Everyone needs a framework, whether it’s building a house or doing the world building for paranormal romance novels. Readers need a reference point, a way to relate to both the setting and the story the characters are venturing through.

When you pick up a sci-fi novel, you expect it to show you brand new devices, far-off foreign places, and unique characters and creatures. An author has no limits, as long as the reader can relate and ‘see’ the situations, equipment, etc. That takes a deft hand and much behind the scenes world building to pull it off seamlessly in the story.

When you’re using a real-world setting, you can definitely take liberties, but you also have a responsibility to work within the framework of reality. (beyond just sticking with the laws of nature)

In The Matchmaker’s Mark, the first of my new paranormal romance series set in Charleston, South Carolina, I took some liberties within the city setting, but I worked to make it resonate with people familiar with the area.

One of my favorite comments from readers is that they recognized the Mexican restaurant where Lily and her brother Cade confronted a werewolf. It makes me happy to know that while I renamed the actual restaurant, the locals knew just where I was talking about.

Named Mama Rita’s in my fictional world, the massive burritos, layout of the place, and glowing reputation is all very much the same as it is in the real world.

Authors do that all the time -in every genre of writing – taking a real place and moving their characters through it. After all, the reality we’re living in is the most familiar framework available to us personally or through extensive research. The goal is that our characters add richness and depth to an area readers know well or can experience vicariously.

When I use real places in my futuristic Shadows of Justice series or in the contemporary Matchmaker series, I do it for myself – as a framework – but also for the reader. That familiarity is both a touchstone and a springboard for my imagination and the adventure that follows.

Live the adventure!

Alert! Debra Webb is hosting a special holiday party at the MurderSheWrites blog today and readers get the presents! Free ebooks to every visitor today and Debra is also running a kindle/nook giveaway. Please  stop by and join the fun with Debra, Peggy Webb and me too!

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Yes, I’m at it again. Comparing decorating and changes in real life to world building for paranormal romance novels. But I can’t help it, because I’m in a festive spirit with the holidays (and the new release of Shadows to Light). Besides, it’s possible some insight here might resonate with you too. (hey, I’m allowed my delusions)

When it comes to world building for novels or reality, you can’t beat a change in decor or the addition of festive decorations to help set a mood. Used correctly, even a little change-up can have a big effect in either real life or in the story you want to bring to life for your readers.

Around here, we traditionally put up our tree and decorate the house on the Friday after Thanksgiving. I like to get as much mileage as possible from the extensive holiday decor I’ve collected through the years.

This year, because everyone seemed to be suffering from prolonged trypophan-induced lethargy, we waited until Saturday. Which turned out to be especially beneficial for our Thanksgiving company who escaped before we discovered numerous bulbs were burned out on our pre-lit tree.

I won’t get into the hazards or hardships involved in fixing that issue, I’ll merely shout a very enthused “Thank you, honey” to my husband for his extreme patience. (I wanted to replace the tree, but I was out voted).

This year, Saturday was the last day our daughter would be around to help decorate and she and I worked to make the front porch festive while my husband got our inflatable Mickey Mouse Santa ready to go.

Since we were short on time, my daughter and I focused on the simple things that would make the most impact because we both wanted the job done quickly but effectively. Time didn’t allow for icicle lights dripping from every edge of our house.

Instead, I believe we created a warm and welcome holiday mood with our Mickey Mouse Santa, oversized ornaments hanging from plant hooks, a tall stack of wrapped “presents” guarded by a pair of nutcrackers, and a twinkling wreath on the front door.

It’s a simple world we built for our holiday spirit, it sets a happy mood for visitors and that’s exactly what we wanted.

World building for paranormal romance novels feels much the same to me. Choosing a focal point that makes a big impact, even if the item or trait itself is rather small. It all comes down to using whatever that focal point is in your novel for the best enjoyment of the reader.

So as you’re decorating for your holiday experience, try to keep that same eye for detail in mind as you write. And be sure whatever the detail is, that your reader can see and feel the difference it has on the characters and their journey.

Live the adventure!

Be sure to visit the MurderSheWrites blog today where I’m a special guest of Debra Webb!

Here’s one of my favorite lights set to music displays – just for fun!

When it comes to world building for a paranormal romance novel, there isn’t a better example of the effect of setting and mood than decorating for the holidays. Seriously, what better time for a writer to consider all the little details that transform a place from the everyday to the festive.

The route to my daughter’s boarding school went right through one of those blink and you’ll miss it kind of small towns. A tidy little place with a defined and well kept Main Street, it always made me smile to drive through during the winter. Wreaths on every lamp post, lights on the ornamental trees in the island beds that separated the lanes. Big red ribbons on shop doors, poinsettias of every color in pots along the sidewalks.

Small changes, big effect.

I admire Nora Roberts for her ability to write those big family scenes that just make you feel like you’re right there in the mix, surrounded by friends. Her deft touch, knowing just what to highlight or emphasize adds layers of delight or importance to moments big and small in her novels. As an only child, those scenes sort of mesmerize me.

It’s the same sort of table dressing that creates a world your reader can sink into and savor. Think about the traditions, the changes, the little things you do that your family values and consider those same sort of details for your characters and their stories. Your reader will thank you when the world building for your paranormal romance novel makes them feel included in the action.

Of course, however you might decorate and celebrate, the holiday season is now officially in full swing (no matter that retailers thought so weeks ago). I do hope you’ll consider adding books and ebooks to your shopping list for those you love.There are a variety of ways to give books from independent booksellers to the big box stores, as well as a variety of ways to send ebooks.

Whether through Amazon, B&N, Smashwords or another online retailer, ebooks can be a delightful surprise for the readers you might want to spoil this season.

Which of course brings me to a last bit of housekeeping before December is upon us. I’d like to congratulate the following winners for each of the NYBCelebration blog hop prizes. (Winners have been notified via email provided in their comment).

Prize 1: Jaidis has won the Regan Black Package which includes a Tracking Shadows t-shirt, and one ebook edition of each of my five novels: Justice Incarnate, Invasion of Justice, Veil of Justice, Tracking Shadows and The Matchmaker’s Mark.

Prize 2:  Sheriefa is the winner of the Thriller Package which includes kindle editions of Tracking Shadows by Regan Black, Abducted by T.R. Ragan, and Obsession by Debra Webb.

Prize 3: Congrats to Debbie G.,  winner of the Romance Package including kindle editions of The Matchmaker’s Mark by Regan Black, Deal with the Devil by Diana Duncan, and A Prince for Jennyby Peggy Webb.

Prize 4: Heather is the lucky winner who will receive a paperback edition of Abducted by T.R. Ragan (courtesy of the author)

Prize 5: And Bonnie can look forward to a signed paperback edition of Tracking Shadows by Regan Black!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by my blog and who hopped along with the NYBCelebration to promote global literacy!

Happy reading and live the adventure!

As a paranormal romance author I’ve learned a great deal from well crafted movies in the fantasy, sci fi, and romance genres. If you’re a fan of movies or television and, like me, you’re a fan of fantasy, you probably know new shows Once Upon a Time and Grimm have been out a couple weeks.

If you haven’t seen these shows yet and you do enjoy reading fantasy, romance, light horror, or otherwise paranormal stories, these shows will surely appeal to you.

Personally, I adore the rich and detailed world building they’ve done with Once Upon a Time. No, this adventurous fairy tale storyline is not strictly limited to the romance of Snow White and her Prince Charming, and it weaves other fairy tales into the large cast of characters.

The writers have done a fabulous job bringing it together, giving everyone detailed and believable motives and background and then carrying it forward (thanks to a nasty curse courtesy of the evil queen) into the modern era. And the world building details just make it all the more enjoyable.

Once Upon a Time shows it is possible to put a terrific new spin on the old classics and they pay homage to those classics with the flashbacks to the fairy tale world itself. It’s the blend of old and new, the layers of world building in both settings that makes this such a special show.

So how can that translate to paranormal romance writers or authors of any genre?

First of all the incredible scenery and costuming, along with the multi-layered characters, feeds an author’s creative side. There’s nothing cookie-cutter about this shadowy modern town. It’s a way to give back to yourself after all those hours at the keyboard.

Second, you can learn a lot about throwing your reader expected and unexpected twists and surprises along the way. Just when you feel hope blossom, the wicked queen (mayor of the modern setting) out maneuvers the good guy. This past episode, my romantic side thought they’d make a giant leap forward, and they did, but the writers promise it won’t be easy.

Cool- because the best triumphs never are.

Third, this show can really teach you about theme, if you let it. (It’s okay to just enjoy it, btw). Hope is a theme of fairy tales, and the writers have done an excellent job of translating that to the modern side without letting it get hokey. And the best part, for me as a paranormal romance author, is the way they’ve managed to vary that theme as it ripples out to the other characters.

Next time, I’ll tackle Grimm – just for all the action lovers out there!

Live the adventure!

October seems to be the month when everyone delves into world building, not just for paranormal romance novels, but for special, creepy effects. Or maybe it just seems that way to me because I’m a paranormal romance author.

Halloween is what you make of it and who you’re making it for. Decorating, fun, creepy or not at all is an inventive way to show others what you’re into and who your target ‘audience’ is.

In the light of day, it becomes glaringly obvious what sort of mood one’s neighbors are trying to create for the looming onslaught of Trick or Treaters.

Some yards sport smiling pumpkins and zombies, silly monsters and rather friendly looking vampires.

But walk on – if you dare – and you might find a bloody hand reaching up from the next flowerbed, be warned off by glaring jack o’lanterns or turn and run away when you catch a glimpse of glowing red eyes watching from a darkened window.

So are you looking to scare the crap out of a crew of teenagers or do you want to enjoy all that is adorable in the 4-8 year old group? Maybe, on Halloween itself, you’re thoughtful in the way of one of our neighbors and you have a little something to amuse the parents while the kids are scampering to and from the door.

In my opinion they deserve an award every year. They decorate in a not-too-scary theme so little ones feel welcome. Then they put out a cooler of beer and wine coolers for parents to indulge as they walked around. This is a fantastic plan and it really takes the edge off when the whining starts.

Personally, I decorate on the fun side, don my full length black cape, crank up the spooky music through our intercom (dates to the 70s but it still works), and sit in the creaky porch rocker to hand out candy.

Any mysterious effect is muted by the cats and greyhounds watching the procedings through the windows and door, wishing they could personally greet the tiny goblins, NASCAR drivers, princesses and ghosts who dash in and out of view.

Live the adventure!

Labels for various life stages (like ‘empty nester’) or for writing (like ‘indie author’ or ‘paranormal romance writer’) are simply ways of putting a framework around our world. A way of creating points or touchstones in our environment, whether we’re world building for paranormal romance novels, or simply living a life filled with inevitable change.

Calling me an empty nester – or even implying we have a half-empty nest is a bit of a misnomer. Yes, we have one child in college and one child at home, but the change isn’t all that weird for me. People ask me how I’m doing and I can honestly answer that I’m just fine. That answer shocks some and offends others, but it’s the truth.

Do I miss my daughter? Sure. But the more I think about it, the more I realize she’s been growing up and away from me since she exited the womb in a rather dramatic fashion so many years ago.

People blame my apparently easy-going demeanor on the fact that she went to boarding school the last two years of high school. And that may have something to do with it. But to really understand why this isn’t throwing me into a bottle of wine and anti-depressants, you need a little background:

This is the child who acted like birth was a trial for her, complete with a hand over her brow during the first APGAR test. This is the child who weaned herself – cold turkey – at two months old. She was ready to move on, thank you very much. If I wasn’t ready, well, I was the mom so I should be able to deal, right?

I dealt. (and hey, not breastfeeding meant I could have a little wine…)

At four, during a marine mammal show, she boldly raised her hand and with quiet determination that girl marched right out of the audience and straight up to the dolphin trainer who had merely announced a few, select volunteers would be able to meet and pet the dolphin. It didn’t matter that the trainer hadn’t yet selected her, it didn’t matter that I asked her to sit down. My baby girl was going to pet that animal.

I could list several stories from each of her formative years, but the summation is this: she’s been training me for her departure for years. She has systematically set her sights on a goal and worked her tail off to get there, whether it was petting a dolphin or getting into her first choice college.

That’s just the way it’s always been.

She’s a beautiful, capable independent young woman and while I’d love to spend more time with her in person, she’s walking her own road now, and looking forward to her next goal, doing some real life world building. She prepared me well for this day, something I’m grateful for since it means I can honestly say I’m doing great with my roomier nest.

Besides, having only one child in the vicinity means I have a bit more time to play with my fictional characters and the world building for my next paranormal romance novel!

Live the adventure!

I had the honor of being an early reader for L.J. Sellers’ new futuristic thriller, The Arranger. It was well written, sported a riveting storyline, but the world building for her near future 2023 was so carefully crafted and perfectly executed that I felt it deserved a feature here, where I so often discuss world building for paranormal romance novels.

True, the only ‘para’-normal element of Sellers’ book is that it’s set in the future, but there are all kinds of things writers can learn from her excellent example:

Sellers is clearly up on current events. In The Arranger, Sellers extrapolated current political situations and societal issues into a frighteningly possible framework for 2023. This has a seriously chilling effect (and it’s a great skill for a thriller author).

Everything from outrageously inflated gas prices to a shortage of doctors came into play for world building in this novel, and Sellers threw increasingly impossible obstacles at her characters within the dangerous and interwoven plot lines.

But Sellers doesn’t preach, there’s no sense of author intrusion or even a conveniently placed soapbox. Which is an excellent compliment to her world building talent.

Instead, Sellers’ characters in The Arranger deal with the grim realities of budget cuts, a fragile job market, and a broken health care system in the only ways that make sense to them and fit their personal agendas.

This is world building for the sake of intensifying the experience for the reader. Whatever Sellers personal views, her characters have independent, individual reactions and motivations that make the story all the more gripping because the reader can sense how easily the bleaker elements of Sellers’ 2023 could happen.

I can’t say I loved the future that Sellers created for The Arranger, but that’s precisely why it is such a great read.

No, much like my own world building for paranormal romance novels, I desperately hope Sellers’ fictional changes don’t come about. But I’ll gladly revisit her fictional worlds anytime I want to experience a great reading escape.

Live the adventure! (and pick up your copy of  The Arranger today)!

Perspective matters when you’re world building for a paranormal romance novel- or any genre really. Perspective of individual characters, between characters, and as it relates to the conflict or situation.

But lately, I’ve realized just how quickly perspective can change in real life.

As we moved our daughter off to college and I find my ‘nest’ is now half empty, my perspective has changed. The ripples can be felt in my increased productivity as well as the new, real world building choices I’ve made as a result of the change in circumstances. We’re not in conflict: our daughter is happier than ever in her new environment. But things are different.

During the parent orientation that followed the moving and rather exhausting unpacking process, we were asked how we felt. Sad? Nervous? A little of both? Or were we ready for a second honeymoon?

My hand shot up for that option and my husband and I chuckled a bit. My son (all 6’3″ and fifteen years of him) leaned forward and said, “Mom! I’m still here!”

Well of course he was still here. I hadn’t forgotten him. (Besides, he’s impossible to misplace now that he towers over the whole family and a great portion of the population. Most people on the campus thought he was our college student.

But being ready for a second honeymoon was no reflection on my son and the certain fun ahead of us as he makes his way through high school and into college. I’m looking forward to all of those milestones for him.

But I’m also looking forward to the small changes in my real world. I make different menu choices, I have a bit more free time, certain parts of the daily schedule are more relaxed.

Is missing my daughter part of my new real world perspective? Naturally. And not just because it’s tough being the only female around here sometimes. But knowing she’s happy and content frees up a lot of mental space to explore the world building for my paranormal romance novels as well as tweak my real world expectations and experience.

In other words, watching my kids grow up and navigate in the worlds they’re building for themselves is a real joy.

And a second honeymoon would be awesome! At least from my parental perspective.

Live the adventure!

I get my hair colored tomorrow, but that’s probably not why you checked in. This is supposed to be a world building day… although hair color can be vitally important to the real world we build for ourselves. But, I digress.

As a paranormal romance author, I’ll admit, hair color is something I often have to go back and double check as I’m crafting my novels. My beta readers are even warned to watch for it.

In short stories I usually keep pertinent details together without a cheat sheet, but for whatever reason, in the process of writing my paranormal romance or urban fantasy novels and learning more and more about my characters, the hair color changes (often without warning).

Sure, as the author you’d think I’d naturally be in charge of things like that. Unless you’re also an author, in which case you probably understand how myriad details can get blurry as the story charges forward and attempts to take over. Writing Trina, the alpha female assassin in Tracking Shadows, was a recent exception. I never once forgot she was a sultry red head.

Years ago while reading an epic romance novel, no matter how the author described the heroine’s hair, I pictured the woman as a blonde. It still throws me when I re-read that fabulous romance, or the other novels where that dynamic woman makes a cameo appearance, that the author insists she’s a brunette.

But I didn’t build that world or those characters…

When world building for a paranormal romance novel, authors often have other things on their mind. Setting and circumstance and other elements can seem far more important to the story than hair color. But hair color is an important world building element of any novel, simply because it helps your reader identify with and create a mental image of your characters.

It’s a detail, sure, and it doesn’t have to come into play or be mentioned in every scene, but you want the reader to have the best possible experience as they read your books.

World building for a paranormal romance novel encompasses everything from vivid characters to anything-goes settings. As trivial as it might sound, hair color is a part of that.

And who knows, maybe coloring my hair will inspire me to write boldly in new directions or even build new worlds.

Live the adventure!

Nothing irks me more than when I’m reading, happily lost in wherever the author has carried me, and I come across a word or phrase that doesn’t fit the moment. I’m all about reading to build vocabulary, that’s not what I mean. I mean those moments when the prose is too twisted, a bit too clever maybe, or even just out of character.

How characters think and speak is an integral part of world building for a paranormal romance novel – or any genre. It helps weave the spell that keeps the reader immersed in the fantasy or romance or thrill ride.

As an author I’m guilty of it too, and it’s one thing I ask my beta readers to look for when they read for me. No, you can’t please everyone all the time with every phrase. But I try. If several beta readers get stuck on the same thing, I know something needs to change. I want to be sure that when readers open my novels, every possible aspect of the world building keeps them in the adventure.

Harsh, unexpected, or ill-fitting jargon is as troubling as finding Cleveland’s restored’57 Chevy (from the Shadows of Justice series) cruising through the streets and terrifying the horses and populace of of early 18th century London.

There’s a fun (distracting) site my web team pointed me to called Dack.com and it’s a BS generator. Which means you can play around taking a simple word or term and making it too complex for the moment.

For example, collaborative becomes “embrace interactive convergence” and engineer (since I live with so many analytics) becomes “benchmark efficient infomediaries”.

You can just imagine paging through a book, glued to the anticipation of a collaborative effort, only to read how your hero will “embrace interactive convergence” to catch the villain. Really? As a reader, that sort of jargon hiccup would bump me out of the carefully crafted world an author built for me to enjoy.

Dack.com is pretty much a fun exercise in time-killing. Unless, of course, you need help developing the vocabulary and speech patterns for an ultra techno-introvert or conversely, an obnoxious, extrovert dictionary salesman. (I think I sense a short story here…)

Hey, you’ve gotta use whatever works when it comes to world building for a paranormal romance novel.

Live the adventure!