Do Characters with Sad Songs Gain More Avid Readers?

    'Twas a dreary time last week as I skimmed through a couple books trying to stay awake after the news. Then, when grocery shopping, I picked up Mary Balogh's new Survivor's Club mass paperback -- Only A Promise. Balogh is an author with tons of books to her credit and loads of readers who write glowing, well-deserved reviews.

   No, I'm not green with envy. I line up with the fans to buy her books, though not in hardback because they're priced way beyond my wallet's reach. Yeah, Only a Promise gave my blahs a jolt.

   Of course, I decided to sample a chapter when we got home. It turned into three. [Good thing they were short ones. I would have never gotten up to the computer to clean my emails.] The real reading session came that night. I set out to read a third of the book and ended up reading two-thirds by the time my back and thumbs gave out.

   Can't believe I read into the wee hours when I usually quit before midnight. Then, I finished the book off after lunch the next day. Granted Balogh knows the Regency period and gives just enough detail to nail her settings so I don't groan at the factual clinkers.  But the thing's a straight-forward romance!

   The hook is in the details. Balogh's characters make her books shine. She always manages to give an added twist that wrings the stale out of the romance cliches. In the Survivor Club's case, her focus is on PSTD as well as two wounded souls finding each other. Oh, Regencies have maimed heroes by the thousands, even sweet young things recoiling from their scars. The deepest hurts in Balogh's books, even among the most privileged, are the psychological ones.

   The writing manuals give authors many ways to create a three-dimensional character. Balogh extends those techniques to her secondary characters, who show complexities that contradict each other. But her forte is the different psychological traumas she creates for the "people" in her books. The reader benefits when supposedly minor characters appear in another book as the star.

   But what caught my attention most firmly in Only a Promise was the context she uses  for the "love" in her romance. A quote: "There was no euphoria and never would be. She was not in love. There were no stars in her eyes." I also like her sex scenes which act as a bridge between her two protagonists.

Balogh has a talent for mixing and matching ideas so that the story lines in her books seem fresh and original, a stellar feat in the romance genre. Highly recommended. See more an except and more reviews on

Amazon and Barnes & Noble [Nook]

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    Sometimes, I find reading the newspapers frightening. But I also discover some interesting stuff, like in the 14 June 15 New York Times Book Review section. Actor/author/etc., Judd Apatrow is quoted in their author bit: "I have actually convinced myself that buying books is the same as reading."

   I haven't progressed that far. But. I did find two paperbacks, still in the store book bag, under a piece of furniture. Dystopia writers can find some interesting ideas among the various reviews in the same issue. I found them just plain scary.

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My Writing Rut

    Strange things happen when I'm petting Wiggles, my muse. The other cat, Shadow, isn't the friendly type. Of course, Pillar isn't particularly friendly either, but she sometimes does surprising things. Like kissing Nate back at the end of On the Run. How's that for a spoiler? Yeah, I'm finally going to write about a character in a romantic relationship. But it won't be a romance since Nate appears to late in the book to influence the plot's arc.

   Anyway, I wrote 400 words of an ending [after the great battle] Sunday morning, even before I opened my daily comics.

*Patting myself on the back.*

Oh, I'm planning to get another snippet from the beginning of On the Run up on my website.

Writers: Do Your Characters Nurture Your Writing?

  Most of the guru-speak I've read/heard talks about what writers must do for their characters. Recently, I began to wonder about what our characters should do for us. Lots of kids eventually take care of their parents as they get older.Why can't characters help writers as their series age?

  One book's a cinch...if you've got the writing chops. At the start of the series, the characters present a new land to be explored, complete with new concepts and problems. I recently exchanged reviews with a writer who came up with an intriguing new take on angel-human relationships--at least it was new to me, Amy Vansant's Angeli -- The Pirate, the Angel and the Irishman.

  The storyline traces the progress of Anne Bonney, the pirate of renown, as she becomes a Sentinel, a policeman for angels gone so bad they drain people of their energy. Yeah, she's as much of a rule breaker as a Sentinel as she was as was as an 18th century woman. 

  But there's more to like with the book: a love triangle that's announced in the title, but the book is more than a common chick-lit romance. Vansant has a rollicking sense of humor that turns the entire read into a smile-fest, even though the heros are chasing an evil bad guy or guys. I imagine sequels will have problems avoiding reruns of the same old motives, but for now the story line is a fresh as the morning sunshine after a rain. May Vansant prove me wrong. 
5*****

  Then, there's the other end of a writing career. I read several authors automatically when I find their new mass paperback editions. And sometimes, I re-read previous titles if a new one doesn't come out quickly enough. When you've written many books about the same characters, It takes true creativity to keep from recycling the same ideas over and over. Granted there has to be some overlap if a bunch of books are to be a series. The trick is in keeping the books exploring new territory.

  One of the writers who amazes me with her consistency and her inventiveness is Kay Hooper. I think I started reading her titles back in the 1990s. I'm still reading them even though she's basically a romance writer, and most romances bore me. 

  Her psychic F.B.I. agents, led by Noah Bishop, and their civilian counterpart [Haven] are a different story. I like the way Hooper plays with the supernatural even if her books tend to get repetitive. I've recently read Hostage and Haven. They are set in a new trilogy, as usual with her writing pattern, and deal with a new enemy who plots to destroy Bishop. At least that what previous nemesises have threatened to do. Hooper's achievement? She puts together a good thriller with a well-fleshed killer, usually with strong, realistic psychic abilities. 

One device Hooper uses to keep her books fresh is a romance as a sub-plot. Each book presents a new psychic couple discovering each other as they hunt down a killer. Yeah, the premise is used in hundreds of books each year. Hooper does it without putting you to sleep.

  One of the problems with a long running series is that sameness does creep in. Another negative, Bishop too often plays the role of puppet master to his investigators. Granted Hooper delivers a fun, fast paced read with lots of chills, but her ideas are starting to feel a little shop worn.
4**** for both books.

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  Have been having fun with Crossings. Spent huge amounts of time submitting it to promo sites when I'd rather be writing. Truth be told. I'm still doing it. My big achievement. Crossings is up on Amazon for free at the moment.

  The results? Crossings has ranked at high as #3 in this obscure Kindle category.

• #9 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > 90 minutes (44-64 pages) > Science Fiction & Fantasy

When I copied it from my listings, it was #9. Surprise. Surprise. It even looks like there might be a couple sales on the chart for The Ghost in the Closet, but I doubt if they amount to a cup of coffee.

  Oh, and I even have some 5***** reviews of my own.

  Don't think I'm resting on my "best-selling" laurels though. The Ghost Crow is progressing. I'm taking my own advice and recycling Dumdie Swartz of The Ghost in the Closet. This time with a story set during her teen years -- though I don't think of it as YA. I'm maybe halfway through the first draft, and I know where I'm going.

  My Far Isles Half-Elven? They're are resting in obscurity though they sometimes appear on the first page in Goggle and Bing under the search term "Half-Elven". People even click through. How do I know? My website links are the only places where I promote The Foiling of Gorsfeld, a story set during Mariah's teen years, and it gets downloaded regularly.

Care to share how you've recycled some of your characters?