Promo Post: Behind Closed Doors by Sherri Hayes

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  Behind Closed Doors by Sherri Hayes
Summary:Elizabeth Marshall spent the last nine years doing all the things she was supposed to do. She went to a good college. Married a man with a promising future. Elizabeth even had a nice house in a respectable part of town. There was even the promise of 2.4 kids in her future. From the outside everything looked picture perfect.
Then one night, the world she lived in came crashing down. Six months later with her husband dead and her friends gone, Elizabeth moves to the small town of Springfield, Ohio to start a new life where no one knows who she is or about her past.
Christopher Daniels enjoys the simplicity of his bachelor life. After his divorce three years ago, he swore off women. He has no desire to change that philosophy.
When Elizabeth Marshall moves into the apartment below his in the small Victorian house, she makes him reconsider the motto he’s lived by for the last three years: women are trouble. She is everything his ex-wife is not, and it doesn’t help that she is his fantasy come to life.
He is determined to resist her charms; however, when someone sends threatening messages to Elizabeth, he finds himself in the role of protector. Can he protect Elizabeth and still resist the pull she has on his body and his heart?
Author Bio:
 Author Sherri HayesSherri is the author of several novels, and a short story, A Christmas Proposal. She lives in central Ohio with her husband and three cats. Her mother fostered her love for books at a young age by reading to her as a child. Stories have been floating around in her head for as long as she can remember; however, she didn’t start writing them down until she was thirty. It has become a creative outlet that allows her to explore a wide range of emotions while having fun taking her characters through all the twists and turns she can create. When she’s not writing, she can usually be found helping her husband in his woodworking shop.
 Links: 
Goodreads (Behind Closed Doors): http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13003360-behind-closed-doors
Goodreads (Hidden Threat): http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9846485-hidden-threat
Goodreads (Author): http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4496779.Sherri_Hayes
Amazon Author Page:  http://www.amazon.com/Sherri-Hayes/e/B004MIO9O4/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1354749081&sr=8-1
Author Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Sherri_Hayes
Author Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sherri-Hayes/122511444477280?ref=hl
Author Website: http://www.sherrihayesauthor.com/

Book Review: Amelia in Pink, the Sleepless Cat by Jimerna Pinto-Kroujiline

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Title: Amelia Pink, the Sleepless CatAuthor: Jimena Pinto-KroujilineCategory: ChildrensPub. Date: 11/12/2012Publisher: CreateSpace Independent PublishingFormat: PaperbackPages: 32ISBN#: 1480267899
Amazon Link: Click Here

Synopsis:  
Amelia and her older sister Sofia have a cat. His name is Pink and he loves sleeping. During the day, Amelia and Sofia try almost everything to wake him up, as they only wish to play with him. The girls will learn what a heavy sleeper Pink is and how fun it is to play tricks on him while he is sleeping. These funny tricks, however, leave a very tired and confused Pink. Will Pink finally find out who was playing tricks on him and teach them a lesson?  

My Review:   
Oh My Oh My.. my first impression of this darling book was, "Where can I get all four of my granddaughters one for Christmas, then who else can I show it to so they can do the same."
Amelia and sister Sofia are so darling and have vivid imaginations and that sometimes comes back to... "oops, I almost started to tell you what happens in the delightful tell of two sisters and their cat. 
Author Jimena Pinto-Kroujiline has done an amazingly awesome job at writing this book (storyline) that you are laughing and teasing yourself until.....  "oops"

All I want to say here is there is great and wonderful storyline as well as a an underlying lesson to learn, which is another reason to love this book. 

Well you all know by now that I don't give away the book. So guess what you need to go do? That is right, get the book and read for yourself or to some sweet little one and see what you or they think. All I know is I will be adding a few to my Christmas list.
So due to the above, I am giving this book a Breath of Life ratings of: 
Five Clock Rating!!!  Disclosure: I received this book for my honest opinion and review. Opinions are my own and yours may differ. ________________________  About the Author:    
About Me: I was born in Colombia, and by the time I was eight years old, I had lived in many different countries all over the world. First, my family and I moved to Venezuela, where I immediately gained the local accent. Then, it was on to Indonesia, where local people loved to touch my curly hair. After that, we moved to Germany, where I managed to build my very own first snowman. And we ended our journey in Mexico where, after many tearful attempts, I ended up loving hot chili lollipops. It was very exciting to discover new places, but it also meant that I always had to leave my friends behind. I had to invent my own games and play by myself until I would make new friends. I guess this is the reason why I always had a wondering mind. When I grew up, I studied Industrial Design, and my very vivid childhood memories have always been there to inspire me. I love to watch The Smurfs and Care Bears; I am a huge fan of the cutest kitty of all, Hello Kitty. And I know I should stop wearing pink and glitter but I just can't help it.

The Strange Phenomenon of Parkinson's Law

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We’ve all heard variations of the phrase, “The task expandsto fill the allotted time.” This is commonly known as Parkinson’s Law and isattributed to Cyril Northcote Parkinson as part of a humorous essay publishedin 1955.
The statement is self-explanatory, and I've seen it applied many times over. But when the rubber meets the road, ie. a DEADLINE, then Parkinson's Law is thrown out the window, isn't it? I've never really thought much about Parkinson's Law up until now because for years I've filled every minute of every day with work it seems.
28 years at the day job18 years of writing7 years working for AFCW
I juggled them all, in addition to a family and church. Until recently. A few weeks ago Iturned in my corporate badge at the day job to concentrate on writing more andworking for ACFW.
Each day is fresh and new, stretching before me with tons of potential. But when all is said and done, I review the day and feel I’ve wasteda great deal of my time. Granted, as I look back over the last few weeks, thereare several important tasks that I've marked off my list, quite afew personal and family errands that I’d been putting off that have gotten done,and come to think of it, I completed several promotional pieces for mypublisher and turned in edits.

But still, there's that niggling worry that I'm not doing enough with this blessing of time...
It’s like I know I have more time to get things done, so Itake more time, and I ending up feeling like I’ve wasted my time. Such a scarythought for someone who has burned the candle at both ends for many, manyyears.
Here’s the thing for us writers though. All of these tasks,writing, editing, revising, promoting, blogging, answering email, social media,keeping up with the industry, and gasp, even reading, are important. The problem comes when we start one ofthese (like email) and it takes hours to empty our inbox. Or we’re trying tofigure out how to start a newsletter, or we get stuck on a plotting problem andit ties us up for hours.
How do we fix this problem? If Parkinson’s Law says that thetask expands to fill the allotted time, then it stands to reason that if wegive ourselves 5 minutes to resolve that plotting issue, then we can get itdone and move on to something else. Uh, not going to happen in this lifetime.So, we can throw that reasoning out the window. The reverse is not true of Parkinson’s Law.
So, what can I do with this feeling of time's awastin'?

I can organize my time and my peak energy level to gain the maximum benefit from both. Writing should be the most important part of my work day. So, I need tomake sure my writing is a priority when I’m at my best. I also need to set atime limit for those things that can be timed instead of letting them take up so much of my day. 
And, deep breath...
I can learn to appreciate those days that I get a lot done and stop beating myself up on the days I don't.
And I can eat more chocolate...
What do you do to make the best use of your time?
For more information, visit Joel Falconer's blog post "How to use Parkinson's Law to your advantage" onthis topic. His blog and some of the comments gave some helpful tips onmanaging time. 

Today’s prizes are an Official Pomodoro Technique Timer and CHOCOLATE: a Ferrero Rocher Diamond Gift Box.
And if all else fails, I'll just gaze at my new cover for Claiming Mariah, releasing January 2013! Don't you just love it?

Claiming Mariah ~ January 2013!!!

I Hear What You’re Saying but I Know What You’re Thinking with guest Jane Myers Perrine

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The politician stands before the television cameras, confessing to a secret affair and asking forgiveness from those he represents. Next to him stands his wife.  

He exudes contrition and confidence.

She stands at least a foot from him. When he turns toward her, she doesn’t make eye contact.  When he gestures in her direction, she takes a step away from him.

What does she exude? Oh, she’s there, showing support like the good political wife, standing by her man but she’s hurt by his cheating and angry that he expects her to support him and furious that he wants her to display her wounds to the public so that the unfaithful jerk can keep his career.

How do we know that?   

   
But you’ll say, “That’s just showing.”  And I’ll agree, but what makes this subtext is that what you’re showing is different from or contrary to or beneath the surface of the presumed context of the scene. The basic definition for subtext is the art of saying or writing or doing one thing but meaning something else.   

 The scene, on the surface, is a loving wife standing by her husband, supporting him because she loves him, forgiving him to keep the family together.  What’s really happening is that she can’t even stand close to the cheating husband because she’s seething inside.

You and I use subtext in all the time, to protect ourselves and others.  When I get my hair cut, I know when my friends say, “Oh, you got your hair cut” they really mean, “Looks awful.  She really scalped you this time.”  That’s subtext.   We use it in life.  Experienced writers uses this in their books.  It adds texture and depth to the plot and the characters.  

In novels, subtext is like rocks at the bottom of a shallow, fast running creek. The boulders are the plot points that stick up and cause the water to flow around them. Subtext is barely visible and below the surface.  It, too, changes the flow of the river or story in less obvious ways--but it still adds at least a ripple to the course of the story.

I’m going to use a number of examples because subtext may be hard to define. Actually, the definition isn’t hard but explaining how subtext is used is. With friends and family, we recognize the anger in a cold silence or a chilled tone of voice or a glare even when the words are polite. 
Has your child ever been lost, wandered away from you in a store for a period of time?  What’s the first thing you said to him when he turns up?  Probably something like,  “Don’t you ever do that again,” in a frantic and angry voice.  The tone and words say one thing but they mean, “I love you and was so worried.”

Nancy Levine wrote The Lady in Red,  a short, short story I loved. The heroine, obviously, was wearing a red velvet dress at a party.  Subtext: sexy lady. But during the party, the nap of the velvet fell off and left a trail of fluff on the carpet and sofa. This made me think, “She’s like me!” and linked to embarrassing moments in my life.  Now, you may not have picked up on that connection.  I don’t even know if Ms. Levine meant that—which points out  another problem with subtext.  Because  readers come to books from varied  backgrounds, each may pick up on something else, maybe even a feeling the writer didn’t intend.   

I once sent a friend an article about communication that I thought was hilarious. My friend called me and angrily demanded, “How dare you make fun of me by sending something that points out the problems in my marriage.”  I had no idea she’d go off like that.    

What makes it so hard to discuss subtext is that it’s nebulous and ill-defined, a blur hovering on the edge of reality and just out of reach. Subtleness and the lack of clarity makes teaching about it, even recognizing it incredibly difficult.   

A popular scene which has now become a cliché is when the heroine doesn’t know the hero cares about her until a friend says, “He loves you.  Can’t you see the way he looks at you?”

To me the subtext here is, “Good heavens, you’re dumb.  Why didn’t you notice?”

How would you use subtext to show the heroine’s recognition that the hero does love her?   Subtext is much more effective than a friend telling her.   Perhaps the heroine notices a quick glance or a light touch or he leans toward her or defers to her opinion or brings her a cookie, her favorite, of course, or goes to see Twilight with her.  
  
Another example.  Many women complain when their mother-in-laws clean their daughter-in-laws’ houses.  I really appreciated when my mother-in-law did this for me.   I never knew why other women hated this because I wasn’t looking at subtext.  What message is Annie’s  mother-in-law Barb sending with her actions?   What is Annie communicating with her response?  

Pause for explanation:  When I talked to Tina about the topic for this blog, she suggested something on craft.  I chose subtext because I know very little about it but wanted to explore, to clarify my thinking.  When I began three weeks ago—because I’m neurotic about meeting deadlines--I thought I’d finish in a day or two.  Didn’t happen. I’m on my sixth or seventh rewrite.  Didn’t realize until November 19 why I was having so much trouble. 

  This topic is incredibly complicated.   It’s a technique which cannot easily be explained to a beginning writer and depends on well-defined characters with set goals, motivations, and conflicts.  It doesn’t happen as you write a novel usually, but is usually layered on after you know your characters.

In order to understand the subtext in the scene about the mother-in-law cleaning the house, the reader has to know more about Annie and Barbara.  That leads back to characterization which leads back to goal, motivation, and conflict.   Entire books could be written on these topics.  To understand the scene with the mother-in-law, we need to understand her goal, motivation, and conflict as well as Annie’s.

Returning to that example:   Barb’s goal might be to suggest her son is living in a pig sty, her motivation could be to show Annie that Mommy is still in change;  the conflict is that Barb and Annie don’t agree on what “clean” means.  In addition, the internal conflict is Barb wants her son to be in a happy marriage and Annie’s not about to let herself be dominated.   The section is not about cleaning.  It’s about power and struggle.    


Subtext looks beneath the surface to discover motivation, to show Barb’s goals and character—and to create conflict.  Barb doesn’t say, “I’m afraid I’m losing my son.”  No, she shows Annie she’s superior and stronger and Annie will never measure up.


 Subtext.  It’s a top layer that rests on so many assumptions and presupposes the writer has the foundation of building characters and knows about goals and all that other writer-y stuff.  It’s not just one thing.   It’s many and it’s  complicated.  Of course, it’s also your choice not to use subtext—but I bet it will turn up anyway because if we know our characters well, subtext happens.  That man in love can’t help but smiling goofily at his girl even at a business meeting.  Couples in love can’t help but glow or emit sexual tension zinging back and forth between them even at dinner with their spouses.  Try as we do to hide emotions, they show.

Here’s another example and several possible ways to interpret subtext.  

J.D. loves to play football. When his coach pulls him off the bench to go in for an injured player, he says, “Yes. Coach,” grabs his helmet and heads in. Let’s look at the subtext for that scene.
If J.D. doesn’t hesitate, the subtext is, 

1.    “Finally I get to show my stuff” 

2.    “I’ll do anything Coach says.”  

3.    “I don’t care about my friend because I want to get in the game.”

If J.D. pauses for a second before leaping off the bench, the subtext is:

1.    “I don’t know if I can do this” or

2.    “My best friend has just been injured and

    a.    I’m afraid I’ll be injured.”

    b.    I’m worried about him.”

3.    Add your own here.

But, you may wonder, how does the reader know?  Because subtext is not used in a vacuum.  If you’ve created a believable and deep character, the reader remembers background and thoughts.  Did his mother ever sob, “Your brother died playing football”?  Did he ever tell a friend, “There’s nothing more important in my life than getting a football scholarship to college”?  If you’ve set it up, the subtext is clear.

Still, there are lots options and a great deal of set up. That’s what makes subtext both tough and intentional.   

EXERCISE:   I’m going to give a few sentences for you to build as subtext.  Or, probably more useful, scan your WIP and find a place you could add subtext.   Take a risk.  Find numerous possibilities. Play with them.   Here are some sentences you can practice with.

1.    After tossing her dark hair back, Aphrodisia (yes, character names can be subtext) tilted her head and purred, “You’re wrong, Mr. Bond.”

Take Two:   After blinking, Maryanne leaned forward and stated, “You’re wrong, Mr. Bond.”

Can these both have the same subtext?  Of course they can—you’re the writer.  You decide.

2.    “Oh, sure.”  (So many possibilities)

3.    Wink

I feel as if I’ve been fighting this topic for weeks and can only hope you will accept the offering I lay before you.   I hope this blog—as torn and patched together  as it is--has been helpful to you, has illuminated the subject and challenged you to leap into the fray armed with subtext and thrust it into your latest book.    

I'd love to hear some of your favorite examples of subtext as well.

Happy writing!

 

Award-winning writer Jane Myers Perrine has worked as a Spanish teacher, minister, cook, rifle instructor, program director in a state hospital, and been an active volunteer but she always wanted to write.   Finally, she found time and has published books with  Avalon Books, Steeple Hill Love Inspired, and FaithWords, a division of Hachette Book Group.  Her short pieces have appeared in the Houston Chronicle and Woman’s World magazine.    

Jane’s Butternut Creek series is about a young minister serving in the beautiful Hill Country of Texas and is filled with affection and humor.  The Welcome Committee of Butternut Creek, the first book in the series, was published in April, 2012.  The Matchmakers of Butternut Creek will be available in November 20, 2012.  The third book, The Wedding Planners of Butternut Creek will be available in late 2013.

With her minister husband George, Jane lives north of Austin where their lives are controlled by two incredibly spoiled tuxedo cats. 

 
The Matchmakers of Butternut Creek

Undaunted,  the Widows of Butternut Creek continue their search to find a bride for Pastor Adam in The Matchmakers of Butternut Creek, the second of the Butternut Creek series.
    For once, Adam and the Widows—the elderly ladies who run the church Adam serves--agree on something.  Gussie Milton is the perfect woman for him.  But Gussie is skittish after a traumatic experience in college.  Oh, sure, she'd like a relationship but has trouble trusting and throws herself into caring for her aging parents, running her photography business, and serving the church.   As Adam court Gussie, the Widows push and Gussie shies away.   Can the Widows' meddling change the couple's lives forever?  Here’s a hint:  the third book in the series has the title The Wedding Planners of Butternut Creek.










And...Jane is generously giving away one of her Butternut Creek books to one lucky winner (winner's choice). Comment today for your opportunity. Winner announced in the Weekend Edition.

The Best of the Archives: Why I Love Debra Dixon's Goal, Motivation and Conflict

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This post first appeared in Seekerville on October 21st, 2010.



We were thrilled to have Debra Dixon with us on Monday, but interestingly enough the visitors who were in Seekerville that day seemed to fall into two groups: they were either GMC guru's or those who never pondered the pages of Deb's fabulous classic:


Goal, Motivation & Conflict: The Building Blocks of Good Fiction
 
So I decided to share with you a little bit about why I love GMC.


1. GMC is a foundational plotting book. The beautiful simplicity of it is you're able to plug not only your hero and heroine, but also every single character in your book, including the villain into the GMC chart and VOILA! you have your internal and external conflict and your log-line. Amazing.



2. GMC explains GMC in detail even I can understand. (parenthesis phrases are my interpretation)

It begins with WHO. Your character.

Goal = What (what they want)

Motivation = Why (why they want it)

Conflict = The Why Not (what stands in their way)



From The Rancher's Reunion (Love Inspired January 2011)

Who: Will Sullivan, Oklahoma rancher.

External GMC: Will Sullivan wants to save the ranch that is his heritage but Mother Nature and a scandal threaten to destroy everything he's worked for.

Internal GMC: Will doesn't plan to ever marry because he may have another Sullivan legacy, but his love for Annie Harris stands in his way.

Log-line: A rancher must save the ranch that was left to him, while he battles with the knowledge that he can't tell the woman he loves how he feels because he may be carrying another family legacy.


There it is. See how easy?


Okay well, GMC does a much better job than I have of showing Goal, Motivation and Conflict with a detailed chapter for each topic using a universal book/movie, The Wizard of Oz to demonstrate. The back of the book utilizes a few more movie classics to demonstrate, including Ladyhawke, The Client, Star Wars, Casablanca and The Fugitive.


That's the basics, but GMC is stuffed with information on topics such as:

• Show Don't Tell

• The Black Moment

• Writing Scenes

• Basic Writing Tips

• Query Letters

• Turning Points

and much more


As a newbie writer (I bought this book in 1996) I starred many things in the book as light bulb moments -seriously, until this book, well, WHO KNEW?

• "The heroine's goal in a romance novel is not to fall and love and get married."

• "If you can see it, touch it, taste it, hear it, or smell it..that's external."

• "Learn to deliver back story through characterization and dialogue."

• "Motivation drives your characters."

I reread GMC yearly if not more often and every single time I go back to the book I uncover more nuggets of writing and plotting wisdom such as:

• "...the reader is supposed to identify and empathize with your character from the moment the character makes an entrance."

• "Urgency always pushes the plot and the pace."

• "The first chapter must establish what's at stake..."

• "First chapters are like a first impressions-you only get one chance. So don't blow it."

I'm barely scratching the surface of this excellent resource.


Keep in mind that Monday's post walked hand in hand with the basics of the hero's journey, which is a whole post in itself. But you can find more information by picking up Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces, or Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey, or Chris Vogler and Michael Hauge's The Hero's Two Journeys.


Now if you're a GMC fan pull out your copy and share with us what pages of your copy of the book are worn and marked up.

And if you dare----share with Seekerville your Hero or Heroine's GMC. Internal and External.

If you're a clever reader, tell us the GMC of a character in a Seeker book you've read.

What's in it for you? Comment and you could win a copy of GMC or if you're a reader a surprise Seeker book. Winner announced in the Weekend Edition.


If you don't win a copy, you can purchase your own at the Gryphon website, here. 


Using GMC on my current WIP on the dry erase wall in my office.


 

Where do I begin – Deciding where to start your story

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I've just finished judging the First Impression contest for ACFW, which is such a great idea for a contest.
It made me start thinking about starting a story and I’m going to try and talk with you about where, when and how.
I’m open to other opinions here because it’s tricky, so chime in.
I always say explode your story. Explode that book onto the page. But it’s not enough to explode for the sake of exploding. You've got to explode your story.

The opening of a book needs to do five things.
1) Explode
2) Story 
3) Anchor
4) Moment of Change
5) Cute Meet

1) EXPLODE- I mean something big, emotionally or physically, right off the bat.
When you’re revising your book take a few moments and VISUALIZE the editor. Visualize her sitting at her desk with STACKS of manila envelopes to her left and right. You know she is exhausted, overwhelmed, she’s got a lot of other jobs besides acquiring and she’s set 2-4 pm aside daily to read submissions from unpublished authors.
She rips open envelop after envelop and here’s the thing…she WANTS to buy your story. She wants something to grab her and excite her. She is hoping and praying she’ll find a new author. SHE NEEDS YOU.
Now, I don’t know this, but I suspect you've got about two minutes. You have got to grab her just like you're going to have to grab a reader when your book is published. You've got to write something exciting and you've got about half a page to do it.
Now look at your opening. Is it there? Is what she needs going to leap right off the page at her? Your story needs to explode.
HOWEVER it needs to not just explode for the sake of an explosion. There needs to be a point. It’s your STORY that’s exploding not just some random action scene to hook an editor.

2) STORY—Story! Story! Story! I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH!!! YOU'VE GOT TO TELL ME YOUR STORY. The story need to be there, front and center. I don’t think I can stress this enough. You’ve got to tell me the story. Yes, explode the book, but WHAT STORY ARE YOU GOING TO TELL? The trickiness of starting a book becomes MUCH SIMPLER if you just tell me your story from word one!
One of my recurring comments in judging is, “I still have no idea the story you’re going to tell me. I can’t tell by reading if this is a romance, who the hero and heroine are going to be, I don’t know where I am, when I am, who these people are and what story you’re going to tell. This is a sure fired way to get your submission rejected. START THE STORY. It needs to be in there. If it’s NOT in there, then you need to rework it until it is. I should NOT have to go to the blurb to know your story. No, not even in a short submission like five pages. TELL ME YOUR STORY! (have I stressed that enough, yet?)

3) ANCHOR—WHERE am I, WHEN am I, WHO are these people. When someone picks up a Mary Connealy book hopefully from my past work, the cover, and the backstory blurb, a reader flips open the page knowing what to expect. It’s gonna be a historical romance set in the America West, post-Civil War. But even with the reader knowing that, I still need to anchor them firmly in a time and place for them to join me on this journey. A tag after the title isn't enough. AND—I CAN’T LET IT STOP MY STORY FROM EXPLODING!

Yes, you can put a date under the title
Over the Edge
Rawhide, Colorado
October 30, 1866
Chapter One
(sometimes I include setting here, Rawhide, Colorado, but I didn't in Over the Edge)
But no place and date can do the job of drawing in a reader. That isn't enough to truly anchor your reader and draw them into the world you’re trying to create. You don’t have to be heavy handed about this. If Callie Kincaid is in a stagecoach hold up, I’m done. I've anchored them. A stagecoach sets you in time and place.

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I haven’t said:
Callie Kincaid was riding through the Colorado Rockies in 1866.
Instead page one, sentence one of Over the Edge:

A bullet slammed through the door of the stagecoach, threading a needle to miss all four passengers.

It’s a hold-up!” Callie Kincaid grabbed her rifle. “Get down!”

Almost every reader is immediately going to start thinking about a stagecoach hold-up they’ve seen in a movie. And I’m done. It’s cowboys. It’s the American west. Horses, rifles, Stetsons. It’s all done with one sentence. I work Colorado in pretty soon, but honestly there’s little time with the bullets flying. And at this point Colorado isn’t important because the reader knows exactly where they are in a general sense. The Wild West.


4) Moment of Change— I've heard it said to start your story at the moment of change. So, okay, picture yourself right now. What are you doing? Duh, you’re reading Seekerville. Then, maybe you've got screaming kids tugging on your knees, or it’s time to get dinner or you've got to head out to work, or you’re going to write for an hour. I’m sorry to tell you this, but YOUR LIFE ISN'T A STORY. The stuff you did yesterday and today and tomorrow is all good, it’s life and it’s a good life. But it’s not a STORY. (and be thankful for that, most stories are full of trouble--in fact PRAY that your life never becomes a story!). A story usually begins when that everyday life is changed.
The phone rings.
A knock on the door.
An outlaw shoots you out of the saddle.
A man plunges over a creek bank riding his horse at full speed and a woman races to save his life.
The train pulls up and a tall, dark and handsome stranger steps off and his fiery hazel eyes lock on yours.

Now THAT’S a story. Pick that moment of change. How does your heroine’s life suddenly change?

In Too Deep, the hero and heroine already know each other. But there’s that awful, beautiful cavern and it nearly steals the heroine’s baby from her forever. Ethan saves the baby and Audra knows she’s got to get away from that cavern. It’s too dangerous for a toddler. Ethan and Audra are married by the first sentence of Chapter Two. There’s your moment of change.

In Too Deep
Chapter One

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"Ethan! Where's Maggie?"  
Ethan's head snapped up at Audra's sharp tone. "What?"
Audra, rounding a boulder, just coming into view, dropped an armload of kindling. With the baby, Lily clutched to her chest, she charged forward calling, "Maggie!"
"I thought she stayed with you?" Ethan rose from where he crouched by the morning fire and turned in a circle, searching for the toddler. 

Mary again—the kindling, the morning fire, these cues set this book in the past. I suppose it could be a camping trip, but hopefully it’s enough. The explosion is a missing toddler and the accompanying panic and desperate search. But the story is there, too. A mother with children, a heroic cowboy there to help. And the moment of change, once we’re done exploding of course, is that Audra needs to get away which propels the marriage and the change that begins our story.

5) Cute Meet—Begin your story with the moment the hero/heroine have their cute meet.
Have you ever heard that in a romance the hero and heroine need to meet by page three? This is a hard and fast rule in shorter romances. Especially unshakable for a new author trying to get that first contract. You can try and push the envelop later, when you’re established, but for now, no matter the length, if you’re trying to get published, a great way to start your story is for the hero and heroine to meet. BAM! Page one. Sentence one. No backstory. No prologue. Just have them meet.

In Out of Control, Rafe and Julia meet when Rafe hears a scream for help. This--the moment they meet--is such an obvious place to start a romance novel that if you DON’T pick it, you’d better have a really good reason. This is the moment of change, this can explode, this can anchor you in time and place. THIS IS YOUR STORY!
Out of Control
Chapter One

Click to Buy on CBD

Last time. This is it. Never again.
Rafe Kincaid pulled his chestnut thoroughbred to a halt in full darkness, still a distance away from the entrance of the cavern. (Mary--Rafe is riding a horse, BAM cowboy, American west, historical, his name...the book is anchored)
He rubbed the ugly, jagged scar that ran from the corner of his eye to his hairline just above his ear. He was glad he had it. A lifelong reminder of that awful day eleven years ago and this treacherous cavern. He'd grown up fast. 
A breeze came down across the mountains and cooled the air and made the tree branches bob and dance. Like most summer nights in the Colorado Rockies, a fire would feel good. (Mary--more anchors, Colorado Rockies)
Rafe smelled grass. Over the crest of this rugged, heavily-wooded mountain, his cattle dozed in the moonlight, spread out over a lush meadow. 
But tonight he wasn’t looking for cattle. Instead he was looking to make his peace. 
Right in front of him stood a cave entrance, nothing but a hole in the ground. It looked like a mouth gaped open with the cornered turned down in a scowl. Mouth was a good word for it because this place almost swallowed his family whole. 
Then he saw the rope.
A rope coiled beside the entrance to the cave. (Mary--the explosion, an intruder, in Rafe's cave)
Narrowing his eyes, he swung down and hitched his chestnut to a scrub pine. It’d been over a decade since Rafe had fought his battle with that cavern. And he’d faced that cave many times since because he refused to let it defeat him. But he’d never seen evidence anyone else had been in it. Not since Seth had run off.
He took two more steps and heard Seth scream. (Mary--more of the explosion, screaming is ALWAYS GOOD! )
Cold control sleeted in his veins as he drew his gun, leveled it. The metallic crack as he cocked it
There was nothing to aim at. 
Seth didn't scream. Seth wasn't down there.
Another scream split the air. (Mary--the cute meet and the moment of change, though screaming and cute don't seem to go together, nothing cute in the real world about screaming usually. But in a novel they fit, and that screamer is Julia, of course. The change is, love comes into Rafe's overly controlled life in the form of a feisty damsel in distress who needs to be rescued in many ways, which will keep Rafe busy for 80,000 words)

The thing is, I’m not giving you a list of five possible ways to start your story. Your story needs to start with ALL OF THEM.

Explode
Story 
Anchor
Moment of Change
Cute Meet

If you do this, when that overworked, hopeful but pessimistic editor pulls your submission out of it’s envelop, you've got a lot better chance of her reading past page one. You might even end up getting THE CALL!!!

Leave a comment to get your name in a drawing for a $25 Christian Book egift card.

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Candlelight Christmas
My latest release is an ebook Christmas novella containing two books, one by me, one by Linda Goodnight.
If you have read this (and liked it) I would really appreciate it if you'd go LIKE it on Amazon and leave a review.

Two Inspirational Christmas Stories ...
1. The Outlaw’s Gift by Linda Goodnight
1880s Oklahoma Territory
When drifter Seth Blackstone shows up at Raven Patterson’s homestead, Raven thinks this may be the solution to all her problems. But Seth’s mysterious past is about to catch up with him and could mean disaster for them both.
2. The Christmas Candle by Mary Connealy
Arkansas Ozarks 1883
Gabe Wagner, has left his hectic city life and moved onto Rose Palmer’s mountain. His plans to build a house will tear the heart out of her Ozark Mountain home. Rose learns that what she calls peace and quiet has evolved into isolation and loneliness. As Christmas approaches and she searches for the perfect way to honor the Savior’s birth, she realizes she wants to let Gabe into her life. But to do it, she may have to face a larger world that frightens her while she gives up the safe life she has always known.
Can the search for the perfect Christmas candle and the broken hearts of two little boys bring a solitary woman and a grieving man together?http://maryconnealy.com/ 

Space. . .The Final Frontier with Guest Elizabeth Goddard

To contact us Click HERE

And the rest of the familiar words from Star Trek:

“These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”




Let me translate that into the language of writers. Space is a blank page: Your opportunity to boldly go where you’ve never gone before and write what you don’t know with confidence!
 
When I visited Seekerville this summer, I still lived in Texas. I think I mentioned moving to Louisiana. Well, now I’m here. There’s a swamp right behind my house and I’m getting pressured to try alligator. Not alligator hunting, but alligator on a stick! Sort of like Teriyaki chicken, I think.  I’ll leave the hunting to someone else.


You gotta love these Louisiana folks. I never realized how different the culture could be just three hours away from my home in Texas. But different, it is. 

Just three hours away from East Texas, the food is different, and the people are Deep South warm and friendly. I thought I lived in the south in Texas, but I learned that to these purist Deep South folk, Texas is considered part of the West.

There’s a point to all this. One of the first story ideas I developed into a novel was set on a sugar plantation near a Louisiana bayou. Could I really be authentic with my story if I’ve never lived in Louisiana? 

My post back in June, The Well-Trained Author: Supercharge Your Brain to Generate Great Ideas gave you a few tips on how to keep your idea generator stoked.  If any of those techniques helped, and you came up with an idea list that was several pages long, you might have started to wonder about whether or not you are qualified to write those stories.

Something might be a great idea, but you don’t have a clue about the topic. After all, haven’t you heard repeatedly that you should write what you know? 

Write what you know.

Write what you know.

Writing gurus and publishing authorities will give you this advice. But I beg to differ.
Think about some of the most prolific best-selling authors you know. The ones you see on display at the grocery store check-out line. One author I can think of is so prolific, she writes under two names. She can’t possibly have experienced everything she writes about, can she? 

No how. No way.

Still, the publishing authorities are correct to a degree. For instance, I wouldn’t want to write a legal thriller or a medical thriller without some background. But there’s another side to that. I’ve read a few books written by people who are “experts” or have experience in a particular field and that doesn’t necessarily mean they know how to write a great novel.  I’ve been disappointed by novelists with experience in their field plenty of times.

One of the reasons I enjoy writing to begin with is that I can live vicariously through my characters—characters  that have awesome adventures that I would never be able to experience in real life. 

As writers, the most important thing we can do is give the reader the experience of being there, and especially if that reader is someone who lives in the setting, or who has already experienced what you’re writing about. There’s nothing better than hearing that you’ve portrayed something accurately. 

If you can visit the setting in person and spend time there as part of your research, then all the better. But let me add that you can grow up in a town and still hear complaints that you got the town wrong. Think about it. Five different witnesses to an accident will remember it differently. We’re all different people, so our experiences and memories and, most importantly, perspectives are different. 

I have an author friend who created a fictional town and heard from a reader who complained that she’d grown up in that town and the author got everything wrong.  

Still, I’m not advocating sloppy research. I simply want to encourage you that you CAN write about something you don’t know.

How?

You do enough research that you can almost call yourself an expert when you’re done.  You know your stuff by the time you turn that manuscript in. Or at least you have long, intelligent conversations with experts on the topic. They read the manuscript or the scene to approve things, or add their input, all with an understanding of your particular audience. 

Since I write romantic suspense which primarily targets women, I don’t need to put too much technical lingo into the story.

In my latest release, TREACHEROUS SKIES, I didn’t have a clue about flying a Learjet when I came up with my initial premise: A test pilot turned Learjet recovery man retrieves a jet only to find the kidnapped daughter of a Colombian drug lord concealed inside.

I didn’t know if my pilots could do what I needed them to do in the story. But I found a couple of experienced pilots who agreed to work with me. By work with me, I mean they cooperated in the following ways:

1) Answered questions

2) Helped me make what I wanted or needed to happen work within the context of the story. Made sure things could actually work or,

3) Offered other scenarios where I could accomplish my goals.

4) Gave details about what happens and specifics on how things happen.

5) Read through scenes to make sure they are right. Offer suggestions and corrections.

Often, before I even posed the question to my experts, I spent hours researching on my own.
I’m sure if you’ve been bold enough to go where you’ve never been before, you’ve probably discovered some of the following tips on your own. (Honestly, I don’t know how people wrote before the internet.)

An awesome research technique is to watch YouTube videos. I used YouTube while writing Freezing Point, watching videos on how to create ice sculptures. Many readers commented on how well I portrayed ice sculpting in that story. I also had my experts available to talk to. I have a twenty-year FBI veteran available to answer questions regarding my undercover agent.
I read blogs written by those who live in a particulate setting or work at a type of job that I’m writing about. It’s the next best thing to communicating with an expert, and can also be used as supplemental research material.

I started this post referencing the television series, Star Trek. Think about all the credits at the end of television shows and movies. Credit is given to the experts who helped make things authentic: makeup, hair, costumes, props, historians or other individuals with the required knowledge. 

So assemble your crew and fearlessly explore strange and new worlds!



 
 Treacherous Skies

After years of peace and quiet, Maya Carpenter thinks she's safe—that her drug-lord father's world will never catch up with her. Then she's abducted and secretly stashed on a plane. And once she and the test pilot who finds her land in the Keys, the real threat begins....

Daredevil pilot Connor Jacobson is no one's hero. And this time, he's in way over his head. Yet he can't leave Maya to face danger alone. Besides, he has a few tricks up his sleeve that might keep them safe...as long as he's willing to put everything at risk, including his heart.



 
Elizabeth Goddard is the award-winning author of more than a dozen novels, including the romantic mystery, The Camera Never Lies—a 2011 Carol Award winner. She lives in Central Louisiana with her husband and children.





Today Elizabeth is generously giving away two copies of Treacherous Skies to two commenters. Winners announced in the Weekend Edition.