Readers, please join me welcoming Diane Craver author of Whitney In Charge who will be guest blogging here today!
When people give writing advice, one of the things they say is "Write what you know."
Well, I think that is true to a certain extent, but not always. I believe you should be adventuresome and write what you don't know. Get out of your comfort zone and experience life. If you don't feel like doing something new, like skydiving, driving race cars, playing rugby, bungee jumping, or flying your own plane, then research what you have never done and write about it. You don't have to actually do something that scares the heck out of you. Let your characters do the unique hobbies.
That's what happened with my idea to have skydiving in my book, Whitney In Charge. I have never gone skydiving, but from what I have read about skydiving and heard from my daughter's friend, it sounds like an awesome thing to experience. Consequently, I decided to put this unusual hobby in a romance. I'd have the heroine jump an altitude of 9,000 feet or higher even though she's scared of heights. She would feel the exhilaration of freefall and then would enjoy the scenic glide under parachute back to earth. I could get my thrill from writing about skydiving, but yet wouldn't have to risk my own life to do it.
I put my own fear of heights into the mind-set of Whitney. When her older sisters, Shannon and Regan tell her in the first chapter to go skydiving to meet hot guys, Whitney refuses.
We happen to have the perfect place for my husband Tom and me to go skydiving. I think it might be a neat thing to do to celebrate the anniversary of our first date. Sure, we still do something special on the first date anniversary even though we have been married for years. There happens to be a place to go skydiving in Xenia, Ohio, just outside of the greater Dayton-Miami Valley area and is situated on a private airport and offers a large landing for the skydivers. It's within a reasonable driving distance to where we live, which is twenty-five miles from Cincinnati. What is so remarkable about this location is I met Tom in Xenia. We were both employed at an orphanage for our first teaching jobs and lived on campus with the kids.
Until I get the courage to try skydiving, get checked out by a cardiologist, and make a new will, I can live through my character Whitney. She is not a wimp and overcomes two main fears in my new release, Whitney In Charge.
Do you have any exotic hobbies? Or do you have some you'd love to try but haven't yet?
Thank you for that entertaining post, dear Author! Readers, your thoughts / comments are most welcome.
About the Book:
Whitney Benson is tired of her older sisters’ attempts to fix her up with every single male they meet. Shannon and Regan cross the line when they arrange for her to go skydiving with the simple excuse that more guys like to float in the air than women. Whitney needs to find something else to keep them busy.
When she suggests that the three of them start a family business, the fun begins in their small town. And she thought being a TV producer in New York had been exciting.
Without going skydiving, Whitney meets two eligible bachelors, Jack and Ben, who constantly battle for her affection. Which one will she choose? Both men make Whitney realize, even a heart shattered by her husband’s death, can once again be made whole.
But did she have to fall off a cliff to learn that?
______________________________________________________________________
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SKYDIVING
When people give writing advice, one of the things they say is "Write what you know."
Well, I think that is true to a certain extent, but not always. I believe you should be adventuresome and write what you don't know. Get out of your comfort zone and experience life. If you don't feel like doing something new, like skydiving, driving race cars, playing rugby, bungee jumping, or flying your own plane, then research what you have never done and write about it. You don't have to actually do something that scares the heck out of you. Let your characters do the unique hobbies.
That's what happened with my idea to have skydiving in my book, Whitney In Charge. I have never gone skydiving, but from what I have read about skydiving and heard from my daughter's friend, it sounds like an awesome thing to experience. Consequently, I decided to put this unusual hobby in a romance. I'd have the heroine jump an altitude of 9,000 feet or higher even though she's scared of heights. She would feel the exhilaration of freefall and then would enjoy the scenic glide under parachute back to earth. I could get my thrill from writing about skydiving, but yet wouldn't have to risk my own life to do it.
I put my own fear of heights into the mind-set of Whitney. When her older sisters, Shannon and Regan tell her in the first chapter to go skydiving to meet hot guys, Whitney refuses.
We happen to have the perfect place for my husband Tom and me to go skydiving. I think it might be a neat thing to do to celebrate the anniversary of our first date. Sure, we still do something special on the first date anniversary even though we have been married for years. There happens to be a place to go skydiving in Xenia, Ohio, just outside of the greater Dayton-Miami Valley area and is situated on a private airport and offers a large landing for the skydivers. It's within a reasonable driving distance to where we live, which is twenty-five miles from Cincinnati. What is so remarkable about this location is I met Tom in Xenia. We were both employed at an orphanage for our first teaching jobs and lived on campus with the kids.
Until I get the courage to try skydiving, get checked out by a cardiologist, and make a new will, I can live through my character Whitney. She is not a wimp and overcomes two main fears in my new release, Whitney In Charge.
Do you have any exotic hobbies? Or do you have some you'd love to try but haven't yet?
Thank you for that entertaining post, dear Author! Readers, your thoughts / comments are most welcome.
About the Book:
Whitney Benson is tired of her older sisters’ attempts to fix her up with every single male they meet. Shannon and Regan cross the line when they arrange for her to go skydiving with the simple excuse that more guys like to float in the air than women. Whitney needs to find something else to keep them busy.
When she suggests that the three of them start a family business, the fun begins in their small town. And she thought being a TV producer in New York had been exciting.
Without going skydiving, Whitney meets two eligible bachelors, Jack and Ben, who constantly battle for her affection. Which one will she choose? Both men make Whitney realize, even a heart shattered by her husband’s death, can once again be made whole.
But did she have to fall off a cliff to learn that?
______________________________________________________________________
If you like this post, then please consider subscribing to my Full Feed RSS.
You can also Subscribe by Email and have new posts sent directly to your inbox.
Hi Rashmi,
ReplyDeleteIt's great to be here - thanks for hosting me during my virtual blog tour! Also thanks for your topic choices so I could have fun writing about skydiving.
By the way, commenters I'll be drawing a winner on August 22nd for a lucky commenter, randomly drawn from the comments left during this second week of my tour. I'm giving away a $5 GC to Amazon and a signed print copy of my book NEVER THE SAME!
Hi Diane,
ReplyDeleteI would love to ride an elephant or camel, but don't know if I have the courage to do that.
Have a good day.
Hi Diane,
ReplyDeleteI am not a brave person when it comes to doing all these daring feats. I would look like the picture of that cat at my vet's office, where it has all four feet on the doorway not wanting to go in. That would be me in the exit door on the airplane:) Thanks for everything today also!!
Hi Dru,
ReplyDeleteSeveral years ago, Amanda and I went to the Cincinnati Zoo, and we rode a camel together. It was a pretty tame ride being a zoo camel, but the camel had the most horrible smell.
Hi Judy,
ReplyDeleteI'm not either. I probably won't go skydiving but I think it might be fun if I could get enough courage to do it.