September’s Round Robin Blog Hop asks the question: In designing your plots what do you rely on most: personal experience, imagination, or research?

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I’d have to say all of the above. Personal experience often gives me ideas for stories. That and people watching or news screaming at us from all forms of current day media. But from there, it’s imagination. Playing the “What If” game is a personal way of brainstorming how my plots will develop. But then I have research to do and often I find out something new that triggers a whole new avenue for my plot. When possible, I visit the area I plan to set my book in and being IN the setting, so to speak gives me more ideas. So, I really use personal experience, imagination and research in developing my plots.

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They say that truth is stranger than fiction and that is often very true. When we were clearing my dad’s house to put it on the market, my sister came across a strange package with military markings and the word “ordinance” on it. That alone might give someone a nifty idea for a plot. But what followed is definitely going to show up in a story of mine one day. Being a responsible citizen, my sister didn’t think it appropriate to just toss it into the dumpster with all the other junk we were getting rid of so she put it in the car and drove to the local police station to ask what she should do with it. The cops got their panties in a bunch, needless to say. They wouldn’t let her return to her car, touch or unload the stuff or even retrieve her dog who was happily grinning at the police with tongue lolling from the back seat. They did get the dog and bring her into the station to sit with my sister, but then everyone had to wait for the bomb squad to come inspect the “ordinance.” My brother had been in the Army for 15 years and we suspected it might have been something he left behind that my dad just moved along with his other stuff, but who knew and my dad couldn’t remember and my brother had passed away so no one to ask. Eventually the bomb guys deemed it non-threatening and took care of it. What a fun twist for a plot, was the first thing that came to my mind when she told me about her day. At a lunch date with writers the other day one of the gals told a story about having frozen dough in the cooler of her sailboat, thinking it would be okay sitting on the block of ice, only to open the cooler and discover the entire cooler filled with ever expanding dough. At my age, there are plenty of ordinary experiences I am far too familiar with – giving birth, burying a husband, a mom with Alzheimer’s, parenting from toddler to teen, breaking down on the highway, traveling, airport searches, customs, and dozens of other things that can all be used to expand or add to a plot. And my not so ordinary experiences, like skydiving, swimming with whales, joining the Peace Corps, and being chased by a pig. So, yes, personal experience and the experiences of those we know as well as those in the news often form the nucleus of a plot, or push another plot along.

Especially since I am not a plotter, but what the writing community calls a pantser, I might get my initial idea from something I heard, dreamed, experienced or saw in the news, but then I spend a lot of time creating characters, their backstories, their current lives, foibles and loves – then I plop them into the inciting incident and see where they go. But we all eventually hit the ‘sagging middle’ and that’s when I start with the what if questions. What if this happened to my heroine? Or what if the hero did that? Or what if my villain had this in mind? The answers to each of these questions lead to more ideas and more questions. I am also fortunate to be part of a group of authors – we call ourselves the Sandy Scribblers (some of us live on the beach) – and we meet once a month to brainstorm all our current works in progress. We are such a varied lot, several genres and both male and female. I tend to be a Pollyanna and don’t want to hurt my people, but I call another member of our group my personal Mayhem because she comes up with the most diabolical things I can do to my characters to get them in hot water, turn up the heat and start roasting. This group is also great at poking holes in weak places in my plots and making suggestions on how to fix them.

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Then, there’s the research. As I mentioned, I like to visit the physical places I set my stories. My one (currently) historical is set partly in Boston and Salem Mass and I spent a lot of time in both cities walking through the historical places, getting a feel for what it might have looked like in 1775. Although not yet published I have a book that takes place at Valley Forge and I’ve been there as well as downtown Philly for research. For my romance series, set in a fictional seaside town in North Carolina, I spent several days in that area, checking the tides, the airport, the neighborhoods, the streets and riverside of Wilmington and more. I talked to local folk out trimming their lawns, manning the information booth at the airport and sitting on a bench beside the river. All three of those individuals gave me ideas that found their way into my plots. As I’ve mentioned before, a trip out to explore an island off the coast of Maine triggered an entire plot for a historical time travel novel. Sometimes just being there gives you ideas. Sometimes seeing things you didn’t know were there provokes a whole new line of thought. Sometimes sitting surrounded by the ambiance your story takes place helps you ‘feel’ new or different possibilities.

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So, like I said, personal experience, imagination and research all influence the creation of my plots. Why not visit these other writers and see how they come up with their stories:
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Margaret Fieland 
Victoria Chatham 
Beverley Bateman 
Dr. Bob Rich 

Diane Bator 
Connie Vines 
Anne Stenhouse  
Rhobin L Courtright 

This month our Round Robin Blog Hop invites us to share an excerpt from something we've written about travel or vacation.

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One summer a few years ago, intrigued by the history I’d read about a tiny island off the coast of Maine, I decided to go out to explore the place. I could see the island from my home on the mainland so it was just a day sail, but still an adventure. Once upon a time, on this scrap of land a British captain had come ashore to steal sheep before moving on to harass other coastal communities in an effort to keep colonists from joining the likes of Sam Adams and John Hancock. Even before that, Pilgrims, starving in Plymouth Massachusetts had traveled north to beg for food at communities my history books had never even mentioned, but had apparently existed long before the Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower. This island called Damariscove had once been a thriving place filled with merchants, seaman and patriots and now uninhabited by year-round residents was a lure I couldn’t resist.

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My daughter and my dad and I sailed out there one beautiful sunny Maine summer day and wandered among the remnants of that long-ago island community and as I stood on the top of a large chunk of granite, part of an old stone foundation, it wiggled alarmingly. I jumped away, not eager to fall into the grass and daisy-lined abyss. But a writer’s mind, always wandering down unexpected alleys, finds stories in the unlikeliest of places. And so, on our sail home, the question that popped into my head was: “What if I had fallen into that hole? What if I’d hit my head and been knocked unconscious? And what if I’d woken up in a different century?” That’s how my novel, Iain’s Plaid was born. A day-trip to explore a place filled with history turned into a time-travel adventure back to 1775, the year the idea of independence was born in America.

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An excerpt from Iain’s Plaid:

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     Dani Amico sucked in a lungful of salty, sun-filled air and headed up the beach to explore this island with so much history that she’d just had to sail out here and see it for herself. Scrambling through a narrow opening in the beach roses, she gazed out over the island; nearly all of it visible from her vantage point. To her right, a small pond nestled into the narrowest part of the island, and a long stretch of land tapered off to the north, covered with scrub growth and wildflowers. To the south lay the harbor. She turned and headed in that direction.

     Clusters of old cellar holes dotted the island, most of them on the high ground above the harbor. The path disappeared as she scrambled over a ledge of granite and reappeared on the other side. A small building stood in the shelter of the next outcropping of rock, the boards long since stripped of any paint they might once have had. A sign hung on the door. Dani climbed the two stairs and read:

     Welcome to the Damariscove Museum. Please, come in.

     Doing just that, she chuckled. This had to be smallest museum in history. Someone had carefully arranged an assortment of artifacts on a waist-high shelf along two walls with handwritten explanations beside each one. She made her way along the exhibit. There was a brass button the unknown curator claimed had once belonged to a British soldier. Hand-blown glass fishing floats. The head of a farmer’s pick, its wooden handle long since rotted away. A few Indian arrowheads. Pieces of a handgun that dated from the 1700s. Another shelf held a collection of shells and colored sea-glass.

     Suddenly an eerie feeling curled its way down her spine and made the hair on her neck stand up. Dani hurried out of the small space that now felt slightly claustrophobic.

     Back out in the sunshine, the feeling left her.

     That was weird!

     If that headless man and his dog were to appear right about now, she might believe in ghosts after all. But the island appeared just as deserted as before.

     She climbed the rest of the way to the ridge where the path reappeared again and wound away from the harbor and up toward a meadow filled with lupine. A vast stretch of purples, pinks, and blues. A field of lupine in bloom was one of the prettiest signs of the coming summer in Maine.

     To Dani’s right, the outline of a foundation stretched away in two directions. It was larger than most. Maybe it had once been a barn. She stepped up onto the large square of granite that made up the cornerstone and gazed back down at the brilliant-blue stretch of water that was Damariscove Harbor. 

     Another shiver ran down Dani’s spine. The hair on the nape of her neck prickled. She glanced toward the little museum in case there was unexpected company, but the path was just as abandoned as the foundation she was standing on. No one is on this island . . . unless ghosts really do exist?

      “Idiot,” she chided herself. “Ghosts aren’t real.” But her skin still tingled, and the uneasy chill lingered in spite of the warm sunshine.

      Dani hugged her arms across her chest and checked the skyline above the invisible stony curve of beach where she’d left her boat. The top of the aluminum mast thrust skyward above the wild tangle of beach roses with its jaunty red windsock snapping in the stiffening breeze. 

     Maybe I shouldn’t have sailed out here alone.

     Except it had been solitude she’d been seeking. Even though the phone calls urging her to accept the teaching position had ceased and Clayton’s proposal forever forestalled, she’d still needed time by herself to think about what she did want before taking a plunge that would change her life forever.

     She slid down to sit on the massive old corner-stone, dangling her legs over the edge. Clayton had been a comfortable companion and an okay lover, but she hadn’t been in love with him. Getting married was supposed to be exciting, and her gut had been telling her Clayton was not the one. The immense feeling of relief that filled her once she’d told him the truth proved it.

     She loved history and teaching, but accepting the job Clayton had engineered for her had seemed just another tie to him. Maybe she’d just been refusing to admit she was a grownup, but a few months away exploring new places would give her the space to do it.

     Maybe next she’d try snorkeling over the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Although a visit to Thailand to see the temples and ruins that Theresa thought were exotic would be cool to see. And she’d love seeing the place where so much history had happened. Then again, she could go to Stonehenge. Or maybe even the battlefield at Culloden, the battle that had precipitated the emigration of so many Scots to the colonies. Scots like the captain she’d been reading about.

     She studied the landscape again, imagining this tiny scrap of land off the coast of Maine as it might have been more than two hundred years ago. When Patriot sea captains had swaggered down to the harbor to set out in their swift little sloops to harass the British Navy, and fishermen had salted their catches of cod along the shell-lined beach while Native Americans glided in and out of this harbor in their canoes trading furs for guns.

     What might the village have looked like, huddled around the edge of the harbor? Some of the buildings that existed in Boston were that old, but the city had grown up around them, dwarfing them in importance. Here, the buildings had crumbled away to nothing, leaving only the abandoned cellar holes to show they’d ever existed at all.

     If those old cellars could talk, what stories might they tell? The one she was sitting atop was bigger than most. A wide set of granite steps to her right must have led up to the main floor. Perhaps it had been a meeting hall? Or a big barn?

     Abruptly and inexplicably chilled with her hair standing on end, Dani snatched her backpack off the ground and pushed herself to her feet. The lichen-covered chunk of old granite wobbled, then toppled into the hole. She yelped in surprise and tried to scramble back away from the abyss, but her foot slipped.

     Tumbling downward in a rattling shower of stones and dirt, she landed, gasping for breath, in a shocked heap just inches from the gaping cavern beneath the old stairs. Her backpack thudded down on top of her. 

     Then the world went black.

***

     Iain MacKail strode into the ink-dark alley behind his warehouse with an unaccustomed curse on his lips and a hefty belaying pin clutched in his left hand.

     “Ye willna get away with it this time, ye bludy spy!”

     Set deep into the thick fieldstone foundation, a stout oak door rattled insistently against the iron bolt that held it shut. Iain tightened his grip on the belaying pin, gritted his teeth, and reached out to release the door.

     A dark figure exploded through the doorway and hurtled headlong into the alley with a gasp. Iain grabbed the intruder by the collar and thrust him against the wall.

     Shocked by his captive’s diminutive size, Iain just barely managed to abort the blow meant to stun a much larger adversary. The scamp wriggling frantically within Iain’s grip couldn’t have been more than twelve. Thirteen at most. Maybe he’d been mistaken. Maybe this was just a matter of thievery and not another of the damnable prying turncoats spying for Malcolm.

     “Put me down, you bastard!” The lad clawed ineffectually at the shirt collar pulled tight around his throat by Iain’s iron grip.

     In spite of the furious stream of vulgarity, Iain heard fear in the breathless young voice. He lowered the lad to the ground with a mixture of suspicion and annoyance. What, in heaven’s name, was he to do with this unexpected interruption? With a hold full of contraband destined for Boston, he couldn’t take chances on being caught. The citizens of Boston were in desperate need, else he wouldn’t have gotten involved in the first place. But he was involved. And if this scamp was a spy, he was in trouble.

     Curst chance! He needed to be aboard his ship in the next half hour, preparing to weigh anchor when the tide turned. What he didn’t need was a youthful, would-be thief to cope with, even if the intruder was not working for the British customs agent. Iain touched his breast pocket, reassuring himself that the incriminating list of goods and donors he’d shoved into it hadn’t fallen out in his rush to catch the spy. His irritation grew.

     He kept his tone deceptively mild and asked, “Have ye naught to say for yerself besides blaspheming?”

     “I . . . I don’t have to say anything. I haven’t done anything wrong. And you’re hurting me.” The lad wriggled in another attempt to free himself.      “God damn you.”

     “Aye, I expect He already has.” Iain pursed his lips ruefully.

     “Let go of me!” The lad squirmed harder.

     “If I do, will ye promise ye willna be scarpering off?”

     The lad stuttered out something that could have been a denial. Iain dropped his hand and thrust the belaying pin into the waistband of his breeches. “Come along, then. Ye have some explaining to do.” He gave the lad a shove toward the mouth of the alley.

     “Why should I go anywhere with you?” The youthful voice held a mutinous challenge.

     “Because I didna give ye a choice.”

     Iain prodded his reluctant prisoner up the wide granite steps and through the door. He pointed to an armless, straight-backed chair. After a brief hesitation, the lad dropped into it.

     Clad in a hunting shirt several times too large for him and a pair of oddly fashioned breeches, the lad returned Iain’s probing gaze and shivered. His emerald-green eyes seemed too big for the delicate, fine-boned face, and at the moment, they held an unsettling blend of outrage, bewilderment, and fear. Iain was torn.

     Wishing he could stay out of the volatile political wrangling going on in places like Boston and Virginia, Iain had been faced with a difficult choice. He felt no loyalty to a king whose father and uncle had visited devastating ruin on the land of his birth and filled his childhood with grief. But neither could he foresee any happy outcome in defying so powerful a monarchy again in spite of the persuasive arguments of men like Samuel Adams and John Hancock.

     Iain had abandoned Scotland for the colonies looking for a better life. And he’d prospered. The new world was filled with opportunities for men who were willing to work for them.

     But now history seemed to be repeating itself. Just like the Scots after their defeat at Culloden, the citizens of Boston were being crushed by a vengeful Parliament, and Iain was forced to take sides. Forced to wonder if innocent-seeming young boys were being paid to spy on men like himself who were just trying to help their beleaguered neighbors.

     “Now then,” Iain began, carefully curbing the impatience he felt, “suppose ye begin by telling me who you are.”

Hop on over to check out other adventures, travel and vacation stories by these other fine authors:
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Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/
Marie Laval http://marielaval.blogspot.co.uk/
Victoria Chatham http://www.victoriachatham.com
Judith Copek http://lynx-sis.blogspot.com/
Anne Stenhouse  http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com/
Helena Fairfax http://www.helenafairfax.com/blog
A.J. Maguire  http://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/
Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
Dr. Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-1GK
Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/
Rhobin L Courtright http://www.rhobincourtright.com

July’s Round Robin Blog asks the question: What book (or type of book) are you currently working on? Do you have ideas for future books?

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All of life is an adventure – at least that’s my motto – and my writing is more of the same. While conventional wisdom is to stick with your genre because you don’t want to disappoint your readers, I am always up and eager for a new challenge. So, while I’ve been published in Mainstream, Time Travel, and Romance (both contemporary and historical) I was eager for something different and decided to try writing a mystery. WOW! What a whole new learning curve this has been.

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When I decided my protagonist would be a deputy detective with a local sheriff’s department, I applied for a ride-along with a deputy from St. John’s County. It was a fascinating experience that just touched the tip of the iceberg. So my next move was to register for the Citizen’s Law Enforcement Academy. I learned so much about law enforcement, the men and women who put their lives on the line to protect us and the assets my county has at its disposal. I also came back with tons of great ideas for future books and a whole new appreciation for these men and women. Let’s face it, they never see even the best of us on our best days, but rather the best of us on our worst days and the worst of us on far too many of their days. And yet, they maintain their patient professionalism in the face of controversy, antipathy, outright aggression, stupidity, stubbornness and the most appalling circumstances. Made me glad I’d chosen this new writing challenge because of the glimpse my research gave me into the lives and work of these wonderful people.

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So, back to my current project. Jessalyn “Jesse” Quinn grew up admiring her dad who was an officer killed in the line of duty when she was twelve. But she didn’t pursue a career in law enforcement as she would have liked. Instead, she followed her mother’s urging, married and had a family. It wasn’t until she found her husband of 12 years had been cheating on her pretty much the entire time they’d been together and realized living the life someone else ordained for her had not brought happiness, success, or any sense she was making a difference in the world that she signed up for the police academy and became a detective.

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When we first meet her, she has been on the force long enough to achieve detective status and has been sent to investigate the murder of a wife of an old friend, a man she had a brief relationship with after her marriage fell apart. Torn by old loyalties and guilt and the conviction that this man did not kill his wife, she is pitted against an angry father ready to hang his dead daughter’s husband, political pressures mounting as election day rolls around and the sheriff’s major supporter is that woman’s angry father, and a conspiracy that appears to go back at least six years.

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When a second murder adds to the tangled web of deceit and hidden agendas, Jesse and her partner Jake get little sleep as they race to solve the murder before more bodies pile up.

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But Jesse is also a mom with a teen-age son who wholeheartedly supports his mother’s new career, a thirteen going on twenty-one year old daughter who thinks her dad’s new much younger girlfriend is way cooler than Jesse, and her own mother thinks nothing her daughter does is ladylike or acceptable. And, because love makes the world go around, I’ve created Seth Cameron (related to the Camerons of Tide’s Way for my readers who love that family already.) Seth started out as a tutor for Jesse’s son when his anger over the changes in his life threatened to keep him back a year in school, but he took a shine to Jesse and is doing his best to convince her they might have something good going, if she could learn to trust again.

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I am hoping Bullseye will just be the first in a series, but learning to write a mystery is a very different adventure. I am what the writing world calls a “pantser.” I create great characters, put them in jeopardy and let them take me with them as they find their way out. But a mystery poses a problem with this method. I need to know “who dun it” before I begin. I still balk at outlining and plotting, but with the advice of a friend have learned to jot down thoughts, ideas and possibilities for the next chapter or three and then write – jot more notes and write again. And so far, it’s working. Look for Bullseye in December.

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Stop on over to see what these other great authors are working on:

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Marci Baun  
Dr. Bob Rich 
Beverley Bateman 
Connie Vines 
Helena Fairfax 
A.J. Maguire  
Victoria Chatham 
Judith Copek 
Fiona McGier 
Rhobin L Courtright 

Our June Round Robin topic: Has an event in your life, or one of someone you know, or one covered in 
the news, ever worked its way into one of your stories?

The answer to this is yes to all three: events in my life, those of friends and family and things in the news. Every story needs to have a setting and often what’s going on in the news helps readers to relate since they experienced those events as well, or watched them unfold on the news. As writer's we're told to , “Write What You Know,” so of course my personal experiences find their way into my writing as well.  

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When one uses the events in others’ lives, it’s often not enough to “Change the names to protect the innocent” because if those events are people you know personally, you could hurt them by including them with little change if they recognize themselves, so we use the event, but bend many of the details. If it’s someone in the news, adhering too closely to exact details could get you sued for libel, unless it happens to be flattering and the person is eager for the notoriety. But even with details morphed to hide the origins, using real life events is what makes your novels come alive, because others have been there and your readers can relate.

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When you use an event in the news, a big event that everyone was at least tangentially touched by, you reach emotions and reactions in a way totally made up events cannot. If your story took place on November twenty second in 1963 anyone over forty will immediately be sucked back to the emotions they felt on hearing of the assassination of President Kennedy. They will remember vividly the gut-wrenching disbelief and the way the world seemed to stop all around them. Include the horror of 9/11 and the twin towers falling in New York city and everyone over twenty-five feels that punch in the gut just as strongly as they did watching the replays over and over on television, and growing anger as the days stretched out looking for survivors. Before my time, I can only imagine what my parents felt hearing that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor, or the jubilation on the day victory was ours, but most of us have studied enough history to understand them. We’ve seen photos of the Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima and the sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square and we can almost “feel” the determination of those men planting the flag or jubilation of a nation on the day of victory. Those are extreme events, but when they appear in a story, people feel sucked in emotionally, so it stands to reason that when you use real events for the basis of a plot line and you or someone you know personally experienced it, you have a good idea of the emotions that left the most lasting, meaningful memories for you that will affect your readers just as strongly.

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Personal events and experiences used to create a world your reader can get lost in don’t have to be big ones either. Who hasn’t experienced the cool, distainful stare of a cat, or the eager affection of a dog? Or how about the frustration of choosing the wrong line in the grocery store, having a flight delayed, missing your train/bus, being reprimanded by a teacher you adored, or the feeling of warm rain on your face or the romance of a full moon? I’ve used all those in my stories because I know exactly how they felt, and most of humanity does too so they can relate personally to your characters. I’ve also used the experience of giving birth to a baby, and the sublime joy of falling in love, the wrench of saying goodbye to my child when I took her off to college knowing my life as a mom was forever changed, and the pain of burying my husband.

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In my book THE CANDIDATE I used some of the experiences and memories that my brother shared with me of his year in Vietnam, being wounded, being surrounded and shot at by the enemy, holding a friend in his arms as the man drew his last breath. I didn’t experience any of that personally, but my brother’s willingness to share with me, and the tears he shed, made the story of Matt Steele come alive in ways it never would have without those real-life experiences. In WORRY STONE, I used my brother’s experiences on coming home, thankful to be on US soil only to discover his fellow citizens hated everything he stood for as a soldier. The downward spiral Nathan Cameron fought against was informed partly because of the experiences of any soldier who has experienced war and come home to try to fit themselves back into civilian life, but more specifically, by the personal experiences my brother Scotty lived through.

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In my book IAIN’S PLAID, I used both personal and historic events. I didn't actually fall into an abandoned foundation or hit my head and wake up in another century, but I did sail out to explore a real island were some of that history took place and where my book began. Then I used the backdrop of the British retreat to Boston in 1775 after the first shots of the Revolutionary War happened in Concord and Lexington for one my scenes. Most readers today will not have read much about that event though they may remember “the shot heard round the world.” Having read several first-person accounts of that retreat; both the British just trying to get back to the city unmolested and the colonists doing everything to harass them along the way, I was able to create a very real experience for my imaginary characters.

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I have not used some of the more devastating events of my life in my stories . . . yet. But, I know what it feels like to go through a divorce. I know what it’s like to lose a spouse to cancer. I know how awful it is to watch a parent lose themselves to the ravages of Alzheimer’s. And I know the devastation of losing a grandchild and the heartbreak of not being able to fix this awful loss for your own child. When one experiences things that suck the deepest emotions to the surface where you can’t hide from them, they stay with you forever and should any of your imaginary characters have a similar experience, you can pour all that emotion into the writing and your reader will feel it, too. So, yes, I do use real experiences in my writing – it’s how I make my characters real for my readers.

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Why not hop over to these other bloggers and see how and why they’ve used real events in their imaginary stories:

Victoria Chatham 
Judith Copek 
Dr. Bob Rich 
Beverley Bateman 
Margaret Fieland 
Anne Stenhouse  
A.J. Maguire  
                                    Diane Bator 
                                    Fiona McGier 
                                    Rhobin L Courtright 

                                    Connie Vines 

May's Round Robin Blog Hop topic is: What would you like to your readers to know about 
your novels and their purpose? This is a tough question to answer because it’s usually me wanting to know what my readers think about my novels? But that wasn’t the question so…

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I have always loved to read. Not so much the first-grade readers “Fun with Dick and Jane that I learned to read with. It’s a wonder I stuck to it. Really. “See Dick. See Dick Run.” I am so grateful for hundreds of talented children’s authors since who’ve given my children and grandchildren age appropriate books that excite and inspire them to want to read. Authors like Dr. Seuss, E. B. White or Judy Bloom, and books like the Wonky Donkey by Craig Smith or The Angry Dragon by Michael Gordon. Reading should be an adventure anyone can take without ever leaving home and it doesn’t matter if you’re five with a limited vocabulary or 85 and housebound, or anywhere in between.

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So, the purpose of my books, I suppose is to transport my readers to another place for a short while. And to meet new people doing things they might not have ever experienced themselves. I have one historical Iain’s Plaid  that can take a reader back to the anxious months leading up to the shot heard round the world and the beginning of our country. For a few heart-stopping minutes, they can experience the patriots harassing the British soldiers retreating to Boston after the opening shots in Concord and Lexington. In my fictional characters, they find examples of the men and women who peopled that era so different from ours and have a glimpse into life in a different age.

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Sometimes a book will take you to a far-away place, or a very different culture. So far none of my books have done so, but I spent two years in the South Pacific in the Peace Corps and folk have suggested I need to write about that experience. And just maybe I will. For now, if you want a peek at that chapter in my life, visit my webpage featuring essays that were published in my hometown newspaper while I was away.  https://www.skye-writer.com/peace_corps

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My contemporary romance series is set in a fictional coastal town in North Carolina. Lots of reasons to write that series. One was the desire to write a love story and in creating the Cameron family, there were four brothers and a sister, and of course their parents. Another thing that is important to me is respect and appreciation for the sacrifices our men and women in the military make every day so it turns out that two of the heroes and one heroine in that series are veterans or active duty military. I spent a lot of time talking to veterans to understand what their lives, relationships, service and struggles were and I hope that my characters have done them justice and just maybe give my readers a better appreciation. Our law enforcement and first responders deserve our respect as well so I’ve included two police officers and a fireman as main characters in that series.

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Currently I’m working on a new series featuring a female deputy detective set in St Augustine. I’m hoping I will lead my readers on a merry chase to figure out who dun it, and while they’re there, they get to see bits of St Augustine, even if they’ve never been to the oldest European city in the US.

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That’s what I’d like my readers to know about my novels. What I hope to achieve is to give them a satisfying read. Whether they choose to sit in a rocker on a porch, curled up by a fire, waiting for a train, sitting on a beach, or tucked up in bed, I hope they have a good time, fall in love with my characters and wish there was more when they get to the last page. I love writing. Stories come to me from everywhere and I can’t imagine NOT writing. When I get to the end of my life (which I hope is very long) there’ll likely still be a story in progress.

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Check out the rest of our Round Robin authors and see why they write what they do and what they’d like you to know about their books.

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Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/
Victoria Chatham http://www.victoriachatham.com
Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
A.J. Maguire  http://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/
Fiona McGier http://www.fionamcgier.com/
Dr. Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-1BC
Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/
Rhobin Courtright http://www.rhobincourtright.com
 

Our April Round Robin Topic: Does the season ever play a part in your setting? How do you think seasons affect setting & plot either physically or metaphorically?

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Setting is important in any story, whether fiction or non-fiction. Any author wants the reader to “feel” like they are in this place. If it’s a series set in the same place the reader gets to know it and feel comfortable there. So, if setting is so integral to our stories that they are as important as the characters, then it is just as important to include the seasons that will impact the plot and that setting both physically and metaphorically.

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A metaphor is one word used to replace another. Seasons often do the same thing. Spring seems to suggest new beginnings, new growth, things coming back to life, whether it’s someone who’s mentally been in a bad place and is finally finding signs of hope – new beginnings, or just our climate emerging from winter with flowers blooming and trees leafing out in new robes of green. Although human babies are born year round, many animals give birth in the spring so their offspring have the warmth and fullness of summer to mature and be ready for the chill of fall and winter. Fall is often compared to humans who’ve passed through the height of their life, not yet ready for winter and death, and maybe still robed in brilliance, but definitely not new or green. Summer is all about the fullness of life in general, from corn growing fat in the fields, to apples fleshing out on trees, with long days and lingering, warm evenings. And Winter is the death of all that glory. Bears and bees hibernate (although some species die and the old queen dies.) Birds fly south every fall, seeking a warmer climate to spend the winter. Deciduous trees shed their leaves and create a lacy lattice work of branches against the chilly winter blue sky. And somewhere in the winter of our lives, humans end their lives, either willingly, having lived a good, long life, or kicking and fighting for just one more day. Obviously humans die during all the seasons, not just from accidents and injury but of old age as well, but the metaphor of the winter of life remains.

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Physically, the effects of the seasons can make a big difference for your setting and can add any number of things to your plot. Perhaps you have set the stage for a story taking place where hurricanes can be expected each year. Your protagonist is busy, not only going about their regular life activities, but they are also dealing with whatever story crisis you’ve given them and now then the weathermen are talking about a hurricane coming. Hurricanes even have names and it can be days before they finally arrive. The possible dangers hang over everyone and the atmosphere is tense. Warnings about having drinking water and food and the possibility of power outages grow ever more urgent as the hurricane approaches. They might be talking about mandatory evacuations and now your protagonist even has to take time to consider where they will go, and maybe what do to with their pets. Whatever else was already going on and demanding their attention is now in competition from the impending storm. Blizzards have a similar if less lengthy time frame. But blizzards and hurricanes are part of the climate and the season and can add tension to your story, ramping up the urgency for your characters.

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Summer, as a season, seems to give birth to renewal stories. Even in families and lives with no real stress, summer is a time for vacations, getting away from our normal lives and putting one’s feet up to relax. It’s a popular setting for renewals of relationships as well. Just think how many books out there feature families that have been estranged or stressed who get away to places like Martha’s Vineyard or anywhere on a beach where it’s warm and away from the hustle of daily life where people have time and the space to rebuild the bonds that have been stretched and possibly even broken.

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The Hallmark channel has built an entire following on the theme of Christmas, as a season – as opposed to a religious holiday. It is a season with traditions we can all relate to, so it helps the watcher to feel at home in that setting. Fall and Halloween bring an entirely different vibe to some stories, as does Easter with the theme of new beginnings and redemption. So, seasons can either add to the tension already building for the characters in our stories, or they can be a well understood setting that invites the reader to come right on in with their mind already in the spirit of the season, so to speak.

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I recently read a book by A.E. Howe set in the Florida panhandle. His hero, Larry Macklin, a sheriff’s deputy, is desperately working to track down a killer when a hurricane moves in from the gulf. There is a killer on the loose, but Macklin is forced to put that aside to become involved in emergency management. The season that brings hurricanes plays a crucial role in the plotting of that story and its outcome.  

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But even when seasons aren’t used to add tension, I think any story that ignores the season and the climate leaves the reader with a very flat and uninteresting setting. Both seasonal weather and seasonal holidays pull a reader into the story, let them become a part of the action because we can all relate. We can relax in the heat and laid back atmosphere of summer, we can shiver our way through a bitter winter with our heroes and heroines, be on the edge our seats in fire season in California, worrying about every spark that might set off disaster. Readers can celebrate familiar holidays with your characters as they set aside the normal.

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In the first book of my series, Falling For Zoe, my hero Jake’s backstory includes a young woman giving birth way before her time and him holding an infant too tiny to survive in his hands for just a few moments. Imagine how scared and unprepared Jake feels when the woman he loves goes into labor early with a hurricane raging, cut off and unable to even call for help due to downed lines and trees. Without that seasonal hazard there would have been far less stress, and my hero wouldn’t have had to dig deep inside himself for the courage to face his demons and do what had to be done.

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Take a moment and think of your favorite book(s) and ask yourself, ‘How did that author use seasons to enhance their story?’ And ‘Would it have changed the story had the season not been included in the plot?’ Then ask yourself, what would the inclusion of seasons do to enhance my own work in progress? How can I use seasons to add tension or color, or ambiance that nothing else can provide? And while you’re at it, pop on over to these other sites and see how these authors use seasons in their writing.

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Victoria Chatham 
Diane Bator 
Judith Copek 
Beverley Bateman 
Connie Vines 
Helena Fairfax 
Rhobin L Courtright 

Dr. Bob Rich

 

One death. Two detectives. And unexpected backup.
A Callie Morgan and Carolina Slade crossover, standalone mystery!

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When a renowned—and now dead—travel blogger washes ashore on the banks of Indigo Plantation, Edisto Beach Police Chief Callie Morgan agrees to head the investigation as a favor to the county sheriff, whose reasons are as questionable as the death itself. When death turns to murder and a watchdog from the county makes her investigation difficult, Callie reluctantly turns to Carolina Slade and Wayne Largo, vacationing agents with the Department of Agriculture.

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Because poison is growing on this plantation and someone knows how to use it well.

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Murder, corruption, and page-turning intrigue are usually the elements that shine the brightest in mysteries like Hope Clark’s latest Dying on Edisto. But it’s the characters that bring a vivid literary element to Clark’s prose and create a strong emotional response to their tangled lives. The scenic town of Edisto Beach is peopled with a modern-day pirate claiming to be a descendent of Blackbeard, a degenerate travel blogger, a yoga teacher who drives a baby blue vintage Benz convertible, a mixed race waitress and her matriarchal grandmother, and a whole slew of wealthy and crooked good ole boys. Leading the cast are two strong female protagonists—a police chief and an investigator with the Department of Agriculture. Did someone say hemlock? —Susan Cushman, author of Cherry Bomb and editor of Southern Writers on Writing

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Here at Blogging by the Sea we are big fans of the Edisto series and the Carolina Slade mysteries, so we are excited to have both Chief Callie Morgan from Edisto Island and Carolina Slade with us today. One lady has a badge and the other doesn’t but somehow they both manage to find themselves up to their shoulders in mystery and dead bodies- always when they least expect it. If you’ve enjoyed their escapades join me in welcoming them.

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SKYE: Chief Morgan, I understand you grew up in South Carolina and spent much of your time on Edisto in the beach house you now call home. How did you end up working as a cop on the Boston PD in New England?

CALLIE: Youthful defiance maybe? My father was a politician, my mother a social gadfly in a town where everyone knew my family’s business. I wanted none of that life. But I guess public service was in my blood, because I earned a Criminal Justice degree from the University of South Carolina. That’s where I met my husband John Morgan, and I followed him back to his hometown of Boston, where nobody would know my name. He was a US Marshall. I worked for Boston PD, ultimately becoming a detective.

SKYE: Do you miss the hustle and pace of both life and work in a city like Boston? By contrast Edisto must seem pretty laid back and quiet.

CALLIE: In some ways I do. Places to eat, lots of interesting people, the Red Sox (though Boston doesn’t do football like the South, that’s for sure), but I don’t miss the crime rate. At the time I lived there, I enjoyed the busy-ness of it all, and my job kept me hopping overtime most days. But the seedy underside of that city killed my husband, which soured my desire to remain there. Everything I liked is now tainted. Long story, but I was a mess when I left there with a teenager in tow. My father forced me to Edisto in his subtle way, telling me to get my head on straight. He knew what he was doing. That sand and water are a part of me now. Do I use all my training? No. But I do catch things earlier than the force used to, because of my past in Boston. Guess I have the best of both worlds in me now.

SKYE: Ms. Slade, until recently I think the two of you had not met. Certainly, your line of work would not normally cross paths with the police chief on Edisto Island. How did you get involved in the work you do? And how is it, you seem to trip over mysteries no one else ever suspects?

SLADE: My grandparents operated a cotton farm in Mississippi, and I loved visiting them each summer. Later I gravitated to Clemson (Go Tigers! National Championship 2001, 2016, and 2018!) and got a degree in agriculture. Of course, that meant USDA employment. But it wasn’t until a farmer offered me a bribe did I get a taste of investigations. Like Callie, I have a long story, but mine was about solving an investigation without losing my job, my life, heck, even my kids got kidnapped. When I nailed that case I was hooked, and Agriculture created a job for me to investigate all the time. Bummer! LOL Trip over mysteries, you say? LOL again. Guess you could call it that. After my indoctrination into the world of federal agents and the criminal element, I don’t trust so easily anymore. I see things, maybe ponder stuff deeper. Hell, I don’t know. My partner Wayne is a federal agent, and he can’t put a finger on it either. (Callie laughing.) I come out okay in the end, which I hope is a long-time habit. The alternative might be a little scary, so guess I like to think I’ll always win. Makes me misstep at times, but I land on my feet because I give myself no other option. 

SKYE: Ms. Slade, I’m curious – I never thought much about the Department of Agriculture or what it does, but I’d never have guessed it would present that kind of danger.  The kind that would get your kids kidnapped. You must have been terrified, never mind what they went through. I hope they’ve adjusted and are doing okay now. But tell me, what kinds of things do you investigate?

SLADE: If I had a dime for every time somebody said that about Ag. Listen. Agriculture at the federal level doles out a ton of bucks. As much as VA. More than Education and Transportation. Wherever there’s money, there’s crime, and if you don’t understand the rural community, you don’t know how to spot the scams. I can spot things my agent friend Wayne never thought of. Farmers faking what they bought with loans. Taking government subsidies and using them for personal use. . . cars, vacation, or if you want to really get funky with it, drugs, bootleg items, firearms, and equity scams. Money’s money, honey, and it attracts such wicked people.

SKYE: As I mentioned earlier, your worlds are very different: Different place, different job. How did you two ladies meet?

CALLIE: Oh Lord, that’s a story.

SLADE: (Arms up to the side, shrugging.) Hey, I just went on vacation with Wayne. Just happened that we chose Edisto Island. I grew up an hour away, and used to go to that beach as a kid.

CALLIE: You just gave away that Wayne’s more than your partner, silly. She does that, you know. Talks and talks until she slips up. We met during a murder case. We had a new B&B on the island, and Miss Priss here came down to learn how to weave baskets. (Laughing.)

SLADE: Laugh all you want. I found the body.

CALLIE: You didn’t find anything. You stumbled, then stumbled again. Destroyed that crime scene to smithereens.

SLADE: We solved the case, didn’t we?

CALLIE: (Smiling at her friend.) That we did. 

SKYE: Is there anything either of you ladies would like your fans to know about your newest adventure?

SLADE: Well, it turned into the weirdest vacation I ever had. I decided I don’t want to live within ten miles of salt water and will never go in a boat again.

CALLIE: And I learned there’s stuff that’ll kill you in the woods, thanks to this lady who gets off on all things green. An agriculture investigator. Who’d have thought? I mean, what kind of law is broken with farmers? 

SLADE: Way more than you know, girl. The country isn’t just populated with dumb farmers in straw hats like everyone thinks. So I earned some respect, huh? Me and my plant knowledge?

CALLIE: You did, Slade. Opened my eyes big time.

SLADE: And I wondered what the hell (excuse my French) the beach police does more than stop golf carts and deal with drunks. Guess there are some skills there, too. 

CALLIE: (Smiling.)

SKYE: Are there things going on in your lives that never gets mentioned in any of the stories that you’d like to share?

SLADE: What else is there? My world is an open book. Just ask anyone who knows me.

CALLIE: And my life is on a need to know basis. What you don’t learn in the stories doesn’t need to be said.

SLADE: (Watching Callie introspectively.) I still need to get you to loosen up some more, girl. 

SKYE: I want to thank you both for taking time out of your busy lives to talk to us today. We can all hope that you both have a peaceful summer without any dead bodies showing up or farmers getting up to mischief. But I have to admit that I am looking forward to your next adventure, whatever it might be, or wherever it might take you. Thank you Callie and Slade for joining us today.

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If my readers enjoyed this interview, be sure to look up the books you haven’t read and get caught up. Dying on Edisto features both Ms Carolina Slade and Chief Callie Morgan and is available at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Goodreads

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C. Hope Clark’s latest release is Dying on Edisto, Book 5 of the Edisto Island Mysteries. She has also authored the award-winning Carolina Slade mystery series and is working on another. She founded FundsforWriters.com, selected by Writer’s Digest for its 101 Best Websites for Writers for 18 years. Her newsletter reaches 35,000 readers. www.fundsforwriters.com / www.chopeclark.com / http://chopeclark.com/edisto-island/

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Reviews for Dying on Edisto:

Having read and very much enjoyed both the Carolina Slade and Edisto series, I was eager to see where Ms. Clark would go when these two very different ladies met and I was not disappointed. Her use of point of view to see Callie Jean Morgan through the eyes of Carolina Slade and vice versa added spice to the story as we got to see both women in very different ways than we had before in their individual series. The story itself was well plotted and full of twists and turns with an ending I never saw coming. It was also fun to see Wayne, Slade’s “Lawman” as people other than Slade see him. He’s such an interesting character and we got to see more of his personality, and charm in Dying on Edisto. Every pivotal character in this story was so well drawn and interesting I felt like I was on the case with Callie and Slade and I didn’t want to put the book down. Snap this book up as soon as it is out and you won’t be disappointed. Skye Taylor, Author of the Camerons of Tide's Way series.

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Murder, corruption, and page-turning intrigue are usually the elements that shine the brightest in mysteries like Hope Clark’s latest Dying on Edisto. But it’s the characters that bring a vivid literary element to Clark’s prose and create a strong emotional response to their tangled lives. The scenic town of Edisto Beach is peopled with a modern-day pirate claiming to be a descendent of Blackbeard, a degenerate travel blogger, a yoga teacher who drives a baby blue vintage Benz convertible, a mixed race waitress and her matriarchal grandmother, and a whole slew of wealthy and crooked good ole boys. Leading the cast are two strong female protagonists—a police chief and an investigator with the Department of Agriculture. Did someone say hemlock? —Susan Cushman, author of Cherry Bomb and editor of Southern Writers on Writing

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"In a plot as complicated as the numerous waterways that create Edisto Island in South Carolina, C. Hope Clark has combined the characters from her two series to solve the murder of a renowned travel blogger. They mystery requires all of their detective skills and blends the two mystery worlds in a page-turning standalone. The story opens with a floater and progresses with edge-of-your-seat action. Prepare to be absorbed by Clark's crisp writing and compelling storytelling. This is one you don't want to miss!"--- Carolyn Haines is the USA Today bestselling author of three mystery series. She is the author of over 80 books and has received numerous writing awards.

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Hope Clark converges her sleuths, Carolina and Callie Jean, on Edisto Island for the finale, Dying on Edisto, concluding her two murder mystery series. Slews of fans always awaited these highly addictive and superbly penned novels - grabbing you from the first page and not letting go until the last. A pristine, sleeper sea island, two determined masters of law who butt heads, a mystery corpse from Atlantic waters, a few idiosyncrasies along the way - the absolute best cast and plot for an intense coastal thriller. ~Karen Carter, Owner, Edisto Bookstore

Our March Round Robin Blog asks the questions -- How do you self-edit your books before submitting or publishing?

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Back when I first began writing, it was on yellow lined paper with a pencil. Editing was done with the eraser and often with lots of notes in the margin, so many notes the document became difficult to read. Thankfully since then computers have arrived on the scene and they make it so much easier to edit, however one goes about it.

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The other thing I did when I first began was to just write, and write, and write – NO editing at all. As another writer friend of mine often says, “The first draft is supposed to suck.” She’s a retired sailor, thus the colorful expression. As she and many other experienced authors will say, you can’t edit something that isn’t written and some folk, beginners especially, tend to second guess everything, get caught up in finding just the right word, or going back to fix something and end up stalling out with nothing ready to read. I’ve morphed from that beginning of writing everything that came into my head to a writer who tends to do some editing as I go, but save the big stuff for after the book is done. One of the reasons for this is I have a critique partner who reads each chapter as it is written and sends it back to me with comments and critique, and I usually fix those things before I dive into the next chapter. The other reason is that, even without a critique to consider, if I’ve been away from my characters and the action since I put the computer to sleep last night, or even longer, like several days, my mind and emotions have lost their immediate connection to the story. If I go back and read the last chapter I wrote, I can get my head back into the game a lot quicker, and there are always little things I notice and fix along the way.

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But the bigger fixes – like I need to research something for a name or a title or a process or whatever, I type in something relating to what I need, highlight it with bright yellow and move on. If I have doubts about whose point of view I should be in, or if some big section should move to another place, or something should happen here first that I haven’t written yet, I’ll hit all caps AND MAKE MYSELF A NOTE ABOUT WHAT NEEDS TO BE FIXED OR CHANGED then move on. Staying in the story is important when you write character driven stories and write by the seat of your pants. If you happen to be a serious plotter, perhaps it doesn’t matter so much if you stop and fix big issues, because you have only to look at your outline to know where you’re going next. I’m a pantser and if I have any outline, it is bare bones. I need to stay in the story and not get sidetracked with editing as I go.

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But now I’ve filled all those gaps, done all the research, figured out the POV and made the section consistent, and those ALL CAP places dealt with – NOW it’s time for my first major revision and edit. My personal method for this is to print the entire manuscript out, punch it and put it in a big binder. Then I go find a comfortable chair and settle in. I have post-its at hand, sometimes in more than one color and a pen. If it happens to be romance, I have blue and pink flags and I go through the first time marking each POV section with a blue flag for my hero and a pink one for my heroine. Then, just by glancing at the edges I can easily see if they are both well represented throughout. I have one book with five points of view so there were five colored flags. Then I read just those sections for one POV character, skipping over the others to see if that character is acting and thinking consistently and that I haven’t missed any important changes in their attitude. And finally I read the whole thing through as if I were a beta reader, leaving notes on post-its along the way or in the margins about possible problems. Once this is done, I put the printed book on a stand side by side with my computer monitor and open the manuscript. Page by page, I make whatever changes, edits, additions and deletions I’ve noted.

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Then the document goes to my dedicated beta readers who just read. No editing or critiquing, just reading. And when they are done, they tell me how it went. Maybe they felt they didn’t know a specific character well enough, or something another character did didn’t make sense. Now I review the things they mention and maybe I’ve skipped some backstory information I knew so well I forgot the reader didn’t and I have to find a way to weave it in. Or maybe they were right and whatever my character did was so OUT of character I need to revise his or her behavior. By the time I get to the end of this, it’s time to have a copy editor or my acquiring editor at my publisher put eyes on it. I can fix whatever they find later, but my eyes have been looking at it for so long I no longer see any problems even when they are staring me in the face.

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So, that’s my process. My advice to other authors who ask is to be open to honest critique. A second pair of eyes sees things you no longer see and might have ideas or thoughts that strengthen your story. It is your story so you are also free to ignore advice, but at least listen and give the thoughts a fair hearing before dismissing. And enjoy the ride, wherever it takes you.

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Check out these authors and see how they approach this must do task.

Diane Bator 
Beverley Bateman 
Connie Vines 
Anne Stenhouse  
A.J. Maguire  
Dr. Bob Rich  

Victoria Chatham 
Helena Fairfax 
Judith Copek 
Rhobin L Courtright 

Round Robin Blog Hop - February 2019 Love, sex, & relationships in books. What seems acceptable, is it now necessary, and what is going too far.

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Relationships, whether romantic, adversarial, work related, family or friendship are what life is all about, so in my opinion, any book that does not include them is as flat as if a steam roller ran them down. One of the reasons I enjoyed (before they became so repetitive) the books by W.E.B.Griffin was the diverse relationships he showcased. His earliest books were all about men at war, and then policework – mostly a man’s world, but his characters had wives and sweethearts, daughters and sisters so there were bits of romance tucked into the storie. He also included the whole gamut of interactions between officers and non-coms, civilians, politicians, bosses and subordinates. Some were supportive, some not so much. Some added significant tension to the stories themselves. As the series went on, the relationships developed and grew, and that’s why I loved his books.

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Once upon a time romances, in spite of being called bodice rippers with suggestive covers, never showed the actual act of lovemaking. As a young woman, I read and loved Georgette Heyer. Her characters were complex and compelling, and I devoured her stories, but I missed that culmination of the falling in love and making love. Today some books, especially those in the clean read/inspirational genre still stop at the bedroom door, but at the other end of the spectrum, there are books that are little more than a thinly plotted excuse to see how many ways one can describe inserting tab A into slot B. I read neither. I’m not a prude, by any stretch of the imagination, but reading two hundred or more pages with two people, panting and sweating and pawing at each other and little else is a waste of my time and money. Emotions, conflicts, life dreams, life’s wounds, and so much more make our characters come alive and add color to a story, making the outcome a compelling read. Letting the reader follow the couple who have fallen in love into the bedroom is like the icing on the cake. The cake was tasty on its own, but the icing added flavor and spice and lets the reader enjoy the entire experience of falling in love.

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In action adventure types of stories, love and sex often gets skipped entirely, but even there I think it adds authenticity to the characters themselves. As the saying goes, “no man is an island.” A man or woman who lives life on the edge, as a spy, or a tier one soldier, or a swat team member, firefighter, or law enforcement officer, is more than just the job. He or she is someone’s husband or wife or sweetheart. And including how those relationships impact his or her life and actions, thoughts, emotions and decisions makes him or her a far more compelling character. Do we need to go into the bedroom with them and see them in the act? No. Not necessarily. But maybe a hint of that passion is not a bad thing either. In a recent Tom Clancy book I listened to on Audio one of his main characters became emotionally and eventually sexually involved with another character while on an undercover mission. What began as a cover story became real for that man and woman and when the woman was killed it impacted the man. I just finished the next book in that series and the loss of that woman he cared about is now part of his psyche – part of who he is and it impacts his decision making, adding tension and realism that wouldn’t be there if this author had chosen not to show him coming to care for the woman and making love to her only to lose her.

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I love Jack Reacher stories, but even I have to admit there isn’t much about Jack that makes me care about him personally in most of the stories. Of course, I want him to triumph over the bad guys, but there’s very little character development to make me care about him. The Jack Reacher stories that stick with me, are the rare ones that show him in relationships: with Sgt Neagley (whose personal issues are more compelling than Reacher’s,) his father or brother. Too bad those stories are in the minority. And when Reacher has sex with a woman, it’s just about the sex, with no emotional involvement and I find that a waste of words. How much more compelling are Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch and W.E.B. Griffin’s Matt Payne, all of whom have issues with their bosses and love relationships that give them depth and make them captivating characters we not only care about while reading the book, but remember them long after we turn the last page.

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So, my conclusion as I’ve considered this question is that sex and love, are like the spice of life. Too much sugar and you have a Hallmark story that’s okay but not very memorable, or too much sex with no emotional context and it’s very close to porn and equally unmemorable. I want to have my characters find love whether they are involved in chasing bad guys or teaching kindergarten and I want to enjoy all the falling in love experience, including the sex. But a few drops of vanilla or a teaspoon of spice is all it takes to make a cookie scrumptious, not a whole cup. It’s the same with the books I read and the ones I write.

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How about these other authors? How do they approach sex and love in their books?

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Margaret Fieland 
Victoria Chatham 
Beverley Bateman 
A.J. Maguire  
Marci Baun  
Dr. Bob Rich 
Rhobin L Courtright 

Diane Bator 

This month's Round Robin Blog asks the question: How do you develop secondary characters? Do you have a favorite secondary character?   

     John Donne put it best – No man is an island, therefore, I do my best to develop my secondary characters with the same care and detail as I do my protagonist, hero or heroine. Let’s face it, without these foils our main characters wouldn’t be nearly as compelling. Secondary characters can add humor, color and diversity and they bring out the best or the worst in our main characters. We learn a lot about our main characters from the way they interact with those around them, in the dialog and the way they treat others. Unless your guy or gal is Jack Reacher, you need these secondary folk to give your main character a life and a world to live in.

     Consider Barnie Fife, Aunt Bea or Opie in Mayberry RFD. I don’t think we’ve ever seen where Fife lives, but the importance of his character is the contrast between him and Sheriff, Andy Taylor. Aunt Bea and Opie show an entirely different side of Andy Taylor, as a family-man and father. They all add humor and highlight the good qualities in Mayberry’s sheriff as well as helping to set the scene in small town America. Whoever wrote these characters put a lot of thought and care into creating them and that made the show successful in its original run and timeless re-runs. 

     In a more current television example, (I’m deliberately using examples from television because they are far more visible and more familiar than books of which there are millions.) take the police drama, Blue Bloods. The main character is the NYC Police Chief, Frank Reagan, played by Tom Selleck. What defines him on the job are his supporting staff, Det. Abigail Baker, Public Affairs man, Garrett Moore and Sid Gormley, “a cop’s cop” who advises him. We don’t’ know nearly as much about these three characters as we do Frank Reagan, but without them the character of Frank as a leader in charge of a massive police department with all the political trappings that involves would be seriously lacking. Then there is Frank Reagan’s family which defines him in so many other ways: as a father who has already lost a son on the job, a man with two more sons who are also cops and a daughter who is often an adversary in the district attorney’s office. If the characters of Erin, Jamie and Danny weren’t carefully drawn they would not have the impact they do, nor would Frank’s character be as diverse, sympathetic or compelling. All these secondary characters are critical in making this a highly successful character-driven drama set against the background of life as a New York City Police family.
     I don’t expect my secondary characters to ever achieve the notoriety of Danny Reagan or Barney Fife, but I want them to be just as compelling, as human, understandable, sympathetic and inspiring and I want them to help make my main characters larger than life, which means I need to be just as diligent in creating them as I am in creating the heroines, heroes and protagonists of my stories. I use the same goal/motivation/conflict chart for all my secondary characters that I use for my main characters because if they don’t have goals, I have no idea what drives them to be who they are. They all have backstories because that’s what informs the motivation for those goals and I need to know what their conflicts are, why they might be in sync with or in direct opposition to my main protagonist. Sometimes I need to give a secondary character habits or traits that conflict with my main character and the reasons can be anything from making the main character more believable, more driven or more sympathetic. Or maybe I just want the contrast to highlight them: for instance, being from another geographical area and trying to fit in to the current scene. Then I might use dialect, or habits well known from that area and easy to show the contrast. Sometimes it might be certain behaviors I want to showcase. If I want my main character to come across as cool, calm and capable no matter how dire the circumstances, it helps to have a secondary character who exhibits the opposite, as does Barney Fife with Andy Taylor. If my main character is serious and intense, I might give him or her a sidekick with a quirky sense of humor who takes life far less seriously. I also have a list of interview questions I ask all my characters and the answers sometimes surprise me, but answering them helps me to know who they are, where they’re going, what they want, what they’re afraid of and ultimately what they are doing in my story. That interview includes questions like: How well do you get along with your siblings and why? What’s the darkest secret you don’t want others to know about you? Has anyone ever broken your heart? Or just, what’s your favorite music, color, food? 

     Secondary characters sometimes morph as the story unfolds and the author realizes he or she needs to have a reason for their protagonist to act or think the way they do. Or maybe it’s not morphing so much as revealing more about them than originally known. But I’m open to this change. I have a mug filled with pens on my desk that states Writer’s Block is when my imaginary friends won’t talk to you. But if you listen as the story unfolds, they often tell you a whole lot more than you would guess. Sometimes they argue with you about who they are and what they want. Sometimes they refuse to bend to your will, and very often they propose surprising and very satisfying outcomes. But they only do this if you’ve taken the time to create them as three dimensional, feeling, thinking, characters with loves, desires, fears and hang-ups of their own. 

     Of course, I have my favorites. How could I not if I’ve created living, breathing characters that waken interest and sympathy, first in me, and then hopefully in my readers? My current work in progress is a mystery and my main character is a female deputy detective. To bring Jesse Quinn to life, I’ve created family, a partner, a boss and friends. Then I decided she needed a love interest, even though she doesn’t think she needs a man in her life. I am particularly fond of this man I created for her and I’m looking forward to finding out more about Seth as the series unfolds. In book 5 of my contemporary romance series, a surprise character walked on-stage about two thirds of the way through. I realized immediately I needed him in the story and right away he began to make his personality felt. Lucas Trevlyn nearly wrote himself, and as the book was completed, I felt this compelling need to write his story. One day I’m sure I will because he’s still there in my heart and mind even though I’ve moved on to book 6 and a whole new mystery series as well.

     Hop on over to find out what these other authors do to create memorable secondary characters and who their favorites might be:

Margaret Fieland 
Helena Fairfax 
Dr. Bob Rich 
Fiona McGier 
Beverley Bateman 
Connie Vines 
Judith Copek 
Rhobin L Courtright 

Victoria Chatham