Blog Ring of Power Presents: Sally Franklin Christie

It's another Friday with a Blog Ring of Power Interview.  Today I have the privilege to welcome Sally Franklin Christie to the Realm. Hi Sally! 

To see the rest of her 5 part interview, don't forget to check out the rest of the ring.

Part 1 with Terri Bruce

Part 2 with T.W. Fendley

Part 3 is here with me... but you knew that.

Part 4 with Sandra Ulbrich Almazan

and to wrap things up Part 5 will be with D.C. Rich

Sally Franklin Christie has spent her life achieving incredibly average goals. Her challenges and choices have led to into the world of organizing for social change,civil rights and helping people navigate in a world filled with physical barriers and discrimination.  She photographs and paints landscapes,when she isn’t at the computer researching,networking and writing. Special interests include Missing Children and Adults,Astronomy,Character Traits and Criminal Thinking. 

Lets talk about Sally's Creative Process

BRoP:  Where do you get your story ideas?

Sally:  Newspapers are great places to find a story idea.  Some of the most ridiculous or unforeseen things make it into the paper.  My favorite – Woman Gets Arm Bit Off By Taper.  Now how did she end up in a situation like that?  What was her life like the days before this event?  Does she have kids?  Why was she there?  What is her recovery going to be like?  Is she young?  A grandmother?  Artist?  Climber?  How will this change her life?  Ideas are everywhere I look.  Ideas are in overheard conversations at the checkout.  Ideas are walking around the parking lot with carts overloaded with paper towels.  Ideas pass by on bicycles.

BRoP: Do you have a specific writing style?

Sally:  I try to give a certain lightness to my writing, even when the world seems hopeless to my characters.  I have a skewed view of the world and I hope it shows in my writing.

BRoP:  How do you develop your plots and characters? Do you use any set formula?

Sally:  I keep files on my characters.  I know their back stories.  I interview them at different points in a story to see if they are in touch with the plot.  Some of them have very different ideas of what is going on.  I like to have six major scenes in mind or written before I bridge them together in the first draft.  Except in November when I write by the seat of my pants.

BRoP:  Are you a “plotter” or a “pantser” (do you plan/outline the story ahead of time or write “by the seat of your pants”)?

Sally:  Pretty much the same as above.

BRoP:  How much time do you spend on research? What type of research do you do?

Sally:  I love to research.  Would you like me to do a little brain surgery?  Do you want the inside story on the costs and ease of acquiring the contents of a pipe bomb?  I do have to work on stopping when it comes to research.

BRoP:  Is there anything you find particularly challenging to write?

Sally:  I cannot write a sex scene to save my life.  The idea is so upsetting that I renamed them ‘doorknob’ scenes.  My biggest failure as a writer is the way my mind and fingers freeze up at the thought of bringing such personal and gloopy situations to an empty page.

So where can you find Sally... Um, I'm not telling! I'm keeping it to myself.  

Ok ok I'll tell you

Website:  http://sallyfranklinchristie.com

Blog: http://sallyfranklinchristie.com/wp     Life is a Story – Tell it Big

Facebook page:  http://www.facebook.com/sally.christie

Goodreads author page:  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4453450.Sally_Franklin_Christie

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/#!/SallyChristie

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Sally-Franklin-Christie/e/B004ZV800C/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1332714759&sr=8-1

Smashwords:

Other:  Buy Links for Milk Carton People  http://sallyfranklinchristie.com/wp/milk-carton-people/ and Buy Links for If I Should Die http://sallyfranklinchristie.com/wp/if-i-should-die/

Is your book in print, ebook or both?

Both are available in e-format and print.  

MILK CARTON PEOPLE
Caught Between the Quick and the Dead.

Milk Carton People is a paranormal thriller about people who suddenly find themselves invisible, able to observe things but unable to participate. Do they go mad? Maybe they find others. It is quite possible that there is no point in being invisible. This is a book that plays on the very thin line of sanity and pure despair. The characters act and react to the new challenges and the reader gets to go along for the ride.

Quotes:

“Some of them are never found, you know.”
“I wonder how many people out there have figured out they can do this?”
“We’ve been waiting for you.”

Excerpt:

I’m going to wake up, now, and go about my day with my cup
of coffee. By the time I get to work, the whole thing will disappear
like all dreams. I won’t even remember it.
She turned away from the little tree and took a few steps down
the sidewalk. She intended to turn back toward the book store
again, to somehow retake control of her destiny. As if turning
back would give everyone one more chance to tell her it was all in
fun and she was such a good sport.
Just then, a woman in an electric blue colored coat, walked
right into her.
“Excuse, me,” Ruth began and stopped speechless. For one
long, drawn out, slow motion, nightmare second, her vision was
obscured by a brownish red filter which blurred everything before
her. She felt hot, sticky, and confined. A cloying odor of spoiled
hamburger made her gasp for clean air. She tasted copper pennies
in her mouth. At the same time Ruth heard a gurgling noise and
a squeak and as the whole event suddenly ended she heard a plop
like pudding falling from a spoon back into the bowl.
A sudden cold sweat competed with stomach acid lurching
into her throat. Ruth swallowed it back and turned to watch as
the woman in electric blue continued walking down the sidewalk
without breaking stride. Ruth watched the woman in the electric
blue coat disappear around the corner.
“No,” Ruth said aloud with authority. “No,” she repeated.

She walked to the nearest building and stood close to the cold bricks in the shadows.

I have to go home.