I know I know I”m not supposed to be here but….since it pertains to my WIPs, I’m here. Mary over at The Bandwagon asks the question: So lately, especially in contest entries, I’ve read a lot of tough heroines. Tough to the point of being unsympathetic. Maybe they’ve been hurt before and have built a huge, thick wall around themselves. Some are just butt-kickers, not needing a man, not bending, often rude to the hero for no apparent reason.

I have trouble relating to a heroine like that. I’ve written some women who have been through the mill, but I think I’ve made them sympathetic and relateable. What do you think makes them this way?

And I started writing a response over there then thought I’d bring it here….I think you have to give them an Achilles heel. And I think this goes for tough guys or gals..it helps negate the a$$hole factor. My current heroes are hired killers. Hitmen. It’s what they do. No excuses. There’s no getting around that.

There is NO getting around the fact that my heroes kill people for a living. So what do I do to make a character with such a huge mark against them likeable? I try to give them equally big flaws. Will has HUGE relationship issues–in that he fails miserably at them. And John can’t lie. Yes, I realize a man who can’t lie is a bit of an oxymoron, and in order to pull it off I had to give him a DAMN good reason to not lie. I think I did. Only time will tell.

So how do you soften up your tough characters OR who are some writers that do this especially well?

Haven’t done this in quite a while, so I figured it was time.

Mainly because I have nothing going on that’d be worth talking about.

It’s Free-For-All Friday.

There’s no subject pending, and the blog is open to whatever may come.

Got a question, any question?  Bring it.  Comment on anything?  Post it.  Vent?  Go for it.  Are you a lurker who comes to peek but never participate?  Feel free to join in. 

Hell, I’ll even go first…

Is it just me, or is anyone else out there starting to feel like the “real world” of publishing is a fortress on some exclusive, remote little island in the bluest part of the bluest pacific, which can only be reached by being the sole survivor of a shipwreck, half-drowning before you reach the shore, finding a way to navigate the alligator-ridden moat that circles The Castle, fighting your way across acres of swampland, climbing the glass-sheer face of the surrounding mountain, promising the guardian sentry your first-born child—and then being told they’ll get back to you in a few months or so only if they’re interested?

Go for it. 

Pet sentences. How do I hate thee, let me count the ways.

They’re the tarnished nuggets we writers regurgitate again and again, sometimes without even realizing it. They make editors and agents crazy. They make readers want to smack us. But most importantly, they make us look like hacks.

Here are a few of mine: “She stood motionless.” Then there’s “She gazed back at him.” And my all time favorite, “He heaved a sigh.”

While in revision hell, all my “pet phrases” and “pet words” jumped out at me. It was painful. It was pathetic. It was embarrassing. I couldn’t believe what I was reading! I also seem to have an obsession with the word “smirked.” Everybody in the damned book was smirking. I mean everyone. They were all “licking” their lips too. It was ridiculous.

What are your pet phrases or words? Do you catch them right away, or do they have to scream at you during revision or critique?

Writing Through Adversity

Last year I did a post at Blogging in Black entitled “I’ve Lost my Passion” which explored my dwindling interest in reading. In the piece, I did some deep soul searching why I just didn’t enjoy books as much as I once did and related that personal problems may have gotten in the way. I still believe this. Adversity has a way of sapping the enjoyment out of many of life’s pleasures.

I’ve read postings from other authors about the need to write during stressful times, including family illness, and I take this to heart because I have a close family member who has suffered two strokes. We’re both dealing as well as we can, and she is recovering. We got hit with more bad news recently, but we’ve decided to react with positivity instead of just accepting it.

In the meantime, I write because I have to, although it’s mostly freelance non-creative pieces. Still, I find satisfaction doing these pieces, maybe because they serve as a distraction, where my mind is fully engrossed with facts and figures. And I always try for a personal best whenever I sit down to the keyboard, no matter what I’m writing.

Still, it’s been a while since I have done anything creative - and to be honest, I’m not missing it right now. Laying out a plotline, researching ancillary facts, fleshing out characters are fun components of writing, but only if your heart is in it, and right now, mine just isn’t. Yet, I know that if I had to, I could - especially if there were a deadline involved. In the middle of THE OBJECT OF LOVE (TOOL), my relative suffered her first stroke, and I didn’t think I would be able to type another word. Not to mention, that I came across a rather brutal online critique of my first book AGAIN, which made me question my abilities to pull in an audience.

Feeling discouraged about the review, I emailed author Monica Jackson and mentioned that I wanted to quit writing altogether. She threatened to find me and do damage if I did and admonished that this was just part of a writer’s lot; some people are going to like your work, others won’t. She told me not to let them put me off course. So I got back to work and was able to deliver TOOL right on deadline.

So even though I feel off course right now (maybe I need a good Monica a** kicking), I hope one day to find my mojo and get back to the novels I love to write - adversity be damned.

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Note from Tanya:

Sharon,

You may have temporarily lost your passion, but there’s no doubt in my mind that you’ll get it back. For one thing, nobody with talent like yours can stay away from storytelling. Fiction writing (and in your case, STELLAR fiction writing) is sewn into your DNA. You can no more walk away from it, than you can stop breathing. Having read two of your books, I can honestly say that you’ve got a fan for life in me, and I truly look forward to your next novel.

You’re on my auto-buy list, lady.

So I am probably the only person who hadn’t seen The Da Vinci Code. (nor have I read the book), but Sunday it came on cable so I decided, “What the heck.” It was a veg-in-my-room day anyway, might as well use up 2 1/2 hours on a movie!

Let me back up a sec and say, I HAVE seen many a show on what the book was about, all the debates over the historical aspects and ramifications and whatnot as well as interviews with Mr. Brown. So I was not coming in with an empty head. Even with all that, I hafta say, I enjoyed the movie.

Having said that, I think I may have looked at it a little different than some. As a writer, you tend to pick apart things and wonder how you would do them the same and how you would do thim different. On a purely fictional aspect (it was fiction after all despite all the speculation surrounding it), I think Mr. Brown did a great job weaving in clues, hunts and all around mystery in the story. I actually managed NOT to get too tied up in what I think on a religeous aspect and with that was thoroughly entertained!

For those who know me, that was a feat in and of itself. I tend not to be able to suspend any disbelief and will get mired down in, buts. (I can come up with some wacky buts!)

I think sometimes you just have to let go of what you know or think. (Had I not known ANY of the hoopla that had accompanied the movie, I don’t know if I would have still have enjoyed it or not. I may have gotten caught up in the “buts”. ) I was happily surprised.

Have books or movies “happily surprised” you before?

Or how what could have been a great movie went terribly wrong.

One thing you have to know when you sit down to watch a Shyamalan movie is that it’s as much about the human condition as it is about the external conflict that drives. And as a writer, I respect that. Sometimes, like with Unbreakable and Lady in the Water, it works in ways that blow your mind. Sometimes, like with The Village it misses it’s mark and makes you got . And Signs is actually one of the few movies that ever pissed me off–probably because I bought it instead of rented it. Anyway with The Happening you have the entire Eastern Seaboard running scared because, “There’s an event happening.” Mark Whalberg plays a school teacher who’s having marital troubles (enter the human condition), when he finds out school in Philadelphia is being dismissed because of the event in New York that is quickly driving folks to kill themselves. He, his wife, a fellow teacher and the teacher’s daughter all jump on a train but the train stops because they’ve “lost contact” No one knows what’s causing the event but everyone initially thinks it’s terrorits/biological warfare. Now while all of this is going on, Whalberg’s wife is getting phone calls from a guy named Joey. (Spoilers below the cut)

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Be sure to stop by this coming Wednesday to chat with Kensington Brava author Sharon Cullars! I first met Sharon online while blog hopping, and once I bought her paranormal romance The Object of Love, I was hooked. Again was just as fabulous!

Here’s Sharon’s bio:

I’m a Chicagoan bred and born, a woman in a midlife flux who has always loved reading. Now a new writer, I’m still learning the ins and outs of the business. Before writing AGAIN (Kensington/Brava, May 2006), I self-published a paranormal mystery in 2002 entitled CELIA. Although a dismal marketing failure, CELIA was a jumping off point and a learning experience for me. Since then, I have published a few online short stories and also have had a story included in MASQUES V, an anthology of horror fiction that includes works by Ray Bradbury, Gary Braunbeck, Poppy Z. Brite and Richard Christian Matheson among others.

In addition to AGAIN, I have another novel and novella coming out with Brava and consider myself fortunate for the opportunity. Although I like writing romance, I am writing a couple of books on spec, including a historical mystery and a horror story. My reading life includes all genres, which has influenced my writing style. Hopefully my readers will enjoy.

Check out Sharon’s sizzling bookcovers:

You know how they are.  Stubborn, single-minded, and ready to bunny-bump at the drop of a hat.  No matter what you think, how you feel about it, or what your personal plans might be.

They’re your hero and heroine.  And they want to have sex.
NOW.

If you let them go at it every 2-3 pages, you’ve probably got porn.  Plotless porn.
If you keep them too far apart indefinitely, you’ve got a frustrated reader and a dent in your wall.

So, if your lovers are right on the verge of the big sex scene, and you’re all for creating sexual tension but not quite ready to have “it” happen, here are a few suggestions for creating that metaphorical cold shower.

1) An impromptu argument or misunderstanding.  A good hot-blooded fight, written well, can be nearly as arousing as sex.  And a lot less complicated.

2) Your lovers are interrupted by someone walking in—usually an ex, authority figure, or seven year old child who still isn’t potty trained.

3)Inconvenient circumstances, place, or lack of latex party hats.

4) Interruption by some imminent threat or danger, like the C-4 explosive rigged to the headboard.

5) Fear of sex—somebody is impotent, premature, frigid, too aggressive, or too large to fit (which we’ve all experienced in everyday life…uh-huh…).

6) Inclination to maintain the status quo—don’t want to lose friendship, distrupt life or business, or deviate from the plan to save the family homestead.

7) Memories of past guilt or failure.  She’s an ex-nun dominatrix, this is his first experience since his sex-change operation, they remember they’re first cousins, etc.

8) The hero suddenly acquires a bad case of being honorable, just as he has the heroine buck-naked, hyperventilating, and ready to climax with the slightest warm breeze.

9) They both breathlessly agree that there isn’t time at that moment to do it RIGHT.  And after all, a quicky isn’t really what they want from each other.

10) Consummation might mean enraging their gods, producing a demonic offspring, or keeping the current ruling political dynasty in power.

The following is an excerpt from a rejection letter I got a couple years ago on the first couple chapters of a new opus, and what follows that is … well, you’ll have to read it to believe it:

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I stink at talking about my books. They are 1.) romances 2.) fantasies 3.) have shape shifter alpha male heroes uh….okay, that’s all I have. So, when I saw the announcement that I would be talking about Wild Hunt, my initial reaction was “Crap, what am I going to say?”

I really was hoping to blog about either something Southern fried—being from the Ozarks I totally get beauty of anything Southern fried, or chica—which is half of one of my favorite endearments for my daughter. (The other half being bonita.)

But then it hit me…I won’t blog about the book, how I wrote it, blah, blah. I’ll blog about the beings in it and which you and I would most want to be.

So, here are the choices…

1.) Hellhound – hellhounds are shape shifters (human to massive dog with a hellish addiction to blood lust). The males are very alpha. No female hellhounds appear in Wild Hunt, but I have a Bite coming out this fall that features one. The females are survivors.

2.) Valkyries – The heroine of Wild Hunt is a Valkyrie. In my world, Valkyries pretty much stay in Valhalla

these days, and they don’t necessarily love it. They have gone from the days of glory as warriors to just serving the spirits of fallen warriors. But they do come with some cool gear—flying horses and feathered capes that also give them the ability to fly. They also are perfectly capable of kicking butt.

3.) Norn – Norn are the fates of Norse Myth. In my world, they can read rune stones and cards. They can also speak to animals if they are in contact with some part of the animal. This talent comes in handy for my one Norn character in Wild Hunt when she and a hellhound both want the same thing… They also deliver a child’s fate to him/her at birth.

4.) Witches – You probably can figure this one out for yourself. One thing that is somewhat unique about my witches is they can store power. So when magical things happen around them, like a hellhound shifting from canine to human, they soak up the power to use later. Then they get to blow things to bits—always fun.

5.) The ErlKing – The ErlKing runs the Wild Hunt—a hunt where a pack of hellhounds in spectral hound form hunt down beings and steal their souls. There is only one ErlKing at any given time. I don’t go into his history a lot in the book, but the way I see him is a bit like Tim Allen in the Santa Clause…except major scary and wearing a helmet made from a boar’s head. In my mind the ErlKing was at one time a normal man, elf, whatever, then he somehow got hold of the horn and called up the hunt. That act made him into the ErlKing. He lost his soul to the hunt. Now he is the hunt, and he has some major powers, not the least being the ability to control a pack of hellhounds with the curl of his pinky.

And that is it, no humans, elves, trolls or giants in this book.

So, which one would you want to be? Which do you think would be most useful in modern life? I’m leaning toward Norn because I just think it would be cool, and because I think of them as being kind of catlike. But there are certainly days that shifting into a hellhound would be darn useful…

You can read an excerpt here, visit Lori Here or buy her book here!