FREE BOOKS GIVEAWAY – A Villain for Vanessa – Gift for 5 Days

Great Read, ,

#FREE #Books #Giveaway. Autumn in the North Country and everything is on fire. Fabulously flaming trees. Red hot passion about to ignite. Blood-red murder smoldering in the vengeful heart of A Villain for Vanessa.

#FREE #Books #Giveaway. I loved conjuring this story. Now I love giving it away. Vanessa, in search of a warm family embrace, finds terror and sorrow and a wild river to drown her deep. Bobby, struggling to keep his loved ones safe, sees them dash toward destruction instead. A Villain for Vanessa book over art

#FREE #Books #Giveaway. I’m thrilled by the response to this story which was a rollercoaster ride to write. What readers say about A Villain for Vanessa. “Tightly written suspense with tension, shifts and twists that don’t let you look away.” “I was gripped before I was off the first page.” “The mystery gets tighter and tighter while the romance gets hotter and hotter.”

#FREE #Books #Giveaway. I reveled in recreating the place where I once walked among swirling leaves beneath thrashing branches beside that roiling river. Like Vanessa, my heart pounded as the wind rose. The same furious winds whipped my imagination to frenzy as I wrestled each scene onto the pages of A Villain for Vanessa.

#FREE #Books #Giveaway. We dare you to join us, Vanessa and me, careening past catastrophe, squealing through narrow escapes, a runaway speedboat toward conflagration. Your free ticket awaits – RIGHT HERE – Today/Thursday, October 25th, through Monday, October 29th. Enjoy the ride called A Villain for Vanessa.

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com

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For yet another great read and fiery ride – don’t miss Alice’s latest novel. A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Book 5. Available HERE. Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

A Time of Fear & LovingWhat readers say about A Time of Fear & Loving. “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.”
“A budding romance that sizzles in the background until it ignites with passion.”
“The best one yet, Alice!”

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Character Triage – Who’s In? Who’s Out?

Storytelling, ,

Character Triage – Who’s In? Who’s Out? Every character you start out with in your story may not carry enough storytelling weight to be allowed to stick around. Some will most likely have to go. Which characters do and do not belong in your story? How do you decide? First, let’s make a couple of general lists. Then we’ll move on to specifics.

Character Triage – Who’s In? Characters Who Should Stay in Your Story. They sparkle with contradiction and controversy (like Holly Golightly). They enhance the main characters in the story, making them more intriguing. They aggravate the main characters in the story, making them more conflicted. They have secrets, often dark ones, the main characters would like to know, or should know, but don’t. They have hidden dreams the main characters would like to know, or should know, but don’t. In other words, they generate plot by adding more complications to the story.

Character Triage – Who’s Out? Characters Who Should Leave Your Story. They don’t make anything happen (which is never the case with Harry Potter). They get along with everyone, neither creating nor enhancing conflict. We aren’t interested in knowing more about them. They are not connected with either the main characters or their stories. In other words, they don’t generate plot by adding more complications to the story.  Here are some specific character types that should be shown the door.

Character Triage – The Lackluster Character. Especially when creating the main characters of a series who must be extra unique and compelling. In fact, any continuing character must stand out in order to hold a reader’s interest through several stories. Be careful not to focus on thrilling plot at the expense of thrilling characters. This can be fatal to storytelling success.

Character Triage – The Character Who Cloys. Especially as a romance heroine. She’s cute/adorable/precious, and the alleged hero scampers along in her wake for far too long. At first, she may be lovable for the reader as well. Then, we become exasperated with her and, eventually, out-and-out irritated. She’s a distraction from the story and undermines your hero’s portrayal too.

Character Triage – The Character Who Fails at His Story Mission. Especially as a mystery-suspense hero. He’s the detective who doesn’t detect. A murder is committed, and he should be intent on finding the murderer but does too little to further that quest. He avoids real investigative questioning. He lets others do the legwork. He slows the pace instead of enlivening it. He must thrust himself into danger and battle his way out (like Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes).

Character Triage – The Interchangeables. Especially as secondary characters. Three sisters or friends or whoever that would be better as two. The extra sidekick clutters the story. She isn’t distinctive enough and her lack of substance drains story vitality. She should be folded into one of the other characters to streamline plot and pacing or rewritten to reveal her individuality.

Character Triage – This is Only the Beginning. A sampling of characters that need to go if you want to write a strong story, and of course you do. Make your own list, maybe even from your own work, but don’t be discouraged when you do. There are ways to save these characters from the no-hope heap.

Character Triage – Every character, like every human being, has a story. Your job as storyteller is to discover that story and give your creations life on the page. When you do, they will not just belong in your story, they will be embedded in your reader’s heart.  Alice Orr – https://www.aliceorrbooks.com

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A Time of Fear & LovingFor a great read where every character definitely belongs – Don’t miss Alice Orr’s latest novel. A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Book 5. Available HERE. Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

 What readers say about A Time of Fear & Loving. “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.”
“A budding romance that sizzles in the background until it ignites with passion.” “The best one yet, Alice!”

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Long-Time-Together Tango – A Personal Post

Stories of my Life, ,

On Sunday, my husband Jonathan and I will have been married forty-six years, which doesn’t count our half-year courtship before the wedding happened. We met in March and spent the next month in tentative mode, circling one another from afar. Our Long-Time-Together Tango had begun.

The rhythm was sort of twitchy-jittery-nervous then. I detected signals from his side of the floor and expected an approach at any moment, but he was shy. Twitchy-jittery-nervous continued long after the band should have packed up and gone home. Until my patience wore characteristically thin, and I made the first unmistakable move.

We’ve stepped through a World of Dance style catalog since then, including the Bickering Bossa Nova. Which brings me to the six arguments. I have a theory that every long-term relationship features six signature arguments. Three serious, and better suited to the boxing ring than the dance floor. Three silly, but still good for many a whirl.

20th Anniversary Roses

The specifics vary from couple to couple. Sometimes we strut. Other times we glide deliberately out of reach. Always we engage in a choreography uniquely our own. Let’s confine the serious stomping to private dances. The three frivolous fights Jon and I favor step out as follows.

The Full Moon Minuet. Whatever particular geography we may currently inhabit, our heckle over the heavens remains the same. He says, “The moon is full tonight.” I look up and shake my head. “Not quite,” I say, pointing out a flatness at the lower edge, usually to the left. We’ve carried on in that vein, month after month, year after year, even when the sky was mostly overcast.

The Tuning the TV Tarantella. The notes of this number shift a bit with each technological advance. Our present debate quick steps back and forth between to surf or not to surf, whether the venue is network or Netflix, on demand or of the moment. He takes the former position, I take the latter.

The Time and Distance Drag. Which is a drag because, trivial or not, these disagreements can take on heat. In the city, subway options are the issue. Uptown, downtown, crosstown. We each have pet preferences for getting wherever whenever. As for out of town, thank heaven for GPS or murderous mayhem might ensue.

We could easily settle our signature silly arguments. By checking the calendar phases of the moon. Googling our stream or non-stream options ahead of screening. Clocking actual travel times from one station stop to the next. Riding together to avoid suspicion of misreads where miles per hour are concerned.

Simple as that, decades of atonal music would fall silent. We could leave the dance floor and sit down. On the other foot, as our long time together grows longer, I suspect we should hang onto every form of available movement, including exercise of the small bones we pick with each other, one gradually slowing toe tap at a time.  Alice Orr – https://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

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A Time of Fear & LovingIt is Amanda and Mike’s second time on the dance floor, and every step takes them deeper into danger. Don’t miss Alice’s latest novel, A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Book 5. Available HERE. Look for all of Alice’s books HERE.

What readers say about A Time of Fear & Loving. “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.”
“A budding romance that sizzles in the background until it ignites with passion.”
“The best one yet, Alice!”

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