Posts made in January, 2012

I was at a writer’s conference once where a speaker described how to make a story suspenseful. Metaphorically speaking he said something like, “you get your main character in so much trouble he climbs up a tree to get out of it. Once he’s up the tree you throw rocks at him.” Throwing metaphorical rocks at a fictional character can make for a good novel. Fictional trials and tribulations can be worked out and solved in three hundred pages. I wish it were that easy with real life trials. Job 5:7 says “Yet man is born to trouble, As the sparks fly upward.” Insightful man, Job. But then he would be, he went through enough trials for several men. Everyone in this life will have trials and troubles, if you breathe trials will happen and there is no getting...

I love jigsaw puzzles. I always have one out on the table to work on. 1000 piece puzzles are my favorite. And I like peaceful scenes, villages, animals, and sometime cartoon characters. I work on puzzles to take a break and I always build the outside first, finding all the flat edges, and then working in to the middle.  It occurred to me as I finished one puzzle and started the next, about the same time I started sketching out my next novel, that I probably plot out a book like I build a puzzle. The idea, or the frame comes first, the crime, or sometimes the characters, and then the flat edges of a story; the main characters connection to the crime, the setting, the conflict and an idea for the resolution.  A lot of the time I get the framework of the story...

The last year ended a little chaotically for me. It’s only now, five days after the first as I write this, that I feel things have kind of calmed down. My dad’s back home after a week in the hospital, my mom has recovered from cataract surgery and I finished book three in my Pacific Coast Justice series. Now is the time to look ahead to the new year.I don’t make resolutions, it seems like people who set resolutions lose steam for them as the year goes on. (The gym is always more crowded the first two weeks of January) Because resolutions are suspect, I set goals. Goal one: My puppy Abby starts obedience training tonight: I want to be successful as a dog trainer and I want a well behaved dog. Goal two: Shape up a couple of novel ideas floating...