Archive for the ‘Michael B. Caffrey’ Category
Wendy Van Camp Interviewed Me, and It’s Up at Suvudu…
Folks, Wendy Van Camp interviewed me a few months ago, and that interview is now up over at Suvudu.com.
(Ignore the misspelling of my last name. It happens.)
I enjoy doing interviews, and try to bring at least something new to the table with each one.
Did I do that this time? Well, that’s up to you to tell me. But I hope you’ll find something interesting here that may whet your interest as I continue my long, hard slog through the final edit of A LITTLE ELFY IN BIG TROUBLE (also known as the second half of the ELFY duology).
Here’s a bit from Wendy’s interview of me:
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
I’m not sure if I’m a messaging sort of writer. I think mostly I want people to believe in themselves and keep trying, even if all seems lost — that’s my own, personal message, and of course that’s reflected in Bruno’s storyline. But I also think if there is another message in AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE, it’s that the people you meet can be every bit as important as your family — perhaps even more important, as they understand you better and want to be around you because they like you for yourself.
Anyway, please go read the interview, and see what you think! (Then do come back and let me know. I need some encouragement; my final edit has run long, partly because of my ongoing hand issues…and partly because my backbrain is refusing to tell me something vital.)
“First Contact Cafe” Is Now Available for Pre-Order! (And Other Stories)
Hot off the presses! Read all about it!
Why am I so excited? Well, I have a story called “An Intoxicating Mess” that’s been included in the forthcoming FIRST CONTACT CAFE shared world anthology, edited by Phyllis Irene Radford. And as FIRST CONTACT CAFE is now available for pre-order, I thought I’d share the word about it right now.
First, here’s a picture of the lovely cover:
Next, here’s a list of the table of contents:
First Contact Café by Irene Radford
A Steaming Pile of Crap by Bob Brown
Apologies by Frog and Esther Jones
Certainty Principle by Manny Frishberg and Edd Vick
One Being’s Trash by Margaret McGaffey Fisk
Prime Cut by Liam Hogan
It’s A Con World Afterall by C.F. Bentley
Let’s Make A Deal by Leah Cutter
Anything You Can Do by Jacquelyn Meyers
And Down Came an Audit by D.H. Hanni
Goolie Unruly by Brenda Carre
The Tete á Tete by ElizaBeth Gilligan
Leave the Dead Lie by John Lance
An Intoxicating Mess by Barb Caffrey
Consistency by Joyce Reynolds Ward
FIRST CONTACT CAFE will be available on February 1, 2015, and the price for the e-book edition will be $4.99.
But if you just can’t wait for FIRST CONTACT CAFE, and want to buy something else from me, here’s the lowdown on everything else that’s currently available:
My novel, AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE, remains on sale at the extremely low price of ninety-nine cents. If you like urban fantasy, ghosts, the paranormal, cute YA romances, comedy, slapstick, wordplay, or any dozen other things, you will love AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE. (Barnes and Noble link, as always, is here.)
My late husband’s two stories of military science fiction adventure featuring hero Joey Maverick, “A Dark and Stormy Night” and “On Westmount Station,” are also available and are priced at ninety-nine cents. (These are either long novelettes or short novellas.) If you enjoy sailing adventure with just a tad bit of romance, you’ll enjoy “A Dark and Stormy Night” more; if you enjoy a “whodunnit” plot with some hand-to-hand combat set aboard a space station, you’ll enjoy “On Westmount Station” more.
My story “On the Making of Veffen” is available in the HOW BEER SAVED THE WORLD anthology, edited by Phyllis Irene Radford. The e-book price is $4.99.
I wrote a story with my late husband Michael called “Bright as Diamonds” that’s available in the BEDLAM’S EDGE anthology, edited by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill. The e-book price is $6.96.
Finally, my story “Marja’s Victory” is available in the Exquisite Quills 2014 Holiday Romance anthology, available here and here. “Marja’s Victory” is a fantasy/romance set around Yule, and features a mature female shapeshifter and her long-time partner (in every sense), Tomas — an eight-foot-tall, telepathic Mountain Troll. And that story, again, is absolutely free — as is everything else in the anthology.
So go forth, read some good stories (maybe even a few of mine and my late husband’s), and get ready for the FIRST CONTACT CAFE anthology, will you?
New Interview (Mine) at Ally Shields’ Blog Is Up…
Folks, I wanted to let you know that urban fantasy author Ally Shields invited me over to her blog today and interviewed me…and the interview has been posted. It’s a conversational interview — hence the name, “Coffee Chat” — and I enjoyed being interviewed by Ally immensely.
Please be sure to check out this interview, as Ally asked me some extremely interesting and relevant questions that I hadn’t been asked before. She’s an urban fantasy author herself, so one of her questions was about what attracted me to the paranormal/UF genre — and I told her that, along with many other interesting things.
For some reason, I’m having trouble cutting and pasting from that interview, so you’re going to have to go directly there and read it for yourself.
Thanks again, Ally, for having me over for a Coffee Chat.
Check Out Today’s SlingWords “Christmas Past” Blog…Featuring 12 Great Authors (Including Me)
Folks, author Joan Reeves has been generous enough to share space on her blog, SlingWords, for a “Christmas Past Promotion.”
What does that mean? Ms. Reeves asked for a link to a book of our choosing (for me, it’s obviously AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE as that’s my only book thus far) and for a past Christmas memory.
Please check out the promotion at SlingWords forthwith, as there should be any number of interesting writers for you to “meet,” not to mention finding new books that interest you — just in time for Christmas!
In case you were wondering, though, here’s my Christmas memory:
In 2001, I was talking with an interesting man named Michael on Christmas Eve. We’d known each other about six months, had been introduced by a mutual friend — and you’d think nothing of this, except this was a long-distance relationship where we’d only met each other once due to him living in San Francisco and me in Iowa.
Anyway, Michael and I were talking. It was Christmas Eve. My family was far away, and his was, too…so we talked and talked and talked, and didn’t care about how much money it cost because hey, it was Christmas Eve. Before we knew it, we’d talked for nearly thirty-six hours in a row about everything under the sun. And at the end of that time, he told me, “I hope we can consider ourselves dating now.”
That was the beginning of my romance with the love of my life, my late husband, Michael B. Caffrey. It is the most precious memory I have…and it happened on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, 2001.
(Yes, miracles truly do happen.)
For those of you with sharp eyes, yes, I’ve talked about this before, most notably at Murder By 4 in my guest blog last year. It is one of the most precious memories I have, and it did indeed happen at Christmas.
As I’ve said here many times, without Michael, I doubt I would’ve written AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE. I doubt I’d have finished CHANGING FACES (coming in 2015 from Twilight Times Books), either, and I certainly wouldn’t have written any military science fiction at all, whether it was to finish Michael’s stories or not.
Sometimes, one person can make a huge difference in someone’s life. Michael B. Caffrey obviously made a huge difference in mine (please check out my prior blog about Michael’s transformational life if you don’t believe me). He was encouraging, kind, knowledgeable, a skilled editor, and knew how to structure a novel. Between learning from him and working on my craft since, I’ve become a better writer, a better editor, and a far better person.
It is because I took a chance on Christmas Eve back in 2001 that I met and married the most wonderful person I have ever known — Michael B. Caffrey.
Thank you, Joan Reeves, for giving me the chance to spread the word about my work…and more importantly, about my husband.
Right Under the Wire, Barb Does the #SinCBlogHop!
Folks, lately I’ve been getting tagged — informally or otherwise — by a number of wonderful writers in the hopes that people who otherwise have never heard of me, or my writing, might be interested enough to take a gander at my comic YA urban fantasy/mystery/romance novel, AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE.
In this case, I was informally tagged by author Dora Machado, author of THE CURSE GIVER (a great fantasy/mystery in its own right). She told me about the Sisters in Crime Blog Hop (which is abbreviated as it’s shown above: #SinCBlogHop, presumably for Twitter purposes), and that she planned to do it if she could find the time . . . but that whether she did it or not, she felt I definitely should.
After our discussion, I went to the Sisters in Crime page that explains the blog hop, and decided for extra grins and giggles that I’d answer all of the questions — not just some.
So ready or not, here we go!
Question One: Which authors have inspired you?
Oh, that’s easy. The ones who have actively helped and inspired my work include Michael B. Caffrey, my late husband, my mentors Rosemary Edghill, Stephanie Osborn, and Katharine Eliska Kimbriel, and friend and writing buddy Jason Cordova.
Or do you mean the writers I loved to read when I was growing up, who inspired me to tell my own stories? Those include Andre Norton, Poul Anderson, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Elizabeth Moon, and Lois McMaster Bujold.
Those are just some of the many wonderful writers who’ve inspired me in one form or another along the way.
Question Two: Which male authors write great female characters? Which female authors write great male characters?
The female author question is easier for me to answer, because it contains most of the same people I listed above: Andre Norton. Lois McMaster Bujold. Rosemary Edghill. Katharine Eliska Kimbriel. Stephanie Osborn. And Elizabeth Moon. All of them have written outstanding male characters as well as wonderful female characters.
Male authors writing female characters. Hm. Well, in military science fiction, the biggest example of that is David Weber, who has sold a boatload of books in his Honor Harrington series. (So he must be doing something right.)
However, another of my writer-friends, Christopher Nuttall, is also very, very good at writing female characters. His fantasy novels, in particular, are centered around strong, talented young women with heart and spirit, and are a joy to read. (Check out SCHOOLED IN MAGIC or BOOKWORM if you don’t believe me.)
Finally, Michael Z. Williamson has written a number of novels from a female perspective, and he gets the issues right. (For example, in FREEHOLD, his female character Kendra must find a brassiere with excellent support once she goes to the Freehold of Grainne, as Grainne has higher gravity than Earth and thus poses more of a challenge for a busty woman. Not every male author would think about that, much less understand what the problem was; kudos to “Mad Mike” for getting it right.)
Question Three: If someone said “Nothing against women writers, but all of my favorite crime fiction authors happen to be men,” how would you respond?
Oh, boy.
First, I’d bite back an expletive of some sort. (I’m sure of this.)
Then I’d say, “Wow. You’re really missing out on a lot, then.” And I’d point to Rosemary Edghill’s work (again), this time to her three novels included in the BELL, BOOK, AND MURDER omnibus. Or maybe to her short-story collection FAILURE OF MOONLIGHT.
Or perhaps I’d ask this person if he’s read any of Sarah A. Hoyt’s work, as I’m definitely a SF&F genre writer. Most of her stories have some elements of mystery in there, and there’s a ton of action — guys who love shoot ’em up thrill-rides should be ecstatic with A FEW GOOD MEN or DARKSHIP THIEVES.
I mean, seriously. There are so many wonderful writers, why must anyone stay with only male authors? Must gender always win out? Can’t we see words for what they are, irrespective of the author’s gender?
Question Four: What’s the best part of the writing process for you? What’s the most challenging?
The best part of the writing process is actually writing. When I have a story and am fully involved in it, the world is a better place — or at least it seems that way while I’m writing.
The most challenging part is coming up with ways to market my writing after the book is done and out. (No, this isn’t part of the writing process, and it’s just as well it’s not. But it’s still so very difficult that I felt I’d mention it anyway. I can see why big-name authors hire publicists.)
Question Five: Do you listen to music while writing? What’s on your playlist?
Yes, I listen to music while writing. It helps me attain “alpha state,” or whatever/wherever it is that I go when I’m writing.
What’s on my playlist? Usually a little Alice in Chains, a little Nirvana, a little Soundgarden . . . and a whole lot of Stabbing Westward. (What can I say? I like 1990s rock. A lot.)
Question Six: What books are on your nightstand right now?
- Peter Brown, THE RISE OF WESTERN CHRISTENDOM
- Michael Z. Williamson, FREEHOLD
- Andre Norton, GALACTIC DERELICT
- Katharine Eliska Kimbriel, SPIRAL PATH
- Rosemary Edghill, TWO OF A KIND
- Sherry Thomas, MY BEAUTIFUL ENEMY
- Stephanie Osborn, A CASE OF SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION (Displaced Detective Series, book 5)
(Note that this doesn’t count all the half-finished e-books on the figurative pile, or we’d be here all night.)
Question Seven: If you were to mentor a new writer, what would you tell her about the writing business?
I’d tell her that publishing is a very difficult and frustrating business, but not to give up. She needs to believe in herself and what she’s doing, and keep doing it as long as it takes . . . push until it gives, and then some.
Because the name of the game in publishing — and in life itself — is persistence. So do not give up.
Don’t ever give up.
This concludes my first-ever Sisters in Crime Blog Hop! And I do hope you enjoyed it! (Normally, I’d tag someone else — as that’s what a blog hop is all about — but as it’s the 30th already, please go check out some of the work of the fine authors I’ve mentioned above instead!)
Jim Valvano and Michael B. Caffrey: Transformational Lives
On this, the tenth anniversary of my husband Michael B. Caffrey’s passing, I want to discuss something interesting I’ve recently watched. Something I hadn’t expected to have parallels with my husband’s life . . . but actually did.
This, oddly enough, was the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary Survive and Advance, about the 1983 NCAA Champion North Carolina State Wolfpack and their charismatic coach, Jim Valvano.
For those who don’t know much about sports, you may not know much about Jim Valvano. He died in 1993 after a yearlong battle with bone cancer at the age of 47. But even though he’s been dead now for 21 years, Valvano’s shadow continues to linger — in a good way.
Valvano was a coach who believed very strongly in his players, in his team, and in dreams. (Yes, I said dreams.) He believed if you couldn’t dream something and believe it would happen, you couldn’t achieve it. And he actually had his team rehearse things like cutting down the basketball net (something done after winning a very important game, like a national championship), because he wanted them to know deep down to the bottom of their souls that they could do anything.
Valvano — affectionately known by his players as “Coach V” — lived a transformational life.
But what goes into making a transformational life, anyway? Was it the charisma, which is still evident in this speech (at the 1993 ESPY Awards, when Valvano was eight short weeks from death)? Was it the sheer tenacity of the man, who gave as his personal philosophy this phrase — “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.” — as part of that same speech? Was it because Valvano was one of the best basketball coaches the East Coast ever produced?
It was all of that, but it was also something more. Jim Valvano made people believe they could do it. He was a positive, inspirational force of nature, with the outsized personality of a stand-up comedian but a heart as big as the Atlantic Ocean. And he made people believe in themselves — not just his 1983 Wolfpack team, but the many people who heard his motivational speeches, read his autobiography, and heard his final major speech at the ’93 ESPYs.
Having a talent like that is incredibly rare.
I’ve only known one person who had it in my entire life: my late husband, Michael. Though Michael was not an outsized personality — certainly not like Valvano, at any rate — he had a presence that was beyond anything I’ve ever known. A certainty, a positivity, and a belief that I could do anything I wanted no matter the obstacle. No matter how many times I might stumble. No matter how many times I might actually fall.
He believed I could do it. More than that: he believed I would do it.
Watching Survive and Advance was both inspirational and heartbreaking for two reasons. One, Valvano died at age 47; Michael died at 46. And two, there were so many things in there that “Coach V” said that reminded me of my husband . . . it’s hard to explain, because Michael’s manner was nothing like Jim Valvano at all.
But the message — the powerful, motivational message — was exactly the same.
The words that rang truest of all were these, again from Valvano’s ’93 ESPY speech:
“”Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever.”
My husband did not have cancer. He instead died of several heart attacks in one day, without warning, to the point his ventricle failed him. But he once told me that no matter what happened to him — as he believed his own health wasn’t all that wonderful — he believed his heart, his mind, and his soul would endure. And he’d never stop loving me. He’d never stop caring about me. And he’d never, ever stop believing in me.
He told me that about a year before he died, when I was about to go in for a needed surgery that I was fearful of, and I have never forgotten it.
I know that Jimmy V’s life was lived in the public eye. Michael’s certainly wasn’t. Michael’s life didn’t touch nearly as many people — how could it?
But Michael is remembered by many. He helped many writers, including the late Ric Locke, with his editing. He helped many people believe they could indeed do exactly what they put their mind to doing . . . and that’s what makes a transformational life.
You come into contact with someone like that, and your whole life changes. It gets better, because you can do more. Even through the mourning, you can still do more. And you get up every day and you try your level best, because you want to be worthy of that belief.
My husband would be astonished that I’d mention him in this particular context, especially as he was also a sports fan. He’d probably see absolutely no parallels between himself and the famous “Coach V.”
But he’d be wrong.
It’s because Michael lived, and was with me, that I continue to do what I do. His loss was so painful that I continue to struggle with it, ten years later . . . but it’s because I knew him, was married to him, and got to see how he overcame his own obstacles that I have refused to give up.
If that’s not the epitome of what a transformational life is all about, I don’t know what is.
————
Note: If you want to read Michael’s writing — and I hope at least some of you do — please take a look at the two stories I’ve been able to put up as independent e-books over at Amazon: “A Dark and Stormy Night” and “Joey Maverick: On Westmount Station.” These are both stories of military science fiction, though the first is while Ensign Joey Maverick is on leave and participating in a “low-tech” sailing regatta (meaning approximately 20th Century tech) and the second is when newly-minted Lieutenant Maverick is about to ship out for the first time. In essence, the first story is a search-and-rescue story with some romance, and the second story is that of a young officer stopping an unexpected saboteur at a very early hour in a completely unexpected place.
A third story has been started (a bridge story, written by me with some details from Michael’s notes), and I’ve also written two stories in Michael’s universe from a different perspective entirely that are currently making the rounds (if all rounds end up exhausted, they, too, will end up as e-books).
So at least some of Michael’s words continue to live, which is what I vowed when Michael died suddenly. And if I have anything to say about it — if I get enough time on this Earth — all of them will.
Keeping Hope Alive . . .
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been doing my best to keep hope alive. Life has been difficult and frustrating; it’s almost inconceivable to me, sometimes, that I’m still alive and my husband Michael has been dead for nearly ten years.
And I’m all that remains of what we’d hoped and dreamed for. I’m the only one who can finish his work, as well as my own. And as it’s difficult for me to figure out just what Michael had intended to do — writer Ursula Jones called this phenomenon “breaking into” someone else’s thinking (she was discussing finishing up her sister Diana Wynne Jones’ novel THE ISLANDS OF CHALDEA in the end-notes) — sometimes I wonder if I’m doing the right thing in carrying on Michael’s work.
Then again, I loved Michael, and I loved his stories, too. It makes me feel closer to him to do whatever I can to keep things going, even if what I write isn’t exactly the same as what he’d have written. Even if it’s taking me ten times as long to figure out this new novella set on Bubastis as it undoubtedly would’ve taken him, at least I’m trying to do it.
And that, in and of itself, is worthwhile. Michael would tell me so, if he were here . . . though of course, if he were, I’d not be doing this.
Mind you, I’m not the only writer who has ever wondered whether or not what I’m doing makes any sense. This blog from writersrelief.com about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and writing explains why writing and hope are so inextricably mixed:
As human beings and creative writers, we sometimes have a tumultuous relationship with hope. Hope keeps us going. We hope someone will understand what we’re trying to say with our writing. We hope the world will be a better place for our children. But when times get tough, hope can also feel like cold comfort.
Why have hope? we ask ourselves. What good will it do me if I know I can’t succeed? Sometimes when the task ahead seems truly impossible, hope seems futile.
But few people understand what it means to be hopeful as deeply as the man we honor every year at this time: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a pioneer of the civil rights movement. King’s dream was simple, but achieving it meant overcoming countless barriers and complexities. In many ways, hope was the driving force behind his remarkable achievements.
I missed this blog when it was first put up in January of 2014, but I find its words to be especially meaningful right now. (After all, studying the work of Martin Luther King, Jr., is never a bad thing.) I cannot imagine the odds against Dr. King when he first started agitating for civil rights and fair pay for laborers and equal rights for women and any number of other positive things — and he must’ve felt discouraged from time to time, too.
He didn’t show it very often, because Dr. King knew that people needed to believe that their lives, however meaningless they seemed, could indeed make a difference. So on bad days, he must’ve said, “I’m going to go out there and do the best I can,” and given whatever speech he had planned with whatever energy he had. And in so doing, he helped to lift people up with his words.
Words matter. Whether you’re an orator or a writer (or somewhere in between).
When I write a story, I want to make you think about something beyond yourself. Pondering something else can give you hope, because it means you can still think, still feel, still understand.
And I know that was Michael’s motivation for writing, also. He wanted to divert people, get them outside of themselves, and give them a few hours of entertainment that might actually make ’em smile . . . maybe that’s why I’ve pushed so hard with my own novel AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE, because as a comic fantasy, what else can it do but make people smile?
Before I go, let me share one quote (also cited in the Writer’s Relief article) I found especially meaningful from Dr. King: “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
That, in a nutshell, is why I keep writing. Because I believe in hope. And that hope has to come from my own, hard work and effort — otherwise, why would it be worth anything?
Fourth Blog Anniversary Today
Folks, it’s been four years today since I started this blog. And because it’s a special day of a certain type, I figured I’d get on here and ask you for something special, too.
(No, it’s not publishing related.)
Please consider becoming an organ donor.
Why do I care about this? Well, when Michael died, as per his wishes I donated his organs. This was not easy to do — they asked a number of questions that were both difficult to answer and invasive, because by law they must ask these terrible questions (such as: did he have AIDS? Did he have any diseases you know about? If so, what?).
Fortunately, I knew this was what Michael wanted. So I persevered with these awful questions, and donated his organs. Several people were helped thereby.
At the time, we lived in Iowa, so I continue to receive newsletters from the Iowa Donor Network thanking me (and my husband) for donating his organs. If you live in Iowa, that’s where you need to go if you’re thinking about organ donation for yourself or any family members.
However, if you live in Wisconsin, if you want to donate your organs after your death, you need to go to the Wisconsin Donor Registry and sign up.
Other states, of course, have different donor registries.
Aside from that, the only other thing I’d like my readers to do today is to make sure their after-death wishes are known. It can be difficult to discuss this, especially if you are young and in the prime of life. I get that, but if Michael and I hadn’t had this conversation, I’d not have known what to do when the time came.
No one wants to think about losing a loved one at a young age. No one wants to think about themselves dying early, either.
But it happens, sometimes. And if that terrible thing does occur, it’s best for your loved ones to know exactly what they must do.
Barb Caffrey's Blog 