All is Revealed - My Writing Process (blog hop)

Many thanks to Stacy Juba, whose forthcoming romantic comedy Fooling Around With Cinderella, I'm very much looking forward to reading, for including me in the Writing Process blog hop.  This seemed an interesting way to explore how I approach my writing from story idea to printed page, and to share my latest project.  Next week Misty Beller and Deborah Court will post their responses to the questions below.

1) What am I working on?


Due for release next week, my latest story is a contemporary romance with suspense The Nightclub.  Here
is the blurb: 

Trying to make a living for her teenage sister and herself, Laura Hamilton accepts a job offer as a hostess at an infamous nightclub. As she struggles to survive in a world of sex, drugs and corruption, she certainly doesn't expect to find her own knight in shining armour in the club's owner, Julian. But will he really save her from a future as a fallen woman? And is he involved in the criminal organisation that threatens not only her sister's life, but will change her own fate forever?

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Like Stacy, I've published in a variety of genres, contemporary romance, romantic suspense, a psychological thriller and a modern ghost story.  I've even co-written a short science fiction story with my darling son.  All my stories involve people facing a dramatic emotional journey, which I try to make as realistic as possible to allow my readers to identify with them.  Although I like to include emotional or sexual tension, I don't write erotica and consider my romances to be 'clean'.  The Nightclub probably goes one step further than the rest, and I'll leave it to my readers to decide if that's a step too far.

3) Why do I write what I do?

I like to write the kind of stories I enjoy reading involving characters with whom I can really empathise, since I want readers to do the same.  That's not to say they are without flaws—Ellis Crawford in Killing Jenna Crane, for example, is one of the most unlikeable men imaginable; he's deeply flawed and his journey to self-discovery is fraught with difficulties.  Despite his faults, readers still manage to understand him and some even like him.  I'm not sure if I do, though.

4) How my writing process works

I used to need to have the whole story mapped out in my head before I began writing, but nowadays I've been known to sit at my computer with only the sketchiest of ideas and let the story evolve according to its own whimsy.  I wrote my best-seller Wishful Thinking that way.  It's great fun as it allows stories to evolve organically.  When I'm not writing, my brain is still swamped with ideas.  I have packs of pens and Post-It notes in every room in my house so I can grab one and scribble down ideas as they come to me.  I stick all these into an exercise book on my desk that I use for jotting down relevant names, places, dates, any details likely to recur throughout the story.  Once I've finished with each sticky note, it goes in the bin—nice and tidy—though believe me, I'm anything but a tidy worker!

Do be sure to catch the two great writers nominated to continue the hop next week—just click on their names to take you to their blogs:

Misty Beller was raised on a farm in South Carolina, so her Southern roots run deep, as does her love for Christian novels. Misty is a semi-finalist in the American Christian Fiction Writers 2014 Genesis Contest in the Historical Romance category, and is looking forward to the upcoming release of her debut Historical Romance novel by Prism Book Group.

Deborah Court lives in a picturesque European small town. A health

professional by day, at night she loves to write romances about elven warriors of deadly beauty, capable of making a woman die from sheer pleasure - or stories to awaken the deepest, most secret fantasies of her readers.

Deborah's bestselling debut novel Bound to the Prince, a fantasy romance featuring an Elven hero, was nominated "Best Book of 2011" by The Romance Review. Writing in both English and German, her favourite genres are fantasy/paranormal, erotic and historical romance; she also publishes young adult mysteries for Harlequin Books, Germany.

What's In a Name?

You would think that a writer would have a good enough imagination not to be phased when it comes to finding a title for her magnum opus. Sadly, not in my case.  When it comes to ideas for stories, it’s standing room only inside my brain, but finding titles for those stories is an entirely different…well, story.

A title needs to stand out, to grab the attention of potential agents, publishers and readers.  It needs to inform, intrigue and entice and most of all, it needs to be relevant.  It shouldn’t be boring, mustn’t sound pretentious and can't afford to be instantly forgettable. So, we’re not asking much of it, are we?  

And is it any wonder that I develop something akin to stage fright when I have to come with a title?

I indulged in a little moan about this recently on Twitter.  No one seemed to be able to offer me the magic solution, sadly.  One Twit (sorry, Tweep) said he had the reverse problem, plenty of titles, no story ideas.  After reflection that did make me feel slightly better, though it didn’t solve my problem.

I mean, take my first novel: ‘The Apple Tree’.   I still cringe at just how unimaginative that sounds.  One sensitive soul asked me what the relevance of the title was and was clearly unimpressed to hear that the heroine had an old apple tree in her garden which seemed to represent her childhood triumphs and achievements.  It’s a minor character in the story, however, and tells nothing of the dramatic traumas the heroine undergoes as an adult.

My most significant novel (the one of which I’m still so possessive that I can’t yet send it out into the big wide world to try its fortune) still has its working title “Unworkers”.  In fact it’s lived with that for so long that I doubt I could bear to change it now.  A good friend kindly pointed out to me that I'd invented the word, which was meaningless.  Not to me, it’s not!  The work is women’s fiction (with a supernatural twist) and one of the characters explains its meaning in Chapter Two.  “Unworkers”, she claims are those “Unpaid, unvalued, unnoticed [women] ... we’re like those little elfin tailors, beavering away invisibly, putting the world to rights with our neat little patches while we put our own lives on hold for everyone else.”  Speaking as one of them, I think I invented a pretty good word…it remains to be seen whether it will work as a title, however.

And now my latest dilemma is to find a title for my current work – a romantic suspense.  This has lived – untitled – in my mind for so long that naming it now seems almost wrong!  But name it I must.  So I put on my oversized thinking cap and went to work.  The moment I stopped toying with ideas, one popped into my head.  ‘In Loving Hate’.  Now, why I had been thinking of Romeo and Juliet at that moment, I have no idea.  So I asked my chief critic and mentor (my son) what he thought of it – and he told me in his delightfully honest way.  ‘Don’t like it.  Too commercial and common.  It lacks sophistication.’  Well, I wonder how William would feel about that?  I asked my good friend and fellow writer, Deb what she thought and this was her response: 'I LOVE the title!!! It's short and powerful, intriguing, and catches the reader's attention.  And it has a Shakespeare connection'. Hmm...

So here is my question to any readers kind enough to respond.  To be or not to be: ‘In Loving Hate’?  

Oh, and if you have a secret for coming up with great titles, please share it!

I Received "The Versatile Blogger Award" ...Yeah!

Today Iris B from her blog (http://www.iris-b.blogspot.com) awarded me with

“The Versatile Blogger Award.”

Thank you Iris, I’m thrilled to receive the "Trophy", especially as I’m a newbie to blogging and, like you, I consider myself a rather lazy blogger.  But I do plan to get better (every day, in every way…)

Here are the Versatile Blogger Award rules:

1.    Thank the person who gave it to you and link back to them.

2.    Share seven things about yourself.

3.        Pass the award along to other, recently discovered blogs and let them know about it.

Now I need to tell you SEVEN things about myself!  Goodness, thinking cap on here... (I may cheat and change these later if I think of more interesting things!)

1. The obvious starting place I suppose is where I live.  That’s in a leafy Surrey suburb in an old (early Victorian) cottage with one lovely son and one anti-social cat.
2. I secretly believe my wonderful son, Alexander is a genuine genius.
3. I worked as a teacher for about twelve years, and for around half of which was head of English.
4. I gave up teaching to focus on writing and self-published a contemporary romance (‘The Apple Tree’) this year. 
5. My real ‘baby’ is my novel ‘Unworkers’ which is ghost story but very much contemporary women’s fiction and I would love to find a mainstream publisher for this.  However, at the moment, I can’t seem to bring myself to start chasing literary agents and facing possible rejection.
6. I’m a bit of a fanatic about the proper use of the English language – I’ve been known to correct misspellings and grammatical errors on public signs!
7. I murder plants!  Not wilfully, I promise – indoor or outdoor plants just seem to curl up and die rather than grow for me, which makes me quite paranoid – why me?

Now, here are some of the best blogs I’ve discovered this year and I’m awarding each the Versatile Blogger Award.  Again, in no special order:

Carol Kilgore:  http://underthetikihut.blogspot.com 

Deborah Court:  http://deborahcourt.blogspot.com/

Johanna KP:  http://themanicheans.blogspot.com/

Emma Silver: http://emmasilverunpublished.blogspot.com

Congratulations! Hope you enjoy forwarding this "Trophy" as much as I did
 :-)

“The Versatile Blogger Award.”

The Apple Tree and Bound to the Prince

 

[Please see previous blog entry]

The Apple Tree by Lynette Sofras is a contemporary romance of approximately 58,000 words

Escaping from your past is never easy, as young hospital doctor Juliet discovers when she tries to start afresh, leaving both her marriage and her career behind.  Love blossoms rapidly when she meets the mysterious and forthright gardener, Nicholas, who seems to herald the new beginning she craves.  The past quickly dissolves into insignificance as their all-consuming romance propels them forward but Juliet has to learn the price of happiness in the cruellest way possible.  Will she be able face the painful roots of her past in order for her future to grow strong and healthy?

Bound to the Prince by Deborah Court is a fantasy/erotic romance of approximately 100,000 words

Once a proud warrior, elven prince Elathan is living in exile, fallen from grace and separated from his own people. When he beholds a compelling mortal woman on a London bridge one night, he hunts her down and abducts her to be his slave of pleasure. Bound by magic and desire, Igraine Chandler finds herself in a world beyond her wildest dreams, fighting at her prince's side to reclaim his throne.