Act II

I have found that my life this summer and fall has somehow begun to imitate that of one of my heroines.

Not romantically. Don’t panic. Let me explain.

For my latest manuscript, I am actually plotting. Seriously plotting. Beats, turning points, spreadsheets, note cards in Scrivener for scenes. The whole nine yards. I’ve also analyzed and rearranged the first scenes I’ve written to up tension and drama and to quickly get to the point.

And, in learning story craft, I have also come face to face with career craft.

I think we're all familiar with Act I:

• The set-up: Fledgling author working feverishly in her “free” time to write a book and find a publisher.
• Hook moment: Goal achieved. Parties and cover reveals follow. Sales figures awaited with bated breath.
• The catalyst/life changing event: Sales are less than great. Author must start over. 
• Debate/point of no return/choice: Does she stubbornly plug along and refuse advice? Does she quit? 
• Act II begins: Reaction to the new goal. (Affectionately known as fun and games.)

I am quite firmly in the middle of Act II. I can’t say it’s all fun and games either. I find myself hiding from my emails, reading a lot, thinking A LOT. Considering, second-guessing, playing Candy Crush … and writing. Just differently.

As a reader, I love Act II. It’s where you see the characters bond and you get a glimpse of a happily ever after. As an author, I hate to even talk about it. It’s less romance and more mystery/thriller. However, just like my  plucky heroines, I’m finding myself in Act II. I’m realizing what’s important, and why and how to make a relationship work. Not with a hero, but with the blank page.

Failures and successes are now measured differently. The fork in the road looms. I’m taking the scary path, which should surprise no one who knows me. I’m starting in a different genre (maybe two). I’m discarding my pride, finding my courage, and continuing. Plot bunnies abound on this path, as do obstacles like research and new submissions and queries. Still suspense, still romantic … just a different kind of story.

And maybe a different name, because I am quickly becoming a different storyteller.

Yes, the black moment is still out there, but I can’t just stand here and wait on the end to come to me. I have to go get it. Because it’s important to me, and because I'm certain I won’t be the same at the end as I was at the beginning.

It is my author arc, if you will.  It is where I put my foot on the rocky path and decide to become a writer.

I'm not up on this blog again before the holidays. I hope each of you has a wonderful time with your families, doing what you love and making awesome memories.

Mia

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OBITUARIES

     I find a wealth of information, history, humor and the stirring of my imagination in the obituaries of people—some who I may have heard of and, others who are strangers to me. Addicted to the columns for years, I learn about people driven by need to prove themselves, unexpected heroes and heroines, or another side to a well-known celebrity or politician. The obits, many written by prominent journalists are joined by others penned by loving friends and family. Grief and humor share space with the loneliness of people who have died alone. There are so many stories to tell about so many lives. If the narrative seems to have left a part of life unfinished, the sketches published may encourage a writer to write one of her own.

     Obituary comes from the Latin obit or death and has denoted published death notices ever since the 18^th century. Concise pronouncements of death were published in America in the 16^th century. Lengthier, more comprehensive notices took another 300-years to go to press.

     Obits can range from the life of a Klansman who evolved into a civil rights activist to the demise of a Plant named Pluto—demoted by the International Astronomical Union to the level of a humble dwarf planet. Then there are theatrical luminaries and Hollywood stars--who would have thought that Hedy Lamarr, a sex symbol (who shocked the 1930s public when she walked out of water as nude as the day she was born) would become an inventor?

     Often the deceased write their own obits or leave instructions to the folk they leave behind. People today often share reminisces about a life well-lived and enjoy a smile and a laugh. Recently, the partner of an opera lover delayed the production, and set the audience and security on edge at Lincoln Center’s Metropolitan Opera House when he ran down the aisle during intermission to sprinkle white powder into the orchestra pit. Turned out to be his lover’s ashes. A fitting tribute to a successful relationship or? Now that gets the creative juices flowing.

Veterans' Day 2016

It’s Veterans’ Day and the first thing I want to do is thank the veterans for their service and sacrifice.

I, and a lot of other romantic suspense authors, have main characters who are veterans. Everyone who makes up the core group of my Automatik team is a former special ops soldier who was deployed in conflicts abroad. My hope is that I respectfully represent some of that experience. I don’t want to make it all heroic or all terrible, but a balance between, as individual as the characters I’m portraying.

Veterans have always been the subject of fiction. Having war in a personal history is a powerful backstory to draw from, and infuses the character with an array experiences. Odysseus is a veteran of the Trojan War. Miss Fisher from Kerry Greenwood’s mystery series served with an ambulance unit during World War I. Many of the male protagonists in Film Noir had served in World War II and those experiences inform their stories as they try to fit back into the “normal” world.

But while this is a common storytelling trope, the reality shouldn’t be forgotten. Wars, unfortunately, are still being fought. Hopefully, resolutions can be found and people can return home safely. And I hope that the veterans who are home now are receiving the care and thanks they deserve.

-Nico

Military Heroines

             I write about extraordinary women and the men they love. Military heroines. Women at the top of their field in a man’s world. They don’t want a man to take care of them they want a man who will accept them for who they are and stand shoulder to shoulder with them in their adventures. I’m frequently asked why my heroines are the ones in the military.

             My question is: why don’t we have more books with military heroines? I feel like the women in the service of their countries are under appreciated.

             George Washington credits winning the war against England to six colonial spies who risked their lives to bring him information. One of them was a woman whose name has never been discovered.

             Dr. Mary Edwards Walker is the only woman to receive a Congressional Medal of Honor for her efforts during the Civil War. Her name was deleted from the Medal of Honor Roll in 1917. She was asked to return the medal and refused, wearing it every day until she died.

                                    Agnes Meyer Driscoll known as Madame X, an American cryptanalyst for the U.S. Navy during World War I was a brilliant code breaker.

             During WWII over 1000 women in this country flew every type of military aircraft, ferrying them to military bases and departure points. They were test pilots and towed targets to give gunners training. Their service wasn’t recognized until the 70s.

             Nancy Augusta Wake was a British agent who became a courier for the French Resistance. By 1943, Wake was the Gestapo’s most wanted person, with a 5 million-franc price on her head.

             Rose Antonia Maria Valland was a French art historian, a member of the French Resistance, a captain in the French military, and one of the most decorated women in French history. She secretly recorded details of the Nazi plundering of National French and private Jewish-owned art from France. Remember the book and movie The Monument Men? That’s her.

             I have a special place in my heart for the nurses who took care of those who fought in Vietnam.  (Read, The Trunk, in my collection of short stories Let Me Tell You A Story)

            The person who is credited with finding the terrorist leader who ordered the 9/11 attacks (I refuse to say his name) is a woman.

           

             In my first book, Under Fire, a Coast Guard helicopter pilot teams up with a DEA agent and launches a personal seek and destroy mission to find her brother’s killer. This thriller follows the two through the dangerous drug underworld, a fierce gun battle at sea and brings down a notorious drug lord.

             In Under Fire: The Admiral, a Coast Guard officer and the doctor she is flying on medical missions in Ecuador are shot down off the coast by a drug cartel. She uses all her skills to get him home safely. While in the jungle, she is the doctor’s Guardian against danger and he becomes the guardian of her heart.   

             Point of No Return features a female Marine Corps Intelligence officer and a contract spy, investigating kidnappings of military children and mysterious deaths. As they navigate the murky political waters of the Pentagon, and private armies, it’s hard to know who’s lying to your face, and who’ll stab you in the back. 

If you are interested in reading about other extraordinary women please go to my web page.

Japan. A land of contradictions.

Shinjuko--can you see anything different about this photo? Look closer in the background!

I'm in Japan and currently on the road. If all goes to plan, I'm visiting Miyajima today.  I thought I'd share a few photographs and random commentary on our trip so far.

Shinjuko Gardens--just five minutes away from the madness.

Japan is a weird contrast of ancient cultural treasures, and concrete jungle, flashing-light consumerism. It's crowded, and hotel rooms are generally a lot smaller than back in North America. The population of Tokyo is bigger than the total population of Canada. 37-38 million people. There isn't a lot of space, and there isn't a lot of room for error.

My husband taking shots on the subway

Which is probably why their subway system is AMAZING, and their disaster planning management top-notch. However, it's worth noting that the Japanese are thrown when things don't proceed according to plan. Or it could just be my disruptive influence :)

The people are wonderfully polite. They aren't big into hugs. They are big into gifts, and sake, and FISH! Holy Moses are they ever into fish.

The first time I walked through a mall in the morning I felt like a fantasy hero. All the shopkeepers stood at the doors and bowed as we walked through.

I've discovered that clothes here FIT ME! I am no longer "petite" although I'm a bit wide-in-the-hip compared to the locals.

Everything is expensive.

The spiders are bigger than I like. Actually money spiders are the only size I can live with.

Buddhism is important, though the monks aren't always very friendly. Is friendliness a Buddhist principle? Probably not :).

The graveyards are fascinating. In a few days we go to the biggest graveyard in the world. I know--fun times, huh? Thank goodness I can also take the kids to Tokyo Disney for some glitter and sparkle. 

I'm loving out trip and a bit sad we only have less than a month left. It's been so much fun delving into the city of Tokyo and the country at large. Hopefully there's a book in it :)  Wish me luck on the Bullet Train. 

Catch more of my antics here: https://www.facebook.com/toniannanderson

LOVE SCENES AND SIGNIFICANT OTHERS

            Several weeks ago, I read a Dear Abby column which was so entertaining I saved a copy of it to share with you today. The Dear Abby reader in question said she was a happily married professional woman who writes “romance novels . . . as a hobby and side business.”

So far, so good.

The problem is her husband reads her love scenes and becomes “sullen, withdrawn and angry.” He thinks everything she writes is linked to an old boyfriend or actual event. His jealous behavior has her so upset that she asks Abby, “Should I give up writing or should he learn to deal with it?”

Abby’s answer is a hoot:  “The man of your dreams shouldn’t sulk. If he can’t accept that what you write is fiction, tell him to quit reading your books.”

Now I realize most if not all of us here at NYUS are not writing romance novels as such. Nevertheless, a little romance does creep into our plots from time to time—a kiss, a rapid heart beat, an illicit backseat encounter, a secret dinner meeting, an occasional tryst. The list goes on. After all, we’re writing about human experiences not crime in a vacuum.

So when my husband comments about a sexy scene I’ve written I respond in one of two ways:

a)                       I throw my hands on my hips and ask, “Does Stephen King have a basement full of corpses?” Or,

b)                        “Darling, you’re the model for every love scene I ever wrote.”

You’ll have no trouble figuring out which one is the more popular reply.

Have you, as a writer, ever encountered a jealous reaction from a spouse or significant other for a love scene in your book? If so, how do you handle it? Or him?

 

 

The Sneaky Idea Fairy

by Janis Patterson

I’ll admit it – I am a pantser. A sort-of pantser. I don’t do detailed outlines or character charts or anything like that. I do work by a method I call the Suspension Bridge school of writing. You know what a suspension bridge looks like – several tall towers and webbing in between supporting a platform. That’s how I construct a story – I know where the story starts, and approximately where it ends, and a couple of major plot points along the way. Then it’s simply a matter of spinning the webwork in between.

Or at least, that’s the way it’s supposed to be, but the sneaky Idea Fairy seldom lets it happen.

The Idea Fairy is notorious for coming in when you’re chugging happily along with a plot that is pretty much set, however sketchily, and then gleefully turning things upside down. You think you know where you’re going, that all you add is the little details, then suddenly… BOOM!

Case in point, my Egyptian set mystery A KILLING AT EL KAB. I was certain of my major characters and the major points of the plot and was writing along happily. I needed a point from outside the scene brought in, so I created a character who was supposed to come in (for a good, plot-consistent reason) and then vanish. Except the Idea Fairy got her fingers in and almost before I knew what was happening this character had moved in and was not only perilously close to becoming a major character, but had a romance with one of the most unexpected of minor characters. I had to hold tight to my storyline with clawed fingers to keep him from completely taking over.

On the plus side, he did tie a bunch of disparate facts together, facts I had been struggling to round up and put forth without sliding into the deus ex machina trap, so I guess the Idea Fairy was on my side that time.

Another example is from my mystery BEADED TO DEATH, in which a man and a woman absolutely hate each other. One is my sleuth’s best friend, while the other is doing whatever possible to put my sleuth in jail. It’s in the last third of the book when my sleuth is talking to one of them who happens to mention in passing, “Oh, that must have happened after we were divorced.”

Until the minute I typed that I had no idea that these two characters had ever been married, or even knew each other outside of business, but that startling revelation made a lot of things fall into place for me. Once again the Idea Fairy was good.

Sometimes the little beastie isn’t, though – sometimes when I’m working along quite happily on one story she pops up with an inundation of ideas about what she purports to be a new direction, but which in reality is a completely new story with different characters. Worse that than, they’re good – so good the Idea Fairy won’t let me rest until I stop and at least note down the bare bones. Which, of course, makes it the harder to go back to the story I’ve been writing, on which she is suddenly and uncharacteristically silent. However… I know she will come back, usually with a whole new bag of tricks. Which is okay. As a very famous writer once said “No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.” Whoever he was (the attribution varies), he was right.