A Willing Heart.....

….is the title of a short Valentine themed story submitted for inclusion in Alison Bruce’s blog this week.  When I logged on to my computer this morning I was tickled to see it had been posted as one of her Valentine Shorts.

Pam has mentioned that Alison, incredibly busy lady that she is, has agreed to mentor Jamie Tremain during this process to become publisher worthy. The first few pages of Body Perfect have been reviewed, with some agreed upon changes.  Pam has been busy this week –amidst bedroom calamities – adding her thoughts to those pages and now they’re in my court.

On another note, I’ve now had a week with my new sleeping partner – a CPAP machine. Still getting adjusted to the apparatus around my face, although compared to some models I’ve looked at this is one of the least obtrusive.  Apparently there is no snoring to be heard from anywhere in the house while I’m hooked up and while I still haven’t slept all through the night, I’ve been really happy to note I’m not yawning my way to work each morning (a 40 minute commute).  Another sleep study is booked for next Friday, this time using the CPAP machine for comparison.  Results of my first study showed that I was not breathing anywhere from 60 – 80 times an hour!  Any wonder exhaustion was my middle name for so long?

Before you go, please take a moment to check out Alison's web site and her blog.  Jamie Tremain is pleased to add Alison to our list of favourite links.

Cheers! and belated Happy Valentine's Day

Liz

ps...Watch this space for the first Jamie Tremain interview.

The Best of Intentions

After burrowing in when 30 cm of the lovely white stuff was coming down on Friday I had the notion to cancel my trip to Guelph to visit with Liz on the Saturday. We were meeting with Alison Bruce who has very kindly agreed to be our mentor in this journey of ours to have our book published. (I’ll tell you more of Alison later.)

Saturday morning  dawned with brilliant sunshine; the Weather Network said no precipitation and all roads were now cleared. That didn't stop me getting lost. I forgot my directions, no GPS and I never carry a phone. The one person I spoke to for directions had an accent I couldn't understand. But I did have a lovely tour of the University town of Guelph. I eventually recognized Edinburgh Road and I was on my way. Ironic as Edinburgh is my home town.  Serendipity. I love that word.

Liz and I had a fruitful morning working on some edited pages from Alison. We met at Starbucks getting to know her and visa versa. Two hours later I was all pumped to write the novel of the century. Liz felt the same way and it feels like a good fit.

I made it home by 5.30pm. Roads were dry and still the sun was shining. I was raring to get home and write this post when my sunshiny day turned to gloom. A large leak in the roof had water pouring into my bedroom. Have you ever tried getting construction people out on a Saturday night? All my towels and absorbent clothes my husband had in the basement for .. wait for it... a rainy day! Well we sure needed them.

Did I mention my office is in a corner of the bedroom? Thankfully the water has not crept to that part but when I am not wringing out towels I’m moving my desk and office stuff before it does. And where are the!@#$% workmen.

It’s now Monday and the freezing rain has descended just to get my blood pressure up. The workmen or should I say workman is here taking out large amounts of drywall and soaking wet insulation.Industrial sized dehumidifiers are set to dry things out. The water has gone through to the living room and another machine is there also. "Its like being in a wind tunnel" said my nervous wreck of a husband. Not very many times I say I’m thankful to be hard of hearing. A contractor is coming this afternoon to clear away the foot of snow from the roof and fix the leak. The machines will be here until Wednesday!!

I've been busy to say the least but we’ll come through it. People have it far worse than us. I’m pretty resilient so I’m off to shore up my husband and his nervous breakdown and wring a few more clothes.

One of the things we did discuss with Alison Bruce was to have a guest blogger. Liz and I are grateful to the writing community for all the help we get. So for our inaugural guest blogger we have asked Alison and she has agreed. As soon as my new office/spare room is set up I’ll compose some scintillating! questions to ask our new friend and mentor.

Gotta go. There’s a man on the roof.

Talk soon,

Slainte,

Pam

Character Building

Not mine – but rather, how do the characters that Jamie Tremain have created change and evolve.  Regular readers know that Pam and I have now spent countless hours and discussions on revising, correcting, polishing and general tidying up of Body Perfect.   With the last ‘adjustment’ we focused on an aspect of Dorothy’s character that up until now had not been recognized.  Dorothy was easy, for me, to ‘get’ – perhaps more than just a little alter ego at work.   And while I'm far from perfect, Dorothy seemed to be heading towards being too easy going and agreeable – just not realistic.  So we devised a small dust-up between her and Paul over his assumption she’d be willing to partner with him in business.  As well, she is keeping a secret from Paul – a secret carried forward into their next adventure.  Sometimes secrets need the right timing to be revealed, but the longer its delayed, the harder it becomes.  The potential for an easily avoided strained relationship looms. Especially after Paul reveals the skeleton in his closet.  But is it the only one?

As we move them into a second book and a new crime to test their fledgling partnership upon, we wonder whether the foundation they've built so quickly will be able to withstand day-to-day stresses of working together.  Just as any new relationship takes time to develop, so we plan likewise for our heroes. 

We've read differing perspectives on how authors create their work – from detailed outlining and planning to flying by the seat of your pants – what works well for one may not be so successful for another.   At this stage of our writing, I think Pam and I agree that our characters are going to grow and develop as we, and you the reader, get to know them better.  I think as we write, we are also in the ‘getting to know you’ stage of the protagonists in our story and are eager to learn more about them, too. 

As with any ongoing series, more and more of a central character is revealed, little by little.  Settings, plot, and other characters, new and familiar, all lend to the personality tapestry being developed.  Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta, Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache, for example show us more of what makes them tick with each story.  And isn’t that true of we ‘real’ humans?   Those who know and love us are always discovering something new about us – sometimes not always a good thing!

So we hope you will continue to bear with us as our quest to bring Body Perfect to the publishing world moves on.  And that you will enjoy getting to know Dorothy and Paul, as we get to know them better, too!

Cheers!

Liz