Posted March 02, 2010 at 14:47 (General)
This past week and a half has been kind of crazy. Finished the family tree for my main characters and this has proven to be quite interesting. As the names begin to take on the characteristics of the person being portrayed the players are beginning to flesh out. They have begun hinting at their individual stories and a few have even suggested a scandal or two along the way. (We'll see about those.)
In a departure from my other books I will be creating main sections for my story to parallel the lives of my main characters - Youth, Middle Age, Golden Years, etc. Of course the actual names of the sections may change but those are what I'm working with right now.
The dance hall narrator has begun speaking to me and I've jotted down some pertinent facts that will help to guide my story. In all a productive period even though I didn't get to devote as many hours to writing as I would have liked.
Almost finishing up with the polish work of Oak Cliff; received another rejection from a publisher in the UK. Really had high hopes for them but guess they aren't as open minded as I had assumed they would be.
So there we are - with only a half week until my next update - guess I'd better get to work.
Have a sparkling week!
Posted by Marion at 14:47 2010-03-02 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
The Telling of a Story - Week Three
Posted February 22, 2010 at 14:15 (General)
Well, here we are into week three and don't you know my mind was so uncomfortable with trying to find a name for my male lead that I've decidedd to switch things around completely. Instead of having our patriarch be of Italian heritage I've decided to have our matriarch be Italian. So many pretty female Italian names to choose from should make my naming process easier, right?
My favorite Italian name for a girl is Francesca - thus our new leading lady is Francesca Gardella. Easy to pronounce, easy to write, and literally flows off the tongue. I love it!
Now for our patriarch - what is more British sounding than Charles? British surnames are easier for me too so our new leading man is Charles Foxwood. Has a nice strong sound to it, doesn't it?
I can still use some of the earlier character profiles that I created just moved some things around and voila! We have an entire new cast of characters.
Research on music and dance halls of the early 1900s continues and I'm getting a good picture of what I want to portray. Now for the naming of our main character - the dance hall itself. This one needs to be just right. There are so many to choose from that I'm not sure what I want. I want to convey elegance, entertainment, fun, and the lure of romance. I've got the names I like on a short list and hope to narrow it down by the end of this week.
Next on the list is creating the band/orchestra that plays at said dance hall each week. Something mellow and light-hearted - I already know who the male vocalist/crooner will be. He's a very debonair fellow with a smooth baritone voice - always wears a jazz-bow with his dinner jacket and dark trousers. He's going to be one very interesting fellow to work with.
So, that's where we're at right now. Looking forward to working with these characters this week and hopefully producing at least an introduction to the actual story.
Hope your week is sparkling!
Posted by Marion at 14:15 2010-02-22 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
The Telling of a Story - Week Two
Posted February 13, 2010 at 16:13 (General)
This week hasn't seen too much progress on Book #4. Mainly because I've been dividing my time between polishing to near perfection the manuscript for Oak Cliff and working on the new book.
Since I've decided that this story will pretty much follow the multiple generations of one family, I have diagrammed a basic family tree for my central core of characters.
To do this I first needed to determine when my matriarch and patriarch should meet - 1920s, 1930s, etc. Having determined that I needed to then figure out how many generations we will have that will bring our story up to the present day. Then came the task of naming all of those family members.
I originally wanted my patriarch to be of Italian heritage and so I thought the name Carlo would be nice. But I had to discard that because it is too close to the name of a family friend who would rather I didn't use his name. Not a problem, I thought. There are lots of good solid Italian men's names. Well, I considered using the names Enzo, Giorgio, Sebastiano, Ricardo, Gino, and Alberto. For the moment I've settled on Giancarlo but that may change as the character takes on the story.
Our matriarch is of English-American ancestry and my first thought was to use the name Isabella. Two problems with that name - if we call her Bella that would harken to the character in the Twilight saga of books; if we call her Izzy that would be reminscent of the character on Gray's Anatomy. So scratch the name Isabella. I tried out thenames Edie, Ella, Roberta, Joan, and Holly but settled on the name Olivia even though it calls to my mind one of my soap opera characters. But Olivia is a nice, Anglo-sounding name and so my matriarch is Olivia Anne Winthrop.
Now I need a surname for Giancarlo. The easiest way for me to find a surname is to look at a map and use the name of a place or region, especially for a European surname. I think I've seen every city or town name in Italy and tried each one as a surname for Giancarlo. At last I've settled on the name Fiore. So now we have Giancarlo Fiore.
I have completed the backstories for both Giancarlo and Olivia, constructed their family tree, given them five children, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Thankfully I won't need a backstory for all of the grandchildren and great-grandkids but I'll need to at least outline the five children and their major offspring.
So, all things considered I guess I did better than I thought this week. Next week I'll be doing more research on the music of the different eras and dance halls of the 1900s-1940s since that is where I've decided that Olivia and Giancarlo will meet for the first time.
Hopefully next time Olivia and Giancarlo will have begun to tell me their story and I can set down the key points in a plot guide.
Posted by Marion at 16:13 2010-02-13 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
The Telling of a Story - Week One
Posted February 04, 2010 at 13:28 (General)
Since I am beginning the work on a new book (novel) I thought it might be fun to share the progress with everyone. Plus I'll have the advantage of documenting my progress (and pitfalls) as I move along. I hope that you, dear reader and/or fan, will follow along and gain a better appreciation of the work that goes into the book that you read through so quickly and hopefully clamor for the next one. Without further ado, I begin.
Before actually setting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) I needed an idea. Since my books deal with houses or buildings that tell us their stories, and since I've written about three houses already, I had decided a few months ago to write about a different kind of structure. Ah, but what structure should that be I asked myself. Firehouse, no; church, no (although there would be all kinds of stories here); general store, no; banquet hall, getting warmer; dance hall, aha!
Next step for me is to get a visual of the place that I'd like to write about. Last week was spent in browsing the internet for pictures of old dance halls, dance pavilions, banquet halls, anyplace where dancing is the norm. One picture doesn't quite do the trick - at least not for me. I need to see a few pictures or sketches from various time periods in order to put together an historical concept. I finally found three pictures that put it together for me.
Late last week I put together the time line for my story. Based on my research dance halls were at the height of their popularity from the turn of the century (1900) through the late 1950s. So my story will begin shortly after 1900 - at least that's what I'm thinking now.
So, you say, now the story begins. Not so, say I. Who are our characters? How will they interact with each other? Will I follow a main character(s) throughout the story or will I need a series of vignettes with new characters for each? Should there be a common thread that binds all of the characters?
The answer to those questions lies in the backstory for each character. This past week I have created a profile for two of my characters given them names, a family history, a physical description, how they come to be involved with our dance hall (still need a name for the dance hall, though) - basically, everything you'd ever want to know about a character goes into their profile. Some of it won't be used in the story but a lot of it will. This creates for me, the author, an in-depth knowledge of the characters who will be working with me for the next year or so. Of course there will be new characters as work progresses that will be suggested by the main characters but I'll deal with those as they appear.
These things are merely the groundwork for Book #4 - I hope you'll enjoy following along with me as I undertake this writing endeavor. I would love to hear your comments or suggestions. Happy researching!
Posted by Marion at 13:28 2010-02-04 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
Thanksgiving 2009
Posted November 25, 2009 at 12:50 (General)
It's been a while since I last blogged about anything and I truly hope you'll forgive my absence. There doesn't seem to be a good reason why time gets away from me but it certainly does.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I simply want to express my gratitude for a few things. First and foremost is for my wonderful husband without whom my life would be incomplete and a total mess. His love and support is what keeps me going.
I'm also grateful for living in the USA where we get to have this special holiday. Even with all of the governmental politics and messes that swirl around us this is still, to me, the greatest nation on this planet. I have traveled a bit and met folks from other countries and while I think Europe or Asia or Australia or other places and marvelous there's just something about coming home to the USA that tugs at my heartstrings.
Even though my extended family (cousins, uncles, in-laws, etc.) are in other parts of the US they are always in my thoughts and prayers as are my close friends.
I am thankful once again for the support of my readers and fans - without you my budding career would be nothing but an aging woman telling stories.
I hope to blog again soon. In the meantime feel free to follow me on Facebook or Twitter.
Posted by Marion at 12:50 2009-11-25 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
