January 10 2017 Romance Weekly

Do you like to read romance novels? Wouldn't you like to know more about your favorite authors? Well you came to the right place! Join the writers of Romance Weekly as we go behind the scenes of our books and tell all..... About our writing of course! Every week we'll answer questions and after you've enjoyed the blog on this site we'll direct you to another. So come back often for a thrilling ride! Tell your friends and feel free to ask us questions in the comment box.

This week's questions come from the lovely Leslie Hachtel. She asks: What do you love best about your writing? Like the least? And what are you doing to fix the things you don’t like?

Before we begin, the hop is a loop so check out author Jenna Da Sie and find out how she answered this week's questions.

I have a love hate relationship with editing. For those writers who hate even the hint of the dreaded “e” word, trust me I understand.

Let’s just get this part of the discussion out of the way. Self-editing is long and tedious. When my initial writing is going quickly and the ideas are popping up like rabbits in spring, the editing process puts all of that in low gear and those gears grind like you wouldn’t believe. I know the edits improve everything. Yet, this is when the process becomes slow and sometimes boring. Especially, when I’m trying to find all the repetitive words in my work in progress and decide what to keep, what to change, and what to discard. That’s just me editing my own work. Now, after that’s done I ship my baby off to a professional for her to find all the repetitive words I didn’t find and all the other holes, grammar errors, and downright silliness I have to fix. Another slow process and one that causes great distress when I’m sitting at home wondering about the horror of a manuscript I’ll get in return.

I’m sure your wondering where the love comes into the story.

Editing is where the true story comes out into the light. I’m very single-minded. I can’t write and edit at the same time. What comes out in writing just comes out and there isn’t time to stop and analyze what is either being typed or written on paper. My mind must get all the pieces down first. I would compare my first draft to a baby who was given a paint brush and paints, a smock and hours of play time. The writing is fun and laugh out loud glorious. Occasionally, the words slow and the process bogs down, but the draft is always faster than the edits. I let this wondrous creation sit for a bit and then I read the pages and pages upon pages of crap. The editor in my brain comes out and tells me all the areas where I lost track of the plot or the character and how on page 230 a key element from chapter one is missing.

Why do I love this?

My editing process required a lot of re-reads. I get to know the manuscript and my characters well and I fall in love with them, the world and the stakes that are causing them distress. The pieces of the manuscript start to fit together like puzzle pieces and I finally see what I had written was a good basis, but now the really good stuff is coming out. In keeping with my metaphor I wouldn’t say by this time I’m a fine artist – I’ll go with art student – but the pages don’t look like they’ve been created by a ten-month old. The last piece is getting additional eyes on the work and sending to a professional editor. Because I know the work so well it’s easy to miss when I’m filling in the blank and a reader would be like … how old is this writer, is she a baby?

The hating part of editing I think is difficult to fix. What I’ve tried and continue to try is attempt different techniques where the first drafts aren’t such a free-for-all. I’m not a plotter by any means, but I’ve utilized a summary of my work in progress that helps keep me on track in the early stages of writing. I’ve tried different writing tools to help speed the process and I try to not hate editing, because I know at that stage I’m close to having a finished book!

So on to the next writer in the hop, Tracey Gee. I can't wait to find out what she loves and hates about writing.

See ya next week!

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August 2 2016 Romance Weekly

Welcome back to Romance Weekly blog hop. Today A.S. Fenichel wants us to choose one of our books and tell you where the idea came from and how it evolved into a full story. I'll share a snippet, too!

Marc Stevens is before me in today's hop. Make sure to check out his post.

I choose my first release, Circle of Lies.

The idea for this story came to me as I was working through another story I was writing. I wanted to write a Sci Fi Romance that was set in a contemporary setting. The story I was working on wasn't futuristic or set in outer space and I liked the feel of that. The story was actually more paranormal because one of the characters had psychic power and could control people with his mind.

I started with a love triangle that involved two brothers, Jamie and Sean, who liked the same girl, Luna, and I was struggling with why Jamie and Sean had such anger toward one another. Sean had the psychic power. Jamie appeared as human as you or I. In my frustration, I created their backstory to help me figure out their relationship. While working on the details, I discovered Jamie and Sean had the same father, Raz, but different mothers.

For some reason this really bothered me and I kept wondering what had happened to these characters' parents. Had the Raz had his own love triangle and how did this fit into the science fiction world I wanted to create, which was in the very beginning stages back then. The story still had more of a paranormal feel and I wanted to go more Sci Fi. So, I made Raz an alien and Sean's mother, Paris, was part alien. This shed light on why Sean was psychic. Jamie's mother, Sandra, was human and a scientist who had a part in the discovery of some life saving medicines for aliens.

I kept asking myself questions about the brothers. Why did Jamie do this? Why did Sean choose to do that when so much love had been in his childhood? But the more questions I asked about Jamie and Sean the more answers pushed me toward asking questions about their parents. How did this alien versus non-alien parentage shape the brothers' feelings about the world. What had happened to their parents before this point in the brothers' lives.

So to make this long story short, I became obsessed with what happened to the parents. What sorts of obstacles and conflicts had they had in life?

Circle of Lies is what came out of all those questions along with a series premise, Alien Prophecies.

I learned a lot about the 'past' in the world I wanted to create which I then realized was the contemporary setting and the rest of the series will start to fall into a near future setting. It will still feel like it takes place today, but with more tech or alien wizardry (at least to humans).

I hope to get back to Jamie's and Sean's stories some day, but I'm giving them some time to grow up.

Click Here for an excerpt of Circle of Lies.

Veronica Forand in up next. Let's find out which book she's blogging about today!

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July 26 2016 Romance Weekly

Welcome back for another week of Romance Weekly, the Tuesday blog hop where your favorite authors tell all ... about their writing, of course!

We can start off the hop with my post, and at the beginning and end of the entry will be a link to visit the the next author participating in the hop. Hope you learn some juicy secrets.

This week's topic is from the wonderful Leslie Hachtel. She knows a writer who sets her writing-time mood with candles and music that suit her characters. Do you do anything special to put you in the right frame of mind to sit down and create?

Marc Stevens is before me in the hop. Find out how he answered Leslie's question when you are finished here.

Here's my take on the question:

For a romance author, my mood lighting is unromantic, but my ritual keeps me writing and focused. When I need to set the atmosphere, I open my writing notebook and any notes I have on where I've left off in my current work in progress.

I used to light scented candles and took the time to enjoy a good cup of coffee, perhaps sneak in a little meditation time. I still do these activities especially if I have extra time, but those rituals were really becoming a distraction. I'd sit with my coffee and candle scents and get so relaxed time would slip by and before I knew it I had some other tasks that needed to be done. There my work in progress would sit ‘un-worked’ on.

Now, my writing office is filled with the scent of cherry wood from the new writing table my husband made for me. Coffee is a good friend in the morning to help wake me up as well as meditation which I’m trying to do more often. But, I don't need those items before getting started. If my start time is 10 PM, I don't want coffee unless I intend to pull an all-nighter.

So, I've trained myself that when the notebook is open and the pen is in my hand it's time to get busy. It's good for me to have this ritual. I don’t have to rely on mood to help my characters talk to me or vice versa.

I don't always maintain such dedication. Distractions abound everywhere, but it helps set the mood by re-reading notes or the last piece I wrote starring my current characters.

I can't wait to find out what the other authors of Romance Weekly do to set the mood for their writing. Read on to find out more from author, Brenda Margriet.

See you next week!!

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