New Year Resolutions

Resolutions?  I don't make 'em.  Why?  Cause I don't stick to them.  I can break a resolution in record time.  But if I were to make some resolutions, this is what they would be:

1.  Become more organized.  This is a challenge for me.  You see, I am a Pisces.  Pisces is the dreamer of the zodiac; mysterious, spiritual, imaginative and idealistic.  I do much better on the creative side of my job than the details and dealines part.

2.  Get thru all the submissions in my inbox.  Without drinking a fifth of vodka.

3.  Work out and lose the belly I am gaining.  I don't have a full sized spare tire yet...  just a donut.  And I don't like it. But speaking of donuts, YUM!  (You see my problem here, right?)

4.  Read for pleasure.  After a full day of reading, the last thing I want to do is go home and read.  But I have fallen behind on the series from my favorite authors and I have a stack of debut mysteries that I am dying to get to as well.

5.  Make a boatload of money.  Let's face it, most of us could use more money and I certainly feel the crunch with three kids.

6.  Figure out how to publish between 10 and 12 books per season without going completely insane.  Ties into resolution #1.  But seriously, I am going insane.

7.  Take a real vacation.  Fat chance.  See resolution #5.

8.  Figure out who to bribe to get a New York Times Bestseller.

Ok, forget it.  None of those resolutions are possible, much less probable.  Pooey.  I hate resolutions.


On the other hand, I do have some goals for 2012.  (you see, goals are different.  you try to hit a goal.  but a resolution is a hard and fast change...  goals are better for me.)

I want Midnight Ink to continue to grow and kick some publishing butt!  2011 was very exciting with the acquisitions of both established and debut authors.  It was quite exciting and scary to see my first acquisitions enter the market.  But in 2012 I want to see starred reviews, best sellers and awards.

I want to get better at my job.  This has been one huge learning experience for me.  I think I have grown a lot, but there is always room for improvement.  Like I should blog more often.  :)  I am trying for organzied but will settle for keeping my head above water.

I intend to take care of myself better in 2012.  That means trying to remember to eat three meals a day and taking time for myself.  Maybe going to the gym, playing volleyball, etc.  I also want to push my limits.  In general, I only do safe things.  Perhaps I should sky dive or something.

I also wish to live each day with peace, happiness and love.  Yep, that is my Pisces nature.  To live with my head in the clouds where everything is serene.  Up here the view is beautiful so you can't really blame me, can you?

Happy New Year everyone!

Terri

PS - I do need that boatload of money, though, so if anyone can help me out... ;)

Defamation of Character

At Christmas dinner this year, the entire family plus some of my brother's friends were around the table just chatting. Conversation turned to me and my book. My oldest youngest brother Ryan, who like all my brothers has not read Mind Over Monsters, jokingly said he was going to read it just so he could see what character I made him so he could sue me for defamation of character when I start making my millions. (If only.) Not missing a beat, I said, "But darling, you're not in it. None of you are." He seemed put off by this. All of those who hadn't read it seemed to feel the same. I just kept on eating.

One myth about writers is that we use our own lives and the people in them for material. In part this is true, but for me not to a huge extent. Sadly I don't run around every day with hot guys saving people's lives with a machete. (Only every other Sunday.) No, most of my life is spent in libraries alone writing, and the majority of my friends and family are equally as dull as I am. Us Harlow's are a lazy bunch who would much rather spend New Year's Eve watching TV together and drinking Absinthe then passing out before the ball even drops. (I still have a hangover.) The closest thing to a real person from my life I used was my best friend Shirley for Bea's best friend April, who is of Hispanic and a stylist. (Though when I wrote the book Shirley wasn't even in beauty school but has since graduated. Am I psychic? I hope not.) So no, I don't really use real people in my life as templates, but I do use real fake people. "Huh" you're asking yourself. Let me explain.

I have a very strange writing process to say the least. Since I was a child I've had insomnia. It usually takes me two hours to fall asleep every night, so in an attempt to stay sane I started creating stories in my mind that play like a movie. Movies need actors. So I cast my movie with actors I like at the time. So yes, Will, Oliver, Bea, even Andrew are at least in part based on real people, or at least the characters they play in movies or shows that captured my interest. Basically I ask myself if this was a real movie who would I want to play X? Who best embodies X? Or really I ask myself, in my fantasy world, who would I want to flirt with/kill/shag tonight? And then once I cast it, I ask myself what about that actor do I like about them or the character they play that would translate into my characters? So though my characters are based in part on real people, up to this point I have not met said people, so I only have my construct of them so they're real but not real. An avatar of the actor waiting to be filled with what I want/need for the character, which let's face it is what an actor's job is. It's my fantasy, so I use my fantasy people.

So I do not see any lawsuits from friends and family in my future. And should my stuff ever be turned into a movie (God willing) I have the cast list ready. What about you? Do you use your friends and family as inspiration in your writing? For those of you who read Mind Over Monsters, can you guess who Bea, Will, and Oliver are? I'll give you a hint: Bea is a TV doctor in Seattle, Will is a Geek God, and Oliver is gonna look great in tights next year. Speculate away.

Til next time.

www.jenniferharlowbooks.com

Happy New Year!

I’m big on New Year’s resolutions. Here are some writing-related ones:

I resolve not to use the names James, Jim, Jimmy, Jamal, McJames, Jamie, Jimbo, and Jiminy in the same book.

I resolve not to use the name Hortense in any book.

I resolve to use Correct capitalization, good:punctuation; and proper grammar whenever it would been poSSible”

I resolve to use more. Complete. Sentences.

I resolve not to play Minesweeper, check my Amazon rankings, and surf YouTube every fifteen minutes.

I resolve not to end every scene with a cliffhanger. Or will I?

I resolve not to write rough drafts with crayons anymore.

I resolve to do some research for my next book.

I resolve to no longer read Amazon reviews of my books. I’ll just assume they are all five stars. (Hey, these are my resolutions, and I’ll resolve what I want to!)

Got any to add?

 

Happy New Year, everyone!

Alan

Happy New Year

From all of us at Inkspot, have a safe, peaceful, and prosperous new year!

Feel the Fear...and run the other way

by Shannon Baker

“You won’t believe what just happened.” The Man With Endless Tolerance (MWET) with whom I live, said over the phone. “A guy tried to land without putting down his landing gear. The whole runway is shut down.”

Despite sitting at my desk fifteen miles away, my heart rate spiked into the red zone. MWET is a general aviation pilot. He has a sweet Cessna 182 that he loves a lot and makes travel easy and fun. Well, fun for him, anyway. I read and sleep and hope for smooth tailwinds. I’ve never panicked when flying in turbulent skies. Hardly ever, anyway. And I’ve only tossed my cookies once…so far.

I usually study the landscape during landings, wondering who lives near the airports or have my nose stuck so far in a book I’m oblivious to the ground rushing up to meet us. Occasionally, I’ve tried to accustom myself to the fine art of landing. Every time I pay attention I break out in a cold sweat. There is an acronym MWET recites so he remembers every step. GUMPPFI or is it GUMPPFY? Gas, Undercarriage (that’s the landing gear part), Power, Pitch, Mixture, Flaps---and what else? WHAT ELSE!? That memory laps is the stuff of nightmares.

I know what Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Do one thing everyday that scares you.” Why in dog’s name would I want to do that? I hate to be scared. I don’t face my fear like a conquering warrior. I deny it, sneak up on it and try to do an end run around it. I whistle past the graveyard to keep from disturbing the spooks instead of going all Buffy on their ass.

What I lack in courage I make up for in denial. I never watch the needle insertion when giving blood; I take myself to a happy place full of bluebirds, talking deer, and thumping rabbits. I’m one of those people who stub their toe and limp around saying, “Didn’t hurt, didn’t hurt, didn’t hurt,” for two days before admitting it’s broken. I’m so good at this my daughter once bought me a t-shirt that said, “Denial. It works for me.”

That’s how I deal with writing novels. If I thought too much about the writing business I’d be a whimpering, quivering mass in a corner, too afraid to write an email, let alone a whole novel.

So I write a really nasty first draft. That’s not a big deal because no one but me will see it. Then I’ll edit it a few times and polish it up and that’s okay because only my critique group will see it and they’ll save me from embarrassing myself. Then I start whistling and sending it out to professionals and go about my daily business doing my best to forget it’s out there. Denial, bluebirds, whistling through rejections, sales and publishing. Who needs courage for that?

If I hadn’t played Mind F*&%k with myself all along, I’d have had to face (and probably succumbed to) paralyzing fear. I’d never have become a mother and yet, my daughters are pretty terrific. I’d never have learned to scuba dive, which I love. I wouldn’t have moved from Nebraska to Colorado and then on to Arizona and experienced my life expanding all around me. And I certainly would never have written a book, let alone a couple of them.

I guess I’ll take some landing lessons soon. Not because I will finally “grow a pair.” The truth is if I ever really need to use those lessons, it will be because I’m the only one who can land the plane and the fear of splattering all over the landscape trumps fear of forgetting to put down the landing gear. What does that I or Y stand for anyway?

What about you? Does writing, plotting, or the book business make you tremble in your shoes?

Transport Me... Please!

My friend Kate Flora wrote recently for our Maine Crime Writers Blog about the joys of well-written fiction. She described reading stacks of books as a child, and said: "What fascinated me then, and continues to fascinate me now, is how a writer can tell a story so well, and create such a compelling world, that I get completely lost there and have a hard time coming back to reality. It was a magical experience then, and it’s one that I still want. I want writers to capture me, carry me off, and hold me hostage until I reach the words: The End."



My water bottle is gone... instead I have a pina colada...

I couldn't agree with Kate more. I remember the winter when I chose to read a few of Jimmy Buffett's books. One night I was at the Y while the snow swirled outside, reading and working up a sweat on the elipitcal. One minute I was saying hello to a neighbor and starting the machine, and the next... I'd been magically lifted from Maine to Margaritaville, where tropical breezes blew and drinks with little umbrellas appeared at my side.

Or when I read each of JK Rowling's books. I could barely pull myself out of the world of Harry, Hermione, and Hogwarts.

To me,  this experience is the reason why I read fiction. Like Kate, I want to be transported.

And what about as a writer?  If I can do one thing in this career of mine, it would be to give my readers this same gift. I hope they'll find themselves enmeshed in Darby Farr's world of beautiful homes and bad guys, wondering what happens next, getting goosebumps along with her as she encounters dangerous situations and uses her wits (and amazing Aikido skills) to survive.

This is the reason I wrapped and gave my son Nathan my well-worn copy of Lawrence Block's Writing the Novel From Plot to Print. Nate just came back from four months in Shanghai, living with a family attending university, studying Mandarin, and -- as if that weren't enough -- working with an American company in an internship. After our family ushered at the Christmas Eve service (where more than 40 children participated in the pageant) Nate showed us photos of his experiences. Talk about a parallel universe! I couldn't help but tell him to write a mystery set in that incredible city of 30 million people.

It's all about creating that world. This is very much on my mind as the New Year approaches and I think about writing the very best books I possibly can. For me, that means transporting my readers off their elipticals, out of the house, and into Darby's world.

Top producing Realtor Vicki Doudera uses high-stakes, luxury real estate as the setting for a suspenseful mystery series starring crime-solving, deal-making agent Darby Farr. A broker with a busy coastal firm since 2003 and former Realtor of the Year, Vicki’s next mystery, DEADLY OFFER, takes Darby to a winery where murder, mayhem, and Merlot all mingle. As in the popular KILLER LISTING and A HOUSE TO DIE FOR, Darby discovers a dangerous truth: real estate means real trouble. Read more about the Darby Farr Mystery Series and Vicki at her website, www.vickidoudera.com.

Third Time's the Charm

I've reached a critical scene in my work-in-progress (WiP), Cataract Canyon, which will be the third adventure for river ranger Mandy Tanner in my Rocky Mountain Outdoor Adventures mystery series that I'm writing for Midnight Ink. In this critical scene, Mandy and her partner Rob Juarez are sharing what they've found out about what's really going on and are making some conclusions. Those conclusions will drive their decision about what to do next--and that "what to do next" is the big confrontational climax.

The problem is that neither one of them knows everything yet, and even when they share the information they each have, they don't have the complete picture. So, they're confused and so is the reader. Sometimes that can be a good thing, but sometimes not if the confusion is too much. The first time I wrote this scene, the result was "unripe" like these not-red-yet persimmons. I left out issues and people they should have discussed, so for the reader, threads in the plot were left hanging loose. Even if Mandy and Rob didn't know everything yet about these issues and people, they should have brought them up in the discussion.


On to attempt two with that scene. In that rewrite, Mandy and Rob hashed out everything and everybody and every clue that they had come across so far. They figured out most of what was going on, and in the process, too much was revealed to them--and the reader. Very few surprises were left to be revealed in the climax. In other words, the rewrite stank. It was overripe, just like these bananas.


After sleeping on it with a nagging feeling that the scene was just not right yet, I ripped out the whole thing and started from scratch. Mandy and Rob reveal some important information to each other--and the reader--but not too much. They figure out enough of what's really going on to make some smart decisions, but not to eliminate all the risks. So, there's room for surprise and danger to appear in the climax. Now, the scene is "just right," like these apricots. Perfectly ripe, but not mushy, and with enough meatiness to sustain my characters--and my readers--as they rush forward into the climax.


Thus, the third time was the charm. The third time I wrote this scene, I felt that it finally worked. What would have happened if I didn't take the time to keep on reworking it until it was right? The dullness of an unripe plot or the rottenness of a too-ripe one would have propagated into the climax, leaving readers unsatisfied and with a bad taste in their mouths. Yes, doing this rework put me behind in my writing schedule, but it had to be done.

On to the climax ...

If you're a writer, have you had to rewrite a scene multiple times before you felt its flavor was perfect? If you're a reader, have you read a scene that you felt should have been rewritten until it tasted better? Please share!