Rachel Lee's Blog

It's time to propose a new book. 

This is the hard part, especially with life swirling around me.  Kids need attention, son is vacuuming for me, mate is playing 90,000 versions of "Waltzing Matilda" on YouTube, dog #1 has decided he's hungry.... And I'm still hurting all over from a fall that sprained my ankle. 

Not to mention we're in the "cone of uncertainty" for an approaching tropical system, and I've got to consider things like: getting propane, getting batteries...although emergency food and water are already in the house.  We're in a no-evacuation zone, so that means we ride out the storms, like we did with Jeanne and Francis and other storms.  That worry runs around in the back of my mind like a hamster on a wheel.

 But I've been trying to get an idea for two weeks now, and all I'm getting are fragments.

First I saw a woman appearing at the door of Ransom and Mandy Laird's house.  She's in poor shape, and when Mandy answers the door she asks, "Is this Ransom's place?" and then collapses. 

Ideas float around, none that grab me.

Then a sentence pops into my head:  "The man came from nowhere."

I decide to noodle that around a bit, and begin typing thoughts as they occur:

 

THE MAN FROM NOWHERE

     No one knew where he came from or why.  He just appeared one day and moved into the La-Z-Rest Motel on the edge of town, across from the truck stop.

     Some thought, from his appearance and marked limp as he walked around town, that he might be a cowboy on the mend from an accident.  Each evening he dropped into Mahoney's bar, had a stiff shot of rye, then left without saying the word.  Walking, always walking on that painful-looking limp.

     Finally he stayed long enough that the sheriff got his name from the motel register and performed a "wants and warrants" check on him.  Nothing popped up.  Nor did anything else, not even a driver's license.

The man seemed to have come from nowhere.

Well, now I want to know about him and where he came from.  I'm even more curious about him than I was about the woman who still lies collapsed in the doorway of the Laird house.  So I decide to leave the woman lying there with all the questions that surround her and focus on the man from nowhere.

But what to do with him?  Who is he, why is he there, and how is he going to play a major role as the hero of the next book?  Because he is the hero.  I can feel it.

Now my son has moved the vacuum into the next room, "Waltzing Matilda" has fallen silent, and the dog is napping again.

What next?  What next?

I could beat my head on the keyboard because the answers are out there...or rather in here, but they elude me.  Like the rest of Conard County, I don't seem to know anything yet about The Man from Nowhere.

Stay tuned.  This is the really hard part, putting together all the pieces that will make a gripping story.

 

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There is now a place on the forum to discuss the blogs, ask questions and suggest other topics you'd like me to write about.  I hope you'll join me there!

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One of the questions most frequently asked of an author is: Where do you get your ideas?  And the answer is invariably: they're everywhere.  From the back of the mind, from news items, from the world around us.

Just as invariably, that answer proves to be disappointing.

But there's actually no magic to story-telling.  Psychologists have come to recognize that story-telling is how we create our own lives.  It's the way we put information together into a narrative that makes sense to us.  Everything that happens around us is being woven into the story.

How so?  Well, try to pay attention to how you think about things.  If you see a mother scolding a young child in the mall, but can't hear what she's saying, you're apt to come up with a reason for that scolding.  Often even more than one reason.  You'll think, "Oh, the child must have been begging for something the mother (doesn't want to buy) (can't buy) (doesn't think the child should have).  Or you might think the child has been cranky and mother is telling her to stop complaining.  But running on auto pilot, you'll produce a mini-narrative of why the mother is scolding the child.  You may even embellish, imagining the scene that came before, or even a sequence of events leading to that moment. 

And you'll do it all quickly, hardly aware of it, before forgetting about it and walking on.

Your spouse wakes you in the morning, hands you a rose, says "I love you!" and leaves for work without another word.  You look at the rose, and how you'll write the story depends on other stories you've already written about your relationship:

• He's a sweetheart who just loves to suprise me
• He didn't come home until after I'd fallen asleep so he must have been out way too late again and is apologizing
• What has he done ???? (For a novelist, this is the most fertile seed.)

Each of these thoughts could lead to a further narrative, filling in details, all because you received a rose the moment you awoke.

Story-telling is the way we create our lives, and find ways to bring all the little pieces together.  All of us do it, and it's the basic tool of a novelist.

For example, I noticed a car in the parking lot of my apartment house.  I'd never seen it before, and it was parked in a reserved space.  My first thought was, "Oh, those residents aren't going to be happy if that car doesn't move soon."

That car didn't move.  Not only that, it stayed for  a week, with the driver's window rolled down even though we had several heavy rainstorms.

After a few days, I concluded the car was abandoned.  Naturally I started thinking about all the reasons someone could have abandoned  a perfectly good late-model car.  The novelist kicked in.  By the end of the week I had decided there was a body in the trunk, and that's why someone had left the car, to hide a murder.

The police arrived finally, and when they did I went down to talk to the crime scene unit.  The car had been reported abandoned by the management, and the cops had discovered it was a stolen car.  We chatted for a bit as the crime scene technician told me about his methods.  Then I told him about mine.

I said, "I've had a lot of fun with this car this week.  I'm a novelist, you see, and I started making up stories about why it was here.  I finally decided there was a body in the trunk."

All the police officers froze for a second.  Next thing I knew, they were popping the trunk to look.

Yes, I laugh about it and it's a great story...but in that story were the very seeds a novelist uses all the time.  We just encourage those stories to grow, rather than settling for a mini-narrative that's totally ordinary and walking away.

Instead we take the seeds, reach for the outrageous narrative, the most exciting story...and we're off and running.

If you would like to discuss or comment on this, head over to Coffee at Maude's Forum by clicking on  Rachel Lee Blog about Telling Stories - We're all guilty.

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  My first Blog and my new site!  This is certainly a long-held dream come true for me. :)

This is so exciting for me.  I've dreamed of having a website like this for years, and David made it all possible by doing a heck of a lot of work.

Conard County is a real place to me, one I've seriously missed visiting over the years.  I had to leave because I felt I was growing stale and didn't want to disappoint readers or, equally awful, damage Conard County permanently for you or me.

Coming home has been a challenge, but one that is making me very happy.  A SOLDIER'S HOMECOMING came out in July to great reviews.  My readers are all "warm fuzzies" who make me feel so good about what I am doing.

In April, VISIONS OF MURDER will be issued, the story of a schoolteacher who has unexpected psychic visions that lead her into danger as she struggles to save lives while a couple of very nasty killer stalk the innocent.  At her side is a disillusioned cop who no longer trusts himself, let alone anyone else.

And I've just finished a third book for the new series.  The title is tentative (I've already been told to think up something else) so I'll leave that off and just tell you that Nate Tate's youngest daughter returns home after serving as a nurse in Iraq, and at the VA hospital in Denver.  She wants peace, but finds she is the target of a man with a serious grudge.  Her biggest ally turns out to be a rather edgy, sometimes irritating and irritable doctor who seems to take her in instant dislike. 

 Right now I'm in the planning stages for the next book.

As for this website...well, I have big plans.  As time goes on I hope to continue growing it into a real piece of Conard County.  It's already been suggested that I create a Wiki, but that's beyond my means at the moment.  I'm also thinking about having a "front page" from the Conard County newspaper, updated regularly with little tidbits that you won't find in the books.

But even more important than ideas for future growth are the comments you send me, either here in the various places where you're welcome to write, or by e-mailing me through the comments section. 

You are as much a part of Conard County as Nate Tate, or Micah Parish, or Gage Dalton and Miss Emma.  You make the world come alive, too, and I'm looking forward to everything you have to say.

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Welcome to the NEW Rachel Lee Blog.  Tell us about the site and especially about the books!! 

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