Where my book wanted to be

 Just pushed the PUBLISH button on a new book!

Not 100% new, but 95% new. The general storyline has not altered but oh! I've spent so much time on  re-writing, improving and slanting it in a new direction, too - Romantasy.

I was never happy with my first attempt and when I started reading Romantasy, well  Wow! I thought, that was where my book wanted to be all the time.  So now it is there, and unashamedly promoted as that. Let's hope it does well. 

This is the first time I've deliberately aimed at one of the more niche genres and I can say it makes Promos a whole lot easier than trying to excite someone with a commonplace historical romance. It may take KDP 72 hours to have a book ready for a reader but I shall be watching all progress with an interested eye. One or two facts about Trust No Maid -

Setting: Ireland and north west Scotland

Period: around turn of 11th century

Characters: New heroine  appears but Olli, Flane, Emer and Skeggi featured in Far After Gold, as they did in Viking Bride and Viking Summer.

How writingromance fiction has changed

Ambling around the internet this afternoon I found a long article on romance writing.... you will find the whole thing at this link -

https://janefriedman.com/romance-writing/

Because I want to be able to find it again, I've put the first couple of paragraphs here. I'm also going to suggest you read the whole thing as I am about to do. It begins by comparing writing for both the literary genres and romance 

Madeline Iva is her pen name, and you won’t find a trace of her real-life identity anywhere.

Iva is an emerging novelist who, as she puts it, writes “lady smut.” Her first novella was published last year by HarperImpulse, and it focused on sexsomnia, an actual condition in which people have sex in their sleep and wake up not remembering anything about it. The story’s protagonist is a young economist who has the hots for a strapping biologist, and starts waking up in the morning on the floor wearing different clothes. She has to solve the mystery of what she’s doing at night—and whom she’s doing it with.

I met Iva for the first time in 2013 during a social outing with several other authors. She told me how much she loves writing smut. She calls romance novels “happiness machines”—they guarantee that you’ll be happier after reading the novel than before.

Only later did I discover Iva has an MFA in creative writing from a top-tier program in the U.S., where she studied under one of the most respected literary writers today.

Romance secrets

Ovingham

In lots of romance stories, two characters meet – no, sorry, they more often collide – and claim they dislike each other, while as writers we expect our readers to understand that love is simmering just below the surface. Is this premise truly believable or should we dismiss it as absolute tosh?

Always in the romance genre there are problems as to why the two couldn’t possibly be thought of as lovers. He’s too proud, she’s too prejudiced. Rhett Butler is no certainly gentleman, while Scarlett is your true ladylike southern belle. (Put in your own names and see if they match what I’m about to say.) What happens as the story progresses? We find that Scarlett has it in her to cheat, lie and steal in a way that makes Rhett look positively gentlemanly. Darcy proves he has the guts to see his faults and change his ways, while Lizzie recognizes with dismay how hasty and ill-judged her speedy character assessments were - not only of him, but also of Whickham.

Are they really the disparate characters first presented to the reader, or are they much closer to each other in tastes, habits and thought? I think Darcy and Lizzie are alike in many ways. In fact, Darcy and Elizabeth admit as much, and the film Gone with the Wind demonstrates how similar Rhett and Scarlett are in their courage and desperate will to survive and keep their dependents alive.

Perhaps this is the true secret of the romance genre - that couples should share values and traits, however deeply they are hidden or obscured by initial impressions.

They’d have to have something to share, or their lives would be hell. Wouldn’t they?

Third time lucky

My book is up there on Kindle for all the world to see. I'm reading it on my newly acquired Kindle and it looks  fine. The only glitch I've spotted is that sometimes an Em-dash turns into a tiny question mark inside brackets, but hey - when did you last read a print book copy that didn't have a glitch in it? Ever since computers got involved in printing books, the typographical errors increased.
This book has had a checkered history. It got tied up in the Triskelion bankruptcy case when the American tax people froze all books and assets for over a year until they'd sorted everything, and it's had an uneventful couple of months with Sapphire Blue until that independant e-publisher decided to close last month. Since the rights came back the same day the company closed, I decided to go for the simplest option, which was Amazon's Kindle Publishing programme, and priced it very low.

I described Shadows as "a chilling tale, written with humour and drenched in the sights and perfumes of the rural Dordogne... a must-read tale for those who like a romance with a ghostly twist."

Anita Davison loves a great ghost story and thought Shadows "definitely does not disappoint...an exciting read...powerful and fast-paced writing...endearing and memorable characters."

Lindsay Townsend thought "Jen Black writes subtle, powerful characters, very nicely shaded, and I felt I understood Rory and Melissa and why they acted as they did. The older story of the ghosts is teased out in a compelling way and is genuinely moving and other-worldly - to write of ghosts as well as this takes some skill."

There's a book trailer as well -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGml0vxiJU8

Trencarrow Secret

Today I introduce good friend and critique partner Anita Davison, who has a book published in three day's time. Anita describes her story, and then tells you a little about herself ~

Trencarrow Secret by Anita Davison
Victorian Gothic Romance

Isabel Hart is afraid of two things, the maze at Trencarrow where she got lost as a young child, and the lake where her brother David saved her from drowning in a boating accident.

With her twenty-first birthday and the announcement of her engagement imminent, Isabel decides it is time for her to face her demons and ventures into the maze. There she sees something which will alter her perceptions of herself and her family forever.

Isabel’s widowed aunt joins the house party, where her cousin confides she is in love with an enigmatic young man who surely cannot be what he pretends, for he is surely too dashing for homely Laura?

When Henry, Viscount Strachan and his mother arrives, ostensibly to use her ball as an arena for finding a wife, Isabel is determined not to like him.

As more secrets are revealed, Isabel doubts she has chosen the right man, although her future fiancé has more vested in this marriage than Isabel realizes and has no intention of letting her go easily.

Will Isabel be able to put her preconceptions of marriage behind her and take charge of her own life, or is her life destined to be controlled by others?

Anita tells us about herself ~

I was born in London, a city which has a unique atmosphere; a sense of time passed that I connected with, even when I was young. When the other children on the school trip coach were throwing the contents of their lunch boxes at each other, I was staring out of the window at the ancient buildings, imagining men in wigs and heeled shoes coming out of coffee houses and climbing into sedan chairs on the cobbles outside St Pauls Cathedral.

Strangely it was walking through Paternoster Row with a dear friend, discussing books of course, when the idea for the story of Trencarrow Secret came to me. One requirement of modern writing, is you cannot simply write a story, it has to be categorised, put into a box so it is instantly recognised. My critique group, and my agent, say time and again that romances are the largest market in the fiction genre. In an attempt to break into the world of traditionally published authors, I chose to step outside the world of Restoration London and into the heads of characters of another era. I haven’t managed it yet, as Trencarrow Secret is Inde Published, but I still have some stories to tell which may make it.

Isabel Hart evolved, beginning as a Jacobean character, she turned into a Regency one, eventually finding her own time in late Victorian England. Her reserved character belonged in the rigid, uncompromising days of the British Empire, and I gave her strong reasons for seeing life as many of us do when we are young; in black and white, where right and wrong are clearly defined and there is no blurring of the two. Trencarrow Secret is a love story, and during one fateful summer, Isabel discovers that marriage is no fairytale, but an enigmatic and unique bonding of a couple which may appear unsatisfactory to outsiders, but each comes with its own chance of success.

Isabel’s romantic illusions are dispelled and she comes to realise that people, even those closest to her, are flawed and make mistakes. She has to find the capacity to forgive and move on – and to continue to love them anyway because that’s what families do. Through her unique relationship with her brother, David, Isabel struggles through revelations, self doubt and danger before she finds her soulmate.

The Hart's summer home in Cornwall is a house I have visited often - also the village of Marazion and St Michael's Mount have not changed much since the late 19th Century, which made them easy to portray realistically. I tend to write about places I know so I can portray them with a level of credibility.

Writing historical fiction is complicated and challenging, but my spirit lives in the past and I cannot imagine myself writing anything else.

Trencarrow Secret is scheduled for release on 10th June 2011
Available here: https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore2/

Trencarrow Secret Blog: http://trencarrowsecret.blogspot.com
Anita’s Blog: http://thedisorganisedauthor.blogspot.com

Eating and romance

Romance writers seem to have got into a trend of writing love scenes in terms of eating. I suppose if you like eating, then its no problem, but if sometimes the thought of eating another thing is more like a punishment, (the days after Christmas spring to mind!) then you could begin to wonder at the psychology of descriptive love making that uses the vocabulary of eating.

Heroes and heroines hunger for each other, taste, bite and devour each other....

Next time you read a love scene, take note!

The cold continues. We've no more than a dusting of snow now, but the river froze on Friday. Water ran in the dark patch, flowing as swiftly as ever. By Saturday, the dark patch had closed over.

Authentically British

There’s an interesting post on Smart Bitches – here’s the link - here - which begins:
“Dear various American authors of historical romances who are trying very, very hard to sound authentically British,
It’s not like I’m the foremost Britpicker of all time. Not even close. But I’ve noticed a distressing trend among your ranks in recent days.”

Anyone who writes anything vaguely historic will find the letter and the comments that follow it entertaining, interesting and informative. I certainly did, and though I didn’t agree with everything, was astonished to learn that my understanding of cetain rude words was a little out of kilter to the norm. Comes of a sheltered childhood, I imagine!

The weather is ferociously cold here in the north east. Temperatures of minus three all day, and plummeting to minus nine and worse at night, is unusual. On the other hand, it is bearable with blue sky and sunshine. I am feeding the birds cracked peanuts, sultanas, mixed seeds and bits of bacon fat, and am amazed that they can tolerate such conditions. The ground is so hard there's no hope of finding worms. How do birds no bigger than a golf ball survive the long, dark nights? From four in the afternoon until eight the next morning - about sixteen hours in freezing temperatures?

So that's why

Still with edits because there was some confusion and the doc file did not "hold" track changes. I now have an rtf document, and all is well except that I have to go through the whole story... again. Lesson learned - always check after first few edits...

Meanwhile there are good things around. I met with my local writers group today and heard about Michelle's encounter with a Guardian writer - it is a must read piece, and I say this not because I know Michelle - more because I don't seem able to pass through the portals of M&B either.

Confessions of a secret Mills & Boon junkie - read the article here
Mills & Boon publishes 720 romantic novels a year. Featuring the kind of heroes their female readers can sigh and swoon over, they outsell true crime, science fiction and God in the bookshops. As fiction, they're easy to read – so surely it's easy to write one ...

Populist versus literary historicals

Interesting points in the BBC Radio 4 Front Row discussion on historical fiction follow. (Swot that I am, I took notes!)
The field is littered with terms like literary historical versus generalist historical, down to populist historical usaully written by amateurs.

Novelists “explore and explain the past.” Sarah Dunant is a trained historian and says as a novelist her job is to tell you really good stories and as a historian to be as truthful to the facts as it is possible for her to know.

Tristram Hunt, academic historian and non-fiction author, is bored and appalled by the rise of historical fiction and the relentless focus on detail which provides the authenticity.
Prof Margaret MacMillan is gloomy about the profession abandoning the field to amateurs. Amateurs are not trained to weigh evidence. They often write without informing themselves about the period and produce, for example, 14th century heroines who sound like 20th century feminists, which is simply not correct.
Antonia Fraser thinks we shouldn’t write with hindsight, ie Henry VIII thought each marriage was going to work, though we know otherwise.
Sarah Dunant doesn’t write about real people. She reads around the pressures, politics, dress and culture and creates composite characters who are not real but might have experienced thoughts and feelings akin to the real characters of history.
Philippa Gregory does the research for the bare bones of history and her fiction breathes life into the bones.
More later.

After the thunderstorms

I've done half a dozen posts on the RNA conference at Penrith and that's enough, I think; here's one last view of a few people talking and waiting a for lecture to begin.

The rest of the world goes happily on. Weather has been so variable lately with brilliant sunshine one day and vicious rain and thunder storms the next -

the river Tyne is in flood again - in July! - and yet the insects keep working the flowers in the intervals.

I've finally finished Reluctance. Just over a hundred thousand words, give or take a few as I weed out the repetitions and unnecessaries, which should not take long as I've done about three serious drafts of this story. I used Doc-u-map to track the Chapter Headings and the date line of the story - and found it really useful and a speedy way of getting around the pages. Took me an age to figure out how to do it initially, but now it is worth it.

Interestingly enough, after sixteen months of total and utter silence, I received a request for a ms from a publisher in the US. They are interested in Shadows, the story that got tangled in the Triskelion shambles. It is out for consideration with another publisher at the moment, but it is nice to know someone else is interested.

Now I shall begin re-drafting a story the M&B girls at the conference thought was OK if I tweaked one or two things. My prologue was "a bit grim" and would be better used as part of the Black Moment further down the story. The things Jenny said made good sense, and I wondered why I hadn't thought of it myself.

At home we are doing a bit of re-organisation. Late spring cleaning, you might say. For one reason or another, our bedroom has never seemed to be "finished." The other rooms, fine, but the poor old bedroom must have felt like Cinderella. It is now receiving Attention.

Penrith once more

A happy picture of (L to R) Shirley Dickson, Margaret Carr and Prue Philipson of the Border Reivers Chapter.

Jessica Hart is a reader for the NWS and finds that the thing most often missing from submissions is emotional tension. ET - "a metaphorical holding of breath" - tension comes from uncertainty. The more obstacles you can put in the way of your H/h getting together, the more tension you create, the more uncertainty there will be of the outcome. The longer you hold your breath the greater the release when you finally do let go!

She mentioned Save the Cat (Blake Snyder) and agrees with his 15 Beats - the format works.

Jessica had a neat diagram that may be difficult to show here. Think of it as a mathematical equation, with a line beneath situation (external) -

situation (external) x plot = Emotional Tension

character (internal)

All stories need an initial hook or "situation," possibly an external factor that forces them together, but it must be believeable and there must be a "stake" for each of them. What is it that drives them? They each need a goal, and those goals should be in conflict. What are the usual drivers? Love, lust, hate, fear. Fear will subdivide into fear of rejection, humiliation, loss, loneliness, loss of face, comittment, betrayal, failure etc.

The H/h must change during the arc of the tale, test their fears. Push them out of their comfort zones. Get them to talk about their difficulties. If the heroine begins to find the hero attractive, why can she not tell him? Because she believes, because he told her so, that he is in love with someone else. Why did he tell her this? He must have a reason. It may not be true.

Secondary characters are not necessary. Keep the H/h alone and remind them every time it looks like they're getting together that they cannot be together.

As for the other pictures ~ Lynne Connolly diligently worked on her edits throughout the conference ~ and Jan Jones prepares to award prizes to the lucky few at the Saturday night conference dinner.

A walk on the literary side

A pair of curious lambs encountered on a walk yesterday They posed beautifully so I told them the cheque was in the post.

One of the nice things about a walk in the countryside is that it allows lots of time to talk with a companion. It won't be a surprise to know that one of the topics was writing/reading. How the literary world looks down its nose at popular fiction, where the borderlines are between shallow, superficial writing and the clunkiness of books deemed to be good (ie literary) writing. Should a book enlighten or entertain?

I prefer that a story should entertain me first of all and possible enlighten me as it goes along. But these days I won't read fiction only to be enlightened. Non-fiction will that for me, and do it far better. I've done my english lit at university, I've read since the age of four, tried sci-fi, historical, paranormal, thrillers and these days so many books are riddled with the violence and gore I do not want to open them. Only lately have I discovered the romance genre.

The romance genre is wide and stretches far beyond the Mills & Boon category romances that most people assume makes up the entire genre. I freely admit that in the 1960's I and colleagues made fun of Mills & Boon romances during quiet spells in the library, but the books have changed along with years.

I remember reading widely in my twenties, eager to soak up all the different ways that life could be lived. Things I didn't know until I was twenty-five are now common knowledge to nine-year olds and I think the thing to blame for that loss of innocence is the monster in the corner of every home - the tv. Reading takes an effort of imagination to translate the words into meaningful images in your head, and the muscle needs to be exercised and expanded from an early age. The tv requires only that you watch. Quite often it tells you what you need to understand. But tv and its dangers are another story. Must get on and do some work.

Border Reivers and characters

Yesterday the Border Reivers group met at Morpeth and we all discussed writing blurbs. A weird art, and I'm not sure the meeting was productive as seven of us all had differing views on what was required for a really good blurb. Interesting, none the less, and I came away thinking definitely more practice required at writing the -- things.

I knew character names were important, but had not taken into account - silly me! - the differing views of others. Because I think Don and Julie are good names for H/h, I wonder why they conjure up an image of a forty-somethings in someone else's mind. Why are those names generally deemed old and stodgy? Is it a personal thing? Do they know someone of that age, with that name, and are pre-disposed to think every one called Don is like the man they know?

Or is the name itself dated? H'mmm. More food for thought. I chose Don because it was short, sharp, free of overtones (how wrong I was!) and fairly standard like Richard, James and John, the sort of names that persist through every generation. Call him Jake and I think of a six foot lifeguard I once knew in my distant youth - and that doesn't suit my character at all!

Last night was a late one due to a dinner dance and today will be taken up by dh's imminent departure for France, so I won't get much work done today. But next week - no distractions!

Romantic problems

Still the arguments rage over romance and its literary worthiness. For anyone who wants to follow it up, here's the link. Academic conferences are discussing it now!

I think it is damned difficult to write an interesting and well motivated romance. I keep changing my hero's motivation, or rather the childhood influences that have made him what he is and subconsciously guide his choices as an adult. Some things work, some things don't. When I first started this book on holiday in France about four years ago, I thought of it as a fun exercise, but now I think it is going to prove one of those "difficult" books. I wanted ghosts racketing around the old mill, but I didn't want frightening ghosts since it was primarily to be a romance. But if ghosts aren't frightening, what are they?

You see my problem? I have now - at last - constructed a scenario of conflict and I shall stick to it. No more deviations or this story goes out of the window. I'm starting to get just a tiny bit bored with it, so either it "works" in the next few sessions or that's it - over and onto the next, fresh story. I wonder what it will be?

Hexham Book Festival

Had a day out today at the Hexham Book Festival. Evidently I missed a great workshop on synopses yesterday, but today I learned a lot by listening to M&B author Sharon Kendrick in the morning and a trio of authors plus a senior editor in the afternoon.

Some of the stuff can be found on the website, but here are a few words of wisdom that stuck in my mind -

"Remember not to overplay the arrogance. Weave in layers of conflict. As one question is answered, a second is revealed. Signposts are necessary sometimes. Beware coincidences, especially trite ones. (I don't suppose anyone will own up to that one!) 'She stopped at the gate and wondered if Tino would remember her' was deemed an excellent opening hook. You need to know their characters inside out and their backstory so you can set up and be clear about the internal conflict."

And at last I think I know what internal conflict really is.

The afternoon session authors were Natasha Oakley, Michelle Styles and Sharon Kendrick.
They were informative and enthusiastic, and all agreed that M&B romances are character driven and that constant change keeps the books relevant to the next generation. Good motivation makes a book work, poor motivation can ruin excellent writing.

For M&B you need tunnel vision on the central romance. If something doesn't affect the romance, take it out. It's got no business being there. In case you wondered, the other woman scenario is deemed to be 'external conflict' because she is outside the central romance. But a woman who has been raped and has ongoing problems with any future relationship is internal conflict. So is a grasping, greedy step-mother who makes the hero suspect that

every woman is a gold digger.
Psychological conflict should mount in stages to the resolution, but takes a nose-dive at the Black Moment when all seems lost.

M&B are looking for new authors. They get around 1,500 submissions a year and they take on 1% of them. But all 3 ladies talking to us today came through via the dreaded slush pile. What will catch the eye? Great characterisation, good voice and Something Different.

Keep writing!

Grammar and Romance Genres

Heard a new one today. I'm sort of resigned to hearing that a sportsperson has "medalled" but my ears pricked up when I heard that a certain skier has not "podiumed" this year. I'm hope it is not a painful and worrying experience for him.

In view of my mention of genres yesterday, here's a list of the Romance Writers' of America definitions of the romance genres (thanks to Linda for pointing me in the right direction!)

First, a brief intro: "All romances have a central love story and an emotionally satisfying ending. Beyond that, however, romance novels can be set in any time or place, entertain any number of plot elements, or convey moods from light and humorous to dark and suspenseful. The genre of romance can be classified into various sub-genres depending on their setting and plot elements.

Those sub-genres include:
Contemporary Series Romance Series romance novels that focus primarily on the romantic relationship and typically set after 1945.

Contemporary Single Title Romance Romance novels which focus primarily on the romantic relationship, released as individual titles, not as part of a series and set after 1945

Historical Romance Romance novels set in any time period prior to 1945, and taking place in any location

Inspirational Romance Romance novels in which religious or spiritual beliefs (in the context of any religion or spiritual belief system) are a major part of the romantic relationship.

Novels with Strong Romantic Elements A work of fiction in which a romance plays a significant part in the story, but other themes or elements take the plot beyond the traditional romance boundaries.

Paranormal Romance Romance novels in which the future, a fantasy world or paranormal happenings are an integral part of the plot.

Regency Romance Romance novels in which the majority of the story is set against the Regency period of the British Empire.

Romantic Suspense Romance novels in which suspense, mystery, or thriller elements constitute an integral part of the plot.

Young Adult Romance Novels with a strong romantic theme geared toward young adult readers.

The RNA covers the field but in a less specific manner:
"Romantic fiction is the cross-genre genre. In the UK it appears under a variety of publishers' labels including general fiction, women's fiction, historical, romantic comedy, chick lit, sagas - even spooky - as well as romance. These are among the UK's most commercially successful book categories.
It embraces Jilly Cooper's 900 pages as well as the 187 Harlequin Mills & Boon category romances which are published every month; multi-generational sagas and Regency romps; deeply serious meditations on life and flippant twenty-somethings' metropolitan shenanigans. The engine of romantic fiction is love and relationships. The bodywork is infinitely variable."

Romance

If anyone is ever in doubt about the Romance genre and what it is, there is a huge discussion going on here The basic question of whether it is the correct term for the genre that hides beneath it brought out some interesting responses.

So, what is Romance?
Out of curiosity, I checked my dictionary and found some surprises:
An atmosphere or tendency characterised by a sense of remoteness from or an idealisation of everyday life;
Sense of wonder or mystery surrounding the mutual attraction in a love affair;
A literary genre with romantic love/highly imaginative or unrealistic episodes forming the central theme;
A medieval tale of some hero of chivalry;
An exaggeration or picturesque falsehood;
The languages descended from Latin, regarded collectively;

I think that about covers it!

A tighter view might cover category romance: the meet between h/H;
their mutual attraction; the barrier that keeps them apart; how they overcome the barrier; how the reach the Happy Ever After ending.

That's it in a nutshell, I think. The variety of 'em depends how much adventure, sex, humour you want to put into the journey to HEA. Some authors have a great sense of humour that comes through in their writing . Louise Allen does it for me. Others are rather more serious, like
Juliet Landon. Others forget reality altogether and go for pure adventure.

Romance fiction

If you click here, you'll see a diatribe about HM&B fiction in no less a newspaper than the Guardian.

It is written by a professional journalist who is content to base her views on research done 15 years ago. What kind of research does the Guardian put up with from its people? 15 years is a long, long time. If this is the best she can do, I think the Guardian should quietly pension her off. From the written list of her professional interests, she seems to have made a career out of writing about sex, but I don't feel this qualifies her to write about romantic fiction.

I wasn't reading the HM&B 15 years ago, and I'm still not reading the single line she chooses to discuss. (Presents) My tastes run to Historical, and the titles I choose to read to day have nothing in common with the titles she talks about. Someone should take her aside and tell her what research really, really means. She obviously doesn't know, poor thing.