7 Things I Love About Writing

My dear friend, Ellis Vidler, an amazing writer and incredible editor, tagged me on Facebook to list seven things I love about writing.  

And you all know I love to talk about my passion.  

So I decided to list them here, and then they'll go to FB and Twitter

1) Creating the plot. I love coming up with an image in my head of a scene, and then letting it sit, deciding if it's enough to build a story around.  I love that. I only wish I'd make more time to do this more often.

2) My Characters. Well, actually it's a love/hate relationship.  I envy you writers who come up with a character and then build the story around them.  I can't seem to do that. But once I get my first draft done, I love finding out more layers, complexities and quirks of those people who live in my head often for years if I'm writing a series.  

3) Research.  I think you love it or hate it as well.  I love it. And I can literally lose myself in the minutiae of a detail.  HA. Sometimes those little things never see the light of day in the manuscript. But you know what? I'm learning.  I think I'd be great at cocktail parties, if we even have those any more.

4) I used to love writing love scenes.  All those hot and wonderful love scenes, but now I don't. It seems it's all been done. I'd rather write the lead up to it. Remember how your hearts pounds when that first kiss of passion happens.  Phew, yup, that's more fun to write.  But dear readers, what do you prefer to read?  

5) Falling in love with my story. Sounds narcissistic doesn't it?  But honestly it's not.  If I don't love it and want to spend my time with it, why do this?  

6) I love learning why my characters are afraid. Usually it's something inside me as well.  I love building their motivation for behaving badly or angelically. Why they need to do what they do. We all have motivations and they're not all stellar :)

7) Sheesh, only seven? Okay final one. I love it when I get email from my readers. When they tell me they can't wait for my next book to come out in that series. And I love when they leave reviews. Not the bad ones of course. Those make me hurt, I'm not that thick-skinned. But when some says they can't wait for the next L.A. Sartor book, my heart rejoices.  Maybe I'm doing something right after all.

There you have it. 

Warm hugs to all.

LA...you know where to find me...look to your right on the blog :)

An Award for An Indie Adventure, My Story ~ My Way

I was nominated for this award by the super talented Ellis Vidler. Thank you, Ellis.  And don't miss out on her latest book, Prime Target.

Ellis, as nominator, gets to ask me her choice of 7 questions, and let me tell you, they're not all that easy to answer.

QUESTION 1  What is the hardest kind of scene for you to write and why?

Action scenes come easier for me than scenes justifying the emotional crisis the heroine or hero is facing. Creating the crisis is easy, but justifying it so you the reader won't shake your head and throw the book down is mighty hard.

QUESTION 2  What would be in your favorite meal?

Pasta, hands down. With a glass of wine.  Favorite pasta is Fettuccine Alfredo, which is one reason my characters eat it in my Star Light~Star Bright series. The other reason is a secret, but if you ask me nicely enough, I'll tell.

QUESTION 3  What has been a special moment for you in the last year?

I've had a really good year, but the most memorable for writing...oops I have two for writing.  Making bestseller for the first time and winning the 2014 International Digital Award, both for Be Mine This Christmas Night.  (Oops #3) And, yes, preening a bit here, Forever Yours This New Year's Night made bestseller a couple of weeks ago. 

QUESTION 4  What is your favorite fairy tale?

Seriously? Wow, this one had me thinking...for a romantic fairy tale I think it would have to be Cinderella, who had to overcome that wicked Stepmother. Sure Cinderella had some help, but then it's a "fairy" tale, right? I've enjoyed Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty, and now with the modern princess, who wouldn't love Frozen or Brave...not needing that prince to make it right, but finding one anyway. 

QUESTION 5  What was your favorite class when still at school?

Not English, seriously not. Not German, or math. It was band. I loved playing the flute, and marching, and playing in concerts, or in the pit for a musical. I loved it. Only later did I grow into stage fright...now I need to rid myself of that nuisance. 

QUESTION 6  Anything you wish you’d learned earlier?

Yeah, not always to believe an authority figure. I had a teacher tell me in Jr. High that I would never be a writer because all I wanted to do was tell a story and not learn grammar. Well, my editor has now told me that one can learn grammar, but can't always learn how to tell a good story. 

QUESTION 7  What musical instrument have you played?

As I mentioned above, the flute, even through 2 years in college. When I was a wee child, we had a baby grand in the house, then dad replaced it with an organ. UGH. When my husband and I moved from our condo into our house, we bought first an upright and then a real grand. (Not a 9 footer!!) So I play, then stop for weeks, then play some more. I need to stop stopping so I can get better.  

Thanks Ellis for nominating me for this award, I hope you all have learned a bit more about me. As always, comment, ask questions, tell me your stories.

Hugs
L.A.

Last Friday Recipe - Shrimp and Grits

From the Lowcountry of South Carolina, Ellis Vidler brings you her Shrimp and Grits recipe.

Lowcountry Shrimp and Grits

About 4 servings

There are as many recipes for shrimp and grits as there are cooks in the South Carolina Lowcountry. This is mine, tweaked until I think it’s right. I don’t make this often, and I don’t skimp on calories when I do. Skip lunch if you have to, but enjoy it. This dish is a treat to savor.

The secret is in the grits. Plain grits cooked for a few minutes in water don’t do it. They must be cooked for roughly 30 minutes for quick grits (never use instant) or an hour for stone ground grits. Don’t let the grits set. Use low heat and stir frequently.

I’m a “some of this and a little of that” cook, but I tried to measure for this.

Grits
1/2 cup ground grits (not instant)

2 to 3 tablespoons butter
About 2 cups chicken stock
1 cup heavy cream, more if needed
Salt and pepper to taste

5 slices of bacon, cooked separately

1. Cook bacon and save drippings in a separate dish. Don’t wash the skillet—save it for the shrimp. Crumble the cooked bacon and divide into 2 piles, one larger than the other. Set aside for now.

2. Bring chicken stock to a boil in a saucepan and stir in the grits, a bit of bacon drippings, and butter.

3. Return to a boil, and reduce the heat to almost low, allowing the grits to simmer for about 10 minutes, until the grits are thick and have absorbed most of the liquid, stirring occasionally to prevent the grits from sticking.

4. Add about ½ cup of the milk or cream to the pot and turn down the heat, allowing the grits to simmer for another 10 minutes or so. Add salt and pepper to taste.

5. As the liquid evaporates or is absorbed, add more cream or milk, cooking the grits until they are the desired consistency, a total cooking time of 30 minutes to an hour. NOTE: Start the shrimp sauce about 15 minutes before the grits will be done. If you use quick grits, they will thicken a lot faster.

6. Near the end, stir in the smaller pile of bacon bits.

Serve grits hot with the shrimp.

Shrimp
Shrimp, peeled and de-veined

Bacon drippings from cooked bacon
1 tablespoon light olive or other light oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon or so of garlic, chopped
3 chopped spring onions (some people add chopped tomato for color)
1 tablespoon basil, chopped fine
A teaspoon or so of flour to thicken (optional)
1/2- to 3/4 cup heavy cream
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

About 15 minutes before grits will be done

1. In the bacon skillet, pour off excess fat. Heat the oil and butter to medium-hot and then add the shrimp. Sprinkle lightly with salt. Cook for about one minute on each side or until just barely pink. Remove from skillet and set aside. Lower heat. NOTE: If the shrimp are already cooked, sear them in a hot skillet for several seconds—just enough to enhance the taste.

2. Add a little of the bacon drippings, garlic, and onions to the skillet, and cook until onions are transparent. Pour off some of the fat if there’s much. If you want thicker gravy, take skillet off the burner and stir in a little flour.

3. Add cream into the fat and pan scrapings. Use enough to make a good gravy for the shrimp. Reduce to a sauce consistency.

4. A couple of minutes before serving, return the shrimp and half the remaining bacon crumbles to the sauce. Add the basil. Cook for just a minute or two. Salt and pepper to taste and serve over hot grits. Sprinkle with the remaining bacon crumbles.

We serve it with a salad and vinaigrette dressing.

Hope you like it.

Ellis

LA: Ellis, I can't wait to make this. In Colorado, it's not easy to find good grits, but the search is on. I'll order them if I can't find them. My husband and I love grits! And shrimp! And bacon! So what's not to love about this recipe? Nothing, bon appetite.

 

Ellis Vidler is the author of mystery suspense books with a touch of romance.

She maintains a blog, mostly about writing and writers, at http://theunpredictablemuse.blogspot.com

Her website is http://www.ellisvidler.com.

Time Of Death ~ Excerpt From Ellis Vidler's Latest Book

And the winner is . . . Theresa! She won the book. Theresa, please let me know what you want, print or eBook, Cold Comfort or Time of Death. :-) Email me at ellis@ellisvidler.com

Time of Death. Artist Alex Jenrette’s psychic streak is awakening after a long, quiet spell. When violence is near, she’s compelled to draw, and her sketches reflect the events she’s never seen.

The Excerpt:

“You’re drawing again.” Isobel picked up one of the loose pages and examined it. “Are the visions coming back?”

The charcoal stick gripped in Alex’s hand darted across the sheet in front of her as if driven by its own will. “Umm, maybe,” she mumbled, barely aware of the question. Under her fingers, angry waves churned against the shore. Like flotsam rising to the surface of the sea, a dark figure emerged in the wake of the flying charcoal. She grabbed a scarlet pastel, smeared it through the water around the body.

As suddenly as it had come, the tension drained from her. She dropped the chalk and leaned back, rubbing her temples. “Blood. A man in the water.”

“You haven’t done this since the boy in Asheville, have you?”

Isobel massaged her shoulders, and Alex arched her back, leaning into her aunt’s hands. “This is the first time.”

“Any idea where this one is?”

“No. Only a man in water. Ocean, judging from the waves, but I don’t know where.” Alex focused on the sketch, trying to see more, find something to locate the scene, but nothing else came to her. She yawned. “It’s gone now.” Nearly a year had passed since the last visions rendered themselves through her hands. It happened shortly after Ty’s death, when she was more vulnerable, maybe more open to the spiritual world. She hoped that was the end of the unwelcome drawings, but she’d known they’d return if violence came near.

“Is he dead?”

“Yes, I’m sure of it.” Alex couldn’t help this man. In Asheville, the boy had been alive. The police, convinced she was a nut case, ignored her until one of the searchers recognized the cave entrance from her sketch. He led the police to the place, where they found the child, terrified and suffering from exposure, tethered to a stake in the cold floor. Exactly as her drawings showed.

“There’s no need to go to the police.” Alex shivered, recalling the relentless interrogations, the suspicion her drawings engendered. How could she know those details unless she was involved, they reasoned. Psychic phenomena weren’t covered in the police manual.

“Then leave it. You can’t help him.” Isobel’s matter-of-fact voice reassured her. “Let’s have lunch.”

 

The Blurb:

 

Time of Death by Ellis Vidler

While visiting near Charleston, South Carolina, an artist draws scenes of murder she can’t explain.

Alex, the artist. After a tree falls on her house, she joins her aunt on an unspoiled island, but something wakens her family psychic streak. She draws eerily accurate scenes of violence, but she knows nothing about them.

Connor, the prosecutor. He’s building a case against a drug lord one piece of evidence at a time. For him it’s personal, and he can’t risk a relationship with a witness, especially a psychic who’ll blow his case out of the water. 

Rollins, the killer. He’s a cog in a much bigger wheel, and the witness to his acts of violence threatens his operation and his life. He’ll do anything to see that doesn’t happen.

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A02GD68

 

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Remember, if you'd like to be in the drawing for a copy of this book, leave your comment here or on the prior blog post.

 

Hope you enjoyed the excerpt.  I did and I'm hooked.  Off to buy to book...

 

Ciao,

~ LA

 

 

Ellis Vidler ~ Square Pegs, Round Holes, and Self-Publishing

I can't tell you how thrilled I am to have Ellis Vidler as my guest today.  She is one talented lady, and incredibly nice to boot. What a combination.

 

Ellis lives and writes in South Carolina ~ Piedmont (which is what the upstate, northwestern part of the state is referred as.) She's also an editor and has taught fiction writing. Her books, available at Amazon.com, are suspense with varying degrees of romance.

 

She maintains a blog, mostly about writing and writers, at http://theunpredictablemuse.blogspot.com

 

Her website is http://www.ellisvidler.com.

 

Please join me in welcoming Ellis to An Indie Adventure.

 

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Square Pegs, Round Holes, and Self-Publishing

One of the reasons I chose to self-publish my new book is that I’m not a genre purist.

 

Back when I was submitting to agents, I got many compliments on the writing, the characters, and so on. But then they asked for changes to better fit the genre, or they rejected it outright, saying it wouldn’t be marketable as either romance or suspense, because it either had too much or too little of whatever. My square pegs didn’t fit their round holes. This went on for several years, and I got discouraged, to say the least. 

 



Link to Book

Then Amazon opened my eyes. I self-published The Peeper, a police procedural/suspense (with a little romance) with Jim Christopher, a retired LEO  and my co-author. It got good reviews and sold reasonably well—a very encouraging development.(An aside here: LEO...Law Enforcement Officer, who knew~L.A.)

Link to Book

I was about to self-publish Cold Comfort, another suspense novel with “strong romantic elements,” when I met Karen Syed of Echelon Press. Fortunately, she’s not a genre hardliner. She released it last December because the heroine owns a Christmas shop, but that meant a year’s wait for me. I no longer have that kind of patience.

 

So now I’m committed to self-publishing. As long as we have the ability and means to ensure that it’s a quality publication, I’m for it. I have several readers who point out errors, plot holes, and factual mistakes in my books.

 

Time of Death had all of those—everything from a character picking up a pack of cigarettes in a store (I didn’t realize they’re kept behind the counter now) to one of the dreaded TSTL moments for my heroine. I hope I and my readers spotted them all. I know it’s a much better book now, but a few glitches always slip through. (Another aside:TSTL...Too Stupid To Live)

  

Link to Book

 Self-publishing still carries a stigma.

 

One reason is that many authors put their book out as soon as it’s completed, not realizing it needs serious, honest input from others. We can’t view our babies objectively—you know the old saw: “Every old crow thinks hers is the prettiest in the patch.” True. We do. We see what we think we typed, we’re convinced it all makes sense because we know the story, and we include “facts” we’re so sure of we don’t bother to check them.

The article on covers featured on this blog a few weeks ago offered some excellent advice. Covers are extremely important, even more so with eBooks. Try for a professional-looking cover that speaks for your book—it’s worth it. And make sure it looks good as a thumbnail. That’s how most readers first see it.

So hooray for Amazon and self-publishing! Let us not abuse the opportunity. J

Leslie, I love your new book, Dare to Believe. Good story!

Thanks for having me today.

Ellis

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Thank you, Ellis, for your candor.  And lucky us, she's giving a copy, either digital or print of Time of Death to one lucky person who leaves a comment.

 

And lucky us again, there will be an excerpt from this book on Saturday the 8th. 

 

Comments from this post and the excerpt will be entered in the drawing.   

 

Ciao

L.A.