Change Is Good

Besides working on other projects, lately I’ve been thinking about the next Maggie and Odessa story. In Drop Dead Delicious, a few things have changed. Maggie is working in a P.I. office and toward her own license. Her husband Roger is starting to accept this new career choice and Rocket…well Rocket is just Rocket. Odessa’s caking making business is doing pretty well. Her boyfriend, Lee has maneuvered his way into her house and her sister Candace is …well Candace. Some things never change and some things do.

I love mystery series and often fall out of love with them when the characters don’t change at all. I don’t expect them to fall out of character but do expect them to change just a little. Considering the genre, lots of stuff happens so I expect my hero affected in some way and show it. Maggie and Odessa are changing. They will always be the great people they are but stuff happens.

How will Sweet Maggie manage in the tough world of Private Investigators? In her, own sweet way, of course. She’s still a great mother and wife. As for Odessa, she has a man in her house and no longer single. She still is a wise cracking, self-deprecating best cake maker in town.

I'm what...okay!

If you write about women, is it automatically called ‘Chit Lit’? If in the same book there is a murder, do you call it a ‘Cozy Mystery’? I’ve pondered this genre dilemma ever sense I began writing. The minute you put pen to page and throw it out there to the mass market, you are considered to be in one genre or another. I guess I’m all right with this because I do want readers who are interested in the type of books I write. Since nothing is ever new, I’m sure there are similar books out there that would make what I write fall into a genre. What bothers me is that slight confining feeling I’m beginning to feel when people throw me in this genre or that genre. To say that I’m a female, African American, does it make me a female writer or an African American writer who writes female stories about African Americans. What if my protagonist is a white guy from Jersey, who drives trucks across the country? What am I then?
I know that when I walk into a bookstore or buy on line, it is the story that always catches my eye and my wallet. If at the end of the day, I have a penchant for mysteries, suspense, romance, and science fiction thrillers, is that a genre. Lately, I want to find books to read out of my comfort zone. I want to discover an author I’d never read before. I’ve also had the urge to write out of my genre as well. Mostly out of curiosity, I want to dip my toe into water of a different color. I don’t want to find myself twenty years now, writing the same old thing. I’m content for the moment to be place in a particular genre by readers or reviewers. It’s not worth it to argue the point…or is it?

Book Trailers

I've been watching alot of book trailers on the web lately. They are like little movie trailers. It's a great idea, especially if done well. They are many websites for authors who wish to have trailers made of their books. If you want something really simple, you can make one of your own.

There are several programs to do this with, like Pinnacle or Adobe Premiere. The simplest and easiest would be Microsoft Movie Maker. Find images that relate to your book. You need to make sure they are Royalty Free, Click Art. The same thing with any music you want to add. The programs is simple and all you need to do is slice and dice the images and music together. It was pretty fun playing with it.

A New Year's Resolution

It’s a new year and of course it’s time for resolutions. I want to make at least one. Be warned, I’ve never kept one New Year’s resolution I have ever made – ever! I’m too good at talking myself out of them. I’m brilliant. So that is why I never make them. This year I want to try, really try. Have some faith. Like Tinkerbelle in Peter Pan, I do believe, I do. Drum roll please, here goes. I promise that I will…I will…I’m sorry I can’t!

There is nothing I could promise on January 1st, that I couldn’t promise myself any of the day of the year. I want to, I do. Lose those ten (twenty) pounds, give more to charity, clean out my closet, and shred the last five years of bills or do the right thing, even when the wrong thing is really cute and tells me my hips aren’t that big.

What I will promise, are the things I can achieve. I promise to gain at least five pounds, not save enough, write every day, give into my weakness for really silly movies (Pineapple Express had me laughing on the floor), spend too much money on new books, discover a new author and oh yeah, write every day. I promise.

Drop Dead Delicious

Finally, the second Maggie and Odessa book is done. Drop Dead Delicious is completed…over…the end. I think. As I typed the last word, on the last page, in the last chapter, in the back of my mind, I knew it wasn’t quite over. I’ll be with the girls for the next few months as I try to make their presence known. It isn’t enough simply to finish the book, now to bring it to readers. This part of writing is a tedious but necessary process. With hundreds, if not thousands of books coming out, it’s like shouting in the wind. I cross my fingers and hope for the best. Of course the best would be a number one best seller – ha!

I’m hoping that people, who purchased the first book, Pennywise, will like the direction the second book is going. Though I love serial writing, I hate when characters don’t change or grow. When I first wrote about Maggie and Odessa, each of them, were at different stages of their lives. This is not to say that they will change so drastically, you won’t recognize them. Odessa will always be the cynic (,she really thinks of herself as a realist) and Maggie a hopeful optimist.

I don’t know how many Maggie and Odessa stories, I have in me, but hopefully maybe two more. I’m very fond of these characters, and as long as they grow and evolve and try to do new things, they will always have a fan in me. I would love to hear from those of you who’ve read the first book. Send me a short message at jillbrock.net and maybe I’ll share, Odessa’s prize winning cake recipe.

No, it is not you!

When developing new characters, I always try to take from the people around me. Unfortunately, this sometimes includes my family. To say that I take literally from people, their physicality, mannerisms or even their name, wouldn’t be true. However, when my sister cornered me and asked me straight out if a particular character was her; it was hard to say no. My best responds was that the character was ‘loosely’ based on her. It was the closest to the truth I was willing to get. Of course, this didn’t make her happy. She didn’t speak to me for two whole days. When she came to me about it again, she wanted me to define what ‘loosely’ meant. The discussion digressed into an argument in record time. When I asked one of my writing friends about this, she said that it is a necessary evil. We write what we know. Sometimes, I think I’m just being lazy, but she right. Some days, I would like to write in detail about a Norwegian Princess, and her crazy Gypsy family. Most days, I just write about my crazy friends and on occasion my sister. In the end, she will forgive. Next time, I’ll make her tall and thin!

New Orleans Love

As I listen to the news of Gustave and New Orleans, I am reminded of my first trip there. It was 2007, a few years after Katrina. I’d always wanted to go, but work, time and just life got in the way. When I finally got there I wasn’t disappointed. Though there were a few naysayers about the New Orleans, most complained about safety, the condition of the city and as always the weather. I ignored them and went anyway. Coming from a large place like New York, most places dim in comparison. I tend to like places with unique personality, interesting people and memorable sights. I stay at a lovely little hotel in the Garden District on St. Charles Ave. I met great folks like Gee, who owned Sophie’s Gelato on Magazine Street. We had a great conversation about New York Chocolate Egg Cream. New Orleans delivered in every way. Of course, it seen better times, most cities have. What impression me were the people, their tenacity to love their home. New Yorkers are like that, we’re dumb and stubborn that way. It is a place like its Gumbo, a mix of spices, heat and comfort. I met great people there and would go back again and again.