This is one of a series of posts about locations that appear in the Jake & Boo books. I’m going to try to give you a little information about each location, show you some pictures, and talk about that location’s significance in the books. I’ll do that last bit in as non-spoilery fashion as possible. But if you don’t want to know anything about the story, or you’ve got an image of what places look like that you don’t want changed, then by all means give these posts a miss. But I hope you’ll take a look, and that seeing these locations will make Jake and his world more alive and relatable to you.

You don’t have to read far into the first Jake & Boo book to encounter Ground Up. It’s Jake and Don’s favorite hangout – where they go for coffee in the morning or a beer in the afternoon. Sometimes they lounge on the patio, or huddle up on a sofa. Sometimes Jennifer Katz is there, knitting away in a corner.

Ground Up is a very real place in my neighborhood, although that’s not its real name. It’s also next door to the beer shop and growler filling station where Jake buys his local IPA in Not an Elf.

The real name, and my favorite local, is a shop called Antidote. I’m not sure exactly when it opened, but it’s been around long enough for me to consider it an institution. I’ve lived a couple of blocks from it for almost exactly ten years. How can I be so precise, you ask? Well, that brings us back around to another Houston institution – hurricanes.

In September, 2008, Hurricane Ike hit the Texas coast, including Houston. That was also the month we moved into our new home in Woodland Heights. We were in one of the lucky blocks that went without power for a very short time. Others weren’t so lucky. I have one friend who lost power for two weeks, and another whose house was crushed by a giant elm tree and had to be rebuilt. Antidote lost power, too, but they had a generator. So, did Antidote fire up the espresso machine? Cool down a few cases of beer? Antidote hooked up their free wi-fi so people could come and use it to contact friends and family and let people know they were safe. Those of us who have been around long enough still have not forgotten that. That’s the power of goodwill, people. So yeah, ten years, minimum.

Antidote has what I consider one of the nicest patios in Houston. There are shade trees, lights, fans, and lots of color. Mosquito repellent is usually available (hey, it’s Houston – you learn to deal). It is dog friendly, in case you’re wondering. Pretty much everything I describe in the books is an accurate description, except for two things – the name, and the owner. In the books, the place is owned by Harry, a middle-aged man with bad taste in women. I don’t know about the real owner(s) – but I’m sure they have much better taste in partners than poor Harry.

Sorry about the picture quality – they were shot with an iPhone on a cloudy day. There’s a reason I’m not a photographer, y’all.

This summer writing jam brought to you by coffee. Specifically, Nespresso. This apartment has a machine, and I’m seriously thinking about picking up this cutie when I get home.

If you follow me online, which, let’s face it, you probably don’t, you know I’m in Greece right now, trying to write like mad. And if anyone is listening – I am returning to Cable’s Bend! You may or may not have read Saving Grapes. If you didn’t, it doesn’t matter. Each Cable’s Bend book will be a stand-alone novel. Although events and characters do overlap and you get a bigger picture if you read them all. But again, it doesn’t matter!

So now I’m working on “Love Letters” – it’s a second chance, mature couple story. If you’ve only read Jake & Boo, you should know that Cable’s Bend is more straight up romance. No shifters or psychics, and pretty much everyone consumes coffee, beer, and pie in moderate amounts. Also, while there is a solid romantic relationship in Jake & Boo, all the sexy times happen off-page. That’s not the case in Cable’s Bend. Those folks like to get naked, and they like the readers to watch. So, yeah, there’s some steamy action going down!

Anyway, the writing is happening. The coffee is happening. Sexy times are happening. And if all goes well – super well – all y’all can go back to Cable’s Bend, too, by the end of the year!

The very near future, to be precise. I am off to Greece with my husband, where he will visit family and I will spend most of my days in an apartment on the outskirts of the city, overlooking the forest, the harbor, and writing up a storm. Pictures to come!

Doesn’t sound like much of a vacation to you? Oh, man, I can’t wait. No cats, no distractions, no house stuff that needs to be done. This is how I wrote most of Not a Werewolf and it was some of the most productive writing time of my life.

So, I’m hoping for great things! I have three projects in various states of “in the works”, so I will be able to keep things fresh. I am also taking knitting, because you kind of have to. Also, a 12-hour plane ride is in my future.

Coming in 2019, I’m going to start putting out a quarterly newsletter – in March, June, September, and December!

It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while, and if you pay attention to the “common wisdom” in the independent publishing world, it’s something I should have started doing about four years ago. So, yeah, that needs to happen.

Shoot, I don’t even have a mailing list or anything. Let’s get that going first: Here’s where you click to sign up!

But hey, you’re not sure if you want a newsletter or not – that’s fair. So here are some ideas about what might go in it that you don’t already see here.

A typical newsletter might include:

– An in-depth look at one of the book locations, a visit to a small Texas town, or the like. With lots of pictures – I’ll probably make my husband take those because he’s a better photographer than I am.

– An excerpt from an upcoming book, or notes about what I’m working on, or a scene that got cut from a previous book. Maybe even an original, exclusive short-short-story. But definitely something writing-related.

– A recipe. Because I like to cook, my friends like to cook. We all like to eat, and there’s plenty of recipes going around. Lots of them are for pie.

– A picture of my cats, because that’s what the internet is for. Seriously, if you don’t want to see any pictures of my cats, don’t subscribe. But you’ll be missing out on gems like this:

A quick note before we get started: This is the first in a series of posts about locations that appear in the Jake & Boo books. I’m going to try to give you a little information about each location, show you some pictures, and talk about that location’s significance in the books. I’ll do that last bit in as non-spoilery fashion as possible. But if you don’t want to know anything about the story, or you’ve got an image of what places look like that you don’t want changed, then by all means give these posts a miss. But I hope you’ll take a look, and that seeing these locations will make Jake and his world more alive and relatable to you.

See that picture up there? The one of the Houston skyline as seen from a bridge?

That’s one of the hike/bike trails in Houston. This photo was taken from the middle of the old train trestle bridge that goes over White Oak Bayou.

This particular photo was taking on July 4, 2018, during Houston’s July 4th Flood. You can see that it’s flooding if you look down at the lower left corner. See how the bank looks like grass? It shouldn’t look like that. The bayou is usually a trickle running through a concrete trough. Like in this photo by Patrick Feller from Humble, Texas, USA – Old MKT Railroad Trestle over White Oak Bayou, near Studemont & I-10, Houston, Texas 1405091104bw, CC BY 2.0, Link“>:

That’s a view of the bridge from, as far as I can tell, Studewood Drive.

Going back to my picture at the top, see that red sculpture, also on the left? You can also see it in the first few seconds of this video:

New York Times Harvey Video

You can see the trestle bridge at the 0:13 second mark – just clearing the water.

This is the video I couldn’t stop looking at last year while I was in Miami. I was supposed to be enjoying my vacation, but I was stressed out because I couldn’t get home and the flooding looked like that only half-a-mile from my house. My house was fine.

In case you haven’t heard, Houston floods. A lot.

But what’s so special about this bridge? This is the bridge where Jake and Don found the three-legged kitten who would become Don’s little buddy, Bridger, in Not a Werewolf.

So, I mention in the back matter of my books that locations are either real places, real places with their names changed, or have some kind of inspiration in actual locations. This is one of the first kind – a real place, depicted as accurately as possible.

So, I’m not so much setting deadlines as estimating targets, I guess? I’ve got four big projects I want to get out over the coming 12 months (that’s a year, I double-checked).

Not an Elf: Jake & Boo’s first Christmas, we meet the Petreski family (there’s a lot of them), and eat a bunch of pie.
Target: Publish October 2018
Progress: Outlining is almost done, the intro has been written.

Love Letters: Cable’s Bend 2 – sequel to Saving Grapes, the story of Ben’s father.
Target: Publish early December 2018
Progress: Story points and characters done, writing ~25%,

Not a Witch: Book 5 of Jake & Boo. Jake & Don return to Mesquite Springs, the Hill Country town from Not a Werewolf. Introduces Talia Sharpe, niece of an old friend of Miss Nancy’s.
Target: Publish late March 2019
Progress: Characters, notes, underway.

Book 1 of A Hill Country Witch: A new series! Talia Sharpe doesn’t believe in magic and always rolled her eyes at her aunt’s eccentric ways. But now the family shop is hers, and she finally has to admit that not everything can be explained away as coincidence or intuition. Now Talia’s got to decide if she’s staying in this weird little town where the oddball residents make her Aunt Ellie look downright normal.
Target: Publish early June 2019
Progress: Notes and character sketches started.

So here’s the thing – just because you can figure out whodunnit when you’re watching your favorite BBC mystery doesn’t mean you can concoct a plot yourself. I totally get that, and plotting has always been my weakness.

When I write, it is character-driven and dialogue-heavy. I think linearly, and write the same way. I like to put my characters in a situation, get inside their heads, and turn them loose to see what happens.

Outlining does not come naturally to me. Oh, no, not at all. Time to learn new skills, right?

So I’ve got an outline to put together. And I’m doing it right this time. Not that there’s any one right way to outline, of course.

But I’m determined the next one will have better twists, more mystery, and more cats. Lots more cats.

Not an Elf is up next, and I want the mystery to be more mysterious this time. I hate hackneyed phrases like “honing my craft”, but that’s what I need to do. So I’m reading and practicing and doing this $&^# outline business.

And I need to find some beta readers who’ll be honest with me about my weak points.

Believe it or not, I pushed the “Publish” button on “Not a Zombie” yesterday. It is not available everywhere yet, but Kobo readers are in luck – which I gather means mostly Canadians. Yet another reason to wish we were Canadians these days, right? Other outlets should be going live over the next 48 hours. Paperback, if all goes well, in about two weeks.

Now that the third book is done, I need to start looking more at ways to promote the books, build my social media presence, and write another one.

I’ve been tossing around a few ideas. I know I want to write one more Jake & Boo book this year – a Christmas-themed story called “Not an Elf” – but I also want to write something else. Should I go back to Cable’s Bend? I think I might be ready. But I’ve also got an idea for a small-town witch series set in the Texas Hill Country.

Also, I need to revamp this website, big time. I’ve got plans for content and stuff. I think I’m back to 100% at long last!

“Not a Mermaid” is finally up on Amazon and pretty much anywhere you find your e-books! The paperback will be available, hopefully, next week. Been having some problems with the print cover, but I think we’ve solved them!

Anyway, the real reason I’m here is to say thank you to anyone who has stuck it out and been so patient waiting for Book 2 of Jake & Boo’s adventures. I thought you might like to get a peek at Book 3:

****************

I was helping Miss Nancy spoon beans and rice into a serving dish when we heard a knock at the front door.

“Who could that be?” my mother asked. “Were you expecting anyone else, Nancy?”

“No. We’re all here.”

“I’ll go,” said my dad, and fled the kitchen. Mom resumed her interrogation of Petreski, and Miss Nancy handed Don a dish to take to the dining room. I grabbed the water pitcher and followed him, setting the pitcher on a folded napkin on the dining table. I could hear Dad’s voice in the living room, but couldn’t make out his words, or the low voice that answered him.

“Who could it be?” Miss Nancy asked, coming out of the kitchen, my mother right behind her. They passed through the dining room, stopping abruptly at the French doors that led to the living room.

“How –?” My mother’s eyes went wide and I don’t think I’d ever seen her struck speechless before.

“Nancy. Is it really you, Nancy-Girl?” I heard a rough, low voice ask.

Miss Nancy gasped, taking a step back, and before anyone had a chance to say or do anything, she crumpled to the floor. I looked up, at the man’s face as he came into view, and recognized the shuffling figure from my recent dreams. Why was he here? And why was my mother yelling at him, and my father pulling her back?

The man ignored my mother, stepping around her and bending over Miss Nancy, and I was moving forward before I could stop myself.

“No! Don’t touch her!” I threw myself between the intruder and my friend, and I felt someone – I think it was Don – grabbing my arm and trying to pull me back. I could hear Petreski’s voice and turned towards it. He would know what to do. He was kneeling next to Miss Nancy, checking her pulse, his cell phone pressed to his ear.

The strange man stood still, surrounded by our chaos, and never took his eyes off Miss Nancy’s face. My mother seemed to recognize him, and whoever he was, it was a shock to Miss Nancy. All I knew for sure was that, whoever he was, he was bringing trouble to our door.

❧

“She fainted, but we’d like to take her to the hospital, make sure there’s nothing more going on. But it’s up to her. If she says no, we can’t make her go.”

I recognized the EMTs as the ones who had shown up a few months ago, when I’d been knocked out in a vicious street brawl. Okay, actually I’d been pushed down by an angry fat man and hit my head, but it was in the street. I turned to Petreski. “You made me go. Can’t you make Miss Nancy go?”

“Hey,” said the EMT whose name I didn’t know, “I thought I recognized you! Doug, it’s that guy who hit his head when that lady got stabbed with the icepick! Remember?”

“Oh, yeah! Well, you actually hit your head, so he was right to make you go,” said Doug.

“No hospital,” Miss Nancy broke in. She sat on the sofa, my mom on one side, me on the other. “I know you’re worried,” she said, turning to me, “but if I promise to go see my doctor first thing Monday morning, will you stop badgering me about the hospital?”

“Works for me,” said Doug. “What about you, Ty?”

“Yep. Okay, we’ll get out of your hair. Good-night, folks.”

The EMTs left and the room was silent.

“Jacob. Abernathy. Hillebrand.” I did not like the tone of my mother’s voice. “What’s this about you going to the hospital and a woman getting stabbed?”

I looked around the room, anywhere but at my mother. My father sat in a rocking chair by the fireplace, Don leaning against the wall behind him. Petreski was perched on the arm of the sofa next to me, and the strange man from my dreams was standing near the door to the dining room, his gaze flitting back and forth between Miss Nancy and the food on the table.

“I didn’t stab her.”

“Of course you didn’t. But it does sound like the kind of… life event… that you should tell your parents about.”

I looked up at Petreski, but he shook his head. “I’m with your mom on this one.”

“He saved her life.”

Everyone turned to look at Don, even the stranger in the room, and I wondered why we weren’t focusing on him right now.

“Who are you?” I asked him, and he turned to look at me. Miss Nancy’s shoulders stiffened under my arm.

“Yes. I’d like to know that as well,” said my mother. “Because I know who I think you are, but that’s impossible. I don’t know what kind of trick, or joke, this is, but it’s not funny.”

“No.” Miss Nancy stood. “It is not funny, and it is not a joke. What are you doing here, my brother, when I saw you put in the ground twenty years ago?”

So… Nasty depression-induced writer’s block seems to have been conquered! Not a Mermaid, the second Jake & Boo novel, is available for pre-order on Amazon. It will be available in other outlets, and in paperback, soon! As a self-published author, I have to take care of these technical details myself, and it’s been so long since I’ve done them I’m having to relearn the process. Crossing my fingers that I’ve got it right!

I’ve got a new process that seems to be working for me. On weekday mornings I head over to a nearby coffee shop, where I meet a friend who is trying to get her dissertation written. She also gets too distracted when she tries to work at home. But this way we each know that the other person is expecting us to be there and we keep each other accountable. It’s kind of like going to work. Now I focus on writing in the morning, and spend the afternoons working on technical stuff, or social media stuff (not much of that at the moment), or trying to dig out from under the clutter at home!

Let me just be perfectly frank here – one of the reasons I can’t really write at home is that my desk is covered with crap – papers and notebooks and mail and so many pens and stickers and you name it. It’s ridiculous, it really is. I used to be able to sit there, and look at my fig tree, and drink tea, and feel inspired. So decluttering has become a major goal, if not yet a major pursuit.

But none of that is really important right now. What is important is that I’m already five chapters into Not a Zombie, and I love what’s happening there. I promise, honestly promise, that you will not have to wait as long for Book 3.