Day 6 of Romancing September Across The World Blog Tour

Welcome to Day 6 of the Romancing September Across The World Blog Tour. The question I put out to all of these authors was “What challenges do you face in writing romance in today’s society?”

Don’t forget to go over to Rosie Amber’s page and check out her page too. I’ll put the link at the bottom of this post.

Today my guest author is Briana Vedsted and I want to thank her for blogging with me today. Here is a little about Briana and her book The Untold Story of Margaret Hearst, alias Maugrim Valletta.

What Challenges do you face writing romance in today’s society?

The biggest challenge for me is to keep my work ‘clean’. I write for young adults, meaning that kids as young (or even younger!) than twelve years old can be exposed to my work. I enjoy writing love stories, but I want them to be the kind of books that could be read aloud to young children and not be offensive to anyone. I write the books I wish could be available to all young readers, the books that I wouldn’t mind if my kids read. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against real romance novels, but for me, there’s no way I could even begin to write that way. The schooling I received since kindergarten was very Christian-based, and I’d want my advisers to be able to read my books without me worrying that they’d see the content as inappropriate.

Let’s Meet Briana!

Biography

Briana Vedsted lives in the country, on a ranch operated by my parents. For the past six years she has been employed by her father, Rob, working cows and irrigating his three hundred acre farm. Having grown up in a farming community, Briana has a deep appreciation for the nearby Indian ruins and all the Old West history. She’s a big fan of Louis Lamoure books and John Wayne movies. The smell of pine and aspen trees, trips to the mountains on horseback, and her highly imaginative daydreams inspired her to write western books. Briana’s love of magic and mystery, such as the movies Eragon and Brave, and books like Twilight and The Kane Chronicles, as well as a family history that includes the first King of Wessex, England and many princesses, knights, kings, lords, and even a saint, has really has influenced her yet-to-be-published fantasy books.
Two years ago Briana began focusing her attention on trying to get one of her books published. Briana mainly write books for middle grade, teens, and young adults.

About the Book The Untold Story of Margaret Hearst, alias Maugrim Valletta.

Daughter of one of the wealthiest men in the county, sophisticated Miss Margaret Hearst meets a young thief who steals her heart. Her parents forbid Margaret to ever see the boy again, but she runs away with him. Unbeknownst to Margaret, she is being followed by a man she’s known all her life: LJ Steffen. LJ loves Margaret and fears for her safety; he is determined to win Margaret’s heart. And one day, Margaret’s boyfriend casts her out of his life and she nearly dies, will LJ arrive in time to save her? And if he does, will Margaret finally love him back, even though she’s disregarded his feelings for her for the past several years?

So, go over to check out Briana Vedsted on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Untold-Margaret-Hearst-Maugrim-Valletta/dp/1482004739

Here’s a link to Rosie’s side of the tour today:

http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-2qc

The Editing Process – What?

Well, I’ve been busy with the Romancing September Across The World Blog Tour that has been going on since September 1st along with my friend Rosie Amber. It’s been pretty awesome to say the least. The 30 authors in the lineup are great and everyone needs to go over and check them out.

As for my writing, well let’s just say it’s been an interesting couple of weeks. As you may remember I had slated for Victoria to be released on September 15th, well it’s actually going to be September 30th. I had a issue with, dare I say, Editing 🙂

When I’m writing I normally step back every so many pages and reread that section. It’s just a habit I have and it keeps me focused on the work ahead and what was behind me. Well, this one, somewhere around the middle I got so into the writing that I shirked that habit and kept on writing. Not good…

While I was doing my first edit I did my usual spell check to start with. As I meandered down the list of the usual extra spaces and misspelled words, I found almost a whole paragraph of just random letters. I was perplexed for a moment, then as I read the paragraph above and below I remembered that section was from one of my late night writing sessions. Guess I was writing and not actually looking at my work. I’m bad about that when I’m really into it. Not a good habit.

Well, Spellcheck was complete and I began to read the story. I had the usual things to change like wording that when read again did not quite work and scene issues. Then I ran up on a funny little mishap. For some reason my character Victoria had suddenly gotten electricity in her home, keep in mind this book is based during the Civil War, no electricity in this home. But sure enough, she flipped on the light switch. I did a double take on that one. Then I laughed hysterically, it had been a long day, at my goof. She should have lit a lantern, not flipped on the light switch. Really, she was the first to have electricity in her home, no not really.

As I’ve stated in several of my blogs, editing is a must. If I’d have not edited and sent that out, well let’s just say, it might have gathered a few sarcastic reviews. Editing is a tedious process, but if you do it while writing and then as soon as you finish it’s an easier task.

So, learn from my goof ups, edit, edit, edit. Oh, and then edit some more.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You!

Here’s a couple of links to check out:

http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-2t6 Day 5 of our blog tour from Rosie

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/353698

Day 4 of The Romancing September Across The World Blog Tour

Welcome to Day 4 of the Romancing September Across The World Blog Tour. The question I put out to all of these authors was “What challenges do you face in writing romance in today’s society?”

Don’t forget to go over to Rosie Amber’s page and check out her page too. I’ll put the link at the bottom of this post.

Today my guest author is Erica Dakin. A big thanks to Erica Dakin for blogging with me today. Here is a little about Erica and her book The Conspiracy.

What Challenges do you face writing romance in today’s society?

I like the question! I think for me there are a few aspects to the challenge, but I think what it in essence boils down to is to avoid writing something that’s too cliche, yet remains believable. The staple romances of the seventies and eighties all had barely adult heroines who were impossibly naive, and heroes who were in their mid-thirties and arrogant to their toenails. They started off hating each other, yet somehow this then suddenly turned to love without any apparent motivation or believability. These days the discerning reader doesn’t accept that anymore, so as an author you have to play around with the tropes and twist them enough that the book remains interesting yet doesn’t lose the essence of Romance. I think it is also more difficult to get away with a dominant, alpha-male hero, because readers want their heroines to be strong, not submissive. It’s a fine line to tread!

Biography

I was born in the Netherlands and lived there until age 25, when I moved to Great Britain to be with my boyfriend. I married him in 2006 and have never regretted the move or the marriage.
I have always been an anglophile and started learning English when I was ten. I began writing short stories in English when I was about fifteen, and since my first love in books has always been Fantasy, my dream was to once write my very own epic fantasy novel.
When I got to about age thirty, I realised that whatever I wrote always ended up being heavily romantic, probably because my second love in books is for all things Romance. The short stories kept coming, until I finally got to the point where a short story just wasn’t long enough.
I currently have two books available. They are as much fantasy as they are romance, and the content is most definitely adult, mainly because I’ve always thought that there is little point in romance if there is no sex involved. I also feel that it is very important for your characters to be believable – few things used to annoy me more in eighties’ romance novels than heroines suddenly going from hate to love for the hero, simply because they reached chapter seven.
The Ritual is part one of my trilogy, and The Conspiracy is part two. Part three will probably not appear before 2014, but you never know. I hope that people will enjoy them, because I can’t be the only one who likes the combination of fantasy and romance.

The Conspiracy

Publication Date: May 23, 2013

There is no room for love at the royal court. There is only intrigue and political maneuvering.
For Veysita, a young half-elf courtier, this has been the reality of her life since childhood. Crown Prince Tionev is her best friend, but never more than that, even if she would like him to be.
When she uncovers a plot to assassinate the queen, her life is thrown into turmoil. Veysita discovers that she has not been trained to be the prince’s bodyguard, as she thought, but to be much more. She is to be a spy, thief and maybe even assassin, and she will have to travel into the lion’s den with little more than her wits to aid her. As if that isn’t enough, there is also the handsome, honey-eyed stranger who keeps showing up whenever Veysita least expects him.
Love may come knocking after all, whether there is room for it or not…

PLEASE NOTE that this book contains strong language and explicit scenes.

Go over and check out her books.

Here’s the link to Rosie’s side of today’s tour: http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-2pC

Romance Authors

It’s funny the looks you get when you tell some people that you’re a romance author. Some smile and ask what you’ve written, looking interested. Then you get the ones that roll their eyes and say “You write that crap?” That really just makes me steam over.

Romance novels are one of the biggest selling genres out there, but we still get the stigma of writing romance hoopla so to speak. I would like for one of those that roll their eyes to come on over and sit in one of our shoes for an hour of editing. They’d be saying, hey, I get it. It’s not that easy.

Writing is an art. Either you have it or you don’t. I’ve noticed over the years different writers come and go. They give under the stress of promotion and sales flucuations. It’s definitely not a get rich quick scheme, so if that’s what you’re in it for, you might want to move on to the next thing on your list.

As for me, I enjoy writing romance. It just excites me to get into a good romantic tale and to see where it can go. I have the control over that ending. I can take it in any direction I want to. I’m not a control freak by no means, but when it comes to where my stories go, my characters have to stand up and pay attention or they’ll get killed off in a nasty punch of the delete key. 🙂

In honor of romance authors, my friend Rosie Amber from the UK and I are teaming up to do a blog tour. It is Romancing September Across The World. We have 30 authors in 30 days. Rosie starts each day off in her time zone with a Q & A and then when the sun rises over Georgia I ask them a question and give them a plug for their latest book.

We have a great lineup of authors. I will have a list of the authors on my home page and Rosie will too. I will put a link to Rosie’s page below so that you can go over and check it out.

As always good writing and May God Bless You…

http://rosieamber.wordpress.com/

Behind the Books

As a reader you don’t know what goes into the books you read. You walk in a book store or browse through the lists of books on your computer, but have you ever thought about what happens behind the scenes to make that book that you hold in your hand possible. Well, let me enlighten you.

As a writer I can tell you there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes to make that book real. It’s a work in process, it’s the heart of the writer, and it’s the work of usually more than one person.

Steps to the birth of a book:

1: The inspiration – Without the idea or inspiration for the storyline, there’s no book. The author’s ideas, memories, or just inspirational thought puts the story together. If no idea comes about, how could you have a book.

2: Now for me, the next step is the outline. Some authors don’t outline their work, but I have to do an outline as soon as the inspiration hits. For me storylines comes in huges waves. Most of them I know the beginning and the ending, but have to fill in the middle. Some come in a rush of completeness.

3: Now is the time to put words to work. Fill in the outline. Make the story flow and ebb with the emotions, characters and time that it takes to make a story come alive. This process is the longest part to me. The inspiration can come in an instant, but to put it to play takes a little bit of time. Some writers could take years to put a story to paper and others on a mere week or two.

4: So your story is on it’s way to birth, but it needs something else. It needs a name. Wow, that’s a hard one sometimes. A couple of my books were named before the story was written, but most of the time the name comes well into the books pregnancy. But when it hits you, it’s automatic. You just know, yeah, that’s it. But at sometimes you struggle with the name. This is a big selling point of your book.

5: Ok, so you’ve got the story, the outline, the name, but what else is there. What about a cover? Every book needs a cover. Some covers are simple, yet expressive, some are extraordinarily elaborate. Your cover is what can stop a reader in their browse for a book. When I browse through a book store, more than anything, the first thing that grabs me is the cover. I’ll stop and check it out if the cover entices me, draws me in.

6: Well, the cover draws you in, but the description can make you say yes. This is the hardest step to me. How do you put a 300 page book into 400 words, give or take? It’s almost impossible. I have sat for hours working on this very thing. It impacts the sale of your work so you have to make it just right. I’ve actually published a book and then six months down the road went back in and rewrote the description. It actually started selling after the change. Amazing…

7: Well, now you think, you’re ready for publishing. No! A huge, wopping, No! It’s time for editing. Not just your read over, get someone else, maybe two or three others and preferrable people that are critical. This is very important. If the words don’t flow right, maybe you don’t see it, but someone not familiar with the story can. This is your baby, don’t you want it to be the best it can be. Don’t take constructive criticism to heart, but use it for good. It can make the difference between selling 5 or 500.

8: Well, it’s polished up and so shiny it gleams. What now? Well now it’s time to publish. Whether you go with a traditional publisher or you self publish, it’s a big step.

9: Here we go, it’s time to advertise. This is a hard thing to do when you have to keep your name active on social media and everywhere a reader could find you. But during this time you’re trying to write other books and most of us work a full time job, run a household and do everything else that comes with life. A writer’s life is very busy. Remember that when you send fanmail and don’t immediately get an answer. That author may be shoulder deep in edits, stories or advertising.

10: Final step, not hardly, but the final one for this blog. Sit back, drink a cup of coffee and enjoy the glow of having a finished novel.

Maybe you have a few more steps to add. Hope this helps if you’re new to writing or even a veteran. Just enjoy the process.

As always, good writing, and May God Bless You…

Facing Fears…

In life we have things to deal with. Sometimes we’re alright with them and other times we’re not alright. For me, one of my fears or phobias is the dentist office visit. I don’t know why, but I just break out in a sweat thinking about it. I try to avoid it.

I know, it’s crazy but true. I even get nervous taking my son to the dentist for a cleaning. It has to be the sounds, smell, or something. We have a awesome dentist and he’s also a family friend, but still can’t handle it.

Well, today I have to face my fears. I was enjoying some chocolate chip cookies Saturday and broke a tooth. I sat there for a moment thinking no, not this. My husband said “Honey, it happens.” Maybe so, but I don’t want it to happen to me. That means I have to go to that place. You know, the dentist office. He laughed and said I’d live. I know that, but it’s the thought and fear.

Oh well, I’ve got to just be brave and get it taken care of. I’ve prayed on it and feel better, but nerves are still just jangled. I even tried to work on my book last night and kept thinking about it. I know, I have a problem.

As we go through life, we have to face many fears. One of them was publishing my books for the first time. I was actually afraid of putting myself out there. After I hit publish the first time, I broke out in a sweat. It was a fearful time. Should I put myself out there? I’m glad I did it. It’s been a huge learning experience. I’ve been strengthened by this too.

Have you faced any of your fears lately? What were they? How did you handle it?

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

How do you handle writer’s block?

It’s a mystery that doesn’t have a rhyme or reason. As a writer it’s devastating to say the least. The symptoms can vary from staring into space with fingers poised over keyboard, the sudden appetite for social media, and even in some instances headache with slight nausea (usually this is when deadlines loom over your head).

I remember in high school needing to write a paper on my favorite movie, Gone With The Wind. I thought great, I know this movie inside out. This will be a piece of cake. Of course I procratinated and wait until the last couple of days to do the work. I sat down with pen and paper, then it hit, writer’s block. What? I knew this movie, how could I not figure out what to write? This should be simple. But writer’s block has no mercy. I finally finished the paper at the last minute, but it wasn’t my best work. My teacher was disappointed because she knew how much I loved the movie.

It’s the same with authors. We know the story that needs to be written, but the words just won’t come. I had that problem last week. I’m working on “Victoria” and it’s a historical romance. I started this book last year and I knew exactly what I wanted it to be about.

Well, as writer’s block doesn’t pick and choose, it started off really well, but around 5000 words in, bam nothing. Then I picked it back up over the summer and got to almost 30,000 words and here it was. Like a monster in the closet, looming there, threatening my concentration. Amazing.

I’ve often talked about using outlines. I have one for this book. It was no help as the block was too thick. I listened to my writing music. I watched historical romances to help spur me on, but nothing helped. The headache loomed, the pressure between my eyes, it was terrible. I could see the story in my mind, but to put it in words, nothing.

I struggled, I dreamed about it, I worried. Well, after a lot of surfing social media, staring out the window at nothing, it finally hit me. I’d been working so hard to finish it before the end of August, that I’d blocked myself. Meaning I’d pressured my brain into overdrive. What with work, home, everything in life, I’d put too much pressure on the story.

I knew what I had to do. I had to step back, take a breath. That’s when I did what I said I’d not do. I put the manuscript to the side and worked on something else. Well, when I put it out of sight and mostly out of my brain, I was able to cleanse myself of the writer’s block. It worked. I was only away from it a couple of days when it all flooded in and took over.

WIth a sigh of relief I’m almost completely done with the first run. It’s funny, all of my books have meant something to me, but this one means something different. It’s like a renewal of spirit. I have a great feeling about this one. The planned release is September 15th. It should be available for preorder around the end of August or first of September. I’ll put out the specific date as soon as it’s available.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

How does social media help writers?

Good morning. Getting back to normal since son went back to school this morning. As I sit here going through all my social media sites I have to reflect on the last year. It’s been a crazy ride for sure.

To start with, before I published my first book in May 2012, I only used email and texting when communicating. I learned quickly that as a published author you must use social media almost daily to keep up with changing climates. With this I mean that if you don’t keep your name fresh in front of people it loses it’s luster.

I did a short experiment the last couple of weeks. I went in a different times and tweeted my books to see if I gathered a result. Then I put them out on Facebook and Tumbler. What did I learn? Well I learned a lot.

When I tweeted the links to my books listed on Smashwords.com, I actually saw a spike in page views. I love this about Smashwords.com. I can keep up with views and really do a great analysis of what works and what doesn’t. I then did the same through my Amazon links. The bad thing with Amazon, you can’t see how many go over to look at the book, you just have to see how sales spike. I only received a few sales through that one.

I then posted several Smashword.com links on my Facebook page. All of a sudden sales spiked, but on Amazon, not Smashwords it’s self. Now on Smashwords it could show up later under one of the subsidiary sites, but not the main site. I even tried this with Allromanceebooks.com and sold one book.

So, with this I did notice a spike in views through tweeting and Facebook. Some analysts say don’t tweet about your books very often as you’ll lose followers. Well, I didn’t tweet about my books for several days and guess what I lost several followers. Then when I did tweet about my books I gained several new followers. Not sure, but I think it went in the other direction.

As I’m getting ready to announce the release date for “Victoria” the first book in my new Historical Romance Saga “The Women Of Magnolia Hill”, I’m hoping to see a great social media presence. This is my first book that I’m going to go through all the pre release hoopla. I can’t wait to get started. Maybe even as soon as this weekend. I plan to also participate in the new preorder option on Smashwords. Would love to do it on Amazon, but not sure how that works. If anyone knows, please let me know.

Try a social media study on your book sales and let me know how it goes. It might change your views on social media advertising. As for me, I’m headed over to do some tweeting 🙂

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Too much emotion in your writing?

Can you put too much emotion in your writing? I’ve heard some writers say they thought that they’d showed too much emotion from their main characters. But in my opinion, the emotion is what draws readers in. Recently I sent out an excerpt from one of my works in process, “Faith Through the Tears”. Several people came in and said the emotional pull was what drew the in.

The excerpt was a very powerful part of the book where the main characters wife dies of cancer. It’s detailing the emotions that both were going through in her last hours together. It’s an emotional time, how on earth do you pull back on that?

I thought about several classic books and if the writer had pulled back on the emotions. It would have screwed up the whole story.

Take Gone With The Wind for instance. When she does the pivotal scene where she falls face down in the garden and eats raw vegetables, then stands up and makes that famous speech about “Never being hungry again.” The emotion is strong, but if Margaret Mitchell had pulled back and Scarlett had just stood there without putting her fist in the air and speaking in a strong tone it wouldn’t have had the same affect.

Emotion is an integral part of our writing and passion includes emotion. So keep the emotion in and make it strong. Go for it, cry a little, laugh a lot and never slack up on the emotion.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Back to School Book Sale

Good Friday morning. It’s another rainy, dreary morning here in Georgia. Makes me want to go back to bed with a good book and another cup of coffee or at least Earl Grey tea. But alas, work beckons me to the office. It’s Friday and payroll is due out for several clients so…

I’ve decided to do a Back to School book sale for the rest of August. It’s already up on Amazon and soon to be on allromanceebooks.com and Smashwords.com which will put it on Barnes & Nobles, Kobo, Apple and so on. Am I committing earnings suicide, well maybe, but it’s a hard month finance wide for lots of people. What with school supplies, school clothes, dorm supplies, and all the other school related purchases. So maybe this will help and give someone out there a chance to sit back and read a minute or two.

As for everything else going on, well let’s just say, it’s been a busy couple of weeks. I’m trying to finish up my newsletter for submission next week to my subscribers. It’s not too late to subscribe. All you need to do is message me here or through my email.

The other big story is the upcoming blog tour with my friend from across the pond, Rosie Amber. We’ve joined forces to do a blog tour from both sides of the Atlantic. It’s called Romancing September Across the World Blog Tour. We still have a couple of openings but they’re going fast. IF you write romance or put in romance elements in your writing join us for this exciting tour. We’ve already got some great response. Just send me a message and I’ll send you the info. Also put including link below.

Hope everyone has a good Friday. It’s almost the weekend!

As always, Good writing and May God Bless You…