Tag Archives: Writers

December 11, 2014 · 12:04 pm

Call me…And I’m not talking about a Blondie song

For anyone who was raised Catholic, as I was, when you hear  someone has received The Call, you immediately know they have been “spiritually called” to join Holy Orders. Either enter a convent or go to seminary.

Now, even though my mother neonatally named me to enter a nunnery ( Margaret-Mary Bernadette, folks ) my Call did not come with an invitation to serve the Lord. No, my call was much different, but no less life changing.

At the 2014 RWA conference in San Antonio, Tx, I had made arrangements to briefly introduce myself to an editor at the Wild Rose Press who was currently evaluating a romance novel submission of mine. I had emailed her and found out she was going to be volunteering at the event and I wanted to meet with her face-to-face in order to thank her for being so gracious to me via all the email “chats” we’d had. When I introduced myself to her, I discovered one of the loveliest women I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet. She was not only as gracious as her emails had been, but sweet and kind as well. I thanked her, as I’d planned to do, for being so nice and patient, and she quite literally changed my life in that instant.

She told me that she had “good news for me.”

My heart stopped.

Literally.

I could feel my blood pooling in my feet, swelling them, because it wasn’t being shunted to any vital organs.

She told me that by the time I got home I should have a contract for publication waiting for me in my email. The Wild Rose Press wanted to publish my book.

Now, my brain stopped functioning from lack of blood. And shock.

I don’t know how long I stood there just staring at her. The poor woman probably thought I was having a stroke or some kind of medical emergency. All around us was the noise of the conference: people walking by, laughing and talking, heading to their next course; hotel workers moving about, delivering water jugs to the classrooms they were setting up; people checking into the conference.

After what seemed like a lifetime – but was probably just a few seconds – I found my tongue. I said, in a shaky voice, “there have been two times in my life I have been speechless. The first was when my boyfriend “told me” we were getting married, not asked. And the second is right now.”

I hugged her. I couldn’t help it. I was so overcome, I didn’t even realize I pulled her into my arms until she was there. And, as before, she was gracious and kind.

She had to get back to her volunteering and I had to get to my next course, so we parted, each saying we would be in touch.

I went to class. I can honestly tell you I have no idea what it was and have no memory of even being in it. After that I went up to my hotel room.

As I played the brief meeting out in my mind, I began to wonder if I had hallucinated it. I really did. I didn’t tell any of my RWA chapter mates who were at the conference as well, keeping my secret hidden – just in case I had imagined the entire two-minute event.

I didn’t want them to think I was suffering from delusions. It was bad enough I thought I was.

I got through the rest of the week and headed home. Sure enough, when I got there and checked my email there was a contract proposal waiting for me.

Third time in my life I’ve been speechless? When I opened and then read that email.

To say my life has changed since this is a totally inadequate way of conveying what has happened to me. My first romance novel SKATER’S WALTZ, book 1 in the MacQuire Women Series will be published in early 2015 and book 2, THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME, later in the year. I have officially given in my resignation to my day job, effective in April 2015 so that I can no pursue the lifelong passion I have always wanted to pursue.  I’ve begun learning valuable marketing tools to sell my books, and I now know the difference between an algorithm and branding. These days my head is not only full of plot lines and character profiles, but social media sites that promote authors and help with book sales.

In the Catholic faith, THE CALL is a life-changing, spiritual event. And although I didn’t immediately don a habit and enter a nunnery, my Call was no less  life-changing and spiritual.

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December 8, 2014 · 10:50 am

As a writer, what are your favorite words?

I wasn’t a normal kid. By that I don’t mean  I was abnormal. I didn’t have horns; wasn’t born with three eyes, or two hearts. I experienced the same childhood illnesses and complaints other children did and went to school on the correct chronological spectrum.

Where I was different, though, was in the material things kids want.

Growing up, children my age would ask for Christmas and birthday presents like a new bike, or an Easy Bake Oven. Barbie dolls were big, as were roller skates. When it came to writing out a Christmas wish list every year, I typically had three items:

  • Rock’em Sock’em Robots
  • Books
  • Pencils and paper

I was never going to get Rock’Em Sock’Em Robots, my mother explained, because that was a present for boys, not girls. Hey, this was the ‘60’s. People were still unbersexist and not afraid to talk about it.

But I did get the books I asked for and the writing instruments. My favorite present when I turned 8? A Webster’s Dictionary.

See? Not a normal kid.

Even as a child I loved words. Words lived in dictionaries. Words led to sentences, which turned into pages, then chapters in a book. And I loved books. More than anything.

I used to try and learn a new word everyday after I received my dictionary. Words like escarole and calliope; diminutive and xanthene. These wounds rolled off my tongue, harsh and alien at first, but after practicing them a thousand times, they were familiar friends.

So, with all the hundreds of thousands of words in our language, which are my favorites?

If you ask a parent “which child is your favorite,”what response do you get?

If you ask a chef what is their favorite taste, or flavor profile, what do they tell you?

Can an ornithologist choose their favorite bird? Will a philatelist be able to select a favored stamp?

My response would probably be the same as these: I don’t have a favorite because I love them all.

Words have power. They have depth. The can signify courage, fear; describe emotions and colors. They can make you think of a thousand reasons “why” and answer a thousand more times “why not?”

As a writer I use words to tell a story. But I use them for so much more, really.

Here’s a quick story: John meets Mary, falls in love with her, and they marry. Eleven words that tell a story. None of the words are repeated, all but two are monosyllabic, and yet they complete a circle – beginning to end.

It should be enough. But you know it’s not. How did John and Mary meet? Why did they, with the millions of other people on the planet to choose from, fall in love with each other? When did they marry? Who are their children? Their families? What do they do to make a living? All of this is the actual story  I can tell with – you got it – words.

Quite simply put, words make me happy. I like reading them on the page, speaking them out loud,  hearing them, learning them, using them and playing with them.

I can’t chose a favorite. It’s impossible for me. But then, maybe my favorite word is…words.

 

 

 

 

 

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December 4, 2014 · 10:20 am

A question of personality….

My daughter – just for fun, mind you – performed a personality profile on me the other day. This is the link to that profile: http://www.personalitypage.com/ISFJ.html. Apparently, I am typed as THE NURTURER. I am introverted, use my five senses to coordinate through life, feel a great deal of emotion about things, and am judgmental.

Uh – BINGO!

Part of the profile states, “has a rich inner world that is not usually obvious to observers. They( nurturers) constantly take in information about people and situations that is personally important to them, and store it away.”

Uh – BINGO, again!

Hellooooo!  Doesn’t this description sound like a writer to you??

As a pysch major, I know the value I put in my character’s motivations, feelings, habits, and lifestyle decisions. Every action has a meaning, reason, and reaction and it’s my job to keep them all spinning in the air on the page so the reader is entertained and the characters are ultimately fulfilled. But just like people, every character has his/her own distinct personality. And again, it’s my job to know every facet of the character, every flaw, every quirk, every subtle nuance that makes them, well, them.

When I used to write mysteries, I did detailed character profiles, especially for my villains. I needed to know exactly why they were doing what they were doing – namely, murdering people. Since I am not a murderer myself ( thank you, Jesus!), I needed to know what goes into the psychological makeup of a person that would entice them and then compel them to kill another human being. I had to dissect their internal motivations, compulsions, and desires to find the one fatal piece of their internal makeup that could enable them to take a life.

At the time I read extensively on the “Killer’s Mind.” Book after book, page after page of forensic psychology on why killers kill. It was a dark time in my mind and I think it showed in the kind of work I was producing. When I found myself going to dark places in my head once too ofter, I stopped writing for while. Or in this case, about five years.

Then I started writing happy things again like romances. Believe me, my brain – and my family – thank me daily.

Even though I am no longer writing about people who have slunk low on the  humanity scale, I still need to  know who my characters are. So I still do mini psych profiles of them in order to get inside their heads while they are inside mine.

Okay, this is starting to sound like a Stephen King book premise….but I think you get my drift.

You can find many personality profiles on line if you like arm chair psych-pop, but you can also get insights from a few well known books as well. My three favs are:

Writer’s Guide to Character traits, by Linda N. Edelstein, PH.d

A Writer’s Guide to Characterization, by Victoria Lynn Schmidt

45 Master Characters, also by Victoria Lynn Schmidt,

You will get a wealth of knowledge and insights into internal and external motivations for characters’ responses, as well as an ability to track and assign personality traits to your characters, if you are in need of that knowledge.

Oh, and my own personality profile – the one I listed at the top of this page – it was spot-on accurate. You might want to click around on the link and find out how you are characterized, and discover just what it is exactly that makes you tick.

Eyeopening is a good way to describe how I felt when I read mine through. Eyeopening and maybe just a tad frightening as well.

 

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November 28, 2014 · 7:00 pm

No, it doesn’t take a village; it takes a …..library

 

There’s an old adage in surgery that goes “you see one, you do, you teach one.” Hey, why do you think they call it the “Practice of medicine?” Why am I telling you this medical saying when I usually blog about writing? I’m glad you asked.

No one can actually teach you how to write. You either have the innate, God-give talent, the desire to create pictures with words on the page, the all consuming need to tell your stories, intrinsically. It must be a part of your makeup, your creative DNA, so to speak. No, the talent of writing can’t be taught.

But you can learn the mechanics.

I’m a much better writer today than I was even yesterday ( and the years before) because of books and manuals I’ve studied which have helped and foster my ability to write.

I’ll admit I’m not the best speller in the world, sometimes my tenses get mixed up and I often tell you more than I show you in my stories.

But…

All those things can be taught, improved upon, and ultimately make you a better conveyor of the stories you need to tell.

I’ve listed some of my all time favorite manuals/books here; the ones that I’ve devoured and have helped me become a better writer, and which have helped me find the road to publication a little easier. If publication is your goal, you will not get past the very first reader/agent/editor, if your craft is shoddy and unpolished. Your work must be clean, mistake-free, and tell the reader/agent/editor that you are a writing force to be reckoned with.

Even the best and most prolific writers in the world need a refresher course every now and again.

Here’s my list. See if some of yours are on it. And let me now your favorites if you don’t them listed here.

G.G.C. Goal, Motivation and Conflict  by Debra Dixon

The Emotion Thesaurus, by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi

Writing the Synopsis by Pam McCutcheon

Show, Don’t Tell by William Noble

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November 18, 2014 · 12:46 pm

When is too much personal info, well, too much?

I read an interesting writers blog the other day which questioned how much of ourselves we should and should not put out there on social media sites. Here’s the link: http://www.brendamoguez.com/manic-modays/how-much-is-too-much-to-confess/

I’ve questioned myself numerous times over the past 10 months since I decided to make this writing career the next chapter in my life. In order to have a solid career in writing you need a following; a fan base; readers. Although I’m well-known in my town, I need more than the local peeps to build this base, so I’ve entered the social media realm.

I started with a website, then branched over to Facebook and Twitter. I’m LinkedIn and tumble on Tumblr. I pin on Pinterest and Googleplus myself into a frenzy. Keeping up with all these sites is a lot of work, and it got me to thinking: When is publicly divulging too much information about yourself, well, too much? 

My blog has an About Me page that lists 10 things you may or may not know about me – or let’s face it – you may not even care to know about me! There are ten millions more things I could have listed on there, but didn’t. Things such as, I read every Agatha Christie book published before I was 12; I didn’t go on a date until I was 21 and didn’t know at the time he was married. Married! (The jerk!) I didn’t go to prom in high school because I was so fat and so unpopular, no one asked me. I started going gray at 16 because of a genetic link that causes premature graying. While this stuff may be interesting to the people who love me, is it really interesting to the general book buying public?

There are things about us which we all have that we really don’t want people to know about  because they’re a little too revealing. And let’s face it: a little too close to deflating that precious ego we all have.

I’ve read twitterfeeds that detail everything the tweeter is doing, from going to work, to arriving, to getting a coffee, to the stomach cramps they have from not eating. And my question is always “Who the heck cares?” Who cares if I’m stuck in traffic? Who cares if I have a dentist appointment? Really, is this information ANYONE- except maybe a stalker – would want to know?

I tend to keep a lot of information close to the vest. That’s just me. I don’t need to know everything about a person when I meet them. I enjoy finding about them as the relationship progresses. And truly, isn’t there something written somewhere about how being mysterious is intriguing and beguiling? I certainly think that’s true.

So the question of when is too much personal info too much is just that: personal. We each decide how much or how little of ourselves we want “out there.”

For me, I prefer to divulge a little at a time, and give away nothing I would be embarrassed to get parroted back to me. Well, that one thing about dating the married man may have been too much to tell. But really, he was a jerk and we only went on two dates. That was one way too many in hindsight.

 

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November 13, 2014 · 1:51 pm

Almost half way thru NaNoWriMo…

30 days can be regarded in a number of ways. It’s a full month on a calendar ( if you disregard February and forget the 31 day months); it’s a little over 4 exact weeks; it’s a pay period for most workers, a menstrual cycle, and a billing rotation. It’s the amount of time most people set aside to get a haircut. Psychologists tell us in 30 days we can form new and better habits, changing out old, bad ones. Many contact lenses need to be replaced every 30 days, and you should really change some of your makeup monthly as well.

All those things can be done in 30 days. Most with relative ease.

What’s not so easy to do in 30 days is write a 50,000+ word novel/first draft.

Don’t get me wrong: it can be done. And has.

But it really isn’t that easy.

We’re almost at the halfway time mark of this year’s NaNoWriMo challenge. I’m doing well – better than I expected, really. Right now I’m sitting in my local Subaru dealer getting my car inspected and fixing a recall problem.

And I’m typing. At this moment – this blog entry. But until a minute ago I was working on my NaNo WIP. I’ve found I bring my laptop with me everywhere I go, including to work, and when I can manage it – lunch hours and breaks in the day, – I open my NaNo file and … go.

The goal of 50,000 words can seem daunting. For most, it is. But for people like us who write for a living/hobby/obsession, it’s not as bad as it seems.

Breaking it down to a little over 1500 words per day – or roughly 6-7 pages of  double spaced text – it can be done.

And remember – this is a first draft. It’s not the finished, polished, ready to submit one. That comes later with editing.

I find with this draft I usually do a lot of dialogue. I can always put in the subtext, tags, and descriptions later with the editing, but I like to know what my peeps are gonna say first and take the story from there. Dialogue comes quick to me – probably because I never shut up in real life! But seriously, whatever comes easiest for you – dialogue, exposition, description, or even backstory – go with it. Let it flow and let it go. Like I said, you can always go back later, after the challenge, and make it better.

But get those words on the page now. That’s what the important part of the challenge is. Training yourself to type everyday, to create on a  timeline, to focus your thoughts and words.

So, how far are you at this halfway mark?

 

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November 11, 2014 · 12:30 pm

Christmas is coming and you know what THAT means, don’tcha?

With the holiday season approaching in a ridiculously fast manner, there are a ton of new romance books out with Christmas themes. Books about Christmas brides, Christmas babies, Christmas engagements, even Christmas cowboys ( Yowza!) It got me thinking about why this time of year has such a plethora of romance-related reading material popping up.

Christmas is a time of rebirth, of joy, of giving thanks for the blessings in your life, and ultimately for celebrating Jesus’s birth – remember folks: Jesus is the reason for the season. It makes some kind of sense then that the Christmas baby book bonanza for romance novels is such a widely loved trope. An unexpected surprise is delivered on a doorstop one Christmas morning : a baby. A women who never thought she’d have a child suddenly finds she’s now the “mother” to a slew of nieces and nephews whose parents have been killed, or who have abandoned them. A Christmas miracle happens and a women becomes pregnant when up to this time she hasn’t been able.

Such are the themes of Christmas baby books.

The Christmas bride books are also a popular sell. I will admit this since most people know it already, but I got married the day after Christmas. A few distant relatives and some friends found this date horrific and chose not to attend my wedding due to obligations elsewhere. That was fine with me. I chose this date for a number of reasons which I won’t go into. But it turned out to be a great date for several reasons: 1. All of both our families were together celebrating the holidays; 2. I always pictured a winter wedding, complete with snow and Christmas finery; 3. The Church was already decked out for Christmas – so I didn’t have to pay extra for flowers and decorations ( I’m no dummy, folks, when it comes to saving money), and 4. I knew it was a date my husband wasn’t likely to ever forget was our anniversary.

Getting engaged on Christmas is the second date only to Valentine’s Day where the question is popped. Truly, is there a better present than an engagement ring, all new and sparkly and put on your finger by the guy you want to spend forever with?? I think not.

So, with the holiday rush beginning now that Halloween is but a memory, you will see a large number of new releases on the shelves ( both store and Kindle) with holiday themed covers and stories. I suggest you buy a few that hit your fancy because – trust me – they all have happily ever after endings ( something we all desire ) and they will all make you feel just a little happier during the holiday season.

A few of my favorite new Christmas themed releases this year:

Christmas in Cupid Falls, By Holly Jacobs

A Cowboy’s Christmas Promise, by Maggie McGinnes

The Twelve Brides of Christmas, from The Wild Rose Press

Merry Christmas Baby, by Jill Shalvis

 

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November 9, 2014 · 4:50 pm

Finding the funny…

There are times when I wonder why I can’t write as fast as I can think, and others when I wish I was a funnier writer.

I’m considered a wise-ass by most people who know me, and I won’t deny that descriptor at all. I can be bitingly sarcastic – but never cruel – and I’ve been known to make grown women  leave a dinner table and head for the ladies room just so they won’t pee in their pants from laughing.

I can be quick, biting, snarky, and sometimes guffaw-able, in real life.

But on the page, I die to find the funny.

Most humor is based on tragedy, or so the saying goes. Most of my humor is found in dumbass situations that happen everyday in my life. The Lucille Ball moments we all have at one time or another.

But when I’ve got characters I want to invest a little humor in, I’m lost.

Most of us know at least one person, an uncle, a friend, even a co-worker, who can take any situation and see the humor in it enough to make everyone around them laugh. These people are usually the “best-friends” in novels, like the Rosie O’Donnell character in Sleepless in Seattle. Always ready with a witticism – usually spot on and deadly – about whatever is occurring in the scene at hand. These characters lighten the mood, add realism to the situations in the book, and generally are well liked by readers.

Why, oh why, then, can I not write that person??

I’ve tried; believe me. The humor I’ve given my peeps sounds flat on the page and not funny at all. Writers like Jill Shalvis and Janet Evanovich can make me laugh out loud when I’m reading their work. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed at anything I’ve tried to write as funny.

I think it was famed actor Edmund Kean who said, “Dying (Tragedy) is easy; comedy is hard.”

Yup. Truth.

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November 4, 2014 · 10:20 am

Putting the “NO” in NaNoWriMo.

Day 3 of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)  has just finished for me. I am at 9716 words – not bad considering I had to work at my real paying job today. I don’t’ want to get boggled down in the numbers game, though,  because for me the real reason to do this challenge is to get into the habit of writing constructively every day. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

This challenge is the impetus many writers need to get them going, motivated, and excited about the task at hand: namely, writing the book of their heart. As writers, it is really important we write every day to keep our creative mind active and productive. I heard Nora Roberts explain it this way at conference recently. She was asked if she ever takes a vacation from writing. Her reply is why she is one of the greatest authors of all time. And one of the most prolific. She said, “Your writing is like a muscle. If you don’t work a muscle, if you don’t use it all the time, it starts to get weak and can deteriorate and even die.”

Wow.

Best analogy I’d ever heard for why writing every day is a must. I’ve mentioned before I write every day, whether it’s my blog, my WIP or even just editing some work I’ve already “finished.” To me, not writing is like not eating – I don’t think I could live if I didn’t do it!

So day 4 is about to start. Target goal today is at least 2500 words. Check back later to see if I made my goal.

Or exceeded it.

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November 2, 2014 · 12:28 pm

A Visit with Author Susan A. Wall

In celebration of National Novel Writing Month, or NANOWRIMO for short, I’d like to welcome multipublished author Susan A. Wall today as my guest blogger. I was lucky to meet Susan at a meeting of my local NHRWA chapter last year and I was immediately drawn to her. Her sense of humor ( bawdy and quick) coupled with her writing talent ( visit her website for a complete list of her extensive publications) and the fact that she loves purple and  Bon Jovi ( sigh!), made her someone I wanted to know. And I’m so glad I do. She’s blogging today about – what else?- NANOWRIMO. Her advice about, and insights into, the challenge are a worthwhile read. So without further ado…..here’s Susan!

                            Happy NaNoWriMo!!

No, that’s not some crazy alien greeting! It means us writers are in the midst of National Novel Writing Month, 30 days and night of literary abandon!

Every November, millions of writers put butts in chairs, fingers to keyboards, and ignore all other responsibility in an effort to write 50,000 words of a first draft novel.

Sound crazy? Maybe a little bit, but when you break down the numbers, it’s not so daunting.

I’m not a math whiz, but doing some simple calculations makes the goal of writing 50,000 words in 30 days seem doable. Let’s do some simple division.

50,000 words divided by 30 days equals 1667 words a day. 1667. That doesn’t sound so bad, right? But what does that look like on the page?

title

 

In MS Word, using the default ‘normal’ setting which is Times New Roman, 11 point, one inch margins and 1.15 line spacing, 1667 words is less than 3 pages.

Less than 3 pages! That doesn’t sound so daunting, does it? Can you write 3 pages a day? The only answer is, YES, you absolutely can.

Let’s be clear on what these 3 pages are.

Yes, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month, but the goal isn’t to write a beautifully polished, ready for publication novel in 30 days. If you can do that, Kudos to you, and I now worship the ground you walk on. For us mere mortals, no one, absolutely no one who matters, is expecting you to write a perfectly polished novel in 30 days. The point of NaNoWriMo is to write a first draft of a novel.

It’s okay to write garbage or complete and total crap. You’ll have time later to correct your grammar and spelling, to find all those redundant words, to put in the appropriate dialogue tags or hair color or weather or fragrance. If you can’t remember whether Sergei has green eyes or blue eyes, don’t worry about it. Fix it later. The goal now is to write. Write like the crazy person you are.

So you may be wondering whether I’m a plotter or pantser? By nature, I’m a pantser. I tried plotting once and my characters didn’t like the path I planned for them, so from day 1, they forged their own. I went with it. This is my 4th year participating in NaNoWriMo and I’m writing my very first romantic suspense titled Broken Strings. Since romantic suspense is a genre I’ve never written before, I’ve done a lot of planning. I’ve drafted the backstory for the hero, heroine, villain, and detective and come up with the premise and a list of horrible things that happen. I found myself wanting to outline, so I did and I’ve got the outline all plotted out in Scrivener. But (there’s always a big ole but) if once I start writing the story goes in a different direction, I’m okay with that. The plot is just Plan B.

 

Untitled  Are you curious about the story? Here’s the premise:

Best friends since college, witty and guarded Colleen Cooper and misguided playboy Jake Donovan have both sold out to propel Jake’s music career, but now they are trying to find success on their own terms. As a radio station DJ, Colleen has finally made a name for herself, but when Jake offers her the opportunity of a lifetime her own self-doubt and the anonymous threats she can’t escape have her second-guessing her qualifications and ability. Jake will do anything to prove to Colleen that he’s worth taking a chance on, but when the women around him start turning up dead, his reputation makes him the prime person of interest in the investigation, threatening his career and his future with Colleen.

I’ve had a successful history with NaNoWriMo. My first year, I wrote Too Many Daughters, a women’s fiction novel about three women who are all dealing with the loss of their fathers in very different but equally self-destructive ways and it is through their newly forged friendship that they finally start to heal. I wrote this story in just 20 days and I am hoping it finally goes to print next year.

My second year, I wrote The Sound of Circumstance, the 5th novel in my Puget Sound ~ Alive With Love contemporary romance series. This is the novel I plotted but the characters would have nothing to do with that plot and it went in an unexpected direction. I achieved 50,000 words in just 12 days. I swear that book wrote itself! In this story, Owen and Stacie must finally conquer the demons of their past in order to find the happily ever after they both so desperately want with each other. This book will be released in just a couple of months.

suanLast year, my third year, I opted not to plot and wrote The Sound of Reluctance, which will be the 6th book in my Puget Sound ~ Alive With Love series. I had major surgery mid-month, so it took me all 30 days to finish, but finish I did. In this story, lawyer Keith Nightingale visits Seattle to check up on his little sister. He doesn’t plan on meeting Holly Dion, a nursing student with a harsh past. He’s reluctant to get involved with a client, but can’t deny the way she makes his heart race. The emotional scars from Holly’s abusive ex-boyfriend have her worried that her attraction to Keith is more knight in shining armor than true love.

So that’s my NaNoWriMo experience in a nutshell. My life is crazy, but I was able to write these drafts by setting goals and making writing my priority. Do that and you’ll have a successful writing month!!

If you are participating in NaNoWriMo, I invite you to be one of my buddy’s (search for sawall) and I wish you the best of luck in writing with literary abandon!

Here’s a little treat, a snippet of the opening scene of my 2014 NaNoWriMo novel Broken Strings (you can read the opening lines that precede this part at Delilah Devlin’s blog):

Devon spun the gun around in his hand before offering it to her grip first. Colleen snagged the small weapon from his large hand and shoved it back into the holster clipped to her spandex shorts.

“Let me give you a ride home before you wreak more havoc in the park.”

Colleen turned away. “I ran here, I can run home.”

“Don’t argue with me. You terrified that couple when you pulled your gun and you’re lucky they aren’t pressing charges.”

“I’m lucky?” Colleen argued, turning back to him. “That woman ought to be thanking me for coming along when I did. Who knows what her boyfriend might have done to her if I hadn’t.”

“Couples argue. It doesn’t mean it will escalate to assault.”

She knew that, but her past made her a little … paranoid? Skiddish?

Defensive.

Yeah, that was a good descriptor and made her seem less crazy.

She stepped away, focusing on keeping her steps at a moderate pace, only to realize she was heading in the opposite direction from her apartment.

“Get in the damn car, Colleen.” The commanding tone of Devon’s voice was all cop, making her feel as if she was some criminal being detained. The couple she’d pulled the gun on stared at her, fear tightening the woman’s expression, annoyance the man’s. The woman still stood with her arms crossed and Colleen wondered what the source of the fear was. Intuition – maybe experience – told her the man was the source, but now that the adrenaline wasn’t assaulting Colleen any longer, she acknowledged pulling the gun on the couple could be what had scared the woman.

Colleen didn’t have a murderous bone in her body. Carrying the gun was a tool for self-preservation. It was loaded, but she doubted she could fire it at a person even if the situation called for such a thing. She turned away from the couple, surrendering to Devon’s command.

Holding the door, he gave Colleen space as she climbed into his badass black SUV. Everything about the man screamed cop, from the cropped haircut to the stiff posture beneath his department store suit, to the pimped out Tahoe.

As he put the cop-mobile in gear, the adrenaline plummeted and Colleen’s worst fears claimed her. She’d held it all at bay until now, knowing the panic attack was inevitable. Having it in Devon’s car was beyond humiliating.

“Just breathe through it,” he said, the commanding voice gone, replaced with something so much worse. The cop was easy to hate. The empathetic guy she’d once cared about, not so much.

“I don’t … need … your help,” she managed between gasps.

You can read more of this scene over at Susan’s blog on November 4th!

suasnwall     Big dreamer and certifiable overachiever Susan Ann Wall embraces life at full speed and volume. She’s a beer                                                             and tea snob, can be bribed with dark chocolate, and the #1 thing on her bucket list is to be the center of a Bon                                                           Jovi flash mob.

Susan is a multi-genre author of racy, rule-breaking romance, women’s fiction, and erotic fiction (her erotic titles are published as Ann Victor). Her bragging rights include nine books in three different series, three perfect children, and a happily ever after with her Hero Husband that started while serving in the U.S. Army and has spanned nearly two decades (which is crazy since she’s not a day over 29).

In her next life, Susan plans to be a 5 foot 10, size 8 rock star married to a chiropractor and will not be terrified of large bridges, spiders, or quiet people (shiver). She’s a member of NHRWA, RWA-WF, RomVets, NHWP, NEIW, and WREN.

Her latest releases include The Sound of Deception (4th novel in her Puget Sound ~ Alive With Love contemporary romance series) and Quitting the Boss (3rd novella in Ann Victor’s Behind Office Doors erotic series), available in paperback and all ebook formats.

 

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Websites: http://www.susanannwall.com and www.annvictor.com

Facebook: Author Susan Ann Wall and Ann Victor Author

Twitter: @susanannwall and @annvictorauthor

www.goodreads.com/susanannwall

 

 

 

 

 

 

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