TO WANDER BETWEEN REALITIES

 {Samuel McCord and Wolfe from  

Her Bones Are In The Badlands}

(Image by Rinus Baak and purchased from Dreamstime)

“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is: Infinite. 

For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thru narrow chinks of his cavern.”

 - William Blake


“Maybe each human being lives in a unique world, a private world different from those inhabited and experienced by all other humans. 

If reality differs from person to person, can we speak of reality singular, or shouldn't we really be talking about plural realities? 

And if there are plural realities, are some more true (more real) than others?"
 - Phillip K. Dick


"The first discovery of genius:

Those who agree with you are insane.  Those who do not are in power."
  - Samuel McCord

Ride the winds of Alternate Realities with Samuel McCord, Wolfe, and me as we head 

to RaShelle Workman's delightful Blog:
http://www.rashelleworkman.com/

Yes, it is another stop on my Legendary "Don't You Hate Book Tours?" Book Tour.

Don't groan.  

It is different from the others.  It is fun.  It is thought-provoking.  

It is better than Batman vs. Superman!

But then, Gilligan's Island is, too!

C'mon.  We are nearing the end of the trail.  It is the Third Act.  

And you know how thrilling the last act always is! 

 http://www.amazon.com/dp/1530302722/

  What I think of as the theme for "The Legend of McCord"

 

YOU ARE NOT OWED READERS

“There is no such thing as a failed test. You will learn every time you challenge yourself.”

Marsha Blackburn

As you write, keep in mind that no one cares.

First, you have to make your readers take notice of you with a catchy title, 

absorbing cover blurb, 

and intriguing back cover copy. 

That is the easy part.  The hard part is just beginning.

The savvy writer knows he must keep reader interest at every point and go to whatever lengths it takes to grab and hold that interest.

Ask yourself: 

since my reader may have no interest in this,
 what do I have to do 
to conceive this story in an interesting way, 
to start off with an interesting premise
and to sustain that interest throughout my book?"

No one cares about you, about your book, about what you are writing about ...

Go on from there.

You must make them care by being riveting, 

by appealing to universal needs ... from chapter to chapter, never letting up.

When you finish one chapter, 

you must work to make the next even more interesting, building on what you have already written.

Keep it interesting,

knowing that there is a seductive world out there, 

calling to them to put down your book and come out and play in it.

Pick a storyline you care about.

If you care enough about something, you can more easily make it interesting.

What do you say in your head as you write?


Don't forget I am at Hunter Shay's Blog and Diane Wolfe's too:

 http://huntershea.com/ 

 http://circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com/

TO FIND A PATH THRU THE DARKNESS THAT IS HIS LOVE

 "I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. 

If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other.”
 - Mary Shelly, Frankenstein


 "When dealing with the frightening, translucence is more effective than transparency, 

just as glow is more revealing than glare."
 - Alfred Hitchcock

 Before you head off to another port of call by the Xanadu to Hunter Shea's Blog:
http://huntershea.com/

LET ME TELL YOU OF THE MECHANICS OF FEAR:

 All of us will have to write a suspenseful, scary scene no matter in what genre we write.

Films have great aids for creating scary scenes: 

music, weird camera angles, editing, music cues, performance, special visual and makeup effect.

 In prose all we have to work with are words, and our readers’ imaginations. 

The good news is that those are powerful tools.

 The ways you arrange words into sentences and sentences into paragraphs 

 can activate your readers’ psyches in ways you may not have thought possible.

 When you’re building suspense, evoking a feeling of impending doom or the terrifying fear of the unknown, 

get your reader to hold her breath. 

 Stop her from taking her next breath for longer than normal. 

And though it may seem impossible to do this with words on a page, 

be aware that we unconsciously breathe as though we’re reading aloud even when we aren’t.

EXAMPLE:

{McCord and the brilliant Lady Ada Byron Lovelace are visiting the imprisoned Vampiric Benjamin Franklin

 who is bound painfully to a bed of pure silver.

 McCord is telling Franklin that he believes the vampire might have been cured of the revenant curse.}

“I believe King Solomon's dagger severed DayStar’s and Abby’s hold on you.  In life, I’ve found it wise to believe in what works and leave theory to those safe behind ivory walls of universities.”

He laughed bitterly.  “How long can I go without … feeding?”

“Do you feel the thirst now?’

His face went blank, and he became as still as only the dead can be.  “No.  No, I cannot.  Am I free of the Thirst at long last then?”

“I believe you are.  I also believe that should you decide to … feed for the pleasure of it, you would become an animal … with no intelligence or humanity at all.  You may even go on all fours.”

Franklin had always prided himself on his intellect.  “No!  If I should feel myself weakening, I shall come to you.  If that ever occurs, sir, kill me on the spot.  On the very spot!  No hesitation.  I must never become that.  Never!  Promise me you will kill me.  Promise!”

“I promise,” I said softly.

Ada rasped, “As do I, Mr. Franklin.”

He stiffened.  “You call me mister.  A term of respect.  You feared what you would see within my cell.  Yet you entered.  You detest what I tried to do to your friend.  Yet, seeing my imprisonment, you declare to contend with that friend on my behalf.  You pledge to end me though I know that would cost you greatly.”

His eyes bled tears of blood.  “Lady Lovelace, you are a treasure for me to behold.  If I could but rise, I would kiss your hand.  As it is, I shall remember the lovely fragrance you are wearing during the long, dark hours after you leave.”

Ada’s face went leper pale.  “Th-That is a … wonderful compliment, Mr. Franklin.  America is the country it is due to your dedication and force of will.  Those two traits I am sure will see you through this dark season.”

“Will you return to visit me on occasion?”

Ada went still, and then smiled, “Certainly, I will.  Of course, Samuel will insist on coming.  He is such a stodgy traditionalist.”

Franklin nodded to me, his eyes unreadable, and turned back to Ada.  “I will look forward to those visits, Madame.”

Ada was silent until we were some distance down the dark passageway leading away from Franklin’s cell.  She stopped suddenly and began to shiver.  She gripped my arm tightly.

“Oh, Samuel.  I am wearing no perfume, none at all.  He was smelling my blood.  My blood!”

 ***

Now, off with you to Hunter Shea's Blog for my next post of my "Don't You Hate Book Tours?" Book Tour.

It will be entertaining and light-hearted.  I promise.  

Would a writer of a scene like the one above lie to you?  

McCord finds himself married to an alien capable of horrific acts.  Can he find a path through the darkness that is his love?

DON'T FORGET TO VISIT L. DIANE WOLFE'S BLOG AND MY POST THERE!
 http://circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com/

L. DIANE WOLFE and the A to Z THEME REVEAL

“Not all men can find rest and peace;

 some are born with the spirit of the storm in their souls.”

Sail with me this morning to the harbor known as Spunk On A Stick:
 http://circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com/

And L. Diane Wolfe ...

But before then ...

I have ever ridden the outlaw trail with the A TO Z CHALLENGE:

Done it from Z to A ... 

Given you, my friends, the interesting facts for each day of April -- even Sundays...

Now, it is time for the A TO Z THEME REVEAL ...

And I am still an outlaw.

Don't you hate previews that give the whole movie away in the trailer?  

Me, too.

So, all I will tell you is that my A to Z has something to do with 

THE GHOST OF SIGMUND FREUD.

That's it.  

You'll have to wait until April to find out the rest.

NOW TO L. DIANE WOLFE ...

Sail aboard the Xanadu to her blog:
http://circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com/

on another stop of my legendary "Don't You Hate Book Tours?" Book Tour!

Whatever you are expecting, you will not get it at Diane's blog.  

It will be fun.

Would someone who listens to "Blackheart" lie to you?  :-)

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY ABOUT READING?

Worldwide no matter to which country you wander, there you will find a fondness for stories.  

Go back as far as the written or oral record goes, and you will find the storyteller.

Do you get lost in a good book?  Psychologists call that "transportation."

Transportation is related to the idea of "flow" -- 

that pleasurable feeling you get when you are completely absorbed in an activity, and lose track of time.

 Reading, it turns out, is the most common activity people pursue to get a flow experience.  

 Temporarily leaving one’s reality sometimes feels very pleasing, 

and people in an unpleasant mood will choose to read to pull themselves out of that sensation.

Stories of all kinds can have effects our or attitudes and beliefs about the real world, for good or ill. 

Even fictional stories are known to be able to cause changes in beliefs about the world.

Reading can be like a drug -- in a positive way.  

 If you get the book that makes a person fall in love with reading, 

they want another one and another one after that.

 But what makes that one book a trigger for continuous reading? 

For some, it’s the discovery that a book’s character is like you, or thinks and feels like you. 

What was that book that triggered in you the desire 

for continued reading?

What draws you back to reading 

time and time again?

DON'T FORGET that I will be slipping onto Deniz Bevan's blog, The Girdle of Melian later on this morning:
http://thegirdleofmelian.blogspot.com/

Samuel McCord and his Alien Empress wife, Meilori Shinseen, have a destiny to which they sail aboard the Xanadu, the 1st Air-Steamship

I think of this melody as the theme of that destiny:

ONE FREE BOOK STILL AVAILABLE:
https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/1b4510a1b3decb51#ln-fo

LIKE THE PIPES OF PAN

"Melodies, like the pipes of Pan, drift finally away, leaving the listener longing for more.  The magic of great literature is that its music never dies but lingers in the corridors of the soul urging us onward."
- Samuel McCord

"Thinking you're escaping and run into yourself.  Longest way round is the shortest way home."
 - James Joyce

"It's no simple business being mad."  
- Tom Coyne

"Strive to write tense scenes so that reading them is like watching Death approach you by flashes of lightning." 
- Roland Yeomans

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

(Thanks for being concerned for me yesterday.  I made it.  Now, to do it again tonight! Ouch!)

On this day in 461 AD., Saint Patrick died at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland.  

Much of what is known about Patrick's legendary life comes from the Confessio, a book he wrote during his last years. 

It hit me that most of what readers will know of us will come from our novels.  

Will those flashes of lightning tell the true story of who you are?

Tomorrow, follow me to Deniz Bevan's Blog, The Girdle of Melian 
 http://thegirdleofmelian.blogspot.com/

for a most unusual post on my "Don't You Hate Book Tours?" Book Tour.

Until then, don't forget to visit my other stops:

 http://writegame.blogspot.com/2016/03/hats-off-corner-welcomes-roland-yeoman.html

 http://waterytart23.blogspot.com/

 http://yolandarenee.blogspot.com/2016/03/xanadu.html 

 http://spiritcalled.blogspot.com/

 http://hmgardner.blogspot.com/2016/03/lets-get-to-work-dont-you-hate-book.html

  http://dghudson-rainwriting.blogspot.com/

 http://writerlysam.com/sams-blog/

 http://www.beingretro.com/2016/03/red-alert-red-alert-incoming-dont-you.html

 http://www.alexjcavanaugh.com/2016/02/golden-schmoes-winners-march-movie.html

http://writewithfey.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-shell-shocked-redemption-roland.html

 http://thewarriormuse.blogspot.com/2016/02/roland-stops-by-on-anti-blog-tour-links.html

http://dencovey.blogspot.com.au/2016/02/greetings-from-dont-you-hate-book-tours.html

http://www.heathermccorkle.com/2016/02/special-tour-guest-roland-yeomans.html

http://uparoundthecorner.blogspot.com/2016/02/guest-post-welcome-to-my-dont-you-hate.html

http://www.amazon.com/Not-So-Innocents-Abroad-Roland-Yeomans/dp/1530302722/

LIVING THE NIGHTMARE

https://www.facebook.com/erikaferrandokplc/videos/606498709503780/

I will have to find some accessible road to go to Beaumont tonight, but I fear they will all look like this.

To drive these conditions at night is no fun, but ill patients need blood.  

If you don't hear from me after tonight ...

Well, you know I tried my best.  Think good thoughts of me.