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Emerging Writers: Guest Post #17 – Betrayal of Trust – corporate conspiracy & a character’s story
Betrayal of Trust by B. B. Wright – Fiction/Adventure/Thriller
So what is it about?
Edward Slocum is the executive vice president of a pharmaceutic firm in Canada.
During a walk at their plant he’s very surprised to see men with machine guns. KemKor is up to something, something illegal. As his suspicions mount about his own employers, Edward finds himself on a roller-coaster ride of events that may change both his life and the community he lives and works in.
So B. B. Wright, tell us who you are?
First of all, I am a Canadian who lives in the province of Ontario.
With degrees in mathematics and education, I have worked in industry, business and education. I co-authored the first mathematics textbook series in Canada for Prentice-Hall.
I left teaching for a while to work as a real-estate appraiser; later returning to teach adults in a retraining program.
During that period, I co-authored “A Guide for Public Involvement” for industry through the Canadian Standards Association and assisted an environmental group “Future Builders,” in a consulting role. Before beginning my writing career, I studied under the tutelage of Canadian author Sandra Birdsell at Humber College’s School for Writers.
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Here’s BB’s post:
Storytelling is my way of showing gratitude to the books and people who have shaped my life. The evolution of ideas and characters within the writing process is a relationship with ‘best friends.’ Never a job!
That relationship is a commitment, a responsibility and a promise to always do my best to get it right. When I tuck my characters in at the end of a day, I often linger for awhile—like best friends often do—before I turn off my computer.
I am more an organic writer (what some call a pantser) than a plotter. I have a general idea about how I want the novel to begin and end but, outside of that, that’s it. Let me give you a couple of examples of what I mean.
One of the characters in my book, Janet Thompson, was originally slated to be a minor character but I enjoyed her character so much against that of Charlotte Bradley and later Edward Slocum I was compelled to write her in—a decision I never regretted. Maybe you’ll understand from this excerpt: Most days—and today wasn’t one of them—60-year-old Janet Thompson didn’t look a day older than 50. She had a tendency to be plump, but she kept it in check by her vigorous lifestyle.
She preferred pants to skirts and boots, preferably work boots, to the conventional fashion that graced a woman’s foot. She liked hard liquor, preferably single-malt Irish whiskey, and she enjoyed poker with an occasional cigar. She never fit into the typical image of a teacher, but she liked that just fine, too—and so, as it turned out, did the community.
Within a chapter, I often throw ‘curve balls’ in order to see what may happen. In one particular chapter, while being pursued, both Charlotte and Janet were originally to cover a distance undetected in the dark. I decided to change it so that only one would arrive in the gully.
Here’s how it finally looked:
“There’s no time to waste, dearie. We’re heading there.” Janet pointed to the location she had chosen beside the egg factory. “Now!” Crouching low, they began running toward the egg facility. Janet felt something bite her neck, and she stumbled and fell. Dazed at first, she shook it off and recovering to her feet, began to run—but she knew her pace had slowed dramatically.
She felt groggy and her vision was blurred. She could barely see Charlotte ahead of her. The light ahead was blinding. There’s not supposed to be a light. My legs! She fell to the ground like a rag doll. Shit, it was a trap!
In the early stages, I was swimming in self-doubt. But, I have come to learn that doubt isn’t a bad thing. It keeps you honest to yourself, your art and your fans. Like the small child who first learns how to walk, writing begins one step at a time. Most important of all: NEVER QUIT!
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Thanks BB for being our seventeenth guest post writer. I am always interested in conspiracy stories and how people fight back against corruption. I wish you well with your writing.
This guest post is part of a series in 2013 where I will be showcasing emerging writers on this blog.
You can help by clicking through to their sites, buying their books, sharing this post on Twitter and Facebook and coming back for the next post. You can also follow this site (click the button above right), to be notified by email on who is next in a few days time.
And if you are a writer and want to be featured send me an email lob@yourasms.com and I will send you the submission guidelines.
And please support this site and the promotion of new names in fiction by buying: The Istanbul Puzzle & The Jerusalem Puzzle.
7 things we should never blog or twitter about
Some things are off limits, even for the most challenged of us. Here is my list of the 7 things I shouldn’t ever be caught trying to tell you about in 2013:
1. A multi level marketing program. Sure, it sounds great to get a kick back every time someone clicks through to that How-to-Make-Your-Fortune-Without-Any-Effort site, but if the system worked so well, why would the sponsors need us to pay to join up?
2. Details about those amazing new photos I took of myself. If you wanted celebrity pics you wouldn’t be here, right?
3. Info on the clothes I just bought. They may fit snugly, but surely only my mother could care.
4. How I can AT LAST make money from Real Estate or FOREX trading. We all got suckered real good the last time, and the few people who didn’t get suckered are too smart to look on Twitter or a blog for investment advice. Only the truly innocent would fall for these.
5. An aphorism, spoonerism, myth or motto. Unless it was created by me, has been tested on my nearest and dearest, and has not made any of them laugh, in disgust.
6. Best wishes to enjoy our lives. My heart is in the right place, but there’s a lack of creativity in this. This is the one I fall down on!
7. Posts about anything negative. If I get the urge to do such a post I go to a dark room and lie down. After 15 minutes all such thoughts have gone and I’ll be thinking about a light snack and where the nearest toilets are.
Get Your Writing Noticed: Emotion – what keeps us involved!
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Making an emotional connection with readers is critically important. If you don’t, they can easily stop reading. We are all familiar with emotions. They are what makes us have a great day or a bad one. But how does a writer use them to connect with readers?
One of the most basic emotions is desire. If your characters are motivated, if they have desire, if only for a glass of water, then readers will feel connected. And the more they want something, the more interesting your story becomes, as the reader is left wondering what the character will do to achieve their goal.
Desire is the basic emotion which keeps us involved in a story. If your main character wants something, you are obliged to put obstacles in their way too. Obstacles create conflict. Conflict will inspire an emotional response in your reader and keep them turning the pages.
Some other ways to build an emotion connection with the reader are:
* Creating embarrassment for a character. By making the reader feel that embarrassment you will build a connection with them.
* Having a character abused in some way. Natural sympathy will be evoked if you do something terrible to a character we have come to know.
* Placing opposing characters in the same situation. There’s a natural tension when opposing characters meet. Your readers will feel it if the opposing characters views have been shown to them.
* Fear creates tension in the reader too. If we know the murderer is coming up the stairs, and the woman is having a shower, we fear the outcome.
* Anticipation. If you foreshadow, occasionally, without explaining exactly what is going to happen, readers will anticipate something happening.
* Surprise readers. Readers will enjoy your writing if something surprising happens. They won’t have any idea what is going to happen next.
* Excitement is a powerful writing tool. You can move the plot fast, anticipate, and spell out what might happen, and then keep the reader waiting. All the above methods combined will produce excitement in your reader.
One of the hardest parts for a writer is in creating authentic emotional scenes.
The ability to understand how it feels to be in an emotional situation and to express that feeling in a genuine and new way, without resorting to cliche or to simply naming how characters feels, is vital to creating truly engaging writing.
People look for writing that truly explains how it feels to be in each situation. And they can tell if you haven’t represented the reality in a way that’s believable.
I wish you well with this, one of the hardest challenges of becoming a good writer in the 21st or any century.
This post is the sixth on a voyage exploring the world of getting your writing noticed.
The next post, the last post, covers the impact of social media on writing and how writers might use social media to enhance their work.
Here is a link to my previous post in this series on pace, keeping things moving.
Please leave feedback, make suggestions and engage. This series of posts needs you to get involved to make them fly.
And please sign-up using the secure sign-up button above right to receive notifications in your inbox when post’s are released.
If you would like to discuss this post or for me to review your writing and give brief feedback without charge (page 1 of your MS only please) contact me via the comments below or by email: lpobryan@gmail.com
Here are some links to useful information for writers:
socialmediaisdynamite.com for my blog on using social media to get noticed.
The reality of being published – 2 months after my first book came out all over the UK I wrote this post
The Accessible Author – how the author’s role is changing
Frantic Editing – a post on the editing process my first novel went through in the summer of 2011
Finally, a big thank you to all my readers, everyone who comments and everyone who visits. I hope you find this information useful on your journey to getting your writing noticed.
Please reblog, link to, Tweet, post or mention this post. There are links to do that above and mainly below.
- Image from The Jerusalem Puzzle cover art. TJP is arriving 3rd January 2013.
Get Your Writing Noticed: How to grab your reader’s attention!
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A key aspect of writing for the 21st century, applicable to non fiction and fiction, is grabbing the reader’s attention.
The number of distractions people have these days was covered in my last post. Here are some techniques for grabbing the reader up front:
1. Establish credibility. If you’re being published by a major publishing house this will help, but even if you’re not you can put your key credential up front. If you spent 20 years as a gardener and you’re writing a book on gardening I will want to know that. ‘Gardening from 20 years experience” is a good title in my opinion. So don’t be shy. Tell us why we should read your book. And tell us quickly.
2. For non fiction, make it practical. I am writing a guide to social media and making it practical is a key consideration. Two of the top five Sunday Times non fiction books this week are practical in some way.
3. Other favorite themes for non fiction, which grab readers are war, for the armchair fighters among us, violent crimes, to make us glad we’re safe, and cooking/homecraft. These areas make up most the remainder of the top non fiction slots.
4. Start in the middle of the action. This standard piece of advice for fiction writers, to cut out the long preamble, to go straight into the action, is also what non fiction readers want these days. In non fiction we want a quick way to move to the key areas of our interest. So let us get to the heart of it, fast.
5. Make a bold statement. In commercial fiction there is often a big scene right at the beginning. This could be a murder, a kidnapping, an interview or a disagreement. The purpose of the scene is to hook the reader in. Similarly, in non fiction you can make a bold statement. If you have something new to say offer it up early, then let us read the rest of your book to find out what’s next.
Digital, whether through blogs, Twitter, Facebook or video/audio are all vitally important to success these days. Whatever you are writing, consider how you can build an online presence which will use the skills you have. The demand for online interaction is high and likely to get even higher. Publishing and being successful with just a printed book is becoming less and less likely.
Other aspects of grabbing your reader’s attention include titles and keywords. Here is a post I wrote, on my social media blog, explaining key words in simple terms.
Beyond key words is the whole area of titles. This is an art, which includes many elements difficult to distill. Taste, fashion and culture are all part of the choosing of titles. My suggestion is for you to consider the most popular current titles in your genre, then to create something totally unique for yourself, which acknowledges what works, yet does not copy it. Not an easy task for fiction.
For non fiction there are staple titles for guides which include fragments such as “How to” – “The Secret of” – “A Way to” – “Get rid of” and words such as quick, solve, easy and free. Again, I recommend looking at the best-selling titles in your area and also to consider what grabs you when you read those titles.
Having participant voices, explaining that you will be reflecting the views of people involved directly in what you are writing about, is my final piece of advice for writing to grab your reader’s attention. It may not be necessary to live in a slum for years to write about poverty, but it is a real way to get attention. Many people want to know what it’s like for people whose voices we don’t normally hear. That in itself is a good thing. Exposing what really goes on in the world is one of the reasons people write.
Telling stories, whether true or imagined, allows us an entrance to worlds we would never otherwise experience.
I wish you all the best in creating yours, and attracting your reader’s attention. And I hope, in the end, we can all do some good with what we create.
Here is a link to the next post on theme, the most important part of writing IMO. And for a previous first post in this series, go here for the post on modern distractions, on writing with accuracy, being fantastic, sensuous and gripping.
This post is the second on a voyage exploring the world of getting your writing noticed.
Please leave feedback, make suggestions and engage. This series of posts needs you to get involved to make them fly.
And please sign-up using the secure sign-up button above right to receive notifications in your inbox when post’s are released.
If you would like to discuss this post or for me to review your writing and give brief feedback without charge (page 1 of your MS only please) contact me via the comments below or by email: lpobryan@googlemail.com
The next post, on Theme, a critical issue, is already up and available here.
Here are some links to useful information for writers:
socialmediaisdynamite.blogspot.com for my blog on using social media to get noticed.
The reality of being published – 2 months after my first book came out all over the UK I wrote this post
The Accessible Author – how the author’s role is changing
Frantic Editing – a post on the editing process my first novel went through in the summer of 2011
Finally, a big thank you to all my readers, everyone who comments and everyone who visits. I hope you find this information useful on your journey to getting your writing noticed.
Please reblog, link to, Tweet, post or mention this post. There are links to do that above and mainly below.
from The Jerusalem Puzzle cover arriving 3rd January 2013.
On starting the edits for The Jerusalem Puzzle
Yesterday I started the edits for The Jerusalem Puzzle.
I received two pages of notes from my editor at Harper Collins in London on Monday. Her comments included many compliments “powerful – expertly brought to life,” which are encouraging, but I won’t go on any more about, and suggestions for three extra scenes.
The first will be where Sean explains in detail why he wants to go to Jerusalem. The second will be where Henry’s involvement is expanded. The final one, at the end, will be where discussions take place about what happened in Jerusalem.
There are also notes from HC on each page of the manuscript, which need to be considered. This is all about 6 weeks work, editing maybe 2-3 hrs a day. After this we will have something truly interesting for you for January release.
Thank you for staying with me on this journey.
If you would like to follow a series of posts on fiction writing for the 21st century sign up for updates on the right.
There will be one post a month on the progress of The Jerusalem Puzzle towards launch next January and one post a month on writing craft issues. Here is the first post on writing:
http://lpobryan.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/get-your-writing-noticed-1-series-introduction/
You can preorder The Jerusalem Puzzle for UK readers here or for US/Aus/NZ here or Canada here.
The image below is of the Italian hardback edition of The Istanbul Puzzle, which is all over Italy at the moment. It was launched June 21st. If you know anyone in Italy please tell them it is available there. Thanks.
Get Your Writing Noticed: #1 A Series Introduction
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This is the first in a series of posts about getting our writing noticed. All seven posts are now available on this site.
I propose to cover the following items in turn:
1. Writing fiction for the 21st century. Making our writing accurate, fantastic, sensuous and gripping. The evolution of fiction.
2. Writing non-fiction for the 21st century. Grabbing the reader up front, digital first, key words & participant voices.
3. Theme – the make or break element.
4. Pace – keeping our writing moving.
5. Emotion – making the reader feel something.
6. Meaningful social media – building a real following on social media.
7. Advanced social media for writers – what works and what doesn’t.
This series of posts is a free of charge service. If you have thoughts or comments on any post, or questions, please submit them at any time.
The first post is now up and available here.
One of Grainne, the Pirate Queen’s castles in Ireland. Grainne lived 400 years ago. I was inside this castle last month. It’s a few hours drive from where I live. Click on it for a clearer image.
The Jerusalem Puzzle gets interesting
I am right in the middle of editing The Jerusalem Puzzle. At present Sean and Isabel are in Cairo and there’s a lot going on.
One of the challenges for a contemporary mystery writer, who writes about such places as Jerusalem and Cairo, is that so much is in flux in these cities. Sure, I follow Egyptian newspapers and Israeli newspapers, and I have linked to one of each for you, their English language versions, and I read books and articles (see my reading list here on Goodreads), but glimpsing where these countries might be in 12 to 24 months is a real challenge.
There are deep pressures at work, some of which I witnessed when I visited the Palestinian territories, the Negev and Jerusalem earlier this year.
Driving towards the Sinai Peninsula February 2012
Some of the other considerations I must keep in mind are the religious views of the people in these countries and the right wing shifts, the violence and the polarisation taking place in many European countries.
I see my role as a storyteller, someone who reports what happens to people caught up in a serious escalation in this area.
I see the good and the evil and the impact of forces almost beyond our control.
I hope you will enjoy Sean and Isabel’s story as it unfolds in Jerusalem and Cairo.
Please wish me luck in the next few weeks as I finish my final personal edit of The Jerusalem Puzzle. After that Harper Collins will conduct a deep edit and I will be back to the manuscript again in July to work on it.
I wish you all the best with whatever you are working on and thank you for following the story of The Jerusalem Puzzle as it unfolds.
The Jerusalem Puzzle takes a big step forward
Last Friday I finished draft one and two of The Jerusalem Puzzle. I call it one and two because I go back every day and edit what I wrote the previous day.
The Jerusalem Puzzle is written!
On Monday I started on the next edit. I plan to have it finished by mid May, when I will send it to Harper Collins.
I was pleased that both yesterday and the day before I was able to do my target of editing ten pages a day. This means, for me, that it’s fairly smooth already. That doesn’t mean to say that there won’t be changes and suggestions from Harper Collin’s editors, but it’s a lot smoother than The Istanbul Puzzle was at this stage.
I guess writing day after day, year after year is finally paying off.
As for the novel, I like it, if I’m allowed to say that. The main mysteries that were held over from The Istanbul Puzzle, what’s in that book they found, for instance, are solved in The Jerusalem Puzzle. Someone at the heart of the story dies too, but I can’t tell you any more about that.
It’s set mainly in Jerusalem, with some chapters in Cairo and the Judaean Hills. It’s about contemporary Israel too, with the very real threat of war hanging over the country, a threat that comes alive during the novel.
The Jerusalem Puzzle is due for release January 17, 2013. There may be an early chapter released at Christmas by Harper Collins.
I hope you enjoy it when it comes out. Next month, May, I will be sending an outline to the next in the series to Harper Collins. Once that is agreed I will tell you the title. We might also have the cover of The Jerusalem Puzzle to show you around then.
Thanks for all your feedback and support. I truly appreciate it.
2 months after getting published – the reality!
Thank you all for following my progress.
As you know my first novel, The Istanbul Puzzle, was published Jan 19 by Harper Collins UK.
The Istanbul Puzzle cover art
The last two months have been very busy. There was great excitement in the first few weeks when the book was reviewed very positively in the UK Telegraph newspaper, The Irish Independent, The Lancashire Evening Post and The Examiner. I was also pleased to be interviewed on TV3′s AM morning television program, the Ryan Tubridy show on RTE radio and on some local radio stations. All that was great.
I was delighted too, and it makes me very hopeful, to learn that The Istanbul Puzzle has sold to be translated into 8 foreign languages: Spanish (world rights), Italian, Greek, Polish, Czech, Turkish, Serbian and Slovakian. I look forward to supporting the publishers in all these territories.
My goal is to support myself and my family from my writing. It’s a big ask. Only about 5% of published authors earn over £75,000 a year, never mind the millions that people often think published authors earn. My earnings to date are very limited, given that I only got a small advance and will have to wait until everyone has paid up before getting anything from any sales. One of things that has stuck me forcefully in this process is that with the publisher’s system of only being paid twice a year for royalties you had better have a job or a rich spouse supporting you, even long after you get a publishing deal, if you want to survive.
I expect to start earning enough simply to live on about two years after getting the three book deal, that is about a year from now. That will be the point that I have two books out, and the second is being sold to foreign languages, and I start getting royalty payments from the first and second books mid year after earning out my advance.
As I was made redundant four months ago I am living on borrowed time too. So I have decided in the next three months, before I have to go back to the nine to five, that I will write a guide book to social media, called Social Media is Dynamite.
I intend to make it a practical guide to how to get the most from social media. It will feature my experiences of how social media helped me win a three book publishing contract and some of the things I have learned that enabled me to build twenty thousand followers and many great relationships on the way. I also plan to offer social media consultancy. If any one needs help with social media let me know.
UK sales are good, The Istanbul Puzzle is selling in the tens of thousands, and it is holding up well on the Kindle charts. If you liked it please tell your friends and review it on Amazon whatever you thought of it or even just like it. I am working on the next installment, The Jerusalem Puzzle, right now. I am on the ending at the moment. It will be a multi part ending, which I hope will pull together some of the loose threads left dangling from the first book.
I will keep you posted on progress occasionally (monthly most likely) and I look forward to your comments, bad or good, in the meantime.
Here is a picture I took a few weeks ago when I was on a research trip in Jerusalem:
A monk collecting candles
Old Jerusalem, an ancient city in a modern age
Written February 2012
I am spending time in the old city of Jerusalem. If I stay here any longer I’ll probably have to apply for a resident’s permit. And as I am staying in East Jerusalem that may be tricky.
My reason for being here, aside from the welcome sun, is to research the next stage of Sean and Isabel’s adventures. If you read The Istanbul Puzzle you’ll probably know that there are a few questions at the end still hanging.
The Jerusalem Puzzle will move the story forward and answer some key questions.
As part of my research in old Jerusalem, where the book is mainly set, I have spent a lot of time in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the legendary site of Jesus’ crucifiction, his tomb and the burial place of Adam’s skull, according to some 2nd century sources. Whatever your beliefs, this place is an extraordinary building, a mix of mainly Crusader and 19th century, Armenian, Catholic and Orthodoxy all rolled into one. This was the place a lot of people died for before the crusades, during the crusades, and ever afterwards. Richard the Lion Heart and Saladin fought over this place and almost every other Empire since has had plans to capture it.
Here is what the entrance to the legendary tomb of Jesus looks like now (click each image to see it in all its glory):
Queuing to get into the tomb of Jesus, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem
This church is the most important place of pilgrimage in the Christian world. Bar none.
What I found though, at the end of my last visit, was a less than spiritual place. I had queued to get in to the small chapel where Jesus’ tomb is supposed to be with cries of “hurry, hurry, we are closing,” echoing in my ears. I’d visited where Mary, Mother of Jesus fell into an eternal sleep (legend says), on Mount Zion the day before and I was lucky that I went down into that underground tomb with the sound of a Polish group singing hymns echoing in my ears. That place was spiritual.
Near the Damascus Gate, the Muslim Quarter, Jerusalem
Much of the rest of the old city is a heady mix of the Arab souk, with plastic toys and wooden crosses for tourists, and a wedge of Abercrombie and coffee shop Westerness pushing up close to the city from the Jewish and modern western side.
To me Jerusalem is where three great faiths, Christianity, the Jewish faith and Islam all overlap with their bits fraying.
The Islamic faith is well represented here in the famous Golden Dome and mosques and the regular call to prayer filling the air.
The Western Wall, Jerusalem.
The Jewish faith is evident in the devotion at the Western Wall, the Orthodox faithful almost everywhere, and through the joy of young men being escorted with drums and horns through the crowds.
The Christian faith is evident in the extraordinary churches and the pilgrims from all parts of the Christian world walking the Via Dolorosa carrying crosses and following the legendary route of Jesus to his death.
This city is an ancient fraying tapestry of faith and colour, tradition and prayer, belief and culture, the old and the modern mixed and interwoven.
I know there are many things in serious dispute here, but I hope to God compassion comes into play for a unique people and a unique place when this city’s future is decided.
The Jerusalem Puzzle, my next novel, will take readers to the heart of Jerusalem. It will expose some of the very real puzzles that are at the core of this truly amazing city. I hope you’ll like it as much as you liked The Istanbul Puzzle.
