Monthly Archives: April 2016

An Interview with Author Amy Reece

Amy Reece is a high school teacher who writes Young Adult novels from her home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has four books in the paranormal romance series The Seeker from Limitless Publishing. Her latest release is the romantic suspense novel The Way to Her Heart (Limitless Publishing, 2016). You can find her on her websites AmyReece.com and AmyReeceAuthor.com. Also, check out her author page on SouthWestWriters.com.


TheWayToHerHeart200What is your elevator pitch for The Way to Her Heart?
Step 1: Google “elevator pitch.” I’m mostly kidding, but it has been a while! Step 2: Realize the original blurb you wrote (which your publisher ruthlessly re-wrote) is essentially your pitch:

When 18-year-old Josh Harris finds himself captivated by his new economics partner, he knows he’s in trouble. First, he already has a girlfriend. Second, his life has been completely overturned by tragedy.

Bernie Abeyta has major troubles of her own. Her dad’s in prison and her mom is a drug addict. Things get so bad at home she finds herself living out of her car.

Josh tries to ignore his feelings for this troubled girl, but finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into her life. He insists she move in with him and his mother temporarily and tries to help her find out what happened to her best friend, who has been missing for several months. Bernie refuses to believe Gabby ran away and is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. It’s part love story, part mystery, part cookbook, and all heart. Can this young couple overcome the odds stacked against them?

When readers turn the last page in the book, what do you hope they take away from it?
I hope readers are touched emotionally. Isn’t that what we want in a good book? I hope readers have laughed and cried along with Josh and Bernie. I hope they continue to think about them and wonder what else happens in their lives. What happens with Claire and Mike? What about Diego? I also hope they make a large donation to a homeless shelter here in Albuquerque. That would be nice!

What is it about your protagonists that make readers connect to them? You alternate point of view (POV) between Bernie and Josh—which one did you enjoy writing the most? Did your characters surprise you as you wrote their story?
I think readers connect to these two protagonists because there’s a little Josh and Bernie in all of us. At least there is in me. I really like to look beyond the surface appearance. Josh is so much more than the popular, handsome jock. Bernie has layers and dreams that her life in a run-down trailer park doesn’t begin to touch. As far as which I enjoyed writing the most? That’s like asking a mother to choose her favorite child! I loved creating them both and they constantly surprised me! For example, when Bernie kissed Josh for the first time—total surprise to me! That is not what I had planned! She, however, insisted I keep it in the manuscript. She can be very bossy!

Why did you decide to use New Mexico as the setting for the book?
Official answer: I simply love New Mexico. Real answer: I’m too lazy to research other places. I’m sort of kidding! I do love New Mexico and always knew I wanted to set my novels here. The Seeker Series is based in New Mexico, although they travel quite often to Ireland and France. I have vivid dreams of traveling a lot in the future to find great new settings for future novels. I have traveled a bit in France, specifically the Normandy region, which features in Seer and Oracle from The Seeker Series. I’ve never been to Ireland (insert sad face here) so I had to do quite a bit of research. I also wanted to bring attention to the problem of homeless teens right here in Albuquerque. We have such a great city, but this is a scourge that needs to be fixed.

What makes this novel unique in the Young Adult (YA) romantic/suspense market?
Looking at what’s available on amazon in the YA romantic suspense market, it seems like much of it is futuristic or dystopian. I think my book is unique, perhaps, because Josh and Bernie are such normal people. I also think the recipe section is fairly unique to YA.

How does this novel differ from your paranormal The Seeker Series?
First, there is nothing magical or other-worldly in The Way to Her Heart, with the possible exception of Josh’s dreams. The other major difference is in the POV. The Seeker Series was, with exception of a short scene in Dreamer, all first person from Ally. The Way to Her Heart is told from a third person alternating POV so readers get to know what both Josh and Bernie are thinking.

Why did you decide to make food an integral part of the story? (You’ve even included recipes at the back of the book— any plans for marketing tie-ins?)
Marketing tie-ins??? I love this idea! I think I decided to make food so integral because of the importance food has as a basic human need. Bernie is homeless and hunger is a reality for her. Josh has never known hunger, but recognizes the importance of food. Cooking has been a powerful thing in his life, especially since his dad died, and he feels a need to share it with others, especially Bernie. One of my favorite lines in the whole book is when Bernie tells him he doesn’t always have to provide dinner for her when she goes to his house. “It’s what I do, Bernie,” is how he answers her.

Tell us more about the book: where the story idea came from, how long it took to write, editing cycle, etc.
The basic idea for the story really came from seeing students (I’m a high school teacher by day) who are experiencing various levels of homelessness and being able to do so little about it. I had a student last year who had to leave home and spent most of the second semester couch-surfing among various friends and relatives. The counselor and I tried so hard to get him some help, but the bureaucratic red tape was unbelievable! When he turned 18, there was nothing else we could do. It was heartbreaking. I think I exorcised a few demons by writing this book. It took me about three months to write the first draft, which is pretty typical for me. It was another month or so to revise and get feedback from my street team. I submitted it to my publisher in late October 2015, began the official editing process in January, and the book was released March 29, 2016.

Seeker150Share a bit of your journey to publication.
When I finished Seeker, I went to a writer’s conference and started looking into the process of querying agents and publishers. I was working on Dreamer, the second book in The Seeker Series, and trying to figure out how to get the series out to the big, wide world. Several dozen rejections later I decided to self-publish. I had some great (I thought) literary titles for the books and designed my own covers. Let’s just say I should not give up my day job to become a cover designer. I self-pubbed the first two books in the series, but kept querying—apparently I am a glutton for punishment. I had quite a few responses that asked for the first 50 pages or the entire manuscript, but no firm offers. I was working on the cover for the third book when things changed. Imagine my surprise when a small press, Limitless Publishing, wrote back and said they wanted to offer me a contract for the whole series. #HappyDance! It has been lots of fun working with them to get The Seeker Series out to the public. The first thing they said was I needed to change the titles. Boo. But they had a point, and I actually went back to the original titles I’d chosen.

What are the challenges of writing for a YA market?
It’s a tough, oversaturated market with somewhat limited readership. I’m actually working on an adult contemporary romance right now, and I’m amazed at how quickly it is gaining new reads on Wattpad compared with my YA stories. I will always love YA, but market realities are swiftly convincing me to focus more time on the adult romance market. I have some fun story ideas for that, so it’s all good. I just like to write.

When did you know you were a writer?
I’ve always suspected I was a writer, and for many years had vague plans to write a novel “some day.” After raising three kids and completing two graduate degrees, it was time to see if I could actually complete a novel. Turns out that writing is something I fully enjoy, and I don’t have to “make” myself do it. I look forward to my writing time every evening and on the weekends. The summer is pure joy because I can write every day.

What are the hardest kinds of scenes for you to write, and what do you do to get over this hurdle?
For me the hardest scenes have proved to be the violent scenes. I get so involved and sucked in that I end up very emotional and usually with a pounding headache.

Do you have other creative outlets besides writing?
My other creative outlets are music related. I was a band director in a previous life and I still enjoy playing, particularly flute and piano. I play and sing frequently at church and recently took part in a faculty band for the school talent show. We rewrote Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” and made it “Eye of the Griffin”—we totally rocked it!!! Seriously, you should check it out on youtube: Cat and the Critical Friends.

What advice do you have for writers still striving for publication?
Just keep writing, just keep writing…. Seriously, though. DO NOT GIVE UP!!! If you love it, write it. Every writer has a different journey and you have so many options available now. Write, query, revise. Repeat.

What writing projects are you working on now?
As I said before, I’m working on an adult contemporary romantic suspense, tentatively titled So They Loved. The title comes from Shakespeare’s The Phoenix and Turtle. It’s the first book in a six-book series called The DeLucas. I’m having an absolute blast writing it. You can check it out as I write it on Wattpad.


KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner (writing as Cate Macabe) is the author of This New Mountain: a memoir of AJ Jackson, private investigator, repossessor, and grandmother. She has a new speculative fiction blog at klwagoner.com and writes about memoir at ThisNewMountain.com.




Get Your Words’ Worth

By E.H. Hackney


“Grandpa, I think you have scurvy.” The three-year old we met, while waiting for our table at the Range Cafe, had heard the word on the television the day before and was diagnosing everyone with it, her mother said. It’s easy for me to understand how a child can become enchanted with a new and different word, especially a word like scurvy, that feels so good squirting out of the corner of your mouth, between tooth and cheek. It’s got a strong “r” in it, like a pirate word, and sounds exotic enough that you might just be getting away with something.

I was hooked on words before I became a writer and have never gotten over it. There are still words that I overuse and often probably misuse because I like the feel of them in my mouth and my ear. Accoutrements is one. Fumfer is another. A decade ago a radio host used fumfer to express her stumbling in trying to get her point across. You won’t find it in a dictionary, but it’s a perfectly functional word, and, in context, there was no doubt as to what she meant.

I like the word skookum, a Chinook word I learned in Seattle, meaning good or hearty or strong or brave. Bumbershoot, canoodling, perspicacity, loquacious—all fun, rhythmic, nearly musical words.

But the strength of words, and most of the fun, is in their use. Questing for the right word is an adventure. What words are best to inspire a child, welcome a friend, inform a colleague, threaten your protagonist, seduce a lover? What word catches the light just so and casts the best shadows on the narrative and on those words before and after? Is there one word that will replace three? Sometimes the apt word glows from within, illuminating the page.

The right word must provide the right function at the right time—propelling ideas when needed, reining in when the pace has become too quick, or pushing off in a new direction. “Propel” and “push” are the chosen words here but, in another mood or context, “thrust” or “drive” might be better. Yes, they hint at sexuality.

How does the word fit with its neighbors? Does it stand too tall and dominating, drawing attention to itself rather than conveying meaning? Is it so timid that it hides, embarrassed, begging to be replaced or deleted?

And it’s the power and vitality of words that are important, not their splendor. Clarity is more important than eloquence. So, though I like the feel of rare words, I prefer to use those I can find in my battered, paperback Webster’s.

Words are ecological. They can be used and used again, even overused, but never used up. They can be consumed by the reader yet they remain.

And they’re democratic. They’re free! The same words are available to you and me as to J.K. Rowling and Terry Pratchett—well, mostly, they are British. The vocabulary that built the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution belongs to all of us. The parts and pieces needed to construct the speeches of Abraham Lincoln, the works of Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Mark Twain, James Thurber and T. H. White, and the diatribes of the TV pundits for that matter, are there in our toy box, ours to use as we want. Or misuse. Part of freedom is the right to be wrong.

Words! We love them. So, fellow writers, get out your kit of words and build a story. Have fun. But choose your words carefully.


ByTheBloodCover125E. H. “Hack” Hackney is a retired engineer turned fantasy writer who lives on the east slopes of the Sandia Mountains of New Mexico. His articles and essays have appeared in East Mountain Living magazine, Albuquerque the Magazine, East Mountain Telegraph, The Independent, and SouthWest Sage. He published his first novel By the Blood, Book One: Revelation in 2013 under the pen name Geoffrey Ganges. You can find Hack on Twitter and Facebook and his website GeoffreyGanges.com.


This article was originally published in the January 2013 issue of SouthWest Sage and is reprinted here by permission of the author.




The Writing Life: Wandering Off the Beaten Path with Annie Leibovitz

by Sherri Burr


SherriBurrFor creative types, there is often a tension between concentrating energy to become known for a particular type of work, and wandering off that path to create something new and different. This tension confronted Annie Leibovitz, who is famous for her unique portrait photography such as that of a naked Demi Moore sporting a sizable baby bump, a naked Whoopi Goldberg immersed in a bathtub of milk, and a naked John Lennon with his arms wrapped around his wife Yoko Ono, taken just hours before he was assassinated. Leibovitz owed Random House a fourth work under her four-book contract when she came up with the idea to photograph objects of dead creative types rather than the people themselves. The results were on display at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe in 2013, and can be found in the book Pilgrimage.

On a press walk through the O’Keeffe Museum in February 2013, Leibovitz discussed what drew her to photograph particular objects, such as Georgia O’Keeffe’s bed, her pastels in a drawer, or the door in the adobe wall of her Abiquiu, New Mexico home. Leibovitz considers O’Keeffe to be a great American artist. “We think we know who she is and we don’t,” she said. When she saw the pastels in the drawer, Leibovitz thought, “It’s all the colors in her landscapes.”

Leibovitz also photographed the bed of psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, the desk of author Virginia Woolf, the nightdress of poet Emily Dickinson, and the television of Elvis Presley. This TV is notable because it has a hole in it. Leibovitz explained that during her second trip to Graceland, she was given a tour of the basement containing items Elvis never threw away. The Graceland staff informed her that every time Robert Goulet came on the air, Elvis would pick up a gun and shoot the television. Because Leibovitz photographed this object, we learned something novel about one of the most examined musicians of our times. About Graceland, she said, “The second time I went I felt it was just a house, when you ignore the red carpets and the velvet ropes.”

There was another reason to explore another trail. “Forty years in the magazine world wears you down,” Leibovitz said. “Pilgrimage presented an opportunity to do something different.”

At Niagara Falls, Leibovitz observed her young children staring at a horizon, as if they were mesmerized. She walked to the location, stood behind them, and took the picture. “As a photographer, a lot of times I have to work to get the picture. This time my children saw the picture first.”

“Walden Pond was about an idea, not a place,” Leibovitz informed us as we stood by her picture of Henry David Thoreau’s bed. “He walked to town every day. It’s about being out in nature.” Thoreau first published Walden; or Life in the Woods in 1854 to explore experiences gained from the two years, two months, and two days he spent living on the shores of Walden Pond. Of her depiction of Thoreau’s bed, Leibovitz says, “It’s not a photograph, it’s a document.”

She paid homage to Ansel Adams by traveling to Yosemite to recreate one of his famous photographs. “To get the picture,” she said, “I had to push back about forty people.” Additionally, she visited Adams’ darkroom that had been turned into a wine cellar. She removed all the wine bottles before capturing the darkroom as it once existed.

The exhibition featured framed photographs shot using digital equipment. “I think digital is closer to how we see color,” she said. “We all see color differently. You’re still doing the work that Ansel did in the darkroom when you’re sitting in front of a computer.” She adds, “One of the reasons I’m interested in landscapes is because they present true color. What’s interesting about digital is that it has more detail.”

Leibovitz’s exhibition (and book), also contained photographs of the hat and gloves Lincoln wore the night he was assassinated. Being in the presence of these objects was “very powerful,” she said.

After departing the O’Keeffe Museum, the exhibition made two more stops before concluding its tour at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library in Springfield, Illinois in 2014.

“When you do something new, you don’t know how it’s going to be. I wanted to know if I could find my own way. You have to feed your heart and your soul,” said Leibovitz.

The exhibit was, and Pilgrimage still is, an inspiration to all of us who feel it’s time to innovate.


A Short and Happy Guide to Financial Well BeingSherri Burr is the Regents’ Professor of Law at the University of New Mexico School of Law where she teaches Entertainment Law, Intellectual Property Law, and Art Law. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, Princeton University, and the Yale Law School, she has authored or co-authored 20 books, including A Short and Happy Guide to Financial Well-Being (West Academic, 2014). Sherri is also a long-time member of SouthWest Writers and a regular contributor to the organization’s newsletter SouthWest Sage.


This article was originally published in the May 2013 issue of SouthWest Sage and is reprinted here by permission of the author.




An Interview with Author Paula Paul

Paula Paul is a native Texan who began her writing career as a newspaper journalist. She now makes her home in Albuquerque, New Mexico where she writes “extraordinary stories that touch the heart and challenge the mind.” Her 28 books (including mysteries, historical fiction, YA, and literary novels) have been released through major publishers, as well as small presses. For Dead Men Only (Alibi, 2016) is the fifth book in her Dr. Alexandra Gladstone historical mystery series. You can find Paula on Facebook and her website at PaulPaul.net.


ForDeadMenOnly200What is the elevator pitch for your newest novel, For Dead Men Only?
I’ve never heard the term “elevator pitch” (see below*). However, the publisher used this pitch: “Hailed as ‘an intriguing mixture of mystery, romance, and history’ by Lois Duncan, the Alexandra Gladstone series from award-winning author Paula Paul continues as an ominous horseman heralds the emergence of a secret society, hidden riches—and a string of chilling murders.”

What is it about your main protagonist that makes your readers connect with her? Will those who know you recognize you in any of your characters? After writing five novels in the Dr. Alexandra Gladstone series, does your protagonist still surprise you?
I believe readers connect with Alexandra Gladstone because she is a strong woman who is dedicated to her profession. At the same time she is naïve about some aspects of human nature and often too trusting. I think readers also connect with her humanness which includes all the mistakes she makes. I have never heard anyone say, “Oh this or that character in the series reminds me of you,” although I’ve heard it about some of the characters in other books I’ve written. In truth, I think there’s a little of the writer in all the characters we create. Yes, Alexandra still surprises me sometimes when I’m writing. For one thing, I didn’t expect her past to be quite so colorful, which she revealed in Half A Mind To Murder. As for the antagonist in For Dead Men Only and in all the books I write, I work hard to not make them two-dimensional. I want to understand in the end why they act as they do and how they are as fully human as the protagonist.

What unique challenges did this work pose for you?
The greatest challenge in all of the Gladstone books is the relationship between Alexandra and Lord Dunsford. They are clearly attracted to each other, but their different social positions—he is an aristocrat and she is working class—makes the development of a romance difficult. I want to keep it realistic and not make it just another Cinderella story. That means there are certain lines that are usually never crossed. Also, I get annoyed at Lord Dunsford because he wants to throw all caution to the wind with no thought of the consequences.

Why did you decide to use a seaside village in 1880s England as the setting for the book?
The setting and time for the Gladstone books were established several years ago when I first started writing the series. An editor asked me to write a historical mystery series. He told me I could set it in any time period and in any place except the American West. That was like throwing me a curve ball since I’ve lived all my life in the American West. However, the editor said at that time there were too many books set in the west. I didn’t want to set a story in the eastern United States because I thought all of the editors who lived in the east would know the history better than I. Since I’d always been a bit of an Anglophile, I chose England. I chose the date arbitrarily, simply because it was the year after the birth of my grandmother. I chose a seaside village because I wanted the name of the village to be Something-Upon-Sea.

Did you discover anything unusual or surprising while doing research for this novel?
I can’t say that the research I did about Freemasons and Knights Templars revealed anything surprising, but it was certainly intriguing. I also did some research into beekeeping in Victorian England and was surprised to learn that it was not as common in the 1880s as it is now.

Tell us more about the book.
The idea for the book came from my past reading about Freemasons and Knights Templar. A secret society is always intriguing and lends itself well to a mystery novel. I wrote the book in nine months because that is the length of time the contract allowed. The editing cycle (which was included in the nine months) is always long and arduous for me because I write the first draft quickly without censoring myself, and I don’t go back to read what I’ve written. That means that uncontrolled bursts of creativity have plenty of mistakes that need correcting.

MediumDead150Your first three books in the Gladstone series were indie published, but later books in the series (Medium Dead and For Dead Men Only) were published by Alibi, Random House/Penguin’s digital-only imprint. Tell us how that change came about, from indie publishing to publishing with a big house.
The series was originally published by Berkeley. The books went out of print for a while and an indie publisher picked them up. They sold fairly well, so Random House/Alibi agreed to continue the series. In the confusing world of publishing, Berkeley is now a part of the Random House group.

When did you know you were a writer?
Like most writers, I have always been an avid reader. Reading everything I could get my hands on led me to making up stories in my head when I was quite young, and that led to writing. I can’t think of a moment when I knew I was a writer. It seems now that I always thought of myself as a writer. I have certainly had many moments when I thought of myself as a not-very-good writer!

What are the challenges in writing a series?
For me, the greatest challenge is having the characters grow and change over the course of several books. It is much easier to do that in just one book.

Do you have a message or a theme that recurs in your writing?
A recurring theme is the struggle of women to gain equality in modern times and throughout history.

What are your strengths as a writer, and what do you do to overcome your weaknesses?
My greatest strength is perseverance. My greatest weakness is self-doubt. I overcome that by writing almost every day and by self-critiques in order to find ways to improve.

How has your experience as a journalist helped you in your fiction writing?
A journalist writes to be understood. There is much less emphasis on style or creating a poetic phrase with metaphors and similes. While fiction writing frees a writer to wax poetic more often, I think it is of tantamount importance to be understood—to be easy to read. If you work at it, you can do both. While I did some magazine writing, I spent most of my journalism career as a newspaper reporter for daily newspapers. That certainly teaches one to write fast and to meet deadlines, and I’ve found that helpful.

What is your writing routine like? What is your writing process like?
As for routine, I usually start writing in the late morning or early afternoon and write until I have completed my quota of 1500 to 2000 words a day. I try to do that five days a week, but if I get too far behind, I work on weekends to get caught up. The process is to first work out what I’m trying to say in the book, then write a skimpy synopsis. Using the synopsis, I make a chapter-by-chapter outline, except some of the chapters are left blank or some have only one word such as “danger.” Then I start to write, filling in the blanks and shuffling things as I go along. I may change my mind about a motivation or an event as I write, but I just write myself a note to go back and change it while I just keep forging ahead, writing to the end. It’s a creative process that’s almost like being in a trance, and I don’t want to tamper with it by thinking about editing.

Sins of the Empress150Of all the books you’ve written, which one did you enjoy writing the most?
I have two books that I really enjoyed writing. The first was Sweet Ivy’s Gold (now out of print) set in 1880s Cripple Creek, Colorado. The second was Sins of the Empress, the story of Catherine the Great set in Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries. I enjoyed writing them because they required a great deal of in-depth research, which I love. In the case of Sins of the Empress, it was both challenging and satisfying to make real characters come alive. Since Catherine the Great has such a salacious reputation, it was challenging and satisfying to make her a sympathetic character.

What are the hardest kinds of scenes for you to write, and what do you do to break through this “block?”
I can’t say that any particular kind of scene is harder for me to write than any other. When I hit a block it is almost always because I am trying to force the story into a direction that isn’t right. When this happens, I sometimes have a “conversation” with my characters. To do this, I will start with a question such as “This story isn’t moving forward, what’s wrong?” Or “Why won’t you let me put you in that situation?” Or something similar. Then I let the character talk, and I just type whatever comes into my head. Usually the character wants to talk about himself or herself, and sometimes it takes a while to see how that relates to the story, but I just keep typing and letting him or her talk. Eventually a solution comes. It’s not always the one I expected or even wanted, but it seems to work for me.

Do you have other creative outlets besides writing? 
At the moment, my other creative outlet is playing the piano. I’m adequate at it but not particularly good at it. I think it helps my creativity because it helps me teach my brain to learn and then to act automatically. I used to enjoy sewing and cooking as creative outlets, but I would let them interfere with my writing time. The older I get, the more protective I am of my writing time and the more willing I am to let other interests go.

What is the best encouragement or advice you’ve received in your writing journey?
The best advice came in the form of a paper weight my daughter gave me. Etched into the metal weight is this sentence: What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?

What writing projects are you working on now?
The book I just finished—it doesn’t have a pub date yet—is Closet Murder. It’s the first in a series set in Santa Fe in modern times. The protagonist (and sleuth), Irene Seligman, is the owner of an upscale women’s clothing consignment store in Santa Fe. Irene has just returned to Santa Fe from Manhattan where she was an assistant DA. She came back to help her mother, Adelle, an aging socialite and a genuine pain in the…neck. When she finds a dead woman in the closet of her newly-opened store, the game is afoot. I’ve started work on the second book in the series, but it is as yet untitled.


*An elevator pitch is a quick, focused summary of your book that can be told to someone (a reader, agent, publisher, etc.) in the time it takes to complete a ride in an elevator. It’s the kind of thing you might find on the back cover of a book (or in a movie trailer) that hooks the listener into wanting to know more.


KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner (writing as Cate Macabe) is the author of This New Mountain: a memoir of AJ Jackson, private investigator, repossessor, and grandmother. She has a new speculative fiction blog at klwagoner.com and writes about memoir at ThisNewMountain.com.




Revising Fiction: 12 Ways to Build Suspense

by Kirt Hickman


Revising Fiction

For many writers, the challenge of story lies in how to plot, rather than plod, through the long, languid, middle of the novel. The key to holding your reader’s attention lies in the art of maintaining suspense. This article presents a list of elements that will increase the suspense in your story. Build as many into your plot as it can accommodate.

1. Make at least one character especially violent or adversarial. This character is a wild card. He should have the ability and inclination to severely and unexpectedly hurt your hero (or at least hurt your hero’s chances of achieving her goal).

2. Spring surprises. Keep the reader guessing. Provide many obstacles that come at your hero when she least expects them and when your reader least expects them. Provide at least one surprise turning point in each chapter. These surprises must not be contrived events, however. They must all stem from the characters, their goals, and their motivations.

3. Mislead your reader. If you mislead your reader, the surprises will have more impact. Nevertheless, you must play fair. Leave clues that are consistent with who your characters are—even if the characters are different from how your reader believes them to be.

4. Do your worst. In every scene, ask yourself: What is the worst thing that could happen to the hero? Then make it happen.

5. Take away that which is most important to your hero. What does your hero care about more than anything else? Take it away, or better yet, destroy it. At the very least, put it at risk.

6. Haunt your hero with memories of a past failure. Relate the failure to the events in the book. Put your hero in the same situation she was in when she experienced her failure. Use her memories of that failure to undermine her confidence and make her challenges more difficult and more personal.

7. Turn the environment loose upon your characters. In my science fiction novel, Worlds Asunder, the vacuum of space lurks beyond the walls of the buildings, vehicles, and pressure suits that keep my characters alive. I frequently turn it loose inside.

For the purpose of building suspense, “environment” doesn’t have to mean “natural phenomena.” It can refer to any element of the character’s surroundings that is beyond the control of the main characters, including sociological, political, or economic circumstances and events. To keep an environmental event from seeming contrived, establish early that such an event is possible.

8. Employ phobias. What is your hero afraid of? Make him confront the source of his fear. If you choose something the reader also fears, it will heighten his emotional response.

9. Never make anything easy. Turn all your minor challenges into major ordeals. Make even simple tasks difficult if circumstances can justify your doing so.

10. Show that the danger is real. Hurt your hero, kill a good guy, or both. If you kill someone your hero cares about, it will raise the personal stakes and inject a strong emotional element into your plot. At one point in Worlds Asunder, my hero is hospitalized for his wounds following a battle for his life. In addition, several good guys die, including one of my hero’s closest relatives. This shows that the threat to him is very real.

11. Impose a deadline. This is the ticking clock. It need not be a clock the hero can see, or one with a specified time to zero, but one way or another you must create a sense of urgency.

In Worlds Asunder, the political events surrounding my hero’s investigation escalate toward war. If he can solve the case in time, his findings might defuse the building crisis. He doesn’t know how much time he has, but he and the reader can see the escalation. In alternating scenes, the hero takes a step toward solving the case, and then political events expand. This creates an unseen clock. My hero and the reader are never quite sure it hasn’t already reached zero, the point beyond which no one can stop the war.

12. Prevent your hero from running away. You don’t need to impose a physical barrier, but make your hero’s need to stay in the conflict stronger than his desire to escape it. The same must be true for your villain. In Worlds Asunder, my hero wants to retire and go home to his family—that would be his escape—but averting war is much more important. He won’t quit, even when the stakes rise and he must risk losing his own daughter.

Use these techniques in combination. Don’t restrict yourself to one suspense builder per scene. Stack these elements one upon another, particularly in key scenes. This will compel your reader to keep turning the pages.


WorldsAsunder125_2Kirt Hickman is a technical writer turned fiction author. His books include three sci-fi thriller novels Worlds Asunder (2008), Venus Rain (2010) and Mercury Sun (2014), the high fantasy novel Fabler’s Legend (2011), and the writers’ how-to Revising Fiction: Making Sense of the Madness (2009).


This article was originally published in the December 2009 issue of SouthWest Sage and is reprinted here by permission of the author.




SWW Presents: 2016 Novel Conference

ONE-DAY NOVEL CONFERENCE

Getting Your Novel Published:
Offering the Latest on What Publishers Seek

Saturday, May 14 • 9:00 am to 4:30 pm

New Life Presbyterian
Albuquerque, New Mexico


Novel Conference Slider Sm 3SouthWest Writers’ novel conference is 5 weeks away, but the deadline for early bird pricing ends in less than a week—on April 14. SWW members pay just $99 and nonmembers pay $119 during early registration. On April 15, the rates go up to $119 for members and $139 for non-members. Full-time students receive the discounted rate of $50 regardless of the deadline.

Plan to attend this all-day conference with speakers that include professional authors, agents, and editors. Registration includes conference presentations, a box lunch, refreshments, and the possibility of a 10-minute pitch session. To learn more, visit our Main Conference page, as well as these related pages:

Agenda
Conference Location
Registration
Speakers & Topics

If you’d like tips on how to prepare for the conference, read Chris Eboch’s article “Connecting at Writing Conferences.”




Connecting at Writing Conferences

by Chris Eboch


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Writers mainly work alone, so a conference can be a great chance to meet peers, feel connected to the industry, learn more about the craft and business, and maybe even develop a relationship with an editor or agent. So let’s talk about making the most of your conference time.

When people hear the word “networking,” most imagine trying to impress bigwigs who could help their career. But many writers don’t feel comfortable selling themselves. If your goal at a conference is to grab an editor and convince her you’re wonderful, you’ll feel anxious. And if you fail to wow—or even meet—the editor, you may feel like a failure.

Instead, think of networking as making friends. During her first major conference, children’s book writer and illustrator Holly Cupala decided to “think about making connections with people who share a love of children’s literature—future friends rather than future contacts.” During the four-day conference, she talked with dozens of people, including many of the famous speakers. She says, “I chatted with people I never would have dreamed of walking up to if I was in ‘networking’ mode. I connected with people by being open and letting go of expectations.”

Talk to everyone, from beginners to the pros. You never know who might be fascinating—or helpful in the future. Today’s “nobody” may be tomorrow’s success story, on a first-name basis with top editors and agents. Even better, he or she may be interesting and fun.

Ready, Set …
Armed with the proper attitude, you’re sure to have a good time. Get even more out of the conference by planning ahead.

Read books to learn the basics—how the publishing industry works, standard submission guidelines, the genres—so you won’t be confused when speakers throw around industry terms. You can also direct your questions better, to take advantage of a particular speaker’s expertise.

Next, investigate the conference speakers. Review editors’ submission guidelines and study the books they’ve edited. Read books by the other speakers. Be prepared to offer honest compliments of their work or to ask intelligent questions. Then you won’t go blank when you’re suddenly faced with your idol. The web is a great place to find articles by or about the speakers.

Prepare for opportunities by practicing one-sentence synopses of your manuscripts. You don’t want to ramble and stammer when someone—especially an agent or editor—asks what you’re working on. If they don’t ask, don’t be pushy, but try asking them what they want. According to children’s book author Shirley Raye Redmond, “I sold my very first juvenile novel (Grampa and the Ghost) by simply asking the editor what she was looking for. She told me and I said, ‘I think I have something you might like.’”

When you meet someone, it’s nice to have an official way to exchange information, so get business cards (you can order them online inexpensively).

Go!
On conference day, arrive early and practice your networking—or friendship—skills. Smile, say hello, and ask a simple question. Take an interest in people. Ask what they write. Offer compliments, ask questions, and listen. When I’m feeling shy and alone, I find someone who looks even more shy and alone. I walk up to them, smile, and say, “How are you enjoying the conference?” They are always delighted to talk.

It can be easier to pair up with a friend for the conference, but be careful not to spend your whole time with just one person. After all, your goal is to make new connections, so work together to meet people. Go to different workshops and share notes.

When you exchange business cards, jot notes about the giver on the ones you get. You might write something like, “2011 SWW. 40s, short brown hair. Writing sci fi.” Then when you get back from the conference with a handful of cards, you’ll find it much easier to remember who gave them to you.

The Finish Line
All that hard work only pays off if you follow-up. Write “nice to meet you” notes to people who gave you their business cards. Thank anyone who gave you advice. Type up your notes while they’re fresh in your mind. A few jotted phrases that made perfect sense during an inspiring talk can read like hieroglyphics a month later.

Then set some goals based on what you learned. A good conference may provide you with dozens of pages of advice and ideas. Don’t try to do everything at once, or worse, ignore it all because you feel overwhelmed. Instead, choose three things to focus on. They might involve craft, research, or marketing. Review your notes in a few months and set new goals.

Finally, critique the conference. Think about the workshops, speakers, events, other attendees, and your own behavior. Was it worth your time? How can you prepare better for next time? Make notes to review before your next conference, so that one will be even better.


BanditsPeak150Chris Eboch writes fiction and nonfiction for all ages. In Bandits Peak, a teenage boy meets strangers hiding on the mountains and gets drawn into their crimes, until he risks his life to expose them. The Eyes of Pharaoh is an action-packed mystery set in ancient Egypt. The Genie’s Gift is an Arabian Nights-inspired fantasy adventure. In The Well of Sacrifice, a Mayan girl in ninth-century Guatemala rebels against the High Priest who sacrifices anyone challenging his power. Her writing craft books include You Can Write for Children: How to Write Great Stories, Articles, and Books for Kids and Teenagers and Advanced Plotting.

Learn more at www.chriseboch.com or her Amazon page, or check out her writing tips at her Write Like a Pro! blog. Sign up for her Workshop newsletter for classes and critique offers.

Chris also writes novels of suspense and romance for adults under the name Kris Bock; read excerpts at www.krisbock.com.


This article was originally published in the September 2011 issue of SouthWest Sage and is reprinted here by permission of the author.




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