Veronica Scott

The Dialogue’s The Thing

veronicascott — Mon, 20 May 2013 03:50:53 +0000

We were doing a series on how to use dialogue tags over at Word Whores last week, “He Said, She Said” and while I was researching my contribution (which you can read here if you’d like), I found all these great quotes about dialogue, from actors and writers. I didn’t use any of them but I hate to let fun quotes go to waste, so here they are for your pleasure:

Dialogue should simply be a sound among other sounds, just something that comes out of the mouths of people whose eyes tell the story in visual terms.
Alfred Hitchcock

A conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue. That’s why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity, two intelligent talkers seldom meet.
Truman Capote

A good film script should be able to do completely without dialogue. David Mamet

In every movie I do have a dialogue.
Jackie Chan

I landed a job with Roger Corman. The job was to write the English dialogue for a Russian science fiction picture. I didn’t speak any Russian. He didn’t care whether I could understand what they were saying; he wanted me to make up dialogue.
Francis Ford Coppola

Composers dialogue – and obsessively, bitterly argue – with other composers, often over the span of several centuries.
Brian Ferneyhough

To this day, I get rewrite offers where they say: ‘We feel this script needs work with character, dialogue, plot and tone,’ and when you ask what’s left, they say: ‘Well, the typing is very good.’
John Sayles

What I find interesting about folklore is the dialogue it gives us with storytellers from centuries past.
Terri Windling

I kept the same suit for six years and the same dialogue. They just changed the title of the picture and the leading lady.
Robert Mitchum

There are things that Scotsmen get and other people don’t get in the dialogue. Scottish characters can be pinpointed by a phrase, targeted very quickly.
Bill Forsyth

I listen to music two ways: As a person, you have an instinctive, personal, emotional response. But as a music supervisor, you have a secondary response, which is, ‘Will this sit well under dialogue?’ ‘Can people die to this?’ ‘Can people kiss to this?’
Alexandra Patsavas

It really just gives you a sense of when you need to have dialogue and when you don’t, and if your pictures are telling the story, you don’t need to have all this talking.
Craig McCracken

Happy Monday!

Weekend Writing Warriors More From the Cook

veronicascott — Sun, 19 May 2013 03:45:42 +0000

Since people were enjoying the character of Nadelma the cook in my unedited Shifter and the Girl-With-A-Secret paranormal novel, here is another excerpt from the scene in the kitchen where Caitlyn has gone to ask for a special meal to help Kyle recover. Nadelma has vowed to make a proper breakfast for a warrior.

There was a rare steak, an omelet bursting with cheese, crisp bacon piled high, country potatoes and freshly baked bread for dunking in a steaming fish chowder.

“Just one thing missing,” Nadelma said, pointing at the nearest kitchen maid, “Fetch me a glass of the fresh milk.”

“Milk?” Caitlyn choked back a laugh. “For Kyle? He’s a grown man, not a boy.”

Nadelma winked at her. “He once told me he runs as a cat. Or am I wrong?”

Caitlyn looked over to where the kitchen cat was lapping up a bowl of milk. As a vivid mental picture of the ferocious leopard with milk dotting its muzzle came to her, she laughed. “You’re right, I never would have thought of that.”

“Which is why I am head cook in this palace.”

I love and appreciate your comments and feedback! Go here to find all the other Weekend Writing Warriors and read an amazing variety of terrific excerpts…

(Photo from SXC by kris69)

WHY Do I Dream of Junior High School???

veronicascott — Thu, 16 May 2013 23:52:38 +0000

“Dreams are today’s answers to tomorrow’s questions,” said Edgar Cayce, the great psychic and seer. And I’ve had my own psychic dreams on occasion (no winning lotto numbers but no great catastrophes either, thank goodness.) BUT why do I periodically dream I’m back in junior high school? Not high school, not elementary school, never college…only good old junior high.

To my knowledge I have no unfinished business about junior high. In those days we went 7th through 9th grades and it wasn’t the worst of times nor the best of times but pretty much ok. I was never bullied. I wasn’t wildly popular although moving in from out of state in 7th grade had a certain amount of cachet that I didn’t really understand how to use so it drifted away. (Late bloomer here.) I was a homecoming princess, I was on the pep squad (not a cheerleader which even then required a level of physical co-ordination I didn’t have and it does help to know left from right LOL). I did my first dating, which didn’t go too badly although in the 9th grade my supposed boyfriend broke up with me by informing our entire Alabama History Class he was moving to Florida forever the next week. No, I don’t think his family moved to escape me – they still send cards at the holidays.

We had the future founder of a famous cable TV channel in our class (all the way through high school actually) but at that time we had no idea he was going to be so cool, although he was a big man on campus in football, which was all we cared about. And I wasn’t in his social circle…

In the 8th grade I had no out of state cachet left but I had good friends and I got my American history teacher to second place in the citywide Most Popular Teacher contest run by a radio station, which the school administration wasn’t sure they appreciated because maybe the other teachers felt slighted. My only time in the Principal’s office! In the 9th grade I mostly remember being happy and my volleyball team winning the tournament between the PE classes through some temporary miracle of me being able to hit the ball for about 6 weeks. Never to be repeated and I was NOT on performance enhancing substances LOL.

I never failed a test, never failed to do my homework, was never publicly embarrassed (well except for that one issue with my boyfriend!), had a tight circle of girlfriends (some of whom I still am close to), went to dances, had parties…so WHY do I every so often dream I’m back there? It’s never quite the same dream. For one thing, I’m an adult in the dream usually but not always and there’s never anyone in the dream that I know. The school is usually full of people, sometimes I’m driving through the parking lot and can’t find an empty space. More often I’m in the entrance hall and I’m supposed to be in a certain class or I’m looking for a certain teacher (never by name) and then I wander the halls, which seem familiar but…not…quite…and I NEVER do find the right room. But I’m not distressed by this in the dream. I just keep wandering. I’m always in the 7th grade halls, by the way, rarely anywhere else.

Once I was out on the PE field, quelle horreur! ( HATED PE in the hot, humid Alabama weather with a wild passion and please remember my lack of co-ordination). But even in that dream I was searching for a certain teacher, not running laps thank goodness.

I met my late husband in high school, not junior high, so if anything you’d think I might dream of searching for him at high school.

But apparently if I was Peggy Sue from the movie “Peggy Sue Got Married” I’d find myself right back there in junior high, trying to solve….something. I wish I knew what my subconscious feels I missed out on, so long ago!

Do you have a recurring dream like mine?

Here’s the trailer to “Peggy Sue” – I would like to point out I did NOT go to junior high in the 1950′s however!

New from Shona Husk RUBY’S GHOST

veronicascott — Tue, 14 May 2013 04:05:29 +0000

Today I’m very pleased to have Shona Husk as my guest, talking about her newest book, RUBY’S GHOST, out from Samhain Publishing today as a matter of fact. I’ve been hooked on Shona’s novels since THE GOBLIN KING in 2011, so a new story from her is always cause for celebration on my part. Now I’ll gracefully sit down and let Shona have the floor LOL:

Caught between two worlds

I didn’t set out to write a New Adult ghost romance, but I wanted someone who was caught between life and death. Echoing that transition from teen to adult seemed to fit with the story and the characters. There are choices to be made, friendships are kept or broken and not everyone grows up at the same pace. Sometimes you out grow people and you drift apart.

Tate, the hero of Ruby’s Ghost, realizes this at the start of the story. He also realizes that he is no longer in love with his girlfriend Ruby and hasn’t been for months. They’d stayed together because it was safe and familiar, but he wants out.

Unfortunately she doesn’t.

One accident changes what might have been a messy break up into a battle that crosses life and death and Tate is literally caught between two worlds. If he screws up and makes the wrong the wrong choice, he’ll die.

While Tate is fighting for life, Ruby, who died in the accident, is fighting to hold onto what she knows. Which is Tate. It takes her a long time to realize that she is better off without him if he doesn’t love her. She held on too long.

But Ruby isn’t the heroine of the story, Eloise is. Eloise is young and alive and busy moving on with her life, getting mixed up in Tate and Ruby’s dilemma was unplanned, but she is stable and becomes a focus point for Tate. However does she really want to get involved with a guy who might never wake up, and who may not remember her if he does?

Is it a love triangle when Tate has to choose between Ruby and Eloise, when one is life and the other is death?

I don’t think so, as his relationship with Ruby was over in his heart and mind. It is her that won’t let go as she remains in limbo unable to cross over and unable to live again. The story is as much about Tate trying to survive as it is about Ruby learning to let go.

And Eloise?

She has to learn to take a chance and stop playing it safe.

Do you hold on when you should let go like Ruby, or are you more like Eloise and needing to take a chance?

Here’s the story synopsis for Ruby’s Ghost:

Breaking up is hard to survive.

One moment, Tate Cooper is giving his ex-girlfriend a lift home on his motorcycle. The next, his soul is suspended between life and death, wandering in confusion between the accident scene and the house he grew up in.

Except it’s not his home anymore. In his old bedroom sleeps a beautiful young woman, the only person who can see him. And the only person who can keep him from succumbing to the temptation to escape the horrific pain awaiting him in his mortal body.

Eloise Jones should be studying for her college exams, but it’s tough to stay focused when a lost soul keeps appearing in her room. She figures it must have something to do with sirens she heard screaming in the night, but she’s helpless to assist—and helpless to resist.

As Eloise tries to help Tate unravel the tangled facts surrounding the accident, longing and desire grow into an almost tangible bond between them. But then a second spirit appears, one with a darker intent that could separate them before love draws its first breath…

Warning: Contains a vengeful ex and a romance that crosses the boundary between life and death.

Buy links:

Amazon |" target="_blank">Amazon |

iTunes |" target="_blank">iTunes |

Barnes & Noble" target="_blank">Barnes & Noble

A little bit about Shona herself:

Three time ARRA finalist Shona Husk lives in Western Australia at the edge of the Indian Ocean. Blessed with a lively imagination she spent most of her childhood making up stories. As an adult she discovered romance novels and hasn’t looked back. Drawing on history and myth, she weaves new worlds and writes heroes who aren’t afraid to get hurt while falling in love.

With stories ranging from sensual to scorching, she is published with Carina Press, Ellora’s Cave, Samhain Publishing and Sourcebooks. You can find out more at www.shonahusk.com

www.twitter.com/ShonaHusk

www.facebook.com/shonahusk

Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/lySiD

If Not Me Who Would I Like To Be?

veronicascott — Mon, 13 May 2013 04:04:35 +0000

Recently read a magazine interview where they asked some actresses who they’d like to be for a day if they could be anyone. Most picked another actress (Angelina Jolie was a popular choice) and one wanted to be Lady Gaga, I believe.

Started me thinking though. I find it too limiting to be just one other woman for an entire day (maybe because I’m not a busy actress LOL). So here are my choices, one day as each:

Modern Day Actress: Zoe Saldana. She gets interesting roles, she looks great in clothes, she seems very sensible…can I have one day on the set of Star Trek with Chris Pine…?

Golden Age Actress: Lauren Bacall. A woman who takes no nonsense…and that voice – wow. Or Elizabeth Taylor – her life was pretty fascinating, Richard Burton, jewels….ok, one day on the set of “Cleopatra,” after she’s fallen in love with Burton of course.

Dancing With The Stars Dancer: Chellsie Hightower. That girl is strong! And a wonderful dancer…although I’m pretty fond of Anna Trebunskaya too…I want to dance the paso. Or maybe the quickstep. NOT the waltz.

Science Fiction Novel Character: Lessa of Pern, by Anne McCaffrey. She’s always my choice – I crave a golden dragon and also a hunky bronze dragonrider for my very own, not to mention the adventures that woman had! ANY day as her, after she’s become Weyrwoman.

Science Fiction Movie Character: Ripley of Alien and Aliens – they lost me with Aliens 3. MY concept of the alien universe involves Ripley and Hicks having a future together, however dangerous…or maybe I’d be Sarah Connor of the Terminator series, any version. She was so strong and she had that one lifetime’s worth of love in a single night with Kyle Reese. (Hmmm, Michael Biehn again – I sense a trend here.)

Regency Heroine: I’d kinda like to be one of Elsie Lee’s ingénues who blithely sailed through Regency times making everything work out for herself and all those around her…but I think I’d begin to annoy myself LOL. I love Mary in Georgette Heyer’s “Devil’s Cub”, but she’s a bit too high minded. Hmmm. Maybe I’d have been Frederica in the Heyer book of the same name. To be able to fling the witty repartee and waltz…

Real Life Queen: Hatshepsut, who ruled Egypt as a Pharaoh about 3500 years ago. I’ve never much liked her, probably because I loved the novel “Mara, Daughter of the Nile” and Hatshepsut was portrayed as being so evil…but you just have to wonder what she was like as a person, to seize the throne and hold it for so many years. And remember, I’m only staying a day in each of these ladies’ lives! So maybe a day in the middle of her reign, when things were going well. And if there was a hunky guard she expecially trusted….

First Lady: Can I be Dolley Madison? She didn’t have quite as much to deal with as some First Ladies, although the White House got burnt on her watch and there was the War of 1812…so the day she rescued the famous painting of George Washington from the fires…

I could do a day as Jane Austen, couldn’t you? Just to feel what she felt as she wrote? Or Louisa May Alcott?

Apparently I don’t want to be bored (which IS an absolute rule of my life) and ideally I want there to be a hunky guy involved (how hunky was James Madison by the way?) but that’s not a total deal breaker…who would you be, if you could be anyone for a day?

Photo Credits: Wikimedia

Dolley Madison: “Courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin.”

Hatshepsut: Attribution: Postdlf from w

Weekend Writing Warriors Don’t Displease the Cook

veronicascott — Sun, 12 May 2013 03:35:32 +0000

Happy Mother’s Day! I don’t have anything about mothers to excerpt for today so I went with a snippet about the Cook in the Witch Queen’s palace, because she’s the closest thing to a motherly person in this unedited WIP about a shifter and a Girl With A Secret LOL.

Kyle is having a hard time recovering from the most recent spell casting, where the Witch Queen pulled even more of his magic to fuel her spells. The palace physician (who is also a witch) has ordered a bland diet suitable for an invalid. Caitlyn goes to the kitchen to ask for a proper meal for predator in need of strength. Nadelma the Cook is speaking.

“Strange times we’re in, with the poor shifter caught in the middle. He carved me a special wooden spoon last year for the winter festival, you know – all my favorite flowers and fruits on the handle. It’s far too beautiful to cook with and so I told him.”

Caitlyn felt the kitchen cat rubbing against her ankles. Bending down, she stroked the soft gray fur, thinking sadly how dull and matted the leopard’s fur had been. “So you’ll allow me to make something proper for Kyle to eat?”

Nadelma hoisted herself from her chair with an alarming amount of effort and said, “I’ll fix him a breakfast suitable for a warrior with my own hands and we’ll just see if that doesn’t do him more good that what the high and mighty ordered. They do their magic, I do mine.”

I love and appreciate your comments and feedback! Go here to find all the other Weekend Writing Warriors and read an amazing variety of terrific excerpts…

(Photo from SXC by domus71)

Five Things I Got From My Mother

veronicascott — Mon, 06 May 2013 03:36:06 +0000

In honor of Mother’s Day coming up this next weekend, I thought I’d write a blog about five of my favorite things, which I learned to love because my Mother loved them:

Birds! And adding new birds to my Life List, and feeding the birds…

Beatrix Potter! Such charming tales, with the most wonderful illustrations…here are a few of the figurines from my collection (yes, perhaps some Brambly Hedge and Bunnykins have crept in but there’s room for all…) My Mother’s favorite character was Mrs. Tiggywinkle, the hedgehog laundress. Mine would probably be one of the Cats (or maybe Lady Mouse) BUT my favorite figurine is Timmie Willie Sleeping, which you can see at the front of photo. My mother got her love of Beatrix Potter from her mother, my oh-so-stern Gramma Lucy, who must have had her lighter moments, as she and her sister were affectionately known as Flopsy and Mopsy as children. Hmm, that means my greatgrandmother must have enjoyed Ms. Potter’s Tales as well.

Cats! Which doesn’t always go so well with my love of birds and other small creatures…

Tea! Actually my mother was the Compleat Anglophile and loved all things English. British? I think if you’d given her the chance to go back in time and live, she’d have thought herself in Paradise if she could have lived in the Victorian Age and been married to a Duke (waltzing optional). (Yes, that is the Queen Mother on my tea cup, not my actual Mother, just to clear up any confusion LOL.)

Tap Dancing! Which extended to a love of all movie musicals on my part…somehow I never got her adoration of “Gone With The Wind” or Dr. Zhivago. I require an ironclad Happily Ever After to love a movie. Here are the links to three of my all time favorite tap dancing sequences, from Fred Astaire the Master (he and Eleanor Powell appear at :56), Gene Kelly (song starts at 1:09), and the incomparable Sutton Foster with a stage full of sexy sailors (need I say more LOL?)…

But the most important thing I got from my Mother was the love of being a mother myself, to my own two daughters. Happy Mother’s Day!

Weekend Writing Warriors – More Magical Mystery

veronicascott — Sun, 05 May 2013 03:57:16 +0000

A few more excerpts from my one and only shifter novel (so far, not counting “Priestess of the Nile” where the Crocodile God shifts)…Kyle is a leopard shifter and Caitlyn is the mysterious girl-with-a-secret who infiltrated the Witch Queen’s castle with his impulsive help. Last week she was summoned to participate in a magical ceremony, at which the Queen drew upon Kyle’s powers to augment her own. Angry at the way he was being treated, Caitlyn helps him survive the spell casting but is nearly banished as a result. He seeks her out a few days later.

Kyle is speaking as the snippet starts.

“You, Caitlyn of Ordlathas, are a mystery and I’m intrigued. You come from a territory that never sends apprentices to the Witch Queen. You claim to desire a place here so desperately, yet you didn’t get upset when they dropped you from the training after the incident last week. You have your own magic – I see the spirals of it with the leopard’s eyes – green, lavender, pure, with no taint of Shadow. You can learn nothing from them – I suspect they could learn from you if their minds weren’t so closed against the existence of any power but their own. So why are you here?”

“Are you finished?” She jerked her arm free from his loose clasp.

I love and appreciate your comments and feedback! Go here to find all the other Weekend Writing Warriors and read an amazing variety of terrific excerpts…

Wednesday Whimsy – Cleopatra Disney Style

veronicascott — Wed, 01 May 2013 04:11:37 +0000

I’ve added to my stock of amusing “Egyptiana” and had to share – a Disney musical snowglobe with an Egyptian theme! (The globe plays “It’s a Small World”, so now you have that stuck in your head, right? Sorry!)

Here are some Walt Disney quotes to go with the theme today:

“You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.”

“I love Mickey Mouse more than any woman I have ever known.”

“Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.”

“There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.”

“When people laugh at Mickey Mouse, it’s because he’s so human; and that is the secret of his popularity.”

“I do not like to repeat successes, I like to go on to other things.”

The Best 3 Pieces of Advice I Ever Received

veronicascott — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 04:06:39 +0000

When I was brand new at the day job, eons ago, my boss told me he wanted me to be “just like Sandy” (not her name but it’ll do). His advice was if I could do everything the way she did, I’d have a terrific career. Um yeah. He had me spend an hour sitting with her, watching and listening to how she handled big complex government subcontracts, dealt with scientists and negotiated with suppliers. At the end of the hour, I was seriously thinking, “Wow, dude, if you hired me to be like her, you were delusional and I am in trouble!”

Sandy, bless her heart, was an old school dame, which I say with admiration and respect. Hard drinking, hard living, smoked like a chimney, cussed everybody out, hung up on people, threw things, slammed doors….Me? Sweet little college grad with my suits and my silk blouses and pearl earrings. “Sh*t” was my strongest expletive at the time and I had to be REALLY upset to hurl that around.

Luckily for me, I was secure enough in my own skills to know that while Sandy’s way worked for her, it would be an unmitigated disaster for me to emulate. I proceeded to do things in a fashion that seemed best for me…been at the day job for a long time now, made Principal and received a NASA Exceptional Service Medal (Sandy also earned one in her time as well by the way), so I think I made the right decision for me, re that long gone boss’s well meant advice. I did the exact opposite LOL! So that was best advice in reverse. (#1)

#2 Now the actual best piece of advice I ever received was “You don’t have to catch the ball.” It wasn’t in a sports setting (I’m really bad at sports, except for archery but that’s another blog post). I received this suggestion in the workplace. That one sentence really set me free, because prior to being told that, I would earnestly and often at my own cost, try to field and respond to everything. But our consultant showed me that often the best thing to do is not rise to the bait, especially in e mails or meetings. Either ignore the remark, or say something to acknowledge that I heard it (not that I agreed necessarily), and then keep going in the direction I wanted to go. Yes! A lot of ugly or unpleasant situations were derailed just from that one piece of advice.

#3 Another good one was “You’re not the mother of the organization.” We had a lot of stressful things happening in the workplace, I was trying to keep a lid on all of it, help people with problems and issues, etc etc etc. And in my usual “people person” style, I had unknowingly put myself in a box of unbearable stress. I wasn’t their mother. I needed to watch over my assigned area, make recommendations about the bigger issue but then my job was done. What upper management chose to do was their call. Wow, talk about reduction of stress! And you know what? The whole thing worked itself out eventually. I recite that advice to myself on occasion still when I find myself trying to mother people who aren’t my offspring LOL.

The most useless advice I’ve ever received was “duck and cover.” No, not in the middle of a battle, when it might actually be useful – but in case of a nuclear attack. Right. I think we all know how much help huddling in a corner curled up into a ball will be if some hostile country ever sends nukes our way.

And I wouldn’t place much faith in the Indiana Jones method of nuclear survival – getting into a 1950’s refrigerator and being hurled to safety by the blast wave. Only in the movies, folks!

Advice I give all the time? “Just write. Every day. Get the words out of your head and onto the paper.”

Speaking of which, I need to get my thousand words or better for the day so I’ll leave you with this pithy quote:

Advice is like snow – the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

OR, if that’s too literary:

She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it).
Lewis Carroll

And my idol, Erma Bombeck gets the last word:

“When your mother asks, ‘Do you want a piece of advice?’ it is a mere formality. It doesn’t matter if you answer yes or no. You’re going to get it anyway.”

What’s the best, or worst, piece of advice you ever received?