Archive for July, 2010

The Writing Life…

Sunday, July 25th, 2010

There are so many writing topics I want to talk about, it’s hard to know where to begin! However, I finished reading a book last night that had some egregious errors, and that gave me an idea for today’s topic. Fact checking!

You may think because you write fiction, you don’t have to do research or check facts, but if you use real cities, streets, people, cars….whatever, do be sure to get the facts right. It’s not that hard now that we have the Internet and believe me, if you get one tiny fact wrong, someone will notice. And if you’re lucky enough to get published, that someone will surly write and let you know you made a mistake. To me, if an author can’t take the time to make sure of all her facts, I’m suspect of everything she writes!

So what was the error that got me off on this rant? I read Damage Control by Robert Dugoni. (check out my mystery blog: www.themysterystartshere.com for a full review). Toward the end of the novel, Dugoni had one of his characters fly into La Jolla, California! I laughed out loud! If you’ve ever been to the San Diego area, you know that La Jolla is a small exclusive community located on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. I lived in San Diego for 24 years so I know. So easy to check but so glaring an error. It made me wonder what other facts in the book were incorrect.

I read a book several years ago by one of my favorite authors, Joy Fielding. I can’t remember the title now, but in the book Fielding had her protagonist put bullets into the barrel of a .38 caliber pistol! I thought long and hard and finally wrote a polite to Ms. Fielding via her publisher to let her know that was a mistake. I was amazed when she wrote back. She thanked me and confessed she’d never even held a gun, nor had her editor. I’m sorry, but if you’re going to write mysteries you must learn how to use a gun! Learn police procedures and correct CSI protocol (don’t rely on the TV series!)

Another one I saw lately was a picky, I’ll admit, but it jumped out at me. The author named a character Mrs. Francis Uliberri. The female version of the name is Frances, not Francis and it’s easy to remember. HEr name is Frances – hIs name is Francis. As I said, it’s picky to me, but not to a woman named Frances!

Okay, end of lecture – go forth and sin no more! If you’ve found a particularly bad b00-boo in a book, leave a comment and share it. If you want to try and find errors in any of my books – go for it! I’m not perfect by any means. You can find all my titles in early blogs on this post or at: www.manicreaders.com/CarleneRaeDater

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The Writing Life

Monday, July 19th, 2010

Okay, enough about my wonderful new life in Coos Bay, Oregon. I originally decided to start a blog to help other writers, to get dialogs going and to exchange ideas. So, with that in mind, I’m getting back to talking about writing.

When you decide to write a novel, there is one important question you need to ask yourself. Is this going to be a stand alone book or the beginning of a series? It makes a difference because if you’re planning a series, you might have some characters you’ll want to continue on with in the next book or books, so you might not want to reveal everything about him or her. All my books have been stand-alone novels but…I’ve left the door open to continue if I want to. For instance check out the blurb for my humorous novel, FINDER at http://deejulian.jimdo.com/blurb-party/ The book is complete as it is but if I ever feel like it, I can involve Sissy in another adventure. I have notes and ideas but haven’t gotten around to writing the book yet. Same thing with ROMAN CIRCUS, my humorous romantic suspense novel. Harmony Jane Jones runs away and joins the circus, has lots of fun and sometimes scary adventures and falls in love, so the story is complete, but once again, I’ve left the door open to continue on and make a series with Harmony, Sam and Midnight the Wonder dog as main characters. For into on ROMAN CIRCUS go to www.nobleromance.com

Why does it make a difference? Because series books are easier to sell. Agents and editors don’t buy books, they buy careers, so if you can go to them with ideas for a series and some basic outlines, you’ll be miles ahead. Besides, once you create the main characters, all you have to do is put them into different situations. Silly me – I have to create whole new worlds every time I write a book! Oh, well, that’s my process and what works for me, so for now, I’ll just keep writing a new book every year!

I’d love to get other’s opinions – what do you think?

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I held a baby tiger today….

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

… and some lion cubs too! Does it sound fabulous? It was! Okay, here’s my story. There are two Wild Animal Parks in the area. One about two hours away, where the animals roam free and you drive through in your car. The other is a half hour south of here in Bandon – yes, the Bandon of many golf courses – and you walk thought that one. We had planned to visit both, but while in Bandon last week test driving our new RAV 4, I got into a conversation with a woman sitting next to us at lunch. Yeah, I know – I do that a lot. Anyhow, she and her family had just come from the Wild Animal Park and she told me that she got to hold tiger and lion cubs. She advised me to hurry because they usually take the babies off display in August.

We got to the park and it was both amazing and sad. Many of the animal, big animals, like lions tigers, bears, bison were all in cages. The cages were pretty good sized, but…I hate to see animals in cages of any size. Many of them were pacing, a sure sign of distress. While there were critters in cages, there were many roaming free, too. Deer, goats, peacocks, and mini-goats were wandering around free. They were all very friendly and looking for food. Of course, we had to buy some food and feed the obviously starving creatures. Yes, that’s a joke. I loved being so close to the deer! They nibbled gently at my fingers and let me pet their heads and stroke their velvety antlers.

The keepers brought out lion cubs to interact with the crowd. You had to line up and then only had a few minutes with the babies. We saw the lion cubs first, a male and female from the same litter, only six weeks old but boy did they have big feet! They were very feisty and vocal. There were some soft plush toys in the enclosure for the cubs to play with and I was amazed at how both of them went right for the throat of the toy animals! Talk about instinct. I waited my turn and then sat on the sawdust and got to cuddle the lions! There fur was soft and a little stiff and they had spots! I guess they remain when the lions become adults but are covered by fur. Too soon, I had to give up my place and leave.

We walk around, carefully – lots of loose animals trotting around, until the keepers brought out the tigers. There were three males from the same litter, and they were only four weeks old – yup, big feet too. They were more cuddly then the lions and wanted to rug their faces against yours. We were told not to pet their heads, nor let them lick our fingers. Hey, they’re babies they could get yucky human germs and get sick! I sat on the ground and the keeper piled all three boys on my lap. Boy, did I want to take them home, but of course, they grow up.

Altogether we spend a couple of hours at the park then headed back to Coos. When we got home Dukie ran over and started sniffing the front of my pants. He flopped back on his butt, looked up at me with the funniest expression on his face as if to say, “How could you?” then he continued to sniff and walk around me – I guess he thought maybe I had a tiger in my pocket!

So ended another wonderful Oregon adventure

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