It's a Woman's Prerogative to Change Her Mind by Jamie Hill

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Back in August, BWL's Art Director Michelle Lee asked our author group to "cast our characters" for movies or TV. To choose an actor who we thought portrayed the looks and personality of one of our characters. The first book I had published was Family Secrets. Protagonist Jack Dunlevy has always held a special place in my heart. At the time I selected Adrian Pasdar (who I remembered from the series Judging Amy) as my choice to play Jack.

Recently I cut the cable cord and went strictly to Netflix. I've been looking for new series to watch (new to me, anyway) rather than watch Parenthood and Gilmore Girls over and over. The creator of Parenthood also did a series called Friday Night Lights, about a high school football team set in a small town in Texas. I decided to give it a try. 

I don't like every series that's been recommended to me on Netflix. I just can't get into some of them, and some I don't have patience for. Friday Night Lights? I binge watched all five seasons in January--three times, over again. So I guess you could say I kinda liked that one. 

The star of the show is Kyle Chandler who plays Coach Eric Taylor. As a dad and coach he's inspiring and amazing. But the relationship he has with his onscreen wife Connie Britton is truly a thing of beauty. When he tells her, "I love you, I respect you, I am proud of you, I am in love with you completely," my heart, and the hearts of women everywhere, surely melt into little puddles on the floor.

 

After three airings of that series, I found Kyle did another series for Netflix called Bloodline. In this 2015 series he plays a cop (begin swoon) and his character is very similar to that of the coach, except he's more mature (full fledged swoon) and he's able to swear on Netflix (which may not sound like a good thing but it's realistic for the character, and damn it, I like it.)

Friday Night Lights is a series which I equate to my enjoyment of reading young adult books. Bloodline is a more mature, romantic suspense/thriller type of a show. And the more I watch it, the more I think that Kyle Chandler would make the perfect Jack Dunlevy from Family Secrets. 

So if anyone at Netflix is reading this, shoot me an email. It'd be a struggle to take time off work to go give character insights to Mr. Chandler as he's preparing to film my book, but I'd do it to be a good team player. That's just how I roll.

Oh, and if anyone from Netflix is still reading? Judging Amy would be a nice addition to your collection. I'm just sayin'.

Character Name: Jack Dunlevy

Book(s) Featuring: Family Secrets, Family Ties and Family Honor

Author: Jamie Hill

About Jack: Jack Dunlevy is a handsome, burnt out cop who smokes too much and drinks too much. He has a penchant for pretty women and little kids, and rescuing them makes him feel worthwhile again.

One of Jack's Shining Moments: 

Inside Jack’s room, Crystal looked through his closet for another sweatshirt. “I need to do some laundry. Things are getting desperate here.” She found a shirt and pulled it over her head, and then watched him grab the hamper and shove his wet clothes in it.

“Let’s gather it all up and we’ll do it now.”

She gave him a small smile. “Yeah?” She had never met a man willing to help with the laundry. Sure, Jack had done it once, but that was before. Crystal generally found relationships changed after ‘the deed’ was done.

He looked at her and shrugged. “What? It’s just laundry.”

She shrugged back and tossed her towel into the hamper. She glanced out to where the boys were and then back at him quickly. “So you really think I have what they need?”

He smiled slowly at her and replied, “I know you have what they need. You just have to convince yourself of that fact.” He carried the hamper out the door in front of her and added in an offhand tone, “I also know you have what I need. I guess it’s up to me to convince you of that.”

Crystal followed him, not really aware she was smiling until she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror in the boys’ room as she picked up their laundry. “Hell’s bells,” she muttered to herself, and wondered why she felt so happy.

Family Secrets A Cop in the Family, Book 1

As if stumbling over a dead body isn’t enough, Crystal Cartwright finds herself playing surrogate mother to two small boys when their father–her neighbor–doesn’t come home. The kids aren’t much trouble, but the thieves, drug dealers and kidnappers they’re about to encounter are.

Detective Jack Dunlevy, a cop down on his luck, draws the cases no one else wants. A simple investigation involving a dead homeless man quickly changes as Crystal enlists Jack’s help with the children. Drawn into a mystery that none of them could have anticipated, they’re faced with a situation that will change their lives forever.

“Ms. Hill is a genius! The plot line was AMAZING. It was action packed and kept me on the edge of my seat almost the entire time. Ms. Hill has become a favorite author of mine and I consider her to be an automatic add to my “to be read list”. If you are a serious suspense loving reader who loves to form bonds with the characters, this is definitely the book for you! I loved it and can’t wait to read more of Ms. Hill’s books, she has the gift of knowing what the reader wants and then hitting you with an ending you certainly don’t expect. Two thumbs up!” ~ Val, You Gotta Read Reviews, 5 Stars

You can find Jamie's books on her page at Books We Love here: http://bookswelove.net/authors/hill-jamie/  and you can find Jamie sitting in front of her TV with the Netflix clicker in hand.

Murder in the Bedroom by Katherine Pym

Madam, did you murder your husband?

Apparently, bedrooms are perfect for murder. The victim is usually already in a prone position (won’t fall and break anything). The victim is usually already asleep so there’s no resistance to their demise. The mattress will soak up the blood, if that’s the way a murderer wants to perform the act. All he or she has to do is cover up the dead body with blankets already on the bed. 

Easy-peasy. 

We will kill them now

Authors have often killed off a person in the bedroom. Take Anya Seton in her Dragonwyck. She used the oleander flower to brighten up a sick room. I’ve read this plant is extremely poisonous. Even if a bee takes its pollen, and you later gather honey from said bee’s nest, eat the honey, you can fall very ill. I haven’t heard if you can die from the honey, though. Anya Seton merely had her naughty protagonist set an oleander plant near his sick wife’s bed. The next morning she was dead. Very cleanly done. No blood. Her body was already covered with blankets. 

Back in the day (maybe even now), some innkeepers (sort of like the dastardly couple in the musical Les Mis) would kill a wealthy customer for the gold he/she carried. One couple who owned the Crane Inn near Reading, England murdered wealthy patrons for years without getting caught. 

Waiting for the victim to drop

Their process was elaborate. They outfitted a bedroom located above the kitchen (nice and cozy in the winters I expect, what with heat rising, so a coveted room). The innkeepers nailed the bed to a trapdoor located over a huge boiling cauldron used to brew beer. When the trapdoor opened the poor victim fell off the bed into this boiling cauldron, clothes and all, he never had a moment to cry out but would be immediately parboiled, then drowned (sort of like the play Sweeny Todd but with water). The innkeepers would mount a ladder into the bedroom, steal all his goods, and reset the trapdoor. The body would then be cast into a local river. 

That seems like a lot of hard work. 

Then Thomas Harding (another author) wrote of a woman whose husband continually imbibed. One night she couldn’t take it anymore and sewed her dead-drunk husband very tightly in the bedclothes. She unstitched him the following morning to find him quite expired. The coroners said it was a stroke. On her wedding night with her next husband, she very casually told him what she had done. I’d wager the new husband didn’t sleep well that night. 

Someone died here

There are many bedrooms that are ghost ridden due to suicides, murders, and just plain natural deaths. There was a time when, if you tried to sell your home, the estate agent would ask if anyone died there. If you answered yes, the house would be difficult to sell. So, what do you say? 

 

Nothing, and do sleep well, tonight. 

 Many thanks to: Warm & Snug, The History of the Bed, by Lawrence Wright, First published 1962 by Routledge & Keagan Paul, Ltd. England

Pictures come from Wikicommon, public domain

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Writing Groups and Critique Partners by Diane Bator

One of the best things any author can do is join a writing group or find other writers to critique their work. I wouldn't be where I am today without the support of both a local writing group and an online critique group.

When I moved across Canada from Alberta to Ontario in January 2006, I didn't know anyone in town - or even in the province. A year later, I found the Headwaters Writers' Guild. As eclectic as any group of writers could be, we varied in ages from young parents to seventy year olds. From new writers to veterans of the publishing world. But we all shared one love:  the written word. We have all been published in some form or another and we have all celebrated each others' successes. As we've aged, we've learned and been their to support one another through life's trials and tribulations. They were the people who encouraged me to write and finish my first novel and heard each word before the manuscript was ever sent to an agent or publisher. Our numbers ebb and flow as members come and go, but a few of us have been a part of the core group for many years. This April, for example, will mark my ninth year with the HWG and I still attend meetings as much as I can and at every meeting, I write a new scene for a new novel.

In our writing group, we take turns as leaders and use our two hours ever second Sunday to read things we've written and gather feedback from the group. We also take 15 - 20 minutes each meeting to write using prompts the leader that week chose for the occasion. Writing prompts, even used alone for some quiet writing practice, are a great way to exercise a writer's skills at letting thoughts flow. Many of the best stories and novels that have emerged from our group have their basis in our prompts.

Shortly after joining the writing group, I joined an online critique group. Through one of the women in this new group, I was introduced to my agent who has believed in me from the start, then to Books We Love who published my first novels.

In the years since, I've gone on to work with other now-published writers as critique partners. Reading other author's works in progress is a great way to provide continuous learning and help to recognize patterns and habits in our own work - good and bad. It also provides for solid connections in the writing world which can help with any writing career.

My best advice for a budding writer of any age is to join a writing group for the moral and literary support they can offer. Don't be afraid to share your work or to get help when you're stuck. A good writing group will give you both if you keep an open mind.

Diane Bator