Category: Writer’s Notes

Information and opinions from fellow authors covering monthly topics such as Contests, Conferences, Mentors, and Writing Clubs. Even seasoned authors learn something here.

Writer's Notes

This Job is Killing Me: Pamela Beason

Post author By Thonie Hevron
Post date June 30, 2017
3 Comments on This Job is Killing Me: Pamela Beason

By Pamela Beason

Like most mature adults, I have experienced the gain of more circumference than height in recent years, and I didn’t have the height to begin with. I’m five feet tall if I stand up really straight. (Well, probably not even that now, but I’m too afraid to measure.)

I’ve always loved the natural world, and always want to experience it whenever I can. These days, however, I spend a lot of hours working on my mysteries, especially my Sam Westin series. My protagonist, Summer “Sam” Westin, is a wildlife biologist who barely manages to patch together a living writing for conservation groups and outdoor adventure e-zines. All the books involve conflicts on public lands: national forests, parks, and marine conservation areas. Because I have done a lot of hiking and kayaking and snowshoeing and scuba diving, the character “Sam” and author Pam started off in very similar stages of life, which makes all these stories easy and fun to write. Working on that series saves me from becoming a completely spherical shape.

Pam hiking with author-artist Rae Ellen Lee.jpg — Author Pamela Beason hiking with author-artist Rae Ellen Lee

As the years roll on, author Pam is slowing down more than character Sam, but I still must have adventures to write about. I get all my best ideas out in the wild. I purposefully moved to a place where outdoor recreation and conservation of wild areas are valued: Bellingham, Washington. I belong to a hiking club and a kayaking club. There’s plenty of motivation to “get out there” when your name is on the calendar to lead an outing. Rolling over and going back to sleep is simply not an option when you know fifteen people will be pacing in the parking lot and asking where the heck you are if you don’t show up.

I’m not one of those writers who can hammer out X number of words per day. Well, I could, but I know from experience the majority of those words will be crap if I simply sit and type instead of being “in the zone.” So whenever I get stuck or feel that my brain is going around in circles (which is, unfortunately, often), I have two remedies: if it’s after dark, I watch a movie that has the tone I’m trying to achieve in my writing; if it’s daylight, I hit the local walking trails by myself. I find that when I’m in motion and the only distractions are birds and trees and the occasional deer, the solutions to my writing dilemmas just come.

I have had many titles over the years: a geological research technician, a Spanish teacher, a mechanical/electrical/architectural drafter, a freelance technical writer/editor, a managing editor in a multimedia department, a private investigator, and now (finally) a successful mystery author. As well as the outdoor activities mentioned above, I’ve done judo and fencing, water aerobics, Zumba, and western line dancing.

Obviously, I prize a multitude of experiences over becoming an expert at anything. I adore animals both wild and tame, so I endlessly read studies on animal intelligence and abilities, which led (along with my PI experience) to my Neema (signing gorilla) mysteries. I am continually intrigued by the creatures we share this planet with. The animals who confound me are the humans who don’t even notice the eagle flying overhead or who aren’t amazed that chameleons and cuttlefish can change skin colors on a whim. Staying alert, appreciative, curious, and active is what keeps me healthy mentally and physically and provides endless fodder for all my mysteries.

——————————-

Pamela Beason is the author of the Summer “Sam” Westin series, the Neema Mysteries, and the Run for Your Life young adult suspense series. She has also written romantic suspense and nonfiction books. Check out the full list at PamelaBeason.com.

Her latest book, Backcountry, is available from Amazon and other online bookstores, and can be ordered by your favorite bookseller, too.

Tags fencing, judo, mystery, Pamela Beason, PI, private investigator, Western Line Dancing, Zumba

Writer's Notes

This Job is Killing Me: Pete Klismet

Post author By Thonie Hevron
Post date June 23, 2017
3 Comments on This Job is Killing Me: Pete Klismet

The truth about gastric surgery to lose weight

By Pete Klismet

“Ok, I’m too fat. Oh, I know… I’ll just go get a gastric bypass!”

Over the years I’ve heard quite a few people say that, as if it’s simply a matter of going into the doctor’s office because you’ve put on 20 or 30 pounds and saying, “Whattup doc. I’m too porky. Get the knife out.” The doc does get out the knife, and once he stops stabbing you, the fact you’re too fat to suit yourself doesn’t matter anymore. Trust me, the doc has heard it plenty of times and finally had it ‘up to here.’ Regrettably, you’re the camel that broke the straw’s back. You still fit nicely in the casket. And the doc pleads guilty, receiving two years’ probation and 40 hours of community service for malicious mischief (or whatever vandalism is called in your state).

Minus the dramatics of your doctor carving you up until you look like about 63 cuts of ribeye steak and rump roasts, let’s be serious (fat chance) for a moment and talk about the reality of gastric surgery. Why do I know something about this? I did it not once, but twice! Flat learning curve for me, but different procedures. And so, here’s the story of how that went:

I had a pretty sedentary job after retiring from the FBI in 1999. I was the Department Chair of the Criminal Justice program at a community college in Colorado Springs, and an Associate Professor. So, in addition to my administrative duties (we had about 500 students in my program), I taught five or six three-credit-hour (about 270 classroom hours per semester) classes. The skill involved with handling administrative duties usually involves the buttocks. Occasionally getting them chomped on by the Dean, but more frequently sitting upon such fleshy items which the Kardashian family has made famous. And getting fat(ter). Ostensibly, teaching would involve being on your feet. An aerobic activity? Well…maybe not. Thus – more fat. In fact, enough that one may simply opt to sit at a desk in front of the class, use a Power Point and teach up a storm. Indiana Jones did it. I think. Minus the Power Point of course.

For the record, my body was not designed to try out for the role of Peter Pan. (The crocodile would have skipped right over Cap’t Hook and taken about two months to eat me.) My dad was a bricklayer and a solid six-foot, two hundred pounds. My uncle Phil was about six five, three bills. I turned out to be about six-one, and my most ideal weight was about two twenty. In college, I played middle-linebacker at 235. All of that was muscle from mixing mortar and carrying brick during the summer (I’m still waiting to be drafted by an NFL team. Sigh.). While on the police department I doubt I ever got above two-ten or twenty. Same with the FBI, until the last couple of years. Up to two-forty, then fifty or sixty before I retired. Part of the reason for the upward trend was, due to a very bad back (poor selection of parents), I had to give up playing racquetball, which will indeed, keep one in shape.

I had never really been a workout Nazi, aside from racquetball 3-4 times per week. And, Don’t. Even. Think. it ‘doesn’t count’ as a workout. Try it. It counts once you get into the high A level. And so my weight continued to climb since I wasn’t working out in any way. Other than playing golf. Not aerobic. Doesn’t count. I avoided scales like rattlesnakes. Finally, my lovely bride, the estimable Miss Nancy, talked me into getting on a scale after I swore her to silence or be turned into ribeye steaks. The result – 322. OMG. I weighed more than half of the tackles in the NFL. We both agreed ‘something’ needed to change.

One night I was watching something on TV when on came an ad by a doctor in Pueblo (40 miles away). The doc extolled the virtues of a ‘lap band,’ for weight loss, and he just happened to be a surgeon who could install one. Sounded interesting, so we went to a meeting where the doc did yet more extolling. We met with him privately a week or two later.

“Pete, you need to lose twenty pounds before I can consider the surgery.”

Meanwhile, I’m all about, “Damn doc. If I could lose twenty &$)%#* pounds I wouldn’t need this %^*#^% surgery.

“Gotta do it Pete. I can’t have too much fatty tissue around your liver when I operate.”

“Liver? What the ^*&@ are we doing way down there?”

I lost the twenty pounds.

We got the surgery done.

I don’t recommend it.

Nor does any legitimate gastric surgeon right now. Pay no attention to what the internet says.

I set world and Olympic records for projectile barfing.

Never could get the damned thing adjusted correctly.

Kept barfing. I’d estimate 2,000 times in about six years.

There was no ‘fun’ involved in this.

I finally went to a ‘real’ doc to get the band around my (someplace important above my stomach) adjusted so I could stop losing everything I ate.

And re-gain what little weight I’d lost.

Here’s what the device looks like. It restricts the amount of food intake to the tummy.

Seems to make sense. (Clue: Unless your doc advertises after 10:30 P.M. on TV, works in Pueblo, and is presently working as a feathered animal on Aflac commercials. If you get my drift here.)

About two years later I heard that a hospital in Colorado Springs did gastric surgery. So, I called and talked for about two hours (not making this up) to a very nice, helpful and ‘scare the hell outta me’- type of nurse in the Gastric office. Most of the two hours was spent by her telling me all the stuff I had to do before I had gastric surgery done. After this conversation, and while driving around in the mountains, Miss Nancy reached me on my cell phone. A rarity.

“So, how’d it go?”

“Don’t bug me. I’m looking for a cliff to drive off.”

“Have you been drinking?”

“Only to excess.”

“Get home.”

“Yes ma’am.”

We discussed the Draconian process I’d have to go through before I could have the surgery. There were hoops. In fact, about two years of hoops. My to-be surgeon was not one to take any ^*#&%) or excuses from his prospective patients. “You’ve got to exercise. End of statement.”

Turns back.

Leaves room.

After several months of learning and doing more, including a mandatory support group, we decided to do a gastric sleeve, which means you effectively will lose about ¾ of your stomach. And will end up with a ‘pouch’ about the size of a banana – permanently. Can’t return to a full stomach by Super Gluing it back together. Adios stomach. “I can do this,” I told Miss Nancy.

On August 27, 2015, I had satisfied the doc sufficiently that he did the surgery. Via laparoscope, by the way. That means I wound up with five holes down there rather than one or two. No prob. Can’t see ‘em now. And then began the food process. The first couple of weeks, as I recall, was mostly devoted to liquids. You go through three ‘stages’ of nourishment, the objective being to ease into solid foods within a few months. That means powdered shakes and pureed food until starting to eat regular foods about three months after surgery. And not very much of it. If you eat more than the pouch wants you to, the pouch tells you about it. It hurts. That was what I was sure was going to be my saving grace.

Forever.

I was wrong.

This is difficult to admit, but at my highest weight, I was 366 pounds. Unimaginable but true. About a year and a half after the surgery, I’d whittled myself down to 262. It wasn’t easy. And became harder. I was working out at the hospital gym 3-4 times per week. An hour (walking) on the treadmill and then two or three circuits through the machines. I really enjoyed it.

Until I started getting dizzy after workouts. Checked BP at home and it was always low. Way too low. Typically, 76-50. Somewhere in that range. Not good.

Was about to see the doc when, oh boy, out went my back and neck. Big time.

Not good.

By the time I saw my cardiology doc, my BP had returned to normal. He told me to not be such an overachiever and lighten up on the workouts. No problem doc. With my back and my neck, I can’t do anything now.

At this juncture, after losing about 100 pounds, I’ve ‘found’ about 25-30. The new stomach has probably stretched, as the doc said it could. But not too much. When we go out to eat, I can only have half of a plate, or less. My back is better, but since we’ve moved 120 miles north, I don’t have access to the hospital gym. I need to find one and get back on the treadmill and lighter weights. With less consumption, I should get rid of this 30 pounds, and eventually hope to work my way down to 235. That’s what the doc recommended. Being 71, I think he’s right. Time to say, “One step at a time,” and get going. Having too much weight on when one reaches 70 doesn’t bode well for one’s health. In fact, it reputedly never is good for our well-being.

Best of luck to everyone and PLEASE be safe out there.

Pete Klismet FBI (Retired)

Award-winning author of: FBI Diary: Profiles of Evil, FBI Diary: Home Grown Terror, FBI Animal House

Tags gastric bypass, gastric sleeve, gym, lap band, weight loss

Writer's Notes

This Job is Killing Me: Nancy Sartor

Post author By Thonie Hevron
Post date June 22, 2017
2 Comments on This Job is Killing Me: Nancy Sartor

Pumping Iron as a Golden Ager

By Nancy Sartor

I’m a golden ager by several years. My day job kept me on my feet, moving, walking downtown sidewalks, etc. When retirement allowed me to devote all my time to writing, I soon realized that writers sit. We sit to write. We sit to read. Nobody stands at a book signing, and taking a walk during a signing cuts into sales. Although writer’s conferences are usually held in huge hotels, the distance from the classrooms to the nearest bar or elevator isn’t enough to count as a workout.

Writers who wish to stay fit and keep their health must plan for exercise.

I live near Nashville so winters aren’t as cold as Chicago’s or (shiver) Wisconsin’s, but they’re not warm enough for outside exercise. Spring and fall are glorious here, and usually the perfect temperature for everything except swimming. Summer is hellishly hot and humid as a greenhouse.

I needed a convenient exercise program that I could perform in relative comfort.

Weightlifting fit perfectly. Our house is large enough for an indoor gym. I found a used weight bench, bar and weights, bought weightlifting gloves to protect my arthritic hands, and a book so I would know what I was doing.

I won’t lie to you—the first two weeks were hell. I chose a workout that touched every part of my body. By the end of the week, I was limping from room to room protesting the need to move at all. But somewhere beneath all that pain, a part of me was incredibly proud. I’d worked out with weights despite my age, despite the arthritis, despite the lethargy that wanted me to keep sitting. (After all, it would coo in my ear. You’re doing so well today. Write another hour. Then you can work out) I quickly learned to shut down that siren song.

The next week wasn’t so bad. By the end of the month, I looked forward to my workouts, enjoyed seeing how many lifts I could do. I crawled out of the room spent, my muscles exhausted and crying for rest. But within a few minutes, I felt twenty years younger and had enough energy to dance the night away.

I looked forward to leaving the house, to testing out my new muscles, to seeing how far I could walk, how high I could climb before I had to stop. I wasn’t fifty again, but I wasn’t eighty, either. I’d found a way to balance the years, to give myself a life not hampered by physical weakness.

Me with BONES Pic from Sharon Christmas 2014 — Now

My workout is lighter now—not in deference to my age, but because I was building large muscles in places I didn’t want large muscles. I bench press a total of 70 reps each set, do 50 sideways skull crushers and 20 bicep curls. I am now up to 40 crunches with ten more on either side for the obliques, and a thirty-minute walk on the treadmill.

The bonus? While I’m working out, I often get my very best writing ideas.

____________________

Nancy Sartor is a Nashville born writer, a charter member and current president of Word Spinners Ink, a member of RWA, MWA and SiNC and current recording secretary of SEMWA. She is an enthusiastic graduate of Donald Maass’s Breakout Novel Intensive Workshop, Don Maass’s workshop on micro tension and the Writer’s Police Academy.

She lives in Rural Hill, Tennessee, just east of Nashville with her husband, classical composer and conductor David Sartor, and two Maine Coon cats. Ginger, the older cat, is part of the cast of BONES ALONG THE HILL. Autumn Fire, the younger cat, is so far unsigned for a role, but she did gain a reference in CHRISTMAS ACROSS TIME.

To date, Nancy has three novels in print: BONES ALONG THE HILL, a dark suspense set in Nashville; CHRISTMAS ACROSS TIME, a paranormal based the real ghost known as the Opryland Black Lady, and BLESSED CURSE, a paranormal set in historic Rugby, Tennessee. She is currently working on a sequel to BONES ALONG THE HILL.

Buy Links:

http://amzn.to/2qA53Nr

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/blessed-curse-nancy-sartor/1126332001?ean=9781546478553

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/blessed-curse-1

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/blessed-curse/id1233031586?mt=11

Tags Blessed Curse, Bones Along the Hill, exercise, Nancy Sartor, Nashville, weighlifting, weight bench

Writer's Notes

This Job is Killing Me: Judy Alter

Post author By Thonie Hevron
Post date June 16, 2017
8 Comments on This Job is Killing Me: Judy Alter

Exercising From a Wheelchair

By Judy Alter, Author of Murder at the Peacock Mansion

Things I have never willingly done: kayaking, distance swimming, tennis, golf, basketball, softball, volleyball, mountain climbing, diving, marathons and a whole long list of vigorous exercises. Things I did in my younger years: swimming (neither very well nor very far), biking, walking, yoga, jogging. You get the picture: if I weren’t conscious of health needs and pitfalls, I’d be a total couch potato, albeit at my desk and computer rather than the couch and television,

You’d think fate has played right into my hands by sending me through extensive hip surgery that after almost five months has left me unable to walk unassisted. I’m Speedy Gonzales on my walker, and I can go from the patio to the garden gate (twenty feet maybe) and back holding onto someone’s arm. But I’m not what you’d call mobile.

So, do I sit like a vegetable all day? Not at all. Four months of physical therapy taught me exercises that, to most people, may seem to be barely moving. For me, they are the source of strength and improvement, and I do them every day—well, almost. At my desk, I do leg exercises 20 times each–raise my lower legs, lift my knees, slide my foot far forward and back, lift toes and then heels, and do something that amounts to holding my feet together, then spreading them, heels still together.

At a grab bar in the bathroom, I extend my left leg (the leg of the surgery) as far laterally as I can comfortably 50 times, extend it backward to press on the wall for five seconds 20 times, 20 squats and 20 shifts of total body weight from one foot to the other. And I do walk with someone every day—not far, but I walk.

It seems that in addition to letting my hip disintegrate over the years, I also have torn both rotator cuffs and have limited shoulder motion. So, at my desk I swing a 2-lb. weight (okay, it’s a #2 can of diced tomatoes, 28 oz.) like a pendulum 20 times, then holding that can raise my arm as high straight out as I can (no fair launching it with my body). Standing at the sink I practice putting glasses on the shelves—note the glasses are plastic to cut down on breakage. With my right arm, I can put a glass on the second shelf; with my left, I can reach halfway to the second. When I started, I could barely reach the first shelf with either arm. I also do arm exercises with a door pulley, both straight up and straight out, 20 times each. I told the therapist her brain is stuck on 20.

Confession: I have probably gotten too comfortable on my Rollator—the walker with four wheels and a seat. It says not to sit in it while moving, but I do it all the time. It’s how I get around my cottage, because it enables me to carry things, cook (my avocation and something I am again doing with increasing satisfaction), brush my teeth and put on makeup without worrying about my balance. Life would be a lot tougher if I had to stand and hold on to the walker with one hand while doing whatever, so that’s my compromise or concession. Yes, I wonder if I would be walking sooner without it. But I am seeking balance in my life.

The last time I saw the surgeon, I told him I am writing again, cooking again, and wearing make-up. What more could he want? Of course, he and I both want me to walk again, but I have faith it will come. That’s why I do my exercises.

About Judy Alter

An award-winning novelist, Judy Alter is the author of six books in the Kelly O’Connell Mysteries series: Skeleton in a Dead Space, No Neighborhood for Old Women, Trouble in a Big Box, Danger Comes Home, Deception in Strange Places, and Desperate for Death. She also writes the Blue Plate Café Mysteries—Murder at the Blue Plate Café, Murder at the Tremont House and the current Murder at Peacock Mansion. With the 2014 The Perfect Coed, she introduced the Oak Grove Mysteries. The second in that series, Pigface and the Perfect Dog, will be released in August 2017.
For many years, her fiction focused on the experiences of women in the nineteenth-century American West. Her work has been recognized with awards from the Western Writers of America, the Texas Institute of Letters, and the National Cowboy Museum and Hall of Fame. She has been honored with the Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Achievement by WWA and inducted into the Texas Literary Hall of Fame and the WWA Hall of Fame.
Judy is retired as director of TCU Press, the mother of four grown children and the grandmother of seven. She and her dog, Sophie, live in Fort Worth, Texas.

Tags basketball, distance swimming, golf, health needs, hip surgery, kayaking, softball, tennis, volleyball

Writer's Notes

This Job is Killing Me: Judy Alter

Post author By Thonie Hevron
Post date June 16, 2017
3 Comments on This Job is Killing Me: Judy Alter

Peacock Mansion cover Exercising From a Wheelchair

By Judy Alter, Author of Murder at Peacock Mansion

You’d think fate has played right into my hands by sending me through extensive hip surgery that after almost five months has left me unable to walk unassisted. I’m speedy Gonzales on my walker, and I can go from the patio to the garden gate (twenty feet maybe) and back holding onto someone’s arm. But I’m not what you’d call mobile.

___________________

About Judy Alter

An award-winning novelist, Judy Alter is the author of six books in the Kelly O’Connell Mysteries series: Skeleton in a Dead Space, No Neighborhood for Old Women, Trouble in a Big Box, Danger Comes Home, Deception in Strange Places, and Desperate for Death. She also writes the Blue Plate Café Mysteries—Murder at the Blue Plate Café, Murder at the Tremont House and the current Murder at Peacock Mansion. With the 2014 The Perfect Coed, she introduced the Oak Grove Mysteries. The second in that series, Pigface and the Perfect Dog, will be released in August 2017.

For many years, her fiction focused on the experiences of women in the nineteenth-century American West. Her work has been recognized with awards from the Western Writers of America, the Texas Institute of Letters, and the National Cowboy Museum and Hall of Fame. She has been honored with the Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Achievement by WWA and inducted into the Texas Literary Hall of Fame and the WWA Hall of Fame.

Judy is retired as director of TCU Press, the mother of four grown children and the grandmother of seven. She and her dog, Sophie, live in Fort Worth, Texas.

Tags basketball, couch potato, diving, extensive hip replacement, golf, health needs, kayaking, rollator, softball, tennis

Writer's Notes

This Job is Killing Me: Dave Freedland

Post author By Thonie Hevron
Post date June 9, 2017
2 Comments on This Job is Killing Me: Dave Freedland

“Rokudan”

By Dave Freedland

After competing on an athletic scholarship as a gymnast for UCLA, I embarked upon a career in law enforcement. At the same time, I replaced gymnastics with martial arts as a means for staying in shape as well as having practical applications to my assignment to uniform patrol.

I was on a mission similar to the search for the holy grail in my quest to find the most appropriate self-defense system that would be practical for law enforcement, that I could also practice well into my 70’s and 80’s. I studied Kung-Fu taught by the technical coordinator for the TV series, “Kung Fu,” starring David Carradine, but found it to be more artistic than functional.

I spent seven (7) years training in the Korean systems of Taekwondo and Hapkido, earning a 1^st degree black belt, but found their reliance so heavily upon high kicks was impractical. Wearing a Sam Browne gun belt, holster, and pac-set radio restricted the hips significantly, rendering kicks ineffective.

In 1984, I happened into a Japanese karate studio (Dojo) founded by Dan Ivan, the first American to attain black belts in Japan in karate, judo, aikido, and kendo. His partner, Fumio Demura, was the All Japan Karate Champion, and performed actor Pat Morita’s karate sequences in the movie, “The Karate Kid.”

The system was very geometric, powerful, and combined all the disciplines found in the Japanese systems of martial arts. Japanese “Shotokan” karate contained 26 forms, or mini-battles called Kata, that enabled the student to practice karate in the studio, at home, or in a hotel room. Not only was I learning self-defense, but I had found an effective means of physical conditioning. By training at least three (3) days a week I developed muscular strength and cardiovascular conditioning, which I supplemented with push-ups, sit-ups, dumbbell curls, and elliptical machines to balance out my regimen.

Although I’ve experienced over ten orthopedic surgeries related to on-duty injuries, Shotokan karate has been a critical factor in my rehabilitation. I’ve continued to train for over 30 years, now into my 60’s, and have had the opportunity to train with the masters in Japan, and discover the roots of the art form to which I have devoted so much of my life. I’ve encouraged my fellow officers to follow in my path, but have found only a handful willing to make the commitment, and reap the physical and mental rewards. There is one more reward I have found attainable in that martial arts journey; it is called “Rokudan” – 6^th degree black belt. The true answer to the fitness dilemma is to find something physical that you truly enjoy, and practice it consistently.

Dave Freedland is the author of Lincoln 9, a police procedural set in his hometown of Irvine, California. He is a 34-year veteran of the Irvine Police Department retiring with the rank of Deputy Chief. You can order Lincoln 9 at Oak Tree Press.

Writer's Notes

This Job is Killing Me

By Thonie Hevron

home-office- The jury is in: sitting is the new smoking; it’s hazardous to your health. And what do writers do? Sit and write. I’d stay in my chair all day if I didn’t have reminders to get up and get moving.

June’s topic is “This Job is Killing Me.” Odd title for a piece on writing? Well, not really. When I was at work in the 70’s and 80’s, I was trim and three dress sizes smaller. I wore a uniform, walked a lot, and was in and out of my car. In the mid-80’s, I changed jobs and came inside, mostly as a dispatcher. Then, the pounds added up. Dispatching is a sedentary job as is writing. While I’ve been a fitness addict for decades, I still gained weight. It got even worse when I quit smoking. So now I’m facing some ugly truths: I must do something to fix this weight gain. I just started a helpful weight management program and feel like although I’m making progress, I know this isn’t the sole answer. I have to move.

I’ve had Fitbits in the past but this month, my hubby gave me a Fitbit Charge 2 for my birthday. Just what I needed. No, really. I remember lying in bed as a child, counting things. So, I’m prone to counting. That’s a good thing as a Fitbit user: the device does the actual counting for you. It includes heart rate, steps, get up and move reminders. The best part is setting a goal, say 7500 steps in a day—and achieving it. I don’t need the little fireworks on the screen to feel accomplished. To see the numbers is enough.

And how can this help, you ask?

The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) advise adults to get at least 150 minutes a week of moderate to intense aerobic activity (or about 20 minutes a day) plus two days of muscle-strengthening activity. Yet the CDC estimates that nearly 80 percent of Americans don’t meet these recommendations.

walkingjpg I mentioned above that I recently began a weight loss program. I like it because it is a long-term change to my behavior. When I began it 7 weeks ago, I vowed to exercise four days a week with weights (20 minutes a session) and walk six days a week. With the exception of some traveling and a stinking cold, I have kept this up. And guess what? My weight is lower—not by much, but it is going down. And I’ve lost inches! But most important, last week when I knelt down to get something deep in the under-sink cabinet, I could. That was a huge incentive.

How and what I eat as well as how and when I move have become important. Weight Watchers and other programs can do the same. Take a look at what works for you. Some can simply count calories, others need more structure and support. While related to fitness, food is a different topic that I won’t explore here. It’s moving, breathing, running, stretching, that have me excited.

As for writing: Exercise is also one of the most effective ways to improve your mental health. Regular exercise can have a profoundly positive impact on depression, anxiety, ADHD, and more. It also relieves stress, improves memory, helps you sleep better, and boosts overall mood. Huffpost’s article suggests exercise increases creativity.

I can’t help but think all this will help me weave those elusive clues together into a tightly-stitched plot. I get some of my best ideas on a treadmill!

active exercise Below, I’ve included a few links to articles for those who don’t like or don’t have time to work out. Check them out and I’ll bet you can find something that will work for you.

Your life could depend on it.

10 Ways to Sneak Fitness into Your Day-this one is for our senior readers

Dr. Axe’s Exercise Hacks

8 Steps to Fitness for Writers

On June 9th, Dave Freedlander, author of Lincoln 9 will offer his insights into the sport that kept him trim and fit into his sixties.

Tags creativity, Dave Freedlander, exercise, Lincoln 9, sitting, workout for writers

Writer's Notes

Amy Bennett: It Takes a Village… to Create a Village!

Post author By Thonie Hevron
Post date May 26, 2017
2 Comments on Amy Bennett: It Takes a Village… to Create a Village!

The month of May has seen our “Writer’s Notes” topic “It Takes a Village.” All authors have different villages who help them on their publishing journey. Last Friday, Marilyn Meredith shared her version and today, Amy Bennett, author of the Black Horse Campground Mysteries published by Oak Tree Press has some equally interesting thoughts.

By Amy Bennett

The myth of the solitary writer is a romantic ideal cultivated by introverts who want to be heard, but don’t want to get out of their pajamas and talk to people. However, solitude—while great for actually putting words on paper—does little to help a writer create stories and characters.

Fiction generally revolves around one or two main characters and the secondary characters who populate their world. In order for a writer to make those interactions come alive on the page, they have to be realistic. And the best way to achieve this realism is to draw from interactions with actual people.

Despite the attraction of the mythical life of a “solitary writer”, most writers have to live in the “real” world in order to make ends meet. Therefore, the opportunities to interact with other people in real life settings is part of the everyday life of a writer. It’s necessary for a writer to inject an element of truth into their fiction in order to engage the readers. Writers use actual people they know, places in which they live and work, and events that really happened to create their stories, although it’s essential to tweak the details in order to avoid problems and maintain friendships. Trust me; the fact that I have worked full-time at Walmart as a cake decorator for nineteen years has little to do with the fact that I write murder mysteries!

A writer has to create characters that affect readers in ways that are both good and bad. We’ve all met people that evoke strong feelings, even if the meeting was merely a customer service interaction (believe me, that’s a great way to find murder victims… and villains! On both sides of the counter!) Those feelings are used to create compelling characters. Conversations we have with various people—those we like, those we loathe, those with whom we enjoy interacting, and those we avoid like discounted sushi—teach us how to write dialogue that rings true.

I set my series in a small, New Mexico town because that’s what I knew best and it was a setting I felt was sadly underused in fiction. But I had to introduce readers who knew little about it and make them feel at home. What do the characters see, hear, smell, and taste as they move through the book’s landscape? That’s what helps a reader to disengage from their everyday life and live in the story. It’s no surprise that a pleasant experience at a KOA Kampground several years ago is what sparked the creation of my Black Horse Campground mystery series. Would I have been able to create it, the characters, and the story by simply staying at home and never actually seeing what it was like to be in the campground, to talk to the owners and find out why they loved what they did for a living? Maybe. But to miss out on all the fun of discovery?

Never.

————————————————————————————————-
Amy Bennett’s debut mystery novel, End of the Road, started as a National Novel Writing Month project in 2009. It went on to win the 2012 Dark Oak Mystery Contest and launched the Black Horse Campground mystery series, followed by No Lifeguard on Duty, No Vacancy, and At the Cross Road. A Summer to Remember is the fifth book in the series.

When not sitting at the laptop actively writing, she works full-time at Walmart of Alamogordo (not too far down the road from fictional Bonney County) as a cake decorator and part-time at Noisy Water Winery in Ruidoso (where you can find some of the best wines in the state of New Mexico, including Jo Mamma’s White!) She lives with her husband and son in a small town halfway between Alamogordo and Ruidoso. Visit her website at http://www.amymbennettbooks.com and The Back Deck Blog at http://amymbennettbooks.blogspot.com

Buy links:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Amy-M.-Bennett/e/B00EG3EPT4/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1494963014&sr=1-1

Barnes and Noble:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/bennett%2C+amy+m?_requestid=788711

Oak Tree Press:

http://oaktreebooks.com/AuthorRoster/bennetamy.html

https://www.amymbennettbooks.com/

Tags Amy Bennett, Black Horse Campground Mystery, compelling characters, KOA Kampground, Oak Tree Press

Writer's Notes

I’ve Had Lots of Help on my Writing Journey

Post author By Thonie Hevron
Post date May 19, 2017
7 Comments on I’ve Had Lots of Help on my Writing Journey

By Marilyn Meredith

In the beginning, my sister helped me connect with a critique group because I couldn’t locate one where I lived. She read my chapters and reported the problems and suggestions to me. My sister has been a great support to me in many ways.

Through that support group I met an agent. Though he never offered my book to any publishers, he gave me lots of help with my writing.

When I moved to another area, I joined a long established critique group. In that group was a multi-published author named Willma Gore who mentored me for a long time and I owe a lot of my writing ability to her guidance. I’m still in the same group, though the members have changed many times. But the focus has continued on, to help each writer make his or her work even better. Criticism is necessary, because we authors often don’t notice our own flaws. I want to know what’s confusing, what doesn’t work, if I haven’t accomplished what I set out to do. Every mystery I’ve written has been heard by members of this group.

While thinking about critique groups, I must mention that I learned more about writing from the various members than from any class I ever attended or the many writing books I’ve read.

Many years ago, I joined what was called The Police Writers Club which has now evolved into the Public Safety Writers Association and has members from all different law enforcement agencies and other public safety fields, plus a few mystery writers like me. I became friends with many of the members who in turn have helped me in so many ways: answering questions about police procedure and giving me ideas for my mysteries. These men and women have become important to me in many ways.

Like Thonie, I hire an editor to go over my manuscript before I send it off to the publisher. I found the editor through the PSWA group and I chose her for two reasons, one she knows law enforcement, but second, and probably most important, she’s young and will catch anything that sounds like it came from an old lady (me.)

Despite the help of my critique group and my editor, errors still slip by. When the publisher sends back the text block or what is also called a galley, it is important to print it out and go over it carefully for any mistakes or inconsistencies. It’s much easier to find them on a printed page.

And of course, I receive much support from my writer friends too—those busy folks who are willing to let me be a visitor on his or her blog like I’m doing today. We don’t get to see each other often, but when we do at conferences and writers groups and meeting, it’s wonderful to talk about the writing life and share ideas with people who understand. Yes, the writing life is solitary, but it’s important to get away and mingle with others, including readers.

This is the last stop in my blog tour. I hope it’s been helpful to writers and intriguing to readers.

FM aka Marilyn Meredith

#13 in the Rocky Bluff P.D. series, Unresolved:

Rocky Bluff P.D. is underpaid and understaffed and when two dead bodies turn up, the department is stretched to the limit. The mayor is the first body discovered, the second an older woman whose death is caused in a bizarre manner. Because no one liked the mayor, including his estranged wife and the members of the city council, the suspects are many, but each one has an alibi.

Bio: F. M. Meredith lived for many years in a small beach community much like Rocky Bluff. She has many relatives and friends who are in law enforcement and share their experiences and expertise with her. She taught writing for Writers Digest Schools for 10 years, and was an instructor at the prestigious Maui Writers Retreat, and has taught at many writers’ conferences. Marilyn is a member of three chapters of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and serves on the board of the Public Safety Writers of America. She lives in the foothills of the Sierra. Visit her at http://fictionforyou.com and her blog at http://marilymeredith.blogspot.com/

Webpage: http://fictionforyou.com

Blog: https://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com

Facebook: https://facebook.com/marilynmeredith