L.M. Nelson's Blog, page 15

Useful Twitter Hashtags for Bloggers

These are useful.

Suzie Speaks

What is a Hashtag?

A hashtag, put simply, is a label or category that allows others to find something within a specific theme or content and are primarily used on Twitter and Instagram. Once you have copied a URL or used the share button on a post, hashtags can be used to direct your post towards the people you want to read them. On Twitter you can use a hashtag for everything – #cats, #dogs, #football, #sandwiches – but as a blogger the main focus is to use categories that will gain interest in your content and grow your readership and traffic.

Using Trending Hashtags

Trending hashtags are the most popular things on Twitter at a particular moment in time  and at several points in the last few years I have written a post about a topic while it was trending, with immediate effect on my traffic once it was…

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Reading is Like Breathing

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Author Spotlight – Roxanne Burkey & Charles Breakfield

Author Spotlight
This week’s author spotlight is on Roxanne Burkey & Charles Breakfield, authors of The Enigma Series.
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Breakfield – A renowned technology solutions architect with 25+ years of experience in security, hybrid data/telecom environments, unified communications, enjoys leveraging his professional skills in contemporary TechnoThriller stories. He enjoys studying World War II history, travel, and cultural exchanges everywhere he can. Even Charles’ love of wine tastings, cooking, and Harley riding has found ways into The Enigma Series. He has commented that being a part of his father’s military career in various outposts, has positively contributed to his many characters and the various character perspectives he explores in the stories. He has accepted the challenge to try to teach Burkey humor and has added this to the stories in an unexpected manner.

Burkey – A renowned customer experience, business architect optimizes customer solutions on their technology foundation. She has been a featured speaker, subject matter expert, interviewer, instructor, and author of technology documents, as well as a part of The Enigma Series. It was revealed a few years ago that writing fiction is a lot more fun than white papers or documentation. As a child she helped to lead the other kids with exciting new adventures built on make believe characters. As a Girl Scout until high school she also contributed to the community in the Head Start program. Rox enjoys family, learning, listening to people, any kind of travel, outdoors, sewing, cooking, and imagining the possibilities.

Breakfield & Burkey – Combining their professional expertise, knowledge of the world from both business and personal travels, many characters whom have crossed their paths and are now a foundation for the characters in their series. They find it interesting to use the aspects of technology people are actually incorporating into their daily lives, which they claim is a perfect way to create good guy/bad guy stories with a series that allows each book to be enjoyed alone or in sequence.

You can invite them to talk about their stories in private or public book readings. Burkey also enjoys interviewing authors through the DEAR Texas programs with dates available on the events page of their website. Many followers can see them at Texas book fairs, Kroger stores, or other family oriented events.

The foundation of the series is on a family organization called the R-Group. Recently, they have spawned a subgroup in the series which contains some of the familiar and loved characters as the Cyber Assassins Technology Services (CATS) team. They have ideas for continuing the series in both of these series tracks. They use over 150 characters with a hidden avenue for the future The Enigma Chronicles tagged in some portions of the stories.

Fan reviews seem to frequently suggest that these would make good television or movie stories, so the possibilities appear endless, just like their ideas for new stories. Those comments have increased with the book trailers available on the Website, Facebook, and YouTube. Check out the evolving website for new interviews, answers to readers’ questions, book trailers, and fun acronyms they’ve used in the stories. Reach out directly at Authors@EnigmaSeries.com.

Here’s an excerpt from The Enigma Dragon: A Cats Tale
[image error] PROLOGUE

TRACKING DIGITAL BETRAYAL

TWO YEARS AGO

Beaten as he was, he could barely stand. Trembling fear was the only reason he didn’t collapse in front of them. It was supposed to be a simple drop off, routine like the others, only this wasn’t like the others. It was a trap, and he had walked into it only thinking about where to get his adult male entertainment that evening. It was evening now, but entertainment wasn’t at top of his list at this point, only surviving.

His captor snarled, “You were supposed to bring the package straight here, unopened! Did you think we would not notice, western dog?” The brooding man stalked around the prisoner once then hollered, “Beat him again! I want to see him on his hands and knees whimpering, begging! His betrayal will earn everything we can deliver!”

Several heavy, flexible rubber hoses rained down on his shoulders, back, and arms which did indeed force him to his knees. The blows were designed to cause heavy bruising, swelling, and bleeding just under the skin, but not break any bones. The prisoner felt his strength dissolving under the pummeling.

Finally, through his sobs he cried, “I was phoned to pick up this package and deliver it here. Once delivered I would get a deposit into my account just like the other times. Someone must have gotten there ahead of me and tried to help themselves. I swear that’s the truth!”

The captor demanded, “You think we believe you? How could that be possible when no money was missing?”

The prisoner was bewildered and sobbed as he asked, “What do you mean? If no money is missing, then why…?”

A new confident male voice of authority, outside the circle of punishment, answered, “Because of the tracking device inside the package.

“You are all under arrest. Put down your guns and raise your hands over your heads. We are the…”

The man never finished his sentence as a short burst of an automatic weapon cut across his path. The bullets caught him just below his waist line, filling the area around his body with a blood rain. Gunfire then erupted from both sides. Men dropped to the ground and took cover behind the makeshift shield of those already dead. The body armor of the U.S. security troopers kept most of them from being killed outright, while the cruel captors weren’t so lucky.

The gunfire ceased, almost as quickly as it had begun. One of the U.S. security troopers, after checking on fallen team members, went to see what the captive’s status was. As he turned the captive over, it was obvious he’d been caught by a stray bullet in the fire fight and would never be able to answer any questions.

The trooper, in a fit of disgust, bitterly remarked, “Hell! After all that monitoring and tracking of this weasel, he had to go get himself killed before we could find out who hired him. Bastard! Running guns into my country to outfit a bunch of Muslim extremists! The only good news is that we won’t have to feed and clothe him while he waits for trial.”

A team member hollered, “Rogers, we are missing two insurgents! Looks like they slipped away during the firefight!”

Rogers quickly shouted, “Alright, men, let’s pursue and trap them between the secondary line and us. Watch where you fire, since we have our people on the other side. Move out!”

Rogers continued, “Carl, you and Lee maintain a perimeter here in case they double back. Come on, people! With even two of these guys loose, they get a foothold to rebuild.”

Carl finished dressing the wounds of a downed team member and stood up to check on the fallen suspects. Lee and Carl checked each body for some type of identity papers.

After checking the last body, Carl looked at Lee and spit before he said, “Here they are! Afghan troops who were brought to the U.S. for intensive counter-insurgence training by our Army Special forces. They came in, earned some trust, and then simply vanished. They had planned this all along. Suck up to the U.S. military in Afghanistan, plead for better training to protect themselves from the Muslim extremists and insurgents in their country, and all the while it was a ruse to get their military on our soil. Might have worked too, if we hadn’t intercepted their cell phone calls. They were clumsy, and we got a lucky break, digitally tracking them.”

Lee shook his head and asked, “What I don’t know is how they got all those weapons after leaving the Army compound. There were no weapons missing from the base, so someone must have smuggled them in anticipating this kind of scenario. It always seems like the bad guys have way more friends than we do.”

Carl nodded his head but offered no response.

Lee and Carl both turned their heads in the direction of distant gunfire. They both hoped it meant the end or capture of the missing insurgents, but they couldn’t be sure.

 

Contact Information:

Mailing Address: Enigma Series P.O. Box 380331, Duncanville, Texas 75138 214-244-6752

Email: Authors@EnigmaSeries.com

Website (also includes purchase information)

Blog

RSS

Connect on Social Media:

Google+: cbreakfi@gmail.com

LinkedIn Breakfield:

LinkedIn Burkey:

Twitter: @EnigmaSeries and @1rburkey

Facebook

YouTube

Writer’s Envy & How to Get Past It

Do you have writer’s envy? This article defines what it is and offers ways to get over it and move on.

K.L.Wightman

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Body Language in Dialogue

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One Stop For Writers has a bunch of useful information for writers. It’s definitely worth checking out.

The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword

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“The pen is mightier than the sword, but they both can ruin a good shirt.” -Dr. Cuthbert Soup

Writing Goals

My writing goal this month…

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Author Spotlight – Rita Wilcox

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight returns with Rita Wilcox.

Rita Louise Wilcox was the oldest of five Irish Catholic children raised in East Texas. All were parochial school educated, which encouraged prolific writings from an early age. Summers were spent riding bikes through the woods, swimming in the Gulf of Mexico, and generally enjoying the outdoors, sans television. It was a simpler time, without digital devices, where books were the only method to take you to faraway places. Imagination was an essential part of entertainment, so it was a time that encouraged much story telling. This story was not imagined, however, as Rita’s grandmother (aka Mamou) knew the remaining Russian royalty well. She befriended this family, transplanted from such a foreign world, because she was one to seek out the few available foreigners in an effort to broaden her knowledge of the world. As this Russian family learned to trust Mamou and her granddaughter Rita, they shared their amazing tale of escape from a certain death to a warm, welcoming land of hope. You can find out more about the author at her blog, islandwidow, followed by an international audience. She now teaches part-time in the Galveston ISD. Having shared her story with many in the classroom, she found two things important to the desire to read this story. The students loved the romantic story line and the fact that it was based on a true story. While Rita is new to the world of published literature, she has written her entire adult life, from high school newspapers to sailing club newsletters. She enjoys sharing stories collected over a very active lifetime.

Let’s take a look at her book, The Chronicles of Captain Vadim Alevsky: Traitor or Savior?

Have you wondered what life in Russia was before the Bolshevic Revolution? Page Vadim Alevsky takes you to a time where the Tsar reigned supreme, and the military academy was the best path to power and status, in an otherwise impoverished nation. Captain Vadim becomes one of the most successful World War I pilots of the newly-formed Russian Air Corps. More than that, he becomes the only possible savior of the Russian royal family. While this is an epic tale of one of the most savage and heart-wrenching government annihilations, there is an underlying romance that survives the test of separation and time. Those passionate about “against all odds” survival, and all who love a true romance, will find this novel difficult to put down. After thriving in the difficult and competitive military school environment, young Vadim becomes completely enamored with Russia’s Royal Family as their Page, and forms a special bond with the Duchess Anastasia. His journey through the First World War, involves drama and romance that is addictive to all who begin to read it. The story is especially targeting readers interested in adventure, romance, and a story with a moral to be learned from human history. Vadim leads an extraordinarily exciting life of adventure in the battlefield, as well as in the world of political intrigue. While Vadim’s world is different in many ways from the world of today’s youth, he struggles with many of the problems that plague all adolescents throughout the ages. Suffering through the pangs of a first love, bullying by classmates at an early age, and the relentless competition to make the grade in school, all mold a strong and empathetic character in young Vadim. Captain Vadim becomes an inspiration to all who read of his adventures, as he develops into a strong moral character that you will be glad you met. This story is based on a true story told to me by my grandmother many years ago. She met the Russian family who witnessed this account, and they were kind enough to share the truth with her. Considering the potential harm the family would suffer at the hands of the KGB, if found out, they must have had a great deal of trust in my Mamou.

 

The Chronicles of Captain Vadim Alevsky: Traitor or Savior? can be purchased through Amazon.

She is currently working on a sequel book, The Chronicles of Captain Vadim Alevsky: Coming to America.  It should be published toward the end of 2018.

Connect with Rita through her blog at www.islandwidow.wordpress.com

 

Writing the Perfect Scene

We’ve all heard the classic writing advice, “Show, don’t tell.” But according to Dwight Swain, author of Techniques of the Selling Writer, “Most folks get ‘Show, don’t tell’ wrong because they take it literally rather than figuratively. It’s not about proof (showing sad characters cry) but about causality (revealing why characters cry). Don’t just show readers the effect of emotion, reveal the cause so they can feel it too.”

Swain further said, “Your reader reads first and foremost for emotional stimulation.”

Writers invoke and shape emotions by creating scenes.

A workshop I attended recently by Damon Suede (author of  Verbalize, a new guide to characterization and story planning suitable for newbies and experts, pantsers and plotters) took a different angle to scene writing that I had never heard before. Here’s Damon’s take on writing scenes.

We’ll start by defining what a scene is: A scene is a unit of struggle between opposing forces. Scenes are clear, active steps which create problems and move the story toward its final outcome.

Every scene should lead the character to his or her objective. A character’s objective needs to be challenging enough to sustain your character throughout the story’s length, significant enough to attract character attention and to inspire escalating risks, and relatable enough that anyone can grasp the character’s need to pursue it.

A scene follows the pattern of:

GOAL: Specific object that drives action. The immediate gimme-gimme. Make it something you can photograph (e.g. grandkids or a bungalow in the Maldives), but avoid abstractions (e.g. happiness or peace).
CONFLICT: Obstacles opposing the goal. Friction between the POV character’s needs and the reality they face. This is not necessarily combat, but a force which must be tackled during the scene.
DISASTER: Failure to accomplish the goal. A defeat that ends the conflict. It raises the stakes and derails progress via threats, complication, or impediment. It should demand a decision.

Each scene reveals character tactics. The character makes an offer/demand which is either accepted or rejected, requiring a new offer/demand. For best results, establish time, place, point of view, and context as soon as possible. Identify stakes within the first half-page to engage readers. Keep building to hooks that make readers turn the page.

After each scene, comes the sequel. This is not a sequel as in the next book in a series. This is different. In this case, a sequel is the aftermath. It acts as a transition between two scenes. Sequels are internal and pinpoint character action. They allow adaptation/course correction after interactions to improve the odds of success.

A sequel follows the pattern of:

REACTION: Emotional effects of disaster. Use this to reveal character: fear/hope, virtues/failings. Make it believable.
DILEMMA: Situation with no good options. Review the options. Amplify difficulty by challenging habits.
DECISION: Choosing the best of (bad) options, which leads to new tactics and the next. Demand sacrifice, and make sure this points directly at a new/next goal.

Sequels bridge scenes. Whatever decision the POV characters make initiates a new tactic for the subsequent scene. These tactical shifts occur allow POV characters to regroup.

(Infographic courtesy of Helping Writers Become Authors)

Scenes drive the story forward through external action that impact characters (and readers) via tactics and objects. Sequels deepen the story through internal assimilation by characters (and readers) via actions and objectives. You must have both to wring as much satisfying emotion from the reader as possible.

-Taken from Damon Suede’s workshop, Scene & Sequel: the rhythm of fiction

 

 

10 Things to Consider When Writing a Novel

Writing a book is incredibly hard. There is no magic formula or secret weapon you can use that will miraculously create a best-selling novel. Writing a book takes time. It requires initiative, discipline, and the ability to accept the fact that not everything you write is going to be beautiful.

“Writing is supposed to be difficult, agonizing, a dreadful exercise, a terrible occupation.” ―Ray Bradbury

But if you seriously want to write a book, nothing will stand in your way. Get out your pen, your laptop, or whatever writing tool you choose and start writing.

But before you do, here are a few things to consider.

Start small. Give yourself short assignments you can easily complete, like a character sketch, drawing a map, or writing 500 words. Take one step at a time. “Writing a book is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as the headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” -E.L. Doctorow.
 First drafts. Your first draft is going to be awful. Deal with it. The whole point of a draft is to get your thoughts on paper. You can clean it up later. “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.” -Anne Lamott.
Character. Characters can make or break a story. Know your characters, develop them, see them as they are. Dig into their heads and know what motivates them, what scares them, and what their weaknesses are. Make them believable, and make them come alive.
Dialogue. Dialogue reveals more about your characters than pages of detailed description does. Each character should be easily identified by the way they talk. Reveal your character’s voice and let their personalities shine. Include actions and mannerisms.
Plot. Characters drive the plot. Listen to your characters, and your plot will fall into place. Watch your characters move and stay with them. Things will happen to them; they will create their own tension and drama. Push them harder and load them up with problems they have to solve. Give them something to work for.
Setting. Readers what to know about the character’s lives. Every piece of the setting offers a view into their lives. Setting helps the reader see beyond the surface. It reveals personality and values. Let your characters’ lives pour through the setting. Imagine the scene and add as much detail as possible.
Breathe. Self-doubt will creep up on you, but you have to learn not to stress over small things. It’s ok if the story goes in a different direction than you planned. Let the characters take over and go with the flow.
Prepare yourself for failure. Not only will you doubt yourself, others will doubt you too. Not everyone is going to like what you write. Stephen King said, “If you write, someone will try to make you feel lousy about it.” Don’t waste your time trying to please people.
Support. Seek help and support along the way. Fellow writers can give you pointers if you need them. Don’t be afraid to ask. Read books about writing, use reference materials, and take notes. Find a support system to cheer you on. Your spouse, your best friend, or members of your local writing group can be invaluable resources to keep you motivated and get you back on track.
Voice. There are millions of stories out there, and you might be “worried that it’s all been said before. Sure it has, but not by you.” -Asha Dornfest. Find your voice, and tell your story your way.

What are you waiting for? Sit down and write. “You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank one.” -Jodi Picoult.