Always there in my books

In 2017, I've written a series of posts with titles that begin "Always there...". The posts feature story elements that I always include in my books.

I introduced this set of posts by saying, "when authors write young adult novels, there are many aspects that we're all trying to achieve: a well-written story with a good plot, sympathetic characters who struggle with relatable problems, and interesting settings. I have other elements that will always be there. Some appeared without me really thinking about. Others--I [intentionally] decided to include in every book or series..."

There are 9 Always There posts now. I'll list them here, so that you can see the elements that I want all of my books/series to have.

• diversity
• military
• no violence
• Norah and Charlie
• North Carolina
• realistic parents
• research
• satisfying ending
• technology

Something that seems to be in all of my books is Sports. This is an interesting choice for me, since I am really not much of a participant or spectator of sports. I do watch the Olympics, and I occasionally watch a pro football or baseball game on TV. But really, sports is not important to me or my immediate family. It's kinda strange that it's featured in my books:

• Whisper Falls - Mark is a mountain bike racer.
• I Wish - Eli and Scott are soccer stars. Kimberley and Sean are ballroom dancers (and dance IS a sport.)
• The Possibility of Somewhere - Eden was on the track team until it became too expensive for her to participate. Ash is involved in all kinds of sports, like surfing and golf.
• Fade To Us - Micah is into fencing and swimming. Brooke and Micah love to go running and hiking (especially together). And, of course, there is baseball. They are both huge fans, and Brooke's mom is a lady umpire.

So, yeah, lots of sports. I like researching it and writing about it. I'm just not interested in sports outside of fiction...

Free this week - Wishing for You

If you haven't had a chance to read Wishing for You, it's free this week at most e-book retailers.

• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• Kobo
• iBooks
• Smashwords

About the book...

This is the second book in the I Wish series, but it can be read as a stand-alone (although there are, obviously, spoilers for Book 1.)

She’s a girl who can’t remember. He’s the guy she can’t forget.

It’s her final semester of high school, and Kimberley Rey is curious about what will come next. She needs to pick a college, but her memory disability complicates the choice. Will her struggles to remember make it impossible to leave home?

Help arrives through an unexpected and supernatural gift. Grant is a “genie” with rules. He can give her thirty wishes (one per day for a month) as long as the tasks are humanly possible. Kimberley knows just what to ask for—lessons in how to live on her own.

But her wishes change when a friend receives a devastating diagnosis. As she joins forces with Grant to help her friend, Kimberley learns that the ability to live in the moment—to forget—may be more valuable than she ever knew.

Always there - research

I love the research for books so much that I sometimes forget to stop researching and start writing the story.

The goal, of course, is to write my stories to be as authentic as possible. For historical books, I visit locations, try recipes, check out period details (like fashion, transportation, food, technology) on the Internet, and interview people who may have lived during the time period.

For contemporary stories, I often write about issues, technology, or places in which I have experience. Sometimes, though, my experiences aren't enough to write a complete, interesting, satisfying story. In those cases, I research and research and research...

If you're a writer, here are a few tips for researching books, whether historical or contemporary.

• Interview your family and friends: Everyone you know is an expert on something--and often their interests and skills will surprise you. So ask--and prepare to be amazed. Make mental notes about their love of horseback-riding or their fascination with astronomy. You will use it one day!
• Visit museums, historical sites, etc.: Many docents know everything about a topic, and they want to answer your questions. So visit museums or historical sites and engage in conversation with the docents, staff, park rangers, etc. They love eager and interested visitors.
• Watch YouTube: Let's face it. YouTube has a video for everything. If you don't know how something works, you'll find a how-to video on YouTube.
• Browse Wikipedia: Yeah, I know. You can't always rely on wikipedia to give you purely factual, accurate information. But, it can supply a good, general overview--and the references linked at the end of each article are priceless.
• Go!: if you have access to locations or venues that will be featured in your book, go and experience it firsthand. Use local parks as book settings. Take in a ballgame. Sign up for lessons in cooking, dancing, sports, etc. 

Let me show how I applied some of these suggestions to my books.

The Whisper Falls series: It's entirely possible that I have visited every colonial museum or historical site in North Carolina and Virginia. The docents/guides at Mount Vernon, Tryon Palace, Yates Mill, and Williamsburg are amazing. I learned incredible nuggets of information that enriched my stories.

As a time-travel, the Whisper Falls series also required contemporary research. I've watched YouTube videos about mountain bike racing, chatted with my Physical Therapist about how to break noses, and asked my cousin-in-law (who, coincidentally, is the registrar of deeds in a nearby county) to explain how to fake a birth certificate.

The I WISH series: In the first book, the issues were mainly depression and poverty--which I have first-hand experience with. But I also had a biracial character, which required interviews with a biracial friend. The second and third books deal with grief, terminal illness, and disability. Again, I interviewed people with knowledge of brain injuries and caregivers of cancer patients. Their candor was invaluable. For small details--like ballroom dancing or building stacked stone walls--I used YouTube. Lastly, I needed one of the main characters to have an interesting hobby, and the young man ended up with my husband's passion--astronomy.

The Possibility of Somewhere: The heroine, Eden, is dealing with poverty and the difficulties of getting college scholarships when you can't afford the extra-curricular activities that make your resume shiny. Since those issues are somewhat autobiographical, I knew how she felt. But the details had changed since I was in high school. So I read blogs, content on social media, and Quora questions. The hero, Ash, is the son of Asian-Indian immigrants. Because I work at a global company, I had several Indian colleagues who were willing to answer my questions about what life would be like for Ash.

Fade To Us: This book (which releases in February 2018) may have been the most interesting to research because of the variety of disparate threads that are woven through.

• Biracial stage manager: The hero is half-Chinese and half-white. I interviewed a Chinese friend and her biracial sons to understand the character of Micah. He's the stage manager for theater productions. Happily, my daughter has a friend who is a professional stage manager. (And, yes, Daniel, you will see some of your quotes in the book :)
• Baseball umpires: The heroine's mom is a lady umpire; that was fun to research! I attended a baseball game with a professional umpire, who called them for me and gave me insider details. In addition to introducing me to a lady umpire, he beta-read the baseball sections of the book.
• Summer musical theater program: A local high school allowed me to sit in on their musical theater rehearsals, both during the school year and during the summer. Since the musical featured in the book is Oklahoma!, I was able to observe the rehearsals of a local community theater's production of Oklahoma!.
• Autism: The third main character, Natalie, is on the autism spectrum. I have a child with Asperger's Syndrome, so I've "lived" the research for over 20 years. But I still read books and blogs, chatted with autism parents, and leaned on the many observations I've made with my daughter and her friends on the spectrum. Natalie is--of course--her own unique person; she is not a re-creation of anyone I know.

I hope that some of these suggestions spark ideas for how you can make your research process fun and effective!

Always there - diversity

When authors write YA novels, there are many aspects that we're all trying to achieve: a well-written story with a good plot and interesting settings.

For me, the most important aspect is to have realistic characters who struggle with relatable problems. Including diverse characters simply reflects the people I meet in my daily life or the lives of my family.

I have a day job at a software company. We're located in the middle of a region with many universities and technical companies. People come here from all over the globe to get college degrees--and they stay to work. When my daughters were in their teens, they attended urban magnet schools with diverse student bodies. They're now in their 20s, with diverse colleagues or university classmates.

Ethnic, cultural, economic, religious, gender, and physical diversity has always been around me. The characters in my books grow out of the world I live in. Sometimes, I make it clear that a character is biracial or Hindu or experiences life differently. And sometimes, the diversity is just there without being explicitly called out.

With contemporary characters, I start by researching them through books, films, websites, and blog posts. I ask questions either online or through interviews. I've also begun to seek sensitivity readers--people who are intimately familiar with the differences I'm writing about.

Whisper Falls series: For people in the 18th century (and throughout history), physical disabilities were devastating, especially for women. In A Whisper in Time, Susanna's sister Phoebe sustains a serious hand injury that will threaten her livelihood. In Whispers from the Past, Susanna's dearest friend Dorcas may never be able to attract a husband because she is "crippled".

I Wish series: I interviewed a biracial friend who helped me to create the backstory for Eli--who has a black mother and white father. In book 2, Kimberley's memory disability is a major conflict. We did extensive research of people with memory disabilities--and received a sensitivity read of Wishing for You from a nurse who cared for patients with brain injuries.

The Possibility of Somewhere - Ash Gupta is the son of wealthy Asian Indian immigrants. I was fortunate that Indian colleagues and friends were generous with their patience and time to answer my questions about what Ash's life might have been like.

 Fade to Us - My next book, Fade to Us, releases in February 2018 (writing as Julia Day). This story is set during a summer musical theater program for teens, with a Chinese director and her biracial son (Chinese and white). A Chinese friend and her two biracial teen sons helped me with these two characters. Another Chinese friend gave a sensitivity read. However, the biggest role that diversity plays in this book comes from the heroine's new stepsister. Natalie is a 15-year-old on the autism spectrum. My daughter, who also has Asperger's Syndrome, helped with Natalie's character development and speech. My daughter is the sensitivity reader for this book.

It's my hope to portray a character's diversity as authentically and respectfully as possible. But truly, a character's personality comes from their background, faith, family, education, life experiences--and their differences. All must work together to form a complete, interesting, sympathetic character.

Always there - military

When authors write young adult novels, there are many aspects that we're all trying to achieve: a well-written story with a good plot, sympathetic characters who struggle with relatable problems, and interesting settings.

I have other elements that will always be there. Some appeared without me really thinking about. Others--I decided to include in every book or series. And one of those is military service. There will always be a military character in my books.

I served 8 years in the military. My father, brother, and sister are all military retirees. I'm proud to have served--and that spills over into my stories.

All of my books/series have at least one secondary character who has served. In the Whisper Falls series, it was Mark's aunt, an Army major who lost her life in Afghanistan. In the I Wish series, Lacey's dad was a Marine who died in a training accident. In The Possibility of Somewhere, Mundy's father was a Navy helicopter pilot.

In future books, military characters will be more prominent. In my next Julia Day release, the heroine's stepfather is a recently retired Army sergeant. And I've already outlined another book where the hero will be an active-duty military member.

There are a lot of books that feature SEALs, fighter pilots, or military lawyers / investigators. I won't be writing more of those books. Instead, I'll focus on servicemembers with jobs that are less well-known: mechanics, military police, engineers, Signal Corps (telecommunications).  I'm not as familiar with those career fields, but I'm having a lot of fun with the research.

I'm also open for suggestions. So if you are in the military or have a military family member with an interesting job or story that needs to be heard, please let me know.


 

I Wish question - are there diverse characters in the I WISH series?

Yes. Several of the main characters across this series are diverse in race, ethnicity, or ability.

Eli Harper: Eli's mother is a black English professor at fictional Piedmont University. His father is a white civil engineer. Although Eli is biracial, it's incidental to the story. He's been raised in an affluent family. He's always lived in college towns. While his race is not ignored, it's not a plot point either.

Kimberley Rey: Kimberley's father is a Colombian-American, so she is half-Latina. Like Eli, her ethnicity is mentioned but not a plot point. (I chose Colombia because I was visiting there while I was writing the book, and the people and country are beautiful and friendly.)

Kimberley has permanent brain damage from the chemotherapy she received to treat childhood leukemia. Her resulting short-term memory loss is a disability, and that is a major subplot in Wishing for You. 

Grant and Camarin: Because they are not human, our Benevolent Supernatural Beings do not have an earthly race. Their descriptions are deliberately vague; I only mention their dark hair and unnaturally green eyes. The humans they serve (as well as readers) are welcome to imagine the appearance and ethnicity of the Beings however they wish.

Secondary characters: In I Wish, you meet Lacey's mother, Crystal, who struggles with depression. The family's financial problems make it difficult for Crystal to afford the mental health care (and medications) she needs. Readers will see glimpses of her in books 2 and 3. The impact of Crystal's battle with mental illness continues to affect Lacey and her brother. Just like in real life, Crystal has good days and bad.

In Wishing for You, readers will meet Scott and Paul Fuentes. They are Latino. Paul, an immigrant from El Salvador, is dating Kimberley's mother. Readers will see much more of his son Scott in book 3. Kimberley's dad has a partner, too. Nour is Lebanese-American. I chose Latino and Lebanese in honor of two of my friends.