A Gallant Defender - new Regency.

Today I am pleased to tell you that the very last of my backlist from Robert Hale is now republished as an e-book on Amazon. This isn't a pocket novel, but is a Regency in exactly the same style as all my pocket novels. In future all my new Regency titles will be submitted to My Weekly Pocket Novels, as well as appearing as e-books and, hopefully, large print with Linford Romance. http://amzn.to/1nMqYtc Eliza Fox, devastated by the death of her father and future husband, recovers by assuming control of the family estate, firmly believing that matrimony has no place in her life. Then Lord Wydale, a notorious rake hell, wins Grove House from her brother. Edmund Fox returns to his older sister hoping she can save their home. Mr Fletcher Reed meets Eliza who steals his heart and she appears to return his feelings. He is her gallant defender – but can he save his beloved and her younger sister from the machinations of the villainous Lord Wydale? Fenella J Miller

Guest Post - Sue Barnard

Sue Barnard is one of the (regular) students on my Pocket Novel/Romance writing courses. She joins us this week to explain how learning to write pocket novels led to publishing success elsewhere.

POCKETING THE EXPERIENCE

 

How learning how to write a Pocket Novel taught me to be a better writer

 

Back in 2008 I did an online Creative Writing course with the Open University.  It was called Start Writing Fiction, and lasted for about three months.  As part of the course the students were set two tutor-marked assignments, one of which involved writing about an emotion. 

 

The choice of emotion was left up to us, but were advised by our tutor that it was much easier to write convincingly about a negative emotion (such as anger) than about a positive one such as happiness or contentment.  Having tried both, I very quickly discovered that she was right; my attempt at a “positive” piece sounded trite and shallow, whereas the “negative” emotion produced a powerful passage which was so toe-curlingly harrowing that I still cringe whenever I read it.  But the tutor did give me full marks for it, so in that respect at least I must have done something right.

 

But for a very long time after that, I found I couldn’t write anything which wasn’t dark, or brooding, or in some cases downright depressing.  This wasn’t, I hasten to add, because of any serious angst in my own life – it was purely and simply because I’d got into the mindset that the only way I could write anything “serious” was by going over to the dark side.  Even when, a couple of years later, I made a tentative start on writing a novel (more about that later) I still found it very difficult to shake off that doom-laden mantle.

 

Then, in January 2012, I chanced across an advertisement for an online workshop run by Sally Quilford, on the subject of writing Pocket Novel romances.  Romance writing was something I’d never had the courage to tackle, but this six-week course looked interesting, manageable and affordable – and I desperately needed to learn how to lighten up my writing.  Despite (to my shame) knowing next to nothing about Pocket Novels, I signed up.

 

Before the course began I bought and read a few of the DC Thomson Pocket Novels.  It didn’t take long for me to realise that a Pocket Novel offers a lovely dose of escapism, and is usually intended to be read in a single sitting (ideally whilst either lounging on a sunny beach or curled up in front of a roaring log fire).  I ought to be able to write something like this, I thought.  After all, how hard can it be…?

 

How naïve of me.

 

I very quickly learned that writing a Pocket Novel is nowhere near as simple as the experts make it look.  Despite their modest price and unpretentious appearance, Pocket Novels are no less “proper” novels that those costing several times as much.  So much so that they are recognised by the Romantic Novelists’ Association.  No trivial matter, then.

 

As I’d found during the OU “emotion” exercise, easy reading makes for very hard writing.  The story needs to be light but not bland, readable but not simplistic, and with likeable and credible characters and enough action and conflict to keep the reader’s interest until the last page.  Not easy, when the Pocket Novel Rulebook is (or at least was at the time) a long list of Thou-Shalt-Nots.  All plots need conflict, but how on earth can a writer produce a convincing plot when so many of the usual sources of conflict (crime, infidelity, divorce, death) are totally off-limits? 

 

And yet, under Sally’s expert tuition and kind encouragement, I eventually began to learn that yes, it is possible – if one regards conflict in terms of a problem that needs to be solved.  This can take the form of (for example) fear, or insecurity, or separation – all of which can be tackled without recourse to any of the traditionally more traumatic themes.  As one of the rules for a Pocket Novel is that the Happy Ever After ending is non-negotiable, the story is all about the journey towards it, and how those problems are overcome along the way.

 

By the end of the six weeks I had a hero, a heroine, a few secondary characters, a basic storyline and a selection of scenes.  Plus a whole new set of friends and writing buddies – all of whom are every bit as valuable to me as everything I learned during the course.  It took me another few months to produce the rest of the book – during which time one of the characters completely floored me by saying something which went on to change the entire course of the subplot.  Until then I had no idea that my fictional creations could take on personalities of their own!  Clearly I still had a lot to learn.

 

And that learning curve included one of the hardest lessons of all: rejection.  My pocket novel was turned down by both of the DC Thomson outlets – probably because it didn’t tick all their very stringent boxes.

 

So the Pocket Novel was relegated to the murky depths of my hard drive whilst I turned my attention back to the novel I’d started a couple of years earlier.  This was a retelling of the traditional Romeo & Juliet story, but a version in which the star-crossed lovers didn’t die.  At that stage I was writing it mainly for myself, because it was the ending I wanted, but I was now able to go back to the manuscript with a fresher and more critical eye, and a better knowledge of what a publisher might look for.  In short, the Pocket Novel workshop taught me how to take my writing more seriously and how to develop a more professional approach.  As a result I was able to fine-tune the manuscript and eventually submit it to a publisher.  The Ghostly Father, published by Crooked Cat Publishing, was officially released (very appropriately, given the subject-matter) on St Valentine’s Day 2014.

 

So even though my Pocket Novel didn’t manage to jump through DC Thomson’s hoops, I learned so much from the experience of writing it – including one very valuable lesson: no writing is ever wasted, even if it doesn’t always make the final cut.

 

Sue Barnard

March 2014

 

Postscript – after Crooked Cat accepted The Ghostly Father, I was inspired to resurrect my Pocket Novel manuscript and submit it to them.  As I was writing this blog post, the email arrived telling me they’d accepted it.  It’s billed as “a romantic mystery.”  Watch this space, folks…

 

Big Ebook Sale

Smashwords annual Ebook week promotion is about to kick off. Goes from 2-8 March. All my books are 50% off. HALF PRICE. Head on over to my Smashwords page and enjoy. Happy downloading!

The Duke's Reluctant Bride - New Year new title.

The Duke's Reluctant Bride is my first new title by 2014. I'm writing a second series of duke books, but this time keeping them all at 50,000 words so they will be eligible for DC Thompson and Linford Romance. This also seems to be a very popular length in both the UK and the US. I've now written three books since last summer; two regencies and one mainstream World War II historical. I'm hoping to write two further regencies and the final part of my World War II trilogy this year. I also intend to continue to republish my back list – I have the final Robert Hale book to go up in March and three short novellas in the following three months. After that all my titles will be new. Although I go through the old books and edit etc, I wonder if my readers can tell the difference between books written at the beginning of my career and books written now. I hope my writing is now more fluent than my first few books for Robert Hale. Having not written anything, apart from a young adult fantasy romance, in the last three years, to be able to write again is a wonderful thing. Writing five new books a year (as I used to a few years ago) seemed an impossible dream a few months ago – but now I think it's achievable. 2014 is going to be a productive year for me and I hope for everybody else. Fenella J Miller

Write What You Know

We (Mary and Ruth) are very pleased to welcome Patsy Collins as a guest on the pocketeers blog. As many of you will already know, Patsy is a prolific short story writer and novelist. In the following she tells us what she means by write what you know.

'Write what you know' is a common piece of writing advice. As with all such rules we'll be tempted to break it from time to time. I feel that would be a mistake. Yes, even if you're writing science fiction. I suppose I'd better explain …

We know things in different ways. First there are the things we've always known. These tend to be overlooked when we think about writing. Our lives are normal for us. I for example was brought up on a farm. There's no point writing about milking the cows, or how you get one in calf if you don't happen to own a bull, or what it's like to see a calf born because everyone knows that stuff. Except they don't. (If you'd like to find out, the details are all in my romance Escape to the Country.)

 

Maybe your current home, job, family, hobby, neighbourhood or even neighbours could provide a basis for your story. My novel Paint Me a Picture is set in and around Portsmouth, an interesting area which just happens to be where I live. The main character is a keen gardener, as am I. You get the idea. If we know it, we can use it.

  

Our writing needn't be limited to what we already know. We can use things other people know. For example Luigi, the gorgeous Italian restaurant owner in A Year and a Day, flirts in Italian. I spent a year in Italy learning the language and flirting with handsome men. Oh no, sorry that was the fiction writer in me rebelling at sticking to the truth. What I actually did was get help from a fluent Italian speaker. Mavis in Paint Me a Picture attends an inquest, so I contacted a coroner's assistant and sat in on one. If we don't know, we can learn or research so that we do. (Not by doing a Google search and relying on the first hit.) 

Finally there are the things nobody knows, because they've not happened yet, or aren't real. Whether we're writing about vampires, or ghosts, or little green men we still need to know everything about them. We know it by creating them and their world as though it were real. There has to be logic. For example, if your ghost can walk through walls you must know they can do that and therefore can't be trapped in a locked room.

So, always write what you know, even if you have to research or create the knowledge first.

You can draw your own conclusions about how I gained the knowledge to write the stories in this FREE collection.

Thanks so much for inviting me on to your blog! Please feel free to drop into mine anytime.

Patsy's books are available from Amazon and her BlogSpot is full of useful and interesting information.

A Computer Guy for Christmas

A link to Amazon, so you can get it easily. It's also going to be just 97p later today and through to Christmas!


 A Computer Guy for Christmas
Don't forget ... only 97p later from 16th December!

A Computer Guy for Christmas

Hi,
I am pleased to announce the publication of my latest book. Published by Pulse, it was a winner in their competition.
'A Computer Guy for Christmas' is a shortish novella for a Christmas read.
Harry and Jasmine leave the office party when people begin to photograph ...using the photocopier. They go back to his place and well, it is Christmas. He asks her to move in with him but there are complications. Then Jasmine's friend Sally makes even more problems ... Perhaps you need to read it to discover more!