Tawny Weber | What If and Why?

What if and why are two of my favorite things to ask. I'm notorious for asking them in writing and in life. (I think I ask often enough I drive my husband a little nuts, to be honest). I've what if'd everything from the idea that we are really all just microscopic beings on the thumbnail of a giant (hey, I was twelve) to the slightly-obsessive emergency kit I packed for the drive through a snowstorm for a family emergency (hey, I'm a California girl... how was I supposed to know those flutters weren't a storm? and we MIGHT have needed those empty tuna cans and tealight candles for heat... really, we might have). And I ask why more than an eight year old. Just ask my eight year old, she'll tell you!

A psychologist might refer to it as catastrophic thinking (taking what if to its highest degree of drama) but for a writer, it's mighty handy. After all, the question of “what's the worst thing that could happen” is what provides me with plot and conflict. Better yet, what if is what keeps the reader turning the pages. When I read a book, I'm always wondering, always asking -what's next? Why? When I'm writing, I love to think what if, and use that to keep tossing conflict and issues at my poor characters for them to figure out. Why is always in the back of my head. Why do they do this, why don't they do that?

This what if process can apply to any type of story, from paranormal to historical to suspense. My stories are pure fun... of the sexy kind. But that what if angle is always there. For instance - in my May 2007 Blaze debut I asked myself what would happen if a cop went undercover for the first time and was totally out of his element. Why would he be so uncomfortable? And what if, at the same time, a bad girl was dared to prove she was still just as bad as always. Why does she care what her friends think? What if she ended up with the wrong guy? Tada... DOUBLE DARE was born. I kept asking why, pushing the what if's and why's, playing with the idea, but that core question was the premise of my first sale and the heart of Audra and Jesse's story.

For my upcoming January release, DOES SHE DARE? I asked what would push a gal with major goal setting tendencies to create the ultimate Man Plan. Not only was it fun to ask the what if's for this story, it was even more fun to keep adding to them. What if this goal-setting gal wrote a Man Plan? Why did she think she needed a plan to hot up her sex life? What if the hottest dream guy she could imagine showed up on her doorstep? What if he got his hands on her plan? What if he was the one guy who could ruin everything she'd worked for... would she risk it? Why? (See how that works?)

What if and why -they are my favorite writing questions. How about you... do you ever ask what if? Do you make up stories to go with the question? When you're reading, do you ever ask yourself why on earth the character is doing THAT???

I know I do...

http://blog.tawnyweber.com/main
http://www.myspace.com/tawnyweber

Michael Balkind | A sports mystery writer’s inspirational vacation.

Recently my family and I went on vacation out to Colorado and Utah. We were heading to Colorado first to attend a family reunion. My brother lives at the base of Telluride Ski Mountain in the San Juan Mountains of the Colorado Rockies. Telluride is known as a skiers’ paradise during the winter but during the summer it provides for many exciting activities. It is one of the countries premier festival resort towns. The festivals include the Mountainfilm Festival, Balloon Rally, Bluegrass Festival, Wine Festival, Fourth of July, Telluride Jazz Celebration, Telluride Culinary & Art Festival, Blues and Brews, Telluride Film Festival, Oktoberfest, to name just a few.

While the festivals entice many into the town of Telluride, the hiking biking and sightseeing can keep you very busy once your there.

As many inhabitants say of the town, they originally went there for the winter skiing but they stayed due to the beautiful summer months.

I must say I agree, I have been there to ski many times, in fact, years ago we skied down the isle for my brother and sister-in-law’s wedding. But now that I have visited telluride during the summer, I see what really keeps the townies in town. The views of the surrounding mountains and Bridal Veil Falls are breathtaking. Hiking up or down the mountain, while a daunting task, makes one feel very close with nature.

One of the most enjoyable parts of our trip was enjoying the views while riding the gondola up the mountain then the exhilaration of riding back down the skree lined trails on mountain bikes. Squeezing the brakes the entire ride down while navigating wicked switchbacks, mud and roots while standing on the pedals and leaning back so you don’t flip over the handlebars was a serious challenge. I guess some people may think that the people who do such things for fun are a tad bit wacked! Maybe they’re correct, but I don’t remember a vacation or experience that will live on in my mind like the rides down those trails. The thrill still courses through me as I write this story. Wow!

After our thrills and spills on the bikes we boarded our vans for a trip to Moab, a unique town out in the Utah desert.

The first thing we did when we arrived was go play nine holes of golf. The course was like none I’ve ever experienced before. I have played my share of lavish golf courses but never with the backdrop of hundreds of feet of red rock cliffs. Incredible views and terrain bordered the fairways and greens.

The next day our entire family of 14 boarded rafts and kayaks for a full day’s excursion down the Colorado River. The ages ranged from my 10 year old niece to my 79 year old mom. Thank goodness the surging Colorado River calms down somewhat in the late summer months. What an invigorating and soaking ride!

The final day of our trip was spent hiking and enjoying the amazing rock formations of Arches National Park. Even as a writer, I feel that attempting to describing the views would only do this park injustice. You really must see it to believe it. America really rocks!

Besides, providing for a wonderful and memorable vacation for my family of five, I know I will eventually write a novel in my Deadly Sports Mysteries series based on this trip.

Michael Balkind

http://www.balkindbooks.com/

Sandra Marton | Shifting Gears

Well, not gears, exactly. What I’m talking about is a shift in seasons.

I live in New England. That’s in the northeastern part of the United States, for those of you who might not know. ‘New England’ is the name we gave the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, in honor of the English who settled this area in the seventeenth century.

My state, Connecticut, is more ‘New England’ in feel than the others, especially our part of it. Whenever I’m in England, especially heading north, I see the strong resemblance. Our roads are narrow and twisting; we have lots of beautiful stone walls; many towns, counties and rivers bear English place-names.

We’re also famous for our weather. Coldly beautiful winters. Blossom-infused springs. Hot, colorful summers. Absolutely gorgeous autumns. That’s our most famous season and deservedly so. We have lots of forests and woods in New England. During the autumn, our maples, oaks and hickories, all our hardwood trees, put on the most glorious display imaginable.

It’s happening right now. As I write this. I look out the door of my office and see the colors of fall. Flaming reds, brilliant golds, deep purples, hot orange, rich chocolate. Our land is strewn with leaves and there are many more to come because lots of leaves still cling to the trees.

As always, I’m amazed at how quickly summer fled. I knew fall was here—I even had a soft of official reminder because I have a book out right now. The Spanish Prince’s Virgin Bride is an October release for Presents. And next month—still in the autumn—I have a book coming out in the United Kingdom: Seduced by Christmas.

So, it’s definitely fall—but the best reminder of all is the view outside my office.

I’m happy to be able to share it with you.

Sandra Marton

http://sandramarton.com/

Donna Lea Simpson | When series change their ‘look’.

Most authors’ romance or mystery series have a definable ‘look’. The novels in the series all bear a striking resemblance in graphics used, or models, style, color palette, and other similarities that ‘brand’ them. Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books are instantly recognizable for the bold colors and font selected. You can recognize those puppies across the bookstore! And that’s the point. The cover’s job is to draw readers, and once a rhythm is established, to signal to readers that this another book in a series they love.

When I received the cover for the first novel in my ‘Awaiting’ series with Berkley - Awaiting the Moon - I was relieved. I loved it! There are a lot of elements - full moon, wolf, castle, and brooding hero with moody expression – but I think it works. It’s mostly tones of blue… moody and dark. Most importantly, it really does signal what the book is; a historical paranormal werewolf romance. So it perfectly epitomized the series to follow! The heroes of my books are conflicted, moody, and secretive, and the tone is slightly dark and gothic, with secrets and mystery swirling throughout. Whew… that’s a lot to put out there! And yet I felt that the cover did its job admirably.

The second cover, for Awaiting the Night, really echoes the first; it has another enigmatic hero, a castle, a wolf, and the moon, but the colors are different. In other words, it does its job and echoes the first cover, establishing a rhythm.

But then I received the third cover, for Awaiting the Fire. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great cover: attractive colors, nice texture – kind of satiny in feel – with what I think of as the ‘Bowflex-fella’ front and center and the title in raised metallic red print. But… it doesn’t look anything like the first two. Not one iota. And that’s problematic, in that it doesn’t send the right signal; not only does it not echo the first two, I think looking at it, you’d be hard pressed to guess what the book is. A mystery? A romance? A fitness manual?

In a marketplace where authors compete fiercely to establish an audience, continuity and dependability of format are really desirable, but sometimes a publisher may feel that a change is needed, or may decide the ‘pattern’ isn’t working. I’m curious as to whether readers really look for that ‘patterning’ when they’re in the books store? Do you recognize series by appearance only sometimes? As far as genres go, there are trends, certainly; in the case of historical romances, a painting of a woman in a low-backed gown with a pearl necklace, or a fan seems to be a current favorite. I know that when I shop for murder mysteries, I can spot a cozy or a culinary mystery easily, and that’s a good thing! So, are there certain elements that attract a reader best, and do sub-genres have an easily identifiable ‘look’? I think the answer is ‘yes’, but that’s just my opinion. What do you think?

Meet me at my website: http://donnaleasimpson.tripod.com/

Or, check out my blog: http:// donnaleasimpson.wordpress.com

Donna Lea Simpson

Patti O'Shea - A Peek Behind the Book

Ideas come to authors at different times and in different ways. Sometimes one flash is enough to trigger an entire story. That's what happened with THE POWER OF TWO. I was staring out the window at my day job when the word "nanotechnology" came into my mind. All I had to do was ask, well, what about it? and the next thing I knew, I had my heroine, the hero, and the way they were tied to each other.

Other times, nothing more than a concept pops into my head and I'll write down what I have and file it away for some day. Only some day never seems to come--except with my latest book.

IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR started with a dream I had more than ten years ago. I knew the hero's name--Deke Summers--I knew he was under a magical curse, and I was aware of what that curse was, but there was no heroine and no story. I wrote down the concept in one sentence and moved on. I loved the idea and hoped that some day I'd have a plot to go with it, but I didn't hold out much hope because I have file drawers full of ideas waiting to be used.

Time marched on, and while I didn't exactly forget Deke, I didn't think about him often. Then it happened. December 2003 a woman appeared in my head and started talking about her people. (It's true, I hear voices. It's a good thing I'm a writer.) Anyway, this character wouldn't share her name, not until she'd spent weeks telling me all about a magical society called the Gineal. Only after that did she let me know that her name was Ryne Frasier and she was a troubleshooter.

When a character comes in and talks to me, I know I'll be writing their story, but I had a problem. While I had all kinds of facts about her people, I didn't have a hero for Ryne and I didn't have a clue what her story was. It's funny I remembered Deke at that moment--or maybe it isn't. Once I realized he and his curse belonged with her, the story began to flow--for a couple of chapters.

I could see the opening of the story clearly and how tough Ryne was--and how vulnerable and lonely. I could see her relationship with her sister and how both of them were hampered by their pasts, And I could see how Ryne and Deke met and how that would play into their relationship. But I couldn't seem to get a handle on Deke beyond his curse and how much he hated it. Then I found the picture.

The man was gorgeous and he had attitude written all over his face. This guy totally fit Deke and that quickly, that easily, I had his personality. Deke is a horrible smart aleck and one of his favorite things in the world is to push people's buttons--especially Ryne's. She's so serious, so intense, and he likes to see the heat in her eyes so much that he can't help himself. He drove her crazy. Ryne was trained to control her emotions--she has to in order to function as a magical troubleshooter--but she had very little self-command when it came to Deke.

There was one other thing about this book that made it different for me--I knew the ending almost from the start. It's the first time I've had a clue how one of my stories would close before I was past the halfway mark, and usually it's deeper into the book than that. It was pretty darn cool to have that in my head from the beginning, but I'm not counting on being that lucky again any time soon.

Each book has a different story on how it came to be, but I thought I'd give you a little peek behind Midnight Hour. If you have any questions about any of my books, feel free to ask. I'm happy to talk about my stories.

Patti's Website - http://www.pattioshea.com/
Patti's Blog - http://pattioshea.blogspot.com/
Patti's MySpace Page - http://www.myspace.com/patti_oshea
In the Midnight Hour Video - http://www.pattioshea.com/midnight_video.shtml