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Guest Blog: A.B. Funkhauser

4/19/2019

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I'm extremely pleased to hand the blog reins over to fellow indie author A.B. Funkhauser, this week!  She's the author of the Unapologetic Lives series: I reviewed the first two books a couple of years ago.  Recently, we got to chatting on Twitter, and realized that we were both in the midst of a similar process with our work.  It occurred to me that a blog swap was in order!  So without further ado ... take it awaaaaay, A.B! 

Reinventing That Old Book

I’m stoked, not just because the snow’s gone and I’ll soon be swimming in an ever-cleaner Lake Ontario, but also because I’m giving my old books—my companions, my darlings—the facelift they deserve.
 
It’s been almost a decade since I took up the digital pen and started writing things down. I journaled, I made up words that existed nowhere else on the planet, and I mucked around with blended genres in a way that drove my writing teachers crazy.
 
Somewhere in all the lessons—formal and informal—I got hints of where I needed to go with this thing called writing.
 
Was I writing a series? Was I a horror author? Was I a true gonzo? Did my covers make sense?
 
The answer was “yes” and “no” to all the above. A frustrating place to be some days, kinda cool on others. I jumped in “boots first” all those years ago, never giving a thought to commercially viable fiction writing or monetary success. If I loved the book, it was good enough, wasn’t it?
 
“Yes” and “no.”
 
TRY AND BE ACCESSIBLE, STUPID.

It’s now 2019 and I have three books “out there” and four more in production. After a six-month hiatus where I repainted the house and crocheted an afghan while binging Sons of Anarchy and Ray Donovan, it hit me that some of the old ideas had to go. “100% Certified Zombie-Free Paranormal Romance with Happy Ending” read one of my more craftier tweets, but did it get at the core of what I was doing?
 
My covers said otherwise:
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​While it was true that the first novels centered on a funeral home where paranormal walked in lockstep with the normal day-to-day doings of living beings, Heuer’s ghostly door—so compelling to me ten years ago—really didn’t do the contents justice. Reviewers consistently talked about the main protagonist and his rather unique predicament: being stuck in a room with his own moldering dead body and no one on the outside caring to look for him. Some reviewers found the set up dark and funny, one going as far as comparing the work to Carl Hiaasen; others described it as heart-breaking, haunting and horrific.
 
I thought I was writing comedy.
 
My favorite comment was “poignant, smart and wunderbar.” Was it true for the other books? Did readers have a different take on what I thought I was saying, and did that impact the way the books were being presented?
 
Absolutely!
 
Scooter Nation, my follow up to Heuer Lost and Found, also has a door on its cover. At the time I thought it was a clever pairing with the first book, but then the reviewers said things like “Chilling”, “Irreverant” and “Visceral.” The package didn’t match the contents. A remodel was needed.
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I love the new Heuer cover. It is dark and mysterious and features the strange protagonist who longed to be loved while hating everybody at the same time. To me, it is a more honest and authentic representation of what the story is about. More importantly, it is worlds away from that sad little door that said nothing at all.
 
Sometimes a photo doesn’t do the contents justice. Sometimes you just have to go to the drawing board and with Scooter, I got inspiration from Hunter Thompson’s cover artist Ralph Steadman. Quirky, simple and suggestive comes to mind. The digital artist “gets it” and with extreme longing, I wait for the new cover to arrive sometime in early May 2019.
 
In addition to being described as funny and gory gross, Scooter Nation has also been tagged as mysterious with twists and turns a plenty. Blended genre again. Years ago, I was warned about blending and mashing. “No one will know where to put you,” was the prevailing wisdom. No kidding. 
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My third release, Shell Game, jumped on the scene with tags like:
 
When a black cat appears on the swinger’s front lawn, neighbors die in search of meaning.

When a cantankerous know-it-all falls into a pile of sheep manure, a clueless neighbor wakes up.

When a secret society takes her cat and her man, a grieving widow fights back.
 
When my then-publisher asked me to select a genre, I went with “humor” and “satire,” labels more befitting a “psycho-social cat dramedy with death and laughs.”

It held up. A reviewer called this one “dark and excellent” which told me one very important thing, that I was getting closer to figuring out what my books—past and present—are actually about.

I am an indie author now with my own imprint which means I have the power of choice over cover, fonts, layout and genre delineation. But as I reformat and repackage what already exists and make plans for future work, I will apply what took almost ten years to figure out: 
My writing isn’t what I say it is. It’s what the reader decides. 
​ To that end, I will dedicate whatever time and energy is required to getting it right.
 
Adult, unapologetic, and wholly cognizant, I am
 
A. B. Funkhauser

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Dark humor and satire fiction author A. B. Funkhauser is currently prepping her back catalog for release under the Out of My Head Publishing imprint. Her first mystery novel, Self Defense: A Kirsti Bruner Mortuary Mystery is expected this summer. Look for all her titles on Amazon.... Coming Soon. 

In the meantime, you can find her on her website, on Twitter at @iamfunkhauser, where she runs the weekly Indie Author game #Thurds, and on Facebook.

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Creative DNA: The Media Melting Pot

4/13/2019

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Hi, friends!  I admit it, this week's blog post is going to be short and sweet, because I'm feeling more like novel writing than blog writing, today.  I've added 12,000 words to my first draft of Adjustments, this week, and a very important, pivotal scene is on my agenda for the weekend.  I'm on track to have the draft finished by the end of the month: how cool is that?!  

So, since I'm writing as part of Camp NaNoWriMo, I'm going to use one of my cabin's Questions of the Day for this week's blog post.  I was challenged by our cabin leader, the lovely Melissa Graves, to list the movies which give the best sense of who I am ... not necessarily the ones which inspire my writing, just ones I come to time and time again.   Of course, art being what it is, every single one of these films has its fingerprints on my work in some way or another: whether characters make jokes about them, or I've learned things about story structure and character arcs through repeated viewing with a creator's eye.   This list would be so, so much longer if the Camp NaNo Cabin Chat didn't have a character limit ... but here are the ones that made my shortlist, in no particular order:
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Ghostbusters (1984)
Beetlejuice
Practical Magic
Guardians of the Galaxy
Beauty & The Beast (1991)
Empire Falls
Men In Black I, II, & II
Silence of the Lambs
Annie (1982)
Noises Off
The Boondock Saints I & II
Labyrinth
The Last Unicorn
Bohemian Rhapsody
Rose Red
Pump Up The Volume
Forbidden Zone
Moonrise Kingdom
Excalibur
Clue
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
The Princess Bride
The Conjuring 1 & 2
My Fair Lady
The Odd Couple
Mary Poppins
White Sands
The Neverending Story
Secret Window
Henry Fool / Fay Grim / Ned Rifle
The Gamers 1 & 2
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I admit to cheating just a hair on a couple of these... they're mini-series.  If you can spot them in the lineup, you probably know them, and understand why I had to include them: they match the atmosphere I'm going for with my novels, if you mash the two of them together.   I'd love to know how your own favorites measure up against mine ... feel free to drop a comment!  Let's talk movies! 

Next week, I'll be giving the blog over to a special guest: my friend and fellow author A.B. Funkhauser!  I hope you'll join us, she's got some great stuff to say! 

Until then, I remain your hostess,
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Sense of Place: The Fountain

4/6/2019

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This post is a continuation of sorts from last week's "What A Character", where I shared a bit about Buster Heywood's habit of wandering his neighborhood.  Such walks work up an appetite, and he tends to find himself at his favorite restaurant most of the time.  The Fountain is where one of the mysteries in From The Desk of Buster Heywood begins, and where we really start to get to know our hero.  It's also based on a place near and dear to my heart.  Upon finishing the first chapter, my mother called me from Florida and said: "You can call it the Fountain, but I know it's the Soda Shoppe, plain as day."  As always, she wasted no time in calling me out.  
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At this time of day, it was hard to believe that the old soda shop was still open and running.  Buster was one of a handful of customers – an elderly couple sat toward the back, by the kitchen order window, nursing the last of what was on their plates.  In the middle of the main dining room were two counters – one in a U-shape, ringed with chairs, and another on the right, lined with higher, spinning stools.  The whole place was done over in a simple decor of red Formica counter-tops and seat cushions, with the walls and tables left plain and unfinished.  Behind the second counter was an alcove that led to another, smaller dining room. ​
As you can see, I've respectfully covered the faces of the few hungry souls that were present a few weeks ago when I went in for lunch.  Their Google Maps page has a bunch of user-contributed photos that give a decent full tour ... and some close-up shots of food that are making me want to finish this post ​with a cheeseburger club at my elbow.  Just sayin'.  I've been a regular since childhood, when my grandmother would take me there for lunch before going shopping or visiting her friends, and built a lot of great memories at those red countertops.  Since the novel was written after she passed away, including one of our favorite spots seemed like a fitting tribute.  

Like its real life counterpart, The Fountain has been an Aviario fixture for decades.  I wanted the novel to start in a place that really embodied the way small New England cities hold on to old favorites... and the Fountain is like a microcosm of Aviario: still well-loved, still in good shape, but in need of a little TLC if you look in certain spots.    It also has an interesting layout, which lends itself very well to Buster's habit of watching for Interesting People ... I wrote the opening chapter as a result of having lunch after a Wander of my own, taking photographs for North End inspiration.  As I sat at Buster's favorite table, his habit took shape, and the view out this little window gave me the first good windo into who he was as a character...
Because the Fountain was set at this particular corner of the parking garage, part of it was underground, putting the windowsill beside Buster's favorite table level with the sidewalk.  Unless people were a certain distance away, either on their way in from the Pursley Centre across the street, or heading for the entrance of the parking garage, he only saw them from the waist down.  That left speculation about the rest of them wide open, and he’d come to make a sort of game out of it: guessing as much as he could about the rest of a person from their lower half, and seeing how right he was when the upper half came into view.  
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My wife and I still visit the Soda Shoppe on a regular basis, usually for brunch on a lazy Sunday, or on Saturday before grocery shopping...  It gives me a particuarly warm feeling to know that I'm helping a part of my past stay alive: not only through my patronage, but on the page, as well.  If you're ever in the neighborhood, give them a try ... and say Angela sent you.  The corn chowder is a staple for a good reason.

Please come back next week for inspiations & homages ... and Big Exciting News!  I've got something great in the works, and I can't wait to share the details!

​Until then, I remain your hostess,
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