Ramblings of an author, editor, media reviewer, homeschooling mommy, and headless chicken.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Villains We Love to Hate
There's one character I absolutely cannot stand - Thomas the footman. From the minute he stepped onto the screen in the first episode, he just ... ugh. He's insolent, prideful, disrespectful, rude, and at times downright evil. I'm sure the actor is a very nice young man, but the character just inspires total hatred in me, and I'm not used to feeling that way. I'm a very loving person as a general rule, but this guy brings out sides of me I didn't even know I had.
That is the very successful marriage of an excellent actor and an excellent script.
Throughout season one of the show, we basically just hate Thomas all the way through. But in season two, we are introduced to some of his insecurities and some of his fears. We see the things he's willing to do to survive. These added dimensions make him more real, but rather than lessening our hatred toward him, they make him someone to be pitied, someone who has chosen a life of manipulation to cope rather than trying to do things the right way.
First of all, I have to say this is absolutely brilliant. If I had the chance to speak with the writer of Downton Abbey, (Julian Fellowes) I would soak up everything he had to say about the craft of writing characters. There must be a balance between what we see them do and the reasons why they do it in order to create a well-rounded character that evokes these types of emotions in us. I hate Thomas the footman, but I love Bates the valet. I don't just dislike one and like the other - my emotional attachment goes much deeper, and it's the combination of their actions plus their motivations.
Far too often, I see books where the motivation is left out. The character will perform an action of some kind, but we don't know the reason behind it, and the action either comes across as flat, or it will seem so random that it doesn't make sense. When we know the motivation behind the action and what the character was thinking or feeling when they did it, the whole thing becomes so much richer.
This is especially true of villains. It's not enough to know that Bob is setting a bomb to go off in the building. We need to know that his girlfriend is in the building and she's been cheating on him, and he wants to see her dead. But we also need to know that he was abandoned as a baby by a mother too drunk to care for him and he was rescued from the side of the road by a truck driver, who took him to the authorities. Then Bob was passed from foster care home to foster care home until adulthood, essentially being abandoned by women in his life since the very beginning, and he just can't take it anymore. Which story is more interesting? Man setting a bomb, or a deeply troubled, tortured soul setting a bomb? And would it help to know that he plans on being inside the building when the bomb goes off so he dies too?
The point is this - when we write a villain, it's all very well and good to show the evil actions they take. But every evil action has a thought process behind it, a deep emotional need pushing it forward. If you tap into that deep emotional need when you write your villain, you create someone the reader will fear even more because they are so very real.
Now, if you'll pardon me, I need to go take a nap. I was up far too late last night watching Downton Abbey ...
Friday, May 18, 2012
Book Review: Olivia by Julie Wright
And you can purchase Olivia here.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Million Dollar Diva - Special Offer!
I've really had a lot going on lately. So much that I'm falling behind on blogging about it. Today I'd like to catch you up on one of my most exciting recent projects - the writing and publication of Million Dollar Diva.
Last year, I met bestselling authors Brett Kitchen and Ethan Kap when they asked me to edit a project for them. As we talked, we hit it off pretty well, and they asked if I'd be willing to co-author a book about finances with them. I thought that sounded like fun, so that's what we did, and the end result is Million Dollar Diva.
I didn't want this book to be a dry collection of financial facts. I mean, come on - you know me. Can you imagine me writing something like that? So we took a unique approach - the book is a conversation, and I decided to make it real and explain my own financial situation and how I was going to overcome it. This tack has really made an impact on our readers - check out this awesome article in The Daily Herald, and over on the right-hand sidebar, you'll see a list of our reviews. Everyone has really resonated with the way we laid out our finances and made real, solid changes in our lives. I think what's possibly the most exciting is the blog we set up on the Million Dollar Diva website, where I'm posting updates about our progress. It's all totally real, warts and all.
So yeah, I'm pretty proud of this book. I'm mostly proud of the way the process has changed my life, and how it's helping our readers to expand their horizons and feel hope for their own financial futures.
And I'm also pretty proud - and excited - to make you a special offer. From now until June 15th, if you click here, you can get a copy of the book for free - you just pay $5.95 shipping and handling. You can also check out the totally cute book trailer on the first page, see a video with me and Brett on the Income Amplifier page, take a minute to use the software to analyze your own financial situation - it's an awesome site, and an awesome book, and I highly recommend it. Because I helped write it. But also because it's filled with solid financial advice, humor, and hope.
If you miss the $5.95 book deal, you can order the book directly from Amazon by clicking here.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
LDS Authors Blog Hop and Book Review
Monday, May 07, 2012
It's So Cherry Super Spring Kickoff
To enter, register at www.itssocherry.com, and follow one (or more) of the participating blogs, then fill out the form below.
Contest Rules:
- Must be 16 and over
- One prize per household
- Must be registered @www.itssocherry.com
- Only valid for those living within the continental US, or with a United States mailing address
Each grand prize goodie bag will contain (1) Flower necklace set (with earrings), (1) crochet head wrap (color may vary), (1) scarf (color and style may vary), (1) package nail wraps, and (1) black wrap bracelet. We will also give away 20 pairs of barefoot sandals to 20 winners.
To enter, simply register for an account with It's So Cherry (www.itssocherry.com) and sign up for their email list. Entries will be accepted starting Monday, May 7th, until midnight, Mountain Standard time, on Friday, May 18th. Prizes will be shipped within 10 business days after contest winners have been announced. Winners will be selected using random.org, and contacted using the email provided for registration on the It's So Cherry website. Names of the goodie bag winners will be posted to participating blog sites as well as the blog for It's So Cherry, www.itssocherry.blogspot.com. Upon notification, winners will have 7 days to respond, after which another winner will be chosen.
Thanks again for participating!
Sunday, May 06, 2012
A Royal Elf of Abalon Book Tour
Anna del C. Dye was born in Valparaiso, Chile amongst some of the world’s most famous beaches. Anna resides in Taylorsville, Utah. She and her husband Rod are the parents of three princes and a princess. Anna is an accomplished, multi-award winning author. She received the Editor’s Choice Award from the International Library of Poetry. She was awarded a Bronze medal for Elfs in a Conquered Realm. The first page of her A Kingdom by the Sea received a second place. Her short story entitled Amerine—Fairy Princess won an award in the Oquirrh Writers contest and was published by Kalkion Magazine. Her article, A New American Mother, was published by Desert Saints Magazine. Other articles about family and relationships have been published frequently in the MOMS CLUB® of Salt Lake Valley-West. She is the author of The Silent Warrior Trilogy, Curse of the Elfs, and now A Royal Elf of Abalon. Anna has also published an electronic book for fifth and sixth-graders name Emerine’s Nightmare.
You can visit Anna's website here, and purchase her new release here.
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
Why Do I Do What I Do?
So why do it?
Each author has to answer that question for himself. Everyone has a driving force that propels them in the directions they go, and maybe they can explain it and maybe they can't. They just know that they need to do what they're doing. They don't feel right if they don't. Some people paint, some sing, some dance, and some write. It's what makes us feel most like us.
I would love to make a scadillion dollars with my writing. My career has really taken off in the last two years, but I'm not ready to quit my day job and buy a mansion. You definitely won't find me on a list of the wealthiest LDS authors in existence. But you know what - that's not why I do what I do.
Don't get me wrong - if I were to land a huge royalty check, I would not rip it up. Money is a pretty awesome thing, and I wouldn't mind being on the receiving end. But I've learned over the ten years I've been a published author that there are paychecks that don't come in the mail in a flat envelope. I love getting fan e-mails. I love hearing from a reader that they understand a concept of the gospel better because of the way I portrayed it in my book. I received an e-mail not too long ago from a reader whose daughter had decided to leave the Church, and because she had recently read Hang 'Em High, she had some ideas of what to say to her daughter, and was able to preserve the relationship. Those are major paychecks, let me tell you.
My biggest one ... well, let me tell you a story, because that's what I do.
I'm a descendant of the Hole in the Rock pioneers who settled the southeast corner of the state of Utah, and I'm fiercely proud of my heritage. I was blessed to have access to some family history resources, and I used them to write my novel Season of Sacrifice. In many instances, I was able to use actual wording from those family history records as I conveyed the true story of my great-great-grandparents, Benjamin and Sarah Perkins. It was a hugely uplifting spiritual experience for me as I felt them guiding me in what to say next.
My dad, their great-grandson, had written a poem about the Hole in the Rock, and I placed that in the front of the book. In all ways, I was so proud of what I had accomplished. Is it the best book I've ever written? No, because I've learned a lot since then. But I feel that it's the book I was born to write, that it's the reason I was created to be an author.
I made the decision to self-publish the book so I could produce it exactly the way I wanted. On Friday, March 14th of 2008, I took this picture:
This is my dad holding the first copy out of the box right after I picked it up from the printer. He's seeing the story of his ancestors as written by his daughter, and he is seeing his own work in print. I can't even tell you how it felt to show him that book. I had published books before that, and I have published books after that, and yet no book release before or since could compare to how I felt in that moment. That was hitting the lottery for me. That was my biggest paycheck ever.
My dad then spent the next two years of his life making sure that every cousin, aunt, uncle, and stranger on the street had a copy of this book. I couldn't have asked for a better PR manager.
Two years after this picture was taken, my father passed away.
You have no idea how glad and grateful I am that I was able to place that book in his hands when I did, so he would have time to enjoy it before he got sick. He's the one person I most wanted to please with this publication, and I did it. I can say, "I made my dad proud."
So when you ask me what I do what I do, I'll probably give you a kind of rambling answer, because it's hard to explain and it's hard to define. I just know that moments like the ones I shared with my dad are priceless. And so I'll keep doing what I do. I might never make much money doing it. I'll take it if it comes, but for me, though, that's not the main objective. I can't buy the way I felt putting that book in my dad's hands.
Find your reason for doing what you do. And you'll keep doing it. And you'll be happy.