Character Fun

Current Project: Doctor in Petticoats
Status: page 102

I don't have anything pithy to say, so I thought we'd do something fun today. Get into our characters as it were.

Your character's vehicle is being towed for one of these three reasons:
1) By the police
2) Being Repossessed
3) As a joke.

Write a paragraph or two(depending on how much time you have or want to spend on this) in your character's POV about this happening either before, during, or after and show two of your character's character traits.

Brainstorming with Paty

Current Project: Doctor in Petticoats
Status: page 1

It’s me again looking for answers. I’m working on the next Halsey brother book, Doctor in Petticoats. I’m trying to write up the Seven Elements statement for the story and can’t come up with one or two words that say: blames others and can’t see he has to dig inside himself to make his life better.

As you can probably tell, this is the hero’s flaw. And yes, I know it is a big flaw- and my editor says she’s itching to see how I make this character redeemable, because at the end of the third book she didn’t like him!

I’ve been gazing over the Story Magic list of strengths and weaknesses, and I can’t figure out what would fit my hero when his flaw is what I stated above. Any thoughts or suggestions? For those who don’t have the story magic strengths and weaknesses this is what the page is like.

Strength ~~ Emotional Drive ~~ Weakness
Strong-willed/Decisive ~~ Needs to be in charge ~~ Too Impetuous
Self-Reliant ~~ Needs Independence ~~ can’t rely on others
Loyal ~~ Needs to be trusted ~~ Gullible/Unrealistic

So if his weakness is: blames others and can’t see he has to dig inside himself to make his life better. What is his strength and emotional drive? Anyone? I’m not sure if I’m too close to see it or I just have a brain lapse. He has to have a strength that is the antithesis of his weakness. He has character traits that makes him endearing, but I need to know the strength he has to manifest to be the total hero package.

Any and all brainstorming on this would be most appreciated!

What's it take to be a hero?

Current Project: Improper Pinkerton
Status: Fine tuning



I attended a Chippendales's performance last night with my friend. For those who don't know, the shows are good looking men dressed tastefully who dance and take it off down to a G-string. When I was younger I enjoyed the dancing and watching the women's responses to the show.

I don't know if it's an age thing or how entertainment and society has gotten raunchier but there were some of the dances last night that turned me off rather than on. I don't understand why men think women get turned on by them grabbing their crotch. It totally revolts me(one reason I don't like rappers). And them humping the floor.... Nope. That's when I'd watch the women and discovered quite a few of them looking at each other going "Huh?" So it wasn't just me.

There were three dances that I liked, they danced, real dancing not humping and grabbing body parts, and left something to the imagination at the end.

But the reason I decided to post about this today is the fact that when all seven men (boys to me, they were all the age of my sons and son-in-laws)first entered the stage, my eye went to the two fairly muscled, poster-boy types. I thought those would make great heroes. But after one did a really raunchy dance and I swear he had a sock and ballbearings in his G-string (I've never seen balls hang that low and big except on a bull) The girl next to me held up dollars and had the men come over and lap dance her. I told her if that guy came over she was to grab him and see if he was real. He must have known because he stayed away from our table. Anyway, he not only lost my hero status with the dance and the decidedly fake hang, but when he did lap dances, he was bored out of his mind. You could see it in the way he acted and stared around the room looking for more money in the air.

My other hero choice (at first sight)was a little too cocky during the dancing and rolled his eyes and acted like he was god's gift when he did lap dances.

BUT the two that when they first came out, I had luke warm feelings about as heroes, by the end of the night they were the ones who caught my attention. They danced with a little more humility. They smiled at individuals in the crowd and made eye contact. When they did the lap dances, they gave the woman their attention and talked to them. They smiled and chatted with women on the way to the ones with money in the air. Where the others were just moving as fast as they could to gather the money.

So this whole excursion turned into a - What kind of Chippendales' dancer would my hero be? My hero wouldn't be caught in a G-string. He wouldn't be flaunting for any woman even if it was the only way to capture his suspect. Now the heroine- she'd work a strip a club to fulfill her assignment.

So would your hero strip to a G-string and dance for women? And if he did would he make them feel special or just do it for the money?

Word Fun

Current Project: Improper Pinkerton
Status: page 230 of polishing

My daughter redid my website and we launched it Jan. 1st. Take a look and let us know what you think. www.patyjager.com
I wasn't feeling very writing knowledgeable or having any rants, or anything I felt worthy of posting. So I'm stealing something someone posted on a loop I'm on. I found it fun and entertaining since it pertains to words.


Once again, The Washington Post has published the winning submissions to
its yearly neologism contest, in which readers are asked to supply
alternative meanings for common words.

The winners are:

1. Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs.
2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.
3 . Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent.
6. Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly
answer the door in your nightgown.
7. Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.
8. Gargoyle (n), olive-flavored mouthwash.
9. Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run
over by a steamroller.
10. Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.
11. Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.
12. Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
13. Pokemon (n), a Rastafarian proctologist.
14. Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.
15. Frisbeetarianism (n.), (back by popular demand): The belief that, when
you die, your soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
16. Circumvent (n.), an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.

The Washington Post's Style Invitational also asked readers to take any
word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one
letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are this year's winners:

1. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright
ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign
of breaking down in the near future.
2. Foreploy (v): Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
3. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject
financially impotent for an indefinite period.
4. Giraffiti (n): Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
5. Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
6. Inoculatte (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
7. Hipatitis (n): Terminal coolness.
8. Osteopornosis (n): A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
9. Karmageddon (n): its like, when everybody is sending off all these
really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
10. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
11. Glibido (v): All talk and no action.
12. Dopeler effect (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
13. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've
accidentally walked through a spider web.
14. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your
bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
15. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you're eating.

Happy writing and revisions all!

Stealing a Rant From Bethany

Current Project: Improper Pinkerton
Status: page 320

I read the first story of a Christmas anthology last night to relax. I didn't relax. The more I read, the more I couldn't believe the story was published- and by a large press.

The heroine kept alluding to the reason the town's people had turned on her, and she just plain came across as whiny. I think the character and story would have been stronger had the reason been right out there and the author had given the character more internals about the problem and why she was so desperate to make the Christmas Eve Church Program the best ever. As it was, I never felt a connection to the heroine. She just seemed to wishy-washy and whiny.

Then the reason the town was giving her the cold shoulder was they thought she was a prostitute, so why in heaven's name did she sell store merchandise (her father only had utilitarian items in his store- she purchased and sold frivolous items)out the back of the store at night to men? DUH! Don't you think that helped fuel the rumors she was supposedly trying so hard to prove wrong?

Then her father leaves and she doesn't know when he'll be back. She has a store room full of her frivolous lovely Christmas gifts and Christmas decorations a rich woman ordered then left town without paying for- My first thought was "She's going to whip out the better merchandise and the decorations- well... over a chapter later she finally does. I swear this is the slowest thinking heroine I've ever encountered!

I liked the hero. He was clear thinking, action oriented, and his internals and externals made sense and drew the reader in more than the heroine. But I must say I was ready for the end of this story. And I read it to the end thinking it had to get better- the end was "Yawn" an end.

Now I'm hesitant to to read the other two stories in the anthology. But my curiosity will get the better of me and I'll have to see if they are any better.

Again, I shake my head that this kind of thing can be published and other outstanding stories get pushed to the side. What a fickle industry we are in.

Do You Love 'Em Enough?

Current Project: Improper Pinkerton
Status: Downhill slide

How deep is your love for your hero and heroine? Is it the same for every one of them or do you struggle to feel as much love for some characters?

I hadn’t really thought about this - believing I love them all equally, after all, why else would I write their stories?

However, a close friend bought Outlaw in Petticoats, usually she calls me up the next day after purchasing one of my books and gushes over it. This time I didn’t hear from her for a couple of weeks. We had lunch this past week, and I finally brought up the subject saying my oldest thought it wasn’t as good as earlier books, but it was okay. My friend sat there a minute, then asked, “Did she say why she felt that way?” To which I responded, “No, just she liked Nanny and Gambling better.” My friend said, “It felt to me like you didn’t really love these two characters.” That took me back a second. I LOVE Zeke, writing him and getting to know him better and unfolding his character and emotions, I admit at times I struggled with Maeve. Not because I didn’t love her, because I made her too much like me and over thought her reactions to things too much as I wrote. Now while my close friend and daughter wasn’t enamored of this book, I’ve received 4’s-5’s for this book in reviews and several fan e-mails saying they loved it. But I wonder do the people closest to me and know me know my writing better than me?

So now, I sit here wondering- Did I love the characters in the ms I sent off to Harlequin enough? I used an actor I love to watch for the model for Holt in Cowboy Up and my mom sort of for the heroine in the story- so yes, if not lust (the actor) there was definitely love for the characters.

The WIP I’m working on, do I love them enough? The hero is fashioned after a football player in looks and my ideal of a straight laced U.S. Marshal and while I don’t lust after him(the heroine does) I do love a lot of his characteristics. And the heroine- I can’t help but love her do or die attitude, spontaneity, and spunk.

But am I showing them the best I can and pulling in the reader? Am I loving them enough? Just when I think I’m getting some things figured out another question/problem rears up.

Writing and the Holidays

Current Project: Improper Pinkerton
Status: 56,000 words


You'd think as many hours as I've spent working on this project it would be farther than 56,000 words. My goal when the dh left for Elk camp on Friday was to write like a fiend. Well, with company coming this week, I also made a list of things to do each day in preparation for the company.

Each thing on my list took longer than I'd anticipated, and when I'd sit down to write, I'd be thinking about the next thing that needed done instead of focusing on the characters.

My goal for this project was to have this queried to agents by now. Now my goal is to have queries out the first week of January. But I'm sitting here thinking is that practical either? I have 8 extra people coming at Christmas and five of them are staying two weeks. BUT- if this was a deadline I had to meet for a publisher- I'd have not made Christmas presents, bought everything online, and told people live with the mess of my house. Which tells me, I have to start thinking like my deadlines are publishing house deadlines or I'm going to miss the train with this project because the hot button on this project will have passed.

So, if you aren't on a publisher's deadline, do you still push yourself to meet personal deadlines no matter what or do you fudge, like I'm doing and then beat yourself up? If you are on a publisher deadline, and make those deadlines, do you think you could stay to a personal deadline?

PS: I've updated my personal blog if you want to hop over and take a peek. I'm pleased that I managed to tweak a format (thank you ,Eli) and part of my writing time this past week was writing an article for the Willamette Writers. Their newsletter editor e-mailed and asked if I'd do an article on virtual tours as they'd noticed I'd been doing a lot of virtual promotion. So when it comes out in their newsletter, I'll forward it to the loop.

Equation for a Romance Story

Current Project:Improper Pinkerton
Status: about half way

G(2)+ M(2)(C(5))= HEA

This is my version of an equation to build a romance story. You can multiply the C by more and get a longer story or shorten it for a shorter story. Your mission today is to jointly write a romance using this equation. The characters are Bud and Lizzy.
I'll start:

G(2)= Bud is a contractor vying for a job building a firecracker manufacturer. Lizzy has a goat farm. She makes cheese and has some fainting goats. She plans to win top honors at a prestigious cheese show.

Okay, next person what dos M(2) equal?

Have fun!

Equation for a Romance Novel

Current Project:Improper Pinkerton
Status:half way point

G(2)+M(2)(C(5))=HEA This is the equation for a romance novel. Use the equation and the characters Bud and Lizzy and dissect the equation one commenter at a time. I'll start with G(2)btw (the (2) and (5) are supposed to be superscript, you know, to the second and fifth powers)

G(2)= goals times two. Bud owns a paving outfit and he plans to get the contract for the new subdivision. Lizzy has the fainting goat farm next to the planned new subdivision.

Okay, next!

Premise, Plotting, Writing

I wasn't going to ask a question this week because, Alice has dubbed me the question asker (LOL)- but after reading hers and Eli's comments on the Saturday check-in it made me wonder- What do you find the most difficult stage of a new project? Is it coming up with the premise or idea for a book, the plotting of the book, or the writing?

With everyone at different stages in their projects and listening to the concerns or problems they face- it made me wonder, just like everything else in writing, does each writer also find different stages of the writing more difficult than others and is it because of the genre they write, or just their own preference of getting the story on paper?

Myself, I love the research involved in writing the historical westerns. I don't have a problem coming up with a story premise/idea- but I tend to get frustrated with the plotting at times, but find the writing, once I get started flows fast and the story comes. With the contemporaries- the story idea comes and the plotting seems to fall into place, but the writing is harder. Not sure why, but I feel like a newbie writer every time I attempt contemporary.

So what is your genre and which of these do you feel you struggle more with Premise, Plot, or the writing? And why?

Titles

This one or that one.... Well, I'll post my original post here and the other one I was thinking about will be on my Monday personal blog. So you'll have to buzz over there to see what the subject I was thinking about posting is. :)

I know most authors say your titles will be changed you don’t need to think too hard about them. But according to agent, Jessica Faust of Bookends Agency, that is the first thing that grabs her about a manuscript and will keep her reading. The title.

She says it should evoke the feel of the story and grab the reader’s attention. Granted most titles get changed when they are bought by a publisher, but if you have a good one, it will grab the attention of your first reader-either an editor or an agent.

So, I’ve been anguishing over the title of my historical western mystery. I had planned to use colors in the titles, but so far no one has liked the titles I came up with. Then I thought I’d just go with Mae Simon, Pinkerton Detective: Vanishing Heiress. To keep the series influence the Mae Simon, Pinkerton Detective would be on all the manuscripts with a title for each book. But that doesn’t grab the reader. Then I thought of “Au Revoir Esther” since at the beginning of the story the heroine throws off her old persona “Esther”, and she pretends to be a French Prostitute. But this doesn’t tell you there is a mystery involved in the story.

Faust also said your title should let the reader know a little about the story genre.

I need something that says historical, western, romance, mystery…

The title of a book, usually comes to me just like the characters and the premise, but for some reason this book isn’t jumping out at me with a title. Here are some of my other ideas. Any thoughts?

Improper Pinkerton

Chasing Dead Ends

Posse of Two

Cloak and Colt .45

How hard do you work to get a title that suits the book? Or do you just name it your character’s names and figure it will get renamed when it is bought? What is your method for finding the right title for your story?

The One and Only

Everyone has had such great posts lately, I’m feeling lame. At the moment, I’m gathering info and pushing to get things done. I haven’t come up against anything that has me stuck/scratching my head other than the phrase from Michael Hauge via Alice – “Remember the Michael Hague comment when he said that he wants a love story where it's impossible to imagine the two lovers EVER finding happiness with anyone else?”

It made me look at the hero and heroine in my contemporary. Yes, it would take this hero to have seen through the heroine’s ice armor and into her depths because of his past. But, does my heroine really understand his guilt and need for self-vindication? Is she the only one for him? Hmmm… I’ll be thinking about this as I wrap up the last chapters.

Is this something that should have been upper most in my mind as I plotted these characters? Yeah, I think so now and will make it the first thing I think about in upcoming books. But when I read, I don’t think about those things. I’m reading a Super Romance now to see if my contemporary fits that line. I’m thinking it does. Anyway, I can see how the hero is the best thing for the heroine, but again, like with my story, I could see him happy with someone else with less baggage. The past- hers- is what has bound them even though he didn’t know it until 2/3 of the way into the book. He just had a thing for her. And now wants to save her from herself, something he hasn’t been able to do for his father.

Okay, since writing this, I finished the book. It appears that the heroine being in the hero's life did make a difference in his father and ultimately made him want to change things- so I guess in a way the heroine is the best woman for the hero. But I must say the ending of the book fell kind of flat for me.

So does your current story have a hero and heroine who can’t find happiness with anyone else?Why?

The One and Only

Everyone has had such great posts lately, I’m feeling lame. At the moment, I’m gathering info and pushing to get things done. I haven’t come up against anything that has me stuck/scratching my head other than the phrase from Michael Hauge via Alice – “Remember the Michael Hague comment when he said that he wants a love story where it's impossible to imagine the two lovers EVER finding happiness with anyone else?”

It made me look at the hero and heroine in my contemporary. Yes, it would take this hero to have seen through the heroine’s ice armor and into her depths because of his past. But, does my heroine really understand his guilt and need for self-vindication? Is she the only one for him? Hmmm… I’ll be thinking about this as I wrap up the last chapters.

Is this something that should have been upper most in my mind as I plotted these characters? Yeah, I think so now and will make it the first thing I think about in upcoming books. But when I read, I don’t think about those things. I’m reading a Super Romance now to see if my contemporary fits that line. I’m thinking it does. Anyway, I can see how the hero is the best thing for the heroine, but again, like with my story, I could see him happy with someone else with less baggage. The past- hers- is what has bound them even though he didn’t know it until 2/3 of the way into the book. He just had a thing for her. And now wants to save her from herself, something he hasn’t been able to do for his father.

Okay, since writing this, I finished the book. It appears that the heroine being in the hero's life did make a difference in his father and ultimately made him want to change things- so I guess in a way the heroine is the best woman for the hero. But I must say the ending of the book fell kind of flat for me.

So does your current story have a hero and heroine who can’t find happiness with anyone else?Why?

Music-can't write without it

Man is it ever good to be getting back into the swing of e-mail, blogging, and writing!

I've stated this before, but listening to the same music every time I work on a project draws me into the project faster. I pick music that works for the characters and tone I want to set in the story. I try to get music without lyrics, but I've found that if I use the same music over and over the words tend to fade into the background and don't bother me. Right now, working on the contemporary western that has a rodeo cowboy as the hero, I listen to Chris Ledoux cd's. For those who don't know, he was a rodeo cowboy who became a songwriter and singer. Until he died a few years ago from complications from drinking too much alcohol. But- his songs really let you know how a cowboy feels. His thoughts when riding and his thoughts on women and life. His songs have been my background music as I write.

Another song that takes me straight to writing thoughts when I hear it and it doesn't have anything to do with any one story- to me it is what a writer has to ask the characters in their stories and the characters have to show the reader. It's Rascal Flatt's song- "Take me There".
You can hear it here.

And songs give me inspiration for stories. Last week while I was trudging along on the tractor discing, I had my mp3 player on, and a song I've heard many times before played and a story started forming in my head. I wrote it down (I always keep a pad and pen in the tractors when I'm driving) and kept what iffing until I had a story idea that excited me. It may be the next contemporary- who knows.

For me music and writing seem to go hand in hand. Could it be that though I lack the talent of my brothers who write songs and sing way better than me, I still have that gene that makes me have to create with music? Or do I just hear the beat of a different drummer?

Does music inspire you? To write? To see a story? Or slip you away into the other world you write about? Or are you a silence is golden writer?

Show vs Tell

Hi all. sorry for the delay. The lightning we had yesterday took out the transformer for my wireless internet. Thank you, Lori for filling in for me yesterday!

I just finished the edits my editor requested on Miner. Most of it turned out to be comments by her: Telling. Show me this.

I took a look at some sites that described show vs tell- and to be truthful, I’m still confused.

So, I’m going to put up five sentences from books and have you tell me if they are telling or showing and if you think they are telling rewrite them to make them showing.

1) ...he said in a manner that indicated she didn’t believe him at all.

2) And his hair, Mimi thought disbelievingly staring up at him, was perfet.

3) He knew he'd botched it even before he heard her quiet intake of breath.

4) She shook off the fanciful feeling and straightened her shoulders.

5) Immediately, the smells of wild onions and animal tallow filled his head.

I'm Back and Saturday Check-IN

Hi all. I've had no internet all week and you'd think I'd have more writing done. But I only managed 7000 words! Of course I was in a car with a 4 1/2 year-old and a 2 year-old for 8 hours one of those days and attended a funeral and 5 hours in the car, then another 4 hours the next day. So three days there wasn't much writing getting done. Then the other days I was wrestling with wheel lines and hand pipes and cussing my dh(don't tell him that he's been treating me like a queen since I got back) because things didn't go as smoothly as he said they would. But I"m home and learned some things.

Never have someone who has never met the deceased perform the service. I only saw my uncle once a year as a child and then about every five years as an adult, but I could have given a better parting than the preacher did who officiated over the service. The songs my brother sang fit my uncle way better than the preacher's words. And that my friends is why when I do leave this earth, I've instructed my dh to throw a party for my friends and play the music I have on a list.

I haven't had a chance to read the blog for the week. I'll get to it after my 350 e-mails!

I hope everyone had a good writing week!

Endearments

When females or males, my age or younger, call me "honey" and "dear", I grind my teeth and don’t say anything even though I want to give them an earful. I can take it from an older person say seventy or older. It doesn’t feel so much like it’s just being thrown out there to placate me.

An endearment is: An expression of affection. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like strangers expressing affection for me!

However, I do like my characters to use endearments toward family or the person they are attracted to. That is why my characters, always the hero, use a term of endearment for the heroine. And it’s never in the beginning of the story. It’s after they’ve interacted and are getting closer. My problem is coming up with an endearment that fits not only the heroine, but is something the hero would say/think. And I don’t like to use the same ones over and over again.

So far my contemporary cowboy called the heroine, "honey". Not too sweet like "sweetie" or "sweetheart". To me to have him say "darling" is condescending. An "dear", well it just doesn’t set well with me. LOL

But endearments don’t have to be your typical ones listed above. Don’t laugh, my dh calls me "cupcakes". Not sure why it’s plural or what it means, but when he calls me “cupcakes”, it usually means he’s in a good mood. I tend to call him “sweetie”- not sure why, it’s just what I’ve always done.

Then there’s “babe”, “cutie”, “fancy pants”, “handsome”, "stud", stud muffin". Do you use endearments between your H/H and if you do, do you think it over and come up with one that fits the character or characters? Or do you just throw them out there will nilly or not at all? If you use them, why? If not, why?

Real or Over the top

While traveling back and forth to the chapter meeting last week I listened to Suzanne Brockman's "Ladies Man". And the first thing that hit me was she in many places used the same word or wording three times in a row. Which I found irritating. Since I've not read anything of hers, I don't know if that is her style or it was just the character. I can't at the moment remember if she only did it in one character's POV or in both. But I'm always cutting repeating things when I edit, unless I use it for a specific reason and that would be only once in a whole book.

The thing that made me feel validated (since she is a big name author) was her hero didn't have any flaws. Yes, he had a back story that was haunting him a little, but he was a good guy who's worse flaw was calling the heroine "Babe" which she didn't like. And I liked him. He reminded me a lot of my heroes who I don't flaw to unbelievable.

So my question today( and I've asked this before, but it fascinates me)- What do you consider flaws in a hero or heroine and how much is too much?

Theme/Premise/Pitch

I’m emulating my good friend Danita today. She likes to rehash hooks, while I have IMMENSE trouble understanding/getting- Theme/premise. The current WIP doesn’t have murder, mayhem, kidnappings, chases, or even fights (well unless we have a barroom brawl, but that isn’t in the picture at this time). It is a purely emotional book. The characters and their pasts are the catalyst of the whole story.

On the blog about pitching CJ Lyons wrote , she said to start with your theme or premise to begin writing your pitch. Okay, but I feel like I've already failed because of my denseness when it come to this particular topic.

These are the theme/premise I came up with: Learn to love again; Conquer your past. They’re kind of weak. How do I build something around that? I like the second one the best. Not so syrupy sweet, something that I can maybe use to draw in readers with a hook or high concept.

Then she says boil it all down for your high concept which should be: “one and only one unique concept--whatever it is about your story that will create an immediate emotional connection or spark interest.”

CJ says this about finding the hook: “This is the unique spin that you have put on your story. This means narrowing your search to one small part of your story. Start with your blurb, usually the hook will be apparent there. If not, keep looking.”

My blurb: A workaholic ER nurse with plans to build a camp for sexually abused children finds herself drawn to a rodeo cowboy and his art. Has she found unconditional love or will her past tear them apart?

What I came up with for high concept is: High emotions and high stakes or Can your past dictate your future?. Both tap into emotions; the first with the high stakes, which could mean anything from monetary to emotionl, the second tells you something about the past is going to come into play, and who hasn't wondered "what if I'd done this differently?".

What is the unique spin on your WIP? Can you boil it down to a high concept statement? If so, please share maybe it will flip the light bulb on for me.

Voice

Danita asked me to fill in for her today. So you get a double dose of boring me this week. Which brings me to the subject of voice.

When Terry Mclaughlin spoke to our group last month she asked me how I changed my voice between the historical and contemporary stories. And to be truthful- I haven't a clue! I told her by word usuage to not appear as stupified as I was by her question. I never think of voice. I don't know what mine is or how it's changed over the years. I believe, however, it has always been strong, and I've had to work on other elements such as plot and sentence structure.

My first romance book (which is horrid) neither one of the characters really had any GMC other than staying alive. The hero was pretty docile. But I was a finalist in a contest with the love scene. My second romance I finaled in a contest and placed third. Cindy Hwang of Berkley requested the full and rejected saying she loved the characters but the plot was bad. And so it went. Either I received high scores in contests or rock bottom scores, and was told that meant I had a strong voice.

But back to the topic. How does one explain their voice? On the blog this is how each blogger comes across to me. Lori - humorous and fun. Eli - sassy. Alice - the voice of reason. Wavy -perky with wisdom. Karen - intellectual. Genene - entertain as well as inform. Danita - catchy and fun. Lisa- optimistic.

And having read Lori, Alice, Karen, and Danita's longer works- that same voice pretty much comes through with some added nuances.

Is this how you hear your voice? Or are you like me and not really sure how to explain your voice? I'd like to hear others takes on the different bloggers voice to see if I even know what I'm looking for in voice. Or is voice an illusive thing that no one can really put a finger on? Just they either like it or they don't.