Tag Archives: Book 2

Anomaly Book 2 Coming Soon!

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Photo by Anna Tarazevich on Pexels.com

Greetings friends! Happy New Year, now that it’s February 2! I hope you are all doing well.

So Book 2 of the series Anomaly will be coming out later this month! This book takes place a few years after the events of Book 1, Don’t Say a Word, and continues to feature Kaya, Grayson, Dr.Blake, and Graham while introducing new characters Alice, Tony, Emily, Brad, and Ponyboy (the guy pictured above, who is a very, very good boy), who will feature a ton in the whole series. Each book in this series contains a full story, beginning to end, so can be read alone, but it might be a bit confusing if you don’t read the books that come before. I also usually end my books with a very small cliffhanger, which is just a tease for the next book. So yes, I recommend you read them in order, but I think you will still be entertained if you read them as stand alones. At least the first few. But they’re better in order.

I am going to share chapter one from Book 2, which is called Blinding Justice. For those of you that read Book 1, this is the return of the prodigal father, and Kaya and Grayson’s inevitable wedding. It takes place in the late 1990s. I hope you enjoy the story!

Chapter 1

Peter stood behind the hedge surrounding the courtyard to watch the ceremony. He knew he wouldn’t be welcome by the family. His family. What used to be his family. But it had been his choice to walk away all those years ago. He had never walked away completely. He had been watching them, from afar, for years. Not in the ways of a stalker. The world had been invaded by the internet.  Information could be found online. He saw when his daughter made the cheerleading team in high school, and then when she was voted team captain during her senior year. He had found the yearly honor roll from his son’s school every year on the digital version of the town’s newspaper, and the list of names of the graduates when he finally finished school. His daughter was three years behind her brother, and then they were both at State University. Lucky for Peter, who was adept in the ways of modern technology, social media was becoming easier and easier to access. He was able to see pictures and stories on MySpace, and then Facebook. He could see his children’s activities and thoughts, at least the ones they made public. When he finally decided to make contact, he would have to urge them to be more private with who could see their information. But for now, he was glad it was available for him, so he could track their progress in life.

It was harder to track his wife. She was now his ex-wife, he knew. He could see her progress at work as she got promoted through the years, making great strides even after she was left to raise their two children on her own, with no financial assistance except the balance of their joint savings account. But the news that hit him the hardest had been the announcement in the Wisteria Weekly News. Janice had gotten engaged. And the man she was engaged to was the dentist he used to bring his children to see when they were small. The man that provided the children with a new toothbrush every six months. Maybe Janice liked the perks. Maybe Dr. Flagg polished her teeth for free. What hurts the most was thinking about what else of Janice’s he was polishing. He hadn’t left because he stopped loving his wife. He left because he did love her, and their kids. He didn’t feel like he had a choice. He didn’t really regret his choice. The children were doing great. Janice was happy. And today, on this beautiful spring day in Wisteria, his daughter was getting married.

He watched as his son walked down the aisle, escorting his mother to her seat in front, and then went back to walk his grandmothers to their seats with their husbands. The bridesmaids started their trek, and Peter shook his head in disbelief. His daughter’s friends had all grown up so much. He felt as though no time had passed, but this was the proof that it had. As if to mock him, his left knee started to ache again. He shifted his position to take some weight off of it. Soon, his son walked back down the aisle, this time on the arm of a woman he had never met, but he knew she was his daughter-in-law. They took their place at the altar. A tear started to roll down Peter’s face as he realized that his daughter-in-law was obviously very pregnant. He was going to be a grandfather soon. He had already missed so much.

The music stopped. Peter looked to the back of the aisle, and he saw his daughter. She was a vision of absolute beauty, an angel, with her chestnut hair wrapped around the back of her head, wavy tendrils framing her face, her fragile features, her beaming smile. He wasn’t close enough to see them, but he remembered her shining blue eyes. She was radiant. She was holding on to the arm of an older man whose face he couldn’t see. He braced himself to see the dentist walking his daughter down the aisle on her wedding day. It was a job that should have gone to Peter, and it would have, if only he had made a different choice…but if he had made a different choice, this wedding might not have ever happened.

The music started. The Wedding March. Everyone stood as the bride made her way toward her true love. Peter tried to get a good look at the face of the dentist, only to find…it wasn’t the dentist at all. It was a man he had never seen before. He was a man of average height, with a deeply receded hairline. What was left on his head was a tufty gray fringe, and he wore a pair of lopsided round spectacles that appeared to be sliding down toward the tip of his bulbous nose. He was wearing a black tux that matched all of the other men in the wedding, but on this man, the suit looked frumpy, as if he had slept in it the night before. The man stumbled slightly, and Peter’s daughter caught his arm. They looked at each other and giggled before continuing their walk. When they made it to the altar, the groom stepped forward to meet them. His daughter kissed the older man on the cheek, took the groom’s hand, and went the last few steps to stand in front of the justice of peace, to be finally joined in holy matrimony. The ceremony progressed, and then came to its conclusion. The bride and groom kissed, everyone applauded, and the wedding party receded back up the aisle. Peter wiped the tears from his eyes. They were tears of joy, and tears of loss.

Peter Reed had lost years with his family. They were years that he spent searching, trying to find out the truth about himself, and by extension, his family. He did what he felt he had to, to protect them, and to be completely honest, himself. It made sense that they had all moved on. They had to. He wanted that for them. They were not obligated to stay in stasis until he returned. He wasn’t even sure he was ready to return. He only wanted to watch, and maybe establish some sort of brief contact…

“Hey, you, what are you doing back there?”

Peter turned to look behind him. There was a man in the formal clothing of a catering staff. He was holding a sealed trash bag in each hand, apparently bringing them out to the dumpster nearby. “I…uh, I’m just…”

“I told the other guy that came by earlier the family said we could leave any leftovers out on the south side of the venue after everyone leaves. But in the meantime, you need to clear out.” He turned to leave but then turned back quickly. “Oh, will you all be needing utensils? I can make sure we leave you some plastic forks and knives. And maybe some disposable napkins if you want.”

“I don’t…I guess…”

The man shook his head. “Listen,” he said apologetically. “I understand. I’ve been through some hard times myself. It’s hard to believe that our country has come to this, especially in a place like Wisteria. I’m sorry they don’t let you guys stay in the shelter during the daytime hours. I can’t imagine it’s easy to have to wander around all day. At least there are some shady trees at the park. If it gets too hot, I think the community center has an air-conditioned area where you can go and rest and get something cold to drink. And then come back later for the food. Probably around six?”

Peter stared at the man, and then he nodded. “Okay,” he said. “Yeah, thank you. You’ve been very generous. I’ll…I’ll just go.” He turned back toward the courtyard and took one more look. He saw her, his daughter. Kaya. She was standing on the lawn, talking to the dentist. The dentist had his hand on her elbow. On her right was the groom. His name was Grayson Pike. His son-in-law. Peter swallowed. He took one more sweeping look over the group of guests at the reception. There was Janice, his ex-wife, talking to Peter’s own parents, Tom and Candice. They all laughed. It made him happy to see them still being friendly with each other. Janice had never done anything wrong. She deserved to have their love and support. Maybe they had even befriended the dentist. And there, sitting at another table, was Graham, his first-born child. Graham had become a man. He was sitting next to his wife. Her name was Gina. She had her hand on her protruding belly, and she was smiling. The older man, the one who had walked his daughter down the aisle, was sitting at the same table, and he was talking. He was also looking around, as if he had lost something. Then he bent down and looked under the table. He came back up and shrugged. Graham and Gina laughed. Peter turned away. He was intruding here. He had to leave. If he didn’t leave now…he took a few steps forward.

“Hey!”

Peter stopped, but he didn’t turn around. 

“Hey! You! Stop.”

Peter took another step toward the street, praying his face had been shielded well enough by his baseball cap.

“I said stop! Come on! I can’t run in these heels. Give me a break.”

Peter took a breath, and closed his eyes. Then he opened them again, and turned around. And there she stood, about twenty feet away. He took off his hat.

She ran up to the edge of the courtyard, looking over the hedge at the sidewalk. When he looked at her, she stopped in her tracks, her mouth agape, eyes focused on the sight before her. A full minute passed as they stared at each other. Just as she went to take a step toward him, her new husband was at her side. “Kaya, what is it?” he asked, putting his hand on her arm.

She looked at him, and then back at Peter. She pointed. “Him,” she said.

“That’s the guy I saw behind the bushes during the ceremony,” Grayson said. “I’ll go talk to him.” He took a few steps toward the sidewalk, but Kaya grabbed his arm.

“Grayson,” she said softly. “No.” She held his arm tightly. “I…I need to go. Grayson…I thought he was just some creepy guy, gawking at us, but…that’s…I think that’s…”

“I’m  her father,” Peter said, taking a step toward her.

Kaya continued to stare, and then a sly smile spread across her face. “I knew you’d come,” she said. “I told Graham, years ago. I told him you’d come to my wedding, and you’d watch me get married, and then we’d talk…” She reached out toward him.

Peter quickly took a step back. “No, Kaya,” he said. “No. Not yet.”

Kaya jerked back, her arm still outstretched. She looked at her hand. “I…oh my God.” She dropped her arm to her side. “So it’s true,” she whispered.

“What’s true?” Grayson asked. He looked up and glared at Peter. “This is the absolute worst time that you could have shown up, Mr. Reed. This is our wedding day.”

Kaya nodded slowly, looking at her feet. “It’s the happiest day of my life.”

Grayson looked at her. “Kaya, what do you want me to do?” he asked, desperate to do something. “How can I help you?”

Kaya looked at him gratefully. “Go get Graham, babe,” she said. “But don’t tell him why. Just tell him I need him right now.”

Grayson nodded. He looked at Peter one more time, shooting him a warning look. “I’ll be right back,” he said, and he jogged away.

“He’s great,” Peter said. “I can tell. He really loves you.”

Kaya laughed bitterly. “So you don’t even need to touch him to tell, huh? I guess your skills are really advanced.”

Peter smiled at his daughter, although confused by her words. “You don’t need any special skills,” he told her, “to be able to see when a man is madly in love with your daughter. I could see it in every part of him. You did great, Kaya.”

“And you remember my name.” 

That statement ripped at Peter’s heart. “Your name,” he said. “I chose it, you know. Your mother had no idea what to name you. She was reading out loud from this baby name book she had taken out of the library. When she read off Kaya, I suddenly remembered a trip I had taken to Jamaica during spring break in college. These local guys were walking around the beach, trying to sell pot to tourists. They called it kaya. So when your mother said the name, it hit me funny, and I told her that was the name I wanted. I didn’t tell her why at first. She just thought it was pretty.”

“Everyone thinks it’s pretty,” Kaya said. “Some people ask me if it’s Hawaiian. I looked it up. It actually is a Hawaiian word. It means the sea. I think I like that better than meaning pot in Jamaican.”

Peter laughed. “Do you like the sea? Have you ever been?”

“No, “she said, rubbing her arms with her hands, as if she was cold. “I plan to, though, someday.”

Peter nodded. “We have so much to catch up on.”

Grayson ran back over. “Graham is coming,” he said. “He didn’t want to leave Gina alone, so he was bringing her over to your mom.” He turned to Peter. “She’s almost at full term,” he said. 

Peter could tell that Grayson was trying to convey a message to him. The message was, “This is my territory. These are my people. You don’t belong here. Watch your step.” He nodded. “I could see her earlier. She looks beautiful.”

Kaya looked toward the courtyard as her brother walked calmly over to the small group. “What’s up, Ky?” he asked. “Are those homeless guys from before bothering you again?” He looked toward the man on the sidewalk. At first, it appeared that he hadn’t made the connection. Then he looked back again and nodded. “Hello, Dad,” he said, still remaining calm.

“Hello, Graham,” he said. “Congratulations on the wife and baby.”

Graham nodded. “Thank you,” he said. He turned to Kaya. “Do you want me to…do anything right now?”

Kaya looked back and forth between her brother and her father. “He doesn’t want me to touch him,” she said.

Graham thought for a moment. “So we were right then.”

Peter watched his son’s face. “What were you right about?” he asked quizzically.

“You have the skill,” Graham said.

“What skill?” Peter asked.

“Oh for God’s sake, Dad,” Kaya exclaimed. “You know very well what skill.”

“Maybe I do,” Peter answered. “But maybe what some people call a skill, others call a curse.”

“And that’s why you left me to deal with the curse all by myself?” Kaya snapped.

Grayson stepped up. “I really don’t think this is the right time to get into this.” He turned to Graham for support.

Graham nodded. “Dad, I’m not sure what to do or say right now. Kaya suspected a long time ago that you would appear at her wedding,  behind the bushes. You did exactly that. I also remember her telling me that when you did show up at her wedding, she wouldn’t be angry, and she wouldn’t turn you away.” He looked at Kaya. “Remember that, Kaya? You said that you would listen to what he had to say.”

Kaya’s face softened. “I did say that.” 

“Kaya!” a female voice called out. “The photographer needs you.”

Kaya looked back at Peter. “This is my wedding day,” she said. “I…I guess I’m glad you showed up. It’s like you fulfilled a prophecy. But like Grayson said, this is not the time or place to get into this conversation. I do want to talk to you.  We have a lot to catch up on.” She reached for Grayson’s hand.

“Wait!” Peter called out quickly. He didn’t want the moment to end. He wanted to gaze at his daughter in her wedding dress for just a little bit longer. “Who was that guy, the one that walked you down the aisle? I know it wasn’t Steve Flagg.”

Graham shook his head. “You know about Steve?” he asked. “Well, I guess if you know about Kaya and Grayson getting married, you’d know about Mom and Steve’s engagement.”

“That’s Dr. Blake,” Kaya said. “He’s a close family friend. Graham and I met him at State. He’s…helped us a lot over the past few years. He’s been, well, like a father to me. I couldn’t think of anyone else I’d want to walk me down the aisle. And Dr. Blake, well, he knows things. About me. About us.” She motioned to her brother. “And I guess, by association, about you, too.”

Peter winced. “About me? What about me? What does this man know?”

Grayson spoke up. “Listen, Mr. Reed…”

“Peter, please.”

Grayson nodded. “Peter. We have pictures to take, and people to greet. Graham, can you…”

Graham nodded. “You two go back. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” 

Kaya gave Peter one last faint smile, and then walked away with her husband, hand in hand. 

Peter looked at Graham. There was so much he wanted to know, including what this Dr. Blake knew about his family, but right now, his son was standing right in front of him, all grown up. His face relaxed. “You must be close to six feet tall,” he said.

Graham laughed awkwardly. “Five-ten,” he said. “I think these shoes give me a little bit of extra height. I never got as tall as you, or even Grandpa.” He looked more carefully at his father. “I guess it’s a good thing for me that male pattern baldness comes from the mother’s side of the family, huh?”

Peter’s hand went straight to the top of his head. “It’s not that,” he said. “It’s just some thinning on top. Most of it has grown back.” He chuckled. “It started during a stressful period of time in my life, soon after I left…Wisteria. I started to pull some of it out methodically, when I was anxious. There’s actually a name for it. Trichotillomania.”

“Huh,” Graham said. “Is it hereditary?”

“I don’t think so.” Peter took a step onto the lawn, closer to his son. “Some things are just learned.”

Graham nodded. “I’m in school to become a psychologist,” he said. “I’ve been working in research for a few years, but now I’m back in grad school. It’s a bit different than that path you took.”

“To say the least,” Peter said. “I guess advertising isn’t for the faint of heart. But you’ve done well, Graham. I’ve followed your progress since high school.”

Graham looked at the ground. “I always wondered if you knew what we were up to.” He looked back up. “Internet?”

Peter nodded. “Internet. Son, I have to say I’m very proud of you. Of both you and Kaya. You’ve really done well. I was a bit skeptical when I saw that Kaya had been working for the police, and was planning on attending the police academy. I’m both proud and scared for her. She’s a brave girl.”

“Woman,” Graham corrected. “She’s easily the bravest person I’ve ever known.” He turned back to look at the crowd at the reception. He caught sight of Gina, still talking to his mother and her fiancé. “So do you want to wait, or do you want to talk about the elephant in the courtyard right now?”

Peter felt a palpitation in his chest. “The elephant?” he asked. “What elephant are you referring to?”

Graham smiled in amusement. “I might still be young, Dad,” he said, “but I’m not stupid. It might have taken us a long time to figure out what was going on with Kaya, and most likely with you, but we did figure it out eventually, and the hard way. Dad, Dr. Blake has found out that Kaya has the anomaly. I’ve been tested, and I have it too, but it doesn’t express itself the way Kaya’s does. We’re assuming we got the anomaly from your side of the family, but we’d have to do some testing to know for certain. We’d probably want to consider bringing in Grandma and Grandpa, too.”

Peter looked at Graham, his eyes wide. “Son,” he said, shaking his head. “You’re gonna have to enlighten me. Because you’re saying a lot of things here. A lot of confusing things. And to be honest with you, I have no idea what in the hell you’re going on about.”

I hope you enjoyed the sneak peek at my new book, and that you will look for it on Amazon, KU, and Barnes and Noble later this month. It will also be available on Ingram Spark in case you want to order it at your favorite book store. Be sure to check my social media pages for more information!

Facebook: Debby Meltzer Quick Author

TikTok:  @dbmquick 

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Author Website:  debbymeltzerquickauthor.com

Email: debbymeltzerquickauthor@dbmquick817

What’s Coming Next?

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Any new book releases? Any new news? Both, of course!

Remember James and Sally from May I Have Your Attention Please? They were in for quite a shock on the first day of junior year of high school, when Sally returned from private school, had an early morning run-in with James, and the fabric of the whole universe was changed for them both. We followed them through a year of discovery, finding love and their place in the world.

At the same time, Kim and Carl were struggling to get past their challenging childhoods and letting themselves fall for each other fall hard in I Just Can’t Say I Love You. They took a chance on each other, leaving their lifetime homes and everything they knew behind them to venture out west. Along the way, they found themselves learning about what loyalty and happiness meant, and they learned who they could really trust with their hearts, and their lives.

And then there was Chris, in Absolutely and Totally Smitten. He was the ultimate rebel, king of the Bad Boy Posse. Suddenly, everything changed, and Chris found himself alone and confused. None of his old habits and skills could get him out of this one. But one thing he still had were his friends. And he a was amazed when one day, in college, one of those friends became something so much more to him. But was he in any place to open his heart again and let love in? Or would he only be facing a world of pain, maybe even one of his own design?

So what comes next for the friends of McKinney High Class of 1986?

Get ready to meet Stavros. He doesn’t go to McKinney High. He doesn’t even live in Eastboro. As a matter of fact, he doesn’t even meet anyone from Eastboro until years after high school. So what is he doing in this series? I’ll tell you what: Stavros is getting ready to overcome one of the worst traumas that can occur in childhood. He is able to try to live his life like normal, not knowing that normal just doesn’t apply to his life. And when everything finally blows up after graduation, Stavros is left in pieces, not knowing how to cope. He makes some decisions that lead him down a very dangerous and destructive path, one he will have to spend years trying to dig himself out of.

In the meantime, Darlene is struggling with her day-to-day life in Eastboro, making friends in elementary school, faking her way through social issues in junior high, and coming close to crashing when something horrible happens to her at junior prom. But Darlene must always keep the smile on her face. She must show the world that everything is just fine, especially her mother. And she must follow the path that her father set in motion for her life years earlier. Inside, she is dying, but somehow, she keeps going. It’s all good until she finally collapses in college, leading to suspicion from her mother. She still powers forward, getting through to graduation, and even into the working world. It’s not until she starts the path to graduate school that the one event that could make her break occurs and puts her out of commission. From that day on, Darlene must work to save herself, and to prove to herself that she is worthy of saving.

What happens when at last Stavros and Darlene meet? What can they possibly offer each other? Are they too broken to let love into their lives, or can love help them to continue in their own recovery journeys?

Coming in September: The Stories That Must Be Told. The story of loss, self-destruction, and final redemption. And overall, learning to let love into your heart, no matter how scary it might be. It might just be the best thing that ever happens to you.

In other writing new:

Coming this September: Don’t Say A Word is coming out in an audio format! I’m so excited to let you all know about this! I have had so many requests for audio versions of my books. This is the first try. I am very pleased to have found a wonderful, experienced narrator, making me feel a lot less nervous about the process. More to come on this venture soon!

COMING IN DECEMBER:

Book 2 of the Anomaly series, called Blinding Justice. Kaya and Graham are back, along with Grayson, Dr. Blake, and a whole new group of characters with various skills and abilities. I don’t want to give away too much right now, but just know this: Kaya is NOT the only person in the world who can do what she does…or other things. And we will be meeting some of them in this book. I can’t wait until you start to meet the gang. I love these characters like they were my own friends, which makes sense, since I’m actually currently writing book 13 of this series!

More to come as all of these releases get closer. If you have any questions, you can contact me. I’d be happy to tell you more about these series, and these dynamic characters!

Here again are the links to my Facebook page, Debby Meltzer Quick Author, TikTok, @dbmquick and Instagram, quickdebby_author. Please follow me on these pages. And please explore my page here at debbymeltzerquickauthor.com.

And here is the link to my new book, Don’t Say a Word

Happy Thanksgiving!-Anniversary

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Photo by Element5 Digital on Pexels.com

Happy Thanksgiving to my not-IRL friends! This is also a big anniversary for me. It was two years ago this November that I had the dream that led me to start to write my first book. It was a vivid dream, one I can still see in my head if I concentrate hard enough. I was back in school, and it was high school. But it wasn’t my high school. I was at the public high school in my hometown. Somehow or other, I had ended up back at public high school after a year at private school. I was in the cafeteria, and I had finished my lunch. I was dumping my trash in the garbage can, when suddenly a boy I had not seen since I was in junior high approached me and asked me if it hurt. When I inquired about what would be hurting, he answered with a crooked smile, “when you fell from heaven.” In my dream, that pickup line led to a whirlwind relationship, and I got flashes of the next two years and how wonderful it was. I was so happy that I had gone back to public school. The dream was heading for happily ever after, when suddenly, a voice over spoke. “But none of this ever happened,” it said in a flowery but professional female voice, “because someone was out sick that day and the two never met by the garbage cans.

I don’t know if any Star Trek fans read my blog, but if so, do you remember the classic Next Generation episode where Jean-Luc Picard gets zapped by an alien probe, and ends up living decades on a strange planet, including having a wife, children, and grandchildren, and even learning how to play the flute, until he was a very old man, and he was returned to his ship, only to find that only 25 minutes had passed? Yeah, that’s kind of how it felt for me when I woke up from this dream. It had seemed so real, so vivid, that I had to sit there for a minute and remind myself that I graduated from high school, and not a public one, 35 years earlier! I was a bit disoriented, and couldn’t stop thinking about the dream for days.

It wasn’t the content of the dream so much, but the feelings it brought. I felt like I had missed something. There have been several times over the years when I have wondered what my life would have been like if I had gone to public school. Who would I have been friends with? The same people from junior high, or some other people from other junior highs that all converged on the same high school? Would I have met some new boy in high school, and would we have hit it off? Maybe whoever he was, he was at a private school somewhere thinking the same thing as me, about what it would have been like if things had gone differently.

I could have let it go right there, but actually, I couldn’t. I was anxious. We had just started with the Omicron variant of COVID, and things were not looking up with the world at that moment. I was stuck at home, working a job that I felt I could perform better with in-person collaboration, especially with my ADHD. I was craving change, something different. My family was doing the best they could. My poor daughter was stuck doing on-line school, which was not the best plan for her, and my retired husband was trying to keep the house together and also respect my need for quiet and confidentiality while I worked. Poor guy. And there I was, sitting in my tiny little home office, which was more like a glorified closet with windows on the far side of our bedroom. With a desk and a bookshelf in there, there was barely room to push back my chair, and my bed was two feet away, reminding me every moment that I was not in the office, and I had just crawled out of the covers right there only hours before, and would return there later that night. I HATED working from home. And there was no end in sight.

I mentioned before that I had been knitting, and I ended up completing 42 hats. That’s a lot of hats. They were in piles on a table near the front door, and my husband kept asking me what I was going to do with them. They kept falling over. I had no idea what to do with them. But then, the dream. I couldn’t stop thinking about the dream. The feelings. The not knowing. It was pushing at my brain. So one day, I decided to do something about it.

I started to write it down. I created some people. There was the girl, Sally, who had left her friends and gone to private school, to find her way, and see if it was a better fit for her than private school. Her parents had given her a choice, and she had decided. Then there was James. James was slightly troubled. He had difficulty with focus, and a brother with lots of problems. James represented the unknown to Sally. I had to give them a slight back story, so I did. They were acquainted in junior high, but he was a bad boy, and she was, uh, well, she hadn’t figured out what she was yet at the time. But somehow, she had some kind of connection with the bad boys.

And that’s where reality ended. When Sally meets James again in the hallway of McKinney High on the first day of school, every bit of that book becomes fiction. Sally and James set the stage and told me what needed to happen. Characters do that. They tell you about themselves, and when you put them together, they tell you what they are like together. You can write something else, but it won’t work. There is a chemistry, and if your characters have it, you have to go with it. You. Have. No. Choice. But I’m glad. Because Sally and James’s chemistry worked. It worked well for them, and for me. And the next thing you know, there’s a really long story about Sally and James. And my dream is satisfied.

The only problem, of course, is that once May I Have Your Attention Please was completed, Sally and James told me something else, something new, something unexpected. Their story was over, sort of, but there were lots of other stories to tell, and I already knew the characters. They were Sally and James’s friends, the ones that supported them, and helped them to make it all happen. They all had stories. And I had to tell them.

So I did. I wrote six more books in the series, each of them featuring supportive characters that were present in the hotel room on the night of junior prom. Junior prom. Something I didn’t go to, but Sally did. And it was the most wonderful time of her young life. I’m happy for Sally. And for James. They had it easy, and they found love.

As the series progresses, things are not so easy for all of the other characters. Kim and Carl have a tough time getting it together in Book 2, I Just Can’t Say I Love You. And some of the other characters don’t even end up with who they started with, as you will see in Book 3, coming in February. In Book 4, our female lead doesn’t even really have a high school boyfriend, and in Book 5, the female lead has more than one, but is not who we thought she was. Books 6 and 7 will surprise you, and if you’re anything like me, they’ll make you cry just a little.

I am now working on another series, which is in the same time period, but not featuring our McKinney High friends. They are there in some of the books as minor characters, but this series introduces you to new players, and new settings, including New York, Delaware, and Colorado (Eastboro is still in there, though. I love Eastboro). I’m on book 7 of 7 now, so I’m about to have to figure out what I’m doing next. I might leave the 1980s and Eastboro all together, and maybe try a completely different genre. Maybe add some magical touches. Only time, and my imagination, will tell.

Here again are the links to my Facebook page, Debby Meltzer Quick Author, TikTok, @dbmquick and Instagram, quickdebby_author. Please follow me on these pages. And please explore my page here at debbymeltzerquickauthor.com.

Enjoy your holiday that has nothing to do with turkeys, and make the most of being with your family, whether the one you were assigned at birth, or the one you have chosen for yourself.

.

Three, Two, One, Launch!

I Just Can't Say I Love You, McKinney High Class of 1986, self-publishing, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

When your child turns 18, you launch them into the world. Unless they take a gap year, which is what is occurring in our house, but that’s another story for a different kind of blog. No. When a child reaches 18, we hope that we have taught them all of our values and skills and they have enough common sense to be able to go out and make their way. This is unlike birds, who pretty much throw their babies from the next and say “see ya!” Of course, there are those “failures to launch.” There was even a movie about that. Who is to say that when your child turns 18, they know everything? What if the parent doesn’t know everything, so couldn’t teach the child? What if, while the child was in high school, a global pandemic hit, and everyone was regressed several years, both parents and children? Maybe we have some leeway? Maybe 19 is a better age. Or for some kids, they may be ready to launch at 16.

Ships are launched after being christened by a bottle of wine. Rockets are launched above a large mass of flames. A watermelon can be launched through the air with a catapult. Launch means “Propel with force,” or “get going, give impetus to.” What I’ve been describing has been the first definition. What I’ll be talking about next is the second one.

I’m talking about a good old fashioned book launch, like the one I had last week. It’s sort of a like a baby shower for a new book. And like a baby shower, people appear to be much more interested in your first launch than they are in your second one. The way I see it is, people are very excited when someone they know does something unexpected, or something that they would never do. So when I told everyone I know that I wrote a book, they were impressed, and happy for me. They wanted to celebrate me, like a first time mother. They all asked questions about my book, and where to get it, what it was about, and where I got my insperation to write it. Then I told them that I was now writing my 12th book. That just about blew them away! Who can write one book, let alone 12! It was as if I told them that I was planning on having 12 kids before I was done, and I’d even named all of them already! So, if you have these 12 (so far) books, they all have to be released, or launched, right? So how often is this going to happen? Every 9 months like a baby, every year, once every two years? Uh, no. Not every two years. That would take 24 years, and my work will be irrelevant by then. So I have been opting for every 6 months. So my first book was launched on March 4, 2023, and over 40 people came to celebrate with me, join the raffle, socialize, eat cake, and buy my book. I sold 62 copies in the first three days.

Jump to baby number two. “I Just Can’t Say I Love You.” Ironically, I can say I love this book, just as much, if not more than my first book. I mean, a mother loves all of her children equally right? But from the first to the second child, a mother learns a whole lot about how to take care of a baby, and how to be a mother. It’s the same with book. When I wrote my first book, it took me so many times through to be able to get it just right. It had to be perfect. There had to be just the right amount of words and chapters. The characters had to be just so. But with book number 2, you buy the cheap diapers, right? I mean, I put a lot into each book, but the second one definitely went more smoothly than the first, because I was learning the ropes with experience. So when it launched, I was ready to celebrate, just like I was with book 1. I was excited, and I wanted everyone to be excited with me. But you know how it is with baby number 2. “Wait a minute, didn’t you already have a baby? I could have sworn you had one. I’m pretty sure I already said congratulations and bought you a gift, and came to visit and told you how cute your little bundle of joy was. Now you’re going to tell me I have to do it again? Ugh.”

But there was CAKE!!!!!

I mean, come on. Who can say no to cake? And who can say no to cake with tiny little versions of my book distributed around it on toothpicks?

And brownies, made by my own child!

Also with tiny books stuck in them. Not to mention tiny egg salad sandwiches, pita with hummus, vegetables, a great setting (Thank you, Rose City Book Pub, again), and good friends? Well, apparently a lot of people can say no. Because for the first hour, there was no one there, except for me, my spouse, the staff, and a few of the venue’s patrons. It was kind of embarassing. Even my own daughter wasn’t there yet. I began to become discouraged, looking at my little swag stickers spread out across two round tables invitingly, and the empty raffle jar.

Happily, a few people did show up an hour later, staggering in and out until the end of the event. Those people are total rock stars, and I thank them. I started to wonder if this would have been what it was like if I’d had a second child and there was a shower. Would I have sat for hours amongst helium balloons, and little confetti pacifiers, and little cupcakes decorated with plastic babies and white frosting (I wouldn’t know the gender, so no pink or blue, please, until my child tells me what their gender might be…). I have to admit, I was sad. Not depressed, but just sad. I started to think about it. I bet a lot of people didn’t come because they had other plans. That was it. It was the last weekend predicted to have nice weather before the rains were due to come. I bet a lot of people had figured, “you know, I went to her last party, and it was really fun. She’ll understand if I don’t come to this one.” Sure. I get it. But in the end, there were 10 people. So everyone had the same idea. “I did this once. She’ll have other people there. She’ll understand.” Yeah, I get it. I sometimes want to do nothing, or something else on the weekend than what I originally intended to do. No big deal. But maybe it is.

Anyway, out of the lovely people that came to my party, four bought books, and one won a book. I see that as a success. I’m an adult now, not a child. I know that if people don’t come to my party, they still like me, and respect my work, and want me to succeed. Of course they do. They all told me that they do. Most of them apologized for not coming. To be fair, most people said they’d try to come. And a few did. And I still like all of them. But I just had to blow out my candles alone, and sing “happy birthday to me…” Just Kidding! This is not the plot of a horror movie! It’s an uplifting blog about an author who writes really cool books and wants to release them into the world. So there’s still time, and still a way.

The good news is that both of my books are still on sale on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I’m trying Kindle Unlimited for the new one, to see how it goes, at least for the 3 month commitment. So far, no pages have been read, and this keeps me from being able to sell my ebook elsewhere, so the jury is still out. But yeah, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and for those of you that want to sell them in your stores, you can get them on Ingram Spark at a significant bookstore discount. Check them out! And I think next time, instead of an IRL launch party, I’ll try to do a live, online one, so no one had to leave their home. I get why people want to stay home. There’s a tv there, and you can watch anything you want. All of your animals live there, and so to your clothes and toys. But just sayin’, the cake was pretty darn good. You can ask the folks at my work, who had a feast the day after my launch party. It was yummy!

Me doing a reading. I swear, I was reading to real people.

Yummy snacks!

Tiny egg salad sandwiches, with no tiny books on a toothpick, because I ran out of them.

May I Have Your Attention Please is available now on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and anywhere that eBooks are sold. Please check it out, and if you do read my book, please leave a review on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads, or whatever other platform you are using. It would mean a whole lot!

I Just Can’t Say I Love You is available on Amazon, Kindle Unlimited, Barnes and Noble, and Ingram Spark, staring Carl and Kim and the usual cast of characters.

Here again are the links to my Facebook page, Debby Meltzer Quick Author, TikTok, @dbmquick and Instagram, quickdebby_author. Please follow me on these pages. And please explore my page here at debbymeltzerquickauthor.com.

Book 2 is Coming! Book 2 is Coming!

May I Have Your Attention Please, McKinney High Class of 1986, self-publishing, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

It’s coming soon! My new book, book 2 in the series, “McKinney High Class of 1986, ” I Just Can’t Say I Love You! I’m so excited about this! Launching Book 1 was exciting and stressful. And launching Book 2 is, well, stressful and exciting! It definitely was less scary. I mean the whole process. I was so terrified to send my files to the distributors the first time, like something I did would break the whole system and steal all my money. I had to actually go to Best Buy last time to have them help me load one of my files due to the imbedded fonts. This time, everything went through almost much too easily. I’ve requested proofs to be sent to me and I just have to wait to make sure, but then I can order real copies, and start to sell them! To be honest, I love my first book, but I really feel that each of my books gets better and better than the last one. I’m writing number 11 right now. Maybe it will be a Pulitzer Prize winner! Haha.

But the struggle has been real. This whole indie scene has been a struggle. Nothing is easy about self-publishing, and the payoff, well, is not much of a payoff. I was aware that it would be slow going, but I had no idea how frustrating it would be, not being able to break through to the public. I know I have this great product, but I just can’t get it out there. I have sold a bit above 100 copies of my book. I have given away several more. I have sold a couple in bookstores, which is exciting, but there are soooo many books to compete with, including those that have become best sellers (I’m talking about you, Colleen Hoover). It doesn’t help that I have to work full time in a very stressful profession at the same time as trying to market my books. I can’t spend all day trying to push my books. So I do as much as I can on social media. I feel a bit like a telemarketer! Recently, I changed jobs, and I no longer have a commute where I can read, write, or go on social media. Sometimes, I would even market on the bus. That was fun. I would read my own book on the bus and when someone asked me what I was reading, I would tell them. And show them. And sometimes impress them. But now I have a five-block walk to work. I could try to sell to the pigeons along the way, but they like mystery books better as a group. What I need is a carrier pigeon to drop some books on the heads of random passersby.

I’m going to try to sell my new book on Kindle Unlimited. Have you tried it? I used standard Kindle for the first book. I’m not sure if it will be a different experience. I hope that doing this gives new people an opportunity to see my book who might otherwise not. I haven’t tried joining Kindle Unlimited yet. I prefer paperback books myself, although I do partake on the occasional eBook. What’s your preference? What do you like about each one? I like books because they don’t have backlighting. I like the way they feel in my hands. I like the way they smell. I like pages to turn manually. I like that they can be signed by the author. What I like about eBooks is that I can get them so quickly. If I have my Kindle in my bag, and I’m stuck somewhere, I can just order up a new book, and read it right away. Maybe some light reading or something I wouldn’t have ordered on-line and waited two days or more to receive. Right now, I’m rereading Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I read it last when I was about 14 years old. I referenced it in one of my manuscripts, so I thought it was about time for me to read it again. And it’s so worth it. Such a great book. I wish I had as good marketing as that book had! 🙂

This is the last cover reveal image I’ll show you. I still have three more days to complete on social media. Maybe you can extrapolate what it looks like from what I’m giving you here. What does it look like to you? Do you judge books by their cover? I do. I know it’s not always accurate, but I’ve read a lot about the science (well, social science, I guess) of book art. You develop your cover based on your genre. So what happens if your book covers more than one genre? I guess you go for the most prevalent one. In my case, I go toward the romantic imagery. It can be stunning, and it’s really hard to make a cover around a 1980s retro high school friend/families coming-of-age love story with social issues theme. So yeah, romance seems to sell. And there is romance in my books. Quite a bit. But for those of you who don’t love romance, there is more. There is a lot of family dynamics, and function and dysfunction. There is the connection between a group of friends who have been through so much together. There is the spanning of years in the series, and the overlap of storylines. There is the fact that every one of my books in the series has a scene that takes place at the McKinney High junior prom. And stuff happens at the prom. And not all of it is sex. Some of it might be, though, so, yeah. But other stuff, too.

Here’s the book blurb:

Kim and Carl became fast friends in kindergarten, but they were struck by the cooties plague in second grade. For years, it was the boys versus the girls, but Kim has missed her first school friend. Now they are juniors, and Kim has a plan. She has gotten Carl to agree to go to the Junior Prom with her, and she has some ideas about how the evening will end. Carl won’t know what hit him. But both of these teens have no idea that their childhood traumas will affect their ability to thrive in a romantic relationship. As Kim and Carl start down a road to love, they must learn to trust each other with their lives, and their hearts. Their journey takes them through high school and across the country, into a new life that neither of them could ever have expected.

I Just Can’t Say I Love You is the second book in the McKinney High School Class of 1986 series. Learn about Kim and Carl during their early years, and well into adulthood as they explore growing up with the help of their loyal high school friends.

(For those who read May I Have Your Attention Please, you may remember that Kim is one of Sally’s friends, and Carl is one of James’s posse friends)

“May I Have Your Attention Please” is available now on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and anywhere that eBooks are sold. Please check it out, and if you do read my book, please leave a review on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads, or whatever other platform you are using. It would mean a whole lot!

I Just Can’t Say I Love You will be available on September 15, 2023, staring Carl and Kim and the usual cast of characters.

Here again are the links to my Facebook page, Debby Meltzer Quick Author, TikTok, @dbmquick and Instagram, quickdebby_author. Please follow me on these pages. And please explore my page here at debbymeltzerquickauthor.com.

Am I Done Yet?

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Photo by Eden Constantino on Pexels.com

My title reminds me of me and my brothers in the back, and way-back seats of my parents’ green Plymouth station wagon driving from Central Mass to Niagra Falls in the early 80s. “Are we there yet?” we chorused from the rear. My parents vowed, not for the first or last times in our young lives, to never take us on a car-trip vacation again!

No, but what I’m really thinking about today is writing books. How do you know when you are done writing your book? Are you ever done? When do you put down the pen, or close the laptop, and say definitively, “this is as good as it will ever get”?

I have written four books so far in my series, “McKinney High Class of 1986.” I have read each one at least ten times. Each time I read, I tweak the dialog, or turn some narrative into dialog, or take out extraneous filler words. I don’t think I have gotten through even one manuscript so far where I couldn’t find something to change.

Finally, I sent Book 1, May I Have Your Attention Please, to the editor. But like I mentioned before, I had to send it two more times after that, because it just wasn’t perfect yet! But I’ve finally let go. Book one is in someone else’s hands right now, and I just hope she doesn’t find too many mistakes or inconsistencies! In the meantime, I have forbidden myself to even look at that text. Doesn’t stop me from collaborating with my marketing manager and cover designer, but, you know, my big part is done.

Yesterday, I started to read Book 3 again. I had just finished re-reading Book 2, on the tail of re-reading Book 4, and then doing some formatting on them both. So, I sat down to look at Book 3, for the 12th time. And what I saw was discouraging. The first three chapters almost bored me to sleep! I was just giving information, no story. I was trying to keep the reader a recap of what happened in Book 2. I was worried the reader would forget what happened and be lost. But in the meantime, the reader would nod off, drop Book 3 on the floor, and never get to the juicy parts. So, I had to re-write. Not all of it, but I had to chop it up into pieces. This is never easy. The words on those pages are kind of sacred to me. Deleting a line that doesn’t work HURTS a bit. But it hurts less than someone telling you that your first three chapters suck.

So, I made the changes. And I’m sure they won’t be the last changes I make. I have had one person read Book 3 so far, and he liked it (thanks to my brother/alpha reader) so no real feedback yet. I want to get feedback, but I also want it to be GOOD! So how do I know when I’m done? I have no idea. Faith? Maybe. Personal deadline? More likely. But once it’s done, it’s done, and it’s forever. Except for the fact that I can still reprint an edit. So yeah, maybe it will never be done!

If there is anyone out there who would like to be a beta reader for my series, please let me know. It’s a bit of a commitment. There are 4 books, and you miss quite a bit if you don’t read them in order. There’s no pay for being a beta, except for the satisfaction of knowing you helped, and maybe your name in the acknowledgements! Leave a comment or send me an email if you are interested.