Partnering in Writing: Tripping to Places & Times by Janet Elizabeth Lynn
January 3, 2019 by Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger in category Partners in Crime by Janet Elizabeth Lynn & Will Zeilinger tagged as co-writing, Janet Elizabeth Lynn, Research for Writers, traveling, Will Zeilinger, writing partners
My husband, Will Zeilinger and I co-write the Skylar Drake Murder Mysteries. A hardboilded detective series that takes the reader to 1950s Los Angeles and other areas of the west. Our next book, GAME TOWN, will be available Spring 2019. Needless to say, at this time we are in the throes of writing and researching!
Someone said, “You can’t write about old Hollywood unless you experience it.” This is so true! Neither my husband nor I are from LA and didn’t experience gang infested 1950s LA. So we take field trips, such as the Raymond Chandler’s L.A. Tour. We research the clubs and hangouts of the time then visit the nightclubs, hotels, and restaurants (Turns out to be loads of fun).
To begin our journey for this series, (even before we started writing), we took a trip to San Diego and the Sheriff’s Museum. We called ahead and scheduled interviews with several retired policemen, including one that worked the L.A. beat in the late 1950s. This gentleman was a wealth of information on police activity in Hollywood and the surrounding area. Our first novel in the series, SLIVERS OF GLASS, takes place in spring, 1955 in Santa Rosa.
Research for STRANGE MARKINGS was mostly gathered on our trip to Molokai, Hawaii. Natives we interviewed told us about the many legends and what it was like living in the area in summer, 1955. As each person talked about their experiences, plots and subplots emerged for us.
We found people living in the areas at the time each book took place and interviewed them. Since DESERT ICE takes place in Las Vegas, Fall, 1955. We interviewed a dancer who worked on the, then new, strip. Will also had a college buddy who lived in Boyle Heights in the 50s, so we interviewed him and his sister for the same book where the first murder takes place.
SLICK DEAL takes place in Winter of 1955, is base on interviews with local people in Signal Hill, and Avalon, on Catalina Island all in southern California. After lengthy interviews my husband and I commented how the spoken word conjures up images and ideas so easily.
GAME TOWN, our fifth book in the series due for release in April 2019, takes place in spring, 1956. We decided to keep it in Hollywood for the first time. We recently took an afternoon and drove around old Hollywood looking for body dumps that would have been in existence in 1956. We stumbled upon a lovely apartment building, El Royale, circa 1929. We weren’t allowed in the building without permission from a resident, so we drove around and looked it up on the internet when we got home. What an amazing place for several scenes!
Whether writing about faraway places, or in a different era, visiting locations or places that imitate the area helps us develop plots. Interviews with those familiar with the time or location add “flavor” to our story. So if you are writing about a famous lodge in Switzerland, take a trip to a Ski Lodge close to you when it snows.
The results of our research? SLIVERS OF GLASS, STRANGE MARKINGS, DESERT ICE, SLICK DEAL and coming soon, GAME TOWN . . . and yes, we’re still married.
Website: www.janetlynnauthor.com
Blog: www.themarriedauthors.blogspot.com
AUTHOR MELISSA CHAMBERS TAKES US ON A RIDE WITH HER NEW CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE SERIES—Love Along Hwy 30A
January 2, 2019 by Jann Ryan in category Jann says . . . tagged as contemporary romance, Love Along Hwy 30A, Melissa Chambers
Melissa Chambers writes contemporary novels for young, new, and actual adults. A Nashville native, she spends her days working in the music industry and her nights tapping away at her keyboard. While she’s slightly obsessed with alt rock, she leaves the guitar playing to her husband and kid. She never misses a chance to play a tennis match, listen to an audiobook, or eat a bowl of ice cream. (Rocky road, please!) She’s a member of RWA and has served as president for the Music City Romance Writers. In addition to the Love Along Hwy 30A series, she is the author of The Summer Before Forever, Falling for Forever, and Courting Carlyn (Entangled Teen).
Jann: We’re chatting today with contemporary romance and young adult author Melissa Chambers about her contemporary romance series Love Along Hwy 30A.
Jann: Great name for a romance series—Love Along Hwy 30A. Why did you select beach town settings for the series?
Melissa: These books are set in the real communities along Hwy 30A in the panhandle of Florida between Destin and Panama City. For those who have never been, this area is absolutely magical. Each community is uniquely picturesque from Seaside with its pastel houses (The Truman Show was filmed there) to Alys Beach and its Mediterranean feel, to Rosemary with its London Tudor look. I have vacationed there many times, and the area was begging for a series to be written about it, each book focusing on a different community. The setting in these books is as much of a character as any of the people in the books!
Jann: Did you start with characters first or the story plot first for Seaside Sweets, book one in the series?
Melissa: I always start with characters first. Actually, I typically start with a setting I like, then add the characters and let them tell me their story as I go. I’m a pantser, so I type away until I see a story forming, then once I have the shape of it, I go back to the beginning and start over. Lots and lots of rewrites with the way I do it, but I’m really bad at plotting blindly, so it works for me. But warning, if you do it this way, you have to be willing to delete tens of thousands of words if necessary!
Jann: Whose story is it—Seanna’s or Blake’s? Why?
Melissa: Ooh, good question! Writing in dual POV, each protagonist gets their fair share of page time, but really, Blake is the one who makes the toughest journey. Not to take anything away from Seanna, because she comes a long way, too, but he’s the one who’s got the biggest roadblocks ahead of him.
Jann: You have book two, Seacrest Sunsets and book three, Seagrove Secrets, in the series available that our readers can check out. Is there a book four on its way?
Melissa: Why, yes, there is! I’m really mean and tease the story for the next book in the series at the end of each book. So readers who have made it to the end of book three already know the hero and heroine for book four. I’m working on it now, and it’s a blast! It will release in March, just in time for Spring Break! I’ve also got stories in mind for books five and six. Readers keep telling me they want Cassidy’s story, and I hear you loud and clear! It’s on its way!
Jann: Do you have any writing rituals? Schedule?
Melissa: I have a full-time day job and a family, so I have to have a writing schedule. I wake up anywhere between 4:00 and 5:00 in the morning and work till 6:30 when it’s time to get moving for the day. I hate it, because when I’m on a roll, it’s pretty much torture to shut the laptop. But we do what we have to in the time constraints we’re given.
Jann: What’s the best thing a fan ever said to you?
Melissa: I recently had a friend who has read all six of my books tell me that reading romance novels makes her a better person. She said it helps fuel the relationship with her husband and makes her a nicer and generally happier person. Just knowing one of my books could make even one person feel that way about herself, I could quit now and be content. (But I won’t!)
Jann: Melissa, I want to thank you for taking time today to chat with us here on A Slice of Orange. Love Along Hwy 30A is a great series jam packed with wonderful characters looking for their HEA. Wishing you a fantastic 2019!!
Love Along Hwy 30A
The Bethlehem Writers Roundtable 2019 Short Story Award
January 1, 2019 by Bethlehem Writers Group in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley, Contests, Writing Contest tagged as BWG, Sweet Funny and Strange Tales
Stories of 2,000 words or fewer about WILD ANIMALS, PETS, or IMAGINARY BEASTS will be welcome (so long as an animal is an important character or element of the story).
The winner will receive $200 and may be offered publication in BWG’s upcoming anthology, FUR, FEATHERS, & SCALES: Sweet, Funny, and Strange Animal Tales.
For more information and instructions for entering see: Bethlehem Writers Roundtable 2019 Short Story Award.
Contest opens January 1, 2019
Dear Extra Squeeze Team How Do I Balance Social Media and Writing?
December 31, 2018 by The Extra Squeeze in category The Extra Squeeze by The Extra Squeeze Team
Dear Extra Squeeze Team: Social Media—I hate it. It used to be that all I had to worry about was if I needed to order bookmarks. Now, I’m spending so much time tweeting and Facebooking and Instagraming that I barely have time to work on my WIP and my deadline is looming. How do you balance actual writing with all the stuff you have to do around it? OMG do I still need to order bookmarks?
Developmental editor who has worked for twenty plus years with new and established authors of both fiction and non-fiction, traditional and indie.
Asking me how to achieve a balance between constant updates and creative output is like asking a Kardashian for advice on the natural look. I too, hate the treadmill of social media – so much in fact, that I haven’t touched mine in seven years! That gets you sympathy, which isn’t very useful but as this is a problem that plagues all writers, I’ve had a lot of discussion about it with my clients. I’ll share what I we’ve come up with. Every author needs to stay as much in the public eye as possible and every author needs to keep on authoring. It’s a balancing act. Whether you are a full-time writer or must carve writing time out of a busy life, you need to compartmentalize the social media vortex. Decide how much time to give it and stick to that. Your writing is the point.
Focus your efforts. Authors get stretched too thin trying to keep a presence on multiple outlets and since new ones pop up monthly it’s an impossible task. Narrow your social media efforts to fit what you want to achieve; announcements of a new release, updates on a work in progress, what you had for lunch (should your readers be interested), etc. If you feel you can achieve that with three outlets, say FB, Twitter and Instagram, then focus exclusively on those.
Schedule a block of time to devote to social media. This can be 15 minutes a day, 2 hours a week or one day a month. Whatever works for the frequency you feel is important. As an insatiable reader who is always on the hunt for good books, I welcome a post on progress, a new release, or comments on the process of writing, as long as the content is about the work. I’m not much concerned in what they had for lunch. A particular author isn’t always top of mind, but I never forget the ones whose work I love so an informative missive is great, regardless of how infrequent, and brings them quickly to top of mind.
Use this time to create and schedule a month or more of posts.
Automate with Social media management tools like Buffer, HootSuite, Hubspot, TweetDeck. If you have posts in a queue that automates the process and frees your working time to write, edit, write and re-write.
Content is as important to these publicity snippets as it is to your published work. No matter the frequency of your posts or the range of outlets you post on, if the content is empty and uninteresting or poorly written, the response will match it. Give your followers a reason to follow.
USA Today Bestselling author of 35 books, including the Witness series and the new Finn O’Brien series.
No, don’t order bookmarks. Thumb drives with your title on it will do these days. Social media is the bane of every business person’s existence, not just authors. Embrace it. Love it. I pay most attention to what I enjoy and that is Twitter and Instagram. I share what amuses me, inspires me, makes me think and then I throw in some information about my books. I also use Buffer which allows me to queue up three weeks’ worth of tweets, Facebook, linked in or whatever other media I need. Buffer releases my tweets on the schedule I set. I will be on the couch watching TV with my husband and loading up Buffer. By the time lights are out I got a few weeks’ worth. Just remember, there is no rule about how often we need to be seen on any of these platforms.
Cover designer and author of the fantasy series, The Fireblade Array
Give me some advice because I am terrible at updating my social media!!
PR/Business Development coach for writers and artists; CEO, Creative Center of America; member, Forbes Coaches Council.
Robin was out of the loop this month but hopes to be back in January.
If you have a topic or question for the Extra Squeeze Team, contact Extra Squeeze online producer Marianne Donley by clicking the link below to send us your questions.
Contact the Extra Squeeze Team
ONE TASTE TOO MANY by Debra H. Goldstein: A Review by Carol L. Wright
December 30, 2018 by A Slice of Orange in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley, Book Reviews tagged as Book reviews, Carol L. Wright, cozy mystery series, Debra H Goldstein, One Taste Too Many
I was surprised when I had the chance to receive an advance reading copy (ARC) of award-winning author Debra H. Goldstein’s first book in her new Sarah Blair Mystery series, ONE TASTE TOO MANY (Kensington Books), available for purchase on December 18.
Full disclosure: I know Debra, having been on panels with her at writers’ conferences and having published some of her short stories in my capacity as Executive Editor of Bethlehem Writers Roundtable . One of her stories was nominated for an AGATHA AWARD in 2018 and another received an Honorable Mention for the 2018 BETHLEHEM WRITERS ROUNDTABLE SHORT STORY AWARD. (See Short Story Award hfor information about our 2019 competition which opens January 1.) Obviously, I already knew Debra to be a talented writer, so when this opportunity to get a sneak peek at her latest novel arose, I jumped at the chance.
As with her previous mysteries, MAZE IN BLUE (2012 IPPY E-Book Regional Bronze Award Winner) and SHOULD HAVE PLAYED POKER (Five Star Publishing, 2016), her new book is definitely of the cozy variety. Cozy readers know that means that the main character is an amateur sleuth, the story is usually set in a close community (e.g. a small town, a nursing home, a ski lodge, a cruise ship, a school, etc.), and there is no graphic language or violence. Some follow a theme, such as a particular craft or profession, and they often include a pet. As the cover of ONE TASTE TOO MANY promises, we get both a theme and a pet.
The main characters are Sarah Blair (nee Johnson), a twenty-eight-year-old recent divorcee and her fraternal twin, Emily. The Johnson twins are as different as any two siblings could be. Growing up in small town Wheaton, Alabama, a Birmingham suburb, one is fair haired; the other is a brunette. One is reserved and pragmatic; the other outgoing, talkative, and a bit of a risk taker. One is a “convenience” cook; the other is a gourmet chef.
Sarah married her high school sweetheart, Bill Blair, right after graduation and stayed in Wheaton. For ten years, her natural reserve was exacerbated by her husband’s unrelenting undermining of her self-esteem. Meanwhile her sister Emily, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), worked in restaurants in Birmingham and San Francisco. When Sarah’s husband leaves her with little more than the cat, RahRah, he inherited from his mother (to which he was allergic), and Emily moves back home to take a job at the Southwinds gourmet restaurant owned by her previous mentor from San Francisco, their lives intertwine in new ways that neither could predict.
Sarah’s ex-husband holds a controlling interest in Southwinds, and the woman who had stolen Bill away from her, Jane Clark, works at the restaurant and is Emily’s chief competitor for the open sous chef position. The competition heats up when Southwinds chefs compete against each other and other gourmet chefs from around the region at a Food Expo at Wheaton’s Civic Center.
When Bill is found dead late one evening at the Civic Center, with Emily at his side and her rhubarb crisp, which contained nuts to which he was deathly allergic, on his fork, foul play is immediately suspected. Everyone knew that Bill would never willingly take a bite of Emily’s rhubarb crisp, so the police chief identifies her as the prime suspect in Bill’s apparent murder. Fortunately for the twins, Sarah works as a receptionist for a lawyer who takes the case pro bono.
Jane makes a perfect foil for the twins. Not only is she Emily’s rival for sous chef, she claims to have papers that give her the right to take Sarah’s cat, RahRah. The tangled plot thickens when development schemes, an animal trust, and divided loyalties twist the sisters in different directions, looking for the person responsible for framing Emily. The more they learn, the less certain they are about whom to trust. The author also sprinkles in a hint of romance and finishes with an unexpected ending.
As with many culinary cozies, there are recipes at the end. But don’t worry if you’re not a gourmet chef—they are Sarah’s “convenience” recipes.
Debra Goldstein is the perfect person to write this book as an Alabaman, the mother of twins, a retired federal judge, and a convenience cook herself. Since this is promised to be the first in a new series, it should be very interesting to find out what Sarah Blair is up to next.
Carol L. Wright escaped a career in law and academia for one in writing. She is the author of the Gracie McIntyre Mystery series, the first of which, DEATH IN GLENVILLE FALLS, was a finalist for both the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award and a Next Generation Indie Book Award in 2018.
In addition to her mysteries, she is the author of short stories in several genres that have been published in a variety of literary journals and anthologies, including the award-winning Bethlehem Writers Group’s “Sweet, Funny, and Strange” anthologies in an assortment of themes.
She is a founding member of the Bethlehem Writers Group, a life member of Sisters in Crime and the Jane Austen Society of North America, and a member of Pennwriters and SinC Guppies. She is married to her college sweetheart, and lives in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania with their rescue dog, Mr. Darcy, and a clowder of cats. You can learn more on Carol’s website, or by following her Facebook page.
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