I just finished Juliet's post on Word Building and was impressed. I can identify with her assessment of bad sells, since I worked with International Students coming from third world countries where water is not as plentiful and bathing ranks on the bottom of their "to do" list. I was reminded that the things we take for granted are not as readily available in other places. Of course, I was quick to help them acclimate to a new environment where water and soap are at their disposal. :)
I wanted to acknowledge the importance of touching the reader's senses by letting them visualize, smell, feel, taste, touch the story and your characters. Diane Scott Lewis has been a mentor and critique partner of mine, and thanks to her continual critique notes, "what does it smell like?" I've learned to include that sense in my stories. I'd forgotten how important smell is to identifying with the setting, more so to some than others, but a good author writes to the needs of the masses. Readers want to smell that apple pie baking in the oven...they want to sniff the aroma of wild flowers drifting on the breeze as they bounce across the prairie in a buckboard. If the author does a good job, the reader slips into the character's shoes and feels every jarring bump and catches a whiff of the horses' sweat. How often do you read a description of how the hero smells...like wood smoke and sweat or a spicy aftershave? Other smells are equally as important and I've noted it's usually a sense that is most overlooked in writing.
My very first editor summed it up for me when she said..."you've told a beautiful story, now lets work on 'showing' it to the reader." That's the secret to writing a novel. A story doesn't really connect the reader to action in the story....tells them, rather than puts them in the moment. If you want people to truly enjoy your work, involve their senses and give them a role. It works every time.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Monday, October 14, 2013
World Building by Juliet Waldron
There
are probably as many approaches to novel writing as there are writers. Some
have a tendency to see things as a screenplay—action and dialogue. Others see
characters and relationships first, and find that dialogue and action grow from
that. Some plot carefully and make a comprehensive outline. Others just begin
when a voice begins to speak irresistibly in their mind and their novel grows
organically.
Others
begin with the world in which the characters will move. Science Fiction and
fantasy writers often begin this way. Historical novelists may become intrigued
by a particular era, and this fascination leads to the creation of characters
who will exist in a “period” world.
These
writers probably have the easiest time with what I call “world building,”
because setting/or period, or that “Other Land” plays a large part in the
imaginary kick that got them writing in the first place. There are plenty of examples of science
fiction, fantasy and historical novels which find their inception in the
author’s vision.
In
most writing courses you’ll find discussion of using the five senses of sight,
hearing, touch, taste and smell, and all of them need to be engaged—not all the
time, of course, or nothing else would ever happen—but if your couple are
seated side by side at a Regency dining table—even if they are thinking only of
each other—either loving each other or hating, as the case may be—they will be
surrounded by other people talking, servants coming and going, and a great deal
of food. There will be ambiance a-plenty and the sensations will be coming from
all combined senses.
In
the last 30 years, people have become more than a little distracted from
reality—not only by television, but by hand held games, cell phones, not to
mention the artificial A/C world we inhabit during hot summers. As a result, we
don’t really spend a lot of time paying much attention to where we actually
are—and what signals are coming from our environment.
If
you are walking down a street in a 3rd World Country—or on some far off planet,
or London in Shakespeare’s day--there will be unfamiliar smells as well as
unfamiliar sights. For instance, I went to school in the West Indies back in
the 60’s, and rode the bus to the central market daily, and then walked up to
the school through the narrow city streets. There was gray wash water running
in slimy green gutters, the occasional furtive rat; there were fruit rinds and big
greasy mango seeds scattered around as well as bottles.
As well as sight, I experienced unfamiliar
smells too. In the long ago West Indies, there was the smell of people who
didn’t have facilities for washing other than the a central pump in whatever
village they’d come from, of starch filled school uniforms and office clothes
and the beginning of the day’s sweat. There was market refuse, discarded fruit
and animal manure ripening in the sun, the smell of a hard-worked donkey as he
clopped by, the heavy odor of the goats that rode the bus with you. Have you
ever imagined what a werewolf or a vampire would actually smell like? I’m not a fan of these fantasy creatures, so
in my imagination—they’d smell like nothing good!
Is
your character a temp, facing a vacated desk in a modern office? What’s the
desk and keyboard like—are they sticky with coke, covered with ashes? Are they
dusty, or spotlessly clean? How does your character deal with this temporary
workspace? Does she first head for the washroom and paper towels? Does she
bring a can of Lysol with her to work with which she first sprays down everything,
especially the phone?
As
you can see, this is not only “setting,” it also helps your characters express
themselves. How do they react to the environment in which you’ve placed them? Details
like this breathe life into character.
As
for sound/hearing, we moderns are drowning in it. The environment has never
been so distracting or noisy—thanks especially to the internal combustion
engine—which roars away on every street and in every yard. Leaf blowers, lawn
mowers, trucks, cars and a Saturday parade of loud pipe HD’s coming through
town are sonic assaults our ears endure daily. My husband calls it “turning
gasoline into noise”. We can’t lift a finger anymore unless it has a motor
attached. We live in a theme park town, and know what it’s like to put up with
amplified concerts all summer, and an enormous volume of traffic. There are
radios and televisions screaming at us in every place we go, from restaurants
to doctor’s waiting rooms.
Conversely,
if you are writing about the past, none of this existed. Cities used to be
noisy with people and animals, and later, with trains and trolleys, but the
countryside remained relatively quiet until the last fifty years. When night
came down on the farm, people went to sleep. Two hundred years ago, a candle
was an expensive item, and only the rich could afford to illuminate their world
after dark. Likewise, music—an orchestra was for the rich, music provided by
gifted individuals who were barely an inch more important than the rest of the
servants. That used to be the draw of a parade—the fact that you’d have a band
playing. Even when I was a kid, people often made music at home. At our house
we had a piano and a song book, and we all sometimes sang and played together
in the evenings for fun.
In the countryside, you’d hear wind in the
trees, or blowing across wheat fields or rustling through a stand of corn.
You’d hear songbirds—and there were more of them 100 years ago--and crickets
and cicadas and wild geese. The first Europeans to arrive here remarked upon
all our wildlife—and especially upon hearing it at night. In their world,
they’d eaten just about everything that moved and cut down most of the trees
and put everything into cultivation, and so the place they came from was
already picked clean of wildlife and therefore relatively quiet. Here, before
they got a foothold, nature was thriving. If your characters are in undeveloped
setting, like a 1600’s American forest, you might hear a panther scream or a
wolf howl.
Finally,
we get to taste. Taste and smell are strongly related, as we all have
experienced losing some of this sense when we have a bad head cold. This sense, which we take for granted, is key
to our well-being. One of my aunts, now deceased, lost her sense of taste
during her eighties. I remember when she was younger, she’d had to be careful
about what she ate, for like so many of us, her thirties and forties were spent
fighting the battle of the bulge. Now, with this vital sense lost, she was less
and less interested in eating, and ended her life weighing 75 pounds.
So,
if we return to that Regency banquet, what do we taste—or are we so excited and
overwhelmed by the presence of handsome young and very eligible Lord Brimstone
Marley seated to our right that we can barely swallow? If we’re on Planet X,
how would you describe the taste of Silonian Sea Slug in Ggarian sauce? Was the
dish carefully prepared, succulent and fragrant, or has it tough, reheated too
many times in the kitchen of a grungy space port diner?
Romance
writers imagine the sense of touch frequently; it’s their stock in trade, but
all writers need to reference thist. If you are shopping for clothes, you will
certainly run your fingers over the fabric, see if you like the feel of what
you are about to put next to your skin. If you are handling a gun, besides the
weight, you will be in contact with the material of handle or stock, the cool
touch of metal, the slight oily feeling of bullets as you drop them into the
chamber of a .38, or push them into a recalcitrant .22 clip.
Fantasy
or s/f writers-- you know you’ve got setting work to do which is far beyond the
average writer of a contemporary novel. If you are on a distant planet, your
special world will need an almost total re-imagining, because nothing would be
familiar. This leaves a lot of scope for exercising your imagination, but
you’ve got to be careful to construct an environment that’s inwardly
consistent. If you’ve got a lot of
distinct and unusual plants and animals, and/or geological anomalies, magical
spells, etc. you might want to write a crib sheet for yourself, so that you
don’t become tangled up in the richness of your own creation.
Another
way of attacking the business of creating a setting is what I call the “day in
a life” exercise. That is, from the moment you get up in the morning until your
head hits the pillow at night, spend one day really examining all the little
routines you and/or others have, no matter how mundane — from brushing teeth to
shining shoes, ironing, running errands, shopping, cooking, taking care of pets
or organizing children, commuting to work etc. At work, we all develop routines
which fill out the day in every office, hospital, factory or wherever. It’s
easy to see that these slices of daily life are fodder for a writer of
contemporary stories, but they can also provide a taking-off place.
This
Day In The Life exercise works directly with contemporary novels of any kind.
People have to have occupations, at least nominally, and this will form a
background to which the reader can quickly relate.
Notice that I call this an “exercise,” because
what you are doing is sharpening your perception for all the little tasks that
are part of life. These details may not go into your story—if you are writing The
Other Boleyn Girl or Shane, they won’t be directly applicable, but they will
show you how much goes on, and all the devices that are used, in an “ordinary”
day.
I’m
going to use the example of historical novels, because that’s what I’m most
familiar with. As for Day in a Life--well, what does your character do every
day?
Do
they work for a living? Or are they privileged
lords and ladies? If they are 16th century, do they brush their teeth—and if
so, with what? If a character is a servant in a great house, or an American
Indian, or if they are the very eligible Lord Brimstone-Marley—how exactly do
they spend their days?
Is
a maid permitted to look up from scrubbing the floor when her mistress passes
by? Where does dinner come from? Who serves/prepares
it? What food is available in that particular time period? If your character
goes to the kitchen, what’s it look like? What utensils and tools are there?
Where does the water come from? How often do these characters take a bath and
what is required in order to obtain one?
It’s
obvious that you better be well-grounded in the period even before you begin.
If you aren’t—you will have to pause in your writing, do a little research, and
you will instantly find how much easier creating the story becomes.
Learn
about the rules of behavior of different genders and social classes, about
medicine and food and even a bit about politics. You really should do that
research—or you won’t have a leg to stand on because even casual readers watch History
& Discovery Channels and are
becoming more sophisticated. For an example of how this has changed, I read a
romance back in the 80’s in which a hero and heroine make love “on top” of an
upright at Stonehenge. This took more suspension of belief than I could
muster—although it had passed by an editor. I don’t think this would pass with many
of today’s readers either.
Science
Fiction and fantasy writers frequently create their worlds from the bottom up.
This gives your imagination—and all your senses free rein. The major pitfall
here is that your newly created world needs to be consistent. If you make a
world like Tolkien’s Middle Earth with a race of people who are 3 feet tall as
well as Elves, Dwarves and men, a backstory is a necessity. Your reader may not
need to know it all, but you, the writer, do need to have all this firmly fixed
in your head, from social hierarchies to the artifacts of material
culture.
This,
needless to say, is a lot work and “imagineering.” Tolkien spent a lifetime
creating Middle Earth. Part of the
fascination for the reader of those books is the easy feel of this “other”
reality.
A
dystopian s/f future can be a little easier to create, because you can use
elements of the today’s world, but these too have to adhere to internal rules.
In stories like “The Road” there must be a plausible trigger precipitating the
downfall of life-as-we-know-it. The resulting world order should be based upon
what we already believe about society and/or mankind. Imagine your setting like
a game of Jenga or pick-up-sticks. Writers like Philip K. Dick like to just
remove a keystone of the structure, and then describe the patterns in which the
remaining pieces fall. Look at: Ubik, Clans
of the Alphane Moon, or Blade Runner to see what I mean.
Juliet Waldron's latest BWL release is Roan Rose
More like a gangland war for turf and loot than chivalry, the War of Roses disrupted the life of the English commoners for hundreds of years. Roan Rose is the story of one of these, a girl born on the Yorkshire dales. When the Countess of Warwick, decides to take sturdy, gentle Rose to Middleham Castle to be companion and bed-time poppet for her youngest daughter, her fate is changed forever.
Rose bonds strongly with Anne Neville, her young mistress. She also meets a royal boy enduring his knightly training—Richard of Gloucester, King Edward’s little brother. The noble children have illness and accidents as they grow, but Rose remains a constant, always there to nurse and serve.
Rose bears intimate witness to the passions, betrayals, battles and all the reversals of fortune which will shape her lady’s life—and her own. Anne Neville will briefly become a Queen, and Richard, Rose’s secret love, will become a King, one whose name has become synonymous with evil. When the King is betrayed and slain at Bosworth Field, Rose returns to a peasant’s hard life. She has one final service to perform.
…a beautiful story of love and loyalty set during the tumultuous reign of Richard III...
…I loved the strength of this woman…
…Powerful Sense of Time and Place…
…Waldron certainly knows her history…Yet despite its accuracy … Roan Rose is ultimately a book about character.
More like a gangland war for turf and loot than chivalry, the War of Roses disrupted the life of the English commoners for hundreds of years. Roan Rose is the story of one of these, a girl born on the Yorkshire dales. When the Countess of Warwick, decides to take sturdy, gentle Rose to Middleham Castle to be companion and bed-time poppet for her youngest daughter, her fate is changed forever.
Rose bonds strongly with Anne Neville, her young mistress. She also meets a royal boy enduring his knightly training—Richard of Gloucester, King Edward’s little brother. The noble children have illness and accidents as they grow, but Rose remains a constant, always there to nurse and serve.
Rose bears intimate witness to the passions, betrayals, battles and all the reversals of fortune which will shape her lady’s life—and her own. Anne Neville will briefly become a Queen, and Richard, Rose’s secret love, will become a King, one whose name has become synonymous with evil. When the King is betrayed and slain at Bosworth Field, Rose returns to a peasant’s hard life. She has one final service to perform.
…a beautiful story of love and loyalty set during the tumultuous reign of Richard III...
…I loved the strength of this woman…
…Powerful Sense of Time and Place…
…Waldron certainly knows her history…Yet despite its accuracy … Roan Rose is ultimately a book about character.
“Not
all who wander are lost.” Juliet Waldron earned a B. A. in English,
but has worked at jobs ranging from artist’s model to brokerage. Twenty
years ago, after raising her children, she dropped out of 9-5 and
began to researching her way into The Past. Three of the resulting
thirteen historical novels are now published. Mozart’s Wife won the 1st Independent e-Book Award. Genesee
won the 2003 Epic Award for Best Historical. She enjoys putting what
she has learned about people, places, and relationships into her
stories.
Visit her website:
http://www.julietwaldron.com
Her blog:
http://yesterrdayrevisitedhere.blogspot.com/
Visit her website:
http://www.julietwaldron.com
Her blog:
http://yesterrdayrevisitedhere.blogspot.com/
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Reputations and Bad Apples
I came across a very interesting article on Forbes.com and decided to share some of the more pertinent info included. I urge you to go and read the remaining text as you may be surprised to which levels some authors will go to promote themselves.
Indeed, many authors will recognize the phenomenon of the malicious one-star review designed to sabotage their books. Although Amazon prohibits "spiteful remarks" it is difficult to get such reviews removed. There's absolutely no doubt that some of these reviews are coming from other authors who see self-publishing as a zero sum game in which if they lose out if another author does well. Other may come from an author's fans to see anyone else's success as a threat to their idol, or from griefers and trolls who just get off on attacking strangers in public.
According to Mark Corker from Smashwords: It's a flaw in the system that negativity can become so amplified. You can have a string of four and five star reviews, and then you get a string of one star reviews and it will torpedo your sales because people will see those most recent reviews and it's a warning sign to the potential readers... If there's a reviewer that only leaves on star reviews, or they've left nothing but a single negative review, they're a carpet bomber.
Explanation: Carpet-bombers do not leave negative reviews in order to help readers avoid a bad book, they do it to undermine the reader's confidence in positive reviews, damage the book's ranking in Amazon and thus that author's sales. They are like fake positive reviews, designed to game the system,
Author Robert Kroese says: The effect of a bad review goes far beyond the impact that it has on the author's ego, however. The prominence of a book on Amazon.com is determined primarily by two factors: how well the book has sold and how positive its reviews are. More highly rated books are displayed more prominently, which leads to more sales. Increased sales lead to even more prominent displays which leads to still more sales. Through the miracle of the positive snowball effect, a few hundred rave reviews can transfer an otherwise unremarkable book into a worldwide bestseller.
Ginger's Comments: As someone who has a whole lot less than a few hundred reviews, I'm deeply concerned that these hit and run reviewers are damaging my credibility as an author. I'm very thankful that we are willing to read and review each other's work to help overcome the stigma. Although there were rumors that author reviews were being removed, I haven't seen any of mine disappear. We can only hope that despite being authors, we are also serious readers with opinions that matter.
Indeed, many authors will recognize the phenomenon of the malicious one-star review designed to sabotage their books. Although Amazon prohibits "spiteful remarks" it is difficult to get such reviews removed. There's absolutely no doubt that some of these reviews are coming from other authors who see self-publishing as a zero sum game in which if they lose out if another author does well. Other may come from an author's fans to see anyone else's success as a threat to their idol, or from griefers and trolls who just get off on attacking strangers in public.
According to Mark Corker from Smashwords: It's a flaw in the system that negativity can become so amplified. You can have a string of four and five star reviews, and then you get a string of one star reviews and it will torpedo your sales because people will see those most recent reviews and it's a warning sign to the potential readers... If there's a reviewer that only leaves on star reviews, or they've left nothing but a single negative review, they're a carpet bomber.
Explanation: Carpet-bombers do not leave negative reviews in order to help readers avoid a bad book, they do it to undermine the reader's confidence in positive reviews, damage the book's ranking in Amazon and thus that author's sales. They are like fake positive reviews, designed to game the system,
Author Robert Kroese says: The effect of a bad review goes far beyond the impact that it has on the author's ego, however. The prominence of a book on Amazon.com is determined primarily by two factors: how well the book has sold and how positive its reviews are. More highly rated books are displayed more prominently, which leads to more sales. Increased sales lead to even more prominent displays which leads to still more sales. Through the miracle of the positive snowball effect, a few hundred rave reviews can transfer an otherwise unremarkable book into a worldwide bestseller.
Ginger's Comments: As someone who has a whole lot less than a few hundred reviews, I'm deeply concerned that these hit and run reviewers are damaging my credibility as an author. I'm very thankful that we are willing to read and review each other's work to help overcome the stigma. Although there were rumors that author reviews were being removed, I haven't seen any of mine disappear. We can only hope that despite being authors, we are also serious readers with opinions that matter.
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Let your characters guide you - by Rita Karnopp
Before we begin typing that first word - we always
(or most times) have the ending in mind.
There are a couple books I had an idea of what I wanted my end result to
be – how I got there was something of a mystery. My point - we don’t always end up
where we think we will.
You must be willing to adapt . . . make changes,
be aware of the flow of your story.
Never . . . never . . . never . . . cling to your synopsis because it
was how the ‘story was supposed to go.’
Really??? I believe a story never
goes the way I planned – I have to be open for my characters to surprise
me. And boy – do they surprise me!
Be open minded while writing - Keep in mind – what
works for one book won’t always work for the next. Characters in each book are different and you
must always let them lead you through each scene. Listen to them . . . and give them free rein!
How exciting when your character demands something
different – something you never thought of!
Allow your characters to add atmosphere and excitement. Think of it this way – as your characters
develop . . . the story unfolds into places you never imagined.
Release the control. You know you’re a talented
writer. That doesn’t mean you’re instantly good at letting go – giving your
character permission to be him/herself.
Never start writing a book with ideas set in
stone. Guidelines will keep you from
writing yourself into a corner, but don’t be so controlling you won’t allow
something unexpected to happen.
Allow your characters to laugh, cry, have highs
and definitely lows. Make them feel . .
. and the reader will respond. By
allowing your character a ‘voice’ - the
dialog will flow with ease and belief.
Step in because you don’t like the direction and your reader will be
jerked out of the scene – maybe forever.
Believe in your characters. As I said at the
beginning, we don’t always end up where we think we will. That’s the good news! When your character surprises you while
you’re writing – it surprises the reader.
Some of my greatest scenes were created by my characters; their
personality, reaction, and drive or direction leads them to places only they
can imagine. Trust them – you’ll love
where it takes you!
Books We Love just released Rita’s fifteenth book,
Thunder
The world of professional wresting is a volatile,
exciting, and action-packed world and even more so behind the scenes. Keme
(Thunder), a Blackfeet fan favorite wrestler at the top of his game, is found
hanging from the rafters of his training facility. Is it murder . . . or suicide?
Find Rita at:
Website: http://ritakarnopp.com
Facebook: rita.karnopp@facebook.com
LinkedIn: rita karnopp
Blog: http://mizging.blogspot.com/
Contact her at: ritakarnopp@bresnan.net
Facebook: rita.karnopp@facebook.com
LinkedIn: rita karnopp
Blog: http://mizging.blogspot.com/
Contact her at: ritakarnopp@bresnan.net
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Goal, Motivation, and Conflict by Shirley Martin
In her excellent how-to book, Debra Dixon refers to
Goal, Motivation, and Conflict as the building blocks of fiction. What does your
protagonist want? (Goal.) Why does she want it? (Motivation.) What prevents her
from attaining her goal? (Conflict.) In planning a novel or novella, its a good
idea to flesh out your characters, create well-rounded people with an outer and
inner GMC.
My historical romance, "Forbidden Love," centers around an actual event, the Homestead Steel Strike of 1892. My heroine, Lisa, is an only child of well-to-do parents, living in an affluent neighborhood on the outskirts of Pittsburgh. When Lisa's father dies, he leaves his widow and daughter with many debts, on the verge of poverty. This circumstance leads to Lisa's outer GMC.
Goal: (What does she want?) To pay off their debts,
work for a living if she must.
Motivation: (Why?) To save her widowed mother from
poverty
Conflict: What keeps her from attaining her goal?)
Lisa lacks ready skills. Her mother is irresponsible and doesn't realize their
dire situation. She is disdainful of Lisa's frugality and fearful of neighbors'
opinions if Lisa must earn a living.
When William, a wealthy stockbroker, offers Lisa marriage, she accepts, even though she doesn't love him. She sees the marriage as a means to save her mother from poverty, else it would be necessary to sell the family home.
Now we see Lisa's inner GMC. As the name implies, an inner GMC is emotional, from deep inside.
Goal: To learn to love William.
Motivation: She wants children, wants to have a
happy marriage.
Conflict: William is a philanderer and spurns her
efforts.
Lisa belongs to a literary club, and there she meets Owen. Immediately drawn to him, she fights her attraction, still hoping she will come to love William and hoping to achieve a happy marriage. But William continues to spurn her advances, apparently satisfied with a loveless marriage and needing Lisa only as a trophy wife.
Here we see that a protagonist's goals can change throughout one's story. Indeed, your hero/heroine may have more than one goal.
Trapped in a loveless marriage and falling in love
with Owen, Lisa's outer GMC changes.
Goal: To be free of her marriage.
Motivation: Lisa is deeply in love with Owen, and
William has become a heartless husband.
Conflict: William won't grant her a divorce.
Now what about Owen? He's a steelworker,
literally from the wrong side of the tracks. He lives in Homestead, a dirty
steel town across the river from Pittsburgh. Owen has aspirations; he wants to
better himself, the reason why he joined the literary club. What does his outer
GMC look like?
Goal: To get out of the steel business. He wants to attend the university and become a civil engineer.
Motivation: He wants to escape the brutality of the
steel mill, where the temperature can reach 130 degrees, and the noise can drive
a man crazy.
Conflict: College is expensive and money is tight. He knows that a strike is imminent at the Homestead mill and will lead to a further depletion of his savings.
Conflict: College is expensive and money is tight. He knows that a strike is imminent at the Homestead mill and will lead to a further depletion of his savings.
Deeply attracted to Lisa, he realizes she's a married lady and far above his station. With no way of knowing otherwise, he assumes she's happily married and that her husband loves her very much. So what is his inner GMC?
Goal: To forget his love for Lisa, drive her from
his mind.
Motivation: Because she's married to another
man.
Conflict: He can't drive her from his mind. He
loves her too deeply.
Throughout "Forbidden Love" Lisa's and Owen's
relationship develops and grows, their love becoming more intense. Owen learns
of William's perfidies, his failure to take Lisa as a true wife. Now Owen's
outer GMC matches Lisa's.
Goal: To make Lisa his wife.
Motivation: He can no longer fight his love for
her.
Conflict: William refuses to release Lisa from
their marriage.
Before you begin a novel/novella, it's a good idea to create GMC charts, outer and inner, for your protagonists. And make sure you have plenty of conflict!
"Historical romance at its finest," Julie Bonello at eCataRomance
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