Thursday Writing Quote ~ George R R Martin

I hate outlines. I have a broad sense of where the story is going; I know the end, I know the end of the principal characters, and I know the major turning points and events from the books, the climaxes for each book, but I don’t necessarily know each twist and turn along the way. That’s something I discover in the course of writing and that’s what makes writing enjoyable. I think if I outlined comprehensively and stuck to the outline the actual writing would be boring. ~ George R R Martin

And now available for pre-order, Fire & Ice for children (grade 3-5). In case you want to pass on your addiction to your children. Just click on the picture to order from Amazon.

Tuesday Teaser - The Calling

Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: Grab your current read. Open 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!

I like paranormal romance but I do get tired of vampires and were-critters (unless they're done with originality and style). The Calling by Ashley Lynn Willis is different because it's based on different mythology. (And happily it's currently priced at .99 so it's a bargain read.)

The Blurb:
Mandy Hardy lost more than a breast to cancer; she lost her fiancé when he dumped her a week before her mastectomy. Her ego bruised and her self-esteem battered, Mandy’s sure she’ll never fall in love again.

Justin Seward is a headstrong Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer with a heart of gold and the supernatural ability to command the seas. He had to hide his feelings while Mandy was engaged to his best friend. Now that she’s free, he’s vowed to make her his.

Together, they may hold the key to each other’s salvation. But when Justin’s past catches up with him, and Mandy’s ex-fiancé wants vengeance, they realize they might not live long enough for happily ever after.

My Teaser:
If he so much as touched her right now, she'd turn into a giggling puddle of female hormones. She cleared her throat.

You'll find links to more Tuesday Teasers here.

What are you reading today?

Human Heros

Some time back, one of my critique buddies offered up the first draft of her story. By chapter two, I was hating her hero. Not because he was an ass. I'd have liked him better if he had been. No, I hated him because he was too good, too noble, too self-sacrificing, too calm in the face of adversity. In short, too fricking holier-than-I. Yes, I hate him because he a better person than I am. 

It was a revelation.

This goody-two-shoes had a suicidal mother in a sanitarium that he'd been visiting regularly for years. Did he ever think "Life would be so much easier if one of her suicide attempts succeeded?" No. The closest he came was to wonder if they should have let her die when she tried it, which came across as noble because his concern was for her suffering. I resented him for being so much of a better person than I suspect I would be. I wanted him to be more like me.

As an author, I think it's wiser to make the hero's responses to adversity mirror the readers' weaknesses. It improves the readers' ability to relate to the hero. It also gives the author the opportunity to torment the hero with guilt for having such base, selfish thoughts—another point we would share with him.

Have you ever hated a character because they were too good?