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A Free Taste

10 May

Man City Lizzieby C. Margery Kempe
I thought as I am (or should be) at present running around London having fun before I head back to my sweetie up north in Scotland, that I would give you a little freebie teaser of my latest book, Man City: Lizzie. Like the original Man City, it’s a ménage story. At the center is the red-headed Lizzie, an art historian. But Lizzie’s being pressured into a choice:

Lizzie had been grateful for the impromptu docent duties that morning as it had mostly kept her from thinking about her own potential trap. Seated behind her desk once more with a lot of paperwork waiting, it became impossible not to ruminate on ‘the Nigel problem’ as she had begun to think of it.

Six little words.

“I want us to be exclusive,” he had said to her last night, taking her hand across the table. She hoped the dismay didn’t show too clearly on her face, but he had at least recognized surprise. Studying his earnest face, Lizzie had to admit not many women would say no to that offer.

Nigel was tall, dark and handsome for sure. He cooked like a dream and he had a laugh that warmed like a stove on a winter’s afternoon. Lizzie enjoyed the strength of his arms and the concentration in his face when they made love. Nigel made sure she was satisfied, whether he was preparing dinner or eating her out.

So why in the world wouldn’t she want to have that all to herself?

Her phone buzzed and Lizzie saw the number she had been half-expecting to flash there.

He was why.

“Hello, Jake,” Lizzie could almost hear herself purr.

“Can you meet for lunch?” His tone was casual, but that didn’t fool her.

“Where?”

“My place.”

She snorted. “Will I get any food out of this?”

“You could pick something up on the way!” He rang off without even saying good-bye.

That was Jake: impetuous, fun-filled, demanding and unpredictable.

And that was why she didn’t immediately agree to Nigel’s proposal. She had strong feelings for both of them; why did she have to choose? A gorgeous guy who cooks? A life-of-the-party guy who thrilled her? She had three favourite restaurants and at least a dozen favourite artists. Why only one boyfriend? It made her want to stomp her foot and cry in her best two-year-old voice, “It’s not fair!”

These thoughts were still churning in her head when she got to Jake’s. He lived on the top floor of a gorgeous nineteenth century building. The stair was narrow and dark but when you got to the top, it was all light and windows. He had an enviable view of the cathedral and town centre.

If he asked me to be exclusive, would I have leaned toward yes just because of this flat? Lizzie wondered, but then immediately laughed to herself. Jake could never be exclusive to anyone!

As she rang the buzzer Lizzie realised she had forgotten to pick up any food. Ah well, Cup-a-Soup back at the office. But when Jake opened the door, she smelled something delicious. She saw something pretty delicious, too. His loose tie and his work shirt half unbuttoned invited her hand to slip inside and caress his chest as they kissed. His cowlicked hair stuck up in fashionable disarray. No doubt about it, Jake was a dish—even paler than she was with jet black hair and eyes the colour of Caribbean waters.

He pulled her close as he shut the door behind her, running his hands down her back to her bum and giving the cheeks a squeeze. The warm kiss became something hotter as his tongue thrust deep into her open mouth. Lizzie felt the stress of the morning slip away as her skin thrilled to his touch…

Check out more on my author page at Tirgearr Publishing.

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Balancing Two Genres

9 Apr
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Art by Jem Yoshioka.

I woke up thinking about my hawt master-beekeeper in the third book of my romance series. You’d think this would be a good time to write about him. But in the mean time, I’ve gotten edits in on my mystery series so I have to set aside the romances. I love taking half the day to write mystery and the other half romance—the trouble is it rarely happens like this anymore.

I’m not the only genre writer who balances two names and two genres. Sometimes it feels like we walk a tightrope of deadlines and beginnings. We all develop tricks and efficiencies along the way. One thing that I’ve found is that when I get edits in, that work tends to be my priority. Otherwise it will just gnaw at me while I’m trying to write or edit anything else. So I just give in to it.

I usually take the edits one step at a time. I go through the manuscript and tend to easy fixes first. Later, I dig deeper in and not go back and forth—just keeping moving ahead until I’m finished. Then I will read through the entire manuscript to see if I’ve messed anything up by fiddling with it. And this happens a lot at this stage. With the next stage, copy edits, it’s really just more about polishing and making certain facts are straight.

With this particular manuscript, I’ll be adding in a good bit of text so I’ll need to read through to make certain it flows and that everything still connects.

In the mean time, the first three chapters of the next book in the series is due May 1, along with the outline. So once I’m done with the next round of edits, I’ll take a break and work on those chapters before I go back to the next layer of edits. My plan is that once I turn it one of these projects, I’ll get back to my master beekeeper, due in August. Currently its first draft is almost halfway done. I hope to go back to my half day of writing each genre.

So my of my writing career has been like this—stopping and starting and going back to the middle of things when I can get there. But I find that even though it can be tricky, the balancing keeps me on my toes and the stretching back and forth feeds my brain. Any others out there who are writing in two genres? How do you do it?

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Anticipation

8 Apr

I’m in a state of anticipation.

Normally I would say I like anticipation –I adore anticipation.   When starting to read a novel, I am full of anticipation.  Will I like GONE GIRL as much as my friend did? Will the inside of the latest romance novel be as good as its provocative cover? Will it be full of hot, hot, sex–but sex that is deeply charged with strong emotional feeling? Or will it be full of other excellent surprises (I’m thinking Kristan Higgins here or Jennifer Cruisie) and have me sniffling or smiling when I least expect it?

Someone said “Anticipation is the electricity of childhood.” Yup. Like that idea. Especially since I made the decision the other day never to grow old and die. Anticipation is fab-u-lous, but I’m not thinking so much of childish anticipation.  No, I prefer the electric clack of amazing sexual chemistry kind of anticipation.

I AM dating myself, but when I think of anticipation—what I’m thinking of is Tim Curry’s 5 syllable 7 seconds worth of in The Rocky Horror Picture Show:

If you watch the whole song, or sing it to yourself in the shower on a daily basis like I do, you’ll see that there’s a world of potential in that one word.  An indescribable, soon-to-be frothy sexual something-something just around the corner.  Love it!

When I open up a romance novel I am also full of anticipation about how long it’s going to take us to get to that hot bedroom sex scene.  Do I get it right away (a la JR Ward’s first book DARK LOVER) or do I gotta wait, wait, wait, for a big sex scene about three-quarters of the way through?  And yes, a lot of romance writers plan exactly when in the novel knocking boots is gonna happen.  Make them laugh, make them cry, but make them wait is the mantra of all successful romance writers.  What I love about a great hawt sex scene right away is it tells me that I can anticipate an even better/hotter sex scene coming later. Right, all you erotic romance authors out there? ;>

There’s some famous singer from a ba-jillion years ago**** wondering about anticipation in her song and if she’s ”…just chasing after some finer day…” After deciding that James Taylor ISN’T going to put a ring on it (whoops! spoiler alert) she decides that even if Mr. You’re-So-Vain only gives her a booty call that “these are the good old days.”

Hmmm, grumble, grumble.  It’s very zen, living in the those good old days as they’re happening.  I must say I prefer living a tiny bit in the future.  Especially if today is a tad dull or full of stress. But it’s important to note her concern.  Anticipation can become a form of anxiety.  A form of anxiety that I’m probably suffering from now.  (Feeling shut down? Unable to work? You’re probably not depressed–you just have a book out with an editor.)

But this reminds me–in my early *cough* youth, I absolutely refused to be anticipation’s bitch.  During that rather brief interlude between puberty and meeting the Love Of My Life, I never put myself into a situation where I would be waiting for someone to call me.  No, I’d learned something from Ms. Dorothy Parker in tenth grade English.  Even the Love of My Life was told “I’ll give you a ring,”–the ‘if you’re lucky‘ part being implied.  It’s important to let excitement have it’s way with you, but not to stretch out uncertainty until it forms a gigantic monstrous shape that gobbles up all your happy sauce.

So here’s what I’m going to do to divert that electricity of happiness my way once again. Through stringent mind control and…a lot of office cleaning….I will distract myself from letting anticipation shut me down. I will start a new writing project and throw myself into it heart and soul.  With some attitude tweaks backed up by sheer force of personality I will trade my anticipation over what’s not in my control (the editor’s decision) into what is under my control (that first hot sex scene of my new novel.)   So ‘show me the way,’ Dr. F.

XO,

Madeline

****I refuse to date myself by referencing Carly Simon & ketchup.

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Becoming Liz Everly

26 Mar

From the moment I placed the pink wig on my head, I became Liz Everly. This was a good thing because there were many things that could have gone very wrong that day. It was the first Love Fest at the Virginia Festival of the Book. I mean, think about that. Just sit with that awhile. So the pink wig really helped. If I bombed it was HER, the lady in the pink wig,  not ME, right?

I was on a panel on Saturday with four other writers. Not just any writers, All of them “bestsellers,” except, of course, for me. Did I worry about that?  Honestly, I fretted about it for awhile. But then I thought about it from the perspective of audience members and felt better. Because here is the thing: we all need to start somewhere. This is my start as Liz start, right? I think it gave the audience members another perspective.

I’ve written here before about how I write traditional mysteries. I love writing them and don’t ever want to give that up. But I also love to write my spicy culinary romances. So I do both and am grateful that my publisher allows, encourages, and embraces that.

The panel went very well. It was a romantic suspense panel called Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang. Each of us write books with way different layers and levels of suspense.  I learned a lot by listening to Mary Burton, Joshilyn Jackson, and Joyce Lamb, and Lydia Netzer’s questions were leading us through the discussion. Since this is a new-to-me genre as a writer, my editor helps me with the romance and suspense balance. In CRAVINGS, the second book in my series, the big editorial comment was “more sex and food, less suspense.” I have to admit that the suspense of this book really pulled me in and I probably went overboard with it. My editor was right. I’m writing a culinary romance with a dash of suspense, not the other way around.

Everybody on the panel brought a different level of suspense and romance to the table, so it was a fascinating discussion.  With such an eclectic mix of writers, it could have gone very badly. But instead, I think we rose to the challenge and gave the audience what they wanted. A big part of the reason this panel worked so well was the generosity of the other writers on the panel. I’ve been on panels before where egos and sniping take over. It must be noted that this kind of thing did not happen AT ALL during the Love Fest.

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Pictured from left to right: Liz Everly, Joshilyn Jackson, Joyce Lamb, Mary Burton, Lydia Netzer

So this was my first public appearance as Liz. Among other reasons, I wore the pink wig to help place a definite line in the sand between my other public self and Liz. This was important to me because I was appearing elsewhere at the festival as my other personae. I didn’t really do it as a disguise, but it seemed to work as such because many people (who knew me) were asking Madeline  Iva who Liz was.

And later Madeline asked me if the wig helped me in some way feel more comfortable.  And I think it did. It helped me shed some of the trappings of my other personae and feel a bit more free to be myself. Isn’t that odd? Wearing a pink wig and feeling more authentic?

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The Reacher Influence

11 Mar

I’m clearly addicted.  I blame my sister.  She has always loved the Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child and so when one came my way, I tried it.  Didn’t like it at all, I said, not confessing that I read it in one sitting.

Give me a chance, sis.

Give me a chance, sis.

Then I saw another free Jack Reacher novel at the gym.  (Did I mention that I belong to the most perfect gym ever? They give away free books there.) The second book I read was ONE SHOT — That’s the novel that the recent Jack Reacher movie is based on–the one with Tom Cruise.  The movie my sister refuses to see because Tom Cruise is 5′ 6″.

Reacher is 6′ 5″.  Reacher starts off around two-hundred pounds or so, but after enough books he’s up to two hundred and fifty pounds of killing muscle.  Reacher grinds men’s bones to make his bread.  He also lives off diner food.

Then there are the women.  They are slender, they are pretty.  They  tend to loan Reacher their cars on sight.  Then they sleep with him.  They are either incredibly competent or they have small, yet adorable children and someone has been incredibly cruel to them.

Reacher never ever owns any possessions until after a long time he compromises and begins to carry  a travel toothbrush.

Reacher was made for the reader–male or female–who has a lotta kids, a lotta mortgage, a lotta burdens and obligations. Reacher was made for the reader who leaves a strip mall on Saturdays with a car full of stuff feeling empty and weird.

The brilliance of Lee Child is that he knows how to keep you turning those pages. Child sacrifices plausibility for the sake of action, lots of action, coming at you fast, fast, fast. ”Character is king”– and Reacher is nothing if not a character.   Reacher walks with total confidence, he analyses crimes with total confidence.  He matches his arrogance against the arrogance of the bad guys and he comes out on top by playing dirty as much as he possibly can.

Reacher is a funny one.  Reacher’s peferred method of starting a fight is to give a sudden, unexpected crushing head butt.

Killing FloorEver get frustrated with good guys pansy-footing around? Are you thinking as you read Don’t tie the bad guy up–he’s just going to get away? Do you ever want to chant Just kill him–just kill him! to the good guys?  Reacher is your kinda guy.  Reacher does not tie up bad guys.  He does not hand them over to the cops.  Why bother? The bad guys are very dead by the time Reacher is through.  Reacher does not aim for truth or justice, he aims to maim and kill.

Yet he’s not like Dexter–he’s not a serial killer full of self-loathing.  Reacher likes himself just fine.

Character is King

Character is King

Is it any wonder, then, that being in a profession which loves alpha heroes that I’ve noticed my own hero is suddenly displaying some alarming Reacher-like qualities? My hero is suddenly a lot less apologetic in chapter three.  He is more preoccupied with business.

Scarier still, he’s perfectly willing to revel in the lust of a super sexy moment with my heroine, but afterwards he’s no longer immediately sucked into a deep pool of emotional commitment.  Pre-Reacher my hero was denying the bond.  Now he isn’t denying it–he doesn’t feel it. He is perfectly happy in the moment they have together and with her and how it all went. His thoughts don’t go one tiny bit beyond that.

As Reacher once said, “Feelings? What are those?”

It made me shiver when I read that. I also wanted to laugh, because he’s being honest.

So readers, what should I do? Impose a No Lee Child Reading ban while I’m finishing up my novel?

On the other hand, isn’t it good when characters come alive and have a will of their own?  Maybe the Reacher voice is a reality check against my man-loving “isn’t every man at heart really a good guy and a feminist if he’s being rational and not scared or something” mind set.  I mean, I want my guys to be good guys–sure.  But I want them to be guys.

Hmmmmmmmmmm.

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Sexy Scotland, Honey, and Skeps: Digging in to Research

26 Feb

Right now, my first culinary romance is out (SAFFRON NIGHTS), my second book in the series, CRAVINGS, is with my editor at Kensington and I am starting to write and research the third.  I’m calling it HONEY, but that name may change. (Glimpse the crazy life of a series writer. Let’s not go into the fact that I also write another series under another name.)

I’ve long been fascinated by honey and bees. The more I read about them, the more fascinated I become. I long for the time, property, and money to dive in this hobby and keep my own bees.

So far my research is consisting of reading books and web research. The book I’m reading now is “Robbing the Bees: A Biography of Honey–The Sweet Liquid Gold that Seduced the World” written by a non-fiction writer, Holley Bishop, who became obsessed enough to get her own bees.

For my story, I don’t need to go into in-depth descriptions about how hives are built and hive-society works, and so on. But I think reading as much as I can about it will help to inform the story. For example, in doing this research, I’ve become enamored with skeps, those round straw-built hives and I may give my character a little antique collection of them. These little details are one of many that helps to give characters depth.

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Photo by UmbrellaHead.

And I do need a more than a basic understanding about honey—after all the story is set around large honey business in Scotland.

My main female lead inherits a country farm in Scotland. At first I thought if might be France. But France with it’s perfect climate and upscale culinary appetite was a bit too easy for my beekeeping adventure. Scotland is fraught with weather adventures that challenge beekeepers. The more challenge the better.

So Scotland it is. And while France has a sex-appeal, Scotland is much more alluring and more sexy to me. Something about those highlands and the rugged wild nature of parts of Scotland that just makes my insides sit up and take notice. So to speak.

So I’ve been digging around a bit about Scottish country living and have even picked the kind of house Jennifer lives in. (If you follow me on Pinterest, I’ve got a research board full of gorgeous photos of Scotland.)

I also have a friend who lives in Scotland. She’s filled me in on things like the weather, how long the daylight hours are, and just how difficult it would be to have sex outdoors in most places in Scotland.

One of these days, I hope to be able to travel to the places I write about. The few times I’ve actually done that have turned out well. But, for now, it’s personal connections, books, and the internet. How about you? What kind of research methods work best for you?

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Here Comes the Bride…zilla

18 Feb

fetishI swear I didn’t mean to do it.  I didn’t have any idea who Kim Kardashian was when I picked her as a model for my heroine Becky Warfield while writing my first erotic romance novel, BE MY BRIDEZILLA.

I knew I wanted to try writing an erotic romance.  I did write one–and an editor at a major publishing company wanted it, but the publisher of her imprint said ‘maybe’, then ‘nah’.  I was sooooo close.

WHEN LIFE IS LIKE REALITY TV Casting around for another idea, I saw a Bridezillas commerical and inspiration struck.  The ad had a sexy bride in full satin gloves. She was throwing spaghetti in the face of a chef, screaming at him.  Someone needed to tame that Amazon bzilla!  Take her down a notch or two and get her off at the same time.  Thus BE MY BRIDEZILLA was born. It had all the elements I wanted in an erotic romance–witty dialogue, luxurious surroundings, a hot brooding hero who was smart and had it (almost) all together.  Also some kinky-lite sex in it, with a lot of smouldering intensity.

visionJACKIE CHAN Vs. BRUCE LEE Around the time I was casting about for an erotic romance idea, Nora Roberts had this bride quartet romance coming out.  I wanted to throw each book at the wall.  But I was in Barnes & Nobel and they don’t like it when patrons start lobbing projectiles across the Starbucks cafe.

My problem with each book is that they were all about the perfect wedding. People, I’ve been to weddings.  They are NOT perfect.  I’ve seen a lot of gritted teeth under those veils. I’ve seen brides who gave inn keepers PTSD,  I’ve been a guest–one of many–hiding from the bride on the other of the tent for an entire wedding.  So I wanted to write an anti-Nora novel.  I wanted it to be kinda funny, too.  Like Jackie Chan, who wanted to do the opposite of everything Bruce Lee did, where Nora got sad, I got funny.  Where Nora had pathos, I had a hawt wedding cake fight.

She does wear white a lot, doesn't she?

She does wear white a lot, doesn’t she?

But I usually use actors for physical inspiration. Who was I going to use as the model for my bridezilla?   For instance, John Krasinski is the model for Braden, the hero, and Ryan Kwanten is my inspiration for Spencer, the hapless groom. I saw a picture of someone in a magazine and thought to myself: she’s the one. But taller.  It turned out that the woman I was looking at was Kim Kardashian.

In my novel, Becky walks down the isle feeling more alone on her wedding day than she’s ever felt before.  The groom is gorgeous, he has an amazing old house, he lives in a beautiful area, and at bottom, he’s a truely sweet guy–so everything should be right in her world.  It’s not.  She knows it and tries to fight off her knowledge, which results in some spectacularly bad behavior.

Then Kimmy met Kris Humphries, and the rest was 72 days of history.  17 million dollars later, she’s reviled by the public.  She has another man’s bun in her oven. I feel ever-so-guilty that in some weird way, by picking her as the model for my Becky, I jinxed her.  Because let’s just say that in my novel (and in the sequel) Becky’s fate bears a striking similarity to Ms. Kardashian’s.

72 daysMISTAKES, I’VE MADE A FEW…Having done a lot of research for this book, I know that Kim is not alone.  30% of brides these days walk down the isle with strong doubts in their heads that the marriage will survive.  Like Becky, like Kim, they’re swept away.  The fairy tale fantasy wedding and meeting others expectations plays a big role in these mistakes.  ”But he’s such an amazing guy, who am I not to love him?” plays another part in these mistakes.  The horror of disappointing everyone and the knowledge that second thoughts, cold feet, pre-wedding jitters are common–all this can fight against calling the wedding off.  The end result keeps lawyers in porches.

johnnyboyBecky ends her marriage before all the wedding cake is gone, and she instantly winds up with another guy—in this case a hot wedding guest, the groom’s cousin.  They run away to Paris together in a slightly drunken fit of rebellion against the whole family clan.  He comes to his senses first and tries to put the brakes on their rebound fling.  Becky, however, has finally found her inner compass.  She knows what she wants with all her being: him.  She decides to take her revenge by turning up the sizzling heat between them while she’s his “guest” in Paris.

SETTING THE BAR HIGH: So here’s where life and the curious workings of fate come together again.  I realized only after I finished my novel that there’s a gap between what actually happens in life (i.e. Kim’s path) and what readers wanna read.

ryanWhen I first imagined my hero, the idea was that he’d been to one too many Southern weddings and had seen one too many bridezillas.  That combined with a kinky interest in spanking had led him to some bridezilla-spanking fantasies.  When he sees Becky throwing platters of shrimp off a balcony, and sees her curvalicious bod, she becomes the focus of his fantasy.  BUT I soon realized that selling this bridezilla romance was going to be a tad difficult.  I guess it sounds like he’s got a bride-spanking fetish.  Hmmgnndhn…fetish is a strong word.

In my mind the hero was just sort of adapting to his conditions–staving off boredom, etc.  I didn’t exactly think of it as a fetish, exactly.  A really weird fetish.

There was also the problem of Becky being married.  I was too new to the biz when I wrote the novel to know that readers simply hate adultery in romance. Yet to me it was like: how do you write contemporary romance if you don’t have strong barriers in the way of their getting together? I work around the adultry issue, but in the end, I collected a few flattering, very nice rejections for my bridezilla book.

BridezillasI BREAK WITH THEE, I BREAK WITH THEE, I BREAK WITH THEE…By the time I went to pitch my work at a romance conference in New Jersey, I was on the cusp of giving up.  Maybe I could take the bridezilla stuff out? Maybe I could take out the kinky-lite sex? Maybe I could have the hero and heroine have an initial encounter and then have a One Year Later…?  I would be gutting the book, essentially. I was so apathetic about the project that I didn’t even pitch it.

LIFE IS SO MUCH STRANGER THAN FICTION…Imagine how I felt when I was sitting in the audience of an editor’s panel towards the end of the day and Treva Harte from Loose-Id started talking about their new submissions call: I DO…UNLESS I DON’T.

LooseIdThey were looking for wedding-gone-wrong scenarios.  They were looking for hot erotic sex, they were looking for a happily-ever-after, even if it wasn’t the original bride n groom pairing.  My jaw dropped.  A publisher was actually having a call for my book.  Broken wedding? Great.  Adultery? You bet. Bridezilla spanking fetish? Yay!

So I’ve sent BMB off to Loose Id.  I feel like I should drink some champagne.  Even if they don’t accept it. Even if they accept it and want me to change/fix a lot of it–because let’s face it people, while it has some great moments, it’s my first novel and it ain’t perfect–I’d be so thrilled, so honored, so gloriously, deliriously happy.

cakeLET THEM EAT CAKE Loose Id knows–like I know–that sometimes you just don’t know until you’re walking down the aisle this is all a big, big mistake.

Meanwhile, I’m trying to make up for the bad karma I sent Kimmy’s way by asking readers to cut her some slack.  Just watch an episode of GIRLS on HBO and you’ll see that the dating world out there is a total cringe fest.  Who wouldn’t want shelter from the storm?

Meanwhile, imagine you’ve spent 45,000 dollars on a car, or a college education–or a kidney transplant–and you can’t get a refund.  Do you really just give the car away? Throw the kidney in the trash? I’m not at all surprised that many women suck it up, even if deep inside it all feels wrong.  Let them eat cake for christ’s sake, it cost $3,000.00.

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Sexy Saturday Round-Up

26 Jan
Photo by Dollen

Photo by Dollen

Hello sexy! I’ve been surfing the web this week and think I’ve come up with some fascinating blog posts for you. But first, a bit of blatant self-promotion. SAFFRON NIGHTS is launching on Feb, 6, just around the corner. If you get a chance hop on over to my site and check out all the blogs that will be a part of my launch day. If you comment on them that day, you’ll get a chance to win a lovely saffron and cedar body wash and soap–organic and handmade.

Back to our regularly scheduled post! I hope you love the posts I found for you this week as much as I do.

This first, even thought it’s the last one I’m adding. I met Jennifer Porter on a Twitter chat about romance yesterday and she’s done a “Great Spurt Study.” I’m not going to explain because you really have to read it to believe it.

Jayne Ann Krentz answers questions at Bookpage.

Have you seen The Romance Man blog? Check it out

I loved this post on how to write what you don’t know and the research it takes. I also loved the thoughtful comments.

Slate runs a piece on porn for women.

Steve Almond pens a brilliant manifesto on why he writes smut, posting on the Rumpus.

Erica Chilson on saccharine romances. Much to chew on there.

Check out what one blogger has to say about critique partners.

 

Stay Hungry,

Liz

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Writer’s Block or Not

15 Jan

LizEverly_SaffronNightsPeople have some strange ideas when it comes to writing. One of those ideas is that writers are visited by the muse and are inspired by some sort of magic. Oh, I’ve been there: when everything comes together, you have the inspiration, the time the energy and the words just flow. There’s nothing else like it.

But.

I’ve been writing professionally for over twenty years and I can attest that it usually doesn’t happen like that. Real writers sit in front of their computer, or with a pen and paper in hand, and make the inspiration happen, word by word. Often it doesn’t feel inspiring at all. This is where, I think, writer’s block may come into the picture for some writers. They are waiting for the muse.

I’ve never really dealt with this kind of block. I’ve never had the luxury of it. I started out writing articles for newspapers, magazines, newsletters, and so on. The deadlines come fast. You don’t meet them? You get fired. It’s that simple. So, when I started writing fiction, I approached it the same way. I gave myself deadlines. They had to work between my other very real deadlines for other writing projects–my articles and cookbooks, for example. When I landed my first fiction contract, it never occurred to me that I would not meet the deadline. In fact, I turned SAFFRON NIGHTS  in a bit early and I’m getting ready to do that with the second book in the series. (By the way, check out chapter one of SAFFRON NIGHTS, here.)

But I understand another kind of writer’s block—burn out. I’ve been there. You’re on a roll, writing and selling articles or stories, and suddenly, you are fresh out of ideas, or you just can’t write one more word. Stepping away at that point—even if it’s just a day or two—is necessary. Talk about it with another writer. Go for a walk or a run. Clean out your basement. Sleep on it.

What I’ve found is that sometimes the time away is as important as the time in front of the computer. We need to nourish that creative spark sometimes—not wait for the muse—there’s a difference.

Do you see it? Are you ever blocked? What have you done about it?

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Digging for the Hero’s Wound

13 Nov

I love having smarty-pants writer friends who give me all sort of interesting ways of looking at my work and my characters. You know, I just plow ahead and create. The writers who plot everything out before hand amaze me. I swear I am going to try that some day. Yes. I really will. But in the mean time the magic of writing for me is the making it up as I go along.

During our visit, when I mentioned the difficult balance between romance and suspense, Grace Burrowes (writer of fabulous Regencies) brought up the hero’s wound as a way of helping to keep the balance. Wow. That’s been rolling around in this wobbly brain of mine. I’ve been thinking of it in terms of my characters.

So, in my first book SAFFRON NIGHTS (out in February), I know Jackson’s wound. He grew up in a harsh environment, parents in and out of jail, and so on. All of his emotion and creativity is channeled into his photography. But I only found that out as I wrote the first draft. I didn’t plan it.

Maeve, the female lead in SAFFRON NIGHTS,  is wounded as well—she’s lost both of her parents in a very short time span and has had a series of bad relationships. So she has closed herself off from forming any meaningful relationships with men, choosing to focus her life completely on her career. So I think in just looking at the wounds of my characters, you have the source for a lot of internal conflict.

In CRAVINGS, it’s a little more muddled for me. I am smack dab in the middle of the first draft. Sasha, the lead female character, is a woman of many secrets and many wounds—starting with the fact that she was kicked out of her parents home at the age of seventeen and ending with the murder of an ex-lover, for which she was a key impetus.

But Sanj is a mysterious man. He’s my lead guy. On the one hand, I feel like I know him so well. He was a character in SAFFRON NIGHTS that provided some common sense and sanity to an intense situation.

But in this book, we find out that Sanj has a secret. This might be a good hiding place for a deep wound.  It’s been mentioned twice in my draft. Once, by an old girlfriend who asks “Does she know about you?” It’s also been mentioned by a private investigator that works for him. Here’s a bit from one of their conversations:

“Now you wait, Sanj. What are you saying? Are you sleeping with her? Are you in a relationship with this woman?”

Sanj didn’t answer him. After all he was paying Josh; he didn’t have to tell him shit.

“I told you not to get involved with that Jennifer and look what happened,” Josh said.

“I know,” Sanj said. “Look, it’s different with Sasha.”

“What are you going to do, marry her?” He looked incredulous.

“We’ve just met. And you know it’s very complicated in my situation. I can’t just marry anyone,” he said. “I’m aware of that.”

Hmmm. So I am starting to get a vague idea of Sanj’s secrets and wounds, but still at this point it can be so many things. I guess I’ll have to keep writing to figure it out. Stay tuned.

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