Steven Tyler's Blog, page 2
July 16, 2015
Opinions in Writing — Keep Your Mouth Shut
The other day I heard an author read a portion of her new novel. One passage contained a remark pertaining to one of the characters and described him using current political personalities. This immediately turned me off to listening to any further regarding the story of the book.
We all have our opinions about things in life. A guy with whom I had a conversation last week doesn’t believe God exists. I told him that based on my personal experiences in life there is most certainly is a god.
Steven King in his novels often gets on his soap box and rants into a diatribe against issues of life which he opposes such as nuclear energy. King is a great writer and I basically tell him to shut-up when reading those passages.
There’s an old saying, “You only have one opportunity to make a first impression.” It is my recommendation to all writers that they omit placing their personal opinions or veiled political, social commentary in any of the works.
Readers have oodles and oodles of choices of what to read in their precious free time, you don’t want them picking up someone else’s tale because you just had to, just had to voice your opinion on any particular subject in the first piece of work of yours that they have read.
Steven Tyler
OneLittleLie@aol.com
The post Opinions in Writing — Keep Your Mouth Shut appeared first on One Little Lie.
July 9, 2015
Short Stories
I have never been much of a fan of short stories because, well, they’re too short. My taste buds like to nimble on the story, to consume it, to roll it around on my tongue. A short story is gone in three bites and I’m left with a lack of nourishment. Now, there are short-short stories and there are long-short stories. A bite of a long-short story might be what’s right for my diet.
Short stories are good for writers in order to obtain exposure and exposure is the desert to every emerging author. Your idea is the appetizer, the story is the main course exposure, but exposure is the pièce de résistance. It is the time when everyone else is able to munch on your dish.
Therefore foodies and readers, my next project will be a short story to exposure the world to my character Luna Susan George and entice them to some fine dining which is my debut novel, One Little Lie.
Steven Tyler
Onelittlelie.com
The post Short Stories appeared first on One Little Lie.
July 2, 2015
Getting Past the First Chapter
I have met several writers who can’t seem to get past the first chapter. They write, re-write, and re-write the first chapter over and over again attempting to get it just right. What inevitably happens is that they never finish the first chapter, nor even start on the second, third, or fourth.
There are writers that outline and then there are the seat-of-the-pants writers who just seat down and start writing from page one through to “The End.” Then there are The First Chapter Writers. The people who are so bogged down in getting the first chapter so perfect they never get out of that maze.
The First Chapter Writers often don’t even know what is going to come in the next chapter. They don’t know what is their story. It might be this or it might be that, or it might be something else.
My screenwriting days included a few screenplays that were started and subsequently abandoned because either the story was not there; it was an idea for a script rather than a tale that could last 120 pages, or I didn’t have the maturity as a writer to flush out the film. The moral of this fable is that I was able to move past “Fade In,” past scene one, and write, write, write until dawn brought the morning light with the realization that the project would not be completed.
Is that failure? No, every writing project improves the writer’s ability because instead of being stuck trying to tell perfectly how Harry met Sally they are able to move to the “I’ll have what she’s having” scene, the best friend carting the wagon wheel out of the apartment scene, and to the final “Fade Out.”
A scriptwriting group of which I was once a member had a writing challenge. Write a screenplay in twelve weeks. The group met each Tuesday and everyone turned in what they had written that week. The group started off with fourteen people, two quickly dropped out, two more eventually faded, and at the end of the ten remaining only myself and another scribe had a first draft. Two members hadn’t even started as they were still thinking about their story, four where in the first act, and two were re-writing the first scene for the who-knows how manieth a time
The moral of this tale my friend is that it’s called a first draft for a reason. You need the first before you can have the second and until you move past chapter one, you’ll never reach chapter two.
Steven Tyler
Onelittlelie.com
The post Getting Past the First Chapter appeared first on One Little Lie.
June 25, 2015
Triggers
Yes, triggers and I don’t mean the kind found on a gun.
The twelve step programs call items that want the addict to act out in their disease, triggers. Presently, I’m reading Michael Connelly’s “City of Bones” and the book is setting off some of my triggers. City of Bones is about an abused twelve year-old boy who was murdered decades previously and whose bones are found scattered on a hilltop. Connelly’s LAPD Detective Harry Bosch investigates.
This the first Connelly and Harry Bosch book that I’ve read. Personally, I think the writing can be better. Too many, he did this and he did that, then he did the other thing. The words could flow better in my opinion.
An abused child is what I am and reading the story of boy beaten and forgotten is setting-off my triggers. Addict that I am, food being my drug of choice, I won’t stop reading City of Bones even though I can feel the triggers because I believe in finishing what I have started.
Finishing what one has started even though it’s a struggle can be a good thing. It makes me finish writing my books, for example. That obsession to finish what has commenced can also be a bad thing when the triggers occur and the disease kicks in.
I’m sure Harry will find the perp. I just hope he does so before I reach for another fried chicken drumstick
Steven Tyler
Onelittlelie.com
The post Triggers appeared first on One Little Lie.
June 21, 2015
Things That Fascinate Me
There are a few things that fascinate me like:
Dreams: A good night is one where I sleep soundly through from eye close to eye open. Dreams play an important role in the quality of the sleep. Bad nights are when I awake having dreamt of a lost love. Good nights are when the morning brings a night where love of accomplishment was part of the nocturnal exchange. Last night I found the love of a woman in my dream and went on vacation with the guys from “The Big Bang Theory.” Why did the boys from this show travel into my slumber? Probably because I saw the Jim Parsons interview on Bravo’s “Inside the Actors Studio”, yesterday. The odd thing though is that while Leonard Hofstadter, Howard Wolowitz, and Ray Koothrappli visited me, Sheldon Cooper was absent. Go figure dreams.
Ancient Aliens: Okay, I admit it. I like the TV show. Is it the truth or is it all a sham? That is up for each individual to decide. No, I don’t believe that ancient aliens brought the dinosaurs, Big Foot, or Noah’s Ark to Earth but those Moais on Easter Island and the Nasca Lines in Peru are there for some purpose.
Ghosts: The jury is still out on ghosts. Some people say that they do go bump in the night while others say its all imagination. I’ve never encountered one. However, every civilization from once time began to now has ghost stories. Sixteen billion people can’t be wrong.
I’ve included a discussion of Aliens in my book “One Little Lie.” Ghosts will appear in “Searching for My Soul.” But dreams, these I have yet to include in any tome I have thought of constructing. Maybe the geek guys from The Big Bang Theory will speak to me tonight and guide me to write a story of sweet, sweet dreams.
Steven Tyler
Onelittlelie.com
The post Things That Fascinate Me appeared first on One Little Lie.
June 15, 2015
The Dangerous Edge of Things by Tina Whittle
The Dangerous Edge of Things by Tina Whittle
My mystery book club selected Tina Whittles “The Dangerous Edge of Things” (“Edge”) as its book to read for June. My question was, why? A friend of mine answered that question with a new phrase, Mommy Porn.
There’s nothing new in Edge that cannot be found in a hundred other books of this type. The amateur detective heroine has to solve a murder. Ms. Whittle’s protagonist is Tai Randolph who, as one of the members of the book club stated, is the Kinsey Millhone of Atlanta. Change her name, put her in San Marcos, California instead of Sherman’s prize and you have the same character.
In my book, “The RTT Killer”, soon to be changed to “Killer, Killer, who’s the Killer? The RTT Killer.” the narrator shares how she has had a discussion with The RTT’s detective, Katelyn Selma Blair” that when men write books the male pro-tag is his alter ego. He’s always tough, a lady’s man, drives the nicest cars, successful, yada, yada, yada.
Books that are centered around the theme of Mommy Porn have a hunk of a guy, sometimes two, for the heroine to develop a relationship with over the course of the series run. Ms. Detective often has a gay, or two, friends to show how liberal she is. Also, let’s not forget the best gal-pal who is often divorced. The gal-pal being the heroine’s what-if. See what would have happened to our heroine if she had married “that guy” from her past. She’d be the divorced gal-pal now to some other heroine.
At the California Crime Writers Convention one of the speakers shared that he has friends that don’t watch TV. All they do is read. But as he says, what are they reading? They’re reading porn. It might be Mommy Porn, it might be super cool male detective porn, it might be dribble like “Lipstick Jungle.”
The moral of the story is just because someone tells you that all they do is read is no reason to be impressed. They might be reading porn.
Steven Tyler
www.onelittlelie.com
The post The Dangerous Edge of Things by Tina Whittle appeared first on One Little Lie.
June 10, 2015
Too Many Books on Your Nightstand?
This weekend I attended the California Crime Writers Convention in Culver City, Los Angeles County. The CCWC drew close to a thousand crime writers by offering education panels, speakers, and events.
You would be correct to imagine that the width and breadth of this convention spanned the spectrum from the many who were “thinking” about writing a mystery novel; one which I am sure they think would “take the nation like a storm” which is catch phrase used every six months when the latest placebo fat burner is released that will miraculously burn away all that fat around your waistline which took forty years to accumulate.
Not all the participants were kids in the candy store of wannabe writers. There were many professional crime puzzlers such as Charlaine Harris, a real hoot, and Anne Perry. Harley Jane Kozak sat across from me at lunch. I agree most heartedly with the title of one of her early mystery novels, “Dating is Murder.” It nearly killed me.
TV and crime novelist Lee Goldberg was present. The man is a riot and can talk, and talk, and talk, and talk, and talk. ‘nough said.
The convention starts off by handing you a gift bag with four novels of murder and mayhem to add to the already toppling pile of killings of every type, nature, region, and victim crawling its way up your bedroom wall. Some of these delights are even filled with recipes for everything from cakes, cookies, and candy. Yup, you can make a recipe from any one of these sleuthing texts, lie down in bed and read yourself to sleep and a double coronary.
There were little treats of mystery book upon mystery book with every kind of shamus among the quick and the dead. Cat themed mysteries, mine’s one of them, race car driver bloodhound, to a few with ghosts aiding the snoop in solving of the whodunit; my ghostly apparition gumshoe is scheduled for release on 2016.
Yes, yes, yes if you think you have too many of those menacing little texts sitting on your nightstand whispering in your ear while you sleep, “read me” , “read me”, come to a crime writers convention and you’ll need a second nightstand for all the little brainteasers you’ll lug out the door.
Steven Tyler
www.onelittlelie.com
The post Too Many Books on Your Nightstand? appeared first on One Little Lie.
May 30, 2015
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
I have just finished reading The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie for the second time. It is one of the few books in my life that I have read twice.
Sweetness’ title comes from another book called “The Art of Cookery” by William King (1708). The full passage from Cookery is. “Unless some sweetness at the bottom lie, who cares for all the crinkling of the Pie?” Sweetness not only lives at the bottom of Mr. Bradley’s pie but throughout from cover to core to crust.
Mr. Bradley’s writing is like music to the reader. Verses from opening note to bridge, hook, refrain, and back again vibrate in the reader’s ear. Our protagonist is eleven year old Flavia de Luce. Ms. Flavia is intelligent, resourceful, brave, quick-to-the-wit, and will not let little things like age, shortness of height, nor obstructions by foes near, but not so dear, namely her two older sisters who threat this Cinderella like anything but a loving baby sis, to prevent her from accomplishing her goal.
Our society today would hamper Flavia’s crime solving gifts more than than the killer who bounds and gags her up in a grease pit in chapter twenty-four. This age we live in where Free Range Parents are arrested for allowing their children to walk a mile to the park to play would find Flavia locked-up next to her dear-ole-dad in the local hoosegow; luckily, she petals her bike, Gladys, from town to town in a time when children were allowed to do something other than play on an I-Pod, a time when they were allowed to go “outside” and lie in the grass.
Yes, Cinderella de Luce uses her magic wand, it this case her cerebral cortex, to solve the case of the corpse in the cucumber patch. Eat this custard pie from book flap to book flap and enjoy the sweetness that resides within.
Steven Tyler
The post The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley appeared first on One Little Lie.
May 24, 2015
To Forward or Not To Forward That is the Question
It was recommended some months ago by my writers critique group that the first four paragraphs of my new book, The RTT Killer, be made into a Forward. The idea of a Forward to one of my novels had previously never occurred to me but one of the purposes of a critique groups is to receive suggestions; like adding a Forward.
Four months later, the members of the group were asking who was the narrator even though I had previously advised them that the narrator starts off the story by stating to be a friend of the protagonist and whose identity is revealed on the last page. I mentioned in passing to them that they had recommended to me that I revise the first chapter and make the original first four paragraphs into a Forward. They all responded that they would never, never recommend a Forward. Such is the life in a critique group, opinions thunderously heartened one session and then vehemently denied in the next.
An Internet site states that the difference between a Forward and an Introduction is that a Forward is not part of the book and is usually written by someone other than the author. Well that certainly does not fit this situation were I would be composing the Forward.
The Internet site also states that an Introduction is written by the author and is part of the book. An Introduction cannot be removed without affecting the reader’s experience while the a Forward can be removed without altering the reader’s understanding of the book.
Based on the above, I will follow their advise and not include a Forward, since it does not fit the definition anyway, but I will include an Introduction.
Steven Tyler
The post To Forward or Not To Forward That is the Question appeared first on One Little Lie.
May 15, 2015
Making It to the Big Time
Making It to the Big Time
One Little Lie has made it to the big time. Yup, One Little Lie is now in a library. Ssh, you didn’t hear it from me.
Sisters in Crime Los Angeles had a speakers panel last night at the Hawthorne library, which I attended as a listener, not as a speaker although that is coming soon. The librarian was gracious enough to accept a book donation from each of the four Sister is Crime, and the one Mister in Crime, me.
Yes, you know you’ve made into the big time when your book is in the Hawthorne, California library. Hawthorne today, El Segundo tomorrow! Watch out world, One Little Lie will soon be everywhere. I could only hope.
One of my Sister in Crime said that to be a successful author you have to be in the Los Angeles Crime Writing Community. The L. A. Crime Writing Community? I didn’t know there was such a thing. Yep, Ole Luna Susan George and I are going to make our rounds around the LACWC, who knows where it will lead us.
A first milestone has been made for One Little Lie, the library. Now, it’s on to a bookstore!!!
Steven Tyler
The post Making It to the Big Time appeared first on One Little Lie.
