Showing results by narrator "Sonja Field" in All Categories

Theme—the mysterious cousin of plot and character. Too often viewed as abstract rather than actionable, theme is frequently misunderstood and left to chance. Some writers even insist theme should not be purposefully implemented. This is unfortunate, because in many ways theme is story. Theme is the heart, the meaning, the point. Nothing that important should be overlooked. Powerful themes are never incidental. They emerge from the conjunction of strong plots and resonant character arcs.

Why do some stories work and others don't? The answer is structure. In this IPPY and NIEA Award-winning guide from the author of the bestselling Outlining Your Novel, you will discover the universal underpinnings that guarantee powerful plot and character arcs. An understanding of proper story and scene structure will help you to not only perfectly time your story's major events, but will also provide you with an unerring standard to use in evaluating your novel's pacing and progression.

I can’t escape the vulnerability of motherhood. The rage fueling me since my brother’s murder is no longer powerful enough to carry me forward. I want to create a simple life in the Spanish countryside and prepare for motherhood. For the sake of the life growing inside me, I must forge ahead without Robert’s help, Mulberry’s devotion, or my own anger determining my path. The criminal cartel seeking to destroy Joyful Justice plans to crumble the foundation of the vigilante network by killing me. But I’m dangerous prey - more deadly than ever.

Blue and I sit in the cockpit of a sailboat. My eyes scan the open ocean while female Peshmerga fighters sleep all around me—below deck, across benches on the bow, and one curled up on the stern.

When I find myself face-to-face with Lucifer, I realize what he wants from me could annihilate Hell and Earth. I would do anything for those I love, but with the fate of the world resting on my shoulders, I’m not sure I can stop him from destroying us all.

When a dangerous man from her past calls, Sydney Rye finds she cannot turn him away. Robert Maxim explains that the daughter of a powerful friend has gone missing and he wants Rye to find her. In exchange, he offers her something she had given up hope of ever having; freedom from her past.

Let outlines help you write a better book! Writers often look upon outlines with fear and trembling. But when properly understood and correctly wielded, the outline is one of the most powerful weapons in a writer's arsenal.

In the multi-award-winning Structuring Your Novel, Weiland showed writers how to use a strong three-act structure to build a story with the greatest possible impact on readers. Now, it’s time to take that knowledge to the next level.

It was one the most beautiful mountains in America - Mt. St. Helens in Washington State. But what many didn't know was that this peaceful mountain had an explosive past. Eleven-year-old Sally Tanner knew the mountain well, and, like many, she never imagined that this serene wilderness could turn deadly. But on May 10, 1980, Sally finds herself in the middle of the deadliest volcanic eruption in US history.

I am desperate for freedom, for peace, and for justice. As I leave captivity and step into the bright sun-filled day, a wave of relief washes over me. I am not free yet, though. Walking between barbed wire topped walls toward the exit gate, I breathe in fresh air, preparing for the next challenge. An enemy posing as a lover waits for me. I will evade him, though.

The daughter of a close friend is brutally murdered in the desert, and Rye turns away from her mentor to seek revenge. Her quick temper and deadly intentions lead Sydney Rye into a trap where she will need all of her new skills to survive.

All that’s left of her is a depression in the dirt and a pool of blood. Robert Maxim is ruthless, powerful, and determined to find her. April Madden is a preacher’s wife, and Sydney’s mother. She’s willing to risk everything...her sobriety, her marriage, even her faith, to hunt for her daughter. But they can’t find Sydney Rye if she doesn’t want to be found. ISIS has a new enemy, a ghost haunting their territory, infecting their flock with radical ideals. They will do anything to capture her. Their reign depends on this new prophet’s destruction.

Help clients overcome chronic feelings of not being good enough and debilitating negative thought patterns that may have begun in childhood. Combining 40 years of experience as an educator, child development specialist, and clinician, Dr. Patti Ashley created Shame-Informed Therapy: Treatment Strategies to Overcome Core Shame and Reconstruct the Authentic Self to help clinicians crack the code on the often unseen and unspoken aspects of core shame, and develop more effective treatment for even your most resistant clients.

Veteran script consultant Jill Chamberlain discovered in her work that an astounding 99 percent of first-time screenwriters don't know how to tell a story. What the 99 percent do instead is present a situation. In order to explain the difference, Chamberlain created the nutshell technique, a method whereby writers identify eight dynamic, interconnected elements that are required to successfully tell a story.

Wired in to her computers, MMA-fighting tech agent Sophie Ang has been content in her clean, cool tech lab, where she chases criminals online, continuing a dance in the dark with the enigmatic vigilante known as the Ghost. Tumultuous changes from without and within, eject her from her agency cocoon to the front lines, where she finds herself in partnership with a brilliant, overbearing, larger-than-life ex-Special Forces operative called Jake Dunn.

Vigilante heiress Gia Santella is facing her most dangerous enemy yet. When a hate group infiltrates Gia's San Francisco neighborhood, a student journalist at U.C. Berkeley reporting on the group disappears. Gia's search for the missing student unravels dark secrets that threaten to destroy her beloved neighborhood.

Security specialist Sophie Ang goes off-grid into the remote valley of Kalalau on Kaua`i, where she stumbles across the disappearance of a young boy. As she races against time to save him, uncovering ugly secrets hidden in the heart of the jungle, the events she tried to flee on Oahu gather momentum. Special Agent Marcella Scott straps on her heels and wades in to help deal with what the cyber vigilante the Ghost has left behind, and trying to clear Sophie from a murder charge.

Join cruising legends Lin and Larry Pardey as from England they proceed into the Baltic, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Germany. During their voyage they dealt with armed guards on the Polish waterfront who watched while the people greeted them with flowers and fruit. They weathered a fierce mast-under broach in a Baltic gale. And experienced great friendships found in harbors large and small.

Security specialist Sophie Ang has a new case: Someone is looting artifacts from a royal Hawaiian archaeology site on Maui. Things get deadly fast, and Sophie's friend, Maui homicide detective Lei Texeira, takes the case. The women track a killer whose tangled motives extend high into the world of Hawaiian cultural affairs and deep into the darkest of human motivations. And all the while, Sophie walks a tightrope between new love and heartbreak.

Seattle, 1941. Grace Vandenberg, 21, is having a bad day. Minutes after Pearl Harbor is attacked, she learns that her boyfriend is a time traveler from 2000 who has abandoned her for a future he insists they cannot share. Determined to save their love, she follows him into the new century. But just when happiness is within her grasp, she accidentally enters a second time portal and exits in 1918. Distraught and heartbroken, Grace starts a new life in the age of Woodrow Wilson, silent movies, and the Spanish flu.