Seasonal Changes and Mid-Year Review

The temperature may be 90 degrees outside and the A/C is definitely cranked down inside, but there are signs everything is about to switch over to a new season. I’m ready, are you?

(my house and I know we aren’t there yet, but hey…!)

When I was at the grocery store a few days ago, the magazines are touting “soups to warm you” and “easy casseroles for tailgating,” and snuggly quilts to make for those chilly nights. Covers display autumnal designs with pumpkins and warm colors of gold and orange. Domestic magazines are encouraging us to take our families on the ghost tours. In other words, Summer may have us firmly in her grasp but Autumn is pacing in the wings and she’s not far away.

Which is why I thought now was a good time to catch up with a mid-year review with what’s news and include what’s happened to be sure we’re ready for a change season.

UPCOMING NEW RELEASE: First, the July newsletter gave subscribers a first look at the new book cover! I followed this up with a release on Facebook, first on the Cover Me Darlings page and then on mine. Now you get to see the final front cover:

I’m completely crazed for this divine cover by Marisa-rose Wesley of Cover Me Darlings. The upcoming events are wonderfully captured. Hoping to for a SEP 21 RELEASE. No pre-order info yet.  If you want to be ready for the new book, then begin with the prequel, THE GYPSY THORN. Here’s a teaser and a link.
LATEST CHAT: I’ve done a Live Chat every month. Hope you’ve been listening. The latest one promised exclusive content for newsletter subscribers. August will begin those surprises. Catch up on the latest video here.  Newsletter subscribers can sign up here.

INSTAGRAM: Are you following all the pens I’ve been showing every Monday on Instagram? Here is the one for this week — you’re seeing it here the same time I’m posting on IG. Only two left after today. What a cool year of pens it has been. You can always scroll back through my IG and revisit them.

UPCOMING EVENT:  Find me next at Book ‘Em North Carolina, an author signing designed to fight against illiteracy. This will be my third time with them. The event is Sep 22, Robeson Community College, NC and the event is FREE. All you pay for are the books you buy. There are about 35 authors and publishers scheduled to attend. Plus there will be some panels and those are free too. Hope to see you. Here is the website with more info. Come by and mention this blog post and you’ll get a little something extra with my compliments.

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ON THE HORIZON: I was given a great idea and I am going to implement it right away. The suggestion was that I do some specialized videos about each of the books in my Evening Bower series, to include information about the characters plus read a snippet from each book. 

I like that idea and so I will begin this information right away! The first video will appear soon and be about Midnight Assassin. The second will be at the end of August and cover The Gypsy Thorn. The third will be about Time and Blood and appear around mid September. In the vids I will introduce you to characters, give you information about the plot and read something from the book. I will mention particulars about the characters that may enhance your experience with the story.

All this will be in preparation of the newest book’s release. Just before it comes out, I will do a teaser video (TBA) and mention some secrets that have never been discussed. Sound like fun?

Exact dates TBA in the newsletter, in here, and on my Facebook Author page. It’ll be FUN!

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There’s MORE!  FAN FICTION WRITERS!

My special book, Vampire Vignettes is planned for late spring 2019 (guessing). This book will be scenes that never made it into the regular novels of the Evening Bower. I have planned scenes between Drahomira and Franklin, Destin and Reaper, Rhea and Cooke…and so many more. But here’s where YOU come in.

I’m going to offer readers of the series a chance to have their fan fiction vignette INCLUDED in this book. You won’t be paid royalties when published, but you will have your own chapter in the back under Fan Fiction and you’ll be a published author too! Thinking right now up to three stories. More info on this coming.

If you have read the novels and plan to read the new book, then you will have all the information you need to do a fun vignette (of course I will happily answer any questions). Lighthearted is the key. They may be dark but they have to have some quirk to make me smile and must capture the established flavor and voice of the character. Look for specifics by the end of the month. I’m VERY excited about this and look forward to helping you out too.

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With the upcoming change of season, I’m changing too. I love the longer nights and the darker shadows.  New books keep me excited and the prospects ahead are as moonlight from a full moon. The changes make me want to write more….more….more!

Thank you for stopping by. Watch my newsletter and Facebook author page for updates, and of course, the Monday posts here. 

I remain always, Yours Between the Lines,

Sherry

Novels Need An Oral Exam

Say AH. How do you spell that? Ah? Aaah? aaH? Would you believe it is properly written as “ah?” Though you may still write it as “aah,” that is a less common approach in novel writing. Things like this expression are often discovered in the edit phase of writing your novel, but you might be surprised to know it is often most discovered during the ORAL phase, that is, when you read your novel ALOUD.

What’s that you say? You don’t do that? Then you are short changing yourself and missing out on the most critical of all the edits, the oral. Oral readings do several things and all of them benefit both you and the reader.

First, a good novel has natural rhythm and flow to the sentences. The words in a novel flow, are varied and come and go like the tide. Sometimes words rush and sometimes they drift lazily by, the pages easy reading. Sometimes the novel swallows the reader with drama and other times creeps up like a sneaky growing tidal wave, filled with foreshadowing. An oral read through of your work lets you, and the one or ones who are listening (more on that in a moment) get a feeling of the natural undulation of your work. Too slow and the reader snoozes and drops the book. Too fast and the reader may have a hard time staying with the plot. Therefore, a good read thru provides the first actual feel of the story. When you read the words aloud you can hear and feel the advancement of your idea and decide if it has a good pace.

Second, an oral read through lets you hear the dialogue. Are your characters sounding stilted and unnatural? Do guys sound like guys? Do the YA girls sound current or more like your old mom? Getting the right dialogue is tricky and no matter how many times you read it to yourself, there is nothing like hearing it aloud. You find out if your jokes sound natural and if they are truly funny. You hear if an argument has the fury you intended or just becomes page filler. Once you hear the worlds aloud, you (and your listeners) start to know your characters. As the book progresses, so they stay true to how they began? Are the voices consistent? Do you have the right slang? Are the joikes dated or are your references out of the wrong era (or head of time)? Don’t forget to listen for the accents of your characters. Do they say “lemme” but later, “let me?” Be sure to capture the consistent. Have the listeners pretend they are listening to your audio book. You will hear all the oddities you never dreamed in your writing.

Next, the oral read through helps you define pacing. If you started out slow and are supposed to be building to a moment but suddenly drift away to a subplot, is it well-timed? Is it necessary? You can hear these things and you will miss them when you read to yourself. Things the author wants to be there may not sound correct when said aloud. Separate from the rhythm and flow, pacing tells you whether your story is hitting the marks for impact, plot and climax. Like how the words flow, the story must also flow and develop. Bumps in this area come when the reader stutters through certain parts of the oral review. You’ll hear it when it happens.

Of course, the next thing you can eliminate the repetitive or unnecessary. When you’re in the diner, do we need to know what the rest of the diner is eating while we’re having a romantic moment? Probably not. But if you’re a vampire slayer and everyone is eating raw meat, you might be in a zombie deli and be in trouble. Orals let you know whether the details matter. You may enjoy the scene when you read it to yourself, but when you read it aloud, you  tend to sense whether or not you have fluff. Again, you’ll hear it. Also, you’ll hear your favorite overused words:  said, but, so, maybe, just, and, and, and. In my case: smiled, turned, laughed, breathed. Look out for the adverbs too: suddenly, consequently, as a result. Remember the road to hell is paved with adverbs and readers are trusting you to take them to heaven.

In the end, maybe the most important reason to do the oral exam is because this allows you to slow down and really hear the story. Reading aloud is time consuming, yes. But it presents the novel to you in a way that no other edit will. Everything that is wrong – missing commas, overused words, odd phrasing, choppy sentences, rough dialogue – everything stands out in an oral. I tried to put in vampire parkour because my vampire loves to run the rooftops. But my story takes place in 1997 and my listener looked at that and realized that parkour didn’t happen until the 21st century. Things that look great on paper can jump out during an oral (feel unnatural or sound silly).

If you’ve finished a story or a novel, then you are ready for all those terrible edits – copy, line and developmental – but don’t forget the one that will make you dividends, the Oral. After all, an oral checkup for the writer keeps your mouth and you healthy. The oral edit, the novel checkup, makes the book strong and healthy too.

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I just finished the oral exam of my latest book, LOVE AND BLOOD, coming in Sept 2018. God Bless my friend, Terri Wilson, who sat through nine hours on day one and five hours on day two until we finished. Lessons from that read dramatically improve my work. Now my novel is ready for its close up and sharing all its secrets.

Get your Oral Exam done today!

Thanks for stopping by.

I remain, Yours Between the Lines, 

Sherry

Normally, I don’t like discussing religion and politics. I keep to mine and let others keep to theirs, mostly because of the controversy and vitriol the diversity tends to create. However, when it comes to writing, I don’t think writers should shy away from professing their beliefs. Not if the message is hopeful and encouraging. Not if lessons are learned or gained. Not if growth will be the result. If any of those reasons is the result of a controversial or important opinion or viewpoint, then you, the writer, are obligated to make a presentation, take a stand, and share your vision.

But let me be clear about one thing — I’m not for chest thumping issues. I believe in offering solutions for the majority. I believe in looking forward and not back. I do not believe in finger pointing, shaming or manipulating facts. To offer an opinion is one thing, but to offer something stronger, like change, requires intelligent and careful approaches. The bull in the china shop won’t work.

Why? Change is rarely if ever easy. Oh sure, we’ve all heard that before, but it is true. Let’s just look at the issue of the Confederate Flag. Now for me, I’ve never been a supporter. Mostly because I have read the history of the flag and know how it evolved and why (most people have not read anything about it but assume a great deal). For over a hundred years, many towns have had flags flying and monuments built but there has not been the kind of outcry as seen recently. No group, in previous and recent memory, stood on courthouse steps screaming at the top of their lungs to remove the statues, down the flag, or take it off the license plates. Only when a crazed killer waves a Confederate flag (he didn’t even espouse the Confederate beliefs, not the real ones), and kills nine people, that the world goes nuts and begins a kind of banishment and censorship that has risen to eyebrow breaking heights. And suddenly the pain of change begins. Whatever the reason, no matter how odd or rational or whatever, the painful transmutation begins where the world seeks betterment and plastic surgery.

There are such knee-jerk reactions to every major event. When a whole room of kindergarden children are attacked, when a massive number are killed in a nightclub, when a building is bombed or 60 women accuse a once family-friendly father figure of the most disgusting sexual abuse, when a child is selling lemonade without a permit, a black woman enters a white pool, or white police officer shoots a young black teen in the back, or when a lone gunman shoots down into a concert. The results from such incidents bring a cry for laws, justice — change.

Change hurts. Change shocks. Change excites. Change inspires. Change is new. Change is scary. Change is….life. Change is THE PLOT, writers.

Writers are instruments of change. We can move mountains when our words bring truth. Our truth can bring change and when used for positive reasons, we can do wondrous things. We can motivate and inspire, enliven and create. We can also scare, threaten, intimidate, command, demand, manipulate, and destroy. Lawmakers, politicians, pastors, teachers, parents, journalists,  all react and respond.

We writers have this power, too. 

We have power and we have obligation. Our stories, even our small ones, can contain instruments of change. Our lessons and our messages might be small or they may be blimpy, but you should exercise your power as a writer.

Don’t be one of those people who rise up only from opportunity. Make change a force that works always. Make change because it is right, has always been right, will continue to be right because it is a universal truth and must be repeated and shared. Make change a part of your life, one by which you can live every day. Be the power, the force, and the idea that is something better and more important than a bullet or a knife, or a flag, or an acerbic word.

As writers, we have a chance to do special things. With everything you write, every thought you present, it is your moment for lessons, for change, for enlightenment, for magic. Will you be like the Confederate Flag, a token of bygone values, of dead mores, of antipathy? Will you be the opportunist who urges change only when an incident makes your voice fortuitous?  Or will you be like the sun, rising glorious and steady, regular and necessary, honest and blunt, lighting the way?

Don’t worry whether or not others are reading or listening. Even a whisper in the dark can reach one soul. One thought can change a mind, one tear can give hope. Never run from offering honesty.

Change is hard but must happen for progress. Writers have a tool to help facilitate changes when they are needed. Write. Wisely chose the way you cut your words and change the world for the better.

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NEWS:  Wrapping edits on my new book, LOVE AND BLOOD. The cover IS FINISHED and I’m about to do a reveal. If you want a first look, be sure to sign up for my newsletter. Those folks will see the book cover before the public reveal.

And if you missed the latest LOVE AND BLOOD hint (on Facebook), here is the graphic with a picture highlighting the action in the book.

Thanks for stopping by.

I remain, Yours Between the Lines,

Sherry