The Indecision

Today is of course Valentine's Day.  I debated whether I should do a post on love (of which I know almost nothing) or whether I should post an old story excerpt.  Then I decided to say the hell with that and just post a music video of a song about a guy who wants people to leave him the hell alone so he can go sailing.  Or that's what I get out of it at least.

Personally that's how I feel when I go on vacation to somewhere like the Grand Canyon or Michigan lighthouses.  It's so hard (unless you're a billionaire and can hire security people) to find a nice quiet place sometimes just to sit and think and enjoy nature.  Because anywhere public you're going to run into some asshole yapping on his cellphone or people sitting around jabbering about boring shit.  So maybe like the Little River Band I need to just get a sailboat and sail away sail away sail away--that's actually Enya.  It occurs to me about the time of that Little River Band song wasn't there "Sailing" by Christopher Cross and probably before that that "Brandi" song?  Lot of nautical-themed songs in the '70s-early 80s.

Anyway, to get back to what I love more than anything:  me and my stories.  I was going to post a bunch of eBooks this year.  Then I got a publishing contract, which canceled eight of those planned eBooks.  I've been debating about releasing the other three anyway.  I thought about using a different name so I wouldn't hurt my "brand" or anything.  So I've been hemming and hawing about that.  For now I'm thinking I won't do anything.  Maybe wait and see what happens with the one being published and then make a decision.

Another decision I did make I referenced last week.  At the start of January I was talking about the "Back to Life" story and how it needed a better title.  Then I remembered something I thought of doing early on, which was that I was going to name the character [something] Chance and then the book would be called "Second Chance."  Except "Second Chance" seemed to me like it would be the second book.  Plus if the male character were originally named Steve Chance and then the girl he becomes is named Stephanie Chance wouldn't people like his daughter figure it out?

The upshot is that I decided to keep his name Steve Fischer and then her name would be Stephanie Chance.  But then I Googled that and there was a girl named Stephanie Chance who died mysteriously in Africa and so that seemed kind of insensitive to use that name in a story about someone who comes back from the dead.  Then I looked up a baby names site and saw that the name "Stacey" means "resurrection."  Which would fit, don't you think?  So now Steve Fischer becomes Stacey Chance and the book itself is called "Chance of a Lifetime" because her name is Chance and she gets a new lifetime plus it is the chance of a lifetime to reconnect with Steve's daughter.  Does any of that make sense?

So then the whole series would be called "Chances Are" because again name of Chance and all three are about who she is or becomes or whatever in each one.  Genius?  The whole thing breaks down like this:

Chances Are:

1. Chance of a Lifetime
2. Second Chance (because it's the second one!)
3. Last Chance (because it's the last one!)

 And then here are the prototype covers using my Amazon screen name as the pen name.  The first one was pretty easy once I found the diver picture that with a little modifying looks like someone drowning and the last one was easy because the story involves a wedding.  The second one was a lot harder because there wasn't anything that could be so simplistically represented.  So since she becomes a kid and a singer, there you go.  And there's a syringe in all three because the syringe is what does it.

So there you go.  I went on at length about my stories and also yacht rock.  Happy Valentine's Day!