Return to Nocturne

I'm back to werewolves.  At least for a little while... now.   

As you know, I write a lot about canines.  They're mostly dogs, in my mysteries.  But I've also been writing paranormal romance for Harlequin Nocturne for a few years, and I'll soon be writing the eighth in my Alpha Force miniseries.   

But first, I need to put together a synopsis and the first chapters to send along to my editor so they'll see the direction I'm going and be able to comment on any changes they'd like to see.  So here I am!

So far, I've just been plotting.  I have a good sense for where those wolves and werewolves will be, and what's going to happen while they're there.  It's a romance, so I also know who the non-shifter heroine and shifter hero will be.  

Alpha Force is my covert military unit of shapeshifters, in case you're not familiar with it.

You know what?  It's fun to make this stuff up.  At least I think I'm making it up.  I don't happen to be aware of real shapeshifters... but who knows?!

Books and Again

The Killer Hobbies theme this week is about books we read over and over again.

When I was young, I read my first romantic suspense novels, by Mary Stuart, Victoria Holt and Phyllis Whitney. Those I read more than once, and it’s no wonder that I now enjoy writing both romance and suspense myself, usually combining them.

When my kids were young, I enjoyed reading to them at bedtime. They always had favorites, and those would get read over and over.

These days, most of my reading, although also for fun, is most often a form of research. I read in the genres in which I write to get insight as to how others approach them. I read genres in which I aspire to write for the same reason. Seldom do I read a story more than once.

Then there are my own novels. Yes, I read them again. And often yet again. Most of them are in a series these days, and even though I try to keep track, as I write, of characters, locations and everything that may carry over into future stories, I want to do all I can to ensure consistency and continuity.

Besides, I get a kick out of reading my own stuff. I attempt to recall what I was doing when I started a story and when I ended it. Was my character’s development based on something in my own life at the time? Not necessarily, but sometimes real life sparks a scene or comment or even, occasionally, the villain.

I’m going to give one lucky Killer Hobbies blog reader the chance to win my latest Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery FELINE FATALE, autographed by me, if you comment on this post. Since I’m mostly talking about myself, let me know if you’ve ever read any of my books, whether a Kendra story or a Harlequin Nocturne, or my earlier ventures into Harlequin Intrigue or time travel romance. If not, which of them would you be most interested in reading? Are you interested in ALASKAN WOLF, my upcoming Harlequin Nocturne about Alpha Force shapeshifters, to be a December 2010 release? How about my spinoff series from the Kendra books--the Pet Rescue mysteries--the first of which will be BEAGLEMANIA, in March 2011? And if you say no to all, beware. I’ll have my dogs do nasty stuff to your entry, rather than choosing it from the stack of names!

Old Stories I’m Fond Of

I’m one of those traditional novelists with a dozen unpublished manuscripts under the bed before the first one sold. I’d had some luck with mystery short stories first and thought I was on a roll... not!

I often tell the story about my first unpublished novel. I started it while I was working at my first law job as a junior associate in a law firm. I liked the people, but didn’t especially adore the experience. My first story? It was a mystery novel about a new associate in a law firm, who found the dead body of the senior partner at the end of the first chapter. Very cathartic! One interesting sidelight is that I’ve heard similar stories told by mystery-writing panelists... all of them lawyers!

The last full manuscript I finished before actually selling one was a time travel story containing other paranormal concepts as well as sci-fi elements--and, of course, romance and suspense. The hero, a physicist, he created a method of time travel that incorporated quantum physics. In those days, scientists proclaimed that, if time travel ever became possible, it would be via black holes in space. Today, they suggest it’ll use quantum physics--so I preceded the current theory! In any event, my story was also a contemporary one, as well as a historical one... well, you can see that it incorporated a lot of genres which, back then, was a no-no. When I got “nice” rejections, I looked around and found an accepted genre that included many of those elements: time travel romance. That’s when I wrote--and sold--my first novel: A GLIMPSE OF FOREVER. I didn’t try to explain the time travel. The heroine simply touched fossils and was transported from the past to the present and back again.

Another of my unsold manuscripts contains a theme I still love. I started it when I heard about how many dolphins were killed in the nets of tuna fishermen, just because they were there. I was upset, especially when I verified, during my research, that dolphins are possibly as intelligent as people in their respective environments. The story never sold, and laws changed so that fewer dolphins are now killed in tuna nets, so my theme would need to be modified--although plenty of dolphins are still killed during fishing and for other reasons I consider to be unjustifiable.

Then there’s the story loosely based on my family history. It takes place in the 1930s and revolves around a delicatessen in downtown Pittsburgh. That’s one I’d love to resurrect and try again to sell someday.

I know that doesn’t add up to the dozen unsold manuscripts I mentioned. There are some other mysteries and romances. Someday I’ll go refresh my recollection and see if there are others that might be salvageable.

On the other hand, I’m always dreaming up new ideas. Some of them don’t go anywhere--but fortunately I’ve also been lucky enough to have ideas that sell. I’ve been working on my second Pet Rescue mystery and will be turning back to my next paranormal shapeshifter story for Harlequin Nocturne soon.

Characters

It’s fun to invent characters.

I’ve been doing so for a while, and I never get tired of it. Sometimes, they’re people with characteristics I admire. Kendra Ballantyne, protagonist in my pet-sitter mystery series, is an alter ego of mine, a lawyer who also loves animals.

I’m working now with Lauren Vancouver, my new Pet Rescue mystery protagonist, who runs HotRescues, an ultimate no-kill animal shelter. She’s very disciplined and likes to be in charge, but she has a huge, pet-loving heart. I like her a lot, and she’s already starting to grow.

Some of the minor characters are also fun. I decided to use this as my blog topic this week as I wrote about a guy who’s a dog trainer. He’s really good at it... unlike me. I admire him, even though I invented him. Of course, I patterned him to some extent on trainers I’ve seen in person, as well as TV’s Dog Whisperer.

Of course, if I want him to foul up and get bitten, I can do that with my character. I invented him.

Same goes for my shapeshifters in my Harlequin Nocturnes. There, I really create people... er, animals... well, they’re both, actually. I make up the rules about when they can shift or not, and how they react, and how others--people and animals--react to them.

How about you? Do you like to read about characters who are clearly fiction--yet have real characteristics as well? Do you enjoy creating your own?

Isn’t it a great escape???

Talk to the Animals

There was a story in the news not long ago about how a dog running on a freeway was saved when his rescuer realized from the collar he wore that he might understand not English, but German commands. She told him “platz” - down - and was able to save him.

This was fascinating but not necessarily a surprise. People obviously don’t need to speak English to teach their dogs obedience skills. They’ll use whatever language comes most naturally to them--maybe more than one, in families where multiple languages are spoken. In addition, police dogs are sometimes trained in other countries, so their handlers have to learn the commands the dogs know so they can be utilized best.

I did some Googling and came up with websites that translate common commands into other languages. For example, “sit” is “sitz” in German, “assis” in French, “sedni” in Czech and “zit” in Dutch. “Stay” is “bleib” in German, “reste” in French, “zustan” in Czech and “blijf” in Dutch. The websites I referred to didn’t have translations of “slay”--probably a good thing--but they didn’t directly help me translate the title of my first Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery SIT, STAY SLAY. Why Czech and Dutch? The sites said they’re popular training languages. I would have assumed that here, in the U.S., Spanish would be another popular training language, but these sites didn’t include it.

There are also lots of websites that help people interpret their pets’ body language so they know what their pet is trying to convey. Some of them seem fairly self-explanatory, like a dog wagging his/her tail or baring teeth.

In my pet-sitter mysteries, Kendra Ballantyne tells the stories in first person, and she sometimes expresses frustration at not being able to communicate with her dog Lexie, or other dogs, in Barklish, which I intend to mean some kind of straightforward interspecies language. There are definitely days I wish I could communicate with my Lexie and her young Cavalier friend Mystie in a language we all understood.

Then there are my shapeshifter stories for Silhouette Nocturne. My shapeshifters belong to a fictional covert military agency called Alpha Force, and they have a special elixir that not only allows them to shapeshift mostly at will, but also to maintain their human understanding. Those creatures can’t speak English or another human language while in animal form, but they definitely can interpret it.

How about you--how do you communicate with your pets? How would you like to communicate with them?

--Linda