What Satisfies You? *wink* *wink* -#readromance #MFRWauthor #romanticcomedy #shortstories @VickiBatman

By Vicki Batman (Guest Blogger)

I didn’t begin my writing career by writing short stories. I started with my romantic comedy mystery, Temporarily Employed. However, when I began critiquing with a friend, she sent me six very short stories to read. I hadn’t read short stories in forever and reading six in a row became a crash course in writing short. All kinds of things inspired me and launched a work. A picture. A phrase. A look. For example in “Man Theory,” someone said to me, “I have a theory about love.” My brain went whoa! I had to scribble the thought down. And after the conversation had ended, I instantly opened a document and let the fingers fly.

“With This Ring” came about when I attended a university event with Handsome. For a minute, I was in the hot seat as I had forgotten my little black dress. I had no choice but to buy one and made a faster than fast trip to the shopping drag. I have never had much luck at “have to find something to wear” at the last minute (and to this day, I haven’t worn the garment again). I kept a journal and wrote down what had happened. And then, the writing magic took over, my head began spinning, and the story almost wrote itself.

I should let Handsome make me go to more events because they were great inspiration. We attended a political dinner, and one guest at our table did not have the best manners. He gobbled his food, ate the absent person’s next to him, and two desserts. I wondered what if a young woman went to a dinner like this by herself and a good-looking man had been seated next to her. What if??? was a powerful tool for this writer. I opened a doc and started the story, “Just Desserts.”

In all three of these examples, there was a beginning, middle, black moment, and end—just like the components making up a book. When one writes 1,000 words, every single word mattered. Characterization may be briefer as well as setting. I analyzed which adjectives and adverbs to keep. Could I combine phrases. I did not delve into different points of view, many different characters, or had complicated middles, or complicated plots. Two people met, had something to overcome, and came together for a nice resolution, a Happy Ever After, at the end.

Just like a book.

Just shorter.

Did you read short stories in school? And were they a huge turn-off? I remember reading one about flesh-eating ants---ick. Was I turned off shorter works. Later in life, I had no idea short stories were still around. A lot of magazines didn’t publish them anymore. Only the romance genre had embraced them in anthologies and boxed sets. When I discovered those, the stories were quite pleasurable and found new authors.

 

Do you read short stories or only books?

 

I mentioned Man Theory above and here’s a fun excerpt:

"I have a theory about love.”

Ethan's statement knocked me from the proverbial mountain top. Eyeing him, I clapped my hand across my mouth to stifle a giggle.

From Day One at our new jobs at Prime Designs, Ethan and I had forged a friendship. I was the artsy heart-sy, emotional gal. Him--the technical, by-the-book pal. We ate an occasional dinner, watched a movie, whatever. Traded small gifts like coffee, a magazine, music. However, Ethan had never made an overture toward me.

Translated: Nothing intimate.

I'd said to myself, "Rats."

For work, we'd traveled to Colorado Springs to attend a workshop on web design innovations. After check-in, I'd joined him at the bridge crossing the lake to decide about lunch before the meetings commenced.

My six-one geek wearing rimless glasses, leaned against the railing and stared into the sparkling blue waters of the high mountain lake. The feathered fowl paddled by.

Have his feelings changed? I asked in disbelief, "R-really? A theory...about love?"

* * * *

To kick off my love for romantic comedy short stories, I am giving away two e-copies. One of Whispers of Winter, which features my homage to fruitcake, “The Great Fruitcake Bake-off.” And an e-copy of “Just Desserts…and other stories.” Sign up for my newsletter at: http://www.vickibatman.blogspot.com .

Have to have Just Desserts…and other stories now?

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Just-Desserts-Other-Short-Stories-ebook/dp/B07CT8XC5F/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1525792619&sr=1-1&keywords=just+desserts+and+other+stories/

Print: https://www.amazon.com/Just-Desserts-Other-Stories-writer/dp/1718719302/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1527956600&sr=8-2&keywords=just+desserts+and+other+stories/

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/just-desserts-and-other-short-stories-vicki-batman/1128592107?ean=2940155242031/

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/823338/

About the Author

Vicki Batman has sold many romantic comedy works to magazines, several publishers, and most recently, two humorous romantic mysteries. Along the way she has garnered awards and bestsellers. 

An avid Jazzerciser. Handbag lover. Mahjong player. Yoga practitioner. Movie fan. Book devourer. Cat fancier. Best Mom ever. And adores Handsome Hubby. Most days begin with her hands set to the keyboard and thinking, "What if??"

Website: http://vickibatman.blogspot.com/p/more-about-me.html/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Vicki-Batman-sassy-writer-of-sexy-and-funny-fiction-133506590074451/

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Author Central: https://www.amazon.com/author/vickibatman/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4814608.Vicki_Batman/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vickilbatman/

Getting Started

By Tim Smith (Guest Blogger)

I recently attended a book festival and experienced a first. A local English teacher had given her class an assignment to talk to the authors then write an essay about what they learned. I’ve had writer wannabe’s pump me for tips before, but these students asked questions that went beyond “When did you know you wanted to be a writer?” and “What’s your favorite color?” One of them asked something that had me momentarily fumbling for a good response – “How do you begin writing a story?”

My mind instantly flashed back to the first Creative Writing class I took in high school. The opening line in the textbook still haunts me - “Does the blank page hold terror for you?” Some days the answer is a resounding “Hell, yes!”

This question made me think about how I actually do it. I may read some item in the news or hear a story that sounds interesting, and if I’m sufficiently intrigued I’ll ask myself a question – “What would happen if…?” There’s an anecdote about the creation of the 60’s sitcom Get Smart. When writers Mel Brooks and Buck Henry made the pitch, they asked, “What if James Bond and Inspector Clouseau had a child together?” Thus was born bumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart.

I once used the “What would happen if…?” tactic to concoct an entire story. Several years ago I had planned a vacation/business trip to Florida with my sig other, but shortly before we were to leave she became unavailable. This became the basis for Mistletoe and Palm Trees, where two strangers end up unexpectedly alone in The Florida Keys at Christmastime. I asked myself “What if this guy went on a planned vacation alone because he’d just broken up with his girlfriend, and he meets a woman who recently split from her fiancé?”

I like to use the “What if” thing when I’m putting together a mystery plot, usually to throw the reader a curve. If it looks as though the finger is pointing toward an obvious conclusion, I’ll think “What if this happened instead?” It keeps things interesting when you’re approaching the “Aha!” moment. I’m proud to say I’ve had readers tell me they were mad at me because things didn’t play out the way they expected. While writing my latest romantic thriller, Operation Payback, I knew there would be a showdown between the hero and the villain, but I decided to throw a curve ball. No, I won’t tell you what it is, but people have told me they were surprised by the twist.

I think a lot of this has to do with my dislike of clichés. Remember the old private eye shows like Mannix and Peter Gunn? In most episodes there was the required fight scene, where the guy gets the stuffing beat out of him by two or three thugs (sometimes four or five, but who’s counting?). Then he miraculously gets up and runs after them. Get real! If he’s on the receiving end of a savage beating, the last thing he’ll feel like doing is engaging in a foot race. He’s probably thinking about an ice pack, a shot of whiskey and some tender lovin’ from his busty blonde secretary.

I busted this myth in one of my thrillers, where the hero gets jumped by three guys then throws up afterward. When the female lead frantically asks if he’s okay, he responds “Of course not. I just got the crap kicked out of me.” After another character offers the opinion “You don’t look so hot,” he says “I don’t feel so hot. It’s a matching set.”

Here’s a “What if…?” that I used to open my romantic mystery Lido Key. I began with “What if the hero went to sleep in one city but woke up in another?” then went from there:

I had the craziest damn dream. I was standing on a cloud of white satin while angels strummed their golden harps all around me. I swear one of them looked like Taylor Swift. Then this guy showed up, dressed in a double-breasted blue pinstripe suit with a gray fedora. Looked like he stepped out an old Bogart movie. No, it wasn’t Bogart, it was Robert Mitchum. Yeah, that’s it. Mitchum in ‘Farewell, My Lovely.’ I always liked that movie. Mitchum handed Taylor a bottle of cheap whiskey and she poured me a healthy slug in a tumbler. She smiled when she handed it to me, you know, one of those smiles that tells you everything’s all right even though your gut tells you it isn’t. I drank it down in one swallow and felt lightheaded so I curled up on that satin cloud and fell asleep. Probably shouldn’t have eaten Veal Scaloppini for dinner last night.

Vic Fallon slowly awoke from a deep slumber. He yawned, stretched his arms then looked through one drowsy eye at the clock radio on the nightstand. 8:30. I don’t usually sleep this late. He yawned again. Must’ve been more tired than I realized. I never sleep this well in a strange bed the first night away from home. He threw back the covers, sat on the edge of the bed and blinked a few times to wake up. Vic took his first deep breath of the day and looked around the bedroom. His brow furrowed in confusion. This isn’t where I fell asleep last night.
 

This is the blurb for my latest romantic thriller from Extasy Books, Operation Payback:

Former CIA operative Nick Seven has worked hard to create a new life in the Florida Keys with his Barbadian lover Felicia Hagens. Their life in paradise takes an unexpected turn when a double agent that Nick sent to prison is granted an early parole. Nick still remembers what Simon Larch said when he was sentenced – “Someday I’ll get you for this. You won’t know when or how. Just wait for it.” Larch is supposedly in another state, so who’s responsible for the ominous threats Nick receives and how does Larch seem to know everything about Nick’s past? What kind of payback is he really planning?

Get your own copy of Operation Payback today!

Amazon Kindle

About Tim

Tim Smith is an award-winning, bestselling author whose books range from romantic thrillers to contemporary erotic romance. He can often be found in The Florida Keys, where he indulges in parasailing between research and seeking out the perfect Pina Colada. More information about his books can be found at his website, www.timsmithauthor.com. 

 

My Favorite Question

By ML Skye (Guest Blogger)

My favorite question inspires everything

What if?

It's a great question, yeah? I have to credit my mom with planting it in my head, at a very young age, to keep my busy when she'd rather be doing something else—usually reading a good book—whenever I asked the inevitable 'Why?'. She'd stop whatever she'd be doing, look at me, and say: Instead of asking 'Why?' and expecting an answer, why don't you use 'what if?' and figure it out.

She started a lifelong obsession for me.

My dad got in on the act, too. Star Trek re-runs always aired about the time he got home from work and he'd sit and watch with me and my two brothers. We'd be watching an episode and one of us would say: What if Spock captained the Enterprise instead of Kirk? Or, what if the transporter stopped working before the person fully reintegrated? Of course, growing up in the seventies gave me a lot of good fodder for my favorite question. Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galactica, and Star Wars fed my love of science fiction and lent themselves to imagining all kinds of crazy scenarios.

Having parents and grandparents who read widely and encouraged me to do the same opened up a myriad of mind-bending worlds for me to devour and live in for a while. My mom and her group of friends were romance junkies and their books spurred my interest in all kinds of new genres: time-travel, suspense, even espionage. I never lacked for new reading material and always had an opportunity to try every new style of romance when it came out, which also means I got to ask my favorite question—a lot.

So… I apply the same curiosity to writing. Almost every story I've ever written starts with 'What if'? With Midwinter Crises, I asked: What would happen if two people loved each other madly, but split over a career issue? Then had to work together post break up? For my Furlough 99 Novella, Shyler: Finding Home, the question started with: What if a police inspector traveled to the end of the known galaxy to get her bad guy? If I get stuck or blocked, regardless of whether I'm writing speculative fiction, contemporary, or magical fantasy, I can always ask the question to shake things loose.

The scenarios spin out from there and the story unfolds, sometimes really fast with words flying faster than I can type. Other times, the question will spawn a million more, and that's when wrangling everything together into something cohesive is harder than herding cats. The ideas take on a mind of their own and my brain explodes.

Okay, not really. But all the information has to go somewhere, right? Enter the big book of What If Possibilities, also known as my Works in Progress file. I may never finish everything I start, but I have an extremely cool log of almost every 'What if' question I've ever asked. And who knows, I could get lucky and complete all the random stories in my head. I've definitely learned never to say never—I couldn't ask 'What if' if I did.

For my current release, Boyfriend's Brother, I asked what if my heroine met the wrong guy first? The manuscript grew out from there, not easily, but every time I hit a wall, I'd ponder the 'what ifs' until I had what I wanted on the page. I'm seriously thrilled with how everything finally came together.

Please enjoy the following blurb and excerpt…

Blurb:

Chloe Timmons and Jason McIvey are each at a crossroads.

On what may be her last weekend as 'just a girlfriend', Chloe quells her restlessness by hitting the town and runs into her boyfriend's brother, Jason, a fellow pilot in the area for an air show. A barroom brawl brings them together.

Chloe thinks her boyfriend Marc may propose, and she's not sure she's ready for marriage. Jason McIvey has to decide if he's staying in the military or going civilian. When Chloe and Jason spend the night together, it doesn't make either decision easier.

Excerpt:

Chloe ducked and looked up in Jason's direction. "Little help here?" She stood back up, and Max's fist connected with her jaw, her head smacking back against the wall.

Stars burst behind her eyelids, but she shook it off. Jason sucked in a breath and winced.

He kept his tone light. "Thought you'd never ask."

He stepped into the fray, grabbing one of the guys and spinning him around to meet his fist. The guy went down, but Jason got grabbed by the arm and Max got a solid punch in, splitting Jason's lip in the process. Jason landed his own jab and knocked Max backward to land on a pool table. Max didn't get back up, and Jason's face showed more than a little satisfaction with laying the guy out.

He made his way over to Chloe, and with their backs together, they slowly made their way out of the bar. Only two of Max's friends made an attempt to follow, but the crowd more or less swallowed them up when Jason and Chloe stumbled out the door.

Once outside, Chloe leaned up against the exterior, slowly sliding down until she crouched close to the sidewalk. Still seeing stars, she figured she hit her head harder than she thought. Looking over toward Jason, two of him hovered in her line of sight, but she attributed that to the alcohol. She let out a chuckle that ended on a groan.

Jason sucked in the cool night air, then turned to check on her. Her cheek burned, and she'd lay odds she'd have a big purple bruise along her cheekbone. Bet that would look really lovely tomorrow.

He used his thumb to wipe the blood off his lip. "Well, that was fun."

~*~

I hope you enjoyed reading. And a huge thank you to Lisabet for hosting me on her blog!

Oh, and I'm giving away a copy of MidwinterCrises, the first book in the Capital City Seasons Series.

Please leave a comment—maybe even note your favorite 'What if' scenario—and provide your email address. I'll contact the lucky winner off list.

Best regards,

ML Skye

Creating Character Connections… One Page at a Time

Buy Links

Silver Publishing: https://spsilverpublishing.com/boyfriends-brother-ebook-p-60475.html

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Boyfriends-Brother-ML-Skye-ebook/dp/B00IVC95V4

About ML Skye

Currently a writer and editor by trade, ML Skye, also writing as Skylin O'Thomas and Skye Ritchey, can usually be found on IM or browsing the web while the TV plays in the background. She credits her parents for developing her fascination with 'what if' scenarios.

Growing up, she watched a mish mash of science fiction, westerns, and military dramas and read about other worlds and distant times along with contemporary romance… thanks to her mom's reading group—a wild, wacky bunch with diverse tastes that never failed to entertain.

She started writing short stories in grade school, switched to poetry in high school, and got sidetracked by a myriad of jobs and starting a family. But the writing called again and now she gravitates toward the genres she grew up loving, combining them with sensual and erotic romance set in different times and places. Meeting her husband on a blind date—after swearing she'd never go on one—ML Skye decided to never again say never.

'What if' couldn't exist if she did.

She resides in Ohio with her husband and children.

Website:

www.skyewrites.com

Facebook:

www.facebook.com/MLSkye

Blog:

http://mlskye.blogspot.com