Electronic Notebooks

Join the authors and friends of Not Your Usual Suspects for an occasional series of posts about their world of reading, writing and publishing.

Short and sweet, hopefully both informative and entertaining - join us at I-Spy to find out the how's and why's of what we do.


TODAY'S POST: I-Spy Paperless Notebooks...

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A few years ago I read an article about an attorney who had gone paperless in his law practice. The attorney used an electronic notebook: the Microsoft OneNotebook program. Intrigued, I checked my laptop when I got home. Lo and behold, OneNotebook was listed in my Microsoft programs. At first, I set up notebooks to contain research for a  book I was writing at the time.  Rather than filling notebooks/folders with printed material, I copied and pasted online material into labeled sections.

At the conclusion of the book, I realized I didn't have a mountain of paper to file or toss.  Hmmm.  When I began my next book, I decided to set up a full blown electronic notebook. They function like any other paper' notebook. You can have as many sections as you wish; above is a screenshot of the tabs I used for Her Dark Protector. 

Same thing for subsections; have as many as you need:

I now have an electronic notebook containing all the common templates I typically used, including a plotboard. 

The beauty is the 'page' is as wide or long as you need. The section grows with added material.  Photos can be copied as well.  Here's one of the research pages where I pasted a photo of the motorcyle ultimately used in Her Dark Protector.

An obvious benefit of an electronic plotboard is the portability. Grab the computer and go; all your research, charts, etc. at your fingertips. Use different colors, fonts, etc. to help highlight turing points and POV's. As I write/review/revise a manuscript, I'll note them like below.

Whenever I run across an intreresting online article about writing or other frequently used topics, such as criminal investigation, I send it to a special topic notebook.

I've become such a believer in the digital notebook that I now use them at work. With Outlook I'm able to send documents to the case notebook.  Have a document or pdf file you wish you could add to the notebook? One of the print options [at least in Microsof] is to send the document to OneNote.

Don't have Microsoft?  I googled and there are a number of electronic software progams available. In this digital day and age, an electronic notebook is a match made in heaven for organizing writing. Besides, think of all the trees being saved.

:) Carol Stephenson

Award winning author Carol Stephenson lives in southeast Florida with her beloved Shih Tzu. She's an attorney by day and author by night. She's best known for her emotionally drawn, hard-driving romances.  You can keep up with Carol and her books on her Web site at www.carolstephenson.com.       

FUTURE POSTS will cover:

Kindlegraph / the art of research / writing male/male romance / rejection and writer's block / building suspense / writing love scenes / anti-piracy strategies / audio books / interviews with editors and agents / using Calibre.
We welcome everyone's constructive comments and suggestions!

One Book Wonders and Life's Lessons

 

After I sold my first book, I worried about being a one-book wonder.  When I sold my second book, you would have thought the fretting would disappear, but no, I anguished over the third book.  Finally I figured out that the ‘validation’ from selling the next book would always be with me, my verson of the Sally Field syndrome, ‘you like me, you really like me’.   Every writer’s set of insecurities and demons  vary.

This year at the RWA Atlanta conference, I made the pilgrimage like many other writers to Margaret Mitchell’s house.  The irony of the situation did not escape me.  Here was a woman who wrote only one book, but what a book it was.  ‘Gone With The Wind’ was a Pulitzer Prize masterpiece whose impact to this day resonates. 

Still she must have had her own demons.  First, she almost didn’t submit her book to the publisher.  Then she requested all her papers be destroyed upon her death.  Since her husband complied with Margaret’s wishes, we don’t know what else she may have been working on at the time of her untimely death.  However, what a legacy she left with the one book she completed.

As I toured Apartment One and listened to the guide, I did smother a smile when I saw the setup where Margaret wrote over one thousand pages of manuscript.  So many discussions one hears at RWA conferences revolve around writers’ sometimes exacting requirements for a working environment [what music to play, not to play, etc.]  Another form of a writing roadblock, yet here Margaret had set up shop with a manual typewriter on a small table facing the street. 

While I attended a lot of great workshops and saw many wondrous sights on my road trip, the one thing that has motivated me the most was seeing Margaret’s house.  She had a passion to be something and to reach for it.  What she became was a writer and what a writer she was, demons and all,…even if it was only one book.   What is your passion, insecurity and/or writing demon?

Carol Stephenson

http://www.carolstephenson.com

Her Dark Protector, 2013 EPIC and IDA finalist            

HEROISM: NO SUPER POWERS REQUIRED

As an author I like to write about ‘ordinary’ people who rush into hell to find justice.  When confronted by the unimaginable, they fight to survive and prevail.

My focus on the people with non-super powers might be strange considering the fact that as a kid I watched a steady diet of all the super hero cartoons from Mighty Mouse to Superman to the Justice League.  Characters whipped out their super powers to save the world.

Yet my first and always heroes were my parents.  Every day Dad went to work at a tough, difficult job he didn’t like to provide for his family.  Mom sacrificed so her daughters could have more than she did as a Depression-era child.  They weren’t the flashy heroes of the ‘extraordinary’ powers or moment;  to me they were heroic for meeting life’s obligations with resilience every day of their lives.

 From a police officer racing to burning car to rescue a trapped driver to the divorced mother tired from working a thankless job but stays up late to help her daughter complete a school project, I take heart in both those heroic efforts that make the news and those I have the privilege of observing.  See that utility tech working tirelessly on downed lines in an area devastated by disasters? Hero.  Those teams of Red Cross or American Humane Society heading into the eye of the storm to help victims?  Major heroes.    

While many may argue super model/business woman Heidi Klum is far from being ordinary, this past weekend she was just a mother on a holiday with her family.  When a riptide threatened her son, she rushed into the water without hesitation to pull him to safety.  Then she went into danger again to rescue the nanny.   The look of fear and determination on her face would resonate with any parent with a child in danger.  I know her courage and actions will work their way eventually into a character.  For now, she’s added to my ‘hero’ list. 

Do you have a favorite act of heroism you saw or read about?

J Carol Stephenson

Escape to Compelling, Heart-Racing Stories
HER DARK PROTECTOR, 2013 EPIC finalist
Website; Facebook; Twitter; Amazon Author Page

 

 

 

Giving Thanks: Here's To Friendship

A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.

Elbert Hubbard

Thanksgiving is on the horizon and I already know what I'm most thankful for: friends.  My personal circles range from those I made through writing to those I've known over a quarter of a century.  Some I only 'get together' through the Internet; others I'm at their homes week after week. They're all precious; they all enrich my life beyond comprehension.

For example this past Saturday I attend a Florida Romance Writers meeting. Being with others who get being a writer and understand the high's and low's is soooo comforting. I always come away with the love of writing renewed.  Then on Sunday afternoon I scrapbooked with two close friends. As we sat creating our latest albums, we enjoyed wine, good food and great companionship, not to mention gossip.

When I was young, little did I truly comprehend the true scoop of friendship. After all, family is blood and those connections are complex, but ultimately a family's duty, loyalty, tolerance and love flow from being related.

A friend, however, can choose to walk away at any time and not look back. The connection is based on that mysterious karma of simply liking another person. A tenuous thread that could snap at any time or strengthen over the years.

This vital fabric of my life is reflected in many of my books. The three law school friends in the Legal Weapons series who form a criminal defense law firm [Courting Danger, Courting Disaster, Courting Death]; Emma-Lee Dalton's relationship with her ailing college girlfriend in Chasing The Truth; and Gail Malloy's bond with Angela Rivera in Her Dark Protector. Although the women may differ on many things, they have each other's back. They listen, give comfort or a kick when needed. For them friendship is thicker than blood or water.

 What are your favorite stories of friendship?

:) Carol Stephenson

The Chase for Glory: Sports and Inspiration

As an action junkie, I love watching sports.  I'm not athletically gifted although I did dabble at swim team and took tennis lessons.  However, I've been a primo spectator all my life.  Playing clarinet in the marching band ensured me ring-side seats at football games.  Being on pep club notched seats at basketball.  I've cheered from the stands at everything from car races to tennis matches.  While professional football was my first love, NASCAR is my soul mate.   

Athletes' training, sacrifice, and determination resonates with me.  The speed, the height, the strength, the control they exercise.   I love watching the good, the bad and the ugly.  So long as the athlete is trying, I'll cheer them on.  I enjoy the rush of the nail-biting suspense as the event reaches its critical climax.  Then comes the emotional see-saw of the low's and high's of defeat and victory.  Naturally, my passion for sports does weave its way throughout my writing.

My heroine Nicole Sterling swam laps to reflect in COURTING DANGER while her great-aunt used skeet shooting to eerie effect.  Carling Dent in COURTING DISASTER was a major fan with memorabilia filling her office and sports terms populated her dialogue.  Boxing trivia figured in one scene in HER DARK PROTECTOR.  However, the biggest thrill as an author was my getting to write a NASCAR novella, CHASING THE TRUTH.  The roar of the engines, the blur of cars as they raced around the track.  Sigh, a gear-head's idea of heaven on earth.  Even as I plot the next book, I've got my eye on skiing for a chase scene.  

However, the big sports enchilada is almost upon us: the Olympics.  I've been an avid fan all my life of both the summer and winter games and will be glued to the television.  There are so many memorable moments over my lifetime.  A few of my favs: Carly Patterson's winning of the all-around gold in gymanstics in 2004 despite having back problems and Kerri Strug's performing the vault with an injured ankle.  Then there was the wire-to-wire gold medal win in 2008 by the US Women's rowing team.  I held my heart in my hand as I screamed them on.

Faster, higher, stronger.  Athletes of the world, inspire me.  Let the games begin. 

What's your favorite Summer Olympics event or moment?

:) Carol Stephenson

Carol Stephenson lives in South Florida with her beloved Shih Tsu Maddie and loves to write compelling, heart-pounding stories. You can learn more about her books or visit her: Website; Facebook; Twitter

TAKING A STAND FOR JUSTICE

Justice will be served when those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are. —Benjamin Franklin

Has there ever been a case where deep down you’ve cried ‘foul’ when the criminal is either acquitted or receives a light sentence?  Intellectually and morally, you understand and believe in the bedrock principle that a person charged with a crime is entitled to a jury of one’s peers who must find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt but still…  The murderer, child abuser, or white collar swindler has gotten off scot-free.  That’s not right!  Shouldn’t the person pay?  

I explore this morality quagmire n my latest Carina Press book, HER DARK PROTECTOR, which is out today.  Against the backdrop of South Florida, the justice system has been rendered impotent with corruption permeating the highest levels.   The bad guys are winning; it’s time for the good guys to take a stand.

Differing philosophies and motivations pit a secret justice society and a vigilante group in the fight against crime. On the surface what the two groups share is a sense of belonging and purpose in a society weary of crime.  However, the Justice Alliance and its membership of Justice Hunters seek to aid the justice system by gathering evidence, tracking down witnesses and protecting those law enforcement individuals at risk.  In contrast the ‘Veritas’ have found a way to exact justice for a price; they are vigilantes for hire.

Add to the mix a heroine who as a state attorney believes justice is society’s glue and a drug lord who follows law of the jungle, and the battlefield is set.

I did think of the unlikely mix of the Death Wish movie series starring Charles Bronson and the comic strip series The Justice League as I wrote this book.  What appeals to you as a reader about stories where a person takes a stand against crime?

Carol Stephenson

READ EXCERPT HERE

My Links:  Website; Facebook; Twitter; Not Your Usual Suspects

Buy Links for HER DARK PROTECTOR:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Carina Press

Theme Braiding

When the idea for Her Dark Protector was a glimmer, I watched an interview of J.K. Rowling. She commented along the lines that at the core of the Harry Potter stories were the various characters' reactions to death.

Can we say writing lightbulb moment?

With Her Dark Protector's central concept of an international secret justice society with unlimted resources stepping in to help the legal system, the core theme is obviously justice.

For the heroine state attorney, her belief system is justice is society's glue.  For the hero who joined  the Justice Alliance after his wife is murdered, justice has failed.

Add a character who believes he is the law, a bad guy who follows the law of the jungle and a second bad guy who is above the law, I had five different character threads to braid action => reaction. If heroine acted in accordance with justice is society's glue then what would jungle law bad guy do?  How would 'I'm above the law' react to jungle law's action? Would the ensuing crisis reinforce the hero's conviction?

I used a sketch pad with columns representing each representation of justice and drew zigzagging lines from viewpoint to viewpoint.  I now use this approach on every book, current one in process.

Thank you, J.K. Rowling!

Have you ever had a writing light bulb moment from something another person said?

:) Carol Stephenson
Her Dark Protector,
A Carina Press March 26, 2012 release and Audible.com
Website; Facebook Fan Page

Carol's Amazon Author Page

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