Thea Atkinson's Blog, page 14

Prizes: Win stuff during the Valentine Bloghop

Get Yer Sweat-on hopping from blog to blog this Valentines season

From Feb 1-14, 2012, 25 authors and bloggers are giving stuff away. All you have to do is hop from blog to blog.

The Valentine Blog Hop is sponsored by BookluvinBabes blog

First Grand Prize is an Amazon Gift Card for $75.00
Second Prize is a Sterling Silver Black and White Round Diamond Heart Pendant


FIRST: Enter my Love Dark Characters giveaway:

All you have to do is grab a sample of Throwing Clay Shadows (or do a Look Inside) and email   me the name of Maggie's dollie.
THEN: subscribe to my blog via email.

You'll be entered to win one of 3 sets of Thea Books, and one of those winners gets entered into the draw for the grand prize. The books include copies in any ereader format of the list below.

Throwing Clay Shadows
Formed of Clay
Secret Language of Crows

If you've won here, you'll be notified via email then automatically entered into the Grand Prize draw from BookluvinBabes.

Next: Visit BookluvinBabes

for another selection of 24 more contests and giveaways.

good luck and happy hopping.

Filed under: blog streak, Uncategorized

Speaking of character…A plea to newbie writers who plan to publish

Image via Wikipedia

And The Most Important Character is…

I've been writing for dozens of years and most of those have been undertaken in earnest. I started pursuing publishing at age 12 and 15 and then again at 26. Since then, I've freelanced, edited, judged in contests, and of course, written my fair share of short stories, essays, flash fiction, and novels. In all, I have over 25 writing years in.

What I also did (and still do) over those years was critique other writers and have my own writing critiqued. In the early days, I don't mind saying that my prose was filled with the typical new writer issues. It was unsophisticated: the characters lacked depth, the dialogue was flat and boring, and there was no sparkle to the prose. I had no idea how to move the plot along, I couldn't keep track of more than two characters in dialogue, and I spent far too much time writing things that had nothing to do with the story.

OK. So maybe some of that is still true: I'm always learning, and that's the point of my post today. I keep learning. I'm not afraid to hear when something doesn't work. I have a pretty thick skin when it comes to negative reviews because I've spent a good many hours reading critiques of my work. Many, many times the critiques were not glowing. They could even be harsh depending on who was delivering the news. Sometimes, I felt sick to my stomach from reading a critique.

I had to learn to take the good comments AND the bad. I had to develop a distance from my writing in order to hear about the things that needed fixing.

And so I forged on. I discovered that usually after a tough critique that if I thought about the words, I'd realize it was hard to take because the information was true in some sense. Often, the critter would write something that resonated with me because I KNEW even when I wrote it that it wouldn't work but kept it anyway.

Then I would go about fixing what needed fixing.

I'm a writer and that means rewriting. It means hearing hard-to-take information about my work in order to improve. It means realizing that the story comes first, not my ego.

Why am I writing all this? Certainly not to defend any review I've received lately: While I love great reviews, I don't fret over the bad ones anymore unless I know I have some work to do because of them. We ALL get bad reviews at one time or another. It's part of the game.

No. I'm writing about critique and reviews because I'm worried about some newbie indies.

I'm excited about indie work, really. But I know of some real newbie writers who are raring to put their stuff live digitally because they can.  I worry that newbie writers will not put in the character-building time of critique and revision that they need to, to produce good prose, and–more importantly–to survive harsh criticism.  Because it's going to come. Like I said, we ALL receive bad reviews and harsh criticism at some point.

It's how we deal with it that makes us newbie or veteran, I think. Our responses to the responses we receive are a mark of our own character. And many of us indies have spent the time behind the scenes developing that strangely plastic skin that allows truth to enter and pain to bounce off, (well, somewhat) and crafting that first-person character that is ourselves just as carefully as we craft the people that populate our work.

I wonder and worry about how many fledgling authors will scoot out to the web, jamming their new, untested, still-young prose onto Kindle, or Nook, or Kobo, because they can, and end up receiving harsh reviews that they aren't prepared to receive.

And then never write again.

I beg of you newbies: please don't do this to yourself. I'm not afraid of competition. I'm not trying to come off as superior and megalomaniacal or imply that I'm a better writer than you; Hell, I make plenty of writerly mistakes.

But I'm a veteran, and I can take it when I'm told about them.

It's great to be an indie these days; we have a lot of venues open to us that weren't open before, we have control over things we didn't before, our stories can be the length they want to be.

But if you've never had your work critiqued privately, please reconsider before you publish it publicly.

From a veteran to any newbie who will listen: it's not just your stories' characters that need building, it's your writer's character and there's no shortcut to that.

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What do you think? Have I offended you? Have I spoken a truth that resonates? Please feel free to comment/critique/ or just plain complain.

Then go grab a free copy of God in the Machine (a short story): it's free today only on Amazon

AND:  spread the word!

suggested tweet: Grab a FREE copy of God in the Machine  for your #kindle http://amzn.to/w8bADp

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Filed under: Thea bits

Buy an Ebook get an ebook: A tribute to LC Evans

Today is tribute day for LC Evans

Like most people, I've been touched by Cancer in some way; it's tough these days to find someone who hasn't either lost a loved one to the disease, is living through the difficult and emotive task of caretaking for a loved one, or is struggling to heal from it. The lucky ones have happy endings: they are too few in number. As long as one person has to suffer the treatment, suffer the disease, suffer the living through it, it's one too many.

My next door neighbor died of Cancer about 20 years ago. She was a beautiful, caring, sweet lady. My best friend's mother and father-in-law both died from the disease–again, two beautiful, humanistic people. A dear friend is working hard right now at fighting the disease.

I could go on and on–just like you can, I'm sure.

But this isn't a post about Cancer. It's a post about a writer. She happened to have succumbed earlier this month to the disease, and well, sometimes when you're given an opportunity to help, that is so small in effort but makes a big difference–you just have to say yes.

As a tribute to LC Evans, author of We Interrupt This Date, indie writers from different parts of the globe are banding together  on Jan 24 New Zealand time to help sell her books for the one day, hoping to raise some money to put into the estate's coffers, hoping to show their appreciation, hoping to build awareness. I'm doing my small, ever so small part by writing this blog post.

So please. If you've ever seen the name, or seen the book, and thought you'd like to give it a try, just do the following:

buy a LC Evans book from Amazon and save the receipt you get, just block out all personal info
click over to the IndieView where your receipt gets entered to win over 40 free ebooks plus another ebook of your choice for free.

Happy reading, and thank you thank you thank you. I know LC would be humbled by your generosity.

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Filed under: Uncategorized

One Insular Tahiti by Thea Atkinson

One Insular Tahiti by Thea Atkinson.

 

click on over to Kate Policani's blog to see this new review! I'm so stoked. Thanks, Kate

Filed under: Reviews

We Are Three: a break from story to reality. @LorcaDamon guests

My daughter loves a good tear jerker story; I suppose a lot of people do. If the story is touted as a tissue piece, she's up for it.

Personally, I hate to cry, but I do love the idea of characterization so indepth that it pulls enough heart strings that a reader/viewer feels the emotion so strongly they can't hold back tears.

Today, Mercy Pilkington guests for Writer Wednesday with a post that is all the more poignant for the sense of reality that's delivered. This guest post is not about how to or what not to do, it's a post from the heart to your heart, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

 

"We Are Three"

"Two adults and two kids," my husband spoke into the speaker on the ticket girl's window. I saw his reflection twist in pain in the glare of the glass. "I mean, two adults. One kid." He handed over the cash and palmed the movie tickets without another word. I could feel my daughter watching my face for a reaction but I was too numb to force the muscles in my face into any kind of expression. She took my hand and led me to the concession stand.

"C'mon, Mom, we could use some extra butter, huh? Won't that be great?" she spoke too loudly. Another stab, this time from my eleven-year-old trying to appease her near-catatonic mother with buttery popcorn.

I couldn't even be mad at Tom for the slip of the tongue because I found myself doing it too. At restaurants I told hostesses that I needed a table for four. At fast food restaurant drive-thrus I would order an unnecessary cheeseburger, sometimes paying for it anyway and tossing it out the window in anger rather than correct myself to the teenager with the headset. Canceling the extra cheeseburger felt too much like killing Samuel all over again.

Last week the back-to-school orientation was particularly bad. I told the teacher at the sign-up table that I needed two student pick-up tags. She looked up from her log book and stared at me, tears starting in her own eyes. Of course she knew about Samuel, they all did. They even went to his funeral, each teacher placing one goodbye crayon in his tiny casket, in remembrance of how much he loved to draw with a chunky crayon gripped hard in his little fist, his tongue pushed out slightly in concentration. I mumbled my apology at her and turned to leave with the one tag. The one for my child who was still alive. I heard her footsteps behind me running toward the bathroom down the hall.

I let Hayley lead me to the array of snack foods, certain that everyone there was watching me with a critical eye. Maybe they were staring at the woman who couldn't even be counted on to remember how many children she had or watching to see if she had another "episode" and had to be taken home by a sympathetic neighbor who had found her sitting in the floor of the grocery store last month, unable to move or speak. Grief is an ugly bitch that way.

A memory flashed through my mind so fast that I almost couldn't hold on to it, a time when Tom and I had gotten in the car to go somewhere, I can't even remember where. He put the car in reverse and turned around to back out of the driveway but stopped short, swearing under his breath and throwing the car into park. He sprinted to the door of the house and was gone for only a moment before returning with a tiny Hayley strapped into her little baby carrier.

"You forgot the baby?" I nearly yelled, only keeping my rage under control so as not to wake Hayley.

"She's so new! I'm not used to her yet!" he replied in a weak defense.

"Well, you'd better get used to her! We're a family. A family of three. Remember that. We are three!" I screeched back, turning to my window and seething that he had almost left our child at home.

"We are three," I whispered to myself, my breath coming up short and choking me. And it was true. And none of us could remember it. We had been two for so long, so many years of trying and hoping, then overjoyed to finally be three. But when the unbelievable miracle of four happened it was somehow as if it had always been that way. We had only been four for such a short time, an insurmountably unfair short time thanks to fate and cancer. And now we are once again three.

Mercy Pilkington

www.lorcadamon.com

@LorcaDamon

 

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Are your characters flat? Build authentic foundations

Is Thea Atkinson Gay?

I must admit that when I found that phrase in my blog dashboard recently as a "how did readers find your blog" search term, it made me smile. Then it made me panic. Eventually, I came around to feeling a sense of self-satisfaction.

I wondered at first why someone would ask such a thing. Why anyone would want to know it. What did it matter to anyone? Why should it matter?

Maybe it does.

Sure it does.

It means I've done my job as a writer.

I have a few other-oriented people populating my novels. Anomaly's main character is transgender, Olivia in The Secret Language of Crows has a lesbian lover even though she's not really gay, One Insular Tahiti's Astrid falls in love with a gay man.

No wonder a reader would be curious. But I don't think that's the only reason for the search term, at least I hope not. I want to believe that it's the quality of the character types I populate my novels with, not the quantity that drives the question. I want to believe that I write authentic characters. After all, I label myself a character driven writer: I should be able to write believable characters no matter what the foundation is.

Especially since there are times when I write from a male perspective. At times, I even write from a female POV, sometimes a child, once from a cat's perspective — a few times I even wrote from a murderer's point of view.

I should mention that I've never taken a life except once in a while that of a beetle bug or earwig. Yes. I've killed a lot of those. Shudder. Hate those.

And yet I haven't seen, "is Thea a convict" or "is Thea really a man" yet. And I actually hope I do at some point. It would prove to me that a reader believes me — believes that I've lived it — that the characters I write are borne from some experience so strong that it has to be real.

Is Thea gay?

No. But she has hopes, she has fears, she has hates and dreams and pet peeves, and she has idiosyncrasies — and yes, she even has a few friends.

So do gays. So do murderers. So do lonely housewives and rock stars and liars and thieves and detectives and abusive husbands. They all do or they wouldn't be human–just like us.

You want to write realistic characters? Find their humanity strongly enough that you question your own foundations for yourself, and I think you just might be on to something.

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8 tips you can use today to breathe life into your characters

Being a writer who defines her work as character driven, I always find it interesting to discuss how other writers develop the invisible people that populate their pages. Some day I'll write a post about what I do to help me find a character's breath (for me, it's that spark that makes a character authentic) but for now, I'd rather let other writers speak about what character is for them, and since it's Writer Wednesday, I thought I'd ask Victoria Watson how she develops the characters for her work.

I do hope you'll find the discussion as interesting as I do, and please do feel free to offer your own insights in the comments section.

 

 

How do I develop depth in a character?

By Victoria Watson

 

Listen and observe.

In order to create a believable character, you need to consider what people sound like in real life. People can remind you how multi-faceted your character should be. It's easy to forget, when you're in the writing zone, and portray the character too simply.

 

Back Story.

My main way of developing a character is by getting to know them – and their back story – inside out. You may not need to include all of this information in your story but you need to know it. If you only concentrate on the things you want your character to say and do in your story, the character doesn't come alive. What makes your character tick? What's important to them? What has influenced your character? Think about your own life – how do you describe yourself when introducing yourself to people? You might mention your job or your education, what you might not mention (but know yourself is about the social class you grew up in and your family background). You may tell someone about your political inclination, but you wouldn't necessarily say why you supported a certain party. You might have been the victim of a crime and you support a certain political party because of their criminal justice policy but it's not inevitable that you'd tell someone that.

 

When I'm writing, I sometimes think about forms I have to fill in. I fill in forms for insurance, medical purposes, questionnaires, job applications and so on. This reminds me of the information I know about myself but don't necessarily give out on a frequent basis. You should know your character as well as you know yourself. That will show in your writing.

 

Appearance and outfits.

The way someone looks can hint towards their character or some part of their story but looks can be deceptive. For example, if one person's hair is messy, it might mean that they left the house in a rush or that they've been caught in a storm. Likewise, they could be a frazzled mother or they could just not care about their appearance. A man – or woman – in a white coat could be a doctor but they could also be a dentist or on their way to a fancy dress party. Appearance can help but requires more detail in order to tell a story.

 

Speech.

Think about how people in real life talk. Spend some time listening to people talk. There are fillers – "er" and "um" – as well as pauses. People lose their train of thought sometimes too. Is it realistic to have your character in Queen's English? Would they say would not or wouldn't? Do they use slang?

 

Idiosyncrasies.

Does your character have any traits or habits that stand out? For example, does the character talk with their hands? Do they blink a lot? Do they have any twitches or speech impediments? Think about how your character walks – some people drag their legs, other people speed walk everywhere, and others have big strides.

 

Empathy.

Put yourself in your character's position. How would you react when placed in a similar situation? If you encountered a comparable challenge, how would you deal with it? How does the experiences your character has previously had influence how they feel about something? This is why you need to know their back story.

 

Remember the grey.

Remember the 'grey' aspects of life. It's rare that life is ever clear cut. Most people have conflicting opinions on certain matters and can often contradict themselves. I'm not saying you should constantly use this tool – the more sparing the better, in fact – as using it too much can make your writing (and your character) seem confused. It is tempting to avoid confusion but remember, sometimes real life is confusing.

 

Detail.

The devil, as they say, is in the detail. Someone's hair is rarely "brown" for example.

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Victoria Watson

 

Download my e-books at:

 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Should-Have-Seen-Coming-ebook/dp/B005V0JGIQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326231445&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Keeping-Quiet-ebook/dp/B0060D8O18/ref=pd_sim_kinc_2

 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inside-ebook/dp/B0068U431S/ref=pd_sim_kinc_2

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Filed under: guest blogging, writerwednesday exercises

New book launch by Faith Mortimer:

It's unusual for me to have 2 guests in one week. I apologize if my posts are clogging up your email; it doesn't happen often, but I wanted to share a new book launch with you.

Can Thrilling Reads contain great characters?

I'm a lover of many genres—so long as the characters speak to me. I've been known to read YA, chicklit, and fantasy besides horror and scifi because I got engaged in what the characters were saying to me. The same goes for thrillers. I need to BELIEVE the characters. I need to SYMPATHIZE with the characters: and that goes for the villain too. I great thriller writer has to make all the players authentic for me. I loved the Millennium series by Stieg Larson for that reason: all the characters were very much fleshed out and plump. The villains were not pure evil. I often pitied them or I found something within that made me think the portrayal was realistic: that the villain could acutally be a person. If I see a cardboard character, I put the book down.

Today, Faith Mortimer announces her new thriller and it occurs to me that I really must go investigate her character portrayals.

I encourage you to do the same.

Buy from Amazon

Diana Rivers and "The Surgeon's Blade"

Mystery-suspense-thriller writer, Faith Mortimer is delighted to add book three to her best-selling Diana Rivers mystery thriller series. This latest novel, "The Surgeon's blade" is more chilling, tense and is described as a 'real corker of a read'.

When nursing sister, Libby Hunter wakes up in hospital following a traumatic sailing accident she discovers two deeply disturbing things. One – she has lost her memory and two – the stranger, (Nigel) whom she finds sitting by her bedside when she awakes claims to be her fiancé.

During her hospital stay, Libby regains most of her memory, except the bizarre thing is she cannot remember ever being engaged to surgeon, Nigel. Against her will Nigel persuades Libby into agreeing to move in with him.  Working on instinct she finds excuses to put him off until she is completely sure of her true feelings.

During a series of attacks on nurses in London and Southampton, Libby finds herself in great danger when her home is broken into one night. Who is the intruder and does he plan on harming her? And is this connected in any way to the recent attacks on nursing staff. Will Libby be the attacker's latest targeted victim?

Distressed Libby turns to pilot, Robert for help and understanding, but is he as respectable and kind as he appears to be? Is her fiancé, Nigel trustworthy, especially when his ex-wife, Stella enters the scene and Libby suspects them of rekindling their relationship?

The night time intrusion to Libby's house sets in motion a downwards spiral of cataclysmic and terrifying events, culminating in our favourite sleuth, Diana Rivers stepping in to help solve the case in this chilling mystery thriller.

For a glimpse of early reviews please go to: Amazon Customer 5 Star Reviews

 

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Use your background to create great characters

I'm one of those readers who really digs a good character; I'm a writer who is always always trying to find ways to make the characters who populate my stories authentic. I want those characters to come alive for a reader they way they have come alive for me. I work at it, but I know I don't always get it.

So my tagline always mentions that I'm a character driven writer. So I thought it best to keep concentrating on character in my blog—even when guests visit.

Today, Susan Gottfried kindly agreed to give it a whirl. If you don't know Susan, well, you're really missing out. She has a humor to dye for and her characters in her novels about rock and roll are driven by a beat that's authentic and real.

 

Buy from Amazon

 Susan Guests at GonzoInk

When Thea asked me to blog today, she suggested I write about my background in the music industry and how it helps me build my characters. It's a great idea. After all, my writing is built around my love of the music industry. While my first four books feature a rock band and its irresistible Toasted Marshmallow of a character, Trevor Wolff, I have all sorts of other characters waiting in the wings. There's Boomer, the KRVR DJ. There's a record producer named Samson. Tiny Tim is the man who looks like Colonel Sanders — yes, of KFC fame! — but who owns radio station KRVR.

Anyone who follows my blog has met Trevor's groupie, Pam. And, of course, there's the Roadie Poet, whose name describes him better than I ever could.

Okay, so I've never owned a radio station. Never done serious production work, although I've played with it. I've certainly never been a groupie, either.

Then what the heck am I doing? What happened to write what you know?

It's easy. I've been around most of these people. Working first in a record store (anyone remember what those are?), in radio, and finally on stage crew and as a promoter, I've met people. Lots of them. One thing you can't help but notice is the way in which people fall into types. Cliches? Stereotypes? Maybe. After all, cliches and stereotypes come from a kernel of truth.

What's fun is taking those cliches and stereotypes and turning them on their heads. Sure, Mitchell is the good-looking frontman, with his romance-hero silvery-blonde hair. Where the cliches would have him be a self-absorbed jerk, I let him be a real person. He's a jerk to the media, but a devoted family man. He's fully aware of the power he holds as the ShapeShifter frontman, but at the same time, he's as conscious as possible of the danger of abusing that power.

I do this for one simple reason: when I began meeting record label executives, my fellow radio station personnel, the tour managers, the bands, and everyone else involved in the music business, I was star-struck. I'll admit it.

No matter how often I kept expecting them to live up to the glamour I put on them — stereotypes and all — I was shocked, time and again, at how down-to-earth most of them were. I was faced with real people who transcended the expectations I'd pinned on them.

When I looked around at the Rock Fiction on the market at that time, I was shocked to find how cliche-ridden it was (and, in some hands, still is). One of my goals as a writer was to bring you the gorgeous, glamorous rock star world, but in a sense you could understand. I wanted my rockers to be real people who transcended the stereotypes the same way the real-life folk did.

My readers tell me that the ShapeShifter boys do exactly that. They are real. At times, painfully real.

It tells me I've accomplished my goal. But instead of setting my sights on a new goal, for one of the few times in my life, I'm aiming for a repeat performance. I'm aiming to top myself, with a new set of characters. You won't see them until 2013 at the earliest, so take a few minutes and pick up one of the books in the Trevolution. Come meet my rockers. And then, let me know what you think. I love reader feedback. Like my music industry contacts, you guys often transcend the stereotypes.

Bring it on. 

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5 Indie authors that give me hope for 2012: (Amanda Hocking notwithstanding)

Instead of writing my own blog post for New Year's, I wrote one for another author's blog. I love to guest post at other blogs, so I jumped at the chance. I do hope you will click over to it to show that host some blogging love, but if you'd rather not click through, I've added just the names here, but the full post is over at Tanya Cantois blog All Things Books. (We have different timezones, so I'm hoping we hit the blogsphere at the same time, but if not, it'll be there. Trust me.)

5 Indies that give me hope for 2012: (Amanda Hocking notwithstanding)

These writers may write towards genre, but they pay careful attention to the language that they use. They raise just above the typical average reading level and move toward something that offers reader opportunity to turn the story over in her mind and investigate it on more than just the surface level.

No matter whether genre, they haven't forgotten the little things that turn writing into something wonderful.

I'm not sure how well they sell; I think they are quite regular. I'm quite certain they are not multimillion best-sellers, but they have got my attention and they should get yours.

Suzanne Tyrpak, author of Vestal Virgin
Moses Siregar: author of Black Gods War
Larry Enright: author of Four Years from Home
Sean Sweeney: author of multiple novels with a variety of genres
Robert duPerre: author of The Rift

and one extra:

Al Boudreau: author of In Memory Of Greed (for having so many positive reviews)

What they tell me is that if I choose to, I can write a genre novel with good character development, unique conceits instead of hackneyed phrases. I can add an extended metaphor and yes, obsessive corollaries. I can send the dialogue off in oblique directions to build tension. Yes. I can pay careful attention to craft and still aim for genre.

Because I am an independent author just like them, and that label too has given me hope.

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I would like to list an inspirational author here.

Vivienne Tuffnell: author of Strangers and Pilgrims. (This book inspired me the most this year. It was a wonderful, heartfelt read)

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Filed under: Uncategorized