A Writer's Journey Part IV

Please welcome back debut author Peggy Blann Phifer with the fourth installment of the story of her journey to publication. Don't forget to leave a comment after any post in the series to be placed in a drawing to win a copy of Peg's wonderful novel, To See The Sun.




Missed previous posts in the series? Simply click the links below:

Part I
Part II
Part III

In my last post on The Over 50 Writer,  I ended with:

So I (figuratively) packed up my bags and brought Tori to Vegas, changed her name, and worked from a whole different perspective.

DIGGING IN AND MAKING IT WORK

We had a salesman in our house several weeks ago. We were looking into buying one of those Jacuzzi Walk-In Tubs, so we set up an appointment to check it out. What do you think he asked midway through his presentation?

"So, do you guys do any gambling?"

Ah, the ever-present "outsider" impression of Las Vegas. And therein lies "the rest of the story," as Paul Harvey used to say.

After figuratively bringing Tori to Vegas, I still struggled with "finding" her. She wasn't talking to me. Again. But her best friend, Maggie, was.  Only she is Magie, now. She told me she was the music teacher, not Tori. She also told me that the name of her young friend was all wrong. It was Erin.

Say what? But then I got to thinking of my heroine as Erin and things started to take shape. We'd brought her husband along, but I needed to off him quickly if I wanted to pull off the romance I had in mind. So that was Erin's first crisis . . . losing her husband . . . shortly after they'd learned she was pregnant with their first child after trying for seven long years. Crisis number two: facing life as a single mom.

Okay, the story took root and I had a bare-bones plot roughed out with sticky notes and several constantly running brainstorming rambles in Notepad and Word. Not an outline, mind you. Just random thoughts scattered all over the place, but that works for me. I'm a "Pantser" (seat-of-the-pants writer) and the mere thought of 
laying out a plot gives me the screaming meemies.

I've mentioned this in a number of other guest blog posts, and even in the acknowledgement page in the back of the book, but I'll say it again here. During my years in Corporate America, I did a lot of telephone work. And every time I'd introduced myself with "This is Peggy from (company name) in Las Vegas," I'd get an immediate response like the Jacuzzi salesman I mentioned above. Or, more often, "Win any money lately?"

As my story progressed, I became determined to keep my characters away from all that. Away from "The Strip." My objective was to show my readers that there was a different side to Las Vegas. A Las Vegas where families live and raise their children. Get up and go to work and school.  Yes, there is life beyond Sin City, and it's not always nice. Not always Happily Ever After. And TO SEE THE SUN has its share of murder and mayhem, without the gambling and casino ever entering the picture.

By the way, we didn't buy the Jacuzzi.

Come back on Thursday, October 18th for more insight about the writing life from Peggy, based on her personal experience.

Don't forget to leave a comment with your email for a chance to win a copy of Peggy's debut novvel, To See The Sun.

A Writer's Journey Part III

Please welcome back author Peg Phifer with the continuing story of her journey to publication. Peg will tell her story in a series of posts the third Thursday of every month on this blog. (Apologies for my SECOND date error!  This is the FOURTH Thursday in August! Hopefully I'll learn to count soon!) Leave a comment after any post in the series to be placed in a drawing to win a copy of Peg's debut novel, To See The Sun.

In my last post, I ended with:

I'd been away from Milwaukee far too long to remember much about it. Besides, much I was familiar with had drastically changed. 

(If you missed Part I, click here.)

So, I moved Tori up north into an area I was more recently acquainted with.

The writer's journey is a crazy carnival ride. Pick a ride, any ride. Even the placid Merry-Go-Round keeps you going in circles. The more intense rides have you twisting and spinning in every direction, upsetting your inner "gyro's," as I like to call them.

Anyway, Tori leaves Milwaukee, a cast off and apparently unwanted wife. She flees to northern Wisconsin where her best friend, Maggie, has a summer cottage. With keys in hand, Tori enters her temporary home in the north. There's this Forest Ranger she bumps into—literally—and sparks fly. Then there's a horrid storm, then a forest fire . . .

But Tori still has a husband. How do I solve this so she can fall in love with the Ranger?

I tried everything. Her husband was dying from some horrible disease and didn't want her to see him suffer so he sent her away. Rubbish.

Nothing worked, and the more I wrote the more I realized I didn't know THIS area any better than I knew Milwaukee.

Finally, the old writer's mantra hit home. WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW. Okay, I thought that's what I'd been doing. But, it wasn't. Too many years had passed and I no longer had the familiarity of those places I used to call home.

Finally, finally, the Lord showed me where I needed to be: right here in my now adopted home town, Las Vegas.

So I (figuratively) packed up my bags and brought Tori to Vegas, changed her name, and worked from a whole different perspective.

And I've never looked back.

Next month, digging in and making it work.

Be sure to return for more of Peg's story on Thursday, September 20th, for more of Peg's story. Don't forget to leave a comment on any post in the series to be entered in the giveaway for a copy of Peg's debut novel, To See The Sun.

A Writer's Journey (Part II)

Please welcome back author Peg Phifer with the continuing story of her journey to publication. Peg will tell her story in a series of posts the third Thursday of every month on this blog. (Apologies for the error in my last post indicating the next installment in Peg's story would be posted on July 5th!) Leave a comment after any post in the series to be placed in a drawing to win a copy of Peg's debut novel, To See The Sun.




In my last post on The Over 50 Writer, I ended with: 


But another story took its place, this time with a female character named Tori, short for Victoria, and I titled it Totally Tori. “Tori” was the initial beginning of Erin in To See the Sun. 


Back to those days on my old 386 IBM clone I started a writers workshop on AOL's Writer's Club, along with two other writers. We'd meet online once a week in a dedicated chat room and talk about writing for an hour. Two of my very early members were authors Jack Cavanaugh and Alton Gansky. Honest. I was struggling with disappointment over having to give up on my rodeo-girl-with-leukemia story and trying to transition into a new story, new character, new plot, new setting, new everything.


One evening I mentioned my struggle and Jack asked for some details and we threw ideas back and forth for a few minutes. I was so thrilled! I still have part of that transcript. And Jack's willingness to take the time to encourage a fledgling writer was just the impetus I needed to send me down the road to eventual publication instead of giving up.


An aside note: During those years Jack was writing his American Family Portrait series and he was trying to find the right title for the final book which was set during the Viet Nam era. I immediately thought of all the PEACE signs, the Flower Children, sit-in protests, so I impulsively threw out "The Peacemakers." Jack liked it, the publisher liked it, and so it became. And Jack gave me credit for the title and I have an autographed copy of the book. How cool is that?


So, Totally Tori became my next WIP and I poured everything into it. As a seat-of-the-pants writer, I had no outline, no plot but I pressed on. Tori was a graduate of the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music in Milwaukee, and taught music in a local high school. For the junior/senior annual play, Tori decided she wanted them to do Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado. And here I got bogged down. 


Yes, I had been part of a community choir as an adult, and we did selections from The Mikado, but I wasn't a choir director, drama coach, or anything of the sort. Plus, I'd been away from Milwaukee far too long to remember much about it. Besides, much I was familiar with had drastically changed. 


So, I moved Tori up north into an area I was more recently acquainted with. 


To be continued . . .


Be sure to come back for more of Peg's story on Thursday August 23rd.