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Elizabeth: Vulnerable Characters

You remember Achilles, right? He had that “heel” problem.

I read two books this past weekend (it seemed much more appealing than cleaning the garage).  One was a keeper and the other probably not; one had a historical setting and the other was contemporary; but both had something in common:  a realistically vulnerable hero.

First off was Lori Foster’s Under Pressure, book 1 in her Body Armour series.  It was one of the freebies from the recent writing conference and, since I’d read and enjoyed her books before, I figured it would be a relaxing way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Though I’m pretty sure I’m not the target reader for this particular series, there were a couple of elements that I thought worked really well.  The first was the chemistry between the hero and heroine.  It can be difficult to capture instant (or very quick) attraction between characters, but in brief brushstrokes the author did just that.  The story features a resourceful heroine (Cat), a hunky bodyguard hero (Leese), and a nefarious Bad Guy threat.

As the story opens Continue reading →

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Nancy: August Accountability Thread

jumping-hurdles

It’s the first Monday of August, which means it’s time for the accountability thread! Okay, okay, you caught me. It’s Tuesday. Life intervened and I couldn’t make it by the blog on Monday, but that doesn’t mean we get out of sharing our July progress and posting our August goals. Even though some of us (ahem) might really like to skip that part about sharing July progress, or lack thereof.

First, a reminder about how this works. The first Monday of each month, we’ll invite you to share your plans and goals for the upcoming month. (Okay, yes, I keep saying Monday and today is Tuesday, but just for this month we’ll call in Monday-ish. Monday-adjacent. You get the idea.) As this is a writing blog, we’re dying to know about your writing goals, but feel free to share other life goals as well. Learning origami, taking up daily meditation, or perfecting your crow pose? Tell us what you hope to achieve by August 31st, 2017. Then be sure to come back the first Monday in September to share your progress!

I’ll go first, but only because I have no choice. Fair warning: it’s not pretty, people. Continue reading →

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Jeanne: Why I Don’t Write Erotica

Neckties

This post is supposed to be my monthly progress update, but:

  • My web developer is on vacation, so my website is on hold.
  • I’m neck deep in revisions to my first demon book based on the feedback I got from my editor, Karen Dale Harris.
  • I’m also trying to rethink the plot of the second demon book and wrap my head around the premise for the third. So, lots of  in-progress, just nothing completed to crow about.

So, instead, I’ll share the problems I run into when I write too sexy for my style…. Continue reading →

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Jilly: Hands Off

How do you handle enforced inactivity? Do you have any tips for making the most of it?

I’m more than happy to spend a few days on the sofa with my TBR pile, or working on a puzzle, or soaking in a tub of bubbles, as long as the downtime is my choice. It might be a long-scheduled holiday or a spontaneous mini-break because I’m feeling shattered—either is fine, so long as the break isn’t forced on me. When that happens, I’m not good at making the best of it.

I had a fabulous time in Orlando with Jeanne, Kay, Elizabeth, Michille and Kat. I loved brainstorming, especially playing the Damon Suede game of choosing a verb to describe each of our main characters (see Elizabeth’s post for more about this invaluable trick). I attended a few excellent workshops, heard a brilliant keynote speech from Susan Wiggs, posed for an author photo, made new friends, had a great discussion about Alexis with Jeanne’s editor, listened to a hilarious Q&A from Ilona Andrews, Gordon Andrews and Jeanine Frost, and returned to the UK tired but inspired.

After a couple of good nights’ sleep I was feeling refreshed and raring to get to work—and I couldn’t, because I’ve somehow tweaked my shoulder and it hurts like hell when I write or type. It’s my own stupid fault. Continue reading →

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Michaeline: Exercise Your Whimsy Muscles

I just got back from a trip to Tokyo, and one of the highlights was an Arcimboldo exhibition at the National Museum of Western Art . Arcimboldo was a 16th century artist famous for making portraits of Hapsburgs out of vegetables, animals and various household items. If you want to talk about whimsy, this guy made a career out of whimsy!

Rudolph II portrait made up of fruits, vegetables and flowers. Very green and fresh.

Hapsburg emperor Rudolph II as Vertumnus, the Roman god of the seasons. Click on the photo in order to see the amazing detailed work. Check out the ear of corn! (Image via Wikimedia Commons)

 

But at the same time, he was very serious about his humor. You can see that his fruits and veggies and animals are all very anatomically correct, almost like botanical illustrations. And putting them together to make recognizable faces took a special eye for composition as well as a lot of hard work, I should imagine. Continue reading →

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Elizabeth: Friday Writing Sprints – With Fresh Lemon Scent

Sadly, the blog is not equipped with scratch-n-sniff capabilities so you’ll just have to imagine the fresh scent of the lemons I picked from the tree in my backyard.  I see a lot of lemonade in my future, and maybe a lemon tart or some lemon pudding cake too.

Great, now I’m hungry again.

The lemon tree, like my climbing roses and a few of the other plants in the yard had a growth spurt while I was off in Orlando last week.  Must have been all that rain we had this past winter, coupled, with the current warm, sunny skies.  The local wildlife seems to have experienced a growth spurt as well.  The raccoon, possum, and skunk who scour my front porch in the evenings looking for food and water have almost doubled in size.  I’m guessing they’ve been clearing out the neighborhood cat-food dishes.    Today’s raccoon looked positively disgruntled when he realized there was nothing but a bowl of water to be had.  He and the cat had a stare-off through the screen door.

Now that the yard work is done Continue reading →

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Kay: After the Conference—Now Comes the Hard Part

Unknown weight lifter competing in the 2016 Olympics, held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Photo by Jonas de Carvalho.

Along with others of the Ladies, I went to the RWA national conference in Orlando last week, and like everyone else, I seem to have returned home full of good ideas and better intentions. Elizabeth mentioned yesterday the workshop that Damon Suede presented and several of us attended, in which he described a technique for keeping your characters consistent throughout your manuscript: the power of a single verb. That was a great idea—and fun to see it in action. I’m revising with that in mind.

Several of the Ladies plan to embark (or have embarked) on an indie publishing career, and many of the workshops spoke to that. Resource ideas were everywhere. Continue reading →