The Reluctant Debutante by Becky Lower

Love historical romance but are yearning for something unique and different? Give Becky Lower's debut a try! It's fantastic!
It's also on the top of the list of Surprising Good Books on Goodreads (see here for details).
See my Goodreads review below...
Oh, and Becky will be featured on the USA Today blog on their Happy Ever After page on Sept 11.
Way to go, Becky!



The Reluctant Debutante, Book One in the Cotillion Ball Series by Becky Lower
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book--Lower's debut--takes you from high society of 1850's New York City to St. Louis and the burgeoning West. Feisty red-haired Ginger Fitzpatrick, the oldest of nine siblings, prefers to be friends with Elizabeth Blackwell and Amelia Bloomer than empty-headed debutantes, and would rather work in her father's bank than attend the Cotillion Ball. Joseph Lafontaine, her brother's friend, is half-French Canadian, half Ojibwa Indian. He is upstanding, brave, and understands that his Indian blood prevents him from ever having Ginger. This story encompasses duty to family, the difficulties of sibling relationships, and the changing roles of women, all interwoven in the grip of a love that cannot be denied. Lower grabs you by the ankles and holds onto you tightly until you reach the page-turning climax based on the real Gasconade Bridge Disaster of 1855. This story will have you laughing, crying and begging to know what happens to Ginger and the rest of her eight brothers and sisters. Stay tuned for more from this talented new author!

The Good Read (or, What Makes a Book Good)

I came across the beginning of this spectacular book review by Susanna Sonnenberg of the San Francisco Chronicle. In it she defines what makes a book a good read.

Before you read it, I want you to substitute your name for the author, Karen Thompson Walker, and the title of your book instead of hers, which is The Age of Miracles.

Here it is:


"What do we ask of a good read? Escape, release, characters to believe in, situations that convince us, especially fantastic ones. We must be compelled from one page to the next at a pace that feels just right--not too fast, never slow. Often the good read is cinematic, suggesting the inevitable movie. Karen Thompson Walker has suffused her first novel, The Age of Miracles, with these qualities, and if you begin this book, you'll be loath to set it down until you've reached its end.

What, in turn, does the good read ask of us? Surrender.

I surrendered on page 7."

Books, Shakespeare and Company Bookstore, The Latin Quarter, Paris

http://www.freefoto.com/imagelink/?ffid=1351-06-2&s=s

There, now you have it. The perfect review that perfectly sums up (in my opinion) what we, as readers, desire most in a book.

Now we, as writers, simply need to go out and write that!!! Easy-peasy, right???

The RIGHT Kind of Conflict--from James Frey

I'm on vacation reading James Frey's How to Write a Damn Good Novel as I stare at the Atlantic Ocean. Life is always better when you can stare at an ocean all day!

Conflict, conflict, conflict. That's the ticket to success. We need it in every scene, the kind that impedes our character's goals.

Frey talks about the criticalness of conflict and how it uncovers the nuances of character. Here's what he has to say (see pages 39-43 of How to Write a Damn Good Novel):

• "First, plan your novel with rising conflict always in mind. Your characters should be facing ever-increasing obstacles, their problems should be multiplying, pressures on them should always be growing. As the conflict rises, the character changes.
• The kind of conflict we want is RISING conflict. This means the conflict is developed in a nuanced way to show the character slowly and subtly going from one level of emotional intensity up the scale to another. Frey says, for example, the character can begin being annoyed then progress through the scene to peevishness to mild anger to insane anger. What he's saying is, the better a writer you are, the better you are at making these subtle changes which show the reader the many facets of character.
• The character is fully revealed because the reader has seen her or him acting and reacting at each emotional level. The reader becomes gripped in the slowly rising conflict.

So how can you tell if you have rising conflict? Frey says you should look at your character's emotional level at the beginning of the scene vs. the end. "There should be a step-by-step change in the character from, say, cool to fearful, spiteful to forgiving, cruel to compassionate, or the like, in every scene. If there is conflict but no change, you have a static conflict."

Static conflict is bad. It means conflict without character growth. For example, two kids arguing over the television remote will have conflict but are unlikely to grow and change as a result of it. He also cautions against melodrama or jumping conflict, where the characters change but their motivations are off. You have intensity but no motivation.

"If the characters change emotionally a little at a time as a result of the conflict, you know the conflict is rising steadily, as it should."

So go out there and make sure you've got lots of conflict in EVERY scene, that it's slowly rising to show your reader the character's emotional growth, and always make certain you have an emotional change from the beginning of EACH scene compared to the end.

Incorporating these tips will make your scenes absolutely ripple with conflict--the right kind, that is!

Pearls from Cathy Maxwell

Avon Historical and New York Times Bestselling author Cathy Maxwell stopped at the Parma Snow branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library the other night for a chat. She's been writing for over twenty years and has a new release just out, Lyon's Bride (see gorgeous cover below).

The beauty of hearing an expert speak is that it makes you see things in a unique way--a way that comes from years of experience. I often feel I have a myopic view of things and long to be able to pull back and see the big picture.

Here is what she said that had a great impact on me:

A romance is the tale of a relationship but also of a commitment. We read to see if this couple has what it takes to commit to one another for life.

I love that! It's a beautiful perspective on why we read--and write--romance.

A romance begins with a woman who doesn't like the status quo and has decided to take a risk.

What a great way to describe the Call to Adventure!

Someone asked her about sex scenes in books. Cathy said that for a female, sex is the ultimate act of commitment. If the reader doesn't sense that commitment, the scene will fall flat or appear gratuitous.

Writing a novel is like working with a lump of clay. A good book is in the rewrites.

I am currently working from a fast draft and tortuously trying to turn it into a real story and finding it agonizing. I know it will need more drafting--but how much more? How much more time, how many more drafts? When does it turn from the lump of clay into something bigger than itself, a real story?   Will I ever get it right? 

(So, as you can see, I'm having some stress here.) So I asked Cathy, do you write faster now than you used to?  How many hours a day do you write?

Her answer was, it never gets easier. Some books write themselves easier than others and she has no idea why. But she did say, you're always best when you push yourself. You always have to keep challenging yourself to be better.

Cathy said the second book in her new series (the Chatten curse series) that is coming out in the fall (Harry's story) may be her favorite hero ever. I can't wait to read this series.

Cathy's also got a story in an anthology coming out on May 28th (just in time for Memorial Day) by Avon Impulse called For Love and Honor. The authors were given a one-word prompt:  Soldier. Her story is the Regency version. Lynne Hinton and Candis Terry tell contemporary tales.

I'm so glad I had the opportunity to listen (and be energized by) the words--and wisdom--of a true expert.


                                                              

Jennifer Probst: Success is Not an Accident

I read on the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood blog last week that author Jennifer Probst became the first author for Entangled Publishing to hit the NYT Bestseller List with her book The Marriage Bargain (see post here).
That pretty much made me download it instantly. I found it to be sparkly, tightly written, and a don't-you-dare-put-me-down kind of read. I loved it!

So today I found myself googling this author and her NYT success, and I found this post at The Moody Muses. Jennifer talks about a blogpost she read on Kristen Lamb's blog about Quitting. It's a very inspirational post about when to turn your focus elsewhere, to focus on your goals and change them when something isn't working.  Jennifer also shows herself to be a very savvy busnesswoman.

Both of these posts are about focus and having a plan--a business plan as well as a writing plan. Read them and be inspired as I was!

                                         [ A cloudy day but who notices when these are so bright?]

Good News--Contest Finals

My manuscript The Spy Who Loved Me finaled in the San Antonio Romance Author's Merritt Contest and the Connecticut Romance Writers' The Write Stuff Contest. 

Nice to have good news!

River Thames at Night, FreeFoto.com
(http://www.freefoto.com/images/31/26/31_26_14_prev.jpg)

An Entry That Sparkles

Recently, I've judged a few contests and I've finaled in a few.  And I have until Sunday to revise an entry any way I want before I turn it in again for the final judging.

All this leads me to think and think hard--what exactly makes a great entry?


As I ran down the list of this week's talented Golden Heart winners, I saw some finalists who had finaled previously.  What precisely do these talented folks know??? Is there an elusive secret that makes a person final again and again?  If anyone knows what it is, please don't hesitate to come forth and tell me!!!  Bottle it and I'll pay!!!

So anyway, all bitterness aside (I'm over it, I really am :), I decided to compile a list to help me revise my entry and focus on making it the best I can.

MIRANDA'S LIST:  ****WHAT MAKES A CONTEST ENTRY SPARKLE**** 

• Vivid, larger-than-life characters.  Characters with personality.  Sympathetic, believable, realistic and yet...more.  ***Something,*** whatever that might be (that secret spice) that pulls them out of being ho-hum ordinary.  Something that makes you care immediately what happens to them when point #2 happens. So call this high concept, call it the hook, call it that extra special unique twist on the ordinary, whatever you call it, it makes you say, Oh! I want to read that!  This is not a hum-drum victim, this is not a sit-back-and-watch-things-happen-to-me heroine, this is an active, goal-directed character who is going to fight back (maybe not in the right way) when things go wrong.

• Their world as they know it turns upside down.  In the first chapter.  And we don't need to know every reason why, yet, either.  But we care.  Save the info dumps for your own notes.  Take them out, all out, and leave in all the action and dialogue you can.

• An unusual, vivid setting.  A place you as a reader want to visit.  Even if it's grandma's kitchen--you want to be there.  There is something new and different about it--a new world to explore.  Yes, I said a new world.  That's for anybody who thinks paranormal is the only genre with world building.

• Every voice is distinct and you can actually hear each character talk in your head.  An author who is able to do this has done her/his homework about their characters.  They've given them traits that come out every time they open their mouths to speak.

• The dialogue sparkles.  That doesn't mean it has to be full of one-liners.  But it's so real you can hear it in your head.

• The author has a strong voice.  I understand this when I see it but I don't know if I have it in my own writing.  Can voce be inhibited and written out of your work the more you rework things?  Can it be inhibited by perfectionism, by trying to get things exactly right?  If you write your first draft fast, do you get more "voice" into it?  Or does this get honed in your final drafts?  I can't answer this.

• The language is colorful and surprising.  I'm going to show not tell by using a few examples from  Lisa Kleypas's new release, Rainshadow Road.  She is an absolute master at this.

         Here she is describing a little girl:
         "She weighed no more than a dandelion fluff, her small arms loosely wrapped around his           
         forehead."  (p. 96)

         The idea of relating the weight of a dandelion fluff to a little girl is so brilliant, and the small arms  
         wrapped around this big man's head--for anyone who has ever seen a little girl riding high on
          someone's shoulders, it's just perfect. 

          More unexpected metaphors:

          "The scene scattered like an overturned display of greeting cards."  (page 141)

         "Lucy had not been able to identify the nagging feeling that had drawn her insdes as tight as
          violin strings."  (page 5)

          And here is a description of an inanimate object, a house:  "Even in its ruined condition, the house 
          possessed winsome charm.  Unknown stories lingered in abandoned corners and rickety
          staircases.  Memories had seeped into its walls."  (page 35)

          Memories don't usually seep, but in this case it is just the perfect unusual metaphor. 

          Good authors know how to mold language in unique ways that surprise the reader. 

• Lastly, what's not in a sparkling entry?  Backstory, lots of introspection, little action, dull and commonplace characters who do dull and commonplace things.  We are in the entertainment industry.  I think that's important to keep in mind as you write the story of your heart.  It's not all about you and what you feel compelled to put on the page--it's about your audience. 

           Okay, I'm goin' back to the drawing board!  Wish me luck.