Here’s a link to Beat Sheets. These allow you to get the pacing of your novels right!
Like a three-act screenplay, you can make certain your characters are introduced, your plots established, and your lowest points hit in the manner and pacing your readers expect.
No more writing hoping that you have a passable work.
Just amazing! Check them out here:
Worksheets for Writers
Congratulations to my mother for getting her cookbook published. It’s full of the awesome Southern recipes that I grew up with.
We didn’t have a lot of money. Mom could not only stretch a dollar, but she was able to make the simplest food taste wonderful.
I followed her brisket recipe the other day and.. Wow! I cooked brisket.
She is amazing and evidently, she passes on her amazingness to the rest of us.
You can get your copy on Amazon.com.
Found a pulp magazine cover creator. I make my own covers, but it is tempting to come up with a few versions for my own stuff.
Check out the Pulp-O-mizer. It’s really cool.
http://thrilling-tales.webomator.com/derange-o-lab/pulp-o-mizer/pulp-o-mizer.html
Inspiration can come from anywhere.
Books are my go to. A few pages of anything has my mind running with alternate ideas and story lines. I’d bet any writer would tell you the same.
Goldilocks and the three bears set in an Alaskan winter. The baby bear has blackmailed Goldilocks into stealing a journal from the house. Mama bear’s using Goldilocks for her body. It’s a different story. Is it a good story? No, it sucks, but it is different.
Where I find the best inspiration is in real life. I ask friends and family questions. Those answers make the best stories. Of course, I never steal from them. A few twists to the details, change the events, the names, and the setting. I have a new story, but the essence is the same. The emotions are the same.
I’m researching narcissists and finding their chaos everywhere. From the nursery to the grave, you’ll deal with them at a rate of one or two to every ten people you meet. When they see weakness or vulnerability, they pounce like wild, rabid animals.
I will say my characters are better thanks to them. I could never imagine using a shotgun to steal money. I mean seriously $15,000.00 is NOTHING compared to a lifetime in jail when it all goes south. And it will go south.
A narcissist will do it for a fraction of that amount just to make certain YOU don’t get that money. The best we can do is allow them to bring us wonderful stories. That is the only thing they are good for.
“Consider Lily” is available on Amazon. This short story is based on an entry to the 2015 San Jose Short Film Festival. The original short was created for the 72-hour film race and was the only animated film entry.
Tameka’s got problems. A corpse that needs cleaning, a daughter up to no good, and she’s losing her mind.
This is the third book in the Bag of Money series.
“Work hard for me and when I die, you’ll get $10,000.00,” the man said.
In Arkansas, the lie is easy to see, but in Las Vegas, so far removed from cotton fields and backwoods Jim Crow, the lie is less obvious.
Still, Cole was a fool who should have known better.
When the family refuses to pay, Cole and his friends decide to trash the old man’s house. What they find is a whole lot of money and a whole mess of trouble.
Kentucky is a woman on the back end of her life.
She’s lived with so little for so long; poverty is all she can smell. Its scent is pregnant with the funk of urine, spoiled food, and human misery.
One night, she finds something that could remove the stench for a long time. Does she do the good thing, the right thing, or the thing that allows her to have just a little bit of fun in a lifetime of not enough?
First posting.
Thank you for coming to my site. I very excited to share my work and hope you enjoy it.