The Remaking of a Fiction Series and Why You Should Consider Remaking Your Series

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I write a fiction series, currently titled The Courier under the pen name Winnie Jean Howard, but I'm changing the series name to Angels Dark and Dumb.

Why, you ask? Because the series title doesn't speak to the actual series' genre/sub-genres. Yes, the main character is a courier, and he continues to transport otherworldly things and beings in the series, but The Courier doesn't speak to the fantasy, paranormal, and comedy side of the series. Taking apart the new series name, "angels" reflects the expected characters, "dark" reflects the horror/paranormal category, and "dumb" lets a reader know it's funny or fascicle.

This isn't my first remaking of the series. I originally published under the name W. J. Howard because I started writing horror many years ago, when women were not taken seriously as horror writers. Thirty years later--giving away my age and how long I've been struggling to be a fiction writer--expectations have changed.

Remaking myself and the series has been time consuming because many of the changes I have made require publishing a whole new edition. A whole new edition entails full unpublication of existing books, followed by assigning new ISBNs, publishing from start to finish again, and linking to old editions. Approach this level of changing your book or series with caution because it is very time consuming. You will get to know Amazon support intimately.

The first in the series, Call for Obstruction, is on it's 5th edition. It was first released with a publisher back in 2008. Unfortunately, that didn't last due to the publisher going out of business. Horror story for another day. Then I started a publishing cooperative and that lasted a few years before the whole thing became a distraction from my own work and way too much work in general. That's when I decided to change to a self-published author and published version 3. The next version happened when I changed my fiction author pen name to Winnie Jean Howard. In hindsight, those two versions should have been done at the same time. Coulda, shoulda, woulda gets you every time! And here we are on version 5 with the whole series name change. Since I can't think of another reason why I might need to remake the book or series again, I'm hoping to call it DONE!

These changes are not uncommon, especially when you start marketing a novel, which is the main reason for my new series name. Reinventions of books usually come in the form of rewriting cover copy or changing a book cover. In my case, add author self-discovery and a need to further clarify to potential readers what they can expect when they open Call for Obstruction or Fall for Freedom or Warrant for Damnation. The later is the most frustrating experience I've had due to my love of "bad taste" humor. More on this later.

If you are an author, and you've feeling something is not right with your series because it's not selling, or the wrong readers are picking up your book and it's reflected in your reviews, consider making over your titles too. Here are a few questions you should think over, then pick and choose things that could help your book series.

Does your author name represent you and your books? Only do this if you are early in your career as a writer. Imagine if Pepsi changed it's brand name tomorrow. I know I'd go nuts. In my case, I wanted readers to know I'm a woman. I'd been out there in the horror community for many years, and there were an equal number of male and female writers and artists who loved and represented the genre equally. Women are no longer worried about the stereotypes of the past regarding the horror genre. But I also had to remake my name to something a bit goofy to let readers know my stories were not only horrific but also funny and nonsensical. To me, Winnie Jean sounds as such, although I also considered Mean Winnie Jean. So, take a good look at what you write, who you are, and see if you're best represented by your author name choice. Are you fun or stuffy? Mysterious or romantic? Also know that this is one of those big changes and you'll need a new edition.

Do your book titles speak to what you write? This is the big one I'm addressing now. I feel like I went with too literal a series title to begin with and forgot about the marketing. Did you do the same? While we spend years learning to write, how to market is in the back of our mind during the process. Why else would so many writers think that when the book is published, the readers will ooze out of the woodwork? Even I should have known better because I worked in marketing before and after publishing my first novel. So, think about your own titles. Could they be confusing or maybe even off-putting to the reader you are hoping to attract? This is another "big change" that will require a new edition, so be sure a new title will attract the right readers.

Did you publish your book(s) too soon? As someone who has led writers' critique groups for many years, I've seen writers publish too soon or without professional editing. Crazy as it sounds, I've even seen writers who think poor grammar is their style of creative writing. Excuse after excuse just to publish ASAP, like it's a drug. This is a path that leads to crickets on your book page. Give readers credit for spotting a hack. Also likely, when an author isn't willing to perfect the story, why would he bother with marketing. But if he did market, he's likely see angry reviews. If your ego is ready to admit you did this, re-write and re-publish...then see the other advice. Note that you should publish a new edition if you make major changes to a book, like any scientific manual or textbook publisher would do. It's worth it if you have published multiple books in a series because no one will advance from your first book to the next, if they even finish the first.

Are your story lines outdated? I'm old, so I really worry about this one while writing Angels Dark and Dumb because I want readers in their 20s to enjoy the books. Why would you write a story about the invention of television as if it happened today. Kids have different issues than I did when I was a kid and there was no Internet. If you hate how society has changed since you were young, consider retiring your manual typewriter for a room at a nursing home (do they still call it that?), where you can complain to like-minded whiners. Otherwise, see where your books need a little updating. I believe writers should be a bit compassionate and open minded to write both sides of any story anyway. If you opt for this option, minor changes don't require a new edition.

When did you last change your book cover, if ever? Yes, I am GUILTY! But I'm polishing them up with the series name change. Unless you are a bestseller, expect to do this periodically. And it should go without saying that you should hire a professional to do your covers. Don't let your ego rule this decision! SERIOUSLY!! Just because there are tools you can use to make a book cover doesn't mean you should do it. I've known too many authors with the "I'm creative. I can do it" attitude who are terrible artists only a mother would love. There are even spectacular pre-made book covers that are less expensive. Consider it! You can change your book cover as many times as you like without having to publish a new edition.

How old is your cover copy and does it best reflect the books and series? My biggest frustration with cover copy has been getting it right to attract the right audience. Like when I changed my pen name, I've learned the hard way that brutal honesty is the best policy. This is because I write trashy comedy that is an acquired taste. These days, there are a lot of people who are easily offended, but I've reached a point where I don't care about offending anyone. Problem is...they are waiting for opportunities to trash books they don't feel are appropriate. Read through your cover copy and assess whether or not it's deceiving. Are you trying to sell books to anyone and everyone? Or are you trying to sell to readers who will love your story? Sell to your audience ONLY! There's lots of advice out there on writing cover copy. So my advice is to seek it out and rewrite your books' descriptions frequently and until you start selling to the right audience.

Remaking your books may seem overwhelming, but it is essential...and I've found it's worth it. Why else would I be on edition 5 of my first book. It's a tough and competitive market we authors work in. You won't always get it right the first time, so keep trying, and trying, and trying, and trying.

Remember Holidays with Your Mother?

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Dr. Martha talks about holidays with family throughout her life in Catholic Daughters of Catholic Mothers.

The word Lent has multiple meanings, and somehow it came to mean the forty days before Easter Sunday beginning on Ash Wednesday. One explanation is that the 40 days represent the 40 days and 40 nights that Jesus Christ spent fasting in the desert. There was also this tradition—the only word I can think to describe it because it wasn’t a rule—of giving up something for Lent. It was supposed to be a sacrifice: an offering from me to God in exchange for blessings or grace. We Catholics always wanted more grace. I seem to have some vague memory that having enough grace was a way to cancel out the bad stuff and save one from Hell. Another possibility was that our giving up something may have been because Christ fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, and therefore you could give up one thing for 40 days. The sacrifice was in giving up something that you value. You don’t give up spinach or finishing homework. Kids would give up candy or soda or maybe watching their favorite TV show during Lent. These days, I suppose kids could give up using electronics. As my children got older, I suggested that rather than giving up something—which usually was pretty silly anyway—that they would give something. They could volunteer somewhere or give away the things that they no longer needed or wanted. It made more sense to me to help the community.

Interesting, over the years, how much of the religion has been removed from the major Catholic holidays. At least for us “ambiguous Catholics.” I still put up a manger scene at Christmas and have given all my grandchildren some form of manger or birth of Christ storybook at one time or another. But for Easter, it’s been all about the fun of egg dyeing and Easter baskets. My bad. I’m not alone in this though. Easter parades, Easter eggs, Easter candy, all the fun stuff have been around since the 1700s. Here’s a little-known factoid about Easter candy that I’ve learned over the years while teaching Chinese medicine in Turkey. It turns out that jellybeans, some say, have their origin all the way back to a Biblical version of Turkish Delight.

Dr. Martha Shares How Motherhood Has Changed Over the Last 50+ Years

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In Catholic Daughters of Catholic Mothers, Dr. Martha discusses 4 generations of motherhood.

But I wish they had lived longer. I have bunches of patients who are my age and whose parents are alive, or at least one is alive. I envy that. I tell people that my parents died young because I do think that 76 and 77 are young. Too young to be dead. I have a four-generation picture of my mother’s mother, my mother, me, and my daughter Audrey. I had always imagined that I would be in another four-generation picture. It would be my mother, me, one of my children, and their child—my grandchild. But Mom didn’t make it long enough for that to happen. My hope is to still have a four-generation picture. This one will be of me, my child, their child, and my grandchild’s child. Yep, planning to be a great-grandmother!

Catholic Daughters of Catholic Mothers is the Perfect Mother’s Day Gift

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Mother's Day is fast approaching. Have you thought about what you'll get Mom or Grandma this year? If they grew up Catholic during the 60s and 70s, they will love Catholic Daughters of Catholic Mothers, a walk down a memory lane of baptism, naming ceremonies, confession, confirmation, marriage, divorce, and much much more.

Dr. Lucas candidly recounts memories of her Catholic daughter's childhood: beginning with her parents choosing which saint to name her after and continuing through her Catholic grade school education, taught by nuns, the founders of America’s parochial schools. Experience the strict discipline and rules of a system where independent thinking was discouraged. Everything was forbidden, everyone was a sinner, and every action put students at risk for “going to hell.”

Girls formed lady-like identities regulated first by school uniforms, then by the cult of the Virgin Mary, and last by the ceremonies that parishioners were forced to endure over and over again. Parents and elders were to be obeyed and respected, their wishes anticipated, while children were expected to accept punishment out of the fear of God. After all, obedience was a gift from the Holy Spirit. 

The journey continues into adulthood with Dr. Lucas’s willingness to question authority, grapple with her own identity, and slide into becoming what she lovingly calls an “ambiguous” Catholic. She offers a visceral account of Catholic guilt, desire, piety, anger, and the superstitions that shaped the Catholic upbringing. For some, this still permeates their lives as adults. 

Who were Catholic Daughters? Why did these young women work so hard to fit into the Catholic mold, even to the extent of making up sins? And what kinds of sins did you make up when you were a kid just so you’d have something to say to the priest in the confessional booth? This provocative question at the end of the “Confession” chapter is just one that is at the core of Catholic Daughters of Catholic Mothers. 

This book and its guided journal questions emerged from Dr. Lucas’s experiences and desire to help others discover their truth and speak it out loud. Buy this journal now and begin an exploration of yourself and your inner beliefs. You’ll reconstruct the traces of your Catholic mother-daughter nexus, remember your personal accomplishments, get a better understanding of your embodied self, and reflect on important life lessons. By completing the journal exercises,  you can discover your own truth and live more authentically, even if you aren’t a Catholic Daughter of a Catholic Mother.

The Fun Parts of Motherhood: Naming Babies and More

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Dr. Martha Lucas has an interesting story about how she was named. This and much more from her on being a baby in her Catholic Daughters of Catholic Mothers book about life as a Catholic woman in the 60s, 70, and beyond.

They named me after Saint Martha, the patron saint of housewives, servants, and cooks. Catholics turn to her when dealing with chronic stress and doubt. Martha was a worker, keeping everybody fed and dressed in clean clothes, while her sister Mary had chosen “the good portion.” What’s meant by this old saying is that Mary was concerned with more spiritual things. She was the sister who spent countless hours conversing with Jesus almost to the exclusion of practical and domestic matters that were more suitable burdens for Martha.

During my birth, my mother suffered through a very long and hard labor—I obviously didn’t want to come out. A priest even gave her the last rites. My mother and father decided that if she lived and the child lived, and it was a girl, the child would be named Martha. A boy would be named John Jr., which was already a given. Well, it was me… Martha Lucas. It’s the name they gave me and the name I’ve kept. Admittedly, I’ve changed it due to marriage even though the man to whom I am married now has the opinion, “why would you take my name? I don’t own you. You are not my property.”

Dr. Martha Shares the Challenges of Being a Single, College Student, Working Mom Ready to Date

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Being a single working mom attending college is hard enough. Find out what happened to Dr. Martha when she was also ready to date.

Twenty somethings date. So I did. In my mind, I can’t apologize or punish myself enough for not being at home with my children every minute that I wasn’t at work or in school. Did you say Catholic guilt? Oh, I’m an expert at that. I was guilty then and I’m still guilty. I will never make it up to them for their worse than average childhood, but I keep trying. More fodder for therapy.

Some ten years after I got divorced, I met my current husband. I told my parents that I had had my first marriage annulled, so it was “okay” in the eyes of God for me to get married again. What a bunch of bull. And here’s one more crazy, bullshit thing. My husband and I slept in separate rooms while my parents were in town for our wedding. We pretended we were practicing celibacy for my parents. We were lying. One might say we did that so my parents wouldn’t be uncomfortable with us sleeping in the same bed in their presence. Or, you could say that I still wanted my parents to love me, to accept me, to think I was a good person. I was still trying to be someone they could be proud of.

As an adult, did you lie to your parents about your non-Catholic behavior?

The Complications of Mother Daughter Relationships

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Dr. Martha talks about shaming women about their appearance, a thing that seems timeless. Did your mother preach modesty or let you choose what you wore? Here's an excerpt from Catholic Daughters of Catholic Mothers and one of Dr. Martha's experiences on the topic from when she was growing up.

Modesty and shame. Strangely, I think they go together or at least have gone together in my life. My mother’s focus on modesty created a body image problem that still haunts me to this day. I can never be thin enough. Thank God that never translated into an eating disorder. It’s just a daily worry about being fat: criticizing my body, wondering if I can weigh less, and distressing about ballooning into a fat blimp in a flash. One day I have a waist and the next I’m 100 pounds overweight. Kind of like what I said about my mother previously, having a waist after she had my youngest brother and then, before my eyes, she was fat. That’s what I have told myself for more than 50 years. Intellectually, I know she didn’t become overweight overnight, but the story I’ve told myself is exactly that. It happened in the blink of an eye. And so, I believe it can happen to me. The scale will just keep going up, and I won’t be able to stop it. I must be vigilant. I was 10 years old when mom had a waist. After that, all I remember is the overweight body. The body hidden in tent dresses.

There’s a sense of shame in all things body related. But it’s more than just shameful if I wear too short a skirt, or too low-cut a blouse, or too sexy a dress, or no bra in public. The not wearing a bra thing. You know why that will never happen, me being in public without a bra? Because when I was about 16 years old in the days of burning bras, I went to work one day without a bra. It just so happened that Mom came to the mall that day, saw me without a bra on, and made me ask my boss for a break so I could go buy a bra. Yep. That was her response. Not “Martha! Don’t ever go out again without wearing a bra. And by the way, you’re grounded for a week.” Nope. It’s always black or white… good or bad. She made me buy a bra and put it on before I went back to work. And I still think about that episode of our life together. God, I hope I never made my girls feel that way, embarrassed and terrible about not wearing a piece of underwear. And the why of it. Why do I have to wear a bra? Because men, disgusting men, will see me as a sex object? Will going braless make me want to have sex? Are nipples a body part to be hidden? Will people think I’m a slut? Mom never explained why all those thoughts are in my mind when I don’t wear a bra. God forbid our handyman should show up one day when I’m casual at home without a bra on. What would he think? “That’s ridiculous,” my intellectual brain says, but my rat brain says, “Don’t do it.”

How did your mother talk to you about your body if she talked to you about it all?

Dr. Martha Shares Why Women Should Set Aside Time for Self and Breathe

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Dr. Martha learned the importance of taking time for self from her experiences as a child. She knows what it's like to spend too much time worrying and what it does to the body mind and spirit. In this excerpt she shares her story and one way you can relieve stress.

Martha's Rat Brain

Trauma is a strong, scary word. But honestly, my childhood experience drives my animal brain to think that if one of our appliances breaks, we’re going to go bankrupt. My go to emotion is fear and the worst possible outcome. All those years of sitting on the steps, waiting for my dad to come home safe, thinking of the absolute worst thing that could happen to most kids, a parent dying, has left its mark. I was a worried, scared, helpless, poor kid. And that’s the message that my amygdala, my animal brain, transmits throughout my body all the time. Sometimes I wonder how I would be different if I had been nurtured through that worry. How would I be different if my mother had soothed me somehow that Dad would be home, not to worry? Hugged me. But that never happened. For one thing, I snuck out of my room after she went to bed. As far as I know, she had no idea that I sat on the steps every night. She had no idea that I worried, waited for him to come up the stairs, and then could go to bed. I must have been flat out exhausted as a kid.

According to both modern medicine and Chinese medicine—my career is a combination of both—our lungs hold grief. They don’t work well if we’re holding on to grief. And we need a healthy breathing cycle in order to have a strong immune system. No wonder I had asthma. My twenty-plus years of practicing Chinese medicine has also shown me that I’ve inherited my father’s fear. DNA is energy; we inherit the energies of our parents, our grands, our great grands, on and on. We are helpless not to inherit it. Dad’s father ran off and his mother committed suicide when he was five, leaving him abandoned, alone. So, there’s that inherited part of my rat brain, even older than my sitting on the stairs, hoping he’d come home alive.

That’s my legacy; yours is hopefully different.

Breathe. One of my favorite breathing methods, the one that I suggest to my patients, is to breathe deeply from the belly up. Yes, belly up. Your belly will expand when you breathe deeply. Bring your breath up and then start the exhale from the top of your chest down to the belly. It’s circular. Bottom up… top down. It gets you into your body and out of your animal brain.

Dr. Martha’s Experience as a Single Mom in the 70s

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You've come a long way, babe. That's what Dr. Martha shows in the chapter about her divorce in Catholic Daughters of Catholic Mothers. In this excerpt she shows her willingness to challenge the beliefs of the day and set her life on a nontraditional path.

My D I V O R C E

Naturally, I was taught that marriage is for life. If you got divorced, you weren’t allowed to remarry unless the first marriage was annulled. You could be divorced in the “eyes of the state” but not in the “eyes of God.” It’s because God joins the couple in marriage. Yes, God is there at your wedding, securing your vows. The vows are between the couple and God Himself. I’d say, “or Herself” but we’re talking back in the 70s, so I’ll go with the feeling of that day: God is male.

Anyway, I got divorced when the kids were about 2, 3, and 6. We had a regular dad goes to work and mom (me) stays home life, but I wanted what I called “freedom.” Their father was a good guy, hard worker, but I wanted to finish college and not just be a stay-at-home mom. I wanted to help stop the nuclear power plant, Marble Hill from being built across the river from where we lived.

The kids and I moved out of the house, and visitation was set up. I enrolled at the University of Louisville and got a job with a group called The Senate of Religious. One day I was telling my boss, Sister Mary Claire, that the kids and I needed a place to live. Lo and behold, she knew of an empty rectory—of all places—that the pastor of the parish would rent to us for very low rent. He was willing to do that because there was a group of retired ladies who played Bingo in the large front parlor once a month. He wanted the rectory to have some life in it, some cleanliness in it, so it was ours. But what a spot! It was a mess! My brother John—God love him—came down for a few weeks to clean up the place for us. He literally hosed down the first floor. Really, he took a garden hose and washed it from ceilings to floor. We put a roach bomb in the kitchen and came home to a sheet of roaches covering every appliance. Ugh. But it had an enormous kitchen, living room, three bedrooms, multiple bathrooms, and even an office where I could study.

Did you grow up in a divorced family?

Interview with Wendy Spurlin, Founder of ArmLin House

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Hello, and welcome to my interview, although it's more of a brain dump. I figure it's fitting to go 1st person considering I'm the one who posts the interviews in this blog.

Who am I, and why did I decide to start a publishing and video production company? Well, there's the fact that it's what I know best. I've been a writer forever and have written all kinds of stuff. The only thing I love to do more is create artwork, which is another huge part of what we produce in children's books and videos.

If we start from my very beginning, I was born in the south suburbs of Chicago but have lived more years of my life in Colorado. Don't worry, I don't plan to go through a boring chronological recount of my life. It's just that these two places say a lot about who I am: comfortable in the big city and even happier isolated in the woods. Since you can get lost very easily in either place, where I've lived could explain why I'm most comfortable in my own head.

I'll bring up life during COVID next, because it really changed my direction. Before it hit, I was running a writers critique group and trying to finish up book 2 in my main fantasy book series. Let's just say that editing my own fiction frustrates me to the point I'm in physical pain. It takes me forever. No surprise, I can be a very unhappy fiction writer. Anyway, I spend a lot of time on distractions, writing the nonfiction I love, helping others refine their stories, and picking up odd jobs. Anything to avoid my own book. COVID was a perfect distraction! I did something very drastic...I want back to school in my 50s. I completed 3/4 of an Associates in Multimedia, Graphic Design, and Illustration. I had so much fun! My doing this kind of surprised everyone, especially sing I had vowed never to take another college course in my mid-40s. Education is another one of those distractions, and I could never settle on a degree. A story for another time.

After all the years I've been a writer, doing various work here and there, helping others has always been something that comes naturally. Bringing my long-time art talent back into the mix, relearning art from a digital perspective, has been a perfect complement to it all. What I'm doing makes me happy, so why not apply it to a business.

Speaking of visual arts, I had no idea how much I'd prefer to tell stories with pictures. Best lesson I got out of college in old age. LOL! Biggest surprise was taking an Adobe After Effects class and falling in love with video editing, which is a key area I'm focusing on for ArmLin House, working hard to bring in lots of clients who want to venture into representing their stories with video.

But I also had a chance to reconnect with my roots by taking a drawing class where we used old school media to draw stuff like the still life I've shared here. I've always had a talent for copying what I see, so this was a fun assignment. Back to my living in my head, spend some time doing this and that's where you'll be for hours upon hours.

I really look forward to talking to everyone out there in many more blog posts. There will be more interviews with all the authors joining us, and I'll be sharing my knowledge as well. And I'll be introducing you to all my artist friends I love working with. There's just so much going on already with the company and there's much more to come.