Category: Columns

Home > Columns

Do Your Characters Think About Their Birthday?

September 12, 2019 by Denise M. Colby in category The Writing Journey by Denise Colby, Writing tagged as birthdays, characters, writing

So do your characters think about their birthdays at all?

Given that this month is my birthday month and it’s a big one for me, I thought I would go with a birthday theme for my post. I actually woke up on my birthday with a million thoughts racing through my head and one of them was my to do list and the need to find a topic for this post. And then the next thought that came into my mind, was what do the characters we write about feel about their birthday each year?

Then I wondered, if writers thought about their characters birthdays at all and if they addressed anything related to birthdays in their stories.

I’ll admit, it certainly hadn’t been something I’ve thought much about.

Questions such as:

What do they think of as their birthday approaches?
Do they have memories of certain years and milestones?
How often does someone write a scene that includes a birthday?
And would it be different if we were writing historical or contemporary?

balloons and clouds and blue sky background have you ever written a birthday scene? blog post graphic for Denise M. Colby

I read a lot of books and I cannot recall any of recent talking about birthdays or their age that much. Not that that topic alone would be a fasinating read.

But as I had my fiftieth birthday dangled in front of me most of this year, the way it affected me was an interesting struggle. One I wasn’t expecting or knew how to deal with. I would think those parts might be interesting to incorporate some how in our character’s backstory.

I find it an interesting perspective to include your characters thoughts about birthdays and ages. Maybe no one ever celebrated their special day before. And all of a sudden they are thrown into a family that does. Or every year was made out to be “the one” special event of the year and now they’ve lost loved ones and it isn’t the same.

Also, milestones and how we celebrate them have changed. We grow older than people did a century ago, so there are more birthdays to celebrate. Or large families with ten children did not have a lot of extra funds, so gifts were not as plentiful as they are today. And today families live further away from each other than they did a century ago.

So it would seem the year our book is set would impact how our characters may look at birthdays.

Blue sky and clouds background with balloons with question do you think birthdays have changed much through the years

Do you think the emotions over turning, say, 50, has changed much? What about 18? Or 21? Young adults married at a very young age a century ago, but now most young people wait till they are done with college. So, the focus on what the number means has changed over the years.

For me, this year has been full of trepidation, reflection, and assessment. Having health issues there have been several times I’ve wondered if I’d passed into a new normal. Low energy, unable to eat certain foods, has made me wonder if I was aging out of my prime. It’s quite comical, actually. What if this was the beginning of the end? I know . . . dramatic, but hey! I have felt it a bit this year.

So as my birthday approached, and I was trying to answer my husband’s question of what I wanted to do for my birthday, a part of me didn’t want to even address it. A few friends had felt that way as well, and I laughed it off, but when it hit me that way too, well, that was an interesting perspective. I told myself it wasn’t a big deal. I didn’t want to burden anyone or put anyone out. But why? Why did I feel this?

And my husband, being the gem he is, read between the lines and very patiently walked through question after question, just to make sure he understood. Which was something I really needed. Bless him, he didn’t want to get it wrong!

Birthdays come and go but I don’t think the emotions behind them have changed much.

Some people dread them, some want to celebrate them big, while others try to find something in the middle. Maybe we can take some of the birthday experiences around us and put them in our stories. Maybe not a specific scene, but knowing your characters perspective about their special day in the background may not be a bad way to incorporate why they are the way they are.

Happy Birthday graphic with balloons and blue sky and clouds in the background

P.S. I googled “celebrating birthdays in a romance novel” after I wrote this post and did you know there are actually several stories that are centered around birthdays? I might just have to find a few and read them.

2 0 Read more

Christmas old home movies… and my mom bring back Christmas Once Again

September 11, 2019 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat, Writing tagged as Boldwood Books, books, Christmas, holiday romance, trains, World War 2

Christmas memories are forever…better yet if they’re on film.

Until you can’t find them.

I’m a good record keeper, my accountant loves me…my handwritten notes from trips abroad often help me shape a story, but I was devastated when I couldn’t find my old Christmas movies when I was a kid.

A mad search finally showed up a lost reel my dad shot at Christmas when I was in grade school. It was the only time we took movies at Christmas. We moved around a lot (I went to fifteen schools), and over the years the old movie camera stopped working…and well, you get the idea.

But this year I wanted to resurrect the old movies because of one short piece of film.

My mom hanging up Christmas stockings.

You see, I’ve just finished copyedits and proofreading my upcoming Boldwood Books release, Christmas Once Again and I dedicated my story to my mom.

So although her picture won’t appear in the dedication, here’s that special piece of film from my old home movies.

Thanks, Mom, for making every Christmas special.

Time travel back to Christmas 1943 on the home front

Exciting news re: my holiday Women’s Fiction novel CHRISTMAS ONCE AGAIN — release day is October 10th! It’s now up for pre-order at $2.99

On a cold December day in 1955, I got on a train to go back home for Christmas.
This is the story of what happened when I got off that train.
In 1943.

Christmas Once Again:

US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07V1QT9Z6

UK: www.amazon.co.uk/Christmas-Once-Again-Jina-Bacarr-ebook/dp/B07V1QT9Z6

More about Christmas Once Again as we get closer to pub date…

0 0 Read more

Getting Back to Work by Kitty Bucholtz

September 9, 2019 by Kitty Bucholtz in category It's Worth It by Kitty Bucholtz tagged as Goal Setting, Planning, Write Now Workshop

Many of us are wrapping up the summer, vacations, and watching or helping students go back to school. It’s one of those natural times of year to see what else we want to accomplish in the last few months, and figure out the best way to accomplish our goals.

I teach a time management class most January’s, and I help people do all they can to accomplish the tasks they set for themselves. But this past year or so, I’ve been very careful about not helping you to the point where you burn out, too. One of the things that can help is planned time off. I marked last Sunday off my calendar specifically to have no plans. It was blissful! So in addition to planning some time off, we also want to plan the most important things we want to get done before year’s end.

You can plan forward – how much time do you have each day or week, and how much can you get done in that time. Or plan backwards – what do you need to get done, and how many hours a day or week will be necessary to do so. Planners can also be a big help.

Check out Susan May Warren’s My Brilliant Writing Planner for a discount on the 2019 version, and a discount when preordering the 2020 one. Susie May will be on the show again in a few weeks to tell you about all the new updates in next year’s planner.

https://www.mybrilliantwritingplanner.com/

1 0 Read more

And Happy September by Linda O. Johnston

September 6, 2019 by Linda O. Johnston in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as deadlines, Harlequin Romantic Suspense, romantic suspense

Last month, I wished you all a happy August, the eighth month of the year. Guess what! It’s a month later.

And those deadlines I mentioned? I had to ask for an extension.

That’s a hard thing for me to do, although this time I perhaps could have anticipated it since the deadline for the book I’m working on now was a bit shorter than I usually agree to. I thought, at the time, that I’d be able to meet it. But as September 1 grew closer, I realized I needed more time—which, fortunately, I got.

I’m certainly making progress, but I feel bad that more time was needed. How about you? Do you meet all your deadlines, for writing or anything else? Do you ever ask for extensions? If so, how do you feel about it?

Anyway, time marches on in other ways, too. It’s now closer to the release of my next book, the first of my Colton continuity series books for Harlequin Romantic Suspense.

Colton 911: Caught in the Crossfire is a November release. Looking forward to it!

~Linda

Books by Linda O. Johnston

UNDERCOVER COWBOY DEFENDER

SHIELDING COLTON’S WITNESS

HOUNDS ABOUND

THE MORE THE TERRIER

BEAGLEMANIA

GUARDIAN K-9 ON CALL

BEAR WITNESS

UNDERCOVERING COLTON’S FAMILY SECRETS

HER UNDERCOVER REFUGE

COLTON FIRST RESPONDER (The Coltons of Mustang Valley)

THE SOLDIER’S K-9 MISSION

COLTON 911: CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE

FOR A GOOD PAWS

VISIONARY WOLF (Alpha Force)

TRAINED TO PROTECT

PROTECTOR WOLF

BAD TO THE BONE

COVERT ALLIANCE

TO CATCH A TREAT

PICK AND CHEWS

UNLUCKY CHARMS

0 0 Read more

NEW RELEASE, NEW PLAN

September 5, 2019 by Tracy Reed in category Pink Pad by Tracy Reed tagged as Marketing, Marketing for Authors, Planning

Author typing on an old typewriter | Tracy Read | A Slice of Orange

Before I get into my post, I have to apologize for not posting last month. I completely forgot. I took a much-needed break and my mind was elsewhere. I think it must have been the 111 degree temperature I was sitting in. Here’s the funny part, I took my iPad and laptop on holiday with the intention of writing. I figured, with the few days away from everything, I’d write a novella. That never happened. I take that back. I did write a couple of pages, but can’t find them. No biggie. I had started this book a while back, but couldn’t find it. When I returned home, I dug deep into my hard drive and found the original pages. I was able to recall some of what I’d written on holiday and included it in the new book.

Now to this month’s post.

I mentioned in my last post that I was working on my upcoming release, A Southern Gentleman Vol 2. I was going to hire a publicist to help with the release, but changed my mind. I’m not saying I’ll never use a publicist, but right now isn’t the time. I paid a lot of money on a course to teach me to market my books and I need to make sure I’ve given it a fair chance to work. I tried the techniques twice. Once with some success and the second with very little success. I need to make sure I can do this before I can tell someone what I want them to do.

So, what’s my plan. PRAY. Smile. Okay, I need to do a little more. I’ve learned a lot about marketing since I released my first book five years ago. My very first release, consisted of me accidentally pushing the Publish Button and hoping. I didn’t know about Facebook or newsletter ads. I did book a blog tour, which earned me a few reviews, but few sales. I decided to go wide, so I burned or used a lot of ISBNs because I thought you needed one for every platform. I sold quite a few print copies to family and friends. Unfortunately, those are one-time sales, which I’m grateful. However, I need and want fans, avid readers and followers of my stories.

I have a plan. Now I sound like a politician. SMILE.

I am going to take what I learned in the course, plus what I’ve learned from the various Facebook groups, blog posts and authors I’ve met and formulate a strategy. Will it be my road map from here on out? Maybe, maybe not. Every book is different and what works for one book, may not work for another. Now I should a little confused. Let me clarify. I’m building a basic plan which I will tweak with each release as needed.

Here we go. I’ve given myself approximately 30 days in the Pre-Order period. During this time, I’ll send the book out to my ARC Readers and people in my various groups to read and post reviews on release day. Next, Take Overs. I’ve been doing a few of these for other authors with pretty good results. So now it’s my turn. ADS. I’ve made a list of sites and a posting schedule. Not only do I need ads for release day, I need them for afterwards as well. I’m considering doing ads prior to the release day for A Southern Gentleman Vol 1 in order to draw attention the duet with new readers.

Where it gets a little tricky is Facebook. FB ads can be tricky, so I’m going to start testing graphics a couple of weeks prior to release. I know I’m going to do BookBub Ads, I would love to do a feature ad, but I think I waited too late to apply for one. I am going to try for a paid new release ad, but it might be a little late for that one as well.

All of that will be moot if I don’t do one thing…select a cover. I hear you cringing now, but let me explain. I had a cover, then I went into rebranding mode and it didn’t work. I have two covers and have done a soft test. Before I commit to a cover, I need to do a little more testing. So far, the one I like is winning. However, I don’t need the cover to do pre-marketing, although it would help, a lot. Right now, I’m as busy as a one-legged man in an ass kicking contest. [That statement reminds me of one of the characters in A Southern Gentleman Vol 2]. But it’s the truth. There’s quite a bit to do prior to release. Grant it, I could do nothing or the minimum and see what happens, but I want to make this my best release to date.