Kyros in Seattle for a week

I had to come to Seattle for some other business, so I’m taking this opportunity to hang out with my wonderful co-author, Orion. We talk every day via facetime when we are working, but it’s nice to see each other in person from time to time too.

Knowing us, we won’t get much work done. I’ll probably spend part of our time together fixing various computer / electronics problems she has. The rest of our time will be filled with talking about whatever topic strikes our fancy. We’ve had these meandering conversations about random topic ever since we met over 25 years ago. It’s one of my favorite things about getting to hang out with her.

Writing A Sequel

We never realized how much harder it is to write a sequel. When you’re writing book 1, you can make things up as you go, but when you get to book 2, you have to make sure you don’t contradict anything from book 1, tell the story for book 2, and also drop hints and pieces for book 3. So many moving parts! Thankfully we have huge spreadsheets full of information so we don’t have to rely on just our feeble memories. And there’s always the search function in Scrivener.

We also use the spreadsheets for the layouts of buildings/apartments/offices, so we can visualize what our characters are doing. Each new setting needs a new diagram.

We have a page for forum characters, which we’ve found very useful. If we need a new character for a short story or Book 2, we have a pool of ready-made people to choose from. (We had a great time creating over one hundred forum characters in the first place.)

Perhaps the richest spreadsheet is the links page. It’s where we keep links from our internet explorations. Here’s an interesting one on how to disappear completely: http://www.wikihow.com/Disappear-Completely.

 

GLAWS Writers Conference

Wow, did we have a good time at our first writers conference! Orion flew to San Francisco to join Kyros (and see his new house), then drove down to Los Angeles for GLAWS, the Greater Los Angeles Writers Society Conference. Panels were mixed for us. Some were on things we already knew. Others had us furiously taking notes. One had us write from a prompt, then read it out loud. We both enjoyed that one, since we write stories from prompts every week. (Some of them are the short stories we’ve posted here on the blog.) The speakers at lunch-time were interesting and we made some new contacts. The only problem arose on Saturday and Sunday, when the air conditioning went out. It was in the 90s all weekend and the windows were painted shut! We all suffered together.

All in all, it was a very interesting experience. We’ll probably do GLAWS again next year. With us living in two different states, it’s hard to coordinate our schedules to attend one.

Hello Boston!

Hey everyone. Kyros here. I’m in Boston for the next week doing research for book 2, Running to the Past. Orion and I figured that since neither of us had ever been to Boston before, one of us should visit and find out a little more about the city. Especially since James and Diana are going to be spending some time here in book 2.

I’m staying in an AirBnB in the South Boston neighborhood (Go Southie!). This is a great neighborhood and the people I’ve met have all been really friendly. I had lunch at a local restaurant/bar and casually mentioned to the waitress that I was doing research for a book about some people from Southie. As soon as I finished eating she dragged me over to a table of local women who were having lunch, introduced me and told me to sit down. I learned more in that one afternoon about the neighborhood, the people, and the culture of that area than I have in the rest of my trip combined. Yay for fortuitous connections! I’ve got lots of notes. Can’t wait to put them into the book.

A Glimpse Into Our World.

We’re hard at work on Book 2: Running to the Past. But we thought we’d share a little behind the scenes of what it takes to write a book like Dreaming of Xeres.

First, you would be amazed at the research we did during the writing of the book! Sometimes we’d spend days researching (aka: down the rabbit hole!) before we had all the pieces we needed for a scene or chapter. Some of the areas we researched were:

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Hornets

We wondered what James and Diana were like before Bryce came along and drove them apart.
Here’s just one of their adventures. Enjoy!


“Hurry up, Jimmy B! We don’t want your folks or your brothers to catch us with these fireworks! Your ma’ll skin both of us!” Diana hissed as she passed into the woods bordering the picnic area.

“I’m coming, princess,” Jimmy said, catching up with her. “I thought I saw someone.”

The girl shrugged. “Probably just Rory. He’s always following us.”

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Dreaming of Xeres Is Now Available

dreaming

As of this morning, Dreaming of Xeres is available on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback. It’s been a long road getting here and Orion and I would like to thank everyone who helped make this a reality. From David and Scott who provided financial support and encouragement, to our amazing beta readers, Kori K., Jeromy J., Leslee F., Toni K., and David W. whose feedback and attention to detail helped make the book better than it would have been otherwise. We’d also like to thank Laura LaRoche of LLPix Designs for her amazing cover artwork. We look forward to working with her again when we finish book two.
We hope everyone enjoys Dreaming of Xeres. Feel free to comment below and let us know what you thought of the book. Also, please take two minutes to write a review on Amazon to let other people know what you thought of the book.
Peace.

Coats, Hats, Scarves, And Gloves

Even after he managed to drive James and Diana apart,
Bryce proves how possessive he is of Diana. Enjoy!


“What am I supposed to do with this cowboy hat?” Jimmy Cavanaugh asked his little brother, holding up the battered straw hat.

Making a face at Jimmy, Rory said, “Personally, I’d throw it away, but maybe some kid will love it.” He looked around at the mostly sorted sacks and bags, piled full of cold weather clothing that the high schoolers had donated. “Toss it here. I have room for it in the top of this grocery bag.”

Jimmy tossed the orphan hat at Rory, but he misjudged the throw. The hat sailed over Rory’s head, landing in the hallway beyond him.

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The Cad

Evelyn mentions in Dreaming of Xeres that she and Cadwallader have a history of
antagonizing each other. We were curious how it all started. Now we know. Enjoy!


“The vendors room is just down the hallway,” the conference check-in clerk said, pointing to his left, “in the Fredericks Room.”

Evelyn thanked the man and began pushing her luggage cart past the easel sign reading, HypYesCon, Hypnotherapy Beyond No: Turning Skeptics into Clients.

Halfway to her goal, she heard a familiar voice calling her name.

“Good morning, Dr. Adams. Nice to see you again.” Evelyn smiled at the older man jogging to catch up to her.

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