I’d like to thank Diana Stevan for inviting me to join her blog hop! Her new book, A Cry from the Deep sounds fantastic! Please take a look at: http://www.dianastevan.com/a-cry-from-the-deep/ .

She has asked me to answer a few pointed questions as a writer, and it’s been my pleasure to post my answers here on my blog. At the end of this blog, I will introduce you to a writer who has inspired me along my journey. She will follow me with her own blog post on July 21^st.

Question:

What are you working on?

Answer:

My new novel, The Sanctum, is currently in the hands of several publishers. I’m hoping for a book deal in the very near future since my literary agent has been working hard toward that endeavor. As she does that, I’m writing the sequel to The Sanctum, called The Pinnacle. I’m extremely excited as I see this turning into a series. So to bring you up to date, it’s my pleasure to give you a short description of The Sanctum:

Neeley McPherson accidentally killed her parents on her fifth birthday. Thrown into the care of her scheming and alcoholic grandfather, she is raised by his elderly farmhand, Gideon, a black man, whom she grows to love. Neeley turns thirteen during the winter of 1959, and when Gideon is accused of stealing a watch and using a Whites Only restroom, she determines to break him out of jail.

The infamous Catfish Cole, Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon of the Carolinas, pursues Neeley and Gideon in their courageous escape to the frozen Blue Ridge Mountains. After Gideon’s truck hits ice and careens down a steep slope, they travel on foot through a blizzard, and arrive at a farm of sorts—a wolf sanctuary where Neeley crosses the bridge between the real and the supernatural. It is here she discovers her grandfather’s deception, confronts the Klan, finds her faith in God, and uncovers the shocking secrets of the family who befriends her. Giving sanctuary, the healing power of second chances, and overcoming prejudice entwine, leading Neeley to tragedy once again but also granting her the desire of her heart.

The Sanctum is a coming-of-age Southern tale dusted with a bit of mystery, and set in a volatile time in America when the winds of change begin to blow. 

And, one short note on something else I’m working on. I’ve started a non-fiction book called The Congregation. A book of testimonies, if you will, on the lives of those who have escaped the horrors of churches with a choke hold on their members. Legalism runs rampant in congregations across this country, and since my novel Televenge was published in 2012, so many people have come to me with their own stories. It’s time to put their words to paper.

Question:

How does your work differ from others of its genre?

Answer:

For me, it is within sanctuaries of brick and mortar; places of clapboard and canvas that characters hang ripe for picking. From the primitive church services of the mountain clans to the baptisms and sacraments in cathedrals and synagogues all over the world. From the hardworking men and women who testify in every run-down house of God in America to the charismatic high-dollar high-tech evangelicals televised in today’s megachurches, therein lie stories of unspeakable conflict, the forbidden, and often, the unexplained.

Question:

Why do you write what you do?

Answer:

I write about religion and spirituality with paranormal twists unearthed from my family’s history. I studied creative writing, but I believe my best education came from the professionals—mentors and writers in the trenches. I write about my passions, what moves me, what shoots out of me like a rocket. My key inspirational force is my spirituality.

I was born in the South, a coal miner’s granddaughter, but my father escaped the mines, went to college and moved his family to Ohio to work for the rubber companies in 1959. I spent every weekend as a little girl traveling back to the Appalachian Mountains. My memories of my childhood run as strong as a steel-belted radial tire and as deep as an Appalachian swimming hole. As a little girl, I was a transplanted hick in a Yankee schoolroom. I grew up in the North. So my influence comes naturally from both regions. But the dust laden roads in the coal towns of the ‘sixties are where my career as a writer was born.

Question:

How does your writing process work?

Answer:

Process? What process? I get out of bed, stumble to the kitchen for coffee, and then plant myself at my computer until noon. Some days I spend the morning on social media, but usually it’s to review and edit what I’ve written the previous day. I can spend as many as 12 hours a day writing, or as little as one or two. But generally, it’s an eight-hour day. Although lately, I’ve been distracted by house-hunting with my realtor, and other family matters so it all cuts into my writing time. I think my best hours spent with my characters are between 9 p.m. and two or three in the morning. That’s when the house is quiet, every distraction flies out of my head, and there is nothing between my story and me. I guess you could say that’s my process. Mix it up with research and reading time, it seems I have no solid process. But that will all change … if I ever find a new publisher!

Now, allow me to introduce you to my guest blogger. Please check out her books. I assure you, you won’t be sorry!

J. Hannah Lloyd, author of Survivor Dynamics, Living Life on the Edge

www.jhannahlloyd.com

www.survivordynamics.wordpress.com

Bio:  J. Hannah Lloyd is an author, poet, and freelance writer whose articles, stories, and poetry have enhanced the lives of many. Although she spends many hours developing her writing craft, her family is most important. She hangs out with an understanding husband, two grown (but irregular) children, a gymnast granddaughter, and two demanding felines.

In 2007 she received two awards for her work at the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writer’s Conference in Ridgecrest, NC. As poet and writer, her articles, stories, and poetry have been published in adult and children’s Christian literature, as well as online through www.christiandevotions.us. Miss Lloyd also contributes poetry bi-monthly to Critter Magazine.

Other works have been published in Slate & Style, Shemom, Harold and Banner Press in Primary Pal: Pacific Press Publishing Association in Our Little Friend, MS Focus and MS Connection Magazines, Who’s DANN?, Gospel Publishing House in LIVE, The Pentecostal Evangel, Heartland Boating, and The Upper Room magazine. She has served as Assistant Editor at www.DevoKids.com. Several poems were presented on WORD Radio in Greenville, SC. She was also interviewed on WGGS TV16, and contributed grief documentation via video at www.GriefShare.org.

Currently, she retains membership in Greenville, SC with CrossNPens, The Writer’s Plot, and Women in Crime.

Books by J. Hannah Lloyd

Ordinary Sayings and Southern Cliché

Tied to Terror – Secrets of a Battered Wife

Escape from Abuse Survivor Guide

Visit her online at www.JhannahLloyd.com

www.survivordynamics.wordpress.com

Mentor Book Club - The Faithful

It's been a frightful while since I've been here on the blog. I've missed it. I think Facebook has taken over for some bloggers, including me. You can find me on Facebook every day. Both on my personal page and book page.

Personal page: https://www.facebook.com/pam.cable.5
Book page: https://wwwfacebook.com/southernfriedwomen

But I've been blogging since 2005 and I don't think I'm ready to give it up entirely. Facebook does not fulfill a writer's need of expression. So I'm giving my blog another chance, even though I'm not sure how many of us are faithful at reading blogs every day. I know I'm not. I do good to keep my own online.

My life is filled with many distractions at the moment. The biggest being yet one more edit on The Sanctum. I started writing this second novel over five years ago, and I think God is trying to teach me the virtue of patience, no matter how hard my head tends to be.

Even with all this work, including my frustration with the publishing industry, I'm hoping to sign with a great editor and publishing company in the very near future who will take my work to new levels. Someone I can work with a long time, believes in me, and loves what I write. The good news is that I really like my new Literary Agent. Sarah Joy Freese with WordServe. I did not anticipate such a nice working relationship, but shocker, it's been great.

In the meantime, below are a few pictures of a recent visit to the Mentor Book Club, near Cleveland, Ohio. What a hoot! One of the best book clubs I've ever come across, these ladies have read more than 98 books since they started the club! My novel, Televenge, was their March pick. I wasn't surprised by their questions, and there were A LOT of them. Wonderful, beautiful ladies who I hope will have me back with The Sanctum is published. Thank you all, for your faithfulness.

Climb Every Mountain

Climb Every Mountain ... that beautiful song from the Sound of Music rings in my head these days ...

I think this is longest I've ever gone without posting a blog since I started blogging in 2005. There's a reason for that as I ... ford every stream ...

Other than posting daily on Facebook I'm writing another book. I'm also working through yet one more edit of The Sanctum since there continues to be interest from major publishers. So please forgive my absence, while I follow every rainbow ... but it's hard to be in more than one place, even though the "experts" say we writers need to maximize our social media exposure.

I'm afraid ... 'til I find my dream, my exposure time is consumed with writing novels.

Stay tuned ... and please don't give up on me ...

Until then ... blessings to you and yours.

Patience For Pamela

Summer has come and gone and I've not blogged for a good while. I've been ... well ... wrapped up in other things and blogging (something I've held on to since 2005) just doesn't appear at the top of my list.

The Sanctum is currently in the review process with editors, via my literary agent, and I'm working on the next book, as well as putting together another collection of short stories. Southern Fried Faith. An edgy cross between Televenge and Southern Fried Women.

This entire process of publishing The Sanctum has been grueling, to say the least. I expected to see it published last spring. But as fate took over, a literary agent came into my path and the plan to self-publish was put on the shelf. A good thing, really.

So ... this story that is near and dear to my heart will take a bit longer than expected. Patience, a virtue that was left out of my DNA, has been ground into me as the years go by. It's painful and at times I feel as though I'm going to crawl out of my skin, but I've come to the point where I finally realize ... I'M NO LONGER IN CONTROL.

I can't steer this ship on my own. I've tried. In the end, if all I manage to do is write my stories and get them out there on Amazon, then fine. I've grown like the Apostle Paul. I've learned to be content in my situation.

And frankly ... that's all I have to say today.

Blessings to you and yours.

Constipated Storylines

Here it is, the middle of August. Already. Where did this month go? Couple of family birthdays, mine included. But the bigger news, I've been working on a book proposal for The Sanctum. A literary agent is interested in shopping the book to the Christian publishers. I have to give it that chance. God always opens doors for me; sometimes I miss it, but sometimes I manage to step through it, in spite of myself.

I'm still struggling with the first draft of the next novel, but (and it's a big but) when I decided to get quiet and quit fretting over it, that's when the characters began to talk again. It's taking a new turn, and frankly, I'm surprised at the direction. Moved to tears over the last chapter, I tucked my tail between my legs and said to my protagonist, Okay, I'll shut up. You tell me the story. Use my fingers, and I'll just clean it up when you're done.

That's what happens when your writing hits a detour. A roadblock. You get constipated and it often becomes a test of wills between you and your characters. They always win with me. Eventually. I'm a storyline softie. I think until you understand the disappointments, the pain of life, you're not as open to the rough road of your characters. Writing the story in your head is difficult enough. Adding in the voices of the characters, it adds a new element. You either fight it, or yield to the seduction.

Sometimes I think that's why our writing improves in the midst of our own aging process. When I was younger, everything had to be perfect. Literally everything. Though I still battle with perfection on every level, I find my edges have softened. In my body, and in my writing. I'm not as hard on myself. I'm more open to my fellowman, and in the struggles of my characters. It's a nasty world out there. And as a Christian, I see many who shut their eyes to world Christ told us to save.

Writing reality is not like watching reality shows on TV. That's not real. They know there's a camera in the room. There's a producer on set. It's not real. Reality can only be found in books. Even if it's fiction. Think about it.

Allowing your characters to speak to you is necessary. Detouring from the outline of the story may save the story. Getting quiet is better than giving up. Wouldn't you agree?

Blessings to you and yours.

Is There Rhythm To Your Writing?

 

I’ve never written much poetry, nor have I tackled a song lyric. But I think I’ve been a writer long enough to hear the rhythm in my prose. Rhythm lends itself to your style, as well as your voice, which are two different things.

Voice is a unique way of putting words together. It's a deep feeling, a distinctive way of looking at the world, an outlook or belief that enriches an author’s work. How you develop your voice, to some extent, happens all by itself. Stories come from the subconscious. What drives you to write is often your own unresolved inner conflicts. Voice is a natural attribute. You no more control it than you control the color of your eyes. 

But don’t confuse voice with style. Style is more about the writing itself, than the story or characters.

As I write this, I'm thinking maybe rhythm is equally involved in both voice and style. I’ve been known to work a full week on one paragraph. For me, it must have a rhythm, a flow, almost like music. To get that, I have to read the paragraph, or the dialogue, or whatever it is—out loud. If it is dialogue, I must read it in the voice of the character, therefore, most of my “out loud reading” is done with no one around to hear me. When a writer reads their work out loud, much of what is corrected is the rhythm, the sound it makes—the music of the story we create that plays in the background of the reader’s mind. Music the reader is not aware of, but it’s there. It’s truly there. And sometimes that means adding words.

But here’s a shocker—it may not always be grammatically correct. Now, don’t get your panties in a wad over this. Writing in the voice of the character telling the story, the narrator, should always lend itself to the vernacular and not to the rules of the English language. A good example of this is in Wiley Cash’s new novel, a land more kind than home. A writer with a Ph.D. in English.

All of this brings me to the age old question, is less really more? Writers, how many times has that been drilled into your head? It’s a staple of every writer’s conference. We’ve had it pounded into us for decades now. Less is more. Kill your babies. Slice your novel in half. Hogwash. I’m here to tell you that may not always be the case. Sometimes, more is more.

Careful, now. If you accept that, it may change you. Creating rhythm may mean adding words …

From my new novel, The Sanctum (coming soon) …

I wiped condensation from my eyeglasses and shook the snow from my coat, imagining bulbs of daffodils and hyacinths, sleeping in her brown flowerbeds, and then blooming come spring. Winter’s wind blew cruel and steady. An occasional vicious gust burned my face as it shoved fog off the mountain.

Facing the porch steps, I wiped condensation from my eyeglasses and shook the snow from my coat. I imagined bulbs of daffodils and hyacinths sleeping in her brown and dormant flowerbeds, and then blooming come spring. Greeted by a dozen rocking chairs strewn over the wide porch, I saw myself sitting in one, drinking lemonade while my grandmother snapped peas. But at that moment, winter’s wind blew cruel and steady. An occasional vicious gust burned my face as it shoved the fog across the mountain.

I didn’t feel the flow, the rhythm, the music, until I wrote the second paragraph with more words. Truly, some editors would prefer the shorter one, but to me there’s music in the second. Poetry. Balance. The trick is not to go overboard, but find the balance.

Again, the best way to hear it is to read your work out loud. You’ll not only catch mistakes, you’ll create the magic needed to hold your readers in the palm of your hand.

Only you know your characters inside and out. Who they are, where they came from, and what they think. You must find not only the rhythm of your character, but within the entire narration. This comes with writing every day and discovering the rhythm in other great novels. But once you master it, it will carry your work to a whole new level. 

 

 

What Do You Offer Your Readers?

As a writer, I've often wondered what do I offer my readers?

Some authors write lofty volumes of prose, poetic and soothing to the ears. Some keep their readers spellbound with intrigue or humor. Some carefully perfect the craft of curling the hair on our neck as we quickly turn the page to discover where the killer hid the body. Writers who transport us to exotic places, and hold us there; writers who punctuate their characters, and pierce the heart of the reader deserve to be noticed. Every once in a while, you run across a writer who can do all of the above. It's rare, but it happens.

Think about it. Is there an author you have read recently, or years ago, who created characters and a plot that lingered for days. A story that comes to mind at the strangest times. A writer whose novels haunted you for weeks, years? A writer who consistently moves you like few others? What in their voice gives them the edge? What common thread weaves their unforgettable stories to the cloak of your memory? How do they do it?

Besides constantly polishing your craft, I’m finding there’s another element to this writing thing we do.

How do you share knowledge, life experiences, and enlightenments within the context of a story? How do you make it matter to your readers?

Are you able to bring your heartbreak to the page? The pain of loss, rejection, abandonment, can you write about it? Can you pull from your most horrific memories, as well as your most joyous? What I’m talking about has nothing to do with your writing degree or your awards. Although commendable, that's not it. I’m asking what do you--as a living, breathing, human being--bring to the page?

This quote is from one of my favorite writers. Dorothy Allison’s words at the Maui Writer’s Conference were delivered with fire and fervency.

She said, “I’m here to deliver black coffee, I’m here to leaven your experience. I’m here to tell you part of why I’m a writer is that it’s one of the professions where you can be a fat girl and make it! … Writers come to the page for many, many reasons. In fact, many of us DO come in the hope of justice, we DO come in the hope of balance, we DO come with an agenda of love, but I’m TELLING YOU NOW, lots of us start with a desire for genuine REVENGE.”

So. Does there has to be some deep, dark reason why we write?

Many write for the fun of it. But once again, in my honest and humble opinion, the writing that lasts for generations is gathered from the cobwebbed corners of your mind. Those basements and attics where most writers fear to tread but go anyway.

What if you write humor?

Ah, yes.  Well, dissect that humor. Much of our humor comes from pain. We're going to laugh about this later. Laughter through tears is a powerful emotion. Many believe the angrier you are, the funnier you need to be. Take that to the page.

Do we, then, write only what we know?

Not just what you know, but what you feel. What you've seen. The gut-wrenching moments in your life that cut deep into your heart. Write about that. Write about the scars. Who gave them to you, and how you healed, or how you still suffer from those scars. Give your character a piece of your life story that you want to share with the world. Dig out the best and worst of your memories, and include them in your stories. Write not just what you know, but what matters. What has brought you out of a deep, dark spot? What makes you uncomfortable? Write your passions, your desires, and what moves you. Write that.

Those are the guts of a good story. Bring that to the page. Offer that to your readers.

Why Writers Plow Their Literary Field

I took a look back at my blogs and found this one. In the midst of writing The Sanctum, my soul was screaming. I've come a long way since then. I'm proud to say this novel has also come a long way, and will be released as an e-book within a few weeks. This field is now ready for harvest.

April 8, 2010
I've been plowing my literary field this spring. My office is a mess. I've written scenes for my next novel; they're splayed across a long, skinny table as I work relentlessly on this story. I'm concentrating on my research and pulling it in as needed. In a few weeks I'm visiting a wolf sanctuary. If my suspicions are correct, wolves are not what they have been portrayed. A critical piece of the narrative, the wolves represent the strange and the misunderstood. That which needs protected. Not destroyed.

As I roll deeper into the story, I'm finding--once again--my characters have voices of their own, totally separate and apart from mine. It's a bizarre metamorphosis. I look down and suddenly my fingers are those of a thirteen-year-old girl, fair and fragile. Within minutes, they turn old and masculine. They're covered with tobacco that clings to my arms like pine resin. They belong to a black man who types as fast as the wind. He's got a few things to say. Because it's 1960, and the times, they are a changing.

A scene change and my hands belong to another character. They're slow and angry, and hot to the touch. Dangerous. They belong to a man, this time he's white and wrinkled. The fingers pound the keys and occasionally they ball into a fist. But just like that, they fade into another set of hands and suddenly I'm needing to get up and find my own fingers again. I need coffee. A break. It's not easy allowing these characters to flow through you and come out your fingers. It's not easy.

I have to laugh. I think I've read and studied every good book on writing from here to eternity in the past twenty years. But nobody can teach you how to tell a great story. Don Maass has come about as close to anybody I've heard, but in the end ... I've learned it's almost a spiritual thing. My explanation is that we have to become somebody else.

We have go inside the man/woman/boy/girl/animal we're writing about. Look at the world from their eyes. A good storyteller can write it down and make it believable. But a great storyteller can become his or her character and make it real. I can only hope that in the end, that is my accomplishment.

One does not write to fulfill a fantasy. Or to become rich. A real writer writes until their eyes dim and burn, until their skin goes puckered and droopy, until their finger bones unhinge and scatter. Until they shrivel up and fade away. Take away a writer's pencil or keyboard, and you strip the soul away. A writer is many people, patiently waiting for their turn to tell their story. A real writer writes because if they don't, they go mad and become a conglomerate of all of the characters stored inside them.

That's it. It's how God made me. I can't help it. I plow my literary field and life goes on. Until one day when it stops. Hopefully, by then, every character inside of me will have had their chance to use my fingers.

Blessings to you and yours.

Where Do Story Ideas Come From?

Late in 2008 I needed a break from what I was currently working on, so for the next two years I labored on a new story. I began writing The Sanctum. Once finished, I briefly tried to sell it, but then put it away. Suddenly, Televenge needed my full attention. I had signed a contract with my publisher in 2011 and the ball was rolling to put Televenge on the map. Well. We're still in the midst of traveling, speaking, and putting Televenge into the laps of our readers. It's doing well, thank you very much. One thing we know, the book promotion process is a marathon, not a sprint. But like a ghost in the closet, The Sanctum has been calling my name. To the point it has woke from a sound sleep on more than one occasion lately.

Although the above picture is not the official book cover, it represents my antagonist, Neeley McPhearson. Yesterday, someone asked me how I came up with the idea for this story, and so I thought I'd blog about it today.

Many of my stories are based on people I’ve known and places I’ve been. History also plays a great part in my work. As a writer it is my desire to transport a reader’s mind—but my deepest passion is to pierce your heart. As a little girl, my father told me in all sincerity that I was related to the great Martin Luther King, since after all, my maiden name is King. He taught me respect for all people. But I soon discovered blatant prejudice in other branches of my family. My southern grandparents believed wholeheartedly in segregation.

Working for nearly ten years on Televenge, I needed to go in another direction on a new story. I knew I wanted to write a novel that included the possibility of the paranormal and spirituality from different points of view. I began a story focused on a young girl with fuzzy red hair who wore thick eyeglasses. (I have a niece with red hair, whom I dearly love.)

 

For a while all I saw was an image of Neeley, a skinny, lonely, parentless girl who lived on a tobacco farm. Placing my little redheaded white girl in the caring hands of a seventy-year-old African-American male, a rugged individual who wasn’t afraid of his gentle side, I quickly fell in love with them, and the novel slowly wrote itself.

For over ten years, I lived near Summerfield, North Carolina, located northwest of Greensboro. This area is historically saturated with horse and tobacco farms, which today still dot the landscape. By chance I discovered James W. Cole (1924-1967) was ordained into the ministry in Summerfield at the Wayside Baptist Church in 1958. He toured as a tent evangelist and broadcast a Sunday morning radio program, becoming an active member of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, and eventually the Grand Dragon of North and South Carolina. The man intrigued and appalled me, and since the first third of The Sanctum takes place in Summerfield during that time period, I decided to write him into the story.

The International Civil Rights Center and Museum is located in the recently restored Woolworth’s building in downtown Greensboro, a Woolworth’s that also found its way into my story. As I further studied the civil rights movement, I thought of it in terms of rights for all people. My great grandmother was a full-blooded Cherokee, according to my father, our family’s historian. So I then researched the Trail of Tears.

And finally the wolf appeared. An animal that has fascinated me all my life, the wolf is about family and order. It is a subtle character, but a voice to be reckoned with. I studied wolves carefully, and found people who loved the animal enough to create sanctuaries for them. I spent time on a wolf sanctuary near the town of Bakersville in the Blue Ridge Mountains, a five-hour drive from my home. When I arrived, I saw a sign that read The Wolf Sanctum. From that moment, I called my novel The Sanctum.

Ideas for your stories can be gathered from many sources, but my suggestion is to dig deep within your own family history. There is a movement today that says, "write what you don't know." While that is admirable, causing you many months of research, writing what you do know about, I find, lends to a richer tale. In short, they're stories you CARE about. Although, research is needed with every book you write, it's what you've experienced and how you show it on the page that remains with the reader. And that, my friend, is my ultimate goal.

The Sanctum will be launched in April, available as an e-book, and also in trade paperback. Stay tuned ... I'll be blogging more on this process ... and offering excerpts.

Blessings to you and yours.

My Next Book ... The Sanctum

 

Televenge hovers only a month away ... and I'm thrilled to say the least. But I'm already working on the next book. Actually, I thought it was finished in 2010. After a couple rewrites, it has taken on a life of its own. Here is a preview:

Neeley McPherson accidentally killed her parents on her fifth birthday. Thrown into the care of her scheming and alcoholic grandfather, she is raised by his elderly farmhand, Gideon, a black man, whom she grows to love. Neeley turns thirteen during the winter of 1959, and when Gideon is accused of stealing a watch and using a Whites Only restroom, she determines to break him out of jail.

The infamous Catfish Cole, Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon of the Carolinas, pursues Neeley and Gideon in their courageous escape to the frozen Blue Ridge Mountains. After Gideon’s truck hits ice and careens down a steep slope, they travel on foot through a blizzard, and arrive at a farm of sorts—a wolf sanctuary where Neeley crosses the bridge between the real and the supernatural. It is here she discovers her grandfather’s deception, confronts the Klan, and uncovers the shocking secrets of the Cherokee family who befriends her. Giving sanctuary, the healing power of second chances, and overcoming prejudice entwine, leading Neeley to tragedy once again but also granting her the desire of her heart.

The Sanctum is a coming-of-age Southern tale dusted with a bit of magic, and set in a volatile time in America when the winds of change begin to blow.

Blessings to you and yours!

Do Writers Brainstorm Better In A Group?

It's me, brainstorming. I sat with a group of writers in the kitchen, throwing ideas into the air, and bouncing names and places off the walls. I remember thinking how productive is this, really!

But for a writer, brainstorming with friends can produce massive amounts of storyline, character traits, and titles to refer to when you're pushing hard for that next book. So you've got a few thoughts rolling around in your head, but they're not going anywhere. You see a character. What is this person doing, how are they dressed, where are they in terms of time and place?

Literary Agent, Donald Maass has a unique system he uses to flesh out these characters. If you are blessed enough to take any of his classes and/or seminars, do it. It flushes out the gunk so you can think. Not to sound gross, but taking a class from Don, is like a colonic for writers.

In one particular brainstorming session, the light bulb went tilt! tilt! over my head.

When I finished Televenge, I contemplated my next novel. I love writing about the gritty south, the pretentious north. The religions of both are just as gut-wrenching, but from a totally unique viewpoint. My group threw out a few ideas and my subconscious went to work.

Over the next weeks, I knew I wanted to write a novel that included the possibility of the paranormal, spirituality from different points of view and a character-driven plot. I also knew I wanted to write in first-person, and last but not least, I wanted the story to include an animal that has fascinated me all my life—the wolf. I decided on the timeline between November 1959 until March 1960, which was a different route entirely for me. Televenge, my debut novel coming to you in October of 2012, spans thirty years, from 1972 to present day.

But for my new book, I focused on a young girl with fuzzy red hair who wore thick eyeglasses. For a while, all I had was an image of Neeley. A skinny, lonely, parentless country girl who lived on a tobacco farm. I quickly fell in love with her and needed to write her story. Placing my little red-headed white girl in the caring hands of the most opposite character, a seventy-year old African-American male, a rugged individual who wasn’t afraid of his gentle side, the novel took shape. The what-ifs began to roll, and each morning the characters revealed a little more of their story.

It wasn't long, however, and I got stuck. Back to my brainstorming group of friends.  

In a brainstorming session, bring a tape recorder, because you really can't write fast enough. Ideas and thoughts and words fly at the speed of sound. To capture it, you must record the session. But it was at that second brainstorming session that the plot began to thicken.

I contemplated the one social issue I feel strongly about. Prejudice. To me, racism is the biggest white elephant in the South. I know some southern writers have grown up under the care of an African-American woman hired by their family to cook, clean and care for them. They fondly remember her as a precious piece of their childhood inspiring them to write such books as: The Help by Kathyryn Stocket; Plantation and Sullivan’s Island by Dorothea Benton Frank; The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kid, and The Queen of Palmyra by Minrose Gwin.

I wish I could say I experienced the wonderful memories of the above authors. But that is not the case. My experiences were quite different. Thus, creating a new perspective and a fresh voice.

Although my parents taught me respect for all people, I soon discovered blatant prejudice in other families around me. As a young girl, it affected me so deeply, I never forgot it. This began my quest to write a story about the evils of racism.

On January 29, 2010, The Greensboro News & Record published a special magazine dedicated to the new International Civil Rights Center and Museum, located in the old and newly restored Woolworth’s building in downtown Greensboro. In an act of courage, four black students sat peacefully at a whites-only lunch counter on February 1, 1960 and changed the world. The civil rights movement had begun. From that publication, my imagination took off once again. I wrote dialogue, paragraphs, whole scenes, and sketched it into my outline.

The area in which I lived at the time, is rich in tobacco history. Historically saturated with horse and tobacco farms, today they still dot the landscape. I also discovered James W. Cole (1924-1967) was ordained into the ministry in Summerfield, NC at the Wayside Baptist Church in 1958. He toured the Carolinas as a tent evangelist and broadcast a Sunday morning radio program, becoming an active member of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, and eventually the Grand Dragon of North and South Carolina. The man intrigued me. Since the story was shaping up to take place in North Carolina during that time period, writing Reverend Cole into it was a perfect fit.

As I further pondered the civil rights movement, I checked my notes from my brainstorming session and saw I had written down the word, Cherokee. I began to think of civil rights for all people, which led to the Native American plight in my story. According to my father, our family’s historian, my great grandmother was a full-blooded Cherokee. Listening to the pain of the Cherokee voices inside my head, I knew I had to include them.

The wolf finally appeared in the story. Wolves are about family and order. The wolf is a subtle character, but still a voice to be reckoned with. I had studied the wolf carefully, and found there were people who loved wolves enough to create sanctuaries for them. Later, I discovered a wolf sanctuary only a four-hour drive from my home. A wolf sanctuary in the Blue Ridge Mountains and the town of Bakersville. We drove up the side of a mountain leading to a sign that read, The Wolf Sanctum. From that moment, I called my novel, The Sanctum.

 

When I pulled my outline together, I sat for one last brainstorming session with my dear friends. It didn't take long before I felt I had the inciting incident. The book is complete and hopefully, with God's blessing, it will be published.

 

Televenge was such a personal story, I didn't feel the need to brainstorm. But for future books, you can bet I will gather my brainstorming group together for at least three sessions per story. In addition to your research, a writer should not be afraid to ask for help.

 

Brainstorming. It's a writer's boost from ideas rolling around in your head, to getting it onto the page.

 

Try it.

 

Blessings to you and yours.