Many of our chapter are spending this weekend at our summer retreat. We wish them high page counts and lots of fun!
For those of us (like me, who is turning into a big blob of pregnant wimp) who remain, check out Danita's post on hooks below, and I've also got a fun exercise for you:
What would your hero and heroine's dream vacations be? Feel free to give us details, and even dialogue as they argue about where to go!
6 comments:
Ooh. Fun question.
(And I'm still here too...so we can just chat amongst ourselves while the rest of the group is off playing...)
I tend to put my characters in exotic locals in my book to begin with, so their dream vacation would probably be pretty boring to the regular world seeing as how they've already experienced the extremes of "paradise". So in the current wip, I'm thinking my grumpy hero and at-wits-end heroine would probably like a nice secluded mountain cabin. Not in the winter because earlier in the book I dumped my hero in the middle of a blizzard in rural Pennsylvania and he's a Floridian (he was not happy about this, btw), so I'd say a summer mountain retreat. Maybe on a crytal blue lake in Wyoming somewhere with the Tetons towering above. Peace and quiet with no one to bother them.
This argument would have to take place AFTER the HEA, as there's no way my heroine would go anywhere "for fun" with hero while the book is in progress. So, I decided to let them argue about where to go on the honeymoon:
"Oooh, look at this all-inclusive resort in Mexico!" Gen exclaimed, causing Dan to look up from his lesson plan.
He immediately resigned himself to another installation of honeymoon googling. Gen confirmed this by shoving her laptop in his direction.
"Could we get any more cliche?" he groaned.
Gen quickly clicked on a different window. 15 open browser windows. Dan was going to need a vacation just to recover from the planning. "I've got another one here to show you--it's in Hawaii--"
"Hawaii? With the little flower leis and over-priced drinks that practically scream 'yuppie honeymoon?'"
"I'll take that as a no?" Gen draped herself across the back of Dan's chair, and he had to keep reminding himself, "honeymoon hell on earth," to keep from agreeing to whatever mundane destination would make her likely to land in his lap.
"No."
"No?" She walked her fingers down the back of his neck. "How about a cruise?"
"How about Italy? or Greece?"
"Europe?" Gen sounded skeptical, but she didn't move her fingers. "Like a tour? Or a tour/cruise hybrid? Little boutique hotels--"
Dan cut her off before she could tuck them into 1000 thread count bliss and serve them up continental breakfasts. "We don't need a tour. We can just wing it."
"Wing it?" The fingers fell away. "No reservations."
"We won't need them. We can stay in hostels--"
"Bunk beds?" Gen sounded like he'd proposed something kinky. Which come to think of it--
"Don't you have to bring your own sheets--"
"Well, yeah, but we'd have backpacks--"
"Backpacks?"
Dan felt his chances for anything kinky rapidly diminishing. "How about Fiji?" He'd trade all-inclusive heck for two weeks of Gen naked, but maybe, just maybe, he could avoid the shackle of Hawaii.
Wish you and Eli could have been at the retreat, Wavy. It was relaxing and fun. Too much food -- as usual -- some wine, some walks, a couple chick-flick-type movies and, oh yeah, some writing. Many of us got through our weekend goals, or at least partially through them.
In my newest ms. the couple are going to honeymoon in Malaysia. Malaysia? Yes. See, her mom moved there eight years previously and she's never been. There's no arguement from her new husband, because he's got his woman now, and he just wants to make her happy.
Great post Wavy! Missed you and Eli at the retreat!
My current H/H would go back to The Dalles (Which in the late 1800's was a metropolis) and after spending a night and a day in the lushest room at the Umatilla Hotel would go to the Opera House, and return to the Umatilla for the best dinning in the city. And then - you guessed it- back to their room!
Okay, in case ANY of you out there aren't TOTALLY sick and tired of my constant yammering on and on about hooks...ha!, I wrote a few more additions to Friday's (rushed) post. You'll find a couple more points on writing a really effective hook, and a couple examples from some multi-pubbed authors.
Thanks for your hook patience. Ha!
Retreat was great. Let's do it again sometime.
Thanks for missing me! I missed you all too! But, I did have braxton hicks all Friday and Saturday nights, so I probably would have been a nervous wreck that far from Salem. I got zero writing done other than my blog (no big surprise), but I did get some brainstorming done, and I read 5 books.
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