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Tag Archives: F. Sharon Swope

Launch and Relaunch—The Fate Series Moves Forward

04 Oct

Mom and I have two exciting events coming down the pike. First, the fifth book of The Fate Series—Architect of Fate―should be out in the next few weeks. Architect of Fate is a two-year labor of love. Mom created such an intricate plot that both of us have been working on smoothing it out and ensuring we were as accurate as possible. We’ve talked to police, the FBI, specialists in pharmacology, a psychologist, you name it, trying to get as close as we could to what would really happen if four people of widely varied backgrounds suddenly went missing.

For this book, we also made a major decision regarding what happens in the life of our main character, Sam Osborne, and we changed the ending and the name of the book accordingly. I won’t tell you more, but those of you who have come to love our hero have got to read this installment—we’ve been stringing you along with a mystery that involves Sam so we decided it was time readers had more details.

The second exciting development is that we’ll be relaunching our series this spring. We’re doing this for several reasons. You’ll see when Architect of Fate comes out that the cover is vastly different than what we’ve had before. We loved what the artist for this book did enough that we’re redoing all the covers to make them more appealing and easier to see. We’re also relaunching as part of an effort to make our books more accessible to people. We hope to fulfill the many requests we’ve had to put our books on tape, and we’re seeking other new channels for reaching readers we know would love the series.

Our blog’s been too quiet over the last year—even as our sales have gone up and our plans for the future have crystallized. We’ve concentrated on moving forward, and we hope you’ll be there to help us get there.

–Genilee Swope Parente

 
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Posted by on October 4, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

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What’s coming up for Sam Osborne?

21 May

Like this author and blog writer, Sam Osborne has taken a little break. But don’t worry readers: you’re in for a very good next book in The Fate Series. I’m hoping to have Family Fate out for the fall season.

It’s just taken a lot longer to get this one out for two reasons:

First, mom’s physical limitation, especially her eyesight, are more of a challenge than ever. But I have to admire her: despite being 89 and barely able to figure a computer out (much less see the screen), she’s still trying. We are working together now to see how we can put out what will come after Family Fate. We haven’t resolved the mystery underlying our entire series. But mom’s head is working on it, and we’re still discussing whether it will happen in five or a new book! We just have to come up with a way for Mom to put her thoughts on paper. She’s learning braille from the Virginia Department for the Blind. And we’re going to have her start recording her thoughts so we can transfer them to the computer.

The second reason for Sam’s break is a good one: the wonderful plot Mom came up with for Family is quite complicated. That requires a lot more research to make it happen. Before her eyesight got so bad, she had gone through this book three times trying to tie together the details. She actually wrote this story before Treasured Fate, our fourth book. We decided together to put out Treasured first because it was a simpler mystery and was further along.

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Dreamstime

Now that Family Fate is in my hands, I’m doing the same as Mom had to do: spending a lot of time on research and on making the plot smooth, exciting and flowing. I promise you a very good story, readers.

So what is that plot?

It’s about multiple people disappearing. The missing people don’t seem to be related in any way—they are different ages, sexes, geographic locations. Sam comes into the case via an old friend and works with another detective on the first case. Then they both start to see a pattern. Like with Violet Fate, we get a glimpse into the mind of the “villain” behind it all. And like with most of the other books, a romance develops—this time between the detective Sam works with and one of the victims’ good friends.

Wondering why I chose the picture here for this column? Guess you’re going to have to read the book to find that out!

I was inspired by my little sister Allyn M. Stotz to get back into the grind of keeping in touch with my readers so expect more blogs! As always, I’d love to get your thoughts.

Those of you that are local: Join mom and I, June 11 2-6 at the Dale City Volunteer Fire Department, 13511 Hillendale Dr., Woodbridge, VA.

Genilee Swope Parente

 

 
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Posted by on May 21, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

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Heading into freshness

26 Aug
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Dreamstime

When summer reaches its long hot end and fall is peeking around the corner, I always get a blast of fresh air: as if someone had opened a door to let in a cool breeze. I used to be able to pinpoint that feeling: I’d spent the summer trying to keep my child entertained through camps and activities that took her away from the television screen. School was about to begin, and because I had a child who always loved teachers and classrooms (i.e., return to friends), buying sneakers and stuffing a backpack with supplies felt new and invigorating. It reminded me how excited I was growing up when school was about to start.

My child is college age and stuffs her own school bag these days, and I left school in the dust 40 years ago. But I still get the feeling; and I cherish it enough to call fall my favorite season.

I usually get to autumn and realize I’m not facing a wall of appointments and scheduled events. Summer’s stretch of fitting in visits around family events and vacations is over. And whatever freelance extra assignment I took on over the summer always seems to have a deadline of just after Labor Day. At the beginning of fall, it’s pre-holiday-rush with only the barely celebrated holidays of Columbus and Veteran’s Days to screw up the schedule. And I don’t feel that sudden urge that spring brings to hurry-up-and-plan while the weather holds.

Fall’s freshness also has to do with the end of summer’s dying season. Brown and yellow, sand and dust, bugs and humidity fade into the background while rust, gold and orange emerge, drawing our eyes upward to the crisp blue of autumn skies and the stark white clouds that accent the tree tops. If I was a painter, fall would be my subject.

Fall also brings back the desire to move: longer walks in the woods with the dog, a new exercise program, the time to think about new directions.

So I’m making a promise to myself. I’m throwing off the sluggishness of summer and along with it, the feeling mom and I have had with recent book promotions and writing that we are moving in molasses. We’re waiting on progress on book three; we’re experiencing the harsh reality that a second book is harder to market than a first; we’re trying to find a publisher for our short story collection; we’re finding it hard to move forward with new writing when we need to spend so much time trying to promote.

It’s time to feel the new possibilities that fall always brings. I’m going to stuff my backpack with new places to contact for book events. I’m going to sharpen some new pencils (boot up the computer) and sit down each morning to write something new. And I’m going to head off to “school” by looking for new ways to learn how to be successful as an author.

Genilee Swope Parente

 
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Posted by on August 26, 2014 in Uncategorized

 

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Lights, Camera, Action?

21 Feb

If anyone had told me five years ago that I would be a television star, I would have called them nuts.

Never mind the miracle of finishing three books, getting published twice, getting offered a contract on a third book. And yes, it’s a small miracle that being an author has brought me out of my shell long enough to speak in front of audiences.

But last week, mom and I launched our official road to celebrity-hood by taping the Rich Massabny show—Conversations with Rich (airing times on this page).

How could I have foreseen before all this began that I would be a television star!! Okay, maybe not a star. Just a twinkle in a few fan’s eyes if anyone tunes into the show. But there we were—mom and I—sitting on black plastic chairs, mike’s clipped to our bosoms, chatting with Rich, who is pretty well known in the metropolitan Washington, DC area, like we were old friends. How exciting to experience the heat and blinding bright of the lighting and be with the guys and gals with clipboards saying all sorts of fascinating things like, “1,2,3 check. Production room? What do you mean you can’t hear us? Is mike four even ON?”rich massabny

I just KNEW at that exact moment that we’d made it—fame at last. Okay, maybe not fame and there really wasn’t a lot of guys and gals. Just a friendly fellow with a pony tail, several youngsters who looked like they’d just left diapers behind last week, and a nervous young man who kept clearing his throat.

But it was our first filming crew. The same crew with which we’d just shared the delicious spread produced for the television crew. Okay, maybe it wasn’t a spread or one of those feasts that unions require for movie crews. It was leftovers from the cooking show that went on just before we did, but we could tell it was delicious by the many ums and ooohs. We couldn’t eat because we were too nervous. Okay, really it was because mom and I too often tend to wear what we attempt to put in our mouths, and we didn’t want to spoil our new blouses.

Then there was the excitement leading up to the taping. You know … that room with a star and the makeup girl fussing to make you look just right. Okay, that’s a downright lie. I sat in a waiting room and made conversation with my fellow author―mom. At one point, I ducked into the ladies room and put on lipstick―which I hate in the hopes that it would make me less pale. It didn’t work.

Nevertheless, there we were, “on stage” for the first time, sharing our hopes and dreams with the whole wide world. All right, maybe our hopes are really that just a few people who might happen to be bored with Jimmy Fallon will flip through the channels at the exact moment we’re on.

But back to my original thought. I could not have imagined five years ago that instead of sitting watching the tube next week, I’ll be watching myself.

Oh wait, does that mean I have to look at my double chin? Ah well, the price of fame …

 

Genilee Swope Parente

 
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Posted by on February 21, 2014 in Uncategorized

 

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