How cold?

It registered at -5 this morning when I took the eldest belle to catch her train for college. I don't do cold, in fact for most of this week my brain and my fingers have been frozen. Not helpful when I'm incredibly busy both with the day job, my writing and with the belle's stuff.
Making Waves will be released a week tomorrow! Eek, this is the reprint from A Taste of Summer but I am so excited about it being back out there. Astraea Press Go Herelaunches tomorrow with it's first titles going on sale. If you like sensual romance that's firmly on the sweet side then head over there and check out the titles.
The finishing touches are being applied to another writing project I have cooking and there'll be an announcement about that in a couple of weeks. This is part of the putting the fun back into writing for 2011 project and is something I've been wanting to do more of for a while.
Somehow I'm working on three wips at the moment. Okay, so one is just a fuzzy fragment in the back of my head, One is going to be a novella and the other is a longer piece. I've lots of plans for this year. Now, if I could just find a few more hours in each day...

Writing into the mist

It's been ages since I wrote a post purely about my writing. I've recently started a new ms. At the moment it's called allotment wars but I have a sneaking suspicion that may turn out to be another book entirely. This is very much an into the mists book. I have no plan - I never have much of a plan, but for this one I haven't even done a rough blurb or outline. So far I have three chapters which I really like - they are still lacking the details to make them sharp but as regular readers here know that's something I do in my edit stages. Chloe, my heroine, is a radio reporter - she gets to go out and record interviews at the local baby show, meet the grower of the biggest leek and at the start of the ms she's about to abseil down the walls of a castle. Except, Chloe hates heights and has misguidely taken too many of her friend Shelly's tranquillisers in a bid to calm her fears.
So, that's what I'm working on - for the writers amongst you, what scene have you just written? And, for the readers, what scene have you recently read that's stayed in your memory?

Things I wished People had told me

Check out an article I wrote for my friends at The Wild Rose Press Go Here

Endings

I've finally finished my first round of aditing on You, Me and Him. In the process I removed the epilogue and added over 7k to the main book. I changed around the order of events in the last two chapters so they made more sense and strengthened the ending. I layered in more emotion and upped the stakes in some key scenes. I smoothed some transitions and enlarged on the dialogue sequences.
My next round now is to seek and destroy the words I love a little too much and make sure the story is hanging together well. This bit is like sanding the whole thing down to get rid of any splinters or snags that might snare an unwary reader.

Does anyone like synopsis writing?

I suspect there is a resounding no echoing back towards me. I've come to regard them as a kind of necessary evil. I'm lucky in that most of the books I've sold I've sold on a blurb rather than having had to produce a proper grown up synopsis. Every now and then though marketing, or my editor needs me to be a bit more definite about what I intend to write. Then it's tricky. I started off writing synopsis after the book was done but that clearly is no good when you are hoping to sell on proposal. The problem I had was that once I'd written the outline or synopsis I felt like I'd told the story and the book was done. Then I tried writing just the first three chapters and then the synopsis. That worked better although I often find the finished book isn't quite the same as my original plan.
I struggled a lot with the format of synopsis writing. I went to lots of workshops including a wonderful one by Sarah Duncan, a few years ago at an RNA conference. Now I've evolved my own set of rules. I never write one thats longer than two pages - more than that is a novella and really - who needs that? I don't describe every little incident or character - I stick with the hero and heroine and any secondary character who is key to a turning point in the plot. I make sure the growth in the character arcs is clearly shown through the plot turning points. I make sure the resolution is clear and the conflicts are clear.
Here is my original synopsis for Animal Instincts - you'll see the ending is different in the book, but hopefully this shows what I mean:
Down-to-earth Clodagh Martin is quite fond of her glamorous actress step-sister Imogen, providing Imogen isn’t actually around her for very long. So when Imogen shows up drunk on her doorstep at two in the morning with a bottle of champagne announcing that she’s come to visit for a while, Clodagh isn’t very pleased.
Staying at the Rainbow’s End animal sanctuary with a disapproving Clodagh isn’t Imogen’s idea of fun either. She would have preferred somewhere less smelly and infinitely trendier to hide. Unfortunately, a combination of debt, a humiliating public scandal involving a live TV show and too much alcohol has left Imogen with very little choice but to throw herself on Clodagh’s mercy until everything blows over.
Clodagh has enough problems of her own to worry about. The sanctuary she loves is broke and the animals she has, a foul-mouthed parrot, two gay donkeys and a goat called Mr Sheen, aren’t enough to draw in visitors. Former bad-lad-made-good property magnate Jack Thatcher seems very keen to acquire the land. He also appears very keen to date Clodagh, but she’s not sure if he wants to get his hands on her or her property. A worrying string of arson attacks and vandalism have left the sanctuary in a perilous state and she’s not certain that Jack is as reformed a character as he’d have her believe. A disastrous relationship some years before had made Clodagh very wary of getting involved with anyone again.
Co-ordinator of the volunteer helpers, Susie, is another thorn in Clodagh’s side. While her help with the animals is invaluable, her fetish for all things ‘green’ and apparently irrational disapproval of Jack are driving Clodagh mad. Jade, her colleague is more amenable and friendly.
Imogen, however, is convinced she can turn around both her own and the sanctuary’s fortunes. She decides she can resurrect her acting career and save the sanctuary by proving to the public that she’s a reformed character. Much to Clodagh’s despair Imogen sets up a series of events designed to convince the world that she’s now a dedicated and sober animal activist.
Journalist Marcus Keyes is certain there’s a story behind the new Imogen and much to Clodagh’s dismay he begins to turn up like a bad penny every time something happens at the sanctuary, either planned or unplanned.
Imogen secures a television appearance for herself and Clodagh where she announces an open day at the sanctuary. Immi also begins to date Marcus. The ensuing publicity from the television appearance brings in more money but also more press attention and not all of it is positive.
Jack finally persuades Clodagh to trust him and she tells him about her past, including her previous abusive relationship with her university tutor. In turn he tells her the truth about his father and how he came to inherit his property business.
Things take a more serious turn back at the sanctuary when the entrance kiosk is targeted for the next arson attack. Clodagh and Jack discover the blaze as they return from an evening together. Clodagh becomes convinced that the attacks are linked to a bid to force her to sell the sanctuary’s lands. The prime suspect is a building company who have bought up the neighbouring ground and secured permission to develop it for housing.
Marcus does some investigating as Immi suspects that one of the volunteers may be the saboteur. Suspicion initially falls on Susie but it is her colleague, Jade, who turns out to be the prime suspect. Marcus discovers Jade’s father is a councillor with financial interests in the firm of house builders who acquired the fields.
With autumn approaching and the peak of the tourist season almost over, Clodagh and Imogen need a last push if they are to keep the sanctuary running through the winter.
Together with Marcus and Jack the girls press on with the last event, a barbeque, car-boot sale and open day at the sanctuary. At the same time they set a trap for Jade, knowing she will be unable to resist trying to sabotage the event.
When a firework goes off inside the donkey’s pen, setting fire to the stable, Imogen, for once, puts aside all thoughts of her appearance and helps Clodagh rescue the frightened animals. Marcus and Jack catch Susie red-handed as she leaves the scene.
The press coverage of the fire helps Imogen resurrect her career and offers of work for her flood in. With the both Immi’s career and the sanctuary both safe Clodagh is finally able to see her future with Jack.
So you can see - it's sort of the same but different. How do you find synopsis writing?

My writing Process

Since I've had a few people asking me about my writing process I thought I'd talk about how I write. There is no right or wrong way to write, everyone develops their own way of working. I always find it interesting to hear how other writers work myself, and often I'll pick up a few tips or think 'yes, I do that'.
I think all of my stories come to me from the central character. I'll often have read something or watched a TV news programme or overheard something that sparks the idea but the important thing to recognise is those are often the triggers for the external aspects of the plot.
For instance, in Animal Instincts one of the catalysts was knowing about a local animal sanctuary that was always struggling for funds, did great work but needed a lot of help to keep going. Clodagh, in the story is faced with just that dilemna - she needs to raise money or she loses everything.
But although that features in my plot - the crux of her financial woes is that she has trust issues (internal conflict) So when Jack offers to help, is it because he has an ulterior motive? Will he try to take advantage of her weakness (as she sees it)?
The external plot alone wouldn't provide enough interest to drive the story and make it an engrossing read. The emotional journey between Jack and Clodagh around the issues of trust do make it sustainable over the course of the book.
The theme song for the book was the Sugababes - Because I know how I feel about you now.
So, I get the external aspect of the plot idea - then I usually hear the heroine's voice in my head and I'know' who she is and what her issues are - this tells me the course of the emotional journey she needs to make during the book.
At this point I usually write a blurb - this is a back of the book type paragraph that sums up the story - what will make it interesting - the hook for the book. I also do a lot of thinking at this point about the shape of the story and the elements I need to include.
My agent or my editor might ask me for a synopsis at this point and I'll talk about those tomorrow. For now I'm interested in your process? I write funny - how do you write?

Writerly advice

Sorry I haven't managed to upload the photos yet. Just lately I've recieved quite a few emails asking me for writing advice. I'm not sure I'm the best person to dispense advice on writing. I can only tell you what has worked and what continues to work for me. You may think differently or find other routes for your writing but for what it's worth here are some of my rules:
1. Writers write. They don't just go to workshops, lunches, conferences, talks and talk, twitter or blog about writing. They actually sit there, day after day and write. Unless you write you are not a writer.
2. Read - notice what you like and look at why you like it. What authors do you admire - why? What don't you like? Learn from it.
3. Edit your work, take out the repitions, the awkward phrases, the nice twiddly bits that you love but which don't advance the plot.
4. Let your work rest and write something else - give yourself some distance from your work and then edit again.
5. Submit and use any feedback you can get to improve your work. Yes, go to workshops etc but only - only - if you are writing. Not as a displacement activity.
6. Set yourself goals and deadlines, the practice at keeping them will be good for when you are published.
7. Keep writing. There will always be someone who gets better sales, wins more trophys, lands a bigger contract, gets a better review. It doesn't matter - that's their journey. Your journey is yours alone and the only thing you have any control over is your writing. The rest is luck, hardwork, and perserverence.

There are no magic capsules to give you more time to write, no special in's to land your book a publishing contract (Unless you happen to be Katie Price).
Writers write so get off the net and go finish your book.

Almost at an end

Well, the second pass is done and I've gone through eliminating bits of repetition, overly used favourite words and phrases and now I'm on my final edit - the backwards read through. My word count is still climbing as I catch things I hadn't seen before. I've twenty-five more chapters to do and I've added in total now almost 10k from when I started. My ending is much stronger with Tia and Josh finally getting a resolution that they deserve. I've a little pile of post it notes for things I've thought of to add into a few key scenes which I hope will make the story stronger and add impact to the emotional scenes. I've a very, very hot scene in the book too which totally flips Tia's life into a spin and I'm hoping that I've done it justice.
I should be done by the weekend and then I can get this baby off my desk and start to rescue my house from the brink of squalor!

First Pass

Well the first read through and adit is done. The big plotholes are gone, the bulk of discrepencies caught and eliminated and just under 6k added to the word count. I'm still short of my final total but there are more pass throughs to come. The next one is my polyfiller pass - this is where I start to really fill in any tiny imperfections and cracks in the story, I change awkward phrasing and sand off the lumpy bits so the pace is smooth and there are no jarring snaggy bits to yank the reader out of my story. I've got a page of notes - mainly the could do better kind that I made on the first run through. Those are the places where I made some changes already but I wasn't 100% satisfied that I'd done enough. On this run through those are the bits I'll be looking at again in extra detail.
Already this story is much stronger for the work I've put in. Tia's character arc is shaping up now - I need to emphasis the point of change in her thinking and I need to emphasise my gorgeous, sexy hero's strengths. There is a very, very hot scene in this one! Whenever these two meet the attraction is so strong but I need to be sure the reader can feel that heat on the page.

And so it begins

Yep, I've started my read through and adit of Just Look at Me Now. Since I haven't read the whole thing together from start to finish and it's been so long since I wrote the first chapters it feels fresh. I've decided I actually quite like the first three chapters. Chapter four I've played with a little but I think I'll come back to that on the next pass through. I've already added almost 1k layering in emotions, tiny snippets of description, stronger verbs. I know there will be rewriting coming up soon but for now I need to focus on tightening up as I go through. It's slow work and can't be rushed, it's been a long time since I wrote in third person and I really want it to feel as strong as my first person writing. This means really focusing in on removing those pesky filter words - the she felts etc. I do enjoy this part of writing but it's time consuming and tiring, weighing every word to make sure it's the right one in the right place and it's doing the job that I want it to do. It doesn't help I suppose that I tend to invent words which my spell check really doesn't approve of.

One more

I'm on the last chapter of Just Look at Me Now. I plan to finish the first draft this week then let it rest for a couple of weeks before I start going through redrafting, fixing the plot holes, perking up the pace and getting my emotional and descriptive layers in place. Then, when I'm happy with that I go through and look for my repitions, my favourite words and kick all those into touch. Finally, I do my backwards read - this is the real tightener as I catch things I've skimmed over on the forward read. I make sure every paragraph adds something to the story, that I'm not repeating myself and that the emotional heart at the end of the story is as strong as it can possibly be. Only when I'm happy do I then send it off to my agent and my editor. My deadline is April so I have a month to adit and then a few weeks for my agent to check it out before it lands on my lovely editors desk.
But first I have to write the big finish and tie up the loose ends of my plot.

Everything is froggy

When my eldest belle was little we woke one morning to find fog outside and she rushed to tell me that everything in the world had gone dusty. This is probably a reflection on my housekeeping abilities - or lack of. My middle belle always used to say it was froggy. Today it's very froggy outside my window. I'm just glad that when I drove back from the day job that it wasn't freezing and froggy.
At least the snow seems to be moving and the belles are back at school.Hopefully my brain will thaw out along with the snow. I stalled on Just Look at Me Now so I really need to crack the whip and get it finished. I always hate wrapping stories up so it's no surprise that I'm procrastinating - curse you bejewelled blitz and midas mahjong! I promise I'll be back on track by the weekend.

Writerly advice

I was delighted to be asked a while back to add a snippet to a book for writers. The author is the fabulous Sue Moorcroft and the book is called Love Writing: How to make moneywriting Romantic or Erotic Fiction. It's now on sale so to grab your copy goHERE You won't regret it!

Playing hooky

I have an unexpected day off today! Such a lovely treat. It feels a bit naughty somehow, like going to the cinema in the middle of the day or being somewhere you shouldn't be. I might even manage to get some writing done. I'm headed for the sticky middle section of the book and events need to start moving. It's at times like this that I wish I was more of a plotter but I'm not so I'll carry on trying to persude my hero to stop ogling my heroine and try to find out what's really going on between him and his ex.

Getting into the groove

My writing time this year has felt quite fragmented. I finished Crystal Clear - edits etc, made a false start with A Scattering of Leaves, lots of edits on His Darling Nurse, and have a third done on Just Look at me Now and now I've almost 15k done on You, Me and Him. Normally though by now I would have hoped to have been almost to the half way point with Just Look at Me Now and at 20K for You Me and Him.
Still, we've one more college to look at and eldest has to get her applications in this week. The cloakroom is still untouched as surprise, surprise the bathroom people can't get the sink! Dance show will be out of the way after Sunday and then just maybe I can get a head of steam going on my writing before the festive capers strike up. Whatever happens I need to get my groove on again!

Verdict

Well, as you all know I had a real wobble last week about my writing and where I was going. My lovely agent has helped me clarify a lot of my thoughts and basically I've decided to shelve 'A Scattering of Leaves' for the time being.
I'm focusing on Just Look at me Now and finishing off edits when they come in for Charlie Darling and Crystal Clear. I know now where my strengths lie and I've a new project i'm really excited about. It's another speculative thing and it's going to be so much fn to write that I just can't wait. It's working title is 'Me, You and Him.'The story is just falling into place and I'm just so jazzed about it.
I think I'll be making a playlist and hunting up some inspirational pics in the next few weeks but I'm definitely going to be diving head first into the unknown!

Happy Dancing

I just heard from my editor and she loves Crystal Clear - yay! There are the usual tweaks on the way to me but that's cool as she is great at spotting things that will make my story even stronger.
I figured out what was wrong with the new story too so I've added a scene and twiddled with the edges and it's starting to come together a bit more now. So for now you can colour me happy!

Talking

Thank you to all the lovely readers I met at Thimblemill library on Monday. I had a lovely time talking with all of you. I'm still deep in research for the next book as I need to get the first part of the setting right with who is responsible for what. I think I have all the main characters straight now except Josh who is still off screen at the moment but about to make his appearance at the end of chapter three although we are already aware of him.
Today has been another day of errands. My watch battery died so I had to get that sorted, another trip to the bank, booking my eye appointment as I suspect i need new glasses which is why I've been getting headaches, migraine and fuzzy vision. Loads of little fiddly businessy type things to sort out too all of which eat up time. I am hopeful of finishing chapter three this week though and the rest of my immediate research.

Research

Sigh, have done tons more research getting myself into the right mood for this story. Tia ia a very different heroine from Zee in Crystal Clear. So far I've been reading beauty columns, fashion mags, Cosmo and surfing on Friends reunited and on Facebook. Yes it is all in the name of research and getting back into what it was like to be at secondary school. It's felt very strange digging up things that I'd kind of forgotten but will give me the right flavour for the story. How the different groups worked and what's happened to people since then, all of which is hugely important for Tia and Josh.
I also read Freya North's Pillow Talk. It kind of reminded me of the Time Travellers wife. There were aspects of it that I liked but the head hopping and weird tenses kept jolting me and I couldn't get deep enough into it to turn off my internal critic. So a good read and i'm glad I read it but not a keeper. I will look out for a few more of her books though and give them a shot.

More images

This is one of Evan Rachel Wood, an actress and she's perfect to be cast as Juliet - Tia's teenage nemesis come back to haunt her.

This is a pic of beverley Craven and really it's perfect for Tia, the heroine of Just Look at Me Now. This is a girl with a lot of secrets.