Looking for Lightning

Looking for Lightning

By Pat Cunningham

Inspiration and I have a love/hate relationship. I’d love to have more of it and hate that I don’t. It’s especially tough when you’re slogging through a story and you hit a wall and you call on your muse for a little help and she’s sprawled on the couch watching game shows and you’re left to fend for yourself. This tends to happen right before a deadline. Makes day jobs seem like heaven by comparison.
When the lightning strikes, it’s magic. I once had a character’s entire backstory come to me while I was vacuuming. Full-blown story ideas have hit while I’m driving without making me swerve off the road. On those days everything works and everything’s golden. You sit at the keyboard, or take up the pen, and the words just pour out by themselves. That’s when the muse redeems herself.
The rest of the time … well, you know how it is. I can go for weeks without a hit. I fly my kite and key through my thoughts and wait for the lightning to strike, but the skies remain clear and cloudless and the muse is off working on her tan. The words dribble out of the pen and lie on the paper like sludge and glower up at me and go, "What?"
I wonder how many writers live like this? Or with its opposite? Stephen King goes to the grocery store, imagines dinosaurs in the aisles, goes home and writes The Mist. He must live in an inspirational strike zone. Me … too often I find myself in Death Valley, where rainfall can be measured in drops and lightning strikes are rare.
Not much you can do in a case like that except fire up the generator and start cranking, and generate your own lightning.
Over the years I’ve discovered I get the bulk of my ideas while I’m already working on something. The act of writing itself becomes the key that draws the lightning down. A character’s offhand remark can spark a sequel, or even a series. Since I’m a pantser, I write myself into a lot of corners, yet somehow, if I keep at it, I find I can write myself out of them. If I work at creating the sparks, the lightning hits on its own.
Just recently I was working on a werewolf story. Out of nowhere the lupine protag starts telling this anecdote about some relative who entered herself in a dog show as a joke, and won. "Hey," I thought, "that sounds like a story by itself. What do you think?" I asked my muse.
"Whatever," she said, and went back to watching Wheel of Fortune.
Nice work if you can get it. For me, it’s back to the keyboard.

REMEMBER: HUGE IMPORTANT NEWS!!!
Pat’s short story the ‘SNAKE IN THE GLASS’ will be featured in the #7 issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, NEW YEAR’S DAY edition.
How wintery cool is that for all those hibernating serpents? And kewl for all the humans who want to curl up with a great story this winter.

Note: Pat, wonderful insights about inspiration and similar to my own. Yep, you're driving along and a key piece you need for the next chapter hits right between the eyes. And no, thank goodness, I’ve never run off the road or caused an accident...yet.
And, boy oh boy, do I know about those corners!
Pat, I love that dog show werewolf idea!!!

Savanna
Savanna Kougar ~ Run on the Wild Side of Romance ~ http://savannakougar.com ~

Top Ten Things That Brighten My World

Top 10 Things That Brighten My World

By Pat Cunningham

Face it: it’s a werewolf-eat-vampire world out there (at least for us paranormal fans), but there are plenty of great things to brighten your day. Here are some of my favorites:

10. Bravo’s reality lineup – Project Runway and Top Chef in particular. Any show that promotes talent, creativity and imagination gets thumbs up in my book. You have to admire somebody who can create a wearable dress out of Twizzlers. And who doesn’t love Tim Gunn?

9. Barnes & Noble bookstores – mainly for providing all those armchairs and sofas for the financially challenged among us. It’s like the library, but with a bigger selection.

8. Rail trails – I don’t know about you, but I live in a hilly area, which makes walks and bike riding a challenge. Rail trails are level. You can go five miles without breaking a sweat. Ditto for New Jersey’s boardwalks. Just watch out for bikers if you’re on foot and vice versa.

7. The Mummy Returns – I can’t name another movie that has so many cute guys in it. Brendan Fraser. Arnold Vosloo. Oded Fehr. And, for about 10 minutes or so, The Rock. (The part at the end doesn’t count because he’s CGI.) Oh yeah, and I like the story, too.

6. Stephen King – for keeping me from sound sleep for 30 years. Thanks a lot, fellah.

5. Computers – technology couldn’t eliminate typing, but it did away with retyping. Nothing beats a computer when revision time rolls around. And with email, I not only save postage, I don’t find thick manila envelopes rolled up and jammed into my mailbox any more. Now I can delete rejection letters, which allows for a measure of satisfaction.

4. Harrison Ford – the reason I saw Star Wars 47 times. He’s gotten a bit craggy, but oh that sexy smile. (Excuse me, have to go watch the Raiders trilogy again.)

3. Caffeine – my drug of choice, the chemical without which no writer can function. If I don’t think I’ll make it to midnight on New Year’s, I have a cheesesteak and a Coke around 5, then wait for the carbs and caffeine to hit my system. Try this, it really works.

2. Checks from publishers – the best kind of validation there is. Not only do you have a physical object to wave in the faces of family members who told you to go get a job, but you can spend it on –

1. Chocolate – need I elaborate?

That’s my Top 10 list. What’s yours?

REMEMBER: HUGE IMPORTANT NEWS!!!

Pat’s short story the ‘SNAKE IN THE GLASS’ will be featured in the #7 issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, NEW YEAR’S DAY edition.
How wintery cool is that for all those hibernating serpents? And kewl for all the humans who want to curl up with a great story this winter.

Pat, Harrison Ford and chocolate...I couldn’t agree more!!! Computers, yeah, okay...lots of good there...but, I’m waiting for the really good Star Trek and beyond ones.

Savanna

Savanna Kougar ~ Run on the Wild Side of Romance ~ http://savannakougar.com ~

In Praise of Pen and Paper

In Praise of Pen and Paper

By Pat Cunningham

Don’t get me wrong. I love computers. Rewrites and edits are a breeze now, and whole novels can be emailed to publishers without requiring a trip to the post office.
However …
Call me old school, but I haven’t dropped the pen and paper habit just yet. I still get a thrill of anticipation when I open a notebook and see all those blank, lined pages. I have half a dozen pens in my purse at any given time. I look forward to August, when school supplies go on sale. My idea of an ideal writing session is to sit in bed in my jammies with a cup of tea and the radio on and fill up all those lines with black ink. The public school system went to a lot of time and trouble to teach me penmanship; I might as well put it to good use.
I like to do my first drafts longhand. Scribble it all down in bed, on the sofa, on the deck when it’s nice out, during commercials on TV, or during the show if it’s lousy. The second draft is when I type it into the computer. From there all work is done on screen. If I need to add a scene or chapter, I tend to rough it out on paper first. I can and have written right on the computer (or on the typewriter, back in the Dark Ages), but once it’s printed out it seems so … permanent. Longhand is me talking to myself, working out all the kinks and clunkers before I commit to the final version.
There are pros and cons to both methods. You don’t want to know how many notebooks I’ve got piled up in the closet, filled with stalled stories, snippets of inspiration, ideas I never got back to and books that went nowhere. Sometimes the pen can’t keep up with my brain; that’s when a keyboard comes in handy. Unfortunately, you can’t chew on the end of a keyboard (at least not easily) while you’re waiting for the right words to come, or doodle in the margins of a computer screen. Pens tend to run out of ink just when you’re on a hot streak, and I can’t always remember which notebook holds the chapters I want to get back to, or which room of the house I left it in. On the other hand, I’ve never had a pen go corrupt on me in the middle of a project, and notebooks don’t crash. If nothing else, longhand ensures me a backup version in case technology fails. As long as I can read my own handwriting.
I suppose at some point I’ll just get a laptop and stop slaughtering trees. Until then, it’s off to the dollar store for a packet of pens and a five-subject spiral. I’ve got a book to thrash out.

REMEMBER: BIG IMPORTANT NEWS!!!

I received my first online issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies...and only wish I could get over to read the two featured stories.
Pat’s short story the ‘SNAKE IN THE GLASS’ will be featured in the #7 issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, NEW YEAR’S DAY edition.
How wintery cool is that for all those hibernating serpents? And kewl for all the humans who want to curl up with a great story this winter.

Personal Note ~ yeah, I got the notebooks full, too. And there is definitely something magical about penning longhand. However, all my trees must be casting their spell over me...only use the computer...they whisper over and over with the fluttering dance of their leaves...at least, until winter sets in.

The Devil's In the Details

THE DEVIL’S IN THE DETAILS

by Pat Cunningham

So I’ve got my opening scene. The hero arrives at Philadelphia Airport. He spots the heroine burning something in an ashtray. Turns out she’s a witch, and she’s casting a protection spell on her boyfriend’s plane to ensure him a safe flight. And the plot’s off and running.
But –
Plausibility time. Is this scene believable? Not the witchcraft. The other stuff. In these paranoid times, is it possible to start a fire, even a tiny one, in an airport ashtray without security swooping down on you? Do they even have ashtrays any more, given Pennsylvania’s recent ban on tobacco use in public places? (Our Heroine’s first words to Our Hero: “I wasn’t smoking.”)
Not to mention the story’s set in a real city, populated by real people, including real readers just waiting to pounce on any little fallacy. Worse yet, the hero’s British, and his speech will have to reflect that. On top of everything else I now have to bone up on current British slang so I get all the idioms right.
And that’s roughly the first two pages.
Not so long ago I came across a fantasy story with an opening set in Ephrata, Pennsylvania. The protag stopped at a strip mall at the Route 222/322 interchange. I forget what happened next, because I live in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, and when I drove up 322 the other day there was no strip mall at the 222 exit. There’s a Wal-Mart and an Arby’s, and a truck stop across the street. Before that it was farmland. If you want to go to a strip mall in Ephrata, you have to drive down the old road, Route 272, on the other side of town. The writer should have called me first and asked.
Did I have a good laugh at that writer’s expense? You betcha. Would I buy a book by that author? Not likely.
Okay, mistakes of that nature aren’t exactly earth-shattering, not like if he’d put tigers in Africa or had carnivorous cows. The world didn’t end just because he got Ephrata’s geography wrong. It may actually have been a good story. I’ll never know because I didn’t finish it. That opening threw me right off.
This is why I sweat the small stuff. If enough people get thrown off too many times they may never trust me again.
Suppose I put South Street in Germantown. You think Philadelphia would ever forgive me? I don’t want a major US city mad at me. One stupid mistake, like having a poodle shed on the rug (poodles don’t shed), and they’re all over you, and your credibility is toast.
No wonder writers make up towns to set their stories in. Or why Stephen King sets most of his books in his Maine backyard. Write what you know, and if you don’t know, you’d damn well better find out.
Luckily for me, I live within a two-hour drive of Philly, and can hop in the car for a day trip to check out whatever I can’t dig up on the Net. Such as whether or not there are any deer in Fairmount Park so my werewolf hero can hunt them. Otherwise the heroine’s going to have to drive him out to Valley Forge, and the poor guy’ll be clutching the door handle in a panic because she’s speeding down – to him – the wrong side of the road. The devil’s in the details, but so is the fun. Happy researching!

THE BIG IMPORTANT NEWS!!!
Pat’s short story the ‘SNAKE IN THE GLASS’ will be featured in the #7 issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, NEW YEAR’S DAY edition.

How wintery cool is that for all those hibernating serpents? And kewl for all the humans who want to curl up with a great story this winter.

Personal Note: Nope, poodles don't shed. They're just horrendous to brush out when their owners let their coats get matted. I know! I could write a book about it!

FROM PUN TO PUBLISHED: SNAKE IN THE GLASS

FROM PUN TO PUBLISHED: SNAKE IN THE GLASS
by Pat Cunningham

Savanna’s after me to blog about my most recent story sale, so here goes. The story was written about four years ago, so this is the best I remember it. (The long interval was because it spent a horrendous amount of time on editorial desks – at least a year at one place, over a year and a half at another. And that’s just for a story. I feel for your novelists out there.)

Anyway. I know it started with a pun. I don’t know why I was thinking of the phrase "snake in the grass," but my pun muscle went into action. One altered letter later, I had a story title. That was the easy part.

The plot required a bit more thought. What kind of a glass was it, and how did the snake get in there? Why was the snake in there? I remember years ago places like Spencer Gifts used to carry glass globes/paperweights with things like scorpions and tarantulas in them. Maybe baby rattlesnakes too. So that answered the glass question, but it still didn’t give me a plot.

Luckily the subconscious mind is a wonderful ally. Pester it long enough and it’ll give you answers just to shut you up. The snake turned out to be a spirit creature, half of a shapechanger’s soul. A magician split the shapechanger in two and imprisoned his animal half in the globe. The globe was stolen by a peddler, Marchand, who tried to sell it to a witch. And then the shapechanger’s human half showed up on her doorstep, looking for the rest of him. Now we’re cooking!

Any good story needs a dollop of conflict, and I found it in the witch, Therese. A survivor of a purge that wiped out most of the magic-users in her world, she’s become adept at hiding out and keeping her head down. She never had much to do with shapechangers. Now she’s stuck with a dying one asking her for help. She can leave him to waste away, or risk exposure by helping him track down his snake-self. And she doesn’t even like snakes.

Since I’m a seat-of-the-pants type of writer, I tend to dive in and see where the story goes, discovering things as I blunder along. This method can lead up a lot of blind alleys, but sometimes you’re rewarded with pleasant surprises. The opening scene between Therese and Marchand flowed out of my pen on its own and survived basically intact from first draft to final submission. The character Yves started out as a name tossed off in dialogue and morphed into a major player. I was halfway through the story before I realized Marchand was a dwarf. I don’t know why the characters all have French names; it just seemed to fit. That tricky subconscious at work again.

And that’s where stories come from. A little wordplay and voila.
Too bad this wasn’t a romance. Imagine a love scene involving a man who can change into a python at will. I think I’ll leave that one to the erotica writers.

*****************
Snake in the Glass will be in an upcoming issue of the ezine ~
Beneath Ceaseless Skies ~ http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com ~ is a new online magazine of literary adventure fantasy, and will release its debut issue on Thursday, October 9.

The cover art for the Beneath Ceaseless Skies website before our premiere issue is "King of Ruins" by Mats Minnhagen.
Mats Minnhagen is a digital artist living in Sweden. He has worked as Concept Artist on EA Dice and currently freelances with role-playing-game, book, and popular science illustrations.

Note: Okay, once again, synchronicity strikes like *dare I say it* a rattlesnake. The baby rattler that was sunning himself on my bedroom window sill less than a week ago. So, if I were penning this blog it could be titled ~ Snake Not In the Grass...but near the glass...okay, bad, but, there ya go...my mind isn’t always snappy happy with creativity.

p.s. The pic used above is just for show, and is not related to the blog or the ezine.