A Gentle Black Moment?

Anyone who reads romance will be familiar with what a black moment is – you know, that part of the book when all seems lost and you wonder whether the characters will find their happy ending?

Or if psychological thrillers are more your thing, it's that part when that psycho killer has killed one too many people and simply must be stopped but the detective is almost at the point of despair of ever catching said killer.

In a movie it’s the penultimate scene where the score goes all crazy and you're sitting at the edge of your seat wondering how on earth the goodie is going to triumph after being pummelled to within an inch of his life!

In most romances (because that’s what I read and where I get most of my black moment fixes) this most often is the part where doors are slammed, huge hiccupping tears are shed (or in the alpha hero’s part, held in with ruthless control, dammit!), where bags are packed, and, unfortunately, when the b*tch ex-girlfriend swans off with the cat-got-the-cream smile because she thinks she's won the hero away from the deserving heroine.

But guess what I discovered recently?

There can be such a thing as a gentle black moment. I know, it sounds like a contradiction in terms, but it’s exactly what happened. There were no tantrums (from either hero or heroine), yes there was a b*tch ex-girlfriend, but she was disposed of adequately by the heroine (yayy!). What struck me was how the black moment came about. The H&h weren't standing at the opposite ends of the room shouting at each other, although she was busy glaring at him. He took her in his arms, asked what was wrong and she said simply, "I'm not happy.” His next words? "I will change."

Wow.

Right there was some powerful writing for me. Of course they had a lot to work through before finding their HEA and the whole scene was very intense, but I love, love, love the way the writer shifted away from the usual crash-boom-bang black moment! For me, it took the refrain "it's all in the execution" to a whole new level, while of course, making me totally green with envy.

So, tell me, how do you like your black moments? If you answer and ask nicely, I might just tell you the title of the book :-)

New Voices - Competition Fever

There's nothing like a competition to bring out any latent obsessive-compulsive tendencies. Do you find yourself regularly checking the Romance is Not Dead site and placing the entries in 'most popular' order?

Even though you haven't entered yet?

If you're still writing/polishing and have neglected your usual blog surfing we hope these links will help save you a little time - we've scoured the web for the best competition tips and news stories and while this may fuel your fever the good news is that it will run its course (although it will get worse before it gets better I'm afraid) and be out of your system by ooh, about mid-November...

Links:

Jessica Hart's top tips

Michelle Styles' summary of her competition workshop advice

Sharon Kendrick's competition post about breathing life into your characters

Jackie Ashenden's post from the rival gang, the Sassy Sisters (We love them really ;-)

And not forgetting the official New Voices site tips

Need word count clarification? Click here.

Once you've polished and uploaded (and had a stiff drink) head over to Lacey's blog and ask to be put up on her wall of fame.

Then sit back and try not to worry about whether it should have been a comma or a semi-colon in that last paragraph. It's time to let it go.

And to start obsessing about your second chapter instead ;-)

Just in case, because you never know...

If you get worried because your entry hasn't appeared on the site yet, have a read of this explanation

And for all those people concerned because of the glitches in the ratings, this comment from Bethan Hilliard is interesting - "The rating at the moment doesn't go towards who gets through to the next round and who does. Romance HQ will be choosing the Top Ten which we'll then ask you guys to vote on. So, no tactical rating possible at this stage!"

So, good luck to the afflicted is all we can say.

Minx Lorraine Wilson has uploaded her entry "In Too Deep" and is not stressing at all about it. She merely asked Lacey to pass her a paper bag because she wanted to do some, um shopping...

Okay, she's actually scared witless ;-)

Keep a look out next week for more Minx entries to come.

Author Spotlight: Jasmine Black

It's that time of the week and once again we're thrilled to welcome another author, Jasmine Black to the blog. Jasmine also happens to be one of my CP, so please extend a very special welcome to her.

Take it away, Jasmine...

Where were you in your writing career 5 years ago?
Oh, boy. I was just at the start of my romance career. I’ve known my whole life that I wanted to write but I never really knew what. I tried poetry, greeting cards, children’s books…you name it. But my mother-in-law introduced me to romance books in 2004 and I was hooked. In 2005 I decided to try writing a romance novel. And it just clicked.

Where did you get the idea from for this particular book?
I’m not really sure, but I had this thought that I wanted to write a story with a fireman hero. The only plot that would come to me was a charity auction for a date with the firemen. Okay so that has been done and done time and again. No other plot would come to me. For some reason this was my hero’s plot. But how to make it fresh? Then when I start to think about writing a M/M romance the fireman jumped into my mind. He started telling how he was gay and right before the fireman’s charity auction, he came out. There was a big story in the paper about how a gay fireman was participating in the auction and the story just took off from there.
How did I get the idea of writing a story about a fireman? Of course firemen are sexy. I had never done one. Never even thought about it. I have plenty of cop stories. So one day I was out of town to visit family when there was this bucket shake going on in the street. And Lord, there were all these hot and sexy firemen taking money. Oh, my! I just knew I had to write one. I guess it took Wade a bit to confide in me his story, but I am so glad he did.

Where do you hope to be in 5 years time?
I hope in five years from now I’ll have a nice size backlist and a group of avid followers. I would love for readers to email me and tell me they enjoy reading my work. I would also love to have a YA book in print. I have started it, but I haven’t had time to work on it lately. So I hope one day my vision for this YA book will be fruitful.

Which was the last book you read that you wish you'd written?
The Warriors’ series. I could have so written about cats. I have way too many of them. Plus, I love the books. Great reads. hehe.

Was there any particular author or book that made you want to be a writer?

I’ve always wanted to write even though I didn’t read much as a child. I do remember being sucked into The Little House series one summer as a child. And as a teen I loved V.C. Andrew. But I think I really wanted to write romance when I fell in love with.

Do you find writing love scenes giggle-worthy or cringe-worthy?
Neither. I find them highly erotic. I love writing them. They are my best scenes.

What's the most romantic moment of your life so far?
I’ve had flowers given to me, been proposed to and taken to nice restaurants, but I have to say this popped in my head when I read the question. I’m going to get a bit personal here. My hubby and I didn’t marry for love. We married because we had a kid together, lived together, and it was the next logical step. The first year of our marriage was a living H E double L. I have never met a man so selfish in my life. He would spend money on himself like crazy without ever thinking of me or the kids. But things changed. One, we lost a large chunk of income. And two, we grew to love each other. So it was a couple Christmas’ after we got married and we were low on cash. I had this old stove that one burner worked good, one so-so and the other two not at all. For Christmas that year my hubby gave me a brand new flat top stove. He had been saving a bit of money from each check for months to give me a new stove. To me, that was the most romantic thing of my life. For months he had given up little things like the soda and candy bar everyone gets so he could put money back and surprise me. I will never forget that.

What do you wish you'd known about being an author before you were pubbed?

How important it is to research pen names before you choose one. hehe. If I had done my homework instead of just picking out one and going with it, I would not have chosen a porn star’s name.

What's the best writing advice you've ever been given?

It’s only one opinion, don’t give up. You know it took me five years to fully comprehend this. Really. I’d already published stories before I really got this. It hit me one weekend as I was reading a couple of short stories from one publisher. As I read three or four stories from the same house it hit me that while I liked the stories, mine would never work for this publisher. Not that it’s a good or bad thing. Just that this publisher produced a certain type of story. I got to thinking after that because my plots usually break a rule of romance writing somewhere, somehow. I kept getting rejected from the same houses. And the rejects were on the lines of, your writing is good, but your story is not for us. And it is true. Publishers and editors are only people with an opinion of what they like to read. Just because one editor doesn’t like your writing style doesn’t mean no one will. So don’t give up. And if you really want to publish with a certain house, then gear your story to that house and what they like. I finally did contract with one of those houses, but only after I discovered what they wanted and gave it to them.

Tell us about your latest release.

I just had a new story, Say it Again, come out Aug, 28 from Silver Publishing. This story just tears at my heart and leaves me thinking about the characters for days after I read it. It’s my first attempt at M/M romance too.

One month before the annual fireman’s charity auction, fireman, Wade Hartman announces he’s gay. This year when he strolls down the catwalk, he wants to leave with a man. When the only bid he receives is a pity bid, Wade’s crushed, but he lets his friend take him to dinner anyway.

Real estate conglomerate, Jared Kessler’s loved Wade for years. So when he reads the article about the fireman’s charity event, he knows he has to be the winning bidder. Mistaken as an unwanted bidder, Jared refuses to give up. He wants Wade, if only for one night.

One innocent dinner turns into fiery passion. But one night isn’t enough for Wade. He wants Jared for real. The more Wade pushes, the closer he comes to discovering the deep, dark secrets of Jared’s past. Can love conquer Jared’s fears or are his wounds too deep for even love?

What’s next for you?
I think I might write a few more M/M romances. But I do intend to still write M/F. I have two stories contracted with future release dates. I don’t have any characters pressing me right now to tell their story. Hopefully someone will speak up soon, but in the meantime I have plenty of editing to keep me busy.

You can keep in touch with Jasmine by visiting her blog: http://www.jasmineblackromance.blogspot.com/
Link to Say It Again - here

Minx on Monday - Just write it!

I'm an unashamed online courseaholic and an avid reader of books and blogs about writing craft, but the thing I've learnt most from - is writing.
I'm a natural panster (write without a synopsis or plan, just go for it), and find that this method works for me. That's not to say I don't plot, but not usually until I've got some way into the story first - I define turning points in the story and write towards them.
But before I learnt anything about writing, I wrote. And reading back over these early attempts, they ain't half bad. Okay, there's too many characters. And my earlier manuscripts rambled all over the place, in an unfocused manner. But the first thing I had to learn was that I could write a full size manuscript. Before I wrote it, I didn't know that I could.
After I wrote my first book, I learned about POV. That was a bit of a revelation, I was head hopping all over the place. Then I learned about conflict. I was pretty good naturally about external conflict, but internal conflict was something I hadn't even really thought about. I had to learn it. And seeing the lack of it in my writing was the perfect lesson!
I know lots of writers build boards of pictures, but this doesn't work for me. Instead, I will find a picture and use that to help keep a location clear in my mind and for inspiration. As I write more, my way of writing has changed, I now focus on each scene - does it have a purpose? If it doesn't, its reworked till it does, or culled.
So the thought I'd like to leave everyone with today is that you don't have to know the rules to write. You just need to dive in and write something. Once you've done that, you can rewrite it, see the gaps, learn the things that are lacking, and fix it.
The trick is to start - for once you've completed that first manuscript, whatever its faults, you are a writer. And if you're determined, the rest will follow!

Kate Hardy's Guide to Time Management for Writers

Today we'd like to welcome Kate Hardy to our blog. Some have called her super scary for her organisational and planning skills but they certainly pay off as regards her productivity for Harlequin Mills and Boon and we can only say she's super nice for sharing her advice today...

First of all, thank you very much to the Minxes for inviting me over to talk about a subject dear to my heart – time management for writers.

Time management? Don’t you just sit and write when the muse takes you? Er, not if you write six books a year for Mills & Boon, you don’t. You have deadlines, and that means planning your time sensibly so you can meet said deadlines.

And planning is all about knowing how you work and what you’re comfortable doing. You might be the kind of writer who plans everything out and does a set amount each day to hit your deadline (aka the tortoise approach); or you might be better when you’re working on a screaming deadline, so you think about the book for ages and then write the whole thing in a ridiculous amount of time (aka the hare approach). Both approaches are absolutely valid; the trick is to find out which one suits you best. (And be aware that it might change depending on your circumstances…!)

For me, because I write for two different M&B lines (Modern Heat and Medical Romance), I write six books a year. That gives me 8 weeks per book – minus a week for thinking, another for revisions, and another to clear my head between books/deal with the unexpected, so that’s five weeks to write 50,000 words, or 2,000 words a day with two days off a week. Not quite as scary as it sounded at first, is it?

Whichever approach you take, there are some tips that can help you work smarter rather than harder:

· Build in extra time for the unexpected (especially if you have kids – if you have more than one, it’s more likely that they’ll get that lurgy one after the other rather than all at the same time)

· Give yourself time to think, research and edit

· Work at your ‘best time’ when you can (are you a lark who likes working before everyone in the house gets up, or an owl who’s best late at night? – but you do have to take your personal circumstances into account, so as I’m a lark I never get my ‘best’ working time during school termtime)

· Do the admin in your ‘worst time’ (filing, PLR/ALCS, tax receipts – also note that doing it daily in smaller chunks is less painful and doesn’t take up creative headspace. Plus you can always write blog posts in advance and schedule them)

· Schedule in some exercise (aka creative thinking time) – it’ll give you a break and you’ll come back mentally refreshed

· Know your personal time-sucks (which one’s yours? I’ll admit to email, facebook and certain forums and blogs, playing Boggle when I’m stuck, and research that goes off at tangents – and this is why I dare not do Twitter, cough) and plan round them. That means using a kitchen timer to remind you when you’ve spent half an hour playing; or working in chunks of 500-750 words, with scheduled breaks for time-sucks (thanks to Michelle Styles for that tip); or, as a last resort, unplugging your modem or working on a laptop without a net connection to make sure you don’t get distracted.

Kate Hardy’s latest book, Red Wine and Her Sexy Ex, is the first in a duo about the Lefèvre brothers. It’s available now at bookshops, Amazon or at the M&B website. Keep up to date with Kate's latest news via her blog

We're very much looking forward to welcoming Kate back to our blog on the first of October when she'll be guest blogging for us about research.