I have this uncanny ability to wonder into bookstores at the most opportune moments. I never check local papers for authors appearing at local bookstores, but it appears I have a homing device that clues me in on such occurrences.

This past Saturday I wondered into a local bookstore and found a large crowd waiting in line for a book signing. The author was Homer Hickam. Mr. Hickam is a native of West Virginia who grew up in the coalfields. His book entitled Rocket Boys generated the 1999 movie October Sky. As a boy, Hickam launched a rocket from a coalfield, and later became a NASA rocket scientist. He has a new book release called Red Helmet. The book tells the story of a Sonya Hawkins, a wealthy and beautiful woman, who falls in love with a coal mine manager, and has a rude awakening when she reaches the coalfields from the streets of NYC. Sonya’s marriage gradually unravels, and a tragedy strikes causing Sonya to don the novice red miner’s helmet and go deep within the mine. Inside the mine, she learns more about herself than she ever imagined possible. While Hickam visited Huntington this weekend, he launched a scholarship program for Marshall University. You might recall the movie We Are Marshall starring Matthew McConaughey. It was about a fatal plane crash in 1970 that claimed the lives of the coaches and members of the Marshall Football team. This scholarship benefits the same University depicted in the movie.

I did something at this book signing that I have never done before. I stood in a corner and observed. I’ve attended book signings before, but I’ve always participated, this time I wanted to be an observer. I’ve found that in some situations you can learn so much more from observation and speculation. In this instance, I couldn’t have been more on target. I watched each individual’s face as they approached Hickam. As at most book signings, their expressions signified awe and gratitude for work well done. Hickam never wavered. He graciously signed each individual’s book, and spoke to them a few moments. He also did an interview with the local news. At certain points during the process, I saw fatigue in Hickam’s expression, but the smile never left his face and he remained the same gracious author. I was impressed, and couldn’t help but wonder what it feels like to attain that kind of success. How launching a rocket in a field as a boy led to the man sitting in front of me. I wondered how it felt to obtain success and then bring it home to where it all began.

I am struggling to write my first WIP. This man has six published books, is a former rocket scientist, and has a movie based on one of his books. What kind of determination does it take to obtain that level of success? If I gained nothing else from observing this man, I received a large dose of inspiration. I thought about how I have grumbled to myself in the last several weeks about the rigors of writing a book. I asked myself is it that difficult, or am I defeating the purpose before I ever begin? This man obviously has put forth a great deal of time and effort to obtain his place in the literary world, as well as use his extreme intelligence to improve space science. In observing Mr. Hickam, I was able to put my own goals in perspective. When God gives me skill, I shouldn’t grumble if it takes hard effort to produce a product of that skill. I need to thank him for it, and view it as a privilege to use it for achievement.

The most important denominating factors for achievement is determination and the belief in one‘s self. I view writing a book like losing weight; nobody can diet for me, just as no one can write my WIP. The desire comes from an ideal that you can do anything your heart desires as long as you want it badly enough.

I believe that the culmination of success is not reached just because you publish, for at that point, the real test begins. You must maintain your game. You have to prove to the world that you’re not a one-book wonder.

This weekend I observed an enormously successful man, and couldn’t help but think how it felt to be sitting on his side of the table. I can’t imagine walking into a bookstore and observing my book upon a shelf, or opening the newspaper and reading my name on the NYT bestseller list. I want to know what it feels like to become a full time writer. I want to be able to give part of my success back to my community. Overall, I want to achieve a dream.

I hope I get the chance to live that dream, and I hope that when I do, I handle it with the same gentle graciousness that I saw displayed in Homer Hickam.

What are your aspirations of success? When you become successful, do you plan to do more with that success than publishing more books? If you are already published, how did it feel to learn you succeeded, and do you feel a tremendous amount of pressure to maintain that success? Do you believe in the power of observance?

There have been many times in my life when emotion has taken over. When I no longer have control over what my mouth is saying and everything that I’d held inside for so long came front and centered. There is nothing like those moments, vulnerable and exposed to the one who’s either caused you pain or you’ve loved like no one before them. It’s in those moments that we realize who we are inside.

For some of us emotion is not easily said aloud but easier shown in small gestures that are often overlooked. It’s easy to say the words, “I love you” if you don’t really mean it. Words are often regaled as the emotion behind the person but without these gestures behind the meaning, it truly isn’t worth the last turnip on the turnip truck.

I’ve often thought about those gestures behind my characters. What makes them act the way they do? What makes you engage the character? Visualization of the scene, gestures that seem real and not overbearing. You really have to analyze every day life and those around you in order to get an understanding of this. To me this is one of the most important jobs of a writer. I want you to feel like you are in that scene. Like you can feel the motivation behind my character’s actions. If you can’t physically feel that emotion draped between the words, sentences, paragraphs, then I’m obviously not conveying it the right way.

I can think of a few writers that do this and do this well. Janet Evanovich (Yes, I am obsessed) and Pamela Clare (Here is me on my knees worshiping the fiction ground they both walk on) just to name two of them. I adore dark heroes. The darker the better. But that’s what makes their redemption so much sweeter in the end. The dark heroes know how to do the gestures behind their actions. For them, it’s the only way they can truly express their feelings without feeling overpowered by the moment.

It’s the small gestures that, to the reader, tell you everything you need to know about the relationship between two characters. There is no telling of these emotions, there is no need. As a reader, you sense that connection between the hero and heroine. Without that connection, I wouldn’t be a reader of their fiction. Plain and simple. I don’t need to be told of the emotion. Seriously, any schmuck can say the words “I love you” and grin like an idiot and that still doesn’t mean, to me, that they actually care or genuinely love. They are saying the words. There can be all the basis in the world behind them, and they still might not mean anything without the gesture of love behind it.

What do I mean by gesture, you might ask? To me, the gesture of love and emotion is showing me you mean it. By not just saying it, you truly feel it. Nothing will separate us. Not obsessive or overbearing; but that one true deep emotion that happens once in a million years. To me, P. Clare and J. Evanovich do this in spades. P. Clare just has this wonderful way of writing the emotional gestures behind the action. My favorite example of P. Clare’s gestures is *spoiler for Hard Evidence* when Julian steps into the line of fire and takes several bullets in the back for Tessa. Yes, he’s a FBI agent, but it’s the moments afterwards. The way Julian reacts. The tenderness between them when Tessa cries for him that truly shows you the gestures behind the motivation and emotion. It’s complex. It’s raw. And it’s truly awe-inspiring.

Julian is a different breed of dark hero. A man who truly doesn’t know his worth because he was never taught. There was no trust in his heart. No love in his life. My heart pitter-patters at the thought of Julian, dark sunglasses, 5 o’clock shadow, lean hips swaggering towards me. You can just tell that Julian is all action, no talk.

Not to mention J. Evanovich’s character Ranger (R. Carlos Manoso). All of the words that come out of Ranger’s mouth contradict his actions. The way he unabashedly tells the truth no matter how painful it is to hear it. He tells it straight. He makes no apologies. He’s hard and unforgiving. And it takes a special sort of love to understand him. If you hear the words come out of Ranger’s mouth you can take it to heart. He thinks about what he says before he speaks. Every word is weighed carefully. Don’t say things you don’t mean. But there is a sneakiness about Ranger as well. Qualifiers. Contradictions. Keeping at arm’s length.

Looks that tell a different story. Actions that show exactly what he feels.

Take for an example: In Twelve Sharp *spoilers for Twelve Sharp* the book is about Ranger’s daughter with whom he has little contact with. When asked about it, he speaks of her clinically, without emotion, detached. But his actions tell a different story. He exudes his every resource to find her. Spends countless hours awake, searching, hunting, tracking down leads. He enlists Stephanie to help him. And when he sees his little girl’s smiling face on the TV and a picture of him, listed as armed and dangerous, you see his mask slip and the emotion becomes very raw and painful. And even then, Stephanie knows that his daughter is just not another expense in his budget, but a real emotion he keep close to his heart and never shows to anyone.

There are a thousand examples I could use of J. Evanovich’s Ranger character. She’s the perfect manipulator of the actions speak louder than words scene writer.

So, in your opinion, who is the master of these sorts of gestures? What sort of characters suck you in and never let you go? Has there ever been a scene that just stuck out for you and stayed with you long after you sat the book down?

And I know that I told Hellion that this was going to be Eric Bana week, but I got stuck on Julian and Ranger. I get sidetracked very easily.

PS. Eric Bana I adore you. You are so hot with your 5 o’clock shadow and wicked bedroom ways. I am the pirate wench of your dreams. Not to be confused with a siren who will cause your ship to steer off course and crash. As Quartermaster it is my duty to guide you with my ultra fabulous sense of direction, which may or may not include getting you out of your trousers and into my private quarters.
Sincerely, Q. Sin.