Joyce Harmon's Blog, page 8
March 24, 2012
March 21, 2012
Argh! Where's the murder weapon?!
My heroine has cleverly deduced what the missing murder weapon was, but before she can cleverly deduce where it is, I need to put it somewhere…
March 17, 2012
A Pet Peeve
Folks, I'm wearing my reader hat today, because I just finished reading a book that committed the plotting sin that irks me the most. I'm talking about when the writer gives the heroine (it's almost always a woman) a beloved cat or dog, for the sole purpose of having the baddy kill the animal to demonstrate to the reader how badbadbadCRAZYbad he is and how much incredible peril the heroine is in.
Don't do that.
Why not? Well, for one thing, it bugs a lot of readers. I know I'm not alone in this. Do you think that's balanced out by the readers it pleases? You think someone can come to the end of an otherwise satisfying read, only to dash off an annoyed e-mail to the writer, complaining because they didn't kill the dog? Does. not. happen.
So why do it? The displeased readers are not counterbalanced with an equal number of pleased readers. You've lost word of mouth. And come on, it's trite. It's overdone. It's a cliche.
You're writing because you're creative, right? So if you want to get across the point of how bad your villain is, come up with a way to demonstrate that which hasn't already been done, overdone, and done to death a thousand times before. The 'kill the cat' scene not only irks plenty of us, it also lowers our opinion of your creative abilities.
So please. Show some originality. Either leave the pets alone or don't create them in the first place.
March 16, 2012
March 15, 2012
Visit Oak Crest Winery
I had a nice outing last week – I went to Oak Crest Winery right here in King George County.
Those of you who've read my blog from the beginning know that there was once a time when I did winery tours and tastings at a local winery. (Different one.) Since then, I'd sort of lost contact with the local wine scene, but since I'm continuing my Passatonnack Winery series, I figured it was time to reconnect.
So I visited Oak Crest. It's a beautiful vineyard, with a gift shop and tasting room.
Back when I was doing wine tastings, it seemed that the thing among mid-Atlantic wineries was to try to out-French the French. The grapes were French, the style was French, the oak was French. But these days, wineries seem more willing to branch out beyond the French varietals. Oak Crest does the French varietals, but is also doing wonderful things with a grape called Symphony, a hybrid created by Dr. Harold Olmo in 1948.
Oak Crest makes a sweet Symphony dessert style wine, and also a semi-sweet called Moonlight Sonata, which is my new favorite. It had been the thing back in My Day to consider that the only good wines were dry wines; I tried to 'educate my palate', but have to admit that I've always preferred a bit of sweetness to my wine. I was happy to hear that sweeter wines are becoming more popular.
How about a hot wine? Not mulled wine, but spicy wine? I'd never heard of a hot wine, but I tried Hot Jazz, a Symphony wine with a hint of jalapeno. Sound crazy? It's amazingly good. At first sniff, you expect some real fire, but the taste is awesome; the level of heat is just right for sipping.
And for a red, try Cannon Ridge, with just a touch of sweetness.
I picked up some brochures at the gift shop and discovered that there are a lot more wineries around here than there were fifteen years ago. So I'll be doing some exploring.
If you're visiting the Northern Neck, don't miss Oak Crest Winery.
March 14, 2012
Check it out!
Died On The Vine is now featured at the Tomtey cover art gallery:
Lots of other cool books featured there, go read all about 'em.
