JO. B. CREATIVE

Author & Multi-Disciplinary Artist

Wednesday, 23 July 2025

ITS THE FINAL CHAPTER...



(The figure of Jeannie is mine, the background is ai)

I've reached the final chapter of Book 3. 

And I've blubbed. Got really emotional. That's what I do. It's a bloody pain in my ass but it's what I do. I was born so super sensitive I gush at the sight of kittens. 

This post is more for the benefit of those who have read Books 1 &/or 2 of Alias Jeannie Delaney and are waiting in line for Book 3. The writing of this socking great tome has sometimes been torture, sometimes satisfying, but mostly incredibly intense. 

The story is a right ol' rollercoaster of highs and lows, life and death, gunfights, fist fights, sex, blood, sometimes funny, drugs an' rock an' roll. Just kidding - omit the drugs an' rock an' roll. 

I've spent the last forty years - give or take, and intermittently - writing, researching, editing, self-publishing and marketing the first two novels of Alias Jeannie Delaney. My visual artistry has been largely neglected in my impassioned longing to introduce my heroic western protagonist Jeannie Morgan out into the world. She's my OTT charismatic, scary and funny tomboy-beautiful pants-wearing cowgirl who's the fastest gun west of the Mississippi and a magnificent lover to both men and women. 

She's me. Apparently. I was told. The character I created back in my teens during the late 1960s into the 70s. The individual I craved to be in response to my emotionally neglected upbringing.  Plus, I was becoming a budding UK wild west gal  re-enacting my western persona Kitty Le Roy, who was frustrated with the lousy roles for women in westerns. I wanted to help correct that. So I wrote the story I wanted to read. And Jeannie was and still is ahead of her time. I'm told that this is very appropriate timing for her to be released.

So, as you can see, my heart and soul have gone into this story. 

I've reached the end before, in previous editing, but since publishing Books 1 and 2, PA hubby suggested tentatively, in case I blew his head off, that ideally, the ending should blow readers'  heads off with dynamite. Western style, you understand. 

Therefore I had to change the original ending because it was 'nice' 'Nice' ain't good. 'Nice' don't hack it and have you blubbing into your coffee mug around the chuckwagon. It made you smile like a mule on opium, but smiling don't hack it either. I needed that ending to leave the reader, if not wrung out and suicidal, certainly bawling their heads off into their whiskey. 

So I've changed it thanks to PA hubby. (Yes, he will get the credit). I've woven in a extra piece of plotting to end on a non- opium induced high - a big bang grand finale. Now I've almost done it. I reached the final chapter last night and I just couldn't edit it. I grew sad, emotional and tearful. F**k. I hate that. This is a good thing. I think it means I've done it. I hope so. I hope I've achieved what I set out to do. I'll only know when hubby can barely read out that chapter during the second stage of editing and have to be fortified with his own favourite brand of whiskey. 

So I'm writing this post as a necessary pause in editing before returning to that final chapter. To get my head around it. To gather my emotional reserves in order to tackle that finale. I'm nervous. I read once that J. K. Rowling killed someone off and became miserable as hell. Her husband suggested that she didn't have to do that, but of course she went right ahead and wrote it because she had to. Being a writer sucks. It can f*****g hurt. But if it's a good or even a great piece of writing, you'll bawl into your glass of sarsaparilla or whiskey, wipe your tears and mosey on. That's what I've got to do. 

So, hold onto yer hats, I'm fixin' to dive right in... 😱🤠




THE AUTHOR
LOOKING SUITABLY SCARY
WITH HER WINCHESTER RIFLE 



ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY - 

THE STORYLINE     


Dynamic pants-wearing cowgirl Jeannie Morgan is the fastest gun west of the Mississippi. Upon discovering that her sexuality is as fluid as a miner's whiskey & both men & women enjoy her magnificent lovemaking, she feels as though she's been trampled by a cattle stampede. 

She's born in vibrant New Orleans in 1865 & strongly rebels against the upbringing of a Victorian girl. The family head west where she finds her true calling on her Pa's ranch. She also discovers with relish that her skill with a gun is lethal. The explosive combination of her tomboy beauty, her powerful  charisma, her sexuality & her lethal gun all go against her. People are calling for her dismissal & even her death. Will it be a case of kill or be killed?

IF YOU'VE READ & ENJOYED THE STORY SO FAR, I'D BE INCREDIBLY GRATEFUL IF YOU COULD LEAVE A POSITIVE REVIEW ON AMAZON. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

 






Sunday, 20 July 2025

JO. B. CREATIVE!: I'M DOING IT FOR THE MONEY

JO. B. CREATIVE!: I'M DOING IT FOR THE MONEY: I'M DOING IT FOR THE MONEY! The money doesn't matter. It's just a hobby, isn't it? You're not taking it seriously, are y...

I'M DOING IT FOR THE MONEY

I'M DOING IT FOR THE MONEY!




The money doesn't matter. It's just a hobby, isn't it? You're not taking it seriously, are you? 

Yes it does, no it's not, and yes I am. 

People can be patronising in this author business. Maybe not intentionally but they can be. There are millions of would-be authors out there, all vying to be published and selling. Some are brilliant and deserve all the acclaim they can get, others don't quite 'cut the mustard' and don't make a single sale, or sell a couple of hundred copies if they're lucky. Personally I'm delighted to report that I'm doing rather well. 

Now that I'm on the cusp of finishing the third novel of my epic western trilogy Alias Jeannie Delaney, I'm taking it all very seriously. I always have. 

Writing, self-publishing and marketing has been an immense journey of extreme highs and dead weight lows. The highs are fleeting moments of happiness. The lows are crappy. PA hubby reads out a brilliant review (never read your own reviews) and my world becomes multicoloured for half an hour. When advertising on Amazon or Facebook he reports the growing sales numbers daily, bearing in mind that our budget isn't bottomless. When the advertising isn't working for whatever reason, my world is doom, gloom and disaster. As hubby says - finish Book 3 and marketing a complete trilogy might make a difference. Who knows? After all, I've had mentions and interviews on blogs and YouTube (below) on the first two for which I'm extremely grateful. 

I haven't done it for the fun of it, although - I hasten to add - when something does go right, I'm on a high. Not a cannabis high - just a normal high. I had to write the trilogy. The story itself at any rate. The fact that it ended up a trilogy was incidental. It never was a hobby. A hobby is a relaxing departure from daily life. This isn't. That's not to say that, as I just pointed out, I've never gained satisfaction from it because I have. As an artist I illustrated Jeannie in the dim distant past, even at school between exams in the common room in the late sixties (updating those images with graphics software recently, the results are invariably amazing) and learning those computer graphic ropes on route is rather satisfying, I find). Then I discover that readers are enjoying the story tremendously, and that's been a massive uplift. 

I don't know when it stopped being a hobby, if it ever was. The story had been in my head since I was a teenager. Since the days when I was irritated by the lack of decent roles for women in westerns during the sixties and seventies. Invariably wallflowers, victims or martyrs. I had to write the story that I wanted to read. I was a budding wild western woman - intriguing for a UK gal in the first place - and re-enacted the role of a gritty cheroot chompin', gun totin' female gold prospector. I relish the role 🤠 just as my protagonist Jeannie relishes being the fastest gun. 



KITTY LE ROY & DOC JACK COLTRANE

Years later my long suffering soulmate hubby (quack doctor Jack Coltrane to my Kitty Le Roy) and I indulged in wild west living history camps and made quite a name for ourselves among the buckskin brigade. However, my mental health took a dive and I had to remove myself from camps and take to steampunk instead. Steampunkers are known to be splendid to one another. I can do that! 


STEAMPUNK PIRATE KITTY LE ROY


Years later I've discovered and have been told that I am Jeannie Morgan. I created her as the person I wanted to be - an OTT protagonist who is everything to everyone, the answer to my emotionally neglected upbringing. I woke up one morning years ago to see our cat poking his head into our wicker washing basket. Blearily, I mumbled: "Jeannie - get off the basket!". She's always in my head. Always. 

I wrote  Jeannie's journey from birth to the age of forty-five - half a lifetime. I wanted to write the life story of a Calamity Jane character (most people know who Calamity Jane was) and the 




notion of actually doing that started when hubby and I were in our first home and, hugely embarrassed and red faced, I showed him my illustrations. I could keep it a semi secret no longer, and I hid under a pillow next door. He said: "She's sexy!" and "For goodness sake write the damn story!". So I did. It's only taken over forty intermittent years. 

I didn't actually start writing and typing until the birth of our first baby, over forty years ago, typing on a manual typewriter one-handed while bottle feeding our daughter. Shows my determination. I had post natal depression and it helped keep life tolerable. I advanced to an electric typewriter, then a computer and now a laptop. Funny to think of all that advancement - snail mail and library visiting research, and now AI. Wow!

The plot of Alias Jeannie Delaney had to be credible. Properly researched. I wanted a fair bit of humour to add texture to the narrative and as a counterbalance to no-quarters-held blood and guts. I could write - I always came first or second in English Language in school exams and I had many anecdotal articles published in various UK periodicals. I was more than capable, and the quality of my writing improved in leaps and bounds. So much so that my editor called it 24 carat writing, and she should know. She was the first professional to endorse the writing I'd kept under wraps forever. 

I wanted the narrative to contain elements of  Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Little Big Man. The humour of the former and a life story in the latter. I wanted a classic western starring a charismatic tough n' rough pants-wearing cowgirl who's the fastest gun west of the Mississippi, and she does everything the boys do. My closest role model is Sharon Stone in The Quick and the Dead. Jeannie was, and still is, way ahead of her time. Apart from the obvious, the difference is that she possesses bags of style in both appearance and personality. 

My PA hubby is my marketeer. The first two novels were published on Amazon two years and one year ago. I've accrued over one thousand three hundred and seventy readers and approaching fifty 5 star reviews and ratings. That's brilliant for such a niche subject. Marketing involves creating artwork on graphics software. I've become quite proficient. 

A friend suggested I place an advert on the notice board in one of our local towns in Hampshire. Bless her but no - Jeannie is bisexual, the story contains graphic (mostly tasteful and relevant sex scenes), and it's a western, so there's a fair amount of violence and blood. I don't think the majority of middle class Brits in this part of our world would go for it. Having said that, hubby's old boss, a delightful man in his eighties, loves my story! Who'd have thought? I warned him about it but he still went for it. Both he and my friend, plus many others in the western hemisphere are waiting patiently for Book 3. 

All I need to do now is plough through the second stage of editing with hubby and our allotted reader, come up with a title for Book 3, and create a cover based on one of my illustrations for my designer to work on. 

Small tasks, you understand. It'll take a while and God knows how I'll feel emotionally when I'm done. Let's not worry about that just yet. 



                                                                  YOUR ESTEEMED AUTHOR 
               






ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY - THE STORYLINE     


Dynamic pants-wearing cowgirl Jeannie Morgan is the fastest gun west of the Mississippi. Upon discovering that her sexuality is as fluid as a miner's whiskey & both men & women enjoy her magnificent lovemaking, she feels as though she's been trampled by a cattle stampede. 

She's born in vibrant New Orleans in 1865 & strongly rebels against the upbringing of a Victorian girl. The family head west where she finds her true calling on her Pa's ranch. She also discovers with relish that her skill with a gun is lethal. The explosive combination of her tomboy beauty, her powerful  charisma, her sexuality & her lethal gun all go against her. People are calling for her dismissal & even her death. Will it be a case of kill or be killed?

IF YOU'VE READ & ENJOYED THE STORY SO FAR, I'D BE INCREDIBLY GRATEFUL IF YOU COULD LEAVE A POSITIVE REVIEW ON AMAZON. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

P.S I'M ON ROUTE TO THE 2ND STAGE OF EDITING ON BOOK 3! 





Saturday, 28 June 2025

Wednesday, 25 June 2025

JO. B. CREATIVE!: A ROLLER COASTER OF EMOTIONS

JO. B. CREATIVE!: A ROLLER COASTER OF EMOTIONS: A ROLLER COASTER OF EMOTIONS  Plot bunny hubby loves my ending for Book 3 of my epic western trilogy  Alias Jeannie Delaney ! He's my em...

Tuesday, 24 June 2025

A ROLLER COASTER OF EMOTIONS

A ROLLER COASTER OF EMOTIONS 


Plot bunny hubby loves my ending for Book 3 of my epic western trilogy Alias Jeannie Delaney! He's my emotion meter. If he loves it, it's good. We did a plot bunny session over coffee in the cafe today and we both grew emotional and laughed a lot. 

It's a challenge. The original ending was... nice. Nice ain't good, is it? It won't hack it. It's got to be a big bang ending or not at all. So I've got a big bang ending. I'm weaving it into the current story and I've only got ten chapters to go. 

I also have fans. One of them lives next door and another lives at the end of my road. Yet another couple of them are our son's best friends who live in town. Mark, next door, said: "Congratulations on..." He'd just read about a major event in my protagonist Jeannie's life. He didn't mention her name. "You what - ?" I said, then it clicked. "Ah, yes - thank you!" 

Alias Jeannie Delaney is one hell of an emotional, supercharged ride. 



While working through it with my 'plot bunny' PA husband, I could tell when he had been grabbed by the story, apart from his ownership of it through working on it alongside his spouse (me). He'd go quiet and swallow if it was an emotive moment. He'd chuckle if it was funny. If it was a hot blooded sexy moment his voice would change again (I can't describe that one suitably!). When something deeply emotional and sad happened we blubbed. I was concerned that I wouldn't recover (I did). 

Throughout the writing I was thoroughly excited if the narrative worked, particularly when Jeannie was caught up in what would be a pivotal moment traditionally played by a heroic western hero. I could see her in my head as I was writing it, so I knew that that instant was a good 'un. 

Back when I was a young mum and writing the story for the first time, I trembled with emotion, so I had a suspicion that I was forging something good, but precisely how good I had no idea. So I ploughed onwards. The old heart strings were plucked something chronic and I was never bored in the writing. If a scene wasn't working, I'd sense it and deal with it, by changing it somehow or by deleting it altogether. So harsh.

I have several role model movies right from the start, but only one role model for Jeannie herself. I started with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid in 1969. I loved the characters (played by Paul Newman and Robert Redford), and the injection of humour. I wanted Alias Jeannie Delaney to have its fair share of funny as a respite from the no quarters held violence. Alias Smith and Jones was a firm favourite. Plenty of humour and a simple plot involving our heroes being constantly on the run because they need to be officially wanted men until they've been offered an official amnesty. The High Chaparral was another fun one back then. 





Calamity Jane, made in 1953 (the year of my birth, coincidentally) was great fun and cheeky. I loved Doris Day's rendering. As a result I wanted Jeannie to dance and sing and be the centre of attention (she's the centre of attention just by being somewhere!), but I felt the story would become a parody if I wasn't careful. Jeannie can indeed dance a jig and play the mouth organ but she doesn't sing, although I see her as a contemporary electric guitar playing rock star belting out emotion in a sensual, slightly husky, androgenous voice. (Now you know my night imaginings). Referring back to Doris Day's Calamity Jane, the ending, when Jane is dolled up in a wedding dress and driven away by Wild Bill is hateful. Arrgh! Tamed. Let's not go there. 




Further, contemporary influences are Brokeback Mountain, written by Annie Prouix and a film directed by Ang Lee. The story starts in 1963 and ends in 1983 and features two young cowboys who fall in love with one another. The story dealt with LGBTQ, a subject that's gradually becoming acceptable in films and books. Last but by no means least, Sharon Stone's female gun slingin' gal in The Quick and the Dead, released in 1995, was a very strong role model. The closest yet to influence me. Other movie influences have been no quarters held and gritty such as Quentin Tarantino movies, which is a bit of a conundrum considering I also wanted humour in my story. 




I was depressed much of the time, such was the state of my mental health, but when I was really struggling, we knew it was the story that was affecting me. "I want to get Jeannie out into the world. I want to get her out." Because there was no other woman in literature that was anything like her, let alone in a western. I had nobody else's boots to fill. Just mine. A very niche market. I suffered burnout from trying too hard. 

But would anyone see her as I did? This dynamic, mesmeric and charismatic individual, who boasts devastating tomboy looks, now graces (not certain if that's the right word for Jeannie!) my pages in such a powerful way that she's extraordinary. As I wrote her story I thought: "Oh God - she's so OTT."  But try as I might I couldn't make her less than she was. Less beautiful, less charismatic, less ...  She was having none of it! She is what she is and for that reason she's made for an irresistible and compelling story. So I've been told. I can't ask for more than that! 

My editor was the first professional to love the story - she called it 24 carat writing. I'm so grateful to her. So fortunate that I chose her to edit Books 1 and 2. Book 3 should be launched this year with any luck, and there will be further stories of Jeannie's exploits. I've spent the majority of my teens and adult life thinking about her - damn her! - so I can't just leave her behind. No chance. 

Meanwhile, I'm making a bad job of attempting to return to visual artistry as a complete break from her. No chance there, either. Many years ago, I created illustrations of her, so I'm using those on Canva to create promotional material. So there's no escaping her! On the other hand I'm rather pleased that I've become adept at computer graphics, and I rather enjoy that. Makes a change from crafting emotional, funny, graphic gun fights, but whatever I do, she's there, in my head...  Damn her! 

I can't complain, however - I've accrued well over one thousand three hundred readers and approaching fifty 5 star ratings and reviews. I'll end on an Ee-hah! (Seems appropriate). 





THE 1ST TWO BOOKS HAVE APPEARED IN THESE BLOGS & ON YOUTUBE:



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ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY - THE STORYLINE     


Dynamic pants-wearing cowgirl Jeannie Morgan is the fastest gun west of the Mississippi, but when she discovers that her sexuality is as fluid as a miner's whiskey & both men & women enjoy her magnificent lovemaking, she feels as though she's been trampled by a cattle stampede. 

She's born in vibrant New Orleans in 1865 and strongly rebels against the upbringing of a Victorian girl. The family head west where she finds her true calling on her Pa's ranch. However, her tomboy beauty, her powerful persona and her lethal gun go against her and before long people are calling for her dismissal and even her death. How will she survive? Will she survive? Or will those very qualities see her through to a charismatic conclusion?

IF YOU'VE READ & ENJOYED THE STORY SO FAR, I'D BE INCREDIBLY GRATEFUL IF YOU COULD LEAVE A POSITIVE REVIEW ON AMAZON. THANK YOU SO MUCH!