When is a car NOT a car? When it turns into a Parking Lot

I'm the one on the right

UPDATED WITH CALF PICTURE AT THE END--I'LL PUT MORE UP ON FACEBOOK LATER.

And when is a collection of stories not a saved and forgotten computer file? When it turns into a novella.
I’m posting this novella on my blog. Closer Than Brothers.

I talked about it here a while ago.

Tina’s post on Jack Reacher actually reminded me that I did this novella with the backstory of my heroes from Trouble in Texas because of Jack Reacher.

And no...Seekerville isn’t going to become the ‘All Jack Reacher All The Time’ blog. (well we’re not going to make it a rule or anything, but who knows?)

But I’m a Jack Reacher fan and I waded through all sixteen (or however many) books so fast I was close to death from sleep deprivation and then I found these little….well, not novellas really. These strange little shorts…you might say. SHORT books about Jack Reacher.

One that I particularly loved was called Second Son.

Click to Pre-Order

This little novella…which...it’s an ebook, so how can I really tell how long it is? I’d say maybe 10,000 word, was just fun. This glimpse of Reacher as a … maybe... 12 year old child. His family, his trouble at a new military base and the framework of who he became.

I loved it.

I’ve read it multiple times. Lee Child just did a really cool job of being true to Reacher as a boy.

So that got me to thinking….always dangerous…who have I got that I could write a SHORT about out of my published books?

It gets tricky because I have to abandon the romance novel that I love writing because, of course, all my characters already have their romance in my books right? So I guess I could write about Sophie McClellen falling in love with her first husband, but that ended badly and he was a bad husband. Where’s the fun in that?

And Belle Tanner? What? Hating her first three husbands? Being hurt by her father? Bummmer of a story!

You know…it makes sense that the backstory of most of my characters is sort of difficult…because that’s the book right? All they’ve been through to bring them to their love story is often a struggle. Torturing our characters—especially in their past—is almost required.

And it’s not like I have ONE enduring character who was true to the future Reacher even as a child.

So I came up with this idea for how my Trouble in Texas heroes met in Andersonville and I just started writing some scenes. I’d done all the research. I’d even written up some backstory scenes. And from writing the books I actually had most of these ideas in my head. This grew into Closer Than Brothers.

I knew what bound them together.

I knew what inspired Dare to continue doctoring after the war.

I knew Luke was very sick and very angry and that ended up driving him away from his family in Texas later.

I knew Vince was invincible.

I knew Jonas had ridden the outlaw trail before he found God on a battle field.

But then I started talking to people I really respect and they were nervous about BRANDING.

Closer Than Brothers has some comedy in it but it’s set against this dark, brutal background.

There is a tiny hint of romance right at the end because--who should walk into my story of Luke in the hospital after the war but Seth Kincaid, and then Luke’s sister Callie. That was fun to write but it ended very badly as you know if you’ve read Over the Edge--romances do not 'end very badly'. That's a law.

And honestly, the book is just barely a story. A story needs a beginning, middle and end. It needs conflicts and black moments and (if you’re me) Happily Ever After.

But Callie and Seth are going to get blown apart when Seth disappears.

Luke is going to go home and fight with his pa.

Vince is so sick he goes home to Chicago and his father’s mansion only to run into all kinds of trouble that will be revealed in his story, Stuck Together.

Dare's going to be a doctor but with no schooling past fourth grade he's a real shady one.

Jonas is going to head west because he’s a wanted man back east, breaking his little sister, Tina’s heart.

So this isn’t my brand, there’s no one ropin’ or ridin’ anywhere, no HEA, not much comedy.

So I decided to give it away on my blog. One chapter at a time leading up to the release of Stuck Together. Mainly because I dread the though of people buying it, even for 99 cents and being disgusted with it. The worst reviews on Amazon say, "This was free but it was still too expensive." (those really pinch)

And one chapter at a time might be annoying so maybe no one will even keep reading it.

But I still love that idea of Second Son, the ‘Reacher as a Boy’ book. So I might do it again.

But maybe this isn't the best way. 

Any  thoughts from your own work? Any short stories you’d like to publish? Any opinions, if you’ve read the chapters I’ve published up to this point? Is it frustrating? Boring? I’m doing two per week so they’re coming pretty fast, but maybe not fast enough.

This is a celebration of doing SOMETHING DIFFERENT and I’d appreciate any ideas, input, suggestions…I mean it, if you think I’m screwing up TELL ME.

Leave a comment to get your name in a drawing for a $25 Amazon gift card. (that’s a bribe to speak up, just in case you have no idea what in the world to say about this!!!)

I’ve got two books releasing in June.  So maybe next month we can all move on from this novella ‘experiment’ (fiasco?) and talk about real books.

READ CLOSER THAN BROTHERS-THE TROUBLE IN TEXAS PREQUEL (up to chapter five) HERE

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STUCK TOGETHER
Invincible Vince Yates has finally run into a situation he can't handle.
He never meant to be the unpaid town sheriff.
He never expected his family to leave Chicago and bring all their considerable problems to his doorstep.
He never planned on having to decide what to do with a prisoner who seems really sane, except when she's trying to kill people.
And he is Invincible Vince Yates after all. He probably could have handled it...if Tina Cahill hadn't come to town.
She is infuriating, a troublemaker and the little sister of one of his best friends, Parson Jonas and ... Vince has no idea why such a little pill keeps ending up in his arms.
Invincible Vince has met a woman who is too much for him and his intentions are completely dishonorable because he has no interest in getting married. So he'd better stop kissing her before he makes Jonas shoot him. That'd be real hard to preach around come Sunday morning.

What you see here is a genuine crisis. My Cowboy said the words, "I've never seen that before..." about fifty times. He also said a few words I won't be typing here.
The crisis?
The little black calf in the foreground is the new baby. Beautiful, shining black, big, sturdy.
The black cow in the background is the mama.
The slightly larger brown calf between the new baby and the new mama?????
IS SUCKING ON THE NEW MAMA!!!!!
She's not supposed to let a strange calf do that.
Now we don't know if the new calf sucked because My Cowboy can tell my looking at the mama's udder.
So, new baby and mama have to be driven into a holding pen alone.
Then the baby has to be fed with a bottle...to make sure he's eaten, though he did suck a bit so he probably has.
Then the cow--which is named Hoier but My Cowboy made a radical decision and changed her name to BIG & DUMB in the midst of this crisis--can't be put back in the yard with the other cows and calves because we'll never be able to tell if the calf is sucking. But the holding pen doesn't have any grass or a feed bunk, though we did give her a bucket of food.
sigh. So she and the calf have to be moved. Get the cattle trailer out, load the cow, figure out where to put her.
It's been about an hour and a half.