My Writing Life: A Review To Remember!

I just got a really amazing review from a GoodReads reader, and I thought I would share.  Wow, and thank you, Vivian!

     

Jul 19, 2012

Vivian rated it

Shelves: first-reads, women-s-fiction, summer-2012-read

A first reads winner.

Wealthy Loi Cramer recalls the life she began with her late husband, Alex Cramer. It is your typical poor, down on her luck girl meets wealthy man who sweeps her off her feet story but with a twist. She meets him while she's employed at his house while caring for his ailing wife. An affair begins. Gossip spreads. Loi begins to wonder if the mistress ever becomes the wife.

Then the story really begins. Cannot possibly add more details without spoiling the book. You are just g...more A first reads winner.

Wealthy Loi Cramer recalls the life she began with her late husband, Alex Cramer. It is your typical poor, down on her luck girl meets wealthy man who sweeps her off her feet story but with a twist. She meets him while she's employed at his house while caring for his ailing wife. An affair begins. Gossip spreads. Loi begins to wonder if the mistress ever becomes the wife.

Then the story really begins. Cannot possibly add more details without spoiling the book. You are just going to have to trust me. It gets better with each turn of the page. I completed this novel in the matter of hours. A really great read. 

  

My Writing Life: Glad to see "Us" making a connection

This just in, thanks to author Ava Bleu's Romance Noire group post ... 

Troy Johnson, founder of the  African American Literature Book Club (AALBC) has created a search site featuring books by authors from within the black community.  This is especially important because our books are often lost and disconnected from the authors in the larger search engines that focus on books produced by larger traditional publishers. 

You can check out the site today at http://huria.org.   If you'd like to know more about the motivation behind the site, take a moment to visit Troy's blog at AALBC.com.  The entry is listed on the Founder's Blog, under Book Info.

Happy Reading!!

  

 

Notes From My Writing Life: Book Coaching

Believing that literacy is an amazing gift, knowing that people have shed blood and tears for it, I take reading seriously.   I also take writing very seriously.  So you have to know that when a friend approached me about acting as his book coach, I was enthused and took the request seriously.    What I should have done was to take a paraphrased cue from Forest Gump:  “Mama says, ‘reading is what writers do.’”  Suffice it to say, my friend is not a reader.

Hindsight being what it is, I suppose that I should have gone into the project realizing that someone who does not read fiction simply won’t have an automatic “feel” for it.  I probably should have asked to see an outline or proposal, but I love my friends , so I jumped in with both feet, from word one. 

On the surface, the job of a book coach is pretty straightforward:

·         Walk the author through the step-by-step process of writing, publishing, and promoting their book

·         Explain the structure of a book and how the parts fit together

·         Help organize ideas, research, main points, and written material

·         Help create a writing plan, set realistic deadlines, and create a schedule for meeting them

·         Work with the author to find their own unique voice

·         Help develop the book from the original idea through the outline, rough drafts, and revisions to polished manuscript

·         Provide feedback and advice on flow, grammar, substance, and writing style

·         Point out inconsistencies, word repetition, weak vocabulary, and lack of clarity

Knowing what the job entailed, I knew that I could handle it.  To his credit, my friend is not lazy and didn’t expect me to write the book for him.  What I didn’t plan on was that I would have to begin by tutoring him in grammar, sentence structure, punctuation, and spelling.  What I wasn’t prepared for was that he would grow more than a little angry with me for doing EXACTLY what he asked me to do.  That left me with some questions like:

·         How do you become annoyed with someone who mentors you on the use of YOUR native language?

·         How can you stay irritated by someone who insists that you use quotation marks in a novel?

·         How does anyone fume over the need for paragraphs?

·         What kind of novel has only one endless chapter?

Okay, so you probably already know how this ends…  My friend is convinced that he has developed a new 400-page art form, and that book coaching and traditional novel forms are over-rated.  He also now thinks that I am an anal-retentive book Nazi and I am not going to tell him any different.  For my part, I am hoping that he will figure out another way to tell his story.

Probably as a video.

Author D.L. Sparks Interviewed by Just Romantic Suspense

Interview with D.L. Sparks

Giveaway alert!

D.L. Sparks is the best selling author of: All That Glitters, The Lies That Bind and Between Friends. Her novels are repeatedly best sellers on Black Expressions and has been embraced by endless readers as far away as London and France. Ms Sparks has also been voted one of the Top 25 Most Influential Black Fiction Writers on Twitter by The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog.

Given the nature of this website, I have to ask...what draws you to the romantic suspense genre?

[D.L. Sparks]  I enjoy walking that fine line between bliss and tragedy. It's all about the not knowing. And just when the reader thinks they know proving to them they essentially know nothing at all. Happily ever after and warm and fuzzy is easy to write. Suspense takes on a whole new form of writing and the way the writer sees the world. For instance a strictly romance author may see a couple ride off into the sunset and drop their pen satisfied. A romantic suspense author may see that same couple ride off into the sunset all the while knowing there is a psychotic ex waiting around the corner to exact revenge.

Is it dangerous being a romantic suspense author?

[D.L. Sparks]  LOL! It definitely pushes your mental limitations. I mean just some of the things I've Googled alone would probably be enough to either get me locked up or certified. When researching a character or situation, for me it's law enforcement/crime, I have a lot of different avenues. And research for me is very important and I dig deep when I do it to bring my story to life as much as possible. So imagine someone tinkering around in my hard drive and finding a search for: How to make a suicide look like a murder. LOL! As far as physical danger I'd have to say no. Unless you're riding shot gun during an arrest or bust you'll be fine.

Have you ever experienced a Deja Vu moment, where you find yourself in a scene from one of your books?

[D.L. Sparks]  Not while I was awake. But I have definitely had dreams where I found myself in the middle of a scene and it scared me enough to wake me up. One of my DEA agents ended up on a hit list and of course there were people after him to keep him from solving  the crime. Well in my dream MY name popped up on a hit list and I remember being surrounded by people trying to protect me and figure out where to hide me. It was a very tense and scary moment. I have to say I was very proud of myself. LOL!

Do you recall any book bloopers? Edits that slipped past you and made you say, OMG!

[D.L. Sparks]  With this book the biggest blooper would have to be my cover. It doesn't reflect my writing style or the story very well at all. I worked hard to get it changed but guess I didn't work hard enough. LOL! It just doesn't scream "Romantic Suspense" to me. Which presented a huge challenge for me in promotion. My first book The Lies That Bind, there was no doubt but this one….the cover leaves much doubt. Also, I think every writer has read through their books and found something they either wanted to change and forgot or should've changed and didn't. It comes with the territory. We live in a world surrounded by words and sometimes those words run together and it's very easy to get cross-eyed when you're working. It's like when you stare at a word so long it starts to look like you spelled it wrong. LOL!

What is one stereotype about authors that is completely wrong? 

[D.L. Sparks]  That all writers are addicted to coffee. No…wait. That may be true. LOL!  I think the biggest one is that we're all introverted loners who don't like to be around other people. Actually it's the exact opposite. Writers thrive off of the creative energy that comes from being around friends and family and especially other writers. We are creative by nature and gain inspiration from all the things around us. So that could be as simple as a night out with the girls or a quiet evening at the movies with a friend then walking the mall people watching. We're writing even when we're not.

I understand that you have a very admirable dedication for all of your novels. Would you share that with us? 

[D.L. Sparks]  My novels are dedicated to my best friend Monica Bowie who was abducted in July of 2007. She was never found and not much has been done to keep her case alive and in the spotlight. In addition to her I include other missing women whose cases, like Monica's, have been swept aside and forgotten. It's my way of keeping their names circulating in some form and letting their families know that not everyone has forgotten.                             

D.L. will be offering a print copy of BETWEEN FRIENDS to one lucky commenter!

Giveaway ends 10pm EST June 22nd. Please supply your email in the post. You may use spaces or full text for security. (ex. jsmith at gmail dot com) If you do not wish to supply your email, or have trouble posting, please email maureen@justromanticsuspense.com with a subject title of JRS GIVEAWAY to be entered in the current giveaway. This giveaway is applicable to US and CANADA addresses only.

All I've Ever Wanted to Do. . .

When something is for you, there’s a feeling that is deep down inside of you that will not allow you to let it go. – Tyler Perry

That’s what writing is, was, and will forever and always be for me. Something that speaks directly to my soul. A vehicle that allows me to have a voice like no other. My love affair. My therapy. My peace.

Recently, I celebrated my 11^th year in the literary industry. I started my journey and the realization of a dream, November 2001. Times does fly, does it? Here I am, nine books later. As I’ve said from book one, The Ties That Bind, up until now, all I’ve ever wanted to do was write. Just write. Simply write.

I don’t know what the future holds. . . To quote Oprah Winfrey, “What I know for sure. No matter where I am on my journey, that’s exactly where I need to be. The next road is always ahead.” My destiny remains to be seen.

To my readers, who I affectionately refer to as family, many of you have been on this journey with me from the very beginning. And others joined the journey many miles and mile markers down the road. Others have just recently joined the trip. The road traveled hasn’t always been smooth, but paved with bumps and valleys along the way, but through it all, you’ve been my loyal passengers. For that I will be eternally grateful.

To you, to all of you, I say THANK YOU! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping this black girl to live out her dream. I have so appreciated the show of support, encouragement, kind words of praise, spirit of sisterhood and the sense of bonding experienced through the written word. You’ve been the magic in my life.

Electa Rome Parks

6-21-2012, 10:36 p.m.