Friday, July 20, 2012

Looking Forward to NaNoWriMo Guest Blog by Jennifer Kathleen Gibbons





November is three months away, and I have started to think about my NaNoWriMo novel. I know the basic plot, and I'm seeing the characters in my head. Here is my challenge, however: Should I do an outline or not?


You see, I was never an Outline Girl. I always wrote and wrote and wrote and I never knew what was going to happen with my characters. Well I sort of knew, but not really. In my fiction, I had great beginnings and great endings. There's a problem, however: You need a great middle as well.


I always pooh-poohed people who did outlines. Outlines were not creative. Outlines were Very Serious. It reminded me of the beginning of Dead Poet's Society when one of the students started to read the introduction of how poetry should be read from a anthology. One of the more ambitious students did an algebra graph. Finally Robin Williams' Mr. Keating gets so frustrated he encouraged them to rip the intro from the book. Ignore the rules! Make up new rules!


Seven years ago I was taking a Writing for Children/Young Adult Novel workshop at Mills. Our teacher Kathryn Reiss announced that we would be writing five chapters of a children's/young adult novel. Okay, I can do this. I already started the novel, so this will be easy peasy. She then announced we had to do an outline.


I think Kathryn knew we were going to resist this. "You will all hate me for making you do an outline," she told us. She told us a story: She agreed to write two mysteries for the American Girl line. She had to do an outline for each mystery. This was daunting, but she did it, and she found that not only did it make her focus on the characters and plot more, but she wrote faster as well. Soon she started to do outlines for all her books.


Both sides of my brain went haywire. My right side said, "No! No, no no! I don't wanna! You can't make me write a outline, Ms. Reiss!"


The left side said "Hey, Jennifer. Honey Girl? Let's me logical about this. Let's give it a try. That's why you're in college, right? To learn new things?"


My right brain was a bit surprised by this because my Left Brain is a bit slow. Still, I procrastinated on it until two nights before it was due. I hemmed and hawed for a while. Then I pulled up Imagination.


If you are a writer and don't have Imagination software, get it. It's fantastic. I used it with my students with disabilities when I was a tutor and it breaks things down very easily. What it does is this: You write down bit by bit what you want to do in your writing, what you want to accomplish, your goals, your plans. They have clip art to show what you mean, and then it breaks it down in an outline form.


I put on George Duke's Muir Woods Suite and I started working. At first, I wrote down what I knew about the characters. I knew the main character was named Ella, and she and her mother lived in a yellow house. The house was one I used to live near in Pleasant Hill. I knew the father died, but how? I knew there was an older brother, but he wasn't there and he was estranged from the mother. Why? Plus why wasn't the mother looking for work, even though she was laid off?


I started working on the outline. I found myself connecting the dots on what my characters' motivations. I came with middle, then an ending. An hour later, I had an outline. 


Three months later, I was housesitting for a month. I had nothing planned but write this novel, walk and feed their dog. I found my outline and I started to write. Soon I was writing a chapter a day. By the end of the month, I had a messy but lovable draft done.


I became an Outline Girl. I was like Linus and the Great Pumpkin. Excuse me do you have a moment? I like to tell you about outlining your novel. No, don't run away from me! Outlining is fun! Trust me!


I know many authors don't outline. Meg Cabot once wrote in her blog that she didn't outline because she never knew what was going to happen to her characters. This amazed me because I just assumed Cabot outlined because she wrote six books a year. SIX BOOKS A YEAR. That amazes me.


Does this mean that outlines are perfect, the Holy Grail? No. Everyone is different; you must find your own way in writing. The advice I would give beginning writers is this:


If you don't do an outline, try it.


If you are devoted to outlines, try not doing it.


See what happens. Just keep your hands moving. Don't stop. Get to the part where you would say "The End" but you can't say the end because it's too clichéd. Decide for yourself. Remember this poem by Rumi:


Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing,
There is a field.
I'll meet you there.


-- 




Ella Bella
By Jennifer Kathleen Gibbons

Set in 2001, Ella Drake has just experienced two terrible losses: her father's death and her brother going overseas to fight the war against terrorism.

Just when things start to calm down in her life, her mother's job is outsourced to India.

Frightened, Ella tries to find security for herself and her mother. The search for security leads to a children's bookstore, a new friend, and her first kiss. And possibly, it paves the way for healing to begin.

From the bestselling author of I Woke Up In Love This Morning, Ella Bella explores loss and how lives can be changed.

About the Author:

Jennifer Kathleen Gibbons is the author of  the Smashwords bestseller I Woke Up In Love This Morning and  the essay collection I Woke Up In Love This Morning. She lives in Lafayette California and is working on a novel.

Red Room page:

blog page:

goodreads page:


My twitter name is: @jenniferkate


Monday, July 16, 2012

Release Day Blitz Murphy's Law by RS Emeline




July 16 RDB
My Guilty Obsession

Review
Smitten with Reading

review
Books, Books, and More Books

Bunny’s Review

Coffee Addicted Writer

Coffee Beans & Love Scenes 

The Creatively Green Write at Home Mom

Fang-tastic Books

Roxanne’s Realm

Jacq Paige’s Blog

Captivated Reading

Storm Goddess Review

Fictional Candy

Review Breathe In BooKs

Ex Libris

Tour July 17- 24

July 17 Guest blog
Fang-tastic Books

July 18 Promo
Mila Ramos, Paranormal & Contemporary Romance 

July 19 Promo (review later)
Carly Fall

July 20 Promo
Lisa’s World of Books

July 21 review

July 23 Guest blog
Mila Ramos

July 24 Review
My Guilty Obsession

July 24 Promo and review
For The Love Of Film And Novels

July 24 Promo (review later)
Storm Goddess Review

July 25 Guest blog
A Soul Unsung: 






Murphy’s Law
By  R.S. Emeline

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Purchase Link: smashwords 

Blurb/Book Description: 

Alexis MacGuire is just like other college students. She goes to class, eats pizza, and holds down a job. The difference is, her job could get her killed.

As the unluckiest member of a family of elite assassins, she spends her spare time jetting from one country to another neutralizing scum the government doesn’t want to be attached to--often in unconventional and unplanned ways.

When she receives an email exposing the secrets of her last job she enters into a game of cat and mouse with someone known only as the Hunter. With the help of her brother, her best friend, and an FBI agent who makes her heart skip beats, she must find the Hunter before he destroys everything and everyone she loves. 



Short Excerpt Murphy’s Law

I was close to where the car was hidden, and I could see the flames rising in the dark behind me.  Lights strobed from the emergency vehicles, as they tried to control the blaze.  I took a deep breath and walked into the clearing where the car was parked and looked around.  No car. 

“What the Hell!” I stomped my foot on the ground and let out a feral growl. 

All the markers were where they were supposed to be.  White paint on the ground.  Black X on the tree.  Empty dirt road.  I checked the time.  If I didn't get back to my hotel in the next hour I wouldn’t make my flight. 

I looked down at the ring I wore on my right hand.  Two simple silver bands surrounded a Celtic design wrapped around my finger entwined with a shamrock and a blood red stone in the center.  Each person in my family had a similar ring.  Each designed the same, only the stone was different.  We never took them off, because to take them off could mean our deaths. 

The rings were our safety nets.  The one way we could protect ourselves when an assignment didn’t go right, when we were in danger, or in my case when I was stranded because some little punk ass stole my car.  I twisted the Celtic band, enabled the tracking device and notified my brother of the S.O.S.  With a sigh, I climbed into the tree and waited to be rescued.  Again.  



Author Bio: 

R.S. Emeline grew up in the sogginess of Washington State where she nurtured her love of writing with dark teenage poetry. Today she spends her time in the perpetual dryness and sun of the California desert. She lives there with her husband, the Marine; her niece, the Artist; her daughter, the Munchkin; and two animals--King Furry and Mistress Meow-- who are the true rulers of the roost.



Author web links: