I Have No Gift (bought or made...YET)

  ~ Little Drummer Boy ~ 

Our house has been transformed; no longer is it the artsy abode with bold colored walls -- well, the walls still boast daring tones...  But they are now the bedecked backdrop for twinkling lights, merry Santas, jolly elves, peaceful angels, and sparkling orbs in juicy hues.  Johnny Mathis sang the sound track of my childhood holidays, and watching the children bob their heads and sing the choruses as they hung ornaments on the tree had my soul smiling.  I enjoyed the eggnog better this year than most.  (...maybe I've finally figured out the perfect ratio of brandy to nog...)  All in all, our decorating weekend was a blast.

When the last bobble was hung on the tree, we stepped back to survey our work.  I cupped my chin in the groove at the base of my thumb.  "Hmm," I said, "it's missing something..."

"You're right," declared Sidney, my peppy ten-year-old daughter and future party planner extraordinaire. "It needs presents.  I'll go get some."

I snagged her arm as she strode past, headed for her bedroom closet where I know since September she's been making, wrapping and stowing presents for all of us.  I pulled her into a snuggle, her back against my chest and my arms around her, and the smell of her shampoo, mingled with the evergreen and nutmeg, intoxicated my senses.  A moment of pure joy to remember forever.

And something else for me to remember:  I have not been holiday shopping since September...and the kids only have two weeks of school before they're home for the break...so I'd better take a cue from my daughter and get this Christmas bulb rolling!

Hope your Holiday preparations are underway and bringing you much joy!  

The Hating Game -- BLOGSPLASH!

Help Talli Roland's debut novel THE HATING GAME hit the Kindle bestseller list at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk by spreading the word today. Even a few sales in a short period of time on Amazon helps push the book up the rankings, making it more visible to other readers.

Amazon.co.uk: http://amzn.to/hNBkJk

Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/hX2ieD

No Kindle? Download a free app at Amazon for Mac, iPhone, PC, Android and more. Coming soon in paperback. Keep up with the latest at http://www.talliroland.com/.

About THE HATING GAME:

When man-eater Mattie Johns agrees to star on a dating game show to save her ailing recruitment business, she's confident she'll sail through to the end without letting down the perma-guard she's perfected from years of her love 'em and leave 'em dating strategy. After all, what can go wrong with dating a few losers and hanging out long enough to pick up a juicy £200,000 prize? Plenty, Mattie discovers, when it's revealed that the contestants are four of her very unhappy exes. Can Mattie confront her past to get the prize money she so desperately needs, or will her exes finally wreak their long-awaited revenge? And what about the ambitious TV producer whose career depends on stopping her from making it to the end?

[If you'd like to help promote Talli's book, please copy this post and paste it onto your blog or FaceBook wall.  Christmas and Hanukkah are right around the corner -- and this would make a great addition to your gift-giving list!] 

Above Average, baby!

The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. 

What about you?

[This post is actually a tag I received on FaceBook.  If you'd like to play along and share your own list, you'll find full instructions here:

My FaceBook Note  (<-- I have this set for "everyone" to view, but if you aren't yet my Facebook friend, I'd love to connect over there.  Just send me a request and I'll happily add you!)

Here's the BBC's list.  All titles in boldface are ones I HAVE READ, and all titles in italics are ones I HAVE READ PART OF BUT NEVER FINISHED or READ AN EXCERPT:

1.  Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

 2.  The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

 3.  Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

 4.  Harry Potter series - JK Rowling   

 5.  To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

 6.  The Bible  

 7.  Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

 8.  Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

 9.  His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14. Complete Works of Shakespeare 

15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19. The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20. Middlemarch - George Eliot

21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

 30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34. Emma -Jane Austen

35. Persuasion - Jane Austen

36. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

41. Animal Farm - George Orwell

42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50. Atonement - Ian McEwan

51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52. Dune - Frank Herbert

53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville 

71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72. Dracula - Bram Stoker

73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75. Ulysses - James Joyce

76. The Inferno - Dante 

77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78. Germinal - Emile Zola

79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80. Possession - AS Byatt

81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguri

85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87. Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White

88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94. Watership Down - Richard Adams

95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99.  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

So I've read 36 out of the 100 books, and read some of 4 more.  Chew on that, BBC! LOL.

I'm packing today for our flight tonight to The Big Apple.  Thanksgiving in NYC, baby!  I hope those of  you who celebrate it have a blessed holiday and that everyone has a fantastic week!

Consequences Tend to Snowball

I've learned a lot the past two weeks.  Holding on to ideas that I once thought were brilliant can be counter-productive.   But in facing the fact that they weren't working in the project, I had to embrace all the consequences that come with story-altering decisions -- and consequences tend to snowball.

First, there was the extensive outline I'd prepared for my WiP "Overcome."  Some of you may remember the posts I wrote about the SnowFlake Method of outlining.  (Way down on the right sidebar are the labels, if you're interested in reading past posts.)  I still think it's a wonderful way to flesh out your characters and plot, but I now see the flip-side:  If you decide a major change is necessary, such as changing an important character (her personality, her inner conflicts, and her occupation), then the plot must also change to accompany the new character arc.  In my case, 80% of my outline is now in the "cut" folder.

Thankfully, Shannon Whitney Messenger was inspired (there are no coincidences...) to write a blog post yesterday about her outlining process, which was for me the answer I was seeking.  Her approach is just detailed enough to guide her, while allowing the creative magic to flow.  It's the perfect blend of plotting and pantsing.  If you missed it, here's the link:  Outlining: Shannon Style

As I reworked my skeletal outline and wove what I have already written about the antagonist with what I was learning about the new protagonist, I noticed a theme emerging that had me and my muse holding hands and jumping up and down.  How exciting!  And in the days that followed, I realized the working title "Overcome" was no longer the right name for the story.

I have a new working title for the novel.  And during a writing break last night, I played around with it and mocked up a (silly) book cover.  Just for fun.  Here it is:

And here is the new protagonist of "Safe in Captivity":

Samantha Stiles is a high energy, athletic and ambitious woman who is passionate about her work with large cats at a prestigious zoo.  Exotic animals are easier to "save" than people, in her opinion, though her instincts push her to try.  She has her sights set on a permanent Curator position...

Enter Adriane Conrad, the thorn in Sam's side:

Adriane is the daughter of the zoo's Board of Directors President and heiress to his shipping and transportation fortune.  She's used to the jet-set lifestyle and operates under the assumption that she's entitled to whatever life has to offer.  Daddy doesn't think so.  He thinks she needs a job...


I haven't decided what "Safe in Captivity" antagonist, Ray Manners looks like.  He's a tough one.  I see him clearly on the inside, but his appearance continues to evade me.  I can't even decide on his age.  The search is on, though.  When I have met him face-to-face, I'll introduce you to him :))

And one more thing I've learned this week; well, been reminded of, at least.  In an exchange with Wendy Ramer she reiterated something I've lost sight of lately:  Writing is fun.  Sure, putting together a logical, exciting, conflicted and resolvable plot is hard and even mind-boggling at times.  But it's fun.  Right?  Yes.

Hope you're enjoying it too!  

Kill Your Darlings

William Faulkner's famous quote, "In writing, you must kill your darlings," is widely interpreted to mean an author has to be willing to cut out the brilliant, wise or lushly descriptive passages that aren't working for the paragraph (or manuscript) in which they appear.  But last week, this interpretation broadened for me.

Anyone who remembers visiting my blog during Jen Daiker's Guess That Character Blogfest may remember the girl in the above photo. It's Julie Knotts, the original main character and protagonist of my current WiP.  One of my darlings.

I had to let her go.  She just wasn't coming to life.  As a character-driven author, I've been increasingly frustrated by the disconnect between Julie's character arc and the plot.  I couldn't bridge the two together.  And after months and months of failed re-starts, I've come to the conclusion that Julie is the problem.

Since I fired her, I've been brainstorming replacement characters.  I think I've found one.  Her name is Samantha Stiles.  She's vibrant, strong, beautiful, successful, and INTERESTING.  I like her.

Of course, the entire plot is changing  to accommodate this new cast member.  But there's new energy in my writing with the project metamorphosis.  It almost feels like a new book, which is a good thing.  When too much time goes by between when the story idea comes to you and when you finish the draft, you risk losing precious energy-driven momentum.  The story becomes lackluster.  Getting back that energy is difficult and sometimes impossible.

When I get to know Samantha a little better, I'll post a picture of her.  Until then, happy writing and best of luck to you and all your darlings!

Awesome NEWS!!

PUBLISHED NOVELIST!!

Have you heard??  Jessica Bell at The Alliterative Allomorph has landed a publishing contract!  Lucky Press LLC is publishing her debut novel, whose working title is Dead in the Corner of my Bedroom.  Way to go, Jess!!!

Click here to congratulate her! --> JESSICA

Celebrate With Jessica Bell!

Okay, I know I said yesterday my blog posts would be more scarce in November, and here I am posting outside my regular MWF schedule on a Thursday...

(Crazy, right-brained creative -- see why it's so hard for me to focus on schedules??)

This isn't actually a blog post, you see.  It's more of an announcement.

Jessica Bell at The Alliterative Allomorph is nearing the 400 followers milestone, and she wants to celebrate with you!  Just click HERE to visit her blog and see why it's one of the best in all of Blogland.

To enter for a chance to win one of several Amazon gift cards, be a follower and comment on her contest post.  (Commenting here won't enter you in the contest...but I'd love to hear from you :D)  That's it!  Easy-peesy.  And the best part is everyone is a winner, 'cause Jessica's blog is one you'll want to read every day!

Okay, we now return to the regularly scheduled mini-blog hiatus.  And I'm off to close the door and write.

See you on the flip-side!