SONGS THAT MOVE ME

Diane's instructions: List the songs that move your spirit, cut deep into your soul, and threaten to break your heart. Any that inspires you! Up to ten songs and feel free to include links or videos.

This was harder than I thought it would be. Oh, not because I couldn’t think of songs—the good Lord knows, I could have given you pages—but because some of these songs cut deep. And for various reasons.  Many touch me far beyond the subject of the song. Could be a phrase or two of the lyrics, perhaps the music itself invokes feelings or memories. When I listen to them, it opens a door to a time and place. Not always comfortable because the song puts me back in a situation and the heart remembers people, things, laughter and the pain. Some of my songs, here, call to mind things my sisters or brothers went through, some are things I’ve gone through.

A few of these touch my heart in another way—they put me in a zone where I’d like to be. Especially some of the instrumentals because they create a sense of comfort, nostalgia,  peace, and reflection.

Evanescence—My Immortal  This one has deep personal meaning for me. Amy Lee has a knack, especially in this song, of capturing the pain and feelings bewilderment and loss. I’ve been there. My voice range is similar to hers and the first time I sang it in public I actually worried I wouldn’t be able to finish it without tears. But I did. It’s a heartbreaker.

Breaking Benjamin—Anthem Of the Angels. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY3xjIHakY8  I will never hear this song without thinking of my brother Roland and the week prior to his death.

The rest are just songs I like and touch me.

Chris Issac—Wicked Games 

Staind—Falling.   Love the philosophy of this one.
Keith Urban—What About Me? There are days this song is so me. :-)

Tim McGraw—Please Remember Me 

Roger Whitaker—I Don’t Believe IF Anymore. (Thank you Dad for hooking me on this one).

Breaking Benjamin—I Will Not Bow Again the philosophy, much of it is mine.

Instrumental songs that touch my heart:

David Arkenstone & Kostia TheCello’s Song 

David Lanz  Cristofori's Dream 

William Elwood "Elysian Fields 

Hopefully, I  have all the links correct. If you find one  that isn't, let me know.

BITCHES AND BASTARDS, Maybe. But No Perfect Characters Wanted

My guest, is fiction editor, Beth Hill. Her topic is on creating characters the touch readers. If you get the chance, do stop by Beth's Blog and check out her archives. She has some fabulous articles on craft and they are a great resource for writers.

I was recently  talking to a frustrated writer, frustrated because beta readers were finding fault with her lead characters.

Some readers didn’t like her male lead; others had trouble with the female. They said the characters were unsympathetic, unkind, or just not nice.

No, her leads aren’t rotten; they aren’t the bitch and bastard referred to in this article’s title. They are simply characters with character.

And isn’t that what we want for our stories, characters who stand out, who grab our attention? Don’t we want characters who make us notice them? Characters with character, characters we’ll remember for their bold actions, characters who stir our emotions? Don’t we want stories peopled with characters who aren’t safe and who don’t blend in?

The characters we most enjoy have some growing to do. They aren’t necessarily nice. They certainly aren’t insipid.

They don’t always do the right thing, say the right words, and have the correct motivations. They aren’t always politically correct and they may hurt others, both willingly and unknowingly.

They may never apologize. They may make excuses. They may lie or cheat or steal.

Characters who are bold, who aren’t always nice or polite or solicitous, are the characters readers will remember.

So why all the fuss from beta readers?

My guess is that the readers don’t want the writer to submit something they think won’t be popular with either agents or editors. Yet characters that stand out, who are outrageous or who stumble or who push the readers’ buttons, are exactly the kinds of characters agents and acquiring editors are looking for.

Who wants to read about nice characters, characters who don’t ruffle feathers or who don’t get into trouble or who always say the right thing?

Wouldn’t we rather read about flawed humans, people who make mistakes but who still manage to redeem themselves or a portion of their lives? Don’t we want bold characters who are different from us, who speak their minds—even when fearful of consequences—who press ahead despite fear and anxiety and feelings of worthlessness?

I know I’m seldom looking for nice characters. Nice characters don’t create tension—they’d work to diffuse it. Nice characters mean bland scenes and ho-hum motivations. Nice characters mean not-so-nice stories.

And lest anyone take offense, I’m not talking about doing away with characters who are good, who stand on the side of justice or integrity or decency. Good characters can be strong and bold and powerful. But nice characters, characters who don’t take stands and who have no outstanding quirks and who don’t rock the boat are not strong enough to be the leads in a novel.

Characters without flaw are flat and the stories told about them can’t draw the readers’ interest the same way stories about imperfect characters can. What surprise is there when a perfect character defeats his enemy? Doesn’t he always defeat his enemy? Was there any doubt that he’d win again?

But what about the imperfect character who’s admitted to cheating to get ahead—can he win the biggest challenge in his life without resorting to cheating again? Will those around him let him forget what he’s done before and pull for him or will they always stand against him, no matter how honest he now is? Can a rude or belligerent character change enough to get other characters on his side when it counts?

If your lead character is perfect, how will he grow? If he’s perfect, how will his next victory be any different for him than his last? If he’s perfect, how will the reader relate?

Perfect characters are fit for cartoons. It’s the flawed ones who make for fascinating fiction.

The writer I was speaking with said the characters didn’t resonate with the beta readers. Yet after hearing some of the comments her readers had made, I told her the characters certainly did resonate. They had those readers upset. The characters had succeeded in touching the readers.

And that’s exactly what you want your characters to do.

——————————-

Exceptions

~  There is a difference between characters your readers refuse to follow through a story and characters who are flawed or who have problems or who irritate the snot out of the reader.

Flawed and irritating characters belong in fiction. But characters who are poorly written or who are repulsive to most readers deserve to be shunned. Yet, keep in mind that some characters, no matter how abhorrent, can make compelling stories.

~  Genre is an important consideration for character personality. In romance, readers are going to want to like your hero and heroine, even through their flaws. Be aware of what the genre allows. Be willing to push expectations, of course. But realize that you might not change those expectations with a single book, a single severely flawed character.

But don’t necessarily bow to what the beta readers say they want. They definitely don’t want perfection in their leads. They don’t want the beautiful and perfect and flawless. They may want redeemable; they don’t want main characters who don’t ruffle feathers.

Courtesy of Free Extras

Consider Rhett and Scarlett, whose movie was on TV just in time to bring them to mind for this article. Neither Rhett nor Scarlett are perfect, but they are good characters. Great characters. They give us reasons to both loathe them and root for them. They are bold, brash, audacious, and larger than life. They pull us into their lives not by their goodness, but by their manner. Their personalities. Their daring and confidence. Who would work his way through Margaret Mitchell’s tome without the reward of Scarlett’s nerve and Rhett’s disregard for propriety?

So, be bold in ruffling feathers of both other characters and your readers and don’t be afraid of writing characters who stir the puddin’. Certainly don’t shy away from giving characters unlikable qualities. Give them those negative qualities and make us like them anyway. Or make us root for them, even if they have flaws.

Don’t play it safe with your characters.

Don’t make readers wish they had picked up a more engrossing book rather than yours.

Do remember character traits and behaviors can have a range of intensities. That is, not all characters have to operate at the peak of their traits at all times. Adapt character behavior to the story you want to create, to the needs of the scene. Use lively characters to establish tone and to make other characters nervous. Use the behavior and thoughts and words of characters to make readers uncomfortable. They’ll thank you for it. And they’ll come back for more.

*******

No, characters don’t have to be bastards or bitches or cruel or crazy or repulsive. But they could be. And if you write them well, readers will enjoy reading them.

Take your beta readers’ comments under consideration? Absolutely. But don’t allow them to strip the emotion and verve from your stories and characters. Write bold characters with quirks and faults and flaws. And remember that you don’t have to redeem them or heal all their frailties by the end of your book. You could. But if the ending, if the story, is more powerful with a still flawed protagonist limping home with the prize, then keep him flawed.

Create characters that are boldly imperfect.

And allow yourself to be bold as you envision imperfect characters to live in your story worlds.

Write strong fiction by creating characters who are far from bland and nice.

I love the written word, the ability we have to create worlds and emotions with well-chosen phrases. It’s my intention to share tips and insights and encouragement with writers at all levels, to help you craft stories that will entertain and satisfy your readers. That will help satisfy you as writer as well. I am both writer and editor. My editing focus is on long fiction, primarily novels. I also mentor beginning writers.

A Novel Edit

The Editor's Blog

MONDAY MUSINGS: Blooming Again

From the withered tree, a flower blooms.

I have apple trees, but there is one I’m rather fond of because it’s a beautiful and the oldest of the apple trees. It used to put out a huge crop of apples. In the spring it would be drenched in the most gorgeous flowers—creamy white with a delicate tone of pink toward the center.

This tree and me go back a bit of time. The both of us have seen good and bad years been prolific in the creative process—she her flowers and beautiful sweet fruit and me with

my ranch and writing.

In 2008 she didn’t produce quite as many flowers or fruit. We figured she needed a bit of TLC. We pruned and powdered. In 2009, she was on her way to put on quite a show. Lots of flowers and they did my heart good to see them. The last week of March we had a horrible ice storm. It encased all the trees in a glittering coating of thick ice. Her flowers froze and those still budding and ready to bloom turned brown and died. Poor thing. She did go on and put out a bumper crop of leaves—considering the hard freeze, I thought she would die. Nah, she’s tough. Many of our trees were struggling to put on leaves that year.  In 2010, no flowers and there was a tornado. I had knee surgery. Copious repairs had to be made to our property that year. It was also the year I really started getting sick. August onward was not good for me. Last year neither of us was creative or productive.  I was beginning to think we were finished.

As I said, we’ve been through a lot, this apple tree and I.

Today, while I was working in the yard, I happen to glance over at the tree and to my surprise, she had quite a few flowers opening. I had to walk over and look. I stood under the tree and contemplated how much had happened in the past couple or years. To the both of us.

We've might have taken a hard hit but I guess you can’t count us out after all.

Looks like this year is going to be productive year for both of us. Might not be the most productive year, but we’re going to be all right. 

What have you had to overcome to be productive?

BACK IN THE USSR

My guest is mystery/suspense author, Joyce Yarrow. Joyce shares a bit about the background of the latest book in her Jo Epstein Mystery Series, The Last Matryoshka, and the travel she did to give it an authentic feel. 

I had reached a crossroads in my story – actually Jo Epstein’s story. Her Russian émigré stepfather was being pursued by demons from his past that he refused to unmask. Jo’s job was to prove his innocence— the only acceptable outcome given the vulnerable state her mother was in—but Nikolai had made this nigh impossible. His irascible nature and reluctance to share even the most basic information – for example, that he had a sister still living in Moscow—was driving her mad. And just when she finds some clues that might exonerate him, Nikolai foils her once again by fleeing the country.

It was a given that she would follow him – after all, I’m the writer and had planned this all along. But nonetheless, I was not as ready for this transition as I might have been. With shelves crammed with books about everything Russian, and in particular the class of criminals known as the vory, I was as confident of accurately writing the scenes set in Russia as a first-time skier who has mistaken Mt. Everest for the bunny slope.

So I went ahead and bought tickets for my then 16-year-old son and myself from Dublin to Moscow.  We would take our family vacation in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and then my husband would fly back to the States, leaving Ian and me to embark on our adventure.

This was not the first time I had traveled “in Jo’s shoes.” Although I grew up in New York, I live in Seattle and it seems that while I wasn’t looking, someone turned Manhattan into a foreign country. Which was why--during the writing of the first Jo Epstein mystery, Ask the Dead—I took so many trips back home to update myself I would have used up all the visa pages had my passport been required.

Oh yeah – I was talking about Russia. Every place that Ian and I explored in and around Moscow—from the Mayakovsky Metro Station (I loved the Moscow Subway!) to the Suzdal Monastery and the Matryoshka factory in Sergiev Posad—every nook and cranny in the Soviet-style apartment we stayed in near the University—made its way into the book. We were even treated to dinner in a Georgian restaurant by a Commander in the Russian Criminal Police. He blessed the plot I had devised—yes, sometimes we writers do our research and get it right—and then gave me his cell number just in case I had further questions. How lucky was that? And it was fascinating to hear him talk about the days when the vory battled the police in a fair fight and everyone followed the code. No so today!

My son was very tolerant—although he did panic a little when the doors of Vladimir Central Prison clanged shut behind us—the first Americans ever to tour this fearsome place. His paranoia rubbed off on me and Jo ended up spending some unexpected time incarcerated there.

I could have finished The Last Matryoshka using Google Earth and without ever leaving home – after all, Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Treasure Island while he was confined to his bed. But being a neophyte in Moscow alongside Jo was too good a chance to pass up. How else could I have learned that to avoid being recognized as an American in Moscow all one has to do is carry a plastic bag instead of a backpack? Or that certain underground monastery cells were once used to imprison heretics? Where else could I have experienced the chaos of airports where queuing up is for sissies only? And how else could I have met the model for Nikolai’s mysterious sister, Olga, who he wrongly believed had betrayed his parents to the KGB?

• Have you ever traveled someplace you never dreamed of in order to follow your dream?

• What's your favorite "travel tip" for blending in with the natives?

***

Available in hardcover and ebook 

The Last Matryoshka by Joyce Yarrow


A poetry-writing private investigator tries to save her Russian stepfather....

Full-time private investigator/part-time poet Jo Epstein travels to New York and eventually to Russia to help clear her emigre stepfather—who is framing him for murder and who is sending him threatening messages in Russian nesting dolls (matryoshkas). Her investigation takes her on a journey into her stepfather’s past and into the honor-bound code of the “vory,” a Russian criminal syndicate. Excerpt Book trailer

"Intricately layered like the Russian nested doll of the title..." Library Journal

Buy: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Istoria Books

***

Joyce Yarrow was born in the SE Bronx, escaped to Manhattan as a teenager and now lives in Seattle with her husband and son. Along the way to becoming a full-time author, Joyce has worked as a screenwriter, singer-songwriter, multimedia performance artist and most recently, a member of the world music vocal ensemble, Abráce.

Joyce is a Pushcart nominee, whose stories and poems have been widely published. Her first book, Ask the Dead (Martin Brown 2005), was selected by The Poisoned Pen as a Recommended First Novel and hailed as “Bronx noir”. Her latest book, The Last Matryoshka, takes place in Brooklyn and Moscow. It was published in hardcover by Five Star/Cengage and is now available for Kindle through Istoria Books. (www.IstoriaBooks.com)

Joyce considers the setting of her books to be characters in their own right and teaches workshops on "The Place of Place in Mystery Writing."


You can find Joyce on Facebook and at her Website.

You can read more about Joyce Yarrow’s writing journey, her P.I. brother, her childhood in the Bronx, her use of place as character in her books: http://istoriabooks.blogspot.com/2012/02/joyce-yarrow-from-crime-ridden-bronx-to.html

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Look at other Istoria Books offerings here: http://www.istoriabooks.com

Istoria Books: eBooks You Want to Read at Prices You Want to Pay

KIM SANDERS: Her Romance Blooms On A Porch

Please welcome my guest Kim Sanders. When she's not almost becoming an alligator snack, she writes romantic suspense. I'm thinking she likes that touch of danger in her life.

Kim, welcome to Over Coffee. Glad you could make it.
Hi, Sia! Thanks for inviting me.
I'm curious, why did you choose this genre—romantic suspense?

I think the genre chose me. 


I've been a hopeless romantic my entire life—the cheesy type. My family groans if I claim a “me” day during our annual Fourth of July beach vacation. I’ll threaten to leave the television tuned to the Lifetime Channel for an entire rainy day just to watch them cringe. But for the sake of peace and family unity, I’ll pop in the movie Independence Day instead and everybody’s happy—plus there’s a kiss at the end.

There is advice out there for writers that suggest trying other genres. Have you?

I did try another genre recently. I entered a horror story in a Writer’s Digest short story contest. I’d read news reports about young girls in Africa being raped by men who believed violating virgins would cure their AIDS. I transformed that horror into a short story. I gave my main character, a girl named Fatimah, a supernatural ability to save women.  But regardless of the grave tone, two new characters made an appearance that were bound and determined to have a full-blown romance. A young Scottish doctor encountered an American Peace Corps worker, and the next thing you know, there it is—a cheesy romance blooming right in the middle of horror. I tried to edit it out, but love stories seem to be my nature. Needless to say, it didn’t win. I’ve decided to file the story away and look at it again later as a possible romance novel.


Your muse seems quite happy with Shades of Gray and it seems to be doing quite well.

I have been more successful with the romance genre. My novel, Shades of Gray,  has received awards and praise and climbed to Number One on the Amazon Best Sellers’ lists for contemporary romance and Number Two for romantic suspense—so I think I’ve found my niche. Besides, I tend to live in my main character’s world while I’m writing, and the romance world is safer and more satisfying. So even though I might wander into other branches of fiction in the future, until I’m a bit braver, I think I’ll stick with love.

Congratulations! Describe your writing space?

Porches. Front porches, back porches; screened porches, verandas. As long as the weather hasn’t reached that unbearable Southern humidity, I spend hours writing from porches. If there is an ocean breeze and the faint sound of birds in the distance, I write. If the rain pounds on the tin roof, I write.

What would be your DREAM writing space?
My dream writing space would be...a sweeping veranda with the perfect view of crashing ocean waves during a storm. Of course, dream laptops are very rain resistant.

And dream verandas are safe from stray rogue waves, too. What's a favorite thing you do to relax or recharge your creative spirit?

Besides reading, photography is my favorite hobby. I try to take a camera with me every time I go for a long walk. If I leave it behind, I always regret its absence. I love landscapes and nature. Last summer, I was walking along a trail and spotted and a beautiful heron. I had a short lens, but the bird was asleep so I crouched really low and got closer and closer. Eventually, it flew off. By that point, I was pretty close to the edge of the water so I stood up and glanced down. A huge alligator was lurking just a few feet below me. I snapped a couple of shots and backed off quickly. If I’d have waited a few more minutes before scaring the bird away, I might have had an amazing action shot, but I might have been next on the menu.



Yikes! That would have been a definite bad ending. But, it's interesting that your hobby is also creative in nature. Any similarities between writing and taking pictures?

Photography fits in well with my writing.  Looking through the camera lens, I notice the details of the scenes around me with an isolated intensity. I frame the pictures and later crop them for impact. The same applies to writing in a lot of ways, but I must admit, I find it easier to crop a photograph than a page of words.

Oh, me too. I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to getting the photo just right. Editing photos gives you immediate results and that's not always the case with writing.   What's next for you?

I am currently working on two more novels—SHADES OF JUSTICE and THE EX LOTTERY, and hope to have another novel ready for release by the end of the year.


Kim, thank you for taking the time, away from your lovely porch and writing, to visit with us a bit today. I've enjoyed it.

• Readers and writers: have you ever had something totally unexpected happen when you've been involved with a hobby?

SHADES OF GRAY

Nothing is black-and-white when dealing with love or murder. In “Shades of Gray,” an award-winning photojournalist finds herself on the wrong side of the lens when she is framed for murder.

Samantha "Sam" Jennings has been hiding from the world since she was seventeen years old. At twenty-seven, living in isolation on a small private island off the coast of South Carolina, Sam guards her privacy. Her photographs are famous, but her face is anonymous. And she likes it that way.

Caleb McCloud is a defense attorney who basks in the spotlight. His legal successes have him on a career path to become the youngest president in the United States. But an entanglement from his past may put a kink in that path.

When front-page headlines scream: "Photographer Shoots to Kill," Sam finds herself facing murder charges in the death of Ben Fuller. To stay out of jail and catch the true killer, she must turn to Caleb, the one man who has haunted her dreams since she was a teenager. She vows to trust him with her life but not her heart. But as the two begin a journey to find a killer, Caleb vows to win both. Is he too late? Find out in the action packed love story of Samantha and Caleb. There is an excerpt on Amazon, and an additional one HERE

Oozes all the necessary passion of any good romance novel . . . The romance enthusiast won't be disappointed with this novel that never skimps on passion or story. 

Kirkus Reviews

BUY: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million 

Rachel Brown photography

Kim Sanders was born in Smithfield, North Carolina, the middle of three children. Her father owned and managed a small dime store in a tiny town in eastern North Carolina, and her mother was an English teacher. Kim attended the University of North Carolina, earning a degree in Journalism, and later, a law degree from Emory University. She and her husband, Paul, have two children.


You can find Kim: Facebook, Twitter, Website

MONDAY MUSINGS: When Scots Become Irish.

My family isn’t really Irish well—lets just say we are more Scot than Irish, but a Celt is a Celt. However, for St. Pat’s we’re Irish.

My family isn’t small. My mom had 9 kids. I tease about coming from a litter of 9. My mom laughs while telling me how bad I am. Any family get together is usually pretty big and even bigger when we add in the kids of kids.

My brother throws an annual Celtic party every St. Pat’s Day. It truly is his favorite holiday he tends to go all out with decorations, lights, and atmosphere. This year was no different. Though not all the family could come, we still had a large group of family and friends. The weather was outstanding for March, shirtsleeves even at 10 p.m. There are huge amounts of food prepared, lots of laughter and music. Oh, yeah, green beer—ugh—and a few other green colored alcohols, which were much better than the beer, in my humble opinion. Tis a grand time when we get together.

This year my son took his girlfriend of nine months to the gathering. They loved her and she fits in because she looks like a Celtic fairy. Well, she’s also a good kid and fun. She thinks my “family is amazing” (I really like this kid). We’re an affectionate bunch. We hug and give kisses—a lot. I think it was a bit of a surprise for her to see even my brothers hugging each other and handing out kisses to the cheek. We've always been that way. I love being on the receiving end of hugs and kisses. This year was special because I was so sick last year and although they only live 45 minutes away, this was the first time I had seen most of them in a year. This was unusual as I’m more often than not down visiting at least twice a month. So I had lots of hugs to catch up on.

At any given, conversations run the gamut of family gossip (a favorite pastime), politics, conservation issues, books, and music. Visitors are sure to find a topic of interest under discussion. Mostly, it’s a relaxing and fun time.

My family is special to me. They’ve been the constant in my life as we bee-bopped around the country with Dad’s job. We fuss and argue—what family doesn’t?  It usually doesn’t last long and not much time goes by before someone throws a cookout or party and we are able to come together and reconnect, renew, and take strength from being together yet another year.

Slàinte (slawn-che) 

• Did you do anything special over St. Patrick’s’ weekend?   

A LESSON IN TRUST

There are days we need tougher coffee!

My guest is romance author, Diane Kelly. She's a sassy Texan, and a Bandita, who writes laugh out loud adventures of an IRS Special Agent, Tara. I think she and Diane grew up together, lol! But I do appreciate her topic on trust and especially learning to trust yourself and your instincts. It came at just the right time for me and the whole trust issue resonated with me. I hope you enjoy it as well.

            My road to publication has been a long lesson in trust.  I’ve learned that trust can be misplaced, that learning to trust again after a breach can be hard, and that finding people whom you trust and who trust you back is essential.

            As a girl, I ventured into bookstores and saw those beautiful, cloth-bound journals on the racks.  But I was just a flat-chested adolescent with acne and braces who lived in a cookie-cutter suburb.  Who was I to think I had anything worthy of writing in such a pretty journal?  Instead, I went to Eckerd’s and bought cheap spiral notebooks to write in.  They were less intimidating.  If I messed up, I could just rip the page out.  Though I loved writing and my teachers often complimented me on my talents, I was too insecure then to trust in myself.  So when it came time to pick a major for college, I took the safe route and chose accounting.  I enjoyed my undergraduate government class and decided why not go to law school?

My first job was working as an assistant state attorney general.  What a naïve thing I was back then!  Fifteen pounds lighter, too, but let’s not go there.  Because of my accounting background, my boss assigned me to represent the board of accountancy in disciplinary actions against CPAs.  What an eye opener it was to face CPAs who had assisted clients in defrauding investors, lenders, or the IRS.  My innocence was already in jeopardy when the attorney general was arrested for illegally diverting settlement funds from the tobacco company lawsuits to his cronies’ law firms.  The person who was supposed to be the ultimate symbol of justice for the state couldn’t be trusted.  Sheesh!  I then took a job with an international accounting firm and worked with a partner who appeared squeaky clean on the surface.  To my shock, he was arrested for tax shelter fraud.

 

If I didn’t learn to better choose employers, I feared I’d get swept up in a scandal and end up in an orange jumpsuit awaiting a conjugal visit.  Self employment seemed like a good idea.  At the same time, my muse kept nagging me to get my butt in a chair and write something, dammit!  My brushes with white-collar crime had not only led me to be intrigued by these complicated offenses and the untrustworthy people who commit them, but also provided perfect fodder for a novel.  I’d matured by this point, had some successes that gave me confidence, and figured what did I have to lose?

            When I finished the manuscript, I was thrilled when an agent presented me with a contract for representation.  Some of the revisions the agent suggested didn’t ring true to me, but I figured she knew better than me so I did everything she asked rather than trusting my instincts.  After two rounds of revisions, she said my manuscript still needed more work than she had time for.  I’d been dumped!  I later worked with another agent who led me through a round of helpful revisions but didn’t offer representation because she didn’t believe my work was marketable yet.

 

As difficult as these experiences were, they taught me a valuable lesson – that I needed to trust myself more.  Frankly, at that point, the only person I still trusted was myself.  I hustled, entering contests, attending conferences, anything to get my work in front of editors.  It paid off.  I sold to a major publisher on my own, a coup that is pretty much unheard of. 

            Now?  Things are awesome!  I have wonderful people on my team, whom I trust completely.  My critique partners have my back, catching unintended blunders in my drafts and offering valuable suggestions.  My agent is a straight shooter and works incredibly hard for me.  I couldn’t ask for a better editor, either.  She believes in my work.  There’s no better feeling than that!   In return, my agent and editor trust me to work diligently and write the best books I can.

 

• Has someone you trusted let you down?  
• Have you had an experience when you should have trusted yourself more? 
  

  Share your thoughts!
  
  

Death, Taxes, and a Skinny No-Whip Latte AVAILABLE IN PRINT AND EBOOK.

IRS Special Agent Tara Holloway is at work again.  This time, she and her partner, Eddie, are after Marcos Mendoza, a financial expert and suspected loan shark with cross-border ties to questionable businesses and people in Mexico. Mendoza hasn’t just cheated the U.S and Mexican governments, he may have left a trail of bodies, too. Neither the Texas Rangers nor the FBI could prove a link between Mendoza and the suspicious deaths of his employees and associates, but the sheer number of bodies indicates the deaths aren’t mere coincidence.  What’s more, Mendoza bought off Special Agent Nick Pratt, who’d earlier been assigned to the investigation, and set the traitor up in a luxury condominium in Cancún, Mexico.

He must be stopped.

Unfortunately, Mendoza is as elusive as his activities are illegal. Tracking down this tax cheat proves much more difficult, and more dangerous, than Tara anticipated.  Given the highly sensitive nature of the case, Tara is forbidden to disclose the details to anyone, including her boyfriend, Brett Ellington. Secrets nearly tore the two apart in the past and history seems destined to repeat itself.

As Tara and Eddie delve deeper into Mendoza’s business enterprises, they realize his illegal activities extend far beyond high-interest finance. They also learn Mendoza will do anything to protect the profitable illegal empire he has created.

When Tara receives an unexpected call from a surprising source, she must decide whether to follow orders or follow through. Tara must risk it all—her relationship with Brett, her job, and her life itself—to put Mendoza out of business for good. Excerpt 

“PREPARE TO LAUGH YOUR ASSETS OFF.”—Jana DeLeon, author of the Ghost-in-Law mysteries 

BUY: AMAZON. BARNES and NOBLE, BOOKS A MILLION

A CPA and tax attorney, Diane spent several years at an international accounting firm where she had the pleasure of working with a partner later indicted for tax shelter fraud. She also served a stint as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Texas under an AG who pled guilty to criminal charges related to the tobacco company lawsuits. Given this work history, Diane decided self-employment might be a good idea. She also realized her experiences with white-collar crime made excellent fodder for a novel. Her fingers hit the keyboard and thus began her "Death and Taxes" mystery series.

Diane won the prestigious Romance Writers of America Golden Heart® Award in 2009 and has earned over two dozen RWA chapter awards.

Diane lives in Texas with her very own sexy leading man, two talented teenage kids,  and enough cats and dogs to violate several city ordinances.

Diane loves to hear from readers! Visit Diane at www.dianekelly.com. While you're there, sign up for her quarterly newsletter. 

You can find Diane: Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Website.