Category: Blogroll

Returning and exploring

This week we are in Madison, Indiana, another one of my favorite places on the planet. I grew up in northern Indiana, in West Lafayette, and have lived throughout the state and I’ve been missing my home state. Madison is kind of my adopted home town for now because I don’t feel emotionally brave enough to visit my family home or any of the places I lived before moving to California. Anyway, it is beautiful here — autumn leaves, tiny mom & pop shops, church bells, the gorgeous Ohio River and a deep sense of history and, yes, mystery. More on that soon. 🙂

Plotting — save the cat!

For me, starting a novel begins with an idea for a character and a setting. So, for example, in my current Work in Progress, my character is Jayne whose life in Chicago has imploded. She flies across the country and takes refuge in a tiny town called Roadrunner Ridge in the California High Desert but then she stumbles upon a murder and the trajectory of her life is changed.

But after these starting ingredients, I’ve stumbled in the past with plotting. Years ago I wrote more than half a mystery novel before getting completely stuck. Eventually I just shelved that work entirely.

Now I don’t want the same thing to happen again so I’ve been reading Save the Cat! Writes a Novel. This is a great novel-writing guide by Jessica Brody, based on work by Blake Snyder who introduced the same ideas for screen writing. The book argues that every story has 15 essential plot points and it uses existing works to demonstrate and teach this technique. I’m using this to guide the development of my WIP, called Flight of the Roadrunner, and so far I’m finding it extremely helpful.

So now … back to writing … 🙂

One of the best things: hummingbirds

Hummingbirds are amazing. They are like tiny little helicopters zipping around our yard, perching on trees, fighting and dancing with each other. If I ever leave SoCal, the hummers are one of the things I’ll miss the most.

I have five hummingbird feeders, two fountains and a bird bath. So wonderful. This morning a hummer was perched on the ocotillo just as the moon was setting. So I snapped this pic!

Returning again: blogging & mysteries

I’ve been continuing to work on my mystery manuscript but I haven’t been maintaining this blog so I decided recently to dust it off and begin again. The old material here is really not relevant but it felt weird to delete it all so it will remain for now.

This photo is of my partner, Vikki, with two of our dogs, Griffy and Speckles, walking our neighborhood.