Discover Your Voice

Writer's spend a lot of time discovering their voice. They experiment with word choice, cadence, and pacing. Voice is what makes writing unique.

Not just writers need a unique voice. Everyone does. Every day. What does your voice sound like? Do you use strong words? Do you whisper in response? Let's say a friend cancels plans with you. What's the first thing you say? Or a friend walked right past you, ignoring you, as if you weren't there. How would you react? What words would you use? What if a friend pushed you because they were mad?

What if you don't know what to say? Do the right words present themselves to you at a later time? Do you play the scene round and round in your head wishing the ride would stop so you could get off? Probably, right? You need a journal.

Write it down: your thoughts, feelings, expressions, the good comebacks you didn't think of earlier. If you're sad, write it. Mad, write it. Happy, write it. Include the things you like about yourself too. Use your journal to discover your voice. Your writing voice and your real voice. Take it with you and write about what you see, hear, smell. Write about where you are and where you want to go. Ask questions. Dig deep. Your journal is a safe place to spend time with your private voice. No one is judging you, correcting your grammar. No worries.

Thrillerfest Wrap Up

So, last week I attended the International Thriller Writers annual conference in New York City. It's where thriller writers of all walks of life come together to discuss writing, publishing, and network. You can meet anyone from R.L. Stine to Ken Follett to David Morrell to Diana Gabaldon. It's amazing really. All those people were there!

I also had the opportunity to make some friends with debut authors I'll keep you posted on and prepublished authors like myself. The weekend winds down with an awards banquet and after party. These thriller writers really know how to have a good time.

If you're a writer or even a fan of the genre it's worth the trip to NYC. I can't wait for next year.

Three For One

I wanted to write about staying positive, living a fulfilled life, stuff like that, but time is of the essence so I'm going to combine a few subjects into one post. Think of it like a two for one sale! And who doesn't love that? The guys might not care, but pretend.

First: check out Attacking The Page for a great blog post about how the Okinawans live. I promise you'll want to emulate these people.  (This is the article I spoke about last time. See, it didn't take me so long to get it to you.) We all should be living a life filled with value. Are you?

Second: I went to a garage sale last weekend. I can't tell you the last time I went to one, but the sellers had displayed crystal glasses on a table and the sun caught the etched stemware and lit it on fire. I just had to take a closer look. Someone had died and their belongings, what was left of them I guess, were being sold for a few dollars. It got me thinking. Is this what becomes of us? The treasures that we held dear, ornaments that adorned Christmas trees, wine glasses we toasted with all being discarded for three dollars each? Does our legacy lead us to rickety tables in driveways in hopes someone will come along and see the beauty we did in it? Or do the things we held dear end up on the curb because no one thought the candle stick holders were worth five dollars? Oh, I know. It's not the sum of our "things" that make us who we are. It's our spirit and the choices we make in our lives, but along the way we've accessorized our lives with "things." It's all someone else can touch when we are gone. I just hope if my good china becomes nothing more than a few scattered pieces that someone will stop at the garage sale, pick it up and know there is a story behind it. One that must be told. How do you feel about it?

Third: I'm off to the sixth annual Thrillerfest hosted by the International Thriller Writers. I hope to learn great things about the craft, meet fantastic people, (maybe one or two who can advance the publishing dream a little) and have some fun. I'll report on more when I return.

Okay, so it was three stories for the price of one. But who's counting? Talk to you later...

Expert Juggler

Recently, I had a few people tell me they checked out the blog for the first time. And I thought, "wow, I haven't been there in awhile. I'd better get cracking."

Like so many moms I am an expert juggler. If you'd asked me eleven years ago if I was even interested in the art of juggling I would have laughed at you. The problem is some balls stay in the air longer than others which means I don't get my hands on them, like this blog.

I won't bore you with my long list of tasks that require my attention. I'm sure you have a large list of your own, but a day doesn't go by that I don't wonder how I'm going to handle it all. Just writing my new YA novel, looking for representation for the thriller novel, and blogging takes up more time than I can give it. I want my writing career to take off to parts unknown so I want to devote all my time to that, but I can't neglect the three thousand other things I have to do. (It's not quite that many, but close.) So, I toss the writing ball into the air and grab on to one of the others, hopefully it's the right one, but hey, I'm also pretty good at improvising!

How do you juggle all the things needing your attention? Career? Home? Family? Fitness? Friends? Causes? I'm sure all the readers would like some tips. I know I would! Until then, I'll be tossing the writing ball for the day and on to the next one! Talk to you later...

By the way, my next post will include a link to a great site Attacking The Page with an article by my good friend KM Fawcett. Stay tuned. (I promise not to wait so long!) Of course, check out the site for all the fabulous posts about martial arts and action packed fiction.

A Reader

What makes someone a voracious reader? What makes a child one? Personally, many of my childhood memories include carrying around a book I was reading. I loved the book fair at school the way others loved ice cream on a hot day. I was always a reader. Still am.

So what makes a kid pick up a book, get sucked into the vortex of the world, and not want to come up for air until he's gobbled up every word like a human reading vacuum? Is it character? Plot? Humor? Are they relating to real life situations much like their own? Or do they want to find a place to escape to so they can turn off the activities, the homework, the bullying, the noise of their parents?

When did you become a reader? How about the child in your life? Or maybe you don't read much more than the fliers in the Sunday paper and this blog, of course. Tell us what makes you dive into a book and ask the kids around you. I want to know what makes them read too.

Talk to you later...

Finding an Agent

I'm on a quest to find an agent for my thriller novel, Don't Play With Fire. For those of you who have done this you know what a daunting task it is. I've made my list of at least a hundred agents and from there I begin reading over their websites, provided they have one, to make sure their agency is a good fit for me.

One of the items I check out is the list of clients. If I don't happen to already know of a specific thriller writer represented by this group I want to make sure my style writing would be what they're looking for. Simple enough, right? Not always.

Many agents represent numerous clients. That's a good sign, however, the very last thing I want to do is click on each and every client's name to read about them. First off, why doesn't every agency list their clients in order by genre?  They make such a stink about authors doing their research before they query. "Don't waste anyone's time, blah, blah, blah." But they're wasting my time by not categorizing their clients.

Faced with an enormous list of names in alphabetical order, I hover my mouse over each one and click. Hoping to find out what kind of books this person is blessed enough to have other people purchase from them. Do I find this information in a neat, concise paragraph? What do you think?

Nope. Well, I'm exagerating. Sometimes I get lucky. Most times instead of telling me what types of books they write the authors go on and on about how they became a writer, or that they wanted to be a writer most of their lives, what kinds of books they read as a child, how many pets they own, the number of children running around under foot, and where they live. Guess what? I don't care! Just tell me what kind of book you write so I can decide whether or not your agency is a fit for me.

Simple, Neat, Concise. In other words, get to the point! And why doesn't the agency say, "Gee, Miss/Mr. Author, that's all very nice and sweet that fluffy sits in your lap while you pound away at your outdated manual type writer, but you're running off at the mouth." Save that stuff for your jacket cover.

Authors do run off at the mouth. I'm doing it now! But I can, because this is my blog. I'll tell you what, when I finally get a chance to write a cute paragraph for my agent's website I will not tell you how many pets I own (none), that I wanted to be a writer since I was seven, or that I had the chance to sit at Ernest Hemingway's typewriter. I'll just say: Supernatural Thriller Novels. Fantasy/Thriller YA/Middle grade novels. Awesome agent! What else is there?

Talk to you later...

Missed Opportunities

Recently, my family and I were vacationing in the Florida Keys. We had a great time. Sunny and eighty every day. A blessed experience. But I noticed something and it bothered me. A lot.

More than once I saw a parent sitting with its child and the parent's head was buried in their phone! We had stopped at a local ice cream shop (I had the gelato, yum!) and a father and son were sitting at a table. The young boy, no more than twelve, was eating his ice cream and the father tapped, tapped tapped on his dumb phone! I wanted to go up to the dad, tap on his shoulder and say, "hey, buddy, this might be a good time to talk with your son!" I never understood those commercials telling parents the right times to talk to their kids about drugs. I watch them and think, "what moron doesn't know the best time to talk to their kids?" Imagine me smacking my head in the ice cream store and going, "Now I get it!"

I also watched a mother so engrossed in her game of solitaire she didn't bother to look up and witness her children roasting marshmallows at a bonfire. Sad. Really sad.

It goes on all the time. People who aren't present for the ones they're with because the phone is beeping with what might be someone way more important. What message are we sending?

Not every behavior is okay and I don't think texting and checking emails when you're in the company of others is good behavior. The children are watching and they will do exactly what they see mom and dad do. It doesn't matter how many times you tell them to get off the video games if you're doing it from your Blackberry!

Put your devices down, people! Enjoy the moment that you're in because it won't last and you'll be wondering what happened to that sweet little boy or girl who ate ice cream and toasted marshmallows. They will become sullen, insecure adults the rest of us have to put up with. So do us all a favor and don't miss the opportunity to be present with your children.

Talk to you later...