No book is the same when it comes to its creation. Even my process deviates to some degree with every book, though I have several tricks in my bag that I pull out from time to time, what worked on one book might not work at all on another. One thing is consistent though that that’s the stages I travel through. Today I give you a glimpse into my mind, as scary as that might be. Read on at your own peril.

Stage 1- the new idea: This could be called the euphoric stage. I’m so brilliant, I’m a total rock star. The romance world will never be the same because I am so very clever.

Stage 2 – brainstorming: What was I thinking? This idea is never going to work. I’ll never be able to make a book out of this crap. Clearly I’d been drinking or something when I thought of the idea. Call Emily in a complete panic and we gossip and talk about movies we love and somewhere in all of this the book begins to emerge. These might actually be pretty cool characters and the plot devices aren’t that contrived.

Stage 3 – synopsis: OHMYGOSH! Why do we have to write these things? They’re like ancient torture devices. And then I get past the first two pages and things start swinging together and ta-da I do have a story and it might not suck after all.

Stage 4 – writing the rough draft: (notice I’m skipping the send the proposal to the editor/agent step because that has a neuroses all its own) I hate beginnings. I mean I loathe them. The first chapters are terrible. I don’t know these characters. Aren’t these the same people I just wrote about? Nothing is happening. They’re just sitting in a room talking about nothing and I’m bored. If I’m bored the reader is really going to be bored. I call Emily again and we do more brainstorming. We work out the next scene, I write it, then once again I feel as if I’m swimming through mollasses. I’ll never be done with this book…

Stage 5 – rewrites: wow, my rough draft is so short and terrible and has humongous holes in it, I still don’t know my characters. I’m wandering around through a cave in the dark, feeling my way around, completely lost and I don’t know where I’m going.

Stage 6 – rewrites part deux: someone has given me a candle, I can see a little light, find my way around in the dark and I know I’m at least moving and not walking in circles. The characters are beginning to make a little more sense, I think I’ve captures their “essence” and can work on their inconsistencies in the book. I’ve found my plot holes and have worked on my time line. There might be a book in this mess yet!

Stage 7 – layer, layer, layer: After the first book rewrite I go back through the book, fill in more holes, layer in texture and add sensory details that have been sorely lacking, and make sure the emotional growth is on the page. This really is a book. (this stage might repeat itself multiple times)

Stage 8 – critique: now I’ve worked my magic and its time for my readers to take a peek. I eagerly wait for them to call and tell me how brilliant I am and how it doesn’t need any changes at all. I’m deluding myself, but I’ve been in a book fog for months now and this is the first time I’ve come up for air in a while.

Stage 9 – spit & polish: here I work with my critique partners’ comments as well as fix any research holes I’ve been ignoring up until this point. I begin to panic that it’s not good enough that it sounds terrible and that I’m a total hack. But I keep going because the deadline is looming. I turn it in almost convinced it’s a good book and I really pulled it off this time.

Stage 10 – doubt: if more than a day goes by from my turning it in and feedback from agent or editor (which is always the case b/c they do actually have full-time jobs) the doubt sets in. I’m back to thinking I’m a hack. But that new idea I’ve been having is seducing me, convincing me it’s brilliant. I’m so super clever…well, you get the picture.

As readers do you like to read about authors’ writing processes and tricks of the trade? Or do you prefer to think of them sitting at their antique typewriters pounding out brilliance with every key stroke? What are the things in your life that make you crazy?

I’m not too proud to admit that I’m a total Trekkie. My college boyfriend (now my hubby) indoctrinated me into the cult of Next Generation back when we were dating and I’ve watched every series obsessively since then. We even have pets named after characters from the Star Trek universe.

To be completely honest, Star Trek was my gateway drug to the world of scifi entertainment. I went on to cheerfully embrace Babylon Five, Firefly, Battlestar Gallactica, Galaxy Quest and Trekkie (the superb documentary about … well, Trekkies).

Despite all of that, I’ve only seen like one episode of the original Star Trek series. It was the episode with the alien that looked like a giant pizza. So you might understand why I approached the new Star Trek movie with trepidation. Yes, it took place in a universe I’d completely embraced, but why did it have to have that Kirk guy in it? I’d seen him wrestle a pizza. I was worried. 

But this weekend, when the Geek and I took out a second mortgage to pay the exorbinate rate of a baby sitter and made it to the movies. Despite my doubts, Star Trek was the logical choice since it’s gotten good reviews and we’re … well, geeks.

I was more than pleasantly surprised. It was action-packed, well-acted, totally charming and Chris Pine is a cutie patootie. (And there were no pizza aliens.) Best of all, the movie embodied what I love best about the Star Trek universe. The basic faith that humanity is going to muddle through whatever problems we face and we’ll come out on the other side kinder, gentler and more compassionate (and if the graduating class at the Star Fleet Academy is anything to go by, better looking too). 

That was a message that the world needed to hear back in the sixties when Star Trek first launched. The shows ability to tap into that basic optimism is why we’re still watching forty years later. It’s a message we need to be reminded of. An alarming number of the summer blockbusters take place in a post-apocalyptic world. It’s all Terminators and paranoia. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ll probably go to the latest installment of that scifi franchise too. But for now, I’m just enjoying having my faith in humanity renewed.

This one is from geeky fans only … tell me about your favorite episode of any trek series and I’ll a pick a winner to win one of my books. 

Oh, you want me to go first? There are a lot of episodes I love, but since Worf has always been a favorite of mine, I’ll have to go with the episode of DS9 that featured his bachelor party. I laughed so hard I thought I might pee my pants.

I’d like to extend a warm Jaunty welcome to Roxanne Rustand. Roxanne is the award-winning author of twenty-two warm, emotional romance and romantic suspense novels. You can find her at: www.roxannerustand.com
www.shoutlife.com/roxannerustand and

http://roxannerustand.blogspot.com/

Today she comes offering prizes! Three, yes that’s THREE, winners will be drawn from those who comment on her blog. What will they win? Each will receive a copy of one of her fabulous books!

Writing is such an interesting business–literally! I loved being in school. I spent many years in college, changing majors several times along the road to a Master’s Degree in nutrition. Ahhh, you say. Nutrition—an ideal background for a romance writer–not!

But it was, in a way. All that studying was helpful for becoming a writer, because with each book I write, there’s a whole new world to research while I try for accurate, evocative settings. Ranch settings, the Rocky Mountains and the Northwoods of the upper Midwest are some of my favorites, and our travels often end up as settings for my books.

Writers not only strive to get their settings right. There are also the details and vernacular of different professions and hobbies. Believable behaviors of pets, and children, or of someone slipping into the murky mental depths of Alzheimer’s. I love using a variety of pets and other animals in my books–but that “research” often comes from our family menagerie. In fact, our son’s favorite slithery pet had a key role in my very first SuperRomance. I still wish I’d gone to vet school (a lesson in ‘following one’s heart’ that I’ve reiterated to our children many times over!) But now, I can still slip into that world for months at a time if writing about characters who are veterinarians and vet techs, and enjoy a taste of that world.

Speaking of that–I have a new blog, where I hope readers will stop by to read and share amusing or poignant stories about the animals in their lives. It’s called “All Creatures Great and Small” after a line in an 1800′s hymn. It’s at: http://roxannerustand.blogspot.com/

My May, 2009 Love Inspired Suspense, Deadly Competition, is set north of New Orleans, and it’s a definite departure in locale from what I’ve done before. The lush, mysterious, dangerous element of bayou country captured my heart from my first moment there, back when RWA (Romance Writers of America) held a national conference in New Orleans. The ornate, crumbling elegance of the oldest parts of town, the wonderful old cemeteries, and the dark depths of the bayou are a perfect setting for suspense! This book takes place a little farther north than that, but spending time there (if only in my imagination!) last year makes me long to visit that beautiful place again.

When you browse through books at your favorite bookstore, or online, what do you zero in on first? Author names, eye-catching titles, back cover blurbs or cover art? The type of story? Do any particular story settings intrigue you–or conversely, make you put the book back on the shelf? Let’s talk! I’ve offered free books to three winners here, so good luck to everyone!

Duels and knives may have destroyed your enemies in Georgian England, but for some, they were too obvious. If you wanted to murder someone discreetly in Georgian England, you had to plan. Apprehension led to scandal, disgrace and sometimes, hanging. The shy might slip an adder into the victim’s room. As the only poisonous snake in England, it might do the deed. But adders hibernated in the winters, were difficult to trap and after much preparation, death wasn’t guaranteed. Intent on murder, the weapon of choice was often poison.

Not a gentle affair, victims of poisoning two hundred and fifty years ago died painfully, often over long periods. Murderers could commit the crime and leave judiciously, masking their involvement. They didn’t have to watch death, they could visit it when ready if they chose. It made the entire process more palatable for the meek. Then there were those set on revenge who reveled in the torture they inflicted. And with so many poisons to choose from, murderers were able to design the concoction that best suited them.

Easily obtained at apothecaries, arsenic was odorless and tasteless. Some victims reported a burning sensation, like cayenne pepper, but the chance of getting caught was minimal. Between 1728 and 1768 only four cases of murder involving poisoning were heard at Old Bailey, the central criminal court in England, out of 300 and generally involved a confession. In 1752 that changed when arsenic took center stage with the infamous case of Mary Blandy. Accused of murdering her father, Mary had added arsenic to his food. Desirous to marry her lover, a man who already had one wife, her father refused. The lover sought revenge along with Mary’s 10,000 pound dowry. Both the coroner and physician entered enough evidence about arsenic, Mary was sent to the gallows a short time later. Criminals, wary of suffering a similar fate became creative.

The English were consummate connoisseurs of plants, both domestic and exotic. With a bit of knowledge and the wide variety of plants in greenhouses and throughout the countryside, it wasn’t hard to improvise. For example, tansy, a common bitter herb found throughout England, could be brewed in a tea. Foxglove seeds placed in food would cause death in twenty minutes after digestion, masking as heart failure. Passion flower, the beautiful addition to any greenhouse and used in small qualities as a sedative, had no cure but the grave. Native to India and East Africa, the castor bean was a collector’s favorite because of its lush foliage. Crushed, the red berries mixed with linseed into a press cake would release enough ricin to assure a violent death.

Where plants ended, mushrooms were available – deadly and delicious appeared alike. Nothing needed to be disguised. Added into food masking as an edible cousin, murder could be blamed on an accident, if the truth was ever discovered. The deadly webcap looked like a chanterelle. By the time symptoms occurred days later, it would be too late. Death cap is equally potent dried or fresh. Abundant and convenient, it had many admirers.
Beyond ingestion, touch was another weapon. The pommel of a Queen’s saddle, the chair of a Duke… are legendary examples. Common items, tainted with intent and chemistry meant that anyone could fall victim.

It was not until after 1848 and an outbreak of cholera that ‘medical policeman’ were appointed. Alchemists, monks, apothecaries, physicians and coroners explored the science of toxicology. Tests were invented, training offered and signs identified. CSI grew another step closer to what we know today.

In RENEGADE, my debut novel, I explored the world of plant chemistry. Behind gossamers of mystery and danger in 1762 Constantinople, Jonathon meets Jaline, an exotic woman who works as a horse waterer. Appearances are deceiving. She has many secrets and shares little. She becomes his mistress but he wants more. What neither realizes is, beyond collisions of the heart, they are on the unknowable path towards Soma (not to be confused with the modern drug using the same name). Soma legend stretches back to the ancient Sanskrit writings. Strongest of the hallucinogenics, it was part of religious ceremonies, thought to bring users closer to the divine. Guardians decided the effects were too strong, man should not reach for the gods, so they destroyed the drug, wiping even the name of the plant from history.

RENEGADE by Sarah Parr debuts June 2009 at $3.99 and is published by Kensington. Expect Book two in July 2010. For more information visit your favorite bookseller or www.sarahparr.com.
“Lyrical, sensual, passionate” ~ Shannon Mckenna.

This week I watched Celebrity Apprentice and then of course read a bunch of stuff on the web about the two final contestants since I’m on deadline and procrastinating just the tiniest bit!  It’s fascinating to me to see how people really are.  But then I am reminded that any type of television is made to be entertaining and compelling.  So I’m not really sure how realistic it is.

It’s my first time watching the Apprentice and to be fair I only watched the last two episodes because of the cat-fight mud slinging that was going on.  It was horrifyingly delicious to watch those two women go out at it.  I was entranced and couldn’t wait to see more.  So regardless of whether it was “real” or not they totally sucked me in!

I guess its the voyeur in me that makes me watch these kind of shows.  I like seeing people as they.  I like seeing into other people’s lives and then trying to figure out why they act the way they do.  I am also an avid fan of CourtTV.  I like to see the cases they broadcast but I also like to go back and read everything I can on the people involved to try to figure out what choices they made that led them to the courthouse.

What about you?  Do you like to watch other people’s lives?

Katherine

Margay won a signed copy of either Beneath A Silent Moon or Secrets of A Lady!  W00T!

Part of the appeal of romance novels is the wonderful fantasy — the perfect heroine meets the perfect hero and, after exciting struggles and adventures, falls in love forever. I buy into all of that, and enjoy picturing myself as that beautiful, strong, brave, smart and talented woman winning the man with gorgeous eyes, perfect hair and sexy, muscular body.

But sometimes I want to read about someone who is more like me. A woman with a few flaws — not just emotional flaws, but physical ones. I can relate to a woman who has bad hair days, chipped nails and is a few pounds (or more than a few pounds) overweight. I want to believe that an imperfect woman can still win the man who is perfect for her — whether he looks like Adonis or not.

My new book, The Man Most Likely, features a heroine who is a size 16 and determined NOT to lose weight. She’s focused on learning to love herself just as she is. Angela Krisova owns a chocolate shop and appreciates the good things in life — including good food. She’s not into deprivation and dieting; she just wants to be happy. She’s making great progress, too, until one of the best-looking men in town, Bryan Perry, starts pursuing her. Falling for a guy who until now has dated only the hottest looking women in town, Angela suffers through self-doubts.

I really loved writing about Angela. To me, she’s one of my most real heroines, struggling with the image issues I and so many other women struggle with. And I loved pairing her with a hunk like Bryan because I believe love happens in the mind and heart, and the workings of true attraction aren’t always understandable. I had fun writing a guy who is bowled over by a woman who is definitely not his ‘type.’ Bryan struggles with his attraction to Angela, but even after he gives in and admits he loves her, he has to deal with the perceptions of other people, who have a hard time seeing him and Angela as a couple. Bryan and Angela’s love goes beyond surface appearances. I can believe a couple like that will find their happily-ever-after.

While I’ve written several less-than-perfect heroines, I have to admit I haven’t yet tackled a homely hero. I don’t know if readers are ready for that. Which is odd, really. My own husband was overweight when I met him (though he’s slimmer now) and I’ve known plenty of balding guys I thought were really sexy. I think women are much more willing to overlook a lack of physical beauty in a man — personality really does matter more to us.

Except when it comes to heros in books. I could be wrong about this. What do you think? Are you more willing to accept an imperfect heroine than a homely hero? What would you think of an overweight hero or one who was really short or bald?

What about heroines? Do you enjoy reading about more ordinary women, or do you want your heroines as beautiful as your heroes are handsome?

Cindi Myers is the author of more than three dozen novels, including The Man Most Likely, available this month from Harlequin American Romance. The Man Most Likely is the follow-up to her Rita-nominated title, The Right Mr. Wrong. For more about Cindi, visit her website at www.CindiMyers.com

Please give a warm Jaunty welcome to Tracy Grant, who is visiting today to talk about damaged characters!  (And she’s giving away a signed book to one lucky commenter!)

No, I’m not talking about the damage an author can inflict with one too many rounds of revising (though that would make an interesting blog topic in and of itself). I’m thinking of characters who are damaged by their past experiences, whether it’s a painful childhood, battlefield trauma, the morally ambiguous life of a spy, or a love affair gone tragically wrong.

Most of my favorite characters, as a reader and a writer, are damaged one way or another. Francis Crawford of Lymond begins his adventures in Dorothy Dunnett’s the Lymond Chronicles already an outlaw and an attainted traitor, estranged from his family and guilty over his sister’s death. Damerel, the hero of one of my favorite Georgette Heyer novels, Venetia, is a social outcast thanks to the scandals in his past. He’s convinced he’ll make Venetia miserable by dragging her into social ruin if he marries her. Venetia has to go to great (and very entertaining) lengths to convince him otherwise.

Lymond and Damerel are wonderful examples of the classic tortured hero. Both are uniquely themselves. Both have a complex backstory, which I think is one of the keys to doing tortured characters well (there’s nothing more annoying than a character who’s tortured over a deep dark secret that seems common place when revealed). But while traditionally it’s the hero who’s suffered the most emotional damage, I’ve always liked heroines with emotional baggage. Barbara Childe, the edgy, self-destructive heroine from Heyer’s An Infamous Army, is a wonderful example of the type.

It can be particularly interesting when both the hero and heroine have emotional scars. I just finished Laurie King’s latest (quite wonderful) Mary Russell & Sherlock Holmes book, The Language of Bees. In this series King took Holmes, who has suffered plenty of damage (some shown, some hinted at) in the original Arthur Conan Doyle stories, and pared him with the much younger but equally scarred Russell. One of the delights of the series is watching these two people, who both guard themselves carefully, reveal bits of their scarred pasts to each other and to the reader. There’s something particularly heartening about two damaged people being able to form a bond (the declaration scene in A Monstrous Regiment of Women is one of the most wonderful I have ever read). And of course, the bond doesn’t heal all the damage, which makes for interesting developments over a series. The previous book in the series, Locked Rooms, dealt with Russell coming to terms with the events surrounding her family’s death. In The Language of Bees, Holmes comes face to face with the “lovely, lost son” King referred to in a previous book and with a painful past that goes back to Irene Adler.

It’s perhaps no wonder that as a writer I can be quite merciless in weighing my own characters down with emotional baggage. When I first began sketching out Charles & Mélanie Fraser, the married Napoleonic Wars spies in my series, I knew that the secrets of Mélanie’s past would create plenty of angst for both of them. But it never occurred to me to stop there. Before I even had the plot of Secrets of a Lady (formerly Daughter of the Game) worked out, I had given Charles a tragic love past affair, an emotionally neglectful childhood, a strained relationship with his brother, and questions about his legitimacy. While Mélanie had suffered the horrors of the Peninsular War and lost both her parents and her younger sister. Quite a bit of that is mentioned or at least alluded to in the first scene between them in Secrets/Daughter. I wanted to show the damage these two people had suffered and the stable marriage they’d managed to build in spite it. To me, that made it all the worse when the very foundations of that marriage are threatened. All of that past damage also provides rich fodder for subsequent books in the series. Charles’s relationship with his family, particularly his father, was the starting place for Beneath a Silent Moon. And there’s lots more to deal with in Mélanie’s past…

Do you like stories about damaged characters? Do you prefer it to be the hero or the heroine or both to have the emotional scars? Any favorite examples to suggest?

Tracy is giving away a signed copy of either Secrets or Beneath to a lucky commenter!

When I was a youth, I was of course in love with a variety of men. As I may have mentioned on this blog and everywhere else, I was perhaps the world’s dorkiest kid. Horrible perm…thick, breathtakingly ugly glasses…bad posture…gah! It hurts just to remember. Picture a Caucasian Ugly Betty, but with worse hair and without the gorgeous skin.

And so, like dorky girls everywhere, I turned to the movies and TV for men. I’m not talking about the Rhett Butler variety (and just for the record, ladies, he’s mine!)…more the icons of the day who captured this nerdy heart.

Here’s my list:

Luke Duke. Not Bo, the better-looking, flashier cousin, no, no. I wanted some brains, even back them. Luke was smarter, calmer, and let’s face it. He looked better in jeans. Bo’s were just ridiculously tight.

Apollo from Battlestar Galactica. Not Starbuck, the better-looking, flashier friend…hm. A trend might be emerging. Apollo, if I recall properly, had a child. He was widower, right? Sigh! Oh, the tragic male!

Fonzie. Oh, come on. You were in love with him, too.

Hawkeye Pierce from M*A*S*H. What can I say? I was ahead of my time. Alan Alda is a good-looking man.

Father Damien from The Exorcist. Was it inevitable that I’d write a book about a woman in love with a priest? I guess it was. But you know, he’s so calm, and he’s not afraid of that freaking terror strapped to the bed up there…how could you not love this guy?

So okay, I think I’ve been very brave and honest (and will tolerate no mockery from the rest of you in public, so think again). ’Fess up. Who did it for you when you were an adolescent?