Tag Archive for: Lynn Cahoon

The Vacation Bucket List

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Where do you like to vacation?  Lynn wants to know….

When I was a child, my family didn’t go on a summer
vacation. If we went on a trip, usually it was to see family. My parents moved
to Idaho from a small town in South Dakota, Winner. My grandparents lived on a
farm complete with tiny house and huge barn.
As a child when I visited, the cousins would take me to the
creek to swim, tell ghost stories in the hotter than Hades attic where we
slept, and promised to write after I left so we’d at least be pen pals.
One year, we broke our no-vacation rule, and spent a week at
Yellowstone. Seeing the bubbling mud pots, the clear but boiling hot springs,
buffalo herds, and, of course, Old Faithful, sticks with a kid.
When my little sister was born, we headed west for a summer trip
and stopped at the ocean. Walking through the waves on the still cold Oregon
Coast, I was in charge of my teacup poodle and the kid. We got too far out and
a wave came up on us. I had to make a choice. I picked up my dog.
My sister has never forgiven me.
 When I married, my
husband wasn’t a traveler. We camped and fished, but he liked being at home
with me next to him.
After the divorce, I started traveling. I haven’t been out
of the country, yet. I have a map of the United States posted on my work cube,
with all the states I’ve visited numbered. I still have a few to go. I love
finding the out of the way little towns, with a claim to fame. Like the
Merimac Caverns in Missouri or visiting Mark Twain’s Hannibal. Caves scare me,
but I’d never tell my current husband that. 
I just love going.
It was during one of these impromptu trips where the Tourist
Trap Mystery series was born. South Cove isn’t any particular town, but a
hybrid of the town where I’d love to live.
My husband’s trips of choice surround his sports teams – or Nascar.  This was our trip to Bristol last year.
What’s your favorite vacation spot? Maybe I’ll visit
someday.
Guidebook to Murder –A Tourist Trap Mystery
In the gentle coastal town of South Cove, California, all
Jill Gardner wants is to keep her store–Coffee, Books, and More–open and
running. So why is she caught up in the business of murder?

When Jill’s elderly friend, Miss Emily, calls in a fit of
pique, she already knows the city council is trying to force Emily to sell her
dilapidated old house. But Emily’s gumption goes for naught when she dies
unexpectedly and leaves the house to Jill–along with all of her problems. .
.and her enemies. Convinced her friend was murdered, Jill is finding the list
of suspects longer than the list of repairs needed on the house. But Jill is
determined to uncover the culprit–especially if it gets her closer to South
Cove’s finest, Detective Greg King. Problem is, the killer knows she’s on the
case–and is determined to close the book on Jill permanently. . .

Guidebook to Murder Releases April 17th

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And I’m celebrating.

What’s it like to be an author? What wild and crazy things do we do when one of our books is finally out into the world?

Wild authors at the Michael Hauge workshop-St. Louis

April 17th is a Thursday. So I’ll be getting up at 5am, working out for 30 minutes, playing around on the computer for another 30 minutes, then getting ready for work.

The 30-45 minute drive is made tolerable with an audio book playing in the cd player. Probably a mystery. Or a romance. Maybe I can find a Heather Graham mix up for the week.

Then I do my thing for 8 hours at a local leasing company. And, no, I won’t pick you up.

Drive home – more story. Whoever invented the audio book, I’d like to buy you a beer. Or two.

Walk the dogs, make dinner, write 1000 words on my WIP, and play on social media for a few hours, including checking out my blog tour posts.

And, since I’ll still be on Lent, I’ll dream of chocolate peanut butter eggs and eating bunny ears.

Lynn

How do you celebrate a special day?

In the gentle coastal town of South Cove, California, all
Jill Gardner wants is to keep her store–Coffee, Books, and More–open and
running. So why is she caught up in the business of murder?

When Jill’s elderly friend, Miss Emily, calls in a fit of
pique, she already knows the city council is trying to force Emily to sell her
dilapidated old house. But Emily’s gumption goes for naught when she dies
unexpectedly and leaves the house to Jill–along with all of her problems. .
.and her enemies. Convinced her friend was murdered, Jill is finding the list
of suspects longer than the list of repairs needed on the house. But Jill is
determined to uncover the culprit–especially if it gets her closer to South
Cove’s finest, Detective Greg King. Problem is, the killer knows she’s on the
case–and is determined to close the book on Jill permanently. . .

Lynn Cahoon’s a multi-published author. An Idaho native, her
stories focus around the depth and experience of small town life and love.
Lynn’s published in Chicken Soup anthologies, explored controversial stories
for the confessional magazines, short stories in Women’s World, and
contemporary romantic fiction. Currently, she’s living in a small historic town
on the banks of the Mississippi river where her imagination tends to wander.
She lives with her husband and four fur babies.

Real world or imaginary places?

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One of my author loops started talking about setting the
other day. Did people use real places in their stories, or made up ones? The
answered varied from one extreme to another.
Some people were like me. They used real, made up places.
Confused? Let me give you an example.
In the Bull Rider series, the first book is set in fictional
Shawnee. A town with as many churches as bars. Nestled in between two
mountains, the town follows the river as it meanders through town. The rodeo
grounds are set outside town, next to a grassy hill where observers can bring
their own picnic dinner and blankets and watch the festivities in style. The
descriptions mirror a real little town known for it’s easy access to salmon
fishing and a rodeo weekend, Riggins, Idaho.

So the book is set with a mix of the real and the made up.
Later books in that series are set in my old stomping
grounds, the Boise, Idaho area. Real town with a little fiction magic, and a
book is born.
My novella, Temporary Roommates, is based on a neighborhood
in St. Louis close to Forest Park. Real place, made up apartment building.

Finally, South Cove, my setting for The Tourist Trap
Mysteries, is set on the central California coast. Readers may think they can
guess the town South Cove is representing, but that series was all based on one
old house. 

What about you? Do you like real settings? Or are you happy
with a fictional world?
Guidebook to Murder releases April 17th! 
In the gentle
coastal town of South Cove, California, all Jill Gardner wants is to keep her
store–Coffee, Books, and More–open and running. So why is she caught up in
the business of murder?
When Jill’s elderly friend, Miss Emily, calls in a fit of
pique, she already knows the city council is trying to force Emily to sell her
dilapidated old house. But Emily’s gumption goes for naught when she dies
unexpectedly and leaves the house to Jill–along with all of her problems. .
.and her enemies. Convinced her friend was murdered, Jill is finding the list
of suspects longer than the list of repairs needed on the house. But Jill is
determined to uncover the culprit–especially if it gets her closer to South
Cove’s finest, Detective Greg King. Problem is, the killer knows she’s on the
case–and is determined to close the book on Jill permanently. . .

Lynn Cahoon’s a multi-published author. An Idaho native, her
stories focus around the depth and experience of small town life and love.
Lynn’s published in Chicken Soup anthologies, explored controversial stories
for the confessional magazines, short stories in Women’s World, and
contemporary romantic fiction. Currently, she’s living in a small historic town
on the banks of the Mississippi river where her imagination tends to wander.
She lives with her husband and four fur babies.

What did you give up for Lent?

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Do you participate in the Lent practice of giving up
something? I’m not Catholic, but my denomination followed this practice. My
first year, I remember giving up Coke. I’m a real Coke addict. (The drink, not
the drug.) I was at work, and had just taken a sip of my ritual mid-afternoon
treat when I remembered my promise.
I couldn’t believe I’d slipped so fast. First day and I’m a
failure.

Yes, I am literal in my interpretations. No grey, just black
or white. And that’s something I’m trying to correct in my personal life as
well as my writing.
When I first started submitting, if the guidelines said A. I
gave them A. If the guidelines were vague, I’d ask questions until I understood
the process and what they were looking for. After being in the game for almost
five years now, I’m a bit more relaxed in my interpretations. I’ve heard from
countless agents and editors they want a good story well told. And if they list
off what they’re looking for, they might miss out on a manuscript that will
blow them away.
Having faith in your work will move you forward. Knowing
that you’ve written the best book you can at the time, should be enough. If all
you do is polish, you’ll never be told no. You’ll also never get constructive
feedback from the people who could have bought your book.
Last year when I was negotiating my contract with my editor
(I don’t have an agent), I fell into that black or white mentality. Kicking
myself during the long weekend after asking for a change in the
options clause, I drove myself and my friend crazy with second guessing.
This is probably the reason agents earn their 15%.
As the hours passed without a response, I’d gone from
confident in my request to convinced I’d phrased the email wrong and had
offended her.
When Monday came and the editor agreed to my request, I was
over the moon. I’d almost given up faith.
So this year, I’m giving up sugar. I may be a basket case by
the time this blog posts. I’m sure I’ll fail at least once. But I know I’ll get
back up and try again.
And that’s all that matters.

What are you giving up for Lent?
Lynn
Mission to Murder is up for pre-order (coming July 31st) so I thought I’d share the cover. Don’t you just want to go inside and see what’s on sale?

Mardi Gras Madness

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Growing up in Idaho, I had no idea what Mardi Gras was until
I moved to St. Louis. I’d never seen a King cake. Didn’t know what significance finding the baby baked inside the cake held. So I did a little research. 
Carnival actually runs from Twelfth Night in January to
Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, ends the Carnival season. Lent is a
period of prayer and fasting before Easter, and Mardi Gras is the last hurrah
before Lent starts.

The St. Louis version of Mardi Gras is held the weekend
before Fat Tuesday in a little neighborhood called Soulard.  The event includes a fun run, a parade,
musical entertainment, and of course, a lot of booze.
My husband and I were downtown for a dart tournament so
afterward, we walked the few blocks to Soulard. It was the same week I’d been
diagnosed with breast cancer and we were both a little raw from the news. 
I
pointed to a horse drawn carriage and said, “Someday, I’d like to take a ride
in one of those.” 
He waved it down and we road to the party in style. On the
way, I pointed out landmarks that I’d only glimpsed through my freeway commute
past the historic sites. Riding through the streets in an open carriage, gave
us the time to really see our surroundings. 
I knew things from books I’d read that even the carriage driver didn’t
know. Like the rumor that the Purina Foods parking lot was haunted. Or that the
Exorcist actually happened in a St. Louis mental hospital, not Baltimore like
the movie portrayed.
By the time we arrived, the party had moved from the streets
into the bars. As we wandered through the neighborhood, we found the farmer’s
market. The buildings remind me of Pike Market in Seattle, without the multiple
floors.
Then we took the long walk back to our car. 
We haven’t been back to celebrate Mardi Gras in Soulard
since that year. But I’ll always remember our carriage ride. The time when ‘someday’ became today.

What are you doing for Fat Tuesday tomorrow? 
Lynn
If you’re looking for a fast pace paranormal romance set in a contemporary world, the first in my Council series, A Member of the Council, is back on the market. I love this cover. 

Finding the Reality in Reality Shows

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I love competition shows. Top Chef, Project Runway, Biggest
Loser, and all the many offshoots. I even watched a season of Big Brother. Now
that’s time I’ll never get back. 
But the others are shows that tend to show me the value in
determination, talent, and, even, self-confidence. The contestants who do the
best are those who know their own story. They know their style and are able to
use the challenges as boundaries within which they present themselves through
their product.
I’m watching a marathon of this season’s Top Chef right now
and am drawn to the chef who knows she’s good, but doesn’t trust her knowledge.
She’s won a challenge and yet, she’s still her worse critic. Last year she
competed to get on the show, but failed. She fought back and earned a spot in
this year’s cast. Now, she doesn’t believe in her talent.
I see myself through her eyes. Determined, accomplished, but
still uncertain at times.

My version of a Quick Fire Challenge – Lynn’s Potato Pie
I believe writing, and life even, is like that. The universe
gives me boundaries and within those, I am able to play and create my own
world. My own stories.
All I have to do is get out of my own way.
Last week my son sent me an old Monty Python recording of a
news report following a writer starting a new story. Every word was analyzed by
the announcers, even the one’s crossed out. Sometimes my internal editor is
like that news reporter. Looking for the amazing when really, a story should be
written in private, then edited in public. Writers need to give themselves permission to
write crap. Then edit pearls.

Me getting my ticket into the Michael Hauge workshop.
Failure isn’t the end. Its one step in success. Maybe more.

Do you watch reality TV?
Lynn – who really doesn’t need another fix to her habit.

The Act of Revision

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When you think of what an author does all day, most people think about the creative part. Weaving a story from an idea, or three, into a full fledged book, filled with characters, conflict, and, emotion.

That happens, but not in the first draft.

I’ve got revisions on the brain. I just finished my final, first draft for a bull rider’s book. I had a beta reader who acted like a first editor, read through and help clean up the draft. Then, as I went through my own drafting process, I also incorporated her comments.

Then it went to my publisher. Now that I’ve sold the project, the book will be back on my desk in a few weeks for copy edits.

By the time the story is done, the book will have gone through five sets of ‘edits’ including my original changes from my first draft.

Why am I telling you this? This weekend, I gave a talk to a local writer’s group. At break, one of the members came to be to ask about a scene in his story where the woman overcomes massive childhood issues with a love scene. The author talked about the symbolism of the act and explained what it all meant.  When I mentioned that he might need to show her healing in other ways then use the scene as a cumulation of the growth in the character’s arc, he shook his head. The book, he said, was already done.

I disagree. A book is never done until it’s published and in the readers hands. Even if you’re shopping what you believe to be a finished product to agents and editors, you may need to tweak and adjust the story to score that contract. And even then, your story may change during the publisher’s editing process.

I used to believe that once I wrote ‘The End’, the book was done.

Now, I realize that is a fairy tale.  It takes a village to write a book. From beta readers, critique partners, to agents, copy, developmental and line editors, many hands touch your baby as it goes through the process.  At the end, you’ll have a better product.  Or at least that’s the goal.

I’m heading back to the editing cave.
Lynn

New Years Resolutions – Or Not -Part II

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Hi Gang,

It’s been twenty days since the New Year started.  Have you kept to your goals? Are they flexible enough to adjust when things go south? Or when your load gets heavier?

Last post, I talked about my health goals. I lose weight VERY slowly. So who knows where I am today. But even if I’ve fallen, I will get back up because I know I can lose weight with this same program. Eat more fruits and veggies, cut back on calories, and work out more.

Another set of goals I made was around taking more time for myself. I’m the queen of busy. If I can fit in one more blog, or one more chore, that’s one less that I have to do tomorrow. One more lap. Just a little faster. The problem is I can burn out easily if I forget to fill the well.

Around the holiday’s, I took some time off and spent it reading, watching movies, and spending time with my family.  During that respite, I decided one day a week I’d take time off for me. No word count, no editing pages, just re-creation time.

We’ll see how that works.

I’m hoping to carve out more time for baking, quilting, crochet, and, yes, of course, reading. During my vacation I read Doctor Sleep by Stephen King. Loved this character study in the life of an alcoholic. Well, an alcoholic with an ability to talk to spirits, and other cool psychic tools. Great book.

What would you do with a free day once a week? What’s stopping you?

Lynn

New Years Resolutions or Not?

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Hey gang….
It’s been six days since the New Year started. How are your goals going?
Do you set goals or resolutions?
For me, I’m a goal setter. Resolutions seem too dreamy. A goal is
specific and time centered.


So here’s one of my goals – Make healthy choices and increase fruits/veggies in my
diet. My hope is to lose 20 pounds by year-end. Now, it’s not going to get done
just by adding a few apples and celery sticks. I’m also going to have to work
out regularly and keep a log of both food and exercise. One day at a time. Kind of like writing a book. Or eating an elephant. (Although that might be a wrong metaphor to use.)
One way I can do this is using Myfitnesspal.com I love this website. Free
and filled with excellent tracking programs. And, you can buddy up with friends
and have an online push when you’re not reaching your goals.
Today I found Panera Breads is sponsoring a fitness challenge. Lose five
pounds in six weeks. They have a mobile app called Lose It. It’s a lot like
MyFitnessPal but it’s on my phone. Although, I think you can do that with
MyFitnessPal too. Check out https://www.panerabread.com/en-us/home.html
for more information.
Watching hulu plus while I rode my stationary bike I found another program
I might like—Daily Burn. Apparently, it brings a variety of exercise programs
to you every day – kind of like P90X which is one of my favorite workouts but my doctor banned me from using due to health issues. Right now, I’m
playing Biggest Loser on Xbox with Konect. Love the workouts. And the weather warms up and I can get back to walking places like Chain of Rocks bridge, it’s indoor work for me.
Technology rules.
One last hint for today – find a farmers market that delivers. Our local
farmer’s market in the St. Louis are does a Fruit your Cube program, bringing
fruits and veggies to your office for a reasonable cost. I never have to say, I
should have gone to the store because the store comes to me. The only guilt is
when I don’t use up the veggies before they go bad.
Are you on the health wagon for 2014? Do you like the on line programs,
or good, old-fashioned meetings?
Lynn

Going Fallow…

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Unplanted, unseeded, unsown, bare, empty, seedless…
Uncreative, unproductive, barren, idle, inactive…
Driving out to the in-laws place for Christmas dinner, we
saw a lot of fallow land. Crops harvested and the land let sit until spring
plowing. I’m feeling a lot like those forgotten fields.
I wrote three books, two novellas, and a handful of shorts
for 2013. And a whole lot of blogs, not just a peck but a bushel or two,
keeping up the farm imagery. So this week, as I’m off for my holiday, I thought
I’d tidy up the year by finishing a romance that I’d started during the spring.
I’d set it and all my notes aside when the Tourist Trap mysteries were contracted
in April. 
Unfortunately, I’m being uncreative, unproductive, and
barren, at least for my word count. I’ve read my previous chapters trying to
get back into the story. I’ve pulled out my vision board for the story, placing
it next to my computer so I can see the images. Four days, 1062 words. Not my
best showing.
So, instead I’m switching gears and working on page proofs
for Guidebook
to Murder, Book 1 of the Tourist Trap Mysteries. I moved my books to a
new place. I’ve kind of cleaned my desk. And, to prove I’m utterly blocked, I’ve
not only kept up my exercise plan, I set up a budget for 2014.
Instead of fighting the lack of progress, I’m taking the
time to recharge by reading, watching movies, and spending time with my loved
one. I’ll try for words again tomorrow. Today, I have a book calling my name.
What are you doing this long winter’s night?
Lynn