Writing: A Blessing and A Burden!

 

Alyssa Maxwell

 We plan, and the gods laugh.

 It’s a saying most of us are familiar with and have come up against at various times in our lives. Usually, it’s over minor inconveniences. But for writers, or anyone who works according to their own terms and schedules, it’s a particularly vital concept. It’s not just about getting the work done. When considering a deadline, writers have to factor in time spent plotting and researching, marketing and promoting, but also things like illnesses, emergencies, and other unforeseen events.

 At those times, writing can be both a blessing and a burden. When life spun out of control for me and my family last summer, I spent weeks afterward numb and in a kind of suspended animation. Writing was out of the question. The words on the page didn’t even make sense to me. I had not one but two deadlines approaching, but the drive, creativity, and, most of all, the self-discipline to sit down and write were simply gone. There were times I didn’t think they could ever come back. And there were times when it just didn’t seem important to me anymore. But I needed that time away. It was necessary.

 Luckily for me, my publisher was extremely understanding and accommodating. One deadline was simply put off for another year, and the other extended by a few months. Yet the thought of going back to work loomed over me like impending doom. How would I ever find the concentration to string words together the way I wanted them—needed them—to be for the book I had initially intended to write?

 It was Murder at The Elms, the 11^th book in my Gilded Newport series, a series I started over ten years ago and which has become part of who I am, as a writer and an individual. Anyone who knows me understands the importance Newport has in my life. It was never just a setting, but has always run so much deeper, even long before I knew I would become a writer. So there could be no half-hearted attempt to finish this book, no spouting of words just to fill pages. I had to find a way to be present in the process—to care, to be both subjective and objective, and to be able to put into it the thing I had lost—my heart.

 I’ll tell you how I did it.

 First, I had to seriously ask myself if I wanted to continue to be a writer. Some days, I didn’t have an answer. But on the days when I did, I began, slowly, to turn my mind to the story I had started several months earlier. I allowed it back into my headspace, which also meant shoving aside, even for short periods of time, all those other thoughts that had come to crowd my brain. And I realized that, for those moments, it felt good to be back with my characters. I’m not talking about actively writing. That came a bit later, but just thinking about Emma Cross and the others, and about being in Newport, became a comfort.

 It was not without trepidation that I finally opened the file. At first I only read, starting on page one, to put myself back in the story. Then, finally, I’d write a paragraph or two, and then a page or two. That little bit felt like a breakthrough and an accomplishment. Gradually, and I can’t emphasize that word enough, I worked up to my normal output per day—at least, most days. Some days, I still have to put it aside. That’s ok. Because I had learned that it was still there—the creativity, the drive, and even the self-discipline. And finding that all still alive inside me gave me back a part of my life I could control. I could still lose myself in characters, settings, and plotlines, where justice prevails and good people triumph. Life might and probably will interfere again someday, but now I know unequivocally that writing, being a writer, IS important to me, and that no matter what happens, I’ll always be able to find my way back.

 Bio:

 Alyssa Maxwell, a former nonfiction and fiction editor, knew from an early age that she wanted to be a writer. Growing up in New England and traveling to Great Britain fueled a passion for history, while a love of puzzles and atmospheric literature drew her to the mystery genre. She is the author of The Gilded Newport Mysteries and A Lady and Lady’s Maid Mysteries. She and her husband live in Florida, where she is a member of the Florida Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America and the South Florida Fiction Writers. You can learn more about Alyssa and her books at www.alyssamaxwell.com and connect with her on social media at these links:

https://www.facebook.com/gildednewport

https://www.facebook.com/AlyssaMaxwellauthor/

https://twitter.com/Alyssa__Maxwell

https://www.instagram.com/alyssamaxwellauthor/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7163135.Alyssa_Maxwell

 

Book Blurb:

 Murder at The Elms, A Gilded Newport Mystery #11

Coming August 22, 2023

 As the nineteenth century comes to a close, the illustrious Vanderbilt family dominates Newport, Rhode Island, high society. But when murder arrives, reporter Emma Cross learns that sometimes the actions of the cream of society can curdle one’s blood in the latest installment of this bestselling cozy historical mystery series . . .

1901: Back from their honeymoon in Italy, Emma and Derrick are adapting to married life as they return to their duties at their jointly owned newspaper, the Newport Messenger. The Elms, coal baron Edward Berwind’s newly completed Bellevue Avenue estate, is newsworthy for two reasons: A modern mansion for the new century, it is one of the first homes in America to be wired for electricity with no backup power system, generated by coal from Berwind’s own mines. And their servants—with a single exception—have all gone on strike to protest their working conditions. Summarily dismissing and replacing his staff with cool and callous efficiency, Berwind throws a grand party to showcase the marvels of his new “cottage.”
 
Emma and Derrick are invited to the fete, which culminates not only in a fabulous musicale but an unforeseen tragedy—a chambermaid is found dead in the coal tunnel. In short order, it is also discovered that a guest’s diamond necklace is missing and a laborer has disappeared.
 
Detective Jesse Whyte entreats Emma and Derrick to help with the investigation and determine whether the murdered maid and stolen necklace are connected. As the dark deeds cast a shadow over the blazing mansion, it’s up to Emma to shine a light on the culprit . . .

 

Change - Good or not so Good!

 

By: Sandra Madden

https://sandramadden.com/

Thank you, Marcia for your kind invitation to blog. So much to blog about!

Recently I participated in a Friends of the Library Romance Novelist panel in St. Augustine. I was one of 5 participating panel members who were veteran romance writers. One of the questions put to us was: How has romance writing changed? How has your writing changed?

In so many ways … on so many levels!

When most of us began writing romance there was only one way to become a published romance author. First, you wrote a book (usually 100,000 words or more) and then mailed the manuscript, along with a self-addressed stamped return envelope, to the publisher. These were heavy manuscripts! The first thrill was getting it to the post office. The second came after a long wait. We waited, at least six weeks, for a reply. (During the wait it was a very good idea to write a new novel. Rejection happened. A lot. One well-known author confessed she could have papered her office walls with the rejections she received in the beginning.)

If and when your book was accepted, the publisher owned you. Owned your name, your publishing rights and became the major marketing expert for your books sales.

It’s quite different today. Now we send our manuscripts and/or proposals via e-mail. Quick and easy. Or not - rejections remain part of the business.

Today there is self-publishing. A traditional publisher is no longer necessary to see your book in print. But smart self-published authors hire formatters, cover artists and editors, just for starters. It’s not inexpensive to publish a book.  And every author no matter how they are publishing, by self, traditionally or via small press becomes an in-house marketing department.

When I started writing romance over twenty-five years ago I wrote historical romance and my first published novel, “Liberty’s Bride,” took place in St. Augustine during the revolutionary war. (I was not living anywhere near St. Augustine at the time.)

I wrote nothing but historical romance for several years. A history lover, I loved the research!

But after years of writing in one genre I slowly moved into another.

My new release entitled “Murder at the Blue Oyster Grill,” happens in September, 2023.  As you might guess, it’s a cozy mystery heavy on the romance and humor, and published by The Wild Rose Press. It’s quite a change from what I was writing at the beginning and I’m enjoying the change that began with “The Paradise Key Caper.”

Change is inevitable in every industry, every profession, every life.

Davie Bowie sang about it…”Ch,ch, changes.” And Heraclitus wrote, “Nothing endures but change.”

So what changes might be ahead in the publishing industry and for romance writers?  AI, perhaps?  Will my next book be titled, “Robots in Love”? Or has it already happened.

About Me

This is my life! Well, my writing life.

Yes. I was one of those strange children, although I prefer precocious to strange, who began writing while in grade school. New England winters are cold, I needed indoor activities!

A former member of Women in Communications, I’m included in, “Who’s Who and Why of Successful Florida Women – 1985.” I am so dating myself! During those early days received numerous awards including: The Displaced Homemaker Award from the Miami-Dade county YWCA, a Certificate of Commendation from the Dade County Commission for service to the community. I also received a Majority/Minority Award, courtesy of The Women’s Advocacy Group of South Florida. The lovely crystal giraffe was awarded to women each year who stick their necks out in order to further the cause of women. During those years I focused on women’s issues.

My poetry has appeared in Ion Books, Inc. And a chapbook entitled “Women in Love” was published by South Florida University Press.

As a producer/writer for a Miami PBS station I wrote. And then I wrote – almost twenty romance novels, both historical and contemporary and one memoir…Remembering Reuben Kincaid. (My late husband wanted his children to know him...in his own words. More or less.)

I’ve belonged to, or do belong to several awesome writers’ organizations:  Novelists Inc., RWA, Orange County Romance Writers, South Florida Fiction Writers and the Florida Writers Association.

Sandra Dempsey Madden …Characters at risk...Romance Involved

Who Took My iPhone...

I’ve been on holiday the last few days. It’s the school holidays here in New Zealand and I went up to the lovely wine growing region of the Hawke’s Bay. 

I had to laugh when I learned this month’s topic on Romancing the Genre’s blog was mysteries because I lost my iPhone in the Hawke’s Bay and I have no idea how.  

I’ve been busy cancelling sim cards and phones. As it turns out it’s a very expensive lesson for me. To replace my iPhone is around $900NZ! I got my iPhone FREE on a 24 month plan, which I’m locked into and I’m only 11 months in. So I have to buy a new phone. It might not be an iPhone. I’ll clarify that, unless my insurance comes to the party it won’t be an iPhone. I’m checking out my insurance as I type this.

So, I am facing my own little mystery, where did I lose it, and how did I lose it? Did someone steal it out of my bag? Curses on them if they did!

I much prefer being an author writing a mystery into my stories, than being an author facing my own personal mystery in real life. I’m pretty certain I’ll never solve the mystery of my missing iPhone. It’s gone. BIG SIGH.

I do write historical romantic suspense. Mysteries or suspense in a romance story lifts the game. Not only are the couple facing relationship issues, there is usually someone, or something, set on ensuring they never find their happy ever after. It raises the stakes, the tension, and the satisfaction at the end.

I do love writing romantic suspense type stories. My latest Regency historical romance, To Challenge the Earl of Cravenswood (due out late October 2012), is a Cinderella type romance. Here’s the blurb:

To live happily ever after...
Henry St. Giles, the Earl of Cravenswood, longs to find his soul mate. Now that his two best friends, both reformed rakes, are happily married, the need becomes an obsession. When they challenge him to find a wife by the end of the season or marry his neighbor, the innocently alluring Lady Amy Shipton, he can’t believe his luck. He wins, either way.  But a darkened garden, a case of mistaken identity, a drunken kiss, and a dropped emerald earring, leads Henry on a Cinderella hunt. He knows the woman he held in his arms could be the one he's searched for all his life. He just has to find her.

Lady Amy Shipton is determined to marry for love instead of sharing her husband like her mother did. So why did she let her handsome neighbor and romantic fantasy, the Sinful Saint as he's called for his bedroom prowess, seduce her in his garden? And what can she do when in the middle of their passionate encounter; he whispers another woman's name. Now Henry is hunting the owner of the earring Amy left behind, and she's determined to retrieve it before her identity is revealed. She's not about to give her father the ammunition he desperately wants to force her down the aisle.

Can you see the high-jinx involved here? I love that Henry and Amy are at crossed purposes. Of course we know it all ends happily ever after, but the mystery, the cat and mouse game, and the hoops they both have to jump through builds the story up and makes for an extremely satisfying ending.

Do you like a bit of suspense or mystery in your books? If so, why? Have you ever lost anything and been stumped as to how?

Let Me Enjoy Spring

Dear Readers

August was a very busy month for me and unfortunately my writing took a back seat. I’m now going to be delivering my final book in my Wicked Wagers trilogy, To Challenge the Earl of Cravenswood, a month late. It will be released end of September, instead of the end of August. How did I let the month get away from me?

I didn’t factor in how much travelling I’d be doing during late July and August. I flew to the USA for a few weeks and then had the Romance Writers of New Zealand conference in Auckland. I had three conferences within four weeks – and I was presenting at one! It was tiring but so much fun. I got to meet wonderful people and I learned a lot.

So, here I sit, just as the New Zealand spring is starting, glued to my computer, writing frantically. We’ve had warm mid-winter months of July and August, unusually warmer temperatures, but punctuated with loads of rain. The grass is still soaking and the kids’ sports have been cancelled most of the month because the grounds are too sodden. At least that’s my excuse for not mowing the lawns.

 

I’m also on Jury duty this week which again has eaten into my time. I feel a moral obligation to do my jury service. I’d like to think that if I ever were facing a court that people from all walks of life were my jury pool. 

I have to report each morning to the District Court and we go through a ballot process to see who sits on a jury. I got selected for a jury yesterday, and it was a two – three week trial. There goes my writing! However, luckily for me, a very good friend was one of the lawyers so I was excused! It did give me some ideas for a story though so it wasn’t a complete waste of time.

I hope to have the book completed by the end of September and then I’m going to take a week to enjoy spring. I’m building a house in the sunny Hawke’s Bay (a wine growing region) and I want to go up and spend some time picking curtains and furnishing etc. I’m hoping the spring weather remains warm and sunny while I’m up there.

Then for the rest of the year I’m finishing, Invitation to Passion, book three in my Invitation to Romance series. I’m hoping to get it finished by Christmas so I can enjoy the summer months of January and February in my new home.

BTW, I’ve some good news to share. To Dare the Duke of Dangerfield, book one in my Wicked Wagers trilogy, is now a FINALIST in the 2012 Kindle Book Review Indie Romance Book of the Year. It would be great if you could spread the news!

Let the Wicked Wagers Begin...
Lady Caitlin Southall’s temper has finally got the better of her. She’s challenged Harlow Telford, the Duke of Dangerfield, the most notorious rake in all of England, to a wager. She wants her house back. The one her destitute father lost to Dangerfield in a card game. But if she doesn’t win their bet, she not only loses her home, she loses her dignity and pride and damn it all, maybe her heart... For the handsome Duke has decreed, when he wins, she must spend the night in his bed.

Harlow Telford is amused by his hellion neighbor, Caitlin, or Cate to her friends, who seem to encompass everyone on earth except him. When she bursts into one of his private gatherings, he mistakes her for the entertainment. Her slap across his face sets him straight and raises the absurd desire to seduce the unconventional beauty into his bed. When she issues her daft challenge to win back her father’s pile of rubble, the terms are set. And he’ll do anything to win—except fall in love...

Click here to buy Amazon or B&N or Smashwords

What plans are you making for the next few months? Northern hemisphere readers will be heading toward winter. Is it hard to be perky about the change in season when it’s autumn, or are you a winter fan? I suspect the regions that have very hot, muggy weather are looking forward to cooler days.

It Might Be Summer Where You Are...

Everyone in the northern hemisphere is talking about, and enjoying, summer. I feel like a fraud writing about my favorite summer read when it’s the middle of winter in New Zealand.

So I’m going to talk about what I love doing on a cold winter’s Sunday afternoon.  Sunday afternoon, when the rain is sleeting against my window and the wind is trying to lift my roof off, I settle down on the couch with my small quilt blanket that mum made me, the heater is on and I make myself a cup of tea and treat myself to two chocolate biscuits. Then I settle down with a book and start to read.

Sometimes I read a paper book, rare for me these days I’m afraid, as it’s quicker and cheaper here in NZ to buy my books on Kindle. Plus, I have to buy most romance books from Book Depository in the UK because NZ does not get more than 5 or 6 romance novels a month.

I love my kindle. The immediacy is the key. Plus being long-sighted, small print means I have to wear my glasses to read, while a Kindle with the bigger print setting means no glasses required. This makes snuggling up on the couch more enjoyable when I lie on my big reading pillow.

My latest reads are two historical romances and a Desire HMB by Olivia Gates. I love reading historical, no surprise there I suppose since I write historicals. I love reading them because I love a bad boy and in the male dominated 1800’s this is easy to find. The rakish lord with the virginal miss is my favorite, especially if she has a brain!

I read two books this weekend, both made me automatically go to the author’s website to look for when their next book would be released. That is how I know I’ve read a good book. I want, and must have the next one-NOW.

On Sunday I had a fun weekend hiding from the howling southerly gales and rain. I read Emma Wildes January release, Twice Fallen. I loved the book. Surprisingly, I loved the secondary romance more than the main H and h. Once I had completed her book I committed the fatal sin. I read the introduction chapter of her next book –OMG—it was so good! Then to my major disappointment it isn’t released until September. How could she do that to me? WORSE-because I live in NZ, I’m unable to pre-order for my Kindle. So I’ve had to make a diary note to buy it when it is released. Bloody Signet! Emma, can you please get them to change that policy.

The second book I read was Gaelen Foley’s, My Ruthless Prince. Gaelen is probably my favorite author. She writes beautiful, engaging characters that I can re-read again and again. She has a fabulous marketing ploy, one that I use in my books. Her epilogue is the sample of her next book and once again I have to wait until October!

So tell me, do you read the sample chapters at the back of books? Do you love an epilogue that gives a sneak peak of the rest of the story? Do you go and pre-order a book or do you simply forget about the author and perhaps look at her next book once it is released? 

I’ll give away a copy of To Wager the Marquis of Wolverstone, book two in my Wicked Wagers trilogy in eBook format to one commenter. Drawn Sunday 8th July, open internationally.