Tag Archives: Fiction Writers

April 7, 2015 · 10:01 am

The Power of Friends… in Literature

Where would Nancy Drew be without George Fayne? Where would Huck Finn have wound up without Tom Sawyer? Scarlett may have derided her, but Melanie Wilkes was her best friend hook, line,  sinker and soul. What about Elizabeth Bennett and Charlotte Lucas? Without Charlotte, Lizzy may just have wound up married to the horrible Mr Collins. Charlotte did her a solid by marrying the little worm. Harry Potter,  Ron Weasley and even Hermione,  were the best of ‘mates. And dear God, could we have had Sherlock Holmes without John Watson?

In my last post I talked about my friends and what having them in my life means to me. Literature is  chock-full of besties and we are all better for having shared in their friendships, albeit second  hand.

Friends in literature serve so many purposes aside from simply being  “a friend.” They are foils for one another’s characters; sounding boards for ideas, problems, and resolutions; cheerleaders and soul soothers, and best of all, the true  friend will always steer you in the right direction when you are going the wrong way, tell you if you have spinach in your teeth, and hold your hair back when you need to vomit. This last one is literally and theoretically!

My two favorite books of all time are Gone with The Wind and The Wizard of Oz. Both are rife with the beauty and detail of friendship. In both, the main characters of Dorothy and Scarlett need to find their way: home and in life. The TinMan, Cowardly Lion and the Scarecrow all help Dorothy face trials, tests,  and tribulations in order to find her way back  to Kansas, to Auntie Em’s loving care, and to discover her heart’s desire. Scarlett is Melanie’s opposite in every way, except in their love for Ashley, and in  this opposition of character details, each woman brings out the best in the other. Despite what many historians have postulated, I really do think Scarlett’s road to redemption begins when she brings Melanie back to Tara after the birth of Beau. She risks her life to make sure they all get home safe and sound. Whether you believe it is for a selfish reason, such as ensuring Ashley knows Scarlett helped his wife, or  – like me – because deep down Scarlett was truly a good and loyal person, their relationship ( Scarlett and Melanie’s) is the strongest and most enduring in the novel.

When a writer creates friends, he/she needs to know what each friend brings to the relationship table. It’s simply not enough to have the main character have friends. They serve purposes, both positive and negative, and these purposes enrich the novel and the character’s quest. They play off one another, spark ideas between them, and – such as in the case of Holmes and Watson – better the lives of the people surrounding them. Ron and Hermione show Harry Potter that people do care about him -not because he is a wizard – but because he is a person with feelings and desires, just like they are. Sharing triumphs, failures, tears, and joy are just some of the emotions friends go through together.

Think about your favorites books. What are the friend relationships like? Is the book made better because of them?  What does each friend bring to the relationship table for the main character? When you write, think about these facets. Your book will be richer for it, and sound more true-to-life.

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March 26, 2015 · 2:22 pm

Writing long…and short

I don’t think it’s a lie to say I’m verbose. As in, long winded, wordy, loquacious, garrulous…you get the message. My daughter read something of mine once and critiqued it by asking, “why do you say the same thing three times, differently? Why not just say it once, effectively?”

So happy her Dartmouth education paid off, because, really, she was right.

I write fast – no surprise there, since I talk and think fast.  Quick witted is what an admirer said of me once. My first drafts go on for hundreds of pages. Dialogue, exposition, explanation. Words and words and words. I just write whatever comes into my head while my fingers follow. I talk this way, as well, so it’s not a bombshell to admit my writing reflects this. If I got paid by the word I’d be a quadrillionaire ( if there is such a thing).

Even now, as I’m typing this, I find myself saying the same thing in different ways just  to make sure you, dear reader, get it.

Robert Parker and Elmore Leonard were two of my favorite writers when I was penning mysteries. Their dialogue was always spot on, even if it was a one word rebuke or answer to a question, and their descriptions required no more than a sentence or two for the reader to get the visual. They trusted their readers to understand what they were trying to convey and we always did. I live to write this way. The nicest compliment a reader can give me is that they “vividly saw what I wrote when they read it.”

I just submitted a story for a new series that will be coming out next Valentine’s Day. The word cap was 10-20 K, maximum. My stories are usually 85,000-100,000 words, easily. Writing this story for submission was an excellent way for me to learn to curtail my logorrhea. First draft was 27,615 words – and I thought all of them should be kept. No. They couldn’t. I had to eliminate at the very least 7,615. That’s a full scene for me.

Second draft I got it down to 22,005. Still not enough.

I had a dream one night on how to tighten a scene and BAM! the next day I got it down to roughly 14,500. This was good. I read the story at least 20 times, gave it to a friend and read little snippets to my coworkers.  They all agreed I should leave it as it stood. Don’t add. Don’t subtract.

I agreed. Today I submitted it to my Editor. We’ll see what happens, but this exercise taught me the benefit of culling extraneous words, tightening longwinded and rambling scenes, and focusing in on the specifics of the story and not worrying about the extra stuff no one needs to know about. As a writer, this is a good thing.

It’s not exactly a bad thing as a person either, since I do tend to ramble on and on and……..

 

 

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March 24, 2015 · 9:03 am

Insomnia…a good thing?

I don’t sleep much. 2 to 3 hours straight for me is considered a full night’s rest. I can fall asleep without any problems. It’s staying asleep that’s difficult.

My mind never NEVER shuts down, even in sleep. No matter what time of the day or night it is, no matter what time zone I’m in, or how physically exhausted I am, my brain, like the energizer bunny, keeps going. Most of the time this sucks wind. Dark purple smudges that need three applications of concealer are present under my eyes at all times. No amount of eye care product gets rid of them. I yawn consistently, so much so people think I’m bored when I’m around them. Not true – just tired. Like an overcharged battery, my brain goes on and on and on….

You get the picture.

There are times, though, when this has proven to be a good thing. Because I’m such a light sleeper, I always heard my child stir when she was baby, or later when she was a teenager and pushing the curfew regulations. (For reasons of disclosure, this never happened! She was always on time.) I know instantly when something is amiss in the house at night, such as when the power goes out during our numerous winter and spring storms. The instant the digital clocks flick off when the power goes, I’m up and at’em.

But the main reason my chronic insomnia is beneficial is because when the world is sleeping soundly and there isn’t a noise or distraction in my realm, I can sneak off to my attic and write for hours before I need to get up and really start the day. During my insomniac haze I am mentally clear and focused when conventional wisdom tells you I should be just the opposite. I can bang out 15-20 pages of my WIP at 3:30 in the morning and when noon strolls around I’m lucky to get 100 words written. I’m working on a novella right now that only gets my attention at 4 a.m. I’m writing it when I can’t stay in bed anymore and revising it during the light of day.

When I first started working as a Registered Nurse I worked what was called the grave yard shift of 11p.m to 7 a.m. for 2 years. On the nights I was off from work my mind never shut down so I’d be up most of the night watching old movies on television – no YouTube, CNN or late late night hosts back then.

Now when my insomnia gets me out of my bed I focus on my writing, which has been utterly prolific the past few months, hand in hand with the increase in my sleeping trends.

Too bad I don’t write vampire books. I know what ol’Dracula is going through with this whole up all night business.

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March 22, 2015 · 2:14 pm

Families… can’t live with them, don’t want to live without them

I’m fascinated by families and birth order. As an only child, I was the solitary kid in rooms always filled with adults. I think one of the reasons I’m such a good and thorough observer is because I was raised in that era where children were seen but never heard. I learned very early in life how to watch people without them noticing, how to gage emotions and reactions during situations, and most importantly, how to describe what I was seeing.From the time I knew I was the only kid in my family’s realm, I dreamed of having siblings. It didn’t matter to me if I was the oldest, youngest, or came somewhere in the middle of the food chain. I wanted other people like me around the house. Sadly, it didn’t happen.
My life long fascination with birth order and how siblings react and interact with one another is the reason I like writing about big families. It gives me a great deal of pleasure to invent the families I always wanted as my own. I would have liked nothing more while growing up than to have older brothers looking out for me and sisters guiding my way to adolescence.Families come with their own sets of rules on behavior and thinking and actions. Most of it is based on the shared history they have, and much of it is situational. When I start a new book series, the dynamics in the family come first. Is there a father figure present and if so, how does he rule? If no dad is around, how does the mother keep order, pay the bills, provide for her children? What roles do the oldest and youngest play in  his scheme? All these questions are thought out prior to my ever typing a word of the story. I need to know “my families” before I can write about them.I invent the parents I wished I’d had growing up, along with the support system siblings bring with it. Since I was a step-kid to two new “parents” when my parents both remarried, I know what it means to be the outsider in a group. Resentments abound, feelings of insecurity and of not measuring up run rampant, and you never really “feel” as if anyone is truly on your side. Of course, these feelings follow us into adulthood so when I write about siblings who are aging, I know I need to have them make decisions and run courses of actions with those childhood traumas and dramas in mind.

What about you? Come from a big family, or are you an only like me? Where is your birth order and did it play a role in making you the person you are? Or did it hamper your dreams and desires because things were “expected of you?”

 

Birth order, sibling dynamics, and families are truly fascinating to read – and write – about.

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March 15, 2015 · 7:23 pm

Delayed gratification…no, it’s not what you’re thinking!

I have a little over 1 month left to work at my paying day job. My last day is April 30 and to tell the truth, it can’t come soon enough. Don’t get me wrong: it’s a good job with some wonderful people, and I will really miss them and my patients. But I need – NEED  – to get on with the next phase of my life before I go bonkers.

Now that my proverbial writing genie has been release from the bottle I am antsy. I have three more novels currently being written, 2 more planned out and ready to be written, three more and different novel outlines ready to go, an anthology piece I need to finish, plus my second and third books will be released this year. Whew!

I am so thrilled to be this busy if it has anything to do with my writing. I remind myself often that I need to sit back and relax a little and not stress too much about all the deadlines I have. Some are self imposed, others are external. But regardless, I know I need to take a breath and just enjoy the moment before me.

But something internally keeps pushing me to move, move now, and move fast to get all these projects done. I know I’m not dying so I’m not on a time line that way. It’s probably that I’ve been waiting so long for the opportunity to just write and not have to work at a job I don’t want, that I’m full of excess energy and want to get on with it. Right now.

When my daughter was younger, my husband taught her the theory of delayed gratification. She wanted to buy an American Girl doll but needed a few more dollars to do it. I just wanted to give them to her and have her buy the doll, but my husband felt we weren’t teaching her to value the doll as much if we did that. So, instead he devised a system for her to learn her times tables. She had to complete each number 1-12 ( You know: 12 x 3=?) in a certain time frame that he chose. When she could do that, she would “earn” the rest of the money. She thought it was a great idea because at the end she would have her doll. What she didn’t realize was first she had to learn all the times tables, then practice them so she knew them without thinking, and then she had to write them in the time frame my hubby devised. Only when she did all this would she get the money.

Needless to say, that doll didn’t arrive in our house for a while.

But it did teach my daughter about working for what she wanted and delaying the gratification of the prize until you completed your tasks. And it was a well taught, good lesson.

I need to start thinking that way too when it comes to all my writing  and my writing deadlines. Once I am not leaving the house each morning at 6:02 a.m. to get to work, I will have more time than I’ve ever had before to sit down and lay my fingers on the laptop. Five days per week, roughly 8 hours every day, and when I can on weekends. I’ve never had that much free, uninterrupted time before. I just need to remember that.

Okay, so here’s me taking a breath…letting it out…and realizing that I’m writing right at this moment!!

I guess the joke – as usual -is on me!

SKATER’S WALTZ available now in print and ebook:

amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Skaters-Waltz-Peggy-Jaeger/dp/1628308079/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1423442958&sr=8-1 

The WIld Rose Press: http://www.wildrosepublishing.com/maincatalog_v151/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=1235

Barnes & Noble Nook;  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/skaters-waltz-peggy-jaeger/1121186583?ean=2940150216006

I-books: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/skaters-waltz/id965678244?mt=11

perf5.000x8.000.indd She’s won Olympic gold but can she win his heart?

Figure skater Tiffany Lennox is busy with rehearsals for an upcoming ice show when the only man she’s ever loved comes home after a two-year overseas stint. She needs him to see her for the woman she’s become and not the child he knew to ensure he stays home, this time, for good. With her.

For all his wanderlust and hunger for professional success, Cole Greer comes home wanting nothing more than to rest, relax and recover. He is delighted in being Tiffany’s hero and has a special place in his heart reserved for her. But faced with the oh-so-desirable woman she’s become, he starts questioning his determination to keep their relationship platonic.

When forced by the television network to go back on assignment, Cole – for the first time in his life – is torn between his career and his heart.

Skater’s Waltz Excerpt:

One delicate auburn eyebrow rose almost to her hairline. “Cocky self assurance has always been one of your greatest assets,” she commented dryly.

Cole laughed again and pulled her down into a headlock.

“Snot nosed princess,” he said, knuckle-rubbing her head.

He’d been wrestling with her since she was a child. He’d taught her every subtle move to get the high ground, and in that moment she used the knowledge to her advantage. In one slick move, her arm came out across his neck, forcing his hold to loosen. When it did, she pulled her hand back and pushed forward, expertly flipping him in the seat.

To recover his balance, Cole leaned back into the couch, grabbed what he hoped were her upper arms, and shoved. In a heartbeat, she was lying backward along the length of the couch with him spread out on top of her.

Both were laughing and wriggling, each trying to get the upper hand.

Tiffany squealed, trying to twist her hips out from beneath him. “Let me go!”

“Not a chance. I know how your devious little mind works, and I taught you how to do this. The minute I loosen up, you’ll hip check me over the back of the couch. No, thanks.”

Tiffany burst out laughing. “You rat. That was exactly what I was going to do.”

“You know retreat and surrender are inevitable, Tiff. I outweigh you, and I’ve got the distinct advantage of your injury in my favor. Give?”

“Okay, you win.” She went limp beneath him.

The corners of his eyes narrowed as he smiled down at her. “You must be maturing,” he said. “You never used to give up so easily.”

When he removed one hand from her arm, she reached up to trace the outline of one of his eyes. Her finger moved from the outer canthus to his cheek, smoothing the skin she touched. “You didn’t have these little lines when you left.”

Cole stared down at her face.

Her finger roamed down to the corners of his mouth, outlining them, then on to the small dent in the middle of his chin. An impish grin fanned across her face. “I remember being little and wondering if I smoothed this line away would I be able to see inside you, like it was a door or some kind of opening to your insides. Dumb, huh?”

“Sweet,” he said, softly. “Little girl sweet. Never dumb.”

Her eyes traveled up to his and locked there.

“When I got older I wondered what it would be like to kiss it.”

His breath hitched.

“Would it taste like soap, left over from shaving, or would it be all spiky and nubby because you missed a few hairs. Or would it taste uniquely like you do. I still wonder about that.”

“Tiffany.”

Knowing what he was about to do, and to whom, should have sent him jumping off the couch, running in the other direction. Instead, when his head came down to hers all Cole could think about was how much he wanted to taste her again, how he wanted to lose himself in her, and how both those feelings somehow seemed right, even though he knew they shouldn’t.

Her body tensed as he inched closer. When his lips finally captured hers, she turned fluid under his hands.

Her smooth, small body slackened beneath him as his lips gently moved across hers, tasting them, savoring them. Releasing his grip on her arms, he leaned on his elbows and ran his fingers into her hair, cupping her face while holding fistfuls of the glorious mane.

 

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March 13, 2015 · 8:27 am

Reviews and such….

I could never be an actress. Well…I could, since drama attaches itself to me like lice to a feral cat, but I wouldn’t want to be one for a simple reason: I hate being judged.

In the book world, this is called being reviewed.

Skater’s Waltz has been out for a little over a week now ( Yippie!) and I’ve gotten three legitimate reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. Granted, they were all 5 stars ( what??!) but I’m Irish and therefore cynical,  so I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not wishing for it, I’m waiting for it. There is a difference.

I have hopes the 1’s and 2’s don’t materialize – really strong hopes. But if they do, I already know how I’ll feel. I know how I’ll pretend I’m feeling, too. Not everyone is going to like your work. Hey, big budget mega star movies tank all the time. To the world I’ll say, sorry you didn’t like it; hope you find a new author that you do. Inside? Well, inside I’ll be slowly dying.

Why does the opinion of others matter so much? What is it about us humans that makes us want everyone to like us – and our work? I think part of my angst comes from being the child of divorced parents. No matter how many times you hear the divorce wasn’t you fault and had nothing to do with you, as a child you don’t believe it. I must have done something bad or mommy and daddy would still love one another and want to be together as a family.

I’m a psych major and this question still pains to to this day.

But, here’s the thing: all that to the side, I’ve gotten the book of my heart published, and I’m contracted for 4 more in the series. That alone makes every bad or unkind thing a total stranger says about my work null and void.

So, here’s to my one week book anniversary. And many happy more to come.

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March 8, 2015 · 9:10 pm

Exciting times

Last night I had my first official book signing. I know!!

Okay, for the sake of transparency, it was in my kitchen and it was for my sister-in-law, but I still got asked to sign a book I wrote that actually got published! These are happy and exciting times.

And today I received a request to sign a Kindle copy, so that makes me doubly glad.

Some might think I’m a little too – ahem – old to get this giddy when I’m asked to do this, but you know what? I don’t think I am. To a writer it never gets old to have someone pleased by your work and like it enough that they want your autograph. Now let’s be honest: I’m not being stalked by paparazzi waiting for me to have a wardrobe malfunction; I don’t have pseudo-psycho fans camped out on my property and no one is beating down my door for live interviews. Maybe if I was I wouldn’t be so giddy and lighthearted.

But to be asked to sign my name to something I worked so long, arduously, and lovingly on that someone enjoyed, just makes my heart skip like a stone across a lake.

And you know what? I don’t think I’ll ever be too old for that.20150307_195043

 

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March 4, 2015 · 12:27 pm

And the moment has arrived….

It’s release day!!! I’m sitting in my pajamas, a cup of congratulatory tea in my hand, looking at this:
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This is my dream board. I started it a few months back when I was hoping to have my first book published. That hope turned into reality today with the publication of Skater’s Waltz.

I’ve been told by a few people that dream boards are a waste of time, energy, and paper. Why, I’ve been asked, do you need to waste your time cutting out pictures and sayings of what you want? Why not just got for it and do what you need to do to make your dreams come through?  Those people are not really friends of mine. My friends applaud the way I put my internal dreams and hopes into a touchable, readable, living entity. They agree that when you dream it, think it, and speak it, every desire in your heart can come true. When you put your hopes into a tangible, cohesive layout, you can get a better feel, a much clearer view, of how you are going to achieve those goals and dreams.

My dream board is covered with positive affirmations of what I want my writing career to look like and be. It tells the story of how I see myself at this moment in time, and where I see my life leading me now that it is going through such a monumental change. When I look at it, I see the path I took to get here and the road I need to travel from this day on.

My dreams have become reality…yours can, too.

If you dream it, you can be it, do it, and have it.

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February 19, 2015 · 2:06 pm

Titles…

Someone asked me the other day how I come up with the titles to my stories and novels.  They are all different and don’t really follow a common thread. Book titles, I feel, are like your children’s names: you want them to be unique, but not so unique they become albatrosses or points of ridicule. I discovered through research  (okay, through Google!) there is an entire industry devoted just to this: how to pick the correct words to capture a reader from the get-go; the word combinations never to use in a title; the words that have the most impact on sales.

I know some writers who use song titles for their books and expound on them in the story.  I love this idea. I know another author who writes down every combination of a phrase based on what the book is about until the perfect title presents itself. I also love this idea.  Some experts say never to have more than one word or two at the most in the title so that it grabs the reader’s attention.  Long winded names can be turn offs to people glancing at the book rack in Barnes and Noble. The key, advertising executives always say, is “short, punchy, and memorable.”The original working titles for my favorite all time book, Gone With The Wind, were Tomorrow is another day and Ba! Ba! Black Sheep.

Now would GWTW have been such a mega hit if it had one of those titles? Who knows. I certainly don’t think the movie would have done as well with the sheep title, do you?

To Kill a Mockingbird was called Atticus before Harper Lee – thankfully – changed it.

And my favorite title change – more about why in a bit – was Pride and Prejudice. Austen originally called it First Impressions.

Now my titles are usually the first thing that pops into my head when I’m working a new plot through. I don’t try to be cute or fancy or erudite. I just “see” the title in my head, and that’s it for me. I’ve never had an editor or even a reader tell me the work was mis-named or would have been better suited to some other title. Maybe this is arrogant on my part, and okay, I’ll agree with that. They are, after all, MY titles. But again, just like when  you name a child, you want the title/name to be a reflection of your thought and love. You want it to be able to convey something of what the book is about when you are trying to capture a potential reader’s attention. Skater’s Waltz has two words and is actually a piece of music. There’s No place Like Home, has 5 and it’s a sentence in one of my favorite movies, The Wizard of Oz. My third book, which I am thrilled to announce just went to contract, is First Impressions. See now why I like that Austen changed her title?

Titles are like names. They should be individual, coherent, and special. They should capture a reader’s attention and their desire to want to read more. Think of your favorite book titles. Do they fit in with this thought? I know mine do.

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February 8, 2015 · 11:15 am

I love a challenge…

I love a challenge. There’s just something about committing to it, planning for it, and then executing it.  The ultimate goal – completing the challenge – is a high like none other. I’ve done 2 half marathons and the only goal I had with the first was to finish it upright and not on an ambulance stretcher. The second marathon had the same primary goal – run across the finish line – but I’d vowed to shave some considerable time off of my finish. And I did.

And I love a writing challenge most of all.

My local RWA chapter has a writing challenge every summer. You pledge to write every day, no matter what, for a week at a time. Every day you enter your word count for that day and it is totaled at the end of the week. The prize: accomplishing your goal. No trophies, cash prizes, or fabulous trips abroad ( although, wouldn’t that be nice?!) No, just the internal knowledge that you set out to do something and you did.

I’m a huge lover of NANOWRIMO. I’ve done it for the past several years and to me this is the ultimate test of your writing commitment. In order to “win” you must complete 50,000 words of your WIP from 11/1 until 11/30. You track daily and at the end of the month you must have a minimum of 50,00 words committed. This is a wonderful way of getting that first draft on the page.

Currently, RWA is having a writing challenge. You promise to write 2000 words each month in your WIP and then enter the actual word count at the end of the month on the RWA site. This is another motivator to get those fingers flying across the keyboard and unleash your imagination. And I can do 2000 in one sitting, never mind an entire month so this will be not only a fun challenge for me, but a relatively facile one as well.

So, what motivates you? Do you like a challenge? Does the idea of throwing down the gauntlet and committing yourself to a worthy ambition appeal to you? Do you need that proverbial kick in the a** to get you started? If so, CHALLENGE yourself.

 

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