Keeper II The Storm – April Coker, Author

You have your idea. You have your conflict. You have your characters and you have your story. You start typing and it flows. Until you get about halfway. Now what?

Writers have been facing this dilemma since writing began. That’s why some writers outline their entire novel or work before they even start. It helps them to know where they are going with the story. Writing an outline has never worked for me.

I’m what they call in writing circles a “pantser.” I write by the seat of my pants. I agree with long-time prolific writer Caleb Pirtle III, author of the Ambrose Lincoln series and the Boomtown Saga. I like to see where the characters take me. But sometimes they get stuck. Or I become blind or deaf. I can’t tell where they are going and they don’t seem to want to share with me. I’m just the author, after all.

What do I do about this problem? Some people call it writer’s block. I don’t like that term because it suggests that the river of my thoughts and imagination has been dammed up. I still have the river, I just can’t tell where it wants to go.

Take my work in progress, for example. I’ve titled it Keeper III: The Blackout. My characters Emmalee and Elliott have a good thing going. They are attracted to each other, have started dating, and the relationship is beginning to grow. Emmalee’s old boyfriend Jace has resumed stalking her. Emmalee’s coworker Gilbert constantly gets on her nerves. The power keeps going off at the zoo and in town. Now what? Where do I take the story?

How serious do Emmalee and Elliott become? Will Jace become violent towards Emmalee? What will she do about Gilbert? What is causing the frequent blackouts?

See what I mean? These are questions I want my reader to ask, but first I have to answer them. I best get to work. The solutions seem to flow straight from the seat in the chair to the brain in the head to the fingers on the keyboard.

Stay tuned. . .

XOXO

Everybody in Texas seems to have a tornado story. They’ve either been in one, seen one, or know someone who has. I haven’t had the terrifying experience of actually being in a tornado, but as a kid I came close enough.

Grandpa and Grandma Irwin were visiting from central Texas, and when the weather turned bad and the wind got up, Grandpa insisted on piling everyone in the car and getting out, not realizing that being in a car is the worst place you can be in a tornado. He had been in a tornado once and he didn’t intend to repeat the experience.

Our little house in the country didn’t have a garage, so we had to brave the wind and rain to get to the car. It’s a pretty frightening thing to be six years old and barely able to walk in the wind. Fortunately I hadn’t read The Wizard of Oz yet.

Daddy drove all of us–mama, us four kids, one an infant, and Grandma and Grandpa to Tyler where we parked on the downtown square and waited for the storm to pass, two adults and two children in the front, and two adults and two children in the back. No carseats or seatbelt laws back then! When Daddy and Grandpa agreed it was safe to return, we drove home, no doubt happy to see everything still in its place.

Grandpa and Grandma Irwin

I grew up convinced that a tornado had been nearby as we ran to the car that night. My parents believed there was. This was back in the day when there was no such thing as Doppler radar or today’s sophisticated weather technology.

I’ve never been one to take tornado watches and warnings with a shrug. I have a “windowless interior room” that I retreat to with the dog, (hubby wouldn’t go in there unless he heard it coming!) and if I’m out and about I find shelter. No close personal encounters for me, no thank you.

What about you? Have you had an experience with a tornado? Check out Keeper II: The Storm for Jolie’s terrifying encounter!

XOXO