Category: Art & Craft (Page 14 of 17)

Off to Asheville, North Carolina this morning. Home of the largest private house in America, Biltmore Estate, the Grove Park Inn with a world class spa, UNC Asheville, the only liberal arts college in the UNC system, and some of the funkiest stores downtown as well as a vibe that is straight out of 1960 Northern California :-).

But. I will be doing none of those things this weekend. I will be sitting in a windowless, over air-conditioned room, with 50 other writers, listening to Executive Editor Cheryl Klein attempt to push into my brain Plot! The first definition of plot is a plan made in secret by a group of people to do something illegal or harmful which I kind of, sort of like, because I’m writing a mystery. The second definition is more apt, the main events of a play, novel, movie, or similar work, devised and presented by the writer as an interrelated sequence for the work we will be doing in this self imposed eight hour exile from the real world.

Ms. Klein’s book, Second Sight , An Editor Talks On Writing, Revising & Publishing Books For Children and Young Adults, is a primer for those who want to write well for children. And. I think that’s a huge distinction. For children. I know when I returned to children’s books with my own girls, I was enchanted by the way the story was told. In adult books, we allow authors to use short cuts; a brand name for a car to denote wealth or near poverty, a high profile school to infer privilege, or even a famous name to identify a style or attitude. No can do with kids. They’re definitely not as tolerant as children. Although I do believe the most popular of adult books are basically written to an eighth grade level. And sometimes that’s demeaning…to an eighth grader!

So today I finalize my book map. I make sure my spelling is correct and that I’m on top of the material request, although, in truth, I almost feel like I’m drowning in a sea of possibilities and my ears will be too clogged to listen. So. Probably it’s for the best that I am in a totally sterile environment. And, I’m guessing, I’m not alone in feeling overwhelmed!

…one of the coolest things to do on a Sunday afternoon is listen to someone talk about blood and gore and when a real forensic practitioner talks, well… April’s  Murder We Write meeting brought in Senior Forensic practitioner Joanne Morrissey, who served with the Metropolitan Police Service in London for 17 years and is now in her 4th year with the High Point Police Department. She had an amazing power point presentation, but not only that, she had great war stories, old crimes, weird crimes and yucky crimes. 

I have three pages of notes. With a master’s degree from university in UK in Fire Investigation [this side of the pond we call it Fire Science] Jo was full of information about certification, evidence procedures, documentation and scene preservation. And,  as I know from Lee Lofland  nobody on TV does it well, or right, maybe close, but then only maybe. Bottom line, Castle does most of it wrong. NCIS and The Closer did more of it right. But still. You don’t solve a crime in an hour.

The trick of it is whether or not you can make it close enough to believable so that people are willing to over look the odd or weird or uncertain device you chose to use to solve the crime. With Castle, you over look a LOT because of the Richard Castle , not because the mystery is better or worse than anyone else’s. With The Closer you watch because you want to find how Brenda Leigh is going to screw up everyone else’s life to solve her crime. With NCIS it’s more a combination of the two, you watch to see the characters interact and to find out whodunit.

So. Now I have to rewrite or rethink the  scene where the dead body is found. Do I let the local police mess up the crime scene making it tough for the main character? OR, do I have the CSI come in and make things more difficult for my main character?  hmmm……

There’s a lot of chatter on the web about Once Upon A Time. Yes. Yes, it is a favorite of mine, loving the way it strings out the important tidbits like dropping diamonds on a trail into an unknown location. Sort of like Dr. Who. But. See, with Dr. Who there were so many zany and weird bits, if you didn’t follow it right a way, you’d have a chance to go back and see what you missed.

This time they lost me. Okay, okay, they almost lost me with naming Ruby’s boyfriend Peter, I mean, who dreamed that up? But this time they left a huge hole and I’m not sure this particular story can get out of it. Well that’s not true, I’m guessing they will be able to tie the issue of why Regina hates Snow with a neat and tidy bow. But I don’t know how happy I’ll be about it. Because I’m still very very unsure as to why Regina, who knows how manipulative and wicked her own mother can be, seems to feel so strongly that Daniel’s death was solely and completely Snow’s fault. Weird. She’s watched her mother maneuver all the people around her with her will and her magic.  

All along I have suspended my disbelief and accepted the other side of the story, the part that wasn’t in the books. But this part. Wowzer! They’ve made this one tough. We know there is a great deal of time between when Snow’s father dies and Regina becomes king and the time when King Leopold marries Regina, at least five to seven years have passed. The question is, because her mother has magic does Regina? I suppose we are going to see Regina get rid of her mother in some fashion. Does she help her mother take over the kingdom of Wonderland? And that’s why Regina’s father’s heart is with the Queen of Hearts. Oh, and does she rescue her father after she’s made the curse? Or before?

But I am very close to saying So What!

today, critique time, and I always go in thinking, “Yowzer! I have nailed this.” And. I come out thinking, “Whoa! I have so much more work to do.” Good times. 🙂 Now that is a good critique group. Here are three things I think a good critique group does:

1. A good critique group talks about your work. Not you. They identify [or not] with the characters and they work with you to make sure your characters are honest.

2. A good critique group encourages the work you are writing. They look for the good stuff, and help you to focus on keeping the good and getting rid of the not-so-good.

3. A good critique group wants you to be successful, they provide information, support and a little bit of therapy.

The best critiques I have EVER had were the ones where the person critiquing asked questions. Why does your character want to go into the basement? If your character gets in this mess, how are planning on getting him/her out? 

Done now. Off to critique and to find out. Sigh. At some point in time, they are going to say, send!

Apparently I am a much more visual person than I previously thought. I have my DVR set to record all of the my favorite shows, regardless of whether they’re reruns or not.  Just because. Well sometimes there’s nothing on that I want to see and so I’d rather reread a book or revisit an episode than go to something new. This past episode of  Grimm. You know the story, right? Present day, a police man, named Nick Burkhardt,  a descendent of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the fairytale brothers. These, then,[via NBC]  are true tales, the brothers told the stories because they could really see all the daemonfeuer’s, or, fuchsbau, or lowen.  In Grimm, the TV show, our erstwhile scion of all things fairytale, is a policeman, and, he’s rather a live & let live kind of guy. If they aren’t breaking the law, you know, enslaving, using, killing and/or eating normal everyday people, well then they can live. But if not, they are hunted down like the criminal they are and poof. By whatever method poof happens, it happens.

Now. Onto unresolved subplots and the strange things in the dark Grimm.  Although the website says Captain Renard is Nick’s politically adept superior officer and a descendant of a powerful line of Grimm royalty, I’m not sure I get that. Wouldn’t he have known all this time, prior to Aunt Mary, that is, that Nick was a Grimm? Is he trying to keep Nick alive? Does he want Nick dead but can’t kill another cop? Or is he using Nick to make sure that the fairytale population is kept in check? So a Grimm royal is part of the ‘fairytale’ bit, not really of our world? We’re into the second season, so a bit of resolution, if not total resolution would be awesome. Okay, yes, I am able to live with my disbelief suspended here, I’ll wait a while.

But, then, last week’s rerun of Let Your Hair Down. Whoa! There’s this young girl, abducted nine years ago, who fought off her kidnapper and survived in the woods all this time because she is a blutbad, like Monroe [who may be my favorite character, if for nothing else than his own perception of reality]. Great! Right? Until one night, when a very normal couple, camping in the woods are kidnapped by a ruthless drug dealer cum MJ grower. The couple thinks their life is over  when Voila! the guy is killed. They run away, get the police, etc. etc. We see them one more time telling the police all they know. Then ruthless’s two brothers want revenge for their brother’s killing and they kidnap the guy and hold him prisoner in their basement. With me so far? Okay. They, ruthless’s brothers, go out into the woods, there is the denouement, Nick and Monroe are there to save the young girl, ruthless’s brothers are wounded and captured, the now sixteen year old abductee is safe, Nick takes her home to her adopted mom. Tears, hugs, a cute little pink barrette, all good. Last scene: Nick home in bed with Juliette, she’s amazed her found her. All done. Really? WHAT ABOUT THE GUY IN THE BASEMENT? Sheeze. I tell you. This will bug me for a while!