All posts by Carlene

Guy Day: Interview with Bassist, Dino Villanueva! (Giveaway too!)

 

Mermaid CarleneGrowing up on the Las Vegas strip, every weekend I watched my mom dance to her favorite local bands.  Wherever the bass player was stationed on stage was where the ladies crowded around.  Mom says that’s because the bass man is the beat for all the dancers. Dirty and low-down—complimentary words, I assure you, for the incredible sounds that flow from these instruments.

It’s an honor & treat to have a man who masters the art of funk and soul, bassist, Dino Villanueva, in the pond with us today!  He was a real sweetheart to answer my questions for our Guy Day segment.  After all, musicians are often the subjects of our stories.  How many bluesy, guitar-strapped-across-his-back heroes have strutted across the pages?  How many punk rock, attitude-served-up-on-a-prickly-stick heroines have been written to deconstruct the poor boy next door?   Dino Ham n Yam 2013 019

What can I tell you about Dino?

He hails from the great state of Texas, plays bass for Casey James, was flattered to be invited to the pond and is a Very Good Sport!

Please enjoy our interview~

Carlene: Hi Dino! Thank you so much for being our guest “Guy” today.  I’ve seen you perform several times and there’s a good reason your fans keep coming back for more.  As a musician, how do you decide how much to keep for yourself on stage and how much to share with the audience?  Or is that never a question?  (I kind of like being able to hide in my writing but you’re up there on stage, definitely more exposed.)

Dino: As a musician, it definitely helps to be connected to your audience. I personally like to give as much on stage to the audience while we play. After all, they are the reason why we are there. It’s a great feeling as a musician to share the same energy and emotion with the crowd. There’s no better feeling to see the crowd having a blast because you’re giving your all as a performer.

(Seriously friends, catch a show, find him on YouTube—Dino gives his all each and every time.)

 

Carlene: Do you as a musician have similar contrasting feelings about the evolution of music into the digital age as authors do with their books?  Comparing holding a physical record or CD in your hands—something you made—to knowing the benefits that digital media offer as far as ease and speed of sharing your work with listeners/readers?

Dino: I believe that the digital age has definitely changed the way people view/purchase music. Before the digital age, the focus was on an entire album, whether it be in the creation or the buying. While the focus on creating a great album will never change from an artist standpoint, the digital age has shifted the focus towards “singles.”

 

Carlene: I’ve never played a bass guitar but I imagine it feels something like when you hit a baseball with an aluminum bat and that vibrating feeling zings your flesh, even to the bones.  Am I close or entirely off?  Can you please describe that feeling?Dino Villanueva Belpre Ohio 023

Dino: Playing the bass is very similar to playing the guitar. The strings are thicker and requires a little more dexterity in both your hands.

 

Carlene: Is there anything special you do before or after shows to help take care of your hands/fingertips?  It seems like playing the guitar could be rough on that tender skin.

Dino: Not really. We do get callus fingertips from playing but that is actually a good thing!

 

Carlene: What are your favorite bass solos?  A couple of mine are Tony Kanal on “Hella Good”, everything by Aaron Mills (Cameo), and Kings of Leon’s “Charmer”.

Dino: Anything by Victor Wooten is on my favorites list. He’s an amazing bass player and one of the players I aspired to be as an up and coming bass player. Check out his version of “Amazing Grace.”

I also tend to listen and appreciate all bass lines played. It’s a way to “study” and become a better player. After all one can never stop growing as a player.

(I checked out a version on You Tube…Holy Cow!  How is that finger work even possible?  This commenter got it right—“Before Wooten played this, it was called Grace.”  Thanks for the great find, Dino!)

I hope these help!

Thanks,

Dino

Carlene: Dino, this was awesome!  Thank you so much for taking the time to have this conversation with us!

Friends, connect with Dino on Facebook / Twitter / His Website

And if you’re in these areas, go see him play live!

5/17  Graham Central Station, Oklahoma City, OK

5/18 Crawdad Days, Harrison, AR

5/23 Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar, Syracuse, NYDino Chesapeake Jubilee 052012

5/24 The Ice House, Lewiston, NY

5/25 The Pepsi Roadhouse, Burgettstown, PA

5/26 Fed Live, Harrisburg, PA

5/27 Bottle and Cork, Dewey Beach, DE

5/31 The Bluebird, Bloomington, IN

Click here for the full schedule of shows!

 

To celebrate books, music, and our special guest, check out today’s sweet giveaway:

-A copy of Victor Wooten’s book, The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music (paperback or Kindle—winner’s choice)

-A copy of Casey James CD (cd or mp3—also winner’s choice)

So be sure and leave a comment!  I’ll  pick one random winner from the comments on Sunday, May19, at 10pm Eastern Time.  Good luck!

 

This Apple Didn’t Fall Far…

MP900383005Sunday was Mother’s Day (Hugs to all the moms!) and I am blessed with one who loves me unconditionally, who kept me safe, and who let sleep fall by the wayside in order to work and support us for too many years.

I wish she didn’t live on the opposite coast, but we’ve found interesting ways to stay in touch, like relaying cyber hugs via this lovely pond.

You may think I’M the music nut of the lagoon but that’s only because you’ve never met my mom.

Vegas. Legs. High Heels. Midnight. Live Music. Warm.  My Mom.

There was scarcely a weekend that she wasn’t out dancing with the girls when I was a kid. Cleopatra’s Barge inside Caesar’s Palace was a Vegas hot spot and Santa Fe was the local band who kept that floating dance floor rocking most nights. I know because I was there. Yep, at the tender age of ten, mom would plant me just across the way from the barge at a little Japanese restaurant with seating where I could see her and she could see me. The cocktail waitresses all knew me and kept Shirley Temples with extra cherries on tap. This is no lie and something I clearly remember—in addition to mom’s short shorts, high heels and long, feathered blonde hair—it never failed, at some point during the night, the barge/dance floor would lean severely to the right and stay like that.

One guess why?

The loads of female fans crowding to be on the side of the stage of this one particular band member. I guess there’s just something magnetizing about a bass player…

Be sure and come back this Friday for a very special Guy Day…

Our special guest is a bass player…

You may have seen him last month performing live on Fox’s American Idol 🙂

Mom will be here because like I said, this apple didn’t fall far…Mermaid Carlene

So I’m curious to know, who’s your favorite member of the band?  Singer? Drummer? Keys? Bass?

Mermaid Blogoversary: Contemporary Day!

by Carlene, Dana, Diana, Robin and Susan Mermaid

 

Carlene: Holy abalone fishy sisters and friends!  The Waterworld Mermaids are two years old which means it’s been two years sinceMermaid Carlene what was easily one of the best experiences of our lives—The 2011 Washington Romance Writers Spring Retreat.  Which in turn means it’s been just as long since we made these precious memories at that retreat.  Keep in mind…we were all FIRST-TIMERS!  The Contemporary Genre Mermaids hope you enjoy our trip down memory lane:

Played Romance Jeopardy for the first time…with Roxanne Rustand as my teammate!  I jotted down something beautiful she said at the Unpublished Author Roundtable: “God doesn’t give the desire if he doesn’t give the talent.”

Pitched for the very first time…to Jenny Bent, who was awesome and let me know it was totally okay that my book was driven by the characters rather than the plot.  Seriously important because as a newbie, you’re not sure if these sorts of things are okay or not!  They are!

While attending fellow WRW member Michelle Butler’s “Healthy Writer” session where she referenced Bridget Jones’s Diary, I totally thought she was the real Bridget Jones who the movie was based on!  She looks remarkably like the gorgeous Renee Zelwegger so of course my newbie self jumped to that conclusion!

Cried.  A lot.  Cried even more when I saw that Kristan Higgins was also crying while Sherrilyn Kenyon gave the most beautiful and inspiring keynote speech I will ever hear.

 

Dana MermaidDana: What did I take away from my first WRW Retreat…

 

WRW Retreat was a much more intimate conference than anything I had attended before. I loved having the opportunity to sit down and chitchat with other writers, editors and agents. It was so great finding a group of people who didn’t think I was crazy for having conversations with fictional characters.

I kicked off that retreat by assisting my friend and critique partner, Anita Clenney, at her very first book signing ever at Turn The Page bookstore in Boonsboro, Maryland. I’ll never forget it, because she sold out. I also met Alethea at that book signing. I was awestruck with her glitter princess awesomeness.

I am a huge Sherrilyn Kenyon fan and had a huge fan girl moment when I accidently wound up sitting by her in the bar one night and talking about her car collection. She is apparently as much an autophile as I am.  Then, the next night, Sherrilyn was our keynote speaker. She was so incredibly poignant as she spoke candidly about the obstacles she faced before getting published, and then the long road she traveled and hard work it took to be where she is today. I remember looking around and realizing there weren’t many dry eyes in the place. So now, every time writing gets hard, the words won’t come or some obstacle lands in my path that makes me question what I’m doing, I mentally go back to that night and remind myself of all the reasons to keep writing.

Romance Jeopardy is NOT FAIR! But so much fun!

And the best thing I have taken away from that first WRW Retreat is all the great friends!

 

Diana: I remember feeling totally overwhelmed that I was among such incredible writers and people.  The women at WRW were smartdiana mermaid — I mean Ph.D smart, funny, talented and beautiful.  It was like being thrown on stage at the Miss Universe contest (times 10!) — at the last minute and totally knowing you couldn’t compare.  But, they made me feel so very welcome and I am thrilled to be part of this chapter and this group.  I’ve learned so very much and am very grateful to everyone at WRW.

Hugs!

 

 

Robin MermaidRobin: – Rooming with someone you do not know can be a wonderful experience. I roomed with my soon-to-be fishy sister Pintip and she helped me with my first pitch.

-Everyone at the retreat was so supportive and took the fear out of pitching and submitting your work to American Author.

The speakers were awesome and they taught me that the definition of success is different for each person and you need to find your own definition and make your own goals.

 

Susan: I’m incredibly grateful to be a Mermaid.  How can I be anything else?  This was a pack of newbies, all coming in on their very SusanMermaidfirst conference, many of them new to writing, who bonded over two days and decided it just wasn’t right to let that go.  They even accepted a past-published Mermaid who’d clipped her own fins years back and was finally dipping a fin back into the waters.

They kept writing, not just their own stories, but excellent blog posts and emails to one another and here we are, two years later!  My hat’s off to all the lovely Mermaids who swim in this pond.  Happy Anniversary!

 

Thank you so much for swimming at our party today!  Do you have a favorite contemporary romance book or author?  Let us know, we’re always on the lookout to make new memories.  What better way to do that than with a good, tried and true love story?

 

Mermaid Anniversary Prize Pack

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Prize Pack!  Books, A Nightie, $25 Amazon Gift Card and a WWM Bottle!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

YA Mystery Author Amanda Brice Swims With the Mermaids! (Reposting)

The mysterious aqua powers that be gobbled up many of our March posts, including this one!  Well, you can’t keep a good YA Mystery Author down so take that Mr. March Mermaid Post Gobbler!  Please enjoy this reposting of our interview with Amanda Brice.

AmandaWelcome, Amanda! We’re happy to have you swimming with us in the Mermaid lagoon today & super stoked that you’ll be talking about Pas de Death!  

 

I’m happy to be here! It’s been rather chilly here in the DC area (as I’m sure all the Mermaids know!), so the thought of a “lagoon” conjures up the exotic – a lovely little grotto somewhere tropical. I’d love to be there right now! Especially if there are cabana boys. There are cabana boys, right?

 

What kind of lagoon would it be if there weren’t? Well, I guess it would be a normal lagoon, but this is no normal lagoon. 🙂  So, Amanda, how did you get your start writing?

 

You mean other than carrying around a little notebook and a purple pen all day when I was a little girl? My opus back then was “Nancy Flew and the Mystery of the Lady Ghost.” It was highly acclaimed by the very toughest of literary critics – my 4th grade teacher. (Thanks, Mrs. Koochagian!)

 

But my dad convinced me to “do something practical” so I went to law school instead. Eventually drafting legal materials was a little too dry to keep my attention and I needed an outlet. I remember the day clearly – I’d just finished reading Dirty Girls Social Club by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez (brilliant book, btw, if you haven’t read it) and was supposed to be writing a patent on the patentability of indigenous medicinal methods (yawn!), but I decided that writing a chick lit novel would be a lot more fun. So I whipped off the first 88 pages of a book that shall never see the light of day and asked my professor for an extension of time on the law paper.

 

Can you tell us what is the last great book you read?

 

Indeed I can. Just last night, in fact, I finished Bluebood, which is book #2 in Matthew Iden’s Marty Singer Mystery Series. I’ll be quite honest and say that I started reading this series because I know Matt personally and I wanted to support him, but just a couple of pages into the first book (A Reason to Live), I was quite literally blown away. It’s THAT good. Kinda like James Patterson in the early days, but much better. The series follows a retired DC homicide detective who left the force because he’s battling cancer, but he can’t seem to run away from the ghosts of his past – they keep popping up in the form of cases left unsolved and he must now find the answers. The writing is gripping and he keeps you on the edge of your seat. And his descriptions of Northern Virginia just highly amuse me. I read the first one a couple of months back, but then got sidetracked finishing up my own book, so didn’t have time to dive into the second one until just now. And I can’t wait to start the third one (One Right Thing) tonight!

 

What can you tell us about your daily routine?

 

Ha, routine? You clearly don’t know me well. I don’t exactly have what you’d call a routine. Between balancing a full-time job as an attorney, managing a busy RWA chapter as president, and being mommy to two high-energy toddlers, writing is rarely at the top of my priority list, unfortunately. Except for when I’m on deadline. Then my family knows not to bother me and that we’ll be eating a lot of frozen pizza. But I really am a spurter. I’ll go months without writing much of anything, and then there will a couple-month stretch there that I live-and-breathe writing. I need to get better about that.

 

What was your inspiration for Pas De Death?PasDeDeath-210x300

 

This is the third book in my YA mystery series set at a performing arts boarding school. The first book featured a sabotage and the second one featured a kidnapping. And while there were definitely some suspenseful and dangerous parts of those investigations, I knew I needed to step up my game a little bit. Throughout the first two books, my heroines is always trying to pass herself off as 15, even though she’s still just 14. Well, she celebrated her birthday during the short story that takes place between Books 2 and 3, so now that she’s 15, she thinks of herself as more grown up and edgy, so a murder mystery seemed like the right move.

 

Last spring I offered up naming rights to the murder victim during the Brenda Novak auction. I assumed that someone would buy it to take out a little “literary revenge,” so imagine my surprise when I discovered that the winner was a book blogger who’d met me at the Turn the Page signing last year and who wanted me to use her name! LOL. So that started the wheels turning, and I eventually made my murder victim be a dance critic rather than a book reviewer.

 

Do you have a favorite scene in the book?

 

Hmmm…good question! Actually, there’s a scene where my heroine and her movie-star-slash-on-again-off-again boyfriend are locked in a closet hiding from the police. They’re “off again” during this part of the saga, so it was fun to write that little bit of tension.

 

Sounds fun! Can you tell us a little bit about your new release?

 

Here’s the blurb:

 

pas de deux (NOUN: pl. pas de deux)
1. A dance for two, especially a dance in ballet consisting of an entrée and adagio, a variation for each dancer, and a coda.
2. A close relationship between two people or things, as during an activity.

pas de death (NOUN: yeah … totally made up)
1. A dance of death.
2. When Dani Spevak stumbles over a dead body and gets into another crazy situation.

Aspiring ballerina Dani Spevak is back home for the summer, recovering from an injury. What was supposed to be a simple day trip into New York City to visit her friends at the Manhattan Ballet Conservatory turns deadly when Dani discovers that the world of professional ballet can be cutthroat – literally.

Check out Amanda’s Book Trailer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw7xvIGhlSg

And Catch Up With Amanda Here!

Author Lynne Silver Swims with the Mermaids: Momma Always Said…

 

Please join the Mermaids in welcoming Romance Author Lynne Silver!  Take it away, Lynne…

Lynne Silver

We all know the adage if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. And generally that’s a good thing. What about when it comes to book reviews on Amazon or Goodreads? Should authors give their honest opinion about books written by fellow authors?

As much as I am a published author, I might be more of a reader. I’m addicted to romance novels and read 2-3 per week. I often want to discuss them, possibly in a public forum, but the day I was published was the day I stopped giving my public opinion about a book if I think it’s anything less than stellar.

I retweet and Facebook share tons of links to good reviews and any promo for fellow writer friends, but it’s been a long time since I’ve had a good discussion about a book. Do I write Amazon reviews? Yes, for members of my RWA chapter, and when I can honestly recommend the book.

I’m not alone in this practice. It’s the dirty little secret that romance authors are stacking review sites and Twitter feeds with promo for their friends. But we rarely go negative.

Why? Because it feels unprofessional to criticize a fellow author in a public forum.

Maybe we should. If I’ve written a sucky book, I’d want to know. Who better to tell me the whys of it then a fellow romance author? I’m still scared though. It feels as though I’d be opening myself up as the terrible person who criticized a colleague on the internet.

What do you think? If you’re an author do you write negative honest reviews? Why or why not? Would you think less of an author who did?

Thank you for hosting me!

Lynne

It was our pleasure, Lynne, and you raised some great questions!  Thank you so much for being our guest today.  

 

Check out the latest release in Lynne’s Coded for Love series with Ellora’s Cave, False Match:falsematch_9781419944956_msr

Genetically enhanced soldier Chase Stanton has two jobs in life. One, he must kick ass on all missions for the Program and, two, breed with his DNA breed mate, whoever and wherever she may be. Two problems. Chase learns he isn’t genetically enhanced after all and Doctor Samara Jones, the woman he craves beyond all reason, is likely an enemy of his team and not his true match. Too bad they can’t keep their hands off each other.

 

 

 

A Killer Beginning

MP900315536

I cut my bangs with some rusty kitchen scissors…”

Those are the very first words of the Miranda Lambert song, Mama’s Broken Heart.  Every single time I hear it, I’m like, “I can totally see that girl.  I know who that is.  I know what she’s feeling, where she’s probably going, and who she’s after.”  And it’s not because I’ve ever been there or done that.

It’s one of my favorite openings ever because less than ten words in and you have to know the rest of the story.

And then I sit there, awestruck, and try to come up with my own attention grabbing openings.  It’s really tough, y’all.  😉

I think to accomplish a great opening line, it helps to identify your strength.  What do you feel most confident about in your writing?  What gives you that thrill inside when you’re in your zone?  Are you great at Dialogue, Characters, Emotion, Action, Grief, Humor, Mystery?  Whatever it is, make that the primary focus of the first words on your page.  Or  answer this question: What is something you’ve seen in your lifetime that you’ve never ever forgotten?  Something that you can close your eyes and even though it may have happened when you were a kid, it’s still very familiar and still means something to you?

My strength, for example, is dark emotion.  Usually, the first bits I get of stories are these little emotional hits.  Here are a couple rough openings I’ve come up with and keep in my files for upcoming stories:

“Death had coddled my babies and nursed my gram and pops.”

“He saves his tears for his brothers.”

 

And here are a couple of my favorite book openings:

My brother, Orrin Sackett, was big enough to fight bears with a switch.  Opening line from Louis L’Amour’s The Daybreakers.

(Y’all, I’m not kidding, “Mama’s Broken Heart” just started playing on the radio as I’m typing this.)

“But mother is always dying.” Opening line from Lauraine Snelling’s On Hummingbird Wings.

 

What are some of your favorite first lines, whether from a song or a book or a poem?

For the writers out there, do you have a particular opening of your own you’d like to share with us?  How do you decide the very first words to your stories?

Were you by chance curious to know how that Miranda song ends?

Well, this ain’t my mama’s broken heart...

Mermaid Carlene

 

 

Fishy Kisses,

Mermaid Carlene

 

 

 

 

 

Our Valentine Gift to you…A Collection of Heroes

 

Hero Collection

To celebrate Valentine’s Day this year, the Mermaids have assembled a hearty and handsome collection of heroes for all our fishy friends. Here at the lagoon, we celebrate diversity in writing, living and loving, something I was so pleased to see come through in this real life and fictional collection.  We hope you enjoy.

From Alethea

Alethea Valentine

In high school, I had a poster from the movie Sidekicks on my ceiling (among many others). I used to dream that Jonathan Brandis and I were great friends. When he committed suicide in 2003, I was wracked with irrational guilt. Maybe if I had written to him, or even attempted to reach out…maybe nothing. Maybe not. I’ll never know.

But as authors, we have the power to make people live forever.

Recently, our Man Wars Mermaids started posting pictures of their schoolgirl crushes, so I hunted down this picture of Jonathan. I was just starting notes for Beloved–I needed a different kind of hero for Friday Woodcutter, someone a little lost and a little angry and a little dark despite his fair coloring. In that moment, Tristan Swan sprang to life.

 

From Avery

Avery Valentine

Treasure hunter Jax Taylor is a Southern charmer with enough sex appeal to melt the polar ice caps. Brought together with ex-fiance Veronica Kwon by their dying mentor, the two agree to an uneasy partnership. Together they’ll climb a magic beanstalk to the cloud kingdom where they’ll find riches, zombies and passion. Meet Jax for yourself in Jax and the Beanstalk Zombies by Avery Flynn coming soon from Lyrical Press.

 

From Carlene

Carlene Valentine

Ever wonder what it is in those great big heroic hearts of firefighters that sends them in to the station each day?  Marcus is not only family but he’s a real-life hero and I’m so tickled he answered this for us.  “I’ve always been one to jump at the chance to help people. Knowing I get to do what I love for a living with my Brothers and Sisters from my second family is a blessing!”  He’s not just a hero, he’s a sweetie too. His beautiful wife, Erica, (sorry ladies, Marcus is taken) shared that Marcus once told her to take off for a week, no explanations given.  I guess when your honey asks you to do this, you just nod your head yes.  Good thing she did because it was a sweet Tenth Anniversary surprise vacation.  Sigh….

 

From Dana

Dana Valentine

There is a lot of hero inspiration available in the world of romance writing but for this Valentine’s Day I’m celebrating the heroes of the armed forces. These men and women are real heroes. They spend months away from their loved ones when they deploy, often live in less than ideal conditions and have no choice where they spend their holidays. To me a real hero is someone willing to stand between the innocent and danger, and these folks definitely fit the bill. Thank you for your service and your sacrifice. Happy Valentine’s Day!

From Denny

jesse williams 4

Actor Jesse Williams inspires:)…good looks, sure, but those eyes, those eyes, even in black and white, his eyes shine through. He is the inspiration for my antagonist (hero) in my paranormal romantic thriller…the log-line…In post-apocalyptic Washington, DC, a vampire hunter ‘on-the-edge’, seeking revenge for her partner’s death, and a hot-headed homicide detective, looking for answers about his past, team up to investigate the murder of a high profile politician and discover a cult of assassins in a dark and twisty tale of lust, addiction, sacrifice and love. Happy Valentine’s Day.

From Diana

Diana Valentine

What may you ask is my husband’s feet doing in the midst of all these jaw-droppingly gorgeous guys.  Well, the call to action was a half-dressed man, wasn’t it?  My DH is my hero for so many reasons, but last year when my feet ached so badly I couldn’t walk another step in my heels, he took off his shoes in the metro (subway for you non-DC people) and gave them to me!  For me that’s the most romantic thing in the world and I’ll love him forever for that … and so much more.  Happy Valentine’s everyone!

 

From Susan

alex

    Alex Geerman is from Aruba, graduated from my hometown’s high school and worked as a trainer in a local gym until his mother sent his photo to a New York modeling agency.   Now he travels world-wide on photo shoots, and has been featured on several romance covers.  Do you want him on your next book?  I do!

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY FROM THE WATERWORLD MERMAIDS

 

 

Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock

Ticking Clock

Good morning fishy friends!  I’m actually going to blog about “writing” today on my group writers blog and not cute boys or cute boys or cute boys.  And that is because it’s contest judging time for my local writing chapter’s annual unpublished writing contest, WRW’s Marlenes.  This is my second year judging and the entries I received this year were very impressive.  There wasn’t a single head hop which stood out to me because I can admit that was my biggest mistake when I first entered my own submission.  More positives were that the characters were all well written and likeable.  The premises were all genuinely unique and interesting.  And there were some really good synopsis’ included at the end.

If the stories I read lacked anything, it was a clear understanding of the Ticking Clock.  I pulled this definition from Mary Buckham and Dianna Love’s power plotting book, Break Into Fiction.  The Ticking Clock is “an internal or external element in the story that creates a limit to how much time the character has to complete his or her immediate external goal.”

Have you ever been reading a book or a contest entry and everything is going just fine.  You’re enjoying the story well enough, but pretty soon, you start to wonder why is it so important that this is happening?  The material is good, but it’s not exciting you to keep turning the pages.  It could be because of that missing ticking clock.  I’m going to go ahead and refer to this little guy as Tik Tok (Return to Oz).

What Tik Tok does for your story:

-Gives your story purpose, urgency & excitement

-Assures good pacing, making it a page turner

-It doesn’t have to be “in your reader’s face”

That last point is important because I got to thinking that for a contemporary genre writer, you may not have exploding bombs to diffuse or kidnapped victims to rescue before time runs out.  Maybe your Tik Tok is a high school reunion the heroine has to be ready for or maybe your heroes are rockstars and you have a band about to go out on the road and tour.  My current WIP’s Tik Tok is the pending birth of a baby–the hero and heroine want to be free of their demons before this new life enters the world in two weeks. See, completely normal life events but important enough to get one’s butt in gear!

Whatever the element creating that time limit for your story is, it MUST be essential to your character’s pending goal.  It has to be detrimental enough to ignite them to do whatever they have to do to meet that end.

Often I think the author probably has this in their head but fails to weave it into their story early on.  Most contest entry lenghts I read this past week took me to about the third or fourth chapter.  As the reader, I should feel the pressure urging your characters on by that point.  The earlier the better in fact.

To find your Ticking Clock, ask yourself why it’s so important for the characters to be accomplishing whatever it is they are doing in a timely manner.  The Tik Tok is the motivator to this happening.  They have a goal.  It’s essential that they accomplish it.  Now what candle are you going to light under their butt to move them to action?

Fishy kisses signed, sealed and delivered, on time!Mermaid Carlene

 

 

 

I Heart Sherrilyn Kenyon & Super Fabulous Dark-Hunter Giveaway!

Happy Friday Fishy Friends!  I’m completely excited about today’s post because I’m giving away one very special Sherrilyn Kenyon Dark-Hunter novels collection set.  *Giveaway info at the end of this post*Mermaid Carlene

But first I’d like to share a fun story with you.  So, I firmly believe that if you love something, you should love it well.  Just always remember that love is respectful.

So, a few years ago, I was still relatively new to the DC area, settling into my home and continuing to quietly work on writing.  I was so new to it back then that I had no idea about writers groups, contests, or conferences.  But I was VERY familiar with Sherrilyn Kenyon’s books and had become a huge fan since being given “Seize the Night” at the 2008 San Diego Comic Con.   During a regular check of her upcoming appearances in my area, I saw that she was going to be doing a signing in some place called Leesburg, VA.  I could tell by the event details that this wasn’t just a regular bookstore signing because it talked about a retreat and organization that went by the initials WRW.  Well, I was a little skeptical, so I did some research. I fully intended on figuring out how to get to this signing.

That’s when my silly little brain started doing all this crazy-fantastic spinning.  I discovered several things in rapid succession:

1) WRW stood for Washington Romance Writers and they were a local writing chapter falling under the main organization which was RWA.  WRW was indeed hosting a local retreat in the spring where Sherrilyn Kenyon would be the keynote speaker and there would be a signing for the public in the area around the same time.  They also had a writing contest called the Marlene and the winner would be announced at this retreat where Sherrilyn would be in attendance as a special guest.

2) RWA stood for Romance Writers of America.  They had a wonderful website that taught me all about their Golden Heart writing contest and an annual national conference.  And, Sherrilyn Kenyon just so happened to be slated as their Keynote Speaker that year as well!

3) I had to see Sherrilyn Kenyon.  (Being around her is like chicken soup for the soul and I want lots of that.)

Sherrilyn and Carlene

BOOM, BAM, POW (that’s my brain on Sherrilyn Kenyon)

4) I could join these organizations, both RWA and WRW, submit my little (actually quite huge) love story manuscript I’d been working on to both groups.  I could win the contests, be presented my awards and Sherrilyn Kenyon would be in the room watching my acceptance speeches where I would profess my love for her and then everyone would live happily ever after.  And we might even have slumber parties and talk endlessly about Valerius Magnus and Acheron.

Fishy Kisses

Slightly crazy, I know.  But fun, right?  Long story short, I joined both organizations, entered both contests, didn’t win the awards but came away with a few hearts of gold who give great fishy kisses and had the time of my life listening to Sherrilyn speak.  At the WRW retreat, on May 1, 2011, I won the basket Sherrilyn had donated to the raffle! Inside that basket was the wrapped, five-book set that I’m giving away today.  I’ve never opened it.  It has sat beautifully amongst my Sherrilyn book collection.  I own each of the books individually and have read them several times each.

Sherrilyn Prize

I hope that whoever wins these treasures will read them and fall in love even harder than I did.

I would not be the reader I am nor the writer I’m becoming if it weren’t for Sherrilyn Kenyon.

Thank you—Xoxoxoxo

So friends, I’d be oh so happy to hear your stories of fervent love & admiration…pretty please?

 

*Giveaway details: This giveaway is open until 10:30pm Eastern Time on Sunday, January 27, 2013.  At that time, I will randomly choose one winner from the commenters to this post and announce the winning name in the comments section.  Please be prepared to share your snail mail address with me so I can send this one of a kind gift your way! *

Five book set includes: Night Embrace, Night Pleasures, Night Play, Kiss of the Night, & Dance with the Devil.

Starting at The End

Sometimes to know where to start, it helps to look at the end.  Mermaid Carlene

My first book is coming out this Friday and although the story is told in chronological order, it didn’t start out that way.

When I began writing Sidewalk Flower, the first scene that came to me was gut wrenching and dark.  It was so powerful and for a long time, I thought because of that, it had to be the book’s opening.  My thinking was that with such a powerful opening scene, it would be hard to put down.  In the business, it was the hook I was sure I needed.

Then I learned from a Savvy Authors Editpalooza workshop that sometimes it’s best to let the scenes happen organically.  That way the reader has a chance to build up to that powerful event and experience it as it was meant to happen.

Once I let go of the place I’d originally envisioned for that knock-out scene in Sidewalk Flower and put it where it belonged in the time line, I realized it was absolutely the way things were meant to be.

But, I also learned that by writing that last scene first, it allowed me to get to know my characters more deeply and the rest of the story as well.  I believe it was one of the biggest strengths of writing my first book that would become published.  Knowing where I was going because I’d already been to the end.  So I don’t believe I would change the order in which I wrote the story.

 I just finished re-watching one of my favorite movies, Neo Ned, starring Jeremy Renner and Gabrielle Union.  (I love the tag line: Love is not a Race) My Neo Ned DVD Continue reading