First line from a novel by Jenny Milchman

“The children had never been this far from home before.” ~ from Ruin Falls, by Jenny Milchman

What thoughts does this first line from Jenny Milchman’s Ruin Falls bring to your mind?

Cue from title

Indeed, the title gives a cue about the tone of the book. I don’t want to give too much away and spoil it for you, but I can say that the book involves the disappearance of two children and their mother’s desperate search for them. It is a book of suspense. Sometimes a reader can tell by the title what kind of book a novel is, but we all know that isn’t always true. “You can’t judge a book by its cover” comes to mind.

Speaking of judging a book . . .

Ruin Falls was an Indie Next Pick and a “Top Ten of 2014” selection by Suspense Magazine.

Author, Jenny Milchman

I decided to read Ruin Falls last year primarily because it fulfilled one of the 19 categories in the 2016 Mint Hill Library Reading Challenge — Read a book whose author has your initials. It was either that or read a book by James A. Michener. Time was not on my side, so I opted for Jenny Milchman. I’d read another of her books — Cover of Snow — several ears ago and liked it, so Ruin Falls was not a random choice. I will read other books she writes. I have not read her novel published in 2015 titled As Night Falls. It seems to be another suspense novel.

In addition to her writing talent, I admire Jenny Milchman for founding “Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day” in 2010.

Until my next blog post . . .

I hope you have a good book to read. If you’re a writer, I hope you have productive writing time.

Janet

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11 Things I’ve Learned about Grammar & Spelling

Everyday is an adjective. (Spell-check wants me to change “everyday” to two words. Don’t trust spell-check.)
Every day is a noun.
Spell-check cannot be trusted when it comes to possessive tense. It thinks every “s” should be preceded by an apostrophe. (Pet peeve alert!)
Anytime is an adverb that means “at any time.” Anytime is sometimes a subordinating conjunction. When used as the latter, it generally means “every time that.” The Merriam-Webster Dictionary gives 1926 as the year the word “anytime” came into general use. It is not found in The Oxford Dictionary.
Any time must be two words when used in an adverbial phrase, such as “at any time” because “at” must be followed by a noun or a noun phrase. (Okay. I admit it. I’m lost!) Bottom line: When in doubt, use “any time.”
When you have placed an apostrophe after a noun that ends in an “s” for more than 50 years, it is difficult to adopt the new practice of adding an apostrophe and an “s” in such cases.
The Chicago Manual of Style is an excellent 1,000-plus-page grammar guide. It will confirm that you know how to write while simultaneously confounding you and teaching you that you haven’t mastered grammar after all.
After being taught that “President” is always capitalized when naming the president of the United States of America, I learned the hard way while editing my vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, for Arcadia Publishing in 2014 that The Chicago Manual of Style demands a lower case “p.” I had to swallow my pride and write “president Andrew Jackson” and president Franklin D. Roosevelt” in my postcard book. The new lower case rule will never look correct to me!
The older I get, the less confident I am about spelling.
I’ve learned more about punctuation by studying the craft of writing in my middle age than I learned in school.
As demonstrated by The Chicago Manual of Style, there are way too many grammar and punctuation rules for the English language! I have, no doubt, broken a dozen of those rules in this list of 11 items.

chicago-manual-of-style-005

Until my next blog post, I hope you have a good book to read. (***Shameless book promotion alert!*** Have you read The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina? Ask for it at your favorite bookstore, or order it from Amazon.) If you are a writer, I wish you productive writing time.

Janet

Twitter: @janetmorrisonbk

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A line I like from a novel by Anthony Doerr

“His voice was low and soft, a piece of silk you might keep in a drawer and pull out only on rare occasions, just to feel it between your fingers.” – from All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr

The source of the sentence

That is Marie-Laure describing her great-uncle in All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr. It would be a beautiful piece of imagery even if Marie-Laure were not blind. Knowing she cannot see with her eyes gives the sentence a deeper meaning.

All the Light We Cannot See

What does this sentence make me do?

As a reader, it makes me shut my eyes and pretend I have a piece of silk to gently rub between my fingers. What a clever way to describe the heightened hearing of a person without sight!

As a lover of rich prose, the sentence makes me stop and read it again.

As a writer, it makes me grab a pen and write it in my writer’s notebook so I can revisit it any time I want to.

Pro or Con?

If you’ve followed my blog very long, you know I’m not a fast reader. Perhaps my noticing this particular line from Pulitzer Prize winner All the Light We Cannot See is a benefit of being a slow reader — something I’ve always considered a fault.

Until my next blog post . . .

I hope you have a good book to read. If you’re a writer, I wish you productive writing time.

Janet

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What I read in December

I’ve struggled over what to blog about today. It’s my custom for my first blog post of a new month to be about what I read the previous month. It has occurred to me that my blog readers might not care what I read.

Three books read

I only read the following three books in December: Without Mercy, by Jefferson Bass; The Ghosts of Belfast, by Stuart Neville; and Silent Night, Deadly Night, by Richard L. Mabry, M.D.

Jefferson Bass is one of my favorite author or, more accurately, author teams. (More on that later.) Conversely, I had never read books by Stuart Neville or Richard L. Mabry, M.D. before.

Silent Night, Deadly Night, by Richard L. Mabry, M.D.

I follow Richard L. Mabry, M.D.’s blog. He is a retired physician whose new occupation is that of medical mystery writer. His medical expertise gives him a unique perspective on what violent murder does to the human body. In this Christmas novel, an older woman’s body is found in the snow. There are twists and turns as it becomes obvious that someone is also trying to kill her heirs.

The Ghosts of Belfast, by Stuart Neville

Stuart Neville was recommended to me by my ophthalmologist. My doctor, who guided me through my 2016 bout with shingles in my right eye (and will continue to direct my care as the pain and itching is lapping over into 2017) is a collector of first editions of mystery novels. At my most recent appointment he noticed I had a book with me and inquired about its title and author. It was The One Man, by Andrew Gross. When I explained the premise of the book to him, he asked if I had read any Stuart Neville books. I had not, so we both came out of my appointment with notes about new authors to try. He said that The Ghosts of Belfast was perhaps Mr. Neville’s best book, so I checked it out at the public library.

The protagonist in The Ghosts of Belfast is tormented and egged on by the ghosts of the 12 people he killed during the conflicts between the Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. The only way he can escape from the 12 ghosts is to kill the men who forced him to kill them. There was more violence in The Ghosts of Belfast than I usually read, but the story line kept me too interested to not finish it. It was the first novel in Mr. Neville’s Jack Lennon Investigations Series.

Without Mercy, by Jefferson Bass

As stated earlier, Jefferson Bass is one of my favorite author duos. Jon Jefferson is the writer and Dr. William Bass is the expert adviser, forming the pen name, Jefferson Bass. Dr. Bass started the The Body Farm at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1971 to advance the study of human decomposition and forensic science.

I have read all of The Body Farm series of novels by Jefferson Bass. If forensic science interests you and you enjoy reading mysteries, I recommend this series of books. I also recommend that you read them in their order of publication. It’s not absolutely necessary; however, in some cases it is helpful to know the personal and professional history of protagonist, Dr. Bill Brockton.

Without Mercy repeated a little too much of Dr. Brockton’s history to suit me. At times it seemed the rehashing of murder cases from earlier books in the series was being used to stretch this book. That was disappointing. The author’s note at the end of the novel indicated that Jefferson Bass, like Dr. Bill Brockton, was taking a sabbatical, leaving me to wonder if Without Mercy will be the last book written by this entertaining writing team. I hope not, because by next fall I’ll be going through “Jefferson Bass withdrawal” and yearning for another dose of East Tennessee murder drama.

Until my next blog post. . . I hope you have a good book to read and, if you’re a writer, I wish you productive writing time.

Janet

Did you meet your 2016 reading challenge?

Did you participate in a 2016 reading challenge and, if so, did you meet the challenge?

I blogged on March 11, 2016 and June 24, 2016 (How’s that 2016 reading challenge working for you?) that I was participating in the 2016 reading challenge offered by the Mint Hill Branch of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Library. I had high hopes of reading books in at least 12 of the 19 categories. Unfortunately, I only read books in the following nine categories:

Book published in 2015: The Bookseller, by Cynthia Swanson
Book with a number in title: Tricky Twenty-Two, by Janet Evanovich
Nonfiction book: No Better Friend: One Man, One Dog, and Their Extraordinary Story of Courage and Survival in World War II, by Robert Weintraub
Book with a color in title: Gray Mountain, by John Grisham
A humorous book: Miss Julia Delivers the Goods, by Ann B. Ross
Book with a one-word title: Damaged, by Lisa Scottoline
Mystery or thriller: Don’t Go, by Lisa Scottoline
Book that might scare you: The Woman in Cabin 10, by Ruth Ware
Book written by an author with my initials: Ruin Falls, by Jenny Milchman

I also read 36% of a 2015 Pulitzer Prize winner by Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See, before it had to be returned to the public library. I’m back on the wait list for it, so I hope to finish reading it in 2017. What was the book I read in 2016 that I still think about? No Better Friend: One Man, One Dog, and Their Extraordinary Story of Courage and Survival in World War II, by Robert Weintraub. I highly recommend it.

My personal reading goal for 2016 was to read 52 books. I read 31 books which, ironically, is the same number I read in 2015. My next blog post in a few days will be about the three books I’ve read so far in December.

I look forward to reading many interesting and entertaining books in 2017. If you missed my December 27, 2016 blog post, it was about the 2017 reading challenge I designed for myself. Feel free to adopt it or write your own challenge.

Until my next blog post, I hope you have a good book to read. If you’re a writer, I hope you have productive writing time.

Janet

Want a reading challenge for 2017?

Throughout 2016 I’ve enjoyed participating in the reading challenge issued by the Mint Hill Branch of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Library. The year is quickly drawing to a close. I have not yet fully met the challenge, but I have four days left.

I designed the following reading challenge for 2017:

A book of poetry
A Sci-Fi book
A nonfiction book
Books by 12 authors I’ve never read
A novel set in each of the seven continents
A novel by a North Carolina author
A novel set in North Carolina
Re-read a favorite book
A book written in the 1700s
A book written in the 1800s
A book written in the 1900s
A biography, autobiography, or memoir
A book about a religion other than my own
A book that might change my mind
A book just for fun
A book that will teach me a new skill
A book that was originally written in a language other than English
A book written in Spanish (a language I haven’t studied since 1973)
A book published in 1953 (the year I was born)
A book that is the first in a series I haven’t read any of before
The second book in a series of which I’ve read the first book
A book written by an author I’ve met
A book of short stories
A book published in 2017
A book about the craft of writing historical fiction
A Nobel Prize winner
A political thriller
A sequel to a book I’ve read

2017 – My Goal and Objective

I used to set a goal of reading a book every week, but in 2017 I’m going for quality and variety instead of volume. My goal isn’t to check off every category. My reading goal is to expand into areas and subjects I might not normally consider. My personal objective in 2017 is to become less judgmental. I think reaching my reading challenge goal will enable me to accomplish my objective. It will, no doubt, be an objective I will never fully attain. I am a work in progress.

Join me for the 2017 reading challenge I’ve planned or design one of your own. Tell your friends about my blog and my reading challenge. Let’s get some conversations going about the books we’re all reading!

Everyone in the world does not have equal access to books so, now more than ever, it is incumbent upon those of us blessed to live in free societies and those of us blessed to live in countries with free public libraries and/or the financial means to have access to books to make the most of that privilege.

Until my next blog post, I hope you have a good book to read. If you’re a writer, I hope you have productive writing time.

Janet

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How important is a novel’s ending?

How important is a novel’s ending? Just as important as the “hook” at the beginning.

Once a month I write about the first line in a different novel. I must admit that I have worked harder on, done more “how to” reading about, and lost more sleep over the opening scene in my manuscript for The Spanish Coin than I have for the ending.

A good beginning “hooks” the reader’s attention and draws him into the story. A good ending leaves the reader satisfied and, hopefully, exhausted. A good ending makes the reader contact the author and ask, “You are writing a sequel, aren’t you?” The ending of a novel should either tie up all the loose ends for your main characters or cause the reader to wonder what happened to those characters later. Did they find justice, acceptance, love, or whatever they were seeking? The reader should still think about those characters weeks after reading the book. How many of us thought about Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird years later and wondered how her life turned out? Like it or not, we got our answer in 2015 when the long lost Go Set a Watchman manuscript by Harper Lee was discovered and published.

As with the writing of the other parts of a piece of fiction, there are rules to guide an author in crafting the ending.

Don’t introduce new characters
Do increase the suspense
Do surprise the reader, but do it in a way in which he can think back to foreshadowing earlier in the book
Know the ending before you write the beginning

The rule I listed last is one I need to keep in mind when I write my next book. I did not know about that rule when I started writing The Spanish Coin. I didn’t have a clue how that story was going to end. In fact, it made me exceedingly sad to see how the story unfolded. I had become quite fond of the character who turned out to be the villain.

Until my next blog post, I hope you have a good book to read and, if you’re a writer, I hope you have productive writing time.

Janet

A Quote from an Author — Lee Smith

I try to blog a quote from an author once a month. Today’s quote is taken from Lee Smith’s autobiographical book, Dimestore: A Writer’s Life:

“For a writer cannot pick her material any more than she can pick her parents; her material is given to her by circumstances of her birth, by how she first hears language.” — Lee Smith

Dimestore: A Writer's Life

While working to identify my author brand recently, I came to appreciate that quote from Lee Smith even more than when I first read it and was immediately prompted to write it down in my writer’s notebook.

I invite you to follow my blog and to follow me on social media by using the icons to the right. I welcome you to share this blog post by clicking on the social media icons below.

Until my next blog post, I hope you have a good book to read and, if you’re a writer, I hope you have productive writing time.

Janet

First Line of a Novel

Once a month I blog about the first line in a novel. I started doing that when I thought the first line was the “hook.” I’ve learned that the hook can entail the first paragraph or even the first page of a novel, but I plan to continue to blog about the first line only.

The Risen

The Risen, by Ron Rash

“From the beginning, Ligeia’s ability to appear and disappear seemed magical.” – From The Risen, by Ron Rash.

When I read that sentence for the first time, I had no way of knowing who Ligeia was or that it foreshadowed many appearances and disappearances throughout the book. The line was very clever on Mr. Rash’s part.

The Risen is a coming of age story of two brothers who grew up in Sylva, North Carolina in the Appalachian Mountains and the secret one kept from the other for decades. I don’t want to spoil the story for you, so I’ll just leave it at that. If you haven’t given this North Carolina author a try, please do so.

If you like my blog, I hope you will tell your friends and follow me on social media in addition to following Janet’s Writing Blog.

Until my next blog post in a few days, I wish you a good book to read and, if you’re a writer, I hope you have productive writing time.

Janet

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11 More Things I’ve Learned about Twitter

On July 22, 2016 I blogged “10 Things I’ve Learned about Twitter.” Since then, I’ve learned 11 more things.

Twitter should come with an owner’s manual or a teenager to teach those of us in our 60s how to use it.
I’d still rather be working on my southern historical novel than writing Tweets.
Twitter continues to be maddening and takes more of my time than I want to give it.
Some days it seems like Twitter is really just a contest to see who can accumulate the most followers.
I grow weary of trying to improve my follower : follow ratio.
There are some things I’d like to Tweet about but I have to be conscious of my author brand.
The older I get, the more I believe I must show my authentic self if I’m going to project my true brand. (Yes, #7 conflicts with #6.)
It’s amazing how many followers from Australia I can pick up by Tweeting in the middle of the night in the USA.
I recently read that you have to manually cut and paste another person’s Tweet in order to retweet it – as well as adding “RT” and the original Tweet author’s username. Who knew? I thought that’s what the “ReTweet” button was for. Hence, the importance of #1 above.
I’d been on Twitter for months when I learned that you need a “header image” as well as a profile picture. How are you supposed to know that since. . . well, please refer to #1 above.
Any link you paste into the Tweet box is automatically shortened to 19 characters. I would have known this months ago if. . . well, please refer to #1 above.

Thank you for taking time to read my blog. If you like it, please share it by clicking on the social media buttons below. I invite you to follow me on social media by clicking on the icons to the right.

Until my next blog post in a few days, I hope you have a good book to read. If you are a writer, I hope you have productive writing time.

Janet

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