I went to EPICON deciding to do little but of course once there, I decided to volunteer to sit at the registration desk. Enjoy this since it allows me to meet and greet people. I did not get my wish. Carol blessed me for volunteering and asked if I would monitor several of the speakers. Now I hadn't planned on going to anything except maybe the publisher's panel. so I was prepared to be semi-bored. Not bored for a minute. The first panel was run by Lorna and Larry Collins, friends from Virginia Beach. They spoke about Money, Wealth and Happiness. Not at all what I expected but things I quite agreed with, especially the part about neither money or wealth brings happiness. Wealth sort of does but it's a wealth of friends that makes one happy.
Panel I should have gone to but ended up in the bookstore selling a few books. This was Reading on the IPhone. Not that I intend to do this but the speaker, Neelan Choksi was eye-candy. Had time to talk to him later and was proud of myself being able to carry on a normal conversation.
My second monitoring gig was for a panel run by Karen Hobson, Blogging For $$$. Here I learned some interesting facts. The best amount of posts to ones blogs should be Three times a week. Sporadic will never do it. So far I've failed in this area. I also learned I should have more than one blog since I write more than one kind of material. She suggested paying for someone to set up the initial blog and use the free ones to link to the blog. At present not for me.
Now for a bit about the KeyNote Luncheon and the speaker, Penny Sansevieri, a publicist who has a million good ideas and was a very energizing speaker. I bought her book about using the internet for promotion and will start using it soon.
When I blog tomorrow, I'll be talking about the faces I put to names and a lot of old friends.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
EPICON Part 2
On arriving at the restort to check in, the first person I saw was Carol. We'd met in Virginia Beach. Her first words were "Sorry it's so cold." I laughed. Coming from 17 degrees, 70 was hot. Settled and began to explore and find lunch. In Virginia Beach I was five months past a double knee replacement and walking was still not fun. The building we were in was a walk and steps to the place where food was to be found. Walking was great. Ate lunch at an Irish Pub. Potato and Leek soup. Sort of played into part of my heritage since among my 57 varieties I do have some Irish and Scot's blood. Wandered around. Not all of the shops were open but they had some neat ones and some great bargains. Back to the resort and hung out with some of the attendees. Met several people I hadn't met before. Sherry and Honey Jans are two I recall. Brain being partially dead due to the time difference. Found Marilyn and Hap and coaxed him to drag my books to the bookstore along with hers. This is a great couple. Met them at the first EPICON in Omaha and went to a great Persian restaurant while waiting to leave for the airport. Someday I'll write about the trip home a real interesting time. Books settled in and forms filled. Then dinner at a Mexican place. Great food.
Time for the Mixer. Kathy and I were almost the first ones but people began to arrive. Marilyn. Connie Crow came with her amazing machine. Then there was Helen of the Cynical Woman fame. She and I had met in Virginia beach and her darling girls. The girls stayed home with Dad. Talked to a lot of people. Had a couple of drinks and then the time change began to take effect so returned.
This year I had decided I would do no program and just attend the conference. Doesn't always work that way as you will see when I do another part.
Time for the Mixer. Kathy and I were almost the first ones but people began to arrive. Marilyn. Connie Crow came with her amazing machine. Then there was Helen of the Cynical Woman fame. She and I had met in Virginia beach and her darling girls. The girls stayed home with Dad. Talked to a lot of people. Had a couple of drinks and then the time change began to take effect so returned.
This year I had decided I would do no program and just attend the conference. Doesn't always work that way as you will see when I do another part.
Monday, March 9, 2009
EPICON 2009 Part One
Was going to post this later but was informed my granddaughter age 5 will be spending the evening and she believes when she is here I am hers. So now to begin.
March 5 at 5 AM. I am not a morning person but I arise before the sun to leave for the shuttle to Newark with my carry-on bag and the monster purse I bought to carry stuff. No problem on the shuttle but I know it is coming. The dreaded security check. I have two titanium knees. I set of bells and whistles.
I arrive at the airport and get into the long line checking in. Amazes me how many people are fleeing the east coast, hopefully all for warmer climes. It was 17 degrees out and I was wearing my spring coat since warmer weather was promised for the return. I approach the gate, having shed my shoes and all my other stuff. "I'm going to set off the alarms," I said.
"Step ahead." The alarms go off. "Step in there. Someone will arrive to check you." I wait fifteen minutes. The guard smiles. "A woman must check you."
MY mind begins to click. Why a woman? I am old and the wand never touches your body. Perhaps my knees aren't titanium and are really a device to cause trouble. That is a dumb idea. I have no thoughts of self-destruction.
A second thought appears. Perhaps these young men who check you in are afraid of their own impulses. Or have they heard I occasionally write very spicy love-scenes and are afraid I will attact them. Finally a woman arrives and in all of two minutes I am ready to go to the waiting area.
Here, I find a chair. Every three minutes, the following announcement is heard.
DO NOT LEAVE YOUR BAGS OR PERSONAL EFFECTS ALONE FOR ANY TIME. IF YOU DO THEY MAY BE TAKEN AND OR DESTROYED.
So I clutch my purse and keep my eyes on my carry-on. I watch for my roommate who is meeting me at the airport. She is late but does arrive in time for boarding. We did miss the opportunity of trading our tickets for a first class seat on the noon plane plus a 4oo dollar voucher. The plane takes off and somewhere in the heavens I lose three hours but I don't worry because they will be returned when I come back.
We arrive in Las Vegas. That airport is big and spreadout. We walk a mile past slot machines to get a tram that takes us to another part of the airport where we walk a mile to get to the outside. There we find a cab to take us to the resort. Do not ask the price. I thought taxis in New York City were pricey but I learned a new truth. Once we arrived at the resort, we settled in and went to find lunch. I'll tell more tomorrow.
March 5 at 5 AM. I am not a morning person but I arise before the sun to leave for the shuttle to Newark with my carry-on bag and the monster purse I bought to carry stuff. No problem on the shuttle but I know it is coming. The dreaded security check. I have two titanium knees. I set of bells and whistles.
I arrive at the airport and get into the long line checking in. Amazes me how many people are fleeing the east coast, hopefully all for warmer climes. It was 17 degrees out and I was wearing my spring coat since warmer weather was promised for the return. I approach the gate, having shed my shoes and all my other stuff. "I'm going to set off the alarms," I said.
"Step ahead." The alarms go off. "Step in there. Someone will arrive to check you." I wait fifteen minutes. The guard smiles. "A woman must check you."
MY mind begins to click. Why a woman? I am old and the wand never touches your body. Perhaps my knees aren't titanium and are really a device to cause trouble. That is a dumb idea. I have no thoughts of self-destruction.
A second thought appears. Perhaps these young men who check you in are afraid of their own impulses. Or have they heard I occasionally write very spicy love-scenes and are afraid I will attact them. Finally a woman arrives and in all of two minutes I am ready to go to the waiting area.
Here, I find a chair. Every three minutes, the following announcement is heard.
DO NOT LEAVE YOUR BAGS OR PERSONAL EFFECTS ALONE FOR ANY TIME. IF YOU DO THEY MAY BE TAKEN AND OR DESTROYED.
So I clutch my purse and keep my eyes on my carry-on. I watch for my roommate who is meeting me at the airport. She is late but does arrive in time for boarding. We did miss the opportunity of trading our tickets for a first class seat on the noon plane plus a 4oo dollar voucher. The plane takes off and somewhere in the heavens I lose three hours but I don't worry because they will be returned when I come back.
We arrive in Las Vegas. That airport is big and spreadout. We walk a mile past slot machines to get a tram that takes us to another part of the airport where we walk a mile to get to the outside. There we find a cab to take us to the resort. Do not ask the price. I thought taxis in New York City were pricey but I learned a new truth. Once we arrived at the resort, we settled in and went to find lunch. I'll tell more tomorrow.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Interview with Eileen
I've known and admired Eileen Charbonneau's writing for a number of years. She's also one of the best critiquers in our group. Janet
For you, which comes first the characters or the plot?: Depends on the book, what visits me first!
2. How do you create your characters? This is a great mystery to me. Sometimes they start out as "based on"...someone I know, someone whose essence pops out of an image or chance encounter, but as the book progresses, each charater takes on a life of hisor her own, and becomes very unmanageable. Then, I have to creatively "listen!"
3. Do you plan ahead or go with the flow? Because I write mostly historical fiction, I do a lot of research. I think that's where I'm more methodical and disciplined. Plot and character are more flowing, and that's what keeps me interested in writing a book, and, I hope, will keep readers interested all the way through, too. I have tried mapping out every scene and plot point. I was left with a stack of index cards and I never wrote the book!
4. How much research do you do and how do you go about it? I start with general research...for overview I love well-written books written for young people. Then, if I realize something's going to play a big part, say, my heroine is a Quaker, or my hero is a traditional Navajo, then I find out everything I can about what that life is like. As I write I'm constantly going back to research to keep things real...like: how long did the A train take to get from Grand Central Station to Harlem in 1943, or where did Dolley Madison live after the White House was burned during the War of 1812?
5. How do you select goals and the reasons your characters what to accomplish these goals? Ah yes, this is the essence of conflict. I don't select goals, I let them come from the characters. Sometimes they're simple: like a handicapped man who just wants to be able to win the love of a woman he adores and provide for a family, other times they get twisted: like how a life that is based in honesty deals with a sworn duty to a life of espionage? For me, it's important that the goals be important and blocked and involve big ideas.
6. Tell us about your latest release. That would be RACHEL LeMOYNE, which is about a Choctaw woman who goes to Ireland with corn to donate to the Irish during An Gorta Mor...the Great Hunger. She brings home an Irish husband who is a renegade so they light out for the territories on the Oregon Trail in 1848. It was a Rita Finalist.
7. What's on your backlist? I've published nine novels, including 3 young adult novels set in the Hudson River Valley and Catskill Mountains and 3 adult novels set in California, Virginia, Mississippi, and Missouri. I'd like to live long enough to honor every state with a story!
8. What are you working on now? I'm revising the second in my World War II Navaho Codetalker series, WATCH OVER ME, and working on a Civil War romance set in Maryland.Thanks for your interest!
For you, which comes first the characters or the plot?: Depends on the book, what visits me first!
2. How do you create your characters? This is a great mystery to me. Sometimes they start out as "based on"...someone I know, someone whose essence pops out of an image or chance encounter, but as the book progresses, each charater takes on a life of hisor her own, and becomes very unmanageable. Then, I have to creatively "listen!"
3. Do you plan ahead or go with the flow? Because I write mostly historical fiction, I do a lot of research. I think that's where I'm more methodical and disciplined. Plot and character are more flowing, and that's what keeps me interested in writing a book, and, I hope, will keep readers interested all the way through, too. I have tried mapping out every scene and plot point. I was left with a stack of index cards and I never wrote the book!
4. How much research do you do and how do you go about it? I start with general research...for overview I love well-written books written for young people. Then, if I realize something's going to play a big part, say, my heroine is a Quaker, or my hero is a traditional Navajo, then I find out everything I can about what that life is like. As I write I'm constantly going back to research to keep things real...like: how long did the A train take to get from Grand Central Station to Harlem in 1943, or where did Dolley Madison live after the White House was burned during the War of 1812?
5. How do you select goals and the reasons your characters what to accomplish these goals? Ah yes, this is the essence of conflict. I don't select goals, I let them come from the characters. Sometimes they're simple: like a handicapped man who just wants to be able to win the love of a woman he adores and provide for a family, other times they get twisted: like how a life that is based in honesty deals with a sworn duty to a life of espionage? For me, it's important that the goals be important and blocked and involve big ideas.
6. Tell us about your latest release. That would be RACHEL LeMOYNE, which is about a Choctaw woman who goes to Ireland with corn to donate to the Irish during An Gorta Mor...the Great Hunger. She brings home an Irish husband who is a renegade so they light out for the territories on the Oregon Trail in 1848. It was a Rita Finalist.
7. What's on your backlist? I've published nine novels, including 3 young adult novels set in the Hudson River Valley and Catskill Mountains and 3 adult novels set in California, Virginia, Mississippi, and Missouri. I'd like to live long enough to honor every state with a story!
8. What are you working on now? I'm revising the second in my World War II Navaho Codetalker series, WATCH OVER ME, and working on a Civil War romance set in Maryland.Thanks for your interest!
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
The IWof contest
If you're searching for the answer, you're going to have to dig. The hint for The Temple of Fyre is to search in the villainess interviews.
For The Henge Betrayed -- Flight, you must look very far and find Astrology and Characters.
Lots of luck, Janet
For The Henge Betrayed -- Flight, you must look very far and find Astrology and Characters.
Lots of luck, Janet
Monday, December 1, 2008
Critique partner, Jenny
I've known Jenny since her first writing projects that she shared with HVRWA and the critique group. Her historicals are feel good stories and her paranormals to come are quite intense. Janet
. For you, which comes first the characters or the plot?
I’d have to say neither or, perhaps, both. I usually start with a ‘what if’ question or some fragmented scene. Each book is different. For one of my recent historical, HIGH PLAINS BRIDE, I came up with an opening page of dialogue and had to construct plot and characters from that. That book left me wondering who these people were and how they had gotten themselves in such an awful mess. My newest paranormal, DREAM STALKER (Silhouette Nocturne), came to me as a premise: What happens when a woman discovers that the terrifying creature from her nightmares is not a dream, but a vengeful spirit sent to reclaim her for the spirit world from which she escaped?
2. How do you create your characters?
I generally try to decide what is good and honorable about my hero and then what his flaw or insecurity might be. Then I find the woman who would be absolutely perfect for him, but also be most threatening to his flaw/insecurity, so as to put him under the most stress possible. Then I’m in business.
3. Do you plan ahead or go with the flow?
I do a lot of planning, plotting and scene outlining. But I’m not so detail oriented that I don’t allow for surprises and discoveries along the way. It reminds me of a road trip. I know the starting point, the major points of interest and my final destination, but I leave time to explore interesting or unexpected attractions.
4. How much research do you do and how do you go about it?
I often do a lot of research. I love to read history books and original journals, diaries and sources from the time period I am exploring. I also use the web to check facts and details. Sometimes just reading along in a history book, I might find an intriguing detail that sparks a story. That was the case for my story, TURNER’S WOMAN, from Harlequin Historicals. I discovered that an up-and-coming military man dropped out of the service and disappeared for a few years to be a mountain man and then returned to resume his career with great success. It was theorized that he may have been a spy/cartographer for the US Government, sent to Spanish California to find an overland route to the sea. Well, that was all I needed to have my imagination go into overdrive.
5. How do you select goals and the reasons your characters what to accomplish these goals?
The character’s goals grow naturally out of their backstory. I don’t force them into unnatural situations, but let them lead me into discovering why they do or don’t want a particular thing. It is fun, as the author, to figure out or unearth an entire psychological profile on a person that began with just a name and a vague impression.
6. Tell us about your latest release.
I’m not sure which story will be released next, but believe it might be DREAM STALKER, followed by the second book in the series, GHOST STALKER. The second story is about a shapeshifting wolf who escapes a vicious attack by ghosts only to be dropped into the hands of an enemy healer who might just as soon kill him as help him. Check out my website at www.jennakernan.com for exact release dates and excerpts.
7. What's on your backlist?
My back list is all western historical, which I will continue to write. I’d say my westerns are romantic adventures that take place mainly on the trail or in the mountains. My first three stories (WINTER WOMAN, TURNER’S WOMAN, THE TRAPPER) all feature scouts and trappers. My last release, OUTLAW BRIDE, begins with a jail break and then a mountain rescue.
8. What are you working on now?
I’m working on two projects now. The first is a western historical where a woman is forced to choose between the man she loves and saving her family’s home. It is set in Sacramento after the gold rush and my hero is a railroad tycoon with issues of trust. No release date on that one.
The second project is a short story for Nocturne Bites, which are about 50 pages and released initially as ebooks available from www.eHarlequin.com . The story is titled, SHADOW STALKER and it is about a bear researcher who is rescued from poachers by a shapeshifting grizzly bear.
Thanks for the interesting questions. Aspiring authors can always visit my favorites pages for articles on craft at www.jennakernan.com.
. For you, which comes first the characters or the plot?
I’d have to say neither or, perhaps, both. I usually start with a ‘what if’ question or some fragmented scene. Each book is different. For one of my recent historical, HIGH PLAINS BRIDE, I came up with an opening page of dialogue and had to construct plot and characters from that. That book left me wondering who these people were and how they had gotten themselves in such an awful mess. My newest paranormal, DREAM STALKER (Silhouette Nocturne), came to me as a premise: What happens when a woman discovers that the terrifying creature from her nightmares is not a dream, but a vengeful spirit sent to reclaim her for the spirit world from which she escaped?
2. How do you create your characters?
I generally try to decide what is good and honorable about my hero and then what his flaw or insecurity might be. Then I find the woman who would be absolutely perfect for him, but also be most threatening to his flaw/insecurity, so as to put him under the most stress possible. Then I’m in business.
3. Do you plan ahead or go with the flow?
I do a lot of planning, plotting and scene outlining. But I’m not so detail oriented that I don’t allow for surprises and discoveries along the way. It reminds me of a road trip. I know the starting point, the major points of interest and my final destination, but I leave time to explore interesting or unexpected attractions.
4. How much research do you do and how do you go about it?
I often do a lot of research. I love to read history books and original journals, diaries and sources from the time period I am exploring. I also use the web to check facts and details. Sometimes just reading along in a history book, I might find an intriguing detail that sparks a story. That was the case for my story, TURNER’S WOMAN, from Harlequin Historicals. I discovered that an up-and-coming military man dropped out of the service and disappeared for a few years to be a mountain man and then returned to resume his career with great success. It was theorized that he may have been a spy/cartographer for the US Government, sent to Spanish California to find an overland route to the sea. Well, that was all I needed to have my imagination go into overdrive.
5. How do you select goals and the reasons your characters what to accomplish these goals?
The character’s goals grow naturally out of their backstory. I don’t force them into unnatural situations, but let them lead me into discovering why they do or don’t want a particular thing. It is fun, as the author, to figure out or unearth an entire psychological profile on a person that began with just a name and a vague impression.
6. Tell us about your latest release.
I’m not sure which story will be released next, but believe it might be DREAM STALKER, followed by the second book in the series, GHOST STALKER. The second story is about a shapeshifting wolf who escapes a vicious attack by ghosts only to be dropped into the hands of an enemy healer who might just as soon kill him as help him. Check out my website at www.jennakernan.com for exact release dates and excerpts.
7. What's on your backlist?
My back list is all western historical, which I will continue to write. I’d say my westerns are romantic adventures that take place mainly on the trail or in the mountains. My first three stories (WINTER WOMAN, TURNER’S WOMAN, THE TRAPPER) all feature scouts and trappers. My last release, OUTLAW BRIDE, begins with a jail break and then a mountain rescue.
8. What are you working on now?
I’m working on two projects now. The first is a western historical where a woman is forced to choose between the man she loves and saving her family’s home. It is set in Sacramento after the gold rush and my hero is a railroad tycoon with issues of trust. No release date on that one.
The second project is a short story for Nocturne Bites, which are about 50 pages and released initially as ebooks available from www.eHarlequin.com . The story is titled, SHADOW STALKER and it is about a bear researcher who is rescued from poachers by a shapeshifting grizzly bear.
Thanks for the interesting questions. Aspiring authors can always visit my favorites pages for articles on craft at www.jennakernan.com.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Critique partner again
I've known Kathy for a long time and remember her first book and the revisions. We had a fun time with finding all the It was starts. She's a great writer and I'm eagerly waiting her return to the States. We've been through both joy and sadness together. Janet
1. For you, which comes first the characters or the plot?
The Characters definately come first. I need to know then before I can decide what kind of situations I can put them into.
2. How do you create your characters?
They are composits of people I have met, or someone's who story I heard. Once I figure out one character, the second one is developed by pretty much choosing a person whose goals are at odds with the fisrt.
3. Do you plan ahead or go with the flow?
I do not write a full synopsis or outline, but I do have a general idea of where the story is going before I begin. Often it takes off on its own, despite some planning but for the most part they end up where I expect.
4. How much research do you do and how do you go about it?
I do as much research as is necessay to make the characters, setting, and plot believable. Since I write contemporary romance and tend to set my stories in placec I am familiar with, I'd probably say I do less research that a historical writer, but I still fact check what I write about real places, legal matters, police matters or medical referances.
5. How do you select goals and the reasons your characters what to accomplish these goals?
It usually springs out of character's past. The more complex the character's past, the more motivated they are towards their goals, and the strong the conflict with anyone who stands in their way.
6. Tell us about your latest release.
"Miuphy's Law" is a romantic suspense. A sometimes comical road trip of two people who must rely on each other, despite a mutual distrust, to avoid being found by a villinous murderer who wants to stop them form returning to America to testify against him.
7. What's on your backlist?
Check my wesite at www.katattalla.com
8. What are you working on now?
I am revising my forst release, Homeward Bound for re-release and then it is back to my romantic suspense, "China Blue"
1. For you, which comes first the characters or the plot?
The Characters definately come first. I need to know then before I can decide what kind of situations I can put them into.
2. How do you create your characters?
They are composits of people I have met, or someone's who story I heard. Once I figure out one character, the second one is developed by pretty much choosing a person whose goals are at odds with the fisrt.
3. Do you plan ahead or go with the flow?
I do not write a full synopsis or outline, but I do have a general idea of where the story is going before I begin. Often it takes off on its own, despite some planning but for the most part they end up where I expect.
4. How much research do you do and how do you go about it?
I do as much research as is necessay to make the characters, setting, and plot believable. Since I write contemporary romance and tend to set my stories in placec I am familiar with, I'd probably say I do less research that a historical writer, but I still fact check what I write about real places, legal matters, police matters or medical referances.
5. How do you select goals and the reasons your characters what to accomplish these goals?
It usually springs out of character's past. The more complex the character's past, the more motivated they are towards their goals, and the strong the conflict with anyone who stands in their way.
6. Tell us about your latest release.
"Miuphy's Law" is a romantic suspense. A sometimes comical road trip of two people who must rely on each other, despite a mutual distrust, to avoid being found by a villinous murderer who wants to stop them form returning to America to testify against him.
7. What's on your backlist?
Check my wesite at www.katattalla.com
8. What are you working on now?
I am revising my forst release, Homeward Bound for re-release and then it is back to my romantic suspense, "China Blue"
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Another critique partner -- Allison
Allison is the newest of my critique partners and she always has good insights into what's right and wrong with what I've written.
1. For you, which comes first the characters or the plot? Usually, it's the plot: a situation or circumstance will pop into my head. I'll think "What if..."?" and then I'll create the characters to develop that situation into a full-blown story.
2. How do you create your characters? I've used character charts, I've used astrology signs, and I've sometimes based my characters on people I know. I don't have any one way I create characters. Usually I have a rough idea of who they are, and they develop themselves for me as the story goes along.
3. Do you plan ahead or go with the flow? Oh, I'm a big planner. I usually have a pretty specific outline before I begin a story. I can't start without having a general idea of the major conflicts and the black moment.
4. How much research do you do and how do you go about it? Since I write contemporary romance, I don't usually have to do a lot of research. Anything I need to look up, I do so on the Internet.
5. How do you select goals and the reasons your characters what to accomplish these goals? Sometimes I base my characters' goals and motivations on actual people and situations I've known; sometimes I draw them from things I read about in the news. It's amazing, the things that actually happen to people!
6. Tell us about your latest release. One Night in Memphis is a "twenty-four hour" romance that takes place over a single day and night. The hero and heroine meet up in the blues clubs of Beale Street, but she's trying to outrun a violent ex-boyfriend, and which means neither of them is safe. The reviewer from Literary Nymphs gave the book 5 Nymphs and commented, "Boniface conveys some real danger and tension in this fast-paced tale, but shows astonishing and realistic growth in her characters. This is an absorbing novel, nearly impossible to put down. It has coincidence, a car chase, corruption and cool piano music..."
7. What's on your backlist? Readers can check out my first twenty-four hour novel, One Night in Boston, about college sweethearts who meet up ten years after they broke up, or Lost in Paradise, a contemporary romance about a woman with the right name and the right connections who leaves entire her life behind and discovers a new life and love by moving to a place where no one knows who she is.
8. What are you working on now? I'm finishing up a third twenty-four hour novel, One Night in Napa, and also doing revisions on another contemporary novel, Summer's Song, about a woman who returns to her hometown after 10 years away and discovers not only a new love but old ghosts.
Thanks, Janet - this was fun!
1. For you, which comes first the characters or the plot? Usually, it's the plot: a situation or circumstance will pop into my head. I'll think "What if..."?" and then I'll create the characters to develop that situation into a full-blown story.
2. How do you create your characters? I've used character charts, I've used astrology signs, and I've sometimes based my characters on people I know. I don't have any one way I create characters. Usually I have a rough idea of who they are, and they develop themselves for me as the story goes along.
3. Do you plan ahead or go with the flow? Oh, I'm a big planner. I usually have a pretty specific outline before I begin a story. I can't start without having a general idea of the major conflicts and the black moment.
4. How much research do you do and how do you go about it? Since I write contemporary romance, I don't usually have to do a lot of research. Anything I need to look up, I do so on the Internet.
5. How do you select goals and the reasons your characters what to accomplish these goals? Sometimes I base my characters' goals and motivations on actual people and situations I've known; sometimes I draw them from things I read about in the news. It's amazing, the things that actually happen to people!
6. Tell us about your latest release. One Night in Memphis is a "twenty-four hour" romance that takes place over a single day and night. The hero and heroine meet up in the blues clubs of Beale Street, but she's trying to outrun a violent ex-boyfriend, and which means neither of them is safe. The reviewer from Literary Nymphs gave the book 5 Nymphs and commented, "Boniface conveys some real danger and tension in this fast-paced tale, but shows astonishing and realistic growth in her characters. This is an absorbing novel, nearly impossible to put down. It has coincidence, a car chase, corruption and cool piano music..."
7. What's on your backlist? Readers can check out my first twenty-four hour novel, One Night in Boston, about college sweethearts who meet up ten years after they broke up, or Lost in Paradise, a contemporary romance about a woman with the right name and the right connections who leaves entire her life behind and discovers a new life and love by moving to a place where no one knows who she is.
8. What are you working on now? I'm finishing up a third twenty-four hour novel, One Night in Napa, and also doing revisions on another contemporary novel, Summer's Song, about a woman who returns to her hometown after 10 years away and discovers not only a new love but old ghosts.
Thanks, Janet - this was fun!
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Interview with Carly Phillips
I've known Carly for a long time and under another name. I've watched her career blossom and her talent grow from the very beginning. Here's her interview.
1. For you, which comes first the characters or the plot?Always, always, characters come first. For me the characters must have life and personality before the plot can take shape. Who the heroine is, who the hero is, how their conflicts mesh together, all of this is of utmost importance. The plot is a means to carry the romance through the book as opposed to more suspense/mystery writers whose plot is central.
2. How do you create your characters?From my heart. Seriously, I have to feel the characters come alive inside me. For example I am working on Lucky Break right now and in the first seventy-five pages, I realized my heroine was flat. The character didn't jump off the page. The plot was there, the heroine's history, background, etc. After reading my critique partner, Janelle Denison's work, it finally dawned on me what MY heroine was missing - PERSONALITY. As a result, i had to go back to the drawing board and ask myself, who is she? How would someone who was raised by parents more concerned with humanitarian issues than their children, who had to clean up her younger sister's messes, who would SHE become? This taught me that you prepare all you want with a character - I gave her everything in her background, conflict, etc. as I always do, and yet it still wasn't enough. I am now in the process of going back to the drawing board and weaving my new heroine into those first 75 pages. That said, my basic process is the same: I sit down with my plotting group (there are four of us) and we tape our sessions, building character first, then plot, then story.
3. Do you plan ahead or go with the flow?I go with the flow. This inevitably leads me to have to go back to the beginning often, and weave things back in. Over the years, I've learned to plot more heavily with my plotting group (www.plotmonkeys.com), and plan ahead and then I let the characters tell the story. If I don't follow the plan exactly that's fine, but I write faster and easier with a road map of where to head next. Usually it's transitions that hang me up - how do I get from point A to point B. The easier things are sometimes the hardest!
4. How much research do you do and how do you go about it?Not enough and that's honest. I prefer to do my research over the Internet or by asking questions of people I already know. I'm not someone who goes deep into areas other than character, so it's easier for me. I do rely on Google. Google is my friend!
5. How do you select goals and the reasons your characters what to accomplish these goals?The goals are usually set by the characters personality first, and the plot second. If I don't have a heavy secondary storyline, the goals must drive the characters more heavily so there is meat to the story. It really depends.
6. Tell us about your latest release.
Three sexy heroes and a centuries old curse defines the series that's out now. I call it my "LUCKY" series, starting with LUCKY CHARM (out now); LUCKY BREAK 6/09 and LUCKY STREAK 10/09/. In between, SECRET FANTASY is being reissued in January 2009. All my books are listed on my website at www.carlyphillips.com.
7. What's on your backlist?Luckily for me, Harlequin has been releasing my backlist in January of each year, so most books are available. My backlist can be found here: http://www.carlyphillips.com/books.php and there is also a printable booklist link on this page. As I said, SECRET FANTASY is out in January 2009, which means my entire backlist as Carly Phillips will have been reissued at least once!
8. What are you working on now?LUCKY BREAK (10/09) which is giving me fits as I had to search for my heroine's personality, but hopefully it's been located and all will be well. Soon! Then it's on to planning a brand new series, and I'm blank at the moment, so I can't wait to see what I come up with!
1. For you, which comes first the characters or the plot?Always, always, characters come first. For me the characters must have life and personality before the plot can take shape. Who the heroine is, who the hero is, how their conflicts mesh together, all of this is of utmost importance. The plot is a means to carry the romance through the book as opposed to more suspense/mystery writers whose plot is central.
2. How do you create your characters?From my heart. Seriously, I have to feel the characters come alive inside me. For example I am working on Lucky Break right now and in the first seventy-five pages, I realized my heroine was flat. The character didn't jump off the page. The plot was there, the heroine's history, background, etc. After reading my critique partner, Janelle Denison's work, it finally dawned on me what MY heroine was missing - PERSONALITY. As a result, i had to go back to the drawing board and ask myself, who is she? How would someone who was raised by parents more concerned with humanitarian issues than their children, who had to clean up her younger sister's messes, who would SHE become? This taught me that you prepare all you want with a character - I gave her everything in her background, conflict, etc. as I always do, and yet it still wasn't enough. I am now in the process of going back to the drawing board and weaving my new heroine into those first 75 pages. That said, my basic process is the same: I sit down with my plotting group (there are four of us) and we tape our sessions, building character first, then plot, then story.
3. Do you plan ahead or go with the flow?I go with the flow. This inevitably leads me to have to go back to the beginning often, and weave things back in. Over the years, I've learned to plot more heavily with my plotting group (www.plotmonkeys.com), and plan ahead and then I let the characters tell the story. If I don't follow the plan exactly that's fine, but I write faster and easier with a road map of where to head next. Usually it's transitions that hang me up - how do I get from point A to point B. The easier things are sometimes the hardest!
4. How much research do you do and how do you go about it?Not enough and that's honest. I prefer to do my research over the Internet or by asking questions of people I already know. I'm not someone who goes deep into areas other than character, so it's easier for me. I do rely on Google. Google is my friend!
5. How do you select goals and the reasons your characters what to accomplish these goals?The goals are usually set by the characters personality first, and the plot second. If I don't have a heavy secondary storyline, the goals must drive the characters more heavily so there is meat to the story. It really depends.
6. Tell us about your latest release.
Three sexy heroes and a centuries old curse defines the series that's out now. I call it my "LUCKY" series, starting with LUCKY CHARM (out now); LUCKY BREAK 6/09 and LUCKY STREAK 10/09/. In between, SECRET FANTASY is being reissued in January 2009. All my books are listed on my website at www.carlyphillips.com.
7. What's on your backlist?Luckily for me, Harlequin has been releasing my backlist in January of each year, so most books are available. My backlist can be found here: http://www.carlyphillips.com/books.php and there is also a printable booklist link on this page. As I said, SECRET FANTASY is out in January 2009, which means my entire backlist as Carly Phillips will have been reissued at least once!
8. What are you working on now?LUCKY BREAK (10/09) which is giving me fits as I had to search for my heroine's personality, but hopefully it's been located and all will be well. Soon! Then it's on to planning a brand new series, and I'm blank at the moment, so I can't wait to see what I come up with!
Interviews with former and current critique partners
Thanksgiving approaches and brings one thoughts of things they are thankful for. Among these are my former and current critique partners. In the next few days I'll be posting interviews with soem who have helped me on my way to publication and some who have gained from my help
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