Tag Archive | writer

Talking with Constance Phillips about Resurrecting Harry

Today my special guest is a fellow writer and friend of mine, Constance Phillips. I read and enjoyed her first book, Fairyproof, and when I heard that her second novel was out, a delicious story about none other than Harry Houdini and his wife, Bess, I couldn’t resist asking her to come by to talk about it.

So Constance, tell us a bit about Resurrecting Harry.

Can Harry Houdini Escape the grim reapers hold to save the only woman he’s ever loved?

That is the sum of the story. Erich a reincarnated Harry Houdini charged with keeping Bess from falling prey to those who would use her for their own gain, and to save her from becoming obsessed with mysticism and talking to the dead.

There is a bit of a mystery going, but all-in-all it’s a story about the great love these two celebrities shared. Continue reading →

An Interview with Future Regency Romance Star, Ella Quinn

Apr16

I am so pleased today to introduce you to a woman who is not only about to become a Regency Romance star, she is a wonderful person who has offered me help and friendship, Ella Quinn. Ella’s first nove, The Seduction of Lady Phoebe, will be released in September, but it is available for pre-order on Amazon right now.

So Ella, tell us a bit about yourself and what you write.

Hi Merry. Thank you for having me on your blog. I had several lives before I became a writer. I played in a rock band, tended bar, was in the army, twice, taught university and practiced law. A little less than two years ago, I started writing Regencies

Do you feel as though you chose the historical romance genre or did it choose you? It definitely chose me. I had a video playing in my head of a lady in Regency dress, furiously pacing. Part of that scene is still in The Seduction of Lady Phoebe.

What are you working on right now? I’m working on the 5th book of The Marriage Game series. It’s set in the Virgin Islands where I live, but the research has been much more difficult because so many documents were lost due to fire and hurricanes. So this book has been slow going.

You’ve lived all over the world. How did that end up happening? When I was a child, we lived in several different states, then traveled with my maternal grandfather to North Africa and Spain. I actually had my 9th birthday in Rabat, Morocco, and lived in Palma de Mallorca. Later we lived in Canada. By the time I was an adult I had a severe case of wanderlust and joined the Army.

What is it about the Caribbean that makes you call it home? It’s the first place I’ve ever lived where I didn’t really want to leave after about a year. Though I’d still like to get on a boat and sail round a bit.

Where else in the world do you think you would settle down if you had a chance? Europe. Probably the south of France.

What has been the highlight of your journey towards publication? It’s all been pretty exciting. Before I saw The Seduction of Lady Phoebe on the Amazon site, I would have said getting the offer, but having my first book on pre-order trumps that.

What do you wish readers knew about the writing process? I’m not sure they need to know a lot about it. It’s like making a movie, you’re successful if you take the reader into a world or on a journey they enjoy. That’s all that matters to a reader.

What do you wish your fellow writers knew about the journey to publication? If you’re serious about being published, treat it as a business, not a hobby. I started writing at the end of April 2011 and had an agent eight months later. Keep writing. Don’t stop to query your first book. Learn your craft, trust your instincts, and find your voice.

What words of inspiration have been important in your life? Wish in one hand and spit in the other. See which one gets full faster. The other, which is extremely germane to the publishing world is if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. Publishing is a very small world and agents and editors have the longest memories I’ve ever heard of.

THE SEDUCTION OF LADY PHOEBE ~ Releases September, 19, 2013

LADY PHOEBE STANHOPE, famous for her quick wits, fast horses, and punishing right hook, is afraid of nothing but falling in love. Fleeing a matchmaking attempt with the only man she despises, Phoebe meets a handsome blue-eyed stranger who sends her senses skittering. By the time Phoebe discovers the seductive stranger is the same arrogant troll she sent packing eight years ago, she is halfway to falling in love with him.

LORD MARCUS FINLEY last saw Phoebe striding regally away, as he lay on the floor with a bruised jaw and a rapidly swelling eye. Recently returned from the West Indies, Marcus is determined to earn Phoebe’s love, preferably before she discovers who he is. Determined to have Phoebe for his own, Marcus begins his campaign to gain her forgiveness and seduce her into marriage.
Can Phoebe learn to trust her own heart and Marcus? Or is she destined to remain alone?

~Lady Phoebe is a heroine Georgette Heyer would adore–plucky, pretty, and well worth the devotion of the dashing Lord Marcus. A marvelous find for Regency romance readers.~
~ Grace Burrowes ~
Ella Quinn’s The Seduction of Lady Phoebe is a passionate tale full of humor, romance, and poignancy. Quinn writes classic Regency romance at its best!”
~Shana Galen~

Here is a little taste of what you have to look forward to….
Eight years later. June 1814, Newhaven, Sussex, England

Guy, the Seventh Marquis of Dunwood, watched as the American-made schooner approached the dock. A tall, tanned, young man in his late twenties stood at the bow, a line in hand ready to throw to one of the dock hands on the pier. He looked more like a seaman than a well-born gentleman.

His youngest son. The one, Guy thought ruefully, he hadn’t recognized two years ago, when Marcus had come to visit.

The line sailed through the air and looped perfectly around a piling. After tying it off, Marcus walked back and addressed the captain before disappearing from sight.

Not more than a half an hour later, Dunwood greeted his son. “Welcome home. You could have returned earlier.”

The good humor drained from Marcus’s eyes. “Not and have made provisions for Lovet’s family. They were left in bad straits when he died.”

Dunwood would never understand the reason this son saw the need to care for those who were not his dependents. Apparently the West Indies had more of an impact on him than Dunwood thought it would. Well, what Marcus did with his private fortune was no bread and butter of Dunwood’s. Rather than argue, he asked, “How is the new steward doing?”

His son’s broad shoulders relaxed. “Well indeed. He used to work for the Spencer-Jones family, but when their third oldest son married, the property my new steward was managing went to the son. The man came highly recommended. I made the offer before anyone else could beat me to it.”

“Good. I’m glad you were able to find someone.” Dunwood started toward the two large coaches near an inn. “Where are your trunks?”

“I’ve only one. Covey, my man, will see it stowed,” Marcus said. “How are Arthur and the girls faring?”

“Your brother is doing as well as can be expected, as are his daughters.”

Marcus glanced around to see Covey wave to him. The last time he’d visited his brother, Arthur was hale and hearty. Now he was dying of consumption. His wife had passed a few years ago leaving him two daughters, but no heir.

As a result, Marcus had been recalled from banishment. He wondered how difficult it was going to be, after all the years of being his own master, to live with his father and be under Dunwood’s rule.

Glancing around the small town, Marcus felt as if he were in a foreign country, but he’d been gone long enough. He looked at his ship, the Lady Phoebe, tied up at the dock. Perhaps too long.

Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=the%20seduction%20of%20lady%20phoebe
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=The+seduction+of+lady+phoebe
Amazon Germany: http://www.amazon.de/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/275-6160333-6197739?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85Z%C3%95%C3%91&url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=The%20seduction%20of%20lady%20phoebe
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/book.aspx/22854

Ella Quinn lived all over the United States, the Pacific, Canada, England and Europe before finally discovering the Caribbean. She lives in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands with her wonderful husband, three bossy cats and a loveable great dane. Ella loves when friends connect with her

Website: (Up soon) www.ellaquinnauthor.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/EllaQuinnAuthor
Twitter: www.twitter.com/ellaquinnauthor
Blog http://ellaquinnauthor.wordpresscom

Characters from Life

Apr3

One of my favorite pieces of advice that I see given to budding authors all the time (and that I’ve given myself on occasion) is to model your characters after real people. It’s the best way to get a fully-rounded, dimensional character.

I happen to like to use celebrities as models for characters. Many are the times I’ve “cast” some of my favorite Hollywood hunks as the heroes in my novels, particularly when it comes to envisioning them acting out the love scenes. Mmmm…. Hunky celebrities with their shirts off!

But I digress.

Basing characters off of real people doesn’t stop with celebrities. Sooner or later any good writer is going to look at someone they know and feel that burning urge to make a character out of them. Why? Because there are just so many people who fill our everyday lives and who stand out, for good or for ill. And what better way to deal with the emotions they provoke than by immortalizing them in fiction?

Someday, my friends … someday!

For example, I have a story idea that’s been kicking around my head for a while now – one that I’ll probably get to in early 2014 if everything stays on the track it’s on now – that involves a, shall we say, freelance naval adventurer and his frigate sailing the ocean blue in around 1800. I will confess right now that I intend to man this fictional sailing vessel with all of the real-life members of my cricket club. Yes, Mike and Klaus, Tahir and Shariq, Krish and Satish and Jon and Ernie may someday find themselves reading about sailors who seem a little on the familiar side. It’s going to be a challenge to find a way to fit them all in, but I’m up for it.

Okay, I have to confess something. An alarming number of the characters in my Montana Romance series, in Our Little Secrets and the soon-to-be-released Fool for Love, are people I know or know of in my real life.

Scandal! Intrigue! Mystery!

So which characters are based on people from my life and, more importantly, would they be able to recognize themselves?

Here’s the scoop. For starters, the character of Christian Avery, Justice of the Peace, is a relatively minor character in Our Little Secrets and Fool for Love. But he’s set to be the hero of the third book in the series, In Your Arms. He also happens to be based off of a former coworker. I haven’t seen this former coworker in, oh, eight years? He’s probably forgotten my existence. But to me he was so physically striking and had such a beautiful voice – but was so reserved – that he’s always stuck with me. Mind you, Christian Avery is far more of a stick-in-the-mud than my former coworker, but underneath Christian’s brusk and glowering surface beats the heart of …. No, I’m not going to mention his real name.

Phineas Bell is also loosely based on an old friend of mine. But in this case, as the character developed and began to interact with his world, he migrated away from my old friend and into a personality all his own. It’s funny how characters do that. You can start with a real person as a template, but they’re going to become who they are in the long-run, whether you like it or not. Fortunately in this case, I like it. Phin is a fantastic guy – and the hero of the fourth and final novel in the series, Someone to Love. (Not decided on that title yet, by the way, so don’t get too attached to it).

But guess what? Guess who else in the Montana Romance series is based on someone I know in real life. Yes, Jacinta Archer. And if you’ve read any of these books yet, you’ve probably just smacked your hand over your mouth and said, “Oh my gosh, does she know that’s her?” My answer? Gosh, I hope not! Because my real life friend on whom Jacinta is based is actually one of the nicest, funniest, cutest people I know. But I think she’d have a sense of humor about how badly her character behaves.

Along with those three, there’s a small character in Fool for Love named Sarah who is directly based off of someone I know. I was just going to pop her in there and give her one line, but as I revised and edited the novel the character got bigger and bigger, and now I have plans to write a novella in which she is the heroine. Funny how characters stand out and wave their arms at you that way. Delilah is also based on someone I had a few interactions with a while back. She’s another character who has taken on a life of her own as I’ve written her. I rather like her and wish I had her around to give me advice sometimes!

So are any of these characters, present or planned, so similar to the people they were based off of that I could be sued for libel? Not at this point. Real people are great starting-points for fictional people, but once the writing starts, it’s amazing how the characters grow. That’s what good characters do. I don’t know about you, but I kind of like it that way!

As a special treat for today and leading up to the release of Fool for Love on April 20th, one lucky commenter will win a free eBook of Our Little Secrets. The winner will be picked on Friday. So go ahead, if you’re a writer, tell us about a character you’ve written based off of a real life person. And if you’re a reader, have you ever come across a character in a book that reminds you of someone you know?

The In-Between Place

Mar27

In the last couple of months I’ve talked a lot about how to write, from gritting your way through that first draft to knuckling down and doing the hard work of editing. We’ve talked about how writing isn’t easy, how it takes focus and determination to develop a story from being a cool idea to a finished work ready to find its way out there in the world. But now we come to that part of the writing process that baffles me the most. Yes, this is where I completely lose my footing and start to flail.

Not writing.

After every book, after the hard work and the tears as you rearrange your entire life for your work, there comes a time when you’re just … done. Yep, believe it or not. Whether it’s because your novel is in the hands of the editor or beta-readers or because you’re busy submitting it, or even because you’ve done all the fancy work of publishing your novel yourself and getting it out there, you will face a time when you’re not writing.

Well, not actively writing. A writer is always hard at work on something, even if it’s in their own head. I have a thousand stories that all seem to be going at the same time. Most of them are mere light entertainments in my imagination that help me get to bed at night. Some of them are prototype ideas that may end up being fleshed out and novelized someday. But there are those times when I’m not working on anything in particular at all.

Granted, for me these times are short. They usually come about because I’m waiting for something else. Because I plan to make this weird writing gig my only profession someday I kind of have this sense of urgency. It’s as if every word is a penny and if I don’t write enough I won’t be able to eat or pay the electric bill. Maybe not the healthiest way to look at things, but it is realistic.

So what do you do with this time? How do you make it productive even when you’re not producing?

One obvious answer is to spend this time working on marketing. It’s a good time to write a bunch of blog posts, whether for guest appearances on blogs that support the kind of writing you do or for your own blog. You’re used to spending those hours writing, aren’t you? Why not use them for a different sort of writing?

The problem with this is that sometimes you reach the end of a project and all of that tightly-wound discipline falls apart. You’re burnt out. And as much as you love writing, the thought of sitting down and tapping out a thousand word guest blog post makes you cringe.

Fortunately, just because you’re not writing doesn’t mean you have to write.

I’ve found that one of the very best things to do when slumping between books is to read. Reading is essential to the art and craft of writing. As Stephen King so famously says, if you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time and skills to write. Consider it your homework. There is so much to be learned from the simple act of reading a book that will help you to be well-armed when the time comes to start the next novel. Read everything, every genre, whether it’s “your” genre or not. There are always surprises out there waiting for you, but you won’t find them if you don’t open the pages or turn on your e-reader.

Another of my favorite activities while between books is watching movies. For me, movies and a few really special tv shows (usually produced by the BBC) are a brilliant way to study plot and character. I like to see the way characters move and talk and navigate their way through situations. Some people say that tv is the enemy of writers and that you can’t learn from watching it or watching movies. I don’t know. Yeah, I do think you learn more about writing by reading, but I am of the school of thought that says there’s value in good tv and well-done movies too. At the very least, visual stories tell me what my heroes and heroines look like.

And, of course, there’s my personal favorite down-time activity: daydreaming. Particularly while driving or walking. I am a big fan of the Horatio Hornblower books by C.S. Forrester, and I once read an essay he wrote about his creative process. He talked about how his stories all came out of a “primordial ooze” of plot and character that existed with him all the time. I like to think that that primordial story ooze is charged with life in those moments when the imagination can wander off on its own. It’s a kind of meditation, really. It’s something we can both indulge in and learn from.

The time will always come when we must start the next novel. The good news is, if you’ve given your imagination enough of a rest, it can come back excited and stronger than ever. That’s the time to start any new books, when the iron is hot. We heat that iron in those down-times when it looks like we’re not doing anything. But it’s true, a writer is never not writing. It’s as constant as the blood that courses through our veins every moment of every day. Give it a rest now and then, but only so you can jump back into it, ready to go.

2013 Book #9 – The Iron Locket, by Samantha Warren

Mar25

I’m going to start out this Book Report by admitting that I’m biased. Samantha Warren is a good friend of mine. We met through writing, but I consider her more than just a writing buddy now. She’s been there for me professionally and personally several times when I’ve needed her. So when she ran into a spot of bother and lost her editor for The Iron Locket, I offered to beta-read it and to give her some developmental edits.

So yes, I’m biased and The Iron Locket that I read is not the final version that will be available for you to buy as an eBook in a couple of weeks. But let me tell you, this is a rollicking good story!

In a nutshell, when the faerie kingdom and human kingdom are both threatened with annihilation by the evil faerie enchantress, Leanansidhe, the four faerie queens must resurrect a human hero, the Once and Future King, Arthur, to lead them in opposing her. But when a human faerie-hunter, last in a great line, Aiofe, stumbles into the faerie kingdom at war, the attraction that sparks between her and Arthur will either give the side of good an edge in winning the war or put everyone in dire jeopardy. Because Aiofe is no simple hunter. She hides a secret that could make or break all of faerie-kind and tear down the divide between the faerie and human worlds.

That’s what Samantha is going for. I have to say, I really enjoyed helping her edit this book. It’s a cool story, but as I worked with her, giving suggestions, asking questions, sharing the things I’ve learned about the craft of writing, I discovered that I really love editing! There’s something so special about taking a book in its embryotic form and working with the author to bring it to the world in the best form possible.

It’s also interesting to see the things that other authors do that I know I do. I don’t know if Sam wanted to throttle me through the process or not for lecturing her about paragraph breaks and cutting exposition and turning it into dialog, but those are all things I’ve had to struggle with myself. It’s nice to know I’m not alone! And I hope from her end that it’s nice to have someone who has the same issues point things out to you so that they can be fixed.

Early drafts of books are tricky, slippery things. You can see the gold through the rock, but it takes a lot of chipping away to get to them. I love working with an editor so that I can have someone point and tell me where to chip. And I discovered that I like being that impartial set of eyes to point to things with suggestions of how to bring out the gold. (So if you need a developmental editor, drop me a line! No, seriously!)

Back to The Iron Locket.

This book has a lot of things going for it. I love the combination of well-known elements, like King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, with a wholly unique faerie world. Sam has done a great job of building a world that I want to know more about. It has depth and teeth. The main players in the faerie kingdom have strong identities and feeling.

One of the best things I found about this book, something I’m not sure if Sam intended or not, was how cool the baddies were. The character of Kane turned out to be one of my favorites. Is he the evil Leanansidhe’s soulless henchman or is he something more? And yes, I say that while wiggling my eyebrows a lot. Even Lea has her “charms”. I asked Sam a lot of questions about her motivations and background and I can’t wait to read the answers she comes up with in the final version.

The heroes of the novel are a lot of fun too. I like Sam’s take on Arthur, especially since he is resurrected from the dead with all his baggage intact. And the heroine, Aiofe, has such a rich depth of background to draw from. I’m interested to see where she’s going, both in the final version of this book and in the other books in the series.

All in all, I recommend that you give this one a read as soon as it comes out. Am I biased? Yepper! Is it still a good story? Absolutely.

Merry Farmer

An Historical Romance