In Which I Start My Outline

enny's Luck is now officially past the major research stage and is now in the outlining portion of the writing. I've got 22 plot points. I generally write about 1,000 words per plot point, so that means... not nearly enough words for this book.

Fortunately, I don't have all the plot points down yet (I still have to do all the villain plot points), and I haven't plotted any of the subplots yet. So, there's a good chance this will be a good length yet. Fortunately, it's Middle Grade, which is reflected in the word count.

In Which I Blog About Research

oing research is one of my favorite parts of writing. It's when and where I get ideas for plot points, find ways to make the unbelievable a little more believable, and I like learning about new things.

Here are some of the things I've been researching for "Penny's Luck".

• Names of magic tricks. (Many years ago I was a magician, but other than "French Drop" I couldn't remember the names of many of the magic tricks. It's part of the jargon that Penny will use, so I'm brushing up and learning new names.)
• Butterfly smuggling.
• Human Growth Hormone and how it's given. (Squik.)
• Meningitis, and how it's spread.
• ASL. (I'm not sure this counts, as I took lessons in sign years ago, and my son is taking ASL in high school as his foreign language, so it's stuff I may use, but didn't start learning about just for this book.)
• Cochlear Implants and the controversy around them. (Again, was learning about this stuff for a while before this book, so I'm not sure it counts as research for the book.)
• Deaf and Hearing Impaired subculture. (Same as the two above.)
• Storefront floor plans.
• Organized crime.
• Pole vaulting.
• Escape artists.
• Las Vegas. (Jobs and housing and local schools, as well as the viewpoint of the city.)
• Average growth rate of teenage boys.
• PTSD in humans.
• ATF agents.
• ATF canines. (Did you know that ATF canines are failed Guide Dogs?)
• PTSD in canines.
• Paranoia.
• VW Bug.
• Italian names for "grandfather".
• Agoraphobia.
• Monty Python. (Oh, who am I kidding? That's for fun. The fact that I can work something into the book is just icing.)
• Comic books.

Ok, that's all I remember for now, but I haven't finished outlining, so I'm sure some more things will be coming up.

In Which I Wonder What Is Too Much

'm toying with a new idea for a character in "Penny's Luck". Cal, her boyfriend (Penny would say, "he's not my boyfriend", but he will be, she just doesn't know it yet). Anyway, Cal is 16, can drive a car (so he's frequently Penny's ride to and from work), and used to be a pretty good gymnast. He shot up over a foot in the last year, so he can't do gymnastics any more, but the high school coach is pushing him to do pole vaulting or high diving (or both!)

Because his center of gravity has changed so quickly, and his arms and legs are longer than his brain is used to (yet), he's also a little clumsy. He bangs into things or knocks things over. A lot.

I like Cal, and he ends up getting kidnapped with Penny at one point. I want him to be more than just comic relief. I want people to see why Penny would end up with him. I also want him to have a skill that Penny doesn't have. (Her skills are sleight of hand and misdirection.) I think I want Cal to be deaf. He had meningitis a  few years ago, and became deaf as a result of it. His skill would be lip reading.

I don't want his deafness to be a big issue in the book. He's a just a teenage boy, who has a crush on a girl, and he happens to be deaf.

I'm playing with the idea for now, but my worries are:

1. Deaf culture. I know enough about the deaf culture to know that deaf people aren't as simple as "create hearing character, remove hearing". I'm also big on people not writing about minority subcultures without an understanding of that subculture. (I know I hate it when my religion is misrepresented in fiction.) Can I learn enough about the deaf subculture to do a credible job of creating Cal? 
2. Is it too much? Is making Cal be deaf a "kitchen sink" problem, where I'm just putting too many elements in the story? 

I think it makes the story stronger, but I may not have the chops to write it well. I guess I'll have to try and see if I can pull it off. If anyone has any thoughts or advice on the subject, I'd love to hear it!

In Which "Jaws" Teaches Me About Writing

he movie "Jaws" is one of my favorite movies. Not one that I like to watch over and over, but one that I watch intensely, about once every two years. It is my technical learning movie, and I learn something new about storytelling, every time I watch it.

Of course there are the classic things that Hitchcock taught us, which is the unseen monster is scarier than the seen monster. There are the things that English class taught us about symbolism, like Quint is really Captain Ahab. There is the classic "Don't put a gun on the mantel in scene one, unless you are going to use it in scene three". Only in this case, the gun is an exploding canister of air.

One of my favorite things in this movie is how a character will never do something, until he does (or doesn't). Brody will never go in the water, until he has to. Brody's character grows and lives. Quint will never put on a life jacket. He doesn't and he dies. (Though to be honest, putting on the life jacket wouldn't have saved him.)

In my new WiP, I'm trying to figure out what Penny will never do. Penny will never give up. Of course, that means that eventually, she will have to give up. And doing so will make her a better person. The bad guy will also never give up. That will lead to his undoing.

I'm still in the drafting/noodling stage, so this may change, but right now, it feels right.

I also love the placement of back story in this movie. When Quint finally reveals why he hates sharks so much, it's close enough to the encounter with the shark to make it memorable. If he'd revealed his story earlier, his refusal to put on a life jacket wouldn't be as meaningful. What if they'd shown Quint's story in a "prologue" at the beginning of the movie and then put "40 years later" at the start of the movie. How would that have changed the movie? I think it would have given Quint's story less impact. I hope I learn to time the placement of back story based on this movie.

In Which I Am Writing Again!

'm writing again! Yay! (I can't tell you how good this feels.) No, I wasn't having writer's block (does anyone every admit to having that?), I was suffering from depression and finding it hard to do anything. This is doubly bad, because writing is a huge help for me in dealing with depression. For many reasons, I'm glad to be writing again!

Sadly, I'm not working on my middle-grade-boy POV-urban fantasy, "The Monster of Dewsberry Drink". Instead, I got distracted by a shiny new story, "Penny's Luck". And get this, it's a YA mystery/suspense with No Paranormal/Fantasy In It At All! But she is studying to become a (stage) magician, so there is magic in this story. Lots of it. Will I make reader's eyes glaze over with terms like "French Drop" and "Click Pass"? I don't care! Will readers hate me because I don't reveal enough about how magic tricks are done? I don't care! Will readers (and/or magicians) hate me because I reveal too much about how magic tricks are done? I don't care! (All that will be worked out in the second draft, right?)

Right now, I'm writing the story I want to tell. And in the tradition of writing the query/hook before the story, here's my intro to "Penny's Luck".

Penny was wearing her lucky jeans when she got kidnapped. Lucky for her, that is. Not so much for the kidnappers. After years of studying to be a stage magician, escape and misdirection are skills that come as naturally as breathing.


Penny's problem is more immediate. She was kidnapped by the mafia. It's unlikely they'll just give up after their first botched attempt. She has to find out why they are trying to kidnap her, a 15 year old girl with no money and fewer connections, and stop them from coming  back again and again.