Replay…TITLES UNBORN
November 5, 2018 by Tracy Reed in category Pink Pad by Tracy Reed, WritingHappy November! I’m in the middle of another project and didn’t have time to write a new post, so I’m replaying one of my favorites. See you next month.
Have you ever been too tired to think or create? That’s how I feel right now, but unfortunately, I can’t relax. Or rather, I tried to take a little time off from writing and creating, but my mind refuses to cooperate.
After the full writing year, I had last year, I figured I’d take some time off from writing and become more of a reader. For the past few years, I’ve been doing the GoodReads Reading Challenge. Last year, I read forty-five books, ten were my own. Not a lot for most romance readers, but for me, it was a lot, and I struggled to get those read because of my production schedule. This year I pledged to read forty-eight and decrease the number of titles I created. Unfortunately, the joke is on me. Instead of relaxing my creative muscle, I’ve been writing. What’s even more bizarre is I don’t know how to turn off my writing muscle or even if I want to.
Like most writers I use or follow a Production Schedule. Last year it was easy to follow or stay motivated with my schedule because I set a challenging goal, 12 Titles in 12 Months. This year, I knew I wasn’t going to set such a lofty goal for myself, so I was able to breathe a little.
When I sat down to do my Production Schedule for this year, I looked at the titles that didn’t make the grade last year. Although I published 12 titles last year, I had actually started and brought close to completion four additional titles. Technically, last year I wrote approximately a half million words. For some that may not seem like a lot, but for someone like me that hasn’t been writing that long, that’s a lot.
Those titles that don’t have 2016 as their birth year have become the stars of my 2017 production schedule. Now the question is, when will they be born? I’m not quite sure. So far, I have one of the titles completed, a non-fiction lifestyle book. I’m very excited and passionate about this title because it deals with a subject that is dear to me…being a fabulous Christian single.
Originally, I wanted this book out in January because that’s when most people are searching for help on how to change their lives. Unfortunately, I didn’t finish the book until the end of January after rewriting the last chapter three times and adding an additional chapter. Now I’m waiting to proof it before I send it to my editor.
The other book I’m struggling to finish was originally supposed to be my December 2016 release. What started out as a five book series became a short story which has been reborn again as a novel. In its resurrection, it’s also undergone a name change and protagonist change. And one of the biggest changes about this book is voice.
I started writing this book in third person, but as the protagonist developed, I felt the need to tell his side in first person. So now, the story is being told by both the heroine and protagonist in first person. When I made that simple change…who am I kidding, that was by no means a simple task. Changing the voice meant I had to go back and rewrite and add some chapters after being thirty-thousand plus words into the story. I’m very curious to know how this story ends.
So here I am with a production schedule that’s taunting me because I’ve already missed my first release date. I want to move forward with the stories. However, I’m creatively tired. If you’ve ever experienced that, post or email me [tracyreedwriter@icloud.com] how you worked through it.
As for the other two titles, one is approximately thirty thousand words away from completion. The other story so far is charting the opposite path of the one I’m currently working on. It started out as a short story, but after writing the first three thousand words, I fell in love with the character and see he has more depth than a short or even a novella. His story will definitely be a full-length book, and if he talks to me correctly, he’ll become a series.
Let’s see how my unborn stories turn out.
Happy writing and creating….
Tracy Reed
Perk Up! Ideas Float Through the Air
November 3, 2018 by Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger in category Partners in Crime by Janet Elizabeth Lynn & Will Zeilinger tagged as ideas, inspiration, public
Perk Up!
Ideas Float Through the Air
Will Zeilinger
As authors, one of the most often asked questions Janet and I hear is, “Where do you get your ideas?”
There are a myriad of answers. Inspiration is everywhere. We never know what may spark an idea for a scene, a section of dialog, a short story, or an entire novel. One of the many methods we employ, but don’t often tell when on stage or at a book signing is, “We eavesdrop.” Let me explain. The eavesdropping is not intentional. We may be out having dinner with friends and a conversation at a table next to us may be loud enough for us to hear.
Standing in the checkout line at a big box store or supermarket is another. Snippets of conversations may drift past us and cause us to think…”That would fit perfectly in my story.” In this age of cell phones and in our daily travels, it is sometimes impossible to avoid overhearing private conversations. Some may think this rude, but if people are going to speak so loudly, it’s fair game.
Janet was at a buffet and overheard the parent say, “Son. If you’re going to take all that food you have to eat everything on your plate. If you don’t eat it all, you’ll have to sit and look at it.”
Even while on vacation, our “writer brains” won’t turn off. Several years ago we were on a trip to China. We overheard one of our tour members ask another while at lunch, “Don’t you think these people would get tired of Chinese food all the time?” The comment was not meant to be insensitive, but it was funny. We love to hear stories from people we meet while traveling. and we’ve used many excerpts from things we’ve heard.
We have heard random bits of conversations people don’t think others can hear. Will was standing in the customer service line at a home improvement store when he overhead to guys complaining about the small size of his imported car’s trunk. The guy said something like, “You couldn’t even stuff a dead guy in there if you had to.” Will used part of that in his book THE FINAL CHECKPOINT. In this mystery a headless corpse was found in the trunk of an abandoned sports car. The head was dumped somewhere else because it wouldn’t fit.
Overhearing conversations is only one way of getting inspiration. People-watching at malls and airports are another way to get inspired. Everyone has something going on in their lives and as fiction writers, we can dream up plots from our imagination. In the course of hearing things the often warm our hearts, sometime they break our hearts and other times they are so funny that we have to bite our lip to keep from laughing out loud. Janet and I often look at each other, shake our heads and think, “You can’t make this stuff up.”
Roxy Matthews Talks About Her Pale Bay Series
November 2, 2018 by Jann Ryan in category Jann says . . . tagged as Roxy Mathews, The Charmed Connection, writing
Roxy Matthews is the author of several self published novels, Misery’s Companion, Tools of Terror, From the Depths, McBride’s Gem, Numb, and Second Time Sam, with several others due out this year.
For over fifteen years at the keys, she worked to hone her skills. She wrote her own column for a local online newspaper, www.sootoday.com titled ‘Stepping Stones’ before moving onto higher ground with a stint in Suspense Magazine’s 2010 edition. Over the years, she continued a steady trek through this difficult industry as she dabbled in short stories, earning a kudos and first place win with ‘Watery Grave’ and ‘Euphoria’. Those wins would seal the deal for her, confirming what she always knew…she could make it, she just needed more time. She has since entered several more contests throughout the years, taking any and all advice she could to move forward.
Today, you can watch her on her quest to best seller status with her upcoming releases ‘Numb’ and ‘Second Time Sam’, both releasing this year.
“One day, I will make my way in this industry, however it may be, but I’ll never step off the stones I began treading on over a decade ago. Instead, I will find my way across the path to where I was always meant to be.”
Jann: Roxy Matthews is here with us today to talk about her Pale Bay series, so let’s get started! Did you know you wanted to write a series when you started working on the first book?
Roxy: Actually no, I planned Numb, McBride’s Gem, and Second Time Sam all as stand alones. My first book in this series, McBride’s Gem wasn’t even the first I wrote, Numb was. Once I finished Numb I started on McBride’s Gem right away. With some help from my editor and publisher at the time, it morphed into the first story in the series, and a secondary story line that would link all three books together was created. Even through it all, I still doubted Numb so much, for so long that I almost shelved it and forgot it ever even existed. It took me many years of going through the story line, revising, editing, chopping, editing, revising some more to finally have the perfect story break through.
Jann: Tell us about the world you have created for the Pale Bay series.
Roxy: Pale Bay is a piece of my heart. I based it off a little town along Lake Superior called Haviland Bay. When I dreamed the town up in my head, I gave it the likeliness of the area I lived in including the sub streets and Main Drive, but I expanded it to be more of a town then the one street existence that was Haviland Bay. I made sure it cupped the Lake, it’s people down to Earth, each with their own lives, their own secrets, just as the town was. But Pale Bay is unique. Hidden in plain clothes, mingling amongst the townspeople are a select group of three women and one man sent down from Olympus on the tails of three Gems, the Virtues of Life. They have spent centuries protecting them from the vengeful hands of Cronos, Zeus’ father. His plan, to use the powers of Life, Love, and Happiness to destroy mankind. However, the Gems have their own mission, and that is to find their pure soul mortal protectors.
Jann: In McBrides Gem, book one, you introduce Hawk McBride and Randi Ronin. What can you tell us about these two characters and the story.
Roxy: Randi Ronin was the first person to come alive in McBride’s Gem. I sat at my desk one day and was like…what if I had a woman who was strong, independent, determined to make her way in the world, but she was soft, caring, loving, and wore polka dot panties under her business suit? Boom! Randi Ronin came alive. Her hair is cut like Cleopatra’s and just as dark, her strength in the face of adversity is unbound, yet her sensitivity, her past pains are too close to the skin.
Hawk McBride was always a force to be reckoned with in my mind. He was tall, built, and strong, yet sarcastic with a flair for being a jokester. He has a
big heart that was damaged once before and even though he’s instantly attracted to Randi, he fights the feelings as much as he can. But fate intervene’s as these two forces join against something much bigger then themselves or their pasts…and that is the fate of mankind.
Jann: Did you have book two, Numb, and the Johnny Tanzer in mind while you were working on McBride’s Gem, or did it come later?
Roxy: It was kinda the other way around. Lizzie and Johnny’s story was written first. But I struggled with how to portray Lizzie’s relationship with her brother without it seeming taboo. Their unique connection as twins was a tricky one to write, not to mention the abilities they have when it comes to each other. Because of that, Numb tortured me for some time. I think I rewrote Lizzie and her brother, Lucas’ scenes at least four times to get it right. Not to mention adding in the Godly element I incorporated in McBride’s Gem. If Numb was now going to be number two and carry that secondary story line with perfection, I had lots of work to do. That being said, Numb was the first story I wrote after a close to five year hiatus, so my skills were a tad rusty. It took a good amount of work to polish it up to what 
it is today but I am super pleased with the outcome.
Jann: In book three, Second Time Sam, was it easier or harder to write? Which character did you have in mine first–Sam Doucet or Gabriella D’Angelo?
Roxy: Oh Lordy, Second Time Sam was by far the hardest. I think the reason it was was because of the story line I had played out in my mind for Sam and Gabby. Second chances at love after the loss of a loved one. I envisioned them much older, in their 50’s, but just couldn’t wrap my mind around how to make them fall in love fast. How could someone be with someone for 20-30 years, lose them, and fall in love again so quickly, especially for the rest of the story line to work? Sure, it’s been known to happen, but I felt in my heart these characters wouldn’t. So, I adjusted their ages which morphed Sam and Gabby’s characters altogether. That was when the magic happened. Bing, bam, boom. Their love to loss to love story flowed through the keys. I then incorporated my Olympian Gods and some mayhem and the puzzle pieced itself together.
Jann: You’re currently working on book four, Drago’s Destiny. Can you give us any hints on this story?
Roxy: Ohhh, Drago’s Destiny really excites me because not only is it the fourth in the series but it could be the first or the last. This story is Sci-Fi/Fantasy and tells how the Gods of Olympus ended up in Pale Bay, protecting mystical Gems, searching for pure soul mortals to, once and for all, rid the evils of Cronos from mankind. You find out the Sheriff of Pale Bay’s wife’s lineage. Denise Doucet, in her mortal form, but Gaea, Great Mother Earth in her Olympian.
For this story, I created a whole new world on a planet in a different solar system, NAN. NAN is as unique as they come, with a select group of people meant to oversee the lands above ground and below, at the helm one chosen at birth as NAN’s warrior and protector, Drago Darkiel. But their world is like any, diseases have devastated their soils until finally eradicated from the planet by horrific means. When a hint of the disease shows up in one of Drago’s relatives DNA, he risks everything to find the cure and save his family lineage. But the task will not be without its own dangers, or a woman he loved yet pushed away hot on his trail. What neither Drago nor Raechel know is just how important they are not only to the people of NAN but a planet they have yet to touch feet on.
In the final book in this series, Destiny’s Warrior, we go back to Pale Bay, to a warrior now full grown, the gifts of the gods at her fingertips, and an army created by the Virtues of Life and all that is good in man.
Jann: Thanks Roxy for opening the door into your writing world. Looking forward to the Drago’s Destiny.
Nothing Found
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Geralyn Corcillo: November Featured Author
November 1, 2018 by A Slice of Orange in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley, Featured Author of the Month tagged as chick lit, Geralyn Corcillo, Miss Adventure, romantic comedy
Featuring: Geralyn Corcillo
When she was a kid in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Geralyn Vivian Ruane Corcillo dreamed of one day becoming the superhero Dyna Girl. So, she did her best and grew up to constantly pick up litter and rescue animals. At home, she loves watching B&W movies, British mysteries, and the NY Giants. Corcillo lives in a drafty old house in Hollywood with her husband Ron, a guy who’s even cooler than Kip Dynamite.
Geralyn is not only an author of romantic comedy and women’s fiction novels, novellas, and short stories, she is also an avid and eclectic reader. You can read her book reviews here on A Slice of Orange, in her monthly column Things That Make Me Go Mmmrrh . She loves to connect with readers on Facebook and Twitter—drop her a line or leave a comment here.
Miss Adventure has hit the top of the Amazon Kindle charts and has won awards for both humor and romance. Keep scrolling to read an excerpt …
MISS ADVENTURE
Can a daydreaming city girl find her backbone by going on daring adventures with an adrenaline junkie?
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CHAPTER 7
“Yes, Lisa. Naked.”
“Naked, naked?” I swallow, then take a deep breath. He can’t be serious. “You want my naked skin touching this thing?” I look at the long, black wetsuit in my hands. We drove all the way back to his house up in the hills of Glendale just to get this stupid suit that’s not going to fit me, no matter how naked I get.
“It’s the best way.”
“So there are other ways.”
Jack sets the duffle on his kitchen table. “Yes,” he says, unzipping the bag. “Some people wear a swimsuit underneath, or Under Armour.”
“Armor?” It’s for the sharks, I know it!
“Under Armour. It’s like a spandex body suit.”
“Let me do that, then. You must have one lying around here somewhere.” I look around Jack’s house. Nothing.
Just beyond the big wooden table in the kitchen, the room morphs into a family room. But the kitchen looks like a normal kitchen with a fridge and stove and all, and the family room just looks like a regular family room. Couch, TV, coffee table. No spandex lying around anywhere.
I wander into the living room at the front of the house and hit pay dirt. At least, potential pay dirt. The spacious room, which I think is supposed to be part dining room—the demarcation is unclear because of the mountain bike and the saddle—is messy with gear, junk, and working-type stuff, just like his office at Into the Wild.
Jack follows me.
“Lisa, do you know the point of a wetsuit?”
I don’t answer. As far as I’m concerned, a wetsuit is for wearing if you’re on a show like The Man from Atlantis or if you work at Sea World.
He gets in front of me, right in my face. “It keeps frigid water away from your skin.”
“But you were in shorts this morning!”
“I had to test the suit, and I didn’t want to wait until July. Anyway, I’m a little more used to it than you are.”
“Then the body armor stuff will keep me a lot warmer than wearing a wetsuit with nothing on underneath.”
“Wrong.”
In that one word I hear the thumping finality of a guillotine.
“Anything you wear underneath,” he explains, facing me squarely, “even a bathing suit or a pair of underwear, allows air between the suit and your skin.”
“Letting your skin breathe is good. I saw that James Bond movie where—”
“Air in a wetsuit is bad,” he says, cutting me off as he heads back to the kitchen.
I have no choice but to follow him. Back to the kitchen. Back to the duffle of doom. He starts unloading the bag. A small yellow box, flippers.
“It increases the chances that ice-cold water can seep in,” he continues. “And guess what, Lisa?” He turns to meet my eyes. “It won’t seep back out again. You’ll just freeze your ass off until you become a medical risk. Then I’ll bring you back.”
He turns his attention back to unloading the duffle. Is that a bulletproof vest? What kind of adventure is this going to be? Beginners have to deal with bullets? He must be purposely trying to scare me to see if I’ll back down.
I look back at the wetsuit I’m holding. It looks so much slimmer than I feel.
“So, I just get naked and squeeze in?”
Jack hands me the little yellow box. “This should help.”
I look down at it. “It’s cornstarch.”
He taps his nose. “Full marks for being able to read your native language.”
I look at him. I’m guessing he doesn’t want me to bake a cake with it. “Thanks?”
“Use it like talcum powder.”
I am so totally screwed. “Where do I suit up?”
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Dear Extra Squeeze Team: I Want to Be an Author, BUT . . .
October 31, 2018 by The Extra Squeeze in category The Extra Squeeze by The Extra Squeeze Team
Dear Extra Squeeze Team,
I’m in college, and I’d like to be a published author. Everyone it’s trying to talk me out of it. I’ve had a few short stories published with very small publishers. But how do I go about proving to my family and friends and professors that this is what I want to do?
Rebecca Forster
USA Today Bestselling author of 35 books, including the Witness series and the new Finn O’Brien series.
First, congratulations on being published. That is an awesome accomplishment at your age.
Second, don’t prove to your family and friends that you want to be a writer, become one. No one is born a writer and no one pays a new writer enough to live on so you will have to work. You will write in the morning before work and in the evening after work. You will write on the weekends and you will submit and create your career if you are serious about it.
I have a B.A. and an MBA. I worked in a corporate career for years, wrote and published when I could and eventually I had a solid track record and could write full-time.
My son is a gifted writer. He has worked as a teacher, a barista, and any other job he could get as he builds his career.
Work hard no matter what you do. You also may find after a while that your idea of a writing career has changed. You may enjoy writing for others as a freelancer, or getting a job in a communications department of a corporation. Perhaps novels aren’t in your future but another kind of writing is. Keep an open mind. S
hare your successes with your family. They will see that you understand the business of writing and they will also see your love for the craft.
Jenny Jensen
Developmental editor who has worked for twenty plus years with new and established authors of both fiction and non-fiction, traditional and indie.
I’m not sure why you need to prove to anyone that writing is what you want to do. Just write. When the results are good enough to publish that would certainly be proof. “… a few short stories published with very small publishers” is proof of your passion, and at the least, is a positive nod to your abilities. So, continue what you’ve clearly begun. Just write.
It isn’t clear if you intend to drop from college to pursue writing, which could certainly account for friends and family trying to dissuade you from that course of action. College is the perfect place to study and practice the craft of writing, to nurture the passion to write while surrounded by like-minded people. If you’re not already enrolled in English and writing courses, then perhaps you should do so. I can see where it might be distracting to pursue a writing career while studying quantum mechanics.
I can also understand where family and friends might view the pursuit of writing as a shaky foundation for your economic future. Writers, like actors, have always had to take a ‘day’ job. I say a good writer has marketable skills from advertising copy to zoological funding grants. The writer just has to be flexible with those skills. Besides, you can always minor in quantum mechanics.
If it’s your passion…just write.
Robin Blakely
PR/Business Development coach for writers and artists; CEO, Creative Center of America; member, Forbes Coaches Council.
Here is exactly what you need to do . . . Stop trying to prove to others that this is what you want to do—this is your life, not theirs—so create the life you want and live it. Be a writer. Jump in with both feet. But know this: a writer’s life is not easy. And, here’s something else . . . it is likely very important at this major turning point to note one thing with eyes wide open: if everyone you encounter is telling you that you don’t have a chance, the reality could be that you aren’t very good at your craft—yet. Getting better at your craft will require you to surround yourself with better mentors. Surrounding yourself with better mentors will mean less time for the naysayers. Buckle down and get to work. Or, quit. You decide.
Sorry to say it won’t be easy! Realistically, you will almost certainly need another ‘normal’ job and will have to use your spare time to write your best-selling novel. Some jobs require very little thinking time and you can write (cheekily) when you have a spare moment. I once worked in an office where there was very little for me to do. I had a computer and hours of unmonitored time. Looking back, it would have been the perfect place to write a novel and get some pay for it! Honing your writing skills will take time, so you will need to prove to your family/friends etc. that you are serious over a number of years. Not days! If it’s non-fiction, the route is slightly different (or you could start off in non-fic). Then you can get work as a journalist on your given topic, and research your future books/get to know people in the publishing world that way.
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