Over the last week or so, I’ve been trying to recollect and journal some of the old superstitions I’ve heard over the years. Ones from this area, sayings my grandparents, parents, and their friends mentioned often. Especially the ones that managed to lodge in my brain and take root as if they were actual truths. Ones I shared with my own children.

I’m planning to lace some of these superstitions into a future book. For whatever reason, I’m getting the notion that these nuggets may help flesh out ‘place’ in my writing. That they will give the reader a more three-dimensional view of the community that surrounds the main character, then, with any luck, turn the community into a character of sorts. That’s what I’m hoping for anyway.

Anyway, here are a few I remembered . . .

1. A long nose is a sign of intelligence.

2. If your nose itches you will kiss a fool.

3. If a person’s eyebrows meet, he is of a mean disposition.

4. If your left palm itches, it’s a sign of money. To be sure to receive that money, rub the itchy palm over a pocket.

5. To cure a child of asthma, stand him up by a post and lay a knife on his head, then run the knife into the post. When the child grows above this knife, he will no longer have asthma.

6. To cure hiccoughs rub the palm of your left hand with the thumb of your right.

7. To cure night sweats put a pan of water under your bed.

8. Put a chew of tobacco on a bee-sting to relieve the pain.

9. When a crawfish hole is open it will rain soon. If it is closed, there will be no rain.

10. If the sun is shining while it’s raining, the devil is beating his wife.

11. Before you go swimming, dip your hand into the water and make the sign of the cross. It will keep you from drowning.

12. If you touch a bird’s nest, the bird will not return to it.

13. If you handle frogs, you’ll get warts.

14. Don’t hand over a saltshaker during a meal. Slide it across the table.

15. If the picture of a living person falls from a wall, it’s a sign that someone will soon visit you.

Are superstitious diddies like the ones above common where you live? If so, what are the most common?

I’m telling you, straight from the world of the WACKY and WEIRD, the news stories recently have been El Bizarro. And everyone KNOWS that a LOT of writers get their inspiration from real life, so this past few weeks have been a bonus for those of us inspired by news stories.

For example, there is the story of the Austrian woman who was held prisoner in a cellar BY HER FATHER for more than 24 years. And worse, she gave birth to at least SEVEN children by him.

Police said the 42-year-old woman, identified only as Elisabeth F, told them her father, Josef, had lured her into the basement of the block where the family lived in Amstetten, north-west Austria, on August 24 1984, and allegedly drugged and handcuffed her before locking her up in the dungeon. A police spokesman said she was “psychologically extremely disturbed”, but her version of events was “completely believable”.

UhhhhhOkkkaaayyyy. Can you say YUCK?

Then there is the continuing story coming out of the FLDS Compound in Texas, where authorities from CPS now claim that at least 31 of the 53 girls removed from the compound, in the age range of 15 to 17, have either had children are or currently pregnant.

FLDS spokesman Rod Parker said he does not believe the CPS count is accurate. He said that from talking to ranch residents, he believes at least 17 of the girls may actually be adults but have been labeled by CPS as minors.

Agency officials have called into question claims of adulthood among the girls since the raid and have in some cases disputed documentation provided, saying the girls look younger than 18. Because many FLDS members share similar names and have complicated family relationships, identifying all of the children taken into custody has been a challenge.

Teen Disney star, 15-year-old Miley Cyrus, who has recently been under fire for provocative pics of her that made their way onto the Internet is now getting SLAMMED for a controversial Vanity Fair shoot in which she was topless, albeit covered with a sheet. Now, she is claiming foul and saying that Vanity Fair took advantage of her. Except her parents were BOTH at the shoot, and neither parent nor Miley herself was apparently bothered by the pictures until a public uproar started.

In Florida, if some lawmakers have their way, it is going to be illegal to have BULL TESTICLES on your vehicle. No, I am not making this up.

Metal replicas of bull testicles have become trendy bumper ornaments in some parts of the Sunshine State, but state Sen. Carey Baker is campaigning to ban the orbs.

In Detroit, they discovered an 80-year-old woman living with her mummified sister.

Investigators believe the surviving sister had been living with the body for up to three years. They say the body was partially covered with newspapers and that a cat and dog apparently ate part of it.

A Florida woman heard a noise in her kitchen, and when she went to investigate, she discovered an eight-foot alligator.

Alligators are ubiquitous in Florida, and Frosti sees them all the time in the ponds behind her housing development and on the lawns. But they seem to know their place; although one will occasionally wander into an open garage, house invasions are virtually unheard of.

And in one that really gives me the creeps–and probably a few nightmares–in Oregon, a policeman saved a pet shop owner from being eaten by a Burmese python!

I may never recover from reading that story, especially after reading that the pet store owner asked police NOT to kill the snake. And they didn’t. You just KNOW what that snake is planning for his next meal….. Stephen King story anyone?

So, which of these weird stories inspires you? If you were going to use a news article to inspire a book, what would you choose? And if none of these does it for you, have you ever had one that did? And if so, what was it?

Right now I’m reading a book and I want to kill the heroine. She’s a whiner because life has dealt her a bad hand. I’m about 50 pages into this book and I have now thought of three ways to kill this chick.

1) Run her over with hero’s motorcycle. But I am afraid she won’t die then she’ll have something else to whine about. SHUDDER!

2) Have the bird in the story peck her to death. But I’m pretty sure it’d take too long for her to die that way and OMG the whining!

3) Crush her beneath all her law books. With the right planning, I think this one could work—quick death and she’d have the breath instantly knocked out of her, so —BONUS- no whining!

Okay, anyone want to take a guess why this heroine is getting under my skin? Aside from the fact that she’s boring, she’s one of my worst fears.

I know I’ve written a heroine like her. Hopefully not in any of my published books, but in my first couple books, I was the queen of the Whiny Heroine.

Generally, writing those kinds of heroines (or hero) comes from either inexperience or lazy writing. The inexperienced writers haven’t yet learned how to show inner conflict, so instead they make the heroine a whiner with inner dialogue of, “I never fit in, my mother married all these rich guys and sent me to boarding schools, then my dad turned out not to be my dad at all. I can’t even have a relationship with a great guy because…” Just kill me now if I have to read one more word. But you get the idea.

One of the things I still work on is trusting the reader to figure this stuff out from scenes. Give the reader’s scenes with some inner thoughts and dialogue, but most importantly, ACTION. The readers will figure it out!

Readers trust action to define a character. Show a heroine or hero’s inner conflict. In my paranormal, my heroine is afraid of locked spaces.

What do you think I did to her?

Locked her up. And she went ballistic.

I don’t want to tell you more, but you get the idea. I never had to tell the readers she had this fear. I showed it.

In another book, I had a heroine deeply afraid of rejection. She made sure no one could reject her. She used snark and humor to keep people who could hurt her at a distance. I never had to tell the reader she was afraid of rejection. The readers and the hero figured it out together. But another important element of this story is that readers had to believe the heroine COULD have a relationship. So I gave her a close relationship with her brothers. That SHOWED the readers (and the hero) her loving (but still snarky) side. I never had to say she loved her brothers.

Boy this turned into a rant! And I suspect I’m lecturing myself since I am just getting started on revisions for BLOOD MAGIC. My editor pointed out some places where I didn’t show my heroine learning how to be a witch and her joy in doing so. That’s lazy writing and my editor is dead on about this. I have totally cheating the readers so I’ll be working my butt off over the next few weeks practicing what I have preached here!

So tell me what gets under your skin as a reader? And can you think of more ways to kill this whiny heroine?

Last week I talked about log lines. This week I want to talk about branding and signature.

So Merriam Webster says, a brand by definition is: 3 a (1): a mark made to attest manufacture or quality or to designate ownership (2): a printed mark made for similar purposes : TRADEMARK b (1): a mark put on criminals with a hot iron (2): a mark of disgrace : STIGMA the brand of poverty 4 a: a class of goods identified by name as the product of a single firm or manufacturer : MAKE

Signature by definition is: 6: something (as a tune, style, or logo) that serves to set apart or identify; also : a characteristic mark

So while they are very similar they are two distinctive entities. A brand is like Kleenex, we all know it’s tissue. Clorox same thing, it’s bleach. So when you tell the hubby to pick up a box of Kleenex so long as he comes home with tissue regardless of manufacturer you’re happy. Same with telling him to pick up a bottle of Clorox, you want bleach, generic is fine. You have no delusions ever of what product you are getting.

Now take Morton’s restaurant for instance, they have a signature Maytag blue cheese dressing that is to die for. No one makes it better. To me that’s the mark, the signature, and while they do have great steaks it’s the dressing they do best.

For me my brand is simple. Hot cops. Since breaking into historicals, I’m looking to incorporate hot knights as well, but haven’t quite come up with the exact concoction. Feel free to suggest away. The last thing I came up with was Hot cops, Hot knights, Arresting passion. For now it will do, but it isn’t right. But do you see the pattern? My brand is hot guys, regardless of genre.

As far as my signature goes? What do I think I do best? Passion. My characters are passionate about who they love, who they hate, and what they stand for. You will never have to scratch your head and ask yourself where they stand. So my signature is passion.

I know I haven’t articulated this very well. It’s after 2:30 a.m. and I’m really tired, but please share your views/opinions on branding and signatures. And while you’re at it, as an author tell us your brand, and your signature, and as a reader what author brands do you look for?

Okay, so it’s not an original title

Let’s reverse the sentiment, however.

THE UGLY

* The vitriol against Tess Gerritsen by some commenters on the Dear Author blog site. I used to enjoy visiting DA to read news and first sale stories and support some of my friends who have been highlighted. I have commented occasionally. I do NOT like the tone of the comments regarding Tess’s tongue-in-cheek blog post on her site. Okay, they didn’t get her humor. State it and move on. Don’t jump all over a respected, classy woman who has done more to help authors, published and unpublished, understand the business as well as showing that we’re not heartless robots without emotion. I was going to blog about this today, but since JD Rhodes at Murderati did such an exemplary job explaining the situation that incited the attacks on Tess, as well as what happened after, I’ll send you over there to catch up.

THE BAD

* I haven’t moved yet or closed escrow, but it’s closer. We were originally suppose to close 3/19; then 4/11; now? I’m thinking 4/30. And even then, we probably won’t actually MOVE until after May 10 because we have to order some furniture, get the hardwood floors sealed, and a variety of other little things that are much easier to do before moving in. Fortunately, we don’t have to sell our current house. We wanted to move out first, paint, put in new carpets, etc before putting it on the market. But I had planned to be in and settled and WRITING in my new office by now; instead I’ll be spending a few more weeks at Starbucks . . .

THE GOOD

* I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve sold the first three books of my supernatural thriller series based on the Seven Deadly Sins to Ballantine.

My novella in WHAT YOU CAN’T SEE is a prequel to part of the series. It sets up Rafe’s backstory and conflict. Wait until you see what’s in store for him when he gets out of his coma.

I’ve been thinking about this series for nearly five years now. I came up with the concept in August of 2003, but after writing about 50-60 pages, I discovered that THE PREY finaled in a contest (under a different title) and I wanted to finish it. When I did, I realized it was better than anything else I’d done, so I queried it out, got an agent, and sold pretty quick. At that point, writing romantic thrillers–which I love–was my priority.

But, I’ve been thinking about this story ever since. I suppose you could say that it’s haunted me. We almost pitched it last time I was up for contract, but my agent (rightfully) felt I needed to firmly establish myself in romantic suspense before venturing into something a little different. I agreed, so we kept it. When the first Seven Deadly Sins book comes out, I’ll have 12 romantic thrillers on the shelf, and that seems a good place to add a second series.

I call it “supernatural” rather than “paranormal” because everything takes place in the known, contemporary world. The supernatural elements? The Seven Deadly Sins are demons on earth. I suppose I might say that by supernatural, I believe that these things *may* happen or have some historical truth behind them. I’m relying heavily on Judeo-Christian beliefs and history because that’s something people have some knowledge about. I’ll take some liberties, of course–this IS fiction–but I probably won’t venture too dramatically outside of the “norm”–if you can call demons “normal.” LOL. I do have a fictional representation of Hell in my mind, and plan to set some scenes there. It should be . . . interesting.

Haven’t you wondered about the Seven Deadly Sins? What makes them deadly? What if they were truly deadly? What if Envy was a demon who fed and multiplied our internal envious feelings, resulting in murder, thefts, rape, mutilations, torture and other atrocities?

When we look at violent criminals, we often think that no human being could be so cruel. What if a demon really did “make him do it?”

One of my inspirations came from Stephen King’s NEEDFUL THINGS, which is my favorite book of his after THE STAND. In it, a new curio shop opens with “needful things”–things (junk) people want desperately. They see something that no one else sees. The objects are cursed. People start doing things they wouldn’t normally do. A friendly competition between churches turns deadly. It’s a scary book (of course, it’s King!) But the idea that people start behaving as they otherwise wouldn’t . . . what if I turned that around? What if the “deadly sins” within each of us is brought out, nurtured by a demon, developed to it’s natural conclusion? Which is, of course, death . . . because they are DEADLY sins, after all. So people who truly are without Envy, or Lust, or Gluttony wouldn’t be affected . . . but how many of us can honestly say we’ve never been envious or another? That we’ve never eaten or drank more than we should?

I’m also really excited about my characters. There are seven main characters, three of which are, I guess, the “primary” main characters. There will be several romantic subplots, as well as strong police procedural elements. There will always be a crime–in fact, each story is set up with a very human and very real crime. The difference? In order to catch the killer(s) my team of characters must first stop a corporeal demon who feeds and grows stronger on a “deadly sin.”

Book one is about envy. A coven of teen-age witches unwittingly release the Seven Deadly Sins from their underworld prison. A high school girl is found dead in the woods with no apparent cause of death, and her best friend is missing. Three people are drawn to the small California town: a reclusive woman from Ireland with more experience with demons than she wants; a former seminarian haunted by the massacre—and the memories—of twelve dead priests; and a true crime writer who thinks the whole thing is a hoax. It is tentatively scheduled for publication in November 2009.

I will continue to write the same dark romantic thrillers I’ve been writing to date. In fact, after TEMPTING EVIL and PLAYING DEAD come out this year to conclude the Prison Break Trilogy, I have the first three books of my FBI series in 2009—starting with SUDDEN DEATH in April. My FBI series will follow a core group of characters through major and violent crimes (with a different hero and heroine in each book, but a recurring team of characters.) Serial killers, mass murders, kidnappings, domestic terrorism, and the like. I’m very excited about the FBI series and plan to continue it beyond 2009.

And, in fact, I have another idea for a romantic thriller series based on the company my heroine works for in PLAYING DEAD.

My goal is to have a supernatural thriller that is very similar in tone and feeling as my romantic thrillers, just with supernatural elements . . . I’m a little scared about the new venture. To be honest, what if my readers don’t like it? But I’m also extremely excited. It’s a series that has been begging me to write it, and I know I would regret it forever if I didn’t do it.

WINNER!

Jessica, who posted on my blog last week and played my little brainstorming game, has won a copy of my entire backlist. Yeah! Jessica, you can have the books signed to you, to a friend, or mix and match. Just let me know! Email me at allison @ allisonbrennan . com (no spaces.) with your snail mail address and how you want the books signed.

You get:
THE PREY
THE HUNT
THE KILL
SPEAK NO EVIL
SEE NO EVIL
FEAR NO EVIL
KILLING FEAR
WHAT YOU CAN’T SEE (anthology)

Congratulations!