Want to be a Heroine?

Romance heroines have changed a great deal from the early Mills and Boon and Harlequin stories. Then heroines were usually a bit naive, innocent and much younger than the hero. And they could be incredibly foolish...even stupid at times.

Take, for instance, the old Gothics. There she is, all alone in her room in this moldering old mansion way out in the wilds. No one else lives there except the heroine, the hero and either an old crone who does the cooking or a Lurch-like butler. She has heard that the ghost of the hero's wife haunts the house and that the hero may have done her in.

Scenario: She nestles in her bed. The clock reads midnight, and she hears a door slam on the floor above hers, where no one is allowed to go. So, does she cower under the blankets? Does she shout for help? Does she run screaming from the place? Oh no. She gets up and, in her filmy gown, carrying a candle that is blown out in a mysterious gust of wind, she climbs the stairs to investigate. Of course, she ends up in deep doo-doo, and the hero has to come to her rescue.

Today's heroine, on the other hand, is a savvy lady, usually sexually experienced and far from helpless. She may even own a huge company, work as an FBI agent, or face danger as a lion tamer. (Okay. That last may be a bit far fetched.) What I'm getting at is that she's no longer a naive, innocent young girl waiting for the big, handsome and older hero to come to her rescue. She's just as liable to be the one doing the rescuing.

Let's move her into that moldering old mansion. She's probably there trying to solve a murder or hunting for the plans to the enemy's secret nuclear weapon. The hero is trying to help her, but she can't allow that. He's one of the suspects.

Now let's try my original scenario with the modern heroine. She nestles in her bed, or it could be the hero's bed. The clock reads midnight, and she hears a door slam on the floor above hers, where no one is allowed to go. So, does she cower under the blankets? Does she wake the hero? No. He might be in on the crime she's investigating. Does she phone for backup? No. There's no time. The culprit may be getting away.

Does she foolishly get up and go to investigate? Well, yes, she does, but it's not nearly so foolish this time. She gets up, pulls on her jeans and jacket, slips her feet into her boots, digs a flashlight and a revolver out of her pack and climbs the stairs to investigate.

Same scene. Different heroine. In the first scenario, more than likely she gets herself in a pack of trouble and the hero has to come and rescue her. In the second, our shrewd and well-trained heroine snags the villain, proves the hero's innocence, and most likely seduces him.

What woman wouldn't want to be that sort of heroine? What woman would want to be the naive, innocent and stupid heroine of the first scene I created?

The woman of today is intelligent, experienced and able to look after herself. She doesn't wait for the hero to come to her aid. She doesn't need him. She may want him, but, when it comes for caring for herself, she's capable of handling that on her own.

She's a woman readers can admire, a woman they would like to be.

A Spark of Creativity

I sometimes wonder what sparks our creativity. I live in a small town in northeastern Alberta. There's a triangle of towns here, all about an hour apart. My daughter and I often visit the neighboring towns to shop in stores not available in our hometown. Well, she drives. I quit driving a couple of years ago.

Funny, though. We get in the car, she turns on the radio or CD, not full blast, but loud enough to make conversation difficult, and off we go. As soon as we're on the road, my mind wanders to my novels.

Yesterday Andreas Cole, the vampire from my urban fantasy, The Hollows, sat behind me and whispered in my ear. He told me things like: "You know, I didn't take the road to The Hollows on a whim. I stopped the car and sniffed the wind and I could smell the undead." Lacy Copper, heroine of The Hollows, tells me how her first glimpse of Andreas knocked the breath from her lungs. "He was magnificent," she confides. "But he was a bit frightening as well. There's something...different about that man."

On a recent drive, I found out some surprising information about the characters in my story, When Gods Collide. I hadn't noticed the veterinarian's scarred face, or seen the strange silver sheen in the eyes of the heroine's son until two of the minor characters pointed out these obvious facts.

I'm not sure why my mind works this way. I can sit in front of the computer or curl up in a chair with pen and paper and although the thoughts do come, not with the frequency or power of those I get while I'm riding in the car. The music seems to make no difference. I often have music playing when I'm writing.

I can picture myself, year after year, riding from place to place, looking for, not new stores or new towns, but for fresh stories and ideas to spark my plots. I can think of worse ways to spend my time.

What is a Writer

What is the definition of a writer? A writer is, simply put, one who writes. Nowhere does the definition say a writer is one who gets paid for writing. Nowhere does the definition state that a writer is one who has his or her writing published.

I am a writer. Therefore, I write. Sometimes I write ceaselessly, for hours or days or even weeks at a time. Then, having written, I take off my writer's hat and become - a marketer.

A marketer, simply put, is someone who markets. As a marketer, I search for publications, whether magazine, newspaper or ezine, that might be interested in what, as a writer, I have produced. Occasionally I am successful and sell what I have written, even less occasionally, for a fair sum of money. More often than not, I am unsuccessful, so I put the writing away for revision or perhaps only another try at a later date. But this process makes me no less a writer.

A freelance writer is one who writes what he wants, where he wants, when he wants. Most writers do, at least to some extent, fall into that category. Only those writers who work at a corporate level producing, perhaps, ad copy or company brochures, are not really freelancing, but again, they have chosen to do this.

I write a regular weekly article for the same publication. But I chose, and still choose, to do that. I also write other things. Sometimes a publication sets a deadline but that makes me no less a freelance writer, because I have chosen to write for this publication and to adhere to the rules and deadlines set by the editor.

What is a creative writer? Simply put, a creative writer is a writer who creates. Again, this is all writers, because, whether we write fantastic opuses about life on a distant planet or an article on why eating spinach is good for you, we are still creating. We are painting pictures with words although those pictures are as different as -- well -- a bump by bump tale of a ride in a rocket ship gone mad or an egg by egg recipe for a spinach omelet.

And this brings us full circle, back to the original question: What is a writer? Simply put, no matter what you write, where you write or when you write, a writer is one who writes.

Why do We Procrastinate?

I started this Blog over a month ago, at the time vowing to myself to write a new blog every week. Then my old enemy stepped in -- procrastination.

Why do people procrastinate? A lot of writers have the habit, including myself. I'll get up in the morning, eager to work on my novel. Ah, but first I must shower and have breakfast. Maybe tidy the house and do the laundry. Finally all my household chores are done and I have the rest of the day to write.

Do I write? No! I read, play games, go shopping, and sometimes, in desperation, it seems, I'll wash walls or clean windows. Anything to avoid sitting down at the computer and working on my novel.

Why do we procrastinate? A handout I found on procrastination blames it on fear. We may not all fear the same thing. The two most common fears are "fear of failure" and, believe it or not, "fear of success."

With fear of failure, we're afraid that what we are turning out is inadequate, that no publisher will accept it, that we'll finally discover we're not proficient writers at all.

Fear of success, on the other hand, is being afraid our writing will be accepted, that we'll become famous and in demand. How is that going to change our lives?

Procrastination might also be the result of poor time management or a need for perfection.

Mind Tools has these tips to overcome procrastination:

"The key to controlling and ultimately combating this destructive habit is to recognize when you start procrastinating, understand why it happens (even to the best of us), and take active steps to better manage your time and outcome."

Don't let procrastination put your life on hold. Do something about it today. I'm going to. Let's not put it off

Writers on Corn

I've often wondered why so many eerie scenes involve a cornfield. I first noticed it with "Children of the Corn" by Stephen King. Now that was a gory little tale, involving children, appliances like meat slicers -- and corn.

Mr. King again became involved with corn in "The Stand." To reach Mother Abigail's cabin, it was necessary to travel through a giant cornfield.

The X-Files included corn (and "altered" corn) in several show. What is the appeal of corn?

Is it the mysterious rustling - especially in the dark when the wind rises? Is it the height and density of the rows that prevent those careless enough to enter the field from finding their way out?

I recently read a romantic suspense by Heather Graham entitled "Deadly Harvest." A serial killer had chosen cornfields as the ideal place to hide bodies. The thought of corn now makes me shudder.

Not many grow corn here as a crop. The weather makes it a bit risky. An early autumn can doom a crop. You know what? I'm glad. The stories I've read have made me believe that, although corn is a valuable food product, writers have imbued it with the taint of evil.