E.E. Montgomery's Blog, page 4
October 4, 2013
My Writing Process
Writing is part of who I am. It’s not something I can separate into blocks of time or levels of concentration. When I’m writing, that’s who and what I am. It makes for some interesting (for me) social interactions.
I’m essentially anti-social, yet I love learning about other people. I read biographies and have continuous email conversations with friends. I’m so interested in people I have to make up people and lives and explore their journeys in my stories.
Spending time in face-to-face conversations is difficult for me because my mind wanders. It’s not that what we’re talking about is boring or the person doesn’t interest me: on the contrary, other people are often so interesting my imagination takes flight. One thing they say will trigger something in my head and suddenly I’m creating a new story in my head. Once I have a few pictures in my head, I bombard people with often intrusive questions that help me understand one particularly part of their life better, and I totally forget to relax and simply enjoy being with them. I imagine there are some people out there who run the other way when they see me coming because I’m so scarily interested in what they say!
There are some days I don’t talk to people. I love watching how people move, what mannerisms they have and how they interact with others. I forget that I’m supposed to be part of the conversation too. I can go to a party and stand in the corner for hours and happily watch other people. I’m the quintessential ‘nigel’ or ‘wallflower’ and I love every minute of it—as long as people don’t mind me staring at them while I learn their body language.
Other times, I can’t be with people because my head is already too full of stories that I don’t have enough room to focus on what they’re saying. If I’m in the middle of writing a book I’m completely absorbed in that story and find it difficult to respond to the real world in a way that isn’t automatic. When I was writing The Courage to Love, every conversation I had with my family and friends eventually came around to the time just after the First World War and where their family was at that time and how they lived. Every contact became a research opportunity.
When I finished The Courage to Love and decided to write something short and light for a change, I listened to Katy Perry’s The One That Got Away over and over and over for four days solid and then at least a dozen times a day for the duration of the writing. People close to me never want to hear that song again.
I find any story I write that hasn’t gone through some sort of obsessive process isn’t as good as others. I need to totally immerse myself in the story so I can tease out all the emotion and the conflict and the growth and make sure I don’t miss bits. That isn’t always possible because writing isn’t the only thing I do in my life, but I still need to write something, no matter what is going on. I have a lot of stories that are waiting for significant editing before they'll be submissable.
I’m essentially anti-social, yet I love learning about other people. I read biographies and have continuous email conversations with friends. I’m so interested in people I have to make up people and lives and explore their journeys in my stories.
Spending time in face-to-face conversations is difficult for me because my mind wanders. It’s not that what we’re talking about is boring or the person doesn’t interest me: on the contrary, other people are often so interesting my imagination takes flight. One thing they say will trigger something in my head and suddenly I’m creating a new story in my head. Once I have a few pictures in my head, I bombard people with often intrusive questions that help me understand one particularly part of their life better, and I totally forget to relax and simply enjoy being with them. I imagine there are some people out there who run the other way when they see me coming because I’m so scarily interested in what they say!
There are some days I don’t talk to people. I love watching how people move, what mannerisms they have and how they interact with others. I forget that I’m supposed to be part of the conversation too. I can go to a party and stand in the corner for hours and happily watch other people. I’m the quintessential ‘nigel’ or ‘wallflower’ and I love every minute of it—as long as people don’t mind me staring at them while I learn their body language.
Other times, I can’t be with people because my head is already too full of stories that I don’t have enough room to focus on what they’re saying. If I’m in the middle of writing a book I’m completely absorbed in that story and find it difficult to respond to the real world in a way that isn’t automatic. When I was writing The Courage to Love, every conversation I had with my family and friends eventually came around to the time just after the First World War and where their family was at that time and how they lived. Every contact became a research opportunity.
When I finished The Courage to Love and decided to write something short and light for a change, I listened to Katy Perry’s The One That Got Away over and over and over for four days solid and then at least a dozen times a day for the duration of the writing. People close to me never want to hear that song again.
I find any story I write that hasn’t gone through some sort of obsessive process isn’t as good as others. I need to totally immerse myself in the story so I can tease out all the emotion and the conflict and the growth and make sure I don’t miss bits. That isn’t always possible because writing isn’t the only thing I do in my life, but I still need to write something, no matter what is going on. I have a lot of stories that are waiting for significant editing before they'll be submissable.
September 27, 2013
The Saggy Middle
The saggy middle is a problem most writers have to deal with. It makes sense when you think about it because the beginning is always exciting and new and the end is always anexciting rush to find out what happens. In the middle, though, what are you doing? Getting from point A to point B. That’s it.
I recently had an opportunity to contribute in a small part to a shared blog that was written around the topic of The Saggy Middle. It made me stop and think about what it is I actually do. What are my thought processes once I get past chapter four and all the characters and the world are in place and we know what the goal, motivation and conflict are? How do I get from there to the end without having six chapters of ‘and then this happened’, ‘and then they did this’?
I did one of the things I do best: I made a list.
Stop angsting all over the story. I get stuck and sit and think and then I read, and then I knit, and then I go for a walk, and then I…. For days nothing can happen because I’m in the middle and can’t work out how to make it work. In the end, I still have no clue but I sit myself down and make myself write something, even if it’s a lot of ‘and then’s. You can’t improve on the blank page. WRITE IT. What can go wrong? Is there a part of the plot that can fall apart and make things more difficult for one or more of my characters? Can this thing go wrong right now? What has to happen before it can go wrong? How comfortable can the characters be that ‘the thing’ going wrong will destroy everything (almost) for them? DO IT.Which character has the most to lose at this point and what can go wrong to put that at risk? How will the character react to losing that very important thing? How will that impact on the characters around them? DO IT.Where can I ramp the emotion up? Remember that your characters are living, breathing people. Even if they don’t express emotion very well, they’re going to feel it. They will react to it somehow. What’s happening to their bodies? How are they physically reacting to the action that’s causing them distress or happiness? Go deep. Feel their breathing, how sensitive their skin becomes to the air, what they see, smell, taste and how that’s different now they’re suppressing/feeling emotion. DO IT.Does every chapter, every paragraph, every sentence contribute to the story? Does every word add to the risks the characters are taking? This is really difficult for me. It might be because I don’t plot much, but more probably because I have a tendency to ramble along whatever trajectory takes my fancy. I have such fun writing that it often takes five or six full edits before I remove all the redundancies and repetitions and pare the story down to what’s important. CUT IT.What have you missed? One thing I do prepare fairly well before I begin is my world-building, particularly with my science fiction. I have in my head complete worlds, what the atmosphere is made of, how much of the planet is inhabited, what types of beings live there and how they interact, what animals and birds and plants are there, what’s above ground and below it, what the social structure is. It’s all there in my head—and I assume everyone else can see it as well. Important parts of it never make it to paper—until I get several chapters in and realize I’ve missed out a huge section that will help the reader make sense of the world, so I dump it in the middle. Yes, it’s necessary, but not all in one hit and not all in the middle. BREAK IT UP AND SPREAD IT OUT.
There are more little things I do, but this is what’s made my list. I followed this process when I was writing and editing The Courage to Love which was released by Dreamspinner Press on 23 August 2013. I think it worked: at least none of the reviews have mentioned the story sagging in the middle! ;)
I recently had an opportunity to contribute in a small part to a shared blog that was written around the topic of The Saggy Middle. It made me stop and think about what it is I actually do. What are my thought processes once I get past chapter four and all the characters and the world are in place and we know what the goal, motivation and conflict are? How do I get from there to the end without having six chapters of ‘and then this happened’, ‘and then they did this’?
I did one of the things I do best: I made a list.
Stop angsting all over the story. I get stuck and sit and think and then I read, and then I knit, and then I go for a walk, and then I…. For days nothing can happen because I’m in the middle and can’t work out how to make it work. In the end, I still have no clue but I sit myself down and make myself write something, even if it’s a lot of ‘and then’s. You can’t improve on the blank page. WRITE IT. What can go wrong? Is there a part of the plot that can fall apart and make things more difficult for one or more of my characters? Can this thing go wrong right now? What has to happen before it can go wrong? How comfortable can the characters be that ‘the thing’ going wrong will destroy everything (almost) for them? DO IT.Which character has the most to lose at this point and what can go wrong to put that at risk? How will the character react to losing that very important thing? How will that impact on the characters around them? DO IT.Where can I ramp the emotion up? Remember that your characters are living, breathing people. Even if they don’t express emotion very well, they’re going to feel it. They will react to it somehow. What’s happening to their bodies? How are they physically reacting to the action that’s causing them distress or happiness? Go deep. Feel their breathing, how sensitive their skin becomes to the air, what they see, smell, taste and how that’s different now they’re suppressing/feeling emotion. DO IT.Does every chapter, every paragraph, every sentence contribute to the story? Does every word add to the risks the characters are taking? This is really difficult for me. It might be because I don’t plot much, but more probably because I have a tendency to ramble along whatever trajectory takes my fancy. I have such fun writing that it often takes five or six full edits before I remove all the redundancies and repetitions and pare the story down to what’s important. CUT IT.What have you missed? One thing I do prepare fairly well before I begin is my world-building, particularly with my science fiction. I have in my head complete worlds, what the atmosphere is made of, how much of the planet is inhabited, what types of beings live there and how they interact, what animals and birds and plants are there, what’s above ground and below it, what the social structure is. It’s all there in my head—and I assume everyone else can see it as well. Important parts of it never make it to paper—until I get several chapters in and realize I’ve missed out a huge section that will help the reader make sense of the world, so I dump it in the middle. Yes, it’s necessary, but not all in one hit and not all in the middle. BREAK IT UP AND SPREAD IT OUT.
There are more little things I do, but this is what’s made my list. I followed this process when I was writing and editing The Courage to Love which was released by Dreamspinner Press on 23 August 2013. I think it worked: at least none of the reviews have mentioned the story sagging in the middle! ;)
September 20, 2013
Prose becomes poetry
At the Brisbane Writers’ Festival recently, I attended a Poetry for Beginners workshop run by Luke Beesley.
I was given a page from one of Margaret Atwood’s novels. I have no idea which novel, but it was page 31-32. The task was to pull out a few words or a phrase and display it in poetic for—to create a poem from the prose.
I couldn’t decide on one thing, so I took the first half of one sentence and, a couple of paragraphs below, the last part of another sentence.
The words are not mine—they belong to Margaret Atwood. The arrangement is mine. I used time as the marker for the enjambment. I put the fullstop at the end to signify the finality of death. Apparently there’s more to analyse in that poem but I don’t know enough about poetry to understand it. That doesn’t stop me from enjoying writing and reading it.
I was given a page from one of Margaret Atwood’s novels. I have no idea which novel, but it was page 31-32. The task was to pull out a few words or a phrase and display it in poetic for—to create a poem from the prose.
I couldn’t decide on one thing, so I took the first half of one sentence and, a couple of paragraphs below, the last part of another sentence.
The words are not mine—they belong to Margaret Atwood. The arrangement is mine. I used time as the marker for the enjambment. I put the fullstop at the end to signify the finality of death. Apparently there’s more to analyse in that poem but I don’t know enough about poetry to understand it. That doesn’t stop me from enjoying writing and reading it.
September 13, 2013
Poetry for Blackberries
At the Brisbane Writers’ Festival recently, I attended a Poetry for Beginners workshop run by Luke Beesley.
I’m not a poet and I don’t have any real desire to become one. I do, however, often write poems as a quasi-introduction to chapters in science fiction novels I write. I want those poems to be the best they can be, even if I’m not a poet. Hence the workshop.
One of the exercises was for the group to split into two. One group had to write down a list of words describing blackberries. The other group had to write down a list of words describing the cosmos. Then the blackberry group had to use the cosmos words to write a poem about blackberries, and the cosmos group had to use the blackberry words to write a poem about the cosmos. This is my effort. It's untitled but it was written with one of my science fiction stories in mind.
Be kind –I did tell you I’m not a poet.
I even illustrated it.
I’m not a poet and I don’t have any real desire to become one. I do, however, often write poems as a quasi-introduction to chapters in science fiction novels I write. I want those poems to be the best they can be, even if I’m not a poet. Hence the workshop.
One of the exercises was for the group to split into two. One group had to write down a list of words describing blackberries. The other group had to write down a list of words describing the cosmos. Then the blackberry group had to use the cosmos words to write a poem about blackberries, and the cosmos group had to use the blackberry words to write a poem about the cosmos. This is my effort. It's untitled but it was written with one of my science fiction stories in mind.
Be kind –I did tell you I’m not a poet.
I even illustrated it.
September 6, 2013
I think I'm turning Gallifreyan
E E MontgomeryI'm a bit of a Dr Who fan. I don't go crazy about it or anything--I don't own a single Dr Who costume although I do own a Dr Who t-shirt or two. I follow a couple of Dr Who fan sites and am trying to work out how to design a house extension so it would be bigger on the inside than what it appears on the outside.While browsing one of the fan-sites, I saw a link to a site that was titled: Learn to write Gallifreyan in 9 easy Steps. Of course I had to follow it and see. It led me to another site called Sherman's Planet. Apparently Sherman, a junior in high school, has written the Gallifreyan alphabet, music symbols and mathematics. She's created some basic programs that will write and translate Gallifreyan as well. To me, doing those things at all is a pretty amazing accomplishment, but doing them when you're a junior in high school!?
Just wow!
Of course I got all excited and had to learn how to do it. I spent hours pouring over the instructions and trying to work out how to create the designs myself. While I understand the construction and logic behind it I'm having trouble working out exactly where each symbol is best placed. I stuck with it until I could do it and knew, with practice, it would eventually feel easy but I don't have that sort of time to devote to something that won't achieve more than some entertainment. It was a relief to open Sherman's program and have it do the hard work for me.
Then I realised I'd spent so long drawing little circles and curves and lines, I hadn't thought of anything erudite to say. So, like every eighth grader, I started with my name.
Then I started pulling quotes from some of my stories. Here's one from The Courage to Love. I put it in two parts because it looked too busy otherwise.
And now I have that song "I thing I'm turning Japanese" running through my head, except it's "I think I'm turning Gallifreyan".
I wonder if there's a world out there where adopting a culture, or changing race, is something that can be done by osmosis. Maybe I need to create one...
A man's worth is not measured by the battles he fights
but by the grief he leaves behind.
August 30, 2013
Oh my God!
I'm trying not to obsess over the release of The Courage to Love. Yes, I'm checking Amazon and Goodreads but only once a day. This morning there was another fantastic review awaiting me on Goodreads.
Thomaidha Papa called the story 'an intense emotional ride'. She said 'The pain and mourning, the intense emotional shower you get the moment you start reading all were so familiar, but then it hit me and good God, it really hit me. I had to go and restart it from first line, I just had to.'
Of the characters, Thommie says, 'Bernard. I loved him. This is one character that makes other’s pale. A man both strong and determined, and weak and in need of care. What a wonderful mix. What a great work describing warriors and their ptsd.', 'I loved seeing Mrs. Gill again; I loved meeting her and her incredible personality that bled in the text whenever she was in a scene.' And, of course, there was David: 'At times even I felt like hitting David and wake him up from his stupidity.'
That last comment made me laugh. Believe me I tried hitting David over the head when I was writing the story, but he remained stubborn to the end.
But wait, there's more... Click on the link above to read the full review. It gave me the warm-fuzzies.
Danielle called it 'A beautifully written and gripping love story.'
I'm loving this week. It's a bit nerve-wracking when I think about whether or not the story is selling, but mostly I'm just happy someone else out there has read it and enjoyed it as much as I've enjoyed creating it.
Right now, I'm grinning my way through life.
Thomaidha Papa called the story 'an intense emotional ride'. She said 'The pain and mourning, the intense emotional shower you get the moment you start reading all were so familiar, but then it hit me and good God, it really hit me. I had to go and restart it from first line, I just had to.'
Of the characters, Thommie says, 'Bernard. I loved him. This is one character that makes other’s pale. A man both strong and determined, and weak and in need of care. What a wonderful mix. What a great work describing warriors and their ptsd.', 'I loved seeing Mrs. Gill again; I loved meeting her and her incredible personality that bled in the text whenever she was in a scene.' And, of course, there was David: 'At times even I felt like hitting David and wake him up from his stupidity.'
That last comment made me laugh. Believe me I tried hitting David over the head when I was writing the story, but he remained stubborn to the end.
But wait, there's more... Click on the link above to read the full review. It gave me the warm-fuzzies.
Danielle called it 'A beautifully written and gripping love story.'
I'm loving this week. It's a bit nerve-wracking when I think about whether or not the story is selling, but mostly I'm just happy someone else out there has read it and enjoyed it as much as I've enjoyed creating it.
Right now, I'm grinning my way through life.
August 23, 2013
Releases, Reviews and Roller Coasters
This week has been full of the three Rs.
The Courage to Love was released yesterday. I've been looking forward to seeing this one in print for so long, it became an unattainable fantasy, then suddenly it was there.
This story is the rest of David's story (remember him from Between Love and Honor when he loses Carl in such a dramatic and tragic way). He returns home from war, realises he hasn't mourned Carl at all (he's been too busy fighting and staying alive), meets Bernard, nearly loses Bernard, loses his job... the list goes on. David's on his own roller coaster of life, trying to find even ground. It takes him a while and I don't think he'd be able to do it at all without Bernard, so it's a good thing Bernard is there.
I have a soft spot for David. I've loved him ever since Carl introduced him to me. He deserves his happy ending, even though he can be an idiot a lot of the time.
So that's the release - yesterday in fact. It's available from Dreamspinner Press, Amazon and ARe.
The Courage to LoveBy: E E Montgomery | Other books by E E Montgomery
Published By: Dreamspinner Press
ISBN # 9781623809447
Word Count: 60294
Heat Index
Available in: Epub, Mobipocket (.mobi), Adobe Acrobat
The review came a couple of days before release. Josie from Mrs Condit Reads Books reviewed the story and gave it FIVE sweet peas! How exciting is that. She even used my favourite piece of dialogue from the book:
“My grandfather used to tell me,” Bernard continued, “that a man’s worth wasn’t measured by the battles he fought but by the grief he left behind. I’d say that means your Carl was one hell of a man.”
The crackle of dry eucalyptus leaves next door comforted me as I thought of what Bernard said. Eventually, as the light dimmed around us, I turned to him. “Can I come with you?”
Here are some of the lovely things Josie says:
"In fact [Mrs. Gill]'s probably one of my favorite secondary characters of all time.
The writing is beautiful, it’s descriptive and eloquent, the flashbacks are sensitively written, designed to show the reader what both men went through during the war, but not to take over the story in any way. ... I adore historical stories and have a weakness for this part of history, for stories that show the unbreakable human spirit and that’s what this story does, it shows how two men, back from the war to end all wars, can build a future in a world not yet ready for them. I adored it."
And that brings me back to the roller coaster. After all the anticipation, the fantastic review, receiving the hard copies in the mail and, finally, the release, I'm exhausted. I think I need to sleep for a week to recover, but I'm so hyped my mind is buzzing with all the promotional stuff I should be doing and the next story I want to write - the last in the Just Life series - and the one after that...
The Courage to Love was released yesterday. I've been looking forward to seeing this one in print for so long, it became an unattainable fantasy, then suddenly it was there.
This story is the rest of David's story (remember him from Between Love and Honor when he loses Carl in such a dramatic and tragic way). He returns home from war, realises he hasn't mourned Carl at all (he's been too busy fighting and staying alive), meets Bernard, nearly loses Bernard, loses his job... the list goes on. David's on his own roller coaster of life, trying to find even ground. It takes him a while and I don't think he'd be able to do it at all without Bernard, so it's a good thing Bernard is there.
I have a soft spot for David. I've loved him ever since Carl introduced him to me. He deserves his happy ending, even though he can be an idiot a lot of the time.
So that's the release - yesterday in fact. It's available from Dreamspinner Press, Amazon and ARe.
The Courage to LoveBy: E E Montgomery | Other books by E E MontgomeryPublished By: Dreamspinner Press
ISBN # 9781623809447
Word Count: 60294
Heat Index
Available in: Epub, Mobipocket (.mobi), Adobe Acrobat
The review came a couple of days before release. Josie from Mrs Condit Reads Books reviewed the story and gave it FIVE sweet peas! How exciting is that. She even used my favourite piece of dialogue from the book:
“My grandfather used to tell me,” Bernard continued, “that a man’s worth wasn’t measured by the battles he fought but by the grief he left behind. I’d say that means your Carl was one hell of a man.”
The crackle of dry eucalyptus leaves next door comforted me as I thought of what Bernard said. Eventually, as the light dimmed around us, I turned to him. “Can I come with you?”
Here are some of the lovely things Josie says:
"In fact [Mrs. Gill]'s probably one of my favorite secondary characters of all time.
The writing is beautiful, it’s descriptive and eloquent, the flashbacks are sensitively written, designed to show the reader what both men went through during the war, but not to take over the story in any way. ... I adore historical stories and have a weakness for this part of history, for stories that show the unbreakable human spirit and that’s what this story does, it shows how two men, back from the war to end all wars, can build a future in a world not yet ready for them. I adored it."
And that brings me back to the roller coaster. After all the anticipation, the fantastic review, receiving the hard copies in the mail and, finally, the release, I'm exhausted. I think I need to sleep for a week to recover, but I'm so hyped my mind is buzzing with all the promotional stuff I should be doing and the next story I want to write - the last in the Just Life series - and the one after that...
August 16, 2013
My life as an amoeba
It's science week. In my life, that's cause for celebration and costumes. I've spent the first few days of the week as various types of scientist. There was the mad scientist in blue lab coat, pink tie and orange hair, the super-serious scientist who wore opaque tights and sensible shoes and a jet black bob. All day at work colleagues stopped to look twice, not realizing it was me. Funny, they didn't have the same trouble when I was the mad scientist. Then there was the modern day scientist in jeans and t-shirt with orange protective eyewear and a beaker full of nifty orange stuff. These things must be colour-matched. My assistant came as a doctor, complete with patient on oxygen.
Then I had to get imaginative. Thursday was CO2 day. How hard can it be to be a gas, right? Of course beans don't help. That produces methane. And I couldn't really make a spectacle out of breathing; I'd end up hyperventilating. I don't own any bonsai to carry around with me and photosynthesis is invisible. That was about the end of my imagination so I made signs to wear. How can wearing a huge 'C' and two 'O's not be CO2? I even had them positioned correctly, relative to each other, with the right number of protons, neutrons and electrons. Not that many worked it out - disappointing.
That left Friday and the amoeba. A sheet took care of the single-cell appearance and I tried hard all day, really I did, but I was completely unable to divide correctly. Even then, people needed a bit of help. I pinned this to my back:
I am an AMOEBA
(a shapeless unicellular organism)
August 9, 2013
Foolproof way to get writing time and another excerpt
I found a foolproof way to get writing time.
Panic.
That's all it takes. On Wednesday night I had chest pains. At first I thought it was a muscle spasm in my back but it spread and move around my chest and I got breathless and it didn't go away. By Thursday I was still feeling tight in the chest and like I couldn't take a deep breath so I went to the doctor and asked to have it checked - just in case.
I ended up spending three days in hospital getting various tests done and an awful lot of waiting time for the specialist to deliver his verdict and discharge me. With me, I had my laptop and my knitting so I alternated between activities.
I've now finished "Ordinary People", Vinnie's story that I've posted excerpts of the last couple of weeks. I'll post one final one here this week. It's Vinnie's Great-grandma. She died when he was little but he still has vivid memories of her.
And the result of my hospital stay? I was right at the start of it all, but at least now I know I'm very healthy if not quite fit enough.
The excerpt:
He didn’t know what to think. James seemed legitimate. He’d even shown Vinnie his police uniform and badge when he asked. What he’d told Vinnie sounded so unbelievable but who would make up such a story. Unless he was the kidnapper. Vinnie looked sideways at James, trying not to make it obvious.
“What story are you thinking up now, princess?”
Vinnie gasped.
His great-grandmother used to say exactly the same thing to him when he was little and he was prancing around in her silks and furs. His father would always tell her not to encourage Vinnie but she’d tell Dad to shut-the-fuck-up-and-let-the-boy-be-a-child. Sometimes she wasn’t full of shit. One day he and Great-grandma pretended they’d been kidnapped by bank robbers. She’d tied him to the chair with one of her silk scarves and given him one end so he could pull it to release the knot. Then she’d tickled him until tears streamed down his face and he tugged the silk and fell off the chair and giggled until he couldn’t breathe. Great-grandma lay on the floor and giggled with him.
“Are you going to tie me up?”
Panic.
That's all it takes. On Wednesday night I had chest pains. At first I thought it was a muscle spasm in my back but it spread and move around my chest and I got breathless and it didn't go away. By Thursday I was still feeling tight in the chest and like I couldn't take a deep breath so I went to the doctor and asked to have it checked - just in case.
I ended up spending three days in hospital getting various tests done and an awful lot of waiting time for the specialist to deliver his verdict and discharge me. With me, I had my laptop and my knitting so I alternated between activities.
I've now finished "Ordinary People", Vinnie's story that I've posted excerpts of the last couple of weeks. I'll post one final one here this week. It's Vinnie's Great-grandma. She died when he was little but he still has vivid memories of her.
And the result of my hospital stay? I was right at the start of it all, but at least now I know I'm very healthy if not quite fit enough.
The excerpt:
He didn’t know what to think. James seemed legitimate. He’d even shown Vinnie his police uniform and badge when he asked. What he’d told Vinnie sounded so unbelievable but who would make up such a story. Unless he was the kidnapper. Vinnie looked sideways at James, trying not to make it obvious.
“What story are you thinking up now, princess?”
Vinnie gasped.
His great-grandmother used to say exactly the same thing to him when he was little and he was prancing around in her silks and furs. His father would always tell her not to encourage Vinnie but she’d tell Dad to shut-the-fuck-up-and-let-the-boy-be-a-child. Sometimes she wasn’t full of shit. One day he and Great-grandma pretended they’d been kidnapped by bank robbers. She’d tied him to the chair with one of her silk scarves and given him one end so he could pull it to release the knot. Then she’d tickled him until tears streamed down his face and he tugged the silk and fell off the chair and giggled until he couldn’t breathe. Great-grandma lay on the floor and giggled with him.
“Are you going to tie me up?”
August 3, 2013
Promo: The Courage to Love
I have the cover for The Courage to Love, coming out with Dreamspinner Press on 23 August. It's gorgeous. Anne Cain did a fantastic job. The Courage to Love is the continuation of David's story after Between Love and Honor. The first twenty paperbacks are signed by me.
And the blurb:
And the blurb:
