Tag: #HarmonyDuprie

Teetering In The Middle #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

June 6, 2022

How do you balance making demands on the reader with taking care of the reader?

There are times we authors ask a lot of our readers. We ask them to believe that there’s a world out there where the sky is green, or that shifters live among us. Or maybe it’s something as simple as a jewel thief falling in love with a librarian. The readers are asked to believe that something seemingly impossible is true.

At the same time, we have to make sure the readers are comfortable enough with the characters and the story to keep turning the page. Are they expecting romance? Or suspense? They should be included.

Just this afternoon, I had a conversation with my mother about my latest release, “The Fall of Jake Hennessey” and how it makes her uncomfortable when she’s reading it and she meant it as a compliment. After all, my main character, Jake Hennessey, is not a good guy, but I’ve asked the reader to connect with him as he’s robbing a hotel safe or breaking into a mansion and rejoice with him when he succeeds. I’m not surprised that made my mother hesitant.

Writing Jake at his worst was hard, so I tried to balance his actions as a villain by including scenes where he’s shown as a decent guy. However, I left it up to the reader to decide if he’s truly doing it from the goodness of his heart or if it’s a way to manipulate the characters he’s involved with. Of course, he’s met his match In Harmony Duprie.

As usual, Harmony’s mind was a step ahead of his.

She picked up an armload of the books from her coffee table and carried them to the bookshelf. “There’s always a rational explanation for two people getting together. But not us,” she said as she returned them to their places. “Why can’t I find it?”

Harmony was slipping out of Jake’s grasp. Which meant he’d lose his chance at The Three Musketeers, the prize he’d been working for. But the longer he was around her, the more he realized she was the real prize. “Isn’t that like asking the meaning of life?” he asked.

“Why are you working in the construction business, Jake?”

The abrupt change in topic sent his mind spinning. “Because I like to eat. Why?”

“You keep going all philosophical on me, and I can’t tie the two things together. What would you do if money wasn’t an issue?”

He couldn’t tell her about the joy he got from a successful heist. “You know what I’d really like to do? Bring old houses back to life. That’s what brought me to Oak Grove.”
From The Fall of Jake Hennessey

 

I believe that it’s part of an author’s job to challenge their readers. How much is up to each of us. Finding the right balance can be tough and can change from story to story.

How do the other authors feel about challenging their readers? Follow the links below to find out. 

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

June 6, 2022

How do you balance making demands on the reader with taking care of the reader?

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 In The Name #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

May 16, 2022

How do you come up with the names for your characters?

Shakespeare wrote “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet.”

There’s a lot in a name and we all know it. I won’t get into the ways that social/economic/political factors can be influenced by names, but I will acknowledge they make a difference in the way I name my characters. I try to make my good guys sound like good guys, and my bad guys like villains. How do I do that?

It’s the way the names ‘sound.’ Although American English draws from many languages, some sounds are more pleasing to the ear. For example, think about the contrast between the ‘hard’ c and the ‘soft’ c. Which is easier on the ear? Chaos or celery? So, my villains may have names that use ‘hard’ sounds while my heroes have softer names. Gertrude vs Sarah, for example.

But where do I find my names? I’ve got a variety of sources. For one, I keep a notebook with unusual names that I run into. I have pages of nothing but names, both first and last. Most of them I use for minor characters because my major characters often name themselves. But I try to come up with names that aren’t found in social media or in a google search. I do this by changing one or two characters in the name.

For Wolves’ Pawn, I used the US census from the 1700s and 1800s as a source for some of my last names. I wanted to give the wolf packs a historical feel, to show they had been on their lands for a long time. I’m probably the only one who is aware of it, but now you are in on the secret! Most of the first names were more modern, to make the characters more comfortable for the readers.

The names continued in Wolves’ Knight, but Wolves’ Gambit changed geographic locations, I switched the basis for names to reflect the difference in the packs’ backgrounds. I drew heavily on minor biblical names, but changed them to be familiar without being the actual names. My intent was to mimic the way language shifts happen in isolated populations.

Names in the Harmony Duprie Mysteries are different. I wanted to use names that could be found in any small town in the northeast USA. That gave me a wide range of options because my small town reflected the diversity of the area. As my cast of background characters grew across the series, I had to make sure I didn’t repeat a name accidentally, and my notebook came into play.

The notebook has been used for other thing—scribblings with ideas for plots, revisions, general notes—, and I’m running out of pages. It’s about time to retire it and start a new one. Maybe one of those nice ones that I hate to use because I should save them? (Don’t ask me save them for what. I don’t have a good answer.)

How do our other authors get their characters’ names? Just follow the links below to find out. And, as always, until next time, please stay safe.

 

May 16, 2022

How do you come up with the names for 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

 

The Fall of Jake Hennessey #NewReleases #Suspense

  By Uncategorized

This isn’t the kind of Harmony Duprie story you are used to – this is pure Jake Hennessey at his best – and his worst – in his own words and his point of view.

Tagline: Jake Hennessey is always on top of his game, anticipating the next big play…until Harmony Duprie changes everything.

I didn’t expect to write this book. Four or five years ago, I’d tried to write a short story from Jake’s point of view, but he wouldn’t talk to me. When I wrote “The End” after finishing The Ranger’s Dog Tags, I thought I was done with Harmony Duprie and her friends. But as I was doing research for a story featuring a female PI in Pittsburgh in the 1980s, Jake intruded. This book is the result.

Description: Jake Hennessey deals in selling fine jewelry of an illegal nature. The thrill of getting away with it is his addiction. When he hears a rumor about a rare old book in the personal collection of a small-town librarian, he gets the urge to try a new game.

After all, even jewel thieves get bored.

But the librarian, Harmony Duprie, isn’t what he expected and the challenge becomes serious business.

In order to win, Jake’s going to have to play by a new set of rules—and make them up as he goes along—because this time, he’s playing for the rest of his life.

Here’s a short excerpt:

The Bargen house was simple to break into. It was well-maintained, but Jake knew the tricks. The windows were the easiest point of entry once the family left to go to a concert. With the police busy controlling the crowds, the neighborhoods were unguarded.

The locked doors would be easy to pick, but that left behind traces a good cop would find. The first window Jake tried was firmly latched, and he didn’t want to break a window if he didn’t need to. But they’d left the kitchen window open a crack. He had to go through at an angle to get his shoulders through the narrow opening and use his arms to pull the rest of his body past the sink and onto the floor.

He waited a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the semi-darkness. Older people favored nightlights throughout their house. They gave him all the light he needed to work. There hadn’t been time to scope out the interior, so he crept from room to room to find the main bedroom.

The door stood open, but he slipped on the latex gloves he’d swiped from the motel before he entered. If he got lucky, the case and the brooch would be sitting on top of the dresser. He hoped Mrs. Bargen hadn’t worn it. But the cluttered tray held no jewelry box.

He worked quickly, opening and closing each drawer, not finding what he was looking for. The next place to check was the closet. He turned on the light and closed the door behind him. And hit paydirt.

The Fall of Jake Hennessey is available at the retailers below, and will soon be available with Nook Press, I hope you’ll pick up a copy today. If you enjoy it, please  leave a review, and thank you!

Amazon

Kobo

Apple

Books2Read

Staring Into The Not-So-Distant Past #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

 

March 28, 2022

Where were you at 21? How does that reflect in your writing today?

At the age of 21? Really? That was several lifetimes ago! You expect me to remember that? Certainly, my life wasn’t typical for the age. Especially as I spent much of that year pregnant. I wasn’t a newlywed, (We got married young…I was only 19!) but I think we were still in our long-lasting honeymoon stage. Luckily, I had an easy pregnancy and had the time and energy to write poetry and and do lots of reading.

But none of my main characters have had children. The stories and the characters haven’t called for it. Plus, they’ve all been older than 21, so they are more mature and settled into their personalities than most 21-year olds.

But that doesn’t mean that year isn’t reflected in my writing. I learned a lot about love that year. Romantic love, love for a child, love of myself. Although my stories are mostly action, adventure, suspense and mystery, (and now crime!) they all have a romantic element.

For example, here’s a short snippet from my about-to-be-released book, The Fall of Jake Hennessey:

Sarah rushed out of the kitchen, phone in hand. Jake followed her but went upstairs to check out the rest of the three-story house. The rooms were small, and he wondered if he’d be able to tear out walls to make them bigger. As he started up the narrow stairs to the third floor, Sarah’s voice floated up to him.

“What are you doing with him, Harmony?”

“He asked me to come along.”

“That’s not what I mean, and you know it.”

“He’s good looking, smart, and treats me like I’m special. Every guy I’ve ever dated in Oak Grove acts as if they’re doing me a favor by taking me out. They’re looking for a 1950s housewife. Jake talks to me and actually listens to what I have to say.”

Jake didn’t want to move and make a noise that would stop the conversation. It was confirmation that his plan was working. Pride warred with a heavy dose of guilt.

“What does he want from you?”

“You mean besides the normal? Sex? Which will happen when I decide I’m ready.”

The book releases this Saturday, April 2nd. 

While my life at age 21 isn’t directly reflected in my books, it surely has influenced my writing. I suspect it’s the truth for others on this loop as well. All you have to do is follow the links below to find out!

Anyway, until next time, please stay safe!

March 28, 2022

Where were you at 21? How does that reflect in your writing today?

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

 

 

Clamoring for Attention – Secondary Characters #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

March 21, 2022

Do you have a favorite secondary character in your books? Or a favorite sub-plot?

I have a problem. It’s a good problem to have, but it complicates my writing. The problem is secondary characters who want to take over my stories and tell their own. And the stories deserve a book of their own.

Take Tasha, from Wolves’ Knight. She was a secondary character in Wolves’ Pawn, and was written out of the story half-way through the book. And since I’d written Wolves’ Pawn as a stand-alone urban fantasy, I thought she was out of the picture for good. I was wrong.

I was busy writing The Baron’s Cufflinks, the third book in the Harmony Duprie Mysteries, when I needed a bogus name for a book. Only it wasn’t a real book, it was a fake one that was used to store old jewelry. The name I picked was Tasha’s Tale. Then I was stuck.

See, Tasha wanted me to write her story. And she didn’t want me to finish The Baron’s Cufflink’s first. She wanted it now. (She is strong-willed!) That’s where Wolves’ Knight came from, and what turned a stand-alone story into a series.

Lori from Wolves’ Gambit has a similar story, but at least she didn’t interrupt me in the middle of writing a different book. She waited patiently while I finished The Baron’s Cufflinks (finally!) and politely asked for her turn. Which I gave her. Now, she and Tasha have teamed up on me, but I’m holding them off. For now.

Because the most consistent of all my secondary characters has my full attention. Jake Hennessey.

Jake was meant to be a throwaway character. He was part of Harmony Duprie’s past, and he was supposed to stay there. When he showed up in Her Ladyship’s Ring, I decided to humor him and let him stay. Big mistake.

I thought I got rid of him in the third book. Sent him off to Chicago and sent Harmony to West Virginia. Done deal, right? Nope, he showed up in West Virginia, and intruded in Harmony’s life again. So, I put him to work and let him help Harmony solve her mystery. I could always write him out of the next book. Or the one after that, or the last one. One thing I can say for Jake, he’s persistent.

When I finished the series with The Ranger’s Dog tags, I was ready to move along. Maybe write that book for Tasha and Lori. Or the female PI series.

But nooo. Jake decided he wanted me to write his story, that he’d stayed in the background (more or less) long enough. Now, I’d tried to get him to tell me his backstory several years ago and he wouldn’t talk. I was fine with that, everyone deserves their secrets.

Still, Jake is Jake, and he decided that now was the time. Only what he asked me to write was a prequel to all the Harmony stories. That meant I knew a lot of the guidelines for the story, and how it ended. What I didn’t know were Jake’s motivations. For a change, he made them very clear from the beginning.

Caged in its gold setting, the deep-green emerald glowed in the dim light. Jake didn’t stop to admire the ring before slipping it into the hidden pouch on his waistband. There’d be time for that before the new owners claimed the prize. It wasn’t a stunning ring, but its ties to the French monarchy made it priceless to a collector.
The Fall of Jake Hennessey, coming April 2nd, 2022.

But Jake isn’t ready to let go of me yet. Not yet. I’m working on a sequel, both to Jake’s book and all the Harmony stories. It’s quite an adventure, trying to write a book placed in the future. That’s all I’m going to tell you.

I know that some of our other authors write secondary characters that have made an impact on them. I’m looking forward to finding out about them. You can too, by following the link below.

March 21, 2022

Do you have a favorite secondary character in your books? Or a favorite sub-plot?

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

Speaking in Tongues — Well, Accents, Anyway #Openbook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

March 7, 2022

Can you speak in an accent that isn’t your own? Can any of your characters do this? How do you indicate that in your stories?

I studied French in high school, and Russian in college. (We won’t talk about my short-lived fantasy about working for the CIA.) I got passing grades in both, but wasn’t good at either. (No CIA for me!)

I know what my problem was. I don’t ‘hear’ accents. Well, I hear them, but my brain automatically translates them to the way they sound to me. When I worked as a waitress, I ‘heard past’ the accents of tourists, even those who didn’t speak English as their primary language, and understood what they were saying.  If someone asked me to mimic the accents of my customers, I couldn’t have done it. The translation only works one way.

Now, Harmony Duprie, on the other hand, speaks fluent Southern Belle. (She also knows Latin, but doesn’t use it in conversation.) She picked it up from some of her college friends, and puts it to good use, pretending to be sweet and innocent when she is anything but.

Here are two examples, taken from The Baron’s Cufflinks.

I made a big show out of looking towards Jake. “You mean like a race car driver?” I added a touch of Southern Belle to my act. All I needed was a fan to wave in flutter in front of my face, but I settled for fluttering my eyelashes. “Oh, no, my brother would never forgive me if I let someone else drive his baby. Even someone as good-looking as your friend.”

*****

That was ironic, coming from the man who was playing with Jake’s life. The Southern Belle took over. “Why, whatever are you talking about, Agent?” I asked with as much innocence as I could muster.

*****

Harmony also has to deal with an old French document and its translation in this story, but despite her name, she doesn’t know French. That’s part of the fun.

I don’t do anything special to indicate the use of another language or accent. I just put it out there!

How about our other authors? What do they do about other languages? Just follow the links below to find out.

As always, until  next time, please stay safe.

March 7, 2022

Can you speak in an accent that isn’t your own? Can any of your characters do this? How do you indicate that in your stories?

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Killing Them (My Characters) Softly #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

Feb 21, 2022

What’s the worst wound (emotional or physical) one of your characters has ever had to deal with? How did you react to writing the scene?

I get attached to my characters, both the good and the not-so-good. But if I don’t hurt them, there won’t be a story that anyone wants to read. I also have to consider whether killing off a character for the sake of the storyline will turn readers off and make them stop reading.

That’s the dilemma with every story. How far can I go and remain true to the characters?

For example, I considered killing off Eli Hennessey, Harmony’s love interest,  before I started writing the last book in the Harmony Duprie Mysteries. I felt like the series was getting stale and needed either a radical reset or to end it. Killing Eli would certainly have reset things, but I didn’t feel it would be true to the overall tone of the stories. I decided to approach it differently.

I placed the phone on the table, then set my hands on my lap to hide them. I clenched and unclenched my fists. Clenched them again. My fingernails dug into my palms. I forced the words from my constricted throat.

“Eli is missing.”

                                                                                                                            From The Ranger’s Dog Tags

That set the scene for giving Harmony the worst time of her life. Sure, Eli had disappeared before, but instinct told her this time was different. He’d been at safely at home and in his bed, and then he wasn’t. And no one, not Harmony, not his friends, not his parents, not even the cops could locate him.

To make matters worse, Harmony found herself in charge of Eli’s company, putting additional pressure on her in a time of crisis. I’d love to tell you more, but I can’t without this post becoming filled with spoilers. You’ll have to go buy the book, if you haven’t already!

But I will give you a few hints. Eli’s houses (both of them) are set on fire. Harmony is stalked and ends up living with an ATF agent. She pulls a Bootlegger’s 180 in the middle of I-4, the interstate that runs east-west through the middle of Florida. Since it’s Florida, there’s the threat of a hurricane. (It wouldn’t be Florida without a hurricane, mosquitos, tourists, and humidity.) And a recurring character close to Harmony dies.

I had fun writing this book, but I also hated myself. The box of tissues on my desk had to be replaced more than once. I carefully weighed each torture I put Harmony through to decide if it was really necessary. Sometimes, I had to stop writing and give myself a day or two to gather the strength to continue—or figure out how to get it right. (At least that’s the excuse I could use when I had temporary writer’s block.) Knowing that I had the ability to give Harmony her happy ending is what let me feel free to put her through the tough times.

I suspect that’s true for most authors. We don’t enjoy writing the terrible things we write about. (Okay, there may be a few exceptions.) But don’t take my word for it. Follow the links below and find out what dreadful things the other authors on this hop have imposed on their characters. But before you go, I’d love it if you would leave a comment.

As always, until next time, please stay safe!

Feb 21, 2022

What’s the worst wound (emotional or physical) one of your characters has ever had to deal with? How did you react to writing the scene?

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

 

“Misfits, Rebels, and Malcontents.” Best Lines #OpenBook

  By Open Book
 
Jan 31, 2022
 
Share some of your favorite lines from your writing. How about some of your worst ones if you still remember them?

“Misfits, rebels, and malcontents.”

That’s my favorite line from the book Wolves’ Gambit. It’s how a wolf from a traditional pack described the members of the members of the loosely knit organization called the Free Wolves. It’s the story of Lori Grenville, who has made it her life’s mission to help unhappy shifters escape from overbearing alphas and dangerous situations. Another of my favorite lines from that story is “But the years of fighting and fleeing had scarred her, and hope didn’t belong in her vocabulary. Only plans and action.”

Sometimes, I get lucky and good lines come to me. More often, I have to revise several times to get the words just right. Take this little piece from The Baron’s Cufflinks, the third book in the Harmony Duprie Mysteries. “I recognized the technique—he hoped the silence would make me uncomfortable and I would say more. It didn’t work. I waited. He sighed.” I can’t tell you how many times I revised those words. They didn’t even exist in my first draft.

I had lots of fun writing my current work-in-progress, called The Fall of Jake Hennessey, because Jake and Harmony match wits throughout the story. There’s a scene where they trade pick-up lines.

“I’m going to need you to step away from the freezer, Jake. You’re melting the ice,” she said with a grin.
He should have known she wouldn’t give up easily. She’d beat him at this game, but he’d make his best shot with lines he remembered from high school. “Did you just come out of the oven? Because you’re too hot to handle.”
The grin got bigger, and she waggled her eyebrows. “That’s a nice shirt. Can I talk you out of it?”
“If you were a library book, I’d check you out,” he replied, putting on his poker face.
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t know whether to give you extra points for that one because it’s relevant, or take one away because I’ve heard it more than once. But here’s mine. You’re so hot, you must be the cause of global warming.”

I haven’t decided on a release date for the story yet, but it’s coming soon.

Now for the worst lines. Most of them I manage to forget after they’ve been erased. What I do have are some entire scenes that I deleted, and I won’t impose them on my readers. I don’t think anyone wants to read over a thousand words of Jake overseeing a furniture delivery, or a deleted love interest for Tasha in Wolves’ Knight.

But here’s a short one to close out. Back to where we started – this is from a deleted scene from Wolves’ Gambit.

Conversation in the room resumed and the guard, after giving the pitcher back to Princess, retook his position. She gulped, but found the courage to fill the rest of the water glasses before scuttling back to the bar.

Want to find out the best and worst lines from other authors? Come with me and follow the links below. And, as always, until next time, please stay safe!

 
Jan 31, 2022
 
Share some of your favorite lines from your writing. How about some of your worst ones if you still remember them?
 
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
 

Childhood Memories in My Stories #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

Jan 24, 2022

Do any of your characters have a favorite toy from their childhood? Do you?

Easy answer to this question is no, I haven’t written childhood toys into any of my stories. But, as always, there’s a gotcha! Not toys, but Harmony, my librarian-turned-internet researcher, has many of her childhood books.

I mention her collection of Nancy Drew in the stories, but she’s kept many other books as well. She’s got a copy of The Three Musketeers that was given to her by her uncle. A few of the James Bond books were added to her library when she was in high school.

There’s one small section of a shelf with children’s stories. Dr. Seuss is there for sure, along with Where The Wild Things Are and many others.

And it’s not a toy or a book, but Harmony also has her mother’s African Violet—well, at least a plant that is several generations down from the original cutting. She’s kept it alive through crisis after crisis.

And me?

I’ve still got a few things from my childhood, if you count high school. Coming from the middle a large family, most of our toys were passed down from one child to another as they were outgrown, just like our clothes. I never was attached to dolls or stuffed animals and had no desire to keep them. I’ve held onto a magnetic chess/checkers set I used to take to school, although I never played seriously, and a few books I claimed as my own from the shelves in the attic. (I may have previously mentioned the Narnia books I ‘borrowed’ from one of my brothers and never returned.) And I still have some of the embroidery thread that was my grandmother’s. (I know, it probably is unusable.)

I’d love to hear what childhood toys or belongings you’ve held on to. Tell us in the comments if you like.

This is the part where I suggest you check out the posts from the other authors on this hop and see what toys their characters might have. Just follow the links below.

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

Jan 24, 2022

Do any of your characters have a favorite toy from their childhood? Do 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