Tag: #HarmonyDuprie

Characters Going Rogue #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

March 4, 2024

How do you handle it when one of your characters starts going in a direction you hadn’t planned?

It happens to me all the time, since I am a pantser. (I don’t outline my story before I start writing it.) Characters, both major and minor, start pushing me to take the plot somewhere I didn’t expect. How do I handle it?

As is normal for most of these questions, the answer is ‘it depends.’ There are a lot of variables. Is it a minor character or a major one? Are they trying to head down a path I think holds merit, or are they wasting my time? Do I even like the character?

For example, take Evan Bluffs from the book ‘The Samurai’s Inro,’ one of the Harmony Duprie Mysteries. My original intention was for him to be a ‘throwaway’ character, a short-lived red herring. I’d written him as unlikeable, at least from the local sheriff’s point of view, but he didn’t want to stay tucked away in the corner where I’d left him. He showed up again. I foresaw two potential story lines for him. One a redemption subplot, the other making him even more unlikeable. The second option was more fun, and that’s the way I went.

The situation in Wolves’ Knight was different. I had a nice little romance plotted out for Tasha Roeper, the main character. She’d been through some rough times in a previous book, and deserved something good to happen. I even mapped out a love scene for her. It never happened.

No, Tasha got into my head and revealed I was writing her incorrectly and hooking her up with the wrong man. Then she revealed the bombshell of who the right man was. It took the story down a different path, one that strengthened it. Best part, it took only a few revisions to fix what I’d already written.

But the character that threw me for the biggest loop was Jake Hennessey.

He was originally envisioned as a throwaway character in The Marquesa’s Necklace, then showed up in Her Ladyship’s Ring and took a major role. I tried to write him out of The Baron’s Cufflinks, but he insisted on being part of the plot. I gave up in the next three books of the series, and let him have his moments.

With the series completed, I was ready to move on to a new project. That’s when Jake revealed his true goal. He wanted his own book. I ended up writing two — the Fall of Jake Hennessey and The Rise of Jake Hennessey. They provide ‘bookends’ to the mystery series, although they are more crime/suspense.

I should give tribute to the picture that gave Jake his personality. I found it on Pixabay, and it was provided by Ambroo (Zafer) . The results of a Tin Eye search show it’s been used many times. I believe my graphic artist figured out who the model is, but I can’t locate the information.

Image by Zafer from Pixabay

Everyone who writes stories has to develop a method for keeping their characters in line. My method is listening to what they want to say and figuring out how to incorporate it into the story. How about the other authors in this hop? Check out the links below to find out. 

This question came up in the middle of the night, and I’m hoping someone cam answer it. For those of you who write non-fiction, does the narrative ever get away from you? Take you someplace that you didn’t expect?

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

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March 4, 2024

How do you handle it when one of your characters starts going in a direction you hadn’t planned?

What’s In A Name? #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

Feb 5, 2024

How do you choose your characters’ names?

Names are a funny thing.

Hardly anyone I know is happy with the one gifted to them by their parents, and many people go by a nickname. We are writers may have picked our own. (We talked about pen names last week.)  And in many traditions, names hold power. So, how do we pick the right ones for our characters?

Let’s start with my minor characters. I actually put more work into them.

First, I have to figure out what their role in the story is in relationship to the main character. Are they going to be a supporter? A romantic interest? Or the villain? Then I try to pick a name that fits that role. The bad guys/gals get assigned harsher sounding names with more consonants and guttural sounds. The romantic interests are given one that is smoother and more pleasing to the ear.

I used to attempt to make sure the name didn’t belong to a real person by changing the spelling, but I’ve given that up. There’s lots of people with non-traditional spellings, and it’s become a futile effort. Of course, I include a statement when I publish a story that all characters are figments of my imagination.

The other criteria I use is trying to include names with different ethnic backgrounds. The internet is a great help in the search. Yes, it can take me down the proverbial rabbit hole, but that’s half the fun.

Then there’s the list I accumulated during my last job of interesting names I ran across. It gets used for characters that add ‘color’ to the story. Ones that appear for maybe a brief passage or a chapter or two and never are heard of again. Or I might borrow a name from a book on the bookshelf that’s less than an arm lengths away.

That leaves the main characters.

They’re a different process. As the idea for a story works around in my head, the main characters name themselves. Sometimes I’ll hear a name in a song while driving down the road and it just fits. Other times I’ll wake up in the morning with a realization of the perfect name for a major character. I don’t the foggiest idea where the name “Harmony Duprie” came from, but I grew to love it while writing the Harmony Duprie Mysteries. Jake, who appears in those same books, was supposed to be a throwaway character. He didn’t even have a last name for most of the first book. (I’ve told that story before. He wasn’t supposed to be a continuing character, but wouldn’t leave me alone.) And Eli got his first name from a song.

How do the other authors on this hop name their characters? Find out by following the links below. 

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

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Feb 5, 2024

How do you choose your characters’ names?

 

How Many Different People Can I Be? #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

Jan 29, 2024

Do you use or have you considered using different pen names for different genres of your writing?

Back when I started writing poetry and wanted to publish, I picked a pen name.

Even published a few poems under using it. Why? Frankly, I thought my given name was boring. It didn’t reflect who I was as a person. I was more ‘artsy’ than it implied.

Time passed, and I was no longer the person the first pen name represented. It was retired. Life and circumstance presented me with the P.J. MacLayne moniker and I embraced it, first for my poetry and many years later, for my stories. As I’ve been involved in selling books at events, the writing personality and the day-to-day me have become entwined. There are people who know both names and use them interchangeably.

Advice floating around on the internet suggests that when a writer switches genres, they should also adopt a new pen name, especially if they write erotica. That’s to ‘protect’ readers who prefer not to buy those stories. I suspect there’s a hint of misogyny in that thought. Women’s stories and writing are still not considered as ‘important’ by part of the literary community, and the suggestion of changing names hints at making it easier to avoid those stories. Frankly, that thought process irks me. Readers need to be given more credit for being able to choose what suits them.

I don’t follow the advice about having different pen names. My urban fantasy/paranormal stories, crime,  and female sleuth mysteries use the same one. So will the hard-core mystery I’m currently working on. I trust my readers to purchase what they want. I don’t have any fans that blindly follow me and buy everything I put out.

But there are selfish reasons for my decision.

It’s time and attention factors. Social media is a necessity for an indie author, and there’s a lot of effort in keeping my name and books in front of a potential audience. To duplicate that for additional pen names would take energy I’d rather put into my writing, and make me crazy trying to keep track of it all. Besides, I’m not that good at social media. I’d be worse if I had to maintain accounts for several ‘personalities.’

I don’t know if any of the other authors who frequent this hop use multiple pen names, but I’m going to find out. I’m off to follow the links below and check out their posts. You’re welcome to join me on the hunt.

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

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Jan 29, 2024

Do you use or have you considered using different pen names for different genres of your writing?

Catch Them All – However You Want #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

Jan 15, 2024

Do your books have to be read in any particular order?

This is another one of those questions that I can’t answer with a simple yes or no.

I’ve tried hard to write my books so they can be read in as standalone stories. It hasn’t always worked. The Harmony Dupre stories can be picked up and read individually, but they were written in chronological order and it makes sense to read the series that way. That way, the reader doesn’t have to stop and think about the backstory.

But then you throw the Jake Hennessey books into the mix and things get complicated. After all, The Fall of Jake Hennessey was written as a prequel to the Harmony books, but I recommend it be read after The Marquesa’s Necklace and Her Ladyship’s Ring so the reader gets a different view of the interplay between Harmony, Jake, and Eli. The Rise of Jake Hennessey can be read as a solo story, but it ties up the entire Harmony story arch neatly. So the answer to the question is yes, but no. The books can be read in any order, but I suggest you read them in (mostly) the order in which they were written.

It’s easier with the Free Wolves series. Those books are true standalones. There is an underlying story arch, but I’m probably the only one who cares about it. That’s on purpose. Each book has a different main character, although they take place in the same ‘world.’ (FYI-I’ve had another book in the series floating around in my head for a while, and when I get it written, the story arch may become important.) However, reading the books in the order I wrote them allows the reader to have a clearer picture of the overall world.

 

To make this all a little clearer, I’ve listed the books in suggested reading order below. Links to the other authors on this hop are also there.

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

The Harmony Duprie and Jake Hennessey books. (link to the page on this website)

The Marquesa’s Necklace
Her Ladyship’s Ring
The Fall of Jake Hennessey
The Baron’s Cufflinks
The Countessa’s Brooch
The Samurai’s Inro
The Ranger’s Dog Tags
The Rise of Jake Hennessey

The Free Wolves

Wolves’ Pawn
Wolves’ Knight
Wolves’ Gambit

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How It Started…Origin Stories #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

Nov 13, 2023

Do you have an ‘origin’ story for any of your stories? Where do your ideas come from?

I’ve told this story many times. The Marquesa’s Necklace, the first book in my Harmony Duprie mysteries, started off as a paranormal romance called The Ghost Who Loved Me. It was a take on The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, a TV series from the late 1960s. I don’t remember ever following the show, but I must have caught bits and pieces of an episode or two. That may have been during a period when the family didn’t have a working TV. (Not because my parents couldn’t afford one, they just didn’t think we needed one.)

But back to The Ghost Who Loved Me. . . Harmony was created as a librarian in a small town library who encounters a ghost in the stacks. Eli. Of course, it takes her a bit to figure out he’s a ghost. You can still see throwbacks to that plot in the book.

It was difficult to judge because I was sitting on the floor, but I guessed him to be taller than me. His wavy sand-brown hair was the perfect length to run my fingers through, although I had no expectation of that ever happening. His clothes—white shirt, brown slacks and brown blazer with elbow patches—reminded me of a college professor out of a movie from the 1970s. As he turned and I could see his eyes, the cell phone is my jeans pocket vibrated. By the time I looked back up from the screen, he’d disappeared.

and:
That’s when I ran into him the second time. I was doing my normal thing of walking through the 940s with my nose in a book and I almost bumped into him. A sudden rush of cold air made me stop in my tracks and look up into a pair of eyes such a light blue they were almost gray.

“Oops, sorry about that.” I reached out to stop myself from falling, but he backed away. I managed to latch onto a shelf instead, so I didn’t end up with my face on the floor. My book did fall, and he bent over and picked it up. Without so much as a smile, he handed it to me and walked away without a word. Annoyed, I stood there with my mouth open and watched him turn the corner and vanish from my view. As I returned to my book, I smelled the most unusual thing. I don’t know if it was his aftershave or what, but it made me think of freshly-turned dirt.

Anyway, Harmony and Eli wouldn’t stand for it, and they let me know in no uncertain terms that Eli was flesh and blood. He had reasons for his elusive nature, which were revealed by the end of the story. The plot also went from romance to mystery, although a romantic subplot remained. As a tribute to the beginnings, I often added in a touch of paranormal to the mysteries. The house that Harmony renovated had a ghost that inhabited the third floor. Or was that just the old house creaking in the wind?

I still love the original title. Maybe I’ll use it for another book.

Bonus story: But in that first book, I also introduced Jake Hennessey, Eli’s cousin and Harmony’s ex. He was meant to be a throwaway character. One and done.

And what did he do? Turn up in book two, Her Ladyship’s Ring. He invited himself in, grabbed a beer, took a seat, and hung out for the rest of the series, getting in my way. I tried to write him out numerous times. but he kept coming back.

For example, in The Baron’s Cufflinks:

“Call me when you get there.” I leaned into the Charger planning to kiss Jake on the cheek. His trunk and back seat were stuffed with suitcases, boxes, and bags of his clothes and belongings, and I worried he’d have a hard time seeing traffic around him.

He turned his head at just the wrong moment and I ended up kissing his nose. Jake being Jake, couldn’t resist the opportunity. He pulled my head down farther and planted a big, juicy kiss on my lips. “If you ever get tired of Eli, you know how to reach me,” he said, grinning. “Chicago isn’t that far away.”

But later in the story

Still mapping out my plans for the morning—where would I park? Did I need to buy a pair of binoculars first?—I pulled into the parking lot of the bar I’d chosen for a drink. Just one, to get the lay of the land. It looked like the kind of place where cheaters would go. A little on the trashy side, but not taken over by meth-heads. A place where a private eye might hang out to catch a straying spouse in the act.

And there, holding court at the bar, was the last person I expected to see.

Jake.

That wasn’t what I’d planned. Not even close. But it worked and I went with it.

When I finished The Ranger’s Dog Tags, the last book in the Harmony series, I was ready to move on. I had two different stories I was toying with. I even started one. Then Jake happened. He popped into my head and informed me I was going to write his tale. I told him he’d lost his turn when he refused to talk to me several years earlier, when I tried to figure out his origin. He just grinned and told me nope, I wouldn’t be able to shove him aside. What’s a writer supposed to do? So, I wrote The Fall Of Jake Hennessy, followed by The Rise of Jake Hennessey. 

 

Check out the origin stories from the other authors on this hop by following the links below.

As always, please stay safe until next time.

 

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Jake Is Back, One More Time #NewRelease

  By Uncategorized

So much for retirement

For 22 years, semi-retired jewel thief Jake Hennessey honored his promise to stay away from Harmony Duprie. He has no plans to change that… until Special Agent Doan Houck saunters into Jake’s bar, claiming Harmony’s life is in danger.

She’s not the only one in jeopardy. Jake is run over by a motorcycle and is the target of a drive-by shooting. He doesn’t know who to trust. Not the feds Not the local cops.

Not even Harmony.

But Jake will do anything to protect his ex-lover. Even if it means matching wits with an FBI agent, revealing old secrets, or ending up in prison. Again.

If it comes down to saving his life or Harmony’s, there is no choice at all.

 

It’s been a decade since Jake Hennessey first appeared. He was supposed to be a background character, but he defied expectations and hung around through all of Harmony Duprie’s adventures. Then, of course, he wanted to tell his own story. I hope I’ve done him justice.

Here’s an excerpt:

Cloaked by the musty curtains of his third hotel room, Jake studied the traffic on the street below. He knew every unmarked car owned by the Oak Grove police, and two of them patrolled the neighborhood. Despite their presence, he’d been unable to determine their encrypted channel on the hacker’s scanner.

He turned away from the window, walked to the bedside table, and poured a second drink from the bottle Danny had left at the front desk. Doc Gabe would be upset with him, but Jake figured he deserved the break from abstinence. The doc had sighed while he studied the damage to Jake’s cast, and muttered something about sending him to a nursing home in Pittsburgh. It had been an empty threat.

Even flirting with Trina and Belinda at the clinic hadn’t eased his restlessness, and Jake paced as he sipped his whiskey. He planned meticulously for his heists, analyzing every contingency, leaving room for changing circumstances. It offered him a sense of control. He craved control. The current situation offered none.

He drained the glass and tilted his head up, letting the harsh liquid burn the back of his throat. A small, black spider wove a web where the wall and ceiling met. Jake had heard rumors about the Feds developing the technology to use robotic insects to bug a room, but not that they could spin silk. It seemed safe to ignore the spider.



You can buy the book at these on-line stores

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C59KDNNW

Nook (B&N) https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1143484076?ean=2940161154397

Kobo https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-rise-of-jake-hennessey

applw https://books.apple.com/us/book/id6449169609

Apple is taking a bit to take the book live, but you can get it on pre-order.

 

Teaching A Lesson in Fiction #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

 

May 1, 2023

Does every book have to have a moral?

Early in the story, I had a beta reader ask me what the moral of my coming-soon ‘The Rise of Jake Hennessey’ was. I admit, I had to stop and think about it. Did the story have one? I didn’t plan on it. All I set out to do was bring the story of Jake, Eli, and Harmony to a satisfying conclusion. There’s no moral. I wrote it for entertainment only.

Could I stretch things to find a moral? I can find lots of platitudes – right over wrong, love will find a way, crime doesn’t pay — although this is Jake we are dealing with, so the last one doesn’t count. But a moral?

But Jake is an anomaly. A good man with an illegal hobby. Let’s talk about some of my other books. Do they have morals?

Not on purpose. Again, I can come up with lots of platitudes. Love conquers all. Everybody needs someone. He who laughs last, laughs best. But a moral?

Again, I am writing for entertainment. The Free Wolves have some underlying themes that are ‘heavier,’ but they aren’t the major thrust of the stories. The Harmony Duprie books are more lighthearted. They are mysteries, but there isn’t a murder in every book. I do like breaking rules. I guess that’s why Jake and I get along.

So no, I don’t believe every book has to have a moral. What about our other authors? Find out by following the links below.

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

(if you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the cover of The Rise of Jake Hennessey, releasing on May 17th.

 

May 1, 2023

Does every book have to have a moral?

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On Sale! The Fall of Jake Hennessey

  By Uncategorized

Have you read it? You should, before the release of The Rise of Jake Hennessey.

And it’s on sale for 99¢ for a short time.

Here’s a quick excerpt:

The flash of metal reflecting a blinking neon beer sign in the front window had Jake on his feet and halfway across the bar in a second.

“Settle down, Duane,” the bartender said, backing up a few feet.

Jake recognized Duane’s type. Too skinny, pockmarks in his face, scabs on his arms, shaking so hard Jake didn’t know how he remained standing. If Duane was crashing, he became doubly dangerous.

Chairs scraped as other customers moved out of reach of the steak knife Duane waved, aiming at everyone and no one. There’d be no happy ending to the situation, at least as far as Jake foresaw. He circled to get in behind Duane.

“Put down the knife,” said one of his friends from several feet away.

“Take it easy,” said the other.

Duane didn’t pay attention. The weapon traced aimless circles in the air. He advanced two steps closer towards the bartender. “Don,” he slurred. “Don cheat me.”

“Nobody’s cheating anybody,” the bartender said. “Put down your knife and go home and sleep it off.”

It was easy to predict Duane’s next move. Jake had seen it repeated too many times. The druggie lunged at the bartender, but Jake reacted first and grabbed his arm. A dangerous maneuver, because tweakers often found bonus strength out of nowhere. He’d been in fights where it took three bouncers to subdue one meth head. Fate was on his side this time. The knife clattered to the floor, and a kick to the back of his knee ensured Duane did, too.

While all hell broke loose, with everyone yelling at Duane and Duane’s friends yelling at everyone else, Jake slipped out the front.

Book Description:

Jake Hennessey deals in selling fine jewelry of an illegal nature. The thrill of getting away with it is his addiction. When he hears a rumor about a rare old book in the personal collection of a small-town librarian, he gets the urge to try a new game.

After all, even jewel thieves get bored.

But the librarian, Harmony Duprie, isn’t what he expected and the challenge becomes serious business.

In order to win, Jake’s going to have to play by a new set of rules—and make them up as he goes along—because this time, he’s playing for the rest of his life.

Available at retailers below

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-fall-of-jake-hennessey

https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1615685161https://books2read.com/u/3kLM9g

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-fall-of-jake-hennessey-p-j-maclayne/1141380917?ean=2940161033050

Jake is Back! Cover Reveal

  By Uncategorized

Retirement isn’t all it’s cracked up to be for Jake Hennessey.

For 22 years, semi-retired jewel thief Jake Hennessey honored his promise to stay away from Harmony Duprie. He has no plans to change that… until Special Agent Doan Houck saunters into Jake’s bar, claiming Harmony’s life is in danger.

She’s not the only one in jeopardy. Jake is run over by a motorcycle and is the target of a drive-by shooting. He doesn’t know who to trust. Not the feds Not the local cops.

Not even Harmony.

But Jake will do anything to protect his ex-lover. Even if it means matching wits with an FBI agent, revealing old secrets, or ending up in prison. Again.

If it comes down to saving his life or Harmony’s, there is no choice at all.

This book has been a long time in the making. Between retiring and moving, Jake had to be patient with me while I ignored him as I took care of my life. He deserved my full attention as he told me his story. It didn’t go as I expected, but it went the way it needed to. (Jake working with the FBI? Who would have expected that?) I believe that the Jake books bring a additional richness to the Harmony Duprie Mysteries. With this book completed, I finally am able to move on to something new.

And here’s the cover, thanks to K.M. Guth

The release date for the Rise of Jake Hennessey is May 17th.

New Release

  By Uncategorized

 

For 22 years, semi-retired jewel thief Jake Hennessey honored his promise to stay away from Harmony Duprie. He has no plans to change that… until Special Agent Doan Houck saunters into Jake’s bar, claiming Harmony’s life is in danger.

She’s not the only one in jeopardy. Jake is run over by a motorcycle and is the target of a drive-by shooting. He doesn’t know who to trust. Not the feds Not the local cops.

Not even Harmony.

But Jake will do anything to protect his ex-lover. Even if it means matching wits with an FBI agent, revealing old secrets, or ending up in prison. Again.

If it comes down to saving his life or Harmony’s, there is no choice at all.