I'm not thinking of action as in the thrills, chills, and spills sense, although I hope as a story teller I manage at least the occasional thrill. I'm more interested in what the character's actions say about them. I try to show more than tell. As I reader I find pages of unbroken description boring. So what do my characters reveal about them selves through their actions?
As I thought about this I came to a frightening conclusion: the way my characters behave may say less about them and more about me than I ever intended.
Through my imaginary friends I take action. I do things that I would never do in real life. More often than not they get caught. It is the nature of the mystery novel. But they pay the price, not me.
A professor from college put me through a semester of annoying make work. Relish those first two chapters Prof. You won't live to see the third. Your early morning "the only thing wrong with this school is the students" rant is about to be cut short. I think it is several tons of falling text books that will do for you. Your imaginary grad student takes the rap, I've blown off steam and no one ends up in a bell tower with a rifle. Everybody wins!
It takes my home loan two months to go through as the under writer nitpicks over cosmetic nonsense. You sir are about to meet a cold and lonely end, entombed in a snow man. Do you fell your blood crystallizing as it turns to ice? Call my hall floor unfinished will you? Ha! I haven't decided if he will survive the experience or not. We'll see how I fell when I get there.
So I live through my villains, using them to vent my less social acceptable emotions in an acceptable way. I'm not shy about my darker side. But what about my heroes. What actions do they take that I can't? The answer is not all that surprising.
Mysteries follow a relative simple pattern By the end of the story everything is put right. The guilty are caught. The unknown is explained. By the last page you know the why of the last two hundred pages. This is something that life rarely delivers.
A is for action. A also stands for alter ego. Hey who needs a shrink when you have an unfinished novel.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Thursday, September 6, 2012
The Next Big Thing
It's been a long time since I posted something. Since January in fact. A lot has happened since then. In the mean time I have laid a laminate floor (So easy a pregnant woman can do it) tilled a kitchen (Maybe I shouldn't have done that) put my back out (oops) and given birth.
So perhaps its understandable that I haven't got much done. I was trying to ignore the looming sense of guilt when Random Falcon tagged me and told me to get to work. I have known him for so long, when ever I get a message from him I hear it in his voice. So Fal has been in my head nagging me for a week.
Tuesday night I said to myself Tomorrow morning I am going to do it!
That night the power went out and we had no Internet for two days. Is the universe trying to tell me something? Anyways here goes.
What is the working title of your book?
I am currently working on two stories: Death Comes To The Restful Goddess, and The Greenman Murder
Where did the idea come from?
Hm, how to answer that without giving away the plot. I read about a case that the investigators classified as "occult" because of objects found at the scene. It later turned out the objects had no connection to the crime. I was intrigued by the idea that everything they extrapolated from the evidence was wrong from the very beginning. That's when Thea popped into my head and started to tell me what "really" happened. And the Restful Goddess was born
The story of the Hagly Wood corpse has haunted me for years. Who was Bella? And Who put her in the witch elm? But I didn't have characters to go with it. Then one fall day walking around the neighborhood with the i pod I thought it was a day like today that the found her. Suddenly I knew who found her and why she was there. Of course in the meantime her name changed along with the continent she was found on.
What Genre does your book fall under?
Both stories are murder mysteries. Something to do with my need to make people up, and then kill them.
Which actors would choose to play in a movie rendition?
Hard to say. Theses people have been walking around in my head for so long, they're real people to me. Anything less than an exact match is hard to swallow. Gavin Dunn could play Detective Gorgeous. Shohreh Aghdashloo could easily play his mother. Christopher Gorham could do Campbell. I don't know who would play Thea. And I really have no idea about the characters from The Green man Murder. Fred could be a young Jay Sliverheels. But I bet there is a no dead actors rule when you cast a movie.
What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
What do Baptist Minsters, sleazy politicians, New Age gurus and Indian Shamans have in common? Murder at the Restful Goddess. Wait that's two. Oh well
The Greenman Murder is one woman's quest to meet her deadline and finish her novel as life, door to door salesmen, home owners associations, and murder happen around her.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I don't know yet. I'll let you know when I figure it out.
How long did it take you to write your first draft?
I have been working on The Greenman Murder as time permits for about a year. The Restful Goddess, lets just say its older than my eldest child and leave it at that.
What other books would you compare this story to within you genre?
I don't really know the answer to that. I don't spend a lot of time trying to categorize the stories. Right now I'm just trying to get them out of my head and down on paper.
Who or What inspired you to write this story?
For me it almost always starts with the crime. Who did this and why? What drove them to that extreme? I guess its mostly about questions.
What else about your book might pique the readers' interest?
Well drawn characters with very full lives and personalities. I have to keep reminding them that, "Hey guys there is a dead body over there. You might want to focus on that right now"
As I have been tagged, so I tag another. I don't know Zombie Fiction, but I know what I like
Zombie Diapers by Cassandra Stryffe
So perhaps its understandable that I haven't got much done. I was trying to ignore the looming sense of guilt when Random Falcon tagged me and told me to get to work. I have known him for so long, when ever I get a message from him I hear it in his voice. So Fal has been in my head nagging me for a week.
Tuesday night I said to myself Tomorrow morning I am going to do it!
That night the power went out and we had no Internet for two days. Is the universe trying to tell me something? Anyways here goes.
What is the working title of your book?
I am currently working on two stories: Death Comes To The Restful Goddess, and The Greenman Murder
Where did the idea come from?
Hm, how to answer that without giving away the plot. I read about a case that the investigators classified as "occult" because of objects found at the scene. It later turned out the objects had no connection to the crime. I was intrigued by the idea that everything they extrapolated from the evidence was wrong from the very beginning. That's when Thea popped into my head and started to tell me what "really" happened. And the Restful Goddess was born
The story of the Hagly Wood corpse has haunted me for years. Who was Bella? And Who put her in the witch elm? But I didn't have characters to go with it. Then one fall day walking around the neighborhood with the i pod I thought it was a day like today that the found her. Suddenly I knew who found her and why she was there. Of course in the meantime her name changed along with the continent she was found on.
What Genre does your book fall under?
Both stories are murder mysteries. Something to do with my need to make people up, and then kill them.
Which actors would choose to play in a movie rendition?
Hard to say. Theses people have been walking around in my head for so long, they're real people to me. Anything less than an exact match is hard to swallow. Gavin Dunn could play Detective Gorgeous. Shohreh Aghdashloo could easily play his mother. Christopher Gorham could do Campbell. I don't know who would play Thea. And I really have no idea about the characters from The Green man Murder. Fred could be a young Jay Sliverheels. But I bet there is a no dead actors rule when you cast a movie.
What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
What do Baptist Minsters, sleazy politicians, New Age gurus and Indian Shamans have in common? Murder at the Restful Goddess. Wait that's two. Oh well
The Greenman Murder is one woman's quest to meet her deadline and finish her novel as life, door to door salesmen, home owners associations, and murder happen around her.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I don't know yet. I'll let you know when I figure it out.
How long did it take you to write your first draft?
I have been working on The Greenman Murder as time permits for about a year. The Restful Goddess, lets just say its older than my eldest child and leave it at that.
What other books would you compare this story to within you genre?
I don't really know the answer to that. I don't spend a lot of time trying to categorize the stories. Right now I'm just trying to get them out of my head and down on paper.
Who or What inspired you to write this story?
For me it almost always starts with the crime. Who did this and why? What drove them to that extreme? I guess its mostly about questions.
What else about your book might pique the readers' interest?
Well drawn characters with very full lives and personalities. I have to keep reminding them that, "Hey guys there is a dead body over there. You might want to focus on that right now"
As I have been tagged, so I tag another. I don't know Zombie Fiction, but I know what I like
Zombie Diapers by Cassandra Stryffe
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Horror, It's No Longer a Man's Game
There has been a lot going on so I haven't written a lot lately. (or at all in the last year) But recently I saw something on line that infuriated me. It was an online comic bashing the twilight series. Now I like to make fun of sparkly vampires as much as the next person. But the thrust of this jab was that girls had ruined vampires.
Girls ruined vampires! Excuse me?! GIRLS RUINED VAMPIRES!!!! Maybe this is just the pregnancy hormones talking but....WTF! Pardon me while I take a horse tranquilizer to come down. ( it's ok to take that while you're pregnant, they're herbal. Ok no they're not but it was really a handful of almond M&Ms and one stuck in my throat so it was kind of like taking a horse tranquilizer)
If you believe that than you haven't read any vampire fiction written later than the nineteenth century. I have two words for you sir. Ann. Rice. Doesn't ring any bells. That's alright I have a few more Laura K Hamilton, Tanya Huff, Charlene Harris. Nearly If not all the good Vampire fiction of recent years was written by Women.
So think about that for a moment, sexist asshole, while Laura K Hamilton beats the s***t out of you. When she is done with you Ann Rice wants to reenact some scenes from her books. Charlene Harris and Tanya Huff are here too. Charlene has brought popcorn. (Don't ask me why. Its my twisted day dream. And Ms. Harris strikes me as a woman prepared for any social situation) So while you wonder exactly what these talented ladies are planing to do with that fifty gallon drum of miracle whip lets see what upsets you so much about "girly vampires".
You don't like well educated erudite vampires. You want a predator, the monster within, the alien, the other with a capital O. Sunshine by Robin Mckinley. Read it and sleep with the lights on for the rest of your life. Her vampire is brilliantly characterized at the same time as she makes it subtly but clearly obvious that this person is not human in ways that we may never fully understand. She paints the other and the alien without resorting to outright gore.The fear Mckinley evokes comes from our own undefined fears.
That is what makes all of these woman masters of their craft. The understanding that the true horror springs from the well of human nature. And that is why I prefer "girly vamps" Because whether or not they suck blood I like characters with well drawn personalities and richly embroidered back histories. So not that I have got that rant out of my system I have only one more thing to say to the people who whine how woman writers have ruined horror. I see you Bram Stoker and raise you one Mary Shelly.
Girls ruined vampires! Excuse me?! GIRLS RUINED VAMPIRES!!!! Maybe this is just the pregnancy hormones talking but....WTF! Pardon me while I take a horse tranquilizer to come down. ( it's ok to take that while you're pregnant, they're herbal. Ok no they're not but it was really a handful of almond M&Ms and one stuck in my throat so it was kind of like taking a horse tranquilizer)
If you believe that than you haven't read any vampire fiction written later than the nineteenth century. I have two words for you sir. Ann. Rice. Doesn't ring any bells. That's alright I have a few more Laura K Hamilton, Tanya Huff, Charlene Harris. Nearly If not all the good Vampire fiction of recent years was written by Women.
So think about that for a moment, sexist asshole, while Laura K Hamilton beats the s***t out of you. When she is done with you Ann Rice wants to reenact some scenes from her books. Charlene Harris and Tanya Huff are here too. Charlene has brought popcorn. (Don't ask me why. Its my twisted day dream. And Ms. Harris strikes me as a woman prepared for any social situation) So while you wonder exactly what these talented ladies are planing to do with that fifty gallon drum of miracle whip lets see what upsets you so much about "girly vampires".
You don't like well educated erudite vampires. You want a predator, the monster within, the alien, the other with a capital O. Sunshine by Robin Mckinley. Read it and sleep with the lights on for the rest of your life. Her vampire is brilliantly characterized at the same time as she makes it subtly but clearly obvious that this person is not human in ways that we may never fully understand. She paints the other and the alien without resorting to outright gore.The fear Mckinley evokes comes from our own undefined fears.
That is what makes all of these woman masters of their craft. The understanding that the true horror springs from the well of human nature. And that is why I prefer "girly vamps" Because whether or not they suck blood I like characters with well drawn personalities and richly embroidered back histories. So not that I have got that rant out of my system I have only one more thing to say to the people who whine how woman writers have ruined horror. I see you Bram Stoker and raise you one Mary Shelly.
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