A Dog, A Monk and A Judge Walk Into a Book Store

Sorry. There is no punchline. But Ron has author wisdom to share involving all three of those elements. How could I resist?  

Meet Ron Marasco ...

What things would you do differently…

I think I would have liked to begin my writing career with the understanding I now have about editors. Older writers sometimes have negative and cautionary things to say to young writers about editors. But it has been my experience that your relationship with you editor can be one of the truly rich experiences of your working life as a writer. The key is to approach it as a naturally collaborative relationship—as it is—as opposed to an adversarial relationship--which it only is if it gets off on the wrong foot!

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Setting Your Stage ~ Sarah Sundin

More than a Stage—Use Your Setting to Illumine Your Story

by Sarah Sundin

“The British are coming! The British are coming!” (Or “The regulars are coming!” for my historian friends.) When you hear those words, what do you picture? Boston, Paul Revere, the brink of the Revolutionary War in 1775. How can those elements be used in a novel set in 1941?

Plot, characters, and setting work together to create novels that come alive. Most of us writers love plot and characters, and the setting is merely a stage they perform on. But setting can be so much more—it can create mood, echo external conflict, and highlight internal growth.

Choosing Your Setting

The initial choice of setting is usually driven by that story spark. We already know it’s set on the prairie in the 1880s or an English manor in 1815 or a modern-day big city. My Waves of Freedom series required an East Coast city that had a large naval base and a naval shipyard during World War II.

Personal preferences often fine-tune our options. We choose the specific manor or village or city because it’s someplace we’ve visited or want to visit, or it meets story requirements. For me, Boston, New York, and Charleston were my main options—and I’ve visited Boston frequently. When my historical research revealed Boston was a base for destroyers and a site for naval antisubmarine warfare research in WWII, I knew I had my location.

So Much More

Very clever writers deliberately choose a setting to highlight aspects of plot, characters, and theme. For those of us who are less clever, we can still use our chosen setting in the same way.

As I began to write Through Waters Deep, I enjoyed playing on my Bostonian playground. So much history! So picturesque! Great foods! But then I noticed similarities between Boston’s revolutionary past and my story. That’s when the real fun began.

Create Mood

An open expanse of prairie—does it represent freedom and the pioneering spirit, or isolation and loneliness? A forest of skyscrapers—does it represent energy and opportunity, or claustrophobia and danger?

It’s all in how we write it. The same setting can represent different things at different times in the story.

Look for elements of the setting you can use to create mood. Even better, play with ways the same element can be used in different scenes. In Through Waters Deep, when Mary Stirling is at work at the Boston Navy Yard, the massive cranes give her a sense of industriousness and purpose. But when she’s alone on the docks at night, the cranes feel menacing.

Echo External Conflict

Every setting comes with history and lore and landmarks. For an imaginary setting, you should invent history and lore and landmarks. Find or create those elements that echo the conflict in your story.

For me, it happened by accident. My characters were having a “getting reacquainted” chat while exploring Boston from Paul Revere’s house to the Old North Church—simply because I liked the walk. But as they studied Paul Revere’s statue, I was struck by the similarities between 1775 and 1941.

In both years, America teetered on the brink of war and faced a difficult decision—do we continue life as before, or do we fight for freedom? In both years, America was bitterly divided—Patriots vs. Tories in 1775, isolationists vs. interventionists in 1941. In both years, Americans debated England’s motives.

Since this conflict drove my book’s action plotlines, I decided to use the Boston’s revolutionary scenery to underscore the tumult in America in 1941.

Highlight Internal Growth

Symbols are a powerful way to show our character’s internal conflict and growth. Those symbols become more meaningful when they arise from the setting. The rosebushes at the English manor that blossom while the heroine grows—and wilt at her black moment. The bridge over the creek in the small Southern town that shows the hero’s determination to become a new man.

In Through Waters Deep, Mary Stirling passes the Bunker Hill Monument every day on her way to work. The memorial to those brave, outnumbered soldiers represents Mary’s own battle to overcome her fears and do the right thing.

From Stage to Playground

So what about you? What elements make your setting unique or memorable? How can you use those elements to illumine your story?

Sarah Sundin is the author of seven historical novels, including Through Waters Deep (Revell, August 2015). Her novel On Distant Shores was a double finalist for the 2014 Golden Scroll Awards. In 2011, Sarah received the Writer of the Year Award at the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference. A mother of three, Sarah lives in northern California, works on-call as a hospital pharmacist, and teaches Sunday school and women’s Bible studies. She also enjoys speaking for church, community, or writers’ groups. You can find her at http://www.sarahsundin.com

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Four Must Haves for a Book Launch ~ Jennifer Slattery

Four Must Haves for a Book Launch 

(Keeping the Launch Spooks Away) 

by Jennifer Slattery

Making it through final edits, with all the insecurities that come with them, is hard enough. Surviving a book launch while managing a substantive-edit deadline? That calls for an extreme amount of chocolate, tissue, ever-flowing caffeine and lots of duct tape. Bonus need -- a Gumby man able to withstand all of one’s frustrations. (Please note, a Gumby that bounces is immensely more satisfying, able to stave off frequent bouts of hysterics, especially if it bounces off one’s well-intentioned spouse who, in an effort to encourage said writer, suggests she try spell check. Don’t ask.)

During my first ever book launch, having teetered dangerously close to insanity on more than one occasion, I decided to make note of a few things I—and my poor, slightly-terrified family—would need to survive my second launch. 

I’ve already mentioned the first and most important item, but it is of such importance, redundancy is warranted.

Chocolate.

To achieve the proper stores, you’ll want to begin shopping for this item at least six months in advanced. If you’re living on a writer’s salary and therefore must budget for every food item, I suggest you add on an additional three months. Of course, take into account the pre-launch daily nibbles and gorges. 

On second thought, you may want to open a direct account to your local chocolate factory. Make sure to thoroughly explain your impeding emergency. You may wish to visit them personally with a map to  your residence. One can never be too prepared.

Make sure to have plenty of tissue paper handy. You’ll want to purchase this in bulk.

Because unless your Karen Kingsbury, you’re going to get an unpleasant, maybe even hateful, review. And though you’ve tried to prepare for it, with post-it note affirmations stuck on every surface in your home, the mascara-streaking tears are bound to come. Especially when a reader sends you an email listing every mistake they discovered while reading your novel and you begin to wonder if you have more typos than pages. Actually, there’s no need to wonder.  You know you do, but there’s absolutely nothing you can do about that now. Except cry, grab another hunk of chocolate, and your most potent cup of Jo.

This leads me to necessary item number three: coffee, preferably available through intravenous drip. 

You do know sleep and book launches don’t coexist, right? Although it is true some unusual and exceptionally gifted authors are able to set and meet daily goals, allowing them, in theory, to catch a few hours of sleep each night. But even those rare and nauseating breeds aren’t immune to the night tremors that come once they realize people will soon actually be reading the drivel they created. 

And asking questions.

Like, “Your main character wears a pair of faded green shoes. Who from your past do these shoes represent? What inner longing do these loafers reveal?”

This of course initiates numerous nightmares that begin the moment your heavy eyes slam shut, nightmares that awaken you with family-scaring shrieks able to turn the most patient of husbands into sleep-deprived monsters.

Monsters who soon decide to enter into your editing attempts (if only to help you finish in this century so they, too, can begin to catch up on their sleep. These conniving beasts begin offering all sorts of strange advice like:

"Maybe if you printed the document out, you’d be able to stay focused—and off Facebook—for more than ten minutes at a time. Surely Words With Friends is not the most effective dictionary option available to you." 

"You should really cut back on the caffeine.  You’re beginning to twitch. And while you’re at it, do you think it’s time you jump into the shower? I’ve begun to notice a strange smell."

"Can one person really eat that much chocolate? How about I get you a salad? You’ll write better."

Remember when I said you’d need duct tape? 

This will come in handy whenever you need to silence those oh-so-helpful family members and friends. If that doesn’t work, you can always use this wonderful tool as earplugs, or you could tape yourself to your chair to keep from doing something you regret. 

Considering my launch and edits (for my second novel, releasing this winter) are still underway, my must-have list is continuing to grow. Do you know of any other items I should add? How do you maintain your—and your family’s—sanity during a book launch? Please share your ideas here, because I’m in desperate need! 

Jennifer Slattery writes Missional Romance for New Hope Publishers, a publishing house passionate about bringing God’s healing grace and truth to the hopeless. Her debut novel, Beyond I Do, is currently available in print and e-book format for a great price! You can find it here: 

Jennifer loves helping aspiring authors grow in their craft, and has editing slots open beginning in November. Find out more here: http://wordsthatkeep.wordpress.com/

Visit with Jennifer online at JenniferSlatteryLivesOutLoud. 

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Classic Tess ~ On Brains and Writing

Tess Gerritsen left a successful practice as an internist to raise her children and concentrate on her writing. She gained nationwide acclaim for her first novel of medical suspense, the New York Times bestseller Harvest. She is also the author of the bestsellers Life Support, Bloodstream, Gravity, and The Surgeon. Tess lives with her family in Maine. (PHOTO CREDIT: Paul D'Innocenzo) --as appeared her blog.

Do you have to be smart to write fiction?

By Tess Gerritsen
Recently I was asked to contribute my thoughts about this topic, for an upcoming book about creativity and intelligence.  And I’ve come to the conclusion that the answer is no, you don’t have to be smart not if by “smart”, you’re referring to the sort of intelligence that’s usually measured by IQ tests.I know a number of doctors and engineers.These are classically “smart” people – the straight-A crowd who dazzled their classmates in college and graduate school.  They’d probably ace a Mensa qualifying exam.  They excel in logic, they’re up on current events, and they know all the nuances of grammar.  They know how to spell. Every so often, one of them will write a novel, and beg that I take a peek at their first chapter.
 
Most of these people can’t write worth beans.
What is about writing fiction that’s beyond these brilliant people? How does it happen that a high-school drop-out can write a bestselling novel, while a PhD can’t even write an interesting query letter?
If anything, it’s been my impression that people who are highly educated in the sciences have a disadvantage when it comes to fiction.  It’s so ingrained in scientists to think objectively, to come to logical conclusions.  But real life — and human beings — are not logical.  And what we writers must do is create characters who seem like real people, with all their imperfections, all their inconsistencies and craziness. People who don’t always compute. In order to do that, you have to be a little bit illogical yourself.  You have to hear the voices of people who don’t exist, and know instinctively what unexpected things these non-existent people will do next.
Most important, you have to FEEL what they’re feeling, channel their emotions.  Feel the same stab of betrayal, the same giddiness of falling in love, that your make-believe people experience.  To do this requires a different kind of smartness, something that’s not measured on those IQ tests. Some people might call this “emotional intelligence”, the ability to connect with the feelings of other human beings, to understand what’s going on in their heads. Whatever it is, it’s an instinct one absolutely has to have to be a powerful writer.
And it’s not something they teach you in school.  It’s not something you can read in textbooks.  I think you’re born with it.  Or maybe you learn it from your parents and your siblings, by watching them scream and cry and throw tantrums at the dinner table.
Maybe it’s that same understanding that makes some people talented actors.  I think that a good novelist must also be a bit of an actor.  Maybe the writer’s too shy to ever get up on a stage.  But in the privacy of his office, a novelist will suffer all the joys and agonies of his characters.  He’ll say aloud the dialogue and dribble tears on the page.  I know that people seldom use the word “actor” and “intelligent” in the same sentence.  But by golly, a good actor will have special insights into his fellow human beings that most rocket scientists simply won’t have.
Finally, there’s the fact that some people are just born boring.  No matter how smart they are, how accomplished in their particular fields, they just don’t know how to tell a good story.Most of us know someone whom you dread sitting next to at a family gathering. Someone who, within a few minutes, has you ready to scream from boredom.
What they lack is a sense of the dramatic.  They don’t know what other people find interesting: conflict, crisis, fear, anger. They think that it’s just as interesting to talk about what they had for breakfast this morning, and how it gave them heartburn, and have you heard the latest about that antacid?
Can someone who lacks a sense of the dramatic ever become a good storyteller? I don’t think so.  I don’t think it can be taught, either. Writing workshops may teach them how to get their manuscript looking neat and how to submit it to agents and editors, but it can’t give them the insight to understand that “John finds spiritual growth” is a boring plot while “Mary fights to get her husband back” is a lot more interesting.

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The Dying Letter ~ Tess Gerritsen

Tess Gerritsen left a successful practice as an internist to raise her children and concentrate on her writing. She gained nationwide acclaim for her first novel of medical suspense, the New York Times bestseller Harvest. She is also the author of the bestsellers Life Support, Bloodstream, Gravity, and The Surgeon. Tess lives with her family in Maine. (PHOTO CREDIT: Paul D'Innocenzo) --as appeared her blog.

 The Dying Letter

I am still stinging with shame about a letter I just received. It came from one of my old high school teachers, a man with whom I have corresponded over the decades. Every Christmas, I’d send him a personal letter about my year, and every summer, I’d mail him an autographed copy of my newest book.
About six months ago, he wrote me a long, long letter sharing all the latest in his life. I set it on my desk, with every intention of replying. Because he doesn’t do email, I would have to actually write a letter and send it snail mail, so I delayed the task until I had a bit of time. The trouble was, time got away from me. I had to proof-read the galleys of my book, then I had to leave for China to bring my mother’s ashes to her hometown, then I went on book tour, followed by weeks of travel for various speaking engagements. In the meantime, that letter from my teacher got buried under other accumulating mail. I never did write him back.
A few days ago, after returning from my latest trip, I found a new letter from him in the bin of mail that the US Postal Service had held for me in my absence. He was hurt and upset that I had not answered his earlier letter. He asked if our friendship was dead. He assumed it must be, because I hadn’t responded, nor had I sent him my latest book. I immediately mailed him a book and a card of apology, but I’m still having sleepless nights about it. And I’m mulling over why, exactly, I didn’t write back sooner.
My crazy schedule is one reason. But a bigger reason, I think, is how much I’ve come to rely on email as a primary mode of correspondence, a convenience that’s so quick and immediate that it makes old-fashioned letter writing seem like a burden. Every morning, when I sit down to catch up on messages, I answer my email first. As tasks go, it’s the low-hanging fruit, something you can speedily accomplish. Letter writing? That feels like a far more ponderous task, so I put it off. And I put it off.
 
And before I know it, weeks and then months have gone by, and unanswered letters are still lying on my desk.
I, and people like me, are responsible for the impending death of the snail-mail letter. In this era of “Faster! Faster!”, we feel the urgency of accomplishing everything at top efficiency. We feel too harried to actually write with pen and paper, address the envelope, affix a stamp, and bring it to the post office.
And that’s a shame. Because years from now, all our emails, all those quickly dashed bits of information rendered to the electronic ether, won’t be around to enlighten our descendants. The death of the handwritten letter means that we, too — our thoughts, our memories, the way we press pen to paper — will vanish forever when we’re gone.

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Writing Lessons I Learned on the Stage ~ Courtney Walsh

CourtneyWalsh’s debut novel, A Sweethaven Summer recently hit the New York Times bestseller list. She is a freelance writer and author of two craft books, Scrapbooking Your Faith and The Busy Scrapper. She was also a contributing editor for Memory Makers magazine. A Sweethaven Homecoming is her second novel. Courtney recently returned to her home state of Illinois where she lives with her husband and three children.


“Writing Lessons I Learned on the Stage”

By Courtney Walsh

During my senior year of high school, I had the wild notion that one day I was going to be an actress. (In my head, I’m saying that word in my best Marilyn Monroe impression.)

It sounded so fancy and I had stars in my eyes. I went on a college visit where I sat in on an acting class, and yes, it pulled me straight in. This was where I belonged.

Much to my parents’ chagrin, I insisted on going away to a private university to study theatre. Wonderfully practical. Like all good parents, they wanted me to have something to “fall back on” so 
I chose to double major in journalism, which taught me things I knew I’d never need to know.

After all, I was going to be an actress. (Marilyn again.)

Before I headed off to do my four-year-sentence at the institution of higher learning, my dad said something to me I’ll never forget. He said, “You really need to think about doing something with your writing.”

Of course I laughed it off. I wasn’t a writer (Woody Allen creeping in there). I was an actress. (Ah, Marilyn.)

I spent the next four years playing different roles, becoming different characters. I joined in theatre games out on the quad that made me feel foolish and left me praying no one was watching. I spent a summer in New York studying at a Broadway theatre, learning the ins and outs of movement, dance, scene study…I was determined to make this my profession. 

I graduated college with the intention of moving to Chicago and trying my luck on the stage, but a funny thing happened along the way. I started writing. I found myself bored one night (remember those days?) with a computer and a story rolling around in my head. I sat down and wrote a short play for four women. Strong women. Women I would’ve liked to be friends with.

And I suppose that was the beginning.

My entire adult life, in one way or another, I’ve been writing, and it wasn’t until I started writing my first novel that I began to see my theatrical education wasn’t wasted. While it’s been years since I stepped foot on a stage, in some ways, this abandoned dream gave me an advantage when it came to creating a character.

It turns out you can learn a lot about writing in an acting class.

While you may not be interested in performing, here are four important lessons I learned in my study of acting.

1. What’s my character’s motivation? It’s a long-running joke in the theatre community. The question that makes an actor sound pretentious. But determining the reason a character does what they do is imperative for both actors and writers. Why did she flee the scene? Why did she burst into tears? Why did he leave his homeland to go on a dangerous quest?

Determining the why will bring your character to life, make him more believable and keep your reader engaged.

2. What is unique about your character? I once played the role of an older woman who smoked too much, had a thick New York accent and a crabby disposition. I couldn’t have played a part more unlike me (at age 22), so I knew I would need to do a bit of research. I saw her in the grocery store—the woman who finally made it click for me. She moved slowly, like a person with a shooting pain in her hip, and her shoulders were hunched over. I was able to adopt her mannerisms and movements in order to bring my crabby old lady to life. What nervous habits does your character have? What makes her different from everyone else? How does she carry herself physically? These are crucial questions.

Get up and walk around for a minute. Walk like yourself. How does that feel? How do you carry yourself? Now, take another lap, but this time, embody your character. Let the character get in your head first, then into your body. Every movement is theirs. Pay close attention to every detail. Do it as many times as you need to, then translate the way you felt to the page.

3. What did you character have for breakfast? It’s the first of many questions you can ask to get to know your character better. It’s no secret that details are important to any good story, and those details should start with the characters. When you’re writing, allow yourself to really become the character. It’s great for you to spend time talking to your protagonist, but becoming your protagonist is even more beneficial.

You’ve got the movement down, you know how to carry yourself, so now think about her personal choices. What foods would make her cringe? What clothes would catch her eye on a mannequin? What is her daily schedule? Spend some time in your character’s everyday shoes and you might be surprised what they reveal to you.

4. How does your character sound? Perhaps the most important thing I learned from studying theatre is the benefit of believable dialogue. This requires that I tap into my inner actress and perform a scene as I’m writing it. There is nothing (in my opinion) that pulls a reader out of a scene like bad dialogue. Stage plays are nothing but dialogue—with very limited stage directions—so every word counts, just as they should in your novel. Determine the speech patterns, slang, vocal inflections of your character in order to create a more dimensional person.

Yes, it would seem that my dreams of becoming an actress were inside of me for a perfectly valid reason, though not one I ever expected. Bringing a character to life on the page is far easier if you get that character in your bones.

Go ahead, talk to yourself. We won’t say a word. 

A Sweethaven Homecoming:

The Sweethaven Circle is back—and so is the friend they thought they’d never see again!

Country music star Meghan Rhodes has moved on with her life, leaving Sweethaven and its painful memories in the past. But when she is confronted on national television with her ex-husband’s plan to file for sole custody of their twins, Meghan takes the first flight home, back to the charming lakeside town full of regrets and relationships that need mending.

As Meghan searches for forgiveness—as well as the ability to forgive—she is overcome with the need to make things right with her children, her ex-husband, her mother, and even the friends she’d convinced herself she no longer needed. But is she too late?
 
The Sweethaven Circle is together again as Meghan works with Campbell, Jane, Lila, and Adele begin a new scrapbook for memories yet to be made. Picking up where A Sweethaven Summer left off, A Sweethaven Homecoming explores the strong bonds of friendship, the power of forgiveness, and the importance of unconditional love.

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Why the Heck Can't She Just Use a Ray Gun? Tess Gerritsen

Tess Gerritsen left a successful practice as an internist to raise her children and concentrate on her writing. She gained nationwide acclaim for her first novel of medical suspense, the New York Times bestseller Harvest. She is also the author of the bestsellers Life Support, Bloodstream, Gravity, and The Surgeon. Tess lives with her family in Maine. (PHOTO CREDIT: Paul D'Innocenzo) --as appeared her blog.




I’m a very lucky writer. All my published books, going back to 1987, are still in print. That’s 25 years’ worth of my stories, still available to readers, and still selling — which makes me very happy indeed.
But it also leads to some strange misunderstandings by readers who pick up one of my older books. They think I must be living in a time warp because my details are so horribly out of date. I try to explain to them that a certain book isn’t actually contemporary because it was written, oh, twenty five years ago. But then they start to argue that even then, I was already out of date.

Take, for instance, my book HARVEST. It was written in 1995. In the story, my character hunts around for a pay phone to make a very important call. Several characters, in fact, can’t reach certain people because they can’t find a landline. A reader took me to task for that, complaining that I was a moron because didn’t I know the northeast has cell towers? Everyone has a cell phone!
 
Well, no. In 1995, only a few doctors had cell phones. Most doctors carried beepers. I remember a discussion at our local hospital around that time, whether the medical group should buy one cell phone to be shared by all the doctors, who’d use it while on call. I tried to explain this to the cranky reader, but he remains unconvinced. In his mind, everyone was using cell phones in 1995, and there’s no way I could ever convince him I was right. (As if I’d write a book in 1995 and purposefully ignore current technology.)

I was also taken to task for VANISH, about an incriminating videotape that must be hand-delivered to a reporter. One reader thought my characters were idiots because they could have shared the video with the whole world by simply posting it on YouTube. D’oh! Why didn’t I think of that?

Well, I wish I had thought of it, because I’d be worth a fortune. The book was written in 2004. YouTube came into existence in 2005. If only I had invented YouTube.

And consider the weirdly anachronistic details in my very first book, CALL AFTER MIDNIGHT. Written in 1986, it was partly set in Berlin, where my heroine must navigate a city where tensions run high because of the Berlin Wall. Which was still standing in 1986.

Yes, readers. I’m fully aware that the Wall came down in 1989. Please, no more letters asking how I could be so woefully ignorant of history.

With the rapid changes in technology, and the fact that your backlist will now forever stay in print thanks to e-books, other authors must be facing the same criticism. “Why didn’t your character just use a fax machine?” “How could he get lost when he could have used a GPS?”

In another few decades, we’ll hear readers complain: “What’s with the cops using Glocks? Why didn’t Jane Rizzoli just set her ray gun on stun?”

It won’t satisfy anyone to point out that the book was written thirty years earlier. Because by then we’ll have time travel, and you’ll have no excuse.

Please, readers. Before you fire off a letter to an author complaining she’s behind the times, check the copyright date. And remember that books are usually written a year before they’re actually published. An author can’t be blamed for not knowing what the world will look like a year (or more) in the future.

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