Showing posts with label readers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label readers. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 8, 2023

Winter by J. S. Marlo

 




Wounded Hearts
"Love & Sacrifice #2"
is now available  
click here 



 
 

  



     Before I published my first novel, I wrote stories for fun and posted them on a fanfic website. Many of these early stories took place in winter. Why winter? Because I'm Canadian and I live in the north. I have four seasons: Spring (lasts 1 month), Summer (lasts 3 months), Fall (last 2 months), and Winter (last 6 months). So, I spend half the year in the snow and the cold.


In one of these fun stories, my character was forced to drive in a snowstorm without winter tires. Needless to say, he ended up in a ditch. After reading that story, a reader sent me a message asking me what were winter tires, and why we didn't put 'normal' tires on our cars in Canada. I told her that winter tires look like 'normal' tires but they have a higher natural rubber content to keep them supple in cold weather and deeper & thicker treads, allowing for better grip and handling on snow and ice.


She lived in a part of the world where it's always warm, so she didn't understand how snow, ice, and cold could affect our lives differently. It was the start of a long conversation about car accessories: winter tires, studs, chains, winter wipers, block heaters, battery blankets... then houses: triple windows, insulated attics, basements, furnaces...


Looking back, I learned a lot from the exchange. I realized just because I knew about certain things didn't mean everyone else did. Sentences like "it's cold out" or "there are northern lights in the sky" doesn't mean anything to someone who'd never felt cold or seen northern lights.

As a result, I learned to become more descriptive, to look at a scene through my characters' eyes as if they were seeing it for the first time, and to assume that at least one of my readers will never have experienced what my characters see, hear, feel, sense, or smell.


Happy Reading & Stay Safe! J.S.

 



 

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Meeting a Fan by Victoria Chatham



I was at an event recently where I met a lady who had read all of my books. More to the point, she enjoyed each of them. To hear that was music to my ears and I was very happy to engage in conversation with her.

What I invariably find is that people who do not write are amazed at the amount of work that is involved in writing a book. My new fan thought I must be an experienced sailor to have written my sailing scenes as well as I did. I would have loved to say, yes, I’ve been to sea many times but that is simply not true. Thanks to Google, YouTube, and my youngest son, I managed to construct my scenes with some semblance of reality for the era in which my story is set after hours of research.

I read nautical manuals, I read a few of Patrick O’Brien’s Aubrey/Maturin books set during the Napoleonic Wars and watched YouTube clips of the art of sailing three-masted ships over and over again. My fan, and her husband, both said they would not have the patience to do that. And that’s what research takes, patience. Sometimes you have to travel through many avenues to arrive at the nugget of knowledge you need for a particular scene or to add just that kick of spice to your book.

Writing any book requires so much more than ‘just coming up with an idea’. It is not a process for the faint of heart because an author needs a passion for their project, insight, patience, the determination to write and then write more, then work through revisions and re-write, sometimes again and again until the point is reached that they know they have done the best they can. Then it’s time to let the baby go. As a writer, I hoped I had learned the skill of drawing my reader into the world I created. From the conversation I had with my fan (and her husband, by the way), I consider I achieved that goal. And just to whet your appetite, here is a scene from His Ocean Vixen.



Still trembling in the darkness, dread seeping into her very bones, Juliana chastised herself for not having the courage to venture beyond the safety the locker afforded her. Much as she did not like to admit it, she knew Doctor Tryon had been right. Whoever had overrun them would soon best one lone female, armed or not. The only clear thought in her mind was that she would use her sword however she could to defend herself to the death.

For once in her life she did as she was told and stayed exactly where the doctor had stowed her. She did not know how long she huddled in the locker, praying all the while that Doctor Tryon had kept his promise to help William. The sound of voices faded away as the ship rocked a little, her timbers protesting as she settled in the water. She reached forward and lifted the latch, pushed the door ajar.

All she could hear was the sigh and whisper of the ocean and the squeak and rustle of rats as they scurried along the struts. She waited a few minutes more, each second taking a toll on her nerves, then pushed the door all the way open and emerged slowly, listening intently for any sounds of life above decks.

The boom of a cannon close by made her jump, and then a moment later the Jenny Wren shuddered under the impact as another missile found its mark. Juliana fell back, grabbing for a handhold in the darkness. Another explosion followed the first and the ship groaned as if in anguish and listed heavily to one side.

Juliana sprang into action, not caring about the swirling bilges or the rats jabbering about her feet. The sounds of splintering wood filled her ears as she scrambled up the steep steps of the stairwells. As her head cleared the last set of stairs, she stopped and took in the hellish scene on deck with wide-eyed disbelief.

Scorched stumps were all that remained of the once proud and tall fore and main masts. The masts themselves, with their yardarms and rigging, were a tangled mess of fragmented timber littering the deck. Shredded by cannon fire, what was left of the sails now draped the gunwales in tattered strips of canvas. Amidships the deck was nothing more than a black hole still reeking of gunpowder and smoke. The ship listed a little more.

Tripping on the end of a trailing rope, Juliana lost her balance and tumbled to the deck. Her fingers slipped through something wet and greasy as she tried to get up, and she fell again. Bile rose in her throat when she saw the blood on her hand. The coppery taste of it tainted her tongue. There was so much blood everywhere and, unable to get to her feet, she slid through it across the deck, grasping at anything that might halt her progress.

She landed against an untidy heap of clothing, caught her breath and screamed when she saw the huge, ragged splinters that pinned the man’s body to the deck. His sightless eyes stared at her and her stomach lurched. That was all the incentive she needed to grab at the cargo netting on the gunwale and haul herself to her feet.



 For more information about Victoria, visit her at www.victoriachatham.com 












Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Writers, Readers, and Chocolate: a Sweet Relationship, St. Augustine, FL Chocolate Factory Tour

Hello and welcome to the Books We Love Insiders blog. My name is J.Q. Rose, author of the recently released romantic suspense, Dangerous Sanctuary.


Dangerous Sanctuary by J.Q. Rose
Romantic suspense
Available at amazon

In December 2014, we visited St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest European continuously occupied city in the USA. We fell in love with the beautiful city founded 452 years ago. The history, cultures, waterways, the Christmas lights, and music all blended into a great get-away.


Writers and readers love snacking on chocolate,so today I'm taking you on a tour of the Whetstone Chocolate Factory. According to their website. the story of the establishment of this chocolate company is a story of a dream fulfilled for a hard-working, dedicated couple, Henry and Esther Whetstone. They first opened their small ice cream store on St. George Street in the historic business district of St. Augustine in 1966. Henry and Esther entered the chocolate market when they created a home-made fudge recipe in the family’s kitchen.The kitchen was the original Whetstone Chocolate factory and they were the only workers. You can read more about their amazing growth at the Whetstone Chocolate website.

The tour costs $8.00 and is worth every penny of it, especially when Ty was our guide. He was an elementary school teacher for 36 years!  He brings all the energy and enthusiasm he used to teach kids to the tour presentation. Kudos to Ty for his fun tour of the factory. (Of course, how can you NOT have fun when eating samples of delicious chocolate?? We were pretty wired by the end of the tour!!)

Ty begins the tour on the factory floor. Information on the fine ingredients in this artisanal chocolate and the method used to turn cocoa beans into heavenly flavors of chocolate were explained in an adjoining room.

The factory. Yes, I was expecting conveyor belts, clanging bells, a frenzy of machinery, and lots of workers. But no, only about three people working at quiet machines that you will see below.

Ty introduced us to Miss Nan (forgive me if I don't have her name correct). She is bagging their delicious foil-wrapped candy shells and placing them in the boxes.

The machine is making white chocolate. Stirring is an important aspect of making delicious candy. I learned white chocolate does not have cocoa powder as an ingredient, but does contain the cocoa butter.

Milk chocolate machine. The difference between Whetstone's fine chocolates and the Over the Counter kind, as Ty referred to the cheaper manufactured chocolate, is the amount of lecithin, an emulsifier. Cheaper chocolates use none or less lecithin in the product.

Dark chocolate.
Yes, they push the health benefits of eating DARK chocolate.

Ty demonstrates how the hollow chocolate football is made. A measured amount of chocolate is added to the plastic mold he is holding.
A worker continually turns the liquid chocolate leaving a thin layer on the mold. In order to make it evenly shaped, it takes 35 minutes of hand turning to do it right!

The mold and the finished product, a hollow football complete with white chocolate laces!
Beautiful! No,Ty didn't make this one....

Miss Nan revs up the machine that wraps foil around the chocolate shells.

Miss Nan loads the shells into the machine. Ty explained the path the candy took through the gears and belts with a patter that a rap star couldn't have done better! 

Success! Look at the parade of red foil-wrapped candy which Miss Nan will bag later.

Yes, we re-enacted the candy wrapping scene from the I Love Lucy Show.
You can't tell I have the candy stuffed in my mouth and down my bra, just like Lucy. LOL!!

The chocolate factory scene from the I Love Lucy Show.
The real actors in I Love Lucy. Have you seen this episode? It's a classic.

Hope you enjoyed the tour. Are you hungry for chocolate now? Do you like dark chocolate?
I bet with the holidays upon us, you'll get many chocolate treats whether candy or desserts. Take time to really taste them and feel the joy this small morsel can bring to us.
Photos by J.Q. Rose
Poinsettia--the traditional Christmas flower


Wishing you joy, peace, hope, and love this Christmas season 
and for the New Year 2017!
About J.Q. Rose
After writing feature articles in magazines, newspapers, and online magazines for over fifteen years, J.Q. Rose entered the world of fiction. Her published mysteries are Deadly Undertaking  and Dangerous Sanctuary released by Books We Love Publishing. Blogging, photography, Pegs and Jokers board games, and travel are the things that keep her out of trouble. She spends winters in Florida and summers up north camping and hunting toads, frogs, and salamanders with her four grandsons and granddaughter.


Tuesday, June 14, 2016

The blog that isn't...by Sheila Claydon



My turn to blog and I haven't even thought of a topic. Why? Well for a start I've been too busy editing my next book. Remembering Rose, which is due out at the end of the month, is different from my previous books. Although it's still a contemporary romance, this time it also includes time travel and history, and it could even be considered a family saga, so it's complicated.That's not really the problem though. Writing and then editing a book has its own momentum and I know I'll finish in time for publication. What is really challenging me is trying to think up the title for a series.

When I started writing Remembering Rose, it was going to stand alone. It was still going to stand alone when I typed The End. Then I handed it over to the two readers whose opinions I value before finally sending it off to the Books We Love editor for checking. They both sent it back with the same comment. It should be Book One of a series because they want to know what happens to some of the other characters in the book.

My first response was a groan because writing a series isn't easy. Every fact has to be checked against previous books, and every character has to move on. I discovered this when I wrote my When Paths Meet trilogy. By the time I started Book 3, Saving Katy Gray, Jodie and Bella from Books One and Two were years older with growing families, and I had to remember this every time I referred to them. The other thing about a series is that it has to stand alone if it is to appeal to all readers because not everyone wants to invest in three books at once, so any reference to the characters from the earlier books has to be in context. Also, if on occasion a back story explanation is necessary, then it must be short, concise and relevant, because nobody who has read the earlier books wants to waste time revisiting the stories.

My second response was elation though. If my advisory readers were engaged enough to want to know more about some of the secondary characters in my book, then I had to listen to them. Keeping this in mind I re-read the manuscript, and soon I was listening to one of the characters as she told me her story. Yes, I know that sounds far-fetched, but it's sort of how it works. I start off directing the character and then he or she takes over and before I know it my story has changed.

So now here I am with a series to write but no title. How do I make it an interesting enough series title for readers to want to pick it up? How do I convey the overall theme in two or three words? How do I make it different enough to stand out? The stories are set in Mapleby, an imaginary village in England, and the characters are ordinary. No billionaires or high profile celebrities, just everyday folk living and loving as best they can. I only have a day or two to come up with something and send it to the book cover artist with an apology for asking her to revisit work she has already done.

So that's why I don't have a blog topic today.

On the other hand, I might just have come up with that elusive title. How about Mapleby Memories? I'll sleep on it and see how it looks in the morning. It might just be a winner though, so thanks for listening.



Sheila's books can be found at Books We Love and on Amazon. She also has a website and can be found on facebook

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