Welcome ...

to the collective musings of Angie Seaton, Jolie McAllister, Reese Paul and Sherry Lewis. We've been friends and critique partners for more than 10 years, and we invite you to join us on our journeys as we FINISH THE DAMN BOOK!

9/22/2009

Books: A Love Story

Posted by Sherry Lewis |

I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't want to write books. Even as a very young girl, I used to tell my mother, "When I'm a world famous author ..." I don't remember what I thought was going to happen when I became a world famous author, but something was. I'm really sure about that.

As a kid, I remember reading a lot. My earliest reading memory is of lying on the bed with my mom at naptime, listening as she read to me. I'm told that when I was just four, Mom would doze off and I would pick up the story where she left off. One day, it occurred to her that maybe I wasn't just reciting the words from memory, and my parents decided to test me with the newspaper. Sure enough, I could pick out some easy words from articles I'd never seen before.


My favorite story was "Tom Tit Tot," which is really the same story as "Rumplestiltskin," but Oh! So much better! To this day I can hear my mother's voice as she read the story to me. Even though I read that story to my kids and intend to read it to my grandkids, nobody reads that story like my mother does.

Later, my tastes turned to the Bobbsey Twins stories, and then to Nancy Drew. Oh, how I loved the Nancy Drew mysteries. By that time, I was old enough to start realizing that stories didn't materialize out of the air. Someone actually wrote them. And that's when the dream that some day I would grow up and become Carolyn Keene was born. Nothing seemed finer to my little girl's imagination than writing books about the intrepid sleuth and her chums.


I don't remember how old I was when my grandmother handed me the Readers Digest Condensed version of Victoria Holt's The Mistress of Mellyn, but I clearly recall that we were on vacation in Yellowstone National Park, because I can't think about that book without immediately being transported to a picnic table surrounded by towering pine trees.

My course was firmly set now. I would become Carolyn Keene and Victoria Holt, and I would spend my days writing dark, gothic mysteries about young, innocent heroines and dark, brooding heroes. Of course, all of that was before I found out just how unattractive real life dark, brooding men really can be. That life lesson effectively killed my desire to write about heroes at all. I went back to mystery as my first love and planned to write my own version of Nancy Drew -- minus Ned Nickerson. 

Irving Stone entered my life as a young woman and convinced me that there would be no finer occupation in the world than writing about historical figures. I devoured every book of his I could get my hands on: Those Who Love (Abigail and John Adams), Immortal Wife (Jessie Fremont) , The President's Lady (Rachel and Andrew Jackson), Love is Eternal (Mary Todd and Abraham Lincoln), Lust for Life (Vincent Van Gogh), and The Agony and the Ecstacy (Michelangelo) were my favorites.

And then my mother-in-law introduced me to Catherine Cookson and my ambitions switched to England. Never mind that I'd never been there, or that I didn't have a clue about how to research. I was going to write the Great American Novel ... set in the UK.

Eventually, I returned to America, determined to live James A. Michener's life. I would travel around the country, live in new places for two or three years at a time and write huge generational sagas set in each one. My love of the family saga knew no bounds, and I spent hours plotting out the genealogy of the fictional people I wanted to write about.


From the time I was old enough to hold a pencil, I wrote my stories on lined paper, in notebooks, and finally on the electric typewriter my (then) husband, parents, sister and brother bought me for Christmas one year. It was a marvelous piece of machinery! Almost magical, with a little roll of sticky tape that could peel the letter from your paper if you made a mistake. With this kind of technology at my fingertips, nothing could get in my way!

The list goes on, but I won't bore you with the whole thing. I'm endlessly grateful that my parents read to me when I was a very small girl and introduced me to my first great love -- books (and the people who write them.) It was hands' down the best thing anyone has ever done for me. 

9/14/2009

Writing: What a ride!

Posted by Reese Paul |

I don’t remember a time when I didn’t like to curl up with a good. book. I was still in grade school when I found Harlequin Romances. I lived in a small town in Northern Utah where we had no library, but we had the book mobile. I read every Harlequin they had. I loved the places I could go and the things I could experience through a book. It was like a magic carpet ride.



I have since found authors; Jude Deveraux, Johanna Lindsey, Suzanne Brockmann and many others who write books that are filled with excitement, charming men and women who rise to the challenge. The adventure, suspense and humor whisk me away on a journey full of hills, valleys and tight twists. The heroes make my heart thunder as they tackle every road block in their travels to their happily ever after. The women give me hope that I too can overcome the obstacles in my path to happiness. The interaction of the characters with their families and the people around them make me laugh and at times cry. I am in awe of the many talented writers of the Romance Genres.



I enjoy the ride of a good book, but more than that, I find myself wanting to create my own stories, spin my own tales of adventure and daring. I love the challenge of weaving the story threads together, of letting my characters get into so much trouble none of us know how they are going to get out of it. I anxiously wait to see what will happen next. I’ve been inspired by Sherry Lewis as I have taken writing classes from her and learned the hard work behind the magic, the struggles of hitting the brick wall and having to back up to see where I took the wrong path and lost the truth of the story. She has taught me the painful lessons of perseverance. When the going gets tough, the tough eat chocolate and drink Pepsi, but they never give up.



We are all in different times in our lives, with different challenges to face. When life gets tough a book can transport me somewhere else for an hour, or maybe just five minutes, but it’s a much needed break where I can rejuvenate myself and buoy myself up to handle whatever lays ahead. I want to be able to do that for others. I want to add some laughter to someone’s day, to relieve some emotion through a good cry with a dearly loved character or encourage bravery to get through the next hurdle that lies ahead of them.



I would love to hear from you. How has a book helped you through bad times? What authors do you turn to and why?

9/08/2009

INSPIRATION

Posted by Jo Jones |

Inspiration. It comes in so many forms. People, places, events. And of course, books. Books written by authors who in some way touch something inside us. Something memorable that stays with us. A character. A setting. A belief. A way of life.

So it was with me. When I think of what inspires me, I first think of the people who had the most impact on my life. That would of course be my father and grandfather. My grandfather lived the character John Wayne portrayed in most of his movies. He was a homestead rancher whose word was his bond. My father was the same type of man. Honest. Fair. Truthful. These were men who walked their talk. That is what inspires me.

Have I walked my talk? I'm very ashamed to admit I have not. I've talked about my desire to write books for as long as I can remember. From the time I printed stories in my red Big Chief notebook, to now, I've wanted to write western set stories about men and women with courage and honor, who faced their trials with spirit and even at times, defiance. I wanted to share our family's love of the land, of horses and cattle and the feel of the wind on your face on the open range. There's nothing like it.

I admire many authors who've done what I've dabbled at. What I've started many times, but never finished. I'm inspired by those authors who have achieved my dream and who did so with great impact. There are so many great stories of women's courage, it would be impossible to list them all, but a couple of the books that have inspired me are Lonnie Coleman's Beulah Land trilogy, and True Women by Janice Woods Windle.

This is the year I'm going to achieve my dream. Both in finishing my western set historical, and earning the right to say, yes, I walk my talk. My current mantra? Finish The Damn Book!

I invite you to join me. What are your goals and dreams? Have you accomplished them? Is this your year to do so? What books and authors have inspired you, your life, or impacted your beliefs? Please post your thoughts, your dreams, your joys, and come along for the ride. Let's make this the year we all follow our dreams.

Jolie

9/02/2009

My Inspiration to Write

Posted by Angie Seaton |

As a young child, I did not particularly like to read. I could read and I did read, but reading a book just wasn't as interesting as the other things I could be doing. Why stay inside reading a book when I could run around my Parent's one acre mini-farm playing all manner of role-playing games, or make mud pies, or swing on the swing set, or even watch Pete's Dragon and The Secret of Nimh?

Then I hit adolescence. My friend gave me "Jayhawk" by Dorothy Keddington to read. See, her mother was a regular romance reader, and had offered Keddington's books to her girls as good, adolescent appropriate reads.

Anyway, I'd never read a romance before and I was enthralled. I'd never connected to a character the way I connected to the heroine. Written in first person, I was really able to experience the slow and satisfying progression of meeting, attraction, first touch, and first kiss with all the little events and happenings along the way. There was suspense and danger in just the right portions. She carried the story to a satisfying, all-issues-resolved end, and I was forever hooked. Turns out I didn't dislike reading, but rather that I require a good character-driven romance plot to make reading interesting to me.

I don't think I even waited a day before trying to find the other two books that Keddington had published by that time - "Shadow Song" and "Return to Red Castle". Both were as good, if not better, than "Jayhawk". I was truly inspired.

It wasn't long after that I started writing my first story. Characters of my own were clamoring in my mind and I wanted to create for others the same kind of wonderful experience that she had created for me. That is a desire that stays with me today, a desire that keeps me writing even when my brain is fried and my mood is anything but romantic.

As an adult, the value of a well-written romance novel was proven again when I was pregnant with my first child. I was sick, sick, sick and I couldn't do all the get-up and move-around stuff that I had before. I was miserable and reading became my coping mechanism, my escape. I can't list all the authors that helped me get through that time - the list would be too long.

After I delivered that baby and started trying to write again, I sought out Sherry Lewis for help and for information that I lacked. She taught me things, both amazing and daunting things, about character arc, conflict, point of view, and plot. I am inspired by her and Reese and Jo Ann every day. They keep me Writing the Damn Book!

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