Behind the scenes of The Reason for the Season. Now available for Pre-order.

 

I had so much fun revisiting this short novella. Austin and Maddox's journey is a very dear one to me, and includes several personal moments from my own life.

Yes, I have been on the road during a dreaded snowpocalypse, and the experience with the broken wiper blade happened to me late one wintery night during my hour-long commute after a late shift at work. Definitely an experience I won't forget.

Vollwerth's is a real company I highly recommend. If you are looking to share some Upper Peninsula love, their gift boxes are a favorite Michigan treat to both give and receive. Once you've tried their hot dogs, you'll never want another brand.

Michigan Tech is an amazing college in Houghton, Michigan and does share record snowfalls on their website. "The record-high seasonal total—a whopping 355.90 inches—came in the winter of 1978–79. The least amount of snowfall, in the winter of 1930–31, is 81.30 inches."  It was a point of pride when I was younger to make the drive from in one, non-stop trip. Why? We were young, what more can I say? ROAD TRIP!

The Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly, Michigan is a beautiful final resting place that we have visited many times since it was opened and, as per the website: "Burial in a national cemetery is open to all members of the armed forces who have met a minimum active duty service requirement and were discharged under conditions other than dishonorable." 

This novella, originally offered by another publisher, has been rewritten and re-edited with an expanded word count for your enjoyment. This rewrite was also another, head-shaking moment for me when I realized that once again, I used the same two character names as I had in other works. Long-time readers have joined in the fun of emailing me with the number of times I have used the same names. Are there prizes? Maaaaybe. LOL. I appreciate the chance to revise the character names and redeem myself with future readers.

Visit JMS Books today to pre-order your copy and take advantage of the the 20% pre-order discount.

Behind the scenes of Everything I Need.

 

I love sharing behind the scenes of my stories almost as much as I love writing the stories. Well, almost as much as I love having written the story.  I’ve held off on Everything I Need because my first publication experience with the story was more difficult than usual and I wasn’t sure if I was comfortable opening up about what I could only view as Bi-Erasure, no matter how much I tried to think otherwise. It took a long time for me to return to the story in order to expand and update the work and I’m grateful to JMS Books for giving me the chance to republish the work with comfort and confidence.

Everything I Need was written to in response to the 2016 Orlando, Florida mass shooting tragedy at the Pulse nightclub where 49 people were killed, and another 53 wounded. The submission call was for stories highlighting the theme of love wins for publication in a charitable anthology to benefit the victims and families. This was a tough time for me personally. I was spiraling with an additional deterioration in my sight and now my community was working through the emotions of how a safe space became anything but. I was simply happy my words might do a bit of good. The characters demanded they be put to page,  and once the short was complete, I dove right into writing a prequel.

Somehow this simple short became a total gut punch and a crippling blow to my confidence in the direction and future of my writing. 

Bi-Erasure has always been a thing. At least in my personal experience. Even in this age, where our understanding of the complexities of our sexuality can be expressed through a range of identifiers, bisexuality still seems to catch some flack. The insults are old and tired, and I don’t want to go into them here, but it’s kind of a damned if you do, and damned if you don’t, and the hurt left in their wake is real. It’s a shame. Love between two people is an amazing and wonderfully transformative experience. No one should have a voice in who you share the experience with.

One of my characters in Everything I Need is Joshua Lawton. I love his character. He’s a bisexual, ex-military EMT. He’s a little rough around his edges, but head over heels with the love of his life. I’ve never been a writer who swears the story gets hijacked by the characters, but Joshua was as demanding as my characters get. Especially when it came to his appearance. A large part of his identity is expressed through his tattoos. Some are hidden beneath his uniform and explored in the prequel story. But as bold and brash as Joshua himself are his hand tattoos, visible for the world to see. The word love is inked across both sets of his knuckles, with the astrological symbol for male on one thumb, and the symbol for female on the other. Or so he was written.

Somewhere in the first publication, something happened. The original call for submissions stated characters of all orientations were welcome. I triple-checked. But after initial acceptance and two rounds of edits, with no word of explanation to me as the author, the published version of the work had Joshua sporting the astrological symbol for males only on each thumb. 

I’ve never been good naming my emotions and to this day, even as an author, I’m not sure I can detail how devastating finding this change felt. The depth of my  response  still surprises me. It was visceral in every sense of the word. We all read what we like, whether it be genre, sexual pairings, or the lack thereof. It's fine. But in this case, while the change might have been made to my character, it reflected something larger and greater to me in what was already a difficult emotional place as more and more of my sight drifted away.

The initial publishing company responded to my request for clarification with an immediate apology and made the needed correction to the already-released work. I appreciate that now as much as I did then. But I still don’t know what happened or why. Was it Bi-Erasure in its simplest form? A simple last-minute editing error? Someone, somewhere late in the production process felt the change should be made. With the new and updated version released by JMS Books, it shouldn’t matter to me anymore. But it does. Especially when I remember the tragedy behind the story and the reason for its inclusion in the anthology in the first place.

I’m slowly writing again. In addition to rewrites and republication of my older stories, new work is on the way. Every time I open my main work-in-progress file, I see the folder for my still-unfinished prequel to Everything I Need, and Joshua starts demanding I pay attention to him again. I tell him it’s up to the readers to decide. Would you like to read more of Joshua and Michael’s story? I’d love to know.

5:15pm - various edits made for blind life typos.

Behind the scenes of Stormy Weather.

 Happy snowy Tuesday, my friends. Yes, you heard that right. It’s a snowy day here at Chez Munder. I spent a lot of time on my phone’s weather app yesterday, checking out the snowfall predictor and hour by hour forecast and comparing it with the view outside my window. Because, honestly, the technology is pretty darn cool and I’m not just talking about the background image on the app which has little snowflakes coming down.

 The advancements that allow hour by hour forecasts and the accuracy of the various models is fascinating, and I only wish I had known, way back when, that predicting the weather was a career choice. I don’t know about your school’s guidance program but the less said about mine, the better.

 A gal I  used to work with often complained about her husband’s enjoyment of The Weather Channel, because, in her mind, only old people watch the weather forecast for fun. Ouch. There wasn’t anything sexy about the weather or the guys on television talking about it. Their suits were bad, their jokes were worse, and where, she questioned, was the adventure with all the math and science needed?

 Her complaints and the timely realization there was a National Meteorologist’s Day (now sometimes called National Weatherperson’s Day) sparked my novella, Stormy Weather, published by JMS Books, LLC. I wanted to challenge her opinion of a television meteorologist and give the much-maligned career a happy, sexy ending that might make a reader smile when they turned on their evening news and saw their own, local forecast. The research needed was just a fun bonus. One of those writerly perks that come along with the job and it was fun to share bits and pieces with my readers.

 What’s the weather like in your neck of the woods today, and, more importantly, are you a weather geek like me?

 

Behind the Scenes of The Scenic Route.

 Spring is in the air, and with it, at least in Michigan, comes the long-awaited start of road trip season. Maybe it's the welcome end to the snow and cold that sends thousands of Michiganders into their cars and out on the to the freeways. It's certainly not the state of our roads.  Our inconsistent freeze and thaw cycles means spring is also the start of pothole season.

There's something about stuck in a car with our loved ones that can bring out the best, and the worst, in all of us. The combination of indigestible food and unfamiliar sleeping conditions can combine to have us waking up feeling mad at the world. Instead of time and space to work through our irritation, we're jammed together and every single thing can set our teeth on edge. The situation only spirals downward if we aren't exactly thrilled about our destination. We know we are being irrational, but we just can't seem to stop ourselves.

Have you ever been there? I sure have. And it was much too easy to reach into the past and pull up some emotions to share with Ed Baldwin in my novella, The Scenic Route, recently published by JMS Books, LLC. Ed would rather be anywhere other than trapped in a car with the boyfriend he's taking home to meet his parents for the first time.

Here's an excerpt:

“Do we have to fight about this?” Ed rubbed his forehead against his smeary doppelganger in the cool glass and closed his eyes. He desperately needed to pee.

“Who’s fighting?” Joe asked, tapping his fingers against the steering wheel. His voice dropped to the overly calm tone Ed recognized as him holding back. “I’m just making conversation. You’re the one all prickly and weird ever since we started this trip.”

“You’re not helping.” Ed bit out the words. Each one edged with a metallic aftertaste. He tried to avoid this kind of veiled, relationship warfare, but after a day and a half of travel, his patience decreased with each mile to their destination.

Besides, he hated when Joe refused to argue back and only became more rational. Why couldn’t they fight and get it over with? Despite Joe’s passionate nature, he stayed even-tempered no matter how Ed tried to provoke him, and the loop spiraled downward from there. “And don’t use that tone of voice with me.”

Ouch. Makes me glad not to be sitting in the backseat for that trip. But you can find out how they resolve their argument and read more of their story by getting your copy of The Scenic Route. It's currently on sale as part of the Smashwords Read an Ebook Week Celebration along with tens of thousands of other ebooks. Including your favorite JMS Books Authors. 

Ed Baldwin left his home in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula right after graduation and vowed never to return. He’s patched things up enough that he’s bringing long-time boyfriend, Joe Sutton home to meet the family. Ed knows no family dynamic is ever perfect, but with the differences between their upbringings, he worries this will be the deal-breaker in their relationship.

Nervous and on-edge, Ed picks a fight with Joe the entire trip. When Joe has enough and stops at a run-down motel to take a break, their relationship is tested in a way Ed never imagined. There’s not a lot of rest to be had at the Easy Rest Motel and Ed must learn to trust both himself and Joe before they become permanent guests.

But that’s not the end of their adventure and Ed knows one thing; this is the last time he lets Joe take the scenic route. 

Novella ebook available from JMS Books, Amazon, and your favorite online bookstore

Behind the Scenes of 3rd Time's the Charm.

Where do you get your ideas? Almost every writer has heard this question in all its myriad of forms, and we do our best to answer. But people often aren't satisfied with our response. Because, each author is different, each story is different, and each spark for a story is different. At least for me.

Some writers are able to able to work with vast constructs right from the start. Entire scenes have played out in their heads, character arcs expand in their dreams, and sometimes, the entire three acts snap into existence before they even start. I'm not one of those lucky folks. 

I begin with a tiny spark of an idea. A glimmer. A barely-seen shadow. My interest is teased and I tug lightly on the thread. Not too hard, I don't want it to snap. But if I follow, it will lead. My novella, 3rd Time's the Charm, published by JMS Books, LLC, came from such a spark. A silly one, when I think about it. But, from silliness to full-blown story, who am I to complain? 

One snowy, Michigan winter Mr. Munder came down with a truly horrendous cold. One that was bad enough I could bully him into the urgent care. We sat there for a few hours, amid the other hacking and coughing patients, and with nothing else to do (even before Covid I wouldn't touch a magazine in a clinic's waiting room to save my life), I people-watched.

I studied the staff behind the desks, the worried parents around me, and the never-ending stream of patients. Somewhere in the midst of all that chaos, there was a young doctor who walked through the waiting room for a brief second.  That was all it took. Somehow, in the period of time it took this doctor to exit one door and enter another, Dr. Nick Davros was created. The rest of his story came a bit later, but the tiny flicker, that spark, was the beginning. Did I do him justice? Well, only you, as the reader, can decide.

3RD TIME'S THE CHARM

Novella ebook available from JMS Books, Amazon, and your favorite online bookstore

Behind the Scenes of Business Before Pleasure.

 My face paled. A burning heat drained from the top of my head and joined the rush of anger turning over in my stomach before flooding back up again. My hands shook, and the pulse pounding in my ears drowned out the rest of the voices at the table.

Have you experienced that kind of visceral emotion? I’m still not sure if it was anger or shame that overloaded my senses in the moment, but I’ll always remember my panicked thought: what do I do now?

Happy Tuesday, friends. Thanks for joining me for a little behind the scenes post this chilly, January day. Years before I began writing, I held a variety of jobs in a variety of states. This one is particularly memorable due to this particular meeting. The short version is, I was brought in to clean-up a  disaster of a project to swap an office building’s aged phone system to a VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) system. At the time, (yes, I’m dating myself), it was a new and expensive technology requiring not only equipment upgrades, but also rewiring the entire five-story building. The partners I worked for were displeased with the vendor they chose and their inability to stick to the costs as bid.

After several meetings with the partner spearheading the project, we had settled on a strategy to present the vendor with their initial cost projections, the current invoices, and hardball our way into some savings, while still getting the work completed by this vendor and by deadline. Fun times.

The meeting started, and, as per the scripted presentation, I laid into the vendors with all our backup. I hadn’t even finished when this same partner--the one I just came out of a meeting with who set this strategy--did a complete about-face, agreed to pay them a bonus if they finished in a shorter time frame, and apologized for my aggressive manner. 

Say what?

All I can remember are the feelings in that moment. They were so sharp, so all-consuming, that I’m not sure I can tell you what happened next. Later I discovered this partner had a kickback deal with the vendor, but that’s a messy story for another day. So, why am I sharing this today?

Writers are always told to write what we know. It can be easy to take that advice literally. But, in this case, I took the emotions and a situation I had personally experienced, and used it in one of my short stories, Business Before Pleasure, recently released by JMS Books, LLC. It’s a little bit of realism I hope readers can relate to and deepens my character’s dilemma.

I think I succeeded based on this review at Goodreads by a reader named Anita: Hard, fast and sexy. Lovely short story about corporate intrigue and cutthroat methods to get ahead. Surprising depth about Joel and his backstory.

Whoot! That calls for a dorky fist-pump! (You knew I would).

Joel Anderson is on the fast-track to upper management, and he doesn’t care who he steps on in the process. But when the man he thought was a mentor steals his idea and uses it against him during a meeting, the only thing Joel sees in his future is the unemployment line.

Bryce Harris has been in Joel’s shoes. After months of working with Joel and not even having him know his name, Bryce gives up on both the job and the man he wants.

Can the two men work together before time runs out to keep more than their customer satisfied?

Business Before Pleasure is available from Amazon, JMS Books, and your favorite ebook retailers.