Monday’s Muse

Monday’s Musing on deadlines….

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Hey all, 

Don’t know if you caught my guest-blog, “Digging those Deadlines” on Saturday at Writers Who Kill, (https://writerswhokill.blogspot.com,) 

It’s a fun site, filled with writers who, like me, enjoy killing off their peeps on the pages! And If you jump on over, you can still see my post in their archives off to the right.

But for all you who missed it, here ya go! Just don’t forget to leave your thoughts below. Luv to hear from ya’ll on it!

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2018

Digging Those Deadlines by Lisa Ciarfella

Hey All,

Lisa Ciarfella here with a warm hello and a toast to my first Writers Who Kill Blog post!

Humbled to be welcomed into the fray, I’m coming at ya’ll today on the topic of deadlines. And seeing as I missed mine here by nearly 24 hours, it’s a miracle you’re reading my post at all. That means my topic’s just about right. But like mom always says, if it were at all humanly possible I’d be late for my own funeral, so I guess it’s not that surprising. And like Douglas Adams  author of “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy quote above, ” I’d venture to guess I’m not alone!

Not sure how ya’ll handle deadlines. But being nearly two years out of grad school, the memories of those looming, logistically impossible, never-ending nightmarish academic deadlines, small and tall, still hang over my head like a bad hangover the day after a night full of fun. You know those kinds of nights. The ones you thought were fun, but the next morning says otherwise!

Quizzes, exams, finals, papers, projects, and those all-consuming thesis deadlines tend to beat lowly grad students into submission until they can no longer function in the real world without them. You learn to lean into it though, cranking out what you must to get the job done. So what if that persnickety professor says that thing is due Tuesday at midnight on the dot in her inbox? Well, at 11:59 pm you’re chugging your twelfth espresso and hitting the submit button on your laptop, praying to the campus Gods that your WiFi doesn’t decide to go Kapow!n And if it does, there’s always the beg, borrow and plead your case ‘dog and pony’ show you can offer up. But it’s a crapshoot whether they’ll buy it or not. Either way, you either get the thing in on time, or die a slow academic death.

Out here in the real world, deadlines haven’t got any easier. I’d hoped they might, especially as a writer. But I’ve found that mandatory deadlines were actually much easier than self-imposed ones. Especially when it comes to blogging. Don’t know about ya’ll but running your own blog’s hard!

I started mine on a wing and a prayer, throwing up a WordPress site not knowing the first thing about it. But coming up with thoughtful, well-considered, interesting and timely topics to blog about every week is no easy feat. Especially when you consider there’s no money in it and the bills keep piling up. But what makes it super tough for me at least, is that no one’s laying out those deadlines anymore!

Tough as they were in school, not having ‘em at all is way worse. When I first started blogging, I thought three times a week sounded grand. Quickly, that went down to two. Then one. And now, I get out my posts when I can, and only when I think I have something interesting to say. (Oh yeah, that’s the other thing I learned quick. Babble’s never good. No one wants to read babble.) But I digress. Case in point, staying on point!

My take-away here? Deadlines are tough, but they do give structure. Without ‘em my blog posts are just “a blowing in the wind”  like my mini skirt; just a tad too short. There’s always something else more important, like taking out the garbage or walking the dog. And much as I want to write that next blog post, it can get kicked to the trash without much doing. And that can could get kicked down the street and onto the next block easy, unless I get tough on myself.

I’ve found guest-blogging’s actually easier. At least that way I’ve got some accountability. May not be the fear of failing finals anymore, but it’s more than that now. It’s the fear of failing at this writing thing and having to barista forever that keeps me up nights. So here it is. Me getting tough. And with just a smidge under 24 hours over the mark!

And here’s to all the Writers Who Kill for rolling the dice and still putting me up!

Cheers all and stay tough!

Lisa

Lisa’s a recent MFA graduate from California State University, Long Beach. Her writing slants dark towards the Noir and crime fiction, channeling inspiration from greats like Jim Thompson, Paul D. Marks and Paul Brazill. She’s been featured on PulpMetal Magazine, Flash Fiction Offensive, Near to the Knuckle, Asheditcom, NoWastedInk, and other places. And her short story “Tick-Tock” will be featured in the upcoming 2019 Sisters in Crime L.A., Fatally Haunted Anthology.

Lisa Blogs here: Ciarfella’s Fiction Corner;  https://www.writingfictionnow.com    

Ciao for now,

Lisa

 

Monday’s Musing on First Drafts….

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Hey all,

So Monday’s Musing on First Drafts today, and all the confusion they can cause an author. 

You know what I’m talking about. Things like character inconsistencies, repetitious scenes, phrases or action. Or your character’s musing on back-story and background so much that a reader is bored to tears and wants to toss your masterpiece before even finishing. Plot holes the size of the Grand Canyon, and endings wrapped up so near they leave no room for surprise.

We’ve all been there. And this week, I’m shining the spotlight on fellow author Janice Hardy’s post “First Look at a First Draft”  at Fiction University’s http://blog.janicehardy.com

Hardy breaks it down like this:

Step One: For every scene, ask yourself four questions:

  • What is the point of view character (protagonist) trying to do?
  • What goes wrong?
  • What does the point of view character (protagonist) do about it?
  • Why does this matter?

For me, the Why is key!  If your characters don’t have a why, your readers probably wont care! Got to answer this biggie first!

Step Two: Once you have all your scenes down, read through your list and see how the story flows. 

I use flash cards for this.  3 ‘ 5 cards, front and back for each scene. That’s it. Then I shuffle them and see if they make sense on their own, as well as in order. If they’ don’t, it’s time to re-juggle.

Step Three: Take note of anything that feels repetitious. 

I tend to repeat, a lot (a lot – haha.) Not on purpose, but it happens. The same types of actions or musings, albeit in different words. Got to check your script over for this bad boy – a sure-fire way to bore your readers!

Step Four: Look at your overall character motivations.

This goes back to step #1 and ‘the why.’  Got to keep your story stakes moving and for that, your people have to have motivations. Like Moses parting the Red Sea, if your character’s people are desperate to cross lest they drown, then you’re right on target! Give em’ reasons for everything they do!

That’s it for today peeps, and another shout out to Janice Hardy at Fiction University http://blog.janicehardy.com for all the great tips!

Ciao for now, 

Lisa

Monday’s Musing on SC Cunningham’s “Unfinished Business”

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Hey all,

So I’m on Blog tour again, this time reviewing SC Cunningham’s delicious and steamy thriller, “Unfinished Business.”

He loved being him… he got away with murder.

She loved being her… until she met him.

Cunningham weaves one steamy, roller coaster of a ride here, fueled by her psychopath David’s dark obsessions with both his childhood sweetheart Tara and his abusive religious upbringing by priests who liked boys just a tad too much. A pulsing mix of overtly sexual, graphic scenes and tension and dark humor grab the reader by the throat early on and don’t let go till the end.

 
Fun-loving Tara is the only victim to survive David Howard’s revenge-filled death list, and is the unlucky recipient of his return after he breaks out of prison on a lark. Recruiting the help of an eager prison guard whom he seduces with sexual prowess, he breaks the neck of another guard and flees to Mexico with his accomplice. There, after a short-lived stint of freedom, his charred remains are found in a fire at a plastic surgeon’s clinic, and the police declare him dead. Tara and friends can finally relax now. Yet little do they know the real score!

David still walks among them, but with a new face. And his revenge to-do list is just getting started! He haunts them by tapping into Tara’s laptop, and cyber stalks as well. But can Tara turn the tables and make him suffer like she did when he kidnapped her?

          Tara has had enough. Time to turn the tables and make him suffer.

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Purchase from Amazon  – USA – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unfinished-Business-David-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B00B623ABC/

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unfinished-Business-David-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B00B623ABC/

 

                     About The Author: British Author S C Cunningham

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The Penance List, Unfinished Business and The Deal creates psychological and paranormal thrillers. Her works offer a fresh level of sincerity and authority, rare in fiction.

Cunningham writes what she knows. Abducted as a child, she survived; and every night for months afterward, she prayed to God, asking for a deal. This personal journey sparked the fuse behind the intriguing and riveting fictional world she portrays in The Deal, the first in the Fallen Angel Series. Twenty years later she crossed paths with a violent serial attacker, thus sowing the seed for her thrillers The Penance List and Unfinished Business part of The David Trilogy. She is currently working on Book III For My Sins.

An ex-model, British born of Irish roots, she married a rock musician and has worked in the exciting worlds of rock music, film, sports celebrity management and as a Crime Investigator for the Police – Wanted & Absconder Unit, Intelligence Analyst, Major Crime Team, Investigations Hub.

Having worked in the music to film industry, she writes with film in mind. The Penance Listhas been adapted to film screenplay.

 

Social Media Links –

Website                                     – http://www.sccunningham.com/

Twitter                                       – https://twitter.com/SCCunningham8

Facebook                                 – https://www.facebook.com/pg/sccunningham8/

Instagram                                 – https://www.instagram.com/siobhancunningham8/

LinkedIn                                   – https://www.linkedin.com/in/sccunningham/

Amazon Author Page USA    – https://www.amazon.com/S-C-Cunningham/e/B002L3ZC2U/

Amazon Author Page UK       https://www.amazon.co.uk/S-C-Cunningham/e/B002L3ZC2U/

 

Giveaway – Win a signed copy of Unfinished Business (Open Internationally)

*Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome.  Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below.  The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then I reserve the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organizer and used only for fulfillment of the prize, after which time I will delete the data.  I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/33c69494103/

Monday’s musing on back-story, and author Margot Kinberg’s latest post…

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Hey all,

So Monday’s Musing on Author Margot Kinberg’s latest blog post, “I Am the Observer Who is Observing* —at Confessions of a Mystery Novelist https://margotkinberg.wordpress.com/2018/05/31/

Not unlike the spotted pup above who looks to be observing all, Kinberg’s post got me thinking: how can the observer characters in crime-fiction help us write better back-story into our novels?

Kinsberg likens writers to those people in life who tend to be the natural observers, the chill peeps…nothing gets by these guys! You probably know a few. I know I do (myself included.) If you ever read Agatha Christie, you know Poirot is always looking to interview the observers, the ones who been there and saw that! And he always gets the most info out of them in terms of solving X for Y!

Similarily, if you watch any of HBO’s crime fighting shows, or BBC’s mystery dramas you know observers are the detective’s main go-to’s!  Even more so than physical evidence found on scene most of the time.

As Kinsberg notes: “Observers often have a very interesting perspective, because they stand back and notice everything…can give valuable information on what they’ve seen. And their perspectives can give the detective a sense of what a group of people is like So, it’s little wonder that we see them so often in crime fiction.” 

 

Observers all!

 What intrigued me the most in Kinberg’s post was her mention of author Louise Penny’s book, Still Life. In it, the victim, Jane Neal, seems to be the observer, albeit from after the grave. She helps the cops by letting them know she’d known things, a lot of things, that other people in town just may have wished she hadn’t! Which, ironically enough sealed her doom!

I just so happen to be working up a novel where the victim chimes in from after the grave too. And it’s especially cool using this as a way tof deal with a character’s back-story. Back-story is so challenging. It engrosses us as we create our characters, but can too easily become the all consuming dreaded author’s “dumping ground” too. After all, we don’t want to barrage  the reader in one fell swoop with 4-11 overload, right? Or, as esteemed crime fiction author Les Edgerton affectionately calls it, doing “The Rubber Ducky” (http://lesedgertononwriting.blogspot.com/rubber-ducky.):

“The “Rubber Ducky” is Paddy Chayevsky’s term for when the hero or villain, at a lull in the action, explains he is the way he is because his mother took away his rubber ducky when he was three…Always a nice scene…totally unnecessary …usually comes from not trusting the reader’s or viewer’s intelligence to “get it”….

…if  you’re trying to give your hero more emotional depth, for the sake of emotional depth, without integrating his back-story…you run the risk of awakening the “dread Ducky.”  Edgerton

 

Not sure how my attempt will go, but going back in time and letting the victim tell some of the tale from an observer standpoint seems a great way to deal-in her back-story without awakening the dreaded RD. 

Could make my tale more present for the reader, involving them intimately as they hear my vic’s own voice relaying the rough-ride. Better her than me, no? Gotta get out of my characters way and let them do the heavy lifting!

Thoughts, comments, odd musings on the topic?

Drop em’ all below, and let’s talk!

Ciao for now,

Lisa

 

 

Today’s feature: Author Chris Roy’s latest….

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Hey kids...Today we’re checking in with a mid-week blog tour highlighting extraordinary author Chris Roy’s latest addition, “Her Name is Mercie.”   

Author Chris Roy

Author: Chris Roy

A dark collection of grist and gore for the late-night thrill-seeker in us all, “Mercie’s” tales combine revenge, cop chases, car crashes, horror, and even a good old-fashioned ghost-story highlighting Roy’s Southern Mississippi roots with glimpses of marshlands and bayous at Roy’s story-telling finest.

But beware…read these stories late at night at your own peril…my lights were down low when I started but burning bright by midnight. Of course, a little good old-fashioned horror fiction never really hurt anyone….right? 

 

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To start, I really enjoyed the title story, “Her name is Mercie.”
Mercie is one chick I could get behind! She’s a stand-alone girl in a world gone crazy, having had both her parents and everything she knows taken away from her in one small moment! A fatal car crash, a girl gone mad, a stolen car and a bank robbery at gun point are just some of the highlights!

And you know you’re in for a good ride when Mercie, after seeing the coroner push the tables with her parent’s bodies back into the freezer, “grinds her teeth, looking at the Grim Reaper’s Lunchable cooler” then punches Chief Perez as hard as she can in response to him asking “are you ok?”

Personally, I really liked Roy’s stab at a bit of dark humor throughout, especially when our girl stops at none other than ”Sears” to buy the weapon of choice. And when her new-found Asian friend Kermit (yes, like the frog,) names their next ride ‘‘Miss Piggy’’… also very endearing.

“Libby’s Hands” was also a stand-out:her-name-is-mercie-received_10216173315868194-e1527158533876.jpeg

A good old-fashioned ghost story set on Halloween night with creepy goblins and ghouls roaming the streets set amidst Roy’s Mississippi background bayou stomping ground:

“She knew. Somehow she knew it was connected. She ran. Light from the back porch glistened on the wet grass, shoes soaked by the time she reached the pond. The tree was on the other side. A huge sycamore with low hanging branches, thick black tangled mass with the moon behind it. “Ah!” Dina slipped on the path next to the water, nearly splashing in. Dirt on her hands, grass on her knees, wrinkled her nose. Shoving to her feet she marched along the path, wary of the waterline and the tall grass she knew harbored snakes.”

In this tale, our girl Libby seems to be brought back from the 70’s as a super-natural force to be reckoned with in the present, trying any way she can to steal back the hands that were never given to her in the first place. We watch the horror and tension mount, as first a boy from the neighborhood trick or treat patrol gets his hand bound and mutilated, then Dina, Libby’s cousin and the storie’s protagonist suffers the same fate.  Creepy to the hilt, it wont be leaving your gut any time soon! Libby will keep you up tossing and turning late, if you dare! 

Also, a shout out also to “Marsh Madness.” Again, lots of hints of Chris’s Mississippi upbringing here. Makes you feel like you’ve taken a tumble right into the marsh along with the alligator and the very unfortunate pup. But the real question is, Is he trying to appease his greater need for the kill by killing off a helpless animal instead of humans? Not really sure, can only wonder… Or, maybe he takes out all in the end, grandma and the boy, just teasing them first…

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Kat Jayne; Pexels.com

My ARC ran short here, so I’ll never know. But the thought will keep me guessing, for sure!

 

Universal Purchase Link:  http://bookgoodies.com

Trailer:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLv2jjpJJxQ&feature=youtu.be

Other books by Chris

Purchase Links:   

Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Chris-Roy

Website | Facebook | Amazon

Chris Roy was raised in South Mississippi, in the midst of ugly Gulf Coast beaches and spectacular muddy bayous. Chris lived comfortably with the criminal ventures of his youth until a fist fight in 1999 ended tragically. Since January, 2000, he’s been serving a life sentence in the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Nowadays he lives his life crime vicariously, through the edgy, fast-paced stories he pens, hoping to entertain readers. When he isn’t writing, he’s reading, drawing or looking for prospects to train in boxing.

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Monday’s Musing on writing for free…

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Hey all, today we’re musing on an important writers quandary: writing for pay vs. writing for free…

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Do you think your writing career, past, present, and future, feels a lot like this photo...grim, grey, and oh so foggy, with the road ahead looking dim and no clear-cut path to success?

I’m willing to bet my hard-earned weekend’s track winnings there are more than a lot of us out there, all wanting to pen our way on to the NY Times Bestseller list and having to do all sorts of crazy things to get there.

By the way, this topic was inspired by way of my girl Michelle over at The Green Study.com and Jamison, another blogger at Jamison Writes.com. (If you don’t know either, check em’ out now,) as well as my recent short story publishing successes (see my last couple posts for more on that score.)  All the above have me musing on this dilemma….should writers work for free, or should they work for hire only…

Like interning or freelance writing with no contract or financial agreement in place beyond maybe a few bucks, guest blogging to help out other authors and hoping to gain a few readers, blog tours where again, you read and review to help out other authors, and yes, even blogging, all of it is done for free with little to no compensation and no guarantee it will further your writerly aspirations in the long run. I’m no expert, but after having tried out all these to some extent both now and during my recent grad school affair, I can say one thing: all of it can make you feel like an elephant treading water….eventually, you feel like you’re losing the battle!

For those of you still with me, you probably already know. It takes an enormous amount of time, energy, and drive to write a carefully researched, thoughtful and engaging commentary, review, blog or guest post, and then to have nothing to show for it, well. It’s not all roses and candy canes! But, it depends on your goals.

As writers, of course we want readers and recognition, but to get there, something you put out has to keep the lights on too or there’s no internet left to post your scribblings on. So, what’s an ambitious writer to do??

This is where I’d luv to hear your commentary, thoughts, and considerations. Jump on in, the water’s warm! I haven’t quite yet turned into that drowning mammal, and I’m still hoping to tread lightly and make it to the other side. And I hope you make it there with me!

Ciao for now, 

Lisa

Monday’s Musing: Published again…

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Hi all…we’re happy dancin’ yet again…

So that week went by real fast and to show for it, got another noir, crime fiction flash story picked up and published!! The picture above, courtesy of my photographer pal, Heidi Horvath, serves to remind that the sun both rises and sets in all its gorgeous splendor, and life goes forward whether we’re reaching our goals or not. And for me, twice up now on two different major crime fiction sites, is definitely reaching and getting out there!

I have to say, it feels damn good to see your babies’ getting picked up, published, and read, and if I had to count all the congrats that have rolled in, well, I probably couldn’t. Not to toot my own horn, but yeah, maybe a little!

Oh, and a huge shout out to Michelle over at https://thegreenstudy.com for  featuring me  on her “Fearless Fridays” column! Her blog is just terrific, and a must see for anyone wanting thoughtful, well intentioned commentary on life in the ongoing writer’s lane of this vast space we call blog-land!

Here’s where you can find my most recent flash fiction, and mad luv to the fab folks over at Out of the Gutter who took it!  http://www.outofthegutteronline.com/2018/04/karmic-catastrophe.html 

Also,  if you haven’t yet read my last week’s flash put up at Near to the Knuckle, it’s here if you’re so inclined!  http://www.close2thebone.co.uk/wp/?p=4034

In the meantime, it’s back to the story board! Got two big writing contests I’m entering soon, one in May, and one in September. Banging on the keyboard’s at all hours, cranking em’ out! Hope to have more good news and fiction fun coming your way soon!

Ciao for Now,

Lisa

Pump up the blood in your prose…

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Hey All…

So, we’re a day late on Monday’s Muse, but here it is, nonetheless! Sometimes, it’s just a matter of seeing something to inspire, like these couple posts, one by Paul D. Marks at Sleuthsayers.org http://www.sleuthsayers.org, and  No Wasted Ink Writers Links to Kill Zone’s post, https://killzoneblog.com/2018/02/get-some-blood-pumping-in-your-prose.html

All the above got my wheels spinning on pumping up the blood volume, especially in a drowning scene I’m working on. Mr. Mark’s film noir post at Slethslayers crushed it, with old school black and white photos from classic film noir pics. I dare you to scroll through the list and not feel the rush of blood ramping up through your veins as your write!

And Kill-Zone’s post is the bomb too. I mean, who doesn’t want more blood and action in their scenes??

That’s the good stuff…it’s what keeps readers comin’ back for more, turnin’ pages late into the night! Action, action, and more action. somebody’s gotta die?? Don’t just talk about it. DO IT! Right there on your page! Make it happen, blood, guts, guns, and grief!

Let the dogs out people….un-chain em’, and go for it!

Ciao for now,

LIsa

Monday’s Musing on the “Pat-Down”…

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Hi All,

So this was basically me this weekend. Some of you may already know, but Saturday I took a little trip to the teaching credential test center to find out if my wits were a match for the credential ‘gods that be,’ and their lofty yet legal, expectations. And not only did I pay bank ($) for the privilege, but I was also treated to their full on, pre-prison ‘Pat-Down’ experience in the process!

Upon checking in to test, I was told to place my palm on the electronic monitor to scan it not once, not twice, but 8 times! Up, down, and over again. Apparently, my palm was  un-cooperative! Then came the photos; 3 sides, front, right and left, smiles definitely discouraged. Next, an escorted walk down a long narrow hallway, where another cop-like eagle-eyed guard stood watching multiple video camera angles from all sides of the unlucky slugs already inside testing. Then the grand finale, a metal detector wand passed all around. Finally, before being allowed in to take my place in the tiny computer cubicles where I’d spend the next three hours cranking out timed, impromptu essays, I was ordered to empty and turn out all my pockets and show them the inside of the back of my hoodie…(not sure what exactly they thought I’d be hiding in there.) Then, last and not least, the hands-on, physical “Pat-Down,” top to bottom, on all sides. Kind of like getting pulled over for a DUI (just sayin) or getting booked for a night in the local slammer. Jail never loomed so large!

Perhaps, this was a pre-cursor of things to come. To be frank, the thought of spending a night in jail almost seems like a more appealing option than teaching full-time. This I know from being a Sub, probably the worlds worst job ever! I’ve had kids do unspeakable, horrific, awful things! Things like jump out a second story window while my back was turned writing lessons on the board. And posting social media pics pretending to smoke rolled up joints inside my classroom, which they made out of paper, usually reserved for airplanes. I’ve been called to the carpet in the Principals office and had to “go to the mattresses” Godfather style, to defend myself against their onslaughts. And truth be told, most days that blessed 3:00 bell just couldn’t ring fast enough! So why you might ask, did I bother testing at all?

Honestly, I can’t really say.  But after finishing up my MFA last year it’s been all job hunting, writing, (write, submit, rinse, respeat,) both of which have been a steady, slow grind getting off the ground. But in the meantime, a girl’s gotta keep the lights on!

The test itself was difficult too. Not I imagine, like a doctor’s medical boards or a law-student’s LSAT. But questions specifically tailored and just crafty enough to easily crap-out on if you don’t give them exactly what they want to hear, exactly how they want to hear it. So, we’ll see. Not too sure I even want to pass! If I do, it’s back to the bottom of the ant-hill school-wise, looking up at yet another whole semester of student-teaching this fall to freak out on! But if not, I guess it just means, more time to write! More crime fiction shorts, finish that novel, and get my stuff out there! As if that’s a bad thing!

Don’t know about you, but the latter sure sounds like more fun!

Keep u posted…Oh, and I’ve got a crime fiction flash piece that was just accepted by a major online mag., so I’m psyched on that score. Let u all know when it’s up. Progress rides in on small waves!

Ciao for Now!

Lisa

 

 

 

Monday’s Muse, and Poe…

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What’s your Monday Muse?

Mine is whatever I’m reading that inspires, or catches my fancy in a big way. Could be a book review, author interview, a simple inspiring quote, or a picture that resonates dark.

Like this below, from the creep master himself, Mr. Edgar Allan Poe.

 

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Thank You, Robin’s Real Life.com,  for this great pic of Poe’s House.

THE RAVEN:

courtesy of Project Gutenberg,  EBook of The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe

 

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“‘Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore—
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
“‘Tis some visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door—
Some late visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door;
This it is and nothing more.”

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
“Sir,” said I, “or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you”—here I opened wide the door—
Darkness there and nothing more….

 

What’s your Monday Muse???

Comments, welcome!

 

Hi all… Been out on blogging hiatus but I’m back…

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Well it’s 2018, and hi there all…

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Snoopy’s musing..

Been out on blogging hiatus but I’m back! And in desperate need of a blogging fix!

So, it’s March 2018, and my focus is on why blog, why do we break, and why, oh why do we ever return? I think it’s basically destiny. If you’re born to write, you write. No matter what. Even if it means shaking off those long dreary months of writing/critiquing/rejection/re-writing/rinse….repeat….etc…

Or, it could be your finances, or lack thereof, that took you down that street of dreams into job fantasy-land for a while, into whatever 9 – 5 situation was offered up thinking hey, at least you’re keeping the light on, eh??

But if any of you have seen that new show “Corporate” on network TV, the office stretch ain’t exactly what you might think, as I so recently found out. The show mimics the original hilarious, all time laugh out loud funny sitcom, “The Office” with Steve Carrell, and John Krasinsky, and puts you in a similar place of mind where the expected is ludicrously ridiculous and yet, oh so imaginable! And of course, when you’re doing the office-corporate gig or even a teaching stint like I was, (which, you’ll be hearing more about soon, ) your wrting will probably take a serious back seat. In my case, more like the trunk of my falling apart 2000 Camry in desperate need of retirement. Hence, the job! Which is all to say, why you haven’t seen me here in a while.

But excuses be dammed! And never one for quitting, I’m back. And so, I move forward. With promises of more writing to come, and getting back to our main squeeze, deliciously dark, desperately delectable, sinful, fiction noir, and all things writing.

In the meantime, I leave you with a link to fellow blogger Michelle, at The Green Study via https://thegreenstudy.com.

Michelle has some great thoughts here on micro-resolutions, especially helpful for the new year. Check out her “writing” section, where she says she gave herself a “writing” map, and will travel with it as long as she can. Words to live by, fellow readers! And in that vein, so will I. My map into the new year includes posting here whenever the inspiration strikes. No more strict deadlines to meet, but Monday’s Muse will continue. And Friday’s flash fiction too. But on inspiration, not on demand. So keep an eye out!

And as always, Ciao for now.

Lisa

 

Monday’s Musing on synopses and Skeletons…

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This one comes courtesy by way of Kristen Lamb’s blog and her interesting article at warrior writers.org. As Ms. Lamb tells us,

 

“The synopsis strips away our pretty prose and all our verbal glitter and it lays our story bare…The synopsis is the skeleton of our story…

 

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Another blogger recently alluded to the fact that if we can’t contain our story down to a concise, intriguing, and “want to read” synopsis, chances of getting an agent to read it, is slim to none.

This seems unfair, you might cry. Feels so unjust. 

And you would have a point, to be sure. After all, our stories are our stories, expanse and hard-earned words all, and why should we have to boil it down to a nub?

But think of it from the Agent’s pov. As an Agent intern for the last 9 months I can tell you first hand; they are bombarded with stories from all over, their inboxes overflowing with literary goodness. And why should they pick yours to read over the others? I’ll tell you why. Because you’ve enticed them with the tale that can’t be tossed in your oh so short and sweet synopsis!

We all probably hate writing them, and cringe when having to cut out everything but the briefest brief. But it clarifies, optimizes, and increases your chances of getting read.

What’s your take on this? Luv to hear all about it. 

 

 

 

Monday’s Musing on the Mighty Blog…

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let’s make some noise!

Ahoy there mates, and happy Monday  again!

This muse comes courtesy of an inspirational post by Michelle over at the greenstudy.com (thanks much, Michelle). So, let’s make some noise…a blog kind of noise that is!

Much like these cool hands here, the blogger is just like the ultra hip D.J., spinning smooth tunes in some smoke-filled night club, just hoping to raise up those dead rebel-rousers out onto the dance floor. It’s all about making some noise, and knowing at the end of it you’re alive and other people are actually listening to whatever it is you’re putting out there!

Michelle’s post suggests that “At least once a year, if not more, I have to justify my reasons for blogging… Part of the reason is that I’m seeing longtime favorite bloggers close up shop or disappear in the vapors of the ethernet. It begs the question: what do they know that I should be paying attention to? ”

Good question, Michelle. And one that definitely needs the begging. Blogging is such a personal, up close and all, in your face kind of writing. Yes, there’s all kinds of bloggers. Some have more official, business marketing  agendas, and for others the experience is more akin to opening   up a vein and bleeding all over the pages, and hoping like hell noone crashes their after party. Yes, as Bloggers, we all want engagement. But when it becomes unstable, scary, or downright militant, who’d willingly sign up for that?

Michelle says she made a “half-hearted effort to set up Facebook and Twitter accounts, cussing through the entire process and attempting to change settings so that any public contact will be highly unlikely….and that maybe our word reservoirs have a limit, especially if one is an introvert.” Here here Michelle! I couldn’t agree more. I like you, like interaction with the peeps I want to interact with! Just not with the ones I don’t!

And as far a limit to our “silver tongue” well yeah. Kind of think maybe you’re right! Like you, I’m busy cranking out my first novel, and I’ve been given the sage advice by others too…Focus on the task at hand, and all the rest will follow!

So my Monday quest for you all is this…

Why do you blog? And what are you hoping to get out of it all???

Can’t wait to hear all your answers. I really, really, want to know!

 

Location, location, location…

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Stans drive-in

Stans coffee shop, 1958;  Hollywood!

So kids and kidettes, Monday’s nearly here again and we’re musing on this…

 

A thoughtful  post on where we actually do the deed from fellow scrivener Sarah Brentyn at sarahbrentyn.wordpress.com.

Being guilty of clicking away in a coffee shop as we speak, I’m notorious for frequenting the joints. Much like this old black and white from Holly-weird yesteryear, hanging out in a space filled with the aroma of freshly ground grounds and all kinds of humanity prowling around near me is enticing.

Yet, does any work really ever get done?? Honestly, no! Too many sticky fingers grabbing too many sticky buns and too much caffeine never really helped my writing. Sure, the brain gets fired up and emails get answered. But actually novel chapters in a setting so noisy I can’t hear myself think?

NO! Never happens!

For that, I gotta go bury in a cubicle ten feet deep in the bottom racks of the school library, where the only people around are busy typing as fast as I am and in just as much mental misery as I am in some shape or form!

So. My question of the week is out there! I really want to know! Where are you when your characters do the dastardly deeds and you spicy pages germinate best???

Tell me all about it!

 

 

 

 

Talk it out… Monday’s musing again…

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Funny how the week goes by so darn quick. But here it is Monday again, and we’re musing on dialogue. That pesky, all-consuming character talk-talk…

 

Snoopy, writing up dialogue“One of my biggest pet peeves as an agent reading slush is unrealistic dialogue. This is a huge indicator of skill for better or for worse. For me, this is a bigger red flag than any grammatical error…” 

(Literary Agent, Carly Watters, on writing good dialogue; Source: 4 Ways To Write Better Dialogue)

Ms. Watters post on the matter got me musing alright! Dialogue, in its best state, is natural. When it flows like water and you can’t turn off the stream if you try, then you know, you’ve got something! When the characters interact and your fingers can’t seem to stop typing, as if they’re on autopilot, that’s when you’ve struck gold! Like that time I sat eavesdropping in an old leather booth at a local diner, jotting down everything the two old birds next to me were saying. One was practically mute while the other carried on the practically the whole conversation by himself, ping-ponging back and forth, asking and answering his own questions, and having a grand old-time doing it. It translated into a short flash, then a longer short-short for me. Nothing like the real thing!

But what about those days when the words feel more forced than anything else and reading it back, you practically choke on the sound it’s so stilted and vague! Don’t know about you but I have those moments. Never easy to write, one of the things I’ve found helpful is to have others read your dialog out loud. And not just in a workshop setting. 

I’m talking about drama. Live, on stage actors, reading the parts. That’s where you’ll know for sure if it’s working or not. And the actors will probably be the first to let you know, in case you haven’t figured it out for yourself yet. If they feel funny saying it, chances are, it’s a pretty funny set of words to be spoken out loud!

What’s your take on the matter???

Luv to hear your thoughts on this one! 

 

 

 

 

Monday’s Musing: libraries and labor day…

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Happy and peaceful Labor Day folks, 

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While you’re all out there waving the red, white and blue, and firing up those BBQ’s, don’t forget to take off your hat and give a wave to your local libraries and librarians who toil away for the sake of you, your kids, and your family’s insatiable reading prowess at large! By day and by night, these institutions and folks are the cornerstone of the American word, free speech, and our steadfast right to enjoy both!

As an MFA grad student, writer and prolific reader, I’ve probably spent over half my life in these places. Filled with gifted, educated, and wonderfully decent people attempting to spread the word, they are still the best free deal in town! Or, as David Nilsen tells us in this recent post from fourthandsycamore.com in On Neil Gaiman and Libraries,

“I’m going to suggest that reading fiction, that reading for pleasure, is one of the most important things one can do. I’m going to make an impassioned plea for people to understand what libraries and librarians are, and to preserve both of these things.”

What’s your take??? Salute me back with your thoughts…

 

Source: On Neil Gaiman and Libraries

Monday’s Musing on Social Media… the good, the bad, and the ugly!

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So, Monday’s nearly here again, and I’m musing on this:

It’s Clint Eastwood in “The good, the bad, and Ugly” and Roz Morris’s recent post on Nail your Novel.com about authors and Social Media. And I can’t help but wonder, just how Eastwood and his fans might have seen it?

 

Seems we can’t escape it, whether or not we want to. It’s here, in all its forms, from friending to tweeting to linking and tumbling. And for introverted authors like myself, it can all feel like a terrible plot conspiring against our very sanity to drive us out of our ever-loving minds!

Yet, where would we be without it?? It keeps us connected, keeps us informed, keeps us current and most of all, keeps us writing!

So, tell me, what’s your partial brand of this particular poison?? Chime in and have at it!

(Roz Morris Source: Yes, social media DO work for writers – here’s how)

Friday’s flash and more…

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“CHOP, CHOP, CHOP” went the knife.

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Thanks to David Duron for this pic!

Down and through the apple, over and over and over. Staring blankly out through the kitchen window, Kevin wondered what would happen if the apple weren’t an apple but instead, a head. Somebody’s head, but not just anybody’s head. It would have to be more wide than circular with orange hued lips and a V-shaped mouth and eyes that slanted slightly to the left when they looked at you. And nostrils the size of extra-big peanuts, sniffing in any hint of aggression coming its way. It would have to be…

“Dam it all to hell!!”

Kevin looked down at his hand, now crimson stained and the liquid was leaking to the left and the right and all over the cutting board. The apple that was green a moment ago was now anything but. Stinging like the worst splinter he’d ever recalled, his skin was now splitting like a zipper, only the split was expanding and getting wider.

Grabbing up the lose bit of skin now strewn like oatmeal, Kevin triaged his finger with wet paper towels clamped together so thick that no blood could get through, and cinched the knife with his left hand. 

Needing a  beer more than ever, he turned and pulled hard on the fridge with the free left hand.

“That mother-fucker” he mumbled under his breath, hoping Joe, his roommate couldn’t hear on the other side of the wall. “Why the hell he’d have to go and drink all my beer again. Third time this month.”

He slammed the door shut on seeing nothing in the fridge but an empty Vodka bottle and a half eaten loaf of stale bread. He grabbed up the utensil, and turned toward his roomie’s door. They’d neve really gotten along well anyway. Bigger steps now, blade still glistening, he knocked hard twice, then kicked open the door….

 

Happy near Labor day kiddies!!  

 

Oh, as a bonus for your labor day weekend, here’s a great link to an excellent article on how to build your author brand through UTube and more! Thanks to Wendy Van Kamp and Adam Mulholland at nowastedink.com or this link! 

YouTube offers content creators a way of cross-utilizing mediums to enhance and bridge engagement beyond a book. Authors wanting more presence should leverage this platform to reach a larger audien…Source: How Authors Can Promote On YouTube & Use Patreon by Adam Mulholland

Monday’s Muse…

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Breathe in, breathe out, blink, repeat…if this doesn’t quiet your mind’s constant chatter, what would???

Thanks much for this. Jack!

Today’s Mondays Muse… 

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Jamie Raintree from  “The Motivated Writer”gets all the credit for this one!

Thanks much Janie, for asking the question and giving up the dirt.

“Monday Goals! What are you working on this week?  I need to finish up my synopsis for Book 2 and–dare I say?–get back to writing it? If I say it out loud, will something else pop up? Lol!”

And so I ask too…what are you all working on today??? For me, first this, next the novel! 

Bring it, Monday!


So I’d finish that story but…

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Hi all, and so glad to be back!

If you follow me you may have wondered why I’ve been MIA in the blogosphere for the last month or so. Well, thanks to several big events, including finishing up the semester, filing a thesis and slamming so hard on the kickboxing bag that two of my toes broke in half, I guess you could say I’ve been a little preoccupied. Pain meds can put a girl out of commission, but fast!

But thanks to a little time and TLC I’m on the mend and back on the writing wagon. And today I’m sharing an interesting guest article I stumbled across while perusing author Kristen Lamb‘s Blog, written by guest author/ teacher Dr. John Yeoman,  “Can’t keep up? 7 brilliant ways to finish your story.”  (https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2016/04/15/cant-keep-up-7-brilliant-ways-to-finish-your-story/).

Having been stuck myself many times, and in fact currently stuck somewhere in the middle of what started a very promising story, these tips couldn’t come at a better time. And I’m willing to guess we’ve all been there at some point. You know the story. You get part of the way through what you think is going to be a terrific read. Great story line, clever opening, interesting characters. But then somewhere along the line, boom! You’re stuck in writer oblivion, with some combination of paralyzing fear that the end won’t match up to your exciting start and or that the plot lines won’t converge into reason but instead morph off into convoluted confusion making your reader want to run screaming for the nearest exit.

But, never fear, Dr. Yeoman’s tips are here to save the day, especially tips # 2,”Devise your own Scrivener program“ and #3, “Try the ‘bricolage’ technique.” In tip #2, Yeoman writes:

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” Imagine a corkboard on your wall. In one corner, you’ve pinned character descriptions. In another, scene settings. Somewhere else you’ve stuck pictures, plot outlines, dramatic incidents, crumbs of dialogue… links to web resources…videos and even music…Now imagine that corkboard on your computer. Here’s the link to Scrivener…  Once learnt, it’s wonderful. Problem is, Scrivener takes time to learn…too technical for newbies and its built-in word processing program is, compared to Word, primitive. Solution? Build your own Scrivener using the ‘sticky notes’ utility that may be on your computer right now.”

Great advice, which this past winter, I tried. Gave it a valiant effort, but, as he points out, there’s a definite learning curve to learning Scrivener. And try as I might, I couldn’t muster the patience to sort it out. And working on an Apple meant the “sticky notes” utility Yeoman talks available on Microsoft’s PC, wasn’t an option. However, I found an alternate, more simple version of Scrivener called Storyist, (a good comparison of the two is here at http://theroguewriter.tumblr.com/post/69136060617/storyist-vs-scrivener). Indeed, a less intense, simplified format, easier to digest and quicker to get up and running. It  may not do every single thing that Scrivener can, but it has enough similar features to make your story easy to organize and visually keep track of, like a corkboard, and separate character and scene sheets and is well worth your time looking into. A tad more expensive, but for those of us who get overwhelmed with too many details, it is a great option and will help keep you on track.

As for Yeoman’s tip #3, writing your main plot points, and even as I do, chapter summaries, on index cards is just plain brilliant:

“Stop scribbling on paper. (Those little bits get lost.) Start writing on file cards. Why? Cards are durable. You can keep them in your handbag or back pocket, ready to hand for whenever an idea strikes you. As soon as they bulge out of your pocket, toss them on the carpet and play solitaire.”

I started doing this about six months ago, on the advice of another award-winning author. Only I do them one for one, that is one chapter summary for each side of a card. I write as much as I can scribble onto one side of a 4′ 6 plain index card. That way, I’m forced to capture the essence of my chapter in as few words as possible and can then organize and re-shuffle them at will as a sort of guidepost through my longer works like my novel. That way I can quickly flip through them to look for plot holes, character inconsistencies and chapter points of view. This keeps me on track and reminds me of both where I’ve been, and where I’m going. Worst case scenario, if I need to take a long break from the work I have my story organized into small chunks that can smooth out getting back into it. And like Yeoman notes, the cards are easy enough to cart around, keep in your backpack and jot down new ideas as they strike. And if the muse isn’t striking, well there’s always that card game to deal out.

I’d love to see some action here and here all about your own methods of madness for finishing those tall tales. As always, all thoughts are welcome!

Ciao for now, 

Lisa

Are bad things happening on your pages…

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So, today’s muse comes fresh off a Guest Blog post by author James Preston at Writers in The Storm.com called “Is The Music Bad, Mommy? Tips For Doing Bad Things To Your Characters” (http://writersinthestormblog.com.)

Preston’s post hit home for this author, as I am in the midst of creating chaos for my main girl, and have been debating back and forth on just how bad it should be.

On a scale of 1-10, 1 being Disney, and ten invoking images of Freddy Cougar doing his worst on those fateful Halloween nights, I started out somewhere in between with a happy medium. In my current novel in progress, my protagonist has been set up with a dismal past that is currently coming back to haunt her. However, that past has been reworked several times now. Ahh, the fun and games here, which you, my fellow scribes, can no doubt relate to. Such is the glory, and guts, of revision!

So first, my girl’s past had all to do with a dodgy ex, who led her like a carrot to a rabbit, down the hole and off to the anticipated, and heavily pre-marketed pot of overflowing gold. Which of course left her dangling, with nothing to hold onto when she finally did get there. It was okay, but it didn’t seem as Preston might put it, quite “bad” enough. So I re-worked it. And Voila, out popped an even more dodgy history with seriously dark and evil secrets lurking in the closets, all of which now are coming out of said closets, and are dangling her angst even more precariously and hopefully, will keep a reader guessing as to which way it will eventually blow, and will she still be standing when it does.

It’s good. Better even. But the question still haunts me. Is it good enough to pass Preston’s “bad music” test? Will it make the readers eyes burn up the pages and their fingers keep turning as they must, absolutely must know, with certainty, that she’ll either be okay, or not! And aren’t’ they all secretly hoping for not, at least for a gripping short-term few chapters? As Preston so aptly put it, with a nod to the true King of super bad himself,

“As writers, we need to be brave, for we must first create characters we like, and then send them into situations where the music is very bad indeed, and watch as they struggle,…as they succeed or fail because that stress is what makes a story work. It is the engine that drives the writing bulldozer that Steven King talks about.”

I like the analogy because, like a bulldozer, our stories must have sufficient dirt to clean up after. Without the dirt, grime, and grit, the scenery is pretty and there’s nothing to doze! Our characters would be flat, pristine, and oh so kind, and very, very boring! Like the wolf in Red Riding Hood, our bad guys would not simply be dressed up in costume with grandma’s clothes, they would actually be grandma and instead of huffing and puffing to blow our houses down they would be in the kitchen, cooking up a batch of chicken soup and spoon-feeding it to our heroine! Not that there’s anything wrong with chicken soup. But that only gets you so far in a story and discerning readers might want to know what happens next, as in maybe the soup is poisoned, or even before, as in where did the chicken’s rubber meet the road, and just how did it wind up in the pot in the first place? At some point, we have to put a little meat on the chicken’s bones, and then let the reader watch as the flesh gets torn off, piece by piece in an intoxicating finale! That is what will keep their eyes super-glued and their mouths hanging open, as they read on into the night and tell all their friends about it the next day.

However, bad for bad sake, is not good. Or, as Preston point out in his number two tip, “Make the horror mean something.” Don’t throw bad stuff in there, just for the sake of being bad. Tie it into your guys or gals back story. Give them a reason for robbing that bank or driving that Bronco down the freeway at 100 mph with 30 cops hot on their tails. Our readers are smart, and action for action sake will be spotted immediately as a device, simply used to move a story forward. And no one likes to be talked down to. Readers want meat, they want substance and grit and they will find it when your characters do too, amidst all their chaos and confusion! Let your characters grow with the dirt and your readers will thank your for it in the end.

And don’t forget to talk to your characters too. Yes, I said talk to them. As Preston mentions, this is a great way to get them to tell you just how bad they should be and exactly how they should go about it. I have a character in my story who did just that and winded up being nasty as the night is long. In short, I think my readers will love to hate him. I know I do. And that my friends, is some bad ass music!

What bad things are your characters doing, and how are they doing it? I’d love to hear. And just what are they telling you to guide their paths?? Stir up the pot and have a conversation, and let me know!

 

           

 

 

 

 

Third Person limited, vs the dreaded Head Hopping…

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A couple of posts got me mulling over today’s topic, writing in third person limited vs. random, willy nilly head hopping with no real reason or strategy….

So, here’s my question of the day:

Just how do you widen your  story perspective using third person, and convey other characters pov’s in a strategic and methodical way without randomly shifting heads and risk losing your readers in the process??

 In a post on the craft of perspective over at “Brevity.wordpress.com,” Judithe Hannan writes:

“Unfettered writing, for our ears alone, can open doors, but to get to the doors behind the doors we can’t be Narcissus staring at his own reflection. We need other faces looking back at us, we need craft, and we need to connect our story to a world beyond our small pond.

And I would have to agree. After all, our stories are our stories, and exciting and intriguing they may be, but if we want them to reach other ears, they need to be tuned into full-blown operas! Hannan goes on, describing her attempts in doing just this:

“My lens didn’t only have to be compassionate, it had to be wider. When I first wrote about my daughter’s cancer I wasn’t telling a story about people but about IV’s, scans, chemo drugs, and scars. I created a cloistered world…where no one learned or evolved. So I stepped back. I described the doctors, observed the different ways my daughter and I interacted with them and…found an opportunity to explore our dynamic with each other…When I zoomed out and saw myself against the backdrop of the larger world, I emerged transformed as a mother, wife, and friend.”

Hannan makes some good points here, and as my own novel has evolved, I too found myself stepping back from first, to third and back again before deciding on third person limited to best tell the story, but I am learning to do it in a controlled manner without the dreaded head hopping!

Don’t get me wrong. My first drafts at using third limited have been loaded with many instances of the ugly deed, which thankfully, were pointed out in workshop, and since been corrected. And once I got the hang of it, using third limited can be a breath of fresh air as it gave me, the author, the ability to move around inside the story and command it, taking the characters with me as I go, much like moving chess pieces around on the board. I am still in charge at all times, but my characters now have the chance to speak their minds and that, is what gives depth to a story! I dare say, makes it all that much more fun not only to write, but to read too! After all, if you’re going to entertain, go for it!

Especially if you’re writing crime fiction, like me. Why just describe a bad guy when you can really get into a bad guy’s head, thoughts, motives, and actions! Hell, why just tell or talk about the body being dumped out of the car and into the alley from another characters perspective, when you can show it as it’s happening from inside their head, getting all down and dirty with it??

Which style do you prefer as both a writer and or reader, and why???

As always, your thoughts are welcome!

 

Mondays muse on those pesky writing distractions…

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HI all and happy Monday once again!

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So this week a post caught my eye from Michelle, over at The Green Study.com,

(http://thegreenstudy.com/2016/03/06/experiential-avoidance-the-green-study-confessional/comment-page-1/#comment-24057).

Her post is all about those pesky technical distractions we find that get in the way of living our happier and more productive lives, and doing the things that matter the most. And since last week my cell phone died and so I had to go through the time-consuming and loathsome procedure of not only visiting my local AT&T store but also coughing up the big bucks for a new one, this post hit me like a rock to the head!

As Michelle says: “This week, I’ve been practicing stripping away distractions. It’s been made more difficult by a head cold. Silence sounds more like a waterfall rushing through my head. I’ve been making myself do things, one at a time, with no background activity. It’s very hard to do and I find that upsetting.When did I change? When did I become this leg-jittering, humming, antsy person in need of a fix? That I can’t even sit in my own company without checking this device or that – it’s a wake up call. In psychological terms, much of what I do these days would be described as experiential avoidance. I quit my job a few years ago to commit to writing full-time. Thus far, most of what I’ve done is unfinished, unremarkable and uninspiring…canstockphoto3436262

So that takes us back to my phone issue…

Once at the AT&T store, I had a decision to make. And yes, I had insurance! Not that it seems to matter any since it what it comes down to is a pay now, or pay later proposition. That said, not wanting to pay later, I reached deep and did it now. But part of the Faustian deal included having to wait 3-5 days for the new one to arrive. So I did. And I have to say, by day three when I came home to find it on my doorstep I was wishing they had taken the five!

Totally unplugged, footloose and fancy free for a whole 72 hours was nothing short of glorious! I felt more calm, more rested, and more in control of my time than I had in at least a year! Not having the constant buzzing to attend to and the endless stream of both Facebook and Twitter interruptions to deal with (dare I call them annoyances??) meant I was able to do more of what mattered and what was important, like spend time working on my novel, my thesis, and even reading. What a concept that was!

 

So, my big question to you all today is like Michelle’s…

What’s your least helpful distraction? And just what are you avoiding with it???

As always, jump on in. The water’s warm!

Mondays Muse asks: Are you whining your way into gold….

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A recent post by Kathryn Craft  entitled “How Much will You Give Away”  on http://WritersintheStorm.com got me thinking…

As a definite “new kid on the block” at this whole blogging/writing thing, and as a basically broke, blundering, grad school novice slugging it out in the writing trenches with barely a few credits to my name,  and  dog paddling just to keep my head above water, I’ve got my fair share of whining to be heard. But let’s face it: no one wants to hear that stuff all or even most of the time! I mean everyone, even Hemingway and Stephen King had to start somewhere!

But balancing one’s time between school projects, papers, thesis writing and demanding professors with also trying to put out credible regular blog posts and also furiously sending out submissions in hopes of getting published can be more than just a  bit overwhelming. So what’s a poor grad student to do, when on top of all that, requests for things like guest blog posts and even submitting to anthologies for free beckon enticingly at the back door?

Sure we want to get published. In fact, that’s all we really care about. Our days and nights are spent in single-minded pursuit of it, and our dreams are pretty much haunted by it. But like Kathryn Craft asks:

“When such requests catch us off-guard, we are liable to whine, “Why do people keep asking me for more free stuff?”

In my case, I haven’t been asked so much for free stuff, as for my time. Guest posting on someone else’s blog is groovy. And sure, it might get me some more readers. But really, does it serve my higher purpose? Like Ms. Craft tells us in her stellar post, one of the greatest things a new writer ( or any writer for that matter) can do is to “Analyze your career goals and set reasonable boundaries.” Without that much at least down on paper, a simple response to the question ” Will you write a series on our blog for free?” may turn into stressful quandary taking up  a whole lot more time and energy than anticipated. Especially when in fact, as Ms. Craft again so wisely tells us:

 “It takes me at least a half-day to write a cogent, polished blog post. Or, I could draft 2K words on my work-in-progress. You must convince me the exposure is worth it”

Or, as I put it, uh yeah, No!

last time I looked I had at least five professors barking down my door with serious deadlines and a thesis looming larger than Big Foot, and oh yeah, my own novel in the works too, which by the way, should be taking precedence over just about everything. Recently, a respected blogger and author, and kick ass writer coach who shall go nameless here advised me that same sentiment, phrased differently, of course. But the gist of it was simple:

“Focus on the novel and getting it out there. Then everything else will just fall into place.”

That’s not to say that doing said guest posts or spending time organizing our MFA readings at our local book store aren’t great things to do and have on the resume. They are, and will continue to be important elements to my overall writing career. And are great ways to gain exposure and or simply increase ones community circle outreach. And certainly, writing and being involved with other writers on any level is better than not writing or communing at all.

But these days the pecking order has made itself clear:

It’s thesis, novel, my own blog posts here, and then, all that other stuff!

What’s been on your whine list lately?

Don’t be shy, just drop me a line and whine on!

I’m here to listen!

Much thanks to Kathryn Craft and http://www.writersinthestorm.com

Ciao for now, and darkly yours,

Lisa

Mondays Muse, and Multiple POVs…

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Hi there kids and kidettes, 

 

It’s Monday Musing time again, and todays topic just happens to be inspired by a recent guest post from Aimie K. Runyan on multiple POV’s, from one of my all time favorite writer sites, Writers In the Storm, at:  (http://writersinthestormblog.com/2016/01/10-tips-to-writing-from-multiple-povs/).  

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courtesy of google images

Ms. Runyan’s post caught my eye because my novel in progress indeed falls into this complicated, yet fulfilling category, with multiple characters telling the story and moving the plot forward with their own unique quips and quirks, and hopefully, keeping the reader engaged invested in turning the pages far past their alloted bed times.

Case in point: just check out this Scooby pic:

Don’t know about you, but the one thing I recall is that each and every one of them wanted to uncover and take credit for figuring out the “who” in the “who done it” part of the game. Sure, they started every show as a collective we. Loaded up in the Scooby van driving to wherever their mystery of the day might take them. But once there, they always split up, no? Giving us scenes, from you guessed it, multiple Pov’s.

Case in point: 

First, we’d usually get serious Fred, all orange Ascot and arms crossed Rambo style in front of his chest, scowling as he deduced the nature of the crime (single pov). And most of the times he’d be accompanied by Daphne, the ginger haired Barbie, and off hot on the trail of the bad guys. (another separate pov chapter). That is, when Daphne wasn’t busy playing damsel in distress, getting kidnapped, tied up or gagged, (a whole separate pov) in which case usually Scooby and Shaggy (yet another pov scene) would fly in to the rescue from some other scene where snacks of all conceivable shapes and sizes preoccupied the moment. Or sometimes it was Fred, who’d swoosh in to save the day hot off a solo scene from tracking down villains or ghosts (main detective pov). And of course, we can’t forget about Thelma, intelligent, reporter girl Thelma, interviewing potential suspects and witnesses, usually solo (yet again, another reporter, cop pov.)

Thanks for indulging my digression into retro cartoon mania. But, there’s a point to it all (hint: multiple points – haha).

And as Ms. Runyan points out in her post, beauty can be achieved in the magic of cohesion, as long as it’s pulled off well. Right now I’m writing my first go at a multiple pov novel, and it makes my Scooby example but a paltry simplified version of the real thing and of Ms. Runyan’s musings. And since I couldn’t begin to state it better myself, here are the main highlights from her “10 Tips to writing multiple POV’s”: 

 (her original full post can be found at: http://writersinthestormblog.com/2016/01/10-tips-to-writing-from-multiple-povs/):

“These are some of the methods I used to weave three separate narratives into one cohesive story:

  • Start with archetypes. “The person obsessed with solving problems is going to address issues differently than the person combing the world for inspiration for their next poem. You want to make sure your POV characters have a different enough world view to make it worth the hassle of writing from more than one POV.
  • Diverge from those archetypes. There is no person so simplistic that you can simply write them off as a two word personality type. Your character has likes, dislikes, needs, wants, and a past that shapes how they deal with reality. Making a rich character will make it easier for your reader to parse who is speaking.
  • Make sure each chapter or section advances the plot. Telling the same scene over again simply to get another character’s take is tedious…forward motion is key. Choosing one character to focus on and begin the story…then giving the other characters’ ‘pivotal moments’ in bite-sized chunks of back story… for a much more compelling read.
  • Make sure each main POV character gets enough “screen time” to make us care… It shouldn’t feel lopsided. We also shouldn’t go so long away from any one main POV character that we’ve lost track of where they are… I made several passes through my manuscript to ensure each main character was at least mentioned if they were ‘offscreen’ for a whole chapter, and tallied up their word counts to make sure there wasn’t a huge disparity…
  • In addition to strong characters, your voice for each must be on point. Pet expressions, gestures, vocabulary limitations, and more are key in keeping your POV characters distinct. … This is important, even when not dealing with multiple POV, but absolutely essential when you are. ..
  • In most cases, it’s great to show one main POV character from the eyes of another… Let the other characters show us another angle on the truth. I loved showing my insecure character through the eyes of her friends. She was much more capable than she ever recognized.
  • If you are travelling between different time periods in a dual narrative, make sure the language, setting, props, and more all fit the eras so as to keep the narratives separate. It’s easy to slip…
  • Make sure that if you have a large number of main POV characters that you achieve a satisfying story arc for all of them in addition to an overreaching story arc. Each main character deserves a fully fleshed-out storyline, and for this reason, multiple POV books tend to be longer…
  • Make sure you make transitions from POV character to POV character smoothly. Titling a chapter heading with the POV character’s name is very common. You can also shift from scene to scene in a chapter if you are very distinct with your voice, but this does not mean “head-hopping” willy-nilly within a scene. Stick with one character for a logical chunk of the story.
  • The golden rule: Do not use multiple POVs for the sake of using multiple POVs. If you can tell your story without the shifts, do so.

So, that’s it for today folks. But I leave you with a question:

What are you working on? Does it have multiple POV’s? And how’s it working out for you?

Luv to hear your thoughts!

Ciao for now, and darkly yours,

Lisa

 

(much thanks to Aimie K. Runyan and Writers in the Storm; and the post,  10 Tips to Writing from Multiple POVs | Writers In The Storm.)

Monday’s Muse, and Workshop Woes…

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Hi all.

For today’s Mondays Muse, we’re going to back to school.

 

Or rather, as in my case, still there, slugging it out. I like to think of myself as an MFA pawn, deep in the trenches, surviving by gut and instinct, and just trying to dodge all the bullets being thrown my way. 

This month I was blessed enough to have been invited to guest blog on Wendy Van Kamp’s site, nowastedink.com  . You can find my whole piece, Workshop Woes by Lisa Ciarfella there. It gets into the nitty gritty of it all, and hopefully inspires some can do attitude with a much needed dose of positive vibes for those of you who going through it too. And even for those of you who aren’t…us writers are all the same. We all need to feel wrapped in comforting prose from time to time, by people who get it and embrace what we’re trying to create, instead of those at odds with our dreams.

As you will see, most of my last year and a half has been spent trying to figure out where those bullets were coming from, and which direction to duck next. But survive I have and as I sit cranking out what’s left of my thesis under the serious deadline gun, just thought I’d take a quick break and share some of those trials and tribulations with you all.

I fgure, a lot of you out there, can relate!  I mean, MFA or not, who among the writer camp can’t say they havent’ encountered at least a few of these situations along the way…it’s all part of the writers journey. Good, bad, or ugly, writing is like a wash/dry cycle. You wont come out the same way you went in. And over time, that’s probably a good thing!

Back to the thesis now, banging it out, one key at a time.

See you on the boards soon,

Ciao for now, and darkly yours,

Lisa

 

Mondays Muse…

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Stphen King-on writing2

Stphen King-on writing2

SO, here we go with this week’s Mondays Muse, as promised. And take a guess what we’re talking about? Yep, you guessed it, writing fiction! And who better to guide us through the murky, distant, tantalizing, and creepy waters than the master himself, Mr. Stephen King!

All’s I can say is, if you’re a writer and you haven’t read this book, run, don’t walk, to your nearest library and check it out. Or, if you’re unlike moi, that is to say not a broke and struggling grad student, and you actually have two cents to rub together, maybe even consider buying it. Not only does it look great on your shelf, but it contains so many nuggets of writerly wisdom, you’re eyes and ears will consume it faster than you would that chocolate pie or the newest rendition of Marry the night from Lady Gaga. Yes folks, it’s one you wont put down till the last page is done and the corners are dog-eared stiff! And or until the lights go out because the wind is howling so hard outside you’re sure he must be out there somewhere in the dark channeling his particular brand of writer spooked through the rain and into the walls of your dwelling space. 

Either way, my heartfelt advice is to check it out, and soon! It’s nuggets like these, that will catch your eye. I know they did mine, for sure!

” The first story I did actually publish was in a horror fanzine…I was a teenaged Grave-robber…After  a long time spent studying the markets, I sent Happy stamps off to Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. It came back three weeks later with a form rejection slip…By the time I was fourteen…the nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it. I replace the nail with a spike and went on writing.” (p. 38-41)

Okay peeps…don’t know about you, but that’s all good for me. In fact, if you follow me here and or on FB at all, you know that I recently just got my very first published short story ever up in a horror anthology called Fightening. The story’s called “Midnight in Alaska,” a creepy crawly Stephen King-like tale, and I like to think he’d be proud to know there are those of us who are out here, following in his footsteps. Or, at the very least, dying to try! (wink-nudge-haha.)

Well. That’s all for now folks. Gotta go burn that midnight oil and keep the spooks at bay while I crack open another less, than desirable grad school text-book which is due tomorrow, but took a serious back seat to Mr. King and friends.

See you all on the boards soon, at Friday’s Fun Flash Fiction. Make sure to stay tuned for that, caz. you never know what’s gonna fall out of this brain!

Ciao for now, 

Lisa

Mondays Muse

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What’s your Monday Muse?

Ours is whatever we’re reading that inspires our fancy or catches our interest in a big way. Maybe even a book review, author interview, or just some simple inspiration from the read. Like this below, from creep master himself, Mr. Edgar Allan Poe.

 

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THE RAVEN:

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“‘Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore—
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
“‘Tis some visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door—
Some late visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door;
This it is and nothing more.”

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
“Sir,” said I, “or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you”—here I opened wide the door—
Darkness there and nothing more….

What’s your Monday Muse??? Comments, welcome!

Project Gutenberg EBook of The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe

This week’s Monday Muse, and last night’s escapade…

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Google Images

So, last night’s real life crime drama played out before my eyes as I rode along LBPD’s finest set of real life police characters in Signal Hill. Many thanks to Officer Taylor who chauffered me along all night and patiently and kindly explained how things work out there in his nightly world of cops and robbers. And kudos to the bad guys we had first hand dealings with who made my night and caused me to take lots and lots of handscribbled notes in the dark as we drove around and arrested, searched, and seized the stuff HBO movies are made of. Here’s a recap of my notes and some of our best scary, or rather shady, moments:

“Just arrested a dude shoplifting at home depot, and brought him in for booking..the kicker was, his wife sat chain smoking outside waiting on us, and yelling the whole time for the car keys so she could bail…

Earlier we busted down the door in room 12 at a motel 6 where a bunch of tweekers were out on bail and had warrants for possession of firearms. 
When we went inside, there were glass pipes and the smell of smoke everywhere…they sat out on the curb, cuffed and waiting….
The tall tattooed one in the middle had a brick of Mary Jane bigger than a basketballl…
Looks like he’s going back into the system…Too bad he just got out 3 weeks ago…

Definitely gonna be a long night… more fun and games ahead, as this shift lasts another 12 hours, and we’ve barely just started…

This just in…Gotta go now and chase down a guy reported wandering around with a gun at Mcdonalds…”

Gotta say, I came home pumped at midnight, and wanted to do it all over again! In fact, I’ve already got another one in the works with LBPD so stay tuned for more on this score!

 

Hope I gave you all something to muse about on this lovely Monday Morning!  

What’s your Monday muse??  Jump on in here, the water’s warm!

 

 

The Perfect Storm…

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What’s your perfect storm like for writing?
Is it a a white-out, snow driven, stephen king-ish type day where the wind’s whistling at 20 below and the only respite is found bundled up inside the 4 walls of the house hiding underneath the drifts?
Or is it the opposite; a sunny, shore drenched cove, where the kids are bopping and the waves are rolling and margaritas flowing…

Personally, I prefer days like below  – cold, crisp, and clear…with my pup curled up by my feet, and the world shut out tight, with only the keyboard to contend with on my lap.

Would luv to hear your thoughts on the matter…
the perfect storm...

It’s 2016, and a real hum-dinger!

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Well, well, well. If 2016 didn’t ring in with a bang! A real humdinger, if ever there was.

Especially since as of today, I can officially rank myself among the chosen lucky. You know, that group of published authors whose stories can be both found and bought on Amazon. Yes folks, I rang in this new year with a glass of the bubbly and a little private dance I like to call “the bear” which, I give credit to my big brother for, and which tends to follow my high points where ever and what ever they be. Granted, the groove is a little goofy. But hey. I figure, dancing in my pj’s in my basement with no one but my pup giving me the once over doesn’t exactly make for a Kodak moment. So you wont be seeing the rendition here any time soon. But rest assured, yours truly is feeling pretty pumped!

My short story, “Midnight in Alaska” is now up on Amazon, and part of a 20 tale horror print anthology put out by the terrific team at Sez Publishing at  http://www.amazon.com/Frightening-collective-work-Sez-Publishing/dp/1519590954/ref=sr_1_1?

The story was inspired by an Anchorage to Dinali cruise I took through the great white state a while back. And if you’ve never been, Alaska truly is like the wild west. Its own frontier, just bursting at the seams for story writers, especially creepy crawly Stephen King kind of stories. (Not that I’m comparing myself to the master. I’m not. Never would.) But his writing is seriously inspirational in that respect, and the Alaskan backdrop basically cries out for that kind of a creep. Santa Claus land, as it turns out, doesn’t only inspire sugarplum dreams of candy canes and mistletoe, but seriously flawed fairy tales gone way the heck and yonder off the beaten track and far down some deserted path instead. Really. Go for yourself and you’ll see what I mean!

I was also blessed to enough to have been asked to guest blog this month on Wendy Van Kamp’s site, http://nowastedink.com/category/guest-posts/. It would be great to see all of you there too, so drop on by and leave your thoughts. All in all, a pretty good January, and it’s only the first week!

If you’ve been following my blog here at all, you know that my first writing love in Noir, and crime fiction. And I’ve been busy writing that stuff too. A novel is in the definite works, and I’m in the trenches slogging it out, making good headway. And I have another short story coming out sometime this year in a pretty well-known publication in the crime writing community. But I hesitate to name it quite yet, as I don’t like to jinx things. But that’s all the more reason for you to keep checking back in on me to keep me honest at posting the dirt first hand as it happens.

My blogging goals this year are simple:

Monday’s Muse posting: Here I’ll post my weekly reads and reviews on classic noir, classic crime fiction, and classic detective novels from the masters of the past who have a thing or three to teach on us on honing our craft. Watch for this week’s post, on Dashiell Hammett’s, “The Thin Man.”

Author to Author: Watch for  weekly posts where I highlight my favorite authors and other bloggers who have put out the business, making my ears stand up in the process with great author to author interviews, and their tips and tricks on how to write better fiction.

Also,  watch for Fun Flash Fiction posts, where I put up a new story a week, as the muse inspires, and or as you submit.

Hope to see you around the campsite and I’ll be looking for your comments, so don’t be shy. And, if you have a piece you want me to put up, feel free to send it. I can’t pay. But if it’s mysterious, intriguing, or just plain weird, send it on over and I’ll consider it. The more the merrier, I always say.

 

Here’s to a rockin’ 2016 all!

Ciao for now,

Lisa

THE GENESIS OF A STORY

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To structure or not? That is the question here, and Jim tackles it well. He says
” For me the experience is intuitive, as if storytelling is archetypal in nature. The story seems to want to be discovered. It unfolds on its own. Then, in order to keep it from turning into an unmanageable mess, rather than impose the structure of timeline, plot line, or synopsis, I take a more distant view. ”
What do you think? Do you work best with a self imposed structure, or does your best work come from winging it? Weigh in with your thoughts here.