By the Book - Covert Christmas

Welcome back,

Books with Christmas themes can be hard to find, so when I came across ‘’Covert Christmas’’, I thought to myself it might make a good book review for December. So here is my review of this novel, written by suspense writer Hope White.

I found this novel in a used bookstore while I was shopping around for reading material.  This is not the type of book I would normally go for, but thought it would work well for future themed book reviews. Coincidently, it is also about suspense, a literary genre I covered just  recently.

           The story is about an ex-police-officer named Scott turned private security agent, who is investigating his employers shady activities. While trying to escape some hired thugs, Scott bumps his head and loses his short term memory. Luckily for him, he is saved by a local search-and-rescue trainer named Breanna, who nurses him back to health. Together, they work on getting Scott’s memories back, and uncovering what illegal activities are going on in the area. As the cover says, this novel is a love inspired suspense, so the story focuses a lot on Scott and Breanna’s feelings for each other as the plot progresses.

Back of the book:

DIAGNOSIS: AMNESIA

A man has been shot and left for dead on Echo Mountain, and Search and Rescue K-9 handler Breanna McBride wants answers. With no memory, all the injured man can recall is that his first name is Scott, and that someone wants him silenced. Scott knows better than to depend on strangers, yet he finds himself falling for his captivating protector. And although Breanna won't rest until she helps him piece together the rest of his past, she vows to ignore the attraction between them. But as they close in on the truth, she becomes the killer's next target. Now the pursuers will stop at nothing to ensure the pair is six feet under by Christmas.

Echo Mountain: Saving lives and finding love in the mountains of Washington State

What I learned from this book:

• Cliff hanger: The author successfully kept the audience engaged in the story by having some pretty intense cliff hangers at the end of every chapter. Random events, such as the unexpected appearance of a lost loved one or sudden gunfire was effective in keeping the readers hooked and wanting to move on immediately to the next chapter.
• Amnesia as a plot tool: Having the main character suffer from amnesia was a creative way of drip feeding information to the audience while explaining how the protagonist didn't have this information himself. This was also effective in making the protagonist vulnerable, and open to receive help from the love interest character, Breanna. However, I felt that amnesia in a love story sounded a bit cliché, reminiscent of old TV soap operas.
• Romance: This being the closest to an actual romance novel I have ever read, it turned out to be a great learning experience. I saw how the author built the relationship between Scott and Breanna little by little, using a combination of simple, causal actions (such as longing stares, honest conversation, etc.) and a dramatic situation (in this case, Scott’s amnesia and being pursued by killers).

Hope White was born and raised in the Midwest and migrated to the Pacific Northwest as an adult. Her hobbies include hiking in the mountains, enjoying a fine cup of tea with friends, or going to the movie theatre.

For those interested in reading more books from Hope White, please check out his website at http://www.hopewhiteauthor.com/

For those interested in learning more about her work on the Love Inspired Suspense series, you can check out this extensive wiki page:

https://www.fictiondb.com/author/hope-white~64811.htm

In closing, I would like to thank you all for dropping by and following my blog. Your patronage and encouragement is truly appreciated.

Until next time!

Cheers,

Patrick Osborne

Current Projects part 30

Welcome back,

 

           This past month was quiet at work, most likely due to the start of summer. People are getting ready for their vacations, which means less customer requests coming in. This is great, because it means I get more time to concentrate on my writing. I also got to enjoy some of my own time off, which was way overdue.

 

 

           While taking a look at the month of July, I realised that many different countries celebrate Independence during this month. I tried to be inspired by this holiday while searching for a theme for this month's articles, and came up with a couple of ideas.

 

The first idea will be in the form of a writing prompt, and will explore the idea of freedom ,or more precisely, how the lack of freedom can affect different characters. My second idea is an inspiration post about horses. I have been working on it for a while now, and thought independence day may be a suitable time for it.

 

Also this month, we will have a familiar face come back; author Andy Peloquin will be returning to share with us what he has been up to, and to promote his latest book, which is due to be released later this month.

 

As for progress on my own book, I managed to complete yet another of my character sheets. Elsa Eisenberg, one of my story’s background characters, will have a short but important role. Her presence in the story will mainly serve to help establish the villains cruelty and methods. Writing Elsa was a different kind of challenge, as it required me to do some unusual research; different types of cat species. With Elsa completed, I moved on to another villainous character, Mei Wan (a.k.a. Misery), who will be another henchmen to the main antagonist. This character will be interesting to write, as she is completely crazy!

 

In regards of new material from Missing Worlds Media, there hasn’t been any lore related content released from last month. One article did get published however, this one giving details to our plans regarding subscriptions and possible pay methods. You can read the full article on our kickstarter page:

 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/missingworldsmedia/the-phoenix-project-city-of-titans/posts/1906718?ref=backer_project_update

I would like to mention that I am always looking for more authors to interview. If you, or anyone you know, is a published author and would be interested in having an interview posted on my blog, feel free to contact me. It is a great opportunity to share advice you may have with other writers, as well as free publicity for your own work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bookmarkboundPMosborne/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel

Twitter: @OzmosisCoH

Google+: https://plus.google.com/+PatrickOsborneOzmosis

 

 

On that note, I would like to wish you all a happy Independence day! Thank you all for dropping by, your continued support is always appreciated. I hope to see you all at next month's progress update.

 

           Until then.

Cheers,

 

Patrick Osborne

Current Projects Part 24

Welcome back!

            Progress report number twenty four. Two full years of researching material on creative writing, seeking inspiration, talking to authors and trying to put together my own book. It still doesn't feel like it has been that long, probably because I still haven’t gotten that much progress made.

            Needless to say my personal life has been a little chaotic recently, but I am glad to report that all will be returning to normal in just two months. I have found a new home, and now is just a question of completing paperwork and eventually moving in. Once the painting is done and the furniture is set up, my life will get back to normal. I will be sure to share pictures, because as I have said before, each new experience can be beneficial to writing.  

            In terms of writing, I have been busy this month working on blog articles. Between working on stuff for my new house, a surge of new requests coming in at work and getting ready for the holidays, I barely had time to create the four articles for January. However, I did manage to get a theme going; adversity. I thought it was fitting, as the new year usually brings with it resolutions and people wanting to change.

            My personal project did not get any progress this month. Truth is, I have had very little motivation since the events from September. However, inspiration struck in the last week of December, so the creative wheels have started turning again. Hopefully my project will get back on track by early February.

            As for work on City of Titans, no new projects have been assigned to me for a long time, mostly because of my current situation, and the fact that I lost tract of much of the progress they have done in my absence. Though they are still progressing, adding updates on their site regularly. Just last month they added a new story related update, an in-game point of view of one of the game's main villain faction; the Five Dragons. You can read the article here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/missingworldsmedia/the-phoenix-project-city-of-titans/posts/1764598

For those interested in following Missing Worlds Media and the progress on our project, City of Titans, please visit our website at  http://cityoftitans.com/

    That is all for this update. Thank you all for dropping by, your continued support is truly appreciated. Before I go, I would like to wish you all a safe and happy New Year! Be with the ones you love, and cherish the moments you have together.

Until next time.

Cheers,

            Patrick Osborne

BOOTCAMP LESSON 15: Impersonation

Seasons Greetings!,

           Welcome to this special holiday edition of the BOOTCAMP writing prompt! It’s been awhile since I made one of these writing exercises, so I hope you are ready to try this one out, cause it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Lesson 15: Impersonation

Impersonation is the act of pretending to be another person, either for the purpose of entertainment or fraud. Most of us are familiar with the concept from childhood games, where we pretended to be adults going to work, or some kind of hero saving the day.

However, impersonation plays an important part when creating characters. Being able to get inside the character's head is a vital component of the process, as it helps the author to better understand and expand their characters.

In today’s exercise, we are going to place ourselves in the minds of some popular, public domain characters. We are going to imagine ourselves as one of these characters and get inside their heads, see how they would go about doing a simple task. This works for any situation, from doing groceries, going to the movies or even cooking supper.

So for today's game, we are going for a more festive activity; writing a letter to Santa! The goal is to imagine what one of the following characters would ask for Christmas in a letter to Santa Claus. This will really allow you to dig deep into the characters motivation and desires.

So, here are today's guidelines!

Rules

1. Below is a list of five ‘’candidates’’, which are public domain characters. Select ONE of the five characters to work with.
2. In the form of standard correspondence, write a letter to Santa Claus from the point of view of the character you have chosen to work with.
3. In the letter, the character must clearly state what they want for Christmas, in a way that suits their personally and needs. The goal is to stay in character!
4. There is no word or length limit to this exercise.

List of candidates

The Scarecrow

Tarzan

Big Bad Wolf

Dr. Jekyll

Ebenezer Scrooge

For those who aren’t afraid to share their entries, feel free to submit your letters as a reply to this post. Remember, this is a game, so no posting bad comments about other people's entries.

Hope you have fun giving this exercise a try. Until next time!

Cheers,

Patrick Osborne

Inspiration Part 17 - Shopping Malls

Welcome back,

The holidays are here, and this time of year has many different meanings to many different people. No matter what your beliefs are, however, there is one thing that we all experience this time of year in North America; holiday shopping!

           The idea for this inspiration post struck me as I was navigating my way through the crowds during Black Friday. Shopping malls and centers play a very important role in today’s society, as they are not only an important place of business, but also serve as a social gathering place for many. Furthermore, these places of commerce take on an entire new life during the holidays, as people flock to them in order to be prepared for their holiday festivities.

           With this in mind, I decided to make Shopping Malls the focus on this month's inspiration article. We will explore different aspects of these establishments, such as their architecture and contents, and see how they can play a role in fiction.

           To begin, let us take a look at the architecture of shopping malls. These buildings come in many different styles and formats, but some traits are recurrent among most of them. Their similarities include large hallways and high ceilings to facilitate clientele circulation. Store front will line each side of these passageways. Most will also have large gathering areas allowing people to sit and eat, more commonly known as food courts.

           Of course these buildings would serve no purpose if they did not have stores! Shopping malls contain a variety of different stores in order to cater to their customers. This is convenient for shoppers (and writers looking for inspiration), who might be looking for anything from clothes, groceries, books or more. There are also many different restaurants where customers to rest and take a bite to eat which.

           This covers all the areas that are accessible by the general public, but have you ever thought of what you couldn’t see? As an ex-security guard, I can tell you there is a totally different world behind those stores. Service corridors allowing employees to have access to storage areas, underground parking, mechanical rooms housing machinery which power the building and offices for administrative staff. It is something to take into account when trying to flesh out one of these buildings in a narrative.

           Finally, we have the social aspect of shopping malls. How many of us have gone to shopping malls as teenagers just to hang out with friends? How many times have we seen older generations socializing at the food court or simply walking down the hallways? And aren<t we all guilty of doing the occasional window shopping? Shopping malls are a favorite stomping ground for many, as it has a lot to offer; comfort, accessibility, entertainment and much more.

As you can see, a trip to the mall can be beneficial for any writer. Maybe you are searching for references on the layout of a shopping center for a particular fight scene between superheroes. Or perhaps the mall is the main environment of your story, and you need to get a better idea of the layout, good examples are Mallrats - 1995, Paul Blart Mall Cop - 2009, or Dawn of the Dead - both 1978 and 2004.

As you can see, a trip to a shopping mall can be beneficial to a writer looking for inspiration. I hope you enjoyed this month's inspiration post and that I encouraged you to go out there and experience it for yourself.

Until next time.

Cheers,

Patrick Osborne

**Please note that most of the photos below were taken from free stock images sites such as StockSnap.com, or were found doing a public domain search via Google.**