Outlining Your Novel may just map your way to success

Book/Product Review

Outlining Your Novel, Map Your Way to Success by K.M. Weiland

ISBN 978-097-892-462-1

186 pages ©2011 $9.95

"Outlining is the dry erase board where we unveil our ideas and see how they line up on the page."

According to K.M. Weiland, outlining has many benefits and encourages wide open throttle creativity once it's in place. 

After reading this book, I'm convinced outlining, of some sort, is the work, the preparatory work, of a good novel or non-fiction worked.

With an outline, Weiland informs, cajoles and encourages, you ensure balance and cohesion, prevent dead end ideas form ever getting half written to flounder and die. You see places to foreshadow novel events with an outline. The writer can smooth out the pacing, maintain consistent character voice throughout so readers come to know and like your character, if not trust them.

Character motivation drives the story toward a satisfying conclusion. Seeing the whole picture in outline form allows you to tweak and adjust and show character motivation, as necessary and encouraged.

Each chapter of this book has a check list the writer/reader can use to keep tabs on her progress. Interviews with best-selling authors, how they outline, and why separate the chapters and give the book an added sense of authority.

Whether you are writing your first book or your fiftieth book, you will find tips to make your next book the best yet. The ugly duckling of outlining will change your mind as you see the swan emerge from the dark dust of your right and left brain battle to write the next best seller.

I highly recommend "Outlining Your Novel", for anyone with dreams of writing. Especially, perfect if you're gearing up for the annual National Novel Writing Month in November or any or the other challenges that writers face, like deadlines.

Rip Off By Mar Preston - a review by Billie A Williams

Rip-Off, reviewed by Billie A Williams

Murder mystery by Mar Preston

ISBN 13 – 978-0-9844952-3-8

ISBN 10 098-44952-3-1

Mar Preston hits the ground running when she penned Rip-Off. "…the first forty-eight hours of a homicide investigation were golden. Mason isn't about to let his crew slack off as tired as they are, time is critical, he leaves no room for excuse for either himself or his investigators. "

Rip-Off is set in Santa Monica, California and the reader instantly can feel Mar Preston's command of the territory. Rip-Off is a different kind of mystery in that it deals with an unusual theme. While murder is not that unusual, condo embezzlement is unique. A vagrant, or a street person, found dead in an expensive condo belonging to a man of money is not usual. 

Detective Dave Mason, protagonist, has his hands full trying to tie all the loose cannons in this story into a neat non-volatile package. 

If you enjoy a good police procedural you'll enjoy working the case with the interesting characters in Rip-Off. It's a good read if you can keep the characters straight as Preston untangles the mix before your eyes.

Candlelight and Shadows, a mystery

If you enjoy a page turner full of tension and tenderness, I recommend Candlelight and Shadows penned by Billie A. Williams.  To read it is like sitting down to cozy tea with a big-hearted and witty story-teller.

Jean Larson

Retired United Methodist pastor and author obscure

Though the above is the new cover for Candlelight and Shadows you may find it on Amazon or other place with this cover 

Mysterious is Not Necessarily From a Mystery Writer

Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900) Born in Dublin Ireland

Irish Playwright and essayist was a flamboyant and sharp witted writer who exposed the hypocrisies of Victorian society. He was a firm believer in art for art sake.  His colorful personal life, and eccentricities as well as his effected demeanor drew much attention to him even before he became an acclaimed literary genius. His printed words live on.

Most of his works were written in the 1890’s. His first book, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) was not as well received as his plays. His barbed comedy aimed at the attitudes and habits of the affluent of British society. “An Ideal Husband (1895) was about a blackmail attempt on a public official. It would seem that play or at least it’s morale repeats itself every year or so, only the venue changes.

While not a mystery writer, per se, Oscar Wilde reveals the flaws in societies fabric. As the rich and famous so often find, with fame they no longer own their life. Homosexuality was not taken lightly back then and after two years of hard labor, his sentence for exercising his sexual preference, he died a penniless pauper in 1900. The imprisonment did not dull the importance of his life’s work, however.

“America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between” Oscar Wilde 1882 a comment he made when he was on a tour in the US

Information gleaned from: The Intellectual Devotional, Revise your mind, complete your education, and roam confidently with the cultured class. David S. Kidder & Noah D. Oppenheim ©2006 Rodale

No Place Like Home by Mary Higgins Clark - a review

No Place Like Home

By Mary Higgins Clark

ISBN 0-7432-6489-4

Simon & Schuster 2005©

Readers often ask, “Where did you get the idea for that story?” In the case of No Place Like Home a New Jersey law was the source for Mary Higgins Clark.  A real estate law to be specific, but to be more specific a real estate agent must inform prospective buyers if the home he/or she considers purchasing carries a stigma that might cause psychological damage to the purchaser. Like ghosts haunting the place or other sinister things connected with the facility.

As a prelude—or an introduction that gives the reader a chill and sets the stage for what might be coming next, Clark includes the oft repeated chant…

            “Lizzie Borden took an ax

            And gave her mother forty whacks

            When she saw what she had done

            She gave her father forty one.”

An unthinkable crime, a child killing a parent, and wounding another. Ten-year old Liza Barton, in a dreadful scene of domestic abuse, is awakened by an argument between her mother and her estranged stepfather. She accidentally shoots her mother she was trying to protect her from that stepfather. She is arrested, but the judge finds her not guilty.

 Exonerated by the justice system, but not the town or her conscience, Liza is taken in by distant relatives from across the country, California cousins. Liza is given a new name to protect her and help her get a new start on life. Celia, twenty-four years later divorced and remarried receives a birthday gift from her second husband. He buys her a house, it turns out to be the house of her childhood, the house in Mendham, New Jersey where she killed her mother and wounded her step father.

The terror she thought she left behind resurfaces as they are about to move in to the new place. The lawn and house are marked up with messages of the old…Little Lizzie’s Place—Beware is painted on the front lawn. A skull and cross bones is carved into the mahogany front door, a doll with a toy gun is propped against that door and the siding is splotched with red paint.

“Blood. It wasn’t paint. It was Mother’s blood. I could feel my arms and neck and face becoming sticky with her blood.” Liza/Celia is transported back to that dreadful day.

Her husband is outraged. The real estate agent is beside herself with embarrassment and Lisa/Celia is ready to collapse, but dares not show the terror she feels.  Not until she can prove her innocence to her husband before she tells him or the town who she really is.

It all gets worse from here on out. Who knows her—who remembers what she did—why harass her all these years after she received an innocent verdict? Does her stepfather have anything to do with this?

The reader will fly through the pages, sharing Liza/Celia’s terror and fear so thick it is nearly palpable, all the way to the end. Hoping for a solution, some good in Liza’s life, wanting her to find peace and recognition as the innocent person she is. In a word this is an unputdownable recommended read.

No One Heard Her Scream, by Jordan Dane

A review from Linda Hutchinson who will host Jordan Dane next on her blog tour.

Debut author Jordan Dane was in top form at the first stop of The Writer's Chatroom's "SHOW--NOT TELL" virtual book tour at the blog home of Billie Williams. http://printedwords.blogspot.com

Next stop? My own blog: http://reviewhutch.blogspot.com on March 8th.

Please feel free to leave comments. Since Jordan has thrown a contest into the fray, your comments automatically enter you into a drawing for one of FIVE $20 gift cards to—what else?—a great bookstore. Winners will be announced at the live “Launch P-A-R-T-Y!” on March 30th at THE WRITER'S CHATROOM. We'll also be drawing for those valuable first copies of NO ONE HEARD HER SCREAM at the party.

Here's my review:

Title: No One Heard Her Scream

by Jordan Dane

Avon Harper Collins

ISBN: 9780061252785

Dani Montgomery is but one of the missing, and presumed dead, young women from around San Antonio, TX. She is the focus, and the force, of tough homicide detective Rebecca Montgomery. When Becca is told to stay away from the investigation into Dani’s disappearance, her boss puts her on another case—that of a body found behind a brick wall in an old theater that has been torched.

As Becca investigates the crime scene she realizes she’s being watched by more than one stranger, but one is deliciously tall, dark and dangerous. When she visits the former owner of the theater, a notorious mob boss, she is loathe to find her stranger is his enforcer.

Becca trusts her gut to tie it all together, with the help of one watchful stranger and without the help of the other.

Piecing together evidence at the theater gives rise to the title. NO ONE HEARD HER SCREAM by debut author Jordan Dane is a romantic thriller with all the great elements; intrigue, debauchery, retribution and redemption—with libido to match.

Reviewed by: Linda J. Hutchinson http://www.lindajhutchinson.com/

Unique to You Writing

There are so many ways to use your writing talents. You don’t need to be a New York Times best selling novelist. You may aspire to be a journalist, a magazine columnist, or a plethora of other writing careers, where your writing is important and sharable. Perhaps you are in the healthcare field and would like to share your experiences with others. Maybe you are a traveling nurse for example. You could combine your career, your travel and your writing as Epi Larue does at http://travelnursinghighway.blogspot.com/ Or educating nurses about new technology and more at http://21stcenturynursing.blogspot.com/

As a genealogist you would be more than apt to find fodder for stories from ancestors as Janet Elaine Smith does in her Keith Trilogies. To see some of the creative uses she has for her research into her family tree http://www.janetelainesmith.blogspot.com/ . She proves history (including family history) does not need to be boring. She proves you can take what you know and what you need to know, what you love and you want to share in more then one direction. A deep subject handled with a light hearted approach becomes a lesson learned without being aware you learned it.

Your faith, your belief in others combined with your writing skills can lead to much enjoyment and satisfaction for your readers as well as you. It is a marriage of talent and careers that makes rainbows possible. Helping others help themselves sometimes is managed when teacher meets the student. As a writer you know other writers, a good place to exercise your talents, flex your career muscles and help others is through author interviews or book reviews. Joyce Anthony does both with a flare and so much more.
http://joyceanthony.tripod.com/blog

Sometimes you can reach people with humor more then serious nagging. Sometimes your lessons in life can help another to smooth sailing. Look at the Chicken Soup for the soul books — in some small way your writing can do the same. If you are an author, if you have an experience that could help others in their struggle to cope in a sometimes perplexing world — write it, send it out. If you touch one life you will have accomplished a great deal. There are light hearted ways to deal with a plethora of angst, except a depressed or struggling individual rarely sees them. Even in writing you may experience something others can learn from. http://www.talkingallthingswrite.blogspot.com/ Allyn Evans shares some of the lessons she has learned the hard way. It can surely lighten your load, but also sharpen your pencil.

You may be saying all well and good, so I write. How do I know my writings good enough? How do I get my manuscript polished so that it is accepted by publisher, agent, magazine or whatever venue I’ve chosen? http://www.thefrugaleditor.blogspot.com/ will surely offer you enough help to answer these questions and more.

A good critique group will help you gain confidence, while helping you shape your writing. Do some research on them, test out a couple. Pick one that is compatible with you, not all of them are. The watch, listen, learn, test, and go for the brass ring.

Then you will more then likely ask If I do find a publisher or I self-publish my worries are over right? That my friend is a knotty situation, with solutions. Very few publishers, (certainly if you self-publish) have marketing plans in place for you. You will very likely be left to your own devices – you need to market and promote and yes even if they do—you still should because, who knows more about your book then you. Who has the passion that wrote the book in the first place? Who believes in it enough to want it to succeed? You had a message you wanted to deliver when you started writing. In order to deliver that message you must get your book into the intended audience’s hands. How do you do that? There is help everywhere, but a good place to start would be http://www.authroscoalition.blogspot.com/ or visit http://www.carolynhowardjohnson.com/ for another one of her writer helps, The Frugal book Promoter by Carolyn Howard Johnson or Janet Elaine Smith’s Promo Paks (soon to be available in print as well as e-book) will offer you many low or no cost ways to jump start your promotional efforts.

Writing is so much more than putting words on a page. Sharing what you know or what you want to know about can take as many forms as there are methods and genres to present your work. Knowledge is everywhere with the internet all you need to do is search.

The pen is indeed mightier than the sword. http://www.warpeacetolerance.blogspot.com/.