The Selkie – Rosanna Leo

Happy Friday everyone. Casey here with a special guest. One day while I was scrolling through my Facebook news feed, I encountered this awesome cover.

That’s all it took for me to stop what I was doing and proceed to Amazon to check this book out. Two seconds into reading the first page, I was clicking the buy button. Shortly thereafter I read the entire book and loved it. This is a great story and a must read for paranormal fans or anyone who enjoys thrilling romances with mythical twists!

Rosanna and I connected through Goodreads where I immediately asked her to do a guest post for the Scribes. As you can tell from her words below, we have something in common – our love for mythological characters and paranormal romance.

Read on and don’t miss the excerpt!

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Thanks so much, Casey, for having me here today! What a thrill!

In deciding what to talk about today, I just knew it had to be mythology because Casey and I are both such mythology buffs. I have been since I’ve been able to read. Even as a small child, I gravitated to tales of vengeful gods, fantastic monsters and ancient curses. What’s not to love? Especially since most of those gods are rather dishy, in my opinion!

Of course, any myth lover will know the stories of ancient Greece and its pantheon of sexy gods. These were the tales that first inspired me to put pen to paper. My first 2 paranormal romances For the Love of a God and Sweet Hell are reinterpretations of the gods of love and wine, respectively.

However, I don’t draw the line at the Greeks. I love the mythology of ancient Britain too. My new release The Selkie draws upon one of these myths. They say in parts of Scotland that if a mortal woman is unsatisfied with her love life, she need only cry seven tears into the sea to call an immortal selkie man. He will love her as no mortal man can. Selkies are seal shape shifters who have the ability to shed their seal skins and walk as humans for great lengths of time on land. They are love genies, in a sense. If you manage to find and hide a selkie skin, that selkie is obliged to be your love slave! Not a bad deal, huh? This is the myth that forms the basis of my novel The Selkie. I hope you will get a chance to take a peek at it and explore this evocative mythology for yourself.

Blurb:

This was supposed to be her year. However, after losing her job and discovering her fiancé cheating, Maggie Collins has her doubts. When her grandmother dies, she hits rock bottom. Maggie travels to her grandmother’s home in Orkney, Scotland to sort through her gran’s things, only to discover the old woman has left her a seal pelt as her inheritance. She also learns that others are after the pelt.

To add to her frustration, Maggie’s dreams are filled with luscious images of a long-haired man, images that draw her to the magical beaches in Orkney. Although she’s lost her trust in men, this dream man inspires her with a lust she’s never known before.

Calan Kirk has also been dreaming. Dreaming of Maggie, the mortal woman who arouses him as no other woman ever has. Meeting her in the flesh when she arrives in Orkney is nothing short of spontaneous sexual combustion. But she is a human, and not to be trusted. He needs the seal pelt, not a red-haired temptress.

As a thief ransacks Maggie’s grandmother’s house, Maggie and Calan are thrust together. They must search for the animal skin, a mythical relic which once found, will either bring them together or rip them apart forever.

Excerpt: The Selkie

She continued to meander down the beach, taking the odd swig from a flask of brandy she’d pilfered from Nora’s stocked liquor cabinet. However, Maggie soon realized the real seal was following her. With each step she took, he glided through the water as if in step with her.

She nodded toward it. “You’re sweet, but I’m probably not the best playmate for you right now.”

She’d seen seals on the beach before with her gran. The locals were always pointing out spots where one could glimpse the sleek animals, or “selkies” as they called them. But this one seemed persistent. He seemed to stare back at her, with intensity. As a human would. As if he knew her.

As if he knew every inch of her skin, as well as its feel.

Maggie swallowed. Had she turned against men so definitively that she was turning to the animal kingdom?

And then she laughed at the ludicrous thought. She was grieving. For a lot of things. No wonder her brains felt just as scrambled as Liz’s breakfast eggs and just as dark as the black pudding she’d plopped on the plate next to them.

“Okay.” She relented, smiling at the seal. “Maybe some company might be nice.”

The animal bobbed in the water, as if in agreement. Maggie stared out at the beast, and was lost for a second in his brown eyes. She felt comforted, protected, by his vigilant presence.

For some reason, she felt she knew him, and that she was meant to be in this exact spot at this precise time. For a quick moment, she had the impression she was standing on the edge of a huge cliff, destined to tumble from its heights into the welcoming waves below.

For the first time in her life, Maggie experienced a peculiar sense of destiny.

Buy Links:

http://www.lsbooks.com/the-selkie-p698.php

http://www.amazon.com/The-Selkie-ebook/dp/B0095M6R7O/ref=la_B007X5P4I8_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347123491&sr=1-1

https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-theselkie-930496-140.html

 About Rosanna:

Rosanna Leo is a multi-published author with Liquid Silver Books. She loves it when the geeky girl ends up with the hot guy and has made it her mission to see this happen as much as possible in her books. Her favorite things are her family, dusty libraries and Nutella. She is the author of For the Love of a God, Up In Flames, Sweet Hell, The Selkie and the upcoming Sunburn.

www.facebook.com/rleoauthor1

www.twitter.com/LeoRosanna

www.goodreads.com/author/show/5826852.Rosanna_Leo

Thanks for being our guest today Rosanna! Scribes fans if you have questions or comments for Rosanna -Fire away!

Also, what is your favorite tale from mythology?

The Men Who Make My Heart Beat…

I saw Magic Mike today for um… research purposes. Was it well written? No. Did the male and female lead have any chemistry whatsoever? No. Did it have a satisfactory ending? No. Did I like it?

Hell yes!

There was man booty in it.  And Channing Tatum is probably one of the most physically perfect men I have ever seen. He’s got beautiful lips, and eyes and …. sigh… everything. But as yummy as he is he just doesn’t do it for me.

So in honor of Gratuitous Man Monday I’m going to share with you my list of men that I would sell my mama for.

1 The Rock. AKA Dwayne Johnson.  I fell in love with this man when I was fourteen years old. Not a girly crush. Not an ‘Oh I think he’s hot.’ But in total absolute LOVE LURVE LOOVVEE. Up until that point boys had merely existed. I had crushes on some, even liked others but when I saw The Rock on Smackdown asking the world if they could smell what he was cooking I was a goner. He was a man. A thick muscular man with pretty brown skin and perfect white smile and calves. Gorgeous calves! (I hate men with chicken legs.) I didn’t even like wrestling but I watched every damn show just for a glimpse of him. I bought his poster and even read his biography cover to cover. I’d watch him talk and get all flushed. He was my first and only celebrity crush and if it came between saving him or my mother from a burning building I’d have to think about it for a little while.

Jamie and Dwayne sitting in a tree K I S S I N G!

2. Simon Baker. I’m not usually a fan of blond men. But this man is so DREAMY. He’s the kind of guy you want to wake up looking at for the rest of your life.

What would you like for breakfast? French Toast or Waffles?

3. Old School Hottie Marlon Brando. Because before he began a love affair with food he was pretty damn yummy himself.

4. Javier Bardem. Because everybody needs a latin lover in their life

5. I haven’t ever seen an episode of his show but Joe Manganiello has got it going on. The man has got a twelve pack and if he let me I would count every one.

What about you? What man makes your heart beat?

Chairman of the Board

Hi everyone!  Vivienne Ylang here, again this week.  J Monkeys is off at a book signing today (12:00 – 3:00 at Hidden Treasures, the most wonderful store in Agawam Ma.  Everything is made by local crafters.) so she asked me to fill in. 

I blogged last week about my excitement in starting a new project.  This week, I thought I’d share some of my preparations with you.  Now, before you ask, I am a plotter, not a pantser.  Those wonderful writers who say they can’t wait to see what the characters have in store for them, have a talent (or psychosis, depending on your point of view) that I don’t have.  My characters are completely subject to my whims (God-complex anyone?) and as such, I need to understand them in order to write them.  That takes prep work.

Before I begin writing this story (I don’t even have a working title yet!) I do quite a bit of work.  I have pages and pages of character backstory written – much of which may never find its way into the book other than to flavor the characters.  Things that happened in the characters lives that shaped the way they see the present, scenes of times when they were happy, everyday interactions, things like that.

I write character bios, too.  I have a standard template that I use with the character’s name, birthdate, age at the start of the story (gotta pick a date that the story begins…) a physical description, height, weight, likes, dislikes, fears, quirks, strengths, flaws – you get the idea.  And then I answer a few basic questions about them.  Where did they grow up and go to school?  If he has unexpected free time, how does he spend it?  What would she die to defend

 

The Golden Girl

And the last thing I do to keep my characters alive in my life (for a little while) is create The Board.  My corkboard sits next to my desk and I fill it with 3×5 index cards.  Each has a picture of the character and their vital stats.  I’m a visual person, so it’s much easier to give my characters an actual face than it is to keep them all consistent in my head.  Sometimes my characters look like modern actors or other public figures, sometimes they are people from other times.  For example, I always imagine Bea Arthur as Dorothy from The Golden Girls, but I found this picture of her as a young woman and she was stunning!  You will someday find that young stunning Bea Arthur in a story of mine, believe me!

And since I’m in complete control over the characters on my board, that makes me Chairman of the Board! 

Today’s Secret: Don’t tell anyone, but the hero in my upcoming story has Owain Yeoman’s face and Joe Manganiello’s chest and abs.  Honestly, how could I not include those phenomenal muscles?  This could be the closest I get to touching them…probably will be, no need for that restraining order, Joe.

Today’s Question: How do you make your characters real, without inducing schizophrenia?

I Never Promised You A Rose Garden

Hello, Scribe fans. Suze here. Great to see you again! Grab a cuppa something and sit down with us a spell.

Martha Stewart I ain’t!

I don’t know about you, but I love gardens. Shade gardens full of dramatic hostas, delicate lily-of-the-valley, trilliums, and bleeding heart.  Sun-loving gardens stuffed with beautifully tended roses, day and Oriental lilies, irises, black-eyed Suzes, and my two favorite flowers: peonies and big white Shasta daisies with bright yellow fuzzy tummies.  In my fantasy, my yard is perfectly landscaped. My flower beds are full of vivid annuals and perennials, all perfectly coordinated as to color, size, and form. Each plant is perfectly planned and placed to bloom in succession so something is in flower from earliest spring right through the first frost.

Wait! Don’t bother me. I’m still fantasizing. Where was I? Oh yes. There are no  Japanese beetles eating holes in the leaves of my precious green darlings. Butterflies and hummingbirds (both signs of good luck for me) visit daily. What’s that I see? Oh, a single stray weed growing naughtily where it shouldn’t be. I laugh, shake my head, and pull it up by its shallow roots, tossing it into the well-camouflaged compost pile where it can decompose and return to the earth, ready to nourish new, desirable plants next year.

I’ve killed it.

My reality is not quite so nice, I’m afraid. In truth, I struggle with the gardens. Each spring I dutifully plant zinnias and marigolds and nasturtiums in those cute little peat pots and set them in a south-facing window. Each year, I end up throwing them back into the compost pile (that part of my fantasy, at least, is real) because I’ve forgotten to water them, or they’re spindly and have failed to grow more than their first set of baby leaves. Then I sigh and head once again to the mom-and-pop garden shop the next street over, and buy my big, healthy annuals there. I usually get them in the ground a week or two later, and quite often some of them survive.  By the end of summer, the weeds are high enough that I could bale them and donate them to the deserving cows at the local farm where we get our ice cream. Everytime I walk past the gardens, I feel sad, as though I’ve failed somehow. Or worse, like Charlie Brown and his pathetic little Christmas Tree, with not a security blanket in sight.

So for the last couple of years, I’ve been trying something different. Instead of annuals, I’ve been collecting perennials in an effort to reduce the work and maximize the reward. But I haven’t bought a single one. I’ve solicited them from people I love, including my mom and Sister Scribe PJ Sharon.  And I actually planted them in the ground, and gave them some water and fertilizer to start off (after that they’re on their own).

So far, this experiment is working pretty well! I’ve got healthy perennials growing. Some, like the lily-of-the valley and the bleeding heart, have gone by. Others, like the big red day lilies and the black eyed Suzes and the tall phlox and bee balm in various colors tease me with their foliage, which I know is just the foreplay for a future gorgeous display of flowers. Now I walk by those gardens with joy and pride. They’re not perfect, and they still need much work, but they are beautiful to me and full of positive energy.

What made the difference? I think it’s because the plants were shared. I’m invested in them in a way I never am with plants I buy.  When someone gives freely, both the recipient and the giver reap the benefits. So give what you can, whether it’s time, expertise, money, a note or phone call to a friend, or a simple Facebook post or Tweet about a book you enjoyed.  When something is offered to you, be it a physical item or an offer of support, don’t automatically turn it down. The giver may need the act more than you. You’ll be glad you did.

And if anyone has any purple coneflower (echinacea), pink peonies, and/or a Shasta daisy that need dividing, let me know! I’ll be there in a heartbeat with shovel in hand.

What about you? Do you have a green thumb, or are you the kiss of death for plants?

Need inspiration? Take a walk…

Hidey-Ho there Scriblers.  J Monkeys here – Happy Saturday to you and yours.  So, it’s Thursday afternoon as I sit before the keyboard and bare my soul to you.  Okay, well, maybe not my actual soul, but certainly my thoughts.  It’s a beautiful day today, warm and windy, the first of the spring.  In an effort to get things rolling on one of my many goals for this year, I just came in from a walk around the neighborhood.

There I was, huffing and puffing my way up a steep hill, listening to Fins by Jimmy Buffett (guaranteed to put you in a summer-y mood) when out of the corner of my eye, I saw a brown spotty bird standing on the ground scanning his surroundings with a kind of creepy determination to know who’s around. 

A few steps closer, I realized that the bird was pretty big.  Not 7’2” like my favorite canary, but puffy enough that I didn’t like the way he was eyeballin’ me.  And he seemed to be standing on gray rocks, like river rocks.  Just as I thought to wonder how non-webbed bird-feet were maintaining their grip on smooth rocks, I realized that the rocks were in fact a squirrel.  And the bird was a hawk or falcon or some kind of wicked scary raptor. I broke eye contact and walked a little faster.

He flew off with his dinner tucked in those claws and I thought to myself, “Wow, did I just see a falcon take down an animal?  Right here on the Massachusetts/Connecticut border?”  How come we had a falcon around here, anyway?  I thought they liked the craggy towers of city life nowadays.  No crags around here.  Hmmm.  That thought combined with the “Fins to the left, fins to the right, and I’m the only bait in town!” pounding in my ears started the pistons movin’.  

Next thing you know, I’ve got a whole little thing going on in my head.  Why did that falcon grab that squirrel?  Did someone send that falcon after the squirrel?  Who?  Where are they?  Are they watching me on some WWW-esque giant crystal ball?  Was that falcon a warning to me?   Is a raptory version of Big Bird heading for me next?  Who would be after me and why? 

Now, before you call the people in the white coats, the me in these situations is never really ME.  This is where I create a character to take over the role of me and then I move her around like a piece on a chess board.  But the point is, this short walk had me off an rolling on a new idea.

Today’s Secret: Do you need inspiration?  Maybe you are trying too hard.  Go for a walk, or do something else solitary and fun.  You never know what might spark an idea.

Today’s Question: What do you do when you’ve stalled?  Or worse, when you have too many good ideas and no time to work on them because you are trying to finish the works already in progress?

Lisa Kessler – Night Walker

Happy Friday everyone! Casey Wyatt here with one of my favorite paranormal romance authors – Lisa Kessler aka Lady Disney.

Lisa, I’m thrilled to have you as my guest today. Let’s start off with the Scribes’ favorite question!

How do you battle the doubt monster?   

This is a great question because I have not yet mastered the Doubt Monster! LOL  Maybe we never really do?  Some days the words flow and I know in my heart the story is cooking!  I love the characters and the pacing is super.  Then other days I stare at my story and have this nasty whisper in my head that says “This is boring.”

So I wish I had a magic cure! I’ve been lucky that on my lowest days, somehow a reader out there must sense it because out of the blue I’ll get an email or a facebook note from someone who read something of mine and wanted to let me know they enjoyed it.  That can make a WORLD of difference! 

Otherwise I’m forced to gag the monster and keep typing! LOL

What story haven’t you told yet that you want to tell?  What is holding you back?

I started a third book in my werewolf series called, Blood Moon, and just after I started working on it, my Night Series sold to Entangled Publishing, so I had to set that book aside to work on the Night books. 

But that werewolf hero, Gareth, just keeps growling in my ear sometimes and I’m itching to go finish that novel…  Someday soon!

They say that every author has a partially completed, quite-possibly-terrible half a story shoved in a drawer somewhere.  What is yours?  What is it about?  What makes it terrible?  Would you ever consider picking it up and finishing it?

I have a novel that I started years ago before there was a YA section in the bookstores called, Perfect.  I started it as a horror novel about cloning and experimental drugs, but now that there is an entire genre of YA, I think if I toned it down just a hair, it might work for that.

It’s my grown daughter’s favorite story I’ve written, so I’ve promised to finish he book someday.  It’s about a teen girl who finds out that she is really an experiment for a drug that makes “Perfect” children.  She’s never been sick, or injured or outside of her house.  Ever. 

 But she’s about to turn 18 and the experiment will be finished.  And she will be too.

 Author Jane Haddam says that anyone who seriously annoys her gets bumped off in her next book.  How do you incorporate your real-life experiences into your stories?

In my novel, Night Walker, my heroine, Kate, has an ancient VW bug convertible that is held together with vice grips, bungee cords, and duct tape.  I based her car off of two cars I grew up with as a kid. J

Let’s talk about Lady Disney? Who is she and how did she come about? And what is behind the fabulous Cruella costume?

I wish it was a cooler story! LOL  When I started writing most of the sites, like facebook, twitter and even just a website of my name were already taken.  Lisa Kessler is also a fabulous professional photographer in New York!

The email address that I’ve had forever is LdyDisney (and I’m a crazy Disney fanatic) so I used that handle for twitter and facebook. 

My “power suit” (Cruella) is a holdover from MySpace.  When I started writing horror short stories, I used my “power suit” for fun, but every time I changed my pic back to my street clothes, I’d get a bunch of notes that they couldn’t find me and where was Cruella! LOL

So apparently I had accidentally branded myself! J  It turned out that people remembered my Cruella power suit and could find me because of it.  Who knew?

I’ve been gradually switching over to my headshot, but I’ll probably always wear my power suit on Twitter…

Please tell us about your latest book. The cover for Night Walker is <fans face> so hot! What’s next in the Night series?

I just got the big news that Night Walker has been picked up for national mass-market release!  So in May Night Walker will be in bookstores across the country in a mass-market size paperback!  I’m so excited that Calisto will be able to find more readers…  Woot!

The big re-release also shook up my future release schedule a little, so the next release will be Night Thief which is a prequel novella to Night Walker.  It should be available in September.  I can’t wait to share Kane with all of you!  *swoon*  I should have a cover for it soon…

What’s the most dangerous or risky thing that you’ve done?

While researching for Night Demon (Book #2 in the Night Series) I went to Cancun to tour all the Mayan ruins.  My kids were smaller then and we visited Chichen Itza.  They talked me into hiking the big pyramid.  The steps were so steep we had to monkey crawl up.

Have I mentioned I’m terrified of heights?

So anyway, I got up there and realized how high up we were and how steep the stairs were, and of course there wasn’t a handrail, so…  I started to panic! I may have evencried.  Anyway, my sweet son sat on his butt and told me we could scoot down.  Those stairs were much cleaner thanks to me wiping them down with my backside…  Hundreds of them! LOL

We lived, and I kissed the ground when we finally made it down!  Yikes!!! LOL

Lisa’s Bio:

I’ve been dreaming up stories since I was in elementary school. My first book was titled “The Wonders of Unicorn Creek” and my publisher was Dehesa elementary school. 

Since then, I’ve published numerous short stories in anthologies and magazines. My story, “Immortal Beloved” was a finalist for a Bram Stoker award and was recently re-released in the “Dead Souls” anthology, along with a follow-up never-before-published story, “Subito Piano”. 

I’ve completed 4 novels so far, and just received a contract from Entangled Publishing to publish my Night Walker series!!! 

Night Walker will be available Fall 2011… 

I also post new short stories on my Blog, so feel free to stop by for a read. http://lisakessler.wordpress.com/

Thanks for being our guest today, Lisa! Paranormal romance fans, don’t miss this book. If you have a question for Lisa – ask away!!

Lasting Impression

Happy Friday everyone! Casey here.

Once upon a time, when I was six years old, my family took a vacation to Salem, MA. And I never forgot it. Even though I was only six, I retain vivid memories of Salem: Our view out the window of the Hawthorne Hotel, quizzing the tour guide at the House of Seven Gables, and seeing mustard seeds for the first time at the Lighthouse. I experienced an awakening on that trip – my love of old houses and history was born in Salem.

But, alas, the trip also had a dark side. The Salem Witch Museum made an extreme impression on me. Maybe it was the fact that we were ushered into a dark room and told to stand in an illuminated circle in the center. Or it could have been the first display: two red eyes gleaming in the dark accompanied by a loud voice declaring the devil exists. And possibly it was the tableau of Giles Cory being pressed to death.

Yeah, that made a lasting impression.

So what does this have to do with writing? Everything!

We need to make an impression on the reader. If they enjoy your story, then they will add you to their TBR list (to be read!). The best stories are the ones that make us feel something (fear, love, sadness, joy) and those are the books and authors we come back to time and again. Because the reader wants to go on a journey and they want to be immersed in a world. Forget this at your peril!

Several years ago, I returned to Salem with my husband and children. And you bet, I visited the Salem Witch Museum. Youngest son was the only one interested in going. Hubby and older son heard the word museum and decided to shop instead. To my surprise, the museum has not changed its presentation. We stood in the circle, we saw the same displays (I’m guessing they’ve been updated or at least refreshed) and I still felt awful for poor Giles Corey.

In a way, it was a relief that the museum hadn’t changed all that much. It meant that my recollections weren’t my imagination. I felt vindicated. Even better, youngest son, who was ten at the time, thought it was a cool place.

You’re turn to share – what stories or places have made a lasting impression on you? Which stories or writers do you go back to time and again? And why?

Once Upon a Time

Hello Scribblers!  Happy Saturday to you and yours.  J here.  This may come as a surprise to some of you, but I love a good story.  Romance stories are my favorite.  And who doesn’t love a princess?  Given all this, it stands to reason that my new favorite story is Once Upon a Time, told in a weekly serial on this newfangled thing…the TV.

I know, I know…you’re about to revolt – saying “But J, this is a blog about writing…whatcha talkin’ ’bout TV for?”  Hang with me here, ’cause if you like a good story done well, you just might want to check this one out. 

Once Upon a Time is one of ABC’s new shows this year.  As a parent with young children, if mine stayed up as late as 8:00pm, I would let them watch this show.   It started in October and has had only 10 episodes so far.   It’s not to late for you to jump on the train!  Wikipedia has a nice episode guide to catch you up and you can find episodes on ABC.com or other places online.  But let me give you a brief overview:

Evil Queen

The action starts with the Evil Queen cursing Snow White and her prince at their wedding, swearing to take away everything they hold dear.  It takes the Evil Queen some time to make the curse work and in the meanwhile, Rumpelstiltskin prophecies that Snow’s baby will be the only one able to save them.  Gepetto builds a magic wardrobe for a very pregnant Snow to use to escape the fairy tale lands but the curse comes to fruition and Snow gives birth before the wardrobe is finished.  The Prince manages to place the newborn infant in the wardrobe an instant before the curse wipes all their memories clean and moves them to our world.   Storybrooke, Maine to be exact. 

Lest you get the idea that this show is all period-drama, fantasy nonsense, let me tell you that half of each hour-long episode focuses on the characters in their Storybrooke persona.  Snow White is a lonely elementary school teacher, Red Riding Hood is a waitress named Ruby at a breakfast shop called Granny’s and Jiminy Cricket is a shrink named Doc Hopper (no reference to The Muppet Movie here).  The Evil Queen is Storybrooke’s mayor, and the only one who knows about the curse, for sure.  Her adopted son suspects though, and is trying to break it.  

The only other character who I think knows what is going on, is the pawn shop owner, Mr. Gold aka Rumpelstiltskin.  Actor Robert Carlyle (best know to me for his role in The Full Monty) is wonderfully creepy and crazy as the less obvious, but probably more dangerous, bad guy. 

In fact, all the actors do a great job and the writers do, too.  Writer-Producer Jane Espenson (Buffy, Game of Thrones) is involved in developing this show, as are two of the writers from Lost – kings of flashbacks, and inventors of the flashforward, so you know it’s going to be good.  There are lots of clever bits of fairy tale lore woven in here and there.  And don’t worry, I haven’t told you anything more than you would have seen in the pilot episode. 

Today’s secret: This is a great show, and if you haven’t got anything else scheduled for 8:00 Sunday nights, you should give it a whirl.

Today’s question: Anything new caught your eye lately?

A Legend In Your Own Mind

Happy Friday! Casey Wyatt here. In five days, my novel MYSTIC INK, will be published. And it got me to thinking about myths and legends. The story is based on the idea of the Gods of Old living among us mere mortals.

Like all writers, I love to play the “what if” game. The possibilities are endless and it’s a lot of fun. Eventually, you have to stop playing the game and get down to the business of plotting the story. And along with it comes world building. Essentially creating a mythology or “rules of the world”.

No matter the genre of the story, they all have to have these rules. And once established, as the author, you’d best stick with them. As a reader, there is nothing more annoying than when an author bends or breaks the rules of their universe.

Drives me bonkers!! I’m all for thinking outside of the box, but the story has to make sense and follow the rules you’ve set forth. A story is like a contract between you and the reader. So if you say, the heroine is allergic to strawberries, you can’t turn around a hundred pages later, and have her eating strawberries with no side effects. Or, if you are in a world where vampires shun the sun, the vampires shouldn’t be walking around at noon in broad daylight.

Rule bending can take many forms. Even minor things, like continuity gaffes. Ever read a book where the hero’s eyes go from sparkling sapphire to a rich brown? (Okay, maybe in paranormals that can happen, but in romantic suspense or historicals, it doesn’t work – gaffe alert!).

And don’t get me started on the “deus ex machina” or “God from the machine” move. This is the first cousin of rule bending. It’s when, out of nowhere, something (be it an object or person) suddenly appears in the 11th hour and saves the day. A popular example, the eagle in The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, who plucks Frodo and Sam off of Mount Doom in the nick of time.

So here’s my plea to writer’s everywhere (which includes screenwriters!), please be consistent and follow your own world’s mythology. Be truthful with us and don’t break your own rules for convience’s sake. Even if you have all these details straight in your head, it doesn’t mean the reader can see inside your brain. They can only experience what you have presented on the page.

And for readers and viewers alike, go easy on us writers. We do our best to ensure continuity, but it’s not always easy. Years can pass between writing books, so bear with us, if we don’t always get our own universes correct.

So Scribes fans, how obessed are you with continuity in books and movies? Do you cut your favorite authors slack or do you throw down the book in disgust at flagrant violations of a world’s rules? What’s your favorite (or worst) “deus ex machina” moment?

Time Travel Is a Fascinating Way to Explore!

Hello peeps!  J here.  I just finished reading 11/22/63 by Stephen King.  I mean I “just” finished.  Like 10 minutes ago.  My sister got a signed copy for Christmas and I hijacked it.  Have you heard of this book?  It’s new, just came out in November.  It was REALLY a great read.

I’m not a huge reader of Stephen King’s books.  I read The Shining when I was about 20 and it scared the bejesus out of me.  I have a very active imagination and I don’t need help getting frightening images in my head.  One day of high stress and my dreams become 3-D night-terrors for a week.  After that one twirl around the dance floor, Mr. King and I stayed on opposite sides of the ballroom.  I did read The Stand (the long one) when I was 27 (the first time – I’ve had many 27th birthdays since) and I enjoyed the story, but there were definitely parts of it where I was reading huddled into a corner of my living room where no one could sneak up on me, that’s for sure.  

Then this past summer, I was researching book trailers (see mine here…) and I came across a great trailer for Under The Dome.  If you wonder how trailers should look, check out this fabu example.  Of course, we don’t all have Mr. Kings deep pockets…which I’m sure has a lot to do with the difference between his and mine.  I was intrigued enough to get Under The Dome out of the library a few months ago.  It was also quite good, but a bit long for me.

Now, 11/22/63 is at least as big a book as Under the Dome and at 850 pages in hard cover, probably about the size of the longer version of The Stand, but the story doesn’t seem too long, or draggy.  What kept me glued to my chair wasn’t fast paced action or a heart wrenching love story, although 11/22/63 has both of those.  I was mesmerized by his detailed descriptions of life in the late 1950s and early 1960.

Gerard Butler in Timeline

I’ve been a fan of time travel stories ever since I watched Somewhere In Time at some point in the 1980s.  I read all the Constance O’day Flannery time travel romances and, of course, I absolutely devour Lynn Kurland’s time travel romances, with many other time travels thrown in for good measure.  Michael Creighton’s Timeline was a page turner and a good movie.  I’m even going to write a time travel myself this year.  But most of the TT stories I’ve read have the character traveling to a distant time – hundreds of years, or nearly so.

I was born in 1970, just two days after the Beatles broke up (hence the reason for my many 27th birthdays).  1958 is just a dozen years earlier and 1963 is just a hop skip and jump backwards, but American life as Stephen King described it is as foreign seeming to me as Lynn Kurland’s Artane castle of 1215.

soda can pull ring

I grew up with a rotary phone, dimes in my penny loafers to make a call at a pay phone, and life with only 3 channels of TV.  I can barely remember watching a black and white television, twisting the rabbit ears to find just the right angles.  I remember the invention of the pop-top soda can and the commercial with the teary-eyed Native American in his regalia climbing a mountain of litter.  But even so, I can’t picture a world where I might utter the words, “You’re my husband, so of course I’ll obey you.”  Or where I might buy a candy bar with a racial slur in its name.   King’s descriptions are so real, the flavor of a root beer, the cloudy haze of a public smoking everywhere, the narrow-mindedness of a school board firing a teacher for having the bad taste to be the victim of a home invasion.

This all struck me as so odd, that I had to ask my mom about it.  She was 10 in 1958 (she’s only 35 now, so you understand where  I get my penchant for creative math).  She clearly remembers a time when women were expected to wear hats and gloves to church and skirts to work.  And of course, defer to the wiser, stronger, more adept men in their Holly-homemaker little lives.

All of this brings me to today’s secret: time travel is a fascinating way to explore!  Our 2012 sensibilities might be affronted by life in an earlier time, but that’s kind of what makes it so interesting to imagine.

Today’s question: What’s your favorite time?  I’m hard pressed to choose between  medieval England, Revolutionary America or maybe even the 1950′s.  I sure would like to taste that root beer.