#FreeWriteChallenge Day 22 - Packing Books to Read in Ten Years

A Box of Incredible—Or Books

(Which is the Same Thing)

Today’s topic is “If you packed a box of books for yourself so you could read them ten years into the future, what would you pick?”

Hmmm ... Just how big is this box, anyway?

I’m a big reader. I read new books all the time. I’m an editor, so I get the chance to read books before they’re even published. I also like to review, specifically for other indie authors, so I am always reading something I’ve never read before.

I like to re-read a lot as well. There are some books that give me a certain feel, put me in a certain kind of mood and I like to revisit them. Sometimes I re-read an entire book, other times I go back to certain passages or chapters. Every single book on this list is one that I’ve read before. Some of them only once, others have been picked up on numerous occasions. These are the books I’ll want with me in ten years. I warn you, it’s not a short list, and I haven’t written it out in any kind of order.

Anyone who’s known me for even a short while knows that I have a huge soft spot in my heart taken up by Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. It sounds almost cliché to say this is my favorite book, but, well, it is. When things go all pear shaped in my world, I grab this book. It makes things right for me again. It’s been there for me during some of my most difficult times. I’ve also read Go Set a Watchman, and, while it isn’t as special to me as Mockingbird, it will be in the box as well.

 

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine l’Engle. I haven’t read this one in a few years, not since my daughter’s English curriculum listed it as a book she had to read for eighth grade. I was heartbroken when she didn’t devour this novel as I had at her age. She had to work hard to finish it. I read it along with her and loved it as much then as I had in middle school. I’m thinking I’ll enjoy it all over again ten years from now.

 

On Folly Beach by Karen White. I’m a big Karen White fan. She writes southern fiction which is a genre I love to read. There are many books written by this author that I am very fond of, but this is one I continually go back to. She has two story lines going on at the same time, both set in Charleston, South Carolina, but one set during WWII and one set in the present. I love the way she weaves them, then brings them together at the end.

 

Billy Purgatory: I Am the Devil Bird and Billy Purgatory and the Curse of the Satanic Five by Jesse James Freeman. It’s hard to explain just how much I love these books. In one of my reviews I called them ‘crazy wonderful’. I still think that encompasses these novels pretty accurately. Billy’s world is one I find myself visiting on a regular basis. It’s unlike any other I’ve ever experienced. The writing in these novels is unapologetic, filled with emotion, humor and limitless imagination. I absolutely love the feel of these books and can’t wait for more from this extraordinarily talented author.

 

The Blood Ties series by Jennifer Armintrout is one that I’ve read many, many times. This story is dark and somewhat violent, which is not something that usually draws me, but there are many aspects to this tale that I find intriguing. Armintrout has written some very complex characters here, and, while it’s very unlike most of the other books I like to read, sometimes this is exactly the kind of thing that I’m in the mood for.  

 

The Scandalous Summer of Sissy le Blanc by Loraine Despres will always be one of my favorite novels. This is another southern fiction book, set in Louisiana in 1956. Sissy has been controlled by people and circumstances her entire life. She’s tired of being passive, tired of having everything decided for her … and one summer she goes about changing all of that. It’s a sweet and sassy story filled with a few unexpected surprises and all kinds of scandalous fun.  

 

The Scott Wolfe series by S.L. Shelton. This was another surprise for me. I’m not one for spy thrillers—or I never used to be—until I read S.L. Shelton. He is a talented manipulator. He has the unique ability to make me sad, piss me off, stress me out and make me happy with his novels … and I’m so grateful that he does. My favorite book of the series is Predator’s Game, which is number six, but I love them all. Every single installment is amazing, and together they make a stellar series. 

 

Hedged is another novel written by S.L. Shelton that I'll need with me in ten years. This is a crime thriller and not a part of the Scott Wolfe series. There are a lot of reasons why this book is special to me. It’s just as spectacular as Shelton’s other novels, but altogether different.

 

The Dulcie O’Neil series by H.P. Mallory. I’m not even sure how to categorize these books. Paranormal Romance perhaps? It’s all about a kick ass fairy who’s a Regulator. (That’s a law-enforcement agent who monitors the creatures of the Netherworld and keeps them from making trouble in the mortal world.) Why do I like it? Well, H.P. Mallory has a sense of humor for one thing. She also writes smart, strong female characters. That’s a combination I find very entertaining. This is only one series Mallory has written. I’ve enjoyed them all, but there’s just something different about Dulcie.

 

Rick Riordian’s Percy Jackson series. I’m a sucker for Greek mythology. I have been since I was young. My dad’s family is Greek and I grew up hearing many of the stories from  Mt. Olympus. I even write them myself. My son introduced me to this series back when he was about six or seven. He’s read all of them as have I. Admittedly, I probably like them more than he does, but that’s not surprising. I’m a fan of a lot of YA books. There’s something so beguiling about this series, and it doesn’t seem to wear off, no matter how many times I read it.

I was introduced to Sarah Addison Allen about six years ago. I'm not sure I can choose just one of her books to put in the box, so I won't. I'll take them all. She's another southern fiction writer that I enjoy. Her books are a little different than most that I've read. There's always an element of magic mixed in with her stories, along with romance and small country charm. If I want to read something uplifting, any of Allen's novels satisfy that need. 

 

And that brings me to my all-time favorite author, James Lee Burke. In my opinion, Burke is a literary god. Dramatic? Probably, but we all like what we like, right? (As a side note—another author on this list, Jesse James Freeman, reminds me a lot of Burke. They both have a lyrical quality to their writing that captivates and enchants me.) He’s written thirty-seven novels, but the twenty I love the most make up his Dave Robicheaux series. I don’t think Burke can be described as a southern fiction writer—at least not exclusively. This series takes place in Iberia Parish, Louisiana, but this is not the only setting for his novels. It centers around a police detective who is a recovering alcoholic. He’s always fighting demons; either from his time in Vietnam, the criminals he puts behind bars or other sordid people and places from his past. This character, Dave Robicheaux, is deeply flawed, but he’s written in such a realistic way. He reminds me a little of my dad. I love him and I hate him—which is something I recognize, but don’t really want to contemplate too much—and the books are oftentimes dark and emotional. Burke has the ability to transport me into his novels. I get lost in them. His writing makes me happy—even when his subject matter is decidedly unhappy—and satisfies me in ways few other writers can.

That will have to be one very large box, indeed. Probably a reinforced trunk with an easy lock so that I can dip into it many times between now and that ten-year mark.  

#FreeWriteChallenge Day 21 - Someone Who Makes My Life Interesting

Glykós Filos

I’m fortunate … I interact with many people every day, and a whole lot of them are interesting. I’m thankful for that. My life is many things. Boring is not one of them.

While I’m in contact with a large group, my close circle of friends is very small. A couple of these people I’ve known for a very long time, another few are newer friends, but still, they are incredibly special and important to me. After a little bit of contemplation, I decided there was one particular someone I really needed to write about.

Everyone else calls her Samantha Soccorso. I call her Sammy. I’ve been told I’m the only one allowed to use that name so if you slip up, just remember, you were warned. I’ve never gotten to meet this fireball in person. She lives in Mastic Beach, New York, which is, according to Google maps, 1,868 miles from where I’m at in Colorado. It’s amazing how much she’s done for me considering just how far away we are from one another.

Oh, how I love this girl.

I don’t remember the exact day I met Sam. I know that I was busily working on finishing up A Skye Full of Stars, the second book in the Gannon Family series. She’d hosted a lot of release parties that I’d attended, and we’d gotten friendly. If you know Samantha, you know that’s not a difficult thing to do. We got to talking a little bit and I told her about my upcoming novel. She asked me if she could do an interview with me and I, of course, said yes. It wasn’t too long after the interview came out that she had a two-day release party for A Skye Full of Stars, chock full of enthusiastic authors and attendees, all in place. At this point, I hadn’t even finished writing the book yet.

This girl leaves an impression that’s nearly impossible to shake.

A Skye Full of Stars took longer to write than I’d hoped. It wasn’t because the story wasn’t there. When I’d written the previous novel, Alabama Skye, I had no intention of writing a sequel. When I was urged by readers to continue the story, I had no trouble falling back into it. I realized the characters had a lot more to share, and I had a great desire to write it once I started. The reason it took so much longer was that I was dealing with a serious wrist injury. Most of the people I was in contact with at the time knew something was going on, that I had some physical issue I was trying to overcome, but Samantha cared about the details.

I told her the whole story—got emotional about it more than once—and she listened. She urged me over the finish line, then became a beta reader when the book was finally written. I made the deadline Sam and I set. Having that party planned, seeing how many authors she’d lined up and feeling the energy and excitement she put behind the whole thing was a huge boost for me. I didn’t want to let either one of us down.

I don’t know many people who possess Samantha’s level of enthusiasm. Quite honestly, the girl makes me tired just watching her. She’s a problem solver, a go-getter. She is a formidable force of positive energy. She’s like that all the time, so maybe you can imagine the way she puts a party together. I didn’t do much more than sit at my computer for two days, interacting with the hundreds of people she’d gathered to celebrate the release of A Skye Full of Stars, but I was exhausted when Sunday night rolled around and the party came to an end. I’d never experienced anything like it. And Samantha? New York is two hours ahead of Colorado. It was late for me, even later for her. She’d done a ton of work to organize and keep things on track and yet she was still going. She’s like the Energizer Bunny. She never stops.

Samantha definitely pushed me over the finish line when it came to that novel. She publicized the hell out of both books in the Gannon Family series, and started signing me up for a bunch of takeovers in author events. She worked hard to make sure readers heard about these stories, and helped me introduce this cast of characters all over Facebook land.

A few months later, my wrist got worse. Much worse. I went through a series of cortisone shots and casts. I was working one handed (my dominant being the one that was injured) and with a lot of pain. I became very emotional. I felt sad and defeated. This is not my normal. Far from it. I’m usually irritatingly optimistic, but this was so difficult for me. I was trying to write Under a Southern Skye, the third book in the Gannon Family series, but I grew increasingly frustrated while trying to type with my left hand, and my voice recognition software made me want to tear my hair out.

Samantha was there for me. She collected all the teasers I’d made, the games I liked to post for takeovers, my character photos and everything else I had in my publicity arsenal. She continued to sign me up for takeovers, but she did them for me. She made it her goal to not only talk to me every day, but to make me smile and laugh every day. She knew just how difficult my wrist injury was to deal with. She knew how frustrated and unhappy I’d become. She got it, and she was there for me.

When I had my first surgery on November 23^rd of last year, it was Samantha who took care of all my writing related things. When I went in for my second surgery a few weeks later, the one in which they replaced my wrist joint and part of the ulna bone, she had things under control again. She knew when I went into surgery, when I came out and how I was doing along the way. She was my filter, sharing what she knew I’d want her to with my readers. She did takeovers for me, she was in contact with those wonderful people who posted on my wall, and she was in constant contact with me. She sent me things to make me laugh, she checked in with me, she encouraged me. She was a constant support, and I will probably never find an accurate way of repaying her—but I’ll continue to try.

It wasn’t until after I’d recovered a bit that she and I decided to give her the official title of PA. It was a long time coming, really, and probably ridiculous that we made any sort of issue out of it at all. She’d been taking care of things for me for months. We had a chat one day and thought it was past time. She deserves a paycheck. Unfortunately, all I’ve been able to give her in return for all her support and hard work is unlimited editing services, signed paperbacks, sneak peeks at all my writing and lots of photos of her crush, Jamie Dornan.

And I gave her Archer. She loves Archer.

It isn’t much, not when you consider the fact that she’s invaluable to me and I don’t know what I’d do without her.

There is no doubt that Sammy makes my life interesting. She set up J.C.’s Wingdom, a street team I didn’t realize I wanted, and co-admins it with me. (Don’t blame her for the goofy name. I did that all on my own.) She signed me up for a takeover not long ago, one she insisted I do myself because it was a collection of my characters that needed to make an appearance. I thought it would be ridiculous—and maybe it was—but in the most enjoyable way. She’s involved me in many charity events and contests, and she’s brought quite a few editing clients to me. She pushes me to do things I didn’t think I could. She keeps me working toward personal writing goals while still making sure I’m taking care of myself. She knows I have bad wrist days. She knows I take on too many projects. She knows the ideas don’t always come when I want them to. She also knows I need a swift kick in the ass every so often, and she’s not afraid to be the one to do the kicking.

I’ve known Sam for less than two years—but it’s been an extraordinary two years. I’ve published two novels with her, and I’m working on several more (yes—at the same time). I’d hoped to release Brides, Beasts & Baklava, the second book in the Goddess of Tornado Alley series, by her birthday in February. I’m not sure I’ll make that deadline, but I hope to have it ready for betas by then. With her encouragement, I’ll most likely succeed in that goal.

Like I stated before, my life is anything but boring. I’m so glad I have the special people in it that I do. And I’m so glad I have my Sammy.