Author: Cindy

I'm irritated because my posts won't publish.

Summer Breeze…

I’m going on blogiday! With the RWA National conference in Washington, D.C. occurring this week, it’s the perfect time for me to take a break. I’m not attending the conference, so theoretically I could still blog. But it’s summer, my BFF just moved home for six months and I want to catch up with her, I’m still recovering from the parties and BBQs I attended on the weekend, plus I can use the time to catch up on writing goals I didn’t quite make last week.

Penny has drafted the entirety of her new erotica short. My goal is to get it revised this week. I’m also judging a contest that requires written critiques rather than filling out score sheets, so that’s always a bit more work. I need to do some management work on the Nobody Writes It Better group blog, and I need to revamp some aspects of my own blog (the style sheet, etc., stuff I’ve been meaning to do for months but never seem to get around to). I doubt I’ll get to my own blog fixes this week. If I update WordPress, I’ll be happy.

What else do I have on schedule? Oh, yeah, following up on a manuscript I fear has been misplaced. Then, next week, if Penny’s done her revisions, it’ll be time for me to get back to work on SEX, PIs & PACKING TAPE. It’s revision time for that manuscript. Working on the short for Penny, plus catching up on household tasks, has provided me several weeks “time off” from this manu. I’m looking forward to brainstorming and applying the revisions.

Have fun while I’m gone, everyone! If anything truly amazing occurs over the next week, I’ll check in. Otherwise, the summer breeze is making me feel fine….

Family Birthdays

I won’t name names (I’m guessing I’ll get in trouble posting this picture as it is…if they find out), but let’s just say I’m related to the two people below. Let’s just say I’m older than both of them, so tormenting them is my right. Let’s add on that they are both cuter than spit in this picture! Let’s not quibble that spit ain’t that cute.

Let’s say I’m taking the shorter one to lunch today, because it’s her birthday. Happy birthday, LP!

Let’s say I’m attending a big family party tomorrow, because that’s the taller one’s birthday. Happy birthday, TB!

Every year we have a big family party on the double birthday. LP has never celebrated a birthday without her older brother, I don’t think.

Note the wonderful pineapple upside-down cake, courtesy of our esteemed mother:

t_s_bdays

Write or Die

I’m a writing fiend this week. Or, rather, Penny is. Her new (and in fact first) ER “short” is motoring along. I’ve found it a little challenging focusing on the, ahem, subject matter with my adult/teenage kids and their S.O.’s in the house, but I’ve managed. I can now see the ending in sight. Yippee!

Now, I’m not the type to impose word limits (by that I mean expectations) on myself, because I usually wind up disappointed, because of the affliction that causes me to revise and edit as I write. Whenever I join a goals group or some such, I get bogged down in the requirement to produce new writing. To me, if you’re revising it, that makes it new. However, usually in goal groups, “revising” didna = “new.”

For those who like the crack of the whip, check out Write or Die. Let me know if it works for you.

Welcome Guest Blogger Barbara Freethy

WHY SECONDARY CHARACTERS ARE SO MUCH FUN…freethy_pic1

In my new Angel’s Bay series, SUDDENLY ONE SUMMER, I not only had the opportunity to create the fictional town of Angel’s Bay but also to develop an entire community filled with interesting characters. While I loved creating the central hero and heroine, Jenna and Reid, who have all kinds of interesting secrets and an emotionally compelling story line, I must admit that I had a lot of fun developing the secondary characters.

Minor players in a story can be quirkier. Their personalities can be more extreme. They can be flawed without any redeeming qualities. They can be saints or sinners or somewhere in between. There’s a certain freedom to writing a secondary character, because there aren’t any expectations.  They don’t even have to be particularly likeable; they just have to be interesting.   

freethy_summerIn SUDDENLY ONE SUMMER, I introduce several characters who will have continuing story lines through the series. One is the chief of police, Joe Silveira, who is half-Hispanic, half-Irish, and you know with that combination, he’s going to be trouble. Joe has come to Angel’s Bay after years of working vice for LAPD. While he’s thrilled with this new change in his life, his wife, Rachel, a realtor to the rich and famous in Beverly Hills, is nowhere near as happy. Rachel is brittle, ambitious sophistication, and finds fitting into this idyllic seaside community a definite challenge. But she loves her husband, or at least she thinks she does. They’ve been together a long time…fell in love as kids…but now find themselves wondering if their love can stand the test of time. 

Joe also finds himself reluctantly attracted to the charming, beautiful OB/GYN in town, Charlotte Adams. Charlotte has her own problems. After coming back to Angel’s Bay after her father’s funeral, she is dealing with her mother and a strained mother-daughter relationship that continually tests her patience. She’s also shocked when her old boyfriend, Andrew, turns up in town as the new minister. Charlotte has secrets in her past that she doesn’t want Andrew or anyone else to find out.

The challenge of writing books with multiple characters is to make sure the secondary characters stay in their place and are used to enhance the feature couple and at times echo themes in the plot. Sometimes the secondary characters demand their day in the sun and become a feature couple in another book. One of the secondary characters in my book, SILENT RUN, was an eccentric painter who had a beautiful ethereal personality but painted monstrous grotesques pictures of murders, usually after awakening from a nightmare. Catherine eventually got her own story in SILENT FALL, but she originally started out as a throwaway character who could provide a clue to a crime. Who knew those horrific paintings would make me want to write her story? I certainly didn’t. But then I’m a writer who loves to plot out only the basic story line and find additional inspiration along the way.

So who are some of your favorite secondary characters? Anyone stand out?

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Please leave a comment to enter to win a copy of SUDDENLY ONE SUMMER. To read the back cover copy and Barbara’s bio, visit yesterday’s post. To learn more about Barbara and her books, please visit her website.

Barbara Freethy Visits Tomorrow

I’m delighted to announce that Pocket Books author Barbara Freethy is visiting tomorrow. Barbara’s blogging about secondary characters and is giving away a copy of SUDDENLY ONE SUMMER, Book One in her new Angel’s Bay Series.

About SUDDENLY ONE SUMMER:

In the California coastal town of Angel’s Bay, there’s a legend many believe is true…that sometimes when the light is right, angels dance above the waves, and good triumphs over evil… Award-winning, bestselling author Barbara Freethy enchants with the first book in a series that will capture your heart.

Jenna Davies flees to the close-knit community of Angel’s Bay with a seven-year-old child, a dangerous secret and a heart full of pain. She wants nothing more than to live a quiet life, but when she sees a teenager plunge off the pier, she doesn’t hesitate to dive in after her. Saving the desperate girl’s life thrusts Jenna into a spotlight she can ill afford. Suddenly everyone in town wants to know her story—a story that could cost her life.

Reid Tanner was once a tough reporter before a shattering incident changed everything.  Now all his instincts are on alert. Who is Jenna and what is she hiding?  He wants answers, but his quest for the truth could put them all in danger. They say love is a miracle, but can it keep Jenna safe in his arms?

About Barbara:freethy_pic

Barbara Freethy celebrates the release of her 25th novel with SUDDENLY ONE SUMMER. Barbara’s books, which range from contemporary to romantic suspense and women’s fiction, have regularly appeared on national bestseller lists including USA Today, Borders and Barnes and Noble. She is a four-time RITA Finalist and won the RITA for her contemporary, DANIEL’S GIFT. For a complete list of books and excerpts, check out Barbara’s website. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

It Was A Purple, Mangled Sentence…

The winners of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, “Where WWW Means ‘Wretched Writers Welcome'” are up. If you haven’t heard of this contest, it celebrates Victorian novelist Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, who, with the audacity of those inclined toward hyphens, penned the famous opening line, “It was a dark and stormy night.” (Snoopy of Peanuts fame often begins his literary epistles with this sentence).

Ever wondered how the rest of the paragraph goes? Here it is, according to the website:

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

The contest is all in fun, the goal being to enter the worst opening lines possible, to imaginary novels. 

Here is the Romance Winner:

Melinda woke up suddenly to the sound of her trailer being pounded with wind and hail, and she couldn’t help thinking that if she had only put her prized hog up for adoption last May, none of this would be happening, no one would have gotten hurt, and she wouldn’t be left with only nine toes, or be living in a mobile home park in Nebraska with a second-rate trapeze artist named Fred. Ada Marie Finkel Boston, MA

Runner-Up:

The first time I saw her she took my breath away with her long blonde hair that flowed over her shoulders like cheese sauce on a bed of nachos, making my stomach grumble as she stepped into the room, her red knit dress locking in curves better than a Ferrari at a Grand Prix. Harol Hoffman-Meisner Greensboro, NC

Dishonorable Mention:

As she slowly drove up the long, winding driveway, Lady Alicia peeked out the window of her shiny blue Mercedes and spied Rodrigo the new gardener standing on a grassy mound with his long black hair flowing in the wind, his brown eyes piercing into her very soul, and his white shirt open to the waist, revealing his beautifully rippling muscular chest, and she thought to herself, “I must tell that lazy idiot to trim the hedges by the gate.” Kathryn Minicozzi Bronx, NY

Personally, of the three, I like the Dishonorable Mention the best. Love the “lazy idiot” line.

Which is your favorite?

There are entries from several other genres on the website.