Family.

What a touchstone word.  A word loaded with history and baggage, fraught with an ocean of emotion.  On this sunny first day of spring, I’m plunged into the whirlpool of that ocean, tossed back and forth like a paper boat.

Let me rewind the tape for you a bit, so you understand the context of my current sea-change.

Yesterday I had the honor and misfortune of attending a Celebration of Life for a very dear friend’s father.  He passed suddenly and left behind a stunned family and crowd of friends.  As they gathered for not a memorial, but a true celebration, I was first, honored to be invited to take part, and second, amazed and thrilled to see the enormous turnout.

I didn’t know Tom well.  I had only met him on a handful of occasions, but his presence was large – a smiling man with an open heart and a perpetual twinkle in his eye.  I wish I had been given the opportunity to know him better, especially after hearing all the loving and oftentimes humorous stories shared by his friends and family at the Celebration.  He lived life well, loved well, and was loved well in return.

After the Celebration, I was honored again to be invited back to a private gathering for family.

Honored.  The word doesn’t even begin to describe my emotions.  This family, Sue, her mother and father, her husband and his father and sister – all of these people, over the course of the last few years, have invited me into their clan, made me feel welcome, made me feel part of their loving community.  I treasure that.  I cherish it.

All this makes me consider the notion of family.  You see, I am adopted, and despite the best intentions of my loving adoptive parents, I have always felt a certain distance from my adoptive relations. A certain sense of otherness – knowing in my heart that I was not really part of them.  For years – decades – this sense of otherness fostered a gnawing loneliness, a desperate sense of isolation.  I longed for ‘my people’, but had no way of finding them.  For a time I thought that perhaps by finding my birth family, I could fill that void, but my birth records are sealed in the intractable state of Texas, so after years of beating my head against that brick wall, I gave up.

I had DNA testing done, trying to at least get a sense of where ‘my people’ came from.  Apparently, somewhere in the dim past, my genetic ancestors were in Ireland.  Somehow, that didn’t answer the need either. I mean, we’re talking thousands of years, not two generations back.

Over the last ten years, as the majority of my adoptive family has passed on, including my parents, the sense of being adrift grew acute, like an infected tooth.  I grew obsessed with the sense of not belonging.  And then, as things do, the pain eventually faded to a dull ache, as the ‘root’ of the bad tooth died.  I shoveled as much stuff as I could over the dim throb of ‘otherness’ and thought I had buried it deep enough that perhaps it would never rear its ugly head again.

Until yesterday.  Until I sat there, surrounded by people remembering the life of a man I knew really only by reputation and through stories told.

Yet, as I sat there, for once, I didn’t feel like an outsider.  I felt part of that collective of friends and family, despite the brevity of my acquaintance.   In those moments, and as I made the long drive back to Chicago, the idea crystallized in me that family can be more than one thing.  More than the people who supplied your DNA.  More than the wonderful adoptive parents who gave their love to you.  More than the generations that came before and that will come after.  Family can be the amazing people who you collect and surround yourself with – the people who open their hearts to you and invite you into their lives.  It can be the people who see you through those dark nights of the soul – even when you’ve never even met them face to face.

Today, my heart is full.  Now that I have truly redefined my foolishly limited definition of that emotionally charged word, I realize I have so many wonderful family members now.  People who I am proud to call relatives, dear sweet friends I meet regularly for coffee, colleagues I have worked with who remain my steadfast friends, despite changes in jobs and life events, people I went to school with and with whom I’ve shared the majority of my years, people I’ve met online, people with whom I share my spirituality, fellow writers and people who, like my dear friends Sue and Art, have made me part of their family.  Oh, and let me not forget the wonderful man I married and my beautiful, awe-inspiring daughter.

On this first, sunny day of spring, I am profoundly grateful to ALL my family.  You all know who you are.  Here’s hoping the future allows me to increase my family a hundredfold.  Thank you for holding me in your hearts the way I hold you in mine.

Illegitimi noncarborundum!

So during my writing night last night (we have a group), for those of us who are “waiting at the gate” for Nano, it was suggested that we take our main character from our Nano novel and put him/her in a completely different setting or time and just roll with it. Somehow Jonathan and Coggs ended up “borrowing” HG Wells’ Time Machine and went into the future… and encountered Doctor Who. It was such a hoot! I had no idea where it was going, and then, suddenly, Unit showed up. Jelly baby, anyone?

Greetings, fellow babies.  Yes, it’s been a while.  Life has been throwing me more than the usual amount of curve balls, but I am still here and still swinging.  Wow, two baseball metaphors in a row and I’m not even a big fan!  Must be the disaster that are the Cubs, weighing on my mind.  I don’t know why I expected a different outcome – but then the very definition of crazy is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.  And we all know I’m crazy.

Anyhoo…  Today’s post is about changes.  I don’t know about you but I hate them.  I like a certain amount of consistency in my life.  That’s probably the result of having grown up as an Air Force brat, moving every year or two, having to start over someplace new.  Now… I avoid new like the plague.

Or at least, I imagine that I do.  That doesn’t explain why I feel the need to completely rearrange my living room every couple of years or why I’m constantly trying to find a new route to the Evil Day Job to shake up the tedium (or avoid traffic snarls).

Some changes, however, are decidedly unpleasant.  Recently I’ve been having to change my diet.  Now, I don’t mean going to Jenny Craig or only eating beet soup – although being a short round Irish woman, I could always stand to lose a few pounds.  Okay… more than a few.  No, I’m talking about eliminating foods that I used to love that now seem not to love me so much.  I’m calling it the “No CH Diet”.  And I am decidedly unhappy about it.

Come back, Muse! Come back!

If you’ve read any of my Stalking the Muse articles, you probably know that one of the ways I attract my Muse, retrieving her from her extended sojourns in Bermuda, is with Her favorite snack food.  CHeetos®.  Ah, the wonders of orange, cheesy goodness.  It’s the only snack brand that has actually coined its own word – ‘cheedle’, meaning the orange stuff that you scrape off your fingers with your teeth after you’ve eaten some.  I can actually wax poetic about those crunchy little orange tidbits.  But now there are apparently two ingredients in this snack that suddenly don’t agree with me:  the food-coloring annatto and *gasp* CHeese.

Now, remember.  I am a short, round woman of IRISH descent.  CHeese is in my blood, right alongside potatoes.  I don’t know how to make a meal without either of those ingredients.  But suddenly CHeese is off the menu (thank you very much, evil gods of dairy!).  Fortunately, potatoes are still okay.  I think I’d curl up and die if I couldn’t eat those!

Next on the no-no list turns out to be CHocolate.  Because CHocolate has dairy in it.  How on earth am I supposed to do Nano this year without either CHeetos® or CHocolate?  That’s… that’s crazy talk!  The Muse will NEVER come back from Bermuda.  She’ll lay there on the beach, being served Midori Melon Margaritas by hot young men, feeling the whoosh whoosh whoosh of the surf on her dainty, manicured toes and I’ll be left here, in Chicago, in winter, barricaded in my suburban garret (oh, okay, my corner of the spare room) burning old manuscript pages to keep warm because I’ve been creatively abandoned!

No CHeetos®?  No CHeese?  No CHocolate?  How can I live like this??

So I made some CHanges.  And then discovered a whole bunch of other things that my suddenly finicky digestive system doesn’t like either.  Caffeine.  Lettuce.  Gluten.  Very shortly now, I’m going to be left with a diet of cardboard and grass clippings.  *sigh*  My fervent hope is that once I cut out all dairy for a while, and give my system a bit of a restart, that the other foods can come back on line.  The thought of Nano without CHeetos®, CHeese, CHocolate OR caffeine leaves me in a cold sweat.  At least give me the caffeine.

So I’m lighting a candle to the evil gods of dairy, being kind to cows and giving myself 10 days to detox.  If you wouldn’t mind, could you put in a good word for me too?  Meanwhile, I’ll be here, jonesing for a cappuccino with a side of baked brie and some salted caramel dark chocolate.

Illegitimi non carborundum!

Co-Writing.

Thought you might like little peek at what’s going on in Ellie’s world right now.  Pretty much the usual… murder, mayhem, flying vases…  Enjoy!

Even though it was late, Ellie didn’t feel like sleeping. Once up in the little room with the sunshine colored walls, she set out her portable altar, cast a circle of protection and sat for over an hour in the middle, trying to ground and center and talk to the Goddess. It took her longer than usual to slide into a meditative state. Her thoughts were scattered, jumping from one thing to another. She had just about decided to give up when she heard a loud thunk.
Her eyes flew open. The ladder back chair in front of the little antique secretary lay on its side on the floor. Now how had that happened? She glanced around, saw nothing, but even as she stood slowly, she felt the hair on her arm stand on end.

There was energy in the room.

She put out a hand, felt something pushing at the bubble of protective energy she’d created when she’d cast her circle. Something dark and angry.

Abruptly, the light on the dresser flickered then went out.  Ellie pushed imaginary roots from the bottoms of her feet down through the first floor of the house, down through the basement and into the earth beneath, looking to connect to the Goddess. When she felt completely centered and grounded, she reached out her left hand, her receptive hand, and tried to sense whatever lay beyond her circle of protection. Immediately, she felt anger and pain and an image of Lacey came into her head.
Ellie almost relaxed her guard, now knowing at least the source of the energy. “Pissed, are you?” she asked the spirit.
An object came flying at her then skittered around the edge of her circle and slammed into the wall behind the head of the bed with an enormous bang. Ellie was shocked. She’d never met a spirit that had been able to manifest itself enough to affect physical objects. Lacey must be both furious AND powerful. That scared Ellie a little – it was no secret that Lacey had dabbled in darker forms of magick. Doing her best to keep the fear from her voice, she crossed her arms over her chest. “You don’t scare me, Lacey. I’m sorry you’re mad, but I only spoke the truth and you know it.”

The lamp on the dresser flickered back on again, just in time for Ellie to see a faint ripple in the air, like a heat wave. There was a sense of pressure on her protective circle and then a sensation in her gut of something snapping or popping. Frigid air suddenly surrounded her and she felt herself being blown back and off her feet. She fell against the end of the bed, caught herself and pulled herself upright with the help of one of the bed’s posters. The force of the attack frightened her, but backing down was not an option, ever, with a spirit. “You still don’t scare me.”

There was a flash of movement, something she couldn’t quite focus on, and a second later the painting of a seaside cottage that hung on the wall by the door suddenly crashed to the floor. The glass over the print shattered, spraying her feet and legs with needle-sharp splinters.

There was a sound out in the hall, and Ellie heard someone say, “What the hell, Gooden?”

Damn that idiot.  What the hell was he doing out there? “Stay out, McCallum. And keep Kate out.” She had to protect her friend – whether Kate appreciated being protected or not.
The door to her room opened just as the alarm clock from her nightstand flew towards her, nailing her in the shoulder. 
Charlie stood in the doorway, eyes wide. “Jesus wept!”

An icy gust of air swirled around Ellie and then a vase of flowers from the dresser hurtled towards her, catching her on the side of the head.
“Damn!” She dropped to one knee, felt warm blood on her fingers. Pulling up energy through the soles of her feet, she envisioned glowing light surrounding her then extended the bubble of protective light to Charlie. Feeling as shielded as she was likely going to be, she turned to face the seething mass of angry energy that raced around the room like a spiritual cyclone. “Get out, Lacey! You don’t belong here anymore!”

So I had a chance to sit down (virtually) with J.M. Aucoin the other day to talk about the release of his new historical adventure, Honor Among Thieves.  It was a fun hour and I wanted to share it with you.  Please give a very warm welcome to him and be sure to check out his books and his blog using the links below the interview.

Nan:  J.M. Aucoin – thanks so much for taking the time to meet with me today! It’s great to be able to sit down in real time and talk with you.

J.M. Aucoin: Likewise! Thanks for having me.

Nan:  So your new book, ‘Honor Among Thieves‘, officially released Tuesday. You’ve got to be excited. Can you tell us a bit about the book?

J.M. Aucoin:  I am! This book has been a long time coming. ‘Honor Among Thieves’ is a 17th Century historical adventure, taking place in France about two decades after the French Wars of Religion came to a close, and about ten years before the Musketeers were a thing. In the book we follow Darion Delerue, a former soldier turned highwayman, and Jacquelyna Brocquart, a lady-in-waiting for Queen Marie de Medici. Darion and Jacquelyna are both thrown in a political plot to undermine the crown. Their actions could throw France back into civil war. I also mix historical events and figures with my fictional plot, so folks looking for some history lessons will get that, too.

Nan:  So clearly lots of fun and some hard work for you as a writer as well! As you mention, ‘Honor Among Thieves’ is a historical adventure and your Jake Hawking series is also a historical. What draws you most to particular periods in history? What makes you love the 17th century, for instance? And how do you embody the things you love most about the time in the characters you create?

J.M. Aucoin:  I’ve always been a big fan of the swashbuckling genre. I grew watching reruns of Guy William’s Zorro, for instance. So I tend to be drawn to periods where carrying a sword was popular. The 17th Century falls into this category pretty easily. My love for the Three Musketeers know no bounds!

As for characters, I try to mix and match the traits of my favorite characters and hopefully come up with something relatively new and exciting. I want the characters to feel real and be memorable and have readers wanting to keep following their lives. Giving them a sword is an added bit of entertainment for me and ups the fun factor for readers, too.

Nan: Well, you’ve certainly succeeded on both counts with ‘Honor Among Thieves’! So if you could live back in that time period what do you think you’d be doing? Would you try to become a Musketeer? A pirate? Or would you end up being something more prosaic like a blacksmith or an innkeeper?

J.M. Aucoin: I think a musketeer. I’m an awful swimmer so I don’t think being a pirate would be all that great. Also the life expectancy is pretty bad… though their pension plan is pretty rocking. Hmm… But yea, definitely a musketeer. I dig the clothing. I dig the dashing. The serving the country. Swords, fight and carousing. Sounds like a blast!

Nan: Sounds like a perfect plan. I’m afraid, since I’m blind as a bat with no manual dexterity, I’d be best off as an innkeeper or a bard. Either way, I’d be telling the tales of all you more adventurous types!

Now I know you are a fencer yourself and you’re active in SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism). When creating the fight scenes – which were nicely choreographed, by the way — did you and your swordsmen buddies ever test out the fight scenes in the book in real life? I only ask because if I were a fencer, it’s something I would totally want to do, just to check for realism – and for fun of course! In fact it occurs to me that I might need to hire you and your friends to vet the fight scenes in my upcoming fantasy series!

J.M. Aucoin: Sure! We work for cheap, too.  Haha! I’d say the fight scenes in my book are a bit more dramatic than a real-life sword fight. Along with studying and practicing historical swordsmanship, I’ve also studied stage combat, which is choreographed fights you’d see in the movies or in live theater. I add a bit of realism to the moves and in the injuries of my fight scenes, but overall I’d say I’m writing something closer to stage combat than a real duel. It’s more entertaining that way. Real sword fights would be brutal, bloody, and lacking the emotional punch I’m going for in my stories.

Nan: Makes sense. And the emotional punch is definitely there! You mention in the backmatter of the book that a great deal of the backdrop of ‘Honor Among Thieves’ was drawn from actual historical events. How do you choose the real-life events that you wrap your own fiction around? What kinds of events do you gravitate towards and why?

J.M. Aucoin: So ‘Honor Among Thieves’ revolves around a visit from Don Pedro de Toledo of Spain. He’s there to try to work a double marriage with France as a way to unite their two countries and turn France against the Low Lands. I chose this period because I wanted to write a 17th Century French swashbuckler, but I didn’t want to overlap with The Three Musketeers. At least not right off the bat. So I turned back the clock. From there it was just reading a bunch of history books and seeing what was happening during then. I tend to gravitate to moments in history that aren’t necessarily major turning points, but smaller moments that I can picture my characters being a part of. Moments that might be turning points in their own lives. Political schemes, even small ones, are pretty good starting points for adventure novels.

Nan: Interesting. And a whole lot of work, but obviously well worth the effort! Darion Delerue, your hero, is a character of remarkable depth and substance. How did Darion develop? What was his genesis and what sorts of questions did you ask to get you from that first seed of an idea to the well-developed fully-fledged human being he became?

J.M. Aucoin: So I’ve always felt a kinship to d’Artagnan from The Three Musketeers. The young upstart with a combative personality but a good heart. I’m also a big fan of Arturo Perez-Reverte’s Captain Alatriste series. In those books, Alatriste is a Spanish sword-for-hire who gets wrapped up in a bunch of different plots. So my starting point for Darion was to combine the two. We get the young, prideful personality of d’Artagnan with the quiet resolve of Alatriste, and then some of his own original traits. But he’s basically the imaginary lovechild of d’Artagnan and Captain Alatriste. As for getting the depth, I’m not really sure, honestly! I just tried figuring out basic stuff like what his profession was and how/why he joined a band of highwayman. And that led to more questions about his past, so those holes needed to get filled. But for the most part I think Darion wrote himself.

Nan: I love it when that happens! You were definitely writing in the sweet spot. I think he would make both d’Artagnan and Alatriste very proud parents! Although I wonder who would have worn the baby sling…

J.M. Aucoin: I’m gonna say d’Artagnan, though I can see Porthos and Athos babysitting a lot!

Nan: Whoo hoo! Good news indeed. And where’s the love for Uncle Aramis? I think he would have made an admirable babysitter… er, playmate.

J.M. Aucoin:  Aramis is too busy womanizing all the noblewomen of France to play uncle seriously… though he might use baby Darion to meet women? Who knows!

Nan:  I can definitely see that.  The perfect chick magnet.  Now… Without giving any spoilers, what does the future look like for Darion and crew? Will we get to read more of Darion’s adventures?

J.M. Aucoin:  We’ll definitely see more of Darion, Peppin, Jacquelyna and Lecroix! I have the first four books more or less lined out in my head but am hoping there’ll be more than that. There’s no shortage in good historic moments and schemes for Darion & company to get involved in. Things are going to get pretty hairy for them.

Nan:  And now, I want to switch gears just a bit. As you know, I first became a fan of yours from reading the Jake Hawking stories. Anyone who has even limited contact with me knows I’m a HUGE pirate nut, so reading the Hawking adventures was and still is great fun for me. Are there more Hawking adventures on the horizon? I admit, I’m pining a bit for Jake – he’s been away at sea too long.

J.M. Aucoin:  I definitely want to do more Hawking stories, and longer than short stories. Maybe something more in the novella range. My plan is to write about three or four Hawking books and then do a Little Queen spin off for a few titles.

Problem is I have more ideas than time to write. If I could just make this darn fiction writing a full-time gig I could bang a Hawking and Darion book out a year, I think. One day, perhaps.

Nan: Well, I hope that day comes sooner rather than later! Is there anything else in the works that we can look forward to – that is when you either invent a time machine or find a way to clone yourself?

J.M. Aucoin: Outside of Darion and Hawking, I’m also world-building for a fantasy series and also have a pretty cool idea for a steampunk series. The latter has me really excited, so I might start doing some research for that while I work on the next Darion book. Maybe I’ll give it a go in the fall or whenever I inevitably hit a roadblock with the next Hope & Steel novel.

Nan:  Awesome! I can’t wait for whatever you serve up next.

J.M., thanks so much for agreeing to meet with me today! It’s been a lot of fun getting into your head! I can’t wait to buy my very own copy of ‘Honor Among Thieves’! Having had the privilege of reviewing the book before its official release, I can say truthfully that I highly recommend it, as I do the Jake Hawking stories as well.

J.M. Aucoin: Thanks for having me!

Nan:  The pleasure was all mine! And because no interview would be complete without a little shameless promotion – to learn more about Mssr. Aucoin, be sure to visit him online at the links below. Now go, my readers! Scurry! Be off with you to Amazon to buy your own copy of ‘Honor Among Thieves’ – you’ll want to say you’ve already read the book when it gets made into a Hollywood blockbuster!

Links to J.M. Aucoin:

http://jmaucoin.com/

Honor Among Thieves on Amazon

https://www.facebook.com/JustinMAucoin

https://twitter.com/JMAucoin_Writer