Writing (and Rewriting) Romance As Ebooks...

Photo by Bertil Videt

I love putting my own spin on historical events by using them as the background to romance. At the beginning of my fiction-writing career, I wrote six books for Harlequin Mills and Boon's Masquerade imprint under the pen name of Polly Forrester. These were originally only available in the UK so I'm currently working to introduce them to a wider audience by bringing them out as ebooks. Lady Rascal is already available and my next title, Jewel Under Siege, is due for release later this summer.

Jewel under Siege is set in Constantinople, at the time of the Crusades. Elena is a young widow who finds herself in an impossible situation when tough warrior Emil literally falls into her life. He is an enemy who has nothing but contempt for her people, but the lure of the forbidden means Elena and Emil are soon attracted to each other despite all the dangers.

Revisiting my earlier fiction means I can add a few little touches to the text. At the moment I'm taking the chance to make Elena and Emil's romance sizzle still more under the Turkish sun. How do you like your historical romances - hot or homely?

You can keep up with the progress of Jewel Under Siege towards publication by subscribing to my newsletter. Just send an email to me at christinahollis@hotmail.co.uk with the word "Subscribe" in the subject line.

Three Top Tips On Writing That Book...

By Johannes Vermeer

It's said everyone has a book inside them. These days it's tricky to forecast what is going to be the next  blockbusting best-seller that spawns a film franchise, but all successful writers have something in common.  E.L James, J.K Rowling and J.R.R Tolkien don't only share a love of initialising. Each of them did more than dream. They buckled down and did the work: day after day of drafting, researching, writing, re-writing, editing  and reading. It doesn't matter whether they had help with some of the grunt work. The fact is, their ideas wouldn't have made it around the world if they hadn't had the conviction to start putting them into words and then kept going until their stories were told. 

I can't promise that your dream project will outsell Shades, Potter or TLOTR, but there's nothing surer than this. To be in with a chance, you'll have to get your masterwork written. Here are three top tips for doing just that...

1. START... in the right place. I wrote Lady Rascal because I'd got bogged down while studying an Open University course on The Enlightenment. I really wished some of those posh, privileged gentlemen doing the Tour of Europe could get a taste of how the other half lived. My hero Philip Adamson has a lot in common with the Paris he's visiting: despite grand appearances, there's trouble on the horizon. At the same time, heroine Madeline discovers that changing her appearance can get her out of trouble. As I was writing an historical romance rather than a text-book on Eighteenth-century Paris, I wanted to get Philip and Madeline together on the page as soon as possible. Madeline's career as a revolutionary ends with a bang right at the beginning of the book, when Philip assumes her looted finery means she's an aristocrat in danger. She's swept off her feet, and whisked away to a new and completely alien life.

2...AND THEN... make sure your plot has enough twists to keep your reader turning the pages. A good way to tell if you're on the right track is how easy it is to stop writing. If it feels like your fingers are pushing through treacle, that's a warning sign. If you're scribbling or typing as fast as you can, desperate to capture the movie playing in your head, there's a chance your reader might be carried away by your story, too. Ironically, it's when the words are flowing easily that you should finish for the day. Then your enthusiasm will carry over to the next session, and you'll be raring to go. With that method, there's no sitting down in front of a blank page, wondering what to write. You've been thinking about your next scene since the moment you stopped work the day before, and that's a great way to avoid the scourge of Writer's Block.

3. FINISH...in a way that will satisfy your reader. They should have learned a lot about your hero and heroine along the way - and maybe something about themselves, too.  Tie up all the loose ends of your story. Never introduce a character or plot thread and then abandon them, thinking no one will notice. Someone always does! Nemesis, the last book in Lindsey Davis' Falco series, deals with huge, emotion-wringing themes of life, death and family relationships. I lapped all that up but discovered, too, that I'm an obsessive when it comes to animals. I thought I'd be the only reader left worrying over the fate of one of the most minor of minor characters - Nero (aka Spot) the ox. I needn't have worried - he wasn't forgotten after all. If his disappearance hadn't been explained at the end, I would have felt Nemesis was like the old jigsaw puzzle of Great Britain's counties we had when I was a child. The smallest county, Rutland, was missing. Apart from that our jigsaw was perfect, unless you were interested in that teeny-tiny- well, spot!

Three Top Tips For Writing Heroines

By Antonio Litterio

The heroine of a romance or saga is a singular woman. She has to face conflicts and setbacks on the way to fulfilment without being ground down, or coming across as sickeningly perfect. When readers are asked why they love books, escapism always features highly. We all know how good it can be to get really wrapped up in a story. If your readers like your heroine, they'll turn page after page to find out what happens to her. To make your heroine as irresistible to your readers as she is to your hero, keep these three points in mind...

LIKE HER: Half the fun of reading romance is in imagining yourself in the heroine's shoes. Whether those are the clumpy brogues of a downtrodden Cinderella or the Manolo Blahniks of a top PA, we'll love the woman who's wearing them if we can recognise something of us within her. Put your heart into your heroine. Give her dreams that we can share - does she want to keep her family together and happy, despite disaster? Or does her cool sophistication hide her fear of rejection? Make her real, make her three-dimensional, and your readers will like her too, and want to find out more.

AGE MATTERS: It's an inescapable fact that the majority of romance heroines are in their twenties. The reason for this is that as readers, it's quite hard to "think ourselves older". Many people start to read romances in their early teens. At that age, it's not easy to imagine your way into the head of a middle-aged divorcee with five children. You're more attracted to heroines who are at the start of their romantic adventures. As we grow older, we enjoy thinking back to what it was like to be innocent and in love for the first time, so the twenty-something heroine wins again.  

LET HER GROW: The most engaging heroines are those who develop during the course of their story. That doesn't mean to say the love of a good hero has to change your central character from CEO of a multinational to a devoted housewife overnight (or vice versa). The realisation that forging a relationship doesn't mean sacrificing your individuality is an equally valid character development. For decades, real-life women have been told they can have it all but it isn't always easy to see how this can be made to happen. Fictional heroines can give their real-life counterparts insight into their own dilemmas - and of course everyone wants to believe in their own happy ever after.

Who is your favourite heroine?

Food, Men and The Weekend...

By Ardfern

It was DD's birthday this week, so I asked her what kind of birthday cake she wanted. Son Number One had a brief flirtation with a glamorous new creation from Mary Berry, complete with cream-cheese frosting for his recent birthday, but DD wanted the usual double-chocolate cake.  I made it, and we did the whole candle bit - very satisfying, in every meaning of the word.

Unfortunately, DD didn't have room to pack the remaining cake when she went back to university. The plan was to freeze it in slices, but that didn't happen. She left it here, and now not much of it is left! It's such an easy recipe and so good, I'll make another one to celebrate the day she comes back again. That'll be after her finals, so it'll be a double celebration, to go with the double-chocolate cake.

One of DD's presents was the DVD of The Hobbit. I sat through the whole film trying to remember where I'd seen "Kili" before - of course, it was Aidan Turner, who was in Being Human a few years ago.

This weekend I'm taking a break to try and get the garden up together. After two years of terrible weather and back-to-back-deadlines, my poor garden has reverted to long grass. The wildlife loves it, but it's nice to have some parts where we can sit outside without feeling we're in a jungle.

This week, I'm offering the chocolate birthday cake recipe free for new subscribers to my newsletter. The next edition of that will be out in May - to sign up, just email me at christinahollis@hotmail.co.uk with the word "Subscribe" in the subject line.

Three Top Tips: Writing Heroes

Jonas Kaufman 

My previous writing tips have covered the general themes of getting started, and how to keep going. Now it's time to focus on writing fiction, and more particularly romantic fiction. This is a brilliant form of escape for millions of people. It's a non-fattening, affordable indulgence and it relies on sweeping your reader into a fantasy world. That means you'll need a hero. Here are my three top tips for breathing life into your creation:

MAKE HIM ATTRACTIVE - This doesn't mean only drop-dead gorgeous, physically perfect specimens need apply! Good looks go a long way to seducing your reader, but they'll need more than that to keep them involved in your story.  Time spent in reconnaissance is never wasted. Write a short biography of your hero to discover what makes him the man he is. Give him a past and a future, as well as a present.  Upbringing and ambitions forge character, and suggest motivations. Little details such as whether or not he has a pet, what car he drives and the type of music he likes all add colour to your work.

MAKE HIM SUFFER - give him a problem that is too big to be solved easily. In Lady Rascal, Philip Adamson starts out by being too decent for his own good. He's a highly intelligent, hardworking man who has sacrificed his career as a doctor to return home and run the family estate. The strain has begun to tell, but he refuses to give up. Then Madeleine invades his life, and turns it upside down. Unless he can resist her, Philip faces following in the disastrous footsteps of his older brother. He was a man who tore the Adamson family apart.  The conflict between the way hero Philip works with cool efficiency to keep everything running smoothly, and the dangerous attraction he feels for Madeline keeps the action moving.  

MAKE IT WORSE - Once you've presented your hero with a problem, magnify it. In real life, men tend to work on instinct, rather than emotion.  Present your character with a dilemma. Make him choose between an easy decision, or a tough one - between his head and his heart. Will he do the right thing for the wrong reason, the wrong thing out of a sense of love or loyalty, or will he compromise? Whatever he does, make his action consistent with his character.  Imagine your heroine's car has crashed on a level crossing, leaving her trapped. A train full of children on a day-trip is running out of control and heading straight toward her. Who would your hero save? As this is romance and we want the story to end happily ever after, he'd manage to board the train, fix the fault and save both his heroine and the children, of course. But not before your reader has turned lots of pages, desperate to find out what he'll do, and how. 

Who is your hero? Is he fictional, or a real man of flesh and blood?

Food, Men and the Weekend

From USMC

It’s been suggested that the “men” part of this blog might be nothing but an excuse for readers to slaver over pictures of handsome men in various stages of undress. Not a bit of it. Our picture shows (as the seminars say) Mr Rich Froning, who among other things takes his religion seriously and shares his talents, whose work ethic make him summa cum laude, and a man I would still admire if he had a bag over his head. 

This week's recipe is a delicious favourite that's really easy to do, but does take time and organisation. I usually make the pastry case the day before we want to eat it, then do the filling, topping and cooking all in one go. Read through the recipe first, and it'll all become clear.

By Jules

LEMON MERINGUE PIE
To serve 6, you’ll need-

FOR THE PASTRY:

6oz (175g) flour

3oz (75g) butter

Half an ounce icing (powdered) sugar

1 egg yolk

Approx. 1 tablespoon cold water

FOR THE FILLING:

2 large lemons

1.5 oz (40g) cornflour

10fl oz (300ml) water

2 egg yolks

3oz (75g) caster sugar

FOR THE MERINGUE:

3 egg whites

4.5oz (120g) caster sugar

First make the pastry. Sift the flour into a bowl, add the sugar & rub in butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk, and enough water to make a firm dough. Seal in a plastic bag and leave to rest in the fridge for about half an hour.

Heat oven to 200 degrees C (400 F/180 fan).

Roll out the dough on a floured surface and use it to line a 9” (23cm) loose bottomed flan tin. Prick the surface lightly, line with greaseproof paper, add baking beans and bake blind for about fifteen minutes. Remove the paper and beans, and return pastry case for around another five minutes - until it’s crisped up, & turned a lovely pale gold.

Next, make the filling. Finely grate the rind from the lemons and squeeze out their juice (you can extract more if you warm the lemons in a microwave for 30 seconds beforehand). Put the rind, juice & cornflour in a small bowl & mix well together. Meanwhile bring the water to the boil, then stir it into the lemon & cornflour. Simmer this mixture gently until it thickens into a custard. In a separate bowl, mix together the egg yolks & sugar. Stir this into the lemony custard, and bring it back to the boil, beating until it begins to bubble. Remove the pan from the heat, allow it to cool slightly, then pour it into the pastry case and spread it out evenly.

Finally, the meringue. Lower the oven heat to 150 deg.C (300 degF/140 Fan). Whisk the egg whites in a large, clean bowl until they form stiff peaks when you lift the beaters. Add the caster sugar a teaspoon full at a time, while whisking at high speed. When all the sugar is incorporated, spoon the meringue evenly over the lemon filling. Make sure there are no gaps. As a final flourish, twitch at the surface with the prongs of a fork to create artistic peaks. Bake at 150 deg.C (300 deg.F/140 deg.Fan, for around 45 minutes, when the surface of the meringue will be crisp and slightly tinted, and the inside like white marshmallow.

This is delicious whether you serve it warm or cold, and custard is the perfect accompaniment.

I'm blogging over at authorsoundrelations this weekend - I'd love you to drop by and comment!

A Writer's Life: Twitter, Amazon, LinkedIn ....

By Jean-Marie Favre

...and Uncle Tom Cobley and all.

If you've dropped by my blog before, you'll already know technology means nothing to me. My main aim in life is to tell stories. To my mind, settling down with a notebook and pencil or my Neo  is sheer luxury, but these days that's just the start of the process. If your aim is publication, putting words on a page is only part of a writer's life. You have to market yourself and your work, which takes time - time I'd rather use for writing.  

Getting your name out there and becoming "searchable"is seen as a vital career move  - but what happens then? As well as  blogs, websites, accounts with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn,  author pages on Amazon (.com and .co.uk) and publisher's sites are practically mandatory. All these pages need to be kept up to date, and that's a continual work-in-progress. The net's thirst for information is unquenchable, and the sea of snippets is immense. I love keeping up with gossip, so I Tweet regularly as  @ChristinaBooks. Once on-line for that, I find it hard to leave. The quick look at one site I'd intended soon stretches into half a hour of surfing far and wide. I now ration my time on line, so I can concentrate on writing. It's difficult to break the habit of dipping in and out, so I set a target for the amount of work I'll get done before I can have a session of idling on the net. This is where the Pomodoro (TM) technique mentioned in my last blog comes in useful. I work intensively for short bursts, then reward myself with a spot of site-hopping.

I'm still trying to find out exactly what LinkedIn is for, by the way. It seems to be full of interesting and like-minded people, but I'm not entirely sure why. Obviously there's an employment-exchange element, but if someone endorsed my copy-typing skills I think I'd be more likely to refer them to an optician, rather than  offer them a job! 

How do you use LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and the other social networking sites, and what's the best thing your surfing has done for you?