June is Adopt-a-Cat Month

A writer muses on the ways of cats and other creatures, in a book filled with both feline and human characters who invade your heart.

Kitty Kisses

Treats for your Cat

Ingredients

20 m20 servings

• 1 sm. can Tuna packed in oil

• 1 teaspoon catnip (optional)
• 1/2 cup all purpose Flour

Directions

Print 

• Prep
  5 m
• Cook
  15 m
• Ready In
  20 m

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper.
2. Place the cat food, flour,  and catnip into a blender. Cover, and puree until smooth and looks a little like frosting. Spoon pureed cat food into
   a resealable plastic bag. 
3. Cut a small hole in the corner of the bag.
4. Squeeze 1/2 inch kisses onto the prepared baking sheets.
   Bake 15 minutes. Cool completely and
   store in an airtight container.

The plot's the Thing

by Jen Black Alba Series, Vol. 1

   "A tightly-plotted medieval, historical romance." -- A Happy Reader

Finlay was the recognized heir to the throne of 11th Century Alba when the king began a plot to install his grandson Duncan, instead. Finlay finds his girl has been married off to his cousin, his best friend joins the opposing side, and Duncan plans war. Life becomes especially difficult when Thorfinn of Orkney and his sister take hand in the game.

Plot ? - writing tip

I had an e-mail from a former student who'd had a return from a prospective agent, saying her "plot was all over the place." What does she mean by that, my friend asked?

Well two things could be at work here.

First, the plot could truly be at fault, non-cohesive, or missing some of the elements. Those elements are a central problem the main character tries to solve throughout the story (if there's no central problem, there's no story); complications that arise from efforts to solve the problem, that fail; a bleak moment, when it looks as if all efforts WILL fail; followed closely by the climax, in which the problem is faced Head On; the resolution, either happy or sad, where the problem is solved or not.

Or noncohesive could mean there's too much "good stuff" that happens to the character between the bad stuff. Don't stop the story for a carousel ride. Keep the character at risk of losing everything all the time. My friend Carla Neggers says the way to plot is to put your character in a hole and every time they try to climb out, throw more dirt down on them. If you throw enough dirt, according to Carla, the Big Gloom (don't you just love all these technical terms) her term for the bleak moment, will arrive without looking contrived. This can be hard to do, because most of us love our characters and we enjoy writing the parts where things are going well. Readers, however, want to get on with the story.

Second, it might be the writer's inability to "tell" those elements in a simple, abbreviated, synopsis form, without embellishment or including unneeded detail. If she puts lots of stuff that isn't part of the plot into her synopsis (The FIRST and sometimes the ONLY thing they read), you have no direct plot line from beginning to end, but a wandering path. And the agent, looking at that wandering path, may well say "all over the place." Even though the story itself is a good, and well-written one. Writing synopses is an art form of its own, one that breaks all the "rules of good writing" and it would behoove us all to learn to do it well and briefly. My advice for that kind of writing is to the point: TELL ALL.

For instance:

Boy meets girl and they fall in love, but their families have a longstanding hate relationship. (Central Problem)

Boy and girl secretly elope despite objections from both sides (complications that arise from the central problem), that keep them apart. They decide to run away together.

Girl fakes suicide in order to escape her family and go live with her husband (More Complications).

Husband finds her, believes she is dead, kills himself (Increasingly Bad Complications).

Girl comes to, discovers her husband dead, and kills herself. (CLIMAX)

Resolution: The family war is no longer of consequence to either of the main characters.

And, yes, you're right, the plot IS Romeo and Juliet.

Catching UP!

NO Books Went to Press this week

Galleys that went out or are still out this week:

CEMETERY WALK: A Hannah Griswold Mystery, Vol. 3, by Robert Kanehl

   Walking in a cemetery can be peaceful and reflective, as long as you don’t hear voices. Hannah Griswold, however, does hear voices. Why are they calling to her? Why can’t she have a normal teenage life? 

Work Began or Continued o  the following:

A SCATTERED BRAIN by K. A. Wyant

 Trying to find your place in high school can be a challenging time in a young girl’s life, even more if you have a brain disorder. Being diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, Chloe deals with the difficulties of trying to fit in with the right friends. Wanting to please them she gets into some situations leading to many disappointments. Chloe doesn’t see the destructive path she has made for herself or care about the consequences. With the end of the school year coming to a close can Chloe change things in time to graduate high school with her classmates or has she destroyed any chance of getting her diploma on time?

Work began or Continued on the following:

HAIL MARY by C.M. Albrecht.

    When retired cop Harry "Bulldog" Drummond dies, his free-spirited widow Mary, suddenly freed from the Bulldog's strait-laced ideas, recruits a couple of gals from her colorful past and the girls go on a tear. Meaning
they create mayhem wherever they show up, much to the consternation of Mary's son, Creighton. Poor Cray just lost his job, he has a wife, two kids, two mortgages, a lazy dog and an old Chevy he was planning to replace with a new Jaguar. But the big raise he expected has vanished and so has his mother…along with his aging Chevy. To make matters worse, she doesn't even have a driver's license! 

SECOND GROWTH, by Joan L. Cannon

    SECOND GROWTH relates Serge Dziminowicz’s evolution as he learns to accept his own need for support. His career and marriage destroyed simultaneously by his father. Forced to leave New York, bereft of his wife and daughter, his reputation and his livelihood, he finds his second growth at last in rural Vermont, where he meets an existence unlike any he remembers. 

Cover Set

A HEART DIVIDED: I Live in Two Worlds Series, Vol. 2, by DJ Swykert

   Maggie is torn between her powerful love for Tommie Stetter, and her deep and affectionate love for the abiding Jeremy Paull. Maggie is faced with a difficult decision, and against her own ideals, the teachings of the church and community, makes an unusual choice.

CREST OF LIGHT: A Collection of Poetry by Bobbi Sinha-Morey

   This new collection is the very best of Bobbi Sinha-Morey. It delves deep into the stuff of life as she explores what goes in the lives of others as well as herself, expanding her waters. She writes a bit about birds again, dives into the beauty of life, often touching upon deep inner joy and pleasant idyllic scenes of how she sees the world through her eyes. This time, through her own experiences and research, she writes about Utah where she and her husband pent a total of three weeks. From all her rock hounding and sight-seeing she digs up the beauty of Utah, and the ways of the Native Indians who once lived there. At times she does nature poetry in her delicate hand, and she'll still do her haunting poetry, and diving deep down to what she fears the most.

Cover Subject to Change

MINISTER'S CORPORATE ESCAPADES:The Rev. Castle series, Vol. 2, by Celine Rose Mariotti.

Rev. Castle is back with another cozy mystery.

Cover  Subject to Change

NIBBLES by Elanvita Mufti

   A story of high school students facing a complicated future in Djakarta, Indonesia.

 

 Cover Subject to Change 

BLEEDING HEARTS: Killian Kendall Mystery Series, Vol. 1

 Winner of the Stonewall Society's 2002 Pride in the Arts Literary Award in the Whodunit Category! 

REAP THE WHIRLWIND: Killian Kendall Mystery Series, Vol. 2,  by Josh Aterovis. 

    Suicide, or murder? That's the question in the second Killian Kendall mystery. Will Smith suspects murder when an old childhood pal drowns, and asks his friend Killian for help in solving the mystery.

TRUTH OF YESTERDAY,  by Josh Aterovis

ALL LOST THINGS, by Josh Aterovis

CHANGE  OF WORLDS, by Josh Aterovis

Jack's News!

  by your Official Bookstore Cat, 
and Gossip Columnist.

Hi Everyone,

Heard from author Barbara Garro that she was profiled in Simply Saratoga Magazine (See Above).
Congratulations, Barbara, Hope the publicity will help in getting the word out about your books. Barbara is both an artist and a writer and often paints her own book covers (See Below).



Since it's the first of the month, Arline has been pretty busy preparing all the e-book editions for our latest titles, working on the web site to get them listed, and then getting the new front page up for June First. All the latest titles are listed at amazon.com, but she is still working on some of the files needed for Smashwords. Their software isn't called the "Meatgrinder" for nothing, but they distribute to hundreds of other book sites, includint those of most of the major reading device manufacturers. No, kidding. Books listed on Smashwords are also atomatically listed for sale on device sites like Nook, Kobo, Applebookstore, iPhone, and Sony. 

That's important, because most e-book buyers purchase books from the site sponsored by their reading devices, because it's easier to load them.

Please be sure to send me all your news.

Just send an e-mail to arline@mail.com with 

 "News for Jack" 

in the subject line, and

I'll make sure it shows up right here

for all the world to see!

Freebie Thursday

Bonus Book. Free all Month in June
www.writewprdsinc.com
just click on the book and purchase as usual

You will not be charged!

by Marshall Sanders

   Marshall Sanders's classic tale of a "dog's life" told by Beautiful Joe, himself. You will enjoy his observations about life, and the various humans he meets, as well as his awareness of the importance of love in the world.

Scotch Eggs with Mustard Sauce

"Scotch Eggs are part of the traditional Scots breakfast, which also includes porridge, bacon, fried egg, sausage, black, white and fruit puddings and hot baps and jam. They are also sufficiently versatile to be served hot with gravy at teatime, or cold as a snack."

Ingredients

30 m6 servings860 cals

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup yellow mustard
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 6 eggs
• 2 quarts oil for deep frying
• 12 ounces ground pork sausage
  k Sausage Hot 
  

• 1 tablespoon dried parsley, crushed
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 egg, beaten
• 4 ounces dry bread crumbs
• Add all ingredients to list

Directions

Print 

• Prep
  20 m
• Cook
  10 m
• Ready In
  30 m

1. To make the mustard sauce: Crack 1 egg into a small saucepan. With the heat on low, stir in mayonnaise, mustard and sugar. When it just starts to boil, it's done. Remove and let sit until cool, then chill for at least 10 minutes.
2. Place 6 whole eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring water to a boil and cook eggs for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from hot water, cool, peel.
3. Heat oil in deep-fryer to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
4. Put the sausage into a bowl with the finely chopped parsley, lemon rind, nutmeg, marjoram, salt and pepper. Work all the ingredients well into the sausage with your hands. Make a coating for each hand boiled egg out of the sausage, working it round the eggs with wet hands to form an even layer. Roll the covered eggs in beaten egg, and then in dried breadcrumbs.
5. Carefully slide in 3 eggs and fry for 4 to 5 minutes, until they turn deep golden brown. Turn them as they cook so that they brown evenly. Remove with a slotted spoon, drain on paper towel, and repeat with the remaining 3 eggs. Serve eggs with mustard sauce

Vountary Actions

by Tom Ward

   The Volunteer centers on one man’s struggle to find inner peace. And examines the question of what compels volunteers to respond no matter what time of day or night, to sacrifice their time, financial resources, their talents, and even their lives in the service of their communities.

Writing Question:

Someone asked me this week if I thought fiction writing could be "taught?" Since I taught fiction writing for 28 years the answer seems obvious. But... after some thought, I came up with the following ideas.

WRITING: There's No Wrong Way to Do It 

As with writing anything, Writing Techniques Can be Taught. Simple things like, don't use the same word again in  the same sentence (some say on the same page), and don't let characters go upstairs when they are Already Upstairs, or give a character blue eyes on one page and brown ones on another.

But going on from there, there are no hard and fast rules about how it Should Be Done. 

When I taught Fiction Writing, I told my students to "begin with an outline."  Yet I, myself, have never been able to do that and only write outlines once a story is completed.

If toward the end of the story, I find I need a "telling detail" to foreshadow something that happens back in Chapter One, I just go back and put that in earlier in. I am not a linear thinker.

Other, and usually more productive, people have to know all those details before they start. THEY never end up with drawers full of half-finished projects where they lost the thread, either, but we all do it however we can. One way or the other, Fiction Writing is born in us.

I'm reminded of that old question from Psych 101, where the professor said, "A kid is lost in the woods. I can give you beaters to comb the brush, or a helicoptor to try to spot him from the air, which would you choose?"

About 90 percent of the class chose the beaters. Those of us who took the arial view were told we were "right brain" creative people, but lacked logic, because the woods might be too dense to see our kid from the air, while the beaters would search every inch.

The "beaters" were told they were "left brain" people who had little imagination. They looked at life logically and took things one step at a time, but they lacked the ability to see the whole or the end result, rather than just the first immediate next step.

I don't believe those who are "left-brain" lack in creativity or imagination. I know some wonderful writers who are able to outline in detail and who write two to five books a year. I also know how hard I've tried to do that and how flat my efforts have fallen.

The important part of this tip is -- there's no wrong way to do it. Write using whatever method works best for your individual talent. Don't force yourself into a mold created by someone else's expectations of how it "Should Be Done.

Like The Volunteer in the story above, if you chose to write fiction, go on and do as much as you can and give it your best effort.