Another Writing Break - oops!

 
Another week without writing but I do have a good excuse - really!

You may remember from a previous blog post (you know, the one with the Vikings) that we are celebrating my husband's big birthday this year and in order to make it last as long as possible, we have been to Switzerland for a week. As it was also our fifth anniversary, we decided to push the boat out and stay at the fabulous Alpenrose hotel in Wengen.

The journey, once we'd flown into Geneva, involved five trains (including the Panoramic Train from Montreux) and I have to say the Swiss trains are amazing and put ours to shame. What a wonderful way to travel.

Even in the rain, the scenery was stunning but what we hadn't bargained for, as we wound our way through the Alps, was for the rain to turn to heavy snow! The scenery was transformed into a winter wonderland... and then the little cog train we were travelling on broke down!

Before we could start to wonder which log cabin we'd be spending the night in, with super Swiss efficiency, the rescue train came to get us, we piled into a new train and managed to arrive at our beautiful village destination only a little late.

The following morning we woke up to this sight from our balcony as most of the snow had melted in the valley.

Over the next few days, we walked, we went up the mountains in cable cars, we rode 'trot bikes' (scooters with brakes) down mountain paths, we looked at the wild flowers, and we ate way too much apple strudel!

The most spectacular thing we did, though, had to be the journey through the Eiger mountain on a train to the highest station in Europe at the top of the Jungfrau. Now most of you will know that I hate tube trains but somehow this didn't affect me in the same way and to step out onto the glacier, once we'd reached our destination, was incredible.

We walked to a mountain hut where the air was so thin we had to stop every few minutes to get our breath. It was worth it just to leave the crowds behind.

I've never heard such perfect silence.

On our last day, the snow came back. We'd had a great holiday and the return journey by rail was just as impressive as on the way... until we reached the airport. After an hour and a half delay, we were at last sitting in our seats, buckling our seatbelts, when the captain came onto the intercom. This is what he said:

"Ladies and gentleman. I am sorry for the delay. It was due to the lightning strike in Greece."

As well as hating tubes, I am a nervous flier and couldn't believe his insensitive words. Which plane was struck? This one? Another one? I nearly got off and walked. It wasn't until I got home that I found out the lightning strike was an unexpected strike by air traffic controllers! A lesson in choosing your words carefully.

A little bit of writing news before I go. For anyone interested, you still have time to read the two stories I have in The People's Friend Special - both written for the lovely illustrations my editor sent me.

 



How to Write the Perfect Rom-Com - Guest Post Alison May

Today I'd like you to give a warm welcome to my guest, Alison May. She is the author of Choc Lit novel 'Sweet Nothing' and her second novel, 'Midsummer Dreams', is out in June. Alison is not only a rom-com author but a creative writing teacher and I decided she would be the ideal person to put this question to - what makes the perfect rom-com?

 

Over to you, Alison.

Ah the rom-com. It’s a classic form in movies, books and television but what is it, and what elements make up a good one? Today I’m going to don my white coat of academic endeavour, head down to the great laboratory of writerly whatnots and do some analysis. 

The first element of a good rom-com is, of course, the rom, traditionally short, in this context, for romance, not roman. Although a roman-com would be awesome. It would probably involve people called Romanus going around the house.

Anyway, romance, in my terribly humble opinion, is always born out of the characters doing the romancing. A hero doesn’t just need to be dishy and available – although both of those help – he needs to be the right hero for this one specific heroine. The pair either have to fill a gap in the other’s character or challenge some flaw in the other. So for a heroine like Cora, in Cora’s Christmas Kiss, who is obsessed with status, and achievement, her perfect hero could either be someone who helps her gain a sense of achievement or it could be someone who encourages her to relax and maybe be a wee bit less goal-oriented from time to time.

Good romance also needs obstacles. At least it does in MadeUpStoryWorld. In real-life, meeting a nice guy or girl, asking them out, going out, having a nice time and getting together is utterly lovely, but, as anyone who’s ever been bored to death listening to a friend recount the details of their perfect date will know, it’s also really dull. Again the obstacles in a really good romance should be linked to the characters. If you have a confident and normally outspoken heroine you can’t give her an obstacle that could easily be resolved if she just mentioned it to somebody. Well you can, but you risk your poor reader throwing your book across the room in disgust. And just imagine that when they throw the book they strain their shoulder, forcing them to take time off work, and because this key staff member is off work their company loses out on a big contract, forcing them to make first your disgruntled reader, and then the entire workforce, redundant. It could happen. Poorly thought out plot points have consequences, you know. You have been warned.

Time now for the second element of the great rom-com formula: the com. Comedy is a tricky beast – utterly subjective, and liable to become entirely unfunny when subjected to close inspection. I’m a naturally analytical writer. I tend to break stories and characters down and think a lot about the building blocks of a novel, but with comedy that approach fails me. The one and only piece of advice I can offer is this: if it makes you laugh then the chances are that somewhere out there will be a reader who feels the same. The second one and only piece of advice is this: when writing a novel you will have to read your own words lots of times – certainly three or four, possibly closer to ten or fifteen – by the end of that process nothing you’ve written will be funny. It will all be stale, unimaginative and hateful. At that point you just have to remember that it was funny originally. If it made you laugh when you wrote it, then keep the faith. The words haven’t changed; you’re just reading them with a worn down, worn out, unamusable outlook. Writing a novel can do that to you unfortunately.

So there you go. Here endeth the lesson in the twin disciplines of the rom and the com. Have good characters who fit together; present them with obstacles that are specific to them, and remember to keep the faith in the funny stuff.

 

And now you have no excuse not to sit down and write the perfect rom-com! Thank you for joining us today, Alison and the best of luck with your new novel when it comes out next month.

About Alison

Alison May was born and raised in North Yorkshire, but now lives in Worcester with one husband, no kids and no pets. There were goldfish once. That ended badly.

Alison has studied History and Creative Writing, and has worked as a waitress, a shop assistant, a learning adviser, an advice centre manager, and a freelance trainer, before settling on 'making up stories' as an entirely acceptable grown-up career plan. 

Alison is a member of the Romantic Novelists' Association, and won the Elizabeth Goudge Trophy in 2012. She writes contemporary romantic comedies, published by Choc Lit. Her first full-length novel, Sweet Nothing, is available as for kindle now and to pre-order in paperback, and her second, Midsummer Dreams is out in June. Alison has also written two Christmas Kiss novellas, both available as ebooks now.

You can find out more about Alison at www.alison-may.co.uk or by following her on Twitter @MsAlisonMay

 

About Sweet Nothing 

Would you risk everything for love?

Independent, straight-talking Trix Allen wouldn’t. She’s been in love once before and ended up with nothing. Now safely single, Trix is as far away from the saccharine-sweet world of hearts and flowers as it’s possible to be.

Ben Messina is the man who broke Trix’s heart. Now he’s successful the only thing rational Ben and free-spirited Trix see eye-to-eye on is the fact that falling in love isn’t part of the plan. But when Ben’s brother sets out to win the heart of Trix’s best friend, romance is very much in the air. Will Trix gamble everything on love and risk ending up with zero once again?

 

Sweet Nothing is available for kindle and you can pre-order it in paperback here

Out on a Limb

It's 876 AD and, with a battle cry, hundreds of Viking warriors run up the hillside towards Corfe Castle and the waiting Saxons.

Well OK, it's actually 2015 and my husband and I are having a weekend away (yes another!) to celebrate his 50th birthday. What we didn't know was that the bank holiday weekend was the annual re-enactment of the Siege of Wareham. When we arrived, and saw the village swarming with Vikings, we nearly turned back, but do you know, it actually made it a great experience.

For a start, where else are you likely to share a pub table with a couple of Saxons in full regalia and a guy who looks like he's come out of an Asterix comic? 

On Saturday, we visited the castle itself. I haven't been to this part of Dorset for a long while and Corfe Castle really is quite spectacular, sitting on top of its hill, looking down upon the Purbeck village that shares its name. Because of the re-enactment, the castle grounds were strewn with siege tents and on the ridge below the castle, Saxon villagers were displaying their traditional crafts, cooking on camp fires and drinking from cow horns.

The mist hung above the encampment like a shroud and the whole scene was mystical and full of atmosphere.

The main event though was the 'big' birthday and we had packed the car with all my husband's birthday presents and brought them with us. The one that kept us entertained for the longest was the brilliant cryptic crossword puzzle that fellow womag writer Viv Brown had created for us as a prize in a competition on her blog. We're not particularly good at crosswords but we managed about three quarters of them without resorting to sneaking a look at the solutions. All the clues were linked to items, places and events that were special and meaningful to us and I'd like to thank Viv once again for a wonderful present.

While I was away, I was guest on 'A Woman's Wisdom' blog, talking about the ten things I have learnt since becoming a writer. Do pop over and have a look - you might be amused! You can read it here.

One of the things I wrote was that, rather than trying to fit in with a magazine's style, it can sometimes pay off to write something a little different in order to stand out from the crowd.  'Out on a Limb' is one such story. I confess I was surprised when I sold it to The People's Friend as it was very different to the usual stories they publish. It was bought a long time ago and I was wondering whether they had changed their minds about publishing it due to its quirkiness. But no... it is in this weeks magazine. Hurrah!

Why Writing is Like Dancing

How fitting that for part four of my serial, Charlotte's War, illustrator David Young chose the scene with Charlotte and Denise doing the jitterbug at a dance. Why is that fitting? Well, because that's what I've been doing this weekend - not jitterbugging exactly but close, as my husband and I have just got back from our annual jive weekend at Warner, Hayling Island.

Those of you who have followed my blog since it started in 2012 will know that we are very keen dancers - in fact I've been dancing modern jive for over twenty years now! When I was younger, it used to be classes twice a week and a dance every weekend but over the years salsa, and more recently ballroom and Latin, have taken over as our dances of choice and, apart from the occasional local local dance, we tend to only jive now at this event. This is probably why we enjoy the weekend so much as it is like getting to know an old friend again.

If I show you the timetable, you'll see why I feel ready to sleep for a week.

Anything circled or underlined is a class we did... and that's just the Saturday classes. Sunday was just as full and, on top of that, there were dances each evening until the small hours to practise what we'd learned. The only problem was that each time we did a new class, we'd forget what we'd done in the class before!

The weekend wasn't all about jive, though. There was the opportunity to learn Social Foxtrot, West Coast Swing, Bollywood or Rumba if you wanted. Here's a picture of our lovely Milonga teachers, Andy and Samantha. Milonga is a bit like a fast tango and we've added some of their moves to our own repertoire.

I have to say, it was quite nice to have a proper break from writing, social media etc and be able to do nothing but dance and eat... did I mention the food? I'd better not as you might be jealous. What I will say, is that I'm not sure the dancing burnt off all the calories from the evening carvery!

Two, three rest... two, three rest... that's the rhythm of the Rumba class we took and in some ways it reminds me of my writing. I need those rest phases to get the energy back for the next spell of writing. It's also a bit like my publications. Last week, as well as my serial, I was lucky to have two stories in the People's Friend Special. It often happens that way and then there'll be a break. Here's the one I wrote called The Midnight Sun, which is set in Antarctica.

I hope you all have a good week. I'd planned to do some writing... but I think I'm off for a sleep!

Need For Speed - Guest Post Samantha Tonge

Today's guest needs little introduction, not least because this is her third visit to my blog - welcome back Sam!
Most of you will know Sam originally through her magazine stories and, more recently, through her successful career as a novelist. Sam's latest novel, Game of Scones, is being published tomorrow and as her digital publisher CarinaUK is well known for their fast turnaround, I asked Sam if she could talk a little about this.

Over to you, Samantha.

The turnaround with a digital-first imprint, like CarinaUK, is very fast, and I’ve always wondered how some writers are able to produce several books a year. It surprises me that I am now at a point where I can write two in twelve months, with a little time to spare. I’m an author full-time which, of course, makes a huge difference. However, I’ve particularly noticed, whilst typing the last two books, that improvements in my writing have speeded up the process.

Before my debut Doubting Abbey was published I had, um, several rejected novels under the bed! I learned a lot from writing them but they still took six months to one year each to finish. However, by now I’ve had four novels pushed through the Harlequin revisions process, and I have to say that’s made all the difference. My writing hasn’t become quicker, but I think what I’m now producing is less first-draftish and therefore doesn’t – touch wood – need quite so much work afterwards.

I’ve noticed that my prose is much tighter and I’ve also managed to work on my two main weak areas, thanks to four books’ worth of perceptive comments from my editor. Firstly, I never put in enough emotion, so I focus on this from the start. Also, I’ve struggled over the years with making certain characters likeable, so again, I check constantly, as I go, that no one is whingeing too much, or being spineless, selfish... not if they are a character I want readers to warm to.

It’s a bit like writing short stories... One year I sold around fifty to The People’s Friend. After a while I had a good sense of what the editor – and therefore reader – was looking for, so it meant that the first version of these stories wasn’t as rough as they were when I first started subbing shorts. My writing hadn’t got quicker, my understanding of what the genre required was just better, from the start.

Before getting published I would get editorial reports done on my books from organisations such as Cornerstones. I saw the cost as an investment into my career. I learned a great deal from this, as the reports are tailored to your own needs. I would ask for information on where I was going wrong with a particular book, plus my writing in general.

I’m not sure I’ll ever be in the league of some Mills & Boon writers, who produce five or so quality books a year, but if I can keep at two, I’ll be more than happy. This would never have happened when I first started out, as my first book reached 90,000 words and only had four chapters! Now I also keep a firm control of my wordcount!

 

Game of Scones

A story of icing and flour…and how love doesn’t always go to plan!

Growing up, Pippa Pattinson’s summers were spent in the idyllic Greek island fishing village of Taxos. There she spent many long hazy days determinedly ignoring thoughts of the life her parents had mapped out for her (a dreary-but-secure accounting job and obligatory sensible husband!) Instead she daydreamed of running her own tea shop – serving the perfect scones –with mocha-eyed childhood friend Niko by her side…

Arriving back in Taxos for the first time in years, with suave boyfriend Henrik, Pippa barely recognises the tired little town – but is relieved to catch glimpses of the quaint, charming village she’s always loved. Together Niko and Pippa put together a proposal to save Taxos from tourist-tastic ruin, and at the heart of their plan is Pippa’s dream project - The Tastiest Little Teashop in Taxos. It’s time for Pippa to leave her London life behind and dust off her scone recipe that’s guaranteed to win over both locals and visitors. And amidst the rolling pins and raisins, it seems romance is blossoming where she’s least expecting it…

If you’re a fan of Lindsey Kelk or Lucy Diamond then don’t hesitate to step into Samantha Tonge’s truly delightful tea shop.

Bio:

Samantha lives in Cheshire with her lovely family and two cats who think they are dogs. Along with writing, her days are spent cycling, willing cakes to rise and avoiding housework. A love of fiction developed as a child, when she was known for reading Enid Blyton books in the bath. A desire to write bubbled away in the background whilst she pursued other careers, including a fun stint working at Disneyland Paris. Formally trained as a linguist, Samantha now likes nothing more than holing herself up in the spare room, in front of the keyboard. Writing romantic comedy novels and short stories is her passion.

Samantha has sold over 80 short stories to mainstream women's magazines. Her debut romantic comedy novel from CarinaUK Harlequin, bestselling "Doubting Abbey", was shortlisted for the Festival of Romantic Fiction best Ebook award, 2014. Its fun sequel is From Paris With Love. Mistletoe Mansion is a fun standalone Christmas novel.

 

http://samanthatonge.co.uk/

http://doubtingabbey.blogspot.co.uk/
 

https://twitter.com/SamTongeWriter

https://www.facebook.com/SamanthaTongeAuthor

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Game-Scones-deliciously-summery-read-ebook/dp/B00ULP98BQ/ref=la_B00FB6KDNC_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1427385329&sr=1-4

http://www.amazon.com/Game-Scones-deliciously-summery-read-ebook/dp/B00ULP98BQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427385827&sr=8-1&keywords=game+of+scones

 

Thank you very much for visiting today, Sam, and good luck with the new book!

 

What do Writers Have for their Birthday?

 

Today is my birthday. Happy Birthday to Me! Do you like the card one of my friends bought me? I love the fact that the girl has a W on her jumper.

 

Interestingly, this has been the year of the writerly birthday present. First, and best of all, I got this.



 

You probably can't tell from the photograph, but it is the diddiest computer I have ever seen. It fits in a shoulder bag and is going to be brilliant when my neighbour starts her planned building works and I can't concentrate in the house. My diddy computer and I will find a nice park bench or a cosy café to have our J K Rowling moment.

 

I also got this cushion, which I am using at this very moment. I'm hoping it will give me lots of inspiration... at the very least it should stop me from getting back ache.

The final present for an aspiring writer, I have to blame Kath McGurl for. She had posted a picture of herself on Facebook using mini steppers just like these and I thought they would be just the thing to combat writers bottom. I don't know if they'll work, and I haven't tried them yet, but sometime we'll have to have a race on them, Kath!



 
I had a lovely day. I spent the morning with friends celebrating both my birthday, and a good week for magazine sales, over coffee and then went to Borde Hill Gardens to see the beautiful camellia and magnolia displays in the afternoon. This is my mum admiring one of the blooms. The walk nearly didn't happen as she forgot how to use the satnav - but all's well that ends well and we had a lovely time.

 

Finally, before I go, I just wanted to let you know that I am guest today on the Romantic Novelists Association (RNA) blog, talking about writing serials. Do please come over and join me there. The link is here

 



Over the Garden Fence - Guest Post Patsy Collins

It is with great pleasure that I welcome Patsy Collins onto my blog. When I started Wendy's Writing Now, in the summer of 2012, Patsy was one of the first people to welcome me to blogland and has supported my blog ever since. Isn't that lovely.

Patsy needs little introduction as many of you will have come across her in the pages of the women's magazines or on her successful blog, Words About Writing and Writing About Words. Last month she took over the bible of the woman's magazine writer's world, Womag Writer's blog, so I am sure we shall be seeing even more of her!

Today though, Patsy is here to talk about the publication of her new collection of short stories, Over the Garden Fence. So without more ado, we shall begin.


Can you give me three words to describe your new collection?
 

Bouquet of stories!

 

I see that both Over the Garden Fence and your previous collection Up the Garden Path are garden themed. Could you tell my readers what it is with you and gardening?

I'm a very keen gardener; I have an allotment where I grow loads of herbs, fruit and veg and a flower garden at home which is designed to attract wildlife. When you're passionate about something it tends to work its way into the writing (you may have noticed a lot of my characters eat cake).

Also the allotment is a good place to think up stories. I'm not sure if it's to do with the fresh air and exercise, or the fact that I generally have my hands full and never have pen and paper with me when I'm down there.

 

Have you based any of your stories on real gardens?

I had to think about that one. They all seem real to me but I generally design a new garden for each story, just borrowing features from ones I remember.

'Teacher's Pet' and 'Everything is Fine' which are both in this collection are set in real gardens though - the fabulous rose garden at Mottisfont Abbey (Hampshire) and Greys Court (Oxfordshire) respectively.

 

You have recently taken over the popular Womag Writer’s blog and most of the stories in Over the Garden Fence have previously been published in women’s magazines. How long have you been writing for the womags?

My first sale was in 2005 - a story called 'The Garden' which is in 'Up the Garden Path'. I'd collected quite a few rejection letters by then though. All my rejections are shredded and added to the compost heap, so they eventually become pretty flowers and juicy strawberries.

Sales were widely spaced to start with, but each yearly total has been an increase on the previous one which is very encouraging.

 

Competitions are mentioned a lot on your blog ‘Words about Writing and Writing about Words’. Do you enter a lot of competitions yourself and have any the stories in the collection been winners?

I do enter quite a lot of competitions, usually free ones which naturally attract a lot of entries (almost all the competitions I blog about are free to enter). A couple of the stories in this collection have been placed in competitions and my first novel was published after a competition win.

The winning story in the current Writing Magazine is mine and one of the characters is a gardener. That'll be in the next collection.

 

Do you have a favourite story from your collection?

I think it's Black and White. For one thing it breaks a few womag 'rules' - I killed the main character in quite a nasty way and was mean to a cat (twice) yet still got it published in Woman's Weekly. It also uses the idea that what you do in life influences how happy you are, which is a bit of a sub theme in a lot of my stories. The garden it's set in is lovely too. I had fun creating that one and baking and eating all the cakes the character makes. When it comes to cakes, my research is thorough.

 

Having just brought out my own story collection, I can see we have different writing styles – what would you say your signature style is, if you have one?

I agree that our writing is different. I'm not sure I have a recognisable style, if I do it isn't something I do consciously. Generally my stories are uplifting and usually they're about fairly normal characters and situations; the kind of people the reader might know in real life, doing things they might do themselves in places they might visit.

 

You’ve published the collection in both ebook and paperback. What did you find trickiest about each?

The formatting! It's not really that difficult if you haven't already done something weird to the document, you take your time and carefully follow all the instructions, but ... Luckily friends and fellow writers came to the rescue after seeing anguished tweets and blog posts.

I'm always amazed at people's generosity with their time and knowledge, in some cases being of huge help to a person they've never met and/or assisting those who're competing in the same market.

 

Your novel, Escape to the Country, which I enjoyed very much by the way, has a farm as its setting. Is it possible that gardens or gardening could feature in a future novel?

Yes! Gardeners or florists have a role in them all so far, but gardening hasn't been the main focus (and it's not something I've done deliberately). I'd like to have a gardener as a main character though. A sequel to Escape to the Country with Jayne as the main character is a tempting idea. Those herbal potions of hers have potential, I think.

 

What would Patsy Collins like to be doing in five years time?

Spending all my time writing, gardening, travelling in our campervan ... oh, did you mean something different from now? I've done a few talks/workshops for writing groups and will be giving a talk to a reading group in the summer. I'd like to do a bit more of that kind of thing.

 

Thank you so much for joining me on my blog today, Patsy.


Patsy Collins lives and writes on the south coast of England. She's the author of hundreds of published short stories and three novels. When she's not writing she likes gardening, photography and cake eating. She shares her home with her husband and head with her characters.
 

 

Over the Garden Fence is available from Amazon here

 

How to contact Patsy:

 

Website here and here

Facebook here

Twitter here