Missing That Man of Mine

Have you ever missed a fictional character? Like you miss a person?

            And was that fictional character your own creation?

            And do you miss him because you killed him?

            When I killed off the goodhearted and likeable Lt. Luke Taylor in my novel Latter-day Cipher, it made many of my friends peeved at me. Some still have not forgiven me. And I have not forgiven myself.

            I wanted to write his death scene in a way that I honored his character, and tied his last moments to the unforgettable poem, “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died” by Emily Dickenson.

            I miss Luke Taylor as if he were my true friend. Here is my account of his death:

Officer Shoemaker radioed to Lt. Taylor to stay back, stay down, because he was going to fire on the suspect; but Lt. Taylor ran from behind the plane anyway just as the shots were fired.

Ten-One, Ten-One, can’t copy.

Ten-Double-Zero, Ten-Double-Zero. Officer down.

For his part, in the following moments Luke had several thoughts that were, in his mind, quite logically connected, assignable, lovely in their symmetry.

He remembered a poem that Helaman once quoted to him at a crime scene, but only one line. Was it about the buzzing of a fly? 

He remembered a trip to Alaska that he took last summer, a secret vacation, one of those foolish singles cruises that made him crave solitude. It was there, on the narrow-gauge train from Skagway, that he experienced the most complete, the most satisfying keepsake experience of his life:  one of such sparkling clarity and insight that at that very moment he knew he would remember it always, to his dying day.

He looked straight up into the profound steel-grey crevasses where even in May the snow still sagged, pale ancient breasts in stone corsets. He peered into the mists for the genesis of this whiteness, its origins unseen and unknowable.

Perhaps, he thought, it was the shining blood of angels, slain for kings in glory, in time immemorial, on the mountains’ unapproachable heights.

Then he remembered, felt the heritage of his fathers, as he wondered about the squareness of dirt corners—

Then he remembered: 

Then, he could not see to see. 

Movie Saturday

It's Movie Saturday. And we all know what you get during the summer -- you get reruns.

The video that was supposed to run today had... technical difficulties. We are all reminded that we cannot say bad words on this blog, even if they apply to technology. We'll return to our regularly-scheduled programming soon. And that's all I have to say about that.

So -- for those of you who are new followers, please enjoy the book trailer for Latter-day Cipher. If you're interested in some of the reviews of this book, click here.

Don't forget to leave a comment to be entered in our Saturday Night at the Movies monthly giveaway. We'll announce a winner on Monday!

The Face Behind the Name

I'd like to welcome our new followers, and remind everyone of our amazing, exclusive Audience With an Agent contest. Six winning fiction entries will be read by Wendy Lawton of Books & Such Literary Agency. Click on the "promotions" tab for submission guidelines. Please read and follow the guidelines carefully, and get your manuscripts to us by July 31.

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As I sit at my desk writing my latest novel, I have a collage of my main characters before me. When I create characters for a new book, their names have to be just right. I experiment with different names, as if they were a taste to be savored, until I hit on exactly the right one. I always know when I've found it, for it's as if someone has just introduced me to that "person."

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But not until two books ago, when I wrote Lying on Sunday, did I spend as much time searching for the right faces to go with the names. Now as I develop my character profiles I spend a day or two navigating through "headshot" sites until I find the perfect image that correlates to the one in my mind for each of my main characters. The benefits are that I feel I know them better than ever before, and it's easier to keep track of their physical attributes, so I don't give someone green eyes in Chapter 1 and brown eyes in Chapter 12. For me it's added another dimension to the discovery process. And after all, that's what a novel is all about--for the reader and the writer: becoming acquainted with someone new and learning as much of her story as she's willing to share.

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But that doesn't mean I have to paint a portrait for the reader. In fact, the more I write the less inclined I am to give details about physical appearance that aren't necessary to the story. It may be far more important to know that my protagonist has a scar on her ring finger than that she has blond hair or dimples. Here's a perfect example of germane description from Joy Jordan Lake's Blue Hole Back Home:

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"I watched the new girl swing her leg out from under her red skirt--a brown leg, darker at the knee than the thigh, and darker still more at the calf. And I watched the boys watching the brown, or maybe the shape--I wouldn't know what boys see when they watch--of first one leg then the other, and not a one of them . . . able to talk . . . Me, I had a spasm of wanting to stay put myself, of fear that tripped up my feet and made me wish desperately I could miss this one trip to the Blue Hole with our mangy pack and the new girl. Because I was beginning to think what a bad, what a truly remarkably bad idea this whole thing might be." Trust me, it only gets better from there.

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Here are some passages from my talented Novel Matters colleagues that tell us more than outright physical descriptions ever could:

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"Laura-Lea marched to the center of the room and, hands on her oh-so-slim hips, she planted her feet far apart on the floor. I wouldn't have been surprised if she'd produced pom-poms and broke out into a catchy cheer" from Bonnie Grove's Talking to the Dead.

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"But Jane isn't a paralytic, and she isn't a child at rest in my lap. I may lower her through the roof to Jesus' presence, but chances are she hops off the mat and elbows through the crowd toward the door" from Patti Hill's upcoming novel Seeing Things.

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"'I really didn't know I had an audience, or I might have spent more time on my costume . . . You know, something with veils. Orange and pink and red ones, I think. Maybe a belly button ring.' She lifted her shirt and tugged at her waistband to regard a freckled stomach. Like a sack of Jell-O, Dara thought" from Kathleen Popa's To Dance in the Desert.

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"Kirsten Young lay on her back, a serence Ophelia in her dusky pond of blood . . . No, no, she wasn't Ophelia at all, he thought. She was Eve, temptress and sinner cast from the garden of Utah, wearing a hasty apron of cottonwood leaves heaped around and across her plump belly" from Latayne C. Scott's Latter-Day Cipher.

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"If my life was a made-for-TV movie, it would start this same way, with the monster truck pulling up in front of Grandma's and this Barbie-wannabe getting out" from Debbie Thomas's Tuesday Night at the Blue Moon.

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As a writer, what methods do you use to create your characters? How detailed are you in their development? And as a reader, how much information do you want to know about a character's appearance? Does too much or too little affect your enjoyment of the story?

The Mechanics of Plotting a Novel

(News! I can't stand it! I just have to give away another copy of Latter-day Cipher! God is blessing it with keeping it on the Amazon best-seller list for its category (Christian Mystery) and I want to send it to someone who has not read it yet. So -- I'll randomly choose someone who comments on this post.)

Now, on to the subject at hand: plotting a novel.

Recently I spoke at the University of New Mexico’s annual Writer’s Conference, “From Start to Sales V."

Though I’ve been asked many questions about the writing of my novel, Latter-day Cipher, I was approached about two issues new to me. One (and this one greatly dismayed me) was the question that was asked by several people in different forms. It was, “How can I take a WIP (or completed novel) and make it Christian so I can offer it to a Christian publisher?” The implication was that the Christian market was a place for what you might not be able to sell to a secular publisher, but if spiffied up with what one contest judge on Twitter wryly called “clunky Jesus insertions.” Ask any of us here at Novel Matters – is the Christian novel marketplace an easy target?

Secondly, the audience wanted to know how I plotted Cipher. I think I surprised them when I told them what I did: I took a class in novel writing about 15 years before beginning Cipher, and started a first novel which I never finished. However, when I began Cipher, I did two things. First, I bought a workbook called The Marshall Plan Workbook : Writing Your Novel from Start to Finish. I tore the pages out, put them in a binder, and did exactly what the author said to do in terms of number of pages assigned to characters, pacing, placing of “surprises,” etc. Then I took a paperback copy of what I consider to be one of the most effective and well-plotted suspense novels I’ve ever read (though I was ambivalent about the content, you understand), The Silence of the Lambs.

I outlined the whole book, noting when the POV changed, when surprises were introduced, what number of pages were used in scenes.

It felt like a wonderful protective armor, a kind of framework within which to be creative but still satisfying the reader.

Later, I learned of Randy Ingermanson’s “Snowflake Method” for writing a novel. I love it, and along with Marshall’s workbook and my notes from Silence of the Lambs, I’ll use it in refining the plot of the novel I’m now working on.

What works for you?

We Want Your Opinions

This is bonus giveaway month at NovelMatters! First there’s the extraordinary opportunity to have your own novel in the hands of a top literary agent – that’s the point of our fantabulous big contest. Though it will run for several months, your best chance is to submit early so that you will get a thorough, non-deadline-bleary-eyed look from the six of us who will pre-qualify the finalists. Click here for the rules.

In addition, to celebrate with you wonderful readers the release of my first novel, Latter-day Cipher, I would like to offer five of you (who don’t already have it) a copy of my book. Plus I’ll send those winners some “Fiction Samplers” from Moody Publishers for your friends, as well. The samplers contain the first chapter of my book and also the first chapter of Debbie Fuller Thomas’s Tuesday Night at the Blue Moon.

Here’s what I ask you to do:

1) Send me an email at consult at parkeastinc.com. (You know the drill about where the @ sign goes.) Put “NovelMatters Cipher Contest” in the subject line.
2) Copy five friends who are not NovelMatters readers on that email.
3) In the email, tell me what you think of my book trailer. The first five people who do this will receive an autographed copy of the book.

Now, one reason that I want you to look at the book trailer – and have your friends look at it – is that I’ve taken some substantial risks with it. It’s not your usual Christian-book trailer. I told a friend that the book – and the trailer --are probably PG-13. It’s well-produced but admittedly jarring.

Katy Popa wrote a very insightful post on Monday about ethics in writing. Specifically she referred to the dilemma faced by Christian writers in depicting the way that their characters come to faith.

But there are other ethical decisions to be made as well. One of them is the decision about how much – and how graphically – to depict violence. Of course, Christian publishers have parameters they enforce. Yet many of us want to acknowledge some of the gritty issues that our readers face, from the perspective of a Christian worldview – when contemplating those disturbing issues.

What is your “compass” in determining how far to go in reading or writing Christian fiction depicting disturbing issues?

Wish You Were Here

We're sitting here in Sharon's office, Bonnie, Debbie, Katy, and Sharon, in anticipation of a great weekend in the California redwoods where we'll meet up with Patti and Latayne. This will be the first time all six of us have met out of cyberspace, and the first time Bonnie and Latayne have been to the Mount Hermon Writers conference. If the six of us have as much fun as the four of us already are, we're in for a fun-filled five days!


Some of the things we are looking forward to: meeting new friends, connecting with old ones, face time with our agents, the gorgeous scenery, the workshops, good advice, catching up on other writers' journeys, seeing writers get new contracts, discovering new things about the industry, hearing what editors are looking for, sharpening our marketing skills, going to the book signing on Monday night, getting ice cream at the soda fountain, enjoying lattes in the Fireside Room, staying up late, late and laughing together, seeing our heroes, and James Scott Bell doing the "Hairy Man Song," and most of all, being in the same room with like-minded people who love to let their artistic light shine.

We hope to get acquainted with some of our readers from Novel Matters who are attending this weekend. Please come up and introduce yourselves.

Every Novel Matters reader who gives us a card will be entered into the April giveaway drawing, which is Latayne's brand new release, Latter Day Cipher. Please write on the back that you follow Novel Matters.

Be sure to stop by the blog on April 15th for a Speak-With-the-Author chat with Latayne celebrating the release of her new novel.

Topic of the Week: Branding

Hello and top of the week to all you stimulating readers! Have we told you lately how much we enjoy interacting with you?

Don’t forget that if you post a comment on any of our topics this month you are in the running to win a Patti Hill library of four books. This lady was nominated for a Christy Award. She’s a terrific writer!

Our topic of the week is branding. Patti, Sharon, Katy, Debbie and I all attended a retreat last fall in which Jeanette Thomason gave a terrific presentation on branding. She identified it as 1) identity, 2) positioning or position in the marketplace and 3) distinctiveness.

On Wednesday, Sharon will give some wonderful insights about branding in general, from her own struggles with the concept and from Randy Ingermanson. However, for today’s post I’d like to examine the idea of a branding statement.

Jeanette said that such a statement should include key components (though not necessarily all) from the following list:

place in time
audience or market/s
category or types or genre
unique tone or tribe or flavor
topics or themes

When I wrote my branding statement (found in my January 19th post), I had to try to corral an established career that has covered all kinds of topics in many different genres. (I’m nothing if not versatile.) What did all this have in common? The fact that when I tackle a topic, I attempt to look it “straight in the eye." That idea became the core of my branding statement.

The publicity team at Zondervan loved my branding statement and are using it in publicity for my upcoming non-fiction, The Mormon Mirage. It had to work equally well, however for my upcoming novel Latter-day Cipher.

How about you? Do you have a branding statement? Or do you know of an effective one used by another author?

More than you wanted to know about Latayne C. Scott...

A Shout-Out to wonderful followers: Rachel, The Koala Bear Writer, Sharon M, Suzi Shepherd, Cathy Bryant, Booklover 323, Yvonne Olson, Kimberly Payne, Page McManus, and Laidlaw Photography. Thank you!

And don’t forget to post a comment about your best friend to be entered into a drawing to win Sharon K. Souza’s wonderful book, Lying on Sunday.


Author Latayne C. Scott

I’d like to introduce myself by saying that, since you’ve already met the other six authors, you’ll agree after reading my introduction: They’re nicer than me.

First of all, they’re six very loving people who reach out to others in a way I admire. I’m not equipped, I guess, to be able to nurture beginning writers in the way that some of them can do.

And secondly, a lot of people are angry about what I write. If you took a poll of the 13 million Mormons worldwide, many of those who have heard of me would say they hate me. Some have threatened me. I’ve written several non-fiction books about why I left the Mormonism I so deeply loved. One of them is the April release from Zondervan, The Mormon Mirage 3rd Edition.

My first novel portrays Mormons – the people – sympathetically, but turns a glaring searchlight on Mormon history and doctrines. So I will try to answer some questions from the point of view of my novel, Latter-day Cipher (Moody) which is, like The Mormon Mirage, available for pre-order on CBD, Amazon, and B&N. My editor called Cipher “the DaVinci Code of Mormonism,” and compared its insider view to The Godfather.

(And now I’m working on a new novel that promises to make some Christians mad or at least very uncomfortable. See, I warned you that I’m not that nice.)

Conflict is central to fiction, but how do you create a work of fiction that is tense, difficult, and sometimes even frightening, yet make it a place readers want to go to, spend time in, and get to know well?

I love reading mysteries – I began with Nancy Drew, and then read every single Agatha Christie and went on to a steady diet of modern mysteries. I love the technique of the cliffhanger, and have tried to use it in my novel, Latter-day Cipher.

But the cliffhanger is a trust agreement between the author and reader – the reader has to trust that the author will resolve it in a satisfying way. Not necessarily fix everything, but earn the reader’s respect for setting up the situation in the first place. Otherwise the reader won’t want to be played with again.

Where is the strangest place that you had a brainstorm and had to stop and write down an idea or snippet of dialogue?

My colleagues have teased me about the dream I had about a family that survived by eating wolves who had eaten corpses. That’s a scene in my novel.

I often awaken in the night and write down ideas, so I try to keep pen and paper nearby. One night I found the pen but it was too cold to go find some paper, so I just wrote all up and down my left arm, looping around, adding in things with carats. When I stumbled into the bathroom the next morning, my husband was shaving. He asked, “What is wrong with your arm?”

For the first moments, I didn’t know either. I wondered if I’d forgotten that I got a tattoo.

Which one of your characters most resembles you and how did you draw from your life to create them?

I thought I was being very subtle, but even before the release of Latter-day Cipher, people who read the manuscript said that I’m very much like the hard-headed agnostic reporter, Selonnah. She’s impatient with foolishness and people who talk too much. Okay, that’s me!

Tell us about the relationship between your writing and your spiritual life.

I guess because I deal in my writing with the way people wrestle with God, I’m a better writer when I’m spiritually off-balance. I do not welcome such feelings but I feel that God enables me to work through, and articulate, difficulties on behalf of others.

When you sit down to write, who is your audience?

As a novelist, I don’t write for Christians. I write for non-Christians. I want my writing to be understood without church-speak. In Latter-day Cipher I have a Christian character explain her faith by using some unusual images, but no Scripture quotations. My greatest goal is to be able to convey the truth of the Bible in a way that gains the respect of the unchurched reader.

What are your favorite things to do to take a break during a long writing session?

I hate breaks and interruptions. Therefore I don’t have any favorite thing to do except get back to writing. I’m really not much fun when I’m involved in a project. (See, not nice…)

Think of a novel you have not written - yet - but would like to one day. The best thing you will ever write before you die. Don't tell us what it will be about, but instead, tell us how it will make the reader feel.

The situations I depicted in Latter-day Cipher were those of the horror of losing one’s faith. I want a reader to feel that someone has looked in his or her soul, extracted the deepest, sick-swallowing fears and put them under a shadowless light.

For such readers, I want to examine in fiction those secret dreads and be able to tell them that there is a coherent, authentic way to find to answers that are transcendently, eternally true.

And, a real Person behind those answers.

Finally….

In subsequent posts, I want to talk less about myself and more about the writing process. But to conclude my introduction, here’s my branding statement, which sums it all up:

I pull an amorphous issue forward until it resolves into its face. Then I put my face right up against it and talk to it.

I take all comers: the monolith of Mormonism, the challenge of writing truthful fiction, the bittersweet contradictions of faith in a mysterious and terrifying God of love.

I look them all straight in the eye.

www.latayne.com
www.representationalresources.com