I’m busy with final edits for Someday In Dublin, so I’m going to be lazy and toss out an excerpt for Captured By The Hunter.” In this scene, runaway bride Drella has already gotten away from the hunter Jodan once, and she thinks she’s in the clear…
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It’s Important To Listen To Your Characters – They Know What They’re Talking About
Somewhere near the 2/3 done mark of Someday In Dublin, I hit writer’s block. I hit it bad. I had to figure out a way to reconnect these two after having blown them apart and I knew how the story had to end up (and another big reveal to resolve it) but the pathway to getting there…not so clear.
So I put it down for a bit, and I picked it up again. I reread and I wrote a bunch of stuff that took the story off track so I cut it and put it in my slush file and I tore my hair out and ground my teeth and wrote some more.
And then I went back and reread it again.
Now this is where my theatre training saves the day. I was all alone for the weekend because my kids were off with their Dad, so I printed up the damn manuscript and I started acting it out. Walking it through. Talking it through.
Back in the day, back before I even started trodding the boards, I actually won awards for playwriting. Dialogue has always been my strong suite, and when all else fails, I talk that scene through. I have that argument, or act out that love scene. I turn dramatically or stare longingly out a window or tenderly caress my cat’s face.
Don’t judge.
It works like a charm. Once I start channeling the characters and let them do the talking, the story gets legs again and off we go. And so it went with Someday In Dublin. And so Michael and Amy found a way.
You’re going to love this one. You’re just going to love it.
Someday In Dublin will be breaking for eBook soon, and in print shortly after that. I’ll keep you posted!
My Next Book Is Breaking Soon – Here’s Another Taste!
Someday In Dublin is nearly ready!
I’m re-reading and reworking, and have a cadre of beta-readers going through it for me, as well. Once all the revisions and edits from that process are done, Someday In Dublin will be ready to roll.
Unlike my previous works, I’m also going to be using CreateSpace to offer the book via Print on Demand, just because I honestly love the idea of holding this one in my hands. It’s that good of a story.
I’m hoping you’ll think so, too. And here’s my little snippet for today to give you another peek into Michael and Amy. This is the second half of their “meeting” scene. Enjoy! Continue reading
FanFiction Friday! Read One Of My Favorite Chapters: “Caught In A Bad Bromance!”
In honor of one of the best on-screen TV bromances, I bring you one of my favorite fanfic chapters that I’ve ever written. “Caught In A Bad Bromance” is the story of Killian Jones’s Bachelor Party, and in this particular canon, the gang is all in the Enchanted Forest, and Neal and Graham are still alive and married to Tinkerbell and Red, respectively.
So enjoy Killian’s last night as a free man….Hangover style!!
Do You Ever Worry That You’ll Run Out Of Ideas?
Right now, I am swimming – swimming, I tells ya – in ideas for novels. Like, enough novels to keep me busy for the next year at least. But then what?
What if I can’t come up with the next thing?
What if I lose my mojo and just can’t do it anymore?
I worry about that! I honestly do. What if I fall in love with some guy and I’m so happy and fulfilled that I don’t know how to write angst and tension and horny people.
Okay, you never really forget how to be horny, I guess. But still….
These are the thoughts that keep me up at night, and then I sit up in bed, pull out the laptop and lull myself to sleep with the tapping of the keyboard as stuff spills out of my brain.
Then I read it over the next day and think “WTF did I write at 2am?”
And so the cycle continues…
And Here It Is – Your First Teaser From “Someday In Dublin”
This is a sexy, steamy romance novel. You know how I love my steam, but this one…this one is mostly about the romance.
I mean, this is pure, straight-on romance. This is Mr. Darcy, touching your hand in a crowded ballroom. This is John Cusack standing outside your window with a boom box. This is Khal Drogo looking you in the eyes as you sit astride him.
You get what I mean. This story is a love story, set in the present day, with no gorgeous aliens or fantastical realms, like I usually like to escape to. This time, I escaped to Ireland, and oh, what a journey we go on with this one.
So here, for your reading pleasure, is a bit of Michael and Amy’s introduction. Enjoy! Continue reading
And Sometimes, You Have To Drive The Hell Away
I hopped in the car on Saturday, and I got the hell out of Dodge
I didn’t tell a soul. Maybe I should have told just one soul, in case I met a serial killer or something, but I went away and I went alone and I needed to do it.
I have a couple of good writer friends who do this at crunch time. They head off to a vacation home or a hotel, and they put the TV remote in a drawer and they write, and write and write.
Plus, tomorrow is my birthday, and the sad truth of it is, with no husband anymore and my family very far away and a whole lot of very busy friends, I’m going to spend the day like any other day, and that’s kind of depressing. So this trip was just for me, to a place I’ve always enjoyed going – Washington DC. I spent two days touring museums and galleries, and the evening was spent tapping away at a keyboard because I honestly do my best writing at night.
And I got stuff done. I got lots of stuff done and worked through and it was rejuvenating and so good for me. I’m glad I did it.
Life is a great teacher, and as writers, sometimes we get so immersed we forget to live one. I did that this weekend, and my writing was the better for it.
FanFiction Friday! Here’s A Chapter From “These Dreams”
In my Once Upon A Time Fanfic, “These Dreams,” Emma gets pulled into the dreamscape by an evil wizard, and Killian voluntarily goes under a sleeping curse to get to her. Together they fall in and out of their own dreams, and the dreams of everyone in Storybrooke. This was, hands-down, one of my favorite fanfics to write, and I’m currently working on a sequel!
In this chapter, Emma has just realized that she’s aboard a ship, but still has no idea she’s trapped in a dream – Killian’s dream. Killian’s very naughty dream…
Sometimes, You Just Have To Walk The Hell Away
JK Rowling once gave out a sterling piece of writing advice. She said that sometimes, you just have to put your project down for a little while and spend some time living your life.
I think that’s why I always have so many books going at once. I get burned out just hammering away at one incessantly, so I bounce around and work on several. The problem with that strategy is, of course, that frequently I have a half-dozen half-finished novels and no completed product for my efforts. Continue reading
Captured By The Hunter Is Out! #amwritingfantasy
Drella is an intergalactic merchant’s daughter who is on the run from an arranged marriage. Her groom engages a Hunter to track her down – and this is no ordinary Hunter. Jodan is from a race of people who have special sensory skills – skills that make him a formidable foe…and a complete force of nature when it comes to bedding women. Little does he know that Drella has a secret of her own that will surprise him. Can he bring her back to face her wedding day, despite their overwhelming attraction to each other?
Captured By The Hunter is an absolute steal of a read at $.99, and is available via Amazon for Kindle, or Smashwords for all e-reading devices and PC!
Britt DeLaney 