Joely Sue Burkhart's Blog, page 60

Plotting: An Evolving Process

Since I had the day off from the Evil Day Job yesterday, I set a goal of finishing the plot for Phantom.  I've been struggling with it, so I decided to try a new approach.  My friend Jenna Reynolds had recommended Blake Snyder's Save the Cat months if not years ago, and I finally got around to reading it.  A lot of it really resonated with me.  I thought, hey, what do I have to lose?  I've got to figure out what's wrong with this story.

The story in question:  Phantom.  It has a great premise.  I know it fits my brand.  I'm excited about it.  Yet something… just wasn't right.  I couldn't get started.  I "knew"  (I'm putting that in quotes because I obviously didn't) the plot – it was all in my head.  (Not always a good sign)  Yet instead of unfolding in my mind like a movie, it kept skipping around, jolting here and there.  Painfully.

So I used some paper and jotted (while driving to my dad's this weekend) out what I thought the beats might be using Blake's charts.  It still wasn't working.  The plot was as flat as the paper.  I decided I was going to have to get serious and do something I haven't done since The Bloodgate Guardian.

Put the plot on the wall.

I bought some sticky notes while I was at Wal-Mart.  First, I laid out the beats using simple yellow (picture).   This is different than how I envisioned structure in the past.  I'm not used to a horizontal row for each act.  The last yellow sticky on each row is a major turning point (I drew an arrow in the upper RH corner than you can't really make out).  That's all I got done, unfortunately, because I had to leave for my hair appointment.  When I got back, I started laying out the major plot scenes I'd come up with between my original spreadsheets and my jotted beat notes. 

I quickly realized that my OPENING IMAGE wasn't right.  I'd started in the wrong place.  The scene I had thought to open with was good (and I'm still using it) — but it didn't set the tone and mood.  It didn't mirror the ending.  I quickly realized I needed an entirely new scene.

Suddenly, finally, I found that the story was rolling in my mind.  *whew*

This is the plot wall after another 2.5 hours of work (picture).  The pink is my heroine, the blue is my hero, the yellow is the main beats.  Voila.  The story laid out perfectly.

Later last night after dinner, I typed up an outline (not a synopsis, not yet) and added the emotion changes and conflict information that Blake talks about.  I've never thought of my sections quite that way and it was a very useful exercise.  It feels sooooo good.  I've got my theme crystal clear in my mind.  My characters all have static traits.  A central image reflects the theme and is used over and over subtly to support the theme.  I don't want to jinx myself and say more, but I'm very excited to start this story.

Excited enough to get up at 5 AM to work on it.

Let the Dark & Early summer phase commence!   I just pray my wrists hold up.  After 3K of outline last night, they're pretty sore. 

[I actually wrote this post last night and scheduled it.  If my morning session goes well, I'll write a new post with a close up of some of the sticky notes so you can actually see what some of them say!]

Return to Shanhasson – Spicy Excerpt

Return to Shanhasson, book 3 of The Shanhasson Trilogy, a Blood and Shadows book available at Drollerie Press.  For more of my free reads, check out this page.

"I thought your Green Land baths very strange after our steamtents, but I enjoy a long soak, especially when you're at my side."

She stirred and stretched her arms over her head, arching her back in blatant invitation. "Why don't you lie down on the edge and let me begin my massage?"

Eyes heavy lidded, he ran his gaze down her body, but he complied, his mighty arms levering his big body out of the water. "I thought you wanted to give me such a bath that I would lose control."

"I am. On your stomach, please."

Laughing, he stretched out as she wished, carefully shifting his weight so he didn't lie completely flat on his belly. "I can't fully comply for obvious reasons."

"Well, let's see what I can do about that," she purred.

Dunking her head beneath the water, she surged up out of the pool and straddled his lower back.

"Na'lanna." His voice was rather strained. "I don't believe this is a very good starting position. One of us is backwards and it is not you."

"Patience, my heart. I want to give you a massage first."

"I don't want a massage." Heat rumbled through his voice that had nothing to do with anger. "I want you. Preferably this very moment."

Selecting the smoky amber vial, she popped off the cork and sniffed it carefully. Exotic scents washed over her: roasted sticks nearly burnt, dark, sultry sandalwood, and beneath, a feral musk that she couldn't identify.

According to Benton, the desert dwellers of Keldar threw sticks and seeds onto a stone, let the natural heat of the sun roast them, and then they tossed the burnt spices into both their tea and oil. Since their drink of choice was called "Fire Tea," the oil had captured her imagination, for obvious reasons.

She poured a small amount into her hands and rubbed it into her skin, testing it on herself. The oil heated immediately, releasing a mouth-watering aroma of exotic sandalwood. Whether the oil heated her skin or her skin heated the oil, she didn't know, but the spreading fire was unmistakable. It didn't hurt, though, so she smoothed her palms from the small of Rhaekhar's back up the slabs of muscle to his shoulders. Kneading her way across his shoulders, she said nothing, waiting to see his reaction.

"Great Vulkar, woman, what is that?"

"Fire Oil," she replied innocently. She didn't know what the Keldari called it. "Doesn't it smell delicious?"

"Forget how it smells." He sucked in his breath and shifted beneath her, his back humping like a horse getting ready to buck her off. "No wonder it's called Fire Oil; my flesh is on fire."

"You don't like it?"

He shuddered, his big hands fisted in the soft mat. "If I were inside you, I'd like it much better."

Stretching out on top of him, she rubbed her breasts against his back, spreading the oil into her skin. Deliberately, she moaned, tormenting him with her own sounds of desire. It did feel like fire spread across her skin. The scent burrowed deeper in her body, twisting and stirring her hunger. She gripped his shoulder in her jaws and slowly sank her teeth into the heavy muscle until he growled and moved beneath her, his hands sliding back to tug at her ankles and calves.

Her lips and tongue heated with the oil, buzzing and tingling as she rubbed her mouth across the broad expanse of his back. "You smell good enough to eat."

Wriggling lower on his thighs, she licked a path down his spine, smoothing her palms up and down his flanks. She bit him again, hard enough he groaned so loudly the Blood must surely hear it. "Remember our challenge. You're not going to lose control, are you?"

"That depends." Panting, he raised his head enough to glare at her over his shoulder. Sweat dripped into his eyes, and his hair was dark and heavy with steam. "Are you finally going to mark my arse?"

She'd marked Gregar's ass years ago on the night of their claiming, and Rhaekhar had long regretted that he'd lost that competition, even though he wore many other marks on his throat and chest. "That was my general intention."

He buried his face in his forearm and cursed, muttering beneath his breath so she couldn't make out his words. She took that as permission. But first…

She poured more oil into her hands and kneaded it into both cheeks and down his hamstrings. Lady above, she'd never seen a finer warrior. Hot velvet skin stretched tight over sculpted granite, he was a complex mixture of explosive power and incredible gentleness. Although there was nothing gentle about his hoarse growl when she reached under his raised hip to wrap her oiled hand around him.

"I'm going…" He arched his back, lifting his rump so he could thrust in her hand. "To pour…that cursed oil…all over you…while I hold you down…and let your Blood…lick it off."

Lady, he might as well have doused her head to toe in the sizzling oil. Immediately, her mind pictured it: Rhaekhar lying at her head, pinning her arms against him, while auburn and golden brown heads moved eagerly down her body.

Using his own challenge words, she retorted, "You're welcome to try."

She struck, biting deep, gripping his cheek in a punishing bite until blood filled her mouth. Rich with strength, spiced with love, his blood stoked a fire in her that had nothing to do with Keldari oil.

Whatever he meant to say was lost on a roar.

He rolled over so hard she tumbled off to the side and nearly spilled the oil. "Come here."

"The challenge." She couldn't seem to catch her breath. "Do I win?"

He slammed his arms down to the mat, fists at his side. Eyes blazing, he ground out, "Continue."

"Are you sure?"

He shot her a dark look. "Be wary with that oil, na'lanna. When I come inside you, it'll spread like wildfire on your tender flesh, too."

Holding his gaze, she tipped the vial over his chest. "I'm counting on it."

News Roundup

It's free book week at Carina Press. A new free book each day! Details here.

I'm also over at The Romance Reviews today talking about The Bloodgate Guardian. Comment on any of my posts over there to be entered to win a $10 gift certificate to any online retailer of your choice.

Of course, I'm still giddy that Mykal has finally arrived! Return to Shanhasson should start filtering through book retailers over the next few days. I'm still looking for reviewers, so if you're interested, drop me a note. (This is book 3 of a trilogy, not a standalone.)

I'll be planning a giveaway shortly — any requests?!?

Return to Shanhasson is Live!

Blessed Lady above, thank you for your bountiful blessings of love.

The final book in the Shanhasson trilogy, Return to Shanhasson, is now available at Drollerie Press here.  In the next few days it should also pop up on Amazon, B&N, etc.  I'll add buy links as they're available.

Reviewers:  please contact me (joelysueburkhart AT gmail DOT com) for a review copy!

What George RR Martin Taught Me

For my early formative years of writing (early 2000s), there were only a handful of authors I read heavily:  Robert Jordan, Laurell K. Hamilton, Amanda Quick, Julie Garwood, Johanna Lindsay, and George RR Martin.  Since the Shanhasson trilogy was my first project, you'll probably see a lot of those influences.

I tried to take everything I loved from epic fantasy… the lushness of romance…and the sultry romps of LKH (before the arduer took over)…and create a world that contained it all.  Political intrigue, worldbuilding, large character casts, sweeping story arcs, epic journeys mixed with emotional relationships and complex erotic situations.  If LKH taught me that one heroine could have many lovers, then George RR Martin taught me…

To kill characters.

I'm so in love with Game of Thrones on HBO and I'm absolutely thrilled that it's generating such excitement for people who might not have read the series, but seriously, I'm worried about people's reactions as those beloved characters start dropping like flies. 

Okay, I don't quite kill as many characters as Martin, but major characters DO die in the Shanhasson series.  If you already read Road, you know that.  But killing characters is a huge no-no in Romancelandia, and since I write a lot of romance and romance-like work, I want to be clear up front.

Return to Shanhasson is NOT a romance.

However, if your heart isn't singing with joy at the end…and yes, a few tears might spill from your eyes (I cry every time I read it)…then I've failed utterly and completely.

To be completely fair, characters might be DEAD but they're not GONE.  e.g. there are still scenes with the characters who were killed and they're still important to the story.  They're simply bound to appear only in Dreams.  So here's a little twist for you:  if I bring back the beloved characters, then it's only fair that I bring back the hated ones too, right?  *wicked grin*

Anyway, if you take a look at the Return to Shanhasson page, you'll seen the following warning:

THIS TRILOGY IS NOT ROMANCE. Bad things happen. Significant characters die. Love is the greatest gift of all, and sometimes requires the greatest sacrifice. However, love shines in the darkest night. The road is long and hard, but when Shannari reaches her destination, she'll reunite with all her loved ones she's lost over the years and find more love and happiness than she's ever known.

Thank you, Mr. Martin.

Writing With Tarot

First, in case you missed it, I've added pages for both Golden and Return to Shanhasson with links to excerpts.  I also have some good news:  Vicki is officially going to Samhain!  I don't have a release date for Yours to Take yet but the contract is signed and I've got a few edits I need to work on.  We're shooting for FRIDAY for Return's release, but I'll make an official post once it's up and available.

Now, the meat of this post.  Since I finished the first draft of The Bloodgate Warrior, I switched my attention to preparing the next WIP, either a new contemporary erotic novella (longish) or Lord Regret's Price, a follow up to Lady Wyre.  Since I have the most notes on Phantom, I decided to whip it into shape first.

So I'm going through my folders and notes, and there's something wrong.  Something's missing.  It's small, but the project doesn't FEEL right yet.  It needs to be more than a retelling, more than an erotic menage.  Something had me not wanting to write yet but I didn't know what it was.

Before getting too frustrated, I pulled out my tarot cards.  My good friend Jenna Reynolds has taught me several tricks to use tarot for inspiration.  I started out by writing down my concerns on a sheet of paper.  Then I pulled a card at random and thought about what it could mean.  What was missing?  What did I need to figure out?

The first few cards were generally encouraging but nothing seemed to speak specifically to the solution.  The Fool.  Sure, my protagonist must take that leap of faith to start the story.  Ace of Wands, inspiration, the spark that starts the fire.  Yes, that's exactly what I'm looking for!  But WHAT IS IT?

Where things started clicking:  The World card.  Something about the circle, neverending story, circle of life.  I drew a circle on a clean piece of paper and started doodling. 

Of course the next card I drew:  The Wheel of Fortune.  Again, with the circle!

Before too long, I realized that I'd missed the heart of my story.  Yes, I had it plotted on 4 spreadsheets.  I had character maps.  But in the end…  I didn't have a solid THEME, around which everything should revolve.  That one little picture suddenly unlocked everything I needed.  My characters are the spokes in a wheel.  They're all either trapped inside a vicious circle of their own making… or they thought they'd broken the circle, only to realize they'd broken themselves instead.

I need to break those circles, and then come full circle to heal them at the same time.

It doesn't change my plot much, but it gives me that extra emotion I needed that will take this from a pleasant retelling to hopefully a killer emotional ride.

Do you have a favorite trick that helps you gain insight or inspiration when you're stuck?

Return to Shanhasson Cover

We're finalizing the release date as I type, but it'll definitely be THIS MONTH!  Thank you, everyone, for your patience.  I hope the final book in the Shanhasson trilogy meets your wildest expectations!

Meet Mykal tal'Mamba, a man so cloaked in Shadow that he doesn't remember exactly who he is.  Or rather, who he's been. 

Raising his voice, Mykal yelled after the fleeing trader. "Tell Shannari dal'Dainari that soon I'll soar over her Shining Walls!"

A Gorgeous Golden Cover

Coming August 29th from Carina Press:

Bred for him…and for his bed.

Golden-eyed Jin has spent her life preparing to be the Emperor's consort. She knows her destiny is to serve the Emperor by indulging the dark desire that he has buried deep inside his heart—the desire to give pain.

Only she can take the pain he yearns to give, and transform it into the most unimaginable pleasure. But to enjoy all the Emperor can give her, she must survive assassination attempts from those who would keep them apart.

Seducing the Emperor is risky…but it's the only way to fulfill her destiny.

Just a Little Late…

Okay, months late!  But I'm relieved to announce that I finally finished the first draft of The Bloodgate Warrior today!  Just under 39K.

I knew I was getting close.  I didn't expect more than a couple of thousand words to get there, but I kept getting hung up.  Weeks ago, these scenes rolled through my mind like a movie.  Now, unfortunately, they were a slow choppy crawl clouded in dust.  I should have written the climax weeks ago when I knew exactly how I wanted it to go.  Instead, I had to suffer sentence by sentence, feeling my way through the fog.

My big hold up:  according to my spreadsheet, the final climax occurred in the cenote at Chick'en Itza.  Yes, IN the cenote.  But when it came time for that final battle to play out, I couldn't figure out how Tecun ended up in the cenote.  Why would he willingly jump in there, if Cassie wasn't down there?  (And she wasn't)

I did a little catch up for the Evil Day Job today while working on laundry, and then as a reward, I switched to Tecun.  I was determined to finish.  Finally, I got him into the cenote…and then the rest came tumbling after.  *whew*

It needs so much work I'm almost reluctant to even call it "finished."  The last 10K is really choppy.  It just took me too darned long to finish, so I couldn't remember little plot points that had been so clear in my head before.  I'm sad to say I was even struggling to remember secondary character names.  Groans.  I've still got to figure out a few things too, and I need to do a little research too.  But the biggest hurdle is DONE.

Done, done, done.  Happy, happy, happy.

Now to rest up my hands…

So I can begin the first draft of Phantom while I let Tecun ripen a little before revisions.

P.S. I have a GORGEOUS cover to share with you soon for Golden.  Also we're very close to finishing up the cover for Return and it's going to be awesome too!

Carina Press Anniversary

In celebration of our one year anniversary, I asked as many of our Harlequin team members and Carina Press freelance editors as possible to write a short blog post, talking about what the past year or so has been like for them, working on Carina Press. I deliberately didn't provide any direction other than that, because I wanted to see what people came up with, in the spirit of Carina's 1st anniversary. I was so pleased when I saw what they'd all come up with, and had to say (and some of these posts made me just a little teary)! I hope you enjoy the post, and look for your opportunity to win a Carina Press book at the bottom of this post. ~Angela James

 #

Lessons from Carina's First Year

Gina Bernal is a freelance editor for Carina Press. You can follow her on Twitter.

 #

Wow, I can't believe it's already time to wish Carina Press a happy first anniversary. Not to be cliché, but it does feel like just yesterday that I shot an email to Angela James saying, "Hey, I hear you might be looking for editors…" Lucky me, I made the team. Working for Carina has been a pleasure, but it's also been a tremendous learning experience—both professionally and personally. Carina's first year as a publisher also happened to be my first year in an exciting, emerging part of the industry, in a new job, living in a new city. And I've learned some interesting lessons along the way…

The writer's imagination is endless. Carina's motto is "Where no great story goes untold," and that wholehearted approach to finding compelling reads means our inbox is filled with a little bit of everything. Great, good and—if I'm being honest—sometimes bad, the variety of manuscripts assures that a batch of submissions will be anything but boring.

Digital publishing moves fast. Tight deadlines keep us all constantly going, but it's rewarding (and not a little nail-biting) to see a book you love go from acquisition to a reader's hand in less than a year.

Working in a virtual office doesn't have to equal isolation. Having always worked in chatty, cooperative offices, I was apprehensive about working from home as a freelancer. Who would I bounce ideas off of? Who would listen to a random rant? Though Carina's editorial team is scattered across the US and beyond, the "water cooler" environment fostered by our email loop and social networks means someone's usually there to lend support or share a laugh.

There's a slippery slope from smart skirts to sweatpants. You know you've gotten way too comfortable working from home when your significant other asks "Why are you dressed for dance class?" and your only reply is "Oh, I've been wearing this all day." Yes, I've gone from having once been the dressiest person at my old job to coveting Old Navy stretch gaucho pants. All my cute shoes are crying in the closet. Writers and other stay-at-homers, I hope you can commiserate.

Everybody knows Harlequin. Readers or not, people recognize the Harlequin name. The brand is synonymous with romance, and telling someone you edit books for Harlequin's digital-first imprint is guaranteed to spark an interesting conversation. Makes for a fabulous icebreaker.

Twitter is addictive. Does this need further explanation?

Novellas can pack a storytelling punch. Lately, I've become a slow reader. Seriously, I'm jealous of people with active Good Reads update feeds. Novellas provide a fast treat…and a sense of accomplishment when you finish quickly! Some of my Carina favorites include Tia Nevitt's The Sevenfold Spell, Ginny Glass and Inez Kelley's Dirty Laundry series, Eleri Stone's Mercy, Nicole North's Laird of Darkness, and Seleste deLaney's Badlands (full disclosure: I edited the latter two).

Romantic Suspense is disproportionately represented in my editing repertoire. While I enjoy romantic suspense, I don't read tons of it for pleasure—maybe five to ten percent of my for-fun romance reading could be classified as suspense. But as an editor, about thirty percent of the books I've worked on thus far are romantic suspense. No explanation for it, but when reading submissions those suspenseful storylines have an undeniable allure.

They're all real books. Working in digital publishing has made me especially touchy when people say they don't read ebooks, they read "real" books. People work their tushies off to write, edit and produce ebooks and they're just as real as any hardcover or paperback out there, thank you very much.

Here's to a great first year and many more to come!

To celebrate Carina's one year anniversary of publishing books, we're giving away some prizes. Today, on each of the nineteen blogs our team members are featured on, we're giving away a download of a Carina Press book to one random winner (that's nineteen total winners!) All you need to do to be entered to win is comment on this post. You can enter to win on all nineteen posts. In addition, on the Carina Press blog, we're giving away a grand prize of a Kobo ereader and 12 Carina Press books of the winner's choice. Visit the Carina Press blog to enter to win, and to see links to all 19 of today's blog posts.

And a sincere thank you from all of us, to our readers and authors, for making Carina Press's first year a success!