Favorite Passage

I'm now editing the third title in my Revenir series, which I published in 2011 (sequels in 2011, 14, 15). [the first speaker is the MC, Cait's mother]

“You’ve turned into a beautiful woman,” she said. “When did that happen?”

I said, “March third, at two-thirty-three in the afternoon.”

“A mauve eyeshadow with the hint of a lilac liner would make your gorgeous eyes snap.”

My throat tightened and my eyes threatened to well. That had to be the most personal thing she had ever said to me.

Revenir Intern - Spanking New Edition

See the new trailer for this NEW EDITION
on my utter blog

Click Right Here ♥

New Trailer on my other Blog

https://rmacwheeler-trailers.blogspot.com/2018/12/revenir.html 

CLOSET FULL OF BONES - A.J. Aalto

My latest read is a nice character driven suspense. Great characters. Different kind of story. The author teases, twists, and teases, with an ever-weaving story that gasps with a final climax. I don't particularly like changing points of view or omniscient narration, but I was intrigued by the main character enough to stick to the last page. (As a writing professional, this could have been edited better, but I choose to look the other way when the story is this good, and I think the regular reader won't even notice the little glitches.)

For the price of a Starbucks coffee, consider supporting this author.

On Amazon

BAYOU ROUGUES - Trailer

on amazon

Peace may hinge on secrecy, but in the bayous of Texas, Carter learns about the speed of communication—telephone, telegraph, tell-a-hick. Intrigue smacks him in the face on a trip he hopes deals with a single case of a rogue wolf, but fears an entire unsanctioned pack, the most powerful lycans in the world. His redneck new hire has been arrested for a murder he couldn't have committed. The metasexual vampire Lord Elizabeth is back in his life. The local bumpkin drama pulls him in five directions. And again his mentor may be undermining Carter's agenda for his own ends.

New Trailer for CHANGELING PACT

Lone wolf Carter McCown must take a great chance to survive his current dilemma. Set up by vampires, given up by elements within the lycan council, he must stop a war that could unhinge the worlds of both humans and endowed.

UNLIKELY VAMPIRE MENTOR - Trailer

On amazon for 99 cents

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CTZZH8O

Carter's a bastard but that has little to do with being a wolf. So taking in a dying nineteen-year-old street walker provokes polar emotions in him. His unusual gesture triggers events that create a very powerful enemy in the vampire hierarchy, who uses Maggie to punish him. Turned without Red Court sanction, she faces an automatic death warrant. Carter refuses to accept Maggie must be put down, whether it's the law or not. As tensions between wolves and vampires escalate, Carter's life becomes more complicated when he falls for the beautiful vampire lord sent to negotiate an end to the month-long war his interference started.

Trailer for ONCE HUMAN

On Amazon Now

Lone wolf Carter McCown faces his greatest peril—two angry alpha females adjusting to immortality. He’s surrounded by too many ems. Maggie. Miranda. Margaret. Mel. Molly. Emily. And then there’s his crush and assistant, Frieda, and his off-and-on vampire lover, Elizabeth. This is Dude Lit Romance with a wash of humor and dollop of mayhem.

I love it...

...when my favorite author is on sale

Working on loglines for my new novel

Carter McCown is a lone wolf—well he was before he surrounded himself with too many ems: Maggie, Miranda, Margaret, Mel, Molly, Emily . . . and his big crush, Frieda. Not to mention his lover, the ancient vampire Lord Elizabeth Wintour.

Juggling an affair with an ancient vampire is challenging, but lone wolf Carter McCown is surrounded by too many ems: Maggie, Miranda, Margaret, Mel, Molly, Emily . . . and his big crush, Frieda, who are really complicating his life.

Lone wolf Carter McCown juggled an on-off-again relationship with the ancient vampire Lord Elizabeth Wintour for years; now a gaggle of ems, Maggie, Miranda, Margaret, Mel, Molly, and Emily are really compromising his simple life.

Carter McCown enjoyed a drama-free life before he met his lover, the vampire Lord Elizabeth Wintour, and cluttered his life with a plethora of ems: Maggie, Miranda, Margaret, Mel, Molly, and Emily, which makes it difficult to concentrate on the mob infiltrating his business.

Updated entry:

Dude Lit Romance—an ancient vampire lover, a powerful she-wolf, a crazy newly-turned female, with a side/sliver of mob intrigue, and mayhem. 

WISTERIA WITCHES - Angela Pepper

My most recent read is the supernatural-cozy-mystery Wisteria Witches (book 1), by Angela Pepper. I loved the characters and humor. The story didn’t follow a nice sequential line (er, logical, for me), which distracted a bit; there were subplots that weren’t tied up (a few awkwardly almost as an afterthought), and the climax was stumbled upon (IMHO). That might sound like negatives to a book I wouldn’t recommend…but I’m a writer after all (and live by good editing), and have a concrete sequential mind. So if you just like to read for enjoyment, love magic, humor, and shifters, you’ll love these characters, which sold the script (so to speak).

Did I mention it’s free right now for Kindle? Click here.

Concept Cover for new Project

The Hermit WRiter

Beta Readers? - ONCE HUMAN

I've mailed mobi and epub copies to my beta readers for ONCE HUMAN. Did I miss anyone who is interested?

The blurb:
Carter McCown avoided an apocalyptic wolf-vampire war but faces a far greater peril now—two angry alpha females adjusting to immortality, seeking a place to fit in. He’s surrounded by too many ems. Maggie, Miranda, Margaret, Melusine, Molly. Emily. And then there’s his crush, and assistant, Frieda. This lone wolf may beg for mercy, or a shorter alphabet.

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CORPSES SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS - Doug Lamoreux

My latest read is a Gumshoe Noir-Humor-Mystery that borders on paranormal, but all around good fun. I mean, really…the main character’s name is Nod. If you can take a tiny bit of Mickey Spillane babble, a likable loser, a sexy sidekick, give this a try. Really. For just the cost of a cup of gas station coffee.

Here on Amazon US

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Be Different

SPOOKY SWEET - Connie Shelton

This isn’t the first Shelton book I’ve recommended. Cozy mysteries are growing on me. Most are really short and sweet. This one could almost be two cozy mysteries. I think one story from one point of view is fine, but Shelton carried three intertwined stories well. Again the author just hinted at paranormal, and drove to the edge of romance, while giving us a rich story. After this read, I may wish to open a bakery.

For the price of a bagel and cream cheese, on Amazon.

- The Hermit WRiter.

Favorite Passage in my WIP

There was very little chatter in the bull pen. The necessary discussion was decibels lower than usual. Everyone worried about their job.

But the more the accountants uncovered leading to the single focal point, the safer the rest of them were. And the bean counters had started hitting gold yesterday.

Rumor is like scorched microwave popcorn. It is undeniable and pervasive. They all knew for sure that the guy I’d had arrested was pulling fast ones.

- The Hermit WRiter

BLOOD BOUND - Sharon Stevenson

BLOOD BOUND, a catchy title. It’s a popular one too, but that’s okay. And a cover including a sword will always grab my attention. For a cranky, old fart, I’m becoming more enamored with stories driven by romance, so this story worked for me. (My current manuscript is driven likewise…okay, more with lust, but that’s another blog post.) I like a lot of vivid characterization, which Stevenson accommodated with action, not so much description, which is cool. I like to imagine what my characters look like. There were odd elements of BLOOD BOUND that reminded me of Butcher’s Dresden character/world. That is excellent. But don’t expect Butcher’s wonderful world building. Not that Stevenson didn’t create an interesting, alternate world. My fav was the powers the two main characters possess.

So the bottom line…I recommend, if you like a little light paranormal wrapping around twenty-something exploration for meaning. I didn’t so much like the heavy tags, but remember, I write tags for a living.

For the price of a gas station cup of coffee, try this out.

On Amazon US

Out of Practice Aphrodite - S E Babin

I love to pass on fun and entertaining works with great characters. I enjoyed this author’s use of language and how well she remained deep in her character’s head. For pure enjoyment, or if you’d like a refresher on the Greek gods you studied in high school, give this one a read. Best part it’s free in Kindle Unlimited, or otherwise less than a cup of Joe. (My one complaint, the climax left me wanting more meat...but I'm over it.)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B010G5KPUI

Fav Passage

The receptionist answered without reciting the principals list. She and I are on a first name basis. She asked me immediately if I was being taken downtown. I told her I wasn’t being arrested this time.

“You okay? In the hospital?”

“Nope.”

“Who did you shoot?” she asked.

“No one.”

“You calling for Roger then? Who’d he shoot?”

“No one.”

She sighed. “Then how many did Michael shoot?”

“I have a different legal issue this time.” I have to admit a smile tweaked my mug.

“Seriously? You suing the city again?”

Favorite Passage

“Biltmore is too froufrou,” Mom said.

I thought that about the Grove. But Motel 6 makes me feel underdressed. I finished my breakfast and Norm snatched the plate, I guess afraid I might steal the flatware or something, and I pushed back to catch my breath. Maybe I inhaled my food. Mom has commented in the past I’d make a good pig.

Roger and I sometimes act as though we’re in a race, I think. In my case, I don’t think my brain functions all that well when my jaw is working, so I like to get the eating out of the way so what the crew has to say, makes sense.

I can’t speak for Roger’s dining pace. Maybe he’s just more in touch with his appetite than the average bear.

- The Hermit WRiter

New Covers

I have new covers for my Lycan Series.

http://rmacwheeler.com/

SCATTERED ASHES - Annie Anderson

I am happy to find an Indie author to recommend. Annie Anderson adds more sex than what I usually look for in a novel, but the characters are marvelous, the world is rich, the writing and editing is excellent, and the world she creates rocks with imagination.

 I like characters with a lot of vinegar and baggage, and Ms. Anderson has created a great MC in that mode, though I wouldn't mind a few flaws.

 The plot in Ashes is rich, as are the relationships. Being an action-bigot, I could have gone for richer and more meaningful action scenes, but hey, ya can't have everything. Don't get me wrong, there are 'great' beheadings and sword fighting. But the concentration of specific weapons tended to take me out of the scene, leaving me wanting more visceral emotion, action and reaction. But remember, the author included the word 'romance' in this novel's description, and she produces what she promises. (And ain't that cover gorgeous?)

 I almost left out the best part. It is currently free on Kindle.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016R1RV34 

[I've been a little slow in getting to reviews since I split writerly things from my old blog.]

Fav Passage

“I have a feeling you’re going to learn a lot more about your mother in the next few days,” Michael said.

“What does that mean?”

“She isn’t the prissy, perfect mom you always thought she was.”

Never saw her as prissy. Never, prissy. She was way too intimidating to be prissy. Then she turned frumpy-don’t-screw-with-me. Why in the heck was he saying that about Mom? I thought he was, what did Denny say?

Smitten. He was smitten with her. I was considering slugging him in the face.

Fav Passage

The guy stood in the middle of the raised computer floor with his arms crossed. If he carried a gun, I would have feared for my life. Maybe he didn’t appreciate the bank bringing in an outsider to fix his security issue. My best guess.

The angry guy gave up and returned to his cubby long before we finished. I was happy to have the suit coat on. It was freezing in there. My ears burned like they’d been torched, my fingers were numb, and my nose ran like an open tap by the time Augie let me out of there. Four hours, plugging in thumb drives, waiting for the little light to stop flickering. This Floridian had never been so cold in his life.

Had to have been sixty degrees in there. Arctic.

Fav Passage

“Go away, okay?” I said to the drunk.

Maybe that wasn’t the most assertive I could have been.

I returned from my jaunt to Neverland on the floor, spread eagle.

Fav Passage

Not that the band sucked. I just don’t do the night scene. Cigarette smoke burns my sinuses. And I’m as boring as my mom. My music tastes are actually mellower than hers. She often wears an old Metallica tee on the weekends working in her yard. Must be a hundred years old. The tee, not my mom.

Fav Passage

Logan turned back to Norman. “And you figured your bosses, who you feared might kill you for turning state’s evidence, wouldn’t kill you for stealing from them?”

“No one likes snitches,” he said.

I snorted. Had this dork from Mayberry thought this through? I know I’m not bright, but geesh.

“Yeah,” Denny said. “But they reward thieves.”

“I figured it was my best chance.”

“You are an idiot,” Augie mumbled.

Thank you.

Norman scrunched up his face. “That’s terse.”

“But accurate,” Denny offered.

“Are you really blind?” Norman asked, his eyes checking out her sectional cane sitting on the dining table.

“Are you really stupid?” she shot back.

He turned red. I thought Augie was socially awkward. Norman made dweebs look slick.

“You really shot Roger three times?” I asked.

“It was an accident. I swear.”

No way I was going to believe Michael believed that one. I have one partner getting shot at, and another getting shot. I’ve been in the hospital twice since meeting the Muellers three months ago. I might want to re-think this partnership.

Wait. Now I'm just being redundant.

Favorite Passage

Jon was getting his first insight into what it was like to be a little brother. His second was when Michael led him into a hip-looking store, the kind Jon had always avoided. Michael went to the shelves with the expensive jeans, something else Jon had always avoided. Making eight bucks an hour, he didn’t buy denim that cost more than wool-blend dress slacks.

“What size?”

It had been so many years since he had bought a pair of khakis for work, he couldn’t even remember.

“I dunno.”

Michael made a noise of disgust, and shook his head. “You’re a trip.” Michael stared at his midsection a moment, long enough for Jon to feel peculiarly uncomfortable, not that he thought it possible Michael leaned east and west. But it wasn’t right for the man to—Jon didn’t want to put a word to his thoughts.

“Thirty-inch waist sound about right?”

Jon shrugged his shoulders. Michael pulled a pair of jeans off a stack and shoved them at him. Jon looked down at the price.

“Fifty-eight bucks? Are you crazy?”

“Oh hell. You don’t work for Erik anymore. You earned twenty-five thousand this morning. You can afford them.”

“Fifty-eight bucks?”

Michael grabbed another pair from the next stack, handed them to him and pointed toward the changing room, furling his eyes in an expression daring him to argue.

Jon shook his head and walked away muttering. “Fifty-eight bucks. A house payment. Work out the wazoo to do on the Mustang. No job. No health insurance. God I’ve got to get health insurance.”

“Shut up,” Michael called after him.

Favorite Passage

“Did he really, freaking say I prattle like a girl?”

“I think he did,” Roger said, nodding like a bobble head.

“He wants to die a horrible death, doesn’t he?” Michael asked, jerking his thumb toward the back seat.

“I think he just said what I was thinking,” Roger answered.

“Take a right.”

Michael turned. “Now where, your Excellency?”

“He’s at the skate bowl,” Jon said, following the second-half of the image that nearly emptied his bladder.

“You thought he was in the projects. Now you think he’s skating. You mind explaining that? Are the spirits speaking to you? Why the hell am I even talking to you? You talk to imaginary friends. A half-wit and a no-wit. Roger, why am I talking to this guy?”

“Hell, I don’t know. Maybe ’cause you prattle like a girl? You got nothing better to do on a Saturday morning? You like amusing half-wits? Am I close? Just tell me if I’m warm.”

Exposition

Exposition is the dibs and dabs that bridge the characters and plot and places the reader in the story.

- The Hermit WRiter

Today's Favorite Passage

She spent her time trying to learn to ignore Mginty’s adolescent behavior, and leveraged her Zen to avoid being outright evil to him. She might eventually require him to intercede to save her life. It wouldn’t be good to give him any reason to take pause in that instance. Limiting the scope of their debates was the best way not to pull her laser on him. Still, she frequently found herself visualizing a bull’s eye in the middle of his forehead.

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Style - Word Choice

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Managing Style

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Core of a Story

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Tell Has Its Place

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Components of Setting

Nice list to have nearby during the editing process.

• Sight    
• Smell

• Sound

• Taste

• Touch

• Emotion   (agony, annoyed, anticipation, anxiety, arousal, confusion, desire, despair, dismay, distress, distrust, dread,  dismay, distress, eagerness, excitement, fear, foreboding, frustration, giddy, helpless, horror, insecurity, jittery, loss, queasy, restless, resentment, sorrow, sorry, spiteful, suspense, tormented, trepidation, uncertainty, unease, wariness, weariness,  worry, yearning

• Balance

• Motion

• Sense      (agony, anguish, pain, ache

• Time        (ahead, behind, late
• Weather
• Direction
• Interpersonal    (conversational, cultural, intimate, racial, intercultural, introvert, familiar, empathetic, nonverbal, innate, sexual, sensual, subconscious, collegial
• Context

The Hermit Writer

Dude Lit for Father's Day

Great reading for dudes. For Father's Day... only 99¢ all week.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006NOEQLQ

Read an excerpt


From the Hermit WRiter.

Best Way to Kill a Scene

Phony, contrived, overblown situations and disasters.

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Good Story Telling

Best Summary of good writing I've ever come across.

• Characterization
• Dialogue that is sharp
• Personality that the reader can identify with
• Senses that place the reader in the scene

• Motivation
• Basis for believability and empathy

• Conflict
• Struggle
• Tension
• Stress
• Action that takes the reader scene to scene

• Point of view
• Place the reader in the MCs mind
• Bring setting alive
• Create empathy

• Emotional intensity
• Create gotcha moments
• Ahas
• "Oh crap" events
• Tears
• Laughs

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New Image for my fav novel

I'm loving my new ad image for SEEker.

https://www.amazon.com/SEEker-ebook/dp/B006NOEQLQ

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Backstory

Steven King -

The most important things to remember about backstory are – everyone has a history – most of it isn't very interesting. Stick to the parts that are, and don't get carried away with the rest.


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Writer Mindset

Nancy Lamb -

Write cinematically (Think Visually)


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Best Advice

Kurt Vonnegut - 

Every sentence must do one of two things - reveal character or advance the plot.


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RUE - When Enough is Enough

Resist the Urge to Explain

Browne and King in Self-Editing For Fiction Writers point out four dangers of explaining to the reader. 

• Condescending
• Redundant
• Muddles the writing

• Interrupts flow

The goal should be clear, succinct writing so you don't have to explain.

The Hermit WRiter.

Rhetorical Devices

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The Believable Character

There are five elements to creating a character or band of characters your reader can empathize with and want to follow to the end.

1.                  Stay "in character" unless you have a very good reason to deviate
Don't let her action interfere with the reader's believability

2.                 Your character needs weaknesses and flaws
Every heard of a Mary Jane?

3.                 Be wary of introducing character surprises
Like the friendly character is a serial killer

4.                Remove unnecessary characters
Every character must have a goal in the plot
Otherwise they clutter the story

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Pulling the Reader In

To create a successful scene you must sell the action and setting by pulling the reader into the scene. There are four key elements to engage the reader's interest.

1.               Immediacy

Avoid long narrative blocks that numb

Avoid those nasty interruptions in flow

2.              Appeal to the senses

But beware, a little goes a long way

Must fit scene/POV character and her interest

3.              Detail—should reveal character

Don't overwhelm with unnecessary minutia

4.             Keep the narrative dynamic

Remove the “thought”/ “knew” / “realized” phrases

No agent/editor/reader ever said, “It’s okay to change POV”


The Hermit WRiter.