Writing or Laundry

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 3 Comments
Farley hinting it's time to do the laundry

#writing #sailing

Why is it that when something is hard to write, doing the laundry becomes imperative? Since I live on a sailboat, laundry can be an adventure on its own.

I can do the laundry by hand (not my favourite).

I can go to a laundry mat.

I can drop my laundry off at a laundry service.

The last two are harder than you might think. First the laundry has to be bagged and loaded into a dingy. Then I have to drive the dingy to shore (where I am currently anchored this is across a couple of miles of open water).

The next challenge is to carry the laundry across a dock and through town, avoiding the local dogs and fast moving cars that drive on the left side of the street.

Phew! Made it. The drop off is my favourite. Somehow it takes a long time to get the laundry done, but it certainly helps me procrastinate.

Snorkelling from a Cruising Catamaram

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 6 Comments

#sailing Oops. Dropped my snorkel.

The Aquarium is located in the Exuma island chain of the Bahamas and is a spectacular place to snorkel. It’s in a protected area, a land and sea park, making it a must see if you are cruising these islands.

This is a no take zone, meaning no spear fishing, lobster or conch hunting.  We had to dig into our freezer for dinner, but the snorkelling was worth it.

Hook, Line and Sinker

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

#writetip I guess I’ve been fishing a lot lately, but Hook, Line and Sinker made me think about how I review scenes.

How about: Hook, Tension, and Point of Scene?

These are three useful things to ask yourself after writing a scene. I write thriller/mystery novels, so the pace has keep moving.

If the scene doesn’t have a hook early on, why would anyone keep reading?

If there is no tension, why would anyone keep reading?

If you can’t state the point of the scene, why did you write it?

As usual, only my opinion . . .

Cruising Dogs and Weddings

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 5 Comments

#sailing #dogs Being a cruising dog, our wheaten terrier has all kinds of adventures. Farley loves to go to a wedding. Our friends got married, barefoot on the beach, and they invited our dog to be part of the party.

Farley caught the bouquet, but hasn’t found another dog to marry yet. Maybe this year he’ll meet someone nice and settle down.

BURNT – A NOVEL

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 10 Comments

#writing I’ve submitted my third novel, BURNT,  to my agent, Margaret Hart, at HSW Literary Agency in Toronto. So it’s time to relax? Not quite. I’ve got to update my books pages on this blog, the Crime Writer’s of Canada web page, my agent’s web page, LinkedIn and on and on and on . . .

This is the third novel in my Kalin Thompson series. Here’s what it’s about:

Kalin Thompson’s life spirals out of control on her wedding day. Instead of exchanging vows with her fiancé, Ben Timlin, she finds herself trapped by a forest fire and is forced to deliver her best friend’s baby on the shore of a glacial lake high in the mountains of British Columbia.

While Kalin tries to keep her friend and the baby safe, Ben is hanging from the rafters of a burning building, fighting for his life.

Arson is declared the cause of the forest fire.

Arson ruins her wedding day.

Arson turns her new home and half of her beloved ski resort into ashes.

Finding the arsonist becomes her personal mission. Kalin, the director of security at Stone Mountain Resort, gets on the wrong side of small town corruption and uncovers more than just arson. There are those who will go to extreme measures to keep Kalin from exposing their secrets. Kalin will go to extreme measures to protect what is hers.

Conch For Lunch

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments

#sailing Anyone hungry?

These queen conch make a fabulous conch salad but take a lot of work to get into a bowl. The easy part is finding them.  The folded over lip means they are old enough to be harvested, otherwise they need to left alone at the bottom of the sea.

How does one make a salad?

  • First use a hammer and screw driver to make a hole in the shell.
  • Proceed to get the conch out.
  • Clean the skin off. (a slimy messy job)
  • Hammer until soft.
  • Soak in lime juice, to make it softer.
  • Cut into small cubes.
  • Mix with tomatoes, red pepper, lemon, lime, onion, and touch of hot sauce.
  • Get some crackers, invite your friends, and yum yum, it’s lunch time.

Converting from iWorks Pages to Microsoft Word

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments

#writetip This is probably one of those things everyone knows except me. I recently switched from iWorks Pages to Microsoft Word. I’m a fan of both programs, but found most of the people I exchanged documents with use Word.

So for convenience, I changed over.

Already having completed the first draft of my novel, Burnt, I converted the document and at first glance everything appeared fine.

Until . . .

My proofreader sent the document to her kindle. The italics in the document didn’t transfer, but they appeared in the Word document on her computer copy.

What happened, you ask?

The italics showed on the Word copy, but when I clicked on italicized text, the little box at the top that shows a text is italicized wasn’t highlighted. The code to format the text didn’t copy from Pages to Word.

Hence the text didn’t appear italicized on the Kindle.

To fix this, I had to retype in any italicized text and hit the italics button. The next version appeared correct on the Kindle.

How does one know these things until they come up and bite you? And how do I know there aren’t other errors?

Where’s Farley?

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments
Star Fish Beach, Bahamas

#sailing #dogs

Sailing with dogs is sandy business if you like to go to the beach. Farley, our wheaten terrier, is the colour of sand, and maybe we should have called him Sandy.

He loves to dig a hole and hide in it. He’ll sit perfectly still and make us play the Where’s Farley game.  I think he might actually be making fun of us, but who knows?

If you’re thinking of cruising with a dog, an outside freshwater hose is a must. Ours is on the back step of our catamaran. Farley gets a rinse before he’s allowed passed the stairs. Then he gets a rub down with a towel. That’s the other item we brought . . . Farley has his own set of towels.  One more little thing to keep us all happy.

Related articles

How to Create Chapter Breaks

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments

#writetip  There a many different ways to write a novel, but one thing most have in common is the story is broken into chapters.

How do you do this?

Do write in chapters, plotting the entire novel ahead of time?

Do you write the novel in scenes and then group them into chapters?

Or, do you write one long scene and then break into scenes and group into chapters?

I tend to write in scenes. This gives me a small section to write. As the saying goes, Inch-by-Inch, Life’s a Cinch.  I find it less overwhelming to write a scene than attempting an entire novel.

Once I’ve completed a draft and have all my scenes printed, I try grouping them into themes. If I can give several scenes one name, then I make it a chapter. If I can’t, then I look for another way to group scenes. I don’t focus on the length of a chapter. I think it’s more important to have the grouping right than to have consistent chapter lengths.

Spotted Eagle Ray

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments
Near Cambridge Cay, Bahamas

#sailing The Bahamian waters are crystal clear and make viewing sea life easy.

This beautiful spotted eagle ray swam along side our Lagoon 380 at slow speed. I was so excited that I had time to get my camera and snap this photo. The water is nine feet deep here, but it looks like we are about to go aground.