Les Cochran Blog

Fiction Author

July 24, 2014
by lescochranblog
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Real Life Brain Tumor?

The first challenge in writing a novel is to start with an exciting scene—as the experts say “a grabber”—something that draws the reader in. My editor clearly stated, “I want to see drama, intrigue.  Give me something exciting!  Start in the middle and work your way back.”

For a mystery story it may be a murder, robbery or something suspenseful.  Romances often focus on a love letter, a bedroom scene or two lovers doing something.  In Signature Affair, I found “the grabber” in the original chapter four —“Drum rolls reverberated through the stadium”—some of you may recall.  Moving chapter four to chapter one resulted in the elimination of ten pages that never made the final copy.  “No loss,” my editor said.

By the time Signature Affair was published, I’d drafted the first half of Costly Affair that will be released next month.  Finding “a grabber” to start the story was no challenge.  I had a real life experience and wanted to tell it.  Two and a half years ago my wife, Lin, had a brain tumor the size of a tennis ball.  Would that be a “grabber” for the start of a novel?

Needless to say my real life drama gave me plenty of incentive to write about it in the first chapter of Costly Affair. The image of a person lying in bed surrounded by monitors and beeping sounds was more than a scene; it was a real-life situation I had experienced.  While at the Johns Hopkins Medical Center with my wife, I learned a lot about brain tumors, particularly the meningioma tumor that  attaches to the meninges membrane surrounding the brain.

Using this real life experience to start the book, the lead character, Steve, rushes to the side of his fiancée lying in a hospital bed, waiting for the results of an MRI of her brain.  The image of her lying in a cocoon of tubes and wires was, as they say, “a no brainer.”  (Sorry, it’s the best I could come up with!)

It’s no surprise that Steve has the same feelings I had in the waiting room during surgery, seeing her first smile and watching her recover.  The memories of that experience still gives me shivers.  I hope you’ll have a sense of what I was going through when you read about Steve in Costly Affair.

July 17, 2014
by lescochranblog
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Storyboard Tells the Rest of the Story

Storyboard #3Being an author generates lots of questions from friends.  Some think they might like to try their hand at publishing.  For others it’s the least likely thing they’d ever do.  Still, the questions come:  “How do you keep track of the different characters?  How do you know when they’ll react?  Or, what they’re getting ready to do?”

The questions make it sound like there’s a recipe; nothing could be further from the truth.  The best I can do is explain my approach.  Writing is a personal experience and each person has to find their own way to write and organize their thoughts.  Of course, there are some common points—every writer has an outline—but its shape is defined differently.

Some authors write detailed outlines for each chapter.  Some go to great lengths, filling up notebooks with plots and sub-plots, character descriptions and specifics about every scenario.  Others paper the four walls where they write so they can jot down thoughts and see how their ideas flow.

For me it’s simple.  I have a storyboard propped up in my den—a 2 x 3 foot tack board—I look at every day.  It’s divided into six sections, roughly five to six chapters for each.  It’s there night and day; I never know when a thought will pop into my head.  There’s also a notepad on my nightstand; my brain works 24/7.

Over breakfast one morning with my brother-in-law, David Stockman, who’d served in President Reagan’s cabinet, I scribbled five pages of notes as we talked.  I was researching ideas for the book I’m currently writing, Presidential Affair and could hardly wait to get home to add post-it notes to the storyboard.  I quickly created several rendezvous’ between Steve Schilling (my key character) and the first female president of the United States in the secret room off the Oval Office.  Before long I had written three more episodes for Steve with Hope, the president’s double.

I keep a stack of colored post-it note pads on my desk.  So when I get a thought I can jot it down and slap on the board.  The colored pads are nice too, because I use different colors to identify various story themes.  It helps me see where the story may be slow or need a boost.

Another nice thing about the post-it’s—I can move them around; I have learned nothing is fixed in writing—episodes change, characters come and go, and chapters move around.  In Costly Affair the original Chapter Eight ended up being Chapter One.

Most importantly, the storyboard is always there.  It keeps me thinking about the story—what’s ahead and how to get there.  Once I get close to finishing the writing about an idea on a post-it, my mind goes into high gear about the next episode.  I’m busy jotting down notes, saying the dialogue in my head and listing key phrases.

And then, I let it fly. I write for an hour or two without looking up—six to eight pages of scribbles and notes.  Then I start over on the same section; fine tuning, word-smithing and making it flow.  While this is happening, my head is onto the next episode.  Sometimes I add another post-it, and wonder “where did that thought come from?”

I stare at the storyboard, and before I know it my brain is there—in the story—telling me what to write.  I lean back and look at the storyboard.  Nothing has changed—the words are the same—but I’ve moved onto a place I’ve never been.

Hopefully, it is the same for you as you read my work.  Are you eager to get to the next chapter?  I hope so . . . I was when I was writing it.

July 10, 2014
by lescochranblog
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Careful What You Say—You May Be There Someday!

Books on writing fiction say, “give your characters a unique name or a particular quality so the reader can remember or identify with them.” I struggled with that advice from the beginning—the people in my books are normal people who live in ordinary places—so why should I make them different?

My main character is Steve Schilling. Using Steve as the first name is simple enough. Schilling popped into my mind as a last name because I was going to refer to him as a “shill,” a hawker, gambler or swindler. He never turned out quite that way, but lying to women about his affairs might have made him more of a “shill” than I realized.

One day, purely by accident, I discovered a new way of naming and sometimes describing my characters. It happened in Signature Affair when Steve was introduced to the Chairman of the Democratic Party. With that thought, my mind shifted to my good friend, Clarence Smith, who was the local Chairman of the Republican Party. “Ah ha,” I said to myself. “I’ll make the character in the book just opposite of Clarence.” And so the character had dark hair slicked back and a beer gut, just the reverse of my friend. In the book, I named the Chairman of the Democratic Party Clarence Smithton. See the similarity?

From that point on, I started searching for names, using part or deviations of our friend’s names. Subtle insertions began to appear, professor Tarpley, Mary Ann Kellman and Reverend Scanlon to name a few. It wasn’t long before friends were calling to be in the next book. Soon what to name the characters was replaced with a little game—who do we pick today?

All of this is in good fun, but now the word is out. “Be careful what you say when you’re around Les, you may appear in his next book.”

One of the funniest things happened when we were visiting good friends, Don and Gloria Cagigas, in Ohio. Naturally, we talked a lot about the book. It so happened that I was writing about a banker at the time who chaired the United Way. That was close to what Don had done—he was a retired banker who then became the head of the United Way.

As a joke I sent him a draft chapter, using Don Cagigas as a character’s name. Gloria read the chapter, had a good laugh and encouraged Don to read it. Being tired that night, he said, “I’ll read it in the morning.” Of course, he got the look, and immediately picked up the draft and began to read. Turning the third page, he shouted, “Don Cagigas? What the heck . . ?”

The next morning I got the call—“everyone will think it’s me. You can’t use my name.” After lots of laughs, I told him not to worry and assured him the character’s name is really Don Cagney, not Don Cagigas. As a result of that experience, my wife and I now have fun at the dinner table figuring variations of friends’ names for my characters.

Do you have an interest in being in my next book? Be careful what you say; you be may be there someday!

July 4, 2014
by lescochranblog
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LOVE, LIES and LIAISONS: Do These Words Tell You Something?

Have you ever picked up a book to see what it was about? Maybe you were waiting in line at the grocery store or killing time at an airport newsstand.

Why did you pick up that book and turn the cover? Was it was a famous author or someone you’d read before. The title, a subject of interest or the cover design—something triggered your action.

As a new author I hadn’t given questions of that type much thought. We’d come up with the perfect cover—champagne, chocolates, a rose and a fireplace. What better way to say romance?

I soon learned I had to do more. Looking at my prize manuscript—Signature Affair—lying on the table I asked myself, what’s the book really about? Maybe people might think it’s a mystery, like The Thomas Crown Affair. Perhaps a true love story; shoot I thought a person could even think it was about a wedding planner’s signature event. Clearly, I had to do more.

For most authors, questions like this usually occur when they’re having a brainstorm. Some jot and scribble well into the night. And then, in the morning when they start again—bingo there it is.

But for me there was no brainstorm and no bingo. Lin and I had met our friends, the Scanlon’s, at a timeshare in the Smokies. A time to veg out and catch up on the year’s happening. And of course, to have good food and plenty of wine.

It happened one afternoon between a marathon series of “Sequence” (a card game). Jim and I needed a break, after getting our butts beat for the third straight time. A little wine and cheese would be the cure. For some reason I mentioned my dilemma with the title of the book. I need to say no more.

Jim, the “doctor of words,” who was preparing the loot (cutting the cheese) was already tossing out the terms. It didn’t take long to agree on love and lies. The main character, Steve Schilling, did plenty of that—loving five women then lying to each to cover it up.

Lauren, who is always a hoot, called my guy a louse. “He’s not a louse,” I said, coming to the rescue of my leading man. “He loves each woman the same.” “Sounds like a louse,” Lauren said, under her breath.

After more wine, Lin was acting loose. “He’s having five affairs; I agree with Lauren, he’s a louse,” she insisted. “It gives us three ‘L’s,’” Jim said. “We need three ‘L’s,’” he repeated for the third time.

“Steve doesn’t think he’s a louse,” I said. “He doesn’t see them as affairs. He thinks he’s in love with each; we can’t call him a louse.”

“It gives us three ‘L’s,’” the “doctor of words” reminded us. “We have to have three ‘L’s,’”

“Fine,” I said. “Find another ‘L’ and I’ll be happy. “Dr. Words” looked at me. “Liaisons, it means affairs.”

“And so it was, we’d created a subtitle—LOVE, LIES and LIAISONS.”

Lin, now a silly duck, said, “We’ve done more than that.” We all looked at her, wondering what Miss AFLAC would say next. “We’ve described what you write about. It’s more than a subtitle, it portrays who you are.” And of course, she was right.

LOVE, LIES and LIAISONS is not only the sub-title for my trilogy; it also defines the genre in which I write. In the future when you are discussing love, lies and/or liaisons – – think of me, but don’t mention to your friends that I used to be a university president. Sh . . .

June 25, 2014
by lescochranblog
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A Red Fedora

Trademark: The Red Fedora

Trademark: The Red Fedora

Every fictional character has a story; maybe it’s a friend, part of the author’s imagination or something in his/her past. So too, are many of their traits and characteristics. In my “love, lies and liaisons” trilogy, the main character Steve Schilling wears a red fedora. There is a personal story about that red fedora that I’d like to share.

Early in my career I was a university provost (chief academic officer), second in command for those of you who had a normal life outside of academe. I was known as an innovator, a person who did things outside the norm. Today, we’d say “outside of the box.”

For a homecoming game, my wife and I decided to dress boldly in university colors to display our team support. She looked great in her red outfit, like a country and western music star. Everyone loved her red hat, some even called her “Lady Di” (Princess Diana for you late comers).

I selected red pants with red suspenders and a red and blue madras shirt. The ‘git up’ was cool but I needed a hat—something red to match my pants and school color. The day before the game, I was taking a quick browse through the local men’s shop and there was the perfect match—THE RED FEDORA!

I wore it to the game and was a big hit. Well . . . everyone was joking and laughing about my outfit. Before the first quarter had barely begun my wife, Lin, leaned over and whispered the news—“I’ve overheard some comments that the provost looks like a clown!”

Since momma Cochran didn’t raise a fool, I stored the red fedora away in a box never to see the light of day.

Several years later, I was president of Youngstown State University—a real football power, winning four national championships. It turns out their colors were also red and white.
For my first game, I dressed in gray slacks, blue blazer, white shirt and a red tie. The tie was loaded with penguins (we were the only college team with a penguin mascot.)

I waited for Lin who always manages to try on ten different outfits before she decides which one to wear, often causing us to be “almost” late for events. I was checking my watch when she finally came out of the bedroom. Wow, she was decked out in a red outfit made to kill. And of course, the most stylish red hat I’d ever seen.

“You look wonderful,” I said.

She smiled, looked at me, and stared. “Are you going like that? You look like a stogy, old university president.” I looked down at my shoes, and realized I had forgotten to polish them.

“It’s not your shoes dummy, you need a hat. Where’s the red fedora?”

Of course, I knew exactly where it was, and dutifully returned with it cocked on my head.

“Perfect, that hat will make you approachable. Most people are hesitant to make conversation with a university president.” she announced. “The hat will break the ice. You’ll be a hit!”

And sure enough, it was a lot of fun. I wore the red fedora to every game, home and away, as long as I was president. It became my trademark. As a matter of fact, I remember when I was in a grocery store one day with Lin and we met a friend who introduced me to her ten-year-old daughter.

The little girl asked her mom, “Is he really the YSU president? He doesn’t have a red hat.”

As I said in the introduction, every fictional character is often inspired by something from the past. Now, as I am writing a trilogy about a university president named Steve Schilling, it only makes sense that he wears a red fedora.

Stay tuned – – more insights about my characters and/or my past are on the way.

June 18, 2014
by lescochranblog
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Mom’s Give the Best Advice

Sunday was Father’s Day and I’m sure the phrase “father knows best” was stated many times.  Well, now that Father’s Day has passed perhaps it is safe to share a little about how “mother knows best.”

When I started my blog, I received lots of advice – – write about what you know, something important, make it meaningful, keep it light, don’t dwell on the insignificant.

It didn’t take me  long to conclude that a good subject choice would be – – my mom.  That was the easy part, but what do I write that might be of interest to others?

I chuckled to myself.  If you knew my mom, everything was of interest.  She made things happen, was in charge; yet, found a way to support everything I did.  When she learned that I couldn’t read as a fifth grader, she took a part-time job to pay for a tutor.

She sat in the bleachers for hundreds of baseball games keeping score and more basketball games charting shots.  At 12:04 am on Saturday when I arrived home four minutes late from a date she gave me that glare from the old living-room chair.  She cheered when I won and hugged me when I lost.  It didn’t matter where I was, far or near, she was there to push me to do more.

As I matured, I realized even more what she had done for me.  She always said, “We’re not poor, we just don’t have much money.”  It took me a long time to learn the meaning of that.  And interestingly, Steve Schilling’s mother told him the same thing. (Steve’s the leading character in my first novel, Signature Affair.)

She’d often say “You can’t complain about something unless you’re willing to do something about it.”  So I’ve never complained about the weather – – can’t do anything about that.  In my career, I never complained.  I devoted countless hours to improving whatever it might be, trying to make it better; always focused on what could be rather than what was.

From time to time a member of my staff would ask “What should I do?”  again, her wisdom was there.  “Use your brain, that’s why you have one.  Make the best decision you can.”  So when asked the question, I’d always respond, “Do what is right, I know you will.”  Invariably the bewildered staff member would walk away and make the best possible decision.

Recently, my wife asked, “If your mother was still alive what would she think about you writing “steamy novels?”  I thought but a moment.  “She’d be right on board,” I said.  “Probably critiquing and editing, and making lots  of suggestions.”

What special advice did you receive from your mom? I’d love to hear from you.

June 3, 2014
by lescochranblog
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Welcome – Let’s Have Some Fun!

I’m glad you found me and hope you will subscribe to my Blog.  As you’ll learn in the weeks ahead, I spent my entire career in education, the last thirty-three years in higher education.  Upon retirement, I dabbled in politics—getting my butt beat in two local elections—I won’t be writing much about that!

It didn’t take long to realize the political arena was not for me—Momma Cochran didn’t raise a fool.  So I turned back to writing, my life-long passion.  I labored five years to publish my first novel, Signature Affair, and now I’m finalizing Costly Affair.

I’ve been a change agent all of my life, changing diapers and my political views (interesting those two thoughts came together), and then into my career bringing about changes as a Dean, Provost and University President.

And so, in my Blog you’ll find eclectic topics like growing up poor on a dirt-farm in Indiana, trying out with the Minnesota Twins, renovating a church as our home, dealing with my wife’s brain tumor, learning to write fiction, and of course, critiques and analysis of issues in higher education.

I hope you will follow along; who knows where we’ll end up!

Les Cochran

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