C.D. Hersh's Blog, page 26
January 22, 2024
Tell Again Tuesday Research Traps
The Writer Joy From Falling Down Creative Rabbit HolesBy Lucy Mitchell
Are there any fellow writers who, like me, enjoy falling down what I call creative rabbit holes?
I define creative rabbit holes as subjects, ideas, periods in time, events, theories, people or concepts which not only catch your attention but they send your writer brain into a frenzy. These ideas and concepts are so dazzling and beautiful when you first come across them that you can’t imagine going on with your daily life without a little peek. In a desperate attempt to follow the idea / concept and find out more you find yourself falling into an imaginary rabbit hole. Here you will stay for a few days or months or in some cases years. Once in your creative rabbit hole you will read up on this idea / subject, research it and create endless ideas for stories and books. It will be a very pleasurable and nourishing experience for you, the writer. The bit you will struggle with will be . . .
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January 18, 2024
Friday Feature The Girl In The Mirror
A preoccupation with beauty, fueled by 24/7 internet postings, has many young women obsessed with their looks.
I’ve been working out in some form or another all my life. Though I used to be more of a gym rat, today I primarily swim laps, a habit that leaves me with goggle-eye indentations, smudged make-up, and wet hair spiking in all directions. Often, due to the insanely short life span of some of my Speedos, my suits tend to lack the elasticity required to hold my 68-year-old physique in place. I know what you’re thinking. Not a pretty picture.
But for the brief, big hair, sparkly spandex, workout era of the 80s, the health club has mostly been a place where pretty wasn’t important. Perhaps that’s why she had me so nonplussed.
The attractive young woman, probably in her early twenties, stared into her phone. Tight black shorts and a crop top encased her frame. She pursed her lips and lifted her chin. Then, looking over her shoulder at the mirror behind her, she snapped a series of selfies, shots aimed to highlight her, um, posterior.
I tried not to stare, but as I dried off after my shower and dressed, I couldn’t help but sneak a peek, now and then. The camera clicked away. She turned her hips a fraction of an inch and the snapping resumed.
Barbie’s perfect proportions created a generation of women with body-image issues.
I grew up in the world of Barbie, a perfectly proportioned piece of plastic that, no doubt, led to a generation of women with body-image issues. And while there were also magazine and TV beauties to contend with, our experience was relatively benign compared to the image assault young women must deal with today: a 24-hour stream of internet images highlighting impossibly beautiful, often photoshopped, people. Sadly, approximately 91% of women in the U.S. are unhappy with their bodies.
I’m a high school teacher and I worry about the pressure that’s being placed on our young people. Those unhappy with their looks can suffer from low self-esteem, which can lead to eating disorders, early sexual activity, substance use, and suicidal thoughts.
I was approached by one of my journalism students recently. She was writing a story about body-image issues. “Ms. Montgomery, when do women finally become happy with their bodies?”
“Never,” I said, without thinking. Her face fell. “I mean, when you get older, other things become more important.” I scrambled to put a positive spin on my answer but could see the damage was already done.
A week after I first saw her, the girl at the health club reappeared. This time, she faced a different mirror and, after lifting the edge of her shirt to reveal solid abs, she began taking pictures again. After myriad photos, she slumped onto a bench and scrolled through the images, all the while frowning into her phone.
As I gathered my things to leave, she walked in front of another large mirror and paused, staring at the floor, wanting, perhaps, to just pass it by. But something compelled her to stop and lean in close, turning her face one way then the other, as she batted long false eyelashes and tossed her hair.
Pretty can certainly be nice. In fact, studies have shown that, fair or not, attractive people are more likely to get hired, receive promotions, and have larger paychecks than those who might be lacking in the pulchritude department. However, as those pretty folks will eventually learn, physical beauty does not last.
“Ms. Montgomery, when do women finally become happy with their bodies?”
“It all depends,” I should have said to my student reporter. “Perhaps, when we focus on all the fabulous opportunities life throws at us, face our aspirations head on, and surround ourselves with people who love us and make us laugh, maybe then we stop worrying about things that are really not important.”
As I watched the girl wrench away from the mirror, I hoped she might have goals to dream about, hobbies she enjoyed, and people in her life who would love and cherish her, even on those bad-hair days. I wanted to tell her, but I did not. I think there are some things we just need to learn on our own.
Please allow me to offer you a glimpse at my latest women’s fiction novel for you reading pleasure.
The past and present collide when a tenacious reporter seeks information on an eleventh century magician…and uncovers more than she bargained for.
In 1939, archaeologists uncovered a tomb at the Northern Arizona site called Ridge Ruin. The man, bedecked in fine turquoise jewelry and intricate beadwork, was surrounded by wooden swords with handles carved into animal hooves and human hands. The Hopi workers stepped back from the grave, knowing what the Moochiwimi sticks meant. This man, buried nine-hundred years earlier, was a magician.
Former television journalist Kate Butler hangs on to her investigative reporting career by writing freelance magazine articles. Her research on The Magician shows he bore some European facial characteristics and physical qualities that made him different from the people who buried him. Her quest to discover The Magician’s origin carries her back to a time when the high desert world was shattered by the birth of a volcano and into the present-day dangers of archaeological looting where black market sales of antiquities can lead to murder.
AMAZON BUY LINK
Anne Montgomery has worked as a television sportscaster, newspaper and magazine writer, teacher, amateur baseball umpire, and high school football referee. She worked at WRBL‐TV in Columbus, Georgia, WROC‐TV in Rochester, New York, KTSP‐TV in Phoenix, Arizona, ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut, where she anchored the Emmy and ACE award‐winning SportsCenter, and ASPN-TV as the studio host for the NBA’s Phoenix Suns. Montgomery has been a freelance and staff writer for six publications, writing sports, features, movie reviews, and archeological pieces.
When she can, Anne indulges in her passions: rock collecting, scuba diving, football refereeing, and playing her guitar.
Learn more about Anne Montgomery on her website and Wikipedia. Stay connected on Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter.
January 16, 2024
Wednesday Special Spotlight Let them eat soup!
Okay, so it’s not the best takeoff on Marie Antoinette’s infamous saying, but that was my little way of announcing that January is National Soup Month. It’s true. You can check it out on Wikipedia. In honor of this auspicious event, my January posts will be dedicated to soup, well, at least the Wednesday posts. So tie on your aprons and let’s get cooking!
Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 lb. fresh mushrooms – use 2 or 3 different types
8 tbsp. butter
2 small shallots or scallions, finely chopped
6 tbsp. flour
1 qt. chicken stock *
¼ cup dry sherry
2 egg yolks
½ cup heavy cream
White pepper**
Clean mushrooms with a damp paper towel. Pull the stems and caps apart. Put pieces in a food processor. Run until chopped. The mix will almost look like a paste. Or fine dice the mushrooms by hand.
Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a 10-12 inch skillet. Add mushrooms and shallots and sauté for 3 minutes. Set the skillet aside.
In a heavy 6-quart saucepan, melt the remaining butter over medium heat. Remove pan from the heat and stir in the flour. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Do NOT let this brown too much or it will be bitter. The roux should be no darker than a caramel/tan.
Remove the pan from the heat. Allow to cool 10-15 seconds, then pour in the stock while whisking constantly. Return the pan to a medium-high heat and stir until the soup base thickens and is smooth, approximately 12-15 minutes.
Stir in the mushrooms and sherry. Simmer for 15 minutes, but be sure to stir occasionally.
Blend the egg yolks into the cream with a whisk. Whisk in 3 tablespoons of hot soup at a time until you’ve added ¾ cup. Reverse the process and slowly whisk the now-warm mixture into the soup. ***
Bring soup to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Remove the pan from the heat. Taste and season with pepper.
Serve from a tureen or in individual bowls.
This recipe makes 6 bowls
*You can substitute up to half the amount with dry white wine
**In this recipe white pepper is used for its slightly sharper taste. There is no need to make a special trip to buy white pepper. Black pepper will work fine, just use a little more.
***This may seem like extra work, but if you don’t do it the yolks and cream will curdle.
Happy slurping!
Sloane Taylor is an Award-Winning romance author with a passion that consumes her day and night. She is an avid cook and posts new recipes on her blog every Wednesday. The recipes are user friendly, meaning easy.
To learn more about Taylor go to her website. Stay in touch on Blogger, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Taylor’s cookbooks, Hot Men Wear Aprons, Date Night Dinners, Date Night Dinners Italian Style, Sizzling Summer, and Recipes to Create Holidays Extraordinaire are released by Toque & Dagger Publishing and available on Amazon.
January 15, 2024
Tell Again Tuesday Getting Back the Groove
Keeping Fit:
Inspiration, Back to Basics, and
Exercising Our Writing MusclesBy Heather Webb
After years and years of writing, our routines, at times, can start to feel a little stagnant, especially if you’ve been doing the publishing tango. Part of that is being forced to spend metric tons of time and energy outside the writing itself. Part of it is the sheer amount of labor involved in bringing a novel to its fruition. The other thing—something we discount too easily for some reason—is that our big creative brains need a regular stream of stimulation and inspiration. I’ve been in a bit of a slump lately myself. It’s strange because I have a book idea that I’m excited to write, but I’ve found myself inching along, picking at it very slowly, and losing focus. After I had a conversation with a few writer friends, I realized what I really needed was some rejuvenation and to go back to basics.
Going back to basics, for me, meant . . .
For the rest of the blog go to:January 11, 2024
Friday Feature Creating new stories using Character back story
The other night we watched the movie Fred Claus. It’s the story of Santa Claus’ older brother (bet you didn’t know he had one!) who found himself in the position of the less favored son. (Makes sense since Nickolas became a saint.) It was a cute story about a dysfunctional family and how they sorted their problems out one Christmas.
What caught our attention wasn’t the dysfunctional family story, but the story the writers found in back story of a new character they created to compliment a well known character.
This isn’t the first time someone has used this plotting trick. Gregory Maguire did something similar when he wrote the book Wicked, the story of how the wicked witch of the west became wicked. He went on to write an entire Wicked Years series featuring familiar and new characters from Oz.
The movie Oz: The Great and Powerful is a prequel to both the Frank Baum’s novel and the 1939 film The Wizard of Ox. Oz: the Great and Powerful tells the back story of the Wizard of Oz.
The television series Once Upon a Time (no longer on TV) also used this plot mechanism. Have you ever wondered why the wicked queen hated Snow White so much, beyond the simple and obvious she’s-prettier than-I-am motive? The writers of this series tell the queen’s back story and turned all the fairy tales in this series sideways.
Chances are you’ve read Wicked or seen the stage play, have heard about Once Upon a Time, or have seen the movie Oz, the Great and Powerful, or seen some other movie or read a book that turns well-known stories upside down. If you’re like us, you wished you had come up with those ideas.
So how can you and us find ideas like this? The key is to think outside the box. Here are 5 suggestions you can use to change the norm into the abnormal.
1. Consider placing your classic characters in another time and space and see what happens to them.
2. Look for an interesting minor character in a story and figure out what makes them tick. Then give them a life and a back story, and, yes, back story is okay here because it is the premise of your story.
3. Find a classic story you love and turn it on its ear. Think Jerry Lewis as Cinderfella.
4. Don’t be afraid to go outside the conventional box when considering options. Catherine may not like vampires that can walk in sunlight and twinkle, but there’s no doubt lots of readers do. Readers can often suspend what they know about a subject if you give plausible reasons for the changes.
5. Apply and unexpected plot twist to a well-known character or set of circumstances. In Once Upon a Time the writers took Little Red Riding Hood and made her the Big Bad werewolf. Her magical red cloak protected her against her curse—and Grandma knew her secret, but Red didn’t.
In all the stories mentioned, we did not see the twist coming, and that’s the kind of thing writers, and readers, want. We walked away from each of these stories saying, “I wish we had thought of that!”
Do you have a favorite book that has used this creative back story method?
How about checking out one of our books to see if it can be a favorite. You can find our books on our book page, under the menu at the top of the page or on our Amazon Author Page
January 9, 2024
Wednesday Special Spotlight Romantic Confessions
We have a confession to make—we’re hopeless romantics, and we watch the Bachelor and Bachelorette. Hey, what else would you expect from high school sweethearts who’ve lasted as long as we have? (And not just our age.) Wanting others to have this great thing called lasting love is one of the reasons we’re hooked on love, and the show. Every season we’re rooting for bachelorette or bachelor to find their true love.
Sure, we know the show is set up to create drama, drama and more drama. That’s evident from the commercial clips. When we see different clips and then they appear in the real show there are always other outcomes than the one hinted by the teaser.
We also suspect the bachelors and bachelorettes are urged to keep one of the more controversial characters. We can’t verify that, but find it hard to believe that some of the skankier ones actually fly under the radar. Let’s face it, when there’s a lot of drama in the house and the other cast members are telling the bachelor or bachelorette that so and so isn’t really here for you, a smart person would take that under serious consideration. Wouldn’t you? But they rarely do. That person seems to keep getting roses.
We also know very few bachelors and bachelorettes ever end up married, but we’re convinced that’s because they don’t choose the ones we select for them. If they could only see what we see—those candid clips where the chosen few confess their real feelings to the camera—they’d make the right choices. They’d choose the girl or guy who’s looking for real love, a lasting relationship. But, then again, maybe not.
Love on The Bachelorette is not like the real thing. We never had a date where we bungy jumped off a cliff. In fact, had Donald suggested it, the relationship would have been over before it started. Catherine doesn’t like heights! On the other hand, had Donald called for Catherine in a private jet or yacht—which he did not; he drove the family car or his Chevy convertible—She would have latched onto him much quicker. We never went to exotic locales for our dates, unless you count the annual Harvest Home Fair as exotic—it did feature an assortment of farm animals. Real life dating, and usually love, tends to be more sedate, and with one person at a time, not twenty-five. Reality, it is not.
Love in your book isn’t like real life either. It’s bigger than life. The only reason bachelorettes date twenty-five guys is because there’s a reality show about it. That makes it bigger than real life, and, in today’s world of reality show crazes, it’s plausible. Your readers are looking for romance outside the norm of their lives. They want bigger than life, they like locations they’ve never visited, but they also want enough reality that they could see themselves finding love too. Whatever situation you use for your hero’s and heroine’s first meeting, and subsequent conflicts, make it believable in the world you have created.
Your characters should experience a range of emotions and problems. Whenever a bachelor or bachelorette makes a bad choice, in our opinion, we groan. We want them to find love. When the bachelorette cries because one of the men has broken her heart, we break out the tissues. When she keeps the ones we like, we celebrate. Because we know how important true love is, we empathize with her. When your readers come alongside your characters to experience love, they need to feel these things too.
Conflict is paramount in the relationship of your hero and heroine. The eternal struggle between man and woman needs to be a part of your story. If your characters get together too easily, get along so well they just know they’re meant for one another, or the relationship feels as comfortable as a pair of old shoes, then you are missing the mark. It’s rare that a bachelor or bachelorette keeps someone with whom they just feel comfortable. Even though they say they want someone who can be a friend first and lover second—which is what we feel relationships should be built on—they appear to yearn for the bad boys or bad girls, even when they’ve been warned. Your characters need to want to be together as much as they know they should be apart.
Last, but not least, your heroine and hero should make lifetime commitments, or the book should end with the promise of that happening. If they aren’t, then you’re not writing classic romance. Your ending needs to be stronger than most of the After the Rose Ceremony shows we’ve seen. The engagement ring needs to be front and center. The couple needs to be smiling and happy. The date needs to be set and the producers need to promise to foot the wedding bill and invite all the viewers.
Happily Ever After is what we promise in our books and it’s what we hope the bachelorette or bachelor will finally find at the end of their season. Because, as we said before, we are hopeless romantics … and we know the Happily Ever After ending is possible.
Perhaps a book that we’ve written would give you your HEA fix. While our series is a paranormal genre there are love stories in each one. You can find our books on our book page, under the menu at the top of the page or on our Amazon Author Page
January 8, 2024
Tell Again Tuesday How things work – for writers
The Dichotomy of Creativity and OrderBy Barbara O’Neal
photo courtesy Jr Korpa at Unsplash
Earlier this week, my massage therapist called to remind me that we had an appointment that started…five minutes ago. Rushing in, hair askew, I apologized, and admitted that I used to have a lot more trouble with things like appointments before the iPhone was invented. It usually reminds me, twice, but we changed the time and I forgot to add the alerts, and…
She gently interrupted my whittering. “You’re just creative. That’s how it is.”
As artists we’re often forgiven for being scattered, losing things, forgetting commitments, and for good reason. It’s not laziness or lack of respect, it’s just that highly creative people. . .
For the rest of the blog go to:January 4, 2024
Friday Feature Ideas to start your writing
Have you ever used a news story as a starting point for your writing?
Here’s an interesting idea to get your brain pumping in the new year. Several years ago medical ethicist Art Caplan told CNN that an invitro fertilization procedure using DNA from three different people may be able to prevent illnesses passed from mother to child via the mitochondria, diseases like muscular dystrophy and respiratory problems, or mitochondrial disorders that can lead to heart or liver problems.
The technology, called oocyt modification, involves scooping out potentially mutated mitochondrial DNA from a woman’s egg and replacing it with the DNA of an unaffected donor woman. By doing this the hope is that the transmission of inherited mitochondrial disease can be prevented. Once the DNA is swapped, the egg is fertilized in the lab with the father’s sperm and implanted back in the mother to be carried to term.
Caplan believes that this procedure, often nicknamed three-parent IVF, will be useful in preventing diseases that can be passed down from generation to generation and would be ethical as long as it proves to be safe. We’re all for preventing diseases, but messing with our DNA could potentially be disastrous, in our humble opinion.
The writer in us however, started constructing scenarios the minute we read this, not the least of which has to do with what one could do using this technology for the opposite of good. Before we go any further in this idea exercise, we must emphasize that any scenarios we list here are purely from our imaginations, and not something that the creators of this procedure have planned. We are not saying we believe this is right or wrong, and we are not inviting comments or opinions about the ethicalness of this subject. This is merely an exercise in how to take an idea or news clip and turn it upside down to create a fiction story.
So, without any further disclaimers, here are some interesting concepts we came up with from reading this article.
• Stepford Children, based on the Stepford Wives movie concept; perfect mothers and housekeepers who bent to every whim of their husbands. You remember that creepy story from the 60s? Ooh, what could go horribly wrong?
• The unintentional creation of a new disease from the combining of three parental sets of DNA. Think Zombie War here or I am Legend, but different.
• A realignment of the basic family concept. Lots of room for conflict there. It takes two females and one male for this procedure. If you changed the basic family unit, the poor child would have two moms nagging him to clean his room, find a wife, get a job. You get the idea. And we won’t even mention the polygamous adult relationships in this complication.
• When you can create the perfect child, what happens to the rest of the children who didn’t get that chance to be created perfectly? Would there be a rag tag population who live in a dystopian setting on the border of the perfect children and their perfect three parent families in their perfect world?
These are only four possible story scenarios we came up with using a controversial news clip as a jumping off point. We challenge you to go find your own interesting news article and come up with some new twists using the basic concept of the story. If this helped you see how to use the news to create a book idea, please let us know. We’d love to hear from you.
After you’ve got your story idea written down why not settle into a comfy chair and check out our books on our book page, under the menu at the top of the page or on our Amazon Author Page
January 2, 2024
Wednesday Special Spotlight Easy Chicken Dinner
Now that the holiday madness is over it’s time for a little comfort food. My daughter Dru, who is a wonderful cook, offered this easy dinner. She is creative in her use of herbs and spices and never fails to come up with a mouthwatering meal that is easy to prepare. This is one of our favorites. Studs and I have prepared many times and will many times more.
DRU’S CHICKEN DINNER
½ lb. boneless chicken breasts or tenders
½ tsp. garlic powder
½ tsp. onion powder
½ tsp. dried sage
¼ tsp. dried thyme
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup chicken stock, may need a little more
2 cups Minute White Rice
1 small broccoli crown cut into flowerets
Sliced baby bella or white mushrooms to taste
If using breasts, pound them thin between two sheets of waxed paper. Use tenders right from package.
Sprinkle seasonings onto chicken.
Pour oil in a frying pan and heat on medium until is shimmers. Add chicken. Fry until lightly browned, about 5 minutes, turn, and cook the other side the same way. remove chicken from pan to a plate and set aside.
Stir chicken stock into hot pan and scrape in any brown bits from the bottom and sides of the pan.
Add soup, mix well, the bring to a boil.
Stir in rice and broccoli. Turn heat to medium low. Place chicken on top, cover and let simmer about 5 minutes.
Serve on individual plates. French bread is a nice addition.
Enjoy!
Sloane Taylor is an Award-Winning romance author with a passion that consumes her day and night. She is an avid cook and posts new recipes on her blog every Wednesday. The recipes are user friendly, meaning easy.
To learn more about Taylor go to her website. Stay in touch on Blogger, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Taylor’s cookbooks, Hot Men Wear Aprons, Date Night Dinners, Date Night Dinners Italian Style, Sizzling Summer, and Recipes to Create Holidays Extraordinaire are released by Toque & Dagger Publishing and available on Amazon.
January 1, 2024
Tell Again Tuesday The Write Solution
Three Critical Questions for Filling in Plot HolesBy Susan DeFreitas
Recently, I did a little something with a client that felt like magic.
Or, let’s say, I did something that seemed pretty normal for me, but seemed to strike my client as magic: I helped her fill in a gap in the plot of her novel in a way that struck her as just exactly right, and in a way that was totally in tune with her own vision for her novel.
At which point she . . .
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