A Slice of Orange

How to Finish Your Book and Keep Your Day Job

Writing on the Go by Will Zeilinger

Writing a book is a work of love. However, things get in the way, i.e., work. We all dream of the day when we can make enough money to survive on our writing alone. Until that day comes (if it ever does), we need to keep our full-time jobs. We wrote and published our first five books working full time.

This year we’d like to share a few jewels that worked for us during those hectic days of working and writing.

Most authors have characters, plot lines, or dialog running around in our heads most of our waking hours. How can you keep those great ideas from floating away until you can sit down and put them in your manuscript?

You need to keep a pad and a pen or pencil on your person at all times (unless you have a tablet or are a thumb master on your smartphone.) When one of your characters starts talking to you while you are waiting in a checkout line or at a long traffic light, you’ll be prepared to take a few quick notes for later.

At the office, you can always scribble a few notes while on hold or while sitting in a conference room waiting for a meeting to start.

My wife, Janet, learned on her sixty-minute work commute that sometimes traffic would come to a complete stop for fifteen minutes or more. She was able to jot a few notes or whole scenes while waiting for the cars to start moving again.

The same holds for waiting in the doctor or dentist’s waiting room. Rather than thumbing through four-year-old magazines, work on your story…whether its fiction or non-fiction, medical office waiting rooms are great. They have comfortable seats, good lighting, and are usually quiet.

A popular place to write while on your lunch break is a coffee shop or diner. If you choose to eat by yourself, you can have a whole table to spread your materials on while you eat and write. We’ve done this, and it works out well.

If you pack your lunch, hotel lobbies are a great place to write, and people watch. Some great character studies can come from watching travelers.

At this point, you might ask what’s wrong with just going home at lunchtime to write? The reasons are as simple and as complicated as, children, chores, pets, mail, television, and internet can all be distractions, plus—unless you live very nearby, you use up precious time going there and back.

If you happen to be traveling alone or with a writing partner (in my case—my wife), your writing can begin with an Uber, train, or taxi ride where you don’t have to concentrate on the time or driving. At the airport, you can pull out the trusty note pad and pencil while waiting for your flight to be called.
Inspiration can also flash into your mind at any time, so be prepared, and you won’t be saying, “I should have written that down.”

The bottom line is you don’t need to be at your computer at home. You can slip in a few minutes here and there to keep your writing momentum going.

Keep up the good writing!

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Christina Alexandra and her Reluctant Lords

January 2, 2020 by Jann Ryan in category Jann says . . . tagged as Christina Alexandra, historical romance, new releases

Always on the lookout for an adventure, Christina Alexandra has worked many different jobs including both medical and veterinary offices, as a service dog puppy raiser, music teacher, law enforcement instructor, emergency grief counselor, and coroner’s assistant just to name a few. Writing stories set in Georgian and Regency England she credits her varied experiences as the foundation from which she builds true-to-life characters and emotional stories with a unique twist on modern issues.

Christina lives in Southern California where she currently works as an emergency services operator for a busy police department. When not researching, writing or working, Christina spends her spare time travelling, cooking–oftentimes with a historical flair–and connecting with fans on social media. An avid trivia junkie, she is constantly on the lookout for random facts in the hopes that it will help her in her never ending quest for a spot on “Jeopardy!”

You can connect with Christina at: Website ~Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Instagram

Jann: Today Christina Alexandra is going to give us a peak at her writing life and her new historical series—The Reluctant Lords.

Jann: The Reluctant Lords is a five book series. How long did it take you to develop your characters and story plots for each book?

Christina: I’ve been working on this series in one form or another for a few years. It originally started out as just the glimmer of an idea, a brief scene that somehow turned into five books. Once I had that first storyline, I didn’t take me long to come up with the rest. I think I had the entire series at least partially plotted in about a month.

Worth came about a bit differently. While part of the Reluctant Lords, it’s also part of the Common Elements Romance Project. Common Elements is a group of over 70 romance authors writing their own stories, and completely unrelated to each other. The only thing tying them together are the 5 common elements of a lightning storm, a set of lost keys, a stack of books, a haunted house (real or rumored), and a person named Max.

As I was developing the rest of the Reluctant Lords, there were some plot issues such as missing time, first meetings between characters that were unaccounted for and other things that were really holding me up. When I found the Common Elements Romance Project and saw the list, I knew immediately that this is what was needed–a first story that introduced the characters and tied up all those loose ends. The story and the characters just came together so organically and completely, that I really didn’t have to think about them too much, they were just there.

The most difficult part was factoring in the mystery that runs through the entire series and making sure that the actual historical events took place at the correct times. It’s amazing how often history does not cooperate with my stories.

Jann: The first book is The Worth of a Viscount. Lady Maxine Pearson and Adam Hawkins reconnect for a second chance at love. Why did you select this theme? What other themes are you using in the series?

Christina: I’m a sucker for a second chance at love. It’s one of my favorite tropes. When it was decided what the five elements would be for Common Elements, I started scouring the internet for images. I tend to be a very visual writer and I need to see things in order for them to become real to me. In one of my searches, I came across a photographer on Facebook who shoots a lot of historical reenactors and puts them in different scenes. Each image tells a story, and when you see the entire photo series, it’s quite impressive. I came across this one image of a couple in Regency dress cuddling on a settee, with only some candles around them. Suddenly I knew exactly what was going on. It became the first “relationship” scene in Worth, and I built the rest of the story around it. The second chance theme fit perfectly with the image and the story.
Being worthy is also a theme that runs heavy in the series. The Reluctant Lords is the story of five ordinary men–a merchant, a land steward, a soldier, a politician, and a “fixer”–who are content with their ordinary lives, when they suddenly find themselves saddled with titles, estates, and responsibilities far out of their comfort zones. They have to learn to adapt quickly to their new positions, while navigating Regency society and the drawing room politics. For these men, whose Parliamentary influence and reputations are all built on the appearance of being in control it is quite a daunting task, and only the love from the right woman can help them become all they can be.

Jann: Tell us about Maxine and Adam and their love story. Which character has the bigger arc?

Christina: They have an equal arc, really. It’s all about how they become worthy. Adam is so determined to prove his worth to the outside world, while Maxine is more concerned with becoming worthy of herself. I can’t say more without giving away too much!

Jann: Historical romance readers look for accuracy from the author. What are your favorite sources for research and how much time did you spend on research. Do you research before, while you write a first draft or after?

Christina: Oh, man… research is my drug of choice! I love hands-on research. The experiences I’ve gained through doing rather than reading give an added layer to my writing. Knowing the steps of the English country dances, or experiencing how the stench of a coal fire permeates the very walls of a Georgian era townhouse. Walking the streets of London, taking the same route as my characters with my coat turned up against the drizzle, or enjoying the feel of the sun while walking in Hyde Park on a sunny spring day.

I originally spent three years researching the Georgian and Regency time periods. During that time, I read Regency romances almost exclusively to see what worked, what didn’t, and to see how my favorite authors were making a beloved genre unique and impactful Even now, I still do spot research on individual topics, or if I need a refresher on things.

Jann: Your current day job is an Emergency Service Operator. You have also had some additional unique and interesting professions. Do you use any of your experiences in the books for The Reluctant Lords series?

Christina: Kind of, but not in the way you’d think. Regency England is so far removed to modern Southern California and all I’ve done with work, that it’s difficult to translate some things that happen here and now to the early 1800s. I do use some conversations I’ve had or phone calls I’ve taken as a starting point to come up with new story ideas, but the real impact of the Day Job comes in the form of names. Between the street names, officers’ names, and callers’ names I see on my screen all the time, I am never at a loss for what to name an estate, or make up a title, or even name a minor character or two!
Policing during the Regency didn’t really exist as we know it today. I have a historical romantic suspense series planned where the main character is a Bow Street Runner (predecessors to the modern police force), so I’m starting to look into their history and how they did things. My other love is forensics, so I am looking into what tools and techniques would have been available to him back then. It’s a much larger project then I thought it’d be!

Jann: What are you working on now? Can you tell us about your next project?

Christina: After the Reluctant Lords, I’m debating which series to start next. The first is a five book series involving some side characters from the Reluctant Lords that focuses on the heroines who are less than conventional–a dressmaker, a merchant, a librarian, a survivor of domestic violence, and a former courtesan.

The second is a four book series that I like to say is a cross between Jane Austen and the TV show The Amazing Race. It involves one eccentric octogenarian, an estate worth thousands of pounds a year, and a challenge. Since the estate is not entailed (inherited by the oldest living direct descendant), the elderly relative decides to send her four great-grandchildren on a scavenger hunt. Leaving clues all over the UK, they must race to find the next clue, going to the far corners of the country in order to do so. The first one to return to the estate with all the clues is the one who gets the estate and fortune. It’s a comedy of errors along the way. It’ll be a fun series to write, but I think it’ll take a lot more research than I have time for at the moment.

And by research I really mean traveling all over the United Kingdom to find the clues and where they’re hidden in order to make it believable.

Jann: In your books, who is your favorite character and why?

Christina: Stryker. Hands down. You meet him briefly in Worth, but he really makes his appearance in book 2 of the Reluctant Lords, The Seduction of the Duke. He’s a mystery throughout the entire series, rough around the edges, and he’s the kind of person you’d call on when you need something done without a conscience getting in the way. He can be kind of a jerk at times, but there is no one more loyal or willing to fight for what he believes in, or who he believes in. He does get his own story, but it’s like me to leave everyone hanging on his story until the end of the series!

Jann: What kind of writer are you? A page a day or a burst writer?

Christina: I am a burst writer. Between the Day Job, helping my elderly parents with stuff around the house, and day-to-day life, I tend to write whenever and wherever I can. When I have a day off from the Day Job, I set aside time to write at coffee shops where there are fewer distractions, but some of my best writing is done when I’m on the go. Oddly enough, I do most of my writing on my mobile phone. I have wicked fast thumb skills and have written on planes, waiting at the DMV. I plotted the entire story of Worth on vacation in Italy this past December on the train from Rome to Venice, and my flash fiction piece was written while standing in line a LEGOLAND with my sister and her kids.

Jann: What profession other than your own would you love to attempt?

Christina: If I could do any job other than the one I have right now, or one I’ve had in the past, I’d have to say photojournalist for National Geographic Magazine. I love all things travel, nature, and culture. I studies anthropology in school, and spent equal time studying different world cultures and primate behavior, and learning all I can about the animals that share our world. To see them in their natural habitat and their behaviors that have not been influenced by human interaction… <sigh>… it’s a bucket list item for sure!

Jann: Christina, it’s been fun spending time here on A Slice of Orange chatting. I’m looking forward to reading The Worth of a Viscount.

Books by Christina Alexandra

THE WORTH OF A VISCOUNT

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January Featured Author of of the Month: Bethlehem Writers Group, LLC

January 1, 2020 by A Slice of Orange in category Contests, Featured Author of the Month tagged as 2020 Short Story Contest, Bethlehem Writers Group, Bethlehem Writers Roundtable Short Story Award, Short Story Award

The Bethlehem Writers Group, LLC (BWG), founded in 2006, is a community of mutually supportive, fiction and nonfiction authors based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The members are as different from each other as their stories, spanning a range of genres including: children’s, fantasy, humor, inspiration, literary, memoir, mystery, paranormal, romance, science fiction, women’s fiction, and young adult.

BWG has published five anthologies. Each anthology has an overall theme—broadly interpreted—but includes a variety of genres, and all but the first anthology include stories from the winner(s) of The Bethlehem Writers Short Story Award. Their first anthology, A Christmas Sampler: Sweet, Funny, and Strange Holiday Tales (2009), won two Next Generation Indie Book Awards: Best Anthology and Best Short Fiction.

Besides anthologies and yearly writing contests, the group publishes a quarterly literary journal, The Bethlehem Writers Roundtable, and hosts twice monthly writing workshops and a critique groups for local members. You can see the schedule of BWG meetings and events, including author signings here.

A CHRISTMAS SAMPLER: Sweet, Funny, and Strange Holiday Tales

About A Christmas Sampler

Christmas is a time for love, laughter, and wonder. A Christmas Sampler: Sweet, Funny, and Strange Holiday Tales, is an award-winning compilation of twenty-three Christmas stories commissioned by the Bethlehem Writers Group to capture all of Christmas’s myriad possibilities.

Paul Weidknecht’s “Those Things Remembered” is about a long-time mall Santa who realizes he has forgotten a child’s name. Courtney Annicchiarico believes against all evidence that she is pregnant in “Mis-conceptions.” Hilarity reigns in Headley Hauser’s explanation of a bachelor’s Christmas traditions in “A Modern Single Holiday.” In Carol L. Wright’s “You Better Watch Out” a small-town lawyer takes on a mystery when Santa falls from her roof three weeks before Christmas. In “Walter and Stella,” by Ralph Hieb, Walter finds himself dead on Christmas Eve, but refuses to leave his beloved alone for the holiday. And in “The Perfect Gift,” Emily P. W. Murphy explores that moment in a relationship when one partner is ready for marriage, and the other seems not to notice.

This premier anthology also features stories by Jeff Baird, Carol A. Hanzl Birkas, Cindy Kelly, Jerome W. McFadden, Stanley W. McFarland, Sally Wyman Paradysz, Jo Ann Schaffer, and Will Wright.
These heartwarming, hope-filled, and hilarious tales will delight readers of any age.

Next up for BWG

BWG is working on their sixth anthology, Fur, Feathers, & Scales: Sweet, Funny, and Strange Animal Tales.

In connection with this anthology, they are hosting The Bethlehem Writers 2020 Short Story Award.

The 2020 Short Story Award will open on January 1, 2020. The theme will be Animal Stories,broadly interpreted. Stories of 2,000 words or fewer about WILD ANIMALS, PETS, or IMAGINARY BEASTS will be welcome (so long as an animal is an important character or element of the story).

The winner will receive $200 and may be offered publication in the above mentioned upcoming anthology. The 2020 Guest Judge is Edgar Award winning and NYT best-selling author Peter Abrahams/Spenser Quinn.

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What to Do with Unwanted Collaboration Offers

December 31, 2019 by The Extra Squeeze in category The Extra Squeeze by The Extra Squeeze Team tagged as annoying relatives, brother-in-laws, collaboration, deadlines

Dear Extra Squeeze Team,

My brother-in-law keeps sending me ideas for books.

He thinks I should write them and then share the profit with him (60% for him-40% for me—because he could crank them out if he just had the time, but he has a real job).

I’m so NOT interested.

I have tons of my own ideas and deadlines breathing down my neck. How to I get the jerk to leave me alone—besides skipping Thanksgiving and Christmas with the fam?

Rebecca Forster

USA Today Bestselling author of 35 books, including the Witness series and the new Finn O’Brien series.

Been there done that! High five! Here are my go-to favs.

A) My attorney has advised me not to listen to anyone else’s story ideas to protect the both of us.

B) MY real job – writing – just doesn’t leave time for anything else. AND IF THAT DOESN’T WORK…

C) I’d love to talk about it. The minimum fee for ghostwriting is $25,000 but you’re family. I’ll do it for $20,000. He should let you know when the check is in the mail.

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.

60/40?! His ideas are mostly in the fantasy realm, right?

What’s a ‘cool idea’ and what’s a ‘premise’? There’s a world of difference between those two and the success of each depends on how well a writer spins them into a story. Your bro-in-law needs a reality check. As Thomas Mann said, “The task of a writer consists of being able to make something out of an idea.”

I’m not much help with family advice but perhaps you could counter-challenge him. Offer a 70/30 split – with you at 70% – if he can flesh out one of his brilliant ideas to include plot details, dramatic arc, characterizations, atmosphere and killer resolution; say, 25 or 35 pages of concise, workable outline. If you feel what he offers is something you can work with it’s a possibility you may ‘write it’.

Perhaps that might help him understand where the lion’s share of work is in creating a novel. And it’s possible he’ll even learn that the original idea often morphs beyond recognition once the world building begins. Otherwise, maybe you just smile sweetly, remind him the world is full of grand ideas – remember Google Glass? – and pass him the sweet potatoes.

H.O. Charles

Cover designer and author of the fantasy series, The Fireblade Array

Hahaha! Your brother-in-law sounds like the kind of person I cannot stand. There’s always one in the workplace (usually a boss) – the one who takes all the credit while the rest of us sweat and toil away. My advice is never allow yourself to be the swan’s feet unless you can guarantee recognition (advice you have already self-issued, anyway. Phew!). The best way to get him to leave you alone is to tell him someone else came up with a better story idea/better financial split, and that you are collaborating on a book with them instead.

Robin Blakely

PR/Business Development coach for writers and artists; CEO, Creative Center of America; member, Forbes Coaches Council.

Oh dear. Something is terribly awry here. Perhaps it would help to re-frame the situation and look at it again from other angles.

Angle One: Maybe your brother-in-law is not quite as big a jerk as you imagine. Maybe he knows you are highly creative. Maybe you are the most creative person he has ever met. Perhaps he realizes you could spin his big ideas into bankable gold….and truth be told, you probably could, if you wanted to. Let’s be grateful that he sees some of your amazing potential. But, why does he only offer you 40%? Maybe he fully expects you to negotiate with him and he has established some wiggle room for himself.

Hey, anything is possible…sometimes we jump to conclusions about people before we consider all the possibilities. And, then too, sometimes we know a jerk when we see one.

Angle Two: Maybe your brother-in-law is an even bigger jerk than you imagine. Seriously, if he low balls members of his own family in business deals, imagine how he treats the rest of the world. Not likely fabulous. Entitled and exploitative are never a good mix…they are toxic.

Soooo… what would I do if I were in your shoes?

I personally would consider skipping Thanksgiving and Christmas. It seems to me that you need some time and space. The situation you described is less about the brother-in-law and more about you. It sounds like you are feeling resentful and stressed, under-valued and pushed beyond your comfort level. Forget about the the brother-in-law (jerk or not), focus on putting yourself front and center. It seems to me that you need a chance to get ahead of all those deadlines breathing down your neck and focus on your own valuable ideas. Let your brother-in-law’s wife figure him out.

Ever wonder what industry professionals think about the issues that can really impact our careers? Each month The Extra Squeeze features a fresh topic related to books and publishing.

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