Book Stories: Fairly Human

I grew up in Tolkien's Middle Earth and riding on Heinlein's spaceship Dora with Lazarus Long.  I rode Anne McCaffrey's dragons and picked up a sword in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover stories.  I found out I had powers with Zenna Henderson's The People.

Maybe that's why I thought I'd write fantasy when I started writing.

I tried my hand at a lot of types of writing.  From literary fiction to poetry.  I made $4 on a poem and decided maybe my calling was something else.

Then I discovered the romance genre.  Two people, overcoming odds and finding a happily-ever-after.  This, my heart whispered.  This was what I wanted to write.

And I did.  I discovered I adored writing these relationship focused stories.  And then I realized that I could still write fantasy.

Mad About Max

 Heinlein had a theory that well loved universes exist in some dimension.  What if a bestselling fairy godmother romance author wasn't having any luck at romance?  What if her fictional fairies became real?

Magic for Joy

These were early stories, written with more glee than know-how.  But they struck a note with readers.  I have a collection of fairies they sent me over the years.  I wrote the first three books about the fairies and the Aaronson family and thought I was done with fairies.

Miracles for Nick

But readers kept asking for more.  So I wrote three novellas in which all the fairies get their own happily-ever-after.  The publisher asked me to turn them into a book...and so I blended those three shorter stories into one book.

Fairly Human

One of the things I loved about fairies was in my own way it was an homage to Heinlein.  But one of the other things that gave me glee was the opening scene in Fairly Human when the three old lady fairies find themselves sentenced to losing their magic.  And without their magic, they reverted to their true forms...beautiful young women.  Yes, since fairies are immortal, why were they old ladies?  Because all the heroes kept falling in love with them.  So they started wearing old lady bodies.  They did it for so long, that's how they saw themselves.

But looks can be deceiving and love can be tricky...with or without magic.

I was thrilled when a while back the publisher told me the fairies were getting new covers and being rereleased!  I adored the new artwork and I love that readers are re-meeting Fern, Myrtle and Blossom!  The fourth book, Fairly Human, is on sale for $.99 this week.   I hope you'll check the fairies out!  They might be older books, but they hold a special place in my heart!

Holly

My Novel Freshman Experience, Part Thirteen...Stretching

My boot is dried and in the kiln room, ready to get bisque fired so I can glaze it.  We've been talking about our next assignment in class and I'll confess, I worked ahead (you're shocked, right??).  I worry I'm giving poor Professor H. a migraine, but he's very nice about it.

So, our next assignment is a house.  He wanted something with detail.  I thought about making the cottage, but there's no color variations and it's all rough cut hemlock, so it wasn't a big stretch material wise.  Our house here is just a cape cod, again, nothing overly interesting.  (Just so my house and cottage don't feel bad, I love them both...I'm a simple girl at heart and they suit me.) So I thought about doing a ruin of a castle from a hundred year old book I have here...I've always loved the look of it.  I still think that might be fun someday but I never lived there or had a connection to it.  Of all the houses I've lived in, I'll confess, I've always felt most at home in books.  I read The Hobbit for the first time in third grade...and part of me has lived there ever since.  (Fingers crossed the kids aren't reading this...they'd be rolling their eyes.)  Soooooo, that's what I'm thinking about.
I took Professor H. This sketch...

And when he said he thought it could work and made some suggestions, I took up this model...

If you can't tell from the model or sketch (and there's a very good chance you can't LOL), that's a Hobbit Hole (with a traditional house addition) that's setting on an open book.  

Now, here's the thing, I'm very new to ceramics and I'm not sure I have the technical proficiency to pull this off.  Frankly, it might end up looking more like Dorothy's house after it lands in Oz.  But I love the idea and lack of proficiency doesn't mean I won't try it—whether it works, or not.  I could go for something simpler.  Something that might turn out more  like what I envision, but I wouldn't bring any passion to the project and if I'm sure I can do it, then odds are I won't be stretching and growing in my work.  I'd be phoning it in.  And this book, The Hobbit raised me.  Tolkien and so many other authors through their books raised me.  This project would have meaning for me...even if I flop.

I'm hoping, when I'm done, to paint this on the page...

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”

This project really does relate to writing, but to the rest of life as well.  There are always easy paths to take.  They're smooth and others have taken them ahead of you so you can follow in their footsteps.  You can pretty much coast down those paths and enjoy the billboards that dot the landscape as you go along.  

But sometimes, if you take a turn onto a more unexpected path—a less traveled path—you might find something that takes your breath away.  You might find you learn something totally unexpected.  That's what I'm hoping this project will be...something unexpected.  It might indeed be an unexpected journey.  And even if it's flawed and my inexperience shows, I hope my love of this book shows as well.
Speaking of books (oh, yeah that was subtle LOL), my entire Words of the Heart series is on sale this month for Kindle.  The idea of what makes a home plays to some extent in all three books, but there's a quote in Hold Her Heart that really says what I'm saying about my home being in books...

Carry Her Heart

These Three Words

Hold Her Heart

“You can only have one home,” I said without looking up.


Dad’s laughter made me...look at him as he said, “Honey, that’s like saying you can only love one person. You can have many homes. Wherever someone you love is, that’s home.”
It's like that with books.  When you find one you truly love, you've found a new home!

Thank you everyone who's started following my blog and my "novel" freshman experience!

Holly

PS. Did you notice this Hobbity post was my thirteenth post in this series?  And if you remember that first dinner, you'll realize why that gave me untold geeky glee!
PPS. In case you've missed them, here's Part Twelve, Part Eleven, Part Ten, Part Nine, Part Eight, Part Seven, Part Six, Part Five, Part Four, Part Three, Part Two, Part One

Everything But... Daycares and Nursing Homes

Everything But a Mother is available on audio. 5 in the series down...1 to go! Nana Vancy and the Silverbells are volunteering at a daycare in a nursing home in this one.

I've been going to nursing homes for...well, for decades. My grandmother had Alzheimers and was in an amazing home a block away from the kids' school. We stopped every day. My youngest basically grew up in that nursing home. And that's one of my inspirations for adding a daycare center in my fictional nursing home in Everything But a Mother. Whenever my kids went into the home, they were rockstars. All the residents got so excited to see young faces in the building.

It's nice to see that my idea is catching on. PBS did a great what happens when a nursing home and a daycare share a building piece. The Everything But series are lighthearted romps, but even in my frothiest stories, you can find things I'm passionate about. From how society deals with our elderly, to healthy eating, to CSA's, to dual-flush toilets and compost piles, oh, and Heinlein, Tolkien and Trixie Belden...I touch on all of it!! I hope you'll check out the Everything But... books on audio. If you bought the Kindle version, you can buy the Audible edition on Amazon for $1.99.

Everything but a Groom - 5/2/2017

Amazon, Audible, BN and iTunes

Everything but a Bride - 5/9/2017

Amazon, Audible, BN and iTunes

Everything but a Wedding - 5/16/2017

Amazon, Audible, BN and iTunes

Everything but a Christmas Eve - 5/23/2017

Amazon, Audible, BN and iTunes

Everything but a Mother - 5/30/2017

Amazon, Audible, BN and iTunes

Everything but a Dog - 6/6/2017

Amazon, Audible, BN and iTunes

And while you're shopping don't forget my newest releases:

Confessions of a Party Crasher

I Waxed My Legs for This?

Able to Love Again

Not Precisely Pregnant

The Book

Same Time Next Summer

Can't Find NoBODY

My Award Winning Words of the Heart series 

Carry Her Heart

These Three Words

Hold Her Heart

When you're done reading (or listening) to a book, I'd so appreciate it if you'd leave a review!  As always, thanks so much!!  Keep an eye out...new Views of My Garden videos are in the works!

Holly

PS if you read down this far...I just gave some free books out to my newsletter subscribers (if you're not one yet, you can sign up here...I always have something new going on for subscribers) and I have a few left.  If you'd like one, send me an email at HollyJacobs1 (at) gmail (dot) com. First come, first serve!