R. Scott Tyler's Blog, page 2

Japan – Tokyo Writing Inspiration

I’ve had the luck and luxury of traveling to Japan in my previous life for work. Those trips were intense, scary, interesting, and took me way out of my comfort zone. Hopefully they were also productive and meaningful for my past employer and for the Japanese folks I met and worked with when I was there.

When I traveled for work I met a lot of Japanese from my company who tried to teach me a bit about their country, their culture, and their way of doing things. Unfortunately for me, I was there, to a large extent, to try to get them to do some things differently, which didn’t always go over very well.

This trip was totally the opposite of work. I was there to learn and enjoy. I wanted to learn their culture, see their history, take in their architecture, and learn about their food – the way they cook, serve, and eat it. I was able to accomplish most of what I set out to do, and in addition I was able to spend time with an interesting Japanese person I’d met through social media who had a common interest in photography, Canada, and the Philippines.

I began the trip in a place that was familiar to me in name and by its rail station, but not much else. If you’re staying in Tokyo, it’s a place I highly recommend – Shinjuku. I am familiar with Shinjuku because it is a (the?) major commercial and administrative center in Japan and, as I understand it, has the busiest rail station in the world, named aptly, Shinjuku Station. Shinjuku is one of the liveliest areas of Tokyo for nightlife, lights, food, and shopping. Read more here…

Our Reactions Tell A Story

He closed his eyes and was transported to another place. This place was colored in hues of green with smokey over tones. If felt damp and warm to his sinus, but his tongue detected honey. Yes, it was honey. The honey began singing and slowly the green brightened and blossomed. Lavenders, mustards, and clumps of alfalfa appeared out of nowhere, with an intensity that almost brought on a sneeze. He turned away and his mouth began to moisten. Soon he was salivating, as his mind opened upon fields of ripening lemons, limes, and blood oranges. The last thing he tasted, as he walked out the door, was the puckery clean scent of the face soap his mother used to wash with every night before going to bed. He’d been given the opportunity to find out if that soap helped with vocabulary more than once. He would say, indubitably, it did not.

Palm Desert Break for Writer’s Block Relief

I have the wonderful winter opportunity to visit the greater Palm Springs, California area with someone that has to spend all his time attending lectures, classes, and huge group events. One of the luckiest parts of this is that I don’t have to go to any of it. In fact, I can’t go to most of it and would not understand most of what was being presented since I’m not a dentist. However, I get to stay at the resort, meet a few key people, eat some perfectly delicious meals, do a lot of walking, hanging by the pool, and of course, writing.

I’m spending this week working on the outline, characterization, and settings for a potential new series.

I’ve never written like this before…using this sort of process, I mean, but for Christmas I received DRAFT NO. 4, ON THE WRITING PROCESS, by John McPhee. I’ve always been a somewhat frustrated seat-of-the-pantser and have thought many times about putting more organization into the beginning of my writing. By the time a writer, any writer, gets to the end of a book, let alone a series, there will be organization, believe me. I can’t keep dates, locations, characters, hair colors, phone preferences, etc. in my mind over a span of three books and eighty years (in story time). However, I have tended to document as I went along, simply to stay in control, rather than to plot a course.

Writer John McPhee postulates (in my severely summarized view) that once the idea, research, and organization are in order, the rest is simply writing the words to the story. He has an extremely defined and distinct way of doing this up-front bit of work,  but does not promote the idea that mastering the tools (notebooks, index cards, OneNote, Excel, Schrivner, etc) is the basis for being a successful, or even good, author. He simply puts forth a process that he has used to accomplish many books and other writing projects.

So, as I’ve drunk my coffees, walked the hot roadways, lounged by the pool, and sat in the hotel room, I’ve let my mind wander to the seeds and roots of the story series I’m thinking about telling. I haven’t written a single word of story line, but I’ve written hundreds about individuals, family, friends, locations, interests, and pitfalls of those that will surely end up in these upcoming stories. And this has made me smile.

Holiday Concoctions

I want to say Thank You to In Dianes Kitchen for a couple of great presents I’m making for folks this year. I found the Apple Cider Syrup a while ago on her website and saved it on my present list. It’s quite easy to make, but takes several hours, so plan on hanging around the kitchen for the day with this one.

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Later I found her Fruit Infused Vodka article. It’s more expensive, depending on the type of vodka you use, but quite simple. I know a few people who will break out the shot glasses when they open these lovely gifts.

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For the or the details of how to make each one, follow the links to Diane’s original post. Happy Holidays!

NaNoWriMo update: Conflicted – work in progress

I didn’t win this year’s National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo, meaning I didn’t complete 50,000 new words for a story. However, I did do exactly what I set out to do. I got myself focused and tuned up the skills I’ve learned in the past to fire up the word engine.

I’ve been working on a new story that I’m currently calling CONFLICTED. It’s a psychological thriller with an urban noir feel. I am heavily into the characterization and back-story right now and, although the theme and protagonist are going to be challenging, I am liking what I have.

The story is again set in South East Asia and I’ll have a big variety of people, settings and customs. I love the research I get into for my stories and can spend hours learning about something that might not warrant more than a few sentences overall. But hopefully, the research makes each sentence ring true and creates authenticity for the readers.

Even though I’m dying to throw words out there, I’m trying to live by a new rule for this next book. The rule is, don’t show anyone your words until the entire first draft is complete. That will be a challenge for me, because I’m not that kind of person, in general, but I’m going to give it a try for now.

I’m also expecting this book to be significantly longer than the last three and I’m about 10% of the way through the first draft.

Look forward to a second half 2018 publish date!

Readers make me happy

Whether they are nieces, nephews, or friends from places 10,000 miles away, readers make me happy. And no, not only when they’re reading my books. They wouldn’t make me happy very long then, because I haven’t written many books. To me, reading, almost any genre, is a connection I feel with people. Kind of like the San Fransisco Giants baseball fan that can instantly connect with the Yomiuri Giants baseball fan, even if they don’t speak the same language.

So here’s to readers of fiction, non-fiction, urban noir, biography, history, memoir, plays, cookbooks, fantasy, science fiction, YA, etc. Get a coffee or tea, find that comfy chair and grab your book. Silence your phone, unleash your imagination, and dive in.

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It’s NaNoWriMo Time again!

November is National Novel Writing Month = NaNoWriMo

I won (wrote 50,000+ words in the month) in 2013, 2014, 2015 and took 2016 off.

So this year is the fourth year I’ve participated and I’ve chosen what I think is a terrific project. I am calling it CONFLICTED.

It’s a Psychological Thriller with roots in America and settings again around Southeast Asia. It is infused with touches of Urban Noir with conflicts stemming from corruption, human trafficking, prostitution, and drugs.

This promises to be a complex plot with complex characterization a step beyond what I’ve attempted in the past. It will not be done in the month of November, but I hope to finish it in time for a pre-Christmas 2018 release.

Come back here once in a while for glimpses of story, characters, and settings over the coming months! As always, I yearn for your feedback! lol…but seriously…

For those of you looking to purchase one or all of my current three books here is all the information you need to get them.

Please note: If you’re ordering from North America, I will sign and send you copies without any postage costs! If you’re ordering from other parts of the world and still want a signed copy sent directly from me, send me a note with your delivery location and I’ll reply with the postage and total cost.

Gadgets, devices, and distractions

These days most everyone has at least one, many people have several, and some seem to be controlled by them.

I’ll admit it. I have a PC, two phones, an iPad, and a Kindle. That’s not to mention three TVs. While my number of devices sounds more like ‘first world problems’ and somewhat like me showing off, I didn’t mean it to be and, to be honest, it embarrassed me a bit when I wrote all of them down for this post.

I’m talking to more and more people that say one of two things. The first is that they don’t read books anymore because they’re too distracted and don’t have the attention span they used to have. The second thing I hear is “Yes, I read a lot. I’m always on Twitter, Facebook, blog sites, and News Feeds.” Okay, while there are words on all of those apps, that’s not my definition of ‘reading’.

Is it my imagination or are fewer and fewer people picking up books and reading them these days? As a writer and indie author, this worries me to no little extent. I’m not putting myself outside of this group, my confession regarding gadgets sounds very distracting, right? However, for me, being…well…beyond my twenties…significantly…I’m not too worried. I have book reading apps on all my devices and I read about half my books electronically these days. But I grew up with a love of reading and a love for books, particularly physical books, in my youth.

If you’re one of those people that must answer texts, even if you’re driving, I imagine that getting through even one page of a book, with text, email, news, and twitter alerts bombarding you, must be quite a challenge.

I’m not sure anyone has a ready answer for this, but concentration and focus are so important in everyday life. I’m working constantly to set goals to focus, concentrate, and finish and always trying to set boundaries between my priorities and someone else’s requests for my time via apps.

The struggle between informed tech-geek and focused accomplishments is real.

How good are you at keeping yourself from being distracted?

What is your best tactic for staying focused?

Inspiration for Smugglers in Paradise series

A reader recently asked me what was the inspiration for my SMUGGLERS IN PARADISE series. This might be a good topic to talk about in a couple of blog posts.

I’ll start with book one – GAME OF WIT AND CHANCE: BEGINNINGS. This story is best described as a family saga using passion and tragedy to set the stage for conflict and family turmoil.

My inspiration for this story is complex and comes from multiple directions. Here are just a couple of significant thoughts.

The two primary settings, Portland in the US and Zambales in the Philippines are both beautiful places in their own right and have strong connections to the ocean or the sea. I chose Portland because it reminds me of my home state of Minnesota, but has a International port, which I wanted for this story. I chose the Philippines because I spent a lot of time in various Asian countries when I worked for a multinational company before repotting myself as a writer. I have good friends in the Philippines and think the landscape, seascape, and people are fascinating.

The timeline for the story spans significant parts of two generations of the Ramos family and surrounds the end of World War II. My great uncle Floyd was a prisoner of war for thirty-three months in a Japanese camp on the island of Corregidor in the Philippine Islands. This small island is in Manila Bay and was the last Philippine island to surrender to the Japanese.

[image error]CORREGIDOR VIA OUTRIGGER BOAT.
[image error]CORREGIDOR MEMORIAL.
[image error]DEFENSIVE WEAPONRY.
[image error]BARRACKS / BUILDING REMAINS.
[image error]THE TADPOLE SHAPE OF CORREGIDOR ISLAND.

All pictures that are not owned by me are used with permission.

See the front page of my website if you’d like to know where to get my books.

Back to School

Writing Prompt from Poets and Writers Magazine: Back to School

Ms. Taplick took a breath and straightened her back, bringing herself to her full five-foot three-inch stature. First impressions were so important, especially when she would have these kids for only a short time. If she could gain control immediately, the class always went more smoothly. For a substitute teacher whose last name was Taplick, control was always a slippery slope.

She’d broken up with her longtime boyfriend at the end of the last school year and went into a spiral of depression. Dumping her tiny apartment and putting her belongings into storage, she retreated to the only thing she enjoyed, backpack traveling. It was pure chance she’d come across this substitute teacher position.

She’d waited as long as she dared in the tiny teacher’s office to the side of the one-room, multi-grade class. The shuffling of feet entering the room had quit a few minutes ago and the room was amazingly quiet for the first day back at school.

“Good morning, class. I’ll be your teacher while Mr. Turner is indisposed. My name is Ms. Taplick, and you can call me Marie,” she said, introducing herself as she walked into the room. It hadn’t taken her long to reject the idea of trying to substitute teach classes while being called Ms. Taplick. She’d heard them all. The names kids thought they could get away with saying because they had misunderstood her name or misheard it. It was much better just to deal with the informality of being called Marie.

But this class seemed different. After introducing herself, the entire class responded in unison, “Good morning, Ms. Taplick.”

There wasn’t even a hint of a snicker from anyone and the pronunciation was perfect. No odd placement of emphasis on the ‘lick’, no addition of ‘n’ between the ‘tap’ and ‘lick’. Whomever this Mr. Turner was, he must have been a strong disciplinarian. Or at least he had commanded respect. Maybe this wouldn’t be such a bad semester after all.

Midway through the morning, when the younger students were finishing up their drawing assignment and the older students were between Chemistry and Agriculture, one of the older students brought her a cup of tea.

“Mr. Turner liked a cup of tea at the morning break,” she said, “We were thinking that you might like one as well.”

The student placed the cup of milky brown, steaming liquid on the corner of her desk, smiled, and retreated to her own seat.

Ms. Taplick didn’t think about how the student produced a cup of steaming tea in the middle of a classroom during chemistry class until later. That is, later, after the first couple of sips of the sweet, strong brew. After her feet started to tingle, her head began to spin, and her arms went limp and numb.

Later, after the oldest boys picked her and her chair up, while she felt glued in place, unable to move. After they unlocked the door to the surprisingly spacious lower level of the small country school building, struggled getting her and her chair down the wooden steps, and placed her at the end of the line of grey looking bodies sitting in similar chairs.

She’d wondered if she could handle the chemistry class when she began reviewing the book earlier this morning and now she knew the answer.

She could not.

This class was way ahead of her.

The bottles on the shelves in front of the row of chairs varied in size, shape and color. Some were ink black and others glowed with multi-colored phosphorescence.

It was now clear, this was going to be a very long semester.