Thursday, February 7, 2013
Thursday's Opening Scenes from The Midas Murders by Janet Lane Walters
The Midas Murders
Janet Lane Walters
Chapter 1
El Sueno Dorado
This year the Christmas season held little joy for me. There were a few brief moments of pleasure that vanished all too soon. Seeing a small child’s delight in the twinkling tree lights. Selecting gifts for my family, friends and neighbors. Watching my granddaughter perform the role of Clara in a local production of the Nutcracker. Those times did little to halt my feelings of regret and grief.
On Christmas Eve I sat with my family in a pew in St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church and huddled in my coat. The chill I felt had nothing to do with the voices of the choir raised in joyful celebration, or in the message of hope and peace contained in the sermon and the liturgy. My feelings were caused by things I had and had not done.
Though we sat several rows in front of the place where death had stained the stones of the floor, my awareness of past events nearly drove me to leave. Remembering last month’s Evensong and the death of the choir master brought frost-filled memories and stirred my guilt. For my covetousness had brought him here, and I’d been the one to discover the body.
Your fault. Your fault. Those words had circled in my thoughts for weeks.
As the candles were lit at midnight, I prayed my role in Roger Brandon’s death would fade and I could forgive myself. I also knew my decision to welcome the New Year in Santa Fe, New Mexico with my dear friend, Lars Claybourne, was mete and right. Thoughts of the trip had become my golden dream.
*****
The night before my departure, I carried a half dozen tins of dried mint to the bedroom. These were the last items for the suitcase on the antique sleigh bed. As I paused in the doorway, the urge to laugh was almost impossible to contain, but a stern approach was needed.
“Robespierre, an open suitcase is not a bed.” I glared at the Maine Coon cat who had curled among my neatly folded clothes. “You aren’t being abandoned. Maria and the baby are excited about your visit.”
The look of disdain on his face brought my laughter bubbling forth. I dumped the tea on the bed, scratched his head, then lifted twenty-five pounds of cat from the case. “Be gone.” As he stalked from the room, his tail twitched to signal his displeasure at being banished.
After tucking my stash among my clothes, I closed the case. With a supply of teas for every occasion, I felt prepared to face my flight to an unfamiliar destination. I wheeled the suitcase and carried a hanging bag to the kitchen where they would be on hand for my early morning departure. My son had grumbled about the hour, but he’d promised to get me to the plane on time.
Robespierre now lay on the kitchen floor and stared at the case containing my belated Christmas present for Lars’ granddaughter. I plugged in the electric kettle, this year’s gift from one of my neighbors, selected an assortment of mints and stuffed a tea ball.
Once the tea had steeped, I poured a mug and headed to the living room where I settled on the window seat. The lights from the Tappan Zee Bridge vied with the moonlight dancing on the dark waters of the Hudson River. Stars formed patterns in the sky. I never tire of watching the river and my early morning walks often end at the river’s edge.
The shrill ring of the phone startled me. I grabbed the receiver. “Hello.”
“Kate.”
“Lars, is something wrong?” Why was he calling when he’d see me tomorrow? Had something happened to make it necessary for me to postpone my visit?
“Jitters. Afraid you’ve changed your mind. You’ve never come before. And...there is something...” His voice drifted into silence.
Something was bothering him, but extracting a story long distance is hard. Face to face is better. “My bags are packed and the tickets are in my purse.”
“Good. I’m looking forward to having you here.” He paused. “What are you doing with the cat?”
“He’ll be staying with Maria and the baby.” I chuckled. “At this moment he’s peeved. He tried to use my suitcase as a bed and I chased him.”
Lars laughed. “Guess he wants to come along. You could bring him.”
“Are you out of your mind? You want me to bring the creature who hates cars and being confined. He’ll be fine at the Prescott’s house. I’m looking forward to freedom from his tyranny.”
“He does tend to act like a dictator. Kate, we’ll have a grand time while you’re here. I’ve so many things planned for us to do.”
I set down the mug. “That’s not why you called. What is bothering you?”
His deep sigh rumbled in my ear. “The problem is...I’m not sure what’s going on.”
“So tell me what you can. Are Don and Megan all right?”
“They’re fine.”
“And...” I hesitated to ask if his daughter had staged a scene when she learned I’d accepted his invitation. “Is there a problem because I’m coming?”
“No.”
“Something else?”
“I’m not sure there is a problem.” He paused. “It’s just...vague...and...You know I plan to retire. I’ve been avoiding all the paperwork necessary for months. Last week I looked at some of the companies I’ve seeded. Something odd is going on.”
For years Lars has looked for new and sometimes unique businesses and provided funds for expansion and promotion. Most of these ventures have been successful and repayment of the loans with interest has made him a wealthy man.
“Someone’s stealing.” The words just popped out.
“Maybe, but I hope not. Except just before Ramona’s accident, she hinted she’d discovered a number of discrepancies. We found nothing in her records or her computer. I figured whatever she’d learned had been destroyed when her car burned.”
Eight months ago Lars’ daughter-in-law had died in a tragic accident. A chill crawled along my spine. “Do be careful.”
His laughter boomed. “You’re telling me to be careful. This warning comes from a woman who set herself up to be robbed, who had tea with a murderer, and who single-handedly trapped a killer.”
“I wasn’t in any danger.”
“If you say so...What time does your flight arrive? I’ll meet you at the airport.”
“No need. I’ve rented a car.”
“Why? I’ll be on hand to provide taxi service.”
The image of a glowering Lars stomping after me while I flitted from shop to shop made me chuckle. “How wonderful. Are you volunteering to go shopping with me? I plan to spend at least a day in the shops. Probably more.”
He groaned. “You win. See you tomorrow. You’ll need to announce yourself at the gate so I can buzz you in. Oh, bring an assortment of your mints.”
“Already packed.”
“And warm clothes.”
“Yes, Lars. Let me go so I can head to bed.”
“Do you remember the name of the estate?”
Why was he so reluctant to let me go? Tomorrow I planned to ask him a lot of questions and discover the answers. “How could I forget? Good night, Lars. See you tomorrow.”
After I hung up, I stared at the night sky. Something troubled him and I’d learned nothing from our conversation. Was I headed into another messy situation?
Stop it! Just because my nerves were frayed didn’t mean trouble lurked in Santa Fe.
Robespierre leaped to the window seat and rubbed his head against my hand. His rumbling purr soothed my nerves. An uneventful visit was my goal. There’d been enough mayhem in my life.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Wednesday;s Writer's Tip - About those major characters #amwriting
Now we come to major characters and how to make them live in the eyes of the readers. These characters may be hero, heroine, villain, victims, red herrings. These are the people in the story that need to have a focus on them. How does one do this.
Give them a unique characteristic. In my murder series, Katherine does mint tea, not only drinking but growing, preservine and blending. This is her characteristic and the reader knows a lot about hefrom mint tea. A character in the series is Robespierre, the Maine Coon cat. He has his own traits for the reader to recoganize. Here I am using a detail that goes from book to book. Try to find racteristics to define a character.
Use the character's emotions and keep them specific. There are certain ways a character reacts to the same or similar situation.
Show them in action. Show the character doing something and show how they are reacting rather than letting the action take stage
Don't do this all at once. Long sentences make the reader wonder what they are supposed to remember. Feeding these items in gradually and you build a character that grows in the story and on the reader.
Books We Love Blurbathon - Dummy and Me by Sydney Voeller
Dummy and Me, by Sydell Voeller
Fifteen-year-old Deanna Lambert is miserable. She can't find her niche with the popular kids at school and believes she is ugly. Then too, after her mother deserted the family to pursue an acting career in New York City, Deanna's father has grown distant and embittered. Now Deanna is saddled with most all the chores at homeâ€"and she and her dad barely communicate.
Yet Deanna's one happy escape is her volunteer work at the nearby Children's Hospital. There the activities director convinces her to get back into her ventriloquism, a creative skill Deanna's grandfather had taught her years earlier.
Deanna and her puppet, Ramblin' Roy, entertain and delight the young hospital patients, but Deanna is worried. What if the kids at her school discover what she's doing? Will they think she's just “a baby†who still plays with dolls?
Deanna takes the risk, but one problem soon leads to another. Can she ever gain true acceptance at school, especially from Jason, the guy whom she has a major crush on? And most of all, can Deanna embrace her gift of ventriloquism, and in so doing, come to terms with her mother's leaving?
Buy at:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B9ZJYDO
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/281588
All Romance eBooks/Omnilit: https://www.allromancebooks.com/product-dummyme-1052253-149.html
Learn more about Sydell's characters and her books at www.sydellvoeller.com
And do check back to learn all about Jane Toomb's books on Feb. 8
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Tuesday's Inspiration inspired by Stephen King 400 plus rules
Am still browsing through an essay by Stephen King. What I found this time made me laugh and laughter is necessary for a writer. So here goes. This is about rules. "Use vivid words. Avoid the passive voice. Avoid the cliches. Be specific. Be precise. Be elegant. Avoid unnecessary words. These rules and the four hundred--" The quote goes on. What really struck me were the 400 other rules. Couldn't help wondering what they were and wondering what they could be.
Rules for writing. Mr. King is absolutely right about the ones he mentioned and there are more. These aren't rules one knows when they begin writing. They are ones discovered as more and more words are put on paper or show up on the computer screen. They are rules given by the editors, agents, members of our critique group can point out when they are reading your manuscript. For me being specific falls under the It was rule. Avoiding those non-specific words can be hard and I find removing the comes in the revision mode. When I am in the heat of getting the story down I usually break all those rules and probably ones that weren't mentioned. Revision is the time when those rules come into play.
One specific rule I learned early on in my career went something like this "Characters don't exist in a vacuum." An editor handed this to me and I still struggle with getting this rule right.
How about you? Is there a rule of writing fiction that you need to learn how to follow?
Monday, February 4, 2013
Meandering on Monday with Janet Lane Walters #amwriting #JeRoWriMo
Last week on the first of Feb, I began the NJRW challenge. 30,000 words in 28 days. Since I generally write 2000 words a day, this should be a shoe in for me. Except these are new words, I'm working on two projects, One is typing in the revisions of a mss that is hand written. So far have added 1500 words to that. The other is an old manuscript that is being completely re-written. The idea was good but the execution was , not bad but not up to the way I write these days. I came across a real interesting thing while writing. The story starts at the spring equinox but somehow a number of chapters in the time changed to nearing the winter solstice. There was no reason for the change and this meant a major change. How to change winter to summer and keep the peril to the characters present. No snowbound in the summer but I put in a flood. At this point I've written 4200 words there. So much for rewriting.
Another thing I managed to do was get one of two rights back books off to the publisher. And to do the second one. I will say I was very surprised when the former publisher released the third book of the fourth book series before the contract expired. I will honor them for this since there are other publishers who don't do such a thing. I have a friend who can't write the third book of a trilogy because her publisher won't release the other two. They haven't paid her royalties on the two books either. That is a crime, but something we all face with small publishers. I have three who pay on time and always let me know how I'm doing. With another publisher we've gone to yearly reports and that's fine since I only have one book with them. There are two publishers who give me no details on what's been happening with my books. One of these days I'll take action there,
Must get back to work and also plan my short talk at a library on Saturday. A library in a Mall sounds different and interesting.
Books We Love Blurbathon featuring Persephone Cole, A Vintage Holiday Mystery Series by Heather Haven
Persephone Cole, A Vintage Holiday Mystery Series
by
Heather Haven
It’s 1942 and Persephone ‘Percy’ Cole is bucking the odds and pounding the pavement of Manhattan as one of its first female private detectives. Joining the ranks of other gumshoes such as Sam Spade, Lew Archer, and Phillip Marlow, this five-foot eleven, full-figured gal has the same hard-boiled, take-no-prisoners attitude, but with a difference. A shamus with a wicked sense of humor, she’s the mother of an eight-year old son. Whether it be on the Great White Way, the Diamond District, or chocolate-covered corpses, Persephone Cole blazes a trail for all other lady dicks to follow. She finds her holiday cheer in solving crimes of the most deadly kind - murder.
Persephone Cole and the Halloween Curse - http://tinyurl.com/agayofv
Persephone Cole and the Christmas Killings Conundrum - http://tinyurl.com/arm3pxk
Persephone Cole and the Mother’s Day Murders – Coming soon!
Amazon Buy Page for Heather’s books: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004QL22UK
Don’t forget to come back on Feb 6 for a blurb on the books of Sydell Voeller
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Saturday's Excerpt from Hot Spell by Lisabet Sarai
Hot Spell by Lisabet Sarai
M/F paranormal erotic romance
Available from Total-E-Bound (http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?P_ID=1432) as well as all your favorite online booksellers
Blurb
The flames of passion are more than metaphor.
The city swelters in the grip of an unseasonable heat wave. Sylvie endures her solitary urban existence for the sake of her career, but the prospect of a hot, lonely three day weekend proves unbearable and she flees east to the pine-shrouded mountains. Far more at home in nature than in the city, Sylvie doesn't mind being alone in the wilderness, but she's not the only being haunting the glades and the trails.
Aidan is fiercely attracted to the voluptuous beauty he finds sun bathing nude in a high meadow, but he must resist his overwhelming desire for the sake of her safety. The sun-bronzed man with the red-gold hair is cursed with power he knows will destroy her if they give full rein to their passion. Can Sylvie refrain from tempting him? Or will she risk being being literally consumed by love?
Excerpt (PG)
“Are you hungry?” His voice was steady—pleasant but neutral—belying the riotous signals she picked up from his body. “I’m afraid all I can offer is canned chilli, with some wild greens I picked this morning…”
Yes, I’m hungry, she wanted to scream. Hungry for you! Then shame flooded her, damping down her desire. She had promised him she’d behave, that she’d keep her distance and not tempt him. She wasn’t sure that she subscribed to his conviction that their lovemaking would kill her, but clearly he believed it and suffered for that belief. Reminding him of their mutual attraction would just make him more miserable. For his sake, she had to control her carnal urges, difficult as that might be.
“Sounds good to me. At least as appetising as dinner back at my campsite—freeze-dried beef stew.” He rose from his chair and she followed. “Can I help?”
“No, that’s okay. It’ll just take me a few minutes. But come over here first. You’ll like this.” He gestured towards the south-facing windows, the ones near the cots. A gap of about a yard separated the two beds. They stood together in that space, gazing out of the open window.
To the west, at their right, rose the high peaks, jagged and ashen against the orange sky. The sun streamed through gaps between them, loosing shafts of fire into the valley. Far below the fire tower, Crystal Lake was transformed from the sapphire mirror she’d seen earlier in the day to a sheet of beaten gold. The trees surrounding the water were already grey-green shadows, but the lake burned like the caldera of a volcano, brimming with molten lava.
Sylvie caught her breath. It was exquisite—awe-inspiring. Nothing in her city life was this lovely. Nothing had this power to rouse her emotions. A sense of completion, of rightness, settled on her. This was where she belonged. At the same time, her whole body vibrated with a new kind of excitement, similar to sexual arousal but somehow more subtle and refined.
She was acutely aware of Aidan’s bulk beside her and the strong, male scent of his sweat. He radiated heat—a human furnace. That was part of this bliss, too, inseparable from the miracle of the fiery water. Her need for him was a fierce, sweet ache that brought pleasure even without being consummated.
She didn’t dare move. She didn’t want to break the spell. Then she felt his fingers entwine with hers. She sensed the strength in his grip even as her skin burned from the contact.
Sylvie did not turn to him. It wasn’t necessary. She knew what he was thinking. She understood he wanted her. For now, in this endless moment, that was enough. His guilt eased in her presence. She felt his tension dissipate, bit by bit, as they continued to hold hands.
Neither spoke. Neither made any sort of effort to deepen the touch or turn it into something more explicitly sexual. That would have been redundant. They stood together, perfectly connected, until the sun sank out of sight and the flaming lake was extinguished.
Bio
MORE THAN A DECADE AGO LISABET SARAI EXPERIENCED A SERENDIPITOUS FUSION OF HER LOVE OF WRITING AND HER FASCINATION WITH SEX. SINCE THEN SHE HAS PUBLISHED FIVE SINGLE AUTHOR SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS AND SEVEN EROTIC NOVELS, WITH HER EIGHTH, RAJASTHANI MOON, DUE OUT IN MAY. DOZENS OF HER SHORTER WORKS HAVE BEEN RELEASED AS EBOOKS AND IN PRINT ANTHOLOGIES. SHE HAS ALSO EDITED SEVERAL ACCLAIMED ANTHOLOGIES AND IS CURRENTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ALTRUISTIC EROTICA SERIES COMING TOGETHER PRESENTS.
LISABET HOLDS MORE DEGREES THAN ANYONE NEEDS FROM PRESTIGIOUS UNIVERSITIES WHO WOULD NO DOUBT BE EMBARRASSED BY HER CHOSEN GENRE. SHE LOVES TO TRAVEL AND CURRENTLY LIVES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA WITH HER HIGHLY TOLERANT HUSBAND AND TWO COSMOPOLITAN FELINES. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON LISABET AND HER WRITING VISIT LISABET SARAI'S FANTASY FACTORY (HTTP://WWW.LISABETSARAI.COM) OR HER BLOG BEYOND ROMANCE (HTTP://LISABETSARAI.BLOGSPOT.COM).
Friday, February 1, 2013
Books We Love Blurbathon featuring Reluctant Date by Sheila Claydon
RELUCTANT DATE by Sheila Claydon from Books We Love Publishing available at:
http://amzn.to/WNE8Vr
In a rut, and with her love life at an all time low, Claire Harris makes a New Year’s resolution to join an Internet dating agency. Her challenge is twelve dates or twelve months, whichever comes first, unless she is lucky enough to meet Mister Right along the way. On her final date, and convinced that only frogs are left in the dating pool, she is relieved that it’s nearly over…until she meets enigmatic American, Daniel Marchant. The only problem is, his brother has set him up, and Daniel makes it very clear that he’s not interested in dating anyone at all. He is looking for someone to work in his developing conservation research company though, and when he discovers that Claire has the photographic and cataloguing skills he needs, he offers her a dream job in Florida.
But Dolphin Key is not as idyllic as it seems. There are too many secrets and too much heartache. And Claire has her own secrets as well. Not that she is going to share them with anyone, least of all with Daniel, because he must never know he has stolen her heart.
Wonderful story! The story had me from the start to finish, this book was an emotionally good story that had a great romance with humor entwined. I believe anyone who reads this book will enjoy it (LadyAtlantis)
Perfect warming read for a grey,cold winter day Another heart warming romance from Sheila Claydon. (Liz)
Learn more about Sheila's characters and her books at: http://sheilaclaydon.com or http://amzn.to/LJMM16
And do check back to learn all about Books We Love author Heather Haven's books on February 4
Friday's How She Does It featuring Lisabet Sarai
I've never really looked at writing this way - I just write! - but I guess I can
see what you mean. The "how" is the events of the story, which ultimately must
grow out of the characters (who), their situations (what, when and where), and
their motivations (why).
> 1. How do you create your characters? Do you have a specific process?
To be honest, I don't have any particular process for character development.
Once or twice I have tried to produce written character profiles as some books
recommend. I dutifully listed everything I knew about my characters' history,
desires, fears, appearance, and so on. Then I started writing and proceeded to
ignore most of what I'd noted in the profiles.
Occasionally a character will come to me fully fleshed out, but usually I
discover more about them as I write. Also, I sometimes spend days thinking about
the people in my stories before I ever begin writing, figuring out who they are
and what they want.
> 2. Do your characters come before the plot? Do you sketch out your plot or do
> you let the characters develop the route to the end?
Unlike many romance authors, I'm much more plot-driven - or perhaps I should say
situation-driven - than character driven. With one or two exceptions, most of my
books begin with a premise, problem or situation, along with some very rough
ideas of who is involved in the story. So you might say that my plot actually
shapes my characters.
HOT SPELL (the book I'm featuring below) actually began with the title. My
publisher asked me for something short and very erotic. I was playing with ideas
and came up with the title, "Hot Spell", which seemed to fit the "very erotic"
requirement. From there, I got the notion of a woman living in the city,
suffering from a spring heat wave, dying to be out in the forest where the air
was cooler and fresher. That in turn led me to the notion that she might
actually be an Elemental - a supernatural creature of the Earth - without
realizing the fact. Then I needed a hero of course, and decided he would also be
an Elemental - a fire Elemental (leading back to the "hot" in the title). As I
worked on the story further (this was before I'd begun to write) I realized the
key conflict could come from his inability to make love to a mortal woman
because he'd incinerate her.
> 3. Do you know how the story will end before you begin? In a general way or a
> specific one?
By the time I begin writing, I normally have a general idea of how the story
will end. I do not do formal outlines in most cases, but I'll usually have at
least a mental scene list. Often I'll add scenes as I go along. I'm definitely
very linear in the way I write. I begin at the beginning and write straight
through to the end, rarely going backwards or rearranging scenes.
I have had cases where the ending shifted away from my original expectations.
This tends to happen more with longer books. I've also had sudden moments of
inspiration as I drew close to completely a story. That actually happened with
HOT SPELL - but I don't want to give away the surprise by explaining just what
that inspiration was!
> 4. Do you choose settings you know or do you have books of settings and plans
> of houses sitting around?
I focus a lot on settings, much more than most romance authors, I think. You
might even say that the setting is an additional character in many of my books.
I tend to set my stories in places I've visited or lived. Since I've done quite
a bit of traveling, that provides a lot of variety LOL. I've written eight full
length novels at this point, set (respectively) in Thailand, Boston, London and
Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Guatemala (actually I haven't been there...yet),
Worcester and western Massachusetts, San Francisco, and India. If you add my
short stories and novellas, the range of settings grows even wider.
For interiors, I tend to use my imagination, drawing from experience of course.
Are there authors who really use books of house plans?
Even if I don't specifically mention where a story is set, I almost always have
a specific location in mind. (That's the case with HOT SPELL.) Someone familiar
with the area might even recognize it. I can't really picture the story events
unless I've located it in space. For one thing, I believe that location strongly
influences culture and hence characters.
> 5. Where do you do your research? On line or from books?
Both. For stories with a historical component, I'll often read entire books just
to get a feeling for the background. For instance, when I was working on my
novel SERPENT'S KISS, which deals with Mayan mythology, I purchased several
scholarly tomes about the Mayans and their monuments, language and world view.
A number of years ago I had an idea for a time travel romance set in the Angkor
Wat period of Cambodia. I bought, and read cover to cover, two or three books
about the period. Fascinating, especially since I'd already visited Angkor.
Somehow, though, I couldn't make get a realistic image of what life was like.
(In all fairness, that was more than a thousand years ago, and much of the
culture was erased by later cataclysmic events in the country.) Ultimately, I
abandoned the project, though I suppose I might revive it at some point.
I'm not crazy about research. Some authors report that they totally get lost in
researching details. That's not me LOL! I just look for what I need.
6. Are you a draft writer or do you revise as you go along and why?
>
I mostly revise as I go along. I know many experts advise against this, but it
seems to work for me. One reason is that I have a fairly limited amount of time
for writing. When I get to the end of a book, I want to know that it's close to
being ready to submit.
Of course I do edit my first "drafts" but rarely do I make serious changes in
plot or sequence. I doubt I modify more than 10-15% of my first draft in most
cases.
============
--
All's fair in lust and business
NASTY BUSINESS - BDSM erotica from Lisabet Sarai
(https://www.amazon.com/author/lisabetsarai)
Get your copy today! http://tinyurl.com/apbhych
Read an excerpt: http://tinyurl.com/azojwmx
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