Because we had a little trouble with Blogger last week, I allowed people to email me through my website and I added those names into the drawing.
So...the winner of the BABIES IN THE BOARDROOM series is...drum roll...
SUSAN LEECH!
Susan, contact me through the contact button on susanmeier.com to provide me with your addy to mail the books
Congrats and thanks to everyone who entered.
susan
Monday, June 6, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Contest
Blogger is acting up a bit. If you cannot post a comment at the bottom of the ezine below...send me an email through to the CONTACT SUSAN button on the right and let me know you tried to post, but couldn't and want to be entered in the contest for the Babies in the Boardroom series.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
(Keep scrolling down for the ezine.)
susan
Sorry for the inconvenience.
(Keep scrolling down for the ezine.)
susan
June 2011
Winner of the three books in the BABIES IN THE BOARDROOM series, THE BABY PROJECT, SECOND CHANCE BABY and BABY ON THE RANCH, will be drawn on Monday, June 6.
Don't forget to comment to be entered in the drawing.
Happy June!
I have to admit I'm excited about this month's book, BABY AT THE RANCH, not just because it's the end of a series that I loved writing, a series I'm very proud of as an artist, but because it's my 45TH BOOK for Harlequin and Silhouette!
I'm marching toward 50 books. I can't even explain how exciting that is for me, except to say that thinking about how close I am caused me to remember the beginnings of my career and I, literally, want to fall down on my knees and thank my Maker because I never would have made it this far without some help From Above!
And help from a lot of wonderful editors and an agent or two. Not to mention my friend Denise who talks through my story ideas before I propose them to editorial, and my friends Deb and Jenna who brainstorm with me.
I also wouldn't have made it without lots of very loyal readers. I couldn't do this without you. Not just because the only way I get paid is if you buy my books, but also because I love the fan mail. I love the encouragement. I love that you love what I do.
So thank you.
My respect and appreciation for you is why I've begun posting Happily Ever Afters for my books, as well as little prequils in the What Came Before section. Additional material to the stories is my way of saying Thanks!
I think you're really going to like the ending to the Andreas Brothers saga, BABY AT THE RANCH. Suzanne Caldwell is a former spoiled socialite, who suddenly finds herself flat broke when her beloved grandmother dies. She's also a single mom, having gotten taken in by somebody who was only out for her gram's money. Everybody's surprised to discover her gram had somehow lost over a hundred million dollars and now Suzanne only has her shares of Andreas Holdings Stocks to somehow make a life.
But Andreas Holdings has been on the skids, so she can't sell it. No one wants it. Darius, Nick and Cade know the company is coming back...but they don't quite have the money yet to buy her stock.
So Nick and Darius, who have more than pulled their weight for the company since their father's death, tell Cade it's his time to step up and do right by the family.
Which would be cool, except Cade is unreasonably attracted to Suzanne. The book is funny, yet poignant. Cade's a widower who wasn't there when his wife passed. He feels guilty, and sort of angry because he believes all his life plans died with her. And along comes Suzanne. Full of energy and what my mother used to call piss and vinegar. She's dead set determined to give her baby a good life. She's learned from her mistakes and is willing to work hard and she doesn't take anyone's crap. She's more than a match for sometimes moody, usually bossy Cade!
I have to admit, I cried so hard when I proofread this thing that I couldn't really read the epilogue. LOL! If there are typos, that's why!
So enjoy BABY ON THE RANCH. If you missed the first two books in the series, they're on Amazon and Borders.com. This is a fun family you don't want to miss!
And go to susanmeier.com. Read the free stories in the What Came Before and Happily Ever After segments. Take a peek at the recipes. Do the workshops!
It's all free.
susan
For the Writers Among Us
Lesson 4 Scene Question
So what's the scene/chapter question?
Again, the scene/chapter question is for you, the writer.
Simply put, every scene must have a point. Each must be a step in the characters’ journeys. So -- if you want to be a smarty pants-- you could say every scene begins with the question…What's the point of this scene?
But we don't have to be smarty pants. Once we open our story with an inciting incident -- an action, if you will – there will be a reaction. And once there is a reaction, someone will make a decision and once someone makes a decision they will take another action and the whole thing starts all over again.
So, your scene questions will frequently be things like:
Now that the dam has burst [action] and everyone is running for his or her life [reaction], what decision could the protagonist make to save himself?
Or, if you take the action, reaction, decision example that I use in most of my workshops –
There's a fire in the barn.
The horses die.
The hero decides he's had enough
He leaves town.
You next chapter/scene question could be what does he find when he leaves town? Because that character’s next scene should be a reaction or a consequence. Leaving town was an action. So your next scene would be a reaction or consequence.
If you’re writing a category romance, everything that happens in the book (with a few exceptions for lines that allow the POV of secondary characters) needs to relate back to the hero and heroine. So you can drive the action/reaction/decision train the whole way through your book, bouncing back and forth between those two characters. Easy stuff. The hero takes an action, what will the heroine’s reaction be?
If you’re writing a single title (a bigger, standalone book like mainstream, thriller, suspense, women’s fiction, sci fi, paranormal), however, you will have other character POVs coming into play. The hero could take an action that results in a reaction from a secondary character. A secondary character (a villain for instance) could take lots of actions that jerk the hero and heroine and other characters around for the entire book.
Either way, you should have an action, reaction, decision train for each story thread. (Note that I don’t call them subplots. Very few books have true subplots in them anymore. Don’t get me started! LOL)
My point is that unless you’re writing a category romance or straight mystery or simple science fiction you will have a main story…say your hero is struggling to keep his ranch solvent for the final few months he has before he can sell his prize stallion and make a mint.
Before he can do this, his barn catches fire. He thinks the neighbor did it. So he gets a gun, goes to the neighbor and threatens him. The neighbor gets rid of him without bloodshed, but then we switch to the neighbor’s POV, when he goes into his house and calls the Sheriff. The sheriff promises to settle Jake (that’s a good rancher name) down. He hangs up with the neighbor and calls the hero’s ex-wife, the only person who’s ever been able to talk sense into him and gets her to promise to come back to Texas and get him through this. Then he hangs up the phone and calls someone else…this time he says, Okay, I set the fire in the barn. The horses are dead. Jake thinks it was the neighbor. I called his ex-wife to get her home to talk him into selling the ranch to you but now I’m out of it. And the villain says, “You’re out of it when I say you’re out of it.” Then hangs up the phone.
What just happened there? We have one story, which revolves around the fact that the villain wants the hero’s ranch. But it branched out to include the hero’s ex-wife and a romance, the sheriff being blackmailed by the unseen villain who wants the ranch, there’s some kind of 'thing' with the neighbor…a feud, maybe…and we have the sheriff’s past. What the heck has he done that he can be blackmailed for?
But it all relates back to the story of the villain wanting the hero’s ranch.
Okay, with all that going on you’re going to have action/reaction/decision sequences bouncing back and forth between characters.
And, to keep it simple, your scene question is probably going to be…Who should take this action…and what will the action be? Who will have the reaction…and what will the reaction be? Who should be making a decision…and what will that decision be? Who should be taking the resultant action?
That’s pretty simple, basic stuff. But it is a very quick, easy way to not just figure out what you next scene should be, but also to figure out the best character to take the action, have the reaction, make the decision, take the action.
If you’re getting rejections that say your book was disjointed…it might be because you have the wrong character front and center in the scene or maybe you’re not following the action/reaction/decision sequence.
If you’re getting rejections that say your book was episodic, you’re definitely not following the action/reaction/decision sequence.
But to get back to the purpose of our lesson…the scene question…the scene question really is that simple. Don’t make it harder than it has to be, but think it through…Really … Who should be taking the action, having the reaction, making the decision…and what should that action/reaction or decision be?
Piece of cake. That question can not only make your book more interesting, but by default it will keep you from making tons of plotting and pacing mistakes!
Now for those of you who write books (like fantasy) that seem to have plots running side-by-side that ultimately join, who don’t want to use action/reaction/decision to connect the two plots until you have to, you still have to use action/reaction and decision. You will simply have two (or 3 or however many) plots or action/reaction/decision threads running parallel until they join.
Make sense?
Your assignment?
Read the first three chapters of your manuscript. (Or the last manuscript you worked on.) Do you employ action/reaction and decision? (Lots of people do this naturally!)
If you don’t find an action/reaction/decision sequence…is your pacing off? Does your book have a disjointed feel? Is it slow? Boring? (Ouch!) Unfocused?
If you’re one of those people with parallel plots that aren’t supposed to join yet…Do you have separate action/reaction/decision sequences that keep each individual thread of the story tight and focused?
susan meier
BABY AT THE RANCH, June 2011, part of the Baby in the Boardroom mini-series for Harlequin Romance
Coming Attractions
August
Journey Steps. NEORWA
http://www.neorwa.com/index.php/Workshops/Workshops
Journey Steps, Taking the Train to Somewhere Ever wonder what you’re supposed to “put” in between those four or five turning points of your story? Susan Meier’s Journey Steps, Taking the Train to Somewhere provides quick, easy solutions for any author who has ever wondered “now what?” Topics include the “magic formula” for plotting, the list of five, explanation of plot threads versus subplot and tricks for writing an “edge-of-the-seat” read. Learn to tell your story in one straight-forward paragraph that can be used for pitches! Beginners, intermediate and experienced authors will benefit from this workshop.
Coming in October PREPARING FOR NANO at Pennwriters.com
Cat Tails
Well, it's summer and my famous felines are finally outside again. But now we prepare for the fear of every hot month here in PA...that Sophie will gift us with our own private chimpmunk. That's right, folks. At no cost to me, my sweet Sophie will herd any number of critters into my house and give them homes under my sofa. I once had a chimpmunk skitter up one arm, across my shoulders and down the other arm, when I sat in the recliner with my morning coffee.
So that scream you hear will probably be me!
Excerpt from BABY AT THE RANCH
Chapter 1
Suzanne Caldwell shoved against the spot in the door of Amanda Mae’s Old West Diner where the “waitress wanted” sign filled the glass. The scent of fresh apple pie greeted her, along with a rush of noise.
Though there were no more than ten people at the counter and in the booths, the place was as rowdy as a party. Women wearing jeans and tank tops sat with men dressed in jeans, T-shirts and cowboy hats. She didn’t get two steps into the room before the noise level began to drop. As if noticing the stranger, people stopped talking mid-sentence.
She clutched her six-month-old baby, Mitzi. There was nothing like walking into a roomful of staring strangers to make you realize how alone you were in the world.
And she was definitely alone. She’d run out of gas about a mile out of Whiskey Springs, Texas, and, literally, had no one to call for help.
No family. Her grandmother had died six months ago and her mom had died when Suzanne was six. Her dad, whoever he was, had never acknowledged her.
Her mom and grandmother were both only children so she had no aunts, no uncles, no cousins.
And no friends. The wonderful sorority sisters who’d vowed to be her ally for life had dumped her when she got pregnant by a popular university professor. It was her fault, they’d said, and had accused her of trying to ruin Bill Baker’s career. As if. The guy had gone on a campaign to seduce her and had wormed his way into her life because of her grandmother’s fortune. When Martha Caldwell made some major mistakes in money management and lost the bulk of her wealth, Professor Baker suddenly didn’t want to see her anymore. And he most certainly wanted no part of their baby.
So, yeah. She was alone. Alone. Broke. Desperate to make a home for herself and her baby. And she’d left Atlanta bound for Whiskey Springs hoping to find some help.
But after walking the last mile on a hot June day, her heels thumped in her black stiletto boots. Mitzi squirmed in her arms. Her heavy diaper bag was dislocating her shoulder. Still, she kept her head high as she made her way to the first empty booth. By the time she got there, the diner was dead silent.
A waitress shuffled over. “Help you?”
She cleared her throat. “I’d like a piece of the apple pie I can smell, a cup of coffee, a glass of milk and some pudding, please.”
“What kind of pudding?”
She swallowed. Not one person had turned back to his or her coffee or food. They just stared as if she were a zombie or vampire or some other mythical creature they’d never seen before. “What kind do you have?”
“Vanilla or chocolate.”
“Mitzi loves vanilla.”
Without so much as a word of acknowledgement, the waitress scurried away.
“You’re not from around here.”
Knowing the man could only be talking to her, she followed the voice and found herself staring into a pair of the shrewdest eyes she’d ever seen. Cool, calculating, so black the pupils were almost invisible, his eyes never blinked, never waivered as they held her gaze.
Toto, we are not in Kansas anymore.
“No, I’m not from around here.”
“What’s your business?”
“None of yours.” She turned away from the penetrating, unsettling eyes and shifted Mitzi on her lap.
To her horror, the man walked over and plopped down on the bench seat across from hers. His full lips pulled upward into a devilish smile. His dark eyes danced with pleasure. “Now, see. That’s not just a bad attitude; it’s also wrong.”
She should have been scared to death. He was big. Not fat, but tall and broad-shouldered. The kind of guy who could snap a little five-foot-five girl like her in two. But instead of fear, a very unladylike shiver of lust rippled down her spine.
“Everything that happens in Whiskey Springs is my business because this is my town.”
Not at all happy with herself for even having two seconds of attraction to an ill-mannered stranger, she said, “Your town? What are you, the sheriff?”
He chuckled. The people at the counter and in the booths around them also laughed.
“No. I’m Cade Andreas. I own this town. I bought all the buildings last year. I lease the businesses back to their proprietors, but I still own every square inch, including the one you’re sitting on.”
Oh, good God. This was Cade Andreas?
Fear and confusion immediately replaced attraction. Wasn’t the Andreas family broke?
She owned one-third of Andreas Holdings stock and hadn’t been able to sell it because the company was on the skids. What was he doing buying a town?
“And I’d like to know what brings you to my town.”
She raised her gaze to his face. A day-old growth of beard covered his chin and cheeks, giving him a sexily disreputable look. His lips were full, firm, kissable. His nose had been broken – undoubtedly in a fight – but it wasn’t disfigured, more like masculine. Definitely not dainty. There was nothing dainty about this man. He was all male. One-hundred percent, grade A, prime specimen sexy.
Finally, their eyes connected. Her chest tightened. Her breathing stalled. She could have blamed that on her unwitting attraction, but refused. A guy who bought a town had to be more than a little arrogant. Definitely past vain. Maybe even beyond narcissistic. And she’d learned her lesson about narcissistic men with Mitzi’s father. It would be a cold, frosty day in hell before she got involved with another self-absorbed man. So she refused to be attracted to Cade Andreas. Refused.
But she still needed a job. She might own stock worth millions of dollars, but nobody wanted to buy it. Potential didn’t sell stock these days. Dividends did. And in the past two years Andreas Holdings hadn’t paid any. So she was hoping that since she owned one-third of the company they could at least let her work there. The choice to approach Cade Andreas, the youngest of the three brothers who owned controlling interest of Andreas Holdings stock and ran the company, was simply a matter of practicality. Texas was driving distance. New York City, the headquarters for the corporate offices, wasn’t. Still, if they gave her a job, she’d get there somehow. She’d go anywhere that she could put down roots and make a home.
Maybe find some friends.
“What brings you to my town?”
This time the words were harsh. Not quite angry, but definitely losing patience.
She glanced at the waitress who stood behind the counter, balancing a coffee pot and Suzanne’s piece of pie, obviously holding them hostage until she answered Cade.
She looked back at him. His already sharp eyes had narrowed in displeasure, and she had the sudden, intense intuition that if she told him who she was – in front of his adoring friends and the frozen waitress – he would not jump for joy. She would bet her last dollar that none of these people knew how much trouble Andreas Holdings was in and Cade would not be happy with the person who announced it.
There was no way she could say who she was and why she was here without talking about something he would want kept private, and no way she could explain her presence in this two-bit town so far from a major highway that no one was ever just passing through.
She glanced around, saw the sign in the door advertising for a waitress and grabbed the first piece of good luck that had come her way in over a year.
“I heard about the job for a waitress, so I came.”
“In your fancy boots, with your baby all dolled up?”
“We put on our best stuff --” she said, making herself sound as if she fit the part of a waitress. She regretted the deception, but if anybody ever deserved to be played, this guy did. Owned a town, huh? She potentially held the future of his family’s company in her hands just by whom she chose to sell her stock to, yet he’d never once considered that she might be somebody worthy of his time. “-- For the interview.”
A short, round, dark-haired woman wearing an apron scampered out of the kitchen. “You’re looking for a job?”
“Yes.” The truth of that brought her back to reality. Her purpose for coming to Whiskey Springs had been to get a job – from Andreas Holdings. Now that plan was on hold. She wasn’t exactly here to be a waitress, but money was money. And she needed some. Now. Today. She had enough cash to pay for her piece of pie and even buy extra milk for Mitzi, but after that she and Mitzi were sleeping in her car.
“I’m Suzanne Caldwell.” Because her grandmother had held the stock in a trust, her name wasn’t mentioned on any documents, so she could give it without worry. “This is my baby Mitzi.”
Mitzi picked that exact moment to cry. The little brunette scrambled over. “I’m Amanda Mae.” She shot Cade an evil look, causing Suzanne to immediately love her. “Real men don’t make babies cry.”
Cade held up his hands innocently. “Hey, I was on my own side of the booth the whole time. I didn’t touch her.”
“You’re threatening her mama.”
His face fell. “I never threatened her!”
“Just your voice is threatening.”
He sighed. “Yeah. Right. Whatever.”
She took the baby. “Would you like a bottle, little Mitzi?”
Suzanne said, “I ordered some milk and pudding for her.”
Amanda Mae looked horrified. “June Marie, where are you with this baby’s food?”
The waitress hustled over, set Suzanne’s pie in front of her and poured her a cup of coffee before she rushed away and got both the pudding and the milk.
Eyes narrowed, Cade studied the woman across the booth from him. She was a pretty little package. Eyes so blue they bordered on the purple color of the wildflowers that grew on his pasture in the spring. Black hair cut in a straight, blunt line at her chin, giving her a dramatic look that didn’t fit with a woman who needed a job as a waitress. And those boots. Black stilettos. The kind a man envisioned on his chest, pinning him to a bed.
He stopped those thoughts. She might be a pretty with her perfect nose and full, tempting lips, but he wasn’t interested.
Still, he had no doubt that he had to keep an eye on her. Something wasn’t right with her. It wasn’t just her city-girl clothes. Her demeanor didn’t fit. Waitresses didn’t have smooth hands, perfect posture, an unblinking stare.
He rose from the booth. “Well, seeing as how you got the job you wanted, I guess we’ll be running into each other from time to time.”
She only smiled. A cool, remote smile that heated his blood and all but challenged him to turn on the charm and see how long it would take to get that smile to thaw. Luckily, he was smarter than that.
Amanda Mae said, “Do you have someplace to stay, honey?”
She faced the diner owner. “I – No. Actually, I need a place to stay.”
“Hotel’s in the next town over,” Cade said, striding back to his seat at the counter and his now cold coffee.
Amanada Mae shot him another evil glare. “Or she could use the apartment upstairs until she gets on her feet.”
“I’d like that.” Suzanne pressed her fingers to Amanda Mae’s hand in a gesture of appreciation that stopped Cade cold. Maybe she was in need of a little help? Her crisp white blouse and fancy jeans could be the last good things she owned. He hadn’t heard a car drive up. He glanced out the big front window into the street. He didn’t see a car. She could be dead broke--
Nope. His business sense wouldn’t accept that. Something about her screamed money. Big money. If she was pretending she didn’t have any, there was a reason.
Damn. He was going to have to keep an eye on her.
***
Don't forget to go to susanmeier.com to read the prologue...What Came Before...for Cade Andreas and check out the workshops, recipes and the Happily Ever Afters...stories about Gino and Michael Andreas thirty years after their parents found love!
Don't forget to comment to be entered in the drawing.
Happy June!
I have to admit I'm excited about this month's book, BABY AT THE RANCH, not just because it's the end of a series that I loved writing, a series I'm very proud of as an artist, but because it's my 45TH BOOK for Harlequin and Silhouette!
I'm marching toward 50 books. I can't even explain how exciting that is for me, except to say that thinking about how close I am caused me to remember the beginnings of my career and I, literally, want to fall down on my knees and thank my Maker because I never would have made it this far without some help From Above!
And help from a lot of wonderful editors and an agent or two. Not to mention my friend Denise who talks through my story ideas before I propose them to editorial, and my friends Deb and Jenna who brainstorm with me.
I also wouldn't have made it without lots of very loyal readers. I couldn't do this without you. Not just because the only way I get paid is if you buy my books, but also because I love the fan mail. I love the encouragement. I love that you love what I do.
So thank you.
My respect and appreciation for you is why I've begun posting Happily Ever Afters for my books, as well as little prequils in the What Came Before section. Additional material to the stories is my way of saying Thanks!
I think you're really going to like the ending to the Andreas Brothers saga, BABY AT THE RANCH. Suzanne Caldwell is a former spoiled socialite, who suddenly finds herself flat broke when her beloved grandmother dies. She's also a single mom, having gotten taken in by somebody who was only out for her gram's money. Everybody's surprised to discover her gram had somehow lost over a hundred million dollars and now Suzanne only has her shares of Andreas Holdings Stocks to somehow make a life.
But Andreas Holdings has been on the skids, so she can't sell it. No one wants it. Darius, Nick and Cade know the company is coming back...but they don't quite have the money yet to buy her stock.
So Nick and Darius, who have more than pulled their weight for the company since their father's death, tell Cade it's his time to step up and do right by the family.
Which would be cool, except Cade is unreasonably attracted to Suzanne. The book is funny, yet poignant. Cade's a widower who wasn't there when his wife passed. He feels guilty, and sort of angry because he believes all his life plans died with her. And along comes Suzanne. Full of energy and what my mother used to call piss and vinegar. She's dead set determined to give her baby a good life. She's learned from her mistakes and is willing to work hard and she doesn't take anyone's crap. She's more than a match for sometimes moody, usually bossy Cade!
I have to admit, I cried so hard when I proofread this thing that I couldn't really read the epilogue. LOL! If there are typos, that's why!
So enjoy BABY ON THE RANCH. If you missed the first two books in the series, they're on Amazon and Borders.com. This is a fun family you don't want to miss!
And go to susanmeier.com. Read the free stories in the What Came Before and Happily Ever After segments. Take a peek at the recipes. Do the workshops!
It's all free.
susan
For the Writers Among Us
Lesson 4 Scene Question
So what's the scene/chapter question?
Again, the scene/chapter question is for you, the writer.
Simply put, every scene must have a point. Each must be a step in the characters’ journeys. So -- if you want to be a smarty pants-- you could say every scene begins with the question…What's the point of this scene?
But we don't have to be smarty pants. Once we open our story with an inciting incident -- an action, if you will – there will be a reaction. And once there is a reaction, someone will make a decision and once someone makes a decision they will take another action and the whole thing starts all over again.
So, your scene questions will frequently be things like:
Now that the dam has burst [action] and everyone is running for his or her life [reaction], what decision could the protagonist make to save himself?
Or, if you take the action, reaction, decision example that I use in most of my workshops –
There's a fire in the barn.
The horses die.
The hero decides he's had enough
He leaves town.
You next chapter/scene question could be what does he find when he leaves town? Because that character’s next scene should be a reaction or a consequence. Leaving town was an action. So your next scene would be a reaction or consequence.
If you’re writing a category romance, everything that happens in the book (with a few exceptions for lines that allow the POV of secondary characters) needs to relate back to the hero and heroine. So you can drive the action/reaction/decision train the whole way through your book, bouncing back and forth between those two characters. Easy stuff. The hero takes an action, what will the heroine’s reaction be?
If you’re writing a single title (a bigger, standalone book like mainstream, thriller, suspense, women’s fiction, sci fi, paranormal), however, you will have other character POVs coming into play. The hero could take an action that results in a reaction from a secondary character. A secondary character (a villain for instance) could take lots of actions that jerk the hero and heroine and other characters around for the entire book.
Either way, you should have an action, reaction, decision train for each story thread. (Note that I don’t call them subplots. Very few books have true subplots in them anymore. Don’t get me started! LOL)
My point is that unless you’re writing a category romance or straight mystery or simple science fiction you will have a main story…say your hero is struggling to keep his ranch solvent for the final few months he has before he can sell his prize stallion and make a mint.
Before he can do this, his barn catches fire. He thinks the neighbor did it. So he gets a gun, goes to the neighbor and threatens him. The neighbor gets rid of him without bloodshed, but then we switch to the neighbor’s POV, when he goes into his house and calls the Sheriff. The sheriff promises to settle Jake (that’s a good rancher name) down. He hangs up with the neighbor and calls the hero’s ex-wife, the only person who’s ever been able to talk sense into him and gets her to promise to come back to Texas and get him through this. Then he hangs up the phone and calls someone else…this time he says, Okay, I set the fire in the barn. The horses are dead. Jake thinks it was the neighbor. I called his ex-wife to get her home to talk him into selling the ranch to you but now I’m out of it. And the villain says, “You’re out of it when I say you’re out of it.” Then hangs up the phone.
What just happened there? We have one story, which revolves around the fact that the villain wants the hero’s ranch. But it branched out to include the hero’s ex-wife and a romance, the sheriff being blackmailed by the unseen villain who wants the ranch, there’s some kind of 'thing' with the neighbor…a feud, maybe…and we have the sheriff’s past. What the heck has he done that he can be blackmailed for?
But it all relates back to the story of the villain wanting the hero’s ranch.
Okay, with all that going on you’re going to have action/reaction/decision sequences bouncing back and forth between characters.
And, to keep it simple, your scene question is probably going to be…Who should take this action…and what will the action be? Who will have the reaction…and what will the reaction be? Who should be making a decision…and what will that decision be? Who should be taking the resultant action?
That’s pretty simple, basic stuff. But it is a very quick, easy way to not just figure out what you next scene should be, but also to figure out the best character to take the action, have the reaction, make the decision, take the action.
If you’re getting rejections that say your book was disjointed…it might be because you have the wrong character front and center in the scene or maybe you’re not following the action/reaction/decision sequence.
If you’re getting rejections that say your book was episodic, you’re definitely not following the action/reaction/decision sequence.
But to get back to the purpose of our lesson…the scene question…the scene question really is that simple. Don’t make it harder than it has to be, but think it through…Really … Who should be taking the action, having the reaction, making the decision…and what should that action/reaction or decision be?
Piece of cake. That question can not only make your book more interesting, but by default it will keep you from making tons of plotting and pacing mistakes!
Now for those of you who write books (like fantasy) that seem to have plots running side-by-side that ultimately join, who don’t want to use action/reaction/decision to connect the two plots until you have to, you still have to use action/reaction and decision. You will simply have two (or 3 or however many) plots or action/reaction/decision threads running parallel until they join.
Make sense?
Your assignment?
Read the first three chapters of your manuscript. (Or the last manuscript you worked on.) Do you employ action/reaction and decision? (Lots of people do this naturally!)
If you don’t find an action/reaction/decision sequence…is your pacing off? Does your book have a disjointed feel? Is it slow? Boring? (Ouch!) Unfocused?
If you’re one of those people with parallel plots that aren’t supposed to join yet…Do you have separate action/reaction/decision sequences that keep each individual thread of the story tight and focused?
susan meier
BABY AT THE RANCH, June 2011, part of the Baby in the Boardroom mini-series for Harlequin Romance
Coming Attractions
August
Journey Steps. NEORWA
http://www.neorwa.com/index.php/Workshops/Workshops
Journey Steps, Taking the Train to Somewhere Ever wonder what you’re supposed to “put” in between those four or five turning points of your story? Susan Meier’s Journey Steps, Taking the Train to Somewhere provides quick, easy solutions for any author who has ever wondered “now what?” Topics include the “magic formula” for plotting, the list of five, explanation of plot threads versus subplot and tricks for writing an “edge-of-the-seat” read. Learn to tell your story in one straight-forward paragraph that can be used for pitches! Beginners, intermediate and experienced authors will benefit from this workshop.
Coming in October PREPARING FOR NANO at Pennwriters.com
Cat Tails
Well, it's summer and my famous felines are finally outside again. But now we prepare for the fear of every hot month here in PA...that Sophie will gift us with our own private chimpmunk. That's right, folks. At no cost to me, my sweet Sophie will herd any number of critters into my house and give them homes under my sofa. I once had a chimpmunk skitter up one arm, across my shoulders and down the other arm, when I sat in the recliner with my morning coffee.
So that scream you hear will probably be me!
Excerpt from BABY AT THE RANCH
Chapter 1
Suzanne Caldwell shoved against the spot in the door of Amanda Mae’s Old West Diner where the “waitress wanted” sign filled the glass. The scent of fresh apple pie greeted her, along with a rush of noise.
Though there were no more than ten people at the counter and in the booths, the place was as rowdy as a party. Women wearing jeans and tank tops sat with men dressed in jeans, T-shirts and cowboy hats. She didn’t get two steps into the room before the noise level began to drop. As if noticing the stranger, people stopped talking mid-sentence.
She clutched her six-month-old baby, Mitzi. There was nothing like walking into a roomful of staring strangers to make you realize how alone you were in the world.
And she was definitely alone. She’d run out of gas about a mile out of Whiskey Springs, Texas, and, literally, had no one to call for help.
No family. Her grandmother had died six months ago and her mom had died when Suzanne was six. Her dad, whoever he was, had never acknowledged her.
Her mom and grandmother were both only children so she had no aunts, no uncles, no cousins.
And no friends. The wonderful sorority sisters who’d vowed to be her ally for life had dumped her when she got pregnant by a popular university professor. It was her fault, they’d said, and had accused her of trying to ruin Bill Baker’s career. As if. The guy had gone on a campaign to seduce her and had wormed his way into her life because of her grandmother’s fortune. When Martha Caldwell made some major mistakes in money management and lost the bulk of her wealth, Professor Baker suddenly didn’t want to see her anymore. And he most certainly wanted no part of their baby.
So, yeah. She was alone. Alone. Broke. Desperate to make a home for herself and her baby. And she’d left Atlanta bound for Whiskey Springs hoping to find some help.
But after walking the last mile on a hot June day, her heels thumped in her black stiletto boots. Mitzi squirmed in her arms. Her heavy diaper bag was dislocating her shoulder. Still, she kept her head high as she made her way to the first empty booth. By the time she got there, the diner was dead silent.
A waitress shuffled over. “Help you?”
She cleared her throat. “I’d like a piece of the apple pie I can smell, a cup of coffee, a glass of milk and some pudding, please.”
“What kind of pudding?”
She swallowed. Not one person had turned back to his or her coffee or food. They just stared as if she were a zombie or vampire or some other mythical creature they’d never seen before. “What kind do you have?”
“Vanilla or chocolate.”
“Mitzi loves vanilla.”
Without so much as a word of acknowledgement, the waitress scurried away.
“You’re not from around here.”
Knowing the man could only be talking to her, she followed the voice and found herself staring into a pair of the shrewdest eyes she’d ever seen. Cool, calculating, so black the pupils were almost invisible, his eyes never blinked, never waivered as they held her gaze.
Toto, we are not in Kansas anymore.
“No, I’m not from around here.”
“What’s your business?”
“None of yours.” She turned away from the penetrating, unsettling eyes and shifted Mitzi on her lap.
To her horror, the man walked over and plopped down on the bench seat across from hers. His full lips pulled upward into a devilish smile. His dark eyes danced with pleasure. “Now, see. That’s not just a bad attitude; it’s also wrong.”
She should have been scared to death. He was big. Not fat, but tall and broad-shouldered. The kind of guy who could snap a little five-foot-five girl like her in two. But instead of fear, a very unladylike shiver of lust rippled down her spine.
“Everything that happens in Whiskey Springs is my business because this is my town.”
Not at all happy with herself for even having two seconds of attraction to an ill-mannered stranger, she said, “Your town? What are you, the sheriff?”
He chuckled. The people at the counter and in the booths around them also laughed.
“No. I’m Cade Andreas. I own this town. I bought all the buildings last year. I lease the businesses back to their proprietors, but I still own every square inch, including the one you’re sitting on.”
Oh, good God. This was Cade Andreas?
Fear and confusion immediately replaced attraction. Wasn’t the Andreas family broke?
She owned one-third of Andreas Holdings stock and hadn’t been able to sell it because the company was on the skids. What was he doing buying a town?
“And I’d like to know what brings you to my town.”
She raised her gaze to his face. A day-old growth of beard covered his chin and cheeks, giving him a sexily disreputable look. His lips were full, firm, kissable. His nose had been broken – undoubtedly in a fight – but it wasn’t disfigured, more like masculine. Definitely not dainty. There was nothing dainty about this man. He was all male. One-hundred percent, grade A, prime specimen sexy.
Finally, their eyes connected. Her chest tightened. Her breathing stalled. She could have blamed that on her unwitting attraction, but refused. A guy who bought a town had to be more than a little arrogant. Definitely past vain. Maybe even beyond narcissistic. And she’d learned her lesson about narcissistic men with Mitzi’s father. It would be a cold, frosty day in hell before she got involved with another self-absorbed man. So she refused to be attracted to Cade Andreas. Refused.
But she still needed a job. She might own stock worth millions of dollars, but nobody wanted to buy it. Potential didn’t sell stock these days. Dividends did. And in the past two years Andreas Holdings hadn’t paid any. So she was hoping that since she owned one-third of the company they could at least let her work there. The choice to approach Cade Andreas, the youngest of the three brothers who owned controlling interest of Andreas Holdings stock and ran the company, was simply a matter of practicality. Texas was driving distance. New York City, the headquarters for the corporate offices, wasn’t. Still, if they gave her a job, she’d get there somehow. She’d go anywhere that she could put down roots and make a home.
Maybe find some friends.
“What brings you to my town?”
This time the words were harsh. Not quite angry, but definitely losing patience.
She glanced at the waitress who stood behind the counter, balancing a coffee pot and Suzanne’s piece of pie, obviously holding them hostage until she answered Cade.
She looked back at him. His already sharp eyes had narrowed in displeasure, and she had the sudden, intense intuition that if she told him who she was – in front of his adoring friends and the frozen waitress – he would not jump for joy. She would bet her last dollar that none of these people knew how much trouble Andreas Holdings was in and Cade would not be happy with the person who announced it.
There was no way she could say who she was and why she was here without talking about something he would want kept private, and no way she could explain her presence in this two-bit town so far from a major highway that no one was ever just passing through.
She glanced around, saw the sign in the door advertising for a waitress and grabbed the first piece of good luck that had come her way in over a year.
“I heard about the job for a waitress, so I came.”
“In your fancy boots, with your baby all dolled up?”
“We put on our best stuff --” she said, making herself sound as if she fit the part of a waitress. She regretted the deception, but if anybody ever deserved to be played, this guy did. Owned a town, huh? She potentially held the future of his family’s company in her hands just by whom she chose to sell her stock to, yet he’d never once considered that she might be somebody worthy of his time. “-- For the interview.”
A short, round, dark-haired woman wearing an apron scampered out of the kitchen. “You’re looking for a job?”
“Yes.” The truth of that brought her back to reality. Her purpose for coming to Whiskey Springs had been to get a job – from Andreas Holdings. Now that plan was on hold. She wasn’t exactly here to be a waitress, but money was money. And she needed some. Now. Today. She had enough cash to pay for her piece of pie and even buy extra milk for Mitzi, but after that she and Mitzi were sleeping in her car.
“I’m Suzanne Caldwell.” Because her grandmother had held the stock in a trust, her name wasn’t mentioned on any documents, so she could give it without worry. “This is my baby Mitzi.”
Mitzi picked that exact moment to cry. The little brunette scrambled over. “I’m Amanda Mae.” She shot Cade an evil look, causing Suzanne to immediately love her. “Real men don’t make babies cry.”
Cade held up his hands innocently. “Hey, I was on my own side of the booth the whole time. I didn’t touch her.”
“You’re threatening her mama.”
His face fell. “I never threatened her!”
“Just your voice is threatening.”
He sighed. “Yeah. Right. Whatever.”
She took the baby. “Would you like a bottle, little Mitzi?”
Suzanne said, “I ordered some milk and pudding for her.”
Amanda Mae looked horrified. “June Marie, where are you with this baby’s food?”
The waitress hustled over, set Suzanne’s pie in front of her and poured her a cup of coffee before she rushed away and got both the pudding and the milk.
Eyes narrowed, Cade studied the woman across the booth from him. She was a pretty little package. Eyes so blue they bordered on the purple color of the wildflowers that grew on his pasture in the spring. Black hair cut in a straight, blunt line at her chin, giving her a dramatic look that didn’t fit with a woman who needed a job as a waitress. And those boots. Black stilettos. The kind a man envisioned on his chest, pinning him to a bed.
He stopped those thoughts. She might be a pretty with her perfect nose and full, tempting lips, but he wasn’t interested.
Still, he had no doubt that he had to keep an eye on her. Something wasn’t right with her. It wasn’t just her city-girl clothes. Her demeanor didn’t fit. Waitresses didn’t have smooth hands, perfect posture, an unblinking stare.
He rose from the booth. “Well, seeing as how you got the job you wanted, I guess we’ll be running into each other from time to time.”
She only smiled. A cool, remote smile that heated his blood and all but challenged him to turn on the charm and see how long it would take to get that smile to thaw. Luckily, he was smarter than that.
Amanda Mae said, “Do you have someplace to stay, honey?”
She faced the diner owner. “I – No. Actually, I need a place to stay.”
“Hotel’s in the next town over,” Cade said, striding back to his seat at the counter and his now cold coffee.
Amanada Mae shot him another evil glare. “Or she could use the apartment upstairs until she gets on her feet.”
“I’d like that.” Suzanne pressed her fingers to Amanda Mae’s hand in a gesture of appreciation that stopped Cade cold. Maybe she was in need of a little help? Her crisp white blouse and fancy jeans could be the last good things she owned. He hadn’t heard a car drive up. He glanced out the big front window into the street. He didn’t see a car. She could be dead broke--
Nope. His business sense wouldn’t accept that. Something about her screamed money. Big money. If she was pretending she didn’t have any, there was a reason.
Damn. He was going to have to keep an eye on her.
***
Don't forget to go to susanmeier.com to read the prologue...What Came Before...for Cade Andreas and check out the workshops, recipes and the Happily Ever Afters...stories about Gino and Michael Andreas thirty years after their parents found love!
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