6.30.16 – If you’ve finished FIELD OF GRAVES, it’s time for the next Taylor book…

By JT Ellison

Hi, guys!

Amy here, taking the reins from J.T. so she can, you know, write stuff for all of us to devour.

If you’ve finished FIELD OF GRAVES (congrats, by the way!), now’s the time to move on to the next book in the Lt. Taylor Jackson series: ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS. It’s got a new cover, a creepy killer who likes to leave unconventional bread crumbs at the scenes of his crimes, and more Taylor/Baldwin goodness. You don’t wanna miss this book (or, if you’ve read it, take a walk down Memory Lane and revisit this one!).

Here’s a bit more about it:

Book #1 in the heart-racing Taylor Jackson series chronicles a serial killer who leaves a gruesome memento at each crime scene—his prior victim’s severed hand. As the killer spirals out of control, Taylor and Baldwin must face a horrible truth: the purest evil is born of private lies.

Pre-Order the $9.99 Paperback!

AMAZON

BARNES & NOBLE

BOOKS-A-MILLION

INDIEBOUND

Via: JT Ellison

    

6.26.16 – Sunday Smatterings

By JT Ellison

Hello, chickens. Welcome to Sunday.

I hope you’re keeping cool and your summer has officially kicked off to a good start. I spent most of last week in Colorado visiting family, enjoying weather a bit more arid than the muggy heat of Tennessee. Though I’m not complaining—after a couple weeks in a suitcase, there really is no place like home.

Here’s what happened on the Internets this week:

owl

This owl melted my heart. I literally tear up every time I see the pictures, and the story behind them is just as heartwarming. It makes me think that staring into the great unknown isn’t perhaps as scary as it once was.

mysteries and thrillers

One of our favorite book sites, BookRiot, listed 10 thrillers & mysteries to read this summer (spoiler alert: you may recognize one of them!).

cartography and comparison

On Cartography & Comparison—aka the difference between Google Maps and Apple Maps. This is one of the coolest stories you’ll read all summer. Really great for those of you who love maps and like to argue about directions.

notebooks

How many notebooks do you really need? (if you’re me: a bunch) I’m always on the lookout for a perfect physical system, but I’ve settled pretty well into my Habanas lately. Though true confession: I bought a Midori travel notebook system last night. Sigh.

bookish jewelry

This bookish jewelry is all kinds of adorable. Want!

passion

Food for thought: “Why following your passion isn’t always the best advice.” This video was interesting to me for a numbers of reasons, possibly because I did put my passion on hold for so long and simply pulled down a paycheck. I think it’s important to have pride in your work, and teach kids a trade. Because if the world collapses, someone’s going to have to rebuild it…

And closer to home:

Lambrusco

On The Wine Vixen, I talked about my go-to red when it’s summer and it’s scorching and you want something boozy and cold.

FIELD OF GRAVES

Want an omniscient view of how FIELD OF GRAVES came into being? Here you go!

On tours, fear, and everything in between

It’s been quite a past few weeks in the headlines, hasn’t it? That, coupled with lots of tour travel, had me pensive about traveling and made a few things clear: like what I need to be doing for the rest of the summer (hint: I’m taking a big online break from social media, blogging, the works.) Assistant Amy will be running things, and I’ll bet you don’t even miss me. ?

That’s all from me, lovelies. Enjoy your day, and hug on your people. You both deserve a little love today.

xoxo,
J.T.

Via: JT Ellison

    

6.23.16 – On Tours, Fear, and Everything in Between

By JT Ellison

Tonight I will return home after ten days on the road. There is one more airport to conquer, one more flight to take, and then I can collapse. I’ve been in Colorado for the past few days, finishing up the FIELD OF GRAVES tours, seeing my family, hanging with some friends. It’s been a nice mini-break, though I’ve worked every day. And though there have been times of silence and contemplation, I can’t seem to truly relax.

Something is bothering me.

Well, many things are bothering me. I’m furious and heartbroken over Orlando. I’ve had to stay off social media for the most part because seeing my friends yell at each other upsets me. From the vagaries of presidential politics to the excess of cilantro in guacamole, everything is up for debate now, for judgement, for all-out shout-fests and insults. It makes me lose faith in humanity.

I went out on the road the day after the attack. Was I nervous? Yes. But the moment I stepped through the doors of my airport, something shifted in me. It shifted in everyone, I think. Everyone who stepped away from their screens and actually interacted with the world.

People were quieter than normal, but the smiles were genuine. The airport is always a frenetic, intense place (one I love, but I’m odd) and this was no different… and yet it was. The people who were looking out for our safety, TSA and the police, seemed more engaged. The travelers were more patient. There was kindness: offers to help with bags, pleasant small talk, compliments, no complaining or bitching.

For a moment, I thought, Wow, everyone’s on their best behavior. And then I realized, no, that’s not it.

We are standing together.

We are standing together.

We are standing together.

Any lingering nerves disappeared. I felt brave and strong.

I saw this togetherness all week long. I was in five airports. I spoke in five bookstores. I was in four hotels. And in each place, this vein of kindness, of courage and selflessness, was open and overflowing. I had so much fun being with readers and booksellers. These are my people, yes, but it was a stellar trip on all fronts.

Fact is, there was something special about being with people this week.

We all know people will say things online they would never say to someone’s face. Likewise, great kindnesses abound. But the perpetual outrage that I see online was blessedly missing from my life as I shook hands, hugged, signed books, accepted drinks and food, keys and pens and soaps.

Everyone was just a little gentler with their strangers.

I try very hard to conduct myself online in a manner that’s not confrontational, not alienating. I respect that we all have our own thoughts about pretty much everything, and realize there might be 5 people on this earth that actually agree on all these things. And I rarely, if ever, discuss hot button topics, because as a regular Joe, my opinion on these matters are irrelevant.

But as an author, I do have a responsibility. And I try to live up to that responsibility in a slightly different way than many. My tool of communication is my novels. My social commentary is through my novels. My job is to tell a story. My job is to make you think, make you wonder, make you happy and sad, and do it in all the right places. My job is to entertain you, to help you escape, to give you a respite from the barrage of reality we’re all faced with, day in and day out. To (hopefully) make you lose sleep because you’re engrossed. To educate, to illuminate, to enrage. My job is to give you something you’ve never seen before, something that will linger with you long after the cover is closed.

I do my best.

The past few months have been rough, I won’t lie. It’s been a long few months for us all out in the real world, and it’s been a long few months at home, too. Launching two books and doing two tours in the span of three months has taken a lot out of me. I’ve put a lot into these two babies. I haven’t been writing nearly enough. (Though don’t worry, I have been. Without the writing, the tours don’t happen, after all.) But even with the copious amounts of help I receive from Amazing Amy and my husband and my publishers, the juggling of turning an introvert into a temporary extrovert named Author Girl has me pretty much whipped.

And so. Call it a social experiment, call it a battery recharge, call it a finding of oneself, but I’m going to take a small sabbatical from the interwebs. It’s well overdue. Normally I leave for Lent, but because of the release timing for NO ONE KNOWS, I had to come back early, and trust me, the time off that I did have was consumed with PR. And the machine didn’t stop spinning from then on.

But it’s more than wanting a little break from the online world. I’ve been very affected by the interactions I’ve had IRL—in real life—over the past couple of weeks. It reminds me that I spend much too much time staring at my screens, and not enough time in the living world.

What will I be doing on my enforced break? Well, I found my yoga practice again on the road—thank heavens!—so there will be lots of yoga. There will be some golf. There will be hugging, and drinking, and eating with friends.

And most importantly, there will be hours upon hours of deep work.

Amazing Amy will be running things whilst I’m away. Should an emergency occur, I will be reachable. But I won’t be checking in. I encourage you to join me in this summer sabbatical. Because we all need to be alone sometimes.

Via: JT Ellison

    

6.20.16 – Welcome, Summer! Let’s get some Summer Reads, shall we?

By JT Ellison

Helloooooo, Summer!

‘Tis the season for lazy reading by the pool. Or in a hammock. Or on the couch. Or wherever you can catch some Z’s.

To celebrate summer and the release of FIELD OF GRAVES, I’m giving away a gift card to every store* who hosted me on tour.

*This includes Parnassus Books in Nashville, Murder by the Book in Houston, Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego, and Barnes and Noble Lone Tree. They all ship, so don’t worry about geography! And they all have signed copies of FIELD OF GRAVES, too!

See below for ways to enter. Good luck, chickens!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Via: JT Ellison

    

It’s first day of summer! So here’s JAWS….

By noreply@blogger.com (Alexandra Sokoloff)

Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdowns


Happy Solstice!! It’s the first day of summer, and naturally our minds turn to thoughts of shark attacks. I mean, of happy days at the beach.

I know that many of you are doing Junowrimo. And you know my advice at this point is JUST KEEP WRITING. But this is the point in a book that you may feel a bit, well, lost. And so I’m going to give you my best advice about how to get UNlost:

When all else fails, go back and take a look at the hero/ine’s PLAN.

• What does the protagonist WANT?

• How does he PLAN to do it?

• What’s standing in her/his way?

Then once you’ve got your initial plan, you need to be constantly blocking that plan, either with your antagonist, or the hero/ine’s own inner conflict, or outside forces beyond her or his control. If the hero/ine were able to carry out the plan without a hitch, it wouldn’t make for very good drama, would it?


So throughout the second act, the antagonist has his or her own goal and plan, which is in direct conflict or competition with the hero/ine’s goal. We may actually see the forces of evil plotting their plots, or we may only see the effect of the antagonist’s plot in the continual thwarting of the hero/ine’s plans. Both techniques are effective.


This continual opposition of the protagonist’s and antagonist’s plans is the main underlying structure of the second act.


The hero/ine’s plans should almost always be stated. The antagonist’s plans might be clearly stated or kept hidden, but the effectof his/her/their plotting should be evident. It’s good storytelling if we, the reader or audience, are able to look back on the story at the end and understand how the hero/ine’s failures were a direct result of the antagonist’s scheming.


I’d like to demonstrate all of this by following a plan through a classic movie. And to celebrate the first day of summer, of course that movie is JAWS.

Book by Peter Benchley

Screenplay by Peter Benchley and Carl Gottleib

Directed by Stephen Spielberg

When in Jaws, Sheriff Brody is confronted with the problem of a great white shark eating people in his backyard (ocean), his initial PLAN is to close the beach to swimmers. He throws together some handmade “Beaches Closed” signs and sticks them in the sand. Problem solved, right?

Yeah, right.

If that initial plan had actually worked, Jawswouldn’t have made a gazillion dollars worldwide, not to mention cinematic history. The whole point of drama (including romance and comedy) is that the hero/ine’s plan is constantly being thwarted: by the main antagonist, by any number of secondary and tertiary opponents, by the love interest, by the weather, or by the hero/ine him or herself (because you know, we’re all our own worst enemies!).

So almost always, the initial plan fails. Or if it seems to succeed, it’s only to trick us for a moment — before we realize how wretchedly the plan has failed. That weak initial effort is because it’s human nature to expend the least effort possible to get what we want. We only take greater and more desperate measures if we are forced to. And a hero/ine being forced to take greater and more desperate measures is one of the cornerstones of dramatic action.

Now, in Jaws, the primary antagonist is the shark. The shark’s PLAN is to eat. Not just people, but whatever it can sink its teeth into. (Interestingly, that plan seems to evolve….)

Brody’s initial PLAN of closing the beaches might actually have solved his problem with the shark, because without a steady supply of food, the beast probably would have moved on to another beach with a better food supply.

But Brody’s initial PLAN brings out a secondary antagonist: the town fathers, led by the mayor (and with a nice performance by co-screenwriter Carl Gottleib as the newspaper editor). They don’t want the beaches closed because the summer months, particularly the Fourth of July weekend, represent seventy percent (or something like that) of the town’s yearly income. The officials’ PLAN is to keep the beaches open, a direct conflict to Brody’s plan. So the town fathers obliquely threaten new Sheriff Brody with the loss of his job if he closes the beaches, and Brody capitulates.

This proves disastrous and tragic when the very next day (as Brody watches the ocean from the beach, as if that’s going to prevent a shark attack!), another swimmer, a little boy, is killed by the shark practicing its PLAN.

The town fathers hold a town meeting and decide on a new PLAN: they will close the beaches for twenty-four hours. Brody disagrees, but is overruled. Eccentric ship’s captain Quint offers his services to kill the shark —for ten grand. The town fathers are unwilling to pay.

In response, Brody develops a new PLAN, one we see often in stories: he contacts an Expert From Afar, oceanographer Matt Hooper, a shark specialist, to come in and give expert advice.

Meanwhile a new antagonist, the grieving mother of the slain little boy, announces a PLAN of her own: she offers a bounty for any fisherman who kills the shark that killed her son.

The bounty brings on a regatta of fishermen from up and down the eastern seaboard. One of these crews captures a tiger shark, which the mayor is quick to declare is the killer shark. Case closed, problem solved, and the beaches can be reopened. Hooper is adamant that the shark is far too small to have caused the damage done to the first victim, and wants to cut the shark open to prove it. The mayor refuses, and is equally adamant that there is no more need for Hooper. We see that Brody secretly agrees with Hooper, but wants to believe that the nightmare is over. However, when the dead boy’s mother slaps Brody and accuses him of causing her son’s death (by not closing the beaches), Brody agrees to investigate further with Hooper (PLAN), and they sneak into cold storage to cut the shark open themselves to check for body parts. Of course, they discover it’s the wrong shark.

Brody’s revised PLAN is to talk the mayor into closing the beaches, but the mayor refuses again and goes on with his plan to reopen the beaches (and highly publicize the capture of the “killer” shark).

The beaches reopen for 4th of July and the town fathers’ failsafe PLAN is to post the Coast Guard out in the ocean to watch, just in case. While everyone is distracted by a false shark scare, the real shark glides into a supposedly secure cove where Brody’s own son is swimming, and eats a boater and nearly kills Brody’s son. (And the timing is so diabolical that it almost seems the shark has a new PLAN of its own: to taunt Brody and menace his family.)

At that point the mayor’s PLAN changes: he writes a check for Quint and gives it to Brody to hire Captain Quint to kill the shark. But that’s not enough for Brody now. He needs to go out on the boat with Quint and Hooper himself, despite his fear of the water, to make sure this shark gets dead (NEW PLAN).

This happens at the story’s MIDPOINT, and it’s a radical revamp of Brody’s initial plan (which was always to avoid going in the water himself, at all costs). And it’s very often the case that at the midpoint of a story, the initial PLAN is completely shattered.

And yet, Brody is still not ultimately committed. For the next half of the second act, he allows first Quint and then Hooper to take the lead on the shark hunt. Quint’s PLAN is to shoot harpoons connected to floating barrels into the shark and force it to the surface, where they can harpoon it to death. But the shark proves far stronger than anyone expected, and keeps submerging, even with barrel after barrel attached to its hide.

And now a truly interesting thing happens. The shark, supposedly a dumb beast, starts to do crafty things, like hide under the boat so the men think they’ve lost it. It seems to have a new, intelligent PLAN of its own. And when the men’s defenses are down, the shark suddenly batters into the ship and breaks a hole in the hull, causing the boat to take on alarming quantities of water, and making the men vulnerable to attack.

Brody’s PLAN at that point is to radio for help and get the hell off the boat. But in the midst of the chaos, Quint suddenly turns into an opponent himself by smashing the radio — he intends to kill this shark on his own.

Hooper takes over now and proposes a new PLAN: he wants to go down in a shark cage to fire a poison dart gun at the shark. But the shark attacks the cage, and then as the boat continues to sink, the shark leaps half onto the deck and eats Quint.

Brody is now on his own against the shark, and in one last, desperate Hail Mary PLAN (the most exciting kind in a climax), he shoves an oxygen tank into the shark’s jaws and then fires at the shark until the tank explodes, and the shark goes up in bloody bits. As almost always, it is only that last ditch plan, in which the hero/ine faces the antagonist completely on his or her own, that saves the day.

I hope this little exercise gives you an idea of how it can be really enlightening and useful to focus on and track just the plans of all the main characters in a story and how they clash and conflict, especially how they FAIL. Because every time a plan fails, it requires a recalibration and a new action, which builds tension, suspense, emotional commitment, and excitement.

If you find your own plot sagging, especially in that long middle section, try identifying and tracking the various plans of your characters. It might be just what you need to pull your story into new and much more exciting alignment.

And here’s a hint: you may find it useful to put those huge failures of the plan at your Midpoint and at the Act Two Climax — the Dark Night of the Soul/All Is Lost scene. Every time your hero/ine loses big, it makes the reader wonder WHAT HAPPENS NEXT, and that’s what we’re after, here. You want your reader to be as desperate as your hero/ine is to win.

Now back to writing! Or the beach!

– Alex

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All the information on this blog and more, including full story structure breakdowns of various movies, is available in my Screenwriting Tricks for Authors workbooks. e format, just $3.99 and $2.99; print 13.99.

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Writing Love is a shorter version of the workbook, using examples from love stories, romantic suspense, and romantic comedy – available in e formats for just $2.99.

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Via: Alexandra Sokoloff

    

6.19.16 – Sunday Smatterings

By JT Ellison

Happy Sunday, dear chickens.

And Happy Father’s Day to all you incredible Daddies out there, especially my own, who is one of the greatest joys in my life. I come to you today from the grand Rocky Mountains, as I am still touring cross-country for the FIELD OF GRAVES launch. I’ve so enjoyed getting to meet some of you, hearing your stories (sounds like you’re just as glad that I am that Taylor’s back!), and getting to say hi to bookseller friends old and new. It’s been a hard week for so many reasons, and in the midst of the darkness, I’m so glad to connect with my people, the reading community. Y’all are such a thoughtful, imaginative group, and I’m glad you’re mine.

And without further ado . . .

Here’s what happened on the Internets this week:

15 Things Book Nerds Are Guilty Of Doing During The Summer

How many of these can you fess up to? “15 Things Book Nerds Are Guilty of Doing During The Summer.”

Legalizing marijuana is a hazy question once you've seen addiction up close

Written by a dear friend of mine who has just been through epic hell, this is a fascinating read in the LA Times: “Legalizing Marijuana Is a Hazy Question Once You’ve Seen Addiction Up Close.”

Giant Bookshelf (!)

Take a peek at this giant bookshelf (!).

Hay-on-Wye

This may be the cutest town in the whole wide world.

If you’re interested in finding some simplicity this week, this lost of suggestions is absolute perfection. I felt peaceful just reading it.

And closer to home:

Freedom Interviews

My love for Freedom is no secret; I’ve written more than a million words using this distraction-blocking app. I talked to my friends at Freedom about how I use their app and loads of other tools to write, and you can read our chat here and here.

Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler

Also, book recommendation: I’m in the middle of SWEETBITTER by Stephanie Danler. Oh my, chickens—I am utterly entranced. It’s the real deal. Methinks you need to read this one.

FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA VOTRE SANTÉ CHARDONNAY 2013

On The Wine Vixen this week, Amy has a confession of sorts.

That’s it from me, y’all. I leave you with this quote, which continues to speak to me after I saw it earlier this week. Be well, my loves.

xoxo,
J.T.

Via: JT Ellison

    

6.16.16 – In which The Poisoned Pen sticks me in the hot seat

By JT Ellison

I’m on the road this week, touring for FIELD OF GRAVES. I visited this indie last night, The Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, Arizona. I love this store, and I loved the interview we did. Being “in the hot seat” wasn’t so bad after all!

J.T., welcome to the The Poisoned Pen’s blog. Would you introduce yourself to our readers? Tell us about yourself.

Thanks for having me! Let’s see, I’ve been writing thrillers for a decade now, and have 13 books published under my own name, and also co-write with the divine Catherine Coulter. I’m a wine junkie (see http://thewinevixen.com) and love golf and yoga. And kittens––I have twin girls, silver mackerel tabbies, who are an absolute hoot. I love to travel and have been married for over 20 years to the love of my life. I live in Nashville, which is one of the best literary cities in the country. I also co-host a literary television series called A Word on Words, which was started over 40 years ago by the esteemed John Seigenthaler. Needless to say, I’m juggling a lot of balls, but I’m having a blast!

Why did you become a writer?

I’ve always been a writer, so that wasn’t a conscious choice. But after a college professor told me I wasn’t good enough to be published, I quit, went in a different direction, working in the White House and Department of Commerce before swerving into aerospace marketing. But the bug wouldn’t leave me alone, and after we moved to Nashville, I discovered John Sandford, and three books into the Prey series decided I was going to give it another try. That book eventually became FIELD OF GRAVES. So as to why––I couldn’t stop myself, really. I was compelled, called, driven to it by the muse.

Read the rest on The Poisoned Pen blog!

Via: JT Ellison