Writers in the Storm

by Jenny Hansen

A while back, my pal Julie Glover asked this question on social media: "Fellow writers, why do you write?"

The answers were astonishing.

There were easy answers like joy, entertainment, discovery. And one writer who said, "The books I most want to read are not yet written, so I must write them. —paraphrasing Toni Morrison.."

One person said, "Writing is an adventure!"

But many writers haven't nailed their motivation down.

• I've always written. I don't know why. I've just been compelled to tell stories my entire life.
• I've written since I was five. It's just a part of me.

Some answers were thought-provoking:

• It is good for the soul and it is a calling of the heart.

• It is the only way to get the damn stories out if my head. For as long as I can remember, my mind has been filled with stories. They play on a constant loop in my head. The only way I’ve found to stop them is to write them down.

• Writing has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, and writing a book had been a goal for decades. It's just something that's in me.

"For as long as I can remember" was a very common thread.

And some were funny.

• Good question. I'll have to think on that.
• Because I’m addicted to it now.
• So I can have something I enjoy reading.
• I get grumpy when I don't write.

That last one absolutely made me laugh. I always tell my husband that "I am far wittier, prettier, and happier when I'm writing regularly." (It's one hundred percent true.) So of course he shoos me off to the writing den when I'm dragging my feet.

Most authors gave answers that really resonated with me.

Those resonating answers are why I trotted over here to share the question with all of you.

• Because I don't know what I think until it comes out of my fingers.
• For the joy of discovering the story.
• It makes me happy.
• The 'aha' moments.
• Those times when some throwaway detail in the beginning becomes vital to the plot.
• When a character tick suddenly has an entire backstory and purpose I hadn't thought of at first.
• When several plot threads suddenly tie together perfectly, in ways I hadn't anticipated.

Only one answer made me sad...

I don't know, one author said.

This life has way too many ups and downs for a writer to stay sane and focused with an answer like "I don't know." The WHY is what keeps most of us going. Well, that and that we get to do it in our pajamas.

Final Thoughts

Y'all have heard me talk about it before, but...

I firmly believe that writers are made.

They are made from shyness and bullying and a million awkward moments. They're made from abuse and codependence and loneliness, and from thousands of sharp words that bruised their tender souls.

I believe the majority of writers are forged from fear or pain or loss.

I believe many writers began writing to create worlds that were better than the ones they lived in. They filled those worlds with the people they wished they knew and the relationships they wished they had.

I believe there are people who began writing because they felt compelled to make sense of things that made no sense, to speak the unspeakable, and to create hope and a way forward when there was no clear path in their everyday lives.

I believe that most writers are compelled to try to make the world better for others.

It takes some strong motivation to do what we do.

Let's face it, being a writer is rarely the easiest career choice. The pay is crappy and the hours are weird. Sometimes we have to repeat a task over and over again, until it is "just right." (Even though "just right" is kind of a unicorn.) Many of us never truly know when our work is done. We write and write until "we just feel it," or until someone more experienced tells us we are done.

There are a hundred easier professions, but very few that we'd find more satisfying. We like seeking out those unicorns. We like finding just the perfect word. And we love to create.

So now I'm circling back to you. WHY do you do this writing thing? What is the underlying reason or reinforcement that keeps you going? We'd love to hear about it down in the comments!

About Jenny

By day, Jenny Hansen provides brand storytelling, LinkedIn coaching, and copywriting for accountants and financial services firms. By night, she writes humor, memoir, women’s fiction, and short stories. After 20+ years as a corporate trainer, she’s delighted to sit down while she works.

Find Jenny here at Writers In the Storm, or online on Facebook or Instagram.

Top photo credit from Yurizap at Depositphotos.

by Piper Bayard of Bayard & Holmes

Genres from thrillers to crime to romance and others often include scenes where characters need to hide or seek out secure places. In my last article, 5 Home Defense Techniques for Any Character, my military and intelligence veteran writing partner Jay Holmes and I discussed the benefits of perimeter lights, security cameras, dogs, and brains. Today, we’ll look at more ways that we and our characters can shore up our home defenses.

Know Our Neighbors

There are only upsides to our characters getting to know their neighbors when it comes to home security.

• They know who belongs in their neighborhood and who has no business being there.
• Neighbors who are their friends will naturally notice suspicious people around their homes and likely call the police.
• They become aware of neighbors who are dealing drugs or committing other home-based crimes.
• They make friends - not the online distant kind, but the kind who bring casseroles when they have surgeries.

The best way our characters can get to know their neighbors is to take walks. Notice what people have in their yard, what cars they drive, whether they are home during the day, etc.

Holmes is a living example. When he moved last year, he started walking in the neighborhood as soon as he had a contract on his house. He spoke with every person he saw outside and was often invited in for tea.

Two months later when I visited, we took a walk, and he knew who was just divorced, who had kids and how many, who had served in the military, who was disabled, who was remodeling, etc. He had been inside two-thirds of the houses for three blocks in every direction before he ever spent a night in his own. In other words, if we and our characters just talk with our neighbors, it can make all the difference for home safety.

Exercise Driveway Vigilance

It’s always best to get in and out of the car while safely inside the garage. However, many people use their garage for either storage or a work space, or they don’t have a garage. That leaves the driveway or parking lot, and those are fertile grounds for many crimes from carjacking to kidnapping.

To keep our characters safe, they need to exercise extra caution when getting in or out of vehicles. Have them look around before they get out of their cars and check the surrounding area and the back seat before they get in. For an expanded discussion of driveway crimes, see Writing Believable Driveway Crime: Carjacking & Kidnapping.

Do Not Use the Garage Door Opener in the Car

Many cars today come equipped with a button that can be programmed to open our garage door. We and our characters should not use them. That’s because most people leave their cars in the driveway at least now and then. All a criminal has to do to get into the home is to break into the car and put up the garage door.

Keep Key Fobs Secured

Criminals can hack vehicles with keyless ignition systems from outside a building. This is called a “relay attack,” and it can be accomplished with cheap equipment found online or at an electronics store. One character holds a key fob relay box close to the outside of a building. The box picks up the signal from an unprotected key fob inside and relays it to a second device that a second character holds near the car. This fools the car, and the vehicle can be unlocked and/or started. Great for car theft, planting surveillance devices, hiding in a back seat or trunk, or, if the car’s garage door opener is programmed for it, to get into the house.

To protect against this, our characters can keep key fobs in plain old candy, cookie, or chocolate cocoa tins. If our characters want to be fancy, they can get Faraday cages to enclose their key fobs. That said, they need to make sure the Faraday cages work. Mine didn’t, which is why I switched to a candy tin.

If our characters need to make do in a pinch, they can also wrap their key fobs in tinfoil. They should be sure to wrap the tin foil around and fold it over at the edges so that it is well-sealed. (See picture.) This is also a way to secure a phone, though I would recommend two or three layers for a phone.

If our characters are traveling and don’t have access to a tin or tin foil, putting the key fob in a microwave also works. If none of those are available, they should put it as far away from the vehicle as possible.

Use Irregular Timers

Have characters hook up timers to lights, curtains, shades, and small appliances in their homes and set them for irregular intervals to make it look and sound like someone is always there. Most burglaries occur around 10 a.m. because that is the most likely time that no one will be home. Burglars wanting to avoid encounters with homeowners will back away from a home that appears to be occupied.

If All Else Fails

If an intruder is a home invader, they are altogether a far more deadly animal than a burglar.

If all precautions fail, and our characters experience a home invasion while they are present in their homes, they should not grab a knife and start hunting down the invader in their home. I’m sure we’ve all noticed how badly that goes in fiction.

Instead, our character should grab a weapon, preferably a firearm, a crossbow, or some other lethally forceful projectile. Then they should make their presence known and dash for their bedroom to get behind the bed and call 9-1-1. If our characters do not have weapons, they need to look around the room they are in and improvise. (See 10 Common Bedroom Objects to Use as Weapons and 10 Common Kitchen Objects to Use as Weapons.)

Wait, what? Why not just attack?

The home invader might see our character first and get the jump on them. Gaining a defensive position is the better option, particularly if the invader wakes up our characters in the middle of the night.

The other reason is that an attack might be a needless risk. Most of the time, intruders enter homes to commit burglary. They don’t want encounters with homeowners, and if they realize someone is at home, they leave as quickly as they can.

If the intruder knows our character is in the house and the intruder stays, they don’t just want our character’s Pokemon collection. If the intruder enters the bedroom where our character is waiting, it is one of the few clear-cut cases in life when all force is necessary force. Our characters need to bring the full fight without hesitation the second that door is opened.

At the end of the day, there is no fool-proof way for our characters to stay safe, whether in their homes, in their driveways, or out on the streets. That’s just the nature of life. However, situational awareness and simple safety precautions do eliminate ninety percent of random crimes against our characters.

Moral of the story: Don’t let our characters be low-hanging fruit.

What questions do you have about home defense? And please share any home defense techniques you already use down in the comments!

About Bayard & Holmes

Piper Bayard and Jay Holmes of Bayard & Holmes are the authors of espionage tomes and international spy thrillers. Please visit Piper and Jay at their site, BayardandHolmes.com. For notices of their upcoming releases, subscribe to the Bayard & Holmes Covert Briefing. You can also contact Bayard & Holmes at their Contact page, on X (formerly Twitter) at @piperbayard, on Facebook at Piper Bayard, or at their email, BayardandHolmes@protonmail.com.

All photos are non-editorial and paid for from Deposit Photos except for the tinfoil pouch for the keys which are property of Piper Bayard.

By J. Alexander Greenwood

Reviews. They can be notoriously difficult to come by, especially honest and impactful ones.

As a fiction writer with nearly two decades of experience, I know firsthand how challenging it is to garner the kind of reviews that build buzz and drive sales. Good reviews from “civilian readers” on Amazon and other sites are essential for credibility and visibility. But sometimes you need the authoritative touch of a known reviewing behemoth to give your book an extra boost. And they are usually not free.

But are these paid reviews really worth the investment?

Let’s explore the pros and cons to help you make an informed decision.

Firstly, caveat emptor! While reputable entities like Kirkus Reviews offer genuine critique and exposure, the industry is also plagued by less scrupulous operators. These scammy paid reviewers often promise glowing reviews in exchange for a fee, regardless of the book's quality. Unlike professional reviewers, their feedback is often vague and overly positive, lacking the critical insight that can genuinely benefit an author.

This practice not only undermines the credibility of the review but also can harm the author's reputation in the long run—and Amazon is generally not a fan. Be sure to vet any paid review site thoroughly. And remember, you get what you pay for.

Another respected paid book review service is Foreword Clarion Reviews. I have not used them, but I do like their Indie focus and may try them out. Their reviews can add significant credibility to a book, making them a valuable tool for both traditionally published and self-published authors.

Here's a list of several others, paid and free, worth considering, including Midwest Book Review, which did me a solid on my last book. They are great reviewers, but candidly, their website is no great shakes. I use them because they have a great reputation, and it looks great to blurb them on a book jacket or Amazon listing.

But let’s talk more about the industry heavyweight, Kirkus Reviews.

The Kirkus Review Model

Kirkus Reviews, founded in 1933, has a long-standing reputation for providing thorough and critical reviews of both traditional and self-published books. Their reviews are known for being brutally honest, which can be a double-edged sword. Imagine my trepidation on submitting one of my books to Kirkus—and then imagine my elation when the review was extremely positive!

A glowing review from Kirkus can add significant credibility—which may explain why the book they reviewed was one of my top three grossing books. Bear in mind, though—submit your best work, because a negative Kirkus review can be a tough pill to swallow.

The question remains: are these paid reviews worth the investment?

Pros of Paid Reviews:

Paid reviews, such as those from Kirkus, offer significant benefits including credibility and exposure. A positive review from a reputable source like Kirkus can enhance a book’s legitimacy, particularly for self-published authors. Such reviews are powerful marketing tools, useful for book covers, websites, and promotional materials, potentially influencing readers.

Added value: experienced Kirkus reviewers provide constructive feedback, which, even if critical, can be invaluable for a writer’s development. Positive reviews can increase a book's visibility, influencing libraries and bookstores to stock it, as they often rely on trusted reviews for their purchasing decisions.

Cons of Paid Reviews:

Despite their benefits, paid reviews have notable drawbacks. The cost is significant, with standard Kirkus reviews priced at $450 for 250 words and $599 for 500 words, which can be a financial burden for indie authors with limited budgets. Additionally, there are no guarantees of a favorable review, and even with payment, a negative critique can harm a book’s prospects.

Moreover, the market perception of paid reviews can be skeptical; some readers and professionals view them as less trustworthy. However, Kirkus’s established credibility can mitigate this skepticism to some extent.

In Review…

I believe paid reviews from entities like Kirkus can be worth it. They offer credibility, exposure, and valuable feedback, but they do come with significant costs and no guarantees. For some authors, the investment pays off, while for others, the risks might outweigh the benefits. Remember, there are many paths to success in the world of publishing, and a Kirkus review is just one of the marketing tools at your disposal.

Have you used paid review services? Tell us about the experience!

About J. Alexander

J. Alexander Greenwood is an award-winning writer, public relations consultant, podcaster, speaker, and former journalist and broadcasting executive. He is best known as the author of the John Pilate Mysteries and host/producer of the Mysterious Goings On podcast and the PR After Hours podcast. Alex is also the author of the Amazon Top-Selling eBook/audiobook, The Podcast Option. You can read his blog at JAlexanderGreenwood.com.

Top image by J. Alexander Greenwood via Dall-E