Bev Pettersen's Blog, page 23

MY SPACE DIED

If you read my blog last week, you know I began to dissect my life, trying to learn what is crushing my muse and acting on the beasts. One of the things was my writing space.  With the pool closed and the last tomato is picked and the weather is turning frosty, my writing spaces has moved back indoors. The grandkids who live with rule 90 % of the house, which made me retreat to my and what I discovered was not good. NOT AT ALL. Sometime over the past spring and summer my Zen space became a st...

What Outlander Taught Me About Writing.

If you are not acquainted with the Outlander books and Starz series here’s a quick rundown. The first of Diana Gabaldon 8 books was published in 1992. The TV series first aired in 2014 and is now in the 4th season.  It’s about a woman, the Sassy Sassenach, who sets her clocks back too far and lands up in 18th century Scotland.

Her goal is the get back to the 20th century. But there is a hot Scot, Kilt Daddy, whose goal is to keep her there.

Her motivation is to get back to hot baths and toile...

POV for Beginners, Part 2

Yesterday we began our discussion of POV with a look into Third Person (Limited & Omniscient) and Second Person.  Today I’d like to delve into the one that has been giving me fits as I attempt to master it – First Person.  I recommend you catch yesterday’s blog, but as a quick refresher, point of view is (Cambridge Dictionary):

a person’s opinion or particular way of thinking about something: (in literature) the voice in which a story is told and its relationship to the events in the story....

Point-Of-View for Beginners, Part 1

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about point of view (or POV as you will often see it abbreviated).  I was recently asked to write a book in a point of view that is not my usual (first person rather than third) and it has been a challenge, but also made me hyper conscious of the pros and cons of various styles of point of view.   

We’ve had pieces here about deep third POV & challenging POV, but I wanted to take it back to the basics today and look at what kinds of POV there are and how they i...

“We the People”

Today, Nov. 6, is Election Day in America.

I came up short trying to find an original and heartfelt way to urge my fellow American citizens to vote. Instead, I’d like to recommend watching this informative and non-partisan feature, which aired on last week’s CBS Sunday Morning (8:06, YouTube). 

Teachers, historians, and Supreme Court justices can explain the importance of civics education and civic engagement so much better than I can – but (spoiler): Did you know that one third of Americans...

The Four-Letter Word I Fear

The Four-Letter Word I Fear For the past several months I’ve been in a slump. Now understand, I’ve been in slumps before and always found a way to work my way out of it, but this nose-dive in my creativity felt different. Was different. I found myself redirecting my energy to anything but sitting down at the keyboard and working on the story I started several months ago. Even shopping took precedent over my work and if you know me well, you know I HATE shopping. I didn’t allow myself to think...

November 1 is National Author’s Day.

Happy Author’s Day.

Authors have the best jobs ever. We love what we do. We blend our joy and pain with random made up stuff. We twist and swirl it around in our brains then put our hands on the keyboard and the joy, pain, and random stuff flows from our finger tips forming words on the page.

We can work anyplace. Home. The car waiting to pick up the kiddos. A plane. The airport. Tucked away in a mountain cottage or lounging on a beach chair. 

No matter which of the many backgrounds and profe...

Christmas Revels 5 duo…

Where Kate and Louisa spill the inside scoop on an anthology

Kate: Well, Louisa, we’ve launched the fifth Christmas Revels anthology. For those who don’t know, these are unrelated Regency romance novellas taking place at Christmastime where it is always snowy and happily-ever-afters are assured.

Louisa: The fifth! And they said it wouldn’t last. Groups of authors getting together to create anthologies has really taken off in the five years since we started Christmas Revels. Some are put toget...

Reader Cons

Have you ever attended a reader-oriented conference? One that is centered around readers instead of writers? For the first ten years of my writing career, I only attended writer conferences (Moonlight & Magnolia, RWA, etc), but recently I’ve branched out to reader conferences. They are so much fun! Really, they are a weekend full of parties, but they are also so much more.

Last weekend I attended my first Shameless Book Con down in Orlando, Florida. It was a blast! A cocktail party Friday ni...

That…Was…Jeopardy!

First off, I want to thank everyone so much for the enthusiasm and support.  Honestly, I was a little freaked out by the whole national television thing, but everyone getting so excited to watch made the experience even more amazing.  I wasn’t sure I was going to watch it live last night (nerves!), but I did and it was SO FUN!  I kept seeing myself frantically trying to ring in and being unable to beat Alan to the punch.  It’s all about the buzzer, boys and girls.  Well, that and trying to av...