Tag: #IAmWriting

Finding a Place to Write #IWSG

  By IWSG
 
September 4 question – If you could pick one place in the world to sit and write your next story, where would it be and why?
The awesome co-hosts for the September 4 posting of the IWSG are Gwen Gardner,Doreen McGettigan, Tyrean Martinson, Chemist Ken, andCathrina Constantine!
 
There’s this little lake I know, not exactly in the mountains, but in the high plains. The altitude is about 8000 feet. It’s got a wonderful view of several mountain ranges, depending upon which direction you look. On a normal days, there’s at the most, three or four people there- more cows than people, but they are on the other side. The cows, that is.
 
Ducks, geese and the occasional seagull swim on the lake’s surface. Along the shoreline, songbirds play hide-and-go-seek among the bushes. Their songs mingle with the lowing of the cattle.
 
There’s not an electric plugin to be had, so once the battery on the laptop is dead, it’ll be writing with pen and paper. The nearest town, population under 600, is fifteen miles away. 
 
But to sit there in the shade of one of the few trees (or bring my own) and write! No distractions, no cell phone service, no internet, no one bothering me. That would be heaven.
 
So I’m not going to tell you where it is. You know the song…you call someplace paradise, you kiss it goodbye. I’m not ready to for that.
 

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Egos and Writing

  By Open Book

September 2, 2019

Does a big ego help or hurt writers?

I don’t know if my ego is big enough to answer this week’s question!

Here’s the deal: A writer has to have a bit of an ego to think they can take words and and mold them into a story that others will enjoy while, at the same time, doing justice to their characters. But that ego has to be small enough to allow the characters to tell you their story the way they want to. It’s a constant balancing act

Take my book  Wolves’ Knight as an example. I’d planned out a romance subplot for Tasha, my main character, and even  started writing the scene where she and the planned romantic lead got hot and heavy with each other. And promptly got stuck, because she started fighting me. She had a different idea about how things should go. I had to set my ego aside and swap up the plot to satisfy her.

 

 

A similar thing happened with The Baron’s Cufflinks. I’d written what I thought was a great chase scene, but something didn’t sit right. The action was great, the words were fine, but it just didn’t work. Then Harmony, my main character, convinced me it was because I’d told it all wrong. That wasn’t the way it happened. I put aside my ego, scrapped the scene, and rewrote it the way she wanted. I have to admit, it was better her way, but I still liked mine! It involved the sheriff and the highway patrol, a bad guy or three, and Harmony throwing her shoes at one of them. Thankfully, I was able to use pieces of it in the revised version.

On the other side, you have to have a healthy dose of ego to get out in the public and sell books once you have them written. To engage total strangers in a public setting and ask them to buy a book isn’t easy at first. I’ve gotten better at it, but I still have to psych myself up for each public appearance. There’s always the fear that no one will want to talk to you. Even on social media you need to interact with people you’ve never met.

(If you want to check out my books, you can start from my front page, here: http://www.pjmaclayne.com )

I hope you’ll take a moment to check out the other authors on the hop and see how their egos hold up to writing. You can follow the links below. But before you go, feel free to leave a comment.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

September 2, 2019

Does a big ego help or hurt writers?

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.

Literary Success #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

Aug 19, 2019

What does literary success look like to you?

At one time in my life, I would have defined literary success as getting my poetry published in a major magazine. I never accomplished that goal, although my poems got accepted by a number of smaller literary magazines. Each publication felt like success.

Then I started writing books. And to me, literary success felt like writing one good enough that I was willing to share it with the world. I wrote Wolves’ Pawn, decided it was ready, and released it to the world. While the world didn’t buy the book, each sale felt like a success.

Next came The Marquesa’s Necklace, and from the moment I published it I felt like a success. I wasn’t a one-book wonder.  I’d proven to myself that I had more good books in me, and they weren’t all the same plot over and over. And that was success.

Each time a reader takes a moment to wrote a good review, and buys more of my books, that is success.

Once upon a time, when I was running a paid aid, The Marquesa’s Necklace made it into the top 100 for its genre. It only lasted for an hour or so, but that was definitely success. 

Now, with each new book I write, success seems harder to achieve. I’m always shooting for more and for better, and it’s harder and harder to achieve. I’m an addict, searching for my next literary high. Maybe it’s a compliment from another author. Or selling enough books at an event to not only cover the cost of the event, but to make a small profit. Or gain new subscribers to my newsletter, or get more views on my latest blog post.

Would I like to write a nationwide best seller? Absolutely. Do I expect it to happen? Expect-no. Hope-yes. That would be the ultimate literary success.

In the meantime, I’ll remind myself to take joy in the small successes. Writing a line or a paragraph I know is way above average. Finishing my next book. Cheering a reader on as I see the books in a series being bought one after the other.

That’s what I define as literary success. Now, I’m off to find out how everyone defines it. Follow the links below to come with me.

Aug 19, 2019

What does literary success look like to you?

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 Hardest Part #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

 

August 12, 2019

What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?

When I first read this question, my thought was “But it’s all hard!” However, that wouldn’t make a very good blog post, so here we are.

After giving it some thought, the answer was simple. Beginnings. It’s hard to find the right place to start, whether it’s a book or a blog post. Often it takes me three or four tries to write the beginning of anything. (It took me three tries to get this far!)

Unlike the advice in song from The Sound of Music, Do_Re_Mi, stories don’t always start from the beginning. They need to start at some point that will draw the reader in. How bad would it be to have every book start with the birth of the main character?

 

Sometimes, it’s finding the right ‘voice’ to tell the story. When I wrote the prequel to the Harmony Duprie mysteries, I wanted to write in from Jake’s point of view. I tried four different beginnings, but none of them worked. Jake just didn’t want to reveal his secrets. Once I switched to Harmony’s point of view, the story came easily.

When I wrote The Marquesa’s Necklace, the first book in the series, I wrote an entire chapter that ended up being deleted. But it wasn’t a lost effort, because it helped me to develop Harmony’s personality. Plus, I used parts of it in my reworked first chapter.

In fact, I pulled out the first paragraph from the first draft. You’ll see why I got rid of it!

It was another quiet day in the library—just the way I like it. As an ex-librarian, I appreciate the times when only a few patrons are scattered in the stacks or perusing the racks of periodicals. Back then it gave me time to shelve books or straighten out the magazines. Now that I spend much of my time doing research for a writers’ co-op, these times are when I am most productive. None of my old coworkers object when I accumulate a large pile of books on the table I stake out as my territory for the day. They know I will put them back in the proper place before I leave. I don’t necessarily need all these books, but they create a wall I can hide behind.

The same is true for my Free Wolves series. Although the prequel to Wolves’ Pawn came to me a dream, writing the first chapter wasn’t easy. And I wrote it with pen and paper, so while I have the original somewhere, you aren’t going to get the original opening paragraph!

Each book I write, it gets a little easier to write a good first chapter. That doesn’t mean they don’t go through numerous revisions, only that I don’t end up having to delete the whole thing and start over.

By the way, endings can be hard, too. But I’m just going to leave this here and head over to check out what the other authors have to say.  You can come with me by following the links below. 

August 12, 2019

What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?

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
https://fresh.inlinkz.com/p/eeae40

 

Is It Naptime? #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

July 22, 2019

Does writing energize or exhaust you?

It’s only sitting down in front of a computer and typing, right? Or using a pen and a piece of paper. How can that be tiring? It’s not like you’re digging a ditch or anything.

But finding the right words to put on that piece of paper can be tough. Words are easy. Words that say what you mean are hard. Especially when you have to string them together not only in a sentence, but then a paragraph and a page and a chapter. Shoot, even putting the words together for a blog post can rough. And the a writer will do this day after day after day. Yes, it’s tiring.

But guess what? It’s exhilarating and energizing at the same time, like the ups and downs of a roller coaster. When the words on the paper are not only good, but perfect, it’s a thrill that can’t be beat.

 

Image by Paul Brennan from Pixabay

It might be a couple of paragraphs, or maybe only a short sentence. Here’s one of my favorites from Wolves’ Gambit, the third book in the Free Wolves’ stories. 

“Misfits, rebels, and malcontents.”

It’s not even a complete sentence. but read in context, it says so much.

In contrast, here’s a selection from The Marquesa’s Necklace, the first book in the Harmony Duprie series:

The bus ride home seemed longer than the morning’s trip as I studied each person getting on for a potential threat. Was the little gray-haired lady with the oversize purse and shopping bag packing a handgun? Did the teenage boy wearing a long black coat keep ninja stars in his pockets? And the woman in her mid-twenties holding a little girl’s hand? Was the child was just a prop, borrowed for the afternoon, solely to throw off suspicion? In reality, was the woman a super spy waiting for a chance to drug me and cart me off to her remote hideaway?

Yes, I know, neither seems like it was that much work. Simple words. But the second selection? That was probably the fourth revision. The apparent simplicity is deceptive. But when I finally got it right, it was sweet! 

I’m sure you get the point by now. Writing both exhausts and energizes me. But one part of writing that always energizes me and other writers are good reviews. So if you enjoy our work, please leave one! (We love comments on our blogs, too.) 

And it would be great if you will follow the links below and visit with the other writers in the group. Happy reading!

July 22, 2019

Does writing energize or exhaust you?

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

 

It’s All Fun & Games Until Somebody Dies #Openbook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

July 15, 2019

What was your hardest scene to write?

Spoiler alert: I’ll be revealing a minor plot point that extends over a couple of books in my mystery series. I don’t believe it will decrease the pleasure of reading the books if you haven’t already.

Those of you you have read the Harmony Duprie books know she is a logical person. Logical almost to a fault, in some instances. When I set out to write a scene where she allowed her emotions to have free rein, it was tough.

The set up for the scene took place in an earlier book, and I thought the extended time frame would help me gain the distance I needed to do a good job of including the emotion Harmony felt without getting too emotional myself. Yeah, I was wrong.

I’ve written a number of murders into my stories and Harmony has dealt with them in a rather detached manner. They weren’t anyone she was close to, so she was able to view them thru a researcher’s eyes. When her own parents died (before the story starts) she had friends in the community to help her.

That included the mother of one of her best friends who became a surrogate mother to Harmony for a few years. And that’s who I killed off. She wasn’t the victim of any of Harmony’s villains, the bad guy was an enemy that Harmony couldn’t beat. Breast cancer.

For the story, I had to have Harmony stay strong for her friend and break down at the same time. And that was tough. At least I had about 1000 miles between them, which allowed Harmony to remain calm on the phone while falling apart. Of course, once she got home and behind a locked door, her sorrow was released.

From The Contessa’s Brooch

Naturally, I wasn’t in the mood to hang out with the guys even after I got done with as much as possible. All I wanted to do was go home, drink a glass or two of wine, and ugly cry. I didn’t even feel bad when I told Eli he’d have to do supper on his own.

I was on my third glass when someone knocked. I decided to ignore it. My eyes were swollen, my throat hoarse and my nose red from blowing it. No way I wanted company.

But the knocker was determined. And had a key. So, when Eli opened the door and held his arms out, I let him wrap them around me while I cried more.

The thread about the death runs through three or four chapters, while Harmony is busy solving the current mystery. Jumping back and forth between logic and deep emotion was rough on Harmony, and on me. I shed a few tears myself.

But that isn’t the toughest scene I’ve ever written. In a story that will never be published, I killed off the main character. Writing her death and her funeral took several boxes of tissues. I knew readers would hate me, and  rewrote the story with a happy ending. Even that version won’t ever be published- it simply isn’t good enough.

Now, I’m going to take a deep breath, shake off the doldrums, and head over to see what the other authors participating in the blog hop have to share.

 

July 15, 2019

What was your hardest scene to write?

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

https://fresh.inlinkz.com/p/1c38625e53c14049ac41aaa0f3e856f3

Seasons in Writing #OpenBook blog Hop

  By Open Book, Uncategorized

July 8, 2019

Despite the recent snow in the Rocky Mountains, it’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere. Do your stories and worlds reference seasons and do they play into the plots of your books?

 

Did you hear about the snow sculpture contest in the park?” she asked.

“No,” I said. How did I miss that? “Who’s sponsoring it?”

“Oh, it’s unofficial.” She put more grated cheese on top of her spaghetti and passed the container to Freddie. “Started with some little kids building old-fashioned snowmen, and then a bunch of high schoolers got involved. Pretty soon parents got into the spirit of things as well. Now there are dragons and castles and all sorts of creations scattered on the shore of the lake. Makes me hope the cold weather sticks around so they last longer.”

That’s a short snippet from Her Ladyship’s Ring, the second book in the Harmony Duprie Mysteries. This is the first scene that came to mind when I saw this week’s topic. Since Oak Grove, the town where she lives, is located somewhere north of Pittsburgh, it seemed only natural to bring the weather into the story. 

I could likely find at least one weather-related snippet from every one of my books. The out-of-doors is important in my life, so it’s natural to include it in my stories.

Here’s another from Wolves’ Knight, the second book in the Free Wolves series.

The storm clouds rolling in from the west made the night seem even darker than normal, bearing the promise of an early snow. Tasha had her window down, hoping the cold air would help her stay awake. When she caught the first trace of smoke, she assumed that someone had been smoking in the car, never wondering why she hadn’t caught the scent sooner. When the odor got stronger, she pulled over to the side of the road, thinking the car had developed a problem.

But it’s not just bad weather that get featured, I also set scenes on  picture-perfect summer days, crisp fall nights and rainy springtimes. a few happen in the sweltering heat of Florida.

But maybe I have it easy because all my books are set in the real world. (Well, mostly. Do you believe there are shifters among us?) Other authors may not have it so simple. Let’s go find out! 

July 8, 2019

Despite the recent snow in the Rocky Mountains, it’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere. Do your stories and worlds reference seasons and do they play into the plots of 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.

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

 

Pieces of Me #IWSG

  By IWSG

 

Welcome to the Insecure Writer’s Support group blog hop for July. 

July 3 question: What personal traits have you written into your character(s)?

I think every one of my major characters has a small piece of me written into their personality. But the one that has the most of me is Harmony Duprie, the main character in my female sleuth series. At least, that was true in the first book. She has grown and evolved in each book, and has developed her own unique personality. In fact, I’ve changed the series name to recognize the fact. What were once called the Oak Grove Mysteries are now the Harmony Duprie Mysteries.

One easy to see similarity between Harmony and myself is our profession. She’s en ex-librarian turned internet researcher. I planned on being a librarian when I was growing up, and took some college classes in the field. I even worked as a part-time librarian in a small town for a year or so. 

Of course, as a librarian, Harmony has a love of reading. I’ve given her tastes similar to mine. That erotic novel about the billionaire dinosaur-shifter president? She won’t touch it with a ten-foot pole. But she’s more than willing to tackle the driest historical accounts to find the interesting tidbits of information.

Another aspect of my personality that Harmony shares is her need for having time alone. Although she enjoys her friends, there are times that she just wants to be by herself. Her little apartment serves as her sanctuary. I have my writing cave.

But I keep discovering aspects of her that have no basis in my likes and dislikes. She likes to start her morning with a cup of coffee—not unusual. (But I don’t like coffee at all and don’t drink it!) here’s a quick snipptet from the first book, The Marquesa’s Necklace, that features her habit:

I must have set my alarm out of force of habit, because I woke up earlier than I needed to. I was sitting on the second-to-bottom step drinking my coffee, reading the paper, and patting Piper when Elijah arrived. He put his coffee down, pulled a doggie treat out of his pocket, and tossed it to Piper. Piper didn’t bark or growl or anything. He just wagged his tail, gobbled up the goodie, and allowed Elijah to pat him.

“What’s up with that?” I asked, astonished. “Piper doesn’t let strangers touch him, not ever!”

Elijah picked up his coffee and sat down beside me. “Piper and I reached an agreement,” he said, picking up the front section of the paper. I was done with it, and had moved on to the sports section. “I bring him dog cookies, and he lets me help keep an eye on you. He figured it was a fair trade, from what I can tell.”

I snorted into my coffee cup. “Sounds to me like you got the raw end of the deal.”

“Depends on your point of view, I guess.” He avoided my eyes and I didn’t press the issue. I hadn’t gotten enough sleep to worry about what he meant.

We sat in companionable silence, sipping our coffees and enjoying the crisp morning air. It wouldn’t be much longer that I could do this. Once winter arrived, I’d be banished back to my apartment. At least until spring. Winters tend to be long here.

Of course I didn’t tell him, but I enjoyed having Elijah share the moment with me. He would be gone all too soon. I’d lost my ghost in the library.

 

If you want to find out more about Harmony, check out her stories HERE.

Don’t forget to check out how other IWSG authors share their personal traits with their characters. 

The awesome co-hosts for the July 3 posting of the IWSG are Erika Beebe, Natalie Aguirre,Jennifer Lane, MJ Fifield, Lisa Buie-Collard, and Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor!
 

It’s a Trap! #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

July 1, 2019

What are common traps for aspiring writers?

At some point in the distant past, storytellers discovered they could be paid for their writing and became writers. Not long after that, other people figured out how to take advantage of them. And so it goes today. With the advent of the digital revolution for books and other forms of the written word, scams have adapted and changed to the new market.

It doesn’t matter if a writer is going indie or the traditional publisher route, there are traps in both methods. I’ll concentrate on traps for those of us who write indie.

The biggest one I know of (And I haven’t ever been caught in!) is vanity publishing. That’s where a company charges a hopeful writer to publish their book. They may hide the price behind editing fees or setup fees or cover design, but the end is the same. The writer ends up with overpriced physical books to sell and not much else. As tempting as it may seem, my advice to an aspiring writer? Don’t do it. There are ways to get your book published without signing a long-term contract with a fly-by-night company. I could write a whole post about it!

Contests are another area that often catch as aspiring writer. Sure, some  have been around forever and actually can assist an author in getting noticed. But others charge large fees and then give out minimal prizes. Then there are the contests that charge no fees but put all the “winners” (Everyone!) in a book and charge an outrageous amount of money to purchase copies. Or invite the winners (Everyone!) to an awards ceremony at their own expense.

There are other scams that could catch both the experienced as well as the inexperienced writer. I’ve read the stories about editors and cover designers taking an author’s money and disappearing. Then there’s the small press publishers who were legitimate in the beginning and after a number of years fail, leaving authors with no way to get their money or their rights back. It’s hard to avoid those.

But there’s a website out there that’s on the side of writers. It’s a good place to start if there’s a question about a company’s services. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America have run it for years. I strongly suggest that all writers check it out HERE.

When you’re done, come back here and head on down to the links below to see what the other authors are sharing. That’s where I’m headed! 

 

July 1, 2019

What are common traps for aspiring writers?

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 Power of Words

  By Open Book

June 17,2019

What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?

I learned to read in the golden age of Dick, Jane, and Spot. See Jane run. Obviously, that didn’t teach me a love of language but it was a start.

By sixth grade I was reading a book a night. No, not 1000 page novels, but a lot of history and biographies written for my age level. Okay, I confess, I read above by age level by at least of couple of years.

In seventh grade (I think) I wrote a short paper about the Mafia. I don’t remember what the assignment was, but I got an A—and was invited to read the essay over the PA system to the seventh and eighth grades., a first for the school. But that wasn’t the event that showed me the power of words.

And it wasn’t when I won an award from the Daughters of the American Revolution for my essay on Molly Pitcher in eighth grade. No, that event was ruined for me when they first announced a classmate with a similar name as the winner, and then discovered the mistake. To make it “fair”, I had to share the award with her and felt cheated.

No, I learned the power of words by failing a writing assignment. We were tasked with writing a short story- I forget how many words. Influenced by a book I’d read recently, I ended my story with the main character ready to throw himself from a cliff to evade capture by the enemy. My teacher thought I hadn’t finished the story, and gave me an F.  I tried to explain to her the motivation behind the ending, but she wasn’t listening. or wasn’t satisfied, I’m not sure. 

I don’t have a copy of that story anymore, but when I think back, I still think I was in the right. I’d explained the character’s motivation, I had put him in a situation with no way out, and I even had him looking skyward as if reaching out to his god. I thought the ending was clear without describing it in gory details.

Image by astize from Pixabay

And that’s when I learned the power of words. And the power of no words. 

I’ve also learned how to take away the power. You see. I believe words only have the power you give them. Call me a nasty name? It may hurt momentarily, but it’s only words, after all. Sticks and stones …. I can even read bad reviews and decide if they are helpful or nonsense.

There is one word that is often misused but I hope never loses its power. It’s the word that represents the best of all of us, the hope for humanity. It’s a simple word, only four letters. You guessed it, the word is love.

Now, let’s head over and find out when everyone else discovered the power of words.

June 17,2019

What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?

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