What did I learn from a show about spies? @sloanebcollins #amwriting #amreading #plottingprincesses

What lesson did I learn from a spy show?

My husband & I started watching a 6 part spy series the other day, "The Night Manager" on AMC. It's good, and we like it, but we were about 40 minutes in to the first episode when something happened, and he said "Finally. Now the story is moving along."

I need to post that on my laptop so I always remember to keep the action going in the books I write. 

I don't have a lot of time to read, so it's usually on the train to/from work, or a few minutes on my lunch break. There are some books I've read lately that it's ok to read snatches here and there. I can pick it back up and continue on. A short book may take several days to finish. Last week I read "Falling Into Bed with a Duke" by Lorraine Heath. I read 387 pages in less than 2 days. It was so awesome and compelling I had a hard time putting it down, so I read every minute I could (and almost missed my stop twice!). 

That's how I want to write. To keep the action up so readers don't want to set my book down, they want to see how it turns out. And to fall in love with my characters. (Yes, I fell hard for Lorraine's duke...and the woman he wanted to be with desperately!)

Back to that mini-series we started watching.

@sloanebcollins RWA is like Christmas in July #PlottingPrincesses #rwa16 #MFRWorg #ChristmasinJuly #amwriting

We’ve all heard of Christmas in July.  Several channels are running holiday movies, some shows have craft and cooking segments showing you how to make holiday foods and gifts.  For me, it really is Christmas in July, my favorite time of the year for another reason: the annual Romance Writers of America conference.

I’ve just returned from this year’s conference in San Diego, and I got so many presents!  Here’s my top 10 list of “gifts”:

A New Love(s) @sloanebcollins #PlottingPrincesses #amwriting #Yellowstone #GrandTetons #MFRWorg

Last month, I fell in love.

With bears and moose, mountain bluebirds and coyotes, owls and bison.
To clarify, I fell in love with Yellowstone National Park and Grand Tetons National Park. While it was my husband’s third trip there, it was my first.

The above-mentioned wildlife were just a few of what we saw on our adventures in Wyoming. It ranks now as one of my top favorite vacations of all time (and I think I’ve mentioned a time or twelve how much I love Maine, right?). I’d move to Wyoming or Montana in a heartbeat.

It was a vacation that fed my soul. I got to be creative with photography, relax and look at beautiful countryside, and get inspiration for the Cowboy series I’m writing, which is set in Montana. (YES! We saw a real live cowboy rounding up cattle!)

I grew up surrounded by the Franklin mountains in El Paso, and have taken other vacations in and around mountains. The Grand Tetons are now my favorite of all. And I came up with an idea for a series set in that area! I think it has a bit of a unique twist. But I can’t say anything yet…

Guest Princesses: Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi - The Setting Thesaurus Books Are Here! #PlottingPrincesses #RocktheVault #WritersHelpingWriters #SettingThesaurus #MFRWorg

It is a writer's job to draw readers into the fictional story so completely that they forget the real world. Our goal is to render them powerless, so despite the late hour, mountain of laundry, or workday ahead, they cannot give up the journey unfolding within the paper-crisp pages before them.

Strong, compelling writing comes down to the right words, in the right order. Sounds easy, but as all writers know, it is anything BUT. So how do we create this storytelling magic? How can we weave description in such a way that the fictional landscape becomes authentic and real—a mirror of the reader's world in all the ways that count most?

 Well, there's some good news on that front. Two new books have released this week that may change the description game for writers. The Urban Setting Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to City Spaces and The Rural Setting Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Personal and Natural Spaces look at the sights, smells, tastes, textures, and sounds a character might experience within 225 different contemporary settings. And this is only the start of what these books offer writers.

 In fact, swing by and check out this hidden entry from the Urban Setting Thesaurus: Police Car.
 
And there's one more thing you might want to know more about....

Becca and Angela, authors of The Emotion Thesaurus, are celebrating their double release with a fun event going on from June 13-20th called ROCK THE VAULT.

At the heart of Writers Helping Writers is a tremendous vault, and these two ladies have been hoarding prizes of epic writerly proportions.

A safe full of prizes, ripe for the taking...if the writing community can work together to unlock it, of course.

Ready to do your part? Stop by Writers Helping Writers to find out more!  

@sloanebcollins Writer's Block is an Evil Thing #amwriting #PlottingPrincesses #MFRWorg #writinglife #SullivansofMontana

I’ve been really stuck lately on my current work in progress.  Like STUCK, stuck.  I hit over the halfway mark, and I didn’t know what needed to happen next.  So I worked on editing the first half.  Searched Pinterest for more inspiration.  Tried writing just whatever, scenes that weren’t interesting.  Tried plotting an outline.   I even created book covers for all five in the series, hoping it would get me going (it did give me plots for books three and four!).  Worked on character development worksheets.

Etc., etc., etc. (said with Yul Brynner’s accent in “The King & I”.)

I had taken a brief hiatus from my French book sequel, and the prequel, because I had a dream about five cowboy ranching brothers, and they were clamoring for me to start writing their stories.  I’d hoped to enter it in a contest last year, but didn’t finish in time.  So with my Sullivans of Montana cowboy story, I wrote and wrote until I reached the point where the hero and heroine finally get together (you know what I mean). 

Then I got stuck.  In lava.  Which hardened until I couldn't write.

These are a few of my favorite things @sloanebcollins #PlottingPrincesses #Kittylove #Maine

In this everyday hectic, fast-paced, not-so-nice world, I  need to remind myself to stop and smell the roses.  Not always literally, although I did do it on the way out of work one late night last week.  But find something that gives me happiness and pleasure.  

For instance, every night when I am on the way home from work, I can’t wait to get to the house and open the door to find all four kitties waiting for me.  Of course, I recognize they want their dinner, but I like to think they want to see me, too. J

There’s nothing like kitty snuggles, no matter what time of day it is.  This past Sunday it rained all day long.  I’d planned to spend the day writing, and had just gotten things ready to go, sat down in my recliner, and Moms jumped up on my lap.  She pretty much stayed there all day, snuggled into the blanket.  So I decided to spend quality time with her since we don’t always get it.  Oliver even spent some time on my lap, laying next to his Mummy. 

Something else that just makes my day is when my husband texts me out of the blue.  He’s not a texter by nature, so when he does, I treasure them.  He’ll usually send pictures of the cats, but it still means the world to me.

@sloanebcollins I Spy... #PlottingPrincesses #spies #undercover #amwriting #amreading #MFRWorg

Spies. Espionage. CIA. Covert ops. MI6. 

I love anything to do with spies in movies and books.  I honestly think I fell in love with that type of stuff when I first read Helen MacInnes umpteen years ago.

Or, it could be because my five times great-grandfather was a spy in the Civil War.  My aunt and cousins have done extensive research into our undercover relative. The most astonishing fact is that while he is from my mother’s side of the family, his name and my dad’s are actually the same.  I’ve searched the internet and books about the Civil War for mention of him…but as any good spy would tell you, there are not a lot of stories about him.  Rumor has it he was a very short man, and once when he was in the North on a mission, he had to hide under a lady’s hoop skirts so the Yankees wouldn’t catch him.

Oh, the things I could do in a book based on his escapades! And one of these days, I’ll write it.

What is Love? @sloanebcollins #plottingprincesses #amwriting #marriage #love #MFRWorg

What is Love?

Merriam Webster’s definition of love:

a (1):  strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties <maternal love for a child> (2):  attraction based on sexual desire :  affection and tenderness felt by lovers (3):  affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests <love for his old schoolmates>

The definition just doesn’t seem to encompass the feeling of an all-consuming romantic love, does it?  I write Romance, about two people falling in love, and encountering pitfalls along the way, things they have to overcome to profess their love to each other and end up happily ever after. So that’s romantic love, with the hero sweeping the heroine off her feet, seducing her with the best sex ever, and proposing in a unique and romantic way.

But that’s not always real life. Love goes so much deeper than what’s in the pages of a book. Yes, my husband completely surprised me with the proposal. We’d already been talking about getting married, even had the rings picked out, but had talked about doing it at back at home (I was in college, he was in the army). So one weekend he drove up to Mizzou, and wanted to walk around the campus. He had asked me what my favorite spot was, so I took him to the columns on the quadrangle. It was night time, the spotlights were shining, and he took me to the middle column and pulled the ring out of his pocket. He couldn’t kneel because it had been raining that day, but it was still so romantic.

And almost twenty-eight years later, he’s still showing me how much he loves me.

Escaping the daily grind @sloanebcollins #PlottingPrincesses #Escapism #PearlsPerils #amreading #MFRWorg #scrapbooking #feedmysoul

I'm pretty much a loner, and need to escape the daily grind of a big city and a demanding day job. So when I'm taking a break from writing (or have the dreaded writer's block), I find other ways to feed my soul.  I don’t usually play a lot of games, and was never into video games, but lately I’ve been playing a game on my iPhone called Pearl’s Perils, a hidden objects game.  But it’s not like any iPhone game I’ve seen before. This is the official description from the Facebook page: “Get swept back to the romantic and sordid 1930’s along with our trailblazing heroine, Pearl Wallace, ace pilot and world explorer. Pearl’s glamorous social life grinds to a halt when her father mysteriously dies and she inherits a strange island filled with perilous secrets. Journey with Pearl and her deliciously sarcastic best friend, Iris Hillman, as they travel the world, uncover a global conspiracy, and navigate a chilling mystery you won’t soon forget!” 

The story line is fun, and the artists are truly talented. The scenery is lush and beautiful, and true to the time period of the 1930’s.  The story takes place on Artemis Island, and in Paris, New York, and Russia.  While following Pearl on her journey and trying to solve a mystery, you earn coins, cash, and energy, but you also get to build and design your own Artemis Island. That’s the most fun part to me.  As the story progresses, you earn, badges, coins, and cash to help you purchase decorations and buildings.  I usually play the game on the train commute to work, and before I go to sleep. It’s my chance to escape the daily world and go to a romantic era and location, and design a place I’d love to live. 

I used to do cross-stitch, then for many years I was hooked on scrapbooking.  I still have all my supplies, and keep all my photos and memorabilia so I can get back to it when I have spare time. I like to do a scrapbook for each vacation, so I've got stacks of boxes, one for each trip, ready to go.  So until I can actually work on those scrapbooks, I've been doing shadowboxes for each vacation.

This one from Hawaii is still a work in progress, but I'm almost done!

Books are my other choice of escapism.  Historical Romance, Contemporary Romance, and Cozy Mysteries are my favorite genres.  In books, I can go anywhere I want.  I think part of why I love Cozy Mysteries so much is they take place in small towns, and have a cast of characters the reader gets to know and love.  And there’s usually a theme to each series: knitting, cooking, sewing, magic, crafting. 

I just realized as I was writing this post that I tend to lean toward small towns even in my choice of escapism: the small towns of Cozies, and the island in iPhone games.  I’ve always wanted to live in a small town.  Life seems so much simpler.  You don’t have a long commute, have to deal with strangers every day, there’s a slower pace, and a sense of community that is lacking in a sprawling big city. 

My husband and I prefer to vacation in places where we can get back to nature.  We might venture into a big city for a day, but we don’t stay very long, and would much rather be out among the mountains, forests, coastlines. 

So until we can build our cozy little cabin on the outskirts of a small town in the mountains, or a forest, or on the coast of Maine, I’ll keep reading my favorite genres, designing an island of my own, and remembering vacations in shadow boxes.

What ways do you escape the daily grind of life? Books? Movies? Games?  What are your favorites? 

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year @sloanebcollins #PlottingPrincesses #amwriting #fudge #traditions #MFRWorg

Christmas is my favorite time of the year.  I love the lights, the trees, the food, the traditions, and the spirit of the holiday.  I made the decision the last couple of years to not decorate due to lack of time and four cats who know no boundaries, and I really miss it.  The cats were restless last night, and I kept hearing things banging around in the kitchen so I finally investigated.  One (or more) had gotten a side drawer open and found a small Christmas tree ornament and was batting it all over the tile floor.  I hadn’t even realized it was in that drawer! 

Even though there are trees up and the store is decorated at work (my office is at the Neiman Marcus flagship store in Dallas), there are lights up in the neighborhood, and Christmas music is on the radio, it just hadn’t been feeling like Christmas is next week.  Until I got home last night and found that the annual Tin of Fudge and Cherry Mash had arrived.  My sister-in-law makes THE best fudge.  I ripped open the package, saw the gorgeous Christmas tin, took the lid off, and there it was.  FUDGE.  NOW it feels like the holidays have arrived.

What am I thankful for this week? @sloanebcollins #PlottingPrincesses #Happythanksgiving #amwriting #MFRWorg

As I was deciding what to write about for today, I realized it’s Thanksgiving this week, and I have so much to be thankful for. (But honestly, where has the year gone?) 

This past year has been my first as a published author. It’s a dream I’ve had pretty much my whole life, since my parents gave me my first book.

I’m thankful to Soul Mate Publishing for taking a chance on me and my book, Love Redesigned.  There’s nothing in the world quite like holding your book baby in your hands for the first time, seeing your words brought to life.

The journey to publication isn’t always easy, and I’m very thankful to my critique partners.  They are there to bounce ideas around, brainstorm, tell me if I’m on track, or make suggestions if something isn’t working, and celebrate joys and commiserate over challenges.  Love you, Ladies!

Working through Writer's Block @sloanebcollins PlottingPrincesses #Nanowrimo #amwriting @OneStop4Writers #MFRWorg

Last month I wrote about doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November, in which authors write a 50,000 novel. In a month. Thirty days. Yes, a whole book, or at least the start of a bigger novel.

All over the world, writers gathered up their notes, laptops, research, and set out on November 1 to begin their newest endeavors. And I was right alongside them. I had just attended a workshop on Scrivener the weekend before (if you haven’t heard of it, Scrivener is an AMAZING software program for writing. I’m hooked on it now!), so I was raring to go. I can set a target word count for the whole project – 50,000 words – and also a smaller target for sprinting (writing as much as you can in a timed interval).

Oops, got off on a side tangent. Back to NaNo. I did great writing for a week. I had a general idea of the scenes I wanted, who the characters are, what the goals, motivation, and conflict are for my hero and heroine.  Then this past weekend, I stalled. 

Every word was a struggle.

So I went back to the basics.  What’s my hero’s greatest fear?  I used the Characters Fears worksheet template on One Stop for Writers and dug deep into Nash, my hero.  And I came away with something golden.  A big fear he has, way down deep.   (Thank you, Angela, Becca, and Lee from OSFW!)

@sloanebcollins Nature to Soothe My Soul #backtonature #PlottingPrincesses #amwriting #MFRWorg

About twice a year, I start getting itchy, twitchy, and b…er, witchy, and I know it’s time to get away from the city of concrete and back into nature.  I’m a country girl at heart, and I need the trees, mountains, lakes, oceans, and wildlife to keep me going.  There is such beauty on God’s earth, and so much that we still haven’t explored.  I once wrote a book for the Scrapbooking industry, and it’s all about reflecting on God’s wonders.  Alas, the publisher folded before it was published, but I pull it out every so often to reread it and remember how important it is to me to be in nature.

Last week my husband and I packed up the car, left notes for the kitty-sitters, and headed to Colorado for a week.  We drove straight through and reached Colorado Springs about six a.m.  We started our vacation with a lovely breakfast with my author friend Jennie Marts <waving at Jennie> and her husband.  We had a great time, and I’m so glad we had the time with them.

After stuffing ourselves with toffee pancakes (!!), we headed toward Mount Evans.  We followed the winding curves, stopping along the way to snap pictures of bighorn sheep, small lakes, and anything

that caught our eye.  If you’ve never been there, but plan to go, be warned of scary-narrow, winding roads that drop off into nothing except grass and rocks.  I think my heart was in my throat most of the way up…and back down.  We reached the top, but it was socked in with clouds and fog, snowing, very crowded, and I was dizzy from the altitude, so we stayed long enough to snap a picture to prove we had reached the top at 14,130 feet.

@sloanebcollins Tribal Units #familytribes #worktribes #amwriting #MFRWorg

I found myself thinking of tribes yesterday, and how I have been a part of several very different ones over the years. Tribes evolve over the years as your yourself grows and evolve. You leave one tribe, and become involved with another tribe. 

Your initial tribe starts with your immediate family. Once you hit school, you join another tribe. I think my first outer tribe was in 9th grade, with the three friends I was closest to. 

Then high school hit, and I had a few core friends. College brought a new tribe, both girls and boys (the brothers I had always wanted). I'm blessed to be back in touch with a few of those tribal mates now. 

Then my familial tribe expanded when I became engaged. Or I should say exploded, with 6 (SIX!) sisters. The first time I met them all was at Thanksgiving. I had my then-fiancé (now husband of 27 years) tell me about each of his sisters and their families. For two days I rehearsed the sisters' names: Dee, Kathy, Donna, Patti, Brenda, Melissa. Over and over again until it became a mantra: DeeKathyDonnaPattiBrendaMelissa. DeeKathyDonnaPattiBrendaMelissa. DeeKathyDonnaPattiBrendaMelissa. It was so interesting to become a part of this tribe - one totally different from the small family I had growing up. At family gatherings I like to sit back and watch them interacting with each other.  One of these days when I write about a big family, I’m sure I’ll use my experiences with this family as inspiration.  I love this tribe like they are my own sisters. 

@SloaneBCollins Dreams: Is a cigar really just a cigar? #InspiringStories #SafeHaven #MFRWorg

I’m one of those people who dreams vividly and in color – I always have. It boggles my mind when my husband tells me he doesn’t dream, or that he doesn’t remember his dreams.  I usually remember most of my dreams, or at least flashes of them, on a daily basis.  And, depending on what’s going on in my life at that time, I tend to dream of certain things.  We used to have two cats, and when we lost them in the early 2000’s, it was as if we’d lost our children.  Actually, they were our kids.  I found when I was missing them the most, they would visit me in my dreams. 

Every so often, I dream about my dad, and the sister I lost in 1991.  I’ve analyzed those dreams, and they usually occur when I’m missing them the most, or when I have something exciting I wish I could share with them.  When something big is coming, I dream about it, and I think that’s my way of looking at every scenario that could happen. 

When I’m troubled, I dream about my grandmother’s house.

Donny Osmond Was My First @sloanebcollins #PuppyLove #FirstCrush #DonnyOsmond #LastingLove #PlottingPrincesses #Romance #AmWriting #MustRead #MFRWorg

I was thinking about crushes the other day, and happened to think I covered a lot of firsts with my own first crush, Donny Osmond.  He was my first crush, my first poster on the wall, my first record album (yes, I’m old), my first concert, my first fan club.  I even had the requisite purple socks with his face on them, all the record albums (still have them, in fact), the Donny & Marie dolls, and the concert posters. 

He’s come a long way from the young boy on Andy Williams show. He’s a husband, a father, a grandfather (how’d that happen?), a man of very strong faith, and he continues to entertain fans of all ages.  I still love his music, and I want to go to Las Vegas for the Donny & Marie concerts there.

I graduated from pop star to actor with Vincent Van Patten in 1974 when he played the son on Apple’s Way.  Imagine my surprise several years ago when I caught him announcing some world of poker show.  Only problem with that show is there wasn’t enough face time! 

@sloanebcollins - Kitty Love - #birthingkittens #mommacat #ourthreeboys #amwriting #MFRWorg

@sloanebcollins  #birthingkittens  #mommacat  #ourthreeboys  #amwriting

A little over a year ago, a pregnant stray cat chose us to come live with. We had no idea how far along she was, so we Googled cat births, since we didn’t know nothin’ ‘bout birthin’ kittens (having previously only had two male cats).  On that rainy Sunday afternoon, she took turns sleeping on our laps as we researched.  Having never been around pregnant animals before, it was fascinating to me to feel the babies moving in her belly as I petted her.  We watched YouTube videos on how to care for Momma, what to do when she goes in to labor, etc.

So my husband went to bed (since he works nights), and I realized she was actually in labor (thank heavens I’d watched those videos!).  My husband had already lashed two boxes together with a hole cut between them so she had extra space to move around, and we’d padded it with an old quilt and towels.  Over the course of three hours, she gave birth to three kittens, one per hour.  I was petrified something would happen, but she knew exactly what to do to care for them.  So by midnight that night, we had a momma and three babies.  And so precious! Two of them were Tabbies, miniature replicas of the mom, and one was a grey Tabby.

We had already decided we’d foster them until they were old enough to get fixed, then try to find homes for all of them.  But as time went by, we couldn’t fi

nd homes, and I thank God we couldn’t. 

@sloanebcollins *Next week I'll be older than my mother* #MFRWorg #RLFblog #birthday #bucketlist

Next week I’ll be 14 years older than my mother. Somehow, she’s perpetually 36. (Okay, who’s doing the math?)  Yes, I have a big birthday coming up.  One that has me going “how the heck did this happen?” 

So I've been doing some musing on where I’m at in my life, things I've worked for, things I've accomplished, and what I still want to do someday. Which has led to my bucket list.  It’s changed over the years, but some things have stayed the same, and I can finally check them off.

We went to Hawaii a couple of years ago, and I've been to Ireland, so check check. I still want to go to Scotland.

Inspiration

I want to enter a short story in my publisher’s call for submissions for a Christmas anthology, and even though that desire is there, I was struggling to find an idea, one that could develop into a ten thousand word story, and that I could write quickly. 

So I went to my favorite place for inspiration, Pinterest, and looked through the board (okay, three boards) that I have for Christmas.  And what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a picture I didn’t remember pinning.  All of a sudden I had a male character, his occupation, and why he was out in a snowy forest with his dog.  A few clicks later, and I had a female character that will bring him no end of trouble and exasperation. Et voilà, a story is born!

Authors find inspiration in so many places.  Just a kernel can spark an idea, which can set off firecrackers in our brains. 

For me, I’ve had characters spring to life, then I have to write the perfect story for them.  Well, one in which they go through all kinds of turmoil to get their happy ever after.  Other story ideas have come to life with a setting, a scene idea, even a phrase or a headline.  Two songs have sparked ideas for stories, so totally different they are worlds apart.  This picture of a frozen lighthouse is what sparked the idea for a story yet to be written. 

@SloaneBCollins - How Do You Indulge? #notagirliegirl #indulgingmynails #plottingprincesses

Hi, everyone.  This is my first official post as a Plotting Princess, and I’m thrilled to be here.  I’ve been trying to decide what to write about instead of just talking about who I am, what I write (Contemporary Romance), etc. I came up with a subject that might be near and dear to many hearts. 

I’m not much of a girlie-girl, but I like to indulge every so often.  I love shoes, but due to a knee injury, I’ve had to give up all my gorgeous heels and wear flats.  I adore handbags, but I pretty much use a tote bag. For my job, it’s all business clothes.  So how can I indulge in something that feels extravagant and not go broke? 

Nail polish!  A few months ago I joined a “club” in which I get 3 nail polishes every month.  I adore trying the gorgeous new colors, and have stepped WAY outside my box with blues, silvers, purples, greens, metallics, glitters(!), and of course, my favorite: red. 

I decided to get organized, and make a swatch sheet with all the colors, so now it’s easy to decide which to use.  I can go elegant, romantic, funky, sedate, or wild. 

When I was through, the drawer looked like a treasure chest dripping with jewels.  Aren’t they pretty?  And the fact they’re in identical bottles makes my heart go pitty-pat.