February 7, 2015 · 11:00 am

I hear voices…

My new book is slated for release on March 4; I’m finishing up the final galley edits on book 2, and have just submitted book 3 to me editor ( and  boy, don’t I love saying that!). And I still have 5 books in current production – which means they are at varying stages on my laptop, anywhere from outlined to first three chapters, to almost done with first or final draft.

Yup, I write a lot.

A lot!

I’ve got voices yelling at me at all hours of the day and night inside my head, screaming to be let out. Sounds like a schizophrenic’s nightmare, but no, it’s just li’l ole me and my overactive, non-quiescent imagination.

There are just not enough hours in the day sometimes for me to try and quiet all these people down. And the only way to do that is to commit them to paper – or in my case – laptop. With my upcoming retirement in April, I pray I finally have enough time to devote to all these characters vying for my individual attention. As it is now,  I am just skimming the surface of my desire to write full time. Once my paying job goes the way of the dinosaur I won’t have to squeeze in writing while I wait for the laundry to be done, or after I’ve gotten the groceries bought and put away, or decided what to make for dinner and then make it!

The house will – hopefully – no longer endure the invasion of the tumble weeds that roll out daily from underneath the furniture; I won’t be able to write my  name in the dust settling on the furniture, and when I walk across the carpets, dust bunnies won’t fly up from under my steps.

I plan on being able to write to my heart’s desire during the typical workday. I am usually good mental-wise from 4 am until about 1-2ish. Sharp and focused, I can write the most coherent stuff during those times. After 2-3 I start to wane, so that’s when I plan on doing all the other stuff that needs my attention – like clean, cook, pay bills, etc. At least that’s my plan.

We’ll see how it goes. But until then, the voices are  yelling at me again, so off I go to quiet the crazies….

 

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February 5, 2015 · 11:30 pm

I must be a real author now!!

So I must be a REAL author because I have an author page on Amazon.com. The link to it is http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00T8E5LN0.

Come on over and leave me some love, FOLLOW me and check back in a week or so for the “buy link” for my March 4 release of Skater’s Waltz from the Wild Rose Press.

Now, I just have to figure out how to list myself on Goodreads!

 

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February 5, 2015 · 5:01 pm

In a relationship? That’s fodder for a great story…really!

It’s kinda difficult to be in a relationship with yourself. Usually, you need 2 or more in the relationship to define it as such. Now before you get on Twitter and tell me the most important relationship is with yourself, hear me out.

I write romantic stories about men and women who find each other, suffer through hardships, and wind up living their happily ever after.  I was asked once, how do I think up the people I write about?  Well, here’s my dirty little secret concerning my writing: I don’t make my characters up completely from my imagination. I actually incorporate nuances, characteristics, speaking patterns, etc, from people I know, have met, or have seen.  I’m a huge observer. Part of my scientific educational background is in observation and methodology.  In lay terms, I’m a watcher. Voyeur is too skanky a word to use because there’s nothing sexually based about my people watching. And the people I watch the most are couples.

When I’m out at a restaurant, I’ll discreetly glance around me and see who’s together, what they’re doing, how they’re acting towards one another. I may see an older man and woman holding hands across a table, waiting for their drinks to arrive. Or, I may observe a younger couple each glancing down at their cell phones and not at each other as they wait for theirs. I’ve seen couples seated at a square table for four sitting opposite one another or next to each other. If they’re seated in a booth, same thing. Either across the table, or together in the same seat, the guy’s arm draped around the girl.

All of these behaviors tell me something about the relationship that I can use for my own characterizations.

Ever go shopping with your significant other? It’s a trip, that’s for sure. In malls, I make it a strategic habit to watch men and women shop together. Body language is a huge component of my writing, especially in a non-love scene. You can learn so much about a character by how one non-verbally responds to the other. Next time you’re in a shopping mall, check out the couples you see milling about. Are they holding hands? Arms draped over shoulders as they amble along? Are they talking? Is one person the main talker, with the partner nodding every so often giving the illusion of listening? Or is it a real dialogue where the two of them are responding verbally to one another? In a store, does the partner simply wait in a chair while the other shops or do they shop together, giving opinions, etc? Are opinions valued or poo-pooed away? Are complements given? Watch a man’s face the next time you see his woman modeling something sexy for him in a store and you’ll know exactly what I mean.

I was at a professional baseball game once and “listened” to a couple seated in front of me. They were on a first date – how do I know? The girl mentioned it as she and the guy were talking. She had never been to a pro-game before and he was explaining who was who on the home team.  Remember I said body language is key? Well, he was leaning into her as he spoke, and she to him as she listened, their shoulders touching often. He didn’t need to raise his voice to be heard because the noise level was good – not overbearing as it can be – so there was no reason for him to be so close to her just to be heard. They maintained eye contact throughout speaking. At one point during the game the home boys earned three runs on a single pitch. The entire stadium was on it’s feet, including the first daters. He grabbed her and hugged her in his exuberance and I swear I could see her fall in love with him before my eyes. The stadium could have been empty except for the two of them at that moment. I used that scene in an upcoming book of mine, First Impressions,  and I was giddy when I was writing it because I’d actually seen it played out in front of me.

If you’re a writer, your every  day experiences, the people you meet – even the people you know – are all fodder for you to use when you create your characters. Of course you never want to copycat a real person into a character – you’re setting yourself up for some serious legal action if you do! But there’s nothing wrong with a little cut and paste between people you know or have interacted with and your characters.

One final caveat: friends, loved ones, and family – please do not now LOOK for yourself in my characters when you read my books! You will never recognize yourselves if I’ve “used” you.

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January 30, 2015 · 9:51 am

An interview and an Anniversary with author Susan A. Wall

IMG_1095s copy

3_Suspicion

 

Fellow NHRWA member, Susan A. Wall is visiting me today, talking about the one year anniversary of her third Puget Sound book, The Sound of Suspicion. Susan is a multi-published author, the number 1 Bon Jovi fan, and one of the greatest cheerleaders I know for fellow authors.  Stick around after you read the interview: Susan is doing a giveaway. It’s an honor and privilege to host her today.

 

Susan, it’s the 1 year anniversary of the publication of your third PUGET SOUND book The Sound of Suspicion. First of all, congratulations! Tell us why you are so drawn to this setting. What does Puget Sound – itself – mean to you as a woman and as an author?

For our third wedding anniversary, my husband took me to Seattle (he’s from eastern Washington). I instantly fell in love with the city, the water, the mountains, all the green (they call it the Emerald City for a reason), the casual nature of the people. I knew someday we would live there and we did for a year (2003-2004). We plan to move back after the kids are all grown up.

We met your Hero and Heroine for the first time in book 1, The Sound of Consequence. Why did you decide to continue telling their story in book 3?

When I wrote the first book, I knew then it would be a three book story for Owen and Stacie because each of their pasts are so complex and have had such a tremendous impact on the people they are. At that point, it was only going to be a three book series, but then I fell in love with Jenny, Bryan, and Morgan and knew the world needed to hear their stories as well. Right now the series is mapped out to include 9 stories because those secondary characters keep wanting to be the center of attention. So we will be seeing Owen and Stacie again in the fifth book, The Sound of Circumstance, out later this year – that story finally gives Stacie closure on her past.

The title of your book, The Sound of Suspicion, informs the reader right away issues of trust are coming their way. Owen and Stacie both seem to have this problem with trust in spades. How did you decide how each character would handle their issues? Did any personal past experiences guide you in how they dealt with their concerns?

How did I decide? Haha. You’re funny, Peggy. My stories are very character driven and the characters like to control the outcome from the get-go. I like to write strong women because that is the kind of woman I am and I have so many strong women in my life. But even the strongest woman faces challenges. Stacie is mature and responsible, but with the traumatic brain injury, she’s lost some of that and it makes her very interesting, but her strength still shines even in the worst situations. She is exactly the kind of woman Owen needs to help him get through his ex-wife’s manipulations.

You are an extremely prolific writer. Tell us a little about your process. Do you write every day? Do you have a certain word count that needs to be completed before you are satisfied and call it a day?

Thanks. I write in layers, so when I sit down to write a book, I write fast and furious and generally have word count goals each day. Drafting is my favorite part of the process, which is probably why I do it so quickly. Once the book is drafted, I go back to add details such as setting, physical details of the characters, the five senses, etc. This part of the process takes longer than drafting. Then I go into editing mode and polish (obsess) until I’m happy with the story. Once I’m happy, I ship it off to my editor and deal with the self-doubt that plagues every writer. Fortunately, my editor is as good at stroking my ego as she is at finding holes in my plots. I generally write every day, but sometimes I get into a slump and you can tell when that is because I’m antsy and irritable. Writing makes me happy and easier to live with.

You are a big NANOWRIMO fan and participant. Did the Sound of Suspicion start as a NANOWRIMO production?

I LOVE NANOWRIMO, the challenge of hitting word count goals every day, how quickly the story comes together. I’ve participated and won four years in a row, but The Sound of Suspicion was written before I started doing NANOWRIMO. Owen and Stacie’s next story, The Sound of Circumstance was my 2nd Nano book and I wrote it in 12 days (really, the book wrote itself). The sixth book in the series is my 3rd Nano novel. I plan to have that book out this year too! 

I know you are a big music fan, Hallahhh! Bon Jovi!! Did any music inspire you while writing The Sound of Suspicion? What do you usually listen to while writing?

With every book I write, I create a playlist. Certain lyrics grab me and just speak to the story and the characters. There are 30 songs on my “Suspicion” playlist. A few of them are: You Save Me by Kenny Chesney; You Had Me From Hello by Bon Jovi, Hard to Love by Lee Brice, Every Road Leads Home to You by Richie Sambora, Your Arms Feel Like Home by 3 Doors Down, Glitter In the Air by P!nk, Undo It by Carrie Underwood, Phantoms In the Night by Blabpipe.

Not only are you a prolific writer, you also do all your own graphics and designs on your books – which, BTW, are great! How much time do you devote to the covers and designs of your books, and how do you KNOW when you’ve got it just right?

Thanks. I’m fortunate that my background in instructional design has helped me develop graphic design skills. I spend a tremendous amount of time on covers because I tend to be a perfectionist and a bit obsessive. I send it out for people to give feedback and when I can just sit there and not find anything to nitpick, then I know it’s right. I love doing my own covers because it is such an intimate connection to the story and the characters.

What’s next writing/publication-wise for you? What are you working on?

I plan to publish books 5 and 6 in my Puget Sound ~ Alive With Love series this year (The Sound of Circumstance, which is Stacie and Owen’s final story and The Sound of Reluctance, Holly and Keith’s (Stacie’s brother) story). They are both drafted, so just need to go through the revision and editing process. I’m also polishing a women’s fiction story titled Too Many Daughters (my first Nanowrimo novel) and hope to pitch to an agent at the RWA National Conference in July. And, I’m writing Worth the Fight, the next story in my Fighting Back For Love series – those books will be on sale Feb 3- 5 to recognize World Cancer Day.

I love quick fire rounds, so here’s yours. One word answers ( if you can):

Favorite color: purple

Favorite band: Bon Jovi

Favorite character in literature – not your own!: Colleen O’Rourke (Kristan Higgins)

Best date night location: Pub

Boxers or briefs: boxers

Sweet or salty: Salty

Favorite word: Wicked

Least favorite word: die

Chocolate or vanilla: Chocolate

Patriots or Seahawks: Seahawks

Best song ever written: The Star Spangled Banner

Susan is doing a Goodreads giveaway. Here’s the link for those interested:

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/124533-the-sound-of-suspicion

Following is a complete list of places you can find Susan’s work and visit with her. Stop by and send her some love!

The Sound of Suspicion (free at Amazon Jan 30 – Feb 3) http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Suspicion-Puget-Alive-Love-ebook/dp/B00I56PSLW

Website (and blog): www.susanannwall.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/susanannwall.author

Twitter: (@susanannwall) https://twitter.com/susanannwall

Tsu: www.tsu.co/authorsusanannwall

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/susanannwall/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/susanannwall

Relay for Love and A Flame Burns Inside will be $.99 Feb 3 – 5 to recognize World Cancer Day (Feb 4).

Here are the Amazon links (they are available at other ebook retailers too):

http://www.amazon.com/Relay-Love-Fighting-Back-Book-ebook/dp/B00ICVK7JS

http://www.amazon.com/Flame-Burns-Inside-Fighting-Back-ebook/dp/B00ID7XNC4

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January 29, 2015 · 2:52 pm

Snowbound and writing, but…

IMG_0136IMG_0144It was a balmy -8 degrees when I started writing this morning. Hasn’t gotten much higher five hours later. I’ve been in the house since monday evening when the snowmageddon started and today I had to finally venture out into the real world. Groceries were calling, the bank account needed something added to it so bill collectors wouldn’t come calling, and the car was screaming for petrol. It’s been nice being a hermit for the past few days, writing to my heart’s content and watching the world get by in the snow on my television.   I finished and submitted book 3 in my MacQuire Women series to my editor for a perusal; I blogged a bunch; I set up visits to other author websites to promote my new release on March 4. All in all, it’s been a productive few days for writing.

But…

I haven’t only been writing. For the first time in a long while I could devote hour after hour to my laptop obsession and I found I wanted to do other things in addition to just writing. Things like work on the decoupage trunk project I’ve got going…or clean my house of the tumbleweeds that have invaded under the furniture…or bake. I’ve been baking up a winter storm’s worth of stuff.

In the past, my paying job work schedule has interfered with my time ability to write. For the past three days, since the forced snow-isolation, I’ve not had to worry about finishing up a scene by a certain time because I had to get to work, or go to sleep so I could wake up and get to work. This tells you how long it’s been since I’ve had a real vacation! My official retirement date is April 30th of this year. After that, I will have all day everyday in which to write – my dream come true.

Only now I think I will have other pursuits lined up as well.

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January 27, 2015 · 12:05 pm

Snowmageddon strikes as I write away…

21 inches of snow already here in the woods and the storm isn’t even half over. Isn’t it funny how a snow day  strikes the same happy chord in my adult heart as it did in my child one?

I’ve been up for hours due to the howling wind shaking against my weather treated windows, just watching it fall and writing. I’ve gotten 50 pages of edits under my belt, answered 18 emails, tweeted with 10 peeps, answered a few Facebook questions and am now blogging. Oh, and I made a batch of blueberry muffins for the hubman’s breakfast – who also has a snow day. His first in over 30 years of working! Can you think of a more fun thing for me to do than be snowbound with my laptop?? I can’t…well, I could if provoked, but I’d rather not!!

I got my official release date for my first book SKATER’S WALTZ. It’s March 4, 2015 so now I am embarking on the media junket. I have several blog tours already in the works but I need to get the press release to the local newspaper and then plot the rest of my media blitz. This is wicked time consuming,- but I will admit – fun! I know now, though, why multi-published authors with expense accounts opt to have publicists. I can see myself -someday- paying someone to do all this leg work. But for now, it’s lil’ole’ me doing it, so I am off to find more blogs to tour and presses to release to.

Stay warm, dry, safe and cozy where ever you are during this bit of winter wonder. Oh, and buy my book on March 4th!! I’ll put up the buy links when they are available. Shameless plug, wasn’t that?!

 

 

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January 24, 2015 · 10:04 am

I’m on a time out and I’m NOT in trouble!

I’ve said many times before that any day I can write something – a page, a chapter, a blog entry, hell – even a grocery list! – is a good day for me. To put pen to paper, or in my case fingers to keyboard, just gives me a feeling of utter accomplishment and glee. I write everyday that I can and it’s usually EVERY DAY.

Well, this weekend I’m in a time out for today and some of tomorrow. I have to be somewhere where I won’t be able to write anything. I will probably go through writing withdrawal. Writers, you know the symptoms: your hands itch to lay themselves down on a keyboard and fly; your brain is tripping with ideas that you can’t engrave onto paper or laptop; you get that nervous tickle in your tummy when you think of a good plot line  or a dialogue run and you have nowhere to write it down. In my case, my legs start to bobble like a four year old who needs to go to the bathroom and the line to get in is 50 people deep, and they don’t stop unless I order them to.

I’ll be back to my keyboard the moment I am home and will most likely fall asleep at my desk, fingers splayed over the keys.

Sigh. Addictions are soul-sucking, especially writing addictions. But I mean that in a totally good way!

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January 21, 2015 · 12:30 am

In defense of being a hermit…

I could so easily be a bear. They eat five times their caloric needs just so they won’t starve when they hibernate during the winter season. They stay, cloistered, somewhere solitary and warm, sequestered away from the frigid temps, sleeping up to 23 hours a day.

I could so be a bear! I hate, HATE the winter. On my days off now from my paying job I find myself at my writing desk in my loft, typing away, day dreaming, coming up with plot twists and turns and looking out the window at my forest filled with snow. And I never go out.

I have friends who like to go for walks during subzero temps, claiming it’s invigorating and endorphin producing.

Uh, no, it’s not. Not to me anyway.

I like nothing more than to stay in my flannel pjs, my ugly and falling apart Elmo slippers on my feet, my hair in a knot and my glasses on my face, and just typing away… and away…

I can write an entire novel or two during the winter if I don’t go out. That’s very productive, don’t you think? My friends worry about me not interacting with other humans, not getting any socialization or camaraderie. They think I’ve turned into this antisocial hermit who shuns society.

I don’t shun society. I shun the cold! Big difference there.

I tell them not to worry. Come the spring they will see me again.

Until the time when black fly and mosquito season starts. Then I could so be a bear again.

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January 10, 2015 · 6:49 pm

Writing A.D.D.

My background in psychiatric nursing has given me  a solid base in psych disorders, diseases, signs, symptoms and treatments all concerning the mind. It is with the utmost confidence in my ability to diagnose these conditions, that I reveal  I am afflicted with one such disorder: Writing Attention Deficit Disorder.

Never heard of it? Don’t worry, no one  else has either. I made the diagnosis up myself to categorize a condition I’ve had for months.

Here are my symptoms:

  • I start working on my WIP when I suddenly get an idea for another story and I immediately start working on that instead
  • I wake up in the middle of the night with  plot lines and story arcs competing for my attention and I must get up and commit them to paper.
  • I can’t rest until I have completed a minimum word count every day and I get anxious if the day is almost done and I haven’t completed at least the minimum
  • Many days I will write nonstop for an hour or so, then move on to something else, only to find my way back to my original work in  progress.
  • I talk to myself, even in public, when I am thinking through a bit of dialogue for my characters. I even channel them and speak in their accents.
  • I find myself disengaging from a conversation with family/friends/patients if a plot point that needs care works itself into my head.

Does this sound like you? If it does, do not despair. This is the mark and mind of a very healthy and prolific writer, such as yourself!

The only treatment, the only cure, is to write. Often.

Oh, and eating some chocolate will help to some extent, too! All those endorphins that get released when you ingest chocolate will soothe your soul.

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January 8, 2015 · 12:59 pm

The times, they are a changing…NOT!

I went to High School in the 1970’s, a time of great political strife and social turmoil in our country. America was coming off the hippy highs of the sixties and the age of Aquarius, and social norms were being destroyed and rewritten at an alarming rate. We’d put a man on the moon, finally brought our Viet Nam vets home to a less than stellar homecoming embrace, seen a President disgraced while in office, and been confronted full in the face with racism, sexism, ageism and Wall Street greed.

I attended  a public high school where a New York City police office was stationed at the entrance to the school before this became the societal norm. My school was huge, with over 1500 students spread across grades 9-12. I entered in 1974 a scared, nervous, naïve, smart and shy 14 year old, and graduated in 1978 the same way.

As an only child, I’d been coddled and protected from what my mother called, “the cruelty of the world.” As a child of divorce, I was an anomaly in school. In my entire grade there were only 3 kids whose parents had divorced. Me and a set of twins who were habitually in the principal’s office. And since my mother had remarried, her last name was different from mine.

This made me a social oddity when the teenage world didn’t accept others who were different from them. Coupled with the fact that I was smart – really smart – and grossly overweight ( think killer Orca) from an emotional eating disorder, you can guess I wasn’t the most popular chick in the school.

I was the kid that the mean girls- who were simply called bullies in my time –picked on daily. I was the girl in class who wrecked the test curve by getting better grades than 99 % of the rest of the class. I was the girl teachers loved to call on because I always had the correct answer to a question, despite the fact I hated to be called on because it drew attention to me that I didn’t want.

I never had a boyfriend in high school, didn’t go to dances, never attended prom, and sat home nights with my mother and stepfather, watching All in the Family and The Carol Burnett Show. I was that socially awkward and isolated kid who could have turned to the dark side because no one would listen.

The difference between high school kids in the 1970’s and now isn’t that different. Bullies still bully; druggies still drug. The jocks rule the playground, smart kids lead the class and everyone else in the middle just tries to get by enough to graduate.

Two things that did make me different from my peers and which actually did keep me from going to the dark side, were my 4 wonderful English teachers and my love of writing. All helped me get through some tough years and even tougher social situations.

Teachers do not now, and have never in my mind, gotten the respect and appreciation they so richly deserve. Without that one teacher who told me I was made for great things, or the other who told me someday she would come to my book signing when I “made it big,” I would never have had the courage to show my work – my deepest, darkest secrets and thoughts – to others. I would have continued to hold my work hostage, never letting any prying eyes go through it for fear of ridicule and criticism.

I was lucky. I had four wonderful people guide me towards what made me most happy and fostered that love unconditionally.

If you’ve had a favorite teacher, now, at the beginning of this new and fresh year, maybe you should call them, Friend them, email or snail-mail them and remind them what they did for you.

It’s never too late to let someone know what they meant to you during what has to be the most difficult time in a person’s life: Adolescence!

 

 

 

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