HEROINES JUST KILL ME

My guest is romance author, Susan Sey. The road to writing an engaging book has a lot of bumps, roadblocks, frustrations, and false paths. There are many necessary ingredients that must be blended just right to tell a good story. Certain components of a book are easier to develop than others, depending upon the author, and Susan discusses what is the hard part for her. 

What’s the hardest part of writing a book?  Ask one hundred authors and you’ll get one hundred different answers.  Possibly more.  (There are so many hard parts and some of us are indecisive.)  But if you’re asking me?  It’s the heroine.  Heroines just kill me.

Now according to conventional wisdom, readers want two things from their romance novels.  First, they want to fall in love with the hero.  Which is great news for me because my heroes are cooperative that way.  They jump out of my imagination and land on the page ready to run directly at the thing they want (us), conquer it (swoon!) and carry it home like Rhett carrying his Scarlett kicking and screaming (but not really) up the staircase.

 

*happy sigh*

So I've got that going for me.  But the other thing readers want from their romance novel experience?  A likable heroine.  A heroine who is so utterly engaging that readers not only root for her, but want to be her.  At least while reading the story.  That’s not our name on the page, but we like the character so much that, in our hearts, we are experiencing the story on her behalf, as if we are her.  And being that intensely involved in the story?  That’s what makes us close the book after THE END with a big, satisfied sigh. 

 

Creating a heroine who can do this, however?  That’s a problem for me.   I am, by nature, a cautious person.  It takes me a good long while--and considerable courage--to offer my friendship to somebody.  That whole instant likability thing?  Not a strong suit of mine.

 

It’s not that I’m writing myself as the heroine in every book.  (God forbid.)  But I, like most writers, am an introverted control freak who desperately craves connection.  As a result, every story I write is--at its heart--a journey from isolation to connectedness, at the cost of control.  In other words, while my characters are going to up happily enmeshed in family, they start out Chapter One in sort of a rough place.  Lonely.  Disconnected.  Unhappy.  But that sort of relentless grimness isn't exactly inviting.  So it’s my job as a writer to leaven it a bit with hope, comedy, and--yes--some instant likability.

My latest heroine--Belinda West from TASTE FOR TROUBLE--taught me a great deal about how that can be done.  When we meet her, Bel’s about to get married to a very good man she doesn't love.  And who doesn't love her.  And she’s fine with that.  Better than fine.  She doesn't want love in her life or anything like it.  She is, in fact, marrying her lawyer.  Her best friend is her personal assistant.  There is nobody in Bel’s life--in Chapter One, anyway--who isn't paid to be there.  She has her reasons for keeping people at arm’s length--really, really good ones--but until we discover what they are, she’s a little tough to love.

But fear not!  Nothing makes a girl more accessible than public humiliation, right?  So how about we have her fiancé and her best friend discover they’re in love and run off together minutes before the wedding? 

Not enough?

What if it all unfolds on live TV?

Still not enough?

What if it’s all the hero’s fault?

Mission accomplished. 

And why?  Because we all know what risk is.  We all know what failure feels like.  We all know how public humiliation stings, especially when it comes at the hands of a hot guy who didn't even notice you standing there.  And watching poor Bel swallow the whole thing in front of an audience of millions?  Instant sympathy.  Maybe she wasn't making great choices, but nobody deserves that.  You know what that girl deserves?  A happy ending.

 

And guess what?  She gets one.   She earns it.  I hope you’ll join her on the journey.

• So tell me, who’s your favorite heroine of all time?  Why do you love her?  Did you love her right away, or did she have to grow on you?

                                                                                                                        

BUY:  AMAZON

Take one West Texas bad boy...

On the field, soccer star James Blake is pure poetry. Off the field? He’s pure trouble. When his fondness for fast women and bar brawls lands him a suspension from the game, he’s prepared to take his punishment like a man. But since when does a suspension come with a live-in nanny?

Add one domestic diva...

TV baking maven Belinda West is the epitome of home-made hospitality, on-screen and off. The personal is the professional when you’re selling the good life, after all. But when her wedding day implodes in front of a live studio audience, Bel’s career goes into a death spiral. She’ll do anything to save it, even take charge of soccer’s most famous bad boy.

Mix well and stand back... 

To hell with the morals clause in his contract; James isn't about to shape up for some knock-off Mary Poppins. But since when does Mary Poppins laugh like a naughty angel and smell like sugar cookies? He’s not looking for love but that kiss of hers is practically perfect in every way. And James has a powerful taste for trouble.

Because it's about to get hot in this kitchen.  Excerpt

                                                                                                                                                    
  

Some years back, Golden Heart ® Award Winner Susan Sey gave up the glamorous world of software training to pursue a high powered career in diaper changing. Two children and millions of diapers later, she decided to branch out and started writing novels during nap time. The kids eventually gave up their naps, so now she writes when she's supposed to be doing the laundry. She currently resides in St. Paul, MN, with her wonderful husband, their charming children and a *very* tall pile of dirty clothes. 

You can visit her on the web at www.susansey.com. Facebook and Goodreads.

Creation, Destruction, And Re-Creation.

~Sia McKye~

Ominous clouds boil up on the horizon and the winds begin to blow. In no time at all, the storm is all around you. Jagged forks of lightning flash against the charcoal skies, and thunder vibrates through your bones and shakes the house.

Storms can be an assault to the senses and even tricking them. You watch in morbid fascination as trees bow in the wind and buffet your house. Above the sound of the thunder you hear a loud crack and you watch in incomprehension as the massive top of a tree breaks off and blows by your window, like a mere tree branch. Your eyes can’t believe it or the shock of watching trees come down like matchsticks. Falling trees close by feel like an earthquake—especially when more than one falls in succession. The blankness of your mind quickly dissipates and you’re running for cover.

Watching the raw fury of nature is, by turns, exhilarating, and awe inspiring, and humbling. It’s also terrifying. It’s the essence of creation. Creation starts with elemental and raw materials and builds something. Sometimes that first involves destruction of the existing, forever changing the visible material and recreating it. Creation, annihilation, and re-creation.

That’s true whether you are doing something as simple as breaking eggs to make a cake. Melting sand to make glass, or dynamiting a granite wall to make a tunnel. When writing or taking a situation, personality trait, building a story, or using words to change the face of a political structure. Words have power. The right words can make things clear or obscure, build or destroy depending upon how you use them.

It’s not always easy to take the raw ideas of a world and make it viable. Creating people for those worlds from a mere thought is both exhilarating and scary. Have you used the raw materials properly so those characters live, breath, and react, in the landscape of your world? Or have created paper dolls; stiff, unresponsive, and cumbersomely move them around your world by telling it all. Is your world real enough, so that the reader feels like they opened a door and stepped into your world seeing the wonders and able to connect emotionally with the people you’ve created?

If you’ve done your job correctly, your readers react become connected to the characters. The reader has moments of fear, worry, and anger. Their hearts speed up trying to outsmart the villain, the heart melts when the hero gets the girl. They feel satisfied emotionally after reading and participating in your world or story.

There are times when you look at your created world and realize it’s not feasible or you look at the paper doll you’ve been moving around and see you need to revise, terminate, and recreate. Painful and frustrating—especially if you understand the world isn’t working as you saw it in your mind, or a character doesn’t fit or is reacting hokey.

Writing is a labor of love. The force of creation requires energy. As we wrestle with our world and characters, choosing the right words and scenes, we feel limp when we're finished. If we’ve done the job correctly we also feel ecstatic. Have you ever gone back and read something you’ve written and feel a sense of awe with how it all came together? That tingle that tells you you’ve done a great job? It’s exciting, it feels good and you’re flying high.

Then comes your critique partner or your editor. Trepidation and excitement reign. Putting the finished piece on display requires courage because in the stark flash of lightning, flaws become apparent. Critiquing is also a form of creation, destruction, and recreation. It breaks apart the raw materials and reshapes them. You watch in morbid fascination as chunks of your manuscript are ripped away.

If done correctly, something better is recreated. If done incorrectly, you feel buffeted by the harsh winds, torn, and broken. You’re looking for shelter from the storm.

What makes you run for cover? What makes you feel buffeted and torn? Critiques? Rejections? Revisions? Deadlines?

Conversely, what gives you the feeling of exhilaration and awe? Pull up chair and grab a cup of your choice and let's talk about it.

***

Sia McKye has spent over twenty years in marketing and promotion. She's written and published various articles on writing, marketing, and promotion. She's a Marketing Rep by profession and also writes fiction. Sia has completed a single title romance trilogy and is busy at work on a fun paranormal series.

Show up!

Today it’s my privilege to have Ken Coffman as a guest Over Coffee. Professionally, Ken is a non-fiction author and an Engineer with Fairchild. Personally, he is a good friend, a bit of a philosopher, a gifted musician, a wonderful storyteller and author of a favorite character of mine, Glen Wilson.

You could say his topic today embodies the philosophy he lives by: Be bold. Take the lead. Show up.

80% of success is showing up.- Woody Allen

What is the right percentage? 80% of success is showing up? I’ve heard 90%, 95%, and even 100%. Let’s not quibble, my friends. Some high percentage of success comes from showing up. But, what the hell does that mean?

I feel like I understand the concept and it doesn’t mean success is easy. Showing up sounds easy, so what’s going on? Let’s suppose you’re sitting in a room with one hundred other people. If you have a question, the physical effort of raising your hand is nothing. You lift that heavy hand hundreds of times a day. But the courage to take the chance, to draw attention to yourself, to risk asking the stupidest question ever asked…that takes courage. Grit. Guts. In this case you gotta show up by raising that heavy hand.

Let me illustrate with an example from my life. Every few years when I can afford it and the mood strikes me, I will act as concert promoter. A while back, I booked a show with Patrick Moraz. Patrick is a world-renowned keyboardist and pianist who played with Yes and The Moody Blues. Truly, he is as close to a modern incarnation of Mozart that we will see in our lifetime. That sounds over-the-top and ludicrous, doesn’t it? But, check it out. You’ll see.

For an opening act, I decided to book a friend, Eric Dahl. Eric is a talented songwriter/storyteller, but I remember the day he told me he didn’t know how to play the guitar. I’d seen him perform and loved his songs…how could it be that he ‘knows not’ how to play? As it turns out, a guitar-playing friend tunes his acoustic guitar to an open chord and all Eric has to do is move his thumb and index finger up and down the neck to play simple patterns. As an aside, this is the way Glen Wilson (from my novel series, the continuing adventures of Glen Wilson, which starts with Steel Waters) also plays the guitar. This is in no way coincidental, but never mind that.

The concert was fun and the audience ate it up. Then, at the end, for an encore, a group of people wanted to hear Eric playing with Patrick. My heart sank. This would be a disaster… We can’t combine one of the premier pianists of the world with a fellow who does not know how to play the guitar. Sensing a meltdown, I sank into my seat and tried to disappear.Here’s what happened. Eric got on stage, grinned at the crowd and started playing and singing a simple, funky bluesy pattern. Genius that he is, Patrick joined in and played wild, creative and amazing accompaniment. It was great. Perfect. Beautiful. And taught me a valuable lesson. I have the recording. It’s cool.

The life lesson?

Be bold. Take the lead. Show up.

What does this mean to my fellow writers? We’ll have setbacks. The blank page will sit on our screen and mock us. We’ll get a bad review. Another rejection letter. We’ll lose a contest. It can be overwhelming, paralyzing and depressing. That’s life. What should we do? Work! Perfect your skill at creating characters, designing a story arc and executing your ideas with good grammar, vocabulary and syntax. No matter where you started and no matter where you are today, you can get better and inch closer to your goal. Step-by-step. Day-by-day.

And that’s what I’m doing. Thanks Eric.

***

Ken Coffman is the author of Steel Waters, Hartz String Theory and other mad novels available from Amazon.com and other online bookstores. He wrote a popular technical book called Real World FPGA Design with Verilog published by Pearson-Prentice Hall.

He is a Field Applications Engineer and Member of the Technical Staff at Fairchild Semiconductor.

He is the coauthor of six patents, a member of the standards association of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and a guitar player. He plays golf exactly the way his boss wants him to: very poorly.