Magical Musings

Working It Out In My Books
By: Marie Force

Thanks to LaDonna and the gals at Magical Musings for having me back again! I’m a daily fan of your blog, even if it’s in lurk mode

Within my group of friends, there’s been some speculation recently that I’m using my books to work out some of my life issues. I had an almost violent dislike of football until my muse delivered a swaggering hero who insisted he was an NFL quarterback and not the baseball shortstop I would’ve preferred. When my hero in Line of Scrimmage, Ryan Sanderson, won the argument I was forced to immerse myself in football and came away a fan. Imagine that!

Guess what else I hate? FLYING! I’d be perfectly happy to never again race down a runway at 500 miles an hour (or whatever speed it really is) and lift off into the sky. However, my life dictates that I must fly—often—and I hate it so much that I’m forced to take a tiny white pill just so I can work up the wherewithal to step foot on a plane. So where does my second book, Love at First Flight, open? In an airport! What’s wrong with me?

My characters, Michael Maguire and Juliana Gregorio, meet at the Baltimore/Washington International Airport on a Friday evening when they are on their way to visit their significant others in Florida. He’s engaged to Paige, a high-maintenance yet lovable woman he’s dated for four years. Juliana is looking forward to seeing Jeremy, her boyfriend of ten years who has seemed distant lately on the phone. During the flight, Michael and Juliana commiserate on the pitfalls of long-distance relationships and both are anxious about the weekend ahead. A Baltimore prosecutor about to begin the murder trial of his career, Michael has better things to do than attend the over-the-top engagement party Paige and her parents have planned for that weekend. Juliana is anxious to know what’s bugging Jeremy lately.

After Michael and Juliana each endure a disastrous weekend, they meet up again on the flight home, striking up an unlikely friendship that leads to love. Michael’s trial spins out of control, endangering both of them as they deal with an ex-fiancée and ex-boyfriend who refuse to go quietly. One of the things I love best about this book is the way Michael and Juliana are friends first and lovers second. Their love blossoms slowly and sweetly as they support each other through difficult breakups and challenging work and family situations.

As Love at First Flight hits shelves across the country, tell me, have you ever had a close encounter of the romantic kind on a flight? Are you a member of the mile high club? LOL! I’m not, and don’t worry, neither are Michael and Juliana! I’ll give away a copy of each of my books to a lucky commenter. If you’ve already read Line of Scrimmage, just let me know.

If you wish to discuss all the rules I broke in Love at First Flight, join me Monday, July 20, at 7 p.m. EDT on my blog http://mariesullivanforce.blogspot.com for a book club discussion. Warning, there will be spoilers, so make sure you read the book before the party! I’ll be giving away some great prizes to participants.

Oh, and by the way? I love football, but I still hate to fly!

Contact Marie: marie@marieforce.com
Website: www.mariesullivanforce.com
Blog: http://mariesullivanforce.blogspot.com

First off, I’ve posted my exciting news on my personal blog, but still have to do it here. I signed with an agent last week, and couldn’t be happier, more excited, more thrilled, more over-the-moon than I am!! I’m still walking on air .

Now, on to the damaged hero. Last night I watched a French movie, Arsene Lupin, based on a French novel that was also, ages ago, a French TV series. We used to get the Arsene Lupin French TV series (we got a few French series, actually) on South African TV, dubbed into Afrikaans. It was along similar lines to the movie.

Anyway, the hero of the movie, Arsene, is very tortured. Very damaged. He believes his father is dead, then he learns he isn’t, and then his father tries to kill him. In the fight to the death, he kills his father in self-defence. Then his wife is murdered, and his son is kidnapped by his arch-enemy, his former lover, and brought up by her to hate him. Could you get a more tortured life?

His one aim is to find his son again, and get revenge for his wife’s murder, and to do so, he takes on a number of disguises. One of them is as a count, and he seduces a young noblewoman as part of his cover. She says to him: “You are hiding a deep wound.” And he answers. “I have no deep wound. Nothing has ever happened to me, except you.” And she replies. “No man who had nothing happen to them could be as attractive as you.”

Ah ha! Does it come more pithy and true than French movie dialogue? Honestly?

That’s it in a nutshell. There is something incredibly attractive about a man with a tortured past. The haunted eyes, the supressed pain. The demons of hell burning in their cold stare. We’re suckers for that stuff.

I thought my hero from my 1525-set historical was the best character I’ve ever written, and part of that is his tortured past. Not as tortured as poor Arsene Lupin, not nearly as OTT as that, but deep wounds nevertheless. He is the dark to the heroine’s light. It is what attracts him to her, and what fascinates her about him.

What is your take on the tortured hero? And while we’re talking tortured heroes, who is your favorite one? I think mine is probably the Count of Monte Cristo.

I started reading a book with a heroine whose life has been falling apart for years. She meets this hot guy and at this first meeting, he offers to help her. So what does she do? She gives him a saucy grin.

And that’s where she lost me as a reader.

I know none of you would do anything as banal and shallow as this in your books. Saucy grins are for flirting, they’re not for deep moments. Moments when you’re barely scaping by, life’s been raining crap on you for years, and someone tells you, “Hey, you’ve got crap, I’ve got a shovel and strong shoulders.”

This is when your heroine should feel a flood of emotion. If she doesn’t feel emotion, if she’s numb inside from all the crap, you should let the reader know that. Or maybe she’s suspicious. Why is he doing this? What does he want?

I would have forgotten about this and gone on with my day, but something happened to reinforce this. I recently took Margie Lawson’s Writing Body Language and Dialogue Cues Like a Psychologist online class. I’ve read the lessons once, but they’re so good, I like to read them until I feel they’ve worn pathways in my brain. And even after that, I want a refresher now and then.

So I opened Lesson One, which is about amplifying smiles, making them mean something more than a twitch of the lips. Here are a few of her many examples:

HELEN SCOTT TAYLOR, THE MAGIC KNOT

Michael beamed his bone-melting smile at her again.

CAMY TANG, ONLY UNI

Her smile took on a predatory gleam.

P. J. TRACY, MONKEEWRENCH

She tipped her head sideways a little, no more than an inch, but something in her eyes changed, as if maybe there was a small, small smile somewhere inside her head that might, in time, make it outside to her mouth.

Aren’t those great?

After I read the lesson, I took my dog for a walk. While we walked, I was playing around in my mind with smile examples. Here are a few I made up:

She smiled, her teeth as sharp and shiny as razor blades.

He smiled and his face lit up, as if inside him marched a tiny Mardi Gras band.

She smiled with the warmth of the sun, and he felt the ice around his heart melt a little.

They aren’t perfect. I’ll probably never use the tiny Mardi Gras band (though I like it), but I’m just playing.

Do you want to play with a smile example? A way to deepen it so you’ll think twice about using a “saucy grin” when the action called for something like:

The grin she gave him was supposed to be saucy but she feared it looked more like I-want-to-fall-on-my-knees-and-kiss-your-feet smile — and a few other body parts.

I’m in the midst of building the characters for a new story/series that I’m mulling over. This is going to be completely different from what I’ve done in the past and I want my characters to reflect that difference. This will be much darker and I’m going to need a pair (or three) main characters who are … not so much damaged, since I don’t do damaged per se, but characters who are able to handle the darker side of life.

I’m not one to create a questionnaire for my characters. You know the ones … where they have everything laid out from the date of birth to their underwear size. Tried that but that’s never been for me. Normally I spend a considerable amount of time building these characters in my head, giving them their strengths and their flaws, their foibles and generally what makes them tick.

Then there’s the visual. It’s sorta funny but when I was in Las Vegas a couple of months ago, I was hanging around the pool. Glancing up from my book, I saw her. The perfect woman for my heroine. Younger than I would have liked … she looked to be in her early twenties, but that’s not a problem. A writer can mentally add any number of years to a character. Long, nearly black hair, olive complection, big dark eyes and a drop dead body. I wanted to so much go up to her and ask if I could take her picture, but I would have no doubt come off like a weirdo … and she probably wouldn’t have been wrong.

So now that I have a visual of my heroine, I’m scanning clothing catalogues for that same type. That’s where I usually find a photo of my heroines. Not so easy with the heros. I don’t get many clothing catalogues for men, so I have to rely on magazines. Anyway, I’ll find the type of woman that I’ve mentally built in my mind, find a couple of samples, paste them in a three ring binder and start putting together my “bible”. This is where I have pictures of my characters, maps of their city, photos of buildings they live in or frequent, even the type of car they drive.

Now I just have to give more thought as to what type of person she is. How do you go about building your character? Is this someone you have to have fully developed before you can bring yourself to write those first words, or is this someone you build as you go along. The latter has been my method in the past, but this time I think I need to have them developed before I start.

Marie Force will be our guest blogger on Thursday, July 2nd. LOVE AT FIRST FLIGHT is a recent release at Sourcebooks. Here’s a blurb posted at Marie’s website… A Baltimore prosecutor set to begin the murder trial of his career and a hair stylist with a dysfunctional family meet in the airport on their way to visit their significant others in Florida. After they each endure a disastrous weekend, they meet up again on the flight home, striking up an unlikely friendship that leads to love. I loved Marie’s debut book, and look forward to reading this one.

Marie hails from Rhode Island, and has a communications background previously working as a reporter, editor, and writer for the last 20 years. Marie also served as the communications director for a national membership organization. Marie’s first visit with Magical was to celebrate her debut book, Line of Scrimmage. We look forward to seeing all of you here for the fun. Marie will be giving away a copy of Love at First Flight, and Line of Scrimmage so be sure and leave a comment Thursday for our drawing!

By: Karen Chance
Publisher: NAL (Onyx)
ISBN: 978-0-451-41262-1

I’d initially planned on doing a review of Jeaniene Frost’s latest, “Destined for an Early Grave” since I scored an ARC while at the Romantic Times Conference. However, since the release date is the end of July, I’ll hold off until my next turn at reviewing here to do that book. Better to do it closer to release date anyway.

So … instead, I’ll do a review of “Midnight’s Daughter” by Karen Chance. This is a new author that I discovered about a month ago. She has another series cookin’ but since the first book of that series wasn’t available when I was at the bookstore, I decided to check out the second one. And was I glad I did.

Dorina Basarab is a dhampir. She’s half human and half vampire and totally despised by the supernatural community for what she is. Dhampirs have a very short, very violent life (or is it unlife? — not sure) since they’re given to uncontrollable rages that usually results in getting themselves killed. But somehow Dory has managed to control her rages for over five hundred years by becoming a sort of bounty hunter of the demon and vampire world. She prides herself on taking out nasties that deserve it.

Dory pretty much has a handle on things up until her roommate disappears and father reappears in her life with the news that Uncle Dracula (yep … the real Dracula) has escaped a special prison and is on the rampage again. Dory has reason to be concerned since she was instrumental in putting her darlin’ uncle in said prison in the first place. She figures he just might be a little peeved with her for her part in his incarceration. Although her father, Mircea is unwilling to kill his brother, Dory has no such compulsions and with the help of gorgeous vampire — Louise Cesare, will do her best to put him in a permanent grave.

Excellent book for anyone who hasn’t read Karen Chance before. Written in the first person (as most urban fantasies seem to be), Karen has done an excellent job in creating her world and making it so believable. I’m a very visual person and had absolutely no problem buying into Karen’s world. I really can’t wait for the second book of this series (”Midnight’s Mistress”), which I see is due out in January of 2010. Awesome!

Finishing a first draft is like having a…well, naked baby. I know the writing process birthed my little darlin, but know once here this baby of mine will continue to evolve during the revision process. I have a hardcopy to hold now, since she’s been living in my computer and I printed her out. That’s something, and I don’t mind telling ya I do hug those to my chest and breathe them in… again. I also hug books when I read an extraordinary story and feel its magic.

I love knowing the stage is set, and the characters are fully developed. My last baby required some new scenes added, while others didn’t make the cut. I already have a scene that I didn’t add, but one I’m mulling over now. The scene will add a little seque into my next book, and since I’ll be revisiting this place I know it belongs. And after the first read-through, I experienced whispers of where I can layer a little more. I actually get goosebumps when that happens. I love that the creative process doesn’t stop there, but continues whether you’re working with trusted friends or professionals, or both; it’s a process.

I must tell you, I get more excited with each story. And when it comes to the final revisions, I know whatever outfit she chooses will resound with the spirit of my story. That’s crucial to me, that my stories reflect my character’s true essence. I’ve always valued the uniqueness in people and the characters who come to me. In our family, it’s those individual quirks we love and encourage. I give my hat off to my daughters, who have encouraged my grandchildren to express who they are. That’s the greatest gift of all, I believe, to discover who you are and embrace it with all you’ve got.

I’m curious, how do you feel about your first drafts?

So, what’s your story about?

As a writer, I’m sure you get asked this often. But do you know the answer? I mean really know? When most people ask what your story is about they don’t want to know your plot, all the little details, great scenes, interesting dialogue that happens. They want to know, at the most basic level, what your concept is. What is the spine that will hold the entire book together? Now do you know what your book is about? A lot of writers don’t.

When you’ve finished writing the book it’s actually a lot harder to figure out what that spine is. Boiling it down to a succinct logline is hard. You want to put in everything you think makes the story great. But you have to pick out the basics, just enough to catch someone’s interest and get them asking questions. The general consensus is the logline should be twenty-five words or less. If you go over by a few words that’s fine. But the twenty-five word limit forces you to be as precise as possible. Trim the excess words and get right to the point.

So why the heck would you need a logline? The first reason that comes to mind is the editor/agent pitch. To put in your query letter. To try out your idea on others. To help you stay focused. I actually come up with my logline first before writing the story.

What do you need in the logline and how can it help you stay focused? There are many answers to what you need in the logline but they all have three things in common. The logline should tell us WHO the story is about, WHAT he wants (Goal), and WHY he can’t have it (Conflict). A good logline will have the GMC. I like to start my loglines with the inciting incident or character motivation. Why does the protagonist need to go through this story? What prompted him to take action?

Loglines should have generic characters. By that I mean no names. Your story is about a sexy librarian, a by-the-book undercover cop. Sure, I’ve seen some loglines on some of the logline contests that contain character names. Some of those even made the cut to the next round. It’s all the preference of the agent and/or editor. The reason for the descriptor and then noun for the character is impact. It tells you more about the character then just the name.

To stop a murder, a sexy librarian must deliver a rare first edition from the library to the man holding her sister hostage, but the library burns down.

That tells me more then: To stop a murder, Lexa Tome must deliver a rare first edition from the library to the man holding her sister hostage, but the library burns down.

How does all this keep you focused? Think of all those essays you wrote in school. You had to have a thesis statement at the beginning that you would prove in the rest of your essay. The same goes for your logline and book. If you refer back to your logline every once in a while as you’re writing it can help you stay on track. By using sexy librarian I’m constantly reminded of at least one trait my heroine needs to show in every scene. By chapter four have you veered off in some other direction that has nothing to do with the core of your story? If you have that logline and know what the spine of the story is you can use that to make sure every scene, every chapter builds on that spine. Then when you’re done you don’t have to try to come up with a pitch. You already have one ready.

Anyone want to try out their loglines? National is coming up fast. Post your logline for a chance to win a copy of my loglines workshop.

Cindy Carroll
http://www.cindycarroll.com

When I hear the word ‘gather’ I think immediately of hunter gatherers, of women sort of strolling around with baskets, chatting and picking, and watching kids and keeping an eye out for any hovering carnivores. That sort of covers my writing process, LOL.

I get the core of the idea, the basket, if you will, and then I wander around, finding the right things to go in it. This process can and usually does take me years, and the beauty of the timeline is that only the really strong, interesting baskets last that long. So I know, especially as I get to a point of critical mass, when the basket starts taking the strain because I’ve got a lot in there, that its a good basket and will hold strong.

The reason I’ve brought this up now is that I was walking this morning and my mind started following this weird path, a sort of daydream that I didn’t want to allow because I was supposed to be thinking of my WIP, focusing my mind so that when I got back home I could jump right into it. This story in my head was too interesting, though, and I let it play out, wondering where it was going and bam! The last ’scene’ of it delivered a punchline, a concept to me, like a choir of angels descending and handing over the holy grail or something. This insight was perfect, just perfect, for this out-there YA UF I’ve thought about for YEARS. I’d never started it, just had the general outline and the first few paragraphs in a file, waiting for exactly this breakthrough.

What can I say? The gatherer method really works for me, and because I’ve stuck with this method for years, I’ve collected enough for so many stories, I’m good to go for the next ten years, even if I never get another idea again. Which is about as likely as snow in hell. And I must say, when I’ve had to, I’ve managed to go out there and hunt an idea down, rather than trust I will come across it when the time is right, but that is not my default mode.

So how about you? Are you like me, calmly and serenely going about the business, basket in arm, plucking the juicy ideas as you find them, or are you more a hunter, getting everything in a great energetic rush at the last minute?

We’re redecorating our upstairs bathroom. My husband knows how to tile, so he’s doing everything but the plumbing. I’m skipping a long story about finding the perfect tiles, but with the help of an interior designer friend, we ended up getting our tiles from a place that only sells to contractors. We made two mistakes ordering — the first because of a new employee at the tile place and the second ours.

For the first one we panicked. Because we had such a great deal (the sales person didn’t charge any commission), I didn’t feel comfortable asking them to fix it. My brilliant son suggested a solution, and I found a perfect match in a chain store.

The other one was a measuring mistake my husband made for the border tiles (called bullnoses) around the bathtub walls. This time we didn’t panic. We’d gotten through one problem and knew we’d get through with this, too. And we did! We had ordered squares of small glass-and-stone tiles to cut into rows and use as a border about three-quarters up the tile. We ended up with one and one-half squares left. My husband got the awesome idea of cutting the pieces to the size of a bullnose and and using that. He has them up and it looks like something a designer on HGTV would do. It “pops.”

Here’s where I connect redecorating to writing. Last week I went through a hard copy of my book. It’s the fourth revision, and I thought the last. But as I read the second half of the book, I knew the first half was better. Not because of the plot or the pace or the characters. I hate to say it, but it’s the writing. I didn’t make the last half shine as much as the first.

I felt a little depressed, but reminded myself how much I like the first half. It didn’t happen by accident. I sweated through the first half; it was the second half that was easier.

The easiness shows, but it’s fixable. I can sweat some more and make that second half as good and even better than the first. Like my husband did with the glass-and-stone tiles, I can make it so good it will pop. When I send it out, I’ll know that it’s more than the best I can do, that I took that extra step and that extra time to make it shine. I’ll have faith in my book.

In many ways, I think all creative endeavors are leaps of faith — writing, dancing, singing, painting, designing. What are your thoughts on this? Do you have faith in what you’re doing?