Another pair of cowboy boots
beneath my bed
banishing dreams of
a permanent man
right out of my head
They call me a buckle-bunny
but that sets low the bar
for at the end of the night
I take home the rodeo star
He rides wild horses
and even wilder bulls
I lap him up by the mouthfuls
Lust curls in my belly
when I spy the champion buckle
his laughter is sweet as honeysuckle
An aging buckle-bunny is what I see
until the next cowboy smiles at me
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With years of practice writing Haiku, Renku (and prose) poetry, I feel as though I have acquired some skill. Because that is what it takes, practice. The more you do anything the better you become. This my first attempt, ever, at ‘rhyming poetry’. For two consecutive mornings I had lain in my bed, between that creative space of half-sleep and wakefulness. The poem swirling around and around until it distilled to this and I had to write it down. (for better or for worse.)
The biggest reason that “rhyming poetry” has fallen out of favor is that it is often forced and unnatural. … To the ear, it will sound more like internal rhyme (but to the eye it will appear as some form of end rhyme). In a good rhyming poem, the reader might not even realize it is rhyming poem (until later). (Unknown. From the Internet.) If I accomplished this, dear reader, it was by pure accident.
The title: A young country-western song writer made up this term and it caught my fancy. She meant it as a name for the groupies that follow the rodeo and its cowboys.
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My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! November: Susanne O’Leary, December: Mimi Mathews, February: Jennie Gautet To receive my weekly posts sign up for my
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JG. There is natural talent, of course. But I think what makes a writer great is being able to handle critique and to incorporate the good critiques into future works – to constantly learn and grow in the craft.
Q. and the all-important: What does the process of going from “no book” to “finished book” look like for you?
JG. I get a rough idea and write a few chapters that I love. Then I crash and don’t know what to do next so I call my development editor and we talk through the ideas. I write a really skeletal first draft and hate it. Then read through and think it’s not quite so bad. I get my critique partners to have a look and take their advice. I edit again then send it to the developmental editor in completed form (or at least at 80%). I edit again on the computer then on paper and send it to the line editor. I edit again with her changes and do text to voice to catch repeats or strange wording. Then I read it on my kindle to see it as a reader would before sending it to the proof editor. In the final stages, I send it to early readers who catch all the typos and other mistakes no one else caught. Then it’s ready to go out.
Q. How has your life experiences influenced your writing?
JG. I’ve lived in a lot of places. I’m curious about human nature. I observe. I’ve suffered from the darker things like grief and depression. I’ve known wild joy and adventure. I think my characters come to life from what I’ve experienced.
Q. What’s your down time look like?
JG. This is a weakness of mine. I do not have down time. I work all day on writing or the other aspects of the business (marketing, social media, production, translation, audio), then make dinner and listen to my teens talk about their day. On the weekend I’m doing ministry stuff. (We serve the teen ministry). I know this is just a phase, though – these teen years – so I’m okay with it. I really enjoy reading in bed at night. And we go away a few times a year, which is great. Sometimes I take a walk by the Seine river, or visit a friend, or go into Paris, but there is no regular downtime.
Q. Have you or do you want to write in another genre`?
JG. I’ve written contemporary romance. A Noble Affair was my first novel and it’s not the finest in terms of literature but it was good practice for a full-length fiction work. And A Sweetheart in Paris is a decent book, I think, but it hasn’t attracted much attention. I’ve written a memoir as well, Stars Upside Down. I think if I were to switch genres I wouldn’t stray far. Georgian or Victorian as opposed to Regency. But I really love what I write.
Q. Note to Self: (a life lesson you’ve learned.)
A. Well, this won’t be relatable to everyone, but my main life’s lesson is that when I draw my last breath my books won’t matter. Only my relationship to God will. So I need to make sure that success doesn’t go to my head and that failure doesn’t destroy me. I am just God’s kid, and He’ll make sure I have all I need.
Did you miss Part 1 or Part 2?
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My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! October: Life Coach, shaman, author, Jennifer Monahan, November: Susanne O’Leary, December: Mimi Mathews, February: Jennie Goutet To receive my weekly posts sign up for my
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Q. What does it feel like to be an American writer, living in France, writing in an English, historic romance genre. (Special challenges? Funny stories?)
JG. I can usually forget about where I live when writing my Regency England books. But it can be tricky when translating the books, especially when the Napoleonic wars are portrayed. My latest book was set in Waterloo and we all know how that turned out for the French. I’ll be putting a disclaimer in the front and the back of the book for that one. (Oui, oui, I love my adopted country). Otherwise, I think it helps for the historical details. I have a much easier time getting to the French chateaux, but they can easily inspire me much in the same way the English ones would were I able to visit them.
Q. Where/when do you first discover your characters?
JG. Sometimes I start out with a good idea of the character and who he or she is. At other times, I discover my character as I go. He or she takes control of the story and runs off with it in an unexpected direction.
Q. What first inspired you to write?
This blogger is a big fan!
JG. I had tried writing when I was younger. A handwritten book in the 8th grade, 10 chapters of a book that went nowhere when we were living in Africa, a fantasy book that I mapped out and abandoned. It was finally the freedom of writing for the sake of writing on my blog that allowed me to see how much I enjoyed written expression, and it was my memoir that allowed me to see that I could finish a book. From there I wanted to keep writing books but I had already told my own story. It was time to tell someone else’s.
Q. What comes first to you? The Characters or the Situation?
JG. It truly depends on the book. I might start with Character: ‘I want to tell the story of a woman who keeps her poise when faced with a series of difficult situations’ (A Fall from Grace); or Situation: ‘I want to tell the story of an arranged marriage where the bride is furious to be sold off and the husband is feeling sheepish about having arranged it’ (His Disinclined Bride); or it could be that I know the character from previous books and tackle Both: ‘I want to put shy, retiring Phoebe with her unrequited love through the fires of Brussels in 1815, which will show her just how strong she is.’ (A Daring Proposal). It just depends.
Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing?
JG. I should say yes. That is what a proper writer is supposed to say. But no, not always. Sometimes it’s just a job and I have to get the word count in. Fortunately (for the reader, I suppose) there will always come a point when I am fully invested. But in terms of proportion of time spent getting lost, it’s a little less like first dates / falling in love and more like married for 25 years and still grateful – if that makes sense. Even if a lot of the writing feels like work, I do love it.
Q. Are you working on something now or have a new release coming up? If so tell us about it.
a trip to Rouen
JG. Right now I’m in the process of launching two season finales. A Daring Proposal is just released in the Memorable Proposals series. This is the one about Waterloo. And The Sport of Matchmaking is set to come out in May. This one is the last of the Clavering Chronicles series, and it’s fun and light in tone. There is a pretty strong contrast to A Daring Proposal, which is more about the deeper emotions. So now it’s time to start something new. I am in the process of thinking about a series. I’m working out the setting, the characters, the covers and the names, but it’s too early in the process to say anything because it might yet change.
Q. When did you begin to write seriously?
JG. I was a regular and invested blogger for years, but those were always short posts rather than the longer works. I published my memoir at the end of 1813 (Oh my gosh. That is how much of a Regency writer I am – I literally wrote that date instead of the 21st century) in 2013 and I have not looked back since.
Q. Do you think we will see, in our lifetime, the total demise of paper books?
JG. I’m not sure. If we increase bamboo production and start to use that instead, and start to reduce battery-operated small appliances … maybe we’ll keep paper? Unless the e-readers all become solar charged? I do think that the trend will be based more on the needs of the environment rather than readers’ preferences.
Did you miss Part 1 of our interview?
Join us for the conclusion next week.
Did you miss my REVIEW of this author’s book?
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My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! October: Life Coach, shaman, author, Jennifer Monahan, November: Susanne O’Leary, December: Mimi Mathews, February: Jennie Goutet To receive my weekly posts sign up for my
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Jennie Goutet is an American-born Anglophile who lives with her French husband and their three children in a small town outside of Paris. Her imagination resides in Regency England, where her best-selling proper Regency romances are set. She is also author of the award-winning memoir Stars Upside Down, two contemporary romances, and a smattering of other published works. A Christian, a cook, and an inveterate klutz, Jennie sometimes writes about faith, food, and life—even the clumsy moments—on her blog, aladyinfrance.com. You can learn more about Jennie and her books, and sign up for her newsletter, on her author website: jenniegoutet.com. Oh! Did I mention that she’s funny?
Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing? Or tell us about your ‘dream’ work space.
JG. My main writing spots are the desk in my bedroom, my living room couch, or my bed if it’s one of those kinds of days. Work happens amidst the shouts of my boys as they wrestle or is sometimes interrupted by my daughter to tell of her character development. (She’s studying to be an illustrator / storyteller). My husband turned the outside studio into an office for me, but he ended up using it. I find I like to be where the action is, and someone needs to stir the soup for dinner.
Q. Do you have any special rituals or quirks when you sit down to write? (a neat work space, sharpened #2 pencils, legal pad, cup of tea, glass of brandy, favorite pajamas, etc.)
JG. Very often, for new content / first drafts, I record the story then translate it into text and rework it afterwards. In this case, my ritual is to pace back and forth trying to gear up enough courage to speak the story. I’m never in the mood. First drafts are my nemesis. However, later drafts and edits are done with music through my sound-canceling headphones. And if I’m lucky, it’s with a cup of coffee and gluten-free cake at my elbow. (But not too close to my elbow. Cue the panic: have I emailed the latest draft to myself in case I lose everything?)
Q. Could you tell us something about yourself that we might not already know?
At a retreat
JG. I’ve lived in four continents. In Asia, it was in Taiwan, and I used to speak Mandarin pretty fluently. I now live outside of Paris and have French citizenship through marriage. My husband and I spent a year in East Africa as newlyweds on a humanitarian mission. And the other continent, of course, is North America where I grew up. I’m from Upstate New York. My dad was a symphony musician before retiring, so we went to the symphony a lot, and I think that’s pretty interesting.
Q. What tools do you begin with? Legal pad, spiral notebook, pencils, fountain pen, or do you go right to your keyboard?
JG. As I said, I use a recorder for first drafts. Other than that, I have colored notebooks for each book to note details that are important to the story. But mainly I use my computer. Writing longhand seems like a colossal waste of time to me, although I know it’s an important step for some writers. But I’m a Type-A, ‘get-er-done’ type of person, so I generally just dive right in.
Q. Do you have a set time each day (or night) to write?
JG. My preference is always to write in the morning. That way it’s done and I can feel accomplished and free the rest of the day. But writing competes for the morning slot with quiet times (I like to start my day with reading the Bible and praying), working out, grocery shopping, organizing my paper clip collection … basically anything that distracts me until the deadline is looming too near and I have no choice but to get to work.
Q. What’s your best advice to other writers for overcoming procrastination?
JG. Um. Given my answer above, I’m not sure I’m the best person to answer that question. But, all right, I’ll give it a stab. Although I know a few authors whose story ideas flow fast and furious so that their fingers can’t keep up, for many authors it’s just work. You show up and you get your word count in, whether or not you feel like it. Eventually something will tug at your heart and you’ll be glad you’re telling that particular story. And you can always make it all shiny later on in the subsequent drafts. You just have to get the first draft out before you can get anywhere.
Q. What does it feel like to be an American writer, living in France, writing in an English, historic romance genre. (Special challenges? Funny stories?)
Join us next week for Part II of this entertaining Interview!
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My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! October: Life Coach, shaman, author, Jennifer Monahan, November: Susanne O’Leary, December: Mimi Mathews, February: Jennie Goutet To receive my weekly posts sign up for my
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My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! October: Life Coach, shaman, author, Jennifer Monahan, November: Susanne O’Leary, December: Mimi Mathews, February: Jennie Gautet To receive my weekly posts sign up for my
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I’ve been doing a lot of writing lately. Another self-help book for my readers and fans. Trying to share the practical, no-nonsense tips that others forget or don’t think to share. My approach being down-to-earth, pragmatic, and helpful (I hope). That which has grown out of my years…no… decades of creating books. Starting from scratch, like you, not knowing the first thing.
So I find myself weary after putting the final touches on this book, just newly released on Amazon.
I frequently go to Charles Bukowski for renewal, for refilling my tanks. Strange but true. So thumbing through my much read copy of The Flash of Lightning Behind the Mountain I came across this:
Did you miss my Interview with Bukowski?
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My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! October: Life Coach, shaman, author, Jennifer Monahan, November: Susanne O’Leary, December: Mimi Mathews, February: Jennie Goutet To receive my weekly posts sign up for my
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(Some posts deserve another airing. Thought I’d share this again from July, 2013)
Most of the authors that I have interviewed are avid readers like myself. We seem to all agree that is what makes us better writers. I was reading Caroline Leavitt’s, ‘Is This Tomorrow’ and it struck me how very different our writing styles are. Caroline writes pages of beautiful, meaningful description with a few lines of dialogue. Much like Edna Ferber did.
My fiction has tons of dialogue (probably as a result of my being a playwright) and just enough description to set the time, location and who my characters are. I have to repeatedly check myself to make certain that I am giving my readers enough description.
Why am I telling you about this? I need to be sure that you realize that there is no WRONG way. If you tend to write in story telling form, a narrative, that’s great! If, like me, you write a lot of dialogue and let that method tell the reader what your characters are doing, what the weather is like, who just showed up at the house, who she/he is in love with, who died, (well, you get the idea). That’s okay too.
Aspire to write better every day….but don’t worry about your ‘style’, if it turns out that an author you really respect writes differently than you do. It’s a DIFFERENT style but that doesn’t mean that your writing style is wrong. Or that their writing is right. It’s just about style, and what we feel comfortable writing.
If you are more a descriptive writer be certain that you keep your paragraphs short. Don’t ramble on and on in one paragraph. The eye of the reader needs a rest.
And double, triple check your grammar!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Available Now!
NEWLY RELEASED! I’ve just finished some final editing on my latest “How To…” book and it is now available on Amazon.com and all other book outlets.
I’ve tried to create a handbook that will lead the writer, step-by-step through the self-publishing world. Topics such as picking the right size for your book to advice on choosing a title. Manuscript formatting tips to recommending self-publishing programs. From royalties to creating a dynamic cover for your book. And much, much more.
This book is available at your favorite book store and on-line.
My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! October: Life Coach, shaman, author, Jennifer Monahan, November: Susanne O’Leary, December: Mimi Mathews, February: Jennie Gautet To receive my weekly posts sign up for my
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We can all agree that historic, Victorian romances are a dime a dozen. Some writers are better than others and the market place doesn’t seem to care. Unless, of course, the reader stumbles upon Jennie Goutet (as I did).
Ms. Goutet writes with an uninterrupted elegant flow. She never drops out of the genre with a more modern turn of phrase or word. The formality of this period deserves a formal treatment when writing the story. It takes great talent to never break the flow, never break the cadence or flavor. And until you have read Jennie Goutet, Grace Burrowes, and Mimi Matthews, the reader will not notice the glaring difference.
Selena Lockhart comes with neither dowry nor connections, and she knows better than to expect Society to give her a welcome—especially after her father gambled away his fortune, precipitating the family’s sudden fall from grace and Selena’s betrothed to break off their engagement. It therefore comes as no surprise that her new neighbor, Sir Lucius, treats her with disdain. Why should he look beyond appearances when her own promises so little?
A Fall From Grace was a speculative purchase on my part, having never read anything by this author. I am so relieved that I didn’t miss this author or this book. I look forward to reading some of her other books, which I have on order.
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My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! August: Veronica Henry, October: Life Coach, shaman, author, Jennifer Monahan, November: Susanne O’Leary, December: Mimi Mathews, February: Jennie Goutet To receive my weekly posts sign up for my
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In writing my sample of a writing sprint (for this blogging session) it WORKED! I had been ‘resting’ from my creative writing; fiction, scripts, etc., but writing every day, my blog, etc. But after writing a couple of ‘sprints’ I seemed to have kicked aside whatever was holding me back and wrote a short, one act play in less than a week. And returned to an unfinished novel in my true crime series.
If you want extra accountability, start your writing sprint by posting “Starting a 30-minute writing sprint” on one of your social
A new short play
media sites (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook) with the hashtag #writingsprint.
Before you start, double check one last time that you have everything you need to do your writing sprint. Preparation is critical to a successful sprint.
Once you are ready, start your timer. As soon as you start the timer, start writing and don’t stop until the timer stops. Don’t pause to consider word choice. Don’t stop for a sip of water (or wine). That can wait. Don’t think about what to do next (hopefully, you have planned it out earlier, so just implement your plan). It doesn’t matter what you write as much as that you keep your fingers or hands moving and words going down on the page or screen.
You can always edit your writing later. Remember: “Writing is not a calling; it’s a doing.”(t. sugarek)
Stop only when the timer goes off. Then celebrate your successful sprint (and motivate others) by posting your word count achieved on social media and in any group forums if you are participating in an event.
Finally, record your sprinting session to track your progress.
When to Do a Writing Sprint
There are certain times where writing sprints can be extremely useful.
• When you have writer’s block
• When you only have a limited amount of time to write
• When you want to increase your writing speed
• When you want to reach a specific word count goal by a specific time
• When you want to break out of editing mode
There is no right way or wrong way to do writing sprints. So you can’t write 500 words in fifteen minutes. So what? Just do your best. Stop over thinking it and just write as fast and furiously as you can. Put words down and see what happens. That blank page isn’t going to fill up by itself.
Did you miss Part I of this post?
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My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! August: Veronica Henry, October: Life Coach, shaman, author, Jennifer Monahan, November: Susanne O’Leary, December: Mimi Mathews To receive my weekly posts sign up for my
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