Welcome back to Hollywood After Dark

So a long time ago I wrote a set of books about werewolves, vampires, and psychics who I nicknamed the "parafolk". These characters lived in California and the first book, named "All Night Inn" was set along coast in a little town off Highway 1 called Los Niños de la Noche.

 Now if you know Spanish that translates into "The children of the night" and is a Dracula reference, clearly tongue-in-cheek. I was writing vampires and werewolves but I was writing humor as well and had a lot of fun creating my world. For example, my heroine works in a bar and many of the patrons are werewolves... so I provided bar snacks for them of puppy chow to go with their beer. It was meant to be fun but still a romance with my hero being a vampire who owns the bar, and my heroine a woman desperate enough for a job that she allows him to mark her as his companion. But he has demons, she has demons... the usual stuff that will get worked out over the course of the book.

All Night Inn was a pretty big hit with readers and my publishing house at the time, so they promptly wanted more books which led to Fangs For The Memories about a old-time actress who used to be a movie star before getting turned into a vampire, leaving her only able to get a job as a late-night TV host of horror films. She meets a man who wants to be her companion and kidnaps her to get her to agree. That book is a little sexier than All Night Inn but still a fun read. It garnered a bunch of great reviews and an RT Booklover's Top Pick and nomination for their Reviewers Choice Award back when it was first published.

Then I wrote Tasting Nightwalker Wine about another vampire, Prince Sebastian and his favorite romance author, a lady who specializes in writing vampire books. I'm sure by now you can see how these books are really intended to make people laugh as much as sigh over the love scenes. One thing I loved was that I have a pair of werewolves in Tasting Nightwalker Wine, and the lady werewolf is pregnant... which means she's having cravings. But where my shapeshifters normally eat raw meat, she's craving vegetarian lasagna.


The last book I'm going to mention is Ghosts Of Christmas Past which I mentioned in my last post with the Christmas books. Again there is humor in that story, although it is less than in the novels. Sometimes a story comes out a little different. But the world remains the same, a bit of fun, a lot of romance.

All four titles are available now at Amazon with the lovely new covers you see above and over the weekend I expect to make the novels available at other vendors as well. 

Since these are older titles in some cases they are a bit out of date. For example in All Night Inn a major plot point is that my hero and heroine don't have cell phones. This was because at the time cell phones were not something everyone had, and even if you had one the chances were a phone wouldn't work in a remote area such as where I located "Los Niños". There just wasn't cell phone coverage the way there is today. 

I could have provided them with modern technology and found an excuse for the phones not to work, but instead I simply left the stories as they were. It was a personal choice not to update the story.

So is anyone else resurrecting old titles? If so, what are you doing to them besides new covers and editing?

Clearing out your brain's attic

I'm working on a big series and it's one I drafted many years ago -- a few times.

It seems like whenever I learned something new as a fledgling writer, I went back and hacked away at this series or at least one of the books in the series.

Last year I decided enough was enough. I was mature enough as an author that I could actually write this story now. But oh, it was hard to give up those old drafts. I was ruthless, though. I went through them all, read the prose (oh, Lord, some of it was so bad), tossed out what I knew wouldn't work and kept a few scenes, etc.

Then I started really writing this series and you know what -- none of what I kept will work. These aren't the same characters anymore. I've learned enough as an author that I realized the way I was using those scenes was for my own enjoyment. They didn't help the plot and they didn't help with character development.

Once again I had to step back and jettison that old work. And it was just as hard as the first time. Someday I hope to re-read some of it (it's safely archived on the D drive of my computer) and maybe -- just maybe -- include some of it in my edits as I do finally prep of this series.

Or maybe I'll just laugh at it all and finally, truly, jettison it.

J L
(more books than you can shake a stick at, although why you'd want to...)

Letting go can be good

My mother was a master sewer and knitter. She used to make all our clothing (me and 2 sisters) as well as her own. Plus she knitted sweaters galore.

In later years, when we no longer needed or wanted sweaters, she still knitted & donated them to the church, which would raffle them off & give the money to charity. I can't tell you how many people in my home town have stopped me and commented on the sweaters they bought.

Mom died 3 years ago this month, and we had already donated the final sweaters she made to the church. But this year I decided to donate some of the sweaters she made me. I kept two: one she & I designed together using graph paper, and my Christmas sweater, an elaborate tree with beadwork on it, worn only on special occasions. The others: I'm taking to the church.

The Church Ladies were thrilled to learn there are 5 Marge Wilson sweaters available. I told them more would be coming because my nieces and my sisters are also going to donate some of theirs. It was a tough decision to let them go, but really, they're sitting in bags in my closet: it's time someone else can enjoy them!

Letting go can be tough, but it's also a good feeling. Keep that in mind if you have a manuscript tucked away somewhere.... this month I've been going through my dreaded "Maybe" folder (maybe I'll use this material someday). I've weeded out a lot but I'm keeping some.

It's tough but I feel a LOT lighter for it!

J L Wilson
(30 books and counting)

A new home for an old book?

I had a dilemma. I had this book I wrote, but I didn't think any of my publishers would want it. It's from the male POV, 1st person, and well, I just wasn't sure they'd want it.

So that book languished on my computer (not really. It just sat there).

Then lo and behold, one of my publishers (The Wild Rose Press) announced they were expanding their submissions and maybe -- just maybe -- this book might fit with them.

Why go with a publisher instead of self-publish it? A couple of reasons. One is that I have several books I'll be self-publishing this year, so I don't really need this one in the queue. The other reason is that I think when I have a book out with a publisher, I get some good publicity not only for that book, but for my back list with the publisher. Since I have a lot of books with them, it makes sense for me to see if I can continue my relationship with them.

Keep your fingers crossed -- I have some editing to do and it's not a done deal that it will be accepted. But there may be life for that poor old manuscript after all!