Writers in the Storm welcomes back NYT Best Selling Author Kat Martin, who shares her magic to MAKING YOUR STORY BELIEVABLE by setting the location in a real place.
In her latest book cover below, you can see the setting of Against the Edge. (Click the book title to watch the trailer and read an excerpt.)
Kat is donating her latest book to one of our readers who comments on this post. We'll announce the lucky winner next Monday, April 29.
by Kat Martin
One of the best ways to make your story believable is to use real places to locate the action and the real names of restaurants and streets. Actually going there, of course, is the best way to make that happen. Or using places you went to at some other time in your life.
In AGAINST THE EDGE, the hero, Ben Slocum, who also appeared in AGAINST THE SUN and AGAINST THE ODDS, lives and works in Houston. Originally, I chose that location because my husband and I lived in Houston for several months. I got to know my way around, know the restaurants and shopping, became familiar with the atmosphere of the city. Which is amazingly small-town, considering the population.
I felt comfortable there and when I spread open my AAA Auto Club map back in Montana and started to write, the street names were all familiar, the parks and airports, stirring memories of places we had been.
I truly believe there are locations you can’t write about without being there. For me that was Europe. Until I actually traveled overseas, I couldn’t image cities and towns that went that far back in time.
Paris, London, Amsterdam, and the rural communities in European countries are the sorts of places you really need to visit in order to understand the way people in those areas live. China, Russia, India--places I’ve never been--have personalities of their own and seeing them is about the only way you can get it.
Another possibility is to choose an area that fits your story and you can relate to. Any of the mountain states are easy for me since I live in Montana. I’m in Los Angeles a lot, thus my next book, AGAINST THE MARK, Ty Brodie’s story, uses that setting.
By the way, one of an author’s greatest tools is Google Earth. In AGAINST THE EDGE, when Ben and Claire travel from Los Angeles to the bayou county of Louisiana, being able to go there over the Internet, to actually zoom down into the swamp, was incredible.
So make your story as real as you can and the reader will feel that reality. I hope you’ll watch for AGAINST THE EDGE and that you enjoy.
All best wishes and happy reading,
Kat
p.s. What novels have you read that seemed so real?
Leanne gave the 10 Reasons Why You Should Sign Up for her Class over at Jenny Hansen’s blog, More Cowbell, yesterday. She also offered a discount that we’re extending to all of you here at Writers In The Storm. Use discount code “Leanne10” to save $10 on tonight’s class.
Susan Spann returns to Writers in the Storm with a new series to help you think about planning for the long-range future of your estate. In this series she'll give us practical, easy-to-follow suggestions about protecting your intellectual property.
by Susan Spann
In the spring, a young man’s fancy may lightly turn to thoughts of love, but (with apologies to Tennyson) this spring my guest posts here at Writers in the Storm will take a slightly more serious tone.
It’s time to face the reaper – or, more specifically, what happens to your copyrights (and other intellectual property) when you’re gone.
And I don’t mean on a book tour.
Intellectual property rights – including copyrights – survive their creators. Under U.S. law, copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years (and copyright term is the same for unpublished works as it is for published ones).
Every author needs an estate plan, including a properly drafted will or trust, which addresses and disposes of copyrights and other intellectual property owned at the time of the author’s death.
Most authors give plenty of thought to managing copyrights during their lifetimes, but little or none to what happens ... after.
This spring, we’ll take an in-depth look at creating an estate plan that handles the “who, what, when, and how” of managing your copyrights after your death.
The estate planning process, for authors, contains four separate steps. In the months to come, we’ll look at each one in depth and give you the tools you need to create and implement a plan that works for you.
Step 1: Create an estate plan. You can do this yourself or hire an attorney, but a good estate plan generally requires either a will or a trust. Many states allow handwritten wills – called holographic wills – and next month’s installment of this series will talk about the differences between the various options.
Step 2: Make sure the estate plan includes specific references to administration of your copyrighted works. The language may vary (and we’ll look at specific examples to help you draft it), but you need a provision bequeathing all of your intellectual property rights (“including without limitation all copyrights and copyrighted works”) to the person you want to own those rights after your death.
You can grant the rights as a unit or split them up. The choice is yours. Just remember: anything you don’t deal with specifically usually passes by operation of law to the person who receives the “residuary” or remainder of your estate. Confused? Don’t worry. We’ll take a look at what that means and explain the legalese.
Step 3: Include language authorizing your executor (or trustee) to execute any necessary assignments of rights to ensure your heirs have documented rights to control your copyrights. Although the law of most states grants executors this right by default, it’s easier (and faster) if your estate plan is specific on this point. Again, don’t worry if this sounds confusing now – it won’t be by the time this series ends.
Step 4: Assemble a list of all your copyrighted works and contact information for publishers, agents, etc. You may know who published your novels, or where they’re currently offered for sale, but your heirs won’t necessarily know. In many cases, they won’t even know where to look for that information. Makes lists of all your copyrights and important contacts, and keep those lists with your will or trust.
And remember: If you have no written estate plan, the law creates one for you – whether you know it or not. Don’t let the government control who gets your copyrights – and don’t risk letting your intellectual property pass to people you didn’t intend.
Create an estate plan, make lists, and keep everything together so your heirs don’t have to look for it after you’re gone.
A little extra work today can translate to benefits – and peace of mind – later on.
Do you have an estate plan? If you’re an author, does it mention your copyrights? Click into the comments and let me know!
Susan Spann is a publishing attorney and author from Sacramento, California. Her debut mystery novel, CLAWS OF THE CAT (Thomas Dunne Books, July 2013), is the first in a series featuring ninja detective Hiro Hattori. Susan blogs about writing, publishing law and seahorses at http://www.SusanSpann.com. Find her on Twitter @SusanSpann or on Facebook.
Writers in the Storm welcomes back James R. Preston with tips on how--and when--to add humor to your WIP, no matter the genre. Here he is with a fun-filled Laugh? I Thought I'd Die WriterStrong post.
by James R. Preston
There's this PI investigating a murder at a nudist camp in the hills above LA . . .
See the possibilities? Maybe you do and maybe you don't. Stay tuned.
But seriously, folks, I want to talk about funny stuff, why I like it and try to use it, and offer some suggestions on how to handle it. I use examples from movies as well as books, because even a bloated, three-hour modern screen epic is more accessible than, say, Moby Dick, or even Notorious Nineteen. (And, BTW, how many essayists can mention Evanovich and Melville in the same sentence?)
What's in this for you? Fair question. I can't make you funny, but I can point out examples and show you how to look for humor in places you might not have considered. At the end of this essay you will have places to look for some laughs. You will be alert for humor and I'll bet most of you travel with a notepad and pen and jot stuff down, and if you decide you want to add a chuckle to your work you'll have places to look.
I will offer rules for inserting banana peels into your stories.
Why should you listen to me? Well, I am proud when people tell me my mysteries are funny as well as emotional. And once when I was teaching a computer class at ConAgra one of my students asked me if I'd ever been a stand-up comedian. Um, that was a compliment, right?
I was sort of hiding from two guys who either thought we were in business together or who wanted to kill me.
"Sort of hiding" because I was fairly sure that the guys in question would take Door Number Two and try to shoot me, a lot.
That's describing Read 'Em and Weep, one of my Surf City Mysteries. Humor is about tone, and that bit tells the reader I'm not Mickey Spillane.
Most of the readers of Writers in the Storm write genre fiction. Love is important; so is murder. Why do we need funny incidents? Well, your readers want to be entertained, to spend a few hours away from the kids, the boss, the chores. If you do your job well, the issues the people in your story face are serious. See the fine blog from Fae Rowen for more on just how serious those issues need to be.
So a dash of pie-in-the-face provides a break. What you need to decide is whether or not you want to provide that break. Not everybody does. Wow, read Thomas Harris' Red Dragon, or Silence of the Lambs, but brace yourself. They are, by intent, grim reads. Wonderful, but like a cup of black coffee.
For a really hilarious bit in a classic giant-bug movie, look for Fess Parker's brilliant, hilarious bit in Them. Ask yourself why it's funny, and why the punch line, where the FBI agent promises to speak to the doctor about his release -- and then tells the doctor to keep him locked up -- caps it off. More importantly, ask yourself why it's there.
I got a million of 'em. You want another monster movie with at least one laugh? Check out Alien. No kidding. It goes by very quickly, but one of the characters is testing the creature's blood to see if it really is acid. He borrows another character's pen, sticks it in the puddle of blood and the end promptly melts. Yep, deadly acid. He calmly says, "Here's your pen" and returns it to the owner, whose expression is priceless. Contrast that with Aliens, which is described by the creator as "40 miles of bad road."
Or contrast any of the Stephanie Plums with any of the Reacher books. Both writers are enormously talented, one likes a good laugh, the other tells a harrowing story.
In this example my Talented Amateur has followed two suspicious characters as they buy some beer. He loses them, and then . . .
. . . from the smell they'd finished off the malt; from the looks on their faces they were ready to start on me. They slammed me up against the wall and pinned my arms to my sides. On tv Sonny Crockett or Magnum would have lashed out with a shoe, smashed their kneecaps, and then beaten the truth out of them whether they knew any truth or not, all on his way to saving the girl and getting the woman. Guess what? I tried to lash out with my shoe and break a kneecap but they moved out of the way and slammed me back against the wall again which hurt a lot, only because my ribs were still sore, normally I'm a lot tougher, so I held still, hoping they would get scared wondering what I was planning and run away. I guess they were able to control their fear, since they didn't run away.
"Are you following us, asshole?” The taller one seemed to do most of the talking, maybe because he knew more words.
I believe there are two basic rules for using humor.
Rule Number One: Decide ahead of time whether the tone of your work will allow for humor. If it won't, don't force it just because your favorite author is a very funny lady.
Rule Number One, Revisited: Tell your story and let the people in it decide if they are funny or not.
Yeah, yeah, I know. Two rule number ones? I make no apology. Writing is serious, difficult work. It is also, by definition, complex. There are many roads to And They Lived Happily Ever After. And only you can pick which one to take. That's your job.
Me? Why, I was penning serious, thoughtful adventures until my hero started talking and would he take me seriously? No-o-o-o. Some characters just got no respect for Us Serious Authors.
Rule Number Two: Be consistent!
If you write a series and it's hilarious, keep it that way. Stephen King is a treasure, a genius, but in Needful Things he gives up all his wit and warmth and, well, for my money it's a mean, mean book, completely different than of the rest of his work. Ditto for Laurence Sanders and The Case of Lucy Bending. Evanovich, Crais, John D. MacDonald, all are consistent. Unless you are a genius I suggest the same to you, and if you are a genius you certainly don't need my advice!
Okay, we've talked. What can you do? Here's your assignment. Look for humor in what you read and watch, and make some notes. Very quickly you will see a pattern, things that tickle you. Or you will find that whoopee cushions are not your cup of tea. (And if anyone can top that for Mixed Metaphor of the Week, let me know.)
I've put my guy, T. R. Macdonald, through some funny incidents like yelling, "Bad dog! Bad dog!" as he is getting his pants ripped by vicious pit bulls, but I have yet to top one of the masters.
Fleeing from thugs, Prather’s hero Shell Scott escapes by grabbing onto to a huge helium-filled balloon and releasing the rope holding it down. He clings to the slowly-deflating gasbag as he floats down out of the hills and over the city. After a while he notices that people are staring up at him, pointing and laughing. Then he drifts to a gentle landing on a window ledge at City Hall, into the arms of waiting police. Naked.
I haven't topped that. Maybe you will.
Send in your humorous discoveries. I think we will find them v-e-e-r-y interesting. Ah, Laugh-In. Gone but not forgotten. But seriously, how do you approach humor in your WIP? What is the funniest situation you've ever gotten your characters into?
James R. Preston has written four books in the award-winning Surf City Mysteries series. The most recent is Pennies For Her Eyes, the story of a young woman who wants T. R. Macdonald to help her surf Maverick's.
His next signing is July 20, at Book Carnival in Orange.
