INSPIRATION

Where do the stories come from?

 

Wow, it’s been way too long since I last wrote here! But building a retirement home out of state and the early arrival of twin grandbabies seem to have sucked up all my time and all my brains!

Sadly, still no big news on my book. Plenty of rejections, but I guess you aren’t a real author until you’ve been rejected by a plethora of publishers. I’ve quit taking it personally and to be honest, don’t really think about it much anymore. If it will be, it will be!

But, I keep writing. Someone asked me where I get ideas for my stories. I think that’s a very good question. One with no definitive answer.

Before I wrote Gangster’s Gold, I frequently said I really wanted to write a book but had no idea what to write about. Then, one day, my sister told me the story of how when our father purchased a dry cleaning business back in the Fifties, he’d found an old raccoon coat in the storage area. Upon closer examination, he was amazed to discover the coat had a bullet in the lining. I began to think about that coat. How did a bullet get there? Had someone been shot? Had the owner been carrying a gun? Was he some kind of gangster? Raccoon coats were especially popular in the Twenties, so maybe the coat belonged to a rumrunner or mobster. It was fun to speculate about its story and in the end, the provided the seed of the idea for my book.

My second story, about a psychic boy called on to help the spirits of children who had long ago been lost in an Alaskan mine, was inspired by a trip to the Kennicott copper mine in McCarthy, Alaska. It was a large operation that eventually was abandoned when the cost of mining the copper became too prohibitive. But, the ghost town and the remote area made me think about what if long ago, children who had lived in a mining community similar to Kennicott had disappeared. What could have happened to them? So, off I went.

My third story is about a girl who encounters a malevolent spirit in an old New Hampshire house. This story was inspired by a legend of “Yankee Vampires”. Back in the nineteenth century in New England, many in a single family might contract tuberculosis and over time, one after the other would die. Some people, especially in more remote areas, believed that the first to die was keeping their spirit alive by consuming the life energies of the living family members causing them to weaken and eventually expire. This could only be stopped by someone digging up the grave and if the investigators found fresh blood in the liver or heart, they were supposed to burn the organ and mix the ashes in a potion to be given to the afflicted. This medieval belief fascinated me. When Sophia, my main character, finds a diary of a girl whose siblings and cousins all inexplicably die at the age of seventeen of consumption,  she becomes concerned when her older sister turns seventeen and falls strangely ill. Is it the result of a virulent infection, or something more sinister?

There are stories all around us. I’ve learned to be more aware of things that might inspire future stories.

For example, I recently read an article about an old man whose family farm was about to be lost to a highway. He couldn’t bear the thought of losing the only home he’d known and that had been a part of his family for generations. In the end, he barricaded himself in his house, set it on fire and killed himself rather than see it go. It’s a very tragic story, but I think it has the potential for a fascinating story. Perhaps one I’ll even write!

Oh, I changed the music on my trailer. Take a look and see what you think! Thanks!

A Change in Pace

National Novel Writing Month has come and gone, the holidays are over, and oddly, the world did not end on December twenty-first. Most significantly, all the Christmas cookies are finally gone, so, I decided it was time to return to reality.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my writing lately. I did write most of another novel for kids in November. I still need to finish it as well as work on editing two other works in progress. Thus, one of my New Year’s Resolution is to try and work on these at least some every day. Sad to say, I’ve only been partially successful. Sometimes the pull of Spider Solitaire is just too powerful!

In the course of thinking about writing, I have been considering trying to write a cozy mystery. For those of you unfamiliar with the genre, cozies are similar to the stories written by Agatha Christie or like Murder, She Wrote. Unlike procedurals, the investigator is not a cop, but some regular person who has some stake in figuring out the murder.

The main character is usually female and as far as I can see, often lives someplace like New England. Inn keeping and catering seem to be popular occupations, although I have found numerous other occupations represented – Renaissance Faire re-enactors, quilters, antiques appraisers,  event planners, newspaper writers, pizza makers, bakers, knitters, stay-at-home moms, museum curators, house renovators, bookstore owners, archeologists, etc. The list goes on and on. Often, the MC has a side-kick. This is usually a best friend or some kind of relative. I believe authors often try for quirky when they write the sidekick, but unfortunately more often than not, they are just plain annoying. In addition to a sidekick, frequently, the MC is married to or dating someone in law enforcement. I suppose this is so they can be privy to all that information that a real cop would never divulge to non-police personnel, especially their wives or girlfriends.

Despite all these things, cozies are fun to read. Granted some are so downright cozy they practically smother you in coziness, but there is something comforting in reading about mundane people doing non-mundane activities. The secret is to make it seem believable.

When I read a cozy, I evaluate it by the number of eye rolls the story elicits. Mind you, I realize that if any innkeeper or caterer ran into as many corpses as these characters do, their establishments would have been shut down long ago, so you do have to suspend a certain amount of disbelief. I can deal with that, but there are times when I find the characters so unbelievable my eyes practically roll right out of my head. Some authors are much better at making unbelievable behavior believable. I mean, how many real people really feel compelled to investigate murders outside of the police? If you suspected person A was a cold-blooded murderer, would you really follow them all by yourself down dark alleyways into an abandoned building in the middle of the night? I highly doubt it. Even cops have back-up. Yet, for the most part, we don’t care overly much as long as the author can make it even the least bit believable.

So, now I am in the process of reading multitudes of these cozies written by as many different authors as I can find. Who knew there were so many murders in small towns solved by quilters, caterers, and owners of B&B’s!

Sadly, there is still no big news concerning my book. It may be it just wasn’t meant to be, but I keep hoping!

NaNoWriMo Is Coming!

Yes folks, it’s just about that time again: November IS National Novel Writing Month! For those of you unacquainted with this unique adventure, it is a great way to finally start that novel you always swore you wanted to write.

Back in 1999, a San Francisco writer by the name of Chris Baty and several of his cohorts decided to challenge themselves to each write a 50,000 word novel in thirty days.  It seemed like a crazy idea at the time. Novels took years to write, didn’t they? Anything worthwhile couldn’t possibly be written in a mere thirty days, right? But, conventional wisdom didn’t stop them and they forged ahead. Twenty one of them started the challenge and six of them completed it. The next year, they changed from July to November as the designated writing month (to take advantage of the less desirable weather) and 140 people signed on to take the challenge. Twenty-nine passed the finish line. In 2011, 256,618 signed up with 36,843 passing the 50,000 word goal. Over the years, approximately 100 authors have published their NaNoWriMo works including Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen and The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  So, although probably the vast majority of NaNoWriMo manuscripts will never (and probably shouldn’t) see the light of day, there are still a few diamonds to be found.

There is one aspect of NaNoWriMo that makes the challenge unique. The rule is, no editing while writing. So many writers get bogged down by constantly editing and re-editing chapters as they write they never make any progress. The key is to keep moving forward. If you’re persistent, you’ll actually finish the thing. Then, there will be plenty of time for editing and re-writing later. Sure, maybe you’ll pitch the entire thing later on, but the point is, you wrote a novel! Once you’ve written one, you may have the confidence to try another and the more you write, the better you’ll get (hopefully)!

It was 2009 when I decided to take the NaNo challenge. Like so many, I had always wanted to try writing a novel, specifically a kids’ novel, but lacked incentive. Then, my friend, Mackie, told me about NaNoWriMo and I was hooked. I vowed that this is what I had been waiting for – the incentive I needed to make me write an original novel. I figured it would be really bad, but if it got me to actually make an attempt, that had to be a good thing! Right? First, however, I had to figure out what to write about.  That had always been my biggest stumbling block. It’s strongly suggested you have a plot. And characters. And maybe a setting or two. I was in trouble right from the start.

As I pondered possible storylines, I thought about all the things I had liked in books when I was a kid. Things like mystery, ghosts, danger, time travel, and hidden treasure. Of course, I decided to try cram them all in. How could I lose? Then I recalled a story my sister had told me about the dry cleaning shop my father had purchased many years ago. In the storage unit of the dry cleaner’s, they had discovered an old raccoon coat with a bullet in the lining. Who had the coat belonged to and how did the bullet get in the lining of the coat? No one knew.  From that seed, my story, The Gangster’s Gold was born.

The following year, November crept up on me and I found me far less prepared than I wanted to be. I knew I wanted to write some kind of ghost story involving old mines in Alaska (we had recently visited the old Kennicott copper mines there) and again, I wanted to gear it towards kids. This book was harder to write in part because I hadn’t planned it all out. In fact, it’s still not finished. But it’s the story of boy who can communicate with the dead and finds himself in serious jeopardy when called upon to help the spirits of a number of children killed in an old mine. I will finish it one of these days.

When 2011 rolled around, I was so immersed with editing my Gangster’s Gold manuscript, November again caught me unprepared. I prefer to write with a general outline of how the story is going to go but all I had was a germ of an idea but not a lot of plot figured out. I was writing by the seat of my pants, as they say. It’s another supernatural tale. It’s titled Consuming the Soul and the rough draft is completed. Editing it, will be my next adventure!

Now, we come to 2012. November 1^st is just around the corner. Am I prepared? Ummm…not really. My agent had suggested I try writing another novel using the characters from my first book to create a possible series. I’m finding it challenging since I’d never considered Gangster’s Gold to be part of a series, but I have a few ideas rolling around in my head. The question is, can I pull together a possible plot that makes sense?

But, I am determined to make another effort regardless of how prepared I am! I’ve managed to surpass the 50,000 word goal each year thus far, and I don’t plan to fail this time round either.  Maybe it won’t be the next To Kill a Mockingbird or even the next Captain Underpants, but I figure any writing is a good use of time!

For those of you who think you might want to take the NaNoWriMo challenge, just head on over to www.nanowrimo.org. It’s all free. There are local support groups, write-ins, challenges, and just a bunch of people goofy enough to think trying to write a 50,000 word novel isn’t totally crazy. There are forums where you can learn everything from which poisons are best for leaving little or no trace to how do you saddle a horse. Anything you might need to know to write your particular part of the challenge. There are writers ranging from elementary school kids to octogenarians. So, if you’ve ever wanted to try writing a novel, now is the time!

My True Ghost Story

Ghosts…

Among other things, my story, The Gangster’s Gold, has to do with ghosts. A ghost that needs help.  

If you go on television right now, you can view a plethora of ghostly related programs: Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, Paranormal Witness, Celebrity Ghost Stories, etc.  There are innumerable books on ghosts – “true” ghost stories, local legends, and myths. Not to mention hundreds of movies and internet websites devoted to the paranormal.  Go to youtube and you can find tons of videos related to ghosts People simply love stories about ghosts and the supernatural.

Why do people love stories about ghosts? Is it because we like to be scared? Or perhaps it makes us happy to think there is something after we leave this mortal plane? I looked this up on the internet and answers ranged from “I like to be scared” and “I love the mystery” to “There’s always a naked girl in the movies”. Hmm.

Of course, the big question is, do ghosts really exist?

I think they do. Or at least some sort of energy we can’t explain does. I experienced this myself as a child. Here is my “real” ghost story.

When I was young, growing up in New Jersey, we lived on a dead end street. The last house before you got to the woods belonged to the Hoffmans and had a detached garage with an apartment above it. It always seemed rather creepy to us as kids.

One fall afternoon, my brother and wanted to try and make some money raking leaves. So, we decided to try the Hoffmans and see if they would hire us. No one answered the front door. As we were leaving, we noticed an old man looking down at us from one of the windows of the garage apartment. My brother asked if we could rake his leaves and the man nodded. So, off we went to the back yard to begin raking.

A short time later, a car drove up and an elderly woman got out and walked behind the garage to see what we were doing. We explained that the old man said we could rake the leaves. She was confused and asked us to describe the man, which we did.

For a long moment, the woman said nothing, just stared at us. Then she said, “That’s sounds like my husband but he died a year ago. You couldn’t have seen him.”

My brother and I looked at each other, then explained that he’d been looking at us through the window and nodded when we asked about raking the leaves. We knew we’d seen that old man! The woman seemed to get a little upset and told us to go home. Needless to say, we were seriously creeped out!

That was not my only experience with the Hoffman house. One early evening, my friend, Kim, and I were walking past it to the path leading to another friend’s house. I looked up and saw a person I thought was an old lady moving down the front yard towards us before disappearing behind a bush. I told Kim someone was coming but no one was there! Ooooeeeoooo.

Right now, my daughter lives in an apartment that appears to be haunted by the spirit of a little girl. She’s had mysterious writing appear on her refrigerator. Things have moved by themselves. For example, she had a plastic flower sitting on her kitchen counter. The next morning, she found it by her front door. That sort of thing has happened several times. She once watched a carton of milk move across her refrigerator shelf. More than once, she came into her kitchen and found every cabinet and drawer open. She’s heard voices and laughter and even saw a figure dash by her bedroom door. Although she’s gotten sort of used to all of this, she’s moving to a new apartment next month!

This was how she found her kitchen one morning.

 

 



So, ghosts…real or not?

In other news…editors from two more publishers have asked to see my manuscript! Keeping my fingers crossed one of them thinks it’s worthy of publication!



 

The Next Big Step

I have some very exciting news! Before we left to spend last week in New Hampshire where we’re building our retirement house, I made sure I got everything back to my agent. I put together a marketing plan, I wrote my blurb, and fixed those last few editorial changes. I wanted to make sure I had all my ducks in a row before we headed to New England to determine the fate of numerous trees on our land before the construction guys came to clear it.

This morning, I got an email from my agent telling me she had sent out queries on my behalf to a bunch of different publishers. I found that so exciting. To think we’re taking the next big step!  Then, I got a second email not long after saying that an editor at Random House, one of the big ones, wanted to read the entire manuscript! I was absolutely dumbfounded. I had to reread that several times!

Okay, I know this doesn’t mean they’ll want to publish it, but it’s one of those cases where it’s an honor just to be considered. It means someone thought my synopsis sounded interesting enough to make them want to read the entire story. To me, that’s huge! I guess I still have trouble imagining someone actually publishing it, but to get even this far is just so amazing to me.

My agent asked me if this book was going to be part of a series. Frankly, I hadn’t actually considered that as a possibility. She told me before she sent off the queries that maybe I should give it some thought in case an editor liked it enough and would like some additional similar stories. So, I think that’s going to be my next project: try and come up with a sequel to Gangster’s Gold. Hmm...another ghostly time-traveling mystery...can I do it? Only one way to find out!

Writing the Novel was the Easy Part!

Last week, my “Gangster’s Gold” manuscript came back from my agent and I’m happy to report, it’s ready to roll! Well, it’s ready to roll, but all my ducks aren’t quite all lined up yet.

When I decided to write this book, no one ever told me that writing the book was going to be the easy part! I mean, I whipped out that rough draft in thirty days. Then, of course, came the editing. That turned out to be far more involved than I expected. I mean, wasn’t it perfect already!? Um. No.

But still, I survived that step (although if we sell it to a publisher I will very likely be going through another round or two) and figured we were almost home free. What a silly, naïve fool I was! I hadn't counted on The List.

When my agent sent me back my manuscript, along with it was a list of additional items my agent needed. I studied this list with some alarm. A marketing plan? Wasn’t it the publisher’s job to sell your book? Ha! Not quite. They’ll publish it, but unless you’re Stephen King or James Patterson, you better be expecting to be out there hustling your own novel. So, if you see me out by the side of the road with my trunk open waving books around, be sure and stop by.

Next, she wanted a tag line and a cover blurb. I figured those should be easy. I mean, how hard could it be to condense a 70,000 word novel into a paragraph or a single enticing sentence? The answer to that is: really hard. In fact, I spent an hour at the bookstore one day just looking for tag lines and cover blurbs. I mean do you write a cryptic and mysterious tagline like A girl trapped between two lives separated by time or a more descriptive one like A girl travels through time to prove the innocence of a ghostly boy unjustly accused of stealing a fortune in gangster’s gold. Beats me. So, I’ll write one of each just to be safe. Then, the blurb (that descriptive paragraph on the inside or back of the cover that convinces you to buy the book). Again, I need to make it sound like the most exciting book ever so you’ll want to buy and read the entire thing before you even reach your car. It took me less time to write the first half of the book!

But I’m lucky. I have helpful friends. Mackie sat down with me and helped me think of ways to market my book. My critique group gave me suggestions on writing my blurb. My brother Brian even made me a little video teaser to put on my website to help (you can see it by looking in the right hand margin for the youtube link). Others also threw in their helpful two cents. My ducks are lining up quite nicely now.

So, by the end of this week, I plan to have this all back in my agent’s capable hands and see if she can drum up any interest. Granted, it’s not a paranormal romance or a fractured fairytale, both of which seem to be very popular right now, but hopefully someone will find some merit in it, publish it and make me Rich and Famous (or at least give me bragging rights that I published a book!) . I still need to find some other time traveling, treasure hunting ghost stories similar to mine. Oddly enough, there don’t seem to be a lot out there. If you think of one, let me know!

Consuming the Soul: The second novel arrives

I'm happy to announce the completion of another milestone in my writing "career". It's only taken me ten months since I started it, but I finally completed the first draft of my second novel! Okay, technically, it's my third novel since I have another one about two thirds completed that I started after "Gangster's Gold", but it's the second I've actually completed.

For the past three Novembers, I have participated in the National Novel Writing month writing event. The goal is to write a 50,000 word in thirty days. My friend, Mackie, told me about this back in 2009, and I decided it was a sign. It told me the time had come to write My Novel. You know, it's that novel everyone has tucked in the back of their head. The one we just know we'll write Someday. For most of us, Someday never seems to arrive, and if Mackie hadn't told me about NaNoWriMo (yes, that's what they call it), I suspect my story would still be loitering in those back alleys of my brain. Thus inspired,  I wrote and actually completed "The Legend of the Gangster's Gold." The following year, I started a second novel about a kid who sees ghosts, forced to work in a carnival, and eventually has to save the souls of dead children who were murdered in an abandoned mine, and finally the year after that, my third, "Consuming the Soul".  If all goes well, I'll start a new story come November 2012.

I'm excited about this newly completed novel. Its current working title is "Consuming the Soul" and is based on an old New England supersition. In the early eighteen hundreds there were those who believed that when a number of people, especially those in the same family, died from consumption (aka tuberculosis) it wasn't due to disease but due to an evil force inhabiting the body of the first victim. That force subsisted by consuming the life energies from living souls. Some believed if you dug up the body of that initial victim, you would find fresh blood in his heart or liver. You must then burn the organs and feed the ashes to those afflicted by the disease. This would supposedly cure the ill and stop the deaths. Needless to say, not many adhered to this "Yankee vampire" supersition, although for awhile, it was somewhat popular in the backwoods of Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Hampshire. Regardless, it was the inspiration for this book. A "vampire" book without vampires!

This novel was a actually lot of fun to write. It's a young adult novel and my first attempt at writing in first person. There are historical aspects, danger, mystery, and even a little romance. I'll have to admit, romance isn't really my thing. I usually prefer the thriller stories where romance doesn't get in the way of a good old-fashioned gunfight. I'll take a fun-filled fiery explosion over gooey mush any day.  Yet, I threw some in just the same. However, we are definitely not talking "Fifty Shades of Grey"!

So, now that the first draft is completed,  I've put the story away for the time being. I'll let it simmer for awhile and eventually go back and start the editing process. As I have learned, that can be a long, drawn out process. In the meantime, I'll start thinking about my next story. November is only a few months away!