I have an interview posted on Novel Journey today. If you leave a comment there you will be entered to win a free e-copy of Rocky Mountain Oasis. 
Archive for July, 2009
Rocky Mountain Oasis just showed up today on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble too.
So you can buy it on Amazon. Or you can buy it on Barnes&Noble. If you do decide to buy the book, I’d appreciate it if you would leave me your honest review on those sites after you have read it.
In other news…
Here in WA we are trying to stay cool this week. It is supposed to be almost 100 today and since we don’t normally need air conditioning, we don’t have any. This is the first hot stretch we’ve had in quite some time. Last summer I don’t remember it getting hot at all. So… Thanking the Lord for the reminder of how good we have it her in western WA.
So with Rocky Mountain Oasis set to debut mid-August, I’ve been busy contacting people to set up a blog tour.
This honestly has to be one of my least favorite parts of being a writer. The laying your soul at someone else’s feet and asking them for help with promotion. But… you have to do what you have to do, right? Perhaps the Lord is teaching me a lesson about pride in this?
So many of my friends have been more than generous in offering to host me on their blogs for this upcoming tour and I’m so greatful for their generous hearts!
I’ll be posting each day of the tour to let you know where you can find me that day.
And if you’d like to participate and I haven’t contacted you yet, please don’t hesitate to drop me an email. I’d love the opportunity to be featured on your blog. And would be more than happy to return the favor sometime.
I’d love the opportunity to be featured on your blog. And would be more than happy to return the favor sometime. What I’ve done so far is to create a calendar and each person I’ve emailed, Ive asked them if they’d be willing to host me on a certain day and then I’ve penciled them into the calendar with a “?” by it. As they respond, I’ve put them into the calendar permanently and marked down their blog address so that I will have all that information in one handy spot when I need it for reference later on.
In my email I offered to make the tour very simple for people by indicating that I would be willing to just send them a blurb and the cover of the book if they wanted. I also indicated that I’d be willing to do an interview, or just about anything they’d like me to do.
Anyhow, so far, everyone who’s responded has said yes that they’d be willing to help me. Which is a wonderful encouragement.
I’m sure there are other things I could do for this tour. Do you have ideas for me? Let me know, I’d love some outside inspiration!
Blessings on your day!
Part of making our characters real is giving them physical responses to their emotional feelings. A heroine might bite her lip if she is nervous or thinking deeply about something. A hero might scrub his hands through his hair in frustration or clench his fists in anger. Each of these responses makes a character who they are and hopefully contributes to their memorability.
The problem comes when you are on your second or third (or …) book and you realize that there are only so many physical reactions people have to certain emotional feelings. Your character, doesn’t blow a raspberry, for instance, when they are afraid - they gasp, cower, tremble, etc.
So the question is: How to make each character unique and still keep their reactions believable?
1. The first thing to remember is that all people, different though they may be, will sometimes have similar reactions to similar situations. So don’t limit yourself just because Sally jumped sky high when Fred jumped out from behind the door - if Sally retaliates and does the same thing, Fred is likely to jump too.
2. Give each characters a trait that is a habit for them. We all have little habits that develop over time - twisting our hair when we are bored, sucking our teeth when we are thinking, etc. Find one or two of these to ‘tag’ your character with and, while there will be other reactions they need to have throughout the book, focus on emphasizing those responses for that character.
3. Sometimes we get stuck with only a few responses coming to mind for certain emotions. If that happens to you, take a break from writing for awhile and head to the mall. Find a spot in the center of activity and just watch people. Take note of their movements and responses - what are they reacting to? Bring a note-book with you and you will be surprised at the number of new ways you come up with of showing internal emotions with external actions.
I’m sure there are any number of ways of handling this as I’m still learning too. What are some things you do to keep your characters from having the same reactions to their internal emotions?
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