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Showing posts with label Marilyn Baron. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marilyn Baron. Show all posts

Friday, August 26, 2016

Who's For Dinner? with Marilyn Baron


Who’s For Dinner? 

I’d like to have dinner with Pioneer Aviator Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, and solve one of the biggest mysteries of the last century.


Amelia Earhart was attempting to become the first female pilot to circle the globe, when her when her twin-engine Lockheed Electra disappeared on July 2, 1937, almost 80 years ago. Although people have attempted to solve the mystery of her disappearance, and new clues have surfaced, there are theories galore but no proof of Earhart’s fate. Did she and her navigator, Fred Noonan, survive the apparent crash of the plane in the South Pacific? Before she left on her fateful trip, she said, “I have a feeling that there is just about one more good flight left in my system, and I hope this trip is it.”

According to Earhart’s official website, “On June 1, Earhart and Noonan departed from Miami (my hometown) and began the 29,000-mile journey. By June 29, when they landed in Lae, New Guinea, all but 7,000 miles had been completed. Their next hop was to Howland Island, a mile and a half long and a half-mile wide.  The U.S. Coast Guard cutter ITASCA, their radio contact, was stationed just offshore of Howland Island. Two other U.S. ships, ordered to burn every light on board, were positioned along the flight route. When they lost contact with her, a rescue attempt began and became the most extensive air and sea search in naval history. In 1938, a lighthouse was built on Howland Island in her memory and U.S. streets, schools and airports are named after her.”
I’ve always felt an affinity, a psychic connection somehow, with the 39-year-old American aviatrix even though I have no desire to fly a plane or have no earthly reason why I should feel this way, except that I admire her pioneering spirit and courage. I’ve read books and articles and seen movies about her. When I went off to college, I asked for a set of Amelia Earhart luggage. And I named one of the characters in my book, Landlocked, Amelia.

Aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator, Fred Noonan, in 1937 in Los Angeles prior to their historic flight.


What would we talk about? First, I would ask if she and her co-pilot Fred Noonan survived the crash and how long she lived after that. Did she hold out hope that help was coming? Where was the site of the crash? Did she realize the world was at war? Was she captured by the Japanese and held throughout the war? If so, why wasn’t she returned? Did she meet her death as a castaway on another uninhabited island? When did she die? Why haven’t we found her remains? If she had been returned to the U.S., what would be the first thing she’d do? I imagined a tearful reunion between Amelia and her husband, book publisher and publicist George P. Putnam. In a letter to her husband, written in case the flight proved to be her last, she said, “Please know I am quite aware of the hazards. I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others.”

You can read more about the life and travels of this fascinating woman on the official Amelia Earhart website at http://www.ameliaearhart.com/.

Title of my latest release: Stumble Stones: A Novel

Blurb
Hallelujah Weiss, writer for the steamy sudser As the Planet Spins, gets a second chance at love when she flees to Italy to get over her recent divorce, courtesy of her cheating ex-husband’s credit card. A woman scorned, Hallelujah has sworn off men and is determined to reinvent herself. The new Hallelujah is eager to live life on the edge, more like Polly, a character she writes and idolizes.
Lonely Berlin hedge fund manager Alexander Stone, a number cruncher who puts his faith in numerical data, still believes in destiny, despite the fact his fiancée just dumped him. Always a man with a plan, Alexander did not plan on Hallelujah.
After a chance encounter on a flight to Rome, the unlikely pair faces danger when they team up to return to their rightful owner a stash of WW II vintage jewels. The hidden diamonds hold the key to an unsolved mystery and a promise of love. 


Marilyn Baron
Author Bio

Marilyn Baron writes in a variety of genres, from humorous coming-of-middle age women’s fiction to historical romantic thrillers and romantic suspense to paranormal/fantasy. Stumble Stones is her 11th novel published with The Wild Rose Press. She’s also published five short stories with TWB Press and self-published three books, including a musical about Alzheimer’s called Memory Lane. AmazonEncore republished her book Sixth Sense on September 15, 2015. She’s received writing awards in Single Title, Suspense Romance, Novel With Strong Romantic Elements and Paranormal//Fantasy Romance. She is a Georgia Romance Writers (GRW) Maggie Award winner, a PAN member of Romance Writers of America and GRW and winner of the GRW 2009 Chapter Service Award. A public relations consultant in Atlanta, Marilyn graduated with a BS in Journalism and a minor in Creative Writing from the University of Florida. She worked in Public Relations for AT&T in Atlanta for 13 years before starting her own PR firm. She serves on the 2016 Roswell Reads Steering Committee.

Author Media Links


Monday, August 22, 2016

Setting the Hook

Fishing is not my thing. But it’s a good analogy for story writing. We want to hook the readers then reel them in. As a reader, I want that. Get my attention with the cover and the blurb, but hook me with the first sentence.


The idea for this post came from the program at my writers’ meeting (Mid-Michigan RWA chapter) on Saturday. About once a year, we critique. This time, members sent in three-page beginnings to be read aloud then critiqued. Some stories were pretty rough, but others grabbed our interest from the first sentence.



That first sentence sets the tone for the book and should make the reader ask questions. Here’s an example from Marilyn Baron’s Sixth Sense:  Beauregard Lee Jackson Hale was a shit magnet.

My first question is why does he attract shit? My second is who would saddle anyone with such a long name? Considering the name, the setting has to be in the south.


Here’s another example from Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie: Sophie Dempsey didn’t like Temptation even before the Garveys smashed into her ’86 Civic, broke her sister’s sunglasses, and confirmed all her worst suspicions about people from small towns who drove beige Cadillacs.

If I hadn’t read anything by Ms. Crusie, I’d get a good idea from that first sentence that the story will be humorous with a sarcastic bent. Considering the cars, I know the story is contemporary. My question: why did the narrator dislike the town before the accident?

This is the most absurd thing I’ve ever done as assistant planetary agent for Loxton Galactic Trading—standing in as a bridesmaid in a borrowed puce dress because some other girl failed to show up. ~ Escape From Zulaire by Veronica Scott

The word puce gets me right away. Something about that word conjures up Regency or Victorian times. Yet, “planetary agent” and “Galactic Trading” tells me the story takes place in the future. My questions: why does she have to stand in for a bridesmaid? Is it part of her job (since she mentions it)? And why is it the most absurd thing she’s ever done? That doesn’t sound very absurd. Is her life that mundane?

I saved the best (and most recognizable) first sentence for last. From Rebecca by Daphne duMaurier:  Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.

What or where is Manderley? Why would the narrator dream about going there? What significance does Manderley have?

A first sentence sets the tone of the story. It reveals the author’s voice. It can give the location or time period or both. Most importantly, it piques the reader’s interest enough to keep reading.

Check out the first sentences of your favorite books. Do they do that? Share with the rest of us.

*book cover images from Amazon.com



Saturday, February 21, 2015

Saturday Sampler - The Widow's Gallery by Marilyn Baron




The Widows’ Gallery
A Lobster Cove Series Novel
By Marilyn Baron
February 11 was release day for The Widows’ Gallery, part of the Lobster Cove Series from The Wild Rose Press.
Genre: Women’s Fiction/Romance
Blurb:

Childless heiress Abigail Adams Longley and three other widows on a Mediterranean cruise bond over a Renaissance masterpiece in Florence, Italy, and find love, friendship and joy in their joint venture to open an art gallery at the Longley mansion in Lobster Cove, Maine.
Since the death of her husband, Abigail has been lonely and drifting in a house that’s too big and a town that’s too small. When she literally runs into sexy widower and whale-watching excursion captain Tack Garrity on the dock, she’s entranced by his adorable five-year-old daughter. 

But will Tack, who has harbored a secret crush on Abigail for almost two decades, be able to capture her heart? A secret pact her husband made with Tack could either tear them apart or bring them closer together and change their lives forever.


Excerpt:
Abigail Adams Longley looked around at the three women flanking her in Hall 10/14 of the Uffizi Gallery. They were all staring at The Birth of Venus like wide-eyed art students. Admittedly, the painting was as compelling as when the Medici family originally commissioned the tempera on canvas in the fifteenth century. But for Abigail, seeing the painting again wasn’t cathartic. It was beautiful, but that wasn’t the feeling she was going for. Peace. Why couldn’t she get some goddamned peace in this life?

Abigail glanced at the square-cut, four-carat diamond on her finger, gazed at the sparkle of the ring she hadn’t removed since the day Louis had proposed. And now, a whole year after his death, she still hadn’t taken it off. Conventional wisdom dictated that you weren’t supposed to make any major life decisions until a year after a spouse’s death. Well, it had been a year already, and she hadn’t wanted to make even one decision—major or minor—about where to live, where to go, or what to do. Whoever said money can’t buy happiness had devised another dead-on axiom. She had all the money in the world—in fact Louis had left her a big chunk of the globe. He’d left her set for life, monetarily. But she would have traded every cent for the chance to be with him again. Louis was gone, and the sooner she faced the fact that she was alone on this planet, the better off she’d be.
Buy Links:


Amazon (Paperback):
Barnes & Noble and other outlets: Available after Feb. 11, 2015

Bio
Marilyn Baron is a corporate public relations consultant in Atlanta. She’s a member of Romance Writers of America and Georgia Romance Writers (GRW), recipient of the GRW 2009 Chapter Service Award and winner or finalist in writing awards in single title, suspense romance, novel with strong romantic elements and paranormal romance.
Marilyn writes in a variety of genres, including: Humorous women’s fiction (The Widows’ Gallery, Stones, and Significant Others; a psychic suspense series (Sixth Sense, Homecoming Homicides and the soon to be released Killer Cruise);  and historical romantic thrillers (Under the Moon Gate and the prequel, Destiny: A Bermuda Love Story) for The Wild  Rose Press; and humorous paranormal short stories for TWB Press (A Choir of Angels, Follow an Angel, The Stand-In Bridegroom, Dead Mix and The Files Death Forgot).
Marilyn is a member of the Roswell Reads Steering Committee and belongs to two book clubs. A native of Miami, Florida, Marilyn now lives in Roswell, Georgia, with her husband and they have two daughters. She graduated from The University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism [Public Relations sequence] and a minor in Creative Writing. 

When she’s not writing, she enjoys reading, going to movies, eating Italian food and traveling. She often sets her stories in places she’s visited, including Bermuda, Australia and Italy, where she spent six months studying in Florence during her senior year in college.
Social Media Links:
Blog  Marilyn blogs with Savvy Authors on the 22nd of every month at  http://savvyauthors.com/blog/