Christine Rains's Blog, page 128

Happy St. Patrick's Day

May you always have
Walls for the winds,
A roof for the rain,
Tea beside the fire,
Laughter to cheer you,
Those you love near you,
And all your heart might desire!
My son and I made green Rice Krispie treats yesterday.He also colored a few holiday themed pictures,but he was more interested in the alphabet stickers he got from his Great-Nana in the mail!
Wish me luck with my writers' group today.Are you wearing green? I'll be wearing my green 1 UP mushroom t-shirt.

The Lucky 7 MeMe and the Sunshine Award

I received this cool meme from Tara Tyler and Tania Walsh.Thank you! This is really neat.
Here are the rules:1. Go to page 77 of your current MS.
2. Go to line 7.
3. Copy down the next 7 lines - sentences or paragraphs - and post them as they're written. No cheating.
4. Tag 7 authors.
Here are my seven lines from Witch's First Rule:"She didn't say why she wanted it, but I'm going to assume it's because she doesn't want me making the potion." Magena hurried through the kitchen and down the hall to go up the stairs to the second floor. The vacuum was sitting by the linen closet still plugged into the wall. She smacked the handle as she stormed by and knocked it on its back. "My home has been violated. It'll never feel right again."
Nathan kept pace with her. "I'm going to have to call Mr. Knox and tell him what happened. I'm sure he can help you cleanse the house if you feel something wrong with it. There's no use--"
(I didn't cheat, but likely the scene will be cut from the manuscript!)
Here are the next lucky seven writers:1. WritingNut2. M Pepper Langlinais3. Cherie Reich4. Aubrie Dionne5. Lorelei6. Sarah Ahiers7. Julie Dao

I also received this wonderful award from Kathleen at Writing, Reading and Life.Thank you for a bit of sunshine on a rainy day.
Here are the rules:1. Thanks the person who gave it to you.2. Write a blog post with the answers to the questions.3. Nominate 10 other bloggers for the award.
Favorite color: blueFavorite animal: wolfFavorite number: 5Favorite non-alcoholic drink: pink lemonadeFacebook or Twitter: Facebook.My passions: My son, husband, reading, and, of course, writing. There's also chocolate. Most particularly chocolate chip cookies and chocolate cheesecake. Mmmm.Getting or giving presents: giving. I love the reactions and they stay with me longer than any material thing a person can give me.Favorite pattern: whorlsFavorite day of the week: SaturdayFavorite flower: wildflowers. I love seeing a field full of various wildflowers. I'm not a fan of flowers in the house.
I'm giving some sunshine to everyone who wants it. Have a great weekend!

Winners of the Cherie Reich Blog Tour Giveaway

Thank you to everyone who stopped by and commented on Cherie's guest post.I hope you all managed to get a copy of Defying Gravity.It's a fantastic sci-fi fantasy romance!
Here are the two lucky winners of Cherie's giveaway.Each of them wins an e-copy of Once Upon a December Nightmareand The Best of Raven and the Writing Desk.
Donna K. Weaver
Melissa Bradley
Congratulations to the winners!Cherie will be in contact with you shortly.

Wicked Wednesday - the fast-paced novel

What is the key to making your readers not want to put down your book? Pacing. Sometimes it's hard to pinpoint what it is about a book that makes you dislike it. The characters might be intriguing and the plot might be fantastic, but most of the time, the culprit is pacing. It comes naturally to some writers, but for most of us, we have to work at it and keep revising until we get it right.

Many paranormal romances are fast-paced novels. They keep hitting you with one thing after another, keeping the reader on a supernatural thrill ride. A fast pace heightens suspense, mystery, and romantic tension. Your story must pose questions. Some are answered lightning fast and bring up new questions while others are answered more slowly to draw out the intrigue. You must always have the reader wondering and wanting more.

As I've mentioned before on Wicked Wednesday, emotion is key to a good paranormal romance. Not only do you need plot questions to propel it forward, you need character questions. You need characters your readers can relate to, but also ones that are different enough to make your readers think. Plot drives the external pace while characters push the internal pace. The trick is to combine the two in a leapfrogging pattern: plot question leads to character question, plot answer leads to character answer bringing up more questions.

Here are a few tips to pick up the pace of your novel:
- Use shorter sentences and paragraphs.
- Incorporate more action.
- Create more conflict.
- Give your characters various goals and motivations.
- Cut back on internal dialogue and backstory.
- Eliminate scenes that don't advance the plot.

Yet always remember a good novel needs fast and slow scenes. Ups and downs. Too much action can diminish a reader's emotional experience. You don't want to exhaust your reader by going too fast. Pacing may seem like a simple thing, but if you can master it, it's a powerful tool.

There's only one more day to enter to win Cherie Reich's giveaway. Just leave a comment on Thursday's guest post. Cherie talks about running a book blog tour and offers some great advice.

Teaser Tuesday with Explosive Eighteen

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current read Open to a random page Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that pageBE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!) Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!The Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich are fun and easy reads. A lot of them blend together for me. They make me laugh, though. I like the overall story arc, but Stephanie really needs to make up her dang mind. I'm on Team Ranger.
Here's your teaser:
I dropped my new Glock into my purse, along with the stun gun on steroids. I was wearing the GPS watch, pearly earrings, a Band-Aid where the knife had knicked my neck, and a huge Band-Aid on my skinned knee. I was the All-American Girl. (page 163)

You still have two days to enter to win Cherie Reich's giveaway. Just leave a comment on Thursday's guest post. Cherie talks about running a book blog tour and offers some great advice.