I Don't Want to Wait ...

          While out for an evening walk with my hubby, Dude, a song came on my iPhone that reminded me of something I recently discovered about myself as a writer.  The song was "I Don't Want to Wait," by Paula Cole.  Many of you will remember it as the theme song for the teen-angst TV series, Dawson's Creek.  

          Why would that song make me think of writing?  Because when I'm writing a new book or even a short story, I don't wanna wait to get to the big scene.  If there's going to be an encounter with a phantom, I want it to happen right away.  If there will be an important interaction between lovers, ditto.  I want it to happen immediately.  Of course, that isn't always feasible.  It's great to start off with a bang, true.  But there has to be some foundation laid that will lead up to the big scenes.  In other words, to get to point B, there needs to be a point A. 


          But it's okay, I finally realized that there are no rules saying I have to write the scenes in the order in which they occur.  I DON'T HAVE TO WAIT!  Thank goodness . . . because I'm finding it much easier (and more enjoyable) to write out my favorite scenes FIRST.  They usually account for the genesis of the story anyway, so naturally I want to get them down before I lose them.  


          After that, it's sort of like connecting the dots.  In fact, once the major scenes are written, the rest of the tale  almost leaps onto the page.  It's simply a matter of following the story-map logically from point A to B to C and so on.


          So there ya go.  I don't want to wait, and since I'm the author, I don't have to!


          Afterthought:  I think I'll name my next female character Patience   =)

6 Sentence Sunday June 24, 2012

Hello and welcome to another 6 Sentence Snippet.  This one comes from The Phantom Student which will be released any day now from Cool Well Press.

In this scene, the new student, Derol Pavey, has just sat down in the outdoor seating area for lunch.  Everyone knows Derol has Tourette Syndrome.  He inadvertently created quite a stir in homeroom.  Now some of the kids are hoping for a repeat.  As always, Stevie-girl is the narrator:

             He must have sensed me staring because he glanced up and caught my eye.  I smiled tentatively.  He ducked his head and took a huge bite of ham and cheese.

            Suddenly, the sound of slinky laughter rode the brilliant fall breeze and settled over us like chain mail, bright and cold. 

             Derol's leg began to jiggle madly and it seemed as if the bite of sandwich he’d taken was stuck in his throat.  

             Jase and Billy Bob were as still as death beside me.  

Okay, that's all this time.  Hope you enjoyed it.  The book will be out any day now.  More next week.  And don't forget to check out other snippets here: http://www.sixsunday.com/  

           

Ankle rolls and aluminum foil...

Aye God Woodrow,
If you know that quote, then we're basically on the same page.  Larry McMurtry wrote Lonesome Dove about a couple of dried up old Texas Rangers who wound up having one last great adventure before well, in Gus's case, before he bought the farm, or should I say, the ranch.

No, I'm not at death's door . . . but all morning I've been getting subtle reminders that I'm just not the proverbial spring chicken anymore.

It began when I went to pop my chocolate chip Eggo waffles into the toaster and one jumped out of my hand and hit the floor in a crazy imitation of the Gingerbread Man.  I grabbed that sucker before it could run and stuck it right into the toaster.

Now, if you know me, you'll understand why that was my first clue that the tides of time had rolled in.  I'm a bit finicky when it comes to food.  Always have been.  Nowadays, however, I hate waste more than a few dog hairs (I blew on the frozen waffle, and it hadn't been three seconds so I figured I was okay.  I'd followed all those rules I've heard about).

But here's the deal:  a few months ago, that waffle would have gone into the trash.  These days, it just seems like meh, what's the big deal?

So I've got my waffles and my coffee and I'm reading the morning paper.  First article on the op-ed page is by Charlena Chandler, a native West Texan who knows the score.  She was lamenting the disappearance of her ankles in the shoe store mirror.  No, it wasn't a trick mirror . . . ankles do tend to disappear after a certain age. I mean, look, they take the weight of our entire bodies for years.  Why wouldn't they revolt and move to some tropical isle where the sand is soft and warm and high heels and work shoes are strictly verboten?

I rush to the mirror to check my own ankles.  Whew!  They are still there, just a bit thicker than before (and what are these little red dots all over my calves?  All those years standing in front of a class on cement floors perhaps?)  Sheesh.  It's always something.

So I head to the computer to take my mind off my, um, youth.  And the first thing that pops up on FB is a picture of a portable TV next to a roll of aluminum foil.  The caption says "Hit Share if you know the connection."  Well, who doesn't know about wrapping foil on the rabbit ears of the . . . oh, carp.  I give up.  I'm darned old.  Not ancient.  Not yet.  But I'm closer than I was yesterday.

On the other hand, I'm also still kicking.  So I hit share.  Posted the pic to my own wall right next to the one I found yesterday . . . the one of John Fogerty rockin' a huge arena somewhere just outside the realm of my comfortable driving distance (okay, that's not true.  Dude and I totally would've been there if we'd known about it in time.  But I didn't know about it until it was over.  Gotta spend more time on FB--can't believe I just said that).

So, the moral of the morning?  If John Fogerty is still rockin' at his age, then getting old might not be so bad.

Afterthought:  Besides, he's a lot older than me . . . heck, I think he's Dude's age  =)

Be Careful Or I Will Put You in My Novel

 Howdy,
It's Wednesday -- hump day -- it's all downhill from here till the weekend!  Since I finished my rewrite of All For Love, I decided I would sit down and write an actual blogpost.  This one was inspired by something on FB.  Someone had posted a picture that said "Bystanders Will Be Written into My Novel."  Actually, it was much better than that, but you get the idea.

This little sign made me think about where I come up with some of my characters.  Almost all of my YA characters are mashups of my former students and folks I knew as a child.  I'm not averse to using real people at all.  I do try to disguise them, though.  Often, they are tied to specific incidents, or even places, from my past.

For instance, I just took a foray to the Sonic for a diet Coke.  Along the way I passed a couple of places I hadn't even noticed in years.  The first one was a small, neat, house with lovely barrels of flowers placed on each side of the wide front porch.  It's a very inviting home.  Yet, a dozen years ago, I intercepted a phone call from the teenaged boy who lived there with his parents.  This boy was very distraught.  His girlfriend had just told him she was breaking up with him because she wanted to date someone else.  He called my house because the girl was an acquaintance of one of my children.  The boy thought she might be there, but she wasn't.  He ended our conversation by instructing me to tell her where to find his body.

Well, suffice it to say, I did not let him hang up on me.  I am the child of a suicide.  I don't take those statements lightly.  In the end, I helped him calm down long enough to understand what he was thinking about doing.  A couple days later he called me back and thanked me for talking to him.  Of course I had already contacted his mom, with his reluctant approval, and so I felt that things really were under control.  Now, when I need a conflicted male character, I think of this boy, this otherwise level-headed teen who had been laid low by his first real romantic break-up.

Further down the street we come to the store where I worked when I was a teen.  I graduated a few months early from high school, so I had some time to kill while I figured out what I wanted to do.  I went to work in retail and fell in love with being independent...until the day some creep walked in needing a few bucks for a fix.  He grabbed me by the hair and demanded I open the register.  At first, I was certain it was a set-up like you would see on Scare Tactics or Punk'd.  I said, "You're joking, right?"  He shoved something into the back of my neck and told me he was going to blow my effing brains out.  Only he didn't mince the F word...didn't even stutter.  I decided that was a bit too realistic for a set-up.  I quickly opened the register.

He was caught within half an hour but didn't go to trial for three years.  I wasn't afraid of testifying until the prosecutor told me the other woman he'd robbed--a few days before me--had refused to testify (I didn't even know there had been another).  Apparently, she had also refused to open the cash register and that's when he split her head open with a tire iron.  I think she kept it under the counter for protection or something.

The creep got ten years for robbery and assault.  I got a memory that serves me well when I need to write an evil and/or desperate character.  I also came away with a firm belief in intuition.  I knew there was something not right about the guy the moment he walked into my store.  He never took off his sunglasses.  But I turned my back on  him anyway.  And that's when he grabbed me.  I won't ever make that mistake again.  Now, when my gut talks, I listen.  My characters do, too.  What I learn, they learn.

There are many other places in town that I think of when I'm writing.  In The Shining, Dick Halloran explained to Danny that places could retain the remnants of evil that had occurred there.  As I get older, I believe the remnants are retained solely in our memories.  But that's okay, I just pull them out when I need an emotional point of reference or a trace flaw for one of my characters.

Next time I'll tell you about another place I passed recently.  It was just a stop sign at a rural crossroads.  No, there wasn't a wreck, someone had tied a Shetland pony there.  But like I say, I'll tell you that one next time.  It's too intense for one paragraph.

Afterthought: What would you want your name to be if you were in one of the Phantom novels?  I think my favorite character name is Jelly Wardlow, the dispatcher.

Six Sentence Sunday June 17, 2012

Hello again,

          Changing gears this week... I've been posting lines from my contemporary romance novel, All For Love, due out in September, but I also have a Young Adult novel coming out about the same time.  So today's  snippet comes from my YA novel, The Phantom Student, book two in The Phantom Series.  It is due to be published by Cool Well Press in late Sept/early Oct.  

         This scene is being narrated by Stevie-girl, my thirteen year old protag who has just found something--or someone--strange in her bathroom mirror:

  

          When I opened my eyes again, I almost screamed.  The reflection in the mirror was looking away from me.  It was looking toward the door.

            My flesh tried to crawl off my bones.

            The face in the mirror, the one that should have been mine but somehow wasn’t, slowly turned back toward me.  Then she began to twist and twirl-about like a runaway kite caught in a whirlwind.


Okay, that's all for now.  Hope you check back next Sunday for another snippet.  If you want to read some more juicy excerpts from other authors, just go here: http://www.sixsunday.com/  

6 Sentence Sunday June 10, 2012

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARA BARNARD... MY LOVELY DAUGHTER!  LOVE YOU LOTS!!!

Here is another installment of All For Love aka How Long Does it Take to Fall Out of Love?  It has nothing to do with Sara's birthday LOL.  It was just a coincidence.  Today's snippet is a flashback, years before the explosion at the plant.  In this scene, Liz has decided to lure Quinn back home, even though she was on the verge of filing for divorce after she found out he had a lover:

          Did he groan as I brushed against him to get to the door?  Could’ve been my imagination, but the next thing I knew, his hand was on my arm and he was turning me into the planes of his chest and it was as if everything was new again, but tarnished, dirty.  Maybe the tawdriness of it made me want him more; or perhaps it was desperation.  It was sort of an all or nothing gambit.  I took the lead and I didn’t care if he was satisfied or not.  I did what I wanted and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that a lot of my desire was fueled by pure white-hot rage.


Okay, that's all for now.  Hope you check back next Sunday for another snippet.  If you want to read some more juicy excerpts from other authors, just go here: http://www.sixsunday.com/

6 Sentence Sunday June 3, 2012

Hello and welcome back,
Here is another installment of All For Love aka How Long Does it Take to Fall Out of Love?

In this scene, Liz is trying to cope with losing Quinn.  She has started going to the Main Street Pub and enjoying a Bloody Mary to help her sleep at night--but just one!  This particular evening, however, something pulls her back:

      Just as I opened the door to rejoin the world, someone stuck a dollar in the jukebox and The Grassroots Live for Today floated into the air.  Quinn's song; the one he loved so much that he had put it on my phone for his personal ring tone.  It was his mantra.  Live for today.  He’d told me that so often that it was ingrained in my memory like an auditory tattoo.  I hesitated, one foot on the sidewalk, the other on the industrial carpet in the entryway.

Okay, that's all for now.  Hope you check back next Sunday for another snippet.  If you want to read some more juicy excerpts, just go here: http://www.sixsunday.com/

Angels Among Us

Hello Boys and Girls,
Well, as you may have noticed, I sometimes feel the need to post something more personal than just "writing" related stuff; although, if you've read any of my writing, you'll know there's always something "personal" in it.  Anyhow, this is one of the times I need to inject some reality into my world of fiction.  I'm copying this post straight from my Facebook page, so if you've already read it and the accompanying link, you can stop now.

Here, I'll ask you to jump to my daughter's blog and read the awful true story of two kittens tossed from a speeding truck.  Go to www.sarabarnardbooks.com  I think anyone who hurts children or animals should be bound and gagged and turned over to me for twenty-four hours.  They would never hurt another one.  (Yes, I've given it some thought.)

Karma & Francis...hanging in there

I also wanted to add this about my son-in-law, Sara's hubby.  He jumped out first to save the kittens. He's the Drill Sergeant with the three Purple Hearts from Afghanistan. He's also the one raising a family of 6 on a soldier's pay. Do they have $600 extra for this vet bill? Nope. But did that stop them from saving the kittens anyway?  Again, nope. So, thanks Jerry.  It seems as if you (and Sara) are still giving even though you're home now.  


By the way, Sara, if you ever need a pen name for one of your novels, how about Angel?

Afterthought: Was the driver of the gray truck evil or ignorant?  What do you think?

Six Sentence Sunday May 27, 2012

Welcome to another installment of Six Sentence Sunday.  Still taking scenes from my upcoming Contemporary Romance, All for Love.  (Due out September 22, 2012)  Last week the sentences were from the scene where Liz first encountered the intriguing guy who dashed through their volleyball game without stopping.  This week’s scene is immediately after:

            We all flopped down, exhausted.  I looked around for the smiling boy who’d saved my game, but he was nowhere to be seen. 

            “Who was that?” I asked the group at large.

            Boyd cocked an eyebrow at me.  “Quinn Rose,” he said.  “Chick chasing him was Delilah, his girlfriend.”

Okay, that does it for this week.  Thanks for visiting!  More to come next week.  To check out other author’s Six—go here: 

http://www.sixsunday.com/

Interview with amazing author, Carolyn Arnold

Carolyn Arnold

Amazon Author Page • Website • Blog • Twitter • Facebook  • Goodreads

Hello Everyone,

Here’s a treat for all you crime fiction lovers – an interview with bestselling crime fiction/thriller author Carolyn Arnold.

Hi Carolyn, thanks for letting me probe your psyche. . .

To begin, please give us a brief summary of your books,  and tell us what makes each one unique.

TIES THAT BIND and JUSTIFIED are both part of the growing Madison Knight series.  The series is designed as a stand-alone, which means you can read these books out of order and still pick up on the series' characters and storyline.

Major Crimes Detective Madison Knight, fueled by determination to find justice for the victims, is a strong, independent female amidst a career dominated by men.  If you love a strong protagonist lead, I invite you to meet Madison for yourself.

In TIES THAT BIND, meet Madison Knight as she and partner must pull together to stop a potential serial killer.

In JUSTIFIED, the 2nd in the series, see the softer side of Madison Knight as she's assigned to a case on Christmas Eve.

ELEVEN is a thriller that follows new FBI agent Brandon Fisher on his first case.  Working in the shadow of Supervisory Special Agent Jack Harper of the Behavioral Analysis Unit his career seemed set. But when the team is called to a small rural town where the remains of ten victims are found in an underground bunker, buried in an unusual way, Brandon knows he'll never return to his normal life.

With one empty grave, and the case touching close to home, he fears he's become the target of a psychotic serial killer who wants to make him number eleven. Only thing is, everything Brandon thinks he knows is far from the truth.

~~

And, in answer to your question as to what makes each one unique, it is the characters.

At the age of 34, Madison Knight knows she wasn’t destined to be a cop, coming from generations of those who served before her. She isn’t holding on to a childhood trauma for which she seeks retribution. In fact, she’s probably a poor candidate for a Major Crimes Detective with her distaste for the sight of blood. But she pushes herself beyond it because she wanted a purpose to her life as opposed to just making it through it.

She didn’t want to be part of the cookie-cutter mold with family and kids – even though she came close once. The once being enough to seal the fact she didn’t need a man, and given time and opportunity any man would cheat. Instead, she was left with a broken heart and her belief there was someone special out there for everyone was shattered.

In ELEVEN, the reader follows along with a new FBI agent.  So many books focus on an experienced lead. 

You’re so prolific. How do you fit it all in?

I balance a full time day job with full-time hours devoted to my writing, editing, marketing and networking.

What do you like to do when you are not working/writing?

I’m a homebody for the most part, but also love doing new things at times.  I love getting away to Toronto, and seeing Broadway plays and I enjoy fine dining.  Around home, I love settling down with a good movie, or a good book, with a glass of red wine (okay maybe more than one glass). 

Hah! Who is your favorite author of all time?  In other words, who accompanies that glass (or three) of red wine?

If I were to pick one alone, it would be David Baldacci.  He has a way of tapping into the lives of powerful men, and making you understand their motivations—ethical or not.  He has a way of providing details to the reader, which form a strong connection to the characters in the book.  He’s helped me in my writing journey because I realize how important it is to take the time to “flesh out” characters.

What are you reading at the moment?

I’m actually reading about four indie books right now, as well as a David Baldacci novel.  I don’t like to disclose the books I’m reading until I’m finished and post reviews, though.

You sound like me, I’m always in the middle of several books at once.  So, what are you writing at the moment?

At the moment, my project is edits on SACRIFICE, the third in The Madison Knight series.  It’s slated for release summer this year, with the latest deadline in mind being the start of July.

Describe your writing routine.  Do you have any special rituals such as a certain type of music playing or anything like that?

Usually when I’m writing, I love first thing in the morning.  I don’t normally play any music when I’m writing...I have recently started to do so with the editing process (the house can be so quiet sometimes).  And let’s not forget coffee.   I need coffee.

Yes, coffee, and lots of it!  I know you help out other authors all the time.  What is the philosophy behind this?

It’s part of who I am.  I love supporting my fellow authors, as they have, and do support me as well.  We are really a community in my mind, a brotherhood of sorts.  As far as I’m concerned we’re stronger as a group.  We can’t view our fellow authors as our competition.  As a friend of mine has been quoted as saying many times, “there is room for all of us to succeed.” 

I love that idea.  The older I get, the less competitive I become.  Do you have any tips for other writers?  Or those who want to write?

I know I’m not the first to say this, and I won’t be the last, but write every day.  If you are finished with a writing project, still keep with busy with other writing processes, such as editing, or if you’re schedule is tight, write regular posts for your blog.

The other thing is, never give up.  Keep strong.  Accept the fact that you’ll have your low moments, and move on.

I agree wholeheartedly.  Now, just for fun, (and because I like weird stuff), tell us the funniest, scariest, or strangest thing that ever happened to you. . .

Well, you may appreciate this, Ann, as you’re a paranormal author, but in the planning stages of ELEVEN when I was still brainstorming the basic plot, I swear I saw the killer right in front of me.  Yes, I realize that sounds creepy, and I know it freaked me out at the time. 

I was out for dinner with my husband and we were talking about the book.  I still hadn’t completely pegged the killer, his background or the motivation yet.  Then I swear I “saw” him...just standing in the restaurant.  He was there and then gone.  (I was drinking some wine, but probably still could have driven at this point.)

I also had vivid nightmares during the early stages of ELEVEN as well.  So if you’re in for a dark novel, pick it up!  Humor and lighter moments are also essential to balance out the dark elements in this novel, and you’ll find all that in there too.

Oooh, you’re right, I love it!  Manifestation of a character . . . cue the Twilight Zone soundtrack.  Thanks so much for being here, Carolyn, and for all the things you do to support the rest of us.

Okay, folks, to wrap it up, here’s a recap on this amazing author:

Carolyn Arnold is the author of several novels in various genres.  Her mystery novels Ties That Bind and Justified have reached best seller status on Amazon United States for Kindle.  Her FBI thriller Eleven released November 2011, and made it on The Miami Books Examiner's “Top 12 Fiction Books of 2011” list.  She currently lives with her husband and two beagles in a city near the well-known Canadian center, Toronto.

Where to connect with Carolyn online:

Amazon Author Page

Website

Blog

Twitter
Facebook page 
Goodreads