Illusions

This may meander a bit, but stick with me. In 1995 my husband and I were expecting our second child. One day as I was walking home from dropping our oldest at the sitter (I had a job where I telecommuted 4 days) and had an experience that frightened me enough that I told my husband it was time to move. So we commenced our house hunt. Divine providence led us to our second home in a neighborhood surrounded by alfalfa fields (ahhh - a little reminder of 'home'). It was a home that we were able to semi-customize as it was being built. I loved that little home because it was MY home. I picked out the color schemes and carpets and some of the designs. We did all the landscaping ourselves (yah, that was back when we were young and had that kind of energy, sigh). We grew in that 3B2B house to a family of 6. While it was manageable, we considered that it might be time to move in the not too distant future as our kids were growing. We bought a house on more than an acre in a quiet neighborhood. I will just say that we bought it for the acreage and had plans to build. No worries, the lady we bought it from wanted to rent it back until she was ready to move. Perfect since I didn't want to live there yet.

All right, back to 1995. Scott's parents lived a quarter mile around the corner from us and went through a similar phase, just sooner than we did. They ended up also having a house built in a master community. They were so excited about it and every new thing that happened we had to jump in the car and go check it out - if you've ever had a house built, you know how it is: you get so excited, the foundation is poured, then you wait weeks and it's framed and you get so excited, then you wait weeks for the next event (rollercoaster!) - but you're out there all the time watching the pot that won't boil. Yes, I'm meandering again... Anyway, Scott's mom picked out this dark wood flooring. Flashback to the 80s when everything was whitewashed and bright - I was still in that mode. I was a little concerned about what she picked, but it wasn't my house (no, I did not pick any 'dark' wood for my house). 

Fast forward to the 21st century. 2002 to be exact. We moved into the house on the acreage and nine days later Scott's mom passed away. Dec 2003 Scott's dad remarries. Early 2004 we 'traded' houses with them to ease the facilitation of their building a house on the adjacent property of our acreage. Early 2005 I inform Scott that I really don't want to move again, so we buy his parents' house. I am now living with the dark wood flooring that I would never have picked, but it's 2005 and dark wood is all the rage. Now, normally, I'm not one to hop on the bandwagon, so I classify the wood color as 'classic' and therefore always in style.

The house also came with beautiful mauve corian countertops and matching mauve carpets in the living rooms and bedrooms. Those were top priority to be replaced, so we hired some contractors and got it done. One of the contractors asked me, "So, how do you like your wood floor?" I smirked to myself and said, "I love it, but it isn't wood!" It's true, it isn't wood, but it looks and feels enough like wood to fool a contractor - it's a lovely illusion. So you are dying to know, what is it really? (drumroll, please.....) It's linoleum. And yes, I love it. It's super easy to clean and it's incredibly durable and it appears to be wood!

Illusions. Isn't that what we do as writers, type words on a page creating a scene in the reader's head - a grand illusion. Done right, the reader steps right into that illusion and becomes part of it, wanting to reach out and interact with the scene, be there, help right prevail and the protagonist succeed. As a reader, I love those books that I cannot pull myself out of the illusion, I've got to stay with it until the final words, The End. So my friends, continue your illusions - Write On!

**side note: If you haven't check out the movie, The Illusionist, I highly recommend it. It competes with Count of Monte Cristo for second on my list of favorites.

Up the Ante

One of my favorite books is ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ by Baroness Orczy. Recently I spotted it on Netflix, and my husband, who prefers movies to books, suggested we watch it. There are three episodes and we have watched the first two. Last night as we watched the ending (spoiler alert) I noted something. The informant told the revolutionaries – who control the government and ‘Madame la Guillotine’ – that the supporters of the republic (and the king), led by Vicomte Henri would attack Calais in the morning along with the Scarlet Pimpernel and his accomplice.

I expected that somehow the Pimpernel and his group would discover that the revolutionaries knew their plan. This did not happen. Morning came and they attacked Calais and a bloody battle ensued. That high stress situation was brilliantly played out on me, the viewer. I did not know how they were going to get out of the mess they marched into. As writers, those kinds of situations ‘hook’ our readers and keep them wanting more, wanting to find out how things work themselves out. So ask yourself, “What is the worst thing that could happen to my protagonist(s) right now?” It makes for heightened adventures and I’ve-consumed-a-whole-bag-of-chocolates-without-realizing-it reading! Write On!

My Critique Group

There are two things I do for myself each month almost without fail if I am in town. One is bunco and the other is my ANWA chapter meeting. This is my time out with my girlfriends and I love it. LOVE IT! Did I mention that I love it??? So, today we had our ANWA chapter meeting. What a great group of writers*! I came away energized and excited about writing, yet feeling like it's time to step away from free writing and do some plotting and a character bible. There are so many great resources out there for helping novice writers and I need to take advantage.

My father-in-law has a saying: "Pay me now or pay me later." Essentially, you have to pay one way or the other. I can either take the time now to plot and plan the basics or I can free write like crazy and spend a serious amount of time editing and re-writing and figuring out plot holes and what does/doesn't work in the end.

Why do I avoid it? I don't know the answer to that because the character bible class I took at LDStorymakers Conference was so much fun. Plus, I want a really strong character arc and I think that takes more planning than I have put in so far and I think it will be an aspect that is easier knowing up front. So much for being excited about my increasing word count... This week I'll be doing some of the "behind-the-scenes" stuff and hopefully it will turn an average story into a classic.

Dream Big and Write On!

*Check out the blogs of two of these writers: Tamara and Valerie. They rock!

One More Month

One more month of summer vacation. I loved summer vacation as a child. It meant the beloved bookmobile every other Tuesday. We would ride our bikes a few miles to the town park with our book-bags. We checked in our stacks and were so excited to see what new adventures would be waiting on the shelves. We left with lots of new stories to read. Mysteries and sci-fi were my favorite until I got older and then it was romantic suspense.

My parents had a pink over-stuffed chair that sat on the covered front porch. I loved draping my legs over one arm and lounging there for hours in far-away places with fantastic characters. Of course, none of that could be done until all my chores where finished. We lived on a small farm, so there was plenty to do, but I had great motivation for getting it done. It's hard for me to understand not loving books! I hope that what I write will someday inspire someone to read more and at least like reading. So for now, read on!

The Pool

It's been finished for a week now. The kids have played in it every day and my youngest has finally learned to swim. Through this adventure, I've thought about two things.

First the process of refinishing the pool from start to finish. Our salesman was fantastic and very knowledgeable - hence the choice of his company over a few others. We signed all the papers and went down to the showroom and picked out our color and our tile. They came and chipped out the old plaster. Then we waited. And waited. A worker showed up one morning to place the tile turtles on the step. This was fine except that I wasn't home and my husband kept sending pictures as I drove. Then we waited and waited some more. We called. They looked into it and I guess there was some confusion about who was installing some anchors. They finally came out and did a blue pebble-sheen finish.

So what does this have to do with writing? It's a long process, from rough draft to polished copy, but in the end we aim to have something wonderful that people will enjoy.

   

The second thing that occurred to me is that sometimes we have to jump in, learn all we can about our craft, trust our mentors (our crit groups, our editors, our agents etc.), have fun, and give it our all. Then, before you know it we are swimming like pros. Jump in and Write On!

Special Olympics

I am fortunate enough to have a daughter with special needs. She is an amazing girl that has blessed our family enormously. Most of us know someone with special needs - and if you don't, I challenge you to volunteer to help at Special Olympics and get to know these great people.

Clearly this is a cause that is dear to my heart and I was so impressed when my cousin Lauren decided to get involved. She is raising money for Special Olympics in Utah.  Special Olympics Utah is a non-profit organization that receives no local, state, or federal government or United Way support. They rely on donations of time and money to provide these great programs.

Please click here to learn more and join me in supporting Lauren and Special Olympics Utah.

Copyrights and TM

Copyright laws. It all depends on the question. Rather than try to cover everything there is about copyrights - which has already been done, I am going to list some of the resources I found in researching copyright laws.
Government website
Get copyright permissions HERE
Using trademarks in fiction - a publishing and intellectual property attorney's point of view
More trademarks in fiction - from a publishing company point of view
A chart of copyright terms and public domain in the US
An easy to use site with tons of links and resources.

Remember, citing a source is not "permission" to use someone else's work. Good luck and write on!