Cross marketing . . .

I'm busily plugging away with Living Canvas/Elusive Shadows. In the meantime, I'm taking the cheater's way out and cross marketing.

You can read my blog for this week by visiting author Terry Odell's blog (since she so graciously asked me to guest on her site). Click on the link below to find out what happens when inspiration strikes!

Guest Blogging with Terry Odell

Ebooks available for download

Ebook readers – electronic versions of Intimate Distance are now available for download!

The kindle version is up at Amazon, the iBooks version is in the iBookstore and the Nook version is available at Barnes and Noble.

• click here for Intimate Distance for Kindle

• click here for Intimate Distance for iPad

• click here for Intimate Distance for the Nook

And in answer to the question, when is the next one coming out? I’m working on it!

Busily working on edits to Living Canvas with hopes it will be done by the end of the summer. I’ll keep you posted!

Learning by Example

One of the things you always hear in writing is to show, not tell. I’ve seen dozens of articles on the topic with one-paragraph examples embedded within. It’s a fairly simple premise, and yet not always an easy thing to achieve. Description is important to the story so that readers can “see” what you’re trying to portray. As an author, I can see things in my head fairly clearly, but often those things don’t make it to the written page.

One of the things that keep us sharp as authors is to read someone else’s work. In my case, today, I’m reading Stephen King’s Dreamcatcher. I read Stephen King a lot growing up, and then I think I stumbled on one of his books that stretched my imagination a tad too far – or maybe it was something a little too creepy, so I moved on to a different author. I still think he’s a remarkable author, and as my son is now a rabid Stephen King fan, I’m borrowing some of his books.

Picking up Stephen King after a number of years, I’m struck once again at how vividly he portrays his scenes. This is a perfect example of showing your readers what you see in your head. Each character has his own idiosyncrasies so that it isn’t as important what they look like, although you do see that, as what their personal tics are. He takes you deep into their point of view and effortlessly, it would seem, shows you the world through their eyes.

As I read, these things strike me. I’ve always been a hands-on learner, and Stephen King is an excellent teacher in this regard. I finished reading a chapter the other day and sat down to my own work to do some editing. Suddenly, I saw things more clearly. “She walked through the door and into his house.” Seems a straight-forward thing to do, eh? But I found myself asking, What kind of door? What did she see when she walked in? What was she feeling when she walked in? Did anything out of the ordinary catch her eye? There are the usual other sensory responses that I tap, the feel of the door, the smell of food cooking inside, what she hears, etc. After just one chapter of Stephen King, I felt as if I’d just walked out of a seminar on ‘showing’ and, thus, I can apply the lessons to my own work.

It isn’t always easy to weave the details in seamlessly, without stopping the action and taking the reader out of the story to show them. King is a master at his craft, and at a time when I needed a refresher, I’m glad I picked up one of his books.

Home

I'm still plodding through rewrites of Living Canvas and fussing about the title.  The good part is that it feels WONDERFUL to be writing again after making half-hearted attempts for several months.  It may be rewrites, but I'm re-energized by the new direction of the story.

One of the things that I've been working on is describing the concept of "Home."  What does Home mean to you?  My main character, Audrey, is in her 20's, and because her parents had her when they were older, they're already deceased.  This leaves Audrey more or less on her own with no siblings.  It creates a very independent person, by necessity, but it also makes a sense of home a bit different.  What does home feel like?  She has a very close friend, someone who is more like a sister, but that friend is moving on with her life and Audrey is feeling left behind.  She's losing her sense of home, even though she's built a nice life for herself - alone.  This raises an interesting question, however. 

I grew up in a close family.  We continue to be close and I'm blessed that my parents are still alive.  For most of my life, we all went "home" for Christmas, or other holidays, or birthdays, or whathaveyou.  Having a character who is orphaned as an adult, it makes you appreciate these things a little more, and on behalf of the character, I wonder who celebrates her birthday with her?  What does she do for the holidays?  As an author, I have bestowed her with shirt tail relatives and, again, a very close friend that is more than a sister to her.  That helps, but isn't there still a sense of loss for all those things we take for granted on a regular day?  It's a concept I'm still struggling with a little bit.

So I'm asking for other viewpoints.  How do you define "home?"  If I use your definition in the story, I'll send an autographed copy of The Treasure of St. Paul! 

All good things come to an end

I've been on vacation for the past week.  From the day job.  This means bonus time with the writing which I have been fast-tracking.

Elusive Shadows is becoming more focused and tighter.  I'm amazed at the amount of work that still needs to be done with it, but that's what happens when you step away from a story for a period of time.  I still find myself emotionally invested in it, and one of the common pitfalls in writing is becoming "married" to a scene.  There was so much I wanted to show in this story that wasn't needed, for instance, a character tie-in to my first story (The Treasure of St. Paul), which I overdid, and melaleuca trees.  I find their origin and history of melaleuca trees in Florida quite interesting and I had tried to work them into the story.  I'm sure I still could, but I'd forced it the first go-round, so unless I can determine a better use for them, they've fallen on the editing room floor for the time being.  I've also developed a much stronger bond with the characters, who were still introducing themselves during the first writing.  I know them better, I understand them better and their personalities can now come through more clearly.

Back to work tomorrow, but I'm still cruising along with the editing.  With the summertime allowing more "at home" time, I can continue with my forward momentum on the story.  Of course, there are still the outside distractions to contend with.  The weather has been marvelous.  Having the vacation time, I was able to budget mornings for outside activities and/or chores and the afternoons (heat of the day) for inside, butt in chair, hands on keyboard.  Then there was still time for the evening stroll around the neighborhood with DH.  Hours in a day - its how you allot them.

I've done it for 20 years - balancing writing with working a "real" job.  For me, this is the part of the year where the balance tips in favor of writing.  I'm planning my time with a project in hand.  While it would be outstanding if I could take these three months to completely devote to my writing, vacation time, like all good things, must come to an end.  Fortunately for this writer, that doesn't mean an end to the writing.

Anon

First and foremost, Thank you

. . . to the men and the women who stand in defense of our country.  As one of my friends put it, "land of the free because of the brave."

I'm on a tear with Living Canvas, which is now tentatively retitled Elusive Shadows.  Couldn't shake that Night Gallery influence, and actually found a better application for it.  What can I say?  I used to scare my babysitters when I was little, watching Creature Features and One Step Beyond, and Sixth Sense.  Heck, I even scared myself one night while I was babysitting watching some of those old scary shows. 

The weather has been cooperating with my burst of creativity - first by presenting a full day of rain and thunderstorms (don't worry, laptops don't always have to be plugged in) and today by stifling heat and humidity.  I still managed to go outside to soak up some of the sun, but took pen and paper with me to compose a new chapter.  Tomorrow, more gloom and doom in the form of rain promises another productive day at the keyboard.  My creative ship is sailing along with a favorable tailwind!

After wandering around in author limbo for a while (largely due to the imposition of having to work for a living), it's hard to get motivated to move ahead with the writing.  Everyday life can be exhausting.  I get bogged down with responsibilities, coupled with the business end of being an author and the competition that I'm up against, but then my time frees up, something triggers and ZOOM!  I'm off again - I can't help myself.  It is an innate part of me, as it is with the community of authors.  We threaten to quit.  We're going to give up because it's not worth the effort.  Then the lightbulb flickers on in our brains and we can't help ourselves.  There is a story that needs to be told.  This is who we are.

To paraphrase, there was a musician who said something to the effect of "If you have to ask yourself if you're a musician (insert "author" here), find something else to do.  For those of us that are called to it, there is no doubt."

And so it goes.  My muse is tapping her foot impatiently as I blog, but she'll have to wait until after dinner now.  After all, authors have to eat, too.

Moving ahead so life won't pass me by

I heard someone reference Jim Croce the other day, and the person they were talking to had no idea who Jim Croce was.  Kind of like "Who are the Beatles?" (ok, maybe not quite).  Anyway, it was only natural that this lyric popped into my head.

The pace of life has been exhausting, even with the end to insanity at the day job.  There is still work to do, events to prepare for (congratulations to my daughter who is now officially a college graduate, and on with the wedding planning).  As such, I am (again) behind in posting.  AND let's not forget those Chicago Bulls!  Sorry, but I AM setting aside some of my free time to watch them.  They are "for real" this year and I hope they can make it to the end. 

With all of these distractions in my life, my muse is taking a well-deserved break, although tapping me on the shoulder frequently to remind me that, like my children, they are never far from my thoughts.  The juggling act continues.  Priorities are reset.  I see my writing buddies moving ahead and making progress/having success and I feel like I'm lagging behind, but my Wonder Woman cape is at the cleaners along with the super powers it contains.  On the plus side, I have a couple of (in my opinion) strong stories on the shelf to keep me pushing ahead.  I have scheduled days with said muse at the beginning of June so I can sit down and review the good work we've done, push it to the next level, and move on to the next project. 

I'm still working to get the stories from my shelf onto a bookstore shelf - I'll keep you posted as these progress.  However, I am not contemplating any new projects until after the aforementioned wedding.  I don't think the Wonder Woman cape will be done before then (although one never knows . . . )

Expect to see Living Canvas and/or Epitaph sometime this summer!  Thanks for sticking with me and I'll keep you posted!