Calling Home
October 2018
Just posted this morning, on the ExponentII Blog, is my essay in response to Elder Dallin H. Oaks's recent General Conference Address. If you'd like to read it, go here: https://www.the-exponent.com/guest-post-calling-home/ 
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On the Horizon
July 2016
Publishing a book requires a great publication team, even - maybe especially - if you're an indie publisher. If you decide to publish your writing yourself, you'll first need to build a fabulous support network, everything from a publishing advisor to an  internet traffic cop; from an alert fact checker to a skilled proofreader; from a beautiful, meaningful cover creator to an obsessive perfectionist editor. With that in mind, my thanks to those professionals who help to make my work as good as it can be.
Editorial and Formatting: NL Gervasio. Cover Design: Lori Lasswell. Writing Coach: Cherry Adair; Tara Cromer. Web Site Design: Winter Moon Media. Business Coach: Merien Grey.
You can go through life alone, working by yourself and controlling all of the things, but you'll be less effective and have less fun if you take that approach. Share the load. Do more good. Have more fun.
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Thoughts on writing as a business.
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Melody Joy
March 2016

Melody Joy's mother named her thus because she was absolutely sure her daughter would be musically gifted and she wanted her daughter's name to reflect that primary trait. She wasn't wrong.
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Thanks and Thanks Again
October 2015

After its first full week on the market Fool Me Once achieved the following astonishing rankings:

#68 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary Fiction > Romance
#100 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Women's Fiction > Romance
#109 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Women's Fiction > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
 
Granted, this was during a promotional week, and those numbers bounce around pretty wildly from one day to the next, but still it was gratifying (actually, sorta heady, really) to see this little story of mine getting some attention. My everlasting thanks to each of you new readers!  If you're feeling evangelical at all, please do share this book with your friends. The more the merrier, yes? At least one hopes these early numbers are a positive sign and that the story and characters speak to readers on some level.  I guess I'll find out soon enough, especially if some more of those 200+ people who bought a copy over release weekend will kindly drop a review in the Amazon box, or on Goodreads, or wherever you think readers who would be interested in my book might see it! 

My dreams are starting off on the right foot and it is all due to you, my new and faithful readers. Thanks and thanks again.
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Digging In My Heels
September 2015

I always knew I would be a fiction writer, but I didn't always know what kind of fiction. It took many years to figure it out, mostly because I first had to give myself permission to be who I am, and second I had to quit worrying about what my neighbours down the street from a bazillion years ago will think when they find out that I'm writing books that reflect the life I grew up in and the neighbourhood that sheltered me and mine. I needn't have worried. Most people who find out about my writing want to know if I've included them in my stories (and if their character survives to the end)! Anybody who might care about any passing resemblance likely isn't speaking to me anyway.

It came down to an intriguing choice: Create a purely fictional world, or set my fictional stories in the world most familiar to me (one that seems so surreal at times that it makes an excellent setting for novels).

Once I finally became comfortable with my choice, the stories started piling up and jockeying for a priority position in line. Now they are all jostling to get out! If I have to live long enough to get all my books written (and I definitely think that's a good idea) then I figure I can never die, because I'm never going to run out of story ideas!

My debut novel/series - Melody Joy's Personal Mystery - (starting with Fool Me Once, September 2015, from Bumbershoot Press) is an historical contemporary - set between 1977 and 2003 - and introduces Melody Joy Provence. I could just as well have named it The Odyssey of Melody Joy. Maybe I'll change the title when I reissue the boxed set.  Anyway, MJ's story is one of epiphany, grief, joy, sorrow, mystery, stupidity, brilliance, paranormal moments (because that happens, too) and - yep - even some actual romance.  Oh - and there may be a dead body in there somewhere.  The mystery? Well...that's an ongoing evolution. In fact, there may be more than one mystery going on in this story, and it's probably not what you think.

The three together (Fool Me Once, Love Me Twice, and Kiss Me One Last Time) constitute a series that deals with one extended LDS family and the highly charged themes of infidelity, abuse, divorce, equal rights, gender and sexuality, patriarchy, and eternal relationships. As you might guess, that's a lot of ground to cover, which is why it takes three books. Where Book One starts the story with the disintegration of a long-term marriage, Book Two introduces more characters into the story, including LGBTQ siblings, and other siblings who are straight and troubled by their "rebellious" kin. As the protagonist's marriage heads ever closer to divorce, Book Three will delve even more deeply into the interplay between immediate and extended family members as their lives morph along. I write because I care deeply about these issues, and about the people who are impacted by church policies and Mormon cultural norms. It is not my intent to glorify or criticize the church, but rather to give voice to those in the community whose voices are muted, and to raise awareness in those whose views have been blinkered through no fault of their own.

Melody Joy's trilogy is the debut series that will serve as the foundation for a multi-generational family saga - Seven Generations Ascending. You'll meet MJ's great-great-grandmothers, aunts, cousins, sisters, and the men and families and communities their lives were wrapped around.  My goal? To show these women as they were, or as close as possible to who they were as we can get; to show their lives, their hopes, their dreams, their disappointments, and their triumphs; to give them voices, so they can be heard by us, now, so we can learn from them and honour the trail they blazed for our benefit.

The continuing series will carry numerous themes about relationships and family, similar to those raised in Melody Joy's trilogy, but within historical settings and sensibilities. Set in Europe, Great Britain, Canada, New England, the fledgling Mid-west, pioneer era Utah, Idaho, Montana, southern Alberta, western Canada, and the larger U.S., the key players will be Melody Joy's ancestors. I am so excited to be able to write these stories, and Melody Joy can't wait to introduce you to her family!
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