Comments on: You Again: What Was That Story About, Anyway?

By: Sally B.

Sally B. — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 19:00:11 +0000

What if Zelda was a librarian instead of a cookbook writer? You could really do a lot with that

By: Penny

Penny — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 01:46:42 +0000

P.S. I like Fireside Chat for the character you described. Maybe she is sitting at the fireside with the author discussing his book and she is intrigued.

By: Penny

Penny — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 01:45:13 +0000

Could the first murder have taken place and Zelda is the reporter sent to cover it when the other murders start happening? Mr Right could be already in the house in some capacity or as an honoured guest. Maybe he is the author of a book entitled “Fathers and Daughters” and it makes her want to reach out to her missing father. I know it is weak but work with me here.

By: ZaZa

ZaZa — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 01:07:30 +0000

Well, Jenny, you just added to my woo-woo tally. This is exactly what I do when I start a new project. Whether it’s a book or a web site or working on a design, I sit in Fireworks and play with fonts until I pin down just the right look. Sometimes I take letters from different, but similar, fonts because I don’t like the way one looks, like those really big round Os you’ve got there. ;+)

I’ve been wishing for you to get back to “You Again” because I loved your male protag. I hope he’s still going to be in it. You write some of the best men. ;+)

By: Diane (TT)

Diane (TT) — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 21:30:23 +0000

Kate – I’m with you and G&T in preferring Sayers and Marsh to Christie. I also adore the mysteries of Georgette Heyer. Agatha Christie was a great intro to mystery and wrote some lovely puzzles, but I do like the characterizations of the others better. Heyer is particularly fabulous in developing people: unlike some authors I could mention whose heroes are all the same and heroines all have essentially identical motivations, few of her many characters could be mistaken for one another.

Jenny, I hope you find the name of the dictionary – it sounds like a possible gift for my mom!

If I weren’t so lazy I could look it up myself. Ok, I did – is it Great Women Mystery Writers? It doesn’t seem to be available direct from Amazon right now…

By: Jenny

Jenny — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 21:24:42 +0000

I’m way ahead of you on Marsh. In fact, I wrote the entry on her in Women Mystery Writer’s Dictionary, although I can’t remember the name of the dictionary now. It’s around here somewhere.

By: Jill

Jill — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 19:35:54 +0000

Fireside Chat. The first one is too blah. The third one looks like something under a mug shot. If Fireside Chat bugs you change the name. Christie Fireside.

By: kate

kate — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 17:31:49 +0000

Hi, I’ve loved all of your books, and I wanted to second McB’s suggestion- read Ngaio Marsh, and especially her house murders. They are fantastic, and the charaterization is a lot stronger than Christie’s. She also frequently introduces a secondary love story, which is always sweet.

By: roben

roben — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 23:04:30 +0000

Hi OH. It was on the T.V. show Biography. I saw the show recently but don’t know when it was made. I’m sure it will be played over and over. It was an interesting look at Jack Nicholson’s life.
And, good for you J-T. I’ve never tried using special fonts either but intend to try it.
Thanks again for sharing, Jenny
It’s almost kick-off. *grin* “How about them Bears?” Sorry, couldn’t resist, consider it a nod to the HWSW Blog.

By: orangehands

orangehands — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 20:22:40 +0000

roben: was this Jack Nicholson thing a movie? actually, kind of sounds like my dad’s life.

JJ: good job!

By: Jennifer Talty

Jennifer Talty — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 12:25:25 +0000

Well now, got stuck last night with my anthology that has to be turned in like days. It had been going so well. I had it all worked out and then, SMACK! hit a freaking brick wall. I had been thinkig about this post because well, I thought it was interesting and I for one have never, I repeat Never! played around with fonts. So, at midnight last night, I started playing with fonts. Frank and Lacy have visual fonts now. Weird. But by 2 in the morning, not only did I have cool fonts, a few new visual pictures, I finished the dang thing. thank you Jenny.

By: Sheri

Sheri — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 04:26:30 +0000

I agree that the third font looks like Zelda for her name. However, I like the first font for You Again and Chapter One, (lower casw) but I like the thrid font again for the “one”. I see your dilemna. Is Zelda a Gemini, perchance? Dual personalities? Trying to be genteel but still has some rough edges? Fighting who she is by trying to be who she thinks she should be?

Like the wanting to know who her father is. I never met my dad, but I went to his brother’s funerla just to see what he looked like. He ended up sitting in front of me and the two kids who sat next to me called him Dad–very surreal experience, to say the least! Why does she need to know who he is now? Is she considering having a child? Is she possibly having some kind of medical problem that could be hereditary? Sometimes you just want to know why, Jenny: why wasn’t he there? Why did he not want me? What does he look like? Mine died before I could get up my courage to ask him those questions. I will always regret being a coward, because now I will never be able to answer those questions. maybe that happened to a friend and she wants those answers before something happens to him.

I like your premise, Roben. I’d read that story–if Jenny doesn’t write it, maybe you should! *grin*

By: roben

roben — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 04:09:16 +0000

Remember how devastated Jack Nicholson was when he discovered his older sister (the one he felt the closest to and the one who died of cancer) was really his mother and the woman he thought was his mother was his grandmother? He was about forty years old when he found out the truth and felt as if his whole life was a lie.

Soooooo, what if Zelda’s mother is on her deathbed and Zelda begs for answers about her father only to learn that her mother has no answers because she was paid to raise Zelda as her own? She tells Zelda who her birth mother is. Zelda goes back to the place she grew up in to get answers but instead exposes too many well kept secrets that affect too many reputations, or inheritances, and the “bumping off” starts.

Thank you for letting me play, Jenny. Your story has been bugging me all day. *grin* Now I have to get real and go work on my own damn story.

By: Silke

Silke — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 02:08:00 +0000

Hmm I have no idea who Zelda is, but for some reason the Archive one doesn’t strike me as a Zelda.

One thing I do to get to know those nagging people in my wannabe novels is to have them tell me about them.
I lock them into a room with no windows and I have the only key.
Then I ask questions.
Yes, I’m probably nuts, but I swear they tell you the oddest things.
The “interview” never makes it into the story, but I dang well get a feel for who these people are!

By: Kieran

Kieran — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 01:24:35 +0000

Gosh, For a second I thought I was on HWSW and thanked both you and Bob for the wonderful, free writing instruction! I’m sorry I referenced HWSW indirectly and hope I didn’t confuse your ARGH INK readers!

By: G and T

G and T — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 01:22:02 +0000

How did we get to Art Deco? I can’t remember. I went looking for some Deco fonts on specialtyfonts.com, but what good does that do? I am not the one who has to figure out who Zelda is. But whenever she’s ready, I will be pleased to meet her.

I have always been a fan of Dorothy L. Sayers myself.

So here’s the thing. When I am not ready to write about the stunningly compelling subject matter I write about — utility regulation leaps immediately to mind — I dither. And it’s a part of my process, much to my editor’s disgust. Of course I could give a crap about his disgust, and I should waste my own blog space on that. But he doesn’t get what I do and why it’s important. His punishment is that he has to live in his own skin and that’s the nastiest revenge you could ever wish on anyone, if you wanted to mess with Karma.

So dither. But have a map. You will get there in the end, Jenny, and there’s no point in torturing yourself about it now. Pick the right route and there will be no shampoo/conditioner combos.

We wait, and we support, which is not something my editor is so good with.

By: Kieran

Kieran — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 01:17:31 +0000

Dear Jenny, I hope it’s okay to offer an idea about why you don’t know Zelda. Maybe you don’t have a full sense of who Zelda is because that’s her main problem: SHE doesn’t know who she is. She won’t allow herself to be her whole self until she knows who her dad is, but for the sake of the plot, she will have to sacrifice that need and be her whole self before she finds out who he is (if she ever does find out). She may be tough and in charge in the book, but it could be she’s compensating for feeling that something is missing. Her external motivation for finding her father is up to you–but I wonder if she’s afraid to come front and center and show you this internal vulnerability in her. She knows you are going to make her face it and eventually drop it. Maybe that made no sense. Good luck, and thanks to you and Bob for all this great FREE writing instruction.

By: McB

McB — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 01:14:30 +0000

So does she need to know who her father is or who he was. Because if the latter, it could be that he knew about her and she received a bequest that has her looking for more information about him. Or like BCB said, there was a letter from him after his death (okay that didn’t sound right; you know what I mean, right?) that involves her in a treasure hunt.

By: Joyce

Joyce — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 00:54:46 +0000

I love the first font. You said Zelda is tough, but modern and new. To me, the first font says chic, sophisticated. She’s sleek, a Carole Lombard look-alike. She’s worked hard to move away from her low roots and has really made something for herself–maybe a fashion editor or mystery writer. But something is still missing. She thinks having a child will complete her, but without her father’s medical history, she’s afraid to plunge into sperm donation. Returning home means facing the person she used to be, and trying to find her father, who, inconveniently has been murdered.

Font number two screams The Great Gatsby. And number three is a Mugsy and Moll shoot ‘em up from the roaring 20′s.

Of course, I only read this stuff. I’ve never even come close to writing anything and I’ve had three glasses of wine.

Good Luck! I love all your stuff.

By: Deanna Nelle

Deanna Nelle — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 00:14:24 +0000

I have a take on this one…
She gets a letter in the mail that tells her that her paternal grandmother has died…a person she didn’t even know existed. Zelda finds out that her father is not only alive, but has been keeping tabs on her her whole life. Understandably, this irks her, and provokes her into trying to find out just who this jerkwad is and why he’s never communicated with her in any way. She goes to the house for the reading of the will, in the hopes that her father will be there and she can meet him for the first time.
When she gets there and sees the obvious wealth of the house, she gets even angrier, thinking about all of the sacrifices her mother made over the years and all of the scrimping they did.
Then, she meets her paternal relatives for the first time, and they all get to see the video will left by grandma, presented by hunky lawyer Mr. Love Interest. Something in the will triggers the anagonist to start taking everyone down, and Zelda has to find out why, and figure out which of these people is her father(’cause he’s not talkin’) and whether or not he’s a murderer, before she gets whacked. And I think she should be a welder, a creator of monument-sized metal sculptures and fountains. I don’t know why.