Slipping The Holiday Slump

This week is the official beginning of 'The Holiday Season'. A lot of people began  preparing six months ago. Some are just now letting themselves ease into the holiday frame of mind. My husband actually loves this time of year. When people are happier, kinder and more human to one another. The craziness of parties, presents, shopping, and over-eating is expected and embraced by everyone. We'll diet, work-out, slim down and get back to work...after 'The Holidays'.
As writers, this time of year can be very seductive. The retail portion convinces us to push our already published work, neglecting our work in progress. The habit of writing everyday falls prey to the myriad of errands, chores, details and commitments surrounding this time of year. By the time 'The Holiday" is past, we're two months behind, out of practice, and reluctant to push ourselves back into the work of writing.
So before we sink happily into the warmth and business of 'The Holiday Season', here some advice from other writers:
#1 Read, read, read everything you can get your hands on. -T. H. White
#2 One day at a time. Today might have been hell, but if it was a good writing day, nothing else matters. -Neil Gaiman
#3 Sacrifice. There's nothing to writing. You just sit down at a typewriter and bleed. -Earnest Hemmingway
#4 When you can't create, work. -Henry Miller
#5 Quantity is quality. If you write a little you're doomed. -Ray Bradbury
Now this advice isn't particular to 'The Holidays" but it can be a reminder for how you can slip the holiday slump. Attach the words of these writers to your mirror, your television screen or your hand held device and remind yourself everyday to follow one piece of wisdom to get you through.
Keep writing, keep reading and have a Happy Holiday!

Why Love A Man Who Loves An Ugly Car?

Have you ever read a book, or story and wished you could tell the writer how bad it was? Have you rolled your eyes and thought, Geez, I can do better than this!
I have. Even with some of my favorite authors. The writers at the top of their game can pretty much break the rules and do anything they want, they also get more feedback than they bother with. Writers Like me, struggling, working, learning. We can't have bad days, or 'blogposts' because we'll lose fans and friends. We also don't get any feedback. So...Here's my suggestion. Thanks to Michelle Hauck's First Page Critique blog hop. I got some great suggestions from fellow writers. I'm asking for more. I'd love to hear from reader's who've read any of Why Love A Man Who Loves An Ugly Car and  Critical guidance from other writers. Mostly however just tear it apart. Go back through the archives and read anything with the title: Why Love A man Who Loves An Ugly Car and tell me where I lose you, where you roll your eyes, where your precious time is being wasted. October's post was especially bad, you can skip it. Health problems, Kid issues, and work distracted my better judgement. Lame excuse I know, but the truth.
So I'm asking, no begging, you to get mean and let me have it. Don't be crude or cruel, I'll have to filter you, but don't worry about offending the blind lady either. Taking offense is a choice we make when we think we're too good to work on being better. Trust me, I've got none of that going on. e-mail your comments to me, leave them on the blog, tweet me tracimcauthor or leave your feedback on face book. facebook.com/tracimcauthor
Jay and Alex need a break until I can do their story justice so this will be the last post for a while, until I can take care of them again. Thanks for reading! 

Fall First Hop Critique

One of the blogs I follow- michelle4 laughs-is an author, editor and and a talented writer in many forums. She is sponsoring a blog-hop critique where I can post the first 250 words of my manuscript and recieve up to 10 critique's by other writers. That being said I've got one more day to get my name on the list...so here's what I've learned so far. Attempt #3:
Adult/Urban Fantasy






The Third Centurion

 “its one book,” he mumbled into the darkness. “What’s the big deal?

Lowering his fevered head to the frosted pane of glass, he tried to calm his pounding heart beat.  Winter wind clutched at the scorched sensation emanating from his body, his breath steaming the window of the book store

For the last three days he’d gone inside, browsing, inspecting the collection, listening as she refused to sell the books.

Tonight, however, With the last car’s departure from the parking lot, he’d  hunkered down amidst the oaks and pines to wait for the store to close. The wild tangle of  trees and underbrush kept his car almost invisible to the owner.

“Don’t do this, son,” his father’s voice lectured him even though he hadn’t seen the old man in five years.

I can do something about it tonight.I don’t have any other choice.

Steep roof lines and a white-washed wrap-around porch formed a silhouette against the charcoal sky as he crouched on the balls of his feet to inspect the window frames. Wires and components for an alarm system hung in a jumbled mess beneath the sill. “Someone’s broken in before,” he whispered. “This will be easy.”

A slight movement stilled his body against the pale siding. He needed to disappear into the sparse foliage lining the flower boxes.The crack of  whipping branches dropping pine needles onto the cedar shingles sounded like footsteps. Nothing else moved, he was still alone.

Relief washed through him,but the scorching fire in his chest erupted into white hot flames

Author Review:Dennis Marcoux

Reviewing children's books is an adventure as well as a fun experience for me. First because I get to "hear" the story and then look through my children's eyes at the pictures. This exciting adventure was just such a thrill for me. Marcoux uses wild animals as his characters, giving them individual personalities, names and role's in the story. The game of hide-n-seek gets exciting when Nutty's sister vanishes. The dangers and surprises the animals find as they search for Twittles keep kids turning the pages. My youngest especially enjoyed finding the secret hiding place where Twittles disappeared. It was a fun story with great illustrations and I hope to read more about Nutty and Twittles

Title:  Adventures of Nutty and Twittles, Oh Nuts! I Lost My Little Sister

ISBN:  978-1-61244-274-7

Nutty and his sister Twittles set out to play a fun game of hide "n" seek with their friends. When Twittles is the only one missing, the game quickly changes.  Nutty has to find his sister because she may be lost in the dark and dangerous Forrest.

About the author:

Dennis Marcoux lived in Worcester, Massachusetts for most of his life and now resides in Cape Coral, Florida.  He has been writing children stories and poems for many years and is passionate about children reading to expand their imagination.  In his spare time, you can find him reading books as a volunteer in elementary schools and children's hospitals.  He is a member of the Gulf Coast Writers Association of Fort Myers, Florida

e-Book Available Nook & Kindle 

From Memories To Memoir

A lot of writers, as well as average people, feel something in their lives could benefit other people. It may be something tragic, miraculous, exciting, or entertaining. It may be someone famous they knew. Something historically important they did. It may be that they just lived unlike anyone else they know.
I consider my life pretty average. Most people feel the same way, even if its only normal for them. However,the best memoir's aren't written by the out-of-the-ordinary. Most Memoirs change lives because the average reader can picture themselves in the ordinary life of an average person who learns an out-of-the-ordinary lesson in an exceptional way. 
That's a mouthful, but its true. If you want to tell your story but you can't find your way through the ordinary memories to a manuscript of your memoir, maybe I can help.
-1.Your true story must have an arc: An arc is the frame work of your story. Perhaps you feel you already have an arc, after all you lived it. The problem is: where do you start? Which memories are important to you and which are going to keep your reader turning pages? Where do  you end?
Even if you can answer these questions, do you know which to summarize and which to detail? Do you know how much of your emotion about your life is enough and how much is you coming off as a victim?
I didn't know any of these things. I've got lots of sad, funny, miraculous, and devastating experiences...at least for me. How was I going to figure out how to whittle it down?
-2. Start with a Desire Line: What is a desire line?
Your story isn't going to start on the day you were born, unless your birth is significant to your desire line. You must find out what you wanted more than anything else when your interesting/out-of-the-ordinary story began. This isn't what you accomplished when the story was over. This was your pleasant, ordinary, it-works-for-me belief system.
This is harder than you think. You must avoid vague, generalities because everyone wants: love, acceptance, peace, happiness etc. etc.
Your desire line needs to be specific to your story. Finding your desire line can't be whipped out in an hour long writing session. It takes internal canalization and you will have to try out a few before you discover your inner truth. I worked my desire line from "I want to be seen as more than a sick person" to "I want to do what everyone thinks I can't" before I settled on "I want my body to be healed."
I'm not finished. I can feel I'm close, but in an arc the emotional barriers are more important than the physical ones. As you lay out your arc you will discover what your desire line truly is.
3. Lay out the beats: Once you're working with a desire line you feel is accurate, its time to construct the actual beats of your story. The biggest mistake you can make here is to have either emotional beats with no action, or action beats with no emotion.
The first beat of your story will go: I -my desire line- by doing -action-. While -action- happened I -emotion- and -succeeded or failed-
the next beat will follow this pattern, until you've arrived at the end of your story. The end occurs when you either achieve your desire line, no longer want your desire line, or discover your original desire has turned to a new desire. It is not the end of your life, otherwise someone else is writing your story. It is only the shift to success, failure, or change of desire.
Let me give you an example-
If my desire line is to find true love with someone who sees my potential instead of my flaws then it would go something like this
Beat 1- "Who cares if your blind. No one treats you like this because you are worth more,"  he said.
I was running thoughts of slashing her tires and calling the ACLU through my head as my friend's car left me in the empty parking lot. Yeah, I was a big girl and I'd survive just fine for the next few hours inside the diner alone. Seriously though, who leaves a blind lady in a strange place far from home, in the middle of the night.
His words struck me as if I'd tripped over the curb instead of sat beside him. She was his girlfriend, he wasn't defending her. I was just some blind girl. "Who cares if you're blind..." his words echoed in my head. I thought everyone did.
beat 2- I held the bottle of Ruby Red Grapefruit juice in my hand, peeling the label and trying not to smile. He'd brought me the juice on his way home from work tonight, I still stood in the damp grass while my room mate said goodbye to him in the driveway. He'd brought her a Coke too, "just thinking about y'all," he'd said.
Beat 3- "Let's go climb Angel's Landing. I need to tell you something."
Oh no," I thought. "This won't be good. He'll have to help me the whole time, It's a narrow switch back trail. "Don't look so excited," he said with a laugh. "You can do it, and if all else fails, I'll hold your hand."
Chronologically these are the events, in the order they happened. Can you see which one isn't needed? The arc of the story will help you narrow down what is important and what's not. the beats will build an actual story and your desire line will show you what is important to the main thread of working toward your desire line's completion.
It was recommended to me to write each beat on a separate 3x5 card and then spread them out and look at what's missing and what's extra. This is very visual and doesn't work for me so I use a spread sheet instead.
I have three cells the first being the action, the second the emotion and the third being whether I'm getting closer to, moving away from, or changing my desire line.
Once the story is laid out in its beats I can see where the thread has gone, when and where it went off track, and if it wasn't the ending I thought it was.
I'm still working on turning my memories into my memoir. I'm not sure I have enough action in my life to balance out my analytical mind. too much internal musings and learning makes your story more of a lecture. If too much is focused on all the times you're desire line wasn't achieved then you've got a victim's ballad. Nobody wants to read that.
I haven't figured it out yet but I'm always open to help and suggestions. If you're writing or have written a memoir, please, leave a comment. I'm giving away a free copy of my book "Killing Casanova" to one person who leaves a comment and their e-mail address.
Keep working on your memoir or whatever else you're writing. Someday we'll make memories into memoirs and tell how we became great writers!

Your 5 Most Important Things...

I wish writing a book could be whittled down to five secrets, ten tips, or twelve things you should never do. However the vast arrangement of knowledge, practice, experience, and just plain determination a person needs to be a successful writer is too immense to compile into a single list.
Therefor...Today's list is a gift about self publishing, from writer Jenny Ballif of thewriteshof.com
The 5 Best self-publishing tips I learned at IndiRecon:

list of 5 items
1. The Golden Rule of Marketing is:

“Write a polished, professional, well-edited book that people want to read. Repeat.” If you aren't doing this, nothing else you do can make up for it. There
are an overwhelming number of publicity options available. Pick one or two and do them well. You must have a personal website, and every social media activity
you do should link to your personal site.

2. Keyword Research Can Improve Your Sales.

Through your Author Central page on Amazon you can adjust the keywords and terms associated with your book. On
ubersuggest.com
 you can sift through all searches done on Google in the last 24 hours. This will give you way more data than you need, but can be a great help in choosing
the relevant keywords.

3. Book Cover's Matter

An indie author should not create their own cover, but they can manage the cover design process. Covers tend to be character, setting, or text based. Choose
a style and mood that best fit your genre and be sure it looks professional.

4. If You Want to Be in a Bookstore

Self-publish through IngramSpark, give the bookstore the 55% discount (not the 40%), and make it returnable. Not “return and deliver,” but “return and destroy.”


5. The Indie Author Community is Supportive

If you're new to self-publishing, check out the forum over at
absolutewrite.com.
There's a lot of help and encouragement available in the indie author world.
Indirecon is a self publishing conference sponsered by Alli Cross and her supporters. She has a free on-line conference in the spring and a live conference in October. Go check out Alli Cross and Indyrecon for more information. This is the best time in the history of publication to be an author. Writers have more resources, poss abilities and opportunities to publish both traditionally and independently. Open your self to  all that's available and publish all your good work. Good Luck and keep writing!

Why Love A Man Who Loves An Ugly Car?: Bonus

Alex’s position, sitting cross legged on the bed was meant to clear her mind. Instead, she stared at the cherry wood walls.  Her thoughts trying  to convince her there was something she needed to do, but her heart refusing to comprehend.

  With a glance  around, her gaze fell on a graduation photo of Jay hanging on the wall across from the bed. His  dark eyes, alight with joy that night, sparked her memory of another time he was there for her.

***                 *

Gated hallways and gymnasiums decorated in school colors, were supposed to entice them away from the rowdy, drinking parties brewing underground since their freshman year.

Alex was indifferent to the grad night celebrations, but Jay had that look in his eye. The one she knew meant he was up to something. Their parents, agreeing to suspend curfew, left them at the high school, probably assuming they would be chaperoned by the senior class faculty.

Jay’s eyes burned bright in the dim light of the parking lot as he told Alex about the plans for later.

    “The Falls.” Alex gulped harshly. “At night? Isn’t that kind of scary?”

"“We are going to build a bonfire and roast hotdogs. Besides, cliff jumping isn’t any fun unless you do it at night.”

A group of their friends were gathering around trucks and jeeps in preparation for the excursion down into the canyon a few miles from town. Alex felt as if the tide of the party were pulling at her and her instinct was to fight it. 

Jay begged her with his eyes. “I need to get as far away from…her… as I can tonight. She’s going hot-tubbing with the football team and I just can’t be around for that.”

     Jay watched his ex- girlfriend, half dressed and all drunk, making a fool of herself with the offensive line. , his need pierced Alex’s worries.

. “What are we waiting for?” Alex agreed, her broken smile all she could manage.
If she was nervous before they left the school, two hours later she was furious. The main road down the canyon was blocked off by the police, hoping to discourage parties like this. They, instead, took a narrow winding gravel road which dropped at a too steep angle,  into the dark abyss. The sheer canyon walls and the unpaved, rutted road made progress slow until they were forced to stop. A jeep with a blown tire, brought the entire caravan to a precarious halt on the too thin road. A friend of theirs, Jenny Peters , sprained her ankle when they tried to walk the rest of the way.

At first, Alex thought this was good news. They would have to go back. Jen and her boyfriend saved the day though when they volunteered to baby-sit the cars instead. , using the backseat, the radio, and the night for camouflage, Alex listened to Jen and Travis making out in the car while she was just   annoyed. as they made their way to the driftwood fire, she let go of Jay to pout alone on a splintered stump. Some of the guys were drinking, one of them taking up an obsessive fascination with her. When  he tried to drag her into the pool of water above the falls, Jay appeared beside her.

.

 “In order to jump from the falls, we have to cross the water and go down stream. Are you okay with that?”

Alex glanced at her unwelcome admirer before Nodding.

Jay got them over the crossing to a rocky bank handing her his flash light.

. “Are you sure you’ll beOkay, if I go jump? I know you hate rivers.”

     I’m fine Jay; I’m just not going swimming in the dark. You should go have fun though.”

"

 “I’m going to have a tough time doing that, while you’re down here imagining nightmares,” he muttered under his breath. “Well,don’t think about it like that then. Think of it more like I’m here, safe and sound. Watching you and not remembering almost drowning in ghoul’s wash.”

Jay rolled his eyes and then grabbed her hand to take her back upstream.“We don’t need to be here, Lex.”
“We do need to be here.” She insisted fiercely, digging her feet into the stoney ground. “You need to go forget everything for a while. I need to grow up and quit acting like I’m still 9 years old. I didn’t drown and it was a long time ago. I can handle this.

     She couldn’t see his expression in the dark, but she didn’t need to see anything. She was all to aware of her flimsy words betraying her. Taking a steadying breath she pulled her hand out of his. “Please Jay, it was hard enough to cross over the first time. I don’t think I’m ready to go back, and  I won’t be any better off by the fire with the drunks.”

The expression on his face argued with the worry in his eyes, but he climbed back to the head of the falls anyway.

     With every wild fling of his body off the top of the falling water, Jay seemed to be releasing the stress Alex had seen building in him over Olivia. Tonight, he was free and for an instant she was glad they came.

     “Swim with me Alex,” A nasal voice said behind her.

     Her drunken admirer from earlier appeared on the river bank, grabbing at her and dragging her toward the foaming water.

    Before she could scream a protest, the bank beneath their feet gave way and Alex plunged into the river.

     The drunk guy, her flashlight, and All rational thought, fled downstream in the rushingwater. The spring run-off chilled her bones, weakening her arms and legs as she fought the current.

     The thundering falls filled her senses and she felt herself hyperventilate. It was dark, and her sense of direction became masked by her fear, until she heard Jay’s voice       “Lex!” he shouted above the crashing water. “It’s me. Don’t move until I get to you.”

      No problem,  she thought. I couldn’t move if I wanted to.

The movement of his body through the rivers current blended with the slapping water. She heard shouts, the falls and her own thundering pulse, but it was his voice reassuring her which broke her catatonic state. his strong arms pulled her against his chest and she sucked in a breath.  He held her, in one long bronze arm, towing her along as if she were just a part of his lean muscular torso. Taking her to a grouping of rocks next to the falls, he helped her climb out of the water.

“Are you OK?” he asked brushing the limp wet hair out of her face. “I’m sorry…”

     Jay kept saying it over and over again, trying to still her shaking lips and frightened eyes. She couldn’t pull back from him, and he just kept apologizing. When her mind caught hold of his words, she shook her head, feeling the terror of the river finally, replaced with the safety of him still holding her.

       “I’m okay,” she assured him, “but I think Chris Connors is going to drown if someone doesn’t get him out of the river.”

      Jay growled, a curse slipping from low under his breath. “Chris is passed out in Baldwin’s Jeep, otherwise I would have drowned him myself already, I’m sorry. Let’s just take you home.”

He started to pull her to her feet but she remained on the boulder, watching the   freedom of their friends jumping from the brim of the falls. “I’m already wet,” she offered with a shaky laugh. “You might as well go have some fun.”

     Grimacing with a guilty glint in his eye, Jay stared out into the deepening night.

      “It was only fun as long as it kept my mind offOlivia,” he muttered.  “I don’t care about any of that anymore. She was just a girl and if she thinks she’s better off with Trent  Christian, then he can have her.”

 Alex smiled at the memory now, recalling how Jay’s former girlfriend had ended up married to Trent  Christian six weeks later and having his baby seven months after that. She’d  done the math and realized what happened that night.  

Now she breathed a sigh of relief.   He’d  dodged that bullet.

  Alex stood from the bed and walked over to the framed photograph. The cerulean blue of his cap and gown contrasted perfectly with his dark skin and eyes and the smile on his face made a flood of memory pulse against her heart. “How did those girls ever let you go?” she whispered touching the glass with her fingertips.

     Is it time to fix this? She wondered.

     Alex pulled out her phone to dial his number.