Starting the second half of the year

cj Sez: July seven come eleven…do you realize half of 2021 is over and done with?

   I find that keeping on-track with remembering my appointments is getting harder and harder and results in conflicts. I could alibi that I’ve bitten off more than I can chew in terms of volunteering in the midst of necessary stuff, but that’d be an untruth. The truth is my short little attention span is getting shorter, so I need to pay attention and keep a better appointment calendar—as in just one. 

   Right now, I have at least two and occasionally three. I’ll note an appointment or paperclip a card on the calendar by the kitchen telephone (yes, I still have a landline) and forget to write it in my planner or vice versa. That wouldn’t be much of a problem if I would just check both places every morning . . . which, of course, I don’t. The third “occasional calendar” I mentioned is simply the collection of all those little scraps of paper and back-of-business-card notes that I shove into the bottom of my purse. Who I’m supposed to meet when and where just disappears, as does my memory of them.

Out of sight, out of mind is the term.

Re my writing

   I’m a visual person (is that a right brain or a left brain thing?), and that shows up in my writing. Scenes are the least complicated for me to write. I enjoy creating the details that permit my readers to visualize where the characters are and what they are seeing. But I try to keep my details incorporated into the flow of the scene’s action. I don’t tell the reader the office is small and crowded. I’ll let the character do that by having her desk chair bump against the wall when she stands up and then walks the five or so steps it takes to open the door for a client to enter her office.

   I recently delved into “Darkwater” and “Ravenscroft” by Dorothy Eden…both are Gothic novels (not what I usually read) and rich in setting details. I think I must incorporate more of that into my stories but without sacrificing the more modern-day deep point of view, of course.

   Dealing with personal introspection / emotions / internal dialogue is more difficult for me since I “see” the action in my stories as movies in my head. Narrative doesn’t exist in movies unless there’s a voice-over, so I tend to use very little of it. I’ve been told and I do understand that I need more narrative in my novels, and I’m working on expanding my use of internal dialogue.

   All you thriller/suspense readers out there: How much internal dialogue do you like to read?

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Writerly/Readerly quote:

“Great readers (are) those who know early that there is never going to be time to read all there is to read, but do their darnedest anyway.”

― Larry McMurtry, Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen: Reflections on Sixty and Beyond

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   After you’ve read a book—whether mine or another author’s—please leave a review on Goodreads or Amazon or wherever you can. It shares your joy of reading with others and means the world to the author. Please and thank you.

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And now a few words from my sponsor:

THE DAWGSTAR is available as an eBook  https://books2read.com/u/3LRRG5

and as a paperback  Amazon Buy Now

DEATH ON THE YAMPA is available as an eBook https://books2read.com/u/bxe1AP

as a paperback  Buy Paperback Yampa

and as a #SCREAM, series phone app.

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   Draft2Digital tells me that you can ask your local library to order my eBooks for you. You’ll need to give them the ISBN number of the title you want to borrow. I’ve listed mine below.

THE DAWGSTAR … ISBN 978-17369146-0-1

DEATH ON THE YAMPA … ISBN 978-1-7369146-1-8

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   That’s it for today’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj

P.S. TO ORDER any book of your choice on-line and support an indie bookstore, contact The Haunted Bookshop here: https://www.thehauntedbookshopmobile.com/contact-us

   If you’d like me to autograph or personalize one of my books for you, be sure to tell them, and I’ll run by the shop.

    

   The Haunted Bookshop has re-opened to limited hours (and they have an awesome bookstore kitty, Mr. Bingley), so if you’re in the Mobile area, you can stop and shop, too.

 

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