Writers in the Storm

Merry Christmas from Writers In The Storm!

We are delighted to welcome back Louisa Bacio to talk to you about stealing time for your writing, especially during this season where it feels like everything is pulling you in a million directions. Take it away, Louisa...

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Shhh! Come here. I want to share something with you. Are we alone? No one lurking, and listening?

I’ve got a secret pleasure. One that many people don’t understand. In fact, my family – who are the closest to me, and you know LIVE with me – don’t really get it.

I need to write.

Do you feel me?

And when time gets tight, the kids are off school for winter break and the holidays creep in, well, then I don’t often get that much-needed writing time.

And you know what happens when I don't write? I get cranky. It’s like my fingers itch for a keyboard. I wake in the middle of the night, dreaming about stories.

So my question is, why don’t people get it? I mean, my husband can watch college football for ten hours on a Saturday. My daughters can play with their favorite toy-of-the-day for hours on end, but if Momma wants to write? No way! It’s like I’ve got a dirty habit that needs to be done in the closet.

With so much going on, here’s how I sneak in time:

1) Gift shopping – Sneaky, I know. But I’ve been known to tell my kids that I need time to shop for presents, and I’m actually writing. Same thing goes for wrapping.

2) Notebook in the kitchen – Say what? Seriously, if you’ve got writing in your head, can you scratch out a few lines between trays of cookies?

3) AMC Family Holiday Movies – Do you really need to see Charlie Brown’s Christmas again? While Home Alone distracts the kids, get in your word count.

4) Bath time – It all depends upon the age of your child. For my almost 5-year-old daughter, if I desperately need some quiet time, I can stick her in the tub with some mermaid dolls.

5) Late nights – Yep – less sleep. Here’s some info on one of my latest releases (most of it was written very late at night when the family was asleep):

Thanks for listening, and hopefully … you don’t think any less of me. Oh, and I know that it’s like only DAYS before Christmas, but if you take a moment to commiserate and leave a comment, along with your email address (it won't show, except to the gals at WITS), I’ll pick one winner for one of the full-length books on my backlist.

What do you do to steal time for your writing? We promise not to tell!

Visit Louisa on Facebook or Twitter. Or at one of the sites below:
http://louisabacio.blogspot.com
http://louisabacio.com

Note from WITS:
Trust us, you want to read Louisa's latest: The Vampire, The Witch & The Werewolf: Chains of Silver 

Adopted at birth, Silver Ashe discovers her blood-brother Trevor Pack is a werewolf, with a vampire and witch for lovers. All her teachings about the evils of the paranormal Others come into question. She runs to a family friend, Nick, for help.

Nick Stake takes his hobby as a vampire hunter personally. He strives to rid the world of evil bloodsuckers. When his best friend’s “kid” sister comes to him for advice, Nick discovers Silver’s more than grown up. He battles his growing desire for Silver and blindly holds true to his convictions.

Once Silver reaches her sexual maturity, she’ll inherit her full genetic heritage and turn into a werewolf. When death comes calling, Silver and Nick must face their darkest fears in order to break free from the chains that bind.

Available now via Ravenous Romance, Amazon and All Romance eBooks.

by Laura Drake

Some of my best ideas come to me while I’m riding my bicycle.  I had an epiphany during a gorgeous Southern California ride yesterday.  Several pieces fell in place at once; a major “Aha” moment.

I love it when that happens!

Piece 1:

For anyone who is not familiar with Maslow, here’s the Reader’s Digest version:

In the 1930’s Abraham Maslow put forward his “Hierarchy of Needs” concept to explain behavior. His theory was that you strive to move toward the top of the list you see to the left. You can’t move up the ladder until the lower need is met, as anyone who’s been on the lowest rung can attest to (been there, Ain’t going back.)

Piece 2:

My husband and I were watching one of those obnoxious “Weight Loss Breakthrough” ads on TV the other day. He didn’t understand why people couldn’t lose weight and keep it off (he has more drive than most – he lost 50 lbs 5 years ago.) I’m a Weight Watchers member, and the talk this week was about creating goals to achieve weight loss.

Okay, stay with me here, because my theory works for anything you want to achieve, not just weight loss.

Goal-setting advice tells you to break a large goal into small steps and you’ll finally get to your ultimate goal/need.  That’s great.  On paper.

But what if your goal is majorly BIG -- like writing a novel?

You picture your ultimate goal – let’s say it’s standing on stage, holding up a RITA. The spotlights are flashing off your sequined ball gown.  All your friends are there, cheering you on. You get the picture.

Okay, you set smaller goals, but ultimately your focus is on that stage, and your acceptance speech.  Next to that, the smaller goals just aren’t doing it for you.  Yeah, you’re making progress, but all those little steps only remind you of how far you have to go. Makes your feet hurt, just looking at them.

I think this is why we fail.  After awhile, you just burn out.  The effort just doesn’t seem worth it, so you move on to the next thing you want.  But there are two problems with that:

• First, the goal you’ve abandoned is the one you wanted most, or it wouldn’t have been first, right?
• Secondly, in spite of excuses you make, deep down, you know you’ve failed, and it hurts.  You feel guilty, which lowers your self-esteem and makes the next goal harder to achieve, because you don’t really trust yourself to do it. After all, you let yourself down before, right?

You’re moving down Maslow’s pyramid!

So what do you do?

Back to my bike analogy. One of my goals is to get stronger on the bike.  I’m on a ride, working hard, pushing through sweat and pain.

Suddenly, I’m distracted by a mockingbird’s song.  I notice that the temperature is perfect.  The rolling hills have changed since I was last on this route; tawny grass stretches away forever.

I’m so absorbed by the joy of being alive and being out in nature that I don’t even realize I’ve toiled up a major hill – it didn’t hurt at all!

That’s the Hershey Kiss part.  Is it the high you’ll get, accepting your RITA?  Not even close.

But it’s a Hershey Kiss – a moment’s sweetness on the tongue.  Okay, I’m mixing metaphors, but– it’s about focus.  You need to take the time to revel in the small goals.  Wallow in them.

Just ask an actor with an Oscar on their mantel -- they’ll tell you the evening was great, but what mattered to them was the journey, getting there.

Like Lennon said, “Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans”.

The Hershey Kisses are the joy of life!  Savor them; I wish you many.

What gives you YOUR Hershey's kisses? Are there people or activities that help you keep going on this writing journey, especially on those days when you really want to quit?

by Linda O. Johnston

I’m delighted to be back for another guest blog on Writers in the Storm.  Once again, I’m blogging about cozy mysteries.

Do you know what makes a cozy mystery "cozy?"

Well, they all star amateur sleuths, for one thing.  There are a lot of Jessica Fletcher types of characters out there who just happen into murders and are drawn into solving them, even though they don’t really know the first thing about how to find a killer, at least not at first.

Sometimes they’re driven because they are the main murder suspects, or their best friends or close relatives are.  Sometimes, it’s just because they stumble over a body, either literally or figuratively, and have to figure out whodunit.

In cozies, the sleuths may be amateur but they’re not dumb.  They often have friends or relatives who are in law enforcement who can help them out.  Sometimes those friends are really good friends, like their love interests.  And, yes, most cozy protagonists are women, since their readership is also primarily female.

One thing that often pulls readers into a cozy series is the underlying theme.   The readers may share the protagonist’s interests on anything from pets (that’s my theme!), to hobbies, to one or more kinds of paranormal activities, to cooking or sewing or any other kind of personal pursuit.

Cozies tend not to be particularly graphic, although that may be changing.  Even when a protagonist stumbles over a bloody body, that blood isn’t described in gory detail.  In some stories these days there might be a little bit more description of the dead body, or even of what goes on in the protagonist’s bedroom.  Her sex life usually takes place off the page, even when she has a love interest.

Cozy mystery protagonists also often have friends who are sidekicks in addition to those in law enforcement.  They’re helpful sounding boards for running theories by, or even sometimes help to dig out those all-important clues.

Most cozy mysteries tend to be written in series, so you can get to know the character and friends, and dig further into the themes.

Do you find this fun?  I hope so--and here’s a little blatant self-promo which may also be of interest to those of you who want to write cozy mysteries:  I’ll be teaching an online class called: Kiss Me or Kill Me: Writing Cozy Mysteries for Romance Writers.  It’s offered by the Orange County Chapter of Romance Writers of America, and starts mid-February.  Notwithstanding the name, it could be of interest to you if you’re interested in writing cozies but don’t write romance.  I will be addressing the basics of how to write cozy mysteries. Hope to see you there!

Do you read cozy mysteries? Do you have any questions for me? What is it that attracts you the most to these books vs. "traditional" mystery novels?

Linda O. Johnston is the author of 29 published novels, with more to come.  She currently writes the Pet Rescue Mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime, a spinoff series from her Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mysteries, also for Berkley .   The second Pet Rescue Mystery, THE MORE THE TERRIER, was an October release, and the third, HOUNDS ABOUND, will be available in April 2012.

Additionally, Linda writes paranormal romance for Harlequin Nocturne--the Alpha Force miniseries about a covert military unit of shapeshifters.  Watch for one in 2012.  And also coming up, in July 2012 is Linda’s Harlequin Romantic Suspense UNDERCOVER SOLDIER!