3T Writing Tidbit - writing update

I haven't been writing lately, because in 2018 my life took a hard turn, with several events indicating I needed to get back in the regular workforce, including the death of my older brother and that of one of my uncles-in-law, and my mother-in-law's near death. Plus my sales were down and we had basically one income, which in this economy is living quite dangerously.

So I went back to school and freshened up my credentials for application development or as we used to call it, computer programming. Fast forward two years, I got a day job just as COVID reached its peak and my home writing office was repurposed as a home app development office. Fast forward five more years and it's now.

And I've been mentally working on Soul Mates all along.

There's a blog or two or three out there about the troubles I've been having with the final book in the Pull of the Moon series. I didn't like the hero. The heroine was boring. The plot was disjointed. The villain had one-dimensional motivation.

One by one, over the years, I've been working these out. 

I'm still not writing, but I'm a lot closer than I've been. I'm actually getting exciting about the hero, the heroine, the plot -- even the villain. 

If you're one of my readers waiting for the finale to Pull of the Moon, don't lose heart. It's coming.

2T Repeat Performance - Beauty Bites

 

I've done a number of blog tours over the years, posting on different sites. Now I'm bringing them to you!

Originally published August 29, 2013 for Readers' Roundtable

Thank you to Sydney and the Reader’s Roundtable for having me here today!

Mary, tell us a little about yourself and your upcoming release.

I’m a reader, writer and flutist with a skewed sense of humor and a smattering of engineering genes (yay, details!!).

Beauty Bites is the sixth story in the Biting Love series of hot paranormal action layered with romance and quirked up with characters.

It’s the story of Dr. Synnove Byornsson, a plain girl who grew up to be a great beauty but still favors substance over style, and Ric Holiday, adman extraordinaire who’d be all about style if he weren’t hiding a few things—like that he’s a two hundred year old vampire.

Synnove owes a favor to her cousin Twyla from The Bite of Silence—the cousins have been trading pranks since the cat and water balloon incident. Twyla’s the city admin for the little town of Meiers Corners, and she wants Synnove to ask Ric to take the city on as a client.

Ric is attracted to Synnove, but doesn’t want to go near Chicago. That’s the home of the mafia-like vampire who turned Ric as a child. Ric escaped with the aid of his assassin friend Aiden (in between fights, the duo exchanges guy-digs and quips).

So Ric turns Synnove’s proposal down. Then a sly temptress with a counterproposal forces his hand. The two women are scheduled for a face-off, with Ric as the prize.

Here’s the warning: Contains a doctor with a bod for sin, an ad exec with a chip on his shoulder, sarcasm, sex, and a cabin full of annoying friends. Secrets are revealed. One heart-stopping, horrific moment leads to the ultimate of happily-ever-afters.

What inspired this fantastic series and how do you keep coming up with fresh, innovative material with each installment?

Thanks for your kind words! <3 One way to keep things fresh is making each heroine a bit different, which puts a different spin on the kind of humor in the story. Liese loves puns; Nixie sees the world through punk glasses; Elena’s all cop; and Junior loves music jokes. Even characters who are similar, like musicians Nixie and Junior, have a different background, so while Nixie’s punk, sassy and rebellious, Junior’s all business.

It also helps that the series stakes are rising. Each story reveals a little more about vampires, takes us closer to the heart of the Iowa Alliance (the good guys), and gives us a badder bad guy with a little more mayhem.

But one of the best ways to keep writing fresh is taking part in communities of readers and writers. People who love stories are the support and encouragement to learn new and better storytelling.

What other books do you have in the works?

I’m very excited that Downbeat, Biting Love Book 7, releases March 2014. It’s Rocky’s story, and I actually started it in 2008 before the first Biting Love book was even published. But its place in the series arc meant I didn’t get to finish it until this year. I’m glad it was delayed though, because this one is near to my heart, and my readers, editors, and the writing community has made me a better writer and the story benefits from that.

I’m in the planning stages for Book 8, Aiden’s story, and frankly that one will be a hoot because it pairs the sexy, smooth assassin with an inept but loveable Ruffles.

What are 5 things that you'd like your readers to know about Mary Hughes and/or the Biting Love series?

The Biting Love series came about after years of rejections. I put everything that had gotten great feedback into a story...and it got published. Keep writing. Write from the heart (and the gut :).

Aids to Meiers Corners. Nixie’s slang guide: http://maryhughesbooks.com/Nixie%20Slang.htm; the Biting Love series reading order: http://maryhughesbooks.com/Reading_Order.htm.

The stories have fun elements, and I’m careful to keep the emotional touch light. However, there is one stark scene in Beauty Bites, and highly sensitive readers are urged to follow Synnove’s caution and skip ahead to the next chapter.

Downbeat has a scene I’ve been waiting five years to write J

I love it when the series is discovered by new readers. I’m also hugely grateful to dedicated long-time readers. I love to hear from both!

3T Writing Tidbit - A Brief Rant

 As I was sorting through my cards (I jot down ideas on writing on index cards and have, at this point, an inch and a half pile) looking for things I haven't written a tidbit on, I came across one on scene planning.

While overall it's the usual: Goal, Conflict, Disaster, there's a difference. It suggests color-coding the scene based on twists, shifts, and repetition. It's this last that I want to address.

I'm climbing up on my soapbox here. This is a pet peeve, and if you don't want to hear a diatribe, don't go any farther.

You've been warned, lol.

Repetition can be good. It's a basic tenet of musical composition. State your theme. Repeat it, to get it in your listener's ear. Then start to repeat it - but vary it just enough to make something new. Think the start of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Da-da-da-duhhhh. Da-da-da-duhhhh. Da-da-da-duh, da-da-da-duh, da-da-da-duh (and we're off!)

Repeating the scene's goal or the protagonist's goal can be good. If it's been 100 pages since it's been mentioned and she's about to face her deepest fear, by all means, give the reader a reminder.

But for the love of all that's holy please please please do not repeat it twice a page. Don't even repeat it more than twice a scene unless you're going to vary it enough to make it new.

Don't you trust your reader to remember it?

I have a favorite PNR author I had to stop buying because she repeats the heroine's goals and/or fears at least a dozen times per chapter. Without variation or adding anything to the plot, character, or even deepening those goals/fears.

Deep breath. Thanks, I feel better now.

So what can we do about this authorly tic? 

• Trust your reader to remember the goal (it's strong enough to remember, isn't it?). 
• If you must put in a reminder, vary it somehow from the last time you brought it up.
• Better yet, make it add to the plot, or character development, or deepen (or twist!) the goal somehow.
• Reread the whole scene. It'll take hours to days to write a scene, and we may be repeating the goal because we can't remember it from yesterday. Read it as the reader will experience it to catch that annoying tic. 
  

(See what I did there? I repeated the information in the paragraph 2 above this, but varied it to make it stand out differently.)

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.   

2T Repeat Performance - Small Town, Big Romance

 

I've done a number of blog tours over the years, posting on different sites. Now I'm bringing them to you!

Originally published August 27, 2013 for My Odd Little World

Thank you to Nancy and My Odd Little World for having me back!

Why a small town for the setting, instead of a major city?

 New Orleans, Chicago, and New York give an urban fantasy or paranormal romance that gritty urban flavor. My vampire romances are set in the small German-immigrant settled city (pop. 7000) of Meiers Corners, a town outside Chicago, for several reasons.

The contrast is funnier.

Come on. Opie with fangs? Instant hoot.

(Don’t worry. The heroes are all big bad alpha males. No wimpy neck-sippers in the Biting Love romances.)

The writerly answer is that setting is another character. In this case, it’s really true, because Meiers Corners has a lot of personality. It’s a self-contained community, settled in the 1800s, where everyone is still related to some degree, even the newcomers—the genes rub off. It’s like an extended family. Everyone knows the rules. Arrive twenty minutes early for everything; the instant the lawn gets longer than one-point-five inches the mowers come out. Meiers Corners makes a great contrast to characters like Nixie, a punk rocker who spells authority G-e-t-M-e-O-u-t-t-a-H-e-r-e.

The personal answer is that I was born in a big city and grew up in a bedroom community but raised my kids in a small town, and it was a new experience for me. In some ways we were like Oscar and Felix in the Odd Couple, but my little town rubbed off on me just like Meiers Corners does. I’ve moved since then and at our new place we have the best-clipped lawn in the neighborhood!

3T Writing Tidbit - Body Language

 As writers, we're told constantly "show, not tell". While I'm not behind this statement more than 70% (cuz really, how boring would be having to live through all the character's moments in a day?), I do think we need to be good at it in order for the reader to become truly immersed in the story.

So here's an easy way to show not tell, one we use in real life: body language. The proof's even in the description! It's not talking language. It's the language of movement, of showing a story through intimate personal dance.

Keep an eye out for ways people in your life (or just people-watching) signal emotions. Do they lift an eyebrow in disbelief, or do they wince? Maybe when they're puzzled, they scrunch up their face or just rub their nose.

Once you have a list of ways an emotion can be shown through body language, go back and consider them against your character. Would Superman, if he was puzzled, be a face scruncher or a nost rubber? Would Sherlock Holmes, if he was disbelieving, be a wincer or eyebrow lifter? 

Pick your body language and have fun showing!

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.   

2T Repeat Performance - 5 Reasons Alpha Males Are Like Chocolate

I've done a number of blog tours over the years, posting on different sites. Now I'm bringing them to you!

Originally published August 26, 2013 for Reading Between the Wines

Thank you to Crystal and Reading Between the Wines for having me here today!

 Quirky pairings are fun. Example: five-zero punk musician Nixie and six-plus lawyer Julian = Nitro? Meet glycerin.... In honor of Beauty Bites’ alpha male Ric Holiday and Dr. Synnove Byornsson’s affection for chocolate, I ask: How are alpha males like chocolate?

Five reasons alpha males are like chocolate.

5. Both give delight when enjoyed with morning coffee or evening liqueurs.

4. Some can be bitter and overpowering. But add in a touch of sweetness and you have a powerbar of energy that keeps you going and going. (And going... :).

3. They’re both awesome between thin sheets...hey, I mean graham crackers and marshmallows ;)

2. Photos of either in the unwrapped state may cause drool.

1. You can lick or nibble.

 Three reasons alpha males aren’t like chocolate.

3. Chocolate can’t make you breakfast.

2. Chocolate can’t be an ad tycoon, rock star, genius tech, or bad boy biker. It can be a bunny, though.

1. While both can comfort, chocolate can’t hug you.

Four reasons Beauty Bites’ alpha male Ric Holiday is like chocolate.

4. Like chocolate, Ric has a bite.

3. Both are soooo smooth.

2. When beauty Synnove is around, Ric can be very hard.

1. A childhood trauma sectioned his life into pieces.

Three reasons Ric Holiday isn’t like chocolate.

3. Chocolate doesn’t have blond spiky hair and a killer bod.

2. Chocolate doesn’t have fangs.

1. When Ric and Synnove turn up the heat, he doesn’t melt. (But she does.)

3T Writing Tidbit - Sharpen your first-draft lump of clay

When I first write something, it resembles a lump of clay. It's vaguely vase-shaped, but it's thick and lumpy and has no color.

One of the things I do when editing is to sharpen up the details.

Character: Lean into their quirks. Are they a snobby lawyer? Get out your thesaurus and upgrade their dialog from talky to loquacious. Pick a word of one or two syllables in each sentence and trade it in for a spiffy new word of four or five. Lean into obfuscation!

Setting: Make all descriptions specific. Don't just say there's a rank odor - is it burnt hair or bubbling sulfur or the rasp of spores from moldy bread?

Plot: Have a bang-up scene ender? Go back to the beginning of the scene and have the protagonist expect the total opposite. Have a couple twists in the book? Figure out how to add one more -- both you and the reader will be pleasantly surprised with how much that adds. Look for scenes that add nothing to character or plot development -- and cut them.

Sequels: the bits where the protagonist ruminates over what's happened and plots their next goal usually start out all in her head. Sharpen these by adding solid resonances. Is she planning violence? Have her pick up a knife or bazooka. Is she totally fed up with work? Have her throw her computer mouse across the room or glaring at a customer considering coming in her empty check-out line at one minute after closing or shutting her eyes as her manager stomps toward her or... you get the idea.

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.