The Art Of Writing Doesn't Always Come Easy

My guest is para romance author, Devyn Quinn. She admits that she’s had to struggle with her writing. Finding her voice and style has taken time. Devyn won the 2009 Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award for paranormal. She certainly seems to have hit her stride with her new series, The Dark Tide.


What impressed me about Devyn is she had a goal and didn't let anything get in the way of accomplishing it. She was willing to learn and work hard to achieve  that goal. Kudos to Devyn!




Writing doesn't come easy to me.

Does that sound like something a writer would say? Well, it's true. The art of taking pen in hand and creating effervescent prose that fairly jumps off the page and catches the reader's attention is an art I've struggled to master for over 20 years.

Don't misunderstand me. Since grade school (the first grade, as a matter of fact) I knew--just knew--that I would grow up and write books. From the moment I learned that individual letters make words, and that words made sentences that contained fantastic stores of other worlds far away from my own, I had only one single goal in mind. To write my own books.

Unfortunately there is a lot more to the process than simply sitting down and telling the stories writing in your mind. There's that thing I like to call "mechanics", all the various pieces it takes to write a good book. By mechanics I mean more than simply being able to write and punctuate sentences. Mechanics also means arranging the words into dialogue and description that will convey the images living in your mind to your reader.

But how to do that?

For the longest time that answer eluded me. I thought the best way to learn to write was to read stories that interested me by authors I admired. And that's true. But only to a point. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. When I go back over my earlier pre-publication work I can clearly pick out the style and influences of the writer I was reading at the time. Yes, the writing was competent. But it wasn't my own. It was me, trying to recreate the style of another author.

Although I wrote many books as the years passed, I came to a point where I began to doubt publication would ever arrive. The thing editors often refer to, as "a writer's voice" seemed to elude me. It was there, but always out of my reach. Where to find my voice and how to use it were questions I asked, but ones seemingly without answer. In quizzing my published friends, they would often shrug and admit they didn't know where that special inner touch came from. It just was.

Sounds so Zen, right?

Instead of feeling tranquil, I was gnashing my teeth. “So where's mine? “ I often demanded as I flogged myself with my metal whip for being too stupid to write a good sentence.

And then it dawned on me. Instead of trying to imitate my favorite authors, I needed to close their books and put them out of my mind. No, it wasn't that I forgot what their stories were about. In fact, it was just the opposite. I remembered those stories, but I made myself forget their words. Instead of thinking, for example, "How would King or Grisham write this line?” I began to make myself think about how I would write it.

And then it happened. I found my "voice" as a writer. No, it didn't happen overnight and it certainly wasn't easy. But as I grew older and began to call upon my own personal experiences in life and my conscious perception of the world around me, I realized I didn't need to look to other writers for knowledge on how to write my books. The know-how was inside me all along. Time, practice and a little bit of nurturing sharpened my rudimentary skills.

In the 20 years I’ve been writing, I’ve written almost 20 books and several short stories. No, I’m not a bestseller or well-known author by any means. But I am determined someday I will be. I came a little bit closer to my goal when I did what I had thought was impossible: I was nominated for, and won, the Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award for best paranormal erotic romance in 2009. Not only was I up against authors who I considered far more talented than I will ever be, there were a couple I considered virtually unbeatable.

So if I can do it, anybody can.

All it takes is a lot of determination, oodles of practice and the fortitude to shake of rejection and keep on working toward your goal.

Trust me on this one. I’ve been there, and I’m still learning the ropes.

• What about you? What have you had to overcome in your writing journey?

Siren’s Call, Book One of Dark Tides Series


Between desire and love there are some things that can’t stay buried, even in the deep of the ocean.


As a woman with a secret, lighthouse keeper Tessa Lonike savors her solitude on the island of Little Mer, off the coast of Maine. During a violent storm, Tessa spots a man thrashing in the ice cold waters and dives in to save him, using her ability as a mermaid to easily pull him to shore.


When Kenneth Randall awakens on the beach he is alone, left with the haunting memory of his beautiful, flame-haired savior. But a year later, when Kenneth meets her again, he’s determined not to let Tessa slip away. Just as the desire between them begins to burn, Tessa’s archaeologist ex-lover comes back to town with a tantalizing clue to her murky heritage.


The trio travel to the Mediterranean in search of answers, and when Tessa inadvertently opens an underwater portal they find a lost mermaid city. But in the deep, not everything is as it seems, and Tessa must decide if she wants to take her place as the royal heir, or follow the call of her heart…Excerpt 

Buy: Amazon, Barnes & Noble , Chapters Indigo, Penquin

~*~*~*~

Devyn Quinn lives in the scenic Southwest, though she has called several other states home. She is a huge fan of dark gothic music & shoot-’em-up action movies. But reading is her first love and Devyn spends too much time with history books, as well as feeding her addiction for celebrity biographies. She especially enjoys reading books on Hollywood before the 1960′s and is crazy about Marilyn Monroe, her legend and her myth.

Be on the look out for book two in The Dark Tide series: THE SIREN'S SURRENDER February 2011

 

THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD

My guest is Alexandra Ivy. She has written and published over thirty historical novels. She recently hit the bestsellers (New York and USA Today) list with her paranormal series, Guardians of Eternity. She says she never expected it and was surprised.

What I appreciate about Alex's story is the fact that she didn't let years of rejections stop her from reaching out to her dream of being published. She had a goal, a belief in both herself and in her ability to reach the goal. She didn't take no for an answer. Instead she used the rejections as a learning tool to perfect her craft as a writer. I have to admire that sort of perseverance.

Her topic today is about the long road to be published and being in the right place at the right time.


I’m always delighted to be given the opportunity to talk about my writing career. Not because I was a fabulous overnight success. Or because I was pulled out of the slush pile and hit the New York Times bestseller list with my great American novel. Or because the movie deal was in the mail before the book hit the stands.

But because it was just the opposite :-)

I began writing after the birth of my first son, (yep, it was a verrrrrry long time ago) . At first I just wanted to see if I could actually finish a book. Or maybe I was just crazy buzzed with the post –birth hormones. Anyway, it took awhile, but I did at last type THE END. It wasn’t very good, in fact, it was freaking AWFUL, but I learned a lot through the process and it gave me a place to start editing (I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to finish a manuscript). From there I started researching publishers who might be interested in my masterpiece…(clears throat) or rather my lump of coal and started sending that baby out.

That should be it, you say? Presto I’m a published author?

Not quite. In fact, it took ten more years and countless more manuscripts before I ever got the CALL. Most of my friends and family thought I was nuts to keep trying. After all, who keeps putting themselves into the position of being rejected over and over and over and over…well, you get the picture. And each and every one hurt as bad as the first one.

I told myself I was persevering, although I think my husband muttered something about being stubborn, mulish, and pig-headed :). In any case, I at last did make my first sell. It was a traditional regency and while the sales were hardly earth shattering, I was over the moon. I, at last, was doing what I loved, even if I did have to keep my day job.

For several years I continued with the traditional regencies. They had a small, but loyal audience and enjoyed writing them. But it became increasingly obvious that the traditional were a dying genre and so I moved to the longer, meater historicals. Thank goodness I had an editor who believed in me because once again I didn’t set the world on fire. I had decent sales, but the trend was for the tortured brooding hero (which I adore to read) while I always ended up writing a comedy of errors.

I didn’t mind. A midlist author isn’t a bad gig. I loved being able to write and I was delighted to be able to connect with readers. I wasn’t world-famous, but hey, I didn’t have to worry about getting mobbed at the grocery store or having my face pasted all over the web (something I can guarantee that none of us want). I was getting steady contracts and doing what I loved. How many people can actually say that?

Fast forward another ten years and I made the plunge into paranormals. I wrote When Darkness Comes just for myself. I not only wanted to see if I could write the book, but I wanted to do it without the pressure of a deadline. It turned out that I had an absolute blast with the Guardians. I could combine my love of horror with my naturally smart-ass nature…a perfect fit :-)

Astonishingly the book led to more books and I recently hit the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists, which shocked the heck out of me. I never even considered the possibility. Sometimes being in the right place at the right time really does pay off!

In any case, I do have a point to this less than dazzling story of publication :-)

I believe that in the end that it’s the tortoise not the hare who wins the race, and that if you continue to follow your dreams, no matter how many obstacles or set-backs you have to overcome, or how many disbelievers tell you to quit, you will eventually reach your goals.

• What's your attitude towards reaching goals: Tortoise or Hare?

Back Cover Blurb:

Salvatore Giuliani is not a happy werewolf. It’s his duty as leader to track down the pureblood females who can keep his people from extinction. But the moment he catches scent of Harley, a pureblood held by a pack of mangy curs, his savage need for her obliterates all other instincts. And the only thing worse than being captured is finding that beautiful, independent Harley defiantly refuses to become his mate.

Harley has been taught to distrust all Weres, especially their arrogant king. She won’t be used for breeding or bonded against her will, not even to a man who makes every nerve tingle with awareness. Yet Salvatore is her key to saving the family she never knew she had—if she dares to succumb to his dark, predatory desire, and face a vicious enemy sworn to destroy them both…

Read a Excerpt/chapter

• Information on the series

Alexandra Ivy's Blog/News

~*~*~*~*~*~




I’m not exactly sure when I fell in love with books. Probably on my mother’s knee listening to her read Dr. Seuss to me. I do remember that I was barely old enough to cross the street by myself when I discovered the delights of the local library. Could anything be more wonderful than spending summer days surrounded by stacks of Nancy Drew mysteries? Over the years I fell in love with Victoria Holt, Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, and J.R.R. Tolkien just to name a few. I read poetry, essays, biographies, and plays. In fact, I read anything I could get my hands on.



Years later (no, I’m not admitting how many) I’m still an avid reader, and my tastes are still as varied as they were in my youth, which I suppose helps to explain why I enjoy writing regency historicals under the name of Deborah Raleigh, as well as my contemporary paranormals as Alexandra Ivy. For now that is enough to keep me busy, but who knows what the future might hold!



I do have a few other loves in my life besides reading and writing, the most important being my unbelievably patient husband, David, and my two sons, Chance and Alexander. Without their constant support and belief in me, I never could have been able to follow my dreams. They are truly my heroes.