Making a Sweet Story Interesting

I wrote a review of Elizabeth Berg's novel The Last Time I Saw You back in 2010. After reading the review, my friend Peg Case commented, "Good grief -- can't a book be written about people who are happily married?"

The simple answer, is no.

And now, as I write Book 3, I am reminded of that every day. This is a sequel to Where Love Once Lived which ends with Karen and Brian getting engaged after thirty years of heartache and separation. It took more than eighty-thousand words to get them to this happy place in their lives. Now, I have to start the conflicts all over again.

Why?

Without conflict, you wouldn't read the book. And if you did, you'd be able to quit reading anytime you wanted to. There'd be nothing to get you to read on, to learn what happens next. You wouldn't care what happened to the characters.

That makes it even harder to write sequels. Some of you who read Where Love Once Lived have written to tell me what should be in the sequel. You want Liz to get a boyfriend. You want to know what happened to Laura. Did she have her baby? Some have asked how the marriage between Josh and Cindy is doing. I think many of you care as much about these fictional characters as I do.

The logical place to start the sequel is with the wedding between Brian and Karen. After all, we left off with their engagement. But, that's too happy. Not enough conflict. I want you to keep reading. What if the bride doesn't show? What would that do to the happy couple? What if Liz meets the man of her dreams, but he isn't the man he pretends to be. What would she do if she found out?

See what I mean. I can't tell you more now. I don't want to spoil it for you.

If you want to write a novel that keeps readers reading, keep this in mind: Every scene has a goal that is never achieved.

Where Love Once Lived Available Internationally

I've been finding Where Love Once Lived listed for sale in some strange places. Unfortunately, none of them seem to be working.

Peg Case sent me her favorite website for finding books: fantasticfiction.co.uk/ and there my book was. Well, if you know the ISBN anyway. Unfortunately, if you know the ISBN you either have the book or know where it's listed on Amazon.com. But, while looking at the website, I notices it showed the book is available at Alibris.

See: http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?isbn=978-1451511819. They will sell the $15.95 book to you for only $88.77. They mention it can be ordered from Warks, UK for only $32.89 plus shipping.

Amazon.com (see: http://www.amazon.com/Where-Love-Lived-Sidney-Frost/dp/1451511817?ie=UTF8&tag=sidwfroboo-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969) now shows there are some used copies available. They give you a choice of $15.95 new or $17.75 used. Wow, that's a tough choice. I think I would go with Amazon, especially if I planned to buy other books totaling $25 or more to save on shipping.

The used dealer any_book has a very good, a like new, and a new copy of the book in stock, all costing more than the new Amazon book.

the_book_depository_ actually beats Amazon's price. They are offering the book for $15.94 plus $3.99 shipping.

brandnewgoodsus is selling the book new for $16.32 plus $3.99.

I found the book listed on the Canadian, United Kingdom, French, German, and Japanese versions of Amazon.

On eBay, I found one copy available from a seller in the United Kingdom for $22.29 plus shipping.

A Google search by ISBN brings up the usual plus two companies in Japan. See: https://bookwebpro.kinokuniya.co.jp/booksea.cgi?ISBN=1451511817

The best deal is at Barnes and Noble online. See: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/e/9781451511819/?itm=1&USRI=where+love+once+lived

Here you can buy the book for only $11.48 plus postage. And, if you spend $25 or more, shipping is free. What I like is the part that says customers who bought this book also bought The ShackChristmas JarsThe Screwtape Letters, , , and so forth.

All very interesting. However, I haven't seen any sales statistics to show that any of these book resellers actually have copies of the books in stock.

Reader Comments are Fun

I've started getting feedback from readers of Where Love Once Lived and I'm anxious to get more.

Rollo Newsom, who wrote the Amazon.com review, read the book from the galley proof, and besides, you can't trust him not to boast about the book just to help sell it. But, now several people have finished reading the book after it was officially released. Here are some of the comments I've received so far.

Peg Case (she is an author herself and had read an early draft of my book) sent this:

I finished Where Love Once Lived last night. It flowed really well and was most enjoyable. You have a great grasp of characters and clever ways of illustrating them with a few words, and your plot hung together better than I recall the first time I read it. I felt that there were some unresolved plot lines that made me wonder if you plan to use them if you write a book featuring Liz. (Like who is going to run the business now he owns it again and what happens to Laura....) I confess that I got annoyed with Brian - and to a certain extent, Karen - for obsessing so much over "should I or shouldn't I " and "will she ever forgive me? And "am I worthy of her?" Maybe it's a middle-aged guy thing. There were places where I wondered if they might be autobiographical - like Tony's history with singing, for example. All in all, it was a fine book, Sid. I look forward to your next which sounds like it is more my style.

Sandy Althaus (who bought the first book) writes:

I am enjoying your book so much. Wonder how Karen and Brian will finally get together again!"

Then, later:

Finished your book and thought you did a great job. Loved the way you incorporated the bookmobile and the comfortable way the message of Christ was presented. I will write a review as soon as I am off the iPhone and have a "real" computer at my finger tips!

Jimmy Clark (who bought the second book) wrote:

I will start reading the book soon. The cover art is beautiful. It really works well for your book.

Cathy Harris (who bought the first Kindle) sent this:

Sid, I just found and purchased your book on my Kindle! I am excited.

I started it last night and saw a few areas, but I read through them with no trouble. I didn't last long because it was late and we go to early church. I am enjoying it very much.

Website Design Suggestions

I hope you missed me. My computer has been down for three days and I haven't posted a blog since August 31. I don't usually post anything on weekends, but thought I better to keep up my monthly average.

I'm pretty sure the computer is fixed. It's a long story, but I think the problems were due to overheating. Pretty embarrassing for a computer person, but after moving it out five inches from the wall and three inches from the cabinet I had it up against from the time the problems started, it is miraculously working.

Even without a computer, I was able to keep up with the world with my iPhone. I could have done the blog on it, too, the tiny keyboard is difficult to use.

My friend Sandy Althaus finished reading the book last week and when I asked her about doing a review she said she would when she got back home to her real computer. She'd been communicating via iPhone all summer and I hadn't even noticed.

Since my computer was down, I haven't updated the website I showed you last time. However, I did get some great comments about it.

Rollo Newsom (who knows books) said this:

I wonder if it would be wise to make the links a little more prominent and include links to locally owned bookstores that you know have the book available? I'm sure B&N/Borders could care less, but BookPeople and the store you are signing in in Georgetown might like it and a link to them might even sell a copy or two. When I want a book right now, I occasionally go to a bookstore and pay full price rather than wait for Amazon to deliver it.

Also, maybe a link to your next book - just a brief preview and a "Coming Soon" note?

Roger Lawrence (who knows art and design) sent this:

You have your book cover shown twice on your new website. This is Boring. I suggest that you enlarge the book cover with the Sales details and drop the big cover photo. Add a photo of yourself. Add a click below your photo to make it easy to read your bio. Everyone likes to see what the author looks like. You look very distinguished and very much like an author in your photo.

Peg Case (who is an author) wrote:

I never attempted to build a website, but for any kind of advertising the simpler the better. This tells all anyone needs to know, but it's plain, isn't it? As I say, I don't know what's good. When I want to find an author or a book I have heard about, I use a website called fantasticfiction.co.uk/ So far I have found everyone I've tried - and it lists the author's books in series, genres and chronological publishing dates. (So you know which is first in a series using the same character.) Don't know how one gets on their site...... but something like this would give you more exposure, hey?

Note to Peg: I checked fantasticfiction.co.uk/ and found Where Love Once Lived listed there. They have the cover image and a list of places where you can purchase the book. Unfortunately, you must know the ISBN to find it. The author search and the title search failed to find the book.

Thanks, everyone. I'll make the website changes suggested and I'll let you all know when to check it again.

The Importance of Conflict in Novels

I wrote a review of Elizabeth Berg's novel The Last Time I Saw You. After reading the review, my friend Peg Case commented, "Good grief -- can't a book be written about people who are happily married?" (See the review here: The Last Time I Saw You.)

Peg's comment reminded me of something Bonnie Hearn Hill said to me when I took one of her writing classes. I don't remember the exact words, but it was how I needed more conflict in my writing. She said I was probably a nice guy who didn't like conflict, but I needed it in my writing to hold the reader's interest.

She was right about me. I don't like conflict and have avoided it all my life. But I wanted to write a book people would read so I started studying conflict and looking for ways to include it in my manuscript. Since I was writing a story about two people who get back together after thirty years and fall in love all over again, I had two protagonists and no antagonist in the story. No villain. No one to stir up trouble.

I added a character who was mean and let her get in the way of the progress of the main characters in the book. For more conflict, I made her meaner. I think you'll like the way it turned out. But, still there wasn't enough conflict.

One day I saw something on All My Children, a soap opera my wife never missed, and I couldn't avoid without leaving the house. On this day, I saw what Bonnie had been telling me about conflict. On the show, two characters could argue about something until one was convinced the other was right and then the other would wonder why and change positions so they could continue the fight. Evidently TV viewers and readers like this.

There is a scene in Where Love Once Lived between the female protagonist, Karen, and her best friend Cathy where this happens. Cathy is trying to convince Karen to tell Brian, the male protagonist, about what happened in Karen's past. Karen disagrees at first, they argue about it, and then Karen agrees. Cathy then decides Karen shouldn't tell him. It sounds silly describing it here, but I think it works in the story.

There are other ways to build tension in a story, but a certain amount of conflict keeps the pages turning.