THE PARADISE OF HAWAII

As I sit at my desk in the Pacific Northwest with cloudy skies and still on the chilly side in late April, visions of palm trees, sandy beaches, and the mesmerizing beauty of the ocean dance in my head.

My wife and I are avid travelers to Hawaii, loving everything about it from the breathtaking scenery to the mouth watering food to the tropical drinks to the myriad activities to the friendly natives. Definitely the type of place we could easily see as our final destination before the sun sets on our precious time left.

But while we plan for the future and deal with the day to day realities of the present, as a novelist, I am able to take us and my readers to Hawaii through my mind's eye and creative juices. This year, I have two novel's out that take place in Maui, easily our favorite destination among the islands, though the others certainly have their charms.

MURDER IN MAUI: A Leila Kahana Mystery is currently a highly acclaimed bestselling medical mystery eBook that I had fun writing and researching in developing a great plot and travelogue singing the praises of Maui.

And coming out in June is my contemporary romance from Harlequin, PLEASURE IN HAWAII. It allowed me to look at Maui from a different perspective in showing its romance side for any lovers to appreciate. This novel is the first of a Hawaiian series titled, PASSIONS IN PARADISE.

The second book in series, PRIVATE LUAU, takes place in Honolulu and comes out in December. I love Honolulu and other parts of Oahu and enjoyed some firsthand research in exploring its many wonders.

Until my wife and I can one day settle into a nice beachfront property in Hawaii, sipping Mai Tais and admiring the ocean, nice to know we can still dream about paradise and share the dream through my fiction, while getting paid to do so.

If you could live anywhere in the world, with money no object, where would it be?

Where do you call paradise?

It's not me, it's you

A few months ago I came across a website of Caribbean prose and poetry. The work was intriguing, the imagery was colourful, deep and full of innuendo; one could read between the lines between the lines. It struck a chord with me because it was the kind of writing that I had read in my high school Caribbean literature classes; this was the type of writing that had been held up to me as good writing. I wanted to belong, and so I laboured, forced some words on to the page, submitted them and held my breath.

Well, let's just say that my name is not among the list of authors in their latest publication. It was a difficult and important lesson for me. After going through all the emotional phases associated with rejection, I realised that my exclusion was not a reflection of my talents as a writer. I am generally a light-hearted person, quick to see the humour in every situation. I am not saying that I can only write one thing, but I am best at writing quick moving prose with witty dialogue. I cannot write what I am not, and when I try, I will be called out as an imposter. My challenge now is to recognise that I can make an important contribution writing what I enjoy!

Tugging at the Old Hearts Strings

I watched a movie recently. It was Crazy Heart, starring Jeff Bridges as a washed-up country music star named “Bad” who is drinking and smoking himself into an early grave as he makes the rounds of dive bars and bowling alleys trying to pick up a few bucks to keep himself in whiskey and cigarettes. He’s not doing it very well. He’s been married and divorced four times and has a 28 year old son he hasn’t seen since the boy was 4. He is in many ways the epitome of a loser. It’s every cliché you’ve ever heard about country music.

“Bad,” who lets us know a couple of times that he’s 57, gets what looks like a last shot at love but blows it because of his drinking. That forces him to clean up his act, and he rediscovers in himself his ability to write songs that touch people. The ending is bittersweet and I won’t spoil it for you, but I thought the acting was quite good and will tell you I enjoyed it.

I have not read the book upon which the movie was based and can’t speak to its originality, but the movie was absolutely predictable at almost every step along the way. I could see every move behind the scenes that was meant to play on the audience’s emotions, to tug on their heartstrings as the saying goes, from the achingly cute kid to the moment when “Bad” lies on his bathroom floor sick after another night of drinking. But despite this, I enjoyed the movie. I knew where they were leading me and I willingly agreed to be led there. I won’t call it a great movie but I didn’t feel like I wasted my time.

I guess I believe there’s a place for heartstrings tugging movies, and books. I didn’t always think that way. I’d say it was because I’m getting older, but that’s pretty cliché in its own right. I know it’s not because I’m getting wiser. I definitely think there’s an element of openness in me these days that I didn’t used to have. I don’t feel as if I need resist the emotional tug of certain kinds of stories. I wonder why I ever did.

How about you? What movie or book have you seen/read that tugged at the old heartstrings? Was it predictable and you liked it anyway? Can you say why?

Passion and Purpose: Rediscovering a hobby

It’s been years since I sewed. Sewing, embroidery, making little crafts was something I did as a child and into my early twenties. But then life got in the way. First there was college, then graduate school, then getting a career off the ground. Now with a day job, writing, a husband and three kids my passion for sewing has taken a back stand.

That changed recently. A few weeks ago my daughter had a craft project to do for a religious class. My husband elected me to do it with her. I was reluctant at first and waited last minute. Finally we were up late the night before the project was due working on it.

I took down my sewing kit, and was hit with a wave of nostalgia. There were all the embroidery thread that I hadn’t touched since college, and remnants of the cloth I used to sew my daughter’s curtains when she was three.
My daughter was excited. She wanted to take out the needles and start sewing. But the project was a simple banner requiring only cutting and pasting fabric. She quickly lost interest. But that sparked an idea. Why don’t I teach her embroidery?

So this weekend, in time for Spring Break, we started an embroidery project. We went to the store and got a few pieces of cotton fabric. I drew a flower and we started working on it. Though the project was my daughter’s, it filled me with a sense of calm contentment. I had forgotten just how fulfilling a hobby can be.

Yes I write novels. That has been my main and all consuming hobby for some time now. But recently, with publishing and promotions and the Dorchester woes, it feels more like a job or a business than a hobby. But to put that needle to the fabric and create something simple yet beautiful is fulfilling. And to see my daughter’s eyes light up… to see her take up the needle and thread without prompting and make those awkward little stitches, that is powerful.

So you know what? I am going to resume my sewing. I’ll start first with small projects that my kid and I can do together and if time permits, graduate to larger projects. It’s a great way to spend time with my kid (purpose) doing something I love to do (passion). It’s a great combination of passion and purpose.

Have you discovered any long forgotten passions recently?

Busman's Holiday

Years ago, I read Dorothy Sayer's delightful mystery series about Lord Peter Wimsey. One book's title confused me, though: Busman's Honeymoon. It turns out that it's a reference to the British expression "busman's holiday," which means to spend one's vacation doing much the same thing one does for a living. A bus driver who takes a bus tour for his vacation, for example, or in Lord Peter's case, a detective who spends his honeymoon solving a murder.

For the past three weeks or so, I've been making piles of items and setting aside clothes to pack for a vacation. I started organizing them and realized that while I was looking forward to fun times and lazy days, my subconscious was planning to work. The pile included a dressy outfit, "signed by" stickers, and bookmarks; as long as I was going to be in town, I had set up a booksigning. Also in the pile were some nonfiction books related to writing or to my next novel. I had included some novels—but all were historicals set in unusual times. I thought reading them would give me a feel of how to unobtrusively add setting and needed background to my own new historical novel.

Once I noticed what had happened, did I replace those work-related books with fun reading? Not at all. Instead, I added some Internet printouts related to the heroine of my next novel, the beginning of a short story I'd like to finish soon, a short story that needs a polish before I send it into the world, and a novel draft I am reading and commenting on for a newbie writer.

So it looks as if I'll be working a lot, but I'm still looking forward to my vacation. Isn't it great to have one's work be so fun that one takes it along for enjoyment on vacation?

How about you? Have any of your vacations turned into busman's holidays?


Thanks for visiting. I'll be blogging again on May 5. See you then!

—Shauna Roberts

Speaking Tips for Writers

These 10 Speaking Tips for Writers are stright from Writers Market, but I wanted to share. I found it very helpful and hope you do to. Speak on!

1. Make your introduction brief. Like less than 30 seconds. If someone introduces you, skip the introduction completely, because you were just introduced. There's nothing that stalls a presentation or performance more than a two or three minute monologue before getting into the "meat" of things.

2. Use the podium. If there is a podium or table, use it to hold your materials. Sometimes we shake when we read (even if we're not nervous, though especially if we are), and we shake more if we become conscious of our own shaking.

3. Use the microphone. If there's a mic, use it. Sure your voice might carry without one, or you may have to fiddle with it a moment to adjust for your height, but people in the back can hear better when your voice is amplified. Trust me on this.

4. Encourage audience interaction. When performing poetry, this means you can allow an audience to clap if they choose to clap. When giving a presentation, let the audience know whether it's appropriate to ask questions as you present or if you'll have a Q&A after the presentation is complete. Then, make sure there is a Q&A.

5. Act confident. You might be terrified, but try not to let it show on the outside. To accomplish this, stand tall. Speak with conviction. Make eye contact. Most importantly, don't apologize. While you may know when you're making mistakes in front of an audience, many of them are probably unaware.

6. Be organzied. If you're giving a presentation, have talking points ready to go before the presentation. If you're reading poems (or from a fiction/nonfiction book), have your selections planned out before you hit the stage. Organization goes a long way in how the audience perceives you and how you perceive yourself.

7. Slow down. This is an important tip, because many people automatically start talking fast, especially if they know they're on the clock. I try to remember to breathe and pause in appropriate places. Nothing awkward, just long enough to allow my audience to digest what I just said.

8. Make personal, add humor. Sometimes your jokes will not be personal. Sometimes your personal stories will not be humorous. Sometimes the stars will align and both will coincide, and that's when you'll engage your audience the most. While I advise humor and personal anecdotes, make sure they have context in your presentation.

9. Stop before you're asked to leave. There's something to the thought of leaving the audience wanting more. Know your time. Wear a watch. And end a little early (like a minute or two). If the audience feels like the presentation or performance went by fast, they'll attribute it to your great speaking skills.

10. Provide next steps and/or a conclusion. Depending on why you're speaking, you should have some kind of suggestion for your audience. Maybe it's to buy your chapbook or applaud the hosts. Maybe it's to put some of your advice into action immediately. If you're presenting a topic, it's a good idea to sum up all the main points before sending your audience back out into the world.

What a Medicaid audit taught me about writing.

Medicaid has two functions. One is to provide needed medical services to people who can't afford healthcare. The other is to keep unscrupulous opportunists from profiteering off what's actually a pretty limited pool of funds. (Because in North Carolina healthcare is privatized and the folks providing the care are for-profit corporations who need a positive cash flow if they're going to pay their bills and feed their families.)

Mental health is probably the most difficult field for Medicaid to monitor. Schizophrenia is not like a broken fibula – you can't take before and after x-rays to see how well it's healed. There's no blood test for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; almost all diagnoses depend on subjective – trained and disciplined, but still subjective – interpretations of assessments, family histories, and direct observation. There's a reason this is called a soft science.

Since we can't produce pounds of recovery or inches of stability for objective measure, we have to document everything we're doing. This documentation goes through two sorts of review. Medically, every sixty days licensed clinicians review treatment reports and, if the intervention seems efficacious, authorize another two months of service. Financially, at random intervals – usually with a few weeks' notice –Medicaid auditors pull 10% of an agency's files and go through to confirm the dot over every "i" is precisely centered and every "t" crossed at exactly 90 degrees. Does the Comprehensive Clinical Assessment designate the services being provided? Are the signatures dated in the correct order documenting required sequence in developing the Person Centered Profile? Do all signatures include proper credentials? (Case in point: I am what is known in the industry as a Q. If you think of the mental health system as office computers sharing peripherals, I'm a hub; I don't actually do anything, I just help the parts that do do things talk to each other. A few years ago my official designation changed from "Qualified Mental Health Professional" to "Qualified Professional." If I had followed my signature with "QMHP" instead of "QP" at any time since the change the report or treatment plan would be invalid and my agency would have to pay back any monies received for providing services connected to that document.) Sounds rough – sounds ridiculous, in fact – but remember it took tax accountants to bring down Al Capone. Any fraud or mismanagement is going to show up in the paperwork.

I am a very personal-interaction kinda guy. Unconditional positive regard is my default mode and I'm always interested in finding out how others see the world. For those of you into personality shape classification, I'm a squiggly line. I don't just think outside the box, I sometimes have trouble finding the box. Anyone who's worked with me will tell you I'm good at mental health and absolutely horrid at paperwork. So you can imagine my delight, and the joy of my employers, when word came down a few of my files were being yanked for a Medicaid audit.

For two weeks I went through those files making sure everything was in order. Checking dates and signatures and releases and authorizations – all of the pieces of paper that seem unrelated to helping anyone but which are vital to making sure the people I serve receive the services they need. Everything was there, I do my job, but my stuff-everything-in-the-jacket filing method meant the folders had to be put in order, everything set where it should be for quick reference and easy access. By the time the auditors descended I had taut and shiny files ready for the closest inspection.

As I considered my files – the orderly and freshly polished binders ready to show off everything we'd done and why to best advantage and the equally complete but scruffy expansion folders jammed with randomly arranged forms and correspondence – I thought about writing.

Remember when you were learning the basics of writing, the rules and procedures, and you could think of a dozen famous woks that did not follow those rules? If you ever cited those examples you might have been told that when you knew the rules well enough you'd know when you could break them. I can't speak for you, but I know that from that moment on I looked forward to the day I could break the rules and get away with it. And once I got away with it - the first time I broke some rules and the story sold and my work was praised for being original and unexpected - there was no looking back. I was a writer, original and unexpected; I made my own rules.
But.
Every example of broken rules in great fiction stands out because of the contrast. That moment is memorable because it is surrounded by solid, workmanlike prose that set up the moment and carried the reader to that point. There's no reason not to strive for the unusual, the different, the original way to tell your story. In fact, you should be doing that every time you stare down the blank page. But remember that extraordinary buildings are created through thoughtful use of ordinary stones. Sticking to the basics of writing – putting things where your reader can find them easily, setting events in the order she expects – may feel like you're riding with training wheels, but do it. And don't do it like it's something you have to do, some dues you have to pay, to get to your story. Focus on what you're doing and put in the time and effort to get the basics right.
Because without a firm foundation of comfortable, reliable basics, your moments of transcendence will fail.