Shredding Words With Sofie Couch, (Well, Kinda)

Okay, I'm not so much “Shredding Words” as carefully cutting and snipping around them while simultaneously talking about novel characters.

The book I'm mangling today was actually meant to be mangled. It's an old, early 1900s magazine. Sadly, there is just this one page left in a box of ephemera at the family antique mall. In it, I found this little guy, “Brother Bob”. Apparently, Bob’s entire family appeared sequentially in this particular vintage magazine. And this child was just so stylin’! Check out those cute little togs Brother Bob is sporting.

There is also something very zen about cutting out these little characters, which it makes all the more a pity that most of our children will never know the joy of paper dolls.

And while I was snipping out "Brother Bob" and his togs, I started thinking about how paper dolls - building them, dressing them, playing with them, is similar to building a character in a novel. You snip away at a composite – a stereotype. All written characters begin flat, like “Brother Bob”.

Then the writer begins to flesh him out. 

For example, did you know that Bob is a little rapscallion? (Yes, I said rapscallion.) He’s the youngest child in my novel, KEEPING UP WITH MR. JONES. He has a penchant for collecting dead animals. It’s a worry for his mother, but what she doesn’t know is that his real goal in life is to be a veterinarian. That dead bird in his pocket is research – a secret that he will share with the only male figure in his life – Mr. Jones.

So check it out! And the next time you’re in an antique shop, check out some vintage magazines and don’t be afraid to bring your scissors. J

Holiday? Huh?

by Janis Susan May/Janis Patterson

By the time you read this, the Labor Day holiday will be over, and I say thank Goodness!

Whoever started the canard that Holidays were for a holiday, a respite from work? I work harder on a designated Holiday than just about any other day. Like this last weekend – THE EGYPTIAN FILE officially released on the 30^th, so there was all the attendant announcement publicity to do.

A digression - WHY does each book/readers site have different rules on publicity? Different days; different things accepted. Some will accept a post any day; some allow them only on certain days or on one specific day. Some will take only a simple announcement; some want everything – blurb, excerpt, links, cover, websites, everything but your blood type. Some take links, some don't. Some take cover shots, some don't. Some want blurbs, some don't. Some want excerpts, some don't. All seem to want something different in the subject line. Why don't they get together and make one set of rules for all that will be easier for writers and readers both?

Back to holidays. As I said, doing the basic release announcements takes a great deal of time and attention. Plus, The Husband is home, which at the least means more cooking. Plus, we're redoing the garage. The actual hammer-and-nails remodeling is done (thank Goodness, and before there was physical violence) but now we must clean out our various storage rooms and decide what to keep and what to give away. Worse yet, it seems that we each regard our own stuff as precious (mine is mostly antiques, by the way) and the other's as simply stuff, or worse, junk.

My head had barely lifted off the pillow on Saturday before The Husband began prattling about Let's Work On The Garage This Weekend. (When he asked me early in the summer what I wanted for my birthday, I told him two whole weeks in which he neither said nor wrote the word 'garage.' Instead I got a trip to Vegas and a huge kunzite ring. Sigh.) Of course, we were to start working right after I fixed breakfast. Normally cooked breakfasts are reserved for Sundays.

It's late summer in Texas, and ten minutes after dawn the sky is on 'Broil.' Needless to say, our garage is not air-conditioned. Neither are the storage rooms, and neither is our ancient but still (barely) running pickup. I keep telling myself I'd be paying money to use a sauna in some health club to be just as hot. It doesn't help.

The Husband doesn't seem to understand that when I am sitting in a reasonably cool room (who can afford to keep a room truly comfortable with today's abominably astronomical electric rates?) typing on a computer that I am truly working. Believe me, I am. I have blogs to write. I have release publicity to do. I have publicity on previous releases to do. I have future releases to get ready for my formatter and cover artist. And sometime – I don't know really when – I have to write on the next book, whose deadline is galloping steadily closer.

Thank Goodness tomorrow is Tuesday and his job will once more devour The Husband for the better part of the day. Don't get me wrong – I love him, he is the most wonderful man I have ever known and I love being with him, but he does have a fixation. Garage, garage, garage... I'm even coming to hate the sound of the word. I do love being with him. I will love it even more once the garage is finished.

We did work most of the weekend and got a fair amount done. At this rate we should have the job completed just when the weather finally gets cool enough to be outside without my becoming a fountain of perspiration. I do, though, have the dreadful premonition that when that day occurs his repetitive vocabulary will evolve from 'Garage' into 'Yard.' Help me...

Holiday? Phooey.

UPDATE

My publishing blitz is still going right on schedule, somewhat to my amazement. 

My August 15 release SHADOWED LEGACY marks the tipping point of my 30 June – 30 October publishing blitz. It’s a gothic romance set in Louisiana of the 1870s. The story is about an orphaned young woman who has survived by singing in the saloons of the Western silver camps only to be ordered by her unknown and autocratic grandfather to come to his plantation. She wants to be part of a family, he has other ideas and an unknown villain has more sinister plans. It was a fun book to write.

This fortnight's release is THE EGYPTIAN FILE, a contemporary romantic adventure which takes place in my beloved Egypt. Like THE JERUSALEM CONNECTION, my 30 July release, THE EGYPTIAN FILE is a brand new book, not a backlist rerelease.

I got the idea for THE EGYPTIAN FILE during my last visit to Egypt and it would not leave me alone until I wrote it. Luckily I was blessed with the research help of two good friends, Dr. Stephen Harvey (perhaps the world's most acknowledged authority on Ahmose I) and Dr. Dirk Huyge (Director of the Belgian Archaeological Mission to El Kab). They were both most generous with their time and information, and Dr. Huyge even allowed me to add a tomb to the El Kab site – mainly because things go on in that tomb that should never go on in a real one!

THE EGYPTIAN FILE tells the story of Melissa Warrender, who is sent by a telephone call - which may or may not have come from her dead father - to retrieve a mysterious file in Cairo. Others who are willing to kill for it want the file as well, and Melissa's only ally is a handsome Cairo cabby who may not be what he seems. As they flee across Egypt they know they must translate the cryptic message in the file if they are to survive. An unimaginable treasure is at stake if they can live to find it.

Hitting the Wall

I missed last month's posting. I can't write and lose weight at the same time apparently.

Defatification is hard work, I keep it under 1600 calories and I work off 600 on the torture machine of choice - the treadmill  - and I still can only manage to lose 1/2 to 1 lb a week for a total of less than 50 in a year and a half, while my sister, Ms. Fatty Fatterstein has dropped 85 since January. Maybe I left my metabolism in heaven and she picked it up on the way here when she was born.  Being related, you would think she would give it back once she hit her goal.  But noooooooo. She looks great, I still have a tire around my middle, albeit I'm down from a truck tire to a mid-size car now. I'm aiming for one of those smart car tires by the end of summer.

Did you know that sugar free jello has 10 calories and only equals 100 calories when you eat ten of them? Those great Skinny Cow Ice Cream bars have 100 calories each.  The whole box equals 600 calories and that's equal to about how much I should eat at dinner, which with the utmost shame, but with a satisfied sweet tooth, I have done on more than one occasion.

I think I see where I'm going wrong.

My youngest son is getting engaged at the end of the year to a women whose mama is about a size 2.  I have no intention of wearing one of those mother of the groom dresses when they get married in 2016.  You know the ones - heavily beaded, brocade, jacket with matronly matching dress, the kind one buys when nothing else fits. I want a slinky one-shoulder jobbie that shows off my ink on top and my booty  -which needs to be about two sizes smaller by then -  on the bottom.

So if I kinda go away for a while again, it could mean I'm in the middle of booty-pops to a hot Adam Lambert song. I know he's gay, but once you look in those amazing eyes God blessed him with, you want to get a spatula and turn him.  Oh, sorry, that's not very PC, is it?  Apologies if I offended.

For a while anyway, at least until I get down to a size somewhere between Miss Piggy and one of those airburshed models in magazines, if I am not at the computer frantically trying to get Book 2 in my 3-book series ready for the editor, I'll be either on my Instrument of Torture walking 5 miles uphill to some exotic location that only exists in my head or in the basement rocking out to Lambert.  Feel free to join me.  Misery loves company and I have ice cream.

They Get Me! Why my Writer Friends are Important

Dorothy Parker had the Algonquin Roundtable. The fictional character Richard Castle has his famous poker buddies. Just like those two iconic literary figures I have a close circle of writer friends that I consider my pals and confidants. Occasionally if our schedules allow we even get to hang out together in person. A few of them have been with me since the infancy of my career. They’ve known me since long before I became a published author. They’ve been with me through my thin and thick waistline, have weathered countless rejections and celebrated my first and subsequent sales. They know my family and I consider them my extended family. We are roommates at conferences and co-presenters at workshops. These same women also give me the kick in the pants I need when a writing slump hits or when I received that one particularly painful rejection and dramatically sob how I can’t go on. They are my cheerleaders.

And don’t we all need a cheerleader every now and again?

Writing is one of the most solitary careers out there. Days can go by when I swear I don’t speak to anyone other than my characters. It’s wonderful to know that when I turn on my laptop and head out to the internet that through any social media outlet I can connect with another writer. But nothing beats seeing them in person. Some of my friends I only get to see once or twice a year while attending conferences and writing retreats.  A handful of others I’m lucky enough to enjoy a cup of tea or a three hour lunch with.

Though I don’t have a name as auspicious as the Algonquin Roundtable for my circle of writing friends, I still depend on them to keep me sane. But more importantly I appreciate and love them for sticking with me all these years and I look forward to many more years of friendship and support. I want each and every one of them to know how much I cherish them. Oh and maybe I’ll start calling them Tracey’s Team! Just kidding…

An Amazon Top Ten bestselling historical romance author, Tracey sold her first book on 9/9/99! Tracey’s books have been translated into several languages. She has appeared on the award winning Cox Cable Television show, Page One and at the famous Lady Jane’s Salon in NYC. She holds membership in Romance Writers of America, American Christian Fiction Writers, and Novelists Inc. Tracey also writes women’s fiction contemporary romance.  You can learn more about Tracey and her books by visiting her websites at www.traceylyons.com or www.traceysorel.com.

 

Beautiful Things from Scraps

Log Cabin Variation Baby's Quilt

Writing is one of those creative endeavors that requires material from many different sources. We don’t just sit down and write with no experience from which we draw our stories. From people watching to research, we build information we have gathered into a whole story.

When I’m at a loss and my creative muses have bowed out for whatever reason, I’m inclined to turn to other creative efforts. Gardening is top of my list when the weather is warm, sunny and dry. Since I no longer have a garden, I dig around in pots and tubs on my balcony. This past weekend, that is how I spent the better part of Saturday morning, instead of working on my novel in progress, This Can't Be Love.

Welsh Pennsylvania Square from Scraps 

While potting around, I had time to think and breathe in the good earthy smells and let my thoughts wander freely. In the process, an idea bloomed for my monthly contribution to Classic and Cozy. I admire my fellow bloggers here who contribute and always come up with something worth reading and drawing others attention to.

I sometimes think of gardening and other forms of distraction as part of my attention deficit or displacement activities. Yet, they have a creative purpose all their own. When the mood strikes me or I have a good reason, one of my favorite activities is making quilts. This was a favorite pastime of my mother as well. In fact, sewing of any kind is a passion we both shared.

Attic Window from Found Fabric

I wasn’t always interested in quilts. My first love was dressmaking, but I went to an exhibition of Welsh quilts in Llanidloes, about ten years ago, put together by Jen Jones, another American living in Wales. A few years before, I had been to the American quilt exhibit at the American Museum in Bath, England.

Having a close friend, Sue Mordan, who is a talented quilt-maker, also encouraged my interest and I began with small projects such as wall hangings, pillow covers and table runners. I was also intrigued by the influence of Welsh quilting tradition on the Amish in Pennsylvania. Though the Amish quilts have gained international acclaim, their simple solid color quilt designs are based on traditional Welsh, multi-colored design patterns, as the book Making Welsh Quilts, explains.

Every quilt requires imagination, planning, design, choices. The process frees my head for other things. A form of daydreaming, the same sort of freedom that allows all thinkers to come up with theories and stories that may change the world.  For me, it seems a good exercise to prepare for writing a novel.

Making Design Decisions

© 2014 Leigh Verrill-Rhys

All photographs (except Making Welsh Quilts bookcover) © 2014 Leigh Verrill-Rhys

Milestones in Our Cycle of Life

By Fran McNabb

With the school year beginning, I started thinking about all the milestones we go through in our lives. As parents we celebrate, we worry over, and we look forward to those events that our children and we go through.

The beginning of school is one of those events. When our babies walk into a classroom for the first time, they begin a new cycle in their young lives. They might still be babies in our eyes, but they have taken on another role. They are little people eager to learn about and to experience what life has to offer. Their minds are like tiny sponges ready to soak up new information—and what new information there is now out there!

When my generation started the first grade, some of us had never been to kindergarten. We went in with blank minds waiting to be taught the things that today most of our children already know. Educational TV programs for little ones, involved parents, and daycare programs teach our babies things that many of us didn’t know until we started first grade.

My grandson just entered preK for 4-year olds. Like a lot of children, he learned to maneuver through apps on the iphone and ipad when I was still trying to figure out how to turn those devices on. It is amazing the things that little boy already knows, and it’s even more amazing to know what he will learn in the years ahead of him in school.

Life is made up of many milestones: entering and then graduating from school, going to college, finding the perfect partner for life and then getting married. That little boy will one day find his own perfect partner and together they will start their own cycle. They will have their own babies and will celebrate their own events in life.

I hope my husband and I are around long enough to see this little fellow through many of the special events in his lifetime. From one generation to the next, the cycle of life goes on. The older generation might have already gone through most of their milestones, but how rewarding it is to watch our children and their children go through theirs.

Fran McNabb lives on the Gulf Coast with her husband. Her two sons and two grandsons live elsewhere, but getting together with family is important to her. Several of her books include children and their role in the family. Visit her website at www.FranMcNabb.com.