Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 53

Phone Habits

I kind of have a bad habit. I leave my phone on silent all the time. Which wouldn't be bad except that when I get a phone call, it will roll directly to voicemail without letting me know I received a call.

Let's be honest: I hate getting phone calls, but there are times they're necessary evils.

If the phone rings, I want to answer it so I don't have to be the one making the phone call. It's so much easier for me to do it this way.

The other thing I do which impacts whether or not I get phone calls is Do Not Disturb. I have it set to automatically turn on and turn off at certain times. And because when I was on vacation, people were texting me at early hours of the morning (while I was still sleeping!), I expanded my time frame.

And then I missed phone calls because it would roll right to voicemail while Do Not Disturb was on.

Again, I would much rather answer the phone than make a call, so I adjusted my Do Not Disturb time back to early hours. :-( I guess the answer would be to not keep the phone next to the bed, but I have a meditation app that I use whenever I wake up in the middle of the night and it helps me fall back asleep. I'd hate to lose that.

As I type this, I'm expecting a call back because I rolled to someone else's voicemail. Thankfully, I remembered I had it on silent before the person tried to contact me.

Baby Bird

In June, while I was working hard to get my manuscript ready to send to my editor, there was this scratchy squeaking noise outside my office window. It was relentless, too. It sounded like an injured animal, but multiple checks outside revealed nothing.
It was evening before I spotted the culprit. A mockingbird chick.
This "baby" was as big as its parents and fatter than both of them. In fact, they looked thin, probably from all the running they were doing to feed their chick. All three of them were standing together on the grass in front of my office window, but a parent would fly off, catch food, and come back to give it to the baby who was screeching nonstop.
The picture with this blog post is one I purchased because I couldn't get close enough to take a decent shot. And when I tried to catch one through my office window, the screen made it impossible to see the mockingbird family.
I found where their nest probably was located, too. In one of the crepe myrtle trees in my front yard. It was a surprising choice because it's a small tree and the nest would be low to the ground, but my subdivision was massively expanded in the past year or so, and maybe Mr. and Mrs. Mockingbird couldn't find a better location to build.
Anyway, that screechy squeak went from being annoying to making me run to the window to look for the baby. I'm so sad that they've moved on and baby has not only fledged, but learned to feed itself. Maybe they'll be back next year. I'll be watching.

Time is Running Out!

Time is running out if you want to grab Wicked Intention at 20% off! Special Fan Pricing ends on the 20th.

This is book 2 in the Paladin League series, but it stands alone. The reviews so far have been awesome!

"Wow! I loved this book. This was a solid five star read for me. ...it was pure page turning entertainment." -Amazon Reviewer

"HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMEND TO ALL!" -Amazon Reviewer

"Can I give more than five stars because this book is definitely worth more than five" -Goodreads Reviewer

It's been so exciting to see the great response to Finn and Zo. These two characters are special to me and we've spent so much time together that it's hard to believe their story is written and out in the world.

Today It's OneNote

I've mentioned how I keep trying different things to organize myself while I write. I like to be organized and I don't want things in fifteen different places, especially my notes, but this continues to be a work in progress.
Right now, as I write The Paladin League, I'm using OneNote by Microsoft.
The Paladin League has a lot of shared locations in the three book arc that started with Wicked Intention. Being able to save the pictures of locations and people that will reoccur throughout the series is a definite win.
The other thing I'm liking about OneNote is when I cut and paste information from a website, it automatically puts a link to that location. I've had to go back to a site or two a few times because I didn't have everything I needed.
Of course, this hasn't completely stopped my multiple notes issue. I still have my series notebook because I like thinking by writing on paper. There's something about that action that stimulates ideas. I also have a sketchpad full of notes because I needed the extra visual space to work out the last dozen chapters of Wicked Intention. I also followed almost none of those plans, but that's another story. :-)
And then there's the notes I made on my iPad because I like writing with the Apple Pencil. Plus this story was started in 2011 and I made a lot of notes over the intervening years. I couldn't find most of them, but I know they exist. I also was using Scrivener and my Mac to write during this time, too, so lots of notes in there, too.
I'm working on the next book in the series now, Wicked Salvation, and hopefully all of these notes will remain either in the series notebook or OneNote.

Assumptions

One of the assumptions about writing I've dealt with a lot over the years is that just because I can write books, it means I can write anything. This isn't exactly true.
An example of this is business letters. For a while, I'd be given one of these to write from time to time. When I objected and said I was terrible at business writing, I got the "but you're a writer." Yes, but not of businessy stuff. It's completely different writing than novels.
Those of you who've read my blog for a long time know that I majored in advertising copywriting when I was in college. When I was in school, I was writing copy all the time. Pretty much every day, actually. With this repeated exercise of this type of writing, I became pretty good at it.
Then I graduated and went to work at Northwest Airlines instead of the advertising industry and I stopped writing ad copy.
Fast forward to now. I'm trying to write cover copy for a book. I am struggling because cover copy is advertising writing, not novel writing. Completely different set of writing muscles.
I wish it was easy to switch around with no lag, but unfortunately, that's not the case. So I will write and rewrite this copy and I will inflict it on my friends for feedback and rewrite some more. And pretty much just hope I can end up with something that works.

Wicked Intention is Live!!!

Wicked Intention is now available!!! Finally!
The release date was Sunday, September 6th, which isn't a blogging day. I wasn't sure how many people actually read blogs on Sunday, so I thought I'd wait until today.
This book...wow, what can I say? I started it more than ten years ago and here we are at last.
I'm nervous. The story structure is different and a lot of people don't like different. I'm excited. This story and the characters have been with me for years, and at long last, I can share them. I'm relieved. I finally finished the couple that wouldn't leave my head for over a decade.
Here's the cover copy:

Zofia Parker knows smuggling priceless relics out of a war-torn country is a hazardous job. So it’s not a surprise to find herself on the run with the Disk of the Gods, an ancient artifact on everyone’s wish list. Losing her passport and phone complicates her escape, but she has an ace in the air, winging his way to her rescue. She might just make it out of this mess alive—if she can stay one step ahead of the government brute squads and ruthless criminals chasing her. And if she can find a way to rendezvous with the ex-Special Forces soldier hellbent on saving her.

Finn Rowland doesn’t have time for bogus government charges and a stint in a Puerto Jardinese jail. Not when his woman is on the run. Not when she’s in danger. But escaping is the easy part. Finding Zo and getting her out of the country before one of the factions trailing her closes in for the kill will require him to return to the world of covert ops. He’s walking a tightrope without a net and one misstep will cost him his life. And the life of his woman.

I hope you'll read Wicked Intention and I hope you love Finn and Zo has much as I do!

Series Arc

Three days (that's right, 3!!!!) until Wicked Intention is available!
There is a three book story arc that kicks off with Wicked Intention , but I'm writing the series so that each book will stand alone. The reading experience will merely be enhanced by reading all three in order.
(If you're wondering about Wicked Obsession, it was an introduction to the men and the series, but doesn't play into the story arc that the next three books are involved with.)
The goal across these three books is to bring down an international arms dealer who has gotten his hands on some very high-tech US military rifles. They not only need to get him arrested and put away indefinitely, but the team also needs to recover all the weapons and keep them out of the hands of the bad guys. It won't be easy.
Of course not! There wouldn't be three books if it were. :-)
Finn and Zo, the h/h in Wicked Intention , are two of my favorite characters. I say that about every hero and heroine after I'm finished with them. While I'm writing them, none of them are my favorites. They torture me! But the birthing pains are done and they're my current faves!
But as I said in an earlier blog post, this is also one of the books of my heart and Finn and Zo have been in my head for more than ten years. They'll always remain special.
Release date is Sept 6th!

New Skill

I taught myself a new knitting skill recently! It's called double knitting. It allows me to knit two fabrics at the same time on the same set of needles. The fabrics are connected in a kind of tube and I guess there are all kinds of things you can do with it, but I simply wanted the basics so I could knit a 10"x10" square.
You see, there's this thing called a Geek-A-Long. I spotted it last year, but double knitting totally intimidated me, but I was intrigued. This time when I stumbled across it again, I was like, okay, let's see if I can learn this.
I did!
It's actually surprisingly easy--at least for what I'm doing with it. I know that's just skimming the surface because I've seen a four hour class out there that I'd like to do in order to learn more nuances.
Anyway, the idea of the Geek-A-Long (GAL) is so cool. Different ten inch squares are knitted with patterns on them that represent a different geekdom. This has been going on for years, so I'm going to pick and choose squares I like rather than simply doing one year's squares. at the end of the year, the squares can be stitched together to make a blanket.
The one thing about double knitting, though, that I'm less than enamored with is how slowly the knitting goes. It's knit-purl-knit-purl across the entire square. Over and over. And over. But pattern!

I'm thirteen rows into my first square and have just started the pattern, but I'm excited. There are so many cool squares waiting for me, including Princess Bride and Indiana Jones! So which square did I decide to start with?

The caffeine molecule. Anyone who's been following me for a while will not be surprised by this.

The Paladin League

2 Weeks and 3 Days until Wicked Intention is released!

The name of the series is the Paladin League because of the foundation that grants funds for archaeological digs around the world. You might be wondering what that has to do with Special Forces, right?
My original idea for the series was three books with Finn and Zo, the hero and heroine, working toward their happy ending. Each book would focus on a different artifact and advance the romance and character arc for my characters.
That was the original plan. That changed. Now there are three different couples who will dealing with different relics and all the heroes (not only Finn) are Special Forces. I thought about changing the name of the series, but I bought the domain name years and years ago plus the heroines all have ties to the Paladin League.
Zo works for them as does Griff's heroine. (You'll meet her in the preview I have at the end of Wicked Intention.) And while the heroine in the third book doesn't work for them, her father did. (I think. She's not talking yet because I'm working on Griff's story.) So I decided to keep The Paladin League as the name of the series.
Besides Paladin fits the guys, too. A heroic champion. Yep, that's my guys!
Available Sept 6th!

See What Sticks

The best piece of advice I ever received about writing was that the process will change and to go with the flow rather than fighting to do it the way I'd always done it.

My process changes continually. Sometimes organically, sometimes because I keep throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.

I tried Post-it notes with plot points (on already) written scenes. These were color coded for different story lines and for my hero and heroine. This did not stick. In fact, once I put them up, I never even glanced at them. I thought it was a good idea, even blogged about it, but it didn't fit how I work.

One tried and true trick was to keep track of story time by printing out calendar sheets and marking which chapter/scene happens on which day. This was 100% perfect for me. On Wicked Intention, I tried to do it with a PDF on my iPad. This did not work and I lost track of the timeline on one of the plot lines. It took a read through with a paper calendar to get it straightened out and there were adjustments I had to make because of it. Lesson learned: Stick to paper no matter how much I want to go digital.

In the past, a process that worked for me was to sit down at the end of each chapter or scene and figure out what needed to happen next. This was how I plotted, although I prefer not to use that word. That was how I wrote my Light Warriors series for Tor. Now, it doesn't work for me. This is an organic process change, and while I'd like to be able to do it that way again, it's a waste of time.

I've tried different software, most of which has fallen away from me. I've downloaded a new one that I'll be trying for Wicked Salvation, Griff's story. We'll see how that goes.


When I wrote my demon and vampire books, I had to work at night. The characters weren't talking to me during the day. That was rough! But for Wicked Intention, the characters only talked to me during the day. Come evening, they checked out.

As writers, we need to go with whatever works to get the book written. If that means trying new things and discarding the old, that's what we need to do. If it means not fighting to do things as we've done it in the past, then we need to just do what's working for that book.