Author Archives: Karyn Good

Karyn Good

About Karyn Good

I grew up on a farm in the middle of Canada's breadbasket. Under the canopy of crisp blue prairie skies I read books. Lots and lots of books. Occasionally, I picked up a pen and paper or tapped out a few meagre pages of a story on a keyboard and dreamed of becoming a writer when I grew up. One day the inevitable happened and I knew without question the time was right. What to write was never the issue - romance and the gut wrenching journey towards forever.

Six Sentence Sunday

Posted on by
15

It’s Six Sentence Sunday. Where writers share a mere six sentences from their works. It’s like passing around a book of chocolates. Only you don’t have to stop at just one. Tour around and read as many six sentence offerings as you want without feeling guilty.

I’m sharing snippets from my debut romantic suspense novel, Backlash, which will be available as of June 1st.

My Heroine, Lily, and my hero, Chase, are having a…discussion.

For once, she didn’t want to do the right thing. The sensible thing. The good girl thing.

“As for Tessier…I’m going to feast on every second of payback that bastard has coming for putting his hands on you.”

Rebel thoughts whispered through her mind, like a breeze swirling up the fallen autumn leaves.

Want it.

Go here to see the list of other links with snippets for you to enjoy!

If Life Were Like That…

Posted on by
4

If life were like that…I’d be reading instead of cleaning. A cleaning service would come in every week to shovel out Camp Good and help keep it sparkly clean. Not in twenty-two years of marriage, eighteen of those being a mother, have I figured out how it can get so damn disorganized around here  in a space of hours. Suffice it to say we like the ‘lived-in’ look.

Now I’ve heard it said that some people enjoy cleaning, I’ve even met a few who’ve confessed to such disturbing traits. Nightmarish stories of getting up before the sun rises to vacuum, excitement over certain brands of cleaning products. I’m not sure I believe them. But if it’s true, I want to know what they put in their morning tea that causes this strange desires. Or maybe I’m missing a gene.

Interesting fact: One writer Ava Gardner did know quite well was Ernest Hemingway, with whom she was good friends. She starred in three movies based on his writing – The Sun Also Rises, The Snows of Kilimanjaro andThe Killers.

If life were like that what would you be doing right now?

Carnivalesque: Creepy Occurances

Posted on by
Reply

It’s Thursday and we’re taking our Travelling Blog Show on the road to Joanne Brothwell‘s blog. This week’s topic? What is the creepiest thing that ever happened to you that you couldn’t explain? I kid you not, that’s what we’re dishing on this week. Come join Janet Corcoran, Hayley Lavik, Jana Richards, Joanne Brothwell and myself as we confess to the creepy. We love to hear your about your experiences and hear your opinions!

 

 

 

Appearances

This Saturday, April 21st, at 1:30 pm I’m at Chapters (in my home city of Regina, SK) reading from my writing group’s anthology: Love, Loss and Other Oddities: Tales from Saskatchewan. I’ll be sharing my time with four other lovely Saskatchewan authors: Annette Bower, Jana Richards, Anita Mae Draper, and Jessica Eissfeldt. Join us for an afternoon of reading.

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday, April 26th, at 7:00 pm I’ll be at the Regina Beach Library reading from my upcoming release, Backlash. I’ll be joining Annette Bower as she reads from her new release: Moving On: A Prairie Romance. 

What he’s sworn to protect, she’s willing to sacrifice to save those she loves…

 

Why They Can’t Be Together

Posted on by
4

 

Internal conflict and Character Growth

We all know falling in love involves drama. I don’t think there’s been a romance in all of history that did not involve some kind of conflict. There is no romance without it. In the romance genre it’s about how the characters overcome conflict to end up together. The real life relationship of King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson come to mind. Though their relationship was mired in controversy they certainly encountered some pretty large obstacles. The fictional couples of Jamie and Claire and Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy. Abdication, time travel, and social standing make great conflict. Dealing with these issues makes for lots of internal angst.

All but the most minor of characters need goals, motivation and conflict. Goal is the future. Motivation is the past. Conflict is the present. It’s what characters want, why they want it and why they can’t have it. It’s the backbone of the romance novel. Creating it takes skill, planning and careful thought.

Conflict (Why They Can’t Have It)

Conflict, of course, should exist on two levels: external and internal. I’m going to stick to internal conflict because as always I’m working through revisions and trying to amp up the emotional stakes. The tricky part is creating an emotional (internal) conflict strong enough to carry an entire book. For readers of the romance genre, emotional conflict is the point. It’s why we pick up a book. It needs to be strong and not easily overcome. We want to see them suffer first.

Conflict is the clash between wants and needs. Ask yourself: What stops a character from doing what he/she must versus what he/she wants? Another important question to ask is this: Why is loving this person the worst thing this character can do at this moment? Your hero and heroine want to be together but there are obstacles in their way. These obstacles need to be HUGE. They need to evoke fear and dread. They must expose vulnerability and escalate emotional risk. They must repudiate strongly held beliefs. Conflict is the reason the hero cannot have what he wants. Conflict or obstacles force an emotional confrontation and lead to achieving goals.

Things to think about when upping the emotional conflict:

Choosing both positive and negative beliefs and values. A strict code of honor. You know, something along the lines of “With great power comes great responsibility.”

Deciding which of these beliefs or values will undergo a change in order for the character to grow and commit to a long standing relationship.

An honest-to-God inner torment that is so close to second nature it’s next to impossible to expunge.

Having to act against those long standing values. Forced to run instead of staying to fight.

Picking a weakness. Deciding what makes the character vulnerable and rubbing their faces in it.

We shy away from huge drama in our own lives, at least I do, but we do want to see in books, in the movies, and on TV. What fictional struggles appeal to you? Reunion stories, revenge stories, fairy tales, myths and legends? What famous romance in history is your favorite?

Six Sentence Sunday

Posted on by
32

It’s Sunday and that means it’s time for Six Sentence Sunday. Different authors offering up little snapshots of their work. It’s a lot of fun, I hope you check out as many as you can.

These six sentences come from Backlash, my romantic suspense releasing on June 1st. In this scene my hero, Constable Chase Porter, has received a visitor, his mentor from childhood, Stan Knight.

Stan tipped his head, and Chase got that bug under glass feeling. “You’d probably find you had a lot in common.”

“So everyone keeps saying.” But he wasn’t looking to trade war stories with a thirteen-year-old. He didn’t want to acknowledge a connection of any kind. He didn’t want to feel anything.

That’s it. Six little sentences to tempt and tease. Remember to check out the other offering here.

Carnivalesque: Geeky Pleasures

Posted on by
Reply

Join us today for another stop on Carnivalesque: The Travelling Blog Show. Today we’re at Hayley Lavik’s wonderful blog confessing our geeky pleasures! Those hobbies no one else gets but you. That doesn’t stop you from talking about it. Come join Hayley Lavik, Janet Corcoran, Jana Richards, Joanne Brothwell and I as we dish on each other’s geeky pleasures.

Tense Moments

Posted on by
4

This blog post turned into more about links I’ve visited while revisiting the concept of creating tension in my writing. Something that’s on my mind as I revise my novella. I thought I’d share some of them with you. You know, just in case you’re interested.

This the second time I’ve posted this advice from an former blog post I found at Writer Unboxed. It’s the second part of an interview with Donald Maass that you can find here. It’s about creating tension on every page.

Donald Maass: The absolutely essential exercise that everyone should do, with every novel, is to toss the manuscript pages in the air and collect them again in random order. (The pages must be randomized or this won’t work.) Next, go through the manuscript page-by-page and on each page find one way to add tension. Now, that sounds easy enough but most people are quickly stymied. That is because they do not truly understand what tension means. In dialogue, it means disagreement. In action, it means not physical business but the inner anxiety of the point-of-view character. In exposition, it means ideas in conflict and emotions at war. Study your favourite novelists. If they make you read every word, even while turning pages rapidly, it is because they are deploying tension in a thousand ways to keep you constantly wondering what’s going to happen. Tension all the time is the secret of best selling fiction, regardless of style, genre or category. If it sells big, it’s got tension on every page.

I’ve been on a reading binge for the last week and I’m on my third book. Nothing goes with a sinus/cold/cough thingy better than a book, especially in the middle of the night. As a rule, I have no serious shut-eye issues and I think I panic a bit when I can’t sleep. Or breathe. Reading calms me and passes the time until the over-the-counter drugs take affect.

All three books are paranormals. I don’t like to read romantic suspense while I’m knee-deep in writing it. Okay, so it’s supernatural suspense but, like, I’m going to read something I don’t love when I feel like crap. Anyway, three books, three different stories, two that made me read every word and one that did not.

Another great blog post about tension of every page from The Sharp Angle. I love how she talks about worry for the moment keeping readers turning the page.

Even in the not-so-action-filled scenes, there is still tension as we absorb everything that’s happened or is going to happen. Tension does not always equal action. It always equals worry, whether the current pace is high or low.

(The Hunger Games come to mind as a good example of tension on every page.)

Yet, another great article on creating tension at the Flogging the Quill blog.

You don’t have to create overt conflict on every page—a story with strong stakes and consequences makes it possible to use impending conflict to keep building tension in a reader. There will be tension on every page even without direct conflict. Have those happy moments, but create “when-will-the-trouble-I-know-is-coming-strike?” story questions that foreshadow trouble which will damage or diminish the protagonist.

Oh look, time for more cough medicine. Got any great book recommendations showcasing great tension? I’m almost finished with book three. And I hope this cold is finished with me.

Six Sentence Sunday

Posted on by
20

It’s Sunday and that means another six sentences! Check out the main stage at Six Sentence Sunday to link to more great novel snapshots.

More from my romantic suspense, Backlash, that releases June 1st from The Wild Rose Press.

Small town teacher, Lily Wheeler, is upset over a vicious attack on one of her student’s. She’s also trying to make sense of the sudden reappearance of an ex-high school sweetheart. You met Chase Porter last week.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, because apparently stupidity was also a symptom of fear induced insanity. Like his presence was the biggest thing she had to worry over. Like she cared that he had appeared out of thin air, in the nick of time, after disappearing for a decade.

“Rescuing you?” His hands settled on his hips. His eyes traveled the length of her and back up, right before he shook his head like he couldn’t believe his bad luck.

And there you have it! As always, I love hearing your comments.

 

The Travelling Blog Show: Romantic Fiction

Posted on by
35

 

WELCOME to Carnivalesque: The Travelling Blog Show! Five writers (Jana, Hayley, Joanne, Janet and myself) are creating a travelling blog show. See yesterday’s post for a more in depth introduction of sorts. You’re invited to join us every Thursday as we pack up our opinions and travel to that week’s host blog. Each Thursday we’ll pick a topic  for discussion.

Yay! This week I’m going to start things off with:

It’s called the romance genre, but what’s romantic about it?

Jana: What makes a novel romantic for me is emotion. It’s all about the feelings the couple experiences as they fall in love. One minute they’re on top of the world and the next they’re totally dejected because they believe their love can never be. I want to feel everything this couple is feeling, and experience all their highs and lows on their journey to love. I want to feel like I’m the one falling in love. A romance novel falls flat for me if I can’t feel those emotions.

Hayley: I’m probably in the minority about this, but my first thought goes to consent. Both partners expressed a desire to sleep with each other in the sex scene? Their attachments formed through natural circumstances, rather than coercion or pressure? Score! That’s so romantic!

So many romance plots (in any medium) seem to rely on the assumption that we, the reader/audience, know those two are going to get together in the end, so even if they’re reluctant in the moment, we know what’s best *nod*. This creates an alarming number of stories involving stalking, one-sided relationships where one partner is just the prize, and sex where one person says “No,” but it’s okay because we know they both secretly want it. Not cool.

In the middle of all this, if I find two people forming a loving, respectful, and consensual relationship, that makes me swoon every time!

 Janet: Back in the day (I swore I’d never use that phrase and, yet, here I am), when you went into the bookstore and zipped to the romance section you were sure to get, well, a romantic read. Virile heroes saving the damsel in distress. Romantic gestures to woo said damsel in distress. And you were always guaranteed a happily-ever-after! Now, I don’t think you can count on that! Some of the recent novels read under the romance genre umbrella lack romantic gestures. Sure, there’s a romance between the hero and heroine, but the sub-plot (because I firmly believe the main plot in a romance story should be the romance), steals the show! So, should some of these books being shelved under Romance, not be better described as, for example, Women’s Fiction with romantic elements? Romance genre = the story of two people falling in love = romantic = my take on the topic!

Joanne: If I was to really think about the word romance, what comes to mind for me is the emotional connection between two people. Wikipedia defines it as:  Romance or romantic usually refers to Romance (love), love emphasizing emotion over libido. The books I enjoy the most always emphasizes the emotional connection rather than the hot, steamy sex. Although having both is fine, as long as sex isn’t the focus.

I find human relationships fascinating. Communication within those relationships is even more interesting; the nuances in pitch and volume, facial expressions, and word choice between romantic partners. The meta-communication that tells you the most about the relationship is often so subtle it would be difficult to pick up as an outsider. Those are the things I enjoy reading and writing about. The complexity of emotional connections.

Karyn: For me romance novels (and I’m not sure that’s an apt term anymore) are about the growing relationship between the main characters in the book. There’s no surprise ending. The heart of the story is in the developing connection leading to a commitment of sorts. But where’s the romance? Because I keep getting stuck on that word.

By far the majority of the books I read have alpha heroes (romantic suspense or paranormal). I love them. If we’re talking fantasies here? Then I want commanding, and I want confident, and damn it, I want big…brains. We’re often talking life or death here. But more than that I want to read about an intelligent and mutually respectful relationship. In and out of bed.

In the end, maybe it’s more about me, as the reader, being romanced by the heart wrenching emotional journey of finding the right partner.

We’re moving the party to the comment section! Please, weigh in with your thoughts and opinions. We’d love to hear from you.