Tag Archive for: #amwriting

Clicking Our Heels – Looking Forward – Seasonal Preferences

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Clicking Our
Heels – Looking Forward – Seasonal Preferences

As we practice
social distancing and are limited in our interactions outdoors, we thought we’d
tell you which seasons we love – and are thinking about. We also want to tell you
how much we care about you, our readers, and hope you are staying safe and
well.
Julie Mulhern – I
adore autumn-the colors, the crisp air, the bright blue of an October sky.
Juliana Aragon
Fatula – Spring because of gardening and growing plants from seeds gives me a
kickstart on life. Seeing baby deer being born on my front yard under my Aspen
grove opens my eyes to the mystery of the circle of life. Rain, wet earth,
birds singing, the magic of creation.
Debra H.
Goldstein – Summer. The warmth of the weather; the fact that people want to get
together; the joy of being at the beach or in the water; the fun of seeing
children learning to swim; the relaxation everyone feels.
Dru Ann Love – I like
Autumn – because it’s not that cold nor too hot and no allergies to deal with.

Robin
Hillyer-Miles – Summer! I like it hot. I love to have a dribble of sweat
slipping down the center of my back.
Debra Sennefelder
– Hands down, autumn is my favorite season. I love the child in the air, cozy
sweaters and comfort food. It’s a beautiful time of the year.
A.B. Plum – I love
spring because of the rebirth, literally, of the natural world. I don’t mind
the rain because it feeds the plants and around here, ensures the racoons and
possums and other critters won’t die of thirst or come into my backyard looking
for water.
Kathryn Lane –
Spring is allergy season for me. Fall, especially in the mountains, is sheer
beauty – the golden foliage, wildlife passing through on their way to lower,
warmer territory, and the warm days and cool nights. Pure bliss.
T.K. Thorne – I love
spring, but it doesn’t love me. One of my favorite writing places is my front
porch, and I love when it gets warm enough to do that. Nature things happen
there, and I can spend hours in my rocking chair, but I pay the price with
allergies.

A Moss Walk–by T.K. Thorne

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Writer, humanist,
          dog-mom, horse servant and cat-slave,
       Lover of solitude
          and the company of good friends,
        New places, new ideas
           and old wisdom.

About 35 years ago, on a trip to Japan, I had the opportunity to visit a Buddhist monastery. I’m sure there were many beautiful objects there, but what has remained in my memory over all those years was a moss garden off a patio looking down the forested mountainside. Made of many different types and shades of moss, it was perfect, not a leaf, a stick or a non-moss plant disturbed the emerald carpet. “How does that happen?” I asked.

“It is tended by hand every morning,” was the reply. 

There is something about moss I find calming and, hence, I’m reluctant to clean it off the old bricks of our walkway. But it is far from perfect. Today, with the coronavirus raging through our world and lives, I decided to put on my monk hat and tend the walkway. It was very slow going because if you just rip out the plants growing in the moss, you rip out chunks of moss as well.  It usually requires two hands, one to hold down the moss and the other to gently extract the opportunist clump of grass or florae.

As I worked, I didn’t think about anything but the patch in front of me, getting satisfaction as each one cleared. I have no idea how long it took because it wasn’t about time.

I say I didn’t think about anything. Not quite true. It occurred to me—not for the first time—that in order to bring about my goal, I had to destroy what was not wanted. Moving toward what we want in life requires dedication, patience, and being willing to pull out the unwanted, even when its roots are wrapped deep.

T.K. is a retired police captain who writes BOOKS, which, like this blog, go wherever her interest and imagination take her. Want a heads up on news about her writing and adventures (and receive two free short stories)? Go HERE.  Thanks for stopping by!

Everything Old is New Again

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This is my first blog post as part of the Stiletto Gang. I’m excited, thrilled, and honored to be asked to be part of this wonderful group of awesome writers.
I lived in Memphis, Tenn. (Home of the Blues/Birthplace of Rock and Roll) for about 18 years before returning home to Charleston, South Carolina in 2016. When I moved to Memphis, I did group sales at a family entertainment center. We were members of a local association called Metro Memphis Attractions Association. Being a part of Double M Double A helped me acclimate quickly to the area and visit all of the historic, entertainment, and educational attractions. I’d been a tour guide in Charleston, so this was right up my alley.
In Charleston we pride ourselves on being the first to do and have most everything, you know like the first female newspaper publisher, first golf course, first municipal college, first museum, the list goes on and on. For my entire life I thought we invented the Piggly Wiggly grocery store chain. Imagine my surprise upon visiting the Pink Palace Museum in Memphis and discovering that the former owner of the mansion started The Pig.

My favorite Pig cup.
Clarence Saunders opened his first Piggly Wiggly grocery store in 1916. Before then, shoppers would hand clerks a list and the clerks did the shopping, while the client waited for their order to be filled. When Saunders opened his store in Memphis, Tenn., it was the first true self-service grocery store. He laid out his store in a sort of loop that allowed for a greater variety of items to be visible and bought. Saunders received his patent for the self-service shopping in early 1917. 
Saunders may or may not be surprised to see his concepts still in use since he was a forward thinker. However, here we are in 2020 back to shoppers sending in their lists to clerks who do the shopping for them and bag up the items, leaving the customers to only ensure they have proper payment when picking up their groceries and or having the groceries delivered directly to their door. 
Saunders only had a couple of years of formal schooling and he became self-educated via reading. Which segues into the correlation of grocery shopping and bookstore evolution similarities, somehow, for me at least. 
Amazon has only been around since 1994 but is the giant of the bookselling (and everything else) industry. Jeff Bezos has put many an independent, and quite a few big-box brick-and-mortar stores out of business. And yet, in the Charleston area we have five independent bookstores: Blue Bicycle (downtown Charleston), Buxton Books (downtown Charleston), Main Street Reads (Summerville), Itinerate Literate (North Charleston – it used to be a bookmoblie store, hence the name), and The Turning Page (Goose Creek). Plus, I recently had someone tell me that an independent bookstore will open just over the Cooper River bridge in Mt. Pleasant in the near future. Take that Amazon! (just kidding)
I enjoy visiting and purchasing from independent bookstores. I dig their energy, their book signings, coffee talks, helpful staff, and book clubs. 

Itinerant Literate hosts “Get Lit Bookclub” where you dine at a local restaurant and the small plates of food incorporate the meals present in the book, plus you get a serving of wine with each course. They sell out monthly. 

Buxton holds book talks in their store and in conjunction with the Charleston Library Society next door to them. Buxton is home to Tour Charleston where all the tours are book-based. (Full disclosure: I occasionally give their ghost tours.)

I’m excited to write books and have signings in these local stores. I’m truly hopeful they all succeed. 
And when I plan ahead, a rarity indeed, I love ordering my groceries online. 

Have you noticed this trend of returning to the way we were? In what other ways are we going back to the way things were done once upon a time? 

—
You can find out more about Clarence Saunders and the museum collection at www.memphismuseum.org, and the Charleston Library Society at https://charlestonlibrarysociety.org. 

To learn more about Charleston, SC independent bookstores visit https://bluebicyclebooks.com, https://www.buxtonbooks.com, https://www.itinerantliteratebooks.com, https://mainstreetreads.com, and https://turningpagebookshop.com. You can find a book-based tour at www.tourcharleston.com. 

New Way of Thinking

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New Year, New Way of Thinking

By Cathy Perkins

I’ve been thinking about New Year’s Resolutions this week. Making
them is ingrained in us, isn’t it? New year, new leaf, fresh start and all
that. This year will be different! Everything is new and shiny!
Okay, confession: I only made a couple of vague resolutions.
You know, “I’ll finish that online course I started, cough, cough, last year”
ones.
So many people swear they’re going to change, to start doing
the good for you stuff. Go to the gym. Eat healthier. And writers? This is the
year you’re finally going to finish that, fill in the blank. Novel screenplay,
memoire. You hear echoes of “work hard” and “sacrifice” and, if you really want
it…
Why do our expressions for going after what we want to
pursue—our goals, for heaven’s sake—come across as something negative? Why
do we make them about things we clearly don’t want to do?
And what happens? Here we are, barely three weeks into January
and mine are already headed for that big dump station in the sky.  
Then I stumbled across a post by Jennifer Crusie.
Jenny is a fantastic teacher. I met her several years ago
when she taught a masterclass at the beach. I think my head exploded, I learned
so much that week. So, when she says something, I tend to listen and think
about it.
Her proposal is instead of choosing tasks that you know you
aren’t going to carry through, focus on what makes you happy. Won’t that be a
better way to appreciate the good things in life? 
I’ve been thinking about happiness this week (instead of
that class I’m not listening to). What makes me happy?
I love to travel, so I took advantage of Alaska Air’s sale
and booked a few flights. And art. I’ve been playing with my kiln and fused
glass for a while, but those pencils and watercolors are calling. There’s a
shiny new book I want to write and this may be the year to screw up my courage
and tackle the book that nearly made me quit writing.
So, what about you? How are your resolutions going? Did you
make any?

Or would you rather jump on board my Happiness Train?


Image courtesy of Gross National Happiness USA organization. Find them here.




An award-winning author of financial mysteries, Cathy Perkins writes twisting dark suspense and light amateur sleuth stories.  When not writing, she battles with the beavers over the pond height or heads out on another travel adventure. She lives in Washington with her husband, children, several dogs and the resident deer herd.  Visit her at http://cperkinswrites.com or on Facebook 

Sign up for her new release announcement newsletter in either place.

She’s hard at work on sequel to The Body in the Beaver Pond, which was recently presented with the Claymore Award.

Holiday Traditions – Time for a Change

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Holiday Traditions – Time for a Change

By Cathy Perkins

Clicking out Heels is also changing. Rather than our group’s
question and answer posts for First Wednesday, we’ll focus on a peek behind the
scene element. Barbara Plum kicks it off for us in January. Can’t wait to see
what she shares!
Sometimes change is good. Doing the same things over and
over can provide continuity and a sense of tradition, but they can also become
stale and lose their original meaning.
Holiday traditions are changing in our family. Our children
are grown, married, and starting their own families. While certain foods are
still ensconced on the holiday table, this year, the family will gather around
one of our children’s table. Added bonus? I don’t have to cook!
Because I’m not the hostess this year, rather than spending
hours preparing, my husband and I took off for a working vacation in Hawaii. The
vacation part? With warm sunshine, vibrant foliage and a blue ocean for inspiration,
we had a wonderful time, hiking and snorkeling. 
While my husband played golf, I
drew on that inspiring scene and finished Calling for the Money, the next book
in the Holly Price mystery series. Now that we’re home again, initial comments
are returning from my beta readers. The good news is they like it. Even better,
they had a couple of great suggestions that I’ll work in before sending the
manuscript to my editor.
What about you?


Are there certain traditions that endure with your family?
Or are you making changes as well? 

An award-winning author of financial mysteries, Cathy Perkins writes twisting dark suspense and light amateur sleuth stories.  When not writing, she battles with the beavers over the pond height or heads out on another travel adventure. She lives in Washington with her husband, children, several dogs and the resident deer herd.  Visit her at http://cperkinswrites.com or on Facebook 

Sign up for her new release announcement newsletter in either place.

She’s hard at work on sequel to The Body in the Beaver Pond, which was recently presented with the Claymore Award.

The Senses of the Season

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By Lynn McPherson
With Thanksgiving just days away,
it’s time to kick off the holiday season. As I opened up all the boxes with
lights and decorations, my festive feelings were thrown into high gear with just
one whiff of a gingerbread-scented candle.
It was a great reminder of the
importance of using all five senses in writing. Let’s look at how much of a
difference it can make if a writer incorporates more than just what the eye can
see. I thought we could use a Thanksgiving setting as our demonstration…

What could be the highlights of a
Thanksgiving meal, if we were restricted to the sense of sight: a big turkey,
decorative pine cones, family gathered together, a festive tree, sparking
lights, a dimmed room with a roaring fire. Now, add in the smell of turkey
cooking in the oven. And the scent of fresh pine of a crisp after-dinner walk.
Doesn’t that start to bring the scene alive?  How about the murmur of happy chatter and the
warmth emanating from the fire? With the addition of sound, smell, and touch, the reader is given a fuller experience—perhaps even
initiating their own memories of holidays past. Without this, the scene may seem hollow—and that’s never good when you’re trying to
entice the reader into your character’s world.
How about if we switch the scenario
to a busy city street?  Other than the
sights around, there might be a pungent smell of a passing garbage truck, the
loud honking of nearby taxis, or the firm brush of hurried passersby. Another
example could be a busy coffee shop. Look around next time you’re in one—think about
what’s happening. Would you miss the buzzing of friendly chatter? The grinding
sounds of a coffee maker preparing to serve fresh brew? And the delicious smell of fresh brew. All these things can
help the readers set their imagination in motion. This is particularly
important at the beginning when you want to hook the reader.
            So
as you unpack your ornaments and prepare your festive dinner, let it be a
reminder to be aware of all the wonderful sensations the holiday season has to
offer and to enjoy each one.
            I
wish everyone a happy and healthy Thanksgiving weekend. May you have the chance
to see your loved ones and curl up in front of the fire with a good mystery—I
know that’s what I’ll be doing…


Lynn McPherson has worked for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, ran a small business, and taught English across the globe. She has travelled the world solo where her daring spirit has led her to jump out of airplanes, dive with sharks, and learn she would never master a surfboard. She now channels her lifelong love of adventure and history into her writing, where she is free to go anywhere, anytime. Her cozy series has three books out: The Girls’ Weekend Murder and The Girls Whispered Murder, and The Girls Dressed For Murder.  

Clicking Our Heels – Charities and Social Issues We Care About

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Clicking Our Heels – The Charities and Social Issues We Care About
The Stiletto
Gang members have lives outside of writing. Today, we tell you about some of
the charities and social issues we are
passionate about.

T.K. Thorne– Maranathan
Academy, a non-profit school in Birmingham, AL that gives critically at-risk
children a second chance, because I get to see faces turn from despair to
excitement with learning and hope for a better future.

Dru Ann Love
– The New York Blood Bank – because when I needed blood for a transfusion, it
was there for me.

Shari Randall – I’m very interested in literacy issues (you
can take the girl out of the library but you can’t take the library out of the
girl!) I volunteer with my local libraries in book sales and book nooks. So
much research has shown how libraries play a big role in leveling the playing
field for less-advantaged children. Many parents cannot afford books for their
children and it’s vitally important to keep libraries open to help those families.

J.M. Phillippe – LGBTQ Rights, because of how much people in
my personal life are impacted by being denied the same basic rights of other
people. And reprodctive rights, because again of the impact they have, not just
on women, but on entire communities.

Judy Penz
Sheluk
– Canadian Cancer Society — I’m a
breast cancer survivor (10 years and counting)

. I’ve done volunteer work for
Golden Rescue (golden retrievers) and support them — I’m on my fourth purebred
Golden and had a Golden mix as a kid.

Kay Kendall
– I support the Sierra Club in all it stands for. It’s the oldest and most
influential environmental organization in the U.S., amplifying its 3.5+ million
members’ voices to defend our right to a healthy world. Helping the Sierra Club
keep fighting for Earth’s natural resources is important to me.

Mary Lee
Ashford (1/2 of Sparkle Abbey) – As
Sparkle Abbey, we are involved with several local pet rescue groups and
contribute a basket of goodies (and sometimes a chance to have your pet in a
book) to their Raise Your Paw Auction. These groups do great work to rescue
animals that are abandoned or in bad situations and find them forever homes.
The other cause near and dear to my heart is literacy and I donate, speak, do
whatever I can to support local literacy groups. 

Debra H.
Goldstein – I have a special interest in
issues relating to women and children. Consequently, I support the YWCA of
Central Alabama’s domestic violence and pre-school programs as well as programs
sponsored by the Girl Scouts.

Bethany Maines – The Pacific Northwest has a higher percentage of Multiple
Sclerosis than any other spot in the nation and they don’t really know
why.  MS causes deterioration of the connections between the body and the
brain and there is no cure. I can count at least five people I know
personally who have MS or have died from MS and that is at least five too
many.  If you would like to donate or help in some way the National
Multiple Sclerosis Society is a great organization that is BBB accredited and
is dedicated to curing MS and helping those have MS live better
lives.  https://www.nationalmssociety.org/

Julie Mulhern – I worked for ten years for a not-for-profit
that helped individuals and families manage the challenges posed by serious or
chronic illness. It remains a cause dear to my heart.

Linda Rodriguez – I’ve been a member of Amnesty International for many
years. What they do for political prisoners around the world is tremendously
important work. I have long had a recurring donation going to Doctors Without
Borders because their work in the locations where violence and war are
devastating people is critical. I also have long had a recurring donation that
goes to the American Indian College Fund, which provides funding for tribal
colleges and Haskell Indian Nations University, the only four-year university
for Native Americans. Ironically, my son now teaches at Haskell Indian Nations
University, but my involvement with the American Indian College fund goes back
to his grade school days. I have a recurring donation that goes to the ACLU,
who are doing yeoman’s duty at this time in this country as it has become,
defending our Constitution and our law against all of the attacks which are being
waged against our kind of liberal democracy. And there are others, but those
are the ones I’ve been involved with for a long time.

A.B.
Plum – The
Health Wagon operates in West Virginia and serves people without health or
dental or vision care. Mostly run by volunteers, THW manages its money and
resources in an amazingly frugal way. One day I hope to join them on site—in
addition to supporting them with $$.  https://thehealthwagon.org/hwwp/

Cathy Perkins – While my husband and I have offered financial support for numerous charities over the years, my volunteer time has gone to The Sexual Assault Center. The agency recently extended their services to all crime victims but the mission remains one of support and healing. In today’s political environment with the constant attacks on women’s rights, I find it vital to stand up and give back and encourage everyone to pick your passion and support it.

Statistics

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by Bethany Maines

Recently, I’ve been experimenting with some partnered
writing.  This goal of this partnership
is to write a novella and turn it into a screenplay.  As this will only be the second screenplay
I’ve written, I’m guessing at some of the mile-markers that let me know if the
project is meeting our goals or if we’ve wandered completely off-track.  As a result, I’ve become slightly obsessed
with the statistics of the work.  I’m
tracking how long chapters are, the character’s vital information (age,
occupation, relationships, descriptions), how often each character appears in
scenes and how long the screenplay is in comparison to the novella.
Some interesting statistics have emerged.  From a forty-thousand-word manuscript it
looks like we need to achieve a twenty-thousand-word screenplay.  For those familiar with basic math that’s
HALF!  That has forced some necessary contractions
in the story.  Some characters have
merged, some scenes got trimmed, and an entire sub-plot got deleted.
But as the process has progressed, keeping a sharp eye on
the length has given me insight into where the story is running long and where
it was going to need to be cut. 
This has been an interesting tactic for writing because knowing that
you’re writing something that’s going to be cut later makes motivation a bit
hard.  However, it does free me to write
more elaborately and descriptively then perhaps I might ordinarily for the
novella since I know that scenery description is not generally included in a
screenplay.
In all, writing for a specific goal has streamlined the
process in many ways, but also created some interesting  constraints. 
Hopefully, with information gleaned from this project my next attempts
at screenplay writing will be easier still.
***

Have a Netgalley account?  Interested in reviewing Bethany’s upcoming book?  Sign up to be part of the review team!  All readers & bloggers welcome!  Or  add it to your TBR list on Goodreads! Pre-Order on Apple iBooks also available.

➡️ Pre-Order: Apple Books: https://apple.co/32sL3vV

***
Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of the Carrie Mae Mystery Series, San Juan Islands Mysteries, Shark Santoyo Crime Series, and numerous
short stories. When she’s not traveling to exotic lands, or kicking some
serious butt with her black belt in karate, she can be found chasing her
daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel. You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.

Learning to Write from TV Commercials

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Learning to Write from TV Commercials by Debra H. Goldstein


Lately, I’ve vegged in front of the TV. It isn’t the shows that attract my attention, but the commercials. They are a perfect lesson in storytelling for a writer to observe. Why? Because they must tell their tale in thirty to sixty seconds in a way that we remember. They achieve this through tight scripts, careful casting of actors, and specific product placement.

Like short stories, commercials limit themselves to a single or simple story arc with a final twist. Let me give you some examples. Some of the longer commercials, which are shown on stations that run golden oldie procedurals, run more than a minute. Two, which target different groups, show children or veterans with challenges and how the advertised hospital system or non-profit improves lives through the aid being given. These commercials depend upon characterization and the emotional strength of their stories to attract supporters to make donations when the ad concludes with a plea for money.

Many commercials are set in a kitchen. A husband, boyfriend, or child asks a wife, girlfriend, or mother about a specific food product or if they have more of an item. The woman provides a taste of the food or directs the individual to where the product is. The man or child is satisfied by the taste or being drowned in the product. The stories in these commercials are not as important as selling the name of the product or service. Consequently, there is product placement of a bag of the frozen food or a dish made with the advertised food. My favorite, which advertises a buying club, has roll after roll of paper towel dropping on a man. After the wife explains that without paying much, this service allows one to get quality and quantity, the twist is a child asking if next time they can order cookies. One laughs at the joke, and remembers the buying club.

Other commercials, like books in a series, build upon memories from previous commercials. The Budweiser Clydesdales were introduced in 1933 when prohibition ended. At that time, they pulled a Budweiser beer wagon. Today, they advertise beer for Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company, the parent company that subsequently bought the Budweiser brand. People wait for each year’s new Super Bowl ad in the same way readers wait for the next book in a series by a favorite author.

Commercials hold our attention by using scripts that address topics from purely realistic or sentimental viewpoints or by mixing what people know with moments of fantasy. If the commercial is successful, the viewer remembers the product as opposed to only the story line. If the writer succeeds, the reader subconsciously thinks about ideas the writer planted while enjoying the plotline. 
What commercial makes the biggest impact on you? Why?

Follow Your Bliss

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By Cathy Perkins 
“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you
where there were only walls.” Joseph Campbell
I’ve
been trying to finish an amateur sleuth mystery (the next Holly Price story) but another story keeps nagging at me. It’s one I’ve picked up and put
down about a dozen times; changed the focus; the motivation; everything except
the central characters and the theme.
I’m
not sure why that book keeps pulling me back. Maybe it comes from the idea that
each one of us has something special to contribute—maybe work we feel compelled
to do. By doing it, we feel fulfilled and enrich the world. Joseph Campbell
talks about finding your own path (“If you can see your path laid out in front
of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with
every step you take. That’s why it’s your path.”). 

How do you find that path?
Some refer to it as following your bliss. Others say, find your heart’s
passion.

But
is that passion the broader goal or a kernel that embodies it?

For
many of us on this blog, our passion is writing. Taking intuitions, snippets,
dreams and moments of pure fantasy imagination. Adding overheard conversations,
glimpses of a vignette as we pass by. Grabbing that nebulous possibility, and
shaping and turning into a polished story. Is writing the passion we want to
share with the world? Or is it a particular theme or story that we feel we have
to tell to reach that bliss?

I
really have no idea, so I keep putting one foot in front of the other and
step-by-step find my path.
Right now, that path is
strolling along with a forensic accountant who’s trying to find her own path through life…
You might hear a bit more about her later. But as much fun as
the amateur sleuth story is to write, that other story is still there, a siren song.
Even if we take the steps
to become an author, maybe we chose a certain path because we fear the stories
we want to write won’t sell. We love chic lit or romantic mysteries or literary
stories where the characters rule and the words flow to a different rhythm, but
we read online, hear from editors, agents, creative writing texts that D, all
the above are passé. We’re tempted to follow trends rather than listen to the
story inside us. I think most of us have cleared that hurdle, but the doubt is
always there–should I have chosen a different path? 
Overall, I’m happy with my
path to “here.” Sure, there have been highs and lows, joys and
regrets. I’m happy our paths crossed, here on the blog, at various publishers, conferences, or any of the other places we’ve connected. I hope my passion for writing lives
on and that I can share my joy and make a small corner of the worlds a better
place. 

And in the meanwhile, I
think my other story is still growing—or growing up—quietly evolving in my
subconscious. I have many books still to write.
But I suspect “that story”
will one day be the one I have to tell.
What about you?
 “As you go the way of life,
You will see a great chasm.
Jump.
It is not as wide as you
think.” 
― Joseph
Campbell

An award-winning author of financial mysteries, Cathy Perkins writes twisting dark suspense and light amateur sleuth stories.  When not writing, she battles with the beavers over the pond height or heads out on another travel adventure. She lives in Washington with her husband, children, several dogs and the resident deer herd.  Visit her at http://cperkinswrites.com or on Facebook 

Sign up for her new release announcement newsletter in either place.

She’s hard at work on sequel to The Body in the Beaver Pond, which was recently presented with the Claymore Award.