What else is new

Before I dive into what else I've got cooking, here's the final cover for Bright Spark. I absolutely love it.

The green is a callback to the first book - mother and youngest daughter - while the elements tie directly to the modern story. Once she added the glove in the upper right corner, my designer and I both thought that the tulips made the cover feel too crowded, so she went with a sprig of lavender. 

I like that very much, and it was certanly easier to use on the interior section pages than figuring out how to make tulips lie neatly across the page.

So the other project I hinted at: I'm working on a pen name, to see if everything I've learned over the years works when thrown at a different, more easily marketed genre.I love the books that I write, and I have no intention of stopping - though I do need a breather to figure out what's next.

And that's where she comes in. I'm not keeping the name super-secret, but I also don't want to announce it widely this early on. My historical/women's fiction readers may not read my new genre, and curious browsers might confuse the Amazon algorithm, which is confused enough without any help from outside.

If you are curious, please drop a comment and I'll be happy to email you details.

More soon. It's been hot again over the last few days; I'm feeling betrayed by autumn and overwhelmed by my garden, which is very pleased with the continuing heat.

Bright Spark Cover

I've been so caught up in gardening and ending phases (crafting) that I haven't talked about an ongoing and possibly new-at-tne-same-time phase: writing.

First off, I'm waiting for my designer to get back to me with the final cover for Bright Spark. What I've posted here are two of the final options. What she generally does is send me a first attempt (which is 85-90% there) and then we tweak colors or a few small elements. This time, she sent me the draft cover with 5 different background colors to choose from. 

Some were easy to eliminate. Red was just godawful, and charcoal gray was too close to the blue of the previous book. Another was too light. But the golden brown and spring green... I had to send that one back to her and ask her to do more final work and show it to me with both colors.

I've made my final choice but haven't received it yet. Which of the two do you like better?

Pre-orders for Bright Spark are going well. If you haven't ordered your copy yet, you can do so here. 

My brain hasn't pitched any new ideas recently, so I've been getting a lot of writing done on a side project that will be published under a pen name. Not for secrecy purposes, necessarily, but because it's a different genre and the readership will be different enough that cross-pollination might not be helpful. If you're interested, I'll post more about it later, but for now, I'm just getting words down and lining up all my ducks. 

The part of this project that's really interesting to me is that I've learned so much over 7 years of publishing that would have been more useful to have learned before certain other things happened. So this is both a writing project and a science experiment, to see if what I've learned in this time is truly effective when planned from the ground up, rather than inserted into an existing career.

Not a me problem

Had a few comments on last week's post, and a surprising number of emails, all of them kind/understanding. Thank you. Not that I'm second-guessing myself in the slightest, but I have the productive person's dislike of being thought of as a slacker. 

Once I made the announcement, I went into my handmade Etsy shop and put it on vacation. I'll be back at some point, even if it's only for custom orders at the holidays, because I do have repeat customers and doing those few orders isn't the same as the madness of prepping for a holiday craft show.

Of course, once the shop was on vacation, it couldn't be accessed without unlocking things. And that's when I got a Facebook message from a neighbor, inquiring about custom bears. I sent her the two stock photos I had on hand, with approximate measurements (I wasn't around to access my desktop over the weekend). 

She wanted exact measurements, and barring that, she asked if I could simply alter the patterns to the exact measurements she wanted. I said that the patterns were the patterns - sorry, but I'm not reducing the business to then start micromeasuring teddy bears - and I would get back to her on Monday. 

In the meantime, I did a google search for me/the business, because I know I'd mentioned in multiple places what the sizes of the bears were. Figured I might find something.

What I found made me equally furious and extremely glad that I made the decision that I did. The attached photo is a screenshot from a local newspaper back in 2017 (and of which I was thankfully unaware at the time). 

First off, the prices aren't accurate - my lowest priced pieces then were $10 and the highest were $35. I still don't charge $45 for a bear made strictly for a show, because it's my fabrics, my choice. Custom work costs more. And the word exorbitant made me want to track the dude down and beat him with one of those bears. Can you tell he's probably someone who's never bought a baby/kid gift in his life?

You may not be able to afford a $40 teddy bear, but that handmade teddy bear, with care in the making, years of experience, the thought behind fabric choices, trim, etc., is absolutely worth $40. That's not a me problem, that's a him problem.

Change is gonna come

I've been feeling something brewing lately. Not sure what. 

And it's hard to tell - it feels like the whole world is holding its breath for a shoe to drop or a pandemic ora a war or some other everyday horror. So I just felt the feeling and accepted it.

It's nothing earthshaking, as it turns out, except to me.

I decided that I'm no longer going to do craft shows. I still had two on the books - farmers markets - and I was able to give those back. The biggest fall shows I hadn't applied for yet (deliberately?), and I'm not going to.

It's not that I don't enjoy them, but I'm not sewing the way that I used to and every time a show approaches, I panic because I just fulfilled a shop order and I don't have enough merchandise. Cue the frantic sewing of things that don't sell at the show - because something else does and then I have none of that. The pressure was taking the joy out of it entirely.

Once I got the idea into my head, it didn't even really take much thinking about. I thought I'd regret it, but as soon as I made the decision and emailed the people who needed to know, I felt nothing but the most enormous relief.

So I'm going to back away, look for a few more stockists in and around Philadelphia and Delaware Counties, and concentrate on my writing. That's what I want to do, it brings in more income than crafting these days, and that way I can still sew and not dread it because of deadlines.

It's the deadlines, isn't it? 

It is.

Movie night

Something new and different on Saturday - our neighbor down the street asked us to come over for a movie. That's not new, we've done it before, but this time she was having a movie in her back yard. 

Backstory: the theater in our town mostly does live music, but they've got two movies on the schedule, Blade Runner and Rocky, both of which will have live orchestral accompaniment. My neighbor and her partner wanted to see both, but it was too pricy, so they bought tickets to Blade Runner and put on Rocky in their back yard. 

Picture a small suburban back yard, maybe large enough to park three cars, if it wasn't tucked in behind a hedge and the garage. (I can fit 13 raised beds and a hammock in mine, with almost everything touching). Now picture a white sheet hung on the side of the garage, fifteen lawn chairs, and a DVD/projector hookup balanced on a ladder at just the right height.

They ordered pizza, made popcorn, bought movie theater candy, and had coolers of wine and beer. There was also a handy table of various mosquito sprays, bandaids, etc. (She's very prepared).

The show started with a video clip from a 1970s local TV news show. Everyone knew the theme music and sang along. Then a short film that was shown at the IMAX theater in Philly, and finally two previews, one for a movie about the making of Rocky, and then the original theatrical trailer. By then it was after 9, and full dark in the yard, and the movie started.

Now Rocky having its 50th anniversary makes me feel old, because it was the first movie I went to see with a girlfriend without any parents along. But you know, it holds up. And there's something to be said for tight editing and 90 minute films. (No I haven't been to see the 3 hour Odyssey yet, why do you ask?)

Everyone loved the whole experience and wants to do it again, but they aren't sure - they think it turned out as well as it did because it was relatively unplanned and no one knew what to expect.

But we still have a lot of weekends left to summer. We'll wear them down.

Summertime

The garden is coming along nicely. Tomatoes are finally turning red and I went out day before yesterday and found one of those stealth zucchini, the weapon-sized ones. 

Ratatouille is what's for dinner.

The horrible heat wave has passed, but on Saturday we got a popup storm that came with 70 mph wind gusts and all the rain at once. We got almost 2 inches in under an hour. 

Our town lost a lot of old trees, several electric poles snapped, a transformer blew, and the low-lying area by the railroad flooded like it always does, and the police had to do two water rescues. Like they always do. (Does no one read signs?)

Sometimes the celebration finds you

I wasn't really feeling it this year. The heat's been really bad, and the idea of leaving my house for any reason... no. Just no.

Plus a lot of our local activities were canceled. There was still a parade on the 4th, but at 9 a.m. and with only an abridged ceremony after, not the Field Day games at the school field which I volunteered to help with last year. We no longer do fireworks because the group that organized and funded them for decades was volunteer-run, and all the volunteers aged out and weren't replaced.

But Saturday night, at around 9:00 p.m., I heard fireworks and went outside. They were the ones in the next ttown up the road from us. Almost literally up the road, because they lookd like they were happening at the end of our street. Most of the neighbors ventured out of their air conditioning and we stood in the street and watched - close enough to see, far enough that they weren't noisy. 

As we watched, a breeze began to blow. We looked at each other - what is this strange thing? - and by the time the fireworks concluded, the lightning started. Within ten minutes, there was a soaking rain and the temperature dropped 20 degrees. It was glorious.

So that's how I ended up spending our country's 250th anniversary standing in the middle of the street, watching fireworks with a bunch of other people who apparently didn't make the effort to leave home either.

Sometimes the celebration finds you.

Heat Wave

 So this is what we're experiencing this week. I'm not up for writing much because my desk area is hot and I am sweaty and the combination is, shall we say, not pleasant.

I've slept a few nights in my hammock because I really don't like sleeping in air conditioning, but I may have to give in. If we do have a high of 107 tomorrow, it's not going to be below 85, even at night, and with 100% humidity, the mosquitoes will be feasting.

I have a net, and I'm not usually their favorite flavor, but these are exceptional circumstances. I can survive a few nights in AC.

Hope it's more pleasant where you are!

Day Trip

A few months ago, I saw an upcoming show advertised on Facebook. (There are times when it advertises to me that I know it has to be listening to my conversations, because otherwise how does it know some of the things it does?)

Anyway, the show was called The Last Ship, and it was a musical by Sting. I'd heard his original 2013 concept album years ago. Maybe not 2013, but pre-pandemic, at least. I was curious.

Told my husband. He was not equally curious, but he loves Sting, likes New York, and was up for a day out of town, for whatever the reason. So I bought tickets and then started looking at how to get there. 

Back when I was more willing to suffer to get somewhere, I'd take the local SEPTA train to Trenton and then pick up NJ Transit. It was cheap, not too slow, and you were gold if you made your connections.

I often did not. Then there are buses. Surprise! They're not as cheap as they used to be, and you have to deal with traffic. So I went Amtrak, and buying that far in advance meant that the train tickets were less than the show tickets. (Show tickets were only $60, although, as it turned out, we were 3 rows from the top of the Met. But still an excellent view.)

We went up on Sunday, got in at 11:30, walked from Penn Station to Lincoln Center, had a lovely brunch, then went to the show. Which was fabulous. I regret being too high to see Sting's face, but his voice was as good as ever. The show is set in the northeast of England, in the shipbuilding town where he was born. Basically he feared going into that life so much that it pushed him to become something that would take him away, and The Last Ship is his tribute to that. Lovely ensemble cast, fabulous set, great music.

When it was over, we retraced our steps back to Penn Station, stopping at a nice little bar on the way for a glass of wine and to cool off for a bit. Then reverse journey, getting home at 10:00 p.m., just as a thunderstorm hit.

Between exhaustion (almost 10 miles of walking), the overstimulation of NYC generally and seeing a show, and the sound of rain, we slept WELL.

I can see (clearish) now

Last Tuesday, I went back to the retina specialist to have my sutures removed.

I was both looking forward to it and dreading it - one step closer to finally being past the whole event, but... suture removal. 

Awake, if numb.

Ick.

Before I saw the doctor, I had the usual pre-testing (history, eye pressure, basic eye exam). I asked the assistant if the vision in my right eye could possibly have improved, because it felt that way. I knew it was unlikely; just another case of my brain telling me what I wanted to hear.

"It did," she said.

"It did?"

"When you first came in back in March, your right eye was 20/200. Now it's 20/70. The vision in your left eye is 20/60."

The suture removal was not painful, but ick. Have you ever seen Clockwork Orange? The doodad that held my eye open while he snipped and tugged 10 sutures from my eye reminded me of that. When I told the doctor, he had to take a moment to stop laughing before he started working. 

He still recommends that I get a replacement lens on my right eye so that I have close vision, but I really don't want another eye surgery. My vision in both eyes is so close now that it can be easily dealt with; I didn't get cataract surgery to never wear glasses again. I just want both eyes to work predictably well and to never see my very nice, very good, and rather atractive retina doctor ever again. 

Is that too much to ask?

Audiobook Giveaway Announcement

I have 3 full sets of the Coming Apart, Coming Closer, and Coming Together audiobooks to give away. I've been meaning to do this since I got my full series author codes, the time just keeps getting away from me. 

Tantor Media, my production partner for the series, did a really excellent job. I have a hard time listening to them, because the voices of my characters are so strong in my head, but several trusted friends - who've read the books - have told me that they're good and I believe them. (I did listen to the samples, and yes, they are, but that's as far as I could go.)

This is an international giveaway because it's a digital download through Spotify (you only need a free account to access). Winners will be announced in my June 30 newsletter and on July 1 here.

Entry is only for those who've read and reviewed at least one of my books. Send me a screenshot of a review that you've left to be entered. (It can be recent, and because of the contest. No judgement!)

I know that leaving reviews can be a pain, but they are the social proof that lets new readers know that my books are worth picking up. Because time is precious, and life is too short to read the wrong books.

If you have a review to submit, please email it to me at karen @ karenheenan . com (without spaces). Thank you, and may the odds be ever in your favor!

Mom, Cover Model

I mentioned last week that I wanted ot use those old photos of my mom somehow on the cover for Bright Spark. It finally occurred to me how to do it.

My original plan had been to have a two-person photo on the cover, because the main characters are Grace and her cousin, Teddy. I couldn't find a family photo that worked. I couldn't find a stock photo that worked and looked vintage enough. And vintage stock photos? Forget it.

Not sure what your feelings are on AI. I'm in the middle of the road. I've used it to make my life easier - it's a good jumping off point for research and it helps me with advertising copy and book blurbs - but I'd never use it to help me write, because even when it's hard, writing is the FUN PART. When it stops being fun, I'll stop writing. I don't want it to feel like a job.

So I asked Google Gemini to make a photo for me. Black-and-white, early 1950s clothing. Young man and woman, fully described, sitting back to back, with the feel of old movies like His Girl Friday. Snarky workplace comedy, lots of banter, etc. It did a pretty good job, but the faces were a bit generic.

That's where Mom comes in. After I posted her photos last week, I decided to ask Gemini to overlay her face on the existing girl. Keep the girl's hair, because Mom was just a little too fluffy. Having a vivid expression on "Grace" makes the more generic face of "Teddy" work just fine. He's not as vivacious as she is, and he does look a bit like a catalog model.

So that's the photo that will be used as the main cover element. Part AI creation, part famiy photo, all my ideas behind it. I don't have as much issue with creating photographs with AI as I would art - art is going to be based on all the existing art it has digested, same as writing. There would be elements of someone else in it. But a photo doesn't feel quite the same. Or maybe that's me justifying, but either way, I'm happy with the result.

What are your thoughts? Is this a reasonable use of AI? Are you completely anti? Cautiously pro? I'd like to know. It's not a conversation that can be easily had in author spaces.

Mother's Day, a bit late

I posted this on Facebook five years ago. It still says what I want to say:

Genevieve (Gene) Madeline Burt Heenan Spain, 1932-2006.

Larger than life, not close to normal, loveable but not always likeable, inspiration for stories I will dine out on for the rest of my life. Never wanted kids but more or less figured out mothering by the time I was grown.

It's your day, Ma. Whether you're up, down, or somewhere in between, I hope you find someone to torment.

She's been on my mind lately because - well, because mothers - but also because her turn is finally coming as a "face" on one of my book covers. I'll share the final result here when I have it, but this is the photo I'm working from. She was about 21 at that point, the same age as my main character, and she was just as "too much" as you would think by looking at that photo.

I'm always reminded of Judy Garland's character in Meet Me in St. Louis, who, when told by her sister that kissing boys would rob her of her bloom, said, "Personally, I think I have too much bloom."

Garden season

It's been hard to decide when to start because our weather has been all the seasons all the time. When we got home from vacation in early April, it was in the 80s for 2-3 days. It hasn't approached that since, but instead has dipped down well into the 40s quite a few nights.

Which frustrates my desire to get plants into the ground. I did plant a tomato about 2 weeks ago and I've been babying it like a ... well, like a baby, if you put a bucket over a baby at night to keep it warm.

But on Saturday, we drove out to a new plant popup shop a few miles away, and I went a little overboard. Except not? All their veggies and herbs were priced at $2.99, buy 4 get 1 free. So I spent $44 and filled every raised bed in the yard but one that I'm saving for a specific tomato that no one has yet.

I've also expanded operations into the yard next door. They're letting me plant the strip beds along the garage and the fenceline in exchange for my husband cutting the grass. They don't live there full time, so he usually does it; this way I'm getting dirt out of the deal.

I just don't think I'll be planting along the fenceline. When I went to the back of the yard Saturday, I noticed the fence was tilting into my rear neighbor's yard. The fence between us and the absentee neighbor was already in bad shape. The problem in the back, apparently, was the neighbor's sons have extremely good aim for their age and had sent multiple rubber balls onto our garage roof, where they washed down the spout and clogged the rain barrel opening. Thatt caused it to overflow and turn that corner into a marsh, which in turn destabilized the base of the barrel and caused it to lean agianst the fence. Which, being 40ish years old, didn't appreciate said leaning.

The work will be divided appropriately, but I'm on the hook for contractor wrangling, being on-site and not having kids to deal with. Currently browsing Facebook groups and pestering neighbors about fencing contractors. Affordable and respectful of garden spaces.

Bruges: bits and pieces

Some of the best parts of traveling are the odd, unexpected things that you stumble upon while walking.

We did a lot of that.

Because Bruges used to be a walled city, it is still surrounded by a "ring road" with a surrounding canal. The area around it is filled with either green space, medieval city gates, or windmills. There are occasional modern roads - although the city itself doesn't have a lot of traffic - and on the other side of the ring, you can see the unfortunate architecture that Bruges' building code does not allow.

The vehicles pictured here tickled me. The beer delivery bike, the other delivery vehicle with the (very real) dog inspecting it from inside, the former bike-now-serving-area. 

And the trees. The bizarre, pollarded trees. I know that once the leaves come in, they'll look fine, if a bit geometric, and that it's a pruning style that controls growtht, but all I want to say whenever I see one of them is, "Who hurt you?"

Nothing you'd see back home, which is what I want to see when I'm away.

On the streets of Bruges

Because the forecast was cold and rainy, I had to pack more sweaters than I normally would have. Last year in Paris at thsi same time, I was wandering around withoutt a jacket. This year, sweaters and my winter coat.

So I couldn't bring as many goodies home as I would normally have done, but that's oaky. Photos are my favorite souvenirs anyway.

Not that I let it stop me from window shopping. Bruges has lovely shops, and because they have a lot of gray and rainy weather before the spring breaks through, they have a whimsical way of decorating the exteriors of businesses with fake flowers. It's totally ridiculous and charming and made me smile.

Also quite a few of the shop windows did the same. Being in a chocolate town right before Easter meant that the chocolatier's windows were top-tier. I tried to get as many of them as I could.

Bruges: the city

Considering how nearby towns such as Ypres were completely flattened during WWI (the Flanders battlefields are also close by, though we decided not to repeat the 1914 experience of visiting trenches in mud season), Bruges is one of the few medieval cities left in Europe that remains almost entirely intact.

This feat is attributed to a combination of economic bad luck in the 16th century, which kept the town from being razed and rebuilt in more modern forms. The harbor silted up, and without a direct route from the sea, the commerce that kept Bruges afloat for centuries disappeared - along with the money. No one was going to demolish medieval houses with fairytale, stairstep rooflines and build grand boulevards in a town with no commercial value.

Yay for that.

Then, the wars. Bruges was occupied by Germany in 1914, not long after the beginning of WWI. They obviously weren't going to demolish their own base. The Allies did a lot of damage to nearby ports, where German submarines were kept, but by then, the value of the undamaged medieval architecture had begun to be acknowledged, and the Allies declined to be the ones to damage the town.

During 1944, Bruges was almost caught in the German retreat. As they fell back, thtey desttroyed roads and bridges to slow the approaching Allied armies. When they left Bruges, however, the Canadian Army was so hot on their heels that they just... let it go.

So Bruges exists as it does - as it did - because of a confluence of events no one could have predicted.

In the 1970s, the town really buckled down to what it was, and instituted a rigid building code that any new construction had to fit in with the existing aestthetic. They were successful. Bruges is now a UNESCO World Heritage site, and well worth the visit.

There and back again

Silly question

So I got the all-clear from the eye doctor and we left for Bruges. Because of everything that's been going on (if you're in the US, you know), we got to the airport even earlier than usual.

Once upon a time I ran through airports to catch flights like OJ Simpson in those old commercials, but now... we got there at 3:15 for a 7:35 p.m. flight. The only problem was, British Airways didn't open their checkin until 4:00. So we waited in line for 45 minutes, checked in, and then waited in the security line for another 30ish. 

Honestly we were expecting so much worse. The TSA workers who were there were moving, and the other agents who were there for whatever reason were just standing around, watching people or eating, not actutally providing any assistance.

Our room, right off the
market square

We got through in plenty of time to go to a bar near our gate. When I ordered wine, the bartender asked, "Small or large?"

Silly question.

Flight was uneventful, we made our connection in London, landed in Brussels (a town I will never, ever like), and took the train straight to Bruges. Basically from arrival to the airport to arrival in Bruges was 16 straight hours of travel, nad it was more than enough. Once we checked into our hotel, we went face down on the bed for about 90 minutes (thankfully it was prettty early), then got up, cleaned up, and went out in search of food and scenery, all of which you can find there in abundance.

View from the room

It was a great week, despite the weather, which hovered between 37 and 50 degrees, with rain every single day. Not constant, but often enough that I couldn't leave without an umbrella. Or a sweater.

I'm going to spread my vacation posts out ta bit, both because things are a little busy at the moment and I feel bad about not posting for a bit, and because I don't want to do one huge photo dump with attached description; the trip deserves more than that.

Market square with tower; our
hotel would have been to the right 
and down a small street

Mending

Tessa says her eyes are prettier. And they work.

My eye is feeling better. I'm still on more drops than I can keep track of without setting my phone alarm multiple times per day, but they appear to be doing what they should. I saw the retina specialist last Thursday and he said everything was looking as it should. I'll go back again this Friday for a final check before we go on our vacation next week.

Hoping for good weather on vacation. At least more consistent than we've had here. Last Wednesday, it was 80. On Thursday, it snowed. On the following Monday, we had a tornado touch down a few miles away.

Mother Nature is a cranky, menopausal female, and while I understand, I could live with a little less drama in my weather.

Eye motwithstanding, I've been writing and sewing - just in sunglasses. 

An update

Of the thoroughly unexpected variety.

When we last spoke, I was heading for the retina specialist on Friday morning. 

By Friday afternoon, I was in the local hospital, waiting for him to scrub up and fix my eye.

By Friday evening, I was wolfing cold pizza in the car on the way home, becaues I hadn't eaten since 7 a.m. and I was just a tiny bit FERAL from the day that I'd had.

All that said and done, my eye is fixed now, I'm on a crap ton of eyedrops, steroids, an ointment, and a schedule for all of the above that means my phone goes off every few hours, just when I've forgotten it's coming.

But I'm better. And we're going on vacation soon and I won't have to worry about any bodily misbehavior on the flight or when I'm away from home.

More soon.