Review: DON'T GET MAD, GET EVEN

What choices do you have when you are abused, cheated on and left with a trail of broken promises? Don’t Get Mad…Get Even. Take an inside look at Jamaican culture and lifestyle through a collection of award-winning stories. You will laugh, cry and commiserate with a compelling cast of characters, who conquer their challenges in unique ways.

 
~~J. L. Campbell's award-winning story collection not only introduces readers to a series of characters who have difficult roads to travel, but also introduces many aspects of Jamaican culture. While you might not agree with the actions of the point of view characters, the well-written stories tell the origins of their motives in vivid images.

J.L. Campbell lives in Jamaica and is always on the hunt for story-making material. She writes romantic suspense, women's fiction and young adult novels.

J. L. blogs at The Character Depot. Her books are available at Smashwords.
Check out Amazon for info on her other books: Dissolution and Contraband

Second Campaign Challenge--THE GHOST'S IMAGO

So here goes! My entry is a poem. Who knows why the target words caused this! It's 62 words. ; ) (I'm linky #33.)
 (Edited to add: Someone asked for a link to the voting, so here it is. LINK )
The Ghost’s Imago

He knew it was time--
Time to go beyond
When the maggots flew
And his miasma dissipated.
His body sank into
A lacuna, a missing space,
Where only his bones
Would remain to oscitate.

He marveled at Life and Death’s
Synchronicity
As he moved on to begin anew
With discovery of
His new destination--
A mirror of his past.

Racheal has given us a big challenge this time:

The Challenge is:

Write a blog post in 200 words or less, excluding the title. It can be in any format, whether flash fiction, non-fiction, humorous blog musings, poem, etc. The blog post should:

• include the word "imago" in the title

• include the following 4 random words: "miasma," "lacuna," "oscitate," "synchronicity,"

If you want to give yourself an added challenge (optional and included in the word count), make reference to a mirror in your post.

For those who want an even greater challenge (optional), make your post 200 words EXACTLY!

Once you’ve posted your Challenge post on your blog, pop back here and link directly to it in the Linky List below (please make sure you include the direct link to your post, not just the link to your blog!).

I've again set up the Linky List to let you "Like" entries, so make sure you come back here and vote. Winners this Challenge will be determined solely on the basis of your votes. This is an honor system, so please don't take advantage of this process either on your own or another's behalf. "Like" voting will close on Friday, October 14th.

Review: CLOSED CIRCUIT

One of the best things about getting to know writers at the Books and Writers Forum is that you know their books will be wonderful reads. Marte Brengle's Closed Circuit is a perfect example.

Set in Lyric, Iowa, Closed Circuit is  full of small town charms and heartaches with its kind-hearted people and its scoundrels. The intricate plot is full of mystery and life and will keep you turning the pages. You'll love the fully realized characters and will cheer them on as they navigate the changes in their lives.

Here's the blurb from Amazon:
Ruth Peyton is sure she has everything she needs. Her own business, a mentor, a great circle of friends, and Lyric, her lifelong home town. And then, one hot summer day, everything changes. Who are these strangers who have come to Lyric to buy Ruth's building as the first step in their mysterious plan? Will they control Lyric's future-and Ruth's? And now someone from her past is determined to draw Ruth back into a painful relationship she thought she'd put behind her. Can she make peace with the past in time to save her home town from the radical alterations that lie ahead? Or is there nothing left for her but to leave Lyric for good?

Be sure to get this book! Marte Brengle's second novel, Dutchman's Puzzle, is also available now.

Emotional Stages of Writing a Novel

~~If you haven't figured it out by now, I'll let you in on a little secret...
I'm bogged down at the moment. Too much to do and too little energy make me very bad at connecting with all the lovely writers in the Campaign. I really planned to get to at all my groups at least once a week. I'm not doing so well at that. So, I'll give you a lovely little clip to watch--The Emotional Stages of Writing a Novel. Enjoy! ; )

Decisions--First Campaign Challenge

~~The first Platform Challenge is here! And it's a challenge and a half. The instrustions are:

Write a short story/flash fiction story in 200 words or less, excluding the title. It can be in any format, including a poem. Begin the story with the words, “The door swung open” These four words will be included in the word count.

If you want to give yourself an added challenge (optional), use the same beginning words and end with the words: "the door swung shut." (also included in the word count)

For those who want an even greater challenge, make your story 200 words EXACTLY!
 Check out Rach Writes for links to other Campaigners' stories.

~~Here's my challenge story--Decisions--and it's EXACTLY 200 words. ; )

Decisions

            The door swung open.

            Lights. Sirens. Screams.

            “Oh My God!”

            “Is he dead?”

            “He just slammed into that tree!”

            A man’s face forced him to focus. “Buddy, we’ll get you out. Hang on.”

            Whump. Whump. Whump.

            “LifeFlight’s here.”

            “Good. Okay, buddy, we’ll get you out of here. Hang on.”

            Then everything faded out.

#

            “Paul. Paul. Do you hear me?”

            Beep, beep, beep.

            Pressure squeezed his arm and then released with a whoosh.

            His mouth was dry, clotted. “Uh?”

            A tall woman in green scrubs leaned over him and smiled. “Hi, Paul. Good to see you awake. It’s going to take a while, but you’ll get better. You’ll see.”

#

            Weeks. It took weeks, but he finally pieced it together. He’d been drinking, but he wasn’t more than buzzed when Harm had texted him about the card game. Yes. A card game. In a flash, he’d decided to go. Then hit a tree.

            Now it was all over. He’d hit a plateau in his healing, and he’d be stuck with that decision for the rest of his life. Traumatic Brain Injury.

            Any decision he’d make in the future got up and walked out of the door.

            The door swung shut.

P.S. I'm linky 118 at Rach Writes

Roadblocks and Detours

AKA: Plot twists wrecked by reality

~~Have you found that one of your long-planned (and fully drafted) plot twists just can't be? Of course, this is a question for those of us who write reality-based stories i.e. contemporary or historical vs. fantasy and SF. I think the last two genre allow, for more creative license.

~~That's what's happened to me recently. You'd think I'd be wailing and gnashing my teeth or, at least, tearing up, but I'm not. Really. I'm quite happy with this turn of events. I think that somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew the plot point that developed from this newly abandoned twist just couldn't happen that way. And now I know why.

~~What caused this outbreak of reality and the new, truth-based twist I'm now planning? Through a quirk of coincidence, I've been introduced to a current Department of Family and Children Services caseworker. She was thrilled to let me interview her and her reality-based information has created my shift in plot. Let's just say, I'm happy, excited, and plotting up a storm.

~~How to you handle this sort of plot upheaval? Tears or gratitude?

Terra Incognita

~~I know I've haven't been around much lately, but I promise I've been writing and I now find myself in a new place, one I've never experienced in my writing before. It's a whole new world and I'm still trying to get my feet under me and find myself on the map. Like the mariners of old, I'm wondering what sort of monsters I'll find and where the edges are.

~~I don't really write from an outline, but I do have a list of possible scenes in rough chronological order for my current work-in-progress, FRIENDLY FIRE. I write where ever the mood of the day strikes, or as Diana Gabaldon describes it, what I can see. In the last few weeks, though, I've been able to complete the first page of my scene list. Since I have the last page of the outline done already, that leaves me with the middle page, much of which I've never been able to see well enough to even take rough notes. Terra Incognita indeed! I'm feeling my way into the big middle of the plot and so far, so good. I have a plan for how to show the good and the bad that knits the start of the story to the end. Keep your fingers crossed.

~~Here's to opportunities you might be interested in:

• If you'd be interested in submitting a story to Good Old-Fashioned E-Publishing Company's "Plot Beasties" anthology, go HERE for more info. I'm happy to say that my submission, "Of Books and Bunnies," is in the editing stage with editor/publisher Ron Wodaski.
• Rachael Harrie has launched her Third Writers' Platform Building Campaign HERE. The second campaign was a hoot and a big boost for my blog, so come and join us. You have to sign up before August 31. 

~~I'll be here more often, I promise. Keep cool in the Shade.

Lightning

"God only exhibits his thunder and lightning at intervals, and so they always command attention. These are God's adjectives. You thunder and lightning too much; the reader ceases to get under the bed."

~~Mark Twain

~~If you're as amazed by that quote as I am, you are looking at it and wondering just when on earth do you use adjectives? And adverbs for that matter. We've all heard the writing rule to cut adjectives and adverbs and "use stronger verbs and concise nouns." So I have a question for you--where do you get those stronger verbs and concise nouns? Is there a nifty little list we can consult or is it trial and error, learning by doing?

~~I'm a bit tongue in cheek, but sometimes I do find it hard to find the right word that makes the sentence say what I need it to say and cut to the bone of the topic at hand. Of course, Mark Twain has a quote for that, too.

"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning."

~~So happy hunting, my fellow word sleuths. ; )