Chris Rogers's Blog, page 19

Write the Scene 3 Easy Ways

From the opening paragraph to the final sentence, your story progresses as a string of units, each connected with the next through causal relationships. In other words, this happened then that happened is okay, but this happened because that happened is infinitely better.

These units, often referred to as scenes, usually conform to three different structures. Knowing how to construct each type of unit makes writing the story you want to tell easier. The dramatic/reflective/transition process prompts your thinking, so you’ll never have to stare at a blank page and wonder “what do I write next?” And as celebrated author-teacher Rita Gallagher often said, they line up like beads on a string. Not pearls, because pearls are alike, but like beads of varying color and size.

For your readers, the result is a story that’s ultimately interesting, exciting, and satisfying.

Look For It In May 2015 on Amazon

Book Cover:
Write the Scene 3 Easy Ways

Hear Lies a Wicked Man

Life on a lake is just the ticket, Booker Krane figures. After recovering from a bullet wound that carved up his chest and opened a hole in his confidence, he’s had enough of big-city fraud investigation. He wants a quiet life.

Then his one-eyed dog drags a body from the lake and lays it at his feet. The sheriff wants his help, his neighbors are all suspects, and the more Booker learns about the victim, the more he realizes that Chuck Fowler was one wicked son-of-a-gun who deserved to die.

Look For It In April 2015 on Amazon and at charthousepress.com

Book Cover:
Here Lies a Wicked Man

Ramp Up Tension 3 Easy Ways

A reader picks up a book to become engage, intrigued, entertained. When that fails to happen, the unhappy, unengaged reader tosses that book and picks up another. Ramp Up Story Tension 3 Easy Ways presents writers with the tools to keep a reader virtually glued to a book, unable to put down until the end. Using these clearly defined tools, any writer can create a more exciting story. Writers of genre fiction will recognize many of these techniques but will discover many more to complete their storytelling toolkit. Writers of literary works would do well to snap up this handy little guide book and study it to create fiction that’s both artfully penned and inviting to read. For storytellers of any ilk: Never sit down to write or revise without this book in hand.

Purchase this book on Amazon.com

Book Cover:
Ramp Up Story Tension 3 Easy Ways

Plot Your Story 3 Easy Ways

Some writers love plotting, some hate it. Some writers plot their story to the end in incremental detail, while others prefer to work “organically,” letting the story unfold on the page as it unfolds in their mind.

Even a memoir or autobiography needs plot to make it interesting to read. Plot defines where you’ll spend more words dramatizing a part and where you’ll summarize.

Because plot is hard for so many writers to get their mind around, PLOT Your Story 3 Easy Ways approaches it with three different but equally valid techniques. You might gather all you need from one or combine them to create your own unique plotting style.

Purchase this book on Amazon.com

Book Cover:
Plot Your Story 3 Easy Ways

Just Announced! Head Study of Nelson DeMille to Appear in Splash 17

Last year, I began doing head studies of prominent authors and musicians. This one was submitted to Splash 17: the Best of Watercolor, along with a couple of other entries. The publisher just announced that they selected my DeMille head study for their next release.

So now I’m doing hand stands to celebrate! Okay, maybe hand stands are a bit beyond me, so I’m doing jumping jacks.

It shouldn’t mean so much to have your work validated for the world to see, but it does. Like being in the current Texas Gallery Show presented by Brazos Valley Art League–my first time! It just feels good to walk in and see my paintings in the company of works done by such brilliant artists.

When the previous volume, Splash 16, is finally published this summer, it, too, will include one of my watercolor paintings. I used to pore over those books practically salivating as I admired the watercolor art. Now I get to see how mine measures up against beautiful works by those same artists. 

In this case, the original art is owned by the subject of the painting, Nelson DeMille, one of my all-time favorite authors. Thank you, Mr. DeMille, for being such an interesting subject for painting while also entertaining us superbly with your books.

NEW in the “3 Easy Ways” Series

Experienced authors know that Story rides on Tension and Conflict. Without those two significant elements, Story flounders and sinks and, finally, commits the ultimate offense: it becomes terminally boring!

But even those authors who know often struggle with the “when, where, and how” of creating Story Tension. This compact little tome lays it all there fast and easy. As one advance reader commented, “It’s very thorough. There really is a lot of information presented in a short time.”

Essential for fiction and narrative nonfiction.

If you’re one of the many writers who cranked their stories into high gear after reading Book 1 in series, Plot Your Story 3 Easy Ways, you won’t want to miss Book 2:

Ramp Up Story Tension 3 Easy Ways.

LOOK FOR IT in April 2015.

  If you missed Book 1, catch up now. Available in ebook and print.

Zhaline had a blast at AggieCon

From day one, being around enthusiastic readers, writers and artists (also, gamers, though that’s an area she can’t quite fathom) proved exhilarating. Being blue, Zhaline fit right in with Data and Spiderman and dozens of other spectacular characters who showed up.

She shared 3 panels with 3 incredibly learned gentlemen, none of them blue but she’s not judging. With Linklater, she talked about Women in Comics. With Jason Richards, she discussed Time Heroes–which, fortunately, was about time travel in books, games and film, otherwise she wouldn’t have had a clue what to say. With Thomas Knowles, she talked about Anti-Heroes. The topics had potential, but in each case it was the audience that truly made them exciting.

In the vendor room, Zhaline met a 15-year-old author whose focal character is a dragon that takes human form. Is that not cool? She also met an artist-guitarist who fashions stringed instruments from cigar boxes and license plates, among other interesting items. She was invited to join Menza. She purchased a surprise gift for a family member. The only thing that could have made AggieCon better is if her son, Ruell, had been there.

If life and time allow, Zhaline plans to attend Menil Fest 2015 next month sporting a new cowboy hat.

 

And the Road Show Begins

In today’s world “taking it on the road” happens in my own office. I love it!

Gone are the long jaunts from one book-signing event to another. We reach out to friends and readers in many corners of the world at once.

The blog tour of Here Lies a Wicked Man has begun at Manic Readers, an Ohio-based company whose goal is to connect readers with authors and their books.

In this post, I reflect upon the series and falling in love with my characters. Check it out at:

http://manicreaders.com/blog/index.php/2015/03/here-lies-a-wicked-man-with-chris-rogers/

An Interesting Thing About Blog Tours

So you have 8 blog stops, and for each blog you struggle to write something interesting about your book.

Struggle? Yes. Not that this isn’t the greatest humorous mystery ever to come off a press, but come on! How can you rewrite the same material 8 different ways?

Surprisingly, it gets easier after the first two. And it’s a tremendous learning experience, even for this crusty old writer who thought there were precious few tricks she hadn’t tried.

Thanks to Megan LaFollett and all the wonderful people at Chart House Press, Here Lies a Wicked Man is touring the world this week in preparation for the digital launch on March 30. Having a great publisher and the staff that keep the presses running is an wondrous thing in today’s world, allowing the writer in me to do what I love best. Write!

And by the way, check out this really cool cover:

Art Show to Reveal My Latest Pieces

Tuesday Night, March 24, marks the opening reception for the Member Select Spring Show presented by the Brazos Valley Art League. I’m delighted to have it include three pieces that only my closest friends have seen until now.

The Texas Gallery is at the Arts Council of Brazos Valley building, 2275 Dartmouth St., College Station, TX. The show will remain up until June first, but I’d love to see all my friends there for the opening.

While I’ve been painting for a few years, my art began to focus on abstract expressionism in 2014. I took a driving trip to Wyoming last year, and two of my collectors held private showings, which were quite successful, but this is only my second time to show my work in a gallery setting. I’m excited, to say the least.

If you miss opening night but get a chance to see the show–and there will be a number of other wonderful artists’ works to enjoy–please let me know which pieces were your favorites.