A Book … or My Book? Rising to the Challenge!
Today is Day 6 of the MAGIC UP YOUR BLOG Challenge! If you’d like to join the party, go here: http://bit.ly/1oO4JB4 It’s not too late, just start where we are today!
Today I had the choice of writing about my favorite book, or choosing a group of 5 or 10 favorites. That was choice 1. Impossible, right?
Choice 2 was to tell my readers about a book I’ve written. Ooooh. Something I haven’t done yet, since it’s not ready. (I know, how many years until it will be ready? My beta readers are asking that question as well!) Since this is a Blog Challenge, I think pushing myself is the point, so I’m choosing Topic #2. Please be kind.
With several books in the pipeline, I had to concentrate on one WIP as the first I would publish, so I chose my least complicated Contemporary Romance novel, that is also the first part of a series.
I read and write Romance for the escape, but primarily for the happily-ever-after guaranteed at the end. There can be tension, and there can be breakups. They can be thrillers, mysteries, very sexy or family approved. But you know they all have happy endings. My own personal inspiration and guide has been Nora Roberts, along with several others of Romance’s great authors.
My personal addition to the genre involves wrapping life lessons into the plot, showing our foibles and how we inherited them, and honoring our strength of character while showcasing our loving and forgiving spirit. That’s the low-down! The down-low is, I try to write them without lessons being obvious. Most readers will just feel they had a sweet summer read – I laughed, I cried, they lived happily ever after. But I’m providing a peek at possibilities behind a door they may have closed at one point of their life.
“The Second-Story Man” asks the age-old question “can the good-girl ever find happiness with the bad-boy she is so attracted to?” And what a bad boy! He breaks into houses for a living. He was raised by his father, a break-in artist and burglar, who has recently died. She is a divorced fourth grade school teacher and single mother, who lived with her grandmother and 8-year-old son until her grandmother’s recent death.
She discovers the intriguing stranger evaluating her grandmother’s antiques in the downstairs apartment, chatting with her son. She had been forced to leave her son home alone while she attended an unplanned, private meeting at school. The roller-coaster ride begins there, where most people would have ended it.
It is a story about second chances, taking responsibility for your life, and making those hard but right choices for yourself and those you love. I hope my readers will be cheering for love to conquer all, and believe that everybody can change if they can find the lighted path. My writing is full of everyday life: dogs, cooking, raising children, friends, work, and building a future. But trouble also comes into our lives in many forms: threats, secrets, deception, crimes, and sometimes, resurrected from our past lives.
Sounds like a great book, I hope it does well!
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THANK YOU! Great first comment on my book. I hope it’s accepted well. Thanks for your encouragement.
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I love your writing. That is the writer right…the teacher of life lessons and experienes through story. Where readers can relate with the characters in the stories in some way or be reminded of ‘what could be’ for themselves. The stories sound really interesting.
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Thank you so much. Beautiful thought. And yes that is the plan if I do it right, and your comments tell me I may be on the right track. I appreciate your good thoughts.
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Your concept sounds like one that could become very popular.A good but slightly vulnerable heroine and a rogue who may or may not change and carry her off as the prize. Most readers want a happy ending so you can either please them or surprise them but above all it sounds like you’ll entertain them.
The very best of luck with the first book of the series and with the others that will follow once your confidence is assured.
xxx Mammoth Hugs xxx
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Thank you, David {tears in eyes}. I can always count on you to say the words that keep me going and trying. Were you ever where I am now? You read me like a book.
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What, you mean writing a romance? lol I think all authors have been where you are now where we’re not sure of things. I know I had to be pushed into publishing my first book. It gets easier after that though don’t get like me, with so many emails and such fun with the blog that you don’t write any more.
We have to face the fact that people may not like our books and will give lousy reviews ( some people do that without even reading) but one good review can dispel all the doubts.
Go for it, but be sure the writing is fun for you and not a chore.
xxx Mammoth Hugs xxx
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