Welcome.  She's smart, she's sassy, she has a pen that drips sizzling ink.  If you like steamy stories or the Happily Ever After kind, then this is a name that belongs on your bookshelf.   Author of Second Chances, among others, Kristie's got the pedigree for writing romantic fiction; she's been writer, a publisher, a designer, and a part of her own HEA for years.  Kristie...

How Writers Write

By Kristie Leigh Maguire

I traded in my desk for a corner on the couch where I am comfortably ensconced with my laptop on my lap, my feet propped up and reclining back against a mound of pillows. I look out my windows and marvel at the scenery, which changes frequently.  

I am a modern day pioneer traveling in a recreational vehicle instead of a covered wagon, escaping the brutal summer heat of the Mojave Desert in southern Nevada where my husband and I live during the winters.

This year we left our home in Nevada near the end of April and headed to Louisiana to visit my ninety-three year old mother and two of my four brothers who still live in the area where I graduated from high school too many years ago to count. Then it was on to Alabama for my granddaughter’s graduation from high school. Where does the time go? It seems only yesterday that I was holding her in my arms right after she came into this world.

Speaking of graduating from high school, my husband wanted to attend his high school reunion this year. It had been fifty-one years since he graduated and he had never been back to any of his reunions. The only problem was that he graduated from high school in Kansas and we were in Alabama for my granddaughter’s graduation. There is quite a distance between Alabama and Kansas and we only had a week to travel the great distance. We made it though and spent a week in Kansas in my husband’s home town.

With no particular destination or anywhere we had to be at any certain time, we decided to head north after the reunion and traveled through Nebraska and into South Dakota. As I write this, we are parked at a campground in the Black Hills area of South Dakota among the tall pine trees and huge granite boulders scattered around.

Today we are going to see the monument to Crazy Horse carved into the face of a mountain and tomorrow we are going to Mount Rushmore where the faces of great past Presidents of the United States are carved into a mountain.

There is so much to see around this area that we could spend a few weeks here. And who knows? We may do just that. We have no particular place to be and no particular time to get there.

Life is wonderful as a modern day pioneer, exploring new territories and soaking up inspiration and ideas for many future stories that I can write when I get back home this winter.

If you want to know more about Kristie, visit her at her website.   Her latest release is Second Chances, a contemporary western romance set in Wyoming. It is available in paperback, e-book, and Kindle versions.

Thank you, Kristie.

Welcome.  Michael E. Benson has been writing for years.    As a police investigator, as a police instructor, as an entrepreneur, as a hobbyist,  as an artist, words have always taken up a lot of space in his bag of tricks.  Openers is just one of the many stories he has to tell.  Here is how he prepares to tell those stories.  Mike...

I never do a plot outline for a story except in my head.  Before I start to write I will spend days, months, years plotting the story in my mind as a sort of continuing daydream.  I edit, revise and edit some more until I have a chronology and major turning points firmly fixed in my mind.  Then it’s just a question of getting from point A to point B to point C and so on to the end, filling in the points with narrative and dialogue.  My favorite place and time to do this “mind plotting” is when I’m driving down the highway alone.  Another favorite place is in bed in the middle of the afternoon.

I am fortunate to have an office in my home and a computer.  I’ve tried writing in longhand, but when the story is flowing it’s just too slow.  I can hardly keep up with it by typing on the computer and I’m a very good typist. 

When I was in the Coast Guard I was hooked up on a telephone line with four other people all talking at the same time.  I had to listen to one particular voice in all that babble and translate what he said.  Consequently, I developed the ability to shut out anything I don’t want to hear without having to wear headphones.  When I am concentrating my wife now knows to make eye contact with me and make sure someone’s in there before she starts to talk.  Otherwise, I won’t hear her.  It’s a particularly useful gift to have when writing.

I thought I was a writer before I started working on my Master of Arts in History.  I am a much better writer now than I was then, especially for that kind of writing where every word in every sentence is scrutinized.  Passives are forbidden.  When I’m writing history I examine every sentence to see if it is active or passive and throw out the passives.  In writing fiction, however, passives can create tone so they are useful.  For example, which sounds stronger of these two sentences: “Bat Masterson was elected city marshal.”  Or, “the people elected Bat Masterson as city marshal.”  The first is passive, the second active.  In a history paper, only the second will do.  In a novel, either will be useful depending on the context.

I am sporadic in my writing unless I’m facing a deadline.  Some days I will sit at the computer all day long and write page after page.  Other times, life outside writing takes over and I have to be away from the computer.  On days when I can’t find time to write I will find time, usually just before bedtime, to edit which is equally important.

Here are a few hints for new writers:

1.  A writer’s most important tool is the brain.  Use it.

2.  If you don’t respect your work, no one else will either.

3.  Nothing happens until you initiate it.


If you want to know more about Michael and his works Openers and, coming soon, the second in the Frank Petrovic Series Alvarado's Woman, read his author page here at Inknbeans, or ask him a question in the comment corner. 


Openers is available at Smashwords and Amazon.

Welcome.  Those of you who recognize the name Lisa Hinsley know her as a gifted writer of downright spooky stories.  These aren't your run of the mill vampyres and haunted castle stories; these are every day people in situations that run the gamut from good to bad and back again, touched by something...well...evil.  Lisa does a good job of making you flinch. 

Here's how she gets to that dark place that makes the rest of us shudder.  You'll be surprised to know it's located in a surprisingly sunny place.  Lisa...

Everyday I want to write. Even if I can’t figure out what I want to say, I’m thinking, plotting and planning what I will write when I’m able, organising in my mind until the story pops into perfect focus. Then it’s time to write. Having three children – at one point four as we had a foster child for a while – certainly curtails my ability to write when the muse strikes. Notebooks are excellent for catching those errant thoughts when there’s no time to flip up the lid to the laptop, to capture those perfect sentences that if not written somewhere will inevitably be forgotten. I have stacks of notebooks scattered all over the house (much to my husband’s annoyance). One day I must go through them all, figure out which are now defunct, and the book written. But I’m often thinking of several ideas at a time, and my notebooks are a collage of sometimes dozens of partly thought out stories.

 

The major rule my husband wisely imposed on me in regards to my writing is that our youngest son must be in bed before I begin for the night. I tend to get a little obsessive, especially when an idea is flowing, and I will ignore everything else in order to write. I have been known to cook with a notebook and pen beside me. I’ve even tried to use a Dictaphone, but the sound of my own voice creeps me out.

 

Unfortunately, I am still tied to a day job and supervise at a pharmacy four days a week. I originally trained as an interior designer, but worked as an architectural technician for many years. The downturn in the economy dried up my contracts, but I still have one client I draw for a few days a month. My dream is to be able to earn enough from my Amazon sales to give up the pharmacy position, and devote more time to writing.

 

My office is the left hand side of the sofa in our living room. If I really want to work, earphones are a requirement – the television is just too distracting. We’re moving up to the Wirral in the summer, the hope/dream is to get a house big enough for both of us (husband works from home) to have an office. When I’m in the zone, the music needs to be loud in my ears. It sort of focuses my mind. And each book needs a different artist (weird I know). Coombe’s Wood was Cold Play and Gomez. Another book of mine, Elective Suicide, was Elbow and Kasabian. I can’t work on them without playing one of their albums.


If you want to know more about Lisa and her books, Coombe's Wood and A Peculiar Collection, check out her author page at Amazon  or visit her on Facebook.

One more note.  Most of you recognize her picture above, but here's a completely different, and far less spooky picture. 

Thank you for sharing with us, Lisa.


Boss Bean and the Inknbeans Grounds