Diving In—Impulsive Bravery has its Downside By Joan Leotta #CivilWar #FearlessFriday

FEARLESS FRIDAY

What an amazing and talented guest I have today. Joan Leotta is a writer and story performer. She plans to relaunch her historical fiction series in June 2020 and is presently launching a new performance piece--Louisa May Alcott, Civil War Nurse.

Contact her at joanleotta@atmc.net

Some might say the time I overcame greatest fear was when I entered the training ring with a two-year old bull in Spain. The finca (Bull farm) owner asked my friend and me if we would like to help him test his two-year old bulls to assess their willingness to fight in the ring in Madrid.

The finca owner held the cape with me. I recall the chute opening and a large horned monster rushing toward us. I heard the man whisper, “arriba” and in synch with him I pulled up my end of the cape. I felt the bull thunder under the cape between us. “Corre” the man shouted, and I ran behind a sideboard and so did he. When the bull turned around, we were gone. This bull had made the grade. Everyone congratulated me, but truthfully, I felt more stupid than brave.

My next act of impulsive bravery came with more preparation, but not enough.  I had a great idea. I could turn my 12 k short story about a young girl who worked in WWII DC into a novella—40,000 words. Research showed that romance publishers seemed best suited to this tale of espionage, assimilation into America, and young love.

I sent out my story as a sample and a query letter—to three publishers. Desert Breeze (now out of business) responded in the affirmative—very affirmative. They wanted this story, set in along with three others!  A very short deadline was set for the first book and then I was to produce a book a year after that for four years. New to the field, I had no idea how much energy I would need to spend to expand my small platform into one large enough to sell the books I was writing.

Writing that first book was easy. Editing was hard work, but I had a good editor and a fabulous cover artist assigned to me by the publisher.

By the time I felt I could handle the E-book marketing, I learned all four were going into print. I opted to focus my efforts there and formulated a marketing plan which personal circumstances shredded. As I was reformulating my plan last year, Desert Breeze (DB)closed its doors. I joined the group of authors who were working together to help market our books.

DB gave me my rights, and for a small fee, the cover art. I plan to now gather up the courage to try a new-to-me venture—self-publishing the first three in the series as an e-book trilogy.

This time, however, I am going to add proper research into formatting and into marketing to my action list. I’ve set summer 2020 as my launch. To bolster that launch I’m writing a new historical fiction performance piece, performing Louisa May Alcott as a Civil War nurse (something I have already researched and performed). Look first, then leap is now my motto. And, oh yes, I will not be stepping into the bull ring any time soon.

If you want to support my efforts, please check out my blog, “What Editors Want You to Know”, Like my Facebook page Joan Leotta, Author and Storyteller, and email me at joanleotta@atmc.net if you are interested in inviting Louisa May to your venue to speak about her time as a civil war nurse and about her writing.

Creating a Villain by Joan Leotta

MUSE MONDAY

Please welcome my guest, Joan Leotta who has a most interesting post. I'm hooked! Read on.

My friend Julia told me the story of how she and her husband met and married in the mid 1950s. Her tale of going toWashington, DC to marry her then-fiancé, John started it all. He met her train and when she put her foot on the top of the set of metal steps leading from her car to the platform, he reached up and swept her around and down onto the platform. Once her feet touched the ground he pulled her close and sealed her arrival greeting with a kiss. That story and an interest in history grew into a book on WWII in Wilmington, NC which became book one of my Legacy of Honor Quartet.

 So, I had the romance, but what about the rest of the story? World War II work posters always talked about loose lips, the possibility of spies trying to sabotage war work, so it was a natural for me to create a villain who was a spy. My spy was a Nazi. I gave him the very ordinary name of Herbert and characteristics that were ordinary as well. He was a lonely sort of guy, whose goal was to sabotage the key elements of the shipyard—the part developing secret equipment—which is where Giulia worked (of course!). The ins and outs of defeating the spy's efforts are what give the plot its action elements and of course, are one more way I bring Giulia and John closer together. 

I did a lot of research using original resources—newspapers, magazines, records of people who lived through the era. The book is sprinkled with details about life in Wilmington, NC during WWII. Some of my favorite are descriptions of the dances at the USO center, now known as the Hannah Block Center. 

There were spies on the east coast, but nothing has ever been disclosed about any activity in the Wilmington shipyard. There are records of a U-boat attempting to land on the NC coast, a bomb and more, but up the coast from Wilmington. I merely moved the entire activity down the coast so the action could be a part of my story. 

The book is about 35,000 words, a novella. All of this came from a simple conversation that started my imagination rolling. I kept it powered with interviews from folks who lived through the various eras, research in libraries and the simple question, "What if?" 

Here is a small excerpt from Giulia Goes to War, the first book in the Legacy of Honor quartet. This section is from one of the chapters dealing with Giulia's work in the shipyard.

"Giulia had just shown the guard at the door her pass and was entering the Quonset hut when the boom shook the ground. The sound started her ears ringing and sent a flash of heat and light throughout the area. The young guard who had just cleared Giulia to enter the room, pushed her inside and threw himself on top of her. She heard him gasp as a piece of wooden plank implanted itself in his arm. 

She could hardly hear now because of the ringing in her ears, but she thought she heard John calling to her as though from very far away. "Giulia! Giulia!"  It was John! He grabbed her and the guard and pulled them inside the Quonset hut. Before John could assess the situation he heard the shipyard’s alarms wailing.

Giulia's immediate supervisor appeared in the hallway where they were all huddled a few seconds later. "Everyone all right here?" 

Check out my FB page, Joan Leotta, Author and Story Performer

Please Take a Look at my Blog, Recipes for Success, www.joanleotta.wordpress.com

Giulia goes to War

Desert Breeze Publishing Volume I in the Legacy of Honor series

ISBN-10: 161252639X

ISBN-13: 978-1612526393

Buy link to Giulia

https://www.amazon.com/Giulia-Goes-War-Legacy-Honor/dp/161252639X