Tipsy Tuesday

Literary agent Natasha Kern was the guest speaker at my local RWA chapter meeting on Saturday. I wasn't able to stay for the entire meeting--had to leave before the afternoon session--but she shared something from author Dean Koontz that I want to share here.

Mr. Koontz gave this following characteristics of a novel:

1) The author introduces the hero or heroine who has just been or is about to be plunged into trouble
2) The hero tries to solve the problem and only slides deeper into trouble
3) As the hero tries to climb out of the hole he finds himself in, complications arise, each more terrible than before
4) at last, changed by the awful experiences and by intolerable circumstances, the hero learns something about himself...something of which he was previously ignorant...and understands what he must do to get out of the dangerous situation.

Other pearls of wisdom from Dean Koontz:

"Bunny slippers remind me of who I am. You can't get a swelled head if you wear bunny slippers. You can't lose your sense of perspective and start acting like a star or a rich lady if you keep on wearing bunny slippers. Besides, bunny slippers give me confidence because they're so jaunty. They make a statement; they say, 'Nothing the world does to me can ever get me so far down that I can't be silly and frivolous.' If I died and found myself in Hell, I could endure the place if I had bunny slippers."

"Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those, who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, the melancholia, the panic fear, which is inherent in a human condition."

"We're not here to leave a mark, bro. Monuments, legacies, marks--that's where we always go wrong. We're here to revel in the world, to soak in the awesomeness of it, to enjoy the ride. The world's maximum perfect as it is, beauty from horizon to horizon. Any mark any of us tries to leave--hell, it's only grafitti. Any mark anyone leaves is no better than vandalism."


Well said, Mr. Koontz.