Tuesday, May 14, 2024

Book Spotlight: Mastering Your Scenes by J.A. Cox

 


All the tools that you need to create engaging scenes and permanently remove the bane of writer’s block.

 

Title: Mastering Your Scenes: Your Blueprint for Success

Author: J.A. Cox

Publication Date: August 27,b 2020

Pages: 78

Genre: Nonfiction/Writing 

Mastering Your Scenes was written with one main purpose, to help give authors and writers a creative boost in their scene writing and toss writers block into the oblivion of the abyss. In order to accomplish this each chapter is written in a workbook like format so that the steps provided can easily be implemented after they are explained. For each element of scene writing that is presented J.A. Cox explains the How, Why and When of its use along with his own description so that the information is easy to assimilate. He provides copious examples from his own writing of these elements in action as well as from shows and movies.

You will be given an anatomical look of what composes a scene and understand what goes into creating scenes that are engaging, seamless, and bristling with activity without any fluff. Mastering Your Scenes gives you the practical advice you need to keep your readers turning pages and falling in love with your characters. With the steps you will learn there will be no more question of if that scene fits or seems out of place.

“A slim, concise and well focused treatise on how to write and master scenes and how writers can become authors by mastering scene writing. The various elements of a scene are discussed with well known examples and the key facts of each element are presented in depth, with a well laid out structure. The focus on the when, why, how, and the practical application tie up the various aspects of an element neatly and are very well explained. The author’s observations based on experience in each area further adds to the utility of the treatise.”

– The International Review of Books

Buy Links:

Amazon | Kobo

 



Since this book is all about writing a scene, it would be a good idea to discuss what it is before we begin talking about how to build one.  I am sure that you already have many ideas on how to answer the question above, but please humor me for now.  

Let’s look at a scene in this manner:

  • As an episode.

  • As a segment of an episode.

Some episodes are short, and some are long, it really all depends on how they are made.  Also, an episode is the medium in which a portion of a series plays out.  A scene can also be viewed in the same manner, as a medium in which a portion of your story plays out.  On that notion, some may be short, and some may be long, but they still fulfill the same purpose.  They provide the boundaries to contain all of the myriad of things that will take place at a certain point in the story.

Consider that within an episode that there are segments in which very particular things happen, such as a robbery at a bank, a high-speed chase along the highway or even a ship being boarded by pirates on the high seas.  All of these segments placed into a written format would actually be the scene itself.  I hope I am not confusing you but am just trying to convey the fact that a scene in a story fulfills the purpose of both episode and segment combined.

The purpose of this book is to look at the pieces that go into creating the segment so that you can create the most dynamic episode possible.  Another very important factor about a scene, is its continuity.  Whether one scene directly spills into the next or it is briefly interrupted as you transition to something else for a few scenes and pick back up where you left off, you still want things to be seamless. One of my goals is through the use of these elements to empower you with the ability to do so with ease. You can think of each element as a layer on which to build each scene in your story and as your story evolves your use of each will shift as some may not be needed and others will be essential.  I will help you to realize how they all tie together to bring out the best in your scene creation.


– Excerpted from Mastering Your Scenes by J.A. Cox, J.A. Cox, 2020. Reprinted with permission.




About the Author

J.A. Cox is a husband, father and disabled veteran. He is passionate about Jesus Christ and has a desire to allow God to use his writing to bring glory to his name and reach others for him. His other passions lie in: 1) Empowering people by teaching about things that he is knowledgeable in in a simple and fun as well as interesting manner. 2)Inspiring others that they may realize how the true potential to overcome their perceived dilemma lies right between their ears and how they allow it to manipulate what their eyes behold. 3) Helping people to realize that being healthy truly begins with realizing how important it is for them to be intimately acquainted with their own body in order for others to help them resolve its maladies that beset it. Along with those, he enjoys entertaining with fiction based on the concept that fact is stranger than fiction and then stretching it just a tad to create some memorable page turning moments that you will likely recall for some time to come.

Author Links  

Website | LinkedIn

 



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Book Spotlight: Finding Fran by Nancy Christie

 


 

Once a best-selling romance novelist, 55-year-old Fran Carter is now dealing with a slow but steady drop in book sales and a major case of writer’s block, complicated by the knowledge that her lover, a professional photographer, has been on the wrong side of the camera (so to speak) with his models. (So much for her author brand, built on the premise that women in their fifties and beyond can still find love and happiness.) Her solution is to spend a week in isolation at a northern California bed-and-breakfast. There she hopes to resolve her professional and personal conflicts, and ultimately create a new and better future for herself by writing a new “story” for the Fran she wants to be!

Purchase a copy of Finding Fran on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Bookshop.org. You can also add this to your GoodReads reading list.

 


About the Author, Nancy Christie

Nancy Christie is the award-winning author of eight books—two novels: Reinventing Rita and Finding Fran; three short story collections: Mistletoe Magic and Other Holiday Tales, Traveling Left of Center and Other Stories and Peripheral Visions and Other Stories; two books for writers: Rut-Busting Book for Authors and Rut-Busting Book for Writers; and the inspirational book, The Gifts Of Change. Her short stories and essays have appeared in print and online publications, with several earning contest placement. The host of the Living the Writing Life podcast and the founder of the annual “Midlife Moxie” Day and “Celebrate Short Fiction” Day, Christie teaches writing workshops at conferences, libraries, and schools. She is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), the Florida Writers Association (FWA) and the Women’s Fiction Writers Association (WFWA).

 You can find her online:

 Website: https://www.nancychristie.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NancyChristieAuthor

X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/NChristie_OH

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nancychristie_author

Threads: https://www.threads.net/@nancychristie_author

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nancychristie_author

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/nancy-christie

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Nancy-Christie/author/B001K8GBYK

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1048768.Nancy_Christie

Midlife Moxie Novel Series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@midlifemoxienovelseries3804

Books by Nancy Christie on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NancyChristieAuthor

Living the Writing Life podcast: https://livingthewritinglife.podbean.com/

Monday, May 13, 2024

Growing Up in the Family Business by author Lisa Braxton

 



Dancing Between the Raindrops: A Daughter’s Reflections on Love and Loss is a powerful meditation on grief, a deeply personal mosaic of a daughter’s remembrances of beautiful, challenging, and heartbreaking moments of life with her family. It speaks to anyone who has lost a loved one and is trying to navigate the world without them while coming to terms with complicated emotions. Lisa Braxton’s parents died within two years of each other—her mother from ovarian cancer, her father from prostate cancer. While caring for her mother she was stunned to find out that she, herself, had a life-threatening illness—breast cancer. In this intimate, lyrical memoir-in-essays, Lisa Braxton takes us to the core of her loss and extends a lifeline of comfort to anyone who needs to be reminded that in their grief they are not alone.

Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Dancing-Between-Raindrops-Daughters-Reflections/dp/1961864088/

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dancing-between-the-raindrops-lisa-braxton/1144935014?ean=9781961864085

Add to your Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/208947069-dancing-between-the-raindrops?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=WYkO4vLd07&rank=2


Growing up in the Family Business

Dad was a child entrepreneur. Growing up in rural Virginia, near the Blue Ridge Mountains in the 1930s and ‘40s he learned how to make a dollar and supply merchandise to his neighbors before they knew they needed it. He went door-to-door selling household products to stay-at-home mothers. He had his own store, a wooden shack only open on Sundays when the blue laws restricted most businesses from operating.

Years later, after he and Mom married and moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut and my sister and I were born, he decided to take an early pension from his machinist job at the local factory and relive his childhood ambition. Mom didn’t think it was a good idea, but eventually agreed to support his dream. The result was Braxton’s Men’s Shop, which opened in the late 1960s and was in operation for more than 40 years. Here are some lessons I learned growing up in the family business:

You don’t have to be a grownup to help a business grow

I was in 3rd grade when Braxton’s opened. One day Dad said, “I see from your report card that you’ve done well in all your subjects, including math.” He broke the seal on a large box that had just been delivered. “Count these pairs of slacks. Write the number down and compare it with the number on this packing slip,” he said, unfolding a piece of translucent paper that had been sealed to the front of the box. Pretty soon he had me counting items from all the shipments.

Opening a business on a corner, is good strategy

Braxton’s was on a heavily trafficked road with commerce coming and going between Boston and New York. On the block was a dry cleaners, restaurant, bank and ice cream shop. A record store was across the street. We got countless spillover foot traffic.

Eye candy is essential

Because we were on a corner, pedestrians walking in front of the store, or the side street were treated to display windows of the latest fashions and accessories.

Running a business can make you a rockstar

The business was unusual for its time. There had been businesses owned by African Americans for years, but not a high-fashion men’s clothing store. It caught the attention of city hall. Dad became a district alderman and served several terms as the president of the local branch of the NAACP. My high school teachers would pull me aside and tell me they’d read in the papers what Dad was doing for the community.

Spouses and partners considering going into business together may want to reconsider

When Braxton’s was just an idea, mom was hesitant to agree to it. She didn’t think Dad had the personality for it. Dad wanted to be friends with customers, giving them discounts, and letting them have clothes on credit. Not credit cards, but “credit.” Mom sent stern letters to customers and called them to collect what they owed. Once after weeks of toil, Mom proudly announced that she’d collected every penny that customers owed. Dad turned around and gave people credit again. Mom soon left the store and let him run it by himself. Dad was hoping when he retired, my sister and I would take over the business. We both said a vehement “no.” Neither of us have entrepreneurial inclinations and after growing up in the family business we’d seen the pitfalls. However, we learned life lessons that guide us to this day.

 


About the Author

Lisa Braxton is the author of the novel, The Talking Drum, winner of a 2021 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Book Awards Gold Medal, overall winner of Shelf Unbound book review magazine’s 2020 Independently Published Book Award, and winner of a 2020 Outstanding Literary Award from the National Association of Black Journalists and a Finalist for the International Book Awards. She is also an Emmy-nominated former television journalist, an essayist, and short story writer.

She is on the executive board of the Writers Room of Boston and a writing instructor at Grub Street Boston, and currently serves as President of the Greater Boston Section of the National Council of Negro Women and is a member of the Psi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

You can follow the author at:

Website: https://lisabraxton.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisa.a.braxton/

Twitter: @Lisaannbraxton  OR @LisaReidbraxton

Instagram: @lisabraxton6186

Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisabraxton/

Wednesday, May 8, 2024

The Inspiration Behind I Will Ruin You: The Twisted Truth Behind Kit Martin's Murder Trial by Emilio Corsetti III

 

Details of a murder trial in which many believe an innocent man was convicted of a triple homicide.

Title: I Will Ruin You: The Twisted Truth Behind the Kit Martin Murder Trial

Author: Emilio Corsetti III

Publication Date: March 26, 2024

Pages: 196

Genre: True Crime/Nonfiction

Moments before boarding a passenger flight on 11 May 2019 as the first officer, pilot Christian “Kit” Martin, a former army ranger, was arrested by a swarm of heavily armed officers for the murders of three of his neighbors. The arrest captured global attention as Martin’s mugshot, clad in a pilot’s uniform, spread across the internet, sparking a media firestorm with headlines such as “Monster in the Cockpit.”

A combat helicopter pilot, Kit Martin had seen his life unravel after seeking a divorce. His wife’s threatening words, “If you leave me, I will ruin your life …,” overheard by his daughter, seemed to have become a grim reality, escalating to a court-martial and culminating in a high-stakes murder trial at which he was convicted.

I WILL RUIN YOU: The Twisted Truth Behind the Kit Martin Murder Trial delves into the complex circumstances behind Martin’s story. It looks beyond the sensational headlines and legal turmoil into the heart of this controversial case.

You can purchase I Will Ruin You: The Twisted Truth Behind the Kit Martin Murder Trial at Amazon.

 


Not long after Kit’s call to the Christian County Sheriff’s Office and Joan’s 911 call, two police cars showed up at 458 South Main Street in Pembroke, Kentucky. Sergeant Andrew Trafford was first to arrive, followed shortly after by Deputy Eddie Frye and Officer John Bruce. Alma, whose bedroom faced the street, watched the scene unfold from her bedroom window.

Deputy Frye was barely out of his car when Joan approached and said, “He beat the shit out of me again.” Deputy Frye asked Joan where she had been hit. Joan pointed to her temples and the back of her head. Deputy Frye used his flashlight to examine Joan. When Deputy Frye indicated that he didn’t see any marks, Joan replied that her son was upstairs and that he should talk to him.

Deputy Frye then headed to the back porch, where Sergeant Trafford spoke with Kit. Frye told Sergeant Trafford that he would go inside and question the kids. When the deputy entered the residence, the first thing that caught his attention was how dark it was inside. He had to use his flashlight to see. 

McKenzie was the first of the kids to talk to Deputy Frye. She indicated there had been a verbal argument, but she hadn’t seen anything. When Deputy Frye asked where the “boy” was, McKenzie said he was upstairs.

Still using his flashlight to guide him, Deputy Frye climbed the steep stairs to the second floor. Both Alma and Elijah met him at the top of the stairs. Frye indicated that he wanted to talk to Elijah. After introducing himself, he asked Elijah to tell him exactly what he had heard and seen. He added that he needed to know one hundred percent what had happened, no matter who was at fault. Elijah said that his dad was upstairs on the couch and that his mom came upstairs and yelled at him. Elijah then emphasized that “he never touched her.”

Deputy Frye asked again, “You never saw him hit her?” 

“No,” Elijah answered. “He did not hit her.” 

 
 

The Inspiration Behind I Will Ruin You: The Twisted Truth Behind Kit Martin's Murder Trial

In May 2019, I heard a story about an American Airlines Pilot who had been arrested for a triple homicide. I was working as a pilot for American Airlines at the time. I've flown with some pilots who had issues, but a triple homicide is on another level. 

I did a little research and learned that this person worked for PSA Airlines, an American Airlines regional carrier. I also learned that he had been arrested at the Louisville International Airport moments before he was scheduled to work the flight as the first officer. He was still wearing his pilot uniform when he had his mugshot taken.

I didn't go much further than learning about the charges against him. Two years later, in June 2021, I heard he had been convicted. Then, in September of that same year, Dateline did an episode about the case titled The Evil That Watches. I'm a big fan of Dateline. But as I watched the show and listened to the evidence against him and his interview with Keith Morrison, I got the sense that something wasn't right.

Fortunately, the entire murder trial was filmed by Court TV and available to view online. I spent the next month or so watching every minute of that trial. When I finished it, I was convinced that he was innocent. I know that the prosecution did not prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.

By this time, I was four months away from retirement. I had written two books—both were nonfiction narratives about aviation stories. I started to consider making this story the subject of my third book. I've always been fascinated by stories of wrongful convictions and have written extensively about them on my review site www.everythingnonfiction.com.

I did a little online sleuthing and found a Facebook group called Free Kit Martin. As it turns out, thousands of other people felt the same way as I did about his innocence. I joined the group and, in no time, was able to reach out to Kit (the name he goes by) through a prison email account.

My thinking at the time was that some well-known author surely had to be all over this story. But I was happy to learn that no one had approached Kit or his family about a book. Once everyone was on board, I was given access to a wealth of material dating back to 2012. I started writing in November 2021.

My previous books had taken between three and five years to write. Now that I was retired, I was able to dedicate as much time as I needed. I had a first draft by the summer of 2023. I contacted the family and told them there were two choices: I could publish the book myself, or I could try and find a traditional publisher. I gave them the pros and cons of each path. The family decided that I should try the traditional route first and do it myself if I could not find a publisher.

I wrote a proposal and started sending out query letters to literary agents. I started racking up rejection letters as fast as I sent them out. I was willing to give it six months to a year. The problem with doing that, however, is that there was still no guarantee that I would even get an agent, let alone a publishing deal. And if I did manage to find a publisher, it would be another year or more before the book ever saw the light of day. Meanwhile, Kit was sitting in prison, having to rely on two appeals attorneys who didn't seem all that interested in their jobs.

I decided to submit the proposal directly to WildBlue Press, a publisher known for its true crime books. I had read and reviewed a book from this publisher called Failure of Justice by John Ferak. Somehow, my proposal landed in the hands of one of the two founders of the company. Within a very short time, I had a publishing agreement, and here we are now. And soon a lot more people will learn how the State of Kentucky convicted an innocent man.



About the Author

Emilio Corsetti III is a retired airline pilot and the author of the bestselling nonfiction books 35 Miles From Shore and Scapegoat. Emilio is a graduate of St. Louis University Parks College of Aviation. He and his wife, Lynn, reside in Dallas, Texas.

Author Links  

Website | X (Twitter) | Facebook | Goodreads | Instagram

 


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