“A character is never the author who created him. It is quite likely, however, that an author may be all his characters simultaneously.” – Albert Camus
I thought I would answer the top three questions that readers ask me:
1. Where do you get your story ideas? Do you write about your own life?
Never lose sight of the fact that all writers are poachers. This is a kinder, gentler word for thieves. Nothing is safe around a writer. Bluntly stated, we steal things: a name, a laugh, an overheard conversation, and the color of the wing chair in the local funeral home. Rosemary Sheerin’s ankles actually belonged to my own mother.
The plot for MacCullough’sWomen draws heavily from the stories that I heard while attending support groups as a young widow. Those tearful conversations were full of surprises. The storyline in the book is an old one, used many times before, and still playing out today in front of the world in a courtroom in North Carolina. It explores human frailties and where they lead us.
2. Do you have a favorite character?
I am the mother of an only child and she is my favorite. I never understood how it could be true when I would hear mothers of more than one (including my own mother and my mother-in-law) say that they did not have a favorite. Now, as a writer who created several characters and sent them into the world, I understand. Some of my characters make more sense to me than others, but I love them all.
3. What is the most difficult thing about being a writer?
The most difficult thing for me is finding the time to write. I have a day job, a house, a husband and a very demanding English Cocker Spaniel. I also have a sad list of shoulds: exercise, garden, learn French, ride my bike, do yoga and meditate.
Once again, being a thief is helpful because I steal time to write, fitting it in whenever I can find an empty minute. I get up very early and write until it is time to go to work. I try to add a couple of pages at lunch and I edit in the early evening.
The second most difficult thing about being a writer is where to put the commas. The last time I counted, I owned nine books on grammar. All purchased with the intention of teaching me comma usage. Still, I am editor’s despair, as my first instinct is to treat this particular punctuation mark like chocolate chips and fold them in everywhere.
“As a writer, you can’t allow yourself the luxury of being discouraged and giving up when you are rejected, either by agents or publishers. You absolutely must plow forward.” Augusten Burroughs
Do you hear The Voice? An insistent hissing in your ear that reinforces every negative message you have ever heard throughout your life: “You can’t, you won’t, you don’t, you are not, you never will, you’re too old, so why don’t you just quit?”
We all have these voices following us around because at one time or another we have all heard one or more of these messages from someone, even if they were not deserved and even true. Often people feel the need to say negative or hurtful things to others because of something that has nothing to do with the situation they are commenting on. Usually, it’s about them. Unfortunately, the damage is done and The Voice files away what it hears to be used at a later date. So be prepared.
Writers are particularly susceptible because they work alone and are attempting to create something unique. Writing is an uphill slog and unless they happen to be J.K. Rowling or Stephen King, the self-professed writer is often viewed as being just a little bit off.
The Voice reached its peak for me last year as I was completing the final edits for my book. Loud, irascible and snarky with a long (and fairly accurate, unfortunately) list of everything that I had ever screwed up or not finished, The Voice would not shut up.
Around this time I was having a routine test done at the hospital, on my way past the gift shop (which in case you don’t know always has great stuff, so stop in), I found a body for The Voice: Simon, the Mandrill.
Aka The Voice
Instead of taking the coward’s path, I decided to beat Simon at his own game. I never know when he is going to show up.
Simon where you least expect him to be
One of these strategies almost always works:
Tell The Voice to be quiet. You know what you’re doing. You’ve done this or something like it before with great success. You’re a rock star.
Get up and move. Do jumping jacks. Run the vacuum. Drop and do pushups (I don’t do this but you can.)
Do nothing. Sit quietly and start breathing deeply and repeat. “I know that I can do this.”
Keep on doing what you need to do. In my case that is WRITE. Focus on what it is you need to do to reach the next step. And you will.
“Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted. That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.” ― Aldous Huxley
I hesitated before deciding to reviewPure by Julianna Baggott. It is not for the faint of heart even though it was originally written for the Young Adult (YA) audience. Many scenes are very disturbing. Not because they are graphic but rather because they portray horror almost but not quite beyond the imagination.
I decided to do it for two reasons. First, this novel illustrates what I love about being a writer. Julianna Baggott, the author of seventeen books, also writes as N.E. Bodie and as Bridget Asher. N.E. Bodie writes for preteens and Bridget Asher writes deliciously romantic women’s fiction. Clearly, Ms Baggott writes about what she wants to as the muse calls her, proving herself to be an incredibly talented and prolific writer. This, as you may have already guessed, is every writer’s dream.
The second reason is that buried deep in the acknowledgements – I know you don’t probably read them but trust me a writer always does – I found the following:
“The research for this novel led me to the accounts of the effects of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki…And I hope, in general, that Pure directs people to nonfiction accounts of the atomic bomb – horrors we cannot afford to forget.”
And now, on to Pure.
“A great gorgeous whirlwind of a novel, boundless in its imagination. You will be swept away.” — Justin Cronin, New York Times bestselling author of THE PASSAGE
Pure is a story about Pressia, a sixteen-year old girl living with her grandfather in the remains of a barbershop in post-apocalyptic America. She is one of the Wretches, survivors of a nuclear blast known as the Detonations. The blast left those who survived burned, mutilated and fused to whatever they were holding or standing near at the time it happened. Pressia’s grandfather has a fan embedded in this throat and Pressia’s right hand is now a plastic doll’s head. Shortly after the novel opens, she is forced to flee the dreaded OSR solders who are assigned to round up all children when they reach their sixteenth birthday.
Pure also describes those who were saved. Known as the Pures, they live an isolated life in the Dome. Partridge, the son of one of the leaders, escapes to try and find his mother said to have been killed when the bright light of the atomic blast took place.
This is the story of what happens when Partridge and Pressia collide in the desolate and dangerous landscape of the world outside the Dome. The plot has some very interesting twists; some you might expect to find if you read this genre and one amazing turn that will leave you breathless. It is the characters that grab you and won’t leave you: Bradwell, the boy with birds fused to his back, Lyda Mertz, El Captain and his brother Helmut, The Good Mother, Sedge and many more.
If you like pleasant and happy books, Pure is probably not for you. It is the first of trilogy. And the movies rights have been sold. Coming on the heels of the amazing success of The Hunger Games, we can most likely expect to see a lot more of Pressia.
One reason you might want to read this book is that your children and grandchildren probably already have.
Whose brave enough to read it?
Does anyone besides me wonder why these dystopian novels have such great appeal to the young adult audience?
“Every author, however modest, keeps a most outrageous vanity chained like a madman in the padded cell of his breast.”– Logan P. Smith
Once it was a lot easier to be a writer. It was a hunched over your typewriter in the garret (or the basement or the garage) kind of job. Who cared about what the writer looked like anyway? Most writers had a formal black and white portrait, printed fairly small, taken for the bottom of the back flap of the book jacket. I am pretty sure nobody but the writer’s mother even looked at it. And they used that picture until they died. Okay, maybe I am exaggerating but I can assure you not by much.
Writing is a solitary “holed up somewhere” job. A job that begs for comfortable clothes and plenty of food close at hand. Writers love food that is not usually green and often has a last name of chip. Candy works well, too. The more frustrated the writer is, the more the writer eats or at least this one does. I have never heard of a writer who can’t eat because they are stuck over what to do with an uncooperative character or a scene that refuses to work. The default definitely is to eat.
Writers did not go on book tours. Some did not attend their own book launch parties. Some writers didn’t even venture out to meet their editors being as they say reclusive. They “corresponded” about the book using the United States Mail Service. The manuscript in its various stages was sent in special boxes called manuscript boxes back and forth until everyone agreed it was finished. This allowed the writer to look exactly as they pleased and not have to worry about their image. It was about the book not the writer.
Today the writer is everywhere. If you read my last post you know what I am talking about. Facebook, blogs, videos (I shudder at the thought!). It all translates into pictures. Way too many pictures of the writer. This may be why a lot of writers are showing you cute pictures of their dogs and cats.
I have an author photo. I actually like it. Trust me, it took a village to produce this carefully staged version of me.
My official author photo
The problem is, as you have most likely noticed, I have to post lots of other pictures. Pictures where I am out in the world, shall we say, unenhanced. Of course, certain things are what they are. But, I have noticed lately from some of these pictures that I could stand to lose a few pounds.
The writer looking a little overfed.
Twenty-three pounds to be exact. This is how many pounds over my official Weight Watcher lifetime member goal that I am. I have decided that if I am going to be in everyone’s face or Facebook, the least I can do is look my best.
My plan is to be back at my goal weight by November first. This may seem like a long time but it translates to losing about a pound each week. As a veteran of the Weight Loss War, I know that this is realistic. I should be at goal about the time I will need a new author photo for my next book.
I will keep you posted.
On a path...
V
“Every author, however modest, keeps a most outrageous vanity chained like a madman in the padded cell of his breast.”–Logan P. Smith
Once it was a lot easier to be a writer. It was a hunched over your typewriter in the garret (or the basement or the garage) kind of job. Who cared about the writer anyway? Most writers had a small, formal black and white portrait taken for the bottom of the back flap of the book. I am pretty sure nobody but the writer’s mother even looked at it. And they used that picture until they died. Okay, maybe I am exaggerating but I can assure you not by much.
Writers did not go on book tours. Some did not attend their own launch parties. It was about the book. Some writers didn’t venture out to meet their editors. They “corresponded” about the book using the United States Mail Service. The manuscript in its various stages was sent in special boxes called manuscript boxes back and forth until everyone agreed it was finished. This allowed the writer to look exactly as they pleased and not have to worry about their image. It was about the book.
Writing is a solitary “hold up somewhere” job. A job that begs for comfortable clothes and plenty of food close at hand. Writers love food that is not usually green and often has a last name of chip. Candy works well, too. The more frustrated the writer is, the more the writer eats or at least this one does. I have never heard of a writer who can’t eat because they are stuck over what to do with an uncooperative character or a scene that refuses to work. The default definitely is to eat.
Today the writer is everywhere. If you read my last post you know what I am talking about it. Facebook, blogs, videos (I shudder at the thought!). It all translates into pictures. Way too many pictures of the writer. This may be why a lot of writers are showing you cute pictures of their dogs and cats.
I have an author photo. I actually like it. Trust me, it took a village to produce this carefully staged vision of me.
The problem is as you have most likely noticed I have to post lots of other pictures. Pictures where I am out in the world, shall we say, unenhanced. Of course, certain things are what they are. But, I have noticed lately from some of these pictures that I could stand to lose a few pounds.
Twenty-three pounds to be exact. This is how many pounds over my official Weight Watcher lifetime member goal that I am. I have decided that if I am going to be in everyone’s face or Facebook, the least I can do is look my best.
My plan is to be back at my goal weight by November first. This may seem like a long time but it translates to about a pound loss each week. As a veteran of the Weight Loss War, this is realistic. This time frame should be about the time I will need a new author photo for my next book.
“The proper artistic response to digital technology is to embrace it as a new window on everything that’s eternally human, and to use it with passion, wisdom, fearlessness and joy.”- Ralph Lombreglia
I learned a new word: Luddite.
I had to check two dictionaries to find the definition but here it is:
One who opposes technical or technological change.
As a writer trying to connect with my audience, stay on top of what’s happening in the fast-paced and constantly changing world of publishing and publicize my book, I was told you HAVE TO use Social Media. HAVE TO.
So what does this mean for me? I have an author Fan Page on Facebook. I am supposed to be tweeting at least 10 tweets a day. I am on Pinterest. I have email for my job, email for writing and email for my personal stuff. I have a website for my book. And I just started texting on my phone. Phew!
I also have this blog. I have committed to writing three times each week and barring catastrophe I intend to do so.
My Writing World
I have numerous friends who think I am nuts. I am constantly warned about the dangers of doing “that stuff.” At the heart of the matter they are right. Social Media definitely should be marked with a “Proceed with caution” sign. Because accounts do get hacked, identities and vital information can and do get stolen, people do post stupid, controversial or hurtful things, and people you don’t want to be in touch with can surface. But…
Before you completely refuse to even consider using Social Media of any kind, take a step back, put your doubts on hold for fifteen minutes and think about how you can customize using some of these things in a way that works for you. My advice is to move slowly, follow other people on whatever site you decide is for you and decide who the people are that you think are using it well. And then start to do the same things.
I joined Facebook before I published MacCullough’s Women. The reason was because my daughter was moving to Dublin, Ireland. Facebook has been such a gift to me in terms of me keeping up with what’s happening in her life. More than a hundred years ago, my great grandmother had three children who made that trip going the other way. I can only imagine how her heart most have broken knowing that in a very real sense she was losing them forever.
If you are reading, this then you do have a computer and you do read things online. I urge you to continue to keep an open mind and embrace the technology that allows you to bring more joy into your life.
“We come from a dark abyss, we end in a dark abyss, and we call the luminous interval life.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
The Greeks, really? Really!
I was not a fan of Homer. I read The Iliad in high school, took a few tests on it and forgot most of the story. Recalling only, as many do, the beauteous kidnapped Helen whose face launched a thousand ships. I think what drew me to read Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles was the fact that my father loved the stories of the ancient Greeks. I thought maybe the story in novel form would help me understand why.
A first novel for Madeline Miller, taking her ten years to write, it retells in prose, The Iliad’s recounting of the Trojan War. One of history greatest love stories, it details the boyhood friendship and ultimately the love between Achilles, the son of King Peleus and the sea-nymph Thetis and the exiled prince, Patroclus.
I admire Miller’s courage in taking on not only the challenge of writing this story as a novel but in writing it in the first person, from the point of view of Patroclus. Writing in the first person is not for the faint heart. Miller is a Greek and Latin scholar whose meticulous research forms the backbone of her book and more than qualifies her to have written it.
The pages are full of riveting characters: fierce Thetis, Chiron, the good centaur who mentors both Achilles and Patroclus, Briseis the slave girl who comes between Achilles and Patroclus, greedy Agamemnon, soulless Pyrrhus, and finally, Achilles, himself, called “Aristos Achaion” – “The Best of the Greeks”.
The Song of Achilles transforms a story that many modern readers find difficult to comprehend in it original form, making it easy to read and understand. The love scenes between Patroclus and Achilles were both effective and tastefully done but at the same time complete.
It contains all the elements today’s readers look for in a story: passion, betrayal, loyalty, love, brutal battles, heroes and villains. I recommend that you read it if you are looking for something a little bit different.
If you live in New Hampshire, Madeline Miller is reading at Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord on April 12 at 7 PM.
As for my question as to why my father would have liked it, he was fascinated by fate being no stranger to it himself. The Song of Achillesis full of it.
“It’s always a bit of a struggle to get the words right, whether we’re a Hemingway or a few fathoms below his level.” - Rene J. Cappon
Never underestimate the power of a word
I used to play a game that went like this. Take a person’s first name and find all the words beginning with the same first letter that describes them. Here is what I am talking about.
Brid: brave, bold, bitchy, beautiful, bull-headed, blunt, bossy and bewitching
Franny: fragile, forthright, fearful, forlorn, fair, faithful, fraught and frustrated
My desire to be a writer probably started with my love of words. I began to walk late but that should come as no surprise to you as I have already told you I was a failure at jump rope. I mentioned this once to a friend who said, “I bet you TALKED early.” I probably did. I love to read and began collecting and storing words early, too.
I have always liked odd words; words like eschew and inchoate. At the age of four, my daughter once brought the waiting room at the local vet’s office to a stunned silence by telling our cat that his behavior was appalling. Guess where she learned that word?
This “wordiness” has been a handicap to me as a writer. Think about it. People don’t talk like that. They use simple words. Most four-year olds would tell the cat he was being bad. People often don’t follow the rules of grammar in their speech, either. How many times has someone leaned over to you and said, “Just between you and I…”
Writing dialogue is hard. Notice that I could have used: difficult, arduous, onerous, grueling, complicated, etc. But hard works fine. You understand what I mean. You have to make your characters sound like real people. The people you meet in Dunkin Donuts.
I found when I did create a character that spoke differently; I had to fight for her voice. Brid rarely uses contractions. The reason is because she learned to speak English as a child on the west coast of Ireland. As a result, she speaks more formally than some of the other characters in the story.
The issue of vulgar language also has to be handled carefully. Certain words have slithered their way into everyday speech. Read your Facebook newsfeed if you don’t believe me. I cringed when putting some of those words into the mouths of my characters in MacCullough’s Women. Of course, I have been known to use them, especially when I’m annoyed. Somehow it feels different when you see them written (by you!) on the page. They appear cruder and they are fixed as opposed to fleeting.
I agonized over using what my mother called when forced to address seeing or hearing it (usually as graffiti), “that F-Word” in MacCullough’s Women. Unfortunately, that word is here to stay and you hear it a lot. The characters that use it in my book do so because I feel they would. In an earlier draft of the book, I had Neil Malone use it. And then I removed it because I decided that no matter what the circumstances, he would not.
How do you feel about the use of profanity or coarse language in today’s books? I would love to know what you think.
“If you are destined to become a writer, you can’t help it. If you can help it, you aren’t destined to become a writer. The frustrations and disappointments, not even to mention the unspeakable loneliness, are too unbearable for anyone who doesn’t have a deep sense of being unable to avoid writing.” ― Donald Harington
Saturday, I attended Writers’ Day sponsored by the NH Writers’ Project. The purpose of this event held at Southern New Hampshire University was to bring writers from all over the state and beyond together to share ideas, learn something new and network with other writers. This was the fourth time I have attended Writers’ Day and it just keeps getting better. The NH Writers’ Project is to be congratulated for doing a great job.
My stuff for Writers' Day
The keynote speaker was Archer Mayer, the Vermont-based author of a series of books featuring detective Joe Gunther. He is a past winner of the New England Independent Booksellers Association Award for Best Fiction—the first time a writer of crime literature has been so honored. Archer is a death investigator for Vermont’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and a detective for the Windham County Sheriff’s Office. He could also make a living as a stand-up comic because he kept his audience laughing even while warning us that most fiction writers do not end up rich. Maybe we laughed because most of us had already figured that out.
I attended four sessions:
Your Book Starts Here: Three-Act Structure for Book Writers in All Genres
Writing Through Our Fears
Your Characters’ Characteristics
Networking for Manchester and Nashua Writers
I learned something valuable from each of them.
Your Book Starts Here: Three-Act Structure for Book Writers in All Genres presented by Mary Carroll Moore was most intriguing, providing a new way to look at building plot. The premise behind this is to use a series of questions to plot your story. Ms. Moore did a great job illustrating how to do exactly that with sticky notes. (I love sticky notes because you can move them around.) I immediately downloaded her book (Come on, you knew that I would.)
Mary Carroll Moore
In Writing Through Your Fears, Mary Johnson presented strategies for overcoming the terror all writers face sooner or later. Usually, this shows up as a snarky voice in your ear saying, “What makes you think anyone will ever want to read this? Huh?” This annoying voice who I picture as coming from an obnoxious mandrill named Simon can bring me to despair.
Your Characters’ Characteristics presented by Ann Joslin Williams offered a series of writing exercises and charts to help you build your characters by defining things like: what they eat, their greatest fears, favorite stuff, etc.
Networking for Manchester and Nashua Writers brought local writers together and gave us a chance to describe what we are writing or planning to write.
I had lunch with a fellow member of my Souhegan Writers Group, Cherie Konyha Greene, whose novel will be one to watch for, and several other writers I had just met. Informal networking at its best.
Writers’ Day provides an opportunity to help writers strengthen their knowledge of the craft of writing but I think its appeal speaks to something deeper. Writing is lonely, the work for the most part being done alone and rejected and criticized far more often than accepted. Writers’ Day provides the opportunity to do something we all try to do from the moment we leave the protection of our mothers’ arms: Make a friend.
“ It’s a funny thing, but today the Titanic is probably much more – that is people are much more aware of it than they were in 1954, when I was doing my research.” – Walter Lord, author of A Night to Remember
April 15th is the hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. That alone was enough to draw me to Kate Alcott’s, The Dressmaker. I love reading historical fiction set in this period and extending through the 1940’s. I think this is because it provides glimpse into the times that my grandparents and parents lived their lives as young people.
The Dressmaker is historical fiction at its best. Alcott places a fictional character, Tess Collins, a talented seamstress, forced by circumstances into the role of a lady’s maid, into the path of a real Titanic passenger, Lady Lucille Duff-Gordon on the dock in Cherbourg, France waiting to board the ship. The story, fast-paced and laced with actual facts and real people, will keep you reading.
Due to the popularity of the movie most of us saw in 1997, the story of the Titanic’s ill-fated voyage is well known. Lucille Duff-Gordon, the non-fictional character at the heart of the book is not. She was a fashion designer, known as “Lucille” famous for her translucent, floating clothing in the early years of the twentieth century, who dressed royalty, rich women and movie stars. Also making a cameo in the story is her sister the writer, Elinor Glyn. The facts around Duff-Gordon’s escape from the sinking ship in Life Boat Number One and the resulting scandal are well researched and told with the added panache of a fiction writer’s color.
Equally interesting to me, especially in these controversial times, is the hope of the immigrant experience illustrated by the story of the fictional character, Tess Collins. It reminds me once again that so many of us, proud to call ourselves Americans today, are here because a grandparent or great-grandparent (Me – Irish, Italian and Swiss) made that scary crossing in the bottom of some ship.
From the writer’s perspective, The Dressmaker provides an interesting insight into what it takes to successfully sell a novel today. This book is actually the sixth novel written by Patricia O’Brien. Now in her seventies, O’Brien’s agent initially was unable to sell this book. It was only after O’Brien changed the writer’s name to that of a “new” unknown author, Kate Alcott, that she was successful. The Dressmaker written by Kate Alcott sold in three days. The result is a great read that helps to connect us with one of the sea’s most tragic and romantic stories.
“Indoors or out, no one relaxes in March, that month of wind and taxes, the wind will presently disappear, the taxes last us all the year.” – Ogden Nash
March is almost over. This year the month, named for Mars, the Roman god of war, has proved to be even more disquieting than it usually is. Record temperatures were noted in several places. They have ranged from a low of 14° to a high of 84° here in Nashua, New Hampshire leaving me madly scrambling for something to wear. (Need I mention that most things seemed to have shrunk in the attic where I store them?)
Despite the heat (and the grumbling about the heat heard in this house – “too soon, too hot, too much!”) there was a dissenter in my living room apparently more in touch with what the god was up to than the rest of us. Basking in the sunshine, my little white Christmas cactus decided to bloom again. I know this can happen but it is the first time it has here. And I am enjoying it, viewing it as a sort of floral “Ha, ha!”
Surprise!
Watching the cactus flower and then open, resonated with me as I am in the middle of writing my second book, Francesca’s Foundlings. I am often asked if I know what it going to happen. Of course I do. I am the writer, after all. I work from an outline. But sometimes my characters laugh at both the outline and me, basically saying to me, “Watch this.” If you have read MacCullough’s Women, you know that they are a stubborn bunch. This week when a scene took a turn leaving them in a place it was not supposed to, the cactus reminded me to go with the flow and see where we all end up. And enjoy it. So that’s what I did. Good advice for us all.
The last few days have been cold reminding us all that March does what it wants to. Taxes are done, sent off to the man who will wave his magic wand over them and tell us the good news or bad. It is supposed to snow today. Fortunately, my boots did not make it all the way to the attic when I traded them for flip-flops.
Walking by my surprise cactus, I am reminded to go with the flow and accept that some things are beyond my control.
Beautiful no matter when it appears.
The great news is that April, the month that brings the flowers, is just around the corner.
I thought I would answer the top three questions that readers ask me:
