The Owl Lady Comes to MB4

 By 

Aaron Lazar and Dora Machado

We are delighted to welcome Viv Drewa to MB4. At Aaron’s kind invitation, Aaron, Viv and I are sitting around his fireplace, sharing a stout blend of Earl Gray, talking about all things writing. And yes, there’s an owl on the mantle, because there’s always an owl when Viv comes for a visit, a very wise one whose wisdom she’s always happy to share with her fellow writers.

For those of you who don’t know Viv, she’s the accomplished pen behind The Owl Lady Blog and the indie author of several novels, including The Owl of the Sipan Lord and The Owl and the Angler. She’s also a legendary figure in our writing community, known for her kindness and generosity in supporting, promoting and mentoring her fellow writers.

Aaron: Viv, you spend so much time promoting your fellow authors, we’re astounded. Where did you get your most generous spirit? Were your parents like you? Do you have siblings, and did they also inherit that amazing gift?

Viv: Awww, shucks, you’re making me blush!!!

My father was the one I learned generosity from. He was always there to help someone, friend, family or neighbor. My ‘baby brother’, who passed in 2014, was the same. If a friend or family member called him to help with their car or wiring or plumbing problems, he’d drop everything and go help.

Aaron: That is so cool, Viv. I had a feeling you might have come from a very giving family! And I’m sorry to hear about your brother passing. That must have been very difficult. Were you close siblings?

Viv: When we were grown yes we were very close. We didn’t live close and would spend Sundays on the phone laughing at anything and everything.

Aaron: We are fascinated by the owl theme that permeates your books and beautiful book covers. Why owls and how did you come to love owls?

Viv: I was three when I fell in love with owls. We had an owl clock in the living room that sat on top of our TV console. It was 6” tall and was an electric alarm clock. I wanted it so bad! I didn’t get to put it in my bedroom until I was 13 and used it until I was in high school. It stopped working and I wanted to take the insides out and put flowers in it as a decoration and put it on the shelf with the many owls I had already collected. Unfortunately my grandfather threw it out and I never saw it again.

I chose to add them, as a guide to the solution of the story, because of my love of them. They’re mysterious, curious and just downright adorable!

My granddaughter, Annabelle Furlong, designed the cover for “The Owl of the Sipan Lord” which won first place in the 2015 AuthorsDB cover contest, and also “Midnight Owl” A Joe Leverette Mystery, Book 1. She’ll be doing all my covers.

Aaron: Ah, another family connection! Someone in your family must’ve loved owls, too. ;o) And your covers are great – kudos to your granddaughter! Tell us, Viv, what genre books did you read as a child/young adult? Did they influence the type of books you write today?

Viv: I was always attracted to books with pretty pictures of animals when I was very young. Later I read all the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries.

Aaron: I read the Hardy Boys mysteries, too! And also as many “animal” mysteries as I could get my hands on. ;o) Do you have a favorite book in your own stable? What it is?

Yes, and I was able to purchase it from a library that had closed and it’s the exact book jacket from the one I read in 1963! It is “The Whistling Sword” by J.R. Green. It was the first book I read after the mysteries I mentioned in #3 and it was the book that made me want to be an author.

Dora: Tell us a little more about that. When did you decide to become a writer and how did you go about it?

Viv: That was in 1963, I was nine so becoming a writer was just a dream at this point. I excelled in writing and won two competitions, then came in 2^nd and 3^rd in two more. I have the story I wrote in 1963 where my teacher wrote: “Someday you’ll write books and they will be published!” I’m thinking of having it framed. Unfortunately she passed away 40 years ago but I know she’s watching from heaven and is pleased her prophecy came true.

Dora: Aw. What a wonderful story. How do you go about writing your books? Do you have daily, monthly and yearly goals? And as active as you are in promoting other writers, how do you find the time to write and be at the heart and soul of the writing community?

Viv: First I follow something I learned at a screenwriting seminar: It’s a story about ______ that ______ and sometimes add: What if _____?

         Second: I decide how many main characters I need, and secondary, too. Then I interview them to get to really know them.
          Third: Give them physical descriptions and names.

          Fourth: Start writing.

As for goals I set yearly ones. 2016 I’m planning on writing two books, maybe three. Plus four short stories for Ashtrays to Jawbreakers Anthology.

(You guys just love to make me blush! I never thought I was at the heart and soul of the writing community. Just one of the group.)

I have to give Aaron credit for helping me find time to write. I read an interview where he said you find the time even if it means getting up a little earlier every day. So I’m up at 5 a.m. and write or do research until 8 a.m. Then get on with promoting my fellow authors.

Aaron: What’s your favorite character in your books? Why do you love him/her and how did this character become "real" to you?

Viv: My favorite character is Det. Joe Leverette. I created him over 30 years ago when I was dabbling with screenplays. I had always planned on using him in a book after that.

Leverette is a stoic personality, always studying his surroundings and at the age of 56 seems to attract a barrage of 25+ year old women. (Which he hates) If you remember the late Edward Mulhare in “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir” TV program, that’s how I visualize him.

Dora: Thank you so much for visiting with us today, Viv. We loved having you here.

Aaron: Yes, Viv, thank you for coming. You give of yourself so freely all the time, we’d like to tell our readers more about you and your books. So here we go!

Thank you both for inviting me to your wonderful blog! I had a good time!

All About Viv’s books:

The Angler and the Owl

Before retiring France Hunter decides to go to the place where she found her first new species of owl: The Amazon. Her group follows a well know angler, John Sinclair, and his team, along with a reporter who wants to do a story on Hunter.

Once arriving at the site, Sinclair leaves to go further up the river. He has a show to record and is hoping to catch an even larger fish this time.

Hunter, and the group with her, run into a gruesome nightmare with the satellite phone
destroyed and one man fighting for life. Sinclair is not due to pick them up for another week.

Will they survive?

 Check it out on Amazon

From the Pages of Grandfather’s Life

The true story of a young man forced to leave his family to escape the Russian czar in 1913 Poland, or be drafted into the Russian army and fight against his own people. (I’m planning on making this into a novella)

Check it out on Amazon

The Owl of the Sipan Lord

Martin and Clare Montgomery worked as an archaeological team until Martin's accidental death at a dig they were working on in Peru. Clare swore she'd never go back, but after having a dream about the dig that didn't add up to the finds of the area, and the help of the Peruvian Pygmy Owl and a blue-eyed spirit, she did.

 Check it out on Amazon

Midnight Owl A Joe Leverette Mystery, Book 1

Detectives Joe Leverette and Philip Marsden are assigned to investigate the murder of a woman who was found dismembered in Port Huron, Michigan. After investigations, it is discovered the
murderer is going after the individuals who found each of the body parts.

Leverette becomes interested in Carole Sage, one of the women involved, who is a sensitive but is unable to pursue her due to her involvement in the case. His colleagues in the police
force notice the infatuation he has for the woman, but she does not.

The witnesses dream about the murderer removing the particular body part they would eventually find, are startled awake and then they hear an owl hoot several times. Fearing skepticism, they don't reveal their dreams to law enforcement.

Carole Sage actually sees the original murder plus the murder of the individual witnesses. Police Chief Billingsley understands the gift she possesses and arranges a sting operation in order to catch the murderer which fails. Two witnesses are dead and they don't want any more to die.

This books is for 18+ due to the violence.

Check it out on Amazon

I also write short stories for the anthology “Ashtrays to Jawbeakers: A June Project” which is on it’s 10^th edition and each issue is always available for free on Smashwords.

****

More About Viv Drewa

I am a Michigan native who has enjoyed reading and writing since 1963. Though I studied medicinal chemistry at the University of Michigan my passion has always been writing.
I had been awarded third place for her nonfiction short story about my grandfather’s escape from Poland. Later, rewrote this story and was published in the “Polish American Journal” as “”From the Pages of Grandfather’s Life” and has republished it on Amazon.com as a short story.

I took creative and journalism courses to help transition to fulfill my dream of becoming a writer. I worked as an intern for Port Huron’s ‘The Times Herald”, and also wrote, edited and did the layout or the Blue Water Multiple Sclerosis newsletter “Thumb Prints.”
I also write two blogs promoting my fellow authors:

https://theowlladyblog.wordpress.com/

owlladysblog.blogspot.com

Using Exclamation Points in Your Novel!!!! by Aaron Lazar

Aaron Paul Lazar, copyright 2016

One of the first errors I learned about as a novice writer had to do with the use of exclamation points. After penning my first novel -- fortunately before publication -- I was informed by a writing guru that exclamation points don’t belong in one’s narratives. Period.
 

Here’s an example of very amateurish writing where exclamation points abound. This is not okay! (I just had to put an exclamation point here to make you smile.) It’s actually very similar to several newbie manuscripts I was asked to critique. 

She walked into the crystal cave and cried out. In front of her stood a giant elf! He was huge! And his eyes burned with fire!

She turned and ran as fast as her legs would carry her, and almost fell!

All right, now that you are cringing (I hope), I will stop. A few years ago, I actually edited a manuscript where there were multiple examples like this on every, single page, all throughout the book. Yup. But my young authors learned, just like we all did, and they dutifully removed those offensive punctuation marks.
 

Of course, there’s a difference when you use exclamation points in narrative versus dialogue. Although this example has far too many exclamation points, it’s not quite as awful as adding them in your narrative as I showed above. 

    Shelby held a silver chain to the light. A heart-shaped crystal dangled below, winking in the winter sunlight. “Look what Uncle Sig bought me!” she said.

Camille jumped up to examine the necklace and Johnny roared into the room, “flying” his rubbery metallic green dragon toward me.

“My dragon flies!” he yelled, zooming it up and down in the air and finally landing it on my shoulder.

“Wow. What’s his name?” I peered down at the realistic reptile who perched on me.

“I dunno,” he said. “How ‘bout…Claws?”

I picked up the squishy critter and looked at him. He did have very distinctive claws and a rubbery mouth that opened when you pressed on the skull. “Claws is a good name, buddy. I like it.”

“Can he come to dinner with us? He’s really hungry!”

Camille fastened the necklace around Shelby’s neck.

I handed Claws back to Johnny. “Sure he can. Do you have to use the bathroom before we go?”

“Yes!” he squealed, holding two hands in front of himself and dancing in place. “I do!”

Okay, so the little boy and his sister in the above segment are really, really excited. And it’s probably okay to sparingly use exclamation points in their dialog. In the highlighted areas above, such as those with the dialog tags “yelled” and “squealed,” they are sufficiently clear to let the reader know the boy is being very loud. I would remove the exclamation marks from those segments, at minimum. Frankly, I think one or two per chapter is more than enough. You can show excitement in many other ways, especially by using action beats.

For example, you might say, “He shrieked and ran in circles, arms flapping like an airborne chicken.” Or something equally as silly. ;o)

Remember, as a general rule, avoid exclamation points in narrative, and use them very sparingly in dialog. You don’t want to get the same highbrow lecture I did when I was a newbie, do you?

Now, how do you handle someone shouting in your novel? How about when it’s an inner thought?

What if your character has just stumbled upon the dead body of the one he loves?

(As you know, all inner thoughts are generally shown in italics, except where you use, “he thought,” etc.)

I have seen at least three methods to show this:

1) No! No! No!

2) NO. NO. NO.

3) “No, no, no!” he thought.

Some folks use upper case to stand in for exclamation points. I’ve used that approach a few times in my own work. What do you think? List your comments below, and if you have any examples you’d like to discuss, feel free to post them in the comments section.

Remember to take pleasure in the little things. And if you love to write, write like the wind!

Aaron Paul Lazar
www.lazarbooks.com

How To Help Budding Authors (without killing their spirits)

copyright Aaron Paul Lazar, 2014

If you’re a published author, chances are you’ve been asked a hundred times to critique or review a newbie’s book. They might ask to send you a first draft, or sometimes they’ll ask you to endorse them by writing a blurb for their book cover. Frequently, they may be angling for an introduction to your publisher or agent.

How do you respond? You were in that position once upon a time. You remember how hard and confusing the whole industry was to understand. How scared you were of rejection and failure.

So, if you have a little extra time, you might be willing to take a look. But be careful what you promise, because no matter how great or awful you expect this book to be, you could inadvertently fall into a time-consuming nightmare.

I love to help new writers. I really do. And I try like heck to make time to read and comment on a few pages of their manuscripts. I usually ask to see a page or two before I make any promises to review or endorse. But sometimes I’m just in a nice mood and agree without thinking. This can be a mistake if the writing ends up being abysmal.

When I’ve read the first few sentences, I’ll know if I’m dealing with a well-trained writer or a rank beginner. When it’s the former, I read on with glee, making small suggestions where necessary. When it’s the latter, I usually put in an hour or so with deep edits, adding careful comments about grammar, sentence structure, skills needed, etc. It’s a lot of work, but I do believe in giving back after so many writers helped me in the beginning of my career, so it’s all good.

I have done this more times than I can remember, and I believe (hope) these efforts have helped.

It’s really hard when both the story and the writing skills are lacking. But I always try to find something nice to say, followed by a gentle but honest list of suggestions.

Here is an example of a recent letter I wrote, trying to accomplish what I referred to above. (all names are fictitious)

***

Dear Stanley,

Thank you for letting me take a look at the first chapter of your book, The Biggest Boy on the Block. I know it takes a great deal of courage to "open up" to the world after working so hard on your book, and I am honored that you trusted me to do so.

I've gone through a few pages and marked them up with writing advice. I've suggested grammar, sentence structure, and alternate word choices, etc. Please don't be discouraged by all the markups, because in the beginning all writers need to learn these skills, and it just takes time. It took Dean Koontz time, it took me time, and it'll take you time, too.

You have a wonderful imagination, and I can see your mind is very fertile! You've created fun characters and an interesting setting. Although I don't normally enjoy urban street crime novels, it was interesting to see how you set it up. I liked the way you moved your readers into the story through the old man’s memories.

Now for the hard part. Please take this in the generous spirit it's intended, okay?

Your book (including formatting) needs quite a bit of work before you think about submitting it to agents or publishers.

You might consider a few things to help you move to the next level where you'll be able to compete with the thousands of authors also trying to "break through." Following are some possibilities.

1) Join some writing forums and ask for critiques from fellow writers. But be careful of this, however, because sometimes there are very nasty people who like to tear down other writers. Check it out and see what kind of comments they make. Be sure they are decent people involved who use constructive criticism.

2) Befriend a few writers in your genre and swap chapters or books with them on a regular basis. You can learn from each other and this is a win-win situation if you choose the right partner.

3) Hire a writing coach (if you can afford it), or better yet, take some community courses on creative writing.

4) Read constantly. Find and read at least 50-100 books in your genre. With Kindle deals these days, you can probably find most of them for free or 99 cents. I have newsletters I subscribe to where you can sign up to get daily notifications of free or discounted eBooks, targeted to your genre. Let me know if you want the list. I get these “deal alerts” in my email inbox and search for the most interesting books I can get for free or cheap, even though as a writer it sometimes bothers me that it's come to this. But as a reader, I love it. LOL. I would recommend you spend the next year or two devouring books as fast as you can. Listen to the voices of these authors and learn from them. (Another way to accomplish this is #5.)

5) Audiobooks. You can download the files to your Kindle (Fire), iPad, iPod, PC, laptop, smart phone, etc. just like music files. No more messing with CDs or going to the library to pick up and drop off. You just join Audible.com and you're in. That way you can listen while you drive, work, do dishes, exercise, etc. I even listen while I do laundry. I now get many more books in my head every week, thanks to audiobooks.

6) Last of all, I would buy some basic grammar and writing books. Better yet, visit The Grammar Girl's website to use her free articles on grammar whenever you have a question. She is great! My favorite writing book of all time is Stephen King's ON WRITING. It's fantastic. You could also consider listening to my writing guide, Write Like the Wind (3 short volumes). You might pick up some new tips there as well. No pressure, naturally. (btw, I am revamping the eBooks for this series and they'll be out in a few months.)

7) When you are ready and feel your book is as good as it possibly can be, I highly recommend hiring an editor for your final manuscript before you submit.

I'm happy to keep offering advice - I love helping new writers. So please, let me know what you think and if you have any questions. Hard work will get you there and your wonderful imagination should fuel that process.

Best wishes,

Aaron

***

How’s that? How would you feel if you received a letter like this when you were starting out?

In the beginning, I think I would have crumpled, in spite of the “nice” comments that precede the truth. It would have killed me. Matter of fact, I did get a few aggressive critiques in my early days, and it really took me ages to grow a skin thick enough to handle such criticism. But I needed to hear the advice back then, and I’ve become a better writer because of it.

I encourage you all to help out newbie writers whenever possible. Be kind, be helpful, and give them sound advice.

Best Always,

Aaron Lazar

www.lazarbooks.com

An Interview with MB4's Aaron Paul Lazar

by

Dora Machado

Hello everybody. I heard through the grapevine that our very own Aaron Paul Lazar has added a new award to his credits. So I thought I should ask! 

Welcome Aaron and huge congrats! What's this we hear about a new award for your latest romance, The Seacrest?

Hi, Dora.

Thanks for asking! ;o) I was really thrilled when a few months ago, The Seacrest was announced as a finalist for this year’s FOREWORD book of the year awards (we find out June 29^th if it won its category!), but then last week I was surprised to discover the book has also WON the romance category of the Beach Book Festival 2014. It’s very gratifying, because as you and our MB4 fans may know, this was my first foray into writing a pure love story, after writing dozens of mysteries over the past decade.

That's awesome, Aaron. Why is The Seacrest perfect for the beach this summer?

This book is set exclusively on Cape Cod, in Brewster, Mass, at a mansion by the sea called The Seacrest. It rotates across time by chapter, telling the story of a young Finn McGraw at age 16 who falls madly in love with a girl he meets on the beach named Sassy, and the current day story of Finn as an adult who has suffered great losses and is about to be slammed with many more horrific surprises, while still pining away for his long lost love.

But most of the scenes include sand, waves, seagrass, and a salty tang on the sea breeze. There are lovemaking scenes in a cove on the beach, horseback riding in the surf, and many poignant moments spent down on the shore. ;o) So in my humble opinion, it’s a perfect beach read!

How does it feel to cross genres, to step out of your usual genre and be so warmly welcomed into the romance genre?

Dora, I’d always said with tongue-in-cheek that I might someday write a romance. I’d never read any romances, per se – unless some of the romantic suspense novels I’ve read could qualify. But I knew I had at least one great love story in me, and frankly, a lot of my mysteries included subthemes of love, or unrequited love, or love lost. I enjoyed writing those subplots in my mysteries, and played them up a bit more in my newer Tall Pines Mysteries. Finally, last year I began to think about Cape Cod again. We’d been planning a vacation there (first time in 9 years!) and I was really psyched about it. I started writing The Seacrest and was partially done by June 2013, when we returned to Brewster, Mass, a gorgeous village on the bay side of Cape Cod.

Once we arrived, I resumed my love affair with all things “Cape” and found plenty of great color and local plant life and scene details to fill in the rest of the story with a genuine feel of Cape Cod. I took hundreds upon hundreds of photos, and still look back at them with great enjoyment. We’re about to go back there this month, and I am seriously thinking about writing a sequel to The Seacrest. Maybe this vacation will be the inspiration for my next great love story? We shall see!

Congratulations again, my friend. Well done!

Dora, thanks for asking about my newest award and have a wonderful weekend!

Yes, have a wonderful weekend everybody!

Aaron

www.lazarbooks.com