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What every writer needs to know

11:46 PM Add Comment
by Maria Geraci



As we wind down on our current cycle topic, The corn maze of novel writing, I have to laugh. Mostly at myself, because its what I seem to to be doing a lot of lately. Talk about irony. You see, I'm one of those pantsers who has desperately been trying to reinvent herself into a plotter. For those of you who don't know author speak, I'm trying to become someone who outlines her novel. Someone who actually knows what's going to happen next. Yes, one of those lovely people.

You see, I have a dream. That dream includes writing a novel in sequential order with every little thing perfectly and neatly tied up the first time around.

Sorry to say, my bubble or rather my dream has been busted. As they say in north Florida, it ain't gonna happen. Not for me anyway. And believe me I've tried.

But the writing process isn't the same for everyone. Nor should it be. I know that and I now accept that. At the same time, I have to learn to write smarter. Not harder. I have to minimize the amount of revisions I do because I simply have to produce faster.

After years of trying to figure it out, I think I have. At least, for now. Because if I know anything, it's that with each novel I write I learn something different, which ultimately alters my process. Hopefully for the better each time.

What's my current process? It's a stripped down version of the barest bones character grid. Not a bio. Not really. Bios take too much time and frankly, they kind of bore of me. I like to discover my characters as I write them, but I also know there are certain things I need to know before I type out Chapter One. Otherwise, I'm in for a world of long and painful rewrites. And what I have to know is what my characters want. What they really want. And why they think they want it. And what it is that they really long for, but are too afraid to go after. If I know that, then I know them. Or at least as much as I need to know to start out my novel. And if know what my protagonist is really afraid of, then I know what my dark moment will look like. And guess what? I'm half-way there. Which is a lot better than where I was before.

How about you? What do you need to know before you begin writing that first sentence?



Maria Geraci writes fun, romantic women's fiction, Her fourth novel, A GIRL LIKE YOU was a 2013 RITA ® Finalist . She is currently working on a contemporary romance trilogy scheduled for release in spring of 2015. You can connect with her by visiting www.mariageraci.com


White Girl Gone Tribal

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I want to go tribal, pound the earth with hands wide open, my butt high in the air.   I like to get funky.  I like to feel the earth under my feet and in my hands.  

I want my white-boy son to dance with abandon.  (So far, so good… When he was In Utero, I played hip-hop--Nelly and Salt n' Pepa, that kinda thing, no classical music for him.) 

Music and writing:  both require the participant to say, ‘To hell with inhibitions.  I came here to shake my ass!  I came to represent and show you what I got.’  Both require the participant to be loose and wild.  Both require us to dig deep.  Don’t reign things in until the revision stage or until the band has stopped playing. 

Music always plays a part in my writing. Mambo, Cha-Cha, classical, Beatles, Bowie, Stevie, there’s  no telling.  “Oh Mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head…” (The Smiths) in Above Us Only Sky (Simon and Schuster, 2015).  I love to dance.  I love to be swept up in rhythms, words and drums.

You can tell a lot about a person by how they dance.  Ditto with how they write.  My fourth novel, currently in progress, takes place partly in Cuba so I am studying Caribbean culture and rhythms.  My dear friend at Book Riot, Rebecca Schinsky, recommended THE LAND OF LOVE AND DROWNING by Tiphanie Yanique as a new and relevant novel I’d enjoy.  It takes place in the Virgin Islands as they are passed from Dutch to American hands.

Well, I am the kind of girl, dancer, and writer, who likes to pay homage to my compadres.  With that in mind, if you enjoy mythic tales of native islanders, those mixed-blood inhabitants of islands who lost their mixed roots, sand and hearts to American tourism, this is a must-read for you.   The story, incredibly and credibly dark and mythic, nearly makes you question if incest is such a bad thing!  As Madison Smart Belle writes in The Boston Globe, “Yanique has borrowed a few pieces of furniture from the Southern Gothic attic. In place of Faulkner’s preoccupation with miscegenation (sheer nonsense in Yanique’s fictional world), there is incest... But is it always a bad thing? The love of half-siblings … begets Youme, whose clubfoot ... and whose proud beauty becomes a totem for the islanders’ struggle to take back their own. Small islands can be incestuous places, and incest may stand for a certain way the mind has to fertilize — and fortify — itself. This novel builds its best effects rather slowly, but in the end Yanique succeeds in evoking the panorama of the Virgin Islands in a voice all her own.”

So, if you’re looking for a book of dark myths and legends, the kind of book where you can feel the water in your veins and the sand under your fingernails, I highly recommend The Land of Love
and Drowning.  It is a unique and beautifully written debut novel.  One of the main characters, Eeona, carries a silver jewel.  I will never forget this diamond.  Yanique writes with the same wild abandon her characters display.  I have great admiration for her talent.
So, here's to getting funky, to writing and dancing equally with abandon.  I'm so white, I imagine my ancestors were bad-ass Celtic priestesses who knew how to conjure all manner of magic with their beats.


Michele Young-Stone is the author of The Handbook for Lightning StrikeSurvivors (Crown, 2010) and the forthcoming Above Us Only Sky (Simon and Schuster, 2015).  She is currently working on a fourth novel.

Michele loves to write and dance.  Go figure.  



A Paperback Birthday means Prizes for you!

10:00 PM Add Comment


BREAKING NEWS!
THE WRONG GIRL HC SPTHE WRONG GIRL wins the DAPHNE for Best Mystery/Suspense!
           (You know what I mean..)
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Do you still read paperbacks?
If the answer is yes, keep reading—I have an irresistible offer for you.
If the answer is no, keep reading. I will try to convince you. And then I will have an irresistible offer for you!
Paperbacks. Their demise is a topic of discussion throughout the publishing world—will people give up the cheaper sometimes-flimsy paper-intensive mass market paperbacks in favor of ecologically-sound, lighter and paper-saving ebooks?
Well, interesting, huh? I have at least three rooms in my house-- well, actually four. Ah, five. Yeah, five--that have bookshelves in them,and I can tell you the paperback shelves are sometimes double-shelved. You know, a row in the back and a row in the front.
Do you do that? I mean, it’s kind of more storage than display, right? If someone asks—do you have, say, LORD OF THE FLIES? THE FIRM? THE HOBBIT? SILAS MARNER? WITNESS FOR THE PROSCECUTION? You’d say, oh sure. I have those! Well, great, but where? Can you find them?
Paperback-books-published-010I fear I could not find them. But I cannot give them up.
And yes, and yes, I continue to buy mass market paperbacks. They are perfect for the beach, right? If they get sand between the pages, or a few blotches of sunscreen smudge the especially smudgeable print, well, you don’t really care, right? And in a pinch, you MIGHT dog-ear a page, right? Come on, you MIGHT.
They are great on planes, and in hotel rooms, and when you are finished, you can leave them behind as a special gift to a housekeeper or the next guest. Or tuck them into the seatback pocket for the flight attendant—they love to read!
PaperbacksThey are a staple in beach and vacation homes, of course. I love to walk into a summer home or a bed and breakfast, or a lovely inn, and amidst the fragrance of salt air and mildewy curtains and coconoutty sunscreen, and come upon an overflowing shelf of paperbacks so happily readthat the bindings are sprung and the pages are thick with the damp air.
You know what I mean? They don’t even close anymore? And you know someone had a wonderful time. They are full of good energy.
This weekend, we were in Tanglewood, and in the inn where we stayed, we found a book just like that—it was Ken Follett’s KEY TO REBECCA, and I bet Jonathan is about the millionth person to read that particular copy. Some other happy vacationer finished it, and left it behind for the next happy group. I love that.
(I left behind the paperback of THE OTHER WOMAN. You never know who might read it, right? What if Steven Spielberg is the room’s next occupant? Ah HA.)
So I think summertime is the perfect paperback time. And that is why I am so thrilled that today is the paperback birth-month for THE WRONG GIRL.
 
THE WRONG GIRL had the extraordinary honor of winning both this year’s Agatha for Best Contemporary Novel, and the Daphne for Best Mystery/Suspense! It’s also an Anthony nominee.
So to celebrate this paperback birthday: two irresistible offers.
First: if you send me your proof of purchase of the paperback of THE WRONG GIRL, you’ll be entered in a drawing to win A Kindle Paperwhite, a Nook Glowlight or a $120 gift certificate to the bookstore of your choice!
Just email me through my website at http://www.HankPhillippiRyan.com or at hryan@comcast.net
(See beTOW coverlow for the fine print.)
Second! Tell us in the comments how you feel about paperbacks…and one lucky commenter will win the paperback of the Mary Higgins Clark award-winning THE OTHER WOMAN!
Happy Paperback Birthday to THE WRONG GIRL!  (You know what I mean....) 
************************************ 

Contest rules: enter as often as you like—one receipt per entry. Three winners will be drawn at random, and winners can choose their prize. Contest ends August 15, 2014, and winners will be notified on August 16. US and Canada only, please.

Grow Big Dreams

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This is a wall hanging (paint on a wood canvas) that
my good friends Sarah, Karen & Joyce gave to me last
week. I love it!
by Marilyn Brant

Last month, a longstanding writing dream of mine finally came true, and the outpouring of cheers and support from fellow authors, reviewers, book bloggers, and readers was absolutely amazing to me. Also, in celebration, some of the dearest people in my life (my nearby friends and family) surprised me with treats to mark the special occasion and, really, just to show me how much they care.

The gifts themselves were lovely -- and I've included pictures of some of them in this post -- but the biggest present was the fact that all of these wonderful people, who'd shared this milestone with me, knew how long and hard I'd worked toward this dream...and they'd been there from the beginning.

My son, now fifteen, doesn't even remember a time before I was a writer. I've been at it for fourteen years of his life, and he's tolerated sharing my attention with his "electronic sibling" (i.e., my laptop) ever since babyhood. When he was eight, the manuscript that eventually became my debut novel was up for RWA's Golden Heart Award, and he gave me his "lucky quarter" from his coin collection to take with me to Dallas for the conference/award ceremony. I think he squealed louder than I did when I told him over the phone that According to Jane had won.

My son made me a "Celebration Candy
Cake" -- complete with M&Ms, Milk
Duds, and Reese's Pieces on top -- a
chocolate lover's fantasy dessert.
My high-school-teaching husband, who'd married me over twenty years ago and thought I'd always be a teacher, too, didn't skip a beat in encouraging me to completely change career paths and follow my passion for fiction, if that was where my heart was... In fact, he was the one who'd insisted I go to my first local romance-writer meeting in Chicago, and he urged me to take a leap of faith and attend the 2003 RWA National Conference in NYC, just so I could find out for sure if this was really the journey I wanted to take. He's read almost every manuscript I've ever written -- over a dozen of them now, the poor guy -- and, as someone with a master's degree in English Lit who'd once been a professional proofreader, he even volunteered his excellent proofing skills for many of my stories. Yes, I know he's awesome.

And my wonderful girlfriends who live in town with me -- Sarah, Joyce, and Karen -- have been there to celebrate everything from my first publishing contract (over six years ago) to every local book signing and library presentation to various book club visits and a ton of unusual events in between. Sometimes this even involved taking overnight trips across state lines. They are, in a word, remarkable, and I was so damn lucky to meet them a decade ago.

Flowers my husband brought home for me,
right after I told him the exciting news.
It's one thing to have a big dream -- and mine was to finally hit the New York Times Best-Seller List -- but to have people in your life who are willing to share each step in your crazy writing adventure, celebrate with you when things are going well, and listen to you weep in your hazelnut coffee when the challenges seem to outweigh the delights...that's priceless. Dreaming big dreams may be an individual thing, but achieving big dreams, well, that takes a village. Sometimes, a metropolis.

So, my heartfelt appreciation goes out to every person -- both in the writing world and outside of it -- who gave me a smile, good advice, or an encouraging word to help me keep my spirits up during those times of struggle. There were many, and there will be more in the years ahead. This profession is such a roller-coaster ride, I know... And thanks, too, to those same people who danced with me (virtually or in person -- perhaps only stopping for chocolate/dessert breaks) when there was a reason for joy. I'm hoping there will be more days like that ahead as well.

I wish all of you the BIGGEST of dreams and, just as much, I wish you the supportive people who'll be there for you on your journey toward reaching them. When you get there, be sure to tell them thanks :) .

Who are some of the people in your life who have been most supportive of you??
___
Marilyn Brant is a New York Times & USA Today bestselling author of contemporary women's fiction, romantic comedy and mystery. She was named Author of the Year (2013) by the Illinois Association of Teachers of English. She loves all things Jane Austen, as well as Sherlock Holmes stories, traveling, music, chocolate & gelato. Her latest romantic comedy is Pride, Prejudice and the Perfect Bet (July 2014), and look for the expanded women's fiction edition of The Road to You, entitled The Road and Beyond, coming in September!

Remind Me to Stick to Writing by Jenny Gardiner

5:34 AM Add Comment
        hi! I have limited internet access right now so don't have time to post something on theme this time around so I'm posting a column from my newspaper column!   

 I hate that I'm an arts ignoramus. I wish I were that person who could steep myself in a classical music concert and not want to flee for the exit doors (although in truth, I get tired of even a normal concert after an hour or so and want to be done with that as well).  Or trot out to the ballet and really absorb the beauty before my eyes, rather than fidgeting or clock-watching. But try as I might, I just don't tend to gravitate toward fine art. I guess I'm a déclassé slob.
            I'm ashamed to admit the extent of my fine arts education (or at least that which imprinted in the haze of my brain) sprung from dubious sources. For painting, the board game Masterpiece was my instructor. Yep, my grasp of the Dutch Masters ran to the famed Rembrandt rendering of an old man who looks like an old woman with a feather in his/her cap. American classics? That celebrated all-night diner oil painting by Edward Hopper. I was particularly proud of myself when I recently recognized a spoof of Hopper's painting in the window of an alternative art gallery in Philadelphia. And to think I owe it all to Masterpiece creators, Parker Brothers!
            My appreciation of classical music and opera begins and ends pretty much at the Barber of Seville (make that Rabbit of Seville; thanks, Bugs Bunny). To be fair, I could throw in Elmer Fudd's Wagnerian masterpiece, "Kill the Wabbit!", just to put a finer point on that bonanza of childhood musical education. Likely my aversion toward classical music was further enhanced by my mother and her husband bombarding us with Pachebel's Canon till our ears practically bled. Gimme Bugs Bunny any day over that! In the immortal words of boxer Roberto Durán, no mas!
            The first time I traveled to Italy we hired a tour guide to show us around Florence for a few hours. The guide, an American ex-pat, had majored in Art History during college in the States, and immersed herself in glorious Renaissance art while studying abroad, loving the culture so much she stayed. I was amazed at the breadth of her knowledge and even more so the depth of her passion for the subject matter — a double whammy of art and history zeal. Damn! When I was 18 years old, it would not have dawned on me to consider studying art. I thought I needed to pursue an area of study that would lead to a steady income (though recognize in hindsight that journalism didn't made so much sense in that endeavor). But art? I can't even doodle well! Why would I bother?
            Yes, I admit it: I'm a cultural troglodyte.
            I don't doubt that the manner in which history and art are taught contribute to one's ability to ingest it. I had a peculiar professor in a mandatory European history class during college who felt compelled to act out the high (or low) points of a thousand years of Europe, taking on often many roles in each class. I suppose there are those who were on board with it; I just thought it was a weird distraction.
            Yet when I've toured historical venues over the years, I find it most interesting to learn about day-to-day life from so long ago — in some way I can better relate to that versus what Charlemagne was up to on his horse. Perhaps if I had approached the study of history and art from a plebian perspective, it would have struck a more familiar nerve, instead of merely ringing hollow. Better yet, perhaps an historical People Magazine-style education would have done it: celebrity gossip from the Middle Ages! Who's cheating on whom! What's popular this week in illuminated manuscripts and Gregorian Chants!
            Drats. Where my interest thrives in useless pop culture, it plummets when it comes to cultured culture.
            One thing I think would have helped immensely is emphasizing the whole notion of history being doomed to repeat itself. The older I get the more I see this again and again, and from this perspective it is ingrained into my brain more readily. It seems not a day goes by when that adage isn't reinforced in the news (Soviets invade Afghanistan; Soviets fail in Afghanistan. America invades Iraq; well, you know the drill.)
            Perhaps I'm taking baby steps toward acquiring some cultural enlightenment. Ish. Making a foray into a classier classicism, if you could dare call it that (granted it was by accident, but whatever works). Several weeks ago we purchased tickets to see Ben Folds in concert at Wolf Trap Farm Park. Folds is a musical genius whose earlier foray into contemporary music featured profanity-laced lyrics that are largely unprintable. He's since evolved, even launching the popular a capella show Sing Off, with nary an f-bomb.
            Too late I realized Folds was performing with the National Symphony Orchestra, which I figured meant I'd be asleep in ten minutes once under the influence of the dulcet strains of the violin section. One person in our group — perhaps influenced by an upbringing devoid of musical culture (my bad!) — didn't care for the symphonic component of the program, But most unexpectedly, I was quite mesmerized by the merging of disparate musical genres in such a beautiful way. And when he impulsively composed an orchestral piece on the spot, teaching each part section by section, well, wow. It helped me to really appreciate how disparate instruments (and their masters) get along for the greater good of the group. It gives you a sense of comfort in this sometimes very dark world that ultimately people can work together to achieve something bigger than themselves as individuals.
            Maybe it's never too late to start with this newfound appreciation for the arts. Perhaps in addition to doing a bike or walking tour in the next city I visit, I'll venture into the museum as well. Certainly if they have air conditioning. And maybe a lovely little café. Baby steps, people.

  Sleeping with Ward Cleaver










Slim to None













Anywhere But Here
















Winging It: A Memoir of Caring for a Vengeful Parrot Who's Determined to Kill Me










Accidentally on Purpose (written as Erin Delany)


















Compromising Positions (written as Erin Delany)



















I'm Not the Biggest Bitch in this Relationship (I'm a contributor)



















And these shorts:
Idol Worship: A Lost Week with the Weirdos and Wannabes at American Idol Auditions


















The Gall of It All: And None of the Three F's Rhymes with Duck


















Naked Man On Main Street
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 find me on my website

Writing My Way Out of the Maze by Jess Riley

6:17 PM Add Comment
Hi! So, this posting cycle’s topic is pretty timely for me: “Lost in the Cornfield Maze.” I actually feel like my work-in-progress has me somewhere in the middle of the hedge maze in The Shining and Jack’s on the loose, but on with the story.

Last summer I was laid off. It turned out to be temporary, but I immediately strapped myself into my office chair, rolled up my sleeves, and prepared to write my way out of dying in a Dickensian debtor’s prison.
So I wrote. And I wrote. By August, I had nearly a hundred pages of fairly decent material cobbled together. But at that point, three things happened: 1) I was offered three freelance editing jobs that I’d be crazy to pass up; 2) I was offered my old job back; and 3) the novel I’d worked on for more than a decade and released in July had sold barely enough copies to pay for my publicist.

So I stopped working on my novel, at least for the ten-month grant writing season ahead of me. I shelved those hundred pages. I needed a break from thinking about any of it, and I needed to focus on things that actually paid my bills and kept me out of that Dickensian debtor's prison. But over the last few months, I didn't forget about the story—I squirreled away ideas and notes as they came to me, anticipating the month of July when I could dust off my project and finish it.

This July arrived. And when I looked at my manuscript, I got a headache. What was I thinking, writing science fiction? Or featuring four—maybe more!—point-of-view characters? With myriad connections? And interwoven past lives? And a multi-state setting in the year 2060?!

I re-read the whole thing and was surprised that I liked it better than I remembered. But I knew I was lost. I needed to storyboard this beast—color-code characters, including their back stories (and past lives!) and physical appearances and motivations. I needed to outline whose chapter came next, and what would happen in it. I needed to remember what season it was, for crying out loud. There were so many loose ends and bits of incomprehensible nonsense it was like a knitting factory had exploded inside that horrible new Scarlett Johansson movie.

The big picture was overwhelming. So I lost most of July to procrastination. Reading. Gardening. Planning a kitchen and bath reno. Having fun with friends and family. You know, what most people would call living. It was fantastic.

But in the back of my head, I knew I needed to at least finish a decent chunk of the novel, plus a synopsis, if only so I can send it to my agent and see if this sucker has legs. It’s the hardest and strangest and most exciting thing I've ever written. I could have walked away, but it's speaking to me again, and I'm too curious to see what happens next.

So I am butt-in-chair. It’s the only way. I tell myself, Just two pages a day. Bit by bit. Finish your outline and map things visually near your desk. And write your way out of the damn maze.

PS: Do any of you use Scrivener? I have it, but I felt like I needed to storyboard the tutorial and then pour myself a huge glass of wine and play Plants vs. Zombies until my brain stopped buzzing.

~~~~~
Jess Riley is the author of Driving Sideways, All the Lonely People, and Mandatory Release. She is currently remodeling her kitchen, bathroom, and novel-in-progress all at once because she loves a challenge.

IT'S NOT EASY BEING A FUNNY GIRL

9:00 PM Add Comment
Funny Girl Saralee Rosenberg



Who needs a laugh? Everyone! Yet women like me who write funny novels are considered the Rodney Dangerfields of publishing. We get no respect. Actually, we’re likened more to the childrens’ photographers at Sears. Everyone loves our work but rare is the reader who considers it art.

A few years ago, Jennifer Weiner took on Jonathan Franzen in a digital duel, arguing that chick lit and humorous novels by women were the bread and butter of publishing. They just weren’t all that much fun at the bank. She got nailed for bitching about the disparity between men and women authors, but she was right.

Why do you think that when J.K. Rowling wrote an adult thriller last year, she resurfaced using the man’s name, Robert Galbraith?

Historically, male authors have commanded the big advances, the talk show appearances and the take-a-bow reviews. Even male novelists who write funny, like Carl Hiassen and Joshua Ferris, get to don the matching club jackets, like NFL Hall of Famers.

It’s no joke.

Q. How many male novelists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Nothing happens for 450 pages; receives fourteen awards.
(http://the-toast.net/2013/11/04/male-novelist-jokes/)

I raise the issue because I have just finished reading two Jonathan Tropper novels, THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU and ONE LAST THING BEFORE I GO. His work is a delight. Hilarious, honest, touching and filled with pathos. He deserves his success, including the film adaptation of THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU, due out in September.

Jonathan Tropper
I don’t begrudge him or any novelist success. I just wish that the double standard would die. Like Jonathan Tropper, my novels A LITTLE HELP FROM ABOVE, CLAIRE VOYANT, FATE AND MS. FORTUNE and DEAR NEIGHBOR, DROP DEAD are funny, heartfelt tales of Jewish families in distress. They also have been optioned for films and are beloved by book clubs, especially after the ladies have read one too many dark, literary (and often boring) novels.

Or as I often hear after a discussion, “When I read your book I laughed, cried and wouldn’t come out of the bathroom until I finished. When I read INSERT LITERARY TITLE, my mind drifted and I wondered if my Taco Bell coupons were still good.”

Not to worry! I am at work on a funny new novel that may be my best yet. I'm just not taking any chances. It will be submitted under a male pseudonym.

Signed,

Seymour Butts
Author of UNDER THE GRANDSTAND 

For a good time, visit Saralee Rosenberg's website. www.saraleerosenberg.com
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