I did it for my daughters

My two daughters love to hear stories from my tour in the US Air Force. We laugh when we call them "war stories"—because I served mostly during the 1980s in a software development group in Montgomery, AL. 

The only war I fought was the war to integrate women into the military.

I was the first female officer that most of my subordinates had ever seen. They knew I'd just graduated from college and that I'd grown up in a rural Mississippi town. They had me pegged as a naive, helpless, Southern belle. I was assigned to report to a civil servant who hated the idea of women in the military and who thought it was impossible for an officer to be competent without prior enlisted time. I was screwed on both counts. 

I know that my boss believed these things because he actually said so at staff meetings--in front of the men I outranked. Other gems included:

• "There's only one reason a woman would ever join the military—because she's a [gay female] or a [promiscuous woman.]"
• "The colonel is making me lie about the lieutenant on her performance report. I have to say she's good."
• "This code is brilliant. I don't believe the lieutenant wrote it."
• "I feel sorry for the lieutenant when she marries. No man worth having would ever want her."

Most of the time, I chose to suck it up, but that last one got to me. I rose from my end of the table and walked out of the room while the civil servant yelled, "Beth, get back in here." Yes, he was using my first name—a blatant sign of disrespect.

I stood in the center of the hallway, visible to my staff, obviously being insubordinate, struggling to decide what to do, close to falling apart all while knowing that, if I did, it would set back women-in-the-military in a major way. The division's Chief Master Sergeant (E9) approached me and asked me what was wrong. I just stared at him, unable to speak. Then he heard what my boss was screaming at me. Chief turned and stalked into the conference room. It grew quiet. He said softly, "Everyone out except [boss]." My staff filed out in silence. Chief kicked the door shut.

I never had trouble from my boss again. 

At his final enlistment ceremony, Chief asked me to swear him in. On the day he retired from the Air Force, he saluted me last. Both were extreme signs of respect.

Three decades later, Chief contacted me on Facebook. Before friending me, he wanted to make sure it was okay with my husband. (And let me tell you, I married a man worth having.) Instead of Lieutenant and Chief, we're Beth and Jim now. I'm one of the few folks he's in contact with from that time. I think it's because I'm one of the "guys" worth knowing. (Back at you, Jim.)

I tell my daughters these stories, and they find it so amazing how kick-ass I had to be—because that's really not me now. My daughters shake their heads in wonder, as if I'd been living in a fairy tale. No one has ever made them feel less because they are female. No one has ever suggested that there are boundaries to what they can achieve because they have an extra X chromosome.

I did it for my daughters and for your daughters and for any child who is ever judged for factors beyond their control. And I couldn't have done it without men like Chief.

65 days

My first book releases in 65 days. 9 weeks. Around Thanksgiving.

I'm in a no-man's land between contract and debut release. Technically, I'm not a published author.  I will be published on 19 November and forevermore after that. But I've been in a gray area for the sixteen months since I signed a contract. Not quite published. Not really un-published.

I'm sitting in a cafe, about to eat my veggie omelet, with my laptop going.¹ People ask what I'm doing and I say I'm an author. And there's a hesitance in me to say that out loud because it doesn't seem quite true. Yet.

In a couple of months, that slight hitch in my statement will go away. I'll claim the job. I'll have information about my numbers.² I'll have reviews, fans, detractors, and other such authorial stuff.

Last night, I finished my fifth full-length novel.  I wrote it several years ago, but the story needed a skilled, experienced writer to write it, and that wasn't what I was several years ago. So I put it down and waited. This summer, I picked it back up. This go-round, I did the characters and their pain justice. And this time, it might get published because I'm an...author now.

Okay, my omelet's getting cold. And so is my coffee. Plus, with all of my current projects completed and/or in the publishing assembly line, I'm ready to dream up a new idea.


¹ Always, I have my laptop with me when I'm not working at my day job.
² For most authors, your numbers are "how many units sold" or "how much in sales". But there are other numbers too, like "how many twitter followers" or "how many books under contract." I'll go from caring about words to caring about numbers too.

Reader reaction

The thing I'm going to love most about being published is the response from readers.

I've been warned that I can't please everyone.  So, yeah, I understand that.  Not every book I read appeals to me either.

But there will be some people who do like them. They're going to love my characters. Readers will gasp over, worry over, cry over the things that my characters go through. And then readers will talk to me about it, and we'll compare notes, and imagine what happens after The End.

I can't wait.

I got a taste of it this weekend. I submitted Whispers From the Past to my editors. Editor-J finished the book this weekend, and we've been sending a flurry of email talking about what happened to whom and how it made us feel and...

I loved it.

All of you readers out there, send me email or come to my book-signings or stop me at conferences where I'm speaking. And talk to me about books, characters, consequences, emotion, love.

That's why I write stories. That's why you read them!



P.S. I took the above photo on vacation in Belgium this summer. The B&B where we stayed had a beautiful backyard garden.

Hard to say goodbye

I submitted Whispers From the Past last night to the publishing house.  It's a milestone to celebrate and to mourn.

I love the characters in the Whisper Falls series, especially my hero and heroine. Mark and Susanna are household names around here. We talk about M&S as if they were real. If I swear, DD2 will say "That's Mark's favorite curse word."  Or if I mention our second president, someone will remind me that "Susanna calls John Adams a vain toad", as if she's an authority on the subject.


I cried when I came to The End. Really. It was like going through empty nest syndrome.  And on the day a few months hence, when I approve the final edited version and see the third book head off to the printer, I'll probably cry again.  I'll want to write novellas and short stories about Mark and Susanna and their fictional friends, just so I can slip into their world(s) again.

There will be other series to write. Other stories to plot. But this book is my first-born. I'm going to miss it a lot.

Yes, M&S are members of the family now.  It's time to let them go.

Write WHERE you know

Several years ago, I read a book that was set in Mississippi. I was raised there, and it's where most of my family still lives. The book felt like it had been written by someone who had, at best, visited. I put the book down after the first chapter. The author had not only captured the setting wrong; it felt as if this peculiar-and-diverse state had been described disrespectfully.  I'll never read that author again.

It's one of the reasons I chose to set Whisper Falls in North Carolina. I'd lived there twenty-five years. I know this place.  The little nuances and Raleigh-isms just flow. Writing my first published novel was hard enough without being tripped up over getting the location correct.

My summer vacation has really brought this home. I'm spending a week in Rotterdam, Netherlands while my daughter attends a conference. I'm not planning to do anything except revise two sequels and enjoy "living" here.

I don't have any plans to set a book in Rotterdam, but I am noticing little details that are completely different from the life I have in the US. Things like:

• supermarkets are not open on Sundays (which I wish I had known on Saturday)
• most stores of any kind do not open until around noon on Monday
• nothing is air-conditioned--including some big, expensive hotels
• bicycles are almost as numerous as cars; cyclists are more aggressive toward pedestrians
• there are more ethnically-diverse couples
• parents hold hands with their children into their tweens
• people like to eat outside at sidewalk cafes
• everybody speaks decent (or better) English

 So maybe I'll never use any of this specific data in a book. But no longer will I take A/C, the opening hours of stores, modes of transportation, etc for granted when I write.

In fact, it's just easier to stick with North Carolina. For now.

Sister authors

I have a literary agent. She is wonderful, and I'm so grateful that she represents my work. Kevan sells a lot of books. Happily, she's sold four of mine.

Kevan represents a lot of Young Adult (YA) authors. She has a great ability to pick talented authors who write amazing stories. Kevan also does a great job of picking authors who are really nice people.

Many of my agency-sisters attended the Romance Writers of America (RWA) conference held in Atlanta 17-20 July.  I was there too—and loved meeting authors like Katie McGarry, Colette Ballard, Chanel Cleeton, and Jennifer Armentrout.

I know that there are authors around who act like divas. They are reluctant to share their wisdom.  They want to be treated like they're special--without remembering that it is our readers that make them special. But that is not the norm, thankfully.

I met my sister-authors this week, and they were instantly my friends--each one a fun, real, generous part of my writing team.

It didn't matter how long we'd been in the business; we each had something to share. The multi-published authors gave advice to those of us who aren't.  I (who'll spend 18 months between selling and releasing my debut book) was able to share my experiences with contracts, promos, editing, and all of the other details that new authors encounter. And the newly-contracted authors were able to remind us how exciting, thrilling, amazing it is to be launching into our dream career.

And, of course, we all love our readers—the ones we have now and the ones we look forward to having in the future.

I almost didn't go. It's a busy time of year for me. But I learned a lot in the conference workshops. And I made friendships that'll last forever.

Support your local bookstore!

Quail Ridge Books & Music, one of my all-time favorite independent bookstores, will be hosting a book-signing event for me.

Here are the details:

Where: Quail Ridge Books
Date: 24 November 2013
Day: Sunday
Time: 3:00pm

If you love to support indie bookstores as much as I do, please consider ordering Whisper Falls from Quail Ridge!