Guest Blog: Secrets: In Wolf Lake by D.K. Davis

UFI welcomes Author D.K. Davis. Thanks for Joining us!!

What’s in DK Davis’ Writer’s Tool Shed?

Hello everyone. Welcome to Urban Fantasy Investigations. Please settle in, grab that cup of coffee, hot chocolate, or tea and join me as I share what’s in my writer’s tool shed with you. Please feel comfortable asking questions or leaving comments as I’ll respond to every one of them.   

I’m DK Davis, a new author to the Books We Love family. I pen young adult supernatural, sci-fi adventures with varying degrees of romance.  My first book, Secret: In Wolf Lake is the first in the Secret Series, published January 1st, 2017. An excellent way to kick off the New Year; )

I live in Southwest Michigan with two nine-year-old cats who own me (Izzy and Crocks), and a sassy ten-year-old Sheltie (Dusty) who does his best to herd them, along with me and my husband too…or anyone who enters our home. He’s definitely a bark-aholic and not afraid to tell you so. LOL

It’s so nice to meet you...and now on to what brought you to this post…  

A Writer’s Tool Shed

What does that even mean? Laptop? Pens? Notebooks? Websites? Links? Books on the Craft?

NOPE, none of the above. Well, I do have all of those things…just like every author does, but what I’m referring to as my “tools” is something more specific to me.

Every author has their own system/process of writing. What works best to stay in the flow, that forward trajectory, driving them around the final lap called “the end” of a story.

Don’t we as writers want that for ourselves – anything that speeds things along for us?

Now, I own a shed with writing tools that keep me on track, help me to eliminate “most” struggles or obstacles before they paralyze my progress.

My Tools of the Trade

• Character Sketches: a complete biography of the main story-stars including the villain. The biggy here is to list any trauma or shattering moment that changes/shifts the story-star’s perception. Use a lesser degree for secondary story-stars. (check out Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting by Syd Field, amazing book for fiction novels also)
• Plotting: Index cards (14 beginning, 28 middle, 14 ending = 56 cards) also given in great detail in Syd’s book. It’s a line-up of events, plan of action that keeps me moving forward, although sometimes the characters change those events, my momentum and drive remains until the end. Plus this story lay-out doesn’t take very long to do once you get started with the brain storms.
• Timeline: Writing this as I finish each chapter. Listing the day and also time (if relevant) of the characters story, word count, page numbers, and highlights/events of each chapter. It is a godsend when referencing back to a scene or dialogue or event as I’m writing.
• Research Notations: Rather than doing all the research before I start my book (I can spend a ton of time doing unnecessary research for the sake of having “everything” before I start that first chapter – talk about a procrastinator) I use the “Review” comment tool to make notes throughout my story as I’m writing. That way I know specifically what to research and where it needs to go after the story is completed.

I’m still honing my story-writing skills, and my tools may change or I might add more of them…but for now, I’m totally impressed in all of them listed here – they sharpen my process, speed things up, and I love all of them for that; )

Thank you Urban Fantasy Investigations for having me and to all of your readers for stopping in, hope you find this post helpful. If you have a tool in your writer’s toolbox that you’d like to share, I’d love to hear about it. Please leave a comment; I can always add another tool to my arsenal.

__________________________________

DK Davis writes YA sci-fi, supernatural, and fantasy with a good dollop of all the relationships woven in between. When she’s not writing, editing, or reading, she’s hiking, RV’ing, fishing, spending time with grandchildren or her favorite muse (her husband) in Southwest Michigan.

Find D.K. Davis and her books

Website / Goodreads / Twitter / Facebook

__________________________________

Secrets: In Wolf Lake 
 The Secret Series #1
Amazon

Samantha discovers a gifted creature living in Wolf Lake; now his life depends on her saving him.

Samantha’s dealing with a lot of emotional blow-back from her mother’s new marriage. Then she discovers a gifted creature living in Wolf Lake, and life suddenly becomes all about keeping his existence a secret, earning his trust. That is until his life depends on her saving him. But she won’t be able to do it alone…

A series of secrets, invisible yet glaring, and most include a Supernatural spin, like an unwelcomed sensation sparking every nerve ending. 

Excerpt:

I stood at the end of his drive, thinking of previous conversations I’d had with Mom about Lisa. Mom defended Lisa’s rude and selfish behavior more than a few times.

But this time, nothing gives her permission to take off without a thought and leave me.

Stomping up the drive, I heard Lisa’s panicked voice coming from inside the pole barn. Hair prickled down the back of my neck and my heart pounded so loud, I could hear it. I sprinted to the closed door.

“Lisa.” My throat thickened as I turned the doorknob. Locked. “Lisa, you in there?” I hammered my fists on the door then pressed my ear against it. Lisa’s muffled voice and sounds of a scuffle or struggle came through.

“Ricky, I know you’re in there with Lisa,” I said. “I have a cell phone and I’ll call the cops if you don’t let her come out.” Another shuffle with a sound like material being torn and something fell close to the door, startling me to step back. The door jerked open. Lisa stood there, eyes glazed with tears, mouth red and swollen, hair in disarray, and her shirt ripped down from the shoulder. She held her bra in place. It must have been torn also. Ricky shoved her and she stumbled out.

“Don’t come back until you’re wearing your big girl panties.” He growled something else, unintelligible, and slammed the door.

Lisa’s whole body shook and mascara trailed down her cheeks. Ricky reminded me of the drug scum that killed my father. He was clean cut and good looking too, a good mask for the bad boy underneath.

__________________________________