Another Review of As You Were

Another review of As You Were 

Review by: Noni Nelson on Mar. 09, 2011 : star star star star
"Four years ago, as a newly-out,mature lesbian and an avid reader I was staggered by the dearth of quality gay fiction for women. So disappointed in fact that I resorted to writing my own. If I had discovered Kelli Jae Baeli back then I may not have bothered! I was hooked from the first few pages of As You Were. Her characters are natural, their lives are believable and I devoured this book eagerly late into the night. And put it down with a genuine reluctance to part company with it's two main protagonists, Tru & Brittany."

Another Review of As You Were

New Review of ISO

 

Another review on my book "ISO (In Search Of): Dating, Relationships & Sex for the Discerning Lesbian"...

"Whether you are a 'baby dyke', a newly out older woman or someone who has just been away from the 'dating scene' for a time, this book is an essential tool in your belt. Not only does Ms. Baeli provide thought provoking answers to all those obvious questions we all have, but you might find some information here about scenarios you had never even considered. Read it cover to cover or jump to the section you're most interested in, either way you will come away with plenty to think about. And a few chuckles along the way!"
~Noni Nelson
Australia

New Review of ISO

New Review of As You Were

New Review of my book, As You Were, on Smashwords.

Review by: Kate Genet on Feb. 28, 2011 : 5 Stars

"It is obvious right from the beginning of this book that Kelli Jae Baeli knows how to craft a great story. Her main character is the sort of woman you’d love to meet in real life, and I warmed to her immediately. She’s that well-rounded type of character that makes reading a real pleasure. This is a story about a relationship, but it’s set against a backdrop of events and places that serve to introduce and develop that relationship in a way that seems entirely natural and interesting. I don’t want to give any of the details away, but the storyline is great – suspenseful and nothing left dangling; it’s all pulled together extraordinarily well. By the time I reached the end of the book I was well-satisfied and smiling."


It's always so uplifting to learn that readers are enjoying my work.

New Review of As You Were

Sex is Apalling, Killing is Okay

Below, is a review posted on Amazon regarding my book, Achilles Forjan. As with the previous post about reviews of Unbearable Lightness of Being UNBEARABLE, it seems there is a tendency for people not to pay attention to what they buy. I added my comment on Amazon below her review... 

3.0 out of 5 stars Should have been warned, May 4, 2010
By Rachel B. Beard
This review is from: Achilles Forjan (Paperback)
My grandson wants to be a firefighter. He is a High school junior so I gave him this book for Easter. No where did I read it was 'sexually explicit"....he was facinated and I was appalled that I gave it to him!!

COMMENT: My apologies to Rachel Beard--but when shopping for a book for a grandson, note that Achilles Forjan was not listed in the Young Adult section...it's a book that includes the presence and activities of a serial killer, (among other things) yet, she was worried about sex content? Sex is a natural, healthy part of our lives, but being a killer isn't. I hope she will read the description more carefully, or else purchase something from the YA genre next time.

I would be glad to send Rachel a copy of my mainstream book, Baggage, as it is a family saga that is suitable for anyone who prefers stories about relationships and family, without anything sexually explicit. She might actually enjoy that one.

As for the Young Adult genre, I highly recommend James Patterson's Maximum Ride series. And for a YA interested in becoming a firefighter, why not set up a visit to local fire stations? He can then speak to those who do the job every day, and that would be a much more helpful set of information.
Best,
Kelli Jae Baeli

Sex is Apalling, Killing is Okay

Done. Really. I mean it.

After I got those proofs for Supernatural Hypocrisy (6 volumes) mentioned in a previous entry, I (naturally) found many things that needed correcting. And more information that needed to be added. It has been feeling like I'll never be done. But in between the high stress of a certain personal situation, i finally got them done, edited, and sent again. Then after i sent in the final material, decided i still hated the covers, so redesigned them AGAIN. This time, i like them, and that's the final version. Really. 

These volumes were supposed to be available for holiday sales, but the aforementioned stress successfully put an end to that. I've never missed a deadline before. So will be glad when the situation rights itself in March. (Unless some other unforeseen re-emergence of the bad situation arises). Keep your fingers crossed, and send me good wishes, if only in your own mind. With my new position as Managing Editor for LightSwitcher Books, LLC, i will need things to go more smoothly.

Here's a little mission statement about LSB:

Bold. Illuminating. Evolved.

That's the mission statement, in a nutshell, for LightSwitcher Books. We want to revive the old masters so the world can enjoy them again; we want to put in print, for the first time, stories from the older generation, who have seen what we could never see, have lived through challenges we may never face, thanks to their existence; we want to publish promising new authors who have something compelling, informative, or entertaining to share-sparing them the inevitable years of competing with the authors who set their sights on the major publishing houses. We are not shackled by the politics of the publishing industry at LightSwitcher Books. If we believe the world should see it, we will print it.

Here's to being bold and illuminating and evolved.

Enjoy.

Done. Really. I mean it.

Supernatural Completion

I finally ordered the proofs for my 6 volume book, Supernatural Hypocrisy: The Cognitive Dissonance of a God Cosmology. It will be available for the Holiday Shopping season.
Volume 1: Cosmology of God & Jesus
Volume 2: Cosmology of Christianity
Volume 3: Cosmology of the Bible
Volume 4: Cosmology of the Dark Side
Volume 5: Cosmology of Science
Volume 6: Cosmology of Atheism

Three years in the making, this is not a project I would like to do very often. It was mentally, emotionally and physically draining. The amount of research, double-checking, rewriting, formatting and other such mundane details were often mind-numbing. Then there was the constant decision-making about what information goes where--the subject of each volume often overlaps the subject of another, and I was constantly trying to keep track of where it all should go. It was, literally, like working on six books at a time. I crashed my Firefox browser and Word frequently.

But I believe this work is unique, in that it is in 6 volumes; I didn't have to hyperfocus on one area of the subject matter, and condense it down so much. I could cover the territory i wanted to cover--share my journey--without leaving out any crucial bits that ultimately led me to my personal cosmology. I addressed each one I felt was primary in the search for understanding. So the book is fairly comprehensive in that way, though i learned quickly that there could have been another 6 volumes.

Just a couple stats:

• In all 6 volumes combined, there are 1,322 pages and I used 477 sources.
• I referenced Wikipedia only once, because it was the only place to get a biographical tidbit on a certain person. Otherwise, i used only reputable sources--science, news magazines, journals, newspapers, books-- including many translations of the Bible, and translations of the Septuagint, Pseudepigrapha and other apocryphal texts.

I drew from a wide array of source-types and areas of study. The information and examination I used considered many different disciplines. Some of those include:

• anthropobiology --  study of human biology
• anthropology -- study of human cultures
• archaeology -- study of human material remains
• astronomy -- study of celestial bodies
• bioecology -- study of interaction of life in the environment
• biology --  study of life
• bionomics  -- study of organisms interacting in their environments
• Egyptology -- study of ancient Egypt
• epistemology -- study of grounds of knowledge
• genesiology  -- study of reproduction and heredity
• genetics -- branch of biology that studies heredity and variation in organisms
• geochronology -- study of measuring geological time
• geogeny --  science of the formation of the earth's crust
• geogony -- study of formation of the earth
• geography -- study of surface of the earth and its inhabitants
• geology -- study of earth's crust
• geomorphogeny -- study of the origins of land forms
• glossology  --  study of language; study of the tongue
• historiology --  study of history
• ichnology  -- science of fossilized footprints
• iconography -- study of drawing symbols
• iconology -- study of icons; symbols
• ideogeny --  study of origins of ideas
• ideology -- science of ideas; system of ideas used to justify behavior
• idiomology -- study of idiom, jargon or dialect
• lexicology --  study of words and their meanings
• liturgiology  -- study of liturgical forms and church rituals
• metaphysics --  study of principles of nature and thought
• microbiology -- study of microscopic organisms
• micropalaeontology --  study of microscopic fossils
• mythology --  study of myths; fables; tales
• neuropsychology -- study of relation between brain and behavior
• noology -- science of the intellect
• palaeoanthropology -- study of early humans
• palaeobiology -- study of fossil plants and animals
• palaeontology -- study of fossils
• patrology -- study of early Christianity
• philology -- study of ancient texts; historical linguistics
• philosophy -- science of knowledge or wisdom
• physics --  study of matter and its motion through spacetime
• pisteology -- science or study of faith
• psychology --  study of mind
• psychopathology -- study of mental illness
• satanology --  study of the devil
• sedimentology  -- study of sediment
• semantics -- study of meaning
• sociobiology -- study of biological basis of human behaviour
• sociology -- study of society
• stratigraphy -- study of geological layers or strata
• theology --  study of religion; religious doctrine
• thermodynamics -- study of relation of heat to motion
• zooarchaeology --  study of animal remains of archaeological sites
• zoogeography -- study of geographic distribution of animals
• zoogeology  -- study of fossil animal remains
• zoology -- study of animals

If understanding belief, religion, God, and truth creates a list like that, then over-simplification of science by Believers,  is a little  infuriating.


This has been a taxing journey for me, but one which had to be taken. I have grown so much in my knowledge and understanding, and I have absolutely no doubt where i stand on the issue of religion. For myself, or for the world. My hope is that readers will find this work compelling, entertaining, informative and helpful in their own discernment of what they do and do not believe.

Supernatural Completion

Future's So Bright

Haven't been blogging much. For good reasons, too.

REASON 1: I've been trying to stay on schedule with my writing, and finishing up that monstrous magnum opus of mine: Supernatural Hypocrisy: The Cognitive Dissonance of a God Cosmology. The thing began as a single volume, but over the two years I have been working on it, I realized there was much more to it than that. Thus, there are now 6 volumes, which i hope will all be available by the end of the year. I'm a little behind on that, for
REASON 2: i finally met my perfect partner and did that thing i swore I'd never do--the thing I advised everyone else against: moving in right away. But at my age, i figure I know a good thing when i see it, and I didn't want to let it go. I tested her mercilessly. Put her through the paces...and she passed every test. We met March 30th, and have been inseparable ever since. We are now looking at Commitment Ceremony rings.

Add to that the stress of moving, some situational things beyond our control, which also engendered a huge amount of stress, and I've been preoccupied. But our relationship remains strong, and I have no complaints in that department. Also been taking notes on several other books, both fiction and nonfiction, started a publishing house, and have been renovating our house, which was in pretty bad shape. But I feel purposeful. And I'm in love. And the future's so bright, i gotta wear shades.

Future's So Bright

My Author Bio - by Justice Harlow

Baeli was born to spin a yarn. The daughter of a professional musician, she arrived in Wichita and began her journey with a song in her heart and a plethora of passion erupting from her pen. This love of lyrics, prose and poetry was just the simple seed of what would grow into a wordsmith's obsession with the creation of multifarious characters and storylines that fork with dual plot lines into romance and intrigue.

Oklahoma, Arkansas and Colorado are just a few locales that surface in Baeli's novels as these places are ones she drank in from her time in University, to retreating for self exploration. Each place is rich in bucolic terrain and provided grand palettes for her mysteries and suspenseful romances. Townies and their coveted colloquialisms provided divine fodder for tales too real to be true.

There is nothing like experience to craft a character. Baeli has plenty to spare—from a stint in the military to late nights spent delivering newspapers or waiting tables. Each job was a necessity, but one that Baeli turned into a study in the human condition or sometimes inhumane conditions. Some of Baeli's fondest endeavors were fronting an all female band for seven years in Little Rock and her enjoyable time as a managing editor for a women's press.

In recent years, Baeli has pursued technology with a perverse passion. Website building, blogging and creating and maintaining online forums have shared the docket with her ever-present story crafting. Baeli has relied on her technical writing roots and expanded her repertoire, enabling her to edit for herself and other writers, both accomplished and aspiring.

With over 200 song writing credits and 15 books to her credit, Kelli Jae Baeli shows no signs of wear. She has returned to her beloved Colorado where she may be found amongst the Denverites, people-watching over coffee and conversation...awaiting the next story to inspire and entrance.
~Justice Harlow

The author can be followed on Twitter @JaeBaeli. Reader and Professional reviews, as well as Feedback, Praises, and First-Born Children, are cheerfully accepted via her website, jaebaeli.com.

My Author Bio - by Justice Harlow

ISO review on Internet Dating site

Found this review on my Book ISO, on an Internet Dating site:

"This is an excellent source of information for the new and/or young lesbian. It is sort of like a beginners manual rather than an all-inclusive in-depth treatise on all subjects concerning lesbians, sex, and dating. Just about right for my niece, a newly out college student, it will be an educational present for her birthday. I am hoping that Ms Baeli will write a similar manual for the older set of lesbians, who could use advice specifically aimed at internet tips, modern dating protocol, and health concerns for the older sexually active lesbian."

It was, indeed, intended to be a "beginner's manual." In the description of the book was this:

“If there were a ‘user’s manual’ for lesbians, this would be it. Baeli attempts to clarify the questions and provide the answers to some of the most pressing issues that young or new lesbians might have–and accomplishes her goal effectively. She does this with integrity, great insight, sincerity as well as a generous dose of sometimes scathing humor.” ~Lightswitcher Books 

A great gift for emerging lesbians, curious lesbians and any other lesbian who wishes to find and maintain quality relationships, while avoiding the usual pitfalls of online dating, real-time dating, commitment, and intimacy. ~KIWI Club Reviews

Always great to see my work being recognized. I have considered writing another book in the same vein as ISO, so I will definitely take that suggestion under advisement.

ISO review on Internet Dating site

The DNA of DNA

After completing a novel, I always arrive in this abstract place where I can't focus on anything right away. Some might construe this to be a type of recovery, a vacation from thinking; but in my case that wouldn't be accurate. I am unfamiliar with the experience of not thinking. And Recovery implies that something has been negatively altered in you. Writing always alters me in a positive way. 

What happens for me, is more like this: I have created something wonderful that took a long time, was sometimes difficult and even painful, but which has produced something beautiful. It's very much like childbirth. But then, there is the afterbirth (pardon the image). But there is a big mess to clean up. Things need to be wiped down, put back where they go and the room tidied up again. Except all this takes place in my head.

So I ruminate about that book, and several others, think about how it felt, wonder what might be the next thing I do from scratch, consider the possibilities of marketing, that I might want to read someone else's book now, and generally organize the scattered thoughts in my head into a functioning unit again. Once that happens, I can begin anew, to create something else.


~ DNA ~

At the heart of any novel, is the stuff of life. The details are what gives it its uniqueness. Often, the hardest parts about writing a full-length novel are those maddening details.

In my most recently completed book, Also Known As DNA, there was another level, in that it was a sequel. These were characters who already existed in my fictional world. I had to take them through another series of challenges, but also keep track of the facts that existed in the first book, to make sure it remained consistent in the second one. When you write a sequel, there is an amazing amount of detail that has to be recalled or accessed. You have to juggle those details together, and yet be able to separate them and not confuse them with each other.

There is also the usual attention to detail in the plot and character developments that are unfolding in the book you're writing.
Examples:

• That destroyed or lost cell phone in one chapter, cannot magically appear five chapters later.
• The camera someone has cannot have magically been transported into the hands of another character.They have to have made the exchange at some point. 
• That character who had three guns--they have to be accounted for later, when guns are being used.
• That character could not have been at Point A, when she was just at Point B a few minutes ago.

There are other myriad considerations as well. One of them has to do with the psychology of characters. For instance, the villains. There's a hair-thin line between creating sympathy for a character and creating understanding, while still loathing them. I was worried about that one. I wanted to show a theme throughout the story--how everyone can have bad parents and some people will deal with it well, and some people will become psychos, and this result depends on what's organically/ psychologically in place in that person, to begin with.

I don't want to excuse the bad behavior--but I do still explain how, if they were already unstable--experiences can be responded to understandably, but still in a messed up way --(in Character A) or the experiences distorted until the lie becomes the truth in their minds (in character B). 

Kahlil Gibran said, “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” My friend Emily C Jones said, "the rest of the quote is And the remaining 98% of sufferers are either dead or traumatized - hard to tell which is which from the massive amounts of scarring.  

[laughing] Fair enough.


~ HOW I BEGIN ~

When writing a new book, I will often start with whatever scene inspired me to write it in the first place. Then I will begin to write dialogue between the characters until I get a feel for them (or in the case of this sequel, until the reader gets a feel for them, since I already understand who they are. New characters, excepted). The story becomes largely a running dialogue, with very little description, unless it's some scene that comes to me later. I believe wholeheartedly in the ability of characters to tell you their story. I am often as surprised as a reader would be when a character says something. But what they choose to say, often guides the plot.

I will also use bits and pieces of notes I've taken about people and places, and filed away. One of these scenes I used in this book. I shared it with another writer-friend at the time i wrote that odd scene, and she said,"Who is that guy and why is he chasing her?"
"I don't know," I said.
"Well, what's the point of her climbing through that window?"
"I'm not sure," I answered.
"Then how do you know what you're writing about?"
"I don't."
That's the point. I knew that scene would be useful at some point in one of my books. 

I write organically, and I want to experience the story as it unfolds, so that I can enjoy it just as a reader would. That way, I have a clear idea of how it might affect the reader, by knowing how it is affecting me. And this method also insures that I will never tire of the process, or get bored with the story because I don't really know what's going to happen, or where it's all going to end. This doesn't mean i don't clean it up and make everything work in concert later, but I just save that for one of the editing passes.

On this book, I initially jumped ahead to a halfway point and wrote a few chapters and then ahead again, to the end. I actually got to the end of the book. I usually don't like that, because, as I said, I don't want to know what happens that quickly (though, having finished the book, the ending took place elsewhere and was slightly different, so it was still quite satisfying, even though i had an idea of what would happen. For this story, it was more about the journey than the end).

Writing to the end gave me only around 100 pages, and naturally that's not enough to make it a book--and it's tempting to say "maybe this is just a long story...or at best, a novella." But I know from experience that it only indicates I have not fleshed it out enough, haven't done the hard work. The story will fill out after I find all the right components to make that happen. I research and I use details about places and people that are largely authentic, as much as possible. In those researched details, more ideas usually emerge. For instance, I found a location, that quite by accident, had the same name as a meaningful word in the previous book. What I call a Happy Accident. And I used it, allowing the character to notice that synchronicity. I wrote about using Google maps when I write my books. There's a reason for that. I can get all the details I need for moving my characters around, and in the process, I gain grist for the creative mill. I trust that process because I've done it so many times.

So--the initial problem, after that first 100 pages, was that the first-person point of view was limiting the story. Somehow it worked for the first book, but this one seemed different. I still did not want to lose that POV, though, because it was such a integral part of the first book--that voice. That main character. So I used first-person with that main character, and when I needed to show the other characters without her in the scene, I would tell their story in third person omniscient, always cuing the reader by using a different chapter each time I did that. That opened the story up immensely, and solved the problem.

Then, I had to start looking for several things:

• were there enough characters to fill out the story? Did I need to add a few new ones? Yes. And I did.
• where are the gaps of time? When that character spoke of the two weeks that had gone by, I had to ask, what did she do during that time?
• How did the new characters interact with the main character, and what's their backstory?
• Can there be an unexpected alliance between two characters? What's that dynamic like?
• are there any Happy Accidents in the text just straining to be explored?

This is, of course, not the complete picture of what goes on in the process, but it is a portion of it.

~ AFTERGLOW ~
So, after I have completed a book, I am beset with a sensation of afterglow. I feel I have just had sex. Good sex. So far, I've copulated 15 times.

The DNA of DNA