The HEA Cafe

Archive for the ‘Writing Life’ Category

“Fifteen hundred dollars worth of coffee coming in duty free meant a tidy profit, whether it was Delerue-Sanders behind the smuggling or someone else. A simple plan, but one that worked all too well given the poor state of the Revenue Marine. The revenue cutters couldn’t begin to cover all of the coast, not when the ships were spread thin with surveying, rescue operations, and winter cruising between Charleston and Key West. Underfunded, understaffed, looked down on by the regular navy, despised by the merchants who paid the tariffs, the Revenue Marine was no one’s darling.

Well, except maybe Alexander Hamilton, he’d loved his revenue cutters that brought money into the Treasury, but look what happened to him, Washburn thought. Irritate the wrong people and there you are, worm food.”

Smuggler’s Bride, Darlene Marshall

Today is the birthday of the U.S. Coast Guard, a branch of the service with a fascinating history.  When I was researching Smuggler’s Bride I thought at first I’d be able to use all the early 19th c. USN research I’d done for my other novels.  Wrong.  The more I studied, the more I realized that what I really needed to know about was the Revenue Marine, aka the Coast Guard.

From its earliest days, when the USN sneered at it as “The Treasury’s pet navy”, the USCG has had PR issues.  Before the national income tax, tariffs were a key source of income for the nation and the Revenue Marine (later called the Coast Guard) was charged with patrolling the waters and making sure goods weren’t smuggled in without payment.  As one historian said, “Unlike the Navy, they never had a Marryat.”  There wasn’t a historian crafting exciting tales of life in the Revenue Marine so few people knew what this brave service did, the branch of the armed forces that fights battles in peacetime.

Nonetheless, for over 200 years the USCG has been, as their motto so aptly puts it, “Semper Paratus”–Always Ready, whether it was keeping slavers from smuggling in illicit human cargo in the 19th C., stopping drug dealers in the 21st C., saving boaters and rescuing the shipwrecked, teaching water safety and more. Today they’re part of Homeland Security and continue their work guarding our borders and waterways.

So it’s time to say, “Thank you, Coasties, and Happy 219th Birthday!”  They may not have gotten the PR they deserve over the last two centuries, but we’re glad they’re there.

I didn’t do this deliberately, but having the 4th of each month as my regular blog day means every year I get to write a Fourth of July blog.  And I like that.[g]

I was listening Friday to Morning Edition on NPR, as I do most mornings.  They followed a long standing ritual of having their anchors and correspondents read the Declaration of Independence.  It was fun picking out the voices I knew–Daniel Shor, Nina Totenberg, Sylvia Poggioli and all the various anchors of Morning Edition and All Things Considered.  That was special fun for me because I used to be a news director/anchor on the radio, and even now, decades later, older residents of my town recognize my voice.  When I’m in the grocery people will hear me and say, “Didn’t you use to be so-and-so who did the news on WGGG?”, which is nice after all these years away from the microphone.

Anyway, something struck me as I listened to the NPR correspondents read the Declaration of Independence aloud.  The richness of the words contained in that document.  So many of us neglect to take the time to read our country’s historic documents, even though as writers words are our tools.  You’re missing something if you don’t.  Maybe it bored you in junior high civics class, but as an adult and as a writer you should have a greater appreciation for the clarity of the writing of our Founding Fathers, the care with which they chose the words they would pass down to us more than 200 years later.

For example, did you know that Section Eight of the US Constitution authorizes Congress to “… grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal…”?  This means Congress can authorize individuals to be privateers, and someday I may write that thriller  about Congress authorizing a post-9/11 privateer to hunt down terrorists.  Oh sure, there are now international treaties outlawing privateering (and incidentally, the US signed on very late to that–after the Civil War), but this is the constitution.  If I wanted to, I’m sure I could work out the details.

Anyway (again), the point of this rambling blog post is this:  It’s the Fourth of July.  If you’re an American, be proud!  Read your Declaration of Independence. Enjoy the shiver it sends down your spine when you think about these individuals pledging ” our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor” so that you can live today in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.  Had they lost, they would have been drawn-and-quartered or hanged as traitors to the Crown. They chose their words carefully.  Maybe they had a premonition that 200 years later we would be reading them, and saying “Thank you.”

I like writing in the winter.  There’s something about the crispness in the air that galvanizes my muse.  That, and the lack of humidity.  In the winter I can take my laptop out onto my Florida porch and look at all my flowers in bloom, and gloat over how my colleagues up North are buried under snow.  In the summer, I’m out for brief periods in the morning and at sunset, because in between it’s just too, too oppressive.

But you still have to write, no matter what the weather.  I meet people all the time who tell me they want to write a book, and every time I have to bite my tongue.  My automatic response is, “Well, why don’t you?”  I’ve learned though that sometimes folks just don’t get it.  The only way to be a writer is to sit down and write.  The only way to get published is to finish the manuscript.  The only way to finish the manuscript is to keep plunking it out, one word after the other.

That’s all I’ve got today.  But even though I didn’t feel like writing, I sat down this morning and plunked it out, one word after the other.  It’s not perfect, and it’s not finished, but eventually it’s going to be a novel.  Then I’ll be able to lie out in the hammock (at least for an hour or two) and enjoy summertime the way it was meant to be enjoyed.

“Every human is an artist. The dream of your life is to make beautiful art.” – Don Miguel Ruiz.

I recently read The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz and am trying to apply them to my life, because, hey, like everyone else, I want to help change the world.  It begins with me, right?

Only, applying the four agreements to every area of my life feels like moving the proverbial mountain, so I decided to do a test drive with my writing career. So far, it’s working. Better than working, it’s actually providing what Miguel promised it would: freedom, happiness and yes, even beautiful art.

Agreement One is Be Impeccable With Your Word. In life, this translates to stop the negative voices in your head and quit gossiping about others. When it comes to writing, you can apply this agreement to the voice inside your head that tells you your writing sucks. You can also apply this to your characters. In the beginning of your story, they’re lying to themselves and lying to other folks as well, trying to keep some secret buried or their feelings under lock and key. As the story progresses, they should come to terms with their truth, internally and externally, in order for them to grow.  Make this particular agreement with your readers and deliver it faithfully and you’ll have fans forever. 

Agreement Two is Don’t Take Anything Personally. I struggle with this agreement a lot. I take everything personally. Once I came to terms with the idea behind this agreement, though, I fell like a weight fell off my shoulders. It’s NOT about me. The way others react to me is a projection of their reality, not mine.

With my writing, I’ve learned it’s not about me either. It’s about the story. As the insightful Stephen King tells us, we should serve the story, not our ego. When an agent or editor rejects what we write, it sucks, but remember the rejection is about their reality. They have markets to abide by, budgets to keep in mind, office politics to deal with. Yes, the story is our baby, but it’s also a marketable (or unmarketable) commodity. The book of your heart is not the book of everyone else’s heart.

Agreement Three is Don’t Make Assumptions. Personally, I spend a lot of time reliving the past and projecting into the future.  If I’d only said this, or did that, or stood up to so-and-so, I’d be happier. As writers, we make a lot of assumptions, too. My critique partner said I better drop my prologue or no agent will ever sign me. The hero and heroine must meet in the first chapter because Bestselling Author always writes her stories that way. I’m doomed because I’ve accumulated five rejection letters.

Can you feel the drama? The heartbreak? The despair? Save it for your characters. Channel it into them. And while you’re caught up in their story, pause for a moment to realize you’re living in the moment when you’re writing. Not the past and not future – well, at least not your past or your future. You’re in the present, no assumptions in sight. Live it to the fullest and I guarantee it will show in your story.

The final agreement is Do Your Best. Unlike life, we can redo and rewrite our stories ad infinitum; however, if you do your best with every draft, you’ll end up with a wonderful story you’ll feel proud to show the world.

Even if you’re not a writer, you’re an artist of your own dream, your own life. Check out the four agreements, take them for a test run in one area of your life, and see what comes of it. You might just make beautiful art.

(This blog originally appeared in The Samhellion. Thank you to all the authors who contributed!)

My name is Misty, and I’m a writing addict. 

Today I wrote The End on my third super agent book. As I gave my hero, Michael, his long-deserved HEA, I actually teared up. He’s such a good guy, and I put him through all kinds of hell in the first book of the series, Operation Sheba. His girlfriend betrayed him with his old rival, his boss set him up as the CIA’s mole, and terrorists held him hostage in his own home. He was turned him into a human bomb and shot in the chest.

I left him alone for the second book, giving him a chance to recover. He needed to grieve over losing Julia, and he also needed time to let his physical wounds heal. Then there was the post traumatic stress he was trying to suppress and the deep rage over the hostage situation building inside him. All difficult internal challenges he had to overcome in the third book.

Bringing characters to life, and putting them through hell in order to find a happy ending, gives me a high that no drug can. The thrill of writing sends me on a rollercoaster ride. Every scene, every chapter, is a slow, deliberate climb to the top and an exhilarating zoom down to the bottom again. I’m a prolific writer and when people ask me how I turn out stories so fast, I always tell them it’s not the how that’s important, it’s the why. I’m an addict. I need the rush.

I’m not alone with my God/Dr. Frankenstein complex. Several of the authors I interviewed for this article, including Marie-Nicole Ryan (One Too Many), stated similar reasons for their choice to be a writer. As she puts it, “Writing fills the undeniable urge to create, which is always present in my life. There’s much magic involved in creating and completing a new story.”

Vivi Andrews (The Ghost Shrink, the Accidental Gigolo & the Poltergeist Accountant) loves the control writing gives her. “There is something extremely cathartic, emotionally speaking, about having the power to make that happily ever after happen.  Good, bad, or ugly, everyone gets what they deserve and I get the intense satisfaction of seeing that justice in words when it can be so elusive in ‘real’ life.  If I can control that one area, I can let go of all the things I can’t control.  It’s my own private therapy session for the control-freak within.”

Writing as therapy was a common denominator among the authors I spoke with. “Writing can be boiled down into two major parts for me,” Michelle Miles (Nice Girls Do) says. “One part is Quell The Voices In My Head, and one part is Escapism From The Real World.”

Shiela Stewart (Tempting the Darkness) agrees. “For me, writing has always been both a necessity and a means of escape. I need to get the stories out of my head or it will explode, and escaping into the fantasy world makes me a much saner person.”

In the current economy, escapism is the new black. We’re all in need of a good fantasy. “Writing gives me an escape from the chaos that is my life,” states Kaye Chambers (Tiger by the Tail). “When I’m writing, I can be whoever – or whatever – I want to be and not give a hoot about the consequences!”

According to scientific studies, writing has positive health benefits. Because you use your left brain, which is analytical and rational, to put sentences together, your right brain is free to create, intuit and feel. Mental blocks crumble and give you brainpower to better understand yourself, others and the world around you.

Keith Melton (Blood Vice) has found this is true. “Getting out of my head and into another person’s head, and living their dreams, fears, needs and sorrows, increases my empathy and ability to relate to the rest of humanity. I believe the experience of fiction enhances the connections between us all.”

Whether writing satisfies our need to create, keeps us sane, or helps us relate to others, we are all addicted to telling stories. No drugs or professional therapy necessary. Just another story…

I was going to take a break from writing this week. Do some spring cleaning. Catch up with a few friends over lunch. Paint my bathroom. But all I can think about is the next world, the next character, the next rush. Yep, I need another hit, another story.

Writing is my addiction, and I don’t plan to break the habit any time soon.
Misty Evans is an award-winning, multi-published author of CIA thrillers and paranormal comedy. Visit her at www.readMistyEvans.com .