Connie Lacy's Blog, page 9

Drawing on memories in my fiction

When I walk into our basement at a certain time of the morning on a sunny day, I am swept back in time to when my two youngest sons were growing up. It’s the light streaming through those carrot-colored curtains. The whole room is washed in vivid orange. I can almost hear my sons’ voices as they play with theirtrain set or rehearse for a show on the downstairs stage their dad built them. The cacophony of drums, guitar and keyboard comes rushing back to me. Sometimes, I stand there in the door...

Times have changed, but I still love the library

I used to enjoy browsing the stacks, looking for a good novel to read. Maybe a cookbook to peruse. I marked time by the three-week library loan period. And if a new book came out that I wanted to read, I put my name on the Reserve list and waited weeks or months for the library to call me, telling me I could come pick it up.Of course, I used the library for research as well. For school assignments or personal interests. Looking through the index to find articles I could read, scrolling throug...

Mother Nature as a main character in Climate Fiction

One of the main characters inclimate fiction isn'thuman at all. That character is Mother Nature. Usually a very ticked off, overheated Mother Nature.InThe Shade RingandAlbedo Effect,the first two books inThe Shade Ring Trilogy, runaway global warming plays a major role in the plot. Without giving away too much, the weather events include severe flooding that’s submerged coastal cities, extreme heat and a mega-hurricane. In book three, which comes out in the spring, there will be more climate...

A touch of Shakespeare in my Sci-fi trilogy

If you’ve read “The Shade Ring” and “Albedo Effect,” the first two books in “The Shade Ring Trilogy,” you know there’s an important, Shakespeare-quoting character. You also knowwhyhe quotes Shakespeare. While you may think that’s a charming bit of fictionalizing on my part, the fact of the matter is: we all quote Shakespeare every day.If you say “for goodness sake” when you get frustrated, or talk about your son“eating you out of house and home,” or if you talk about someone leading you on “a...

Creating believable places in my fiction

The old farmhouse where Megan discovers the antique phone in my novel, “The Time Telephone,” was modeled after a real place. Its interior and exterior are exactly as I remember my great grandparents’ rural Georgia home – the home I used to run through with my cousins, where the front “parlor” was only used for company and the porch had a wooden porch swing. The description of the kitchen with its floral “linoleum rug,” the ice box and round oak table with a Lazy Susan in the middle, is exactl...

Cover your face! Dust storms more likely in a warmer world

One of the characters in my latest book,“Albedo Effect, Book 2 of The Shade Ring Trilogy,” is an overheated Mother Nature. The trilogy is set a hundred years in the future against a backdrop of runaway global warming. So I’ve taken a keen interest in scientific predictions of what a hotter world might mean. Among them: more haboobs. (Not talking body parts here.)Haboob is from the Arabic, referring to huge sand storms blowing in from the desert. But scientists say if the Earth keeps warming,...

Accidents of fate – in real life and in fiction

What if your grandfather never met your grandmother? That’s easy – you wouldn’t exist. What if your grandfather died in an accident and your grandmother moved back to where she came from? Then the whole family tree would be uprooted and a different set of relatives would be born… and you wouldn’t exist.We’re all the product of countless accidents of fate. Or accidents of happenstance, dependingon your point of view.I think of that when I’m writing my novels after reading a wonderful family hi...

Thank you, “Star Trek” – from an author who's also a Trekkie

Amazing, that “Star Trek” is celebrating its 50th anniversary as yet another movie hits theaters this month. The first TV series launched in September of 1966. I loved that series. I loved “Star Trek: The Next Generation” in the late 80s and early 90s. I liked “Star Trek: Voyager” in the late 90s. I’ve seen all the “Star Trek” movies. I think my favorite is “The Voyage Home,” because, well, it’s just so campy. (The scene on the bus – LOL.)Now, I’m not saying all the shows and movies were grea...

From Horseless Carriages to Driverless Cars

"The Shade Ring Trilogy" is set a hundred years in the future so I absolutely mustinclude driverless cars. Like it or not, they’re already here. It’s just a matter of time for regulations to be ironed out, more mapping to be done and more glitches to be fixed before autonomous cars are ferrying us around as we sit glued to our smartphones, doing important things like laughing at cat videos on Facebook or designing clever hashtags to get more retweets on Twitter.And if you’re nervous about dri...

Coming to a theater near you… I wish…

So I’ve been daydreaming about my novel, “The Time Telephone” being made into a movie. Am I the only one who thinks it would make a really good film? Surely not. But who to cast? Well, I just happen to have some ideas.First, I thinkwould be awesome as Judge Kate McConnell – Megan’s grandmother. She certainly has the gravitas to play the role of Kate, and the tenderness. Of course, there’s also the possibility of casting Meryl Streep, (with dark brown hair.) But she’s in so many mov...