Prologues and epilogues: a good idea?

Prologue and Epilogue. Do they have a use? Should they be used? Can you have one without the other?

What an interesting topic and one I hadn’t really thought about since neither is a permanent part of my writer’s toolbox. I have used the prologue twice, in both instances when only a short blurb was necessary to set the rest of the book.

In T’s Trial, I needed to show the hero’s depravity and ego in order for his redemption to be all the more worthy. In Wedding Belle Blues, I needed an intro to the five part book set-up and to give it a fairy tale entry, a ‘once upon a time’ lead-in that, of course, totally falls apart before the first chapter is ended!

I’ve used an epilogue only once in order to tie up all the loose ends of One Year Past Perfect. I needed to skip time, which seems to be a main purpose of epilogues, to show the Happily Ever After for all the parties concerned.

Can you have one without the other? Well, I obviously think so.

The only time I get a bit sideways with prologues is when they give us a terrific hero/heroine in distress moment and then—wham!—take it away from us by going back a day or two. Or a year. Yes, it grabs my attention. Sometimes, it holds it. Not guaranteed. Now this happens a lot in episodic TV also, when you think you must have missed an episode because you don’t remember the characters having been left dangling from a rope over a canyon with a train about to cross the bridge they’re affixed to. Then, it says, ’24 hours earlier.’ I can handle that transgression a bit better. And, of course, being TV, it’s over in an hour, not 300 pages later.

Please check out the other participants in this blog tour, all answering the question of prologues and epilogues.

Participants:

Margaret Fieland
Skye Taylor
Dr. Bob Rich
Marci Baun
A.J. Maguire
Diane Bator
Victoria Chatham
Anne Stenhouse
Helena Fairfax
Beverley Bateman
Connie Vines
Rachael Kosinski Rhobin Courtright

Weather-ing a book: A Round Robin post

At every writer’s conference, there’s bound to be a workshop on Setting as Character. Gothic house, Bahamian beach, big city, small town… each calls for a different cast of “human” characters and situations. But does the weather influence the book as well?

I think so. I quit reading a popular mystery author when I realized after 5 or 6 books that each of her stories was set in the dreary autumn with a too-hopeless-to-be-helped heroine. It made me consider more closely not only my type of heroine (I need women who can save themselves but aren’t too proud to accept help), but also the weather. And here I had to pull up short, because I was writing nothing but August.

August in Texas usually. Not only is it my birthday month, August in Texas has its own characteristics. With few exceptions, it’s wearyingly hot and dry. Not just a little hot, but over 100 degrees hot. Humid, but no rain. It creates a certain atmosphere of lassitude. Everyone is just waiting for that first gust of autumn air, usually mid-September and then snatched away until October. But the September peek at fall gives us hope. But we don’t have that hope in August.

I had already set a few books in August in Texas. It was time to try a different time of year if not a different place. Spring break in Florida. Autumn in Maine. Fall and spring in Texas. August—but in Hawaii!

To see how other authors handle the weather, please check out the following Round Robin members:

Skye Taylor
Rachael Kosinski
Beverley Bateman
Connie Vines
Anne Stenhouse
Helena Fairfax
Judith Copek
Dr. Bob Rich
Victoria Chatham
Rhobin Courtright

January Round Robin: What I want-need-should accomplish writing in 2016

The Round Robin topic this month is what we wish (want? need?) to accomplish this year in the way of writing projects. Oh, boy! Robin, you have hit this nail on the head!

Several (I decline to remember or look up how many) years ago I started a contemporary romance novel which I have yet to finish. I stopped at page 60. There’s no reason why. I had all the usual suspects lined up and ready to race to their inevitable happy conclusion.

The heroine: Two or more (details! details!) generations back, her family and the hero’s began feuding. Eventually, her family’s accomplishments (there’s that word again) paled in comparison to that of the hero’s. But she’s got her education, owns a rare book business, holds a certain status in the community and does her best to keep her interfering family at bay. She doesn’t think she needs the forbidden fruit offered (once again?) in the guise of

The hero: He’s running the family business from a safe distance away and is only in town this time to help his dad celebrate a milestone birthday. (I’ve even forgotten which one!) Dragged to the library’s annual pumpkin patch sale by his brother, he busies himself in the used book room and comes face to shapely legs with the girl his family has told him was—you’ve guessed it—forbidden fruit.

The villain—or is she?: The hero’s mother is tired of his wandering, too-good-for-where-he-came-from ways and decides that it’s time for him to settle down and for them all to put the past to rest. But first, there’s a little retribution to be paid.

The plot: (There’s a plot?) Oh, yes! Two slim volumes on being the perfect bride/groom. Our heroine has one and craves the other. Now, I wonder… who do you think has it?

Of course, there are the minor details to fill in: The feud. The two slim volumes I started writing.

What obstacles are in my way to finish this opus? Uh, me. You know all about it, fellow authors: Butt in chair. Fingers on keyboard. Go! It’s okay if it’s unworthy the first time around, except I always consider that a waste of effort and want to do it right the first time. Perhaps that’s my main obstacle. It’s not that I’m a perfectionist—far from it!—it’s that I’m lazy and don’t want to do my work over again.

The Great American Romance Novel is calling. I need to get to it. Thanks for the reminder, Robin.

To read what other authors have on their to-write list, please visit the following:

Victoria Chatham http://victoriachatham.blogspot.ca
Margaret Fieland http://margaretfieland.com/2016/01/23/writers-to-do-list-for-the-new-year/
Skye Taylor www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea
Diane Bator dbator.blogspot.ca/
Beverley Bateman beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
Connie Vines http://connievines.blogspot.com/
Bob Rich http://wp.me/p3Xihq-Bm
Rachael Kosinski http://rachaelkosinski.weebly.com/
Judith Copek http://lynx-sis.blogspot.com/
Anne Stenhouse http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com/
Hollie Glover http://www.hollieglover.co.uk
Helena Fairfax http://helenafairfax.com/2016/01/23/setting-goals-my-writing-projects-for-2016-and-some-advice-required/
Fiona McGier http://www.fionamcgier.com/
Rhobin Courtright http://www.rhobinleecourtright.com/

The July Round Robin: Pets in Books

It's a rare person or family who either does not have or has never had a pet. Pets become part of our families and lives. Study after study has shown that pets are valuable to us as companions. Scads of money has been thrown at these findings only to ascertain what pet owners already know.

That said, I've used pets sparingly in my books. I hadn't realized how sparingly until Robin suggested this topic. As a lifelong cat owner, I've only put them in one of my books, the romantic suspense Once Upon a McLeod. In it, the two black and white cats, Tuxedo and Penguin, are both comfort to the heroine and harbinger of the bad acts perpetrated upon her. If something's up with the cats, bad doings are afoot!

I've used large dogs, golden retrievers (personally, our first "children" were Cocker Spaniels, alas a breed which wouldn't have worked in these books), in After the Thunder Rolls Away and T's Trial. In the former, a household of men, the outgoing, rambunctious retriever was just the right companion. In T's Trial, an older, more staid retriever guards the door of the convenience store and checks out all who enter. At night, they sleep with "their" boys.

Pets add humanity to a story just as they add it to our personal stories. My house is empty without a cat. From now on, when I pen a novel, I shall have to think about whether my book is empty without them also.

Interested in how other authors view pets in novels? Check out my fellow Round Robin-ers:

Beverley Bateman
Victoria Chatham
Connie Vines
Margaret Fieland
Rachael Kosinski
Judith Copek
Marci Baun
Diane Bator
Anne Stenhouse
Skye Taylor
Rhobin Courtright