Jacqui Murray's Blog, page 137
April 15, 2015
How I’m Doing on ‘To Hunt a Sub’
Here’s an update on my upcoming novel, To Hunt a Sub:
It’s fully drafted. Now I’m fact-checking
I’m awaiting eagerly a meeting with a friend who will help pin down some critical geeky, techie details. That’s my last step!
After that, I’ll re-read–for the fginal time I hop
I still need a cover. I’m finding images (like the ones I’ve posted in other articles on this topic, to see if they resonate long-term with my feeling for the book
I still need an editor. I have a couple of ideas. Anyone have one they love?
I have the publisher set up–the same people I’ve worked with on all my books. They’re amazing–fast, affordable, and good to work with
Sending it to the publisher of course doesn’t mean I’m done. It simply means a new TODO list that focuses on marketing. More on that later…
More on writing my novel:
(Re)Starting a Novel���What are the��Hurdles
How Do I Market My Upcoming��Thriller?
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman
, the story of her daughter���s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is the author/editor of dozens of books on integrating tech into education, webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, adjunct professor in tech ed, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today���s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. You can find her book at her publisher���s website, Structured Learning.��
Filed under: To Hunt a Sub, writing Tagged: to hunt a sub
April 13, 2015
44 Ways to Show the Passage of Time
Time is a big deal in writing. You can’t show night turning to day or a person aging over time, or even clothes going from fresh and crisp to rumpled–nice visual cues that time marches forward. In a novel, it’s all the words you select that tick that clock forward or back in your head.
Here are 37 ways to show the passage of time and create a workable transition through events that don’t need to be seen in scene, just noted:
A note: These are for inspiration only. They can’t be copied because they’ve been pulled directly from an author’s copyrighted manuscript (intellectual property is immediately copyrighted when published).
By the middle of Sept he had changed his name three times and was in a new place every night. Today was Room 338
ten minutes later, top down on the Corvette, Hootie blaring from his car’s speakers, he cleared Candlestick Point and twenty minutes after that was parking in the courthouse lot 25 miles south
If she left now, she���d still make it to St. Camillus to light that candle
Frank sat on the tailgate of his glossy new Ford pick-up, watching the men in the trench work
After some light-hearted banter about the craziness of the music business and the foibles of the various artists, dinner arrived.
Steered the conversation toward innocuous subjects
Rainie was missing. How could he be sitting in a luxury sedan?
At the best of times, I���m a slow reader, this wasn���t one of those times
After hanging up the phone, I ate a solitary late-night snack, did some reading, climbed into bed and eventually got some sleep
Led him through greening hills and valleys, but he was only dimly aware of the scenery
The subtext is…
He stirred powdered milk into the dark liquid until it turned the color of caramel
They’d covered some of this territory before
She sat for a moment, organizing her thoughts on how to proceed.
Stromsoe was in high school when he met the boy who would someday murder his wife and son.
I waited. The rain came down hard on the roof of the car. A station wagon with fake wood sides pulled in beside us and a man and woman and three children piled out and scooted through the rain. I could hear the running lines of a power boat as it edged along toward where Hog Island would have been had the day been sunny and clear. I waited. Me and Carl.
I was going to be late for Susan if I didn���t close this off
I was just sitting here wondering what I could do to be nice to you, and now you call
One scene with a character. Next scene on the same topic, but with different characters. Ie, Glitsky interrogating a suspect. Next scene, in his car on the phone, relaying the information to someone else for analysis.
Carrying a tray with coffee and cups and cookies, she set it down on the table in front of Abe
Kind of guy you wanted out of the gene pool
While I waited, I read the vulgar graffiti on the phone box
what���s any of this got to do with���
just couldn���t get the image of her odd blue eyes out of his head, and he had been dazzled by the firelight shooting burnished copper glints through her luxurious hair
Reminded him of his age, his descending career path and his developing sense of isolation
I walked all the way around the truck and pondered Weebe���s hypothesis. If I had���
Standing under the hot water, trying to punch holes in his plan
Diane was in early the next morning. After a workout at home, she jogged the museum nature trail and took a shower in her office suite. She felt invigorated. Her arm was healing nicely. She did some museum business and had put all the finished papers on Andie’s desk by the time her assistant arrived. They spent a few minutes discussing museum business, then Diane went upstairs to the crime lab.
more surprising than the crash was that she was dying in English (LOVE this one)
She’d be landing in about an hour. She’d stop at Heney’s, get Pearl, and go home. She’d feed Pearl, unpack and hang everything up carefully, iron things that had wrinkled, take a bath, put on the pajamas she usually wore when she slept without me, get in bed with Pearl, have a half cup of frozen chocolate yogurt sweetened with aspartame, and watch a movie. Pearl would burrow under the covers and then Susan would fall asleep.
I ate in the silence and drank my coffee and looked occasionally at Susan���s picture on my desk
The lt wants to see it, too. Ten minutes later, Bosch was standing with the remote control in front of the AV equipment���
Well, I believe that about covers the situation
Ten hours later I was in the coach section…
I spun my wheels for a couple of days until I finally met with ���
Finding Jonathan Parson���s former wife ate up another ninety minutes of his time.
I was sitting in the front seat of a patrol car talking to a cop named Cataldo. We were cruising along
The song was running through his mind twenty-one years later when the bomb went off
“Good, I’m good!” he shouted. We all looked over to see what he could possibly mean.
It was dark when I got there, and my head was so clear as to be empty. I check in, unpacked, went to the bar and had a sandwich and a couple of beers, went back up to my room and, exhausted from the excitement, went to bed
Long gone, despite what Hollywood would have you believe
if that’s all you know about Jack Murtha ��� you don’t know Jack
He stopped completely, standing, apparently distracted, outside the hotel, looking at his watch, checking the passersby, watching for someone who hesitated, someone who might slow down and stop.
The wine helped me to go to sleep but not stay there. I woke up at 3:30 and lay awake and thought disjointedly about life and death until dawn
More descriptors:
How To Write Descriptions People Want to��Read���Dogs
How to Describe a Genius��Character
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter���s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is the author/editor of dozens of books on integrating tech into education, webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, adjunct professor in tech ed, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today���s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. You can find her book at her publisher���s website, Structured Learning.��
Filed under: descriptors
April 10, 2015
Book Review: Death Ex Machina
Death Ex Machina
by Gary Corby
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I discovered Gary Corby’s ancient Greece novels after reading Wilbur Smith’s Desert God about ancient Egypt. It made me hunger for more on the lives of people before technology took over. Corby’s five-installment series, based in the world’s first democracy around 450 B.C., stars Athenian detectives Nicolaos and Diotima,�� The ongoing story of their adventures (and misadventures) and daily life is fun and engaging, with authentic detail about a long-gone era. An Afterword section discusses the history highlighted in each book which I read as eagerly as the novel.
Death Ex Machina is the latest of the series. Nicolaos and Diotima investigate a series of mishaps at the Great Dionysia, the largest arts festival on the ancient world and held to honor the god Dionysos. When an actor is murdered, it threatens to close down the festival and embarrass Athens in the eyes of both friends and enemies. ‘Embarrassment’ in those times was conflated with weakness, which was not good in a world populated by neighbors looking for opportunities to destroy neighbors. The two detectives follow clues, unravel mysteries, and avoid near-death experiences–much like would happen in any detective novel–but wrapped in the shroud of a long-ago Hellenic world–which means no forensics or technology, just the investigative tools available over two thousand years ago.
Corby weaves in so much about history, I come away with a much stronger understanding of that era. His supporting characters include Socrates, Aeschylus, and Sophocles–all names I’ve read, but now I get to know them as I would a friend. Every time I look up a piece of history Corby includes, he’s spot on. He brings it to life by making it personal, approachable and relatable. The only device that rattled me–at first–is his characters used current language rather than ancient. I got used to it, accepting it as I would if it were translated from Greek to English. In this case, it was translated from ‘ancient’ to ‘modern’.
Overall, a great find. I love every book in the series and eagerly await the next. Write on, Gary Corby, write on!
If you would like to purchase this book through Amazon, click the link below:
��Death Ex Machina (An Athenian Mystery)
More historic fiction:
Last Stand of the Tin Can��Sailor
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter���s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is the author/editor of dozens of books on integrating tech into education, webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, adjunct professor, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today���s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. You can find her book at her publisher���s website, Structured Learning.��
Filed under: book reviews Tagged: history
April 8, 2015
POV: Two Perspectives
Michael Smart, author of the Bequia Mysteries, is a new efriend of mine. We ran into each other (virtually) through his wonderful series and found we shared a love of writing. Specifically, the mechanics of writing: How do authors build a fictional world that is so real, readers want to stay? Want to become friends with the characters and live life through their eyes?
There are many reasons, but the one Michael and I spent several fascinating hours discussing was POV. Point of view is who tells the story and how. I’ll summarize by saying: It can be first, second (albeit rare), or third person. Further, it can be objective, omniscient, or limited omniscient. And you can mix all those options within a novel.
That’s a lot of topics. Michael and I stuck to six questions:
POV is important in writing, and you [Michael] used a unique approach for the main characters in your series. I���m curious, do you struggle with which POV to use, or is it obvious as you develop the story?
Michael: �� I write in both first person and third person. I have no preference one over the other. It depends on the story, which angle I want to tell the story from, and whether as I���m writing, it feels natural to tell the story that way. Outlining Dead Reckoning, I envisioned a hard-boiled first person style reminiscent of authors who���d inspired my desire to write.
Jacqui:���������� I also plan the POV to fit the story, but all three of my books and my current draft are in third person, so I think it���s become my default. I���m planning to rewrite my historic fiction (Lucy, Daughter of Man) in first person before publishing, see if it enhances the authenticity of her amazing biography. Maybe I���ll ask my blog community to choose.
2. You ]Michael] used first person powerfully in your series. Explain the storytelling mojo you found writing in first person, as opposed to third.
Michael: One of the things I enjoy about writing in first person is being inside the narrator���s head, experiencing everything from that perspective, the scenes, action, other characters, their inner conflicts and motivations, their most intimate thoughts.
Jacqui:�������� I have always considered 1st person more intimate than 3rd. My workshop with Richard Bausch disabused me of that notion (theoretically, if not in practice). He constantly challenged we attendees to rephrase scenes in 3rd person to bring the reader closer.
Michael: I agree with Mr. Bausch. But I think it���s subjective for the reader. As a reader I prefer the first person kind of intimacy.
3. You [Michael] have a unique approach to the main characters in your series. Each of your three main characters headlines one novel, in the first person. What was the inspiration for that distinctive approach?
Michael:�� I had no deliberate plan leading me to use that approach. I developed the Gage character even before I had a story to tell about him. While scribbling notes on the character, Dead Reckoning took form.
While writing Dead Reckoning, I decided I really enjoyed my three main characters and wanted to write more stories about them. The Bequia Mysteries series was born. That decision spawned another, to write the first three novels in the series as a trilogy, providing a plot arc across the three novels in which to introduce and focus on each of the three main characters. At the time I had no clue how to execute this idea, or if it was even feasible.
When I began writing Deadeye, I discovered after the first chapter I���d been slanting the narrative through Jolene���s eyes. That was a scary discovery initially, but as I read the chapter I was struck by two revelations, the approach worked, in terms of structuring the trilogy and the series, and I liked it. I eventually threw out the first draft of chapter one, but I stuck with the Jolene first person POV, and continued the technique with Mike Daniels��� character in Deadlight.
Jacqui: The three-part prequel does a good job of introducing the three main characters. I���m eager to see what happens when you move beyond the introduction. My two-book series is the traditional approach���3rd person, with an emphasis on varied main characters.
4. As a reader, what was your (Jacqui} reaction when you started reading a second Bequia Mystery, and discovered a different first person narrator?
Jacqui: I will confess, I was disappointed at first. I respected Gage, enjoyed his storyline, and wanted to stay with him. I wasn���t nearly as drawn to Jolene, who I���d only seen through Gage���s eyes. That all changed as I got to know her from her 1st person story. I was hooked.
Michael: That was a big fear I had using this technique, but I stuck with it because I wanted readers to get to know each character in that way, and give each novel a distinct, individual voice and style. It also allowed me, and the reader, to view these main characters through the eyes of those closest to them. To get to know them from a different perspective. Writing them this way was enormous fun.
Jacqui: Separate from POV, you used another technique that is controversial among the ���experts������you wrote Jolene���s dialogue in the Caribbean patois. That reminds me of Patrick O���Brian���s amazing Aubrey-Maturin series about life aboard a British man-of-war during the Napoleonic wars. The dialogue is chock full of the language of the 1700���s Navy. Once the reader gets used to it, there���s no better way to wrap them in the story.
Michael: It���s a tricky thing to do properly. You have to strike the proper balance, and it���s one of the features I love about the Aubrey-Maturin series, and O���Brian���s writing. I���m not sure he could���ve transported us to the eighteenth century in the manner he does without it.
5. Back to Jolene, one last thing I���m curious about. As a man, discuss the difficulty writing as a female in first person. Did you get help with that?
Michael: I really enjoy writing female characters, and I���m so in love with Jolene. Except for anatomy, and viewing the world from a female perspective, my female and male characters are on equal footing. That female worldview I get from research, meaning I ask a gazillion questions to my sister, daughter, and all my female friends. They allow me inside their heads, and that helps me write female characters in the first person.
Jacqui:�� You���re braver than I, Michael. Lots of authors write across genders, but most stay in 3rd person. My upcoming novel, To Hunt a Sub, stars Zeke Rowe and Kali Delamagente, both in what for me is the less-intimate 3rd person (apologies to Richard Bausch for my lack of skill in seeing 3rd person as more intimate than 1st���maybe I need a refresher on my workshop!). Like you, I did extensive research to make sure my presentation was as authentic as possible.
Michael: Love those names, Jacqui!
Michael Smart is….
A native New Yorker, Michael W. Smart spent eight years sailing around the Eastern Caribbean. Dead Reckoning is his debut novel, the first in a series of Bequia Mysteries, which draws on his intimate knowledge of the islands, its people, and his sailing adventures in the Caribbean. Following diverse careers as a charter and delivery captain, yacht broker, pilot, air traffic controller and marina manager, he now writes full time.
Jacqui Murray is…
Author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter���s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is the author/editor of dozens of books on integrating tech into education, webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, adjunct professor, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today���s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. You can find her book at her publisher���s website, Structured Learning.��
Filed under: authors Tagged: guest authors, interview
April 6, 2015
72 Ways to Describe Sound
Since novels rarely include pictures, audio, color, or anything multimedia, their power to captivate lies entirely in words. How we authors describe action, surroundings, setting, and characters determine whether readers will not be able to put the book down or will throw it into the trash. Here are a few suggestions for describing sounds in your novel.
A note: These are for inspiration only. They can’t be copied because they’ve been pulled directly from an author’s copyrighted manuscript (intellectual property is immediately copyrighted when published).
Outside
Somewhere a dog barked
Muffled music pulsed from a building to our right, boomed as a patron emerged
The white noise whoosh of traffic from Soldiers Field Road was rhythmic, almost lulling.
The call of the muezzin echo from the mosque loudspeaker out over the rain-slick street
The rasp of leather on rock
A hush in the dark
The wind made the various chimes hanging from the eaves and trees, sing
Croaking of frogs
Blat of motorcycles; the full-throated growl of a truck
Through a window I could hear the risings and fallings of a conversation being held on a porch near the corner, chatting and yapping and playing and shrieking; a car passed on the street
the creaking, the sea noises, and the night birds outside. I was surrounded by the musty, oily, salty smell of the ship and the ocean, and realized how sharp one���s senses become in the dark. Every place has its own scent, a peculiar mixture of organic growth and human industry, of must, paint, wood and vermin.
Faint sound of music from the rooftop lounge above us
A cab idled
Sounds of traffic, a horn honking, an engine revving.
Heard the crunch and rattle of peppercorns as he approached the car
The locusts keened at me
slap of rope against asphalt
the rhythmic cadence of a cadet platoon running through the grounds, the steady tramp of their feet like a muffled drum on the quad
A faint electrical hum in the background sounds in the street
A piercing silence
Hot humid air was electric with the chirping of crickets and the rattle of cicadas
Sounds of jackhammers, the bleat of sirens in the night, 24-hr diners, graffiti, coffee serve in cardboard cups, steam exhaled through manhole covers
A motorcycle snarled
The roaring sound of a motorcycle revving on the other side of the cemetery intrudes like a profanity
Nature
the wind roared
the clinking whisper of snow on the metal roof, the panting of my dog, the scrape of my own footfalls���the only sounds in a place ���
Vehicles
The rhythmic pounding punctures the stillness of the morning air���fwtt fwtt fwtt
Drumbeat of a chopper, coming in low, hidden by the tree line
Thrum of the rotors
The engine whined at a high pitch
Traffic howled in both directions
Doppler wail of a passing patrol car
Squawking
Trouble
The boom of the rocket propelled grenade leaving its launcher
The whoosh as it blistered through the air en route to its target, and finally the deafening explosion as the RPG connected
Barrel up under lights and klaxon
Clink of metal, brush of boot
War
Sound of the aircraft powering up was like an industrial turbine red-lining.
Klaxon sounded on the ship���s internal speaker system.
Inside
The fire hissed softly and the log shifted with a little shower of sparks
doors opened and closed and water ran and toilets flushed and then the house went quiet. The heating system whirred and the taped-up football players muttered and grunted and snored
chink chink of cutlery on china
Phone rang, a short, sharp trill
Silence swelling to fill the space available
Creak the basement steps made when he���d sat down, drip-drip-drip from a leaky utility sink faucet
Offices
Phones chirping and deputies yelling at each other
Heels tapping softly against the polished stone floor
Keyboards clacking
Elevator doors clunked shut
Senses
ringing was growing in her ears
Sounded like a chicken being strangled
the loudest man-made sound on the North American continent until the detonation of the first atomic bomb at Alamogordo, New Mexico.
The soft snick���a knife opening
Ice clinked gently in the glass
Human
Hacked out a cough, noisy and bronchial
High pitched cackle, an ugly gasping sound, half laugh, half choke, erupted somewhere in front of them
Rubber-soled boots silent on the polished stone surface
Braying laugh
Basso voice he���d developed from years of smoking, drinking and yelling
Conversation louder here, laughter, the blare of music from digital players, movies playing on laptops or flat-screen monitors
Snick
Here’s how IEFLT describes sounds that humans make.
More descriptors about your senses:
57 Ways to Describe Talking in a��Novel
65 Ways to Describe Sight and Eyes in Your��Writing
How to Describe Sensory��Actions
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter���s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is the author/editor of dozens of books on integrating tech into education, webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, adjunct professor, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today���s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. You can find her book at her publisher���s website, Structured Learning.��
Filed under: descriptors
April 3, 2015
Katie O’Rourke’s Fascinating New Book
Katie O’Rourke and I are colleagues at Today’s Author, a group of authors who share writing ideas with all who stop by. She has two literary fiction novels under her belt. Monsoon Season, her debut novel, was a bestselling ebook and her second novel, A Long Thaw was released through Amazon Digital Publishing in 2014. Each writer’s story is a little different and Katie agreed to share her journey with you.
..
What is your marketing plan?
I am figuring that out as I go. Since A Long Thaw was previously traditionally published, a lot of the preliminary work has been done. It’s been professionally edited and vetted by a standard gatekeeper, which hopefully will help give it that little extra bit of credibility in the sea of self-published books.
I write a blog where I’m describing this whole journey. I have writer communities on Facebook and Authonomy. I sprang for a cover I really believe in. I’m ��doing interviews and approaching book bloggers and, in the end, trusting in my readers. I already have some Amazon reviews from the first time the book was published and it’s done really well.
��..
What is your favorite part of your book?
This book alternates narration between two female cousins and their grandmother.�� It’s a fictional family saga, but the grandmother’s character is based on my own and her chapters are so dear to me. My grandmother passed away several years ago, but ��she’s here in this book. I dedicated it to her.
What did you learn from writing this book?
��
It’s been a few years since I finished this one, and I’ve written three more since, so it’s hard to answer that specifically. I think I learn from each book I write and (I hope!) I’m becoming a better writer with every book I write.
��
Why should we read this book?
��
You should read this book if you love character driven stories. A Long Thaw deals with the power of secrets and the unbreakable bonds of family. This is book club fiction, women’s fiction with a literary bent. Readers of Sue Miller, Julia Glass and J Courtney Sullivan would appreciate this book.
��..
What does your writing space look like?
I hate silence while I’m writing so there’s usually music blaring out of those speakers. I do a lot of work here, but I also have a netbook that I use on the couch. I’m looking forward to the invention of a cheap, portable computer you can read in sunlight so I can write in my backyard while getting a tan.
If you have questions, leave them for Katie. I know she’s around the eroom somewhere… When I re-read this interview, I had so many more questions, like how hard was it to switch from agent to self-pub.
Katie O’Rourke was born and raised in New England, growing up along the seacoast of New Hampshire. She went to college in Massachusetts and graduated with a degree in gender and sexuality. She lives in Tucson, Arizona where she writes, loves and is happy. If you’d like to purchase her book through Amazon, click the link below:
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter���s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is the author/editor of dozens of books on integrating tech into education, webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today���s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. You can find her book at her publisher���s website, Structured Learning.��
Filed under: book reviews Tagged: blog hop, guest authors, interview
April 1, 2015
When do you use first or last names in novels?
This post is for Alex Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writers Support Group (click the link for details on what that means and how to join. You will also find a list of bloggers signed up to the challenge that are worth checking out like Rebecca who inspired me to begin). The first Wednesday of every month, we all post our thoughts, fears or words of encouragement for fellow writers.
This month’s insecurity – How do I decide whether I should call my character by his first name, last name, or both?
I’ve seen it done all ways, but whichever I pick ends up sounding stilted. If I use first names, my characters don’t sound professional enough. If last names, it sets an unnatural distance when I’m in the head of a character they’re close to. I’ve tried switching, adapting for the scene, and my book club complains that I have no set name.
What do I do?
More IWSG articles:
Am I good enough? Does it matter?
When does technical become��boring
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman
, the story of her daughter���s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is the author/editor of dozens of books on integrating tech into education, webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today���s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. You can find her book at her publisher���s website, Structured Learning.�� Filed under: writers, writing Tagged: insecure writers group, iwsg, writers
March 30, 2015
29 Ways to Describe a Headache
Because I suffer from chronic, unrelenting headaches, I have characters in my stories who do. And, I like to see how other authors describe this sort of pervasive, life-altering pain. How do they effectively communicate a misery truly only understood by other people who get them? For example, I had a neurologist once tell me that he worked with headaches so I could too. Clearly, the unrelenting monster in his skull had chewed through his bedside manner.
A note: These are for inspiration only. They can’t be copied because they’ve been pulled directly from an author’s copyrighted manuscript (intellectual property is immediately copyrighted when published).
Here’s my list:
It all made her head ache
The world���s spinning and I want to vomit, but yeah, I���m okay. His head pounded, sharp and heavy.
Migraine threatening at the back of his head
Head throbbing
A headache ground into her temples
Concussed by a headache
Awakened with a monster headache
Said without interest
Jane rested her head in her hands and began to rub her temples, trying to massage away the headache.
He laughed. The pain in his head flashed hard and hot.
If only her head would stop pounding.
She closed her eyes, fighting off nausea. Trying, even through the pain, to remember how she could have arrived at this strange, dark place where nothing seemed familiar.
Stomach heaved
Wave of nausea
A headache flared
The headache, a familiar electric pain behind his eyes
Hangover gathering strength like an oncoming storm
a throbbing headache was developing beneath his temples
muscle in his right cheek flexed
Living with her headache
My headache had returned
Thrumming/buzzing/purring/vibrating/drumming headache behind her temples
She winced, brows furrowed tight with pain
A needling headache behind his right ear
The rhythm of blood throbbing in my temple
Skull pounding
Stick hot needles in her eyes
temple twitched
She finally got to the edge of her headache
Head felt like it was filled with straw
her heartache had gone numb
belligerent hangover
aspirin bounced off his headache like it was armored
More descriptors:
How to Talk Like a��Southerner
57 Ways to Describe Talking in a��Novel
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman
, the story of her daughter���s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is the author/editor of dozens of books on integrating tech into education, webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today���s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. You can find her book at her publisher���s website, Structured Learning.��
Filed under: descriptors
March 27, 2015
Book Review: The Ten Count
The Ten Count by Tom Schreck
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“Every one has a plan until they get punched in the face.”
This quote from Mike Tyson is why I love Tom Schreck’s Duffy Dombrowski.�� Duffy is not only a mid-level boxer, he’s a counselor for troubled youth. In the fifth installment of the series, The Ten Count (CreateSpace 2014), Duffy is sent to a private high school to help students come to terms with the brutal murder of one of their teachers. As he works with students and faculty, he finds a lot of problems at this school that could have contributed to this man’s death and–being Duffy–he can’t stop himself from trying to unravel the mysteries. Add to this a blossoming love interest, an odd affair, and a hiccup in his career, the story is non-stop action.
Duffy Dombrowski is a believable mix of rough boxer and thoughtful therapist. Once you’re in his head (it’s written in first person), you realize there’s a lot more going on than fighting and drinking. In fact, Duffy has a solid moral compass, a respect for real people, and no need to impress others or be impressed by superficial trappings.
I love the procedural stuff–how to be a boxer–that’s included, like this:
“…a day with shadowboxing, heavy bag work, three rounds of mitts, and these new plyometric things I’ve started doing that were supposed to make me explosive.”
I have never been a boxing fan, but through Duffy’s eyes, I got a real appreciation for for the sport and the passion behind it. I almost want to watch the next match on TV.
“Like some guys’ La-Z-Box recliner, it [the boxing gym] was where I went when I wanted to get away from the day and unwind.”
Great internal dialogue for Duffy throughout the book helps the reader get to know the main character well and understand his motivation and thought:
“I probably should’ve gone for a recovery drink [after his gym workout] high in protein with low glycemic complex carbohydrates and combined that with a light snack of the same proportions that also had some fiber to fill me up. That’s what I should’ve done.”
This could be a stand-alone story, but it uses characters and ideas introduced earlier in the series, so you might want to read those first. Click to see my reviews of Getting Dunn and The Vegas Knockout. To buy any of these books on Amazon, click the links below:
The Ten Count (Duffy Dombrowski) (Volume 5)
More mysteries involving people with unusual jobs:
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter���s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is the author/editor of dozens of books on integrating tech into education, webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today���s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. You can find her book at her publisher���s website, Structured Learning.��
Filed under: book reviews Tagged: mysteries
March 25, 2015
12 Spring Cleaning Steps for Your Computer
Reblogged from my Tech column. If you’re wondering why your computer doesn’t work as well as it used to, try these 12 ideas:
It’s time for Spring Cleaning. Of your computer.
If you followed my suggestion over New Year’s, this will go faster than you expect, but still, plan to set aside a couple of hours. Grab a coffee or tea, get a comfortable chair. Put on your problem-solving hat, and get started:
Make sure your firewall is working. Windows comes with a built-in one. Maybe Mac does too. Leave it active. It���s under Control Panel-Administrative Tools. Sometimes, they turn off by themselves (I have no idea why). Check it to be sure it remains active.
Run Spybot or a similar antispyware program. Spybot is free, which is why I like it. I���ve had good luck with it. Download.com says this about Spybot: The program checks your system against a comprehensive database of adware and other system invaders. The Immunize feature blocks a plethora of uninvited Web-borne flotsam before it reaches your computer.
Keep your antivirus software active. If you���re paranoid like me, run an antivirus scan weekly to be sure nothing is missed.
Run Ad-aware once a week to keep malware and spyware off your computer. It has a stellar reputation and is still free to all (although there���s an upgrade you can pay for).
Sort through your My Documents files and get rid of those you don’t need anymore. That includes pictures, videos, faxes, all that stuff. It’s intimidating, like a file cabinet that hasn’t been opened in months–or years. Do it, though. You may not need the hard drive space, but you don’t want the computer fingering through unnecessary files every time it searches.
Back up all of your files to an external drive or cloud storage. If you have an automated system like Carbonite, skip this. If you don’t have one, consider getting one. They not only automatically back up your work, but they make it accessible from wherever you are–home, work, your accountants, the soccer field. If you use Windows, try their ‘backup’ program. It’s easy to find: Click the Start Button and search ‘backup’.
Empty the trash folder. Don’t even look in it. If you haven’t missed a file by now, it won’t be in there.
Learn to use that program you’ve been promising you would. Evernote is a great example. Use it (and you won’t be sorry) or delete the email from your best friend exhorting you to. Move on.
Go through your programs and delete the ones you no longer use. Here’s what you do:
go to Control Panel>Programs and Feature
Peruse the list and pick the programs you downloaded by mistake, meaning to use, or used to use and no longer do
uninstall
don’t look back
Update any software that needs it. I don’t mean BUY a newer version. I mean click the free update that’s been nagging at you (Adobe Reader for example)
Clean the junk off of your desktop. Put it in folders or create a folder for ‘Working on’ or ‘Desktop Stuff’. Don’t know how to create a desktop folder? Here’s what you do:
Right click on the desktop and select ‘New>folder’
Name it and push enter
Clean up your Start Button. Remove shortkeys you no longer use (with a right click>delete). Add those that are now your daily go-to sites. How? Right-click>add to Start Menu.
For more end-of-year clean up ideas, check Microsoft Windows page, How to Geek, and Digital Trends.
That���s enough. I���ll have more for you during Holiday Cleaning. Now take a break.
More on the tech-infused writer:
6 Tips That Solve Half Your Tech Writing��Problems
Tech Tip for Writers #62: Emailing from��Word
Tech Tip for Writers #60: How to Add Shortcuts to the��Desktop
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter���s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is the author/editor of dozens of books on integrating tech into education, webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today���s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. You can find her book at her publisher���s website, Structured Learning.��
Filed under: tech tips for writers Tagged: computer maintenance, spring cleaning
