One Writer's Life -- Barbara Mountjoy

Writers often debate amongst themselves what constitutes success. While our spouses and family members often wish we defined success in terms of large royalty checks that we brought in quarterly, writers often write for the satisfaction of letting all their passion and words out into print on a page.

I’ve been fortunate to have a little of both in my thirty-six years as a published writer. Until recently, my most visible success was the 1999 publication, 101 Little Instructions for Surviving Your Divorce: A No-Nonsense Guide to the Challenges at Hand, which was printed by Impact Publishers in Atascadero, California. It’s available on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com as well as by ordering it through your local bookstore. It’s not the definitive guide on how to screw your spouse out of everything. I don’t think that’s a very healthy approach. But it is a compilation of many pieces of advice I have shared with my clients repeatedly to allow them to successfully navigate the process and survive, feeling good about themselves.

I've had two stories published in volumes of the Cup of Comfort series, "Under the Big Top," in A Cup of Comfort for Divorced Women, and "The Good, the Tough and the Mommy," in A Cup of Comfort for Adoptive Families.

The first is about how I managed a graduation party for a daughter and stepdaughter with two ex-husbands, their ex- and current wives and a stack of in-laws. The second is about how I came to be the forever mother of my three special needs kids.

In September 2010, my first novel was released from Dragonfly Publishing, The Elf Queen, under the pen name of Lyndi Alexander, followed by The Elf Child in March 2011. The Elf Mage, third in the series, is contracted for 2012.

My first romance novel, under the pen name of Alana Lorens, appeared in print in April 2011 from The Wild Rose Press, entitled Secrets in the Sand.

In 2012, we will also see Second Chances, my first women's fiction novel to be in print, from Zumaya Publications and Conviction of the Heart, another romantic suspense novel, from The Wild Rose Press.

After countless articles published in seven years as a reporter and editor at the South Dade News Leader in Homestead, Florida (back when it was a daily), I went on to national publications. My non-fiction credits include an article on stormchasing for Boy’s Quest, and several columns for Single Parenting in the Nineties, followed by a chapter in the book The Single Parent Resource.
I try to have at least ten pieces/queries/manuscripts out at all times with editors. It keeps the mail delivery exciting!

NOVELS

Over the years, I have created seventeen novel manuscripts. Here’s a little bit about each of them:

The Seeds of Time : Julia Renault is exploring an old house when an accident sends her back through time. She discovers that a hundred years earlier, she is a governess in a house full of plots and deceptions, fighting for her love and her life.

They Who Have Power : A small-town Indiana teacher goes to a state teacher’s convention and finds herself in the middle of political intrigue as a team of assassins targets one of the speakers.

The Way of the Helper : Alison Dennings joins the staff of a crisis hotline telephone service, using her life experience as grist for client advice. Determined to make a difference, she drives herself to “save” as many of the callers as she can and nearly loses herself in the process.

Traitor’s Game: A Star Trek: Next Generation novel : Kimbra Sanderson joins the crew of the USS Enterprise-D, thrilled at the opportunity to serve on the Federation’s flagship. Her pleasure is quickly ended when her sister is abducted and the only way to save her and the rest of Kimbra’s family is to kill Captain Jean-Luc Picard!

Conviction of the Heart : Pittsburgh family law attorney Suzanne Taylor is raising two daughters on her own while pursuing a successful family law practice. She finds love the second time around is a slow and painful process, as she is romanced by detective Nick Sansone. The real trouble begins when Suzanne takes the case of a battered wife whose husband is a powerfully-connected city councilman. The representation nearly costs Sansone his job and Suzanne her life. TO BE RELEASED BY THE WILD ROSE PRESS, spring 2012.

Sons of Evil : What could be more wholesome and safe than a county fair? Amanda Sue Lyons is ready for her first job ever, working for two weeks at the Bucknell County Fair to earn money for her school clothes. She knew that some carnies were a little wild and different -- but never expected to find out that some were vampires! This is the story of Amanda’s discovery that the black-garbed boys who seemed to come out only after the sun went down were more than just strange foreigners from a big city. The first victims are 4-H show animals, but soon they come after Amanda and her best friend Katelyn. With help from Todd Peterson, the boy next door, and the fair’s fortune teller, Madame Lucia, Amanda pursues the mystery and saves her friend from death -- and worse -- by using her head.

Touch Me, Love Me, Kill Me: Newly-divorced Sara Woods begins working as a reporter for a small-town Ohio newspaper, where she soon discovers there is a clinic to treat her recurring pain from a car accident. Once she starts the new-age treatment regimen along with her friend Dedra, she discovers there have been a number of deaths of young women at the clinic. Allied with independent Dr. Rick Paulsen, she sets out to investigate the story. She discovers that the clinic is home to psychic vampires, using the life force of these young women to re-animate the founder of their movement. In love with Rick, Sara finds that while he’s teaching her to resist the vampires, he’s also allied with the clinic doctors. Her trust falters in the face of a final showdown meant to sacrifice her so the vampires may live.

Prophecies and Promises : Tamsyn McKiernan is a young lady from a middle-class family in turn of the century Key West just as the Spanish-American War breaks out. Her dream has been to marry her childhood sweetheart, patrician Thatcher Winslow, but as that dream is about to come true, she meets Robert Ashton, a ship captain with ties to Cuba, gun running and piracy. The genteel Winslow displays his true petty self after the engagement is sealed, and it is the dashing Ashton who turns out to be the real gentleman. The fate of the three is tied to the progress of the war and the desperation of Tamsyn’s merchant father.

Triad : Out on the edge of space, three female commanders of different factions discover that alliances and enmities alternately pull them together and apart as they must save themselves and their people from the onslaught of marauders determined to conquer their space. One commander finds love; one finds a lost daughter; the third finds the reward for betrayal. They learn through great danger and sacrifice that there is strength in numbers and true friendship. TO BE RELEASED BY DRAGONFLY PUBLISHING, INC., summer 2012.

Voodoo Dreams : Brianna Ward, a Pittsburgh attorney on a much-needed vacation at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, finds love and danger, thanks to a voodoo priest she inadvertently meets the first night she arrives.

Horizon Shift : Themes Rogers captains the midsize Confederation ship Doubtful that rebels with others against orders to subjugate a primitive planet by force. Using experimental ancient technology, his ship creates a wormhole that allows him to escape the conflict, tossing his ship into another universe, leaving it battered and half his crew dead. He rallies the survivors and begins the process of rebuilding, using his knack for collecting people who are lost or have hit bottom, and redeeming them as valuable crew members. What he does not know is that Jal Burko, his cruel former commander, was pulled across the universal rift with the Doubtful and is now hunting him to destroy him. It is a battle against time for the crew to discover what ship is after them as well as the secrets of the ancient tech, which holds the key to their return - or their survival. The crew, new and old, use their unique talents to finally reconstruct the device, surprised at the extent of its mysteries and its effects on all.

The Color of Death: After a terrorist attack goes awry, two young immigrants, Kwan Lin and Xi San, both scarred by their loses, leave a post-Apocalyptic San Francisco to survive under difficult conditions and help each other recover their humanity. The attack has wiped out mostly Caucasian people, targeted to do so. They gather comrades as they travel who enrich their lives and they all learn to survive together. This is a young adult novel which combines survival issues as those in "The Stand" to racial, cultural and moral issues of "Crash." TO BE RELEASED as a three-book series beginning in spring 2013 by ZUMAYA PUBLICATIONS

Encounter: An elite firm of computer design/patent law attorneys take a retreat at a ranch in Taothes, New Mexico, their goal a week of team-building. A truckload of illegal Mexicans crosses the border, the occupants looking for freedom and a better way of life for themselves and their families. A freak snowstorm causes the truck to crash and this rag-tag bunch must take shelter at the ranch where the lawyers are enjoying their vacation. The meeting of the two groups is violent, poignant and enlightening, and none of those who survive are ever the same.

In Search of the Lost Chord: An autistic girl and four other teens find themselves drawn into a magical quest to save the 13 universes with the use of devices that create a special musical chord.

Take Me Alive:   Coming in September 2010 as The Elf Queen  (see above), and followed by the rest of the Clan Elves of the Bitterroot series

Second Chances: Inessa Regan, a 10-year associate at a Pittsburgh law firm,gets a pink slip when the economy tanks. Her first client in her solo practice is Kurtis Lowdon, a man 20 years younger than she, an Iraq War veteran with cancer. The novel tells the story about Inessa’s battle upward from the pit of despair as she loses everything that defines her, thanks to the love affair with this plucky young man fighting his own demons. As he battles death, he teaches her how to live; and she risks everything she holds dear to save him in return. TO BE RELEASED NOVEMBER 2012 from Zumaya Publishing.

And the hits keep on coming.
Something else I've been experimenting with is the power of the WWW itself. You can do a lot to spice up even a fairly average story by making it interactive.

Like this story about a man who finds more than he ever expected on his way to take a new job. Click here for the interactive story, Strong Medicine.


I also sell articles and stories on a number of topics through the website Constant Content.

If you're a writer and would like to sign up, let me know! If I refer you, I can get credit for signing you on, and then you can get credit for signing on more of your writer friends. They let you know what sort of articles are currently being requested by email daily, so if you're a quick turnaround, it's an easy sale!