Friday, January 10, 2014

LOOK WHAT THE HURRICANE BLEW IN: CHRYS FEY


What I like about my guest, Chrys Fey, is she's had to reinvent herself as a writer several times. She's faced a major writing block and overcome it. Chrys has learn much about writing and applied those lessons to her writing. She's faced some tough obstacles and while she may have felt like giving up, she didn't. Instead, she decided she wanted to help and inspired other writers to overcome those problems and started Write With Fey blog in 2012. If you get the chance, do take a look at some of her writing tips from lessons she's learned. 



Chrys, thank you for being here today. Tell me a bit about you.  Love of your life? Kids? Day job?

I don't have kids, maybe someday, but the loves of my life are my nephews.  They are seven and six years old and stole my heart the moment I met them as newborns. [you can read more about Chrys' nephew here.]

Cole and Clover
Milo and Otis
I live in Florida with my recently adopted four kittens. My day job is writing. Although that doesn’t exactly pay, I am blessed with the situation I have that allows me to write freely.


You've been writing for some years, how long have you had the goal to be published? 

I was seventeen when I seriously started to pursue publication, but ever since I was twelve I dreamed of being an author.

How did you go about making that a reality? 

First, I immersed myself in research to find out exactly what I had to do to get published. Then I went on the long journey to build my publishing credentials; a must for all first-time writers. I sent short stories to dozens of magazines and ezines, received countless rejections, and was lucky enough to have a few short stories published online. I also focused heavily on blogging and Facebook, working hard to build some kind of following. Finally, I decided I would have to break into publishing with one of my romance stories, instead of the supernatural-thriller series I was querying, and shortly after I sent my manuscript to The Wild Rose Press I was awarded with a publishing contract.

What's easiest (or hardest) for you-dialogue, plot, character, or something else?
All of the above are pretty easy for me. Whenever I get an idea for a story, the full plot quickly follows. My favorite part is definitely character building. The hardest part would have to be editing, because it’s so extensive and involves several rounds that become tiresome.
As a writer, how do you deal with doubts and setbacks?

I freak out. haha Then I talk it out with the two people who I know will listen: my best friend and my mom. After that I take a long, deep breath, say a prayer, give myself a pep talk, and then push forward with even more determination than before.

What is it about this genre that draws you in?

Hurricane Crimes is a romantic-suspense and everything about this genre draws me in! I love heart-pounding suspense and the intoxicating buzz of romance. For me, it’s the best of both worlds. 

Without spoiling the story, what was your favorite scene? Or what draws you to your two main characters? 

My favorite scene in Hurricane Crimes is when Beth Kennedy goes outside, into the harsh wind and rain of a category 5 hurricane to rescue Donovan Goldwyn.

I’ll answer your other question as well. :) Beth’s unbelievable strength and Donovan’s mystery, which could be a killer, drew me to them the moment the story idea for Hurricane Crimes touched down in my mind.

What’s coming next? When will be see it?

I am coming out with my second romantic-suspense, a novelette, titled 30 Seconds. When a woman finds herself in the middle of a war between police officers and a mob, 30 seconds is a long time. You can expect to see it come out on Amazon sometime this summer.


Chrys, thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions and let us get to know you a bit better!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

BUY: AMAZON
HURRICANE CRIMES 

After her car breaks down, Beth Kennedy is forced to stay in Florida, the target of Hurricane Sabrina. She stocks up supplies, boards up windows, and hunkers down to wait out the storm, but her plan unravels when she witnesses a car accident. Risking her life, she braves the winds to save the driver. Just when she believes they are safe, she finds out the man she saved could possibly be more dangerous than the severe weather. 

Donovan Goldwyn only wanted to hide from the police, but the hurricane shoved his car into a tree. Now he's trapped with a beautiful woman while the evidence that can prove his innocence to a brutal crime is out there for anyone to find.

As Hurricane Sabrina wreaks havoc, Beth has no other choice but to trust Donovan to stay alive. But will she survive, or will she become another hurricane crime?



                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Chrys Fey’s debut, Hurricane Crimes, was published by The Wild Rose Press. Mid 2014, she will be coming out with her second romantic-suspense eBook, 30 Seconds. She created the blog Write with Fey to offer aspiring writers advice and inspiration. She lives in Florida where she is ready to battle the next hurricane that comes her way. You can find Chrys: BlogFacebookGoodreads 


Monday, January 6, 2014

WHAT I WANT AND WHAT I GOT...

Due to circumstances beyond my control this will be a late Monday Musings and early IWSG (click to get a list of other participating blogs) I just combined the articles. I'll be visiting blogs over the next few days and cracking the whip to get back into blogging after some much needed time off.

WHAT I GOT THIS MORNING AT THE FEEDERS AND
WHAT I WANT IS THE LAST PICTURE.


I've noticed a difference in what I'd like to see happening and what is happening—what I want and what I got. For instance, my editing tasks. I've been helping hubs edit his book. It's a good story but lord have mercy, the man is heavy into he said/she said. That drives me nuts. He's actually very good with dialog but when he wrote these stories they were done with old school tags. Pulling his mind from then to now has been...a struggle. Magnum PI and Spencer meeting Burn Notice. Don't get me wrong, Magnum had some great story lines and some great oddball humor (and my husband loves oddball and corny humor) and Spencer did as well, but if they were written for today's market they'd have to have some major updating to grab the audience. Same genre different methods of telling. 

What I want is someone who likes to read those sorts of detective stories read for story content and word usage. What I got is me. 

Then there is my writing. Talk about insecurities and frustrations. I have two manuscripts completed in a series I wrote. Mine had to go on a major word diet. In fact the first in the series lost 10k. I was very proud of that. Now it's in pieces—kinda like Humpty-Dumpty with all king's horses and all the king's men at the ready to put it back together again but they've all gone into stasis waiting for the orders to proceed. Sigh....

What I want is free time to concentrate on that and what I've got is itty-bitty sound bytes of time to do it.

Then there is the weather. 

What I want is green and flowers. Like my brother Rob’s house in early May.



What I got is the heaviest snowfall in our area since 2002 and minus 2 this morning.



Hey, the sun is shining on this bright Monday and that’s good. It’s actually beautiful but wicked cold even with the temps up to almost 15 degrees, but the wind bites hard.

Hubs is bundled up in multi-layers of clothes (he loses 10 lbs and 10 inches once he peels that bundle off) and you can see how much we've accomplished after a couple hours of work. We haven't even started on the driveway to the roadwhich is also unplowed and likely to remain so, unless our neighbor decides to run his tractor over our road a mile down to the blacktop which is also not plowed. They rarely plow it. Getting anywhere is problematic.  

Then there is the driveway. 

What I want is a nice cleared driveway. What I got is this—can you even tell where the driveway is?



Uh, no. 

Just in case you're curious, curves around the little oak tree and out the break in the hedges. I'm standing in the cleared area to take this shot. 

We've already been out two hours this morning and barely have made a dent in clearing the snow from the garage so we can open the doors. It’s several more hours of shoveling time to get down to that break in the hedges.

And then come Wednesday afternoon we get more snow and sleet (I much prefer the snow over icy slush) and again over next weekend.

There you have it. The battle of wants and gots. I suspect it will be an ongoing battle this year, especially with writing.

What's your ongoing battle right now? 

Happy New Year!



WHAT I WANT TO SEE. TOMORROW WOULD
BE GOOD