Guest Blogging Today

Just to let you know I've a guest post on the great blog run by Joanne Troppello - Here's the link
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The Third Twin, by Dani Sinclair, Reviewed

This is a Mills and Boon Silhouette, ‘Intrigue’ romance. That probably means a lot to those who read these books regularly. As a writer, and a bloke, I read this one to see whether it was a genre I could write. So, bear all that in mind as you read this review.

It is, of course, a love story. But it’s also a lot more. The element of crime is strong, as are the elements of family and social injustice. A lot of readers condemn these books out of hand, assuming they’re poorly written and formulaic. I found this to be neither of those things.

There is suspense, mystery, tension, both sexual and general, and there is, of course, a burgeoning romance. It’s this final element that’s formulaic. The reader understands that the two main protagonists are destined for each other and recognises the barriers placed for them to cross in order to arrive at the essential happy ending (no, I don’t think that’s a spoiler: a romance of this nature has a happy ending; they all do).

As for the writing? It’s tense where it should be, description isn’t overdone, the action scenes are well handled and the relationships, complex and multi-faceted, are presented cleverly. I found the plot a little over-cooked and the author seemed to have found herself in something of a maze, if the denouement narrative is a guide. The ending reminded me a bit of Agatha Christie’s Poirot and his habit of describing his method of detection to the gathered guilty and innocent.

For me, character is the most important factor in a book. The individuals who people these pages are well drawn and various. That they can be slotted into various stereotypes is inevitable, given the narrow guidelines determined by the publishers, but that doesn’t prevent these particular players from being real people. I enjoyed the strong female lead and the object of her desire fitted in well with her hopes with enough potential flaws to make the reader wonder just enough. The minor players were also well constructed.

There is inevitably, given the specifics set by the publishers, rather more telling than showing than is good for the book. And some of the twists and turns seem to have been inserted ‘on the hoof’ rather than planned; but I can hardly complain at that, since I do it all the time myself.

But, in spite of its intended female readership and the slant it must take for such an audience, I enjoyed the read and found it largely satisfying. For those who care, there remains an unanswered question, of course. The answer is that I have already written a book containing much of what we find here, but I couldn’t write for this specific genre. It’s too confined and controlled for the way I write. But that’s not a reflection of the ability of this author; she’s worked within the constraints admirably and turned out a pretty good read that, I imagine, will sit very happily with those who more regularly read this type of fiction.

So, if you enjoy your romance with intrigue, mystery and some threat facing the heroine, you’ll get good value and plenty of entertainment from this one. Give it a go.

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Writing the Blurb

It’s possible some of you won’t know what the ‘blurb’ is, so let’s define it.

Technically, it’s the selection of words you use to appear on the back of the book with the intention of persuading the reading public to commit to it.

With nonfiction, this may be any one of a number of things. But I’m a fiction writer and that’s what I’m discussing here.

Ask yourself a simple question: What do I want my blurb to achieve?

The answer should be that it hooks the reader to the extent that he/she makes a decision to purchase (or borrow) the book.

How do you do that?

Consider the usual circumstances: that potential reader is in a library (which is a less challenging place for many reasons) or, hopefully, in a bookshop. What’s going on in there? Other people, possibly background music, staff hovering, ready to pounce on the promise of a sale, but, most importantly, there are books. Shelves and shelves of books. Books in competition with yours for the customer’s money and attention. Some of them have the dubious advantage of celebrity status (though why the name of a celebrity should sell a novel is a mystery to me: most of them seem vacuous and uninteresting). Some will be by authors already accepted as both entertaining and absorbing. Some will be part of a special deal, offering 3 for the price of 2 or half price deals. So, not only do you have to compete with all these external influences, but you have a limited amount of time to do so.

The purpose of the blurb is to sell your book. You don’t want a synopsis (save that for the agent and/or publisher who need to have more detail to determine the genre and potential market for your book). What you do need is a pithy, short piece of description that will intrigue, fascinate, tempt and impress the reader. Length will be determined either by the publisher (in which case, the blurb may well be written by a staff member anyway), or, more likely, by a combination of genre and design. You may, for example, have excerpts of quotes displayed on the back cover.

So, what can you say in 50 to 150 words that will clutch at the reader’s imagination and make him/her want to explore the interior, flick through the pages, and perhaps, just perhaps, part with ready cash? Use of strong verbs, avoidance of adverbs, and language that says precisely what it’s meant to convey are essential.

A question often works; citing the major dilemma in the book and suggesting some sort of possible conflict/danger/ambition achieved (depending on the genre).

‘Will Susan’s obsession with chocolate stop her turning the rivalry between her and siren sister, Ophelia, to her advantage when it comes to attracting ruggedly handsome Martin?’  (superficial romantic fiction)

A hint of the challenges facing the protagonist(s) will often act as a hook: ‘When James opens an envelope surreptitiously placed on the passenger seat of his locked Bentley, he begins a journey that will ultimately threaten not only his business but the reputations and lives of those he most loves.’ (thriller)

I was recently asked by Fantastic Books Publishing to provide a blurb for the first volume of my fantasy trilogy, which they’re publishing in spring. 50 words in 3 sentences was the brief. Here are a couple of examples:

‘Hatred between a corrupt leader and the rightful heir flares when a crucial prophesy is misread.

Regardless of cost, a fanatical disciple feels compelled to right a decisive wrong in a key ritual.

Against overwhelming odds, a young hunter sets out to rescue his adored betrothed.’

And

‘A false prophesy forces a corrupt leader to menace the rightful heir and start a dangerous mission.

Only the reckless kidnap of the leader’s daughter by a fanatical disciple might correct a vital wrong.

A charismatic young hunter braves hostile seas and unknown lands to free the gifted maiden he loves.’

I’ve no idea whether either of these will be used. But, for me, they illustrated the difficulty of encapsulating the essence of a story running at 200k+ words, with 3 intertwining stories, into so few words. Not, as I say, a synopsis, but a flavour, a taster, a teaser that will encourage readers to read on.

Do they hint enough at potential challenges and conflicts? Do they insert questions into the mind of the reader? Do they, most importantly, encourage the reader to open the book?

I’d love your observations and comments.

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The First Month of 2014

Something of a transitional month for me. Having finally committed to spending more time on writing activities and less on the building of the author platform, I’d also committed to certain activity on Twitter, which lasted until the last week of the month.

Much of my writing time was spent doing the final edit of book 2 of the fantasy trilogy (46 chapters), completing it on the 28^th. Book 1, A Seared Sky: Joinings, is due to be published by Fantastic Books Publishing in spring. I then began to edit book 3. This is a much more time consuming exercise as it’s the first edit of the rough draft, much of which was written for the NaNoWriMo project last November. So, where I could edit a chapter of book 2 in around 20-30 minutes, the chapters of book 3 are taking between 3 and 4 hours each and, so far, I’ve done the first 2. I’m doing a structural and language edit together and following that with a full edit using ProWritingAid. I then give each chapter to my wife to read. Valerie has a great memory, and spots repetitions, typos, anachronisms and inconsistencies. She makes the perfect beta reader and I usually have to do only one final edit after she’s made her suggestions.

I’d set myself a target of submitting 4 short pieces, either stories or poems, to magazines of writing contest each month and I managed to send off 2 stories and 2 poems to contests. Of these, 1 story and the 2 poems were written this month. I also wrote and posted two short autobiographical pieces to the excellent ReadWave site. These submissions are up to 800 words each and may be factual, opinion, memoir or short story. If you click on the site title above, it’ll take you to the relevant page.

My writing group, Hornsea Writers, decided to celebrate 25 years of being by designing a group blog and I contributed to that. If you click on the group name, it’ll take you to that site.

I read and reviewed 4 books, though one of those reviews will actually follow this post, as I wrote it this morning, having finished the book last night.

And I updated the Writing Contests page 3 times. I’m due to do another update this weekend. It’s a popular page and receives a lot of visitors. If you know of a contest I haven’t listed there, by all means let me know. (there’s a ‘contact me’ link at the top of the page.) I only list contests with cash prizes at least 20 times the cost of entry, by the way.

So, not a bad start to the year so far. Let’s hope the output increases as the year progresses. How are things going for you in 2014? Drop us a comment and share your success or other news.

The chart, explained:

Writing - initial creation of stories, blog posts, reviews and longer works.

Editing - polishing of all written work to make it suitable for readers.

Research - discovery of info for story content, market research, contests and blog posts.

Reading - books and writing magazines.

Networking - emails, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and comments.

Admin - story submission, blog posting, marketing, organisation, tax, and general admin tasks.

The Writer’s Priorities. Part 2

Portrait of Samuel Johnson commissioned for Henry Thrale's Streatham Park gallery (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Timing, they say, is all. An odd coincidence occurred today. I was due to write this post, as a follow-up to last week’s effort. But, I’d also determined I would enter at least 4 writing contest during the month, and I’d only managed 2 entries by yesterday. In preparing for the other two, I went online and discovered at the top of my emails an alert to the Writers’ Village blog I follow for its excellent advice and content. The subject matter was ‘A Simple Idea That Can Sell a MillionBooks’. Bearing in mind what I said last week about money as a motivator, I thought I should at least read the piece. If you click on the title, it’ll take you to it.

It was one of those posts, of which there are many these days, promoting the idea that money can be made from writing by doing a great deal of it and getting it published, more or less regardless of the quality. It’s a persuasive argument for a lot of would-be writers and there’s evidence that this approach does, indeed, earn its better practitioners money. I had to make a comment, of course.

So; back to the theme of this post. Priorities. Do you know what yours are? Are you driven by money? James Boswell, in his Life of Samuel Johnson, wrote, ‘No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money’. However, Samuel Johnson himself wrote, ‘The only end of writing is to enable the readers better to enjoy life, or better to endure it’.

My own primary aim is to increase my number of readers. It’s been suggested that the easiest way to do so is to charge nothing for the books. I do have a short story offered free; But, Baby, It’s Cold Outside is a bit of seasonal cheer to make readers smile. But it’s been proved, many times, that in general terms, people place little value on something that has no worth placed on it by the producer. So, I compromise and price my books at what seems a fair cost for the piece on offer. Before I place a piece to market, I spend as much time as is needed to make it the very best I can. My priority has been quality at the expense of quantity.

Perhaps I’ve been too concerned with this aspect, since it’s clear that many readers are not really concerned with the quality of the writing. I’m not sure, to be honest. But, in the interests of discovering whether my writing can stand the rigours of quantity and remain both accessible and readable, I’ve decided to devote this year to more in the way of quantity.

So far, I have 7 books available, published over a period of 5 years. This year I aim to produce a further 4 titles. Nothing like the quantity that many of the genre/formula-fitting writers produce, of course. But a challenge, if quality is to be maintained.

So, my priority for this year is to write, and publish, 4 new titles. This means that certain other activities will necessarily have to be curtailed. Much less time with Twitter, Facebook and the other social networks to which I contribute. But not a complete cessation, of course. I will still need to let people know about my writing, after all.

Last week, when I wrote the first part of this post, I had little idea where I would end up. I’ve now set my aims. Do you have targets, aims, priorities in your writing life? If so, please share them with us here.

Oh, and I will try to maintain a post each week here on the blog, of course.

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