Five Favorite Reads of 2016

Last year, I managed to reach my goal of reading 50 books, which I kept track of via the Savvy Reader 50 Book Pledge. (Actually, it was more than 50, but I didn't list books I helped judge for a contest.)

While I enjoyed many of the books, I decided to focus on five in particular. In alphabetical order, they are:

The Cover-Up (Dana Griffin) is a well-crafted aviation thriller involving an airline crash and the ensuing investigation. The author, a commercial pilot, reveals his expertise in aviation while writing a story that's accessible to readers not familiar with the industry.

The Flower Master (Sujata Massey) involves a young woman from California, now living in Japan, who becomes embroiled in the murder of an ikebana teacher. The crime, along with her struggles to fit in culturally, keep the reader engaged in a satisfying mystery.

Incident at Badamya (Dorothy Gilman) is set in Burma in the 1950s and involves a 16 year old orphan who finds herself captured, along with six others, by members of the Red Flag Army. But there is more to one of the prisoners than she realizes, and her magical Burmese puppet may be the key to her kan (destiny).

Lucifer Rising (Gavin Baddeley) is an examination of how the Devil has been depicted throughout history, including the "satanic panic" of the 1980s, in heavy metal, even in films. This book is written with a balanced point of view that cuts through the hype.

The Princes in the Tower (Alison Weir) explores the mysterious deaths of Prince Edward V and Richard, Duke of York, nephews of King Richard III, long thought to have been responsible for their deaths. One wanting to learn more couldn't go wrong with this book as a reference.

Conquering NaNoWriMo a Word at a Time

I just hit the 50k mark on my NaNoWriMo novel, The Memitim. No, I'm not kidding: 5,000 words in 10 days. My hands hurt, I'm exhausted, and I will probably take tomorrow, maybe even Thursday, off.

But I'm not done. The projected length is estimated between 75,000 and 80,000 words. And I plan to write all that this month. Last year, I wrote 65,000 words in 21 days, so I know it can be done.

Writing novels that long is in itself a milestone for me. Only a couple of years ago, I would've balked at writing something that length. Let's just say I had to retrain my brain.

How did I do it? Plotting. Not only did I use Dramatic Pro to help develop the story, I used a program called WriteWay Pro. It's like Scrivener, in that you can break your story down into scenes and write in a non-linear fashion, then import the document into Word. I used WWP with my novel, The Judas Dilemma, currently sitting on a publisher's desk. (Fingers are crossed.)

What I like about WriteWay Pro is I can make notes about character, setting, dialogue, conflict, even notes on revisions for that particular scene. I think using it has helped me write faster. Not saying my first draft doesn't suck. I mean, we have to be realistic here. *grin*

But really, writing a book, whether during NaNoWriMo, or any other time of the year, is simply putting one word after the other.

Happy Writing!

October Obsession

Con season is winding down and now it's time to move on to some serious writing. Tomorrow October Obsession starts, a writing challenge in which fellow participants, including yours truly, get busy and turn out wordage. Short story, novel, screenplay - doesn't matter. Heck, one doesn't even need to write something new. Revisions are fine, also.

I'll be finishing a short dark fiction collection that I hope to self-publish and have ready by Halloween. Then I'll move on to a psychological suspense novel.

I plan to write another psychological suspense novel for NaNoWriMo. Since my publisher's submission requirements have changed, I'm able to write the stories that I have enjoyed reading since childhood.

Sadly, however, I've also had to make a difficult decision. Today is my last day as a member of the RWA. I've made the rounds, said good-bye to my chapter mates, and friended many on Facebook. This doesn't mean that I will stop writing romance, but I am at heart a suspense writer, and I have decided I will focus on contemporary and paranormal suspense, although I plan to write other genres. After all, it's all about the story.

Writing Multi Genre

When I was younger, I loved reading  mysteries, fantasy, horror, and suspense/thriller. My favorite books were by Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, Phyllis A. Whitney (YA mysteries), Madeleine L'Engle, and others. My first stories were horror and YA adventure.

And then my focus turned to poetry and literary writing. Genre writers were replaced by Kafka, Camus, Shakespeare, Robert Browning, and others. As I worked toward my BA in English, I became interested in alternative journalism.

It would be over ten years before I came to understand a simple truth. If I enjoyed reading what could be considered speculative fiction, then why not write what I loved to read?

So why was I so dense?

I think I was still trying to find myself as a writer. Even now, I want to try writing in genres I've never tried, like mystery and maybe even science fiction. I don't want to be encumbered by "rules" that say I can only write one genre because I'm not an "established" writer.

Looking forward to writing these stories, whatever genre they might be.