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So Much of What I’ve Needed to Know, I’ve Learned From Books

April 19, 2013 by in category Archives tagged as , , , ,

And comic books.  Seriously. Long before I ever had a science class Superman explained water came from two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen and a lot of energy. Come to think of it, that’s about all I ever did understand about chemistry.
Albert Payson Terhune taught me about the love between dog and person, and the superhuman qualities of his Collies. Later years took a lot of the polish off his halo for me but brought an overwhelming appreciation for the value of hard work when writing. Good, bad, indifferent, that man put out the words. From Jack London I learned about the quest to do more and be greater, in dog or human. Walter Farley filled my head with misinformation about horse racing and stimulated the imagination of a horse crazy girl (and isn’t that a rare condition!)
Thanks to Bruce Catton and Elswyth Thane I understood more about the Civil War, the battles and the people involved. As well as the continued involvement of a patriotic family (Thane) and how involved some families with each other. From Laurie King I learned the not to be forgotten phrase “Cream of Man Soup” about trench warfare in France.  All of these writers stimulated me to more research as I tried to understand the reasons for war. Yeah, good luck on that.
Andre Norton showed endless future possibilities and also the value of one small person staying the course in spite of all odds. A most valuable contribution to the growth of an insecure girl. Betty Cavanna and other writers of that ilk spoke to that insecurity and helped ease me into growing past.
All of these writers fed my love of words, with Rudyard Kipling bloating me on their power “We’re foot slog slog slog slogging over Africa…” and “The great gray green greasy Limpopo river.”
Then one day I read: “Nothing ever happens to me.” and was transported into the world of Romantic Suspense as penned by Mary Stewart, the master of subtle romance. Sure I read books about pillage and kidnapping and Alpha heroes. But I kept coming back to magnificently worded books with people simply doing their best.  Add in Helen MacInnes and another dose of Andre Norton and I guess I could say a writer was born.
How is it for you?  What writers kicked over your rock and sent the creative ants to work?

Monica Stoner, member at Large. Writing as Mona Karel, and working now on a sequel to My Killer My Love…hoping I can come up with an even better title

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emaginings: Nobility in Romance

April 16, 2013 by in category Archives tagged as , , , ,

What a wonderful meeting we had this last Saturday!

In the morning, we had a guest in PAW, Dawn Vaeoso of All Romance eBooks. I was already familiar with ARe, but mostly as a reader. Dawn and Debra led a lively discussion and I think we all learned something. I missed the morning workshop by Jackie Barbosa, but heard it was excellent.

But I want to riff a little on something our afternoon speaker, James Scott Bell said in his fabulous talk. When talking about creating unforgettable characters, he listed several characteristics that will make your characters jump off the page:

  • Unpredictable
  • Passionate
  • Resourceful
  • Complex
  • Gutsy
  • Wounded
  • Noble

In passing, he noted that the last quality, nobility, is underused, but also discussed characters who are willing to sacrifice to attain their goals or to save someone else. I was busy listening and taking notes, but still thought at the time that nobility isn’t so rare in romance. I’ve been in critique and plot groups for years and can’t begin to count the number of times we’ve been plotting, usually toward the end of the book, only to have someone ask: What is he/she going to sacrifice? Or at least be willing to sacrifice?

Of course, the classic example of character sacrifice is The Gift of the Magi. Such a beautiful, romantic story. But that kind of sacrifice isn’t at all uncommon in romance. We’ve all read romances where the hero or heroine jumps in the path of a bullet to save the other. But it needn’t be a life or death matter. Is one willing to give up a job opportunity to be with the other? Or willing to uproot his/her life and move far away? There are lots of possibilities.

Here’s how the mutual sacrifice works in Rogue’s Hostage, my captive story set during the French & Indian War. Toward the end of the book, Jacques and Mara are trapped in the besieged city of Quebec. Mara’s brother, Gideon, is with the besieging British Army. Jacques knows the situation is dire and tries to have Mara ransomed to the British. He is willing to give up the woman he loves in order to keep her safe. When things go wrong, Mara risks her relationship with her brother, her only living relative, to save the man she loves. I could say more, but that would be giving away a spoiler, so I’ll refrain. 

What do you think? Are romance characters more noble than most?

Linda McLaughlin

Website: http://www.lindamclaughlin.com/
Blog: http://flightsafancy.blogspot.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LyndiLamont

Rogue’s Hostage buy links:
Amazon: http://amzn.com/B00BJO26OY
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1005663623
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/291719

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WHAT A DOG!

April 15, 2013 by in category Archives tagged as , , ,

My grand-dog Tucker
Recently, a fan wrote to tell me she loved my book Hostile Witness* because I hadn’t killed Max as she expected. I’ve been traveling a lot in the last few weeks and it took me a minute to figure out who Max was and why it was so important to her that he was alive. Max is Josie Bates’ dog; Josie is the heroine of the witness series. I was touched by the reader’s concern for the fictional canine, Max, and that made me wonder: Why is a book that includes an animal richer, more entertaining, and more engaging than one without?
The answer was simple: Animals bring out the best and the worst in a human character. This makes for great drama and provides an emotional touch point that is critical for an exciting read.

Max-the-Dog (his legal name) was originally created as a reflection of Josie, his mistress. Both had been abandoned, both had to fight for their lives, both were protective of others. But Max became so much more than Josie’s mirror as the series unfolded.

 Here are four ways Max made a difference in the witness series:


MAX ENHANCED HUMAN CHARACTERIZATION: Those who attack him were inherently more evil than a bad guy who ignored him. Those who love Max were more admirable because they cared for and protect him.


MAX WAS AN ANIMATED SOUNDING BOARD: Internal dialogue can be tedious. If an author allows a character to speculate to an animal, the rhetorical questions or monologues sound natural.

MAX’S PRESENCE SET A TONE: A scene tone can be set by the way a human character speaks to or interacts with an animal counterpart. A whispered warning creates a much different tone than a screaming command; a languid pet conjures up different visions than a playful ruffling of fur.

MAX HELPED MOVE THE PLOT FORWARD: An animal’s needs can put a human in a place they might not have been in. For instance, in Privileged Witness (book #3), Josie takes Max out for his evening constitutional and alerts her to her fugitive client who was hiding outside. Without Max, Josie would have no reason to go outside and never would have discovered her client. An animal’s heightened senses can also assist a human to warn of danger or alert a human to a change in their surroundings.

From The Hound of the Baskervilles to Lassie and Blue Dog, My Friend Flicka and The Black Stallion, The Cheshire Cat and Puss-in-Boots, animals have frolicked as humans, served to reflect human frailties and strengths, and just plain worked their way into reader’s hearts because of their own character. 

So, to the kind lady who was concerned about Max, have no fear. He will never come to a violent end. No matter what happens to him, his presence or lack thereof, will be a decision motivated by story and plot and, of course, love, because Max is as real to me as if he sat at my feet while I wrote my stories.

*Hostile Witnessis free for all e-readers and is available in print and audio. It was recently released in France.  

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Naked Sushi is a Cosmo Red Hot Read from Harlequin by Jina Bacarr

April 11, 2013 by in category Archives tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
“Naked Sushi” cover coming soon.
I thought this illo had a “Bond Girl” feel to it.

What girl doesn’t enjoy reading Cosmo? With its sexy articles and fun fashions, the magazine has evolved over the years. But one thing remains constant:

You know when you pick up Cosmo your libido is going to do a tap dance.

My libido is dancing overtime.

I’m thrilled that my novella, NAKED SUSHI, will be a Cosmo Red Hot Read from Harlequin.

I’m still pinching myself that my wise-cracking, computer-hacking, sex-starved heroine, Pepper O’Malley, will be a Cosmo Girl.

Pepper watches all the cop and spy shows on TV–Castle  and Covert Affairs are her favorites–and she’s intrigued by Person of Interest.

And now she’s got her own story to tell:

Amateur spy PEPPER O’MALLEY gets more than she bargained for when she discovers her sleazy boss is hiding corporate secrets.

She gets fired.

Was it her fault she got caught in the copy room with her pants down with a hunky thief?
The only way Pepper can get her job back is to become a naked sushi model and spy on her ex-boss.

She’s thrown into a world of corporate espionage she never imagined…

——— 
Pepper is a lot like me. I wrote a column for Microtimes magazine called “Sweet Savage Byte,” where I looked at the world of technology from a female pov. This didn’t always go over well with male programmers…though I did meet a bunch of great guys at the magazine.

Like Pepper, I also worked for a video game company, wrote code, and worked with audio/video. I also worked for Japanese companies and wrote a book called “The Japanese Art of Sex,” which was featured on Playboy TV.

I was thrilled when Harlequin added “Naked Sushi” to this exciting new series.

Sylvia Day is the launch author for the series with “Afterburn” in August 2013.

“Naked Sushi” is scheduled for October 2013.

More to come in the upcoming weeks!

————-

P.S. My erotic short story, Breaking the Rules, about a working girl who learns you have to ask for what you want…at work or in bed…is FREE from April 12-16th!
 
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WonderCon: My First Comic Book Convention

April 9, 2013 by in category Archives tagged as , ,

I’ve been wanting to go to a comic book convention for a long time, probably since I first starting writing my own superhero novel. Last month, I finally got to go! My husband John took me to WonderCon in Anaheim. It was so much fun!

Of course, the first thing you notice (after trying to stay in a good mood for the hour it took to park in Anaheim) is all the people in costume. There were so many different kinds of characters with costumes that went from homemade to super-wow! My geek factor isn’t deep enough for me to be able to recognize who everyone was, but there were a lot of Doctor Who characters, lots of manga-like girls, lots of superheroes (of course!), and a quite a few steampunk costumes. And lots of other things that I couldn’t figure out.

Tom King, author of A ONCE CROWDED SKY, and me

John told me I should walk around the booths at the Expo and talk to authors who had tables there, find out if it was worth the time and expense. I had about half a dozen business cards in my wallet; I figured that would cover meeting the other writers. Boy, was I wrong. There were a lot of writers there! Some who wrote mostly novels, some who wrote mostly comic books, and some who wrote both. I ran out of business cards long before I ran out of writers to talk to.

I’ve been to enough RWA conferences, both regional and national, to know the rhythm and to fit myself into the flow. There are lots of reasons why that is a good thing, but you no longer walk around with saucer eyes. At WonderCon, I was definitely Saucer-Eyed Girl! It was a totally new experience. Everything I saw made me think differently about stories, writers, and readers.

If you’ve been in your usual groove for a while, it’s time to go see the world differently. Go to a different kind of conference or expo for a day. See who’s out there buying comic books, buying boats, doing brain surgery. If nothing else, watch YouTube videos on something you know nothing about. (I just watched one about how the length of your chromosomes may determine how much life expectancy you have left.)

New experiences literally change how your brain makes connections. I’ve been reading a lot of books on brain science in the last year. Want to change your brain? Improve its function? Even read something way outside your known world. All these things improve your ability to see the world differently. That’s not only fun, it’s good for your writing.



Kitty Bucholtz decided to combine her undergraduate degree in business, her years of experience in accounting and finance, and her graduate degree in creative writing to become a writer-turned-independent-publisher. Her first novel, Little Miss Lovesick, is now available in print and ebook format. Her next novel, Unexpected Superhero, will be released soon, followed by Love at the Fluff and Fold this summer. Her short stories can be found in the anthologies Romancing the Pages and Moonlit Encounters, available in both print and ebook formats.

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