The Nutshell Set-Up Wants

September 16, 2020 / Marcia Meara / 4 Comments

If you’ve been following along with Staci Troilo’s posts on the Nutshell Method of story development, you won’t want to miss her post today on Story Empire. This one really has me pondering. I love the idea of using the technique, and think you will, too. Be sure to check it out, and if you would, pass it along so others can learn, too. Thanks, and thanks to Staci for another great post in a fun and educational series. 🙂

Story Empire

Ciao, SEers. We’ve been talking about Jill Chamberlain’s Nutshell method of story development. If you missed earlier posts, you can find them by clicking these links:

Last time, we ended by mentioning the catch is related to the desires of the protagonist. Today, we’re continuing this series by discussing the set-up want.

Honestly, the term is pretty much self-explanatory. A “set-up want” is something the protagonist desires that sets up the next part of the story.

Yes, that was obvious. I apologize. But this next part might not be. A set-up want is one thing the protagonist wants. And your protagonist may—and probably does—want a lot of things. So, whatever you choose, you need to be sure the set-up want leads to the catch. It doesn’t need to be the most-desired thing. It doesn’t need to…

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#GuestDayTuesday – Mae Clair Introduces the Murder They Wrote Anthology

September 15, 2020September 8, 2020 / Marcia Meara / 54 Comments

So happy to have Mae Clair visiting us today to talk about the Murder They Wrote anthology. I can’t wait to grab a cup of tea, plop down in the Comfy Chair, and get going on this one. I think you’ll feel the same way when you read about all the goodies it contains, so let’s make Mae feel welcome here this morning as she gives us the details. Take it away, Mae!

Thanks for hosting me today, Marcia! I’m super excited to be here sharing news of an anthology in which I have a short story. Murder They Wrote brings together seven authors writing in various sub genres of whodunits.

You Can See the Variety by the Blurb:

Murder comes in 7 different genres. By 7 different authors.

Are you a fan of courtroom drama? In the anthology’s first story, Abraham Lincoln defends a friend’s son against a charge of murder.

For lovers of speculative fiction, Jason Fogg dissolves into mist to sneak through open windows and snoop for clues.

How about a cozy? Jazzi, Jerod, and Ansel discover a dead body while renovating a kitchen, dining room, and half bath.

Have a craving for a Regency? Lord Peregrine and his wife, Elizabeth, use their sharp minds and quick wit to solve a murder at a garden party.

Need a bit of literary fiction? A young, lonely widow must deal with the theft of a valuable butterfly collection.

And what about a little psychological horror? Twin sisters discover that their attic is haunted by not one, but two ghosts.

Last, but never least, the anthology concludes with a historical mystery. A young, newly married knight is accused of murdering his obnoxious host at a holiday gathering in his castle.

______________________________________________________________________________

If you’re wondering which one of those stories is mine, it’s the last one. 🙂

Normally, when I write a mystery, there is an old legend, or a paranormal element involved. Readers know me as a writer who loves creatures, but I wandered in a different direction this time. My story, A Winter Reckoning, is a straight murder mystery with a sizable group of suspects, an isolated location (a snow-bound castle), and—of course—a dead body. <cue theatrical music>

I chose a Medieval setting to tell a tale that I hope will keep readers guessing as they consider and discard suspects. There is a chivalrous romanticism attached to knighthood, and a courtly type of cunning that comes with intrigue. In many ways it is like a chess match.

My father first taught me how to play chess when I was in grade school. I like to think that strategy of manipulating pieces on a gameboard, transferred into manipulating characters in my story. And unless my lead, Sir Richard Essex, discovers who murdered a deceitful nobleman, his own life will end in checkmate.

A Winter Reckoning is just one of seven stories contained in Murder They Wrote, and I think you’ll enjoy the variety. I wish you happy reading and happy sleuthing!

Buy Murder They Wrote HERE

Connect with Mae Clair at BOOKBUB and the following haunts:

Let’s poke it with a stick

September 14, 2020 / Marcia Meara / Leave a comment

Craig Boyack has a very interesting post on Story Empire today about
“false hooks” and delivering on promises. I think you’ll find it as interesting as I did and will become more aware of the perils of doing this to your readers, so I heartily recommend you check it out. And as always, please consider passing it along so others can learn from it, too. Thanks, and thanks to Craig for giving me something new to ponder when I start my next book! 🙂

Story Empire

Hi, Gang. Craig with you today, and we’re going to do something different. I believe that nearly everything can be a case study of sorts. We get bits and bobs from everything we see, hear, observe, but some things like books, television, and films can help us with story structure.

My SE partners are nicer than I am, so I’m the obvious one to write something like this. I’m not heartless, so I’m going to pick on mainstream things for this post. I’d never single out one struggling author.

Today, we’re going to pick on shows from subscription services. You know the ones, original material from places like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, and others.

Confession time, I had never binge-watched anything in my life until C-19 showed up to ruin everyone’s year. I’d watched shows on these services, but you…

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#MondayMeme #MondayBlogs

September 14, 2020September 13, 2020 / Marcia Meara / 34 Comments

A bit of a Mixed Bag today, but hopefully, some of them will be new to you
and give you a laugh to jump-start your week!

#FirstLineFriday#2 Submissions Are Now Closed! Here’s the Answer to Our Quiz, and the Name of Our Winner!

September 11, 2020September 11, 2020 / Marcia Meara / 16 Comments

Submissions for #FirstLineFriday#2 are officially closed now. My thanks to all who emailed me with their guesses. Today, I’m sorry to say we have only one winner: John Howell. Congratulations, John, and thanks so much for pointing out to me that the correct spelling is “John Galt,” and not “John Gault.” (Let’s just pretend that’s why nobody else got this one right. 😀 😀 😀 )

John’s Author Page can be found HERE

And now, here’s the answer to today’s quiz:

“Who is John Galt?” is the opening line from Atlas Shrugged, written by Ayn Rand in 1957.

Rand’s fourth and final novel, it was also her longest, and the one she considered to be her magnum opus in the realm of fiction writing.[1] Atlas Shrugged includes elements of science fiction, mystery, and romance, and it contains Rand’s most extensive statement of Objectivism in any of her works of fiction. The theme of Atlas Shrugged, as Rand described it, is “the role of man’s mind in existence”. The book explores a number of philosophical themes from which Rand would subsequently develop Objectivism. In doing so, it expresses the advocacy of reason, individualism, and capitalism, and depicts what Rand saw to be the failures of governmental coercion.

The book depicts a dystopian United States in which private businesses suffer under increasingly burdensome laws and regulations. Railroad executive Dagny Taggart and her lover, steel magnate Hank Rearden, struggle against “looters” who want to exploit their productivity. Dagny and Hank discover that a mysterious figure called John Galt is persuading other business leaders to abandon their companies and disappear as a strike of productive individuals against the looters. The novel ends with the strikers planning to build a new capitalist society based on Galt’s philosophy of reason and individualism.

Atlas Shrugged received largely negative reviews after its 1957 publication, but achieved enduring popularity and ongoing sales in the following decades. After several unsuccessful attempts to adapt the novel for film or television, a film trilogy based on it was released from 2011 to 2014. These films were critical and box office failures. (BTW, I read it when it came out and didn’t much like it myself, but I was only 13, and I doubt I really understood it in any depth.)

WHAT AMAZON SAYS:

Peopled by larger-than-life heroes and villains, charged with towering questions of good and evil, Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand’s magnum opus: a philosophical revolution told in the form of an action thriller—nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.

Who is John Galt? When he says that he will stop the motor of the world, is he a destroyer or a liberator? Why does he have to fight his battles not against his enemies but against those who need him most? Why does he fight his hardest battle against the woman he loves?

You will know the answer to these questions when you discover the reason behind the baffling events that play havoc with the lives of the amazing men and women in this book. You will discover why a productive genius becomes a worthless playboy…why a great steel industrialist is working for his own destruction…why a composer gives up his career on the night of his triumph…why a beautiful woman who runs a transcontinental railroad falls in love with the man she has sworn to kill.

Atlas Shrugged, a modern classic and Rand’s most extensive statement of Objectivism—her groundbreaking philosophy—offers the reader the spectacle of human greatness, depicted with all the poetry and power of one of the twentieth century’s leading artists.

Buy Atlas Shrugged HERE

By the way, for those who didn’t see the answer that popped up under the first post, it was 1984 by George Orwell. And that wraps up both efforts for this week. Sorry for the confusion, but happy we at least had one winner. I’ll be back in two weeks, if the bridge don’t go, an’ the creek don’t rise. Hope to see you then!

In Memorium

September 11, 2020 / Marcia Meara / 6 Comments

I hope some of you will take a moment to visit my In Memorium post on Story Empire today. Some of the images are heartbreaking, some inspiring, but all are meant to encourage a moment of quiet reflection to honor those we lost.

In Memorium

Thank you.

#FirstLineFriday REDUX – Let’s Try This Again!

September 11, 2020September 11, 2020 / Marcia Meara / 16 Comments

Let’s try this one more time! By golly, I want to give away some books today, so here’s your second chance! Rules are below, and the most important one is to EMAIL me your answer so you don’t give it away to others. THANKS. And this time around, I’ve chosen an extra easy one for those of you still wanting to play. 🙂

As promised, #FirstLineFriday is back! We’ll have to see how it goes, but I’m aiming for every other week, and hope you guys will enjoy these little challenges that teach us so much about how to use opening lines effectively. This week, I’ve chosen one that I think will be fairly easy, but we’ll see if that turns out to be true or not.

As always, the rules are simple:

Be one of the first five people to email me before the game ends at 4:00pm, with the title and author of the correct book.
Do not reply here on the blog. EMAIL ONLY! marciameara16@gmail.com
Honor System applies. No Googling, please.
Submissions end at 4:00 P.M. EST, or when I receive 5 correct answers, whichever comes first.
Winners who live in the U.S. may request a free download of any one of my books for themselves, or for someone of their choice. OR, if they’ve read all of the offered books, they may request a free download of my next publication.
Winners who live elsewhere may request a mobi or PDF file of the same books, since, sadly, Amazon won’t let me gift you from the site.

And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for! Put on your thinking caps, because here is today’s opening line:

“Who is John Gault?”

Remember, EMAIL ANSWERS ONLY, PLEASE. Thanks! And now off I go to await your guesses.

#FirstLineFriday #GiveawayContest #FreeDownloads

September 11, 2020September 7, 2020 / Marcia Meara / 19 Comments

As always, the rules are simple:

Be one of the first five people to email me before the game ends at 4:00pm, with the title and author of the correct book.
Do not reply here on the blog. Email only: marciameara16@gmail.com
Honor System applies. No Googling, please.
Submissions end at 4:00 P.M. EST, or when I receive 5 correct answers, whichever comes first.
Winners who live in the U.S. may request a free download of any one of my books for themselves, or for someone of their choice. OR, if they’ve read all of the offered books, they may request a free download of my next publication.
Winners who live elsewhere may request a mobi or PDF file of the same books, since, sadly, Amazon won’t let me gift you from the site.

And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for! Put on your thinking caps, because here is today’s opening line:

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”

Remember, email answers only, please. Thanks! And now off I go to await your guesses.

Motivation inscription of splash paint letters

Visiting Gwen Plano Today – Come On Over!

September 10, 2020September 10, 2020 / Marcia Meara / 8 Comments

Today, I’m visiting Gwen Plano, with another tidbit about my newly released novella, The Emissary 3: Love Hurts. Gwen has really gone all out to put together a beautiful post, and I hope you’ll stop by to check it out and say hello. I’d really love to see you there.

Thanks so much!

From the Desk of Gwendolyn M. Plano: The Emissary 3: Love Hurts

How to Publish with KDP: Part Fifteen

September 9, 2020 / Marcia Meara / 6 Comments

Harmony Kent’s post on Story Empire today continues her series on how to publish with KDP. Specifically, how to format your book descriptions for both eBooks and paperbacks. This is one you won’t want to miss, since the process has apparently changed a bit over time. Check it out, and then, if you would, pass it along so others can benefit, too. Thanks, and thanks to Harmony for another very helpful post in an excellent series. 🙂

Story Empire

Image courtesy of bigstock.com

Hello SErs. Harmony here. As promised, here is part fifteen in the post series dedicated to taking a step-by-step look at how to get your finished manuscript from your computer and on sale on Amazon in both ebook and paperback.

If you’d like to take a look back at the previous posts in this series, please click on the links at the end of this post.

So, here’s Part Fourteen: How to format your book descriptions for eBook and Paperback.

From your KDP dashboard, click on ‘Edit Paperback details’ for your print book, and ‘edit eBook details’ for your Kindle book, if you’re not in the relevant screen already.