KayeDacus.com

After weeks (okay, months) of checking Amazon occasionally to see if, perhaps, I might find something there with my name attached to it (and yes, my name comes up in the acknowledgments of J.M. Hochstetler’s One Holy Night—thanks, Joan!), tonight, I finally found what I was looking for . . .

STAND-IN GROOM IS AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER ON AMAZON.COM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know you’ve all been wondering what the standings are in the contest and just how many more of these silly posts you need to comment on, right?

Don’t forget that if you want to enter for the grand prize ($100 Amazon Gift Certificate, Book, CD), you need to have your wedding story turned in no later than midnight (U.S. Central Time) this Friday, July 25.

Here are the standings:

Shellie Powell–17 comments (8 entries in the drawing) + entered for grand prize drawing
Erica Vetsch–17 comments (8 entries) + entered for grand prize drawing
Eileen Astels–16 comments (7 entries)
Caleb Abel–16 comments (7 entries) + entered for grand prize drawing
Rose McCauley–14 comments (5 entries) + entered for grand prize drawing
Krista Phillips–13 comments (4 entries)
CJ–13 comments (4 entries) + entered for grand prize drawing
Leslie Sowell/greyfort–12 comments (3 entries)
Georgiana Daniels–12 comments (3 entries)
Amy Jane–12 comments (3 entries) + entered for grand prize drawing
Tracy Ruckman–10 comments (1 entry) + entered for grand prize drawing
Ruth Anderson–10 comments (1 entry)
Patricia Woodside–10 comments (1 entry)

The following people have not yet qualified for entry in the contest—but you’re almost there. Six days remain in the contest!
Rachel Wilder–9 comments
Nicole (ikkinlala)–9 comments
Emilie Bishop–9 comments
Sharon Lavy–8 comments
Jordan–8 comments
Amy Deardon–8 comments
Marcie Gribbin–7 comments
Jess–7 comments
Jennifer Hofmann–5 comments

The following people have entered a wedding story, but aren’t near where they need to be with comments to be entered into the drawing:
MaryBeth Isaac–Wedding story received, but only 4 comments posted
Meredith Duke–Wedding story received, but only 2 comments posted

For a reminder of the contest rules, be sure to visit the 500th Blog Post Contest & Giveaway page.

I’m happy so many people came by and commented on yesterday’s post. I haven’t had a chance to read most of them yet, but I will try to get to them today and get in on the discussion.

Last week, Amy Jane posted a link to a personality test where you can find out what type you are based on the Jung/Myers-Briggs model. One of the key factors of my personality type (ISTJ) is that I like for things to be planned out, mapped out, in advance of making a decision or taking a major step. I like to be mentally and emotionally prepared for any eventuality so that nothing takes me by surprise—and I’m not overly fond of surprises (at least not the kind that are more blind-siding than they are happy).

So, yesterday when I learned that I’m being laid off from my job after just two years (along with eight other people in the office of about twenty), it really threw me for a loop. I’m not prepared. I don’t have a plan. I probably should have been, since it’s been a trend in the publishing industry to freelance out all copy-editing duties, however after a company-wide meeting held two weeks ago, we were given reason to believe that we’d still be employed after August 1.

With only two weeks’ severance pay coming to me (meaning that I’ll be paid through mid-August), that means I need some money coming in from elsewhere so that I can take the time to make a good decision about a new job. So I need everyone’s help.

If you know of anyone who’s looking for a freelance copy editor—be it a publisher or an individual—please give them my name! If you know of anyone who would like a paid critique of their fiction, please, have them contact me.

In the meantime, don’t forget about the contest—and don’t worry, the contest is still in full swing and the prizes are still available and ready to be won!

For the last couple of weeks, National Public Radio has been running a series in which they not only interview mystery/suspense authors, but they visit the cities that these authors have made iconic through their fiction. (See Crime in the City at NPR.) While I haven’t listened to all of the installments in the series (it’s usually on air as I’m running out of the house to try to make it to work on time), there is one thing I’ve noticed in common with those I have heard: the cities in question are all beloved by the authors who write about them.

Which (naturally) leads me to the question: do settings choose the author or do authors choose the setting?

It’s no secret that the setting of my three novels with Barbour are set in a fictional city in Louisiana that has been under development as a setting since 1992. How did it get started? Well, I needed to mask the fact that I was writing a fictional account of the lives of me and my friends from LSU. So I changed Baton Rouge to College Park (and later to Bonneterre) and I changed LSU to ULa (and recently to the University of Louisiana-Bonneterre, because who knew that during the years I would be using this setting, Louisiana would change the names of the smaller state colleges to the University of Louisiana system).

So why have I continued using this setting after all these years?

Well, for one thing, it’s easy. With so many years and stories set in a single setting, especially a fictional setting, I know this city. I know what the big social events are. I know where everything is. If I want to add a feature, I can. By not using Baton Rouge, where I spent every summer as a child and lived from 1989–1992, I’m not tapping into an existing culture nor being bound by a particular city’s real history or layout. Yes, it may be stretching some Louisianians’ imaginations that there’s a mid-size city buried somewhere in the middle of the state (especially for those who live in the middle of the state in Alexandria and surrounding areas). But the truth of the matter is that my experience with actually living in Louisiana is limited, even though I’m there at least once a year. By using a fictional setting instead of a real one, I can tap into my emotional memory of living there and apply it to a setting where I can control all of the cultural constraints upon the characters and events, instead of them controlling me.

In looking at my writing longer term, once I complete the three books in the Bonneterre series, I’ll need to figure out if the next contemporary-set stories I write will also be set there or if it may be time to look at setting my stories in the city where I live: Nashville. But will anyone buy novels that are set in Nashville if they don’t have anything to do with the music business? After all, that’s what the outsiders’ stereotype of Nashville is: Music City U.S.A. Opryland. The Grand Ol’ Opry. The Ryman Auditorium. The home of Country Music. Etc. But having lived here for twelve years, I have an insider’s view of the city that while music is, yes, a large industry in town, so are publishing, auto manufacturing (Saturn and Nissan plants, Nissan just moved their US headquarters here and Volkswagen just announced they’re doing the same), healthcare, aeronautics manufacturing, telecommunications, and so on. It’s also got a great history, from Daniel Boone to Davy Crockett to General John Bell Hood.

But would the setting (Nashville) be important to the story? Or would it just serve as a more generic city? What part of the culture of the location would I be incorporating in the story? What is this area’s culture if I don’t have at least one of the characters involved in the music industry? Would I be setting the stories here because it’s easy—since I live here—or because it’s for some reason a facet of the story that it takes place in Nashville, Tennessee?

I’ve discussed settings on this blog quite a bit before, yet still these questions persist. It’s easy to think of continuing to use Bonneterre as a setting for the foreseeable future—because, after all, I’ve “lived” in (with) Bonneterre for most of my adult life (I’ve lived in Nashville since 1996—four years less). Bonneterre is a part of me, because it came out of my imagination. However, I also have to think that while readers can enjoy a fictional setting, readers can connect even more with a real setting, especially one where they live or where they’ve visited or where they’d like to visit.

I’m not certain what I’m going to do (and plan to discuss this with my editor in September). I’m not leaning one way or the other right now. All I know is that I do need a good reason for the setting I choose so that I can use the setting as part of the story: to create culture and conflict, for events and things the characters can do, and to develop the background of the characters.

My historical trilogy is set in England, Jamaica, and aboard ships of the Royal Navy in 1814. For the story to work, it had to be set there because the story wouldn’t exist outside of it. So, in a way, instead of the setting being inspired by the story (like Bonneterre), the story was inspired by the settings. And that inspiration grew out of my love of that setting developed through my love of the stories of Jane Austen and the Horatio Hornblower series. There was no question about where I would set those books.

How do you choose your settings? Does your story dictate where it needs to be set, or has you developed your story around a particular setting? Are there certain places you’d like to set stories because those cities/towns/places inspire you?

“Our state fair is a great state fair;
Don’t miss it, don’t even be late!
It’s dollars to donuts that our state fair
Is the best state fair in our state!”

After Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s State Fair is my favorite musical. It could have something to do with the fact that it’s probably the only musical ever written where both of the leading female roles were written for altos, which means I can sing along at the top of my lungs without straining anything. But, really, I think it has more to do with the wonderful music and the simple but wonderful parallel romance storylines.

Based on a novel by Phil Strong, State Fair was originally made as a non-musical movie in 1933 starring Will Rogers, Janet Gaynor, and Lew Ayers. Because the story proved very popular amongst movie goers, in the early 1940s, it was thought that a musical version would do well. With Oklahoma! a huge success on Broadway, Rodgers & Hammerstein were approached and asked to adapt the story into a musical. They agreed—as long as they didn’t have to go to Hollywood to do it. Released in 1945, it would be the only musical they would ever write only for the movies. (The first stage version wasn’t produced until the 1990s.)

The cast is stellar, including the divine Dana Andrews (Laura, The Best Years of Our Lives), Jeanne Crain (A Letter to Three Wives, People Will Talk), one of the top crooners of the day Dick Haymes (whose biggest hits include “You’ll Never Know,” “Room Full of Roses,” “It’s Magic,” and several of the songs from State Fair that he re-recorded as singles), and Vivian Blaine (Guys & Dolls).

The storyline is pretty straight forward. The Frake family is headed for the Iowa state fair, each with his or her own goals: Dad wants to win the grand championship with his Hampshire boar Blue Boy; Mom hopes her mincemeat and pickles are winners; son, Wayne (Dick Haymes), wants to get back at the carnie who swindled him the previous year; daughter, Margie (Jeanne Crain), wants to get away from the doldrums of farm life—and her dull beau.

In what is perhaps the best-loved song from the musical, here is Margie (singing dubbed by Louanne Hogan) expressing her desire to do and see something different for a change in “It Might as well Be Spring”:

Even though he has a girl back home, when Wayne meets singer Emily Edwards (Vivian Blaine), he’s smitten and ends up spending most of his time at the fair with her. The link for embedding this video wasn’t there, but you can click here to see the moment when Wayne falls for Emily as she sings “That’s for Me.”

Margie also has a chance at romance when she meets newspaper reporter Pat Gilbert (Dana Andrews) on the roller coaster. But will their love affair last longer than the fair?

And what’s a Rodgers & Hammerstein musical without a song about the state in which it’s set? Here’s one of the most fun sing-along songs in the film, “I Owe Ioway”:

Another version was made in 1962 starring Pat Boone, Bobby Darin, and Ann-Margret—but if you’re going to watch this, the 1945 original version is definitely the best. If you do ever have the opportunity to see it on the stage, I highly recommend it. When it was adapted in the early 1990s, they added a few songs back into it that had been cut from the film (including Abel Frake crooning a lullaby to Blue Boy) as well as some that had been cut from other R&H musicals, like Flower Drum Song. Because it’s longer, they were able to add more humor into it, as well as develop the characters and the relationships much better.

Make this a State Fair weekend!

We’ve had an ongoing joke in my local writing group, Middle Tennessee Christian Writers, about how on the second Saturday of every month, we’re the most extroverted group of introverts anyone has ever seen. This most recent meeting, we had a visitor come who’d found out about our meeting through the announcement on our group blog. Usually what happens is that someone posts a comment that they’re interested and they’d like to be contacted by “one of the moderators” (me) and we have an e-mail dialogue before they visit one of the meetings. I can thoroughly understand someone wanting to do this—it’s more comfortable to visit a new group when you’ve already met someone there (even if it’s just through cyberspace). But this gal just decided to come and check us out. Well, come to find out, she’s an extrovert—doesn’t mind going new places and meeting new people; in fact, she probably is stimulated personally and creatively by doing so.

Most of us always assume that a great majority of writers are introverts. And I’m using that term in the technical sense—introverts need time alone, it’s through solitude or time away from others that introverts recharge and get energy; being around large groups of people is extremely draining for the true introvert. (Extroverts, naturally, are the opposite and get their energy and stimulation from being around people; they have a tendency to shut down and become depressed if forced to spend too much time alone.) Those who are closer to center (like me) can do both when need be, but always we revert back to our natural inclination (which, for me, is getting away from it all to recharge).

I’m starting to wonder now if that commonly held belief that most writers are introverts is as true as we think.

Think about writers who talk about how they can’t work in silence, or they get their best work done down at the local coffee shop where people are coming and going all the time. Now, I personally, don’t work well with complete silence. I almost always have music playing—but very softly in the background. But there’s no way I’d be able to write in a coffee shop where people are talking, the register is going, the barristas are taking orders, the doors opening and closing—I’d find it far too distracting. Yet some writers love this environment. I’d venture a guess they’re extroverts.

People who’ve met me at conferences have a really hard time believing that I’m not an extrovert, that I am very uncomfortable when in large groups, and that for me, approaching someone I’ve never met and talking to them is one of the hardest things I do. For a couple of years, being an officer with ACFW made it somewhat easier because I was representing the organization, not myself. I’ve also learned over the years techniques for networking and taught myself (through lots of practice) how to handle social situations not by focusing on the large group of people surrounding me, but by focusing on only a few people out of that large group. (For more tips and tricks, check out the two series on Networking on the Writing Series Index page.)

Ah, yes, networking. You’ve read about it often enough here, and heard about it elsewhere. Why is it so important to push ourselves out of our introverted comfort zones and do something we don’t enjoy?

As I’ve stated before, you don’t have to network in order to get published. You don’t have to be a member of a professional writers’ organization (ACFW, RWA, MWA, etc.). You don’t have to attend conferences. You don’t have to blog. You don’t have to enter contests. You don’t have to do anything but write and submit in order to pursue publication. But those things sure do help.

How many times have I relayed the story about how I knew my agent for a couple of years before I ever submitted anything to him? He not only interviewed me for a job (when he was publisher of one of the CBA houses located in Nashville), but from that meeting came an idea for a project that we worked on together for ACFW. I took his continuing education session at that year’s ACFW conference. The next year, I’d planned to seek him out at conference just to touch-base and keep the dialogue open—and then I learned he’d left the publishing house and was opening an agency. Since I was only there for one evening (the banquet), as soon as I saw him walking down the hall, I had a decision to make: stay in my comfort zone, not put myself forward, OR talk to him and ask him if I could submit. The conversation lasted less than two minutes. And he’s now my agent.

Knowing the boundaries of our comfort zones is important, because if we don’t know where the boundaries are, we won’t know in what areas we need to be pushing ourselves.

Building name recognition (in a good way) before publication is important. If you are actively involved in your writing organization, if you are successful in contests, if you volunteer or serve as an officer, if you write a blog that generates interest amongst other writers—and possibly editors and agents—then when you start submitting, if the editor whose desk your proposal lands on recognizes your name, he or she might be a little more interested in looking at it (just like we’re always more interested in reading debut novels by people whose names we recognize than those we don’t).

This year at conference, I’ll be pushing my comfort zone by giving one of the morning devotionals as well as volunteering to be a timekeeper for the editor/agent meetings. But in a way, this was sort of a selfish act. You see, I enjoy public speaking, so getting up in front of everyone (though I’ll be nervous) will be enjoyable for me. And when I saw the call for volunteer timekeepers, my heart leapt because all I could think of was being able to be there for all of those people who are so nervous they’re nearly sick to their stomachs—to be able to talk to them, and possibly pray with them, beforehand, and to be able to see them afterward. Yes, it will mean talking to a bunch of people I’ve never met before, but it meshes so well with my desire to lift up and encourage other writers that it’s an easy way to step out of my own comfort zone.

So I challenge you: what’s one way you can step out of your comfort zone to help further your writing career this year?

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that I don’t usually feature book reviews/promos—but I’m making an exception for a fabulous book by one of my very dear friends, Georgiana Daniels.

TABLE FOR ONE
Successful stockbroker Lucy Brocklehurst hasn’t had a date in four years. In a town where the ratio of single women to men is 7:1, she’s determined to wait on God for the perfect mate–as long as it’s the hot new youth pastor at her church.

Lucy will do anything to get his attention, including volunteering for the youth group. Through a series of misadventures on the teen outings, Lucy finds herself falling in love with a kindhearted chaperone named Edgar Flowers. But when their relationship grows serious, Lucy discovers the lengths his recently widowed mother will go to in order to keep them apart. What starts out as harmless interference turns into an all out tug of war, with Edgar as the prize!

Will Lucy crumble under the scrutiny of her would-be mother-in-law? Or can Lucy and Edgar’s budding romance survive the schemes of his meddling mom?

———-

Georgiana Daniels is the wife of a super-generous husband, and the mother of a teen and two tots. After graduating with a degree in public relations, she spent several years in the business world, but now has the privilege of staying home and working on the stories she loves. Table for One is her first book. When not writing, she spends her time burning up miles on the treadmill, blogging, and participating in ACFW and RWA. Georgiana participated in an online “radio” interview on Monday about her writing and Table for One, which you can listen to here.

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Georgiana is one of the most fearless authors I know. Now, I don’t mean that she’s going out and cliff diving or bungee jumping off the Eiffel Tower. What I mean is that she has no qualms about putting her characters in one sticky situation after another, always with hilarious and often eye-opening consequences. She doesn’t pull punches with the conflicts, nor with the lessons that the main character must learn, even when that lesson comes in the midst of crisis.

As a single woman, I am right there, struggling along with Lucy, who’s the kind of woman who can be completely confident and mature in her business dealings and revert to an insecure, socially inept twelve-year-old when it comes to romance (or am I projecting?).

You owe it to yourself to read this debut novel from an up-and-coming bestselling author. Oh, and while you’re at it—if you’re going to be attending the ACFW conference in Minneapolis, help me convince Georgiana to participate in the book signing!

Table for One is available from Amazon.com and directly from the publisher at TheWildRosePress.com.

Okay, so really, it’s a meme that I picked up on the web and edited a bit (I actually deleted ten or fifteen questions, if you can believe it!). But the questions are so much like some of the interview questions I’ve seen asked of other authors that it really did seem like an interview when I was filling it out.

For today’s comments: pick one of the following questions to answer here, and if you choose to do this meme on your own blog, come back and post a link to it and you can get TWO contest entries counted for today (but you have to post them in separate comments, so I can be sure to count them separately).

The Writer’s Meme

What’s the last thing you wrote? The opening scene of Chapter Four of Menu for Romance (a little more than 1,000 words yesterday).

What’s the first thing you ever wrote that you still have? The “sequel” to my favorite Sunfire Romance, Victoria, which I wrote when I was fourteen or fifteen.

Favorite genre of writing? Romance, of course!

Most fun character you ever wrote? The most fun I’ve ever had with a character was writing Sir Drake Pembroke in Ransome’s Honor. He’s the “bad guy,” which meant I could really do anything I wanted to in his scenes.

Most annoying character you ever wrote? Probably the two characters, Brooke and Nicole, which I cut out of my second manuscript, The Best Laid Plans

Best plot you ever wrote? Hmmm . . . for me that’s a tossup between Stand-In Groom and Ransome’s Honor. The difference being that SIG’s plot is contained all in one novel—and it’s complete—and the other hasn’t come to a conclusion yet, because there are still two books in the trilogy yet to be written.

Coolest plot twist you ever wrote? Probably the wedding scene/climax of Ransome’s Honor. It’s the one that gives me the giggles every time I think about how it felt to write it.

How often do you get writer’s block? More often than I should because I’m not as disciplined with my writing schedule as I should be.

How do you fix it? Make myself write something—anything—centered around the characters/story of my current manuscript. Eventually, I’ll get right back into it.

Write fan fiction? The only fan fiction I’ve ever written is described here.

Do you type or write by hand? Both. When I’m coming out of writer’s block, I find that writing longhand is very helpful in getting back to a point where the words are flowing—mainly because I can do it anywhere, but also because when my thoughts are running slowly, utilizing a slower form of writing seems to be more comfortable than sitting at the computer staring at a blank, white screen. But when I really get going, I much prefer to be typing, as I can type so much faster than I can write.

Do you save everything you write? Yes. I have a box of spiral notebooks filled with scribblings going back to probably 1985 or 1986. I have computer documents going back to about 1988 or 1989.

Do you ever go back to an old idea long after you abandoned it? Depends on what “old idea” means. Whenever I have an idea for a story, I write it down with the thought in mind that I might use it eventually.

What’s your favorite thing that you’ve written? At this point in time, probably Ransome’s Honor, but I love Stand-In Groom and I’m falling back in love with Menu for Romance. I feel kind of like Ado Annie from Oklahoma: I love best whichever one I’m with at the time.

What’s one genre you have never written, and probably never will? I don’t think I could ever write Suspense/Thriller or Mystery. Even though when I watch shows like Law & Order or read mysteries, I can usually figure out who “did it,” I don’t know that I would ever be able to plot one, because, as we all know, I’m not a plotter.

How many writing projects are you working on right now? Right now I’m only working on Menu for Romance. Once I finish the first draft of it, I’ll need to set it aside for a few weeks so that I can hit the revision somewhat fresh. So in the intervening time, I’ll begin work on A Case for Love.

What are your five favorite words? Your. Book. Is. A. Bestseller. Okay, seriously, for today my favorite words are: absquatulate, obliquity, fabulist, equanimity, zetetic

What character that you’ve written most resembles you? Hannah McCready-English in The Best Laid Plans. I knew when I wrote her that I was putting a lot of myself into her character, but I’m currently re-reading the manuscript and I can’t believe exactly how much of me is in that character.

Do you ever write based on your dreams? So far, I haven’t written anything in full based on a dream, but I have tons of files in my “Ideas” folder on the computer with story ideas based on dreams.

Are you concerned with spelling and grammar as you write? Most definitely, though for me it comes somewhat as second nature. And I still get crits back where they’ve marked typos, misused words (as in I thought one word but typed another), and places where the verb doesn’t agree with the subject in number (i.e., it’s a singular verb but a plural subject), etc.

Does music help you write? YES! Especially as I was writing Stand-In Groom in which Dean Martin’s music plays a significant role in a few key scenes. All I had to do was put ol’ Dino on repeat on Media Player and I was immediately transported. When working on the historical, it had to be classical music of the era—or soundtracks of movies set around the same time.

How do people react when they find out you write? Usually how they would whenever anyone is talking about their hobbies, be it sewing or fishing or stamp collecting: a that’s nice kind of nod followed up with maybe a few cursory questions. A small minority of people would ask me a little more about it. Now, though, when I tell people that my first book is coming out, everyone always asks, “Oh, what’s it about?”

Quote something you’ve written. The first thing to pop into your mind. The soprano of flatware, alto of china, tenor of voices, and bass rumble of the dish sterilizers created a jubilant symphony that thrilled Major O’Hara’s heart. That’s the line that introduces Major’s POV in Menu for Romance and it says a lot about him.

Between some fabulous marketing brainstorming we did as a group at the Middle Tennessee Christian Writers’ meeting Saturday (which lasted almost four hours, instead of our scheduled two!), I’ve spent several hours today brainstorming the plot points for Menu for Romance.

First, I want to talk about what we were brainstorming so long at MTCW, because it’s something that everyone reading this blog can help out with, if you’re willing.

How do publishing houses get started? Well, someone who loves the written word, who has a heart for getting books in the hands of readers, decides that they want to take the risk to start a business to do that. A very dear friend of mine, Joan Shoup (that’s pronounced SHAUP not SHOOP), has done just that. If you haven’t been following her journey in starting Sheaf House, after you finish reading this post, you need to hop over to her Sheaf House blog.

But, like every new business just taking off, Sheaf House is struggling to get the word out about its products. Joan really needs to get the sales numbers for Sheaf House’s first release, One Holy Night by J.M. Hochstetler (Joan’s penname), up to the five or six thousand range. Now, don’t rush off to Amazon to order it just yet—it won’t be up and live for purchase for a few days yet (and I’ll let you know when it is). Here’s where the brainstorming part of our meeting began.

One thing we really need to do is get people talking up One Holy Night and creating a buzz about it and the two books that are coming out this fall: Michelle Sutton’s YA romance, It’s Not about Me, and A. K. Arenz’s cozy mystery, The Case of the Bouncing Grandma (which are available for preorder on Amazon). I know that most of the people reading this blog already have TBR piles that are about to create a fatal avalanche of books in your home. But these are wonderful books and a great way to support Sheaf House and our fellow writers. Please, please, consider purchasing these books—and ask your friends and family to as well!

We want to create not just a sales surge for One Holy Night when it’s “live” on Amazon again, but we also want it to be a recommended title connected with a bestseller (probably The Shack). If you’re interested in participating and don’t mind purchasing two books, let me know and once we work out all the details, I’ll e-mail you the details. Even if the bestseller is one you already own, you can donate it to your library or local literacy program or to a gift box going overseas to our soldiers.

If you are interested in featuring Sheaf House, One Holy Night, and/or Joan on your blog, or if you’re involved in a reader’s club and want recommend it as a book for your group to read, let me know, and I’ll get you in touch with Joan.

Let’s put the power of “word of mouth” (a.k.a. “viral”) marketing to work and support a fledgling publishing house that is putting out powerful, meaningful fiction the likes of which readers aren’t going to be able to get anywhere else.

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Now, the other brainstorming I did this weekend is on Menu for Romance. You’ll notice that I’ve put a second counter in the widget in the right navbar. I’ve marked it my second draft, but really it’s my third, since what’s tracked in the first counter is actually a restart from what I had written last year. But I’m trying to simplify things.

Two weeks ago, I mentioned that I was going to go through and write out the basic structure based on Billy Mernit’s seven beats of the romance story. The night I got home from vacation, I started it on my whiteboard. But then I realized my mistake—when I needed to go back up in the list and fill in an earlier beat with an idea, I ended up erasing whatever was underneath my hand as I wrote. Yikes! I was losing lots of good stuff.

A while back, I purchased a flip-chart at Sam’s. I bought it to draw a map of Bonneterre (the fictional city where Stand-In Groom and its sequels are set), but then set it aside and never did anything with it, nor the set of Sharpies containing 36 colors. So I got it out and copied everything from the whiteboard onto the flip chart:

The stuff in the middle is hard to see—that’s the “rising conflict” section, and I was penciling in ideas for conflicts that could happen during that part.

Well, today, after sending the revised first three chapters to the crit partners on Saturday, before moving on with revising/rewriting what already exists (that 41,000 words on the first of the two counters up above) I decided I needed to ask/answer some questions to make sure that I’m not going to get midway through again and decide again that I don’t like the direction the conflict is going again. So I just started by writing questions, then thinking of all the possible ways I can write the conflict:

(Visually oriented me: pink is for Meredith, aqua for Major, and yes, it’s sitting on one of my extra office chairs, because I don’t have any free wall space in my office to hang it up!)

So there you have it. I think I’ve answered the pressing questions and can now move on with the new stuff I need to write for chapter four. And my goal is for that second counter over there to be moving at a pretty brisk clip right now, since I’ll be salvaging as much as I can from what’s already written as I write new stuff for the new/changed conflicts.

Don’t forget: if you’re interested in helping out with the viral marketing campaign for One Holy Night, be sure to mention that in your comment and I’ll contact you via e-mail.

As mentioned last week, I’m going to spend a few weeks featuring some of my favorite musicals on Fun Fridays. Today’s entry: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

Trailer:

This is one of the few musicals that was not originally a stage play before becoming a film. Released in 1954, the story is based on a short story penned by Stephen Vincent Benet, a popular writer for the Saturday Evening Post and short-story author, whose best-known work is probably The Devil and Daniel Webster. Benet’s short story The Sobbin’ Women was itself based on another story—the Roman legend of “The Rape of the Sabine Women” (rape in its ancient usage meaning kidnapping), which is recounted in Plutarch’s Lives.

The film was directed by Stanley Donen (also known for Singin’ in the Rain), with music and lyrics composed by Saul Chaplin (An American in Paris, Westside Story), Gene de Paul (In the Navy), and Johnny Mercer (who penned the lyrics to such classics as “Come Rain or Come Shine,” “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive,” “That Old Black Magic,” “Jeepers Creepers,” and “Hooray for Hollywood”). The production numbers were choreographed by Michael Kidd, who would go on to choreograph My Fair Lady and innumerable Broadway productions.

The story centers around the seven Pontipee brothers. When eldest brother Adam (Howard Keel) returns from a trip to town with a wife, his six younger brothers—while learning etiquette from their new sister-in-law, Milly (Jane Powell)—take a notion to get wives for themselves. So Milly tries to teach them about “Goin’ Courtin’”:

When the family attends a barn raising, the boys meet six eligible women and do their best to behave, but, as always happens with the Pontipees, trouble is bound to happen! And this is where Michael Kidd’s choreography shines!

Well, because the boys get into a fight with the girls’ original beaux, the boys are certain they’ll never win the hearts and hands of their girls, but Adam (whom Milly agreed to marry after just one meeting) has some advice for his brothers (after “Goin’ Courtin’,” this is my favorite song in the musical):

So the brothers take matters into their own hands and go get their brides . . . except there’s a little hitch in the proceedings. But I’ll let you watch the movie to find out what that is!

On a personal note, my favorite brother is the second eldest and best looking, Benjamin (Jeff Richards). Not only that, but I love the girl he ends up with, played with stately grace by Julie Newmar, Catwoman from the 1960s Batman series and inspirational icon for the movie To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar.

The one song/production number in the film that never did sit right with me, and which I forward through every time I watch it is the “Lonesome Polecat” song. There’s just something not right about that song and that sequence.