Character Development

There's a theory in the writing community that in order to make your characters believable, you need to know them inside and out. Some people do character sketches and go way beyond hair and eye color, getting fixated on what caused their internal conflict as well as their external ones.

Each author has a different approach to crafting a new story, so here's mine: I write a beat sheet, a couple sentences for each of the 15 points that will carry the story from start to finish. Then, I write a synopsis, expanding on the beat sheet to make it into two or three pages. I put together a bible if I'm writing a series, but I merely list age, hair and eye color and any distinguishing marks or traits of my characters. Nothing about their conflicts. I want to know the route the story is going to take and I figure out how many miles I can go in a day, but if I have a few detours along the way, or an interesting sight alongside the road attracts my attention and makes me slow the story until I check it out, I'm okay with it.

Every good story needs a cast of characters other then hero/heroine. After all, we all have family, friends, neighbors, business acquaintances, etc. Most of the time, they play bit parts and their time on the pages is minimal. However, there are times when these characters demand to stand up and be counted.

Such is the case with my latest WIP. My hero owned a detective agency and I needed to give him a case other than the big one, to make his agency legit. I chose a philandering husband and a wife with means. Little did I know the mistress would become a character who demanded to be treated not merely for her charms as a courtesan, but as an intelligent, beautiful woman. She quickly morphed from being called Miss Sumptuous Breasts, a casualty of their detective work, to the classic beauty, Anjanette Shelby.

I've had other books where the secondary characters won't leave me alone and I usually write their stories later. Such was the case with my Legend Award winning hero Jake, who first surfaced in Banking On Temperance when he was every bit the gentleman when Temperance spurned him for Basil. Now, before I even go through the editing process and put a spit polish on Remembering Iris, the next Flower Girl novel, my courtesan, Anjanette, is tapping me on the shoulder demanding for her entire story to be written.

Patience, patience Miss Sumptuous Breasts. I'll get to you.

Here Come The Brides

No, this post is not about Meghan and Harry, even though it's a fairy tale in real time, something we romance writers love to slobber over.

My bride reference refers to my WIP, which started out with a one mail order bride idea. Actually, I had thought three of them, the heroine and her two sisters. But mail order bride books are extremely popular in the western romance market, and my bride was only slightly different from all those who had traveled the route before her. 

What made my manuscript different was the fact that my bride in question was one of a group of sixteen women who were all traveling west to find their mates. Similar to Westward The Women, a movie about a wagon train full of women, filmed in 1951, I place sixteen women in the care of one brave man, Jake Shelton. If you're familiar with my Cotillion Ball series, you'll remember that Temperance Jones chose Basil Fitzpatrick over Jake in Banking On Temperance. In that book, Jake tipped his hat and rode off into the sunset. Not this time. Not if I have anything to say about it. 

I realized the hook to this book is the fact he's agreed to help his sister, who runs a matchmaking business, to shepherd these ladies west. Over the course of six months, Jake's ladies will prove to him they are strong women, just as Roy Whitman found out in the movie. Some of these ladies stand out in the book, and deserve their own stories about what happens after Jake drops them off and sees them get married. And of course, there's the one who captures his heart. 

So instead of the Bride Of Baxter Ridge, the name of the book has been changed to the working title of The Angelica Train. Is this my new, multi-volume series? Could be. I've learned a lot about the Oregon Trail while writing this book, as my sticky map of the trail attests to. And I wrote about a portion of the trail in my most recent post on History Imagined. 

https://historyimagined.wordpress.com/2018/05/11/the-oregon-trail/

One Step Forward, Fourteen Back

I know you're all tired of hearing about my hip dilemma, and I wish, believe me, to have better news. But the sad truth is I'm starting over again. My hip dislocated a second time and this time I went down hard. Now it's not just my hip but my shoulder. Surgery for the hip is scheduled for Monday, and a cortisone shot helped the shoulder. One thing at a time.

Anyway, I'll be in the hospital until at least Wednesday, and then on heavy drugs, so I'm counting on you, loyal followers, to help me announce my 99 cent deal of the bundle of the first 3 books. Here are some sample Facebook posting and tweets you can use, but by all means, create your own if you feel so inclined. And email all your friends, since this is such a deal–3 complete novels, 660 pages total, for only 99 cents. The sale is from June 24-July 1 only.

FACEBOOK POSTS

Start at the Beginning. The Cotillion Ball Series features the nine siblings in the Fitzpatrick family who each find their true love. If you’re new to this terrific series, here’s a great way to start. The first three books are being offered for 99 pennies from June 24-July 1. http://amzn.to/1Ay3OOn

If you’re a fan of Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series, you’ll enjoy the Cotillion Ball Series, about the nine Fitzpatrick children who come of age in New York in the years leading up to the Civil War. The first 3 books in the series are being offered at $.99 from June 24-July 1.  http://amzn.to/1Ay3OOn

TWEETS

Start at the beginning. A bundle of the 1st 3 books in the Cotillion Ball Series. #BookBoost Only $.99 from 6//24-31. http://amzn.to/1Ay3OOn

Will Ginger and Joseph overcome the odds? That book, and 2 others, in this bundle for only $.99. #history http://amzn.to/1Ay3OOn

Wagons West as Temperance tries to get her family to Oregon and Basil does everything he can to keep her in St. Louis. http://amzn.to/1Ay3OOn

Can an abolitionist and a slave owner ever find true love? This book and 2 others in this bundle. #BookBoost http://amzn.to/1Ay3OOn

I will repay your generosity any way I can upon my return to health. Thank you for being so supportive, energetic and helpful in my time of need.

Crimson Romance Blog Hop

Crimson Romance is One Year Old this month, and, in celebration, we are offering you a sneak peek at a scene from one of our books. What scene, you might ask, will represent such a diverse and talented group of authors? The one right before the love scene, of course! Here's mine, from the latest book in the Cotillion Ball series. It's called Banking On Temperance.

Basil Fitzpatrick is the owner of a bank in St. Louis, and he only wants a mistress, not a wife. Temperance Jones is the daughter of a circuit riding preacher, whose only ambition is to fulfill her father's wish and get the family to Oregon, which  will get her younger brothers out of harm's way during the impending Civil War. Basil introduces her to Jake Shelton, a wagon master, and she thinks he may be the perfect man to get her family to Oregon. But, by this time, she and Basil have become friends. Here's what happens next:




Temperance sputtered and fumed, breathing fire as the door to Basil’s apartment staircase closed behind him. That no-good, self-centered ass! How dare he say their friendship had been destroyed by her ambition! If they’d truly been friends, he would have stood by her and championed her clever attempts to get her family moved westward. But once he introduced her to Jake, it was as if he’d turned his back on her. She could take him turning his back on her as a woman, but not as a friend. She yanked open the door and ran up the stairs.

“How dare you!” She didn’t bother to knock at the top of the steps, she was so angry.

He turned to face her, but didn’t reply.

“Well? How dare you say that I’m the one who turned away from your friendship? You’ve become my best friend here in town, Basil, and I miss our good times. You never come to the restaurant anymore, and you barely talk to me at all here. Do you want me to quit? To leave?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, what?”

“If you know what’s best for you, leave, right this minute.”

“Why? Because you’ll tell me something I don’t want to hear?”

Basil crossed the room to her in two strides. He placed his hands on either side of her face and growled, “Not because of what I’ll tell you, but because of what I’ll do.” He lowered his mouth to hers, crushing her tender lips beneath his own.

Temperance stood still, in shock at what was happening. The breath whooshed out of her lungs. Her arms hung by her sides, but her mouth and tongue were doing battle with Basil’s. She moved her arms finally, and wound them around his broad shoulders, welcoming him. Her back was up against the wall as Basil continued to kiss her with all the pent-up passion that had been building between them for months. She pulled him closer, reveling in his scent of spice and man. She tasted the tobacco on his breath, along with mint, and thought there had never been so delightful a combination.

This is where I belong. Not Oregon.

A small moan drifted from her mouth as she sunk her fingers into his hair. He ran a row of scorching kisses from the left corner of her mouth up to her temple, then down to the pulsing vein in her neck. As he tugged gently, her whimpers became stronger. She was desperately kissing his hair, his forehead, anything she could touch. His moans matched hers as the torrid, sensual dance continued.

His hand drifted to the buttons running down the front of her dress. He slowly unbuttoned each one, taking the time to kiss each inch of new skin he uncovered. Temperance thought she would surely combust from the sensation of his mouth on flesh that had never before been touched by a man. She squirmed and wrapped her fingers into his hair.  “Oh, sweet Lord,” she cried out.

Basil pried his lips from her, and backed off a step. He ran his hand through his hair. Temperance couldn’t talk. She couldn’t breathe. Her senses were still writhing out of control. He backed away one more step, staring at her with lust-filled eyes. 

“That is why you should never set foot in this apartment. If you come near me again, I’ll not stop. I will have all of you, and ruin all your plans for marriage to Jake. And that is why we can no longer be friends. You’ve made your choice, Temptress. Now leave me alone.”

Now that you've read my excerpt, please click on the rafflecopter on the right side to enter the drawing. And click on the poster to visit other sites on the hop. Have fun, and good luck.

The Woodpile That Is My Backlist

I was using my chain saw to cut up some downed branches last Monday, when the third book in my historical series, Banking On Temperance, made its debut. It occurred to me that I had been in this same position last July, when my first book, The Reluctant Debutante, was released. What is it with release dates and chain saws, anyway?

I thought on this subject for several days before I found the answer. My woodpile takes time to build each spring and summer. Unlike most rational folks who buy firewood by the pre-cut cord, I collect branches from both my yard with its old trees that don't bend in the wind like they used to, and from my sister's 22-acres of trees. I use my little chain saw to cut these branches up, and build my pile slowly.  And before you get the wrong impression, I'm not a muscle-bound, gas-powered chain-saw toting woman with tats and a cigarette hanging from my mouth. My saw has only a 16-inch blade and is powered by electricity. It should be painted pink, it's such a girlie saw. Every time I take it in for sharpening, I have to listen to the comments: "Let's see if we can get this bad boy fixed up for you," or "You sure you can handle that saw?" That's when the guys in the chain-saw sharpening place aren't snickering.

But, I digress. The comparison I'm trying to make is this: my woodpile is like my backlist. It's taken me a while to build one. Last week I celebrated the release of Book #4--three historical and one contemporary. A fourth historical is set for release in the fall, and I've just finished my second contemporary, which I'll start shopping around next week. Slowly, over the past year, the woodpile that is my backlist has been building. So on a day like today, when I see sales of books one, two and four, I can get a warm and fuzzy feeling that my hard work is beginning to pay off.

Kind of like the warm and fuzzy feeling I get each cold winter night when I light a fire using the wood I've spent the previous spring and summer cutting up and stockpiling. My father had a slogan that "When you chop your own wood, it warms you twice." For me, since I'm usually stacking and hauling it from my sister's house and then unstacking it from my car and stacking it onto the woodpile, it's more like three or four times...kind of like editing a manuscript.Wait--I'm sensing another metaphor...

So what do you equate your backlist to?

Are Some People Luckier Than Others?

Most people who are familiar with my habits know better than to call me on Monday nights. That's when The Voice is on. I'm fascinated how someone with no experience gets four chairs to turn while some who have been pounding it out for years can't get one. But then again, until they narrow down the group a bit, I'm not so much interested in the talent that tries to get a chair to turn around as I am the bodies in those chairs. To spend an hour or two staring at Usher, Blake and Adam does a romance writer's heart good.

The other night, though, it wasn't just the body that got to me. Usher was attempting to console one of the contestants who wasn't quite good enough. He said the person needed to continue to practice because "luck favors those who are prepared."

And that got me to thinking about writing--another artistic talent where the road to fame and fortune is equally elusive. Oh, sure, we've all heard stories about the author who writes his or her first book ever, on a whim, and it becomes an instant success, is one of Oprah's book club picks, gets turned into a movie and makes the author a million bucks. But, for most of us, it doesn't happen like that. We take classes, hone our craft, talk to others in the industry, slash the crap out of our work, massage, massage, massage. Then, maybe, if luck is favoring us, we'll win a few contests, maybe even a big one. We'll catch the interest of an editor or an agent. We'll be signed to a contract for a release date that's now reaching into late 2014. Then,  we'll wait another six months for a royalty check.

In the meantime, we're blogging, reading books on how to write, building a fan base, attending conferences, learning, always learning. After all, we want to be prepared when luck favors us.

Gearing Up

May is going to be a busy month. My third installment in the Cotillion Ball series, Banking on Temperance, releases on May 6. Later in the month, my baby-boomer contemporary, Blame It On The Brontes, is due to be released. And, all the advice I’ve been getting lately is to keep your head down and continue to write, so I’m working on another contemporary, which I hope to have done by June. Add to that, a new women’s fiction line just emerged from another publisher, and they’ve asked me to resubmit some of my work. Be careful what you wish for.

 

So, I’m using the month of April to get my review requests in and my guest blogs lined up. You’d think I’d have a handle on it now, after releasing two books, and I am in better shape than when the first one came out. But garnering press coverage for a contemporary romance, and a baby-boomer one at that, is a whole different experience from talking about an historical. There are genre-specific blog sites, and review sites, and if you don’t do your homework, you’ll end up getting a 2-star review because you sent your book to an erotica site, and your book definitely doesn’t live up to that billing. Believe me.

From May on, my life will be crazy. I’ll have to set my alarm so I remember to get up from the computer every couple hours and let the dog out. Then, there’s our chapter conference in mid-May, where, for the first time, I can sit at the published authors’ table and sign my books. How exciting.

I do my best work when I’m juggling a lot of different things, but sometimes it’s nice to stop for a few minutes and just smell my roses, too. Even though spring has been AWOL in Ohio so far, it’s coming. And I can’t wait for my roses to bloom again.

Whispering Pines

Last week, I spent some time in North Carolina. A nice break from the harsh Ohio weather, true. But, I was under a deadline. My edits were due for Banking On Temperance, my third book in the Cotillion series, no later than two days after I got back. There was no way I could meet the deadline without taking my work with me on vacation.

My friend drove the leg of the trip from Virginia to North Carolina and listened to my story as I read it aloud to her. It took the entire six hours down and six back to finish the book. I was a virtual audio book. We caught a few mistakes together and separately, and my friend’s favorite line from my book was also my favorite one, so it all worked well.

Once we got to our destination, I turned off the computer, put my edits aside, and enjoyed a couple days of relaxation. The house we stayed at backed up to a peaceful lake where Canadian geese were splashing around, taking a break on their way north, and was in the town of Whispering Pines—I don’t know of any other town with such a sweet name. It makes me smile just to say it.

All that R&R revved my imagination, which is what vacations are supposed to do. I had a night when a scene from a new story was doing the continuous loop thing in my head. So, I broke my own rule of vacation and turned the computer on. I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep until I got it down. It’s going to be a good story, I think.

Oh, and our favorite line from the new book? This happens when my hero, Basil, and the heroine, Temperance, are caught in a sudden snowstorm and are forced to spend the night together. In an attempt to be a gentleman, he offers her the bed and moves to the chair by the wood stove, which isn’t throwing off too much heat, so he’s not only cold as a stone, he’s hard as a rock.

The book will be out on May 6.