Jennifer Bray-Weber's Blog, page 93

MuseTracks Guest – Blythe Gifford – Movie as Muse

We have a special, special guest today. Please help me give a warm welcome to Blythe Gifford, author of medieval romance.

Blythe Gifford – Movie as Muse

Thanks for having me today.  I’m talking movies, so chime in at the end for a chance to win a copy of my new book.

Recently, an enthusiastic new friend asked when my book was going to be made into a movie.  I resisted the opportunity to launch into all the business reasons that was unlikely, because the truth is, I must be one of the few writers on the planet who does not long to see her book on the silver screen.

That’s not to say the inspiration doesn’t run the other way, though.  Every book of mine has a playlist and movie soundtracks can be perfect for sweeping me away into the world of the story.  When I first crossed the border to set a story in Scotland, I leaned on the emotional power of music from the iconic movies, “Braveheart” and “Rob Roy” to get me in the proper mood.

The actual story on the screen, however, rarely triggers anything in my work, but I must admit a buried movie inspiration for the excerpt I’m going to share today.  “The Mask of Zorro,” 1998, has a wonderful swordfight between Catherine Zeta-Jones and Antonio Banderas.  It comes early in the film, when they are immediate antagonists.  The confrontation crackles, as a romance writer would say, with sexual tension.

While my hero and heroine and story share nothing else with those characters, I think that fight must have served as an unconscious muse for following scene.

First, a little setup.   RETURN OF THE BORDER WARRIOR, a current release from Harlequin Historicals, launches my trilogy about the Brunson Clan, a family of Reivers on the Scottish Borders during the early Tudor era.  CAPTIVE OF THE BORDER LORD follows in January 2013, and TAKEN BY THE BORDER REBEL in March 2013.

RETURN OF THE BORDER WARRIOR is the story of John, the youngest son, who returns home after years of serving as a “big brother” to the young Scottish king.  John is a man with something to prove, both to himself and to his family.  As the only blue-eyed Brunson, he’s always felt as if he didn’t belong.  Now, he no longer wants to.  As soon as he enforces the king’s command for peace, he plans to return to his life at court and leave the valley of his birth for the last time.

But first, he must persuade Cate Gilnock to release his family from their promise to avenge her father’s death.  Cate is a woman fierce as a warrior, but behind her eyes John senses vulnerability and secrets she refuses to share.  Bit by bit, he falls in love with her, and with each step, he is drawn back into the life he thought he had left behind forever.  Because of Cate, he discovers he is more like the rest of his family than he thought until, finally, he must decide:  Is he truly a Brunson?  Or is he the King’s man after all?

In this excerpt from Chapter One, John has come across Cate, practicing her sword fighting against her own shadow.  He thinks to play with her, easily besting her sword with his dagger, but the woman proves more capable than he imagined…

He jumped just in time to escape a touch.  Now was not the time for distractions.  He had expected a playful joust.  Instead, he faced a warrior.

He swung high, but she held up her sword, turned sideways, to block his stroke.  A clever move, but lifting the two-handed sword had strained her strength and when she lowered it, her arms shook.

Seizing on her weakness, he attacked and they crossed blades again.  Prepared now, he leveraged his strength against her sword.  Though she kept her grip, he pushed the blade away, coming close enough to feel her chest rise and fall, nearly touching his.

Close enough that his mind wandered, careless of the blades, thinking that under her tunic and vest, she had breasts.  Now he could see her face, the angles of it, sharp and cleanly sculpted as her sword.  Yet thick lashes edged her brown eyes, disguising some of the hatred there.

“Surrender now?”

Panting, she shook her head.  Yet her lips parted, tempting him to take them.  She was, after all, a woman.  A kiss would be mightier than a sword.

He pushed her sword arm down, pulled her to him, and took her lips.

She yielded for a breath, no more.

But it was long enough for him to lose his thoughts, to forget she held a sword and remember only that she was a woman, breasts soft against his chest, smelling of heather…

In a flash, she turned stiff as a sword and leaned away, though her lips did not leave his, so he thought she only teased.

When he felt the point of a dirk at his throat, he knew she did not.

“Let me go,” she said, her lips still close that they moved over his. “Or you’ll be bleeding and I’ll leave you to it, I swear.”

He eased his arms from her back and she pushed him away, wiped her mouth, and spat into the dirt.

He touched the scratch she’d left on his neck, grateful she had not drawn blood.

Her eyes, which he had thought to turn soft with pleasure, narrowed, hard with fury.

“It’s a Brunson you’re facing,” he said, trying a smile.  “Not a Storwick.”

She raised both sword and dirk, the larger wobbling in her grip.  “It’s a man I’m facing who thinks what I want is of no consequence if it interferes with his privileges and pleasures.”

Had he imagined the echo of the bedchamber in her voice?  No more.

He raised his eyebrows, opened his arms and made a slight bow.  “A thousand pardons.”  Words as insincere as the feelings behind them.

She frowned.  “You are a stranger here, so you know no better.  And because you are a Brunson, I’ll let you keep your head, but I’ll warn you just once.  You will not do that again.  Ever.”

She lowered her sword, slowly.

You are a stranger.  She was the Brunson, besting him with a sword, displacing him at the family table.  His temper rose.  “And what if I do?”

The blade rose, this time, not pointed at his throat, but between his legs.  “If you do, you won’t have to worry about bedding a woman ever again.”

He swallowed, gingerly, his body on fire.  Only because she had challenged him.  Nothing more.  No man could desire such a woman.

“Then have no worries on that score, Catie Gilnock,” he said, flush with anger.  “When next I bed a woman, it most certainly will not be you.”

So, talk about movies!  What are your favorites?  A lucky reader who comments on today’s blog will be randomly selected to win a signed copy of RETURN OF THE BORDER WARRIOR. 

Blythe Gifford has been known for medieval romances featuring characters born on the wrong side of the royal blanket. Now, she’s launching a trilogy set on the turbulent Scottish Borders of the early Tudor era, starting with RETURN OF THE BORDER WARRIOR, November 2012, Harlequin Historical.  CAPTIVE OF THE BORDER LORD will follow in January 2013, and TAKEN BY THE BORDER REBEL in March 2013.  The Chicago Tribune has called her work “the perfect balance between history and romance.”  Visit her at www.blythegifford.com, www.facebook.com/BlytheGifford, or www.twitter.com/BlytheGifford.

Photo credits.  Cover used with permission.  Author photo by Jennifer Girard.

Hump Day Kick Start

Song of the Day: Not Fading by All That Remains

Hump Day Kick Start – for your muse, a writing picture prompt, or just a visual treat.

What an interesting prompt. The possiblities are intriguing.

Our couple appears pretty tired. And sweaty. They’re body heat is even fogging up the window.  Have they just defeated a horde of apocalyptic zombies?  Maybe she’s an undercover agent who just completed her first task – a private pole dance for an unsuspecting kingpin boyfriend.

Where are they? What kind of table are they on? Looks uncomfortable. Check out her expression. Is she lamenting? Plotting? Watching QVC? And look how he’s holding her, how his hand is tucked under her leg. Hmm… possessive.

I’d love to hear your take.

Link of the Week – Social Media Examiner

I love finding gems for Link of the Week.

This time, I give you, Social Media Examiner. Taken straight from their site:

“Social Media Examiner, the world’s largest online social media magazine, is designed to help businesses discover how to best use social media tools like Facebook, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn to connect with customers, generate more brand awareness and increase sales.”

There is so much great content on this site. You must check it out!

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/

Keep It Real – by Candi Wall

“That willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith.” – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

That’s right. As writers of fiction, we’ve set ourselves the task of making our readers believe a complete fabrication as the truth.

Oxymoron much?



But there it is none the less. It’s our job to make it possible for a reader to choose to ignore what they know is the truth and put their trust in us to deliver an amazing product that they won’t hate us for after. And let’s face it, when we put our faith in something that lets us down, we usually don’t give it another chance. As a matter of fact, that product, its producer and any reminder of such becomes a bit of a dirty word. We might not malign it, but we certainly aren’t going to pass it on to our friends either. Death of said product…


Suspension of disbelief is a friend to any writer. But making it work for us can be difficult. Some may think paranormal or sci-fi genres have it even tougher, but the truth is, if you’re writing fiction, you’re playing in Coleridge terms. Like it or not. It’s up to you to write the unbelievable in a way that makes it believable. Or to clarify, make it good enough that your audience is willing to mute the portion of their brain that’s all but screaming bullshit. Keeping that mute button on is OUR job.

And it’s not easy. People are smart. (Yes, I know. I didn’t mean ALL of them.) Think of how quickly you question what you read, see or hear. Sorry to say it, but the same thing happens when a reader is engrossed in a book and the author makes too quick of a jump into fantastical. Readers can be pretty forgiving and even when they suspend disbelief intentionally and willingly accept that your hero is a vampire from page one, if you decide three chapters in, to try and con them into believing he was captured by aliens who turned him into a vampire, you’re going to have some serious shaking of the suspension bridge.



So here are some thoughts as you plot, pantser, edit or stew….



Build your world as you go – Layers and details help a reader fully engage in your world where more things than they ever thought possible, are possible. World-building is key to suspension of disbelief whether you’re writing a small town cowboy, a pirate on the high seas, or a shape shifter who fights other creatures at the back door of human society.
Keep it consistent - This example from Media College is stellar! “ There are many things about the Star Trek universe which are basically impossible in the real world, but because Star Trek makes an effort to work consistently within its own universe, the stories become believable. For example, as long as you’re willing to accept that the Galaxy is mostly populated by humanoids then there is nothing within the series that will break the believability.”
Put truth in your writing. Readers have to be able to believe to be willing to suspend their disbelief. Readers want to be entertained, so they come willing to suspend judgement. Don’t forget the grounding factors of realism so your readers will have something to relate to.
Remember that each action has to have a reaction, from your character – not YOU. Author’s tend to insert their own thoughts and feelings in their writing. Readers need to learn and live this world and its incredible developments through the character’s POV. Your character is the vessel through which your readers see and experience what’s happening. Readers can only see, hear, or feel what the characters POV allows them to experience.

Suspension of disbelief is what readers offer the writer.

What we offer back is a period of time where the reader can lose themselves in another world, time, or place. A break from reality. A good book to curl up with.

Don’t give them a reason to find something else to occupy their time.

Happy writing!

We Say Goodbye To A Magnificent Lady

“Well I don’t want a harp nor a halo, not me

Just give me a breeze and a good rolling sea

And I’ll play my old squeezebox as we sail along

With the wind in the rigging to sing me this song” By Unknown

 

What is it about the sea that fascinates us so? Why does it lure men and women to spend their lives roaming around its endless miles? For centuries this love affair and all the adventures that go along with its unpredictable mistress has been recounted in poetry, songs, tales spun with tankards of ale, and on film.

One of the best known stories, thanks to Hollywood and a certain young actor named Marlon Brando, is Mutiny On The Bounty. The tale was first written into a book in 1932 by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall and was based on the mutiny against Lieutenant William Bligh, commanding officer the Bounty in 1789.

History shows us that our beautiful ship was re-fitted into a cargo carrier that was to transport over a thousand breadfruit trees back to the West Indies to see if they could grow a cheap food source for slaves. This is not exactly a noble beginning, but it explains her name. She was to bring the bounty home.

At some point on the voyage back, Fletcher Christian decided to take command of the ship and set Captain Bligh and others off in a small boat. He then proceeded to sail to Pitcairn island. Once he established they could live there, he sunk the ship in what is now known as Bounty Bay.

The actual tale is fascinating and needed little fictionalizing by its authors and then by Hollywood. In 1962 a replica of the original Bounty was built for the film.

She was beautiful.

Majestic.

She was the first large vessel built from scratch for a film using historical sources. At the end of the film, Bounty was scheduled to be burned, but Mr. Brando objected to the destruction- he threatened to walk off the set- and she was saved. After worldwide promotion of the film, she returned to Florida to act as a tourist attraction and faded into obscurity. Ted Turner bought her in 1986 when he bought the MGM film library (she was included in that). The HMS Bounty then sailed as a promotional and entertainment tool and was used in Treasure Island with Charleston Heston. Mr. Turner donated her to a foundation to operate the ship as an educational vessel.

Bounty’s own journey over the last 50 years has had her at the brink of Davy Jones’ locker on more than one occasion. At one point, she was in such poor repair that she was on the verge of sinking. Luckily, for all of us, there have been people, like Marlon Brando and Ted Turner, who recognized her spirit. Because of that, she has been featured in several documentaries and movies such as Pirates of The Caribbean.

As with many ships over the course of history, she succumbed to the power of the ocean this past week. We not only lost a magnificent ship, but a beautiful young crew woman, Claudene Christian. The captain, Robin Walbridge, is still missing. During Superstorm Sandy, the engines failed which shut down the pumps. Waves pummeled and crashed over the top until no hope was to be had. The decision was made for the crew to don their survival suits and launch the large orange lifeboats. All made it aboard except for Claudene and Captain Walbridge.

This story started as history, got written into a book, morphed into several different movies and ended up back in history. What’s next? Perhaps the legend of the HMS Bounty and its crew will have its own story told and become the immortal stuff sung about by sailors for centuries to come.

 

Paranormal Activity – a love affair

Song of the Day: Halloween Theme Song

Best frightening book ever!

My first book I ever read for pleasure was Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. I became hooked by the  paranormal theme and quickly discovered and promptly devoured all Dean Kootnz books.

I played with the neighbor’s Ouija board as a kid. In my teen years, I had a love affair with Vincent Price. Tarot cards hidden in the den drawer held an appeal. The ghoulish Edgar Allen Poe wooed me in college. I’ve been on ghost tours in Louisiana, a ghost hunt in Texas, and have traipsed through graveyards at midnight more than once, or twice. And I have snuck through a handful of supposedly haunted, abandoned (and structurally unsound) houses.

Vincent Price – master of evil!

Oh yes, I love to be scared to the point I nearly wet myself.

When it comes to the paranormal, I’m a the skeptic that would love to be proved wrong. It’s not good enough that my sister regularly saw a ghost at the

top of the stairs in Aunt Evelyn’s house. Or that a specter sat down on the bed next to my grandfather, leaving an indention in the mattress, at the century-old homestead nestled in the backwoods. Those incidents happened to them, not me. Listen hard enough, ask questions often enough, and there will always be a ghost story to enjoy.

For me, anything I’ve experienced that could be labeled paranormal could just as easily be discounted by some explanation or other. Because I thumb my nose and taunt the  preternatural, you would think I’d be the perfect conductor for otherworldly tricks. But alas, ‘contact’ with the metaphysical has been limited to what I conjure in my mind.

This is a cemetery I literally stumbled upon as a kid deep in the woods near where I grew up. Spooky!

And that’s what we do, right? We feed our imaginations with chilling tales and  terrifying horror flicks. We tell ghost stories around campfires (my personal fav – The Man With The Golden Arm). We watch Ghost Adventurers or Ghost Hunters on television. We delight in zombies and vampires.

Why? We fear the unexplained. We search for answers to life and death. This has been going on since the dawn of man.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

For a writer like me, the research in this type of macabre theme is like a playground. I am fascinated by the fear. I am fascinated by how people throughout history reacted to their fear, to the unknown that is death. I even did a research paper on it in college. And I have a collection of books on necromancy, demonology, and  mythology. So many of my earlier short stories ended in someone’s demise. Mwuahahaha…

So what truly scares me? Children that go by the names Damien or Malachai. And clowns. *shivers* Can you say Poltergeist?

How about you? Are you enticed by the unknown?  What are your favorite scary books? Are there any movies that really creep you out? Have a scary encounter you’d like to share?

Happy Halloween, MuseTrackers!

Link of the Week – Get Zombified

Just in time for Halloween. Wanna have fun with your author picture? Wanna freak out your friends and family? Zombify yourself.

http://www.zombieme.com/free/

Check out mine!

http://www.zombieme.com/free/cPlayer.php?id=1b05eb2556cdef82802100d45316f2aa1

As Good As The First Time… by Candi Wall

My Bliss Track for the week - Watching my children jump in the huge pile of leaves we spent hours raking.

My Bitch Track for the week – Why is there always that one person at a party that has to get so drunk no one else can have a good time?

So hubby and I went to dinner the other night at a restaurant we’ve loved since the day it opened. The first time we went, we sat in our chairs, having food-gasms over everything from the wine and salads to the HUGE prime rib that covered his plate. I had steak tips, sautéed onions and mushroom and a slightly spicy rice pilaf. I ended with a huge slice of cheesecake and hubby had the molten lava chocolate explosion thingy.

Let’s just say, we just about rolled our overstuffed selves out the door.

I was satisfied. I was hooked. I was coming back for more.

Then a funny thing started happening. We don’t eat out very often, but around our fourth visit, we noticed the servings weren’t as large. The lettuce wasn’t as finely chopped or fresh. The ultra thin curls of Parmesan cheese that used to top my caesar salad were just crumbles instead. We ate and left satisfied – somewhat. But it wasn’t the mind-blowing, euphoric satisfaction we used to gain from this restaurant.

And instead of screaming out this restaurant’s name the next time we went out, we questioned if we wanted to go there or if we wanted to try somewhere new!

Ruh roh Raggy.

Then – as with everything – I started thinking about writing. About how often this happens with authors I fall head-over-heels in love with. And how easy it could be to become lazy.

When the restaurant owner opened the doors, he/she had passion in their heart. They were pouring everything they had into the endeavor. They were willing to spends HOURS and HOURS perfecting what they were going to give to the public. Sound familiar? Then, over time, the restaurant gained a following. “They love me! They really love me!”

So what happened then? COMPLACENCY.

Complacency can kill a restaurant, and it can kill a writing career. Don’t let your characters wilt. Don’t downsize the intensity or conflict. Don’t rush to give a product  that might make your readers think about going elsewhere. Remember, as you perfect your craft and write more and more novels, to keep writing with your heart. Keep writing with the passion and drive that you had when you first started out. Yes, as we write and learn and become more sure of our talents, we can complete a novel faster and cleaner, but in doing so, it’s easy to lose the passion that drew our readers in the beginning.

There’s the thought for the day. Write with the drive and passion you had when you started out. Make it as good as the first time, and you won’t have to worry about your readers going elsewhere to eat!

Practice The Art Of Fearlessness

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” Ernest Hemingway

I’ve learned from the best. I’ve had a top education in schools located around the world. I have various undergraduate degrees and even managed to snap up a Masters on scholarship from a prestigious university. So what is the most important lesson I’ve ever learned?

The message came to me in my late 30s through the television of all things. I’ve always been a creative sort, but stumbled because I tend to be a perfectionist. I squashed many of my interests simply because I didn’t think I could do it. Decorating and design shows were just starting and I consumed them. This was a passion of mine and I had a ton of ideas but I never allowed myself to jump in because I might not be any good at it.

In steps a funny fellow named Christopher Lowell.

He was a brilliant designer, played the piano, and dispensed wisdom through yards of material and buckets of paint. The moment came at the end of one of his shows when he read a viewer’s letter explaining how they were stuck because they were afraid to do anything. He set the letter down, looked into the camera and said these words. “There is nothing worse to fear than the fear itself.”

Those words shocked me. There’s nothing worse than embracing the fear. It is the fear that paralyzes you. It is the fear that keeps you from doing the things you love. I knew I had to fight that fear.

That was the year I started painting. It was the year I started writing a book. I pulled out my old sketch books and started drawing. It was the most fun year I’d had in a very long time. It didn’t matter whether I was any good or not (and I wasn’t- trust me!) I learned to tell the fear to shut up and let myself play.

Ralph Waldo Emerson states, “Do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain.”

We can get so caught up in the idea of writing a “really good book” that we forget to simply write for the pleasure. The fear of not creating a masterpiece or at least writing something that’s publishable can be overwhelming. Suffocating. Paralyzing. Often, I find that the fear itself keeps me from doing anything at all and I have to start fighting this age old enemy all over again.

James Scott Bell also has some words of wisdom found in his book The Art of War For Writers. He writes that while fear is a fact of existence, it need not lead to defeat. Dwell too much on these fears and you can become catatonic. He then tells a story of young Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy was a very sickly, weak child. So he stayed inside and read a lot of books. In his biography Teddy explains what he learned. “In this passage, the captain of some small British man-of-war is explaining to the hero how to acquire the quality of fearlessness. He says that at the outset almost every man is frightened when he goes into action, but that the course to follow is for the man to keep such a grip on himself that he can act just as if he was not frightened. After this is kept up long enough it changes from pretense to reality, and the man does in very fact become fearless by sheer dint of practicing fearlessness when he does not feel it.”

JSB goes on to say that from that day on, TR determined to live his life just that way. That chapter ends with three rules for writers: 1. Act as if you had no fear. Act as if you are a writer. 2. Don’t wait for your feelings to change. Turn fear into energy for writing. 3. Set goals that challenge you. Then take an immediate step toward that goal.

Fear. It’s a big topic and one that we constantly battle. Remember there’s nothing worse to fear than the fear itself. Don’t let it stop you. Practice the fearlessness found in all of us.

 

Hump Day Kick Start – Football Edition

Song of the Day: Running Away by Hoobastank

I have sinned. But I’m guessing you all will forgive me.

So, I’m still really excited by my NFL home team being the best in the AFC. Go TEXANS! And to celebrate, I bring you this week’s Hump Day Kick Start.

Let’s assume this delectable guy is a football player, shall we? Tell me more about him. Where is he? Where does the path lead? Why is he in the buff? What about his tats? What do they mean to him? Why is his, er, ball gold?

Come on, guys. I’ve gone out on a limb, here. Make it count. Let’s hear from you.