CPR for Dead or Lifeless Fiction: A Writer's Guide to Deep and Multifaceted Development and Progression of Characters, Plots, and Relationships


Book Description

Characters: Do your characters have no obvious signs of life, nothing that gives them unique personality, perspective, and passion? Plots: Are plots and conflicts created spur of the moment with no set up, build up, curiosity, or tension? Relationships: Are your characters merely going through the motions with each other? All of these and more are signs of dead or lifeless stories. The three core elements of story--Characters, Plots, and Relationships (CPR)--need to be developed three dimensionally. To truly be living, characters aren't simply existing and going through the motions. They possess fully developed external and internal conflicts. They're interacting in dynamic, realistic, and believable relationships. They have multidimensional character attributes that give them both vitality and voice. Finally, they're engaged in what makes life worthwhile with definable goals and motivations. This resource teaches writers how to identify dead or lifeless characters, plots, and relationships; establish proper setup; plant the seeds early with in-depth sketches; and pinpoint weak areas in CPR development. The only one-stop, everything-you-need-to-know 9-1-1 for deep, multifaceted Character, Plot, and Relationship development!




Woodcutter's Grim Series: Volume II {Classic Tales of Horror Retold}


Book Description

For the ten generations since the evil first came to Woodcutter's Grim, the Guardians have sworn an oath to protect the town from the childhood horrors that lurk in the black woods. Without them, the town would be defenseless...and the terrors would escape to the world at large. A four-book miniseries within the Woodcutter's Grim Series, dealing with the curse on the Shaussegeny family. Moonlight Becomes You (Book 4) {romantic paranormal} Very loosely based on "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse". When her child becomes deathly ill and none of the doctors and specialists can help him, Heather Rowe rushes to Woodcutter's Grim, hoping the boy's father can explain what's happening. But Lance Shaussegeny both intrigues and terrifies Heather as much as what he's told her of his hometown does. She soon learns that nothing in Woodcutter's Grim--including Lance--is what it seems. Bewitched (Book 5) {romantic paranormal} Very loosely based on "The Little Mermaid". Glynnis Shaussegeny becomes bewitched by the mystery man who appears out of nowhere on the abandoned property across the lake from her family's estate. But does Aric Sayer have even more dark secrets than she does? One Night of Eternity (Book 6) {romantic paranormal} Very loosely based on "The House That Jack Built". The curse pronounced on the Shaussegeny clan for all time was very clear: "Because the Shaussegeny name has long been synonymous with faithlessness, even unto your own chosen mates, only one chosen mate will be allotted to each of your kin henceforth. These chosen mates must also fall under the family curse, but these pairs will know true peace when they become one. Herein lays your salvation--and your damnation. Only if each of your clan remains faithful to their chosen mates in word and deed for all of their days will they have blissful contentment. Apart, mates shall be restless and forever unsettled, gripped by a sadness and despair unlike any other. A terrible fate will come upon the one who breaks the mate covenant." Gavin Shaussegeny has broken the covenant with his wife, Marnie, by cheating on her, and the betrayal carries a harsh penalty and punishment. Although Gavin regrets his faithlessness and loves his wife more than anyone or anything else, the house that he's built for himself is rapidly beginning to tumble down around him. There is only one chance for salvation for him now: Only his mate's undeserved forgiveness will free him from his punishment to re-live his betrayal over and over for all time. Beauty is the Beast (Book 7) {romantic paranormal} Very loosely based on "Beauty and the Beast". The Shaussegeny family curse came with one final pronouncement: "And now there is but one manner in which this curse can be broken and obliterated entirely: That beauty falls in love with the beast and vice versa, that evil loves good and good loves evil. If this should happen, your family shall be released from each aspect of my curse and your alliance with evil shall be ended." Ransom Shaussegeny attempts to cure the family of the curse they live under. Instead, he becomes a werewolf trapped in his beast form and isolates himself inside the family fortress. When he meets Tess Moore, a beautiful enchantress, and falls under her spell, Ransom no longer knows who or what is real--or whether the evil in Woodcutter's Grim is about to have the last laugh by dooming him, the woman he loves, and his family for all time...




Sweet Dreams


Book Description

Someone has unleashed an ancient evil bent on destroying Cassidy Christopher by eradicating the women he loves, one by one... Just one year earlier, Cassidy's daughter, Maddie, was attacked by a creature who was unleashed by human hands from its chains beneath The Protector, an ancient oak on the Christopher property. In the dead of the night, Maddie calls her best friend, Robyn Warren. Robyn hastens to be with the only family she's ever known. In the wake of newfound surrender to a love they can no longer fight, Robyn and Cass find they have everything they've ever wanted...except time.




Hunters Blues


Book Description

For the ten generations since the evil first came to Woodcutter's Grim, the Guardians have sworn an oath to protect the town from the childhood horrors that lurk in the black woods. Without them, the town would be defenseless...and the terrors would escape to the world at large. Loosely based on "Little Snow White" by the Brothers Grimm. The year is 2093. When the evil in Woodcutter's Grim unleashed with a vengeance fifty years ago, humans turned into ghouls that avoided the sun and water...and had the innate instinct to contaminate others with their evil. In no time at all, the evil spread and wiped out most of the world's population before the Protectorate--the guardians sworn to protect Woodcutter's Grim and those outside against the evil pervading it--came up with a way to hold the threat at bay, not completely but enough to save those few left. In these years, everything has changed, from occupations to marriage. A curfew has been imposed and all live within the heavily-fortressed walls on the Shaussegeny Estate. Few children are born and those that are have a mutated form of dwarfism that makes them barren. Protectorate hunters patrol the world outside in the daylight. They are the last of humanity with no idea how much future they actually have left. Unofficial Guardian and hunter, Reece Pallaton, wonders what it's all for and whether he'll lose everyone he cares about in this endless battle. Fellow Protectorate Brethren, Mishell "Shell" Anderson insists that they can find a cure, a way to survive and push back the evil, that life will someday go back to normal. But Reece is beginning to believe that the battle he and what's left of humanity are waging can never be won...until he discovers the source of the evil, the mirror that's only the opposite half of the "glass darkly" world he lives in, and his own terrifying connection to both.




Bridge of Fire, Part 3: Into the Sun


Book Description

For the ten generations since the evil first came to Woodcutter's Grim, the Guardians have sworn an oath to protect the town from the childhood horrors that lurk in the black woods. Without them, the town would be defenseless...and the terrors would escape to the world at large. A shape-shifting goat, William Gruff escaped being bound to the evil pervading Woodcutter's Grim, the sole shelter for supernatural creatures. Years later, he and his pregnant wife, Adaryn Azar, a phoenix, have no choice but to flee there themselves. But just one phoenix can exist in the world. Will the powerful magic Liam wields consume him before he can build the only bridge that can take him and Adaryn into the sun of Eternal Paradise?




Bridge of Fire, Part 1: Out of the Ashes


Book Description

For the ten generations since the evil first came to Woodcutter's Grim, the Guardians have sworn an oath to protect the town from the childhood horrors that lurk in the black woods. Without them, the town would be defenseless...and the terrors would escape to the world at large. The youngest son in a family of shape-shifting goats, William Gruff escaped a dire fate but his life is desperately lonely, engineering fantastical bridges that defy logic. Nothing prepares him for meeting Adaryn Azar. Adaryn has a secret that keeps her on the run. Just as everything she's ever wanted is about to come true with Liam, her enemy discovers her. But starting over would mean losing the timeless love she's found with Liam.




Bloodmoon Cove Spirits Series, Book 7: Bone of My Bone


Book Description

Nestled on Lake Superior in northern Wisconsin is a small, secluded town called Bloodmoon Cove with volatile weather, suspicious folk...and newly awakened ghosts. Don't close your eyes... How to bury what won't stay dead...? When Bennet Ryan was eight years old, he met Ice and fell for her. Yet who Ice was and where she came from was an enigma she adamantly concealed. When they were 19, Bennet demanded she entrust her secrets to him or he'd move on. Every year since he met her, she'd disappeared at the end of September. After Bennet left her, he'd worried she wouldn't come back within two weeks the way she always had before. His worst fear materialized when she didn't return. Now, at 20, Bennet is the new deputy sheriff in Erie County. Still grieving a year after her disappearance, he's floored when Ice reappears. As they fall in love all over again, September is approaching rapidly. Bennet is compelled to solve the mystery of Ice. The deeper he delves, the more certain he is that the hole the Mino-Miskwi elders tore in the veil between the living and the dead a century ago has created a maelstrom of twisted horror. How can he possibly save the woman he loves from an entity that wears the name of creation's first murderer, bears an immortal seal, and made a pact with the devil himself?




Return to Bloodmoon Manor


Book Description

Back into the mouth of hell... Daniel and Hannah Reynolds are newly married with their first child on the way when a notice comes from a lawyer saying that the remaining member of the Bonavaris clan has died and willed Bloodmoon Manor and all its possessions to Hannah, her former maid and cook. While Hannah can't fathom the reason for the bequest, the notion of selling the manor and the valuable items inside it begins to grow inside her like an obsession. She and Daniel have begun their married life with little more than outstanding debts from his medical education--debts that come due around the same time as the birth of their baby. After a lifetime of poverty, Hannah refuses to allow her child to face the kind of scavenging, hand-to-mouth existence that had led to her employment at the horrible Bloodmoon Manor in the first place. Unable to convince his beloved wife to forget about returning to Bloodmoon Cove to secure a future for their family, Daniel has no choice but to follow her into what he aptly calls "the mouth of hell"--a place Hannah just barely escaped with her life last time. Daniel's worst fears are justified when the doors of Bloodmoon Manor slam shut behind them. They've been lured here deliberately, and the horrors that haunt the dark, evil manor aren't willing to let Hannah leave ever again...




Crooked House


Book Description

Some doors, once opened, can never be closed again... Orphan and widow Corinne Zellman is stunned when she receives several urgent letters from a lawyer, telling her she's the only surviving heir of Edward Buchanan, a relative of her recently deceased husband. Though Corinne ignores the first few summons, too grieved to consider them anything but cruel hoaxes, she takes notice when yet another arrives, this time with a family ring identical to the one her husband wore and lost just before he was killed. Stuck in a dead end job and curious about the family the love of her life seldom spoke of, she reluctantly pulls up stakes and heads to Bloodmoon Cove, where the persistent elderly gentleman lives. There, with her best friend Ruby, she finds Crooked House, the family "estate". Crooked House certainly lives up to its disturbing name, as does Edward Buchanan, who is old and pale and disappears so frequently she can almost believe he's nothing more than a ghost. It isn't long before Corinne begins to suspect that her new family member had ulterior motives for insisting she come live with him. But to believe that is to believe that Rafe Yager, a hardened soldier, is entirely correct when he says Crooked House is dangerous. The longer she stays, the less chance she'll ever leave again. Ghost hunter Rafe is one of the last descendants of the Mino-Miskwi Native American tribe whose elders disappeared during a ritual at their sacred place at the top of Bloodmoon Mountain. Rafe has come home based on a terrifying vision of wide-eyed, wholesome dreamer Cori losing her soul to an evil she doesn't recognize. Crooked House is falling and its sinister legacy demands recompense for her husband's death--something that was no accident, as she supposed. Can Rafe save Cori from a sacrifice she never meant to make when she unknowingly came to love a monster?




Until It's Gone


Book Description

You don't know what you've got...until it's gone. Mitch has been playing a dangerous game. The lines between black and white, good and evil, saint and sinner are all blurred. Just when he thinks the stakes can't get any higher, in steps the only woman who could ever hurt him and the only one who can heal him. In the space of a skipped heartbeat, he can't imagine having more to gain...and more to lose.