We're Covered

Not long ago, my husband and I were told that it was time to replace our roof. We aren't sure how old it was, but the advice came from people who know what they're talking about, so we decided we'd better listen to it.

My husband then took on the job of having various roofers come and give estimates. That went pretty well, but then came the hard part: we had to pick one.

This whole process was made scarier by the fact that there was a lot riding on it. The roof of your house is a pretty important thing and you don't want to find out in a rainstorm that you made a bad choice! So we were a little overwhelmed by trying to make a decision. We counted ourselves lucky that the roofers we'd seen all seemed like they knew what they were doing, but it also made the decision harder. We stayed up late into the night discussing it. In the end, it all came down to the details of the estimate and who would be supervising the work.

We were told it would be several weeks before they got to us, but this past Monday they called to say they had a cancellation and we were next! Suddenly we found a big green Dumpster parked in front of our house and then we had a group of roofers ascend onto our house.

The very first day, they discovered an electrical problem, which could easily have caused a house fire if they hadn't found it, so we were lucky there. After that, things seemed to progress normally, although I had to get used to scenes like this in our yard:

The forecasters had called for clear, sunny weather all week, so we felt lucky about that. However, at about 6:20 a.m. on the third day, a sudden thunderstorm blew in ... and our roof had no shingles on it! Just as my sleepy brain realized the enormity of the problem, the roofers appeared and rushed to cover the roof. They finished just in time because we had a torrential downpour! There were a few minor leaks but it could have been much worse.

They were able to finish the roof that same day and now the process is complete! I'm a little surprised when I look out and our yard isn't covered with old shingles, but the roofers did a great job of cleaning up. We've found a few nails and pieces of shingle, but nothing big.

So we have a new roof. We're both very glad that's over. We'll see what happens the next time it rains (not in the forecast for a week), but we're reasonably confident all will be well.

Cross off one more item from the list of Things to Do for the House. I think that only leaves about two hundred or so items!

Placement of "He/She Said"

Most of us have characters who speak. Each character should have his/her own pattern of speech, vocabulary and accent. Much of the time, your reader should be able to tell who’s speaking by how it’s said, but the rest of the time, you’ll need to identify the speaker.

So how do you do this? You use “said.” But how do you do that?

I have four main methods:

1. “Then,” Smith said, “we saw it.”

I like this one because it lets you include a dramatic pause without having to worry about using a dash, ellipsis or other punctuation mark. Strategic placement of “he/she said” can change the whole effect of the sentence. “If you get out of here,” Smith said, “come back for me.” The pause makes me think Smith isn’t very hopeful.

Use this sparingly, though, so you won’t annoy your readers with needless interruptions … and make sure it actually fits. This is just stupid: “Then we,” Smith said, “saw it.”

2. “Then we saw it,” Smith said.

The second method is more common and I use it most of the time. You don’t want to use this for every sentence in a conversation or it will be overwhelming. However, you do want to sprinkle a few of these in there so your reader isn’t forced to count lines to determine who said what.

3. Smith said, “Then we saw it.”

I rarely use this one, but I do find it useful when I write an entire paragraph about one character and then I have a completely different character say something.

For example, in the fourth novel, I have a paragraph that shows Hawkins jogging in the dock area when he gets an unexpected call over the radio.

I followed it up with this:

Bartucci said, "Reg, you need to come up here and tell somebody I'm not your personal secretary."

Otherwise, the reader would have to get to the very end of the sentence to know who's saying this and it might be confusing.

(I hope you're excited to read a snippet of the next novel before anyone else!)

4. None of the above.

Of course, sometimes you can avoid "said" altogether if you use an action to identify the speaker.

Hawkins laughed. "I don't think anybody's got him completely figured out. I think he likes it that way."

That's from Outsider. (You get extra credit if you know who Reg is talking about.)

One more thing: beware of using too many synonyms for “said” or it can get ridiculous. One of the best pieces of advice I ever got when I started my first novel was to take out every “mumbled, stated, declared, proclaimed, grumbled, or asserted” and replace them with “said.” It made the story much smoother and better. I throw in the occasional “shouted” or “demanded,” but I use them sparingly.

I hope this is helpful. You want to identify who’s speaking so the reader can follow along, but you don’t want the reader to stumble over it.

Play around with these and see which works best the next time one of your characters has something to say.

Out of Line

I've been staring at my computer screen for much of the weekend, trying to figure out where the words went. I decided to take a short break and check on my Significant Other, who was doing some trimming outside. When I looked out the window, I thought I saw a white flower on the side of our shed, so I went outside to investigate. It turned out to be a reflection on a leaf, but while I was inspecting it, a robin landed nearby. The bird was bothered by my presence but it wanted that bug badly, so after indecisive hopping, it decided to take the risk and grab the bug. It then flew around the other side of the shed. I'm glad I didn't keep it from its meal.

I saw some big mushrooms in the yard, one of which had been decapitated by the trimmer's cord. It lay upside-down, a lovely circle of white with delicate lines radiating from the center. The top is an ugly gray that disguises the beauty underneath.

Some of our foliage in the back is enjoying the hot, humid weather and some isn't. One of the bushes (which sprang up of its own accord without any prompting from us) is looking a little chewed-on. The ground cover is thick and lush in one area, thin and browning in another, depending on how much direct sun it's been getting. A black dragonfly was visiting some of the weeds: a burst of movement while it flew, followed by a moment of stillness when it landed.

The whine of the trimmer stopped, so I looked up.

"I'm out of line," my husband said.

So am I! I thought. Too bad I can't run to Home Depot to get more.

Then it occurred to me: I can't run to Home Depot, but I can run to Nature. She usually provides me with something to tickle my brain and make me observe what's around me.

And that's what happened.

The Other Side Update

I haven't given you much in the way of updates lately for The Other Side, have I? I am working on it, but things are a little slow in that department. Here's why:

When I started on my novels, I wrote Outsider first (no surprise there) and then I slowly wrote four other novels. In between writing, I would go back and edit/rewrite on previous novels. After a while, I realized that the third novel was too short, so I combined it with the second to create Another Shot. What started as the fourth novel was now the third, and I was having some real trouble with it: I couldn't come up with an ending that worked. I rewrote and rewrote, but it never ended to my satisfaction. Finally, with more than a little regret, I realized that the novel would never work as it was and I discarded it. (Believe me when I say that was not an easy thing to do.) The final novel was now referring to things that had never happened!

I wasn't happy with only three novels, so I resolved to write one to go between Another Shot and the final novel. As it turned out, I managed to fit two novels in there, In the Shadows and The Other Side. This means the final novel also neglects to mention big things that happened in those two novels! As you can tell, that last novel is going to need a lot of work.

In the meantime, however, I have to deal with The Other Side. Since it was technically written last (even though it isn't the last novel in the series; how confusing is that?), it has had the least work. Some of the original writing came as late as 2008 or after, so I haven't been through it as many times as the other novels. Since I don't write things perfectly the first time (or even the second or third time), I'm having to do a lot of rewriting. I've also been adding scenes that should have been in there but somehow weren't.

All of this means I'm doing more work on this one than I even did on In the Shadows. (You might remember how much work I did on that late in 2014.) The good news is that I'm doing this work over the summer instead of over the fall, so I've given myself some more time. I'm still aiming for a release date of January, although that isn't set in stone.

Meanwhile, just to make things "interesting" for myself, I'm trying to create a video for In the Shadows. Sometimes it gets confusing and I have to remember which plot line I'm working with, but it means that things don't get boring!

That's the latest update. I appreciate your patience and I thank you for reading my blog (and my novels).

Looking Up

I had a pretty amazing experience last night. Actually, I had two.

I went outside mid-evening to take a look at the blue moon (second full moon of the month). It wasn't up yet, but I could see a glow from behind the neighbors' trees that indicated it was on the way. I went inside to finish watching something on television and then I went back outside at 10:00.

Since we have a tree in our front yard, I had to walk down the front sidewalk and along the street a little to see the moon. It was definitely worth it: a big globe of white against the dark sky, framed by a few wispy clouds. I admired that sight for some time, the first amazing experience.

Next I let my eyes roam the sky, taking in the few stars I could see (our streetlight makes most of them invisible). Then I noticed movement and focused on that. There was a gold-tinted dot of light moving steadily over my head, from the southwest to the northeast.

I had only seen it for a few moments when I knew what it was, although I couldn't quite believe that was possible. It's been a few years since I last saw it, but I remembered the experience well: I was seeing the International Space Station!

What are the odds that I would walk out at that particular time, look in that particular direction, and recognize that particular dot of light???

I knew it, though. I was positive! The way it moved made it obvious it wasn't a plane and its size made it obvious it wasn't a satellite. I tried to comprehend that there were humans soaring above me, even while I was scurrying down our street to follow its path. It was visible for a few minutes before it sank out of sight to the northeast.

Only when it was gone did I rush into the house and turn on my laptop. I first checked the HDEV site, which showed me that the trajectory was correct to take the ISS over Kansas. I then checked the NASA site that lists times when the station will be visible for various locations. Both of them confirmed that I had seen the ISS.

If you want to check when you can see the ISS in your area: spotthestation.nasa.gov

If you want to see the view from the ISS: NASA HDEV

July can be a long, hot month, but its last evening was pretty cool for me this year.

The Desk

We recently had some windows replaced in our house and we needed to move stuff out of the way so the workers could actually get to the windows. I also realized that there would be dust involved, so I wanted to cover what I could. In the end, I decided to remove everything from my desk.

Wow.

It's amazing what kind of stuff accumulates on a desk (or any surface where you might set things you intend to put away later). It was almost like an archaeological dig! I found a list of possible titles for the series of my novels ("Penumbra" was second on the list). I found random notes of plot ideas or character studies. I found sketches for the videos. I found a list of possible ship names. I found a list of Amazon rankings for Outsider (the highest is 241,491 and the lowest is over 2 million).

Not all of it was book-related. I found a great photo of my co-workers (taken two years ago), some Dilbert cartoons, a scribbled note about an elliptical machine I was considering two or three years ago, a Kansas bird list and a nice postcard of the Colorado Rockies.

It was pretty easy to shove all of it in drawers or a bag before the window guys arrived. It wasn't so easy to take it all out and decide what to do with it after they left. In fact, the bag sat in the living room for a week before I worked up the courage to open it.

I recycled a lot of it. I filed some of it. And I started a new stack of "I don't know what else to do with this" items on the corner of the desk.

There's a lot less clutter than there was before. Let's see how long that can last.
In the meantime, if I need a new ship name, I know where to look!

Closet Spaceship Part 13

[NOTE: This installment contains a spoiler. If you haven’t read Another Shot yet, I suggest you read it before this blog.]

I’m sure Captain Lamont knew when I was aboard, and he didn’t go out of his way to avoid me, but he didn’t exactly seek me out either … until one day he did.

I was leaning toward a porthole in the dock area, trying to cup my hands tightly around my face so I could see the stars outside instead of reflections from the dock lights.

“You could turn off the lights,” said a voice behind me.

I have to admit that I jumped. I hadn’t heard anyone in the corridor.

“I’m supposed to be an observer,” I said, although I’d just proved how unobservant I can be.

“Is that all?” he asked.

“A recorder,” I said. “And a listener, I guess.”

I could tell he had something on his mind, but I didn’t want to scare him off so I pretended not to notice.

Lamont approached me. “Listening can be useful.”

“So can talking,” I said.

“Sometimes that’s true,” the captain said. “I want to thank you for not letting your visits become too disruptive. I think if you can keep that up, the crew might be a little less skittish.”

“I hope so.” I decided not to tell him about Sean. No need to advertise my spectacular failure there.

Lamont smiled. “Someday you might tell me how you won Nick over.”

“I don’t know that I really—wait a minute,” I said. I didn’t remember seeing the captain anywhere when I talked to Nick.

“I tend to pay attention when there’s shouting in the corridor,” Lamont said.

“Oh,” I said. So much for not being disruptive. “Sorry.”

The captain took a few steps and turned off the lights. “Have a look.”

I turned to stare at the porthole and I think I just sighed. No matter how many times I see it, that view will never get old. I wish I could describe how many stars there were or how beautiful it was with all of the glittering dots of colored light against a black that wanted to swallow them but couldn’t.

“Some people never look at that,” Lamont said. “I try to do it at least once a day.”

I nodded, although he probably couldn’t see me.

“May I ask you something?” he said in a quiet voice.

“Of course,” I said, mostly because it’s what he would have said, but also because I sensed that this was important.

“Some of the crew members have asked me,” he said. “They want to know if you can do anything … I mean, change anything that’s happened.”

Now I could understand why Lamont turned off the lights: I couldn’t see his face. Reggie would want to make Sean part of the crew, Mark would want me to give him more confidence, Nick would like me to fill up his bank account … but they weren’t the ones who were really asking.

“Oh,” I said. It was a tough question. I mean, I could change what I’ve written, but it wouldn’t be true to my characters or the story. So, in a way, I really couldn’t change it.

But how do you explain that? Especially when the captain is asking you to bring his close friend back to life, no matter how indirectly he’s asking. How do you tell him you won’t do it?

I lied: “No, I’m sorry. I can’t change what’s already happened. I only observe.”

After a moment, he said, “I’ll pass that along.”

I heard his footsteps walking toward the corridor and I didn’t have the heart to say any more. I turned to look at the view again, thinking that somehow I didn’t deserve it.

But then I thought about it some more. We’ve all known writers who’ve brought seemingly-dead characters back to life, whether it was for a book, a TV show or a movie, with varied success. Sometimes it seems forced, the writer bowing to the wishes of the readers/viewers.

Now I wonder how many writers have bowed to the wishes of another character.

The footsteps stopped.

“I’m sorry,” the captain said. “I shouldn’t have asked you that.”

“I understand why you did,” I said, “but please don’t do it again.”

He turned on the lights so I could see his face. “I promise.”

Then he was gone.