Hanging with a murderer

Last night I sat in a darkened theatre with a convicted murderer.  I even paid for the privilege.  Along with 799 other people.  You'd think that would be scary, but it wasn't because even though this man spent 18 years in prison for the crime, I don't believe he did it.

About 16 years ago I stumbled upon an outstanding documentary, Paradise Lost.  It told the story of three teenage boys in West Memphis who were accused of murdering three seven-year-old kids.  The case brought against them was ridiculous from the start, based primarily on the fact these kids wore black clothes and listened to heavy-metal music.  Obviously they were Satanists and the murders were ritualistic killings.  Yeah, right....

Over the years the original film makers have been back to make two more Paradise Lost documentaries and the West Memphis Three have gained support from people all over the world who believed in their innocence and fought to get them out of prison and off death row.  Late last year, in what has to feel like the worst kind of victory, they were set free. But they had to plead guilty to the crimes they didn't commit under what's known as an Alford plea.

Last night I was honored and privileged to be in a theatre with Damien Echols, the only member of the West Memphis Three to have been sentenced with the death penalty for a screening of the new film about the case, West of Memphis.  Alongside Damien was his wife, Lorrie who has been tireless in her pursuit of justice, and the film's producer, one Peter Jackson.

It was fascinating to hear them all speak, especially Damien because I have followed the case and his story ever since I saw that first documentary and came out feeling utterly outraged by the lack of justice.   It's incredible to see him out of prison, walking about and talking about the experience he's had.  I can't imagine how strange it must be to come from total isolation in jail into the real world again.  Talk about culture shock!

Hmmm...  Maybe I just had an idea for a new book....

F$@#!^ Cancer

I'm not that old, but all of a sudden, people around me seem to be getting cancer.  Growing up, I always thought it was just old people who got it.  Okay, sure, there were the odd kids here and there who did, but it wasn't the norm.  Was I just perceiving these people with cancer as being much older than they actually were, or are people getting sick younger?

In a way, that second one makes sense.  There are so many new chemicals around that we use daily, so much more pollution.  Who knows what effect these things are having on our bodies?  It's kind of scary!  I already lost one friend to liver cancer a few years back, and he was far too young to die.

And this week one of my best girlfriends was told that her second round of breast surgery didn't get all the cells and she's facing a masectomy.  She's only a few years older than me.  Not even five.  So I'm getting nervous.  My mother had cancer a couple of years back.  Her surgery was successful, thankfully, but clearly there is a pre-disposition to it in my family.  And I haven't lived as cleanly as my mother has.

I'm not sure what my point is here.  I'm just angry, I guess.  And scared for the future.  And unsure what I can do to make things better for the people growing up behind me.  I know medical technology is getting better and better, and a cancer diagnosis isn't necessarily a death sentence.  But it's still one of the biggest killers and it's picking on my friends.  I don't like it!

Dialogue and punctuation

I do a lot of beta reading and critiquing for other writers, and there are a number of common mistakes I see ALL the time.  So I thought I might share a few of them with you so you can check to see if you're making them too.  These are writing mistakes, not story mistakes because nothing drags me out of a story faster than poor mechanics.

Dialogue.  Lots of people seem to have little or no understanding as to how to punctuate dialogue.  So here's a rule to add to your book.  If you're using a dialogue tag (said, asked, screamed), you use a comma at the end of the dialogue, close the quotes and continue the sentence.

Eg:  "It's too far to walk," he whined.

If you follow the dialogue with action, you use a full-stop at the end of the dialogue and the action becomes a new sentence.

Eg: "It's too far to walk." He stopped where he was, stamping his foot against the lumpy paving stones.

It works the same way if you want to put the action ahead of the dialogue too.

Eg: He stopped where he was, stamping his foot against the lumpy paving stones. "It's too far to walk."

And if you want to use a dialogue tag before the dialogue, you use a comma before it.

Eg: He stopped where he was and said, "It's too far to walk."

Easy, right?

Why YA?

I know I've covered this before here, but I think there's always space for a re-visit.  Whenever people ask me what I write, and I answer "YA novels", they look at me weirdly and ask "Why?".

It's a valid question.  I'm a long way from being a teenager, and I wouldn't want to be a teenager again, not for any amount of money.  But I love to write YA.  Why?

There are many reasons.  Those teen years are huge.  They're the years in which you forge your identity.  Maybe it takes a while and you try on different ideologies to see how they fit.  It's when you develop your tastes and codes of ethics.  It's when you figure out where you fit into the world.  That's exciting stuff, but it can also be painful and maddening and that's what makes this such an exciting time to write about.

It's also a time where you feel things in a really intense way.  Often you're experiencing these feelings for the first time.  It can be confusing, overwhelming, terrifying.  Who can forget the first time you fell in love?  Really in love, not just a little crush.  Yeah, scary.  Overwhelming.  And that first break-up?  Arrggh!  Never want to live through that again.

Those teen years are also years in which you make a lot of mistakes.  Bad decisions.  But it's also the time you learn that not all decisions are final, and you can learn from mistakes.  Even the big ones.  In fact, if you live a life without making mistakes, you're probably missing out on some important life-lessons.

With all these elements to play with inside the framework of a story, is it any wonder I love writing YA?  I love watching my characters make the wrong choices and seeing where that leads them, how it forces them to grow and change as people.  I love watching them deal with emotions they don't know how to handle.  While they may go through some tough times, I'm sure that they all grow up to be better people because of it.

Why do you write YA?

Interview with Nyrae Dawn

I'm thrilled to have the wonderfully talented Nyrae Dawn on my blog today!  This woman is prolific!  This book, Freeing Carter, is the third she's published this year!  And what a great book it is too.  Get yourself a copy as soon as you can.

Hi Nyrae, and welcome to Fiction and Film.

Thank you so much for having me!

Let's talk about Freeing Carter. It's the third book I've read of yours where you've written from a male POV (and very well, I might add). As a girl, what's the appeal of writing boys?

I think we all want to try to figure out what's going on in a guy's head. It's fun. Plus, I think it's a little different. It's fun to experience things from the other side of the tracks. 

Were you a tomboy at school? Did you hang out more with boys than girls?

I wouldn't say I was a real tomboy, but I definitely had more guy friends than girls. I was that girl who was the "friend" so I heard and saw a lot where my guy friends were concerned. LOL.

Kira is a really interesting character, the way she changes her look on an almost daily basis. Is she experimenting with personas? Trying to find the one that feels right? I think most teenagers could identify with that.

I think so. Like Carter, she's trying to figure out who she is and that's part of it. It also fits her though. She's that wild, carefree kind of girl.

Carter's problems in this book are much bigger than a lot of the problems facing teens in YA novels. What drew you to write about these things?

That is a hard question for me. I think a lot more teens are dealing with this kind of situation than we realize. I also feel like most books dealing with alcoholism, the alcoholic is always the "villain". They're abusive, physically or verbally. Don't hold down jobs or are mean. I wanted to show that it can be anyone. There are functioning alcoholics out there who by be good parents who love their kids, but they still have a problem. That you never know what is going on someone's life.

Friendship seems to be an ongoing theme in your books and all your characters have amazing friends supporting them. Is friendship something very important to you?

YES! I feel like in SO many YA books there are not strong friendships. The characters are loners, picked on, or spend time with people who aren't true friends. I want to show the other side of that. I had some amazing friendships in high school. I don't know what I would have done without them. Now, I know it's not always like that and my upcoming book the main character doesn't have good friends, but I like to show both. I really love writing strong friendships. 

And finally, I couldn't let you visit my blog without asking what your favorite film of all time is.

I don't know if I can say for sure. I'm an romance addict and do love movies like Titanic. LOL. But I also really enjoy old gangster movies like Goodfellas and Casino.

Thanks so much for taking the time to visit!

Thank you so much for having me! It was fun.

If you haven't already, check out Nyrae's other books, What a Boy Wants and What a Boy Needs.  I promise you won't regret it!

      

Progress report

In the interests of keeping myself both motivated and accountable, I'll post weekly progress reports as I revise.  In the last week, I've revised 8 chapters.  It hasn't been hard so far.  The early part of the book was easy to write, and apart from tweaking language and trying to make a secondary character more likable, I haven't had to make any huge changes.

It's going to get harder though.  Once I get through the next couple of chapters, things get messier and I know I will be slashing things out and rewriting like a fiend.  So I don't expect to get through more than  three or four chapters this week.  Especially since I'm working a lot, and have several events and functions I need to go to.  

I'm not going to get stressed about it.  It's not like I have a deadline on this or anything.  I want to be finished with it by November, but if I'm not, well, I'm not going to kill myself over it.  I'd rather have a really good book.

What's your writing week been like?  Do you have big plans?

Why did you like them?

I went to a screening last night.  That's not unusual, but what was, was that in the audience, in this very small theatre, were three of my ex-boyfriends.  Weird.  Well, maybe not so weird.  I've worked in the film industry for more than 20 years now, and was on the fringes for several years before I got my first paying cinema job,  so I suppose it only makes sense that the people I met and went out with were also in the industry.

But you know how it is when you see someone you went out with a long time ago again, and you look at them and go 'why?  What the hell did I see in him?'  Yeah, I had a little of that last night.

But then there's one guy (who was there last night too) and every time I see him again (which isn't often because he doesn't live in the same city as me) I remember exactly why I went out with him, why I liked him.  And it's funny, because the traits I like in him are the same traits I like in my current partner (of 15 years and 2 kids).

I guess I have a type....  Who'd have thought?

Have you ever re-met someone you went out with and remembered exactly why you loved them?