It was very close, and indeed two people had nominated the same hero by another name, so we resorted to the random draw option.

And the lucky winner is Louisa Cornell! Yay, Louisa!! Send me an email with your postal details and Christine will send FORBIDDEN your way

Thanks to everyone for their wonderful suggestions and a huge thank you for Christina for being a stellar guest

September. FORBIDDEN is an Ancient Historical Romance that’s hotter than hot. I’ve always been a bit of a history nut and the Romans just seem to encapsulate the essence of powerful warriors. Christina’s  hero, Maximus, leaps off the page, sword raised, just begging to be taken home He’s gorgeous! I can’t wait to read the whole book… sigh…

Christina, a quick google search reveals there aren’t many Ancient Historical Romances out on the shelves. (I did find a wonderful B&B in the heart of Rome called Ancient Romance as a bonus!) The term sums up your writing perfectly. Can you tell us about the era in which you’ve set Forbidden?

Hi Helene, thank you so much for having me on your blog today and for that absolutely fantastic introduction! I would be delighted to tell you a little about the era in which FORBIDDEN is set.

The year is AD 50. The Romans have occupied Britain for the last seven years, but have their eye on conquering the western peninsula and claiming the rich mineral deposits of Cymru (modern day Wales). The Roman Emperor, Claudius, was also obsessed with eliminating all trace of Druids throughout his Empire which as it happens fitted in with my plot perfectly!

(I love the sound of that B&B in Rome!! I wonder if I could visit and claim it as a tax deduction for research??)

I think you definitely should visit the B&B and there’s no way the taxman could prove it wasn’t research Was history your favourite subject at school? Where did the passion for ancient Rome come from?

I did love history at school, and along with English it was my favourite subject. Although having said that I never got very excited by the Agricultural or Industrial Revolutions! But give me the Tudors, the Plantagenets, Saxons, Vikings and Romans and I was enthralled. Given how much I loved reading historical novels while I was growing up, you’d think I would have gravitated towards writing them a lot sooner than I did (it took me nine years of writing with the aim of publication before I realized!!)

I was born in England, so was lucky enough to visit lots of fabulous historical sites as a child (not that I appreciated them at the time. I could kick myself now!) I’d always been fascinated by the Romans, and remember watching I, Claudius as a very young child and being completed captivated/scandalized by it all!!! But it wasn’t until very recently I decided to try and write a book set in that era and the reason I did was because Maximus and Carys (and the deliciously bad villain, Aeron) literally fell into my head one night and refused to go away!

Concentrating with a head full of gorgeous men must have been very difficult…How much real history drives the direction of your story?

The books in the Forbidden series do incorporate a thread of what I like to call “earth magic” – my Druids believe in thepower of their gods and goddesses and when those deities are crossed then watch out world.  However, when it comes to actual dates and events I tried very hard to stick to known facts.

For instance, the Romans first invaded Cymru in AD 50, so that’s the year I set my book. They faced fierce and ongoing resistance from the local tribes and happily for me this fit my purposes (this continues in Captive, book two in the series). Wales, and especially the Isle of Anglesey situated off the north-west coast, were known Druid strongholds which again was perfect for my plot.

I lived in North Wales for a few months and was captivated by the wild beauty – perfect setting for your stories. I love your Historical Bits and Pieces page on your website. You clearly did a lot of research for your story. How did you approach that? Was it organic or more systematic?

Thank you, Helene! With the research, a lot of it was organic but with things like the hierarchy of the Roman Legions I researched that before I started, just so I had it straight in my own mind, even if little of it made it onto the actual page. I researched the Celtic gods and goddesses and the little we know of the Druid culture. And there’s the thing – we don’t know that much about the Druids because all their knowledge was handed down through oral teachings. So I managed to have a lot of fun there!

Call stories are always inspirational. What was yours?

I’d been writing for nine years before I sold a couple of erotic novelettes to The Wild Rose Press. It was funny, because until then I had never written a short (or an erotic) story, but the combination of a darker premise combined with the erotic element seemed to hit the right note. After I sold my second novelette I decided to push myself by writing a full length erotic romance and just to make things nice and complicated I’d set it during the first century AD – my first historical!

It took nine months to finish Forbidden. I sent queries out to twelve agents, and a month to the day I queried my agent she offered representation. I didn’t sleep at all that night!!

Three months later we had a two book deal from Berkley Heat.

What a wonderful story, Christina!!  How have you found the publishing process since then?

Honestly, it’s everything and more than I dreamed about. And even on the bad days, when all I want to do is crawl under a rock and hide, I soon make myself snap out of it. Because really, this is what I’ve been working towards since April 1999 and I’m determined to enjoy every step of the journey as much as I can possibly can.

Where to next?

I’ve just finished a historical romance set in a different century that I’m very excited about.  I have everything crossed that might be the start of a new series. I’ve also written two outlines for two further books in the Forbidden series, and we’re waiting to hear back on them.

Good luck with those submissions, Christina!

And for one lucky visitor, Christina is giving away a copy of FORBIDDEN. Tell us who your favourite Ancient Hero is and go into the running!! Alexander the Great gets my vote:-)

We’ll announce the winner Friday night 3rd September.

Click on the trailer below for details of Christina’s Blog party for the launch of FORBIDDEN – It’s tomorrow on the 1st September so make sure to drop round and join in the fun.

Born in the UK, Christina met her very own hero when she was just fifteen, was married at twenty and went on to have three wonderful children. To get her through her driving test after baby #2 was born, she wrote a couple of romances to keep her mind off reversing round corners. It turned out to be a very good diversionary tactic but unfortunately all she received in the mail were form rejections from Harlequin Mills and Boon (she did pass her driving test though, so there was some method in her madness).

“After moving to Australia in December 1998 she decided to get serious about her writing and joined the eHarlequin community. It was there she hooked up with her fabulous CPs. These girls not only help keep her sane but share her love of gossiping on IM, drooling over hot heroes and wearing glittery tiaras at romance conferences.

Christina is a member of the Romance Writers of Australia, RWA Paranormal Group, RWA Historical Group and RWNZ. She is also a part of the editorial team for the RWA’s monthly newsletter, Hearts Talk.”

www.christinaphillips.com

Mum and Me!

My elderly mum (she’s 88!) is visiting from Brisbane. She was unwell at the start of the year and couldn’t be in Cairns for the launch of Border Watch. I missed having her there as she and Dad were so integral in developing my love of books and writing.

Today we had coffee at Glaskins Gallery. She met Garry Glaskin who, as always, was busy hanging artwork. Karen made us a lovely coffee and cake, and we soaked up the ambience.

Mum probably won’t make it north for the release of my next book either so it was special for me to be able share the afternoon with her.

Christopher's paintings

Garry and Christopher rearranging the latest arrivals

Clovelly Cemetery - Views to Die For

New meaning to 'Hard Stand Storage'

Still Looking for the Party in Coogee...

A Good Haul for Dinner

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/daniel-puts-the-man-in-romance-20100815-1253f.html

The story, by journalist Sacha Molitorisz, complete with some lovely innuendos , gets it right. In the current gloom of the publishing industry, Romance (and all its variations on that theme) are selling better than ever.  Who would have guessed readers may actually appreciate an optimistic ending

It’s been an interesting week and I’ve loved reading other people’s take on the process. A huge thank you to Robb for giving so generously of his time and wisdom!

3-D Writing, Part 3

3-D writing is the art of surrounding readers with your story, pulling them in and making them a part of it rather than just a reader. Dialog, Description and Despair are three key facets: the three Ds of 3-D writing. The last key:

Despair

No, I’m not referring to what the writer feels as she struggles to get the dialog and description perfect or when yet another agent rejection letter appears by e-mail.

I’m talking about the characters’ emotions coming off the page and surrounding the reader in 3-D. Whether it’s despair, anger, anxiety, love, fear, euphoria, or murderous rage, getting the reader to internalize the character’s emotion is critical. Great dialog and perfect description is bland and boring without emotion. Telling the reader how the character feels doesn’t do the job.

Thousands of articles, books and blog posts have expounded on the standard writing advice of ‘show, don’t tell.’ It’s more than good advice. It’s what makes a story come off the page. It’s also often misinterpreted and repeated by some like a mantra without ever explaining what it means and when or how to use it.

Let’s visit Laurie in the pub again. Here are the two of the same examples used in the previous article on description.

Version 1: Laurie sat at the bar, depressed. She glanced occasionally toward the door. Then he walked in. He was tall, handsome and well-dressed, and caught her eye immediately.

Forget the description. Look for the emotions. They’re all there in black and white. She’s depressed. She’s expecting or anticipating something or someone, but she’s not very excited about it. When he walks in, her mood changes to interest. How do we know all this? It’s obvious: the writer told us so.

Version 2: Laurie hunched over her martini and played with the olive. She didn’t know why she bothered; no one interesting ever came in this pub. Yet each time the door opened, her eyes flicked toward the entrance. When he walked in, ducking slightly to clear the door, she sat up a little straighter. She’d never seen him around before. His perfectly tailored suit accentuated the broad shoulders and trim waist underneath. Laurie turned slightly, keeping her eyes in his general direction but trying not to be obvious. His sun-bleached hair contrasted with his surfer’s tan. A yacht. Maybe he owns a yacht. “That’s the life for me,” Laurie thought as she met his gaze full on.

Here we know she’s depressed, hoping for something but not excited, and then her mood lifts considerably. But the writer didn’t tell us that. So how do we know? The writer surrounded us with her actions, very minor ones, and her thoughts. Her mood comes off the page, especially when it subtly changes to interest.

Once more, with feeling.

1. Laurie sat at the bar, depressed.

Or:

2. Laurie hunched over her martini and played with the olive.

In the first example, the writer tells the reader she is sitting at the bar (action) and that she is depressed (emotion). In the second, the writer does not tell us this, but merely shows Laurie to us. We can see her. We can see what she’s doing. We can read her mood. We’re in the bar with her. I think I’ll have a beer and watch her a little longer. She’s kinda cute.

1. She glanced occasionally at the door.

Or:

2. No one interesting ever came in this pub, so she didn’t know why she bothered. Yet each time the door opened, her eyes flicked toward the entrance.

The writer can tell us what she is doing (glancing at the door occasionally), or he can keep us in the bar, sipping on our beer, watching Laurie as she flicks her eyes toward the entrance when someone walks in. But not only are we in the bar watching her, now we are in her head, hearing her thoughts in our minds. Neighborhood pub, the usual crowd of people we find dull and uninteresting. Wait. Laurie finds them dull and uninteresting; we’re just reading a story, remember? Too late. We’re in the scene and inside her skin.

1. He caught her eye immediately.

Or:

2. Laurie turned slightly, keeping her eyes in his general direction but trying not to be obvious.

In the first example, after the writer told us the man was tall, handsome and well-dressed, the writer proceeds to tell us the effect he had on Laurie. In the revised example, we are still in the bar watching her, and inside her head intuitively understanding what she is thinking and feeling. 3-D.

All of the second examples surround the reader with Laurie’s emotions by conveying her thoughts, her feelings, and her state of mind. They stay in Laurie’s POV rather than stopping the story to have a narrator describe what the man looks like. They pull the reader much more closely into Laurie’s POV, so close it almost feels like first person, but it remains in third person the entire time.

The second versions set the reader down at the bar next to Laurie, or pull the reader into Laurie’s head. The reader not only sees what Laurie sees, hears what Laurie thinks, but feels what Laurie feels. The writer doesn’t have to tell us. We see it, feel it, experience it first-hand.

When the man walks in, we are carried along with Laurie’s emotional swing from despair to a high state of interest. We even get a clue of her motivation. Does Laurie seem bored with her life, looking for some excitement, maybe a bit of a gold digger?

Wrapping up

Use the three Ds to make your writing 3-D. Capture the right balance in dialog, description and despair (and all the other emotions your characters experience), and you’ll surround your readers with a few hours of entertainment.

Instead of flinging their Kindles across the room, they’ll keep coming back for more.

Robb Grindstaff is the managing editor of an international English-language daily newspaper, currently living in the Washington, D.C., area. He is a thirty-year veteran of the daily newspaper business. His newspaper career has taken him from Arizona to North Carolina, Texas to D.C., with a five-year stint in Tokyo.

He fell in love with Australia on dive trip to North Queensland a few years back, and has vowed to return. So be forewarned.

With a career in writing, editing and marketing journalism, he has turned his experience toward fiction, and writes commercial and literary novels and short stories. Sample chapters of two of his novels are available at http://tiny.cc/CarryMeAway and http://tiny.cc/HannahsVoice. He also does free lance fiction editing. You can find him wasting time on Facebook at http://artist.to/robb.grindstaff.writer.

3-D writing is the art of surrounding readers with your story, pulling them in and making them a part of it rather than just a reader. Dialog, Description and Despair are three key facets: the three Ds of 3-D writing.

Description

Much like dialog, there is a perfect amount of description your story should have. Unfortunately, there is no formula to calculate it. Too little, and the reader can’t visualize the scene, picture herself in it, or know what the characters look like. Too much, and the reader’s senses overload with minutiae. Too much actually makes it more difficult for a reader to grasp the images.

Are some characters ciphers? A generic human male-shape with no face and no distinguishing features? Even for a secondary or minor character, there needs to be something that helps the reader picture the person in the scene.

Have you read (or written) a story where every time a new character walks in, the writer stops the story cold to describe the person in a pointless level of detail?

Consider these three examples:

Laurie sat at the bar, depressed. She glanced occasionally toward the door. Then he walked in. He was tall, handsome and well-dressed, and caught her eye immediately.

Okay, he’s tall. How tall? Six-foot one-inch, or seven-five? Handsome? What does handsome look like? Might not every woman have a slightly different definition of the term (within some range, at least)? Well-dressed? In a suit and tie, or casual? Expensive or just neat? On weekends, I consider myself well-dressed if I have on a pair of jeans with only one knee worn through.

Let’s try again.

Laurie sat at the bar, depressed. She stared blankly toward the door. Then he walked in, all six-foot-four, 210 lbs. of him. He had an athletic physique even though he had to be at least 47 years old. He wore an Italian-cut navy blue pinstripe suit with a red power tie, white Oxford shirt with button-down collar and black Ferragamo loafers. His blond hair, cut neatly around the ears but with a slight flip of curl that grazed his collar, contrasted with his deep bronze tan. His cheeks were smooth except for the crow’s feet that crinkled at the corner of his eyes. His eyes were light green, the color of polished jade. He caught her eye immediately.

I don’t know about you, but I nearly fell asleep writing that. The reader spends so much time absorbing all the details and piecing them all together into a visual that the story is lost. Most readers can’t retain all those details. Later in the story, when his blond hair is mentioned again, some readers will think, “Oh, I thought his hair was black.”

Once more.

Laurie hunched over her martini and played with the olive. She didn’t know why she bothered; no one interesting ever came in this pub. Yet each time the door opened, her eyes flicked toward the entrance. When he walked in, ducking slightly to clear the door, she sat up a little straighter. She’d never seen him around before. His perfectly tailored suit accentuated the broad shoulders and trim waist underneath. Laurie turned slightly, keeping her eyes in his general direction but trying not to be obvious. His sun-bleached hair contrasted with his surfer’s tan. A yacht. Maybe he owns a yacht. “That’s the life for me,” Laurie thought as she met his gaze full on.

Okay, maybe not award-winning stuff yet, but there’s something going on here that’s missing from the first two versions. There’s action, reaction, a little bit of tension and suspense, an emotional change, a hint at her motivation, at least something mildly interesting.

We know enough about what he looks like. More than just saying tall and handsome, less than a witness description on a police report. We’re getting a physical image of him, not just through description, but through actions. We know he’s tall because he had to duck when he walked in. We know Laurie considers him handsome because she can’t take her eyes off of him, his athletic build, blond hair and nice tan. We know he’s well-dressed in a suit. We don’t know the color of his tie or brand of his shoes. Does it matter? Not in this case. Her thought that he might own a yacht provides the image of money and status better than the brand-name description of his wardrobe.

We don’t know how old he is or the color of his eyes. Yet.

Don’t dump all the description in at once. Let the initial image settle in the reader’s mind. Later, when he sits down at the bar next to her, she may notice the crow’s feet around his eyes when he smiles at her. Maybe those little wrinkles are her clue that he’s a little older than her, but not so old that it’s creepy. Later still, his eyes might remind her of the polished jade she bought in Bangkok, right before he closes them and leans in for their first kiss.

Writer-friend Phillipa Fioretti (The Book of Love) goes into considerable detail on her lead character’s vintage clothes. As a guy, I’m less enamored of these details. But as a guy, I’m not Phillipa’s target audience. The vintage clothes are a key element of her character’s personality and style, and it’s a tremendous draw to her readers. It’s done brilliantly, so that even I, a guy, could visualize exactly what the character is wearing. It conveys a vivid image of the character – not just what she wore or what she looked like, but her personality. The reader very quickly comes to know the character as a real person, in large part due to this quirky wardrobe.

Other writers, other genres, different stories, can use more or less description and still have the right amount. I used to alternate reading Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Their styles were so completely opposite, especially in description, from spare to intricate, yet each conveyed exactly the right amount of description. It was a great exercise to see the wide latitude available to writers, yet how there is also a very fine point of ‘just enough at just the right time.’

While I’ve focused on character description, the same techniques apply to describing anything from the kitchen to the landscape to the weather.

Next: Despair

Robb Grindstaff is the managing editor of an international English-language daily newspaper, currently living in the Washington, D.C., area. He is a thirty-year veteran of the daily newspaper business. His newspaper career has taken him from Arizona to North Carolina, Texas to D.C., with a five-year stint in Tokyo.

He fell in love with Australia on dive trip to North Queensland a few years back, and has vowed to return. So be forewarned.

With a career in writing, editing and marketing journalism, he has turned his experience toward fiction, and writes commercial and literary novels and short stories. Sample chapters of two of his novels are available at http://tiny.cc/CarryMeAway and http://tiny.cc/HannahsVoice. He also does free lance fiction editing. You can find him wasting time on Facebook at http://artist.to/robb.grindstaff.writer.

I’ve met some lovely people via blogs and Robb is one of those. Anyone who’s a regular visitor to my site would remember when PHILLIPA FIORETTI visited for a chat about her new release, THE BOOK OF LOVE. The blog went mad. Food became the hot topic and Sala, a friend of mine whose a talented creative foodie, kindly donated three jars of homemade chutney as prizes.

Robb was one of the lucky winners. Chutney probably doesn’t feature high on the American list of culinary delights, but after the USA detection dogs cleared the jar of unnamed substance Robb nibble his way through it and professed to enjoy it. The least I could do was ask him back to the blog.

As it turns out, he’s got some wonderful succinct insights into writing to share with us. His post came through the day I was tidying up Beyond the Borders before I sent it off to the publishers. I wished I’d read it early…

So without further ado here’s the first instalment.

3-D Writing

A couple months ago, my wife and I went to see the movie Avatar in 3-D. I hadn’t seen a 3-D movie since I was a kid in some distant century. 3-D technology has come a long way, even though we still had to wear those silly glasses.

It was amazing. The characters, the scenery, tiny alien creatures seemed to float out of the screen and surround me. I felt as if I were a part of the movie rather than apart from it, merely watching on a screen. It added a sense of realism and believability to a movie set in the future, on a distant planet with very different life forms.

Afterwards, I wondered what it is that makes some writing feel flat, two-dimensional, like watching it on a screen, while other writing surrounds me and pulls me into the story and the characters, makes them more real and believable. What makes words on a page become 3-D?

When Helene graciously invited me to sit in as a guest blogger, I joked that I’d discuss the three Ds of writing: Dialog, Description and Despair.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized the best writers are those who can nail all three of these facets. The key in all cases is not too much or too little, but just enough so the reader forgets it’s fiction and lives inside your story for a few hours.

How much is just enough will be different for every writer and for every story. Each genre, style, and voice has different demands. There is no formula here – just some general observations. Learning to apply them takes practice. First up:

Dialog

Have you ever read a book with too much dialog? Or even a scene or chapter within an otherwise good book where the dialog goes on a bit too long? It feels like reading a screenplay with no stage direction. Talking heads, back and forth, and soon all you have are disembodied voices floating in space. Nothing is grounded in reality.

These passages are like when a child is playing with dolls. Holding a doll in each hand, the child provides the voices and the dialog. Ken and Barbie stand there, or are suspended in mid-air, talking back and forth. For hours.

You’re writing a scene with two people at a kitchen table, a restaurant or driving in a car. Your characters are talking and you, the writer, get wound up in the conversation. Nothing external happens for three pages. Yawn. Make your dolls do something.

How do the characters sound when they’re talking? What are they doing that’s interesting? Where are they? What’s going on around them? What are their facial expressions? And who the heck is talking? Have you ever lost track because of too much dialog, too few dialog tags, and no differentiation in the voices? Did you have to go back up and count down to keep track? ‘This is Bill, this is Susie, this is Bill, this is Susie.’

Too many dialog tags can be even worse, especially if the writer tried to get creative.

“This pail of water is too heavy,” Jill whined.

“You’re never happy,” Jack snapped.

“I hope you fall and break your crown,” Jill blurted out.

“Aaaahhh!” Jack screamed.

A page of that and I’d fling the book across the room. Good thing I don’t have a Kindle yet.

Do your characters have unique voices? Can the reader tell from the line of dialog who is speaking? If so, use as few dialog tags as you can reasonably get away with. And ‘said’ is still the most useful and invisible tag there is. If the reader can’t tell from the words in the dialog and the action beats how something was said, change the dialog or add some action that conveys the tone of voice and manner of speaking. Going for a cheesy dialog tag is the easy way out and doesn’t help the reader hear the voice.

If your characters’ voices are indistinguishable, go back and get inside each character’s head a little deeper. How she sound? What words would he use if he’s an attorney or a plumber? Real people don’t sound exactly alike even if they’re from the same geographic location and have similar backgrounds. Let their personalities come through in their voices.

Read the dialog out loud. Have a friend read it with you to get the sound of two people having a conversation. Read it like a script – no dialog tags or action. See where it falters, bogs down, sounds too similar, gets boring, or doesn’t sound realistic. Are you using dialog to dump info or back story? Don’t. Tighten it up by trimming the realistic but unnecessary bits of conversation, and pare it down to the essentials of what is needed for the story.

On the other hand, have you ever read a book with too little dialog? The narrator describes what is going on. There might even be some action, maybe a spoken line thrown in here and there – the disembodied line. Who was she speaking to? Page after page of narrative, even well written, with no people speaking will drive a reader to fling a book across the room and find something else to do.

There is no formula that says for every 150 words of narrative, you should have 75 words of dialog. Or for every six lines of dialog, you should have one dialog tag.

Each genre, each book, each writer’s style has different requirements and expectations. You will have to find the right balance for your story and your characters. How do you know when you’ve got it right? Your readers will let you know.

Next on Wednesday 7th July: DESCRIPTION

Robb Grindstaff is the managing editor of an international English-language daily newspaper, currently living in the Washington, D.C., area. He is a thirty-year veteran of the daily newspaper business. His newspaper career has taken him from Arizona to North Carolina, Texas to D.C., with a five-year stint in Tokyo.

He fell in love with Australia on dive trip to North Queensland a few years back, and has vowed to return. So be forewarned.

With a career in writing, editing and marketing journalism, he has turned his experience toward fiction, and writes commercial and literary novels and short stories. Sample chapters of two of his novels are available at http://tiny.cc/CarryMeAway and http://tiny.cc/HannahsVoice. He also does free lance fiction editing. You can find him wasting time on Facebook at http://artist.to/robb.grindstaff.writer.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

The ABC is reporting this morning that Wonder Woman’s had a make-over. She’s been getting around in the same weird blue pants and shape-shifting bustier for 69 years, so she does indeed deserves a little fashion moment of her own.

Complete with dark leggings and a sexy leather jacket, she looks more like a vampire-slaying avenger than the all-American sweetheart super-hero she was in 1941. Ok, I think the spurs on her heel may be surplus to requirements, but what would I know.  At least she’s finally been given a top that’s a touch more practical…

Along with the make-over she’s being given more intellect, more resolve, more depth. (She’s going to need them for the current crop of high tech villains!) So I say ‘yay’ to the makeover. Heroines in today’s books aren’t just pretty sidekicks to their alpha male counterparts.  They’re every bit as lethal and more than capable of saving the world in their own right.

Go kick some arse with those black boots, girl!!

Ph:  02 8248 0800