Fun new game!  Fellow agent-mate Pat Esden tagged me in a snippet-sharing blog post. Pat’s snippet makes me eager to read more of Devil’s Orchard.

I’m sharing a bit from my untitled WIP which is now winding down. It’s a ghost project in which I’ve been creating a marketable novel for my clients based on their early 20^th century family history. (For my clients’ privacy, my protagonist’s name has been changed.) The genre is historical fiction.

The rules were: “Search the words “moment,” “forever,” and “time,” in your writing, pick your favorite chunk, post on your blog, and tag others!” I opted for “forever.” Here it is:

The second time Thomas kissed a girl it was behind a pawpaw tree at the back of the camp.  Again, it was with Sarah.  This time Thomas no longer cared about awkwardness or about being at a loss for words.  He had been at a loss for words for so many months that he figured he had no better chance of finding them now than he ever had.

Perhaps registering his indifference, Sarah turned away and folded her arms.  “I kept waiting for you to feel better,” she said, clearing her throat.  “And now we’re leaving.  I reckon you and me just ain’t meant to be, huh?”

Thomas yanked at one of the large, yellowed leaves of the pawpaw.  “No, I reckon not.”

“I was kind of hoping my pa would stay and eventually we could get married.”

Thomas started, but did his best not to show it.  He wondered what she would think if he admitted that kissing her would forever remind him of terrible snow storms and lost loved ones. For him, it would never be any other way.

 That’s it! I’m tagging Dale Spencer, Rhiann Wynn-Nolet , and Roberta Goodman in hopes they will share a bit of what they are working on. Hope to read a snippet of your WIPs soon!

Like most writers, I absolutely love writing that first draft of a new manuscript. It’s fun and exciting and I typically have no problem staying up until 3AM to finish a scene even though my eyes feel like sandpaper. Writing the first draft of a manuscript is more fun than editing and revising it, and way more fun than selling it. It’s the reason I write.

Enter ghost project.

At the beginning of the year, I dove into the task of turning a clients’ family history into a marketable novel for them. With approximately 10,000 more words left until the first draft is finished, It has been a unique and rewarding but difficult experience for me. For the first time, I’ve found myself accountable for my work. These new characters weren’t created by me. They were real people that walked this earth. They lived, loved, suffered, and made a difference in the lives of the people around them. In writing about them, not only am I sticking to an outline, I’m trying to create fictional characters that will do the people they once were the justice they deserve.

Add to that, I’m a pantster that is suddenly sticking to a rigid outline. These new characters can’t veer off at will and head for Tahiti. Okay, to be honest, none of my pervious characters have ever actually done that, but at least I knew they could if they really wanted to.

While this ghost project will be a wonderful experience when it is all said and done, writing it hasn’t necessarily been easy. Lately I’ve been asking myself why. What I’ve discovered is that during the writing process, I’m in a state reminiscent of what I felt writing my old college term papers. There’s pressure there, of course, to take what’s mulling around inside and just get it on paper. To take what I have learned from research and the information my clients have given me and create a document (in this case, a 60K plus word story) with it. Even more so, I think the pressure I feel is based on my desire to do justice to these people who no longer walk this earth but who felt, experienced, and did profound things while they were alive.

In the face of this pressure, I have found that the stars need to be in better alignment while I write this story. If I’m tired or have a headache, I can’t always summon the energy to find the right words. Because I want the story to be as strong as anything else I’ve written, I let myself walk away when I need to and come back when I feel fresh. I take a walk, do housework, or head out to pet my horse (best inspiration ever).

The other thing I’ve found that offers inspiration during these times of writer’s block is sifting through the many pictures of these people that my clients have lent me. To remind myself what the real versions of my characters looked like when they smiled, put their arms around one another, shielded their eyes from the glare of the sun, and simply embraced life. It’s both humbling and deeply inspirational, and generates a deep respect for the true people that I am writing about.

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I know I’m in good company among Thursday’s Children friends when I declare that writing is my favorite pastime. In fact, the urge to write has become an irrepressible part of my personality. It’s one of those things I would do even if nothing more ever came of it than sharing it with my closest friends. Six months ago, I expanded my writerly universe by signing with an agent and beginning the journey of developing a social media platform. Along the way, I’ve learned a great deal more about the publishing industry, I’ve made many wonderful friends, and I’ve learned a lot about editing.

Now, as I take an honest look back at what I’ve written over the years and think about new projects, I find myself doing it with a different eye. And one of the things that inspires me as I delve into making my work better is the movie Inception.

I’ve only seen the movie once and, admittedly, it was a while ago. However, the movie made an impression that I keep thinking about in regards to evaluating my work. What struck a chord with me the most is that, just when you think you’re there, you’ve seen all there is to see, you find out there’s another level just below the surface you’re standing on. Suddenly everything unfolds and, like it or not, you’re going deeper.

That’s where I find myself with my writing. I’m looking for those easy “fall back” places. I have discovered that I have a tendency to describe the same things while in the midst of a bout of dialogue. A character’s eyes and the emotion that is visible in them, for instance. I have also found that I repeat the same words, I am drawn to similar secondary character names, and I favor certain numbers. For example, in one manuscript, it was five miles to a friend’s house. Later in the story, it was five miles to another place my characters were headed.

When I find these places in my work, places where I’ve either repeated myself or have pulled from the safe, known, and familiar, I find myself thinking back to the movie Inception. Is this it, I ask myself. Or can I go deeper? The answer, of course, is that there is always something more creative just below the surface.

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I would like to thank Cassandra Griffin for nominating me for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award. Cassandra is a YA writer, as well as a fellow agency mate, repped by Pooja Menon of Kimberley Cameron and Associates. Cassandra is a self-described jack of all trades and a wonderful blogger. She was a finalist in the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest for her novel Dreamcatchers.

I’m honored that she thought of me for this award as it’s a wonderful way to connect with and promote fellow writers. I’m looking forward to passing it on.

7 Fun Facts About Me:

1. The coolest day job I ever had was performing in a Birds of Prey show with hawks, owls, and a rehabbed bald eagle that stole my heart.

2. The second coolest day job I held was working with a non-profit whose mission is to reintroduce endangered wolves back into the wild.

3. No matter what’s coming my way, being a mom will stay at the top of my “best thing ever” list as long as I live.

4. When it comes to writing and rejection, I don’t believe anyone’s said it better than Snoopy:

5. My favorite writerly quote:

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”
by Henry David Thoreau

6. Just last Saturday, I was notified that I received Honorable Mention in the Jade G. Bute writing contest for my short story Strangers in a Crowd.

7. Even after writing an essay my senior year that made my English Lit teacher “bawl like a baby”, it still took five years and a hard-earned Bachelor of Science worth of biology, chemistry, math, and physics classes to make me realize that what I wanted to do more than anything was write fiction. Go figure.

Award Rules:
1. Display logo in your blog to show you’ve been nominated!
2. Link back to your nominator.
3. Share 7 things about yourself.
4. Nominate 15 other bloggers for the award.
5. Notify your nominees.

These are just a few of my favorite bloggers at the moment, and I hope you’ll find them as inspirational as I do! I’m looking forward to reading some fun facts about all of them.

My Nominations (in no particular order):

1. Kat Ellis

2. L. S. Murphy

3. Katherine Ernst

4.Teri Harman

5. Juliana Haygert

6. Amber Mauldin

7. Roberta Goodman

8. Jani Grey

9. Elsie Park

10. Sheila Dalton

11. Heather Marie

12. Randall St. Germain

13. Cat McMahon

14. M. A. Scott

15. Taryn Albright

Odds are that way before you begin writing your manuscript, you form images of your main characters. One thing to keep in mind as begin to write is that physical characteristics of characters can inspire stereotypes…unless you turn the stereotype on its ear. Consider that no matter how well you describe them, the images your readers will form of them will be entirely their own.

Therefore, it’s good to remember the common stereotypes that can come into play as readers form these images. This is especially important for the protagonist. For most readers, having a protagonist they can identify with is important.  Hair color, in particular, can be a natural draw or a turn-off, depending on readers’ innate preferences. Consider the abundant stereotypes that accompany hair colors. The way readers naturally feel about these colors can be an all important step in developing feelings for your protagonist.

 The Beautiful Blonde

For better or worse, there probably isn’t a hair color more judged than flowing blond locks. Stereotypes for blondes abound. Blondes are notorious for having more fun, but they also bear the brunt of hundreds of jokes. Add to that, there’s the more-perfect-than-physically-possible Barbie doll that many of your female readers wished as children they could grow up to be just like. If your protagonist is a gorgeous blonde, you don’t want your reader envisioning someone so perfect that they could never strive to be like her. To avoid this mishap, consider giving this stunning blonde—you know, the one men walk into walls over—a tangible flaw that readers can identify with early on. A slightly chipped tooth maybe or a deviated septum with a resulting imperfect nose. Something that will keep readers from wanting to tuck her in a storage box with a bunch of disproportionately-sized plastic dolls.

Interestingly enough, according to Wikipedia, only 2% of the human population are natural blondes by the time they reach adulthood. Therefore, most of the blond hair we see comes out of a bottle. If this is the secret behind your heroine’s blond locks, at least a higher percentage of readers will identify with her.

The Loyal Brunette

Brunettes (those with brown hair, not black) are often considered to be trustworthy, faithful, even tempered, and generally very bright. Think Hermione Granger anyone? Brown hair is the second most common hair color in the world. Because brown hair is well represented, it will certainly be less apt to threaten or isolate your reader.

However, on the other end of the spectrum, if your protagonist is a brunette, consider giving her a little zing so the reader doesn’t fall into the trap of thinking she’s too commonplace. A flashy temper maybe or a beauty-mark that draws attention to her nearly-perfect lips.

 The Fiery Red Head

It’s not surprising that the rarest hair color on the planet is abound with stereotypes. Modern-day red-haired heroines won’t have to worry about being burned at the stake just for possessing the rare recessive alleles that determine their hair color, but they will still bear the brunt of lots of stereotyping. Red-heads are thought to be hot-tempered, opinionated, excitable, passionate, impatient, and impulsive. Let’s not forget beaten up as step-children. As a natural-born redhead, I can’t tell you how often I’ve come across these stereotypes. I’ve even had strangers point to me while asking my husband how he likes my temper—and while I was in a perfectly good mood, too!

So, why choose a red-haired protagonist? For my YA urban fantasy, Tumbling After, I wanted this protagonist to stand out from the crowd from the get go. Since red hair is found in less than 2% of the population, it seemed like a natural fit. She’s a bit of a misfit anyway and this seemed to mesh well with her character. If you choose a protagonist with red hair, keep in mind that 98% of readers won’t sympathize with the stereotyping she’s endured.  To help them identify with her, consider giving her some personality trait that is commonplace and everyday. A love of reality TV, perhaps…

 The Dark Haired Diva

Last but not least is black hair, which is incidentally the most common hair color in the world. Despite the commonality of the color, dark (or black) haired people are generally thought to be the most mysterious, reserved, calm, artistic, shadowy, competent, and astute people on the planet. In my alternate universe, I’d don black hair and be uber mysterious.

Does your heroine have shiny, flowing, raven-black hair? To keep her accessible to the masses, consider ways to show her as down to earth. Possibly she could practice organic gardening, composting, or something else earthy and wholesome. You know what I mean. Make sure she can get her fingernails dirty once in a while.

Regardless of hair color, writers shouldn’t attempt to create the perfect heroine. Nor will your readers need to like everything about her to keep on reading. They will, however, need to have a compassionate interest in your protagonist. Why else would they invest so much time with her?

Finally, a word of warning. If you haven’t chosen to reveal to your readers your heroine’s hair color in your first chapter or two, it’s best just to skip it all together. Otherwise having to create a different picture of your protagonist than the one they imagined could prove to be too much trouble and annoyance for your readers.

What other stereotypes have you considered that your heroine might need to face at some point in your story?

Let’s face it.  Humor is highly subjective.  What produces a belly laugh for many readers can be trite for some and even offensive to others.  However, books that utilize humor to draw in readers, whether or not the genre calls for it (think Dean Koontz blending humor into horror) can certainly warm our hearts, even if for short time.  It can also have us coming back for more.  Kat Ellis, one of my favorite bloggers, has certainly mastered this in her blog even though, according to her, she might not be doing it intentionally.

I’ve asked her to share some advice on how she incorporates humor (or humour if you live outside the U.S.) into her writing.  Intentionally or not.  Here’s what Kat had to say:

Q.  Kat, you have a great sense of humor.  It’s evident in your blogs, tweets, etc.  As a result, I happily click over to your new blogs, knowing that they will be refreshing as well as informative.  Your writing genre, however, is Sci Fi and, by your own words, tends to be dark and gritty.  Do you find yourself having to restrain your natural sense of humor in your stories and unleash it only to make a punch here and there in order to keep the tension building in your manuscripts?

A. Firstly, thank you for the wonderful compliment! But yes – I am a writer of dark, gritty, lurky things, with splashes of robotics and lasers, and I can’t legitimately claim to be a funny writer.

Humour is so subjective, and something which is so difficult to pin down in writing, that I’ve done no more than dabble with it, really. I tried once, a long time ago, to write a quirky blog series about a foul-mouthed cat trying to stop the spectre of Death from killing all the old folks in the retirement home where he lived, but that fizzled out like the proverbial damp squib.

That’s not to say that my writing is entirely serious (at least, I don’t think so.)

Humour sneaks into my SF and fantasy writing, which is both good and bad. Good, because I find reading anything with no humour at all to be a chore. Bad, because it tends to pop into my writing at awkward moments to diffuse tension which really shouldn’t be diffused. It’s at the point where the MC is finally going to kiss the boy she’s been in love with for months, and a seagull craps on them. Or the point where the MC is facing down his nemesis, and notices that Darth Whoever’s fly is down, and showing just a tiny bit of Darth’s pubic hair. I generally have to take these idiocies out during editing, so my writing goes back to being mostly just dark and gritty, with references to seagull crap and pubes held in reserve for less tense scenes.

(For the record, these great visuals of Kat’s definitely appealed to my sense of humor, but I could see where the villain might need to keep his fly up while the tension is particularly high.)

Q.  While my stories also fall on the more serious side, I tend to include humorous situations or conversations to lighten the mood every few scenes.  I rely on a variety of irony, timing, and delivery, as well as conversations between unlike or opposing characters.

When developing your characters, do you specifically keep the majority of the humor limited to one or two characters, such as the narrator or a strong secondary character?  Or do you just let it flow where it might?  Is this something you plan out prior to beginning your MS or do you wait to get a feel for the characters as they develop?

A. My natural writing groove is 1^st person past tense. I think this makes it inevitable that the MC’s sense of humour – or lack thereof – will influence the tone of the entire novel. But while I don’t set out with the intention of writing a ‘funny’ character, there are some who form inside my brain with what I see as a great sense of humour, or with traits which might be funny to the reader. If any of my characters are funny, they came to be that way organically. I’m a plotter to my core, but in this, I guess I pants like a demon.

Q.  I know that genre-hopping is frowned upon as writers build their audiences, but do you have any thoughts of writing something out of Sci Fi that will enable you to delve deeper into that wonderful sense of humor you have?    Personally, I think you could pull off a Bridget Jones equivalent easily.

A. Again, thank you for the massive compliment! I love Bridget Jones and other women’s fic as a reader, but as a writer I’m firmly entrenched in the world(s?) of speculative fiction, and lean more towards writing male MCs. I’ve dabbled in horror with some short stories, but I’m not sure I could even sustain horror for an entire novel.

I think SF as a genre lends itself quite well to humour, and if I ever do pluck up the courage to really try to write a comedy, it will be in the vein of Red Dwarf or Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Q.  Particularly when narrating in first person, humor (especially when aimed at the narrator) can really help keep the protagonist from sounding like he/she is on a pulpit.  What other advice do you have for writers on infusing humor in their manuscripts to keep this from happening?

A. I think if a novel starts to sound preachy, then it’s probably the author being preachy, not the characters. If that happens, the reader is going to disengage. I don’t read novels to learn about the political beliefs of an author, and I wouldn’t feel comfortable shoving my own agenda onto readers.

Humour is wonderful to use in a story, but if it’s there to hide the Important Message the Author is Imparting, readers are going to see through it, roll their eyes, and throw the book across the room. Adding humour is a great way to build character, engage the reader, move the story forward. If it’s not doing any of that, it’s probably going to be cut in the editing stage anyway.

If a writer writes funny books, that’s fabulous. If a writer’s sense of humour doesn’t translate to their writing, that’s fine too.

So, basically – smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.

Q.  Anything else you’d like to share.

A. Thank you, Debbie, for inviting me over onto your blog for this interview!  If your readers have any questions, I’m happy to answer (but please don’t ask me what a squib is.)

Great advice, Kat.  Thanks so much for sharing.  I can’t wait to read your first MS in print, whether or not it incorporates evil villains with troublesome zippers.  I know it will be a great ride! Kat’s blog can be found here: http://katelliswrites.blogspot.com/.

Long before I took a stab at my first novel, I learned to ride horses.  If the two actions weren’t such neighborly homophones, I would most likely never have considered their commonalities.  Whenever I catch up with a friend, one of two questions usually comes my way.  “How is your writing going?” sounds so close to “How is your riding going?” that I generally have to ask for clarification before I can answer.

Writing and riding are my two favorite pastimes.  Mastering them requires something we, as writers at least, often ignore.  If you’ve ever ridden a horse at any pace faster than, say, a walk, you’ll know what I mean about securing your center of gravity when you ride.  If you don’t, you will find yourself leaning forward—headfirst—as your horse trots or gallops underneath you.  If you don’t make the correction, you’re headed for a painful face plant.  Experienced riders will tell you to overcome this by envisioning your body’s natural center of gravity—which is in your gut—and focus on maintaining control of your horse from there.  When you ride from the gut, you can whether the storm that is a horse in motion and actually have an enjoyable time.

Writing novels, for me at least, is very similar.  Like most writers, at any one time I have at least a dozen or so story ideas floating around my head.  Most aren’t fully formed ideas and don’t have enough subplots and complex story arcs yet to be worthy of the time it will take to put them into manuscript form.  Since I don’t own my own pensieve, I simply allow them to float around my head, knowing that I will either forget them if they aren’t truly worthy—or they will continue to form into something deeply compelling that absolutely must be written.

When that beautiful materialization actually happens—after doing any necessary research—I roll up my sleeves, pick the necessary character names, and start writing.  From the gut.  Personally, I don’t begin any story until I have that feeling in my midsection that I absolutely, unequivocally have to write it.  Several years ago, I even abandoned story outlines for the most part.  Halfway through a manuscript, I usually write a basic one to make certain I get to the big scenes that I want covered.  But, the vast majority of the time, I’m sitting in my chair for all those long hours not because I have to, but because it’s virtually impossible not to sit there and write just one more scene.  If my story isn’t keeping me up until it’s 3AM even though my eyes feel like sandpaper, then how can I expect it to draw others in the same way?

I had the idea for the series The Timebender’s Curse over three years before I started writing it.  It floated about my head like the other stories, in a complicated mess for all that time.  Then, one day, enough connections clicked in this complex tale of time travel that I simply had to drop everything and begin this four book series.  When I was nearly through the first manuscript, I still didn’t have an outline and I was writing every scene from instinct—or the gut, as many call it.

This practice of writing manuscripts instinctively certainly doesn’t work for all writers, but I’ve read that about half of all novelists write this way.  Possibly it leads to making a few mistakes that will hopefully be covered in the thick of edits.  However, it is my firm belief that when I am writing instinctively, and passionately—as the Greeks would say using pathos to evoke emotional appeal—my stories are all the better for it.  My novella, A Cold November Road, was written exactly this way.

How do you decide which stories to write and how do you go about writing them?  Leave your comments here.  I look forward to reading them.

Nearly two years ago, after accumulating more than a handful of rejections to my queries, I decided to take a leap and email a prominent and successful author I greatly admire, Jodi Picoult.  Deciding the worst she could say was no, I asked if she would consider reviewing my query letter (after telling her how great I think she is, of course).

Well, the worst thing that could have happened, did.  She said no.  With an exclamation point.   But that no actually turned out to be my coolest no ever.  And believe me, after a few years of query rejections, I had my share of comparisons.  Jodi Picoult had actually emailed me.  As a fellow writer.  She even went on to say, “If you have been trying a while, consider hiring a freelance editor to help you make your MS the very best it can be.  Just plug at it – this business rewards people who don’t give up!”

Needless to say, I didn’t give up.  I printed out her email and stuck it up on my wall along with a few complimentary agent rejections.  And I kept writing.  And querying.  And finally took the plunge to enter a few contests.  A year-and-a-half later, I signed with a wonderful agent who is excited to represent my work.  We’re in the process of polishing up the first manuscript before it is submitted for publication, and I’ve just completed my first novella, which I am giving away on this site.  Dare I say, it’s pretty darn good if you’re in the mood for a historical YA love story that’s just a little bit convoluted.

Life is good and I’m still finding every spare minute to write (fiction), because, when you get down to it, that is what I really love to do.  To those of you out there going through the same process, this is the advice funneled through me from Jodi Picoult.  If you are tired of trying to open the same few doors, perhaps it is time to try to open different ones, whether it is conference, a contest or a manuscript critique from a different writer’s perspective.  Most importantly, just plug at it!

Readers, it’s been a fun-filled and rewarding last few months.  In addition to embracing the busy wonder of the holidays, I’ve been revising my YA urban fantasy, Tumbling After, the first book in The Timebender’s Curse series, under the guidance of Pooja Menon, literary agent extraordinaire.  Thanks to her insightful comments and editing suggestions, the manuscript is nearly ready for solicitation.

I’ve also recently completed a YA historical novella, A Cold November Road, which will be available for downloading once a quick round of editing is complete.  This was my first stab at creating a manuscript while keeping the limited word count necessitated by a novella at the forefront of my thoughts —and I loved it!

In the event you don’t read novellas often, you might be interested to know a bit more about them.  Novellas:

• typically have a word count between 10,000 and 40,000 words
• feature fewer conflicts than full length novels
• have endings located on the brink of change
• typically are not divided into chapters
• often focus on the personal and emotional development of the main character(s)

In the spirit of a novella, A Cold November Road, is a brief window in the journey of 16-year-old Wilhelmina Martin during the final months of the American Civil War.  The story begins with Wilhelmina preparing to journey to England with her parents, where she will be wed to an Englishman she has never met.  Her path is dramatically altered, however, when the war belatedly arrives at her doorstep—with a vengeance—setting her on a fateful course she never could have imagined.

A Cold November Road will be available for downloading as early as next week, so please check back soon.

This month I am joining the amazing Brenda Drake’s Thanksgiving Blog Hop.

November 20th — My all-time favorite novels are my thankful thought for today– epics, action-packed YA series, and several centuries-old masterpieces.  It’s that feeling I get in my gut when I love the way a novel is going or when I realize that the characters I’m reading about seem like family and I really care about what happens to them.  That feeling of sadness that washes over me when I realize there are only a few pages left until I’m done and I simply don‘t want the story to be over.  There are a dozen or so stories that I hold close to my heart long after I have finished them.  Gone with the Wind.  Lonesome Dove.  The Harry Potter series.  The Hunger Games trilogy.  Just about everything Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters wrote.  Whether it’s due to a simply phenomenal tale, larger-than-life characters, or the way the author has woven them together, it’s that feeling of an immortal tale that I most appreciate when I read it .

Ever-brilliant Hermione Granger, cantankerous Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call, and phenomenally complex Scarlet O’Hara–I’d love to meet you all.

Check out all the participating writers’ blogs that can be accessed via Brenda’s blog: http://brenleedrake.blogspot.com/.