Carla Swafford, Author

A THOUSAND FACES

Posted on November 22, 2015 by Carla Swafford, Author

psycho Have you ever heard someone say about another person, “She’s the same every day.” They are usually referring to an even tempered, always pleasant person. They meant it as a compliment. I never thought it like that. To have the same emotion without showing frustration, anger, joy, despair, etc., something isn’t right. But that’s only one face the person is showing.

No, they weren’t saying it about me. HA!

We all know that people have more than one face. You’re probably thinking split personality, No. Think of it this way.

When you’re at work, you act like an professional (I hope). You watch how you talk and act.

When you’re at home, and if you have children, you show another side of yourself. You sure can’t treat them like co-workers. You have a spouse, you talk differently with them. Don’t want to treat her/him like a child. You have a mom or/and dad, once again another face to each one. You meet a stranger you’re interested in knowing, or a stranger you want to go away, you’ll find yourself talking and acting differently.

Of course, there are outside factors that can change how a person responds. Maybe a death of a love one or being involved in a horrific accident. Then from that day on, more faces are presented to different people.

That’s why one person can remark how even tempered a person is at work, while another will remember that same person went bonkers at a ball game.

We each have faces to fit the situation, time and place, but each face or tone is a small piece of the same person inside.That’s why you can know a person for years and they can act in an unexpected manner.

Okay. That’s all the lite-psychology for today. LOL!

So if you’re told your hero or heroine acted out of character, it is most likely you didn’t make clear the motives or circumstances behind the tone, attitude or feeling. No need to go into details about the physical abuse a character went through as a child. Usually, it can be done with one sentence when we want to present another aspect of the character’s personality. Later in the story, you can sprinkle more of the backstory. No need to info dump.

End of lesson for the day. 🙂

Hidden Heat

Getting All Revved Up

Posted on October 12, 2015October 12, 2015 by Carla Swafford, Author

How well do you remember things? I forget stuff all the time. So go to Amazon and preorder Hidden Heat. Click here. Presto! On February 16, it will show up on your Kindle or in an email.

Full Heat, Hidden Heat, My Books, TV

Watching The Voice

Posted on October 1, 2015 by Carla Swafford, Author

If y 8251a-adamlevine25e225802599sgirlfriend252cannevyalitsynaandadamlevineinvoguerussia ou don’t know already, I’m a big fan of Adam Levine. I love Maroon 5. And yes, I enjoy Pharrell (talent galore) and Blake (funny!). So watching The Voice makes sense. The blind auditions are the best part (along with Adam). In fact, Adam is who I based Thorn (HIDDEN HEAT) on. Just had to say it. Now back to my writing (FULL HEAT).

My Books, Writing

Taking Time To Brush The Hero’s Teeth

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Carla Swafford, Author

Over the last year, I’ve read on Facebook and reviews for other authors’ books, readers complaining about the characters not taking baths, mowing the lawn, doing laundry, or needing to stop to pee. *snicker* They’re talking about the hero and heroine doing normal activities that a person will often do throughout the day.

I know sometimes I get so involved in writing the romance or the suspense, I forget to let my characters eat or sleep. So this is a valid concern.

Of course, the knee-jerk response is to say all of that will slow down the story.

In any book that is fast paced, high energy like most of mine, I have to remind myself to let the characters catch their breath, have a little down time. When I’m in edits, I try to make sure they get plenty of food and rest and try to think of other small daily functions I can mention.

Note that I said mention.

Don’t start explaining to the reader how she or he separated the colors from whites, folded the laundry, and placed them in the closet. Unless she’s a psycho serial killer and has a body in the closet and the laundry belongs to her victims, I rather not read about it.

If you want to show that moment of normalcy, you can have the hero changing the oil in his souped up classic Camaro and planning in his head the next raid against the bad guys. Maybe using a wrench to bang on the stuck oil pan in anger when he remembers what had gone wrong with the last mission. You get the idea. The everyday function is in the background. Kind of like, the characters are walking and thinking or talking. You don’t describe each step.

Well, like everything, unless he’s escaping from a killer and clinging to a ledge of a mountain. Then each step will count.

GOODNESS! I can’t help it. There is a good reason I write romantic suspense.

But it’s important to remember that whatever you place in that type of scene, you must have the plot moving forward, a tidbit of information the reader needs to put two and two together then or later. Or prepare the reader for what will come next. Along the way, this is a good time to show characterization.

Anyway, I believe you get the idea. I’ll shut up now.

My Books, Thoughts, Writing

My Thoughts on Self-Publishing

Posted on September 15, 2015 by Carla Swafford, Author

Yep. My thoughts. Doesn’t mean they’re written in stone or scientifically correct, this is mostly just what I read and heard from others, and personal experience.

Sadly, I believe that the majority of the people who self-publish are like the thousands of people who went to California or Alaska to strike it rich. No. The gold wasn’t spread across the ground in nuggets. No. You couldn’t sit there and expect things to happen. Yes. There are people waiting to take your money and give little in return.

First a fact, I asked my editor and agent a simple question. Since the self-publishing boom, have you seen a decline, same amount, or increase in submissions? My agent said it was the same amount, while my editor said it had increased.*

I truly thought it would be less. So often I hear from those who are self-published that they will never go through a traditional publisher. God bless America! I think it’s great they have the choice.

But from the information my agent and editor kindly provided me, I understand that to mean writers still prefer the traditional route. No surprise there.

I know I prefer going with a traditional publishing house. Yes, I do have two novellas (short books) I self-published, and will probably do it again in the future for the heck of it. Overall, I rather have a publishing house handling/paying for the editing, cover, and distribution.

To me, self-publishing took too much time away from what I prefer to do: to be with my family and write. (I have a full time day job.) Plus to self-publish a book correctly, it takes money. I spent $500 per novella to prepare them for publication.

I’m sure there are dozens of stories out there about a person who didn’t pay for editing, did their own art work and published it only on Amazon and made thousands of dollars. Yet, at the same time those dozens have to be compared to the thousands upon thousands of people who self-published with little to no success.

Think of it this way, in 2013, there were 11 MILLION books for sale on Amazon (includes nonfiction). Presently, there are over 900,000 Kindle books. I like the playing field to be stacked in my favor, and personally, being published traditionally does that. Another way to do that is to improve my writing. It takes constant work.