New Writer Tips
Tips and tools for new and established writers
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What Took Brita Addams So Long? @britaaddams #RLFblog
For Men Like Us Romance Lives Forever welcomes Brita Addams to the blog
for an article on why it takes so long to write.What took me so long?
I have asked myself that question
many times. Given that I’ve read all my life and aspired to be a writer since
middle school, even I am astounded that it took me so many years to actually
sit down and write for publication.The simple explanation is that I
didn’t feel I had anything to say, but, as I said, that is the simple answer
and partially untrue. The truth of the matter is, I never knew my niche. My
thoughts were scattered to the four winds, interests in any number of directions,
and nothing concrete to anchor me.Then along comes life and that
conspired to put my passion for the written word on the back burner, save for
the constancy of reading.There was also the niggle in the
back of my head, that I couldn’t cut it. In seventh grade, my teacher, Mr.
Green, sent one of my short stories off to a famous writer, Hal Borland. I had no idea
until Mr. G. called me to his desk one day and showed me the paper, with myriad
comments in the margins, most of them positive, others constructive. He
explained that he thought the paper good enough to send to Borland, author of
one of the books we had read in English class. The final comment, at the bottom
of the page, was, “This girl has talent and shows great promise.”Excited, I took the paper home
and showed it to my father. Now, Dad wasn’t a particularly encouraging fellow,
having never overcome his lifelong depression and issues that followed him to
the grave. He was also a frustrated writer, though he never got past the first
draft stage in anything he ever wrote. Anyway, he looked at the paper, got very
angry, and ripped it up. Amid mutters of “wasted time,” he stalked
off, leaving me upset and discouraged.Now I say this because I hope that
others won’t let something like that to do then what it did to me. I never
wrote another word, save for continual journals and articles for the local
newspaper. Every time I picked up a pen, I heard those words that my father had
said. Isn’t it strange how words meant to hurt often drown out even the most
encouraging?In later years, I often wrote
letters for friends who’d read things I had written, but that was the extent of
it. Something was missing, something that lived in my heart, while I refused to
let grow. My husband and I raised our children and went on with life. I still
read constantly, but by then, life was so busy, that writing wasn’t even a blip
on the radar.One year for my birthday, my
husband gave me several of Philippa Gregory’s books, particularly The Other
Boleyn Girl and Earthly Joys. I have always loved non-fiction, have read
biographies and historical accounts for as long as I can remember. I hadn’t,
however, read romance. Gregory combines both, taking real people and creating
circumstances around them that tell a story that has some grounding in the
truth.After devouring everything I
could by Gregory, I sought out other historical romances, not particularly
worried if they featured actual people, historical was enough for me. Oh, my,
did my world open up. I discovered Mary Balogh, Lisa Kleypas, and so many other
wonderful authors, and I couldn’t get enough.After reading hundreds of
historical romances, my creativity came to life. I started plotting stories
long after I turned the light off at night. I got excited and told my husband
about the stories and patient man that he is, he listened. One day, he asked
me, “Do you think you could write a book?”Thank God he did, because I
haven’t stopped since.Previous Books
Tarnished Gold
Tarnished Gold In 1915, starstruck Jack Abadie strikes out for the gilded
streets of the most sinful town in the country—Hollywood. With him, he takes a
secret that his country hometown would never understand.After years of hard work and a chance invitation to a gay
gentlemen’s club, Jack is discovered. Soon, his talent, matinee idol good
looks, and affable personality propel him to the height of stardom. But fame
breeds distrust.Meeting Wyatt Maitland turns Jack’s life upside down. He
wants to be worthy of his good fortune, but old demons haunt him. Only through
Wyatt’s strength can Jack face that which keeps him from being the man he wants
to be. Love without trust is empty.As the 1920s roar, scandals rock the movie industry. Public
tolerance of Hollywood’s
decadence has reached its limit. Under pressure to clean up its act, Jack’s
studio issues an ultimatum. Either forsake the man he loves and remain a box
office darling, or follow his heart and let his shining star fade to tarnished
gold.Read an excerpt and purchase the Tarnished Gold ebook
or print,
signed by the author (if one of the first twenty sold.)ForMen Like Us, which takes place during the Regency in England. You
can find it at Dreamspinner Press. Just click the title to be magically
transported.For Men Like UsAfter Preston Meacham’s lover dies trying to lend him aid at
Salamanca,
hopelessness becomes his only way of life. Despite his best efforts at starting
again, he has no pride left, which leads him to sell himself for a pittance at
a molly house. The mindless sex affords him his only respite from the horrors
he witnessed.
The Napoleonic War left Benedict Wilmot haunted by the acts he was forced to
commit and the torture he endured at the hands of a superior, a man who used
the threat of a gruesome death to force Ben to do his bidding. Even sleep gives
Ben no reprieve, for he can’t escape the destruction he caused.
When their paths cross, Ben feels an overwhelming need to protect Preston from his dangerous profession. As he explains,
“The streets are dangerous for men like us.”Serenity’s DreamLucien and Serenity – the rewritten, expanded version of the
first book in my Sapphire Club series.Serenity Damrill has returned to her husband, Lucien after a
ten-year absence. She carries with her a secret that could destroy her life and
possibly all that Lucien has built.Lucien was quite happy in his life running the Sapphire Club
and has no need for the frigid wife who deserted him the day after they were
married.Can Lucien teach Serenity that her fear of the marriage bed
is unfounded? Will Serenity’s secret be the death knell for their
marriage?You can purchase Serenity’s Dream – Lucien and Serenity at AmazonAbout the Author
Born in Upstate New York, Brita Addams has made her home in
the sultry south for many years. Brita’s home is a happy place, where she lives
with her real-life hero, her husband, and a fat cat named Stormee. She writes,
for the most part, erotic historical romance, both het and m/m, which is an
ideal fit, given her love of British and American history. Setting the
tone for each historical is important. Research plays an indispensible part in
the writing of any historical work, romance or otherwise. A great deal of
reading and study goes into each work, to give the story the authenticity it
deserves.As a reader, Brita prefers historical works, romances and
otherwise. She believes herself born in the wrong century, though she says she
would find it difficult to live without air conditioning. Brita and her husband
love to travel, particularly cruises and long road trips. They completed a Civil
War battlefield tour a couple of years ago, and have visited many places
involved in the American Revolutionary War.In May, 2013, they are going to England for two weeks, to visit the
places Brita writes about in her books, including the estate that inspired the
setting for her Sapphire Club series. Not the activities, just the floor plan.
A bit of trivia – Brita pronounces her name, B-Rita, like the woman’s name, and
oddly, not like the famous water filter.Giveaway
Ebook giveaways at each stop. Random commenter’s choice from
my backlist
Serenity’s Dream Signed 8×10 glossies of Jack Abadie
Grand Prize is a Kindle, along with the winner’s choice
of five (5) of my backlist titles, sent to them by email.Rules:Leave a comment at one or all the stops. At each stop, a
random commenter will be selected to win their choice of backlist book
(Tarnished Gold excluded.) This selection will be made daily throughout the
tour, except where blog owners wish to extend the eligibility. Be sure to leave
an email address in your comment.All names of commenters and their email addresses will be
put into the drawing for the Kindle, even if they have won the daily drawing.
The more comments you make the more chances you have to win.Other prizes include five (5) 8×10 glossies of Jack Abadie,
signed. The winners will be selected on April 10, from all the commenters at
all the stops, and notified by email.The Grand Prize winner will be selected on April 10th and
notified by email. Once I have heard from the winner and obtained a shipping
address, I will order the Kindle and have it shipped directly to the winner.
They will also be eligible to select five (5) of my backlist titles and I will
email them to the winner.Contest valid in the United States.Full schedule for the Tarnished Gold Virtual BookTourFind Me Here
Website http://britaaddams.com/Blog http://britaaddamsblog.blogspot.com/Twitter http://twitter.com/britaaddamsFacebook http://facebook.com/britaaddams -
When a Detective Writes Romance @BookstoGoNow#RLFblog
Byzantine Gold Romance Lives
Forever welcomes Chris Karlsen back to the blog for an article on writing romantic
suspense books as a retired detective.When I retired after
twenty-five years in law enforcement, I thought I was pretty much done with all
things police related, other than watching a couple of shows on television. I could
finally write the romance story I’d had in my head for three decades. Since it was
a romance and not a thriller or mystery, it never occurred to me that I’d wind up
applying skills directly and indirectly learned conducting investigations. How wrong
I was.My first two books,
Heroes Live Forever, and Journey in Time, were part of a paranormal series. Heroes
had a reincarnation aspect to the story. The hero and his best friend are aware
of what is happening when they enter into the experience. The heroine has no memory
of her previous life and connection to the hero. In order to convince her that the
outrageous tale he tells is true, as I wrote the scene, I put him across the interview
table from me. I mentally returned to my detective time. I asked myself what questions
would I ask a victim/witness/suspect. What answers would they need to give me to
convince me they were telling the truth? To convince the heroine, they had to convince
me first. If I believed it, I could make it believable on the page.By the time I started
Journey in Time, I knew I wasn’t done with my police experience. This story required
knowledge of evidence, along with another exchange involving an outrageous tale
to convert a doubter to a believer. In this story a modern couple has been transported
back to Fourteenth Century England, an England
preparing for war with France.
The hero in this book is the best friend from the first novel. He is a product of
reincarnation. He has lived in this time and place before, and retains his memories
from the period. The heroine is a modern London
attorney who has been caught in the time portal with the hero. This time it is his
turn to sit across the interview table in my mental interrogation room. I put myself
in her place and questioned him relentlessly. I searched for the answers I needed
him to give to make me believe that I am indeed part of a terrible and dangerous
situation with no clue how it happened or how to return to the modern world. Unless
they find a way out, he will die in battle. History cannot be changed, including
his death. She would be alone in the alien medieval world.In that story, there’s
a scene where the king orders the heroine to stay as a “guest” of a wool merchant,
who’s a favorite of the queen. It turns out the man is a vicious brute who attempts
to sexually assault her. She fights off the initial assault but is badly beaten
in the process. The hero locates her and brings her back to court and the wool merchant
back to stand trial. The merchant falsely accuses her of a crime. His testimony
is nothing but lies in an effort to defend the beating he gave her. The heroine
must present her side of the case before the king and entire court. I used my experience
testifying in criminal trials and had the heroine ask the questions a prosecutor
would’ve asked me or the defendant. I had the heroine use evidence that I’d use,
if this had been my case to present to a judge or jury. Lacking the technical equipment
and scientific means we have at our fingertips today, I relied on the most obvious
physical evidence available that could be seen and touched. I didn’t want the trial
to be an easy time for her. In my head, I laid out the crime scene and visualized
what she could take from there back to court. I went over the scene again and again,
like a detective does looking for anything I might’ve missed.My last two books, Golden
Chariot and Byzantine Gold, are from a different series. They’re romantic thrillers.
Golden Chariot involves the murder of a Turkish government agent, artifact smuggling,
and the kidnapping of the heroine, a nautical archaeologist. She has a loose connection
to a private collector who purchases looted relics on the Black Market. The Turkish
agent sent to investigate the first agent’s murder must also investigate the heroine
further. Between my detective background and my research, I was able to put together
enough of the foreign legal process to make the investigation relatively accurate.
It should be noted that much is different with regards to due process and the judiciary
system. I was also able to use the heroine’s ignorance of how a foreign agency employs
due process to create a great deal of fear in her.Toward the end of the
story, she is kidnapped and taken to a contract killer’s compound. I had a very
basic, I stress very basic, idea of the tactics needed to extract her. Here my background
came in handy but not as a result of my personal experience but with who I knew.
I had a friend who headed up a SWAT team for a major city. He was also in the Marine
Corps Reserves. After the invasion of Iraq,
he was deployed to both Baghdad
and Fallujah. His job was to teach young Marines urban crisis entry. He had retired
from both the police department and the military when I was writing Golden Chariot.
I called upon him to help me with the tactics, including the use of explosives and
how the extraction team would deploy once they gained entry into the compound. Phone
calls, emails, and drafts went back and forth. He was a great help and I was and
am incredibly grateful for his patience and assistance.Byzantine Gold involves
the contract killer from Golden Chariot, in addition to a terrorist cell. The killer
is hunting the hero, bent on revenge. In a scene early in the story, he plans to
shoot the hero. I fired several different types of weapons over my career. I was
able to use my knowledge of range capacity, in addition to types of weapons the
killer might employ build that scene. I also used my experience in a later scene
involving a sniper type attack.In the end of Byzantine
Gold, there’s a tactical operation where the terrorists are involved. As I mentioned,
my tactical knowledge is limited. But once again, I was able to call upon a friend
who is more than a friend, I asked my husband. He spent three years in the military
and thirty-one in law enforcement. While we sat in a hotel bar in Chicago, he helped me lay
out the schematics for the operation on cocktail napkins. While I was talking about
terrorists and how they’d approach, I noticed the man next to me giving me a rather
strange look. I half expected Homeland Security or the FBI or someone from one of
the alphabet agencies to rush into the bar and drag me off for questioning. I quickly
inserted a code word for terrorist.In conclusion, I can
only say that when I began writing, I was firm in my conviction that in no way would
I relive my career through my characters. I did not want to write cop stories. I
love to read them and have several favorite authors who write fantastic ones. They
weren’t for me. I laugh now as I see in every story a part of the last twenty-five
years coming through my character’s lives. Fortunately, it has been to our mutual
benefit.About the Author
Chris Karlsen I was born and
raised in Chicago.
My father was a history professor and my mother was, and is, a voracious reader.
I grew up with a love of history and books.My parents also
love traveling, a passion they passed onto me. I wanted to see the places I
read about, see the land and monuments from the time periods that fascinated
me. I’ve had the good fortune to travel extensively throughout Europe, the Near
East, and North Africa.I am a retired
police detective. I spent twenty-five years in law enforcement with two
different agencies. My desire to write came in my early teens. After I retired,
I decided to pursue that dream.I currently live in
the Pacific Northwest with my husband, four
rescue dogs and a rescue horse.I’m close to finishing the first draft of book 3 in my Knights in Time
series. After that, I hope to start book 3 in my Dangerous Waters series, which
the series Golden Chariot and Byzantine Gold are from.Previous Books
Heroes Live Forever
(book 1 in Knights in Time series)Journey in Time
(book 2 in Knights in Time series)Golden Chariot
(book 1 in Dangerous Waters series)Books Coming Soon
Knight Blindness
(Knights in Time series)Find Me Here
Website: http://chriskarlsen.comPinterest: http://pinterest.com/chriskarlsen/ -
Interview: Jane Wenham-Jones
Jane, welcome to Romance Lives Forever. Tell us about your latest book, including its
genre. Does it cross over to other genres? If so, what are they?Prime Time is billed
as a romantic comedy but it does have its dark corners. It is the story of
Laura who has shocking PMT and is – ill-advisedly as it turns out – encouraged
to go onto a daytime tv programme to talk about it. What happens next will
change her life…How do you come up with ideas?I pretty much write
down everything that ever happens to me…What is the single most important part of writing
for you?That wonderful moment
when you can type “the end”.What is the most important thing you do for your
career?I’ll give anything a
try. I’ve been on radio and TV, worked as a presenter and interviewer, written
short stories and articles, features and columns, fiction and non-fiction. I
could probably do with being a bit more focussed on just the one or two areas
instead of trying to do it all, but it’s been a lot of fun.What do you enjoy most about writing?Being able to
“have my say” I suppose.What do you enjoy most about life?Variety. I am not one
of these writers who can be pinned to the computer for a 16 hour stretch. I
like to go out and do lots of different things. But I always consider that to
be part of the process. If you never leave your study how you have anything to
say?Where do you start when writing? Research,
plotting, outline, or…?A basic idea. My first
novel was: the buy-to-let market, my second, infidelity, my third – running a
wine bar… and so on.What did you learn from writing your first
book?That it’s not as easy
as it looks…How many hours a day to you spend writing?On theory 6 hours a
day. In practice? Sometimes I don’t write at all – too busy fiddling with
emails and tidying the kitchen. But when deadlines loom I’ve been known to
write all night. I finished wannabe a writer in a 36 hours stint with no sleep
at all.If you could give the younger version of yourself
advice what would it be?Get on with it!What are some jobs you’ve done that would end up
in a book?I’ve been a barmaid,
bought and sold property, worked as a secretary and a copywriter – all these
have come in useful in books various.If I was a first time reader of your books, which
one would you recommend I start with and why?When I am reading a
new author I like to start with their first one. Mine was –
Raising the Roof. But I’ve developed a lot since then. So I would say now –
read the blurbs and see which one appeals to you most and I’ll just hope you
like it SO much you can’t wait to read the others :-)What do you hope readers take with them after
reading your work?A smile and a dollop
of empathyList two authors we would find you reading when
taking a break from your own writing.Joanna Trollope and
Fay WeldonWhat’s your next writing ambition?I want to be an agony
aunt on a national newspaper – editors please note! :-)A biography has been written about you. What do
you think the title would be in six words or less?Jacqueline of all
trades.If money were not an object, where would you most
like to live?By the sea plus a flat
in LondonIf you were a tool, what would people use you to
do?Open wine bottles.As a child, what was your favorite thing about
school?Reading my way through
mathsIf you came with a warning label, what would it
say?Take in small dosesPlease
Fill in the BlanksI love pizza with fresh
basil.I’m always ready for a
glass of champagne.When I’m alone, I relish
it.You’d never be able to
tell, but I was once a model.If I had a halo it would be constantly falling off.If I could play the
guitar, speak fluent French, sing like an angel, and only weighed seven stone,
I’d consider it a good result.I can never get to
the end of my to-do list because I keep adding to it.My
BooklistRaising the RoofWannabe a WriterWannabe a Writer We’ve
Heard OfPerfect AlibisOne Glass is Never
EnoughPrime TimeFind
Me HereWebsite: http://www.janewenham-jones.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/janewenhamjonesTwitter: http://twitter.com/JaneWenhamJones
