No surprise here. Susan Mallery dishes up another excellent contemporary fiction for women. A great story with lots of plot twists and romance. A real page-turner.
This time three women who don’t know each other share a lease on a retail space none of them can afford by themselves. They set up shop, books, muffins, and gifts, right off the sand, on the boardwalk in Santa Monica, California. Each has been wounded by love in the past, romantic or familial; it all hurts the same.
All three main characters are equally balanced with in-depth storylines, so the reader has the opportunity to care about each one of them. Will their particular shop succeed? Will true love win out? How many nasty turns will life serve up before the women find happiness?
I highly recommend this as your next book. But it’s no secret (by now) that I’m a huge fan of Susan Mallery myself.
Did you miss my Interview with author, Susan Mallery?
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TS. While an entertaining interview, this one is also instructional, without being ‘preachy’. Jay is a writer’s writer. This is such a worthwhile read for other writers!
Q. What tools do you begin with? Legal pad, spiral notebook, pencils, fountain pen, or do you go right to your keyboard?
JH. When I started writing in the 1980s before laptop computers, I hand wrote everything in spiral bound notebooks on commuter trains and lunch hours. Then I would edit as I typed the text into my computer at home. I wrote two novels that way. The first was an embarrassing lesson in how not to write a book. The second one eventually became my highly successful Goddess Chosen thriller. I still carry a small notebook whenever I think I might have downtime to jot ideas. I do most of my productive work at home late at night, so I just type directly.
Q. Do you enjoy writing in other forms (playwriting, poetry, short stories, etc.)? If yes, tell us about it.
JH. I wrote, produced, and directed my original musical sequel to Snow White in 2018. The Mirror’s Revenge ran for three weeks in the San Francisco Bay Area and got rave reviews. I loved the collaboration with the composers, the musicians, and mostly the actors. When they occupied the characters, they started seeing things I had missed, even though I had worked on the script for ten years. I try to write from inside the characters’ heads, but myactors brought a whole new level of insight. They really brought the story to life. I loved that so much, I am working on another show. I learned my lesson of not trying to do everything myself, but I will definitely be putting on another show.
Q. What’s your best advice to other writers for overcoming procrastination?
JH. Remember what got you excited about writing your story in the first place. Try to write a sentence that captures that spark, that thing that makes this story different and special. Such a phrase often makes an excellent cover blurb. Blurbs should not tell the plot, but rather tell why this story is exceptional. Your original inspiration was strong enough to make you drop everything else and write this story. Keep that inspiration at hand throughout the writing.
Q. Where/when do you first discover your characters? What comes first to you? The Characters or the Situation?
JH. I write largely in science fiction and fantasy, so I almost always start with the “What if?” proposition. That means I know what will happen in the story first. As soon as I see that much, I move to ask who would be the best person to tell this story, or for this story to happen to. I do a lot of reverse engineering to design characters who have the right background, the right opinions, the right fears and motivations to tell this story. No matter what you do with a character, their actions and reactions must seem completely in character to the reader. Otherwise the reader sees the heavy hand of the author moving things into place. The only way to ensure that believability is to engineer the characters to have all the qualities they will need as the story unfolds.
Q. What first inspired you to write?
JH. I was lucky enough to have grade school teachers who fed my imagination. I grew up on books like “A Wrinkle in Time” and the Danny Dunn mysteries. Star Trek was just coming on the air when I was nine years old. Middle school was Frank Herbert and C.S. Lewis. High school was Heinlein and Clarke. I became a huge science fiction movie fan. I skipped my older brother’s high school graduation to see “The Andromeda Strain.” I scored off the charts for language aptitude. My parents pushed me into a science education, but as soon as I was out of college I started writing science fiction. In 1980 I self-produced Supergame, one of the first table-top role playing games to use comic book superheroes. By 1985 I had finished the first draft of a sword-and-sandal fantasy novel. And the rest is history.
Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing?
JH. I joke that my muse is called “Eleven.” After I finish the evening’s affairs, and my family have all retreated to their own corners to wind down, I sit down to write, usually around eleven o’clock. If she doesn’t show up, and I can’t get into the flow, then I go to bed and get some sleep. If Eleven does show up, and I get into the zone, I will write obliviously until I pass out on the keyboard around 2 or 3 am. So if I have a good night writing, I have a bad day at work the next day.
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Join us next week for part 3 of this wonderful Interview.
Jay Hartlove is the multiple award-winning author of the urban fantasy Goddess Rising Trilogy (Goddess Chosen, Goddess Daughter, Goddess Rising), the fantasy romance Mermaid Steel, and the science fiction thriller The Insane God. He is also the playwright, director and producer of The Mirror’s Revenge, the musical sequel to the Snow White fable, which had its theatrical run in the San Francisco Bay Area In August 2018 to rave reviews. “I love to take stories where the reader does not expect, with sympathetic villains, heroes with very dark pasts, and lots of plot twists. I turn victims into heroes.”
He is often compared by critics to Michael Crichton. Goddess Chosen (under its original title The Chosen) was endorsed by horror master John Shirley. The Insane God was endorsed by science fiction master David Brin. Jay was selected as one of the “50 Authors You Should Be Reading” by The Authors Show. He is a former competitive costumer, having won Best in Show at both San Diego ComicCon and WorldCon. You can read more about Jay’s creative adventures, including much of the research he put into his books, at www.jaywrites.com.
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.
JH. I do most of my writing in my home office, surrounded by my favorite bits of inspiration. There are awards, sculptures, paintings, and theatrical props. My window faces my back deck and garden, which is very green and calming. I collect ideas all the time, so I often have a notebook with me. I am a firm believer that thinking about your writing is writing. You write what you know, and any decisions you make about a story adds to the knowledge you will draw from to write the story.
Q. Do you have any special rituals or quirks when you sit down to write? (a neat workspace, sharpened #2 pencils, legal pad, cup of tea, glass of brandy, favorite pajamas, etc.)
JH. I don’t have any rituals other than getting back into my characters’ headspace. If I have done my job, I the writer disappear when the reader reads the words. It really is the characters’ story. It’s told through their eyes, their emotions, their reactions. I know where I want the story to go, but to put words to paper, I need to let the characters speak. I know I’m in the zone to keep building the story once I can hear them. In theatrical terms, I Method Act. I get inside their heads and let them speak.
Q. Could you tell us something about yourself that we might not already know?
JH. I was a big time coplayer thirty years ago, before it was called Cosplay. I spent most of my creativity in my twenties building costumes, mostly for shows at conventions. I was part of different teams that won Best in Show at both San Diego Comic Con, and at the World Science Fiction Convention. I taught myself sculpture and fabrication, with which I built a lot of costume armor. I still use those DIY skills to repair and build things. To promote my fantasy romance Mermaid Steel, I scratch built a life-sized model of my heroine mermaid Chielle Mmava (waist up) which I set up in a chair behind signing tables. The model is accurate to the description of her dolphin people in the book. She is my “booth babe” at shows now.
Q. What tools do you begin with? Legal pad, spiral notebook, pencils, fountain pen, or do you go right to your keyboard?
JH. When I started writing in the 1980s before laptop computers, I hand wrote everything in spiral bound notebooks on commuter trains and lunch hours…..
Join us next week for Part II of this fascinating Interview.
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Q. Do you think we will see, in our lifetime, the total demise of paper books?
DA. No, I don’t think so. While digital books are usually cheaper and easier to store and buy, I think a lot of people still enjoy the way a paper book smells and feels. It’s more of an emotional experience. I receive a lot of messages from readers who want to know how to get hold of my books in physical form.
Daisy–the old lady
Q. What makes a writer great?
DA. For me anyone who can transport me from everyday life into a different world and make me lose myself is a great writer. Bringing people and situations to life on the page is a kind of magic.
Q. and the all-important: What does the process of going from “no book” to “finished book” look like for you?
One of this blogger’s favs
DA. I begin my novel by brainstorming the types of people I want in my story, what do they want, conflicts they might encounter and what do they need to learn?
Then I come up with a ‘hook’ or something that will draw readers in. I create ‘books’ of information about my stories which include pictures of my characters, location photographs (I find this helps me to really picture my setting and helps to make it real). I use a website call Pacemaker to plan my writing schedule ie when the deadline is, how many words I need to write each day to get the first draft completed on time. I generally write my first draft in three months, once I’m happy with it I deliver it to my editor.
Usually after a week I receive structural edits. These involve adding scenes/removing scenes/deepening conflict and addressing anything my editor things doesn’t work in the story. This tends to be the most major part of the editorial process. Sometimes my edits take a few days, but they can take up to a month. It all depends on how much work the book needs. After the structural edits are okay’d I work on line edits, then copy edits and then a proof read. The final stage of the process involves me reading through the final files before the book is created. Publication day is the end of the process – this involves promotion on social media, in newsletters and thanking people for support. I tend to end the day with a glass of something fizzy!
Q. How has your life experiences influenced your writing?
DA. Because my books are character driven, I think everyone I meet or speak to and everything that has happened to me influences my writing. I tap into
Dylan
experiences when I’m dealing with heartbreak or conflict in my novels. It’s not always the exact same experience, but the feelings are the same.
Q. Do you have children? If yes, how do you carve out ‘writing time’?
DA. This is how I keep my two lovely teenagers from disturbing me mid flow (in truth: it doesn’t work and they still barge in). Seriously, I wouldn’t be without them. I can get a bit obsessive about my writing and end up stuck at my desk for hours so it does me good to have some company and distraction!
Q. What’s your down time look like?
DA. I read a lot, enjoy swimming, walking and classes at my local gym. I love networking with other writers and spending time with family and friends.
Q. Have you or do you want to write in another genre`?
DA. I love romance and don’t plan to change to another genre.
Q. Note to Self: (a life lesson you’ve learned.)
DA. If you want something in life, behave as if you already have it.
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Did you miss the beginning of this Interview?
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Coming soon! August: Author, Jay Hartlove
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Donna Ashcroft declared she would be an author at the age of twelve and used to write voraciously. During her career, Donna worked in publishing, online retail and as a freelance copywriter until she started her family. She had two children and finally decided she’d reached her “now or never” time. She joined the Romantic Novelists Association and started to write seriously in 2016. In 2018 (after penning a number of novels) she was offered a publishing contract by Bookouture and has been with them ever since. Her debut novel, Summer in the Castle Café was shortlisted for the RNA Debut Romantic Novel of the Year Award in 2019.
She says, “I love a happy ending and am never more content than when I’m escaping into a romance novel or movie. When I’m not reading or writing I’m probably swimming, or negotiating with my OH or teenagers about who is doing the washing up.”
Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing? (please provide a photo of you at work in your shed, room, closet, barn, houseboat….) Or tell us about your ‘dream’ work space.
DA. I work in my spare room. It’s a small space so we had to take the bed down and I have the headboards along one wall! I’ve tried to make it into a lovely space with a heart banner, plants and pictures of my novels. When the sun is shining though I love working outside in the garden. My ‘dream’ workspace would probably involve a pool and somewhere I can shelter from the sun but take a dip whenever I wanted to.
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.)
DA. In the mornings I have to have coffee (multiple) and can’t start work without a caffeine hit. I also always have water on the go and drink plenty as the day progresses. I have hand cream on my desk as it’s good to just take a little time out sometimes to have a mindful moment as I’m applying it.
My office
Other must haves include pens, pretty notebooks and post it notes which I make notes on all the time! I also have a ball instead of a chair for when I’m working in an attempt to look after my back.
Q. Could you tell us something about yourself that we might not already know?
DA. I’ve been training to do a 1.4km open water swim since March – the swim is this weekend and I’m terrified but I always think it’s important to try new challenges. I’m a qualified life coach and NLP Practitioner. I don’t practice but I think the learning experience was useful to understanding behaviour in both myself and others.
Q. What tools do you begin with? Legal pad, spiral notebook, pencils, fountain pen, or do you go right to your keyboard?
A daily walk with my friend’s dog Tiggy
DA. I usually like to make notes on a pretty notepad when I’m brainstorming but I then hop straight onto the keyboard.
Q. Do you have a set time each day (or night) to write?
DA. I’m a full-time writer so I write between 8am and 6pm on weekdays and sometimes I work in the mornings on weekends. I take regular breaks to refresh my mind and body.
Q. What’s your best advice to other writers for overcoming procrastination?
Heart banner in my office
DA. Treat writing like a profession. You can’t wait for your muse, you just have to get on with it. Often I’ve spent a day writing chapters I think are awful, but then I often discover a nugget in there that’s worth keeping. Writing is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration with a little talent thrown in.
Join us next week for Part 2 of this Interview
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Coming soon! July’s author interview with Donna Ashcroft.
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A charming story to be sure. Love finally conquers, maybe. A breath-taking story of how the system fails sexual assault victims and the justice system turns those women into suspects when they are forced to defend themselves. Shocking, but true if you are poor, a woman, and NOT white. Deftly told by Susan Wiggs.
I rarely comment on book covers but this cover does the story such an injustice. The beautiful cake, on the cover, suggests that a bakery is the focal point of the story. A woman with blond hair (the only part they got right) with ugly hands and an even uglier manicure. Sure, the love interest has a bakery, but it plays such a minor role that it doesn’t even deserve a mention.
This story is about BBQ and I would have thought (if the cover designer had read even the first few pages), a big platter of BBQ ribs would have been on the front. Always, ALWAYS use a hand model if you’re going to stage a cover with ‘hands’. Cooks don’t have manicures (gels), nail polish (very unsanitary). They have short clean, unpolished nails and knife-nicked hands.
But I digress. The woman in this story is sympathetic, without being a typical ‘victim‘. There are times when all she has in the world is her BBQ and the custom sauces she has invented. The reader likes her. If the reader is a woman, she can relate to Margot. No one likes a happy ending more than me, but it’s touch-and-go.
On sale: July 26th
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Did you miss my Interview with Susan Wiggs?
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Coming soon! July’s author interview with Donna Ashcroft.
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Odd, loveable, quirky characters are sprinkled throughout this story. From the first page they seduce and beguile the reader.
Stewie, a 10 year old boy (when we first meet him) is passively neglected by his overly taxed, older sister. His Gam has recently died and as a way to stay connected to his much beloved grandmother, he adopts and takes over the care of her chickens. During his ‘egg route’ he meets Marilyn, another grandma-type with the same rough edge as his Gam.
And that’s where I’ll leave the spoiler alert. The writing is done with the same brilliance we have come to expect from Catherine Ryan Hyde. Her turn of phrase is unapparelled. Her balance of descriptive text and dialogue is near-perfect. And my readers know how too little dialogue irks me! This will never happen in a Hyde book. The characters are well thought out and deeply written. Hyde ‘shows’ you her characters; never tells you who and what they are. And who else could get a beautiful story out of a young boy and his chickens?
I highly recommend this book to my readers. If you loved Allie and Bea (and I did!) you will certainly love Dreaming of Flight.
Lillian Hellman said this. ‘If you hope to be any good, nothing you write will ever come out as you first hoped.’ It is true and if you are truly lucky it will happen to you.
In my novel, Women Outside the Walls, I have waited until Joe dies at Charlie’s hands to share with you the back story of how the last chapters of my book came to be. How I experienced this lucky event of my book not turning out as I had first hoped.
In the play script version , this is where the story ends; Joe dying on the cold floor of a prison and Charlie’s line: “I got you to find Chelsea, didn’t I?” And this was where I had planned for the novel to end too.
IF I had not been working closely with a woman who had ‘stood by her man’ for 15 years while he was in prison. Shortly after he was paroled, her son received 13 years for manslaughter. She has been there, done that, times two! After SK (the woman outside real walls) read the last pages, she looked up and asked: “What happened to Charlie? To Alma?”
I looked blank for a moment. I was, first and foremost, a playwright after all. Then replied, “do you think anyone would care?” She said, “Absolutely. Is Charlie in a death penalty state? Does Alma stick by him?” she asked. And “By the way, what happened to Hattie and her kids?”
The problem was I had no experience with death row……BUT I did have SK, whose son narrowly avoided the death penalty when he pled down from murder two to voluntary manslaughter. SK never spoke of those dark days when she thought she would lose her son when the state executed him. Now she was willing to speak of it with me.
Based upon her stories and the stories of her friends (other women outside the walls) I was able to write those
final chapters. Did Charlie walk down that long hallway to the ‘needle’? Was anyone there to witness his death?
You might be surprised. And yes, what happened to Hattie and Kitty?
Try to explore everything you can about your characters’ lives. Don’t leave a single road untraveled. We all care about what happens to the villain!
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Sigh. Another delicious, wonderful story from Boo Walker. Perfecto! Magnífico! We all know him for his fabulous series, Red Mountain. Plopping his readers down amongst the vines in northern California. Introducing us to wonderfully drawn characters that we could savor through the series.
With A Spanish Sunrise, he takes us on a journey of loss, grief, fear and love. A Dad and his little girl, each seeking peace in their own way. And then a surprising and shocking email arrives one day. Enough said, I try not to write spoilers.
A little while ago I wrote a “teaching” book review about the writer who ‘tells’ the story instead of ‘showing’ the story with the actions and dialogue of his characters. This book is a perfect example of ‘showing’ the story. Through the characters’ voices I could smell the loam in the olive tree orchards. Feel the hot sun on my shoulder, taste the pungent, spicy oil on my tongue. Because Walker showed me, through his characters’ actions and dialogue. He didn’t tell me “the oil was good.”
I’ve read most of Walker’s books; maybe all of them. A Spanish Sunrise is my all time favorite from this wonderful writer…..so far. It would be divine if this was book 1 of a new series. Boo, are you listening?
This could have been a great story, a fascinating, enjoyable family saga spanning several generations.
Instead, the writer, Bill Kitson, chose to tell his readers the story, instead of showing them. Chapters of telling, telling, telling. Then a half page of dialogue and ‘showing’. For example, the rift between patriarch, Albert, and his son, James. Albert’s decline into dementia would have been an interesting sub-plot if the writer had shown it; not told it. Jesse’s arduous journey from war-torn Europe back home to England. The First World War (section) was reduced to a few chapters of ‘telling’. Ugh. Leaving this reader not caring about Kitson’s characters much at all.
The characters that this writer created were interesting, predictable in places, but on the whole pretty good. But, with the storytelling style of ‘telling’ rather than showing who these people were they were not deeply drawn. Dialogue enriches not only the story but the characters. Telling rather than showing is, to my mind, a lazy way of writing.
for the story. For the writing.
The formatting was distracting. The pages were not titled with the traditional title and author’s name. In the front or back, there was no list of Kitson’s other books; a missed marketing opportunity. There was no author biography.
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Watch for more interviews with authors. September: Culley Holderfield. October: Simon Gervais for ROBERT LUDLUM’S THE BLACKBRIAR GENESIS
