Cath-Lit Live: ‘The Light of Tara’ by John Desjarlais

“Cath-Lit Live!” features brief interviews with Catholic authors who are releasing new books. Hosted by Catholic author and speaker Amy J. Cattapan, “Cath-Lit Live!” gives viewers a glimpse into the latest Catholic books while getting to know a bit about the author as well.

The Light of Tara by John Desjarlais

While the Roman Empire crumbles into chaos, the flickering light of civilization is in the hands of a teenager herding sheep and swine at the edge of the world. His name is Patrick. Kidnapped by Irish pirates and sold to a Druid chieftain, Patrick befriends his master’s son and falls for the feisty daughter, making a jealous enemy of the druid’s apprentice. Even so, he boldly escapes to home after a dangerous journey, only to hear an insistent call in a dream to COME BACK. But first he must overcome a suspicious church, a backstabbing mentor, and his old rival who is now the Archdruid of Ireland, sworn to kill him and eager to enslave the beautiful woman Patrick left behind. Can he save Ireland from darkness—and free the girl he once loved?

About the author: John Desjarlais taught literature and creative writing for 25 years at Kishwaukee College in Illinois before retiring to the mountains of western North Carolina. His books include The Throne of Tara, Relics, Bleeder, Viper, and Specter.

You can catch “Cath-Lit Live” three times a month live on A.J. Cattapan’s author Facebook page. Recorded versions of the show will also be available to watch later on her YouTube channel and Instagram.


Copyright 2020 Amy J. Cattapan

From the President’s Desk – Success, Faithfulness and Farewell

At the 2015 Catholic Writers Retreat in Michigan!

At the 2015 Catholic Writers Retreat in Michigan!

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a wonderful feast yesterday.

Catholic Writers Retreat: I’d like to thank all the attendees, presenters and organizers of the Catholic Writers Retreat. We all had a wonderful time writing, praying and socializing! Special thanks to Margaret Realy for organizing this wonderful event.

Blessed Mother Teresa once said, “We are not called to be successful. We are called to be faithful.”

In about four days, I will no longer be president of the Catholic Writers Guild so this will be my last “From the President’s Desk” post.

When I first discovered the Catholic Writers Online group, and later, the Catholic Writers Guild, I truly felt like I had come home. I was so happy to be a part of a group of faithful Catholic writers.  I hadn’t really thought much about “success.” I just wanted to write. And I just wanted to be faithful to my Catholic faith. At the time, there were only about 40 members of the Guild. In the eight years since I’ve been a active member, our membership has grown to over 500 members.

When I was asked to run as vice president in 2010, I readily agreed. Later, when I was asked to run for president, after a short discernment process, I readily agreed. Of course, I had no idea what was in store for me. Being president of this non-profit, mostly volunteer organization has had its share of challenges, but I’ve learned so much and I’ve gained many lifelong friendships.

I owe a tremendous gratitude to everyone in the Guild. Thanks especially to Ann Margaret Lewis (founding member and past president), who was always available to listen when I needed to chat, Karina Fabian (original president of the Guild), and the current members of the board: Dave Shaw (secretary), Karl Erickson (treasurer), Nancy Ward (committee coordinator), and Arthur Powers (VP and founding member).

Although I joined the Guild to be with like-minded faithful Catholic writers, I was surprised to find that much of what I’ve learned from Guild members over the past eight years has contributed to whatever “success” I’ve been fortunate to have. In the early years, I attended online conferences and chats. Later, I attended and helped to organize the live conferences. The success I’ve had as a writer has been the direct result of my involvement with the Guild. My books have been collectively downloaded over 625,000 times on Kindle. All of my novels have spent time on various Amazon Kindle bestsellers’ lists (In 2012, my novel, Stealing Jenny, was either #1 or #2 in several categories for 40 weeks of that year). I’ve been on EWTN’s Bookmark three different times and other TV and radio shows. And I’m actually making a modest supplemental income from my novels.

That success aside, my time as the president of the Guild, has been spent being faithful not only to the magisterium of the Catholic Church, but also to the values of our wonderful organization.

I won’t be leaving the Guild, however! I intend to remain on two very busy committees: the Seal of Approval and the Live Conference committees. I have a new job as the marketing director for a wonderful Catholic apostolate that promotes the regular practice of fasting. I write for the Live the Fast blog and newsletter; I write press releases and, best of all, from my regular practice of fasting, I’ve grown stronger in my faith (and even lost 10 pounds!).

Fellow CWG member and New Jersey native, Joe Wetterling, will be your new president. I’ve worked with Joe on three different committees. Besides being witty and knowledgeable about a variety of topics, Joe is level-headed and dependable. A little bit about Joe, in case you don’t know him:

Joe Wetterling is a professional educator and writer. During the day, his work includes performance improvement, technical training, and editing for the Temple University Health System. At home, Joe teaches the faith at his blog Ho Kai Paulos, comments on religious themes in fantasy and sci-fi at Baptized Imagination, and makes everything relate to Latin while helping homeschool his son. He’s a member of the Militia Immaculata. At the Catholic Writers Guild, Joe participates in blog editing, the Seal of Approval review process, and the CALA. Learn more about him at JoeWetterling.com.

Please take a moment over the next several weeks to welcome Joe to this challenging — yet fulfilling — position.

It has been my privilege and honor to serve as your president for three years and to serve on the Catholic Writers Guild board for five years. I look forward to continuing to be a part of this wonderful organization.

In Jesus and Mary,

 

Ellen Gable Hrkach

Karina Teaches Worldbuilding 201 – Lesson 1

Over this year, Karina is going to share some of her writing seminars on the blog, with the lessons and references for further study. We’ll be posting these once a month. There’s no assigned homework, but if you have questions, please ask them in the comments. Her first workshop is worldbuilding. This is Worldbuilding 201, Lesson 1. Here are the links to Worldbuilding 101 Lesson 1, Lesson 2Lesson 3, Lesson 4, Lesson 5, Lesson 6 and Lesson 7.

Karina teaches monthly webinars as well. Please check out her current schedule, or if you’d like her to teach at your writing group or class, see what courses she can offer.

Lesson One: Introduce your world

No matter what your story is about, you have to start it in one of three ways: Introduce your character. Introduce your conflict. Introduce your world. No matter which you do, your world will get at least a partial introduction.

Let’s look at some examples. I am using fantasy and science fiction here only because I want to make a point about explaining a world that is massively different from ours. The temptation is to overshare up front, and that turns readers off in general.

World Introduction: The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett

The sun rose slowly, as if it wasn’t sure it was worth all the effort.

Another Disc day dawned, but very gradually, and this is why.

When light encounters a strong magical field it loses all sense of urgency. It slows right down. And on the Disc-world the magic was embarrassingly strong, which meant that the soft yellow light of dawn flowed over the sleeping landscape like the caress of a gentle lover or, as some would have it, golden syrup. It paused to fill up the valleys. It piled up against the mountain ranges. When it reached Cori Celesti, the ten mile spire of gray stone and green ice that marked the hub of the Disc and was the home of its gods, it built up in heaps until it finally crashed in a great lazy tsunami as silent as velvet, across the dark landscape beyond.

It was a sight to be seen on no other world.

Of course, no other world was carried through the starry infinity on the backs of four giant elephants, who were themselves perched on the shell of a great turtle….

If you’ve not read Terry Pratchett, I highly recommend him, especially for his worldbuilding. He makes the fantastic seem completely believable and loads of fun! I wish I could have found the book in which he begins simply with the Great Turtle, then the elephants, then the Discworld and concludes blithely that in an infinite universe anything is possible, so why not? The great thing about Pratchett is that he’s so delightful in his descriptions that he can TELL you about the world and you just want to read more. You read on because you just know the punch line is coming.

Using this kind of approach works when you need to get the reader into the world right away–whether for the comedy value or because the world is vitally important. Even then, notice that he doesn’t give you a lot of information. This isn’t a State Department Brief (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35910.htm) From the introduction above, Pratchett talks a little about the turtle, who is having a great time, and about the spaceship that has been launched off the world with the mission of finding out the turtle’s gender.

Person Introduction: Out of the Dark by David Weber

Garsul, are you watching this?”

Survey Team Leader Garsul grimaced. Just what, exactly, did Hartyr think he was doing? Of all the stupid, unnecessary, infuriating–

The team leader made himself stop and draw a deep breath. He also made himself admit the truth, which was that as effortlessly infuriating as Hartyr could be anytime he tried, there was no excuse for allowing his own temper to flare this way. And it wouldn’t have been happening if he hadn’t been watching…and if both his stomachs hadn’t been hovering on the edge of acute nausea. Then there were his elevated strokain levels, not to mention the instinctual fight-or-flight reflexes (mostly flight in his species case, in point of fact) quivering down his synapses.

So how much of the world do we get in these few paragraphs? We know there are multiple species, that they are probably in space (talking through a link is a clue, as is the SF nature of the story), and that they’ve encountered something in the world that poses a fright if not a danger. Does it tell you a lot about the world? Not really. Does it tell you enough to keep you reading? It does for me–or would, if I weren’t writing this class.

Situation Introduction: “Ghosts of Kourion” by Andrew Seddon

I awoke to the thudding of my heart and the scrabbling of a mouse somewhere in the room. Pale moonbeams threaded through cracks in the warped shutters.

I’d been sleeping! Despite my best efforts to stay awake, sometime in the dark hours of the night I’d succumbed to sleep–on this night of all nights! I threw off my thin sheet, hurried to the window and flung open the shutters.

The city of Kourion slept bathed in silver moonlight, its sand and time-worn walls standing as they had for hundreds of years. A shiver of mixed excitement and fear trembled over me.

Turning away from the window, I rummaged in a pile of clothes tossed on the floor and shrugged a tunic over my shoulders. I strapped on my sandals and clattered down the stairs into my wine shop where amphorae of choice vintages surrounded me like shapeless statues. I opened the door and dashed out, leaving it swinging behind me.

From far below came the dull roar of the surf pounding the beaches. Otherwise, the pre-dawn night seemed preternaturally quiet–no wind in the trees, no dogs barking or cats fighting, not even a drunkard singing his slurred songs to the shuttered buildings.

It was the morning of July 21, A.D. 365, and it was to be Kourion’s last morning. Were there hours left or merely minutes?

Aren’t you drawn in? Do you have to be told that Kourion is an ancient Greek city on the southwestern coast of Cyprus which was destroyed by a volcano or that our main character had traveled back in time to witness its demise? We don’t need a history lesson here; we have been promised that we will experience history along with the protagonist.

What do we get from these, then? No matter what your approach, in those first few paragraphs, you want to give enough information about your world to orient the reader–but not overwhelm them–and get them interested enough that, combined with character and situation, they want to read on. Simple in theory, not always as easy in practice.

Karina Teaches Worldbuilding – Final Lesson

Over this year, Karina is going to share some of her writing seminars on the blog, with the lessons and references for further study. We’ll be posting these once a month. There’s no assigned homework, but if you have questions, please ask them in the comments. Her first workshop is worldbuilding. This is Lesson 7. Here are the links to Lesson 1, Lesson 2Lesson 3, Lesson 4, Lesson 5, and Lesson 6.

Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.   –Anton Chekhov

Now you’re well on your way to building your world! You’ve got–or have plans to get–all this great history, know everything about the orbital mechanics of your solar system, even know why your Grimphani part their hair on the left. Now, it’s time to tell your readers, right?

NO!

Don’t tell us about your world! Show us!

Everything we’ve done so far is background. Some of it may never come up. (Remember what I said in a previous lesson about the writer who has written an encyclopedia or game manual rather than a story?) Now you can use those elements, but don’t tell us about them!

So how do you avoid that?

Keep in mind point of view–even if you are using an omniscient narrative (i.e., the reader sees more than the character), do your best to describe things as they impact or are applied to the character or characters. For example, say I wanted to write a scene in The Miscria III: Hero Psychic, where there is a wild rainstorm that Tasmae (who controls the weather) has decided to allow to happen. I could just say it:

Joshua and Sachiko came in soaked from the storm. When Joshua saw Deryl, he asked, “What’s with the rain? Can’t Tasmae control the weather?”

 Deryl shrugged, though it was obvious he found Joshua’s soaked status funny. “The land is parched. Tasmae decided to let the storm come.”

 “She couldn’t have given us a warning?”

Or, I can show it:

 Joshua and Sachiko entered the city at a run, and the doors closed at their heels, shutting off the howling of the winds. As they stood there, shaking their heads and wringing out their clothes, Deryl strode toward them. “And where have you been?”

 Joshua gaped then pointed at the door. “Has your wife looked out the window lately?”

 Deryl shrugged, a smile tugging at his lips. “Tasmae said we need the rain.”

Of course, showing is sometimes easier said than done, so here are some tips:

  • See it through your character’s senses and experiences. Will your character know that the general is wearing the traditional (but itchy) dress of the Galvatin Space Fleet, with the braiding denoting his bravery in the Karu Nebula Encounter and the still-brass buttons that have been part of the uniform since 345 GT? Or will he just note that it’s impressive and traditional–but kind of gaudy?
  •  Use the detail that matters. If your hero is dodging a swinging blade, that may not be the time to note that it’s the Sword of Barnana, with rosewood hilt bearing the tiger-eye stones once stolen from the Kitcherie temple and which bears the curse that its wielder must kill a werewolf every full moon and how it has been highly polished yet has nicks. He may notice the crazed, possessed eyes of its bearer and how he pants, “Must killmustkillmustkill.” Once your hero defeats the swordsman, he may note some of these details–or he may be running like fun away from the scene. You decide how important the sword is at that point.
  •  The more it matters to the plot, the more detail you need. If you don’t intend to run across the Sword of Barnana again in the story, it may be enough to note that it’s a possessed sword. If it comes back later, you might want to note the odd tiger-eye jewels. If it becomes the focus of the quest (and hence the story), more background is needed.
  •  If you need to explain, let characters do it–but avoid lectures or extended Q&A.

Here’s Vern explaining his scratch marks on the local buildings to a member of the Los Lagos Beautification Committee. It’s a central point to the entire story, which is less than a thousand words.

“I understand you’ve… scratched some of the buildings in the area.”

“Yesssss….?”

“Well, you’re defacing the exterior!”

“Yesssss…..?”

“It simply won’t do!”

“Anybody complaining?”

“The Committee–”

“Anybody around here complaining?”

“No.”

“Those ‘scratches’ mark the area as under my protection. My Territory.”

“I realize it might be an instinct thing–”

I threw back my head and snorted. She jumped but didn’t back away. Score one for guts. “Do you know the crime rate around Territory?”

“Unacceptably high. That’s why the Los Lagos Beautification Committee wants to foster a more pleasant environment–”

“–Do you know the crime rate within Territory?”

“I don’t–”

“People don’t mess with places I’ve marked. They’ve got a stronger motivation than beauty. Me.”

For More Reading:

http://www.tarakharper.com/k_show.htm Great examples.

http://www.sfwriter.com/ow04.htm

Karina Teaches – Lesson 4

Over this year, Karina is going to share some of her writing seminars on the blog, with the lessons and references for further study. We’ll be posting these once a month. There’s no assigned homework, but if you have questions, please ask them in the comments. Her first workshop is worldbuilding. This is Lesson 4. Here are the links to Lesson 1, Lesson 2, and Lesson 3.

Worldbuilding 101, Lesson 4: Your People

On the last day, God created Man (male and female), but we’re going to do it on Lesson 4.

For some of you, this won’t be too hard–you’ll have basic humanoids with some special quirk that makes them unique.

As you’ve already heard me say–and everybody join in this time–you need to think about the impact of the differences you make on the rest of your world. For example, for my novel Discovery, my husband Rob and I have postulated a race of creatures that are more patterned after starfish–radial symmetry rather than the vertical symmetry of humans. This introduced a whole slew of interesting questions:

–Do they have a sense of right/left/forward/back?

–Are certain digits devoted to walking and some to handling tools? Or are they ambidextrous?

–Where are their eyes? How do they see?

–How do they eat, sleep, procreate?

–What would their homes, vehicles, and equipment look like?

Fortunately for Rob and me, we will be dealing with humans exploring a long-dead spaceship, possibly abandoned, so we have some wiggle room for unanswered questions. We could concentrate just on the things that directly apply to the space ship, its design and especially its life craft. If we take our humans to this planet in another book, we’ll need more answers!

Even if you’re doing fantasy and are going to use some of the time-honored “aliens” like vampires, werewolves, etc., you still need to decide their biology, needs and how they are different. Is vampirism a disease, a genetic defect or a choice? Why can’t they come out into the sun? How does it really affect them–sunburn, allergic reaction or the good ol’ burst into flames? Do werewolves have to change in a full moon, or can they only change in the full moon? What happens to their clothes?

I’ve had a lot of fun playing with the usual clichés of fairy creatures in my Dragon Eye, PI universe. (www.dragoneyepi.net). For example, my elves are very long-lived. Well, when you live to be 500-600, your biology should slow down a bit, and so does your sense of time. Thus, while elves are able to interact with humans, they are also infuriatingly slow. Their language, for example, is full of prerequisites–to apologize for bumping into someone requires you recognize their social status and that of their family and tribe as compared to yours, the nature of the offense, the impact of that offense on the relationship and the relationship of their people… As my dragon detective Vern likes to complain, “It can take them half an hour to ask where the bathroom is.” (And, thanks to their changed biology, they do have half an hour before the need is urgent.)

Keep in mind, too, that the more that quirk is part of their nature, the more effect it will have on their civilization–but that’s lesson 5.

For more reading:

http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Guide-Alien-Species-Star/dp/0345442202/ref=sr_1_1/104-5069618-1512745?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189371773&sr=1-1 The Essential Guide to Aliens (Star Wars) by Ann Lewis and RK Post. It’s amazing what people have come up with for creatures. Contains their history, biology and sociology. Great for ideas.

Dragon Magazine: Although out of print, each issue had a bestiary with incredible detail about certain kinds of creatures.

Dungeons and Dragons Players Handbooks or Monster Manuals: Pick a fantasy creature and these writers have thought of everything from how they react in an adventure to what they wear as pajamas. Forget the dice and the stats and just play with the ideas.

Real life creatures: Google a species that may have traits you want – like starfish or manta rays or birds. Even if you aren’t looking for a full creature, you might learn something. For example, if your alien has wings and can fly, you will want to study what else is involved – do they have feathers or skin like a bat? Do they fly or just soar like a flying squirrel? How does their anatomy support the wing structure?

 

Karina Teaches – Lesson 2

 

Over this year, Karina is going to share some of her writing seminars on the blog, with the lessons and references for further study. We’ll be posting these once a month. There’s no assigned homework, but if you have questions, please ask them in the comments. Her first workshop is worldbuilding. This is Lesson 2. Find Lesson 1 here.

 

Lesson 2: Physics, Geology and Geography

HEY! Don’t open that! It’s an alien planet! Is there air? You don’t know!

–Guy Fleegman, Galaxy Quest

The more we know about the universe and what it takes to create Life, the more we realize just how amazing it is that any life–let alone sentient life–could have developed even once. The world must have a sun that is the right age, be in orbit at the right distance with an atmosphere to block out dangerous radiation and provide something to breathe. There must be carbon or some other basic building block that can combine with other elements to produce complex molecules that will work together. And of course, there must be water or a logical water-substitute. There must be time for those to evolve, societies to develop, etc…

Now, you may not have to start with quite these basics, but you should know to some degree (as determined by the need of the story) how what you’re doing will alter that delicate balance. Alter the mineral content of the world, and you might change its gravity. Change the gravity too much and you lose atmosphere. Introduce two moons and you mess with the tides. Even removing the tilt of your world (the earth sits at about a 23.5 degree tilt to the sun) and you mess with the seasons and the warming of the planet. Not that you can’t do these things, but you need to be aware of them and how they affect your world–and (if they are important to your story) what you’ll do for a work-around.

Second point for today is that planets are not homogeneous. Mars, for example, has a rep for being rather plain and desert-like, but it has fantastic topography, from huge mountains to incredible canyons, long stretches of deserts and rocky flatlands. There are polar ice caps (albeit made of carbon dioxide). Even the gas giants have regions of different climates and “topography,” or else they would not have storms. So the idea of a completely “Springlike” planet or an entirely harsh, rocky world isn’t especially believable.

Of course, there are exceptions. Arrakis (Dune) was desert from pole to pole, but Frank Herbert made it successful for several reasons: it was critical to the story, believable in its presentation, grounded in reason (the scarcity of water and the actions of the sandworms, who walled off water and kept it from rising to the surface), and he acknowledged (through the characters) its uniqueness in the galaxy, thus making it a mystery to draw you into the book rather than a distraction to pull you out.

The point, of course, is to know WHY your world is the way it is, and to make sure that its unique characteristics carry their own unique consequences. Fantasy artists can toss in another moon because it’s cool; writers have to deal with how that second moon affects the werewolves every month–or how it affects the counting of the months, for that matter.

Unless you are an astrophysicist, astrobiologist and geologist, you probably can’t readily say what will happen when you start tweaking your world. Fortunately, others have done that thinking for us. Find books, seek out professors at your local university–or call around and find an expert. And of course, remember that how deep you get into worldbuilding depends on how vital your world is to your plot–if you’re writing a fantasy tale that takes place inland, you don’t need to know how your second moon affects your tides so much as how it affects your werewolves. If you’re doing a “pirates on Xenologia” adventure, you’d better know how the oceans react to your second moon.

But my story takes place on Earth! You may not have to worry about the physics (unless you are introducing some paranormal element, in which case you might consider the “physics” of that), but your area still has geology and geography. Consider the differences between San Francisco, Chicago and Phoenix, for example. One is hilly and foggy; the other has multiple rivers; the third is flat and dry. Each has its own geography, and keep in mind that for the sake of your story “geography” includes man-made elements. Part of the geography of Los Angeles includes Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Hollywood, Beverly Hills… When I think about the geography of my hometown, Pueblo, Colorado, I think of the winding highway, I-25, with the mall at the north end, just before the big stucco welcome signs, and the rusting steel mill on the south end, where the city sort of peters out to an empty lot of the old drive-in and the greyhound race track.

 

For More Reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_life

http://www.humantruth.info/aliens.html A fair summary of different life possibilities–from organic to robotic

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0091886163/vexencrabtree “What does a Martian Look Like? The Science of Extraterrestrial Life” by Jack Cohen

 

Transitions – How to get your character from here to there

MC900434910[1]One area of writing craft that doesn’t get a lot of attention is that of writing transitions. You’ve gotten to the end of a scene, or maybe just to the middle, and the characters need to move to a different location, or perhaps some time must pass. How do we accomplish that in a way that moves the story forward and also keeps the reader’s interest?

I admit to hitting spots like this and getting stumped. I know what is coming up, but can’t quite figure out how to make it happen on the page. Sometimes I just skip the transition, leave a space or type “needs something” in red, and go on. When I come back, the answer is often clear and I can add, then revise and move on.

Deconstructing transitions can help. Ask questions of yourself or the characters. What needs to happen next? What is a logical way of getting there? How can I as author make the “getting there” part compelling? Can I reveal characterization? Can I set a tone? Can I use an active verb? What word choices will help me create the imaginary situation that I hope my reader pictures and feels? How can I do this in an unobtrusive way?

A simple solution for time shifts is to double space between scenes. In more complex time situations, a timing cue may be necessary, i.e., a day, date, or time as a header at the beginning of a chapter. As in any literary technique, get the most bang for your buck with each word.

For instance, in Hijacked, my first novel, the female protagonist is a pilot. I purposely used weather cues that a pilot would notice to alert the reader to the time shifts. The setting became a vehicle for those transitions: A thunderstorm to indicate that summer had arrived, the brilliant color of fall foliage as seen from the air to denote autumn, the sight of malls (again, from the air) engulfed in oceans of cars just before Christmas. I used those opportunities to deepen the heroine’s character, i.e., how she felt about what was going on in her life at each of those seasons, and to move the story forward, i.e., her musings about past events or how to proceed with relationships. Is there a unique aspect of one of your characters or your setting that might serve to assist with transitions?

In more complex time situations, a timing cue may be necessary, i.e., a day, date, or time as a header at the beginning of a chapter. I used this technique in Unholy Bonds, the sequel to Hijacked. Create a timeline outside of the book as a reference; it will help keep things straight. This idea is especially helpful in creating tension in a novel of suspense. Conversely, it can indicate the passage of long periods of time and slow the pace of a more introspective novel.

Within a chapter or scene, your goal is to move the characters around without creating a sense of plastic figures being manipulated by the author. Describe their movements in terms of their personalities and within the context of the emotion felt or displayed at that moment. Give them reasons, valid ones, for going where they need to go. Use transition words (then, next, after, etc.) if you need to, but keep them to a minimum or the story begins to read like an instruction manual.

Avoid the “grocery list” approach. Too many details getting the character from one spot to another risks losing the reader’s interest. Keep only the details that move the story forward or reveal something about the character. If they need to get out of the kitchen, into the car and down the street before the next interesting thing happens, try to get that done in a sentence or two—not six.

For instance: He dropped the milk carton on the counter and sprinted to the door, grabbing a coat on the way to his vintage Harley. A roar of noise and black exhaust carried him away from safety and into the unknown of danger. Where is Patty?

Okay, I know that’s sort of hokey, but I established a whole lot of stuff in a few sentences and got him out of the house and down the street. Our hero drinks milk and rides a vintage Harley (potentially contradictory and character revealing information.) His bike belches black smoke, so it might need some maintenance. He’s leaving a place of safety and heading into danger, which makes him brave or impetuous – or both. And as he’s moved from one place to another, he’s (hopefully) kept our interest and created a sense of urgency, both on the page and within the reader, who now needs to keep reading.

What we avoided was: He picked the carton of milk up and sniffed it, but then set it down. It wasn’t sour, but a thought crossed his mind. He hadn’t heard from Patty yet, and she had promised to call him when she arrived at work. Where was she, anyway? Concerned, he walked quickly down the hall where he picked up his keys and his coat, then checked his pocket for his wallet. Satisfied that he had everything he needed, he stepped out of the house, closed the door and locked it, then took the three steps from the porch to the sidewalk. His motorcycle was parked on the driveway, and he walked over to it, then picked up his helmet and put it on. (Are you bored yet? I am! And it’s so painful I’m not going to write any more! But I bet you get the idea!)

Many times, the transition doesn’t need to be exact.  Sometimes you can simply start the next sentence or scene with a thought in the character’s POV that indicates a change has taken place, then move on from there. Flashbacks followed by “leap forwards” can work, too, but use caution. Overuse or poor execution of flashbacks cause more problems than they solve.

This is a good time to get out your favorite novel and read a bit of it, paying close attention to how the author treated transitions. How do you handle transitions? Do you have suggestions beyond what I’ve addressed here? Please share! 

From the President’s Desk: NFP Week and Catholic Writers Conference Live

James and I teaching an online (virtual) NFP class

James and I teaching an online (virtual) NFP class

In case you didn’t know, we are coming to the end of NFP Awareness Week.

Before I became President of the Guild…even before I started my writing career, I taught Natural Family Planning (NFP). This year, my husband and I will mark our 30th year teaching NFP. My passion for promoting Natural Family Planning and Saint John Paul II’s Theology of the Body is what prompted me to start writing fiction. Since this is NFP Awareness Week, I’d like to first share a few of my NFP-themed blog posts from this week:

Theology of the Body in a Nutshell

The Spiritual Works of Mercy – TOB Style

Theology of the Body Fiction

When I self-published my first book nine years ago, I joined a local (secular) writers’ group. At the first meeting, they asked me to introduce myself and when I said I had five children, I heard a few gasps and perhaps a scoff. Someone said, “With five kids, where did you find time to write a novel?” I remember thinking, “Five kids isn’t all that many.” It wasn’t that they weren’t welcoming; they were nice enough, but I had little in common with the members. I attended a few more meetings, but eventually decided to stop going.

Soon after, I found a Yahoo group called “Catholic Writers Online.” I looked forward to the posts of fellow members, but rarely posted anything. A few years later, some of the Catholic Writers Online members started a group called the Catholic Writers Guild. Knowing they were “faithful to the magisterium,” and knowing I wanted more interaction than daily emails, I joined the Guild in early 2008 and I really felt like I had “come home.” These were writers with whom I shared a common faith and common goals. There were online conferences and in 2009, the first live conference.

The (Sixth) Catholic Writers Conference Live is just around the corner. I’m looking forward to meeting, networking and just chatting with other Catholic writers next week in Schaumburg. If you’re attending, please come and introduce yourself to me (I’ll be the short one giving orders). If you’re not attending, please pray for a successful, safe conference.

With Karina during our book signing. 2009 Trade Show/Conference

With Karina during our book signing. 2009 Trade Show/Conference

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments and/or concerns: president(at)catholicwritersguild.com

Ellen Gable Hrkach
President, CWG

Cheerleading! Mutually Beneficial Author Support

Cheerleaders Doing Routine --- Image by © Royalty-Free/CorbisThere are a lot of us out there. Authors. With great books to share. Too often, though, we feel alone in our endeavors, trying to get readers to notice us in the roiling sea of other great books. This is a great time to be a writer! It’s more possible than it has ever been to publish a book. But that means that all sorts of other people are doing the same.

Whether you are independently publishing your work, under contract with a traditional publisher, or working with a small, online press, the business of marketing one’s work falls more and more upon the shoulders of the author. “But I just want to write,” you say. Hey, I’m with you. Me, too. But that’s  not our reality anymore.

How do we get “out there” where someone might notice?

First, write a quality book, no matter the genre. If you’re publishing independently, surround yourself with an expert team of editors, formatters, and cover artists. First impressions matter. Don’t give the reader a reason to skip past your book; give them a reason to stop and look at it, really look at it. Hopefully, they’ll be intrigued enough to click the ‘buy’ button.

Then, the meat of this post: Network. Before you ask people to spread the news about your book, make sure you’ve nurtured relationships with them, and have crowed about their successes. You can do this well before you are ready to publish your own work; in fact, that’s the best time to create these relationships. Have you gone to Catholic Writers Conference Live? Or participated in the online CWG conference? How about the Writing Retreat? Or any other writing focused activities? What about the CWG Facebook page? Have you interacted with other writers in any of those venues? I hope so, because that’s crucial for the next step, which is:

Celebrate with them! Post their new releases or awards on your Facebook page. Use your blog or Twitter to let your followers know there’s something available that’s worth their time. If you’re on Twitter, find and follow some entities that reflect your interests; they may reTweet for you and expand your reach.

Buy and read your friends’ books, and then review them on Amazon and Goodreads. *Caveat: Always say something nice, or don’t post a review. This does not mean you can’t be honest, but be honest in a kind manner. Personally, I never give a review with less than four stars, and even if I didn’t like everything about the book, I focus on what I loved about the book—or, if it’s in a genre that’s not  my favorite, focus on what readers of that specific type of book will enjoy about this particular one.

Here’s an example of how this might work. A few weeks ago, Erin McCole Cupp contacted me because I’d done a cover reveal on my upcoming release, Hijacked, on CWG’s Facebook page. Would I like to trade read and reviews with her? She’d recently published Don’t You Forget About Me, a cozy mystery. I said yes, and posted reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. She upped the ante and asked me to be an interviewee on her blog the week my book comes out. I said yes (!), and then tagged  her on a My Writing Process blog tour/relay. With any luck, some of my readers will be interested in her work and some of hers readers, in mine. That’s just with two authors! Imagine what can happen when more get in on the fun!

(And did you notice what I just did? I linked Erin’s website and the Amazon link to buy her book to this post. I purposely do this for everyone I mention on both my CWG and personal blogs. What goes around comes around…)

Join writing organizations and establish relationships with authors you respect. Be a cheerleader for them, and hope they’ll return the favor when it’s your turn. Yes, it’s time consuming, but it is well worth the effort—not just because they’re going to help you sell books, but because they are wonderful people and their friendships enrich your life.

Are you feeling a little less alone now? I hope so! If you’ve had success in the arena of networking, please share your story! What are the elements that contribute to that success?

 

The End: Sweet Words for an Author, Sweet Experience for a Reader

The EndThe end.

Two of the most satisfying words a writer can tap onto a keyboard.

We’ve all dreamed of typing those six letters, and many of us have been fortunate enough to have achieved that particular success.

In my past few posts, we’ve discussed beginnings and middles. Let’s talk about endings today.

How do you craft an ending that works? You know what I mean: the ending that satisfies in a way that nothing else can. The good guys win, the couple (finally!) gets together for their happy ever after, the world is saved from certain disaster.

Yet I suspect many of us know when an ending doesn’t work. Have you ever read a book where the story had you in its grip—and then it fell flat and limped to the last page? I have. It feels like the author suddenly lost interest. Perhaps they were on a deadline and just typed a bunch of words to fulfill a contract. Or maybe they really didn’t know how the book ended, so they just threw some words on the page and hoped they would do. And that the reader wouldn’t notice.

Alternatively, I’ve read books where The End happened ten or fifteen pages before the printed pages did. It’s disconcerting to be engaged in the story, come across that emotionally satisfying ahhh that is the indisputable end…but then things keep happening and the characters keep talking, and as a reader, you’ve lost interest.

To avoid a bad ending, go back to the beginning. Is your theme still clear? Will the ending make that theme shine (even though it’s likely not stated outright)? What is the question posed at the beginning of the book? There may be an overall question, along with individual questions for each of the main characters. Are those questions answered in the last chapter?  What about the middle? Does all that suspense and tension you’ve nurtured through the book come to a climax that is addressed in the final scene(s)? If you’ve been paying attention to these elements of craft, you’ve set yourself up for a good, satisfying end.

Pacing is another issue. Keep the tension strong; don’t dilute it with throwaway words or scenes. When the end is reached, end the story; don’t belabor it.

Make sure all loose ends are tied up. This is a great task for critique partners and/or beta readers. Whatever did happen to Uncle Bert after everyone else hared off after the bad guys and left him chained to the gushing water pipe in the basement? Or Sally rescued the lost kitten in chapter two, but the kitten was never mentioned again. What happened to it??? You can bet your readers will ask these questions!

Whatever you do, please, please avoid the temptation to use a plot ploy at the end. No hand of God reaching down to set all aright, or aliens/knights in shining armor/Navy Seals (that haven’t been part of the book until now) suddenly appearing out of nowhere to solve all the problems. Or a minor character who inexplicably becomes the linchpin upon which the premise of the entire book now rests. I have read books that ended this way, and they were disappointing, to say the least. Keep your characters true to their motivations and your plot logical. That makes for authenticity, and happy readers.

The ending should have a twist that no one saw coming. No one likes to read clichés, whether within the book or at the end. Do your best to give the reader a wonderful surprise, one that delights or challenges. Don’t be afraid to brainstorm different endings; too often we pick the first idea that pops into our head. The best idea may be the fifth or eighth. Have fun with this. Readers will enjoy the result.

What about epilogues? They seem to be more effective and better received than prologues. An epilogue can be a wonderful way to tie up remaining loose ends (especially in an action-packed story). It can even set the scene for the next book, if you are writing a series. But keep it short. No more than two pages. Make it count; otherwise, it’s best to leave it out.

You want your readers to be satisfied so they will write nice reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. You want them to tell their friends about the great book they just finished. You also want them to like the end so much they’ll come back for your next book. And the next one.

So give them an ending that carries an emotional punch, the one they hope for. Your reader has invested money and, more important, their time. Make it worthwhile.

What have you learned about writing endings? Any tips to share? I’d love to hear them!