Michelle Styles's Blog, page 45

Breaking the Governess's Rules

Yesterday, my editor emailed to say that my latest accepted ms now had a title -- Breaking the Governess's Rules. It fits the story because after a Disaster, Louisa has allowed rules to dominate her life. Only now she has re-encountered the man who ruined her life the first time... It is a March 2011 release in the UK.

My editor also mentioned that I was supposed to be hard at work on my revisions. I am (sort of) but think I have come up with a workable solution. My editor said it sounded fine...

Official Facebook page

Until now, I haven't had an official facebook page, just a normal facebook profile, but now there's an official one. It has all my covers,a place for discussions of my books, this blog is linked in the notes and I will be posting details of any events that I am going to attend. If you want to *like* it, please do. It will have my latest news etc and is really for my readers.
Now if I can just figure out how to get my photo changed, I will be happy.

Sometimes it is more difficult than others

Right, the Mess in Progress has been messing with my head. I suddenly realised that I had ditched the hook/set up that I had originally intended to write for something that I thought would be more powerful, but had neglected to add in another hook. The ms as reported here actually fell v flat. But while acknowledging this, I personally love bits and am stubborn.
This afternoon, my daughter served as a human sounding board until the point came where she said -- why don't you just ditch and writ...

Solar powered savings

As regular readers of this blog will recall, back in September my tumble dryer broke and managed to fry clothes. I decided to go green and to adopt the age old solar powered dryer method (and on wet days Aga powered drying). I had done it. Become used to pegging clothes out.

There were a few hiccups. Value washing lines tend to break in the wind. I am very happy now with the large Brabantia rotary and coverI found at Lakeland, combined with the four tiered indoor dryer (again from Lakeland)...

Reactive inciting incident

As I was asked:

Reactive means passive or reacting to something else rather than seeking to change your life.

Inciting incident is the thing that starts the story.

In my current mess in progress, the heroine agrees to do something for her brother. Her sole reason for encountering the hero has to do with her brother. And she is on the back foot the entire time. She is constantly running to stay in place, rather than making changes. Given a choice, she chooses the wrong one. The brother dominates ...

Book release schedule for 2010

My editor has left me know my book release schedule for the rest of 2010. The Viking's Captive Princess is a Dec 2010 UK release and A Question of Impropriety is a Dec 2010 Direct and ebook release in NA. Impoverished Miss Convenient Wife is a January 2011 Direct and ebook release in NA.
Still no word on the title for the Mach 2011 release.

I remain mulling over my extensive revisions (or perhaps rewrite is the correct word here). Think Thomas Edison. He had discovered 10,000 ways that a light...

Going to Orlando RWA conference

I am going! The flights have been sorted. Now all I have to do is to wait for the hotel reservations to open.

I have learnt though that it pays to be persistent, even when you are called a stupid woman who doesn't know anything about the travel industry.

If you do suffer from a Force majeur (Natural disaster), under ABTA code of conduct, the travel agent is supposed to rebook or offer to give you the money back. Proving the Force Majeur can be difficult. Official documentation is v useful. You ...

Revisons hit

My editor worked late and got me her initial thoughts. It is the Same Old Problem that has plagued me recently -- lack of attitude on the part of the heroine. What happens is that she becomes flat and the others around her are better defined. In short she is too bland and became a conduit of information rather than a Person in her own right.

The hero needs some adjusting as well.

But it is going to be a massive rewrite rather than simple tweaks. Luckily such things currently are par for the cou...

Character dimensions -- trying to explain

As a few people didn't understand what I was talking about yesterdya.

One of the problems with protagonists is that you can be so focused towards moving towards the goal/exploring the conflict etc that the protagonist seems flat, like an actor rather than a person. The personality is missing.
Equally you might know lots about a character but unless it is down on the page, your reader won't know. Been there, done that. In my head, but not on the page = flat character for reader.
More than stories...

Character dimension

One of my weaknesses is character dimension (according to my editor who should know!) is character dimension, particularly in early drafts and particularly with my lead characters. It gets there by the end of the revision process but it can always be improved. With each book it becomes harder in a way because you are not trying to repeat character traits that you used in other books, but to a certain extent you have to. For example, a Viking warrior is going to be far more like other Viking ...