Coffee Time Romance Award

 

Coffee Time Reviewer's Recommend

I had great news today. Coffee Time Romance just awarded my novel, Beyond the Quiet, with a Reviewer’s Recommend Award.

http://coffeetimeromance.com/CoffeeThoughts/

I’m honored and thrilled. Thank you, Matilda, and thank you, Coffee Time Romance.  

Internet Radio Show

Well, it finally happened. The day my radio radio was to air finally arrived. I was going to play it cool and wait until the next morning to listen, but as soon as it was available just before midnight my time, I anxiously went to the website, not sure what I’d find.

And there it was! A small snapshot of me and of my latest release, Beyond the Quiet, a novel about a repressed widow learning to live.

I didn’t have to click on anything; the show automatically began. I was almost as apprehensive as the day I actually did the show, my first. How would I sound? After the interview, I had no memory of the questions the host, Don McCauley, asked, so I’ve been a bit nervous about listening. Was there a way to stop it if I sounded ridiculous?

But I listened, then listened again. Of course I wished I’d said many things. For instance, I wished I’d mentioned the basic – my website –  with writers’ tips, book information, excerpts, and links to short stories, but all in all, it wasn’t too bad.

click here to listen

click here for my website

Fifteen Minute Radio Surprise

Thursday, September 10, 2009, is the big day: my broadcast on Don McCauley’s radio program, The Authors Show. For those of us on the West Coast, it begins Wednesday the 9th of September at 9pm. (PST)

I’m eager to listen, yet anxious at the same time. I have no memory of what Don said or asked, much less what my answers were. We chatted briefly before the show went live, and I remember thinking it wasn’t so bad, but when he told me to hang on, that he was going to introduce me, everything changed in a heartbeat. I heard his professional voice announce me and my mouth went dry. My heart pounded frantically, and I hoped I’d be able to articulate words rather than squeak. I hoped I’d remember my own name. Thank God it wasn’t a TV show. I’m sure I would’ve stopped production with my glassy deer-in-the-headlights stare.

But Don is a professional and knew how to draw me out. At least I talked. About what, I have no idea, because when the program was over, I remember thinking I hadn’t talked much about my book, didn’t give my website, and I don’t think I even told the listeners where to buy my book. I only remember Don’s surprise when I mentioned I loved doing revisions. That’s the only thing from the fifteen minutes I do remember, so the broadcast will be a surprise to me as well as to those of you who listen.

I only hope it’s a good surprise.  

click here to listen to The Authors Show

Call-Screening for PBS Show

Roger Bowman, KVCR host.

It was one of those days.

My son, Roger Bowman, hosts a weekly TV show, ‘It’s Your Call,’ about the mortgage crisis in Southern California on KVCR, a local PBS station. Since it’s a live show with experts in the field who answer viewer call-in questions, they have a call-screener who takes questions from callers and relays them to the producer and host.

Last Friday the screener became ill and I was asked if I were available to take the calls. Was I ever! When I arrived, Roger took me around the studio and I saw the set, the cameras, and the control room. What an exciting time, and everyone was so gracious to me, the newbie, from the producer, Janine Porter, the director, Gil Guizar, to everyone I spoke to that night.

No wonder they’ve won awards.

I may return to take calls during the show’s duration, and if you live in Southern CA and have mortgage crisis questions, I may talk to you. Don’t be concerned; it’s on a first-name basis only.

Tune in to this informative show with featured guests each week with topics such as:

* Loan Modification Opportunities

* Short Sales – What are they, and do I owe after home has been sold?

* Foreclosure Avoidance

* Foreclosure Impact

* Predatory Lending

* Renter’s Rights

* Can I buy a home again after a foreclosure?

Remember, It’s Your Call. Airs: Fridays at 7pm on KVCR. (pst)

KVCR

http://www.socalmortgagecrisis.com/

BACKSTORY: Relevant Information or an Inconsequential Event?

When we begin a new novel, we need to intimately know our characters. We must know their motivations – why they do certain things and what causes them to react to events with warmth or hostility. Otherwise, their strong reactions or nonchalance may seem strange to other people.

So, to prevent our readers from thinking our character is an escapee from the psycho ward, we create backstories for them, inventing histories, naming parents and siblings, all information we hope will bring that character to life on the page. Some writers go into such detail that they fill page after page of character history, even listing grades the character received in school.

Not me.

While I’m a strong believer in plotting my story beforehand, I’m not one who needs to know what day of the week my character washes her hair – unless it’s relevant to the story. That’s the key. Our readers do not need to know every facet of a character’s life – unless that particular facet is an important storyline.

Suppose, for example, I begin a new book and name my main character Lucy. And let’s further suppose I create a northern Minnesota history for her, and after describing her, I want a character trait that other people would consider a bit ‘quirky’ but harmless. While I’m trying to decide what to give her, my husband flips the TV channel to the latest rerun of Arachnophobia, so I decide to give Lucy a strong fear of spiders. She’ll scream and run at the sight of even a harmless garden spider that may have found its way into her apartment or dormitory.

What do I do with that information? I could use it as a comic relief and show this fear as a source of teasing from her friends, but if that’s the case, it’s not very important and isn’t relevant to the story. When you’re writing tight, it should not be included.

But what if I include WHY Lucy’s fear is so strong. Remember, in fiction, we need to show motivations, not only in character conflicts, but we need to know WHY Lucy screams at the sight of a spider. We must remember to be like a child and always ask why, why, why? Why did George slug his brother on graduation night? Why does Lucy have this overwhelming fear of spiders? While most people do not particularly like spiders, most will not go into hysterics when spotting one. So why does Lucy scream and run?

Now we can invent something brilliant, such as a near-fatal black widow spider bite when she was seven. Venomous spiders are rare in Minnesota, but let’s say her parents visited the Twin Cities and bought home a tropical houseplant from Florida, and one of the leafy branches hid this nice, fat, poisonous black spider. Lucy survived the bite, of course, otherwise there wouldn’t be much to the story, but we could create this horrible experience at the hospital and how she was deathly ill.

That event, even though it’s dramatic, is just that – a dramatic event in her history. As with our friends’ and neighbors’ background, we might find the event mildly interesting, but really, who cares? I shouldn’t bore my readers with that bit of backstory unless it relates to the main plot.

If the plot is about Lucy meeting the love of her life while in graduate school and debating whether or not to marry him and move to another town in Minnesota, then the spider background is not an issue. It’s simply an event that happened in her life that is of no interest to anyone else and shouldn’t be mentioned.

But suppose I want to use it in my story? Suppose I want Lucy to overcome her horror of spiders as part of her character growth? If so, I’d need to invent a storyline where spiders could be an issue.

How about if the love of her life is a young man who thinks the curved tail of a scorpion is fascinating, loves to examine the long, hairy legs of a tarantula, and can’t wait to compare the beautiful red markings of different black widows? Lucy adores him beyond everything, or most everything – she’s repelled by his career choice, which, of course, is Arachnology. He wants to study these creatures and write a book about them, so he plans to move from nice, safe Minnesota and live in the states where their species thrive.

Ah hah! Now we have a possible storyline with the character trait as a main source of conflict.

And to make matters worse, we turn up the heat and say he’s just been offered his dream job as an assistant to the country’s foremost authority on spiders, but only on condition that he immediately accept the position and make the move within the next two weeks. He asks Lucy to marry him and accompany him to his new location.

Lucy now has a dilemma: her fear or her lover? She must make a fast decision, one that could affect her entire life. And readers, if I’ve written the story well enough, will turn the pages to see what she decides. Now I’ve taken a character trait and not only used it in my story, but I’ve used it as a major interest of conflict and built a story around it.

How about traits for your characters? I’m sure you can be more imaginative than the fear of spiders, so list several that are of interest to you. Then explore the conflicts each could trigger. If you can develop a trait and use it to build your story, it’s relevant. The others you can disregard – until the next novel.

Free ebooks!

VANILLA HEART PUBLISHING June Specials!

Buy your favorite VHP fiction titles in print version from Amazon, and for every copy purchased, select a FREE ebook (with full cover covers, front and back) from our entire Ebook Catalog.

Simply send verification of print copy purchase (your Amazon order number – last three digits only, date of purchase, your name and email) to Sizzlers@vanillaheartbooksandauthors.com and include the name of the free ebook you have selected. Within just a few short hours, you can be reading your free ebook, while waiting for your print copy to arrive!

Radio Interview

I just completed my first radio show and even now, almost an hour later, I still feel like throwing up.

You’d think, since I’m a mature woman, at least according to my gray hair, that I’d have more confidence when doing interviews, and I do – when they’re on paper. But talking to someone over the radio?

So that I wouldn’t come across as a dork, I wrote questions that could be asked and practiced my answers over and over. Finally, I got so smooth at talking about my book – at least to myself – that I was ready. I’d made the last-minute trip to the bathroom, had my soft drink next to me in case my throat went dry, and with my answers highlighted in a huge font so I could read them at a glance, I waited for my cue. Then the host introduced me.

OMG. It was time to talk. I froze, even my blood froze. I wanted to run to Mommy. But since I WAS the mommy and grandmommy to boot, I had to try to maintain some semblance of dignity, so, I did what I do when writing my novels: I pretended I was this confident character who knew what she was talking about.

It went well, or so the sympathetic host, Don McCauley assured me. At least we didn’t have to stop and start all over. I don’t remember much of what I said, so I’ll be as surprised as the listeners when it airs – that is, if I work up enough nerve to listen.

But hey, I can do it. Raising children, moving to a new state after a marriage of nearly thirty years ends in divorce, writing novels and sending them to agents and publishers takes guts, so I must have some. We’ll see when the show airs in two to three weeks. I’ll bite the bullet and let you know.

http://www.theauthorsshow.com/

Working Girl Reviews

Working Girl Reviews recently posted their review of my novel, Beyond the Quiet, and they also interviewed me about my writing classes and the writing process.

Please take a look at their new site, read the reviews and interviews, and feel free to submit your book for a review.

Click Here for Working Girl Reviews

Beyond the Quiet Wins Award

The WOW – Wizards of Words writers’ organization has just awarded my novel, Beyond the Quiet, as the 2009 Book of the Quarter. Beyond will now compete for the Book of the Year in December.

Thank you, Wizards, for this honor:

Wizards of Words

Free! 1st Chapter Chapbook

Hi everyone. My publisher just released a Free First Chapter Chapbook as a promotional tool. So if anyone would like to read the first chapters of my books for free, simply send an email to me:

brendahillseaman@yahoo.com

and enter the word, Chapbook, on the subject line, and I’ll send the pdf file which includes the first chapters from Beyond the Quiet, Ten Times Guilty, and Plot Your Way to Publication.

I think it’s a great idea and I’d love to share it with you.