Connie Lacy's Blog, page 10

There's a reason characters in “The Shade Ring Trilogy” are so diverse

Bye-bye, blue eyes. That’s one of the conclusions drawn bydemographers about Americans’ appearance in the not-too-distant future. Before I began writing “The Shade Ring” and its sequels, I researched demographic predictions. Bottom line: Americans will increasingly be more ethnically diverse due to immigration and inter-marriage. What that means is more brown eyes and fewer blue eyes, among other things. According to a recent study, half of Americans had blue eyes a century ago. Currently, on...

Choosing character names

In my third novel, "VisionSight," the main character’s name is Jenna. But it didn’t start out that way. Originally, her name was Donna. That was aboo boomy first readers pointed out to me. Donna is passé. So passé, that it’s on a list of girls names “about to go extinct.” I kind of doubt it’ll become extinct because some extremely old-fashioned names do make comebacks, like Sophie and Ella. But Donna was all wrong for a woman in her early twenties circa 2015. So she became Jenna.I got off on...

Writing is a solitary sport

Like most novelists, I’m driven to write. Shaping and fleshing out a novel is a creative challenge that I throw myself into. Excitement builds for me when a scene is flowing nicely. When I suddenly think of an idea to pump more energy into my plot, I do a virtual high five with myself. It must be with myself because there’s no one sitting in a cubicle next to me, nobody in the next room. That’s because writing is a solitary art form. There’s no one to joke around with as I work, no one to go...

Blushing as I write a sex scene…

To each her own. Some readers like their sex scenes hot and steamy. Others want the details left up to their imagination. I tend to fall into the second category. Although, I admit, I’ve read a few sex scenes that were, well… pretty romantic. I’ve also read some sex scenes that were downright awkward – about as sexy as watching Miley Cyrus twerking. I obligated myself to read a romance last year that included some explicit sex scenes, and I have to admit, I skimmed over them to get to the oth...

Writing realistic locations in my books

My first three novels are all set mostly in the Atlanta area. Of course, that’s where I live and I know some interesting local spots to use in my stories. I’ve also used Charlotte, Savannah and Charleston for locations, among others. It helps that I lived in one of those cities and have visited the others.I try to bring authenticity to my books through descriptions of the sites where scenes take place, whether it’s a Decatur cemetery, as in “VisionSight,” or a DeKalb County neighborhood, as i...

To sequel or not to sequel: that is the question

Lots of how-to guides say writing trilogies and series is the best way to succeed as an indie author. The “experts” say you build a fan base that way. Of course, that assumes you have a character readers really want to follow and compelling storylines for a series of books. I’ve already begun writing a sequel to my climate fiction novel, “The Shade Ring.” I’ve dived back into the world of Neave Alvarez in 2117, when sea levels are fifteen feet higher and it’s a helluva lot hotter than it is t...

Thank you to a couple of favorite teachers!

When I was in fifth grade at Mercy Middle School on Okinawa, I lucked out. I got Miss Capuson for my teacher. And every day after lunch she read to us for thirty minutes. One of the books she read aloud was Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder – the first in a series that’s come to be known as the Little House on the Prairie books. I loved the story and read the whole series in the next few weeks, immediately deciding that I should write my autobiography, which would be the s...