Personality Conflict

Have you ever written a character you didn’t like? And I’m not talking villain here.

It’s all about the heroine, or the hero. In this case, both. I make no claims to know all there is to know about the craft of writing. Yes, I’m published, but that in no way means I’ve nothing left to learn. As taught to me by my current WIP (work in progress, for those of you having a wtf? moment).

They each have a job to do in your story, correct? What do you do if you don’t believe they can handle the task the story has set for them?

It took me awhile to come to grips with this. At first I balked and thought, nah, I created them. Of course they’re going to work it out. I justified their existence by telling myself I didn’t know them well enough. And kept writing. And I still wasn’t buying it.

The hero seemed weak, more of a nineties kind of guy, when what I wanted was more like knight-in-shining-armor wrapped in Pierce Brosnan.

The heroine couldn’t convince me she was a strong female role model, no matter how she tried. Simply going with the flow does not a role model make.

What to do, what to do. Um, uh, mmmmm. *light bulb* Rewrite! Yes. That will work.

It didn’t. And the third time it didn’t work either.

I looked at all the other story elements. Plot, subplot, supporting characters, setting, dialogue, back story, etc. Nada, zip, zero. It all seemed to work together, I could see where the story would go, knew the beginning, middle, and end. The problem still remained. I didn’t believe in my main characters. Nothing they did could suspend my disbelief.

I have to ask myself, did I run out of talent? Or is there an elephant in the room and I’m just not seeing it?

The choices are - ditch these two losers, or recreate them with the strength they need to carry on.

What would you do?

Renegade Renovation #12 – We’re In!

The trim was all painted, and hung on the drywall with care.
In hopes that the inspector would soon be there...

And here’s the rest of the story. At the end of June, somewhere around the last blog post here, we made one final push to get everything ready for the final inspection. The inspector came, and said things looked great, we could move in. Yay! Sort of.

Yes, it was a milestone. One we’d been working to reach for more than a year. There was one tiny thing we didn’t realize though. The work wasn’t over yet.

The trim still had to be filled, caulked and touch-up painted. There were closet organizers to install.

And then the biggie. Moving our belongings from storage, into the house. Whoo-hoo!!

The answer to your question is, yes. I’m writing this post from my shiny new office. It’s not quite together yet. After all, you need a place to put all the junk, right? But it’s so cool. After what feels like months of depravation, here I sit surrounded by box after box, stacked three high. Of books! Ain’t life grand.

Back On Track - Or Is That Off Track?

Any hoo, I'm back in the land of technology. Taking time off was a must do, in order to get things done as fast as humanly possible. I'll clue you in on those 'things' very soon.

The only coherent post I could have made over the last several weeks would have been, "Oh, I'm so tired." Brings to mind Madelaine Kahn in Blazing Saddles...which makes me laugh out loud.

Starting Monday, we'll be back to the regularly scheduled program around here. Whatever the heck that is. I'm looking forward to it. I hope you are.

TBR Everywhere You Look

It's no secret that writers are also voracious readers. Our To-Be-Read piles are legend. Tell me, was I the only one so naive as to think that getting an ereader, and an app to read books on my BlackBerry, would eliminate the piles of books which multiply like rabbits all over my house?

You have got to be kidding me. Not only do I have an overflowing TBR pile, I now have a very large TBR file. The whole renovation thing is taking up most of my spare time, and working on a manuscript I'm behind on, is taking up the rest of the time, so there isn't any time left over to read. That's really okay for now. But the aforementioned problem still exists. Ten-fold!

Here's a short list of what's in my TBR's. These are the ones I can see at a glance.

Pile

Original Sin by Allison Brennan
Lover Mine by J.R. Ward
Atlantis Redeemed by Alyssa Day
Hot Westmoreland Nights by Brenda Jackson
What a Scoundrel Wants by Carrie Lofty
The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Ms. Percy Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber
Serpent Moon by C.T. Adams & Cathy Clamp

File

A Bitch Named Karma by Stephanie Haefner
The Devil's Punchbowl by Greg Iles
Jack Daniels Stories by J.A. Konrath
AfterGlow by Pamela Vee
Under The Dome by Stephen King
A Darker Trinity by Candace Gilmer
Bright Star by Greyson Reyes-Cole

Yep, my tastes are eclectic. I'm one of those weirdos who reads the back of cereal boxes too.

What's in your pile?

Renegade Renovation #11 – Queen of the Tile

Welcome to June. And summer. Niiiice.

Holy cow, where did the month of May go? My apologies for being a bad blogger again.

It seems the time passed me by in a flurry, well, more like in stacks and stacks of tile. Endless days of being on the floor, against the wall, or bent over the tile saw. And it’s finally finished!! That’s what I want to celebrate and who better to do it with than you? Hope you enjoy the photos.


Why did I do so much tile work, you ask? Well, here’s the deal. My budget allowed for inexpensive flooring in a few places, installed by the flooring people. Or, it allowed for tile if I did it myself. Of course, back when everything was shiny and new, with the blush of oh-my-we’ve-got-our-own-house still upon us, tile seemed the best way to go.


Fast forward about eight months, spent working on nothing but the house in our free time. The blush is long gone. Actually, was there a blush? Not sure I remember it. I can’t blame anyone though, because I willingly agreed to do the tile since I’ve done it before. Funny, though, after a few years, you forget how much work it was way back then.


Just how much tile did I do? Uh, let me count the rooms...the laundry room floor, the master bath including floor, shower and counter tops, the guest bath floor, and the kitchen backsplash. Queen of the tile, for sure. Guess it could work as a side job if the whole writing thing doesn’t fly.

At any rate, the push is on, to get this renovation finished so every spare moment is spent doing something on the house. Looks like only a couple more weeks and it’ll be finished. I can’t wait for the day I can just walk into my office, and write.

Rude Authors

Have you ever met one? If you have, I bet you remember them, and the incident associated with them.

I saw one many years ago. Funny, it was at the very first writer’s convention I ever attended, you know, back when most of the roads were dirt and we traveled by horse and carriage.

She was a very fav author of mine. Top of my auto-buy list. I say I saw her, because I didn’t really meet her. We were both part of a group milling around the elevators, waiting for one to arrive. If you’ve ever been to a conference, you know the wait seems interminable.

Said author got tired of waiting, and of course by this point, other people with nothing to do were starting to ask for her autograph. She wasn’t rude to the people in question, but I happened to be close enough to hear a snarky comment she made to the woman who was with her, about having to stand there and ‘deal’ with ‘these people’. Needless to say, the two of them left in a huff. I think they must have taken the stairs.

I was so shocked and offended by her behavior, to this day, I’ve never read or purchased another book with her name on it. And no, I won’t tell you who it is, because believe me, she’s at such a level of success that it makes no difference whether I buy them or not.

The only reason I choose to bring this up, is because during the RT convention (which was fantastic btw) in Ohio recently, it seemed to be a common theme. While waiting in line for this or that, you tend to chat with your line-mates about whatever, or whoever crosses your path to pass the time.

One thing that came up over and over again, was that people would not, now, or ever, buy books from authors who were rude, snarky in person, or generally ill-mannered.

I have to confess, as an author, it made me think twice about my own behavior. Especially during those times when I thought it wouldn’t matter. Like waiting in line, holding the door for someone, answering a question for directions, or even waiting for the elevator. It once again reminded me that as a published author, I’m a professional, and people are watching.

Then I began to wonder if I wasn’t just becoming the teeniest bit paranoid.

What do you think? Does an author’s behavior in person affect whether or not you will buy their book?

Do You Write Romance Novels?

I saw this today, and just had to share.

I Write Romance Novels - So What?

It's a special by author Eileen Dreyer to CNN.

Well said.

Best of luck with the historicals, Eileen!