Grace's Mosaic Moments

World Ending in 2012?

2012-02-16T08:36:00.023-08:00

The legend above this reproduction of the Mayan calendar reads: TZOLKIN. Calendar wheel system of measuring time. Every single day has its own omens and associations. The inexorable passing of days acts as a kind of perpetual fortune telling machinery. Guiding the destinies of the Mayas and all the native peoples of Mesoamerica. It is still in use in an unchanged form in the outback, under the care of specialized calendar priests, after 5,123 years.

The words beneath the calendar: "Who owns your time, owns your mind. Change your idea of time and change your mind. Change your mind and then . . . you will change the world." Mayan Belief

(And, no, my Spanish isn't that good. The opposite side of the sheet above is in English!)

~ * ~

Below: the hand-made wooden reproduction of the Mayan calendar I couldn't resist purchasing.

Will the world end on December 22, 2012, the so-called "end" of the Mayan calendar?

"No way," said our guide to the Mayan ruins of Tulum. His mother was Mayan, he informed us, and a man more dedicated to his heritage you could not find. He went to great lengths to praise the bus load of us off the Carnival Paradise for choosing the ruins over swimming, shopping, etc. And he absolutely, positively assured us that on the morning after the Mayan calendar runs out, the sun will rise, and the calendar will simply recycle, reverting back to its beginning.

My son and I felt privileged to have "Tour Guide Juan" as our mentor for the day. We couldn't help but wonder if the other guides were as dedicated. His extensive knowledge of his subject continued as he led us through the ruins at Tulum, including showing photos he had taken at summer and winter solstices and at the fall and winter equinoxes, each showing the sun shining through an exactly placed opening in the Mayan temple complex.

As we walked into the ruins, I'd swear they trained that iguana to pose. He just sat there and let my son take a dozen photos!

We walked through a tunnel in a rock wall, and there it was - according to Juan, the only Mayan city on the water.

Among the many things Juan told us about the Mayan culture is that chocolate is a sacred drink, used in religious ceremonies, particularly weddings. This is still true today, not just in the heyday of the Mayan culture.

He also admitted that the Mayans' worst enemy was the Mayans. And that fighting among themselves was weakening the culture even before the arrival of the Spanish.

Above, the Temple of Tulum, the center of a city that once extended over a square mile.

Our guide displaying two of his photos of the sun shining through a carefully placed opening on the morning of the summer solstice.

A close-up of the temple.

Credit: Wooden Mayan calendar, iguana, & Juan with sun photos - by David Kone

~ * ~

For someone who had been twice to Machu Picchu in Peru but never seen a Mayan ruin, Tulum was the highlight of our January cruise. Warning: you have to put up with some aggressive vendors - all working for "foreign" owners, according to our guide! - before you can start the walk in to the ruins. It's almost like running a gauntlet. Sigh. But the ruins are worth it. At least if you're a history buff like me. If you go anywhere near Cozumel, don't miss it!

Coming soon: My Regency historical featuring characters from Tarleton's Wife and The Sometime Bride. Also, a gourmet chicken recipe created for Queen Elizabeth's coronation luncheon in 1953 (featured recently in the Orlando Sentinel).

Thanks for stopping by Grace's Mosaic Moments.

Family, Friends, & Carnival Madness

2012-01-23T12:44:00.000-08:00

The Sunshine Skyway (Tampa Bay) at sunset

Got back early Friday from a 5-day cruise on the Carnival Paradise with eighteen family and friends. Woo-hoo, did the restaurant tremble when they saw us coming! The greatest irony of the trip - it was organized by my daughter's real estate assistant way back in early September to celebrate her 23rd birthday. One week before the cruise, she was told there was a January opening in nursing school, she wouldn't have to wait until July. BUT if she took it, the cruise was out. So there we were, cruising the Caribbean, celebrating Maria's birthday (and enjoying our cabin stewards' towel animals), while Maria went to school. Sigh.

Cold in Tampa when we left, but after a day and a night cruising south (through rough seas), the weather in the Caymans was grand. Did a fabulous tour on the "Nautilus," a boat with the passenger seats below the waterline so we could see coral reefs, multitudes of colorful fish, and two shipwrecks (19th c.) Then off to a Turtle Farm - see photo below of me juggling a turtle. Note for those who have cruised the Bahamas: money from the 500 banks in the Caymans definitely affects the economy. The whole of Grand Cayman appears far more prosperous than Nassau, including many luxury hotels. The 7-mile beach, however, is available to all, with walk-throughs to beach access between the hotels, as well as several miles of open beach and parking (not yet snatched up by hotels or condos).

Next blog: a bit about our tour of the Mayan ruins in Cozumel.

Next book going indie: O'Rourke's Heiress, an Historical Romance, featuring a number of characters from The Sometime Bride and Tarleton's Wife. (I did a promotion of two free days for Bride this past weekend and was amazed by the number of downloads. I'd like to think it was me, but I'm afraid it was the 0.00 price tag!

All the best, Grace
aka Blair Bancroft

Photos by David Kone

Orange Blossoms & Mayhem

2012-01-03T07:07:00.000-08:00

A brand new book for a brand new year!

Needless to say, I'm thrilled to present Orange Blossoms & Mayhem with Delle Jacob's gorgeous cover, which so perfectly conveys both the exotic locales and the bombshell heroine. Please see description below.

~ * ~

Want to get married in a hot air balloon? Have the bride step out of a Fabergé egg? Just call Fantascapes, the Halliday family business (ironically based in a sleepy Florida resort and retirement community). Fantascapes is also the right number for hiking the Inca Trail, a chalet in Switzerland, or a luxury journey to Angkor Wat.

Trouble in Fantasyland? It's Laine Halliday—well-dressed, well-toned, a sharpshooter in every sense of the word—to the rescue. But are fantasy weddings and vacations for the pampered rich enough to satisfy her?

Laine's options expand when bullets fly after she meets a mystery man on the Inca Trail in Peru, and she begins to fear there may be more to that Fabergé egg project than meets the eye. Amid the color and frantic pace of a luxury business, Laine finds herself involved in Russian mob warfare and law enforcement activity that ranges from the local SWAT team to Interpol. Can a wedding planner from Golden Beach, Florida, survive an encounter with the mob and juggle the two men in her life, as well as her job with Fantascapes and an offer from Interpol? Never fear, Laine Halliday is the kind of heroine who may be able to do it all.

Grace Note: Orange Blossoms & Mayhem is my venture into Thriller mode, with a bombshell heroine, hunky heroes, and dashes of humor to lighten the mayhem. If you like your heroines truly heroic (this one saves the hero five times), this book is for you. [Please note Orange Blossoms is not part of my backlist, but a brand new, never-before-published novel.]

Link to Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Orange-Blossoms-Mayhem-Fantascapes-ebook/dp/B006T00PO6/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1325636085&sr=1-1

~ * ~

On another note, I have finally succumbed to Twitter. I can be found @blairbancroft. On Facebook and Linked, I post under my real name of Grace Kone.

Coming soon: O'Rourke's Heiress, a Regency Historical saga, featuring a number of the characters from Tarleton's Wife and The Sometime Bride.

May 2012 bring peace and fulfillment to you and yours!

Grace

A Christmas Shopping Story

2011-12-17T13:23:00.001-08:00

Only a few weeks ago, I ranted against Black Friday on this blog. My opinion hasn't changed, but I discovered today that Christmas shopping can have very special moments that truly illustrate the meaning of the Season.

Not that I haven't enjoyed accumulating presents in my closet over the past few months, anticipating the looks on my grandchildren's faces over some particularly unexpected surprise. And I've enjoyed making Christmas cookies with the three little girls, showing them how to measure and mix, cut out, decorate . . . and granting them permission to eat the the last of the dough and a sampling of the cookies we're saving for Christmas dessert. But today, Saturday, December 17, 2011, was special, an emotional few moments that ranged from nightmare to miracle.

Ordinarily I wouldn't go near a store this near to Christmas, but I had to return a batch of colored markers to Staples at Waterford Lakes, because my oldest granddaughter was disappointed when the pink she chose turned out to be white (somehow it never got "inked"). After Staples, I braved Jo-Ann's fabrics because I had at least ten 40% off coupons burning a hole in my purse. A great opportunity to acquire yarn and craft items for the grandchildren. Plus 20% off on the whole order. For that, I would brave the Christmas crowds.

After being told I'd saved twenty-three dollars and some cents, I pushed my cart out to my car and put the bags in the trunk. While parking my cart so I could drive out frontwards, a woman asked me where the "bookstore" was. I gave her directions to Barnes & Nobles, got in my car and drove home.

But when I got home and went to put my car keys in my purse, there was no purse. I looked under my pile of Publix cloth bags, looked in the back seat, checked the trunk. No purse. My mind boggled. No purse, no driver's license, no credit cards, no debit card, no cell phone. No Macy's card, no membership cards to umpteen places. No extra car keys, no address book, no . . .

I must have been scammed, I decided. While I gave directions to Barnes & Noble, someone had grabbed my purse. But no . . . I'd swear no one else had been near, and yet . . .

Appalled, I drove back to Jo-Ann's, cataloging all the phone calls I was going to have to make. After what I knew was a hopeless check of the shopping carts in the lot, I went into the store. I stood at the counter at Customer Service, feeling like a complete idiot for even asking. I looked at the young man and said, "I know this is a stupid question, but did anyone find a purse?"

He looked at me and said, "It's not a stupid question, we did find a purse."

"You found a purse?"

"Yes."

"Was it silver?"

"Someone found it in a cart and turned it in. We have it locked up in our vault."

He made a call on the intercom, asking for the purse to be brought to the front of the store, while I burbled my thanks, feeling horrible that I wasn't able to thank the Good Samaritan who found my purse and turned it in. And, yes, I also thanked the good Lord for this small Christmas miracle that meant so much to me. This incident of less-than-an-hour in time that so amply illustrates the true meaning of Christmas. And of the Ten Commandments.

When you stop to think of our lousy economy, of how many people have so little . . . and yet my purse came back to me just as I left it, with everything intact.

If you've enjoyed this Christmas story, please pass it along. I can guarantee that the Christmas spirit lives at Waterford Lakes Mall in Orlando.

Grace, who is still shaking her head and saying thanks

Reflections on Thanksgiving

2011-12-04T08:08:00.000-08:00

I wrote this blog right after Thanksgiving, and because it’s mostly a rant against Black Friday, I let it mellow a bit before I posted it. But, basically, my sentiments haven’t changed. If you agree with what I’ve written, I hope you’ll pass it along. It’s time for a grass-roots revolt against the incursion of crass commercialism into our most American holiday.

~ * ~

Grace's Reflections on Thanksgiving

Now that Thanksgiving is past, I feel the need to comment on the good and the bad of the holiday that is coming closer and closer to being trampled under the rush toward Christmas. Or should I say, under the rush toward greed and acquisition of material goods that has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas?

My daughter and I, with the aid of some of our guests, fed nineteen for Thanksgiving this year. And, no, we weren’t volunteering at a homeless shelter. That was just our extended family here in Orlando. Thirteen of the sixteen adults present were native Spanish-speakers.

Two of our Hispanic guests just got their citizenship six weeks ago. So for more than just the three children, ages 5, 6, and 8, I took the time to explain a bit about the first Thanksgiving before we said grace. I read a passage in which the Pilgrim’s Governor Bradford wrote that although they had very little, they sat down [November 1621] and gave thanks. I told the children that was another way of saying that if we didn’t say thank-you for little things, it was all too easy to forget to say thank-you for big things. A lesson we all need to remember.

This was the largest Thanksgiving gathering I have ever participated in, and I’m happy to say it was a success. I felt we had been true to the spirit of Thanksgiving and, at the same time, been able to demonstrate the family traditions of Thanksgiving to people unfamiliar with this holiday. This year, for the first time, a few of them actually tried the cranberry sauce!

And yet, while we were sitting down to dinner, thousands of people across the country were waiting in line to storm the big box stores. One woman in our area was shown on television saying, yes, she knew this was a family holiday, and her whole family was with her in line—they were starting a new tradition. As I recall, I groaned out loud.

This year, not only did stores open at midnight on “Black Friday,” some actually opened on Thanksgiving Day. I was appalled, making a mental note not to patronize those stores for any of my Christmas shopping. Black Friday indeed—and nudging its way into Black Thursday. For shame!

And what did you think of the Black Friday ads this year? The prize for most tasteless and most insulting went to Target. I almost threw something at my TV every time it came on. That’s the ad with the brainless twit who was so excited about Black Friday she could only giggle insanely and present the absolute worst caricature of a female shopper. Totally nauseating, as well as a kick in the teeth for women in general. I swear that ad must have been written by a twenty-something New York ad guy who hated his mother. But that Target execs actually approved it . . .! Aargh! It was a slap in the face to every female I know.

I don’t think the Pilgrims braved the seas in three little boats, starved, and lost half their group that first winter so Americans could remember them by camping out for days in order to buy a TV at a bargain price. What our broken economy needs is more people with genuine values, people who respect God, home, and family. People who give thanks for the bounties we have, whether large or small. People who buy American, yes, but never forget to set aside time to give thanks that the Pilgrims set foot on this new world and were followed by thousands and thousands of others seeking freedom and a fresh start. (Otherwise none of would be here.)

What our ancestors did in coming to this country, whether 390 years ago or in 2011, is worth giving thanks for. Our country, no matter how troubled at the moment, is worth giving thanks for. And thanks for family, friends, a job, food on the table. And even if the job is iffy and the food sparse, we’re still lucky to be here and not in some more unstable part of the world. There’s always something to give thanks for, even if occasionally we have to look pretty hard to find it.

And to all those people, waiting in line to trample others on their way to the goodies: is your life really so shallow that shopping is all Thanksgiving and Christmas mean to you? You could at least take the time to be thankful you have the $200 instead of $2000 for a TV. After all, if you’re in line, you’re waiting to BUY, aren’t you? Which means you have a lot more than many of our citizens do at the moment. If only you were buying American . . . or giving that money to charity.

Ah well, I guess that’s too much to ask. But please, folks, however you do your Christmas shopping next year, please take the time on Thanksgiving Day to give thanks, true thanks for our blessings. (And it wouldn’t hurt to tell Wal-Mart and the other stores that opened on Thanksgiving this year that it’s time to Cease and Desist.)

I understand many of these same big box stores were quiet by the time normal business hours rolled around on Black Friday, which indicates the stores aren’t going to make any more money opening at 5:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day than if they open at midnight or, better yet, at a reasonable time on Friday morning, giving their employees time to enjoy both a proper Thanksgiving dinner and football.

If you agree with this article, I’d appreciate your passing it on.

Grace of Grace’s Mosaic Moments
Who writes as Blair Bancroft

Love At Your Own Risk

2011-11-30T07:51:00.000-08:00

Love At Your Own Risk was my first print novel, part of Kensington's Precious Gem line way back in August 2000. The name, however, was changed to what I considered the overused generic, He Said, She Said. Why? Because the Marketing Department considered "risk" a no-no, a word that would put readers off. Sigh. Other editorial changes have also been put back to the original. For example, my line, "He had lips that looked like they never smiled" was changed to, "He had kissable lips." Aargh!

In any event, Love At Your Own Risk, is now available online from Kindle and Smashwords and should be available soon for Nook, Sony, Palm, and other e-readers. Blurb below.

Love At Your Own Risk

After winning a case she wished she'd lost (the defendant was a rapist), defense attorney Victoria Kent rushes off to her parents' vacation cottage on Cape Cod, only to find herself nose-to-nose with a 9mm Glock. It seems the cottage is rented. By John Paolillo, a homicide detective from New Haven who has been sentenced to two weeks' "rest" after hitting a defense attorney.

John offers to share—after all, the cottage has a separate basement apartment. Reluctantly, Vicki agrees. Alas, John has another problem—his car died. Inevitably, they end up exploring the outer Cape together and manage to fool themselves into thinking people with diametrically opposite views of the law can become a couple. Their relationship even survives a surprise visit from Vicki's alleged fiancé. But when they leave Cape Cod's less well-known byways to walk the teeming streets of Provincetown, disaster strikes.

Vicki rushes back to Boston. John returns to New Haven. They've reached a no hope situation. Unless some wise soul can find a way past the basic conflict that has split them apart.

Grace Note: My love of Cape Cod inspired this classic romance with the outer Cape as the most important secondary character. Hopefully, Love At Your Own Risk will inspire you to visit this very special place where the Pilgrims first set foot on our continent. And, yes, First Encounter Beach is included in the story.

* * *

Coming next: Reflections on Thanksgiving

Thanks for stopping by. Grace

Mistletoe Moment

2011-11-10T06:51:00.000-08:00

Wow! Something NEW. I've spent the last ten months uploading my backlist to Kindle and Smashwords, but here is something brand new. My very first novella. It is available solo or as part of Cotillion's Christmas anthology, Christmas Kisses. The link below is to the solo version. And if you look below the cover and blurb, you'll find my confession: the all-too-true story of where I got the idea for this story.Pamela Ashburton's dreams of a London Season meet with disaster at her very first ball. When her humiliation is exaggerated by the unfeeling attitude of her mother and sister, she abandons all hope of entering society and goes to live with an aunt in Worcestershire. Four years later, she is well on her way to spinsterhood.

Will Forsythe, a veteran of the Peninsular War, retreats to Worcestershire hoping a quiet, solitary life will heal more than his physical wounds. But it's Christmas season, and he finds himself faced with a damsel distressingly in need of help to gather mistletoe for her aunt's Twelfth Night Ball. As an officer and a gentleman, what else can he do?

~ * ~

The sad tale behind the Mistletoe Moment:

A number of years ago, I was on a tour designed specifically for authors of Regency novels. While in Bath, we were part of a Georgian dance evening at the Upper Assembly Rooms. The dancers were there to perform for us, and also to help us through the intricacies of the dance figures of the day. We were all costumed in Regency gowns. Knowing dancing was not one of my skills, I demurred, but when one of the charming, costumed Georgian gentlemen invited me to do the Grand March, how could I resist?

After a romp down the middle of the floor, we did a U-turn around a line chairs. Half-way back to the "top" of the dance, my feet went out from under me, and I in my gorgeous green gown went down splat on the floor. Of course everyone was appalled. My charming partner seated me on a chair, rushed off to get me water. The dancers assured me the floor was the most slippery they had encountered anywhere, etc., etc. But, believe me, I was able to put all my feelings that night into poor Pamela's plight. I was fortunate enough to have kindness shown. Poor Pamela was not. But I knew exactly what sent her flying to Worcestershire, for I sat out the remainder of the night, chatting with Mary Balogh's mother, while wanting to sink into that highly polished floor.

Out of such things are novels born—well, at least a novella. The link to Mistletoe Moment:

http://www.jasminejade.com/p-9611-mistletoe-moment.aspx

Coming soon: A Cape Cod romance from my backlist - Love at Your Own Risk

Grace, who writes as Blair Bancroft

The Sometime Bride

2011-11-01T07:42:00.000-07:00

After two months of re-editing and formatting, all 144,763 words of The Sometime Bride are making their debut on Kindle and Smashwords (with Nook, Sony, Palm, & other e-readers in the near future). This is the book where I inadvertently broke all the rules of romance. But when I read it again, more than 15 years after I wrote it and 11 years since its first publication, I discovered The Sometime Bride still qualified as the best book I ever wrote. You can read 20% for free on Smashwords (link below), and I'd love to hear what you think. Does my rule-breaking offend? Or perhaps it isn't really noticeable? Or does it possibly add to the book's appeal?

Catherine Audley, the daughter of Britain's spymaster on the Iberian Peninsula, is far more sophisticated than most young women her age, which doesn't protect her from the machinations of her father, a husband of convenience, or the unrelenting demands of a long war. Over seven years of a first-hand, and highly personal, view of the Peninsular War, she matures into a woman who is finally able to go toe-to-toe with the enigmatic young man to whom she has given years of unquestioning devotion. Only to discover that love cannot compensate for betrayal of trust. Or can it?

While masquerading as an ox-cart driver, the young Englishman known as Blas the Bastard meets Catherine Audley, and his life is changed forever. It is 1807 and France is about to invade Portugal. To protect Cat's father, his gaming establishment in Lisbon, and the British spy network on the Peninsula, Blas proposes a "paper" marriage between himself and young Catherine. She is fourteen; he, twenty-one—both too young for the responsibilities they must assume. Blas is arrogant, dashing, occasionally reckless, totally bound up in the demands of the war, and oblivious to the looming disastrous conflict with his sometime wife.

When Cat finally discovers how badly Blas has deceived her, a monumental clash is inevitable. In no way does the triumph of allied troops in 1814 guarantee a happy ending for two people for whom the war was a personal disaster. Is she a sometime bride, the "widow" of a man who never existed? Is she Blas's well-rewarded, but discarded mistress? Or is she a beloved wife whose only rival is her husband's determined expediency in a time of war?

* * *

The Sometime Bride is both an Historical Romance and a heavily researched Historical novel, detailing the seven years of the Peninsular War as seen through the eyes of our young hero and heroine. And of course it has an Epilogue about that most famous battle of all, Waterloo.

Below are the links to The Sometime Bride at Kindle and Smashwords. The Smashword's link allows a 20% free read.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/100234

http://www.amazon.com/The-Sometime-Bride-ebook/dp/B0060ZHODK/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1320159903&sr=1-1

Coming soon: my novella, Mistletoe Moment - due out November 10 from the Cotillion line of Ellora's Cave

Grace, who writes as Blair Bancrft

More on Mad as @#$%

2011-10-31T10:21:00.000-07:00

Monday, October 31, 2011

Re: my letter of October 26, 2011, to Mr. Phillip Brown, Executive Director of OIA and the Executive Airport.

This morning I had a 20-minute phone call from the Customer Service Manager - Operations at the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority. She was appalled, she told me, as was Mr. Brown, by what happened curbside at Terminal A on Wednesday evening. Portions of my letter would be used in re-training sessions planned for the curbside parking attendants. She had already faxed my letter to their supervisors. She even asked me for physical descriptions of the two attendants mentioned in my letter.

We ended up discussing our children, my books, e-readers, etc., but of greatest importance was the fact that I felt there might be changes made. And perhaps the biggest moral of the story: don't accept rude behavior. We really don't have to "take it." Complain. And complain to the highest authority where it might do some good. The pen really can be mightier than the sword.

Grace

Next on Mosaic Moments: My latest online upload, The Sometime Bride & the novella Mistletoe Moment, due out November 10.

Mad as @#$%

2011-10-27T11:07:00.000-07:00

Do you recall the famous line in the movie Network, where the TV anchor yelled out the window, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more"? Well, that's how I felt last night at Orlando International Airport. I look at the "Occupy Wall Street" movement and wonder if it isn't time we did something similar with the airlines. They have made flying a nightmare—and I'm not talking about added security measures. I'm talking about attitude. Everything from baggage fees to the "don't give a damn" approach of many employees, from flight deck to parking attendants. Below, in a letter to the Executive Director of both local airports, you'll see an outline of my experiences at OIA Wednesday evening, October 26, 2011. I also e-mailed TSA and, incredibly, have already had a reply, claiming the jurisdiction is not theirs and I should contact the airport directly. (Interesting, I think, that both my son and I assumed that TSA employees would be nastier than those under local jurisdiction.) Since I'd already written to Mr. Brown, I feel I've done my best and wonder if I'll get a response.

If you have had a bad experience with an airline, don't just take it. Please find a way to complain. It's time we all got as "mad and hell" and refused to take it any more.

My letter of complaint:

Mr. Phillip Brown, Executive Director
Greater Orlando Aviation Authority
One Airport Boulevard
Orlando, Florida 32827

October 26, 2011

Dear Mr. Brown:

On Wednesday evening, October 26, 2011, at a few minutes past 7:00 p.m., I arrived at OIA to pick up my son and a friend who had just flown in on JetBlue from Hartford. From long experience, my son called me when the plane landed, and I left my house, expecting to find them c. twenty minutes later standing on the sidewalk outside JetBlue Arrivals.

Only this time my son wasn’t there. A guard approached me, informing me that if my party hadn’t arrived in two minutes I would have to leave. When I looked woebegone, he went into the building and checked on the flight, returning to tell me it had arrived only ten minutes earlier at 6:58 (its scheduled time). He then politely told me I needed to circle around and hope they’d be there when I got back. I wasn’t happy as I’d never done this before, and at my age new things don’t sit well, but of course I did as I was told and found my way around the circle.

This time I drove slowly past JetBlue but still didn’t see my son and friend at #11. I pulled in at #13, which seemed to be quiet, and called my son. A guard came charging up, screaming, “Move, move!” I rolled down my window and explained that my son had just told me they were at #11 and were coming my way.

“Move on!”
“But they’re coming!”
“Move on or I’ll write you a ticket. It’s $30(?), and you don’t want that. Move on!”
I stared at him in disbelief.
He yelled, “Move on! I’m writing the ticket. I’m writing a ticket now!”

By this time my eyes were misted with tears, but I managed to pull out into traffic without hitting anything and made my second circle around, vowing this was my last pick-up at OIA. In my entire life, no one has ever spoken to me in that fashion. It was surreal. This guard is a Nazi in modern dress. He certainly shouldn’t have any contact with customers EVER. There is no excuse for his behavior. Obviously, a smidgeon of power has gone to his head.

By the way, my son and his friend were at #12 by the end of my exchange with the guard and witnessed his incredible behavior. My son and friend were as shocked as I was.

This is no way to run an airport. At this rate, the next great sit-in is likely to be in the lobby of OIA. Remember the famous movie line: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more”? No, I won’t be among them. I’m a senior and long past sit-ins. But I am a writer, and I’m going to blog about this, maybe put something on Facebook too. I’m an elderly lady, a human being, and there is NO excuse for the way I was treated this evening at OIA.

I hope you will order re-training for parking guards who think they’re bootcamp sergeants.

Sincerely,

Grace Ann Kone

More on RULES FOR ROMANCE

2011-10-16T12:33:00.000-07:00

Inspiration for this blog:
The Sometime Bride, written c. 1993, e-published in 2000 by Starlight Writer Publications, soon to be uploaded to Kindle, Smashwords, Nook, Sony, Palm, etc.

As I plowed my way through The Sometime Bride, re-editing all 144,763 words of it, I made a mental list of things I now know not to do when writing a book. But the only things I actually changed were places where experience has given me a better insight into sentence structure. For example, making occasional sentences more active. I left all the other horrible beginner’s “mistakes”exactly as they were.

Why?

Because it’s still the best book I ever wrote.

What did I do “wrong”?

I wrote in the style of the books I had been reading for the previous forty years, not in the style dictated by romance how-to books (which I didn’t know existed).

The Sometime Bride is too long.

The heroine is too young.

Bride is too historical - it even offers historical news bulletins!

The hero and heroine are separated for long periods of time.

The hero and heroine have separate adventures.

Just about everybody has a point of view, which inevitably leads to head-hopping.

The hero commits adultery in the first few pages.

The hero takes the heroine to an herbalist for birth control information.

Foreign languages—Portuguese, Spanish & French—are not translated.

The expediency of war kicks romance to the gutter.

It’s still the best book I ever wrote - the true book of my heart.

I’m sure I’ve failed to mention other broken romance rules, but you get the idea. Bride is a long and challenging read. It’s also fun and fascinating, as we watch a young girl become a woman during the course of the Peninsular War. Cover & blurb will be featured on my next blog.

I hope to have The Sometime Bride ready for upload shortly after I get back from an RWA conference in St. Augustine. If I don’t get lost on the Ghost Tour!

Until then, enjoy the lovely month of October.

Rules for Romance?

2011-09-18T11:29:00.000-07:00

SHOULD ROMANCE NOVELS HAVE RULES?

I started re-editing my very first book yesterday, and all the questions and doubts I’ve had about “rules” for romance came crashing back at me. I wrote The Sometime Bride when I knew nothing about rules. When I thought I was the only romance author on the Florida Gulf Coast. Beyond page numbering and double spacing, which I’d learned from typing manuscripts for my mother, a children’s book author, I knew nothing.

And yet, The Sometime Bride is the best book I ever wrote. Where did I learn, besides hearing about writing at my mother’s knee? I learned by reading, which is still the best writer’s primer around. And I learned from the disastrous novels I’d tried to write while my children were young. I simply couldn’t do it. (And I have great admiration for those who manage it!) They were so bad that even my loving mother suggested I might not be cut out to be an author. (And what a glorious moment a number of years later when she said, “You’re better than I ever was.”

And the book that followed, Tarleton’s Wife (with its own set of broken rules), is the second best book I ever wrote. After that . . . after that I began learning the “rules.” Not just by joining RWA, but by the harder lesson of Ballantine telling me they’d be interested in The Sometime Bride if the heroine age wasn’t fourteen. I refused (putting paid to a possibly glorious career), and I refused the same request from an e-publisher more than a decade later. I simply couldn’t do it. My heroine was who she was, a girl of fourteen who grows into a woman of twenty-one over the course of the Peninsular War.

Who published The Sometime Bride? In the early days of e-publishing a newly formed company, Starlight Writer Publications, requested Tarleton’s Wife, evidently after one of the editors read it as a contest judge. They also published Bride, not caring that it was 1) too long; 2) too historical; 3) a bit too literate; that 4) the heroine was fourteen; 5) there were too many POVs; 6) a touch of adultery; 7) head-hopping; and, oh yes, 8) continent hopping. Whatever heinous rule you can name, I broke it.

The Sometime Bride is still the best book I ever wrote. (Talk about the Book of my Heart!) But e-publishers have gone soft now. Who can blame them in this economy? No more chances on novels outside the box. No tolerance for anything but “He said, She said.” Just the romance, ma’am. That’s all we want. Told as simply as possible, but beef up the sex.

Yet the most amazing thing happened recently. A little book, set in the twelfth century, whose only recognition was a nomination for an Eppie, the “Oscar” of the e-book industry, suddenly blossomed when I changed its name and uploaded it to Kindle & Smashwords, being careful to list it under Historical as well as Historical Romance. The Captive Heiress has soared to #1 in two Kindle categories. It trails only The Temporary Earl as the most-downloaded of my nine indie-pubbed books. A true historical with many real characters. Heroine age nine at the beginning. No sex. Wow!

Encouraged by the sales of The Captive Heiress, I began re-editing The Sometime Bride for indie pub. Except I’m scarcely changing a word. It’s historical, it’s Regency, but a classic Regency Historical it’s defintely not. I simply shake my head as I read it and think, “Did I actually write that?” I hope to have it ready for upload as soon as I receive the cover art, promised for October. But it will still be the same book I wrote before I learned the rules, the book that works the way I wrote it. And would be ruined by imposing “rules” on it.

Career-wise, I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I’d gone along with Ballantine’s request so many years ago. Who knows, I might be famous. And wealthy. But The Sometime Bride wouldn’t be the book I wrote way back in the early 90s. Did I cut off my nose to spite my face, as the saying goes? Very likely. And yet as I read it now, I know I was right. This is the way it was in Lisbon, London, and Paris from 1807 to 1815. And I thank indie publishing for giving me the opportunity to once again present Bride in its uncut, unadulterated form.

Your comments on your own experiences with—or opinions of—the “rules of romance” are greatly encouraged.

Grace

My books can be found on Kindle, Smashwords, Nook, Sony, Palm, and other e-readers. Please look for books by Blair Bancroft.

Paradise Burning

2011-08-29T12:51:00.000-07:00

Amanda Armitage plays a vital role in her family’s international investigations agency. Great job, great salary, great heartache, as she lives her life, eyes on the computer screen, fingers on the keyboard. When she loses an agent, a friend, on her watch, she is forced to examine the joylessness of her narrow existence.

Mandy’s resistance is minimal when her bosses—her parents—send her on a special assignment as research assistant to a best-selling author in Florida. Acknowledging her burnout, she agrees to spend the winter season in paradise, working for Peter Pennington, who is writing a book about international trafficking in women and children. The same trafficking that just got her friend killed. The job will give her an opportunity to unwind while enjoying a season in paradise and still work against the scourge of trafficking. There is, however, a slight glitch. Peter Pennington is the husband she hasn’t seen in five years.

When Mandy arrives in Florida, trafficking becomes more up close and personal than anyone planned. Peter involves her in his research of local “working girls,” while Mandy accidentally stumbles on a houseful of captive women in the Florida outback. A house where a dark, and unlikely, romance is creeping reluctantly into life in the midst of an evil as old as time.

As Mandy and Peter juggle a rekindling romance with the dangers of international trafficking, the girl once known as Mandy Mouse metamorphoses into a dynamic, independent woman. Perhaps too much so, as the world around them literally goes up in flames, and Mandy, discovering how easily black and white can dissolve into shades of gray, is forced to make the second most difficult decision of her life.

Author’s Note: Although Paradise Burning, which features several cross-over characters from Shadowed Paradise, is a stand-alone story, I recommend reading Shadowed Paradise first.

Special Note: In the course of preparing these two books for indie publishing, I discovered it's much easier to update historicals than books set in the present day. I originally wrote these books in the mid-90s when cell phones were just coming in and recordings were done on tape, to mention only a couple of things which had to be updated. I can only hope I caught all the anachronisms!

Both books can be found on Kindle & Smashwords and will soon be available for Nook, Sony, Palm, and other e-readers. Link to Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/Paradise-Burning-ebook/dp/B005IDV3AU/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1315279214&sr=1-2

Thanks for stopping by. Coming in October: The Sometime Bride

Blair

2011-08-21T08:20:00.000-07:00

When Claire Langdon’s affluent, near-fairytale life in New York is shattered by scandal, she and her eight-year-old son Jamie take refuge with her grandmother in Florida. Once a bright, confident young woman, Claire has been so badly hurt that when she stumbles onto a genuine downhome hero, learning to trust, to love again, seem beyond her reach. She is also forced to deal with the discovery that there are more serious dangers in Florida than alligators, snakes, spiders, and macho males. Like a serial killer, with her name on his list.

Brad Blue is the son of a Russian defector (from Cold War days); his mother, the daughter of one of Florida’s wealthiest cattle barons. (And, yes, Florida is the largest cattle-producing state east of the Mississippi.) Still under forty, Brad is retired from one of Uncle Sam’s many secretive “alphabet” agencies. He’s tough and lonely and more than ready to settle down to family life, but convincing Claire Langdon to marry him is one of his most difficult assignments. Almost as difficult as discovering the identity of the killer who is stalking female real estate agents in Calusa County, Florida.

From the moment Claire and Brad meet in the midst of a flooded bridge, cultural shock wars with romantic attraction. On top of that, they both have pasts that don’t bear close scrutiny. But when Brad offers Claire the job of “sitting” one of his model homes out back of beyond, she accepts. Which is just fine with the killer.

The killer plays a prominent, if anonymous, role throughout the book, gloating over his kills, attempting to justify them. And finally meeting Claire, face to face.

Reviews:

“Marvelously versatile, wondrously creative, intelligently written and sensuously inventive, Bancroft’s Shadowed Paradise adds new meaning to the term ‘romantic suspense.’ . . .as fresh as tomorrow and seriously scary. I loved it.”
Celia Merenyi, A Romance Review

“Shadowed Paradise contains all the elements I so enjoy in a book, excellent dialogue, great character development and fine descriptive scenes. The romance is steamy, the suspense is taut and exciting, and the result is a supremely satisfying, well-developed read, guaranteed to keep you glued throughout.”
Astrid Kinn, Romance Reviews Today

* * *

Grace Note: Shadowed Paradise is the first of my Romantic Suspense backlist to be uploaded to Kindle, Smashwords, Nook, Sony, and other e-readers. The sequel, Paradise Burning, should follow by the end of August. And please remember that free reads of 20% of each of my books is available at Smashwords. www.smashwords.com

Thanks for stopping by!

Grace, who writes as Blair Bancroft

Weekend at Nickolodeon

2011-08-12T07:22:00.000-07:00

My guest blogger today is Hailey. She is eight years old and will be entering third grade later this month. When Hailey and her younger sisters returned home from a weekend at Nickolodeon Suites Resort, her mother, fearing the three girls might be too spoiled by living in the Orlando area to appreciate this rare treat, asked Hailey, the oldest, to write about their trip. This is what she wrote—unedited, except for an occasional bit of paragraphing.

* * *

What I did this weekind was . . .

We went to the car and we’re driving to a suprise place and we have no idea were we’re going. We were driving for 20 minuts. Before that I said “How much longer.”

Mommy said “it’s eather 10 hrs or 10 mins. But she was trying to trick us. 5 sec later we were there. I said in my head what is this place when we were at the sign. When we were parking I said, “Were at the Nickhotel. I said “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

So we get out of the car and get our suitecace and we go to this place so we can get our wristbands and spend money to get a room. When all that was done, we were walking to the elevater but befor that we passed this amasing place. It was a waterpark, with a pool. Awsom slides, Jaccuzi, miny golf, Basketball, and slime. I said I want to go there.

We got to the elavater floor number 4. When we got up there are room number was 1240. We get the card and waved it around for 1 second. And then a green light went on and then we could open the door then we went inside and we ran into our room. There was a Spongebob room. But there were only 2 beds. So we all had to sleep sideways. [the three girls, ages 5, 6 & 8 in one bedroom of a 2-bedroom suite] We quick got our bathing suits on. And our shoes, and went to floor 1.

And we had to walk a long time around. Like 5 minuts. And then we found the entrance. So we put on sunscreen. And I went on the slide. They were water slides, and were so fun. I started going on every slide. I even get slimed. And we went into the pool. After the water part we took a bath. We got dry. We went to the Nickalodean Mall. I was in a show called Slimetime live. It’s a show where you are on eather the Red team or the Blue team. I was on the Red team with Mommy. We did trivea and games. The Blue team lost so the kids had to put pie on there face. My team won so I got slimed. There was a bunch of slime. One of the games I did was I had to get marshmellows into the cup. But you couldnt use your hands. Just your mouth. It was easy.

And after the show we sat in the lounge/Bar while mommy played video games. Then we walked a long time to the room and watched TV while mommy and daddy watched their TV show. Then they came to our room to turn off the TV so we could go to bed and we played a little bit of “Baby.”

The next day in the morning we got our bathing suits on and went straight to the waterpark like 12.00 in the morning. We played, and played at the waterpark. Then at 5.00 we got hungry so we ate a SlimJim.

[Grace note: At this point Hailey got tired of writing, as happens to us all. She finished the story by dictating it to me.]

And then Daddy came and he bought us burgers, and Cassidy got grilled cheese. And then we went back into the pool. Cassidy learned how to a dog paddle in the pool. And I wanted to go on the slides, and then after a few rides I went back in the pool with mommy and daddy and Riley and Cassidy.

We went to the Jacuzzi,* and right before we left we went into the mini golf area. After that we went back to our room to take a bath. We did a quick bath because we wanted to see the show that I was in, but I really wasn’t in it this time, I just saw it. We played at the arcade and got our tickets from the booth that has the prizes. We went into the bar again so mommy could play games, and daddy taught me a different kind of math. When mommy was done with her game, we left into the room, and we watched a couple of shows before bed, and we were packing a little bit. While we were packing, mommy and daddy were watching their show while they were packing. We went to bed for the last night.

The next morning we finished our packing and we were walking to the parking lot and we left. Then we were driving home, and we sat on the couch at our house and watched TV.

It was a great treat, and it was very fun.

* * *

[*I typed Jacuzzi with a small j and Hailey asked why it had a red line under it. We spell-checked it and discovered it should be capitalized, something she’d actually done when writing “Jaccuzi” above.]

As you probably guessed, Hailey is my granddaughter, and I suspect someday she may walk in the footsteps of both Gramma and Great-gramma (Wilma Pitchford Hays) who wrote children’s books.

Thanks for stopping by. Next blog: the cover and blurb for my Romantic Suspense, Shadowed Paradise, which I plan to put online sometime in the next week.

2011-08-06T12:12:00.000-07:00

Alecyn de Beauclaire, an orphaned heiress, is taken captive at age nine by the Earl of Rocheford who wants to enjoy the income from her estates. Her first friend in the strange new world at Castle Rocheford is Ranulf Mort à Mer, a descendant of Vikings and a penniless squire with no hope of ever being able to afford a horse and armor so he can become a knight. As the years go by, their friendship is unwavering, even when tested by the preaching of monks who declare that all women are evil and should be shunned.

When Alecyn is almost fourteen (a marriageable age in Medieval times) King Henry II makes Alecyn his ward. She is thrilled because she knows the king will want to keep her money for himself and, therefore, will not marry her off for several more years. Perhaps there is still time for Ranulf to become a knight and distinguish himself in battle.

In her position as companion/entertainer to the royal children and songstress to the royal court, Alecyn learns not only the epic romance of chivalry, but the dark side of romance as she witnesses the love/hate relationship between the king and queen. Ranulf, meanwhile, learns to fight side by side with a new friend, William Marshall. But even Ranulf’s eventual elevation to knighthood is not sufficient to qualify for the hand of an heiress to four fine estates.

Until, one day, Queen Eleanor goes for a hunt on her lands in the Aquitaine, and Ranulf and his friend, William Marshall, are among her escorts. Perhaps, just perhaps, if the three young people survive captivity by Eleanor’s rebellious knights, they may have a future after all. But which young knight will King Henry choose for Alecyn?

Special Note:

The Captive Heiress was written as a painless way for people from nine to ninety to learn about Medieval times, particularly the tumultuous twelfth century. In addition to a look at the dramatic lives of King Henry and Eleanor, readers will catch a glimpse of the early days of their many children, including Richard and John who became famous through the Robin Hood legend. Another very important character is William Marshall, often called the greatest knight who ever lived. Please see the “Whatever Happened to . . .” section at the back of the book for the rest of the story of the many real characters in The Captive Heiress.

Warning: marriages were often contracted at birth, and girls commonly married at age fourteen, so modern sensibilities need to be set aside. This is the way it was.

~ * ** ~

My 8-year-old guest blogger - in a move reminiscent of some of her older counterparts! - has not yet finished her blog entry, so here's my latest DIY pub entry. (Some of you may remember the original, Roses in the Mist.) The Captive Heiress is available on Amazon's Kindle and in various formats on Smashwords. It should be available directly from Nook and Sony in the near future. Coming in late August: Shadowed Paradise & Paradise Burning, both contemporary romantic suspense from my backlist.

Thanks for stopping by. Hopefully, young Hailey's tale will be available soon . . .

Grace

The Courtesan's Letters

2011-07-27T20:12:00.000-07:00

Abigail Todd, the very proper headmistress of an academy for young ladies in Boston, arrives in England to settle her grandmother’s estate, having no idea that her grandmother was la grande Clarisse, the most notorious courtesan of her day. Nor that in order to inherit the cottage, which is far grander than she had ever imagined, she must carry out a series of commissions, detailed in letters left by her grandmother. It is also stipulated in the Will that the estate’s executor must accompany Abby while she carries out the commissions.

The estate’s executor is Jared Verney, Earl of Langley. Not only is he a shining example of England’s ruling class, whom Abby despises, but his brother, a military man, helped burn Washington in the recent war. Not an auspicious way to begin a collaboration on eight commissions. To make matters worse, it was Jared’s grandfather who installed Abby’s grandmother in the cottage and frittered away his fortune showering her with gifts. Which means—oh horrors!—Abby and Jared may be cousins.

Only strict training in manners allows the stiff-necked American and the English aristocrat to move forward, carrying out Clarissa’s instructions. Over the course of the commissions, which range from sentimental to uncomfortable, threatening to a stunning surprise, the two antagonists begin to realize that Clarissa might have had an ulterior motive. Is it possible she hoped to achieve for Abby the wedding ring Clarissa was never offered by Jared’s grandfather? By the time Abby and Jared recognize the old courtesan’s scheme, it may be too late. Clarissa has bound them together as thoroughly as the ribbons around her packets of letters. But is it marriage the earl has in mind, or merely tumbling the proper Bostonian into her grandmother’s footsteps?

Reviews:

“This story flows like fine champagne, full of sparkle, zest and energy.”
Teresa Roebuck, Romantic Times

“The dialogue sparkles, the plot evolves at a brisk pace, and a diverse cast of secondary characters adds depth and texture to this well-written tale.”
Susan Lantz, Romance Reviews Today

“I was completely and utterly seduced by this book. . . . The plot is exquisite, a sparklingly innovative, perfectly executed piece of craftsmanship. . . . It is books like this that restore our faith in the Regency genre. . . .”
Celia Merenyi, A Romance Review

Grace Notes: The Courtesan’s Letters (formerly titled, The Indifferent Earl) was a finalist for the RITA, the “Oscar” of the Romance Writers of America. It was also chosen as Regency of the Year by Romantic Times magazine.

Also, my special thanks, as always, to Delle Jacobs for the provocative cover. Since neither one of us could picture using the au naturel painting described in the book on a traditional Regency cover, we settled for the pose and leave the rest to your imagination . . .

Thanks for stopping by. Grace's next Mosaic Moment features as guest blogger a budding author, age 8.

Writing 101 - the Final Steps

2011-07-14T19:44:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to Writing 101. Today, in Self-editing, Part 2, we look at the “hard stuff.” Most of the problems below won’t jump out at you on your first edit. It takes time, tenacity, and an open mind to find them. That’s why there’s more to editing than checking each chapter as you go. How many times do you have to read the darn thing? Hopefully, until you’ve got it right. Most professional authors, I would estimate, average three edits per manuscript.

As for myself, I edit after each chapter. I edit again after every five chapters (1-5, 6-10, 11-15, 16-20, etc.). And when I've finished the whole book, I go back to the beginning and read from the first word to the last. I’m still keeping an eye out for typos, continuity, etc., but primarily I’m looking for the “hard stuff,” the things mentioned below. And—sigh—if I make a lot of changes on this supposedly final edit (and sometimes that happens), I type in the revisions and go back and read the whole thing again to make sure it still flows smoothly with all the new additions and/or deletions.

Am I sick of it by then? Very likely. But I know I’m turning in the best possible manuscript I can provide without putting it away for a year and editing it again. Which I don’t do, or I’d never submit anything!

Attention: Contest Entrants. If you only have three chapters, you still need to go through all three editing steps: Easy, Harder, Hardest. (Easy & Harder can be found in "I ran Spell Check. I'm done, right?" (Self-Editing, Part 1) For the hardest things to look for, keep reading.

SELF-EDITING - THE HARD STUFF

Plot. Have you made your plot clear? Or did you leave too many details in your head, causing the reader confusion about what is going on? This is very common, particularly with newbie writers. Please remember that readers never see a synopsis. Everything you want them to know must be in the pages of the manuscript itself.

Did you drop hints about your plot in the opening chapters? The primary plot line shouldn’t suddenly appear in Chapter 4 with no previous set-up. I have read contest entries where the pages I received (usually Chapters 1-3) seemed to have nothing to do with the plot outlined in the Synopsis. This is a no-no. There should be hints of the main plot from the very first chapter.

Do you have enough plot to carry your story? If you’re writing a simple 50,000-word boy-meets-girl category romance, you don’t need nearly as much plot as you do for a 100,000-word romantic suspense. For a longer book, you need sub-plots, a series of lesser goals, more action (which can range from a party to a high-speed car chase to murder).

Example of possible sub-plot: secondary characters have problems of their own.

Do you have so much plot that you’ve obscured the point of your story? Did you digress into too much history, into a side plot that does not move the story forward, perhaps into scenes that have clever dialogue, but again do not move the story forward. Do you have so many characters that the plot is lost behind a screen of talking heads?

Does your plot make sense, or did you throw a whole bucketful of events onto the pages, figuring something would make sense? Is your ending a downer, not acceptable in romance? Remember what you’re writing. Happily Ever After is a requirement.

Basically, your h/h need a major goal to achieve (not always the same goal). Readers must be able to understand why these goals are important to them (motivation). And there must be conflict that almost makes the goal(s) nearly impossible to reach.

Most importantly, never assume the readers know the story as well as you do. Make your plot clear, with enough hints early on that readers will understand the larger issues facing the hero and heroine.

Conflict. It’s all too easy to assume that bickering between the hero and heroine provides conflict. Not so. Yes, they can have surface conflict if it fits the story, but true conflict is much more serious. The hero and heroine need External conflict that keeps them apart. This is usually from outside forces that are trying to get them to do something they don’t want to do. (I recall one memorable book where the h/h feared to marry because madness ran in the heroine’s family.) External conflict can be as common as family pressure or something as serious as someone is trying to kill them. Whatever the External conflict, it should be strong, not simply banter between the h/h. Internal conflict is also very important. This is the angst suffered by both hero and heroine over some problem. For example, the separate reactions of both hero and heroine to the possibility of having to sacrifice something important so they can be together. In introspection (their private thoughts), they agonize over this problem. Or perhaps the Internal conflict is simply the heroine trying to decide between two men. Just keep in mind that books without true conflict don’t make it into print. Or e-pub.

Characterization. Did you give a physical description of your main characters and your important secondary characters? Did you identify them? (It’s so easy to forget readers don’t know these people the way you do.) Readers want to empathize with the main characters. They want you to get inside the hero’s and heroine’s heads and let them see what they see, hear what they hear, feel what they feel. They want to care about these characters. This is hard to do if you don’t give them enough description and background to go on. This can be done in just a few sentences, but when judging contests, I so often find that newbie writers forget that readers don’t know their characters the way they do. They simply don’t give us the information we need to understand and invest ourselves in these characters. It’s all right for the h/h to have flaws, but we need to get the feeling they are truly likable, and in the end they will learn to be better people.

Dialogue. Is your dialogue natural? Do your characters sound like real people? Do they sound like the individual characters you have created? Stilted dialogue stops a story dead. Each character should have his/her way of speaking and stick to that style. And, above all, do not write dialogue for the sake of dialogue or because it’s so much easier to write. Yes, dialogue can add color, but it needs to move the story forward, not wander off on a tangent unconnected with your main storyline. And have you punctuated the tags correctly? (No full sentences as dialogue tags.)

Narration. Have you added description and/or action to your dialogue? See example below from The Courtesan’s Letters by Blair Bancroft, showing the integration of narration into dialogue.

“That was the promise I made.” The Earl of Langley resumed his long strides toward Arbor Cottage.

Lunging forward, Captain Verney planted himself in his brother’s path. “But why?” he demanded.

Around them the woods shimmered in the late afternoon of one of summer’s longest days. Birds still twittered. Small creatures scurried through the underbrush, their passage marked only by a soft rustling of leaves and twigs. Jared Verney raised his pewter eyes to another set so like his own. “I’ve walked this path countless times,” he said. “I liked her. She was kind, generous, always willing to listen. Even after I was grown, I continued to visit. She was the one person who would listen—”

“Listen?” Is that what an old tart is reduced to? Listening?”

“It’s not a bad attribute,” Jared chided softly. “Looking back, I could have wished more of my chère amies had been so gifted.”

“Are your bones so ancient then, brother, that you’ve given up the muslin company?”

“Perhaps.” Jared took time to consider his reply. “I confess I found a certain ennui when looking over the fresh crop at Hetty Jamison’s establishment. As much, I dare say, as you found in the new bevy of maidens at Almack’s. And even if I could afford to stay in town, I could scarce sport the blunt to set up an opera dancer or even a ripe widow. So you may have the right of it. I am getting old.” Jared turned his back and strode off toward Arbor Cottage, leaving Myles to stare after him, wondering how his brotherly teasing had gone awry.

***

Have you included the thoughts (introspection) of the person whose viewpoint you’re in? Have you added color to your story by describing settings—locations, landscapes, room furnishings, etc.? Example below from The Courtesan’s Letters, illustrating setting and introspection.

Abby’s feet seemed stuck to the shimmering pastels of the Persian carpet. At least, now that she was alone, she could openly gawk. The room was huge, with two pink marble fireplaces. Floor-to-ceiling windows, arched at the top in Gothic style, lit the far end of the room on three sides where the bedchamber extended beyond the confines of the main structure. The windowed area was set up as a sitting room, with furniture upholstered in cream brocade and accented by throw cushions in rose and palest pink. The occasional tables and chests were decorated with the finest marqueterie. The bed . . . Abby swallowed, felt a quiver of something quite strange flutter her insides. Got the old earl to buy her the best of everything, she did. Oh my, yes. The bed was big enough to accommodate a dozen earls. The tester bed was walnut, at least seven feet long and six across, both canopy and posts elaborately carved. The scalloped valance skirting the wooden canopy was of heavy raw silk embroidered in a crewel design, as was the matching quilt. Rose silk hangings were tied back at each of the four corners by graceful ropes of metallic gold. The room’s remaining furnishings, the chests and wardrobes were chinoiserie. Museum pieces, Abby speculated, each elaborately painted in fantastic designs of a quality only Boston’s most wealthy Brahmins could afford to purchase from the cargos of its world-traveling merchant fleet. She had come these thousands of miles, expecting little but the adventure of it. And because an unknown woman, now deceased, had wished her to. Now came the startling surprise. Obviously, Arbor Cottage was worth far more than she had expected.

The mystery deepened. Who was Miss Clarissa Bivens? Curiosity unglued Abby’s feet. She strode to the wall, pulled the cord on the silk curtain covering what Mrs. Deering had indicated was a painting of her former mistress. Dear God in heaven! Abby closed the curtains faster than she had opened them. She stood, quivering, fighting the good fight with a long array of Puritan and Pilgrim ancestors. Her father might have been born in England, but her mother’s forebears had stepped off the Mayflower itself.

Gingerly, she tugged on the cord, gradually reopening the pink silk curtain. Perhaps on second view it wouldn’t be so . . .

It was.

***

Setting. Did you put your characters against a well-described background (location, time, environment)? Or did you have them speaking & thinking against a blank canvas? Readers like to be able to picture scenes in their head. Be sure you give them something to go on. Are we in the city or country? New England or England? The Deep South or South Africa? Is it hot, cold, raining, snowing? Is it the nineteenth century or the twelfth? You’re the author; don’t leave the reader struggling to paint the backdrop for you.

Style. Did you make the drama dramatic enough, the comedy, funny enough? Did you make the scary parts scary enough? The love scenes as sweet, tender, hot, or erotic enough, according to the sub-genre you’re writing? Or were you rushing when a big moment came and sloughed it off with no more than a couple of sentences?

Did you indulge in what I call Unintentional Mystery? This means that you failed to give readers information they needed to know in order to understand the story. For example, the hero’s or heroine’s background. Or plot information you put in the Synopsis but left out of the manuscript. Are there secondary characters you failed to introduce? (You knew who they were, but the readers haven’t a clue.) Or any other vital information readers need to understand what is going on.

Did you Show, not Tell? (Write an Active story or a Passive one?) If there is one thing that will kill a story fast, it’s writing in “storyteller” mode. You are not the narrator sitting around a campfire telling a story. You are a writer who must get inside her main characters’ heads and let readers see the action from their Point of View. A simple example of Show vs. Tell (Active vs. Passive):

Active: A daunting sight met her eyes.
Passive: The sight which met her eyes was daunting.

Example of Active ("Show") from The Courtesan’s Letters:

Miss Abigail Todd, far from the scrutiny of her pupils in Miss Todd’s Academy for Young Ladies in Boston, peered out the window of the post chaise with unabashed curiosity. Now that the city of London had been left behind, the countryside was remarkably familiar. New England had been aptly named, she decided. Although the fields here were smaller and laid out in a fantasy maze of uneven shapes framed in hedgerows, the overall feel of the land was so similar she might have been traveling the post road from Boston to Providence. There were fewer acres of towering trees in this much older country, she conceded, but that was a boon, surely, for highwaymen could shelter in heavy woods, lying in wait for two lone women traveling the road to Bath.
Enough! A woman of eight and twenty, owner and headmistress of her own school, had long since learned not to ask for trouble. She would leave the conjuring of bogeymen to her wide-eyed thirteen-year-olds.

“I cannot like it,” declared a voice beside Abby for perhaps the twentieth time in the past two days. Mrs. Hannah Greaves, a lady of imposing angular shape that belied a heart as soft as butter, had been pressed into service as Miss Abigail Todd’s companion for the long journey to England. “That man was surely hiding something,” Mrs. Greaves continued her complaint. “And I fear to know what. Here we are, off to some unknown spot in the English countryside, just the two of us—”

“But it’s an adventure,” Abby teased, her usually solemn features dancing into a grin. “With Mr. Smallwood making the arrangements, for all we know we could be headed for Gretna Green or some Gothic castle with dark dungeons—”

“Abigail Todd!” Forgetting her own doubts, the older woman was shocked. “You cannot truly suspect Mr. Smallwood of such ah—treachery.”

***

Example of Passive - The opening of The Courtesan’s Letters, restructured as an example of “Tell, not Show,” with a dash of “Unintentional Mystery,”and cliché. Note: This is an example of how NOT to write your opening scene.

Abigail peered out the window of the post chaise. She was surprised to discover England looked so much like the countryside back home in New England. She was grateful, however, that this older country did not have so many woods that might shelter highwaymen. Foolishness, she thought. She was twenty-eight years old, headmistress of her own school. She would not let her imagination run away with her.

“I cannot like it,” Hannah said. “That man was surely hiding something.”

“But it’s an adventure,” Abby teased. “With Mr. Smallwood making the arrangements, we could end up anywhere, perhaps even some dark castle.”

“Surely not!” Hannah was shocked.

***

Overall Impression. Did you draw your h/h well enough that readers will be intrigued, no matter what they get up to? Did you truly say what you wanted to say, or are the best parts still in your head? Please remember that putting essential details into the Synopsis is not enough. Repeat: A reader never sees the synopsis. Everything you want the reader to know must be in the pages of the manuscript itself.

* * ***

This is the last installment of Writing 101, at least for now. I am considering expanding and polishing these articles into book form and would really appreciate your comments. For example:
What did I leave out? (Obviously, a ton of stuff.)
What should I add?
What did I get wrong? If so, please explain.
Were there sections you found unclear? (Don’t forget to say which ones!)
Any other comments that pop into your mind.

As always, thanks so much for stopping by. The Courtesan’s Letters (formerly, The Indifferent Earl) will be available soon on Kindle and Smashwords, and c. a couple of weeks later on Nook, Sony, Palm, etc.

Come on back to Grace’s Mosaic Moments for some lighter fare next time around.

Grace

2011-07-07T11:03:00.000-07:00

Available on Kindle & Smashwords - available soon on Nook, Sony & other e-readers

All Major Charles Tyrone wants to do is forget his soldiering days and concentrate on making a success of his new engineering company. But Fate has other plans. Although an obscure third in line as heir to the Earl of Wyverne, Charles is suddenly catapulted to head of the family when the old earl suffers a stroke, the heir is killed, and Julian, the heir’s only son, is in a coma from a curricle-racing accident.

As if that weren’t enough, the major is confronted by Lady Vanessa Rayne, a ward of the old earl, who has been running the household very well without his help, thank you very much. Animosity between Charles and Vanessa is further exacerbated by the earl’s determination that they shall marry.

The efforts to restore Julian to health are considerably hampered by a plethora of relatives, two of whom follow Charles in the line of succession. Mr. Ambrose Tyrone is the local vicar; his mother, a woman accustomed to ruling the roost. Mr. Godfrey Tyrone, a London dandy, arrives at Wyverne Abbey with his young sister, fluttery mother, and his mother’s latest “friend” in tow. Not exactly welcome visitors in a house with two bed-ridden patients.

When hints of murder and attempted murder begin to rear their ugly heads, Charles calls on the support of some of the soldiers once under his command, but even that isn’t enough to keep Julian, Charles, and even Vanessa from harm. Yet in spite of being caught in the midst of murder and mayhem, Charles and Vanessa begin to suspect that it truly is possible for the daughter of a duke and a lowly engineer to fall in love. If they live long enough to enjoy it.

Reviews:

“The very talented Blair Bancroft has added another diamond to the Regency treasure chest with the tightly plotted and delightfully executed The Major Meets His Match.”*
[* now titled The Temporary Earl] Teresa Roebuck, Romantic Times

“It’s a vibrant and fun-filled glimpse into a time long ago, and I highly recommend it to . . . any fan of romance. It has all the qualities that we look for, regardless of the time period. Don’t miss it. It’s a keeper!” Celia Merenyi, A Romance Review

********

Next Blog - Writing 101 - Self-editing - the Hard Stuff

Thanks for stopping by, Grace

I ran Spell Check. I'm done, right?

2011-07-05T06:44:00.000-07:00

I began the Writing 101 blog series because a surprising number of the RWA contest entries sent to me for judging in the past year seem to have been written by people who were convinced the title of this blog is true.

WRONG!

Running Spell Check and saying, “That’s it,” is like putting on nothing but lipstick when you’re getting ready for a professional photo. What about foundation, blush, eye-shadow, mascara - maybe even eye liner. Your hair must be just so. And, oh yes, you plan your clothing with care, have your nails done, maybe even a pedicure, just in case the photographer wants full-length and you’re wearing sandals. You consider every last little detail.

The same approach applies to your manuscript. You’re attempting to create a professional submission. You want a publisher to pay you money for it. Well, duh . . . did you go to your last job interview in jeans and T-shirt, or maybe something as skimpy as a bathing suit? Did you throw on any old thing and charge out the door with no more than a glance in the mirror? Well, in this case, your manuscript is your clothing. Presentation is important. Remember, most editors were English majors in college. Mistakes stand out like a sore thumb. And if it looks like you cared so little you didn’t bother to proofread or edit your manuscript, then it looks as if you’re not serious about your writing career.

WHY ALL THE FUSS? Surely editors are going to see how brilliant my work is, even if I’ve made a mistake here and there. And there and here, and . . .

There are a very few authors who do it right the first time. My mother, the children’s book author, Wilma Pitchford Hays, was one of those - but then she wasn’t dealing with 100,000-word manuscripts. Most successful authors do, indeed, edit their work three or four times. That’s being professional. That’s presenting a manuscript that makes sense and won’t cost the publishing company a bundle for hours of editing and copy editing. And in this tight economy, that means a lot.

SELF-EDITING

The methods listed below are the ones I use. Obviously, we are not all alike and do not approach problems in the same fashion. It’s perfectly all right to devise your own editing method, as long as you actually do it! What I’m trying to emphasize is that some form of self-editing is absolutely essential. All successful authors do it. Some of us go through our manuscripts three or more times before we feel it is ready for submission. Basically, if you’re not totally sick of it, you probably haven’t read it over enough times!

Special Note: Why I edit after each chapter.

1. Each chapter builds on the one before it. If I add a character, add some new bit of information, etc., I need to know that before I forge ahead.

2. Leaving editing until the end of a book turns the editing process into Mount Everest. Change one thing back near the beginning and you may have a colossal fix-it job to change the domino effect that follows. I can’t even imagine tackling first edits for an entire book in one fell swoop. If you edit as you go along, the read-through of the entire manuscript will not be as daunting.

Self-Editing, Step by Step

AFTER EACH CHAPTER (and sometimes even after a long scene, if it was particularly tricky to write):

1. Run Spell Check carefully, making sure the program doesn’t substitute something you never intended.

2. Read the entire chapter, looking for the easy stuff:

a. Typos, misused words, missing words, double words (the the)

b. Awkward sentences. (It might have made sense when you wrote it, but will it make sense to someone reading it cold?) Or maybe you just messed up the dialogue punctuation or substituted a totally ridiculous word for the one you intended. (Happens to the best of us.)

c. Too-long sentences. Run-on sentences are hard to read, and today’s reader wants to be able to absorb things fast, fast, fast. Run-on sentences also tend to slow down your story.

d. Too-long paragraphs. Same as above. They’re harder to read and slow the story down.

e. Continuity. Is the hero’s hair brown on page 4 and black on page 124?

f. Poor transitions. The action leaps too fast from one paragraph to the next, causing the reader to go, “Huh?”

Grace Note: Unfortunately, the above are merely the easy stuff. You also need to keep an eye out for things that are a bit harder to spot. Hopefully, you will find some of these on the first read-through, but this is why several more reads are necessary. It takes a while to find all the bits and pieces that need improvement.

3. The harder stuff:

a. Opening Hook. We’ve all heard about that marvelous hook needed to close your first chapter, or maybe the third. But the first line, the first paragraph, the first page of your manuscript are all-important. They must capture the reader’s attention immediately. Just like the horse that stumbles coming out of the gate is not going to be a winner (Secretariat excluded), you have to get it right from the very first sentence. This includes those historical prologues that tend toward vague and mystical meanderings that make readers grind their teeth. I’m not anti-prologue; I just think they should have meaning.

b. Less is more. Keep an eye out for places where you used twenty words when you could have used ten, making the sentence clearer and the story move forward at a more energetic clip.

Example: You wrote a lot of chatter in a tea shop, which was cute but did not move the story forward. Like a lot of girl talk, you had your characters saying everything twice.

c. Writing isn’t a race. Also look for the opposite of too many words—places where you moved too fast, not giving enough attention to significant events. This is surprisingly common as an author is always looking ahead, thinking of what comes next and sometimes doesn’t make the most of the marvelous moment directly in front of her/him.

Example: You tossed off a shooting with two sentences. You show the heroine running, but not how she felt about getting shot at - or her worry about other people who might have been with her.

d. Point of View. Look for places where you might have slipped into the Point of View of a character other than the Hero or Heroine. Villain POV is also okay, but newbies are cautioned against multiple POVs. And head-hopping - jumping from one person’s POV to another’s after only a paragraph or so - is very much frowned on.

Example: You are in the heroine’s Point of View, and suddenly you mention what her girlfriend is thinking. Definitely a no-no.
e. Tense. Tense has only recently become a problem. Traditionally, fiction is written in Past tense, Synopses in Present tense. But novels written in Present tense are becoming more common, so writers need to check that as well. Do you slip back and forth, some sentences in Present, some in Past? (I saw a contest entry just this week where that happened.)

~ * ~

Next Writing 101 blog: Self-editing the “hard stuff”—Plot, Characterization, Active/Passive, Setting + what happens after that. And, yes, there is an “after that”!

Thanks for stopping by, and please let me know if you found this blog helpful. If “Comments” doesn’t work for you, you can find me at BlairGAK@aol.com.

Grace

The Harem Bride

2011-06-25T16:24:00.001-07:00

Miss Penelope Blayne is furious. A highly competent, well-traveled young woman of twenty-six, she is shocked when the aunt with whom she has lived for most of her life names a male guardian for Penny’s considerable inheritance until she is thirty. And, worst of all, the guardian is Jason Lisbourne, Earl of Rocksley, a man she has not seen since a dramatic incident a decade earlier.

Penny arrives at the earl’s estate in the midst of an ice storm, only to find a drunken party in progress. Horrified and angry, she is totally unprepared for the earl’s proposal the following morning: that it is time they take seriously the vows made under duress in a sultan’s harem ten years earlier.

Penny and Jason each recall their days in Constantinople and the disastrous event that began their personal tangle. What if’s abound, but common sense now demands they make the best of the noble sacrifice Jason made to save Penny from Sultan Selim, ruler of the Ottoman Empire. Also instrumental in Penny’s rescue is the British Ambassador, Lord Elgin, whose struggles to have his “marbles” accepted by the British Museum become part of the story of the Earl of Rocksley and his surprise bride.

Unfortunately, Penny’s debut as the Countess of Rocksley is marred by rumors of her time in the harem of the Topkapi palace and by Jason’s mistress, who just won’t take “no” for an answer. Penny’s attempts to fit into society, in both London and in Shropshire, come to naught, and she is the one who cuts the Gordian knot binding them together. Will Jason forge a more lasting tie? Does he want to? Or has he suffered enough for a youthful excess of heroism?

Author’s Note: The Harem Bride is a tad “warmer” than my other Regency romances, and perhaps not suitable for every reader.

Reviews:

“. . . The book also has an ambiance that is simply of a different flavor than that of a typical Regency. If you like daring and originality in your Regency authors, I suggest that you pick up all the Blair Bancroft titles you can get your hands on."
Barbara Hume, Rakehell

“Blair Bancroft does it again! . . . once again, she has offered us a tale rich with Regency settings, but unique in characters and plot. . . . Bravo, Ms. Bancroft, for not being afraid to shake the genre up a bit - I think the Prince Regent himself would have applauded your daring."
Celia Merenyi, A Romance Review

***********

I'm happy to announce that The Harem Bride is now available on Kindle and Smashwords. And keep in mind that Smashwords offers a 20% free read of all my indie-published books.

www.smashwords.com (search by title or Blair Bancroft) & www.amazon.com - choose Kindle store. (Otherwise you get a postive plethora of old print & e-versions of my books, not the brand new, re-edited hot-off-cyberspace versions.)

Thanks for stopping by. Next blog: Okay, You've Run Spell-Check. Now What?

Grace, w. a. Blair Bancroft

Writing 101 - Nuts & Bolts, Part 2

2011-06-16T07:14:00.000-07:00

WELCOME to Part 2 of Writing 101 - Nuts & Bolts, otherwise known as a short course in punctuation for writers of fiction

If you haven’t read Nuts & Bolts 1 or my blog on manuscript formatting, I hope you’ll take a look before leaving Grace’s Mosaic Moments.

Helpful Books. A quick repeat from Writing - Nuts & Bolts 1:

1. The “publisher’s bible” is The Chicago Manual of Style, a huge, expensive tome that will tell you more than you ever wanted to know about Punctuation. But it covers every last little detail.

2. The simplest punctuation and grammar book - Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style.

3. The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation by Jane Straus - an excellent book, although it occasionally assumes everyone uses MS Word!

DASTARDLY DUOS. Any good book on punctuation and grammar will have a great many more examples than the three below, particularly Straus’s Blue Book, but the mistakes below are ones I see so frequently in contest entries that I felt I had to mention them.

1. Its is a possessive pronoun. That means it tells us who or what owns something.

Example: Read this book. Within its covers you’ll find some great advice.

It’s is a contraction of It is. Its only meaning is: It is. If your sentence doesn’t read right if you read it’s as it is, then don’t use it. (Notice the correct possessive use of its without an apostrophe at the beginning of the second sentence.)

2. Who vs. That. This violation of good grammar is truly annoying. If you’re writing a clause about a person, use “who.” If you’re writing about an animal or an inanimate object, use “that.” Very simple, yet writers seem to be depersonalizing humans almost constantly these days.

Repeat: People are “who.” Animals and things are “that.”

Right: Devil take all Scots, particularly those who wanted a bridge where nature never intended a bridge to go.

Wrong: Devil take all Scots, particularly those that wanted a bridge where nature never intended a bridge to go.

3. I/me, he/him & she/her - Correct grammar in these cases has become a losing battle. If you use these pronouns correctly, everyone will think you’re wrong, or else they’ll think you’re being snooty. The choice of right or wrong is up to you.

Example: “It’s me,” instead of the correct: “It’s I.”

Example: The woman was older than her, maybe seventy. Instead of the correct: “than she.”

THE APOSTROPHE.

Check the punctuation books. Rules have not changed, though some contemporary publishers are dropping the extra s in possessives for names.

Example - Correct: Nicholas’s horse
Variation used by some publishers - Nicholas’ horse*

*Since that’s not what we actually say, I am a strong advocate of keeping the extra s. If you have doubts, sound it out. We say: “Nik-o-las-es horse,” not Nik-o-las horse.”

Special Note: Apostrophe in a contraction before a word: Example: ‘Tis, ‘is (for his), etc.
For ordinary submissions to publishers, the apostrophe, as seen above, is okay. You can let a copy editor change it. But if you are formatting for indie publishing, you need to use a closing apostrophe [’], not the opening apostrophe [‘]. To fix this, type two apostrophes, arrow back, Backspace to delete initial apostrophe. The same applies to closing quotes at the end of a dash (see below). Type two quotes, arrow back and delete the first one (giving you a closing quote instead of an opening quote).

Example: ’Tis the scandal of Lower Wyverne, and I’ve no doubt it’s spread over the whole county by now,” Lady Horatia continued, much aggrieved.

THE DASH

Note: there are rules for both Dashes and Ellipses where the Blue Book disagrees with The Chicago Manual of Style, particularly in assuming certain auto functions occur in all word processing programs, when they do not. So it may be necessary to work out your own compromise and allow your publisher’s style sheet to have the final word.

In general, I use an em dash almost exclusively, saving en dashes for occasional “stuttering style” responses. The difference is very easy. An em dash is the width of an “m.” An en dash is the width of an “n.” Em dashes are the ones most frequently seen in romance. In most word processing programs, if you type the old double hyphen you were taught in school, you’ll likely get an auto-switch to an en dash. If you want an em dash, that’s not going to do you much good. You can go into the Symbols menu, or—faster and easier—simply type Alt+0151 on your keypad, and voilà, you’ve got an em dash. For an en dash—if you want someone stumbling over their words and an em dash looks too dramatic, use Alt+0150 (see example below).

Example - Narrative insert in dialogue:

“As you may have noticed”—Jason paused, cleared his throat while cursing the pixies still pounding anvils in his head—“I did not expect you before tomorrow at the earliest.”

Example - at the end of an interrupted sentence:

“It’s not fair, I tell you. It’s just not—”

Example - in place of a colon:

Romance might be stalled, but one thing was now certain—Jeff’s goal stretched far beyond the confines of Ashley’s Choice.
Example - Stumbling speech (en dash)

“He–we–well, ’tis plain to see what’s happening here, Relia. We know you’re in deep mourning, but we–I–want you to know you have friends. You can count on us.”

ELLIPSES.

Ellipses have become a bone of contention in recent years. I use them more than most authors, possibly because of a theater background that makes me want to reproduce lines the way and actor might say them, with those infinitesimal pauses that make them more meaningful.

Academically, ellipses are used to indicate parts of quotes that have been deleted. We can completely ignore that in romance. Forgetaboutit!

How to write an ellipsis: The traditional ellipsis uses three periods with a space before, after, and in between each period. (See examples below.)

In recent years e-publishers and Harlequin have done away with the traditional ellipsis, substituting three periods in a row without any spaces. To my mind, this makes a pause so insignificant that we might as well not use it. Some now use the three periods with a space before and after [ ... ], which at least indicates more of a pause than just three periods [...] My advice: stick to the traditional ellipsis and let your copy editor change it to suit the publisher’s style sheet.

In fiction, particularly in romance, ellipses are used to indicate a slight pause, whether in dialogue or in introspection (what the POV character is thinking).

Example: It would take . . . it would take a Major Charles Tyrone.

Ellipses are also used when a person’s speech or thoughts simply trail away into silence.

Example: If he were Wyverne . . .

Please note the classic ellipsis spacing in the two examples above.

~ * ~

After a pause to blog about the latest resurrection on my backlist, The Harem Bride, I’ll be adding another blog to the Writing 101 series—essentially “Okay, I’ve run Spell Check. Am I Done?”

Thanks for stopping by. Grace, who writes as Blair Bancroft

Currently available on Kindle & Smashwords: Lady Silence, A Gamble on Love, A Season for Love, The Harem Bride. On Kindle: Steeplechase & Tarleton’s Wife

Writing 101 - Tab Conversion

2011-06-05T13:56:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Writing 101 - Tab Conversion. Most of my Writing 101 posts are designed for newbies, but this one is aimed primarily at experienced authors who are struggling to convert old manuscripts for indie publishing. And, believe me, I learned these rules the hard way! I’ll be posting Part 2 of Writing 101 - Nuts & Bolts soon, but today I’m concentrating solely on Tabs. Instructions are given below for both MS Word and Word Perfect.

Note for Newbies: Auto Indents are set up exactly as mentioned in “To add Auto Indents.” You are strongly advised to use auto indents for every manuscript. It is the new norm.

I'd appreciate comments about whether or not you found this blog helpful.

Thanks for stopping by!

Grace (who writes as Blair Bancroft)

* * *

Converting Manual Tabs to Auto Tabs

For Users of Microsoft Word (for Word Perfect, see below)

To delete manual tabs:

Edit - Select - All

Ctrl+F (or whatever way you choose Find) . Replace. More. Special.
Click Special & select Tab Character from the list.
Leave “Replace” blank (You are deleting all manual tabs.)
Replace All. (The screen will tell you how many tabs were deleted. It should be a lot.)

To add Auto Indents:

Edit - Select - All.

Format - Paragraph - By (part way down on the right)
Type .5 in this space (or .3 if you are formatting for indie publishing).
OK (or Enter)

To adjust Date/Place lines, which should be Flush Left (and in italics):

Highlight the line - Format - Paragraph - By
Replace the .5 with 0.
OK (or Enter)

To adjust Chapter Titles, which will be slightly lop-sided (optional)

Highlight - Format - Paragraph - By
Replace .5 with 0. OK (or Enter)
Select Center from the Toolbar.

For Users of Word Perfect

To delete manual tabs:

Edit - Select - All

F2 (or whatever you use for Find) - Match - Codes - Left Tab*
*Be sure you arrow all the way down to Left Tab.
(Do NOT use ...Left Tab (ellipsis Left Tab)

Leave “Replace” blank. Enter. This will delete all manual tabs. The screen will give you an exact count of how many.

To add Auto Indent:

Edit - Select - All

Format - Paragraph - Format - First Line Indent - type in .5 (or .3 if you are formatting for indie publishing) - OK (or Enter)

To adjust Date/Place lines, which should be Flush Left (and in italics):

Highlight - Format - Paragraph - Format - First Line Indent - 0 - OK (or Enter)

To adjust Chapter Titles, which will be slightly lop-sided (optional):

Highlight Title - Format - Paragraph - Format - First Line Indent - 0 - OK (or Enter)
Select Centering from the Toolbar.

A Season for Love

2011-05-31T19:14:00.000-07:00

What a long time for Blogspot to be down! I think Florida must have been on the bottom of the list to be restored. A Season for Love went up on Smashwords and Kindle nearly two weeks ago, and this is the first day I've been able to post. In other news, I've submitted Mistletoe Magic, a novella destined for an EC Cotillion Christmas anthology. As my first effort of less than 50,000 words, it was an interesting experience. And surprisingly satisfying for such a simple tale.

Below please find the lovely cover created by Delle Jacobs and a blurb for A Season for Love. The original Signet blurb failed to indicate this is a double love story. I hope I've managed to rectify that omission. Please tell me what you think.

The Duke of Longville, in need of an heir, is about to take a second wife—a sturdy young widow who followed the drum during Britain’s campaigns on the Peninsula and has proved her fertility by producing a child. But two weeks before the wedding, his long-estranged daughter arrives on his doorstep with a shocking announcement that tumbles all their lives into confusion.

The widowed Lady Eugenia Wharton, almost as strong-willed as her betrothed, has no illusions about why the Duke of Longville wishes to marry her. Unfortunately, that has not kept her from falling in love with him. Their future is destined for some memorable clashes, as she challenges his conviction that he is always right.

The duke’s daughter, Lady Caroline Carlington, has been raised in a home with egalitarian leanings. She does not want to make her come-out in London society, she does not approve of the ton, and she most particularly does not want a step-mother. And then one night in the duke’s bookroom, she meets exactly the type of useless nobleman she most abhors, a charming fribble named Anthony Norville. Caroline is startled by a sudden, if reluctant, attraction—until she discovers he is the brother of the woman who is about to become her despised step-mother. Which would make Tony Norville her uncle!

Anthony Norville, Viscount Frayne, is heir to an earldom. Resenting his father keeping him from the fight against Napoleon, he has retreated behind a façade of airy charm. Until he is caught in the conflict between Lady Caroline and his sister, and the side effects of the war reach London, forcing him to discover new depths within himself.

It takes riot, ransom, and considerable mental readjustment before both pairs of Regency lovers are reconciled against the unrest in London at the time of Waterloo.

Review:

“In a delightful dance worthy of any Regency Ball, Ms. Bancroft interweaves her characters into one fresh and cohesive romance, letting each find their desires in an effortlessly smooth narrative. . . . Blair Bancroft has captured the Regency and has a firm grasp on its nuances and idiosyncrasies.” Celia Merenyi, A Romance Review

* * *

Coming soon: Part 2 of Writing 101 - Nuts & Bolts

Thanks for stopping by!

Grace

Writing 101 - Nuts & Bolts, Part 1

2011-05-16T20:47:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the second in my series, Writing 101. Please note I have added “How to Find the Word Count” to last week’s Writing 101 - Formatting. The subject came up in an exchange with one of my editing clients, and Formatting seemed the best, if slightly off-topic, place to put it.

Helpful Books. Every author should own at least one good book on punctuation and grammar, as the oddest things rear their ugly heads when writing fiction. Not to mention the simpler ones, like compound sentences needing a comma between the clauses!

The following books do not always agree with each other, but they are the best I have found so far. (Other recommendations will be much appreciated.) And certain publishers have veered away from the some of the rules in all three of them! But the fact remains that even if you were an A student in English, questions come up in writing fiction that were never covered in the classroom.

1. The “publisher’s bible” is The Chicago Manual of Style, a huge, expensive tome that will tell you more than you ever wanted to know about Punctuation. But it covers every last little detail.

2. The simplest punctuation and grammar book, the one you can walk into B&N and buy over the counter, is Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style. It’s small, easy to read, and covers most of the rock-bottom basics.

3. I was very enthusiastic about The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation by Jane Straus until I found some doubtful advice on dashes and ellipses. But these symbols are on the more esoteric end of punctuation, and it’s quite possible her PC keyboard can do things mine can’t. (Specifics later, under Dashes and Ellipses.) Nonetheless, there are many excellent things in this book, including explanations of words whose meanings continually baffle their users. For example, affect/effect, eminent/imminent, farther/further, etc. She also includes quizzes so you can test yourself.

A Brief Note on Style in Romance. Yes, writing romance has a few conventions you should consider when writing. Though not quite “nuts & bolts,” I ‘m including them here, as newbies should not start a book without being aware of them.

1. Keep paragraphs short. But also keep in mind that one-sentence paragraphs should be used for emphasis only. Do not write page after page of one-sentence paragraphs.

2. Run-on sentences, even when well-punctuated, are frequently confusing to the modern reader, who wants to absorb things fast, fast, fast. In certain sub-genres, such as traditional Regencies, a limited amount of run-on sentences are part of the style, but most readers tend to heave a book at the wall (or hit delete on their e-readers) if a book forces them to keep re-reading previous sentences because they didn’t quite catch it the first time around.

3. Run-on paragraphs, same comment as above, only even more obvious at a glance. It’s quite possible a potential reader will take one look at all those no-white-space pages while browsing the bookstore, or reading a sample on the Net, and never buy the book at all.

4. Repeat from Formatting blog: Avoid academic formatting, such as 3-space indents, block format, or semi-colons. An Author’s Note on your research and/or your other books may be included at the beginning or end of the book, but absolutely, positively, NO footnotes.

More on the “style” aspects of writing romance in a later chapter of Writing 101.

* * *

PUNCTUATION IN ROMANCE

Note: The examples below come from my own books, some from my traditional Regencies, some from my Romantic Suspense novels and a Futuristic.

COLONS AND SEMI-COLONS. As a general rule, avoid them in romance, substituting a period, comma, or dash. If you are writing historicals, you can get away with an occasional semi-colon. Colons in romance, however, are almost non-existent. Primary reason, I presume: both punctuation marks are considered too academic.

Example: Romance might be stalled, but one thing was now certain—Jeff’s goal stretched far beyond the confines of Ashley’s Choice.

PARENTHESES. For some reason, parentheses are also rare in romance. In most cases, parenthetical remarks are set off by dashes.

Example: Eager passengers—insanely eager passengers, Cass thought—thrust their hands high above their heads as the car paused on the brink of the downward plunge, heightening the tension.

DIALOGUE. The best, and most pleasant, way to learn how to punctuate dialogue is to read a lot of books by successful romance authors, forcing yourself to take a good look at the punctuation as you go along. But most dialogue is punctuated like the sample below.

Note: because Blogspot doesn't seem to recognize tabs, I was forced to use an extra space to indicate a new paragraph.

Example:

“You trained at Nav as well as Tac, Kiolani. Is that correct?”

“Yes, sir.” A hint of animation crossed her piquant face. “Navigation is my primary interest, captain. I spent a great deal of my time in the Archives perfecting my knowledge, not only of this sector but of our whole quadrant. I memorized coordinates for jumpgates that aren’t on Fleet maps, the location of dangerous meteor fields, black holes—” Kass broke off mid-sentence. “I beg your pardon, sir. I didn’t mean to babble.”

Tal nodded, thinking fast . . .

General comments on writing dialogue:

1. Start a new paragraph for each person speaking (see above). Try not to start a new paragraph in the middle of a character’s speech. This makes it difficult for a reader to know who is speaking. Exception: sometimes, if the character is talking at length, including moments of introspection, you need to paragraph within the speech just to keep it from looking like “too much black stuff” on the page! (Like those 19th c. classics you had to read in school.) If so, you do NOT CLOSE quotes at the end of the first paragraph, but you do OPEN quotes at the beginning of the next, as long as that person’s speech is continuous.

2. It is better to establish who is talking by some action or description at the beginning of the paragraph than constantly attach the “tags” of said, asked, replied, responded, etc., to every statement.

Example: Tal blew out a breath. “You know I have to take him with us? You understand that?”

3. Warning: Do not use full, stand-alone sentences for dialogue tags.

Wrong: “I knew you must be very brave,” Caroline spoke quietly to Emily’s bent head.
Right: “I knew you must be very brave.” Caroline spoke quietly to Emily’s bent head.

4. Dialogue must sound natural and fit the character who is speaking. (Okay, this isn’t punctuation, but it’s advice that can’t be said too often!)

COMMAS. To explore all the situations where you use commas, I refer you to the three books above. Below, you’ll find samples of the abuses I see the most when judging contest entries.

Compound sentences. If a sentence has two separate clauses (complete sentences that could stand alone by themselves), you need to put a comma before and, but, as (etc.).

Example: They were about to pick up a major client, and she and Michael Dillon would no longer be ships that passed in the night.

Exception: If the two clauses are very short, the comma may be left out.

Example: They had a mission, he needed to remember that.

BUT if a sentence has only one subject and two verbs; i.e., one person doing two different things, leave the comma out.

Example: She threw open the door to the spacious estate room and came to an abrupt halt.

DIRECT ADDRESS. For some inexplicable reason, I’ve been seeing a lot of manuscripts lately where only one of the two necessary commas is inserted around the name of the person being addressed. The samples below are correct.

Examples:

“Don’t you know me, Mrs. Jenks?”

“It is you, Caroline, is it not?”

SENTENCE FRAGMENTS. Sentence fragments—those bits lacking a proper subject and verb that your high school English teacher frowned upon—are common in romance. They are used for emphasis; also for keeping run-on sentences from being exactly that. As long as a sentence fragment fits with the full sentence before, there should be no problem.

Example: She could still hear Uncle Malcolm’s mocking words four years ago as he grudgingly granted her three small rooms at the far end of the corridor, overlooking the parking lot and the ugly industrial building next door. An organic foods subsidiary within the confines of Van Dyne Industries’ global food distribution business? Absurd.

Note: The words in green are the full sentence that sets up the fragments. The hot pink sentences are both fragments, even though one is much longer than the other.

Paragraphing for Emphasis (can be a complete sentence or a fragment).

Example:

His head screamed, his body moaned, as he forced himself to turn toward the door, toward the IV drip, the bank of monitors. There was a sign on the back of the door. Big letters. Letters that danced before his eyes. He squinted, focused, discovered they were gibberish. As were the letters on the monitor, the manufacturers’ names on the machines themselves.

If he didn’t feel so damn bad, he’d be scared.

QUOTE MARKS. (Absolute rule: Do not break it!) Single quotation marks are only used inside double quote marks. If you want quotes around a word in a narrative paragraph, use double quotes.

Example: “And then,” Martin told them, “the sailor cried, ‘Ahoy, maties!’”

(See also the expression “rule of thumb” in the paragraph below.)

QUOTATIONS—Quote Marks or Italics? A general “rule of thumb” (something not set in stone) is that if a quotation is longer than three lines, you should use italics instead of quote marks. This may be stretched to include even a very short letter, as with the salutation and signature, you’re almost always going to have more than three lines. Also, for longer quotations in italics, you should indent the margin on either side of the quotation, usually by five spaces.

MORE ON ITALICS. In general, use italics sparingly or they lose their impact. Italics are used for 1) emphasis; 2) direct thoughts; 3) long quotes, and 4) foreign words.

Example 1: “Plush breeches,” he reiterated in accents of loathing, “with rosettes, and a driving coat with buttons the size of butter plates.”

Example 2: Did the hulk’s blue eyes flicker when he learned Hugh was her brother? Probably nothing more than a reflection of the Florida sunshine. Concentrate on the good stuff, Cass. You saved a child, you’re being invited to meet an Arab prince. All part of a day’s work in the life of a WIS agent.

Note: At the beginning of the paragraph above, Cass is thinking in what’s called Introspection. No italics needed. But she switches to talking directly to herself in second person. If you are writing in third person and switch to first or second person, you must use italics.

Example 3 - a long quote - should be indented five spaces on each side.

My dear Abigail, After Mr. James Wetherby, I must grant you a simple task. Jeremy Tomkin, Viscount Granby, lives in Bath, an easy journey. He is a sweet, simple man from whom you have nothing to fear. (I trust James was not a problem, though you must now realize why I insist that Jared accompany you at all times.) Lord Granby and I share a secret, and I wish him to know I will take it to my grave.

Use italics for foreign words. For example, without italics, “ton” is just 2000 pounds.

Example 4: There were those who considered Viscount Frayne a useless fribble, nothing more than the topmost whorl in the tail of the ton’s array of strutting peacocks.”

* * *

Apostrophes, Dashes, and Ellipses will be included in Part 2 of Writing 101 - Nuts & Bolts.

Come on back, and please pass this blog along to any newbies who could benefit.

Thanks for visiting Grace's Mosaic Moments!

Writing 101 - Formatting

2011-05-09T08:37:00.000-07:00

Over the last fifteen years I have judged somewhere around four hundred contest entries for various chapters of the Romance Writers of America. I like to think I’m rather good at it. Unfortunately, in the past year I’ve noticed an abrupt decline in the presentation of the contest entries. No, I’m absolutely, positively, not one of those judges who believes you have to write in Courier at 25 lines to the page. Frankly, when I was entering contests twenty years ago, I always avoided those that specified anything so narrow. BUT, in order to put your best foot forward, you want to have an editor or agent absorbed in your story, not wincing over grammar, punctuation, spelling, or formatting. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot by ignoring these aspects of crafting your manuscript.

Last fall, I encountered the results of an RWA chapter who decided that since most people were submitting to e-publishers, there was no need for formatting at all! (A shocking insult to e-pubs, by the way.) The results were entries with no headers, no page numbers, infinitesimal tab indents or block style, incorrect dialogue punctuation, etc. etc. Below is the article I attached to the score sheets of the entries I judged for that contest. Hopefully, other newbies will find it helpful.

More recently, I encountered a number of manuscripts that seemed to be first drafts - written but not edited by the author, and not proofread for errors the spell-checker can’t catch. My mind boggled. How could anyone who wanted to create a saleable manuscript be so careless? There will be more on editing in later chapters of Writing 101. Today’s blog deals almost exclusively with formatting.

Standard Manuscript Format

Although most print publishers, as well as e-publishers, are now accepting manuscripts via e-mail, it is essential that every author knows how to present a professional appearance. For example, formats used for college papers are not the impression you want to make. For the print market, you are shooting yourself in the foot if you do not present your work in traditional manuscript format. Even for the e-market—unless a publisher has specific guidelines to the contrary—you are still expected to use traditional format. With all the difficulties in getting someone to read your manuscript, don’t take any chances. (Picture a busy editor putting down the phone after a long call and not having a header on the page/screen to remind her what she was reading!) So . . .

Do NOT—repeat DO NOT—scream “Amateur” with the Editor/Agent’s first glance at your manuscript!

The “musts”

1. Set Top margin to .5

2. Set Left, Right & Bottom margins to 1"

3. Manuscript Title - set as Header, Flush Left

4. Set auto page number for Top Right margin
Note: Header & page number are usually set on “suppress” for the opening page.

5. Set line spacing to double (Some e-pubs allow 1.5, check guidelines)

6. Set auto indent to .5 (In both MS Word & Word Perfect - Format/Paragraph/Format)

7. Use Font 12 (or 14, if you prefer). Times New Roman is the new standard, with Courier (a 19th c. century font) finally beginning to fall by the wayside. But any clear font in 12- or 14-point is acceptable.

8. Italics may be used with TNR because they stand out clearly. So if you insist on using Courier, where italics are obscure, the old rules apply: use underline instead.

9. Center each Chapter Title 1/3 down the page. (Distance down can be less if you are submitting solely to e-publishers)

10. Hard Page End at the end of each chapter (Fastest method: Control+Enter)

11. Word Count. Knowing the correct word count of your manuscript is always important. To find the count in M S Word: File - Properties - Statistics. In Word Perfect: File - Properties - Word Count.

Warnings

1. Do not use the word “Page” with the page number

2. Do not center your book’s title on Page 1. The Title will appear in the Header (flush left)

2. Do not center Date & Location - these are set Flush Left & italicized (underlined in Courier)
(Highlight words to be set flush left, Format- Paragraph - Format - 0)

3. Do not fail to put in a Hard Page End at the end of a chapter.

4. EDIT YOUR WORK. (Most successful authors go over their mss 3-5 times before submitting)

5. PROOFREAD! We all make errors Spell Check can’t catch. You want readers to enjoy your work, not spend time puzzling over your mistakes.

Note: many agents require query excerpts to be included in the body of the e-mail. Read instructions carefully. When an attachment is allowed, be sure you send it in the requested format. Word Perfect users, in particular, need to be careful to Save your wpd doc in rtf. MS Word users - if the instructions are, “send in RTF,” then send in RTF, not DOC. It’s a simple switchover when you’re in the SAVE menu.

As someone who has judged close to 400 contest entries in the last fifteen years, I can guarantee that taking the above advice will let you present your manuscript in the best possible light.

Grace Kone, October 2010

* * *

May, 2011 - I will be adding more chapters to my series entitled, Writing 101.

Thanks for stopping by - and please come back. Comments and questions are always welcome.

A Gamble on Love

2011-04-28T12:06:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love the look on the heroine's face, above. She perfectly fits the daring, if desperate, young heroine in A Gamble on Love, previously published as The Lady and the Cit. When Delle Jacobs found this image, I liked it so much that I changed Miss Amelia's Trevor's hair color to match! I also tweaked a number of other things, including adding a definition of "Cit," as I hope the indie versions of my Regency novels will appeal to an audience broader than our loyal Regency aficionados.

Interesting sidenote: I uploaded Gamble on Wednesday, April 27, but soon discovered we indie authors may have been too enthusiastic about our brave new world. When I uploaded Lady Silence to Smashwords, I was #12 in line for being "smashed"; i. e., translated to various e-formats. Last Wednesday, to my horror, I was told Gamble was #3026! So it may take a while before it pops up on the Smashwords list. However, on Friday night I got "the call" from Kindle (via e-mail, of course). A Gamble on Love had made it to the Kindle store. Yay, hurray, two Regencies down and four more to go.

Below is the blurb for A Gamble on Love. The reviews are for the February 2005 Signet publication of The Lady and the Cit.

* * *

Miss Aurelia Trevor has a problem. Until she reaches the age of twenty-five, she will have no control over her beloved Pevensey Park, and by that time her unscrupulous uncle will have run the property into the ground. Marriage to someone other than her uncle’s leering son is her only way out, but, one by one, she rejects the men on her list of suitors. In desperation, Aurelia does the unthinkable. She hires a solicitor to find her a husband strong enough to stand up to both her uncle and her cousin. And soon learns the truth of that old adage: Be careful what you wish for.

Thomas Lanning is a man of City. Unlike Aurelia, who stands to inherit vast land and wealth, he has made his own place in the world. He is not at all tempted by the suggestion of marriage to an heiress, but other considerations, such as a power base for a seat in Parliament, tweak his interest. Plus an unexpected twinge of chivalry when he hears the full extent of Miss Trevor’s difficulties with her uncle and his family.

Aurelia, who only wants to live in peace on her acres, finds she has acquired a ready-made family in Thomas’s younger sister and brother, as well as a head-strong husband whose campagin for MP fills her household with a shockingly odd assortment of characters. It seems her marriage of convenience is fast becoming a marriage of inconvenience. Just how far will this strong- willed pair bend to accommodate each other? And will they do it before it’s too late?

Reviews:

“Blair Bancroft’s warm and tender [novel] boasts a great heroine in Aurelia: She’s attractive, courageous, vulnerable and intelligent.” Robin Taylor, Romantic Times

“Reading how they gradually learn to like and eventually love each other is wonderful. Blair Bancroft is now definitely one of my favorite traditional Regency authors and this book is a prime example of why.” Nicole Hulst, Romance Junkies

“Set against a backdrop of rural politics (and a fascinating look at the early world of “buying” votes) this is a story that entrances, enlightens and endears.” Celia at A Romance Review

* * *

Thanks so much for stopping by. A recent spate of contest-judging has led me to a blog next week I'm thinking of titling, "Writing 101." Come on back.

Grace

Brave New World - Indie Publishing

2011-04-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

WELCOME to the Brave New World of Independent Publishing! Below is a nutshell view of what I learned as I formatted and uploaded Lady Silence from my Signet backlist. Hopefully, it will be helpful to other authors who would like to take their backlist out of mothballs. And also help newbies who are asking themselves, "Should I?"

Independent publishing is sweeping through the Internet with the momentum of the seminal changes in the music industry. No sense arguing the pros and cons, because indie publishing is here to stay. It’s not going away.

Do I recommend it for an unpublished, unknown author? Only if you’re going to spend full-time marketing that one book on every media and social network available. (And most of us want to keep writing far too much to get trapped long-term in the whirlpool of marketing.)

But I heartily recommend that published authors with a backlist seriously consider independent publishing. The first book’s a bit of a chore, but as more and more of us take the plunge, there will be a growing list of “experts” willing to pass along their new-found knowledge. Which is what I’m attempting to begin with today’s blog.

Yes, you can offer your backlist to one of several royalty-paying e-publishers. (Been there, done that.) But when I heard how well a friend of mine had done with her backlist on Kindle - way better than my current e-royalties - I thought, “Well, heck, why not try it?” Only time will tell, of course, if I made the right decision. But at the moment it feels good. And my low-priced e-Regencies will, I hope, encourage people to consider buying the higher-priced ones from my e-publisher.

How to take the plunge.

First, be sure you have the rights to your book. If you don't, call your print publisher and the main switchboard will direct you to the correct person for rights reversion. For e-pubs, a simple e-mail will do. And then be patient. For Penguin Putnam, it took perhaps two months. For my e-pub, less than a week.

Re-editing is your decision. You can use your original manuscript, as is, or you can choose to re-read and revise, line by line. I chose the latter. I’ve now ploughed my way through three of my six Signet Regencies, making deletions and additions. The result: hopefully, a more polished book, based on what I’ve learned in the years since I wrote the originals.

To learn the ropes of formatting and uploading your manuscript, Smashwords is the place to begin, because Mark Coker’s Smashwords Style Guide gives detailed instructions on how to format your book to an MS Word doc that is acceptable not only to Smashwords, but to Kindle and Nook (even if their instructions don’t say so). I read the Style Guide on HTML. I e-mailed a Mobi version of it to my Kindle and read it again, taking copious notes. And when I finished all my formatting, I re-read the most pertinent parts for uploading again. Coker covers everything, including how to fill out the form so you can get paid! And once you’ve conquererd Smashwords, Kindle is relatively easy. Amazon’s Kindle mentions only HTML in its instructions, but you can use that same Word doc you formatted for Smashwords (minus the front page) for uploading to Kindle.

Warning Note: Do not copy the Smashwords License Agreement as it is laid out in the Style Guide. Not wanting to make any mistakes, I did exactly that, centering just as Mark Coker laid it out. And ten days later I was told I to revise the front page so that there were no Hard Page Ends within the body copy of the agreement (those page ends necessary to format the agreement exactly as Coker wrote it). Sigh.

Further Warning: There are dire warnings in the Style Guide about translating Word Perfect to MS Word for successful e-formatting. Needless to say, I was worried. For Word Perfect users who would like to know how I did it, please e-mail me at BlairGAK@aol.com.

ISBNs. I made the decision to buy a list of ten ISBNs, even though they are not required by Smashwords or Kindle. They are, however, required by Nook. It’s an expense, but I wanted to give Lady Silence every opportunity for distribution.

Nook’s PubIt will also accept an MS Word doc (according to their Support Center), but I found their instructions far less indie friendly than Smashwords or Kindle. At the moment, I admit, anyone wanting to read LADY SILENCE on Nook needs to download the EPub version at Smashwords. (For which Smashwords offers directions!)

An interesting sidenote: when I questioned PubIt’s requirement that biographical material be sent THREE MONTHS in advance, Support didn’t answer me, but the “three-months” instantly disappeared from the PubIt vendor requirements.)

Moral of this story: Am I still submitting original material to royalty-paying publishers and e-publishers? Absolutely. Will I continue to format my backlist for indie pub? Yes, yes, and yes. As fast as my fingers can format and I can get cover artists to do their thing. And, if all goes well, I may even consider uploading that book New York never quite understood. And the one that had too many points of view for a couple of e-publishers. Books of my heart, but not of the editor’s heart.

Important repeat: If your name is already known in the publishing world (p- or e-pub), your indie offering is more likely to have a decent chance of success. And your less expensive indie backlist may increase the sales of your more expensive works.

Brave New World
It’s all yours, so come join me and the other indie authors who have taken the plunge.

Thanks for stopping by. Comments are always welcome.
Grace Kone, writing as Blair Bancroft & Daryn Parke

P.S. I also offer editing, copy editing, and Beta reads at Best Foot Forward. For a brochure, e-mail me at editsbyBFF@aol.com

Lady Silence

2011-04-15T06:32:00.000-07:00

A waif taken in by the household staff of Colonel Damon Farr grows into a stunning, accomplished beauty by the time he returns from more than six years of war, wanting only to shut himself up in Farr Park and leave the world behind. The girl has a problem, however: she doesn't talk. Though highly suspicious of her origins, Damon allows his mother to persuade him to use Katy Snow as a part-time secretary. And discovers danger has followed him home. For an officer and a gentleman, propinquity can be almost as deadly as a French bullet.

Katy has adored Damon Farr since his decidedly hungover assent to keeping her at Farr Park. Though war has soured his disposition, she takes on the role of Damon's secretary with spunk and efficiency, until their idyll is shattered by an unexpected inheritance, two overly zealous junior officers, greedy relatives, an impostor, and a missing fortune. Is "the girl the cat dragged in" Damon Farr's Sinful Temptation or his Salvation? Katy and Damon walk a rocky road before the answer is clear.

* * * *

Yes, I'm happy to say I fought the good fight and finally made it to Kindle and Smashwords with the first of my Signet backlist. Lady Silence is the closest I've ever come to writing soap opera, and, truthfully, I enjoyed re-editing and polishing it for the brave new world of indie publishing.

At the time I wrote it, I had not seen the point where the Kennet & Avon canal intersects with Sydney Gardens in Bath. (I later discovered I'd turned back about fifteen feet short of my goal.) But this time around, after my narrowboat journey from Newbury to Bath, I was able to give a more definitive description. And, more importantly, I emphasized more strongly what we'd now call a mild version of PTSD suffered by Colonel Farr. Although it's what I had in mind when I wrote the original Lady Silence, I later realized that I had been through more wars than most of my readers (for example, a neighbor of mine came home from Vietnam and hanged himself in his basement), and perhaps I needed to make more clear the problems suffered by soldiers returning from long years at war. I hope I've done that in this version of Lady Silence. Also, I think our years at war in Iraq and Afghanistan have made more people aware of this serious issue.

The ending is still the super soggy, not-a-dry-eye-in-the-house soap opera mentioned above. And remains unchanged. The moments of humor also remain.

The cover was created by Delle Jacobs, God bless! And we're hard at work on the next: A Gamble on Love (formerly, The Lady and the Cit).

Thanks for stopping by. Next week: what I learned in the course of formatting and publishing a book for the brave new world of independent publishing.

Grace

Where Brits Vacation, Part 2

2011-04-07T09:10:00.001-07:00

Welcome to Part 2 of
"Where Brits Vacation"

Wilton House.
Centered above, a rear view of Wilton House. To the left, a view of Wilton's water garden.

A long time ago, at a Romantic Times convention in Houston, I met Miss Mary McKenzie, a true English gentlewoman of the old school, who had traveled all the way to Texas because she loved to read romance. I met Miss Mary again at a convention in Orlando, and Sue-Ellen Welfonder and I took her sightseeing in the Sarasota area when she was in Florida. Miss Mary is no longer with us, but I recall with pleasure how much she enjoyed Myakka State Park with its wide variety of wild life from herons and roseate spoonbills to alligators. We also took her to lunch at a downhome-style outdoor restaurant right on the Intracoastal Waterway. So naturally I was thrilled when Miss Mary joined Sally and me for an afternoon at Wilton, home of Earls of Pembroke, near Salisbury in Wiltshire. Since we had all been to Wilton before, we confined our tour to the extensive gardens that day. My apologies for the b&w photo of Wilton’s famous Palladian bridge. No way could I convince my scanner to reproduce any of my bridge photos in color. (It doesn’t like Palladian bridges?)

Interesting sidenote: as an extra added attraction that day, we had to drive past Stonehenge going and coming. Also, while driving through Salisbury Plain (home of Stonehenge), we passed road signs saying, “Warning, Tank Crossing.” If they hadn’t had a picture of an actual military tank on them, I wouldn’t have believed it. Sally said to me, rather plaintively, “We’re a small country. We have to make use of every bit of land we have.” It seems the army trains on Salisbury Plain. Sorry, I was too busy driving on the left to stop for a photo.

Littlecote House - from Roman ruins to Tudor ghosts.

Photo above is an airview of the Tudor country house, Littlecote, now expanded into a resort.

As mentioned earlier, I left the arrangements for my second week without an American in sight to Sally Roberts, whom some of you may remember as our local guide on the 2003 Regency Author Tour. So after two nights at Manor Farm, we drove to Littlecote, neither of us having the slightest idea of the scope of the place Sally had picked for our next four nights. Littlecote is, in fact, mind-boggling. Picture the largest cruise ship and then spread its activities out over somewhere around one square mile.

The original Littlecote is an elegant Tudor mansion, complete with giant oak table in the center of a medieval-style "hall." It has resident ghosts, taken very seriously, and is now kept alive by being turned into a resort. The house itself remains pristine, with only a few of the very wealthy actually staying beneath its roof. (See helicopter photo below.) The rest of us poor working slobs stay in well-appointed motel-like accommodations built within easy walking distance of both the mansion and a 20th c. building containing a lounge, dining areas, theater with live performances, gift shop, etc. Seating in the dining room is like a cruise ship - you are assigned a table. The wait staff seemed to consist of young people from all over Europe.

In addition to these facilities, Littlecote offers gardens, a falconry barn (with demonstrations), tennis courts, an archery field, a bowling green, a giant outdoor ches s set, and a fitness center and beauty salon in the old stables.

The most significant site, at least to me, were the Roman ruins, including the entire mosaic floor of what is believed to be a temple. It was difficult to photograph because it is enclosed in an open-sided building to protect it from the elements, but I did my best. Next to the amazing mosiac floor are the remains of a Roman villa, including the hippocaust. Amazing stuff. (Roman photos are at the end of this blog.)

The funniest moment at Littlecote was when the falcon took off on his own, perched in a tree, and refused to come down, no matter how hard his trainer coaxed!

The most eerie moment, besides the stories of ghost-sightings in the hallways, was a tale told by the guide at the Tudor mansion. There is a small casket that always rests in the chapel at Littlecote. Supposedly, it contains an ancient religious relic. And with it goes a legend that says if the casket should ever leave the chapel at Littlecote, disaster will follow.

The day came, sometime in the late 20th c., when Littlecote was sold and some of its contents put up for auction. When family members noticed the casket was no longer in the chapel, they rushed to the auctioneer, explained the legend, and the casket was returned to its proper place, where it still remains. One can only assume Littlecote's present success as a resort was thus assured!

Although visitors to Littlecote seemed to be primarily middle-class Brits, I can heartily recommend it to Americans who have seen all the famous sights and would like to experience something off the beaten track. Littlecote was beautiful, historical, peaceful, and the food was good. Also, there's something both intriguing and educational about being the only American in a sea of Brits. If you'd care to know more, the website is: http://www.historic-uk.com/SayUK/WarnerBreaks/LittlecoteHouse.htm

Only as I flew back to Orlando on British Airways did I realize I had spent sixteen days without seeing, or speaking to, another American. A truly unique experience.

Thanks for stopping by. Don't forget to look below for four photos of the extensive Roman ruins at Littlecote.

Grace

Where Brits Vacation

2011-04-01T07:28:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Grace's Mosaic Moments. Today I'm telling the story of the week following my journey by canalboat.

My trip by narrowboat from Newbury to Bath was only the first half of my sixteen days in Britain without seeing another American. The second half was nearly as unique, as my very English friend, Sally Roberts, and I traveled to places where ordinary, average Brits go for enjoyment, both for day trips and for extended stays. I asked Sally to arrange this part of the trip, specifying only that I wanted to see at least one English garden.

Our canalboat captain called in a fleet of taxies on his cell phone, and saw all his passengers off to their various destinations. For Sally and me, it was Alamo Car Rental on the far side of Bath. (I will not attempt to describe my first experience driving “lefty” in the heart of Bath. Suffice it to say, we made it. Sally, who drives as little as possible, assumed the role of navigator - and reminding me about all the esoteric rules governing roundabouts. I suspect it’s much easier for Americans drivers who drive Brit roads completely ignorant of the rules!)

I soon discovered that, just as we flock to our National Parks, Brits flock to National Trust gardens and historic sites. The “car parks” were jammed, and the crowds vast at Abbey Gardens, Avebury, and the Uffington White Horse; not quite as crowded at Wilton, some distance to the south. Sally, also in charge of reading any literature available, informed me, as we approached Abbey Gardens, that we should keep a sharp eye out for the owners who were known to occasionally garden in the nude. (Alas, we only saw other gawkers like ourselves and acres of flowers.)

As some of you know, I carry a cane when in Britain and Europe, as all the years in Florida without stairs have made it a bit uncertain for me to handle stairs without handrails. The car park for Abbey Gardens is in a ravine probably fifty feet below the gardens. We were about half-way up the necessary long flight of stairs when Sally noticed one of my walking shoes was untied. A fiftyish British couple was descending the stairs toward us. Evidently noticing my cane, the man said something to the effect of, “Here, love, let me do it,” then he knelt on the stairs and tied my shoe. Definitely one of those random acts of kindness one never forgets. Photos of Abbey Gardens below.

We stayed two nights at Manor Farm, a marvelous B&B, where our rooms had been constructed in a fourteenth century hayloft. And our host cooked a lamb roast, which we ate family style at the huge oak table in the kitchen.

We drove on to Avebury, one of those marvelous historic sites with a stone circle and henge (ditch) in the style of Stongehenge. This site is particularly amazing as people still live in the small village in the center of the ring. (The airview photo is a postcard, of course.)
Below, the central village and a close-up of some of the stones.

I have always been fascinated by the creatures carved into the chalk cliffs in England. The Uffington White Horse is one of the most spectacular. Notice it’s remarkably “modern” design. Every seven years the people nearby hold a “scouring festival” and clean weeds, dirt, and other encroachments so the horse remains on the hillside as it has for a thousand years or more. (Another postcard photo.)

Next week: a look at a Tudor-era resort where Brits enjoy overnight stays with all the amenities, sort of like a giant cruise ship spread over a square mile of land. Except this one has genuine Roman ruins!

Thanks for stopping by!

The Hazards of Flying Kites

2011-03-25T08:32:00.000-07:00

I wasn’t going to blog this Friday, since now that I have a cover, I’m hard at work on the final stages of uploading my first effort to Smashwords, Kindle, and Nook. I chose Lady Silence, by the way. Although the last of my six Signet Regencies, I felt it might—with its “soap opera” ending (not a dry eye in the house)—have an appeal beyond the lovers of traditional Regencies.

BUT - yesterday afternoon, while taking the grandchildren picnicking at the Orlando area’s largest woodland park, an incident occurred that deserves to be recorded. Let’s face it, on the homefront as well as the world-wide scene, TV and newspapers regale us with disaster after disaster. (For example, just this week the husband of the city manager of the upscale Orlando suburb where Tiger Woods lives, attacked the town’s mayor at a meeting, knocking him out. And a sixteen-year-old tried to rape a girl in the backseat of a schoolbus!) Sometimes, one can only wish we’d hear more about good deeds. So here’s the story of what happened when the little girls and I tried to fly kites at Moss Park.

I’d planned only an after-school picnic with my three grandchildren, aged almost 8, 6, and 4. But the wind was so blustery it was scaling the plates right off the table, so the girls asked if we could get the kites out. But we weren’t having much luck as the wind was gusty, one minute grabbing the kites, the next plunging them into the ground. Even our strongest “high wind” kite had trouble staying up. Part of the problem: we were in an open field ringed by tall trees, and I didn’t dare let out a lot of string.

The girls ran off to the playground nearby, and I thought I’d give the big kite one last try. As I picked it up, a man came over and asked if I’d like some help. (He was around thirty, and he and his wife had been watching their children play in the playground.) I said, “Sure,” and of course he had that kite up and flying a hundred feet off the ground in less than a minute. He warned me about the tug on the line and then handed it over. (His family was waiting in the car, ready to go home.) Talk about wind! It all but lifted me off the ground. I immediately started to reel in, as the hazard of that much line around trees was obvious. Because the pull was so great, I had my eyes on the winder, not on the kite, trying to keep the line from tangling, and OH-OH, the kite lodged in the top of a live oak.

For those who live in the south and know live oaks, I hasten to say this one was young, maybe only thirty feet tall, but as far as I was concerned, it might as well have been sixty. Our successful kite-launcher came loping back, and I asked if he had a knife to cut the line. (I wanted to save the expensive winder.) He said, “What for?” and promptly launched himself into the tree.

I stood with mouth agape as he climbed and climbed. There were so many leaves I couldn’t actually see him well - and I sincerely hoped his wife couldn’t see what he was doing. In no time at all he was 25-30 feet up, trying to dislodge the kite. It was stubborn, but he took the time to untie all the knots I’d put in it, separating the kite from the string. Then he wrestled the kite loose and dropped it down, where it stuck on a branch only about nine feet off the ground.

He descended, crawled out on the lower branch, and dropped the kite to the ground. Meanwhile, I had reeled in all the line. The three little girls had come back from the playground by this time and witnessed the last of this gallant rescue. I was nearly speechless when our hero dropped back to earth. I shook his hand, stammered out my most sincere thanks, and off he went, back to his waiting family.

I took the little girls down to a lakefront beach and let them wade for a while after that, while I smiled to myself and thought about the passing encounter that served to remind me that there are some very nice people in this world.

A salute to nice guys everywhere!

SHORTCUTS FOR WRITERS

2011-03-18T07:22:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Grace's Mosaic Moments!

I’ve been busy transplanting roses this week—and, believe me, if you’ve never done it, that’s a LOT of work. I also had to learn a new skill, the cordless electric power drill, in order to deal with the huge new plastic planters that come with molded words on the bottom: “Drill holes for drainage”! Which is why I’m posting a code list, long on my web site, instead of coming up with something new today. Hopefully, there are a few of you out there who haven’t seen this list before.

The original is 2 columns at 1.5 spacing. If you would like a compact, printable copy, please e-mail me at blairbancroft@aol.com.

“Way, way back in ages dark”—I believe that’s how the old song goes—in this case back in early computer days, when IBM’s dedicated word processing machine cost $10,000 and boasted 256K of memory (when my son’s first PC had 16K), programmers built in certain codes to help users around the world type characters that weren’t on the QWERTY keyboard. My IBM word processor, I must add, could actually change keyboards, typing in a multitude of languages from around the world. But poor little PCs couldn’t.

And as PCs grew and grew and grew, those codes stayed in place in the programming. You could say they were “grandfathered in.” Some are obsolete, like lines for painstakingly building a “box.” Some are still obviously with us—you see them on the right-hand side of every Windows menu. Others, very useful, are more elusive. For example:

PAGE END. I only recently discovered that many people don’t know how to make a quick Page End that will stay through every format. Perhaps that’s the reason some people are still making a separate document for each chapter, a major time-waster when you try to put it all together. Plus the difficulty of searching for something in the manuscript you need to know, such as, “What color did I say his eyes were?”

Ctrl + Enter. That’s all your need. You can take a manuscript from Word Perfect to RTF to MS Word (or the reverse), and that Page End will still be right where you put it. And you don’t have to go into a Windows Menu to do it.

Below is a list of some of the old codes I’ve found particularly handy. Yes, you can get most of these through a Windows Menu, but the codes are faster, and there are a few below you won’t find anywhere else. Hopefully, you’ll discover something in there that’s helpful.

Thanks for stopping by. See you next week.

Grace

SHORTCUT CODES

Note: To make these codes work, use your Keypad with “Num Lock” ON.
Press Alt + the number.

20 ¶

21 §

37 %

60 <>

128 Ç

129 ü

130 é

131 â

132 ä

133 à

134 å

0227 ã

135 ç

136 ê

137 ë

138 è

139 ï

140 î

141 ì

142 Ä

143 Å

144 É

145 æ

146 Æ

147 ô

148 ö

149 ò

150 û

151 ù

152 ÿ

153 Ö

154 Ü

155 ¢

156 £

160 á

161 í

162 ó

163 ú

164 ñ

165 Ñ

168 ¿

171 ½

172 ¼

0190 ¾

173 ¡

174 «

175 »

241 ±

246 ÷

0215 ×

248 °

0150 –

0151 —

0153 ™

0169 ©

0174 ®

0178 ²

0179 ³

0192 À

0193 Á

0194 Â

0195 Ã

0196 Ä

0197 Å

0200 È

0201 É

0202 Ê

0203 Ë

0204 Ì

0205 Í

0206 Î

0207 Ï

0210 Ò

0211 Ó

0212 Ô

0213 Õ

0214 Ö

0217 Ù

0218 Ú

0219 Û

0220 Ü

There are many more 2-4 digit codes, but most are alphabet, borders, math, Greek, etc. Undoubtedly, anyone taking the time to experiment can find a whole slew more.

Grace, who writes as Blair Bancroft and Daryn Parke
www.blairbancroft.com & www.darynparke.com

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE - the Play

2011-03-11T06:26:00.000-08:00

I named my blog Grace’s Mosaic Moments so I could have free rein to write about anything and everything—carefully planned writing topics, ridiculous incidents, journeys to distant places, or unexpected moments that simply tumble into your life and make a difference. Today’s blog is the latter. A surprise moment in time, not only enjoyable in itself, but one that brought back a very special memory.

Prologue.
I’ve been in theatrical productions since I was six years old, and for some years I was a professional musician. In addition to solo and choral work, I managed to earn an Actor’s Equity card. A few years later, sometime in the early ‘70s as I recall, my husband was Chairman of the Performing Arts Council in New Haven, Connecticut. One day, he said to me, “There’s a summer theater group that wants to open a professional theater in New Haven. They’re playing in Clinton. (About 25 miles down the shoreline from our home in Branford). “Let’s go take a look.” We saw the play, decided we should encourage the director’s idea. My husband ended up giving them an office, a secretary, and a phone for somewhere around a year before the idea finally came to fruition. He also allowed the director, Jon Jory, to “cry on his shoulder,” as my husband put it, every Thursday night until the Long Wharf Theater was born. I’m happy to say, though it was situated in a meat-packing warehouse along New Haven harbor, it opened to critical success, and is still hale and hearty in 2011.

Pride and Prejudice - the Performance
On Wednesday evening of this week I attended a performance of Pride and Prejudice in play form. I wasn’t expecting much as the Orlando Shakespeare Theater is a long way from the superior professional theater I enjoyed while living in New Haven and, later, in the Sarasota area. But how could I not go to see yet another version of P&P?

But from the opening moment, I could feel they’d nailed it. The production sparkled. Using the device of characters speaking directly to the audience, they managed to squeeze in most of Jane Austen’s story and do it with style. One amusing incident, hopefully unique to last night’s performance: “Kitty” was ill, evidently with no understudy, leaving the Bennett’s with only four daughters. Some of the actors coped better than others. Mrs. Bennett still alleged that she had five daughters, while Elizabeth Bennett, when asked how many sisters she had, returned, “three at present.” In the dance sequence Mr. Bennett heroically danced alone, and one line promenaded with three, instead of four, across. I can only presume Lydia and Mary spoke Kitty's lines as well as their own. All in all, adroitly done, and a compliment to the cast.

Characters.
Only Charles Bingley came off rather badly, his passive nature exaggerated to the point of stupidity, not helped by a few added phrases that smacked of turn of the 20th century. (“Smashing!” for example.) But I was possibly the only one there who would spot an anachronism like that. All the other characters came right off the pages of the book. They were amazingly “right” for their parts.

Dance.
The staging of the dance sequences—and there were more than a few—was particularly well done, with a variety of circle, line, and quad dances that were sometimes the center of focus, sometimes only a few dancers gracefully performing as a backdrop for dialogue and action downstage. On one occasion, the dancers performed behind a scrim curtain, a shadow accompaniment to the action on stage.

Setting.
The setting used one two-story mansion to represent all the homes from Longbourne to Mr. Collins’s vicarage to Pemberly. A width-of-the-house balcony provided extra space for action and re-actions. For example, when Elizabeth was reading Darcy’s letter, he appeared on the balcony, taking over the reading of portions of the letter. This device worked well in a number of scenes. The only furnishings were straight-backed white wrought iron chairs, which cast members constantly rearranged to provide “furniture” for each setting. Even “pianofortes.”

Costumes.
As someone who has helped costume theater productions since I was “knee high to a grasshopper,” I’ve frequently criticized the costumes at Orlando “Shakes.” Last night was another nice surprise. The elders were costumed in late 18th c. garb, the younger cast members in Regency dress. Lady Catherine’s outfit was magnificent, though I was amused to see that her skirt had been made from someone’s wedding gown.

To solve the constant change of scene problem, cast members wore the same garb throughout, no matter if they were at a ball or wandering the grounds. But, I hasten to mention another clever touch. When they were “outside,” birds twitted in the background.

One more aside: last night, the center portion of the three-sided theater was mostly taken by a special group. Evidently, many of them were not as familiar with P&P as those of us along the sides. They roared with laughter over lines the rest of greeted more like old friends. Nice to know Jane Austen was delighting a new audience as well as Austen buffs like me.

Epilogue.
Between acts it finally dawned on me that I was seeing the result of a brilliant adaptation of Austen’s novel - no wonder the actors were so comfortable with it - and I should look at the program to find the name of the person who wrote it. And, oops, the past came back and hit me in the face. The adaptor: Jon Jory, founder of the Long Wharf Theater. To be certain it was the same person, I asked the House Manager after the performance, and he confirmed it. I only wished my husband were alive to know that Jon was still using his theatrical gifts to create great theater, even after all these years.

* * *

Thanks for viewing Grace's Mosaic Moments. Hope to see you again next week.

Writing Mistakes, Near-Misses & Just Plain Strange

2011-03-04T20:21:00.001-08:00

Sorry to be late posting, but AT&T messed things up, with all phone and Internet service out from early morning until I went off to Friday night soccer with the three grandchildren. I suspect it's because they're putting in concrete poles three times the size of the old wooden ones. Certifiably hurricane-proof. Sigh.

The following is a "confession" of sorts. Mistakes I've made which I hope may help others to avoid similar pitfalls.

* * *

I’ve always admired those who could juggle family, birthday parties, soccer, and PTA, and still find time to write. I made some efforts during my children’s growing years, but they were pretty pathetic. My mother, a highly successful children’s book author, told me, gently, that perhaps writing wasn’t for me. (It was a real thrill some years later when she changed her mind.) But, believe me, wisdom didn’t come easily. Below are some of the pitfalls I encountered.

Shooting Myself in the Foot.
There was a business downturn in the early ‘90s that prompted me to give up my costuming business and become a full-time caretaker for my husband, who had suffered a massive stroke. Retiring from the costume business also allowed me time for writing. At last. There were no author groups, particularly not romance groups, in my area, so I plunged in blind. And made Mistake Number One. The Sometime Bride came to 140,000 words. But these were the days when an author could still submit directly to almost any New York publishing house, so I blithely sent it off to Ballantine. Mistake Number Two: when I received a letter from a senior editor stating they were interested in Bride if only I’d make the heroine older, I stood on my high horse and responded that my heroine had to be that age. The book simply didn’t work otherwise.

It was the early days of e-books, and fortunately Starlight Writer Publications didn’t feel the heroine was too young. In August 2000, The Sometime Bride came out to reviews I still cherish. But later, after the demise of that early e-publisher, I found homes for other books, but not for Bride. Evidently, Editors have been so sensitized by the publicity on twenty-first century pedophilia that they wouldn’t take a chance on a heroine whose marriage age was not unusual for her time. Morals of both Mistakes: if a publisher asks you to make changes, even if you feel strongly about it, be open-minded. Try to work with it. Such a great opportunity may never come again. Also: modern sensibilities do affect historical novels, so think before you write. It’s easier to avoid writing something that might not play well with readers than give up a scene or two you absolutely love.

On another tack, you often hear editors say, “Write the book of your heart.” Well, that’s what I’ve always done, and I discovered the book of my heart often wasn’t the book of the editor’s heart. Some authors seem to have a natural feel for what romance readers want. I, on the contrary, tend to write what I want to write, and the “books of my heart” tend to be too long, too literary, too much story, not enough romance. Question: Do you want to please yourself, or do you want to make money? Some authors seem born to write romance; others of us have to work at it. Moral of this story: Steep yourself in romance: read, read, read. Get the feel of it, then try to come up with a new twist, if possible. Yet not too many new twists, because today’s readers don’t want to cope with overly complex situations, new words, etc. They’re often reading on the run, multi-tasking like mad, and don’t want to have to think too hard while being entertained.

A story to illustrate this last point: I recently won an RWA chapter contest with a Futuristic Paranormal. The editor-judge commented that I should make the various terms more clear. I thought they were glaringly obvious, but I forgot not everyone reads SF, watches SF movies, etc. The agent/judge said that he would have requested the book, except the niche market for this sub-genre was so small. Moral: If you want to be saleable, you need to appeal to a broad market.

Clueless.
Pleasing myself, as opposed to readers, brings up another writing problem, that old bugaboo, Point of View. Most of the novels I read over the years had multiple points of view. (No, not head-hopping from person to person, but points of view from more than the hero and heroine.) That’s probably why I ended up writing traditional Regencies for Signet, because the style of that sub-genre included multiple points of view. Which, I’m afraid, is among the reasons trads fell by the wayside, being dumped by both Signet and Zebra within a year of each other. But I had been writing that way for so long that it was almost impossible to adapt. But over the last year or two, when even e-publishers began demanding simpler POV, I had to force myself to stricter discipline. POV Advice: stick to the tried and true for both print- and e-publishers. Hero, heroine, and possibly a villain. Publishers’ sales figures are showing them what modern readers like, and in these difficult economic times, publishers have to be very careful to give readers what they want.

Another common problem: cross-genre. E-publishers deserve halos for giving cross-genre novels a home when the marketing departments of New York print publishers balked, wailing, “How are we going to tell the bookstores where to shelve it?” No problem with e-pubs. They simply list it under both genres. Moral here: just be aware of the problem.

Careless.
And now, my biggest near-disaster. I do a lot of research, and not just for my historical novels. But as I approached my fourth Regency for Signet, The Harem Bride, I must have gotten a bit cocky. I was writing about a girl visiting the British Embassy in Constantinople for an evening affair. She has a brief meeting with the ambassador, for whom I made up a name. Simple. Who could possibly know, or care, who was the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in 1803? But as I was editing that chapter, something nagged at me. Maybe I ought to check and see if the name of the ambassador was on record. I googled, “British Ambassador, Constantinople, early 19th c.” And page after page after page began to roll across my screen. The ambassador was Lord Elgin of Elgin Marble fame. That is how he was able to obtain a firman to “acquire” the friezes from the Acropolis. (Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire at that time.)

Needless to say, I not only choked and replaced my made-up name with Lord Elgin’s. I made him and his problems getting the government to buy his marbles part of the plot. The moral of this tale is obvious: check your facts. Take care with your research. Don’t end up with egg on your face.

Tripped Up by Fate.
I’ll end with the “just plain strange” portion of mistakes I have made. This comes under Circumstances That Can’t Be Helped, such as having publishers’ “lines” close on you. (It’s happened to me three times!) The following incident was worse. I tell it because it is so unusual and because it illustrates that sometimes bad things happen, even when we’ve done everything right.

A number of years ago, I was surprised to see a youngish Arab walking down my street in South Venice on Central Florida’s Gulf Coast. Over the course of a couple of weeks, I saw him twice. He was noticeable because he was truly “foreign,” not an American of Arab descent. And it was rare to see anyone walking down our street. We were a car, truck, motorcycle, bike community. There was also something special about him—a determined stride, a pulsing energy that was apparent even to someone passing by in a car. This was a man who walked with purpose. I remember wondering if he had escaped from a government safehouse, as ours was just the kind of sleepy, out-of-the-way community the FBI might use to hide someone.

I ended up making the man I’d seen the not-quite-villain of one of my books, and I came to like my fictional character well enough that I had my heroine help him get away at the end. And then came 9/11, and the FBI swarming our little town, shutting down two flight schools, confiscating all the library’s computers. Horrified, the town discovered that two of the 9/11 terrorists—one the coordinator, Muhammad Atta—had lived among us, training to fly at our airport. And, yes, they briefly lived on my street, before their host family threw them out for not respecting the wife of the household. And, yes, both times I saw my Arab, he was walking toward the airport. The aura that surrounded him was fanaticism, though of course none of us recognized it at the time.

I put my book away. I simply couldn’t face that I’d made an almost-good-guy out of one of the 9/11 terrorists. Maybe one day I’ll try to find a home for it, but . . .

I hope you begin to see how easy it is to go astray, sometimes because you haven’t been flexible enough, sometimes out of sheer ignorance, sometimes through carelessness, and sometimes through the machinations of Fate. Hopefully, one of the above tales will help you avoid a pitfall or two.

Thanks for stopping by Grace’s Mosaic Moments. Hope to see you here next week. And please remember comments and questions are always welcome.

Grace, who also writes as Blair Bancroft & Daryn Parke

And who, by the way, runs an editing service. If you’d like to know more about Best Foot Forward, please request a PDF brochure from editsbyBFF@aol.com.

England at 3mph, Part 2

2011-02-23T09:10:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Part 2 of my photo essay, “England at 3mph.” So far, I note, the comments here, and those I’ve received elsewhere, have all been in favor of travel at an early 19th c. pace. If you’re interested, Duke & Duchess are still offering tours. The owner/captain, David, sings opera during the winter and travels Britain’s canals in the summer. I traveled just one short portion of the route. Details for this summer can be found at: www.hotelboat-holidays.co.uk

We saw a remarkable number of thatched houses, including this farm. Evidently, the skill of thatching is still alive and well in England.

We spent several days negotiating a long series of locks that lowered our narrowboats to the level of land below the chalk hills. At the bottom we stopped to view the two steam boilers at Crofton that used to pump the water released by the locks back up to the top of the hill. They are now lovingly preserved as a museum, along with the huge pumps they powered.

When canals were Britain’s lifeline, transporting goods to all parts of the country, there were many inns providing food and a comfortable night’s rest. A few have survived and are undoubtedly even more picturesque than they were two or three hundred years ago.

To the right is a two-hundred year-old aqueduct over a valley and a train track. It is still solid enough to support the considerable weight of the canal that passes over it.

The top of the aqueduct.
Knowing we’d all want to take pictures, our narrowboats tied up long enough to let us walk back and take pictures of the remarkable aqueduct we’d just crossed.

My canal map revealed that we would be passing through Sydney Gardens just before reaching our mooring in Bath. I was particularly interested as I’d had my heroine in Lady Silence watch narrowboats pass by in Sydney Gardens. I tried to find this particular spot during the RWA’s BeauMonde chapter’s Regency Tour in 2003, but turned back because of the dance scheduled that night at the Bath Assembly Rooms. So the minute we were moored, back I went to Sydney Gardens, discovering I was only about fifteen feet from the canal when I gave up. I have since revised that section in Lady Silence to incorporate my updated knowledge about Sydney Gardens and narrowboats. For those who know her, that's Sally Roberts walking the towpath.

Interestingly, the Kennet & Avon canal comes into Bath about three-quarters of the way up the side of the steep-sided “bowl" Bath sits in, giving me an opportunity for this panoramic shot.
To the left, David, owner/captain of Duke & Duchess is in the rear, plus Vehan & Mikhail, our stalwart crew. Below, our very British passengers around the table we shared for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and cooked by David’s marvelous chef, his mother. At the head of the table, BeauMonde members who were on the Regency Tour in 2003 will recognize Sally Roberts, who was kind enough to join me for this very special adventure. On the first day of our trip, the 80-year-old gentleman on the left announced very loudly that he didn't like Americans! After that, he ignored me. By the way, he walked almost the entire trip on the tow path, helping with every lock. Amazing.

Don’t forget: if you’d like to know more about Britain’s canal system and details of this very special journey from Newbury to Bath, please see www.blairbancroft.com - Random Musings. Special Note: Duke & Duchess aren't just generic. They are named for the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, with a special signed dedication on the dining room wall to prove it.

Thanks for stopping by. At a later date, I plan to do a photo essay on what Sally and I did the week following our narrowboat adventure, including English gardens, ancient ruins at Avebury, a haunted Tudor mansion, a naughty falcon, and a magnificent Roman tile floor.

Next week, however, I’ll reveal some of the worst mistakes, or near mistakes, I’ve made as an author. So come on back.

England at 3mph

2011-02-11T21:42:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my very first Photo Fest! I've centered the canal scene above because I consider it the best photo I ever took. Time: Sunday morning, c. 8:00 a.m., along the Kennet & Avon canal in Newbury, England. A moment later, a swan swam past, disturbing the glassy surface.
Directly after returning from a week floating at 3mph along the K&A canal, and considerable effort from crew and passengers to traverse seventy-two locks in the process (!), I wrote a saga of the whole trip, which can be found on my website at www.blairbancroft.com. If you'd like to view more details about Britain's canals and this trip, in particular, please look under "Random Musings." Today's blog is mostly photos. Special note: these photos are scanned from traditional photos. My old "film" Nikon survived until December 2010, when I finally, reluctantly, went digital.

If you need to get anywhere in England, Scotland, or Wales, you have only to look at the train schedules. I was worried about getting from Gatwick to the small town of Newbury where my seven-day canal journey to Bath would begin. Big laugh. Trains ran almost every hour. Then a short taxi trip to the canal - so efficient, in fact, that I beat our Hotel Boats, Duke & Duchess, to their mooring.

This is how we traveled, one boat towing the other. The two boats coupled, side by side, however, to go through locks and for meals and overnight. Most of the cabins were on one boat, kitchen and dining on the other. We had to be nimblefooted enough to step from one to the other.

After a crew member uses a windlass to "unlock" the swing arm on each lock, the long board that opens the heavy wooden gates, is customarily swung open by "putting the bum to it" as the Brits say, a task usually performed by passengers instead of crew. As the gates swing open, the water begins to pour in, filling the lock.

As we left Newbury, we went "uphill" for some time. When we reached the top and started down the other side of the long climb, the narrowboat moved straight into the lock. Through a similar procedure to the above, the gate is closed behind it, then the front gate is opened to drain the water out and lower the boat. All openings and closings are manual. No handy-dandy electrical switches to magically move all those tons of water for you.

The scenery was consistently bucolic. Except for the moments when trains zipped by on tracks that frequently paralleled the canal, we had the feeling we were truly traveling as narrowboats did a hundred or more years ago. Well, we didn't have a horse on the towpath, of course, but we did pass a tourboat that was giving its genuine tow-horse a rest in the shade.

We ate five times a day, not counting the captain himself bringing coffee to our cabins at eight a.m. Meals were: Breakfast, elevenses, lunch, tea, and supper. The photo on the left shows how elevenses and tea arrived while the boats were moving. And keep in mind that Vehan (from the Netherlands) had to jump from one boat to the other before walking that 6" catwalk carrying a tray!

Grace note: Because of the difficulty of maneuvering all these photos into place - they insist on loading at the top of the page! - I'm going to continue the canal photo essay next Friday. This will include photos of crossing a ravine and railroad tracks on a 200-year-old aqueduct, a truly eye-popping experience.

I'd also appreciate your comments on this very unusual trip (at least by U.S. standards - all the other passengers were British). Who among you would enjoy the peace and quiet, and who would go stark, raving mad with seven days at 3mph?

If you're a peace and quiet fan and would like to know how to take a canal trip on Duke & Duchess, here's the website: http://www.hotelboat-holidays.co.uk/

See you next week.

An Inside Peek at the CIA & Postal Inspection Service

2011-02-11T07:10:00.000-08:00

This week's blog at Grace's Mosaic Moments is a continuation of my 2009 tour of the FBI, State Department, Postal Inspection Service, and the CIA, which was arranged by the Mystery/Suspense chapter of Romance Writers of America. Today: the Postal Inspection Service, the CIA, and a Summary of my impressions of all four government agencies.

The Postal Inspection Service
After we enjoyed an all-too-quick picnic lunch at the National Arboretum, our bus rumbled off to the regional headquarters of the Postal Inspection Service. This group describes itself as “The Silent Service.” After hearing all the things the Service does, I told them they should do more to blow their own horn. And they certainly tried while we were there—they even told us, rather wistfully, that they’d be really happy to have us write about them!

Yes, they carry guns. Yes, they investigate weapons, drugs, and bombs being sent through the mails. And any other dangerous substances. Yes, they have portable X-ray units, Geiger counters, hazmat suits, etc. They also have vans set up as portable labs that can be driven to suspected mail crime scenes. In other words, they are constantly vigilant over what enters our households or businesses.

One of our speakers was the agent in charge of investigating the anthrax letters. Since the suspect has been caught only recently and is awaiting trial, the agent couldn’t give us details, but he did show slides of two quite different types of anthrax that were used. When I asked if they had developed a theory about why the samples were so different, his answer was, “Yes.” Big pause. We all laughed. Finally, after he thought over what he could tell us, he finally gave us a vague sort of explanation of why the two samples were so very different.

They also spoke to us about mail fraud through the years (scams conducted through the mail) and about identity theft. And they provided us with several DVDs outlining individual Postal Inspection Service cases.

Oddly enough, while we there, a mail carrier van was attacked and several agents had to rush out. They did not tell us the why of the attack—they probably didn’t know yet. We saw the van right outside headquarters as we drove out.

The Postal Inspection Service is yet another example of people dedicated to protect and serve. People who really care about what they were doing and feel good about their role in protecting the public. I think most of us began to realize for the first time that we may not have much personal contact with the FBI, the CIA, or the State Department, but mail comes to us six days a week. The role of the Postal Inspector in protecting us on a daily basis is a constant effort of which we should be more aware and more appreciative.

The CIA
Having the CIA willing to share itself with fifty mystery/suspense authors was, in itself, mind-boggling. I should say, by the way, that the Kiss of Death chapter of RWA went to a great deal of trouble to prepare gift bags of books for every single person involved in all four tours - from the PR people who arranged our tours to all the various speakers.

Although all of us had been pre-screened, we had to get out of the bus at the guardhouse and be checked in, person by person, and given personalized visitor badges. Then back in the bus for a drive through the CIA’s wooded grounds to the original building, site of the famous circular floor emblem. Since no cameras are allowed, of course, an official picture of the group (in two sections) was taken with us lined up behind the emblem. (I, naturally, chose a bright white smock top that day and stand out from the crowd like a whale in a group of guppies.) Interesting note: at all times, not only did we have to stick close to our group leaders, but two guards traveled with us, watching our every move. No wandering! (The FBI settled for one leader for each group and a mild warning about not wandering off.)

We were shown the CIA memorial wall and the stars in the memorial book, where only a few names are included, since most CIA officers remain as anonymous in death as they were in life. We walked through the CIA museum, which is housed in their broad corridors, as there is no dedicated museum space. There was an almost infinite array of spy gadgets, from ladies’ jewelry and tieclip cameras to a single-shot lipstick gun. We saw an image of Washington, D.C., imbedded in that floor and were asked to figure out the time of day, the time of year, the day of the week, and some other question my mind isn’t resurrecting. I was impressed by how quickly some of our members managed it. Time of day from the shadows, time of year from the trees, day of the week from lack of traffic.

We had a briefing which included the four Directorates of the CIA - case officers, the front line in foreign countries; analysts, formerly in Langley, but now often posted overseas so they can get the feel of the places whose information they are analyzing; the techies, whom are speaker explained as the “Qs” of the CIA; and the support directorate that makes life run smoothly at Langley. Also included were many, many questions. Our group leader, for example, had been an analyst for many years, then decided to switch to public information to get a broader outlook on how the CIA operated. (Also, I suspect, after she did a tour in Iraq!) So, naturally, she was bombarded with questions. She admitted she loves the agency so much she comes out to Langley on weekends to run on the track that surrounds the complex. One of the PR girls with our group had been a dancer, but a cousin was killed in 9/11 and she felt she had to do her bit to contribute. So now she’s conducting tours at the CIA.

Speaking of the CIA complex, it’s immense, and all hidden in the woods. The fence around it is electrified. We were only in the original building, the one that houses the VIPs on the top floor (the 7th), but there are several newer, more modern buildings, and other lesser outbuildings. For lunch we were turned loose in the CIA cafeteria, which has stations offering almost every kind of food imaginable. But if you don’t like any of those, there’s a Subway and a Starbucks.

A CIA officer was assigned to every lunch table occupied by our group. They were representatives of the different directorates, and we were allowed to ask questions. One of the interesting things that came out is that the CIA has many family groups. Since they can’t talk to outsiders about their work, it’s quite common for CIA employees to marry each other (same rules as the State Department), and not uncommon for their children to work for the agency also. You might call it a “family” business. When asked by outsiders what they do, the standard answer is, “I work for the federal government.”

One absolute no-no for writers: be sure you understand that case officers may only recruit foreign nationals. They do not recruit Americans. Can they socialize with foreigners? Yes, but if it’s more than seeing someone once or twice, they must report it so the person can be checked out. (The same rule applies to the FBI and State Department.)

To end our tour on a lighter note, we were allowed to shop in the CIA gift shop. Yes, they actually have one. I have kept my shopping bag that proclaims “CIA” in large letters. The greatest irony, however, is that the gift shop sells the most beautiful, and expensive, matrioshka dolls (“mama” dolls, aka wooden nesting dolls), all of them Made in Russia!

Looking back, we were left with the impression of an absolutely enormous organization, where people work because they are devoted to what they do. For example, there are actually three employees left from the OSS, the precursor of the CIA which functioned during World War II. We saw one of them in the hallway, and he appeared to be about ninety, his back bent nearly double as he hobbled down the hall. But he was still there, still doing his job. Amazing.

Summary
Over the past two blogs, I have merely skimmed the highlights of these four dedicated agencies. So often in the news we hear only about their failures, or in the case of the Postal Inspection Service, we don’t hear about them at all. Perhaps we see headlines about a local FBI raid (ho-hum, just another federal fraud case), or note that Hilary Clinton is off on yet another visit to a foreign country. After a terrorist attack, we hear the CIA failed to communicate, etc. But they’re all out there, every day, doing their best, for far less money than they could make in the private sector. Who arranged for airplanes to get Americans out of Egypt just recently? You got it—the State Department. Who is constantly vigilant to protect you from everything but junk mail? That’s right—the Postal Inspection Service. And did you know the FBI handles all investigations involving Americans, even if the incident locations are Iraq, Somalia, or Mumbai? I once asked an FBI agent about that. (He’d been in charge of the investigation of the first World Trade Center bombing a number of years ago.) His answer: The CIA are spies. The FBI has the training and equipment to investigate.

And the CIA? I was overwhelmed by the love of country and love of the job I witnessed while there. And of course the atmosphere sparkled with a high level of intelligence. All in all, a truly mind-boggling experience.

So next time you hear someone grouse about their taxes or someone badmouth these four federal organizations - the FBI, the State Department, the Postal Service, or the CIA - stop and think where we’d be without them. Are all their employees as dedicated as the ones we saw? Of course not, but I’d bet the great majority are. They could earn more almost anywhere else, but there they are, working for us, dedicated to Protect and Serve. I consider my visits to these four agencies one of the highlights of my life, something any American should truly appreciate, and not just as a writer looking for background for his/her books.

*******

Thanks for stopping by. Next week: A Week at 3 mph - my travels on Britain's canal system

Grace, aka Blair & Daryn www.blairbancroft.com & www.darynparke.com

An Inside Peek at the FBI & State Department

2011-02-05T07:09:00.000-08:00

Right after I returned from the RWA Conference in Washington, D.C., in July 2009, I wrote a guest blog for Terry’s Place that included all four federal agencies we toured, thanks to arrangements made by RWA’s Mystery/Suspense chapter, Kiss of Death. The four agencies were the FBI at Quantico, the State Department, the U. S. Postal Inspection Service, and the CIA at Langley. Today I’m going to share with you the FBI and State Department tours, saving the Postal Inspection Service and the CIA for next week. These tours were one of the great experiences of my life. I came away completely awed by the opportunity to glimpses behind the scenes of these four powerhouse federal agencies. I’m glad to be able to share a bit of that here.

* * *

The FBI
As our bus drove toward the FBI Academy at Quantico at the ghastly hour of 6:00 AM, I could only imagine the smirks on feds’ faces as a group of fifty romance writers climbed down from the bus. Yes, we were mystery/suspense writers, but . . . Instead, we were treated like royalty from the moment we left the bus until we dragged ourselves back on at after five that afternoon. Among the highlights: a visit to Hogan’s Alley, a complete small town set up in the Virginia woods, which has everything from a movie theater and stores to apartment buildings, warehouses, and trailers (manufactured homes). All built with help from Hollywood scenery makers. When crime started moving into suburbia, they added two classic single-family homes. While we were in Hogan’s Alley we witnessed a highly authentic-looking chase scene and shoot-out and a street stop that almost went wrong. These scenarios are part of recruit training, and the bad guys are played by volunteers, many of whom have been doing it for years.
We then went to the shooting range (there are several ranges with giant berms between them). (Behind the berms on both sides trainees were shooting shotguns - the noise was incredible.) Four tables had been laid out - one each for handguns, shotguns, tommy guns, and HK MP-5s. We were allowed to go from table to table, shooting whatever we liked (with lots of help from the instructors at each table!) I was quite good with the Glock, caught the target in the shoulder with the shotgun, but not so good with the rifle as I’m unable to close my left eye by itself. Frankly, I didn’t try the tommy gun, but the girls who did said it was very heavy. The next day, I had a slight shoulder bruise from the shotgun, and I had to pick gunshot residue out of two places on my arms. Wow!

After lunch several agents spoke with us about their experiences. One had been undercover for most of eighteen years of service, mostly as a Mafia soldier since he had the correct ethnic background. He had us in hysterics when he described how he’d resurrected his character (at his wife’s urging) when they found a long line for some event they wanted to attend in Vegas. The Mafia attitude, a flash of money, a bit of name dropping, and they were ushered straight in. Naturally, he also told us about some of his most harrowing take-downs when they were in as much danger from the local police as they were from the bad guys.

The most striking experience, however, was that of the agent who was the sole interrogator of Saddam Hussein for eight months. He described the “soft” methods he used, the dependency he built up as Saddam’s only contact with the outside world. This relatively young agent also, in a suitably deprecating manner, explained how he was chosen for this amazing role. As he put it, there might be 12,000 FBI agents, but only 12 were native Arabic speakers. (He came here from Lebanon when he was twelve.) He’d also had ten years’ experience as a homicide detective and, hence, a good deal of experience as an interrogator. He did not apply for this Number One interrogation. He simply got a phone call telling him he’d been chosen.

Saddam eventually talked a great deal. When one girl in our group asked, “Didn’t he know why you were there?” the agent responded that he must have, but Saddam’s need to communicate his side as a “legacy” - plus, of course, his need as a human to communicate with the only person available - led him to speak. When the agent was asked how he avoided identifying with Saddam, he said he only had to remember how the dictator poison-gassed his own people.

Among the small bits of info - the FBI agent mentioned that he shared cookies sent by his mother with Saddam, and that his mother was angry about it when she found out. On the last day of interrogation, he brought in Cuban cigars and he and Saddam sat outside and smoked and drank coffee. Saddam cried when he left.

The FBI agent then spent several more months writing the prosecution’s case against Saddam (at the request of the Iraqi government). We all know how that turned out. No doubt why the agent is now a showpiece on FBI tours.

A marvelous contrast to end our day: as we walked down a glass-sided hallway toward yet another part of the building, we saw two deer happily grazing across the road from the gun ranges (which had obviously gone silent in the late afternoon). I doubt anyone on our tour will ever again be able to refer to an FBI Special Agent as a Feeb. Yes, they probably set out to dazzle us, and they surely succeeded.

The State Department
After our experiences with the FBI, I think most of us figured the State Department would be pretty tame. Far from it. To start with, they must not have checked us out ahead of time as the FBI and CIA did. There were one hundred of us on this tour, and we had to go through airport-style security checks, through just one station. (We’d been warned to allow enough time for security, which wasn’t a burden as a 8:00 AM start was infinitely better than 6:00 AM the day before!) We were then ushered downstairs to an auditorium they use for general meetings, many with foreign diplomats. It was set up with the glass-fronted translation booths in back and built-in speakers at each seat. The speakers arranged for us were not only interesting but spoke with both great sincerity and humor. And seemed delighted to be addressing a group of female authors. Like the FBI speakers, they urged us to interrupt with questions at any time - which our group certainly did.

Our male speaker described how his family had been evacuated under fire three times during their years in Africa. The first time he was out of town while his wife threw herself over their nine-month-old baby while gunfire ripped through their kitchen. He described the various alert levels, how warnings go out to families, etc. It is all right for both husband and wife to work for an embassy as long as they are in different departments; i.e., one is not the boss of the other. Why did he do it? Because he was serving his country. This is the attitude we saw everywhere - FBI, State, Postal, CIA. These people were here, as opposed to the private sector where they could get more money, because they wanted to be. Because they felt they were doing something that mattered.

Our female speaker, a career diplomat now high up in the consular service, started by saying she loved our kind of books. Now there’s a way to warm up a crowd! She explained her portion of the State Department as the people whose sole job is to help Americans in trouble abroad. For example, they help those who have been robbed. They replace passports, contact relatives, even give out small loans if no relatives or friends can be found to help out. In one case where a young man had his car and all personal items stolen when he was wearing nothing but a bathing suit, they even found him interim clothes. And our speaker actually teared up when describing what they’d gone through to identify a skeleton found on a Scottish mountainside and finally track down a long-lost relative. And if you’re traveling in a country known to be dangerous, you should register with the embassy. They can’t evacuate you if they don’t know you’re there!
Needless to say, both speakers were constantly interrupted by questions, to which they gave patient and excellent answers. I believe I can say that we all came away with a much greater understanding and respect for the State Department.

* * *

Thanks for stopping by. Please come back next week for an overview of the Postal Inspection Service and the CIA.

Guideposts for Critiquing

2011-01-28T06:15:00.000-08:00

WELCOME to Grace's Mosaic Moments.

Today's blog is aimed at authors and their colleagues, friends, and family who help them put a book together. If you write, judge writing contests, or are part of a critique group, I hope you'll find the following helpful. These notes are created from ten years of judging c. 400 RWA chapter contest entries, with an assist from many years as a RITA judge, and twenty years struggling with my own work. The intent: help you edit your own work, make you a better contest judge, make you a better critique partner. (For non-RWA members reading this post, RWA is Romance Writers of America and the RITA is their annual "Oscar" award.)

GUIDEPOSTS FOR CRITIQUING

1. Always find something good to say.

2. Encourage author to develop his/her own voice (i.e., don’t try to superimpose your own).

3. Yes, grammar, punctuation & spelling count*. That doesn’t mean a fiction author has to use schoolroom English. Fragments, vernacular, natural dialog are all good. Keep in mind that romance pretty much ignores the academic semi-colon & colon. Most editors were English majors. Do you want them to be blown away by your book or wincing over your mistakes?

4a. Nix on Storyteller mode. This is that old bugaboo, Show v. Tell. I’ve seen a lot of contest entries where the author uses “storyteller” style to present their story. This is, in fact, the opposite of what romance readers want. They do not want someone sitting on the outside telling them a story. They want the author to show them the story through the eyes of the hero and heroine. They want to see what they see, hear what they hear, feel what they feel. They do NOT want to be told about it. They want to experience it.

4b. More on “Show v. Tell.” It is harder to “show” than to “tell.” It takes more effort, more words.

4c. BUT do not be afraid of “was” & “were.” These words have been raised as such warning flags for “Tell” that some authors are terrified to use them at all. “Was” and “Were” are perfectly legitimate words. Yes, if an author has used a lot of them, he/she should probably see if they can find a more interesting way to say those sentences, but if not, it’s not the end of the world. Many multi-published authors use these words all the time. So do not be a lazy judge and criticize an author for “was,” “were,” or any other so-called “Tell” buzzwords. Be more intelligent than that. Judge the writing on whether it is Active instead of Passive, not on the kind of words the author used.

5. Did the author put all the backstory in the synopsis and forget to put it in the book? Always remember that only an editor or agent sees your synopsis. Everything you want the reader to know must be on the pages of the book itself.

6. Character introduction. Identify, identify. Not just the hero and heroine, but all secondary characters (with the possible exception of the second footman) need some sort of ID. Some physical description plus background information. Who is this person, what does he/she do? I so often see manuscripts that read: “Mary said” or “Lord Exmouth said,” and the reader hasn’t the slightest concept of who these people are. Without identification, characters become that fiction horror, “talking heads.”

7. Set-up. In a similar fashion, enough background must be given to make action in the story believable, whether it be a simple quarrel or a big plot-changing moment. Books where the hero or heroine are worried about some possible event that has never been described or explained sets readers’ teeth on edge. Example of no set-up: heroine is anguishing over some scandal involving herself, but at no time (over maybe 25 pages) does the heroine let the reader know what that scandal is. Always remember that readers need to understand what is going on. Save mysterious circumstances for a mystery or suspense plot.

An example of good set-up: leading up to an act of heroism, hints are given that the hero or heroine fears heights or water, etc. Then, when he/she rescues someone from a great height or in water, the heroic act is that much stronger.

8. Point of View. Just when I thought publishers were getting away from the old Hero, Heroine & maybe the Villain POV, conservatism is rearing its ugly head again. Simplicity seems to be the name of the game. Ten years ago, e-publishers were taking chances, publishing the mainstream-style books New York wouldn’t accept from beginners. But in these hard economic times e-publishers have also cut back to bare bones - 2 POVs preferred, up to four if it’s absolutely necessary, for the simple reason that one-on-one stories without the distraction of multiple POVs sell best. So any unpubbed author should be very careful about inserting too many POVs.

9. Are the hero and the heroine hostile for no apparent reason? A negative for both of them. Always counsel an author that this kind of thing is not “conflict.” Conflict is much greater than simple bickering. It’s perfectly all right for a couple to disagree if there’s ample reason, even better if it adds a touch of humor or true drama to the story. But don’t let the h/h come across as rude and/or negative. Readers want to empathize with them, root for them, love them. They can’t do that if the two of them are acting like naughty children for no justifiable reason.

10. Justify, justify, justify. (In case you missed the point in #7). You can get away with almost anything if you can explain to your readers how such an incident or behavior came about. Romance plots are frequently “over the top.” It’s up to the author to find a way to make them plausible. You can’t just write an outrageous action scene or situation and say to your readers, “Here it is, take it or leave it.”

11. Setting. Has the author included enough setting to add color to each scene. Or has the author wimped out, using nothing but dialogue because it’s easier? Is the author’s story told against a rich background like a work by a famous artist? Or is the author’s story told against a blank canvas? Is it set in nothing more than an unidentified room - the reader doesn’t know if it’s in the city or the country, the US, Europe, or China. Is it a single-family home? A condo? A gated community or the ghetto? It doesn’t take a lot to make a setting come to life, but the story is dead without it.

12. Does the author have too many characters in the opening scenes? I’ve seen many a contest entry ruined by including so many characters that the hero and heroine were totally overshadowed.

13. Plot. You may wonder why I’ve put plot last. Frankly, it’s because you can get away with almost anything if you take the time to justify it; i.e., give good reasons why this plot twist might be possible. Or so I thought until I read a couple of books recently that had me shaking my head. Yes, there’s a limit to reader credulity. Try not to stretch it too far. If you’re dealing with fairies or wizards, then waving a magic wand and having something totally incredible happen is okay, but otherwise, be careful you don’t strain readers’ “suspended disbelief” too far. As in #10 above, justify, justify, justify!

13. If you think an author could benefit from reading a book that’s helped you, or one you know helped others, then by all means recommend it.

14. Find something nice to say. Again!

*I recently ran across a new book on Grammar & Punctuation that might be helpful. The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation by Jane Straus.

~ * ~

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you'll be back again next Friday.

How Not to Drive the Grandchildren, Part 2

2011-01-21T07:33:00.000-08:00

How Not to Drive the Grandchildren Home from the Singing Christmas Trees

Part 2

At the end of Part 1, you may recall, all seemed to be well. The three little girls and I had finally arrived home (one hour after leaving the church). We ate supper and were watching a movie when . . .

Mommy turned her phone back on and called to say that the concert was running longer than expected and could I please take the children home and put them to bed. I was still nerve-wracked to the bone, but food had helped, so I only twinged slightly at the thought of putting the girls back in the car and driving three blocks.

I loaded everyone back into the SUV and arrived at their gated community a few minutes later. I reached for the gate clicker I assumed was on the visor, and . . . oh-oh. No, the girls didn’t know where mama stashed the clicker, but they assured me I could punch in a code. Alas, I had to tell them that the code only worked until six p.m. After that, you have to have a clicker or someone has to be at the house to buzz you in. ( I recalled one memorable evening when my son-in-law climbed the gate, all eight feet of it, at 1:00 a.m.)

“We can go in your car, Gramma,” said the girls. So we turned around and headed back to my house. But as I headed back toward my house, it occurred to me that if I drove my car, we wouldn’t have the built-in garage-door opener on the SUV. Without which I’d need a key to my daughter’s house. And it seems that I no sooner have a key made than my daughter sends someone to borrow it. So if I drove the girls’ home in my car, we could get through the gate but might not be able to get into the house.

Believe me, at this point if I hadn’t already decided I had a few thousands words to say to my daughter when she got home, this would have been the final straw.

We pulled into my driveway and the 6-year-old said, “Gramma, why don’t you get the clicker from your car?” I sat there behind the wheel and gaped. Out of the mouths of babes! I told the girls to stay put, went back into my house, pulled the gate clicker off my visor, and back we went to my daughter’s house. Didn’t use the garage opener, after all, as the 7-year-old was gung-ho to try every key on my ring to see if she could open the front door. Which she did while the rest of us stayed in the car and watched.

She yelled for us to come in, and then proceeded to turn on the Christmas tree and the many other Christmas lights throughout the house so I could see them. Special moment after all we’d been through.

When my daughter and her husband finally got home, the girls were in bed, their halos still shiny, and I laid out the whole tale, woe by woe. My daughter looked at me and said, “Oh, I’ve been using the hand brake because the car keeps getting stuck in Park.” Not that she’d told me that any more than she mentioned there was no gas. I had, of course, been putting the car in Park all night. Sigh.

I’m not sure I’m going to the Singing Trees next year. The memories of 2010 may haunt me forever.

Grace Note: Next time a post on writing or travel. I'm hoping to post on Tuesdays and Fridays, if I can manage it. So come on back! And thanks for stopping by.

2011-01-19T07:48:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my very first blog! Can’t believe I’m actually doing this.

Why the reluctance to blog? Simple. I’ve always been jealous of my time as an author. Put me in front of a computer and I just want to write fiction. Romance and mystery, where I have the fun of getting up each morning and saying, “Wow! I wonder what’s going to happen today.” As you can guess from that, I’m an “out of the mist” author. If I created a 10-20 page synopsis ahead of time, I’d know what was going to happen and be too bored to actually sit there and write the book.

But at the end of 2010, I decided to take a hiatus from writing new books, draw a deep breath, and look around at some of the huge changes in publishing—foremost, Amazon’s Kindle, which sparked Barnes & Noble’s Nook. So along with beginning to adapt some of my backlist for Kindle and Nook, I’m joining the modern world with Grace’s Mosaic Moments, a blog dedicated to writing, publishing, travel, significant events, little nothings, family, friends, fun, and speculating about anything and everything. “Mosaic” allows me to cover topics from Why Read Romance to my visit to the CIA, to my adventurous trip home from the Singing Christmas Trees with my three grandchildren.

I hope you’ll stop by frequently and offer comments.

Today, I’d like to inaugurate Grace’s Mosaic Moments with a true story from December 2010. I dedicate it to all grandmothers and mothers who have ever found themselves and their young ones in ridiculous situations that just shouldn’t have happened. But did. The title of this very true tale:

How Not to Drive Your Grandchildren Home from the Singing Christmas Trees

My daughter is a blonde. She is also CEO of a Real Estate Investment company. This does not mean she does not have blonde moments.

Each Christmas my daughter and her husband take the extended family (about fifteen relatives and employees) to First Baptist Orlando’s Singing Christmas Trees, a truly superb presentation in a church that seats about 5000. This year, my son-in-law also bought tickets on the same night for a concert in downtown Orlando. So it was arranged that I would drive their three girls, ages 4, 6 & 7, home. Sounds simple, right? I even had help from others in the group to get all three little ones into my daughter’s SUV through the crush of 5000 people attempting to leave at the same time. So far, so good.

By the time the girls were settled into their seat belts, there weren’t many cars left in the lot. I buckled up, started the engine . . . and the car didn’t move. I tried again. No movement. My daughter had set the hand brake in flat-as-a-pancake Florida? I looked where the hand brake is on my car. Nothing. I looked where the brake was on my old car. Nothing. It was, by the way, nearly pitch black in the parking lot. The 7-year-old put on the overhead light for me, but I still couldn’t see any hand brake.

I got out of the car and called to the one couple still walking toward their car. They kindly came over, but they too could not find the hand brake. By this time people were getting into the car in front of me. We had a five-way consultation, the two couples and I, and the husband of the new couple gave it a try. Took him about ten seconds, while the rest of us stood by, red-faced. I like to think he was more familiar with Hyundai SUVs than I was. With profuse thanks to all, I climbed in. At last we could go home.

Figuring the couple who had been parked in front of me knew the way out better than I did, I followed them. Which took us out a different way than we’d come in. (Oops.) No problem, just turn right and right and . . . except in all the traffic I ended up in a Left Turn Only lane. (Double oops.) After two or three blocks I figured I’d better make another right and right and hopefully end up on the road I should have been on in the first place. Except . . .

We were instantly in a residential area, and that’s when I had time to glance at the dashboard and notice the Gas Light was on. Houses, houses everywhere, and not a sign of a thoroughfare with a gas station. And at that dire point, the 7-year-old said, “Gramma, do you know where we are?”

Uh, no. But of course I didn’t say so. I just kept doubling back until I saw—oh, joy—a stoplight. And at the intersection, a GAS STATION. Before pulling up to the pump, I tried calling both my daughter and my son-in-law. I was not happy! Lucky them, their phones were off. They were enjoying their concert at the new Amway Arena.

The children, fortunately, knew which side the gas tank was on, so we managed to pull up with the pump on the correct side. I popped out, stuck in my credit card, and the silly machine wanted to know if it was a debit card. When I said no, it cancelled the transaction. I tried again. Same result. To say my blood pressure was soaring would be putting it mildly. There I was with three small children in the car, and I had to go INSIDE. Fortunately, we were right in front of the door. I told the children to stay put and dashed inside, where the attendant managed the transaction while I kept looking out the glass door.

Put ten dollars worth of gas in my daughter’s car and headed out, the children completely angelic or I might have lost myself along with the car. We did a couple more turns, looking for lots of lights signaling a major road. And there it was. Kirkman, the road that runs past Universal Studios. I was so turned around by this time that I simply chose a direction, knowing either north or south would lead me to a major east-west road that would take us home. And, sure enough, in less than a mile there it was, the 408, Orlando’s East-West Expressway. Yay, hurray!

But, no, this isn’t the end of the story. The night’s “annoyances” will be continued in my next post on Friday, January 21, 2011.