Focus on Writing

At our last critique group meeting, we were discussing how each of us can start at the same place but write a completely different story, because our genre focus is different. One person writes a comedy, another a mystery.

So, just for kicks, we wanted to let our readers in on the fun. Below is a scenario – leave us a comment and tell what happens next in your world.

Scene setting . . . there’s a man in a boat in the middle of a large lake.

I know – simple huh? So tell us what happens next.  I love everything paranormal – so in my story, the man in the boat is attacked by a dragon and an epic battle ensues.

Tell us... What happens in your story?

Foodie Romance Author!

Interview with Author 

Kimberly Kincaid

I don't remember the first time I walked into a library, though I really wish I did. I can only imagine my wide eyed gaze as I looked at stacks upon stacks, row after row of glorious books! To this day, I continue to be amazed at the never ending choices of genre before me each time I walk into a book store or library. I've had many a love affair with certain genres, forsaking all others only to discover that yes, I love the new ones I stumble across, too. Just like the newest conquest in my Kindle! 

Now, I went into this novella slightly biased,*I happen to know the author personally and adore her style* 

but, let me tell you, she knocked my socks off with this debut! I cannot wait to read her Pine Mountain Series coming out next year. 

Michele: Alright, dish! What inspired you to write this novel?

KK: I had some time in between projects, and my agent suggested a novella or two. I was a little (okay, a lot) writer's blocked, so I flipped through an issue of Cosmopolitan magazine, and saw a gorgeous photo of a model in a long purple skirt. She became my heroine in about three seconds flat! And from there, the whole story snowballed onto the page.

Michele: Care to share how you can possibly think, cook and write about food so much yet rock those heels?

KK: Practice! No, at home, I am much more relaxed and mostly barefoot all the time. I cook a lot at home, whether for research, personal enjoyment or with my family. But when I am out, I am a total clothes horse. I'm allllll about the shoes!

Michele: I may or may not have been caught out peeping on your Friday Man Wars on your Facebook page. Might I have stumbled across your inspiration for Noah there? 

KK: Yep. Probably a lot! I used actor Taylor Kinney as my brain candy for Noah. I wanted someone a little rough around the edges, with that definite bad-boy air, but who was still a definite hero beneath it all. Taylor was perfect, but I'll admit, trying to work while his picture was on the idea board over my desk was a little giggle-worthy sometimes!

Michele: Any deleted scenes you hated seeing hit the floor?

KK: There always are. I joke with my critique partners that I will write 40,000 words just to end up with a 30,000 word novella (you don't even want to know what my full single-title books look like in-process!) For this one, I wanted to incorporate Noah's brothers a little more than I was able to. I had a scene all mapped out in my head where they came to visit and met Violet. But, sadly, it wasn't meant to be!

Michele: Last, but definitely not least, remember our class at RWA 2012? Have you managed to work any cocktail experiences into your upcoming novels? 

KK: Yep! I'm actually working on expanding my full-length Pine Mountain series, and the next proposed book features a bartender as the heroine.

Michele: Are you sharing any details yet on your next release?

KK: I can't keep that stuff under wraps-- I'm too excited! My next digital release is Jason's story (Violet's brother and Noah's partner). It will be out in late May. His heroine is the feisty owner of Mac's Diner, and they are thrown together in some very unusual circumstances. After that, my first Kensington release will hit shelves in October. The Sugar Cookie Sweetheart Swap is the kickoff to the Pine Mountain series, and it's an anthology with Donna Kauffman and Kate Angell.

Thank you so much Kimberly for stopping by today and the opportunity to chat with you! 

Click on Kimberly's picture above to visit her website or follow the links below.

Goodreads

Amazon

Violet Morgan puts the personal in personal chef, catering to clients who want the full cooking experience rather than a culinary drop-and-dash. But when her brother’s police detective partner is injured in the line of duty and needs help during recovery, she makes an exception. Violet lost her father to the job seven years ago, and worries for her brother’s safety every day. The last thing she wants is to get up-close with her brother’s career-cop partner…again.

For Noah Blackwell, being a detective isn’t just a lifestyle, it’s a legacy. So when he’s forced to take mandatory leave and deal with the trauma amnesia keeping him from identifying his shooter, it’s a literal case of adding insult to injury— and now he’s got to deal with an unwanted culinary caregiver on top of it. Never mind that he and Violet shared a steamy, secret kiss last New Year’s Eve. She rejects everything related to the job, and Noah’s not about to be distracted from recovering his memory and getting back to what he does best. No matter how pretty Violet is.

Despite their differences, Violet and Noah share a surprising bond in the kitchen that grows into something neither of them expect. But as Noah heals and their feelings for each other extend from the kitchen to the bedroom, Violet knows she must make an impossible choice. She may wear her heart on her sleeve when it comes to food, but can she risk it all to put love on the line?

New Release e-novella, Love On The Line, March 2013!

ABOUT KIMBERLY KINCAID

I had the pleasure of meeting this beauty at RWA 2012 and let me say, she is as adorable as she looks. I owe my amazing week to a small group of extremely friendly authors, of which she is a part. I learned a lot at the feet of the gracious Kimberly and I'm not just talking about where she picks up her fabulous footwear.  But, I digress, without further ado, I give you...

Kimberly Kincaid writes contemporary romance novels that split the difference between sexy and sweet, taking the traditional idea of boy-meets-girl and infusing it with a sassy magic all her own. She believes in fiery yet flawed characters destined for a crash-course in falling in love-- usually the hard way-- and injects her trademark humor as well as poignant touches into her writing to create her stories. Kimberly's writing journey has led down some bumpy roads (that first manuscript is under the bed, where it is very likely to stay), but there has been some fresh pavement too (her second manuscript earned her very first contest final, and landed the fantastic Maureen Walters at the Curtis Brown Literary Agency). One thing is certain -- the wild ride of being a writer is a lot richer in both its ups and downs because of friends and readers along the path. When Kimberly's not sitting cross-legged in an ancient desk chair known as "The Pleather Bomber", she can be found practicing obscene amounts of yoga, whipping up anything from enchiladas to eclairs in her kitchen, or curled up with her nose in a book. She resides in northern Virginia with her wildly patient husband and their three daughters.

(click on image for Goodreads)

   Violet Morgan puts the personal in personal chef, catering to clients who want the full cooking experience rather than a culinary drop-and-dash. But when her brother’s police detective partner is injured in the line of duty and needs help during recovery, she makes an exception. Violet lost her father to the job seven years ago, and worries for her brother’s safety every day. The last thing she wants is to get up-close with her brother’s career-cop partner…again.

   For Noah Blackwell, being a detective isn’t just a lifestyle, it’s a legacy. So when he’s forced to take mandatory leave and deal with the trauma amnesia keeping him from identifying his shooter, it’s a literal case of adding insult to injury— and now he’s got to deal with an unwanted culinary caregiver on top of it. Never mind that he and Violet shared a steamy, secret kiss last New Year’s Eve. She rejects everything related to the job, and Noah’s not about to be distracted from recovering his memory and getting back to what he does best. No matter how pretty Violet is.

   Despite their differences, Violet and Noah share a surprising bond in the kitchen that grows into something neither of them expect. But as Noah heals and their feelings for each other extend from the kitchen to the bedroom, Violet knows she must make an impossible choice. She may wear her heart on her sleeve when it comes to food, but can she risk it all to put love on the line?

Anything For You by Jessica Scott

Adorable! What a wonderfully written Love Story! Although, if you haven't yet read the rest of the author's series you should do so.  This isn't a stand alone, but a continuation of a couple from Because of You, the first book in the Coming Home Series.

Now, on to what I thought of the novella. What an emotional story! Well written, attention holding, heart-wrenching then warming read!  I loved it and will definitely be picking up the entire series.

My husband is ex-Army and I usually have a very hard time reading anything to do with deployments, September 11th or combat. That being said, I had the pleasure of meeting this writer at the 2012 RWA Conference in Anaheim, CA.  Her personality alone won me over to reading anything she'll ever write. After a bit of initial hesitation I was pleased to find that the over-whelming honesty of both character's plight had my heart more involved than my own stressful memories.

Thank you for such a well written, emotionally engaging, love story!

2012 Reading List

Today has been one of those no-good, rotten, very bad days. I don't really know why. Just one of those days when you wake up in the morning and look outside and the clouds are all scowling at you and the roads all seem to be sharpening their fingernails against the pavement, just waiting to slash your tires.

I've been sitting in my writing studio contemplating how much I don't want to write today, feeling like a fiction failure, arguing with all those little voices in the back of my skull. One keeps asking why I'm so eager to continue writing while the other keeps whispering encouragement. "Look at last year," it says. "You've come so far as a writer and learned so much since then. You simply can't give up right now." Why does this one only ever whisper while the other one always shouts?

Still, that little voice got me to wondering just how far I've really come since the beginning of 2012. For starters, I began entering the quarterly Writers of the Future contest last year and submitted two short stories, both of which were rejected. I'm still unpublished and still unknown, but I have actually come a long way as a writer from where I was a year ago and I suppose that's the important thing. I'm not actually entering the WOTF contest to win; I promised myself when I started that I wouldn't focus on winning because I have no control over whether I win or not. I enter because it gives me a quarterly deadline to reach and it keeps me writing and submitting.

I read a TON of books last year, probably more in one year than I've read at all in the last twenty years. Many of them were science fiction but many were also non-fiction, mostly about the craft of writing. I look at the list and actually start feeling pretty good at what I've been able to accomplish and that little whispering voice gets a little louder and I sense that it's smiling.

Both Stephen King and Orson Scott Card have said it over and over and I absolutely believe that it's true: if you want to be a writer, there are two things you must do -- write a lot and read a lot. At some point between starting college and starting my family, I lost my love for reading. Maybe it was working through the night shift after attending a full day of classes and homework. Maybe it was the transition from being single to being married to being a Dad. Maybe it was one bad career move after another. I've just been so busy over the last twenty years dealing with life that I forgot how rewarding a good book can be.

As the kids get older and leave the house and my career stabilizes and I settle into some sense of a normalized routine, I've taken the time to slow down and find ways to escape all the craziness of the day. Writing lets me escape into worlds that I create, where I can hang out with extraordinary people from my head. Reading lets me escape into other people's worlds and hang out with people they created.

Here's a list of the authors and books that let me enter their worlds last year:

FICTION

1. Issac Asimov - Foundation's Edge
2. Nancy Farmer - House of the Scorpion
3. Charles Brokaw - The Atlantis Code
4. Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451
5. Anne McCaffrey - Changelings
6. Arthur C. Clarke - Childhood's End
7. Robert Heinlein - A Stranger in a Strange Land
8. Steven Polansky - The Bradbury Report
9. HG Wells - War of the Worlds
10. James Patterson - Daniel X
11. James Dashner - The Maze Runner
12. Amy Kathleen Ryan - Glow
13. Susan Beth Pfeffer - Life As We Knew It
14. Ruth White - You'll Like It Here...Everybody Does
15. Arthur C. Clarke - The Hammer of God
16. Ray Bradbury - Something Wicked This Way Comes
17. Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson - Hellhole
18. Mary Shelley - Frankenstein
19. Edgar Rice Burroughs - A Princess of Mars
20. Kurt Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle
21. William R. Forstchen - One Second After
22. Mary E. Pearson - The Fox Inheritance
23. Diana Palmer - The Morcai Battalion
24. Michael Grant - BZRK
25. Anna Sheehan - A Long, Long Sleep
26. Orson Scott Card - Earth Unaware
27. Jeremy Robinson - Second World
28. David Weber - Out of the Dark
29. John Scalzi - Fuzzy Nation
30. Frank Herbert - Dune

NON-FICTION

1. Annie Dillard - The Writing Life
2. Stephen King - On Writing
3. Ray Bradbury - Zen in the Art of Writing
4. Orson Scott Card - How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy
5. Sol Stein - On Writing
6. James Scott Bell - Plot and Structure
7. Donald Maass - Writing the Breakout Novel
8. Orson Scott Card - Characters and Viewpoint
9. William Zinsser - On Writing Well
10. William Noble - Conflict, Action, & Suspense
11. David G. Hartwell - Age of Wonders: Exploring the World of Science Fiction
12. Gloria Kempton - Dialogue

Forty-two books and I feel like I've only scratched the surface of what I need to know about writing. In addition to reading a lot, I wrote three short stories, joined a writing group that meets fairly actively every two weeks, and attended my first writing conference, where I met lots of outstanding people during helpful workshops.

Now that I've finished looking back, that whispering voice is beginning to shout, "What are you waiting for now? Get back to writing!" so I guess that's what I need to do for the next few hours.

If you feel like you're lacking motivation to write and wondering why you bother plugging along in a field that sounds so easy but ends up being so damn tough, take a look back at what you've been able to accomplish in the last year. Chances are, you've come much further than you thought. And if you can find a way to keep moving forward, this year will be even more productive and rewarding.

Choose Yes if you mean No?

I don't know about you but I absolutely Hate those pesky convoluted questions written by lawyers that land on the ballot. Does my yes choice mean yes or no? I have to read them several times and usually I'm still at a loss for what to choose.  So, now I go to www.ElectionsOnThe.Net print the ballot a few weeks ahead of time and do my research. I can poll my smarter friends and generally we figure out what the question means.

I know, you've heard enough about voting this election season.  Well, I'm not hear to weigh in with my opinion, campaign for any person or cause. I simply want to share a resource and hope that everyone educates themselves with the facts.  Nothing worse for me than being asked to make a decision and regretting my choice later because I didn't have all the facts.

If you are like me and don't like to be surprised or tripped up by verbage, then take a minute or two and search for your state's ballot.  I've already got mine, highlighted and stuffed in my purse.

Miss Wheaton's Whiskers by Susan Gee Heino

New Release  - Kindle Edition

Miss Wheaton's Whiskers

by Susan Gee Heino

A Regency Romance

Her little white lies are no match for true love...
One little lie--the tiniest whisker--throws pampered Miss Wheaton into a pickle. Soon one lie leads to another, and now scandal is dogging her every move. What's worse, she's found herself in the arms of the notorious duke who caused all the trouble! Will this tangle of falsehood wrap them in ruin, or will Miss Wheaton's whiskers lead to true love?

Quick! Go check it out!  I'll wait.

Congratulations on the new release Susan! 
What a beautiful cover!