Cara Brookins's Blog, page 9
August 1, 2014
Brookins do GoPro!
July 25, 2014
Concrete Bonds
July 18, 2014
My Blog Has Moved!
In order to have more control over my blog content, I’ve moved it to my website. If you haven’t been getting my latest updates, please subscribe at the new location!
I look forward to hearing from you!
June 11, 2014
Little Boy Blu – Under Contract!
(Concept Cover)
I signed a new contract this week for my psychological thriller, Little Boy Blu! The Crimson Rose imprint of The Wild Rose Press is adding this novel to their mystery and suspense list. I’m absolutely thrilled to be part of this award winning group!
I’m often asked which of my novels is my favorite. The question always comes as an apology, as though having one is as wicked as selecting a favorite child. Thankfully, books are much simpler than children and we’re definitely allowed to pick favorites–even if they change from year to year. My absolute favorite is whichever novel I’m currently working on. It has to be, otherwise how could a writer continue the work? And then Little Boy Blu holds the next favorite spot on my list because of the questions it demanded I ask not only about the human race as a whole but about myself.
The premise:
In order to secure a reality television show, Layla Stacy intentionally has children with a genetic abnormality that causes blue skin. The children are raised in isolation in the Appalachian Mountains where someone is trying to kill the only white child in the family, eighteen year-old, Blu Stacy.
This novel is edgy and dark, but from the voice of a young man who is searching for truth in his family, the world, and himself. And best of all, the condition that causes blue skin is real, making this fictional novel wildly possible.
Read an excerpt from the novel here, or learn more about the condition that causes blue skin, methemoglobinemia, here.
As soon as the release date is etched in stone, I’ll share more details!
June 5, 2014
Dream Big!
Are you trading the minutes of your life toward the right goals? In order to achieve great things, we must constantly reaffirm our goals and reevaluate the effort we’re making to reach them.
This Saturday I’ll be at the 70th annual Arkansas Writers’ Conference speaking about how to Build Your Dreams! Come by June 7th at 11:00 to hear how I hashed out an effective system for making and meeting big goals.
A number of spectacular authors will be sharing tricks of the trade. Don’t miss this opportunity to hang out with fellow writers, pitch to publishers, and buy or sell books! This is a quality conference at a low cost. I’m happy to answer conference questions by email, tweet, or Facebook.
I’ll see you there!
THE 70th ANNUAL
ARKANSAS WRITERS’ CONFERENCE
June 6 – June 7, 2014
Pulaski Technical College South Campus
Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Institute
2014 AWC HOSTS:
Pulaski Technical College English Department
and
The Arkansas Pioneer Branch
of the National League of American Pen Women
June 3, 2014
A Writer’s Diary
The most wonderful and terrible thing about being a writer is the solitude. Some days it’s that quiet walk through a pine forest that we all imagined, and other days it’s a Martian landscape filled with jagged rocks to pierce the protective suit.
I’ve hidden away to write thousands of manuscript pages. The reward is a number of published short stories and articles, six published novels, and a stack of new manuscripts in various stages. Each project taught me a lot about my own process from concept to completion. Of course every novelist must find a personal path, but there are common struggles and celebrations all writers face along the way.
Writers are the most supportive group of business people I’ve ever met, so I decided to continue this spirit of solidarity by sharing the process of my latest psychological thriller in a public writer’s diary. Each page of this diary is posted to my YouTube channel with the hope it will bring a sense of camaraderie to writers (or readers!) who are curious about one person’s journey through one book.
Check out the first videos, leave some feedback, and stay tuned for more: A Writer’s Diary!
Cara Brookins – A Writer’s Diary, Page 3
Cara Brookins – A Writer’s Diary, Page 2
Cara Brookins – A Writer’s Diary, Page 1
May 28, 2014
Remember Me
People frequently ask me how I keep track of so many things without something falling off the list. I don’t! Usually it’s just a loaf of bread or an email that slips off the list, but every now and then I forget something more important.
With my day job as a sr. computer programmer analyst, my night job as a writer, and the always-on job as a single mother of four, the schedule is complicated. And because my youngest son, Roman, spends every other weekend (usually) and Tuesday nights (usually) with his dad, things get even more complex.
On the days Roman is at his dad’s, he still comes back to my house early in the morning to get ready for school. So last week, I got up on one of his away mornings and went through the usual routine. I unlocked the door, packed his lunch, made his breakfast, and had his clean clothes ready. He was running particularly late—which happens sometimes—so I made a checklist for him of everything he needed to do. He likes that structure even though he knows his routine. On the bottom of the list I drew a smiley face and wrote, “I love you!” Then I drove the 25 miles to my office.
I’d been at my desk for thirty minutes when I got a text from my daughter, who drives Roman to school every morning. (She was still asleep when I left.)
Why didn’t you wake Roman up for school today? We’re so late!
I double checked my calendar, and sure enough, he wasn’t scheduled to be at his dad’s the night before. While I was making his lunch and his to-do list, he was upstairs in bed! I was horrified.
There had been days when I stumbled sleepily in to wake him up and he wasn’t there. Oops. At his dad’s. And there had been days when I had to think a minute. Where is he?
But this hadn’t been one of those days. I had known he was gone (despite the fact that I’d tucked him in the night before and read a story with him.) I had done all the good-mom things in the morning without forgetting a single item on the checklist. Well, I did forget that one little thing …
He and I had a good laugh over it when I picked him up from school that afternoon, and he jokingly reminds me where he is sometimes, but he also admits he wakes up some days and isn’t sure where he is either, which makes me feel a little better.
Life is busy. Our lists are long. Cut yourself some slack even when the really big things slip your mind. And whatever you do, never say, “I would never forget …” because on a busy morning when you’ve been up working on the latest novel until 2:00 a.m., anything can happen.
Now, there was something I was supposed to take care of after writing my blog… what was that…
May 22, 2014
A Positive Spin!
When my kids were little and things were going all wrong, I frequently found my thoughts spinning into what I called a victim loop. I would mentally list the bad things and lament over the fact that I had no control over them. I had no way out. There were no answers—at least none I could reach.
But then these beautiful wide eyes would look up at me, waiting for the spinning to stop so I could tell them the answers, because they believed I could solve anything. I was the keeper of their world.
It became a game. I would say exactly the opposite of what I had been thinking, telling them we were on our way out of the bad times. Things were looking better. I stretched the loop out into a long story line that was more ‘what-if’ than fact. Even before they hit elementary school they knew how to throw me a skeptical scowl, so I developed a more elaborate structure to spin things positive.
I started with small things they could already see, tiny successes in the midst of monumental failures, that one step UP we had during the downhill tumble. And then I built the story toward wildly impossible future events. This cause and effect relationship was astonishingly effective. “Because this small thing happened, now this huge thing will happen.” Not only did they believe me and feel secure, I began to notice that my stories equipped us with the power to reach for that big thing.
More and more often, the big things really happened. And because they didn’t know I was making it up and they didn’t have doubt holding them back, my kids were better at reaching for those big things than I was. So I began throwing away my own doubt. I believed in the impossible with as much conviction as they did.
Today, I honestly believe almost anything is possible. If it’s within the laws of nature—or breaking less than a dozen of them—I’m confident we can make it happen.
Don’t underestimate the power of your own thoughts. And if you’ve fallen into the habit of spinning in a victim loop, turn that spin into a beautiful dance.
Positive things are happening, and there are BIG things on the way.
May 9, 2014
How to be a Superhero
I discovered my mom was a superhero when I was five.
She had been having a bad day, yelling at me for dumping a pail of water on the basement floor even though, obviously, as Cinderella, I needed a foul mess before I could scrub on my hands and knees. She threw away a masterpiece of clay, Kleenex, and glue curing on her antique library table. And she made fish for lunch, even though she knew I didn’t like fish.
After lunch she put Cinderella to work scrubbing the hallway, and I scowled at her like she was my evil stepmother. But when I reached the end of the hall, I peeked through the crack of her bedroom door and caught her stretched out on her bed wearing her superhero mask.
I ran outside and hid behind her fern garden. I imagined how the dark circles under her eyes were won through a long night of fighting crime. I had been taxing her patience with silly games when she probably had another villain to conquer and alien beings to banish from the galaxy after she tucked me in bed.
I’d been a fool to miss the family superhero secret. Mom baked cakes, chopped firewood, grew our food and flowers, and managed charity events. She accomplished the impossible, and people often whispered how amazing she was.
I tiptoed behind her for weeks, trying to uncover the depth of her superpowers. She had eyes in the back of her head—I was sure of that. Now that I thought about it, mind reading was a distinct possibility along with super hearing and strength. But what if she fired laser beams through her fingertips the next time I finger painted on a tax document?
Other than teaching myself to knit, I was talentless and powerless. I worried about my ability to carry on what must surely be the secret family business.
As the years passed, I learned the most important superhero lessons when mom’s cape fell off and her mask was exposed as an icepack with cucumbers slices hidden beneath. It turned out that Mom’s various costumes were merely decorations to build confidence and never concealed her true identity as a hero.
The newest generation of our family superheroes continues to amaze me. I miss my super mom every day, but my super kids remind me that the real hero secret is to join together and rely on one another.
Find your team and spend more time building one another up than battling the evil forces.
Superheroes never work alone.
April 21, 2014
Find Your Power!
The word “power” held a lot of magic for me as a child. It wasn’t something you said about anyone you actually knew. And I don’t remember ever hearing “power” associated with a mortal woman. My dad was strong, and so was my grandpa, put no one ever called them powerful. The word was associated with world leaders, but always with a touch of fear surrounding the idea. So the best sort of power to have, the only kind that looked good to me, anyhow, was the superhero sort.
I spent plenty of time calling to the winds as Isis or spinning and flying as Wonder Woman. By age ten, I started suspecting these heroes might be fake, and I set out looking for the real deal. I read dozens of books about ESP and blew off weeks of school lectures trying to move my pencil with my mind. Traffic lights turned green or red at my bidding, and people would turn and look at me when I stared the idea into their mind. As a tiny, shy girl in Wisconsin, I believed I had achieved true power.
But back in the real world, things were changing beyond my control. My parents divorced and my mom moved me south to a city and state where we didn’t know a soul. And with the cultural differences from Wisconsin to Arkansas, I found I didn’t even speak the language. I’d never felt less powerful in my life.
And that’s when I learned not to say that sort of thing. “I’ve never felt so ____(insert negative here)___ in my life.” Because life, she takes that as a challenge!
Changes and difficulties rolled consistently my way, and it took many years for me to reinvent my understanding of the word, power. I met hundreds of powerful people along the way, all superheroes in their own right. And most importantly, I learned to empower myself.
Now here’s something you can and should say often, “I’ve never felt so ____(insert POSITIVE here)___ in my life!” Because life, she takes that as a challenge too, and she will send an armload of positive things your way.
You can hear more about how I found my power tonight on Empowered Living Radio when I chat with the amazing and empowered Tori Eldridge. And if you’re reading this too late, no worries, it’s safe and sound at the end of this link: Empowered Living Radio
Breathe in a little power this morning with your coffee, and go on, try to move the sugar spoon with your mind, because you never know.
