Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 27

Story Inspiration: The Present

So I have a hero. I have a heroine. I have their backstory. What about the current day story?

I actually had part of that before I started thinking about Deck and his book. I was researching artifacts, trying to find something for Wicked Deception, and I stumbled across a missing treasure with an awesome history attached to it.

I planned to use one of the pieces from the treasure in Kyle's book, but as I was writing, it never fit. I ended up going with a brooch instead, but the Reverend Mother only knew that it was old and that Kyle found it. She didn't have the history. It comes into play in Deck's book. This brooch? It's from the lost treasure and now everyone knows it has surfaced.

Archer at the Paladin League has sent down a team to find and recover the Lost Treasure of Trujillo. Frankie, the heroine, is on this team. The fact that people have been hunting for the treasure for centuries created a bunch more of the plot.

Frankie being an archivist/researcher/historian contributed to the plot, too. Her job brought Deck into the equation and there was a story! I love it when a plan comes together.

Story Inspiration: The Past

Now that I had my hero and heroine, I started trying to parse out the rest of the information I needed. It didn't take long before I realized Deck and Frankie had a past.

This was something that came to me without my realizing it. Same thing with the fact that he ghosted her. One day, I just knew.

But what were the circumstances? Deck didn't seem like the kind of guy who'd disappear on the woman he was in love with and it was clear from the start he carried a torch for a woman from his past. Frankie.

I had to sit with this for a while. Longer than I expected.

Some of it came quickly. They'd known each other in college. They'd been best friends from the instant they met at freshman orientation.

This raised more questions. How'd they go from friends to lovers? And why did Deck cut out on her and not reply to her messages/emails/phone calls?

This was the question that kept tripping me up until Deck opened up enough to share that who is now--Mr. Responsible, officer in charge of a covert Special Forces team, rarely put a foot wrong--isn't who he was in college. In fact, he insists he was self-centered, irresponsible, and immature. Frankie tells me this isn't the truth because she wouldn't have been friends with someone like that. Deck insists this was exactly what he was like. I suspect they're both right.

Deck was simply different with Frankie from Day One.

Story Inspiration: Frankie Lewis

Last week, I mentioned that Deck wasn't supposed to be more than a secondary character, but he wanted his own story.

Francesca "Frankie" Lewis arrived with her name first. I think it's because I knew Deck was going to need a heroine and things were turning without me being consciously aware of it. Basically, one day, I thought, I wonder who Deck's heroine is? And I hear Frankie.

I knew immediately that she was redheaded/auburn-haired and that she worked for The Paladin League, but wasn't an archaeologist.

That stumped me for a while.

At first, I thought maybe she was some kind of art expert, but that never felt right. I found out why when the series expanded from three books to four and the new addition was the art expert. Cool, but that still left me wondering what Frankie did for the Paladin League.

My dilemma lasted until I was talking with a couple of friends--one whom happens to be a librarian--and she suggested archivist.

Bells rang. Well, figuratively at least. That's exactly what Frankie did. She was an archivist/researcher with a second masters degree in history. Just the person Archer would assign to Puerto Jardin to comb through private papers and ancient books to look for clues.

Now I needed a story.

Story Inspiration: Decker Nguyen

I was searching for a blog topic. I don't really like to talk about the stories I'm writing for a number of reasons, including inadvertent spoilers. After a long while rejecting topics and hoping for an epiphany, I asked my friends. Most of the ideas didn't work for me--for an example, I do not have a music playlist while I write--but I thought I could talk about one of the thoughts.

Inspiration for my latest characters and/or plot.

First, I will say that Deck was not meant to be anything except a secondary character. The Paladin League was going to be four stories and that was it. However, the team couldn't get the head of the arms dealing empire in four books and then there was Deck who became more and more intriguing with every appearance he made.

As I was writing Wicked Obsession, which is connected to my friend Trish McCallan's Future Under Fire, she asked for the name of Ryder's commanding officer. Um, yeah, I'd given that zero thought. So I hurried up and threw out a last name. Captain Nguyen.

I'm not sure if Deck had a first name in Finn's book although his role increased and he made multiple appearances in Wicked Intention. His screen time increased more dramatically by the time I was working on Griff's book and he had a major role in Wicked Salvation. Now I was getting information on Deck and becoming more intrigued. It wasn't until after I'd finished Salvation and was doing research for Wicked Deception that I realized the series wasn't done yet.

Before I finished Deception, I knew he'd ghosted the woman he'd been in love with. That he hadn't realized how he felt about her until it was too late to go back and grovel. It wasn't until I was ready to start writing his book that Deck shared some of his background.

Wicked Persuasion is available for preorder at Amazon.

Upping the Medal Count

Combining two virtual races on one post because they were very fast and how many posts like this can I make in a short period of time?

First up is the English Channel challenge. This was very short--only 21 miles or 33 kilometers. I believe it took me about a week to breeze through this one. I mostly did it because it was quick and after doing the seven month trek through northern Scotland, I still wanted short and sweet.

While this fit the bill on the length and time needed to complete, it didn't come with any street views and that is my favorite part of these online races.

After finishing the Channel, I debated with myself whether to do a medium length race or another short one. I chose another short one. The Inca Trail was 26 miles or 42 kilometers and another quick one.

However, despite the short time period, this was an awesome race. The street views were incredible and now I want to go online and find more pictures taken along this trail. Some of the shots I saw on the race were perfect for Puerto Jardin inspiration! In fact, I was doing screen captures of the street views on my phone, but the images are so tiny. Bigger pictures online will be better.

Next up? The Florida Keys. The challenge goes from Miami to Key West. This one is much longer than the three I just finished. According to the website (where I got all the distances from), this course is 125 miles or 201 kilometers. It's going to be a little while before I post a picture of this medal.

What to Expect

As I was trying to figure out what to blog about, I received an email from a marketing firm. It was promoting a course they teach, but also offered a little bit of knowledge. One of the questions it said authors should think about is: What do you write?

Usually when I get these kinds of emails, I'm at sea trying to figure out answers, but this I know.

I love movies that have action and romance, but the action is a little bit over the top. Think movies like Speed or The Terminator.

My plan with my books is suspense that is a little bit larger than life. Like Misson: Impossible. I think of my stories as Adventure Romance. My tag line on my website is: Where Love Finds Adventure.

I spend months and months writing and I don't want to immerse myself in gritty realism day after day. I want Jack and Annie trying to save a bus full of passengers from a bomb. I want Sarah and Kyle trying to defeat a cyborg who's come to stop her from giving birth to the child that will lead the resistance.

That's my aim for the action/adventure/suspense part of my stories. When it comes to the romance, I like heroes and heroines who work together, even if they're reluctant partners.

A good example is Griff and Cat from Wicked Salvation. She wants nothing to do with a man she believes is a mercenary, but she needs his help--whether she likes it or not. As for Griff, he has a weakness for damsels in distress and feels compelled to help no matter how much trouble it causes for him.

My characters are not gushy, say a lot of sweet nothings kind of people. In Wicked Intention, Finn and Zo have lived together for two years and a big issue is that neither of them is sure of the other because neither of them have said I love you.

Trying to change my heroes and heroines to be different than who they are never works. If I try to force them to do something, they go on strike. I literally can't write forward until I delete what they refuse to do and rewrite it. I've stopped fighting it. Now I just figure out what they don't like and rewrite immediately.

3K

Recently, I did a 3K challenge.

This is a different company than the one I usually get my virtual medals from. They specialize in long races that takes days (or months) of work to complete.

The virtual challenges from this company are largely expected to be completed in one session. I don't care for that real well because I'm interested in medals for races that are marathon length. My limit is 5K and even then I'm hesitant to sign up for those. Not because I can't do them in one session, just that it's hard to take a full hour to complete them.

This is also the company I tried before and their app wouldn't read my tracker. I have a new tracker now, so I thought things would be different. They weren't and it's still frustrating.

However, I learned that I love 3K challenges. LOVE THEM! I was able to complete the 3K during my lunch break while I was working from home and it felt so good to accomplish it.

I enjoyed it so much that even though I have other races in queue, I had to buy more. The sense of accomplishment was incredible! And like I said, I was able to complete it in under half an hour. I walk these races/challenges, so my times are longer than someone who runs them or bikes/swims/etc.

I contacted the support desk at the company. We'll see if they can find a fix for their app not picking up my data, but I'm enamored enough with the 3K distance that it won't deter me.

Just No

One of the nice features of Amazon Prime is having access to free streaming music. It used to be an awesome perk, but has become less and less so as time has passed.

It started out with some songs not being available unless one subscribed to Amazon Music Unlimited.

Fair enough.

Then came the full screen free trial offer on the app. Every time I opened the app. Occasionally would have been okay, but every time? Hugely annoying.

Still, I didn't use the app that often. I mostly play it when I'm in the gym working out. For the commute home, I have podcasts that I listen to. There are rare occasions when I listen at home, but they're very rare. That means subscribing to any streaming music service is not cost effective for me.

Lately, though, in it's quest to drive people to their paid service, the app has a new trick. Instead of playing the song I selected in one of my playlists or on search, it will play something else instead. Only Unlimited subscribers get to choose what song they listen to.

This is extremely irritating to me.

If I want to listen to one song and one song only, I shouldn't have to listen to something I'm not interested in. What good is this as a Prime perk if it stops being a perk and starts being an annoyance?

I have several work arounds. The first? I own a lot of music. I stream it on the Amazon Music app because it's easier, but I have access to my music collection through my cloud storage. I usually already have the music available that I want to listen to, it just takes a few more clicks.

My second work around? I buy the song. Once you purchase it, you can listen to it whenever you want on the app.

Sure, I'll end up with music I might not listen to five years from now, but hey, I grew up in the era when you were forced to buy an entire CD to get one song. I'm used to this.

Happy Valentine's Day!

In Search Of: The Sequel

And so a new quest began.

I bought a small tote bag. Very small. I knew it probably wasn't going to work as an every day tote and it didn't have the features I wanted, but I thought it might work.

The biggest problem? It only had one pocket. I have a key leash in my big tote bag, the one I've been trying to replace forever, and I thought if I bought a key leash I could attach to the handle, it would work.

Did you think I could find a key leash? Like anywhere?

I tried different search terms because maybe key leashes aren't called key leashes any longer. No luck. I got the same kind of results. Lanyards. Wristlets. Retractable. Carabiners.

After a ridiculous of amount of time, I found one on Etsy. It was exactly what I was looking for and couldn't find. It even matches my little tote bag perfectly.