UC coach staying, Nippert Stadium to expand
University of Cincinnati Football Coach Brian Kelly announced he would stay at UC Tuesday, following a meeting at which UC officials vowed to pursue an expansion that would add up to 10,000 new seats to the 35,000-seat Nippert Stadium.
Northern Cincinnati tourism group ends ?08 on high note
With a month left in 2008, the Northern Cincinnati Convention & Visitors Bureau is looking to post its best results ever.
Cincinnati unemployment below statewide level
Greater Cincinnati’s jobless rate topped 6 percent in October, but that was below the statewide average and equal to the national rate, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Toyota sees 34% drop in U.S. sales
Toyota Motor Corp.’s U.S. sales in November dropped by more than one-third year over year, the automaker said Tuesday. (TM)
Convergys wins FDIC customer service subcontract
Convergys Corp. has won a five-year agreement to help the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. deal with a flood of calls from citizens concerned about their bank accounts. (CVG)
Local stocks bounce back after Monday's debacle
Greater Cincinnati stocks and the overall market overcame some bad auto sales news to rally Tuesday after Monday’s plunge. (GM) (GE) (BGC) (ASH) (CECE) (M) (LABL) (AKS) (AFG) (CINF) (FITB) (FFBC) (CQB) (KNDL) (LCAV) (PG) (KR) (HI) (ATRC) (SSP)
Ford lays out plan to profitability
Ford Motor Co. is telling Congress it expects to turn at least break even in two years under a business plan that seeks, if necessary, $9 billion in bridge financing from the federal government. (F)
Cincinnati CFOs: More hires than fires planned
Chief financial officers in Cincinnati area are still hiring, although job cuts are also up, according to the latest Robert Half International Financial Hiring Index. (RHI)
N. Ky. builders group elects Bogenschutz president
Paul Bogenschutz will serve as 2009 president of the Home Builders Association of Northern Kentucky, the organization said Monday.
Center for Closing the Health Gap wins $225K grant
The Center for Closing the Health Gap will use a $225,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to promote healthy eating in Cincinnati’s Avondale neighborhood, the group said Tuesday.


a rock against the door, keeping your protagonist from escaping the bad guy.

In my novel, The Mayor’s Wife Wore Sapphires, the mayor’s young wife wants to change the image of an inner city by making it the Black Camelot; her antagonists want to destroy the incubator idea that could make that happen.

It is conflict that grabs the reader’s attention. Eighty percent of all readers continue to read because of conflict. If there is no conflict, the story lies flat on the page, it falls apart and loses the reader’s interest. It’s yawning-kind-of dull. When conflict is present, readers perk up and wade through bad syntax, misspelled words, structure flaws, and bland dialogue to find out how the conflict ends. I’m not suggesting that you neglect any part of the writing craft, though. It’s just that conflict is one of the strongest elements of good writing, and all too often we lose the reader’s attention because we neglect that writing tool.

So, when you want to grab an editor, an agent, or a publisher’s favor, just allow them to feast on gripping conflict from the very first line and see your story rises through the slush pile to increased sales.

In the Mayor’s Wife Wore Sapphires, the story opens with two unknown characters, whispering in what seems like a clandestine place. The host balls the newspaper in rage and throws it on the dark wood table. We see that it states: Council Upset Rumored. Now the guest thrust his head out of the shadows and says that “In my country, his kind disappears without a trace.” He wants to take out the mayor; his opposition wants to fix the situation before the council meeting.

In The End Justifies The Means, the protagonist, Jalen, is trying to sleep; his mother and father are having a violent argument. He wants them to stop it; they get louder.

In the Color Purple, Celie’s baby is happy for giving birth to her baby; the antagonist, her father, is taking the baby to give her away. She is screaming, “No!” The father is already gone.

Agents and publishers are trained to recognize conflict, and they look for it. So take advantage of that now. Write conflict in your first line for practice.

THE END

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Martha Tucker is an author, story editor, publisher, and speaker. The Mayor’s Wife Wore Sapphires is a breakthrough romantic urban thriller. www.urbanclassicbooks.com/ FREE NEWSLETTER: The bestseller-kind-of-novel Sign up today: BestSellerCircle@zinester.com

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