Friends, Fun, and FREE!

I seem to be leaning toward a “blog on Wednesday” rather than Sunday lately, so let’s go with it. Sundays have been busy of late, so that’s the main thing. This past Sunday, I worked on formatting a print book for a friend, and by the time I finished, it was pretty late and I didn’t feel like blogging. The print book turned out nice, though!

That was the last of several days in a row devoted to friends–a good thing!

Mondays and Tuesdays are usually pretty quiet around here. Mondays, in particular, I spend most of the evening doing bookkeeping for my husband’s small business. Tuesday is for catching up other things, and maybe some writing!

Last week’s friend activities began with a special, four-legged friend in need–and no, not my dog Isis. No, this time it was another of our critters who needed attention–as in, a visit to the vet, for Sanddollar, our turtle.

SanddollarSanddollar is a Red-eared Slider, an aquatic turtle. She came to us six years ago in the form of a request to pet-sit, for one of my daughter’s friends.

The turtle was surprisingly inquisitive and interested in whatever we were doing when around her container, and DD and I quickly grew fond of her. At the time, she was maybe four inches long, and arrived in a plastic container barely large enough to turn around in. DH and I thought, “that can’t be right,” and did some research on the ‘net. It turned out Sanddollar needed a 40 gallon aquarium! Not to mention lights and a platform on which to bask. It also turned out that DD’s friend wasn’t really that into the turtle anymore, so the turtle stayed. She is an enthusiastic eater, and often swims to the side of the tank when someone comes in the room, and splashes to get our attention (and hopefully, a snack).

Except that for the past couple of months, her appetite has been diminishing, to the point where she hadn’t eaten anything–even her turtle pellets–for a week. She was also doing nothing but bask–which she’s always loved to do, but not to the point where she even slept on her basking platform. Reptiles can go a long time between meals, so in itself this wasn’t a big deal–but this wasn’t like Sanddollar.

So to the vet we went, where Sanddollar got poked, prodded, x-rayed, and injected with vitamins and antibiotics. Let me tell you, that was one ticked-off turtle! But we also went home with a new bag of a different brand of turtle pellets, and when we dropped some in Sanddollar’s tank a few hours later, she ate! And was also back to being her more active and curious self.

Oh, and I learned something new–how to give a turtle a shot! She needs a full course of antibiotics, so every three days, DD has to hold her and restrain her from biting (plastic cup works really well here), while I pry the turtle’s front leg out and give her the shot. Definitely a bit tricky!

The next few days were more standard fun with friends. I saw my writing group on Saturday, and then had one of my best friends from high school over for dinner. Then on Sunday, one of my best friends from college came over and went to lunch with us. The rest of the day was spent formatting that print book, for a good writing friend.

And now for the FREE: To spur interest in my Saturn Society books, my publisher has made the ebook version of Time’s Enemy, the first in the series, FREE on Amazon, Apple iBooks, Kobo, Smashwords, and Google Play Books. Click the Buy Now button below for links. Barnes and Noble wasn’t yet free last time I checked, but will be soon. So if you’ve thought about trying my series (or maybe you are now? :D), now’s a great time to give it a read!

Buy Now

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Time’s Enemy

Saturn Society Book 1

ISBN: 978-0983909729

One unwanted gift.
Tony Solomon never wanted to be a time traveler. But a brush with death leaves him a time traveler—and an unwilling initiate in the Saturn Society, a secret society of those with his ability.

1913 Flood, Dayton OHOne great wrong.
Tony vows to use his gift to prevent his daughter’s murder—if he could figure out how. Never mind that this violates the Society’s highest law, branding him an Enemy for a crime he has yet to commit. Determined to thwart the Society, he seeks help from Charlotte, the woman whose life he saved decades before he was born.

One chance to make things right…
Tony jumps to 1933 in search of answers, but lands on the wrong side of the Society, a fugitive on the run. Thrilled, yet terrified to see her childhood hero, Charlotte offers him sanctuary…and unexpected love. But Charlotte hides a terrible secret: loyal to the Society, she must bring to justice those who manipulate time for their own gain. By sheltering Tony, she faces a terrible choice: condemn the man she loves and to whom she owes her life, or deny her deepest convictions by helping him escape, and risk sharing his sentence.

Not your typical time travel romance, Time’s Enemy creates a wonderful blend of romance and science fiction, an exciting adventure through time rich in action, romance, and history.

Smiths-Monthly-Cover-10-webWhat I read this week: Smith’s Monthly #10 by Dean Wesley Smith. I read the short stories and serial segments last week, and this week, read the novel, Heaven Painted as a Poker Chip. It’s a story about ghosts, with a really unique treatment of the ghosts and their abilities. It also had next to nothing to do with poker (not a bad thing for me), other than it was mostly set in Las Vegas. This story is also available standalone. I’m really looking forward to reading more in the series. Highly recommended!

ROW80Logo175ROW80 Update: I finished the outline for the new novella, so that’s a win! For this week, the plan is to go through the beta readers’ notes on my upcoming WIP, and get the revisions made from at least one of them, preferably more.

What about you–what kind of pets do you have, and do you have any interesting stories to share? Learned anything new this week? Can you imagine giving a shot to a turtle? O.o  How are you doing on whatever goals you may have, whether writing or otherwise? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

Changing Plans Already

The great thing about ROW80 (besides it being “the writing challenge that knows you have a life”) is the fact that it’s perfectly fine–encouraged, even–to change our goals when needed. After meeting with a writing friend to discuss my upcoming release, I’ve decided to do just that. Not with the stuff already in process, but with the later goals for this round.

Since Isis likes glasses so much, we figured she should try them on

Since Isis likes glasses so much, we figured she should try them on

But leading up to that: Monday was Dogs night at the ice cream shop, and Isis had been good, so she got her custard cup. Then after we got home, she chewed yet another pair of DH’s reading glasses! This is the sixth pair–good thing they’re cheap!

After that, it was a pretty quiet week until Thursday, when Traveling Daughter came home from Germany. What she was most looking forward to: unsweetened iced tea, and Mexican food. So the first place we went after picking her up at the airport was our local Mexican restaurant, which she greatly appreciated.

Friday was a take-it-easy day, especially since DH spent the weekend camping for the NASCAR race in Kentucky. Then on Saturday, my writing friend came over, kids and dog in tow. Our neighbors’ son moved, so Isis hasn’t had her friend over for a week. Yesterday, she got another play date with a new friend. My friend and I were so busy trying to corral dogs and kids that no one got any pictures. But not to worry, I got a photo after DH got home.

Between interruptions, my friend and I got some great brainstorming done. The result is that the next book I’ll be working on is a novella, to fill in some of the blanks between The Saturn Society Book 2 and Book 3.

Smiths-Monthly-Cover-10-webWhat I read this week: Smith’s Monthly #10 by Dean Wesley Smith. I read the short stories and serial segments, and started the novel, which I’m really enjoying.

ROW80Logo175ROW80 update: My plans for this week were to finish assisting my publisher getting the updated versions of my books onto the retailers’ sites. That’s all done, except for Apple, which they are working on now. So I’ll consider that a win! The other part of my goal was to review the beta readers’ comments on the upcoming novel. Instead, I sussed out the interim novella, and began outlining it, hence the start of the change in goals noted above.

Which brings me to my overall goals for the quarter: instead of finishing the first draft of the next novel, I’ll be outlining and writing this novella. I don’t have a title for it yet, which bugs me, but I’ll come up with something. The other goals remain the same. I want to get the novella outlined before digging into revisions for the novel, as I might need to add a couple of references to the new novella. So the plan for this week is to keep working on getting Time’s Enemy available for free everywhere, and to finish the outline for the new novella. My Saturday will be busy, so I’ll do well to get those things done.

What about you–have your goals changed lately, whether or not you’re doing ROW80? Do you think those glasses are “it” for Isis? Have you read anything good lately? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

 

Read an E-book Week, and What to do with a Dead Kindle?

girlreadingToday marks the start of Read an Ebook Week, an annual promotion from Smashwords wherein thousands of independent authors and publishers offer ebooks at fantastic discounts. Mythical Press is participating too, and has all my books on sale. Haven’t tried the Saturn Society series yet? It’s a great time to change that–Time’s Enemy, Book 1, is on sale for 75% off. The anthology Love’s a Beach, which includes my newest installment, a short story called “Time’s Tempest” featuring new characters, is also on sale for 50% off, and has some great reads from Stacy McKitrick and four of my other writing friends. Just click the image above to go to Smashwords.

Ironically, just in time for Read an Ebook Week, my Kindle decided to die on me. It had been getting slower and occasionally would display an error message when I opened a book. If I tapped OK, the error message would disappear and it worked fine. Then searches for words I knew were in the book would turn up nothing, and a couple days ago, it started saying books were “no longer available” when I’d just purchased them from Amazon. A quick search revealed that my Kindle probably just needed a reboot, so I tried that. But my Kindle did not reboot–or rather, it tried for several minutes, than eventually just crapped out:

IMG_20140302_153710250

I was not optimistic about contacting Amazon, because you see, I got this Kindle for Christmas–last year.

Which means it’s about two months out of warranty.

But all I found in the searches was either “Duh, contact Amazon, they’ll replace it” (usually in response to someone with a relatively new Kindle) or “It’s bricked” (often in response to someone who tried to root, or hack, their Kindle). Nothing about anything else that could be done if it was out of warranty, even in a case like mine where I’d not so much as dropped it.

So I got on an online chat with them. I didn’t really expect them to offer to repair or replace it except for a fee, but mainly contacted them in the small chance there was something else I might try to resuscitate the Kindle. Sure enough, the customer service rep said it was out of warranty, and would I like him to go over some options for a “deeply discounted replacement or upgrade?”

Not acceptable. Why would I want to pay for another Kindle when this one failed two months after the warranty expired? I told him that and added, “I am very unhappy with this. I haven’t even dropped it, it just quit working,” expecting to get a “sorry, company policy” response. But the rep said, “please wait while I talk to my manager.”

He came back and said they’d make an exception, and replace it for free! I guess it never hurts to let them know what you think (politely, of course) and be persistent. The new one is supposed to arrive tomorrow.

ROW80Logo175Luckily, that didn’t cut into my writing time too much yesterday, and I got my 3,500 words in for the week. Wow, is this novella turning out to be longer than I expected! I thought it was going to be a longish short story at first, maybe 10,000 words, but then it kept going. I’m now over 20,000 words and only a little more than halfway through my outline. That’s okay, it needs to be as long as it needs to be. I suspect I’ll do some cutting on revision, too.

I didn’t do so well with the fitness, though I got a couple of very short workouts in. I am almost done with the website–hope to finish that today–so I still consider it a good week.

Next week, the same: 3500 words, finish the website (this time, for sure!), and get 3 or 4 activity sessions in. I have a print book to format too, so I’ll toss get started on that in as a bonus.

What about you–planning to read any ebooks this week, whether from Smashwords or elsewhere? Have any surprising customer service experiences to share, good or bad? And whether or not you’re participating in ROW80, how did you do on whatever goals you might have? Please share–I’d love to hear from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

Lace to Dye for, and ROW80

Last week, one of my goals was to dye the lace for my daughter’s prom dress, which we’re making. It didn’t quite turn out as planned. As in, it was supposed to be lavender…

Dying lace   2013-02-10_20-38-57_677   2013-02-16_20-04-12_432

…but it’s definitely pink. It could be because my daughter bought ivory lace, and the slight yellowish cast to the fabric combined with the purple to make pink. I don’t think it’s the dye – in the sink, it looked plenty purple! Or it could just be a fluke.

So we bought another bottle of dye, this time blue, in hopes that redyeing with that will make it lavender.

My ROW80 goals did also not quite go as planned, but I can’t blame it on not knowing what we’re doing, or picking the wrong  thing to start with: I simply didn’t get everything done. But it didn’t go badly, either.

Here’s how I did:

  • Two hours of brainstorming/prewriting my next book – YES!
  • Fitness activity 5x – partial, I got 4x in
  • Send out press release for Time’s Enemy – no, although I did send it to a friend with a journalism background to look over; she had some good suggestions, which I made, but did not send it yet.
  • Assignment for writing workshop – YES!
  • Collect info for taxes – partial: I calculated my business mileage to write off, and scheduled our appointment with the accountant, but that’s about it. The appointment is for this Saturday, so this WILL be done by then. 
  • Dye lace for prom dress, and cut one of the four fabrics in it – partial: the lace is dyed but needs to be redone; did not get to do any cutting.

ROW80Logo175On another note, I participated in a panel discussion of romance writers for the Dayton Metro Library on Saturday. We didn’t have a huge turnout, but more people showed up than the three I feared. The program went well, and we all had a lot of fun! So that’s something. 🙂

Here are my plans for this week:

  • Two plot exercises for my next book
  • Fitness activity 5x
  • Send out press release for Time’s Enemy
  • Assignment for writing workshop, week 2
  • Re-dye the lace for prom dress, and cut one of the four fabrics in it

So tell me, have you ever dyed fabric? If so, did it turn out like you expected? If not, what did you do? Have you ever sent out a press release before? Please tell me I’m not alone in being a chicken! And whether or not you’re participating in ROW80, what are your plans for this week? I’d love to hear from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

My Town Monday: Are you afraid to look like Chicken Little?

One hundred years ago, the sky fell in Dayton. Or to be more precise, rain. A lot of it.

We’re coming up on the anniversary of the worst natural disaster in Ohio’s history, the Great Flood of 1913.  By far, the hardest hit community was Dayton, and plenty of people lost their lives.

It could have been a lot worse, which was well-shown in 1913, a wonderful play my family attended last week, performed by Wright State University’s theater department. The play was based on an equally-fantastic narrative nonfiction book, A Time of Terror by Allan W. Eckert (which is, sadly, out of print).

As in the actual event, the play showed some people who died, and many who didn’t, but it was quickly clear that the death toll would have been much higher had it not been for one man who took a great risk: John H. Patterson, the president of NCR (the National Cash Register Company).

John H. Patterson surveys the flood (in derby hat, third from right)

John H. Patterson (in derby hat, third from right) surveys the flood (Photo via Dayton Metro Library)

In the play, Patterson is first shown meeting with his executive staff at NCR. He wants to survey the city–in particular, the levees. It had been raining since the weekend, after the ground was already saturated from snowmelt, and Patterson had a bad feeling.

His staff questioned this. Yes, Dayton was prone to flooding, lying in an S-curve where four rivers came together, but the levees had held up just fine for over a decade. Patterson was being alarmist, and was worried over nothing.

But Patterson was a wealthy and powerful individual, so the executives went, and reported back that the river was close, but they were sure it would crest before it reached the top of the levees.

However, the rain showed no sign of abating, and this was not a risk Patterson was willing to take. Dayton was going to be flooded, and it was going to be much, much worse than the last time it had suffered a major flood, he was certain. Fires would break out when gas lines beneath the city ruptured. Hundreds, if not thousands, would be displaced from their homes. Lives would be lost–unless they acted fast.

NCR was located on the south side of town, on high ground. At the time, it was one of the biggest corporate complexes in the world, and boasted its own cafeteria, gym, barber shop, and other amenities for the employees. It also had its own wells and power plant, and was perfectly suited to handle the influx of refugees that were sure to come. So Patterson decreed on the morning of March 23, 1913, that NCR was now the Citizens’ Relief Association until further notice. He ordered employees to procure all the food, blankets, clothing, and medicine they could find. He set the factory workers to stop making cash registers, and to instead use the wood to manufacture hundreds of flat-bottomed boats. He commanded people to work in the kitchens and start baking bread, and making soup, sandwiches and coffee–as much as they could.

While Patterson did a lot for the community–he engineered many benefits such as a night school for employees and well-lit factories–he was also a control freak and a tyrannical boss who fired people seemingly at whim. He eliminated competitors with ruthless precision; in fact, he’d been convicted of antitrust violations just a few weeks before and had been sentenced to spend a year in prison, which he was at the time appealing. When Patterson handed out orders to deal with the flood he expected, people thought he was nuts, but since he controlled their paychecks, they did what he told them to do.

This photo, used on the cover of Time's Enemy, gives a glimpse of how bad it was

This photo, used on the cover of Time’s Enemy, gives a glimpse of how bad it was – look at the streetlights (Photo via Dayton Metro Library)

An hour later, the first levee broke on the north side of town, and it wasn’t long before refugees began to arrive. Within hours, other levees had broken, and the city was inundated with over 12 feet of water in places. People were trapped in the upper floors of their homes and workplaces, in attics, and on roofs. Workers in the flat-bottomed boats made with mahogany wood intended for cash registers trawled the city for survivors, and brought thousands back to NCR for food, dry clothing, and a place to sleep. In my novel Time’s Enemy, my characters Tony and Charlotte are trapped in a freezing-cold attic, then must flee when fire encroaches. An NCR boat picks them up. Later, Tony helps rescue others.

Depending on which estimates you read, the death toll ranges anywhere from a hundred-sixty-some to over four hundred people. But how much worse would it have been if John H. Patterson hadn’t risked looking like a fool, and risked a great deal of money proactively turning his manufacturing operation into one focused on rescue and relief?

Have you ever seen something coming, but kept quiet for fear of being thought a Chicken Little? Or have you spoken up, and been glad you took the risk? Have you heard about the 1913 flood, and the role played by NCR boss John H. Patterson? I’d love to hear from you!

As a side note, I’m going to be appearing at the Wilmington-Stroop branch of the Dayton Metro Library this Saturday, Feb. 16th, at 10:00 AM to talk about writing romance with readers and fellow authors Macy Beckett/Melissa Landers, Lorie Langdon, Jess Granger/Kristin Bailey, and Stacy McKitrick. There will be coffee and chocolate! If you’re in the area, we’d love to see you there!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

Elmer Fudd and ROW80

My husband played Elmer Fudd the other day. As in, he went wabbit hunting. Only unlike Elmer, my DH got Bugs Bunny — three of ’em, in fact.

Which meant someone needed to figure out what to do with them. Being the more inclined toward culinary arts of the two of us, my daughter did her best. She found plenty of rabbit recipes on the Internet, but there was just one problem: our friend Google revealed very little in the way of info on how to prepare said rabbit before cooking.

This was a learning experience that gave me new respect for my characters Tony and Violet, who wound up stuck in prehistoric times in Time’s Fugitive. Because even with the benefit of 21st-century tools such as a stove, stainless steel cookware, and utensils, getting the meat off the bones proved to be quite the challenge. As one would expect, rabbit is very lean, and there was a great deal of sinew and brittle bones to deal with to get at the meat.

We ended up going out to dinner that night. (Although I did get a bite of what little there was, and it wasn’t bad at all, sort of a cross between turkey and beef.)

Photo via Vogue Patterns

Photo via Vogue Patterns

I also learned something about my limits when it comes to ROW80 and my goals: all my good intentions don’t matter if I’m tired, not feeling well, and/or just simply piled too much onto my to-do list. I’ve had one of those weeks where I’ve been tired and headachey all week, so not much has been done. Good thing it’s a new week, and a new chance to meet some more-reasonable goals!

Here’s how I did:

  • Two hours of brainstorming/prewriting my next book – partial I got maybe 1 hour in
  • Fitness activity 5x – partial, I got 4x in
  • One chapter’s exercises in the estate planning guide – I changed this to collect info for taxes; I got some of that done but not all
  • Be a good ROW80 sponsor and visit all the blogs I’m supposed to at minimum – No – I missed some that were undoubtedly entered later in the day
  • Write press release for Hangar 18: Legacy – I’m going to consider this one Done, even though I ended up writing it for Time’s Enemy instead; stop by tomorrow to see why!

ROW80Logo175I had also forgotten that I signed up for an online writing workshop that started Friday, so I have assignments to do for that. I’m also going to take ROW80 sponsor visits off my list, as I’m  doing fairly well on those overall. Finally, the best thing about ROW80 is that we can change our goals. I need to do that now, as my daughter wants me to make the prom dress of her dreams. I love to sew, so this gives me the perfect excuse – not bad at all. 🙂 So here are this week’s goals:

  • Two hours of brainstorming/prewriting my next book
  • Fitness activity 5x
  • Send out press release for Time’s Enemy
  • Assignment for writing workshop (first week’s is easy)
  • Dye fabric for prom dress, and cut one of the four fabrics in it (The one color the lace didn’t come in, is, of course, the color my daughter wants: lavender. So we’re going to dye it.)

So tell me, have you ever eaten rabbit? If you’re participating in ROW80, have you needed to adjust your goals yet? And whether or not you’re participating in ROW80, what are your plans for this week? I’d love to hear from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

Is your hometown diverse? What about your books?

I’m in the final stages of preparing my new novel, Hangar 18: Legacy, for release. And here in the U.S., it’s Dr. Martin Luther King Day, where we celebrate the life of Dr. King and his fight for civil rights–equality for all people regardless of race or gender. As I worked through the final proofread and formatting of my book, I noticed it had a fairly diverse cast.

Teenagers JumpingDid I do this intentionally? Yes and no. It was something I thought about, for my book takes place in Dayton, specifically at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. And neither would be accurate if it wasn’t racially diverse.

Lisa Stark, the heroine of Hangar 18, is Asian.This was intentional: as a child adopted by white Americans, in an all-white small town, she looked different, but really wasn’t–she’s as American as I am. In contrast, my hero looks like a typical military guy, but he has unique, psychic abilities. But with other characters, I didn’t necessarily plan them to be black or Hispanic, I just imagined them that way. And no, they aren’t all in stereotypical, subservient roles, but do a variety of jobs–just like in real life. I’d like to think that I imagined a diverse cast of characters because this mimics real life.

My Saturn Society books are similar. Some characters just appeared to me as non-white. For example, the head of the Dayton Saturn Society House, Chad Everly, is Hispanic. Since the time-travel ability originated in Latin America, this leads into some interesting backstory for him, which isn’t in any of the books (yet). Theodore Pippin, who ran the Dayton Saturn Society House in the 1930s, is black, and that was done for a reason. At first he wasn’t, but I had a problem: he was in pursuit of Tony, the main character, but I needed a reason he couldn’t just walk into the restaurant where Tony was eating and apprehend him.

TimesEnemy211The solution was perfect, as it fit into the time period. It also emphasized how monumental a thing Tony had done by going into the past. Here’s a brief excerpt:

Tony hesitated as he reached for the door handle of Irving’s Restaurant. The narrow, old frame structure and its hand-lettered front window reminded him of the tobacco shop where he and Charlotte had found refuge during the flood.

But it was the sign above the door that made the enormity of what he’d done hit him like a sucker punch to the gut: Whites Only.

He’d gone back a century in time by will alone. A time where men still tipped their hats to women—ladies—and offered them their seats on the bus, and no one got offended. A time before civil rights, when it was acceptable to deny someone entrance to a public establishment solely on the basis of race. Even an honest, respectable businessman like his friend Bernie.

Thanks to the hard work and sacrifice of people like Dr. King, it’s hard for me to imagine this kind of discrimination, as I can’t remember a time when it was allowed. As Dr. King said, we’ve come a long way, but there’s still a long way to go. Discrimination was real (and unfortunately still is, albeit to a lesser extent), it was historically accurate, and giving my book a diverse cast helped me to lend this extra little bit of historical authenticity to Time’s Enemy.

What about you–have you read books where everyone was white-bread American, or were they diverse? If they didn’t reflect reality, did you notice? Have you read any good, racially-diverse books lately–or any where the historical lack of civil rights was a key part of the story? I’d love to hear from you!

My Town Monday: The Original Pop Top

Note from Jennette: this blog post originally ran on August 15, 2011, and remains one of my most popular posts for people to find via search. Meanwhile, I’m working on my NaNoWriMo novel, and am now over 2/3 of the way to the 50,000-word mark!


One of the fun things about writing (and reading) time travel stories is the whole fish-out-of-water aspect, especially when someone goes into the future. There is one scene in Time’s Enemy, my newly-released time-travel novel, where a character from the 1930s comes forward to modern times. When she asks for a drink and is handed a can of Mountain Dew, she’s understandably perplexed at what to do with it (and initially thinks it’s moonshine, LOL).

Anyone remember drinking beer or pop (“soda” for you non-Midwesterners) from a can like this? Younger folks might not, but in the sixties, seventies, and into the early eighties, this is what you got if you bought beer in a can, or got a Coke, Pepsi, etc. from a machine. Of course, I also remember pop in glass bottles – you know, where you bought a six pack at Kroger and paid a deposit of $.05 – .10 per bottle, which they returned when you took the bottles back to the store.

But back to the cans – before they were like this, they required a can opener, like is still used today to open larger cans of juice, although those are now mostly replaced by bottles. The can opener had a sharp point on it, and poked a triangle hole in the edge of the can. A second hole was needed to admit air.

Dayton inventor Ermal Fraze

The pull tab shown on the can to the right came about in the early sixties, after Dayton tool-and-die maker Ermal Fraze went on a picnic, and forgot to bring a can opener for the drinks. According to the stories, he ended up prying cans open on a car bumper (???), then went home and devised a can with a built-in opener – the pull tab.

The pull tab was eventually superceded by the now-familiar push-in top in the eighties, but it was the pull tab that helped push cans to edge out glass bottles in popularity as a beverage container. Fraze’s legacy lives on today in the form of full-top pull tabs that are still commonly used in canned snacks like peanuts. Dayton Reliable Tool (now DRT Mfg.), the machine shop he formed in the 1940s, is also still in business in Dayton today.

Do you know of any cool little details that we take for granted today, that originated in your hometown? Please share!

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverage_can
http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/fraze.html
http://www.heartlandscience.org/manuf/poptop.htm

Photo of beer can via Wikipedia, public domain | Photo of Ermal Fraze via Heartlandscience.org

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

My Town Monday: What’s Up with the Saturn Society? And ROW80

I’m not one to blog about my books very often, but some of my recent email tells me it’s time for an update. (I figure this fits into My Town because so far, all of the Saturn Society books take place in my home town, Dayton.) Readers want to know, what’s going on with the Saturn Society? Namely, when’s the next book coming?

There are common reader expectations here. Currently, there are two Saturn Society novels. Books typically are either standalone, or come in threes (or more). Duologies are rare. But the fact is, there isn’t a third Saturn Society novel in the pipeline – at least not yet.

You see, traditional publishing was the only viable path to readers until a couple years ago. Writers were typically advised to only write one book in a series, one that could stand alone, for a couple of reasons. One, the book might never sell, so why put a lot of time and effort into a second that would definitely not sell?  Two, even if that first book sold, there was never a guarantee that a second would. Sometimes debut authors would get a two- or three-book deal, but they often didn’t. And if that first book didn’t sell well, the second would not be purchased.

So back to the Saturn Society. Time’s Enemy was the third book I’d written, but it was the one where I was really figuring out my process. Among other things, I learned that I could not write a book without outlining or pre-planning, when I ended up with 600 pages of rambling with no ending in sight (but I had a lot of fun!). However, I still loved the story, and there was enough usable material in there for a book. Or two, I realized, when I tried to write a synopsis.

So I reworked it enough to come up with a real antagonist (also missing from those early drafts) and a logical ending for the first book. Although Time’s Enemy was still too long (150,000 words – yikes!), I dutifully pitched it to agents and editors while I worked on Time’s Fugitive. I knew the odds of selling them were dismal, but I loved the story too much not to finish it. I never bothered to give Time’s Fugitive a complete revision until I decided to publish last year. However, I wrote it with the possibility of an out for my antagonists, on the off-chance that readers would want a third book.

So there’s my long-winded explanation of why there’s no third novel in the Saturn Society series.

Yet.

Because it does appear that readers want one! I have a couple other projects on deck right now that are closer to being ready to write, so those are going to happen first while ideas for a third Saturn Society book percolate. Who knows? There could be more after that – I’ve set up some possibilities for books and series for other characters, too.

In the meantime, I’m offering a little something to hold my readers over. “Time’s Holiday” is a short story that gives a fun glimpse into the background of a couple of minor characters. Hopefully, this will entertain existing readers while pulling in new ones.

In “Time’s Holiday,” seventeen-year-old Taylor Gressman sneaks away on Christmas Eve, hoping to find the angel who saved her life a few weeks earlier. Instead, she takes an unexpected trip back in time, and finds herself in the midst of a murderous street gang. Now it’s up to Taylor to ensure that she and a newfound friend don’t become the gang’s next victims, and in the process, learn that giving is the best gift of all. There is also a brief excerpt here. This is not your typical sweetness-and-light Christmas story. It includes a bit of true crime based on the “Christmas Killings” that happened in Dayton in 1992.

“Time’s Holiday” is currently available for free on Smashwords, and will eventually be available on other major retail sites. It will also be a part of the Home for the Holidays anthology that my RWA chapter will soon release.


On another note, it’s time for ROW80 Round 4! This is “the writing challenge that knows you have a life,” where writers set goals and report back on our progress twice a week. I typically haven’t done the Wednesday updates, but am going to try to get back on that bandwagon this round, since I’ve changed my posting days to Monday and Wednesday, instead of Monday and Thursday. The Sunday updates will continue. Round 4 ends right before Christmas. Last time, my goals were a bit, shall we say, ambitious. So this time, I’m going to step back a bit. Maybe. Here are my overall goals for this round:

  • Format and release OVRWA holiday story anthology
  • Revise Hangar 18. This one was on deck for the last round, but the changes needed after beta reads were more extensive than I thought, so this is going to take longer.
  • Keep up with my exercise, five times a week.
  • Finish the Get It Together exercises (description of that here).

I’d like to get a new book planned and possibly started (maybe even do NaNoWriMo?) but I’m not ready to commit to that just yet. Same with finishing How to Think Sideways, which really goes along better with working on a new book. The great thing about ROW80 is that we recognize that life happens, things change, so our goals can change too.

This week is mainly going to be taken up with #1, so I want to get that formatted and done, although I’m waiting on one more story. So for this week, the goals are:

  • Format Home for the Holidays anthology if all materials are received – otherwise, get as much done as possible.
  • Physical activity 5x this week
  • Finish list of major revisions for Hangar 18
  • Get it Together exercises 11 & 12

If you’re participating in ROW80, what are your plans for this round? And either way, do you like holiday stories?

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

Weird Things We Love: Lolita Fashion

two gothlolitas

Two Goth Lolitas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So, as mentioned on my Monday post, the car trip to Chicago didn’t start out with The Worst. Fanfic. Ever. The girls spent the first hour or so on the 3G tablet, surfing the web for com sales and checking out fashion.

I heard enough of my daughter and her one friend’s conversations during our France trip to know that this specifically refers to community sales – of Lolita fashions put up for sale by individuals, usually on LiveJournal pages.

I would never have heard of “Lolita fashion” if my daughter weren’t into it. To start with, it has nothing to do with Nabokov’s novel or creepy pedophiles with  schoolgirl fantasies. If anything, it’s on the opposite end of the spectrum in that Lolita fashions are very modest, Victorian-inspired dresses, skirts, blouses and accessories.

And let me point out here that the “weird” in “Weird Things We Love” should not be taken negatively, but rather in the spirit of things that are unusual or not mainstream. Originating in Japan, and popular with anime fans, Lolita fashions are (depending on one’s taste) beautiful, elegant garments, often hand-made, and made with high quality lace and trims. The fabric prints are a big deal, as many are custom-designed, limited editions. As someone who sews, it’s easy to see the care taken in the construction of the dresses, skirts and blouses – these won’t come apart in the wash (not that I’d put them in a regular washer!).

Sweet Lolitas em Harajuku

Sweet Lolitas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There are three major sub-styles of Lolita fashion: goth, sweet, and classic.

Goth is, as one might guess, mostly black or dark colors, and is a blending of the overall Lolita look with goth. However, people who dress goth Lolita don’t do the extreme cosmetics, but keep toward a more mainstream look as far as makeup is concerned. The character Taylor Gressman in my books Time’s Enemy and Time’s Fugitive dresses in goth Lolita style.

Sweet Lolita is probably the most widely-recognized form of Lolita fashion. Its emphasis is on being not only pretty, but cute – and I mean extreme, saccharine cute in some cases. Sweet Lolita prints are typically stuff like cakes, cupcakes, and candy or puppies, kittens and unicorns. Pink is, of course, the quintessential sweet Lolita color; peach, baby blue, and mint green are also popular. Think cotton candy. A LOT of it.

Classic Lolita is somewhat of a cross between Goth and Sweet, with a more “mature” look and less in-your-face cuteness. I would consider the dress my daughter bought in Paris to be classic Loli, although the maker is technically considered sweet. Hence, one stop on our France trip that my daughter and her friend were most excited about: shopping at Baby the Stars Shine Bright.

BtSSB is one of the premier brands of Loli fashion, and like the others, is based in Tokyo, with stores in San Francisco and Paris. Going to the BtSSB store was a big highlight of the trip for my daughter and her friend, who’s also into Loli clothes.

Arriving at Baby, the Stars Shine Bright

What was even more exciting was when we went in the store, and she found a limited-edition print she’d seen online and was hoping she’d find: the Romeo and Juliet print.

Of course, she had to try it on.

The blouse was perfect – no small feat for my daughter, who’s pretty curvy. One thing nice about Lolita blouses and dresses is that they usually have a lot of shirring (or gathers), so that they’ll fit a wide range of sizes. Even cooler, many of the blouses – this one included – feature detachable sleeves, so they can be worn long- or short-sleeved.

The jumper was a bit tight around the bust, so we loosened the corset ribbons in the back and managed to zip it. Then one of the other girls in our group pulled the ribbons to tie them, and disaster struck: a tiny, delicate strip of lace broke.

The Romeo and Juliet dress

We had to buy the dress. At full price. Did I mention these are limited-edition, custom designed prints (and therefore, designer clothes)? My daughter assured me that if I could fix the lace (I could), she could re-sell it at home for at least what we paid for it, if not more. So she planned to get online with her own community page and find a buyer for her own “com sale.” We bought the dress with that plan, along with the blouse, which I said she could keep since she could wear it with anything.

The print features scenes and quotes from the play

When we got home, she tried on the dress again to show her dad. This time, she took the ribbons out altogether… and the dress fit!

He took one look and said “you’re not selling that.”

That dress was more than I’d paid for any dress before besides my wedding dress. But it turned out to be a happy accident, and hopefully something she’ll enjoy for many years. Just hope she doesn’t gain the Freshman 15 when she goes off to college!

Had you ever heard of Lolita fashions? What do you think of them?

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