Posted in Romance on January 30th, 2007 by Cynthia Eden
It’s time for me to begin a new novel (yay!), but in the last few days, I’ve been really torn about the story I want to write. Several ideas have been milling around in my mind, making me seem very absent-minded because I keep trying to work them out in my head and, ah, I seem to miss actual, real-life conversations while I’m doing the said working out.
But anyway…tonight I’ve narrowed down my focus to just two stories. Both paranormal (of course) but with very different plots and beginnings.
Oh, the beginnings. Lately, when I’m trying to decide if I’m really “feeling” a story, I’ll write a few pages of one tale, then try writing a few pages of a different story. The story that flows the best for me, well, that’s what I write, and the other goes into my idea file (so I’m ahead of the game for next time).
This time, both stories flowed well for me. One is about a psychic, specifically, a woman who has premonitions (I think I’ve mentioned this idea before) and the other is about vampires and murder. Now, the premonition story has a rather light-hearted beginning (and this finally gets me to the topic of this blog!) but the tale later takes a darker turn (at least in my mind, seeing as I haven’t actually written that far yet). As for the second story, well, the beginning is very dark and very violent–definitely the darkest I’ve ever written.
I read both beginnings one more time before I started this blog, and I think I’m leaning toward a favorite now. I’m going to sleep on it tonight, then get into the story seriously tomorrow (yeah, back to my 10 pages a day goal).
So, now I wonder, does anyone out there have a preference for light or “dark” stories? And if so, why?
Posted in Romance on January 27th, 2007 by Cynthia Eden
Just a quick note…I updated my author page last night. Included some random bits of trivia. Let me know what you think.
Posted in Romance on January 26th, 2007 by Cynthia Eden
Okay, thanks to my husband Nicholas for sending me this link to the rare video footage of the Frilled Shark. It’s a shame this creature didn’t survive, but I truly think this shark is fascinating.
Posted in Romance on January 26th, 2007 by Cynthia Eden
So, I thought (just for the heck of it!) that I’d list some of my favorite reference books. Here goes:
For crime:
*Scene of the Crime: A writer’s guide to crime-scene investigations
*Deadly Does: A writer’s guide to poisons
*Cause of Death: A writer’s guide to death, murder, and forensic medicine
*Police Procedural: A writer’s guide to the police and how they work
The Criminal Mind: A Writer’s guide to Forensic Psychology
Forensics: True Crime Scene Investigation
*Indicates books are part of the really simple, easy to understand Howdunit series.
For the paranormal:
The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythical Creature
The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures
The Vampire Book
Haunted Britain and Ireland
The Encyclopedia of Superstitutions
Monsters–An investigator’s guide to magical beings
Psychic-True paranormal experiences
The History of Mythology
For history:
Tutankhamun
Valley of the Golden Mummies
British Kings and Queens
Everyday life in the Middle Ages
What life was like in the age of Chivalry
The Medieval Warrior
Armor
Anatomy of the Castle
The history of Archaeology
There are many books of this sort lining my shelves–I’ve admitted it before and I’ll do it again, I’m a reference book addict. For any writer out there who wishes to build his/her own reference library, my advice is simple: Begin by hunting through the bargain books at Barnes and Noble or Books-a-Million–I’ve found so many great books there–and saved myself huge amounts of money.
Tell me, do you have a favorite reference book you’d like to share? Perhaps one I should get for my little library?
Posted in Romance on January 24th, 2007 by Cynthia Eden
I’ve literally got dozens and dozens of reference books in my office. Some are plot-related (how to murder/maim/investigate a crime scene, etc.) while others are craft-oriented.
One of my favorite writing-craft research books is Writing a Romance Novel for Dummies (gotta love the Dummies books) by Leslie Wainger (with Harlequin). One of the chapters that I found interesting in this particular book was Chapter 22, otherwise known as the “Ten Reasons Why A Manuscript Gets Rejected” chapter.
Here are the reasons cited:
1. Bad Writing
2. Unsympathtic/unlikeable characters
3. Unrealistic characters
4. Boring stories–nothing happens!
5. Illogical plots
6. Outdated story or character
7. Poor research
8. A book billed as a romance when it isn’t
9. Bad fit–or not the right publishing house for the work
10. Incorrect formatting
Now, I’ll confess–number 10 gave me pause. However, Ms. Waigner writes “Books that are obviously formatted incorrectly don’t even get read. Obvious mistakes include single-spacing your manuscript, improperly paragraphing, making your margin too narrow, having dialogue written in italics instead of quotes, and having your text written in all caps.”
So, a note to those planning to send off submissions–make absolutely certain you check a publisher’s formatting guidelines!
Anyone out there want to weigh in with other reasons why you suspect manuscripts get rejected? Hmm? Personally, I’d like to add a little note to #9–I think the “Bad Fit” situation could be extended to include “Bad Time”–some stories might not sell b/c a house JUST bought a similar story or because there is a glut in the market or b/c there’s only room for one western romance every three months…