Sandy Huth's Blog, page 6

Flawed characters

There’s a saying: Perfect boys only exist in books.  Although certainly true, you’ll never find a perfect boy in one of my books… or a perfect girl for that matter.   I like to write flawed characters.  I prefer that my characters say the wrong thing or wear the wrong clothes or think the wrong thoughts.  Doesn’t it feel so much more satisfying when you come to the end of a book and the flawed character has found happiness or love or peace?  He or she has learned a lesson and through doing so, is so much more deserving of our affection.  When I was a young girl, I loved reading romance novels with perfect men.  Then I became older and began to date such very imperfect men.  I even married an imperfect man.  This works out really well, since I’m nowhere near perfect.  Perfect is boring.  Perfect is a fairy tale.  Bring on the flaws.

Ghosts, ghosts everywhere….

It’s no secret that I believe in ghosts.  Three of my books deal with the paranormal and Saved by Grace specifically explores the ghostly world.  It’s my family culture–we believe in, talk about, and celebrate the paranormal world.  My great-aunt Alice proclaimed proudly that she was a witch.  My grandmother, Iva, ghost hunted in her own low-tech way.  My family has always sat around late into the night, telling our own ghost stories, all of which we passionately believe to be true.  A few years ago, as I was locking up the house for the night, I saw in the reflection of a window a movement of some sort across my upstairs landing.  Not normally afraid of such things, I went to explore and found nothing.  As I prepared for bed, I was overcome with a wave of sadness and began crying.  Oh no, I thought to myself.  Early menopause.  My father called the next morning to tell me that my beloved Uncle David had suffered a stroke and was on life support.  Once family made it to him, life support was removed and his body was allowed to rest.  I believe that his spirit had visited me the previous night before it left this earth.  Now, fast forward to last week.  The weather was disgusting, I was exhausted from orienting at a new job, and all I wanted was to soak in my tub with my Kindle.  The glass shower cubicle next to my tub was making strange noises which I attributed to a trapped ladybug.  Without warning, the shower door opened wide.  As I mentioned, I am not normally afraid of things.  There was something about being in the presence of something paranormal while I soaked in my tub, though, that unnerved me.  It was a quick soak.  That experience aside, I love ghosts.  It’s such a confirmation that there is more to our existence than what we are currently experiencing.  Expect more paranormal books from me.  For me, it’s a celebration of life.

Second Chance

My most recently published book, Second Chance, is a new addition to my paranormal genre and explores how you would feel if your husband woke up from a coma and thought he was someone else.  To complicate matters, what if you liked the new husband better than the old?  Set in Sarasota, Florida (someday to be known as my permanent home!), the story also travels back in time to World War II England and Germany.  I had to do pretty extensive research for the historical section of the book even though it only encompasses a few chapters, but I wanted it to be authentic.  Much thanks to my husband, a WWII buff, his friend Tom Burns, whose father flew in bomber planes over Germany, and my departed father-in-law, who left us an impressive collection of books on the war.  As I sat in my office on a rainy day, poring over first hand accounts from bomber pilots, crew, and prisoners of war, I was overwhelmed by the danger they put themselves in to protect our country.  They were incredibly brave men.  I hope my character of Griffin King lives up to their memories.

Stand up for romance writers!

This is an excerpt from an interview with Ruby McNally, author of Crash, a romance novel.  I love her answer!!!

 

RUMBLR: A few days ago, I was telling a friend about how excited I was to talk to you for The Rumblr, and he got this weird look on his face, like, ew, a romance novelist?? Do you encounter this from the people in your life? What’s it like, working in a genre that’s so — I don’t know — looked down on?

MCNALLY: Looked down on, absolutely! I’m in an MFA program in my other life, and it’s safe to say they’re not exactly coming up to me in droves at the bar to compliment me on my romance novels. The overwhelming attitude, both in literature and in life, seems to be that there’s something embarrassing about romance—that it’s girl stuff and therefore stupid, as if falling in love is an exclusively female act and so unworthy of being explored in fiction. And like, that’s bunk, clearly, but it’s also problematic on more than just an aesthetic level, because it’s how we end up in a culture where prestige television is way more likely to depict scenes of graphic rape than scenes of female pleasure, and a shot of a man’s face mid-orgasm will earn a movie a PG-13 rating while the same shot of a woman gets an R. Dismissing an entire genre as dumb lady stuff or  ”Mommy Porn,” as if there’s something inherently disgusting or shameful about women wanting to read about pleasurable sexual experiences, is a form of socially acceptable misogyny—full stop.

Are there dumb romance novels? Absolutely. But there are also dumb crime novels and dumb war movies and really dumb literary short stories that people submit to their MFA workshops (ahem), and at at the end of the day I kind of feel like, you know what? With all due respect to your friend who I am sure is lovely, a person who cannot find it in himself to appreciate a really well-written sex scene is not really a person I want to sit next to at a dinner party. Or, frankly, go to bed with.

Waiting for the grout to dry…

As I grout between the new tiles in my kitchen on this cold, rainy Saturday, I am struck by what a balancing act life can be.  We working mothers struggle to give our children everything they might want or need while trying to convince our employers that nothing is more important to us than our work.  We wives give our all trying to stay interesting, sexy, and engaging for our husbands while attempting to find time for ourselves.  We aspiring writers try to find time to edit our newest book while waiting for the grout to dry.  Today, I am doing all of these things.  Answering a text from my boss, maintaining stimulating conversation with my husband to alleviate the boredom of a kitchen reno, explaining to my grown son why he CAN NOT take my easy chair to his home, and stepping aside every few minutes to add/delete/change my not-quite-completed book–this is a normal day in the life of a part-time writer, full-time woman.  Back to work–the grout is calling.

Creating Conflict

I am the most non-confrontational person you will ever meet.  I will walk a mile out of my way to avoid facing conflict.  No, my secret power is the ability to hold grudges.  I could do a lecture series on how to hold grudges for amazingly long amounts of time.  So you can see why one of my biggest challenges as a writer is introducing conflict into a story line.  There are times that I find myself writing pages and pages about how wonderfully the main characters are getting along.  Twenty pages later, I think to myself, “Who would want to read this crap?”  We want harmony in our own lives but we need conflict in our books.  We want to see our main character face challenges and learn how to lift herself/himself above them.  We have nothing to cheer for if the character has not been given something to fight for.  So, while others might daydream of upcoming vacations, the love of their life, or winning the lottery, I am imagining conflicts and satisfying resolutions.  Everyday me could probably learn something from writer me.

Getting in the mood…

Sometimes I have trouble slipping completely in to the world of my characters.  When I’m unable to shut the door on work or family and dedicate myself wholly to writing, I find that I can have difficulty writing with the proper emotion.  So what to do?  I get myself in the mood.  I immerse myself in music, movies, and books that make me feel.  Sometimes, I cry, sometimes I laugh–it doesn’t really matter what emotion is elicited.  This method takes me beyond the stress and over-stimulation of my world and places me solidly in my literary universe. What I choose varies with what I’m writing.  When I was working on “The Happiest Day” I listened to Ludovico Einaudi, an Italian pianist who plays absolutely haunting pieces.  It just seemed to fit with the historical aspect of the book.  When I was working on “Saved by Grace” I would pop in my ear buds and listen to Passenger, an English folk-rock singer songwriter.  The poetic verses helped me get in touch with the angst that I felt Sebastian must be experiencing.  The new book I’m writing, Second Chance, begins with a near tragedy for the main character, Ellie.  I didn’t believe that I was quite in touch with what she must be feeling, so I watched the scene from the 1994 version of “Little Women.”  That’s right, I cried through Beth’s death scene.  Painful but necessary.  If I find myself in the same dilemma again, I know that I can always turn to “Steel Magnolias.”  The scene where Sally Fields drives to see her grandson after Julia Roberts dies gets me every time.  Excuse me, I need to go find a tissue.

Finishing a novel…

Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the back yard and shot it.- Truman Capote

I probably would have found a different way of saying it (Capote and I have different writing styles!) but I had to laugh when I read this quote.  Despite the “ouch” factor, his words are true.  It is so difficult to write the ending of novel.  You are saying good-bye to your friends, your enemies, and your family.  You want to do them justice and give them a deserving send-off, all while figuring out a way to live without them.  I will admit that I cried while I wrote the end of “The Happiest Day.”  All right, I sobbed.  I wondered how Rachel could go on.  Fine, I wondered how I could go on.  I usually go through a bit of a withdrawal after finishing a book.  Remember when you were a teenager and after a boy broke up with you, you drove by his house a few times?  That’s what I do with my finished novels.  I go back and read bits and parts.  I’m just visiting, I tell myself.  However, usually within a few days, there is a knock at the door of my brain and a whole new cast of characters moves in.

Saved by Grace

I had special inspiration for this novel.  I am the family historian and have traced my paternal lineage back to our roots in the British Isles.  My ancestors came to American quite early and many of the men fought in the Revolutionary War.  They were given land grants for their service and moved to the Carolinas.  The names you see in this book are actual names of my ancestors, although the story is completely fictional.  I like to think that the real Ephraim Potter shares absolutely nothing in common with my fictional Ephraim.  When developing Rufus’ character, I thought it would be an interesting twist to have the older son of an affluent family to be a fanciful personality–a “wood elf” type of child.  Duncan Robinson is totally a creation of my imagination, but it’s quite possible that I had at least a few strong, handsome Scottish men in my family tree!  I hope you enjoy a trip through my genealogical research set in fictional form.

Writing every day…

You hear it from every successful author: you must write every day.  In the beginning, I didn’t follow the advice.  I had every excuse.  I was busy being a wife, a mother, a full-time employee.  The house was dirty, I had to go grocery shopping, The Walking Dead was on.  Suddenly, I had a computer full of half-written novels to my credit.  I worried about my work ethic.  Why couldn’t I finish a novel?  Then I tried something new.  I began writing every day.  I set a goal of 2000 words a day and I must admit that some days were pretty difficult.  Just like any other change to one’s habits, it got easier as time went by.  Then something amazing happened.  I began finishing novels!  I realized that by writing every day I was staying engaged with my characters.  They stayed alive in my imagination, they talked to me every day.  They didn’t get bored waiting for me to find time to spend with them.  You have to nurture your writing and give your story the respect and attention it deserves.  So my advice?  Write every day.  Make an appointment with yourself.  Stack the dishes, DVR your favorite shows, lock yourself away from all distractions, and write, write, write.