Soooo.... I might have written a regency romance with an amnesia trope.

 I know, I know, it's my usual genre or part of any of my series. But what can I say? I was feeling inspired. Plus, I managed to roll so many fun tropes into one! We have not only amnesia, but surprise pregnancy, second chance romance, and a swoony, pining, head-over-heels in love hero!

I'll update more as I get closer to release.

Rediscovering my Voice

I am now in the process of putting the final polish on my romance manuscript. It has  already been edited approximately... 8,000 times. The first draft was unusually rough for me and I've only just realized why.

I wrote The Gates of Nottingham when I was very young. It was a huge learning experience for me. I believe any author's first novel teaches them patience, perseverance, and humility, but most of all, it gives them a voice. From Nottingham I learned that I prefer to pen third-person limited narratives with tight, lean prose. My novels have all had varying degrees of darkness, most exuding a certain level of anxiety.  In So Many Secrets I experimented with first person story telling because I believed that would best suit the story, but in Prince Dead, I returned to form with a story written from the perspective of four characters. I have often been told I write like a man, all flowery prose and high emotion kept to a minimum for the sake of stress-inducing suspense and emotionally scarred characters.

For these reasons, dipping my toes into the romance genre proved a challenge.

The Best Software for Novelists?

If you are a writer who has not heard of Scrivener, I would highly recomment it. If you are already using it, my guess is that you love it.  Before I begin my review, I want to assure you that I am in no way affiliated with Scrivener, nor am I being in any way compensated for my review. This post does, however, contain Amazon Affiliate links.

Scrivener is word processing software targeted at writers of long projects, novels included. These projects are broken down into subdocuments, e.g. chapters, scenes, research documents, etc. Most people are familiar with Microsoft Word, so I would like to share the advantages of Scivener over that program:

Imagery and Information Gaps

I am starting from scratch on Land of Battles. That's right, I am throwing out what I have written, opening a blank MS Word page and beginning again. After re-reading what I had produced over the last year, I realized that I had no other choice. The task is daunting and I'm disappointed in myself, but I am trying to stay positive and remember that this is a new chance to get the novel just right.

I have always used research as a way to inspire myself. The devil is in the details, as they say, and it is the small things, like reproductions of Viking shoes found on bog bodies that really pique my interest and create new ideas. My novels run like films through my mind, so it is important that my mentally imagery is perfect before I translate it to the page.

I have recently started a Pinterest board, linking myself to articles on Viking artifacts and research. There are some things I have read about before, but the visual of a reproduction is hugely helpful. On the other hand, some of this is completely new information to me and will be incorporated into the novel. So, if I start posting long blogs about bone combs or bronze age tattoos, don't be too surprised.

I will also be taking a different than planned approach to relationships between the characters in the new novel. They are in a new country and new positions, so their interactions are about to shift dramatically.

I am less than twenty pages into the new draft, but I can already tell that it is fresher and stronger than what I had before. Hopefully, a marathon session will come soon and I will be able to tell you that I am a quarter of the way done.

The Gates of Nottingham, Trials and Tribulation

In honor of my week long book blowout, I am bringing you the first of my posts wherein I discuss the actual process of writing the novels which are now free on kindle. This post is about The Gates of Nottingham and tomorrow's will be about So Many Secrets.


****When I started writing The Gates of Nottingham, I did not have a plan. I had a few scenes in my head, some major plot points, and vivid images that I wanted to incorporate into the text. As a result of that ,  the original drafts were quite a mess.

I ended up with mountain of pages that did not make it into the novel available now. The story was originally meant to follow King Richard from his prison in Austrian and on through his journey back to England. I had thought that it would be an interesting subplot, but found in the end that it detracted from the Robin Hood story by pulling the reader's concentration from an already character-laden plot. This was a seventy page cut and I was not even done with it yet when I decided to pull it. All in all, I would say that over two hundred pages were gleaned out during early edits, before I had even written the ending.

Likewise, the characters were a work in progress from their early forms. The original draft of the first hundred pages contained a shy, somewhat passive Robin Hood whose hand was forced by fate. In the end, I found that having events leading the plot rather than characters resulted in a weak story, so Robin had to be changed.

An omniscent narration was given up to give each scene from one character's perspective only. This resulted in a patch work of actions, knowledge, and ideas that allowed the novel more depth. By the mid-point, all of my character's schemes were falling into plot points like dominos and the second half of the novel turned into an easily written, action packed ride.

I froze out right before writing the climax of the novel, the last bloody battle scene. With nearly five hundred pages written, I got scared. I had done so much research into the weaponry and battle techniques of the era that I found myself unable to pick what information to use. Meanwhile, each of the warriors had their own unique fighting style that had to be incorporated. My panic (or as I like to call it- strategizing) lasted over two months. I mapped it out, watched medieval movies, and edited the work I had. Sir Guy's fate changed a dozen times if it changed once, as did each detail of the scene from the weather to the arson to the crossbows.

Finally, with one song playing over and over in a loop through my ear phones, I wrote the thirty page climax in four hours. I felt that to stop even for lunch would stop my pace in the most important scene in the novel. This was where I wanted it to shine. When all of the lies and intrigues stopped and enemies were forced to at last meet honestly and face to face.

That was not the final ending in the journey of writing this novel. While I will not spoil the ending, I will tell you that it was re-written just a month before the release. And yes, the novel was edited again and again until I could not stand to read it anymore.

So, I bring it to you now, the result of over two years of work for free this week. It was my earliest writing and my baby, the writing journey to which all the rest have to compare themselves. For me, it was a wonderful experience and I hope it will be for you as well.

Being Spastic, Listening to Country Music, Watching TV

I've mentioned before that I can be a rather scattered worker. Since I sent off Prince Dead to Mills and Boon, I have not had a clear direction in which to work. I can't work on the sequel until I know which version of the original I will use, so I have basically been playing. I’ve written 70 pages each for two different projects and 30 pages for a third one and am now deciding which one I’m really invested in at this point. That’s right; I could have 180 pages written on one novel right now if I had stuck to one topic! This is another reason I'm considering pursuing traditional publishing again. Deadlines actually excite and motivate me.

I’ve mentioned before that I obsessively listen to music while I write and lately I’ve latched onto country music. Though I spent my formative years in the middle of nowhere, raised pretty much any animal you can name, preserved 200 pounds of fruit a year, and spun my own wool, I’ve never been interested in the country scene. Mainstream music is just so intolerable right now that I’m branching out. Honestly, I’m kind of obsessed with George Strait, which probably means all three of my books will be sad. Also, Jake Owen’s hair is my hero. If you have a current country favorite, please let me know so I can e-stalk them.

There, now that I’ve given an update, I’m going to crowd-source my next move. Do you think it would be a good idea for me to re-brand So Many Secrets as purely a romance novel? That’s what it is at its heart anyway, and I’ve noticed that fiction which fits strongly into genre categories is the only thing that seems to sell for indie authors. I’m considering re-writing descriptions to change the focus, designing a new cover which will probably feature a standard topless male photo, and then running a massive free promo with the help of a packet of advertising sites another author sent me. Does this sound like a good idea? 

I’ve been letting marketing slip lately because no amount of work seems to increase sales, so I feel like I need to do something drastically different. I only wish I had written one Druid or magic sword into Nottingham so that I could brand it as fantasy. 

Next week, I’ll be talking about The History Channel’s new fictional series Vikings (which btw is branding itself as fantasy when it has no element of that so far). How could I not talk about that show? Please tell me you’ve been watching it!