I've just begun to listen to the audio book edition of my new romantic suspense novel, Devil's Dance. Wow. Narrator Andrea Bates sure got it right. You can feel the terror of the kidnapped seventeen year old Jen Connor as she awakens from a drugged stupor only to find she's been sold to a high-class brothel.
I'm an avid audio book listener and even though this one is mine, I highly recommend it as an excellent audio book that will grab you and won't let go until the end.
Even then, it's not over, because in November the sequel, The Devils Due, will be released by Books in Motion. You can listen to an audio clip of Devil's Dance at the publisher's website: http://www.booksinmotion.com/.
Devil's Dance is now available in trade paperback, Kindle, e-book, CD audio and MP3.
The Devil's Due will be released in trade paperback, Kindle and e-book in October.
Arliss
Showing posts with label terror. Show all posts
Showing posts with label terror. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Friday, September 4, 2009
WHAT IF I WAS THE CHARACTER?
I went through so many emotions when writing these two books, it made me step back and wonder "what if I really was this character?" This woman who progresses from terrified teen in A DREAM LOST to a talented woman in charge of herself, determined to get even for what happened to her, in THE DEVIL'S DUE. How would I have weathered the situations I placed Jen in?
Let's start at the beginning.
Somehow we think about horrible experiences as being what happens to other people...not us. But, when you are in the head of a character you've placed in peril, in my opinion, you have to feel what they feel to make them three dimensional. I don't know of a reader who likes learning about cardboard characters. Like an actress or actor, sometimes you have to think about things that happened to you to get in touch with how the character would be affected.
Someone once told me that reactions are strange things. You see someone trip, then fall. Inexplicably, you start to giggle. Why? Not because you thought it was funny, but because you are relieved it didn't happen to you. Think about that? Have you ever done it or something similar? I remember seeing a crash on the freeway and feeling almost giddy...it was their car, not mine.
So how you would really feel if you woke up in a strange room, couldn't move and realized that you were bound hand and foot. Couldn't call out because of the gag cutting into your mouth. Heart pounding, what do you do?
When I'd reached, oh probably the eighth or ninth draft...remember, I worked on this over a very long period of time...I read that first chapter aloud in a writer's group. One of the members said, "It's a good beginning. It grabs you, but you've got it wrong. I was kidnapped and one of the first things I did was move my fingers and toes to make sure they were there. Sounds strange, but it's what I did. I think she should do that somewhere in the first chapter, trying to get a grip on reality. Where is she? Why? Is everything in tact, or has she been hurt? Let the reader feel her terror."
Another member said, "I don't think she'd think in full sentences. Try short bursts. I think that's what I would do in that situation. Hell, I can't picture having the reasoning power to construct perfect sentences when panic is setting in."
I took their suggestions and went back to the drawing board again. Now A DREAM LOST starts like this:
CHAPTER 1
A door slamming makes one jump, but it doesn't make one afraid. What one fears is the serpent that crawls underneath it. Collette, Cheri
CHICAGO, NOVEMBER, 1956.
I didn’t care if I ever opened my eyes again. Had it really been a year? A whole year of forcing myself to go on? Images raced through my mind like the pictures in one of those flip books—the kind that look like they’re moving when the pages are fanned.
As each new image appeared, my feeling of terror built. They sped up, swirling faster and faster.
Flip. Flip. Flip.
Soon the sheet was drenched with perspiration. A non-stop string of panicked thoughts taunted me. Can’t breathe. Arms, legs. Hurt. Move, move. Paralyzed? Please God, not polio. Relax. Breathe. Nightmare. Where’s Mama? Work early? Breathe. Breathe. Judy still here?
Shout!
I tried to cry out, but my tongue slid around something wedged in my mouth, while hot tears welled in my eyes.
Concentrate!
I fixed on bits of dust clinging to a leafy design pressed into the plaster ceiling, thinking they looked like furry caterpillars ready to spin cocoons.
Flip. Flip. Flip.
The realization hit me like a sledgehammer. Not my ceiling! Not my room!
Well, that gives you a little taste of what's to come. The next post will discuss how I moved on from there.
---Arliss Adams
COMING IN 2010
A DREAM LOST
THE DEVIL'S DUE
Let's start at the beginning.
Somehow we think about horrible experiences as being what happens to other people...not us. But, when you are in the head of a character you've placed in peril, in my opinion, you have to feel what they feel to make them three dimensional. I don't know of a reader who likes learning about cardboard characters. Like an actress or actor, sometimes you have to think about things that happened to you to get in touch with how the character would be affected.
Someone once told me that reactions are strange things. You see someone trip, then fall. Inexplicably, you start to giggle. Why? Not because you thought it was funny, but because you are relieved it didn't happen to you. Think about that? Have you ever done it or something similar? I remember seeing a crash on the freeway and feeling almost giddy...it was their car, not mine.
So how you would really feel if you woke up in a strange room, couldn't move and realized that you were bound hand and foot. Couldn't call out because of the gag cutting into your mouth. Heart pounding, what do you do?
When I'd reached, oh probably the eighth or ninth draft...remember, I worked on this over a very long period of time...I read that first chapter aloud in a writer's group. One of the members said, "It's a good beginning. It grabs you, but you've got it wrong. I was kidnapped and one of the first things I did was move my fingers and toes to make sure they were there. Sounds strange, but it's what I did. I think she should do that somewhere in the first chapter, trying to get a grip on reality. Where is she? Why? Is everything in tact, or has she been hurt? Let the reader feel her terror."
Another member said, "I don't think she'd think in full sentences. Try short bursts. I think that's what I would do in that situation. Hell, I can't picture having the reasoning power to construct perfect sentences when panic is setting in."
I took their suggestions and went back to the drawing board again. Now A DREAM LOST starts like this:
CHAPTER 1
A door slamming makes one jump, but it doesn't make one afraid. What one fears is the serpent that crawls underneath it. Collette, Cheri
CHICAGO, NOVEMBER, 1956.
I didn’t care if I ever opened my eyes again. Had it really been a year? A whole year of forcing myself to go on? Images raced through my mind like the pictures in one of those flip books—the kind that look like they’re moving when the pages are fanned.
As each new image appeared, my feeling of terror built. They sped up, swirling faster and faster.
Flip. Flip. Flip.
Soon the sheet was drenched with perspiration. A non-stop string of panicked thoughts taunted me. Can’t breathe. Arms, legs. Hurt. Move, move. Paralyzed? Please God, not polio. Relax. Breathe. Nightmare. Where’s Mama? Work early? Breathe. Breathe. Judy still here?
Shout!
I tried to cry out, but my tongue slid around something wedged in my mouth, while hot tears welled in my eyes.
Concentrate!
I fixed on bits of dust clinging to a leafy design pressed into the plaster ceiling, thinking they looked like furry caterpillars ready to spin cocoons.
Flip. Flip. Flip.
The realization hit me like a sledgehammer. Not my ceiling! Not my room!
Well, that gives you a little taste of what's to come. The next post will discuss how I moved on from there.
---Arliss Adams
COMING IN 2010
A DREAM LOST
THE DEVIL'S DUE
Monday, July 13, 2009
REALLY STARTING THE STORY
Okay, now I've filled you in on some of the motivations and challenges in writing A DREAM LOST and the DEVIL'S DUE. Where to begin? Where should the story really start? Should the opening recount what led up to the kidnapping in reality, or should it open with a strong fictional scene?
As a writer you must choose am opener that grabs the reader and leaves them wanting more. Action, unanswered questions, challenges...all good devices. The very first version didn't start there. It started way back in Jen's childhood, when she took her first ballet lesson. It stayed like that for years, describing the little girl's love for dancing, what the studio looked like, how her mother acted...you get the idea.
Well, again, if you were giving the account in a magazine article, that's what you might do. But this wasn't a magazine article, nor was it going to be reality. My vision for the book (it was one book at that time) was fiction inspired by a combination of real situations that happened to diverse people. These would all be melded into one person's life in the book. The more I learned about writing fiction, the more I realized that my opening chapters were dead wrong. In one of the versions, I don't remember which one, I made the bold move, although it hurt more than I can tell you, and cut the entire opening chapters of this enormous manuscript.
Elements were saved to use as memories or flashbacks, but they were given a paragraph or two of tight, emotional writing instead of a blow-by-possibly-boring- blow description of what really happened. The term "artistic license" comes to mind.
The more I'd let the manuscript get cold, and then re-read it, the more I knew I had to have an opening scene that wrenched your guts out. What could be more terrifying than waking up in a strange room, head fuzzy, only to discover that your hands and feet are bound. When you try to talk, you can't because of the gag in your mouth. That's how the opening scene was born. I had to be Jen. I had to be in that awful room mentally and feel the terror she felt. And I can truthfully say, I scared myself during that writing.
About three years ago, I read the chapter aloud in my writer's group. Unbelievably, one of the members actually had been kidnapped. My chapter, although gripping, still lacked some of what would really happen in the person's mind, in their reactions. So, after the meeting we chatted, and she told me what a person really would do in this situation--what she did and thought--and I used it. And, it worked.
More tomorrow.
--Arliss
As a writer you must choose am opener that grabs the reader and leaves them wanting more. Action, unanswered questions, challenges...all good devices. The very first version didn't start there. It started way back in Jen's childhood, when she took her first ballet lesson. It stayed like that for years, describing the little girl's love for dancing, what the studio looked like, how her mother acted...you get the idea.
Well, again, if you were giving the account in a magazine article, that's what you might do. But this wasn't a magazine article, nor was it going to be reality. My vision for the book (it was one book at that time) was fiction inspired by a combination of real situations that happened to diverse people. These would all be melded into one person's life in the book. The more I learned about writing fiction, the more I realized that my opening chapters were dead wrong. In one of the versions, I don't remember which one, I made the bold move, although it hurt more than I can tell you, and cut the entire opening chapters of this enormous manuscript.
Elements were saved to use as memories or flashbacks, but they were given a paragraph or two of tight, emotional writing instead of a blow-by-possibly-boring- blow description of what really happened. The term "artistic license" comes to mind.
The more I'd let the manuscript get cold, and then re-read it, the more I knew I had to have an opening scene that wrenched your guts out. What could be more terrifying than waking up in a strange room, head fuzzy, only to discover that your hands and feet are bound. When you try to talk, you can't because of the gag in your mouth. That's how the opening scene was born. I had to be Jen. I had to be in that awful room mentally and feel the terror she felt. And I can truthfully say, I scared myself during that writing.
About three years ago, I read the chapter aloud in my writer's group. Unbelievably, one of the members actually had been kidnapped. My chapter, although gripping, still lacked some of what would really happen in the person's mind, in their reactions. So, after the meeting we chatted, and she told me what a person really would do in this situation--what she did and thought--and I used it. And, it worked.
More tomorrow.
--Arliss
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