Category: Books

Reader’s Review: Gentle Rogue by Johanna Lindsey

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Title: Gentle Rogue

Author: Johanna Lindsey

Format: Paperback

Page Count: 426 pages

Publisher: Avon

Reviewer: Sabrena

Gentle Rogue is a journey over the seas in a love story between aristocrat James Malory, the blacksheep of the Malory family, and American Georgina Anderson, the youngest sister of five over-protective brothers. Lindsey keeps her readers enthralled with an arrogant ex-pirate who prefers to get his way using his wit or fists, and a well-bred lady disguised as a cabin boy. This romance between a devilish rogue and a stubborn young woman is filled with witty, humorous dialogue and unpredictable action.

WD’s Editorial Tip: This novel is part of a series, The Malory Novels. Lindsey shows the story of a different hero and heroine in each Malory novel, the one constant being an appearance by the handsome Malory brothers.  This is a great series to study characterization to learn how to: 1) age your characters, 2) write dialogue with multiple characters, and 3) interact well-loved characters with new characters.

Writer’s Wednesday: Thoughts on Writing by Author Jackie Griffey

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Today, please help me welcome mystery author, Jackie Griffey! We’re so happy to have her with us here on The Editing Essentials!

Jackie Griffey’s family live in Arkansas on five acres that require keeping all the John Deere equipment (and their muscles) in good shape. Outside their home sharing the seed and feed but not the muscle strain, are wild bunnies, birds and other extremely independent beings. Inside, Jackie and her family are owned by two cats and a four inch high Chihuahua who thinks she’s a watch dog, has to keep the cats in line, and has a long list of things to bark at. Griffey writes in several fiction genres, her favorite being cozy mysteries.  Mardi Gras Murder and The Devil in Maryvale audio books will be out  Dec. 15, 2012. Visit her website: http://jackiegriffey.com/ or the links for her books here:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005FM7XGC  and http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004E3XH50

This is a great time to be a writer, and being an optimist, I hope it’s going to get even better. With all the opportunities now open to us, we have all kinds of opportunities to publish ourselves. These of course include in print but also digital books and audio books as well. Right now, it’s easy to get discouraged about the number of ebooks being published because there are so many free ones on the market and well, you know what shape the economy’s in. No wonder people are looking for free ones, and of course we authors are trying to get name recognition as well. I think my best sales tools are the books that people have read and liked so they bought others in the series of the novel they liked. (There’s a tip: to get your work out and keep in touch with other writers and groups, too. )

The first thing you need to write is the desire to write. So sit down and get started. If you don’t already have a basically optimistic attitude and the hide of a Rhino, you soon will have. I don’t think it’s a written requirement anywhere that you  have to have enough form letter refusals to paper a room, but everyone I know has them–don’t give up.

Right now I’ve managed to get nearly all my rights back and I’m still writing ebooks, still have some in print, and have had one audio for quite a while, plus there are three (yes, 3) audio books coming out Dec. 15 just in time for Christmas.

One of the brightest things in my days this week came from a fellow writer and reader. She was glad to hear about my audios coming out in December because she gets audios from the library and plays them as she does her housework. So know this, and rejoice–people like them and libraries do, too. Bless her heart for sharing that and making me feel good. Fellow readers and writers, audios are not only here to stay, people like them and listen to them. They are good improvements in publishing–so feel good, have fun, and write on. Good luck, good reading, and listening to all of us.

Thank you, Jackie, for being with us today. She’ll be with us all day if you have questions or comments for her. Thank you!

Writer’s Wednesday: Look Who’s Talking With Nebula-Award Winning Author Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

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I’m so excited to have Elizabeth Ann Scarborough at The Editing Essentials! I’ve admired her tenacity and determination to be a successful author for a long time. She never gives up, no matter what the circumstances. Back in 2004, I was thrilled when she wrote a story for my anthology, You Bet Your Planet. Please help me welcome her today!

Elizabeth Ann Scarborough is the author of 38 fantasy/science fiction books, 24 solo novels including the Nebula-award winning HEALER’S WAR and 16 in collaboration with Anne McCaffrey, including the two most recent, CATALYST and CATACOMBS, Tales of the Barque Cats. Her most recent novel is THE TOUR BUS OF DOOM, set in a town suspiciously like Port Townsend. It’s her third story featuring the heroic Spam the cat, and is a spoof on the zombie craze. The first book SPAM VS THE VAMPIRE is the first of the “purranormal” mysteries. Bridging the novels is the novelette, FATHER CHRISTMAS. Please visit her website at: http://www.eascarborough.com/

Look Who’s Talking

The most important thing I need to know when I write a story is whose story it is. In fact, sometimes the viewpoint is the story when the plot is a familiar or classic one and the usual cast of characters is as time-worn as the Velveteen Rabbit’s fur. There aren’t all that many plots, after all, and none of them are actually new–or haven’t been for a very long time. But the stories we want to tell, and the ones readers gravitate towards, have certain universal elements that make them familiar.

If the central viewpoint is enlightening and informative of an entirely different facet of a story, it can actually make it new, suggesting an entirely different series of events than the original. Reinventing the villain from the Wizard of Oz, Gregory MaGuire created Wicked, the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (The Wicked Years). As Elphaba’s thoroughly grown-up tale, it becomes not only one different Oz-ish story but a series of them almost as extensive as the original Oz books. Elphaba isn’t thoroughly wicked, and those characters we’ve previously seen as thoroughly good, turn out simply to have had good press.

On a less complex level, other fairytales are often retold from a different character’s viewpoint to try to shake up a stereotype and allow readers to rediscover the tale from a new angle. Cinderella has been written, acted and sung from the viewpoint, at least partially, of the wicked stepsisters and their mother. In the past year, two different movies were made about Snow White, who may have been the protagonist, but the wicked queen, her stepmother, was the interesting, glamorous one. The reinvention of her character for Julia Roberts was brilliant and put a modern, accessible twist on the role that it never would have had if told only from Snow White’s viewpoint.

The “villain” usually doesn’t see himself or herself as a bad person, and neither should the writer when telling their versions of the story. It’s very possible the hero and the villain simply have different goals in life, or different interests in certain outcomes. We probably all know someone who has a lot of “bad luck” although there is never, according to them, anything they did to bring it upon themselves. They were either justified, victimized by circumstances, or someone was plotting against them.

Your characters don’t have to be totally good or wicked to see things in such dramatically different ways as to set them at odds with each other.

I had a very nice mother, but her memory of certain events we both attended is so unlike mine that they might not have been the same occasions. If we were characters in one of my stories, I’d try to understand why she saw it her way as well as why I saw the same incident so differently.

That kind of conflict is certainly less dramatic than the fairytale kind and yet can be used to good effect if one bears in mind how annoying and baffling it can be to have people you thought you knew and even liked behave in ways you consider immoral or selfish, as in The Help, while they disapprove of you just as strongly.

I do admire an author who can capture the nuances of human nature accurately and use them to turn a plot at the same time. M.C. Beaton, aka Regency romance writer Marion Chesney, writes a series of contemporary mysteries that’s fun partially because it counters traditionally romantic stories while retaining a sense of reality.

The heroine, Agatha Raisin, a successful ad exec now a detective, is always falling madly for some good looking man, and at least two of them are interested in her only when she stops stalking them, and starts stalking murderers. There’s nothing remotely like a romantic novel romance in Agatha’s life, but there is friendship and admiration, unexpected emotional support when she least expects it and sometimes fleeting mutual lust. It isn’t done cynically but it seems very true.

The mysteries themselves aren’t nearly as involving as the characters. By now we all know that if the killer isn’t a psycho nut job it’s someone who stands to gain through love, or more probably money. But Agatha’s character makes it fun again, and ventilates scenarios that otherwise might be a bit stale.

Less specifically, but still of great practical benefit, understanding your characters and writing them as if they were real people with their own memories of events can be very helpful in submitting stories to theme anthologies. I edited four and published stories to about fifty more.

For instance, in an anthology about Warrior Princesses, which I proposed during a time when Xena was very popular, each contributing writer had a distinct idea about what a warrior princess was. I was particularly floored by a two page submission from a friend who hasn’t written another story before or since, about a retirement home for aging warrior princesses, as told through correspondence between the facility and Her Fierce Highness’s anxious adult daughter. Absolutely ridiculous and yet well enough grounded in familiar concerns that I felt that if there were real warrior princesses, of course they would need a specialized retirement home.

In Anne McCaffrey’s touching story, The Ship Who Sang, Helva, the heroine, is challenged about whether or not she has been trained to have a sense of humor. “We are directed to develop a sense of proportion, sir, which contributes the same effect.”

As writers, it’s up to us to find our characters’ perspectives.

One other thing. While it’s necessary to have speeches properly attributed in dialogue, if you can tell who’s speaking by what each character is saying and how he or she is saying it, it is very successful dialogue.

Thank you, Elizabeth, for your sharing your tips and being with us today! 🙂 If you have questions for her, please feel free to post. Thank you!

 

Essay by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, © 2012.

 

Reader Review: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

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Reader Review: Reading non-fiction can be just as entertaining as fiction.

Title:                 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Author:             Rebecca Skloot

Version:            Paperback

Genre:              Nonfiction

Publisher:         Crown Publishing

Reviewer:         Stewart

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a nonfiction book that engages the reader as grippingly as a good novel. Skloot was sixteen when she heard about HeLa cells, which in 1951 had been grown from the cancer of a woman named Henrietta Lacks. The cells had the unexplained ability to replicate in tissue culture “forever,” and they provided the basis for thousands of important scientific studies during the following decades. Yet nothing was known of Henrietta Lacks. This story stayed with Skloot through college and graduate school and led to her 10-year research for this book–the story not only of Henrietta and her family, but also of the doctors who treated her, the scientists who developed and used her cells, the journalists who, during the 1970’s, sensationalized her story without regard to the privacy or feelings of the family, and the impact of all of this on family members.

Henrietta and her family were poor and black, deprived of education, work, and other opportunities in Baltimore, where Jim Crow in the 1950’s was still strong. Most hospitals did not offer care to black patients, and Henrietta received “charity” care in the “colored” sections of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Medical care was primitive by today’s standards and medical research was even more so. Communication between doctors and patients was governed by the notion that the all-powerful doctor was obliged to tell patients only what he felt was in the patient’s interest. “Informed consent” did not cross the minds of early clinical researchers, who conducted many potentially harmful studies on patients without their knowledge. Henrietta received standard radiation treatment (with severe side effects) and died 6 months after her diagnosis. Her medical care was not unusual; it was an example of how bad care was for everyone, especially poor people.

But Skloot doesn’t stop there. She describes medical progress (through the lens of HeLa cellular research) during the following years, as well as the efforts to improve communication with patients and their families, including Henrietta’s family.

The stories are complicated, but Skloot writes with feeling and an eye for detail that keeps the different narratives lively and connected. For me the book was a page-turner.

WD’s Editorial Tip: This is a good example of a nice balance of medical research and storyline so the reader learns about the topic at hand, but can also take away the hard lessons learned about the people in the story.

Writer’s Wednesday: New Mystery Author, M.E. May

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Today I’d like to introduce new author, M.E. May. I had the pleasure of editing her novel, Perfidy, published by True Grit Publishing, an imprint of Weaving Dreams Publishing, and I’m so excited to have her join us today! Please help me in welcoming M.E. May to The Editing Essentials.

M. E. May was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, and now lives near Chicago with her husband, Paul, and Husky, Iris. Her two children and four wonderful grandsons all live in central Indiana. She studied Social and Behavioral Sciences at Indiana University, where she learned about human nature and social influence on behavior as well as finding her talent for writing. Her first novel, Perfidy, is a crime thriller in which a young woman’s desperate search for her missing mother reveals long held secrets and lies that will change her life forever. This the first book in M. E. May’s Circle City Mystery Series. To learn more, visit her website at: http://www.memay-mysteries.com

WD:    Did you choose the genre, or did the genre choose you?

MEM: That’s an interesting question. I would say the latter. For many years, I told myself I had a book in me. At one point, I contemplated writing a comical piece about the dating world. Anyone who’s been out there knows what I mean.

One of my favorite genres is fantasy, but I believe it takes a special person to create a new world like in JRR Tolkein’s The Hobbit, and Lord of the Rings.

The mystery genre chose me, because this is where my talents flourish. My interests in psychology, sociology, and criminal justice prevail. It’s been an interesting journey from reading and trying to solve a mystery to creating the clues that lead readers to a solution. Through this process, I’ve learned a great deal about police procedure, forensics, private investigation, and much more that I may not have taken the time to research had I not been creating these novels.

 

WD: What was your inspiration for Perfidy? A person, place, an event? How did you get started?

MEM: In 2008, my husband and I agreed I should leave my full-time job and take a year to get started on writing. I will admit, it took several months for me to really sink my teeth into it once I had the premise for Perfidy.

In 2007, Lisa Stebic and Stacy Peterson disappeared without a trace. These types of cases don’t generally stay in the news very long, but Stacy’s husband was quite verbal. As a police officer, he apparently didn’t feel a need for discretion. He continually proclaimed his innocence and claimed that Stacy took off with another man.

The situation of a police officer’s wife going missing was the spark which brought the idea behind Perfidy alive. Of course, my imagination took over and my story doesn’t end the way many feel Lisa and Stacy’s story end.

I used Indianapolis as my setting because it’s my hometown and I know it well. The police department there has been great about answering any questions regarding police procedure. The Indianapolis governmental website, www.indy.gov, carries a lot of good information about how the city governmental offices are structured and provide good contact information.

I try to keep it real. I want an Indianapolis police officer to read Perfidy and be able to tell others, “That M. E. May really knows her stuff.”

WD:    I understand Perfidy is the first novel in a series. Are you afraid the series will become dull or difficult to write after a while?

MEM: When I designed this series, I decided to create it so that there was a different protagonist in each subsequent book. You will see many of the predominate characters in each book, but the focus will be on someone different.

For example, Perfidy centers around Mandy Stevenson. She is the daughter of Captain Robert Stevenson, the Commander of the Homicide and Robbery Division. In Perfidy, you will meet several police officers from Homicide and from the Missing Persons Unit. One of the homicide detectives, Erica Barnes, will be the protagonist in book two of the Circle City Mystery Series, entitled Inconspicuous (to be released in September 2013).

WD:    If you could be any of the characters in your novel, who would you be?

MEM: The protagonist, Mandy Stevens. She is a mixture of my personality traits and beliefs. However, she also has a strength I wished I had possessed at her age. Although a bit naïve as are most twenty-two year olds, she has a confidence and determination I admire.

WD:    Is it more difficult for you to write: good characters or bad characters? And why?

MEM: “Good” characters are harder for me. Although they are the “good guys,” they are human and cannot be perfect or they will not be realistic. They must have flaws. As a reader, I like characters with depth. In order for me to relate or to decide how I feel about a character, I must have those elements which irritate me about them as well as those that endear them to me.

The “bad guy” is much easier. No one is supposed to like him/her. It also gives me the opportunity to look at the world through a different type of mind. That’s not to say the reader won’t feel some sympathy for the antagonist, depending upon what has led him/her to commit the crime. Someone who is having a psychotic break with reality would gain more sympathy than a sociopath who has no regret for what he/she has done.

WD:    How do you feel about writing short stories?

MEM:  When I started this venture, I entered several flash fiction contests. Many of those only allowed 500 words, some less. I found that very difficult. I believe I am just one of those people who cannot tell a story without going into a lot of detail.

Then I joined the Speed City Chapter of Sisters in Crime. They asked if I would write a short story for their upcoming anthology called Hoosier Hoops and Hijinx. I was hesitant at first as I lacked confidence in my ability to produce an adequate story in short form. However, they allowed me 7,500 words and somehow the story just flowed. They have accepted my story, “Uncle Vito and the Cheerleader” and the anthology will be released in October 2013. This may have been the boost I needed to give short stories another shot.

WD:    Have you thought about crossing genres, or writing a stand alone?

MEM: I think a stand-alone is a possibility, but I don’t have anything in mind at the moment. I’ve thought about another series about a private investigator, but that’s still in the planning stages. Crossing genres—at this point, I don’t see it happening. As I said earlier, my interests lie in areas that mesh with the mystery genre. I believe writing these stories is my destiny.

Thank you so much for sharing with us today! If you have questions for M.E., feel free to post comments for her. She’ll be with us all day. Thank you!

It by Stephen King

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Reader Review: Sometimes it’s great to reread a book that’s been out for a while, or discover it for the first time. 🙂

Author:                Stephen King
Title:                    It
Pages:                 1090

Version:              Paperback

Genre:                 Horror

Publisher:            Signet

Reviewer:            Michael

 

Evil happens in small town Derry, Maine when seven 6th graders go up against an entity. To some, this entity appears as a clown, and to others their own worst nightmare. It feeds on their fears. Then, after twenty-eight years of success, these individuals have to face it again. Will they be able to escape the horrors from their past?

In my opinion, this is Stephen King’s best novel. What compelled me to continue reading was the way the characters were portrayed, the sacrifice, and the pure evil of the villain. King’s flashbacks are seamless. I recommend it to anyone who is looking for an intriguing read.

WD’s Editorial Note: For writers looking to learn how to write flashbacks, this is a great novel to study.

Writer’s Wednesday Guestblogger: New Author Greta Buckle

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I’m happy to introduce new author, Greta Buckle, as our guest today. I met Greta through Brenda Novak’s Online Auction for Diabetes Research. We’ve worked together on several projects, and it was a real pleasure for me to work with her on today’s feature novel, Mything You. It’s been a pure joy to get to know her and watch her grow as a writer. Please welcome Greta!

Greta Buckle grew up in Irish Catholic Boston before moving to the Miami sun. She’s worked in engineering, then in law. After realizing she hates clients, she became a high school teacher. Teaching is fun, but writing is her passion. She wrote one hundred and one fan fiction stories online before deciding to transition into writing her own stories. Never ask her about republishing her fan stories from age eleven- horribly written stories of princesses. Greta dreams of writing full-time, where her barista can make her coffee, and a walk on the beach can motivate her tales. The ‘Theseus’ story came to her when she was a freshman in high school when her English teacher, a nun, told her how life was hard and tragedy teaches lessons. The sci-fi stories come from years of Star Trek and Star Wars fandom. Greta’s love of writing has kept her centered and focused. How is she crazy? The voices in her head are characters in novels, and she’s not insane. Visit her website at: http://gretabuckle.com/

What event/person made you interested in writing? 

There wasn’t one event, exactly. I spent years and years writing fan fiction as a mental release. I wanted to tell stories not seen on TV. What happened to me to write full length novels was a realization. I was unhappy with my life, and no book told the story I wanted to see. I was so tired of not reading the story I wanted to read, then I realized why not write your own? I wrote it, finished, then asked myself what do I do now? This set off my interest in pursuing more. Do you know my eighth grade class in the yearbook voted I would most likely be a writer? My reaction then was to go home and cry. In my head I thought writers lived in the fortress of solitude like Superman’s home and never got to go outside. Such a strange reaction! I giggle over this now.

What made you interested in the Greek myths?

My family are nerds. My sister and brother had an argument in the ancient ruins of Rome over the Latin translation they were both doing there. At the dinner table we might discuss who killed who during the French Revolution. And, my father is a huge history and science fiction fan. Unlike most of my friends, I tended to know every story in the Bible and myths. Plus I took a class on the classics in high school. Either way, I’m a nerd and I love the stories.

What was your inspiration for Mything You?

I came home from a writers’ conference in Chicago, then I saw an open call for stories on Ancient Athens or Rome. They were looking for dark and gritty with more sex, so it wasn’t like my novel at all. Unlike the 50 Shades novels, I won’t write what I don’t feel. I was pumped from the conference, and the thoughts of the Ancient world had me buzzing. I penned the outline. I wrote the first chapter. Then I watched a movie starring Theseus to confirm… no my story is nothing like that movie at all. Good. At that point, I penned the story. I wanted to retell an ancient myth as a romance, and, of course, the characters had to be young. Theseus is in search of his father, and thirty year old men aren’t looking for adventure the same way a newly turned man is. In my rendition, love helps him win everything.

Tell us about your characters–Theseus and Ariande. How did you come up with these characters? Were your characters–the way they act in your novel– inspired by anyone specifically?

I wish I knew someone on an epic adventure. I’d have joined them. In my head I saw Theseus as an Indiana Jones, or Prince of Persia type character. The man on his journey, larger than life action hero intrigues me and grabs my attention. He’s on a mission, and will accomplish his goals.

Ari had to be strong-willed in order to keep up with Theseus. She was not to be weak and she’s not going to kill herself because a man might leave her. Vulnerable, yet strong. Not just the hero must save her girlfriend, but she’s not the kick butt, doesn’t need a man because she’s strong and hard either. Guess I was going for Drew Barrymore type in Charlie’s Angels, which is hard to mix. She’s strong yet soft.

What else can you share about yourself personally?

I worked from high school, through college, and after in the Engineering department of a major company. In high school, I made the photo copies of the plats. Talk about bored! I decided to go to law school. Think Legally Blond, though I’m not blond. In school, I thrived. I tutored people on course work. Then I had to get a job in the legal field. I had to meet clients… with problems…eww. Yes, I met interesting people, and I met lawyers who worked their entire lives, giving eighty hours a week, to Lady Justice and the reward was a huge alcohol bill and a lonely life. I couldn’t live like that either. So, again, I quit, and became a teacher. While teaching is a rewarding job, it’s not everything I want. Writing is the one constant in my life.

I have a cat, and his name is Anakin Skywalker though he’s yet to display any evil tendencies, at all. I’m excited about the Disney merger and new Star Wars movies.

I’m not married, no children, etc. But I do have two parents, two sisters and a brother. One sister has read my stuff, but the rest of the family hasn’t. I love my family, but I always call them the crazy Scorpio nest. Everyone but me, the exception, are all water signs, mostly Scorpios. I’m the odd one in the family. But if anyone knows Scorpios, you know they are intense. Growing up in that household meant living in a constant state of defensive warfare. Shouldn’t shock anyone I’ve turned to writing.

What is your plan for future novels?

Writing has taken over my life. Let’s see I’m penning a sci-fi short, which Brittiany, my editor, doesn’t know about yet. I always wanted to write my own version of Star Trek, but for that to happen you must have a ship full of interesting characters.

I’m writing a sequel right now for Haemon and Antigone. If anyone is familiar with the classics, I will state now, Antigone will not die. I never thought she should have. I’m mixing Antigone and Haemon’s love story with the original tragedy and the Seven Against Thebes myths. Add in a love story. Minus out the tragedy, and I’ve set up a nice war for a city state.

But what I’m really excited about is how we’re getting to work on my contemporary fantasy mixing in the Greek Gods to modern age, with a science fiction, Ancient Aliens angle. One epic bad guy. Seven love stories that must be told to break a curse and restore powers. This is the story that made me want to write. It started with the question, what if you were a god or had super powers, but you never knew it? You lived an ordinary life, never accessing your potential.

Which authors do you enjoy reading?

This is a hard question. I read so many throughout the years. This is the equivalent of ‘the what’s your favorite movie’ question. My dad worked for Warner Brothers before I was born. I’ve seen thousands and read even more than that. If I state Julia Quinn, Nora Roberts, JK Rowling, I skip a hundred more.

Thank you, Greta, for sharing with us today! If you’d like to leave a comment for her, she’ll be checking in throughout the day. Thank you!

 

Reader Reviews!

Written Dreams

Captured by a Cowboy by Jean Barrett:

Captured by a Cowboy is one of those stories that actually transports you to the Old Wild West, making you feel like you’re there with the characters. The main characters play off one another nicely, each having their own mysterious background and internal conflicts. This story is an all-around fantastic book, and I highly recommend it!

–Sabrena

Writer’s Wednesday: Introducing Cheryl Yeko

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Today our special guest is Cheryl Yeko. Cheryl is relatively new to the publishing world and wanted to share her experiences. She is a Wisconsin author. Visit Cheryl’s website at: http://www.cherylyeko.com/ or contact her through the social media sites: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProtectingRose, Twitter: https://twitter.com/cherylyeko, or Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5406425.Cheryl_Yeko

My writing journey was swift and exhilarating, and my head is still spinning. My life quickly immersed into the world of writing. I love it! But, there have been surprises and setbacks along the way.

When I was younger, I devoured romance novels. My problem was that once I started a novel, I found it impossible to put it down until I reached the happily-ever-after. As such, as life’s struggles crept in, I found the time spent reading was interfering with work and family. I went cold turkey, and stopped reading novels altogether. A decision I now sometimes regret, but it is what it is. Whatchagonna do?

Then a few years back, my husband bought me a Kindle and I rediscovered my love of all things romance. My children are grown so I now found the time to read. Two years later, I finally came up for air and decided to try to write a novel. So, I checked out some books from the library, signed up for some online classes and began my manuscript on PROTECTING ROSE. I spent the next eight months writing my novel. When I had finished it, I was clueless on what to do next. I found the local RWA group in Milwaukee and joined. I also joined a critique group, which I think is an essential writing tool.

That’s when I realized I had written my novel in a passive voice, instead of an active voice. A newbie mistake that most new writers make. I spent three months fixing this issue, as well as tweaking overused words and learning the ‘romance’ language. I even entered my WIP (work in progress) in some contests, receiving some really nice feedback, and finaled in the 2011 Launching a Star Contest. I submitted PROTECTING ROSE to three publishers, and received two offers. The coolest thing I’ve learned is that the very weakness that caused me to stop reading romance novels years ago, is now my greatest strength. My muse is always active.

PROTECTING ROSE won the 2012 Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence. What a thrill! I was hopeful that the New York Times bestselling list was next. LOL! Well, color me naïve.… But, it was still awesome to be recognized by my peers! PROTECTING ROSE was released in paperback in October, so, we’ll see how that goes. I have to say, it is really cool to hold a book in my hand that I wrote, and I’m looking forward to conducting some book signings in the near future.

PROTECTING ROSE has garnered some nice attention, and I’ve actually grown a decent fan base, but it still tends to get lost in cyberspace among the many, many other novels offered on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I had no concept of all the marketing activities being an author would entail, and I’m still struggling to wrap my mind around that. But, if you don’t market your books, you can expect your novel to fall into the novel wasteland. Isn’t that a song? If not, it should be!

My latest release A MAN TO TRUST is based on a double murder trial that I sat on as a juror last summer. Of course, the romance is totally made up, but the details of the crime are based on what I learned over the two weeks of trial. I plan to market more strategically and consistently from here on out! No. really, I mean it ;>)

The characters in A MAN TO TRUST are loosely based on individuals involved in the case as well. I built a romance between the lead detective on the case, and the widow of one of the murdered drug dealers. How fun is that!

This is the second book, in a series of three. The first, PROTECTING ROSE, was my debut novel and released last December. A MAN TO TRUST came out October 24th this year. My third novel planned for this series is Rick and Sheila’s story, (no title yet) who are both characters from PROTECTING ROSE. Rick is also in A MAN TO TRUST. My plan is to complete the arc and bring all the characters together one last time. This time, Rick gets the girl!

Thank you, Cheryl, for being our guest today! If you have questions or comments for Cheryl, she’ll be with us all day. Thank you!

Writer’s Wednesday Meet Alice Duncan, Author of the Spirits’ Series

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We’re so excited to have Alice Duncan as our guest today. I first worked with Alice a few years ago on one of her earlier Daisy Gumm Majesty Spirits’ novels. I fell in love with Daisy instantly. I, at that time in my life, had never met a character like her. I enjoyed reading about her adventures, and got sucked into her world–in a good way. Daisy is full of spunk–just like Alice is in real life. We worked together on Hungry Spirits, Genteel Spirits, and High Spirits, and it was one of most enjoyable times in my editing career. If you enjoy female characters who never give up, check out the books about Daisy Gumm Majesty and Alice’s other novels. Maybe next time we’ll learn about how she came up with Mercy. 🙂

Award-winning author Alice Duncan lives with a herd of wild dachshunds (enriched from time to time with fosterees from New Mexico Dachshund Rescue) in Roswell, New Mexico. She’s not a UFO enthusiast; she’s in Roswell because her mother’s family settled there fifty years before the aliens crashed. Alice no longer longs to return to California, although she still misses the food, not to mention her children, one there and the other who is in Wyoming. Alice would love to hear from you. You can contact her at alice@aliceduncan.net or visit her website at www.aliceduncan.net or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/alice.duncan.925

I’m sure everyone’s heard authors are always asked where their ideas come from. Truth to tell, I can’t remember anyone ever asking me that question. Go figure.

However, I love writing stories set in the 1920s, because the era is so fascinating. Think about it: the War to End All Wars had just ended (unfortunately, WWI didn’t end all wars); people were freaked out; the entire world was floundering in a depression; a gigantic influenza epidemic had wiped out almost a quarter of the world’s population (and this, right after the war); young people were feeling as if nothing mattered (read F. Scott Fitzgerald if you don’t believe me); they began rebelling in earnest, drinking and dancing to *jazz* and frittering their lives away, thereby freaking out their parents; the Volstead Act was passed, making the distilling and selling of liquor illegal (thus spawning an era of violence almost worse than what we’d been through in the war). People were struggling to make sense of a world that just didn’t seem to make sense any longer. It’s an absolutely fascinating era.

Anyway, something rather interesting occurred several years before I began writing novels, and I used the experience in my “Spirits” books, starring Daisy Gumm Majesty, spiritualist extraordinaire, who supports her husband and herself in Pasadena, California, in the early 1920s. Daisy’s sixth book, ANCIENT SPIRITS, was published in January 2012. You can read all about it here: www.aliceduncan.net

A long, long time ago (well, maybe twenty years or so), my daughter Robin and her then-boyfriend went to a yard sale in Pasadena, CA, where they found an old, beat-up Ouija board. They decided to pay the fifty cents the yard-sale person was asking for it. When they did so, the person said, “Be careful of that thing.” Naturally, Robin and Otto (the boyfriend in question) thought she was joking.

So they took the Ouija board back to Robin’s apartment and started playing with it. The board came with the usual triangular planchette, and Robin and Otto sat across from each other and placed their fingers lightly on the planchette. Instantly, the planchette moved to the letters painted in a double crescent above the numbers on the board. In astonishment, Robin and Otto watched as the planchette spelled out, “Mom Mom Mom Mom Mom.” Nothing else. Just “Mom Mom Mom Mom Mom.”

A little freaked, Robin brought the board to my house. Not that she thought the board was asking for me. She just thought maybe if she used it in another location, it might be more informative. So we sat in my living room, the Ouija board on a table between us, settled our fingers lightly on the planchette and asked if there was a spirit in the room. The planchette zoomed to the word “Yes” in the upper left corner. Robin and I stared at each other for a second, then we both shrugged and asked if the board’s spirit could enlighten us about the curious incident of the “Mom Mom Mom Mom Mom” thing.

The spirit seemed to have a little trouble communicating, but it could answer yes-or-no questions. Eventually, Robin and I learned that a troubled young man used to live in Robin’s apartment building. We never did learn who the young man was, but he clearly had a mother problem. We’d already kind of figured that out. Then, because we were still curious, we asked the spirit his name. Very slowly, the planchette spelled out “Rolly.” Rolly? Strange name. So we asked it more questions.

Honest to God, it turned out (if you believe in these things) that Rolly has been with me all my life. According to him, we were married in the eleventh century in Scotland. We had five sons together. Sounds ghastly to me, but Rolly claimed we were soul mates, and he’d be with me forever. Both Robin and I agreed that, if you have to be haunted by a spirit, it’s kind of nice if it’s one that adores you. In my personal case, given my history with men in this life, it’s also probably a good thing that he’s been dead for a thousand years.

Because I was puzzled by Rolly’s inability to spell well, I asked him about this deficit in his education (trying to be very polite about it). Turned out Rolly was a soldier, and in Scotland back then, soldiers didn’t need no schooling. They needed to be able to be really, really strong and kill people. So. Okay. Not only did I have a soul mate following me through my life (or my many lives, if you believe those things), but I, who write books for a living (well, all right, I don’t. But I’ve had a bunch of books published, and if there was any fairness in the world I’d be earning a living at it), have an illiterate forever devotee. Gotta love it.

By the way, my half-brother once told me that spiritualism runs in the family. When he was a little boy, his mother and aunts used to drag him to séances all the time. Whenever there was a bump in the house, his mom would tell him, “Oh, it’s just Edna.” Edna had died several years earlier. I didn’t know about this until after my first Daisy books were published.

Anyhow, when Daisy Gumm Majesty appeared in my cluttered brain in 2002 or thereabouts and told me she was a phony spiritualist in Pasadena, California, in 1921, I decided to give her Rolly. What the heck, y’know? Why should I have all the fun?

Thank you, Alice, for being our guest today, and sharing with us how Daisy and Rolly came about. If you have questions for Alice, she’ll be with us all day. Please help us in congratulating her on having two novels–Genteel Spirits and Fallen Angels becoming  2012 finalists at the New Mexico Book of the Year awards.