Sunday Sundries--Which Sense Is Primary?

I used to run a bookstore. A long time ago, granted, but for almost ten years, every month, I would spend time clearing out over stocked and old titles that hadn't sold. Mass market paperbacks are returned by tearing off the cover and sending it back to the publisher. The trade paperbacks and hardcovers were returned whole copy, of course.

But, as the mass markets originated during World War II to send overseas to soldiers, they were printed on cheaper paper.

They weren't meant to be returned for credit whole copy. Because I was manager and on salary, I got to finish pulling and "stripping" these paperbacks, keeping track of the number of each covers I was sending back and disposing of the books.

Except, some didn't get disposed of properly. I'll admit it. we were supposed to tear out the first bunch of pages and put the stripped books in the trash compactor. Excuse me, but at 3 a.m., it sometimes didn't get done. Also, there were books that I wanted to read, damn it.

So, that is how I ended up spending a summer reading through three grocery bags of stripped Regency romances. Many of the big name authors started out writing for the different series. Signet/New American Library put out four to six a month and there were several other lines too.

One Regency author I got to meet at an early Romance Writers of America event was Alicia Rasley. She was a professor at IUPUI and now has a website: http://www.aliciarasley.com/  It's Alicia Rasley's Writer's Corner, where she offers her expert advice on various aspects of the life of a professional writer.

One thing I remember her talking about in one of her articles was that your character will always have just one primary sense, just like real people. This will help you in your writing, because you can use sensory phrases to describe point of view unique to each character.

I am visual. While I love music, I spent most of my life reading or doing counted cross-stitch or other craft projects that involve color and texture. My husband, on the other hand, can recognize a soundtrack composer from only a few bars of music.

Think about how important that could be in defining your characters. Go ahead. I'll wait for a few minutes. Welcome back.

My hero Will is a sight hound, a medically retired Marine sharpshooter. Even when he's not near the woman he's fallen in love with, he's fantasizing about her in a gold bikini or nothing at all. Later in the series, as motivation, Elizabeth offers to do a Bikini Car Wash if he finishes all of his physical therapy exercises.

This one is by Mileti and is $65.

Elizabeth used to be a DJ and recognizes the song from before she was born on this album:

We were thrilled to see Rush inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year. About time.

My other hero, Rob, who is Will's brother, focuses on the sense of touch. I've given his character my occasional Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder, where he ends up washing his hands so much they are rough. Rob has several worry stones and has one in his pocket almost all the time. It was warm with friction when he was getting off the airplane to see his brother for the first time in over a year. I recently went to a rock and mineral show and here is one of the displays:

He has an onyx one and a tiger eye one that are his favorites.

Finally, his love, Elizabeth's sister Mary Margaret, loves scents. She wonders if the woman from the jewelry store bathed in her perfume, it was so overwhelming. She spills a little of the shampoo in Rob's bathroom when she checks it out. She notices Will smells like sandalwood and bets Elizabeth does too. She loves the smell of cinnamon and they have a huge tray of cinnamon rolls at their wedding, rather than a cake. I thought these were a pretty idea:

So, which sense do you favor? More importantly, which one does your character favor and how are you going to get that in your novel?

Sunday Sundries--Memorial Day Desserts

I always thought it was weird saying "Happy Memorial Day." I spent several late May days on the Wabash River Bridge and various cemeteries with the Job's Daughters, singing "Nearer My God to Thee."

This was a Masonic organization I belonged to in my teens. The DeMolay (boy's equivalent organization) would have someone play "Taps" and a woman from the VFW Auxiliary would throw a wreath off the bridge. After all:

My buddy, Mark Lipinski, recommended a lovely blog:

From Death to Ice Cream: Ideas for Fully Celebrating Memorial Day

Megan Cox discusses how to celebrate the dichotomy, letting kids visit a cemetery, go to the town parade and then enjoy the cookout.

One part of the holidays I really love is getting together with family and the food. I've been obsessing recently about desserts. When haven't I been obsessing about sweets?

Truth.
I love these things and I want to share with everyone:

One of my characters lives for dark chocolate, as do I. Hubby and I were in Hawaii for our 15th wedding anniversary and I had carefully packed some dark chocolate nuggets. My husband saw them and decided he was going to start eating chocolate again. I was distraught. I didn't bring enough to share. He gave up chocolate for a couple of years. I could never do that:

I do try to stay with the dark chocolate and I gave that to one of my characters.

I do have some Godiva Dark Chocolate Pearls in my purse. I haven't told my husband.....
I've tried to lose weight again. This made me smile:

I tease my husband about looking at other women's, um, assets. I sneak an admiring look every once in a while too. I may be fixated at this, I admit:

He loves horror movies. I have to admit, I was intrigued by this:

Wouldn't this broken glass cupcake be fun for Halloween?
I have some stationery with this on it:

This isn't exactly chocolate, but isn't this cool?

I have a package with two boxes of brownie mix that I got because they promised that for each sale, the company would contribute to the USO. Well and because they are brownie mixes....

Be cool and try not to drool over this one:

I don't know. It's almost too much. Almost.
One of my characters goes to Japan and I'm fascinated by their odd food options.

This display is of all the different Kit Kat flavor options.
Okay, enough talking about it. I'm going in to dig through my secret stash and get something sweet!

Have a good and peaceful Memorial Day--appreciate the sacrifices of those who went before and those you have with you now. And go get some chocolate!

Sunday Sundries--All About the Women

My husband and I finally got to see the new "Star Trek" movie at the theater Friday. I loved it--but I'm a certified fan girl geek. We actually met at a "Star Trek" event back in the mid-1970s, when we were both teenagers. It was hilarious when we realized we met before, after we were already married.

I liked it a lot. While there were several homages to past movies and the TV shows (don't worry, no spoilers here), there were also plenty of action scenes stuffed between nice touches of human minutes. I also admired the strong female characters this round.

Yeah, Zoe Saldana gets to kick some butt.

My heroines are fierce in their own ways. I've always loved strong female characters and I've felt a need to write them. I never cared for the wishy washy, demure ladies of the early Harlequins that my mom read like one eats popcorn. Maybe that was why she blew through them so fast.

One of the first heroines I wrote was Elizabeth, known to family and friends as Lizzy. She is an Indiana State Police officer who got three of her four sisters (the other was too young) out to Las Vegas for the oldest sister's bachelorette party. While on a daring rescue, she meets Will, a medically retired Marine, who is fascinated by her fierceness. They recognize they belong together and end up married. Elizabeth doesn't give up herself, she has to find out "how to rock this gig without losing myself."

I've seen some pictures of Rachel Weisz and Terry Ferrell that kind of remind me of Elizabeth. Here are two:

Her Chinese horoscope sign in a Dragon and I found this as a gift for her:

She does have several weaknesses, one being a fear of spiders:

A reasonable reaction. But, yes, she is fierce.

Her next younger sister, Mary Margaret, not so much. Oh, she comes into her own in my second series of books, but she is a self-admitted scardy cat.

She grows into her own, moving to Japan for four months, falling in love with Will's younger brother and finding herself as:

She's worried she will die a virgin, because:

She loves her garden. She loves her books.

And here are a couple of pictures of what she would look like:

Yes, Audrey Hepburn and Kiera Knightly. Here's an early jewelry gift for her:

Oh and she loves Hello Kitty and gaming:

For all you Halo players out there.

So, hope you enjoyed meeting two of my ladies. I have large character files. Do you do the same for your characters?

Sunday Sundries--Yo' Mama Edition

My mama passed away in March of 2004. Hard to believe it's been nine years. She was brilliant at a time when women weren't encourage to be, earning a scholarship to a business college in the 1940s. She didn't take it, because she was "in love." Her words. After my oldest brother was killed, she had several different careers, working at the town's library, the hospital and one of the banks.

This is one of my favorite pictures of her:

So, I had a fierce, strong example for my life. I am grateful. I also had strong aunts for mentors and my mother in law is an incredible woman. While I do not have children and my nieces live far away from me, I will try to be the best parent for my characters. Mom was an avid reader and I know she would be thrilled that I've completed two novels.

So, having said that, there have been lots of posts that really made me smile lately. this one was from last year:

Did I mention Mom and Dad were alcoholics and I was very proud they both quit my sophomore year in college?

Mom was a little perverse. While she would never hurt me, this would have made her laugh:

She definitely would have had this comeback:

Mom was brave enough to take out a wood spider that was the size of my hand that was in my room when I was in my early teens. While I'm sure if my child was in danger, I'd step up to the plate to pound something like that into oblivion (I think this was the origin of my irrational fear), I'm relieved I'll never have to worry about testing my bravery. Yes, I did put something in my fiction though:

 I know Mom did the best she could, but I feel this is part of what she felt:

This quote made me sit up a bit straighter. It wasn't always easy to be a strong girl or woman:

I'd like to ask all mamas to remember this, please:

I know Mom said this several times:

So, yes, I'm proud to be fierce, like Clara Maude:

Finally, all you mamas out there can be proud of your mission accomplished:

Happy Mother's Day to all you pet parents out there too. Take care and see you next week!

Sunday Sundries--Favorite Last Minute Trips

So, for our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, my husband who does occasionally have a romantic bone in his body, suggested a day trip to Louisville, KY, to visit bookstores. We left town in the morning and had lunch at the Big Boy in Corydon.

Gotta love anyplace that serves sweet potato fries!

The drive to Louisville is very pretty.

We ended up at the Half-Price Books store on Hurstbourne first:

We found all kinds of fun things. Some of my characters are game designers and they had a section of games and all things geek:

We also went to the other Half-Price on the other side of town and the Books A Million in the area too. We got quite a haul:

This is just one of three piles of books. Not that we needed them, but it's what we've always done when we went out of town. I love running around with my husband to find out of the way stores. We spent the night and ate at Waffle House in the morning, making another stop off before we headed back home.

My first novels start out in Las Vegas, with four sisters on a bachelorette party for the oldest, who is getting married later that week. They had to move the trip and the wedding up when she got pregnant. Since they went during the week, the rates were very reasonable.

My parents were always up for an adventure too. Sometimes, before the time of cell phones, I'd try to call them and find out later they had gone over to one of the area casinos.

So, do you have a favorite, spur of the moment adventure? I highly recommend them, even if it's just getting out of town for lunch.