Secret crushes and updates

I am blogging today at the Pink Heart Society about the reason I watch Downton Abbey -- namely Brendan Coyle.  I haven't watched the latest episode yet as I tape it and watch on a Tuesday. It saves fighting with my husband for the remote as Sunday night is always NFL football. He developed a liking for the NFL when we first started going out...Luckily he saw sense to support my team! As a lifelong 49ers fan, this season has been a trial...but in baseball, the Giants have made the World Series.  But the downside of all this is that I go around for two days trying not to find out what happen in Downton but in many ways being desperate to! Monday nights are Spooks.

I finished the Author Alterations for To Marry A Matchmaker and I do love this story. It is really a feel good story and I am very proud of it.

I have finished the Discovery Draft for my current one. The semi-polished version is due on 1 November and I am still a few thousand words short (thankfully). I do know some of my bad habits now. These include: repetition, not layering in sensual tension, not layering emotion, confused motivation etc. But in theory knowing that these things exist, I can work on improving them. I do love this story and am totally excited about writing the sister's story as well. But right now I have to keep my eyes on  what needs to be done -- namely the polishing of this draft before my eagle-eyed editor looks at it...

Finally as regular readers know, I suffer from lymph oedema in my left arm. A year ago when we were in Istanbul, it was brought to my attention that my left arm was much larger than my right one. I had to have all sorts of tests and after all sorts of nasties were eliminated, it was decided that I had lymph oedema.  I now wear a bandage sleeve and glove on my left arm most of the time. And last week, joy of joys, my fingers had gone down enough that I could get my wedding ring off!!! At one point, there were muttering about cutting it off, so I am pleased. My left arm now looks like my right arm in proportion but I think it remains a bit bigger.  The main complication from lymph oedema is infection, particularly celluitis. Thus far, knock on wood, I have avoided that.

My weight is also going down and I was able to throw away another pair of too big trousers. I still have some way to go before I reach the weight I want to be and fit into clothes that I wore a few years ago.  Slowly but surely and each small victory is surely worth celebrating!

Success at last!

As you can see, I have FINALLY been able to upload my cover on to blogger!!!
I do love the cover and its colours. I also like the romantic feel of the cover.

With my current wip, I can see the end and will get there, either today or tomorrow. Then it will be going back and layering. I have a number of words to play with and there are places where I can layer. One of my big problems is that I have things in my head but not on paper. This can include sensual tension, emotion and sometimes whole scenes that should really be there. In theory, I know my faults and therefore should be looking for them.  But I am feeling more confident which is good. And I started crying when I was typing yesterday which is a good sign.

Doughnuts and not holes.

My AAs for To Marry A Matchmaker have to be done this weekend and I keep finding reasons why I love this book. Fingers crossed other people love it when it comes out in July.

There is some exciting news with regards to The Lady Soldier which I co-wrote with Kate Allan all those years ago. It will be going into e-book and I gather mass market paperback with the fledgling publisher Embrace Books. When I know more, I will let people know...but contracts have been signed.

The US cover for A Question of Impropriety

The December releases for Harlequin Historical went up on the ebook section of eharlequin today and I discovered the cover for A Question of Impropriety.  I like the cover very much. It captures the mood of the book which is all I ask. I knew it would be different from the UK cover as the UK cover was recently reused for a Mary Nichols release so I have been waiting with bated breath.
Annoyingly blogger is not letting me add images and I don't time to play with the stupid thing. You can see the cover on my website -- http://www.michellestyles.co.uk/ There is also a first chapter excerpt.

Being busy

Time becomes ever  more precious.

My deadline of 1 November looms ever so closer and I know the current mess in progress has real potential. It needs to be written and layers need to be added. As a writer, I am very consistent in the kind of mistakes I make. They are different mistakes each time but they are of a similar sort. I have about a 100 pages to write but it will be good.

My AAs or Author Alterations for To Marry A Matchmaker have arrived. This one was edited by my new editor and so it is interesting to see what she has done. I had forgotten why I liked this ms so much and so am busy falling in love with Henri and Robert again. These are due 27 October.

I have also been gearing up for my December releases and thinking about my newsletter. It does need to go out. I normally do the mentoring contest in the November issue as it were but I have to think on how I want  to do it this year. The time factor. It is ONLY open to those who subscribe to my newsletter.

Then there is general admin etc.

Plus my family like to see me every now and then.

Blogging Away at Rom Con Inc

I am blogging at Rom Con Inc  today and giving away an advanced copy of my duo -- A Question of Impropriety and Impoverish Miss Convenient Wife to someone who posts comment.

It never rains but it pours as my AAs for To Marry A Matchmaker have arrived. I do love the first sentence -- Perfect planning produces perfection and am really looking forward to rediscovering these characters.
I also have 140 pages or thereabouts to go on my current manuscript which is due 1 November.

Deadline dementia and Haltwhistle Library Girls Night In

My deadline of 1 November is fast approaching and I find that I keep forgetting things or absently answer my husband's question with a remark about my muddle.
Actually at the moment, I do have the story mapped out. I have figured things out which are starting to make sense. So huge relief here. But once my editor sees it, there will be REVISIONS. Editors are like that. And they do like to see that you have taken on board their concerns. Sometimes, you will make different mistakes. Sometimes their solutions are not your vision but their concerns are valid. If you can't use their solutions, find a better way! And sometimes you might not think the suggestion will work but it does make sense later on and you go -- oh, it will work!

On Friday 15 October along with other women's fiction authors, I shall be at the Haltwhistle library doing a reprise of our popular Girl's Night In panel. Last Thursday was Alnwick and several women asked when we were doing the next one. Personally they are very fun to do. We get to talk about writing and how each goes about drafting a novel. Seven different authors and guess what seven different approaches!
Apparently I am the one who does the most words. Unfortunately I had my daughter convinced that I was a slacker and all the other authors worked far harder...

The second chapters of the New Voices competition go up today and hopefully they will really develop the promise of the first chapters. It is all well and good to write a clever first chapter but it has to have a sustainable heart. And I am also hoping that a few people will get the submitting bug and will really work to hone their talent.  But the second phase of the contest is about to begin...

A Craft post: Does your motivation have to stay the same

Some people fondly think that once you decide what a character's motivation is, it becomes encased in concrete and can't change.
 Umm no.
Sometimes there is a better or stronger way to have a take on the same subject.
A case in point is my upcoming Online Serial -- His Stand In Bride. I had written it and thought I knew the motivation. The editor read it and my short synopsis and asked for revisions. The heroine's motivation wain the synopsis was at odds with the story and wasn't strong enough. In fact, she thought my heroine was intelligent enough to appreciate the irony of the situation.  Would I mind threading through a different motivation -- namely a belief in the right to choose one's destiny as that was what she was getting from the story. For those curious amongst you, I had thought the heroine's motivation was a belief in true love. And of course, being an editor she was absolutely right. I think the story is much stronger.

This probably shows that I over simplify my character's motivations when I write a synopsis or a detailed background note. Also complex characters will have complex motivations.  Some of the motivations will not be revealed to the author until she is in revisions or has the first draft done.  And sometimes she may think that she has threaded the correct motivation through only to discover that there is another deeper reason for the behaviour.  Characters can be tricky and hide things even from their creator.

Nothing is ever written in concrete and there are different ways to see the same thing. And Debra Dixon's book on GMC made me freeze solid. I prefer other books on the craft of writing and ways of looking at things.  And that is fine. The only process i have to worry about is my own.
What matters is that you get there in the end and create a page turning romance.

Character Lists -- a confession

I hate character lists. I particularly hate the identikit character lists that I find in writing books. I know it is sacrilege to say it but I do. And I don't actually think they help me write the story. In some ways they hem me in. They force me to make decisions BEFORE I am ready to and decisions about things I am not interested in or my characters might not be interested in. Things that I might feel compelled to work in.  Equally if I don't know the characters well enough I might make hasty decisions which make me freeze later. The needs of the story and the characters interacting with each other come before the needs of The List.
I do know for other people that they work well for. That is their process and I salute them.
They just don't work for me. Neither do I do collages. My mind works differently and the pictures are in my head. And this possibly makes me a Bad Writer.
Or maybe it just makes me different. Different is good. I can live with different.

I don't need to know the same info about every character every time. Each character is different. And some of my characters hate, loathe and distest admin. Some of them would happily set fire to all bureaucracy.

 I worry that filling in these sheets can make it seem like I have told the story or that my words harden like concrete or rather my decisions harden like concrete and I have to twist the story to a point of implausibility when the simplest thing would be to change the back story. This is borne out in my own research of trial and error.

This however does not mean that I don't know things about my characters. I can and have written reams of paper about their back story. And sometimes that back story has to change. Sometimes I add Too Much baggage and sometimes too little.  Sometimes what I thought was important becomes less so.
But I do know. And I do like the freedom to feel I can change things.

If my characters are never going to eat ice cream, is it important that I fill that out or that I think about the sort of shampoo they might use before thinking about their quality of laughter?  Does the exact place where they were born matter? Or is it more their upbringing? Parental neglect comes in all shapes and sizes and is not necessarily evident at the cradle stage. In other words, my mind works differently. And that is fine.

At the end of the day, it is MY story and I need to be able to write and give it the depth of characterisation that it needs. One size doesn't fit all and one list or series of lists or a series of interview questions doesn't fit all either. I freeze. It fills too much like I have been here before rather than concentrating on the why I am writing the story. So I rely on scribbled notes and a lot of thinking. I like to feel that I know the characters and they are friends. The first and most important thing for me is to love my characters, including all their faults, flaws and foibles.
Protagonists for me are often not 3-d on the first draft. It takes time to fill in the broad outline and certain symbols and important details only emerge at the end. What is important is that by the time the READER reads it, that fine shading of detail that makes the character come alive is on the page and not in my head.

Earlier this week, my editor who is indeed lovely asked for character lists for my hero and heroine. We had a discussion as I refuse to fill them out before I finish the story. What she was really asking for was a detailed background note on the characters and to include the emotional turning points in the synopsis. I can do a detailed background note. I did have scraps written down and a lot in my head. As long as it was in no particular order, I was fine and I did learn things about my characters.  But it was putting things done in an order and an form to suit me rather than to suit someone else's process.  Starting with a few scribbled notes, I produced a 2500 word background note that is really helping me write this thing and that showed my editor I do know where I am going.  The note took me several hours to write as it was mainly pulling bits of the background together and my husband decided to light a bonfire and needed some assistance in the middle of the thing. I stomped around and went back and wrote. Then sent it.
It could have been expanded further if needs be. She said it was fine as it was as it gave her the info to know that the conflict was sustainable. It is up to me to write the thing.

I can do detailed background notes, just don't ask me to do character lists.  I prefer to write stories about my characters and stories about their backgrounds. It works for me.

Know your process and don't sweat the small stuff.
Just because other authors do it one way, it doesn't mean it is the right way for you.
Try things, see if they work as you will know straight away.
Allow your process to evolve.
There is nothing wrong with writing a discovery draft (or two).

Viking's Captive Princess in Italian -- Il Segno del Peccato

IL SEGNO DEL PECCATO


di STYLES MICHELLE

Scandinavia, 796



Thyre e Dagmar non possono fare altro che riservare un'accoglienza calorosa all'equipaggio dell'imponente imbarcazione nemica arenata sulla spiaggia. La tradizione prevede anche un tributo un po' particolare, una notte d'amore tra l'erede legittima dell'isola di Ranrike e il comandante della nave. Dagmar però è innamorata e chiede alla sorellastra un favore enorme: sostituirla nel letto di Ivar il guerriero. Thyre, determinata e indipendente, accetta, forte del fatto che l'atto si svolgerà al buio. Ma il mattino seguente Ivar la smaschera davanti a tutti e la costringe a fare una scelta tanto coraggiosa quanto pericolosa, che segnerà un nuovo capitolo nella sanguinosa lotta tra fazioni vichinghe rivali.

Note; the Italians chose the right picture! I am very pleased.

The next installment of Everyones Reading

FREE M &B books. The great team at M&B has done it again and is offering another set of 12 free books for people to download. One from each series. You can download them at http://www.everyonesreading.com/
It is a great chance to see what the current series are all about. For historical there is Ann Lethbridge's award winning Wicked Rake, Defiant Mistress. There is also Michelle Ried's Mia's Scandal which is the first installment of the Balfour Legacy mini series and I super enjoyed. It is so great that they are offering people this opportunity.

For me, my editor got back to me on the partial and I responded with a detailed background and synopsis. We ironed out a few problems and now my deadline is looming. Will it work doing it this way? I have no idea but I am excited. My first priority is my writing and so I might be scarce for awhile...but then there are plenty of free books to read...

His Stand Bride -- starting 15 November

I am very happy to announce that His Stand In Bride will be the Weekly Online Serial for eharlequin starting 15 November and going through until 3 January. My editor for that has accepted it and I'm thrilled with how it worked out. It is a free read.

1 November is now far closer than I'd thought so it is head down and writing time.

The New Voices finalists were announced. It is a strong line up and my fingers are crossed.
If you weren't a finalist, it doesn't mean you can't submit the traditional way. Use what you have learnt via the contest and reading other entries. See the pitfalls. Be objective with your work and then go for it. Finish the first draft and submit the first three chapters and synopsis.

It's in the detail

One of the big questions for a writer is how much detail and which detail do you highlight? What is the function of detail?
Detail gives a description and provides facts but more than that it gives insight into the POV's state of mind.
Two characters looking at the same thing will notice different details. A character whose mood has changed will notice different details. Details help to ring the changes.
Where one character notices the flaking bits of paint and the worn carpet, another sees the soaring majesty of the building. The reasons why each character notices those things is important.
If you take a description in a book, and describe that scene from another's POV, what details change? If no details change, why? It can be a clue that you need make sure that your characters are given stronger opinions. Use detail to bring out changes, to highlight and to help make your characters memorable.
Take the colour brown -- is it warm melting chocolate or the colour of a muddy puddle. Should beige be banned or is it a fashionable choice? The fact that a character chooses to call light brown camel rather than taupe says something about that character. If the character is only choosing that word because you as a writer have access to a thesaurus, then you are in trouble and your scene doesn't have as much life as it could have.
It is the character's reaction to the colour and its associations that are important rather than the actual colour.
I would argue that if the characters reactions and emotions are missing, the scene is going to feel a bit flat.
Word description and detail is all about choice. What does the character choose to see and why? Why do they feel passionately enough to use those words? How does the word choice influence them? Objects and scenery are neutral until the person describing them or labelling them breathes life into them.

Stomach Churning Submitting

With the submission deadline for the first round of the New Voices competition mere hours away, lots of people are earning awards for bravery by actually posting their offerings. For the first time, many are allowing strangers to read their work and it is nerve wracking. It makes you feel physically ill.
It does always remain nerve wracking. It is a roller coaster ride, complete with feeling sick and then wonderfully alive. I get it every time I submit to my editor. Most authors do.
But also, it is addictive and great fun. There is a lot of excitement when you press the submit button. It is about embarking on a new adventure.
So what can you learn from submitting? Even if you get a Form R. First of all, you learn that you don't die. Your family and friends still love you and that you can do it.
Once you get the response back, it is all about what you do next.
Before I was published, I never finalled in any contest. The one online contest I entered with Kate Allan, we finished dead last. No comments, just voting and there was some suspicion of vote-rigging.  The book however was published after we did extensive revisions and became The Lady Soldier.  So in the end, I suppose we had the last laugh.
Other authors can similar stories.
When I was at Orlando, I was struck by the fact that a number of the Golden Heart finalists had finalled in previous years and sometimes had won.  There were also people who never finalled who had sold. It all comes down to the editor seeing the magic in your submission. Sometimes, people get so focused on contests that they forget the important thing is the STORY and telling it in the best way possible. You don't want a good contest submission, you want a great story. And for series romance, you want a great story that fits the demands of the line.
So what do you do if you don't final in NV? Take a long hard look at your submission. Read the finalists. See if you understand why they were chosen. Do you agree with the judges' assessment?
See if there are ways you can improve. Can you add more dialogue? Cut out back story? Make the story more immediate? Make the stakes higher? Decrease the secondaries? increase the emotion? Up the sensual tension? Make the characters more rounded and less cardboard cut out?  There is no right or wrong answer. Go with your gut and see.
Do it and then submit the traditional route.
If you believed in your story enough to submit to NV, you should believe in your story enough to submit using the traditional route.AFTER you have taken another look at it. Craft helps improve Story Ideas.
Maybe though, you relise that in order to do the story justice, you need more craft. Use your new found knowledge to craft another story and submit that. I wrote 7 full length manuscripts before I sold. Writing is never wasted.
And it does become addictive if you want to be a career novelist rather than penning a single story.

Right off to finish my partial and send it off to my editor for her eagle eyes. And I am waiting to hear on my Online Read. Does it work? Will it need revisions? I could be sick... but I trust my ability to use craft to fashion a great story. Or maybe I'm delusional?

Impoverished Miss,Convenient Wife in Italian --Notte Di Nozze

Finding a new translation of a book is always a cause for celebration. Impoverished Miss, Convenient Wife is out in Italian Notte di Nozze. It hits the Italian shops in October.  You can purchase it here.

NOTTE DI NOZZE


di STYLES MICHELLE

Inghilterra, 1814



Simon Clare è un ricco possidente che conduce un'esistenza solitaria. Dopo un matrimonio infelice e con un figlio ammalato cui badare, l'ultima cosa di cui ha bisogno è che una donna, per giunta aristocratica, si intrometta nella sua vita. Non importa quanto sensuale sia la sua figura e quanto voluttuose le sue labbra. Phoebe Benedict, però, non si lascia scoraggiare dai modi scostanti di Mr. Clare. Sa bene, infatti, che dietro quella facciata burbera si nasconde un uomo segnato dal dolore, alla disperata ricerca di qualcuno che lo ami davvero.

It is one of the great things about being published with Harlequin. Foreign Editions just happen without the author having to do anything...

Win an autumn break in Scotland

Mills & Boon and Visit Scotland have teamed up to offer a break to the Scottish borders. You can read more about it here.  It is very simple to enter and the scenary is sure to inspire. Good luck!!!

In other news:

I've had a hard few days. My daughter ended up in hospital with  suspected appendicitis. Luckily it turned out to be a burst cyst. Young women are notoriously difficult when it comes to severe stomach aches. As a general rule of thumb, if the patient can hop, it is not appendicitis. Also with appendicitis, the pain increases rather than decreases. The non-invasive way to rule appendicitis out in young women is to have an ultra sound scan. Boys are far more straight forward...
My daughter is back home. Tired but pleased to be home. And I am glad that it turned out to be better than first feared. Have net book, can work anywhere but my daughter understandably wanted attention as she improved.
Given the immense bureaucracy of the NHS, patients do need advocates.
  Because of administrative procedure, the request for the ultra sound was initially lost/put to one side and it was only because I persuaded the junior doctor to personally ask the ultra sound person to add her to the end of the list that my daughter received the scan and was allowed home on Friday evening. Had I been content to wait as the head nurse of the ward she was on suggested that I should be, she would have had to stay over the weekend and would have blocking a bed that someone who really needed to be in hospital could have used. I like to think that some unknown person's life was saved because of my insistence.
 A letter of complaint will be going to the hospital. Non invasive diagnostic tests which can determine if a patient needs to have an urgent operation or can go home should be done as soon as possible and preferably BEFORE the patient is forced to endure an ambulance ride of over an hour and spend 36 hours in a busy hospital ward. And giving such tests early saves the NHS money!

I did a workshop to a small select group in Haltwhistle yesterday. It was a great deal of fun. I met a lady who will be entering the NV competition. She was a true reader of series romance. Her favourite passion is Blaze and my fingers are firmly crossed for her.

Contracts and such

I turned in my short story yesterday. My lovely editor as a favour read it and had a few tweaks. It goes to the Online Read Editor so she may notice different things. Editors are like that! But I am super excited about it and can't wait to see what she says and ultimately what readers think!
Anyway, my editor has declared that she is going to hold me to that level of focus and intensity now that she knows I can do it! Oh help! It is a challenge...challenges are good. I learnt a lot from writing it, including you probably need less set up than you think and to really have the focus firmly on the two protagonists. Part of the problem with To Marry a Matchmaker, particularly in the early drafts was that focus wasn't there.

My new contract arrived and it was the first time I had a look at the New Look contract. It is far simpler to understand with a term sheet that spells everything out that I agreed with my editor for each book. The standard part of the contract also is there and I spent part of the evening wrapped in legalise. The biggest change is that I don't have to fill out forms any more to put my covers and excerpts up. From this contract onwards, they are included. I do have to put the copyright notices up as cover art as well as my words are copyrighted.

Discovering a flat scene

Many instructions in bee-keeping start with first find your queen. This can be far more difficult than it sounds, even when the bloody queen is marked with a huge blob on her back.
To determining if a scene is flat, you need to first find your turning point and more important to make sure that turning is active rather than passive. Like the beekeeping instruction of first find your queen, it is more difficult in practice than it sounds.

So here is a small formula:
1. Determine the POV character. (if you don't know whose POV you are in STOP. You will have a flat scene as the emotional connection is not there.)
2. Determine how the POV character is different at the start of the scene v the end. This  can be a massive change or it can be an understated change. (if no change.STOP! You have a flat scene or you are using the wrong POV character)
3. Where and when does this change take place? (this is the turning point of the scene. It is the pivot on which the entire scene turns. Is this the right change for your character? Should there be a more definate change? Is the change too small or too big?)
4. Is it on the page or in your head? (if in your head, STOP! You have a flat scene as the reader can only know what is on the page. Readers can't see what is in your head. This is often a major failing of my early drafts.)
5. Who ultimately causes the change? (if the changes happens to the POV character. STOP. you have a passive turning point and possibly a reactive character. The most interesting characters are proactive and make things happen even if they make mistakes. Note if it is caused by the other POV character -- most series romance is dual POV, you might be fine as this is a special case. However you do need to be cautious that all changes are not caused by the same person)

Once you know where the turning point is, who causes, and what the change actually is, you can go about highlighting it and bringing it out more in manuscript. Either by higlighting the change. SHOWING the difference or heightening that moment of change. If a scene shows a definite change and the change fits in with the growth arc of the character, then the scene is not flat and it probably has earnt its place.

Scenes need to move the story forward in some way. They can only do that if the POV character changes in some fashion. Even scenes which essentially exist to impart info are about change. How was the character feeling before they had this piece of news v how were they feeling afterwards? 
If nothing changes and the scene is merely recounting, see if you can cut it. Or alternatively see if you can heighten the feeling of change.

As with everything in writing, it is much easier to say than do. But if it was simple, writing wouldn't be as much fun!

Building bridges to the Inciting Incident

Where to start a story? It is a problem that all authors grapple with? Do you start with the inciting incident or do you start with the ordinary world that is about to change?

For a romance -- the inciting incident is the MEET. This is the thing that starts the spine of the story -- namely the growth of the emotional relationship between the hero and heroine. Without them meeting and interacting, the relationship can't change and grow. And the MEET doesn't mean necessarily the first time in their life that the main protagonists meet but rather that encoutner that changes their life.

Everything that happens before is called the set up or sometimes the bridging conflict. Bridging conflict is also a subplot. It is what needs to happen BEFORE the meet so the author doesn't spend time explaining. It helps with dealing with certain aspects of back story as the author can SHOW and not TELL. (Back story, unless done as a flashback, is invariably telling or narrative. The reason for using the term bridging conflict is that it provides the bridge into the story for the reader.

In series romance, there is not much of it. For one very practical reason -- the author doesn't have many words and the focus must be on the main spine of the story.  So the meet or some portion of the meet should definitely take place within the first chapter. With single title, the author has more time. I should point out that historicals with their longer length do have a place for subplots but that those subplots MUST influence the main story and ultimately directly influence the relationship.

One way of determining where to start is to start with the MEET. Does it make sense? Is the reader immediately drawn into the characters' predicament. Why or why not? Why are they in conflict?  Why is it a confrontation? Is it immediately understandable or will the author have to provide table dusting backstory/explanation?

If it doesn't make sense, what needs to happen before the actual MEET? Are there any opportunities for good narrative action that you have missed? Can you open with a bang?
 You have precisely 6 seconds or thereabouts to hook the reader.
How are you going to create questions? How are you going to have one character literally or figuratively fighting for their lives? Or fighting for something that they passionately believe in? What is the POV's character's stakes and why is the reader going to immediately care about the character?  How can you build the anticipation of the first meet? Have you let a great opportunity for narrative action that will draw the reader into the story go to waste if you start with the meet? Why is she going to turn the page? Why won't she be able to put that book down?

For example, when Kate Allan and I wrote The Lady Soldier, we had to add an entire new first chapter. Originally the book started with the heroine Jem having made it through the battle meeting the hero after she had been promoted from the ranks. John Hale pointed out that the battle actually represented a chance for great narrative action as it SHOWED her bravery and her fighting for her life. Never let the opportunity for good narrative action go to waste he advised. That motto has been engraved on my mind ever since.

Another case in point are my Viking books. None start with the hero or heroine meeting. Instead they all start with a battle. The meet takes place in the aftermath of the battle.  During the battle, either the hero or heroine or both lives are put in danger and it is this danger which hopefully will have the reader turning the pages until the couple meet and are forced into close proximity with each other.

Compromising Miss Milton starts with the hero being attacked. Originally I started with the heroine finding his body but decided that it was far better to start with action. Towards the end of chapter one, the heroine fishes him out of the water and saves his life.

An example from a recent contemporary is Kat's Pride by Sharon Kenderick (Kat and Dare Devil Spaniard in the US). The first chapter is devoted to Kat arriving on board Carlos Guerrero's luxury yacht and it slowly dawning on her that she is there as a hired help, rather than as an honoured guest and what is worse that her new *employer* is the man she most wants to avoid in the world. The couple meets in the last two paragraphs of chapter one.

With the short story I'm writing, the setup has to be almost non existent and the romance does have to start immediately. 10k is not very long. The same is true for an Undone.

In conclusion, think about how you are going to provide a compelling bridge for the reader to cross into the story's world. What must happen? What does the reader need to know? It is harder than you might think. Figuring out where the Meet happens and why  is a good place to start.

Backstory is not your friend

I read a few of the New Voices entries and I want to highlight something.

The reader wants the story to be happening now. The writer might need to know the set up, but does the reader? Back story kills the movement of a story and deflates tension.

I love the Donald Maass exercise which says highlight all the back story in the first three chapters and move it to chapter 15, certainly beyond the halfway point.
Reread the first three chapters, what does the reader need to know to make sense of the story? What must be there?  Put in as little as possible.
You want hints. You want the characters to have secrets. You want the characters to be involved in the NOW. Save the back story for the confession time. Allow the characters to have secrets and to have something to confess. When the reader is emotionally invested in the story, then the explanation will be far more heart rendering.

Start with dialogue.
Start with action.
Keep the Back story a minimum.
The reader needs less than you think.

And yes I have suffered from this before!


This is also directed at me as I write this short story. 10k is not long and every word has to count...and other things are more than detailed explanations/set up.

Creating a Page Turning Read Workshop -- 18 September

As part of the New Voices competition and the reopening of Haltwhistle Library celebrations, I'm giving a workshop on creating a Page Turning Read. 10:30 -11:30 am Saturday 18 September.
I believe it is free. There are 25 places. You can telephone the library to find out more.

Hopefully I won't be talking to an empty room!

I'm working away on the Online Read and it is challenging but tremendous fun. You have to create a serial and realise that readers might read the last chapter before they read the first one. Each chapter needs to be about the same length and there isn't much room for waffle! Also it needs to be formatted in a specific fashion, but I will worry about that after the story is finished.
The great thing for me is that I get to revisit the world I created for A Question of Impropriety and Impoverished Miss, Convenient Wife.  The Online Read is because the books are being published in HH Direct in December/January.  But first it has to be written and it needs to be amazing...

winner from Christina Phillips Forbidden party

Christina asked me to draw a winner from my blog post -- Morton S Gray. So if you can contact me via my website Morton, and give me your postal address, I will get the four books sent out to you!
Christina's party is on going until the 7 September and lots of other books are up for grabs!

One recent discovery is that Donald Mass does a monthly column on Writer UnBoxed where he discusses craft and various aspects of it. Some of his posts relate back to his books and some are musings and outgrowths from his current reading. All are interesting and thought provoking.

Currently I'm thinking about character and the points he makes in Fire in Fiction about protagonists and heroes are important. Also the combining of the two exercises about thinking about the character's strengths and hero's flaws and making sure they are on the page is a good one.

I'm re-reading craft books etc as my Online Read is only 10k and a very small canvas but I want it to punch above its weight as it were.

Win a set of my Roman set books

To help Christina Phillips celebrate the publication of Forbidden, her debut Berkeley sensation, I'm offering one lucky commentator on her blog a signed set of my Roman books. So that's The Gladiator Honour, A Noble Captive, Sold & Seduced and The Roman's Virgin Mistress up for grabs. She also has a ton of other great prizes and her book looks excellent. Why not go and comment?

In my own news: my editor called late last night and I've had to drop everything to work on a Special Project that is due on the 24th. It should be fun but blog service and twitter might be a bit sporadic because of it!

Top Tips from New Voices Workshop

After doing my workshop at Knaresborough yesterday, I thought I'd post my top tips for writing a M&B series romance.

1. Know which line you are targeting  -- imagine yourself writing 40 books in a line, which one would be your first choice? What is your dream line to write for? Go for it!

2. Know what every romance contains -- first meeting of the characters, confrontations, physical attraction,
realisation of love, and finally emotional intimacy -- the payoff. Make sure your ms has these things on the page and not in your head.

3. If the first meeting of the characters (aka the start of the romance) is not in the first scene, why not? What happens if you move it to the first scene? First meeting does not necessarily mean the first time the characters meet in their lives, but rather the first time they meet in the book. It is a vital part of the story. How does their lives change? Do not be tempted to write yourself in. Readers want the story to begin.

4. Your characters should be proactive rather than reactive. They make active choices and have to live with the consequences.

5. Think about what you admire in your heroes -- make sure your characters reflect those characteristics.

6. Make sure there is page turning tension on every page. Give your reader reasons to turn the pages and keep her within the story. Look for flat scenes and low tension traps. Rewrite.

7. Know about emotional hooks such as Stranded with  a Stranger, Marriage of Convenience, Bad Boy v Librarian, Office Romance, Cowboy v City Girl etc. How are you going to make that story your own? Make sure you know the hooks in your story.

8. Write in your voice. Tell the story your own way. You are unique.

9. Create passionate characters. Too often authors are afraid of creating characters with strong opinions or beliefs but passionate characters are the ones the readers remember. Use little details to show what they believe in. What do they hate? What would they risk their life to save? Why? How can you show this? The hero and heroine are often the last characters to be well rounded. Think about what makes them unique. Think about the words they use and why. How does their background influence their vocabulary.

10. Be persistent. Learn how to harness your talent. Finish the book. Take a risk and enter the competition, you might surprise yourself. Nothing is ever wasted.

And finally the lovely librarian made some gorgeous cupcakes with pink rosebuds. They served pink fizz with it. It really helped to make the workshop special.
I was so pleased that the workshop was well attended and that people seemed to enjoy themselves.

Winner of the VCP contest

The first name out of the hat was Joanne Cleary.

The answer was the windows!  The Spanish version also used the wrong picture and you can see why my senior editor was apologetic. It is a very lovely rose garden...but somehow I doubt Ivar and Thyre would have seen it. My sr editor knows that the readers of Historical do notice things like that and it does bother her. It is one of the reasons why she is such an excellent senior editor.

The feel of the cover is wonderful (mostly I notice the couple, philistine that I am!) and it does capture the feel of the book.  And I do like the new M&B look. I saw the new Historicals out in Tescos yesterday and they were screaming  Buy me! Lovely jewel like covers.

In other news:
Today is my workshop in Knaresborough for New Voices. I really hope it goes well and that the people who go enjoy it.

My editor was in touch yesterday. She has okayed my ideas for the second book which is exciting and is looking forward to seeing my partial of the first book in the new contract. I have promised it for next week. It will get there. My editor is lovely and I do like working with her.

How to read a synopsis for problems

In my re-reading of Writing a Romance Novel for Dummies I was reminded of the importance of having an outline or a road map for the novel. It is also useful if you can read a road map for signs of trouble.
Signs of trouble include: no clear emotional hook, no clear internal conflict, a plot that means the hero and heroine will have to spend a long time apart, suddenly they are dating, lots of the turning points are caused by secondaries characters or the romance is not being moved forward.  The last four are evidence of a Sagging Middle Syndrome or SMS. All of the above will lead to revisions.
The thing about an outline is that is merely a map. You can put it to one side and write the ms how you intend but at some point you need to revisit the outline and make sure that everything is there.
So you write the ms and then you look at the synopsis to see problems.
I start with the setting, the internal/external conflicts of the hero and heroine -- these help  give the emotional hooks. Then using the words -- when the novel begins, I dive in. The first paragraph gives a brief summary of the set up (again these are the hooks that are going really grab the reader and keep her turning the pages), next comes the evidence of the growing attraction, the block moment and finally the resolution.
I also do a chapter by chapter outline.
So why have I been having so many revisions lately? The simple answer is that I haven't been reading my outlines carefully enough and I haven't seen the pitfalls -- in particular the SMS pitfalls. It is easily done. Thankfully my editors do seem to see them and tell me to pull up my socks.
So hopefully now I will pay more attention to the pitfalls BEFORE I turn things in.
And yes, I wrote my preliminary outline over the weekend as I knew the characters well enough I thought, but then realised that I had definitely had a few of the Signs of Trouble. So I will attempt to fix those and then write with the road map in the back of my mind. As I write somewhat into the mist, it is helpful to have an idea of where I'm going but not to refer to it constantly.

To Marry A Matchmaker and creativity

My editor emailed yesterday to say that they have titled Henri & Robert -- TO MARRY A MATCHMAKER.  It brilliantly reflects the story so I'm very pleased with the title.

She also let me know that they want to offer me another four book contract. So I am pleased about that. It will be a small matter of hitting of deadlines!  But I should be able to do that. I am the one who set them and have no one to blame but myself.

I learnt a lot from rewriting TO MARRY A MATCHMAKER. One of the big lessons was never ever to take my process for granted and that  certain things can become rusty. Even if you think you know what you are doing, it doesn't hurt to go make to the beginning and revisit. In my case, it was revisiting Writing A Romance Novel for Dummies by Leslie Wanger and realising where I'd gone wrong. There is a lot of basic info in there. Info I once knew and then forgot. For example, you might know about the sexual tension between the characters but unless it is obviously on the page, the reader can't. Equally, she gave a few ideas on how to identify a sagging middle. One big red light beacon for me was the sudden focus on secondary characters. I had done that and it had to be resolved. Here I'd always considered that I was good at pacing.
Twyla Tharp in her book The Creative Habit gives the image of polish a clock face. It is about how dancers work on skills. It is a good analogy. However, you have to know which clock to polish!

The Creative Habit is another of those books that bears re-reading, particularly if you feel like you are in a creative rut.
For example she quotes the novelist John Gregory Dunne -- Because one has written other books does not mean the next becomes any easier. Each book in fact is a tabula rasa; from book to book I seem to forget how to get characters in and out of rooms -- a far more difficult task than non writers might think.
And further on in the same chapter -- The great ones never take the fundamentals for granted.

So fingers crossed that this next one goes easier and that I remember the focus and the main purpose of the story is the ROMANCE.
And it is a good reason why I'm pleased both books live on my bookshelves and I'm able to go back and re-read them.

Christina Philip's Upcoming Launch Party for Forbidden (plus contest)

As Christina is an old friend of mine and I'm thoroughly excited about her book:

To help celebrate the release of Forbidden, Christina Phillips's debut


Roman/Druid Ancient Historical Romance from Berkley Heat, she's holding a

launch party with lots of amazing authors and fabulous giveaways! (Including yours truly) In

addition, Christina's giving away a signed copy of Forbidden to one lucky

person who helps spread the love. All you have to do is mention the party

(you can copy and paste this blurb), being held from 1st to 6th September at

http://christinaphillips.blogspot.com. You can Tweet about it, blog,

Facebook, MySpace or anything! And then drop her an email at ChristinapPh @

gmail dot com (no spaces) to let her know. Please put Forbidden Launch Party

(or something similar) in the subject line. The winner will be drawn for

that on Monday 6th September.

Viking's Captive Princess UK cover and contest

I finally got to see the UK paperback cover of the Viking's Captive Princess. I love and adore the new look of M&B Historical. However, as my  senior editor warned me, someone in the art department called up the WRONG version of the picture. There is a huge anachronism on the cover. It is even worse on the hardback version. The US version has the correct picture. My senior editor has been hugely apologetic as she is a perfectionist. She did try to have it fixed and  the error is less obvious but the error remains.

If you can spot the mistake, email me  with VCP contest in the subject line and tell me what the error is to win a signed hardback copy of  The Viking's Captive Princess.  It is first name out of the hat.  Contest closes 31 August 2010. Void where prohibited.

New Voices Workshop Update

I'm giving a workshop for the New Voices competition. My workshop will be held at Knaresborough Library on Wednesday 1 September from 7 pm -9 pm. The first hour will be devoted to What is a M&B novel and the second is a hands on bit about Creating a Page Turning Novel.  The cost is £2.50 and includes a glass of wine or something. You can telephone  0845 300 5112 for more information and to book a place.
I understand that places do remain but I won't be speaking to an empty room.
To support the workshop, I am appearing on the Russell Walker show on BBC Radio York on 31 August. I am hoping that my voice doesn't shake or quiver and that I can put my points across in a lucid manner!

I am also giving a one hour workshop Creating a Page Turning Novel at the new Haltwhistle Library on Saturday 18 September 10:30 -11:30. I think it is free but there are no refreshments.

The Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary

For a very long time, I have actively desired a book that would tell me what a word meant in a given time period, rather than if it was simply used. Words over time change their meaning.Various etymology sites helped but many times I was left floundering.
 And for years, I have silently gritted my teeth with the whole reticule/ridicule debate. Which came first? For me it seemed an impossibility that reticule was derived from ridicule.
Then the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary was published last year and I took possession of my copy just before the RWA conference. It is the definitive resource for such a thing.
In the question of women's bags: 1801-1806 they  were indispensables, 1801- present day reticule and 1805-1838 ridicule.  Handbag starts in 1923. Forgive me but I punched the air. 
It makes things so much easier to check on if a word had that given meaning during that period. For example, I checked hot-foot as he hot-footed up somewhere. Nope. Not in use with that meaning during 1848. I used ran like a redshank instead as it was in use.

It is also interesting to see when certain things start being named. It is sure to become an indispensable part of my revisions. It helps to give a more authentic feel to the work.
The entire book was 45 years in production and it is expensive.  There are two large volumes and a complicated reference system. I would imagine that most university libraries have it, but it is much handier just to be able to look up a word.
My very lovely husband said when I asked for it for Christmas that if I needed it for my work, I should just get it.  Luckily I did as the Folio Society had it on special offer and they are no longer stocking it. You can still get it through Amazon.
Apparently there are plans to put the whole thing on disc and cross reference with the OED. However, I like paper. You discover things as you flip through, staring at the mouse-print.
If you lust after words and their meanings, or if you write historical novels, this is fantastic resource.

Head of the Litter Box Santitation Department

Heathcliff in a cake box

My mother sent me a t-shirt Litter Box Sanitation Specialists local 429. There is also a black silhouette of a cat sitting on a litter tray. No guesses who is in charge of poop scooping in this house.
I decided a long time ago that it was far easier to do myself than waste my breath assigning the task to the children. The children are better now and they will empty the trays if they notice. Operative word -- notice.

Heathcliff and Mr Darcy are clean cats and they require clean trays.  Because I like the pine scent, I use the compressed wood pellets. It is just easier to deal with.

We are not going to talk about dog accidents. Both children gained gold stars today as they successfully dealt with one while I was away having my eyes checked. Poor Hardy ate something that disagreed with him (my personal bet is rotten duck egg) and his stomach has been poorly. He is on the mend now and is as bouncy as ever...He is just spending more time in the kitchen and outside as it is easier to clean up...Here's hoping that he learns to stay away from duck eggs...

A Noble Captive on sale today and a sale

Michelle Willingham let me know that A Noble Captive is on sale at eharlequin today. You will need to enter  the code YARD08N and they can get the book for $1.99.
You can read an excerpt of the book here.

In other news: my editor emailed me last night to say that my latest revisions did the trick and they were thrilled to accept the manuscript for publication. Hooray. As anyone who has been reading this blog for the past year, this book has caused me all sorts of difficulties but I bleived in the characters and really wanted to tell this story. I think it has paid off. It is set in 1848 Corbridge in Northumberland. More on publication dates etc as I know them!

My daughter had solid AS results which means she can apply for the couses she wants at the universities she wants to apply to. So cause for celebration there.

Bits and bobs

First the Lymphoedema update -- the arm slowly deflates. It is getting better and does look like an arm. And I suppose as I don't have bat wings etc, I should be grateful. And yes I know that it could have been much, much worse.
As I am healthy, we are going to a sleeve that squeezes more.  The physio is trying to sort this out. Until then, I can wear two sleeves. Basically the physio's thoughts are that it took an age to get to where it was (and quite frankly if it was like it is now, I won't have gone to the doctor's) and therefore it will drain slowly.  It was great when I was in Orlando and only wore the sleeve and glove a little bit. However being back home means all the time except at night. 

Second, I'm waiting for my editor to get back on the revisions I turned in. Fingers crossed here. While I wait, I'm doing research for the Sinai one and I'm revising the paranormal. Believe me it needs a lot of revising as the romance needs to be brought to the fore and sensuality increased. The early connections were missing as well.  It is a matter of doing the revisions and trying to get it up there.

Third I need to get more hens as we are down to 3. This is a job for this week. Mr Fox appears to have gone else where for his snacks. The duck population is down but not out.

Fourth tomorrow is AS results day. Tension runs high as basically I want to know how my daughter did. We will cope with whatever but it is the not knowing that is the problem.

Fifth My daughter says that my two good finds from the RWA are Jodi Thomas and Toni Blake. I've haven't read the Jodi Thomas yet, but I do like Toni Blake and her Destiny books. One Reckless Summer arrived yesterday and was the perfect fodder for my daughter to forget about the AS results. I thought it excellent as well -- sexy and heartwarming. I inhaled it yesterday evening. And can't wait for the third. I believe Toni is working on a fourth. Read them if you haven't discovered them yet.
On the writing side: Basically, the books also showed me how much more I need to up my sensuality, particularly in the early stages. Do not assume the awareness is on the page. If it is in your head and not on the page, the reader can't know.

Inspiration and character traps

Hang around in Romancelandia a bit and you will see many authors use pictures of actors, models, polo players etc for inspiration for their characters. Some authors return time and again to familiar inspiration while others choose different ones. Both approaches can work because ultimately it is not about how a character looks but what is under his skin. However the first approach can lead to character burn out as you keep mining in the same place.
As you write more books, you need to be aware that your characters not only have to be different from each other but they have to be different from previous characters. They need to live and breathe. And readers if they glom on to an author may read a number of her books in quick succession. If your heroine always has silver eyes or black hair, someone may notice and be pulled out of the book.

You also can start repeating certain character traits or even ways characters behave. Suddenly instead of being well rounded, your characters become 2-dimensional. Some of that is because in the back of your mind, you are thinking how a particular actor might play that part. How his voice sounds. Or how he'd gesture with his hands. For example, in every movie, Hugh Grant seems to play Hugh Grant.
You can even think that you have built up this great and unique backstory, only to find yourself falling into the same trap. This is particularly true if you tend to write the same sort of core story. Or if you are exploring a similar theme to another story of yours.
I speak from experience here as some of the reason for the huge rewrites was that I gave into tempatation and reused hero fodder. Backstories were different but the characters were 2-d until I did a lot of remedial work. Your characters need to be unique. One way to do it is to think -- why are they different from my other heroes? What are they passionate about? How does that passion different from my other hero? What are their strongly held opinions? What won't they discuss? What truth do they hold dear that is different? How does their accent differ? Why is this actor not going to be playing himself but another role? Why is the reader really going to identify with this character? Why if a reader does glom on to your books, is this character going to stand out?

The problems with character traps is one of the reasons why it becomes progressively harder to write in a given genre. You pick the easy fruit and then suddenly you have to stretch. The learning to stretch is important. It is about going back to the basics and making sure that each one is unique.

This is one of the reasons why this time --Richard Armitage and James Purefoy  get a miss and Rupert Perry Jones a look in. After all there is always more hero inspiration around if you care to find it...

RWA Workshop on Marketing for the Brave New World

I was very surprised to see that this particular workshop was not well attended. Personally I had thought there would be people sitting on the floor. It could have been the timing -- just after lunch on the Saturday  or didn't really say that this was SMP marketing and PR team plus a high profile book publicist and star agent. Mary Kay Andrews is a best selling NYT author and she brought along her team to say how they supported her and what could be done, particularly when budgets are cut to the bone. This wasn't a PAN workshop but something that was open to everyone.
There is a handout which I believe was mainly written by Meghan Walker and Mary Kay. Meghan Walker is a book publicist with Tandem Literary. It is worth its weight in gold.
It was recorded and perhaps that is the reason for the low attendance but I was surprised. It amuses me that so many people spend time in the bar when there is so much to offer on tap.
Anyway, it was highly useful, and Mary Kay did her job as she is now in my TBR pile.
But if anyone needed a primer on marketing, this was it.  Her message was the more you take on, the more the publisher is willing to kick in. You are your brand and your brand is you. Believe in it.
The workshop confirmed many of the things that were said in the Harlequin Digital Workshop and elsewhere -- Social Media is key. If you don't want to do it, maybe you can get a fan to do it. Only do what you are comfortable doing but make sure your website is up to date and there are BUY buttons for all major online bookstores, or at least have the ISBN. There was mention again of exclusive content which is only available from your website.
Don't waste time on bookmarks -- actually if you happened into the goody room on the Saturday afternoon, you'd see why. All books gone. All pens gone. A ton of paper left behind.
But you can also do things locally such as reaching out to local bookstores and libraries. Give workshops and reach out to reading groups. (Which reminds me -- I need to update my website and add the workshops etc that I am doing in the next few months...)
Stuart Krichesky mentioned the book Tribes by Seth Godwin and the importance of building communities. (Acutally I've read Seth Godwin's blog for years so I felt smug.) Krichesky also gave some pointers on twitter and how to use it. This tallied closely with the Digital workshop that Malle Vallik and Jenny Bullough gave on the subject. Twitter can be used as a listening station to see what others are talking about, it should be used generously and not as a hard sell. It is another way to engage readers. You should also use the search function and you should look at things that interest you.
The handout contains 10 things that an author can do and shouldn't expect the publisher or publicist to do for them but the most important thing is to use your time wisely. The Book must be done FIRST. It is only through having something to sell that you can get a return on the investment.
Anyway, it was a thoroughly useful workshop and one which was open to everyone. It is also why it pays to go through the workshop list beforehand and see what appeals.

RWA -- The PAN workshops/retreat

One very big reason to go to the RWA National conference is the Published Author Network retreat and workshops. These workshops are not recorded and the only people who can attend are PAN members. The lists of the workshops are in your packet or in the PAN section of the RWA site. PRO members have their own track. The keynote speaker for PRO was Donald Maass so I was a bit miffed that I couldn't go.
For PAN, the keynote speaker was Lou Aronica who served as deputy publisher at Bantam before becoming the publisher at Berkley and Avon. He is now a NYT best seller in his own right and knows the industry.
He basically spoke about an industry in flux. There are real problems for bricks and mortar stores as people choose to buy books more and more online either from online bookstores such as Amazon or as ebooks. This has significantly reduced footfall in stores. It has also led to the large chains not ordering as many copies, but being quicker to reorder should the need arise.
The big problem for publishers is that there is currently no mechanism that allows the consumer to browse in the same way as they can in a bookstore. The consumer can not be caught by a random book on the shelf above the author they were looking for example. Publishers are having to learn to become business to consumer rather than business to business companies. (It was at this point I started to check off his prescriptions against what Harlequin already does and was pleasantly surprised at how much Harlequin was already doing.) Harlequin has been not only a b2b business but a b2c business for a long time. I had to smile when he mentioned that marketing people from P&G do not go to into publishing. Guy Hallowes, the former managing director of HMB was ex-P&G and made a point of hiring people with a small consumer goods background. For example, Mandy Ferguson, the current managing director of HMB has a marketing background in food and is credited with revitalising ryvita. Harlequin also saw the move to digital years ago and has worked hard to support all platforms as well building its own community.
He also pointed out that the move towards digital was accelerating driven by the falling price of e-readers. 8% of total trade is now digital. Romance for comparison is 13% of the total trade market.
Anyway, his big message was that the author must be prepared to do more and that Social Media could help replace some of the browsing experience of a bookstore. Social Media was a theme I heard again and again. Various agents I heard speak mentioned that you should put in your query letters about your Social Media expertise. However, several have cautioned that it is the BOOK that is important.
Aronica pointed out that the industry might be in flux but the romance genre was showing solid returns. I didn't stay for the Q&A as the Harlequin Historical tea was being held.
As with any change, you can either read the sky is falling or see opportunity.

Other PAN workshops I attend were things like what to expect from your agent in the New Age of Publishing with Robert Gottlieb. He really impressed me. And one thing he did say was that your agent (or yourself if unagented) must keep you informed about what is happening in the industry. Education about the business is vital.
However as the Death of the Midlist and Twilight of the Bestseller workshop pointed out -- too much emphasis on doom and gloom may be unwarranted. Both editors from SMP and Battantine/Bantam said that there was no golden age and that they are as eager as ever to grow authors. And they took issue with the title of the workshop. Many authors took several books before they became best sellers. Sometimes as in the case of Dan Brown, it did mean that authors had to be prepared to change publishing house. Ultimately what decided a bestseller was numbers.
Also listed in the PAN bit was the Harlequin Authors Forum which was for Harlequin authors only. Harlequin continued to impress, particularly after I had sat through all these things on social media and the need for authors to be proactive. Harlequin is a business to consumer business and they know their consumer. They are working hard at apps that will simulate more the browing experience in an online bookstore. They are also working hard with bricks and mortar stores to better utilise the power of the Harlequin series consumer. The research about her was very interesting. Basically women who read series read more of everything.

Anyway, I was very impressed with the quality of the workshops and really felt that they were worth attending as they gave me new insight. I had not expected to learn so much in such a short space of time.

RWA 10 workshops -- Fire into Fiction (Part 2)

As long time readers of this blog will know, ever since Penny Jordan recommended Donald Maass's Writing the Break Out Novel about five years ago, I've been a fan of his work. So I jumped at the opportunity to hear him speak.
Donald Maass does a good workshop. And I now understand how to get people writing in a workshop without having to share or having a piece to work on.
The workshop was on scenes and transformations. It was all about making a flat scene work.
The exercises are in his book Fire into Fiction but they really made sense -- making sure the changes are marked and that you show that things have changed for the POV character. And in order to show, you need to find the point of change.
Equally to bring the character alive you need to think about the character's passions and opinions. When is the protagonist going to scatter the petrol and light the match? What are your character's passions and deeply held beliefs? Also what is it about this world that you have created that makes you angry? What is the question that none is asking? What is the unexpected grace? What is rare and delicate but is overlooked in your world? what is the strongest emotion that your character feels in a scene and what causes it? Details make emotions come alive.
He also pointed out that far too many people sitting in that room would be tempted to email the editor or agent that they had pitched the manuscript without first taking the time and trouble to make sure it was the best it could be.
In short there is always more you can do. Great story telling is the key.
If you have a chance, go and hear him speak. Failing that, buy his books and do the exercises, not simply read about them. They are good.

RWA workshops -- SEP's 6 Magic Words

I will admit to never having read Susan Elizabeth Phillips. This is a failing of mine that I intend to remedy. SEP's workshop really impressed. There is a handout for this workshop, but it is not taped. Despite the early hour of the morning, the workshop was packed and there are reasons why it was packed.
The handout is good but SEP in person is even better. Anyone who can quote Aerosmith that early gets my vote.
Her motto is Dare to Suck.
The 6 Magic Words to creating a Bestseller -- Keep the Reader in the Story.
Simple to say but hard to do.
Basically you are trying to create a compelling read, not a perfect one.
Her process sounds as chaotic as mine so I thought her idea of reading scenes after the first draft is completed to check on emotional growth was a good one. First read the heroine scenes, then the hero's. Finally read for the progress of the relationship.
Write to your strengths, and not just to the market. And remember it is what works for you, not what works for anyone else.
It is really all about keeping the reader in the story and creating compelling characters.
Unfortunately, I was exhausted by the end of the day and did not attend the Secrets of the BestSelling Sisterhood with JAK and SEP. I suspect it was wonderful.

Workshops I attended at the RWA -- Unusual Historical

One of my fave workshops was the panel on Unusual Historical organised by my friend Carrie Lofty. Carrie has been a big moving factor behind upping the profile of historicals that are a little bit different. She is the main mover and driver behind the blog Unusual Historical for instance.

With this panel she assembled agent Kevan Lyon, Asian writer Jade Lee, paranormal historical writer Zoe Archer, and the winner of this year's Rita, Sherry Thomas as well as herself to answer questions. She also allowed me to give some input on the HH side of things as I have direct experience with them.

The turn out was average. It was late on Friday and the workshop was competing with the Harlequin series spotlight, several talks with agents about rejections and launching careers plus a PAN presentation by four booksellers. So it was great to see people there.

The good news is that UH is loosening. Berkley has bought Roman, Pocket has bought Carrie's Victorian set in South Africa, Avon has bought a Regency set in the Ottoman Empire. HH has bought Asian --Tang Dynasty (Jeannie Lin) and Medieval Japan (Ashley Grayson). HH particularly with its Undone is looking for new settings or new twists on old settings.

The bad news is that the bar is still set very high indeed. The unusualness of the setting must be off set by something. So make sure that your characters work very hard and the romance is top notch. Make sure that one of your characters is English. Maybe consider having them go back to England. Think about ways in which to get your reader hooked. When pitching, you might mention the setting at the end rather than at the beginning. Also if pitching something in a crowded field, think what is going to make your book stand out from the crowd.

There was a little discussion about research and how you go about it. Google Earth was mentioned. Anyone who knows me knows I love to go on book research expeditions. Also the growing genre of paranormal historical was touched on. Zoe Archer has a really exciting four book series coming out in the autumn.

The panelists did a good job. If you missed the workshop, I believe it was taped.

Top tips from the RWA conference

I learnt many things at the RWA conference in Orlando.

1. Always carry your business cards, even when you think you won't need them any more. While waiting for the shuttle bus, I encountered the editor in chief of Ellora's Cave who had the good taste to like my parrot earrings (I'm not interested in submitting but it was good to put a face to EC), an author who just sold to Carina and who scribbled down her email on the back of one of my cards and a Superromance author Jennie Watt who used to be in subcare. Luckily I had my cards, but my scrapbook will be short several cards. I am planning on scrap booking my conference! It is a way to use the cards I gathered, and to collate memories of a great time. Also making a scrapbook means it is easier to ask for cards as you are going to do something with them!

2. When sitting waiting for a workshop to begin, talk to people. I did and had some great conversations. Really lovely people go to the RWA conference and they are delighted to talk to you. Stuck for an opener -- ask why they are at the workshop!

3. Know when you hit a wall and rest. Carolyn Jowell had a great tip to bring energy bars. Next time. You hit a wall when the buzz because annoying instead of exciting. If you know you have to be on form for the evening, go back to your room and put your feet up.

4. Investigate the workshops you want to attend before you go and know why you want to go to them. I ended up with one duff workshop (the one I went to on the spur of the moment) but the others were gems. Do not hesitate to walk out before the end.

5. High heels can hurt. Take measured steps. For example, Jannette Kenny told me about moisturising the inside of my sandals BEFORE I put them on. Be prepared to go flat if you go high one day. A supply of blister plasters can help.

6. Be prepared to sit with strangers at breakfast, lunch and dinner. I had some great conversations with people who I never met before including a former librarian of the year and the current bookseller of the year, Gail Link. They were such nice people and really helped to make my conference. Especially Gail who told me where to eat breakfast on the first morning. Her award is so well deserved!

7. Practice your pitch as you might go blank as I did. Luckily the agent was nice and asked for the full. Also remember if you have chosen the right agent, they are going to ask for something IF it is in their field of expertise. They can't tell anything without looking at your work. The agent I pitched to helped me to see that I need to up the sensuality, and that a paranormal romance has a HEA, an urban fantasy doesn't. And be on time for your pitch. They do adhere to the rules. Some woman tried to muscle in on my pitch time. Thankfully the volunteer saw her off. One is polite but there are strict time limits.

8. Seeing and speaking to agents can make you cross them off your list. There were some whom I decided were not right for me. One I knew that I'd had a lucky escape from when I heard the agent speak at a workshop. Others I heard speak and I immediately wanted to produce something good enough for them to want to take me on. There is no one right agent for everyone. I also know far more what I want from an agent.

9. Listen for key words at the conference. Right now -- it is how do you harness Social Media. Several agents I heard speak said to mention your Social Media skills in your query letter. But also the pitfalls of social media were pointed out. Ration your social media time. If your shop window is empty, you can't sell fresh air. The book is the most important thing.

10. Midlist is not dying. There was never a golden age. It is all about producing a great book.

11. Bookmarks and paper products do not move in the goody room. Books do as long as you do not put too many out at one time. Little and often. Carry one or two of your books with you. I had some great conversations with people and gave them my book because they expressed an interest. Hopefully they will enjoy Compromising Miss Milton.

And finally -- go to the RWA National Conference, it just is.

Typing with cats

Heathcliff has decided that he is an edit-cat today. I am forgiven for having dared to go away. Apparently while I was gone, he went and sat on my husband's knee!

Mostly as you can see, he climbs up and leans back against me. But occassionally I can get him to go into the top desk drawer. He got in trouble yesterday when he tried to sharpen his claws on my contract for Valeria and Piso. The contract is about to be posted... But he has decided that he needs attention.

The revisions are basically done but I need to do another read through and make sure that everything is as sharp as I want it to be. I want Robert and Henri's story to be excellent.

Back from the RWA

I am back! My updates etc are on the Pink Heart Society.
I had a marvellous time.
For me, conference was all about meeting people. I loved meeting so many people that I had corresponded with. Everyone seemed to be pretty much as I pictured them.
The Hussies were great. I was so impressed with Blythe Gifford and her glasses as jewelery approach. She also wears turquoise and has this marvellous zest for life combined with a totally practical business like approach. Blythe and Julia Justiss have been to so many conferences and it was a joy and priviledge to sit next to them at the Rita ceremony, not the least to hear about past conferences as pictures flashed up on the screen.
I loved the literacy signing -- feeling part of a huge event and the sitting next to some very nice authors from new author for a small press AT Stratton (Anne) to Blaze superstar Cara Summers and new superromance Liz Tailey. I loved meeting May from Mostly Romance in Taiwan. She gave me the most marvellous totebag that folds up into a strawberry.
Then there was the Harlequin party. It was truly legendary. The music. The company. Seeing Kim Young dance in red shoes. (I was pleased to learn that she was in flats the next day) as I was in awe. I doubt I could have taken three steps with out falling over, let alone dance the way she did.
Seeing Carole Mortimer get her plaque was a highlight. Later, she had some friends around for champagne and it was great to get to know Jenny Hutton better. I was able to listen as she explained to Presents author Kate Hewitt about what they were doing with Presents. The upcoming Wolf continuity sounds GREAT! I also know that I am profoundly grateful that Historical isn't like that (but then I always had difficulty colouring within the lines!)
The breakfast with the Harlequin Hussies was so much fun. It was great to meet some of my favourite authors and to finally see what they looked like!
I could go on and on. Very inspirational.
My favourite workshops were the Harlequin Digital workshop on the Wednesday (they are repeating it next year for Harlequin authors -- a must go!), the Susan Elizabeth Philips on the 6 magic words (I need to read her) and Donald Maas who not only made me think but showed me how one conducts a workshop of that nature.
Even though it was terrifying, I'm glad I pitched to an agent. I now have to revise the full of my paranormal. The agent was very helpful in giving me the difference between paranormal romance and urban fantasy -- if there is a HEA, it is a romance. That is fine.
My editor who does indeed walk on water sent back a few more tweaks to my latest so those need to be done. I promised her that she would get them by Friday. Unfortunately my husband and daughter refused to email me the manuscript so I am starting them today. I might not be around that much until these are done.
I did start the Sinai one and you know when you can feel that something is just going to be good...