Posts Tagged ‘book’
Novelist as shrink
So I’m re-reading Sweet Salt Air and seeing remarks about my characters’ emotional baggage. Take this brief excerpt. Charlotte, the main voice in Sweet Salt Air, is trying to explain to her BFF Nicole why she has never married. “What terrifies me,” Charlotte said in a measured way, speaking from the heart as she couldn’t…
Read MoreA watershed moment for SWEET SALT AIR
I do try to blog several times a week, but it’s been ten days since my last post, and you loyal readers have Sweet Salt Air to blame. I’ve reached a critical point in the book – three hundred pages done, with the final climactic hundred ready to go. But … but … but ……
Read MoreWhy do I blog?
Let me make one thing clear. I don’t blog to express a political opinion. As a novelist, my taking a stand on anything political or religious is disastrous. When I talked here last week about civil discourse, it was to vent not about what we say but how we say it. So there you go…
Read MoreThe how-to of collecting maple sap
Have you ever had pure maple syrup? Once you have, the other never quite works for you again. Pure maple syrup is deep in color, rich in taste, goes down slowwwww-ly, and lingers wherever it lands. It is sweet without containing the kinds of processed sugars we’re told to avoid, which makes it a super…
Read MoreWhat is a BFF?
Do you have a BFF? Nicole and Charlotte, of Sweet Salt Air, are that – at least until Charlotte confesses to having wronged Nicole in a totally reprehensible way. Nicole is devasted. “I thought you were my BFF,” she cries in the scene I just wrote, and goes on to say, “A BFF is supposed…
Read MoreHow emotional am I writing my characters’ emotions?
I’m on a Sweet Salt Air roll, so this blog won’t be long. But I’m asked this question often. Do I feel what I write? If my characters are shocked, do I feel the shock? If they’re heartsick, do I cry? And yes – someone recently asked this in a blog comment – if they’re…
Read MoreDowntime
I did nothing last weekend. Nothing. And it was hard. I am fully serious when I say that. I’m not used to doing nothing. I kept jumping up,ready to do laundry or pay bills or check email or blog. For me, doing is a visceral thing. I’m a workaholic, but you may have already guessed…
Read MoreWhat makes for a good book discussion
My book group met Monday night, and I nearly didn’t go. I’m not big on war books, and Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken is that. Honestly? I wasn’t planning to read it. I don’t read much anyway when I’m deep into the writing of a book, and I’m about as deep into Sweet Salt Air as I…
Read MoreMy racy past
Type my name into Amazon, then sort by publication date, and you’ll find books of mine that you’ve never heard of. Take First, Best and Only. Originally published in 1986, a first-ever hardcover edition is coming in March. I didn’t know this until I checked the Amazon list myself, which is often the only way…
Read MoreHow to write a sex scene
I’ve written sex scenes, oh have I written sex scenes. I’ve written twelve-page ones, six-page ones, one-page ones. I’ve also written two-paragraph sex scenes, and they’re just as special as the longest of the long. The reason? It’s all about the feeling behind the sex. I came to this understanding through trial and error, so…
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