Inspiring Authors Speak

Hello Fellow Writers!

I am currently still working on my short (10K-15K) romantic erotica piece that I plan on submitting to Ellora's Cave before January 31st. I've got over 9K words, but it's looking like the story will end up over 10K because I need to wrap up the happily ever after. If my baby will let me, I'm going to work on that today.

I'm reading the book "Mistress and the Art of Death" by Ariana Franklin. I've only just started it, but so far I'm finding it very enjoyable.

Here is a video montage from YouTube of published authors giving their advice to aspiring writers. The main theme, it seems, is you need to both read and write a lot!



Today I'll continue working on my story, and if Maureen gets back to me with suggestions on the chapters I sent her from "Snowed in With a Millionaire", I'll take care of those as well.

Wish me luck, and good luck to you too!
Yours Truly,
Shoshanna Evers

Common Grammar Mistakes

Hello Fellow Writers!

I've been working on revising my romance novel "Snowed in With a Millionaire" based on my critique partner's suggestions. Maureen catches a lot of little things that I would never have noticed - like using the word "insure" when I mean "ensure", and she helps point out passages that are confusing. The heroine looks at the hero's face but is noticing the boots? Oops.

Here are some common grammatical problems that people make, and how to fix them. Remember though - we are writing fiction, not school papers. Our characters won't speak in perfectly correct English any more than we will! That said, here's an excerpt from an article entitled "Common Grammer and Usage Mistakes", from EnglishChick.com.

Comma Splice

A comma splice is the incorrect use of a comma to connect two independent clauses. (Recall that an independent clause is a phrase that is grammatically and conceptually complete: that is, it can stand on its own as a sentence.) To correct the comma splice, you can:

• replace the comma with a period, forming two sentences
• replace the comma with a semicolon
• join the two clauses with a conjunction such as "and," "because," "but," etc.

Example:

I like Xena, she is very sexy.	INCORRECT
I like Xena. She is very sexy.	CORRECT
I like Xena; she is very sexy.	CORRECT
I like Xena, because she is very sexy.	CORRECT

Dangling Participles

A participle is a verb-form that ends in -ing. It is called "dangling" when it doesn't agree with its subject.

While walking down the road, a tree caught Xena's attention.

The subject of the sentence is "a tree," but it is not the tree that is doing the walking, therefore the participle "walking" is dangling. To correct the sentence, write:

While walking down the road, Xena noticed a tree

or

A tree caught Xena's attention as she walked down the road.

Remember that not all words that end in -ing are participles (e.g. thing) and some participles are gerunds depending on context. (A gerund is a participle that is functioning as a noun, e.g. "My favorite activity is sleeping.")

Ending a Sentence with a Preposition

Contrary to popular belief, there is no agreement on this one among English professionals. In general, especially if your audience is strict about rules, don't end a sentence with a preposition. Prepositions are little words that indicate position and such: with, at, by, from, etc. In general a preposition should come before ("pre"-position) the noun it modifies. So you should change

That's the warrior I must talk to

to

That's the warrior to whom I must talk.

However, if too many "to whom"s and "of which"s are making your writing unnecessarily clumsy, go ahead and end with the preposition, especially in informal writing. Remember the famous example (credited to Winston Churchill) that goes: "This is the kind of thing up with which I will not put!"

Read the rest of the article here, it's very helpful!

Today is Christmas - Merry Christmas, everyone! Since I am Jewish, I have my hubby home with me and nothing to do but work on my short story for Ellora's Cave.
Wish me luck, and good luck to you too!

Yours Truly,
Shoshanna Evers

Do's and Don't's of Dialogue!

Hello Fellow Writers!

I have been busy working on a short story that I plan on submitting to Ellora's Cave for their "Alluring Arts" theme. The deadline is January 31st, which gives me plenty of time to write the 10K word story and have it critiqued by my writing group - although that will be a little weird, since Ellora's Cave publishes Romantica, aka romantic erotica.

So far I've written 6000 words of my story.

In any story, dialogue plays an important role. It can make or break your piece. Here is an excerpt from an article on DailyWritingTips.com. Read the whole article here.

Here are some things good dialogue should do:

• It should follow some simple grammatical rules. Dialogue should be enclosed within quotation marks. Each new line of dialogue is indented, and a new paragraph should be started every time a new person is speaking.
• It should be concise. Long, wordy passages of dialogue might seem like a good way to get information across, but they can be tedious for the reader.
• It should communicate character information. Good dialogue lets the reader know something about the person speaking it.
• It should be broken up with action. People don’t typically stop everything when they talk. They fidget. They keep washing the dishes. They pace. Don’t forget that your characters aren’t static.

And here are a few dialogue don’ts:

• Don’t get too crazy with dialogue tags. Usually, a few well-placed “he saids” or “she replieds” will do the trick. If your dialogue is well-written, it should be clear who is speaking, even without the tags.
• Don’t go overboard with backstory. You should never use dialogue to tell the readers things your characters already know.
• Don’t use too much dialogue. Your readers don’t need to know everything your characters say, word-for-word. Dialogue should be chosen carefully.
• Don’t try to be too realistic. Our actual speech wouldn’t make great dialogue. We say “um” and “uh” a lot. We trail off in the middle of sentences. We change subjects without warning. Good dialogue should approximate real speech, not mimic it.

This weekend I will be working, but I intend to get more writing done as well. I'm on a (self imposed) deadline, after all :)

Wish me luck, and good luck to you too!
Yours Truly,
Shoshanna Evers

p.s. Remember this blog is transitioning from a daily blog to a weekly blog. Please use the search feature to find info on anything and everything having to do with writing, agents, and publishing!

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What Literary Agents Want

Hello Fellow Writers!

My original plan was to get myself a literary agent. I am now realizing, however, that I probably don't need one at this stage in my career, especially if all of the places I want to submit to (specifically Harlequin) allow unagented submissions. But there are plenty of writers that do need or want an agent.

Here is a video from YouTube which shows a panel of agents discussing what they are looking for, what they do, and what they like in an author:



This blog is going to be transitioning from a daily blog to a weekly blog due to my time constraints (specifically, I'll have more time to write my fiction if I spend less time blogging)!

I invite you to browse through the archived posts, to use the search button on the site to find what you are looking for and to keep coming back and commenting on posts!

I am especially interested in hearing how your writing is going. Are you meeting The Writer's Challenge by hitting 1000 words a day?

Are you writing your novel?
Wish me luck, and good luck to you too!

Yours Truly,
Shoshanna Evers

Erotic Romance

Hello Fellow Writers!

Today I had my first day at my new nursing job, and it went well! Last night I bought a few e-books from Ellora's Cave, which publishes "romantica", which is erotic romance. I wonder if I should try my hand at that.

Here is what Ellora's Cave says about submissions:

How to Submit

All submissions for Ellora’s Cave must be sent via email to Submissions@ellorascave.com. Send as a doc or rtf file:
~ brief professional cover email (genre and length of story; one or two paragraph blurb; previous publication credits; no personal information or anything unrelated to the story)
~ detailed synopsis (2 to 4 pages describing setting and main characters, conflict, full plot and resolution)
~ the first three chapters and the final chapter of your manuscript (If it is a short story of 10-15,000 words, send the full manuscript)
Include the following on the first page of the document and in the cover email:
Title Author pen and real names & email address Genre Word count of full manuscript Blurb (200 words max)
Note: We are an e-publisher and all our work is done electronically; we do not accept paper submissions or correspondence.
Please be sure your submission has been thoroughly self-edited (and we highly recommend having frank critique partners look at it!), and has been proofread by several skilled and experienced persons other than yourself. It must be basically free of typos and grammatical errors. We do not specify a required format and your manuscript will not be rejected due to formatting. We suggest using one-inch margins and a common, variable, serif font (such as Times Roman, Arial, Book Antiqua).
Notice for previously published authors: We will only consider your out-of-print books if you hold exclusive rights.
Please do not email to inquire about status of your submission. You will receive an initial response within eight weeks.

Ellora’s Cave Theme Series

Several times a year we do a month of special themed erotic romanceshort stories. Guidelines:
~ Word count: 10K to 30K
~ Any genre
~ The story must significantly include the theme
For 2010, our still-open themes are about the arts:
May: “Poetic Passion”: poetry/drama (no TV or movies) – submission deadline October 31, 2009
August: “Alluring Arts”: classical creative arts (painting, drawing, sculpting, etc.) – submission deadline January 31, 2010
November: “Musical Magic”: music/song – submission deadline April 30, 2010
When submitting, put “theme Submission: title” in the email message subject line. Attach a synopsis and the full story (since it is a short story).

Very interesting. I wonder what sort of story I could write for the "Alluring Arts"?
Wish me luck, and good luck to you too!

Yours Truly,
Shoshanna Evers

Hudson Valley Romance Writers of America

Hello Fellow Writers!

Yesterday I wrote just 500 words since my son wouldn't let me sit down to write until almost 10pm! I've been wondering if I should try making my short Regency romance targeted towards Ellora's Cave instead of Harlequin Historical Undone. Ellora's Cave e-publishes erotic romance, so I would be writing a very different story than what I would be writing for Undone!

Tomorrow I will be having my first day of work at my new job, but afterward I intend to blog a bit more about erotic romance and specifically Ellora's Cave.

Today I went to the monthly meeting of the Hudson Valley Romance Writers of America. It was so wonderful to meet and listen to all of the women there, many of whom are published authors. Multiple published author Janet Lane Walters was very informative and friendly. Here is an excerpt from an interview with Janet from the Hudson Valley RWA site. Read the whole article here.

Are you a plotter or pantster?

Would you believe a bit of both? I do plan my stories but the outline is broad and allows for changes in what I’m writing. As I begin the rough draft much changes and veers from the original plan. Two things remain constant, the beginning and the end. The middle is where I allow my imagination free reign. Take the story I’m working on now. During the rough draft, two of the characters changed places. The reason behind the change came while I was writing the chapter when one of the characters emerged for the first time. Suddenly the light bulb flashed and I knew the secondary character who was the hero’s sister should become his brother and the character I had thought would be the heir became the daughter. The change strengthened the story. So outlines have a purpose but so does flying free.

Tonight I'm going to think more about trying my hand at writing a short erotic romance. While I'm pretty sure I can write it, I'm having a hard time imagining myself being able to read it aloud to my writing group! *blushes*

Wish me luck, and good luck to you too!
Yours Truly,
Shoshanna Evers

Keep on Writing

Hello Fellow Writers!

Yesterday was a very big day for me, but it unfortunately didn't involve getting any writing done. Sure, I wrote pages in my head, but those don't count. Today they will have to be put onto actual paper.

My non-writing life suddenly got very busy. I accepted a job as an RN Supervisor every other weekend for the day shift at a local nursing and rehab center. This will still leave me with all week and every other weekend to write, which is good. My husband and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary last night as well, and he acted just like one of my romance heroes by surprising me with a gorgeous diamond ring ...*swoons and sighs*

I just finished reading "The Desert King's Housekeeper Bride" by Carol Marinelli. Her bio on eHarlequin.com tells how she received numerous rejection letters from Harlequin before finally being published. Now she's written 50 novels for both the Presents and the Medical lines (she's a nurse too, small world!).

Carol Marinelli was born in England to Scottish parents, then emigrated to Australia, where there are loads of Scottish and English people who did exactly the same, so she’s very at home there.
She lives in the outer suburbs of Melbourne—pretty much in her car, driving her three children to their various commitments.
Carol first tried to write for Harlequin Mills & Boon while doing her nursing training in London. It was merrily rejected and she was devastated. Rejection became a regular friend over the next few years and she amassed quite a collection. Still, as the years moved on the rejections became more detailed and instead of weeping over them and scorning them, she finally read them. Properly.
In 2000 her first romance was accepted for the Medical Romance line and she lived happily ever after. Well, that’s what she thought would happen but actually, no, it was then that the hard work really began!
Once published she discovered the Romance Writers of Australia—it would, she now knows, have been far easier on this journey to have discovered them earlier. Attending her first conference she realized that she wasn’t the only person who lived with a constant cinema happening in her head—in fact they were all THE SAME! Different but the same and many wonderful friendships were made.
Carol now writes for both the Medical Romance and Presents lines and loves them both.
One of her goals is to attend the Romance Writers of America conference with a few Romance Writers of Australia, which is a very nice goal to have.

Today I have errands to run but I will get a minimum of 1000 words written today. Wish me luck, and good luck to you too!

Yours Truly,
Shoshanna Evers