it turned out so far?

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

A New Interview With SapphireJBlue

By P.J. MacLayne December 9, 2021 December 9, 2021 Uncategorized

Did you catch the interview I did with Jeannette (SapphireJBlue) on Wednesday, December 8th? We talked about the origin and motivation of Dot McKenzie, the main character of Wolves’ Pawn. (and more.) You can listen in on BlogTalk Radio. The link is below.

Blog Talk Radio with SapphireJBlue

Collaboration in Writing #OpenBook Blog Hop

By P.J. MacLayne December 5, 2021 December 5, 2021 Open Book

Dec 6, 2021

Have you ever written fanfiction or a story that was part of some else’s ‘world’? How does it differ from writing a story entirely on your own?

Does writing fanfiction about your own stories count? No? Then I haven’t written any. The first book I wrote was terribly derivative of a story by someone else, but didn’t use the same characters. Its flaw was that it borrowed heavily from the plot. And that’s why it’s tucked away in a file, never to see the light of day. I don’t count it as fanfic.

But I have been part of an anthology, where 11 authors got together and wrote short stories of sand, surf, and sea, using each others’ characters. That was a challenge, as we worked together to make sure that the characters stayed true to the creating author’s image. We also had a very loose timeline, so the stories were presented in chronological order. I think I put almost as much effort into the story for that anthology as I do for my books!

That effort was organized in part by PJ Fiala, who also instrumental in creating this group…thank you!)

The same group did a second collaboration, but it didn’t have the same level of success as the first one. It happens. Those stories featured Lando and Scotty, two recurring supporting characters from the Harmony Duprie books. I hold the copyright on those stories, so maybe I’ll do something with them in the future.

Remember Amazon Worlds? I was invited to join one, but that was right after the two anthologies. I turned down the invite because my own stories were screaming at me to write them, and I had limited time for writing. (I think Amazon closed down the ‘worlds’ effort shortly after that.)

Would I ever join another ‘group’ effort? Absolutely. I loved doing it. Shoot, I might even try fanfiction, given the right story.

As for the fanfiction of my own stories…I’m thinking the story I’m working on now might qualify. It’s a prequel to The Harmony Duprie books, written from Jake’s point of view. I haven’t set a release date yet. Shoot, I still am fighting with myself about the title!

I have no idea how many of the other authors on this blog have worked on collaborative efforts or fanfiction. I’m looking forward to reading more posts. The links are below.

As always, until next time, please stay safe!

Dec 6, 2021

Have you ever written fanfiction or a story that was part of some else’s ‘world’? How does it differ from writing a story entirely on your own?

Stresses and Delights: A Writer’s View #IWSG

By P.J. MacLayne December 1, 2021 December 1, 2021 IWSG

It’s the first Wednesday of the month, and time for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group post. This month’s topic:

In your writing, what stresses you the most? What delights you?

The awesome co-hosts for the December 1 posting of the IWSG are PJ Colando, Diane Burton, Louise – Fundy Blue, Natalie Aguirre, and Jacqui Murray!

I’m going to bet that a lot of us are going to answer the first part of the question the same. What stresses me the most? Publicity! Well, publicity in general, social media more specifically.

I’m an introvert. I want to spend my times trying to make words sing. But I want people to read those words, so I have to make myself available to my audience. Some days it’s fine, other days I want to crawl into my writing cave and hide away, when I don’t have the mental stretch to skip past yet another Facebook ad.

On the other hand, I love doing in-person events where I can talk to people about my books and writing. I may be worn out at the end of the day, but it’ll be a good tired.

What delights me? A good review. Heck. almost any review. Knowing that someone cares enough about my story to take their time and share their thoughts with the world is a high compliment. And a 5 Star review can’t be beat. If you’re reading this, go review an author’s book. It doesn’t have to be mine. But hopefully, it’ll be one of the authors on this hop. You can find them in the list below.

That’s it for this month. I hope you’ll come back in January. Or sooner, to check out my other blog posts! Anyway, until next time, please stay safe.

What delights me? A good review. Heck, almost any review. Knowin

Favorite Young Reader Novels #OpenBook Blog Hop

By P.J. MacLayne November 28, 2021 November 28, 2021 Uncategorized

Nov 29, 2021

What was your favorite young reader novel growing up?

Was that even a category back in the dark ages? I had to look this up, because the definition of young reader baffles me.

What does young reader mean?

Both middle-grade books and young adult fiction are for young readers. Middle-grade fiction is comprised of books intended for readers between the ages of 8 and 12, while young adult fiction targets readers between the ages of 12 and 18.

That’s from https://www.masterclass.com/articles/whats-the-difference-between-middle-grade-fiction-vs-young-adult-fiction#what-is-young-adult-fiction. And that’s a really broad spectrum of readers. The difference between the reading ability between an 8-year-old and an 18-year-old is light years.

Now, for your consideration. I read James Michener’s Hawaii the summer after eighth grade. That made me 14, probably. And I read it in one weekend. I was also devouring Nancy Drew books in that same time frame. And cereal boxes, if I had nothing else nearby. In other words, I read whatever I could get my hands on.

To make it cleaner, let’s eliminate the adult books I was reading and stick with the ‘approved’ ones. In eighth grade, I was still in my ‘read a book a day’ phase. I’d get a book out after school, read it on the way home and after my homework was finished, and return it to the school library in the morning. I was also reading a lot of bibliographies and historical fiction. I never thought of reading only from one category. I’d read whatever looked interesting or a book the librarian suggested.

Then there were the Reader’s Digest Condensed Books. I’m not sure how many years my mother bought them, but I’d devour them in no time flat. Sure, they might have ‘condensed out’ the more adult portions, but they introduced me to authors I might not have come across on my own.

So, that’s stacks of books, many I don’t remember. That doesn’t mean some small piece of them didn’t stick with me. But, I won’t claim any of them as my favorite. I don’t have one.

Back to where we started – I still can’t wrap my head around the young adult definition. A good book is a good book. I may be old, but I can enjoy a well-written story about teens, and I hope the opposite is true.

Let’s see what the other writers think. Just follow the links below.

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

Nov 29, 2021

What was your favorite young reader novel growing up?

Rules:

1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

Nailing The Beginning of a Book: #OpenBook Blog Hop

By P.J. MacLayne November 21, 2021 November 21, 2021 Open Book

Nov 22, 2021

Which part of your book do you spend the most time on? Beginning, middle or end? Something else?

Sometimes it seems that the more I think I know about writing, the harder it gets. That’s how I feel about writing the beginnings of my books.

The first couple of stories I wrote, I simply sat down and wrote. The opening was the opening. Things have changed. For The Ranger’s Dog Tags, I can document eight different versions of the beginning. Eight. And those are the ones I kept. I can’t tell you how many I started and then tossed.

You know what’s the toughest part? Finding the right place to start. I can throw all kinds of words on a piece of paper, but that doesn’t mean they are the right words. Or the right moment to introduce the reader to the adventure.

I dug out the earliest documented attempt to begin what became The Ranger’s Dog Tags. Here it is, in all its painful ineptness. “Four alarms blaring at the same time,” quickly changed to “Four alarms on my phone blaring.” I have one sheet of paper covered with variations on that theme.

And how did the book start once it had gone through countless edits?

The squad car screamed down the street, its red and blue lights tearing through the darkness. I feathered the gas pedal and waited for a second set of headlights to pass. Dolores, my salsa-red F-type Jaguar, growled in anticipation.

Quite the difference. I lost 3/4ths of the beginning chapter in the editing process.

I’ve got two books in progress right now. (One is deep in edits, the other is only at about 7000 words- a long way to go.) In the opposite of what I usually experience, I actually added most of a chapter at the start of the first one. For the second one, I have shrunk my initial beginning from about 2000 words down to 450, and turned it into a prologue.

Not that the middles and ends aren’t important. I will fight myself over that last paragraph. I want to wrap up the story as well as I started it. The story may be over, but those final words are the what the reader will walk away with. That’s as true for these blog posts as it is for a book.

Want to find out which part of a story the other authors feel is the hardest? Just follow the links below.

As always, until next time, please stay safe. And if you are celebrating the US Thanksgiving this week, Happy Thanksgiving!

Nov 22, 2021

Which part of your book do you spend the most time on? Beginning, middle or end? Something else?

The Holidays Are Upon Us #OpenBook Blog Hop

By P.J. MacLayne November 14, 2021 November 14, 2021 Open Book

Nov 15, 2021

With the slew of holidays coming up at the end of the year, do you have watch list of shows/movies you like to watch to celebrate? What are they?

The holiday season is upon us, and you know what I don’t plan to do?

Watch TV.

Of course, that’s nothing new for me. If you follow this blog, you’ve heard this before. I don’t watch TV. I don’t even know what holiday specials are out there.

Can I name any holiday shows? Sure. Old ones. Really old ones. Like The Charlie Brown Christmas from 1965, And Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer from 1964. Yeah, I’m THAT old. Then there’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas, but I’m not sure I ever sat and watched the whole thing in one stretch.

I used to enjoy the Thanksgiving Day parades, but my tolerance for commercials is so low I don’t watch them anymore. Seems like half the floats in the parades themselves are advertisements. Bah, humbug.

If it’s all right with you, (and even if it’s not) I think I’d rather read a book. Or maybe write one.

If you are looking for recommendations on shows to watch, may I suggest you go read the posts from the other authors on this loop? They’ll likely be more helpful. 🙂

Anyway, until next time, please stay safe!

Nov 15, 2021

With the slew of holidays coming up at the end of the year, do you have watch list of shows/movies you like to watch to celebrate? What are they?

Treasures Remembered and Saved #OpenBook Blog Hop

By P.J. MacLayne November 7, 2021 November 7, 2021 Open Book

Nov 8, 2021

Do you still have a treasure from childhood, can you tell us about it? How about any of your characters?

I grew up in a large family. Both of my parents also came from large families, so there were cousins galore. Everything got passed down and passed around—clothes, toys, books, bikes—you name it. So, I don’t have any ‘treasures’ from childhood.

There are a few things I wish I still had. The mustard seed necklace that was a Christmas gift. A 1964 JFK silver half dollar. I don’t know what happened to either of them. I wasn’t into dolls or stuffed animals, typical things youngsters save.

My teenage years are different. That’s when I started thinking in terms of ‘me,’ and keeping things for myself. Granted, some of those things were ‘borrowed’ from my older siblings when they didn’t want them anymore.

I still have most of the vintage (1960s) Boy Scout mess kit used by my two older brothers. I’ve taken it camping time and time again and it’s still in decent shape—a testament to how well-made it was. It’s packed away in a box right now, or I would have shared a picture.

The little but functional oil lamp I bought with money from my first job still sits on my desk. And I do mean little—it’s all of four inches high. It’s travelled with me from Pennsylvania to Wyoming to Oregon to Florida and back to Wyoming. I own a couple of ‘real’ oil lamps now, but my this one is still my favorite. (And here’s a picture!)

How about my characters? Do they have any childhood treasures?

I’m sure Harmony has some childhood books on those four bookshelves in her apartment. There are at least a few Nancy Drew books, and some old James Bond paperbacks. There are probably copies of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Knowing Harmony, she kept every college textbook relating to her major in library science, too.

Of course, we know she has her mother’s African Violet and John Denver CDs. They are reminders of her childhood.

How about you? Do you still have any of your childhood treasures? I’d love to hear about them in the comments.

Follow the links below to check out what the other authors on this hop have to say.

And, as always, stay safe until next time.

Nov 8, 2021

Do you still have a treasure from childhood, can you tell us about it? How about any of your characters?

Your Title or Your Blurb – Which is Harder? #IWSG

By P.J. MacLayne November 3, 2021 November 3, 2021 IWSG

Time for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group post.

This month’s question:
What’s harder to do, coming up with your book title or writing the blurb?

The awesome co-hosts for the November 3 posting of the IWSG are Kim Lajevardi, Victoria Marie Lees, Joylene Nowell Butler, Erika Beebe, and Lee Lowery!

Back when I wrote poetry – some of it pretty good – I had the worst trouble coming up with titles. How to condense those few words I’d written down to two or three words? It seemed impossible!

But then I started writing fiction, and it was a new ballgame. The titles came to me before I’d even finished a first draft. That was especially true for books that were not the first in a series.

However, we won’t mention the book I’m working on now. The title is giving me a hard time. Well, the whole book is giving me a hard time. It’s a new genre for me, but I’m not giving up on it.

But blurbs are hell! And everyone has a different idea of what makes a good blurb. I can hand a draft of a blurb to three different authors and have it rewritten three different ways. How long should it be? Are all the verbs action words? Are all the adverbs eliminated? Have you left the reader with enough information to hook them without giving away the ending? Don’t forget to include keywords Amazon algorithms are looking for! Just when you thought you’ve got it right, a fourth person comes along with more suggestions.

I think you know where I am heading. Yeah, blurbs are harder. That’s my vote.

Just for fun, here’s the blurb I’m NOT going to use for my next book.

Jake Hennessey lived by his own set of rules

Always be nice to old ladies and little kids.
Always watch out for other drivers.
Always keep an eye out for the cops.
Never carry a gun.
Never sell drugs.
Never steal from the bride or groom at a wedding.
Never get too close to a potential target
Never stay in one place too long.

Then he met Harmony Duprie.

To find out what other authors think about this topic, checkout a few of the links below.

Until next time, please stay safe!

Not The Legal Me #OpenBook Blog Hop

By P.J. MacLayne November 1, 2021 November 1, 2021 Open Book

Nov 1, 2021

Did you write under a pseudonym? Why?

Long, long, ago, when I first starting writing, I didn’t like my given name. It was plain, boring, and easily mispronounced. I needed a name that I could identify with. I experimented with a variety of potential pseudonyms, and finally settled on one. Thus, Bobbi Jo Aspen—B.J. Aspen—was born. The first few poems I had published were under that name.

Where did the name come from? Well, the Aspen part may be unexpected. Most folks assume it was a tribute to one of my favorite musicians, John Denver. Well, that’s wrong. Aspens are one of my best-loved kind of trees. (Don’t get me started in how beautiful they are in the fall when they turn gold on the side of a mountain.) The Bobbi Jo? That’s a sideways tribute to the song “Ode to Billy Joe.”

But the name didn’t stick as I got older. I wanted something a little more ‘mature.’ A weirdly addressed piece of junk mail gave me my inspiration, and I became ‘P.J. MacLayne.’

Why use a pseudonym besides finding a ‘better’ name? When I started writing, it was widely understood that men had a better chance of being published than women. By choosing the names I did, I sought to increase my chances of publication. Did it work? There’s no way to prove that.

The other part of using a writing name is security. These days, of course, if you are on the internet, security is almost nonexistent. But in the not-so-long-ago, using an alias made it harder to get personal information about a writer. These days, if you want to be a successful indie author, you have to be willing to exchange a bit of yourself to give your readers a sense of community. (I still struggle with the security vs accessibility part of being an indie author.)

I’ve been using the moniker ‘P.J. MacLayne’ long enough that it’s a part of me. If someone were to call out “Hey, P.J.,” in a public place, I’d look to see who it was.

Several of the authors on this loop use pseudonyms. (The internet told me so!) I wonder if they do it for the same reasons? You can follow the links below to find out.

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

Nov. 1, 2021

Did you write under a pseudonym? Why?

Author: P.J. MacLayne