Ewan Campbell once thought he had it all - he was a rising star in the real estate field, popular with his peers, and engaged to his employer's cousin, the shy and quiet little Marti Marlowe.
A
big one.
Ewan quickly set up his system to
do a virus scan. When it started, he leaned back in his chair and glanced up at
the clock. Ten AM. Marti should be helping his parents make Christmas Eve
brunch by now. God, he really missed her. He should be home and helping her
with all of it instead of sitting at work, fighting with a fucking local area
network that re-fused to get off its ass and actually behave for once.
He closed his eyes and let out a
long sigh. In the distance, a phone rang, and laughter drifted up the hallway.
A festive air had swept through the Halifax location, even with a huge file
missing. Ewan wished he could participate, even for a moment, but as part-owner
and manager of their Halifax location, he was forced to focus on the
predicament at hand.
He stretched his neck. He hated to
miss a moment of his days off with Marti and his parents. It was the first time
he had seen them since he and Marti had visited Alberta in April to expose a
rat among them and formally announce their elopement. Talking via social
networking, video calls, and email wasn’t the same as being with them. As an
only child, his parents tended to fuss over him in a lot of ways but also
understood his need to be his own person, even if it meant living across the
country from them.
Hopefully, something would crack
with the files and allow them to make headway so he could get home and hug his
wife, tightly. Marti was his rock, and being away from her during a time when
they were supposed to be together irked him.
His phone beeped, bringing him out
of his reverie. He hit the button for the intercom. “What’s up, Sheryl?”
The semi-retired secretary sounded
happy when she re-plied, “Marti is on line one. I thought you’d like to talk to
her, since you’re stuck here with all of us.”
Sheryl had been a godsend to him in
the past and was still one now. “Thank god. Put her through.” Just hearing
Marti’s voice would keep him from losing it if anything else went wrong.
The phone made three quick trills
and a green light flashed by line one. Ewan could not grab the receiver or hit
the damn button fast enough. “Hey.”
“Hey. Any luck yet?” Marti’s sweet,
soft tones echoed in his ears.
Ewan felt his frustration ebb
slightly. There were some days he swore she had a radar for his emotions, and today
was one of them. “Nothing yet. Did you hear from Miranda or Ralph?”
“No. I thought they were supposed
to be handling this,” Marti said, her voice tight. She sounded exhausted and as
frustrated as he was.
Ewan closed his eyes again and
sighed. It wasn’t good if his normally serene and loving wife was not happy
either. It spelled disaster with a capital D. “I’ll be home as soon as I
can, I promise.” At least his parents were there with her. Between them,
Joshua, Sybil and Dana, Marti should be distracted until he got home. Talking
to her made him miss her more and wish he could kiss her senseless.
His wife let out a long breath that
sounded like a soft moan. “Hopefully, it’s sooner than later. Something
happened,” she said, her voice tightening more with each word.
That did not sound like his wife.
Ewan wondered what was happening at home. “Good or bad?” he asked and let out a
low growl.
“Both.” She cleared her throat.
“Are you sitting down?”
Puzzled, Ewan glanced around the
room. “Yeah, I am. I’m in my office.”
“Are you alone?”
His left eyebrow rose a notch.
“What’s with the inquisition, sweetheart?”
“You know how my back has been
bothering me for a few days?”
Ewan blinked. “Yeah. Is it worse?”
“Um, sort of.”
Bewilderment started turning to
unease. “Sort of? Do you need to go to the ER?”
She let out a long, hissing breath.
“No, but, oh. Hang on.” He heard rattling, and a low noise that sounded a lot
like the phone dropping.
Panic started to rise in Ewan’s
throat. She was hurt, and he wasn’t there to help her. “Marti? What’s going
on?” he demanded. “Marti? Talk to me, dammit!”
His mother’s voice echoed in his
ear. “Ewan? Sweetheart, Marti can’t talk right now.”
“What do you mean she can’t talk?
What the fuck is going on, Mom?”
“Um, her water broke a couple of
hours ago—”
Shock rippled through him. A
woman’s water breaking meant she was in labour. “Say what? Why didn’t you call
me earlier?” He leapt to his feet and almost tripped over the legs of his desk
chair.
“She was hoping you’d be on your
way home now. She knows you have work to do, but I insisted we call you now.
Her contractions are about four minutes apart and getting stronger fast.”
No. There was no fucking way this
was happening, not now. Ewan’s mind scrambled for the mental list he and Marti
had prepared for her labour months ago. She wanted a home birth with a midwife,
and Ewan was determined to give her that much. “Call Jennifer. Her number is on
Marti’s cell phone.”
“She’s here, monitoring Marti.
She’s using Joshua as a gofer.” There was a tinkle of laughter in his mother’s
voice.
He suspected his mom was trying to
calm him with the mental picture of Joshua kowtowing to the pint-sized Marti
when she was on a tear. Normally he would have laughed, but this time, it
wasn’t working. His mind kept skipping from the midwife to the crisis at work,
to his wife needing him, and—
Where was Miranda? He was fit to
strangle her for breaking her promise to handle any problems while he was on vacation.
Today was a bust, thanks to her disappearing act, and he could easily miss his
first child’s birth if she didn’t get her ass into either the Halifax office or
company headquarters in Bridgewater.
Amidst
the confusion of raising a teenage daughter, the old feelings
resurface. They know their daughter wants them to become a family,
but can they make it work?
Rikki squealed in excitement as she
held up the box set of DVDs on Christmas Morning. “How’d you know I love the
show?” It was every single season of the revival part of a science fiction
series, plus all the specials.
Neil and Kelsey exchanged a grin.
“Thank your dad, it was his idea,”
she said.
“Actually, your mom wanted to know
what to get you and—Oomph,” Neil groaned.
Rikki jumped on his lap and hugged
him tightly.
“You two are the best parents
ever,” she exclaimed and grabbed her mother.
Kelsey’s head connected hard with
Neil’s.
They yelped in unison.
Rikki leapt up and yelled as she
ran out of the room, “I’m going to call Taffy and let her know.”
Kelsey rubbed the side of her head
and cringed. “Did you get a goose egg from that too?”
“That girl doesn’t know her own
strength.” He cricked his neck and grinned. “I should have known she was going
to go nuts when she saw that. She’s been a fan since the series premiere.”
“Next time, we’ll wear helmets,”
Kelsey promised and leaned her arm into his. “Something tells me we’re going to
be watching a lot of DVDs over the rest of the holiday break.”
“That’s fine.”
“I’ve only seen a couple of
episodes of it, and not any of the newer ones. I don’t have a clue who she’s
talking about, and she’s been grumbling at me.”
His arm went around her shoulders.
“Look at it like this, watching all of the episodes will get you in the loop.”
“True.”
Damn, she looks so cute when
she’s confused.
He quickly cut off that train of
thought and gestured to the hoodie on the floor beside them. “You remembered my
favourite team.”
She grinned. The New York baseball
team sweater was a joint gift from her, Rikki and the pets. “It’s not every day
you meet a Canadian who loves an American team. Most people I know are Toronto
fans,” she replied.
“I don’t remember telling you.”
“You wore their shirts a lot, so it
was easy to remember.”
Kelsey and her photographic
memory.
He laughed and pulled something out
from behind a pillow. “Merry Christmas, Kelsey.”
She eyed the small, gaily wrapped
box warily. “What’s this?”
“Not much, it’s something I thought
you’d like.”
I hope she loves it, and Rikki
better have given me the correct size.
It’ll be a bitch to get it fixed
or replaced if she hates it.
She gave him a puzzled glance and
slowly started to peel off the wrapping. When she pulled off the cover, she
gasped with wide eyes, and put a hand over her mouth.
Shit, she hates it.
“Don’t you like it?”
She caressed the small silver and
onyx ring with a sniffle. “I love it.”
“But.”
“I can’t accept it.”
“Why not?”
“It’s not appropriate.”
His eyes rolled. “How so?”
She let out a long breath. “Friends
don’t give friends rings.”
“That’s bullshit, Kelsey, and you
know it. You’re more than a friend to me.”
She peered up at him. “Says who?”
His cheeks warmed under the
scrutiny. “We’re Rikki’s parents and members of the same family. An
unconventional one, but we’re still a family.”
Kelsey stared at him for a moment
and started to nod slowly. “I don’t think it’s right for you to give me a
ring.”
Neil sighed. “It was Rikki’s idea
to get it for you, so technically it’s from both of us.” When she opened her
mouth to protest again, he added, “Mothers are allowed to get rings from their
children.”
She nodded again.
Is she crying? Not yet.
He tightened his arm around her.
“She’s going to be disappointed if you don’t wear it.”
Kelsey shot him a filthy look and
with a shake of her head, took the ring out of the box. “I don’t want to hurt
her feelings.”
He grinned triumphantly.
“Put it on before she comes back.”
She slid it on her right ring
finger and admired it. “How did you know what size—oh, never mind. Rikki told
you.”
He laughed. “She picked it out and
insisted on getting it in silver. She knows you like it better than gold.”
“She’s too smart for our good,”
Kelsey grumbled jokingly. She reached up to touch his cheek and rested her head
on his shoulder. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” he whispered.
His gaze locked with hers and he
felt something nudge him, hard. Without thinking, he nuzzled his forehead
against hers, and his eyes slid shut as he leaned toward her.
“Punky, get back here, you brat!”
Neil and Kelsey jumped and
straightened as the corgi blew past them and into the kitchen with a ribbon in
his mouth. Rikki skittered around the corner in her sock feet and almost slid
out of the room as she tried to catch her dog.
With an uncomfortable glance and
chuckle, Kelsey and Neil shifted away from each other.
She stood up when an annoyed meow
echoed from the next room. “Maybe I’d better help.”
“Yeah,” he replied and with a sigh,
got up. “Hopefully that damn chowder head will let us catch him this time.”
That was too fucking close.
Next time, kiss her fast, don’t
hold back.
Or don’t kiss her at all.
He let out a long sigh as he got up
and followed Kelsey into the next room.
GUEST POST ANSWERS:
Can you, for those who don't know you already, tell
something about yourself and how you became an author?
I’ve always loved to read, and as a child, I loved making up stories.
I didn’t know I wanted to be an author until my Grade 4 teacher, Mrs. Hache,
told me I had a knack for writing stories. After that, becoming an author was
my dream career. I didn’t know what genre I wanted to write, so I just wrote
silly stuff until I hit Grade 6. After reading a Harlequin Romance, I knew I
wanted to be a romance author. I’ve been writing on and off since then, honing
my skills and listening to advice from more experienced authors, or in some
cases, editors who sent me rejection letters. If it wasn’t for one kind editor
taking an extra five minutes to give me a personal rejection letter and give me
a few tips on how to improve my writing and storytelling skills, I don’t think
I would have made it this far.
What is something
unique/quirky about you?
I’m a creative type,
but I also love sciences. Give me a book on how the body works, and I’m
engrossed for eons. I’d probably read it from cover to cover and be
disappointed it was finished. I love learning about things like anatomy and
astronomy.
Where were you
born/grew up at?
I was born in a small
town called Bridgewater on Nova Scotia’s South Shore, and I grew up in a small
community called Crousetown, which straddles the Petite River. I spent most of
my childhood either swimming at the river or one of the three main beaches –
Crescent Beach, Risser’s Beach or Green Bay Beach – when my family wasn’t camping
in the Annapolis Valley or going on day trips. The Atlantic Ocean played a huge
part of my childhood, between spending so much time on the beach and my father
working at the Fish Plant in Lunenburg (home of the Bluenose II).
What do you do to
unwind and relax?
I like to watch videos
about Star Wars, Star Trek, and science on YouTube; listen to heavy
metal music; watch movies, and do graphics design for my books or just for fun.
How to find time to
write as a parent?
It’s not easy, but it’s
a lot easier now than it was when my son was little. He is on the autism
spectrum and does not know the meaning of “quiet time”. The only time I could
write when he was small was when his father took him shopping or down to his
grandmother’s house for a few hours. I wasn’t able to start writing full time
until my son was in school full time, and even then it was tricky. I didn’t
finish my first full length novel until he was in grade 3, and that had to be
revised and rewritten several times before I got the formula right. Thankfully
the older my son got, the better he is at listening and being quiet to an
extent. He is sixteen years old now, and I’ve written while he was home, some
of my best work to date.
Describe yourself in 5
words or less!
Quirky, shy, creative,
opinionated, and goofy.
When did you first
consider yourself a writer?
It was after my son
started school, and I was able to start writing more. Before that, I was an
aspiring writer, after that, I became a full-fledged writer.
Do you have a favorite
movie?
Yes, I have several. I
am a huge Star Wars fan, and I love
pretty much all of the movies I’ve seen so far, with the exception of Solo. I haven’t seen that one yet, but I hope to
sometime soon. I also love Valmont, The
Fifth Element, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan,
Manhunter, The Silence of the Lambs,
the 1931 version of Dracula, Carrie (1976 adaptation of the Stephen King
novel), Cujo, and the original Species. I am also a fan of the made for TV movies
from the Canadian TV show, North of 60.
I love all five of them, but my favorites are Trial by Fire and In the Blue Ground.
Which of your novels
can you imagine made into a movie?
Away to Me because it’s
so full of drama, and shows the power of love.
As a writer, what
would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?
My mascot is my cat.
Our old cat Amber used to sit on top of my clunky old Dell monitor when I was
writing, and she’d flip her tail across the screen. Unfortunately she passed
away in 2018, but we adopted another cat, a rescued Maine Coon cat Marnie, five
days after Amber’s passing, and Marnie has turned into my new mascot. She’s
more famous than I am. People love her to bits.
What can we expect
from you in the future?
At the moment, I’m in
the middle of trying to write the next three installments in the Feathered
Tartan series. Story #3 is on the go at the moment – I hope to finish that this
spring – and so is Story #5, but that will have to be completely rewritten
because I’m establishing a timeline in Story #3, and there will be
inconsistencies in #5. I’m also getting ideas for Tri-Town 3 – which I hope to
set in Mahone Bay or Lunenburg – and a standalone novella.
How did you come up
with the title of your first novel?
Believe it or not, it’s
a song title - Stricken by Disturbed, my favorite band. I was listening to
their album 10,000 Fists one day, and the song came on. I happened to hear the
lyrics to that song, and thought it could have been written about Ewan and
Marti. So I changed the name of the story at the last minute before submitting
it to eXtasy Books. The rest is history.
Who designed your book
covers?
Stricken was designed
by Syneca Featherstone of Original Syn.
Away to Me and Under
Your Scars were designed by Martine Jardin.
Sweet Child of Mine was
designed by Angela Waters.
I designed the one for COVID’s
Arrow.
If you had to do it
all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?
No. I wouldn’t change Sweet
Child of Mine for the world. It’s my best
work to date.
Did you learn anything
during the writing of your recent book?
Yes, that less is more,
and deep point of view is a necessity for creating a great story. You develop
the character by their actions and how they are feeling, and explain why things
are like they are.
How did you come up
with name of this book?
Stricken came from the
song by Disturbed. Its second chorus was exactly what had happened to Ewan. He
was being haunted by Marti’s face and what she did to him, even if it was
unconsciously.
Away to Me was
suggested by an old school chum. It’s a herding term, and it means to go around
and come back. Kelsey went away and came back to Neil, so it fit perfectly.
Under Your Scars was
influenced by Godsmack’s song of the same name. Seth and Alexis had a lot of
emotional scars from previous relationships and they fell in love despite
everything.
Sweet Child of Mine was
influenced by a song I listened to growing up.
COVID’s Arrow is a play
on Cupid’s arrow… Love happening when least expected. Since it was written
during the pandemic, and features two essential workers during a pandemic, I
thought it was fitting.
Are your characters
based off real people or did they all come entirely from your imagination?
Most of my characters
are straight out of my imagination. However, Rikki, the daughter in Away to
Me, is loosely based on some of my own
experiences. Until she was thirteen, she believed her mother was her birth
mother. Then she and her stepdad find a note from her father saying that she
was adopted. Until I was sixteen, I believed my grandmother was a lady named
Alice who passed away a year before I was born. I’m named after her. Mom always
referred to Alice as “Mom”, and still does. However, it came out that Alice was
actually my mom’s grandmother, and Mom’s birth mom was a woman I thought was
her oldest sister. I drew from my experiences from learning that to write
Rikki’s reactions and letting her to get to know Kelsey.
Dana, a main character
in one of my upcoming books, is ultra-loosely based on my oldest niece. Like my
niece, Dana is pansexual. I always pictured Dana as the one Campbell female who
marches to the beat of her own drummer – like her cousins Ewan and Joshua
(he’ll be featured in Book 5) – and decides to throw away the family
restrictions on women and become her true self.
Do your characters
seem to hijack the story or do you feel like you have the reigns of the story?
Away to Me was
hijacked, but not by a main character. The dog, Punky, took over during the
first drafts of it, and looking back, he really dragged the story down. When I
looked at it five years after finishing its initial draft, I saw how he had
turned it from a romance into a general story with some sex scenes tossed in. The
story was about him, not the mains Kelsey and Neil. So the first thing I did
was eject the scenes and parts of scenes where the dog had taken over and
either put something else in its place or just let it be. I left one scene in
that featured the dog chasing Kelsey’s newly adopted cats, but that was tossed
during round one of edits with my publisher. My editor Trish suggested I remove
it and looking back, I think it should have been removed before I submitted it.
Oh well, lesson learned. The only characters I’m letting hijack things from now
on are the two main characters. No sides allowed going crazy!
Have you written any
other books that are not published?
Yes, and it will never
see the light of day. It was a “sequel” to what is now Stricken, and it’s horrible. I wrote it specifically
to someone else’s ideas, and it wound up being a disaster. It was over 450K,
full of passive scenes, inconsistent ramblings, dull “erotic” scenes, and tons
of garbage that didn’t make sense. It turned the leads of Stricken into “undercover agents” of a type. They’re
not that. They’re ordinary people, not the police. Geez. It’s so bad, I’ve
dubbed it “The Abomination” and the thought of reading it again makes me sick.
It was heaved to my external drive to gather dust forever. From that point
forward, I decided to only listen to those who had experience as an author or
editor. I’m glad I did because listening to the right people paid off for me in
the end. I wound up getting on with a great publisher, and met a lot of
wonderful, talented people in the process.
What did you
edit out of this book?
Holy cow, a lot!
Stricken saw the first
half of its original draft hit the chopping block, and a lot more. The boring
erotic scenes were replaced with steamier ones, and the entire ending was
changed to be more plausible. The passive scenes were chopped pretty much from
the get go, same with the repetitive junk. In fact, about 90% of what was
published are rewritten scenes, or completely revised to market standards.
Away to Me had at least
twenty areas where the dog Punky takes over, causes trouble, or gives off the
aura he’s about to cause some problems. All of those scenes were either changed
or removed completely. 20 K was removed from the story during its edits before
submission, and another 1K or so was done during edits with eXtasy Books. Trish
really gave me a lot of tips that I’m using while writing. I can’t thank her
enough for her help!
Under Your Scars didn’t
lose a lot. It was pretty clean when it was submitted and thanks to another
amazing editor at eXtasy Books, kept most of its scenes.
Sweet Child of Mine
didn’t lose much either. Maybe a few words here and there when things were
changed from my goofy writing style to market standards, that’s it.
COVID’s Arrow didn’t
lose anything at all, other than a few words here and there with tips from
fellow eXtasy Books author Cameron Allie.
Fun Facts/Behind the
Scenes/Did You Know?
Stricken was originally
called “No Regrets” and covered 15 years – from Ewan and Marti’s first meeting
until six years after their marriage. It was over 200K in length and got
several rejections in this format. It took a rewrite and a few more rejections,
along with a name change, before it finally got a contract offer.
Its sequel, dubbed “The
Abomination”, started where the original draft left off. It will never see the
light of day.
Stricken was the
longest pause between original draft and acceptance. It was started in 2010,
and finally got approval from a publisher in 2016. It was originally meant to
be a standalone story, but ideas in the last year or so have prompted me to
make it the first book of a series featuring Ewan’s family, the Campbells.
Away to Me was written
in three months, writing only two days a week. It had a single rejection before
I dubbed it a “practice story” and let it sit on my hard drive for four years.
When there was a submission call for the Noted special collection at eXtasy
Books, I thought about things and realized Away to Me could be modified to fit the call. The rest is history. I’m glad I
decided to send it in. So many people loved that book.
Under Your Scars was
inspired by an idea my friend Gordon sent me – a mysterious stranger. I started
it right after a kind editor at a publisher gave me a few tips about what is
now Stricken, and I ran with it.
Sweet Child of Mine was
written after a lot of coaxing from one of my best friends who is also a fellow
author. She tossed a few ideas at me, and I wrote the entire thing in a single
weekend… After I was told I had enough time to write and submit a holiday story
– this was back in June 2020. It was written in one weekend.
I always said I would
never be a series author, yet I have two on the go – one that features small
towns with only a distant connection between them, while the other has
characters that are extremely closely connected.
What are your top 10
favorite books/authors?
Nora Roberts, Aaron
Allston, Timothy Zahn, K.L. Slater, and Stephen King top my favorite authors
list.
Favorite books include:
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel
Carrie by Stephen King
Splinter of the Mind’s Eye (Star Wars Legends) by Alan Dean
Foster
Heir to the Jedi (Star Wars canon) by Kevin Hearne
The Thrawn Trilogy (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising,
The Last Command – Star Wars Legends) by Timothy Zahn
The Charm Bracelet Series by Jane Feather
Birthright by Nora Roberts
Crystal Flame by Jayne Ann Krentz
Ritual of Proof by Dara Joy.
How long have you been
writing?
I’ve been writing on
and off since elementary school, when I realized it was an escape from the real
world, and my friends liked my stories.
Do the characters all
come to you at the same time or do some of them come to you as you write?
I like to have the two
main characters somewhat settled upon before starting a book, but the side
characters like to come in on their own, unless it’s an already established
storyline, like the Feathered Tartan series. Most of the extras are already set
– like the Campbell family – but their love interests’ families will come in as
needed.
What kind of research
do you do before you begin writing a book?
If it’s in an area I’m
not familiar with, I always research said area. However, I prefer to write
stories set in towns and cities I’m familiar with, hence the small town feeling
in all of my books. I love to have photos handy so I am able to describe the area
perfectly, and if possible, describe the feeling, smells, and sounds one will
get while at any particular spot.
If I decide the mains
have a career I know nothing about, I will research it. I have two extremely
thick files of printed out information on the Nova Scotia Real Estate trade and
laws from about six years ago stashed somewhere, for reference.
If something comes up
during the writing process, I’ll do research on it for a few days and continue
writing after I feel I’m up to date on it.
Do you read yourself
and if so what is your favorite genre?
I love to read. I
prefer romance but with a hefty storyline. It can’t be all about hopping in
bed. There must be hurdles for the main characters to go through in order to
get their happy ever after or happy for now. I also love a good mystery, and if
it has romance in it, all the better. Same with paranormal, a romance in it
makes it better. However, I also love horror books by Stephen King, general
fiction and women’s fiction.
Do you prefer to write
in silence or with noise? Why?
I prefer silence, no
distractions. Any noise makes me lose my train of thought and I get frustrated,
which makes me give up on writing so I can calm down. Writing with an autistic
teenager in the house is a challenge. I’ve done it before, but I prefer not to
do it too much.
Do you write one book
at a time or do you have several going at a time?
I prefer to have one going at a time, but
lately, I’ve had at least three on the go at once, two are in the same series.
I’m scared I’ll get mixed up if I have more than one going on at once.
Pen or type writer or
computer?
I prefer writing on a
desktop computer. I like the freedom of editing in a word processor, and how I
can easily change things without having to type out an entire page.
Advice they would give
new authors?
Write. Keep writing
until you turn blue, and keep going. READ. Read a lot, from your own genre to
ones you normally avoid.
Listen to constructive
criticism, especially from experienced editors and authors. They know what they
are talking about, and if someone says something isn’t working, take it into
account. Take a few steps back and try to see your story as a reader, not a
writer. Don’t discount what they say because it’s about your work. They’re
trying to help you, not hinder you. Giving constructive advice and critiques
show they want you to succeed. Don’t forget to thank them for their help.
Always get someone to
critique your work, that way if you miss something like a huge glaring mistake,
they will catch it for you. Plus they will catch inconsistencies, passive
areas, tangents, and a lot of other things you may miss when you go over it.
If you go Indie, have
an editor or someone else help you with edits and proofing. The cleaner the
story is, the better your intended audience will like it.
If someone doesn’t like
your work and gives a solid reason why (not their cup of tea as a reader for
example), don’t get upset. Not everyone will like your books. Don’t expect
everyone to blow sunshine at you. Everyone has different opinions, and likes
different things. A lot of people class the “I wasn’t the right audience for
this book” 1 Star Review as a badge of honor, it means you “made it” as an
author.
What is your writing
process? For instance do you do an outline first? Do you do the chapters first?
I like to start with a
general idea of where the story will go – the main characters, and how they get
their happy ever after at the end of the story. After that, I tend to just let
the characters run with it, and if something doesn’t work, it’s axed and
something else put in. I find if I just write without planning too much, things
fall in to place much easier.
What are common traps
for aspiring writers?
One of the biggest ones
is thinking they have a “best-selling idea” or story, when in reality, it's
probably not even a blip on the radar.
Another one is thinking
that if they have their own distinct style that goes against the grain of
grammar and writing period, they’ll get noticed by a big name publisher and
again, have a best-selling book.
Some think that once
the writing is done, the work is too. It’s the exact opposite. Once that story
is drafted, the work is only beginning. Whether you go the traditional route or
the self-publishing one, you still have to edit the story several times to get
it as perfect as possible, get it proofed, have a cover made, and after it’s
out there, promote it to death.
Some also think that
others should do their work while they do nothing. Not true. If you want to be
successful, you have to work your butt off to get anywhere in this business.
What is your writing
Kryptonite?
Noise. Distractions of
any kind. They’ll throw me off so badly that I lose track of things, get
frustrated and have to stop for the day. Ugh!
If you could tell your
younger writing self anything, what would it be?
I’d tell myself to
ignore the naysayers, and keep writing… I’ll have a few problems and some road
blocks at a few points, but I made it, despite everything. Keep going. Never
give up… And check out an independent publisher out in British Columbia. *wink*
How long on average
does it take you to write a book?
It depends on many
things – if I have a lot of alone time and my chronic pain issues are not
acting up. If Hubby works day times while my son is in school, and I am deep
into a story, I can sometimes clear 6K a week. I’ve written books in less than
3 months while writing only a day or two a week.
On average, I’d say it is
about six months to a year. If I can put out a full novel once a year, I’m
happy.
