Hearts Through History Romance Writers

Ps & Ts

by | Mar 29, 2012 | Blog, Lily Dewaruile

One of the worst things that can happen to a writer is a happy childhood, a functional family, an optimistic point of view. What can there be to write about with such poor resources, such fallow ground? And yet, we are driven, no less than our unhappy colleagues, to form words into sentences, sentences into pages, pages into stories.

When we start a new story, of these, what is the first element we create to work with?

  • People
  • Place
  • Plot

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On Writing

by | Nov 3, 2011 | Blog, Ruth A. Casie

In Mesopotamia, somewhere in the valley between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, dating back to 3700 B.C., someone put stone to tablet and hammered out a message and we’ve been hammering out messages ever since.

What is the love affair with the written word? They have the power to move people and even nations; people steal them, go to war for them, suppress them, cry over them, and love them.

I love painting with them, finding just the ones that transport you to another place all in the comfort of my comfy overstuffed chair. The dappled sunlight in the forest, the clashing sound of swords striking steel, and the softness of the first kiss, *sigh* I love them all.

I’ve had stories in my head as long since forever. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have a damsel in distress and a knight in shining armor racing to save her. (I’ve always thought historical romance). There were times when I finished a book I loved the characters so I continued the story.

It may have been Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander that started me thinking how the accomplishments of today’s woman, the ones we take for granted, would play out in earlier times; accomplishments in music, sports, and medicine. No longer is she the damsel in distress but rather a full partner capable in the great hall, the theater, the surgery, and even the battle field. I found the idea intriguing and went off and spun my tale.

So, I started thinking. It’s the 21st century and time travel is still a Wellsian fantasy, but not for Rebeka Tyler. A small miss step at the standing stones at Avebury will transport her into the adventure of her life.  That’s how I started writing Knight of Runes, all hammered out from my computer.

Help me count down the days to release. Only eleven days left. Leave a comment and one randomly chosen winner will receive a free copy (Epub or PDF) of Knight of Runes. Winner picked November 14.

 

"Mom, you’re Grammarific!"

by | Jul 8, 2011 | Blog, Cynthia Owens

By Cynthia Owens

As a writer, words are the tools of my trade. Putting them together properly is important to me. And as a parent, I want to hear my kids speak properly, without any of the grammar errors so prevalent in the vocabulary of today’s teenagers.

So here are ten simple grammatical errors that are like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.
  1. Lie/lay:  You lay your book down and lie down for a nap.
  2. Had/would have: If I had known about this, I would have been angry.
  3. Of: That was not so great a story – not so great of a story. The of is completely unnecessary to the sentence.
  4. Less/fewer: I have fewer problems with less money.
  5. Would have, not would of: I would have gone to the party if I’d known my friends would be there.
  6. Went/gone: If I had gone (not went) to the party, I’d have seen them.
  7. Its/it’s:  Its is possessive, it’s means it is.
  8. Their/there/they’re: Their is possessive, there is a place, and they’re is a contraction meaning they are.
  9. Saw/seen: Few things great more than hearing a person said I seen instead of I saw.
  10.  Your/you’re: Again, your is possessive, while you’re means you are.
Bonus #1: Could care less/couldn’t care less: Could care less means you care greatly, couldn’t care less means you’re indifferent.
Bonus #2: Good/well. When someone asks how your new manuscript is going, tell them it’s going well, not good. A family story that still makes me laugh – 15 years later – is that when I was in labor with my daughter, my husband told me I was doing good. Between panting and blowing, I snapped, “That’s doing well!”
Perhaps that’s why that same child, my daughter, coined the phrase, “Grammarific” when talking about me!
Happy writing!

Writing Historical Romance and Who to Invite for Dinner

by | Apr 13, 2011 | Blog, Terry Blain

I found this interview I did a few years ago, and thought it had some good information on writing historical romance, as well as one of my favorite questions about who to invite to dinner. Hope you find it interesting.

1. Colorado Silver, Colorado Gold is your second historical romance. Would you tell us a little about the book?

The book is set in Durango, Colorado. I created this story around the setting. When I was a child we lived in California, but every summer drove back to Illinois to visit the grandparents. I remember how beautiful Durango was, so I wanted to set a historical here. I got a book of Durango history, and used what I found for the background for the story, the mining, the smelters, etc. 2. Both the hero and heroine are hiding secrets .What problems did you run into maintaining this tension and how did you deal with them?

The fact that they are hiding secrets is what keeps them from going right into a relationship. The reader is privy to Wes’ work for Wells Fargo and why he’s in Durango right up front, so there was no real problem in writing Wes. I had to be a little more circumspect with Julie, as the reader knows she concealing something, but not exactly what she’s concealing. The hard part for writing Julie is not to reveal too much when in her point of view or internal thoughts. Just enough to keep the reader wondering, but not enough to give the secret away until the proper time. This creates a push-pull in their feelings, as they are attracted to each other, but don’t feel they can do anything about the attraction.

3. Both your first book, Kentucky Green, and Colorado Silver, Colorado Gold are set on the American frontier. What in your opinion is the hardest part of writing stories in this setting? What is the easiest?

Well, since I a BA and MA in History and taught I was familiar with the history so once I decided where and what type of story I wanted to write, I had a general idea to start. Doing the detailed research is easy and fun for me. For Kentucky Green I did research on Kentucky long rifles, Conestoga wagons, their average speed, how far it was from one little town in Pennsylvania to another. You can find really great thing, such as a WPA travel guide to Pennsylvania that listed all the little towns, when they were founded, if they’ve changed names, what they might be famous for, etc. And I used this as a guide for the wagon train trip.

For Colorado Silver, Colorado Gold, I learned about mining and smelting in Colorado, the history of Wells Fargo, etc. The hard part of this is to stop doing the research and start writing. And while I like research, my formal training didn’t cover what clothing people wore, so I had to do a lot of research on who would be wearing what, when.

One problem I have is conveying the social conventions of the time I’m writing in without over explaining (author reader-feeder). For instance in Kentucky Green, it takes a while for the hero and heroine to even think of each other by their first name before actually addressing each other that way. That was the convention of the time, where even married people addressed each other as Mr. and Mrs. in public. Another problem is writing in a time period where S*E*X* (as Erma Bombeck used to write) wasn’t quite so prevalent. Today there is S*E*X everywhere you look. So it had to balance the actual conduct of the time with today market that wants things hot, hot, hot.

4. You’re ready to begin a new project. What’s the first thing you do? Research? Character bios? Plot and plan? Or just jump in and let the muse take you?

The staring place can be the setting, or just the idea of a hero or a heroine, or a plot line such as a marriage of convenience. Then you noodle around with the characters (how are they wrong for each other, how will they be right for each other) and the plot, until I have a vague outline. Then I’m fortunate enough to belong to a critique group, that over the fifteen plus years we’ve been together we’ve become a plotting group. We have an annual retreat where we each bring an idea and do the brainstorming to flesh out the characters and the plot line.

Then I write a narrative outline of the story with all the important points before I actually start writing. I sometimes do a first person bio, but not always. I know some writers feel that plotting takes away the mystery of the story, but I like to have a road map, but with my general outline, all the details somehow revel themselves as I write the story.

For example, in one of my ms. I wrote in the outline ‘Johnny finds out where the fence cutter will strike’ but had no idea how he would find out, but as I wrote the story, it figured itself out. Too weird, huh? 5. What advice can you offer to writers who are working toward publication?

Have friends who are also writers – no one else understand except other writers what we worry about, or understand and support us. My husband loves me, but he just doesn’t get ‘writing’.

And you have to keep thinking of the line from Galaxy Quest – “Never give up, never surrender!”

6. And lastly, if you could invite three people to dinner (real, fictional, living or dead), who would they be? What would you serve and why and what would you want to discuss over coffee?

Wow! What a choice. Did you ever watch the old PBS series Meeting of the Minds where Steve Allen had historical figures to dinner and a discussion?

After a lot of thought (too many possibilities!) I think I’ll have dinner with George Washington, Elizabeth I and Alexander the Great. These are personalities who fascinated me while studying/teaching history. I think it would be interesting to find the real person behind the historical persona they’ve become. All of them seem to be bigger than life characters but from my studies I think they all were in essence really very private people who only allowed a few real friends to really know the people they were.

And it, it just occurred to me, none of them left a direct descendent. What to serve would be a real problem since George, Elizabeth and Alexander come from such different times. So I think I’d go with a simple menu, roast turkey and new world vegetables such as corn and tomatoes, some bread, then round it out with fruit (apples, pears, grapes) and nuts along with a couple of types of cheese, one or two types of wine, and of course coffee and tea.

Discussion is easy as we would discuss leadership and the responsibility there of. George was a natural leader, who was willing to step up and take on the role and responsibility.

Elizabeth had to keep her head (literally) on her way to becoming queen. And then as a woman in a man’s job, learn to lead men without making them resent it.

Alexander must have been some sort of super charismatic man to get his troops to follow him to the ends of the earth.

These three were also in a sense the first/originator of their role – President, a reigning Queen, a conqueror.

If you got to invite three people from history for dinner – who would it be?

Openings

by | Nov 29, 2010 | Ann Lethbridge, Blog

by Ann Lethbridge

No, I’m not talking about job opportunities.  Or am I? I’ll let you be the judge.

Last week I had the privilege of  reading a few five-hundred word story openings provided by aspiring authors. I was not being asked for a critique, so I was unable to offer advice and I didn’t know their names, or anything about them.

I was concerned that almost all these openings suffered from what I saw as similar problems. If it had been possible for me to give  feedback on these snippets, this is what I would have said.

  •  A reader expects to be carried into your world in a very few lines or they might not get past the first page. One way to do this is to start with action, or dialogue. If you start where something is happening or even better, where everything changes for the worst for the point of view character, the reader will want to read on. People love conflict and disaster, so if you can hint at it, or even provide it at the beginning your book will open with a bang.
  • Providing the details up front of why and how a character arrived at the point when the book opens can cause a reader to yawn. For example, the character thinks about his miserable childhood, his awful time at school and his recent accession to a title, which will allow him to improve his life. In the meantime, nothing has happened in the story. This is an information dump. I see it over and over again in contests. It is also telling. 
  • The best way for a reader to get to know your character is to see them in action. This character, for example, could be entering a ballroom, greeting people who in the past had snubbed him and piercing them with his superior wit. The reader would be intrigued. Why would this man act this way? Or he could dive in to rescue a citizen from a band of thugs in a bad part of town. Why is he there? Why is he willing to be involved? Show us whatever it is you want to show us about who this person is, or thinks he or she is right now, by having him or her react to their world. Intrigue us to read more by not telling us why.
  • Avoid large casts of characters in opening scenes. Readers can be confused and/or impatient with too many people to keep track of, especially when they don’t know who is important to the story.
  • Don’t have your character physically describe themselves, either by looking in a mirror, or by thinking about their appearance. She turned her bewitching blue eyes on her visitor, is, if you turn it into the characters’ own thoughts: I turned my bewitching blue eyes on my visitor. How often do you think about the nature and color of your eyes when you look at someone entering your front door? If you can put yourself inside your point of view character’s head, see only what they see, feel only what they feel, your reader will be right there with you. And they will want to read on.
  • Know where your story starts. I have this terrible habit of wanting to write prologues full of action. My editor is very smart. She makes me take them out. Writing the prologue puts my head in the right place for the story. Deleting it, doesn’t spoil or change the story at all, indeed it leaves a question to be answered later when the reader needs to know the answer. Don’t start your story too early. Start where things begin to go wrong, often in a romance at the point the hero and heroine meet.
  • If your book starts with a bang, in the middle of action with conflict, with questions, try to keep the tension going.  Don’t have your character go off and change their gown, for example, so you can get in some description, while the furious hero waits in the drawing room. Have her confront him right away. Keep the reader wanting to know what is going to happen next and keep things happening.
  • A great first line is wonderful. An art form if done well.  If it is followed up by telling and passages of description, its impact is lost.
  • Look at the openings of your favorite authors. What did they do right? Were you bored but only continued reading because you knew in the end they would deliver? Did you skip ahead? Were you breathlessly intrigued? An editor who is breathlessly intrigued by your opening page or two might well buy your book.

Do I do perfect openings? No, but I do strive for them and try to keep all these points in my head. I think I spend more time on the opening paragraphs than I do on any other scene in the book. I hope these little pointers will be of as much help to you as they are to me.

What are some of your favorite opening paragraphs?

Ann Lethbridge
The Gamkeeper’s Lady, Dec 1 2010
Harlequin Historicals
Find me at e-harlequin.com