Author Spotlight: India Grey

The Minxes have been looking forward to this day for aaaggggeesss! Why? Because we have serious Minx-Love for India Grey!!! Her books go straight to the Keeper Shelves of all the Minxes and we are thrilled, thrilled, thrilled to welcome her here today. Ahem. Okay, before we scare her off with our manic heroine-worship, here's India...

Where were you in your writing career 5 years ago?

Five years ago I had no writing career, and didn’t really imagine that I ever would have one! The previous year (September 2004) I’d seen in our local paper that a new writer’s group was being set up in the town where I live. Deep down I very much wanted to go, but thanks to three small children and a part-time job - which often involved evenings - I told myself I had neither the time nor the energy. Of course, what I really didn’t have was the confidence, and when I finally admitted that I had to spend ages going through our recycling bin to find the newspaper and get the number of the person running it. Who turned out to be Penny Jordan.

In January 2005 she encouraged me to have a go at writing the opening chapter of a Mills&Boon Modern/Presents (just like New Voices!) which I did, and emailed off to her. Unbeknownst to me, she then sent it straight to her editor at Richmond, whose feedback was astonishingly positive. The editor asked me to keep going and let her have three chapters and a synopsis as soon as I could. It was an enormous thrill, but also a complete shock, and the start of eighteen months of hard work as I negotiated several dead ends and wrong turnings, and tried to get my head around the fact that something that for years had been nothing but wishful thinking was finally looking like a possibility.

Where did you get the idea from for this particular book?

Ah, that’s easy because Emily’s Innocence is part of the Balfour Legacy continuity series, which means an outline of the story was given to me by the editorial team. However, although the idea was easy to come by, actually bringing it to life and making it mine was quite a challenge.

Where do you hope to be in 5 years time?

Gosh, usually looking ahead to the end of the week is a bit overwhelming for me, so thinking ahead five whole years feels terrifying. I’m the kind of person who is deeply intimidated by change, so I hope things are still pretty much the same.

Which was the last book you read that you wish you'd written?

I recently re-read E.M. Delafield’s Diary of a Provincial Lady, which I adore and admire in equal measure. E.M Delafield was the original Bridget Jones – only older, provincial (the clue to that is in the title) and married, which gives me loads more in common with her than urban singleton Bridget. Although the book is set 80 years ago, in an era that has vanished forever, the humour is still utterly sparkling. I really wish I’d written it (preferably with a fountain pen, with tea in a rose-patterned china cup on the walnut writing desk beside me.) I also think that, were she alive today, Delafield would make a world-class blogger.

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

The first romance book that I ever read was Imogen by Jilly Cooper when I was ten, and from the moment I turned the first page I felt like I’d stumbled into a world where I belonged. From then on I devoured all her books, and if I couldn’t be a slender blonde show-jumping prodigy or a wickedly sexy journalist, I decided the next best thing was to be the person that created the vivid, racy, romantic world they lived in.

Do you find writing love scenes giggle-worthy or cringe-worthy?

At risk of sounding a bit weird, I actually find writing them really intense. They’re always the scenes where the emotional threads are pulled tightest and where each character’s conflict is at its most heightened. If a love scene is difficult to write it often means that the relationship between the characters isn’t really working and some back-tracking is required to fix what’s wrong, so it’s a bit of a testing point in the writing process. And since it’s also where past and present, body and mind, internal and external conflict collide, there’s so much to think about that there’s no time to giggle or cringe. I do often feel in need of a glass of wine and a cigarette when I get to the end though. (And I’m a confirmed non-smoker!)

What's the most romantic moment of your life so far?

*blushes* I would get into SERIOUS trouble if I broadcast that on the internet…

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

Hmmm… that’s a difficult one, since I didn’t really have any expectations (only profound gratitude!) I suppose I wish I’d known that creativity is only a small part of the job, and administrative organization, time-management and iron self-discipline are also vital. I would have worked harder to acquire those skills earlier on in life, before I became a completely hopeless case.

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

Write something. And then submit it. (That came from Penny Jordan and without having it spelt out to me I’d still be failing to work the till properly and giving the wrong change in Laura Ashley)

Tell us about your latest release.

My latest release is the third book in the Balfour Legacy series, which is about the eight daughters of wealthy, powerful Oscar Balfour. My heroine is Emily, the adored baby of the family, who has lived a charmed and sheltered life and dedicated herself to becoming a prima ballerina. She’s serious, focused, determined and she applies the same rigorous expectations she has of herself to those around her, which means louche, idle playboy Luis Cordoba is top of the list of people she disapproves of.

I love those kind of ‘opposites attract’ stories. It’s enormously satisfying to take two characters who, on the surface, seem to be the antithesis of each other, and gradually unpick this and show how they actually complement each other perfectly. I find that kind of psychology in romance fascinating, and creating characters that fit together, psychologically, is one of the most interesting parts of the job for me.

What’s next for you?

The book I’m working on at the moment is a bit different (and a lot exciting) in that it’s part of a duo which features the same hero and heroine in both books. I’m loving writing it as it’s giving me scope to develop the characters and the world of the book a little more deeply than usual – and as people who read my blog might know, I always go waaaaay over the maximum word count in my books, so I’m liking the freedom of a longer story. However, it also means there’s more chance to take a wrong turning. As I’m discovering…

You can keep in touch with India by visiting http://www.indiagrey.blogspot.com/ or
http://www.indiagrey.com/

Buy Emily's Innocence

It's been a blast having you here today, India. Many, many thanks :)

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!