#TheWritersBlog How I write, why and what the heck is FLOW, Cerise? #amwriting

Coming in next few weeks!

      The Writers Blog answers the Big Question: How do authors write. A mystery even to the writers themselves, inspiration is an elusive guy!
     Here are four questions that have been circulating the internet for a few months and are now in the form of a “Blog Hop”. It’s a tag for writers who blog. I was tagged by my pal, Desiree Holt, at her blog www.desiremeonly.com
     Here we go!

WHY DO I WRITE WHAT I DO?
    
   I adore a great romance. Few other novel types can thrill me or relax me as a reader. But I am keen for history...and with a BA and MA in it, I love what's "real" in a novel.  So I like to give that accuracy of background to my readers. 
     Nah. I don't (as my husband calls it) "hang the curtains" and describe every tiny detail, but I do strive for accuracy of time, place and atmosphere. Thankfully, I've been able to give that to my readers because they write to me about how grateful they are.
     But I adore characterization that is real, too. Rakes and spies and bluestockings really did exist and for good socio-economic reasons! While I know I am not teaching history, I do think part of the fun of writing and reading is getting the background accurate. History is often dissed by many, being poorly taught in school. I like to make it live.

My Italian Duke...
and journey to
Tuscany!

     That is also true of my contemporaries. I like to travel and do a lot! So I love to set my stories  in this marvelous places I've been. Paris, London, Tuscan countryside, Mexico, all feature in my stories.
     But living in Texas as I do, I see cowboys and longhorns every day. I mean EVERY DAY. Not a mile away live a dozen longhorns, big handsome dudes who roam the plains. And right next door is a local rodeo where every Saturday and Sunday, rodeo competitors come with their horses to win a buckle and a purse or two!
     Yep. I am an Eastern gal, city slicker through and through, but I tell ya, there is nuthin' like a man in a crisp white western shirt, thigh hugging jeans, boots and huge black Stetson, saying, "Howdy, Ma'am."

WHAT AM I WRITING NOW?
      
    I am knee deep in RENDEZVOUS WITH A DUKE! My next Regency Romp, this one is really a Cinderella story starring a young woman with a huge secret and a tremendous talent. You see, she is a composer and in 1819, women just did not break out of their molds to compose! But my heroine does and she hopes to money at it as well! 
     Our hero admires her devotion and tries to help her. But she suffers from The Secret in her past so much so that she fears she will ruin him.   

HOW DOES MY WORK DIFFER FROM OTHERS?

In my fictitious town of Bravado Texas,
where men are good and plenty...
and women wear only a smile!
  http://amzn.to/13aBAob

     
     I tend to write very tightly. I am not a fan of extraneous sub-plots  and I am BIG BIG BIG on sex. Okay, so you know that! I BELIEVE that great sex is a viable part of any romantic relationship and any love affair so I lace my stories with scenes in which two people discover each other within the sex act.  So, no, my scenes are never throwaways, but vital to the development of the couple's communication in bed and out!

HOW DOES MY WRITING PROCESS DIFFER FROM OTHERS?

    I am literally STRUCK by an idea. Perhaps, I have written down a few ideas about a story I want to write...or an editor has asked me to produce a synopsis or outline. But I HATE THAT.
    I need to be struck by lightning and then I have to hit the keyboard or I lose it.
     RENDEZVOUS WITH A DUKE is like that. I thought it was based on the heroine's past and someone was trying to kill her, but I wasn't sure why. I know Our Hero would help to save her but had no idea why.
    Then one day...in the shower, it hit me that she was poor and living with a terrible aunt and cousin, but she had talent and hope and aspirations...and I had to give her a better life! So Cinderella meets her Duke!
     I do believe in the power of flow. Once I am in the world of my characters, I do LIVE There. I am not good company. I get peeved when my characters do. I am in heaven when they are. I want to resolve my differences when they do...and this is tough on my family.
     To this day, my children can tell when I am in flow and totally spaced out. They have learned to smile, wait and then repeat the question they just asked me. Hubbie, too.  To his chuckling dismay!

     Okay, now I am handing this over to Dominque Eastwick and Samantha Cayto, two fabulous authors whose works you must read!

Beheaded by bad research! The perils of writing historicals

Losing one's head to historically savvy readers and reviewers when writing historical fiction is always a possibility if your research is sloppy.

Anachronisms can behead you.

Bad chronology can destroy your theme, premise and moral, to say nothing of your heroes' and heroines' motivations.

So what has gone wrong in novels of yesteryear?

A woman turning a faucet of running water in the 17th century. (Where was the copy editor?)

Dialogue that hums with Kardashian-Speak. Ex: "She did what?" Or: "And that means what?"

Drawers, underthings in the wrong century.  In particular, bras.

People doing odd things in odd settings. For ex: The frontier woman who never works a plow. A medieval woman who does not do some sort of work in her castle, domain or cottage/shack.

Having taught history in high school and college, I am a firm believer in suggesting and even assigning the reading of historical fiction to my students to interest them and make the period come ALIVE.

Good research means an author does more than entertain. They inform, they inspire, they educate, they foster critical thinking.

My latest Great Historical Read is NOT BETWEEN BROTHERS by David Marion Wilkinson.

http://www.amazon.com/Not-Between-Brothers-ebook/dp/B0049H9EMU/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1325605321&sr=1-1

2012: My Resolutions for Fun & $$$!

Need an Italian lover?

For 2012, I am into FUN and $$$.
To ensure the laughs and my fat wallet, I promise myself to:
1. GO AFTER PIRATES more often.  WEEKLY.
Hey, all these people are ripping me off to the tune of THOUSANDS of $$$. What if I came to their house and did that??? Besides, Congress--those folks who haven't worked all year but collected their $150,000 salaries--are debating Our Anti-Piracy Bill like it was an attack on business. SAY WHA? Yep. Google and their buddies are fighting this bill, saying it would "criminalize" their business. NEWS FLASH: Pirates have already criminalized it. Google needs to step back, THINK and get a new way to make a buck, not off my back!
2. ADVERTISE more.
Yeah. It costs. But people, time or money? I am only one people, have only a bit of time and some money (esp. if I kill these pirates, I'll have more)!
3. Love FACEBOOK and TWITTER more.  This stuff really works to get the old name out there.
Color me happy.
4. Stop cruising the net. 'nuf said.
5. Invite all of you to come to my blog to post! Often! Any time!
6. Go to the gym 3x a week.
I need it.
My office chair is wunderbar, but it does not ensure my a$$ is any skinnier.
7. My last Res. This I am offering a saying to you for your consideration as one of your resolutions. This one, I used as a kid when things were tough. And they often were, especially at holiday time.
What is it?
One I wish some of the HOUSEWIVES of X-city, the Kardiasians (sp.?) and Snooki, and all her generation would use, cuz they give me HIVES with their narcissism!
Don't criticize and Don't complain.
Use facts only.
And the pix at the top?
Shameless Self-promo.
My very first EC release about a lovely widow and a smokin' hot Italian stud.
My Sweet.
Mia Dolce! Go here for author page for all my EC books: www.jasminejade.com/m-560-cerise-deland.aspx

Vitamin P! Got any?

Vitamin P.
Ever heard of it?
Me, neither. Until the other day in a magazine, the writer espoused a regular dosage of Pleasure.  Got any for yourself?
Connected to digital devices of every kind, we are definitely hyperactive.
Example? Last night on a newscast covering Irene, all four people on a boardwalk in New Jersey were walking into the camera view with cell phones to their ears.
Really folks. Sure, they were calling home to tell their families, "I'm on TV. Turn in!"
But really! My question is, why the heck were these people out on the BOARDWALK, rain pouring down, ONE WITH A BABY STROLLER, calling home when they should have been in their cars and, as their Governor so improperly told them, "to get the hell off the beach"?  I want to know why they were on their phones (and why the one with the baby stroller wasn't well outta there yesterday)?
More than that, I wonder why the heck they were connected via cell phone when their brains are not connected to their common sense?
Habit?
Addiction?
I vote for both.
I have Rules about how I use my electronic devices.
I don't do email when I travel.
I turn my cell phone off when I'm not using it or not expecting any calls.
I don't text. Ever.
If you want me, you have to email me or call me during normal human being type hours. I do the same for my friends.
I turn off my computer every night at 5, 6 at the latest.
I cook dinner. A really fine one.
I may read at night or I may watch movies.
The news I get comes from the NYT on line and anything else on line until I fold clothes after dinner and watch CNN and MSNBC or maybe (my newest fave) HGTV. (Wanna buy a house in Paris? London? Belize?)
My Blood Pressure is fine.
I work out 2-3x a week.
And my newest addiction is Dance Jam class on Saturdays.
WHAT's your addiction? What are your Rules for electronic devices?
What can you change to give yourself a dose of Vitamin P???

Historicals, at the movies or in print? What's the purpose?

As a professionally trained historian (with grad degree in the Old Stuff), I love to write historical fiction and read it.

A few nights ago, a professor of American history gave a big slam on prime time TV to the new movie, THE HELP. Her critique was, IMHO, the one of the "More Knowledgeable Academician" telling the lowly world how inaccurate, improper and downright disgraceful the film was to have portrayed that time and place and characters with joy, humor or compassion. Her conclusion was that the film is a gross glossing over of the truth.

Now, first, I must tell you, I read this book months ago. Loved it for its humor, compassion and finely drawn characters. Most of all, I loved it for its portrayal of the times and the milieu. I lived through that time and I remember it well.  And while I lived in a fully integrated city and went to public school in one, I also went to college with women (and men) from the Deep South. I know what my friends thought and how they lived. I listened to them as we watched riots and hosings, the aftermath of the murder of Medgar Evers and Dr. King. I visited the South with my friends, met their parents and siblings. And while I am not a professional historian of slavery in America, I can say all of the following with certitude:

1. No book, non-fiction or fiction, can portray the total truth of a period or a people.

2. One book, non-fiction or fiction, can explore only one angle, hopefully, well.

3. One author, especially a fiction author, does not aspire to write the definitive picture of a person, place or period.  (If she does, she'll never finish that book.)

4. The author's job is to pick one premise, one theme and one or two morals of the story. If she's doing her job well, she's going to use the best of her talents to accomplish that limited goal.

5. This author chose to portray a group of white women and a group of black women whose intertwining relationships were representative of a culture and a period.

I think she accomplished her goal well.

If she didn't accomplish this TV historian's goal well, she didn't have to. 

And clearly, since THE HELP continues to strike a chord in hundreds of thousands of people who have read and continue to read it--and smile and laugh and shake their heads and feel the pain of those characters--the author did her job.

That is the only thing she was supposed to do.

The only job any author of fiction has or should.

Part 2: MY SELF-PUB LIFE or How I learned to love new aspects of publishing

My latest thriller with Desiree Holt & available now: Until Midnight

Now that I had a viable story, I knew what was coming was the Picky-Picky Part, all those pesky details that can make you or break you in any biz.

What did I face?

The formatting came first. The very thought of all that text formatting and coding made my head spin. What did this girl do?

Yes, I downloaded the guides for Kindle and Smashwords. I read. I pondered in my heart if I could do this or even wanted to.

Concurrently, I read the wonderfully informative emails posted on the RWA-PAN loop (to which you may belong if you are a published author under RWA's guidelines). I read them, but more importantly, I took notes and I kept them in a special folder. THIS has permitted me to return time and again to re-read vital bits of info. Authors there came to share their experiences and their advice. The topics ranged from whether or not to buy ISBNs, how to post as more than one name, one type of genre, how to avoid errors of up-loading. Oh, the fun we have. But invaluable to me. And I am, once more struck by how much I have benefitted from belonging to RWA for almost 30 years. Yes. I was 12 when I joined.... I digress!

And also at the same time, I created my copyright pages. Advice on how to do this begins with the dictum to not use the copyright symbol because the formats do not like it. But then comes the other part of which text to use. There are many!  For this book, I used one for those who write historicals with reference to real people, now long departed, but nonetheless needful of clauses. This book refers to Napoleon's brother-in-law Murat and to the new king of France in this period. As for all else around the hero and heroine, many who did perform their functions, such as the English ambassador, needed to be disclaimed. Pesky, but true! Hence, this search for copyright and its citation took TIME. So did the writing of my bio, edited to be useful for this book and current listings of reviews pertinent to the book! Advice from me: Beware the details that will consume time and effort but must be correct to be useful!

Back to our discussion of formatting and reading the Guides!

So, how did I do with the Guides? I dunno, maybe I'm just thick, but much of it was like reading gobbledygook-pooh-pooh-pa-do. I had to re-read them. Take notes. (We always used to say in financial services that the jargon is in there to impress and keep people OUT of the profession. When I wrote financial issues for The Washington Post, the editors loved my stuff because I wrote for the common man and woman.) Armed with my insights (and I use that term loosely), I tried to develop a text that looked like what they declared they needed. Did I get it right?

To be honest, I am not certain. Why? Because at this point, I had spent a few hours and time is big money to me. Hence, I hired a formatter to do this task for me. Chicken, yes, you may call me that perhaps. But as a colleague of mine says, (Mary Jo Putney) she did not want to burn up her own mental Bytes with skills that someone else had mastered. That's me! I LIKE professional help that saves me heartaches. But mostly to me, Heartache Time IS money. Heartaches kill my creativity, bog it down in Things That Make Me Wince. Ergo, the formatter for me. And in my case, my graphic designer also provides this service for others of her clients who hire her for the cover design. (And yes, you may write to me privately and I will share her email with you, as I will for my professional editor. A list of all comes later in another part of this series.)

As of earlier today, I have completed the forms on my own Amazon Kindle Publishing page. I have posted the hi res of the cover. I have sent the .mobi file format given me by my designer and sent the whole package off for REVIEW.

Drumming fingers.

Waiting now.

Takes 24 - 72 hours for them to decide if they like your cover, text and if you have filled out all the blanks correctly, completely.
Tick tock. Tick tock....
TOMORROW, Part 3!

PART I: MY SELF-PUB LIFE or How I learned to love new aspects of publishing

My latest Regency! Lady Varney's Risqué Business

Am I ready this week finally to put up a 99-center at Kindle?
Oh, yes. But my journey into self-pubbing a book in digital format has been a journey! A BIG ONE!
Loving the success of my erotic Regencies, and cascading down a hill of delight after a week of SIX five star reviews for different books from different sites, I am giggly, jittery and in a panic.
Why?
I hate new learning curves. AND THE ONE FOR THIS has been gig-i-normous!
But I wanted to try this for many reasons. What are they? They begin with the fact that I thought this 99 cent push would increase my readership numbers and complement what I do at EC, Total-E-Bound and Resplendence. (I also have a few books rights' reverted to me from my print books and I wanted to learn how to do all this to get them out into the digital world.)
My goals in place, my strategy developed and I kept on going.
The first task, create a plot and characters I adore!
Now my challenge as an author is to see and feel the people before I write them. No outlines. No character charts. Nah. Not for moi. I have got to SEE these folks. This Takes Time. Usually 2 or 3 a.m. Time. You feel me.
Then, I need to know the conflict and I have to SEE the story. For me, this means visualizing the scenes and their dialogue.
Then, what? We come to my first WONDERFUL benefit of self-pubbing: I went, dear reader, SHOPPING. Not for shoes. Not for clothes. Or purses. Shopping for a LOOK. Yep. You get me. ART.
Now, for some this is a quick affair. For me? I spent my life in corporate and government PR and advertising. So art means the world to me. And if one benefit of self-pubbing is that I am going to be able to choose my branding look with art, lemme just say, it will be precisely what I want. So my shopping was a joy and I indulged myself in it for hours, days, days and days. I hear you as you say, wow, where is this art?
I will show you. Soon. (she teased.)
Having found the art to go with my plot, I knew what artist I wanted and I approached her. Yes, she is a pro and she had done work for me before and yes, I did love it all! Having worked with artists for decades, I can tell one who has not only software but skills AND an artistic eye. For me, this artist has it in spades and she understands romance and erotica. Vital to have an artist who knows your genre and the audience's needs.
Within one email and exchange of ideas on the art I had chosen, this artist had my perfect concept back to me within days.  Fueled now by the beauty of what my product would look like, I moved in fully to the task of writing the book.
Let me just say, the writing was not hard.
Oh, no. Never has been. I submerge, go into Flow and do not come out until it is done and I am happy with the product.
However, what happened after I thought I was finished was a bit of a rough go.
And what happened? I walked away, as I always do and asked myself (as you, Dear Author, also ask yourself), what's missing? What did I not say? What did I not include? How might this be better?
And as I asked, I did something I usually NEVER do: I sent it to a Beta reader.
As a professional writer now for many decades, I learned long ago the only person I must please is my editor. Without one, what's a girl to do, eh?
I had an answer! I have friends, accomplished, delightful, HELPFUL friends. I sent LADY STARLING'S STOCKINGS to her and she raved! She adored it!  Big hit, she proclaimed. Great conflict and resolution. We talked about this and that in the plot and I felt better. Relieved!
Result? I stopped worrying that this story was not up to my own standards OR that of my accomplished friend's.
Next step?
One I am used to. Send it to an editor. Now this person I know well, too. She is a professional fiction editor, an expert copy and line editor and one I knew would comb my manuscript for the elements it needed to make it, dare I say, superb. Especially if it already...wasn't.
This person I paid. Gladly. I am not a sloppy writer. I am good at grammar and spell check is my pal, but occasionally I will omit a word, a bit of logic, an emotion that might make the work perfect. I knew this editor would find all those pesky things.
And she did.
What's more--and I knew this would happen--during the interim, I had thought about my story. In the shower. In the car. Cooking. Dining. I re-read it one day. OH. I. FELT. WHERE. THINGS. NEEDED to be added!
So when my friend/copyeditor came back to me, I rejoiced at her comments and her copy edits. Yes, she had done what I, in my creativity, failed to see or do.
The result?
I edited as per her suggestions here and there. Then I went in and added those things I FELT it needed. And viola! In the end, the work had roughly 3000 more words! Not bad. I re-read them, too. All necessary, I concluded.
What was next?
Return for Part 2: My Self-Pub Life or How I learned to love New Aspects of Self-publishing!
When? Tomorrow!