Posted by: Author | February 3, 2014

My Writing Process- Jillian Chantal

I’m participating in the 2014 writing process blog hop at the invitation of my friend, J Rose Allister. This is a fun, informative group of posts. Her post was last week but you can still see it by clicking here.

I was supposed to find three people to keep this going into next week but it didn’t happen for various reasons.

1) What am I working on?

I’m currently working on getting three stories polished to submit. I finished one last week so I need to get these out on submission before I start a new one.

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I’m not flowery and long-winded. I move my stories along at a fast pace and leave a lot of the description to the imagination of the reader. I tend to skim a lot of what I call excess prose when I read so I try to leave that out of my own work.

3) Why do I write what I do?

I write what moves me at the moment. I like mysteries so I love to add that to my work but I also am a fan of things ending on a happy note so I write romance a lot. I have a few stories that aren’t romances but they are published under another name.

4) How does my writing process work?

I write non-lineraly most of the time. I like to choose music to go with my stories. I will jot down songs that speak to me at a certain moment and make a playlist for the next story while I’m working on the current story. Once I finish my current work, I immerse myself in the new playlist and ideas for plot and characters come to me. I then start to write and usually get the ending of the book about 5 chapters into it so then I write that and maybe the second to last chapter. I also sometimes think of random scenes I will write and then plug them in where they fit.

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Posted by: Author | January 31, 2014

Friday Fact- January 31, 2014- Ice in the South

This Friday Fact is for the world at large to know why an ice and snow storm shuts down the south. We are in a tropical zone and therefore we don’t have the equipment readily available to clear roads from ice and snow. I have lived in the Florida panhandle for many, many years and we may have ice storms once every three to four years. Snow much less often. To keep snow plows and those type vehicles here and ready to roll is not economic in the least. Our normal temps for January through the beginning of March are 60s in the daytime and maybe, just maybe, 40s in the nights. We do sometimes get 20s and 30s but since we are also the “sunshine” state, these low temps aren’t accompanied by precipitation and it would be ludicrous for us to spend the funds to have these items as well as for salaries for workers who know how to run them and keep them in good condition.

Our county government called for shut-downs early before this storm hit as they knew that we have no equipment for keeping roads clear nor for buses to run in sleet and ice. Kids needed to be off those buses and workers needed to be off the interstate. In fact, it took til close to noon on Thursday before I-10 was open here in Pensacola to give the sun time to melt the ice.

Birmingham (where I lived in law school) has way more ice and snow days than us and so does Atlanta. I was surprised that those cities didn’t close schools this week sooner than they did. It was always going to be a bad storm and they had plenty of notice about it.

For the folks in the north to make fun of us for shutting down our city over 2 inches of snow, I say, poo on you. Try having your snow without proper equipment and see how it affects you. AND remember, when we have heat waves down here, people survive. Our death toll from heat waves is low because we have the equipment to handle the tropics.

It’s all a matter of perspective.

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Posted by: Author | January 30, 2014

New Release- “Some Minutes Last a Lifetime”

The third of the weekend reads series, The Minute Series, is out. It came out last weekend but this is the first chance I’ve had to put it up on the old blog. This one is called Some Minutes… Last a Lifetime and takes place in Rome, Italy.

This is the one with the older heroine and hero. SomeMinutesLastaLifetime_MED
BUY LIMK
Blurb:
Antoinette Blake traveled to London to visit her daughter and met her favorite actor, Adam Knowles. They’ve fallen hard for each other and, several weeks later, are in Rome, Italy on a vacation. They spend a lovely afternoon strolling around the Colosseum and feasting on gelato in a sidewalk café. Upon returning to their hotel, they run into Adam’s former lover, Cammy Suarez, a sexy American actress who tries to woo Adam back into her arms. Cammy is a much younger woman than Antoinette which causes Antoinette’s insecurities about her own age to rise to the surface, threatening her relationship with Adam.

Adam’s own frustration over Antoinette’s doubts about his love and what he believes to be her irrational behavior as a result of her jealousy of the younger woman make him doubt that he can continue to try to make Antoinette the center of his life.

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Posted by: Author | January 29, 2014

Wordless Wednesday

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Posted by: Author | January 27, 2014

Tuesday Tales- January 28, 2014- Mirror

Today’s word prompt is mirror. I was concerned about fitting this one in since one of the first “rules” of writing I was told was that I should never, ever have my character look in a mirror and describe her long, flowing hair and crystal blue eyes. So, see if I succeeded in keeping the rule intact.

I’m still in the 1950s at Edwards Air Force base and writing about Rick and Vivian.

Click here for the other tales of the week. Badge for TT - very small

The local news channel’s reporter stood in the foreground of the shot. Behind him was a plume of smoke far out on the horizon. “As you can see, the wreckage is quite a few miles away. We still have no word on the condition of any survivors. We have a man on the way to the site who’ll bring us an update as soon as they arrive at the scene.”

“Come on. I’m locking up. I need to get out there and see what’s going on.” Mr. Jameson snapped off the television.

“I want to come with you.” Vivian stood and scrubbed her face with the heels of her hands.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Mr. Jameson said.

“Why not?”

“You seem quite upset and if there’s a fatality out there, it could affect you much more than it is here at headquarters.”

“Mr. Jameson, I think Vivian is more concerned about checking on Captain Logan than she is for herself.”

“I can understand that, Mary Lou but I think it would be better for you to take your sister home to wait for news there. As the head of the Republican party here, I’ll have to be talking with some of the military brass and seeing what we can do—”

“To what? To make the party look good in this terrible situation?” Mary Lou asked, the horror in her voice palpable.

“Of course not, young lady. What I was trying to convey is that the party will want to be a presence on the scene and brief the president along with the military brass. With President Eisenhower due to arrive in the next week, he’s going to want to be prepared to deal with the fallout of this and I need to be out there gathering information.” He turned to Vivian. “Come. Let’s lock up. I’ll call you when I know more information than the media is giving out.”

“Let me go wash my face first. You go ahead. I’ll lock up and put out the closed sign.” Vivian walked over to the sink. She heard the door close as she looked at her face in the mirror. She didn’t think she’d ever seen herself so pale and bug-eyed. If she wasn’t so upset about what was going on at the base and her stomach wasn’t so tied up in knots that it was cramping, she might have laughed at herself. The way her heart hurt, she wasn’t sure she’d ever laugh again.

“Are you going to be all right?” Mary Lou called over to Vivian.

“I think so. I’m a little nauseous but as soon as I wash my face, I’ll be ready to go.” Vivian turned on the water and splashed some on her cheeks. She patted them dry and turned off the water. “Let’s go.”

On her way out the door, Vivian grabbed her purse and dug out her lipstick to put some on in the car. She may be pale and scared but she always wore lipstick.

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Posted by: Author | January 27, 2014

My Writing Process – J Rose Allister

I’m participating in the 2014 writing process blog hop at the invitation of my friend, J Rose Allister. This is a fun, informative group of posts. Mine will be up next week but this week, check out hers here.

I need three volunteers to play along the next week. Let me know if you’re interested. It’s a chance to share your process and what you’re working on.

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Posted by: Author | January 24, 2014

Friday Fact- January 24, 2014- Patronymic

A patronymic is a name derived from the name of a father or grandfather or other ancestor (it comes from Greek for father which is pater). It’s interesting to me that most every culture has these type of names. It is formed by adding with a prefix or suffix to a name. Here are some examples: Richardson is Richard + son, so initially, it was the son of Richard. Same suffix addition for Johnson, Smithson and Anderson. Cool, huh?

For Scottish names, add Mc or Mac- such as McDonald or MacArthur.

For some Hispanic names, add ez- Hernando’s son would be Hernandez.

Russians add ich or ovich for men and ovna or evna for women so the son of Pyotr (Peter) would be Petrovich and the daughter would be Petrovna- same kind of thing for Sergey- son= Sergeyevich and daughter= Sergeyevna.

The prefix Fitz in English started out as a surname for the illegitimate children of royalty- so if you know a Fitzpatrick or a Fitzwilliam, chances are, somewhere in their family line was a royal child born, as they say, on the wrong side of the blanket, to either Patrick or William.

My dad’s first name is Donald so back in earlier times, my name may have been Donaldson or had he been a cheating on his wife kind of king, perhaps Fitzdonald. LOL

What’s a patronymic you might have had?

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Posted by: Author | January 22, 2014

Wordless Wednesday- January 22, 2014

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Posted by: Author | January 20, 2014

Tuesday Tales- January 21, 2014- Hill

This week’s word is HILL. I’m still working on the 1950s set story. Since it is set in 1956, I asked my dad what his favorite song was when he was sixteen. He said it was Blueberry Hill by Fats Domino or I’m Walkin’ by Fats Domino. I love them both myself and researched their release dates and since I’m Walkin‘ was released in 1957, I used Blueberry Hill in the story. Imagine how cool it was when I saw that the prompt for this week was hill. Worked out great, didn’t it?

Anyway, to see the other entries from the other Tuesday Tales writers, click here. You’ll enjoy them.
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Once the waitress left the table, Rick pulled a couple of napkins from the metal pop up dispenser on the table. “Do you have a pen?”

“Sure. Let me find it.” Vivian opened her purse and shuffled through the contents.

“While you’re looking, I’m going to play something on the jukebox. Any particular thing you want to hear?” He slid out of the booth.

“How about that one that’s kind of new by Fats Domino?”

“Blueberry Hill? You like that one?”

Vivian nodded.

“There might be hope for you yet then.” Rick strolled over to the jukebox and spent a few minutes reading the list of songs and feeding it money.

When he returned, he had to stand to one side while the waitress placed a tray with their plates and drink glasses on the tabletop. Rick helped unload the tray then sat.

“What did you mean when you said there may be hope for me?” Vivian figured she was walking into a trap as she asked the question but she couldn’t help herself.

“That song is all about finding a thrill and if you like it, maybe you aren’t as adverse to thrills as you’d like me to believe.”

The grin on his face really needed wiping off with a smart remark but she decided she wouldn’t say anything since she asked for it. Instead of talking, she bit into her sandwich and chewed.

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Posted by: Author | January 17, 2014

Friday Facts- January 17, 2014- The Capitol Records Building

220px-Capitol_Records_Building_LAThe Capital Records building in Los Angeles is a cool building and was the first circular office building. It was built in 1956. It has a number of recording studios in it and at one time was called “The House that Nat Built” as a tribute to Nat King Cole who contributed financially to it.

The blinking light on the top of the tower has spelled out “Hollywood” in Morse Code since the place opened. Interestingly, the daughter of Samuel Morse is the one who flipped the switch to turn it on. I like the significance of that. For a brief time in 1992, it flashed “Capitol 50” to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the label.

The Tower was in the movies Earthquake and The Day after Tomorrow. Did you remember that? The funny thing is, the building is actually earthquake resistant and was constructed to be so. I love that they showed it collapsing in the movie.

This is a really awesome looking building and you can’t miss it if you drive in Hollywood.

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