Turning Tricks

Every novelist wants to knock out a great book, one that engages readers and gets them to care about the final outcome and read beyond chapter 1. To be an exceptional storyteller, the vital thing you must master is the art of hooking. And you do that by using plenty of page-turning tricks and lures.

One of the best ways you can create a hooky work that's so very hard to put down is to end every chapter in some dynamic fashion...even better if it's every scene. You never want to be predictable, to always use the same kind of endings, with a banal note of foreshadowing if in First, with a dum-dum-dum moment if in Third. The same kind of downturn used consistently time after time becomes stale, moldy and barbless, even exasperating for readers. Aim to surprise, stimulate and catch readers off guard.

I was reviewing one novel on TheNextBigWriter where every chapter ended with some kind of cliffhanger, but then when the new chapter began, the perceived threat was nothing. Perception by the character, or more likely a case of cheap teasing by the author, was way overblown.

This is melodrama in its most insidious and ugly form. It's fake. It's stupid. And worst of all, if you've dished this out every chapter and we're four chapters in, guess what, you've inadvertently shifted your readers to a place where they no longer believe you, and you may never gain your credibility back. Even the most unsavvy minds are no longer fooled, more over hooked or affected, by your "trick". DO NOT fall into this rat trap. Ever. You can play the misunderstanding card once, maybe twice if it's far removed from the first, but really, overall, mix things up.

Even if you write literary fiction or a more character-driven work, you can strengthen your plot and make your book irresistible. Here are some cool tricks and angles you can infuse in endings in order to pull readers onward in the journey you've mapped out for them:

§ Failure in reaching a goal. Characters generally want or need something. Your job as a writer is to pull that object of desire further away from their outstretched hands. End the scene/chapter after a failed attempt.

§ A setback or deterrent. You can land your characters in a spot that's far worse than they were at the onset of their quest.

§ Increased jeopardy. Is the antagonist one step closer to his or her prey, someone readers care about? Nothing gets readers turning pages faster than tension or a threat to the MC or another likable character.

§ A twist. You can lead readers to believe one thing and then make a shift in the story that gets them hungry to learn more about the jarring shocker you just revealed.

§ A new direction or lead for the protagonist/antagonist to pursue. Readers are information junkies and care about the story question you presented at the beginning, so get them excited or biting nails over the new possibilities in the arc.

§ A new question. You can hint at something that will be fleshed out later. Adding another mystery into your mix of goodies will give readers more to be concerned with.

§ Something totally unusual or unexpected. Pique curiosity, and you'll hook.

§ A cliffhanger, imagined or real. If you leave a character in a state of peril, readers will race through subsequent scenes to get back and learn the outcome.

§ A chord of doom. If characters are about to follow a dangerous path in the story or are dealing with the weight of some kind of trauma or terrorizing realization, readers will be concerned with how a character deals. If you can end with sour, dire or terrifying chord, that's best.

§ A departure from a heated moment. If you yank readers out of a heated argument or a passionate frenzy, they'll be dying to return and see how things get resolved. BUT if the build up and full display are equally as important as the resolution, then do NOT shut readers out by giving a mere summary in the resurface, pick up where you left off. Write the scene and end with one character dissatisfied or regretful or spurred into another course of action. You can have a goal being met yet the outcome being not what the character anticipated.

§ Big trouble: a character dying, moving into a trap, blacking out because of a car accident, fall or whatever or caught in a chase; the emergence of a new threat; someone has died or has been found dead.

§ A new obstacle to overcome.

§ An apparent use of concealment. You may want to keep something hidden and depart from a point of tension that leaves readers guessing and wondering about what happened so you can reveal those details later on in the story.

There are many ways to hook readers. The key to good execution is to give doses of forward motion with plenty of unexpected and stunning scene-ending disasters along the way to the big answer. Write on. Hook 'em and reel 'em in, my fellow plumers.

~Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

To BE or Not To Be

This deep question posed by Hamlet is not merely about living or dying, it seeks to find the meaning in life, as well as the breadth, scope, purpose, and tangibility in it. There's an underlining hope for making an impact in it, to thrive beyond the pages of existence. To Be. It is the question of life. Everyone wants that. To Be.

Whether you know it or not, when readers delve into your story, they subconsciously ask this question of your creations. Will they feel alive or not? Can you make them Be, full of life, uniqueness and complexity, jumping off the page, demanding to be noticed and not soon forgotten, or will they be Nots, deadwood, quickly cast into a bin with other flat-lined drones, ill-crafted by countless others before you?

The best way to reveal true character and circumstance is to show. Many writers always chant the "Show, Don't Tell" mantra because it's a vital ingredient for good storytelling, while others are left shrugging their shoulders, unsure as to what that even means.

In my WIP, Sapphire Reign, my fifteen-year-old character, Skye, is adventurous and feisty. She's an anonymous writer for the school paper and is attempting to uncover the secrets of this mysterious, terrorizing bunch of tricksters in her school called the Wisteria Sisters so she can expose the truth to the masses. Doing so could be dangerous, since she has no clue who or what she's dealing with.

All that about her could easily be summarized in narrative, but that would be telling. Instead, when I pull her onstage in chapter 7, I open her POV like this:

* * *

A scant shuffle of her pink, suede boot sent pebbles tumbling down the jagged face of the cliff side. They clacked like bones snapping until they plunked into the roaring river below, exactly where the current picked up and foamed around boulders.

Just jump, Skye. Jump. Do it. Jump.

Her body tensed. Skye gulped and edged back several steps. The fifteen-year-old covered her face for a few moments and adopted a slow-breathing rhythm to quiet her better judgment before it changed her will. She'd hiked all the way up here through layers and layers of gray to do this. Her mind was set but her shaking body stood very opposed to her decision. Her present espionage gig aside, she never considered herself suicidal. And that's what this was. Suicide.

Skye refused to let herself back out. She took one deep breath and just did it. She ran two strides and jumped. At the fall, she screamed. Her stomach leapt into her throat. A hawk swooped below her. For one split second, she flew too and then fell into a thrilling negative-G producing plunge until her weight mashed into her harness seat and tugged taught at the zipline.

The rush surged so much greater than it ever had. Of course, she'd only zipped through woods, never over a gorge filled with so many ways to die.

"Whooooohoooo. This is crazy awesoooome. Wooo," she yelled on her rapid swoop. She buzzed down, seeing a cascading waterfall from a bird's-eye view, then fell fast in front of it, getting sprayed in its frigid mist as it spilled into another river. "Sweeeeet." Getting wet spots on her sweatshirt was a minor discomfort, with exhilaration making it so worthwhile.

* * *

Then it breaks into dialogue with her two friends that reveals her main goal. In this scene I refrained from writing one thing in the narrative about her personality, her purpose and the potential danger she's really jumping into. Dialogue and action reveal all of that. It's more engaging this way. Readers now know she's a fearless risk-taker, they've seen it, and that her friends, even the wild one who dared to make the zipline jump with her, think she's crazy for going after the Wisteria Sisters. That shows far more about the circumstance and character than telling in a summary ever could.

Here is an example of telling versus showing:

T: Sam, so hot and parched, doubted he'd make it out of the desert alive, but he kept going, a step at a time.

S: The sun lapped up Sam's sweat before it could bead on his arms and grit coated his throat, scraping it with each swallow. He smacked his tongue, but saliva remained dormant. Barely ambling, though still trying, he looked ahead again, shading his eyes with his hand, blinking at the vultures...waiting. An ocean of sand lay before him. Only by God will I get outta here alive.

Showing engages readers and helps them to identify with your characters. Show when you can. Let your people Be.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

Aaahh, Breathing Room

Now that I've pretty much decided I'm going to do my own thing and choose my own journey with my YA novel, Kings & Queens, I suddenly realized I have more room. Yay!

You see, with any YA that gets into the big house, word count needs to be super minimal. About 60,000 is average. So, I worked extremely hard and slashed many a darlings to get that word count down from 106 g's to a less jaw-dropping 88. How awesome of me, right?

Well, now that I'm not going traditional with this one, it gives me more creative control, which means suit coats won't be telling me to cut this or that and more of my glorious words will be able to grace the eyes and ears of lucky readers. Sweet.

So, I'm gonna keep the terse version, just in case, ya know, an agent miraculously shows interest, but I'll also create a beefed-up version that's more compatible with its narrative-rich sequel, Sapphire Reign.

I'm only talking a thousand or two words here, but still, the extra room fills me with so much tickly delightful I can't stand it.

So, back to editing I go. This time to give a bit more fullness to my story.

And I'm still slowly but surely getting Dropping Like Flies and Online Girl closer to The End, DLF more than the latter.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

Book Review: The Truth of the Matter (Book 3 of The Homelanders Series)

Author: Andrew Klavan
Genre: YA suspense
Publisher: Thomas Nelson (November 2, 2010)
ISBN-10: 1595547142
ISBN-13: 978-1595547149

Synopsis:

"You're not alone. You're never alone."

Charlie West has held on to that belief, but now he's starting to wonder. He went to bed one night an ordinary high-school kid. When he woke up, he was wanted for murder and hunted by a ruthless band of terrorists. He's been on the run ever since. Now he's stuck in prison, abandoned by his allies, trying desperately to stay a step ahead of vicious prison gangs and brutal guards. And a flash of returning memory tells him another terrorist strike is coming soon. A million people will die unless he does something. But what? He's stuck in a concrete cage with no way out and no one who can help. Charlie has never felt so alone-and yet he knows he can't give in or give up . . . not with the final hour ticking away.

My Take:

Charlie West is a feisty protagonist, who's missing a year of his life and running from mystery killers--a group of terrorists he just escaped from. He can't recall what's happened in the last year, so he's on a hunt to fill in the memory gap. When he tracks down the only clue he can remember, a guy named Waterman, he begins to get some answers, but the closer he gets to uncovering the truth, the more danger he finds himself in. And when Waterman dies with questions still unanswered, he's left in a sea of black all alone, trying his best to get out alive.

This book is categorized and sold as Christian, and I don't know how the others in the series are, but this one, THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER, could be enjoyed be readers of any or no faith. This novel really only refers to his belief in God but doesn't preach at readers or speak any Christianese at all. It is clean, but not to the point of being annoying, as the grit and danger keep it exciting. And even though this is YA as well, any reader who loves suspense would enjoy this. It's a good example of a cross-over type.

I got this book from Booksneeze, unaware that it was a third installment in a series, but that didn't bother me in the least.

The storyline was very easy to follow for a new reader, gripping, suspenseful and action-packed. There is a strong possibility this novel could be boring for those who've read the previous, since I as a new reader was riveted to discover the chunks of his missing past, whereas those familiar would already know them, making the reveals less impacting.

The only thing I didn't like was the narrative and dialogue were very simplistic, and I don't think you should ever dumb things down for teens. I think if the author hadn't skimped in this area, his novel would have had even more cross-over appeal. Other than that, it was most enjoyable.

So, if you're looking for a good YA suspense novel, Christian or not, check this one out.

I received this book free from Thomas Nelson through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255

MY RATING

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

Time, Time, Decision Time

The new year is fast approaching and I'm thinking about my game plan for 2011. I haven't gotten many bites for Kings & Queens, a few, but nothing substantial, but maybe there's a reason for that.

I'm thinking more and more about what I want for Kings & Queens and I'm not so sure landing representation for that novel is the right thing. Here's why:

In the industry, Kings & Queens would be considered Young Adult. Hands down. But, it's sequel, Sapphire Reign, which opens ten years later with some of the same characters, is clearly Adult, even though one of its five threads is a teen's perspective.

In YA, the whole book needs to be about and for teens. SR is not.

But I believe readers will want to catch up with old friends, even though their story picks up ten years later. The industry cares about shelving. Readers do not. They just want good books. And if your first book is good, they'll jump to the second, at least out of curiosity. And I really want a series. I do. I don't want just one book. I want 2 or 3.

Sapphire Reign is good. I mean, really good.

It's not perfect of course, what book is, but it's way too good to be shelved in my own library or tossed into File 13. I'm surprise I wrote the thing. It's dark, it's gritty, it's twisty, it's romantic, it's hot, it's tense, and it contains tenacious characters that many pre-readers have already fallen in love with and cheered for.

And Sapphire Reign is so different than anything I've ever read. I know there are books with braided story lines that crash together in the end, but mine has 2 adult perspectives, one teen and a child, all pertinent.

You'd think my book being different would be an asset, but with nothing to compare it to, nothing to point to and say my book is this-meets-that, it makes it difficult for the pros to see the marketability in that.

I was offered an opportunity to publish Kings & Queens with a smaller outfit, but I think I want to hold off for now.

So, my plan is to finish Dropping Like Flies and hopefully get repped for that. Once I have a book or two out or a little bit of popularity, I will either self-publish my other books as a series or go with an outfit that will allow me to keep them together.

I've been refining my covers and I'm excited about the way they look. In a publishing house, you have no say about cover design or content. I want to be in control. I want to publish both and for them to be together. And I might want to pen a third. Maybe. But I want the option, should a plot reveal itself.

I have a vision and I'm not so sure the industry would share it.

Does that make sense? Am I stupid?

~Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

I Can't Believe It's December Already

...and a couple days into it??? Insane!

Man. Father Time is seriously ODing on speed. Just as soon as you get used to writing the year on checks, it changes again. Remember the whole Y2K scare? That was almost eleven years ago. Crazy.

Well, I did NOT write 50,000 words for Nano like I'd hoped. (What sicko picked November anyway? It's a super busy month as it is!) I was gunning for that goal but only managed to pen 38,523.

So, what stuffed me like a great red zone defense?

Well, I started a new part-time graphic design job (4 days a week) at the beginning of Nov. and also had to cough up six, yes six, CD covers and faces for my saxophone playing friend, Joe Wilson, who was gearing up for his gig at the mall on Black Friday and the following 2 days. (And I did some Christmas concert posters for him too.) Fun stuff but total time munchers.

And then there was Thanksgiving and all the food, thanks giving and football...and more football...that goes along with it. You didn't really think I'd skip all that did you?

My local CBS channel did NOT air the Iron Bowl. Apparently, it has a digital channel too, available to Comcast users ONLY, (I have DirecTV) and they aired it on that. Um, how 'bout airing it on the main channel, which everyone has, and bumping those cheesy infomercials you ran to the digital channel? I mean, am I out of line here? It was Thanksgiving Weekend! Total Blood Wars!

So, needless to say, I had to watch the Iron Bowl online. Lovely.

I did write the station manager that morning to complain and was surprised to get two responses. First, he wrote to tell me about the digital channel airing it. And then when I responded that I have DirecTV, Dear John, rattled on about his continued decision (A PRETTY DUMB ONE) to not air Friday-after-Thanksgiving football. And it seems he's going to be sticking with that plan. But, he also hopes their digital channel becomes available to all cable subscribers.

Um, again, I have DirecTV, not cable. So what good does that do me??? Are they going to stop airing NFL games too when they feel like it? They said it was based on public demand, but they really expect me to believe more people were interested in watching a Bare Essentials infomercial than a rivalry game on Rivalry Weekend? Yeah. Try again.

So, anyway, I'm about 2/3rds done with Dropping Like Flies, which is good. I'm still going to be plugging away at it.

I'm also going to cease querying until after Father Time does his confetti-tossing-calendar-flippy thing. Now is a busy time for everyone, including agents.

Can I finish my YA novel by the end of the year? Who knows. I will certainly try, but life could throw more curve balls and cranberry sauce my way.

Oh. Has anyone tried Edy's pumpkin ice cream? I got the S'Mores, but I'm wondering if I should've gone with pumpkin. If the pumpkin had had graham cracker crunchies and cinnamon-caramel swirl, it would've won, hands down. But plain pumpkin??? I dunno. I like stuff in my ice cream. If a given ice cream I love doesn't have stuff in it, like coffee, black raspberry or watermelon, I add it. (e.g. dark chocolate flakes, marshmallow sauce, etc.) I'm gonna go search now and see if Ben & Jerry's has a pumpkin one with stuff? They're the kings of stuff.

Oh. Last year, Ben & Jerry's had pumpkin cheesecake with graham cracker swirl as a limited edition flavor. Sounds yummy! Maybe they'll dare to go pumpkin again.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

November News

Heads up! I'm doing Nano this year.




That's it. The end.




No sir. Just kidding, crickets.




Anyway, I've been struggling to stay motivated in my penning of Dropping Like Flies. I believe NaNoWriMo, with its call to writers far and wide to ink out 50,000 words in one month, will lead me to the finish line...or almost. Yeah, I know, I know, you're supposed to start with a NEW book, but I've only written 4 and a 1/2 chapters AND I'll only include NEW content in the word count dump on the site. What do you think I am, a cheater? Like A-Rod with his Whaaat??? slap? Okay. Maybe I'm a little bit of a cheater, but I really need to finish this novel, and isn't the main point of Nano the word count anyway, or accomplishing that goal? For me it is. Once I get my badge, I can then get some feedback on my work.

I think the main thing that slows me down is that I stop to edit everything as I go, and I toil over the chapters I've written again and again. And with Nano, you just write, plow through, get it done. With Nano, you're allowed to write junk. You're allowed to be stupid and ugly with words. You're allowed to let loose.

I'm still seeking representation for Kings & Queens, and I've revamped my query letter, again, since my newest one wasn't getting many bites. Hopefully the new one hooks, but I have a feeling it's the concept and not the plot description. I've spun this thing in multiple ways, heavier on character, heavier on plot, hints of the conspiracy, total exclusion of it, ending hinted at, ending revealed, plot scaled down to bare bones, and it still gets the same results.

That's the main reason I want to finish Dropping Like Flies. Then I can get it critiqued and start editing it. It's just a bit higher-concept than K&Q and I think I'd have an easier in with that one.

Are you doing it this year? If so, add my as a buddy. I'm majesticmadness over there.

I may pop in to update you on my progress and groan about my football team, but if not, catch you on the flip side when the dust and leaves settle.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

Will I Spring Forward in Fall?

Hmm. Well, there's not much going on in the agent hunt, so I can only hope for some good news this autumn. One agent does have a partial of Kings & Queens, so I could be much closer to getting a thumb's up. Who knows. But, I think maybe my query is just not getting it done. Or it could be my concept, I dunno.

I've submitted so many different versions to little response, my head is spinning now, and I can't even tell good from bad now.

It's hard to know what to include and what not to. My book has weirdness and conspiracy, but trying to succinctly mention those aspects is difficult and stirs up a whirlwind of questions. It makes me sound like a crackhead and that the book is a result of me being a crackhead. Yet when I boil it down to the central conflict, as query-writing-lovers love to suggest, a teen jumping into a massacre plot doesn't sound so special.

My novel centers around this massacre, but the tone and other aspects keep the story from being too heavy and depressing. It has bits of humor and tenderness and shock, and it also features baseball, romance, conspiracy, high school tension, family drama and a dash of sci-fi.

Do you think massacres are far too ugly for YA? I'd think not. I mean, the Hunger Games is popular, which I'm about to order, and that's about teens who kill. And Jodi Picoult's Nineteen Minutes centers around a teen shooting, and although it's shelved in adult, it crosses over into the teen market. But my YA novel, Kings & Queens, is not so much a topical one like Picoult's or a futuristic drama like HG. Mine's a whodunit with flair and depth. Beyond holding a core mystery, it delves into the psyches of those who've been manipulated and victimized and set-up.

But, man oh man, why didn't I think to include faerie wings or some sort of shape-shifting? How can I make a massacre sound more appealing? I do have some brainwashing going on and evil people can see through one teen's eye, so you'd think that'd be oo-factor enough. Nope. Not quite.

Maybe I should've made those evil people warlocks. Oh wait. Some of them ARE warlocks technically, but I forgot about that since it's not the commonality bringing the bloodthirsty blokes together. But I do have warlocks. And supersoaker wars with goat's blood. And some steamy kisses. And a ragdoll with a key that unlocks a box of new mysteries.

Um, did I mention my story was complex?

Maybe this sounds like a hot mess on the glowing paper you're now reading, like it's all too much content for one story, but it's not. Everything is intricately woven and fits together like a choreographed number with different types of performances.

Everything in this fictional world is affected when these characters are pushed to their limits, when they're forced to confront the malevolence not only in their world but also within themselves. And I like to show that struggle and revelation. I believe readers get more out of the story that way, when you give them both an intricate plot and deep, well-rounded characters.

I got two compliments recently that showed me the impact of my writing.

The first said, that even though it had been a while since she'd read Kings & Queens, the story has stayed with her all this time, and she thinks of my characters fondly. And the other reader said she didn't think it would be her kind of book, but it quickly sucked her in and she 's been having such a hard time putting it down. She absolutely loves it.

When you can provide an unforgettable journey with a pen and impact a few readers, it makes all the rejection worthwhile.

But, publication is the one industry where your dedication and skill do not really matter. It's more about hitting the right chord at the right time with the kind of story you wrote. It's about the perceived marketability of that book. Even if an agent and editor love it to pieces, the table full of suitcoats can still squash your dream.

I may have to enter the market with a different book first, one that's more strategic. Dropping Like Flies has a more gripping premise. And if I have to set K&Q aside for a time or come up with a new plan, like going with a smaller publisher myself, I'm cool with that. But Kings & Queens is too great a novel and too cool a reader experience to scrap. It would be a sad, sad thing to ever stick that in a drawer. So I won't.

~Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

Damned if You Do, Damned if You Don't

I'm a Christian and not an I-do-my-best-on-Sunday type but rather, one who's striving to grow. I'm also a writer who primarily pens secular YA. In YA these days, anything goes, as long as it's in moderation. Maintaining a junkfood mentality is best. You can show grit, violence, sensuality, sex, racism, drug abuse, alcoholism, profanity, cutting, pregnancy, even incest or other taboo subjects...in moderation. And I like that this door has been opened. It allows writers to show reality as well as fantasy.
Teen readers don't WANT to be shocked, they want works that get them, that don't preach, that take them somewhere they've never been or let them experience something they'd never dare or get or want to in reality. YA readers are the most passionate readers out there. They know when you're being fake, when you're cutting corners. They want characters they can identify with, books that aren't afraid to tackle or talk about the issues they or their friends are dealing with. Because, frankly, not everyone has a rosy life, and no one lives in a bubblegum world.

And when I'm writing any given book, especially for this age group, I'm never thinking, how can I maintain my moral center in these most awesome words? I just write. I let loose and let my characters be however they are. If I'm thinking at all about what I'm penning, it's ALWAYS, what would a character truly think, feel, do, say? What's true voice here? What's real? And when you write in that rawness, someone, somewhere will be offended. Am I trying to be offensive? No. And I going for shock value? No. Am I being lazy? Um, do you know me at all? Have you not heard my almost daily rants and raves about excellence? High-throned, Christian writers who are opposed to profanity in works like to use the "lazy" tag. "You told when you could have shown...You could have been more creative, like the air around him turned blue." Ugg. Well, sometimes swears are woven into what someone is saying. Sometimes they're not isolated or anger-driven or derogatory, like, "What a bitchin' day." Sometimes there are no suitable euphemisms. You try and come up with one for "wiseass" from a teen's mouth! There isn't one. Wiseguy? I think not. I can't use smart aleck either. The character it's said to IS Alec.

You call your brother a jerk if he plays a joke on you. But what do you call or say to the guy who shoots your best friend in front of your face? What would you really say and do? Would you really be thinking What Would Jesus Do in that moment? Come on, be honest.

If you want readers to feel as your POV character does, if you want to show the scene for all its worth, you show what's real and organic. If you're writing about gangs or prisoners or skinheads, or teens even, "showing" bad language all the time is not only tiresome for the writer but the reader as well. You have no credibility when you do that. You, as a writer, are too present in the work. Readers are constantly aware that YOU are censoring and playing morality cop, that you're bending over backwards to avoid using bad language. If you put in substitutions that you KNOW shouldn't be there, you're a cringe-inducing wuss, let's be real. If you have to overthink what you're writing, it's not organic and true.

Readers can read the whole work, even think it was all right, but they'll never identify, they'll never truly "feel" it. I'm not saying you HAVE to use profanity or violence or sensuality or go against your comfort level. I'm saying you should be daring enough to be real and true to the characters and story, however that is. The Bible is full of sensuality, violence, bad language and grit so that it can make its point, so that the good and bad in humanity can be shown. So, why can't I do that? Why can't I express the fallen world we live in? I'm not afraid to tackle issues that other Christian writers shy away from.
For instance, I'm writing a Christian novel now with a husband and wife on different pages sexually and it contains frank sexual dialogue. Why? Because it's a REAL issue. Because marriages are breaking up over it. Because spouses are being tempted to cheat or are filling voids in wrong ways. I'm trying to show life how it is, not make people blush. I'm trying to present this very real struggle and demolisher and provide a springboard for communication and show the danger in NOT communicating. So what if it's not sterile or morally approved! So what if it's not your cup of tea! If this sort of conflict is not an issue for you and sends you running off for Q-tips to clean out your tainted ears, fine, the book's not for you then, but that doesn't mean others aren't dealing with it. This book may even be too edgy for Sheaf House, so I may have to self-pub it, and I'm okay with that. A book like this has to be honest and frank, otherwise it makes no impact.

If you write, if you dare to pick up that pen, you'd better be prepared to deliver whatever the story demands. I know I am going to be judged by many Christians and that when I do publish they'll say hurtful things. I know many of my friends will NOT like my work. But I cannot dilute or censor a story just because a few people will get ruffled feathers. There are times when I show grace and redemption, characters making bad choices, grappling with guilt, leaving darkness. If I don't dare to be real and credible in all things, then those more important spiritual matters will never be taken seriously. None of my writing will be.

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.

Afflictions That Bug Me

Most writers develop crazy and/or unexpected afflictions, bugs and glitches. Insomnia. Coffee Addiction. Procrastination. High blood pressure. Self Doubt. Neck and back kinks. Here are some maladies I’ve developed since deciding to start a writing career.

♣ Typing Dyslexia. My ideas formulate much faster than I can type. I know, I know. You’ve never heard of TD cuz right now it’s not recognized by medical and educational pros, but I'm working on that. I do have it for real. While I know how to spell, more often than not, I type letters all out of sequence, like earlier, broken was robken, and even worse, callings was cassling. See? Way off. Not even close. I never used to have this problem when I worked in advertising, typing up newsletters, brochures or whatever. Since I‘ve been writing larger works, I’ve acquired not just fumbly fingers but a muddy brain. TD keeps me moving at a moderate pace and I can't fly according to my super sonic preference.

♣ Skepticism. In needing to research things so much for long fiction and examine human behavior, I now view the world, its inhabitants and events in broader and deeper terms and have become skeptical of politicians, the media and propagated information. On the flip side, as a reader I have no problem suspending disbelief for fiction when it's well-written.

♣ Hunger. No. Not for Doritos or chocolate, though in all honesty, that could apply too. My bigger hunger is for inspiration. I’m a gathering junkie. I cannot be somewhere, church, the mall, Six Flags or Walmart without thinking about how things I observe could apply to my writing. Everywhere I go, I see people who would make good characters or I hear bits of dialogue that fascinate me. I went to the beach last week with my family, and as I was sitting on the blanket with my daughter, I was people watching and wishing I’d brought a pen. I can't even relax for one afternoon. I read news articles with the specific purpose of finding tidbits. I’m never sure how and where I will use such pieces, but I like to jot them down in my Xany Files for future use.

♣ Eloquence. I’m a total Word Nerd. I love words. I love building my vocabulary and learning new jewels. But glitzier words are not always appropriate to use when you‘re writing. So I’m always battling to make my work fresh and zingy yet simplified at the same time. For one of my POV characters, I wanted to create a more ominous tone and he’s super intelligent, so I allowed myself to use meatier words in the narrative, but usually I have to keep them hidden in my pocket with the lint balls and gum wrappers.

♣ Tossing-Turning Syndrome. When I'm really inspired or under pressure, I have what I call working dreams. I think that's a lucid dream, where I'm sleeping and know I'm sleeping and dreaming. Anyway, somehow I decide to work while I'm sleeping. In my delusional brain, I actually feel excited that I'm making good use of my time and being productive while sleeping. I end of flopping around like a dying fish all night. I think I'm so brilliant until I wake up in the morning exhausted, feeling as though I never slept.

I’m sure I have many other ailments, but those are my big ones. If you’re a writer, have you come down with sneezes and sniffles? If so, what?

♣ Curiosity. That’s another one of my bugs, but I’ve had that since childhood, so it doesn’t actually count.

Write on. Rock on. Be blessed and inspired.

~Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.