#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.
#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.
#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?
#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?
#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.
#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.
#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.
#writetip Where does your action happen?
Do you vary the locations of your scenes throughout your novel?
If you hadn’t guessed it, I’m going to mention my spreadsheet again. Yup, I have a column for scene locations. When I read, I enjoy a novel that takes place in different locations and has the characters moving around.
Sorting the spreadsheet by location tells me if I’ve used one location too many times. Maybe it’s important to the story, and that’s okay. But what if it’s not? When I see a location turn up many times, I assess it and see if I can come of with a more imaginative way of describing the scene.
Sometimes by creating new location, the characters surprise me and the story takes a new turn. Always an interesting process.
#writetip So you’ve written your blurb and synopsis and think they’re great. That happens to me too. So . . . I need some outside feedback.
I treat my synopsis and blurb the same way I treat my novel. I have readers who read for content, and I have those who proofread.
If you’re lucky and have readers for your entire novel, why not ask them to read your synopsis and blurb too? You already know their skill set for reading. They already know your story and can keep you honest.
I try to tell my readers what I want from them.
For the blurb I ask:
– Does it clearly represent the story?
– Would you want to buy the book based on the blurb? Why or why not?
For the synopsis I ask:
– Does it clearly represent the story?
– Is it an engaging synopsis or does it feel too much like a list of events?
Please let me know if you have any tips for writing great blurbs or synopses.
#writetip Did someone say writing was lonely? My advice, get a dog. Cali is visiting our boat, Mattina, for the day while her owners are off kiting. Cali has decided that she’s the one writing my novel. The only problem, she has trouble articulating story ideas.
I’ve made the main salon my writing platform and like to take over the entire table. Well the dogs had a different idea. So where am I supposed to sit?
