I don't remember how long I've known Ginger, but it feels like a long time. Not in a bad way!The funniest part of knowing Ginger is that I have followed her out of 2 publishers. The names don't matter, but the first time she gave me the courage to leave because I was unhappy.
Ginger is a great cheerleader and has drawn together a lovely group of people on her yahoo group. I am chuffed to be a part of it.
So on your birthday I wish you a fun-filled day with a 6-figure publishing contract and all the cake you can eat with no calories!
Happy Birthday Ginger.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
Review Angst
REVIEW ANGST or The Angst Over Reviews…
by Robert W. Walker
I get some lousy reviews, too same as a first novelist even after having done as many as I have (some 50 odd books), and often it is obvious the mindset or BRAIN of the reviewer is entirely in the wrong hemisphere. How does an author respond to a reviewer who is off in left field and appears to be discussing another writer’s work using his/her title?
Trust me, this feeling is not just for the neophyte. Veteran authors may say they let such roll off their backs, but in a deep place in the soul, it troubles a writer when a reader—any reader—totally misses the mark he sets, or totally questions one’s standards, or even implies or directly says the book is a ‘ripoff’ of a previous title of some notoriety as has happened many times with me when in fact, my book was in the works on or before the publication of the one I was supposed to have ‘copied’ or stolen from.
General wisdom among old vets in authorship is to ignore a bad review and revel in a good one. The system is not set up for even bestselling authors to ‘respond’ to a review, which I suspect would be far more engaging than most reviews—to see or rather read the author’s take on the reviewer’s take. But the universal reaction to any author defending his work in such a manner is one that says, “Oh, look, the author is whinnying like a horse…big baby. Can’t take the heat, stop writing bad books. Besides, the reviewer must know what he/she is doing, after all.”
I want to discuss this question because a young author recently asked me how he could deal with an ‘attack’ review on Amazon.com. Of course, Amazon review space is open to anyone with an ax to grind, but so too for years has been the review staff at Publisher’s Weekly so far as I can see. At any rate, here is my answer to the question of what to do with a bad review, and it is a lesson hard-won as I have made all the mistakes I am about to warn you away from.
Sure, you can complain to the editors of a magazine or newspaper or even to Amazon’s nebulous people behind the shadows but in either case, paper or virtual, it will be to no avail 99 percent of the time. Actually if the review is blatantly PERSONAL, you might get someone in a positon to do something about it to do something about it, but even then it is so rare an animal that it belongs on the endangered species list. I mean if it is actually personal, that the reviewer knows you, has met you, has a hatred for you, you do have more of an argument, but even if you could get the magazine or paper to print a letter to the editor combating comments made in a review, YOU are the one who will come under attack by readers as a thin-skinned author who needs to go sell Peak antifreeze or Smuckers Jellies somewhere in a country setting. Even if you are right, you can be right and still get run down. The paper or Amazon in so many cases now, they seldom to never take a review down and typically if they do, I suspect it has more to do with foul language more than anything else....Take for example one review of one of my books: No, we won’t go there….
You can go to COMMENT below the review but universally people just read bad motives on the part of the author defending the work rather than weighing up the remarks in the same manner as the author will. Even if the author is right – it is like engaging a ‘stalker’ if you get embroiled too far with a reader who truly dislikes the book. The author is just spewing forth a whine-fest in the eyes of this reviewer and any others who come on to see the comments, and this can also ENGAGE the ‘stupid insipid idiot’ who did not get you or your book why? because he is from Planet 9 -- or as in my case for most of the 11 books of the Instinct Series, a pissed off other female author who believed I had stolen her work (nutbag) lambasted every Instinct title until suddenly she stopped, and I assume she died....
Can you do anything about it on Amazon or elsewhere? Best to get someone else to post a counter review, if the review gave you two stars, get a four star review, if one, get a five, but this is not always easy. However, on Amazon, especially, It is the best way to combat a one star as they put the two extremes side by side.
In the end… Do as I do -- do some giveaways on Twitter, Facebook, other social media to anyone willing then to review the book, and hope for the best, and get on to writing the next book.You can go to COMMENT below the review but universally people just read bad motives on the part of the author defending the work rather than weighing up the remarks in the same manner as the author will. Even if the author is right – it is like engaging a ‘stalker’ if you get embroiled too far with a reader who truly dislikes the book. The author is just spewing forth a whine-fest in the eyes of this reviewer and any others who come on to see the comments, and this can also ENGAGE the ‘stupid insipid idiot’ who did not get you or your book why? because he is from Planet 9 -- or as in my case for most of the 11 books of the Instinct Series, a pissed off other female author who believed I had stolen her work (nutbag) lambasted every Instinct title until suddenly she stopped, and I assume she died....
Can you do anything about it on Amazon or elsewhere? Best to get someone else to post a counter review, if the review gave you two stars, get a four star review, if one, get a five, but this is not always easy. However, on Amazon, especially, It is the best way to combat a one star as they put the two extremes side by side.
Brief bio for Robert W. Walker:
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Authorsday: Mike Gerrard
- When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
From the age of about 7 or 8. My dad wrote in his spare time, mainly humorous columns for the local paper. I loved playing with his typewriter – which tells you how long ago that was. I loved comedy on radio and TV, and it was a revelation to me when I discovered that people wrote the scripts. I just imagined the comics made it up as they went along. So I decided I wanted to write sitcoms for TV. I never made it. The nearest I got was having the pilot episode of a sitcom bought by the BBC, but the Producer didn’t like Episode Two, so that was that.
- How did you pick the genre you write in?
I didn’t, really. It just sort-of happened, as lots of things do in life. I’ve been making my living as a travel writer for about 20 years now, and that was only because I enjoyed travelling and enjoyed writing, and like everyone else it seemed the dream job. I now know it isn’t, it has its downsides like any other job, but back then I decided I wanted to try to get into this travel writing. I sold one or two articles, then a few more, and slowly it built up till I was able to make a living from it.
I’d always read crime novels, but alongside lots of other fiction and non-fiction. A few years ago I discovered writers like George Pelecanos and Michael Connolly, and began to read more and more crime as I discovered other brilliant crime writers like that. I wanted to write something that was more of a challenge than writing travel. Not that there’s anything wrong with writing travel, but I think any kind of writer would want to try something they hadn’t done before, to see if they could do it. So I decided I wanted to try writing a crime novel
- What drew you to the subject of Strip till Dead?
I went out with a stripper for a while when I first lived in London
- How many rejections have you received?
Hundreds, probably. I’ve been a journalist for about 30 years, and a travel writer for about 20. Travel writing is very very competitive, and you’re always sending in ideas and having them turned down. You have to be able to take that. You soon learn that there are all kinds of reasons why an idea or even a finished piece can be rejected. It isn’t simply that it isn’t good enough. It’s nothing personal. One travel editor told me she received something like 400 story ideas a month, of which she could use only a handful. That’s just the way it is.
Strip till Dead was turned down by several agents and publishers, although some of them said some very nice things about it. None of them said the nicest thing of all, though, which is ‘yes’. I got frustrated with the agents who never got back to you, who would ask to see the book on the basis of a synopsis and sample chapters, and then you never heard from them again. In a 5-month period over the summer of 2010 I sent the book to 3 agents and 2 publishers in the UK USA
- If you have a day job, what is it?
It’s still travel writing, which these days includes updating a lot of guidebooks, writing very little journalism, but also now publishing and writing three travel websites with my wife. The main one, www.Pacific-Coast-Highway-Travel.com, is now well on the way to becoming a full-time job in itself.
- What do you consider your strengths in terms of your writing?
I can write good dialogue. I’ve had three radio plays broadcast by the BBC, and radio really tests your ability with dialogue. I think I can also be funny, and I’m interested in people and their quirks, and personalities. I hope I can create believable characters.
- What do you consider your weakness and what strategies do you use to overcome it?
My great weakness is plotting. I’m just not good at creating strong storylines, but fortunately that is something you can work on, and I have. One of my Amazon reviews in the States said: ‘Gerrard plots his story well and carries it off with flair.’ And no, it wasn’t by a friend of mine. I was more pleased with that one line than anything else in the review. I’ve read books on story structure and plotting, over and over, and of course when you come to work on a story, you just have to try to create a strong plot, otherwise it goes nowhere. But it doesn’t come naturally to me.
- What authors do you admire?
John Steinbeck and Flannery O’Connor are the two I admire most. In crime, it’s the grittier writers, usually American, like George Pelecanos, Michael Connolly, James Lee Burke, Megan Abbott, Dennis Lehane.
- What did you enjoy most about writing this book?
The liberation of writing fiction, of being free to make things up. That’s hard to do when you’re writing guidebooks! They have to be factually accurate. With fiction, if you want someone to be born in 1976 instead of 1966, you obviously need to think about the implications on the story – but you can just do it. Set a scene in Brixton? Well, if it’s right for the story and characters, you do it. Believe me, when you’ve spent 20 years being obsessed by museum opening hours and how many rooms a hotel has, fiction is a complete liberation of the mind.
- What was your favorite scene to write?
The whole final chapter. Not because it meant I’d got to the end of the book, but because I didn’t know what was going to happen in it. I knew the main characters were going to come together in it, and it was going to be nasty, but the actual ending surprised and shocked me a little – so I hope it does the same for the reader. It was one of those sections that almost wrote itself. The characters took over, and they decided what was going to happen, not me. I really enjoyed writing both the two main final scenes, and when I put the book aside for a while and re-read it some time later, it still worked for me. Also, I had intended the book to be a stand-alone, and when I did the ending it seemed obvious that it would have to be a stand-alone. But after a while I started to wonder what happened to the characters next. ‘You can’t leave them like that,’ I thought. So I have been thinking about another book with the two main characters, though given what does happen in the final chapter, it presents a challenge. Though that’s what made me write the book in the first place, to face a challenge, so what’s another one?
Author Bio:
Mike Gerrard has won several awards for his travel writing and guidebooks, and has written for The Times, National Geographic, American Express, Michelin, the AA, AAA, Fodor’s, and many other leading travel publishers. He has published a collection of his travel writing, Snakes Alive, and written three radio plays for the BBC. Strip till Dead is his first crime novel. He divides his time between Cambridgeshire in the UK , and Arizona in the USA
Book Blurb:
Liz is Nicola. Nicola is a stripper. And a stripper is about to die. When Liz Pendle moves from the north of England to go to university in London London
My website:
www.mikegerrard.com
Strip till Dead
US Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/4fv32zf
Paperback: http://tinyurl.com/striptilldead
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Sum of the Parts
SUM OF THE PARTS or WHAT’S AN ENHANCED E-BOOK, ANYWAY?
By Alina Adams
For the majority of my career, I’ve worked simultaneously writing television and books, always looking for opportunities to combine the two.
I wrote “New York Times” best-selling tie-ins, “Oakdale Confidential” and “The Man From Oakdale,” for the soap-opera “As The World Turns,” and “Jonathan’s Story” for its sister show, “Guiding Light.”
My years as a figure skating researcher and producer for ABC, NBC, ESPN and TNT inspired my Figure Skating Mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime, “Murder on Ice,” “On Thin Ice,” “Axel of Evil,” “Death Drop” and “Skate Crime.”
But, this was all back in the days when television and books were completely separate entities, and never the twain shall meet unless one was turned into the other – a TV series into a book (like the ones I mentioned above), or a book into a TV series.
That’s all changed in the past year. Thanks to technology that’s moving so fast it can be a fulltime job just to keep up with it, books have the option of being electronic. And once electronic, they no longer need to be merely words on a page. They can include images, audio, video – anything you need to tell your story.
Granted, most books are perfectly fine just the way they are. They are a story told through language, simile, metaphor, vivid description and characters that leap off the page to live and breathe right alongside the reader.
But, some books… some books are ripe for a little more.
For instance, in my Figure Skating Mysteries, there is, obviously, figure skating. I describe it, I have other characters discuss it, I have observers comment on it. But, still, this is figure skating. You have to see it.
That’s where video comes in. Thanks to The Ice Theatre of New York (http://www.icetheatre.org/), you can click on a link and actually witness the characters I could previously only write about performing their mesmerizing routines on the ice.
Currently, I am in the process of digitizing and enhancing my entire backlist. But, those curious about how it works can check out a $.99 cent excerpt of “Skate Crime” on Amazon at: http://tinyurl.com/SkateCrime.
I am by no means alone in this. Other companies are getting into the act, producing ‘Vooks’ (http://vook.com/what-is-a-vook.html) or enhancing public domain classics by Rudyard Kipling and Dante Alighieri.
But, this is where things get tricky. Just because the technology is now available to enhance all books, does that mean that all books should automatically be enhanced?
If by “enhanced,” you mean what a majority of publishers are doing, which is adding an interactive table of contents, some photos, and maybe a critical essay on the main work, then yes, sure, why not? All of those things are useful and not particularly distracting.
If by “enhanced” you mean non-fiction books incorporating maps and period film footage and video interviews with the key players in their story then yes, absolutely, a more complete picture is always preferable when it comes to fact-based tomes.
But, if you’re talking about fiction, it’s not nearly as cut and dried.
In my humble opinion (and, at this stage of the game, everyone is simply making their best guess, the concept hasn’t been around long enough to mint a single expert who might claim superior knowledge) the only reason to introduce enhanced elements into any novel is if it serves the story – nothing else.
Does this enhancement improve the reader’s experience? That’s it. Not: Does it fluff the author’s ego, show off a cool, new gadget, or even pad the bottom line?
Does it make the story we are trying to tell better?”
In the case of my skating mysteries, I believe being able to watch the performances adds a dimension nothing else can match.
But, what works for one title by no means guarantees success for another.
When working with author Dan Elish to reprint his children’s fantasy novel, “The Worldwide Dessert Contest,” as an enhanced e-book, I went in the opposite direction of “Skate Crime.” Instead of video, “The Worldwide Dessert Contest” features audio of songs written for an original musical based on the book. Our efforts were even rewarded with a mention in BroadwayWorld.com! (http://books.broadwayworld.com/article/New-Childrens-Enhanced-E-Book-Offers-Original-Musical-Theater-Songs-as-Part-of-the-Story-20111004).
The main point I am trying to make is that every writer has their own process in going from idea to outline to chapters to manuscript to revisions to book. And now those who are interested in exploring other options have been handed a new piece to the puzzle (that’s a good thing, trust me). Your book need not be limited to just words on a page. It can be whatever you and your imagination (and your tech guru) envision it to be.
The key is putting as much thought into the enhanced elements as you do into every other part: plot, characters, tone, structure, voice, setting, etc…. Only then will the technology be worthy of it’s inclusion, and the craft will become the art.
Alina Adams’ enhanced e-books include “Skate Crime: Multimedia” and “When a Man Loves a Woman: Enhanced Multimedia Edition.” She founded Alina Adams Media in 2011 to help other authors re-release their previously published books as one-of-a-kind enhanced editions. Learn more at http://www.AlinaAdamsMedia.com
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
ExcerpTuesday: Gloria Ferris
In this excerpt, it is the night of the family reunion, and Lyris is sitting in the cemetery with her Aunt Wisty, who has somehow escaped from the nearby psychiatric hospital where she has lived for almost seventy years:
She was staring at her husband's grave again and, much as I didn't want to follow her glance, I couldn't seem to help myself.
What I did not want to see, what I should not have seen, there at the edge of the maples near Thomas's grave, was a shape. At first, it was just the merest outline, a shadow, but as I watched, it took form until I saw it more clearly than I have ever seen anything before or since. A man, gaunt and haunted, dressed in the uniform of the last Great Conflict.
His eyes, which I could not have seen in the darkness, were full of longing and hopelessness as he gazed at the thin old woman sitting beside me. He lifted one emaciated hand towards Aunt Wisty, and his agony was so impelling I could feel its powerful force reaching out to embrace us, pulling us in.
She was looking back at him, and I knew her eyes mirrored the same emotions. I was gripped by cold fear, knowing I was sitting on a tombstone in the cemetery, but at the same time I was caught between two anguished souls who were trapped in another time.
I tried to detach myself from the overwhelming despair that crackled like a thing alive all around us, and clapped my free hand over my eyes. Aunt Wisty suddenly cried out and, thankfully, the sound seemed to break the gossamer thread that held us suspended between reality and dreams. I took my hand away and looked back to the dark tree line.
There was no-one there. I had seen nothing. Aunt Wisty slumped silently in my arms, her thin body shivering. I was shaking as well, and we clung together and let the hot night air warm our bodies. The last notes of the song faded away and I was not sure if I had actually heard the music, or imagined it.
A few minutes later, two attendants from Lychwood appeared on the bricked path leading from the new part of the cemetery. Aunt Wisty was borne gently away, wrapped in a blanket by a husky young man who whispered kindly to her as he lifted her in his arms.
I followed them quickly through the old cemetery and the new, out the gates to the road. I returned to the field via the county road. Nothing in this life could have made me cross the boundary between the cemetery and the field. Sometimes we see what we do not want or expect to see, real or not, and I had seen enough for one night.
CHEAT THE HANGMAN
Gloria Ferris
Genre: Paranormal Mystery
Pub Date: August 2011
Publisher: Imajin Books
ISBN: 978-1-926997-22-3
ISBN: 978-1-926997-23-0
CHEAT THE HANGMAN
GLORIA FERRIS
After Inheriting Hammersleigh House from her eccentric great-uncle Patrick, Lyris Pembrooke makes a grisly discovery in the tower room of the Georgian-style mansion – the mummified remains of a child.
To uncover the mystery, Lyris is aided by family psychic, Aunt Clematis and Leander, a spirit guide with an attitude, who knows way too much about Winston Churchill and John Lennon. She must juggle a host of more worldly issues, including a new relationship with Blackshore's Chief of Police, confrontations with her controlling ex-husband, hosting this year's family reunion and engaging in a psychological battle with the mansion's butler, while reaching back in time to find out who murdered little Tommy Pembrooke almost seventy years ago.
Gloria Ferris
BIO
I began my writing career by editing and writing operating procedures for Bruce Power, a nuclear power development. Before that, I was a Document Specialist at the same facility. I recently moved back to my native Guelph, Ontario, after spending 20 plus years in several small towns by Lake Huron which inspired the locale for my mysteries. The stories are written in a humorous style, but the crimes are deadly serious.
My paranormal mystery novel, Cheat the Hangman, was shortlisted for the 2009 Crime Writers of Canada Unhanged Arthur Ellis contest. It was published in eBook and trade paperback formats in August and September of 2011 by Imajin Books, and I am working on a sequel, Beneath the Asphalt.
My second mystery, Corpse Flower, went the distance and won the 2010 Unhanged Arthur Ellis Award. The novel is under consideration by two publishers, and the sequel, Murder by Moonflower, is underway.
I placed second with my first short story, Last Roll of the Dice, in the 2011 Bony Pete contest which is sponsored by the Bloody Words Conference and open to CWC members. A departure from my usual first person, humorous style, this story is written in third person from a male perspective, without a hint of humour.
Follow me on Twitter @GloriaFerris
Monday, November 7, 2011
Fishing for Jaws
FISHING FOR JAWS
Let's face it. The book publishing industry has changed. With the invention of the Kindle and Nook, endless worldwide distribution is available to any author with a manuscript and a dream. Literary agents can no longer hold you out by deleting your query email before opening it. Publishers are just as powerless.
"This is too good to be true," you might be saying. "I can finally have the writing career I've always wanted."
You may already be underway. With so much power at your fingertips, what possibly could be the bad news? Brace yourself. You might want to have a seat.
Everyone can have worldwide distribution. All seven billion of us. This includes drunken Uncle Bob, with his how-to guide for the perfect technique to hit on college women. Don't forget your coworker, Marjorie, whose novel involves her protagonist weeping for fifteen pages.
Today's readers are flooded with content. Published authors are not exempt either. We have to hunt for readers in the exact same ocean as everyone else. If you expect these fish to jump willingly into your schooner, think again. They're hungry, distracted, and moving fast. Authors today might as well be fishing for Jaws. Needless to say, we're all going to need a bigger boat, or at least better craft.
With so much competition in the digital age, an author's skill matters more than ever, because any reader can download a sample chapter of your book from the comfort of her home. If she doesn't like your writing, you will be deleted. Believe me, thousands of other authors are waiting to take your place.
Therefore, you have to hook your reader quickly if you expect her to click the buy button. In your writing arsenal, you have dozens of spears and hooks. A strong opening line and a compelling voice always help, but there is one harpoon that's best suited to hook your readers in the first few pages and pull them to the last.
Story question. You need to reveal it in the first chapter, but what is it? When somebody asks about the subject of my novel, I always say the same thing. The Portal is the story of Vivian Carmichael, who's fighting to protect her son Cody from his own father. Sure, there's a paranormal element to the thriller, but the simplified story question is right there. Will Vivian be able to protect her son from his father? You can also view story question as the main problem of your book.
Thomas Harris didn't waste time getting to the story question when he wrote The Silence of the Lambs. Can Clarice Starling help capture Buffalo Bill before he kills again? The reader knows about this problem in chapter one.
Suzanne Collins didn't dither either. Will Katniss Everdeen survive the Hunger Games? We readers hear about the reaping for the games in the first paragraph. Brilliant.
If your story question is the main problem of your novel, it definitely needs to be resolved when you reach the end of the book. It's a one-sentence question, and the answer should be yes or no. Early on, it's your best chance to hook the reader. Think about your manuscript. What's your story question?
To be clear, your characters are hands down the strongest hooks your novel can have, but you'll need many chapters to develop them properly. Your story question needs only a sentence and a good setup, and it will lodge into your reader's brain and pull her along until she relates to your characters. At that point, she's onboard.
When you present your novel's story question in the first chapter, you not only work to hook the reader, but you'll also avoid a plot that floats along aimlessly. If your reader knows the main problem and the stakes early on, she'll have a harder time putting your book down. That translates to her clicking the buy button, which brings her one step closer to becoming the ravenous great white shark that hungers for your books.
The Portal Blurb:
Vivian Carmichael has been hiding in the San Bernardino Mountains for more than a year now. Far from cell towers and video cameras, she's finally found a safe place to raise her four-year old son, Cody. Until the night he crawls into bed and whispers two words that fill her with terror.
"Daddy's home."
Running for her life now, she's horrified to learn that her estranged husband Jarod is not quite human anymore. Can she unravel the mystery of her family's dark secret before he can steal her son and claim her as his next victim?
Christopher Allan Poe Bio:
Christopher Allan Poe is an author and touring musician from Los Angeles, CA.
He writes paranormal fiction, with an emphasis in themes that shed light on social problems for women and children. His award-winning novel, The Portal, is now available on Black Opal Books.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Upping the Stakes: Goals and Motivation
by Ellis Vidler
Usually the characters are the first thing that comes to mind for me. Occasionally there's a crime that I want to use, but it doesn't matter. The important thing is to find powerful goals and motivation—the kind that creates conflict and compels the reader to turn the pages.
When I have a serious idea, I try to come up with the goal, motivation, and conflict for two or three main characters, the heroine/hero or both, and (since I write suspense) the villain. Everyone needs a reason for their behavior, and the stronger the reason, the more compelling the story will be.
Weak motivation makes a weak story. Say the heroine, Millicent, is usually a nice honest person, someone we could like and want to know, but today she steals a rare plant to make tea from. Why? The reader won't be happy about finding she's a thief. Did she just crave the tea and thought one little plant from the scientist's greenhouse wouldn't hurt? Poor motive. But what if her child is terribly ill and the only thing she can keep down is tea from this plant (not exactly believable, but this is to illustrate a point, not become a great plot). Millicent is penniless, has lost her job, her house is in foreclosure, and her child may not last the night. So her reason for stealing becomes more acceptable. She has a strong motivation. What if some enzyme in the plant is a possible cure for the illness? She wants to cure her child, so she has a strong goal, one we can share in.
You can always ask Why? and What if? Increase the stakes for the protagonist until you have something the reader will really care about and sympathize with. A deadline can add to the suspense and motive. If Millicent's child is near death, she can't wait around till she earns the money or can convince the scientist to help her. What if he's already turned her down? She's tried the legal paths but at this point, has no choice.
Now for the bad guy. What if he's the inventor of a new drug that contains the enzyme and stands to make a lot of money from it? He needs a motive too. Just wanting the money is poor and not something we'll have any sympathy for. He needs a compelling motive too. Let's say he grew up poor and his mother died because the family couldn't afford medical care. That's why he became a drug researcher. He wants to create miracle cures and make money, but because power corrupts, he's become selfish and greedy. He can have all kinds of secondary reasons and complications. But the villain needs a goal and a motive too. The story will be a much more compelling read if their goals and motives are strong and in direct conflict.
Keep adding to the Why? If your heroine is a doctor, make her the only doctor in a small community during an avian flu epidemic. She's exhausted but still going. So have her run out of medicine. Block the only road in or out—how about a landslide caused by the forest fire that drove the chickens carrying the flu into town in the first place? The events that worsen the situation should be tied together and related, not acts of fate that come out of the blue. Ask what other terrible things could happen to worsen the situation. But don't forget the bright spot, something to give a faint ray of hope. Maybe the child who drank the tea survives (combining stories, I know), but the fire destroyed the plants. And so on. As you write, details will come, things will change, and surprises will emerge. But at least you'll have the basis for a good story.
____________________
Ellis Vidler is an editor and the author of Haunting Refrain, a romantic mystery with a touch of paranormal. It's available on Kindle. She co-wrote The Peeper, a suspense novel, with retired LEO Jim Christopher .
Her new book, Cold Comfort, romantic suspense, will be available from Echelon Press this month. When Christmas shop owner Claire Spencer is attacked, she hires PI Ben Riley to find out why. Together they find everything she believed is a lie, but the truth is . . . Cold Comfort.
You can find her at www.ellisvidler.com or her blog, http://theunpredictablemuse.blogspot.com
Links: Haunting Refrain http://www.amazon.com/Haunting-Refrain-ebook/dp/B00336F3QE
The Peeper http://www.amazon.com/The-Peeper-ebook/dp/tags-on-product/B003VYBQGY
Cold Comfort http://www.echelonpress.com/
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