I bought the first season of the TV Series, 24, and watched it this week. I mainly bought it for research purposes because I’m plotting a romantic suspense, action adventure series, and I’d heard such great things about 24 and knew it would be the perfect series to use as research.
So while watching 24 episodes, this is what I’ve learned:
1. If your federal agent hero is going to break the law–and I mean some serious federal laws–you’d better have a damn good way to get him out of trouble once you’ve gotten him into trouble, otherwise he’s looking at some serious jail time.
2. It’s great to have a good idea to start a storyline…but you’d better have enough of a storyline to carry you through 1 or 2 or 3 books or more. Which means more than hero and heroine fall in love, face danger and get out of it. There has to be something more. A lot more.
3. The good guys can’t all be good, and the bad guys can’t all be bad. Shades of gray…always shades of gray.
4. If you’re going to have a crack team of agents, having the bad guys kill off a bunch of them makes your crack team look inept. You’d better have a different way to move your plot along without killing off half your team and making your hero look stupid.
5. Surprise bad guys and surprise good guys rock. The element of surprise rocks. Never do what the viewer (or reader) thinks you’re going to do. Rock their world.
6. Think logically. Plan every avenue. If the bad guys escape in an easy fashion, your crack team of super agents once again look inept. This might mean doing something bad to good people to make it work. But make it work without making your team look stupid. (See #4)
7. Don’t recycle the same plot device over and over and over and over and over again. This irritates the viewer (or reader)
8. Visceral reactions rock, whether they’re good ones or bad ones. Viewers (or readers) love to love or hate a character or characters. Everyone in the story doesn’t have to be loved.
9. And jumping off from #8 is…imperfection. Make your characters flawed. Flawed characters are real characters. They’ll make mistakes. Sometimes huge mistakes. It’s how they rebound from those mistakes that will endear them to the viewer (or reader).
10. Guns, firepower, and lots of it. Blow shit up. Seriously. We are talking action here.
Bonus - If you’re going to face off with the bad guy and you have a gun in your hand—for all that is holy, SHOOT HIM. Don’t wave the gun at him and talk to him. Don’t threaten him and tell him to back away. Shoot the sonofabitch over and over again until the freakin clip is empty. Otherwise he’s going to find a way to take the gun away from you and then one of two things is going to happen: 1) you’ll have the gun pointed at you, or 2) he’s going to shoot you. Then I’ll be forced to yell at the television and call you a dumbass. And really…you don’t want me to do that.
Now, onto Season 2 of 24 and plotting this new series. Oh, and I’m still writing a novella. Lots to do around here.
And hey, if you have anything to add to the above, feel free.
Before I get started answering questions, I wanted to let you know my auction items in the Sharon Cullars benefit auction are up. I’m offering up signed copies of Riding Wild, Riding Temptation, Wild Wicked & Wanton, Surviving Demon Island, Hunting The Demon and Nothing Personal. AND I’m also including an ARC of my April release, RIDING ON INSTINCT. So click here to bid on these books. And click here to read my blog post about the auction.
Okay, now to answer the awesome questions you asked! And wow, I got a lot of them. So many, in fact, that I think I’ll split the answers into two days (my answers get kind of long winded…heh). So part one answers today, part two tomorrow.
Author Sharon Cullars is out of work, about to lose her home which would make her and her mother homeless. This wonderful community we all belong to has banded together to help her out with an auction.
The fund-raising auction for Sharon Cullars is live right now, so for your chance to purchase some great print and e-books, ARCS, agent, author and editor critiques, advertising banners etc, please click onto Sharon’s Fund-raising site.
If you’d prefer to make a contribution without purchasing an item, you can do so by clicking here.
To learn more about Sharon’s story, please click here.
To see all the items currently up for bid, click here
I’ll have a collection of autographed books (and an ARC!) going up sometime this coming week, so be sure to watch for it.
Every now and then I’ll put up a Q&A post, and since I’m brain dead this week I figured now’s as good a time as any
So here’s your chance to ask me any questions you’d like. Okay, don’t ask what color underwear I’m wearing because really, who cares about that. But if you have questions about my books, my series, what’s up next, what I’m working on, my writing process, Harley questions(heh), publisher questions, how to questions, anything that’s on your mind. Hit me.
I’ll post the answers to your questions on Monday.
So Monday was a holiday, though not for me. I got some writing done that day, which was good. Sort of. Because I’m starting the love scene, which always wracks/racks (I can never figure out which is the right word to use in this instance) my brain in a major way and takes several days to write. Love scenes are so much more than Insert Peg A into Slot B. There’s emotion and what is Character A thinking and how does Character B feel and how is this going to change the dynamic of their relationship? Whew! Really…love scenes are hard and take me the longest to write of anything in a story.
And then Tuesday was the inauguration and I so got nothing done that day. My eyes were glued to the television from 7 a.m. until the Inaugural Balls late that night. A stellar day! But oh so unproductive for this writer.
Then yesterday, Angie and I were talking and she throws out this idea and says she wants someone to write it. Well, it’s a freakin’ brilliant idea. Damn her. So I ended up spending the entire day researching and making notes for a potential trilogy. I shot the blurbs off to my agent this morning, so we’ll see what she thinks. Oh,and Angie, I hate you and I love you both because I lost an entire day of productivity yesterday, but thank you for the stellar idea.
So today it’s back to writing. And no, I haven’t finished the love scene yet. In fact, as I read back through 3 or 4 pages I thought they sucked, so I deleted them. Forward, dumbass, not backward.
I saw this on Angie’s blog the other day, and hey, I’m always up for something to blog about so I asked to participate. She posted an interview, then took 4 people and interviewed them. I was one of them. Here’s the questions she came up for me and my answers:
1. If you could only watch one movie over and over again for the rest of your life, which movie would you choose?
This is tough. I really love a lot of movies, so narrowing it down to one is damn hard. I mean, how could I pass up Independence Day, or Armageddon, or Pretty Woman, or Clueless, when those are some of my favorites? But I’d have to say if I could only watch one movie over and over again for the rest of my life, it would have to be You’ve Got Mail with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. That story has special meaning for me. It’s funny and sweet and romantic and I watch it every time it’s on tv, plus i own it on DVD. (heh…notice how I cheated a bit? )
2. What was the worst thing your kids did while growing up?
Heh. Angie knows that I talk about my two boys a lot. The oldest was a terror growing up. The youngest was an angel (God took pity on me after the first and gave me a break.) I actually asked my now adult #1 son to answer this question for me. He laughed and said the possibilities were endless (yeah…haha…really funny). He said it was probably the time he was 17 and ran away from home because he was mad at my ex and I for something we did…probably taking away his privileges. Of course he also said it was a dumb move on his part because even though he left home he went to soccer practice two days later. We saw his car, confiscated it and he had to come home. Yeah..dumbass move on his part. But oh was he in trouble back then.
3. What natural disaster are you most afraid of?
I’ve lived through earthquakes in California and tornadoes in the midwest. Haven’t been through a hurricane yet but you get advance warning of those and can escape. But I think I’m most afraid of floods because I have this unnatural fear of drowning. The thought of water creeping up over me gives me major heebie-jeebies.
4. What was your favorite toy/game/other playtime thing as a child?
When we were kids, my friends and I played Monopoly constantly. We’d play until it was time to go home, leave the board open at whoever’s house we were at, and continue the next day. I have fond memories of many full days and nights building wealth…and losing it…playing that game.
5. Would you rather have a naked photo of you posted on the Internet, or your real name and home address?
Oh holy crap. Um…neither? But if I had to choose, I’ll go for the real name and home address. We have a lot of guns to keep intruders away. Heh. We can move. But once that naked picture is out there on the internet, it’s there forever. *shudders at the thought*
Um, thanks for giving me hives Angie. But these were fun questions.
If you want to be part of the interview fun, follow the instructions below:
1 Post ‘interview me’ somewhere in your reply. I’ll do like Angie did and take the first 4 people who post. I’ll choose questions just for you (no, they won’t be the same ones I was asked).
2 Be sure to include your email address (which is required to post on my blog anyway) so that I can send you the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the questions and your answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will get to ask them five questions.
I grew up in the turbulent 60’s a time of war and racial tension. I grew up surrounded by those who condemned others based on the color of their skin, determined not to live my life with the same bigotry. As an adult, I was determined not to raise my children with that kind of ignorance.
When my youngest son celebrated his 18th birthday, I sat in my living room watching him surrounded by his best friends–White, Black, Asian, Hispanic–friends who were neither sex nor color nor race, but just his friends. And I smiled, filled with hope that someday, maybe, bigotry would be eradicated. Sadly, it hasn’t, but I look forward to Barack Obama’s inauguration tomorrow with new hope.
And much of it began here, with one of the most profound speeches I’ve ever heard.
