Caridad Pineiro® Romance Author
NY Times & USA Today Bestselling Romance Author
As I was writing yesterday’s blog post, it occurred to me that I truly enjoy the small town life in a shore town like Bradley Beach, but that I also like the lights of the big city. There’s nice things to be said for both.
The quiet and pace of a shore town is relaxing and frees my mind. The noise and bustle of the city are invigorating and challenging.
I’m lucky to be able to do both – be a city mouse and a town mouse.
How about you? Do you have a preference for one over the other?
My friend Jacquie Rogers did a fun thing the other day on her blog – she told all about the setting for her novel Down Home Ever Lovin’ Mule Blues. You can check it out by clicking here or cutting and pasting this link: http://jacquierogers.blogspot.com/2009/06/where-heck-is-grasmere-idaho.html
Thanks for sharing that behind the scenes look, Jacquie!
It only seemed right to follow Jacquie’s wonderful lead and give you some behind the scenes info about SINS OF THE FLESH. Hopefully you’ll find some of the places that will be appearing in the book interesting and worth a trip next time you’re in the area.
Today I’m sharing with you a bit about the hero’s home – Bradley Beach, New Jersey. According to the town website, “(t)he earliest accounts of Bradley Beach can be traced back to 1679 when it is said that Captain William Kidd anchored his vessel off Duck Creek, now known as Sylvan Lake.”
Captain Kidd! How cool is that, although I don’t have any pirates in my book, just some arguably mad scientists doing weird gene experiments.
The town was named Bradley Beach in 1871 and over the next century, became a popular beach resort. It’s the kind of small town where you feel safe walking around and people say “Hello” and “Good morning.” It’s got a gorgeous paved beachfront walk dotted with gardens, gazebos, a playground and mini-golf course.
I love taking long walks along the beachfront and through town. It’s quite relaxing and because of that, it was a natural choice for me to be Mick Carrera’s home. As a mercenary, Mick needs somewhere to go where life is safe, relaxing and people can be trusted. Bradley Beach is the kind of a town where I can imagine Mick having a Happily-Ever-After.
Bradley Beach is also where Mick’s family lives and runs a Mexican restaurant along Main Street. If you visit Bradley Beach and come “down the shore” as the Jersey natives say, you’ll find that Main Street is just loaded with an assortment of different restaurtants, ice cream parlors, and bakeries.
I visited Bradley Beach several times to do research and am continuing to go back for more research as I write the second book in the series which will feature Mick’s little sister Liliana. Liliana is a doctor at a local hospital and is doing a residency in orthopedic surgery.
Since I’ve been visiting, I’ve got some recent shots to share with you so you can appreciate the laid back and friendly vibe of this Jersey Shore town.
Hope you enjoyed a slightly different Wicked Wednesday. I’ll be giving you some more behind the scenes snippets into SINS OF THE FLESH so you’ll get to meet all the characters and know a little bit more about the various places you’ll see in the book.
Besides attending the monthly meetings of the Liberty States Fiction Writers, I have a smaller group that meets once a month at a local bookstore.
Last night we were discussing an oft-used phrase: Show, Don’t Tell.
One of my friends asked, “How do you know you are doing telling and not showing?”
My friend Anne Walradt is an expert on the subject and does a wonderful workshop on the concept. I can only offer some very basic advice and examples.
First, if you read it aloud and it sounds like a laundry list — You’re telling. An example of telling:
The alley was dark. It smelled of old garbage. There was movement at the end of the alley. It was a large man. He looked like a criminal. Fear gripped her. She ran away.
Was that interesting at all? Did you get involved in what was happening? Did you impart any of your knowledge to the scene, thereby becoming involved in the story?
If you answered “No”, then you understand what’s bad about telling rather than showing. So how you do write the above scene by showing? Here’s a shot at it:
Darkness swallowed her up as she entered the alley. Days old garbage filled a dumpster, making the air rank with the smell of decay. Shadows shifted at the end of the alley. A man stepped forward into the muted pool of light cast by a security lamp. Blue-black prison tattoos covered his arms and his face had the look of a boxer who had lost one too many fights. Her stomach clenched and a cold sweat erupted across her flesh a second before she whirled away.
A little better? Do you impart your own experience to what decay smells like? Did you wonder what the shadow was? Did the description of the man show you he was a criminal and/or trouble without telling you? How about the fear aspect? Didn’t use the word fear, but her reaction demonstrated it and you as the reader, recognized it.
That’s the biggest difference. When you show, the reader becomes involved in the story by interpreting what you are writing. With a laundry list, there’s no involvement on the part of the reader because it’s plan and simple. Of course, that does not mean that you should so confuse your reader with how you show something that they are lost.
So, that’s a very quick rundown on the concept of Show, Don’t Tell. I hope this Tuesday Tip was of help!
I realized after last Monday’s Guilty Pleasure (the manly Eric Dane), that there were a number of old time favorites I had been ignoring on our Mondays together.
Sure there are tons of glorious new men for us to share, but there’s also a host of oldies who will live on thanks to the many movies in which they appeared.
Here’s one of my favorites – Clark Gable – and in one of my favorite books and movies of all time — GONE WITH THE WIND. Definitely a movie that needs to be seen on the big screen!
Was Clark one of your favorite oldtime stars? If not, who else is? Share with us on this Guilty Pleasures Monday.
This video apparently created enough of a stir with PETA to make it onto CNN and Fox News. I thought it was a fun parody of the old Whack’a Mole arcade game and it doesn’t look as if the kittens were being hurt in any way. For the story behind the video, you can click here or cut and paste this link into your browser:
http://www.whack-a-kitty.com/about/
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
That wisdom has nothing to do with race, religion, ethnicity or gender.
Much is being made of Supreme Court Justice nominee Sonya Sotomayor’s 2001 comments that she “would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.â€
Much should be made of that statement because it is either a statement made with poor judgment or one made with the conviction that she is better equipped to make a decision because she is a Latina woman. Either of the rationales for the statements is troubling.
As a judge and a person in the public eye, Sotomayor should at least be more circumspect when speaking. Being a fellow lawyer, we are taught to carefully consider what we say and write. To not do so and speak thoughtlessly can lead to repercussions, witnessed here by words that are coming back to haunt her.
Being a Latina who understands the whole underdog thing — my parents came here from Cuba, I wasn’t born here and didn’t speak English when I went to kindergarten, I went to a top tier college on a scholarship and to law school — I appreciate how hard Sotomayor has worked to get where she is.
But isn’t that underdog story typical of America? Isn’t that one of the wondrous things about this country? My husband’s grandparents all came here from Italy. Barely spoke English, but learned. Worked hard to buy homes, send their kids to school. Grand kids have prospered.
It’s the American dream. Work hard and prosper. Whether you’re white, black, brown, Italian, Cuban, Irish, Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, America is the land of opportunity. Equal opportunity, sometimes not as equal as we would like, but certainly doable.
I should know. I did it. My parents did it. My husband’s grandparents did it. So did millions of others.
But back to Sotomayor. She did it and we should applaud her for it, but not just because she is a Latina woman.
You might remember that “just because” discussion from months back. The risks of making decisions based on “just because.”
When the nomination was mentioned, many people in the office looked to me and asked, “What do you think?”
I wondered, did they ask their white male counterparts right off the bat, or just me – the Latina Woman.
That’s one of the problems of “just because.” Everything you do is tainted by the “You got that (job/scholarship/nomination/published) just because you were (white, black, brown, Italian, Cuban, Irish, Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim).”
Just because diminishes you and everything you do. It diminishes those around you and builds resentment.
If we are to nominate Judge Sotomayor to the Nation’s most important Court, please let it be on the basis of something other than just because.
I, for one, intend to read more about her and her decisions and you should as well. You can click here for the White House press release. Read about some of her decisions (links provided, although I do not vouch for their authenticity nor the opinions which may be expressed therein).
http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/judge-sotomayor%E2%80%99s-opinions-with-dissents-%E2%80%93-part-i/
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/05/26/us/0526-scotus.html
http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/06/debate-continues-on-sotomayors.php
And do you know what? If you take even one minute to read one of these cases, you will be one up on Harry Reid, who said, “I understand that during her career, she’s written hundreds and hundreds of opinions. I haven’t read a single one of them, and if I’m fortunate before we end this, I won’t have to read one of them.†Courtesy Politico – click here for more.
Just some thoughts for you on this rainy Thursday.
I’m off on a trip for work today and tomorrow, so please excuse the lack of a post. I’ll be back on Thursday with some thoughtful commentary for you!