Aurelia B. Rowl dishes on Americanizing -- her vocabulary, that is!

Season's Greetings, folks!

Today the talented Aurelia B. Rowl is here with us.  

Aurelia, take it away...

The sun was blazing down, and the crystal blue water in the swimming pool glistened and sparkled as the sound of my children’s laughter rang out. Yes, I wrote a large chunk of Christmas Is Cancelled whilst on a family holiday, staying in a gorgeous villa in Majorca along with my husband’s family.

It was great.

But not exactly conducive to writing a winter story, complete with snowy hills and Christmas carols. I then finished the story during the Summer – if you can call what we had here in the UK “Summer”, it was more of a damp squib – but nevertheless, the story turned out fine.

Editing was positively painless; just a few run-on sentences, repeated words/phrases, some simultaneous actions and, the one I had to look up (hooray for the internet)… the occasional misplaced modifier. The actual content wasn’t touched and I took a great deal of pride from the fact my first ever completed manuscript wasn’t ripped to shreds.

But can you guess what I did stumble over during the edits? Especially the pre-edits stage?

I’ll give you a clue… I am British. My publisher is Canadian. My editor is American.

You think writing a book in English would be easy, wouldn’t you, what with being English and living in England? Think again…

My first task was the change the default dictionary in MS Word from UK English to US English. That took care of changing a lot of my ‘s’ to ‘z’, for example: recognising became recognizing, psychoanalyse became psychoanalyze. Okay, cool. Got that. It also removed some extraneous double ‘l’ words, for example: travelled became traveled, revelled became reveled… And, of course, my ‘re’ endings became ‘er’, for example: centre became center.

Then came the trickier ones: manoeuvre became maneuver, prised became pried, kerb became curb, grey became gray, and hob had to be removed altogether to be replaced by stove. I even lost some of my ‘st’ endings, like whilst, and amongst. At least there weren’t any bonnets to convert to hoods, or boots to convert to trunks. Yet a surprising number of words were simply lost in translation, very strange, and I found myself wondering when English to English had become so tricky?

Does that mean I now write in US English all the time, like several British authors have taken to doing? Heck no, I’d never get anything finished. It would be akin to peeling my fingernails off to consciously spell words ‘incorrectly’, and I doubt I could train myself, even if I wanted to. And how bad would I feel when my young son brought his spellings home from school, and I made him get some wrong because I was still in US mode?

Uh-uh! No, thank you. Did you feel the tremor when I shuddered? I shall continue to write in my home language. If a manuscript gets picked up by another US/Canadian publisher, I’ll worry about translating it – ha!! – then, and not before. I may even get a British publisher next time and would only have to change it all back again, after taking twice the length of time to write it in American to begin with. And you can be sure my self-published titles will be published in UK English, even if I have to include a glossary at the back.

I know I can’t be the only one, and it would be interesting to see how other British authors get around the writing in US English conundrum. Do you write in ‘American’ as you go, or do you translate after? And if you’re an American (or Canadian) reader, what UK English words trip you up and make you scratch your head, or fire up trusty Google?

About Christmas is Cancelled…

 

Matilda 'Tilly' Carter didn't think her day could get any worse, but even Christmas had just been cancelled.

The one girl Dean Watson has sworn never to have—never even expected to see again—just flared back into his life and into his home—his sanctuary—like she belonged there. Christmas would certainly be more bearable with Tilly around though…

As the chinks in Dean's armor appear, Tilly seizes the chance to win her knight once and for all. She's not about to take no for answer—not this time—but Dean must resist, even as his heart rebels and temptation threatens to undermine his resolve.

Win or lose? Love or honor? Which will Dean choose? Assuming he gets a choice…

 

Excerpt

 

Tears welled in her eyes, clouding her vision. She turned and wandered blindly toward the exit as the first tear escaped, forging a track down her cheek for the rest to follow. Tilly took in a lungful of air and then another. Having made a spectacle of herself once already, she really didn't want to be the cause of yet another scene.

 

The crowds swarmed around her, with students and family members heading home for the holidays only adding to the usual rush-hour melee of commuters. They jostled past, threatening to swallow her whole, as they rushed en mass in the opposite direction, using their briefcases and suitcases as a battering ram.

 

It was suffocating. She had to get out of there. Breaking into a run, broken heel or not, she raced through the doors and out into the biting December chill. Her waterlogged eyes struggled to adjust to the dark, dreary sky after the bright station lights, but she didn't dare slow down, desperate to escape the throng of festivities and merriment.

 

Carol singers assembled outside burst into a jovial rendition of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," full of joy and happiness. Didn't they know Christmas had just been cancelled?

 

"Ooof!" Tilly smacked her shin against the edge of a low bench, too dark to see as she tried to dodge the growing audience. She ended up sprawled across the bench, dropping the handle of her suitcase with a loud clatter.

 

At least the pain shooting down her leg gave her an excuse to be crying. Unfortunately, it meant she had to stop running too. Not good. Whenever things got too tough, too intimate, or too confrontational, you could rely on her to make a run for it. Running away was what she did best...

 

A tall figure loomed in the edge of her vision, something vaguely familiar about the man's loping gait. In an effort to see him more clearly, she wiped her eyes with the back of her hands, then cringed inwardly at the black streaks now etched all over them. Great. She could add impersonating a panda to her day from hell as well then.

 

The mascara stung her eyes, rendering her unable to focus properly. She blinked furiously as the man strode past her, talking into a mobile phone in a deep voice that resonated throughout her body and made the fine hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. A surge of adrenaline rushed to her legs, numbing the pain as her subconscious told her to run. Now!

 

The cloaked figure stopped mid-stride as if he'd heard her gasp. "Mike, I've gotta go," he barked into the phone, hanging up instantly. He backtracked until he was standing right in front of her, his tone changing from a growl to one of surprise. "Basmati?"

 

Great. She hadn't heard the nickname for years—nine years, four months and...sixteen days, to be exact—and even then, only one person had ever actually used it. She screwed her eyes tightly shut, shaking her head from side to side. No. No way. There was absolutely no way this could be happening to her. Not now. Not today of all days... Talk about kicking a girl when she was down.

 

Buy links:

 

Breathless Press
Amazon
Amazon UK
All Romance Books
Bookstrand

Goodreads

Barnes & Noble – coming soon

iTunes – coming soon

About Aurelia…

 

Aurelia B Rowl is a contemporary romance author but you can also find her masquerading as Allie A Burrow, her raunchier alter-ego.

 

She lives on the edge of the Peak District in the UK with her very understanding husband and their two fantastic children aged 5 and 3, along with their mad rescue mutt who doesn’t mind being used as a sounding post and source of inspiration. They are all used to her getting too caught up with her latest writing project... or five!... and she is guiltily counting down the months until she has both kids at school full-time.  

 

To find out more about Aurelia, or to check out what projects she's working on right now, you can visit her website www.aureliabrowl.com

 

You can also find her hanging out on:

 

Blog

Facebook

Twitter

Google+

Pinterest

YouTube

Amazon

Goodreads

Catching Up with Annie Seaton

Greetings!

Today, we have the fabulous Annie Seaton here with us. Annie is the author of Holiday Affair, which has been on the Amazon bestseller lists (both in the US and the UK!) for quite some time. She’s multitalented, having also written the excellent steampunk novel Winter of the Passion Flower and the paranormal page-turner Blind Lust.

Since retiring from teaching,  Annie has also worked as a freelance editor, and still does so when time allows. Many of her clients went ahead and got published. I was lucky to be one of them. J

Now, some questions I’ve always wanted to ask…

·         What are the most common mistakes romance writers make nowadays, craft-wise?

There are some errors that are quite common to many authors—both new and multi-published. I suppose the two that stand out for me are the use of the word ‘that’ as a filler word and the use of filtering.

Example 1: She opened the door that led to the garden.  Corrected to: She opened the door leading to the garden

Example 2:  The dog dropped the bone THAT his master had thrown.         

The second one I really am conscious of is filtering. That is, when the reader is pulled out of the head of the person whose eyes they are looking through by the use of words such as felt, made, watched.

 

Example 1. She felt the heat in her cheeks. 

Corrected: Her cheeks flared with heat.

Example 2: He watched as she crossed the room to him.

Corrected: Her hips swayed as she crossed the room to him

 

So removing filtering is removing the telling of how the person felt or what they saw, and shows what they are feeling or what they could see.

It is most often described as Show vs Tell and it is one of the most important things to watch when writing a great story.

 

·         How important is an editor for someone who’s self-publishing?

All I will say here it is one hundred percent essential!

·         Should you shut up your inner editor for the sake of getting words on the page?

LOL, Carmen. You have been reading my blog post on this.  (http://annieseaton.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/procrastination-inner-editors-getting.html) It really depends on the individual writer. Sometimes you can spend too much time polishing to the detriment of productivity and word count for the day.

·         Or should you listen to it and have less work later?

But, self reflection is a marvelous thing! Instead of giving up and bemoaning this constant nagging voice, take control and analyze the changes you do make when your inner editor won’t let go. What will you find?  Scenes will be stronger and the plot will tighten. Dialogue will improve. Reading back over your changes, hopefully you will see your inner editor has stepped in, in a timely fashion and saved you hours of editing at the end. So a good lesson. The more you write, the more savvy you become when dealing with that pesky inner editor.

 

·         Do you see any current trend on romance novels you’d like to share?

I watch the release of new romances with great interest and I read widely across many tropes. I can see both ends of the spectrum—the books where a billionaire falls in love with the heroine; and the sweet family books where the development of love and the use of secondary characters in warm family environments, rounds out the story. I love reading both!

·         You worked for an e-publisher. For all of us who haven’t, could you please guide us through the process of how editors acquire a book?

Books are sent to the acquiring editor personally or to the general address for the publisher. The editor generally reads the whole book and looks at the story, the consistency of the plot and the development of characters.  Is the story engaging?

Even if there are craft issues, if it is a great story it will be sent back with a request to revise certain issues and resubmit. If it is considered suitable for the publisher and the line, it will be recommended for contract.

·         Most of your clients have gotten published. What’s your secret?

Hmmm. That’s a hard one.

From the craft perspective, I would say it my love for reading over many years. I am  extremely conscious of grammar, punctuation and spelling and that  means I will always return a manuscript to the author post edits in a structurally perfect form. From a voice point of view, I am extremely conscious of keeping the author’s unique voice and not changing it. If readers want my voice, they will read Annie Seaton books. Voice is unique to every author and that is the key to a good editor. Keep the author’s voice!

 

Annie, thank you so much for stopping by and catching up! :)

My pleasure. I am always excited about taking on new editing clients. When they get the ‘call’, I am just as excited as they are. I have made friends all over the world through my editing including Carmen!

Connect with Annie:

Website

Twitter

Facebook

 

 

Day 2 at the RT Booklovers Convention in Chicago

                Holding out for a Hero was one of my favorite workshops so far. Panelists Cynthia Eden, Lisa Renee Jones, Elisabeth Naughton, and Caridad Pineiro talked about how to create a hero that we can care about. They mainly talked about the alpha hero, the beta hero and the anti-hero. Beta heroes are gaining popularity, they say. They defined the beta hero as the underdog, the man who isn’t comfortable being a hero (in some level, even reluctant to be one). They pointed out that at first it’s hard to sell the beta hero for a paranormal or suspense book, since those genres usually call for take-charge, problem-solver alpha males. However, usually they can introduce the beta hero as the alpha hero’s sidekick; and, as the readers begin to like and want to know more about the beta hero, he usually gets his own book. By the way, Caridad Pineiro is one of the nicest authors I’ve met. She congratulated me for my Indulgence sale and gave me not one, but two hugs.

            Lisa Renee Jones emphasized that the hero can’t just be good-looking. The physical part matters, but what will take the reader into the emotional journey is his inner conflict.

            Cynthia Eden delivered a great speech about the anti-hero. She described him as someone who has the qualities of a villain, but at the same time has qualities we must admire. The key is backstory, letting the reader know why the anti-hero became this way. We don’t have to agree with his actions, only understand why he acts the way he does. Eric, from True Blood, came instantly to my mind. (Sighs)

            Writing Big in a Short Format was presented by Harlequin authors Caitlin Crews, Molly O’Keefe, and Ann Voss Peterson. They delivered a succinct, strong, and enjoyable presentation about three key factors (emotion, characters, and plot) to keep in mind when writing novellas or short, contemporary romances. Really, these three are connected. Molly said that the magic happens when we bring fresh characters to tried and true tropes (like the secret baby, the sheik, the bad boy millionaire, etc). The secret is to find the specificity of these characters, what makes them unique and what will make them different from what else is out there. Ann talked about plot and how every scene in the book must move the story forward. Asking questions out loud, like “What does my character want?” and “What will make my character change?” may help. She also said that she outlines an emotional arch, which I thought was pretty cool.

            Caitlin Crews finished the presentation by talking about the importance of raw, naked emotion. It’s about showing not only how the character reacted physically, but also inside. What did the heroine feel when the hero told her he was leaving?

            Another workshop I enjoyed was Surviving Edits and Revisions, by Stacey Kade and Linnea Sinclair. They talked about their experiences and shared letters from editors. Upon receiving a long list of revisions from your editor, here’s what they suggested: First, go through the positive feedback and small changes. Second, edit the things that you don’t necessarily agree with, but that won’t kill you if changed. Last, do the ones you don’t agree with. They also said that editing is a cooperative effort; so if there’s something you feel strongly about, you can tell your editors something like, “I can see why you think that way, but this is what I was trying to do,” and see what happens. Hey, trying never hurts, right?

            Last but not least was What’s Hot Now. Panelists Kelli Collins, Lindsey Fober, Miriam Kriss, Kate Pearce, Reece Butler, and Kelly Jamieson all talked about the trends of erotica romance. I really enjoyed watching these smart and funny women share their ideas on the matter. They talked about the rise of erotica romance, and how it’s gaining popularity even amongst traditional New York publishers. Agent Miriam Kriss said that she doesn’t think this will be permanent, but would like it to be. EC Senior Editor Kelli Collins is confident that erotica romance is in high demand. Someone from the audience pointed out that she has finally started to notice male/male books gaining space on the shelves. I was surprised to find out that male/male books are written by women, for women. Someone said that the ones written by gay males are different in style, content, and emotion level. Interesting stuff.

            Well, that’s it for now. I just wanted to share my impressions before I forget them—I might have a couple of drinks later, so it’s a possibility.

            What do you think about these trends?

The Power of Feedback

Howdy! I have been working on my revisions, which gave me the idea to talk about feedback.

Published authors have critique partners, editors, copy editors, and many have an army of fans who keep them honest with constant reviews on sites like Amazon, fan letters and tweets. They get their work reviewed in blogs, specialized magazines. and so forth. 

In other words, they get constant feedback from a plethora of sources. They know what works and what doesn’t, or they have a better insight than we do.

How can we achieve the same?

Two words: critique partners.

A steady critique partner is like marriage. If you have a good one, be appreciative :D

And when I say a good one, I don’t mean someone who will tiptoe around your plot holes just because you two are friends and that person doesn’t want to hurt your feelings.

I’m talking about someone who understands the craft of writing enough to know what a conflict is. Someone who enjoys reading the type of book you want to see on the shelves. Someone who can be honest with you.

I need honesty to improve. Tell me what works and what doesn’t. That simple.

I know it’s hard, because you work for a whole week (sometimes, a whole month) to polish that chapter and then boom. Your conflict is weak. No one can relate to your heroine. And the hero… let’s not get started with the hero.

 But this feedback is important not only for us to hone our craft, but for us to learn how to accept criticism and to keep an open mind about our work.

After all, if you want to be a published author, you are no longer writing for yourself. You are writing for everyone else. That’s what I’ve started to realize.

Of course, you should write from the heart. Write what you know. Write what you love to read. We all know that. But at the same time we keep that in mind, we should also make sure what we write is interesting for our readers.  

And keeping that in mind, I shall return to my editing dungeon!

Have a great Sunday, everyone ;)