Rachel Bostwick

Professional Book Design for Independent Authors

shop talk

10 Titles

by


unsplash-logoSimon Rae

For my dearest Em, who did theirs here.

 1. Many Rooms

This is my current WIP. It’s about < redacted > who finds out < redacted > and has to battle a < redacted > in order to save a < redacted > and her < redacted >. That’s not even the real title, just a working title.
2. Runner’s End
Might also be a working title. Currently in outline stage. Pan’s Labyrinth meets Stranger Things. 
3. Chet and Wabbit
Winnie the Pooh meets a reverse Velveteen Rabbit in virtual space
4. The 7th Judge
My heart is in post-apocalyptic New York City and this is the first book in the series that tells about the adventures there. I’m currently building up my writing chops so I can do this justice.
5. Sarah Elizabeth Jones, Time Traveler
If a  19th century tinkerer in his early twenties discovered how to travel in time and space in a yellow hot air balloon and fell in love with a 19 year old bookshop girl from the 1990s, this series would tell their stories.
6. Kate Unfated
Kate is an adventurous, mystery-solving werewolf who’s bound by wolf law to Aaron, a nerdy quiet human who loves her but wants nothing more than to keep operating his computer repair shop in peace.
7. From the Stars
Hosea is a robot angel who is supposed to be a soldier guarding human kind from oppression but falls in love with a very fragile human woman.
8. Roboterfabrik
A refugee and her mother find danger, friendship, and magic in the post-technological world of the mysterious Roboterfabrik. It’s about a girl who has a knack for programming which turns out to be the only reason the people in the world she and her mother turn to for safety when their own home is falling apart. But have they traded one kind of danger for a more sinister one?

9. no. I don’t have any more. Go write yours now.

10. Seriously. Or go read Em’s.

Imperative Voice Exercise

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My dear friend M. A. Ray is launching their new blog this week. They are going to do some writing exercises and I’d like to play along when I can. Today they wrote a lovely piece which was a study in imperative voice. You can read their piece here.

Here’s mine. I already want to fix a lot of it but I have a manuscript to finish so it will have to stay a drafty sketch for today.

unsplash-logoRobert Nelson

Don’t Be

Don’t be dead. Don’t be. Call the spirit back to your body. Open your mouth and breathe it back in. Rest with it for a moment. Let it fill up your body, re-inhabit it. Take control again of your strong hands, your gentle fingers. Your toes. Your eyes. Let them flutter open so I can see their warmth again. Look at me. Look at me.

Sit up. Laugh again. Speak words. Remind me of who you were when we first met. Tell me a joke. Tell me a story. Better, scold me. Remind me for the hundredth time that I forgot to clean out the attic. Call me the thing that never fails to spark again. I won’t be hurt, I swear. I’ll laugh the way you want me to. Make me laugh.

Get up and walk. Lean on my arm like you did after the accident. Use a crutch. Use my shoulder. I’ll carry you as long as you like, even when I get tired. Just walk with me. Come with me to the old places. To the park we used to walk. To the stream we used to dip our toes into. Dip your toes in with me. Fall asleep next to me in the sunshine. Then get up and walk with me again. To the old house. The one where we were so happy. 

Have a meal with me. Here, try this cheese. Try this bread. You used to love warm, crusty bread when I made it for you as penance for a setback. Have a stack of cookies the children decorated on their own. Have breakfast in bed with me. Let the pancakes fall to the floor as I trace syrup on your—shhh, the kids are coming. They’ve come to say goodbye. Don’t say it to them. Tell them you’re about to wake up. Tell them mommy will be ready to tuck them in and read them stories just like she used to before things went wrong.

Have a drink with me. Have water have whiskey have wine. No, take my drink from me. Take the cup from my hand and pour it out into the snow. Tell me again about black ice and how you’re sure I’d be very, very slow but there’s always another driver, and even one drink takes away my ability to make good choices. Tell me again, love. I swear this time I will listen.

Okay it’s your turn now. What are you going to write?

p.s. You should follow M. A. Ray on Twitter and also read their books. Hard Luck is a great place to start and my particular favorite is Thread of Life.