Barbara Venkataraman's Blog: A Trip on the Mobius Strip, page 21
March 24, 2016
In case you couldn't make it: My Workshop on Emotional Resonance :-)
My name is Barbara Venkataraman and yes, that's my real name. One time, I shortened it as a user name to BarbaraVen, which looked like Barbara Raven and I thought, Wow! What a great name for a mystery writer, with its homage to Edgar Alan Poe. Such a missed opportunity. I tell you this, if I ever write my own version of "Fifty Shades of Grey", I'll use that name. Look for it!
I'm a practicing family law attorney and mediator and I write cozy mysteries. A cozy mystery is defined as a mystery without gratuitous violence or graphic sex which features an amateur sleuth, usually a woman, and takes place in a small town or confined setting. Think "Murder She Wrote". My cozy mysteries feature a reluctant family law attorney named Jamie Quinn who lives in Hollywood FL. I've written four mysteries so far and am currently working on the 5th one, "Engaged in Danger". My topic today is:
GET A RESPONSE: WRITE AN EFFECTIVE EMOTIONAL SCENE
Let's start with a quote by the great English novelist E.M. Forester. He said : "The king died and then the queen died” is a story. But “the king died and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The reason it's a plot, he said, is because there is cause and effect. I would add that it's a plot for another reason--because of emotion. When a writer creates a plot, what he's doing is setting up a series of questions that propel the story forward, questions that the reader wants answered enough to keep reading. For that to happen, the reader must be engaged in the story--and more than that, the reader must be invested in the characters. Think about it this way, if a stranger came up to you and said I'd love to tell you a story, can you spare 8 hours? You'd say, I don't know about that, this better be a damn good story. So you make a deal. The writer says before we start, I need you to suspend your disbelief and just play along, okay? Also, I'm planning to manipulate your emotions. I figured you'd want to know that up front. You nod and say that's fine. I'll keep up my end of the deal because I actually want to be manipulated--but only if it's done well. Otherwise, I'm going to hate you forever. And also I'll give you a bad rating on Amazon.
Speaking of having your emotions manipulated, I'd like to share one of my pet peeves. Once I tell you about it, it will always bother you too. Shall I go on? Okay, I hate it when movies have a musical score that is heavy-handed. Like, here's some uplifting music, feel happy now. Here's comes the sad music, take out your Kleenex. Now we have romantic music, these characters are going to fall in love. If the acting and dialogue aren't doing their job, then the music only makes it worse. Except for it's a scary movie, then the ominous music lets me know something bad is about to happen. I do appreciate the warning. Then I can start squeezing my husband's arm with an iron claw! (Cue the Jaws music)
So, how do you write an effective emotional scene without cheapening it or waving a banner that says--get ready, emotional scene coming up? Before your readers can become involved with a character emotionally, they need to know the character and understand him, identify with him in some way.Like when you hear about a car accident, it's sad. But if it's someone you care about, it's devastating.
A reader should feel like he is in the scene, experiencing what the character is experiencing, all senses should be engaged. The author's first decision is point of view--Who is telling the story? First person point of view brings the reader right into the mind of the narrator. It's hard not to feel close to someone when you are privy to their every thought--but it's not the only way. Think about Harry Potter. Throughout most of the seven books, it's Harry's point of view we experience, with an occasional switch-off, like when Snape meets with Voldemort or meets with Dumbledore and Harry isn't present. But it's not written in first-person point of view. It's third-person limited, limited to Harry mostly. Let's examine the title of the first chapter: "The Boy Who Lived". Already we're asking, what boy, what dangerous thing happened to him? We're curious, but not invested. Our first glimpse of Harry is as a baby who has survived his parents being killed by a dangerous person named Voldemort. He's been left on the doorstep of unpleasant relatives by a trio of magical people. Ten years go by and we meet Harry, who seems well-adjusted despite having to live with people who treat him miserably, and we start living his life with him, discovering that he's a wizard, why he's special, what really happened to his parents. We root for him to get away from his relatives and to learn some magic. Although we are not orphans, we understand his loneliness, his desire for family. He's not a perfect kid, he has layers. People are complicated and your characters should be too.
Authors rarely convey emotion by having a character say "I'm sad, I'm happy." No, they have an entire bag of tricks at their disposal. The setting is one example. A table is a table, right? But seen through the eyes of a sad person, that table can be worn-out, damaged, remembered as the scene of happier times that will never come again. Body language and body movement is another way. Slumped shoulders, sparkling eyes, saying she dragged herself to the party. Having a chatty person suddenly go silent can denote great happiness, or shock, or grief. Have a normally stoic person leap in the air can convey emotion without any dialogue. Understated dialogue- Jordan Peele from the show Key & Peele. Did you hear how he proposed to his girlfriend? He tweeted an emoji of an engagement ring to her.
Context is crucial--show who your character is so that we know when he or she is overreacting, under-reacting.
My dad is a tough critic and any time one of my sisters or I would make dinner, we'd ask, "How was it, dad?" He'd always say the same thing, "not bad". One day, my sister cooked all his favorite things and made a lovely dinner. After we finished, she asked him, "So, how was it dad? He saw all of us watching him, waiting for his answer and he smiled this big smile and said "It was really…. Not bad at all". And then we all threw our napkins at him. In context, if you didn't know my dad's habit, that story wouldn't make sense.
In my first mystery. "Death by Didgeridoo", the protagonist, Jamie Quinn, is depressed after her mother dies and she is trying to gather her thoughts. "But it's no use. They are shadow puppets, gray wisps flitting through my brain and they refuse to be caught." I never used the words sad or depressed, but I think that comes across.
Let's do an exercise:
There's a torrential rain coming after a long drought. You are a farmer & your life savings are invested in your crops. You've been praying for a rain like this to come.
Give me one dramatic but surprising action the farmer takes upon hearing the news.
Give me one sentence expressing his emotion without naming the emotion & include a color.
Now, let's change it up, the rain is still coming but it's going to drown the crops.
Give me one dramatic but surprising action the farmer takes upon hearing the news.
Give me a five or six word sentence expressing his emotion without naming the emotion & include a color.
Here is a blog post I wrote that sums up emotional resonance in a novel.
THEN WHY ARE YOU HERE?
Picture yourself in the stands at a baseball game, not just any baseball game, but the last game of the 2014 World Series--winner takes all. You've invested a lot to be here, having spent a small fortune on a ticket (that was very hard to come by) and an entire day of your life driving, parking, and fighting the crowds, all so that you could watch this game. The man sitting next to you, clearly a Giants fan, is decked out in so much orange and black that he could be an advertisement for Halloween. In between cheering for his team, your seatmate observes how quiet you are and asks:
"Hey, man, who are you rooting for?"
"Nobody in particular," you answer.
The man is flabbergasted. "Then, why are you here?"
Why, indeed? When you have no stake in the outcome, no skin in the game, why would you stick around? That is the reader's dilemma. Authors are asking a lot of them: to invest money in a book and to spend precious time reading it, but what's in it for them? What do they get out of the experience? For a reader to enjoy a book, to be satisfied with his expenditure of time and money, he doesn't necessarily have to like the characters or have anything in common with them, but he must be invested in them. In other words, he needs to be rooting for somebody, to care about at least one character's plight, to wonder how that character will resolve the issues in his life and whether he will learn anything along the way.
A good example of the reader's dilemma is "The Kite Runner", a 2003 novel set in Afghanistan where the protagonist, Amir, sacrifices (spoiler alert!) his friend Hassan by not rescuing him from his attackers. Amir not only justifies his behavior, but takes out his guilt by treating Hassan horribly, causing him to be ostracized, and possibly ruining his life. This protagonist is not likeable or admirable and we are universally appalled by his actions, so, why do we keep reading to the end? Why was this book a runaway bestseller? With an initial printing of 50,000 copies, this book went on to sell seven million copies and was also made into a movie. Everyone loves Harry Potter, the boy wizard, but nobody liked the jealous, weak and morally-bankrupt Amir. Even when Amir tried to redeem himself years later by helping Hassan's son, the reader felt no respect for him. Too little, too late, we thought. But we read on--and not just to find out how Hassan's life turned out. We kept reading because we were both fascinated and horrified, convinced that we would have done the right thing if faced with the same choices. In other words, that we were not Amir! But then, we wondered whether we would have been too scared to try to rescue our friend from his vicious attackers, whether we would have been willing to admit that we stood there and did nothing. The novel struck a chord because it made us explore our own characters; it made us think about how we would act in such an impossible situation. How would we deal with jealousy? With guilt? Would we be willing to risk our lives to redeem ourselves or to right a terrible wrong?
As readers, we were invested, big time! But then, just when we thought the stakes couldn't possibly get any higher and that Amir's regret and guilt couldn't get any worse, we learned that Hassan wasn't only a servant boy, he was also Amir's illegitimate brother! Gut-wrenching stuff, for sure. And that's the answer to our question--we stick around because of EMOTION. A novel without emotion is like a paper doll. It can be a beautiful paper doll, but it will never be three-dimensional no matter how hard it tries. Clever dialogue, sharp prose, interesting characters, lovely scenery, may be enough to hold our interest, but we will always leave feeling dissatisfied.
My Jamie Quinn Mystery Series opens with my protagonist Jamie Quinn mourning the death of her mother. Nothing can pull her out of her depression until her aunt calls in a panic because her disabled son Adam, Jamie's cousin, has been accused of murdering his music teacher. The love Jamie has for her aunt and cousin, the guilt she feels for not being there for Adam in the past, for not being there for her aunt in the present, all motivate her to come back to life. In this first book, Death by Didgeridoo, there's enough guilt to go around, as well as some jealousy, revenge and regret, but there's also playfulness in the dialogue and some fun scenes between characters. Emotion gives a story genuineness, but not necessarily realism. Until I wrote my book, I’d never heard of anyone else being killed by a didgeridoo, so that's kind of far out there, but the interplay between Jamie and the other characters, as well as the doubt and insecurity Jamie expresses are sentiments the reader can relate to.
To sum up, I will quote you an Amazon book review I once read: "I wasted eight hours of my life reading this book and I'm writing a review to save you from the same fate!" What a kind soul, to want to save strangers from wasting their time! As an author offering advice to new authors, I hope to do the same because, if you're not going to write with emotional resonance, then, why are you here?
I'm a practicing family law attorney and mediator and I write cozy mysteries. A cozy mystery is defined as a mystery without gratuitous violence or graphic sex which features an amateur sleuth, usually a woman, and takes place in a small town or confined setting. Think "Murder She Wrote". My cozy mysteries feature a reluctant family law attorney named Jamie Quinn who lives in Hollywood FL. I've written four mysteries so far and am currently working on the 5th one, "Engaged in Danger". My topic today is:
GET A RESPONSE: WRITE AN EFFECTIVE EMOTIONAL SCENE
Let's start with a quote by the great English novelist E.M. Forester. He said : "The king died and then the queen died” is a story. But “the king died and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The reason it's a plot, he said, is because there is cause and effect. I would add that it's a plot for another reason--because of emotion. When a writer creates a plot, what he's doing is setting up a series of questions that propel the story forward, questions that the reader wants answered enough to keep reading. For that to happen, the reader must be engaged in the story--and more than that, the reader must be invested in the characters. Think about it this way, if a stranger came up to you and said I'd love to tell you a story, can you spare 8 hours? You'd say, I don't know about that, this better be a damn good story. So you make a deal. The writer says before we start, I need you to suspend your disbelief and just play along, okay? Also, I'm planning to manipulate your emotions. I figured you'd want to know that up front. You nod and say that's fine. I'll keep up my end of the deal because I actually want to be manipulated--but only if it's done well. Otherwise, I'm going to hate you forever. And also I'll give you a bad rating on Amazon.
Speaking of having your emotions manipulated, I'd like to share one of my pet peeves. Once I tell you about it, it will always bother you too. Shall I go on? Okay, I hate it when movies have a musical score that is heavy-handed. Like, here's some uplifting music, feel happy now. Here's comes the sad music, take out your Kleenex. Now we have romantic music, these characters are going to fall in love. If the acting and dialogue aren't doing their job, then the music only makes it worse. Except for it's a scary movie, then the ominous music lets me know something bad is about to happen. I do appreciate the warning. Then I can start squeezing my husband's arm with an iron claw! (Cue the Jaws music)
So, how do you write an effective emotional scene without cheapening it or waving a banner that says--get ready, emotional scene coming up? Before your readers can become involved with a character emotionally, they need to know the character and understand him, identify with him in some way.Like when you hear about a car accident, it's sad. But if it's someone you care about, it's devastating.
A reader should feel like he is in the scene, experiencing what the character is experiencing, all senses should be engaged. The author's first decision is point of view--Who is telling the story? First person point of view brings the reader right into the mind of the narrator. It's hard not to feel close to someone when you are privy to their every thought--but it's not the only way. Think about Harry Potter. Throughout most of the seven books, it's Harry's point of view we experience, with an occasional switch-off, like when Snape meets with Voldemort or meets with Dumbledore and Harry isn't present. But it's not written in first-person point of view. It's third-person limited, limited to Harry mostly. Let's examine the title of the first chapter: "The Boy Who Lived". Already we're asking, what boy, what dangerous thing happened to him? We're curious, but not invested. Our first glimpse of Harry is as a baby who has survived his parents being killed by a dangerous person named Voldemort. He's been left on the doorstep of unpleasant relatives by a trio of magical people. Ten years go by and we meet Harry, who seems well-adjusted despite having to live with people who treat him miserably, and we start living his life with him, discovering that he's a wizard, why he's special, what really happened to his parents. We root for him to get away from his relatives and to learn some magic. Although we are not orphans, we understand his loneliness, his desire for family. He's not a perfect kid, he has layers. People are complicated and your characters should be too.
Authors rarely convey emotion by having a character say "I'm sad, I'm happy." No, they have an entire bag of tricks at their disposal. The setting is one example. A table is a table, right? But seen through the eyes of a sad person, that table can be worn-out, damaged, remembered as the scene of happier times that will never come again. Body language and body movement is another way. Slumped shoulders, sparkling eyes, saying she dragged herself to the party. Having a chatty person suddenly go silent can denote great happiness, or shock, or grief. Have a normally stoic person leap in the air can convey emotion without any dialogue. Understated dialogue- Jordan Peele from the show Key & Peele. Did you hear how he proposed to his girlfriend? He tweeted an emoji of an engagement ring to her.
Context is crucial--show who your character is so that we know when he or she is overreacting, under-reacting.
My dad is a tough critic and any time one of my sisters or I would make dinner, we'd ask, "How was it, dad?" He'd always say the same thing, "not bad". One day, my sister cooked all his favorite things and made a lovely dinner. After we finished, she asked him, "So, how was it dad? He saw all of us watching him, waiting for his answer and he smiled this big smile and said "It was really…. Not bad at all". And then we all threw our napkins at him. In context, if you didn't know my dad's habit, that story wouldn't make sense.
In my first mystery. "Death by Didgeridoo", the protagonist, Jamie Quinn, is depressed after her mother dies and she is trying to gather her thoughts. "But it's no use. They are shadow puppets, gray wisps flitting through my brain and they refuse to be caught." I never used the words sad or depressed, but I think that comes across.
Let's do an exercise:
There's a torrential rain coming after a long drought. You are a farmer & your life savings are invested in your crops. You've been praying for a rain like this to come.
Give me one dramatic but surprising action the farmer takes upon hearing the news.
Give me one sentence expressing his emotion without naming the emotion & include a color.
Now, let's change it up, the rain is still coming but it's going to drown the crops.
Give me one dramatic but surprising action the farmer takes upon hearing the news.
Give me a five or six word sentence expressing his emotion without naming the emotion & include a color.
Here is a blog post I wrote that sums up emotional resonance in a novel.
THEN WHY ARE YOU HERE?
Picture yourself in the stands at a baseball game, not just any baseball game, but the last game of the 2014 World Series--winner takes all. You've invested a lot to be here, having spent a small fortune on a ticket (that was very hard to come by) and an entire day of your life driving, parking, and fighting the crowds, all so that you could watch this game. The man sitting next to you, clearly a Giants fan, is decked out in so much orange and black that he could be an advertisement for Halloween. In between cheering for his team, your seatmate observes how quiet you are and asks:
"Hey, man, who are you rooting for?"
"Nobody in particular," you answer.
The man is flabbergasted. "Then, why are you here?"
Why, indeed? When you have no stake in the outcome, no skin in the game, why would you stick around? That is the reader's dilemma. Authors are asking a lot of them: to invest money in a book and to spend precious time reading it, but what's in it for them? What do they get out of the experience? For a reader to enjoy a book, to be satisfied with his expenditure of time and money, he doesn't necessarily have to like the characters or have anything in common with them, but he must be invested in them. In other words, he needs to be rooting for somebody, to care about at least one character's plight, to wonder how that character will resolve the issues in his life and whether he will learn anything along the way.
A good example of the reader's dilemma is "The Kite Runner", a 2003 novel set in Afghanistan where the protagonist, Amir, sacrifices (spoiler alert!) his friend Hassan by not rescuing him from his attackers. Amir not only justifies his behavior, but takes out his guilt by treating Hassan horribly, causing him to be ostracized, and possibly ruining his life. This protagonist is not likeable or admirable and we are universally appalled by his actions, so, why do we keep reading to the end? Why was this book a runaway bestseller? With an initial printing of 50,000 copies, this book went on to sell seven million copies and was also made into a movie. Everyone loves Harry Potter, the boy wizard, but nobody liked the jealous, weak and morally-bankrupt Amir. Even when Amir tried to redeem himself years later by helping Hassan's son, the reader felt no respect for him. Too little, too late, we thought. But we read on--and not just to find out how Hassan's life turned out. We kept reading because we were both fascinated and horrified, convinced that we would have done the right thing if faced with the same choices. In other words, that we were not Amir! But then, we wondered whether we would have been too scared to try to rescue our friend from his vicious attackers, whether we would have been willing to admit that we stood there and did nothing. The novel struck a chord because it made us explore our own characters; it made us think about how we would act in such an impossible situation. How would we deal with jealousy? With guilt? Would we be willing to risk our lives to redeem ourselves or to right a terrible wrong?
As readers, we were invested, big time! But then, just when we thought the stakes couldn't possibly get any higher and that Amir's regret and guilt couldn't get any worse, we learned that Hassan wasn't only a servant boy, he was also Amir's illegitimate brother! Gut-wrenching stuff, for sure. And that's the answer to our question--we stick around because of EMOTION. A novel without emotion is like a paper doll. It can be a beautiful paper doll, but it will never be three-dimensional no matter how hard it tries. Clever dialogue, sharp prose, interesting characters, lovely scenery, may be enough to hold our interest, but we will always leave feeling dissatisfied.
My Jamie Quinn Mystery Series opens with my protagonist Jamie Quinn mourning the death of her mother. Nothing can pull her out of her depression until her aunt calls in a panic because her disabled son Adam, Jamie's cousin, has been accused of murdering his music teacher. The love Jamie has for her aunt and cousin, the guilt she feels for not being there for Adam in the past, for not being there for her aunt in the present, all motivate her to come back to life. In this first book, Death by Didgeridoo, there's enough guilt to go around, as well as some jealousy, revenge and regret, but there's also playfulness in the dialogue and some fun scenes between characters. Emotion gives a story genuineness, but not necessarily realism. Until I wrote my book, I’d never heard of anyone else being killed by a didgeridoo, so that's kind of far out there, but the interplay between Jamie and the other characters, as well as the doubt and insecurity Jamie expresses are sentiments the reader can relate to.
To sum up, I will quote you an Amazon book review I once read: "I wasted eight hours of my life reading this book and I'm writing a review to save you from the same fate!" What a kind soul, to want to save strangers from wasting their time! As an author offering advice to new authors, I hope to do the same because, if you're not going to write with emotional resonance, then, why are you here?
March 16, 2016
Come to my writing workshop tomorrow! :-)
Please join me and some of my favorite authors and friends at the Coral Springs Festival of the Arts Literary Workshops. My presentation is on Thursday, March 17 at 1:00 p.m. Hope to see you there!
My topic is: "Get a Response: Write an Effective Emotional Scene". (sob! smirk! giggle! gasp!)
The Coral Springs Festival Of The Arts – Featuring Local Artists, Musicians, Performers, Food And So Much More. Come And Enjoy Yourself!
CSFOA.ORG
My topic is: "Get a Response: Write an Effective Emotional Scene". (sob! smirk! giggle! gasp!)
The Coral Springs Festival Of The Arts – Featuring Local Artists, Musicians, Performers, Food And So Much More. Come And Enjoy Yourself!
CSFOA.ORG
March 5, 2016
Free e-book on Amazon 3/5-3/9!
Happy Sunday everyone!
It seems to me that you might need a book to read on this beautiful day and so, to help you out, I'm giving away my collection of the first three Jamie Quinn mysteries from 3/5-3/9. Tell your friends!
Here is the link:
http://www.amazon.com/Jamie-Quinn-Mys...
Here is the blurb:
Books 1-3 of the Jamie Quinn Mystery Series! Including:
"Death by Didgeridoo"-Winner of the Indie Book of the Day award. Reluctant lawyer, Jamie Quinn, still reeling from the death of her mother, is pulled into a game of deception, jealousy, and vengeance when her cousin, Adam, is wrongfully accused of murder. It's up to Jamie to find the real murderer before it's too late. It doesn't help that the victim is a former rock star with more enemies than friends, or that Adam confessed to a murder he didn't commit.
"The Case of the Killer Divorce"-Reluctant lawyer, Jamie Quinn, has returned to her family law practice after a hiatus due to the death of her mother. It's business as usual until a bitter divorce case turns into a murder investigation, and Jamie's client becomes the prime suspect. When she can't untangle truth from lies, Jamie enlists the help of Duke Broussard, her favorite private investigator, to try to clear her client's name. And she’s hoping that, in his spare time, he can help her find her long-lost father.
"Peril in the Park"-There's big trouble in the park system. Someone is making life difficult for Jamie Quinn's boyfriend, Kip Simons, the new director of Broward County parks. Was it the angry supervisor passed over for promotion? The disgruntled employee Kip recently fired? Or someone with a bigger ax to grind? If Jamie can't figure it out soon, she may be looking for a new boyfriend because there’s a dead guy in the park and Kip has gone missing! With the help of her favorite P.I., Duke Broussard, Jamie must race the clock to find Kip before it’s too late.
A preview of the next Jamie Quinn Mystery, "Engaged in Danger," can be found at the end of the book.
It seems to me that you might need a book to read on this beautiful day and so, to help you out, I'm giving away my collection of the first three Jamie Quinn mysteries from 3/5-3/9. Tell your friends!
Here is the link:
http://www.amazon.com/Jamie-Quinn-Mys...
Here is the blurb:
Books 1-3 of the Jamie Quinn Mystery Series! Including:
"Death by Didgeridoo"-Winner of the Indie Book of the Day award. Reluctant lawyer, Jamie Quinn, still reeling from the death of her mother, is pulled into a game of deception, jealousy, and vengeance when her cousin, Adam, is wrongfully accused of murder. It's up to Jamie to find the real murderer before it's too late. It doesn't help that the victim is a former rock star with more enemies than friends, or that Adam confessed to a murder he didn't commit.
"The Case of the Killer Divorce"-Reluctant lawyer, Jamie Quinn, has returned to her family law practice after a hiatus due to the death of her mother. It's business as usual until a bitter divorce case turns into a murder investigation, and Jamie's client becomes the prime suspect. When she can't untangle truth from lies, Jamie enlists the help of Duke Broussard, her favorite private investigator, to try to clear her client's name. And she’s hoping that, in his spare time, he can help her find her long-lost father.
"Peril in the Park"-There's big trouble in the park system. Someone is making life difficult for Jamie Quinn's boyfriend, Kip Simons, the new director of Broward County parks. Was it the angry supervisor passed over for promotion? The disgruntled employee Kip recently fired? Or someone with a bigger ax to grind? If Jamie can't figure it out soon, she may be looking for a new boyfriend because there’s a dead guy in the park and Kip has gone missing! With the help of her favorite P.I., Duke Broussard, Jamie must race the clock to find Kip before it’s too late.
A preview of the next Jamie Quinn Mystery, "Engaged in Danger," can be found at the end of the book.
February 26, 2016
"Teatime with Mrs. Grammar Person" giveaway!
Check out the "Teatime with Mrs. Grammar Person" giveaway right here:
http://www.editingpenandpublishing.co...
Thanks, Annie!
http://www.editingpenandpublishing.co...
Thanks, Annie!
Spotlight on Jamie Quinn & free book promo! :-)
Check out the spotlight on the Jamie Quinn Mystery Collection on "Princess of the Light"'s wonderful blog! https://princessofthelight.wordpress....
Also, the third Jamie Quinn mystery, "Peril in the Park" is free on Amazon Kindle through March 2nd--happy Friday!
http://www.amazon.com/Peril-Park-Jami...
Also, the third Jamie Quinn mystery, "Peril in the Park" is free on Amazon Kindle through March 2nd--happy Friday!
http://www.amazon.com/Peril-Park-Jami...
February 22, 2016
The power of a book!
Speaking of the awesomeness of books (we were speaking about that, weren’t we?), my son Josh is a student at UF in Gainesville, FL and really isn’t much of a reader (much to my dismay), but he was required to read a book for his history class which had a profound effect on him.
The book was the Pulitzer-Prize winning“Devil in the Grove” by Gilbert King which dealt with a horrible racist event in Florida from 1949. Four black men were falsely accused of raping a 17 year old white woman. They didn't even know each other, had alibis and there was no evidence of a rape but within 24 hours, a posse of 1,000 men led by the Sheriff hunted down one of the men and killed him. The others were brutally tortured to make them confess, although two of them refused. In a rigged trial, they were sentenced to death & the 16 year old, Charles Greenlee was sentenced to life in prison. The KKK came in and burned down black homes and businesses; the National Guard came in to control the KKK. Thurgood Marshall came down to represent them, one of his early cases. He lost, but won a retrial after appealing to the Supreme Court. After the retrial was granted, the sheriff transported the 2 prisoners, Shepherd and Irvin, drove down a dirt rode and shot them both, claiming they tried to escape. One of them played dead and lived to tell the story. Nothing ever happened to the sheriff. The 16 year old eventually got out of prison as did the wounded man, Walter Irvin, although he didn’t live long after that.
Josh was very disturbed by this book and one day while driving back to school he passed the sign for Groveland. He said it was like a punch in the gut—suddenly, it was a real place with real people who had been terribly mistreated. He called me and said he wanted to help exonerate the men since he knew their families had been trying to do that for decades. He thought about making a documentary (he is a film & tv production major), but decided to start a petition. He contacted the author through e-mail and the author was very nice, but said they had tried a petition before & it wasn’t successful. Then Josh tracked down Charles Greenlee’s daughter Carol in Tennessee and introduced himself and said he wanted to help. She was uncertain at first, but he convinced her. He started a petition on change.org last March and it only garnered 200 signatures. Then Josh contacted Leonard Pitts, a nationally syndicated columnist for the Miami Herald, and convinced him to read the book. After that, Pitts interviewed Josh and Carol by phone and wrote a great article. The petition took off and, since then, there have been a dozen articles in various papers and magazines and Josh and Carol have appeared on radio shows, although they still hadn’t met. Today, the petition has 8,330 signatures and many powerful comments by the signers. https://www.change.org/p/exonerate-th...
Josh has been in regular contact with the author, Gilbert King and many other family members of the Groveland Four have reached out to him. Josh had to go to NY for a job fair and met up with Gilbert King there. They made a plan for Gilbert to come speak at UF for Black History Month by partnering with the Levin School of Law and the history dept.
Then a big surprise happened, the mayor of Groveland, Florida announced that he would publicly apologize to the families! After 69 years, this was so huge! They invited the families, as well as Gilbert King and Josh to Groveland last Tuesday and in front of 100 people and lots of press, the mayor gave his heartfelt apology to the families. It was incredible!! http://www.clickorlando.com/news/hist...
Two days, later, Gilbert King spoke at UF about his book and the Jim Crow South and then there was a panel made up of two of the family members, Gilbert King, and Josh. It was so emotional to hear the family speak about what they went through. (And Josh met Carol Greenlee finally!). And then an even bigger surprise came during the question and answer session. A blond man in his 30’s stood up and said that his great-uncle WAS the devil in the grove, his great-uncle was Sheriff Willis McCall and that he had come today to apologize to the families and then he started crying and the whole room gasped and started sniffling and crying, even the moderator. It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever been through. My husband and I were so glad we drove up for that. http://www.alligator.org/news/local/a...
The hope for exoneration has grown stronger and the fight goes on, but I thought you would appreciate learning about the power of a book.
The book was the Pulitzer-Prize winning“Devil in the Grove” by Gilbert King which dealt with a horrible racist event in Florida from 1949. Four black men were falsely accused of raping a 17 year old white woman. They didn't even know each other, had alibis and there was no evidence of a rape but within 24 hours, a posse of 1,000 men led by the Sheriff hunted down one of the men and killed him. The others were brutally tortured to make them confess, although two of them refused. In a rigged trial, they were sentenced to death & the 16 year old, Charles Greenlee was sentenced to life in prison. The KKK came in and burned down black homes and businesses; the National Guard came in to control the KKK. Thurgood Marshall came down to represent them, one of his early cases. He lost, but won a retrial after appealing to the Supreme Court. After the retrial was granted, the sheriff transported the 2 prisoners, Shepherd and Irvin, drove down a dirt rode and shot them both, claiming they tried to escape. One of them played dead and lived to tell the story. Nothing ever happened to the sheriff. The 16 year old eventually got out of prison as did the wounded man, Walter Irvin, although he didn’t live long after that.
Josh was very disturbed by this book and one day while driving back to school he passed the sign for Groveland. He said it was like a punch in the gut—suddenly, it was a real place with real people who had been terribly mistreated. He called me and said he wanted to help exonerate the men since he knew their families had been trying to do that for decades. He thought about making a documentary (he is a film & tv production major), but decided to start a petition. He contacted the author through e-mail and the author was very nice, but said they had tried a petition before & it wasn’t successful. Then Josh tracked down Charles Greenlee’s daughter Carol in Tennessee and introduced himself and said he wanted to help. She was uncertain at first, but he convinced her. He started a petition on change.org last March and it only garnered 200 signatures. Then Josh contacted Leonard Pitts, a nationally syndicated columnist for the Miami Herald, and convinced him to read the book. After that, Pitts interviewed Josh and Carol by phone and wrote a great article. The petition took off and, since then, there have been a dozen articles in various papers and magazines and Josh and Carol have appeared on radio shows, although they still hadn’t met. Today, the petition has 8,330 signatures and many powerful comments by the signers. https://www.change.org/p/exonerate-th...
Josh has been in regular contact with the author, Gilbert King and many other family members of the Groveland Four have reached out to him. Josh had to go to NY for a job fair and met up with Gilbert King there. They made a plan for Gilbert to come speak at UF for Black History Month by partnering with the Levin School of Law and the history dept.
Then a big surprise happened, the mayor of Groveland, Florida announced that he would publicly apologize to the families! After 69 years, this was so huge! They invited the families, as well as Gilbert King and Josh to Groveland last Tuesday and in front of 100 people and lots of press, the mayor gave his heartfelt apology to the families. It was incredible!! http://www.clickorlando.com/news/hist...
Two days, later, Gilbert King spoke at UF about his book and the Jim Crow South and then there was a panel made up of two of the family members, Gilbert King, and Josh. It was so emotional to hear the family speak about what they went through. (And Josh met Carol Greenlee finally!). And then an even bigger surprise came during the question and answer session. A blond man in his 30’s stood up and said that his great-uncle WAS the devil in the grove, his great-uncle was Sheriff Willis McCall and that he had come today to apologize to the families and then he started crying and the whole room gasped and started sniffling and crying, even the moderator. It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever been through. My husband and I were so glad we drove up for that. http://www.alligator.org/news/local/a...
The hope for exoneration has grown stronger and the fight goes on, but I thought you would appreciate learning about the power of a book.
February 15, 2016
Jamie Quinn Collection Giveaway thru Feb. 29th :-)
Thanks to Susan at Suko's Notebook for the Spotlight and Jamie Quinn giveaway! Check out this lovely blog and enter for a chance to win. :-)
http://www.sukosnotebook.net/2016/02/...
http://www.sukosnotebook.net/2016/02/...
February 13, 2016
Join us for Silver's Tea Party on February 14th!
Silver’s Tea Party is on Sunday, 2/14/16 – Mark Your Calendars!
Don’t forget that Silver’s Tea Party is on Sunday, February 14, 2016. Silver has a couple of special guests planned that you are going to really enjoy.
On top of that, we are going to do a book giveaway, our first on Silver Threading!
Barbara Venkataraman will be giving away a copy of her book, Teatime with Mrs. Grammar Person.
Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Teatime-Grammar...
Here is what she says about her book which contains humorous essays on grammar:
“Fear not, Gentle Writer, Mrs. Grammar Person is here and she has the answers to all of the questions you never thought to ask. As a dedicated and serious grammarian, she will do what it takes to be entertaining and enlightening, but never vulgar or coarse. Heavens, no! Where are her smelling salts? Warm and witty, Mrs. G.P. makes grammar interesting with rhyming, wishful thinking, story-telling and a champagne toast. You are cordially invited to join her for a spot of tea!”
HOW DO YOU ENTER TO WIN THIS FUN BOOK?
First… make a cup of tea and join us on Sunday, February 14th. Make sure to find Silver’s Tea Party post to enter the drawing. Please comment on that post with your e-mail and your personal pet peeve, be it grammar or syntax, so that Mrs. G.P. may soothe your jangled nerves while offering tea and sympathy for your grammar woes. This will be a random drawing by the author herself, so make sure to leave your comments and most hated grammar disasters! Here is the link: http://silverthreading.com/
Don’t forget that Silver’s Tea Party is on Sunday, February 14, 2016. Silver has a couple of special guests planned that you are going to really enjoy.
On top of that, we are going to do a book giveaway, our first on Silver Threading!
Barbara Venkataraman will be giving away a copy of her book, Teatime with Mrs. Grammar Person.
Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Teatime-Grammar...
Here is what she says about her book which contains humorous essays on grammar:
“Fear not, Gentle Writer, Mrs. Grammar Person is here and she has the answers to all of the questions you never thought to ask. As a dedicated and serious grammarian, she will do what it takes to be entertaining and enlightening, but never vulgar or coarse. Heavens, no! Where are her smelling salts? Warm and witty, Mrs. G.P. makes grammar interesting with rhyming, wishful thinking, story-telling and a champagne toast. You are cordially invited to join her for a spot of tea!”
HOW DO YOU ENTER TO WIN THIS FUN BOOK?
First… make a cup of tea and join us on Sunday, February 14th. Make sure to find Silver’s Tea Party post to enter the drawing. Please comment on that post with your e-mail and your personal pet peeve, be it grammar or syntax, so that Mrs. G.P. may soothe your jangled nerves while offering tea and sympathy for your grammar woes. This will be a random drawing by the author herself, so make sure to leave your comments and most hated grammar disasters! Here is the link: http://silverthreading.com/
Free E-book on Amazon thru 2/17 only!
If you haven't met Jamie Quinn yet, now's your chance! The first book of my Jamie Quinn cozy mystery series, "Death by Didgeridoo", is on free promo on Amazon Kindle through 2/17. Check it out! :-)
http://www.amazon.com/Death-Didgerido...
http://www.amazon.com/Death-Didgerido...
How Mozart Unlocked a Galactic Secret
Without the music of Mozart, Einstein would never have come up with his theory of relativity. Best argument for arts education ever!
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles...
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles...
A Trip on the Mobius Strip
Whenever I see something funny or weird that you can relate to, I will share it. Anything that will make you smile, or shake your head, or wiggle your ears. I'd like to see that, by the way...
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