In the name of research

As an author, I find my characters often have secrets. In fact, one of the tenets of fiction writing is that characters are SUPPOSED to have secrets, but when they keep them from their creator, that can be interesting. Of course, that's part of what makes writing so much fun!

I'm about halfway through the second Epitaph book and I found that my hero is hiding something. Originally, I thought it was one thing, but it has turned into something else, which has sent me on Internet searches.

The Epitaph series is decidedly supernatural, with ghosts and spirits and haunted houses, but sometimes I'm amazed at the way the research falls right in my lap. My hero is a carpenter, which means he works with wood on a daily basis, but generally not soft wood. So imagine my surprise when I was looking for a type of wood that would fit my criteria for the story and stumbled on Palo Santo. This is definitely NOT something Jared would look for in his everyday job, but it provides interesting backstory, and a secret that he doesn't want the world to know.

I will admit that while I was looking into this fragrant wood, which is used more for incense and essential oil, that I reached a point where I rolled my eyes and shook my head. Even I, as someone who appreciates a supernatural bent, had reached saturation. In fact, at one point I'd talked myself out of pursuing the "Holy Wood." These little babies in the picture? The person who makes them recommends hanging them in the shower (out of the water stream) to bring out the scent of the wood.

Today's writing journey is exploratory. I have two chapters outlined BEFORE the discovery of palo santo that need to be written, and there is a local shop I'd like to visit before I commit to Jared's secret.

Even if palo santo doesn't work with the current story, I've learned something new, and I always enjoy the journey.

Living with a Writer

Since I'm still "technically" recovering from surgery, I'm not supposed to take long trips, particularly driving long distances. I have precautions I'm supposed to follow. So when I started to panic about driving three and a half hours to Writer's Police Academy, my Dear Husband offered to take me. We made a stop halfway to visit One Young Son, which gave me the opportunity to get out of the car and stretch my legs. I have to admit, I was glad not to have to drive that distance. While I traveled well, the doctors know what they're talking about.

While we were on the road, I started brainstorming with The Big Guy. Trying to work through plot points in Epitaph 2, my husband has an area of expertise that is relevant. Unfortunately, he doesn't always understand how a writer's brain is wired. I'd ask a general question, and he, being an engineer, wants specifics and parameters. If I knew the specifics, I wouldn't have to ask! He doesn't always follow my train of thought or my path to logic. So I started laying out the characterization and the plot, which helped somewhat, but when I started to venture into the "woo-woo" parts, I lost him. This does not compute. He shot me a startled and confused look with the unspoken, "What??"

What can I say? My only explanation for him is that's how my brain is wired. I'm a writer. I get to have an imagination!

Writer's Police Academy

This past weekend, I joined a couple hundred fellow writers at the Writer's Police Academy. It's an awesome opportunity for authors to get in the trenches with policeman and firemen and EMTs to find out how things work and ask dozens of questions. We go to the school where they are trained and the fun part is that we get involved in real-life scenarios.

When we arrived at the Tech the first day, it was to the scene of an accident. Someone was lying on the hood of a car after going through the windshield and other passengers were trapped inside the car. Once we'd all arrived on the scene, the police drove in, lights flashing and sirens blaring, along with firetrucks and ambulances. They demonstrated (very realistically!) how they triage the victims, including putting one of the drivers through a sobriety test (which she failed). A flight for life helicopter joined the scene and transported the most seriously injured person, while they declared the man on the hood of the car a potential fatality (he can't be declared dead until the coroner arrives). Except the guy on the hood kept turning his head (I'm sure he was uncomfortable!) When the scenario ended, the "dead guy" hopped off the hood to a rousing round of applause. Then the questions commenced. Details the authors wanted or had missed. And the weekend continued from there. Lots of hands-on stuff, lots of demonstration stuff, more live-action scenarios. SO SO helpful for authors, and a lot of fun. One of my classes was specifically designed to help you kill off your characters using poison. Had several police officers look at us in our classes and say things like "you're making me nervous!" with the scenarios the authors presented.

Back to the daily grind again this week and working on the next in the Epitaph series. The funny part? I have more ways to kill off characters than I'd ever imagined before, thanks to the Writer's Police Academy.

That is kind of scary!

Back to normal?

I started back to the day job last week after six weeks recuperating. During my time off, I developed some new habits (read "better" habits), but it is interesting to see how much the day job affects my behavior. I plan to maintain those new habits as much as I can. I have also re-established some of the old habits, one of which is reading on the train ride into the Big City.

So what did I do with my time off? I finished Epitaph and sent it off to the publisher who'd requested the full MS to review. I also interviewed people for characterizations and information I want to include in the next book. It was nice to have "all the time in the world" to write, but with all that time, I also found a lot more diversions. So one of the old habits that I'm happy to get back into is focused writing time. Knowing I have to finish a project motivates me to concentrate during my allotted time and budget certain times of the day for other distractions (like, say, work?).

As I retrain my brain to return to a set schedule, I've started work on the second in the Epitaph Series. Epitaph is a ghost story, and the second will also contain a decidedly supernatural element. Thanks to my experiences while I've been laid up, I have a strong starting point, with fun characters. I know what supernatural element I'm including (and the hint for today is "inosculation"). The immediate goal is how to tie all this together into a compelling story. There is a strong suspense element in Epitaph along with the inevitable romance, and I 'm working on finding more suspense in the next book. I've got a five thousand word start, but I'm still in the discovery phase. Starting a new story is always exciting! This one hearkens back to "You've Got Mail" or "Pillow Talk" (those are old movies in case you aren't familiar), but not as "fluffy."

And speaking of exciting, I'll be attending Writer's Police Academy in Green Bay, which should provide lots of fodder for the third book in the Epitaph series with a policeman as a hero, and quite possibly help with this current book once my plot starts to gel.

What do you do when you have time off?

Fitbit - helpful or POS?

About a year ago I jumped on the Fitbit bandwagon. I got it with "free" money, so I figured I wasn't losing anything by getting it. For me, the goal was to make sure I was still moving. I was encountering some physical limitations that halted my regular exercise program, so walking became more important. After a couple of months, I was able to judge where my pain point was. How many steps could I walk before the pain kicked in?

I have a Fitbit HR. I've heard from some of my friends that their model (not the HR) is great and they have no problems with it, but I have repeatedly had sync issues with mine. I'd go a couple of days unable to sync to ANY device, and then the techno gods would wave their magic wands and all would be well with the world again. At one point, I went a week without being able to sync, and that's when I called customer support. They walked me through all the help steps which I'd already done ad nauseum via their online guidance, and they finally decided that yep, my wristband just wasn't working. So they sent me a new one. Okay. That made me feel better.

Until I got the new wristband.

Within the first week, I couldn't sync the new Fitbit. So I exercised some patience and went through the same routine. Some days it syncs, some days it won't. I've recently undergone surgery to correct my physical limitations, and while I'm rebuilding strength, it was nice to be able to measure my progress, back to where I was pre-surgery and looking forward to finally making the coveted 10k steps a day (I did that once in the whole time I've had this cursed thing). Except now the wristband won't sync. Again. At all.

How much do I really want to know how many steps I walk each day? It was handy for recording exercise sessions and syncing those with my food app, but in the grand scheme of things, I've declared this tool a POS. It's often awkward to wear, and for something that works, at best, sporadically, I'm done. Maybe one of the other models would be a better option, but I've done my part in jumping on the fad bandwagon.

Do you have a Fitbit? (or other motion inducing/measuring device?)