T.C. McMullen, home to thriller novels, short stories, and more

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January 19, 2006

 

Well, it's a new year, hopefully one with less natural destruction and chaos than last year and one that brings much happiness to all of us.  As you've probably noticed, my "Thought of the Month" has been sporadic at the most. Part of it has to do with the time it takes to come into the site and add it.  At any rate.  "Thought of the Month" has moved to "Thought of the Moment" blog you can find here: http://tcmcmullen.blogspot.com/ . You all can jump in and add comments as well.

 

T.C.

 

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November 2005

 

Here it is, November already, though even the weather doesn't seem to realize another month on the calendar has turned.  The year is winding down, big holidays on the near horizon.  It feels to me as if we just did this, didn't we?  I do look forward to the holidays and family.  It's a time when I slow down a bit to just enjoy the moments.  I've been working on my next book, little by little as well as other small things, and may have a new website up to introduce you to a new world soon - one coming to life inside my imagination.  But the topic I would like to write about today is one that has come up in a few other places I've been lately.  The topic of mistakes, proofreading goofs, if you will. 

 

When my first book was published and I spotted the first word missed by three proofreaders, my heart dropped to my gut.  I wanted Whispers of Insanity to be perfect, no "oopses" at all.  I take pride in creating excellent things whether it be in my art or in my writing.  It's what I was taught - to do my best - and I take pride in it.  But I will also nit pick a project until I just can't look at it anymore, trying to get it perfect.  I did this with my latest book, Scorching Eden to the point I really wished it wasn't the final of a trilogy so I wouldn't have to publish it.

 

I'll tell you a little secret -- I'm not perfect and I'm a bit weary of finding myself avoiding things, such as publishing my next book or posting on this page, for fear I may make a typo or use "to" instead of "too."   If you have read my books, you've no doubt found at least one "oops" among the pages.  I do appologize if they threw you off balance.  In one instance, I had a flashlight throwing "steaks" instead of "streaks," though now all I can do about that one is chuckle. 

 

I suppose if my book or books are worth less because of an extra "with" in a sentence I changed right before publication or a missing R that turns a flashlight into something more supernatural than practical, well, the whole of my stories are being missed.

 

We all make mistakes, no matter how good at something we are.  It took me a while to understand this.  We are only human and can only do so much to reach perfection.  I hope you are able to forgive me for my flubs and understand I try,  I just haven't found the "perfect" button yet  :)

 

 But I do promise I won't get lazy on creating the best characters and stories and cleanest final projects possible.   This you can count on. 

 

T.C.

 

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October 2005

 

Well I suppose I should rename this page to "Random Thoughts" since I can't seem to post every month.  I always wonder what the topic should be, what is worth reading for the reader.  This is October, my favorite month.  It's fall here in the North East, cooler temperatures, when all is winding down and preparing for winter.  Leaves are falling, apples are ready, the pumpkins are everywhere. And Halloween is near.

 

Is it any wonder Halloween is one of the top holidays for me, second only to Christmas.  Halloween encompasses everything that fascinates me, the paranormal and scary.  It's also a time when we can have fun, costumes and decorations that wouldn't be welcomed at any other time of year.  I was born this month.  Would that account for my love of the darker things? 

 

I don't think so.  Maybe it's genetic?  My daughter has picked out black nail polish and prefers the black clothes just like I do. My youngest is close on our heels in preferences.  Her favorite movie is Van Helsing - not Cinderella.  We like the imaginative things and for some reason, those more often than not fall into the dark and scary.  Science fiction is so often linked together with horror and mystery.  I see the imaginative aspects of it all and although I write in the dark categories, my stories always have an "up" side.  They have to because that is who I am.  I always find the brighter side.

 

To me, real life can be more horrific than the fictional horror.  We've all see the storms this year, the tragedies not only inflicted by Mother Nature but by human against human.  Human nature can be a scary thing, especially when life is turned upside down and normal is tossed to the wind.  We must focus on the recovery.  The bright, not the dark.

 

The final book of my trilogy is finished and available.  The Manipulated Evil wasn't horror in the usual aspect, more science fantasy, but mostly character driven adventure romance.  Scorching Eden was by far the hardest book for me to write.  To see the characters suffer through so much and sacrifice everything.  I've never written anything darker - yet the final end tied it all together and brightened everything. The end was worth each torturous event each character went through.

 

I think in real life we want that "easy button" and when things get tough, we forget they don't stay that way.  It's our job to fight through it and get to the other side.  There is always the happy outcome at some point, no matter how long it takes to reach it.  But while in the midst of some challenge, why do we so often forget this? This is why I write what I write - to remind everyone, including myself that there is always a brighter side.  We need to not forget it.

 

T.C.

 

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July 2005

Summer is here in full swing. And this year we are actually getting a summer in central Pennsylvania, not some cold rainy version of it. Kids are playing outside, sun is shining more often than not. Keeping up with chores is proving to be a hassle, but I’ve learned the dirty floor will still be there tomorrow after the game of badminton in the back yard.

I’ve been busy doing other things as well as playing with the kids. I invite you to take a peek at http://silvermoonmagazine.com to see one of my latest ventures. The other is a new book with all new characters who are stirring in my mind – even before I’m totally finished with Scorching Eden. Yes, The Manipulated Evil Trilogy is finished except for the final proofread, a relief and strangely a little sad also. I spent so much time with the characters of the trilogy, it’s almost like saying goodbye to good friends. But there was a lot more to the story in the trilogy than just character. It was how they behaved together, the problems they were faced with, the decisions they made. A little of my children and a bit of my best friends all went into the characters I worked with in the pages of the trilogy, and Ravyn, Kyle, Kian, Keelyn, Jove, Cassi and the supporting characters, they truly did take on personalities and lives of their own. I can only hope the stars of my next book will do the same. I suspect they will. Kynlythiajeira (Kin-lithia-geera) is already busy telling me her story, a fantasy thriller/romance.

Creating fiction is something some have a hard time understanding. I know some believe I sit at my computer typing away for the fun of it. I do enjoy the creating, but it is also work and something I have to do just as much as I have to eat or drink. When I finished the Manipulated Evil stories, I wanted to take a break from writing. Contrary to what some believe, it is a job, developing character, plot, settings. And my characters always nag at me so I feel like I’ve got two different areas constantly pulling on me. Family on one side, writing on the other. When Kynly (Kin-ly) surfaced, she did so when I had a paint brush in one hand, listening to 104.9, The Rock, in my daughter’s torn apart bedroom (that was a job!) and trying not to laugh too hard at her as she ran the paint roller of green paint along the walls. She has quite a sense of humor and her mouth never seems to stop running. Why a character like Kynly (who is nick-named by Bryce, an Earth man she doesn’t much care for - at first) popped into my head while I was scrubbing, sanding, painting, I honestly don’t know, but she’s demanding attention. And I doubt she’ll give me much of a break from writing.

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June 2005

 

Some of you may have noticed a thought of the month - as well as any update - was missing for the months of April and May.  I've just now gotten online long enough to tend my sites.  I've always done well at keeping things fresh and up to date, but other things suddenly took over and kept me busy. At first it was activities with my three girls that took the time, but then I wanted to landscape my yard and also finish the drywall in my home.  Three rooms patched and painted, five to go.  Why I suddenly went on this finish-everything spree... life is too darn short.  I want to enjoy it while I can.

 

April 26 an accident occured.  A propane tank exploded and engulfed a friend of mine.  We had been friends since high school. For two years way back then, we with several others spent evenings together at least two times a week.  He would often come just for visits and we'd sit and talk on the porch.  Through those teen years, while I had several good friends, I considered only  two people to be best friends, and he was one of them.  May 16th, he died from his injuries, leaving behind two children and a fiance - he was to be married June 11, 2005.  I'd lost touch with him for several years, as we had once before, but as with my other best bud, the second we saw each other and started talking it was as if no time or space had gone by.  I'd lost contact with him for several reasons, distance, family, none included a problem between us. 

 

For so long, I've been waiting to do things - such as fix up my home.  I don't feel like a house is my home until I douse it in artistic touches.  I'd been working so hard on my novels and on jump starting my businesses that most everything else was put on hold.  Now, the truth of the statement I wrote in January rings so true.  Tomorrow doesn't always come.  My friend was a strong, young and healthy man with so much to live for, but he got caught up in an awful accident.  A conversation I once had with him kept running through my mind.  He truly knew how to live life to the fullest. If he wanted to do something, he did it.  He didn't try to please others, only to be himself, yet he was a very giving man. He'd help anyone he could and he often did.  He had a way of brightening any situation, seeing the good side which was a great asset, especially to me as a teen. His seeing the good side of everything often pulled me out of some really miserable places.  To some extent, I took on that habit of his, but I'd let my life go in too many other places - put too many things on back burners so to speak.

 

Now, I'm trying to find balance (along with a good full-body heat pad heehee).  I've finished my trilogy and will soon launch Scorching Eden, but not until my girls start back to school.  We're having fun this summer - making memories.

 

I hope to be back up to speed with my sites as well as a few new things for my readers come fall.  Please do keep checking here for new news :)

 

Sincerely,

 

T.C.

 

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March 2005

 

What is it exactly that makes one person feel so self-conscience they fear functioning outside of their own comfort zone? It’s always intrigued me. Why?  Because in most circumstances, I would fall into this category, yet I can talk casually with a cashier or someone I meet on the street. So it confuses me a bit.  I have much experience with shy because I fit most comfortably among that crowd while growing up.  If I didn’t talk, there was less chance I would say something I viewed as stupid, therefore, less chance I would regret it later.  But I discovered a funny thing.  Some people translate shyness into “snobbish”.  

 

This strikes me as odd because, in my experience, it couldn’t be more the opposite.  It also makes me wonder just how often people misperceive others.  I think it would surprise us all. We generalize and we stereotype, often without realizing it, yet not one of us is exactly the same as another. The stereotyping is something that really puzzles me.  I’ve been stereotyped so often I know generally what a person who meets me for the fist time would say if asked about me. It usually couldn’t be further from the truth. Then when they find out I’m a horror/suspense author who doesn’t shy away from hard work or digging in the mud, they are genuinely surprised, sometimes shocked.  Yet the first thing my best friend said after reading my first book went something like: “this book’s just what I knew you would write”. 

 

So why do we generalize and stereotype.  We all do it everyday.  We make assumptions, judgments per se, on people we meet, see on television, or read about in newspapers.  I’ve noticed we seem to categorize everything and sometimes, as in the book business, if something doesn’t fit snuggly in one of those categories, it’s hard to sell.

 

In writing my fourth book, I created a character I knew I would fall in love with. She is a very rough character, who didn’t say much.  She wasn’t liked at all by the reader who always helps me develop my novels. This person opened my eyes to the fact that Ravyn was only being seen on the outside and on the outside, Ravyn is a very harsh human being.  It wasn’t until I added a little of Ravyn’s point of view, added her thoughts, that her true motives and worth shined through.

 

Beyond fiction or biographies and memoirs, there is no way to hear an individual’s thoughts. There is no way to see beyond the surface. The only way to get to know what a person is truly like is to get to know them well.  And how often do we do that?  Some of us are lucky enough to have many close friends, but most of us hold a precious few close enough for them to get to know us well. 

 

We can’t possibly get to know everyone well, there isn’t enough time in the world and some personality types can not be comfortable together. There’s no shame in it.  But maybe we could all be more aware that we are so uniquely different and don’t always share the same views on things. And maybe we can realize what someone shows on the surface is just a miniscule part of the whole.

 

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February 3, 2005

 

Here is February already.  Where does the time go?  I was relaxing, thinking I had plenty of time to prepare for the upcoming release of my fourth novel. Then suddenly, I don't. And I hear much the same thing, although with different concerns or activities, from so many.

 

Time truly is a precious thing. Yet we seem to rush it away for one reason or another, maybe by trying to catch up and do everything everyone else is doing.  I think most of us believe ourselves to be super human these days, but despite my desire to slow things down, time is still zooming by. Maybe it's because I have taken on yet another endeavor as Senior Editor of a new mystery magazine.

 

Yet, I have learned to put limits on other demands of my time and instead of working around the clock 7 days a week, I have evenings and weekends where my computer never boots up. Working so much was benifitting me little to none, and I lost all enjoyment of my work.

 

Many around me are also doing the the same.  Some have slowed down to spend more time with their families.  Some have slowed down because they were simply tired of it all. I hope this means there is a trend. Life is too short to rush through it with only material things on our minds. For whatever reason we walk this world, may we gain wisdom and enjoyment too.

 

 

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