Judith Post's Blog, page 91

Historical Western

Mary Lou Rigdon, writing as Julia Donner, writes Regency romances that I love.  She’s decided to try her hand at historical westerns, which I also love, and submitted her book AVENUE TO HEAVEN to Kindle Scout.  For them to accept it, it needs votes.  An easy decision for me.  Receiving a coffin from your ex-husband hooked me right away.  I voted, and it IS easy.  Here are the details:

(from Mary Lou):

I’ve decide to try a Kindle Scout campaign, which means I’d love your support. To win my book Avenue to Heaven needs nominations. It only takes a few minutes and is easy.

Click on this link:  https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/OEESOI99NH8Q

Avenue to Heaven
kindlescout.amazon.com
When a coffin arrives on Annie Corday’s doorstep she knows who sent it—her former husband, one of Chicago’s most vicious crime lords. Desperate, she decides on a radical solution. If a man can advertise for a wife, why can’t she arrange for a bodyguard and temporary husband? Jake Williams isn’t looking for a wife when he comes to Chicago to buy cattle but ends up roped into a loco marriage contract. And worse, he can’t stop his headlong fall into love with a woman who will eventually leave.

 

To vote for Avenue to Heaven click on the blue box “Nominate Me.”

A five thousand word excerpt is provided if you want to read it. If I get enough votes, Avenue to Heaven will be published and Amazon will send you a free digital copy when the book is released.

If you like women’s fiction…

One of my writer friends, Karen Lenfestey, just released a new book.  At our writers’ group, we call Karen “the queen of drama.”  She hits her characters with serious stuff!  One of the things that I like about Karen’s writing is that she slams her characters with tough choices, and then just shows how they cope.  She never hints how we should feel about one character or another.  She shows them in action, and we have to decide for ourselves.  It keeps things interesting!

Anyway, happy book release to Karen!

 

 

 

The Set-Up

I’ve just finished writing the set-up for my second River Bluffs mystery.  There was a time when I tried to follow the 5 Acts of Storytelling, but it never worked well for me, so now I have my own rhythm for writing books.   The first fourth of most books (I bend my own rules when I want to) is the set-up.

My mystery will be about 70,000 words, so my goal for its first fourth is about 17,000. I know there are people out there who can splash down that many words in a week.  I’m not one of them.  Especially at the start of a book.  Opening chapters are like tiptoeing on quicksand for me.  It’s like meeting half a dozen people to set out on a journey, and you only know a couple of them.  The rest are strangers or acquaintances.  Do I like them? Trust them?  Do I want to spend time with them?  They can’t all be nice, because I need conflict.  And sorry, poor innocent newbie, but I’m going to kill you in chapter 10.  I’ve already plotted it out.

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Writing a book’s first sentence, first chapter, and first page all make me sweat.  The opening is what hooks the reader.  I don’t need to trip over a body right away.  Mysteries create a certain mood.  Subtle hints can assure me I’ll find a corpse eventually. If EVERYBODY hates the book reviewer who slams writers?  He probably won’t be among the living a few chapters in.  I can wait. Because I know that the setting, the people I bump into, and little tidbits of information will all eventually contribute to the guessing game of who done it.

I like the long, slow games of mystery as much as the quick and dirty.  I just finished reading Jenna Bennett’s Past Due.  Bodies dropped so fast, I had trouble keeping up:)  I’ve started book 9, and so far there’s only one body.  People are dying at a more sedate pace. Doesn’t matter to me.  I like them both.

A set-up needs certain elements, though.  A hook.  An inciting incident.  Introduction to the main characters.  The book’s big problem (the mystery).  An internal problem the protagonist must face.  Some minor characters (a friend or two, antagonist, villain, or romantic interest.  For mysteries, some witnesses victims, and suspects.)  A setting.  And I like to throw in two sub-plots that fit the story’s theme.  Another element that makes a difference to me is tone.  Authors have unique voices, but they can change tones.  The same author can write humorous or dark.  It’s a matter of word choice.  And a riveting tone can keep me turning pages.

Anyway, I’ve finished writing 17,000 words and I can cross off all the necessary elements for the way I like to write a set-up.  You can do what you want, and if you do it well, I’ll probably like it.  But I’m happy with my book’s set-up.  The crucial ingredient?  At the very end of the set-up, I want to write a twist, a turning point, that drives the book in a different direction and ups the ante.  And I’ve got that, too.

Now all I have to do is write the next fourth of the book.  I’m not fast at that either:)

Author Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/JudiLynnwrites/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel

Webpage: http://www.judithpostswritingmusings.com/

On twitter:  @judypost

 

 

Curated Content for Writers August 25th

Story Empire has great links for writers! I always find one or more that interest me. Enjoy!

Story Empire

Happy Friday, SE Readers. It’s time for another round of writing tips we’ve found around the web. If you haven’t read Mae’s post, Understanding Tribes on Triberr, and Staci’s post, Classic TV as an Inspiration for Contemporary Fiction, be sure to check them out.

And now, for this week’s curated content.

4 Ways to Write a Thought-Provoking Mentor Character (K M Weiland)—Part 16 of the Dos and Don’ts of Story Telling

10 Things New Writers Should Avoid (From Just Publishing)

Figures of Speech (fifteen classic devices)

Character Vulnerabilities (ways to advance and strengthen realistic relationships)

Backmatter (making the most of the stuff after “the end”)

Conflict (more than just fighting)

Midpoint (insights)

Tough Talk (more than just expletives)

35 Famous Writers’ Quotes about Writing (mostly links, a few direct quotes)

Muddle in the Middle (3 tips to fix the sagging middle of your novel)
10 Plot Problems, 10…

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Momentous!

This Monday is a big event!  The solar eclipse falls on our wedding anniversary.  Yes, I’ve been married to the Old Poop for a long time.  (He got the nickname after the girls and I watched the movie On Golden Pond.  And yes, Henry Fonda earned the title.  And it fits my John pretty well, too:)  It’s an endearment, and he actually likes it.  Knows I’ll love him even in his worst moods.

For years, we’ve driven to The Retreat on Lake George to celebrate our anniversaries. We used to rent a lake cottage for a week up there each year when the girls were little. When summers got too busy for that, we enjoyed driving up for a day, looking out over the water and eating the really good food the restaurant served.  But The Retreat burned down last year, and we have no choice but to start a new tradition.

This year, we’re driving to Sylvania, Ohio–over an hour away–to eat at The Seafood, a restaurant our longtime friends told us about.  We’ve never been there before, have no idea what the ambience is, but we’ll enjoy each other’s company, no matter what.  AND, it’s the one time in our lifetimes that a solar eclipse falls on our anniversary.  A good omen, don’t you think?

There’s no good writing advice or yakking today.  Just time with my husband.  So I hope your word count is multiplying, and happy writing!  Hope the eclipse showers you with creativity.

 

Canva

I mentioned that I used Canva to create memes and a twitter header in my previous post and only listed canva.com.  I found Canva extremely easy to use–and I’m no whiz at this kind of stuff.  Someone asked for a link, so here it is.  I hope you like it as much as I did.  https://www.canva.com/create-a-design

Memes

I shared Mae Clair’s blog with you about using memes to promote your work.  (https://maeclair.net/blog/)  I’m not trying to drive you crazy with too many posts in one day, but I wanted to follow through on her advice.  If you read the comments under her blog, one of the people mentioned that she didn’t read posts that didn’t have visuals with them.  I think more and more tweeters, writers, and social media users expect graphics, etc. along with your words. And while I was feeling inspired, I decided I’d see what I could come up with.

I went to canva.com to get started, and I’m no whiz kid with multiple computer skills, but honestly, canva made it fairly easy for me to create a meme and a twitter header for my accounts.  A meme doesn’t count in your 140 characers for tweets, so it’s an added bonus. Yes, I failed a few times, but if you just let yourself play around for a while and trash your worst efforts, (they supply the trash can for rejects), I had a meme designed before I knew it.  The twitter header took a little longer because I was downloading more covers. But it was pretty easy, too.

Mine didn’t turn out as classy as Mae’s.  If I fiddle more with backgrounds, I’ll get better, but I’m all right with what I came up with in a short time.  I always read Kathy Palm’s blog (https://findingfaeries.wordpress.com/), and she always includes gifs in her posts.  I haven’t done that yet, but thought I’d start now with this one, since I’m working on mysteries now:  [image error]

It reminds me of the beginning of PBS’s mysteries.  Someone falls.  Someone dies.  Lots of fun.  Anyway, here’s a link to find some free gifs:  https://giphy.com/search/royalty-free. There are more sites that offer royalty-free gifs, too, but…hey!  I’m new at this.  I’ll start small.

Anyway—-and don’t judge—-here’s what I came up with in a short time today.  My twitter header:

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My meme:

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Okay, that’s all the excitement I can stand for today.  But if you decide to give gifs or canva.com a try, have fun!  And happy writing.

If anyone has more suggestions, feedback, I know I’d appreciate it.  Someone else might, too.

Mothman Memes #PointPleasantSeries #UrbanLegends

Another learning curve for me. Mae Clair is so generous with her thoughts and advice that I wanted to share her recent blog about creating memes to promote your work. I think hers turned out gorgeous.

From the Pen of Mae Clair

I’ve been doing a lot of playing around on Twitter lately. After blogging, it’s my favorite form of social media and I find it a great place to connect with others. I also love the variety of graphic Tweets I find there. Novelicious and Abandoned Places are two of my favorite Twitter feeds with amazing graphics. If you haven’t visited them before, you might want to give them a looksee.

With the last of my Point Pleasant novels, A Desolate Hour releasing, I decided I needed a new pinned Tweet. I change it out every now and then depending on the promo I’m doing at the time. I also decided the other two books in the series could benefit from ehanced visual representation, especially with book one, A Thousand Yesteryears, currently on sale for .99c

Here’s what I’ve been up to:

A Thousand Yesteryears (Book 1)

Behind a legend lies the truth…

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Tweaking

I’m always surprised how little it takes, at times, to make something so much better than it was before.  Last weekend, I knuckled down and rearranged our closet and bookshelves, tossed things we were “going to look at”…someday…but never got to.  And dusted and scrubbed.  When I finished, the house looked happy and sparkling.

When I cook, a little spice or an herb, a simple sauce, can make all the difference.

This Saturday, my husband helped me tidy up two flower beds.  We clipped off dead stems and cleaned out withered leaves.  The beds needed extra work since I neglected them completely last year.  I couldn’t put any weight on my broken leg.  I still have to use a cane, but now, I can weed and deadhead and even rake.  I just can’t sit on my knees or shovel yet.  And I wanted to plant two new cone flowers and two Shasta daisies.  So I needed Mr. Muscle:)  After pulling dead iris and daylily stems, trimming phlox, and cutting back money plants, the beds look attractive again.  Next year, they’ll look even better.

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Tweaking does a lot for writing, too.  I started work on my second mystery.  I let myself write the first four chapters to get a feel for the flow of the story and to hear my characters.  Then on Friday,  I went back to do rewrites.  I changed sentence sequences, added description here, tightened there.  Took out a few things that will work better later.  And just like my house, my cooking, and flower beds, some studious tweaking made a world of difference.

Whether you tweak as you go or wait till The End, small things can make a big difference.  Happy Writing!  And have a great August.

 

 

Managing your time…your life?

I’m a procrastinator, but I know it.  I’m also driven, and I’ve come to terms with that, too. I have discipline…sometimes.  So it’s always a challenge for me to find balance.  I try to cram too many things into too small a time frame, and then I get frustrated.  So I try to come up with ways to manage my time and life, to work everything in.

I do better in life, as well as writing, when I have structure.  I’m not saying it always works, but it gives me something to aim for.  And when I fail, I don’t beat myself up.  Life happens.  But now that two sets of kids have grown up and moved on, I have the luxury to write every day of the week.  I start out with a half hour or hour on social media while I sip my coffee and let my brain turn on.  Then I rewrite whatever I wrote the day before, and then I start writing the new stuff for each day.  I’m not fast.  I’m slow, so it might take me most of the day to hit ten pages I like.  My friends write faster.  Some of them write better.  But I’m me, and I plug away.

Everything else in my life follows pretty much the same pattern.  I clean the house and piddle around in the yard on Saturdays or the weekend.  I love to cook, so I cook suppers almost every night.  And I have a method for that, too.

A friend, who had moved away and moved back recently, reminded me that I’d taught her my method for meal planning.  “I still use it,” she said.  My menus came because my daughter had 37 allergies (some mild, some not), and I had to be careful of everything she ate.  They also came because my husband is spoiled.  (He spoils me back). But he doesn’t like to eat the same meal twice in the same month.  So if I cook chicken piccata on the 3rd and I cook it again on the 27th, he says, “Didn’t we just have this?”

I love it, because I get bored cooking the same things, so I started saving recipes, buying cookbooks, and making menus–but I have a method that makes it easier for me.  Most Saturdays, I cook beef.  It can be ribeyes, skirt steak, hamburgers, meatloaf, or roasts. Doesn’t matter.  It just has to be a different recipe every Saturday. On Sundays, it’s pork–chops, tenderloins, roasts, Italian sausages, or ham; Mondays are ethnic–Italian, Mexican, or Chinese, etc.; Tuesdays are chicken; Wednesdays–soup/salad/sandwiches/or one-dish meals; Thursdays are fish or seafood; and Fridays, I DON’T COOK.  We go out.  If company comes over, I can switch things, trade one night’s meal for another.  I make a grocery list while I plan the menus, so I have all the ingredients I need.  The thing is, I have a starting point to work from. And that makes it easier, and I end up with variety and new recipes to try.  Just like when I make plot points for my writing.

Menus don’t work for my daughters.  They like spontaneity, surprises.  I’m not a big fan of suprises.  I  think they can go either way.  And plot points don’t work for most of my writing friends.  I might be a little too security minded, a little too cautious. Whatever. But to each, his own.  And however or whatever you do, happy writing!