Take My Advice by Bea Tifton

Yesterday I was repotting a plant I’d just bought. I gently massaged the roots before I put them in the dirt. The thought flickered through my mind that I wasn’t sure who had first told me to do this. I thought about all the things I knew how to do and where I had learned them. The practical living things. And that led me to advice. 

Advice comes from so many sources, people we love, people we hate, strangers, advertisers. Do this. Don’t do that. Buy this. Avoid that. We’re bombarded. And, I am willing to admit, I’ve given my fair share as well, both solicited and unsolicited. 

I had a friend who lost her mother. She said the thing she missed most was picking up the phone and asking for advice. Her mother just seemed to know so much about so many things. My mother and I are very close. I hope we have many years left, but I know I will bitterly miss her when the time comes to say goodbye. And one of the reasons is her no nonsense advice and her exhaustive realm of knowledge. How do I get this stain out? What do you think I should plant in that corner of the yard? The purple shirt or the burgundy one? 

When I started teaching my mentor gave me the best teaching advice I ever received. “Say yes whenever you can, but mean it when you say no.” That’s good advice for any area of life. 

I’ve gotten great advice that I didn’t follow. When I was in my 20s I worked as a clerk in a medical library.  The librarians thought I had an affinity for the work and tried to convince me to go to library school. Nope. I was sure I wouldn’t like it and I didn’t want to go to grad school. Fifteen years later? Yep. Masters in Library Science and a profession I love.

Sometimes good advice comes from complete strangers. Here’s a sampling of some words of wisdom that have helped me.

Don’t overstay your welcome:

“Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.”  Benjamin Franklin

Be who you really are:

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” Oscar Wilde

And the most important advice of all:

“Never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear, or a fool from any direction.” – Cowboy Proverb.

Have you ever gotten some great advice? Spectacularly poor advice? Given some? Leave a comment below.

Being True to the Character by Paty Jager

Back before there were any buzz words or political correctness, I wrote my first novel. It was a mystery with a Chinese American lawyer as the main character's love interest and a neighbor in a wheelchair who was a computer whiz. At the time I didn't think about writing these characters as having to know everything I could about being a Chinese American or living in a wheelchair.

I wasn't trying to add diversity to my writing. It was just how I see the world. I embrace everyone, no matter their ethnicity, handicap, or gender. The world is made up of many different people. Why shouldn't they all be read about in books?

I have two mystery series with Native American or American Indian, as they prefer to be called, main protagonists. I enjoy learning more about their culture in order to make the characters ring true in the books.

And that is the same reason I used a sensitivity reader for my latest Silver Dollar Saloon historical western romance. Freedom, the heroine in the book is a Black woman. While I understand a good deal about the struggles from reading books, I wanted to make sure that her feelings rang true to her upbringing and the times.

While the sensitivity reader praised some of the reactions and emotions I gave my character, she still had to give me a lesson in how my character would interact with others. The three pages my reader sent me on history and how certain scenes in my book were from my perspective rather than my character's, helped me create a better, true to the character, book.

So far the reviews on the book make me feel good about my decision to pay for a sensitivity reader. And that she also is a writer, helped her to show me where I needed to change things. She understood the story and helped me make it better.

Have you ever used or been a sensitivity reader? Do you think they help enhance a story?

Here is the blurb for Freedom book 3 in the Silver Dollar Saloon series.

Their dreams brought them together. But will violence tear them apart?

Freedom longs to be out of the Silver Dollar Saloon, with a family of her own. When a white man promises marriage and children, she takes the biggest risk of her life, and follows him to the wilds of Montana Territory. Where he shows his true nature.

Water Runs Fast, a Crow off the reservation, comes upon a white man whipping a brown-skinned woman. After stabbing the white man and riding off with the woman, he realizes she is the woman from his visions. The one who pledged to help him and his people survive in the white man’s world.

On the run from the tragedy, the two grow close. Together, they begin a life as husband and wife. But will they have their chance at a life together, or will they hang for murder?


Universal link: https://books2read.com/u/mlawnB

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 40 novels, 8 novellas, and numerous anthologies of murder mystery and western romance. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Paty and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. Riding horses and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.

blog / website /  Facebook / Paty's Posse / Goodreads / Twitter / Pinterest / Bookbub

photo source: Deposit photos.

The Best #Movie Lines Evah! #authors #readers

Welcome to Smart Girls Read Romance. We're happy you stopped by today. 
 
Several things make a movie great; cinematography, characters and memorable lines said at just the right time. These lines tend to stick with us for years after the movie is first released.

• "I'll be back." ~ Terminator
• "As you wish." ~ Princess Bride
• "Here's looking at you kid." ~ Casablanca
• "I'll have what she's having." ~ When Harry Met Sally
• "Show me the money." ~ Jerry Maguire

But what makes a movie line great? Researchers from Cornell University have done a study to see what makes a good line go from normal to having the qualification of Best Movie Line Ever. They created a quiz that they had used to see what other people remember or consider memorable lines. You can take it here and see what you get. I took the test and got 9 out of 12 which is the score the average person achieved. We'd love to hear how many of you were able to recognize, leave a comment below.

NOTABLE POINT: The more general the quote, the easier it is to remember. It called for the phrases to have a generality that enabled it to be used in a situation outside the movie set. There were three qualities that the researchers noted as a common ground for all quotes.

1. Use of personal pronouns in a quote.
2. The quote used “a” and “an” instead of a definite article like “the”.
3. The ability to avoid past tense.

via GIPHY


The above three qualities give the quote a generality that was needed to embed the quote in your mind.

Is it the same with book lines?

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling left us with: “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.”

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie gave us: “All children, except one, grow up.”

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien caught us with: “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”

Do you have a favorite book line or movie line you'd like to share? We'd love to hear it in the comments below. Maybe you'll even find one in my new book I Spy a Demon that's part of A Darker Shade of Evil anthology releasing on September 24th.

About I Spy A Demon:

When twins Cecily and Calder Sizemore’s parents are killed in a car accident they are taken in by Gus and Mae Frost. Raised like family by the Frosts, Cecily’s feelings for their son, Marcel, evolve into anything but sisterly as the years pass.  

Cecily always knew something was amiss in the Frost household. Little things belied the calm, peaceful ambiance Mae did her best to portray. Calder tried to warn her things were not as they appeared, but she didn’t want to believe him. But when Calder begs her to leave Des Moines, start a new life away from the secrets, away from the Frosts and away from Marcel, she follows his advice and shatters her heart in the process.

Now she’s been called home for her beloved brother's funeral. There's more to the story than meets the eye. Discrepancies in how Calder died lead her to believe it wasn’t a car accident. And she's not returning to Minnesota until she uncovers the truth. 

She’ll have to face Marcel again—the boy who stole her heart when she was eight, the man whose very presence turns her blood to liquid fire, and the man who walks the earth as if he owns every piece of it. He’s always played his cards close to his chest, but this time, he’s underestimated her dogged tenacity. She’ll find out what really happened to Calder, even if it’s her last act in life. 

PREORDER A DARKER SHADE OF EVIL NOW AND RECEIVE 13 FREE BOOKS! Send your proof purchase to Muffy muffy@muffywilson.com and she'll send you the page link to download 13 FREE BOOKS!

 PRE-ORDER HERE TODAY 

Trusting My Voice

Taps microphone - Tap Tap Tap
"Is this thing on?"
Winces at the feedback.
"Oops.. sorry..."

I'm a study in contradictions. I love to sing but getting up in front of an audience makes my stomach churn... and that's always been a thing.
It was infinitely easier to dance in front of an audience than speak or sing.
Something about my voice added an extra layer of intimacy, one that came closer to revealing my heart.

And isn't that a frightening thing? Showing your heart to someone else?
Stagefright is no joke... who wants to perform something and then have silence afterward? Or a smattering of applause?
It's not so much about feeling appreciated, at least for me.. it's a validation of sorts.

My son is a much better performer than I am. He finds it easy to crawl into a character and 'be.' When I see him perform, I get chills... Honest to goodness, head to toe, chills.

In his senior year of high school, his second year acting, he earned the right to represent his school at the State Shakespeare competition. He had to perform a monologue and a sonnet for the competition and when I went to see him compete I had not seen him perform the two pieces.  He didn't want me to see him ahead of time, but that day when he got up on stage and performed a monologue by a young man about to die, the whole theater was hushed and then a sonnet about hopeful love through pain the air around me held a different charge.

How amazing it was to feel as though I had seen TWO DISTINCT CHARACTERS come to life before me. All in one person.

Writing books is like that for me. Now, I won't pretend to be as talented or skillful as his performace, but I do love the thrill of feeling as though I can bring characters to my readers. Hoping to bring them to life. Living, breathing, flawed, hopeful messes of people into my book.

But this 'voice' thing... finding a way of writing that is 'mine.'

That's tough. There are rules. Lots 'n lots of rules. Danging this and run on that... oh, and Oxford commas that Oxford doesn't even use anymore.
Beyond the rules there's voice.
And it's far too much like singing to be a coincidence.

Pitch, speed, texture, pacing. It's the reason why you can tell the difference between certain singers. That note, that vibration, etc that is all their own.  Like the difference between Freddie Mercury and... well, anyone else.

Now, I'm not saying I'm going to be the Freddie Mercury of romance! That's too heavy a burden!

What I want to be... is me. I want readers to pick up a book and 'hear' how much I love romance. To feel how much I root for the underdogs and the broken. To taste tears and yes, joy. To scent fear, and yes, hope in the air. And... sometimes... to see things before the characters and then mentally shush them in the right direction.

It's a lot, I know, but hey... it's my dream!

I think I'm getting there. There are more and more times that I read through a book right before I submit it as a finished product and think.. yes, that sounds like ME.

Not quite to the point of it feeling like second nature, but the key is to keep going.

And me, I'm over here, sitting at my desk, working at it!