An Exciting Week
Whew! It’s been quite the week here in the Stormcave!
I generally don’t have two releases in the same week (okay, who got hold of the schedule?!) but I’ve been letting my inner chaos gremlin out a bit more lately (what is the point of being an indie author if you can’t have some fun with it?!) and so it’s actually not a bit surprising that these two releases would come so close together!
Tuesday was release day for Hearts of Stone and Steel, book 3 in my gaslamp fantasy adventure saga. Thank you so much to everyone who came to the online celebrations and shared, pre-ordered, wrote reviews, snapped pictures, and just generally made this author’s day! I spent the day at the pool with my kids, and had cake and ice cream as part of my own celebration of another story out in the wild.
Today is release day for the DOSA Files, an anthology of 10 super hero short stories set in the parallel-to-ours superhero world of author H.L. Burke. I had an interview with one of the main characters right here on the blog last week, which was so fun to put together. If you missed it, you can read it HERE. There’s also a whole blog scavenger hunt and epic giveaway (and I have it on good authority that not very many people have solved the puzzle yet… so the odds of winning the giveaway are pretty good right now)!
Okay, so that was a really bad pun.
My Story
My story is the last one in the DOSA Files and is titled PLAY DATE.
It’s a story about a woman named Emilia. Emilia has empathic powers, she can read the emotions of people around her, which made her really good at her job as an interrogator with DOSA (the Department of Super Abled), but she has recently stepped down from that position to become a full-time mom to her two young children: Revlin and Olivia.
Emilia and her family have recently moved to a new town for her husband’s promotion to DOSA team leader, and Emilia is looking for a support group of new friends to help her navigate being new in town and the emergence of her 5-year old’s own powers…. the ability to crawl up any and all surfaces, which kind of gives her occasional heart attacks.
When a lady at church tells her about a sable (super abled) group of moms she has noticed meeting regularly at the park, Emilia decides to step outside her comfort zone and go introduce herself. Surely a group of super moms will be understanding of what it’s like raising sable munchkins… right?
The Idea
I got the first glimmerings of the idea from a prompt that H.L. Burke posted on her instagram when she was putting out the call for submissions to her anthology and write in her her SVR (supervillain rehabilitation) world. I love her superhero books and was excited about the idea of getting to write in her world, but I was having a hard time coming up with ideas. Then I saw this prompt:
A superpowered mom tries to fit in at a playgroup.
And the ideas started coming. At first, I thought that my main character would be a supervillain, who had kind of given up supervillainy to be a stay at home mom, and she ends up in a play group with a bunch of superheroes on DOSA’s payroll… but try as I might, I couldn’t make that idea work.
However, when my husband suggested flipping the script and making the main character a hero and the play group full of villains (but, like, nice ones) everything started falling into place.
I haven’t had so much fun writing in a really, really long time.
My daughters, who are both huge fans of the SVR series, both think I’m very cool now because I’m in an anthology with their favorite author. grin They were my first beta readers and gave me countless ideas and tips on what to change, what was confusing, what I could make better, what I didn’t need.
Also, this story really wanted to be more of a novella or a full-length novel. I had to cut whole scenes from the finished project, one of which was my 12-year old’s favorite scene and she’s mad at me for cutting it, so I might have to post it here as a “deleted scene” at some point.
The True Life Aspects
I really channeled a lot of myself into this story. Not as a self-insert, but just my experiences. I made the decision to set the story in Raleigh, NC where I lived for 9 years before we moved and had so much fun dropping in names of familiar and beloved places. As I continued writing, the story kind of turned into more than just a story. It became a tribute, a “thank you” card to all the beautiful, strong*, wonderful women who have been my “mom friends.” I became a mom for the first time in Raleigh, and the support group we had there was epic. We raised our first babies together. We had play dates. We met at the park. We hid from the heat and humidity in each other’s air conditioned houses. We had Bible studies. We had birthday parties. We talked on the phone for hours and hours and hours while we did housework or made supper. Some of these friends didn’t have children of their own until after I left, but I count them as my mom friends, because they were precious treasures of people who were free to just drop everything and come hang out and be like a fun aunt to my kids. These women were some of the best friends I’ve ever had. And I am so grateful to the Lord for placing them in my life, and I am so grateful to them for just being who they are.
And then the story morphed again to include the friends I’ve made since moving here to WI 8 years ago. Since we moved here when my oldest was 7, these friendships have looked a little different. These are the friends I’ve made since my kids have been older. Together, we’ve walked towards and into the grand adventure of parenting teenagers. These are the friends I’m navigating busy schedules and high school sports and driver’s ed with, who are there for me when my kids need rides to 3 different activities and I can’t be in 3 places at once! We still hang out, but our play dates involve more just us adults chatting while our kids take a class or write, act, film, and edit a movie for us to watch at the end of the day, or just run off with their bikes, not to be seen for several hours! Other friends I’ve made here are much younger than me, as well, and they are still in the intense trenches of diaper changing and toddler-hood, and I’ve gotten to be an encourager (hopefully) to them. I am in awe of how hard they are working to raise their precious kiddos. These women are some of the best friends I’ve ever had. And I am so grateful to the Lord for placing them in my life, and I am so grateful to them for just being who they are.
And so, this story, dear mom-friend, is for you. You are a super hero in my book. Literally.
*To be clear, when I say “strong” I don’t mean the kind of strong that can kickbox you through a wall…. well… one of them can… and we all have the ability to be “mama bear”… but I’m talking about spiritual, emotional, and character strength too. There are different types of strength, Hollywood.