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Monthly Archives: April 2008

A while ago, Cara blogged about Words We Really Like and I admitted that I mostly see words as brushstrokes in a painting, important but not an obsession in themselves.

One reason is that character and plot matter more to me but another related reason is that I’m a very visual reader. When I’m reading fiction, my brain translates what I’m reading into a film in my head. If the author has done her job well, the words and paragraphs disappear. I become aware of them only if there’s a snag in the process: a typo, a grammatical error, a clumsy point of view change.

It works the same way when I write. My rough drafts don’t even approach being readable; they’re just my way of figuring out and recording the film in my head. In fact, they would probably read like a confusing screenplay–were I to let anyone see them, that is!

The problem with this process is that when it comes time to put the scenes into words, I’ve forgotten how to do it. I worry that I no longer know how to break paragraphs, how to use adverbs (sparingly!), how to interleave description with action and dialogue, etc… And what’s worse, I get this scary feeling that my writer voice is gone.

Classroom type exercises for finding writer voice haven’t worked for me. I can’t seem to do free writing with others around me (though I keep thinking I should try it in private). But the last time I felt this way I came up with an exercise that did help me. I selected snippets of well-written scenes from historical romances by a variety of favorite authors and then I didn’t just reread them, I typed them out. For me, the act of typing made me focus on the words and how they’re put together. It helped me figure out which elements of writing style felt natural to me, and just as importantly, which didn’t, because the goal of the exercise was to learn from favorite romance authors like Jo Beverley, Julia Ross, Laura Kinsale, etc…, not blindly imitate them. That would be bad!

This weekend I’m going on a retreat with some local writing buddies. I plan to use the retreat to get started on the 4th (rubber-hits-the-road) draft of my balloonist story. I’m still hunting down some research details but tomorrow I may try this exercise again, because I’m definitely feeling rusty.

Anyone else out there a visual reader/writer? Are there any exercises you’ve found helpful to develop writer voice? Which authors have strong voices you enjoy?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

Posted in Writing | 19 Replies

I’ve been brainstorming about names for a week or two, in between heat waves and book binges and headaches and out-of-town visitors.

I like finding the right sound for a character name, but I also like playing with connotations. In MY LADY GAMESTER, I named the hero’s somewhat immature, rather weak younger brother Edmund — hoping to draw on memories of either the Edmund in THE LION, THE WITCH & THE WARDROBE, or the one in MANSFIELD PARK (or both).

On the other hand, the heroine’s younger brother was Tom. As opposed to Edmund, Tom was boyish, energetic, and none too sophisticated.

But right now, I’m figuring out names for my work in progress, which is a young adult novel (and, eventually, a loosely-linked series of young adult novels.) The first one has a lot of minor characters, so I need to find names which are memorable, distinct, and sound like the character they represent. And, if I’m lucky, the social group the character belongs to!

See, in the modern-day high school where my story takes place, there are two basic social groups I’m dealing with:

1) the group which, for lack of a better term, I’m currently calling the POPULAR KIDS, who are high-achieving, good-looking, athletic kids from well-to-do families; and

2) the group which for convenience sake I’m calling the NERDY KIDS, who are brainy and studious and come from more varied backgrounds than group #1.

However, I’m having a little bit of difficulty, so…if you could all help me out a bit, I’d really appreciate it!!! Could you let me know, on first seeing each of the following girl’s names, which of the above two groups you would expect them to belong to? (Knee-jerk reaction here.)

Gretchen
June
Harmony
Nia
Wren
Jena
Wynne
Jazz
Tabitha
Holly
Wenda
Hope
Ivy
Jasmine
Winter
Jenny

Thank you all SO much!!!!

Cara
Cara King
, who hated her hard-to-spell-or-pronounce name as a kid

‘T is pleasant, through the loopholes of retreat, To peep at such a world… William Cowper

It was a pleasant Washington Romance Writers Retreat. This year we met in a new location, The Bolger Center, a lovely conference and training facility owned by the Postal Service. It used to be a convent and you could tell in places. The Stained Glass Room where we gathered as a whole group was obviously the chapel complete with confessionals in the back.

This statue of Samuel Osgood, the First US Postmaster General, stood in a location that must have once held a statue of the Virgin Mary or one of the saints.

On the whole it was a nice place. The air conditioning had not been turned on yet and, as happens in the Washington, DC, area sometimes, it was 80 degrees in April. So it was HOT. Then Sunday it was 60 degrees and was COLD.

I didn’t see many workshops, except for one I moderated. Victoria Alexander, who will be the keynote speaker at RWA in San Francisco, spoke at the Retreat and did a “Chat With…” workshop. Here’s Victoria with Kathryn Caskie, both lovely “original blondes”. I went to another workshop with the publicist for Avon who talked about what an in house publicists does. Basically, an in house publicist works to get the word out about your book in ways that don’t cost money. Magazine ads, for example, cost money; TV appearances, booksignings, newspaper articles don’t.

Karmela Johnson and I coordinated the agent/editor appts, which is why I didn’t go to workshops. I love doing this, though, because you get to know the agents and editors and you also get to help the nervous, hopeful writers who are pitching for the first time. but you miss most of the workshops .

I won a Tarot Card reading by Nora Roberts. I won this a few years ago and, like that time, her reading was all about home and family, all good things, but I think it is fascinating that this is what she sees at a writer’s gathering when all we’re thinking about is writing. The card that represented my husband was the King of Rods. He liked hearing that one!


We all donate baskets and items to raffle off as the last event of the weekend. Here is the one my friends Helen, Julie, Virginia and I donated. We called it It’s All There in Black and White.

Here is what I won, a pink pearl bracelet.

We also have a Moonlight Madness. I bought a tote bag made by my friend Beth Holcombe and a wooden pen (you can’t tell but it is stained tourquoise) made by my friend Denise’s husband.

My favorite part of the Retreat is being with friends.

Photo 1 – Bookseller Cynthia Parker, me, and Gail Barrett

Photo 2 – Heidi Betts and Karen Anders

On Saturday we had the awards ceremony, including the Marlene awards, which I cannot report until they are officially announced, I’ve been told. So we should be able to say something by Tuesday.

On Saturday we also give out special awards, and the very best-est thing happened! I won the Nancy Richards-Akers Mentoring Award. Members make the nominations for this award and the Board decides who to award it to. I was nominated by more than one person, which was incredibly wonderful. I cried…..

At our Published Author forum we discussed blogging. I said I thought Risky Regencies had made more readers familiar with my name and my books. Nora Roberts said she’d rather spend her time writing books, but she enjoys responding to blogs. Some others seemed to take the entire process of blogging verrrrry seriously. I said I really do it because it is fun.

What would you like to know about the WRW Retreat?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 25 Replies

The Riskies are delighted to have Sally MacKenzie visit us once again, this time to talk about her April release, The Naked Gentleman. The Naked Gentleman was selected as a Blue Ribbon Favorite of the month at Romance Junkies!

Q. Tell us about your latest book, The Naked Gentleman.

The Naked Gentleman is the fourth in my Naked series, but can be read independently, of course. (Bonus–Kensington has reprinted my backlist, so all the books are available again, even my first book, The Naked Duke.) Meg, the Gent’s heroine, first appeared in The Naked Marquis. She was one of those characters who leap off the page and demand their own story, but first I had to write her friend Lizzie’s tale, The Naked Earl. Meg also appears in that book, where she meets John Parker-Roth, her hero-to-be. As to the actual story, the back cover copy probably says it best:

John Parker-Roth cannot believe that marriage is necessary for his happiness. He would far rather pursue his interest in horticulture, but if one day he should find a female who shared his passion for flowers–a level-headed, calm sort of female–he might reconsider. Certainly the lovely young woman who has just tumbled into his lap will not do, as she possesses neither of these admirable qualities. Yet Miss Margaret Peterson does have many things in her favor. To begin with, she is a true English rose, blushing a delectable pink. And she is not entirely clothed. Her full mouth begs to be kissed. If only she would not wriggle so…oh, dear. He cannot ignore the sudden vision of her in his bed, but he must.

What? Is Meg actually asking him to kiss her? Well, well, well. John Parker-Roth is a gentleman, first and foremost. And he cannot turn down a lady’s request…

Q. What if anything was “risky” about The Naked Gentleman?

I love writing very nasty villains, but in the Gent I decided to try telling a story without the help of any truly dastardly characters. For an added challenge I brought back the “bad” girl from The Naked Earl as a secondary character to see if I could give her a happy ending.

Q. In the Naked Gentleman, both Meg Peterson and John Parker-Roth are plant enthusiasts. Are you a gardener yourself? Is that why you picked this interest for your hero and heroine?

HAHAHAHA…crash! Oops. Excuse me–I was laughing so hard I fell off my chair. I picked plants because I am insane! In real life, I avoid any up close and personal vegetative contact–plants make me reach for the allergy meds. All landscape work at the MacKenzie estate is handled by a hired army of blue-shirted garden and lawn guys.

I gave Meg her plant interest back when I was writing The Naked Marquis. I had a vague idea she might turn into a healer of sorts. Fortunately I shared this thought with a British friend who does know lots about plants and garden history–she clued me into the fact that I was teetering on the edge of a major anachronism. She kindly pointed me in the right direction. I hadn’t realized garden design was such a hot topic in the Regency and that people–often soldiers or clergymen in foreign countries–sent home new-to-England plant specimens, so the variety of greenery gracing English gardens was exploding during this time.

Q. How did you research the plants and flowers of the Regency period? Do you have any research sources to share with us?

My friend told me Penelope Hobhouse was one of the experts in this area. I found her Plants in Garden History (ISBN 1-86205-660-9) quite interesting and helpful. Another little gem I stumbled upon while prowling Amazon for sources was Seeds of Fortune by Sue Shephard (ISBN 0-7475-6066-8). It chronicles the story of the horticulturally significant Veitch family. I also got a copy of Mavis Batey’s Regency Gardens (ISBN 0-7478-0289-0). And I found lots of useful information in two “bibles” of Regency research: Regency Design 1790-1840 by John Morley (ISBN 0-8109-3768-9) and Regency Style by Steven Parissien (ISBN 0-7148-3454-8). Finally, Emily Hendrickson’s The Regency Reference Book has a section on gardens as well. And of course I poked around the internet!

Q. You’ve had a busy spring, attending the NINC conference in New York City, the Romantic Times convention is Pittsburgh, the NECRWA conference in Natick, MA, and our very own Washington Romance Writers Retreat, alas, not in Harpers Ferry this year. Tell us about one special thing that happened at these conferences or one special thing you learned.

I enjoyed all my travels (I ran into Risky Megan Frampton at NECRWA!), though I am totally beat now–and I have yet to master the art of writing on the road. Fortunately, my next deadline isn’t until June 1 and I’m in fairly good shape with that story…I think.

As to a special thing learned…well, maybe that the RT convention is not so very scary. I have to admit I was definitely nervous about going. I’m a bit of an introvert and the thought of costumes–and male cover models–makes me break out in hives. But it was really quite fun. I did avoid the Mr. Romance contestants (they were probably all my sons’ ages) and I made only a very token nod at costuming myself (a few beads, a few spangles on my head), but I had great fun observing the celebrations. (And I’m relieved to say I did NOT observe some of the “celebrations” mentioned on other blogs! Apparently I have a knack for avoiding anything risky in real life.) I saw many old friends–and some not-so-old friends from NINC and NECRWA–and I made a few brand new friends as well. I was on a panel moderated by my pal–and Diane’s pal–Kristina Cook (debuting in 2009 as Kristi Astor) that included Mary Balogh, Gaelen Foley, and fellow WRWers Kathryn Caskie and Sophia Nash. Very much fun. And Kim Lowe of Fort Meade fame (Diane and I went to the Officers’ Wives’ romance tea she organized last year) fortunately persuaded me to stop in at the author chat with Mary Balogh, Nicole Jordan, Mary Jo Putney, and Patricia Rice. It was wonderful. Kim also coordinated and emceed the SOS military mixer, a lovely tribute to veterans and their families–I was only sorry I came late from lunch and so missed hearing her husband, Air Force Lt. Col. Christopher Lowe, sing the national anthem. And of course, the book signing was another highlight–I love meeting readers. I also discovered, much to my surprise, that Pittsburgh is a very nice city. I had a wonderful view of the three rivers from my hotel room. But now I’m ready to stay home for a while.

Q. Tell us about your next project? Who gets naked next time?

Two guys get Naked in 2009!! The Naked Baron, scheduled to release in the spring, goes back to the year of The Naked Duke and tells the story of a couple whom readers met in The Naked Gentleman–as well as a new couple’s story. The Naked Laird, my first novella, will be out in February 2009 in Lords of Desire, an anthology with Virginia Henley, Victoria Dahl, and Kristi Astor (aka Kristina Cook). It’s set during the house party that takes place in the Baron, so I’m having “fun” figuring out how the Baron and the Laird will mesh. And then? Well, if all goes according to plan, I have a Naked Viscount waiting in the wings.

Sally is attending the Washington Romance Writers Retreat today—right down the road from where she lives. She’ll be popping in to say hi and answer questions in the late afternoon, ET.

And one lucky commenter will be selected at random to win a Naked Gentleman—a signed copy of Sally’s book, that is.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 21 Replies
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