Meet Agent Ellen Jenkins

 Last Friday’s post introduced you to Emma Thomas, one of the protagonists in my latest novel, “Prior to Now”. Though Emma was born in 1838, the other two main characters in the book get to know her quite well. Today, you get to meet Ellen Jenkins, who was born around 1970. How did she become so close to Emma?

“I don’t believe it.” Michael leaned against the cement wall, arms crossed over his chest.

“I don’t either, but let’s wait for the other two.” Ellen looked towards the east end of the tunnel. They would each come to the meeting place from a different direction. The skills they had learned in training came in handy not only in avoiding detection from the enemy but also from their superiors. They’d been meeting in this abandoned tunnel a few blocks from headquarters for years.  

“So, the Rent-A-Spy-Agency has joined the ranks of fascism,” Sam opened with when he entered the tunnel a few minutes later.

“Apparently.”

“Let’s not start until Kimberly gets here.” Ellen watched the tunnel entrance from the west. The fourth member of their team, Kimberly, was always the last to join them, her route being the most circuitous. If anyone could avoid detection, it was the one on the team who was the most paranoid, the one they worried could crack at any time. But over the years, Kimberly had repeatedly proven that she could grit her teeth and do anything asked of her. Except this, Ellen thought to herself. 

“I don’t think she’s coming. I think this has her so freaked out that she has up and left the agency for good, probably left the country already.”

“Sam, we just left her at the office ten minutes ago.”

“We can’t –” Ellen began, but Michael cut her off.

“Here she comes.”

The shortest member of the team entered the tunnel and marched to where they stood. “Not doin’ it.”

“I think we’ve all agreed on that already.”

(From Chapter 2)

What has their employer asked these four agents to do? What is the real name of the Rent-A-Spy-Agency? Why is Kimberly so troubled? And is Ellen troubled as well? When will she learn about Emma, and what could they possibly have in common?

The e-version of “Prior to Now” is on sale on Amazon.com now. Hopefully, by early next week, the paperback version will be available as well. And by the first of the year, I’ll have copies of it in my hot little hands for you to buy directly from me. I’ll keep you posted.

Have a great weekend. Love, Chris 

I never mention any of the actual locations where this book takes place. But this picture is taken in the city where I imagine the team's headquarters could be. Can you guess where it is? 

Here's the link to the book: https://www.amazon.com/Prior-Now-Chris-Loehmer-Kincaid-ebook/dp/B0BN69YYRB/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3V5HAAD439N37&keywords=prior+to+now+by+chris+loehmer+kincaid&qid=1671156867&sprefix=prior+to+now%2Caps%2C153&sr=8-1

Chapter 1 from Prior to Now

  "Miss Thomas! Miss Thomas!"

Before even looking out the window, Emma knew it was Will and could picture him running across the schoolyard with his gangly stride, making a path in the snow. He was the only fourth grader in her one-room schoolhouse, but mentally he could barely keep up with the first graders. It wasn't unusual for him to be shouting to her from a distance for no obvious reason.

"Fire! Fire!" his already high-pitched voice reached her.

She spun from the blackboard to the pot-belly wood-burning stove sitting to one side of the room. She'd gotten there an hour earlier to start the fire and warm the building before her students arrived. Nothing looked amiss; the heat from the fire innocently wafted to the front of the room.   

"Fire! Fire, Miss Thomas!" other children's voices pealed through the yard.

She grabbed her wool coat from the back of her chair and hurried from the room.

Five of her nineteen students huddled outside, staring at the school's roof. Flames were licking the cedar shingles and spreading out from the chimney. Emma froze in fright, uncertain what to do, how to stop it. The Johnson brothers lived the closest.

"Fred and Richard, run home and tell your folks." They obediently turned and ran back to their parents' farmhouse a quarter mile away.

"What should we do?" Little Ruthie asked, her cheeks pink in the cold morning air.

"I don't know." Emma had never felt so useless.

Suddenly inspired, she dashed back into the building and grabbed the bell from just inside the door. She rang it as hard as her arm allowed as more children gathered, followed by their parents and neighbors. She rang the bell until the roof began to fall into the building, until the windows burst, spreading glass onto the snow, until nearly all of the area residents had gathered, even the aging former headmaster, Mr. Langton.

When he saw what had happened, he gently took the bell from her hand, shaking his head. Mrs. Brown pulled her into her arms, stroking the young teacher's cocoa-colored hair and whispering, "it will be all right, dear, it will be all right."

So begins my latest novel, “Prior to Now”.

What happens to Emma next? Will the town of Prior Gulch rebuild her one-room schoolhouse? Will we hear any more of the Johnson brothers?

Click on the link to download the e-version. I’m still working on formatting the paperback edition; it is always a long, frustrating process. I’m so thankful for my techy son’s help.

Oh, and in case you didn’t know, the picture above is of my grand-grandmother. She was never a school teacher, but I picture Emma looking somewhat like this.

https://www.amazon.com/Prior-Now-Chris-Loehmer-Kincaid-ebook/dp/B0BN69YYRB/ref=sr_1_1?crid=355F19TY8AH4P&keywords=prior+to+now+by+chris+loehmer+kincaid&qid=1670588849&sprefix=prior+to+now+by+chris+loehmer+kincaid%2Caps%2C102&sr=8-1

announcing . . . .

Do you ever read a novel and wonder where the author got all their ideas from? I know that I do. I want to get right inside that writer’s head. Maybe it’s because, as a writer, I feel that will help me come up with ideas, or maybe I’m just nuts.

For some reason, it reminds me of this quote from my sister Pat: Sometimes I wonder how come I turned out so weird, so different from everyone else. Maybe it’s because I’m left-handed and I think out of the other side of my brain. Or maybe I’m an alien and I think out of someone else’s brain. It’s probably from reading too many sci-fi books and eating ice cream and saltines for supper.

Except that I’m not left-handed. But I do use my computer mouse with my left hand, and I’m always a little – what’s the word – psyched when people ask if I’m left-handed. Coz that has always been one of my secret dreams. But I think out of the other side of the brain, the one that says I am indeed simply right-handed.

So never mind all of that. If you have ever completed and published a piece of work, you possibly realize why I am rambling so. This was supposed to be a big MY NOVEL IS PUBLISHED blog post, and I had lots of things I wanted to share with you. But instead, here I am talking like a sausage, as my mother would say.

Quickly, pictures, because they always help me reel it in. (I wonder on which side of the brain pictures reside.) I snapped all of these one Friday afternoon when I drove myself on a tour of multiple places in southeast Wisconsin which held significance to my book.

The Aztalan one-room schoolhouse just east of Lake Mills, Wisconsin, which graces the cover of my novel, “Prior to Now”.

At nearby Aztalan State Park. Looks like an interesting place. I didn’t have much time when I stopped there in September, because I had an appointment at the next place. 

Milton House Museum. Very fascinating and historic place. So glad I booked the tour that day.

Camp Randall Memorial Arch at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

The Confederate Rest graveyard at Forest Hill Cemetery in Wisconsin. Nearly forty years ago, when I attended the UW-Madison for one semester, I drove by this cemetery every day and never knew that this area was there and surely never thought I’d ever write about it.

So, there you have it. Not so much the stories behind the story, but at least the pictures behind the story. All of which were snapped after I finished writing the book. Because, once again, I think out of the alien’s side of my brain.

To wrap up, click on the link below and pre-order the e-version of “Prior to Now”. It will be available to read by December 5. Hopefully, I’ll have the print version available soon.

Thanks, Chris

https://www.amazon.com/Prior-Now-Chris-Loehmer-Kincaid-ebook/dp/B0BN69YYRB/ref=sr_1_1?crid=38Y8NM9GUOARA&keywords=chris+loehmer+kincaid&qid=1669946780&sprefix=chris+loehmer+kincaid%2Caps%2C149&sr=8-1

Technology Woes

As you may already know, our home internet, along with our phone line, has been down for nearly a week. We cancelled our satellite TV over a year ago, so have been getting all our TV via the internet as well. Our son gave us an antenna for Christmas last year, but he never got around to installing it on the roof or elsewhere outside, so it is sitting on the bookcase in our living room, where it receives spotty reception. It’s like the good old days, back in the sixties, when you had to manually turn the antenna every time you changed channels. The remote control is the only thing still working in our house.

Which reminds me, only a few days before this millennial black-out at my house, my laptop died. It’s not been a good month.

Last Friday, my daughter graciously gave me her laptop, which she hardly ever used. I’d put most of my files from the old laptop onto USBs over the summer, so haven’t lost a whole lot, and we were able to resurrect the device long enough to capture the most recent files of my current novel.

I had hoped to publish that novel and have a print copy in hand by Thanksgiving. Already a month ago, I pushed that date back to mid-December. Now, it’s simply not going to happen until sometime after the first of the year.

You would think, that with nothing else to do electronically at home, that I would at least have finished editing it, formatting it, and creating the final the cover. Instead, I’m lying on the couch, watching old episodes of Columbo and Bones, the only things of interest on TV via antenna, or the first two seasons of Friends on DVD. I’m looking at that whole shelf of DVD movies, thinking we may just have to start with the A’s and watch our way through them.

Our internet/phone carrier won’t be here until the 29^th to try to find the problem. Thank God for cell phones (albeit with spotty coverage). And that I’m still working part-time at the clinic, where I am posting this via their internet.

But back to my novel. Here are four more samples covers. Last time I asked your opinion, many of you didn’t like the circles with a different color background around the words. So, I got rid of all of that. Some people also thought there should be a blurb of what the book was about. There was also mixed feelings about having a picture of the schoolhouse and questions about what a RASA novel was.

If you don’t remember those other covers, you can check the previous blog post, otherwise, just let me know what you think of these. Also which tagline do you like better – “They won’t rewrite the past, but they can rewrite the now” or “It might take the future to save the past.”

Thanks again for everything. I love you all. Chris

#1

#2

#3

#4 - something totally different

More Covers

Yesterday, I finished another edit of my latest novel, “Prior to Now”. I hope to start formatting the manuscript and finalize the cover this week. My original goal was to be in the process of publishing it by now, but you can’t rush a fine wine, right?

Here are the latest ideas for front covers that I’ve come up with. Let me know which one is your favorite, why, and how it could be improved.

Also, if you’ve forgotten, the book is about three women who are devoted to a one-room schoolhouse. One woman, Emma, is the school’s teacher from 1858 into the twentieth century. The other two women live in the near future, sometime in the mid-2030s, and they are committed to saving the old building from destruction.  

I plan to start sharing snippets of it soon.

Thanks for your ideas and your support. 

#1 

#2

#3

#4

Novel Update

I thought I should post a mid-month update on the progress of my latest novel as well as ask your opinions on the cover. I’m 70% through the first round of edits. My goal is to finish editing the entire book by the end of the month.

Two weeks from today, I leave for another trip to Kenya. This will be my seventh journey there, as hard as that is to believe, and for the first time, it is going to be mostly a pure vacation. We don’t have any volunteer work planned, but we are still open to whatever our hosts ask of us.

When I get back on October 18, I’ll do another edit on the book as well as finalize the cover. Then by the first of November, I hope to start working on publishing it on Amazon.

Uffda, that’s a lot of ground to cover, both literally and figuratively.

As you may recall from my mid-August post, the novel is about three women – one living in the mid-eighteen hundreds and two in the very near future. The future setting – ten years or so from now – is somewhat dystopian, and it’s up to the two heroines living then to initiate the change to bring our country back to normalcy. The one-room schoolhouse in Prior Ridge (formerly Prior Gulch) is the pivotal character in all of this.  Also, the teacher who worked there when the school first opened is an inspiration to the other two women.

Here are some of the cover concepts I’ve come up with based on that premise. Remember, they are just ideas; I’m sure whichever is the closest to the best one still needs some work. I just wonder which concept to move forward with. Or I could scrap them all.

Oh, and last thing. The title went from “Save Our School” to “Rewrite the Now,” but I want to thank one of Hubby’s cousins for sending me the winning title – “Prior to Now.” Thanks, Sherry! 

Thought #1 - mostly about the setting - farm land in the upper Midwest

#2 - focus on the one-room school, but needs a better graphic artist than me so it doesn't looked plopped on the page

#3 - my great-grandmother Anna posing as the school teacher Emma

#4 - great-granma again, but in both 3 and 4, she needs to stop hovering. 

where did august go?

 For all that I had happening in August, I did really well on my goals. Not only did I accomplish three-fifths of them, but I also went camping for a week, hosted a friend from out of town for four days, went to Iowa to visit Hubby’s brother for three days, took my sister to her class reunion, had a dentist appointment AND worked at the clinic for six and a half days!

Wow! I told myself I wouldn’t book a month that full again, and – well – I’ll tell you about that shortly.

Here are my August goals:

1.     Finish writing my novel, “Rewrite the Now.” Yes, the rough draft is finished, as you may already have heard.

2.     Come up with some cover concepts for it. I keep thinking about it but haven’t had any luck coming up with anything specific.  

3.     Keep organizing the photos on my laptop. Hmm? Not really.

4.     Wash half of the windows in my house. Let’s see, I washed 75% of the house’s windows. I so wanted to finish them this week, but I worked those three days at the old job instead.  

5.     Tend to my vegetable garden, freezing what can be frozen and tearing down what is done for the season. Yup, I’ve been freezing cherry tomatoes and zucchini like crazy. Even bought green beans and a head of cabbage at the farmer’s market and froze those. Also, took down half the garden which was done producing.

Here we are in September already. And this month is booked as full as August. I’m going camping with my son one weekend, which coincides with a research trip for my current novel, so I can’t complain about that. I’m also visiting a friend out of state for three days, and Hubby’s nephew and his wife are coming for a weekend. And I leave for my trip to Kenya on October 2, so I probably should plan and pack before then.

In late August, I heard that two of my co-workers were quitting, which is why I worked those extra three days the end of the month. One of those days, the manager asked me into her office to find out if I’d work any days in September. I told her which days I was free, and she put me on the schedule pretty much all of them.

Oh, and I forgot, that as I post this, I am at my daughter’s house, dog sitting for her. Which is actually okay, because I have lots of free time to edit my novel.

Here we go September goals:

1.     Finish the first round of edits on my novel. Oh, and by the way, I changed the name of it to “Prior to Now.” It takes place in a town named Prior Ridge, and the story flips back and forth from the past to the now, so I kinda like the new name. Thanks goes out to the friend who thought of it.

2.     Make the cover for the novel. This has got me stumped, but I will get on it.

3.     Finish washing those last three windows in the house.

4.     Take down my garden for the year. Not much is growing anymore out there, oh, except for those stupid zucchinis!

5.     Finish planning our trip to Kenya. Yeah!

I think that is enough for the month. Come October, I have two weeks to relax in Kenya; not even dragging along my laptop. Then two weeks to finish up the novel. Life is good, albeit busy.      

Wishing you the very best. Chris 

Looking for a much smaller schoolhouse, made of brick, for my novel's cover. Yes, I could find a stock photo, but where is the fun in that?