MIRROR, MIRROR ON SALE!!

 I'm a big time Les Edgerton fan and my 12 year old daughter knows it. When she sees a new Edgerton book on my shelf or tablet, she always asks, "can I read that?" and my answer is always "No!" Imagine my excitement that Les Edgerton has put out a book I can say "Yes!" to.
Les' straightforward, `take no prisoners' style shines through in Mirror, Mirror and it serves him well, making this book an easy and enjoyable read. The plot moves well and keeps you engaged and is suspenseful enough to keep the story exciting. It's laugh out loud funny and keeps you guessing...

If you're a fan of Les Edgerton, or if you're looking for a good, clean read for your kids,you won't be disappointed.

 

The BEST part is that you can buy this great book for only $2.99! Here's the link:
 

 http://www.amazon.com/Mirror-ebook/dp/B009VNN40K/ref=sr_1_6?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1356193303&sr=1-6&keywords=les+edgerton

 

Give the young reader in your life something great this Christmas!

 

Motivation, Hitchcock and Why Cheaters Never Win

I was watching The Girl the other night and something Hitchcock said to Tippi Hedren has stuck with me. I can’t stop thinking about, even days later, and how it plays to the vanity of Hitchcock (specifically) and writers (in general).

In the scene where Hedren (played by Sienna Miller) and Hitchcock (played by Toby Jones) discuss her character’s motivation for going into the attic alone, knowing there would be birds there, (they were filming The Birds at the time). Hedren asked, “Why would Melanie go into that attic all alone?”

Hitchcock replied, “Because I want her to.”

Because I want her to.

While a cinematic genius like Hitchcock might be able to get away with that, for a lowly novelist like me, writing takes a bit more work. Just because I want my characters to do something, doesn’t mean I should make them do it. There has to be a reason my characters do and say the things they do and it's my job to give them that reason.

It's called motivation.

Motivation is what a writer weaves throughout a plot to bind it tight. Motivation is what makes even the implausible seem possible. Even the most unlikely seem inevitable. But what is it? A traumatic past? Money? Love? Revenge?

I can’t simply decide I want my protagonist to rob a bank or rescue a bunch of kids from a burning orphanage. There has to be a trigger that sets them on the course. Are they days away from losing their home to foreclosure? Is their child in need of a lifesaving operation and the insurance company refuses to pay. Did they lose a loved one to a fire? Did they grow up in an orphanage themselves?

These are seeds from which future action grow and if you want your novel to feel real, they must be planted. From these seeds should sprout a chain of events, fed on emotion and tended by circumstance, that will inevitably lead your protagonist to a place where the life-altering decisions they make are the only ones that make sense.

Look at it this way...

If a novel is a vehicle, then motivation is the fuel in the tank. It makes us move and takes us places. Maybe even places we never had any intention of going. Place we don't want to be... places we have a hard time visiting. If there's no gas in the tank, that vehicle isn't moving. But if you put the wrong kind of fuel in the tank then your vehicle breaks down completely. It becomes an undriveable hunk of crap that noboby wants to drive. Or read.

When Hitchcock sent his character into that attic full of live, pissed off birds, he wasn’t sending the character—he was sending Hedren. He allowed his personal motivation to color the actions of his character… and in doing so, changed the movie completely.

It was no longer about the story itself at all. It was about Hitchcock’s desire to punish Hedren for finding him repulsive. In punishing Hedren, Hitchcock gave as a peek behind the curtain. Even though we may not have known it at the time, we saw a writer at work and that is something your reader should never see.

The stories we write should be seamless. Our characters should be fully formed, with their own set of experiences that give their choices weight and purpose and the conclusion those choices lead them to should seem inevitable.

Anything less would be a cheat—to myself as a writer and to people I write for.

The Darker Side of Midnight

Great day!!

I've had the privilege of being added into the rotation for the Midnight Ink authors' blog.
Check it out!

http://midnightwriters.blogspot.com/

Book Review

As a thriller writer myself, I'm always excited and interested to see how other female thriller writers do it... and Ms. Cain did not disappoint. I enjoy flawed, complex characters and we get those in spade with Archie Sheridan, Gretchen Lowell and Susan Ward.
We know from almost the beginning that Archie’s sick obsession with Gretchen stems from the way those ten days of torture warped his mind and from how Gretchen almost cultivated the raging case of Stockholm syndrome he suffers from—but that doesn’t make it any less fucked up. We meet Archie mid-swan dive into the abyss. He’s a pill popper who’s been left by his wife and kids to hit rock bottom alone. His wife doesn’t leave him because of the drugs—she leaves him because he’s obsessed with the woman that kidnapped and tortured him.
The only thing that matters to Archie more than Gretchen is stopping murderers. He comes out of retirement to stop a new serial killer that’s hunting young women in Portland and Susan Ward is the reporter that is assigned to cover the story.
Susan is just as messed up as Archie and as the story progresses, we begin to understand why. It’s fitting that it’s Gretchen herself that offers insight into what has caused Susan so much damage and in the end we see Archie make the choice between her and the family that’s left him.
I really liked this book and admire Cain for never flinching away from the tough stuff. Hard-core thriller writing is primarily a boys’ club—It’s encouraging to see a woman do it, and do it very, very well.

Fiction Friday, Release Date and other Fun Stuff...

This week has been one of the strangest and most exciting of my life...
 
 



My forthcoming book CARVED IN DARKNESS is set to be released by Llewellyn's Midnight Ink on May, 8th, 2013...

I know, that's 6 months away but it's available for pre-order right now! Here are the links:

 

http://www.midnightinkbooks.com/author.php?author_id=5489

 

or

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/carved-in-darkness-maegan-beaumont/1113557699?ean=9780738736891

or

http://www.amazon.com/Carved-Darkness-Maegan-Beaumont/dp/0738736899/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352475323&sr=8-1&keywords=carved+in+darkness

Check out my Goodreads author page:

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6572406.Maegan_Beaumont

 I’ve posted a sample chapter. Leave me a comment, letting me know what you think. J

 

 

Where the Rubber Meets the Road

We all have them: brilliant story ideas.

Sometimes, they come to us fully formed. You see every facet clearly—who your protagonist is, the trouble he or she face. What they will do to dig themselves out of it… the trouble the meet along the way. Sometimes, it’s just a flash. Something you see or hear triggers a thought. That thought leads to another… and another… until the idea takes shape and you're left with no choice but to write it out.

And other times that something you see or hear burrows into your brain. It niggles and nags. It refused to be pushed aside—demands to be written.

So, if these ideas take all the time and trouble to bring themselves to our attention, to demand that we listen, why is it that sometimes they have the audacity to be unable to support the story we so desperately want to write? Why is it that they fall apart half way through the novel?

I hate to say it, but… it’s not the idea you should be blaming. It’s you. You’re probably the reason things aren't working out the way you’d planned them to. The idea didn’t fall apart. You probably broke it.

Writers generally fall into two categories when it comes to starting a novel:

You have the Nervous Nelly. The writer who circles the pool a few dozen times. Dips their toe in to check the temperature of the water. Makes sure their hair is tucked securely into their swim cap… you know, they think about it for weeks and months before they even write a word. They over think every aspect of the idea until they convince themselves that it’s not a good one.

Then you have the Kamikaze. The writer that sees the pool from a distance, climbs up onto the roof and takes a flying leap, legs tucked into a cannonball, eyes screwed shut… without checking to see if there’s even water in the pool. They have this idea and that it’s—they’re at their computer, frantically typing away without knowing where they’re going or how they’re going to get there.

To the Nervous Nelly, I say:

First of all, take off the swim cap—you look like a dork. Secondly… loosen up for God’s sake. It a novel, not the Magna Carta. Yes, writing is hard work. It’s grueling and often lonely business… but if you’re truly a writer, then at the heart of it all, is love. It’s what you love to do. The one thing in your life that you can’t imagine not doing… so do it. Stop beating the poor thing to death and get on with it. Write a synopsis. Write a character sketch for your protagonist. Research your setting… it doesn’t matter what you do, really, as long as you do it.

To the Kamikaze, I say:

Novel writing is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes stamina. It takes focus. Neither of which you have when your banging away on your keyboard like a cracked-out monkey. Take a deep breath… now take another one. Let the story take form, it’s really not something you can force. And that’s what you’re doing. You’re forcing it. Stop doing that. It’s like handing your keys to a seven year-old and telling them to move your car and then getting mad when they put your Toyota through the neighbor’s living room. I suggest you do the same thing as Nervous Nelly up there—write your synopsis. Flesh out your characters. Research your setting… because that’s what it all comes down to. That’s the secret…

There is no such thing as a poor story idea—just poor execution.

Ideas, after all, are just that—ideas. A fully-formed novel is something else entirely. You’re the architect that plans it out and the the carpenter that builds it—it’s your responsibility to make sure it has all its parts and that those parts are on working order. Plot. Characters. Setting. These are the components that make a novel work. One can be, and is usually stronger than the other (Plot driven vs. Character driven novels… another topic for another time) but if all three are weak—forget about it.

If the plot leaks like a spaghetti strainer, your reader will grow very angry, very quickly. Readers are an intelligent lot. If your plot isn’t tightly laced, they’ll know it and they’ll hate you for it. Not because you wrote a bad book, but because they’ll feel like you tried to get one over on them—and no one like to be made a fool of.

If your characters are flimsy, your reader will feel cheated. Most people read, because they’re looking for a new experience and they want to live that experience through someone they feel emotionally connected to. Someone as flawed as they are. Someone they wish they could be. Someone that has the guts to do the things they don’t. Say the things they never could. If your characters are one dimensional creatures, no one will find them interesting, and if no one finds them interesting, then no one will care what happens to them.

Setting lends a bit of realism to the whole thing, which allows your reader to connect even deeper to your story. Remember, it’s all about experience. That’s what the reader needs—it’s what they’re looking for. A woman who’s never left her small town can read a book set a Paris, and if the writer is good, and pays attention to detail, can feel as if she’s walked along the Seine or seen the Eiffel tower. She feels worldly. Connected. The experience she has is rich and fully formed. Without setting, it’s flat and dull. The reader is left feeling like something is missing.

All of these components must work in concert with each other:

Story idea. Plot. Character. Setting.

They build upon each other. Lend support. One leans against the other. If a story isn’t working, they’re a reason. One or more of these pieces is either lacking in structure or missing all together. Before you give up and move on to the next story idea, give this one the time and attention it deserves. Find it’s weak spots and shore them up… maybe you’ll have to tear it down and start from scratch, but don’t give up on it. There’s a very good chance it’s worth your time and attention. After all, there’s a reason the idea grabbed you in the first place.

Need plot help? Have a writing question? Hit me up:

thrillersandkillers@gmail.com

Excuses, Excuses...

I am a neglectful, horrible blogger...

It's like that childhood friend you haven't called for awhile—you lose touch because you've been so busy and then you actively start to avoid them because you're so guilt ridden that you’ve lost touch…

Yeah, that’s pretty much me all over.

So, here’s a brief re-cap of what’s been going on in my neck of the woods…


A blurb-a-palooza update: Tess Gerritsen (or rather, her assistant) politely declined my request for a book blurb. Sandra Ruttan has yet to reply... I've recently added Chelsea Cain my hit list. If you haven't read her novel, Hearthbreaker, yet--you should. I'll keep you posted--hopefully one of these phenomenal female thriller authors will be willing to help a sister out!

I took my first set of head shots for my author photo. Usually, I’d rather eat glass than have my picture taken, but my cousin (…second cousin… once removed? We’ll just stick with cousin), Peggy Coleman did an amazing job of making me look and feel kinda normal-looking.

 

Next, I took a much needed, and much appreciated long weekend with my husband, Joe, for our 15^th wedding

anniversary. I didn’t get much writing done but that’s

okay—it was nice to just relax and stick my feet in the

water…

When I got home, what greeted me from the mailbox? Why,

 it was my SIGNED contract with Llewellyen Worldwide! This

 makes it official—2 Sabrina Vaughn books (hopefully

more… ) will find their way onto bookstore shelves, starting

spring 2013. Still waiting for the go-head so  I can post my

cover art so I can get everyone’s opinion. I happen to think

 it’s fabulous, but I’d really like to know what y’all think

too.

And…

I was invited to guest blog on Lee Lofland’s The Graveyard

Shift—a police procedural blog run by retired officer, Lee

Lofland—about my Writer’s Police Academy experience.

http://www.leelofland.com/wordpress/maegan-beaumont-wpa-weekend/

Nothing makes you feel guiltier about neglecting a friend

than spending time with another… so here I am.

I hope to have more news very soon—stay tuned!

and as always, I'm never to busy to talk shop! Got a plot problem? A writing question? Shoot me an email, I'd love to hear from you! thrillersandkillers@gmail.com