GUEST BLOGGER: Caridad Pineiro

Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you! It’s one of my favorite times of year, although the idea of a love for all time certainly takes on new meaning when you write about vampires. LOL!

There are lots of challenges to envisioning how two people will react to spending millennia together or in the case of the hero and heroine from FURY CALLS, the next novel in THE CALLING vampire series, how they will manage to put aside old grievances to have a happy ending.

I knew the relationship in FURY CALLS was going to be a difficult one since I first introduced the characters years ago in TEMPTATION CALLS. Blake, the hero, had accidentally turned Meghan, the heroine, into a vampire. Meghan has hated Blake ever since and yet, beneath all the fury of her hate, there lingered other emotions for Blake.

An interesting conflict, made even more interesting by the fact that Blake is not your typical hero. He’s a bad boy in some ways including dressing the role with lots of black leather and chains. But that bad boy exterior actually hides a gentle man who has had a lot of pain in his life and who is searching for love after centuries of being alone.

It only makes it harder for him that the one true love of his life is a woman who hates him for taking her life.

As a writer, I love imperfect heroes. They are so much more fun! There’s something about making heroes like Blake and Meghan rise above their fears and weaknesses to really do something special. I think readers truly enjoy that and even more, can identify with such characters because they, too, have had to overcome their fears and weaknesses in life.

I knew that when Blake and Meghan first came to life years ago that they deserved a full story that would explore all those conflicts. Even more importantly, I wanted to do a story that would let Blake shine as a hero because he is so wonderfully complex. It was truly enjoyable to see Blake rise to the occasion (and in more ways that one!)

Although FURY CALLS is a romance, there is lots of action because as a writer, and as a reader, I enjoy books with a solid suspense line. In FURY CALLS, the suspense revolves around an Asian vampire – a chiang shi – who has come to New York City to create problems for the resident vampires. When bodies start turning up, Blake, Meghan and the rest of their undead friends are going to have to find out what is wreaking havoc in their underworld.

I think the suspense elements in THE CALLING are what help readers who don’t normally enjoy vampire books cross over to the paranormal area. Likewise, those readers who are paranormal fans get a kick out of seeing real world suspense elements woven into otherworldly tales, especially in dark, edgy stories.

I want to thank TRRC for giving me an opportunity to tell you the story behind the story about FURY CALLS. Anyone who leaves a comment on this blog before midnight Friday, February 13th will be eligible to win a CALLING t-shirt, copy of DESIRE CALLS and SOLDIER’S SECRET CHILD. The winner will be chosen at random from all the blog comments.

GUEST BLOGGER: Cat Adams (Cathy Clamp and C.T. Adams)

Hi everybody!

Thanks for inviting us to blog. I hope you’ll be glad you stopped by.

One of the things we’re asked about most often is how we manage co-author collaboration. It’s not easy! (LOL). While Cathy and I are the best of friends, we do occasionally have creative differences. And over the years we’ve found out that we have very different work styles.

When we first started out we tried writing alternate chapters.

It didn’t work.

Because, while Cathy plots everything out ahead of time and her characters da**ed well will do what they are supposed to. I don’t. I let me characters lead me through what winds up being the plot. So she would write a perfectly planned chapter and, figuring she knew exactly where I was going to take it, would plan out in her head where to go in her next go ‘round. Only to find that I hadn’t gone that direction at all. I didn’t mean to frustrate her. But it did. And I really couldn’t write her way.

So we tried something different.

We talk about the books, explore the characters personalities, discuss possible plot points and twists, relationships and subplots. Then we each begin a first draft of a separate book.

When the draft is done we each hand our draft off to the other for edits. And we each begin ripping into the other’s work, making changes, tagging things that we don’t think make sense, expanding some things, subtracting others. Then we hand it back. And the arguments discussions begin.

It works pretty well . . . with a few refinements.

There are some things in every single book we are never going to agree about. We could discuss it until doomsday, and neither of us would change our mind. (Not that either of us is strong willed or stubborn, LOL). So, when we hit one of those points the primary author gets the final decision. They can veto changes.

While the process we use wouldn’t work for everyone, we’ve found it DOES work for us. With the added bonus that we can each be working on different things, doubling our output. Since we each have separate strengths, the editing process inevitably strengthens the book. Too, having a co-author and business partner gives us the opportunity to have one person handling various business or family responsibilities while the other is writing. Because, let’s face it, family crises DO come up, and they’re never convenient.

For example: Today Cathy is in the throes of a deadline for the next Sazi book (March 1st). Galleys came in on the August release (Cold Moon Rising - another Sazi under C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp); we’ve got a February release that we’re doing promo for (Magic’s Design -- the first book under our new pen name, Cat Adams), and we’re in the process of updating our website. So, this weekend she is writing furiously while I’m here blogging, then moving on to editing the galleys and hopefully working on the website, before working on the draft that’s due May 1st for our brand new urban fantasy series.

See, it works . . . for us.

In my opinion, the biggest thing to keep in mind, in any collaborative writing venture, is that you respect the other person. That means you have to cage your ego and do the following: 1. Don’t ever dismiss their suggestions out of hand. You think about them. AND2. Keep a tight rein on your temper. AND 3. Be tactful and respectful when suggesting changes to the other person. After all, you’re both working for the same goal -- producing the best book you possibly can, so that the readers will be moved, thrilled, and put it on the "keeper shelf" with the rest of their most treasured reads.

Voila. That’s it. The secret recipe.

Happy writing.

C.T. Adams

Karen Ranney speaks on Word Noise

WORD NOISE

When I finish working for the day I’m exhausted. I’ll avoid the phone and anything that requires me to talk to another human being because I don’t want to hear anything else. Keep in mind, however, that I haven’t actually spoken to anyone all day – I’ve been working.

When I read, I hear the words in my mind. When I write, I hear words in the same way. I hear the rhythm of them, the cadence of them, and the music of them. I hear thoughts exactly the same way I hear words and at the end of the day I’m tired of word noise.

I once mentored some adults who were learning to read. One gentleman in particular always remains in my mind. He was in his sixties and wanted to learn to read so that he could read stories to his grandchildren. He sounded out the words aloud, and even after he became more proficient, continued to do so. One day he finally confided in me the reason why. “I don’t like to hear the words in my head,” he said.

Do you think that people who like to read have somehow become accustomed to the “words in their head”? Or that it’s a comforting feeling, something they crave? Is that the reason why, in one family, one child may love to read and another avoid it like it’s peas or broccoli?

Do writers hear too many words in their head? Are we poor souls who have to have some place to put all these words or we’ll go a little nuts?

When circumstances do prevent me from writing, even for a day or two, it’s like putting a car on blocks and revving the engine. In other words, the brain doesn’t stop manufacturing stories; it just lacks an acceptable creative outlet for them. So, the mole becomes cancer, the toenail fungus - leprosy, the late phone call – an accident, and the noncommittal response – something’s horribly, terribly, awfully wrong.

My family and friends have pleaded with me to always keep writing; it’s the only way to cope with the word noise in my head without driving them nuts.

*Post a comment to this blog post for your chance to win a signed copy of THE SCOTTISH COMPANION as well as THE DEVIL WEARS TARTAN * The Devil Wears Tartan will be mailed in October.

A great Book!!!!

HIDDEN by Shelley Sheppard Gray
Read my review here:
http://www.theromancereadersconnection.com/reviews2/grayshellleyshepard1608.html


This book is wonderfully written, and deeply emotional. HIDDEN tells the story of Anna Metzger who runs to her Amish friend Katie and her family's Amish Bed and Breakfast. Anna is unsure of herself and her life, but longs to feel safe again. Within Katie's home and with Katie's family Anna begins to find the person she truly wants to be, and the place she feels she belongs. But the past is not going to go away. And Katie's brother Henry isn't too happy to have Anna staying with them. At least at first. Has Anna found her home finally? While in hiding will Anna find her true self?

This is a Christian fiction with romance and I'd suggest everyone read it. It's a great story. You will be glad to have read it!

If you've read the book please tell me your thoughts?
WendyK

Truth meets fiction?

Over at the TRRC yahoogroup, (just visit www.theromancereadersconnection.com and click the link to join or go to, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TRRC ) Anyway over there we got to talking about meeting spouses. And one poster has a story that would make an awesome romance book someday. It got me to wondering, just how many romance stories are based at least in some small part, on fact? How many authors take stories of themselves or someone they know finding love and fictionalize it? Most aren't listed as "based on fact" or "a true story of love". It's all cast as fiction, but is it not possible to be truth? Is that part of what makes us love these stories so very much? The fact that somewhere someone could meet and fall in love in just this way? Or find a love once lost?

Do you know of any stories that are based at least in part, on a true story? Do you know any authors who have taken their own stories of love and wrote them into a fictional tale?


WendyK