Thursday, February 21, 2008

Farewell Herbie

The time has finally come to sell my beloved 1969 VW Beetle 'Herbie'. He gave good and faithful service for 20 years, taught both my children to drive, and got them through their driving tests.
My son's comment was "My God, woman! Are you mad?" If he wasn't a double bass player he'd be driving Herbie himself.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Olympic Torch in Australia

The Olympic torch relay comes through Canberra on April 24th. My Tai Chi Academy has been asked to provide people (about 100) to do Tai Chi for twenty minutes just before dawn as part of the starting celebrations. Hot air balloons will lift off as well. All this on the shores of our beautiful lake. (Have a look at the photos on my website). How exciting to be part of such an event!

Friday, February 1, 2008

Wayward characters

I've reached a point in my wip where the heroine wants to leave town because she feels there is nothing left for her. The hero is backing off and won't say what he needs to, to keep her.

They seem to be telling me very strongly what they're going to do even though neither really wants to take that course of action and I want them to get together.

Does this sound familiar? It happens quite often. Your characters should take on a life of their own-- within reason, of course. They need to follow their natural path or your scenes and actions will feel and read as contrived. Nothing worse than manufacturing a plot point because you want such and such to happen.

Good writers make even the most bizarre twists seem logical because they flow so naturally from the characters personalities. As a reader you believe implicitly in the way the heroine reacts even though you may be thinking, "Oh no! Don't run away. Stay."