Home for the Holidays . . . .

Current Project: Rewrites & plotting
Status: "gobbly gobbly pfferneuse! "*

Ah. Christmas Eve. Feel that fire crackling? Hear those Christmas Carols on the iPod? Smell those cookies coming out of Mom's oven? It's enough to send you rushing from the internet to dive into the nearest vat of eggnog. But not yet! We have work to do!

Work? Yes. Work. See, you are not the only one atwitter with anticipation. Your characters are about to celebrate the holiday as well. "But I'm not writing a holiday novel, Wavy!" Patience, grasshopper. Patience.

A person's reaction to the holiday reveals a lot about who they are, what they value, and what their goals are. GMC all in a tidy little holiday package. And, if you really want to get to know someone, send them home to their family and watch the dysFUNctional times. Many times, novels take place over a course of days or weeks--lives change before the first frost falls. Often, the extended family only makes a cameo appearance at the epilogue wedding. Consequently, you only get a limited glimpse of your character--who she is two weeks in May while Mom's on that Bermuda cruise and crazy stalker guy is terrorizing the surbubia.

Consider this: Where was your character on their last pre-HEA Christmas? Where will they be on their first HEA Christmas? I've been looking for ways to get deeper into the emotional growth of my characters, and I've found that looking backwards from their HEA gives me remarkable insight and clarity as to what changes are going to need to occur over the course of the story to allow that character to get his or her HEA. Sometimes, we get so bogged down in certain scenes or in the need to make forward progress with word count that we miss chances to play with our characters and really get inside their heads. Recently, I've been sending my character on all sorts of sidetrips that will never make into THE BOOK, but I'm learning so much about her that I'm planning future outings for her.

Your Turn: Send your character home for Christmas! Where were they last Christmas? Where will they be this Christmas? Next Christmas?

In the spirit of giving, I'll go first:

Last Christmas, Claire worked. As an intern, she was only too happy to pull extra shifts on Christmas and New Years--she didn't have any family to go home to, and she was grateful for the excuse of work to avoid her well-meaning friends. Growing up, Christmas wasn't a big deal--money was at its tightest as her mother struggled to pay for heat, and she usually had to work as well. Unlike Claire, however, she had no choice. Any presents that Claire got were practical in nature, and her mother was usually too tired for big meals or decorations. Later, after her mother died, Claire used holiday breaks to catch up on her studying and to work extra hours to pay for tuition. Now that she's finally done with school, Christmas still doesn't have any special appeal for her, although some deep, secret part of her feels a little twinge when she sees a Santa Hat in the waiting room or when one of the nurses passes around a holiday photo. She just buries those twinges under more work.

This Christmas, everything is different. She got her HEA moment months ago, but everything still feels raw and new--like stitches that still haven't healed. Claire is surrounded by hero's big Hispanic, Catholic family. She's overwhelmed by all the relatives, food, and decorations. Christmas Eve will find her going to midnight mass with hero's family, and even after several months in their fold, she still feels like an observer. Her sisters-in-law to-be cornered her and goaded her into a wearing a dress. An actual dress. Claire doesn't do dresses, especially velvet ones that pull and tug, but she liked how hero looked at her in it, so here she is. She really enjoyed helping Hero find gifts for all the nieces and nephews. She has absolutely no idea what to get Hero, and she doesn't want to give the sisters-in-law any more chances to meddle, so she's struggling with what to give him. She's afraid that if she dickers any more he'll end with something from the 50% off shelf in the hospital gift shop!

Claire could go on and on, but she (and I) want to hear about your character's Christmas history! Do share! Merry Christmas everyone!

*Swedish Chef, Muppet Family Christmas.

Pitch Paragraph

I’ve been lurking on several agent blogs preparing myself to pitch to agents at Nationals. And I don’t just mean an agented appointment. I’m hoping I can get up nerve to talk to any agent I see. You know, casually at first, then hoping to edge into a short, succinct discussion about my WIP.

Kristen Nelson of the Nelson Literary Agency has been posting pitching info on her blog. And the one thing she said that finally rang a bell with me was to make your pitch sound like the back cover blurb with your plot catalyst.

And she says these are the three different ways you can build the paragraph around the plot catalyst.

1. The back story that sets the story and creates the context

2. Contributing plot elements that will broaden the story

3. Character elements that are imperative to the story.

Or she says you can do a combination of these to write up a pitch and back cover blurb.

So here goes. This is my pitch paragraph.

Mae Simon is on her first assignment as a Pinkerton operative and nothing will stand in her way; neither conventions nor a righteous U.S. Marshal. She’s also determined to find the traveling actor who fathered her and disappeared, leaving her mother pining for the man.

U. S. Marshal Beck Harlan can’t afford to get close to anyone . Not with a vengeance seeking outlaw killing off his intimate acquaintances. However, he finds himself falling for the French prostitute he persuades to become an informant, not realizing, she is a Pinkerton operative after the same man.

Show us what you would use for your pitch of back cover blurb of your WIP.( And I'll take any all suggestions on mine)