WRITING PROCESS BLOG TOUR

Welcome to the continuing Writing Process Blog Tour where authors are invited to answer the same four questions.

My appreciative thanks to KC Klein, author of the fabulous TEXAS WIDE OPEN and many more amazing stories, who invited me to join this wonderful tour allowing us to learn a little more about authors and get a peek into their world.

What am I working on?

I’m proud to say that I just completed my first suspense romance, KEEPING FAITH, and hope to find a home for it soon. In the meantime, when I’m not busy with helping other authors ready their work for submission or publication, I’m working on another suspense romance, which has a lot less scary moments than KEEPING FAITH, but that I hope touches the heart in a way most suspense stories don’t.

***Here’s a small teaser:
          I heard the hurt in my daughter’s voice and it pained me to know she felt the need to be responsible for her parents when she should be caring for her own family. I watched my over-concerned daughter turn away, toss her shoulder-length, still nearly black hair over her shoulder as she pulled a chair from the edge of the attic, and placed it near a stack of boxes.

          “I appreciate all of your help, honey, but I’m not ready to be an old woman yet.” I grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze.

          I looked deep into those soft green eyes that carried far more of her father’s beautiful brown than my blue. “It’s difficult enough watching your father fade from the man I married. I feel like I lose a little bit more of him every day.” Tears stung my eyes so I glanced away and I cleared my throat yet again. “Let’s start with those boxes.”

          Tina dipped her head and wiped away a tear she hadn’t wanted me to see before she pulled a box over in front of the chair. I smiled at her and was relieved when I received a small grin in return. She snagged another chair and set it nearby before pulling another box from the stack. I watched her as she concentrated on what she was doing. I knew all of this was hurting her as much as me. Her father was her world. He was the first man to ever dance with her, twirling her around to the sounds of Elvis Presley singing Can’t Help Falling In Love. He’d been the first man to give her roses, and he was the man who escorted her down the aisle when she married her own knight in shining armor.

          I sighed as the recollection of those times sprinted across my thoughts. Where had the years gone? What would the next years bring – good memories or only sad? 

          – Untitled Work in Progress

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I’m not sure how my work differs from others in the same genre except that I believe I focus more on the relationship between the characters more than the suspense/mystery of the story. Especially this new one which, when my mother read this passage, she had to stop because she was crying. And it's only in the first chapter. 

Why do I write what I do?

I’ve always had a desire to create. At one time, I seriously considered art school but even as much as I love to create art, by the time I was roughly fourteen years old, I’d fallen in love with creating stories, characters, and of course, I’d discovered romance. Creating a story is like painting a portrait of a moment in the life of my characters. If what I create brings a touch of joy, sadness, fear, or delight to my readers then my creation has done what it was meant to do. Just as my tastes in reading vary, I suspect my writing will also. I never know where my muse may take me next and that’s part of the fun.

How does your writing process work?

I am a pantser, which means I let my characters take me where they will. Yes, I pull together ideas as the story progresses. I even make notes, but I don’t plot out the story before I begin. I do consider my characters relation to each other, their back stories, and setting but I let my muse lead me to where my characters live and then let the characters tell me the rest.

With KEEPING FAITH, I woke up one morning, and for whatever ungodly reason, I wrote a scene of murderous terror where an unnamed man kills a woman by coating her body in oil and puts her in a crematory oven. Where it came from only my muse knows, but it certainly inspired me to keep going even as it made me cringe. The idea for this new story came from a desire to take my characters back in time but show how love can last forever, even under the most stressed times in a couple’s life. Even though my own marriage is ending, I still believe in love and a happily-ever-after. Maybe someday I’ll realize my own outside the pages of my work. 

Thanks for joining me today and I hope you'll continue to follow the Writing Process Blog Tour for a chance to get a peek into more authors' worlds.

Your next week's traveling companions are:

Alexandrea Weis, the award-winning author adult contemporary romance like COVER TO COVERS and paranormal romance fiction like GHOSTS OF RUE DUMAINE, is also a nurse, animal lover, permitted wildlife rehabber, as well as avid New Orleanian.

Brandy Dorsch, who is living her dream in Pittsburgh, Pa with her husband and two sons, is the paranormal author of EVERLASTING HUNGER.

Nikki Lynn Barrett, author of BABY STETSON, who lives in Arizona with her husband and son, runs a book blog, an online used bookstore, and writes various genres of romance.

Thank you for stopping by! Feel free to leave a comment and of course, share the news of the Writing Process Blog Tour! 

As always -  Happy Reading Everyone!

Coming to THE END When Writing a Novel

Hi my darlings, recently I typed those final two words that every writer sets as a goal, and simultaneously dreads because it means that a story that has occupied her thoughts for months, maybe even years, has ended. Writers come to care about their characters as we do friends and family, so when we type THE END, we say good-bye to friends and close the door on a story, a part of our life, and a love affair with a couple that will never exist again. No matter how many revisions are required.

KEEPING FAITH is my first suspense romance that I hope will be the first in a series I’m calling Rescued By Love. The story centers around a series of prostitute disappearances throughout New York City, and the hero has come home to his rented apartment to work undercover in hopes of solving the mystery. He’s totally crushing on the woman from whom he rents his apartment and who also lives across the hall. She also owns the hair salon located in the same building. Suspicions have the led the police to center their surveillance on the salon, the train station located across the street where local prostitutes hang out selling their trade, and on the employees of the salon. There were times while writing KEEPING FAITH that I made myself uneasy when encountering the bad guy. My hope is that readers will be as caught up in the terror that one human can inflict on another as I was while writing it. What amazing things lurk in the imagination of a writer.

My goal is to either find a publisher who will be as eager to share my book with readers as I am or if not, to self-publish, and promote it myself. In the meantime, I’m moving on to another previous work-in-progress that I started before KEEPING FAITH and am anxious to finish and type those two little amazing words – The End.

So, tell me, what things in your life sadden and excite you when they end? If you’re like me, when I finish reading a wonderful story, it’s always satisfying and a little sad. Or perhaps when a good movie ends. The best things are always things we don’t want to see end but like most good things, they do.

Here’s to, someday, sharing KEEPING FAITH with you and eventually, the next books in the series. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll get my undercover detective to come talk with us about his endeavors to catch the bad guy.

If you'd like to read the Prologue and Chapter One of KEEPING FAITH, please do. I'd love to know what you think and whether it's something you'd like to read in its entirety some future day. 

Happy Reading Everyone!

Unwrapping: What Do You Look For In A Book Blurb?

As many of you know who follow my blog regularly, I also write romance. Getting published has so far eluded me but I'm working on it. In fact, I'm working on two new projects right now - both contemporary romances. Yes, you read that right - contemporary romances! One of them is even in first person point of view. I was very surprised when my muse ordered me to go in this direction, but she was right and I'm quite excited about both works in progress. I'm even entering one of them in a writing contest at the end of the month. Cross your fingers for me that I do well.

Since I've been working on these two new stories, I received yet another rejection on my historical but now I suspect it's not so much the manuscript itself, although I am going to do some revisions, but the crappy blurb I put in the query. Yes, I admit it's crappy. I ran it by some friends on Facebook and they pointed out a lot of flaws. I admit I wrote it in a hurry, even missed a comma, and then discovered that I allowed that stupid autocorrect to spell eluded as alluded - totally different meaning. Yikes! I can't believe I missed that.

All of this got me to wondering exactly what a reader looks for in a book blurb. What hooks you to buy a book when all you have is the blurb to go by? Does it have to be a long blurb or can it be a few lines?

For me, it's the promise of action and excitement, with some danger thrown in. I suppose that's why I gravitate toward stories with suspense and mystery but I have recently fallen in love with some stories that were all about the romance and the relationship, so now I'm truly wondering ...

Many times when asked to a read and review, I look at what genre the romance is, the author - of course - and I usually give the blurb a quick read but many times, especially if it's an author I already enjoy, I'll just say 'yes!' I honestly have to say that I do the same when purchasing books for my personal reading. How do you decide which books to read?

We all know that debut authors are always a risk when considering whether or not to buy and read - it's why there are reviewers like me, we go where the reader sometimes wishes not to tread. If you picked up a book by a debut author without the benefit of a review, what about the blurb would lead you to purchase and read it?

This curious wannabe author wants to know - who knows, it might help me perfect my query blurb. Thanks!

Happy Reading Everyone!

Don't forget, you still have a chance to enter to win a digital copy of THE STILLNESS OF YOU by Julie Bale - in case you haven't heard, Julie is Juliana Stone's alter ego and this book is absolutely fabulous. I can't recommend it enough!  xoxo

Click the link to go enter, ends tonight:  Book Blitz for THE STILLNESS OF YOU by Julie Bale   THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED. Thanks for visiting. Click on oover to purchase your copy of this fabulous New Adult contemporary romance - it rocks!