Killer Questions - Favorite Places to Visit

Killer Questions - Favorite Places to Visit 

With summer being here, people often begin to think of vacations. The Writers Who Kill differ on are our favorite places to visit. Are any of these a favorite for you?

Annette Dashofy - Durango, Colorado, or Presque Isle State Park in Erie, PA, if I don’t have the time or money to travel.

Heather Weidner - Any beach, Hawaii, bookstores and libraries.

James M. Jackson - I love being in new places, learning about the fauna, flora, and geology, and taking pictures to capture my impressions. But my favorite place to visit is my home in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Martha Reed - Italy, hands down. But I’m keeping other options open.

Sarah E. Burr - London is my absolute favorite city, so much so that I’d love to live there one day.

Kait Carson – Saba

Debra H. Goldstein – For relaxation, any place where I can look at water. For a fast paced trip, a long weekend seeing Broadway shows in New York City.

Susan Van Kirk – Boston

Elaine Douts - My sister’s house because I usually don’t have to cook and clean there.

Margaret Hamilton - Cape Cod beaches and London.

K.M. Rockwood - Mackinac Island.

Korina Moss - That’s a difficult one, since there are many favorites. If I had to pick, I’d say London. You never run out of things to do or see, the architecture is stunning, the history is palpable, and the museums and art galleries are fantastic (and most are free). There are beautiful parks, markets, rivers, and squares. There’s a great variety of ethnic food, although I also love the pubs. 

Grace Topping - It's not a place that I will probably get to more than once, but Petra in Jordan has to be at the top of my list. I wish I could go often.

Shari Randall - Some place new!

Mary Dutta - New York City (with London a close second). It’s all about the theater.

 

VACATIONING WITH MY MUSE

by Korina Moss

Recently, one of my yet-to-be published writer friends asked me what the biggest difference was in my writing life since getting published. The answer came to me while I was on vacation… and working on my book.

I used to wait for my muse to show up before even opening my laptop. Was I feeling creative that day? Did I have several free hours in front of me to write? Sometimes I’d get started, but if the words weren’t flowing from my fingertips, I’d find myself playing virtual solitaire or scrolling through social media. Hence, it took me years to finish a book. The quickest I'd finished a manuscript before starting this series was ten months, and that was only because my agent was expecting it.

Being under contract, I no longer have the luxury of waiting for my muse. Now I summon her, even if I only have thirty minutes and not the whole afternoon. Still, she doesn’t always show up, but I can no longer let writer’s block stop me in my tracks. I must climb over it and put words on the page. They are usually very awful words that look like I’m writing a first grade primer—SEE SPOT RUN. But I’ve found even clumsy thoughts contribute to my progress by advancing the plot and keeping the story in the forefront of my mind. And they invariably turn into better words on another day when my muse has decided to make an appearance. She’s fickle that way.  

Since I’d handed in my third book in May and my editor gave me a date when I’d get it back with suggested revisions, I booked a last-minute trip for my son and me to celebrate his high school graduation. With only three weeks until our cruise, I was certain I’d have no impending deadlines – it would be smooth sailing! 

But as I’d written about in a post last September, “The Juggling Act of Being an Author,” there are many stages in a book’s production. And sure enough, I received the ‘first pass’ pages for my second book, Gone For Gouda, which would be due while I was away. ‘First pass’ pages are when your book has gone through the copy editing and proofreading stages and is now formatted. It’s the last chance to spot any errors—not something I could rush through in the week of chaos between my son’s graduation and our trip. Hence, Gone For Gouda was not gone for good—it came with me. Luckily, a cruise vacation has plenty of down time and I was able to finish it days early and without much interruption of our fun. I even started outlining my next project while onboard.

Not every writer is the same. Many can write more quickly than I can or have better organizational skills or have found a better work-life balance than I have thus far. However, something we all have in common is deadlines, which means if you become a published author, your muse just might have to go on vacation with you.  

  

Readers: Are you able to successfully leave your cares behind when you go away on a trip? 

Summer Vacation or View from Your Window Writing Prompt Reactions

Summer Vacation or View from Your Window Writing Prompt Reactions by Debra H. Goldstein

Writing classes often include exercises with prompts like “Write the view from your window,” or “Tell us what you did during your summer vacation.”  The idea is to provide something that can get the creative juices flowing by having the student connect with simple and concrete images they are familiar with. The writings can veer in different directions emphasizing setting, activity, characters involved, or whatever strikes the writer’s fancy.

When I’m in a writing class and a prompt has been given, I watch the people sitting on either side of me scramble to finish pages of words before time is called. I watch because I’m sitting there, with a word or two jotted down, frozen. My mind shuts down when given a writing prompt in a class.

Things are a little better when the prompt is part of a submission call. Then, I try to twist my thoughts into interpreting the prompt in an imaginative manner different than the path other people will choose. Bending my thinking is what unlocks my creativity.

But, for your benefit, here are my answers to the writing prompts above:

“Tell us what you did during your summer vacation.” – Nothing. We were locked down because of

Covid-19.

“Write the view from your window” – Until a few days ago, there was no view. The curtains were drawn. I sat with my laptop, facing a TV, with the window to my back. If I wanted to use my desktop computer, upstairs, I saw grey-shingled housetops, a black-topped street, and a few lawns. It was a pretty view when it snowed.

We moved this past week. The room that I have chosen to be mine (off limits to anyone else) for writing is called a Florida room. It has one wall that is sheetrock; two that are glass windows; and a fourth with paned glass doors I can open or close to the rest of the house. Because there is an easement behind the house, the trees stand tall beyond my yard. Although we fenced the yard traditionally on the sides, we used a faux wrought iron fence along the back of the yard. That way, from my window, I see the trees in the splendor of their full height.

There is one tree, though, that has died. It stands, a third of the height of any of the other trees, bare leafed with a part of its trunk jutting to the side. Although a storm should have knocked it down, it hasn’t. This plucky tree is my favorite because it reminds me that amid a beautiful forest, there can be one thing that is different.

As authors, we strive to write that one different thing. When we do, we accomplish something that makes us proud, happy, and a bit tentative wondering if readers will like it. I’m hoping that in my new Florida room, I will write many pieces that resemble the tree I love.

To win a free copy of Three Treats Too Many (one U.S. winner picked randomly), the newest Sarah Blair mystery from Kensington, leave a comment about what you did on your summer vacation or the view from your window.