Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 173

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and thank you to all my readers!
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The James Bond Car and Publishing

One final James Bond car post and then I'll find something else to talk about. I promise.

When I wrote In the Midnight Hour, I gave Ryne (my heroine) keyless entry. In my mind (and in the scene), she opened the doors to her vehicle by pressing the button on her key fob. As I proofread a test print of the book, everything was fine. Then, months later, I got my author copies. My keyless entry had been changed to keys entry.

This bugged me. A lot. It still bugs me.

My guess, and this is only a guess, is that whoever did the proofread of the galleys for the publisher lives in New York City and doesn't own a car. I can't see how else that would have been changed. The thing that's so frustrating is that at the time I didn't have that feature on my SUV and I had to research to find out that keyless entry was called keyless entry.

Fast forward to my James Bond car. Can you imagine if I wrote a character with a car like this? One that responds to voice commands, automatically hooks my cell phone into the system as soon as I get in the car, and has a remote start? I can't help but wonder what these features would be changed to. :-)

Let me close by saying I love copy editors and I've been lucky to have really good ones on all my books. I'm grateful for all the mistakes they find and fix.

Adventures In Rental Cars

I've taken to calling my new Edge the James Bond Car because about the only feature missing is the covert missile launcher. The options are cool except there's one small problem--I'm still having trouble figuring it all out. I am a computer/gadget geek, so I found this rather embarrassing. Until the business trip to Atlanta.

Our entire department needed to attend a meeting in Atlanta last week, and because it was only an overnight trip, three guys rented cars and the rest of us rode along with them. The one I rode with most of the time had a Dodge Durango with the same kind of dashboard screen that I have. He couldn't figure out most of it either. We both were poking at buttons, trying to figure things out and still couldn't get what we wanted to happen.

But the best part was on Wednesday night. The driver of the Durango had come in the day before so this was day (and night) 2 for him with the SUV. The entire group drove about 45 minutes from our hotel for dinner. There were three of us in the Durango as we left to return to the hotel.


The driver makes a comment, "There's a police car behind us."


We drive a little farther and he says, "We're being pulled over."


We're all confused since he wasn't speeding or weaving or anything else that would warrant being pulled over. The officer comes up to the car and says, "Sir, would you turn on your headlights."


Huh? Aren't they on? Um, no, they weren't. The driver thought the lights were on auto, but they'd been turned off, and because of how bright the screens on the dashboard were, no one realized the headlights were off. We didn't get a ticket, but the driver swore us to secrecy--and then he ran around the office the next day telling everyone the story.

Technology is generally awesome, but sometimes it makes life more complicated.

Source Code

[image error] Source Code stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Captain Colter Stevens. The movie opens with him waking up on a train. He doesn't know how he got there because the last thing he remembers is flying a helicopter in Afghanistan. The woman across from him is talking to him as if she knows him, and when he goes to the bathroom and looks in the mirror, the face he sees isn't his. Then the train blows up and he's back in a capsule and another military officer is talking to him over a video link.

It turns out that he's part of a mission to identify the man who blew up the train. The team can transport him back 8 minutes into the life of another man who was actually on that train. And they do it over and over again because Stevens can't get enough information. Each time he goes back, the captain tries a new tactic. Each time he goes back, he's more assured in his role, but there are things he doesn't know.

I'm keeping the description of the movie vague because I don't want to reveal any spoilers and ruin the movie for anyone.

I hadn't heard of Source Code and I'm surprised I missed picking up something about it because it's exactly the kind of movie I enjoy most—action, adventure, and suspense with the slightest touch of romance. I would have liked a bit more on the romance front, but given the setup for the plot, I don't think it was possible and it was good the way it was.

Anyway, because I hadn't heard anything more about the movie than the brief description on the On Demand screen, I got to be surprised by the turns the storyline took. Nothing was a gasp-out-loud shock, but I definitely didn't see everything coming and I love that.

Gyllenhaal did a great job making his character sympathetic and likable from the start. I felt his confusion and I was embarrassed for him as he acted strangely, drawing attention to himself in a what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-him way. I was on the journey of discovery with him throughout the movie and there are two storylines twined together. There's Stevens trying to discover who bombed the train and there's Stevens trying to figure out how he got pulled into this mission for Project Source Code. Both stories carried plenty of suspense and kept me intrigued throughout.

The only negative comment I can sort of make is that I guessed the identity of the bomber early. However, the film did a great job of throwing me off the track and I decided I was wrong and started looking for other suspects. So while the guilty party wasn't a shock, it was sort of a surprise because I'd already dismissed my suspicions. I hope this was vague enough.

Since I don't have a bunch of minuses to list here, you've probably guessed I'm giving the movie a recommendation. You're right.

Very enjoyable. Recommended.

The Unexpected New Car

If you follow me on Twitter, you know I bought a new (to me) car last week. I didn't want a new car-- Okay, let me rephrase. I didn't want to have the car payments that go with a new vehicle. If someone was handing out free cars, that would be a different story.

Anyway, I didn't plan on buying a new car this year, especially when I move to Atlanta just after the first of the year, but my beloved Explorer was having issues. It was a 1998 and it needed transmission work and a new muffler/tailpipe assembly. There was no way I could justify putting that kind of money into a 14-year-old car. I'd known this day was coming and I'd already made my decision on what the replacement would be, but it was still a "no, not now" moment.

I loved my Explorer to bits, but I decided to go with the Edge as a replacement instead. It's a crossover vehicle--part SUV, part car--and I liked the look. The price tag? Not so enamored, but sadly the prices on all cars have gone ridiculously high since I last bought one.

I'd checked out used Edges online, found one I really liked, and took it for a test drive last Thursday. I didn't plan to take it home that night, but since the Explorer I was trading in could die at any moment thanks to the transmission issue, I wasn't left with much choice.

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Beautiful, isn't it? (Please ignore the mess in the garage.) I'm trying to get used to it. My 1998 did not have any of the fancy stuff in it that this car does. It's like going from a World War I biplane to flying the space shuttle. I actually had to read the instruction book and my motto has always been: If all else fails, read the directions. Sadly, I bet I'll only use a fraction of the car's features because I'll forget they're there or forget how to turn them on.

Some of what I'm learning. No keys needed. I just have a remote clicky things. I need it with me, but I just keep it in my jacket pocket and press the dashboard button to start.

My cell phone is hooked into the car via blue tooth and I can verbally tell my car to call someone without having to touch anything. I'm not much of a phone person and I hate people who yap on their cells while driving, but this could come in handy at times.

However, I won't need to call anyone for directions on how to get somewhere. Not anymore. The car has GPS built in! This is the feature I really wanted because I don't know the city of Atlanta or it's suburbs at all and I'll need all the help I can get to find my way around.

It's all cool, but TBH, I miss my old Explorer. I recognized the sounds it made, I knew where to look and how to handle it. I do like the Edge, though, and while the car was used, it was still a 2011 and has a ton of bells and whistles on it. More than I needed, but I took what was on the vehicle.

A Pinch Of This and a Dash Of That

I have a guest blogger today and she'll be giving away a download of her book to one lucky commenter!

Trish McCallan and I have known each other for around ten years now and she was one of the people who read the draft of my first book. Back then I was pretty much only a seat of the pants writer and T was a plotter. Over the years, I've learned more about plotting (although I certainly wouldn't call myself a plotter) and then T had this dream that was a story. I happily welcomed my plotter friend to the world of pantsing. Her dream became Forged In Fire.

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FIF is an awesome story! Action, adventure, romance, and a touch of paranormal. The airplane stuff? I was technical advisor. If I didn't know something, I talked to one of the engineers and these guys did have the answers. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with my bio, I work for a major US airline in Technical Operations.) But it's the characters in a story that grab me. Beth and Zane sizzle together as they try to overcome a plot involving the planned hijacking of an airplane. These characters are human and real and I cared about them.

About Forged In Fire:

Beth Brown doesn't believe in premonitions until she dreams a sexy stranger is gunned down during the brutal hijacking of a commercial airliner. When events in her dream start coming true, she heads to the flight's departure gate. To her shock, she recognizes the man she'd watched die the night before.

Lieutenant Commander Zane Winters comes from a bloodline of elite warriors with psychic abilities. When Zane and two of his platoon buddies arrive at Sea-Tac Airport, he has a vision of his teammates' corpses. Then she arrives—a leggy blonde who sets off a different kind of alarm.

As Beth teams up with Zane, they discover the hijacking is the first step in a secret cartel's deadly global agenda and that key personnel within the FBI are compromised. To survive the forces mobilizing against them, Beth will need to open herself to a psychic connection with the sexy SEAL who claims to be her soul mate.

And now, here's Trish!

A Pinch of This and a Dash of That

I love alpha heroes. Those yummy, yummy, sexy, steamy-hot alpha heroes. Love them. When I read, I read for the heroes. I read to sneak a peek into their minds. To wallow in their maleness. To watch their reactions as they fall in love and lose that calm rationality they show to the rest of the world. To me the alpha hero is the sexiest beast alive. It doesn't matter whether he is a vampire, a werewolf, a demon, a Gineal troubleshooter, or a warrior from SEAL Team 7. If he's an alpha hero, he rocks my boat So when I read, I read for the hero. The heroine, well she is replaceable. (With me! Ha!) I've read hundreds of romances and the heroine rarely leaves an impression. In fact, I remember very few heroines' names. But the hero, yeah- if he is a sexy alpha—I will remember him forever. Take for example the first alpha hero I fell in love with. His name was Wolf Mackenzie from Mackenzie's Mountain. Oh la la. A half Indian, hot-blooded, sex-up, bad-tempered alpha hero. I took one peek into his mind and fell into lust love. Okay- I fell into lust. I challenge anyone not to fall into lust with Wolf Mackenzie. Or Wolf and what-her-name's sons Joe and Zane. Even after all these years, Wolf still makes me salivate. Then along came Suz Brockmann with her alpha SEALs. And Fiona Brand with her New Zealand hotties. And Linda Howard. Linda Howard. Linda Howard. So sue me, I'm obsessed with Linda Howard's heroes. Just a little. Okay, a lot. For years nobody and I mean nobody, did sexy alpha heroes like LH. And her single title heroes were even more appealing than her category ones…okay…maybe not more appealing, but just as appealing. Take Marc Chastain. No wait! Give him back! I'll take Marc Chastain and Dane Hollister and Alex Trammel. (Who, btw-should have gotten his own story! Just saying.)  For a long time I didn't think anyone could write an alpha hero that matched Linda Howard's. And then I stumbled across the Black Dagger Brotherhood and found a whole slew of hot-blooded, sexed-up, bad-tempered alpha heroes. Yeah, they were vampires- but heck, everyone has a character flaw, right? When it comes right down to it, I can handle a blood obsessed hero as long as he's sexy. And those BDB heroes are the very definition of sexy. Of course my preference as a reader trickles into my writing and apparently I "borrow" my favorite traits from my favorite heroes. Like Wolf Mackenzie's sexed-up hot bloodedness, Joe Mackenzie's outer calm, Dane Hollister and Wrath's bad temper, or Marc Chastain's New Orleans' charm. I've been revising a book I wrote several years ago, and as I read I recognize bits and pieces of my favorite heroes—a pinch of this hero and a dash of that one. Nobody but me would be able to match the borrowed traits to the hero I borrowed them from. But I can tell, because I get an instant flashback to when I first read that hero's book. It's bittersweet in a way, that vivid flash back to books I read years ago, way before I started writing, and the heroes in my past that inspired the ones in my present and future. So how about the rest of you? Who are your favorite literary heroes? Leave a comment for a chance to win an electronic copy of my paranormal romantic suspense, Forged in Fire, which features (you've probably already guessed it!) a whole slew of sexy alpha heroes!
 Trish McCallan has been writing for as long as she can remember.
In grade school she wrote children's stories, illustrating them with crayons and binding the sheets together with pencil-punched holes and red yarn. She used to sell these masterpieces at her lemonade stand for a nickel a book. Surprisingly, people actually bought them. Like, all of them. Every night she would have to write a new batch for her basket.
As she got older her interest changed to boys and horses. The focus of her literary masterpieces followed this shift. Her first full length novel was written in seventh grade and featured a girl, a horse and a boy. At the end of the book the teenage heroine rode off into the sunset . . . with the horse.
These days she sticks to romantic suspense with hot alpha heroes and roller-coaster plots. Since she is a fan of all things bizarre, paranormal elements always seem to find a way into her fiction. Her current release, Forged in Fire, was the result of a Black Dagger Brotherhood reading binge, a cold, a bottle of NyQuil and a vivid dream. 
You can find Trish at www.trishmccallan.com
Forged In Fire can be found at:   Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble  |  Smashwords

How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming

My latest audio book was How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown. This is non-fiction by an astronomer who played an instrumental role in Pluto being demoted from planet-hood.

The book's focus is largely on the discovery of Eris, the "dwarf planet" that's slightly bigger than Pluto, although it also spends time on earlier discoveries that Brown and his team made of other objects orbiting in the Kuiper Belt. The story culminates with how Pluto was voted out at a meeting of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Prague.

As I've mentioned before, I have an interest in astronomy and one of the grade school dreams was to be an astronomer one day. I even took an intro to astronomy class in college. I'll confess that I didn't like Pluto being demoted. Maybe Saturn and Neptune are my favorite planets, but hey, Pluto is pretty cool, right? How could they vote it out after all these years? But as I listened to the arguments against Pluto, well, they made sense. I wish they hadn't, but there you go.

I found the book overall to be interesting. I enjoyed hearing about the discoveries of large objects in the Kuiper Belt and the stories behind them. I liked hearing about the steps the team went through to verify and study these objects before announcing them and the intrigue that surrounded the object nicknamed Santa added drama and a sense of indignation that another astronomer nefariously tried to steal the discovery from this team at Cal Tech.

But as fascinating as I found all the astronomy stuff to be, I can't recommend the book wholeheartedly. Brown wasted a ton of space talking about his first child. Some sections of Lila talk went on so long, my eyes were rolling back into my head. If I wanted to hear baby/children stories, I would have bought a book about that topic. I wanted to hear astronomy. His editor should have done a hard pruning and encouraged him to write more about Eris or anything else associated with astronomy and much less "indulgent parent gushing over child" stuff. A little bit of personal information is fine, it makes the author more human, but the extended stretches of stories about how long Lila slept at night, how many times she ate, etc were not even remotely interesting. The biggest disadvantages to audio books is how hard it is to skip the tedious parts.

So if you're interested in how Pluto was demoted, I'd recommend buying the paper version of this book for easy skipping of all the baby/child talk. Without that, there is a very interesting core that focused on astronomy and provided a compelling argument for tossing our ninth planet out of the classification.

A qualified thumbs up.

The Atlanta Trip

I was down in Atlanta last week to look for somewhere to live. Despite working for an airline, we drove down because Thanksgiving had the flights packed. Over the course of the week, there were lots of events that I thought would make entertaining blog posts. Unfortunately, I forgot most of them by the time I got home.

There are some things, though, that are stuck in my mind:

It gets dark early now. We were in Illinois and there were no lights on the sides of the freeway. It was drizzling. I was going 70, which was the speed limit. I got passed. Constantly. By cars doing 80-85 mph. There was one guy driving so fast, he had to doing 90. In the dark. So FYI, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Michigan drivers go far too fast. I wasn't even a little surprised when we came across an accident in the center median involving 4 vehicles.

And in the dark, somewhere in Illinois, I had to slam on the brakes. I was lucky no one was tailgating me at that time. As I zipped down the freeway, my headlights picked up an animal in the middle of the two lanes. I don't know if it was a dog or a coyote, but I nearly hit it. That was major scary.

My impressions of Atlanta. I liked it. They drive like maniacs there, too. Seriously. I didn't think it was possible to get a more stressful commute than I have in Minneapolis. I was wrong. I might have to check into a van pool to get to and from work. Although if I had a clue where I was going, it might not have been so bad.

The weather was great! Okay, so the people in Atlanta were complaining about how cold it was, but I'd been wearing my winter jacket and hat in Minneapolis. In ATL, I was wearing my spring jacket and I was comfortable. I actually hated the idea of going home because I didn't want to go back to the cold (and it snowed the day after I got home). The weather in MN got even worse since then. On Tuesday, it was 15 degrees in MN at 5am. It was 62 in ATL. I'm thinking Mother Nature is trying to make me eager to move.

The trip home also had a few moments. Like the rest area we stopped at in northern Georgia where I almost got a cat. The two workers who clean up around the place found an abandoned house cat who was as friendly and sweet as could be. First thing in the door, they asked me if I wanted a cat. I thought about it while I washed my hands and thought, well, why not? Then I found out the cat was pregnant and I was like I can't deal with that on top of all else I have.

After dark, again in Illinois, I caught movement in the corner of my headlights. A deer was on the edge of right-hand lane. All I could do was think: Please, don't let her run out in front of me. Luckily, she didn't, but that was enough to encourage me to stop for the night. In the hotel room, the radar showed freezing rain ahead of us so stopping was definitely the right choice.

The next day, in Wisconsin, we stop for gas. My dad notices my tailpipe is broken. We stop at a Ford dealership at the next exit and they took it off. The mechanics were awesome! They didn't even charge us for doing that, but the rest of the trip home was a little on the loud side. ;-)

And of course, we hit Minneapolis in rush hour. But it was good to be home. When I saw the snow coming down on Saturday, I reconsidered that statement.

Right-Sizing a Character's Issues

I was reading a book recently and the author did something that really bothered me. She gave the heroine a huge, enormous issue in her backstory, but then largely neglected it except for lip service now and then. I guess you'd call it a wallpaper character issue.

If, as a writer, you choose to give a character a life-altering event in their past, one that is supposed to have affected them for a long period of time. One you tell me that they still haven't healed from. Then it requires that the issue be dealt with over the course of the book. Don't tell me they feel a certain way and then have the character immediately act as if the issue never happened. Not unless your character is also dealing with denial, but that wasn't the case in this story.

So here's my take on things. First of all, while a writer needs to know a ton of stuff about her characters, the reader doesn't necessarily need the information if it has no bearing on the story. Secondly, if you give your heroine (or hero) a big issue, it has to be dealt with during the story and it can't only be mentioned on rare occasion. Third, the character's change is called a growth arc because it happens slowly. People do not get over traumatic events as easily as flipping a switch.

When I wrote Through a Crimson Veil, Conor had one of these enormous issues. He was conceived when his mother was raped by a demon. Because of this, he hates demons...and he hates the part of himself that's demon. His heroine is also half demon and her presence--and how he reacts to her--cause him to have to confront his issue. Believe me, normal people (and our characters are largely normal even if they're demons or mercenaries or whatever) don't want to deal with their issues. They have to be forced.

So over the book, Conor learns to deal with being demon. But this issue is more than that. He's carried this hate his entire life. It is totally going to affect his interaction with the world. It will impact the way he thinks. It will impact what his choice of action will be. In other words, even when the issue is not directly being raised, it is still coloring every scene in the book. That's what major character issues do.

If, as a writer, you don't want to deal with that kind of thread, then I'd recommend giving the character a smaller issue. Small issues can cause tension and conflict, but are unlikely to color every scene or a character's every action.

An example of a small issue is In the Darkest Night where Farran had a scar. The scar was something that she only had for 5 months before Kel healed it and made it disappear. She didn't think of it all the time or touch her face constantly. But from time to time, she did remember it and it did affect her. The book itself, centered more on Kel's issue which was another enormous one--Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). That did color every scene he was in during the book, but Farran's scar didn't.

For me, it's all about staying true to character and raising a big issue and then only using it when an author feels like (or remembers it) doesn't play. Real people, real life just doesn't work that way.

Super Freakonomics

Super Freakonomics is the follow-up to Freakonomics. I'll confess that I've never read the first book, but I did listen to the second book and loved it!

As a journalism major in college, I was required to take both macro and micro economics. I'd also had economics in high school, but none of the classes I've had was even half as entertaining as this book was. The book's focus is on microeconomics and behavioral economics and looks at things like prostitution, how often doctors wash their hands, car seats, terrorism, and global warming.

Yes, definitely quite a wide variety of topics!

Everything was presented in such an interesting, entertaining manner that even topics I thought wouldn't be particularly riveting, held my attention. One of the co-authors reads the book, and while this is not something I'm normally a fan of, it works here because he's got a great voice and does just read the words. He performs them the way a good voice actor should.

One of the more interesting topics focused on crime and that incident in New York from the 1960s? 1970s? The one where the woman was stabbed to death in front of 15 or so witnesses and no one stepped in to help. Apparently, the account wasn't entirely accurate and there are quotes and stuff from the people who lived there and people who investigated it after the fact.

The best part, though, of the entire book is the epilogue. They talk about a researcher who was working with monkeys and teaching them to use money. I was laughing quietly in my cube as I listened to this section and the ending of the book was great!

Highly recommended.