Emilie Richards's Blog, page 37

Three More Plots Readers Love Plus A Giveaway

Three more you say? What about the first three?

Almost two and a half years ago I blogged about three plots readers seem to love. At the time I said the blog needed a sequel.  Then I moved on and never looked back.

Today I came across that post, and so I sat awhile, as the rain pattered on the roof of our sun room, and thought about the books I’ve read recently. And lo and behold, three more plots.

Interested? Then follow the link above to read the first post, especially my readers astute comments with their opinions and reading choices.

Busy? Then here is a quick synopsis:

A woman in crisis returns to her hometown and makes peace with the past (and often the man) she left behind.
A seemingly hopeless curmudgeon–male or female–is slowly, gently brought back into the light because of people who see his/her humanity and refuse to give up.
A man or woman starts out with nothing and claws their way to the life they’ve always dreamed of.

With me so far? As I said, last time my blog readers came up with some great plots that they enjoy and some reasons why. Today, let’s look at three more.

Here we go:

Two or more very different women–often antagonists–are forced together to solve a mystery, a family problem, or because they’re required to work together in order to gain something they both want or need.

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ll let you in on a little secret. I’ve probably done all these plots, sometimes more than once. For instance this one? How about Happiness Key and the two books that followed it? Four strangers who live in the same dilapidated beach community must band together to find the family of the old man in the fifth house who dies unexpectedly and alone.

Or what about the Goddesses Anonymous books beginning with One Mountain Away? Strangers are drawn together, one at a time, to form a group dedicated to helping women in trouble.

The book I’m about to begin uses this plot, too, but in a completely different way. Apparently I love this idea. How about you? Can you think of a book you’ve read that used this plot and inspired you?

Here’s the next one:

A woman who has been abused by a man, a boss, her family, or other people important to her who, often after a “last straw” moment rebels, stands up to the abuser and wins a new and better life for herself.

Do you remember A Woman of Substance, the mega-bestseller and mini-series written by Barbara Taylor Bradford and published in 1979? Suddenly books about women climbing to the top of whatever ladder they chose were everywhere. We all read them, and they fit into last year’s post on this subject. Are these plots as prevalent today? I think the emphasis has changed.

Today I don’t think this idea is used to show a woman climbing to the top as often as it is to show women can still find happiness after struggle and torment. Today she doesn’t have to control a corporation, she just has to find peace and hopefully love. I wrote No River Too Wide, about a woman who finally escapes from an abusive husband, and Prospect Street, about a woman who, after her marriage ends spectacularly, is forced to put her life back together in a very different way.

There’s a lot of room in that category, isn’t there?

And finally:

Surprises twists aren’t “exactly” a plot but I’ve seen them so frequently of late that it almost seems as if the twist is the reason behind the plot.

Have you noticed this, too? The last four books I’ve read for fun all had amazing twists, and no, I didn’t see them coming. Why not? I was so immersed in the story I took everything at face value. Exactly what the authors wanted me to do. Here’s what I read:

After the End by Clare Mackintosh
I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh I found the first so interesting I tried this one, too.
One Perfect Lie by Lisa Scottoline Lisa Scottoline is my comfort read.
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah I read this for the Read Along with Emilie Richards Reading Challenge last month.

Each of these books has major twists unique to each plot. In the future I’ll be watching to see how many others have huge twists, too.

These days twists are in the air we authors are breathing. The fun of writing them didn’t escape me, either. A Family of Strangers, has lots.  As I plotted my newest book–title not yet approved–twists were on my mind, too. From a writerly point of view, twists are fun to plot and a struggle to pull off. You have to give enough clues that the reader doesn’t feel cheated and withhold enough not to spoil the surprise. Depending on the reviewer, I either did or didn’t pull off the twists in A Family of Strangers. A few reviewers swear they saw them coming–although that didn’t seem to spoil the book for them– others were completely surprised. Luckily far more thought I did pull them off, which was gratifying.

And now the giveaway!

Comment on this post during the next week and tell me one book you’ve read that fits into any of the general plots I’ve discussed, either now or in 2017. I used examples here of my own books, since I know them best, but let us know how the books you’ve read fit in.

Random.org will choose one commenter to receive a copy of A Family of Strangers, my “twisted” book. You’ll receive either the eBook or a signed paperback, depending on where you live. But the real point will be to have fun and share what you think.

We’re listening!

When possible I link to my website, but if I can’t, I link to Amazon, where I am an associate and receive a cute little kickback for thinking of them. The associate program is more proof that Amazon may someday rule the world.

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Sunday Inspiration: Gardens and Gardening

“Gardening is about enjoying the smell of things growing in the soil, getting dirty without feeling guilty, and generally taking the time to soak up a little peace and serenity.” ~Lindley Karstens, noproblemgarden.com

Chautauqua is alive with many beautiful gardens this time of year, and I find them all wonderfully inspiring. Here are photos of some of them that Proman and I have taken, and I hope they will brighten up your day.

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It Only Seems Like Yesterday

Was it really 1990? It only seems like yesterday…

Once upon a time I had a dream. Yes, I really did. I was in bed with the flu and feverish. I couldn’t work, but I couldn’t let go of a dream I’d had for a romance proposal due soon to my publisher. A proposal can mean different things, but this time I was supposed to tell them the story I wanted to write. In detail. Sounds simple and isn’t. Especially when you want to tell a story that began with a fever.

Writers know that sometimes our best ideas are our craziest. But this was crazier than most. I told my editor that as I discussed it with her.

“Leslie, I’ll understand if this is too weird. I had a fever of 102, and even I know this isn’t your typical romance novel. You see, the heroine is posing as a prostitute to try to find her teenage sister, who’s run away from home. And I want to explore what it’s like out on the streets for kids who are desperate enough to leave their life and family behind.”

Luckily for me, Leslie Wainger, editor extraordinaire, didn’t want typical from any of us. You see, back in 1990, there was no “women’s fiction,” which is the genre I write in today–if it really is a genre. Romance novels were the name of the game for any novelist who wanted to be published, because there weren’t a lot of novels selling in the general fiction arena about the lives of women and our hopes and dreams.

Leslie told me to go ahead. I did, following that first book, Runaway, with The Way Back Home and then Fugitive. I say “then” instead of “finally” because as I was reading Fugitive this week to reacquaint myself with the story (remember it’s been, gulp, almost thirty years since it came out) I recognized a minor character. And yes, I’d used HIM in another book. That one, Desert Shadows, will probably be one of the next ones I re-release.

I’m always a little nervous re-reading my older books, and this one? A book I conceived while wrestling with the flu? A book begun during a restless fever dream? So I waited until the last possible moment to start it. I had a date with my cover artist that I couldn’t delay. And, wow. I have to say, I loved the book. And I loved the next one. And the next.

Of course, I wrote them. I am not a harsh critic. I was a harsh critic when I wrote and rewrote it, as I always do. But now? I’m just glad Leslie, bless her, gave me the go ahead.

I hope to release all three at the end of the year as my “Homecoming” seires. They’re not your typical romance novels. There’s lots of action, suspense, and some heavy social issues. But through it all, that shining ribbon of happily-ever-afters.

I won’t be updating these books. One in particular would suffer horribly if I added cell phones and computers. So I’m leaving them all in 1990. I was glad to go back there. I hope you will be, too.

When they’re ready, I’ll show you the next covers and give you pub dates. Stay tuned.

 

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Sunday Inspiration: Sky’s the Limit

“Don’t tell me sky’s the limit when there’s footprints on the moon.” -Buzz Aldrin

One of the most inspirational moments of our age was the first time a person walked on the moon, which occurred 50 years ago yesterday.

Most of us who are old enough can remember where we were and how we felt when Neil Armstrong stepped out of his capsule and onto the surface of the moon and said, “That’s one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.”

But Buzz Aldrin — the second man to walk on the moon — spoke words that may have captured the spirit of that historic accomplishment even better. And on Friday we had the good fortune to hear them repeated in person by astronaut Scott Kelly at an inspiring lecture.

For me, and I’m sure many others, it was a time of incredible possibility when it seemed that we could accomplish anything we set our minds to.

What was it like for you?

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Grandson On Board

This week is Grandma/Grandpa camp at our house at Chautauqua Institution in New York.

Liam, seven, our oldest grandson, is spending the week with us, going to Boys Club in the mornings and learning to be a naturalist in the afternoons. Today at 5 we’ll go to a special kids presentation by the Chautauqua opera company. These are always a hoot, and I know he’ll love it.

So that’s my week and where all my energy is focused. I’ll be back next week when I’m not answering questions and cutting the crusts off peanut butter sandwiches—something I never did for his dad and his siblings. Grandkids are just a wee bit different, aren’t they?

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Sunday Inspiration: To Make a Difference

“To make a difference in someone’s life you don’t have to be brilliant. Rich. Beautiful. Perfect. You just have to care.” -Mandy Hale

This has been National Geographic week at Chautauqua with the theme of A Planet in Balance with some excellent lectures.

The message is, as Mandy Hale says, that we just have to care.

And once we care then everything else will follow.

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The Devil Made Me Do It, Or Did S/He?

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating. The most common question novelists are is asked is where they get their ideas.

There’s a good reason for this question, one I often want to ask my favorite writers, too. Ideas are by far the most interesting part of writing, for both writers and non-writers. All writing, fiction or non, poetry or advertising jingles, begins with an idea.

My usual answer is to say that ideas are everywhere. If you want to create anything, not just with words but with any medium, you have to listen, watch, sniff the air around you and pay attention. And next you have to take whatever you’ve experienced and ask “what if?”

My latest novel, A Family of Strangers, began with a “what if?”

Back in 2002 I read an article about a young man and woman, Benjamin (BJ) and Erika Sifrits. BJ was a former Navy Seal, an honor graduate, but  Erika in particular fascinated me. She’d led the most normal of lives, an athlete, honor student, friend to all. Or at least that’s what it looked like on the surface. Then, one day four years later, while on a vacation that was arranged by her doting parents, she and BJ decided to murder another couple they met at a nightclub.

You know, the way you and I might decide to go out to dinner and see a new movie?

Benjamin was sentenced to thirty-eight years in jail and acquitted of one of the two murders. Erika was found guilty of both and is now serving a life sentence plus twenty years at the Maryland Correctional Institute for Women. Wikipedia says she will be eligible for parole in 2024, which is apparently what a “life sentence” looks like.

The story stayed with me long after I forgot the young woman’s name, where the murder had occurred and the aftermath. The facts disappeared, but I never stopped asking myself “why?” Because according to the press and all who know the family, Erika was well loved and cared for, and her parents are exactly the kind of parents we all thought we wanted to be.

How did she change from the girl everyone believed they knew to a young woman intent on murder as recreation?

In my mind I began to imagine a woman, accused of a murder she claims she did not commit. Was she guilty? I played with all the possibilities. Did I want to be in her head? That seemed possible if I wanted to write a book where 1) she spent the story trying to absolve herself of the crime, or 2) she was trying to find a way to start over as someone new after making the worst mistake of her life.

What were my other alternatives? I could tell the story from the point of view of law enforcement, or perhaps someone who loved the victim. Maybe a private investigator had a personal reason to find out the truth. Maybe the victim wasn’t at all the person everyone believed him or her to be. Maybe, by some counts, he/she deserved to die–if anybody ever does.

You’ll have to read the book to see what I decided.

Note I said I read the newspaper stories about these murders in 2002. It’s 2019 and A Family of Strangers just came out.

Sometimes it takes that many years to find the time as well as the place deep inside that needs to tell a particular story. In this case the Sifrits’ story was augmented by years of watching people up close, a few who looked wonderful on the outside but eventually showed a more frightening side. I would think about what I saw, think of the story I’d read in the Plain Dealer, and I would wonder.

After my book was written and I was interviewed, I realized I ought to look up the real case that had planted the seed that later became A Family of Strangers. Family is not about Erika or BJ Sifrits. It’s not about Erika’s parents. This incredibly tragic event was only the starting point, the tiniest dot, from which a host of “what ifs” had developed. But I wanted to locate it again.

I took awhile to find the article. I hadn’t bookmarked it or cut it out and put it in my skimpy ideas file. For an hour I thought I’d imagined the whole thing, that the whole story had been so unimportant it had disappeared into newspaper archives forever. As it turned out I had remembered the setting wrong, along with details about Erika’s childhood and of course, every name connected with it. Since I’d read the article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, I erroneously thought some portion of it had transpired in Ohio. But eventually I landed where I needed to on Google and caught up with the story that had started it all.

Two odd coincidences hit me. Erika’s last name before marriage was Grace. Ryan and Wendy’s surname in my book is “Gracey.” Did I remember this detail, even when I’d forgotten most everything else? It’s highly unlikely. A lot happened in my head between 2002 and 2018 when I finally wrote the novel. I searched for a surname that worked with the first names I’d chosen, nothing more. The second detail? Erika’s father owned a successful construction firm and Ryan and Wendy’s father is a developer. Again, it’s unlikely I remembered that, too, and I remember just wanting to make him a successful businessman who always provided the best for his family.

The rest?  Not my story, my characters, my novel, or my ending. But that first idea? That glimmer? That tiny seed? There it was.

The newspaper is a wonderful place to rev your imagination. It certainly revved mine, even if it took almost sixteen years to move from park to drive. I’m glad my novel finally took off at last.

Come hear me speak and have your copies of A Family of Strangers signed at the following book signings.

Upcoming Book Signings:
July 10 at 7 PM:

A Likely Story, 7566 Main Street #113 Sykesville, MD 21784. Here’s the link to register.

August 7 at 7 PM:

Towne Book Center Wine Bar and Café, 220 Plaza Drive, Suite B-3, Collegeville, PA 19426. No need to register, but here’s the link for more info.

November 2 from 9:30 to 4:

Buckeye Book Fair, Fisher Auditorium, Wooster, OH. Here’s the link to find out more.

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Sunday Inspiration: Depression and Anxiety

This powerful video was sent to me by a friend whose daughter made the video and later ended her own life, overcome by the depression and anxiety that had haunted her too long. This is what she says about it:

“My daughter Margaret (Peggy) was making a video on depression and anxiety aimed at teenagers before she committed suicide. We hired an editor and finished the video. For anyone who wants to watch it I am attaching the YouTube link. If you know any teachers or social workers that can use it in classrooms or other mental health workshops, please share the link with them. We can also send them a DVD.”

This video was particularly meaningful to me, since I know the family, but also because my own mother suffered with serious depression and anxiety all her life. In turn I know how deeply this can affect family members who want to help and make things better and can’t find a way to do it.

If you’re suffering from depression, there’s no shame in looking for help and finding whatever means you must to overcome it. I’ve seen antidepressants work miracles and reset the chemical balance needed for moving forward and gaining control. Talk therapy may help, as well as group and family therapy. Exercise, a healthy diet, whatever it takes. Just make that first step toward good health.

If you’re the friend or family of a depressed person, there’s no shame in looking for help for yourself, either. You need all the tools you can muster to help yourself and those you love move through this. I’m reminded of the airplane video that points out that if the airplane loses altitude and the oxygen masks appear, put yours on first before you help those around you. If you aren’t functioning, you’re no good to the people who may need you.

I hope this video helps. Peggy’s mom says a DVD is available to share, and if you would like one, contact me here at my website and I’ll put you in touch with her. Together, let’s reach out in all the ways that make sense and make a difference wherever we can.

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Give Me Your Tired…

The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus (1883)

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

On this July 4th, 2019, so many years later, may we remember this message, written by the poet Emma Lazarus, who spent much of her adulthood advocating for destitute Jewish immigrants escaping pogroms in Europe.

When I think of the 4th of July, I don’t think about massive parades with tanks and roped-off celebrity viewing sections, I think about all those who came before us, those ancestors who found their way to our shores and gave those who followed better lives. This year I especially think of those who are still coming.

And their children.

May you have a good Fourth of July with family, friends, fireworks and freedom.

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Sunday Inspiration: The Best Time

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now.” -Chinese proverb

One of our speakers used that quote this week here at Chautauqua Institution, and it struck me as especially inspirational.

Instead of wallowing in guilt over what I haven’t done in the past — which I do from time to time — I need to use my energy to do what needs to be done here and now.

I can’t change the past but I sure as heck can create something useful and beautiful and powerful in the present. So can you.

What will we create?

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