How do you practice self-care?
I practice self-care through proper diet and exercise.
Blog Feed
Couldn’t Resist
My Tagline
If humans had taglines, what would yours be?
Complexity at its best.
A Trip Home
New Name
If you had to change your name, what would your new name be?
There are so many names I like, but the one I keep going back to is Olivia.
My Favorite Writing Tools
I use Scrivener for when I am writing. Some authors prefer Microsoft Word, and that’s ok. I have used Word in the past, but Scrivener fits my purposes best. When I finish writing a book, I export my manuscript to Microsoft Word and edit there. After I am finished with my own edits, I send it to my editor. When they are finished, they send it back. It’s still in Word. Then comes the book formatting. For this I then export it from Word to Atticus. There are other book formatting programs out there, like Vellum, but Vellum is for Mac computers only. I don’t use a Mac.
Here are some links to the above programs so you can check them out if you are ever in need of them.
Scrivener
https://www.literatureandlatte.com/
Atticus
https://www.atticus.io/
Vellum
https://vellum.pub/
Character Moments
Creating book characters can be a lot of fun, but there is a process. How you wield that process is really up to you as the author. Many authors create a character bible consisting of everything from physical attributes to personality analysis. Some do this before writing that first chapter. Don’t get me wrong, it’s always a good idea to know who your character is before you place them in your story. But you will not know everything about them when you start writing that first chapter.
There will be moments while you’re writing your story when ideas about your character will begin to germinate in your mind, thereby giving him/her more depth. That’s great! Go with that! Those are unplanned parts of the character’s personality. Now, that type of situation typically works out great. But there are times when that happens, and it can throw a monkey wrench into the situation. For example, years ago when I was in the middle of writing my first novel, I had one of my male characters do something out of character. And I’m talking WAY out of character. I sat there, stared at the screen, and said, “What do I do now? I like what I had him do?”
The easy way to fix this situation would have been to change his action and move on. The complex way to fix it was to go back to the beginning and change his whole character, moving forward to that point. So that is what I did. In the end I was happier with him, and the story was better off as a result.
Can you plan everything about your characters from the start? You can try, but be ready when that runaway moment comes that makes your story that much better.
Favorite Book
I didn’t have one favorite book. Instead, there were two series of books I loved. One was the Dr. Seuss books and the other was the Dandelion Library Series. I remember when they came via UPS. My mom opened the box, and it was like seeing a chest full of gold treasure. Oh such great memories. Later I graduated to the Nancy Drew Series. From there I read the Agatha Christie books.
The Grand Hotel
Below is a photo of the front of the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island off the coast of Mackinaw City, Michigan between the lower and upper peninsulas. The porch you see here is the longest porch in the world. It is also the movie location for Somewhere in Time (1980) with Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour.
A Fear I Overcame
When I was in the Navy Reserves, I took a course called Firefighting and Damage Control at the Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, Long Island. If any of you have been there, you know where I am talking about. The course was two weeks long with the first week covering firefighting and the second week covering damage control. The first week consisted of a lot of classroom instruction (Monday – Thursday), then Friday was hands on. Now keep in mind I was a novice at this. I had seen firefighting on TV shows, but I was never part of the act in real life. Until that course. Yes, I was nervous, fearful, and Oh My Gosh all wrapped into one emotion. The key is not letting that show.
The hands on consisted of various scenarios. In each scenario we had to put out a fire in a different type of environment as it pertained to Naval situations. For some scenarios we worked with a partner, and for others we were put into teams of six. My fear at that time was claustrophobia. Let’s just say it isn’t my fear anymore.
Let me explain. This school had a small Navy ship built into the pavement for training purposes. The galley (kitchen) was below the surface. The stairwell to get to it was painted black. The fire (Yes, there really was one, albite it being controlled) was in the kitchen. My team of six headed down the stairs (keep in mind that if we didn’t do any of these scenarios, we didn’t pass the course). I was in the middle of the line of sailors heading down the stairs. We got halfway down. It grew darker. The walls closed in. I froze, slapped my hands on the walls on either side of the stairwell, turned and ran back up the steps. When I reached the top, my instructor asked, “What’s the problem?” To which I replied, “Claustrophobia.” He told me to relax and breath. He didn’t force me to go down. After all, I did have a choice. But I needed to pass that course. That fact kept slapping me in my head more than anything. So I said, “I have to do this. I’m going down.” And I did. I trotted down the stairs, met my team mates who where fighting the kitchen fire, took hold of the hose and did what I was supposed to do.
I know I made this sound like the decision was easy at the end when I decided to finish the scenario. But, trust me, it wasn’t. The fear of failing won out in the end. We put the fire out and passed.
WRITE TIME AND AGAIN 