The London Olympics

I am a sports fan, and I am enjoying the Olympics!

I had an interesting conversation with my "train buddy" yesterday (or at least it was interesting to me). You see, she's British, so she has an entirely different take on the Olympics this year as they are being hosted in London.

I wasn't able to see all of the opening ceremonies, and what I did see I thought was a bit "different." She agreed with me on that point, and I'll be honest, I turned the channel during the parade of nations. It seems I missed some of the more interesting parts of the ceremony, however. My friend highlighted some of the things that made it particularly interesting for her - British benchmarks that highlight the culture of the host country. I have several British friends (and at this point I'd like to make the distinction between English and British, because more often than not, the Brits will point this out to you. English refers to Englanders, while British extends to Great Britain, i.e., Scotland, Northern Ireland and the outlying territories, so overall, they are all British, but they are not all English).

Another interesting contrast is that here in the U.S.A., we are getting mostly filtered coverage - American athletes in competition - rather than broad-based coverage. That's probably not a big deal since that's what we are mostly interested in, and I do believe there is on-line coverage of events not being selected for television broadcast. In England, I'm told there is a "red button" on the television that lets them select which events they want to watch, not necessarily limited to the Brits.

I'm not sure America needs to expand coverage to see other country's athletes, and I have seen the shining stars from those other countries (like the British and Chinese gymnasts). Maybe its pride in our home-grown folks, or maybe we have an excellent crop to watch, but I'm probably okay with missing out on some of the other stuff. How do you pare down what to televise and what to pass over? Seems as if we're doing it right, although it is certainly disappointing for expatriots.

Back on the writing front, I've certainly been distracted the last week or so with the launch of Living Canvas and with family matters (first book signing tentatively set up for September - Schaumburg, Illinois!). The new work in process is nearing completion, the most critical part now being to clean up the messes I've left behind in my sprint to the finish. Filling in the holes, fixing continuity, etc. I'll keep you posted!

Celebrating Life

This has been a long week - we received news of a death in the family on Saturday and made the trip into the neighboring state to celebrate a life well lived.

God speed, Mel.

Mel was 87 years young, and although the last couple years of his life have been a little confused, he has been a vibrant man for most of those years. Some of my favorite moments have been listening to his unique dialect. He liked to tell stories, and there was a time a few years back when I was visiting, where I had planned to do some writing. I set up my computer - correction, my husband's computer - and when I went to log in, found I didn't know what the password was that he'd assigned to me. I sat there in frustration when Mel sat down at the table with me and began to tell me stories. One of my deepest regrets was that I could not access the computer at that time, not because I wanted my writing escape, but because I was so entertained by his unique phrasing that I desperately wanted to transcribe some of his "Mel-isms." I began to see him as a colorful character in one of my novels, using phrases like "jeepers cats," or watching him lean across the table and point his finger and say, "you know, that outfit over there with that woman, you know the one I mean, who was married to the guy in charge of the whole gol-durn outfit."

So although I've lost several days to "work" work and book "work," it was time well spent with family celebrating Mel's life and the legacy he's left behind. Thanks to all 15 of you who were tucked into nooks and crannies of the old homestead, filling it with love and memories and support for one another.

The Goodreads.com Giveaway has ended and for the five lucky winners, autographed copies will be going out in the next couple of days. For those of you that didn't win, please feel free to purchase Living Canvas or one of my other novels at Amazon.com or BN.com. Details in the margin to the right.

Pushing Forward - the joy of diagramming plot points

Sometimes it's hard to write. For those of you that think it's a simple matter of putting words on paper - NOPE. The hard part is what words to put down, and sometimes it's coming up with the words.

One of the things I struggle with is called "the black moment." Otherwise known as "that really bad thing" that happens to your hero/heroine or to their relationship in the story. You have to deliberately put your characters in harm's way. Characters you have gotten to be friends with. Characters you connect with and love. Deliberately.

While I've been working on the release of Living Canvas, I've managed to put off (procrastinate) new chapters in the work in progress (heretofore referred to as "Quiet" until such time as I think up a more appropriate title). But I now have hard copies of Living Canvas in hand, so I'm out of excuses, at least until the reviews are in. Out of excuses. So last weekend I sat down at my computer and stared at the screen.

And stared some more.

It's hard to put your friends in harm's way, even if they are figments of your imagination. But that's part of writing. So rather than develop chapters, I started with plot points.

Character A needs to do this.
Character B needs to do that.
The danger is this.
The conflict is that.
The outcome is such and such.
What am I missing in order to accomplish these threads?

You know what? It works. Immediately upon organizing my thoughts and where I needed to go, I was able to push forward. The chapters took shape, the plot moved forward. The first draft of Quiet is now at least 90 percent completed. First draft? you ask. That means the story is down. I need to apply some spackle - fill in the holes. Flesh out the characters and the settings a little more.

Whether we use story boards or outlines, at some point in time, every author (especially us "pantsers") has to know the outcome. So while it's fun to let the characters carry us along and work their way out of the corners we write them into, sometimes it's good to see where we're going.

As a reminder - the giveaway for a free copy of Living Canvas is live at Goodreads.com until the end of the week. Throw your name into the hat to win an autographed copy! (or click on a link to the right to buy one).

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Living Canvas

by Karla Brandenburg

Giveaway ends July 21, 2012.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Thanks for stopping by.

Production!

And finally, the paperback edition! click here to buy it at Amazon.com.  After much hard work, Living Canvas is DONE.  Buy a copy for yourself and tell all your friends to buy one, then they'll tell two friends, then they'll tell two friends (wasn't that a television commercial at one time?).  I'm also doing a giveaway at Goodreads.com next week, five copies selected randomly by the robotic fingers (eenie, meenie, miney, moe method) at that website.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Living Canvas

by Karla Brandenburg

Giveaway ends July 21, 2012.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

The "next great project" is still under construction, and although progress has slowed considerably while I attend to the release of Living Canvas, the new book is in the final stages of first draft.  Still at least 10,000 words to go, but direction has been clear and direct, so although I've struggled a bit with certain aspects, its more or less a matter of getting it down on paper at this point and then going back to make sure it's visual and engaging, not to mention a bit of fact checking to keep me honest.  The original inspiration was a song title in relation to an experience, but as I was explaining the story to my hairdresser, I realized that the song probably won't make an appropriate title.

And speaking of that (here comes the rambling part), my hairdresser asked me "where do you get your ideas for stories?" At which point I explained the experience, and then the song title, and realized that these two things are almost entirely unrelated to the story as a whole, merely a jumping off point. I "saw" something, then it made me think of a song (I may have mentioned this in previous posts, my affliction to associate a song with nearly every situation I encounter), and then I started with the "what-ifs," which took me on a journey of "so if what I saw was more than what I saw, and what if it was really x, and then y, and then suppose this, then that . . . " and so the conception of the story. Did I ever mention my overactive imagination?

So while I'm finishing the new story (which I am merely referring to as Quiet for the moment until I focus my energy on a more appropriate title), go out and buy a copy of Living Canvas!

This message has been brought to you by a rambling author in progress.  Thanks for stopping by.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled program

Did I mention that Living Canvas is now also available for the Kindle? (Click here for the Kindle Version) And the paperback version is "close."

Funny how pop culture will change one's perceptions. When I think of Independence Day now, I think of the movie with Bill Pullman and Will Smith, and yet the message is the same.  A loud thank you to all our veterans who saved us from being taken over by bogies, and our forefathers for their insight into building a strong governmental system. It's lasted over 200 years, and although it could definitely use some overhaul, the principles are still sound.  In the tech industry, we would call this user error. The hardware works fine, its the people using it that are broken.  But I'm not going into politics today.  Off that soap box.  I'm an author!  The reason I write books is the same reason other people read them - to escape from the real world, even if only for an hour or two.

I had an interesting conversation with an old friend yesterday, in which I told said friend about the new release. "Where does this one take us to?" was the question. I was pleased to offer a vacation spot! My first novel, Touched by the Sun, travels to Italy, to Pompeii. Intimate Distance does some traveling through the United States, but far less exotic locales. Chicago. New York City. So in answer to the question, Living Canvas travels to Scotland, briefly. It also goes to Fort Lauderdale (briefly) but my home base generally centers around the Chicago area.

While I was developing the story, I was working with a critique group through RWA which was frequented by a British woman. I was so looking forward to her feedback to make sure I got my details correct because, although I've been to Scotland and England, it was a short trip and I didn't want to misrepresent anything. Imagine my surprise when she told me I should visit a place before I wrote about it! And her comments struck me odd.  She expected me to write about the mall in Manchester, England (which Audrey is passing through, but not stopping, especially for the purpose of going shopping) and to write about the glories of the train station in Glasgow and its architectural wonders. And I definitely should have written about the Lake District.  These are all fabulous tourist places and certainly noteworthy, but I wasn't writing a travelogue, and Audrey is a seasoned traveller, and perhaps a bit jaded to some of these things. I was hoping for more on the things that Audrey did note, and the accuracy of those details. My British critiquer did spur me on to double check some of my other facts, and indeed I included the Angel of the North (which wasn't there when I visited) and the train station in Edinburgh (there are two!). I can only guess that since she skipped over the things I did address, that I got those right.  Fortunately, I have a British critique partner in another group who helped me to correct some of the things I wasn't quite sure about.

It's nice to have a point of reference, especially when you haven't visited a place. For instance, Italy.  I did a ton of research and interviewed a lot of people to make sure I got that right.  It's on my list, but I haven't actually been there (should I admit that?).  One of the ladies I interviewed, who scolded me soundly for writing about a place I hadn't visited, gave me her seal of approval on the final product, however, so I guess I did enough homework.

The story I'm working on now is based in the Chicago area again (surprise!) but it has definite German ties.

Am I rambling again?  Then again, that's kind of what this blog is for.

Happy Fourth of July!