THE HOLIDAYS ARE UPON US

Post by Doris McCraw (c)

December is a time of snow and cold in the Northern hemisphere, sun and rain in the Southern. It is the month of Christmas and New Year’s Eve. A time of gifts and celebrations.

The gift giving of the three wise men in the Bible are part of the tradition. However the idea of gift giving is a much older one. Ancient Rome, and early Pagan religions had celebrations with gift giving during the winter months, usually starting on what would now be December 17^th.

The decorated Christmas tree is credited as having started in Germany in the 16^th century, when early Christians brought decorated trees into their homes. They were not the first, however to celebrate with greenery. Most early societies believed the ‘evergreen’ plants were special, especially so during the cold winter months of the Northern Hemisphere. In my story, “Lost Knight, Out of Time” I fudged a bit and brought the decorated tree into the story. But if you read it, the concept fits.

New Year’s celebrations of January 1 began in Rome in 153 BC, because that was the beginning of the civil year when newly elected Roman Consuls took office. In fact January and February were not even part of the calendar until around 700 BC. Prior to that, New Year’s was celebrated in March.

From Authors (C) collection

So as we get ready to share our imagination, our stories and ourselves this season, think back to the rich history that comes with this time of year. The many authors here and elsewhere have spent time creating stories for you and your reading friends.

It is with joy and sadness I prepare to read Sara Barnard’s final ‘Everlasting Hearts’ story. The two wonderful Christmas anthologies PRP “One Winter Knight”, and “Cowboy Under the Mistletoe” are sure to please many. Zina Abbott’s “Bridgeport Holiday Brides” is out and my own “Gift of Forgiveness” is coming soon. Painted Pony Books has “A Christmas Spider” by Randy Lee Eickhoff. Watch for these and so many more stories for the Holidays, and don't forget all the other greats ones that have come to us throughout the year from Prairie Rose Publications and their imprints. 

I am a firm believer in books as gifts. When you give someone the gift of a book, you are not only sharing your love of reading, but the heart and soul of the author. When you have a book, and you know how to read it, you will always have someone with you. So this Holiday season, whether in the Northern hemisphere, where you bundle up to read and stay warm, on in the Southern where the beach is calling., you can’t go wrong with books.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and remember, these traditions go back many centuries! (And yes, I do enjoy Alice Cooper's music, just not his stage shows *grin*)

Angela Raines is the pen name for Doris McCraw. Doris also writes haiku posted five days a week at – http://fivesevenfivepage.blogspot.com and has now passed one thousand haiku and photos posted on this blog. Check out her other work or like her Amazon author page:  http://amzn.to/1I0YoeL

ARGUING WITH YOURSELF: TRUSTING YOUR CHARACTERS BY SHAYNA MATTHEWS

                   Arguing with Yourself - Trusting Your Characters by Shayna Matthews

The Journey: what's around the next bend? Photograph by Shayna Matthews.

When the plot crumbles...aftermath of your character war.

   
      A writer is a unique specimen of being. We create characters, journeys and universes of our own accord. Occasionally, we get lucky. A person will unfold before our eyes, plucked seemingly out of the blue. The character breathes life into the story. He or she forms his/her own thoughts and opinions, and expresses them freely, running roughshod over your meticulous plotting. "This is not how it's gonna be," he might tell you.

     No matter what you try, the scene collapses much like an implosion of brick and mortar. A writer might fight the nagging little voice, after all, it is the author's tale to tell, is it not? Characters must do as they are bidden. (And if you believe that, I have a nice piece of ocean front property in Arizona for sale...interested?)
     Advice on fictional writing is easy to find in this modern world. A quick search will unearth an avalanche of rules. How to write a novel. How not to write a novel. Planning. Plotting. Flying by the seat of your 'pantsters'. Show, don't tell. Well, tell a little, that one's all about balance, right? Character heroes vs. villains. But I believe it all boils down to two things: knowledge and trust. We must know our characters as we know ourselves. Perhaps more so. Trust in them, in their voices, should they decide to speak to you. They know the story better than the writer, for they are living it.

   I've heard it said about historical fiction, that an in-tune author inadvertently summons past truths. The characters we flesh out on paper lean over our shoulders and whisper the story within the life they lived once upon a time. It is the author's job to listen. Once in a great while, a spirited character will do a little more than whisper. They "nudge" with the force of a twelve-pound hammer.

      I know an author--let's call her Lynn--who has a regular habit of picking up on those not so subtle signs from her "fictional" characters, so to speak. She was in the realm of a chapter fight with a secondary character, an unruly cowboy, who refused to stay in the background. Character and writer could not see eye to eye, and the plot began to unravel at the seams.
AGAIN.
      Lynn went to one of her favorite stomping grounds, a western boutique filled with the leather-scented dreams most cowgirls lust over. In the shop, she gravitated toward a handmade pendant. It was a large brass portrait medallion. The image was clearly one printed from who-knows-where, a cheap repro of the original portrait of a smug cowpoke. The original was, no doubt, just that--the real thing. The unnamed puncher donned in threadbare britches, a whitish shirt and a broad-brimmed hat might not have had many worldly goods in his life at the time the photograph was taken, but he had pride--scads of it.                                                  
                                                                                              
                                            
     Lynn walked through the store for nearly two hours, but kept returning to that pendant. She could not shake the image, for the man was everything she imagined her own stubborn character to be...crude, boyish, charming and completely unforgettable. She bought it and brought it home. The very next day, she scanned Pinterest boards, looking for nothing in particular. The moment she brought up those pictorial boards, an image seared through her heart: it was a photograph of the old west cowboy, the very same image she had bought the day before, marked simply: C. 1890 Cowboy.                                                     
     Upon letting the pounding of her heart settle back in its place, a frantic yet thorough search for the cowboy revealed...nothing. His image is there, he crops up from time to time to haunt her, and yet, his story remains a mystery. At least, for now. For you see, now that Lynn has learned to listen, that prideful cowboy is whispering the true tales of his stories in her ear. She writes them down as fast as she can. When she strays too far from the truth of her characters, she flounders. Then she must pause, reflecting on the past, and search for what went wrong. Often she has to bite down, swallowing her pride for the good of the story, and trust a little deeper in the whispers of the characters she is writing with. You see, for Lynn, they are more than characters. They are the people who lived the tale, the co-authors of their own tales, and the teachers who guide her down the adventurous journey of history, of authorship, and of self-discovery.

Written by Shayna Lynn Matthews

My favorite writing quotes by Kaye Spencer

Because I love witty, thought-provoking quotes and clever sayings, today I'm sharing my favorite wordly tidbits on the topics of writing and being an author. My favorite quote is by author, Richard North Patterson. I keep this quote on my computer to read every time I sit down to type. Since it's my writing mantra, it has the honor of being first on the list.

 

Richard North Patterson
Writing is rewriting. A writer must learn to deepen characters, trim writing, intensify scenes. To fall in love with a first draft to the point where one cannot change it is to greatly enhance the
prospects of never publishing.

Mark Twain
Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.

Mark Twain
Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.

Mark Twain
Books are for people who wish they were somewhere else.

Mark Twain
The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, c. 65 CE
Write quickly and you will never write well; write well, and you will soon write quickly.

Frank Yerby
It is my contention that a really great novel is made with a knife and not a pen. A novelist must have the intestinal fortitude to cut out even the most brilliant passage so long as it doesn't advance the story.

Gene Fowler
Writing is easy; all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead.

Charlotte Bronte
I'm just going to write because I cannot help it.

Clarence Budington Kelland
I get up in the morning, torture a typewriter until it screams, then stop.

Leo Rosten
Every writer is a narcissist. This does not mean that he is vain; it only means that he is hopelessly self-absorbed.

Robert Benchley
It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous.

Stephen Wright
I'm writing a book. I've got the page numbers done.

Mickey Spillane
The first chapter sells the book; the last chapter sells the next book.

E. L. Doctorow
Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

Harlan Ellison
Thank your readers and the critics who praise you, and then ignore them. Write for the most intelligent, wittiest, wisest audience in the universe: Write to please yourself.

Robert A. Heinlein
Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.

Rosemary Mahoney
Writing is not a genteel profession; it's quite nasty and tough and kind of dirty.

Eugene Ionesco
A writer never has a vacation. For a writer life consists of either writing or thinking about writing.

Stephen Leigh
You may be able to take a break from writing, but you won't be able to take a break from being a writer... 

Niyi Osundare
One hasn't become a writer until one has distilled writing into a habit, and that habit has been forced into an obsession. Writing has to be an obsession. It has to be something as organic, physiological and psychological as speaking or sleeping or eating.

Rainer Maria Rilke
What is needed is, in the end, simply this: solitude, great inner solitude. Going into yourself and meeting no one for hours on end--that is what you must be able to attain.

Ernest Hemingway
The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof, shit detector. This is the writer's radar and all great writers have had it.

Oscar Wilde
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.

William Carlos Williams
I think all writing is a disease. You can’t stop it.

George Orwell
Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.

Franz Kafka
A non-writing writer is a writer courting insanity.
Until next time,

Kaye

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(Images: Creative Commons, Fotolia)