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Here Berengaria tells us about her books, and also gives us a taste of China.
My first book was published in April 2010 and on 31 December my 20th book was released. I’ve sold eight others with 2011 release dates, including two in January. 2010 has been incredibly hectic because yes, like most other authors, I have a day job. One of the reasons for the high number of releases is because I write for several different publishing houses. The other reason is because I write short books, mostly novella length (up to approximately 22,000 words).
Several of my books mention China. My day job involves a lot of travel and I have loved my visits to China. The people are polite and helpful. They never push and shove to get to the head of the line, but wait patiently for their turn. I’m fascinated by Chinese history and the old architecture. Everything has meaning: the number of steps, the colors used, the shapes and sizes. For example: blue signifies heaven, green is for the people, and yellow is the emperor’s color. Under the emperor’s rule, people were never permitted to wear the color yellow, and even now it is not a color you see people wearing very often. Steps are usually an odd number because odd numbers are considered to be lucky, but never as many as nine because nine was the emperor’s number. The more steps there were up to a person’s house, the more important that person was.
Chinese Love TriadEden is a big, beautiful woman whose ex constantly ridiculed her because of her size. Now she's a free woman and headed to China for an extended vacation. While waiting for her flight she meets two handsome men, only to lose sight of them as the plane boards. Fortunately, one of them finds her while in-flight and they make plans to meet up later. Zeb and Bryce are best friends. When they meet Eden, both want her and hope she'll be amenable to dating them both. After a day of sightseeing the trio go back to the men's hotel room and Eden discovers a side of herself she's never before experienced.
Buy Link:
Cherry gives up her life in America to live with Harry and Lee in China. Will she regret her decision or find happiness as well as great orgasms?Cherry McNair has been invited to come and live in Beijing with Song Hao (Harry) and Li Chang (Lee), two of the one hundred million young men for whom there are no brides available in China.
The men are kind and caring, and at first Cherry is happy, learning to cook for them and settling into her new life. And the sex is fantastic, innovative, fulfilling.
But one day she realizes she has no job, no hobbies, no friends. She knows only a few words of Mandarin and the traffic frightens her. Should she return home or stay?
Excerpt:
Cherry McNair shook her shoulder-length dark brown hair off her face and pushed her luggage trolley out of the customs area and into the arrivals hall at the Beijing Capital International Airport, ready to start her new life. Well sort of ready.I’m almost thirty years old. All my remaining possessions are in two suitcases. I’ve quit my job, left my country and my friends, and am about to start a whole new life in a new land where I don’t even speak the language, and be the “wife” of two men. Well, it’s what women have been doing for centuries after all. Although they probably didn’t have two husbands!
Lee and Harry had promised to meet her, and they’d all exchanged plenty of photographs in their emails, but she was still feeling rather dazed after the long flight and the huge size of the airport and worried about recognizing them in such a large crowd. They’re part-American, part-Chinese, but to me they look quite Chinese. Will they look like their photos? Lee’s hair sort of shaggy and a little bit longer, Harry’s skin a slightly darker brown?
Sheesh. I thought LAX was big, but having to catch a train to get to your luggage— Sheesh.
Nevertheless the crowd was very well behaved. People were talking and laughing, but they were standing in neat lines, waiting politely for others to pass. There was no pushing or shoving or screaming as there had been back at LAX. I’ve never travelled so far before, through so many time zones. It’s all so very big. But I like it. It’s friendly and welcoming and totally fascinating.
Lots of people were holding up signs with names on them.
And there they were, Lee and Harry, Lee holding a sign saying “Cherry” and Harry holding a bunch of bright yellow sunflowers.
Cherry pushed her trolley down the aisle then into the arrivals hall proper and stood to the side as Li Chang and Song Hao made their way through the crowds to meet her.
Both men bowed slightly then broke into smiles.
“Welcome to Beijing, Cherry,” said Harry.
“I hope your journey was not too tiring,” added Lee.
“The flight was smooth. I made all my connections without any worries. Everything went well. Thank you for coming to meet me,” replied Cherry rather disjointedly.
Harry handed her the flowers, bowing slightly again, as Lee took charge of her trolley.
“Come this way. I’ll go and get the car while Harry waits with you and the luggage.”
Cherry nodded, trying to pull herself out of her daze as her blue-gray eyes looked around at the spectacular building, filled with light from its high glass walls, with lots of interesting metal shapes in the structure and huge artworks dotted around the floor space. And flowers. Lots of flowers and plants in planter boxes.
Buy link: http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/new-releases/changing-cherry/prod_373.html
Berengaria’s Links
http://berengariasblog.blogspot.com/
http://berengariabrown.webs.com/
http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/board/showthread.php?p=135974#post135974
Thank you so much for being our Friday Friend today, Berengaria. We wish you continued success with all your books!
Wow, you are very prolific. I have read several of your books and love them. Also, I'm in the same boat as you--my first book was published in Oct 2010, and I've just sold my 14th. Loved your excerpt and good luck with all you do!
ReplyDeleteHi Berengaria!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to Heroines with Hearts! Thanks so much for joining us today.
My, you are prolific. Congrats on all of your recent and upcoming successes. I agree, it's so difficult to balance a full time job and be a writer. You obviously do it well!
Good luck!
I am wowed, too. How wonderful that you can meld two major facets of your life. Thank you for sharing with us!
ReplyDeleteWow, Berengaria, that's some output and all within eight months.
ReplyDeleteGrief, I thought I'd done well knocking out four 50,000 + word novels in 12 months, which equates to my normal of churning out two 100,000 novels per year. BTW, I don't work at all - lady of leisure, so I take my hat off to your tally per year. ;)
best
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Yes, I am quite an awe at someone so prolific.
ReplyDeleteI had my first book published in l978 and up to date have written 24 novels. But they are over 60,000 words long, so perhaps that's explains it.
Obviously I have been working too hard.
Thank you so much for having me visit today.
ReplyDeleteFrancine, Margaret and others who write loooong books, I admire you. There is so much extra work in entwining various plots, building extra characters.
Congratulations on your books Em, nice to see you again.
Ana, Debra thank you so much for visiting with me today
Berengaria
It takes me about 9 months to complete a novel (of 60,000 - 70,000 words), but a lot of that time is spent editing, refining, layering in extra information or details related to the plot or the characters (not to mention checking for repeated word use, adverbs, speech tags etc).
ReplyDeleteSo I wondered how much time do you spend editing once you've completed your first draft, Berengaria?
Also, in your erotic stories, what 'percentage' is actually story (as such) and what percentage is/are the erotic sex scenes?
I've never delved into the 'novella' length of story and how they are structured.
Hi Paula,
ReplyDeleteI dont start actually writing until the characters and plot are clear in my head, so just getting that organized may take a day, a week, a month.
I reread and edit each previous scene before I start writing the next, and each previous chapter before I begin writing on a new writing day.
When the book is "finished" I reread it all once for plot holes, and then put it aside for a week or so before taking it out to reread and edit before sending it to my publisher/editor.
So everything has been checked about four times. But my spelling and grammar are pretty good, and I am always careful to follow house style rules, so there is never a lot of that sort of thing to be fixed in edits.
One of my editors recommended about 50% sex, 50% story, but of course the sex usually adds details about the characters, or their motivations, or their desire to protect the heroine, so it's kind of intermingled.
And most sex secenes start with them dining or dancing or talking, so "sex" does not equal "in bed" time.
Berengaria