Tag: Characters

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New! Why Grandma Doesn’t Know Me

Independently published with the help of DLD Books.

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Sixteen-year-old Natalie’s grandmother, suffering from dementia and confined to a wheelchair, lives in a nursing home and rarely recognizes Natalie. But one Halloween night, she tells her a shocking secret that only she and Natalie’s mother know. Natalie is the product of a one-night stand between her mother, who is a college English teacher, and another professor.

After some research, Natalie learns that people with dementia often have vivid memories of past events. Still not wanting to believe what her grandmother has told her, she finds her biological father online. The resemblance between them is undeniable. Not knowing what else to do, she shows his photo and website to her parents.

Natalie realizes she has some growing up to do. Scared and confused, she reaches out to her biological father, and they start corresponding.

Her younger sister, Sarah, senses their parents’ marital difficulties. At Thanksgiving, when she has an opportunity to see Santa Claus, she asks him to bring them together again. Can the jolly old elf grant her request?

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Changing Points of View #MondayMusings #OpenBookBlogHop #Inspiration

Welcome to another edition of Open Book Blog Hop. This week’s question is: “Do you have advice for changing perspective? For example, switching from writing exclusively in third person and switching to first person? Or do you have a reason for staying with the perspective you do?” You can click here to participate in this week’s hop and read other responses.

I don’t change from third to first person point of view or vise versa in the middle of a story, even if I’m switching characters. To me, that’s disconcerting, like switching horses in mid-stream. Most of my stories are told from either first or third person point of view of one character.

But Why Grandma Doesn’t Know Me is told from first person point of view of four main characters. I thought I could tell the story more effectively that way. My other novels, The Red Dress and We Shall Overcome, are told from one character’s third person point of view.

In my new short story collection, Living Vicariously in Wyoming, which I hope to publish this year, some stories are in first person while others are in third person. But all stories are told from the point of view of just one character.

Whether I use first or third person point of view depends on the story. But the bottom line is I don’t switch from first to third person point of view and vise versa in the middle, even if I’m switching characters.

How about you authors out there? What are your thoughts on shifting, say, from first to third person point of view?

Photo Courtesy of Tess Anderson Photography

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I’m pleased to announce that from now until March 11th, Why Grandma Doesn’t Know Me, The Red Dress, and My Ideal Partner are available from Smashwords ABSOLUTELY FREE as part of its Read an eBook Week sale. You can click here to visit my author page and download these books. Happy reading!

New! Why Grandma Doesn’t Know Me

Independently published with the help of DLD Books.

Photo Resize and Description by

Natalie realizes she has some growing up to do. Scared and confused, she reaches out to her biological father, and they start corresponding.

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Keeping it Short #MondayMusings #OpenBookBlogHop #Inspiration

Photo Courtesy of Tess Anderson Photography

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Welcome to another edition of Open Book Blog Hop. Today’s question is: “Do you ever write short stories? What do you see as the biggest difference in the writing process between a short story and a full-length book?”

As a matter of fact, I’ve written a lot of short stories and am putting some into a collection I’m calling Living Vicariously in Wyoming. These stories are set mostly in Wyoming. The idea behind the title is this. When you read a short story or novel, no matter the setting, you’re living vicariously through those characters.

In a short story, unlike in a novel, there’s little room for character or plot development. You can’t take time to provide a lot of background information about characters. The reader only needs to know enough about the character that is relevant to the story. A short story’s plot can’t be too long and drawn out.

For some, writing a short story can be a challenge. But for others like me, who have an idea that doesn’t work as a novel, the short story form is perfect. In fact, a couple of my short stories started out as novel ideas but had to be downsized because there wasn’t enough of a plot. On the other hand, my first novel, We Shall Overcome, started out as a short story. But I realized there was more to it. To each, one’s own, and whatever floats one’s boat.

How about you authors out there? Do you write short stories, and what do you think is the biggest difference between writing a short story and writing a novel? You can click here to participate in this week’s hop and read other bloggers’ responses.

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If you haven’t already done so, please subscribe to my email list to receive my twice-yearly newsletter and other announcements. This is a one-way announcements list, meaning the only messages you’ll receive will come from me. So, you can rest assured that this list is low-traffic. Send a blank email to: newsfrommycorner+subscribe@groups.io You’ll receive a confirmation email. Reply to that with another blank message, and you should be good to go.

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New! Why Grandma Doesn’t Know Me

Independently published with the help of DLD Books.

Natalie realizes she has some growing up to do. Scared and confused, she reaches out to her biological father, and they start corresponding.

***

All About Marti #MondayMusings #OpenBookBlogHop #Excerpts

Photo Courtesy of Tess Anderson Photography

Welcome to another edition of Open Book Blog Hop. This week’s question is: “How do you avoid giving readers TMI (too much information) about a character? How do you decide what to share about a story’s characters?”

With some characters, especially main ones, you can’t give too much information. The reader needs to know as much as possible about the character in order to understand her throughout the book. Let’s take, for example, Marti from Why Grandma Doesn’t Know Me. In Chapter 2, told from her first-person point of view, she tells us about herself in the hope we can understand why she does what she does. Here she is now.

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I loved my parents but hated the name they gave me: Martha Louise Sherman. It sounded so stuffy, and my friends agreed.

Growing up in Sheridan, Wyoming, I was an only child.

When I was in high school, I changed my name to Marti after being cast in a school production of Grease as a girl by that name. The drama teacher pointed out that it was a shortened version of Martha. So I decided to use it in real life as well.

Dad and my teachers and friends went along, but Mom did not, of course. She claimed that I’d been named for my great–grandmother Martha, and it would be disloyal to shorten it. I let it go, having already learned to pick my battles.

During my freshman year in high school, I fell in love with literature. My English teacher had us read such books as I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, Black Like Me, and The Grapes of Wrath. These books fascinated me. When I was a senior, I decided I wanted to be a writer—or maybe an actress.

By the time I graduated from high school, I’d received a theater scholarship to the university in Laramie. After a year, convinced by my parents that writing and acting weren’t lucrative careers, I changed my major to English and got a master’s degree.

During my last year there, I met and fell in love with my husband, Daryl Vincent. At least I thought I was in love with him at first.

He was in his last year of law school and was also an only child. His parents lived in Laramie, but after we graduated, he found a position with a firm in Sheridan, as luck would have it. So after we were married, we moved back to my hometown, where I found a teaching position in the English department at Sheridan College, resigned to a life in academia.

At first, I had plenty of time to write. For a while, before funding ran out, the college produced an annual literary journal. I was in charge of editing that, and some of my stories and poems were published there. I even had ideas for a novel.

After the girls were born, I didn’t have nearly as much time to write. I kept telling myself that once the girls were in school, things would change, but they didn’t. Maybe when the girls were in college, or maybe when I retired…

When our younger daughter, Sarah, was six, Dad died of a sudden heart attack. A few years later, I had to move Mom to a nursing home because of her dementia. I thought it was important for our daughters to continue their relationship with their grandmother. I wondered if this was such a good idea after Mom stopped recognizing Natalie. But as a parent, I had to be consistent, right?

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What about you authors out there? How do you keep from providing too much information about your characters? You can click here to participate in this week’s hop and read other bloggers’ responses. By the way, Why Grandma Doesn’t Know Me can be downloaded free from Smashwords this month. See below for details.

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If you haven’t already done so, please subscribe to my email list to receive my twice-yearly newsletter and other announcements. This is a one-way announcements list, meaning the only messages you’ll receive from this list will come only from me. So, you can rest assured that this list is low-traffic. Send a blank email to: newsfrommycorner+subscribe@groups.io You’ll receive a confirmation email. Reply to that with another blank message, and you should be good to go.

***

And now, I’m pleased to announce that until the end of the month, all my books on Smashwords can be downloaded ABSOLUTELY FREE as part of the Smashwords summer/winter sale. You can visit my Smashwords author page here to download these books. Happy reading!

New! Why Grandma Doesn’t Know Me

Independently published with the help of DLD Books.

Natalie realizes she has some growing up to do. Scared and confused, she reaches out to her biological father, and they start corresponding.

***

Nifty Names #MondayMusings #OpenBookBlogHop #Inspiration

Welcome to another edition of Open Book Blog Hop. This week’s question is: “How do you come up with the names for your characters?”

Most of my characters are named after people I know, but the characters usually aren’t anything like the people who’s names I used. Let’s take, for example, my latest novel, Why Grandma Doesn’t Know Me.

The father, Daryl, has the same name as the maintenance man in an apartment building where I once lived when I was single. I met someone named Marti once through social media and thought that name would be perfect for the mother.

One of my nieces had a friend named Natalie. I only saw her in passing when the girls were together and didn’t know her very well. But I thought Natalie would be the perfect name for a spunky teenaged girl who grows up in the course of the book. I knew many people named Sarah and thought that would be the perfect name for a ten-year-old girl. As for the dog, I thought it fitting Sarah name him Squeakers, since she finds him in the park, cold, alone, and squeaking, in other words whining, to indicate his fear at being abandoned.

How about you authors out there? How do you name your characters? You can click here to participate and read other bloggers’ responses.

New! Why Grandma Doesn’t Know Me

Independently published with the help of DLD Books.

Natalie realizes she has some growing up to do. Scared and confused, she reaches out to her biological father, and they start corresponding.

***