Kathleen Mix's Blog, page 6

Hoarding Books

My office on the second floor of my house is also the home of my book collection. In addition to dictionaries and several dozen non-fiction books pertaining to the craft of writing, I have a fiction collection that may rival the number of volumes found in a small town library.

I love being surrounded by books, but the number I’ve accumulated over the years is beginning to present a problem. First, the weight of so many volumes raises questions about the breaking strength of the floor joists. And second, I’m running out of shelf space.

I’ve tried sorting and culling, hoping to keep only the best of the best. But as I sort, I invariably read the back cover blurbs, remember why I kept the book after my first read, and ninety percent of the time, I decide one more read is in order. A good book is better on subsequent reads. During my first read, I can enjoy the plot and characterization. During the next read, I analyze structure and craft. A third read may still be revealing nuances of theme or symbolism or imagery. So, if I enjoy a book the first time around, I save it to enjoy again.

I know many authors and avid readers with a similar problem. We all seem to understand the basic rule for those who hopelessly hoard good books: under no circumstances sell your house, because the day you’re forced to pack your collection in cartons and pay a mover by the pound to ship them to a new home will most certainly be a disaster.

Set in St. Thomas

St. Thomas, Virgin Islands is one of my favorite places and the setting for my latest novel. Who can resist writing about:

Roosters crowing at dawn.

A cloud weeping on a hilltop while a rainbow tries to coax it into a smile.

Jewelers hacking discount, duty-free diamonds.

Sea turtles rising to the harbor surface for a gulp of air.

A pirate ship replica taking tourists for a sail.

A toothless man snoring on a park bench.

Frigates birds soaring.

Flags snapping in the wind.

Smiling black faces offering T-shirts, today only, three for ten dollars.

Seaplanes landing with a roar and taking off trailing spray.

A fuzzy lump on the horizon that must be St. Croix.

Sailboats in the harbor snug on their anchors.

Big-eyed angelfish studying alien divers.

Whitecaps on aquamarine waves.

Juicy mangos on street vendors’ carts.

The twinkling lights of a cruise ship disappearing over the horizon.

I write romantic suspense, so many of the images in my story are less than cheery. Suspense is better server by burning feet on baking hot sand, parched shrubs, sharp-toothed barracudas, thorny cacti, and ferocious storms that cause dangerous waves and crashing surf. But St. Thomas has all of the above, and the island provides an appropriate image for any tone or mood.

Back to the Drawing Board

Writing can be a pleasant experience when words flow from your fingertips to your computer screen and pages add up quickly. Or it can be a frustrating task where you’ve hit a brick wall and your story is inert and unconscious.

A few months ago, one of my manuscripts hit a brick wall. The story was finished, or so I thought. But I still felt something was off. Missing. Just not right.

I filed it away on my computer, let it cool, and went to work on something else. And one day, while I was working on another plot, the truth came to me. That story is far from right because my heroine appears to be stumbling along without an important goal. Even worse, she has a weak character arc.

For non-writers, let me explain. A character should have a weakness or inner demon holding her back at the beginning of a story and learn to overcome it as she progresses toward the end. When she’s conquered her inner demon, she can succeed in her exterior goal. Writers call the growth process or learning experience of the hero or heroine their character arc.

My heroine had an arc, but it was anemic because I’d focused too much on the exterior plot and neglected to develop and show her interior growth.

My manuscript needs a rewrite. I know her arc, but I must create scenes that show her recognizing and overcoming her flaw and let my reader see it too.

So, I’m headed back to the drawing board to pinpoint the components I need and then fit them into my story. Some scenes will be cut, others will be strengthened or added. But even before I have a plan in place, I’m anxious to get started.

By identifying the flaw in my manuscript, I’ve scaled the brick wall that has blocked my path. Ideas and words are flowing freely, and I can picture those new words and pages pouring from my fingertips.

Where’s the Villain?

I recently finished reading a novel by a New York Times bestselling author who has always been one of my favorites. The story was disappointing, and I pondered my reaction until I figured out why. My conclusion: she’d failed to include a strong central villain.

Several aspects of the story were well done. A variety of people and forces caused conflict for the book’s heroine. Frigid weather and deep snow, bad decisions by her companions, and mysterious circumstances helped build some suspense. The author introduced an antihero the reader could dislike and suspect, and she gave us a crooked police officer to root against. But the opposing forces were lacking, and when the identity of the prime antagonist was finally revealed, I found him more worthy of my pity than scorn.

The villains in the author’s previous novels have all been wonderfully hateful, diabolical, and formidable. The heroines had to combat the evil-doers with equal strength, stretch physically and mentally, and prove they were worthy of winning. They appeared more heroic because the antagonistic force was extremely difficult to defeat. As I rapidly flipped pages, I worried about the outcome. This story failed to provide that level of opponent. When the heroine triumphed, the task fell short of a glowing victory.

Reading is a writer’s best teacher. Discovering this flaw in a bestselling author’s work taught me a valuable lesson.

I went to my computer, took a hard look at my work-in-progress, and came away with a fresh perspective.

Maybe my villain can be stronger and more diabolical. And maybe, if he is, my hero will be more challenged.

What’s in a Name

Naming the characters in my novels is always a daunting task. I’m often unable to start writing a story until I know the identities of my major characters. Once I’ve found the perfect names, my characters come alive.

To non-writers, names might seem simple. They may suggest, “Call them John and Mary, and get on with the plot.”

John and Mary are wholesome, American names, but they don’t fit every character. Whether we’re aware of our reactions or not, we tend to judge people by their names. And a fitting name can help readers picture the person we create.

I make associations with names. If I hear the names Rock, Stone, Clint, or Curt, I’m likely to picture a strong, forceful man. Darrell and Willard are country boys. Remington and Walker are sophisticated.

A heroine with soft vowel sounds in her name is the kind of woman a man wants to bring home to his mother. Dawn, Dora, Melanie, and Maura are wholesome, girls-next-door. Sara Lynn is sweet and grew up in the South.

Peg and Carla have hard consonant sounds than make me believe they are tougher and more worldly. Barbi and Bambi are party animals. Sapphire is a swinger.

Gertrude, Viola, Milton, and Irving are all over eighty years old. Tuuli, Tayleigh, Boshawn, and Jac-Eddie are probably all under thirty.

Men with three names, like Lee Harvey Oswald or John Wilkes Booth, are likely to be villains.

Mitt and Barrack are both names that denote power. But could the tiny babies given those names have developed into another type of adult or do our names influence our development? Singer Johnny Cash sang about how a father insured his son would grow up tough by naming the boy Sue. Maybe if parents call a girl Bubbles, she grows up in an atmosphere where the world is fun and not to be taken seriously.

The sub-conscious associations we attach to names mean the characters in my books need a name that reflects the personality I plan to give them. A Jimmy-John going by the name Reese will be conflicted and confused. A Uri going by the name Jose won’t be able to love vodka.

Whether a girl is Elizabeth, Betsy, Liz, or Her Majesty, the Queen of England, matters. And I can’t write her story until I known what to call her.

Speaking to Strangers

When I was growing up, my mother frequently warned me not to talk to strangers. I was a shy child, and happily took her instructions to heart. Whenever a stranger was near, I faded into the background, hoping not to be seen or heard.

Over the years, I slowly outgrew my shyness. And since I started writing, I’ve grossly ignored my mother’s advice. First through non-fiction articles, and later through my fiction, I’ve indirectly spoken to untold numbers of readers, telling them my stories, giving them a peek at who I am inside. My six published books alone total more than half a million words, an impressive total for someone who used to stumble for something to say and beat a hasty retreat after the first hello.

In the course of promoting my books, I’ve given workshops and speeches to hundreds of writers, librarians, and civic groups. Before I walked into those speaking venues, the people in the audience were strangers. After I spoke, the ice was broken and the informal words could flow.

Social media has made talking to strangers an everyday occurrence. When someone follows me on Twitter (@kathleenmix), following them back can be the beginning of a extended conversation. Facebook and this blog have allowed me to share thoughts and impressions with strangers who slowly have become friends.

Over the years, I’ve discovered I enjoy talking to strangers. My Mom’s advice was appropriate when I was six, but today I enthusiastically speak to everyone I meet and love communicating through the written word. Whenever I get the chance, I speak with old friends, new friends, and soon-to-be-friends who, only for the moment, are strangers.

My message for today? Hello, Stranger! Lets talk and be friends.

Free Story Ideas

Readers and aspiring writers often ask me where I get my story ideas and if, after six published books, I worry about running out of stories to tell.

I don’t worry, because I’m rarely without a long list of stories to write. In fact, the more I write, the more frequently stories ideas appear. Every time I read a newspaper or book, watch television, or meet someone new, I find fresh inspiration.

Newspapers are a treasure trove of story ideas. The events reported in the articles are merely the visible tip of an iceberg, a hint at what came before, and will come after, in someone’s life. They can be the beginning or end of a book or a motivation for a character. A small piece about a woman’s drowning sparked most of my protagonist’s backstory in River of Fear.

Even newspaper ads or product reviews can provide interesting story props or tidbits. A piece about cremains (the ashes left after a person’s cremation) being subjected to extreme pressure and transformed into artificial diamonds gave me the idea for an important symbol in a futuristic manuscript.

Sometimes when I read a book, my imagination sees a different take on the story. What if a character did something other than the action they took in the book? What if events happened in a different order and completely changed the plot? What if there was a storm and the covert operative’s boat sunk? (A plot question I used in Secret Stranger) What if the plane crashed –or was assumed to have crashed? (A plot question I used in Deadly Paradise) What if a character’s spouse died? (A plot question I used in River of Fear) What if her business was on the brink of bankruptcy? (A plot question I used in Beyond Paradise)

Television programs try to hook viewers quickly by presenting an intriguing situation in the first five minutes. If I turn off the show at that point, I can imagine the rest of the story. My version rarely resembles the one told by the television scriptwriter, because every writer has a unique view of life.

I doubt I’ll ever run out of book ideas. Most of my ideas come from the people I’ve met, the places I’ve been, and the things I’ve done. Travel, whether near or far, always excites my muse. But simply eating out, watching a dance recital or soccer game, or attending a county fair can send my mind into overdrive.

A writer who chooses to take varied routes to work, or shop in a new section of town, or meet new people in places they don’t normally go, will never run out of ideas. Every new experience has the potential to spark a character, or setting, or plot.

As long as I keep my life from stagnating, I’ll have an ample supply of ideas. And I have no plans to stagnate anytime soon.

Stormy Seas

Last weekend, a couple walking the docks near my sailboat stopped to chat.

The man asked, “Have you ever been out in the open ocean?”

I answered, “Yes. We’ve sailed as far south as Venezuela and spent a lot of time in the Caribbean.”

“Bet you’ve had a bunch of adventures. Any bad experiences?”

I laughed. “Several, and a few hairy escapes.”

The woman joined in. “It must be exciting though. And after the danger is over you probably look back and think the whole thing was kind of cool.”

I hesitated, then said, “I guess cool depends on the circumstances.”

They wished me well and continued on their stroll, but as I finished my painting, I pondered the woman’s remark. Had she ever truly experienced danger?

Looking back at the perceived danger of scuba diving at night in an area where sharks are known to prowl, I might think the resulting adrenaline rush was cool. But the real fear and real danger of finding yourself eye-to-eye with a shark can’t be as blithely described.

In boating, in life, and in writing fiction, a lot depends on the circumstances. An approaching hurricane is less scary when your boat is tied to a dock in a secure harbor rather than anchored alone in an open roadstead miles from the nearest town. A small boat coming alongside causes less anxiety when the occupant is selling T-shirts and souvenirs than when the crew is wearing camouflage uniforms and carrying assault rifles. When I’m writing, the level of suspense in my story depends on choosing the right (or most difficult) circumstances and putting characters in dangerous situations.

I don’t look back and think the scary incidents I’ve experienced onboard our boat are ‘kind of cool’. I’ve been terrified. I’ve felt stomach-churning fear. I’ve prayed the boat wouldn’t sink during a raging storm, worried we’d be boarded by pirates, searched the horizon on a black, moonless night anxious to spot the beam of a lighthouse and know we were clear of a treacherous reef. I was robbed on the street in Venezuela, and frankly, the encounter wasn’t cool. I wouldn’t want to go through it again.

But as a writer, I want to inflict the types of experiences I’ve had on my characters and put them in the worst possible circumstances. Romantic suspense is all about characters in conflict, characters having bad experiences, characters forced to grow while in the clutches of danger. Over the years I’ve learned that, faced with a perilous situation, I can do more than I believed, overcome insurmountable obstacles, and meet and succeed at formidable challenges. My characters have to be placed in situations where they can learn that lesson, too.

The more difficult I make their experiences, the better the story I’ll tell, and the better chance my characters have of undergoing worthwhile growth. They won’t look back and think: boy was that cool! But through overcoming the obstacles I place in their paths, they’ll come to realize they can face challenges and succeed. They’ll discover new facets of their personality and see things clearly that had previously been blurred.

The experiences we learn the most from in life are often the ones we would rather forget. But think back to a time of genuine danger in your own life. Would you describe that close call with death or heart-pounding moment as ‘cool’?

Surprise Scenes

Every writer’s process falls somewhere along a continuum, with plotters (those of us who prepare a detailed outline before starting to write) at one end, and pansers (those who plow directly into the story and plot by the seat of their pants) at the opposite end.

I like to know who my characters are and how they will change and grow in the course of the story before I sit down and write page one. I plan my turning points, conflicts, black moments, and ending. In my outline, I include notes on each scene’s timeframe and setting, select a character for point of view, state the character’s scene goal, jot down conflicts, and determine why and how the character will be frustrated in his or her scene task. I select character names that are dissimilar to avoid confusion. I create timelines, and I’ve even drawn maps and floor plans. My complete outline may run thirty-five to forty pages, and I sometimes think of it as a narrative first draft.

Pansers shudder when they hear this description. They claim they would lose interest once they knew the ending or had told the story. They claim they need freedom to follow any road their characters decide to take.

If my outline was cast in stone, that might be a valid argument. But as I write, I embellish and often encounter surprise scenes. Here’s an example from my work-in-progress.

Romantic suspense manuscripts need a lot of conflict. In scene four, I added a micro-conflict concerning the fit – or in this case, lack of fit – of my heroine’s borrowed clothing. It wasn’t in my outline, but a quick, one-sentence mention was appropriate. In scene five, I revisited the conflict, giving it a full paragraph because it added to my character’s tension. Scene six expanded the conflict to an inter-relational level in the course of four paragraphs. When the time came to write scene seven, I knew I had to detour from my outline and take the conflict I’d built to its rational next step before moving on. So, I added a new scene in which my heroine sneaks into a boutique and buys some better-fitting clothes.

My new scene was written seat-of-my-pants. I had fun adding depth to my characters and making them sweat. Because I knew my story parameters, I could drop in a couple plants that will pop up later.

Adding this scene was far from an isolated event. Most of my books include a few surprise scenes. They’re often some of my favorites, because they’re the unexpected ingredient that becomes a perfect complement to my unfolding plot. They allow my imagination to run wild without falling off a cliff or getting boxed into a dead end. They allow me to show new facets of my characters’ personalities while reinforcing their established values and beliefs.

Remember, the writing process is a continuum. Plotters sometimes take detours and slip toward the methods of pansers, pansers sometimes get a clear vision of where they’re going and dabble in the world of plotters.

Every writer needs to do what works for them. For me, outlining is the key that unlocks my creativity. Knowing my destination keeps me on the right road while allowing me to take scenic detours that sprinkle extra joy on the journey.

Hackers – Good and Bad

My latest book

When people hear the plot of my latest book involves cyber crime and the infiltration of a top-secret Department of Defense software system, they often ask how I researched the subject.

Some of my knowledge comes from personal experience, since I have a BS degree in Computer Engineering and worked for the Navy as a software developer for several years. But basically, I’ve always been fascinated by hackers and somewhat in awe of their skills. So when I needed a crime with high stakes and a formidable villain, I went to the library for books about true-life hackers and let my imagination run wild.

Breaking into a supposedly-secure computer system is a difficult avocation and hackers are usually extremely intelligent. I wonder why these people – usually young men – do it?

Obviously profit motivates the villain in my story. After he’s successfully accessed a vital defense software system, the next step is extortion with sale of the information to our country’s enemies as the threatened result of failure to pay.

A small percentage of hackers do have malicious intent. Developing a computer worm that wipes hard drives and causes havoc satisfies some need for attention or revenge.

But what about the harmless majority, young men sitting in their bedrooms in the wee hours of the night squinting at screen after screen of information searching for a tiny glitch in a supposedly secure system? Most are not motivated by money. Maybe they like the challenge of proving nothing on the Internet is secure. Maybe a company or government institution has claimed to have iron-clad security and the hacker wants to test his or her abilities.

Whether they do it for fun or profit, they devote a lot of time to probing sites and searching for vulnerabilities. They enjoy cracking a code, breaking through a firewall, or peeking at information not meant for their eyes. Sometimes they act as a Good Samaritan and report the breach to the system’s administration as a warning that the system is flawed. But they might just leave a message in the code to show that they’ve been inside, then back out and claim bragging rights for their conquest.

As we spend more and more time online, our emails and personal information are increasingly vulnerable to hackers. They are silently roaming the Internet, creeping through government computers, and pulling tiny pranks on the unsuspecting public.

When I recently discovered that the back cover blurb on my book was misprinted, I had to wonder. A simple error by the printer, or a practical joke by a hacker who had seen the subject of the story and thought changing the blurb would be good for a laugh?