Let me tell you a story …
Hey Lurra fans, book number two, Group Six and the Crater, is going through final edits and is due to come out March 15, 2023. Rigamaroller Pat and I will get started recording the audio book as soon as we get the final okay from Suzanne, my publisher. Keep watching this page for a sneak peek at the cover art and maybe even a teaser excerpt.
The day had come! I was a bit nervous, but everything went well. Several of my friends and family showed up to get their copies signed, whether they had bought them in the store, or had preordered them online. The store sold out, so I call that a win. (Insert plug here for the venue, Wind City Books, who were most helpful and welcoming). I did discover I don’t like signing paperbacks. I am left-handed, so in order to sign the first page, I am forced to bend the cover back somewhat. I try to be careful, but I just cringe every time.
Years ago, I had shown some of my prized coffee table art books to a co-worker. The first thing he did was to bend the paper cover all the way around so he could hold it in one hand. Of course the spine split. I wanted to snatch it away and beat him senseless with it, but that would have completely ruined the book.
Now meet my partner in all things, my wife, Pat. She handles all details of marketing a book that I am too stupid to accomplish myself. Hence, she has earned her superhero name, ”The Rigamaroler.”
Thanks also to Suzanne, my publisher, for accepting my book in the first place and getting us started on this grand adventure!
Group Six and the River has been out for a little over 2 weeks now, and I’m grateful for the many kind words it has received so far. Just a sample:
Also, congratulations to Britney in Texas who was the winner of our book giveaway. Thank you for following my website, and I hope you are enjoying Group Six’s adventures.
Our friends at Wind City Books (152 S. Center in downtown Casper) are hosting a book signing session for me this Saturday, May 21, from 11 am to 1 pm. I look forward to seeing old and new friends there. If you’ve purchased a copy elsewhere, you’re welcome to bring it by and have it signed … and if you haven’t gotten your copy yet, Wind City has them available, a nice way to support our local independent bookstore!
The publication date of Group Six and the River is coming up on May 1, and that’s made me think back to the origins of the story.
The world of Lurra originally began as a setting for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign that I started many years ago. I use the same maps, continents, cities, etc. that my game was set in, but my books really have nothing to do with D&D other than the characters. There are no Orcs or Elves. Admittedly, there are dragons, but they don’t breathe fire or acid or even lay eggs. They do take great delight in screwing with people, though. Future books will bear this out.
The four main characters, Serena, Orchid, Tresado, and Foxx, have all crossed my gaming table. I created them, but other people played most of them. Serena, Orchid, and Tresado were portrayed by my friends Martha, Margaret, and Randy. I myself played Foxx in someone else’s game. He was kind of a loudmouthed womanizer who didn’t live very long. I rewrote him so that he’s no longer loudmouthed.
People ask where I get my ideas for a story. I was just reading a news piece about an airliner flying from Miami to London. The plane had to turn around due to an unruly passenger who refused to wear a mask. Less than two hours into the flight they landed back in Miami. The flight was cancelled and the passengers had to make other arrangements.
I thought, “Boy those passengers are probably plenty pissed at this dumbass who delayed their trip and ruined whatever plans they had.”
The writer in me started seeing potential storylines everywhere. What if there was someone on board who was on their way to London to start a new job, but lost it to a competitor? There could have been a person urgently traveling to say goodbye to a dying family member and lost their chance forever. An actor misses a potentially career-making audition. Maybe some criminal missed their opportunity for a big score and is now in trouble with the Godfather. A troupe of dancers was unable to perform an exhibition for the Queen’s birthday. Maybe all these people got together and planned a blanket party for the ruiner of lives.
That’s a lot of maybes, but it goes to show how one incident can be the source for plenty of story ideas, no matter how wacky.
One of the fun and sometimes frustrating things about writing sci-fi/fantasy is you get to make up exotic sounding names for characters, countries, objects, etc. I think of an appropriate name and then Google it. More than half of the time, I find that it’s already the name of a large corporation, or a rock band, or a video game. It’s good to check first. You don’t want to create a vile, sadistic supervillain and find out after you publish that you named him after a kids’ show host, or a real-life mob boss.
Hi, my name is Ron and I’ll be your author today. Welcome to my first ever blog. I love to write and find it so much more enjoyable with word processing software. As many times as I change my mind about a scene, or think of something to add later on, I can’t imagine being a writer from the old days using quill and parchment. That would have been too tedious for me. I’d hate to die from writer’s cramp.
Ron Richard, Author 