The Vengeance Squad Goes to England

Chris knows he's going to help Liz. What he doesn't know is what to tell Angela. She expects him to spend his semester break in Bath, England with her. He isn't sure he is ready for a deeper relationship so soon after his fiancée was murdered two years earlier.

Tex, the wheelchair-bound ex-con and part-time student, plans to spend time at home during the school break. He only has one more semester to go to get his degree, and his part-time job at the library plus the criminal investigations he does with Chris and Liz has kept him away from his family too much. Can he say no to Liz? She'd been like a mother to him.

Liz Siedo, the director of library services, has saved enough money to buy a bookmobile, mostly donations from patrons with little to give. At least she thought she had. She learns a hundred grand disappeared around the same time her boyfriend Virgil did. She is known as the hugger and cheer leader, and is often outspoken about her Christian beliefs. Now she is angry and calls Chris and Tex in to help her find Virgil and get revenge.

With the help of Cloris, another woman Virgil has bilked out of a large sum of money, the vengeance squad tracks him to London, Stratford, St. Andrews in Scotland, and Seaford until soon he's chasing them. The closer they get, the more dangerous he becomes. Concern for money becomes a concern for life.

They all but give up before Chris's idea to use the Internet to recruit librarians and bookmobile drivers in the United Kingdom to help catch Virgil.

BOOK REVIEW: Murdermobile by B.B. Cantwell

Let me start by saying I love bookmobiles and therefore libraries and librarians. I especially love mysteries with humor involving bookmobiles, and have not found many. So, when I heard about Murdermobile, I quickly bought a copy.

 

As a writer and student of fiction, I was disappointed in the way the story was presented. I was taught to use only one character point of view in a scene and to let the reader know when the point of view character changes. In Murdermobile, the point of view bounces from one character to another as easily as starting a new paragraph.

If that doesn't bother you, you'll find the story itself, as well as the characters and settings quite enjoyable. The authors definitely know bookmobiles, and their characters come across as real and interesting.

When I encounter a book with the point of view switching like this one, I hardly ever finish it. The only reason I continued to read this one to the end was because of the bookmobile angle. I'm glad I did.

Entering Writing Contests Helps

I've mentioned several times how I honed my writing skills by entering manuscript contests. When Where Love Once Lived was nearing completion, everyone thought it was a romance novel. I didn't know any better, so I went along with what I was hearing from my writing friends. That worked to my advantage since there are probably more contests in the romance genre than any other. Also, I had the advantage of a having a story in the subgenre of inspirational where there was less competition.

I joined the Romance Writers of America and entered manuscript contests in chapters all across the United States. There was a fee for each entry and back then, many of them required multiple copies of printed manuscripts prepared and mailed in specific ways. I also had to provide return postage if I wanted to get the results. Later, when the use of emailed submissions became more acceptable, the process was simplified and less expensive.

The results were often worth the time and cost. A synopsis was required by many of the contests along with some limited number of pages from the beginning of the book. Some were based on a number of pages, others by chapter. Frequently, an anonymous judge would add comments about the synopsis as well as the manuscript. Some comments led to changes. One of the most significant changes that resulted from comments from a judge was to change an abortion to a miscarriage. The judge suggested the word abortion was too explosive at this time and that I could build in the same amount of emotion in the character who thought her actions may have caused the miscarriage. I was already having second thoughts about the abortion because of feedback from friends, but the contest judge was the first reader to offer a solution.

Other contest judges suggested specific wording in places to make the story more interesting. But there were some judges who were offended by my description of the bookmobile librarian, Liz Siedo, as being a bit hefty. I toned it down after that, but she's still large and proud of it. Along that line, I learned from a judge that clothing for large women is called plus size, not XXXL like it is for men.

By their comments, contest judges also let me know what wasn't clear. For example, in an earlier version of Where Love Once Lived, I had a reference to Sunset Valley being completely surrounded by Austin. Which it is. However, I guess the judge had never heard of such a thing and assumed it was a mistake. I took it out so as not to be confusing.

Another judge thought my reference to a real community called Travis Country was a misspelling of Travis County since the story was set in Austin, Texas which is in Travis County. I took that out, too. It was important to the story.

Entering contests helped me write the book and helped me make it better. I won two first places, one third place and was a finalist in another contest. Winning usually meant a chance to talk to an editor and or agent, as well as a chance to read your entry to other writers.

Making Dreams Come True – Part 3

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If you haven't read the previous parts, you may want to do so first. See:

·         Making Dreams Come True – Part 1

·         Making Dreams Come True – Part 2

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In the last post, I told you the bookmobile novel idea changed as I learned more about writing. Once I understood the book was about Karen and Brian and how they get back together after thirty years, and Liz the bookmobile librarian was a supporting character, and once I had taken several writing classes, the book began to take shape. It began to look and feel like a novel. In fact, I felt more like all I had to do was write about what the characters were feeling. They took over and told the story.

I set the story in Austin, Texas, because that's where I grew up. While a student at the University of Texas, I worked as a bookmobile driver part-time for the Austin Public Library. Brian, who had sold his business in California before returning to Austin to pursue Karen, bought a bookmobile to impress her. As it turns out, it does the opposite. I used the bookmobile in a third of the scenes to make the setting smaller and more manageable. Supporting characters come aboard the bookmobile as needed.

Is it a romance?

The story is told by the two main characters, Brian and Karen, alternating from one to the other so that the reader can see what's going on in their minds without one character knowing what the other is thinking. With two protagonists and the points of view alternating between male and female, plus the title of the book (Where Love Once Lived), early readers thought the book was a romance. Not knowing any better, I went along with that belief. I joined the Romance Writers Association and, in 2007, the manuscript won several contests. It took first place in the romance division at the Writers League of Texas contest and first place in the inspiration division in New Mexico. Plus a third place in Houston and finalist in California.

The book talks about going back to where Brian was last happy. He sells his company, moves from California to Texas, buys land and builds a house at the same location where he and Karen had once been happy together, he buys a bookmobile because that's where they had been together so many times. The title, Where Love Once Lived, seems to be describing these actions. However, I soon learned the story is really about where the love of God had once lived in Brian's heart and his struggle to regain his faith.

In the next post, I'll tell you about trying to find a publisher.

Making Dreams Come True – Part 2

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If you haven't read the previous part, you may want to do so first. See:

·         Making Dreams Come True – Part 1

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I talked to you in the last post about how I finally felt I could achieve my life-time dream of writing a novel because I wasn't alone. God was with me. That's  when I found out I didn't know how to write a novel.

But I didn't give up.

Instead, I took action to solve the problem. I signed up for online writing classes and started reading how-to books. I took my first writing class in February 2004. All in all, over several years, I took courses on writing fiction, introduction to novels, advanced novel writing, which I repeated four times, and writing novel proposals. For the advanced novel classes, I had a wonderful, encouraging instructor, Bonnie Hearn Hill, who had published a number of novels. At the time she was writing thrillers, which were far from Christian fiction, but she is now publishing books for young adults.

Progress was slow.

I could feel that I was making headway, but I still didn't have much time to write. I was rehearsing three times a week with the opera chorus and teaching two days a week. So, I resigned from opera to give me more time to write. My last performance was The Marriage of Figaro on May 2, 2005. It was my 42nd production with Austin Lyric Opera over a period of fifteen years and I loved the stage work. But, I felt it was time to write this book. My wife at the time was also in the opera chorus and she wasn't ready to give it up. So, I drove with her to each rehearsal and then worked on the book while she practiced with the chorus. It actually helped me to do that. I find I write better away from home because I'm not tempted to do something that needs to be done around the house and I'm not tempted to watch a game on TV. This is jumping ahead in my story, but to emphasize what I mean about writing location, I should tell you my first novel was completed sitting alone in the PX while visiting the kids at Patch Barracks in Stuttgart, Germany.

The bookmobile story wasn't a novel after all.

Before long, I learned from my classes, that the story about the bookmobile librarian I had been carrying around in my head for so long wasn't a novel after all. If anything it was a bunch of fictional episodes, or short stories, all with the same main character. There was no story question and no conflict.

With the help of my writing instructor and fellow students, I changed the bookmobile librarian to a supporting role and added a man and woman in their fifties who had been close to getting married thirty years before the story begins.  Although they had been active in church before the break up, afterwards, Brian drops out of church while Karen, moves closer to God. She becomes a Stephen Minister, and then part-time hospital chaplain while helping students and fellow teachers at her elementary school. This wasn't based on any of my experiences. I don't know where the ideas came from, but before long the characters took on lives of their own.

Next time I'll tell you what happened next.

Making Dreams Come True – Part 1

On a recent Sunday morning, my pastor talked about the gap between where we are and where we want to be in our spiritual journey, and how we usually know what needs to be done to close the gap. However, more often than not, we fail to take the required action. Since this sermon followed a sermon on giving, I suspect the pastor was sneaking in another stewardship talk to get us to give more. That is, close the gap between what we think we should give and what we actually give. But, I'm just guessing. He didn't mention giving at all. In fact I'm not sure what he said next because I couldn't get my mind off the idea of taking action to close the gap. I realized this idea could apply to most life situations, such as jobs, marriage, parenting, and all aspects of life. This reminded me of a time in my life when I was nudged by another sermon to take action and do what I'd always dreamed of doing.

My dream was to write a novel.

I did more than dream.  I started two novels back in the 1960's. One about my experience in the Marines Corps and the other about a bookmobile librarian who traveled around town helping people. I wrote five or six chapters of the first one and a chapter or two of the second one. At the time, however, I was too busy raising kids and working to take do much more.

Many times over the years I'd get the writing bug and try again. I did get a short story published as well as a non-fiction computer book along with a bunch of non-fiction articles. But the novel idea eluded me to the point where I decided to wait until I retired to accomplish that dream.

Still too busy.

That didn't work. After retiring from my full time job with the Austin Fire Department in 2001, I continued to work there part time for a couple of years. I also taught part time at the Austin Community College, sang in the Austin Lyric Opera Chorus, and volunteered too much at church and other non-profit organizations.

About this time, I had read most of the Christian fiction by Jan Karon and could see how my bookmobile novel idea could work. Jan Karon's Mitford Series books were about a sixty year-old Episcopal priest in a small town, while my story was about a sixty-five year-old librarian in a small bookmobile. Also, I saw an increased interest in Christian fiction. Readers were looking for good, clean novels.

It was too late.

Even so, I did nothing about it. I even started telling myself it was too late. I had waited too long. I was too old.

Then, one Sunday morning my pastor, said something like this, "Trust God with your dreams and he will help you achieve them."

I felt strange, as if God was talking to me about the bookmobile novel. I had this life-time dream and I had given up on it and now it was so clear to me that I could do it, with God's help.

I believe what my pastor said came from Psalm 37: 4. "Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart." I'd heard this before, but it had never been clear to me that it could mean achieving dreams.

I didn't have to do it alone.

The only thing that had changed was that I now knew I wasn't alone. I had God on my side to help me achieve my dream. To remind myself of that, I wrote a prayer which I printed and taped to my computer monitor.

Dear Lord, be my source of inspiration. Give me the words you want the world to hear. Help me create the story and the characters to convey your message in such a way as to be desirable to the business world of publishers. Guide my hands and stay in my mind and my heart while I write and while I edit.

Well, it wasn't as easy as that. In the next post, I'll tell you what happened next.

Hearing From Readers Is Fun!

One of the fun things for a writer is to hear from readers. Here is an email received recently followed by my response.

From: Vivian

Sent: Friday, March 11, 2011 8:14 PM

To: sidfrost@suddenlink.net

Subject: Where Love Once Lived

Sid, I am glad that you left your card with me when you came to visit in January.  I asked at the library for your book and found that it was in circulation, so I put it on reserve.  I finally got a copy March 6 and enjoyed it very much.  It is an excellent novel, and I wonder if this is what earned you first place in the Southwest Writers conference? 

Your characters are well developed.  I suspect they are not all fictitious!  Your training as a Stephen Minister is especially apparent in the dialogues of Brian, Karen, Phil, and his Dad, and even the feisty Cathy and Liz.  They are affirming, supportive, and non-judgmental.

I hope to see more of our neighbor and promise to read whatever you write!  You might not appreciate my “editing,” but I need to know how Brian resumed ownership of his company in California.  Perhaps he delegated that responsibility to Ron while he went honeymooning in Germany!

Best regards, Vivian

Here is my response:

Thank you so much for writing and telling me about reading Where Love Once Lived. As you probably know writing is a lonely business and writers don’t hear as much from readers as they would like to. And when we do get comments, the readers don’t go into much detail. Of course I savor every “enjoyed it” and “great”, but I am especially pleased to get feedback such as yours.

I don’t know if you’ve check on my blog, The Christian Bookmobile, http://christianbookmobile.blogspot.com/, but this is where I talk more about the book. The blog is aimed toward Christian readers and writers. It also has a touch of Austin history in it.

Some of the characteristics of some of the characters in the book were taken from people I know or have known. The idea for writing the book came to me because a bookmobile librarian named Jean Siedo. Liz’s appearance and actions on the bookmobile were copied from the real person. However, Jean had a husband and two daughters. I made Liz’s husband an alcoholic because I was married to one, and placed Liz’s grandson in prison because my son was in prison for DUIs.

George McCullough, Phil’s dad, has the same memories as I do of the time he grew up in the Clarksville area. The only difference was that I grew up on the white side of the imaginary line.

In real life, my mother had Alzheimer’s and my father reacted the way Brian’s father did in the book.

I tried to close up all the loose ends in the book, but I guess I didn’t do a good job on the California company. While writing the sequel, however, I noticed it and had Brian ask his daughter to manage the company. She said no, since she wanted to finish her MBA in Austin. However, she suggested Darrell Johnston, the young man who organized the collection for Liz’s trip to England. I haven’t written that part yet, but I know Brian likes the idea and I think Darrell will accept the offer.

By the way, the honeymoon in Germany doesn’t go as smoothly as you might think. There needs to be a major conflict for the new book. But, this time the conflict is not between Brian and Karen.

Thanks, again for writing, and please recommend the book to your friends.

Sid

As I prepared this article, I noticed I hadn't responded to one of Vivian's questions. I sent her this:

I just noticed I forgot to respond to your question in the first paragraph re the Southwest Writers Conference. Yes, Where Love Once Lived won first place in the Inspirational or Spiritual Novel category in the 2007 contest. It also took first place for Romance in the Writers League of Texas contest in 2007. Thanks, again, for writing.

Sid

Bookmobile Christmases

In Where Love Once Lived, Christmas is the cause for the break up between Brian and Karen. Well, sort of. Thirty years earlier, Brian went home from the university because his mother wanted him there to celebrate Christmas with the family. It was while he was in California that he was tempted and failed.

In the current time of the book, Karen tells her daughter Julie the only gift she wants is for Julie to go to church with her. Although the ploy didn't work, Karen is eventually rewarded for her efforts.

Julie goes on a ski trip with her father and his new family and leaves her mother for the first time during Christmas. But Karen doesn't stay home alone. She goes to visit her brother in Iowa. However, after a short visit, she wishes she had stayed in Austin.

Meanwhile, Brian is in California with his family after the head librarian shuts down the bookmobile service. He is shocked to learn his mother has Alzheimer's and there is no mention of a joyous Christmas.

In Vengeance Is Mine, Chris and Tex borrow the bookmobile to go to Galveston searching for some terrorists on Christmas Eve. They get arrested for breaking and entering and spend Christmas Eve in jail. It is a turning point for Chris so I've included the manuscript of that night in jail in the next three posts.

Enjoy.

Thank You, Mary Lasswell

I read all of Mary Lasswell books beginning with Suds in Your Eye published in 1942. My bookmobile novel was going to follow her pattern of humorous episodes acted out by a lovable group of women. In my case, Liz Siedo, the bookmobile librarian and her adventures. The first title I came up with was: Mrs. Pickles and the Bookmobile.

But on the way to writing the book I realized I didn't know how. Then, when I took an online novel writing class some forty years later, I was more or less forced to add more than humorous episodes. A novel, I was told, must have tension, ups and downs, conflict, protagonists and antagonists. By the time I finished the book it didn't resemble anything Mary Lasswell ever wrote, but still I'm thankful to her for getting me started.

Mary Lasswell comes to mind today because as I was cleaning out my bookstore I found a copy of Suds in Your Eye. Since I haven't read it in perhaps fifty years, and because it is relatively short, I moved it to the top of my reading list. I finished Shawna K. Williams' In All Things last night so I was ready for another book anyway. I'll tell you about In All Things later, but for now  all I'll say is READ IT.

I have no idea what I'll find when I read Suds in Your Eye again, but I'll let you know in a future post.