Laurie J. Marks

Today I finished writing the first chapter of the first draft of a new book.  

During the labor of preparing DANCING JACK and THE WATCHER’S MASK for publication, the writing of a new chapter in a new book functioned like a dog biscuit dangled before a corgi, and, corgi-like, I was often tempted to nip the fingers.  Having launched DJ and having sent WM to Rosemary Kirstein–if you haven’t read her STEERSWOMAN books, you really should–who volunteered to do a final review before publication, I finally got to crunch that cookie.  Immediately, I felt like a writer.  Not a person trying to write on a crowded commuter train, in one or another medical waiting room, between loads of laundry, on airplanes, in a rented house while waiting for a grandchild to be born, managing a recalcitrant budget, dealing with the deaths of my parents.  An actual writer, sitting in a leather armchair in a quiet room with a fire in the fireplace, capable of undivided attention, inventing a world similar to the one I hope I have escaped: a world of constant, chronic problems, in which being an adult means that everything is the responsibility of an angry and frustrated point-of-view character.  I was just trying the idea out, seeing if that creative impulse I was feeling had legs to run with.  It turns out that it does. 

Here are three sentences.  The character, who is writing to a person she’s teaching how to survive in her world, has uncovered something in a cluttered storeroom: 

Do you know that sensation you get in the shoulders and scalp when you are overwhelmed by a discovery or experience, one that abruptly changes your understanding, or confronts you by possibilities you had never before imagined?  It is a feeling like fear, or awe, and it ripples down the skin like cold water and brings stinging tears to the eyes.  When I merely remember opening that box, I feel that sensation again: wonder, amazement, and blank disbelief.   

That’s how it feels to have written this new chapter.   

I’m an indie author now, as well as a pensioner (I love that word), so my messages may always include a request of some sort.  If you can spread the word about DANCING JACK to your contacts, I’d really appreciate it.  I’d like to at least recoup the cost of the cover art!  Links below. 

Where to purchase my books:

Smashwords (all formats except kindle): https://bit.ly/3IxxlO8k 

Amazon: https://amzn.to/44nJL54

My books and ebooks are available on your preferred site, in your preferred formats. Please drop me a line if you’re having trouble finding them.