Sheila Webster Boneham's Blog, page 15
March 8, 2014
Doggy Lit
by Lois Winston
Over the last few years there have been many
sub-genres of lit-fic cropping up. It started back in the late nineties with an
onslaught of chick lit. These were stories not about furry yellow-beaked farm
critters but about twenty-somethings with jobs they hated, serial bad dates, a
tendency to indulge in too many margaritas, and an obsession with designer
shoes and handbags.
Over the last few years there have been many
sub-genres of lit-fic cropping up. It started back in the late nineties with an
onslaught of chick lit. These were stories not about furry yellow-beaked farm
critters but about twenty-somethings with jobs they hated, serial bad dates, a
tendency to indulge in too many margaritas, and an obsession with designer
shoes and handbags.
March 5, 2014
Animals in Focus Mysteries Characters Help Real Animals in Need
by Sheila Webster Boneham
Do you
know any pet owners who wouldn't like to have their own pets appear in a a
novel? When I asked myself that question a couple of years ago, I couldn't think
of anyone, so I pitched an idea to two organizations whose causes I strongly
support. My proposal was this: let's team up to raffle off guest parts for two dogs - one for each
group's winner - in
Do you
know any pet owners who wouldn't like to have their own pets appear in a a
novel? When I asked myself that question a couple of years ago, I couldn't think
of anyone, so I pitched an idea to two organizations whose causes I strongly
support. My proposal was this: let's team up to raffle off guest parts for two dogs - one for each
group's winner - in
March 3, 2014
My Writing Process
One question that comes up pretty often whenever writers speak to groups is some variant of "What is your process?" Today I've been tagged in a series of blogs that raise that question and others - thank you to author Victoria Dougherty for including me in this. (You can find Victoria at www.victoriadougherty.wordpress.com)
And now to my answers....
What am I working on?
As usual, I'm
And now to my answers....
What am I working on?
As usual, I'm
March 2, 2014
Sparkle Abbey on Why Writing Is So Doggone Hard
by Sparkle Abbey
Why It’s So Doggone Hard
We have a confession. Writing is hard. Writing for publication? Even harder.
We always smile when people just assume we crank out our light-hearted mysteries with little to no effort. If you’re paying attention, you might even catch us giving each other “the look.” The look that says, “If they only knew.”
We just turned in book five in our Pampered Pets series, Fifty Shades of Greyhound, and you’d think it would get easier. But the reality is, it hasn’t. We write light, humorous cozy mysteries. The different between writing the type of book we write and heavy, dark, intense books is, well, just the tone. It still requires the same research, attention to craft, tight plotting, etc. as any other book. In fact, you know the old adage, “Dying is easy; comedy is hard.” We concur. Writing humor is hard.
The truth of the matter is it doesn’t matter what type of book you’re writing. Writing for publication, writing something you hope others will read, is hard. Much harder than you realize at first. Sort of like owning a dog.
At first, it’s just cute and fun.
As young writing pups, the images in our imagination easily turned into words on the blank page. We filled pages and pages with stories and characters that entertained us. Mostly because we didn’t know any better. In our hearts we were storytellers, and that’s what we were doing—telling our stories. Now we know the truth. Writing is hard. So you have to love it a lot in order to get to the next step.
Training is important if this is going to work out.
We’ve each studied the craft of writing for more years then we care to admit; and we’re still learning. The more we learn, the more we realize what we don’t know. We find we must: continue to learn and grow, figure out what works and what doesn’t work, and learn from the experts and others in the business. Writing is very much like owning a dog; with good training you’re going to love it even more. And, by the way, it’s an ongoing training process – sit, stay, fetch. Repeat.
Training a puppy, or training your writing muse, requires stamina.
It takes talent to tell a good story, but it takes stamina to polish a good story into a great one. It’s that polishing process that makes the story shine. Just as you must stick with it when training a puppy, you don’t always get it right the first time. It takes time. It takes practice. The more you practice, the better you get. So you continue to refine and improve. Does it get a little easier? Sure. Which means it’s time to take it to the next level.
You’ve got to love it!
What makes it possible to hang in there for your puppy or your writing is that you love it. As writers we push on. Not just because we have a deadline, although a deadline certainly helps. As writers, we continue to pull word, after word, after word from our souls because, after all, we’re storytellers. We love that we get to entertain real readers with these fictional characters and these worlds we’ve created. We love to hear that we’ve created an escape for our readers for a subway ride or an afternoon on the beach.
Writing is hard because it makes us vulnerable. Writing is hard because as writers we push to learn more in order to become better storytellers. Writing is hard because it takes time in addition to talent. The reality is that writing a good story is hard because takes work.
Our advice?
Sit - Write a lot. Enjoy telling your story. Fetch - Hone your craft. Get advice. Continue to learn.Stay - Stick with it. Don’t give up. And play - Remember to love it!
Because if writing weren’t so doggone hard, it wouldn’t be so doggone rewarding. (Much like owning a dog.)
Wishing all you writers out there the best with your writing!
Sparkle Abbey is the pseudonym of national best-selling mystery authors Mary Lee Woods and Anita Carter. They are friends and neighbors as well as co-writers of the Pampered Pets Mystery Series set in Laguna Beach, California. The pen name was created by combining the names of their rescued pets - Sparkle (Mary Lee’s cat) and Abbey (Anita’s dog). They reside in central Iowa, but if they could write anywhere, you would find them on the beach with their laptops and depending on the time of day either an iced tea or a margarita.
They recently finished the fifth book in the Pampered Pets series, Fifty Shades of Greyhound, and continue to enjoy hearing from readers about the previous books: Desperate Housedogs, Get Fluffy, Kitty Kitty Bang Bang, and Yip/Tuck. Website: www.SparkleAbbey.comFacebook: www.facebook.com/sparkleabbeyTwitter: @sparkleabbey
~~~~~
Why It’s So Doggone Hard
We have a confession. Writing is hard. Writing for publication? Even harder.
We always smile when people just assume we crank out our light-hearted mysteries with little to no effort. If you’re paying attention, you might even catch us giving each other “the look.” The look that says, “If they only knew.”
We just turned in book five in our Pampered Pets series, Fifty Shades of Greyhound, and you’d think it would get easier. But the reality is, it hasn’t. We write light, humorous cozy mysteries. The different between writing the type of book we write and heavy, dark, intense books is, well, just the tone. It still requires the same research, attention to craft, tight plotting, etc. as any other book. In fact, you know the old adage, “Dying is easy; comedy is hard.” We concur. Writing humor is hard.
The truth of the matter is it doesn’t matter what type of book you’re writing. Writing for publication, writing something you hope others will read, is hard. Much harder than you realize at first. Sort of like owning a dog. At first, it’s just cute and fun.
As young writing pups, the images in our imagination easily turned into words on the blank page. We filled pages and pages with stories and characters that entertained us. Mostly because we didn’t know any better. In our hearts we were storytellers, and that’s what we were doing—telling our stories. Now we know the truth. Writing is hard. So you have to love it a lot in order to get to the next step.
Training is important if this is going to work out.
We’ve each studied the craft of writing for more years then we care to admit; and we’re still learning. The more we learn, the more we realize what we don’t know. We find we must: continue to learn and grow, figure out what works and what doesn’t work, and learn from the experts and others in the business. Writing is very much like owning a dog; with good training you’re going to love it even more. And, by the way, it’s an ongoing training process – sit, stay, fetch. Repeat.
Training a puppy, or training your writing muse, requires stamina.
It takes talent to tell a good story, but it takes stamina to polish a good story into a great one. It’s that polishing process that makes the story shine. Just as you must stick with it when training a puppy, you don’t always get it right the first time. It takes time. It takes practice. The more you practice, the better you get. So you continue to refine and improve. Does it get a little easier? Sure. Which means it’s time to take it to the next level. You’ve got to love it!
What makes it possible to hang in there for your puppy or your writing is that you love it. As writers we push on. Not just because we have a deadline, although a deadline certainly helps. As writers, we continue to pull word, after word, after word from our souls because, after all, we’re storytellers. We love that we get to entertain real readers with these fictional characters and these worlds we’ve created. We love to hear that we’ve created an escape for our readers for a subway ride or an afternoon on the beach.
Writing is hard because it makes us vulnerable. Writing is hard because as writers we push to learn more in order to become better storytellers. Writing is hard because it takes time in addition to talent. The reality is that writing a good story is hard because takes work. Our advice?
Sit - Write a lot. Enjoy telling your story. Fetch - Hone your craft. Get advice. Continue to learn.Stay - Stick with it. Don’t give up. And play - Remember to love it!
Because if writing weren’t so doggone hard, it wouldn’t be so doggone rewarding. (Much like owning a dog.)
Wishing all you writers out there the best with your writing!
Sparkle Abbey is the pseudonym of national best-selling mystery authors Mary Lee Woods and Anita Carter. They are friends and neighbors as well as co-writers of the Pampered Pets Mystery Series set in Laguna Beach, California. The pen name was created by combining the names of their rescued pets - Sparkle (Mary Lee’s cat) and Abbey (Anita’s dog). They reside in central Iowa, but if they could write anywhere, you would find them on the beach with their laptops and depending on the time of day either an iced tea or a margarita.They recently finished the fifth book in the Pampered Pets series, Fifty Shades of Greyhound, and continue to enjoy hearing from readers about the previous books: Desperate Housedogs, Get Fluffy, Kitty Kitty Bang Bang, and Yip/Tuck. Website: www.SparkleAbbey.comFacebook: www.facebook.com/sparkleabbeyTwitter: @sparkleabbey
~~~~~
Next Up on Wednesday - Mystery Characters Help Real Animals in Need
February 27, 2014
Writers & Other Animals are Coming!
What's this Aussie grinning about?
Writers & Other Animals launches this coming Sunday, March 2!
So cuddle up with your favorite critters and join us for a variety of posts from writers across the genres. We'll have interviews, excerpts, posts about this & that, plus occasional nonverbal art. The common link is animals, wild and domestic, furred and feathered and scaled. New posts will appear each Sunday and Wednesday.
Please sign up for email notifications if you like. New posts will also be announced on the Writers & Other Animals Facebook group and through my blog link at Goodreads.
I hope you'll join us, and invite your friends!
Sheila Boneham
Writers & Other Animals launches this coming Sunday, March 2!So cuddle up with your favorite critters and join us for a variety of posts from writers across the genres. We'll have interviews, excerpts, posts about this & that, plus occasional nonverbal art. The common link is animals, wild and domestic, furred and feathered and scaled. New posts will appear each Sunday and Wednesday.
Please sign up for email notifications if you like. New posts will also be announced on the Writers & Other Animals Facebook group and through my blog link at Goodreads.
I hope you'll join us, and invite your friends!
Sheila Boneham
February 21, 2014
Friday Update 2-21-2014
The best way to read! The writer's husband, Roger Boneham, with Jack, whom we picked up
from a NC shelter and fostered briefly
last year. Jack now lives with writer Carole Presberg.Yippee zippee, it's Friday!
Our "official launch" is ten days away, and it looks like we'll have a nice range of posts from our authors. Expect a virtual ark full of animals of all sorts as well.
In the meantime, please let your friends know about this shiny new blog - we would love to have a reasonable audience for the first "official" posts. Remember, you can sign up for email updates so nothing will slip by you.
We'll be posting a range of things -- interviews with authors and artists, excerpts from works of all sorts, posts about all sorts of writing-related topics. If you would like to see anyone or anything in particular, leave a comment or email me and we'll see what we can do.
Have a great weekend. Read and play with animals!
Sheila
February 20, 2014
Essay on Traveling in the Midwest
I'm a Midwestern girl. I was born in Oak Park, Illinois, spent my first six months in Chicago and the next six years in Elmhurst, a suburb of the Windy City. I have fond memories of getting dressed up and walking hand-in-hand with my mom to the "El" station a couple of blocks from home, and riding from there into the city for shopping forays.
What we remember is always fascinating to me. Here's
What we remember is always fascinating to me. Here's
February 19, 2014
Animals in Focus Mysteries ~ Did You Know...?*
by Sheila Webster Boneham
The third book in my Animals in Focus series is scheduled to be released in September 2014 by Midnight Ink, and the next book in the series is underway. I thought this would be a good time to share a few tidbits about the series. (Don't worry if you haven't read them -- no spoilers here!). So here we go....
The people in the books are not real people. Yes, yes, you're sure that person belongs to your dog-training or cat-fanciers' club, but s/he doesn't. Really. (Do be nice to me, though....)
Jay, the protagdog in the series, is based on my
lovely Aussie, Jay, shown here competing in open
obedience in Indiana in 2004.
The animals in the books are as real as can be! Now, this is fiction, so no one dog or cat or bird in the book is exactly like any one real-life dog or cat or bird. But Jay, the "protagdog," and Leo, the "leading cat," and all the others never do anything that I haven't seen or heard of an animal doing.Janet MacPhail, who tells the tales, never intended to be an amateur sleuth. She was perfectly happy photographing animals, landscapes, and occasionally people, and wrestling with the challenges of being 50-something. But then people started dying....
Janet MacPhail, 50-something animal lover and
amateur sleuth, is a professional photographer.
Janet's dog Jay is an Australian Shepherd. Yes, Aussies really are that energetic and smart. Really.
My muses -- Australian Shepherd Jay (1997-2012) and
Labrador Retriever Lily (lying on my feet as I type)
There are lots of retrievers in The Money Bird (2013). Retrievers come in many flavors, as you can see in the book -- Labrador, Golden, Chesapeake Bay, Flat-coated, Curly-coated, Nova Scotia Duck Tolling. Besides the "official" retrievers, there are other breeds designed to collect game birds from water and land.
This is my Annie (1993-2006),
doing that wet retriever thing!
Winning in obedience competition really can come down to half points, as it does in Drop Dead on Recall (2012), and some people are very serious about training and winning. But I've never heard of anyone actually committing murder at an obedience trial. Still....Dogs do not have a corner on exciting sports like agility. Wait 'til you see what Leo is up to in Catwalk ! (But you do have to wait until September 2014. Sorry.)
Janet's cat, Leo, is an orange tabby like my own Leo and
Malcolm, shown in the top photo with Raja, my first Lab.
All the cats of my life have inspired fictional Leo's behaviors,
including Kitty, shown here studying up.
>^..^<
You younger readers - listen up! People in their 50s, 60s, 70s + really do have lives, complete with hopes and dreams, and physical, mental, and emotional activities of all kinds. So pay attention to Janet and her friends and lovers. (Woops! Just one of the latter at the moment!) You might learn something. I made up the endangered parrot species in The Money Bird, but a lot of real-life birds and animals are at risk from trafficking, habitat destruction, and other factors. My hope is that the limited information in the book will encourage people to learn more, and behave accordingly. Fiction is more than entertainment - especially when dogs come to the rescue!
When you buy my books from Pomegranate Books, I will gleefully autograph your copies of Drop Dead on Recall and The Money Bird, or my in-print nonfiction books, including Rescue Matters! How to Find, Foster, and Rehome Companion Animals (Alpine, 2009) for the reader of your choice. Click here to order now!
So there you have it. What else would you like to know?
Watch for Catwalk, coming in September 2014. Because agility isn't just for dogs anymore!
*An earlier version of this post appeared at sheilaboneham.com
The third book in my Animals in Focus series is scheduled to be released in September 2014 by Midnight Ink, and the next book in the series is underway. I thought this would be a good time to share a few tidbits about the series. (Don't worry if you haven't read them -- no spoilers here!). So here we go....
The people in the books are not real people. Yes, yes, you're sure that person belongs to your dog-training or cat-fanciers' club, but s/he doesn't. Really. (Do be nice to me, though....)
Jay, the protagdog in the series, is based on mylovely Aussie, Jay, shown here competing in open
obedience in Indiana in 2004.
The animals in the books are as real as can be! Now, this is fiction, so no one dog or cat or bird in the book is exactly like any one real-life dog or cat or bird. But Jay, the "protagdog," and Leo, the "leading cat," and all the others never do anything that I haven't seen or heard of an animal doing.Janet MacPhail, who tells the tales, never intended to be an amateur sleuth. She was perfectly happy photographing animals, landscapes, and occasionally people, and wrestling with the challenges of being 50-something. But then people started dying....
Janet MacPhail, 50-something animal lover and amateur sleuth, is a professional photographer.
Janet's dog Jay is an Australian Shepherd. Yes, Aussies really are that energetic and smart. Really.
My muses -- Australian Shepherd Jay (1997-2012) and Labrador Retriever Lily (lying on my feet as I type)
There are lots of retrievers in The Money Bird (2013). Retrievers come in many flavors, as you can see in the book -- Labrador, Golden, Chesapeake Bay, Flat-coated, Curly-coated, Nova Scotia Duck Tolling. Besides the "official" retrievers, there are other breeds designed to collect game birds from water and land.
This is my Annie (1993-2006), doing that wet retriever thing!
Winning in obedience competition really can come down to half points, as it does in Drop Dead on Recall (2012), and some people are very serious about training and winning. But I've never heard of anyone actually committing murder at an obedience trial. Still....Dogs do not have a corner on exciting sports like agility. Wait 'til you see what Leo is up to in Catwalk ! (But you do have to wait until September 2014. Sorry.)
Janet's cat, Leo, is an orange tabby like my own Leo and Malcolm, shown in the top photo with Raja, my first Lab.
All the cats of my life have inspired fictional Leo's behaviors,
including Kitty, shown here studying up.
>^..^<
You younger readers - listen up! People in their 50s, 60s, 70s + really do have lives, complete with hopes and dreams, and physical, mental, and emotional activities of all kinds. So pay attention to Janet and her friends and lovers. (Woops! Just one of the latter at the moment!) You might learn something. I made up the endangered parrot species in The Money Bird, but a lot of real-life birds and animals are at risk from trafficking, habitat destruction, and other factors. My hope is that the limited information in the book will encourage people to learn more, and behave accordingly. Fiction is more than entertainment - especially when dogs come to the rescue!
When you buy my books from Pomegranate Books, I will gleefully autograph your copies of Drop Dead on Recall and The Money Bird, or my in-print nonfiction books, including Rescue Matters! How to Find, Foster, and Rehome Companion Animals (Alpine, 2009) for the reader of your choice. Click here to order now!So there you have it. What else would you like to know?
The Money Bird is the second book in the series - released last September by publisher Midnight Ink. There's nothing friendlier - or more courageous - than a wet dog!Drop Dead on Recall won the Maxwell Award for Fiction in the 2012 Dog Writers of America Writing Competition, and was named one of the Ten Best Pet Books of 2012 by NBCPetside blog. Obedience can be deadly!
Watch for Catwalk, coming in September 2014. Because agility isn't just for dogs anymore!
Sheila's books are are available in the usual places and forms -- paperback, ebooks, large print, and Audible. If your local bookseller doesn't have them in stock, they can order them, or you can find them online or HERE.
*An earlier version of this post appeared at sheilaboneham.com
February 18, 2014
New Blog, Renewed Blog
If you've followed my blog for any length of time, you know that my writing and my reading are pretty eclectic. For those of you who don't know that, here's the scoop - I write (and read) across genres and resist the current "need" to be "branded." I write literary nonfiction, commercial nonfiction, literary fiction, commercial fiction, poetry. Occasionally I venture into academic writing (
Winning Dog Writers for 2013
The Dog Writers Association of America has announced the winners of the 2013 Writing Competition last Sunday. Check out the winners and finalists here. Read on!
And please let your friends know about this new blog for readers who love animals, and animal lovers who read!
- Sheila
