Writers in the Storm

Our Sensational Summer Friday guest today is a true world traveler – she was born in London, was raised in KwaZula Natal, South Africa, and she now lives in Australia.  Laura Drake knows Michelle Diener through her RWA-WF (Women's Fiction) chapter, where Michelle is the VP of Communications. The title sounds vague, but in an online chapter, this is a huge job!

You can learn more about Michelle at her group blog, Magical Musings.

Her debut book comes out on Tuesday of next week, and no one is more excited about her debut release than we are!

Michelle has generously offered to give one lucky commenter a copy of IN A TREACHEROUS COURT. We'll announce the winner on Monday's post. Be sure to leave Michelle a comment!

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Firstly, thank you so much to Laura for inviting me to visit and guest blog today at Writers in the Storm!

I can hear you now. You are shouting, "No! Don't do it!"

Fortunately, the people I'm talking about have been dead for nearly 500 years and won't be calling me to account any time soon. Nevertheless, there are still issues with using historical figures in your work or weaving your story around events that happened. This week the first book in my Tudor-set series, IN A TREACHEROUS COURT, is being launched into the world, and it contains mostly real people and a number of real events, so I know a bit about the issues involved.

When I first came across a reference to my main character, Susanna Horenbout, in a work of historical non-fiction, I was fascinated by her. She was trained as an artist by her father, one of the most eminent illuminators and painters of his day, and praised by numerous Renaissance master painters as exceptionally talented.

Susanna was sent to the court of Henry VIII when she was around 22 years old, presumably to work for Henry as a court painter, but very little is known of what she did for him.

The plot of IN A TREACHEROUS COURT came to me very clearly as I delved deeper into the facts known about Susanna and the events of the time in which she would have been sent to the Tudor court. But I was nervous. How much leeway could I take with a character who is based on a real person?

What I had to get my mind around was that as a work of fiction, I didn't actually have any restraints, other than the ones I chose to put on myself. And so I decided to use every fact I could find, and every event of that time, and make my story fit around them. For me, that made the story more satisfying.  While it may have been harder to do than if I decided to 'loosely interpret' both the character and the historical period, it was worth the trouble.

Don’t get me wrong, I love novels that play fast and loose with history just as much, but I wanted a gritter, more realistic feel. The thing is, when you take the 'faithful to history' tack, you have to be sure you have been faithful to history. That means research. And more research. I'm almost paranoid about my facts, and I quadruple check them. I've probably still missed things, but I like to think I've done as much as possible to make sure I haven't.

One good thing about my two main characters is that while there is some information on them, there isn't a lot. I had some broad strokes to work with, but I had an incredible amount of leeway, too. With a more famous character, like Henry VIII, it is a lot harder to play around with him as a character.  An even bigger burden is reader expectations.

If your readers know a historical figure or event, either from common knowledge or study, they will have a perception of it that is not necessarily your perception. Writing Anne Boleyn, Marie Antoinette or Napoleon, for example, you will come up with a great deal of resistance if you break from the norm as far as character or motivation goes, whereas I'm the first fiction writer to have a book with Susanna Horenbout in it in any form, let alone as a main character, as far as I'm aware (there are obviously non-fiction references to her). That gives me the chance to create her as I want, without the weight of public knowledge exerting any force on my creation.

I found using real characters and events satisfying, challenging and the hardest work I'd done up until then when I wrote IN A TREACHEROUS COURT, and I've done it again with a sequel, KEEPER OF THE KING'S SECRETS, which is out in February 2012 ( I've just seen the cover, which is gorgeous!).

I have a copy of IN A TREACHEROUS COURT to give away to one lucky commenter (US residents only, unfortunately!), and I'd love to know if you've written a book which covers a real event, either contemporary or historical, or uses a real person, and how you found the process.

~Michelle Diener

Michelle lives in Australia with her husband and two children. She's worked as an editor, a publisher, managed a small IT business, and now writes full time. Her debut historical novel, IN A TREACHEROUS COURT, is due out with Simon & Schuster's Gallery Books on August 9^th, and the second book in the series, KEEPER OF THE KING'S SECRETS, is due for an early 2012 release. You can find out more about her at her website and her group blog, Magical Musings. Or follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

About IN A TREACHEROUS COURT:

Henry VIII’s most lethal courtier and his newly appointed artist become the only thing keeping him on the throne – and if they survive, neither will ever be the same.

John Parker is one of Henry VIII most useful courtiers — utterly merciless and completely loyal. But one small favour for his King will pull Parker into a deadly plot against the throne, one that will test his courage, his resolve, and most especially, his heart.

A commission from Henry VIII should have been the crowning achievement of Susanna Horenbout’s career, but before the beautiful and talented artist even sets foot in England, she finds herself in possession of a secret that could change its history. With Parker as her only protection against killers who will stop at nothing to silence her, Susanna has to trust the dangerous, enigmatic courtier. She’s used to fighting in a man’s world, but she never expected to be fighting for her life.

What people are saying about IN A TREACHEROUS COURT?

•  "IN A TREACHEROUS COURT is an action-adventure-mystery-historical that grabs the reader on page one and doesn't let go. It reminds me of SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE in the way it captures the 'feel' of Tudor England, moving with equal aplomb from royal palace to refuse-clogged London street to leaky rowboat on the Thames."  Kate Emerson www.kateemersonhistoricals.com, author of BY ROYAL DECREE: Secrets of the Tudor Court.

•  "Awesome! History woven flawlessly into riveting fiction." Tammy J. Schneider, Special Features Editor and book reviewer at "Affaire de Coeur" magazine

•  "Just when readers think there is nothing new to be learned about Henry VIII, debut author Diener delivers a taut suspense . . . that will keep you turning the pages." Kathe Robin, 4 star review in RT Magazine August 2011 issue.

Linda O. Johnston is the author of 27 published novels, with more to come.  She currently writes the Pet Rescue Mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime, a spinoff series from her Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mysteries, also for Berkley.   The second Pet Rescue Mystery, THE MORE THE TERRIER, will be an October release.   She additionally writes paranormal romance for Harlequin Nocturne--the Alpha Force miniseries about a covert military unit of shapeshifters. The next in the series, GUARDIAN WOLF, is an August release.

Thanks for joining us here at Writers in the Storm, Linda.  And thank you for offering your latest Pet-Sitter mystery, HOWL DEADLY , to someone who comments on your blog.  So, Writers in the Storm readers, comment and suggest away to get your name in the hat for the drawing of HOWL DEADLY.  One entry per person (though we'd love you to comment more than once!)  We'll post the name of the lucky winner next Wednesday at the top of the blog.  Good luck--and happy reading!

This is my first blog for Writers in the Storm and hopefully it won’t be my last.  I thought that networking would be an appropriate topic, since that’s one reason I’m here.  I know some of the Writers in the Storm bloggers thanks to my own networking.

Writing is a solitary profession.  Many writers have day jobs and continue them while they write.  Others, like me, end their day jobs.  I’m a lawyer, and I used to take on a lot of part-time law projects when I stopped lawyering full time.  Now, those projects are harder to get, although I love them when I can find them.  Meantime, writing keeps me quite busy.

Which means I work alone a lot of the time.

That’s one reason I belong to so many writing organizations.  I’m a member of Romance Writers of America and attend meetings of two local chapters: the Orange County, California, chapter, and the Los Angeles Romance Authors.  I also belong to Sisters in Crime and the Mystery Writers of America, and attend meetings of their local chapters.  I’m also a member of the Thriller Writers of America.

I additionally attend writing conferences.  I recently enjoyed the Romance Writers of America National Conference at the end of June in New York City .  This year, I’ve also attended Malice Domestic, for cozy mystery fans and authors, in the Washington , D.C. , area, as well as the California Crime Writers Conference, held early in June jointly by the local Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America chapters.

At each of these events, I meet other published authors, aspiring authors, and readers--and enjoy them all!  Plus, I learn more about the market, what’s selling and what isn’t.  I learn a lot and, I hope, also help to teach others what I know about our profession.

If you’re a writer, published or not, I strongly urge you to network.  To join at least one writing organization and attend meetings.  If you don’t live in an area where it’s easy to get to meetings, most of the organizations have online chapters, and that kind of networking is fun and helpful, too.  I also recommend that you join a critique group.

When asked which of the organizations I’d recommend most, I always say it’s the Romance Writers of America if you’re a fiction writer, whether or not you write romance.  That’s because the group is great at inspiring and encouraging writers.  It helps at whatever level of your career you happen to be.

Of course, reading blogs by other writers is a form of networking, too, especially if you comment.  So, please comment on this blog!  I’ll even encourage you by holding a drawing where one commenter can win a copy of HOWL DEADLY, the eighth in my Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mysteries in which Lauren Vancouver, protagonist of my new Pet Rescue Mysteries, is introduced.

If you have any ideas for future topics you’d like to see me write about here, at Writers in the Storm, please let me know in a comment, too.  You can also visit me at my website, www.LindaOJohnston.com, or friend me on Facebook.  I also blog every Wednesday at KillerHobbies.blogspot.com.  No, I don’t tweet yet on Twitter, but maybe someday.

So, how do you network? Your experience may be the spark for someone else! Besides, it will  enter you for a chance to win her latest Pet-Sitter book, HOWL DEADLY.

Charlotte Carter joins us today with some inside tips for writing continuity series.  I was thinking there would be spreadsheets and teeth-gnashing, but she makes it sound almost easy.  Almost.

Anyway, for those of you who have an interest along this line (no pun intended) she's got some valuable tips for you to consider.  And as usual, she makes it seem like a fun thing to do.

Hi, all. Charlotte Carter here.

The key to writing a continuity series is communication and keeping close track of the details.

In the course of my 20 years of writing fiction, I’ve authored several author-created continuities and connected books. They’re fun to write and readers enjoy revisiting characters they’ve come to love. Keeping track of the details is almost easy; only occasionally does a character change eye color from one book to another. Oops!

In the past few years - in addition to writing for Love Inspired - I’ve been writing continuity series for Guideposts Books, most of them cozy mysteries.

These continuities are BIG. Some run as long as 30 individual, related books.

The recent Hope Haven Hospital series had a guide (or bible - note lower case) 55-pages long. The guide includes information about the characters - height, eye color, occupation, what kind of car they drive, etc. This series has a cast, almost literally, of thousands, all of whom have spouses, children and relatives a’plenty. Worse, for each book three months pass. They’re getting older, retiring, marrying, having babies. (Envision author with crossed eyes.)

To add to the complexity, Guideposts series have multiple authors, typically six, and more if the series continues for several years. This is where COMMUNICATION comes in. Nowadays, that’s usually via a Yahoo group.

If I’m writing book #3 in the series, the author of book #1 has just completed her book. I need to know if that author has described Jane’s house or the church Jane attends. While she can and often does share that information with me and the other authors, the editor hasn’t yet approved the descriptions or maybe Jane’s odd habit of chewing gum. That tidbit of information has not yet been added to the guide.

YIKES!

I write merrily on my way, a wad of gum in Jane’s mouth. By the time my book is in the editor’s hands, she tells me in rewrites that Jane no longer chews gum.

SAY WHAT? I’ve used Jane’s gum to stick an important clue to the bottom of Jane’s shoe. Now I have to go through the entire manuscript ridding Jane of her favorite mint-flavored gum plus find a clever way for Jane to discover the critical clue that used to be stuck to her shoe. (Ah, the next door neighbor kid chews gum, drops a piece in a critical spot and voilá! Jane finds the clue. Whew....)

So, you may ask, what are the Pros and Cons of writing a continuity of this sort?

First, the flat rate paid is comparable to the earn out for most category romances. Once you’re on the team, the work is steady as long as the series continues. It’s also a creative challenge to take someone else’s characters, locale and storyline and make it your own. Unlike stand-alone books, the publisher does all the promotion, which allows the author to concentrate on what she does best – write. I really like that. I also enjoy getting to know talented authors.

The most obvious con is that many authors want to write THEIR story, not someone else’s.  Deadlines are tight. If an author doesn’t write fast or procrastinates, she’ll be in trouble down the line.

I should also mention, in the case of Guideposts Books, the publisher invites experienced authors to participate in a series and there is often an audition chapter required.

In my case, I get the best of both worlds – the steady and interesting challenge of writing books in a complicated series and the fun of writing my own stories for Love Inspired, sometimes even connected books such as Big Sky Reunion (4/2011) and Big Sky Family (11/2011).

What is it about reading a series or connected books that appeals to you?

Happy reading...
Char
Charlotte Carter
www.CharlotteCarter.com