Year of Wonders

Years of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks is my choice for review for a challenge WINK undertook.  And not just because I like her last name.  The title captivated me because it is a story about the plague.  How could a story about the black death sweeping the countryside be considered a 'wonder'?

There are two main things that made this book interesting.  One was the heroine - a woman who watches the disease that took so many of her loved ones and survived (I would have hopped in bed and never moved out of it).  The other was that the setting is based on a true story.  Eyam is a real town and in 1666 they quarantined themselves so as to keep the plague in their village alone - thinking they would be saving lives.

Geraldine Brooks includes lots of characters and the subject isn't 'light' but it is well worth reading.  And while I won't be reading it again in a hurry - I will be keeping it on my bookshelf and recommending it to anyone and everyone.  It will move you.  That's a guarantee!


This review is part of Wink Girl’s commitment to the 2012 Australian Women Writers Challenge. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Australian-Women-Writers/176862202396763
http://www.australianwomenwriters.com/p/australian-women-writers-book-challenge_25.html

Whose side are you on?

Stories need conflict because the characters need to react to something that's happening to them. The conflict can be external or internal. The five major conflicts in writing have been identified as:

• Character against another character
• Character against nature
• Character against society
• Character against self
• Character against fate

But the real reason conflict works is because of the relationship the reader forms with the character. A reader takes sides and wants the character they empathise with to overcome all obstacles and find happiness.

I've Sold!!

Yes it's very exciting in my household at the moment.  The kids think I've gone loopy but what can I say.  I'VE SOLD A BOOK!!  I'm going to be published by Crimson Romance.

I don't have an approved title yet, just a working one "New Year's Eve Masquerade" and I don't have a release date.

When I know trust me, you'll know too!!

Details of the actual process to getting this story sold is right here Nicole Flockton

Safety tips for Winter Solstice

If you live in the southern hemisphere tonight is the night goblins get to escape the Shadowlands and roam the southern part of the earth. There’ll be unsettled weather, odd noises and possibly some damage around the place. If you live in the northern hemisphere you have another 6 months to wait.

Here are some tips for staying safe this solstice:

1-Stay inside after dark. Goblins love to snatch up women and drag them back to the Shadowlands.

2-Leave a gold colored trinket or coin on the lawn. They’ll take the gold and ride on. Do not put it on a window sill in the hope of getting to see them up close. I can’t stress this enough point enough.

3-If you do get caught by the horde empty your purse and hope they drop you to go after the small change. Goblins love gold and can’t tell the difference between gold colored things and real gold until it’s too late. 

4-After gold goblins love battle so it’s probably not a good idea to try and catch one unless you are skilled with a sword/knife/spear and have a man sized cage handy.

5-Finally do what sensible people have been doing for centuries: ignore anything weird that happens. Don’t investigate that odd sound, and don’t be tempted to peek out the window. In the morning we can all talk about the neighbor’s unruly kids, the storm or whatever tale you want to tell yourself because goblins don’t exist, right?

Add some more heat!

When writing for Ellora’s Cave there is a certain heat level required. The stories are sexy and full of explicit language—which I’m not going to elaborate on in this blog but you can use your imagination :).

This doesn’t mean pages and pages of thrusting—that gets boring pretty quickly. What I’ve learned is that for every action in those scenes there is a reaction both physical and sometimes emotional. A touch, a kiss, a taste, a gasp, a sigh...all have to reveal a little bit more about character. If the sex scene can be skipped over, it’s missing something and shouldn’t be there.

I used to worry about who would read those scenes (OMG my sister…eh, she reads all my stories anyway and tell me which bits suck) er, the guys at work—yep that’s happened. I think they were more embarrassed than me. My husband, we have a rule that he’s allowed to help with research but not read over my shoulder while I’m working. 

Somewhere along my writing journey I stopped worrying about what my friends and family or even co-workers would think about my writing. If I want to write super sexy stuff, I will because it’s fun. Just don’t let what other people might say put you off. Quite often we are are own harshest critic. 

I dare you to add a dash more heat. Let the heroine rip of the hero’s shirt and have her way with him. After all, you can always hit delete and pretend it never happened…unless of course you develop a taste for stories on the spicier side.

Ahh Conflict

Conflict is what drives your story. Conflict between your characters emotions, beliefs and sometimes work situation. Sometimes it's bloody tough to get it and other times it's so easy you wonder why you stress about it.

One of the main questions of conflict is what is keeping them apart? If they are stuck on a desert island why wouldn't they be together?  Seriously if you can't answer one or both of those questions, then your conflict needs some work.

I'll admit I'm a pantser and sometimes if you don't quite know exactly where you're going or what is going to happen then conflict is definitely missing.  It's something I really need to work on, before I start the story - the conflict of the characters that will drive the story.

I recently found that in a story I was working on. I had absolutely NO REASON to keep these two apart and for the life of me I couldn't think of something strong or original enough to make these characters fight for each other.

So I decided to change the occupation of the hero, and to some certain extent the heroine, to put them in closer proximity of each other.  Wow what difference that made, ideas blossomed on how I could make them clash and make them fight for each other.

Sometimes all it takes is a little tweak or change and voila your story unfolds.

What do you do if you find your conflict isn't strong enough?