Harper Bliss's Blog, page 31

Writing ‘Seasons Of Love’ – Day 1

Well… I did start, but I didn’t get very far. As much as I wanted to just jump from one book to the next, apparently it doesn’t work that way. I felt it as soon as I opened my eyes. I was actually nervous to start this book. I have many emotions when starting on a new story (of any length), but stress and anxiety usually aren’t among them.

I had trouble with everything, but mainly with staying off the internet (which is usually a sign that it won’t be a stellar day for writing.) I also had problems switching from 3rd person POV past tense (which I used for Release The Stars) to 1st person POV present tense. I tried, because, despite the nerves and the not-really-feeling-it, I am very excited about this story, but some days it just doesn’t happen.

I did manage to somehow ‘bang out’ (that’s how I call it) 3000 words, so today was not a total loss. (And lest you think all I did with the rest of my day was watch The Voice, there’s always plenty of publishing stuff to do for Ladylit… I did however watch The Voice finale (on fast forward because who needs to see more white dudes sing?) during my lunch break. My favorite part was when Christina impersonated Britney, Lady Gaga & Cher. Respect!) (My favorite contestant didn’t win, though… they never do.)

So, back on track with this blog post… I decided to scrap tomorrow’s writing day from my schedule as well, and start again on Tuesday, when I’ve at least had a few more days to put Release The Stars behind me. As much as I would like to be a ‘book machine’ at times, I’m just a writer of flesh and blood (and many many feelings.)

But, I do already have a proper title for this new book: Seasons Of Love. Props to my wife who came up with it when we had a little brainstorm over lunch yesterday. The book deals with a May/December relationship, so the word ‘Seasons’ in the title is a reference to that.

What I also have, is the cover for Once in a Lifetime! Again, props to my wife, who made it. I love it so much.

That scarf on the model’s body isn’t there just for show!

I guess that 0 in the ‘Words Start’ column was too daunting…

For this book, I’m going to keep a proper tally, so you can easily follow along.

The numbers:

Day 1: 3000 words

Total: 3.000 words

I should be back on Tuesday! Have a great weekend.

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Latest releases: Opposites Attract, Bossier: More Productive Tales Of Lesbian Lust and Girls Only: Volume Three

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Want Hired Help for FREE? Subscribe to my mailing list >>

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Want more FREE stories? Download French Kissing: Episode One, Fool for Love (High Rise Novella One), Wetter, All of Me and New Girl

Writing ‘Release The Stars’ – Day 11

I posted this screenshot on Twitter today at 11.30AM, after I had typed the two most satisfying words in a writer’s life: The End.

A heavy rain shower woke me up at 4.30AM this morning (it’s rainy season in Hong Kong) and instead of trying to get back to sleep, I just got up and started writing. I began my first session at 5.20AM and everything came together nicely. By the time I finished just before lunch time, I was riding a massive adrenalin high (and was feeling mightily pleased with myself.)

So, that’s the first draft done in 11 days! (Actually, 4 of those were half days so it could have been 9.) ;-p

I had a few lesser days, but never anything alarming, and I think my crazy writing experiment was, at the very least, a word count success. Whether it will be successful in other ways, remains to be seen, of course. But, first and foremost, I had a lot of fun writing this book. If only half of the joy I experienced while writing it translates to the page…. it should make for an enjoyable reading experience as well.

Writing ‘Release The Stars’ – Day 10

I’m so close to the end of Release The Stars now, I think I might be suffering from (wholly imaginary, I’m sure) Finishing Fear Syndrome. After a decent morning (where I did start later than usual, but the words flowed nicely), I only managed one more session after lunch. I just blocked. It’s a bit crazy because I’m almost at 53.000 words now and I know exactly what’s going to happen (lots of sex, basically) (just kidding), but I just couldn’t sit down any longer and write the scenes.

Before I started this crazy writing experiment, I would have been over the moon with a 4700 words day, and I’m certainly not displeased with the progress I made, but it just feels like the last few writing days have been much more tricky than the first.

That being said, my story did take me by surprise today. I’ve ventured off the plot I laid out in the beginning quite a bit (although the outcome will be the same, the route to The End is a bit different than I had first envisioned). Something came together in a way that I hadn’t expected and made me a little emotional. The main character is a writer and perhaps I put a bit more of myself in her than I wanted to.

NEW RELEASE: Opposites Attract

My first idea after brainstorming my story for Opposites Attract was to get a very messy person together with someone prone to OCD, but then I watched the movie Swimming Pool, featuring a very uptight Charlotte Rampling and an extremely sensually portrayed Ludivine Sagnier and I became slightly obsessed. I started dreaming of a lesbian plot for the movie and I woke up on the day I set aside for writing the story so completely consumed by images of Charlotte Rampling secretly feasting her eyes on Ludivine Sagnier’s glossy, youthful legs, I had to write that story instead. So I did. And you can find it in this mini-anthology, alongside more clashing tales of lesbian lust by my favorite co-authors, Cheyenne Blue, Laila Blake, Lucy Felthouse and Erzabet Bishop.

Here’s a snippet from my story ‘The Power of Words':

Alice lay in a deck chair wearing just a pair of bikini bottoms in a loud floral print. The way the sun warmed her nipples was, indeed, an exquisite sensation. Additionally, Alice was still basking in the glory of actually having taken her top off. She’d just done it. First the straps, then the clasp, finally letting it fall by her side—after which she’d picked it up and draped it over the back of her chair. Joy was entirely to blame for this. Alice didn’t take any responsibility for putting her upper body on display like that. And she would certainly never even consider doing so in front of someone else. But it was just her now. The blue sky above. The cool water of the pool next to her. Some birds chirping in the bushes surrounding the garden. This was what her holiday was made of. Joy would be leaving again in a few days. In fact, Alice might even enjoy her holiday more, what with the contrast of being all alone again—and the new-found pleasure of baring her chest to the sun.

“Wow, Mama,” Alice heard someone say, followed by a wolf whistle. “Glad to see I inspired you.”

Alice blinked her eyes open. The sun was all the way on the other side of the garden. What time was it? “I must have dozed off,” she muttered. Joy stood next to her chair, her eyes fixed on Alice’s bosom. Only then did Alice remember she’d taken off her top before falling asleep.

“Oh shoot.” She quickly covered her breasts with her arms, looking around for her top.

“Looking for this?” Joy held Alice’s bikini top between two fingers. “Nice fabric, by the way… Very unexpected, but hey, life can be full of surprises like that.”

Here’s the blurb:

Ladylit’s ‘Fab Five’ are back, and this time they will regale you with stories revolving around the age-old theme of Opposites Attract. Find out how a Democrat and a Republican reconcile their different political view points in Cheyenne Blue’s ‘Coming Out In District 31′, how a gym novice and a gym bunny get it on in Lucy Felthouse’s ‘Same Place, Same Time’, and how an older, rather uptight woman deals with a young brat spoiling her holiday in Harper Bliss’s ‘The Power of Words’. Further stories by Erzabet Bishop and Laila Blake expand the settings in this diverse mini-anthology to a bookstore and a museum. Tension flies high in these five tales of clashing lesbian lust, in which the characters will have to either ignore their desire or broaden their mind.

Table of Contents

Same Place, Same Time by Lucy Felthouse

Dark Bloomer by Laila Blake

Coming Out in District 31 by Cheyenne Blue

Art Speak by Erzabet Bishop

The Power of Words by Harper Bliss

And you can get it here:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon CA

Amazon DE

Amazon AUS

Add it to your Goodreads shelf >>

Enjoy!

P.S. The movie Swimming Pool has inspired me so much that I will also turn the lesbian (non-thriller) version of it (that’s been playing in my head for a few weeks now) into a full-length novel soon! (Seriously, watch that movie!)

+ + +

Latest releases: Opposites Attract, Bossier: More Productive Tales Of Lesbian Lust and Girls Only: Volume Three

+ + +

Want Hired Help for FREE? Subscribe to my mailing list >>

+ + +

Want more FREE stories? Download French Kissing: Episode One, Fool for Love (High Rise Novella One), Wetter, All of Me and New Girl

Writing ‘Release The Stars’ – Day 9

Yesterday was one of those days when word count obsessions and staying ahead of schedule paid off massively, as I spent most of Friday on the sofa, producing 0 words.

It happens. I won’t say I didn’t experience any guilt for not even trying to write a single word, but that’s just how it is sometimes. It took a day off and I’m all caught up on The Voice and Top Chef, making the day anything but a complete waste of time!

Writing ‘Release The Stars’ – Day 8

Today was not as heroic as yesterday, but well within expectations. Everything is still on schedule and my manuscript has now reached 46.000 words. This is a short novel (the goal is 60.000 words) so I can already smell the finish line, which doesn’t help with my focus.

If, however, I have two good writing days on Friday and next Tuesday (tomorrow and next Monday I have to put on my publisher’s hat), I could have this first draft finished by Tuesday evening of next week. I know I’m getting way ahead of myself, but that is basically how I live my life so…

Writing ‘Release The Stars’ – Day 7

The paperbacks of French Kissing: Season Two finally arrived today. (They were on a slow boat to HK, I think.)

Anyway… I broke my word count record again today! I’m calling it an 8k day, but officially I wrote 7883 words, bringing my manuscript to 40.000 words. I’m super happy with this, even though I’m veering more and more off plot.

When I say ‘veer off plot’ I actually mean I’ve been inserting many more ‘naughty scenes’ than initially planned. The same thing happened when I was writing Once In A Lifetime, which was supposed to be a really intense romance with only ‘a few’ kinky scenes… I think, in the end, my two main characters spend half of the novel in bed.

But my current WIP especially was not supposed to go this way. I almost wanted it to be a ‘sweet romance’, but no… my brain apparently doesn’t play that way. Oh well, I guess it’s something I’ll have to live with. (There are harder things to live with.)

Snippet from ‘Fit for Forty’

With all the blogging about writing Release The Stars, I haven’t yet posted a snippet from my story Fit for Forty, out now in Ylva’s erotica anthology Don’t Be Shy.

This story is set on a hike, and the narrator is not having the best time of her life, until they reach the top…

Writing ‘Release The Stars’ – Day 6

First things first. The lovely Clare Lydon interviewed me for the Lesbian Book Club podcast, and you can listen to our chat here >>

The radio show we recorded yesterday (it’s called I’ll post the link once it’s been aired (in about 2 to 3 weeks.)

Meanwhile, I’ve taken Release The Stars over the halfway mark. Although I ‘only’ wrote 5000 words today, of which the bulk made up a very long and emotional bedroom scene, which left me quite empty and reluctant to continue after. (It was awesome to write, though!)

During our lunch break, the wife and I went to have a second look at the new Ladylit office. As of June 1st, we’ll be moving into a new space on the island, thus reducing our commute with 1,5 hours (one way!) (Yes, life is swell.) I’m not entirely sure where I’ll find the time to move, what with still having 1,5 novels left to write in the 5 weeks before we leave for Belgium, but I’m sure we’ll make it work somehow (by ‘we’, I mean my wife, who is awesome and gorgeous) (and almost 40.)

Writing ‘Release The Stars’ – Day 5

While I would say that my #1 piece of advice to every writer is: Stay Off The Internet, Damn It! I have to admit that today I didn’t follow my own advice. I cracked around 10 and checked my e-mails and Twitter (and Facebook…)

Fortunately, a small fix was enough to get me going again and, although I felt from the very first second I sat down that it wouldn’t be another epic 7000 words day, I did manage to write 6000 words.

Because of not going all out (and sleeping a little longer this morning) I don’t feel as wiped out as I did yesterday at this time. I do feel the need to stress that not all writing days are equal. It’s definitely not all exhilaration and mental fist pumping and patting myself on the back for my amazing word count. Some days, it can be like that, but those days are not typical.

Most writing days are actually like today, slogging along, fighting the urge to go on the internet, and spending my breaks wondering if what I’m writing is not complete drivel. Hey, I never said a writer’s life was glamorous!