Taste of Kiwi: Blog of Author Shelley Munro

WRITE WHAT YOU WANT!

When I decided to indulge my every romance whim and write HER CINDERELLA COMPLEX, I wasn’t sure how it would go. I knew I wanted a wedding, a private island, an alpha male boss and a cheeky assistant and sizzling love scenes. That was my entire premise when I started the book. When pressed by my editor to give her a bit more information, I said it was a story about a runaway bride that gets to have her honeymoon anyway.

I came up with the title because I’ve always wanted a book with Cinderella in the title. No other reason than pure indulgence on my part. I knew what I liked to read, so and I started piecing together how my story should go. I’m a visual person, so this involved torturous hours scanning the web for pictures of islands, hot men, and sassy women. It’s a hard life, I tell you.
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Mr. Munro and I have just returned home from a family dinner – a birthday celebration for my mother-in-law. Now that the family is getting larger it’s difficult to organize everyone, so we were slightly depleted in number, although we managed four generations of family. We’re also expecting two babies in the family – the first to arrive should make an appearance in just over a week. Everyone is excited because it’s a girl after several boys. Anyway, Mr. Munro and I had to go for a walk when we arrived home to shake down our dinners. My eyes were WAY too big.

The form for volunteers at the RWA conference went online today. I decided I’d volunteer and chose the agent/editor appointments plus a few hours on the registration desk. I’m a bit shy, so it’s good for me. That’s what I keep telling myself…

I thought I’d mention the Erotic Romance Blog. Both the blog and the website are full of great information on e-publishing and erotic romance plus the latest market news. I always find the posts interesting and have them on my blog feed.

And finally writer Josh Lanyon has a how-to book available on writing m/m romances. It’s called Man-oh-Man, Writing M-M for Cash and Kinks. It’s definitely worth checking out and is available in e-format from Fictionwise. I recently read my first book by Josh Lanyon called The Dark Horse and enjoyed it very much. He’s a very good writer – lots of emotion and well-rounded characters. He has several books available at Fictionwise and some at Loose ID.

A kakapo is a New Zealand flightless parrot. It’s an endangered species because of its vulnerability to predators and of course, the inroads made by man into the parrots’ natural habitat. Until this week there were only 86 living kakapo but after a bumper breeding season five chicks have hatched on Codfish Island (a sanctuary for the birds). Kakapo need special conditions to breed and plentiful food, which means that not every year is great for breeding. The last good year was 2005. Here’s the story here plus a photo of a kakapo.

In a small promo, I included the kakapo in my very first book, Aislyn. The baddies were conducting a scavenger hunt and one of the items they needed to collect was a rare kakapo egg.

In writing news I wrote the last words on my first draft of another Middlemarch story. It’s tentatively called Cat Burglar. I’m going to let it sit for a couple of weeks and start yet another Middlemarch tale – this time it’s Leticia’s story, a character from Stray Cat Strut. I’m really thrilled with my progress, because after stopping the Sven challenge and taking almost a week off writing, I’ve still managed to write 50,000 words.

Tomorrow Christina Phillips is my guest blogger and we’re giving away a prize. I hope you’ll pop back to say hello.

My guest today is Amanda Ashby. Amanda lives in New Zealand, or rather she’s just returned to New Zealand from the UK, and we’re happy to claim her back. You Had Me At Halo is Amanda’s first book. It’s a funny paranormal with a unique slant and has garnered great reviews, including a nomination for the RT Reviewer’s Choice award in the contemporary paranormal romance category. It had me grinning. Amanda is currently immersed in the world of zombies as she works on a young adult novel. She has an interesting life.

CONTEST: see the details below to enter. We’ll draw the winner’s name on Thursday so don’t forget to check back in the comments section to see if you’re the winner.

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Writing a book is like dating. There’s the first excitement of the new idea where you wonder what to wear, how to approach the shiny new relationship. It goes well and there’s a second date. The liaison seems full of promise but suddenly the guy doesn’t ring…

What on earth has gone wrong? you wonder, trying to frantically rethink the relationship, obsessing about what you should have, could have done differently.

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I’m a fan of Grey’s Anatomy and was looking forward to the new season. It’s been going for about four weeks in New Zealand, and I have to say I’m disappointed. Firstly, Izzie and George? What were the writers thinking? It’s just plain wrong trying to have them as lovers and came out of the blue last season. Not enough motivation people. There’s not much motivation this season either. I’m not convinced.

Meredith has turned into a whiner. I’m totally on Lexie’s side. It’s going to be interesting to see what the writers have in store for these characters. I only hope I can make it through more of Meredith’s angsting. Sad but true. I’m not quite as much a fan this season.

I’ve decided to stop with the Sven challenge. I’m doing okay, but my right arm and elbow are telling me it’s time to ease back and take a rest. I know from experience if I ignore the warnings I’ll pay! As a rule I don’t have trouble with motivation and write a steady 2000 words most days. I’d decided to push a bit harder even though I didn’t really need to. A few easy days should do the trick and I’ll be back in business. Meantime I’m going to do some plotting and planning and probably catch up on some reading while my arm takes a rest.

Although edits have taken a couple of my writing days, I’ve still managed to write just over 20,000 words on my latest Middlemarch project since the 70 Days of Sweat challenge started. Happily, I’ve also had a brainwave about what to do with vet Gavin and Leticia, characters who readers met in Stray Cat Strut. I love it when things come together!! I’m very happy with my progress so far.

I’m also working on a super secret project I’m not going to talk about. It’s one that I’m very excited about. I’ve written a blurb so far. This is not the normal way I do things – blurbs are the last thing I write and even then it’s like pulling out teeth. Everything came to me while I was walking so I wrote it down as soon as I arrived home.

I have an author spotlight over at Dark Ice Goddess’ Musings and also one at Selena Illyria’s blog.

Angela James, Nice Mommy Evil Editor has a post about submissions to Samhain that some of you will find interesting.

Christina Phillips has links to a Q & A with Spice editor, Susan Pezzack, which is very informative.

And finally, have you discovered the Edittorrent blog yet? It’s full of excellent advice and not to be missed.

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This week fellow author Christine d’Abo mentioned The Writer’s Guide to Character Traits by Linda N. Edelstein. It contains all sorts of neat information and inspired by Christine’s post, I dragged it out of my bookcase.

In her book the author mentions traits of writers. Here are some of them:

1. Creates in order to heal old wounds in themselves.

2. Creative thinkers.

3. Sensitive.

4. Often drink alcohol, especially after forty.

5. Depression in younger writers.

6. Problems with anxiety and drug use.

7. Has to tolerate aloneness.

8. Has to let go of work.

9. Families with mental illness and creativity.

10. Higher rates of bisexuality or homosexuality. (there’s a note about a study done for this one)

11. Abstract thinkers.

12. Fear mediocrity.

13. Disregard routine problems.

As a writer I plain disagree with some of these, although it’s good to know I don’t need to feel guilty about drinking wine anymore. I think writers are articulate, imaginative, driven, fear rejection, respond well to chocolate, have great imaginations, are determined, hardworking, good procrastinators (at times) and can suffer from bottom spread.

I’m sure I’ve missed quite a few. What qualities do you think writers have?

Playing to Win, the very first book I wrote is a romantic suspense. I’ve written many different genres since then, but one thing remains true. I love to add a suspense element and if I can sprinkle the odd body or two between the pages, so much the better.

Although a villain is essentially a secondary character in a romance, he or she needs just as much work during the creation process as the hero and heroine. There’s a trick or two I’ve learned to make a credible villain. I thought I’d share:

1. A villain doesn’t have to be really evil and horrid. The villain in a romance might be an old girlfriend, a brother or sister, a mother-in-law or the man living next-door. They can be a meddling friend who is trying to match make. You don’t need a high body count to make a villain. Villainy comes in many forms such as the ex-girlfriend intent on regaining the hero’s interest.

2. When you’re thinking about your villain, give him good points as well as bad ones. Make him three dimensional. If he’s a well-rounded character then he’s actually scarier because we, the reader, come to like him or we might see part of our own character in his makeup and empathize.

3. Think about having your villain mirror your hero or heroine actions. Give them a similar conflict but have them behave in a different way to solve the conflict.

4. Give your villains a good reason for behaving in the manner they are—in other words, good motivation for their actions.

5. Make use of the setting to enhance the villain i.e. cold or stormy weather or late at night. Every bit counts!

6. Take as much care when choosing your villain’s name as you do when picking a name for your hero and heroine. A good name can help make a villain.

How do you like your villains? Subtle or in-your-face? Who is your favorite villain in fiction? Are there any characteristics you like to see in a villain?