Category: WIP Wednesday

WIP Wednesday: Erin Bevan

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Today I’m delighted to welcome author Erin Bevan to Work In Progress Wednesday.
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MJ: Erin, June 3 is National Repeat Day. What life experience would you like to repeat? 
 
EB: Oh, that’s a tough one. Well, I will say labor is out. I’ve repeated that three times, and I’m good there. I don’t feel the need to experience that again. My wedding day may be a fun one. I think I would tell myself to relax and not worry so much. Or my honeymoon because I really need a vacation! 
 
MJ: If you didn’t write, what would be your creative outlet?
 
EB: Umm. . . is shopping considered creative? 
 
MJ: LOL! Other than writing, what would be your dream job and why?
 
EB: Trophy wife? Haha! No seriously, I’ve always thought working in a flower shop might be kind of fun. But dream job, I don’t really have one. Unless, you want to take that Trophy Wife thing seriously. Just sayin’! 
 
MJ: Okay, you’re cracking me up here. Describe your ideal/dream writing space.
 
EB: Eww!! Something out of a Pottery Barn Magazine. Soft colors–pale blues and creams with punches of color here and there. Very organized and not a space I share with my giant smelly dog or my husband’s engineering books and guitars!! Maybe a large window overlooking beautiful foliage, not the current dead bushes adorning my back yard at the moment! Or a beach. Gazing at a beach everyday would be nice 🙂 
 
MJ: What do you love most about your WIP hero?
 
EB: He’s real. He’s a guy’s guy. He’s hurt and broken but sucks up his sadness and goes on with his life for his kids. He’s got that little bit of cockiness that is just plain sexy. 
 
MJ: What do you least like about your WIP heroine?
 
EB: Least? Hmmm, that’s hard to say. I really like her, too. She’s funny and cute. If I had to pick something, it would be her eagerness to rely on a man, even when she tries not to. 
 
MJ: What genre is your current WIP?
 
EB: Contemporary. 
 
MJ: How did you come up with your hero and heroine’s names?
 
EB: So, everyone has there own formula for coming up with names. Honestly, I just think of people in my past or my family members and use their names. I don’t get too scientific with it. 
 
MJ: How did you choose the setting for your current WIP?
 
EB: Well, I wanted it to be in the South and hot. I also needed the town to be close to railroad tracks for the plot of the story. South, hot, and railroad tracks doesn’t really narrow it down too much since many towns in the south are hot and have railroad tracks, so I just made up a name for a town and based it outside of Atlanta, Georgia. That felt right and from what I have researched I believe the location will fit well with the story line. I hope anyway! I hope I didn’t royally mess up. 
 
MJ: Please share the first five to ten sentences of your current work in progress.
 
EB: The working title is The Night Train 

Prologue

I have to hide the pages of this journal in a place Papa will never think to look. For if he sees this, then I know he will kill me.

                                    -M

Chapter 1

Everything was turning out to be perfect. Just perfect. There wasn’t one detail Lesley had forgotten. There was only one problem. The guest of honor was running late. Really late.

MJ: Great hook! And I understand you have a new release available . . . today!  
EB: Yes, I have two books out now–The Ranch Hand and my latest release, Cupid’s Angels, which came out today.
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MJ: Great cover! How can readers keep up with you? 
EB: I have a website, a blog, and a Facebook page. I’m also on Twitter and Goodreads.
MJ: Thanks for stopping by and best of luck with your new release!

WIP Wednesday: The Plotting Game

“I thought you said you were working.”

I get that a lot when people peer over my shoulder to my computer screen. There might be words there, or there might be a game of Free Cell or Spider Solitaire in progress. And yes, that means I’m working.

I do my best plotting over a game of solitaire. When I was a teenager–long before the age of personal computers–I would sit on my bed for hours and play solitaire.

solitaire

I would also tell myself stories as I played. Whether I was writing “Monkee Stories” (fanfic about the TV show/pop band) or my own “gothic” mystery (a la Mary Stewart), my best ideas came as I manipulated a deck of playing cards.

Old habits die hard, and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Writing Wednesday: My 1st Book Signing

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I had my first book signing this past Saturday.

When I received the author copies of my first book, Moonlight Serenade, I dashed to my local library branch and donated a copy. The Adult Services Librarian asked me if I’d be interested in doing an Author Spotlight and Book Signing. Well, duh! That was a no brainer. We settled on a date.

The library set up a lot promotion. I was on the front page of the county library system website. My appearance was announced in the local newspaper’s events section. The front page of the branch newsletter carried a feature about the book. And there were postcards available at the checkout desk. 2015-05-17 18.10.012015-05-17 18.09.25 2015-05-17 18.09.03

 

Lovely posters were made up and hung.

2015-05-17 08.51.09(Yes, this poster now adorns the door of my office.)

I had read a great blog about what an author should have at a book signing. That was a blessing. (Thank you Ryan Jo Summers!)I purchased clear plastic stands for signage, a business card holder, a postcard/brochure holder, and individually wrapped berry-flavored candies for a heart-shaped glass dish I have. I packed business cards for my local RWA Chapter, as well as membership brochures. I made stickers about my new release, Summer Fling, for the back of my werewolf book postcards. I had a bottle of water and a pack of tissue. I had my books.

I had a nice turn out. One of my critique partners showed up with a small vase of lilacs and “Local Author” stickers for me. The audience asked great questions.lilacs

I came away with a bit of a sore throat, but feeling good about the event.

Aran West, Adult Services Librarian and MJ Compton, Author

Aran West, Adult Services Librarian and MJ Compton, Author

 

Fellow author Christine Wenger reading a passage from Moonlight Serenade

Fellow author Christine Wenger reading a passage from Moonlight Serenade

 

Author MJ Compton with her husband, "TV Stevie"

Author MJ Compton with her husband, “TV Stevie”

Signing books

Signing books

WIP Wednesday: Doreen Alsen

Welcome Doreen Alsen to Work-In-Progress Wednesday! May is National Date Your Mate Month. Can you share either the funniest moment of your dating your husband or the most romantic?

DA:  Eberhard, a.k.a. Mr. Doreen is an avid sailor. On one of our first dates he took me sailing. Now, even though I grew up on the beach, I’d never sailed on a boat bigger than a Sunfish, so it was a brand new experience to go sailing on Cayuga Lake in the spring. It was a total rush and I loved it. But when it came to getting back into the harbor, the outboard motor failed and we had to sail into the utility dock. It was totally too windy but what did I know? So he made me sit on the foredeck and put my feet out to break the collision with the dock. I stuck my feet out ready to cushion the blow  when we rammed right into the dock, nearly crippling me. Like, total ouchiness. Mr. Doreen had no clue. He yelled out “Good job!”  I married him anyway and we’ve had many more hair-raising sailing adventures.
 
MJ: LOL! If you didn’t write, what would be your creative outlet?
 
DA: I come to writing as a singer, with a background in opera and musical theater. I’d be throwing myself at that if I didn’t write.
 
MJ: Other than writing, what would be your dream job? Why?
 
DA: I’d like to own a restaurant. I started waiting on table when I was fourteen and I loved being in that whole milieu, especially meeting all these new people all the time. I grew up in Provincetown, MA and it was all tourists all the time – all these people from all over the world. It was so cool.
 
MJ: Describe your ideal/dream writing space.
 
DA: A screened in porch looking out at Provincetown Harbor. No phones. No music, since being a musician, I can’t listen uncritically.
 
MJ: What do you love most about your WIP hero?
 
DA: Tim was nearly killed by ISIS. Even though he wants to hide away and let life pass him by, he really can’t disengage totally. And he’s a sailor. He might just take the heroine sailing on a date that ends somewhat like what happened to my date with Mr. Doreen
 
MJ: What do you least like about your WIP heroine?
 
DA: was a horrible person in A Taste of Hope, my most recent release from the Wild Rose Press. She’s had to apologize for a lot. She’s lost her dream and she doesn’t deal with it well. She doesn’t see that she’s worthy of love given what she’s done in the past.
 
MJ: What genre is your current WIP?
 
DA: Contemporary Romantic Comedy
 
MJ: How did you come up with your hero and heroine’s names?
 
DA: Tim was a secondary character in my first book, Mike’s Best Bet. I never intended for him to have a book, but he ended up in Lobster Cove, ME, which is a fictional town in Maine invented by the Wild Rose Press. Tim spent summers there. Angelique started out as the hero’s sister in A Taste of Hope. I never intended for her to have a book either, but the two of them demanded their HEA.
 
MJ: How did you choose the setting for your current WIP?
 
DA: Worth A Thousand Words is set in Lobster Cove, ME as part of a multi-author series invented by the Wild Rose Press. My January release Working My Way Back to You is also set in Lobster Cove.
 
MJ: Please share the 1st five to ten sentences of Worth a Thousand Words.
            “I now pronounce you man and wife! You may now kiss your bride.”
            Tim Baldwin watched his best friend, Jeff Myers, wrap his arms around his brand, spankin’ new wife, Beth, a lip lock worthy of the record books.
            Jeff and Beth deserved all the happiness in the world. After years apart, they finally found each other. Tim knew better than anyone how much Jeff suffered after Beth had disappeared. His buddy deserved his happily ever after.
            As for himself, Tim thought, not so much.
MJ: The title of Doreen’s current release is A Taste of Hope (Book 4 of At The End Zone), which can be purchased from the Wild Rose Press website or Amazon.
Doreen, how can readers stay current with your writing?
DA: I have a website and a blog. I’m also on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.
MJ: Thanks again for joining me today, and good luck!
 

The Delta (Reluctant) Hero

(DISCLAIMER: This blog post originally appeared on Cathy McRae’s Bits & Bobs on Feb 11, 2015.)

Fleshing out Stoker Smith, hero of my new release, AND JERICHO BURNED, was a bit of a challenge. You see, he’s a werewolf. And werewolves, as opposed to the general population, are very alpha. Stoker is intimidating, dominating, and confident: all signs of alpha maleness. And yet, he’s not an alpha male. At least, not in his pack. He’s delta. A real middle of the pack kind of guy.

He has no desire to lead anything, mostly because leading would involve thinking and making decisions, and he has many more important things to do than clutter his brain with details other people are more qualified to ponder. Mostly he likes to compose music. He co-writes most of the songs performed by Toke Lobo & The Pack, the country band his pack alpha started. When he meets Lucy Callahan, heroine of the book, even making music takes a backseat to wanting to take her home and start making babies with her. His ultimate bliss is within reach–except for one or two things.

First of all, there’s Lucy. Lucy thinks. She plots and strategizes, and even failure doesn’t stop her from doing it again. Stoker knows he should be flattered when the pack alphas listen to her, because that’s an honor, but he and Lucy are delta. Deltas don’t think. His mate needs to learn that.

Then there’s her sister, Michelle, who is now part of his family. He promised Lucy he’d get Michelle away from that heavily-armed religious cult she joined. The pack alphas don’t want to hear that, so he has to deal with it himself. And while he’s capable, he’d much rather be led.

Except when someone hurts Lucy. Revenge is his and his alone. And that’s what makes it a romance.