Thusday Writing Quote ~ Megan Mayhew-Bergman

I’m not a reader who needs to “like” a protagonist—what I’m more drawn to as an adult reader is complexity, awareness, and emotional honesty, energy on the page. ~ Megan Mayhew-Bergman

Tuesday Teaser/Opening ~ Mind Games

Urban fantasy is one of my favorite genres, especially when the idea behind it has a spark of originality. Picture a group of superheroes whose superpowers are based on their neurosis and you've got a glimpse of the world Carolyn Crane creates in Mind Games.


Blurb:
JUSTINE KNOWS SHE’S GOING TO DIE. ANY SECOND NOW.

Justine Jones has a secret. A hardcore hypochondriac, she’s convinced a blood vessel is about to burst in her brain. Then, out of the blue, a startlingly handsome man named Packard peers into Justine’s soul and invites her to join his private crime-fighting team. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime deal. With a little of Packard’s hands-on training, Justine can weaponize her neurosis, turning it outward on Midcity’s worst criminals, and finally get the freedom from fear she’s always craved. End of problem.

Or is it? In Midcity, a dashing police chief is fighting a unique breed of outlaw with more than human powers. And while Justine’s first missions, including one against a nymphomaniac husband-killer, are thrilling successes, there is more to Packard than meets the eye. Soon, while battling her attraction to two very different men, Justine is plunging deeper into a world of wizardry, eroticism, and cosmic secrets. With Packard’s help, Justine has freed herself from her madness—only to discover a reality more frightening than anyone’s worst fears.

Opening:
  From where we sit I have the perfect view of Shady Ben Foley, dining on the other side of the lavishly decorated Mongolian restaurant. He's with an innocent looking young couple--a pretty girl with dark ringlets and a wholesome blond country-boy fellow. Do they not get what he is?
  The last time I saw Foley was maybe fifteen years ago—I was a teen and he was a middle-aged man in drawstring pant, mowing his lawn and ripping off my family. He's grown paler and thicker, but I recognized his sharp little nose and peering eyes the instant I saw him out on the street.

Teaser:
I'm medium pretty, and this is not a look you give a medium pretty girl. It's almost as if he beholds me, full of awe—as if there's something miraculous about my appearance. What does he see? I've heard of people looking beatific in their last moments of life—is that it?

Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: Grab your current readOpen to a random pageShare two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! To see what others are sharing on the Teaser Tuesdays, check the comments at:: http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/ 






Share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you are reading. Here's the link: Bibliophile By The Sea

Nuggets for February

Time for the link round-up again.

Need proper language for a police character?
http://www.leelofland.com/wordpress/a-crime-writers-mini-dictionary-a-through-d/
http://www.leelofland.com/wordpress/a-crime-writers-mini-dictionary-e-through-f/
http://www.leelofland.com/wordpress/crime-writers-dictionary-from-gabaloo-to-hydrant-humper/
http://www.leelofland.com/wordpress/crime-writers-dictionary-from-ice-to-justifiable-homicide/
http://www.leelofland.com/wordpress/crime-writers-dictionary-from-ka-to-mugshot/ 

Here's an interesting post on Impact Characters:
http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/2014/08/impact-character-2.html

A great post about character arcs and theme:
http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/2014/01/minor-characters-help-discover-theme.html

This post discusses ways to open short science fiction stories, but the principles apply to all fiction.
http://io9.com/how-to-pick-a-killer-opening-for-your-science-fiction-s-1652443815

Some people have a knack for coming up with titles. I'm not one of them. If you're not either, maybe this will help.
http://nailyournovel.wordpress.com/2014/11/16/i-name-this-book-tips-for-choosing-a-good-title/
Here's another:
http://www.superheronation.com/2008/07/16/titling-your-novel/ 

In Honor of the Academy Awards

Ready for the Academy Awards? What? You haven't seen all the movies nominated for best picture? Well, this will solve that problem.



Okay. Now you're ready.

Thursday Writing Quote ~ Robert Towne

A movie, I think, is really only four or five moments between two people; the rest of it exists to give those moments their impact and resonance. The script exists for that. Everything does. - Robert Towne

Tuesday Teaser/Opening ~ Soldier's Heart

Some non-fiction is as good as most fiction. Soldier's Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point by Elizabeth D. Samet appears to be one of those books for me.

Blurb:

Elizabeth D. Samet and her students learned to romanticize the army "from the stories of their fathers and from the movies." For Samet, it was the old World War II movies she used to watch on TV, while her students grew up on Braveheart and Saving Private Ryan. Unlike their teacher, however, these students, cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point, have decided to turn make-believe into real life.

West Point is a world away from Yale, where Samet attended graduate school and where nothing sufficiently prepared her for teaching literature to young men and women who were training to fight a war. Intimate and poignant, Soldier's Heart chronicles the various tensions inherent in that life as well as the ways in which war has transformed Samet's relationship to literature. Fighting in Iraq, Samet's former students share what books and movies mean to them--the poetry of Wallace Stevens, the fiction of Virginia Woolf and J. M. Coetzee, the epics of Homer, or the films of James Cagney. Their letters in turn prompt Samet to wonder exactly what she owes to cadets in the classroom.

Samet arrived at West Point before September 11, 2001, and has seen the academy change dramatically. In Soldier's Heart, she reads this transformation through her own experiences and those of her students. Forcefully examining what it means to be a civilian teaching literature at a military academy, Samet also considers the role of women in the army, the dangerous tides of religious and political zeal roiling the country, the uses of the call to patriotism, and the cult of sacrifice she believes is currently paralyzing national debate. Ultimately, Samet offers an honest and original reflection on the relationship between art and life.

Opening: (from the Prologue)
SHAKESPEARE 3, THIS IS SHAKESPEARE 6--OVER

I had forgotten all about the radio in my hand. I was so startled when it crackled to life I nearly dropped it.

SHAKESPEARE 3, THIS IS SHAKESPEARE 6--OVER
SHAKESPEARE 6, THIS IS SHAKESPEARE 3--OVER
SHAKESPEARE 3, GIVE ME A SITREP WHEN YOU HAVE THE ENEMY IN SIGHT--OVER
WILCO--OUT

I have said "out" when I should have said "over." I have taken far too long to figure out that "SITREP" means situation report. Somewhere this might be fatal. Here the amused voice on the other end, that of my colleague Dan, grumbles that I'm not allowed to end a transmission I didn't start.

YOU CAN'T SAY OUT, SHAKESPEARE 3. ONLY I CAN SAY OUT.
OOPS.

Teaser:
Cadets also learn early on the ironic potential of hooah and other ritual expressions. Those ubiquitous "Yes, ma'ams" that seem to the outsider like hypercourtesy can in truth mean anything from "Thank you, ma'am, right away" to "F*ck you, ma'am, and the horse you rode in on." I've heard both and a great deal in between. The differences are as subtle as Mandarin tones.

Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: Grab your current readOpen to a random pageShare two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! To see what others are sharing on the Teaser Tuesdays, check the comments at:: http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/ 






Share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you are reading. Here's the link: Bibliophile By The Sea

8 Sentence Sunday ~ Liar, Liar, Tabloid Writier ~ Suicide Watch

Still plugging away on Liar, Liar, Tabloid Writer, but I'm so close to the finish line I can actually see it. Of course, there are still rewrites to be done, but that's the fun part. You can see other excerpts of this story here.

This takes place on Cleo's first day at her new job as a writer for a tabloid. In the first line, she's just been busted with her head on her desk, having a pity party that circumstances have derailed her once bright and shiny career and brought her to this.

EXCERPT:
   “Contemplating suicide already?”
   Cleo jumped upright so hard that her chair nearly tipped over backwards. She grabbed the desktop with both hands to keep herself from going ass over teakettle. When she was sure she was no longer in danger of showing the world the color of her thong underwear, she discovered that, sitting in her chair, her eyes were level with Alec’s crotch.
   He apparently found uncoordinated women a turn on, because he either had a hard-on that would choke a giraffe or he stuffed his pants with rolled up socks. Given their environment, her money was on the socks.
   She forced her gaze up and found herself staring into his dark eyes. He looked as if he expected her to reach into her handbag, pull out a gun, and shoot herself in the head. “No, I’m not suicidal. Not yet anyway.”

 Intrigued at all?

And as a special treat, this is how I see Alec:

To read more 8 Sentence Sunday samples from talented writers, go here.

Happy Valentine's Day

For Valentines Day, I want to share this hysterical post about How To Tell If You Are In A Regency Romance Novel. The comments are just as fun as the post.

Thursday Writing Quotes ~ George R R Martin

I don’t write the chapters in the order that you read them. I do switch. I’ll get in a Tyrion groove, where I’ll write four or five Tyrion chapters, and I hit a stopping point or something like that. Or I’ll realize that I’m way ahead on Tyrion, and I gotta catch up with the other characters. And I’ll go back and switch to Arya or Sansa or something like that. It’s always difficult switching gears, because the characters have very different voices and very different ways of thinking about the world. I’ll be writing up a storm and doing pages every day, and the minute I switch to a different character, that first day it’s like, “Oh, God, I have to read all these characters again. I have Sansa sounding like Tyrion, and that’s not good.” I have to read more of her chapters and immerse myself in Sansa. ~ George R R Martin

Tuesday Teaser/Opening ~ Death, Taxes, and a French Manicure

Death, Taxes, and a French Manicure: A Tara Holloway Novel by Diane Kelly reminds me of the Stephanie Plum series. Back in the days when I still loved it. The main character has that same kind of voice that makes me laugh out loud. Hopefully, Diane Kelly won't beat this series into the ground like Janet Evanovitch did.

Blurb:
Tara Holloway has got your number. A special agent on the IRS’s payroll, she’s dead-set on making sure that money crimes don’t pay…

Tax cheats, beware: The Treasury Department’s Criminal Investigations Division has a new special agent on its payroll. A recovering tomboy with a head for numbers, Tara’s fast becoming the Annie Oakley of the IRS—kicking ass, taking social security numbers, and keeping the world safe for honest taxpayers. Or else.

Tara’s latest mission finds her in hot pursuit of ice-cream vendor Joseph “Joe Cool” Cullen. Along with frozen treats he’s selling narcotics—and failing to report his ill-gotten gains on his tax returns. Over Tara’s dead body. Then there’s Michael Gryder, who appears to be operating a Ponzi scheme…with banker Stan Shelton…whose lake house is being landscaped by Brett Ellington…who happens to be dating Tara. If following that money trail isn’t tough enough, now Tara must face a new conundrum: Should she invest her trust in Brett—or put him behind bars? New love always comes at a cost but justice? Priceless.

Opening:
When I was nine, I formed a Silly Putty pecker for my Ken doll, knowing he'd have no chance of fulfilling Barbie's needs given the permanent state of erectile dysfunction with which the toy designers at Mattel had cursed him. I knew a little more about sex than most girls, what with growing up in the country and all. The first time I saw our neighbor's Black Angus bull mount an unsuspecting heifer, my two older brothers explained it all to me.

Teaser:
Brett's eyes roamed over me, sizing me up. "So if I don't get my assets filed on time, would you come after me?"
"Yep." My gaze locked on his for a moment, then I let my eyes roam up and down his body in return. "I might even seize your assets."

Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: Grab your current readOpen to a random pageShare two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! To see what others are sharing on the Teaser Tuesdays, check the comments at:: http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/ 






Share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you are reading. Here's the link: Bibliophile By The Sea

The Anti-hero

Thursday Writing Quote ~ George R R Martin

I don’t like the strictly objective viewpoint [in which all of the characters' actions are described in the third person, but we never hear what any of them are thinking.] Which is much more of a cinematic technique. Something written in third person objective is what the camera sees. Because unless you’re doing a voiceover, which is tremendously clumsy, you can’t hear the ideas of characters. For that, we depend on subtle clues that the directors put in and that the actors supply. I can actually write, “‘Yes you can trust me,’ he lied.” ~ George R R Martin

Tuesday Teaser/Opening ~ Beast in the Garden

Like my obsession with reading about fighting fires, I've gotten hooked on books about cougars. The Beast in the Garden: A Modern Parable of Man and Nature by David Baron doesn't disappoint. It has all the drama and tension of any novel. I think I may have a fetish for what one might call Natural Disaster porn.

Blurb:
The true tale of an Edenic Rocky Mountain town and what transpired when a predatory species returned to its ancestral home.

When, in the late 1980s, residents of Boulder, Colorado, suddenly began to see mountain lions in their yards, it became clear that the cats had repopulated the land after decades of persecution. Here, in a riveting environmental fable that recalls Peter Benchley's thriller Jaws, journalist David Baron traces the history of the mountain lion and chronicles Boulder's effort to coexist with its new neighbors. A parable for our times, The Beast in the Garden is a scientific detective story and a real-life drama, a tragic tale of the struggle between two highly evolved predators: man and beast.

Opening: (Prologue)
January 16, 1991
The Colorado sun burned through a mantle of winter gloom, dappling the rocks, the trees, the snow with a warm glow, giving an air of spring to the January hillside. Ponderosa pines, their needles carpeting the ground, shimmered in the silvery light beside a town that owed its existence to gold. The forest lay open, trees interspersed with grasses and shrubs that could tolerate the heat and low moisture of the south-facing slope, vegetation that provided excellent cover for a creature in hiding.

Teaser: (Just for perspective, the woman has been chased up a tree by two mountain lions.)
She snapped a dead limb from the trunk and broke off its smaller branches, fashioning a primitive spear, then thrust the weapon downward with both hands as if harpooning the cat. "F*ck you!" she screamed as she jabbed her tormentor. The cat hissed and batted the stick with its paws. "F*ck you!" she yelled again. The lion backed down.

Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: Grab your current readOpen to a random pageShare two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! To see what others are sharing on the Teaser Tuesdays, check the comments at:: http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/ 






Share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you are reading. Here's the link: Bibliophile By The Sea

Opening with Dialog

I was recently involved in a discussion about whether or not the "rule" about not opening a novel with dialog was a good rule or one of those urban myths of writing that you figure out is really aimed at newbie writers because they don't have the skills yet to do it well. My position is that you can do it as long as you do it well, but someone in the group said that published writers don't do it and they must know more than the rest of us. His mind was firmly made up, but I was sure he was wrong, so I set out to prove that established, selling authors do indeed start novels with dialog when they deem it appropriate. Here are the highlights of my research.

   "Kiss me, babe."
   "No, really." Beneath the light of a sixty-watt bulb on her porch, Adele Harris placed a hand on the chest of her latest date. "I've had enough excitement for one night."

    ~ Not Another Bad Date (chapter 1)by Rachel Gibson, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author 

"From now on, Blakestone, you'll just have to watch her like a bloody hawk." 
    ~ Marry the Man Today by Linda Needham, 1995 Romance Writers of America's Golden Heart winner

 
"Brett Rensselaer, you are a ruthless bastard."
   ~ Spy Sinker by Len Deighton, author of numerous best selling spy novels

"Who?" said the man occupying my new apartment.
"Tres Navarre," I said.
I pressed the lease agreement against the screen door again so he could see it.
  ~ From Big Red Tequila by Rick Riordan, #1 New York Times bestselling author and winner of the top three national awards in the mystery genre - the Edgar, the Anthony and the Shamus
 

"I'll race you to the corner!" Annemarie adjusted the thick leather pack on her back so that her schoolbooks balanced evenly. "Ready?" She looked at her best friend.
~  From Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, Newberry Medal winner


"Are we almost there?" Jennifer asked for what must have been the hundredth time.
  ~ From The Wizard's Map by Jane Yolen, author of more than 170 books, winner of numerous awards, and president of the Science Fiction Writers of America from 1986 to 1988


"I've never known anyone who stood up for her own divorce before," Tina Savage told her sister. "What's it feel like?"
  ~  from  Getting Rid Of Bradley by Jennifer Crusie, New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher's Weekly bestseller and a two-time Rita award winner


"To be born again," sang Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heavens, "first you have to die."
   ~ from The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, whose many awards include the European Union's Aristeion Prize for Literature. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres. His 1993, Midnight's Children was judged to be the 'Booker of Bookers', the best novel to have won the Booker Prize in its first 25 years. In June 2007, he received a knighthood in the Queen's Birthday Honours.


"Take my camel, dear," said my Aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass.
   ~ from Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay, who won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize with this novel.



"When your mama was the geek, my dreamlets," Papa would say, "she made the nipping off of noggins such a crystal mystery that the hens themselves yearned toward her, waltzing around her, hypnotized with longing."
   ~ from Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. This novel was a finalist for the National Book Award



"What do you mean you're not interested?"
  ~ from Tuesday the Rabbi Saw Red by Harry Kemelman, author of eleven popular mystery novels

 

“Oh! Oh, Jesus! Gross!”
“What, Mary, what?”
“Didn’t you see it?”
“See what?”
  ~ from Desperation by Stephen King (do I really need to tell you who he is?)


'Oh my God!' my friend Arnie Cunningham cried out suddenly.
   ~ from Christine by Stephen King (Oh, all right, I'll give you his credentials.) Author of more than fifty NYT best sellers, he is also the recipient of the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters


"We should start back," Gared urged as the woods began to grow dark around them.
   ~ from A Game of Thrones by George R R Martin, another author who shouldn't need introduction given that his series is being made into a cable series


"Whatever your gravity is when you get to the door, remember -- the enemy's gate is down. If you step through your own door like you're out for a stroll, you're a big target and you deserve to get hit. With more than a flasher."
   ~ from Ender's Game by Orson Card Scott, whose work has won multiple awards, including back-to-back wins of the Hugo and the Nebula Awards-the only author to have done so in consecutive years.



"Planning on jumping? I wouldn't. Blood's hell to get out of silk."
~ from Manhunting by Jennifer Crusie, author of more than twenty NYT best selling books.



"Not a pretty way to die, Alexandra."
~ from Terminal City (Alex Cooper Book 16) by Linda Fairstein, author of more than a dozen international bestsellers







So there's what I've found. Do you have any examples to add to the list?