Lynde's Reading Delights/Secrets

BRAINSTORMING AND THE THROW AWAY CHARACTER

2010-06-10T17:41:00.000-07:00

6/10/2010
BRAINSTORMING AND THE THROW AWAY CHARACTER
By Lynde Lakes

“What?” Why in the world would anyone write in a character they plan to throw away? The reason is psychological. The writer’s brain will consider this intrusion a challenge and try to find a use for them. The writer may not be aware of the mental gyrations, but suddenly this potential-reject is interesting and becomes an important part of the novel that cannot be discarded.

The writer comes up with this person by brainstorming. What kind of character might the hero or heroine find especially irritating and perhaps even dangerous?

The writer has done their character chart, and as they flesh out the problems and background of the H/H, they gain the ability to brainstorm what kind of individual will complicate things simply by their presence in the story.

Some main characters who are interesting opposing matches might be: A nun and a convict, a lawyer and a murderer, a rancher and a Hollywood star, a baseball player and a woman who hates sports, or a league owner, a detective who hates reporters and a reporter, or a ranch owner and a woman who likes town living, a preacher and a prostitute, a vampire and a doctor, a werewolf and a detective who wants to prove werewolves don’t exist.

Say the story is about a werewolf who has lived many lives and has a very old soul and a rockin’ hard body, and a detective who, although she admires a hard body now and then, still believes only in hard evidence.

What throw-away character can use to complicate things? An archeologist? A wolf expert? A spiritualist? This perhaps quirky spiritualist or wolf expert, originally meant to be a walk-on, walk-off character, could develop into a crucial part of the story solution.

Get your critique group or a few writer friends together to brainstorm just for fun. When they throw out ideas, the room will come alive with electrical energy—and perhaps magic will happen. Give it a try.

Happy brainstorming, Lynde

TRIED AND TRUE & SOMETHING NEW

2010-05-02T20:13:00.000-07:00

TRIED AND TRUE OR SOMETHING NEW
May 2010 By Lynde Lakes

Personally, I’m comfortable writing romantic suspense, but I’m always tweaking it in one manner or another. I love brainstorming and try to ratchet the excitement and action up a notch in each new book. I’ve done paranormal romantic suspense, and now I’m doing a wolf romantic suspense. My publisher strongly suggested that I give it a try because the darker side is selling well now. I don’t like trends, but darn it, it was a challenge and I’m a sucker for a challenge.
I learned it is great fun to stretch my comfort level. I didn’t know I could get so excited about a werewolf and his life of torture and pleasure seeking. Although the world is against him, he keeps his sense of humor and doesn’t let his “little” transformation problem get him down. Shoot, werewolves need love, too.
So I paired him up with a great gal who could be sympathetic to his problem. Not too sympathetic. She’s a clever chick who is smart enough to suspect his feral self and sometimes even his everyday rather amorous self. I mean what girl in her right mind wants to be out with a guy who is great until the moon comes out and all hell breaks loose? Well, yeah, lots of guys are sorta like that, but hopefully they don’t spout fangs and howl at the moon. Although I think we’ve all been out with a guy or two who did something just as bizarre.
Now, back to the story. Next, I put my characters into a castle spooky enough to become a character. But that isn’t enough, I needed a villain. No, I need two villains. And some trouble-making busybodies. And some poor advice-giving best friends. And a storm. And maybe throw in a Holiday. Yeah. Halloween. That fits the spooky atmosphere. Oh, wow and let’s throw in some heavy astrology and a fortune teller. Hey this is fun. If you haven’t started your story for the year, do some brainstorming. Try wolves, vampires, witches or lump them together and make them all try to exist in the same world, tripping over each other for supremacy. Challenge yourself…stretch…try it you’ll like it. Rainbows, Lynde

APRIL NEWS--DEADLY INFLUENCE AVAILABLE NOW

2010-04-07T17:06:00.000-07:00

Hi, friends, my good news--DEADLY INFLUENCE, A ROMANTIC INTRIGUE, by LYNDE LAKES IS AVAILABLE NOW.

DEADLY INFLUENCE—Sparks fly when An “Officer and a Gentleman type, Air Force Intelligence Lieutenant Jay Corning, is tackled by the female version of “The Bodyguard.” When he finally learns that the “supposed tart” is really his grandmother’s bodyguard, Lisa Dixon, they join forces. Together they struggle to keep his grandmother and each other alive while trying to uncover the person trying to kill the strong-willed matriarch. Complications arise when the escalating danger closes in from the dark corner of the small community, stirring fears and steamy emotions.

WRITING THRU THE STRESS

2010-04-07T16:52:00.000-07:00

WRITING THRU THE STRESS
LYNDE LAKES
The Double Whammy

Things are going along nicely and then whammo we are hit with a double whammy. Things fall apart around us, family responsibilities pile up. We are running around like a chicken trying to avoid the axe. When time is scarce, the writing is pushed aside and just when we may need it the most to relax and replenish our well.

Personality Traits Needed To Be a Writer

It may help to look again at the personality traits needed to be a writer. Besides having a great imagination, we as writers need to be a self-starter, determined, like reading, love books, have a curious nature, like research, have a willingness to share our creative vision of the world, and love challenges. And when our life starts unraveling, we’ll need that love of challenges.

Fighting the Stress Devil

We all know the stress devil well. He jumps into our lives with a bag full of conflict and suffering and unleashes it on us until all we want to do is go to bed and cover up our heads. But that doesn’t help, at least not in the long run. So we make a list. What are the problems? Which ones can we take care of today? Some we can never solve. Some just have to be lived through. The ones we can handle, we can check off on the list as we do them. Maybe set a goal of one a day. And for mental and physical health we add daily exercise. Yes, exercise. It makes us stronger and better able to handle the red guy. We also add fifteen minutes a day to write. Every day. That is to replenish our mental balance and get us over the rough spots. We can’t think about our troubles if we’re making trouble for our characters. Perhaps we can sling some of our trouble at them. They are heroic, like us and they can handle it.

We Say It Isn’t That Simple.

Right it isn’t! But in our fantasy world we are in control. We deserve to let ourselves enjoy that for fifteen minutes a day, don’t we? It will probably save our lives and make us stronger.

Rainbows, Lynde

Lynde's Latest News

2010-03-03T17:02:00.000-08:00

LASSO THAT COWBOY is now available in print format.(also E-book format)

LASSO THAT COWBOY By LYNDE LAKES
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
Ryan Ranch Trilogy Book #2

TWO TROUBLED PASTS EQUAL DOUBLE TROUBLE FOR THIS
WIDOWED FATHER WITH QUICK FISTS,TRIGGER REACTIONS
AND A PASSION TO FOLLOW THE RODEO CIRCUIT.
Oh, did I mention his controling brother?

Desperate, Luke hires a nanny with no credentials. Amber, is the only prospect for the job on his remote South Texas ranch. He might not be so quick to hire her if he knew she had a loaded .38 in her purse. Her secrets could destroy everything he's worked so hard to develop--and get him and his daughter killed
****
New romantic intrigue, DEADLY INFLUENCE coming in mid-March in Print and E-book format.Romantic Intrigue

DEADLY INFLUENCE—Sparks fly when An “Officer and a Gentleman type, Air Force Intelligence Lieutenant Jay Corning, is tackled by the female version of “The Bodyguard.” When he finally learns that the “supposed tart” is really his grandmother’s bodyguard, Lisa Dixon, they join forces. Together they struggle to keep his grandmother and each other alive while trying to uncover the person trying to kill the strong-willed matriarch. Complications arise when the escalating danger closes in from the dark corner of the small community, stirring fears and steamy emotions.

BRAINSTORMING & PLOTTING

2010-01-17T17:31:00.000-08:00

BRAINSTORMING AND PLOTTING

If stories come to you faster than you can write them down, brainstorming can still be useful tools at many stages of the novel. Start now wherever you are in the process.

But suppose you want to start a new book. One way to start a new book is to grab a random idea and see where it takes you. In my novel BILLBOARD COP, I was waiting in Aina Haina parking lot for my buddy. A shiny Mercedes entered the lot and parked. A handsome, well-dressed man (a 15 in a range of 1-10) got out of the car and walked over to a rusty dented Ford. He looked around, then wrote something on a card and placed it under the windshield wiper. When he returned to his car, he stood outside, looking indecisive, then finally climbed back into his car. Before he exited the lot, I was already dreaming up stories to explain what was going on and what he’d written on the card.

The nice car versus old car made me think of Cinderella. But no, that wasn’t where this story was headed. The whole story began to fold in my head. Yet, it had nothing to do with the card, the card had turned into a billboard. I was going to Boston that weekend and the idea churned in my mind. I knew the story would be a romantic intrigue, because that is what I write, and the setting would be Boston. I had experience with gas-leaking service stations, land acquisitions, and government. Hmm. The story would include those elements, I decided. Then I started the wild brainstorming, putting down ideas, good or bad, as fast as I could. That was while in flight. By the time I arrived in Boston, I had pages of brainstorming. Then, after week in a hotel room, BILLBOARD COP was born.

BRAINSTORMING TYPES
WILD BRAINSTORMING

Wild brainstorming works great in groups or alone. The idea of wild brainstorming is to dump ideas onto paper as fast as you can. We use this process to trigger ideas when we have nothing in mind. But I know most of us always have something churning in the brain cells. It is helpful to start with a stack of blank 3x5 cards. Take one card and write down any topic that comes to mind, love, hate, adoption from a foreign country, adoption of a handicapped child, divorce, loss of money, finding a suitcase full of money. Or go with animals, cats, dogs, wolves, horses. Or relatives, aunts, uncles, mother, step-mother, sisters brothers, cousins. Then, if the novel is an intrigue, someone has to die or someone has to murder them. Try a place, Russia, Hawaii, Utah, Las Vegas. I’ll bet each of you can grab any of those dumb ideas and weave them into a story. If not, start putting down more things, silver, gold, veils, kings, brides. Still no trigger?

Take your next card and write down as many conflicts as come into your mind, maybe use something from the first card.

Now on a third card, make two columns of unlikely characters. A nun and a convict, a lawyer and a murderer, a rancher and a Hollywood star, a baseball player and a woman who hates sports, or maybe she is the league owner, a detective who hates reporters and a reporter, or a ranch owner and a woman who likes town living, a preacher and a prostitute and so forth--you get the idea.

STRUCTURED BRAINSTORMING

This is the process used when you already have an idea, but are searching for new possibilities. I used structured brainstorming in my last job. In our inter-agency meetings, we knew what the outcome had to be, but we wanted input on how best to achieve it in the most inventive and less costly way. In seconds, we would catch fire with enthusiasm. You can do the same thing with a firm idea. You toss the idea out, say what you hope to accomplish and then sit back and let the group take the idea and build on it.

Structured brainstorming takes more thought, but the ideas still have to gush out fast. Say you want to write a woman’s fiction story to help others. Maybe you have gone through the ordeal yourself and have helpful things to say about the topic, but you want some ideas on how to present it. Should it be set in the ghetto, in a hospital, on a ranch? Should there be a love story along with it? What two unlikely characters would be guaranteed to butt heads?

Great characters are often a little wacky, colorful, theatrical, exaggerated, flamboyant, ditzy, dizzy and contrary. Look at the Wedding Singer. He flashed through extremes constantly. The creation of wacky characters can be fun. One way to exaggerate a trait is to make it way out there: a fanatical love of pickles with peanut butter or hatred of snakes, bugs, or sharks. Or an obsessive love of trains, or electronic eavesdropping, or a compulsive need to climb up on high places to think and a hero who is afraid of heights. Extremism in anything will serve. Maybe pit a character who believes in living life to the fullest, and damn the consequences with a character who is ultra cautious.

Wacky characters add spice to serious characters. They act as a foil. The use of foils is a literary device for enhancing the traits of one character by contrasting them with the opposite traits of another. Brainstorming can help with this.

PLOTTING YOUR STORY

This is where the “story arc” is developed to keep you on track. The conflict must be ever-present. Menacing your characters is the name of the game. What is the worst thing that can happen at this moment? Brainstorm this. How many characters do you need to tell the story and make the lead characters shine? What will be the reoccurring theme? What kind of setting do you need to show this story at its best advantage? What kind of weather? How can we gain sympathy, empathy for and identify with our characters? Virtually any predicament that brings physical, mental, or spiritual suffering to the character will earn the reader's sympathy: Loneliness, lovelessness, humiliation, deprivation, repression embarrassment, danger. As we plot, we need to keep all of this in mind. We thrust our characters into crisis, then light the fuse.

When we plot a story, we must have memorable characters and plot twists. Brainstorm plot twists, unique characters, and the desperation they need to fire them up and push them into action. Dynamic characters have conflicting emotions and destructive desires. Such emotions as: ambition, love, faith, lust or whatever inner emotional fires are raging are the forces that are pulling dynamic characters in more than one direction. Dynamic character resolve these inner conflicts by taking actions that will lead to more story conflict and more inner conflict.. Brainstorm inter-conflicts.

Brainstorming, character contrast and setting. Rube in city. City girl on farm. Poor girl in elite clique. To set your characters off and plunge them into immediate difficulties, put them somewhere where they don't belong, where the action forces them to deal with new and possibly frightening circumstances. Give your characters intriguing backgrounds, make them have unusual ideas and insights, let some of them be wacky, contrast them well with each other and their setting, maybe even give them a dual nature. It is great to brainstorm this and let the group take some risks and see what develops.

Brainstorm the ruling passion. A characters central motivating force is the sum total of all the forces and drives within him. The ruling passion might be to commit the perfect crime, or become a great preacher, or pickpocket or art forger. It might be something less specific, like to be a good husband, wife. The ruling passion determines what the character will do when faced with dilemmas he or she must overcome in the course of the story

Our character has a dormant and an active ruling passion. The dormant one still defines his character for the writer, but is not what motivates him. For instance, if he is suddenly accused of murder. At all times, the characters must drive themselves with at least one ruling passion. However, what motivates him in one scene may not be the original passion but he may return to it once the present crisis is past. Brainstorm the chain reaction where something happens to the character that sets off a series of events, leading to some kind of climax and resolution.

It is easy to see that brainstorming can helpful at many stages of the novel to spice it up and do the unexpected and give our readers the surprises they crave. Aloha, Lynde

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Post date and time 1-17-2010 3:36 P.M.

INSIDE THAT GREAT COVER, PART 1

2009-11-07T01:57:00.000-08:00

INSIDE THAT GREAT COVER
By Lynde Lakes
8/6/2009

AUTHOR & CHARACTER INTEGRITY

Writing wizards warn us to vault into our bestseller with a hook. Sensational advice, but we need more. Our story must have integrity and honesty. Spencer Johnson says, “Integrity is telling oneself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.” How does that apply to our books? Do our characters always have to tell themselves the truth to be individuals of integrity? They may yearn to, but because they are hiding from it, avoiding it, they just can’t. However, by the end of the book, they should have finally faced their demons. Do our characters always have to tell others the truth. Some characters live a life of deception to stay alive or keep others alive as in my novel COWBOY LIES.

Example one:
With Yellow Rose of Texas playing in the background, we two-step into the world of the Ryan Ranch and meet Molly—and Matt, the lying cowboy:
Molli stared at the Stetson-wearing hunk of testosterone pacing next to the fireplace, and shook her head. “I don’t like this. Nothing seems right!”
The possibility that she’d ever loved this man, let alone married him, was as remote as finding the proverbial needle in a haystack, yet it was exactly what he wanted her to believe.
“You’re gonna have to trust me on this one, Molli,” he drawled and headed out of the room. Rule: when someone says trust me, consider it carefully.
***

Example Two from MIDNIGHT DESTINY:

“Trust me,” Rick, the stranger she called Midnight said.
Mele couldn’t stop trembling. “Trust you? I don’t even know you!”
Either man could be the bad guy. Maybe even both. Midnight looked like the cliché bad boy: tall, dark and dangerous—the type revealed on the cover of a rugged pin-up calendar. His heavy black biker boots and black leather jacket, scuffed and dirty from the brawl, only added to his appeal. A wide black leather belt with an ornate silver buckle hugged his trim waist. His black jeans fit like latex. His shirt, ripped open during the fight gave a glimpse of sleek, taut and powerful muscles.
“See that Mickey Mouse watch Dom’s wearing?” Midnight asked. Without waiting for an answer, he rushed on. “The cops found the five-year-old boy he stole it from lying bloody and dead in a Kailua park barbecue pit.”
Mele’s heart froze. Horror burrowed deep into the marrow of her bones. Tears flooded her eyes. (Feel the empathy? I’ll talk about that below.)
Is Rick telling the truth? Our characters can toy with the truth, but for our story to have integrity and honesty, we must believe that our characters are real. And that they. will learn and change from the first page to the last.—even the villain—and we must transport our readers to the land of suspended disbelief.

EVOKE SYMPATHY FOR THE CHARACTERS

Our villain does NOT have to be admirable. In BILLBOARD COP, The faceless strangler had been an abused child. We can’t forgive him for his rein of terror, but we understand it. Although all people abused in childhood don’t grow up to be cold-hearted heartless killers, when he lets the little boy live, we garner up a pinch of sympathy for his tortured soul. His predicament of constant physical, mental and spiritual suffering earns a touch of reader's sympathy. The author can also show sympathy evoking emotion with desperation, loneliness, lovelessness, humiliation, mental sickness. Anything that makes the reader understand him better.

IDENTIFICATION

Identification comes when the reader has both sympathy and supports the characters goals and aspirations, and roots for the character achieve them. In LASSO THAT COWBOY, we wonder if Luke Ryan’s wild past and determination to follow his own set of rules will destroy him and those he loves. When we meet Amber Doe, we wonder if discovering the truth about herself will cost her life. Luke is trying so hard, hopefully, the reader feels drawn to support his goals to stay sober and save his daughter. But will Amber’s goals clash with his? Can he support her fearless steps to stop the terrorists who plan to blow up Boulder Dam and kill the many daily visitors? Luke and Amber both have admirable goals. And no matter what Luke has done in the past, the reader will take his side, no matter how much of a womanizing hard-drinking cowboy he was before. When he has the decision to save his daughter or Amber, who he has come to love, who will he choose? The reader must feelthe torment of this decision.

Once in a while, we can take a bad character with no redeemable traits, and link them with a character who has suffered from another person’s deeds and make the bad character hurt people in their behalf. This has not been the case so far in any of my published books. But it is a useful tool.

EMPATHY

In MIDNIGHT DESTINY, we not only feel sorry for Rick because a killer is on his tail, but we feel empathy for him because the man is the one behind kidnapping his only daughter. If he stops and faces him as he yearns to do, the villain will kill him and there will be no one to save his daughter. We are pulled apart by his lose, lose choices and feel his desperation. Empathy is the most powerful emotion. The reader feels sympathy of course, but he/she suffers actual anxiety and physical pain with the character who is plunged into a no win situation. As you learn more about Rick, you empathize more. He is a good father and his daughter is the only joy in his life. Can you feel the power of empathy?
Use sights, sounds, pains, smells etc to reveal what the character is feeling—the feelings that trigger emotions.
Mele Keliikuli hung upside-down, suspended in her seatbelt. Blood rushed to her head. She fought dizziness and the crush of the straps squeezing her chest. Other than uncontrollable trembling, she felt okay. That was more than could be said for the occupant of the other car.
When she felt the impact, Mele had hit the brakes but her car was already out of control. It rolled once before finally coming to rest upside-down, dangerously near the cliff edge, which she could clearly see in her vehicle's headlights. In the turmoil, she had a flash image of the car crashing through the barrier and going straight over the cliff.
An explosion rocked the ground and momentarily lit up the darkness. Mele closed her eyes to block out the blinding light. Lord, bless the poor soul in that car. Fog swirled around her, circling like phantom sharks. She jabbed repeatedly on the seatbelt release button. Jammed. She took a deep breath. Stay calm.
Can we feel her fear and her determination to get through this?

MAGIC CARPET & TRANSPORTING THE READER

If the author has made the story real enough, the reader is hypnotized and involved, allowing the real world to disappear. Throughout the page-turning story, the reader feels the inner conflict and the raging storms gripping the character—the misgivings, the guilt, remorse, indecision. Decisions of a moral nature have grave consequences for our character. His or her honor or self-worth is at stake. Throughout the story, there is an equal pull in two directions, a heart-wrenching battle between reason and passion.
One of my yet –to-be-published books shows this push and pull: Jill stared at the door. Her boss had told her to avoid Dane like the plague. To ignore Dane's knock would buy time. Maybe even save her job. But was she really such a coward? Such a puppet? She sighed. It wasn't really her boss she was afraid of, it was her heart. Maybe Dane had news about Tess. Darn, she was grasping at straws, any excuse to justify opening the door. As though her hand had a will of its own, it clutched the door knob and turned. Now, to keep reader transported—heighten the suspense.

SUSPENSE HEIGHTENED

What is it that is undecided or undetermined? Not the author or reader—it is the story question. Story questions are statements that require further explanation, problem resolution, or are forecasts of crisis or the dark moment.
Suspense creates story questions, putting the sympathetic character in a situation of menace, and lighting the fuse.

Examples:
An hour before sunset Lani walked the beachfront site. The few persons who glanced her way regarded her with a sort of apprehension. Why? What about her would make them wary?

In a book, chapter or short story the author must raise a story question in the first or second sentence.

In Jaws, the great fish moved silently through the water, propelled by short sweeps of its crescent tail. Q. Who will be his lunch?

Rumors spread around Oahu like wildfire. Q. What kind of rumors and will someone be hurt by them?

At midnight, he walked to the edge of the bridge, his steps slow, hesitant. Q Was he thinking of suicide? If so, would he jump?

(INSIDE THAT GREAT COVER to be continued another day.) Hugs, Lynde
Posted

INSIDE THAT GREAT COVER, PART THREE

2009-10-27T17:37:00.000-07:00

INSIDE THAT GREAT COVER
Part Three
By Lynde Lakes

In part one and two, we reviewed some of the important features that belong in our great cover. Remember, if you can reorder the scenes without changing the story then it wasn’t laid out right in the first place. In story with good development, the author can’t move the incidents around because the situation would change and the reactions would play differently. Now let’s look closer at what else needs to be between the pages of that great cover:

THE GREAT PREMISE: The premise is the theory behind the changes forced upon our characters because of the core conflict of the story. It is the story truth, based upon human nature, where the author believes that if he drops the character into a certain series of conflicts, he/she will change in a given manner. A premise may go against a moral or a theme.

The premise might be Alcoholism leads to control. This is ridiculous because alcoholism leads to a person who is out of control.

LOVE AND THE PREMISE. Love is the emotion that makes the world go around, either the existence of it or the absence of it. The only kind of love story worth writing about a powerful love, whether filial, brotherly, romantic, lustful, obsessive, etc. Your premise about obsessive love can lead to several conclusions: obsessive love leads to suicide or obsessive love leads to happiness etc. Your premise is yours alone; it is your truth, your vision in the world you created

Premise of COWBOY LIES: Put a cowboy, a baby and a woman with amnesia together, and the closeness and danger will make even the distrusting heart grow fonder. It is also that love wins, and control is not all bad. By controlling the situation, Matt is able to save his baby. Even though the story takes place on a cattle ranch, it is not a “how to” for ranching. Yet, every reference to ranching leads to that final scene.

Now to prove the premise: Every tense moment shows how Molly and Matt make mistakes but that no misstep or interference from others can corrupt the closeness that develops between them; and through almost losing their lives, they learn to forgive and achieve the balance needed for their love to survive.

THEME: A recurring fictional idea, aspects of the human existence tested or explored in the course of the novel. The theme and premise are NOT intended to teach a moral lesson. In COWBOY LIES, the theme is control. If a moral lesson develops from this theme, great, but it is not its function.

MORAL: A moral is what a story teaches. Like: Good cowboys don’t have to come in last. Control pushes people away. Sometimes a cowboy/FBI agent must lie to save lives. Alcohol kills. Crime doesn't Pay. If a story has a moral, it is probably a happy coincidence.

Matt Ryan's premise: CONTROL SAVES LIVES. If he believes the statement, then to keep Molly and her baby safe, he must control everything and everyone every minute. But such rigid control will probably force loved ones to resist and try to escape him and perhaps get killed in the process which is the opposite of his goal.

Types of Premises: chain reaction, opposing-forces, situational.

Chain reaction: Something happens to the character that sets off a series of events, leading to the climax and resolution. Finding the location of Matt’s daughter and kidnapping her, leads him to break every rule in the book, which ultimately leads to the resolution of the story. Good or bad.

Opposing forces: Control Defeats Love…or Love Destroys Control.

Situational Premise: Situation affects all the characters.

Questions to ask yourself: Was my premise proven? Are there any superfluous complications? Any ironies and surprises? Do characters grow and develop? Is the story worth writing? If we move forward via a causal chain of events, one situation will lead to another and eventually to a resolution.

It is common to have more than one premise to story. For instance a plot and subplot. Subplot must have a major impact on the main story.

Understanding the premise is simple: It tells what the story is about and what happens to the characters at the end. In good story, the author will economically prove the premise. And the premise will be worth proving.

Nothing works without strong characters and solid character development, ironies, and a STRONG NARRATIVE VOICE: (Something most of us have to work on.)

COWBOY LIES:

An image of blood-splattered walls shook her. Nothing felt right—nothing felt familiar—nothing jogged memories. Even her own name sounded strange to her ears, if it was her name. Molly Ryan? That mellow name didn’t fit the fire blazing in her gut, and that scared the hell out of her. Married. Was she really married?
She’d begged to stay at the hospital. She had felt safe there and had grown to trust Dr. De La Fuente during the months of treatment. That is, until he released her to this cowpoke in tight blue jeans and told her to trust this stranger. How could she trust this Stetson-wearing hunk of testosterone? He was pacing next to the fireplace like a fenced-in wild stallion. The initial shock of learning that she somehow may have shackled herself to this hard-edged cowboy slid closer to full-fledged panic. Did he expect her to share his bedroom tonight?
Lamplight reflected and magnified the shadow on the wall of his feral, agitated movements. Did he resent that she had been thrust on him in this bewildered condition? Would he turn that barely contained anger on her? She shivered, fighting an urge to bolt. “I can’t be married to you. Nothing seems right!”
He paused, and his piercing gaze locked with hers—the intensity sent chills along her nerve endings. “You’re gonna have to trust me on this one, Molly,” he drawled. “We’re hitched.”

CONCLUSION: We have goal, conflict, action, disaster and resolution painted majestically on the landscape of our imagination with passion and a desire to share the workings of our minds with those who might enjoy the escape into our world.
Writing is a glorious challenge and learning the tools is only the first step. Next, we have to practice and practice and hope each day our accomplishments grow and blossom. If it were easy, we would all be on bestseller lists and agents would be begging to represent us. In the meantime, we will help each other along the way and flower as human beings. The best part about writing is the journey and the friends you discover along the way. Aloha to all of you, Lynde

UNDERCOVER COWBOY

2009-09-16T16:45:00.000-07:00

INSIDE THAT GREAT COVER-Part Two

2009-09-16T16:07:00.000-07:00

INSIDE THAT GREAT COVER
Part Two
By Lynde Lakes

In part one, we already covered hooks, truth in writing, evoking sympathy, reader identification, empathy, taking the reader with you on a magic carpet and how to heighten suspense. Now let’s look closer at what else need to be between the pages of that great cover:

MENACING YOUR CHARACTER: Mary was adorable (tell about her, make us love her.) Just learning to walk, she is curious about everything, reaches for everything, wants to touch it. One Monday morning, her harried mother left a pot of water boiling on the stove while she briefly left the kitchen to answer the phone. Mary looked up at the shinny brown and copper handle of the pot sticking out. She crawled to the stove and stood up, stretching her hand high for the handle....

Throughout the story, we want the reader to worry about bad things that might happen to our sympathetic characters. If your character is sympathetic and menaced, you have created a page-turning state of anxiety and apprehension in the reader. Now light the fuse.

LIGHTING THE FUSE: Time! Time running out in COWBOY LIES. Matt must get his baby and Molly out of harm’s way. However, even the FBI, the agency he worked for, is erecting roadblocks to stop him. Will he make it?

It was day zero when Matt took his brother Luke’s call.. His brother had been watching Molly and her guards from the hotel across the courtyard through high-powered binoculars. “It’s time,” he said. “A woman took yer baby to the adjoining room,” he said in his Texas twang. “Jus’ her. No agents.”

Matt’s throat tightened. It’s was the kind of break the kidnapper’s would watch for. He had to get there first. He raced down the hall and knocked on the door adjacent to Molly’s suite.
“Who is it?” Came a voice he recognized—Agent Gina Nagales.
“Matt Ryan. I have a court order.”
“Stand in front of the peep hole,” Gina said.
He complied, and she opened the door, gun in hand.
“You won’t need that. I’m alone.”
Gina tucked the gun back into her holster. Sara Jane was in the play pen, babbling happily. God, she had grown. He’d missed all those months. Matt showed Gina his phony temporary custody order.
She frowned. “No one told me about this. Hold on. Ramon and Gordon will be here in a moment. You can show this to them.”
Prepared for resistance, Matt lunged at Gina with a cloth permeated with chloroform and held it over her nose until she stopped struggling and went limp. "I'm breaking every kind of law here," he whispered.

MEMORABLE CHARACTERS: Readers can’t sympathize with a wimpy character who can only suffer and wallow in self-pity. They want a character ready and willing to take action. It may not be the right action, but they will jump into the conflict and give it their all. All characters, even wimps, must be dynamic—driven and want something desperately. This desperation is the force inside that fires-up characters. Dynamic characters have conflicting emotions and desires. These strong emotions, such as ambition and love, fear or patriotism or faith, lust, or some other raging emotional fire, pulls our dynamic characters in more than one direction. Only action will lead to more story conflict and more inner conflict.
Only characters with the uniqueness of real people are worth reading about. They must have contrasts of inconsistent behavior common to people you know and like, love or hate. Contrasts and rich and varied experiences make character. Interesting people move about in the world and have thought deeply about life and have opinions. Maybe the man was a sailor on the U.S. Arizona, maybe the woman worked on the set of MGM, or have made astronomical sails to isolated islands to view eclipses. Perhaps they have been on spiritual quests, trying to unravel life's mysteries. In any case, they have fully lived.
Use biographies of real people to get ideas. Look for a biography on your character’s profession--dancers, F.B.I., whatever. If possible, talk to those in the profession.
Write about people who are good at what they do. Great characters are often a little wacky, colorful, theatrical, exaggerated, flamboyant, ditzy and contrary. Look at the successful TV series, “WILL AND GRACE.” They exaggerate traits to the ridiculous and it works. Use a fear of horses, fear of commitment, etc. Or an obsessive love of gadgets or electronic eavesdropping, or a compulsive need to examine and touch everything like Monk or the lead character does in the movie, “AS GOOD AS IT GETS.” Give us an FBI agent who believes in living life to the fullest, and damn the consequences. Contrast him with a heroine who has a totally different agenda and completely opposite traits. In my werewolf book, I’ve given my heroine a dual nature which she has to learn to tame to operate effectively. Take some risks and make your characters fresh and most of all, memorable.

CHARACTER CONTRAST AND SETTING: in LASSO THAT COWBOY Amber is a city girl who—having no place to run—escapes to a ranch and runs smack into more trouble with a capital T. This former executive’s assistant, who is used to a generous salary and high living, now has to apply for a nanny job on a cattle ranch where she is expected to ride a horse and know her way around a lasso. To set her circumstance off we have plunged her into immediate difficulties with her new boss, a possible deadbeat, and plunked her into an unfamiliar surrounding. To heighten the suspense, she fears someone may have followed her to this place she doesn’t belong, a place where she’ll forced to deal with new and possibly frightening events and dangerous men? Maybe even her bad boy boss?

RULING PASSION: A characters central motivating force, the sum total of all the forces and drives raging within him/her. The ruling passion might be to escape a murder scene and a possible jail sentence, to stay safe, to hide out. It might be something less specific, such as to get retribution on the cowboy who lassoed her, embarrassed her, and scared the hell of her. Or it might be like the mysterious recluse in my werewolf story who simply wants to be left alone. The characters ruling passion determines what he/she will do when faced with dilemmas. The measure of a person is not the charm they reveal in good times, it is the control and intelligence they display in the bad times.

Example: COWBOY LIES. In the beginning, Matt has one ruling passion that rules his life—keeping Molly and her baby safe. Matt also has a dormant and an active ruling passion to control every situation. The dormant passion, control, still defines his character for the writer and reader, but it isn’t what motivates him once he takes over the protection of his two charges. At all times our character must remain driven by at least one ruling passion. However, what motivates him in one scene may not be the original passion but he may return to it once the present crisis is past. A characters passion generally isn’t consistent; many times it changes in the course of a story and then changes back as the situation changes. In many great stories, it is the switch from one ruling passion to another that forces dramatic decisions on the character and makes the reader root for the character. Avoid changing the ruling passion too often, make it logical action and reaction.

Secondary characters have the same set of passions. In COWBOY LIES, Matt’s brother, Luke wakes up in a drunken stupor and finds a gun in his hand and his brother, Parker, bloody and dead next to him. From the murder on, his driving passion is to prove his innocence and find the killer. With his brother as a suspect, it adds one more driving passion for Matt who is already carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. Matt’s decision to incorporate the new passion ups the stakes and enhances his growth.

In LASSO THAT COWBOY, Luke’s passion is to join the rodeo circuit. He hires a nanny, planning for her to accompany him. Amber’s passion to escape crowds, notoriety and remain hidden away, thrusts an opposing passion into the mix, and both characters must struggle to rule and control the situation of the story.
When core conflicts are resolved at the end of a story, the character may return to his or her original ruling passion. But as in COWBOY LIES, and LASSO THAT COWBOY, all of the characters have undergone such dramatic growth, that new passions have arisen and as in all romances—love rules.
If a character does return to original the ruling passions, it is often with a different outlook or understanding, which gives finite meaning to the drama of the story.

THE DUAL CHARACTER:
The dual character like my killer in BILLBOARD COP suffers opposing natures—good and bad. He shifts in between the three ego states—parent, adult and child where the parent and adult is considered rational and the child irrational. These entirely separate states rule him at different times. This mostly evil man fights to keep the soft side of himself a secret, even from himself. To win he must retain his evilness to the end. But the small boy thrusts him into conflict.

DRIVING THROUGH TO THE END:
Inside that great cover we need strong, dramatic fiction where everything is relevant, everything we put on paper counts, and leads to what is to come—and bring our readers to a climax where all is resolved. Inside that Great Cover part three coming next posting.

UPDATE THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

2009-08-27T18:03:00.000-07:00

The writer,Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) said "To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing." His words are still appropriate today. Imagine if something YOU write today is so true that fifty to a hundred years from now that it still is pertinent. That is a powerful thought. So let's get back to our writing and see what we might write that can move people or make them think, wish, or dream. Have a great day.

See you at the Honolulu Writer's Conference, Sept 4-7. Don't forget to say hi. I'd love to meet you in person.

Think, suspense, romance and a tortured dreamboat werwolf who needs you to survive.
Think Cowboys, Think UNDERCOVER COWBOY,with to die for eyes,coming soon at Amirapress.com. Aloha, Lynde

INSIDE THAT GREAT COVER

2009-08-06T17:03:00.000-07:00

Use Your Profession to Build Emotion and Realism

2009-07-21T17:18:00.000-07:00

7/21/2009

HOW TO USE EVERYTHING IN YOUR LIFE
(EVEN YOUR PROFESSION)
TO BUILD EMOTION AND REALISM
IN YOUR FICTION
By Lynde Lakes

A number of bestselling writers, like John Gresham for instance, hit the sought after top lists because they used facts and knowledge from their profession. The key is to change everything but the main issue and the emotion. Grab facts and then modify them beyond recognition. Change men to women, Latinos to Caucasians and heterosexuals to homosexuals. Add a murder or jealousy, or both. Then change the motive of revenge to greed. Make blondes, blonds, (i.e. females to males). Change the sexes and number of the children involved. If possible, move the location, Hawaii to the Philippines or Bahamas, or Los Angeles to New York. Use the key issue and write down how it played out—then change everything else, including the resolution.

Writers are sponges who soak up their surrounding and then go hunting for more. However, when a writer has spent years in college and elsewhere learning the ins and outs of a field and know the material like the back of their hand, perhaps it would be a wise step to use that professional expertise. An additional reason to use that expertise is to give the story a credibility that it may not otherwise have had. Readers like medical thriller by doctors and court cases by attorneys. They like stories about designers by people who know the business, have lived it, worked in it. They like cop, CIA or FBI stories by the professionals who have put their lives on the line.

This is an example showing how an attorney-author might change the facts of his/her case by retaining only the two main triggers, trailer and stress.

FACT: Someone had stolen a car in Seattle, then drove to Oregon, and stole a man’s trailer and all of his belongings while he was a breakfast. The police found the trailer in Redding, California abandoned with a flat tire. Now for the fiction: (Please pardon the guy’s language.)

FICTION: Attorney, Candice Cantrell looked across her clutter-less desk at the big Latino man with his arms crossed as though he were in a police interrogation. She glanced down at her tape recorder. With his permission, which he was hesitant to give, she was taping everything.

However, so far, Dominic had only told her that his marriage was broken and he wanted her to fix it.”

Alerted by his brusque answers, flushed face and a dark shifting gaze that screamed trouble, she took a breath and glanced at her watch.. “So you need an intermediary for a possible reconciliation?”

“Hell, no. I want a divorce, child custody and my damn trailer back!”

Finally, she had something to work with. “Your grounds?”

“My wife is nuts; didn’t you get that from the fact that she hired someone to steal my trailer? The bitch already has the house, but she wants to destroy me. She won’t let me see my daughter. She lied to cops and sent them to my jobsite to arrest me for slamming her head against the wall.”

“Did you do that?”

“Do I look like a guy who would do something like that?”

Actually, he did. Candice scribbled in shorthand that he hadn’t answered the question. She would come back to it later. “I had to ask. You’ve apparently had a lot going on and it’s natural to be stressed.”

“No shit?”

Candice felt the tension in the room soar several notches. To give him a chance to cool down, she decided to collect additional general information—she took down the preliminary information, names, addresses, possible witnesses. All the time he talked, he rattled something in his pocket. It sounded like solid steel juggling against solid steel. Suddenly he shifted and she saw the outline of a gun under his jacket.

Okay. The time is up. You can end with the gun. Point made. The key to using a writer’s profession is to change everything but the main issue and the emotion. Grab facts and then modify them beyond recognition. Wishing you excitement, emotion and realism in your writing so you, like Gresham or Gerritsen, can hit the bestsellers list. Aloha, Lynde

TWO CHARACTERS WE MUST LOVE!

2009-07-05T02:06:00.000-07:00

Romance is a genre where we must love the hero and heroine, if not at first, then eventully. Luke in LASSO THAT COWBOY still tries his bad boy antics with women. In spite of his rough-around-the-edges behavior with the fairer sex, we loved him in COWBOY LIES. But will he go too far with the wrong woman in the LASSO THAT COWBOY? You tell me.

You'll note in other genres liking the main charater isn't as important. But they had better show some redemption by the end of the book. See comments below.

P.S. Someone asked me what I'm reading now. I write lots of intrigues. so I devour true accounts by police officers and others in the law enforcement business. Right now. I am reading two books at the same time, one entitled “Honolulu CSI” and the other is “Extravagant Universe.” I just finished “Honolulu Cop” and “Honolulu Detective.” Both gave the nitty gritty of fighting crime and how those in the field feel about their profession and capturing the bad guys. Both are worth reading.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY 2009

2009-07-02T21:14:00.000-07:00

Hi, everyone, I hope all the bang and spectacle of the holiday transcends into lots of sparkle, prosperty, and general success in the lives of all of those who read this. As John Quincy Adams said: "Patience and perserverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish." Let that be true for all of us. Hugs and Aloha, Lynde

Romantic Intriques, with an other-worldly flavor waiting for you:
Billboard Cop
COWBOY LIES
LASSO THAT COWBOY
and coming soon
the 3rd in the trilogy,UNDERCOVER COWBOY

& novella, with Hawaiian Paranormal Tales, MIDNIGHT DESTINY
Read excerpts of each book and personal thoughts at:
lyndesreaddelightssecrets.blogspot.com
www.lyndelakes.com
www.amirapress.com

DO WE HAVE TO LIKE THE MAIN CHARACTER?

2009-06-30T15:58:00.000-07:00

DO YOU HAVE TO LOVE THE MAIN CHARACTER?
By Lynde Lakes

John Grisham showed us in his page-turning novel, THE BROKER, that the main character does NOT have to be admirable. The lead character steam-rolled over everyone his whole life for monetary gain and ended up in jail. When he is pardon by the president and whisked away into hiding, we start to garner a smidgeon of sympathy for him. He is forced to live on-the-run in Italy, a country where he can’t even speak the language. He fears even his “protectors” might be planning to kill him and are merely waiting for the right moment. He gives them only slight trust while remaining alert for situational shifts that scream danger. (We readers know that his situation is even worse than he thinks. He was pardoned only to be killed.)

Slowly we begin to identify with him. He doesn’t just lie down and take it. He makes plans. We find ourselves supporting his goals and no matter what a scumbag we think he is, we admire his gumption and when he starts feeling remorse for the bad things he’s done and wants to make amends, we suddenly want him to win his battle to reach this noble goal and are willing to take his side, no matter how much of a selfish, money-grubbing, slime bucket he has proven himself to be in the past.

Our desire to put aside our natural disgust of him transpires when he experiences extreme loneliness. We are not lonely, but we can understand his feeling because at some point we’ve experienced similar feelings in our past. Through this empathy, which is more powerful than sympathy, we get closer to him. We feel his growing stress and buoy ourselves up when he takes a positive step to improve his situation. We admire his guts, clever thinking, and determination not be a pawn at the mercy of his expanding list of enemies. The author has moved us beyond mere sympathy. We now feel the power of empathy.

We have this image of this guy willing to do more than learn Italian, he must become Italian. He must be cunning, cautious and he must win over others in the story to gain their help. But we see a change here. He works them, not only for his benefit as he did in the past, but he now gives his heart and concern to others. Suddenly this man, who we feel received what he deserved, is becoming human to us and we suffer with him. The world is ganging up on him. But a few of us are on his side. We don’t want his supporters to get in trouble. We realize without their help he is a dead man. The power of suggestion is at work. We feel what it is like to be him, looking over his shoulder. We feel his hesitancy to put others in danger. We feel the love and tremendous trust the woman character brings into the story. We don’t want him to disappoint her. She is a good person and her positive view of him strengthens our belief that he is changing. With sights, sounds, pains, smells and the romantic connection of one character to another triggers our emotions and transports us into a plenary state where we are totally involved and our real world disappears. The push-pull decisions this man must make now are now of a moral nature and will have grave consequences. He is in the throes of great inner conflict. He’s not only messing with his own life, he has to consider others. Then he makes the big change. His honor or self-worth is at stake. He has to make it right at all cost. Can he pull it off? We cheer for him when amazingly he does—in a surprising way that we would never expect. Hence the book is a bestseller. So,if we trust the author to produce a great story, THE Broker proved you don't have to like the main character in the beginning. But he had better be redeemable, as Luke Ryan is in Lynde Lakes' LASSO THAT COWBOY.

Cowboy Secrets and Double Trouble

2009-06-29T17:41:00.000-07:00

Howdy all, I'm wearing my Stetson and cowboy boots today. My quote today is: "Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves." J.M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan, coined my beliefs and I hope to bring some sunshine into your life.

I'm the author of BILLBOARD COP, MIDNIGHT DESTINY and the Ryan Ranch triolgy: COWBOY LIES, LASSO THAT COWBOY and coming soon, UNDERCOVER COWBOY. My books are available at amirapress.com in both E-book and Print format.

I write romance intrigue, paranormal, mainstream, etc. I like humor and while I take my writing seriously, I don't take myself too seriously. I like to laugh, and in spite of a world, that has many problems, I work hard to find the joy: in the smiling faces and hugs of children, in a single rose, in a rainbow, in sharing my thoughts with you. This past weekend I met three new friends ( I try to reach out to at least three a day) who proved the good of humans. As I move through life I find invisable energy all around me, caressing my soul making me into, hopefully a better person. I believe this energy is available to all of us.

If you know me, or not, and want to comment, I'd love to hear from anyone who comes from love.

I write love stories, I live a love story and believe in the power of love.

When you want a romantic, humorous romp through a web of danger with characters who have strong goals and determined personalities try the Ryan Ranch Trilogy. Here is an excerpt of #2 LASSO THAT COWBOY

Talk about a bad day, Amber is roughed up by thugs, left for dead and wakes up next to a dead body. As if that isn’t enough, she is lassoed by a wise-cracking cowboy who she later finds out is her prospective boss. Then we switch to Luke. Out on the Ryan Ranch In South Texas, Luke has been up for hours, in fact, being the bad boy that he is, he is just dragging in from his wild night out and is as ornery as a Brahma. Then he spies a woman he mistakes for a local Wh... Whoops, I’ll get into that a little later. You are wondering about now if Luke is the "hero" type. Well, Luke is one of a kind, but he sure as shoot’n has the bad, bad boy brand on him. What he needs of course, is a gal who will stand up to him, ride him like a bronco and tone down his alpha, macho ways. We like 'em all male, protective, but we like the beta tenderness. Can Amber whip Luke into shape or is she too busy running for her life? I invite you to find out.

LASSO THAT COWBOY Desperate, Luke hires a nanny with no credentials. Amber, is the only prospect for the job on his remote South Texas ranch. He might not be so quick to hire her if he knew she had a loaded .38 in her purse. Her secrets could destroy
everything he's worked so hard to build--and get him and his daughter
killed.

All books available from Publisher, Amira Press, at: www.amirapress.com

Below excerpt Of Book #1
________________________________________________________________________
COWBOY LIES RYAN RANCH-SOUTH TEXAS
Author Lynde Lakes
Available in print and E-book format
Book # 1 in the Ryan Ranch Trilogy.
Four-Star review from Romantic Times Book Reviews, April 2009 issue

COWBOY LIES-Lynde Lakes- ISBN#978-1-935348-05-4

Nothing felt right—nothing felt familiar—nothing jogged memories. Even her own name sounded strange to her ears, if it was her name. Molly Ryan? That mellow name didn’t fit the fire blazing in her gut and that scared the hell out of her. Married. Was she really married to this cowboy pacing next to the fireplace like a fenced-in wild stallion?

She’d begged to stay at the hospital. She’d felt safe there, and had grown to trust Dr. De La Fuente during her months of treatment. That is, until he released her to this stranger in tight blue jeans and told her to trust the guy. How could she trust a Stetson-wearing hunk of testosterone like him? The initial shock of learning that she might be shackled to this hard-edged cowboy slid closer to full-fledged panic. Did he expect her to share his bedroom tonight?

Lamplight reflected and magnified his shadow on the wall, his movements feral, agitated. Did he resent that she’d been thrust on him in this bewildered condition? Would he turn that barely-contained anger on her? She shivered, fighting an urge to bolt. “I can’t be married to you. Nothing seems right!”
He paused, and his piercing gaze locked with hers—the intensity sent chills along her nerve endings. “You’re gonna have to trust me on this one, Molly,” he drawled. “We’re hitched.”

There was that trust word again. Before she could respond, he wheeled around and headed out of the room. This was unreal. The possibility that she’d ever loved this man, let alone married him, was as remote as finding the proverbial needle in a haystack.

Fighting the warning instinct twisting her insides, and using the strength of that growing fear, she chased him down the hallway, running to keep up. “Not so fast, cowboy. What did you say your name was again?”
He’d told her a number of times—she’d repeated the name Matt Ryan over and over in her mind, trying in vain to trigger anything that would indicate a past with him—but she wanted to keep him talking while she attempted to put things together in small circles, feeling her way.
He paused and gave her a hard look. “Okay, one more time,” he said in a low, tight voice. “I’m Matthew Ryan, Matt for short, is that so danged hard to remember?”
It wasn’t; so why didn’t his name trigger a memory? With searching fingers, she touched the tender spot where the needle had gone in. The drugs the doctor had shot into her veins to keep her calm during her long helicopter ride from the private hospital somewhere along the Mexico border to this South Texas ranch had pretty much worn off, and her head was getting clearer by the minute. The doctor had diagnosed her memory loss as traumatic-amnesia, fugue state, whatever that was.

Matt turned his back on her again and continued down the hall. His tall, lean body was custom-built to wear those hip-hugging, faded blue jeans. When he reached a closed door down the hall, he opened it and entered.

Before crossing the threshold, she peeked in. Please don’t let this be his bedroom. She sighed in relief at the sight of pastel walls, a rocking chair, baby articles, and a crib. An image of an empty crib and blood-splattered walls flashed in her mind. She stiffened until she saw the baby inside, kicking its feet in delight. She had an urge to gather the baby into her arms and run, but where? Why?

Available at: www.amirapress.com
COWBOY LIES BUY LINK
http://www.amirapress.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product/info&cPath=38products_id=169

Below excerpt of BILLBOARD COP
__________________________________________________________________
BILLBOARD COP BOSTON
Author Lynde Lakes
Available in print and E-book format
Four star review from Romantic Times Book Reviews

WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF A CONVERSATION WHERE JEN IS FACED WITH ONE OF THE MANY DECISIONS THAT DRIVES BILLBOARD COP AND HEATS THE ROMANCE:

"We're batting zero," York said. "I'm going back to the
department. I'll drop you off at your office. Finish up whatever you need to do there. I'll be back at 5:00 and we'll head for Salem."

Jen blinked in surprise. "The trip's still on after what I wrote?"

"Why not? Like you said, it's old news."

Jen's stomach fluttered, and then knotted. "How can we leave with so many things hanging?"

"This isn't a big trek, Jen. If we need to get back it'll take us less than an hour. Besides, maybe Hawthorne has the info we need to fill in the gaps." He squeezed her hand. "We can discuss this more on the way to my folks' place."

His folks' place—why did the idea of meeting them suddenly make her palms sweat? "Why don't we put a rain check on this weekend? We're onto something here and should stick with it."

"I already set it up for you to talk to my neighbor about the mayor and Coble."

Darn York. He knew that dangling the mayor's secrets in her face
would make her cave. Yet, how could she forget the rising tide of intrigue here in Boston? But what if York's neighbor had the
missing nugget of information to cut through the snarl of facts,
pinpoint the most likely players, and make everything fall into
place? She had to go, even if it meant an hour of confinement in a tiny sportscar with the sexiest cop in the world...

CLICK Here: BILLBOARD COP Buy Link, AMIRA PRESS:
http://www.amirapress.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product/info&cPath=38products_id=41

_________________________________________________________________
MIDNIGHT DESTINY. HAWAII, with all its local color and ghostly folklore.
Author Lynde Lakes
Publisher Amira Press
Available only in E-book format.

WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF A SCENE AFTER RICK CLIPS MELE'S CAR TO AVOID HITTING A MYSTERIOUS WOMAN. HE IS SIZING HER UP, KNOWING ALREADY THAT MAKING THE DECISIOIN TO TAKE HER WITH HIM WAS A MISTAKE...

Rick fought the urge to shake her. "Not a chance. If he comes to,
he'll kill us."

"If you're FBI, why not just handcuff him and take him to jail?"

Her musical accent enticed Rick in spite of her bossy tone. "Lost my cuffs when I jumped from the car. And at the moment, jail is not an option. But I'm not at liberty to explain why."

Mele crossed her arms. Her long red Mandarin-style dress clung to
her slender curves like a cranberry sushi wrap. "I won't leave him like this."

Rick stared at her. She merely stared back. Her eyes had a hint of the Japanese slant, merged with exotic Hawaiian almond shape. Throw in glossy dark mahogany brown hair and the blend resulted is one sensational-looking woman. A smudge of dirt on her cheek disturbed him beyond reason. His urge to wipe it away, although irrational, thawed something within him like a smelting furnace liquefies iron ore.

He swore under his breath as his resolve disintegrated. Roughly, he dragged Dom to the edge of the road and left him behind a
boulder. "He'll be safe enough back there. Now get into the damn
car!"

She hesitated. He saw that she was too brave for her own good.
Still, the alert sparkle in her eyes confirmed high intelligence.
He threw his hands in the air. "It's your choice. Get in, or enjoy a nice long walk on a narrow, foggy highway."

Still she didn't move. "Is he going to be okay?"

"He'll be fine!" Rick almost exploded, frustration knotting his
stomach. "And that's what scares me. As long as he's alive, that man is dangerous."

It fascinated and worried Rick the way Mele's earth-brown eyes
darkened to onyx. Until she climbed into the car and clicked her
seatbelt closed with an exaggerated snap, Rick hadn't realized he'd been holding his breath. He would never have left her, but her cooperation made his life easier.

She huddled in the bucket seat, close to the passenger door, her
arms wrapped tightly around her body as if holding herself
together. He slid behind the steering wheel and eased the silver
suitcase onto her lap. "Hold this for me," he said. "I need it up front to keep my eyes on it."

"What's in here?" She stroked the smooth top with long graceful
fingers. "A cell phone, I hope." She pressed the locked clasp and
frowned.

"No phone," Rick growled.

"Why don't I believe you?"

He didn't answer; he flicked on the windshield wipers and let the
steady clicking fill the silence. After the blades cleared away the excess condensation, he flicked them off and fiddled with the radio. He found a station playing Hawaiian music and turned the volume low. Maybe music would soothe her.

Mele dug through the storage bins in the car's center divider,
examining everything. She returned the sunglasses and other small
articles she found, then punched the button on the glove
compartment, no doubt hoping to find a cell phone inside. Rick
fought back a smile when she discovered that the glove box, too, was locked. "Got a fingernail file? Or a pocketknife?" she asked.

"You surprise me, Miss Goody-Two-Shoes." He chuckled. "You'd break into a locked compartment? Risk damaging a rental car?"

"You don't know anything about me."
~

NOTE: THIS COUPLE WILL DISCOVER THAT THEY HAVE MORE TO WORRY ABOUT THAN THE BAD GUY, DOM. THEY MUST ALSO DEAL WITH A GHOST, KIDNAPPERS, THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT AND THEIR OWN RAGING PASSIONS....

BUY Link for MIDNIGHT DESTINY:
http://amirapress.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=38products_id=68
General Info recap
COWBOY LIES, RYAN RANCH-SOUTH TEXAS
Available in print and E-book format
Book # 1 in the Ryan Ranch Trilogy.
Four star review from Romantic Times Book Reviews April 2009 issue

COWBOY LIES BUY LINK
http://www.amirapress.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product/info&cPath=38products_id=169

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BILLBOARD COP BOSTON
Available in print and E-book format
Four star review from Romantic Times Book Reviews
BBCOP BUY LINK
http://www.amirapress.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product/info&cPath=38products_id=41

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MIDNIGHT DESTINY. HAWAII, with all its local color and ghostly folklore.
E-book only.
All books available at: www.amirapress.com

Midnight Destiny buy link
http://amirapress.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=38products_id=68