Friday Field Trip - Finishing the Remodel

Don't forget the new contest where everyone wins. Click the contest tab above.

Since no one stepped up with pretty pictures to share, you're getting some of the final steps of our remodel project today. There were a lot of compromises, but that's going to be the topic of another blog post, so for now, some more of the 'finishing touches' (far from finished!) on the basement and a few shots of the master bath upstairs.

We planned to put one bookshelf on either side of the entertainment center. However, I ordered them without thinking about actual dimensions. I was going by the ones in my office, which said, "five shelves" just like these did.



However, they were much taller than the ones in my office, and I never thought to look up -- there's a bulkhead in the ceiling for the duct work. Hey, I'm short. Who thinks about ceiling height. I don't have to duck.



So, we had to move things around to make room for the second unit.

POV Q&A

February might be the shortest month, but in my family, it was always a busy one. Not only did we have Washinton's Birthday and Lincoln's Birthday (now combined into President's Day), but there's Groundhog Day (if you're a reader of this blog, you'll know why that's something I celebrate), Valentine's Day, my mom's birthday, two cousins' birthdays (one is 6 days older than I am, the other is exactly 5 year younger), and my birthday.

To celebrate all these occasions, I'm having a "non-contest" this month. Everyone can win. All you need to do is click the "Contest" tab above for your prize.

And now, back to writing.

Some POV exercises

Looking over some of yesterday's comments, there were a couple that mentioned authors re-telling the same scene from each character's point of view. I think this can be used as a plot device, especially if there's a very different perception of what happened in the scene, but as mentioned yesterday, it might not work for everyone.

I wrote a short vignette of the same scene from two points of view. It ended up being my first published piece. (If you haven't read "Words", it's free from Smashwords, which includes it's distribution affiliates, as well as All Romance eBooks. It started because I couldn't decide which POV to use, so I tried both. Often, when a scene isn't working, it could be because you're in the wrong POV. So, for an exercise, take a scene you're working on and write it from a different POV.

Short Cycling

Thanks, Ana for sharing your experiences with us. I'm so out of touch with that market, I wouldn't know how to begin--but you gave us some great pointers.

Yesterday was one of very few wintery days we've had since moving up to the mountains. It looked like a drizzly day, except it was snow, not rain. Since I had nowhere to go more important than the mailbox, and since 90% of our mail is junk anyway, I saw no reason to leave the house. There was plenty to see from my window.

And, with the temperatures in the negatives and highs in the single digits, staying inside was definitely the way to go. Coming from a climate where air conditioning ran about 9 months out of the year, getting used to heat—and gas heat—is new for us. One thing we noticed when we first had to use the heat was that it didn't simply kick on in the morning (we run it much lower at night) and run until the house was at the daytime temperature. And, during the day, once it had reached our set temperature, it tended to cycle off and on after only a matter of minutes.

We called in the heating guy and he said, "Oh, you're short-cycling"—a new term for us. And as I was reviewing the revisions for my manuscript, I noticed something similar had happened when I considered Point of View.

I know I've discussed POV here before, and my preferences. I've always been a one scene per POV character, and I don't like a lot of characters commandeering the page when I read or write. In my romantic suspenses, I follow convention and have two POV characters—hero and heroine.

When I undertook this new project, the editor's vision had two main characters mentioned in the brief synopsis I'd been given. I asked if they were both POV characters, or if, like most mysteries, I should choose the one that seemed dominant according to the outline.

The response was to use two, and to write it in third person. Since I'm comfortable with that, I had no problem. I was also glad she didn't say to use as many POV characters as I wanted. There are many authors who can bounce between 5 or 6 POV characters, but I've never cared for writing that way. I like to believe that my readers are getting caught up in my characters, and every time there's a switch, it makes them stop and regroup.(Note: changing POV characters is not necessarily head-hopping. If your transitions are smooth and clear, you can move from one character to another. Sticking with one per scene is personal preference. Not. A. Rule.

Writing YA—with an Attitude

Today I welcome writer Ana Kenley to Terry's Place. Ana is writing her first young adult novel. Learning the ins-and-outs wasn't easy, and in her article, Writing YA--with an Attitude, she shares how she went about discovering the key to writing for a teen audience.

This last November, when I participated in the National Novel Writing Month (NaNo), I decided to try my hand at a young adult novel.

I thought it would be easy, after all, I went to high school, I was a teenager, I remember what it was like. What more could I need?

Well, as it turned out, I needed a lot more. I didn’t even make it one page—nope, not one page, before I realized I needed serious help.

Not because I didn’t remember the high drama or emotional roller coaster, or what it was like to want to be popular, or experiencing things like a first date or first love, but…knowing exactly how to take all of the things I did know and make it work so someone would actually want to read it.

I guess I shouldn’t say someone, I mean teens. My audience. They know all these feelings first hand and, while they look for that emotional connection, it’s not everything. Okay, maybe it’s most of it, but there’s one more piece that is needed to make a young adult real.

And that one thing is attitude.

Revising in the Dark

What I'm reading: Love me to Death, by Allison Brennan

When you're an author, you sit and write the books in your head. Sometimes the story flows, sometimes it slogs, but you write. Most of us have critique partners or groups—people to bounce ideas off of, and to offer feedback on the WIPs. If they say they have trouble with a plot thread, or even the way you've worded a paragraph, the decision to change things is yours. But what happens when someone with more clout than a crit partner wants changes?

Late last week, I heard from my agent, who finally heard from the editor. We'd submitted a three chapter proposal last November, and, as happens so often in this business, we waited. And waited.

The news. Good and not quite so good. The good. The editor didn't say no. The not so good. She wanted me to revise.

And the Winner Is...

The Winner of Doranna Durgin's comment contest is ....

Elizabeth Spann Craig

Congratulations. You've won an ARC of THE RECKONERS.

Email Doranna to claim your prize.

Friday Field Trip - Pacific Northwest

I've been busy working on revisions to my latest proposal, so I just opened one of my photo files and picked some shots, pretty much at random. This was a trip to the Pacific Northwest.And once again, it's my day to blog over at Author Expressions, where I'm talking more about dealing with reading ARCs.

Tools of the Trade

What I'm reading: Love is Murder, by Allison Brennan

A couple of weeks ago, my printer died. Then, last week, my keyboard decided that hitting a key would produce a random response. No telling what you'd get, if anything.

Both of those tools are critical for my work. I have backups—there's another printer in Hubster's office, although it's not a color printer. I have a laptop, and we have an old keyboard. Although I wasn't dead in the water, working wasn't the same.

My solutions? A refurbished printer just like my old one is on its way (I have almost new cartridges of toner, and this way, I'm not out the mega-bucks they cost.) I found a new keyboard. It's not quite the same. It was a trade-off of getting one that worked immediately, or driving all the way down to the Springs to see if there was a better selection at Office Depot. Or going on line and ordering something that might not be what I wanted, or would take too long to get here. There's a bit of adjusting to the new keyboard, beyond simply the feel of the keys. The function keys aren't all the same, and the mouse doesn't have all the same hot buttons. Some of the extra keys aren't where they were on the old keyboard.

But I can work.

What about your characters? They all have their own tools. What happens when you take some (or all) of them away? How do they cope? Do they give up? Go get new ones? Make do with something else?

Happy Groundhog Day

What I'm reading: My last RITA entry.

Thanks to Doranna for yesterday's post. Setting is a big part of books. You can still leave a comment in her post to be entered in her contest.

And if you didn't check out the Daily Cheap Reads feature, you can do that here.

With just a few updates, this is a re-run of a post I ran two years ago. For me, it's still timely.

Groundhog Day isn't a major holiday for most folks. When I lived in Florida, I always thought six more weeks of winter (our kind of winter) would be nice. Very nice. Our first winter in Colorado has been very mild, so if we're getting six more weeks of the same, I can deal with it. But, significant or not, it's a special holiday for me and the Hubster.

Forty-two years ago, in the parking lot behind the Biology building at UCLA, he proposed. Now, I'm not sure if the one-knee thing was because I was sitting in my car and that was the only way he could make decent eye contact, but he asked. I said, "Yes." We even went to my parents' house and he did the formal, "I'd like to marry your daughter," thing. Survived the third degree -- "How will you support her?" (Remember, 42 years ago things were different--women were just beginning to be 'liberated.) He explained he had $2000 in a savings account, tied up as collateral for the loan on his truck, but he could pay off the truck at any time and untie the funds. And that was good enough for my dad. Then again, the dollar wasn't the same then, either.

I hadn't known him long--we'd met the first day of class when he was the lab TA for a course I had to take for part of my teaching certification. There were 2 other females in the lab section. One was engaged, and the other had a steady boyfriend. Then there was me. Our first "date" was a threesome. He was going to have to lead a field trip to the tidal flats and he wanted to scope it out first (being a non-California guy, he wasn't familiar with the inhabitants of the shore). He invited me and the girl with the steady boyfriend to tag along. I'm still not sure he knew about the guy at this point, but it was anything but a formal date. He dropped her off first. And there it began.

So, met in October, engaged in February, and married in August. Forty-two years ago. Happy Groundhog Day, Hubster. Wanna try for eighty-two?

The Vicarious Wallow

Doranna Durgin writes across genres to include fantasy, mystery, tie-ins and various flavors of romance--from the action-oriented Bombshells to her latest paranormal release, STORM OF RECKONING; she also manages the Backlist eBooks project with author partner-in-crime Patricia Ryan. She spends what's left of her time hanging around with horses, dogs, and wildflowers--all of which inspired the commentary to follow.And be sure to read the entire post for instructions for winning one of Doranna's books.

And while Doranna is my guest, I'm being featured at Daily Cheap Reads. Hope you'll pop over there, too.

Welcome, Doranna:

I spend a lot of time outside.

When you add up the bird-watching, the flower-prowling, the agility training, and the horsie back riding...yeah, I spend a lot of time outside, and always have.

I started out working as a park naturalist in Ohio and then headed to the deepest Appalachians (100 acres, log cabin, endless mountain ridges); from there, I had an interlude in the western New York suburbs. I eventually escaped to the rural southwest--first to the amazing world of Flagstaff's San Francisco Peaks, then to Albuquerque's unique South Valley, and most recently through the pass to the Tijeras Canyon foothills.

That's where I am now, and that's where, barring significant surprise, I'll stay.

It's a journey that spans a treasury of different ecosystems, different weather patterns, different critters. It includes the richest riparian forest; chill flat hickory and chokecherry woods; the rarified air of high desert, snow pack, and ponderosa pines; the hot bosque valley of the Rio Grande--and now the windward foothills of another sacred mountain. Totally different flavors of life, and they've all become part of me.