where the writers are

novel

  • Successful First Day on NaNoWriMo

    November 1, 2009

    •      My first day was a success in this quest for the 50,000 word finish line that sits only 29 days away. I was able to knock out 6097 words today in a Novel I'm calling, "Escaping the Paradox of Justice." Synopsis:     This story features an innocent character who figures out a way to leave the correctional facility where she is being held for a crime she did not commit. ...
  • Non-Halloween, Non-NaNoWriMo

    October 31, 2009

    •  Allow me to tempt you away from Halloween candy and the looming specter of NaNoWriMo to relax with an excerpt from my novel HIGHWAY TO OBLIVION.  I promise an easy read, nothing painful, nothing controversial.  THE PLAN ---                                                 Lily Buchanan had grown up in a little nameless town “in the South.”  ...
  • WHEN HISTORY INTRUDES

    October 31, 2009

    • My characters are in a sea battle (on a minor scale - longboats vs. fishing boats) and from one of the boats a shot is fired by a "huckbuk" (there are various spellings). This is (more or less) a prototype of a rifle, though it has no stock. The 'huck' is a hook which is used to support the weapon and reduce recoil. I have to describe this without becoming a teacher. Probably one ...
  • New Champers cover

    October 28, 2009

    • Here's a sneak preview of the new Pink Champagne and Apple Juice cover:I hope you like it. I certainly do. Hugethanks to artist Penelope Cline who created it, as she also created the covers for A Dangerous Man and Thorn in the Flesh. So a very talented woman indeed!Anne Brooke
  • Editing takes time

    October 27, 2009

    • I'm halfway through editing my novel, "Tales Tell Tales" and I'm having so much fun with it. Sorry for being so scarce on Red Room, everyone. But I'm trying to get my book into good enough shape to get an agent and a publisher... :-) I'm also planning to do Nanowrimo this November - but I'll pop in now and then to let everyone know how things are going.1. Tales Tell Tales: 37,000 words ...
  • Seven Days and Counting

    October 24, 2009

    • I have been counting down til time to start writing on my novel for NANO. Seven days!!!!! I have been waiting like one should inspite the fact that I am dying to unleash the characters that are buried deep within my brain. I will be up at 12:01 come November first. Fingers hovering over my keys and waiting to hit my first keys.I know they say it's quantity over quality. That the goal is to get ...
  • The Foe - excerpt from Highway To Oblivion

    October 24, 2009

    •                                            Patina saw the bear before the bear saw Patina.       Oh, m’God.  Do I back up or run?  No, not run.  Could never outrun it.  Her brain itself was racing.  Her feet had not moved, yet in her mind she was fleeing down the long driveway at Olympian speed.  Where was the dog?        She could back ...
  • Finding the story in everything

    October 21, 2009

    • I've been thinking a lot about how writers see the world. Recently on Facebook, a writer I really, really admire (the extraordinary Rhian Ellis, who wrote After Life, which I've written about here before) was telling me how she had been arrested for protesting some white supremacists in her neighborhood. I instantly peppered her with questions. What did it feel like to be in a cop car? Did she ...
  • In defense of "IN THE WOODS"

    October 18, 2009

    •      Tana French has written a wonder of a book.  A writer’s dream.  Many accolades.  Many stellar reviews.  Prizes.  Bestsellerdom.  All thoroughly well-deserved in my eyes.  So why should I feel an overpowering need to spring to her defense?  Having just finished IN THE WOODS, I clicked onto reader reviews on the Amazon and Barnes and Noble websites and was totally unprepared for ...
  • Five Pages by a Fruit Bowl

    October 17, 2009

    • Colm Tóibín gave a short presentation earlier this year at the bookstore Politics & Prose, preceding his reading of the novel, Brooklyn. Among the memorable statements he made was this: he’d forbidden his writing students to use flashback. Though Tóibín has written eloquently about the inspiration for this novel, the remonstration to his students was partly what influenced him to write ...