That book! Part 4

I know what you’re thinking. She has to be done, right?

Nope. The next part in my spare time is going back to writing the second book. I want the release to be close to the first, maybe even the preorder to start with the release of the first. That means I need to write fast.

And….I need another cover. I have chosen my title: Some Late Visitor. I am anxious to get with my cover designer to choose the image. I hope to again use the raven as part of my design.

I already have an idea for my third novel in the series, so I also will start taking notes and maybe write out the first scenes. I want the relationship to move along as well, so I will have to consider what situations to put my characters in to force them to interact on a more personal level.

And then I get to wait a little more.

But, check out the process so far!!
Here's the link for the first book: https://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Dreary-Mystery-Rachael-Rawlings-ebook/dp/B079NTWX2S/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1518369720&sr=1-3&keywords=rachael+rawlings

still publishing that book, part 3

You thought we were done, right? Wrong!

So now I have my website up to date. http://rachaelrawlings.wixsite.com/rachael-rawlings

I have added the preorder, the lovely cover, and the blurb. I have a means to sign up for the newsletter to keep my readers updated too.

Newsletter, you say? You didn’t know I had that too!?

Many authors use a newsletter to send out chances to win books, to keep readers informed, to share favorite authors, and to ask opinions about future work. I’ve got some awesome people on my newsletter, and always enjoy hearing from my readers. So naturally, I want to give my newsletter folks the good news about my newest publication. Some have helped me with the writing and plotting along the way. Others will write reviews for me, which is awesome!

Reviews, you say?

Here’s the honest truth. Amazon loves reviews. We authors like them, but Amazon loves them. And if we get enough reviews, then Amazon will actually boost our books, showing it to new audiences, finding us new readers! Great, right? So here’s a favor I’ll ask. If you have read a book, any book, that you like, write a quick review on Amazon. It doesn’t have to be more than one line, but it will make the author super happy!!

And now that I have my newsletter updated, I can go back to writing, right?

Um, no. I still have to put some new updates on my author Facebook page, tweet a little (which I am terrible at) maybe do an Instagram, and Pinterest. I don’t do these a lot, but I want to show off my cover, so I’ll add that on my to-do list.

And then I wait a little more.

Haunted Village, Victim of War

Oradour-sur-Glane

When I think of spooky places, places haunted by history and events, I often, naively, forget the remnants of war.  In the United States, it’s easier to slip over the uncomfortable history of loss because so many of our battles have been fought on foreign soil.  We forget, sometimes, what it’s like to live amid the shadows of the past.

Oradour-sur-Glane, a little village in France, is frozen forever in its haunted state, a deliberate attempt to keep tragedy in our minds, hopefully to teach us something.

In 1944, the Nazi’s descended on the town, bringing with them unspeakable cruelty.   No one was spared, not the children or the elderly, the only survivors, people who were missed or hid, and precious few of them.  The little town was not part of the fight, but removed from the war.  Most had never even seen a German until the soldiers came.  And in one stoke, 642 people were killed, the buildings burned, remains of inhabitants with them until few bodies were left to be buried.  The aftermath of the massacre was inexplicable.  No one knew the reason for the brutality of the attack, and it was total.  The village was gone, never to be rebuilt.

And so Oradour-sur-Glane remained.  The French Government decided that they wanted the village as it was, a testament to the war, its destruction complete.  Rubble frames what once was homes, naked facades with no buildings supporting them, gates keeping no one out or in.  It is a dead land.   People now visit to pay respect and to honor the innocent that were lost. 

The walls are slowly eroding, crumbling into dust.  The buildings, frozen in destruction, cannot withstand the passage of time and now the government is being forced to make a decision.  Do they push more money into the time forgot town to save it, or allow the earth to swallow it?   

My thanks to: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/03/oradour-sur-glane-nazi-massacre-village

Another strange place: Varosha by the sea

A salty breeze slithers between the buildings, creeping through cracks and whistling empty echos of sound.  The sounds of laughter, of footfalls and chatter, are gone.  Windows lie in broken shards, winking like diamonds, littering the sidewalks and dusty floors.  The city is empty.  The stores still boast frozen people in fashions of years before, their plastic hands outstretched.  But trees have stabbed up through the roof and plants thrust the concrete up into buckled gaps.  Their churches are empty but for spirits.

The city is the abandoned resort of Varosha, a victim of a battle between the Greek people of Cyprus and the Turks. It was once a brilliant, glittering tourist attraction, tucked in the sandy beaches.  It now stands, fenced off from the rest of the world, abandoned and left to gradually decay.

The story is fascinating and sad, definitely worth reading.  But my writer's mind wonders beyond the fence.  What must it be like?  What would it feel like to walk the abandoned streets? To peer through the windshields of cars parked permanently for decades?  The city is heavily guarded now, but what if it wasn't?  The looted city has been left for so long, but what could live there?  What might live there hidden in the dark, creeping in the abandoned rooms, feeding off the overgrown gardens?

Here is another place where even a visit would give you shivers.  A haunted past, a violent past, and an unknown future.

strange things...the Mutter Museum

If strange places and academic places were ranked in importance, the Mutter Museum would rank at the top for both categories.  Located in Philadelphia, it houses an expansive and gruesome collection of items to provide education for medical professionals, and just creep out the rest of us.  It's primary web site asks, "Are you ready to be disturbingly informed?" Exhibitions include Civil War artifacts including body specimens with the opportunity to imagine what it would have been like to have an arm amputated.  Educational?  Other charming items include surgical instruments, a huge collection of human skulls, and slivers of Einstein's brain. Additional bodies and bits are proudly preserved, originated from the collections from Dr. Thomas Dent Mutter, who was devoted to medical education.
I imagine the visit would be fascinating.  Rows upon rows of organs floating in jars, hundreds of articulated skeletons, and dehydrated body parts.
When I was a student in the college of medicine, one of our labs centered on the dissection and examination of cadavers.  These real bodies were invaluable to learn about the layers of muscles, the tiny articulated bones, and the fascinating web of membranes that made up the body in front of us.  But it always remained in the back of my mind that this was the shell of a person, a real, thinking, caring person who gave a gift for me to learn.
And in a very real way, once you learn of the complexity of the human body, the frailty and the miraculous symmetry, you see the design in the form and function.

The Parrot Told Me

The first edit of my mystery book featuring an African Grey Parrot is ready. My premise is simple, what happens if a parrot is a witness to a crime?