Monday, April 25, 2016

Emotion, Please! By Chrys Fey


Writers infuse their books with emotion to engage readers. Some writers are marvelous at adding emotion to every sentence, but find it tricky to write action. I am not one of those writers.

My specialty is action. The more, the better! While I do include my character’s emotions, I don’t always add it in my first draft. Sometimes I get so caught up in the events happening that I forget to include their feelings. Fortunately, that’s where good beta readers and editors come to the rescue. One of my beta readers, Lilly Gayle, helped pinpoint places lacking emotion. She saved my story!

Here is one of the emotional scenes from Seismic Crimes that Lilly actually didn’t have to tell me to embellish.


EXCERPT:

“Well, I’m glad to be talking to you now. Have you heard from your brother?”

The breath fled from his lungs. “Mom, there’s something I have to tell you.” He paused, bracing for the aftermath of his words and decided getting it over with quickly would be the best option for both of them. “Ryan was murdered working on a case.”

A moment of silence stretched on the other side of the phone, much like the calm before a storm. Then his mom emitted a cry. Her grief vibrated the phone in Donovan’s hand. He pulled it away, turned his head, and closed his eyes. Her cry continued for several heart-wrenching seconds. When there was a pause, he brought the phone back to his ear.

“Mom?” he said it softly, cautiously, as if approaching an injured animal.

Another wail broke free, then another and another. Donovan dropped his head, heavy with her sorrow. He tightly clutched the phone, the earpiece pressed to his forehead as he listened to her sob from a shattered heart. Tears quietly slipped from his eyes.

Other than his grandmother, he and Ryan were the only ones left in his mom’s life. Now she was down one son.

He remained on the line while she cried. He might not be there to comfort her, but he could stay on the phone until her tears stopped flowing. It took a long time. He didn’t quite know how long. When grief was involved, minutes could feel like an eternity. But when her crying quieted, and she was able to catch her breath again, she said his name.

“I’m still here,” he told her and realized the truth of that statement. Ryan was gone, but he was still there.




Title: Seismic Crimes
Author: Chrys Fey
Series: Disaster Crimes Series (Book Two)
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Format: Digital and Print
Page Count: 282






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An Internal Affairs Investigator was murdered and his brother, Donovan Goldwyn, was framed. Now Donovan is desperate to prove his innocence. And the one person who can do that is the woman who saved him from a deadly hurricane—Beth Kennedy. From the moment their fates intertwined, passion consumed him. He wants her in his arms. More, he wants her by his side in his darkest moments.

Beth Kennedy may not know everything about Donovan, but she can’t deny what she feels for him. It’s her love for him that pushes her to do whatever she has to do to help him get justice, including putting herself in a criminal’s crosshairs.

When a tip reveals the killer's location, they travel to California, but then an earthquake of catastrophic proportions separates them. As aftershocks roll the land, Beth and Donovan have to endure dangerous conditions while trying to find their way back to one another. Will they reunite and find the killer, or will they lose everything?


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Monday, April 11, 2016

Writing Proper Queries and Submissions

I am visiting Elizabeth S. Craig today.

Dancing Lemur Press, L.L.C. has seen a lot of really good and even more really bad queries. You don’t want to fall into the latter category.

To find out more about writing proper queries and submissions, please visit Elizabeth S. Craig.

Wednesday, April 06, 2016

The Insecure Writer's Support Group

It’s time for another edition of The Insecure Writer’s Support Group, founded by Ninja Captain, Alex J. Cavanaugh.

Writing - that’s just not something that’s happening at the moment.

I got a good start on the fifth story for my next book, the one about the shark, last month. Plus I’m still editing the werewolf story.

But that’s mostly been put on the back burner due to submissions, edits, book releases, and new authors. I’ve had a lot of submissions through both Dancing Lemur Press and Freedom Fox Press, and I’ve a lot more Twitter pitch parties coming up that will garner more. (And you can find Dancing Lemur Press LLC on Twitter HERE. I’m still working on building a following, so new followers welcome.)

I’m certainly not complaining though. It’s nice to get some good submissions for a change. I could do a whole series on bad submissions. Or bad responses. Things not to say to a publisher. Hmm, I just might do that!


The Insecure Writer’s Support Group is also participating in the A to Z Challenge with new writing resources every day, so do stop by.

The authors of the upcoming IWSG anthology, Parallels: Felix Was Here, have set up a blog and are also participating in the A to Z Challenge. You can find their site HERE.

Last but not least, I have a story in the upcoming anthology, The Thing That Turned Me, due out May 31. You can add it to your reading list on Goodreads.