I am so excited to share with you my newest book and my oldest at the same time. Julianne will be out October 13 and I’m hoping you’ll join me in celebrating it in person or online. Or maybe both. Julianne was the first book I ever wrote and for a storyteller dedicated to short fiction, it was definitely a surprise. It was just going to be a short story, okay, a long short story. Then it was going to be a novella because there was more to say. 237 pages later, my first novel was born. I went on to write and rewrite An Expensive Retreat but I never forgot Julianne. It was far from perfect but there was something about the story that continued to call me back. I began to rewrite it several times but I’ve finally written a version that I am proud of and ready to show you all. More news about the book as we get closer to its release date.
The book begins with a confirmed bachelor and successful solicitor, Robert Ames, who receives a letter from his estranged brother. The man begs him to come and care for his ward. We’ve all been lured to something new and exciting. And maybe sometimes to the thought of reinventing ourselves in another place. Robert does this when he answers his brother’s call and goes to Grenada. Met by an outspoken housekeeper and then an adult ward when he expected a child, nothing is as he expects. That never changes. In a place so different from the one he’s known, Robert tries to hold on to what defines him but in ever changing circumstances, it is almost impossible to do so. He’s met Julianne and, like his brother said, she is about to change his life.
I hope you like the cover as much as I do. So tell your friends! You can buy it now on Amazon and Kobo. Got questions, comments or otherwise awesome news to share? Check out the newly updated website, send me an email at m.negrijn (at) gmail.com or you can find me on Facebook or Twitter. I can’t wait to hear from you!
P.S. Just a quick note from my publisher since I announced it in the last blog: Liz Smith’s YA release, The Red Rose Chronicles has been delayed and will release on August 25. Thanks for your patience!
Hello lovely folks. As you can guess by the title, I’m here to talk about the last book in the Pure Red Sand trilogy. But before I wander into that topic, I’ve got some other wonderful things to share. First off, the boxed set of all three novels in the Nadine and Sven trilogy will release on July 28. They’ll be available on Amazon and Kobo. So if you’re thinking about picking up the series for a great price, now is the time. There will be a prequel and a related short story collection coming so you’d better catch up! In non-Mars news, my latest novel, Julianne, will release October 13. I’ll have a cover reveal and all the details in a special blog on July 25. And as if that wasn’t enough, I have a sneak peek of another great publication coming very soon. A Good Idea Publications will be releasing a young adult short story collection called The Red Rose Chronicles on July 28 too. This collection by Liz Smith is all about how love and art can redeem even the most lost of souls. More details to come soon!
Okay, but before we get all caught up in the new things coming, let’s look back at A Family Affair. If you remember the blog post I did about Uncomfortable Truths, you’ll know I wrote that one in a thirteen month marathon. After that I decided what I really needed was a break. Famous last words. About three weeks later I was outside, shovelling snow, when the beginning of the story accosted me. So I put the shovel in a snowbank and started typing ideas on my phone. As a writer, I don’t often get a say in when inspiration hits. I just have to go with it. So I did. This book was hard to write in a lot of ways. It was the first time I’d written a novel without an alpha reader for at least part of it. It was also a book that had A LOT of threads to tie up and I didn’t want to miss anything.
SPOILERS THIS WAY BE.
Okay, you were warned and we’re off. I could have made this a duology. After all, at the end of Uncomfortable Truths, both Nadine and Sven escaped persecution on Earth and fled back to Mars, together once more. Yay happy ending, right? Well, no. Because no one knew who had killed the people in the hospital, there were ruffians (my term) at large and I guess, for me, justice had not been served. I hate when people get away with things and one of the perks of writing the story is you can nudge it in the direction of fairness.
That brings us to the Michaels family. After Sven burned part of their house down in the last book, he thought he was rid of them. Families are complicated though and you never really escape. I’ll talk a bit about what Lorne brought on himself a bit later but Edith, his wife, was another story. I didn’t support what his parents were doing. One of my earlier alpha readers even wanted to drop something heavy on the whole family (I was in support of this plan). But through the second book, she seemed to be more than just a secondary character. She had a secret. It was only once she revealed that she was from Mars that things began to make sense (to me). Her background gets explored in a short story eventually. I could see how a mother who grew up in a difficult place would want something better for her son. I tried to channel those feelings about Edith. It also gave me a chance to give Sven back some of his biological family. He had a found family from the beginning. After all, that’s what the book is really about.
Couldn’t really leave Nadine hanging without some answers either. Especially considering what I did to her in the trilogy. At one point I was worried that I might have gone too far so I asked some fellow writers and they assured me that there was enough good to outweigh the bad. So I sent her off to be kidnapped and stranded in the desert, grisly grave discovery and all. I really can be cruel to my characters. I think it put some things to rest for Nadine. She’d dreamed of the romance of a long desert walk, the peace of the wind in her ears. Then she was actually presented with that option and realized there was no peace in the desert, just a lonely and miserable death. I think that was when she really chose to live. Then she found out she was pregnant and from that moment on, there was no question. Laying things to rest is why I found her father in the mass grave she discovered. I think there was a happier period in Nadine’s life, before he died, and I wanted the chance to show that it all hadn’t been hardship. Her mother had been happy once too. Decisions are never easy and sometimes we make the wrong ones when we’re scared or in pain.
In the same vein of family, Hans decided to speak up. That was not planned. He and Robin weren’t really supposed to have a part in this book, except peripherally. But like many other characters, they didn’t agree. We finally saw some of the insidious politics of Statlear and Michstad through him. The idea that a company would control all aspects of a population is not a new one. While I can’t confirm it, I suspect some germ of the idea came from learning about merchants and fishermen in Newfoundland and Labrador. We knew what had happened to Hans and Robin and Tim then and exactly what they had survived before they even reached Statlear in An Expensive Retreat. Their story gets fleshed out a bit more in the prequel which should (I hope) be coming out in the next couple of years. (So much to write and so little time.)
As I said before, assured that I hadn’t been too cruel, I sent Nadine off to be kidnapped. One of the first things I learned when I began to write seriously (I was very young) was that someone can’t just be bad for the sake of it. It was before I learned about the effects of mental illness and abuse. I still think the most insidious evil comes from people who think they are doing something for the greater good, true believers in their actions. I tried to create some of those feelings in the ‘bad guys’ you finally see in this book. Lorne Michaels did it because he was greedy, as was his son Jasper. But the people who kidnapped Nadine truly thought they were doing something good for Mars. I’m still glad they were punished (as if I was never in control).
Now we come to Lorne Michaels. He and Hershell were the two main evil men in this trilogy. Greed and corruption was their bread and butter throughout. I had to sit down at one point and sketch it all out, their schemes with the company, city and public services. It just grew and grew. Impressive in a kind of sickening way but I am still sort of, kind of, in charge so they were justly punished. I’m still not sure Hershell really feels sorry but at least he’s less able to hurt anyone else. As for Lorne Michaels, I would like to think he learned a lesson even though I have little hope. He’s in jail. Jasper fled with his fortune, learning greed from his father. His wife divorced him and left the planet and his eldest son walked away from everything he built for a different life (a better one in my opinion). I’m not sure I could have done much worse but I’m also not sure it would have made much of a difference. People are finicky that way.
I hope I did right by everyone in the end. The ‘good guys’ all had a say in their futures and I think I left the city with hope for a different future. It was about ten years of my life invested in these books and I’m just hoping I did them justice. As a writer, I always feel like I could do a better job if I just edited once more or just rewrote something one more time. But at some point, you have to entrust your creation to the world. That’s what I did with Nadine and Sven and I hope you grew or grow to love them as much as I always will.
I haven’t left Mars entirely. There’s at least one full length novel left to complete. This will tell the story of Robin and Hans and Tim (Title TBD). I don’t want to give away too much but it takes place a couple of years before the events of An Expensive Retreat. There is also a collection of short stories set throughout the Mars timeline I created. Tales of an Immigration is still in process but I know I’ll release it in time.
If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me here or via email at m.negrijn(at)gmail.com I’ll leave you with a picture of the new boxed set and my best wishes.
It's all about the words 