Michelle Styles's Blog, page 43

Getting things done.

I am in the midst of the revisions for the Undone. Basically the sensuality needs to go up and it has to be ultra focused on the couple. But I discovered after being in Istanbul and taking Turkish baths, my view of Roman baths has changed! I also realised that I had forgotten to put one in...
Along side I am doing my AAs. 2 chapters or so per day. I did have fun with the secondaries. My old editor used to accuse me of loving my secondaries more. Not really, it is just you can have fun with ...

Keeping lists

I am so Not a List person. Even with grocery shopping, I tend to write a list and then forget to look at it. Eventually everything works out.
However, I have discovered when doing my copy edits, lists are important. For example, a master list of all named characters. I do it because once upon a time I didn't and the last person checking before it went to the printer noticed that I had named two minor secondaries the same name (this was a Viking one). Since then, I do a list. Yesterday, when I...

Revisions

Still doing the revisions but the story is getting better. Some stories are like that. I had done something and it sucked the likfe out of the story, but a bit of judicous cutting , the life and tension are back.
Sometimes it is better to withhold information until the point it will have the most impact.

It will be finished in the next couple of days. Then I have more revisions to do on the Roman Undone. In theory they should be quick.

safely gathered in

My son phoned. He is at my mother's. She was there to pick him up on time. And the journey was relatively painless. It took him an hour to get through security at Heathrow...
So he is now set for the summer!
And my migraine monster headache of yesterday has vanished.
Now to finish these revisions and get them off to my new editor...

The Grandeer Connection

Way back in 1994/5 when the internet was first beginning to take off, modems speeds were slow and my children very young, my mother's partner wrote a paper for a class he was taking. It was all about how in the future, the internet would be used as a video link so people could keep in touch. He got a low mark and was laughed at. The paper was called the Grandeer Connection after the pet name my children had given my mother.
For a number of reasons, we have never used video links, even though ...

Working away

I have been busy doing an online workshop on Using Historical Detail to Create a Vivid World this week. It is proving interesting as I am having to put my thoughts on paper.

I am also nearing the end of my revisions. I think angels will sing when this book finally gets accepted. I do know that it is a far stronger romance now. I have gone back to basics and reread Writing Romance for Dummies. It is funny how much stands out to me now that I have had so many books published since the last time...

Reviews worth waiting for and an interview

Julie Bonello of cataromance has posted her review of Compromising Miss Milton. And it made my morning. Julie is a very experienced reviewer and enthusiastic supporter of the genre, so I was delighted when she gave Compromising Miss Milton 4.5 stars and said:
Compromising Miss Milton is Michelle Styles' most exciting book yet! In her stunning new novel for Mills and Boon, award-winning author Michelle Styles deftly combines superb characterization, passionate romance, nail-biting suspense...

What's your *Magician's Book*?

Editorial Ass (which is one of my secret pleasures!) has done a great post on a book about one woman's attempt to rediscover her love for the Narnia series. It was triggered by this quote:

Lucy Pevensie is looking in a spell book for a spell she desperately needs. The spell, it turns out, is in the form of a story, a really amazing story that Lucy can't stop reading. It's so good that she tries to go back and reread it, but finds the (magical) pages only turn in one direction. Worst of all...

Beautiful Blogger thing

The ever so lovely India Grey asked and I have held off doing this until today as today is a special anniversary for me.

1. Where were you five years ago?

Five years ago I went to the bookshop to pick up a book my husband had ordered. And had just arrived home.
Five years ago the phone rang. I answered it.
Five years, I spoke to the sr editor of HMB Historical and initially thought she was going to let me down gently as editors did The Call on a Thursday
Five years ago, my editor Who Is Right On...

Iceskating and writing

My cp Donna Alward wrote a wonderful piece using an iceskating metaphor. It is well worth reading, as it does capture some of the reasons why certain books are outstanding and others are...well...just there. Go read it. It might sparks some ideas about creating magic.

I am busy working away on my revisions and trying to capture some of the magic. I do think I know where I went wrong in the beginning -- namely I forgot the focus needed to be so heavily on the main couple and as I was starting ...