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I’d never have met my husband if it hadn’t been for that freshman math requirement at my liberal arts college.

I’d never have even gone in the math building. 

He was a junior and I was a freshman and that was the only class we ever shared.  Without that class, I wouldn’t have met him, married him, wouldn’t have two children who look like him.  Maybe I’d be working now and not have as much time to write.

Some ascribe to the notion that you’re destined to follow a particular path no matter what—that maybe he and I wouldn’t have met in a classroom without that math requirement, but we’d have met at a party instead and I’d have still ended up where I am now.

I don’t think I believe that.

I like writing in little twists of fate in for my characters.  My character recently had a day that could be charted like this: got up, went to the main setting, witnessed the soon-to-be-murder-victim behaving badly, went back home. 

The path was boring, so I shook it up with a flat tire and a good Samaritan. Not only did I throw up an obstacle for my protagonist, but I forced her to be late for an event that she needed to get to. I sent her day on a different trajectory.

We can’t do this type of thing to change the ultimate course of the book or save the protagonist—this reeks of deus ex machina and is incredibly frustrating for readers.  Actually, it would never get to the reader because the editor would take that sucker right out.

But if  my book is getting predictable, if my characters are stuck in a rut, if my middle is a little saggy, I like to introduce a small twist to send them off in a different direction.  They’re initially reluctant to follow that direction (like I was reluctant to take college mathematics), but the end result is more satisfying to read. 

  When you’re cleaning up your house, do you ever skip over the same things over and over again? 

If something is out of place but it stays in the wrong place for days then do you stop seeing it after a while?

I do.  My eyes just pass right over the misplaced item as if it weren’t even there.

This is how a plastic, orange whistle, designed to look like fake lips ended up on my table for weeks. 

The children left it there.  I did notice it for the first few days (“What the *&%$??”), but I always seemed to have my arms full of laundry, groceries, or library books.

Then I just didn’t see the plastic, orange lip whistle anymore.  Until yesterday, when I finally tossed it back in my daughter’s room.

Editing is like this for me.  I read my manuscript over and over and over…but sometimes skip over the same mistakes each time.

The only ways I’ve found to counteract this issue is to read my manuscript aloud and to give it to other people to read (family, friends, agent) before my editor gets it. 

Otherwise, our work in progress may have a bunch of plastic lips in it. 

Ain’t misbehavin’? Not in South Carolina.

If you haven’t heard about South Carolina governor Mark Sanford and his secret, six day trip to Argentina to meet with his mysterious lover….well, it’s probably because the news coverage switched abruptly to cover Michael Jackson. Which likely made Gov. Sanford quite relieved. But here in North Carolina, we’ve been reading the coverage on his tryst with amazement (yes, that’s me above, amazed. My children have had way too much fun taking pictures of me lately.)

Political sex scandals are frequent, but this case was especially remarkable: 1. He told his staff he’d be hiking the Appalachian Trail (which, last I saw, was nowhere near South America.) 2. He turned off his cell phone and no one could reach him; not a good thing in hurricane season. 3. He left the country and no one in SC knew anything about it. 4. He called his lover his “soul mate” during a news conference (!!!). 5. He said he was going to ‘try to fall back in love with his wife’ (!!$%^!). Soooo many no-nos if you’re wanting to make up with your wife, Governor.

My advice to the governor would be to high-tail it to the nearest florist and hit Godiva on the way back to the house. And maybe stop calling your lover your soul mate. In public and on TV.

This scandal and all the salacious emails he exchanged with his Argentinean friend would be a lot more entertaining if it were fictitious. Because in real life, you just can’t get a vicarious thrill from this type thing—he has a real wife and real children who are getting hurt.

Fiction is wonderful. We get to experience falls from grace, forbidden love, and illicit affairs. All the dirty laundry and none of the guilt.

Thoughts on scandals in books:

Mysteries are the perfect genre for writing scandals. After all, the desperate attempt to cover up a secret is one of the biggest motives for murder.

If the exposure of a secret or scandal can ruin your protagonist’s life, it better be good. As a society, we’re a whole lot more laid-back about things than we used to be. So if your character’s whole life is destroyed, it better not be because his mama found out he was living with his girlfriend. Nope. Not gonna fly.

If the scandal is something that’s fairly everyday (an extramarital affair), then you probably need to write your protagonist as a public figure of some kind. National-level politicians work well for this, but ministers, principals, school teachers, small town leaders, etc. have just as much to lose as the big guys.

If you want the public reaction to the scandal to be especially harsh, write a period piece. If it’s set in a place and time where folks were especially intolerant, you can even write in major uprisings or mob scenes. Salem witch trials, anyone?

Some of my favorite books that include scandals, secrets, and falls from grace: The Scarlet Letter, Pride and Prejudice (the younger sister…you remember), House of Mirth, and Atonement.

Hi everyone! I’m guest-blogging today (well…is it technically a ‘guest blog’ when you’re on the rotation?) at the InkSpot blog for Midnight Ink writers.

And you know you want to find out what the icky-looking things in the picture are. :)

I’m making some new resolutions. Why not? Why make January 1 the only date where we impose formidable goals for ourselves? Besides, I’m tired of the January resolutions (that maybe didn’t work out so well.)

Actually, I sort of like the idea of a mid-year goal. Yes—I know. The year is more than half-way up. Even better, though! I’m making a resolution to do things that I’ve actually already started.

I think I’m going to impose time-limits and reviews on my resolutions. See how they’re working out for me or if they need to be tweaked in a few months.

Now, without further ado, my resolutions:

Do a better job with my record-keeping for my taxes. (Pictured—me giddily thinking how nice it will be to write stuff off on my taxes next spring.) My inspiration for this resolution was a recent post on Diane Wolfe’s blog. I’m going to use the stuff-everything-into-an-envelope method. But at least that means that I’ll have the receipts next year. I was really kicking myself this past March when I did my taxes—I could have written off many things if I’d just kept the darned receipts.

Keep more on top of social media, marketing, and publishing trends. I have this really foreboding feeling that everything is about to turn topsy-turvy and if I don’t pay attention, I might go the way of the dinosaurs. If we’re all heading to e-books I should just keep my mouth shut and try to adjust. Que sera sera. And I need to find out exactly what the heck Flickr is (and why the application leaves out the ‘e’ from its name. Which really irritates me.)

Read more. I miss the time I used to spend reading. Nowadays I’ve just got to schedule it in instead of acting like it will just spontaneously happen. But I think you’ve got to keep reading to be a good writer. Besides, there are so many books on my to-read list right now. And spending time at my local bookstore (and having the staff know who I am) has got to be a good thing.

Balance my writing schedule better. So I’ve got to write, revise, and market all at the same time. I just need to get over it, stop complaining, and thank my lucky stars I’m in this situation. Figure out how to keep from shortchanging one book for the sake of the other.

Just say no. Because I can’t. And my time is getting completely eaten up by stuff I shouldn’t be doing.

Do you have any July 8th resolutions? Or are you too smart to get stuck in the resolution trap?