A WRITER'S RESOLUTIONS FOR 2015--AND BEYOND!

In 2015, I resolve to:

 

Revise, revise, revise every page I write all year long.

 

Enjoy all the minutes, hours and days I’m lucky enough to spend writing.

 

Slow down my typing and check what I’ve written before sending any e-mails.  (This is not just a resolution; it is a vow.)

 

Obey the law of love to the fullest extent I can, except when torturing my characters.

 

Listed and Lethal is the name I’ll pursue for my new mystery series. 

 

Understand—even though it’s hard sometimes—that life is beautiful even when my plot hits a stone wall.

 

Take time out to smell the printer’s ink.

 

Inhale it again.  Can’t get too much of a good thing.

 

Offer helpful critiques to my fellow writers and do so without hurting or discouraging anyone.

 

Never say, “I’ll never finish the damn book.”

 

Sing Auld Lang Syne at midnight, even if I forget the words.

 

A Happy, Successful, New Year to Each and  Everyone!

 

Tags:  cozy mysteries, interior design, Naples Florida,

  

Character Mimicry—Redux

In a previous blog I mentioned how sometimes I find myself mimicking my heroine’s world and that I bet I could get a lesson in a helicopter. Well, my husband arranged for me to get an intro ride in an R-44 Raven ii (Robinson helicopter) as a Christmas gift!

KC Copters Simulator

 Johnny Rowlands, owner of KC Copters, and long-time friend of my husband’s, gave me an intro in a simulator (about 15 minutes of very realistic takeoffs, landings, and cruising using the cyclic, collective, and pedals). Then out to the runway where I got to try my hand on the real thing.

USCG Jayhawk

 

A bit of background here: The second book in my new Gulf Coast Rescue series (Jayhawk Down) features Caitlyn Stone, a lieutenant in the US Coast Guard and her “office” is a Jayhawk helicopter.

While I’ve been a passenger in a helicopter (sightseeing flight over Alcatraz in San Francisco) I’ve never even come close to riding up front with the controls. I did a lot of research on helicopters, Jayhawks and Blackhawks in particular, for this book, but I really wanted to know what it felt like to fly one. Now granted, the R-44 is a far cry from a Jayhawk, but the sensation, the flight controls, and getting at least a feel for what I have my heroine do was a major kick.

Banking Left

Runway in Sight!

 

 

 

 

 

My actual flight was also about 15 minutes. I flew south, did a couple of turns then flew the approach to the airport, using the VASI (visual approach slope indicator) just like in an airplane, and actually landed the helicopter on the runway! Whoo Hoo!

Johnny then flew us sideways (which is how he flies when he has a cameraman shooting video for a local news station) with a lot more finesse than I did going straight forward. I got to practice attempt hovering. Ha,ha, boy that was a joke! Johnny had to rescue me a couple of times because that has to be one of the hardest things to learn how to do in a helicopter—and something Caitlyn has to do when launching a rescue swimmer and picking up survivors from the ocean or off the deck of a ship while being pummeled by high winds (or in the case of the first book in the series, A Dangerous Leap, in the midst of a hurricane). Just getting a taste for her job gave me a whole new perspective that will hopefully translate to more realistic scenes.

My Pilot, Johnny Rowlands

Thanks Johnny, that was a fantastic introduction to helicopters. I’m looking forward to my next trip to KC when I’ll get an hour of actual flight instruction!

A Most Wonderful Holiday.

Had a most wonderful holiday. Hope you did also. Spent it with some family and new friends. This next week I will be sooooo enjoying my gift to myself. Binge watching TV series. No commercials and no week long wait between episodes. Yippee.  The first on the list is Downton Abby. Then Call the Midwife with five others waiting in the lineup. I will be de-junking my office as I do this. And, lord there is a lot of junk. Then, as I move to other rooms in the de-junking plan, I’ll be listening to audio books. Some new and some of my favorites. Do not know what I would do without audio books.

My plan is to step into the new year with a bit less crap in my house and perhaps a bit cleaner house. Do you have a plan for the New Year?

                                                        Happy New Year my friends.    

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays

from the 

Not Your Usual Suspects crew! 

We hope you're warm and toasty and looking forward to a special holiday season. Thank you for sharing 2014 with us. 

We wish you a peaceful holiday season and a happy, healthy and prosperous 2015!

A WRITER'S RESOLUTIONS FOR 2015--AND BEYOND!

 

 In 2015, I resolve to:

 

Revise, revise, revise every page I write all year long.

 

Enjoy all the minutes, hours and days I’m lucky enough to spend writing.

 

Slow down my typing and check what I’ve written before sending any e-mails.  (This is not just a resolution; it is a vow.)

 

Obey the law of love to the fullest extent I can, except when torturing my characters.

 

Listed and Lethal is the name I’ll pursue for my new mystery series. 

 

Understand—even though it’s hard sometimes—that life is beautiful even when my plot hits a stone wall.

 

Take time out to smell the printer’s ink.

 

Inhale it again.  Can’t get too much of a good thing.

 

Offer helpful critiques to my fellow writers and do so without hurting or discouraging anyone.

 

Never say, “I’ll never finish the damn book.”

 

Sing Auld Lang Syne at midnight, even if I forget the words.

 

A Happy, Successful, New Year to Each and  Everyone!

 

Tags:  cozy mysteries, interior design, Naples Florida,

  

When did Christmas creep up on me?

When did Christmas creep up on me? Where did it come from? What happened to October and November? Why are the years getting shorter? What do you mean, it's next Thursday??

Shock / grump / horror / moan etc etc :)

Don't get me wrong - I LOVE Christmas. In many ways, the lead-up is even better than the actual event for me. I love the glitter of tinsel everywhere - surely the tackiest and most splendid decoration for Christmas ever invented? - and the songs being played every darned place you go, and the dressed-up shop windows, and the long list of TV specials to watch, and shop assistants wearing santa hats, and pubs and restaurants so full of christmas office celebrations you can't get in the door ... LOL. And the Christmas period for me is a time to meet friends and family, or just relax from work and enjoy the outrageous bling :).

(and watch out for news of a prize giveaway at the end of this post, in true Christmas spirit *g*)

But there's one odd thing I've found about this holiday season. I don't seem to be able to keep hold of the days! On any given day, I can't easily remember the date and - even worse - the day of the week. I've double-booked things, then forgotten other commitments. This week, I turned up for my hairdressing appointment on the wrong day - luckily early rather than late *g* but I still had to make the journey twice.

It's something about the lack of routine and the excess of holiday spirit, I think. But maybe also because the calendar year is rolling to a close and we're all encouraged to sprint forward into the next. Or maybe I'm just stressed trying to remember whether I've got a present for everyone in my (relatively small!) family, or stocked up on enough food for when the shops are shut - which of course nowadays is only about 4 hours on the actual Christmas Day *rolls eyes*.

I left full-time work this year and started writing from home. And yes, I can't believe I ever fitted work in at all, there's so much else to do LOL. I'm enjoying it tremendously, though I'm not making enough money yet to keep financially afloat, so who knows what 2015 will bring. But I discovered early on that, without my office routine, I quickly lost track of the differentiation of days. So I've bought myself a small box calendar that sits by my PC and tells me at any time what the day and date is - that's assuming I remember to update it, that is :).

And now I must stop blogging and rush off to drape tinsel and lights on the bare Christmas tree in the living room. You know it's Christmas on Thursday, don't you? :)

Happy Christmas to everyone, whatever and wherever your celebrations may be.

Clare London
Writing ... Man to Man
www.clarelondon.com

Fancy some Christmas MM romantic goodness? Find all my titles HERE.

PRIZE! If you've bravely read to the end of my post, and make a comment with your email address, you'll be entered in a draw for a FREE download of any of my Christmas short stories. I'll announce the winner on New Year's Eve :).

What the Heck is a Cozy Anyway?

I probably don’t have to tell you cozy mysteries are in a class by themselves. Cozy readers are some of the most passionate people I know, but in case anyone out there is stumbling onto the term for the first time, let me tell you the cozy “rules.” Okay, I used quotes because I’m kind of a most-things-are-probably-guidelines girl. Plus, “rules” seems so rude and totalitarian, doesn’t it? I prefer Guidelines. Maybe that’s me?

Cozy guidelines are easy. These lively little mysteries are part of the crime fiction family, but they are also so much more….They’re fun! Cozies always have an amateur, sleuth. Once upon a time most of those were female, nowadays there are plenty of fabulous male amateur sleuths as well. (My heroine's a female, so I'll go with "She" for this post). The heroine’s drawn into the investigation and has to learn as she goes. She lives in a small community where she’s comfortable. The secondary characters are rich and interactive.

Cozies don’t linger on gory crime scene details and they don’t use excessive foul language. They also don’t describe intimate scenes between characters. Ugh, that really does sound like rules, huh?

BUT! Hang in here with me. This is the best part…Cozies are meant to make a reader smile, keep her hooked and hopefully keep her guessing. Cozies can have romance, but it never overwhelms the plot. Cozies are written for quick-witted readers and the storyline moves at a clip. Plus, like any good mystery, red herrings abound! I do enjoy a good bunny trail. Just when I think I know what’s happening, the author yanks the carpet out from under me and I’m reading faster to find out what will happen next! Cozies are a thrill! I’m still getting my head around the fact I’ve written one. No. Three!

Many small things come together to form a good cozy, but my favorite aspect of this genre is the humor. I love to laugh and I really really like to make others laugh. A lot. So, when I pick up a novel that can make me smile, it’s a keeper – and it’s often a cozy. If I can make a reader laugh? You can’t see me, but I’m shaking my head. If I make a reader laugh, I’ve nailed it. I win at authoring.

In my Patience Price Myeteries, I’ve taken a curiosity-driven island counselor and taunted her with endless amounts of intrigue and obstacles. She’s dealt with body parts washing up on the beach, a reality show come to town, locals worried about their safety, a shark infestation, birders arriving by the busload, money problems and some pretty serious threats on her life.
If that’s not enough, she’s got family drama. Her adoring, hippie parents don’t understand her Type-A ways. Her current love interest doesn’t understand why her ex-soul mate is always hanging around and her ex doesn’t really see the problem. The town’s dividing up publicly on the topic of her love life and hey! They even made shirts.

I think women have the most fun with cozies because we understand the struggle. We juggle the same things, minus the murder, I hope. We deal with family and friends and romance. Community commitments and punch a time clock. Women know all about how easy it is to leave the house wearing two different shoes. We’ve all tried to dial our glasses and put the phone on our nose. Imagine trying to solve a murder too. It’s crazy, but when it’s someone else’s crazy…..so it’s fun to watch the antics unfold.

Car bombs? Shootings? Abductions? Sure. But what about golf cart chases, cat dates and missing eyebrows? Absolutely! In a cozy mystery, there’s no end to the antics an amateur can get herself into while following the clues to a killer. I shudder to think how far I’d make it in a real sleuthing scenario. I’m going to guess not very far.

Are you a cozy reader? What’s your favorite series? Do you think you’d make a good sleuth?

A Winter Romance

I must apologize here. I ran into a time crunch, so I am recycling an older blog post I did for the Carina Press blog a few years ago...


****

I never wanted to be married, but I did -- being romantic by nature (no matter what anybody says) always want to have that certain special someone of my own. As it turned out, it took me quite a while to find that someone and by then I was just a little bit set in my ways. Granted, I was set in my ways -- and rather eccentric ways they are -- from the time I was about twelve, so learning to be part of a couple…well, let’s just say I had a learning curve. And in fact, I’m still driving that long and winding road. But I haven’t lost a passenger yet, so maybe that’s a point in my favor.

 

What I do remember keenly from that long period of time when I flying solo, was how lonely the holidays are when you’re not in a relationship. Sometimes even when you are in a relationship, if it’s the wrong relationship. Forget Valentine’s Day. I think the run up from Thanksgiving to New Year’s is the hardest on singletons. It was for me, anyway.

I think it partly ties into the fact that the winter holidays are such a nostalgic time. We tend to make the effort to get together with family and friends as we don’t during the rest of the year, and there’s often a lot of reminiscing. We find ourselves confronting many of our unrealized dreams, past and future. We find ourselves comparing the way things were with how they are today -- and let’s face it, for most of us, today is a lot more complicated and stressful than yesterday. Let alone yesteryear when our biggest worry was whether Santa would override our parents and bring that pony we so desperately needed.

 Nor does it help that we’re bombarded with advertising featuring happy couples buying each other romantic and expensive presents as proof of undying devotion. It is, after all, the Season of Love. Love in all its facets, including romantic love. There’s no getting around it.

And we’ve all pretty much been there. We’ve all had our turn at being (what feels like) the only one of our friends not happily paired up, the only sibling that can’t seem to settle down, the one on the phone getting the busy signal when we call late on Christmas Eve hoping for a word…

 

And the songs! It’s either walking in a winter wonderland or slicing open your wrists with a cookie cutter.

Yeesh. Like Sam the Snowman says in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, “Tell me when it’s over!” 

 Anyway, now days I have someone to roust out of bed on Christmas morning and drag along to see the nieces and nephews open their gifties. Afterwards we go see a movie (we’re thinking The Hobbit this year), and then it’s back home to open our own presents to each other, then back to the folks for the traditional feast. We’re building our own holiday traditions. And it is…well, it’s nice. It’s not like the Hallmark commercials, but it’s pretty darned good. And there’s no better time of year to count your blessings.

When I write a Christmas story like Icecapade, I deliberately draw on those old dark feelings -- the loneliness, the restlessness, that desire to have someone to share the good stuff -- and the bad -- and the uneasy conviction that you’re just not meant to be with anyone, that you’re not one of the lucky ones. I re-explore those feelings and I complicate things, and make life difficult for everyone, and then I give my characters the happy holiday, the happy ending -- no, the happy beginning of a life shared with another.  I can’t give the real thing to all my readers, but I can give stories that reaffirm my own feeling that love is there if you’re willing to work for it -- and that the holidays are a magical time of year.

 

Interesting Characters Stay in Unique Places- Boutique Hotels

by Sandy Parks

Characters move around, to other cities, other states, and other countries. Sure rich billionaires can afford the Ritz. But if they are truly interesting guys or gals, they might desire privacy, adventure, or simply the unusual, and still be treated like kings or queens. If you don’t have it on your research radar, add the term “boutique hotel.”

Such a hotel is often similar to what we might call a B&B, but much more upscale. Their location is usually unique, isolated, and can often be difficult to reach. Many cater to people from all over the world, on all different travel schedules, and coming from different time zones and languages. If your characters arrive at two in the morning, the hotel staff will be waiting. Pictures tell a thousand words (as a recent posted stated) so let me present a few examples.

Hotel B in Lima Peru. A guard stood by the hotel entrance and
personally unlocked it when guests entered or left. 

This first boutique hotel is in an arts district called Barranca that is undergoing revitalization to its grand days when the rich built summer homes near the water. These early 1900s mansions, attacked by weather and earthquakes over the years, are slowly being refurbished. Champagne and cookies might well be waiting upon arrival.

Door tie signaling privacy.

On the bed, a long black tie will be draped with a note pinned to it. If you wished to be left undisturbed, hang it on the doorknob.

Hotel B eclectic room

The rooms are modern, eclectic, with old world trimmings, and original art.










The upstairs lounge outside this room has showy furniture, modern framed paintings and photos, metal sculptures, and a black chair with a feather-draped footstool. Eclectic, bohemian, and South American all wrapped into one.

Dining and gathering courtyard.

In Ecuador, a boutique hotel in the middle of the historic district is a centuries old home with inner courtyards. One courtyard was once used as a staging area/corral for horses where the family carriages were hitched or riders entered. Today that part is transformed into the hotel’s open-air bar.

Down the same street is the historic government square and the president’s residence. There a former Archbishop’s palace has been transformed into a boutique hotel and upscale restaurant. Your characters would find wood beams, thick walls, and tall shuttered window. Their bed will be turned down with a poem and a chocolate on the pillows, and slippers on a cloth mat by each side of the bed. A blooming plant and candles are snuggled around a large tub and rose pedals sprinkled across the white porcelain. The antagonist in my upcoming science fiction novel watched for his contact out a window from this palace.

Rose, welcome chocolate, and the daily poem.

What about the more casual or hard to access boutique hotels? Imagine a small French run hotel in the middle of an oasis that is accessible only by four-wheel drive vehicles. Or how about the acclaimed Kasbah du Toubkal nestled in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco?

Kasbah du Toubkal

The trip to the Kasbah starts in a small village at the base of a mountain. There a village storefront welcomes visitors for the Kasbah. Luggage is left on the front sidewalk and soon a bellhop with his donkey stops out front on the dusty street. He loads up the suitcases and starts a long climb up the mountainside to the hotel. Hope your characters are wearing hiking boots. They can either follow the bellhop or take another trail up the mountain. While a bit more casual, the hotel has stunning sights and the feel of exploring hidden lands. Think Shangri-La. Expect a room well stocked with dates, olives, and nuts. Drinking water is distilled from the hotels purification filters and sits in an earthen pitcher in the room. A rustic, steamy private hammam is nestled in a corner of the hotel and awaits tired muscles after your characters' adventures. A great place for a little romance.

Riad in Marrakech

My newly released book OUTFOXED, an action-adventure suspense with romantic elements, uses a few boutique hotels in Morocco. Including one like the photo above, which came from Marrakech. This is the courtyard of an old house (riad) that has been converted into a hotel. It is entered from a dusty walking lane lined by long plaster walls with wooden doors cut into them. It's rather like stepping into another world. 

OUTFOXED: A plane gone. A pilot dead. Hawker Dunlop's repossession team demoralized and in jail.

Ex-military pilot Jet Walczynski and her crew are back in a mission to repossess an airliner in Ecuador. The mission falls apart when they are betrayed and the team disintegrates. Dunlop’s lawyer, Gregori Demos, sees justice as the best recourse for bringing them back together...if the new mission doesn't kill them first. Their task—locate the missing aircraft, nab the betrayer, and uncover the people who financed the deadly con.

Hedge fund billionaire Frederic Zinsli has no intention of being stopped in his life-long drive to avenge his grandfather. He has teamed with the dark side of technology, brought in investors, and obtained the perfect instrument to win his fight. When he discovers Dunlop’s repo team on his tail again, he intends to shut them down for good.

Adding to the difficulty, the CIA has taken an interest in this repossession gone wrong and will gladly sacrifice Dunlop’s people to order to uncover Zinsli’s intentions. While Jet’s team fight personal demons and battles to stay ahead of the opposition, time is counting down. As the truth is revealed and Jet’s team is forced to make precipitous decisions, will they succeed or be outfoxed once again?

Worth a thousand words?

You know what they say? Pictures=1k words. (hmm, that's half way to the daily total.)

I've been a lame blogger lately. Working several jobs at once, and a trip out of the country to my opposite time zone, followed by a wicked case of p-new-moan-ya, (emphasis on the moan, thank you very much) has kept me away from the keyboard.

I think I told you all, I sometimes drive my family crazy taking pictures? Trying to get just the right angle. Not only the colors, the shapes...but the feeling of what I'm seeing.

(I have 12 versions of this flower-filled, offering bowl. And those are the ones I kept.)

It's strange. I've noticed that when I can't get to the keyboard often enough, my pictures become much more elaborate. Almost like little stories.

Poignant.

Kooky.

Romantic.
And hopeful.

It's been a long, weird month (or two.) But the stories are there....

No matter how far I go, I can't stay away.

Taking on the Series Challenge

Writing a series is a lot different than writing a stand-alone book. When an author sits down to plan out a series, it’s like writing multiple books at once. Each book has to have a singular plot, but all the books have to be working together toward a series finale. 

If this is a series that involves the same main character, then all additional main characters, their personalities, growth, issues and challenges all have to be mapped out in coordination with an overall series arc. A series requires a lot of foresight, planning and long-term character development. Plots should be at least lightly sketched out for a few books in advance. If you have an exact number of books planned for your series, then it's even easier. It’s helpful if you have a clear idea of where you want to go with your characters and how you want them to change over the course of the books.

It can all seem daunting, but it is also a lot fun. Personally, I love to revisit my characters in novel after novel. In many ways they have become like family to me. It's fun to plot their activities and watch their growth as people, lovers and friends.

Obviously, I like to write series. The latest book in my humorous, geek mystery series, NO TEST FOR THE WICKED, came out December 1. It’s the fifth book (actually the sixth because there is a novella in the mix) and Lexi Carmichael and her friends are back again for another adventure.

Lexi Carmichael, geek girl extraordinaire, is headed to high school. Again. Returning to high school is not something she ever wanted to do over—it was awful the first time around. So why do she have to go back as part of a new undercover assignment? Because the universe loves playing jokes on her, obviously.

She’s been ordered to go all 21 Jump Street and track down the students who are breaking into the computer system, changing grades, and causing all kinds of havoc. Although she’s not thrilled about her new gig, at least it gives her something to do other than worry over the fact that she now has a boyfriend. And no freaking idea what to get him for Christmas.

Or it did give her something else to worry about, until she stumbled across a more sinister threat. Lexi is shocked to find distinct traces of a group of international hackers inside the network. Why would dangerous cyber mercenaries be interested in a high school in the middle of Washington, D.C.? What exactly has she gotten herself into?

So, what do you think of series? Love them, prefer a stand-alone novel or a mixture of both?