HEARTSTRUNG Book 3 of the Invisibles Series My new book is a sequel to Return to Lerici, Book 3 of The Invisibles series. I’m now in the process of finishing the manuscript. The story follows Daniel, a young man who was sort of adopted into the Greene family of The Invisibles and Return to Lerici. Daniel is n love, and he travels with his girlfriend Lara on an adventure to India, following what Lara calls her…
When I start writing a new novel, I experiment with how to begin, and this year I tried writing my story’s key scenes first, right after I wrote to discover the characters. I wrote to hear their voices, frame their backgrounds and culture, shape their appearances, and decide what kind of relationship they will explore. Is it an adventure, a romance, a family drama, or a woman’s journey of self-discovery?
I was recently asked — what do you bring to your story that no one else can? It got me thinking. Where do my ideas for characters come from? They come from my experiences. One new character in this sequel to The Invisibles is based on my unusual family of origin. When we were in our teens, my brother and I were joined in our family home by two troubled teenagers. They were high school…
I’ve been looking at lists of great first lines — in novels, poems, plays, essays. Most lists online include classics. I like the lists with a theme, such as Funniest First Lines. When I’m browsing books and looking inside, the first thing I notice is whether the first line is a hook or teaser style. Most lists of great first lines tend to emphasize that approach, summing up of the story ahead with a cliffhanger.…
Spring equinox I’ve forgotten to count the atmospheric rivers that have gushed across the San Francisco Bay Area, but the incredible deluge seems to have sparked a lot of literary ideas for me. When the 50 mph winds are bending trees sideways and sinkholes are appearing in the roads, it’s a subtle hint that you have nowhere better to go than your writing desk. I’ve cradled my laptop many of these dark, rainy mornings. I’m…
I recently had a surprising writerly adventure. The scare of a possible stroke sent me to the Emergency Department with a smile that didn’t work and a droopy eyelid. My emergency visit became a two-day hospital stay for testing. Though our local hospital is one of the best, I was not a happy camper to be yanked out of home and interrupted in the midst of editing my novel. Plus, I was iscared of what…
Writing Love Scenes Some of the most challenging writing is creating compelling love scenes. Originality and emotion are the keys to selling a love scene. Readers will instantly be put off by predictability and cliches. What position does the love story occupy in the overall story arc? In a romance, the love story is the big story. In other genres — women’s fiction, mystery, thriller — it may be a sub-plot. They’d be handled differently…
Is It Romance or Women’s Fiction? The overlap between romance and women’s fiction is a juicy territory. It’s where characters grow deeper, learn more about why love is important, and develop into better human beings. The story may show how they plunge off a looming cliff of disaster but grow wings as they fall. In the overlap between romance and women’s fiction, a story involves the main character’s growth as a person.
Choosing the best Amazon categories for your novel is perhaps the hardest step in marketing a book, after choosing the title and cover. But it may be one of the most important factors in making your book discoverable. Amazon is the largest sales platform for books, and there are approximately 11,000 categories to choose from.