Beth Carpenter Books

Have you ever suffered from temporary book amnesia? That disorientation you feel when you finish a really good book, look around the room, and wonder for a moment where you are and how you got there?  Kind of like half the atoms in your brain are still in that fictional world? I’ve experienced this phenomenon all my life, but now it's climbed to a new level. I’m currently writing book #3 of the Northern Lights Series. Meanwhile the first book, THE ALASKAN CATCH , comes out in August, so I’m working on excerpts and articles for marketing that book. The second book, A GIFT FOR SANTA , comes out in December and I've been working on frontmatter and am expecting edit notes for that one any day.  All the stories are related, but have different characters and plot lines. Plus, I have a couple of different non-writing projects that need my attention. Sometimes, I find myself staring at a my keyboard, trying to remember what I'm supposed to be working on....

As I’ve practiced the craft of writing, I’ve read a lot about creating characters. They say your main characters should be compelling. They should have positive traits, but also flaws. They should be well-rounded, with individual quirks and personality traits. They should make the reader care.   Many years ago, I had a dog named Barney. I learned about him from a newspaper ad. Someone had found him running loose but couldn’t keep him, so she took him to a shelter, paid to sponsor him, and ran an ad to find him a home. The fact that he was running loose when she found him should have been a clue, but I missed it. I adopted him.  He wasn’t a beautiful dog. That blurry snapshot above flatters him. He generally looked as though someone had crossed Toto from The Wizard of Oz with Stripe from Gremlins . Barney had wiry hair that tended to stick up randomly and didn’t encourage the petting he loved. He was smart and affectionate, but he wasn't trouble-free. He lived ...

A first draft is all about the big picture. Who are these people? What happens to them? Why should I care? If done right, it paints a sweeping picture of the story.   Draft two adds more layers to the story and makes it come alive. And to do that, we need details. Last October, I decided to cheer myself up by dedicating a week to noticing the beauty around me by photographing  one beautiful thing every day. An interesting finding from this project was that it isn't usually the huge, expansive views that make me smile. It's the little things. A plant growing bravely out of a depression in a rock.                                                                                                            ...

According to Christopher Booker,  there are only  Seven Basic Plots  in existence.  And romance writers, with the required ending of HEA (happily ever after) have even fewer to chose from. Most, if not all, romance stories are Plot 7, Rebirth . Sometimes Rags to Riches , a Quest , or a Comedy might get thrown in as well, but romance is really about change and growth. Two people are meant to be together, but some force within one or both of the protagonists keeps them apart. When they grow enough to overcome that force, they have earned their HEA. Successful romance writers are prolific, often writing several stories a year. So how do they manage to come up with so many different stories using one basic plot? I think it’s a little like zucchini. We have two healthy zucchini plants in our garden. If you’ve ever grown zucchini, you know a modest plant can produce an astounding number of squash. I’ve heard a rumor that people in the Midwest lock their doors...

Synergy - The interaction of elements that when combined produce a total effect that is greater than the sum of the individual elements, contributions, etc. Dictionary.com On a recent road trip, we came across this field. At first glance, it's a typical cotton field. The cotton plants take in sunshine and turn it into cotton which we make into crisp sheets and comfortable blue jeans. Plants are the original solar collectors. But for the cotton to thrive, it needs water, and rain isn't always dependable in West Texas. Wind, however, is almost constant, and the windmills on this property produce electricity. Electricity powers the pumps that produce water from an underground aquifer for the irrigation system that keeps this cotton growing. At the base of the windmill, you can see a pump-jack, pumping oil from deeper underground. The oil will be made into fuel, which powers the tractors and farm machinery necessary to plant, cultivate, and harvest the cotton. Everything...

I’ve heard the best way to become a better writer is to write. That’s fine, as far as it goes, but writing the same thing over and over gets me nowhere. I need to hone my skills and try to get better with each book, each chapter. With this in mind, I’m always reading books, articles, and blogs on how to improve my writing. I often find lists of tips or rules. For example: Photo by Chance Agrella Ø       Never start with a dream sequence. Misleading your readers isn’t a good way to earn their trust. Ø       Amnesia is gimmicky, overdone, and unrealistic. Don’t use it. Ø       Let your reader get to know your main characters so that they will empathize with their struggles. I’ve just finished reading Dan Brown’s Inferno , and realized about 30% into the book he’d broken all three of these rules, as well as indulged in a little head hopping. We start off in a dream sequence, almost immediately r...

When I meet someone new, we start to talk about what we have in common, and if we hit it off, we tell stories. Stories of events, where we came from, the people in our lives. In other words, backstory. We share these things because the events in our lives have shaped us into the people we are today. It’s the same with characters in a fictional story. She stood at the crest of the hill, her short sun-bleached hair tousled by the wind. Mud streaked across her NAU sweatshirt. Okay, we have a snapshot of her, but who is she? In order for that character to seem real, we need to know her background. Was she an only child? Did she have any pets? Did she stomp in mud puddles or did her mother keep her indoors? Writers know these things, and since we’re trying to introduce the character, we want to tell the reader everything we know, as soon as possible. That’s where we run into trouble. If that person I just met immediately bombarded me with all his history and his most intimate d...