What to do post-conference…
We all go to these conference events with high hopes and a nervous stomach – and some of these events can seem like a blur – so many people, so many sessions, so many – oh, good grief – so many drinks, so many really good tidbits that can help you with whatever problem or challenge you face. Afterwards, though, it can feel like a bit of a drag – the exhaustion, the overwhelming sense of what has happened, and what you have to do next to get where you want to go with your business, career, life, etc. Here are a couple of tips that I’ve developed over the last several conferences I’ve been fortunate enough to attend.
1) Rest, refresh, rehydrate.
We spend so much time darting from one session to another, or sipping cuppas in the breaks, or drinking at the social networking events, and cram so much into the limited time we have at these conferences, making sure we see/talk/pitch/network etc., that our bodies deplete in both energy and hydration. Get the rest, get refreshed, and rehydrate – that will put you in the best position to harness all that motivation, insight and advice you gained through your experience and direct it to something that is productive.
2) Email your new contacts.
Whether it was at the buffet, in the lift, or sitting next to each other in a workshop or discussion – hopefully you made at least a couple of new contacts. If you can remember their names, chances are you can find them on the internet. Send them a friendly wave through cyber-space (no stalking allowed). It doesn’t have to be much, something along the lines of ‘I really enjoyed meeting you…’ can make a major positive impact on the other person, but it also builds on the networking foundation you established at the conference. Follow them on Twitter, friend them on Facebook – if they’ll let you and don’t think you’re a stalker – these people could become your strongest friends, and your best communication network and brains trust. Also, keep an eye on any social media channel that discusses the event you attended, and feel free to add your comments to the conversation.
3) Go through your notes.
If necessary, type up all of those handwritten scribbles you call notes and try to put them into some sort of order. Go through the program and check over any notes you’ve written for the sessions you attended. Organise them into some sort of logical notebook – or perhaps just a point-form takeaway list. Not only is it neater and easier to find, but it has the added bonus of reaffirming those points you so wanted to remember.
4) Make plans.
So you’re all fired up – you’re rested, you’re refreshed, you’re rehydrated, you’ve established contact with new friends and you’ve organised your notes… and you’re itching to get back to work. What stood out from the conference that makes you want to DO? If you’re really lucky, there were a number of great take-aways from the conference. Make a list, prioritise, but write down your action plan. Those who write down their goals are 33% more likely to achieve them.
Do it the S.M.A.R.T. way – make your plans specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound.
S.M.A.R.T. Goal Examples:
I will finish my 70,000 word manuscript by December and submit to XXX editor at XXX publisher.
I will tweet once a minimum of once every workday, and run a contest to build my following by an extra 10% by January 2015.
I will have my website up and running by November 1st in time for Nanowrimo.
You get the idea. Don’t forget to take stock in a few months to assess who you are doing with your goals.
5) Deliver on your promises.
If you made any kind of overture or promise – e.g.; yes, I will send you the partial manuscript, Madame Editor – then DO it. If you promised to send someone the notes you took of a particular session – then DO it. If you promised yourself to set up a savings account so that you can start your next year’s conference fund, then DO it. And – bless your soul – if you decided to volunteer for any role in the organisation, then DO it.
Attending a conference can be exhausting and exhilarating – and expensive. Make sure you get a return on your considerable investment by taking something away from the conference and USING it. Whether it’s a new way to approach a task, a new friend who is in exactly the same position as you, perhaps even a valuable mentor – these aren’t just social occasions, these are your opportunities to build the future you dream of.
Writing 101: CONFLICT LOCK
When creating character and story goals and conflict, there are generally two ways to go about it:
Protagonist and Antagonist wants the same thing (hero/heroine vs villain).
Variation: Protagonists want the same thing (hero vs heroine).
Protagonist and Antagonist want different things, but by one accomplishing his/her goal, the other does not (ie: in direct conflict and at risk).
Variation: Protagonists want different things (hero vs heroine).
Conflict Lock
I wish I could claim this tool, but I’m not that clever. I first heard this from Fiona Lowe, who had been inspired by Jennifer Crusie, and I’ve also seen Bob Mayer explain it, so I will pass this fantastic nugget on to you, and urge you to visit the sites of those authors for more information on the craft of writing. Again, there are so many different ways a writer can reach their goals, I’m merely recommending what I’ve found has worked for me in the past…
The Conflict Lock is a diagram that can help you create sustainable conflict for your characters, and draft out your plotline. Or, if you’re struggling halfway through the book, it’s a good way to find out whether you have enough conflict for a novel – or a short story. Or if your conflict is weak, it is a way to help figure out how to bolster it.
Simply put, a conflict lock shows you whether one character’s goal BLOCKS another’s.
So, how do we create the conflict lock?
Step one: Draw four squares
Step two: Label one row for Protagonist (Hero and/or Heroine), and one row Antagonist (Hero or Villain)
Step three: Label first column ‘Goal’ and second column ‘Conflict’.
Step four: Write in your characters’ objective in the GOAL column, and what is preventing your character from achieving that goal in the CONFLICT column.
If your protagonist’s conflict is born from your antagonist’s pursuit of his/her goal, and vice versa, then you have a CONFLICT LOCK.
Here is an example from my first romantic suspense novel, VIPER’S KISS:
My heroine, Maggie Kincaid, is mistakenly identified as the lethal ‘Viper’, and finds herself on the run, determined to clear her name. My hero, Luke Fletcher, believes – along with everyone else – that she is the Viper, and is in pursuit.
For Maggie to remain free, Luke doesn’t achieve his goal. If Luke apprehends Maggie, she doesn’t achieve her goal.
If you draw a line from my heroine’s goal to my hero’s conflict, you will see that what she is doing is the source of his conflict. If you draw a line from my hero’s goal to my heroine’s conflict, you will see that what he is doing is the source her conflict.
CONFLICT LOCK.
In essence – one cannot achieve his/her goal because of the direct actions of the other.
Good luck and get writing!
Writing 101: Conflict Basics
What is internal conflict? What is external conflict? What other types of conflict are there? How do you set up conflict in a novel? How do you sustain that conflict?
If you’re just starting out with writing a book, conflict is one of the most important – and most challenging – elements to grasp.
I love conflict (only in my books, of course). I love the way it can put your character through the crucible, and have them emerge as a purer essence of themselves. I also love the potential for drama in humour that conflict can create. Conflict is such a critical aspect of writing, and it’s such a huge topic, I’ll cover it over a number of posts. This first post will look at conflict basics – what it is, and what it isn’t, and the two main categories that conflict falls under.
So…what is conflict?
Simply put, conflict is the struggle between two opposing forces.
Think…Two people applying for the same job…Cinderella and the stepsisters fighting over Prince Charming…Taylor and Brooke wanting Ridge…or cops and robbers – one wants to apprehend, the other wants freedom…
Conflict then becomes the basis of suspense: which force will triumph?
Without conflict…nothing happens. We can pick up our bat and ball and go home, because nothing is happening. No crimes or mysteries to solve. No relationships to resolve. Police are superfluous. So are superheroes (I know, gasp).
Conflict drives the plot of your story. In the beginning, something happens and creates a story question. For example, in a romance, boy meets girl. Story question – will they somehow get their Happily Ever After? Conflict: Boy doesn’t like girl. In a murder mystery, someone dies. Story question – will the detective figure out who the murderer is? Conflict: Murderer frames another suspect for the crime. In a fantasy, the Least-Likely-To-Succeed must complete their quest. Story question – will they find their Holy Grail or enable/disable the prophecy? Conflict: The evil witch is sending her minions out to destroy the Least-Likely-To-Succeed.The conflict is the issue that immediately prevents that story question from being answered within that first chapter – and keeps us reading.
Good conflict creates doubt in the reader. Doubt creates curiosity, and with that comes suspense. If the conflict is simple, if resolution is easily conceived and thus easily achieved, then it doesn’t really create doubt – and we stop reading. If it’s obvious from the start that Boy likes Girl and Girl likes Boy – well, they will get their Happily Ever After. If it’s obvious who the murderer is…well, then there’s no mystery. And if the evil witch and her minions are disorganised and ineffectual, than Least-Likely-To-Succeed…succeeds. End of quest.
Note: Conflict is not an argument. It’s not based on a misunderstanding that can be cleared up if only your characters would really talk: You ran away because you left the iron on, and not because you’re afraid to commit? Ooooh. Great. Let’s get married. (End of conflict, end of story.)
So…how can you create conflict?
Well, as stated earlier, conflict is the complication that prevents your character from obtaining what they want. It’s the begetting of trouble.
For example: She wants children – but doesn’t have a suitable partner who can get her pregnant. No partner = conflict. Story question: Will she get her children? He wants the promotion – but so does she. Rivalry = conflict. Story question: will he get the promotion, or will she? Superhero wants to save the world – but supervillain wants to take over the world. Opposition = conflict. Will s/he save the world?
Over the next few posts, we’ll look at internal and external conflict, and the different variations of conflict, and ultimately how to use conflict with plotting.
For now, good luck and get writing!
Writing 101: Character Self-Concept
This post will be a short one, but I felt self-concept is a key building block when starting out with character arc. The self-concept of your character (this can also feed into character conflict, which will be covered in our next post) is how your character views him/herself.
How does s/he think of themselves? This is not who s/he is, or how others perceive them, but rather how s/he perceives him/herself… It’s not the whole truth, it’s their self truth.
Your heroine might be an exceptionally capable, efficient boss in a high-powered executive role – while she might actually see herself as the Plane Jane/Ugly Duckling who believes she can’t be successful in the looks department, so must work doubly hard to prove her smarts… or perhaps she feels her life is out of control, despite her control and efficiency that others see.
Or your hero might be an undercover agent who believes that as he has no personal connections and he’s always playing a ‘role’ that others don’t really see him for who he is, he’s invisible, and perhaps – less than human. Or that he’s just a mouse running in the wheel, with no real impact on the world around him – there’s always another criminal to take the place of the criminal he’s just caught, so he’s less than effective , while others may instead see the capability and justice he delivers, in the lives that he saves – or the lives that he ends.
With the self-concept comes great potential for growth (character arc). If our heroine feels out of control and less than attractive, one arc that shows real development would be her gaining that control, and realising her self-worth, that beauty is relative, that she doesn’t need to continually try to prove something, she can be content, proud, etc.
Our hero could realise that what he does is important, that he is important, that there is a ripple effect with his actions, and that people do see him, see what he does, and appreciate it – particularly those effected by the criminals he brings to justice.
With the self-concept comes great opportunity for challenge, for raising the stakes, for creating conflict. For example, our heroine who is extremely efficient, yet feels out of control; what’s the worst thing that could happen? She could actually find herself in a situation where she has no control whatsoever. And then? Perhaps she could actually lose control of herself – she could cry, she could rant, she could hit.. Things she would never have thought herself capable of, and possibly dreaded.
Our hero feels invisible and inconsequential – what’s the worst that could happen? What if his cover is blown, and the criminals see him for who he really is? Or that someone’s life depends on him and he has to strive, has to succeed, it becomes vital for him to be effective, to be powerful, and to have some impact with his actions.
For ways to outline and plot your character’s self-concept, feel free to download the Character Self-Concept Worksheet.
Someone once said – put your character up a tree and throw rocks at them. That’s what challenging your character’s self-concept is like – each time you throw that proverbial rock that hits the character at their core self-concept, they hurt, they heal, they recover – or they dodge. And maybe get hit by the next one. Either way, your character is forced to act and react, and consequently change. So, to add extra dimensions to your character, challenge his/her self-concept. Put them up that tree. Throw rocks. Then set fire to that tree – put your character through that emotional ringer.
Get writing, and good luck!
Writing 101: Motivating Your Character
Character motivation can be one of the most enjoyable aspects of writing. It’s where you get to ask, over and over, ‘but why?’ – and not get slapped for it. Creating motivation for your character is not only a great brainstorming exercise that encourages your muse, it’s also critical to developing a believable plot – or at least, a plot that your reader is prepared to believe. Without proper motivation that suspension of disbelief comes crashing down.
As mentioned in a previous post on the Four W’s of Character Development, motivation is a fundamental aspect of building your character. Motivation is what drives your character, it’s the engine that gets that vehicle moving.
Motivation gives your character credibility, depth, and will create that emotional empathy with your reader.
So, it’s important. Don’t scrimp on the motivation. When you establish clear motivation for your character, s/he can literally get away with murder, in the eyes of your reader.
One way to create motivation out of the ether for your character (and we’ve mentioned already that there are so many different methods writers can use, what I suggest here is merely what works for me) is to drill down to their core belief system, and their internal and external needs.
Harking back to my Year 8 social studies lessons, needs are what MUST be met in order for you to 1) survive, and 2) grow/develop. To explore it further, we’ll look briefly at the psychological theory put forward by Abraham Maslow in his paper, “A Theory of Human Motivation”. Maslow’s theory suggests that the most basic of physiological needs must be met before one can focus on any higher level needs.
For example; a body needs food, water and shelter from the environment, and will pursue those needs until they are met. If they are not met, then the person may feel anxious, stressed – and deficient (hungry, thirsty, cold, wet, etc).
Once those basic needs are met, the individual can then focus on other needs, such as security – is the shelter safe from attack, are the members of my family/tribe/group safe, am I wounded/avoiding danger, etc.
At each stage when a need is met, the individual can build upon and lift their focus to the next stage of ‘need’, such as social, belonging, family, etc.
Maslow described our hierarchy of needs as:
- Physiological: those things needed for our physical survival.
- Safety: those things needed to make us feel secure, safe, comfortable.
- Love/belonging: those things needed for us to feel engaged, accepted, loved, welcomed, etc.
- Esteem: those things that make us feel respected, recognised, worthy, and reflected in our self-respect and self-esteem.
- Self-actualisation: the realisation of our full potential, the drive for accomplishment and self-improvement/self-mastery.
But how do we relate this to our writing, and specifically, to our character?
We’re going to start with what our character NEEDS.
Motivation is WHY your character thinks, feels, acts and reacts the way s/he does.
I’m going to break motivation into two basic tracks –
- Deepest Desire
- Fundamental Fear
Deepest Desire
Primary Motivation: what does your character want, seek, crave, desire? These are the deepest, darkest seeds – qualities and requirements – that your character needs to feel safe, secure, comfortable, content and able to grow.
Nature vs Nurture: The age old argument; evolution versus environment. What has your character experienced – major life events, traumas, pivotal people, their culture – how have these aspects influenced the person your character has become? These aspects include; religious beliefs, language, family, education, ethnicity, socio-economic background, intellect, appearance, etc.
Self-Concept: How does your character see him/herself? What perception or view do they have of themselves as a self-truth? Note: this may not be the actual truth of their personality, but it is their SELF truth, what they truly believe is the case. We’ll cover Self-Concept in greater detail in a separate post. How does your character see him/herself, particularly in view of their deepest desire?
Make a list of twenty. Then make another list. You’ll find the first list are obvious needs and motivators. In the second list, there will be some things that may surprise you, intrigue you – and be a great, realistic, believable, compelling motivation for your character.
Newton’s Law of Motivation:
For every deep desire, there is an equal and opposite fundamental fear.
Each Deep Desire will have an equal, opposite and reactive Fundamental Fear if the desire (need) is not achieved.
Fundamental Fear
Primary Motivation: what does your character dislike, fear, shun, hate, and is repulsed by? These are the deepest, darkest seeds – qualities and requirements – that your character fears and prevents him/her from feeling safe, secure, comfortable, content and able to grow.
Nature vs Nurture: The age old argument; evolution versus environment. What has your character experienced – major life events, traumas, pivotal people, their culture – how have these aspects influenced the person your character has become? These aspects include; religious beliefs, language, family, education, ethnicity, socio-economic background, intellect, appearance, etc.
Self-Concept: How does your character see him/herself? What perception or view do they have of themselves as a self-truth? Note: this may not be the actual truth of their personality, but it is their SELF truth, what they truly believe is the case. We’ll cover Self-Concept in greater detail in a separate post. How does your character see him/herself, particularly in view of their deepest desire?
Make a list for each track. Make another list. Write as many deep desires and fundamental fears you can think of for your character, and select what works for you.
Then create the backstory for your character – how they developed these deepest desires and fundamental fears – you now have motivation that adds depth to your character – and possibly to your plot (but that’s another post!).
Feel free to download a Motivation Worksheet.
Good luck, and get writing!
Writing 101: Four W’s for Character Development
There are two drivers for novels; character and plot. Character-driven stories are those where the character’s actions and reactions drive the story forward and fuel turning points and happenings. Plot driven stories are where the focus is on the actual incidents and happenings that propel the story forward. Creating dynamic characters using a basic practice is what we are focusing on with this article.
The Four W’s
When it comes to fleshing out character, one of the basic ways to do it (and I still think it’s the best way) is to nut out the four W’s of that character. For a very good resource on character development, try Debra Dixon’s book on the craft of writing, Goal, Motivation & Conflict – it holds the best instructions and explanations for creating your characters. It’s well worth the investment!
Who?
Who is your character? Deciding on a name is often like sticking a note to a corkboard with a pin, it anchors the important information in place. Once you have a name, think of a descriptor that accurately portrays the traits and/or roles of this character. For example: John McClane from Die Hard could be described as your rogue cop. William Wallace from Braveheart could be described as your determined warrior. Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada could be described as your disdainful autocrat. I’m going to create a character for the purpose of this post. His name is…Max. Max Brooks. Max Brooks, protective father.
What?
What does this character really want? World Peace? The antidote to the poison they’ve been injected with? That job promotion? A secure home for his/her child? Mr. Right? What objective is your character working toward? I usually break down the ‘what’ of a character even further into two categories – want and need.
- Want: The clear objective that your character defines on their own. Sometimes this is also called an external goal. It’s something tangible, and like any form of goal-setting in the ‘real’ world, there is success when the objective is reached, or failure if the objective is lost. It can be self-serving (job promotion/antidote), or self-sacrificing (world peace/safe home for family) – either way, it’s something that the character can get – or not.
- Need: The deeper yearning that drives your character. Maybe it’s complicated, like finally getting the approval from your mother, or simple; proving your independence to yourself. Either way, these are emotional, subjective needs that will signal growth and development for your character if/when these needs are met. You can have multiple wants and needs, but for today, I’m going to use just one. So, using my character Max as an example: Max wants: the antidote to a poison he’s been injected with. Max needs: To provide a safe, secure home life for his son
Why?
Why does your character want what s/he wants? This is the part that creates the most fun for me as a writer. This is where you create a backstory for your character, and where you give your character the motivation for their actions and reactions. Again, answering this question for both internal (subjective) and external (objective) goals creates believable motivation for those goals. It’s also where we channel Tom Jones – Why, Why, Why, Delilah…? Again, using our hero: Max wants an antidote to the poison – why? To save his own life. Why? His wife is dead, and he’s the only living relative for his son, Chad. He needs to be there for Chad. Why? Because he never had a father figure, growing up. His mother struggled to provide a safe roof over their heads, they ended up living on the street for a while, and he saw things, experienced things that he doesn’t want his son to see or experience. He wants to see his son grow into a healthy adult. He needs to save his own life, and in doing so he saves his son’s life.
See? It’s kind of like twenty questions, only you get to make up the answers. By continually asking why you create a more compelling, in-depth character.
Why not?
There has to be some problem or issue, some roadblock that prevents your character from getting what they want – otherwise your novel is a dead-boring read. If the outcome is a foregone conclusion, why bother reading the rest of the story. Boy meets girl, and they live happily ever after – zzzzzzz. Where’s the excitement? The tension? What makes the reader sit up at night and wonder – oh, heck, what’s going to happen next? Will they or won’t they? What is the complication, the conflict your character faces that stops them from achieving their goal? Again, conflict on an external (objective) and an internal (subjective) level adds not only dimension to your character, but suspense for the reader. Our hero, Max, can’t get the antidote because the person who injected him with the poison has it, and has now disappeared. Yikes! By not getting the antidote and saving his own life, his inner need to provide a safe, secure home for his son will not be met. He’ll die…or will he?
We’ve also introduced high stakes – life or death… but we’ll cover stakes (and how to raise them) in a later post.
So, in a nutshell:
Who is your character, what does s/he want, why does s/he want that, and why doesn’t s/he achieve that right now?
We’ll be covering these elements in greater detail over the coming weeks. In the meantime, good luck and get writing!
Writing A Book Is Like Soccer
I do not play soccer. In my family, that’s not just unusual, it’s almost a crime, and spawns many a long conversation on the supposed merits of the game at family gatherings.
There is something about the thrill of the game, the smell of the fresh air, the warmth of the sun on my head that I’m just not really enamoured with. Maybe because it’s a winter sport and I’m freezing my tush off watching kids run around a muddy pitch – then have to wash muddy clothes. Or maybe because ‘they’ schedule games close enough to sparrow’s fart on a Saturday morning when most folks would prefer to be reading the paper over a leisurely breakfast. Maybe.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not opposed to the game, or any sport. I think team sports are important, fitness is important, developing coordination skills is important. I enjoy watching my kids’ efforts, I enjoy cheering them on, regardless of who scores, and I love that they develop resilience. I occasionally kick a ball around, an activity that is both enjoyable and satisfyingly destructive if the wrong window gets in the way. But perhaps because I attend so many games and watch them with an enquiring eye, I’ve learned something.
Soccer is not so different from writing a book.
Why do people play any game? It comes down to the thrill of the competition, of pitting oneself against the odds to triumph, and the satisfaction of knowing you rule the soccer pitch, if only for one Saturday morning. There are the obvious benefits – fitness, hand-eye coordination, and the in-your-face fist pump when you score that goal (we’ll call this external motivation).
Then there are the less obvious benefits, the communication one learns and shares with playing in a team, working together, learning to offer assistance and accept aid, as well as the confidence and satisfaction one gets from being active. There is the joy of winning and the crushing disappointment of losing. We’ll call this internal motivation.
There may be other factors at play, also – your opposing team member may be the bully or ‘ace’ student at school and you finally have a chance to show them what’s what… Or maybe you do this because your father is a massive Bend It Like Beckham fan and you don’t want to disappoint him, or your friend does it, and it’s a way to get out of the house and hang with your mates, thus avoiding chores… either way, this motivation contributes to backstory, and having a compelling and relevant backstory makes any book interesting to read. Just like soccer, though, when information emerges over the course of a season, so too must backstory be threaded through the course of a novel, and not in one info dump (otherwise you’re that kid – or parent – on the sideline that everyone avoids talking to).
In a game of soccer, you have two opposing forces (teams). In writing a book, you generally have at least two opposing forces (a protagonist and an antagonist, or for a romance, your hero and heroine may be your opposing forces).
Either way, that’s conflict.
Each side has a clear objective. In soccer, the objective is to score a goal, and hopefully prevent the other team from scoring a goal. In writing, your character/s must have a clear goal, and in a good, compelling story, those goals will also be counter-productive.
When you have counter-productive goals that work directly against each other, that’s GOOD, STRONG conflict.
In reaching your clearly stated objective in soccer, you may run into another player (literally). In writing, your character must run into obstacles. For a number of reasons:
• Nobody wants to watch a boring, one-sided game, and nobody wants to read a boring, obvious book.
• When you really have to struggle to achieve that goal, victory so much sweeter and exhilarating.
• The more your character struggles, the more your sideline supporters (readers) cheer on that character.
• The more your character blocks or is blocked by an opponent, the more tense the game becomes.
In a soccer game, the ball is kicked back and forth, changing direction with a calculated strike or a careless bump. Just like the soccer ball, your plot bounces from one direction to another, based on the actions of your characters. Without this constant movement, or plot direction, the game is over, and spectators go home.
This constant movement of the ball creates tension in the spectator as well as the player – will they score this time? Will it get near the goal posts? Will that kid with the bleeding nose stop the ball with his face again? In writing, the to-ing and fro-ing creates tension in the reader, as well as the character. And just like in a story, when one goal is scored, either by one team or the other, it raises the stakes – will the other team come back and equal the score, or possibly win? What is going to happen next? How will this game end?
And as with any book, in soccer there are peaks and lulls. Tension ramps up before a goal – and regardless of the resulting mini-climax, there is always the decline in tension, only to be ramped up again at the next goal opportunity, and then the next. Also, tension ramps up with any clash or conflict, until the ball is kicked out of that tussle and the immediate conflict is over – until the next time.
The entire team are your supporting characters, each acting independently, with consequences for each action. Each character has virtues and flaws, and these traits can contribute to conflict between characters on the same team – he’s a ball hog and won’t pass, or she doesn’t want to get hurt and won’t fully commit to a hustle. If you’re lucky, they’ll eventually get their act together and work cohesively in accomplishing that goal. And if you’re not lucky – well, I guess you’re not writing a Happy Ever After.
Your Goalie can be your hero – and your villain, depending on your perspective. If s/he is on your team, and they block a goal – Hero! If you’re on the other team – villain, and vice versa when the roles are reversed. Each team/character has an entrenched view that is constantly under challenge, and with each practice, each opportunity to develop that skill, there is character growth. Each team member has an opponent – this creates balance on the field, and good, strong competition. Just as your hero must have that opponent that challenges him/her.
And like soccer, it isn’t over until that whistle blows – there is always the chance that things can get better – or worse.
And when the game is over, hopefully those supporters will happily come back for your next book.
Pitching a Homer – Or How to Pitch Your Novel
Okay, I’m lousy at baseball-speak, but the basis for this article is how to pitch to an editor or agent – in a conference scenario.
We are in the peak conference season – at least for romance writers. RWAmerica hold their annual conference in late July, RWAustralia hold their conference mid-August, and RWNew Zealand hold their annual conference mid-late August.
And at each conference there is the opportunity for brave souls to present their treasured work to an agent or editor, in the hopes that said agent/editor will recognise the gem for what it is, and whip out a chequebook and a fill-in-the-blanks contract.
Well, okay, maybe that’s more my fantasy than fact, but that’s what we writers hope for, yes? That the agent/editor love the pitch enough to ask for a partial manuscript – or a full (!) – and then read it and love it and want it.
When I first heard of pitching at conferences, it reminded me of a party where some kid (still so traumatised can’t remember his name) walked in on me in the bathroom at the grand old age of 5, and then called all the kids attending the party to come and gawk. And laugh. Ex-crooooootiating humiliation. And that’s how I viewed pitching. Present your treasure and hope they won’t laugh you out of the ballpark.
I did realise the benefit in pitching, though. If the agent/editor does request your work, your submission is slightly fast-tracked. While it’s not like having a police escort, with flashing lights and sirens heralding the arrival of your manuscript on to the agent/editor’s lap – it’s more the overtaking lane approach. Your work will be read, more than likely sooner rather than later, and if you phrase your cover letter properly, you’ll have a frame of reference – they’ve met you, and might remember you. Maybe. But this isn’t about the submission. This is about what happens BEFORE the submission.
When I decided to pitch my first novel, I researched, well, how to pitch a novel. And couldn’t really find that much practical, useful information. What am I supposed to do or say? Present them with a box of chocolates and tell the editor/agent how much I LOVE their work and how I want to work with them? Answer: No. Not even close.
Think of pitching like a job interview – yes, another ex-crooooootiating experience. You are approaching an industry professional, and you’re talking about your business, which you hope to make their business.
Some job interview tips work well for the pitch situation:
Be presentable.
Yes, all us writers are charmingly eccentric in our own special, creative way, but we do want to be taken as a serious business proposition, so make that good first impression. There is truth to the point that it’s the material that counts, but you really want the editor to be focused on the story you’re sharing with them, and not be distracted by the tufts of hair you forgot to brush, or the jewellery that flashes and jingles with each movement you make, or that the crystal you use for deodorant has… failed.
Be prepared.
Know your book. Most editors and agents request only pitches on works that are completed. This is to show that you can actually finish the work, and that it’s not just one of fifteen partial manuscripts you have tucked in your drawer. So, if it’s not finished, then at least know how it’s going to end up. Focus on the Four W’s: Who, What, Why and Why not?
Who are your characters? What does s/he want? Why does s/he want THAT? Why doesn’t s/he have it/get it?
Don’t lose the plot.
Not only will you need to know the bare bones of your story, but you’ll need to tell them some of the key turning points of the plot, the black moment, the climax and the resolution. What is the conflict? Particularly, can this conflict be sustained throughout the book? You need to know your plot inside out and upside down, so that you can explain it to the editor/agent – nobody else knows it better than you. If you’re looking for a novel pitching template, you can find a rough outline of one here.
Theme
Sometimes editors and agents might ask – ‘what is the theme of your novel’. Obviously it pays to have this answer ready. The theme of your story is the moral lesson that underpins your plot. It might be revenge, forgiveness, good vs evil, coming of age, etc. It’s like a smelting process for your book, boiling it down, reducing the elements until you have the pure essence of your book.
Have a backup.
We all have an attack of the nerves. Even though you’ve rehearsed it until your friends/family/partner/children/pet dog have learned to hide from you on sight, sometimes the reassurance of having your notes on cards can be all the backup you need to deliver a home run. Even if you never refer to them, it’s handy to have them with you. Just in case – but list it in point form. Don’t read your entire pitch from the card to the editor/agent.
Present with confidence.
For most of us, this will be our first meeting with our preferred editor/agent, so it’s important to make that good impression. Smile and greet your ‘pitchee’, and shake his/her hand. Either clasp your hands in your lap, or on the table (or around your little stack of reminder notecards), so that you don’t fidget. Sit on your hands, if you have to. Make eye contact – this is essential to form a connection and a memory of the event for the pitchee. Conduct yourself with confidence – even if it’s just an act and you’re shaking and feel like you’re going to throw up, present yourself with confidence. You’re looking good, you’re a professional meeting another industry professional. You know your story inside at out. You’ll be fine. There’s plenty of time to collapse and puke after the pitch.
And whatever you do, don’t imagine him/her naked.
Archetypal Characters of Fairy Tales
What is it that we love about a fairy tale?
Is it the universal elements in the story structure – good vs evil, hero saving heroine (or vice versa)? Is it the archetypal characters that draw us in? Is it the heroic actions of ordinary people – like Beauty sacrificing her freedom with the Beast? Is it the ideal that one person can make a stand against stronger forces, and win – like Snow White versus the Evil Stepmother Queen? Or is it the pure romanticism of personal risk to save others – like the Prince from Rapunzel?
Or is it the gowns and shoes? Cinderella, we love you!
When I told my close friends and writing partners that my next release, Enamoured, was a romantic suspense with fairy tale elements, I attracted a lot of questions.
Where you on drugs when you wrote it? What did you use to blackmail/bribe the publisher? Did you seriously think it through? The answers: No, nothing and not even a little bit.
I think there is something so iconic about a fairy tale that it transcends genre boundaries. (Yes, that’s me justifying my juvenile dream of writing a fairy tale with sexual tension and murder, but it sounds better the first way). Then there is the fashion.
My daughters use the term ‘girly-girl’ – and depending on the tone used this can be a positive, neutral or negative term. I, personally, would not consider myself a girly-girl. I like wearing shorts, jeans and sneakers. I’m likely to run away from a bottle of nail polish rather than use it, and I preferred to rumble and tackle than to dress up dolls (but that’s because I never had a Barbie. Deprived, I know) – until we start talking about fairy tales. When that happens, I turn into a pile of pink fairy-floss mush. With sparkles, thank you. I even giggle.
Maybe it’s because Prince Charming is so unbelievably, out-of-this-world handsome, or because Cinderella can really rock her frock – and (gasp) those SHOES!!! The Frog Prince’s princess doesn’t just play with a tattered tennis ball, no, her ball is GOLD, and nobody does great hair like Rapunzel.
Okay, I know this makes me sound very superficial, but it’s more than that (otherwise I’d be just plain old superficial). These characters play clearly defined roles. One book, The Complete Writer’s Guide to Heroes and Heroines, by Tami D. Cowden, Caro LaFever and Sue Viders, outlines them beautifully (as a writer, you need this book on your resource shelf – do yourself a favour and buy it).
Prince Charming is (I guess rather obviously) The Charmer; charismatic, appealing, fascinating, although would rather not talk about touchy-feely stuff, likes to get by on his personality and wit.
Cinderella, on the other hand, is The Waif. She’s ethereal, adaptive and doesn’t complain, but endures a situation until she’s saved.
The princess from the Frog Prince would be The Free Spirit. She’s a handful, but charmingly so. Zany, high-spirited, and more than a little impulsive, she finds herself stuck in many a tricky situation.
Rapunzel would also be The Waif, waiting for her knight to rescue her from the tower.
All of these characters are so well-known to us that each time we read them, in whatever guise, unconsciously we accept them, like familiar friends. Despite the fairy-tale endings, though, these characters do face tests. They must overcome trials, resolve deep personal flaws, and change and develop into better, stronger, faster (oh, oops, that’s the Six-Million Dollar Man – totally another blogpost!) people by the end of their story. Not unlike a romantic suspense – or…any other story, for that matter. Because archetypes are the recurring personalities that people our stories from the Dawn of Storytelling.
Tell me: who is your favourite fairy-tale heroine? Leave a comment to go into the draw to win a copy of my new romantic suspense novella with fairy tale elements, Enamoured.
Goal Setting Tips for Success
So many people contacted me about my ‘GMC for Success’ post asking about setting goals, I thought I’d write another article on the subject. One tool for personal development is the act of setting goals. Whether it’s setting career objectives, or business targets, or setting personal goals for fitness and weight loss, we all do it. Whether we actually achieve those goals is dependent upon how we set ourselves up – for failure or success.
What is a goal?
The definition of a goal is: the achievement or result to which effort is directed or aimed; A defined area, basket, cage, line, etc, toward which players of various games and sports will attempt to kick, throw, hit, etc, to score a point or points.
Why Use Goal Setting?
Goal setting is a way to clarify what it is exactly that you want. It’s hard to take that first step in any direction if you don’t know the destination. Setting goals is also a motivational way of ‘thinking’ your way to success (I know, sounds a bit wankerish, but bear with me). Visualising yourself, in where you want to be, doing what you want to do, is a great way to give hope and drive to achieve your goals. It’s also a way to create a strategy in order to meet your objective.
How to Set Goals:
One fantastic tool for taking steps forward to your own defined success is using the S.M.A.R.T. Goal theory. It’s been so helpful for me in the past, and it can be a springboard to more efficient time management.
So, what are S.M.A.R.T. Goals? S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym for Smart, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound, and all are aspects that will help tighten your goal, and give you the direction you’ll need to achieve it. I’ll explain each point, and I’ll use personal goal-setting and writing goals for examples. Please note: these goals are not my own, merely examples.
Specific: Stating general goals is a great way to set yourself up for failure, or at least a minimal effort requirement. By being specific, you are clearly stating what it is you want, by when, and how. Giving yourself details and deadlines gives you a benchmark to aim toward.
Eg; Weight Loss: I want to lose weight. Well, how much weight? And when do you want to lose it by? Having an open-ended goal means you may never achieve it.
Eg; Writing I want to write a book. Well, how long is the book? Is it a novella? A category length book? A single title book? What kind of book – romance, self-help? When do you want to finish it – July? The 12th of Never? How are you going to achieve this? Two thousands words a day? Ten pages per week?
Measurable: Giving your goals a measure will help you ascertain whether you’ve achieved it or not. Stating it in measurable terms will give you deadlines, and a way of monitoring your progress.
Eg; Weight Loss: How much weight do you want to lose by when?
Eg; Writing: What project, or how many words do you want to write by when?
Achievable: Your goal has to be something you can actually do. It’s no use setting a goal for something that is impossible – this is a recipe for failure, and just darned depressing. Notice I use the word impossible – something might be highly improbable, but can still be achievable if you are willing and able to put in the work to achieve it. Also, achievable means something that YOU can do – and not reliant on some other party in order to achieve that goal. For example, if you’re wanting to go the path of traditional publishing, and have an established publisher buy, print and distribute your book, then your goal wouldn’t be: I want to publish a book. The publisher will need to action most of that. Your goal could instead be: I want to write a book. That is completely within your control, and YOU make that happen. So achievable = something YOU have control over. Once it’s outside of your control, and requires external forces to align and action, then your achievability factor drops significantly.
Eg; Weight Loss: I want to lose half my body weight – well, that can not only be impossible for some of us, but possibly dangerous. Or wanting to lose a massive amount of weight overnight – it’s not going to happen. I want to get fit – this is totally achievable.
Eg; Writing: I want to write a bestseller overnight. Yeah, well, join the club. Talk to any consistent bestselling author, and ten-to-one they’ve been writing for a while, and are not an overnight success. I want to write my best possible book – totally achievable.
Realistic: This harks back to the previous point – if it’s not realistic, it’s not achievable. This is a great point to challenge yourself on. YOU decide what is realistic. YOU can control how much time, effort and enthusiasm you can dedicate to reaching this goal.
Eg; Weight Loss: I want to lose a massive amount of weight overnight – this is simply not realistic. I want to lose 8kgs in 3 months – depending on the effort and time and enthusiasm you commit to this goal, it is entirely achievable.
Eg; Writing: I want to write a single title book in 2 weeks. Well, if you’re willing to forego sleeping, eating, and engaging with family and friends… no, I still don’t think it’s a realistic goal. I want to write a 100,000 word single title book in 9 months – with time, effort and enthusiasm, this is possible, therefore realistic and achievable.
Time-Bound: Putting a time limit on your goal is the final measure of whether you’ve achieved your goal or not. Having an open-ended goal means you may never achieve what you want. Losing weight – well, whenever that happens. The same with writing a book – give yourself the 12th of Never to do it, and you’ll never do it.
S.MA.R.T. Goals:
Eg; Weight Loss I want to lose 8 kgs in 3 months by going to the gym four times a week.
Eg; Writing I want to write a 100,000 word single title romantic suspense book by October 30th this year by writing 1,000 words a day during the working week.
These goals are specific – what do you want to accomplish? When do you want to accomplish it by? How are you going to achieve it?
They are measurable – by the end of 3 months, did you lose 8kgs – yes or no? By October 31st, did you complete your 100,000 word single title romantic suspense book – yes or no?
They are achievable – these goals are dependent upon your time, effort and enthusiasm, and need nobody other than yourself to complete, no influence from outside of your control. You CAN do it!
They are realistic – these are completely do-able, they are not impossible and totally achievable.
They are time-bound – there is a deadline by which you can tell if you have succeeded. At the deadline, did you achieve your goal: yes or no?
Go ahead and write your S.M.A.R.T. Goals. If you’re brave enough, let me know what your goals are! One brave soul will win a S.M.A.R.T. Goal pack – a notebook and pen to jot down your career, personal and artistic goals!
New Year Resolutions – Using GMC for Sucess
Okay, put your hand up if you’ve ever made a New Year’s resolution, and then promptly forgotten it, only to realise in a blind panic in November that you’ve done nothing you’d planned to do in January…
Yeah, I see you.
I’m a list person. Ask anyone who knows me, and they’ll agree. They may even use the ‘anal-retentive’ or ‘obsessed’ phrases in conjunction with this statement. I’ll just leave it ‘list person’. I like making lists for a very good reason – if I don’t, I’ll forget something. Okay, I’ll forget a lot of things, for example; the milk, or paying bills, the release date of my new book, a guest blog post, or ordering the swag of author goodies… the list could go on (pun completely intended). I mean, even Santa has a list. Two, actually.
I also set my goals – writing, lifestyle – no portion of my life is safe from this exercise. The pleasure I get from crossing an achieved goal off my list makes me wonder if I might have a problem, but I’m not ready for therapy, yet. But I know at this time of year, we all do some sort of life-affirming nod toward organising a better life for ourselves over the next year, and while listing what we want to do may seem easy, delivering on that promise to ourselves is something we sometimes struggle with. (I’m using the royal ‘we’, here, folks.)
Here’s a trivial factoid: People who make resolutions are 10 times more likely to achieve their goals than people who don’t.
So, instead of blabbing on about my customary S.M.A.R.T. Goal-Setting session, I’ve decided I’m going to try a different angle, by using a writing tool – G.M.C., and using it for Life Strategies.
Must Buy!
Goal, Motivation and Conflict is an insightful book written by Debra Dixon – a very, very smart lady with a knack for explaining the basic building blocks for creating great characters and great fiction. If possible, I now have an even deeper appreciation for Han Solo. If you’re interested in writing, regardless of the genre, then this is a book you must have.
In essence: Goal – what does your character want? Motivation – why does your character want it? Conflict – why doesn’t your character have/get it?
Or, as I call it, the What, Why and Why Not?
Again, I can’t stress what an awesome resource this book is, and I’ll go more in-depth about it another day, but for now, how can we use the GMC writer’s tool for life strategies?
Well…
Goal: What is it that you want? To lose weight? To spend more time with friends and family? To quit smoking? To get out of debt? Identify your own specific goal, and make it specific. For more tips on setting goals, read my article on S.M.A.R.T. goal-setting.
Motivation: Why do you want what you want? This is possibly one of the most important aspects of writing – why does the character want that job/artefact/guy/gal/treasure/evidence? How has their experience and core values interlinked to set up a desire? Motivation is a reflexion of the complex moral fibre, so identifying your motivation is a good way of ensuring your goal is in keeping with your own moral values – if it’s not, or if it contradicts your own core value system, then you will naturally resist accomplishing it. For example: Do you want to lose weight to look good? Or to be fit and keep up with the kids? Or for your own self-assurance? Identifying why this goal is important to you will help it ‘click’, or resonate, and will strengthen your resolve, particularly when you reach a hurdle. This is what will drive you through the tough times, knowing why it is so important to achieve that goal.
Conflict: Why not? What is standing in your way to achieving your goal? For example, if losing weight is your goal, but your partner keeps stocking the cupboard with naughty munchies, this creates conflict for you. If you want to stop smoking, but always find yourself surrounded by those seductive cigarettes in other people’s hands, that’s going to create conflict. So is shopping if you’re trying to get out of debt. Identifying the conflicts, those ‘hiccups’ that naturally oppose and prevent you from attaining your goal, will give you some insight into your own character – will help you identify potential weaknesses, or areas that require just a little focus, or a little tweaking, to resolve that conflict. Figuring out why you can’t get/do what you want is part of the way to reaching your goal. Knowing what you’re facing, and planning a way around it, past it or through it is in itself a success.
And yes, here comes that old chestnut: Failing to plan = planning to fail. Get some insight into what makes you tick with your personal goals, and get strategizing to insure success.
So, get out your notebooks, and jot down your own G.M.C. for 2013 – and good luck!
Tuesday Tidbits with Janni Nell!
Hi Shannon
It’s great to be here for a Q & A session, which had me digging deep at times. Thanks for the interesting questions.
How did you get started writing?
Okay, now I have to ‘fess up to being an obnoxious teen. Back in the day, I loved to read (still do, of course). Anyway I read this book (nope, not going to mention the title), which I absolutely loved. Except for its ending. I figured I could write better. (Well, I was an obnoxious teen.) I gave it a go and soon realised that–duh!—I couldn’t do better. In fact, what I wrote sucked so badly, it didn’t even score a place in my bottom drawer. Only one option: immediate and total destruction. It was a year before I summoned the courage to try writing again. This time accompanied by some much needed humility.
What was your journey to publication?
Well, it was full of speed bumps. Lots of flitting from hot genre to hot genre (not recommended if you want to find your own voice). Many rejections later, I took a chance and wrote a story in a quirky first person voice that felt kinda natural. To my utter amazement, publishers were interested. That little story became the first book in the Allegra Fairweather series.
What is your “call” story, when your first work was accepted for publication?
When I got the call, which was actually an email, I didn’t react the way I’d expected. Instead of screaming and happy dancing, I went numb. I couldn’t believe I was actually going to get published at last. I kept thinking the email must have been meant for someone else. Until my husband pointed out it was unlikely anyone else had written a story called Allegra Fairweather: Paranormal Investigator. Then he took me out for a celebratory lunch. After that it kind of sunk in, and I did some happy dancing. Line dancing that is.
What have you learned about readers since getting published?
Readers are wonderful! Without readers there would be no one to hear our stories, no hearts to touch, no funny bones to tickle. I love readers. In fact, I am one. It’s hard to be a writer without first being a reader.
What have you learned about writing since getting published?
I’ve learned to juggle. Let me explain.
Last year I was working full steam ahead on the latest Allegra Fairweather story—let’s call it AF5—when I was offered the chance to write a novella for the anthology Carina Press Presents: Editor’s Choice Vol II. To be included, I first had to submit a synopsis for approval. That meant temporarily abandoning AF5 to write the synopsis. When it was approved, I got to work on the novella. Once again it was full steam ahead until I received extensive edits for Island of Secrets. You still with me? Great. So, I stopped work on the novella, and spent four weeks completing the edits. Then it was back to the novella. Around this time I was also brainstorming new titles for both works in progress. Fast forward three months and I’m working on edits—developmental and copy—for both Island of Secrets and the novella, which was published as Dance of Flames.
So I can now claim to be an experienced, if not expert, juggler.
What are you working on next?
AF5—remember the one I was working on all those months ago—well it’s been accepted by Carina Press. All I have to do now is…finish the darn book!
Tell us about your most recent release.
Island of Secrets is the third novel in the Allegra Fairweather series. (The novella, Dance of Flames is kind of a 3.5). By the way, if you’re wondering who designs the gorgeous covers for the series, it’s Frauke Spanuth of CrocoDesigns.
I’m a paranormal investigator without a home of my own. So when a wealthy client offers me a lucrative job on a private South Pacific island, I jump at the opportunity.
It’s not all fun in the sun, though. A dead merman—no, really—with an arrow in his chest has washed up on shore. My investigation reveals a century-old war between the mers and a goblin tribe, who believe the mers stole their treasure. But the real thief was a pirate! He buried the treasure and died before digging it up again.
Casper, my guardian angel and sort-of-but-not-really boyfriend, usually helps me out but he’s acting all weird and busy. The only person left who can help me find the treasure is the pirate’s former girlfriend, who happens to be a forgetful, alcoholic ghost.
Oh, and I’m not the only one searching for this treasure. Someone else wants it badly and they’re prepared to commit murder to prevent anyone else from getting it…
Island of Secrets is set on an island (no, really) near Tahiti. Tell us your favourite vacation spot, and you could win an e-copy of Island of Secrets.
Rachel Johns: My Love Affair With Television Soap-Operas
Hi, I’m Rachael Johns, I write rural romance and I’m a TV Soap Addict. 
At least I was, once upon a time before I popped out three kids in quick succession, losing one much-loved soap-opera with each one of them!
Why do they insist on putting soap-operas on at terrible times for Mums? Here in Australia, my two fave soapies were Neighbours and Home & Away and they were on at 6.30pm and 7pm at night, smack-bang in the middle of the time I get my kids bathed and into bed. Yes, woe is me, I could have recorded them I suppose but I was never good with stuff like that.
I must admit, I don’t miss them as much as I thought I would, but I DO still get nostalgic when I read an article about the anniversary of something special on the show. Recently TV Week did a special on the anniversary of Scott (Jason Donovan) and Charlene’s (Kylie Minogue) wedding and I lapped it all up. I was VERY little when that wedding was screened but I remembered LOVING it. In fact, I loved all the relationships and weddings that happened on my two favourite soaps so I guess it’s not surprising that this little girl grew up to write ROMANCE!!
As a writer, we’re often asked where we get our ideas from and for my recent rural romance JILTED, my love of soap operas formed one of the puzzle pieces. I needed a heroine who had left a small town and started another career that looked to be far more glamorous than life in a small town – she doesn’t think that but the residents of the small town do. Then, suddenly I thought of my love of soaps and decided one way to pamper this love was to make my heroine a soapie actress!!
When I’m writing (or planning) what a character does for a career plays a big part for me. I’ve written about a voice talent, a cultural anthropologist, a country pub owner, and of course a soapie star. I guess in a way, through my writing, I get to experience careers that I may not ever have the chance to actually do.
So, this is my roundabout way of saying that although my books are not auto-biographical, they do each have a little bit of me in them!
Now… before I go, let’s chat TV shows! Are you a soap-opera fan like me or do you prefer something else? Reality TV? Dramas? Crime shows? I’d love to hear what your favourite TV show is and WHY!?
Thanks for having me Shannon!
Jilted Blurb:
She left him at the altar, but her heart was always his…
After more than ten years away, Australian soap star Ellie Hughes returns to the small country town of Hope Junction, determined to remain anonymous while caring for her injured godmother, Matilda.
But word spreads fast in the tight-knit community. It isn’t long before the people of Hope’s are gossiping about the real reason for Ellie’s visit and why she broke the heart of golden boy Flynn Quartermaine all those years ago.
Soon Ellie and Flynn are thrown back together again, forced to deal with the unresolved emotions between them. For Ellie is not the only one with secrets. Flynn has his own demons to battle, and Matilda is hiding something from her much-loved goddaughter.
When all is uncovered, can the ill-fated lovers overcome the wounds of their past? Or is Flynn destined to be jilted again?
If you’d like to contact Rachel, you can find her lurking in these areas:
Website: www.rachaeljohns.com
Blog: www.rachaeljohns.wordpress.com
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rachael-Johns/260103224001776
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/RachaelJohns
Rachel’s book, Jilted, can be purchased from Harlequin and Amazon, and all good e-retailer stores.
Where’s the Plot? Tuesday Tidbits with Kay Keppler
I have a terrible time figuring out a plot.
I know what plot is. It’s action, and especially, it’s conflict. Conflict drives stories. But conflict is hard. I hate making my heroine suffer. She’s so nice. Why can’t everybody just get along? But of course, there’s no story if everybody’s happy. Without action, without conflict, there’s no plot, and then there’s no story.
Not all actions are created equal. To be plot, actions have to have consequences. In one of my favorite series, Charlaine Harris’s character, Sookie Stackhouse, likes to take showers. Early in Dead Reckoning, Sookie takes a shower after a tough night waiting tables at the bar. She relaxes in the hot water, letting her concerns wash away.
Then she goes to bed.
Is that plot? Of course not. It’s description, and it’s foreshadowing, but Sookie’s shower doesn’t have any consequences. There’s no real action in the action.
It’s different, though, when Sookie takes a shower with Eric. As anyone who reads the series knows, that shower had a lot of consequences, and not just the immediate, ah, steamy ones.
And then compare those showers to the shower scene in Psycho. In it, Robert Bloch’s character Marion Crane is bathing to wash away her guilt about embezzling from her employer. (Conflict there, much? She feels guilty—internal conflict—and she’s being pursued as a suspect—external conflict. Conflict galore!)
We all know what happened in that shower scene in Psycho—Marion Crane is stabbed to death, and what washes down the drain in that scene is a lot more than just her daily worries. But her disappearance triggers an investigation, which leads to more mayhem. That’s consequence. That’s plot.
When I read books (sometimes many books) where the world is threatened, or the universe is threatened, or all the universes in all the galaxies in all of space are threatened, I sometimes think that’s a bit of overkill. I like a nice, juicy scare as much as the next person, but in real life, my biggest scare is usually along the lines of whether I’ll finish the milk before it goes sour.
But in writing Zero Gravity Outcasts, I went for the Big Scare myself, in the form of an interplanetary civil war. It’s because the consequences of actions have to be important. If they’re not, who cares? Not the readers, and not even the characters. The heroine might as well stay home and defrost the fridge.
Which I sort of like in a heroine, but I get that readers don’t—except maybe unless the secret capacitor compartment was punctured, and the freon escapes, and the world is threatened by expanding, poisonous gases… and the heroine doesn’t want to call Gas Busters because she’d planned to settle in with a movie and some popcorn, but the handsome agent rings the bell, and…like that. In any event, the concept of struggle—of conflict—is key.
The thing I have to keep asking myself when I write is, what’s at stake? If my protagonist fights the Deadly Hammer for 300 pages, killing angels and fairies and puppies along the way as collateral damage, suffers grievous wounds and the loss of family and friends, she better get more out of it than a trip to the store for a fresh quart of milk.
But that’s a whole other story. One that, I hope, I’ll be able to plot better next time.
Kay Keppler likes happy endings, whether they’re in the fiction she writes, the fiction she edits, or the fiction she reads. After all, an unhappy outcome is what the newspaper is for! Her characters are resourceful to a fault, hard-working to the extreme, and loyal to the end—but she’s still working on a decent plot. You can find her at kaykeppler.com, kaykeppler@yahoo.com, or @KayKeppler.
Zero Gravity Outcasts can be found at:
And all good e-retailer stores!
Doing the Right Research
I know this is going to date me, but I might as well be honest: when I started university, back in (gasp!) the late 1980s, I brought an electric typewriter to school with me. We did have a computer at home—a state-of-the-art 386 PC that ran on MS-DOS—but my dad, himself a university professor, thought I could get by with the typewriter for at least my first year. By second year I had one of his cast-offs, a behemoth that gave off heat like a star going supernova, and once I’d got the hang of all that Shift-F7 crap it did come in pretty handy.
When I finished my undergraduate degree and was accepted into graduate school in the U.K., I knew I needed the best computer that my limited funds could buy. So I plunked down nearly every penny I had on one of Apple’s first notebook computers, a two-inch-thick marvel with a 10-inch grayscale screen. I adored it.
After finishing grad school I became an editor, and my Macbook was relegated to my closet. The only research I did, for a number of years, was related to fact-checking queries. By the time I began to think about writing historical romance, like my novel, Improper Relations – more than ten years later, my little laptop had become utterly obsolete.
But it wasn’t only my computer that had fallen behind the times. My entire attitude to research—my entire methodology and approach—was also in dire need of an update.
While I’d been busy with work, marriage and starting a family, entire libraries had been digitized. Most of the newspapers I’d once consulted on microfiche, page after eye-watering page, had been scanned and uploaded to websites. Gigantic swaths of the National Archives were available for online consultation. Even the gloomy and officious Public Record Office, the bane of many a researcher, had slowly begun to digitize its collection.
Along the way, the very nature of research and information gathering had changed. When I was in grad school, my days in the libraries and archives felt like detective hunts. Much of the information I needed was difficult to track down, hard to access, and time-consuming to record and interpret. If I ended the day with even a snippet of relevant facts and figures, I felt I’d triumphed against the odds.
The opposite seems to be true now—some days I feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information that’s at my fingertips. How to judge the good from the bad? The reliable from the fantastic? The vetted from the mischievous or just plain dishonest?
I wouldn’t dream of saying I have a fail-safe approach, but I can suggest a few tips that will help you make the most of your time when researching.
- Start with reputable sources, such as digitized collections of official archives, museums, university libraries and the like. There you’ll find the sort of primary sources I used to dream about in grad school—and you won’t have to spend weeks on end in a musty reading room to access them.
- Don’t be afraid of Wikipedia, but don’t rely on it as a source in and of itself. Instead, think of it as a portal to other useful sources. If you see a piece of information that is promising, click on its accompanying footnote. Needless to say, if there are no footnotes, or if the sources cited are less than impeccable, you’ll want to take everything you read on that particular page with a generous pinch of salt.
- Google creatively. It’s something we all know by now, but tend to forget when we’re on the trail of an elusive piece of information: if your search comes up dry, try again. Use fewer keywords—or more. Try an image search and see what pops up. (So helpful when looking up details about costume or setting.) Whatever happens, don’t give up because Google tells you there’s nothing out there about 15th-century weaponry or weather patterns in the antebellum South or the method used by early 20th-century field surgeons to insert a chest tube. The latter, incidentally, is a search I performed recently, and it took a few tries before I began to get useful answers.
- Do a keyword search on Google Books. If you’re lucky you might be directed to a book or article that’s been digitized. Even if the book itself isn’t fully searchable, you may be able to look at the bibliography or footnotes in “snippet” format and glean some more information that way. If you don’t happen to live near a large university or reference library this can be a real time-saver.
- Don’t discount one-person-show websites. I’ve come across all kinds of sites set up by family genealogists, amateur historians and enthusiasts for arcane hobbies that look a bit rinky-dink but are actually goldmines of information. On one such site I found detailed railway timetables for the 1850s that someone had meticulously transcribed from some near-illegible pamphlets; on another I discovered scans of original Edwardian-era telephone directories for central London. Priceless!
- If all else fails, do the sniff test. Does what you’re reading seem a bit…off? Are the facts fascinating but lacking in any sort of documentation? Does the website’s author appear to have an ax to grind or an agenda to push? If so, take a step back and look for corroborating sources. It will take up some time, but it’s better than relying on information that’s worth less than the virtual paper it’s written on.
I’d love to hear what tactics you take when researching your works in progress. What is your gold standard for sources? And what makes you run a mile in the opposite direction?
An editor by profession but an historian by inclination, Juliana Ross lives in Toronto, Canada, with her husband and young children. In her spare time she cooks for family and friends, makes slow inroads into her weed patch of a garden, and reads romance novels (the steamier the better) on her eReader.
You can find Juliana on her website, Goodreads, Twitter, Facebook and—her newest obsession—Pinterest. And you can buy Improper Relations at most stores that sell eBooks, including Carina, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and All Romance.
What Binds Us, from Larry Benjamin
What made you want to write THIS story?
I wanted to write an m/m love story but I didn’t want it to be full of angst—I often joke that the book is Brokeback Mountain without the angst and poverty. Seriously, it was important that the characters in What Binds Us be open and accept themselves from the beginning and learn to surround themselves with those who support them. I wanted to tell a happy story but because the characters are so young, I thought it was important to capture the insecurity, the hesitation, the self doubt (he couldn’t possibly love me) that comes with youth, and show them growing up to overcome the obstacles they placed in the way of their own happiness. And finally I knew from the beginning I wanted to touch on the AIDS crisis but I didn’t want it to be the main focus of the story. Also I wanted it to come unexpectedly like it did to so many people at the very beginning. As Thomas-Edward says in the epilogue: “this is the story that had to be told: the story of the sun, the earth and the moon.”
Tell us about Thomas-Edward – why is he so special?
Thomas-Edward is special because he doesn’t realize how special he is. Early on he describes himself, with some bitterness, as “ordinary as dirt.” Yet he is the one who holds the family together, he is the one with the courage to return to Dondi’s mother not because he wants to but because he thinks Dondi needs her. And his capacity for love is enormous, even when their relationship ends he manages to hold on to and love Dondi despite how badly he was hurt. And let’s not forget he falls in love with two brothers and manages to keep them both in his life. How amazing is that?
And Donovan Whyte, your second hero; why is he so well-suited to your Thomas – or not?
I loved the Dondi character. He was so fabulous and so much fun to create. But he really was “too much” for Thomas to handle. Dondi is kind of the Suzanne Sugarbaker of young gay men. His appearance in Thomas-Edward’s life was pivotal and he introduced him into that “looking glass world where everything was familiar yet larger, more exquisite, more precious than anything he’d ever known,” but he wasn’t quite right, he wasn’t THE ONE. But he values Thomas-Edward above all others and even at age 19 he knows Thomas will always be in his life. And he prepares Thomas-Edward for the love of his life, introduces them in fact.
Same goes for his brother Matthew –how does he fit into this complex relationship?
Matthew is the absolute opposite of Dondi; if Dondi is the sun, he is the moon. “A mystery like a dark corner, or the far side of the moon,” it isn’t easy to tell what he’s thinking or how he feels about Thomas’ sudden appearance in hi s life. Quieter, less sure of himself than Dondi, he’s desperately in love with Thomas but unsure of Thomas’ relationship with Dondi, unsure Thomas even thinks of him that way he doesn’t confess his feelings. It’s this very reticence, this mystery, that captivates Thomas who is equally enamored of his former lover’s brother. Matthew is calm, loyal, a one man man, just the sort of man Thomas needs. To Thomas’s surprise he replaces Dondi in his heart.
What draws you to write in m/m romance genre?
All the How-to-write books advise you to “write what you know.” (laughter). As a gay man, it was important for me to get a positive story of two men in love and committed out there and for me that meant a story that wasn’t just about sex or romantic love but about friendship and family. I think we all have romantic dreams (God knows I do) but few of us actually live them. I wanted to show a romantic couple also faced with reality. They are perfectly happy when it is just the two of them yet when Dondi falls ill they take him in without a second thought. At one point when Dondi is sickest, Thomas mentions he and Matt no longer have the energy for sex, yet their love for each other never wavers.
What challenges have you faced in getting your stories out there?
Well you know this manuscript sat in a drawer for nearly 20 years. It was originally typed on a word processor. Publishers would tell me there was no market for the story. Agents would tell me the same thing, would advise me to read the best sellers list and write what others were writing. I never stopped believing that eventually this story would be told.
Recently a publisher rejected a collection of my short stories saying they liked the stories and thought I had a unique voice but my writing was “too literary” for their audience. I understand that books need to sell –publishers are running a business after all but I do think they need to broaden what’s available. There’s got to be readers interesting in reading fiction that’s a bit out of the ordinary that maybe challenges them a bit.
What books/heroes did you like growing up, and how have they inspired you in writing this story?
I read everything when I was a kid— F. Scott Fitzgerald, Charles Dickens, Jacqueline Susann, Kyle Onstott. Kyle Onstott wrote Mandingo, Falconhurst Fancy, Drum, among others, becoming a scandal and a sensation at the time. He inspired me most because his books were racy and they were totally different to anything widely available at the time. Later I discovered some amazing gay writers: James Baldwin, Felice Picano, Christopher Isherwood. I think outside of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Kyle Onstott, the gay writers were my biggest inspiration.
What are you working on next?
I just finished a collection of short stories, tentatively titled: Damaged Angels. In it I attempt to give literary voice to the usually invisible: hustlers and drug addicts, the mentally ill, people of color. Then on to my next novel; I have two ideas and am just trying to decide which to pursue next. I really want to do a prose poem with wonderful illustrations along the lines of Lewis Carroll’s nonsense poem, The Hunting of the Snark. So, we’ll see.
You can find Larry Benjamin online here at his website, or visit his blog, or at Goodreads, Amazon, Facebook and Twitter.
You can find Larry’s new release, What Binds Us, at these good sites:
What Gentlemen Prefer… with Joan Kilby
Gentlemen Prefer Nerds, By Joan Kilby
Self-professed nerd Maddie Maloney is an expert on jewels. Jewel thieves are another matter entirely! So when a mysterious Englishman warns her that a thief known as The Chameleon is after the rare pink diamond on display in her aunt’s shop, she tells herself it’s just a joke. Even if she can’t get Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome out of her mind…
But Fabian Montgomery doesn’t give up easily. He’s everywhere she goes, convinced the thief will strike. And when the diamond does go missing—and Maddie is suspected of stealing it—he whisks her away from the police and together they pursue The Chameleon. Fabian plunges her into a glamorous world far from her humble workshop and transforms geeky Maddie into a sophisticated siren capable of espionage. Her mission: to seduce The Chameleon and steal back the diamond.
But Fabian isn’t telling her everything—like who he works for, and why he’s so interested in The Chameleon…
Thanks so much for joining us, Joan! Tell us about yourself…
Hi Shannon, Thanks for having me on your blog! I live on the outskirts of Melbourne with my husband and three grown children. I love to cook (and eat!), read, go to the gym and travel. I’ve published over twenty books with Harlequin, mostly Superromance. Gentlemen Prefer Nerds is my first single title.
Okay, first question – where did this title come from, it’s great!
Author Nancy Warren came up with the title. We were rooming together at the RWA conference in Dallas in 2007. I was about to pitch my book to an agent but I didn’t have a title. Nancy came up with Gentlemen Prefer Nerds off the top of her head. It fits the story perfectly. Thank you Nancy!
What made you want to write THIS story?
I wanted to write a bigger book. I wanted it to be a fun story and a bit of a fantasy, as in romance fantasy. My original plot evolved but the premise remained, an ordinary woman is plucked out of her ordinary life by an extraordinary man and taken on a wild adventure. In the process she becomes the smartest, bravest, sexiest version of herself she can possibly be.
Tell us about Fabian Montgomery – why is he so special?
Fabian is James Bond with a heart. He’s aristocratic, autocratic, intelligent, good-looking and sexy as hell. He’s a pretty sharp dresser, too.
And Maddie Maloney, your heroine; why is she so well-suited to your hero – or not?
Maddie is the perfect foil for Fabian. They come from completely different worlds. He’s from an aristocratic English family; she’s Australian and her father and brothers walk on the shady side of the law. Maddie’s nerdy, gawky and timid but she does have a strong sense of herself. She’s also really smart and like Fabian, family means everything to her.
You have a string of successful novels already in print… what attracted you to digital publishing?
I couldn’t find a home for Gentlemen Prefer Nerds in traditional publishing. Agents and editors I queried all said they loved the premise, the characters and the writing but there was no market for this kind of story. I submitted to Carina Press and was accepted very quickly. Digital publishing can take chances that print publishing can’t or won’t. My experience with Carina and my editor Deborah Nemeth has been wonderful. I’m hoping readers will prove those agents and print publishers wrong.
What draws you to writing in the contemporary romance genre?
I love to read contemporary romance. I like a level of realism with a touch of larger-than-life stories I can conceivably imagine myself starring in. Vampires and shape-shifters just aren’t my cup of tea. I enjoy reading historicals but the research involved seems like too much work!
With such an impressive backlist, and after writing so many books, how do you keep coming up with fresh material?
I wonder that every time I start a new book! Unique characters are the key to keeping it fresh. When I dig into my characters backstories and flesh out their goals and motivations they gradually become individuals to me and the story comes alive. I consciously try not to repeat myself in theme or plot.
What books/heroes did you like to read, growing up, and how have they inspired you in writing this story?
Growing up, I devoured everything from Narnia Chronicles to horse stories to Enid Blyton’s Famous Five to Harriet The Spy. As I got older I loved comic novels such as Nancy Mitford’s Love In A Cold Climate and also PG Wodehouse. One of my favourite books is I Capture The Castle, a coming of age novel set in England. There’s something about a transformation story that appeals to me.
What are you working on next?
I’m working on a Superromance which will be an October 2012 release, TO BE A FAMILY. I also have another single title on the go although I haven’t had time to work on it for many months. And one of these days I want to write the sequel to Gentlemen Prefer Nerds. It’s intended to be the first of a three or four book series.
I’m giving away a copy of Gentlemen Prefer Nerds to one lucky commenter. Just tell me, are you more of a nerd or a glamazon? If you’re a nerd, is there an inner glamazon just dying to come out?
You can find Joan’s book, Gentlemen Prefer Nerds, at these recommended sites:
If you’d like to contact Joan directly, she can be found lurking here:
Tuesday Tidbits with Danger Zone, by Dee J. Adams
Thanks so much for joining us, Dee J! Tell us about yourself… 
Thanks for letting me come play Shannon! I’m happy to be here. Today is the week and a day anniversary of my second release, Danger Zone, and I’m still just as excited as I was on the actual release day.
A little about myself… I moved from Texas to Los Angeles after high school and have worked in show business for over twenty years. I discovered writing about eleven years ago and never looked back. (Now instead of working on one part as I did as an actor, I get to decide what everyone in the book does. It’s very God like and I enjoy it immensely. LOL.)
What made you want to write THIS story?
After writing Dangerous Race, I actually wrote two other books before I thought about Danger Zone. The idea of Mac’s little brother Quinn kind of knocked around in my head, but I knew I needed someone strong to throw Quinn off his game. Ellie was just the girl. Since I work in show business the idea of making a movie really appealed to me too. Ellie’s very close to my heart for several reasons, but the most important is a learning disability we both share.
Tell us about your hero – why is he so special?
Quinn is the ultimate playboy. He’s gorgeous, smart and rich, but it takes a near death experience for him see that life is more than just hopping from one woman to the next looking for the next best thing. He has a heart of gold, but no one was able to tap into it before Ellie.
And your heroine; why is she so well-suited to your hero – or not?
Ellie is perfect for Quinn because she doesn’t care about his wealth. She knows money doesn’t make the person and it’s not what impresses her about him. She is the real deal and once Quinn realizes this, he’s in for the long haul.
What draws you to writing romantic suspense?
That’s simple… I love reading it. I love the adrenaline rush, the need to turn the page and see what’s next. I love when my palms sweat because of what’s happening when I’m reading a great romantic suspense. I love when my heart races just like the hero and heroine. If I can bring any one of those elements to a reader, then my job is done.
What books/characters did you like to read, growing up, and how have they inspired you in writing this story?
I remember reading every Kathleen Woodiwiss and Judith McNaught book I could get my hands on. And then rereading them at every opportunity. Those two women wrote some of the greatest love stories ever written and if I am able to tell a story a fraction as well, then I’m still doing okay.
What are you working on next?
Currently, I’m about half way through a potential fourth book in the Adrenaline Highs series. I don’t want to give too much away in case I decide to toss it. LOL.
Thank you!
If you’d like to contact Dee J. Adams, you can visit her here:
Website: http://www.deejadams.com/index.html
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dee-J-Adams-author/202188539815974
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/DeeJAdams
To purchase her book, try here:
Thanks for visiting, Dee J, and good luck with DANGER ZONE!
Tuesday Tidbits with Veronica Scott
Thanks so much for joining us, Veronica! Tell us about yourself…
I grew up in a house full of science fiction, history, and other books, and when I ran out of things to read, I inevitably started writing my own stories. I got married at 19 to my high school sweetheart, was then widowed quite young, now have two grown daughters, a very energetic 9 year old grandson and cats. I’m always reading, writing or on twitter (except when I’m at the day job or on the freeways!). I’m very happy to be here today, thanks for inviting me!
What made you want to write THIS story?
I enjoy the Egyptian setting and there was a challenge involved in taking a character like the Crocodile God through an emotional arc. He’s been around since the universe was created yet never felt true love, doesn’t really relate to humans until he meets the right woman! Which puts his immortal heart in serious jeopardy of being shattered…
Tell us about your hero – why is he so special?
Sobek is always depicted by the Egyptians as either crocodile or half man/half crocodile. Some legends say he created the universe from chaos but then other gods came along, like Isis, and he took a back seat. He stoically continued his duties tending to the Nile, keeping it flowing smoothly and flooding on schedule. As a writer, I found him and his backstory intriguing. Looking at a painting of him one day, I realized he was a shifter, to use our paranormal terminology. If the half man/half crocodile form was a partial shift, obviously he could shift all the way and take human form if he wanted to. The ancient Egyptians just never saw him do it! But since I now knew the truth, I could write his story. And most importantly for a paranormal romance writer, he could fall in love with the right human woman.
And your heroine; why is she so well-suited to your hero – or not?
What kind of woman would appeal to a Crocodile God in his human form, would cause him to fall in love for the first time ever? Crocodiles are very sensitive to sound, so I felt that Merys’s beautiful singing would be what first attracts him, sight unseen, as well as the fact she enjoys singing the traditional songs he hasn’t heard in a long time. Merys is descended from a long line of priestesses, so she’s not afraid of him. She continues to do her best to keep the abandoned temple in some kind of order, which he appreciates, having been pushed aside by newer gods. Then as he gets to know her, he starts to understand the feelings of a human heart…
What draws you to writing historicals?
I don’t give myself credit for writing a historical novel as such. I do the research but then I shape my version of Egypt 3000 years ago to work with my paranormal tendencies. Once I decided to involve the gods and to create my own pharaoh, I went into a slightly alternate universe. I gave myself permission to tell the fast paced stories in my head, try to be as true to the actual time as I could be but no claims to 100% historical accuracy here!
Ancient Egypt is such an interesting time period – what made you choose that as a setting?
I’ve always been intrigued by ancient civilizations, how we try to piece together the puzzle of their history from broken monuments, tombs and fragments. The Egyptians were so focused on the aspects of the afterlife, yet you can see from the tomb paintings and household items how much like us they were as well. It’s fascinating to contemplate living in another time and place, and the adventures you – or your characters – could have. Did you turn up a detail in your research that really surprised you? I was amazed to find out how much the Egyptians respected the Crocodile God, hand raising large groups of crocodiles at certain temples, feeding them choice tidbits, adorning them with jewelry for the big festivals, even mummifying them. I knew about the Egyptians’ love for cats but had never heard of the crocodiles receiving similar treatment.
What books/characters did you like to read, growing up, and how have they inspired you in writing this story?
Two books in particular stand out for me, as far as Egypt – Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Shadow Hawk by Andre Norton. Both told exciting stories against the rich background of history and left me wondering what happened to the characters next. I loved historical fiction, science fiction – anything that transported me to another time and place and had the elements for adventure!
What are you working on next?
I’ve got more stories in this connected series in various stages of editing and submission. I love Ancient Egypt and the ideas keep flowing. I just finished book #3, tentatively titled “Dancer of the Nile” and sent it to my Critique Partner.
Veronica’s novel, Priestess of the Nile, can be found at Carina Press, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all good e-tailer sites.
If you want to catch up with Veronica online, here is where you can find her:
http://veronicascott.wordpress.com/
http://twitter.com/#!/vscotttheauthor
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Veronica-Scott/177217415659637
To Epilogue or Not To Epilogue – THAT is the question!
A few Romance Writers’ of Australia conferences back, I had the great pleasure of hearing the fabulous Jenny Crusie speak. I’m a huge JC fan and buy a new book of hers the minute they come out, but one thing that really struck me when she spoke was her complete and utter disrespect (LOL) for epilogues.She hates them. Doesn’t think they are necessary in romance novels if you’ve done a good job during the actual story of convincing the readers that the hero and heroine are meant to be together.
But I have a confession to make… I LOVE THEM!
I was one of the sad romantic fans who loved that J.K.Rowling wrote an epilogue in the final Harry Potter book. I loved that she rounded off the happy ending, especially because it was the romance thread of the series.
In ONE PERFECT NIGHT (Carina Press), I wrote an epilogue. It shows the hero and heroine one year (exactly) into their relationship – how things have changed and how their love has been consolidated. A friend of mine recently read the book and she said she was SO glad that I’d written an epilogue because she’s sick of reading romances that end abruptly at the resolution.
In my upcoming June release JILTED (Mira, Australia), there isn’t an epilogue. I wrote one but after a CP said it wasn’t necessary, I cut it. In this book, I think she was right.
In the novel I’ve just subbed to Carina Press (working title: HOLLYWOOD HEARTBREAK), there isn’t an epilogue either, but I’m wondering if maybe there should be.
So I guess what I’m saying is I don’t think there are any hard and fast rules when it comes to writing and reading epilogues. Like many things in life, it really comes down to the individual (in this case book). Some books work well with epilogues and some don’t.
I’d like to leave you with an extract from the epilogue of ONE PERFECT NIGHT. Also, I’d love to hear in the comments section about your thoughts on epilogues. Do you love them, hate them or have never really given it any thought? Is there any epilogue you’ve read lately that really stood out in its brilliance?
Thanks so much for having me Shannon and also your readers for reading my rambles
EXTRACT ONE PERFECT NIGHT
“Don’t look now but that damn-sexy husband of yours just walked in with your cute-as-pie daughter.” Peppa laughed at Izzy and took the glass of champagne she held out toward her. She indulged in one sip but, as she was still nursing Angelina, she exchanged the rest for a glass of orange juice. “I’ll let you in on a little secret,” she said, leaning closer to Izzy as she surveyed the crowd around them enjoying the annual office Christmas party. Izzy raised her eyebrows in excited anticipation. “He’s damn fine at changing nappies too.” “Ooh.” Izzy pressed the back of her hand against her brow, pretending to swoon. “I just love a man who doesn’t shy away from domestic duties. Perhaps if I found someone with such talents, even I could contemplate the whole white-picket-fence deal.” Peppa was about to proclaim her approval at Izzy’s words—if her happiness levels this past year were anything to go by, she strongly believed everyone should be blissfully married—but Cameron returned with their little miracle and she lost her train of thought.
Book Blurb of ONE PERFECT NIGHT:
Peppa Grant’s fellow employees may call their new CEO Mr. McSexy, but she’s also heard that he’s aloof and distant. Cameron McCormac certainly seems cold toward Christmas when she meets him at the company’s annual party…but he’s also the sexiest man Peppa has ever seen. And when he offers to forgive the damage she accidentally caused to his expensive car in exchange for accompanying him to his family’s holiday get-together, she agrees.
Cameron needs a date to the family party to get his matchmaking relatives off his back. Their chemistry is instant and undeniable, leading to an incredible one-night stand. But Peppa wants love and family, while Cameron’s only interested in temporary pleasure. When their relationship takes an unexpectedly serious turn, will he run the other way—or will he give love a second chance?
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rachael-Johns/260103224001776
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/RachaelJohns @RachaelJohns
Blog: http://www.rachaeljohns.blogspot.com/
Website: www.rachaeljohns.com
To buy links: Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005Z1CF2A/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_alp_sCZRob15EH9MT
and Carina Press – http://ebooks.carinapress.com/262D0727-23A2-4E9D-B75E-249FF29C76DF/10/134/en/ContentDetails.htm?ID=5BB8BC4C-4898-4073-8306-FECF92B5DC5B
Rachel Johns’ book, One Perfect Night, has just been made a Finalist in the Favourite Contemporary Romance for 2011 in the Australian Romance Readers Awards. 
Congratulations, Rachel, and good luck!
Tuesday Tidbits: Liz Flaherty, One More Summer
Thanks so much for joining us, Liz! 
Tell us a little about yourself…
Life is new and wonderful for me these days. I retired from the post office in 2011, promptly gained 15 pounds—overnight, I swear!—and promised my grandkids, The Magnificent Seven, that I would make each of them a bed-size quilt. I also planned to write all day, every day.
What was I thinking?
I’ve learned to write when I feel like it, sew when I feel like it, and maybe even to eat a little less. I’ve gone back to school, where, yes, I am far and away the oldest kid in class. I’ve learned to share the house and sometimes even the kitchen with Duane, my husband of, oh, lots of years. And I’m having a Very, Very Good Time.
My fifth book—I’m not an overnight success, but I never give up—ONE MORE SUMMER, is a new release by Carina Press. I am thrilled to the point that everyone I know rolls their eyes as soon as I open my mouth.
What made you want to write THIS story?
Oh, my gosh, I was so lucky. This was one of those that wrote itself. I know how goofy that sounds, but I gave up trying to drive the writing train after the first chapter and just let it go. That had never happened before, nor has it happened since, but it was certainly fun (and exhausting—I was getting up at 3:00 AM to write) while it lasted.
Tell us about Dillon, your hero – why is he so special?
He’s just a nice guy, you know? He’s the one who can be as bad as he needs to be, but he’d just as soon not. He’s a good friend, the kid who lived next door your whole life and one day you woke up and realized he was the man of your dreams and there he’d been the whole time.
And Grace, your heroine; why is she so well-suited to your hero – or not?
I’m not so sure they’re well-suited in a lot of ways. My husband and I, even after 40 years, have virtually nothing in common (other than the Magnificent Seven and their parents, of course) and we have managed to disagree about every single thing that’s ever jumped into our paths. And I wouldn’t trade a minute of those 40 years. I think Dillon and Grace are more like us. Only she’s slim. Sigh.
What draws you to writing in the romance genre?
First, last, and foremost, happily ever after. I love relationship books, and romances are the ultimate in that.
What books/heroes did you like to read, growing up, and how have they inspired you in writing this story?
Well, Louisa May Alcott was the one. I literally read the covers off Little Women when I was about 10 or 11, and there was no looking back. I knew I wanted to do what she did. There were others who spurred me on, too—Jane Austen anyone?—but she started it all.
Heroes? Oddly enough, I have to go to the movies to answer that. Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart, James Arness, John Wayne. They were bigger than life and I saw them as loving men who would not only protect and love their women, but would accept love and protection, too. I loved the heroes in books, too—oh, Mr. Rochester—but I learned how I wanted to write them from the ones in the movies.
What are you working on next?
Blogging! LOL. No, I’ve started a new manuscript, working title, Desperado, but it’s going slowly and I’m not sure it’s going to fly. Mostly, I’m having the aforementioned Good Time, and if that means starting over again, that’s okay, too.
Thanks so much for having me here today. I’ve enjoyed it.
My book—you knew there’d be a commercial, didn’t you?—is available at the following links.
http://ebooks.carinapress.com/19C28077-E8B2-400A-ACBF-FAE0579EE2F0/10/134/en/Default.htm
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/one-more-summer-liz-flaherty/1107412429
http://www.amazon.com/One-More-Summer-ebook/dp/B006BE6HAG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324908781&sr=8-1
I’d love to have you visit my website http://lizflaherty.com or http://wordwranglers.blogspot.com/ where I hang out with some of my best writer friends.
Excerpt from One More Summer
by Liz Flaherty
It was no use. Grace had taken her lengthy bath in the claw foot tub, shaved her legs and nicked her ankle right on the bone where it hurt most, and put on her chenille robe. She’d poured a tumbler full of the expensive wine Steven had brought a case of and sat on the couch with the book she’d gotten at the library when she’d read to the kids earlier in the week. Louisa May slept on the couch back, twitching her tail occasionally and smacking Grace in the face with it. Rosamunde dozed contentedly in the baseball cap Dillon had left on the lamp table. The window behind the couch was open, affording Grace a cooling breeze scented by the rain that had fallen that evening.
She’d already gotten up once and closed the pocket doors between the living room and the dining room. But she could still hear it.
Laughing. There were Jonah’s guffaw, Maxie’s theatrical trill, and the husky whoop that was always such a surprise coming from Promise’s soprano throat. Now and then another laugh slipped in, quieter than Jonah’s but no less gleeful. Dillon was there too. They sat on the screened porch, a good forty feet from where Grace sat with her feet up, and still she could hear them.
They were playing Monopoly. Grace hadn’t played that since the day before her mother died. She remembered that last game, the board balanced on a bed tray across Debbie Elliot’s legs in the room that smelled of Cashmere Bouquet talcum powder and sickness and medicine. Faith had sat on one side of her mother, Promise on the other, and Grace at the bed’s end.
“Sit on my feet a little, baby,” Debbie had said. “You keep them so nice and warm.”
Grace had won the game, and the next day—when Debbie was dead and life for the rest of the Elliots had irrevocably changed—she had hated herself for buying Boardwalk and Park Place and forcing her mother into bankruptcy.
“I made her die,” she’d told Steven.
“Her heart made her die,” he’d responded, but Grace hadn’t really believed him until he became a cardiac surgeon.
Sometimes, she still wondered. If Debbie had napped in the evening as she often did, would that hour of rest have made the difference? If Grace hadn’t sat on her mother’s feet with her eighty-five pounds of almost-twelve-year-old exuberance, would the final heart attack not have happened?
But she refused to think about those things now, nor would she consider the game of Monopoly with an inward shudder of dread. She thought instead of the laughter that was dancing along her nerve endings, and wondered if anyone else was using the little iron as their token for moving around the board. The iron had always been her favorite. She liked the way it felt between her fingers.
If she just got off her couch and wandered toward the porch like she was bored with her own company—which she was—would anyone make a big deal out of it? If Promise or the others acted surprised by her presence, Dillon Campbell would think she’d joined them just because he was there. Which was nonsense.
Of course it was.
She remembered how Dillon’s hand had felt when he pulled her to her feet the night before. She’d avoided unnecessary touch all her adult life, and one squeeze of Dillon Campbell’s fingers had her wondering if that hadn’t been a mistake.
More nonsense.
She tried again to devote full attention to the book, but finally gave up and laid it aside. She sat in the harsh light from the reading lamp and sipped her high dollar wine and listened to the laughter of the others. Isolation and loneliness wrapped around her, not new feelings by any means, but somehow deeper and darker tonight.
Maybe this time, as Promise often accused, she was excluding herself and the loneliness was of her own making. Maybe if she stepped onto the back porch, no one would make a fuss and no one would make her feel as though she didn’t belong. It was, after all, her porch.
Carrying her glass, she whispered open the pocket doors and strode barefoot through the deserted dining room and the kitchen with its ever-present light over the sink. After a moment’s hesitation, she pushed open the door to the porch.
“Replacement power. Just in time.” Promise’s smile was wide and brilliant. Welcome to the human race. Grace heard the words she didn’t say. “Now that I’ve been trounced, Grace can take my place while I make popcorn. No one’s using your iron, so have at it.”
Grace sat in the chair Promise vacated, taking the little metal iron from the Monopoly box. It still felt nice between her fingers.
“I’m the banker,” Jonah informed her, passing money around the table. “Since I’m better at losing money than anyone else, I was unanimously elected.”
“I don’t even know why I play.” Maxie sighed, fluffing her blond hair with heavily be-ringed fingers. “I seem to spend all my time in jail. Unless Dillon rescues me with his ‘get out of jail free’ cards,” she added with a flutter of eyelashes.
“I’m just a soft touch for a pretty lady.” Dillon smiled at her, his eyes glinting silver in the dim, yellow light on the porch.
Grace’s heart hammered against her ribs.
Geezy Pete, Grace, grow up.
Liz has generously contributed a copy from her backlist to a lucky reader. Leave a comment, and enter the draw! Winner will be announced 16 Jan.
Whenever Never Comes
I’m completely normal. Seriously. Statistically, a whopping 75% will still be sticking to our New Year’s resolution by 14th Jan. Alas, by 1st June that number drops to 46%. I’ve almost gotten to the stage of making a resolution with the expectation of breaking that resolution by March. At the latest.
Let’s take a look at my last year’s resolutions (cringe!):
Drop 4 dress sizes and be fit and fabulous.
– Didn’t quite work out. As in, I didn’t quite work out.
Get two romantic suspense books written and published.
– Actually, this one kind of worked. My first book, Viper’s Kiss, was released July 25, 2011, and my second book will be coming out May 2012 – but was accepted for publication within 2011.
Finish my middle grade fiction.
– Did that. Have learned there is a big step between finishing a book, and getting it published – which leads me to the purpose of this post – S.M.A.R.T. GOALS.
I’ve actually presented on this very topic with my fabulous critique group, the Writer’s Coven, and kick myself that I haven’t used the same philosophy in my New Year’s Resolutions. Well, this year, I will.
A S.M.A.R.T. goal is:
Specific – no generalisations, be specific about what you want to achieve, when and how.
Measurable – when you’re specific, you can see whether you achieve your goal, or not.
Achievable – within your control. Your goal can’t rely on another’s actions to be achieved.
Realistic – within the bounds of reality. Don’t set yourself up for failure with an unrealistic goal.
Time-bound – put a limit on your goal, so that you can measure your success. No use saying you want to give up smoking, by whenever. Whenever never comes.
My S.M.A.R.T. writing goals for 2012:
Finish writing and submitting two more romantic suspense novels by Dec 31st 2012.
Complete and submit two novellas by Oct 31st 2012.
Plot out a trilogy, and start writing Book 1 by Nov 1st 2012.
My S.M.A.R.T. personal goals for 2012:
Create a personal timetable by Feb 20th 2012 to better organise the home life.
Lose 15kgs by July 1st 2012.
Read 3 fiction books that have nothing to do with my writing, purely for enjoyment, by Dec 31st 2012.
Have a date night each month with my husband.
What are your goals?
Techno Nerd vs Techno Turd
Digital Publishing
For those of you who know me, this won’t come as a great surprise. Not even a mild one. I’m a TT – Techno Turd. I’m crap at this technology gig. I wish I was a TN – Techno Nerd.
But I’m not.
These two positions are in a constant state of flux, just as the continuous advancement of technology is. A TT can still become a TN by learning more, talking with others, and seeking out experts. A TN can become a TT, particularly when a new gizmo or gadget becomes available to the market, and they don’t adopt the new technology.
My novel, Viper’s Kiss, has some technical aspects to it. It involves Trojan Horse computer viruses, malware and spyware, surveillance technology, and (##beware, spoiler alert###) an invisible suit. It all sounds a little James Bond – but not as absurd as one would think. During the research for this novel, I was stunned to learn that there are universities actually investigating invisibility. I was also surprised to learn how sneakily creative hackers can be, and how prevalent they are. Suddenly, the fantastic becomes the possible, the just-around-the-corner innovation becomes the standard. Remember Captain Kirk touching his chest and saying “Beam me up, Scotty,” and Scotty would hear that command and, well, beam him up? Back then we called it Science Fiction. Now we call it Bluetooth.
But the one standout I’ve discovered with this novel is digital publishing. Viper’s Kiss is released through Harlequin’s Digital-First imprint, Carina Press. Viper’s Kiss is an e-book. Have you ever heard a TT try to explain to the uninitiated what an e-book is? Lots of hand gestures, lots of technical terms, such as thingamajig and whozeewhatsit, and then curiosity as we both figure out what I’m trying to say.
Anyway, an e-book is, to put it simply, a book in electronic format. You download it, read it off your computer or e-reader device of choice, as opposed to buying the hardcopy and reading the paper the words are printed on. (Notice, there was a slight shift for me there, from TT to TN. Okay, it was a tiny shift, but I’ll celebrate it!)
At the Romance Writers of Australia Conference there was a lot of talk about the Digital Age, a lot of it conflicting. It’s going to kill The Book, it’s the best/worst thing to hit publishing, booksellers will be the losers/winners, readers will have access to more books, better books, rubbish books; authors will lose out/win big –it’s the death of an age/the dawn of an age…
The one thing I have realised is that while there are fantastic Techno Nerds out there who understand the current technology and are benefiting from it – you only have to look at the quantity of e-reader devices that restrict sharing and limit reading and access to specific formats – but that’s a topic for another day! When it comes to what the future holds, we’re all Techno Turds. Nobody knows what effect the digital age will have on publishing, on writing, and, more importantly, on reading. But are we really at the ‘sink or swim’ stage? If we don’t embrace the technology and ride along with it, will we be left behind?
Bob Mayer mentions in his Write it Forward workshop (presented at the same conference), that anytime you react strongly and negatively to something, that’s your greatest defences at work, and your greatest defences are built around your weaknesses, your uncertainty and fear.
Face the fear, and work through it, Bob says.
Confront it.
Well, there are already a number of publishers doing just that. Harlequin, for one, with Carina Press. Avon have launched their digital imprint, Avon Impulse. Now Australia’s Pan MacMillan are about to launch their digital imprint, Momentum.
The key is to remember that all technology was new and frightening, at some point – for example; the telephone (yes, I realise those bills still make it frightening), medicine, electricity – I’m sure that Noah’s Ark was viewed with equal parts derision and fear, much like e-books. Well, wouldn’t you rather have been on the ark than watching it float past?
What do you think? How do you think e-books and digital publishing will effect reading, writing and publishing in the future?
Watch Viper’s Kiss!
It’s just a little bit cool to be able to watch your book.
Okay, maybe not as cool as someone actually making a blockbuster movie out of your novel, but I’ll settle for the book trailer, for now!
I’ve discovered I’m a sucker for a book trailer – must be something to do with all those hours spent with gal pals in darkened cinemas on Cheap Tuesdays, hungrily devouring the latest flick to make it to the silver screen. I’m an avid movie-watcher, so I guess it’s a natural progression to enjoy mini book movies!
So, what is a book trailer? Some would say it’s a savvy promotional tool used by authors and publishers to help sell a book – but I’m not so sure. I’ve never purchased a book as a result of viewing a book trailer. And sometimes I’m hopeless – I won’t remember the title or the author, but I will remember that it’s the one with the zombies, aliens and pirates, and that beautiful red dress. Book trailers are basically the book blurb in a visual format – like a movie trailer, but it’s advertising a book to read, not a movie to watch.
Some book trailers are wonderfully big budget – real actors, instead of your family, or the person walking past your letterbox at the wrong time. Music, special effects – there are some trailers that are just as enjoyable to watch as a full-length movie – only you never see the resolution in the trailer. Well, if you did, you wouldn’t bother getting the book, right? And then there are trailers that are cleverly done on a shoestring budget, displaying ingenuity in getting the concept of the book across to the viewer. And some, well some are just plain crap.
Personally, I just like to watch them. All of them.
And for all you time-suck victims out there, here is the trailer for my romantic suspense novel, Viper’s Kiss. Hope you enjoy!
Have you got favourite book trailer? Tell me about it!
Writer's Ink 