Category: Open Book

Teaching A Lesson in Fiction #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

 

May 1, 2023

Does every book have to have a moral?

Early in the story, I had a beta reader ask me what the moral of my coming-soon ‘The Rise of Jake Hennessey’ was. I admit, I had to stop and think about it. Did the story have one? I didn’t plan on it. All I set out to do was bring the story of Jake, Eli, and Harmony to a satisfying conclusion. There’s no moral. I wrote it for entertainment only.

Could I stretch things to find a moral? I can find lots of platitudes – right over wrong, love will find a way, crime doesn’t pay — although this is Jake we are dealing with, so the last one doesn’t count. But a moral?

But Jake is an anomaly. A good man with an illegal hobby. Let’s talk about some of my other books. Do they have morals?

Not on purpose. Again, I can come up with lots of platitudes. Love conquers all. Everybody needs someone. He who laughs last, laughs best. But a moral?

Again, I am writing for entertainment. The Free Wolves have some underlying themes that are ‘heavier,’ but they aren’t the major thrust of the stories. The Harmony Duprie books are more lighthearted. They are mysteries, but there isn’t a murder in every book. I do like breaking rules. I guess that’s why Jake and I get along.

So no, I don’t believe every book has to have a moral. What about our other authors? Find out by following the links below.

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

(if you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the cover of The Rise of Jake Hennessey, releasing on May 17th.

 

May 1, 2023

Does every book have to have a moral?

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

 

Where to Find It? #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

April 24, 2023

What are your favorite resources for research?

It all depends. It changes depending upon the book I am writing. Now that I’ve moved, it has changed again.

I’m no professional when it comes to various types of guns. Some guys I used to work with were heavily into hunting, and they would help me with various aspects of weapon use in my stories. (I wouldn’t know the difference between an AK-15, and AK-17, and a fancy paintball gun.) I’d just walk down the hall and talk to them. Since I’ve retired, that resource is gone. But in my last couple of books, guns haven’t been a major part of the story, so it hasn’t been an issue. (Jake Hennessey, my hero, doesn’t carry a gun. Never has.)

My current WIP (work in progress) is set in Pittsburgh around 1985. That’s changed everything as far as resources. I’ve been chasing rabbits to find the information I need. Although I survived the 1980s, I am looking for the details. What were the top songs and the favorite drug of choice? Those were easy. Trying to find a description of the Penguins’ owner’s club in the Civic Arena was another story. I spent hours watching old videos on YouTube and haunting Facebook groups. I finally got what I needed through one of my brothers, who knew someone who’d been there. Shoot, trying to determine the color of the uniforms the Pittsburgh cops wore back then was a challenge, and it wasn’t that long ago. I should have called their public relations department and asked, but I didn’t think about it.

As the story writes itself, I keep discovering more details I want to incorporate, but there’s no single website that offers me everything. I keep bookmarking additional sites so I can find them again. Remind me – I’ve got to check out the resources of the Pittsburgh Public Library system and see what they offer on-line.

The internet is a wonderful starting point for research, but there’s so much more. I’ve always believed that people are our greatest source of information, if you can find the right ones to talk to.

How about out other authors? What are their favorite resources? Find out by following the links.

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

 

April 24, 2023

What are your favorite resources for research?

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

 

Any Place, Any Time, Any Where #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

April 17, 2023

If you could live in any place, any time, any world, where would you live?

There’s the emotional response and the logical response. It might be fun to visit the Middle Ages, but the lack of decent food, sanitation, and medical knowledge would make it a dangerous time to live. It’s fun to think you’d live in a castle and be part of nobility, but chances are, most of us would be peasants. I’ll pass.

I’d also like to explore the culture and knowledge of Native Americans before they were in touch with Europeans. So much of what we think we know has been filtered through unreliable narrators. It would be interesting to experience a world that developed with minimal outside influence.

Anne McCaffrey’s Pern would also be interesting. Dragons, you know. There would be drawbacks, based on the social class. Not sure I’d want to stay there.

I would love to visit the world I created in my books and have a chance to meet my characters. I’ve often said I’d like to sit on the steps with Harmony Duprie, sip on some of her ice tea, and enjoy a fine spring afternoon. Or maybe I could get a job at the library where she works. Or, since her world overlaps with my Free Wolves stories, I might have the chance to watch a human transform into a wolf or some other creature.

But if I’m being realistic? Although I’m an old fart, I wasn’t old enough to truly take part in the hippie era. I’d love to be born a few years earlier, and to go to Woodstock, make a trip to San Francisco, and perhaps live in a commune. It would also allow me to get into the computer field earlier than I did. On top of that, I’d be able to get into indie book publishing before the market got crowded.

How about you? In what time, era, and place would you like to live? Tell me in the comments. And to find out about our other authors, follow the links below.

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

April 17, 2023

If you could live in any place, any time, any world, where would you live?

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

The Food They Eat #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

April 10, 2023

What does the food your characters eat reveal about their personality?

She longed for a rare steak to satisfy the blood lust licking her paw had awakened, but she hadn’t found a gas station yet selling them. She sighed. Beef jerky would be on the menu.
Wolves’ Pawn

What do wolf shifters eat? Raw meat, of course, when they have the option. Except they have a human side, and a no-nonsense doctor that insists that pack members include fruits and vegetables in their menus. I played with the concept throughout the Free Wolves’ series. In Wolves’ Knight, there is a community celebration that includes steak and casseroles, and in Wolves’ Gambit, steak is mentioned several times as a part of meals.

I took it farther in Wolves’ Gambit, joking about how a Wyoming pack can’t raise cattle because the cows can sense the dual nature of the wolf shifters, and are skittish around them. Chickens, however, don’t seem to care.

The wolf part of my shifters leads to many minor plot points around food. They have rules about what they can hunt and when. Pregnant does are never to be killed. A large stag is considered off-limits because of his potential to expand the local herd of deer. Who says a wolf shifter can’t be an environmentalist and understand their impact on a future food source? Also, there are other rules about verifying if an animal is another shifter or not before attacking them to make them a meal, which would be unethical. (Attacking them in battle is a different set of values.)

It makes sense. The closer you are to nature, the closer you are to your food source.  So my wolf shifters and food are tied together.

How about the other authors. What does food  reveal about their character’s personalities? Follow the link below  to find out.

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

April 10, 2023

What does the food your characters eat reveal about their personality?

1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

 

The Best and The Worst #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

 

 

April 3, 2023

What are your best and worst social media sites?

I try, really I do. And I have gotten better since I retired and had more time available to spend on it. But I still don’t put enough energy into it to make it work for me. I haven’t tried every site, but I’ve settled on a few.

I’m talking about social media, of course. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram MeWe, and blogging. None of them have made me a best-selling author or overnight sensation. I pay lip service to each, but don’t concentrate on any of them. (Blogging is an exception. I put a lot of effort into these weekly posts.)

As an introvert, it’s hard for me to share my personal life on the internet. Add in my ties to computer program security, and it adds an extra layer to the need for privacy. It’s the exact opposite of what is required to be successful as an author on social media. 

I won’t call any of them the worst. Or the best. I’m equally bad at all of them. But I keep plugging away, hoping one site or another will eventually pay off. But I prefer to be actually writing!

FYI – I have finished the final edits of The Rise of Jake Hennessey. Watch this space for a cover reveal and a release date.

How do the other authors on this hop feel about social media? follow the links below to find out’ 

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

 

 

 

Do Dragonflies Count? Animals in Writing #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book
 
 
 

March 27, 2023
What is your favorite animal and why? Have you ever included it in one of your stories?

Do dragonflies count? They aren’t really animals, but if I have to pick my favorite non-human creature, dragonflies would be my choice.

I know there are people who are scared of them, but not me. I admire them. The way their mostly transparent wings flash in the sunlight, the variety of colors, the way they can effortlessly maneuver from spot to spot. I’ve been known to rescue one when it got trapped in a building. (That’s not easy!)

My favorite encounter with dragonflies was one warm summer day when an empty field near our home was filled with dragonflies. There were hundreds of them, darting from one blade of grass to another. They were only there for a short time, but I enjoyed the moment.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Have I ever used a dragonfly in a book? Surprisingly, no. I actually went back and checked several of them. (Note to me: figure out how to include dragonflies in a future book! Shifters maybe? Would their lifespan be a problem? )
 
How about our other authors? Do they include their favorite animal in their books? Follow the links below to find out.

Until next time, please stay safe.
 
March 27, 2023
What is your favorite animal and why? Have you ever included it in one of your stories?
 
Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
 
 

A Day In The Life #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

March 20, 2923

Tell us about the day in the life of one of your characters.

 After a restless night, my morning routine soothed my frazzled nerves. Start the coffee pot, shower, towel dry my hair, slip into a comfortable pair of jeans and a random blouse from the closet, pour myself a cup of coffee, one sugar, no cream, run downstairs to grab the newspaper, and sit on the bottom step to glance through it. That was my summer routine anyway. I didn’t sit outside in the winter naturally. The local paper, The Herald, tried hard to cover local news, but not much happens in Oak Grove anymore. I’d been in it too much.
   Piper came to greet me, sticking his nose through the chain-link face. Most days, I brought a doggy-biscuit with me, but he doesn’t care on the rare days I forgot. He was happy to have me scratch the top of his head. Some days I swear he purred when I got it just right.
   I sipped the coffee and watched the sun rise.
The Marquesa’s Necklace

Harmony Duprie lives a quiet, routine life and likes it that way. Monday through Friday, she goes to work at the library, helping patrons, comes home, and reads. (She’s a research librarian, with a specialty in Victorian-era history.) Wednesdays nights, she goes out with her friends for supper and a few drinks. Thursday is her day to go grocery shopping, Saturday is her day to deep clean her little apartment, on the third floor of a Victorian-era home, and prep her meals for the next week. (She is somewhat of a neat freak.) Sunday is her day to relax, perhaps help her landlords in their garden, or go for a long car ride to nowhere in particular.

She dates occasionally, but the pool of bachelors in the small town of Oak Grove is pretty slim and she hasn’t found anyone that makes her heart flutter as much as finding a rare book in one of the town’s pawnshops does.

All of that changes when Jake Hennessey wanders into her life and she ends up getting charged for trafficking drugs.

That’s a day in the life of Harmony Duprie. To find out more,  go here:   https://www.pjmaclayne.com/?page_id=232 To get more days in the life of. . . from other authors, just follow the links below.

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

March 20, 2923

Tell us about the day in the life of one of your characters.

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

 

Favorite Vacation Spots Immortalized In Writing #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

March 13, 2023

What are your favorite vacation spots and do they ever show up in your books?

If you follow this blog, you may remember that I moved less than a year ago. Where I moved to used to be one of my favorite vacation spots, and it shows up in my books regularly. So, my answer is much different than it would have been 9 months ago.

I have lived in various parts of the United States, and that is reflected in my stories, sometimes as a mere mention, other times as the primary setting. For example, The Ranger’s Dog Tags is mainly set in Orlando. I never lived in Orlando proper, but the less I talk about the years I lived in Florida, the more positive I can stay. It’s still a stretch to call Florida a favorite vacation spot, but since my daughter and her family live there, it has at least a few redeeming qualities.

In the new order of my life, I’m going to have to list Colorado as my favorite vacation spot. I’ve written Wyoming into a book, (Wolves’ Gambit) but not Colorado. Well, that’s not exactly true. It’s featured in a book that I wrote and never released, because it wasn’t good enough. But I have more books to write, so there is still time.

The Oregon/California coast is another potential spot for a vacation/story locale. The redwood forests cry out for a pack of wolf shifters to live among them and protect the trees. Of course, with all the forest fires in the past few years, the area has changed, and I’d have to do some research before including the current geography in a story.

FYI-in case you wondering- I am deep in edits for The Rise of Jake Hennessey. It is set in familiar territory- the imaginary town of Oak Grove. That has been one of my favorite places to ‘go’ for almost a decade! I don’t have an exact release date set yet, but I am planning to have the book available for the Pittsburgh 3 Rivers Con in early June.

Check out the favorite places of other authors by following the links below.

Don’t forget, until next time, please stay safe!

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

March 13, 2023

What are your favorite vacation spots and do they ever show up in your books?

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

 

Perspective in Writing – Author’s Choice #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

 

 

March 6, 2023

Do you have advice for changing perspective? For example, switching from writing exclusively in third person and switching to first person? Or do you have a reason for staying with the perspective you do?

The first book I set out to write, (one that will never be published,) I rewrote four times before calling it quits. I changed perspective twice in that process. The first two versions were third person past tense, the third version was in first person, then I switched back to third person. It was a great learning process. Frustrating, perhaps, but publishing the story was never a consideration, so I could ‘play’ with how the characters interacted with no deadline to interfere.

What the experience taught me was that I can write in either perspective. Which one I choose is dictated by the story. For example, in its original form, what turned into The Marquesa’s Necklace started out in third person. I didn’t get very far into that version before realizing it was all wrong for the story that was taking shape, and switched to first person.

On the other hand, The Free Wolves’ books are all written in third person. They started that way and never changed. 

What advice do I have for writers wanting to switch? If you want to, do it! Yes, I know you’ll find readers who don’t like to read first person. You’ll also find readers that prefer it.

Something to consider—In first person, you can only see characters and action through one set of eyes at a time. As the author, you have to use dialogue or show physical cues from other characters to allow your main character to know what everyone else is thinking. I think that restriction is useful in helping to prevent head-hopping. On the other side, it may be a good tool for diving deeply into the internal thoughts of the speaker.

One minor thing: I’ve seen it done way too often. If you are writing in first tense, please, oh please, don’t have your main character look into a mirror or a pool of water or whatever to describe themselves. Just don’t.

What to be aware of if you’re moving from first to third person? I have to pay close attention to be sure I don’t head-hop for a sentence or two. It can also be easy to slip into the voice of an omniscient narrator. You, as the author, may know something that your characters and readers don’t know and it can be hard to not include it. 

I haven’t tried some of the lesser-used points of view, like second person and fourth person. (Yes, that exists, but it’s rare.) It’ll be interesting to find out if any one else in this hop has used them. To find out, follow the links below.

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

March 6, 2023

Do you have advice for changing perspective? For example, switching from writing exclusively in third person and switching to first person? Or do you have a reason for staying with the perspective you do?

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

Tackling Turmoil in Writing #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

Feb 27, 2023

Do you tackle current political turmoil in your stories or avoid it? Tell us why.

Truth is, I have avoided delving deeply into current political topics. I may touch on an issue here and there, but I’m writing to entertain my readers, not to push a political agenda.  So yes, I’ve mentioned marijuana and women’s rights as part of a storyline, but it’s rarely more than a mention.

There is another reason for doing that. It dates the story. For example, in several of the Harmony Duprie Mysteries, I mention that one of the characters was arrested for a marijuana offense. The arrest was valid at the time I wrote the book. Now, the laws have changed and what my character did would no longer be an arrestable charge. I don’t think the difference will jar readers, and I don’t plan to update the book to reflect the new rules. Who knows what changes will happen in another ten years that will leave the story behind again?

That’s created some interesting conundrums in one of my works-in-progress. The Rise of Jake Hennessey is set 20 years in the future, and I tried to anticipate not only changes in technology but in laws. It’s not that far ahead, but think of all the changes that have happened in the last 20 years. I prefer not to imagine we’ll be in the middle of a apocalypse or a zombie invasion.

(Speaking of The Rise of Jake Hennessey- it’s off to my editor, but I haven’t set a release date yet. It depends on how much additional editing it’ll need. I’m thinking the middle of May. Here’s the current tagline:
Jake Hennessey: Bar owner (twice). Jewel thief (retired… almost). He’s a good guy, it’s just that his hobby is mostly illegal. Mostly. OK, completely.) 

Would I ever include a political battle in one of my books? Sure, if the story demanded it. I just don’t see it happening soon. It’s similar to sex scenes—I haven’t felt the need to write one of those either.

I expect a different answer from at least one of the regular authors on this hop, but the only way to make sure is to go check them out. Just follow the links below.

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Feb 27, 2023

Do you tackle current political turmoil in your stories or avoid it? Tell us why.

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.