The Magic is Back!

For Robert MacKenzie Cole—or Rabbit, as he’s known to all—the chance to accompany his family to see North Carolina’s infamous Brown Mountain Lights has him nearly dizzy with excitement. And what better night to watch this unexplained phenomenon unfold than Halloween?

But when the entrancing, unpredictable lights show up, Rabbit gets far more than he bargained for. He’s gifted with what folks in the Appalachians call “the Sight,” and it’s this extrasensory perception that enables him to spot the one light different from all the rest.

In his biggest challenge to date, Rabbit—aided by his daddy and his newest friend, Austin Dupree— begins a quest to learn more about the mysterious light. Their investigation unveils a web of cons and corruption none of them expected and exposes a brutal murder along the way.

Throughout all, Rabbit is unfaltering in his commitment to do whatever it takes…

Hey, SE Readers. Joan with you with the second in a series of posts using the five senses in writing. To read the first part on sight, click here. Today I’m writing about smell.

I probably overlook using smell more than any other of the other senses, but it is often the most powerful. Certain smells can bring back memories, invoke emotion, and draw the reader into the story.

Both of my maternal grandparents passed away when I was twelve years old. They lived in another state, so I rarely saw them more than once a year. Many of those times were when they visited us.

Despite that, there are times when I will catch a whiff of something that reminds me of their home. Describing the smell is difficult. It’s probably a combination of my grandfather’s cigars, my grandmother’s cooking, the cleaning products she used (the place was…

Hi, SEers! Mae here on a cold February day. If you happen to live in the southern hemisphere and are enjoying beautiful temperate weather, please bottle some and send it up north! Winter doldrums aside, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at learning. Bear with me as I make the loop from point A to point B, because there’s a small hike in between.

Starting with Point A
For the last few years, I have—on and off—been trying to learn Spanish. Fortunately, there are numerous apps and products to help with language learning, and lately I’ve buckled down. One of the programs I looked into favors speaking Spanish words before learning to write them.

Think about it—when you were a baby, you formed words by mimicking what you heard. You learned to speak before you learned to write. And, herein, lies a problem for me, because…

Hi gang, Craig with you today. This is post number three in the character archetypes series. In the Hero’s Journey, there are some common characters that are likely to show up in all stories. This doesn’t mean each archetype shows up in every story, and aside from the hero, the rest are kind of optional. Almost every story will have an assortment of them.

This series is to introduce you to them. Once you’re aware of them, you can decide if they can benefit the story you’re writing.

Most stories will have the Ally character to one degree or another. Some of them play pivotal roles in the story, others come along for the ride.

I think everything is better with a bit of Bruce Campbell, so this instructional video is included to help us all out:

I tend to wing my posts, but I also do a bit of…