Fiona Harper

Harlequin Authors blog

2011-12-03T07:29:00.001Z

Just dropping by to say that the Harlequin Romance authors are relaunching our blog and website, and to celebrate we've got giveaways and recipes every day!

Pop on over: http://www.harlequinromanceauthors.com/
Today it's Liz Fielding and her gorgeous shortbread recipe!

New book started!

2011-12-01T11:04:00.001Z

Finally, I have done enough research and character digging to at least make a start on my next book! I've decided I might as well blog about how I'm using my plotboard as I go along.

At the moment the poor thing is naked, but that will change in the next couple of days...

The Plotboard - part two

2011-11-27T20:51:00.001Z

Cards and drafts

I thought I’d mention a bit about how I use the cards and Post-Its on my plotboard before I get into detail about the different sections of the board.

First draft
The keyword for this stage is: messy. This is the ideas stage, after all. Flashes of inspiration. Nothing neat about those. In this stage I tend to scribble ideas down on any bit of paper I can find and pin them to the board where I think they’ll be most relevant.

Don’t care about what colour or what shape the ideas are written on, as long as they go on the board. Some of them may be thrown away later and some of them may prove to be some kick-butt ideas to take my story forward. No way to know which until I start to write, so everything stays until I’ve finished the first draft. If I don’t use an idea, I keep the bit of paper anyway. For the last book that came in very handy, because ideas that I’d discarded in the first draft helped me revise the book after my editor had seen it and asked for changes.

As I write, I use half an index card (cut vertically) and put the bare plot point of the element on the top of the card. For example, some card headings from the previous book were: “Zoe and Damien dance” or “Zoe and Damien reach a truce” or “Zoe goes back home”.

At the moment I’m using white cards. I was using yellow, but I discovered I kept running out of yellow index cards and was drowning in the other colours from the multi-coloured packs you can buy. At least I can get white index cards easily in one pack on their own.

As I complete a scene, I add an index card to the board. For the previous book I also stuck a small Post-It to the card indicating the goal of the POV character for that scene. Always good to remind yourself what your characters want (and what’s thwarting their progress).

In this part of the process, I find myself returning to my board constantly to remind myself of what good ideas I’ve forgotten and to remind myself of where I want to go. It can be hard to hold all of that information in your head. Sometimes, when I’m focussed on a particular part of the story, I forget all about the flashes of inspiration I’ve had about a different sections. That’s where my board comes in handy. It holds all that information for me until I’m ready for it.

The plotboard is also useful to remind myself of things I need to go back and change as I get further on in the writing process. I added notes while writing my previous book to change the style of the bride’s wedding ring in the opening scenes and to set up my hero as being a little more stiff and structured.

Subsequent drafts/revisions

Quite often, after you’ve finished a book, you’re far too close to it to see where the problems lie. I often return to my plotboard, strip it bare of everything but the white cards and look at the story in a more tidy, analytical way. First draft was where I let my creative right brain play. Revisions and editing are much more about the logical left brain.

Last time round (after reading Dara Mark’s fabulous book Inside Story: The Power of the Transformational Arc) I decided to look at my book in three threads:

What Dara calls the A story – on other words the plot. It’s very easy in a character-led book to slip into classifying internal decisions as plot, but I try and save that for the other threads. The A story is all about the physical action: what are the characters doing? What are the working towards? Where are they going? I used yellow Post-Its. For some reason yellow means plot to me. Dunno why. Sometimes, if the scene heading on the top of the card was enough description on its own, I highlighted that text yellow and didn't bother with the Post-It.

Then we have the B story: the character arc. In a romance, you normally have two character arcs or journeys – one for the hero and one for the heroine. I chose green from my pack of Post-Its for this (because green makes me think of growth). On these stickers I noted my characters’ internal journeys – what they started out like, what their character flaws and fears were, what they need to learn. Also, when they had moments of breakthrough and changed, how they faced challenges and either resorted on their armour to keep themselves safe or did something new and brave. At the end of the board it's all about making sure those flaws and fears you mentioned at the beginning have been dealt with. I read through each chapter, saw what I’d already brought out and then I crystalised it into a sentence or two on a Post-It and stuck it on the index card. Quite often it helped me define the character’s growth at that point and I could start to see if I’d brought out the right things or if there was something missing.

Then there’s the C story. Dara says there’s always a C story. It’s the relationship that changes the protagonist. Quite often it's through interaction with another person or thing that the protagonist discovers the error of their ways. In a romance, this will be the developing love story. I noted down on pink Post-Its (the only colour I had left - I’m really not anal about what colour goes where) how the hero and heroine were feeling about each other, what the romantic conflict was, and where the milestones were e.g first kiss, first meeting, declarations of love. Again, it helped me check each scene was moving the relationship on in a believable and emotionally logical manner.

The odd thing is about this part of the process that I hardly ever look back to see what I’ve put on the board in great detail. Unlike the first draft, when I need reminders, the second draft (or whatever) seems to be much more about the process of plotboarding. As I write it all down it somehow solidifies the story in my head, keeps the threads woven tight together so I can see where things need changing or developing as I work.

More detail on each section of the board soon...

One of the best bits

2011-11-19T18:57:00.001Z

One of the best bits of my job is getting to research and/or visit interesting places. My next book is going to be set in a stately home, so today I visited Leeds Castle (near Maidstone in Kent) for some inspiration. I'm not going to say much more, but just let the pics I took of this fairytale castle do the talking:


Leeds Castle

The bridge to the castle island

The Queen's bedchamber

Little courtyard in the centre of the castle

The library (I want!)

The castle from the lawn on the island

From the centre of the maze

The castle on its island

Sigh. What more can I say?

Plotboarding - how I got started

2011-11-18T13:52:00.001Z

Okay, I promised some blogs about my plotboard. Now, I can’t claim to have invented the idea – far from it – but I’ve been tweaking my own approach to using index cards and pins to help me visualise my book for about six years now.

I’m quite a visual thinker and it helps me to ‘see’ the structure of my book this way. It also provides a place to put all those ‘lightning bolt’ ideas I get about my book before, during and after the first draft. You know the kind of ideas I mean: the ones you get when you’re minding your own business, not even really thinking about the book and – BAM! – suddenly you know why your heroine is acting that way, or the perfect setting for a scene comes to mind, or just a line of dialogue pops into your head and triggers something off.

When I get those kind of ideas – and they are generally my best ones – I scribble them down and pin them to my board. My board follows a chronological timeline of my work-in-progress, and when I think about where to pin that scrap of paper it often becomes instantly obvious where and when it should go. Do things move and change as I work on the book? Absolutely. That’s why God gave us coloured pins! That’s the beauty of a plotboard: nothing is set in stone.

Anyway, here’s my first plotboard. This was the one I used for Her Parenthood Assignment. My whole approach to plotting was much less sophisticated (and probably much less neurosis-inducing) back then. I’d read that a good way to plot was to think of 20 things that needed to happen in your book. That’s what the pink index cards are: 20 plot points for the story. Then, as other ideas came to me, or notions of how I could develop those plot points floated to the surface of my consciousness, I tacked them onto the board next to the relevant plot point.

Later that year, I listened to the audio recording of Michael Hauge speaking at the RWA conference in Dallas. I loved the way he divided a plot into six stages, with a turning point between each one. I’d already read The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler, and was familiar with the steps of the hero’s journey, but Michael Hauge’s approach was simpler: basically three acts, with a turning point in the middle of each one.

So I started trying to incorporate that into my board. Here’s version number 2, which I used to plot Christmas Wishes, Mistletoe Kisses (although, by the looks of it, I took this picture fairly early on in the process.) I turned my board landscape and divided the space into six sections with bits of string (well, actually it was yellow wool left over from a pair of socks my grandma had knitted me years before) and labelled those sections and the turning points at the top. Now when I had an idea I didn’t worry so much about getting it in exactly the right chronological order, as long as I stuck the scrap of paper in the right section I’d know where to find it.

From what I remember, I decided to colour code to help me pick out the essential info. The white cards are plot events, the pink cards relate to my heroine’s journey and the blue my hero’s. Yellow cards were snatched of dialogue and the green were things to do with theme. I carried on using this format for a couple of years. Where I placed the cards and what colour they were changed as I tried different things out.
Sometimes I was very fixed on cataloguing character arc and plot separately; sometimes I just threw it all on there any old way. The main disadvantage was that I could see the plot flowing from card to card in one long line, as I had with my earlier version.

Then I read Save The Cat by Blake Snyder. Great book, and I loved his idea of storyboarding too. He divided his story board into four horizontal strips: Act 1, Act 2a, Act 2b and Act 3. I immediately decided to try the same thing, and discovered I now had room to use my plot point cards in chronological order, but I still had room to pin all the little flashes of ideas around them too. So this is how my current plotboard looks like:

This the the board when I was halfway through writing The Ballerina Bride (US title)/Dancing With Danger (UK title). Anyway, I’ve rambled on long enough already for this post, so next time I’ll talk about the structure of the different acts and what goes where.

Should've stayed on board...

2011-11-07T19:29:00.000Z

Just got revisions back for Always The Best Man (whether it keeps that title or not remains to be seen!). It seems that my ending feels a little rushed. I had suspected as much myself, and when I got my trusty plotboard out, I could see why!

This is the current incarnation of my plotboard.
There are four rows:

act 1
first part of act 2
second part of act 2
act 3

Compared to the beginning of the story, the last act is a little sparse! And if I'd paid attention to my board instead of ignoring that while I wrote the final chapter or two, I might have worked that out for myself.

I find having visual map of my book exremely helpful in both the writing and revising stages. In the first draft I can scribble my ideas on post-its and index cards (or bits of envelopes etc.) and often there is an obvious place to pin those ideas when I look at my board. In the revising stage, I can start to jiggle cards around and see what's working and what isn't.

Anyway, can't stay round here blogging all evening. I've got a book to revise! Back to the board for me...

Celebrations all round!

2011-10-30T13:25:00.003Z

I have FINISHED MY BOOK! One more read-through on my Sony Reader, just to catch anything I missed, and it's good to go. Yay. I love the just-finished-a-book feeling.

However, I've got another book due in three months, so my post-book euphoria will rapidly moprh into starting-a-new-book excitment. It's a Christmas series about three sisters that I'm doing with Shirley Jump and Donna Alward. More on that soon...

And if that wasn't enough excitment, I've just seen the UK cover for Dancing With Danger (The Ballerina Bride in North America).

Whoa. Seriously hot hero alert!

Just hang out here a while and drool. I don't mind...

New Cover!

2011-10-19T07:15:00.002+01:00

Just coming out of deadline hermit status (and New Voices mentor status) for a few seconds to post the North American cover for my January 2012 release:

Wow! That's all I can say. It's inspired by a scene out of the book, but I'm not saying any more because to do so would involve horrible spoilers!

Will be really interested to see the UK cover of the same book, Dancing With Danger, because I bet it'll be totally different.

Unfortunate typo!

2011-10-01T21:06:00.000+01:00

Have just been alerted (via Twitter) to a rather unfortunate typo in my latest book, Swept Off Her Stilettos! (Reminding me of the recent Susan Anderson news story.) On page 186, it says:

Sorry, folks! It was supposed to say pantry! I've chekced the ebook version, the print version... Yup it's there in every single one. No much to do now but cry...or laugh. ;-)

RWA Workshop 3: Set In Emotion

2011-09-29T09:33:00.000+01:00

Next on the list of helpful workshops at the RWA conference this year is Set In Emotion by Erin Quin.

This interative workshop shows how to layer in emotion to your scenes by using description - especially how describing things from the viewpoint character's persepctive can flavour the scene and add atmosphere. Erin suggests identifying the overall mood or emotion of your scene and then finding 'word families' that reflect that to use in description.

I definitely use this technique already in my writing, but it was great to hear it from a fresh persepctive.In fact, I think I came at the subject from the other direction in my talk on emotion at the RNA conference, when I mentioned how by using the wrong description writers can sometimes dilute the emotion of a scene.

Click here for the download, if you're interested.

RWA Workshop 2: Hips Don't Lie

2011-09-28T09:41:00.000+01:00

My second RWA workshop recommendation is Hips Don't Lie by Gina Ardito - an helpful, amusing and informative journey through the world of male and female body language.

This fun, hands-on workshop will detail the subtle and not-so-subtle signals our bodies send out in the pursuit of romance, so authors can rejuvenate their prose with more than just shrugs and winks.

Great for helping keep those physical mannerisms fresh and true! And if you want to know why men can't tell the difference between bums and boobs, this one is for you! Here's the link if you're interested getting the audio download, or you can try here if you'd like to see the workshop hand out.

Mills & Boon Secrets Uncovered!

2011-09-27T09:08:00.000+01:00

If you're and apsiring romance author, or are polishing your entry up for the current New Voices competition, you might like to know about a free ebook that the Mills & Boon editors have produced to help you write your romance: Mills & Boon Secrets Uncovered.

Tons of fab advice, from the horses' mouths, so to speak (sorry, ladies!) and maybe even a tip or two from your favourite authors. Maybe even a little bit on how not to overdo the emotion from yours truly!

RWA workshop 1: Creating 3D characters

2011-09-26T09:00:00.000+01:00

Creating Three-Dimensional Characters

This workshop was given by NYT bestselling author Cherry Adair and was an absolute hoot, as well as being thought-provoking and educational. I had to stop and scribble things down while I was listening, which was a bit tricky, because I was on a train. I also embarrassed myself in front of the other passengers on the 10:35 to London Victoria by laughing out loud a couple of times.

I've never read one of Cherry's books, but after hearing her speak I am off to order one. I mean, how could I not? This woman loves colour-coding just as much as I do!

My fave bits:

Know what your character is afraid of. (Now, does this sound familiar to anyone who was reading my New Voices workshop notes? Good!)
Know what your character is proud of.
Know what your character's superpower is! (Their unique, particular talent)
Know what your character's kryptonite is! (And then expose them to it! Also, sounding familiar? Good!)

If you want to hear it for yourself, you can find it here. (And I promise no one is paying me to talk about these workshops - I just like sharing good nuggets of writing wisdom!)

RWA workshops

2011-09-25T16:21:00.000+01:00

My DVD of the audio sessions from the RWA conference in New York have arrived! I'm very excited, as I only got to attend a couple of sessions, and there were so many interesting-sounding workshops on the schedule.

I've ordered the conference audio sessions after each time I've been to an RWA conference, and I download them all onto my iPod and listen to them when I'm walking or in the gym or driving the car. And I try and listen to them in order, even sessions that don't necessarily grab me by the title. I've had some of the best writing tips ever from workshops I've listened to that I would never have picked from their desciption!

Anyway, I thought I would blog about the sessions that I found especially interesting or helpful. Individual sessions can be downloaded from the conference recording website for a moderate fee. (Well worth it, in my mind! After I'd finished listening to the CDs from Dallas in 2007 I soaked up so much knowledge, and I'm sure it made me better writer.)

Before I start reviewing other people's sessions, I have to plug the workshop I did with Harlequin/Mills & Boon Editor Bryony Green and fellow author Donna Alward. We talked about How To Write Sizzle Without Sex and Emotion Without Tragedy. The link, should you be interesting in listening (for the princely sum of $8), is here.

Festival of Romance

2011-09-23T11:27:00.002+01:00

I'm blogging about the Festival of Romance too - but not here! I'm over at Fenella Miller's blog, talking about why I'm excited about the first ever event of this kind in the UK!

Love reading or writing romance? Think about heading on down!

Guest blog - Festival of Romance

2011-09-22T09:00:00.002+01:00

Today I have a visitor on my blog! Please welcome Jean Fullerton, award-winning author of page-turning romantic fiction, who is talking about the upcoming Festival of Romance. If you love writing or reading romance this is the place to be this autumn.

Celebrate Romantic Fiction!

Festival of Romance takes place on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd October 2011 at Hunton Park, near Watford, Herts, UK.

The programme is based around romantic fiction giving readers the chance to meet favourite and new authors. There will also be fun activities including a chocolate tasting and the Festival of Romance Ball and Awards on Saturday 22nd October. The aim is to celebrate romantic fiction in all its forms.

What are you looking forward to at the FR ?
I'm looking forward to so many things at the Festival of Romance it's difficult to narrow it down to just one but if I have to I'd say what I'd say it's the prospect of meeting hundreds lovely readers.

I know it's a cliché but without anyone reading my books they are just paper and ink. People often think writers spend hours huddled over their keyboards because they dream that one day they will be snapped up for a squillion pound book deal but that is very far from the truth. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn’t turn down a squillion pound book deal but that’s not what keeps me up into the wee small hour grappling with a knot in a plot. Quite simply the reason I write is for that supreme moment of joy when a reader tells me that they love my heroine, adore my hero and wanted to reach through the pages and strangle the villain themselves.

What will you be doing at the FR?
I'm very excited to be involved with the first ever Festival of Romance and Apart from talking myself hoarse, I’ll be taking part in two events The first is on Friday afternoon when I will be joining Christina Courtney for a panel discussion entitled, Love in War and Peace. We will be discussing the issues involved in writing historical romance.

On Saturday afternoon I and my dear friend and fellow historical novelist, Fenella Miller will be giving a talk called, A Beginners Guide to Historical Romance or Everything you Wanted to Know about Historical Romance but Were Afraid to Ask.

Fenella and I are passionate about historical fiction and we will be taking the audience on a trip from Stone Age to the Modern Age. We will be recommending historical romances for the uninitiated in a hope that readers who have not read historical romances before might take the plunge.

I’m also taking part in the Authors fashion parade on Saturday afternoon, which should be fun.

Why should readers come to the FR?
I think the main reason readers should come to the FR is because it's going to be a brilliant weekend. Added to which they will be able to meet dozens of authors, publishers and agents along with other readers with the same love for romantic fiction as themselves. I’m sure the FR will soon become a permanent fixture in the literary calendar it will be exciting to be part of the first one.

Brixton Library Workshop pics

2011-09-21T09:00:00.000+01:00

I know I've been posting my New Voices workshop notes, but I haven't said much about the workshop itself. I had a fabulous time. The librarian was warm and welcoming, and everyone who came was bursting with questions and enthusiasm. I could have wittered on all night - but, fortunately, somebody stopped me.

Aside from being a great opportunity to mention New Voices, it was also good to support a local(ish) library. Many libraries are facing funding cuts or closure, and having events like this (and the workshop was booked out weeks before the date) shows just how much they do for the local community. So, get down to Brixton library if you can (next to the Roxy), or your local library, and grab a few good books!

Thanks to Caroline, librarian at Brixton library, for the pics!

New Voices Workshop - part six

2011-09-20T10:08:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post to talk about the Happy Ever After...

A romance is a story with a happy ending. Your hero and heroine had lessons to learn, remember? They wouldn’t have been ready or emotionally capable of making this relationship work at the start of the story. However, the events of the plot have changed them and now they are ready to embark on a fulfilling, loving relationship.

In other words, your You hero and heroine have to earn their happy ending. Their prize? The thing they’ve always longed for – their internal goal.

Make sure your characters complete their emotional journeys! Readers will put the book down unsatisfied if there are emotional loose ends. Readers may not know why that ending didn't have the 'ahhh' factor, but they won't have that warm and fuzzy feeling they were looking for when they picked up the book.

New Voices Workshop - part five

2011-09-19T09:00:00.003+01:00

The Black Moment

OUTER STORY: should have escalating conflict – bigger obstacles, more vicious baddies – until there is a final showdown
INNER STORY: there should also be escalating conflict with a final test.

Often, before the climax of the story (when the hero and heroine finally get together) the conflict will escalate until things reach breaking point. Different craft writers call it different things : crisis, major setback, the black moment. Whatever name you prefer, this is where your character hits emotional rock bottom.

Basically, this is their ultimate test. They’ve been growing and changing, and they’re almost ready to earn that happy ending with the hero/heroine, but to convince readers they are ready to embark on that relationship without sabotaging it themselves we have to show them that the character has truly changed. This is one place where you really have to ‘show’ and not ‘tell’.

At the end of the story, readers will project into the future and guess what will happen after ‘THE END’. You want them to believe that divorce is not an inevitable part of that future, that the Happy Ever After is going to last.

So, how do you test them convincingly? You make them face their deepest fear! It’s the best ammunition at your disposal, and if you set your character up as being afraid of something, you have to pay it off. It’s like Indiana Jones telling everyone he’s afraid of snakes – if we didn’t see him dangling over a pit of the little monsters at some point in the film, we’d feel cheated!

Allegra's fear: not being free - but as the story develops, she starts to realise it's not her circumstances that are trapping her, but herself. She stuggles to break out of her self-imposed shell, but it's hard and she wonders if she'll ever make it. Rather than being a one-off moment for Allegra, it was an on-going situation that intensified.

Finn's fear: losing someone he cares about - but he's also scared of exploring that fenced-off area inside himself. Finn manages to engineer his own black moment rather nicely when, because he refuses to do that emotional exploring, his only other option is to walk away from Allegra. He looses her. It hurts. But it was his choice, so he thinks he's going to be okay. Stupid man.

When the pressure is at its greatest, your character will often return to that emotional armour that protected them for so long, and reverting to this behaviour will often be what triggers the Black Moment, either for themselves or the other character. And it’s often the fallout from this event that pushes them to make that final change, to pass that final test, because they realise they are not the person they used to be any more, and they see that self-defeating behaviour for what it really is.

Each character will have their own moment of crisis but, depending on the story, one may be more intense than another, and they may not happen at the same time. Your characters may grow and change at different rates and you will have to decide what works for your story. Sometimes one character will complete their arc before the other one.

For example, the hero might be ready to commit and start a life together, but the heroine’s inner demons are still chasing her hard and she may do something to seriously jeopardise the relationship and split them apart.

In Finn and Allegra’s story, Allegra finishes her character arc first. She faces her fears and learns to take charge of her own life, make her own decisions. She finally has that inner freedom she’s always yearned for, and she uses her new-found courage to do her bravest act yet – she tells Finn she loves him. Finn, however, hasn’t completed his arc, so this sends him running – both emotionally and physically. He rejects her.

I threw in a little extra test for Allegra – now that she felt empowered, I wondered if she would overcompensate, if she would try to control situations, impose her will on others, the same way others had imposed theirs on her. I gave her a moment of choice, where she could have chosen to go down that path, but ultimately she decides that she can’t curtail Finn’s freedom either. If he has chosen to walk away, she has to let him.

Finn takes a little longer to learn his lessons, but he works it out eventually, and then he comes back ready to explore that uncharted region of his emotions, ready to embark on his biggest adventure yet – love. Yay!

More on the Happy Ever After tomorrow!

New Voices Workshop - part four

2011-09-18T09:00:00.007+01:00

Okay, so far we've looked at the individual characters, but how do you get the sparks to fly when you put hero and heroine together?

The Romantic Conflict
In a romance we have two protagonists – a hero and a heroine – but often no villain. So where is the conflict going to come from? Each other, of course! Neither of them is evil or bad; it's just that their differing goals are going to put them in conflict with each other.

However, this is a delicate balancing act:

On one hand they have to provide enough conflict to push the other character out of their comfort zone, so they start to see life/love/themselves in a new light, and so they begin to change their behaviour.

On the other hand, these people should also be the solution to the other one's inner conflict. They will ultimately fulfil that deeply-held longing the other has had (and that’s how we make readers believe they are right for each other).

I've got a little tip when it comes to romantic conflict (I stole it from the wonderful Michael Hauge - read his book, buy his DVDS!): Your hero and heroine often go to battle with each other wearing that emotional armour! It's often that self-defeating behaviour that causes the problems, those character flaws they just haven't ironed out yet. But when hero and heroine connect, it's because they see UNDERNEATH that emotional armour. There are moments as they start to get to know each other that they let that armour slip and give their true selves away. The other person falls in love with that person, not the one who's causing them all the trouble on the surface. And when readers know that your hero and heroine love each other for who they really are, they will buy into the love story wholeheartedly!

Since the romantic conflict is closely related to your hero and heroine's inner conflicts, you need to build your hero and heroine so everything about them feeds into that romantic conflict that's going to arise between them. Likewise, the plot, any subplots and secondary characters should only exist to advance the romantic storyline.

So how are your hero and heroine going to cause problems for each other? Well, we need to look at the hero first:

Finn McCloud is a sexy, survival skills expert, who likes nothing better than to jump out of planes, raft in white waters and hanging off mountains by his fingertips.

Finn's inner goal: What he needs is to connect with other people. Finn, meanwhile, is always looking for the next adventure, trying to find that ultimate destination that will give him a sense of peace and connection. He hasn't got a clue he's looking for a person, not a place.

Finn's motivation: he was an army brat who moved around a lot and learned quickly not to put roots down too deep, or to care to much about anyone. He's an outgoing, friendly guy, and people like him, but all his relationships are shallow. He won't get truly close to anyone.

Finn's greatest fear: losing one more person he cares about. So getting attached to anyone on a deeper level is going to scare him. Falling in love is going to freak him out big time!

Finn's coping mechanism: while he's brave and adventurous in his professional life, when it comes to Finn's relationships he's a coward. He steers well clear of anything resembling true love. He has the sense of freedom Allegra craves, but he's chosen not to explore areas of himself and his emotions, preffering to leave them fenced off and out of bounds.

So, how is Finn going to make life difficult for Allegra, and vice versa?

Allegra is struggling with her new-found freedom – she's not sure what to do with it now that she's got it – and Finn is pushing her to make choices, follow her instincts and generally do things she had very little experience of doing. Allegra is mortified that one of the reasons she left home is that she was disappointing everyone back there, and now she seems to be disappointing Finn too. And, despite the fact she is up close and personal on a desert island with her secret crush, she thinks he'd never be interested in an unadventurous mouse like her.

Also, Allegra has spent so long never being able to express her opinion or what she wants, but she doesn't even know how to tell him that she's attracted to him. In other words, meeting Finn and spending time with him is what makes Allegra realise her problems will not be solved by a change of location. He brings her internal conflict to the fore by making her realise she is part of her own problem. She feels just as trapped on a desert island as he did back in London!

Finn, meanwhile, is blissfully unaware of his survival skills protégé’s internal struggles. He's just doing what he always does – skimming along the surface of life, enjoying the moment, never getting too deep with anything. His troubles begin when Allegra starts to rise to the challenges he's giving her, when she starts to learn all those lessons she needs to learn (taking charge of her own life, making choices, finding her inner spirit). Suddenly he finds himself attracted to her and, rather than be the adventure hero everyone thinks he is, he runs scared. If he let's himself get close to Allegra he will be in really big trouble.

Can you see how putting these two personalities with their own individual emotional baggage is going to make sparks fly?

But once you've got the conflict going, what do you do next? More on that tomorrow!

New Voices Workshop - part three

2011-09-17T10:00:00.001+01:00

Continuing from yestedays's post, where we talked about internal conflict...

Asking a few questions can help identify your character's internal conflict:

1. What is your character’s greatest fear?
This will often be the flipside of their goal and will be closely related to that pain in their past. (See yesterday's post for more on this).
Allegra fear’s being trapped for the rest of her life, of never feeling free.

2. What coping mechanisms has your character developed?
There are otfen two aspects to this: who they are and what they do.

We need to work out what emotional armour our characters are hiding behind. We all have it, don’t we? How do they hide their true selves to protect themselves from what they fear?
Your character may also behave in certain ways to protect themselves, but often these behaviour patterns are self-defeating. The character thinks this is what they need to do to get to their goal, but this is actually what’s holding them back.

Allegra has become the dutiful, obedient ballerina. There’s no point fighting against her life; that’s just the way it is. She’s told what steps to do and she does them, and because she entered the profession so young the dynamic of her professional relationships hasn’t really changed since she was sixteen. She’s still stuck in that same mindset.

Remember the car chase hero who was scared of driving? For the story to be gripping, readers will have to worry that your character could fail to achieve their goal, and it’s this internal conflict that will give readers most cause for concern, because when your characters are pushed way beyond their comfort zones that emotional armour is going to seem warm and inviting instead of suffocating, and they will want to revert to those unhelpful behaviour patterns, because this is how they have coped up until now!

During the story they will struggle to learn a better way, but when the going gets tough the safety of doing what they’ve always done to protect themselves is going to get more and more appealing. The greater the conflict, the greater they will be tempted to use their emotional security blankets!

So, when Allegra finally does escape, and ends up on a desert island with a hunky survival expert (What can I say? When she snapped, she snapped!), she feels totally upside down, and instead of taking advantage of all that freedom she relies on doing what she’s always done – following instructions and doing what she’s told. At least, to start off with…

But…in order for your character to get what they want (internal goal) they are going to have to stop being that kind of person, they are going to have to find a new way of dealing with life. The thing they long for is going to be forever out of their reach until that happens.

3.What lessons does your character need to learn?
It's easy to work out how they need to grow and change once you know:

The painful secrets in your characters past
What they are afraid of
What emotional armour they are hiding behind

They are going to have to take off those masks and learn to deal with life in a different way.
What has been working for them up until now is no longer getting them by. It’s time to change.

You now have a roadmap for their inner journey (also called their character arc or emotional journey).
Starting point: character stuck inside the shell of that false self, engaging in in self-defeating behaviour.
Finishing point: character has faced their fears, let go of self-defeating behaviour and have embraced life more fully as their true self.

Allegra needs to learn to speak up for herself and make her own choices. She’s also going to have to learn to manage the freedom she yearns for when she gets it, and that having to make choices will be more difficult than she imagined.

Now, that's just thinking about one half of the equation - the heroine, in this case. What's going to happen when we throw the hero into the mix? And how is he going to be part of the heroine's conflict? More tomorrow...

New Voices Workshop - part two

2011-09-16T10:00:00.001+01:00

Okay, yesterday we looked at external conflict, now we're going to take a peek under the surface and talk about internal conflict.

What is internal conflict?

Let's go back to our car-racing hero from yesterday:
We have a hero who wants to win a race so he can get his hands on a cash prize so he can use it to pay a ransom for his son, who has been kidnapped. Unfortunately, he had an unscrupulous opponant will do anything to get to the finishing line first...

What if our hero had a terrible accident a few years back? (Possibly injuring someone he cared about?) He hasn't driven since, and he's petrified! He'd rather be going 10 miles an hour in a car park than 100 miles an hour down a crowded city street.

Now our hero has another obstacle, and this one is not from outside himself. It's not traffic lights and speed limits or an opponent in a faster car. This obstacle comes from INSIDE HIMSELF.

To achieve his goal he has to conquer his fear of driving to win the money and save his son.
Now we’re much more engaged in the outcome - If the stakes get too high, if the speed gets too fast, the stunts too dangerous, will our hero crumble? And how will he feel if his son his hurt because of his own weakness?

This inner conflict has added an extra layer of complexity to the story. Our protagonist will have to grow and change to reach his goal (happy ending) or he can refuse to grow (tragic ending).

An Internal story also needs internal goals
The hero often has to face some internal conflict to achieve his extra goal. However, external goals (plot goals) are not the only goals in a story.

EXTERNAL GOALS have a tangible, visible finish line: Win the race, get the job, find something they’ve lost…
INTERNAL GOALS are intangible, less easy to measure: Success, freedom, security…

Finding your characters' internal conflict
Pick one of your protagonist's (hero or heroine) and ask them a few revealing questions to get to the heart of their internal conflict:

1. What is your character’s internal goal?
We need to know what our character both wants and needs – and sometimes these are not the same thing!

What do they want, deep down? What do they long for? Sometime a character knows what is missing from their life, what is out of balance – they just don’t know how to go about finding that missing element or restoring that balance. And, in these cases, the character only has and inkling of what is wrong, and if they understood the scale of the problem it would probably scared them witless!

But sometimes a character is too afraid to even admit anything is wrong and they ignore the problem; they tell themselves that something else is the solution to all their ills and go after that instead. The problems is that if we were to give our character what they want it would probably destroy them. However, as a writer we should understand what that character really needs, even if they don’t.

I'm going to use the heroine of my upcoming book 'Dancing with Danger' (UK title)/'The Ballerina Bride' (US title) as an example.
Allegra's internal goal - freedom. But it's good to be specific about what that means to your character. Freedom will mean different things to different people. For Allegra, freedom means escape and the chance to make her own choices.

2. What is your character’s internal motivation?
We will find or explain our character’s internal motivation by looking into their history (backstory). Our experiences also shape our thoughts, behaviour and perception of how the world works. Those events can bring out the best in us or they can cause us to show our negative sides. Unfortunately, it seems that the painful experiences are much easier to carry forwards into our futures than the positive ones.

So, to understand why our character wants something we need to know what that emotional baggage is. And don’t be satisfied with the superficial things - keep digging until you find the root!

Allegra's motivation: she's a ballet prodigy who's been working hard since she was sixteen. Ballet has been the focus of her very rigid, very structured life. However, the strain of all this hard work is starting to show, and Allegra isn't sure ballet was ever her choice - she's followed in the footsteps of her famous mother because it pleased everyone she did so. Even worse, the sense of suffocation that is threatening to overwhelm her is affecting her dancing. The critics are saying she's burned out at the age of twenty-three. Ballet has been her life, and if things don't improve she might not even have that...

3. What is your character’s internal conflict?
Hopefully your plot will your character in a situation where both their inner and outer goals are under threat. Be careful you don’t concentrate so much on the outer goals that you forget about that inner conflict - know how your character’s internal issues are going to help them sabotage their own attempts to achieve their goal.

Allegra's external conflict: her external goal is literally to escape, to run away. She wants new experiences, to travel. Up until now she's not had that opportunity - her career demands a huge amount of her time and her domineering father has kept her on a very tight leash. What's stopping her? She's just about to star in a brand new production, and the workload is tougher than ever. No chance of escape for now. Apart from the new steps (which she's rehearsed a thousand times) it's the same old same old.

But identifying the internal conflict can be a bit trickier than sorting out external conflict, so tomorrow I’ll have a few hints to help with the discovery process…

New Voices Workshop - part one

2011-09-15T14:52:00.003+01:00

I thought it might be useful to post the main points of the New Voices workshop I gave at Brixton library on 14th September, but since there is quite a lot to get though, I thought I'd seperate it into a few posts and put them up on consecutive days. Here's part one:

THE STORY INSIDE THE STORY
Using internal conflict to create a gripping romance

There are two levels to every gripping story:

Outer: the plot – the things that happen to the protagonist, the action of the story.
Inner: character - about the people: what happens to them on the inside, how the action of the story changes the protagonist, either for better or worse.

E.g. Titanic: the outside story concerns the unsinkable boat hitting an iceberg and killing hundreds. The inside story belongs to Rose, how being on the Titanic, meeting Jack, and ultimately surviving, changes the course of her life.

The External Story

The plot is the external action of the story, the physical events that push the story forward. However, action alone has no intrinsic meaning.

Think of watching a piece of video footage where cars are racing each other, driving fast, is mildly entertaining but we don't get very emotionally involved. We could increase the tension by making the cars race faster, putting them in city instead of a race track, adding extra obstacles for them to deal with, but we probably wouldn't watch this for long.

PLOT needs to be centred around a CHARACTER.
Readers want someone to identify with, to root for.

So, if we identify one of the drivers as our hero and another as the villain, suddenly we are more interested in the outcome, we could do better…

GOAL, MOTIVATION and CONFLICT

A character needs a goal to create dramatic tension (and that dramatic tension is what gets readers hooked into a story and keeps them turning pages):

GOAL: what your hero (protagonist) wants.
MOTIVATION: why they want what they want.
CONFLICT: what is stopping them getting what they want.

Back to our car chase hero - let’s make this a race…

Goal: to beat the villain to the finish line. (All of a sudden, this is much more interesting!)
Motivation: why? Maybe because he wants to win the big-money prize?
Conflict: he has a skilled opponant who wants the same thing he does, and possibly won't play fair to get it.

Adding the motivation of a monetary prize certainly raises the stakes, but we need to keep asking why - motivation is often multi-layered and multi-faceted. It would be nice for our hero to win the money, but I don’t really care that much about it. How can we raise the stakes further?

(Okay, this is a bit corny, but it's simple and understandable, so let's work with it.)
What if his son had been kidnapped and he needed the prize money to pay the ransom? Now we are invested in the story, because the meaning behind the action just got personal. We don't just think it will be nice if the hero wins the race, now we really want him to win! Strong, personal motivation engages readers.

Look out for part two The Inner Story tomorrow!

New Voices is almost here!

2011-09-10T14:14:00.006+01:00

Last year Mills & Boon ran a hugely successful X-Factor-style romance writing competition, and this year it's back - bigger and better than ever!

New Voices 2011 launches on Tuesday 13th September!

Round 1: aspiring romance novelists can upload their first chapters to the New Voices site. The M&B team will whittle down the entries to 20 finalists.

Round 2: The finalists will then write the second chapter of their book, and the public and judges will vote on who goes on to....

Round 3: finalists write a 'pivotal moment' from their story.
Then the judges and public decide the winner!

This year West-End star Jodie Prenger, a long time M&B fan, will be our celebrity guest judge. Check it out: she's reading my book, Swept Off Her Stilettos, on the M&B website!

How chuffed am I?

Anyway, there are a whole host of New Voices writing workshops going on around the country, hosted by Mills & Boon authors, and I am leading one at Brixton Library this Wednesday - 14th September!

Here's a link to the full list of workshops and further details.

Swept Off Her Stilettos - hero and heroine casting

2011-08-08T13:30:00.011+01:00

Coreen had "bit parts" into other books before she got a story of her own. That meant she was pretty fully formed in my head before I started writing Swept Off Her Stilettos. Initially, she appeared in my head like one of Alberto Vargas's pin-up girls come to life: sexy, cheeky and totally gorgeous.

Apart from the photograph I posted the other day, other good matches the Coreen would be:

Holly Willoughby, British TV presenter who caused a storm wearing a not-particularly revealing dress on Saturday evening TV. It was the body she'd put inside it that caused all the fuss. Now, I've seen women on television wearing a lot less and hardly generates any column inches at all. That was what I wanted for Coreen – an eye-popping figure. If Holly had dark hair instead of blonde, she'd be a pretty good match for Coreen Fraser.

Throw in a dash of Martine McCutcheon, who played opposite Hugh Grant in Love Actually, and we'd be almost there. Martine has a cheeky glint in her eye that would make her perfect for the part of Coreen, should some Hollywood executive ever decide to make my little book into a movie. (Well, a girl can dream, can't she?)

And what about Adam? How did I see him? Well, the picture of Matthew Fox below on the left was my earliest match, but the other day I stumbled across a photo of Bradley Cooper (centre) that also made me stop and think, "Adam". In fact, if I put those two pictures together in a line-up with the guy on the cover of the UK edition of Swept Off Her Stilettos, he's a pretty good match!

Book of the week!

2011-08-02T13:15:00.005+01:00

Have just discovered that Swept Off Her Stilettos is Now magazine's book of the week, with a four star review!

Here's what they say:

Dita Von Teese's retro-luxe glamour would fade quickly into the background if vintage vixen Coreen Fraser stood beside her. Now that she's got fashion firmly wrapped around her finger, can she convince her crush Nicholas to put a ring on it? But when her best friend Adam reveals his own feelings for her, Coreen must decide where her affections truly lie.

Adventures in New York - part 2

2011-07-30T20:00:00.007+01:00

On Sunday morning I met up with Love Inspired authors Camy Tang and Danica Favorite for a trip to church. We set off from our hotel in Times Square for Greenwich Village. As is always the way on the first day in a new city, we got lost. Thank goodness for Google Maps, Camy's iPhone and Danica's sense of direction!

However, one of the plus points of getting lost is all the wandering you do trying to find your way. We walked past the tea shop called Tea & Sympathy on Greenwich Avenue. Being British, I'm always in need of a good cup of tea, and it seemed I was in the company of two fellow tea-aholics who couldn't resist going back there after the service.

Now, I should have remembered the subtle culture shock a Brit gets from visiting America. We think, because we see American locations on the television all the time that it somewhere familiar, somewhere like home. In some ways it is, but in other ways it is totally different. It's a bit like arriving somewhere and not knowing the rules. For example, for the first couple of days I had a hard time finding the road signs. They weren't were expected them to be. And don't get me started on toilet stalls... Anyway, I'd forgotten that lots of these minor differences (plus the jet lag) add up and give me a vague sense of disorientation for the first day or so that I'm Stateside. However, the moment I stepped into Tea & Sympathy the world turned itself right way up again.

We'd stumbled onto an English teashop, full of union Jack bunting, floral teapots and pictures of the Queen. I could knowledgeably inform my fellow tourists what "bangers" and "clotted cream" were. And I could get a good cup of tea. Heaven. (I am also now busting to write a story set in New York with an English teashop-owning heroine.) Unfortunately, my stomach was to jet lagged to want anything more than a cup of tea, but we had a great time chatting over a very late breakfast.

Then it was time to get back to the hotel and meet my roomie, Donna Alward, who was flying in from Canada that afternoon!

Swept Off Her Stilettos - Inspiration

2011-07-28T09:19:00.008+01:00

Sometimes I have to root around in my memory to remember where the idea for a book came from, but not with this one. There was one big polka-dotted inspiration for this book: my heroine, Coreen.

She first appeared in Invitation To The Boss's Ball as the heroine's best friend, and immediately began to steal the show. Alice was a skinny redhead, not confident in her own sexuality, and I decided she needed a best friend and business partner who was her complete opposite, so up popped Coreen.

Coreen accused Alice of being a doormat where men were concerned:

'I do not invite men to walk all over me,’ Alice said in a quiet, but surprisingly defiant tone, well aware that Coreen would have no trouble kicking just about any man into line with her pillar-box red, patent, peep-toes wedges. Vintage, of course.

And with that line, I pretty much had an idea who Coreen was - a vintage drama queen who expected every man she met to fall down and worship at her feet. Of course, when I decided to give her her own story, it was obvious she should run into a man who refused to do just that. I had a rich, alpha hero all picked out for her, and then, somehow, that idea got flipped on its head too. Enter Adam. That's when the fun really began!

I spotted this lovely photo while looking at vintage fashion blogs when I was doing the research that this book. The dark hair, the red lips, the slightly cheeky glint in the model's eye, all reminded me of Coreen.

Many thanks to Rodelle from Adore Vintage for the use of this photo.

Back from my travels: RWA - part one

2011-07-23T14:00:00.005+01:00

Well, I've been a busy little bunny, travelling here and there for the last few weeks, and then I got home to find a family that needed some of my time and proofs for the next book to be checked, and a million and one other things on my to-do list. Anyway, I thought I'd belatedly blog about my travels and intersperse those blogs with the 'behind the scenes' info for Swept Off Her Stilettos'.

So here we go - RWA part one:

Heading into New York city for the first time was a surreal experience. I must see a shot of it nearly every day on the television on some show or advert, but I'd never been there in person before. As I sat in the airport shuttle on the way to my hotel, I was feeling a little punch-drunk from the flight, and it was really my bedtime, even though the sun was hours away from setting. Suddenly, the van rose up over a ridge and there was Manhattan in front of me. I could only see the outlines of the buildings in the pollution haze. No details, just layer upon layer of slightly magnified shapes in varying shades of beige. It looked slightly unreal, yet familiar at the same time. There was the Empire State Building - and over there the Chrysler Building. I wish I'd taken a photo.

Had a rather jet-lagged dinner (think I had a burger?) with fellow Brit Kate Johnson and her friend, and then fell into bed, leaving my luggage unpacked and in the bathroom, cos I was having a moment of paranoia about bed bugs.

The next morning I got up and explored Times Sqaure. It was the emptiest I saw it all week, because by mid-morning it's packed and it stays that way until late into the night. And then I found somehwere to have breakfast. Ended up at Junior's, which was right across from the hotel, with a great menu.

It's become a tradition of mine to eat proper American pancakes for my first breakfast when I visit the States (after the 'whipped butter' incident of 07). Junior's didn't disappoint me, with the softest fluffiest pancakes I've ever had, served with a delicious little bowl of stewed apples and raisins with cinnamon. Heaven.

Two conferences and a total collapse

2011-07-14T14:28:00.003+01:00

After doing the RWA conference in New York and then heading off to the RNA conference in Wales within a few days, I am officially wilting. And I've got two weeks worth of admin to catch up on too!

Will hopefully get around to posting about both of these events shortly, but in the meantime I have uploaded my photos to my Facebook page:

RWA pics here.

RNA pics here.

News round-up

2011-07-05T18:35:00.007+01:00

Well, so much for posting from RWA! I got so busy I hardly had time to turn my computer on! I'm going to post an update on my adventures in New York in the next couple of days, but first I've got a few bits of news to share:

First off (and I'm really excited by this!) my latest book, Swept Off Her Stilettos, is available now at Mills and Boon! It'll be on the shelves next month in the UK, and also available online at Harlequin too. You can read a bit if you click on the 'browse' widget in the sidebar. (Yes, I know the cover is different, but it's the same book, I promise!)

If you enjoyed either Alice's story (Invitation To The Boss's Ball) or Jennie's story (Three Weddings And A Baby/Millionaire's Baby Bombshell), then you'll have met the heroine, Coreen, before. She's an irrespressible flirt, a vintage-fashion queen and a danger to anything with a Y chromosome. Of course, her no-prisoners approach to romance is going to end her up in trouble eventually....

Second bit of good news is that the middle book in these three linked books, Three Weddings And A Baby is only £1.49 at Amazon.co.uk at the moment - a total bargain! And it's also reduced to $2.38 at Amazon.com.

And lastly, my books are now available on iTunes - including the audio book version of Invitation To The Boss's Ball. Just search for "fiona harper" and up my books pop!

I Heart New York

2011-06-26T14:03:00.003+01:00

Well, after months of planning and anticpation, I've finally arrived in New York. Woke up this morning feeling a little less jet lagged and went for a wee walk before breakfast:

And then I ate a hearty New York breakfast. (Not sure the waistline could take this every day, though!)

Anyway, I'm going to be posting my photos on my Facebook Page as often as I can this week, so pop by and have a look!

New titles, new books!

2011-06-14T16:26:00.004+01:00

Very excited to discover the titles and release dates for the runaway ballerina story I've just had accepted. Yay!

Basic plot: ballerina escapes from her suffocating life by running away to a desert island with a hunky survival expert for a week.

It's going to be released in January 2012 in North America as a Harlequin Romance and will be called The Ballerina Bride.

And in Feb 2012 it'll be available in the UK as a Mills & Boon RIVA, with the title Dancing With Danger.

Gorgeous titles, or what?

Neither of them are mine. Which is just as well, because my title-creating skills are practically zero. Asking me to keep to 50,000 words is a struggle. How on earth was I ever going to manage something worthwhile in under five?

Help! Wardrobe dilemma.

2011-06-08T08:51:00.009+01:00

Normally my life as an author involves clothing choices. Will I wear the black jogging bottoms today or the grey? Split-second decision and move on.

However, I now have a wardrobe-related quandry and I need some help. (Husband is no help. He thinks I look nice in everything.) For this kind of thing you need girl advice.
Anyway, here’s the skinny…

I had my outfit all planned out for Harlequin’s party in New York during the RWA conference in a couple of weeks, and then when the invite arrived I discovered it was a black and white ball. Very swish. But then I realised I might need something a little more dressy than I’d been planning.

Here are the options, 1-4:
(Click the picture if you want to see it larger)

I’d been planning to wear no.1. Black, yes, but also cream animal print. Could I get away with it, and is animal print too much?

My other option was no.2. Black and white, certainly, but maybe not dressy enough? (It's not a full ball-gown affair, more cocktail dresses etc.)

Option no.3 is black, looks fairly elegant, but it’s actually a bargain buy in cotton jersey. Can be dressed up with nice accessories, though. But don't want to feel downmarket...

Option no.4: something I found in the wardrobe when I was looking for something else and forgot I'd had (hence the sandals that don't work - I shoved it on and did another photo right before I left the house to go shopping). Fits the bill, but I wore it to the HQ party in 07.

Any ideas, anyone? Anyone? Bueller…?

More cover love!

2011-06-06T19:20:00.013+01:00

Oh, my goodness! I have just seen the North American cover for Swept Off Her Stilettos (UK version to the left), and I squealed with excitement! Now I have two very different, but totally gorgeous covers for the same book. Don't know which I like best!

Here's the North American cover:

Unlike some covers I've had (cough...mentioning no names, Millionaire's Baby Bombshell), this one is actually straight from a scene in the book. Check it out:

Everything about dancing with Nicholas was perfect. His hand was warm and sure on my back as he guided me round our impromptu dance floor. He talked easily to me, all the while looking effortlessly drool-worthy and smiling into my eyes.

It was perfect. It was.

Only…

I was reminded of those cakes in the coffee shop display case that I always yearned for but never seemed to fit the bill. Finally I’d found one that matched what my taste buds craved. It had all the right ingredients, looked divine, but now I’d taken a bite I’d discovered that it tasted all…wrong.

Dancing with Nicholas wasn’t a dream come true, it was an effort. What surprised me most was that I wasn’t bitterly disappointed. Instead I had that horrible, warm scratchy feeling you get when you know there’s somewhere else you need to be, something else you need to be doing. I was almost grateful to Louisa when the track on the gramophone changed and she nabbed the opportunity to cut in.

When I stepped out of Nicholas’s hold I knew Adam was standing behind me, waiting for me to turn around and glide into his arms. And I couldn’t stop myself.

‘I didn’t know you could sing like that,’ he whispered into my ear and a whole series of teeny-tiny fireworks detonated up the back of my neck.

I controlled the resulting quiver well enough to answer him. ‘You’re not the only one to have secrets, Conrad.’

But I couldn’t keep the banter up. The air around us seemed too heavy for our usual frivolity.

Adam didn’t smile at me as we danced. He didn’t even talk. If he had, I might not have heard him. All I was aware of was his strong, capable fingers holding mine, of his broad palm at the small of my back. I couldn’t hold his gaze. It was too intense, too full of things I was too scared to label, so when the needle on the gramophone scratched its way onto a slower song, I rested my temple against his cheek and closed my eyes.

I have no idea how long we swayed and turned like that. Eventually, though, I noticed the air on my bare arms had become cooler, that the light behind my closed eyelids had dimmed to almost nothing. I flickered my lashes apart and opened my eyes.

We were on the terrace. In the moonlight. The warm yellow glow of the drawing room was only feet away, but it felt as if we were in a different world. The sheer curtains over the doors fluttered and curled in the light breeze, beckoning us back. Silently, by mutual agreement and the meeting of eyes, we ignored their call.

Had we stopped dancing? I wasn’t sure.

The way Adam looked at me…it brought tears to the backs of my eyes. Such gentleness. Such openness. Such acceptance. I couldn’t breathe with the intensity of it. Something deep down inside of me turned over. It felt like a door being opened.

Adam brought his hand up to the side of my face and his fingertips traced the line of my cheekbone then threaded up past my temple into the soft waves of my hair. I knew what was coming, and yet I didn’t know. Couldn’t quite get myself to believe it was true, that it was Adam and I standing here in the moonlight like this. I stayed completely still.

He dipped his head forward and our lips touched, just for a moment, and then he pulled back slightly so he was only millimetres away. I closed my eyes and let the weight of my head rest in his hand, and then I waited, a well of longing rising up within me. I didn’t tease or taunt or dare. I surrendered. Maybe for the first time in my life.

And, as a reward, I got what I’d truly been longing for, because Adam really knew how to kiss. His lips brushed over mine slowly, teasing me, and then he deepened the kiss so swiftly I hardly knew what to do with myself. I felt as if I was falling and being caught all at the same time.

I lost myself. Along with the sense of time and gravity and reason.

And that’s why I had to put an end to it.

That’s why I had to push him away gently, my palms flattened on his chest.

Even so, it was my lips that clung as he drew away, my hands that bunched his shirt up into wrinkles before the cotton slipped through my fingers.

I blinked and looked at him. ‘What was that for?’

Eyes of warm espresso with caramel running through them. I didn’t have to look at his mouth to know he was smiling ever so faintly.

‘You know why.’

My heart hiccupped. Did I? Did I know why? Certainly not in my conscious brain. That part was freaking out. But somewhere else, somewhere instinctual and primal, I knew that I knew. I also knew I had to make sure those two parts of my brain never touched, because if they did…well, I sensed there’d be trouble. And a whole heap of hurt.

Copyright © 2011 by Harlequin Enterprises Limited
Cover Art used by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises Limited
® and ‘ are trademarks owned by Harlequin Enterprises Limited or its affiliated companies, used under license.

Copyright © 2011 by Fiona Harper
Permission to reproduce text granted by Harlequin Books SA.

Special Offers!

2011-06-05T12:23:00.006+01:00

I've just discovered that Invitation To T he Boss's Ball (in a 2-in-1 with Nicola Marsh's A Trip With The Tycoon) is on sale at Mills & Boon. Only £1.99 for two books - either ebook or print! Not bad.

This is a very timely offer too, as Invitation To The Boss's Ball introduced the three heroines in what I refer to as my Vintage Fashion trilogy. Book two was Three Weddings And A Baby, my most recent release, and book three, Swept Off Her Stilettos, will be available very, very soon!

Invitation To The Boss's Ball won the Romantic Times reviewer's choice award last year, and was shortlisted for the HOLT medallion, the Bookseller's Best Awards and the Golden Quill Awards!

Not only that, but I've just noticed that Housekeeper's Happy-Ever-After is also on sale at M&B, paired with the fabulous Oh-So-Sensible Secretary by Jessica Hart. I's buy the book just for Jessica's story. Summer and Phin's story was one of my top romance reads last year and I was thrilled to be in such illustrious company.

Swept Off Her Stilettos - cover and blurb!

2011-05-06T12:19:00.003+01:00

Really excited to finally see the cover (and back blurb) for my favourite book yet! Here it is:

A little finger isn't properly dressed without a man wrapped around it...

Clothing connoisseur Coreen Fraser's film-star style never leaves her wanting for male attention! But sourcing for a 1930s murder-mystery weekend stops being fun when she discovers she has to wear a tweed suit and sensible shoes!

Meanwhile Coreen's best friend Adam Conrad has his own plans for the weekend... And one moonlit kiss later Coreen's blinkers fall from her eyes. Adam is the only man who knows the girl underneath the skyscraper heels and scarlet lipstick. But is she brave enough to invite him to kiss it off any time he likes...?

Yay!

2011-05-01T16:08:00.004+01:00

According to my progress meter, I am 111% done! Whoops. Will definitely need to trim as I'm waaay above my word limit.

But the changes I made removing the added external conflict in the second half of the book really worked and I am much, much happier with the result. I had stopped writing halfway through the final scene because it was so dull, but this time round I romped through it, writing 4000 words today alone (hence, the overshot word count).

Now just have to tidy it up and hand it in to my editor on Tuesday morning. Phew!

In the meantime I am enjoying the uplifting funkiness that is Nerina Pallot's new single, Lift Your Hands Up. (You can see the fab video below). Her track, Learning To Breathe, was on the soundtrack for the current book, by the way.

Great British Traditions

2011-04-30T09:42:00.010+01:00

I don't think many people the world over could have missed the fact that yesterday was Royal Wedding day here in the UK. The nation has been in a fever for months, but in the last week all anyone seems to have been thinking about, writing about and talking about was the impending nuptials of William and Kate.

Like the rest of the country, even though my deadline is looming large on the horizon, I couldn't resist turning the TV on and watching at least some of the festivities. It's practically research, after all!

I edited the current book in the morning, stopped to watch the royal family arriving at Westminster Abbey and the arrival of the bride and groom. I also watched the vows and prayers, but then I disappeared back up to my 'office', definitely romantically inspired, to write a first kiss scene between my hero and heroine. No similarities to William and Kate's balcony kiss, I'm afraid, as this one took place on a desert island in a thunderstorm, but I was pretty pleased with the result, and it definitely ups the conflict and emotion in that part of the story, which is what I was looking for.

When the Royal Wedding guests disappeared inside Buckingham palace I went back to work, but after sorting out most of chapter eight and nine, I gatecrashed a street party in a road literally round the corner. Well, not exactly gatecrashed, as my family had been invited by friends who lived there to join them. It wasn't so much a formal street party as people setting up their barbecues and garden furniture outside their houses and generally wandering around getting to know the neighbours. The street had been officially closed for the day and someone had hired a bouncy castle for the kids to play on. Everyone had a wonderful time.

But then street parties, as well as Royal Weddings, are something us Brits know how to do well. I have a wonderful picture of my grandmother (3rd from the left), mother and her twin sister (twins with white ribbons 3rd & 5th from left on far side of table) enjoying a similar occasion in Clockhouse, London at the end of the second world war.

However, the street party above, with its pristine white table cloth and everyone in their Sunday best, was a little different from the one I attended yesterday. Shorts and t-shirts were the order of the day in 2011, and instead of nicely cut cucumber sandwiches we had charred burgers and salads, but we did also engage in yet another great British tradition that my ancestors probably steered well clear of in their 1945 finery - British Bulldog.
Now, for those of you not familiar with the term, British Bulldog is a playground game with a playing area of varying size (depends on where you are playing), where one player (bulldog) tries to catch the others as they rush past him from one end of the pitch to the other. Those caught help the bulldog to catch more until only one is left. (If you really want to know all the rules you can find them here).

After a few beers had been consumed, one of the dads on the street suggested a game. Mr Harper initially refused, as last time he played a game of British Bulldog he broke a bone in his hand and it has never been the same since. However, it didn't take much persuading to get him up and having a go, and I have to say that I haven't seen Mr H move that fast in about 20 years!

On the first pass of the first game there was injury. Which is probably why a lot of schools banned this game when I was younger. Injured party was nine year old girl in white dress (Belonging to me. The girl, not the dress, that is.) who was mowed down by another child on a bike. Rules clearly explained to child on bike and game resumes. Nine year old receives germoline and plasters from kind mum at nearest house and cuddles from non-Bulldog playing parent (me).

I wish I could say that was the only mishap incurred during the game, but after one of the participants had to be taken to hospital with a dislocated shoulder the game, not surprisingly, was dropped in favour of cricket.

The street party, however, carried on into the evening without any further mishap. It was lovely to have a day off work (well, for most people - I had to keep popping home to do a bit more editing) and have nothing to do but celebrate the Royal wedding by getting out of our houses, away from the television and out into the sunshine to meet each other and forge new relationships.

The Tea Crisis and more

2011-04-27T10:21:00.003+01:00

My fridge and cupboards are bare - I don't even have any tea bags left in the house (sob!) - my house is a state and my husband is wondering when I'll ever speak an intelligible word to him again.
Yes, folks, I'm days away from a deadline and editing in earnest.

I've changed my hero's story a little - he no longer decides he can't marry his fiancee and then jilts her after a week on the island with my heroine. This time, its the fiancee who does the jilting and she does it before he heads off to paradise, giving Finn some things to think about. Just this one thing has opened up so much more for my hero in emotional terms.

Before, he only started to realise he had a problem with emotional depth late in she second act and his moment of truth/moment of grace didn't come until almost the end of the story - hence the lack of emotion, I think. Now, he's aware his ex thinks there was something missing from their relationship, even if he's confused about exactly what that was, and I feel it's much easier to dig deeper into his emotions earlier in the story. Hope this works!

Not feeling it

2011-04-25T12:09:00.003+01:00

I’m only about a thousand words short of my word count, but I’ve stopped halfway through writing my final scene. Why? I’m not feeling it, even though I know the setting and idea for the scene is very romantic and I was really excited about getting to it. I have been known to write a final scene with a box of tissues on my desk to mop up the excess liquid draining from my eyes as I type, and I’ve written enough books to know that if the scene isn’t punching me in the gut, it’s not going to grab readers emotionally either.

The final scene is where there should be all the emotional pay-off for all the things you’ve been setting up throughout the book. So, if the emotion isn’t there as strong as I want it to be, it means I haven’t got all my ducks in a row earlier down the line.

I have a gut feeling this all may relate to my hero. Since I’m basing this book on Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale of A Little Mermaid I gave my hero a fiancée, as the prince in the story is in love with another girl and marries her at the end of the tale. This was a strange move for me, because I’m not a fan of chucking ‘the other woman’ in to up the conflict, but I made sure that it was clear from the start that my hero was not fully emotionally invested in his long-distance relationship, and made sure that it was deeper, internal issues that were really keeping him from pursuing a romance with the heroine.

However, I’m wondering his engagement is part of the problem. It’s external conflict, and even though I’ve backed it up with stronger internal conflict, I think it might have to go. The internal conflict on its own will have to work twice as hard in the second half of the book in that case.

Unfortunately, I think it’s time to rip my story apart and put it back together again. I dithered about putting the fiancée in the story to start off with, but sometimes the only way you can find out if something is going to work is if you try it. And if you never make bold choices in your writing you end up staying in ‘safe’ territory. And Finn McLeod is a man who despises ‘safe’. I think I need to give him the rollercoaster ride he deserves.

The Black Moment and Bluebells

2011-04-21T17:19:00.005+01:00

Just written the big, crushing scene where the hero breakes my heroine's heart! Yay! (That makes me sound really twisted, doesn't it?)

Anyway, that means I'm heading off into Act Three - but with only 7000 words left of my word count. That's going to be a squeeze. My aim is to get it written by Easter Sunday so I can go to family party without the end of my book circuiting inside my head. Too many words in the head means the ones that come out of my mouth are too few and are often only one syllable. Not good when you're trying to be sociable.

Yesterday, we had the most glorious weather here. I took the kids (and my notebook) out into the countryside for a walk and some ice creams. Well, the kids had ice creams and climbed trees/read while I scribbled down another scene. Anyway, the picture on the left is one I took with my phone. Sometimes I feel really lucky to live where I do.

In the home straight...

2011-04-14T19:21:00.004+01:00

I can't believe I've managed to see my little percentage progress bar (see right) on the current book go from 15% to 70% in 20 days!

Just shows how fast I can write if I have to. And, despite the fact all the research and planning for this book slowed me down at the beginning, I wouldn't have been able to go this fast without it.

If I can, I prefer a more lesisurely pace - time to let the next scene 'brew' in my head for a few hours, rather than having to rush straight on. But sometimes the ideas that fall out of the subconscious are the best ones.

In my 'down' time, I'm trying to work out why a film I really wanted to like didn't work for me. I was very disappointed with Letters To Juliet. Great idea. Great cast. But the romance didn't fly for me. Not quite sure why yet (partly because I got up from the sofa half way through and wrote my shopping list instead), so I'll have to watch it again to find out.

Any films you've been disappointed with? Come and share!

Guilty Pleasures and Secret Crushes

2011-04-13T17:26:00.007+01:00

Work on the book (The Little Mermaid (working title)/the story about the ballerina with a secret crush) is going well, but it's taking up all my time. No in-depth blogging until after the deadline, I suppose.

Meanwhile, I watched Julie Moggan's documentary on Mills & Boon called Guilty Pleasures today. Really enjoyed it. She followed the lives of some M&B superfans and one M&B Author - Roger Sanderson, who read my first ever M&B for the RNA's New Writers' Scheme and has cheered me on ever since! I started off thinking how quirky some of the people were, and I laughed out loud at some of the clever editing quite a few times, but the stories of those featured quickly became touching and endearing, and I found myself warming to all the participants (Yes, and that includes you, Roger, you know you're lovely!)

I met Julie a couple of times while she was filming, as she atteneded an RNA conference or two, and her crew came to one of the annual M&B Authors' lunches (see pic for proof!). Along with some of the other authors I was even filmed talking about one of my books, but I'm secretly glad I wasn't interesting enough to make it past the cutting room floor. I fluffed up my littile bit for the camera at least four times - even forgetting the name of my book once! So not the media savvy author am I.

Anyway, if you want to watch a multi-layered, unusual take on Mills & Boon, you can catch it again on 4OD.

Just keep swimming

2011-04-06T11:17:00.003+01:00

I feel like Dory in the film Finding Nemo at the moment, except instead of humming, "Just keep swimming" to myself, I have "Just keep writing" on a loop at the back of my head. And I can't seem to stop.

Once the fever has passed I'll continue posting on theme, but in the meantime I have a couple of bits of wisdom about my process that I stumbled across on my journey from 'stuck' to 'flowing':

1. Get the foundations right.
I know some people say "write forward", "don't go back until you've finished the first draft", and I have done that in the past, but it doesn't always work for me. I often get stuck at the beginning of the second act, when the plot takes off in a new direction. I've discovered I need to go back and get my first act right if I don't want to wallow in indecision at this point.

Act One is for planting seeds that are going to start shooting and budding in Act Two and that will reach full fruition in Act Three. If I haven't got things set up properly in Act One I have no idea how things are going to grow in Act Two. If I try to write forward it's like walking through treacle. Once I've gone back and tweaked my first couple of chapters, though, I'm often all fired up and ready to get going again.

As good as a lot of writing advice is, we just have to figure out our own process. We can't be afraid to break the so-called rules or we just end up paralysing ourselves.

2. Keep It Simple, Stupid.
As much as all my character tables and questions about arcs and themes help me pull myself out of a rut, I find I can OD on them. I've ended up with too much story for a 50,000 word book (again!). And I was so busy plotting my hero and heroine's indivdual arcs that I almost forgot to make sure one vital ingredient was sparkling - the romance!

Those arcs to have intersect again and again, because in a Mills & Boon/Harlequin novel, it's the relationship with the other lead character that is the catalyst for change in the hero or heroine. So the romance - the times they interact, the sexual tension thrumming between them - has to be the major factor, not the other events that could push the characters to grow. Easy to forget that when you're knee-deep in charts and lists. Sigh.

Okay, I've warbled on for far too long. Time to get writing again! (Slinks off).

Fridays and Failure

2011-04-01T08:36:00.003+01:00

I will continue my posting on theme/writing process shortly, but I'm chewing over a few questions Janet and Cara posed in the comments section of my last post, and trying to wrestle Finn and Allegra's story into submission.

In the meantime, I'm about to ditch at least two scenes of my Little Mermaid story and write something new. I have too much of my heroine on her own, thinking. She needs to be interacting with the hero. And when he's a hero who's quite as delicious as Finn McLeod I'm not sure why she isn't. Maybe it's the fear...

And talking of fear (which is very relevent before I hit the 'delete' button on chapter three), Michelle Styles has written a fab post for the Pink Heart Society on why failure can be the writer's best friend!

Working on 'theme'

2011-03-30T09:00:00.008+01:00

Once I’d finished delving into my characters, it was time to think about theme. I’ve been reading a few books on the subject recently (as I’ve been discussing in the comments section of the last post) as I’m starting to see how theme is the glue that holds the story into a cohesive whole. This is not to say that my books so far haven’t had themes, because I think a theme grows out of the author’s viewpoint and the characters’ journeys. But I want to have a bit more conscious input on my theme, rather than feeling it’s a fuzzy entity somewhere out there in the ether that I occasionally manage to grab onto and pin down.

Currently I’m reading Inside Story: The Power Of The Transformational Arc by Dara Marks, and the last book I found really interesting on the subject was The Moral Premise by Stanley D. Williams. I wrote a post about the book for the Pink Heart Society last year, so for a slightly more in depth look, with an example from Titanic, go here.

By 'moral' premise Williams doesn't mean something preachy or judgemental, merely that what others have referred to as the 'theme' or the 'controlling idea' of the story taps into universal values - things like friendship, courage, honour, freedom, generosity or unconditional love - qualities we'd all like to see more of in our world and in our lives.

The moral premise is not just closely linked to the 'inner story'; it is the inner story - what your book is really about. I had already worked out before I read The Moral Premise that the theme of a successful story was closely tied to the protagonist's emotional journey, but this book helped me collect my thoughts on this matter, expanded on them, and filled in some of the missing pieces of the jigsaw puzzle.

So...what is the Moral Premise?

Stan Williams simply says it is a statement of truth about the protagonist's psychological predicament (what I think of as inner conflict).

This truth is often presented to a protagonist in various ways throughout His or her story, but there is usually one moment when it is most clear - what Williams calls the 'moment of grace'. At this point, the main character has a choice to make. They can either accept the truth presented to them - which will normally lead to change for the better, meaning a happy ending, or they can reject that truth and suffer the consequences!

So…how does this have any bearing for the ballerina and the action man?

For the last book, and now this one, I followed a set of steps outlined in ‘The Moral Premise’ to help me tap into my theme and make sure I was keeping things consistent.

1. Determine the controlling virtue of your story.

I was asked to write a story based on a fairy tale, and I chose Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid. I wanted protagonists from two very different worlds and a heroine with a longing to escape hers and live in his – hence my frustrated ballerina. After I thought hard about my heroine (see here for my character-mining expedition for Allegra), I realised that what Allegra really needed was to take charge of her own life. She needed to feel free.

‘The Little Mermaid’ – controlling virtue: freedom

Freedom to choose one's own destiny
Freedom to speak and express one's opinion

2. Determine the controlling vice of your story.

This is always going to be the flipside of the virtue – what character flaw/negative issue my protagonist is dealing with. But I wanted to be specific about it. Allegra feels trapped and helpless, but she allows herself to be controlled, especially by her father.

‘The Little Mermaid’ – controlling vice: captivity/suppression

Not being in control of one's life.
Suppressing emotion and ideas.
Staying silent instead of speaking out.

3. Define the moral premise of your story:

A double-sided statement on the truth of the protagonist’s psychological predicament. The moral premise of The Little Mermaid is:

Allowing oneself to be held captive, by oneself or others, leads to frustration and isolation. Embracing freedom, and all that means, leads to creativity, connection and love.

But this post is getting a little long, so I’ll stop here and elaborate on how I apply this to the structure of the story in another post!

Fearless Finn turns out to be a wuss

2011-03-27T09:00:00.000+01:00

After delving into my heroine's character, I turned my attention to my hero. About time too, really, because so far he's just been a bit of sketchy idea in my mind. I thought I'd worked out who he was, but it turned out I'd only scratched the surface and kidded myself I'd dug a pit.

Anyway...

Finn McLeod is an all-out action man and survival expert, who likes nothing better than discovering new things about this wonderful planet we're all stuck on. He says he likes adventure, that he likes going into uncharted territory. He's lying, of course. Oh, he loves the great outdoors all right, but when it comes to human relationships, Finn likes to play it safe.

Here are Finn's five questions (see here for an explanation):

What is my hero's longing?

He longs for connection.

What is my character's wound?

He was an army brat who was always moving. It was great fun and he saw lots of the world, which fuelled his thirst for travel and exploration, but he learnt that it hurt to get attached to places and people.
Learned not to put down deep roots, because they got ripped out of the ground and that was painful. He keeps his roots wide, but shallow. However, this means there isn't the same depth of satisfaction in his life. He keeps looking for more adventure, thinking the farther he spreads his roots the more fulfilled he will be, when actually what he needs is to go deeper.

What is my character's fear?

Fear of not being connected to anyone or anything, of too much empty space in his life.
Just don't ask him to rely on one person completely. That's a little too connected for itchy-feet Finn.

What is your character's identity?

Intrepid explorer and emotional tourist.
He's got a wide circle of friends and acquaintances - people love his happy-go-lucky nature - but he doesn't actually let anyone close, even though they all might feel as if they're his best friend.
His thirst for exploration comes from a need to feel connected to the world he lives in. He doesn't just travel widely, but he's become an expert on certain types of habitat.
However, he has neglected to explore human relationships with the same thoroughness. While he despises people who never leave their TV sets, or only do day-trips and package holidays, he is guilty of the same superficiality in his emotional life. When it comes to relationships, Finn is just a tourist.

What is my character's essence?

A man who is not afraid to put down deep and lasting roots. A man who can choose to stay in one place, and who can find the same thrill from discovering new things about the woman he loves every day for the rest of his life.

Which leads me to Finn's lessons:

What will my character have to learn to make the journey from IDENTITY to ESSENCE?

To own up to the fact that, although he is totally free, there are areas in his life that he chooses not to venture into, because he is scared of what he might find there.
Finn is a man who loves everything new, everything wild and unexplored, but he's going to have to learn the joy that can be found in cultivating things, because that is what long-term relationships require.
Freedom is a gift that he has not been using wisely.

Allegra's journey

2011-03-25T09:00:00.001Z

I'm continuing to blog about my writing process and what I do when I hit a slump and just don't feel like writing any more - what I do when the story seems to have lost its magic (and there are always several places in the course of writing a book where I feel this way).

Yesterday I prised myself away from the keyboard and got out my pen and paper. There's something very freeing about doing that. I often write large chunks of my first draft longhand instead of typing, because I feel less constrained creatively when I have a pen in my hand and I'm free to scribble and cross out and not keep to neat rows and lines.

Sometimes, when I want to brainstorm, I do the same. I often get a large(ish) art pad (A3 size) and write my character's name on it, and then start scibbling down all the things I know about them. They can often end up looking very messy, with scrawled writing in different colours at different angles, and arrows all over the place, connecting thoughts and ideas. Here's what Allegra's page looks like at present (see left).

Quite neat, isn't it? (Don't worry, I'm sure I'll messy it up nicely as the days go by.) But that's quite fitting for Allegra, actually. Let me tell you a little bit about her:

My heroine for the current book (Allegra) was a 'baby ballerina' - a child prodigy who was thrust into the limelight early, but her talent has isolated her and set her apart from other people. Ballet is a world where the choreographer reigns supreme. Dancers aren't asked to collaborate in the creative process much; they are just told what to do. They are the vehicle for another's vision. And Allegra's early start in her career meant that her father has had a very firm hand on her life, especially as her mother died when she was eleven. He is her mentor and her worst critic, her manager and her parent - a very cluttered and complicated relationship.

Once I knew all this about her, I asked her the five questions (see my last post).

What is my character's longing?

Allegra longs to feel free, both in terms of exploring the big, wide world, but also she craves inner freedom.
She wants to escape.

What is my character's wound?

She's a child prodigy, and as such, she's never had a normal life. She's had a very sheltered existence, very focussed towards one goal.
She has her life directed for her. On stage by the choreographer; off-stage by her father and the demands of her career. Has very little personal freedom.

What is my character's fear?

That she will never be free, that someone will always hold her destiny in their hand and superimpose their will over hers.
BUT she's also secretly scared of all that freedom. Too much room, too many possibilities. While her life stays on its stagnant little track, she might moan, but it's safe. She doesn't have to take responsibility for her mistakes and choices, because someone else has always been at the reigns - it's their fault. With freedom will come the opportunity to succeed spectacularly, but the flipside of that is that she opportunity to fail spectacularly will also be there - something that won't sit easily with the former child prodigy.

What is your character's identity?

Dutiful ballerina. She does what she's told, because there is no point in expressing her opinion - her choreographer isn't interested in what she thinks or wants; he just wants her to do as he says. She is the blank canvas for another to paint their vision on.
A mute, who always keeps her wishes silent. She never expresses her desires, because in her world, there is no use. She has no control over her life. She has also learned to keep herself strictly under control - and she will find this her greatest obstacle to inner freedom. She will be her own worst enemy, because that inbred sense of control if going to make it very difficult for her to LET GO.

What is your character's essence?

Woman (not just a ballet dancer) who is free inside - Free to live. Free to love. Free to make her own choices.
She won't mind taking on board other people's ideas and suggestions when she feels free inside, because they won't threaten her sense of self (and this will make her a better artist).

Once you know your character's identity and true nature, you have the beginning and end points of the emotional journey they must take - their character arc. So, once I have that worked out, I ask myself one further question:

What will my character have to learn to make the journey from IDENTITY to ESSENCE?

To speak up for herself, articulate her feelings and desires.
To take responsibility for her life and make her own choices (not easy at first).
To let go of the resentment that's been building up inside her, that sense of rage at being caged by other people and robbed of her freedom (even though she has allowed them to do it).
To find the courage to use the freedom she claims she wants. Not to 'escape' again, back into her gilded cage when the going gets tough, but to face her fears.
To not use her new-found freedom to impose her will upon others - she has to learn to respect other people's freedom as well.

Now, I feel as if I've got something a little more concrete to work with. Hero next...

Inspiration and Royal Weddings

2011-03-24T11:55:00.003Z

Well, after I blogged yesterday I kept digging deep into my characters - or character mining, as I'm starting to refer to it. More detailed posts are to follow, but I'm out of my writing rut already and the ideas are popping like popcorn. (Love it when this happens!)

I find that beating the writing doldrums isn't so much about getting the words on the page perfect (I haven't even looked at my manuscript in the last two days), but about getting my head in the right place. I was feeling unenthusiastic about my story, and when I feel like that I feel as if I'm trying to write through treacle. No, wait. Treacle isn't the right sort of substance - too sticky, too sweet. Porridge or semolina is more like it. Sludgey. Grey. Slighty uninspiring, although you know it's good for you.

After a day of character mining I'm feeling mentally energised about my story. All I have to do now is organise those ideas that have been a-popping and words will start to fly. It might have seemed stupid to stop writing and mess around with character charts and questions, but I know that I will now make much faster progress than if I hadn't. And who wants 500 porridge-like words when they can have 1000 bright, zippy, zingy ones? Not me.

And just to cheer me up even further, I've discovered that Three Weddings And A Baby is part of M&Bs new Royal Wedding collection. Yay!

Beginnings are the worst

2011-03-23T10:31:00.010Z

Sometimes I love starting a new book. Sometimes I hate it. Right now, I definitely hate it.

The strange this is that I love my ballet dancer heroine, I love my action-man hero and I love the story premise. Somehow all this potential magic is just not making its way onto the page. Bleugh. I should add that I'm at the end of Act One - a place where I inevitably end up in the doldrums and ask myself why I'm writing this book and where the heck am I going to go next with it. If I'm a long way from my deadline, I may even avoid writing altogether. Procrastination abounds.

Unfortunately, I don't have that luxury this time around, so I decided to blog instead. With a purpose, of course...

Anyway, since I'm desperate, I thought I'd blog about what I do to get myself kick-started when the muse has left the building. What normally works is if I dig a bit deeper into my story, which really means digging deeper into my characters, since they are the ones driving it. I also need to collect my multitudinous thoughts and organise them into something resembling a plan. Cue my ever-helpful plot board:

My plot board has had various incarnations, but the current layout seems to give me maximum space for splattering all my ideas at it. More on that in another post, maybe.

So how am I planning to refocus myself? Firstly, I'm going to sit down with my hero and heroine and ask them Michael Hauge's five questions. This is always a good starting point for me, as it helps me narrow down all the ideas I've been having about these people and focus them in one direction. Some ideas may be chucked; some ideas will magically come togehter with other ones to add depth and extra layers to my characters. Until I do this, I never know which ideas are the duds and which are the really useful ones.

Enough rambling, Fiona. Just post the questions already!

What is your character's longing? (I tend to think of this as their 'inner' goal).
What is your character's wound? (What event(s) in their past have shaped who they are today?)
What is your character's fear? (Basically, the fear stems from the wound. Makes sense, really. If you've ever been hurt badly, either physically or emotionally, you tend to make a priority of not getting hurt the same way again).
What is your character's identity? (What is the false front they present to the world? Who have they become to protect themselves from the fear of the wound?)
What is your character's essence? (Michael Hauge asks "Who are they underneath? Who are they really?" I also tend to think of it in terms of who this person has the potential to be, if they would just quit hiding behind that false front and face the fear.)

And once I've done that, I'm going to think about my story's theme and how that's going to affect my characters emotional arcs. But I've wittered on enough for now. It's probably time to stop blogging and start writing. Maybe I'll even come and post the results of my character probing here too!

Oh, and I've decided I need a new soundtrack to listen to as I write too. Busy, busy day... (This may sound frivolous, but really it isn't. The right songs to get my creative juices flowing, that drag me into the story world of the current book, can make all the difference!)

RNA Pure Passion Awards 2011

2011-03-08T15:45:00.030Z

Yesterday was one of those 'glam' writing days. The very few and far between kind of writing days. Jogging bottoms not present. Make-up definitely needed!

I went the the RNA's annual Pure Passion Awards. A new venue this year - One Whitehall Place, which is connected to the Royal Horseguards Hotel on the Embankment. It's a beautiful building, inside and out, and I've always thought it looks like a rather French fairytale castle:

It has the most amazing oval marble staircase too:

Before the awards ceremony proper there was a champagne reception in the Reading & Writing room, with wonderful views across Whitehall Gardens to the Thames. It's a wonderfully ostentatious bit of Victorian interior design, complete with sparkling chandeliers, tiled columns and a vast mural:

We sipped champagne and chatted, surrounded by tables stacked high with the shortlisted books:

Here's Love Story of the Year shortlisted author Abby Green with fellow M&B author Heidi Rice:

At 4.30pm we moved through to the Gladstone Library, where the awards were going to be presented. More chadeliers. More beautiful tiled pillars. And the library of one's dreams, with a staircase leading up to an upper level with even more books. (Well, actually, the books are replicas, but we don't want to mention that and spoil the fantasy, do we?)

Rather than doing a long spiel I thought I'd let my pictures do the talking for me. Presenting the awards this year was Timothy Bentwick, better known as David Archer from the much-adored BBC radio drama The Archers:

And the award winners are...

Lifetime achievement awards went to both Penny Jordan and Josephine Cox:

The winner of the Love Story of the Year was Louise Allen for The Piratical Miss Ravenshurst:

Elizabeth Chadwick won the Historical Novel Prize with To Defy A King:

The Romantic Comedy Prize was won by Jill Mansel for Take A Chance On Me:

And, finally, the Romantic Novel of the Year was The Last Letter From Your Lover by Jojo Moyes - a very popular win, it seemed!

A very exciting and glamorous afternoon, it has to be said. Even a trip to the Ladies was an experience! I nipped out after the awards had been presented and found the room I was looking for at the top of a narrow spiral staircase. I opened the door and said, very loudly, "Oh, my goodness!" I kid you not, the floorspace of this place was bigger than the whole ground floor of my house.

You can tell I don't get out much if I get all excited about football pitch-sized washrooms and little towels you throw in a laundry hamper instead of air blowers, can't you?

And then it was time to socilaise some more and then wend my way home. I'll leave you with a view over the Thames from the Reading & Writing Room (and, no, that's not the mother ship decending over London on the left of the picture; it's just a reflection of one of the chandeliers).

Characters and Agreements

2011-02-17T14:34:00.004Z

I'm always looking for ways to delve into my characters and find out what makes them tick, and I love reading books on the craft of writing or listening to mp3 files of writing workshops. Since listening to Michael Hauge's workshop at the RWA conference in 2007, I've found that his five questions he asks of characters really work for me, but I'm constantly looking for ways to peel back another layer of my hero and heroine.

Over the last month or two I've been dipping into a book called Walking With God by John Eldredge Not a book on writing, but a thoughtful, insightful journey of one man's desire to do just that. On a personal level, I've got a lot out of this book. It's made me think about the way I live my life, but this morning one of the short chapters made me not just search myself, but extend that questioning to the fictional people I write about. And why not? My characters might not be real, but I want them to seem that way. I want them to have the same depth and complexity as a real person.

Anyway, on to what I really want to talk about - agreements. Not the kind we make with other people, but the kind we make with ourselves. They're often only half-conscious thoughts, but they can lodge inside us an affect our behaviour. Let me explain…

Sometimes we make agreements with ourselves about minor things. For example, today I'm not feeling very well. I have a headache and I feel all virusy. Even though today is a day when I'd be at home writing, and I had planned to do just that, even if I'd thought I might allow myself some extra down time, what I really said inside myself was: "I'm too tired to write. I'm not thinking straight. Anything I might produce will probably be rubbish."

So, did I go with the schedule this morning and write? Did I heck. I messed around reading emails, put on a load of washing, played a bit of a computer game, basically pottered around. You see, that internal agreement I'd made with myself sabotaged my good intentions. And I think this is often the way we are. How often have you planned to do something, or decided you were no longer going to behave a certain way, only to find yourself doing exactly the opposite? I know I'm not alone in this, and often our silent choices have much deeper impact than a morning's work.

For example, sometimes we get an idea that someone thinks a certain way about us. We might be right or we might be wrong, but if we make one of those silent, internal agreements that "so-and-so hates me", it will affect how we perceive everything they say and do to us. Have you ever seen someone trying to do the right thing to mend a damaged relationship or friendship only to get nowhere? I have. And the reason their well-intentioned overtures failed wasn't because they were doing anything wrong, but because of the silent agreement the other party had made with themselves. "That person looks down on me," they'd told themselves, or "that person only thinks about themselves". So every attempt at reconciliation has been met with (at best) suspicion or (at worst) has been misinterpreted as something negative. Until the hurting friend breaks that internal agreement and opens up to the idea that the other person is genuine, reconciliation is going to be difficult. It's as if the agreement becomes a filter through which everything is processed - like wearing coloured glasses, rose-tinted or otherwise.

This idea got me thinking about fictional characters. One of Michael Hauge's character questions is "what is your character's wound?" and I think the idea of internal agreements fits very nicely with this. What does my character believe about life, about love? How has the painful thing in their past made up their mind about these things?

I asked my current heroine, a driven ballerina, if she had any agreements about these things. "Oh, yes," she said. "I believe I'll never have love, that I'll always be lonely. I'm not like other people, you see. I've always had this talent, have always been different. It has made me an outsider. I can look down upon the rest of the world and see people falling in love and being happy, but I doubt it will ever happen to me."

I think these silent agreements may well be rooted in fear, that they are part of our defence mechanisms. Is my ballerina afraid she will never be loved? Probably. So maybe she has decided it will be that way for her, because that protects her of believing otherwise and then discovering what she feared was true.

I can also see that for my character's arcs to be complete they are going to have to break that agreement with themselves, that they are going to have to challenge those inbuilt assumptions, because without doing that they will never face the fear that is nibbling away at themselves. And without facing that character flaw they are never going to complete their journey. So perhaps I need to add yet another question to my list: "when and how is my character going to break that agreement?"

I have a feeling these moments will lend themselves to either the mid-point of the story or the emotional low-point, the black moment, but it will be interesting to see if my theory pans out as I write this book.

So, what silent agreements have your characters made? And, more importantly, are there any agreements you have made with yourself that are holding you back?

Valentine's News

2011-02-14T08:10:00.002Z

I'm over at the Kindle UK blog today, talking about Valentine's Day, the new RIVA line by M&B and feisty heroines who don't swoon at the sight of a well-toned bicep. Click here to read more.

Also, Mills & Boon are having Pink Monday - a different offer every hour for romance readers all day long. Pop over and see if there's anything to your taste. Blind Dates & Other Disasters, an anthology including my award-winning first book, is part of the Valentine's Day recommendations!

All on the inside...

2011-02-11T13:43:00.004Z

Yesterday I popped into Selfridges where M&B author, Heidi Rice, was giving a workshop on how to write for Mills & Boon. I listened in for a while and then Heidi and I grabbed a bit of lunch and had a quick chat before she started her second workshop of the day - it had been so popular they'd had to add extra sessions!

Heidi, with rapt audience

The small groups asked all sorts of questions but one topic that came up again and again was 'internal conflict', which makes a heck a lot of sense, because unless you can deliver oodles of that in your manuscript you are not going to sell to Harlequin Mills & Boon!

In fact, when I've delivered workshops on writing for Mills & Boon, the issue of internal conflict has always been front and centre. I'm thinking of delving more deeply into the issue and doing a blog post on the subject, actually. Give me a few moments (i.e. the weekend) and I'll be back to elaborate...

A Fun Day

2011-02-10T07:03:00.003Z

I'm up to London today to spy on Mills & Boon author, Heidi Rice, while she gives a romance writing workshop in Selfridges Wonder Room!

The workshops are today and tomorrow and you can contact tory.lyne-pirkis@midaspr.co.uk if you're interested in attending! (Bit late notice, I know, but why not be spontaneous...it's very romantic!).

Will post pics and some of Heidi's sage advice here tomorrow.

Drool, drool...

2011-02-07T07:21:00.004Z

Ever coveted some shiny new item, even though you know you shouldn't? Well, I'm in the grip of such a desire right now. Probably not going to do shell out for either of the two things I'm drooling over, but a girl can dream, can't she?

Object of desire no.1: Spotted this gorgeous handbag while just causally browsing thought the Radley online store. Have always wanted a lovely green handbag. Unfortunately, Mr H might just have a coronary if I suggested this as an option for my upcoming birthday.

Object of desire no.2: Sony reader. I have one of the older models and I do love it, but I've discovered the new ones allow you to highlight, scribble notes on the page and add text memos. Since I use my Sony Reader to read through my books when I'm editing, the ability to make notes and cross words out would be very useful. I actually have wished mine had that function many a time. But no one needs two eReaders, do they?

Sigh.

Cupcake chaos

2011-02-04T10:03:00.006Z

Today I attempted to make a tower of groovy little cupcakes for my eldest daughter's birthday. Quite a brave move, actually. My baking skills are pretty good. But let's just say that when it comes to decorating cakes...well, let's just say I'm still in kindergarten. Slapping buttercream on is about my level.

Anyway, ever since I went to Greenwich market to do some research for Invitation To The Boss's Ball, I'd fallen in love with pretty little cupcakes. There is a baker's in one of the side alleys that leads to the market and I couldn't resist taking a photo of their window display. Cupcake baker. What a great profession for a heroine, I thought. I haven't got around to writing that book, and I've seen plenty of other cupcake-baking romance heroine's since, but it isn't an idea I've quite let go of. Perhaps she's just waiting for the right hero to come along...

Well, cupcake-baking heroine I am not. But I was pretty pleased with my first efforts with a piping bag and vanilla/strawberry cream cheese frosting when I'd finished, so I thought I would put a pic up here and brag about it!

Let's not mention the state of my kitchen, though. I am not a tidy cook, believe me. I must have used every bowl and spoon I owned. Take a look for yourselves:

Devastation. At least I'm as good as clearing up after a post-baking hurricane as I am in creating the chaos in the first place. Now...where did I put my rubber gloves?

A couple of links...

2011-02-01T07:47:00.004Z

I'm blogging over at the Pink Heart Society today. Our new Tuesday column is 'Crafty Corner' and I'm sharing a warming winter recipe that my family wolf down, given the opportunity - Lamb & Parsnip Stew with Low-Fat Dumplings.

Also, Marie Clare have done a little piece on the Together Shop in Selfridges, which I blogged about last week.

Deleted scenes (but no author's commentary)

2011-01-31T09:00:00.003Z

Every good DVD has extra features, doesn’t it? I feel positively short-changed if there’s not a commentary to listen to once I’ve seen the film all the way through. I also enjoy watching the deleted scenes. Quite often I agree with the director, and can see why they didn’t make it into the final cut, but it’s still interesting to have a window on someone else’s story building.

Well, quite a few of my book have deleted scenes. Most of the time they just quietly die a death in the recycle bin, but I thought I’d share one from Three Weddings And A Baby with you.

Why these scenes? See here for an explanation. (I did type a longer one out here, but I was boring myself repeating it all, so I thought I’d just cut the waffle and get to the point!)

Josie from English Lord, Ordinary Lady is one of my very favourite heroines, and I really enjoyed meeting up with her after a few years and seeing how she was doing with her new family. I thought I’d post my deleted scene so that anyone else who had a soft spot for Josie (or Will!) could catch up with her.

Jennie has snuck into the little church next door to Elmhurst Hall to think...

"She was disturbed by the dull clink of a door latch, and peered around the pillar just enough to see a girl with a pink coat and sparkly silver plastic crown on her head enter. She was pulled up like a ballet dancer and walked with a regal, solemn step, her hands clasped in front of her.

Jennie wondered what on earth she was doing at first, but then she thought about where they were, and where the girl was heading, and she laughed softly inside her head. She remembered being that age, full of daydreams and fairytales… Although, she’d probably never looked as serene as the dark-haired girl proceeding down the aisle.

Then she heard more footsteps. She didn’t exactly hide behind her pillar, but she didn’t do anything to draw attention to herself, either. For once in her life she wasn’t feeling very sociable.

A blonde-haired toddler scooted up the aisle after his sister, followed swiftly by his mother.

‘Billy,’ whispered the girl through clenched teeth, chin still high, ‘you’re not supposed to run in church! You’re ruining it!’

The woman looked over her shoulder, looking a little weary. ‘Hattie?’ Do we have to do wedding rehearsals right now?’ She grabbed the toddler’s hand and started shuffling along one of the pews near the front. ‘Where exactly did you leave your gloves?’

But Hattie just kept going. Step, together. Step, together.

Then a tall man in a coat appeared at the door. He walked swiftly down the aisle behind the little girl and scooped her up and over his shoulder in one fluid movement.

‘Will!’ the girl shrieked. ‘Brides don’t do fireman’s lifts!’ But she was laughing as she told him off, squirming in his arms as he tickled her.

‘They do if they’re eloping,’ he said dryly.

The woman giggled. ‘That could have been fun,’ she said, and gave him a soft look.

Jennie smiled to herself. It had been fun, eloping with Alex. Thrilling.

‘Loping?’ said the girl. ‘What’s that?’

‘What we should have done.’ her mother said, as the little boy slipped her grip and sprinted away from her as fast as his chubby legs could take him.

‘Running away,’ the man said, and caught the racing toddler deftly with his free hand and turned to face the entrance. ‘To get married. So you can avoid all the fuss.’

The girl—Hattie?—slumped on his shoulder. ‘But if you and mummy had ‘loped, I wouldn’t have been able to wear my lovely pink dress with the bow, and have flowers in my hair, and…’

The rest of the her speech was lost as they disappeared out the church doors.

‘And that was why we didn’t elope,’ her mother muttered to herself. Jennie couldn’t see her, because she was behind another pillar. ‘Because we’d have never lived it down!’ The woman reached the end of the pew and came into sight again.

‘Got them!’

Jennie almost jumped out of her skin at the triumphant shout. The woman held a pair of bright pink gloves aloft and smiled to herself, and then she side-stepped to the end of the pew and started walking back up towards the doors but, because she had chosen the side aisle as her exit route, Jennie was now in full view, no longer hidden by her pillar. She felt like a spy.

After a few steps the woman spotted her. ‘Oh, hello,’ she said, and smiled again.

Jennie wanted to crawl away but she smiled back—mostly teeth and gums. From this distance she could see the woman had purple steaks in the front of her hair.

She gave Jennie a curious look. ‘Are you new in the village?’

‘Erm…’

Jennie didn’t know what to say. That was exactly what she’d come here to mull over.

‘Sort of…’

The woman pulled her hand out of a multi-coloured woolly mitten. ‘Josie,’ she said, and Jennie stood and shook her hand.

‘Jennie—’

And right there was the other thing she’d come to think about. What was she? Who was she?

‘Dangerfield,’ she finally added, not sounding very convincing.

The woman raised her eyebrows. ‘Then you must be related to Alex. We’ve crossed paths once or twice…’

Jennie nodded. ‘I’m his wife.’

There she’d said it. Told someone. Some of the heaviness in her chest lifted.

Josie looked shocked, but she covered it well. Jennie realised that it must look a bit odd, her sitting in a draughty old church on a Sunday lunchtime, when she should be stuffing chickens or roasting parsnips, like a good little wife.

Josie looked at her hands, stuffed the bare one back inside its mitten. ‘Well… nice to have met you,’ she said.

Jennie just nodded, tried to smile again, and Josie went out of the church to join her family.

Now she was on her own again, Jennie collapsed back against the pillar, a hand to her forehead. No doubt, had her father seen her do that, he’d have said she was being overly dramatic, but truly, the last twenty-four hours had been utterly exhausting.

While she was draped against the cool stone she thought about the family that had just left, how ordinary they had seemed, but also how happy. Comfortable with each other. A million miles from where she and Alex were."

The church scene remains but, sadly, this scene with Josie and Will and Hattie is gone - changes at the revisions stage meant it just wasn't needed any more, and I was dangerously over my word count, so it just had to go. Sob.

Three Weddings And A Baby/Millionaire's Baby Bombshell - story inspiration 2

2011-01-28T09:00:00.011Z

I don’t normally use pictures as inspiration for my hero and heroine. They are who they are in my head – not exactly like anyone else – but I can normally find a picture or two that remind me of them, and here are my Jennie and Alex 'look-a-like' pictures:

I saw Jennie as having shorter hair than this, but these pictures of Romala Garai have just the right sense of fun and spirit that my pampered princess has. Jennie might think she’s shallow, but she discovers she’s got a lot more to give than she ever realised.

Alex, I saw as lean, dark and slightly severe-looking. If there was one thing that marked him out from other heroes I’ve written, it was his ability to be still. That might sound weird, but it fit his personality. He’s very contained and sure of himself. He doesn’t flap in a crisis. That stillness he had reminded me of a predatory animal – a big cat of some kind – one that doesn't have to rush around during the hunt because it knows it’s going home with dinner.

As for the scenery: once Alice and Cameron’s wedding was over I set a lot of the rest of the book in the fictional Kent village of Elmhurst, a location I first used in English Lord, Ordinary Lady. It's a frosty new year and Jennie find the crisp, white fields and meadering lanes very different from the city life she's used to.

Jennie ends up in the village church, which starred in a scene of Will and Josie’s story, quite a few times when she needs time and space to think. In fact, Josie, Will and even little Hattie made a couple of appearances in the first draft of the book but, unfortunately, they got lost in the first round of revisions. I may even have a special ‘deleted scenes’ post in a couple of days, just because I was very fond of those characters and it was nice from a writer’s point of view to be able to peer a little into their happy ever after.

A very glam field trip

2011-01-25T12:06:00.016Z

One of the things Mills & Boon has cooked up to announce the launch of their brand new RIVA line is to partner with Selfridges, the famous London department store. On the ground floor, near the Marble Arch end of Selfridges, is the Wonder Room – a section of the store full of bright and sparkly things, like Tiffany jewellery, fine perfumes and designer handbags.

Right in the front corner of the Wonder Room is a new ‘pop-up’ shop called the Together Shop, which be around for six weeks, until just after Valentine’s Day. As the perfect place to find a gift for your valentine, the Together Shop showcases products that go in pairs or are meant to be shared, like salt and pepper pots or tandem bicycles and iPod speakers, but there is also exclusive jewellery and tableware.

Of course, as soon as we mention the word “romance” in the UK, we think of Mills & Boon – and it’s only fitting that there should be tables and shelves of M&B books, displayed against a backdrop of vintage book covers. There are even some of the vintage books themselves in glass display cases.

The Together Shop is selling the new RIVA line from M&B, and Three Weddings And A Baby – even though it won’t be available for a while in high street shops – is sitting there amongst the other January and February Riva releases. Of course, I had to take a little field trip, just to go and have a nose…

Here are some of my pics:

The wall of vintage M&B covers, with RIVA books strategically placed as part of the display.
(Many people have asked if they can buy the posters, apparently!)

All the display tables in the Together Shop are made up of mirrored jigsaw pieces, and here's the little jigsaw-themed label on the M&B table.

A stack of RIVAs, waiting for some stylish shoppers to nab them.

Another section of the display wall.

And if you head off to the Together Shop in Valentines week, Mills & Boon author Heidi Rice will in residence, working on one of her books and giving some advice on how to write your own love story! More about that nearer the time...

Three Weddings And A Baby/Millionaire's Baby Bombshell - story inspiration

2011-01-17T11:20:00.004Z

If you’re an author one question you get asked a heck of a lot is: “Where do you get your ideas from?” In fact, I’m always fascinated about the kernel of thought that germinated a story I liked too. My inspiration normally falls into one of three camps – either I get an idea for a character, or an idea for a conflict or situation, or I get an idea for where the story should be set (either a location or the story ‘world’).

Quite often that idea on its own isn’t enough. If I can pair that great character up with an interesting dilemma or put her in an exciting place, then I feel the story’s got legs and I can run with it. So, although I have tons of ideas scribbled down in my notebook for possible stories, the ones that tend to make it onto the page are the ones that have snowballed, where one idea has linked and merged with another.

Three Weddings And A Baby started with a situation. The heroine, Jennie, was a secondary character in Invitation To The Boss’s Ball, and she’d eloped to Las Vegas. I loved the idea of a whirlwind wedding, but before I commit to an idea I like to mess with its head, flip it about a little. What if, I thought, Jennie came home alone and she didn’t tell anyone she’d got married in a rush? Interesting. What could have happened to blast a marriage apart so quickly? And who would the hero be? Would he be the jilted husband or someone else? Since Jennie had appeared in a previous book, I already knew a little bit about her story world. The idea had legs! Yay! All I needed to do was pick up my pen and get going, right?

Well, that’s what I did. But I discovered having a pre-created story world for Jennie was actually more of a curse than a blessing. If I’d been writing the story from scratch, I’d probably have started it mere days after she’d done a runner from her honeymoon, but I was stuck with the timetable I’d given her in Invitation To The Boss’s Ball. I knew she’d been away for at least three weeks before she’d returned home to her family and that I wanted to start the story at her stepbrother’s wedding on New Year’s Day. This meant that the fight that had sent Jennie scampering from her honeymoon had to be a lot more than a ‘heat of the moment’ spat, and the hero had to have a really good reason for not coming after her immediately. Hmm.

The first version of the story involved an ex-wife who’d abducted the hero’s eight-year-old daughter and fled the country. I did acres of research on how this affected parents and children, both when they’d been separated and when they were reunited. I handed the book in and waited for my editor’s verdict. She loved the story but felt the child abduction storyline was a bit too gritty and the wrangling between the child’s parents took focus off the central romance at the end of the book. As much as I saw great potential in the subject matter, I realised she was right. It wasn’t that the story wasn’t a good idea, it was just that it wasn’t quite right for M&B in its present state. Cue revisions. Lots of them.

I kept some of the plot events, but the emotional undertones of every scene had to be either tweaked or completely changed. The finished story is quite different in places from the original, but I’m pleased with the result. It wasn’t the easiest book to write, however.

I think I learn something new and important with each book I write. This time round, I saw the dangers of investing in a gripping story idea that had limitations I’d already created for it. I like to tailor-make my plot and characters so they’re a perfect fit, but when linking books using secondary characters there isn’t always the same freedom to play God without upsetting the story physics of the world you’ve already created. I’m not saying I won’t do it again. Just that, next time, I’ll walk in with my eyes open!

Riva Launch Month

2011-01-12T18:45:00.015Z

I'm really excited, because the launch month for Mills & Boon's new series - Riva - is here!

I blogged last week at the Pink Heart Society about the first four Riva books. Click here if you want to know more or check out Liz Fielding's blog, as she's interviewing all the launch month authors and giving away books!

Anyway...my very first Riva, Three Weddings And A Baby is available online now! If you were a fan of my vintage fashion Cinderella story, Invitation To The Boss's Ball, then you won't want to miss this book, as it is the story of one of Alice's friends - Jennie.

Jennie was the spoiled socialite step-sister of Invitation To The Boss's Ball's hero, Cameron. She upped and eloped in the middle of planning a ball for him, leaving the heroine, Alice, to fill her shoes. As I was writing Alice and Cameron's story I kept thinking about what a juicy story idea that was, and by the time I was writing a happy ever after for Cameron and Alice, I was messing things up nicely for Jennie!

What if...? That's a writer's favourite question, isn't it? What if Jennie came home from honeymoon alone? What on earth could have happened to her whirlwind romance to blow it to smithereens - and how on earth could it be put back together again? Could it? Should it? I just couldn't leave the idea alone.

If you've read the beginning of Invitation To The Boss's Ball, you might remember that in the opening paragraphs Alice is admiring an oyster silk cocktail dress that Jennie falls in love with and buys:

The old oyster-coloured satin had the most wonderful texture—smooth but not slippery, like modern imitations, stiff and reassuringly heavy. Anyone who saw the cocktail dress would just have itched to touch it, and this is what Alice did, letting her fingertips explore it fully, lingering on the crease of the sash as it folded into a bow just under the bust line. This wasn’t just a dress. It was a piece of history, a work of art.

Well, I decided that Jennie should be wearing the very same dress in the opening chapters of Three Weddings And A Baby. It's Alice and Cameron's wedding, and Alice has decreed that Jennie must wear that dress. Jennie, however, has reasons for wanting to turn said dress into a very elegant bonfire! She's kept her whirlwind nuptials a secret, and no one knows it was her wedding dress, and she'd rather wear anything else than glorious oyster-coloured vintage satin. She'd also rather see anyone in the world than the one man who is crashing the wedding to confront her...

Want to know a bit more? Then you read the first chapter! See below for instructions.

Contrast and Compare

2010-12-14T07:13:00.012Z

Coreen's story is done and dusted and sitting on my editor's desk and I don't even want to think about it for a week or two. Thankfully, I have something to distract myself...

My author copies of Three Weddings and A Baby arrived. Since they are being released in M&B's new UK line, Riva, these books have a very different feel to the North American version - which apart from cover, title and blurb is exactly the same book. I thought it'd be fun to contrast and compare:

Three Weddings And A Baby

When three is most definitely a crowd...

Do you believe in love at first sight? Jennie Hunter and Alex Dangerfield did, and they married just a few weeks after they met! But when Alex disappeared on their wedding night Jennie was left alone - and angry - in her honeymoon suite.

A month later and Jennie has given up hope of ever seeing her runaway husband again. Then Alex returns - with a toddler in tow! Shocked to learn Alex has been married before, her first instinct is to run. Her second instinct - well, even a hard-headed businesswoman can't turn away a tiny girl who needs a nappy change and husband with sheer panic in his eyes... Compared to upteen clients one small child will be a doddle...right?

Millionaire's Baby Bombshell

Mollie's miracle - a mommy!

Catching each other's eyes at a glamorous party, Jennie Hunter and charismatic millionaire Alex Dangerfield knew instantly that they were made for each other. One whirlwind romance and an idyllic spontaneous wedding later, Jennie thought all her dreams had come true! Until circumstances conspired against them...

Now Alex is back, with an adorable motherless little girl in tow. And behind his once-sparkling eyes, Jennie can see Alex's despair. Mollie needs a mommy - and Alex needs Jennie, his wife for better or worse, more than ever...

Now there's something you don't see every day...

2010-12-04T19:01:00.006Z

There are some days I'm pleased I took the bus rather than the tube, and today is one of those.

Never mind the temperature is only just above freezing in London today, as I was sitting on the top deck of a no.38 this morning, I saw this:

Yes, that's right. A whole herd of semi-naked men jogging along New Oxford Street, wearing only trainers, swimming trunks and hats (and smiles!). Sorry about the blurry picture, but I took it on my phone and I was laughing like a drain at the time - as were the rest of my fellow passengers. It caused quite a to-do!

Anyway, when I got home I did a little research on who these brave British lads might have been. (Never thought I'd have cause to type the words "swimming trunks fun run london" into a search engine in my life, but life often surprises you, doesn't it?)

It turns out this was the annual Smugglers' Run - link to a news article about it here. These brave/eccentric/barking mad (delete as appropriate) souls are raising money for male charities at the same time as raising female temperatures across the captial. Good on yer, lads.

Stolen Snowman

2010-12-03T13:15:00.006Z

Yesterday, in Chatham, Kent a woman phoned 999 to report the theft of her snowman. Yes, she really did. I'm not joking - click here for the full story.

Now, if you can get past the utter stupidity of asking the police to investigate something like this, when they are probably busy enough dealing with all the snow-related problems this week's unexpected weather has brought the UK, you might want to ask yourself the following:

What on earth did she expect them to do about it?

Seriously. I understand that she was upset about something she must have spent ages creating being nicked, but realistically, what did she want the police officers to do? Did she want the police to canvas the road to see where the missing snowman might be? There must be hundreds of them in front gardens all over Chatham today - if not thousands. How on earth would they know which one was hers? I can imagine it now...

Policeman 1: That's him!

Policeman 2: No. No, it isn't. He's only got three pebble buttons down his front and our missing person had four. And the carrot nose isn't long enough.

Policeman 1: Maybe, but one of the buttons might have come off, and our victim did say the one we were looking for was wearing a distinctive pink and white scarf. The pattern is exactly the same...

Oy.

Which leads my errant brain onto all sort of stupid ideas, such as snowmen identity parades...

Somebody stop me. I've got to get back to work and finish editing this book.

And I'm over at the Pink Heart Society today, blogging about one of my guilty pleasures and justifying my need to slouch on the sofa with a bar of chocolate and a glass of wine...

Almost there

2010-11-27T10:31:00.004Z

Have just written 'The End' in my notebook. (Cue triumphant playing of the Hallelujah Chorus). All I have to do now is type up the last 4000 or so words of the book.

I had a writing frenzy last night and this morning, and I have finally finished. The idea for this book has been in my head for over two years now, and I've loved writing it (hope my editor likes it as much), but I am so relieved to have it out of me. Now I just need to tweak and polish and make it as shiny as can be before I hand it in.

Cover Love - round 2

2010-11-23T15:45:00.007Z

I have total, total cover love for my next UK release, Three Weddings And A Baby:

How fabulous is that? For those of you who have read Invitation To The Boss's Ball, this is Jennie's story. She was the hero's sister in that book, and she left the hero in the lurch by eloping to Las Vegas, and then returns weeks later without a ring on her finger or a husband on her arm. A plot idea like that was too good to pass up!

Here are the rest of the lovely Riva covers for February 2011:

RNA winter party

2010-11-21T08:14:00.012Z

I attended the RNA's winter party a couple of days ago. This being the RNA's 50th anniversary, the party was the last in a long string of events to celebrate that fact. Since we hadn't had anything that celebrated our wonderful New Writers' Scheme, this was a theme for the party.

Anyone who had been published through the scheme was given a brightly-coloured little Christmas bow to wear, and anyone who had won the New Writers' Award (as I had done in 2006) was given a great bit sparkly bow to wear. People commented on mine all evening an then I had to explain why I was wearing it, so it was great advertisement for the scheme.

I took my camera with me, but gave up after a few fuzzy attempts. Thankfully, the RNA had hired a wonderful photographer to do the honours for us, and all the pics in this post are her work (contact details at the end).

Don't we all look as if we're having a marvellous time?

Here are the NWS Award Winners who were present at the party:

Just a fraction of the people who have been offered a publishing contact after going through the scheme:

Photos courtesy of Marte Lundby Rekaa of MLR Photo: http://www.mlrphoto.co.uk