Jane Charles's Blog, page 7
August 13, 2012
The Trouble with Muses
Today I am talking about the problems I have had with my muse, and one I borrowed, at LadyScribes. Stop by and let me know if your muse has ever given you trouble.
http://ladyscribes.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-trouble-with-muses.html
http://ladyscribes.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-trouble-with-muses.html
August 9, 2012
The Popular Romance Project
Today LadyScribes is hosting Laurie Kahn and she is talking about her documentary on romance authors, The Popular Romance Project. Stob by if you get a chance. http://ladyscribes.blogspot.com
August 8, 2012
Dreaded Query Letters
Today on LadyScribes Julie Johnston talks about writing her latest query letter, Stop by and share your thoughts and process.
http://ladyscribes.blogspot.com/2012/08/is-there-little-bit-of-crazy-in-you.html
http://ladyscribes.blogspot.com/2012/08/is-there-little-bit-of-crazy-in-you.html
August 6, 2012
Today at LadyScribes
And Interview with Love Inspired Author Jessica Nelson. Stop by if you get a chance.
http://ladyscribes.blogspot.com/2012/08/an-interview-with-love-inspired-author.html
http://ladyscribes.blogspot.com/2012/08/an-interview-with-love-inspired-author.html
May 24, 2012
A Misguided Lord
Now Available . . . A Misguided Lord
It is time for Clayton Trent, Earl of Bentley, to take a bride. He knows exactly what he needs and the type of lady who should become his Countess. His life is orderly, scandal free and exactly the way it should be until Miss Eleanor Westin careens into him, upsetting the perfect balance of his world. She is everything his father said he should not marry. Yet, he cannot put her from his mind, not even when a decade old scandal threatens the very foundation of his family.
Miss Eleanor Westin has spent her life in the country on the brink of poverty and raising her siblings after the death of her parents until her grandfather finally decides to do his duty and brings her to London. Eleanor simply wants to find a gentleman who is willing to take on her family in the bargain. Love is not even a consideration if she can land security. Unfortunately, the only gentleman who has made any offer is Lord Bentley, and he will never do. If only he would stay out of her dreams so she could forget him and his intoxicating kisses.
Available at:Amazon and Barnes & Noble
It is time for Clayton Trent, Earl of Bentley, to take a bride. He knows exactly what he needs and the type of lady who should become his Countess. His life is orderly, scandal free and exactly the way it should be until Miss Eleanor Westin careens into him, upsetting the perfect balance of his world. She is everything his father said he should not marry. Yet, he cannot put her from his mind, not even when a decade old scandal threatens the very foundation of his family.
Miss Eleanor Westin has spent her life in the country on the brink of poverty and raising her siblings after the death of her parents until her grandfather finally decides to do his duty and brings her to London. Eleanor simply wants to find a gentleman who is willing to take on her family in the bargain. Love is not even a consideration if she can land security. Unfortunately, the only gentleman who has made any offer is Lord Bentley, and he will never do. If only he would stay out of her dreams so she could forget him and his intoxicating kisses.
Available at:Amazon and Barnes & Noble
May 21, 2012
Today at LadyScribes
I am blogging today at LadyScribes and talking about how being thrown a curve ball changed how I write. Have you ever been thrown a curve ball that you think will screw up all of your plans only for it to be one of the best things that could happen to you? Stop by and tell me about it.
Yesterday on Timeless Quills
Yesterday, Niles Thornton, Baron Quinton, of Catherine Gayle's Twice a Rake, took over the Timeless Quill blog. You really should stop by and meet him at Timeless Quills, as well as his best friend, Jonas, and half-sister Nia.
May 17, 2012
Today at LadyScribes . . .
The Romance Man!
Stop by LadyScribes to see what he has to say about Romance Novels.
February 26, 2012
The Betting Season
In AVA STONE's By Any Other Name...
Lady Philippa Casemore caused quite a scene at her very first ball of her very first season. She even landed herself, somehow, on the pages of the infamous betting book at White's gentleman's club. Unfortunately, she doesn't remember one moment of the night in question. Not the music. Not the notorious rake she'd dragged into the middle of the dance floor. Not the flask of opium-laced brandy she'd downed without realizing it's contents...
Jason York, the wicked Earl of St. Austell, can't quite forget the lady who stole his breath away the previous night. Of course, his broken nose, courtesy of the girl's brother, did have a way of making an impression. When he stumbles into Lady Philippa the next day, his ego is more than bruised when she doesn't seem to recall him at all and a scheme to make certain she never forgets him again quickly forms in Jason's mind.
~ * ~
In CATHERINE GAYLE's Flight of Fancy...
Cedric Loring, the Earl of Montague, has been an honorary member of the Bexley-Smythe family for years. He’s always had a special, if sometimes strained, bond with Georgie. But when her name ends up in the betting book at White’s before she’s even made her debut, he knows no one can protect her quite like he can. If only she’d stop chasing after the very gentleman who could single-handedly see to her ruin.
Lady Georgianna Bexley-Smythe has the uncanny ability to remember nearly everything she’s ever read, and thus knows everything about almost everything. But as knowledge and experience are not interchangeable, she intends to make her first Season one of adventure. What could be more adventurous than seeing London from Lord Haworth’s gas balloon? Now she must avoid Monty long enough to make Haworth’s acquaintance and beg an airborne adventure.
~ * ~
In JANE CHARLES's Landing A Laird...
Heiress Lady Moira Kirkwood will do anything it takes to marry a laird to take her north - far, far away from London and her domineering mother. Unfortunately, a pair of gentlemen overhear her jest about Scotland and compromising a fellow if she has to. Before the sun has risen the next day, Moira’s name and a scandalous wager have found themselves inside the infamous betting book at White’s.
One penniless gentleman after another begs Gideon Baxter, Viscount Ainsely, for his assistance in wooing Lady Moira. Unfortunately, Gideon would like to woo the charming lady himself. If only she cared more for him than for the location of his estate, he’d could be assured of where her true feelings lie.
~ * ~ In JERRICA KNIGHT-CATANIA's The Marriage Trap...
When Miss Patience Findley discovers, at her first ball of her first Season, just how much her father's scandal has affected her chances of marriage, she resigns herself to being alone and dying a spinster. That is, until she hears that her friends' names have landed in the Betting Book at White's. In a moment of desperation, she asks her reprobate cousin to place a bet on her behalf, in hopes of trapping an unsuspecting gentleman into marriage.
Tristan Wallford, Lord Swaffham, loves a good challenge. So when his friend, Rowan Findley, claims that his cousin Patience cannot be cured of her melancholy state, Tristan lays a bet that he will be the one to cure her. He could certainly use the money, after all. But as the game begins, Tristan begins to realize that not only does Miss Findley not need curing, but she might be worth trapping for himself.
November 17, 2011
Seeing Where the Road Leads
Today I have a guest. Welcome, Catherine Gayle!
They say there are two types of writers out there: plotters and pantsers. If you’re new to these terms, a panters is one who writes “by the seat of their pants.”
I started out my writing life as a pantser. That didn’t last long. I finished two manuscripts that way, but spent two to three times as long revising and rewriting and revising again as I did writing in the first place. Doing it for two 100,000 word manuscripts was enough to convince me to try another path.
After that, I decided there had to be a better way. I researched plotting methods, tried several, and found what worked for me. At that point, I knew I’d never go back. After all, I could finish a manuscript without needing to spend months on end reworking it into something that made sense.
Yet a few months ago, I found myself picking up a new project and writing without a clue where it would take me. I tried to plot it, but it didn’t work. No matter what I did, nothing would come together until I started writing a scene and the characters dictated where it would go.
It worked. But that was just a novella. I’m not sure I’m ready to give up the reins like that again on something full length. But yesterday, I started writing something new again, and yet again, I have no clue where I’m headed. I guess I’ll have to wait and see where this road leads me.
The novella I did successfully write as a pantser recently is called An Unintended Journey. It’s part of the Regency Christmas Summons anthology, found in A Summons From the Castle.
Blurb:
What once was lost…
Abby Goddard’s life is going along just swimmingly, apart from the disappearance of her life’s love—Wesley Cavendish, a man well above her station. Just before Christmas, Grandmama dies after revealing the identity of Abby’s grandfather. The Duke of Danby, no less. Now the entire family will travel to Yorkshire to confront Danby, hoping to gain a dowry for Abby. But then Wesley reemerges, sparking a hope Abby thought long destroyed.
Now is found…
Shall the prodigal son’s sole inheritance be an unsightly gash? Wesley Cavendish aspires to the political realm, despite his father’s near-murderous opposition…not to mention his opposition to Abby Goddard. But since Father died, will the new Earl of Fordingham rescind Father’s disgraceful allegations? Fordingham thwarts Wesley at every turn, threatening marriage to a prominent Tory family—which precludes Abby—to put an end to Wesley’s Whig involvement…unless Wesley can find a loophole.
Excerpt:
The thwarting of her exodus left Abby trembling again. She took two full breaths and briefly pressed her eyes closed to fight down her sorrow before turning again. This time, her eyes passed over the baron, then traveled to Lady Pritchard, and finally settled on their guests.
Her breath caught.
Mr. Daniel Pritchard, the baron’s eldest son and heir, had come home from his recent travels—but he wasn’t the man who left Abby with a tingling sensation in the pit of her stomach, and a knot the size of Mount Olympus in her throat, and her toes curling within her half-boots from the desperate need to run as fast as she could and not look back.
No, such a reaction could only be due to one man’s presence.
Mr. Wesley Cavendish, the Earl of Fordingham’s wayward brother, stood before the hearth, looking like an ancient Roman warrior ready to race his chariot through the Coliseum—only a warrior oddly stuffed into modern fashions, with his dark, slightly curling hair falling down over his cravat. His straight nose and black-as-midnight eyes were just as she’d always remembered them. He regarded her so intensely she felt as though she’d sprouted six scaly heads and started singing opera from each of them whilst in the nude.
Have you ever taken off on a path you swore you’d never again travel, and had it turn out okay? Every commenter who leaves an email address will be entered in the prize extravaganza outlined at www.catherinegayle.com/news.html, where you could win a Kindle or one of many other prizes.
Catherine Gayle
They say there are two types of writers out there: plotters and pantsers. If you’re new to these terms, a panters is one who writes “by the seat of their pants.”
I started out my writing life as a pantser. That didn’t last long. I finished two manuscripts that way, but spent two to three times as long revising and rewriting and revising again as I did writing in the first place. Doing it for two 100,000 word manuscripts was enough to convince me to try another path.
After that, I decided there had to be a better way. I researched plotting methods, tried several, and found what worked for me. At that point, I knew I’d never go back. After all, I could finish a manuscript without needing to spend months on end reworking it into something that made sense.
Yet a few months ago, I found myself picking up a new project and writing without a clue where it would take me. I tried to plot it, but it didn’t work. No matter what I did, nothing would come together until I started writing a scene and the characters dictated where it would go.
It worked. But that was just a novella. I’m not sure I’m ready to give up the reins like that again on something full length. But yesterday, I started writing something new again, and yet again, I have no clue where I’m headed. I guess I’ll have to wait and see where this road leads me.
The novella I did successfully write as a pantser recently is called An Unintended Journey. It’s part of the Regency Christmas Summons anthology, found in A Summons From the Castle.
Blurb:What once was lost…
Abby Goddard’s life is going along just swimmingly, apart from the disappearance of her life’s love—Wesley Cavendish, a man well above her station. Just before Christmas, Grandmama dies after revealing the identity of Abby’s grandfather. The Duke of Danby, no less. Now the entire family will travel to Yorkshire to confront Danby, hoping to gain a dowry for Abby. But then Wesley reemerges, sparking a hope Abby thought long destroyed.
Now is found…
Shall the prodigal son’s sole inheritance be an unsightly gash? Wesley Cavendish aspires to the political realm, despite his father’s near-murderous opposition…not to mention his opposition to Abby Goddard. But since Father died, will the new Earl of Fordingham rescind Father’s disgraceful allegations? Fordingham thwarts Wesley at every turn, threatening marriage to a prominent Tory family—which precludes Abby—to put an end to Wesley’s Whig involvement…unless Wesley can find a loophole.
Excerpt:
The thwarting of her exodus left Abby trembling again. She took two full breaths and briefly pressed her eyes closed to fight down her sorrow before turning again. This time, her eyes passed over the baron, then traveled to Lady Pritchard, and finally settled on their guests.
Her breath caught.
Mr. Daniel Pritchard, the baron’s eldest son and heir, had come home from his recent travels—but he wasn’t the man who left Abby with a tingling sensation in the pit of her stomach, and a knot the size of Mount Olympus in her throat, and her toes curling within her half-boots from the desperate need to run as fast as she could and not look back.
No, such a reaction could only be due to one man’s presence.
Mr. Wesley Cavendish, the Earl of Fordingham’s wayward brother, stood before the hearth, looking like an ancient Roman warrior ready to race his chariot through the Coliseum—only a warrior oddly stuffed into modern fashions, with his dark, slightly curling hair falling down over his cravat. His straight nose and black-as-midnight eyes were just as she’d always remembered them. He regarded her so intensely she felt as though she’d sprouted six scaly heads and started singing opera from each of them whilst in the nude.
Have you ever taken off on a path you swore you’d never again travel, and had it turn out okay? Every commenter who leaves an email address will be entered in the prize extravaganza outlined at www.catherinegayle.com/news.html, where you could win a Kindle or one of many other prizes.
Catherine Gayle
