One True Love

All the great romances have them. Bogey and Bacall, Jane and Mr. Rochester, Romeo and Juliet. That one person the other can’t live without. It doesn’t matter if they’re with someone else, if they’re forbidden to be with each other or if a conflict separates them. They belong together and ultimately, they will be.

In the movies, smoldering looks between Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall fueled that chemistry and made audiences clamor to see them together, despite an age difference of 25 years. Jane Eyre started out as a helpless governess, subject to the whims of Mr. Rochester. But slowly, desire builds between them and by the time she leaps to his rescue, the reader is hooked. Shakespeare creates the ultimate tragedy with Romeo and Juliet. The young lovers are so devoted to each other that when Romeo thinks Juliet is dead, he kills himself. Faced with the death of her lover, Juliet also kills herself.

The desire to see the guy get the girl (or vice versa) is why we read and write romances. Getting the reader to root for our hero’s and heroine’s happily ever after is the author’s job. We do that by creating chemistry between them—making the glances they give each other sizzle; creating witty repartee; showing one’s vulnerability and how the other protects it. Not only that, we need to make the reader believe that our heroine is the ONLY one for our hero and that our heroine can’t possibly live without our hero.

We create conflicts that tear our hero and heroine apart, only to find a miraculous, but believable, way to get them back together. We want our situations to be realistic to an extent, but fantastical enough to carry us away. We want that kick-up-your-heels kind of kiss, that take-your-breath-away moment. That’s what makes us unable to put down the book. Isn’t it?

Opening Scene Dissection

I am still not sure I am satisfied with the opening scene of my WIP. I’ve left it alone for a few weeks, and today came across a chapter in Hooked, by Les Edgerton, that offers a priority list of where to start, and what information needs to be excluded.

I’ve already trimmed a chapter and a half of backstory. Edgerton writes:
Unless a book is part of an already established series, it opens on a blank world. A reader knows nothing about the situation or the characters. This is why it is tempting to write backstory, feeling the need to bring the reader up to date with a set up.

He says the most essential components of an opening scene are:
1. Inciting incident—the event that creates the lead’s initial surface problem and sets the stage for the story-worthy problem. This is the “action” part of the story, the part that is plot-based.
2. Story-worthy problem—the deep, inner life changing issue or character trait the lead will resolve by the end of the book.
3. The Initial Surface problem—the first, outer problem the main character has to solve as a result of the inciting incident. It propels the lead to take action.
4. The Set-up—the first few words that orient the reader in the opening scene. Who and where and what’s happening.

Secondary components:
5. Backstory—anything and everything that has happened up to the time of the inciting incident.
6. Opening Line
7. Language—avoid adverbs. Limit adjectives.
8. Character introduction—by showing their reactions to the inciting incident.
9. Setting
10. Foreshadowing.

The reader doesn’t need to understand what led to the opening situation in order to fully realize the significance of what’s happening when trouble begins.

Trust the reader.

N is for Nancy Drew

Before my love afair with romance began, my series of choice was the Nancy Drew mysteries. These were the first books I remember not being able to get enough of. I can still picture the shelf at the library where they were housed. I made a bee-line for that section every time we walked into the library. These books were the reason I went to the library. I had my checklist and would mark off the ones I'd read. Choosing a new four or five on each visit was nothing less than thrilling.

I wanted to be Nancy Drew. I was completely emersed in her world.

Now, even as an adult, I'll still pick up one to read every once in a while. I've collected some of the series, but not all. I'm always on the lookout to complete my collection. I love looking at those yellow spines on my personal library shelf.

Carolyn Keene is the offical author of the series, but this is a pseudonym used to cover a wide variety of writers who have actually written the stories. The first was Mildred Wirt Benson who penned twenty-three Nancy Drew stories. Some of the original stories have been updated throughout the years, and Nancy has gone through many changes herself.

But the overall feel of the cozy whodunnits has remained for countless generations to discover and enjoy.

I can honestly say my love of reading, and especially that craving of never having enough, stemmed from Nancy Drew. It was this love of reading that eventually led to my desire to be a writer. Nancy will always hold a special place in my heart.

(If you'd like a fun and nostalgic peek 'behind the scenes' of Nancy Drew, I highly recommend The Mysterious Case of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys by Carole Kismaric ande Marvin Heiferman.)

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

Names

There are plenty of pitfalls when you’re choosing names for your characters.

The first, of course, is that the name(s) you choose for your hero or heroine (simply because you happen to like them) may not appeal to your readers. Personally, I dislike the names Nathan and Fiona, although not for any particular reason. It’s been said that everyone associates names with people they know (or have known), but this isn’t the case with me. I don’t know any Nathans or Fionas, but somehow the names simply don’t resonate with me. Maybe that’s why those names came into my mind for secondary characters in my novels who, while not exactly ‘villains’, are somewhat unpleasant..

Another thing to think about is whether your names reflect the time when the characters were born. I won’t go into the very unlikely names I’ve seen in historical (mainly Regency) novels but, even in contemporary novels, we need to look at the names which tended to be used in the decade in which the characters were born. If a heroine is now in her 20’s, it’s very unlikely she would be called Bertha or Hilda (unless she’s named after a grandparent) since these names come from a different era. Nor is it likely that her mother is called Kylie or Beyonce. If I’m stuck for a name for a secondary character, I sometimes look at lists of the most popular names in the relevant decade.

Be wary of names which the reader might not know how to pronounce. Irish names are one example. I remember when a character called Aislin was referred to as Ash. At the time, I didn’t know this name was pronounced Ash-lin, and not Aze-lin, which was how I’d been pronouncing it in my mind. When, for no apparent reason, I thought of the name Neve for one of my heroines, I decided to spell it like that and not the true Irish spelling of Niamh, which looks nothing like its pronunciation. The same applies to any ‘foreign’ name, as I discovered when I was writing my novel set in Egypt. I chose names which sounded like their spelling.

Don’t use names which are too similar, or which rhyme. I once read a story where one character was Helen and another Ellen - could be confusing. Avoid having names like Carrie and Larry in the same story, or too many names starting with the same letter. Names which are usually associated together should also be avoided. I’m sure none of us would think of having hero Mickey falling for heroine Minnie, but I nearly fell into the trap when I had a character in my hero Jack’s past called Jill. Only when my heroine referred to Jack and Jill did I realise I needed to change Jill’s name!

Naming sisters or brothers of the hero and heroine needs some thought too. Would parents who give ‘traditional’ names like Abigail and Sarah to two of their daughters suddenly decide to name another daughter ‘Pixie’ or a son ‘Zowie’ (unless, of course, there’s a specific reason for this).

Surnames, too can cause problems. If heroine Paige Summers marries hero Justin Turner, does she become a Paige Turner? And should Sherry Morgan really marry Simon Kerry? Avoid surnames, too, which are associated with someone very famous (unless it's a fairly common surname). Any hero surnamed Clooney would always remind me of George – not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, of course!

Any other pitfalls you can think of?

Nooks And Other E-Readers

I’m broadening our topic today. Maybe even going off on a tangent. But, readers are essential for writers, so I hope everyone makes an allowance for me. J

I’ve been reading since I was three or four years old. I remember trips to the library with my mom, where we’d come home with a stack of books almost taller than I was, only to return the following week for new ones. I remember browsing the aisles of bookstores with friends or my husband, spending hours trying to decide what books to buy and being tempted by them all. I remember conversations around the dinner table during holidays, discussing the latest books my uncles wrote, analyzing the meanings behind the words and discussing which relatives received the honor of a dedication. In other words, books have always been an important part of my life.

For me, books were always paper. Their weight gave importance to the words within; the smell of the ink and the paper added to the excitement; the ability to read ahead, or to refrain from doing so, adding suspense. And then I got published and jumped into the world of the e-reader.

I was skeptical at first. Is an e-book a “real” book? My kids started talking about friends who had e-readers and how suddenly non-readers (they exist???) were enjoying the pleasures of reading. I viewed my book on my iPad and it looked real enough. Actually, it was pretty exciting. The cover filled the screen, the pages looked like “real” pages and were easy to navigate. I couldn’t necessarily skim through sections to read ahead, but that’s kind of something I should avoid doing anyway (kind of like reading the last page of a mystery). And although I also had my book in hard copy, I had a lot of friends who were eager to order it as an e-book.

Then I started playing around with my Nook app, and I fell in love. Most Nook books were cheaper than hard copies. There were free samples to try. I’m more willing to take chances on new authors because it’s less of an investment. If you have the real Nook, like my daughter does, you can go to Barnes & Noble and try books for free for 30 minutes. If you have a Kindle, you can borrow books from our local library. I’ve developed a library on my Nook app of a certain type of book that I like. They’re all in one place, and I can go back and reread them easily, without having to scan shelves in my basement to try to figure out exactly which book I’m thinking of.

Do I still like paper books. Yes. I’m not picky—I like ALL books. I still borrow hard copies from the library, still go to the bookstore and buy paper books. But having the Nook app gives me another opportunity to read books that I might have hesitated to buy before. And anything that encourages reading is a great thing!

Naughty or Nice?

Asking this question implies that a character, or a plot, will be one-dimensional. Flat. Maybe boring.

Supporting characters can be naughty or nice. The fumble-fingered side-kick. The dotty neighbor. The all-wise grandfather. The ultra-brave (or super-silly) maidservant. The sell-out brother-in-law. A Dr. Watson. Their role is not to be more interesting than the lead.

A romance is constructed around the main characters, and how they change so they can have a happily-ever-after.

I didn’t discover my first heroine’s depth until I was writing the second to last chapter. She’d just returned to her family’s South Dakota ranch after she’d summoned the inner strength to escape from her kidnappers and collapse in the arms of her lover, who’d turned heaven and earth inside out to be in the exact right place to catch her.

I thought I’d resolved all the subplots, and all that was left was to reunite them for their HEA. And I was unable to script that path. She could plausibly morph into a stoic spinster. She couldn’t say oops and rush back to him without hurling off some pillar principles.

Then a secondary character demanded his due. He found my heroine in the loft of the barn. She was sitting where she and the hero had first made love, where the hero had given her a ring (and meant it), and where he’d had to confess that the ring was bought for another woman.

The secondary character revealed a secret that filled the core void in her identity. She learned her mother had been naughty as well as nice. Her mother had loved him as much as the man the heroine believed was her father. He explained that love has many forms of expression, and although she wasn’t the hero’s first love, she could be his forever love. If she accepted he had a complicated naughty, but nice past.

Friday Friend - Deborah Riley-Magnus

Please welcome Deborah Riley-Magnus!
She will give a free ebook copy of "Cold in California" to one lucky commenter today.



Vampires, Romance and a Real Chance at Heaven!

I don’t know about you, but the whole Vampire thing doesn’t sit well with me. Yes, they’re incredibly sexy beings everyone would secretly (or not so secretly) love to take a bite out of, but seriously, think about it. The entire concept is laced with hopelessness and despair. To live dead, cold and only in the dark, to murder in order to remain functioning, and to never, ever have the slightest hope of redemption? It breaks my heart. In fact, it bothered me so much … I changed it!

There’s so much romance mixed in the vampire lore and mythology, but I wanted to create a romance with not only the perfect woman for my reluctant vampire hero, but a romance with the possibility of true salvation. Here’s basically how it went for Gabriel Strickland:

What happens to a vampire after he finally dies? Heaven? Hell? Nope, purgatory in a West Hollywood warehouse. Go figure.

Where does any original idea come from? I’m a firm believer that creativity is plagiarism with a flare; the wheel can’t be reinvented and if it’s square, it can’t roll. Basically, all story ideas come from the same original four or five plots, but I strongly believe that how a story is told makes a bigger impact than what the story is about. Most ideas start with love or adventure, coming of age or fantasy; the great ones come from a skewed point of view no one ever thought of before … Cold in California came to me from a very twisted and off-center place.

Truth? I never intended to write a vampire story but one day, while out on sales calls in West Hollywood, I had one of those experiences only a writer can have. It was an epiphany of the creative senses. As I climbed into my car to drive to my next appointment, I noticed something very interesting across the street. A dwarf walked along then stopped in front of what appeared to be an empty old warehouse. He suspiciously looked left then right then skulked into the darkness and my mind went off into the warped unknown. What was inside that warehouse? Was that guy a leprechaun or maybe a troll? Were there other supernatural creatures in there? What were they doing in that warehouse right in the middle of bustling West Hollywood? And … and … what if they were hiding? What if they were all … dead? The vampires would be double-dead, or better yet, twice-baked! What if they have to live right in that warehouse and … what if they have to behave themselves in order to gain salvation or else?

And thus began the story.

"Cold in California" is an urban fantasy that takes a really, really dead vampire and mystically sweeps him to a West Hollywood warehouse where he has one last chance to earn redemption. Obviously this isn’t going to be easy, especially since he has to live with other chosen dead supernaturals – trolls, werewolves, pixies, leprechauns, fairies, and a few you may have never heard of. Against their natures, all these strange characters are challenged to earn the brownie points required to pass through the pearly gates. Gabriel, of course has far more difficulties, after all he’s very handsome, has to now live among humans and dead supernaturals and the other ‘living’ supernaturals infesting the planet. He has to deal with the fact that everything he believed about final death is a lie, tolerate the unique West Hollywood warehouse culture, and endure intense new and exciting love with a beautiful woman (of course). Oh, and he must ignore his “loner” personality to step up and triumph over imminent disaster. And all this poor unhappy vampire wanted to do was be dead.

My goal was to create a vampire story and romance you’ve never seen before! How much fun is that?

"Cold in California! is the first of a five book Twice-Baked Vampire Series and was released June 15, 2011.

Excerpt from Page 5

Gabriel wondered if he’d stumbled across his first ‘familiar’ human since 1931. No one had ever suspected he was vampire before. No one. Ever. Had she known his kind? Perhaps fed them? This could be easy, it should be pleasant and it might solve a multitude of problems. Gabriel was tired of moving around so much. Something a bit steadier might be just what the doctor ordered. Any relationship required a boatload of lies and apologies for his seemingly accidental, over-zealous biting. Cursed by the life he lived, hit and run was the norm for his sexual encounters. Keeping his secret demanded he leave sooner than he liked, before things got out of hand like they did in Omaha.

There’s a boredom that comes with complete variety whether one believes it or not. Living forever had its drawbacks. The mere idea of seeing the same face and tasting the same blood day after day for a while nearly charged his batteries to overload. It also raised his radar.

She may be the answer to an undead’s prayer, but she could very well be the opposite.
He’d never crossed paths with Buffy the Vampire Slayer but that didn’t mean she didn’t exist. Still, he felt an imaginary warmth under his skin and relaxed into the possibilities. Gabriel tried to be an optimistic kind of guy. He knew that if things went bad, his host went to heaven. That was a positive outlook, now wasn’t it?

Through the boring innings they chatted casually about the weather and various cities they’d seen. If, or in that case, when Chicago lost, the team would end the year in dead last but hope reigns eternal. It was the only reason the crowd was so big. At the bottom of the ninth, Brent Tittler struggling at the plate, and right in the middle of describing her best friend’s cowboy-themed wedding, Starling made a statement that would have caught Gabriel’s breath, if he breathed.

“I always wondered about the wounds. Do they heal?”

His eyes were cold and hard, he didn’t dare show his intrigue. She didn’t even flinch.

“I mean, do you leave a bad mark, and does it have to be where people can see it … when you … you know … drink? Will I need to take out stock in antiseptic?”

“You’d like to be …”

“Oh yes, especially with a great looking guy like you. You are a man, right? In every sense of the word?”

Gabriel glanced around. Behind them sat a row of nuns, all dressed in medieval black and white habits and clicking rosary beads in their gnarled fingers. Chicago Cubs caps were precariously propped, tilted on their heads over ominous black veils. No doubt they were serious, biblical Cubs fans. Like God, if there even was a God, really gave a damn where the Cubs ended the season. Gabriel could hear their whispered Hail Marys and wasn’t sure if he was more uneasy talking about sex or his unholy nature in their presence. He drew close and spoke quietly in Starling’s ear. “Are you asking if I can perform intercourse with a woman? Yes I can. Antiseptic optional.”

She giggled a nervous laugh. “So, no infection?’

“Not that I’ve ever caused.”

“Maybe we can go now?” she suggested in a husky low voice, leaning closer even though he could have heard her whispered indecent proposal from across Wrigley Field. “This will be so cool!”

By the look of her, he could only assume she’d voraciously read Anne Rice. He just as voraciously hoped he could meet her expectations. A shiver rippled over his body like a minor earth tremor. Gabriel stood, smiled and reached to grip her hand. This was more than promising and he actually felt giddy for the first time in decades.

They had great seats, third row, just past the dugout on the first base side. Sweet seats, even with the Cubbies losing. Her warm hand gripped his as the crack of the bat resounded and he turned. It was a high pop up, but unlike all the other fans around him, Gabriel wasn’t watching the ball, illusively hidden in the lights. He was watching the sharp shard of a broken wooden bat soar … at breakneck speed … right … at … his … chest …

Well, this sure as hell wasn’t supposed to happen. Staked in the heart by a fucking broken bat? Who does that happen to? His hand shot to the wood, it was buried deep and he was weakening by the second. Agonizing sensations of explosion and implosion flooded through his body, noise blasted in his ears and suddenly he was staring up at the lights. Behind them, black night. There were stars but he couldn’t see them. The pain was excruciating and Gabriel begged any god who’d listen to make it end quickly. Heat. Searing. A stench. Then came the blackness and peace he had dreamed of for nearly eighty years. Finally, an end to it all. Dead as he was meant to be.

"Monkey Jump", the second book in the Twice-Baked Vampire Series is scheduled for release in late April, 2012. Gabriel Strickland may appear to be coping well with the responsibilities his life after double-death has dealt him, but it’s only show. The struggle to earn his ticket through the Pearly Gates takes a toll when he’s assigned to perform a Monkey Jump – a program designed to teach newly assigned management the skills required to do their job. To soften the blow, he takes his love, Dori, along as his assistant. What he wants is peace, a little romance and serenity to think things through, what he gets is startling temptation, a Soul Eater and his sidekick, Master Witch and Grand Matron, Neave Brittania Cook. One has a revenge agenda and the other, designs on Gabriel’s soul. It all gets worse when the Monkey Jump itinerary takes a perilous detour to a north Alaskan community of the oldest, most evolved vampires on the planet. Secrets must be kept and Gabriel must protect Dori as well as his own path to paradise. Well hell, this can’t be good.

Cold in California Amazon Link
http://www.amazon.com/Cold-California-Twice-Baked-Vampire-ebook/dp/B0055EC7E8/

Author Bio
Deborah Riley-Magnus is an author and an Author Success Coach. She has a twenty-seven year professional background in marketing, advertising and public relations as a writer for print, television and radio. She writes both fiction and non-fiction and as an Author Success Coach, focuses exclusively on publicity, marketing and promotional solutions for authors.

Deborah produces frequent pieces for various websites including Unruly Guides and WriteSEX as a marketing expert. She also writes an author industry blog and teaches online and live workshops as The Author Success Coach. She belongs to several writing and professional organizations. In 2011, she had a novel, Cold in California, and a non-fiction, Finding Author Success released. Her second fiction is scheduled for release in late April.

She’s lived on both the east and west coast of the United States and has traveled the country widely.

My Website and Blog Links
I fiction – http://coldincalifornia.com
I write - http://deborahriley-magnus.com/
I suck - http://vampireexplored.wordpress.com/
I blog - http://rileymagnus.wordpress.com/
I teach - http://theauthorsuccesscoach.com/
I tweet – http://twitter.com/rileymagnus
I facebook - http://www.facebook.com/deborah.rileymagnus
I should be sooo tired!

My Wonderful Publisher’s Link
http://ireadiwrite.com/