Character Name Contest

Hey Everyone,

I have four characters in my new WiP, so far. The first is Emmaleigh Forrester, age 21. I have a 19yo girl, a 23yo young man and a 27yo young man. They live in Denver. Please submit your name suggestions here and the winner will be awarded a copy of Stoning the Crows (when it comes out) or the current un-named WiP.

Here is an exerpt, likely the back cover, of the current WiP:

          Very rarely is the perfect crime committed. Given the time and the resources, investigators find…things. Evidence. That which is missing often tells stories in its absence. That which remains conspires with truth to reveal all. Time and resources, however, strain against the system until they become strangers to those who hunt the wolf. Without a solid lead, in time, the case is filed away, unsolved. It resides there in the file cabinet, silently mourning its victims…while their killer rests his head upon his pillow. 

Keep a fire extinguisher close by...

I'm in the editing process.  Need I say more?  I just read Kristen Lamb's blog about how to tear apart that baby you call your WIP when it needs it.  Yeah.  This is the most nail-biting part of the process.  And I've already chewed the poor dears down to nubs.  So, keep a fire extinguisher handy...just in case I spontaneously combust in the middle of the editing adventure.

Not for lack of desire...

I write in small spurts. C'mon, I have 5 children at home still, one who is in the Marines, and one who just gave me a grandchild. My mother thinks that her mother is still alive and that she needs to go see her. She also can't figure out who my husband is - she thinks she worked with him. Fortunately, she lives about 40 minutes from me, so I can go see her. The point being, life is exceedingly full at the moment. Over the next 6 years, I will be graduating 4 children, with 1 more to go...

But I dream in technicolor...my characters from Stoning the Crows walk through my dreams and tell me things about themselves that I did not know. I am driven to write and often sacrifice sleep to do so. My most recent endeavor, and I suspect that other writers can identify with this, is to pull out some of the excess in my story. I have about 40,000 words in the novel. I have been told to 'slow down,' so I'm working now on trying to accomplish this feat - maybe a little less coffee?? Several characters are receding in the rewrite. One is becoming a ghost. Well, not a real ghost. But I like the sound of that for my undercover cop. These others...well, I like them. So I'll keep their stories and perhaps write them into sequels. I have at least one sequel in the works. Why not 2?

My favorite endeavor, at the moment, is little interludes from the future with my 'ghost.' He's being investigated. So he's answering questions for an interrogator who holds him in, um, low regard. He looks like a crook. But he'll come out smelling like roses. Is it a perfume to cover up the bad smell? Or is he really the good guy? Is what appears to be unethical really only the lesser of two evils? As I untwist his logic in this interview, I, too, will find out the answer to these questions.

I am on the edge of my seat...

"It Sells Because It Sells"

I have a friend who has published a book. Sans marketing, it sort of hit the market like a rotten plum. It really did not sell, and he lamented that he did not have the time to toot his own horn. He has told me on many occasions, as he mentored me in writing novels, that 'books sell because they sell.' So as I'm writing, I'm thinking through this marking 'thing.' There is a lot to be said about having a little help in this area. I'm not so sure I know the right people, although those who follow me here and those I follow are good sources of information and contact. Some (most) of you are excellent bloggers, and have truly found your niche here in blogland. People read what you write - they are interested. This will prove an open door in the market. Interviews are an excellent means of getting your name out there. Book reviews also help a great deal. Getting good, or even not-so-good reviews of your work from other authors is excellent. And having good cover art is, I'm certain, something worth paying for. But the self-publisher is, in reality, quite on their own.

I am currently spending most of my time teaching, guiding and grading my home schoolers. (One more week...) Reading books has sort of 'left the building,' so to speak. I have not read a good book in some time, though I'm trying to finish a Dekker novel that I keep falling asleep over - not because it's boring, mind you. It's just that I'm pushing and pushed to the limit. It is simply that season of life for me, and will remain so, to a certain degree, for the next ten to twelve years. Hm.

But I am still driven to complete this novel that I am laboring over. I dream about it. I jot notes in the middle of walks, or pull the car over to write down something that was just said or something that came to mind. I talk to my characters in the shower. (!!) I seriously need a tape recorder. I share clips with others to get their input. And all the while, I wonder if I have something to say that others will want to read. And how will they know, if my published work is not at eye level?

This is really what marketing is all about, from what I gather - putting your book at eye level. You know how they put the candy in the check-out isle at the grocery store...and they put the toys on the shelves that the little kids can see. My above-mentioned friend is also of the opinion that having your book appear in the local grocery store is an achievement worth its weight in gold. Why? Because it puts your book at eye level. EVERYONE goes to the grocery store. But still and all, books sell because they sell.

But finally, it is the writer who writes for the joy of it, and not for the sell, who achieves the cherished goal.

What remains...

Memories link, one to another, and form the playing field upon which we walk. Think about your last ten years…You don’t remember every detail. Some memories waft through your mind, sparked by a current circumstance or something someone said, or even a scent. A certain berry bush has a distinct smell that takes me way back to daycare, when I was very small. Every time I smell it, I’m suddenly only three feet tall. Music is the same. It takes us places, like the sci fi portal into another dimension. It’s odd, the things that remain in the memory. Some seem so disconnected, yet there they are. Every memory finds its way into the present because it is connected somehow. Without the connection, it is lost.

Now think of all the books you’ve read. What is it that has remained of those books? Do you remember the words that were spoken? The witty little phrases? Maybe. Do you remember how the book felt in your hands? Or the image on the cover? Well, I suppose that one might remain long, especially if you are a visual learner. Some stories remain because they touch us, where we live. We can relate. We feel them. But we don’t remember the exact words…in fact, in some cases, we don’t even remember the title of the book. What we remember is how we felt, while walking in the character’s shoes, or how they looked while we watched them from within the story. We remember how we felt when they said something to us or reacted and we wanted to stop them or slap them or hug them. We are relational creatures. If a character touches our lives, our hearts, our minds, they will remain. As writers, we have the opportunity to reach into the lives of people we’ve never met and touch them, where they live, to leave an impression that will link with their memories and remain a part of them. How cool is that?

The Adventure of Writing

Books have the ability to take you away from today, to make you cry, to make you laugh. In books, you can fall in love for the first time, or even again. You can fly, or run like the wind, become royalty or a homeless wanderer. Life can be experienced from a different angle, and you can see truth that couldn't be seen from the perch in your current circumstance. Stories bring home things we only knew deep inside and help us recognize our own image in the mirror of a character with whom we identify.

Writing stories is like spinning yarn, or crocheting a blanket. Stitch upon stitch, the vision unfolds until finally we can see it all, and in seeing it all, we are completed. Even the writer could not see it until the last stitch fell into place.

I've heard it said that good writers merely follow their characters through the story. The characters come to life and lead the writer through their choices, their mistakes and their triumphs and their realizations. This is good writing. I have a long way to go, but this is how I want to write. I want my readers to fall apart in the betrayal, right along with the character, and to feel the release when forgiveness is granted, to taste the fear when monsters loom.

There is a certain power in the written word that the author relishes. When I told my coach that I cried while reading one of his co-authored books, he said "well, then, I've achieved a good thing." To have the reader identify...this is the adventure of writing.