Guest post by author J. Arlene Culiner

cj Sez:  Lyrical Pens hosts a guest post today from a wonderful storyteller, J. Arlene Culiner. And if you don’t believe me, just read the fascinating story about the birthing of her new novel.

 “Thanks, cj, for inviting me to Lyrical Pens so I can tell everyone about my September 5th release: The Turkish Affair. And, today, I’ve decided to take up the thorny subject of how long it takes to write a book (a thorny subject indeed).

   For me, completing a manuscript can be a battle: sometimes words flow; sometimes, it’s the desert. I dream of goals — a thousand words a day and several months to completion — then have nothing to say after chapter six. Sometimes I’m disgusted with the whole project and stop. So I’ll make a confession: The Turkish Affair took thirty-three years to write. Yup. That’s right.

   Here’s the how, why, when.

   Unlike my heroine Anne Pierson who fled to Turkey to escape a humiliating past, I longed to abandon predictability. Once footloose and fancy free, I was now living in France with a successful businessman husband. Life was easy, reasonable, comfortable. Normal. Stultifying. Where was the adventure? What about challenge, excitement and danger?

   I soon pulled up stakes, went to Turkey and began living with B. We had no conversation — he knew almost no English; I had no Turkish. He was a hard-working archaeologist; my life was frivolous: days spent with my new friend Suzie, chatting in cafés, sailing out to sea, hammering away at grammar books and wondering how to make money. B. finally sat me down at a desk in the archaeological museum (an ancient crusader castle perched over the turquoise sea) gave me a job listing recent finds: jars, figurines, shards. It was fun at first; it sparked my interest in archaeology. But, after a while, it became boring. Time to move on.

   Like my heroine Anne, I eventually spoke reasonable Turkish and was working in central Turkey with a Turkish guide, Asim, and translating for tourists. It was a wild area, with Siberian winters and heavy summers. And dangerous too: the police were untrustworthy and violent; there was political unrest; there were frequent arrests. When there was no work, I took buses and trains to other places; once, with a Turkish friend, I went out to an unexcavated Hittite site on an empty plain. There, an armed guard, a dreadful man, dangerous and obviously mad, followed us, demanding baksheesh at gunpoint. If I survive this, I remember thinking, I’ll put him into a book.

   Another time, traveling southeast by bus, we pulled off the main road and into an archaeological site. We were only there for a few minutes, delivering a package of some sort. And staring idly out of the window, I caught sight of a man ambling in the direction of a tumble of pillars and ruins. He was lean, supple, and the bright sun caught the golden blaze of his hair. Who was he? An archaeologist? But, with a puff of noxious smoke, the bus roared to life once more, and we headed back toward the main road. That blond man’s image remained with me over all these years: he was slated to become my hero, the archaeologist Renaud Townsend.

   Twenty years later, I was living in a mud house in an eastern Hungarian village but traveling back and forth to Romania to research the book I was writing (Finding Home in the Footsteps of the Jewish Fusgeyers), trying to learn Hungarian, preparing a major photography exhibition and investigating murders that had taken place in 1946. My partner, H., worked and lived in Vienna, and only showed up every second weekend — it was a long drive away. Not knowing enough Hungarian to communicate with locals, I decided to amuse myself by writing a second book, a more light-hearted one. The story had to be very different from the history book I was working on; it had to be a romance; it had to have a foreign setting with archaeological sites; it had to include the characters I’d collected in Turkey: the blond man, the nasty guard, Asim, slothful Apo, Komiser Bulduk.

   And so I began the first draft of The Turkish Affair. And each time H. showed up, I translated the newest chapter into German and read it out to him. H. loved the little game. So did I; I had become Scheherazade. I even finished the whole manuscript. Then forgot about it.

   Life had changed again. I was back in France.

   This winter, thirteen years after the Scheherazade episode, I remembered the manuscript. I looked it over, winced, sighed, nodded. Then re-wrote it entirely, refining the language — years of writing is the best apprenticeship — basing the mystery on what really happened on one site, adding information about the long-vanished Hittites and including true stories — yes, I did actually travel to the coast with B. and several other archaeologists when they were called in to authenticate ancient coins; yes, the places I describe really do exist (the names have been changed).

   Then, in June, I sent the finished manuscript to Crimson Romance. And they wanted to publish it. How’s that for a long story?”

About the author

Born in New York, raised in Toronto, J. Arlene Culiner has spent most of her life in England, Germany, Turkey, Greece, Hungary and the Sahara. She now resides in a 400-year-old former inn in a French village of no interest and, much to public dismay, protects all creatures, especially spiders and snakes. She works as an actress, a photographer, a contemporary artist, a musician, writes mysteries, history books and perfectly believable romances. Her heroines are funny and gutsy; her heroes, dashingly lovable; and all are (proudly) over the age of forty. You can reach her at any of the url addresses below.

http://j-arleneculiner.com
http://jill-culiner.com
http://anecdotes.over-blog.com
http://j-arleneculiner.over-blog.com
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7158064.J_Arlene_Culiner
https://www.facebook.com/jarlene.culiner
https://twitter.com/j-arleneculiner

The Turkish Affair book blurb: 

Anne Pierson was a top-notch Washington journalist until a liaison with the wrong man implicated her in scandal. Years later, she's hiding out in backwoods Turkey, working as a translator near the ancient Hittite site of Karakuyu, determined to keep her past a secret and avoiding personal relationships. But her quiet little world is turned upside down when she meets American archaeologist Renaud Townsend.

When Anne's reputation links her to stolen artifacts and murder at the dig site, their budding romance comes skidding to a halt. To clear her name, Renaud and Anne must learn to trust each other. But is there enough time to give love a second chance?

Published by Crimson Romance
https://www.amazon.com/Turkish-Affair-J-Arlene-Culiner-ebook/dp/B01KGO49XS
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/J.+Arlene+Culiner

cj Sez:  Wow! Thanks for a great story about your lifetime of exciting adventures. Here’s wishing you thousands of sales and wonderful reviews for The Turkish Affair. 

Got a question? Please drop it in the comments section below. We’d love to hear from you. In the meantime, you-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. (And don't forget to watch for the “More than Friends” romance novel bundle set to launch Sept 19.) 

  

cjpetterson@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/CjPettersonAuthor

Choosing Carter  -- Kindle  /  Nook  /  Kobo   /  iTunes/iBook

Deadly Star --  Kindle  / Nook  / Kobo

Amazon Central Author Page:  http://amzn.to/1NIDKC0

Blatant Self-Promotion: CHOOSING CARTER to be bundled

cj Sez:   Choosing Carter is one of six—count them, six—contemporary romance novels being repackaged by publisher Crimson Romance into one primo bundle titled More Than Friends.

The six-book bundle is currently scheduled to be available September 19 at all Crimson Romance outlets for the low, low price of 99 cents.   

Wow!  99 cents for Choosing Carter and five more contemporary romance novels . . . SUCH A DEAL!  (I think I just used up my allotted number of exclamation points.)

Watch for it … September 19 … but, of course, I will remind you.

I’m currently refreshing a previously published short story (yes, I have the rights), getting it ready to submit to another anthology.  The 2016 Alabama Writers Conclave conference has inspired me. My task is to up the word count on the old story from 4100 to between 8,000 and 12,000 and get it done before September 15. I don't think there will be more characters, but I will surely need a lot more action and mystery in it. I think I can; I think I can; I think I can. Wish me luck?

Okay, you-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj

cjpetterson@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/CjPettersonAuthor

Choosing Carter  -- Kindle  /  Nook  /  Kobo   /  iTunes/iBook

Deadly Star --  Kindle  / Nook  / Kobo

Things that inspire me to write

cj Sez: The following pieces of info make me really happy:

James Lee Burke was born in 1936. (I’m not that old, but it reassures me I don’t have to be a twenty- or thirty-something to succeed. Okay, okay, so I should have started earlier.)  In the back of Burke’s novel, Wayfaring Stranger, on the “About the Author” page, I found this comment: 

“His novel, The Lost Get-Back Boogie, was rejected 111 times over a period of nine years and, upon its publication by Louisiana State University Press, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.” 

And this from author Chris Bradford: “There is no failure except in no longer trying.” 

You get the idea. It’s my motto: Keep on Keeping on.

Sunset...Dauphin Island, AL

There many things that inspire me to keep writing: My family, my friends, writers conferences, memories of places I've seen,  

and the wonderful critique group to which I belong. Each member brings a special writing/reading strength to the process of critiquing, and I've benefited immensely from their contributions to my WIPs. Ergo, because I must submit at least a few pages for every meeting, I am inspired to write. (Disclaimer: We’ve been on a brief hiatus while Michelle Ladner practices being a new mother. I understand it’s difficult to think and type and tend to a newborn all at the same time. Can’t imagine why.) 

It can be hard to find a compatible group of writers knowledgeable in the genre in which you write, but I highly recommend trying. The input can be invaluable and the camaraderie priceless.

Need a reason to make your writing the best it can be? (This comes from a past issue of C. Hope Clark’s fantastically informative newsletter, FundsforWriters, http://www.fundsforwriters.com

“Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it’s a letdown, they won’t buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book.”

                                          ~Mickey Spillane

Style question: I was once asked this question: “If you've published a novel (or, lucky you, more than one novel), could you tell me whether or not the internal dialogue is italicized?”

My answer: I’ve seen it in print both ways. When you self-publish, the choice is pretty much yours. However, the rule there is, be consistent throughout the book. When you have an editor and a publisher, the choice is not yours.  I had read in one how-to book that if you use "he/she thought," the rule was that you didn't italicize the actual thoughts. But when Crimson Romance published my novel, Deadly Star, their editor required italics on all internal thoughts, no matter what. My best guess answer is that “the rule” depends on who’s in charge of the final product.

How do you handle internal dialogue? If you’re self-published, which do you prefer? Ital or no Ital? 

Okay, you-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj

cjpetterson@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/CjPettersonAuthor

Choosing Carter  -- Kindle  /  Nook  /  Kobo   /  iTunes/iBook

Deadly Star --  Kindle  / Nook  / Kobo

Amazon Central Author Page:  http://amzn.to/1NIDKC0

The Dauphin Island shore photo is by Jeff D. Johnston. The other ’toons are from Facebook.

Using clichés as story themes and CHOOSING CARTER

cj Sez: The publisher notified me that the program for Choosing Carter print-on-demand will be in Amazon’s hands on Sept 4 (yay!), but the eBook probably won’t be available on their website until a couple of weeks later. I checked Amazon this a.m., and the pre-order opportunity I expected on August 5 hasn’t happened. I’m a tiny bit antsy, so this waiting jazz gets tiresome, you know?

There were two takers of last week’s offer of an Advance Review Copy of Choosing Carter . . . Mavis Jarrell and Brenda Connors each received the ePub to read and review. Hope you ladies get as much enjoyment out of reading about Bryn McKay’s adventures as I did writing them.

A couple of weeks before, I had made the same offer on my Facebook page and was delighted to send an ARC to Kay George, Deborah O’Neill Cordes, and Vickie Fee.

And I want to thank—very much—Vickie Fee for posting her early review of Choosing Carter on Goodreads! Yep, Vickie sure knows how to make this writer grin.  %>)

Now for the other half of this Lyrical Pens post: Using clichés as story themes.

How do authors come up with a theme for a novel? I usually find something in the news, but that’s incredibly ominous and ugly right now. So, let’s get lighter. First, let's agree that novels need a theme, a premise on which to hang the action and plot points. An overall theme continues as a thread through the novel. It lets a writer connect the dots of subplots to the main plot. One way to get a handle on finding your theme/premise might be to think about describing your novel in one sentence, as with a cliché. The neat thing is that after that, you can polish it into a marketing blurb.

Caveat:  A cliché is, by definition, a trite and overused expression . . . a figure of speech that has become tiresome and uninteresting. Several experts advise against the use of any clichés in your narrative. Author and editor Sol Stein has this advice: “Cut every cliché you come across. Say it new and say it straight” (Stein on Writing, 1995).

From my Facebook page

But what if you’d like one of your characters to be fond of vocalizing a cliché? I say, okay. Use them, but in only that character’s dialogue.  Remember, though, too much can become distracting to your readers. And even clichés voiced new and straight (ala Stein) can become hackneyed when used too often.

Okay, clichés are taboo things that writers should avoid like the plague, but they can be good fodder for a theme. Think about it.

Theme/premise/cliché for a romance story: “Love will find a way.” Then every time you put an obstacle in a character’s path on the way to her happily ever after, that obstacle can be overcome with some kind of act of love . . . even self-love (conceit, egotism) is fair game. 

In the premise/cliché, “All is fair in love and war,” the character is free to do whatever he/she can in order to capture the heart of a lover. 

For a love story, that beautiful, angst-filled drama which doesn’t always end happily ever after, a perfect cliché might be, “Always a bridesmaid, never a bride.” 

Or this tired, old saw for a YA or memoir: “A coming of age story.” That keeps the threads of the story tied to some agonizing affliction and growth of young people over a longer time span. 

One of my themes for Choosing Carter could be “My brother’s keeper.” Apt, I think, because the novel is about Bryn McKay, a woman who, while pursuing the love of her life (premise/cliche: love will find a way), also wants desperately to rescue her brother, Robbie, from the life-threatening choice he made.

If you have a different way of coming up with themes/premises, let me know how you do it. I love, love, love learning new methodologies.

In the meantime, you-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj

cjpetterson@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/CjPettersonAuthor

DEADLY STAR (Publisher: Crimson Romance)  

    http://bit.ly/19QDQq3   (B&N.com)
    http://amzn.to/1LRRwC9  (Amazon.com)

(I’ll be Sooo happy when I can add the info for Choosing Carter.) 

CHOOSING CARTER

cj Sez:  I don't have an exact date yet, but publisher Crimson Romance keeps telling me they will launch the e-book version of "Choosing Carter" later this summer. Paperback to come out in the fall. Wow! I am definitely doing the happy dance (not something you want to witness, however).

Here's the cover: (If you click on it, you should be able to see a larger version...I hope.)

Here's a blurb: Protagonist Bryn McKay is a freelance marketing consultant living in Colorado who tries desperately to save her brother from his risky choices. Her first attempts end in a near-tragic truck accident that lands him in prison where he becomes a jailhouse convert to Islam, escapes, and vows revenge on the people who put him there, including his sister. Bryn is in hot pursuit of naturalist and outdoor guide, Carter Danielson, but Carter is a recovering alcoholic who shies away from relationships. They are on an idyllic rafting trip she hopes will turn romantic when they encounter her brother who’s joined a terrorist sleeper cell. Bryn must confront the changing face of terror that never seemed so horrible as it does when the face she sees is that of her brother. Her dream of realizing happily-ever-after with the man she loves turns into a nightmarish mélange of anger, hatred and terror—Bryn’s fear is that someone she loves will die.

And here's an excerpt from the Advance Review Copy they sent me:

CHAPTER ONE

Bryn McKay’s body ricocheted off the passenger door as the pickup, engine roaring, veered from one side of the Colorado mountain road to the other. She snugged down her seat belt another notch and glared at her brother.

Robbie’s narrow shoulders moved to the rhythm of his hands as they twisted the steering wheel.

 The thought crossed her mind that she didn’t know who he was anymore. Robbie had changed from a solitary man into a defiant malcontent living a me-versus-them life. A cavernous disconnect had developed between the sour brother who sat beside her and the happy cutup she used to know.

 “You believe in God?” he yelled, his words slurred. He took a swipe at her shoulder with a grimy hand, his fingernails and knuckles rimmed with black from his last grease job at the gas station. “I said, you believe in God?”

 She dodged too late and screamed, “Yes!”

 “That mean you ain’t afraid to die?”

 His alcohol-thickened tongue rolled the words around in his mouth until they tumbled out, stinking of beer and trailing spit. She turned away from his rancid breath.

 “We’re both going to die if you don’t slow down. I wouldn’t have gotten into the pickup if I’d known you were so stupid drunk, or are you high on something, too?”

 Robbie snickered, and the truck picked up speed. “Riding around with your drunk, half-breed lover don’t seem to bother you none.”

 “Just because I date Carter doesn’t make him my lover, and he doesn’t drink anymore,” she said. “You know that.”

 Bryn fingered the AA card in her pocket. She’d hoped to catch Robbie while he was still sober, get him to agree to go to a meeting with Carter, but Robbie had cashed his paycheck earlier than she expected. She tightened the elastic band around her ponytail then pinched her lips together between thumb and forefinger to keep from yelling at him. She watched the tops of pine trees race past the side window and wondered if he could see the road through his half-lidded eyes. Unable to keep silent any longer, she turned back.

“You’re just plain nuts. You need help.”

“Got any other great insights to share?”

He looked at her too long, his hazel eyes bright with a crazed light, and the pickup drifted toward the shoulder.

She reached over and steered the truck left.

 

“Keep it on the road,” she said.

Robbie jerked the wheel back, and the right-side tires, both the front and the dualies in the rear, rolled off the asphalt and lost traction on the gravel shoulder.

Fear washed an icy calm over Bryn, and she uttered his name like a warning in a

hoarse, quiet voice. “Robbie.”

He muscled the wheel around, stomped his boot on the brake pedal, and discovered it was the wrong thing to do. The left-side tires stuttered on the asphalt and screamed in protest as they laid down rubber. The truck slewed into a skid, and momentum took over.

The cab and the bed twisted in opposite directions. The sheet metal screeched painfully. The pickup careened out of control as it left the blacktop and headed for the ravine.

Robbie no longer sounded drunk when he yelled, “Jump!”

Bryn jerked up on the door handle. The lock refused to yield. She levered it like a pump and slammed her shoulder against the door.

“It won’t ... I can’t...”

She saw Robbie’s door swing open. He stepped out into space and disappeared from view as the driver’s side of the truck ripped through the steel guardrail and curled back the corrugated metal strip like a banana peel. The jolt popped Bryn’s jammed door lock. Inertia yanked the seat belt tight against her chest. The door whipped open and dragged the handle out of her grip, but the seat belt held. She screamed and clawed at the buckle.

A squat chunk of oaken guardrail post pleated the truck’s sheet metal like an accordion against the windshield, and the rear wheels lifted off the ground. Bryn’s belt buckle released. She slid off the seat and out the open door, slamming to the ground and into the winter-dead scrub brush at the edge of the drop-off

The pickup tipped into a headstand on the rim then flipped bumper over bumper and landed upside down, the roof compacted to seat height. It scraped two hundred yards down the side of the escarpment, leaving barren ground in its wake, and shuddered to a halt in the shallow creek at the bottom of the ravine.

Rocks and dirt tumbled after it. Minutes later, the small rockslide rattled to a stop, the wheels spun to a halt, and the violence disappeared into a silence disturbed only by the sound of water rushing around the wreckage.

 ***

Okay, that's all for the teaser. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I'll try to the do same . . . and please, let me know what you think. 

Tell you what, send me an email with your comments, and next week, I'll randomly choose a reviewer to receive an unedited PDF version of the complete ARC.

cj
cjpetterson@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/CjPettersonAuthor
DEADLY STAR (Publisher: Crimson Romance)  
    http://bit.ly/19QDQq3   (B&N.com)
    http://amzn.to/1LRRwC9  (Amazon.com)

The Paradox



cj Sez:  I typed THE END on my manuscript, submitted it to a publisher, and was accepted. Yay. The novel is done! . . except I'm not done. And I want to talk about that paradox again, because it's not The End, really. Now comes the hard part: Marketing the beautiful baby.

Marketing is a job not just for the newly published who either self-published or managed to attract the attention of a publisher. More and more publishers, including the one who publishes James Patterson's novels, are asking how large your electronic footprint is because they expect you to help market your own creation. Are you on Facebook? Do you have a website? Do you Tweet? Linkedin? The answers to all of these questions, I believe, have come to play a significant part in a publisher’s acceptance of the manuscript.

The ultimate goal of marketing is, of course, to garner and increase sales. However, the other side of the coin is: Successful authors need to personally connect with their readers. Actually, they “must” connect with their readers. That means authors doing readings at book clubs and libraries, book signings, and, if we’re lucky, media interviews. All of those tasks require (gasp) public speaking.

For me, the prospect of public speaking is not all that comfortable … for some writers, it’s terrifying. A writer’s normal milieu is quiet and solitude in front of a computer or with pen pressed to paper. We’re watchers . . . we observe the behaviors of other people and take copious notes for future story/character ideas. Being the watch-ee takes me totally out of my comfort zone.

That’s where a pre-planned (or “canned,” if you prefer) stump speech comes into play. It’s a great tool to reinstate some degree of confidence. Authors on the stump for sales and readers need to spend time developing a speech that can be easily modified for their diverse audiences. What follows are a few processes I use to calm my racing heart when I’m about to go on display in front of strangers.

I wrote a flexible stump speech when Deadly Star launched. I’ll modify that for my new romantic suspense (Big Reveal Here), Choosing Carter, when it’s launched in the next few months.

Here's a synopsis of what I learned in a writer’s speech class: Start with an anecdote geared to that audience…try for something that involves finding myself in an awkward situation. Go into a brief bio, including why I use a pen name and how I chose it. Follow up with something about how the story developed, the characters, and read two or three excerpts. 

I print out my speech in large, bold, double-spaced type and practice reading it. That helps me with timing the length of my presentation and makes me familiar enough with the script that I don’t have keep my head down to read it word-by-word and line-by-line. I can wing some of it, ad lib a bit, and hopefully make occasional eye contact with someone. Caveat for public speaking: It’s important to really know your story and your characters, because the Q&A will turn up some surprising questions.

The other thing I can do to get more comfortable is to stop by the bookstore or library where I’m going to speak and get familiar with the space. Another trick is to attend someone else’s reading…that takes a lot of the mystery out of the event.

I’m working on revising my stump speech for Choosing Carter, but of course, public speaking is subject to nerves sending me off script. How are you doing with yours?

That’s all for now. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.
 



cj

https://www.facebook.com/CjPettersonAuthor

DEADLY STAR (Publisher: Crimson Romance)  

    http://bit.ly/19QDQq3   (B&N.com)
    http://amzn.to/1LRRwC9  (Amazon.com)

PS: Writers live and writhe on reviews, but this note from a friended author came across my Facebook page today. The moral is: We want them, solicit them, need them, but take your reviews with a grain of salt: 

“You have officially arrived when someone makes a Goodreads account JUST to one-star your book that isn't even out yet. Ha! Do watch for the trolls, ladies. They are everywhere.”

Critiquing the critiquers

cj Sez:  I have a writing partner who had to leave a long-time relationship with a critique group because someone took a personal dislike to her and made the meetings miserable. Not a nice thing, and certainly one no writer should have to experience. The fact is, finding a compatible critique group is almost as hard as finding a spouse (okay, maybe not THAT hard).

I know my words aren't going to please everyone, but what I hope to get out of each meeting are objective comments. I also know that may not happen 100 percent of the time, and that means I analyze critiques of my work on a bell curve.

 

Those at either end of the bell curve (Junk↔Marvelous) carry less weight and are generally discarded, after I digest them, of course. Sometimes I can find a nugget in there that says maybe I should tweak a line or two or three. The critiques I really look at, however, are those that cluster in the middle; that is, they seem to focus on the same thing. That's when I know for sure that I've missed on something at that point. 

I've also found that the level of experience of the writer/reader is important to how I analyze the critique. A newbie writer who reads a lot in my genre may make exactly the comments I need to consider because she/he could be rendering the opinion of my on-the-library-shelf browser, the person I want to entertain. I've been fortunate to have multiple critiquers of that caliber. They were very helpful. I’ve also encountered writers who try to squash everything into her/his voice and rules. A bit pedantic, perhaps, but helpful in the long run. (I must admit I tend to that personality quirk much too often, but I'm working on it.)

Yep, the bell curve works for me, even though negative critiques can sometimes get my goat before I discard them. I've learned that writers have to keep an open mind and be thick-skinned in order to keep writing.

From my Facebook page

Now for some BSP (blatant self promotion). I eQueried Crimson Romance publishers for the romantic suspense novel I recently finished, and (drum roll) they offered me a contract!  The tentative title is “CONFLUENCE OF TERROR.” I’ll be dropping hints and blurbs about the story from now until publication, so stay tuned. (Now I have to get cracking on my next manuscript--I'm only on Chapter 13.)

In the meanwhile, here's a wish for wonderful successes with your work, and I’d love to hear how you dealt with the personalities you’ve encountered in your critique groups. You are in one, aren't you?

You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj

https://www.facebook.com/CjPettersonAuthor

DEADLY STAR (Publisher: Crimson Romance)  

    http://bit.ly/19QDQq3   (B&N.com)
    http://amzn.to/1LRRwC9  (Amazon.com)

 

Call for Submissions and Miscellaneous Musings

Looking for a publisher for your unpublished romance story? Digital-first publisher Crimson Romance is open for submissions. The following is from their website at http://www.crimsonromance.com/submissions :

While your work can include other genre elements, Crimson Romances must focus first and foremost on a hero and heroine’s emotional journey together towards love. Romances, by nature, must be between consenting adults and have a happily-ever-after or at least happy-for-now ending. 

They’re also interested short romance stories for their Subverted Fairy Tale Anthology: According to the editor, their submission call for 10,000- to 30,000-word romances based on classic fairy tales but subverted in fun, fresh, original ways remains open until June 1. See their submission page for more info.

 

cj Sez: I’m still mulling potential titles for my finished novel, and that keeps me un-focused on my current work. I sat down at the computer about 4:30 this afternoon. It is now 8:00, and I have mopped the kitchen floor, baked a pound cake, washed dishes, and created two new paragraphs and five new lines of dialogue for my lady detective. They must be important lines because I’ve polished them at least a few times.

Of course, I’m also having to fend off a half-inch-long mosquito that sneaked into the house when I went out to feed the cats. The spring hatches of black and white, Asian tiger mosquitos are very aggressive biters. The insect is described as being a quarter-inch long. Not the blood-thirsty little devils in my yard. . . . Got her!   

Time to go drizzle a glaze on the cake, and then I’ll get back to the story. I promise.

Okay, you-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj

 

PS: The Summer of Love romance novel contest ends on May 15, but in the meantime, special prizes are being given away almost daily. Check out how to enter for the next prize at www.summeroflovebooks.com  Maybe it'll be my romantic suspense, DEADLY STAR.

PPS: The 'toon is a favorite from my Facebook pages.

Win a summer full of romance

The Summer of Love romance book giveaway is ongoing. Go to http://summeroflovebooks.com  to enter and win, and while you’re there, check out the author’s blog. A new one is posted regularly. The blogs come from authors of the books being given away.  PLUS most of these authors offer a way to get a second chance entry into the contest. Here’s an excerpt of this weeks’ blog:

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My Idea of Romance   Apr11

My husband, Jed, likes to take credit for the steamy scenes in my books. He tells people those are the only pages that are not fictitious, and then the corners of his mouth edge up into a grin.  –   Rena Koontz  (Author of THIEF OF THE HEART)

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cj Sez: By the way, Rena reveals that hubby has expertise as a federal agent and lawman, and that must make for authentic crime scenes in her novels, in addition to the authentic “steamy scenes.”  (Love, love, love authenticity.)

 

You know how, after filling a three-ring binder with rejections (as one writer I know did), we writers worry if our writing will ever be “good enough” to get published? Feelings of inadequacy can often overwhelm any confidence of competency and send us running for a big spoon and the nearest half-gallon of chocolate ice cream for comfort.  

But think about this: Bona fide professionals, those people we consider successful, do not, cannot rest on their laurels. Okay, that’s a cliché, but truly, professionals continually work to improve and perfect their skills. Every time Donald Maass, famed literary agent and author of WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL, leads a workshop on writing, I’d venture to guess he’s included something new since his last workshop. I know he keeps producing how-to books that incorporate new slants on writing. He’s a professional who keeps learning. Pro golfers take lessons to tweak their skills; powerhouse baseball hitters have trainers as do Olympic runners, swimmers, and skaters. 

 

The lesson is clear. The way for writers to improve their craft (and gain writing confidence) is to practice; i.e., they must read in their chosen genre(s), write, and network, and those tasks never cease.
 

I know I learn something new most every day, some tidbit that I can incorporate into a work-in-progress or add to my growing list of hints. I wish you the same success.

Okay, you-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same . . . and remember to check out the Summer of Love book giveaway.

cj
 

PS: The 'toon is one someone dropped onto my Facebook page a while back.

https://www.facebook.com/CjPettersonAuthor

DEADLY STAR (Publisher: Crimson Romance)  

    http://bit.ly/19QDQq3   (B&N.com)
    http://amzn.to/1LRRwC9  (Amazon.com)