Taste of Kiwi: Blog of Author Shelley Munro

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

Just do the following:

~ Grab your current read
~ Open to a random page
~ Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
~BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
~ Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I’ve just started reading Breaking Point by Pamela Clare. It’s a romantic suspense, very gritty and real. This week I’m cheating a little with a slightly longer teaser.

Unable to do anything else to help her, Zach gave her the only advice he could. “I know it’s hard, but you need to stay focused on what’s happening now. Do whatever it takes to survive. Do you hear me, Natalie? Just survive.”

page 28, Breaking Point

Blurb:

While investigating border violence in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, Denver journalist Natalie Benoit is caught in a bloody ambush and taken captive. Alone in the hands of ruthless killers, she will need every ounce of courage she possesses to survive.

Betrayed by another operative, Deputy U.S. Marshal Zach McBride has endured a week of torture and interrogation at the hands of a bloodthirsty Mexican drug cartel. Ready to give his life if he must, he remains unbroken—until he hears the cries of an American woman.

Although Natalie is only a voice in the darkness of their shared prison, her plight brings renewed strength to Zach’s battered body. With her help, he overpowers their captors, and they flee through the desert toward the border, the attraction between them flaring hotter than the Sonoran sun.

But past loss and tragedy leave both of them reluctant to follow their hearts, even when the passion between them reaches its breaking point. Faced with feelings neither expected, they fight to stay ahead of the danger that hunts them as forces more powerful than they can imagine conspire to destroy them both…

Purchase Breaking Point

What are you reading this week? Share a teaser from your current read in the comment section or leave me a link to your teaser.

I’m visiting Joanna Chamber’s blog, Isn’t It Romantic? today and talking about my new release, Christmas is Coming plus the scents and sounds of Christmas. Here’s a link to Isn’t It Romantic? Come on over and say hello.

Welcome to my guest today Renée Pawlish! Renée was born in California, but has lived most of her life in Colorado. When she’s not hiking, cycling, or chasing ballplayers for autographs, she is writing mysteries and thrillers that include the Reed Ferguson mysteries, Nephilim Genesis of Evil, the first in the Nephilim trilogy, Take Five, a short story collection, and The Sallie House: Exposing the Beast Within, a non-fiction account of a haunted house investigation.

Renée loves to travel and has visited numerous countries around the world. She has also spent many summer days at her parents’ cabin in the hills outside of Boulder, which was the inspiration for the setting of Taylor Crossing in her novel Nephilim: Genesis of Evil.

Hi Renee, and welcome! Give us an elevator pitch for your book, This Doesn’t Happen in the Movies.

Witty, intrepid Reed Ferguson is a wannabe private eye with a love of film noir, crime fiction and Humphrey Bogart. Amanda Ghering is a rich, attractive femme fatale who hires Reed to find her missing husband. It doesn’t take long before Reed realizes that all is not as it seems, and he is quickly thrust into a dark and daring investigation.

Where did the idea for your book come from and did you originally envisage more than one book featuring your lead character?

I usually get a hint of an idea and the more I think about it, a story forms in my head. This book was no exception. I had the femme fatale in my mind and I could picture her in an office, talking to a detective. Reed Ferguson came out of that scene – I first saw that old film noir detective, and then I modernized it. Once I had Reed created, I knew this could be the beginning of a mystery series. And now I’m working on book three, so I guess I was right…

What does your writing space look like, and do you have a view?

Right now my desk is a mess…maybe I shouldn’t admit that. I have lots of pieces of paper scattered around me because I jot things down that I want to remember, and they tend to stack up. I have set up my office where my desk faces a wall-to-wall floor-to-ceiling bookshelf. I love to look at books while I’m writing. And I have a ton of autographed sports memorabilia, and I look at all that too.

What advice would you give an aspiring mystery writer just starting on their writing journey?

I get asked this a lot and my answer is to hone your craft before you actually publish. Amazon has made it easy to put a book out, but for most authors (me included), that first or second book is not very good. You haven’t written enough to understand how to shape a story, and how to show a story, not tell it. Learn by reading books about writing, taking classes on writing. And then write. And write some more. And don’t be afraid to get feedback from others who will give you an honest assessment of your work. It might sting at the time, but it will make you a better writer.

When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I always wanted to be a teacher. I do some of that now when I work with other writers. I’m also pursuing an opportunity to teach creative writing at a community college here in Denver, so maybe that childhood dream of teaching will become reality.

Now Renee has a question for you: What makes a book a “page-turner” for you?

CONTEST: Renée is giving away a print or eBook copy of her book Nephilim and a $25 Amazon GC to one randomly drawn commenter during her tour. Follow Renée’s tour, comment on every post and increase your chances of winning! The tour dates can be found here.

A wannabe private eye with a love of film noir and detective fiction.
A rich, attractive femme fatale.
A missing husband.
A rollicking ride to a dark and daring ending.

Purchase This Doesn’t Happen in the Movies
Print
Kindle

To learn more about Renee and her books visit her website or blog. You’ll also find Renee on Twitter, Facebook and at Goodreads.

I’d like to welcome fellow Carina Press author Jenny Schwartz to my blog today. I’m very excited since I’ve wanted to read the A Clockwork Christmas anthology ever since I heard about it, and it’s out today! Over to Jenny who is talking about mixing Australia with steam punk. I’m off to start reading…

Shelley, thanks for inviting me to guest post at your blog. I thought I’d bring some history with me across the Tasman.

“Wanted: One Scoundrel”, my steampunk novella in the anthology “A Clockwork Christmas”, is set in the Swan River Colony, the precursor of the state of Western Australia. It was an obvious setting for me to use. I grew up in Perth and studied Australian social history there. All those hours in the State Library scribbling notes in pencil from colonists’ letter had to prove useful, sometime.

The fun part of writing Steampunk is you get to mix real history with fictional touches. Perhaps my most radical change to real history is the addition of Bombaytown to the Swan River Colony of 1895.

My Bombaytown is modelled on San Francisco’s Chinatown, but with an Indian character. Actually, Swan River has a bit in common with San Francisco. Both boomed on the back of gold rushes. Both were Wild West. Both lured people intent on following their dreams.

My inspiration for Bombaytown was my long-held sense that it should have existed. Geographically, Western Australia and India are relatively close. In the earliest days of the colony, colonists exported horses and sandalwood to India. Even today, sandalwood remains a valuable export.

Somehow, history stuffed up and Bombaytown never existed. But in “Wanted: One Scoundrel” it is loud, colourful, full of exuberant hope and exotic spices.

For me, that’s one of the joys of Steampunk: It’s history as it ought to have been.

So, how about you. What bit of history would you rewrite?

We Wish You a Steampunk Christmas

Changed forever after tragedy, a woman must draw strength from her husband’s love. A man learns that love isn’t always what you expect. A thief steals the heart of a vengeful professor. And an American inventor finds love Down Under. Enjoy Victorian Christmas with a clockwork twist in these four steampunk novellas.

Anthology includes:
Crime Wave in a Corset by Stacy Gail
This Winter Heart by PG Forte
Wanted: One Scoundrel by Jenny Schwartz
Far From Broken by JK Coi

Stories also available for purchase separately.

117,000 words

Buy link: http://bit.ly/ClockworkX

Wanted: One Scoundrel http://bit.ly/WantedScoundrel

If you’d like to learn more about Jenny and her books visit her website.

Not that I’m implying animals have anything in common with aspiring authors. I just happen to be talking about both topics today. I have a real soft spot for animals and love to see them in their natural habitats. So far I’ve been lucky enough to visit several game parks in Africa, see the gorillas in Rwanda, watch rhinos in Chitwan, spy on whales in various seas and oceans, and during my most recent adventure I held a panda. All of these experiences are very special to me.

If you could sponsor one animal and save it from extinction, which animal would you choose? Your pet or a wild animal?

I like big cats and cheetahs in specific. They’re so fast and graceful and have gorgeous coloring. Very aristocratic in appearance. When it comes to animals that are already extinct, I’d like to save the New Zealand moas, which were huge flightless birds. The Haast eagle can stay extinct. They sound scary because they carted off animals, moas and small children. The dodo bird also sounds very cool, but from what I understand, they were a little stupid.

Which animals would you choose?”

Today I’m visiting Michele Stegman’s blog and talking about my tip for aspiring authors. Check out my post at Thoughts from a Writer’s Block.

My guest today is author Aubrie Dionne who is here to talk about her release Paradise 21, out at Entangled Publishing. Aubrie is an author and flutist in New England. After reaching a high point in her flutist career Aubrie decided to pursue other creative passions.

Over to Aubrie…

Every science fiction book has technological gadgets that do crazy things we only wish we could do in the real world. I had a lot of fun making up the following devices for Paradise 21. Every tool I used furthers the plot in some way, so it’s more than just a bunch of scientific nonsense!

Locators – Integral to the plot, locaters are tracking devices embedded in everyone’s arm on The New Dawn. Locators can be turned off when you eject the energy cell, but to remove it completely risks setting off an alarm. Lieutenant Barliss uses this device to find Aries once she escapes and crash lands on Paradise 21. Ironically, Striker uses Aries’ locator to find the coordinates of The New Dawn in order to get her back.

Ultrasonic tranquilizer ray – Lieutenant Barliss takes this weapon with him to Sahara 354 in hope of using it on Aries. One blast from an ultrasonic tranquilizer ray can knock the target out for days. This weapon employs basic ultrasonic principles. Ultrasonication generates alternating low-pressure and high-pressure waves in liquids, leading to the formation and violent collapse of small vacuum bubbles. This emits a shockwave which tranquilizes the target instantly.

Flurometric pliers – An instrument for detecting and measuring fluorescence, and removing certain particles within that spectrum. Striker uses this instrument to dislodge Aries’ locator. It’s not easy, but he’s the ultimate handy man.

A really neat website that can generate a bunch of science fiction names is Seventh Sanctum.

If you could design your own science fiction device, what would it be, and what would it do?

Aries has lived her entire life aboard mankind’s last hope, the New Dawn, a spaceship traveling toward a planet where humanity can begin anew—a planet that won’t be reached in Aries’ lifetime. As one of the last genetically desirable women in the universe, she must marry her designated genetic match and produce the next generation for this centuries-long voyage.

But Aries has other plans.

When her desperate escape from the New Dawn strands her on a desert planet, Aries discovers the rumors about pirates—humans who escaped Earth before its demise—are true. Handsome, genetically imperfect Striker possesses the freedom Aries envies, and the two connect on a level she never thought possible. But pursued by her match from above and hunted by the planet’s native inhabitants, Aries quickly learns her freedom will come at a hefty price.

The life of the man she loves.

Purchase Paradise 21

To learn more about Aubrie and her books visit her website or blog.

I’d like to welcome author Meg Mims to my blog today. Meg is an award-winning author and artist who writes historical, western and mystery/suspense. Her first book, Double Crossing, is currently available from Astraea Press, Amazon and Barnes & Noble as an ebook and will soon be in print. Meg is also a staff writer for RE/MAX Platinum in Michigan and for Lake Effect Living, a West Coast of Michigan tourist on-line magazine. She earned an M.A. from Seton Hill University’s Writing Popular Fiction program in January of 2010. Today Meg is talking about romance and romantic suspense. Over to Meg!

How much romance does a Romantic Suspense have to include? Some are quite tame, some have hot sex scenes, and some include only a hint or promise of romance. Are readers pretty tolerant in this genre?

Romantic Suspense was once considered a “crossover” – blending traditional romance with the intrigue of mystery or crime, or even plain adventure. Juggling more than one plotline is necessary, along with striking some kind of balance. If the romance is stronger, then it must end “HEA” or Happily Ever After. If the suspense is stronger, then the outcome can be iffy—as long as justice is served in the end in some fashion.

In Double Crossing, heroine Lily Granville is focused on tracking her father’s killer. Like in many romantic suspense plots, she meets a man who can help her—and sexual attraction plays a part in the relationship that grows from necessity to friendship and total trust. The focus stays on the twists and turns of why Lily’s father was murdered, and how to avoid being the next victim. Being classified as “clean” fiction, the characters maintain a fairly “hands-off” level of romance and the ending reflects that. However, the promise is there for more adventure.

There are plenty of top-notch authors in romantic suspense. Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series blends romance, adventure, suspense, mystery—and sometimes a violent murderer. While Stephanie tracks down her bond skip, she has run the gamut from killers to a donut thief. There’s Ranger danger, hot sex at times with cop Joe Morelli, and adventures with Lulu the ex-whore or her Grandma Mazur at the local funeral parlor. Bizarre at times, irreverent, thrilling and funny, yet satisfying to a large readership, Stephanie always collects her bounty hunter fee.

Tess Gerritson’s thriller-suspense books incorporate romance also, but with more depth when she explores politics, business and intrigue style plots, with betrayals and gripping tension. You can find whatever you like in the romantic suspense genre, from inspirational to erotic, from historical to contemporary, from fantasy to science fiction, even ghosts or paranormal elements.

Oddly enough, if you do a search on Amazon for “romantic suspense,” you won’t find a single male author listed with a book. Perhaps “they” classify this genre as geared to and written by women only. A shame, because this genre can get down and dirty with the most complex plots and deep emotional characters.

The key is to keep the reader on their toes, to twist and turn the plot threads and produce a page-turning success.

Question from Shelley: How much romance do you prefer in your romantic suspense reads? Lots or just a dash to spice things up?

Blurb: A murder arranged as a suicide … a missing deed … and a bereft daughter whose sheltered world is shattered.

August, 1869: Lily Granville is stunned by her father’s murder. Only one other person knows about a valuable California gold mine deed — both are now missing. Lily heads west on the newly opened transcontinental railroad, determined to track the killer. She soon realizes she is no longer the hunter but the prey.

As things progress from bad to worse, Lily is uncertain who to trust—the China-bound missionary who wants to marry her, or the wandering Texan who offers to protect her … for a price. Will Lily survive the journey and unexpected betrayal?

Read an excerpt

Purchase Double Crossing from Astraea Press, Amazon or Barnes & Noble

To learn more about Meg and her books visit her website Meg Mims

My special guest today is author, Marie Astor who is celebrating the release of her new contemporary romance Lucky Charm. Marie Astor is a die-hard romantic who wholeheartedly believes in true love, which is why she writes in the contemporary romance genre. Marie is the author of a contemporary romance novel, Lucky Charm, and a short story collection, A Chance Encounter and Other Stories. In addition to being a writer, Marie is an avid hiker, an excellent swimmer, a good skier, and a capable badminton player. Currently, Marie is working on her next novel – stay tuned for details!

Writing Contemporary Romance by Marie Astor

Before I started writing contemporary romance novels, I was (and still am) an avid reader of romance. One of my favorite things about this genre is that it allows the reader a diversion from everyday life, but that does not mean that contemporary romance cannot undertake serious matters and approach them from a lighter angle.

Let’s face it, romance makes for a big part of women’s lives – whether looking for one’s soul mate or searching for ways to maintain sparks in an existing relationship, women spend a lot of time worrying about this part of their lives. Hence, comes the dilemma for a contemporary romance author to create an entertaining, uplifting work of fiction that readers can enjoy.

In my contemporary romance novel, Lucky Charm, the main character, Annabel is getting over a broken engagement. At first, she is so absorbed by heartache that she refuses to even contemplate the thought of dating again. But when her best friend invites her to Paris, Annabel begins to come to terms with her break-up, and as she changes her outlook, romantic opportunities begin to present themselves (yes, she does meet a love interest!).

Now, before you start screaming at me that things like that do not happen in real life, I will be the first to admit that, yes – usually, they do not (although, sometimes they do). But I am a contemporary romance author, and I write fiction that is uplifting and at times a little bit fantastic, in a good way.

The other day I was having drinks with one of my friends whom I have not seen for a long time. I was sad to find out that she had just broken up with her boyfriend of five years – the boyfriend she thought was the one and expected to get engaged to. Needless to say, my friend was in broken spirits, carrying on about how impossible it is to meet ‘the right guy’; meanwhile, she was completely oblivious to the cute guy on the other side of the bar who was casting glances in her direction. When I pointed out this fact, my friend dismissed me at first, but when I insisted, she did smile back at the guy. Long story short, he came over and asked to buy her a drink. Now, they did not go on to live happily ever after – she never even gave him her number, but after this encounter, my friend’s confidence was considerably higher, and a few weeks later she did go on her first date, albeit with a different guy.

I was very glad to hear that my best friend was finding her bearings in the wobbly world of dating and could not help by note a similarity between her story and Annabel’s – both women had to learn to step out of their comfort zones and take a chance on love again – a task that is just as difficult to accomplish in Paris as it is right in your own home.

Twenty-eight-year old Annabel Green is about to tie the knot with her college love, an aspiring author Jeremy Blake, but her plans for an ideal wedding are rudely interrupted when she catches Jeremy kissing his gorgeous book agent.

Shell-shocked by Jeremy’s betrayal, Annabel retreats into the quiet routine of TV dinners and solitary evenings. It is then that Annabel’s best friend, fashion designer Lilly Clayton, sets herself on a mission to draw Annabel out of her shell. In an attempt to persuade Annabel to keep an open mind on dating, Lilly takes Annabel for a stunning makeover, but after Annabel passes on a date with a dashing entrepreneur, Lilly decides that more drastic measures are needed. Lilly invites Annabel to see a palm reader who gives Annabel a lucky charm that is supposed to help her find true love.

A few weeks later, during her trip to Paris, Annabel meets a handsome Parisian, and as the two embark on a whirlwind romance, she starts to believe in the power of the talisman the palm reader has given her. But what Annabel doesn’t know is that Lilly is hiding a secret that could unravel her faith in her newly found luck in love.

Purchase from Amazon Kindle

To learn more about Marie and her books visit her website, her Facebook page or her Amazon author page.

CONTEST Marie is giving away a canvas tote to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour (US and Canada only please). The more tour posts you comment on, the better your chance of winning The tour dates can be found here.

Joanna Chambers is visiting me today. She’s a fellow Carina Press author and is celebrating a new historical release called The Lady’s Secret. Welcome, Joanna!

Hi Shelley, thank you for inviting me over to talk about The Lady’s Secret which has just been released by Carina Press. I thought today I’d talk about power dynamics.

My heroine, Georgy Knight is a failed-actress-turned-stagehand. When she discovers that she and her brother are in fact legitimate—and that her brother is therefore the true Earl of Dunsmore—she embarks on a quest to find evidence of her parents’ marriage. But the only way she can gain access to the ancestral home to search for evidence, is to pose as a valet of one of the guests. Thus Georgy becomes George Fellowes, passing herself off as a man to the hero, Nathan.

The power differential between Georgy and Nathan in The Lady’s Secret is huge. She is (officially) illegitimate, a member of the lower classes, and acting as his servant. He is an all-powerful aristocrat and the master in their master-servant relationship. He seems to have all the cards, but in truth there is more than one kind of power. Nathan might have economic and political power but from a personal perspective, his life is mapped out for him. In this sense, Georgy has more freedom, and hence more personal power than Nathan.

Eventually, both my heroine and my hero overcome their powerlessness and seize what they need. Georgy goes out and fights for what is rightfully hers and Nathan rejects society’s constraints to do right by the woman he loves whatever society may think.

I hope readers will agree that when the book ends, Nathan and Georgy have reached a sort of equilibrium of power, each of them matching the other, neither one of them in charge. Because I think that’s something that I—speaking as a reader now—like to see in romance novels: a H/H who fully deserve and match one another. Equality of Arms.

What do you think? What romance novel most encapsulates for you ‘equality of arms’ at the end?

Blurb: The Lady’s Secret

London, 1810

Former actress Georgiana Knight always believed she and her brother were illegitimate—until they learn their parents were married, making them heirs to a great estate. To prove their claim, Georgy needs to find evidence of their union by infiltrating a ton house party as valet to Lord Nathaniel Harland. Though masquerading as a boy is a challenge, it pales in comparison to sharing such intimate quarters with the handsome, beguiling nobleman.

Nathan is also unsettled by Georgy’s presence. First intrigued by his unusual valet, he’s even more captivated when he discovers Georgy’s charade. The desire the marriage-shy earl feels for his enigmatic employee has him hoping for much more than a master-servant relationship…

But will Nathan still want Georgy when he learns who she truly is? Or will their future be destroyed by someone who would do anything to prevent Georgy from uncovering the truth?

Purchase The Lady’s Secret

To learn more about Joanna and her books visit her website Joanna Chambers. You’ll also find Joanna at her blog, on Twitter as @ChambersJoanna and at Facebook.

Today I’d like to welcome debut author Julia Phillips Smith. I met Julia online several years ago and you couldn’t find a nicer person. She’s passionate about writing, music and the arts, and I love visiting her blog to see the world through her eyes.

Julia’s book, Saint Sanguinus, is due out next week. When you visit her website, definitely take the time to check out her book trailers, which she wrote and directed herself. Over to Julia…

For many artists, no matter what the medium, the sense of dancing to a different drummer began early in life and never eased off. If you were anything like me, when you were a kid, you didn’t do things the way the other kids did them.

It wasn’t out of a sense of being contrary, for contrary’s sake. I honestly wasn’t attracted to the white North Star sneakers with blue trim that everyone else just HAD to have. I did, in fact, have a pair of North Stars. But mine were blue with yellow trim. I just liked mine better.

When everyone else curled their hair back and blew it fluffy dry like Farrah Fawcett, I wore my hair straight and long with bangs, or in braids. I just liked my hairstyle better.

When everyone else was in love with Shaun Cassidy from The Hardy Boys, I was mad for Scottish lead singer Les McKeown of the Bay City Rollers. I just thought he was way cuter.

This has never stopped. When everyone couldn’t get enough of Rachel and Ross, I settled in to watch the expeditionary team of aliens posing as humans on 3rd Rock From the Sun.

So it’s been with my writing career. For awhile now, I made attempts at writing to the market so that I could sell my stories. My only problem? None of the books I was working on were like anything on store shelves.

I wasn’t writing purely for my own readership of one. I also wasn’t journaling. I wanted to tell stories that connected and resonated with readers.

Somehow, even though I kept trying to wrestle the giant python of my story into at least a cobra version, something told me to hold on, to wait. As I kept writing, a new technological breakthrough changed the publishing landscape for writers and readers.

The rise of e-publishers opened the door to time periods and settings that had been passed over by traditional print publishers. Suddenly, a story could be set in the West Indies in the 18th century, for example, if it was told well and featured compelling characters. Readers were no longer limited to London soirees and the Regency ton. The rise of the niche market made room for all sorts of authors to finally sell their un-sellable books.

In 2011, Amazon’s and Smashword’s self-publishing option has blown a hole so wide in the publishing world that there’s no longer any going back. I knew that it was finally time for my stories to step out and dance with the rest.

For all the other ‘me’s out there, who long for something a little different, the time is now. As a reader, as a writer—I don’t know about you, but I’m grabbing my plate and heading for the buffet.

Blurb: Saint Sanguinus

Do you want another life?

In Dark Age Wales, Peredur falls to a spear on the battlefield,but fights death to the last – until he is made an offer he can’t refuse, two fangs embedding themselves in his neck. Tanwen was his betrothed, and resists her father’s command to take another husband. When the wise woman’s son insists he can reunite her with Peredur, Tanwen must choose between a future that promises only misery, or set her on a dark path that whispers of her heart’s true desire.

Saint Sanguinus is out at Amazon next week. To learn more about Julia and her books visit her website at www.juliaphillipssmith.com

My guest today is Rachel Leigh. Rachel lives in the UK and has been married to her own sexy hero for thirteen years. When she’s not busy writing, you can find her reading, running after her two daughters or…playing with her husband.

Rachel is celebrating the release of her erotic romance, Coming Back, which is now available from the Wild Rose Press. Today she’s talking about a subject that I suspect more than a few of us worry about…a horrid sagging middle! Over to Rachel…

I am nearing the halfway mark of my latest work in progress and while for some writers that will be something to celebrate, for me it is the opposite. Why? Because it means the dreaded ‘sagging middle’ is right around the corner. Thus bringing my writing/plotting/creativity to a grinding halt and causing me to bang my head up and down on my desk all day, every day until I see light at the end of a very dark tunnel.

Now most of you would have heard of this ‘sagging middle’ phrase and know what it means, others won’t. Let me explain.

It is the part of my story writing that I hate the most and occurs every single time, with every single book. I am a blend of two kinds of writer. I am half plotter and half pantser. I always have a two to three page synopsis written as well as character sketches for my hero and heroine before I start writing. However, from page one to the end I continually write the first draft without stopping or editing. The hard work comes in drafts two and three.

The problem is no matter how much detail I feel I’ve put into the synopsis, no matter how much I have written it with my ‘sagging middle’ weakness in mind, there it always is. Bam, like a grinning little cartoon devil poised to poke me in the behind with his shiny trident as soon as I am about halfway through.

So the question is, how do I deal with it? The only way I know how. Keep writing. I dread going to my desk for these days. Have zero enthusiasm or belief in myself or my work. I sit my backside in the chair anyway. These days writing is like pulling teeth but I force myself to write at least a thousand rubbish words a day. The beauty of it is when I feel the sun reappearing as I climb out of the middle and start heading for the home run, I read back what I wrote through those torturous days and I can be guaranteed to keep at least half of it. Result!

So what about you writers out there? Do you suffer with the same weakness as me? Yes? What’s your trick for beating this particular devil?

Or are you a reader? Have you noticed a ‘sagging middle’ in books? Maybe you see them more often than editors do, lol! I love to hear from you.

Rachel’s latest release is “Coming Back” available now from The Wild Rose Press. Here’s the blurb:

Kelly Hampton loved once…and lost. After two years of looking for Sean MacKenzie in other men–and failing miserably–she takes a vow of celibacy. No sex until she finds love. Then Sean strolls back into her bar, reigniting old flames. No one has come close to understanding or satisfying her like he did. Her body burns for the passion they once shared, but her heart still remembers the pain.

Sean escaped Jessop Hill and his father’s fists in the middle of the night without a word–even to his love, Kelly–to protect his battered mother, but he never forgot the explosively erotic relationship he left behind. Now his father is dead and Sean is back for the only woman he’s ever wanted. Their reunion is full of fire – but can sexual attraction and noble intentions overcome years of heartache or will Kelly walk away to protect her heart this time.

Purchase Coming Back

Rachel can be found here:

www.rachelleigh.co.uk
www.rachelleighromance.blogspot.com
www.twitter.com/rachelwriter