The Fun in the Dream - Book Giveaway

So, I'm living the dream. This time next year my debut novel will be a real thing. Out in the big wide world standing on its own merits (or not). In the last couple of months since it all became public I've been mired in the crazy world of developmental edits and trying to stay in schedule for writing my contracted second book.

Here's the thing about having a contract. You have to show up. Whether you feel inspired or not. Whether you want to or not. Whether the muse is in-house or not. There are some writers who have honed this skill pre-contract. Me, not so much. With two preschoolers, a job and a myriad of other commitments, writing was the nice-to-do hobby. Now it's the other job. 

I'm living the dream. And I absolutely wouldn't have it any other way. But, the truth is, when you've spent three weeks solid wrestling with the same 300+ pages and it feels like you're trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again and failing, it has moments of un-fun.

But then there are the incredible surreal days like March 27. The day that I spent two hours with an amazing photographer, Jenny Siaosi, to take photos for my website and my publisher's promotional material. The day that I sat in a salon and got to tell my hairdresser and make-up artist that I was having photos taken because I was having a book published. And practice my story pitching techniques on my captive audience. The day it started becoming all a bit crazy exciting real.

So, since I'm in marketing research mode, let's talk about author websites. Do you care about them at all? If you do, what do you like? What do you not like? What would you expect to see? I'm about to start designing one from a blank page and am looking for all the suggestions and advice I can get :) All comments with a contact email address go in the draw to win a copy of Then There Was You. (Winner announced in the Sunday Edition)

Kara Isaac lives in Wellington, New Zealand. Her debut romantic comedy, Then There Was You, is about a disillusioned academic-turned-tour-guide and an entrepreneur who knows nothing about Tolkien who fall in love on a Tolkien themed tour of New Zealand. It will be an early 2016 release from Howard Books. When she's not working her day job as a public servant, chasing around a ninja preschooler and his feisty toddler sister, she spends her time writing horribly bad first drafts and wishing you could get Double Stuf Oreos in New Zealand. She loves to connnect on Facebook at Kara Isaac - Writer and Twitter @KaraIsaac

Reeling the Reader In: Fabulous First Lines (Giveaway)

First lines. Terrible ones can make you put a book down without reading any further. Good ones keep you reading. Great ones have you clicking "buy now" or walking to the register without having to read another word. 

The best first lines tell you a something about the character, the situation, or the setting but most of all they intrigue you, reel you in, so that you cannot put that book down. Then they keep on delivering with the first paragraph, the first page, the first chapter. 

As I'm pondering (aka procrastinating) starting my next story, I've been thinking a lot about first lines - both my own and in books I've read. Out of the four manuscripts I've written, my favorite first line (so far) comes from my third:

"Paige McAllister didn't think it was possible, but there was something worse than being single and thirty at your nineteen-year-old sister's wedding." 

The first lines from a few of my favorite contemporary romances include:

"She never should have said yes." Beth Vogt, Wish You Were Here

"At least they couldn't fire her." Carla Laureano, Five Days in Skye

"The girl with the haunted eyes reentered his life on the other side of a lowering casket, humidity and the shrill song of cicadas tangling together in the South Carolina heat." Katie Ganshert, A Broken Kind of Beautiful

"Will you marry me?" Becky Wade, Meant To Be Mine

"She'd found bliss. Perhaps even true love." Rachel Hauck, Princess Ever After

So how about you? What are some of your favorite first lines? Either your own or from favorite books? I'm going to be giving away one of the five books I've listed above. Even if you don't have a favorite first line just leave your contact email and which title you'd like to win to be in the draw. Open to residents of any country that Book Depository delivers to :) Entries close Friday 15 August, midnight PDT.

* Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.

Kara Isaac lives in Wellington, New Zealand where she spends her days being double-teamed by her ninja toddler and his baby sister, and her nights dreaming up horrible things to do to her characters.

Represented by Chip MacGregor of MacGregor Literary Inc, she loves writing romantic comedy and can be found on Facebook at Kara Isaac - Writer and on Twitter @KaraIsaac.

The Land of Sprinkles, Fairy Dust and Happily Ever After - Kara Isaac

I'll be honest. Most of the time when I'm writing a new story I feel like I'm stumbling around in the dark. Characters that don't do what I want them to, scenes that don't fit, subplots that end up going nowhere, random snippets of dialogue that just show up in my head, having no clue what to put in the middle to get my characters from the beginning to the end, the days (okay, weeks) when it's all just too hard, that's pretty much what the first six months looks like.

It's ugly. I always have to get talked off the ledge a few times. I have been known to yell at my characters. Because, you know, they can hear me out there in imaginary land.

But once I (and my family!) survives all that. The magic starts to happen. Scenes get moved around. Characters tell me why they're being so stubborn. The random snippets bouncing around in my head find their home. Occasionally you break out into song (that's probably just me).

I started my current manuscript last October and so that happy magical place is where I am now residing. There are sparkles and fairy dust and, after months of wanting to throttle my main characters, I love them again. I read parts of their story that make me laugh and I'm all "Hey, I wrote that!"

Nine months, 89,000 words, one real baby, seven rounds of edits (with one more to go) five rewrites (with another to go), four amazing critique partners, two beta readers and a whole lot of chocolate later, the light is blazing at the end of the tunnel.

This will be my third complete manuscript in under three years (the first one took six - three years to write and another three to let go and start something else!) and, I have to admit, as much as I love writing, I'm ready for a break.

It's time to catch up on my ridiculous "to read" pile, to enjoy watching TV without the nagging sense that I'm a slacker who should be writing and to not have Jackson and Allie taking up way more mind space than fictional characters should be allowed to!

This story has been a new adventure for me, in that the starting premise wasn't my idea. It came from a conversation I had with an editor when I was at a writer's conference last September and is the first time I've tried to write on "spec" as it were. I didn't even know if I could do it. Turns out I can :)

Whether my own idea or someone else's, there are a few things I've learnt over the course of the last few years as I've pursued publication seriously:

• I will always worry that I won't love my new characters as much as my old ones. But I always do (though sometimes it takes longer than others!);
• There will always be many points in the process where I'm convinced the whole thing is terrible, rubbish, duller than the phone directory and doesn't deserve to see the light of day but;
• It's never as bad as I think;
• There will also be many points where I will think "I can't actually do this. I don't have another book in me.";
• But I can and I do;
• At some point I will want to kill one (or both) or my main characters;
• Critique partners are worth more than their weight in gold and I couldn't do this without them. They cheer you on, they talk you off the ledge(s) when you want to throw it all in, they make you smile by writing things like "Squeeeeeeee!" in the margins of your manuscript when they love something.
• The feeling when you finish and really like it is one of the best things in the world :)

So tell me, since I'm taking recommendations for my reading break. What have you read recently that you enjoyed? What's on your TBR pile?

Kara Isaac lives in Wellington, New Zealand. When she's not being trying to coerce non-existent people to fall in love, she spends her days being double-teamed by her ninja toddler and his baby sister. You can also find her in Twitter @KaraIsaac and Facebook at Kara Isaac - Writer.

This is her TBR shelf that she is very much looking forward to spending some quality time with in July.

When Josh Met Paige: The Joys of Writing Main Characters from Different Countries

On Monday I sent my latest manuscript to my agent. It's a bit of a fingernail biting, stress inducing, experience sending your agent the manuscript after the one they signed you for. What if they don't like it? What if I'm a one story wonder? What if they come back and say "Um, try again." What if it's really really bad and you just happen to have critique partners who can't quite bring themselves to tell you?

However, I've had a lot of fun with this story. It's set in Sydney, Australia and features an American heroine and an Australian hero who really really don't get along.

One of the most fun to write components to write has been the differences in language. Yes, they both speak English but you don't realize how different some of our words, phrases and sayings are until you have an American critique partner going "Um what is that?" and "What does this mean?"

For example, Josh sits at a bench at eats his chips with tomato sauce. Paige sits at a counter and eats her fries with ketchup. Josh puts things in a rubbish bin, Paige in a trash can. Josh eats biscuits and drinks soft drink, Paige eats cookies and drinks soda.

Paige doesn't know what it means to prang a car, bring a plate or why someone would be knee-high to a grasshopper. She has to learn how to drive on the left hand side of the road, deal with kilometers per hour instead of miles, celsius instead of fahrenheit and all the seasons being reversed. It all contributes to landing her in some very entertaining predicaments.

Where you really find yourself getting into trouble is when it comes to insult. Words that down here in New Zealand and Australia people wouldn't even blink at I discover are VERY inappropriate to be calling someone in America. Which can create some writing challenges when your hero and heroine do not get on at all initially and there's only so many times you can reuse the very short list of acceptable words that mean the same thing in both countries!

How about you? What things about other English speaking countries cause you to do mental gymnastics? I have to admit whenever I travel to the USA the "tax not included in the price" thing gets me every time :)

If you're an American reader do stories in different countries appeal or are you happier staying close to home? (As a promo for an author and book I have absolutely no connection - if you like contemporary romance and would like to dip your toe in international waters Five Days in Skye by Carla Laureano which is based in Scotland is brilliant!)

 Kara Isaac lives in New Zealand where she is a pastor's wife, toddler mum (or mom), cheesecake lover and Bachelorette fan (please don't tell you Desiree chose!). She has found her happy place writing contemporary romance with sass and is represented by Chip MacGregor or MacGregor Literary Inc.

She loves connecting with people on Facebook at Kara Isaac - Writer or on Twitter @KaraIsaac

Setting the Scene

Well hello there!  Ok, I'm gonna say it. Could it be hotter out? Seriously? We've had temperatures between 35-40C (100F something) for about three weeks now and absolutely no rain. Which means everyone's front lawn is crunchy sharp prickly not good for barefeet lawn. Except for the die-hards that water all the time and risk the fine. We're doing ok though because we installed soaker hoses in the spring so I water twice a day and my produce looks good.
I am kinda dying to write a certain post about something that I'm going through right now, but I think it might be premature.  Like every devotional/bible verse/children's devotions I am reading for the past two weeks has been on one certain subject so obviously God is trying to tell me something but I am terribly thick-headed and need a harder kick to figure it out, so maybe I'll write about it in August.
After reading Alice's post I knew what I had to write about. Wait, I'd better make sure I haven't written about it yet...dang, I have no idea because I don't tag my posts. Oops. Ah well.
Ok. So.
Alice's post made me think of what... inspires me to write. I think I mentionned delicious phrases before... where you think/read/see a line and you go from there. But I wanna talk about music.

Something that seems to be slowly gaining popularity, is author music compilations. Which is what the author listened to, while writing the book. Cool huh? I love looking up their music and then trying to relate to what they wrote about. Sometimes I jump up and down and yell, 'yah!'. And sometimes I'm like, 'seriously?'. Maybe I love this so much because whenever I hear a song, and fall in love with it, I imagine my own video for it. Best example I can think of is that old famous song, 'Drops of Jupiter' by Train. I looove that song. Probably because he mentions soy lattes. Anyway, you know the song, it was played all the time. So in my head, I imagined a bright sunny day, a faded red pick-up cruising down the deserted highway. Boy singing in the driver's seat, arm out the window. The bed of the truck has a huge duffel bag.  Passenger seat is a girl, long brown hair, asleep - she is exhausted. She's leaning against the headrest. A border collie has his head on her lap, her hand is on his head. Basically the girl has left her life behind to travel and realizes her life is back where she left it. Boyfriend/husband had picked her up from bus station. Sun reflecting on everything. Fun, right?

I looooooove music. I have it on all the time. Except now. Go figure. Probably because I'm about to start writing.  I will literally find music and make compilations to go with what I want to write about. Because I love music that moves me. The lyrics need to be clever or powerful. If you used 'love and dove', I will turn you off. And repeated lyrics. That and anything with grunting, the word 'baby', 'boo', 'lover' and anything to do with innappropriateness. (Sometimes I really miss old school rap... even Vanilla Ice was clever with his words, forgetting his inability to not produce original music. Which then begs the questions that everyone copies everyone else, but we won't get into that right now. Huge fan of Alan Cross and the History of Music)

The music needs softness or a raging crescendo. The singer better be good and they'd better mean what they're singing. I am sorry to say that I don't care for quite a bit of music because I find the singer is... well, whining. Do you know what I mean? And I'm sorry to say, it's usually male singers. High whiny voices that ... well, whine. Am I crazy? Probably. I also can't stomach loud, bleating voices that sound like sheep. Will not mention names.... I am terribly fickle.

So. I have about 10,000 songs on my iTunes thanks to friends and our library and me being careful with what I buy. I listened to acid jazz when I wrote my first book, "Jackson Jones: the Tale of a Boy, an Elf and a Very Stinky Fish." (shameless self-promotion!) and the second book had to be written to the soundtrack of Charlie Brown Christmas. I cannot tell you why. It just did. Even though it was summer.
But now I'm doing a big book. A nooooovel. Over 35,000 words. And it has 'moments'.  Sad moments, happy ones, love moments, angry moments.
So what did I do? I made a huuuuuge compilation of all music that I thought I could use. For example:
Heroine is feeling very vulnerable.
Heroine is hurting.
Heroine is falling in love.
Heroine spurned by love.
Heroine is learning to fight.
Heroine is manipulated.

(Sorry about all the links. You're probably frustrated by now. If I knew how to upload that song thingy where it would just play, I would.)

So I would chunk the different moods together and then hit repeat.

Before I write, I close my eyes, listen to one of the songs a few times, get myself into the heroine's shoes/emotion/state and then write. Time consuming, I know, but it is effective. It also works well if you just carry around your itunes and play where you are: cooking, cleaning, driving, at the gym.

So. Yeah. There ya go. Crazy inspiration to think about. What do you listen to???? Am very very curious....


Warning: finishing your writing with a vulnerable, or sad, or someone just died, or boyfriend just cheated on you? WILL put you in a bad mood. Take a few minutes to listen to happy, upbeat, I'm in love - music before speaking to husband and family.

Jenn Kelly is an author. This is her dog. Yes, that is the front door and yes, that is her ball. I think she wants something.
She is currently researching her 1963 Roget's Thesauraus because it has the best words. Such as jurisprudence, gerrymander, disencumber and iteration.

When Good Plans Go Bad - Kara Isaac

At the moment I’m currently working madly on my current work in progress, hoping to have it ready to pitch to agents and editors at a big writing conference in Dallas in September.

After my very unexpected semi-final in the Genesis Contest, I set off on a mission to go from blank page to 95,000 word completed manuscript in under nine months.

My first manuscript took two years. And that was pre husband, mortgage, or baby. So this time there was a plan. Five thousand words a week would see me finish a first draft by August, giving me two months to rewrite, edit and polish.

The plan had one flaw. Knowing that the real word has a way of taking over and there were destined to be a number of weeks when 5,000 words didn’t happen, I had a Plan B. This revolved around the fact that I was going overseas for work for two weeks in late June and would be shut in speeding tin cans for sixty plus hours. Sure enough real life happened, I feel behind and I set myself the task of 25,000 words to be written while I was away to make up on lost time.

I mean I had four flights over ten hours each. If one couldn’t manage to get some decent writing done trapped in a tin can with no meals to prepare, job to show up for or husband or child to worry about, all was lost.

I didn’t count on one thing. Food poisoning. The day before we left for Russia, I was plastered to my bathroom floor only able to lift my head when it was strictly necessary. The day we left I crawled onto the plane and survived the following five flights and two days in transit thanks to the wonder of some seriously powerful modern pharmaceuticals. Not a single word got typed.

I spent the first few days of the trip still unwell and when that finally passed, the jetlag kicked in. The free nights I had set aside to write while the boss graced various functions with his presence? Disappeared into an ether of bad room service and sleep.

Finally, on the first flight home, I finally managed to dust off the laptop, reacquaint myself with my long lost manuscript and start writing. By the time I landed, I’d managed to make up 6,000 words.

So blog world here’s the situation. I have 38,000 words written and need to come up with another 60,000 in the next two months. Preferably less, so I have some time to rewrite, edit etc. before jumping in a plane to the USA mid-September!

What is your advice for someone with a full-time job, a husband and a nine month old ninja on how to carve out time to write at least 1,000 words a day without being an absentee wife, mother or employee?

My limitations are:

• Can’t write during lunch hour due to system security precautions at my workplace;

• Solely responsible for my son on Sundays as my husband is in ministry so a work day for him;

• I already do the bare minimum of housework required!

• From 24 July – 1 August I’ll be overseas again and unlikely to be able to manage 1,000 words a day for most of that time

Help!!

Kara Isaac is a public servant, terrible non-laundry-doing wife and bewildered mum to a ninja by day and contemporary romance writer by crack or dawn / late night. She aspires to one day rediscover what it's like to have more than five hours sleep in a row. You can find her (usually) very random tweets at https://twitter.com/KaraIsaac

Persevering with point of view!

These past few weeks have been quite tumultuous in my writing journey, as I have tried to edit two manuscripts at once – my first non-fiction work, entitled Soul Friend: the story of a shared spiritual journey, and my sixth novel, The Inheritance. With my non-fiction book, my new publisher wanted a few things changed – and rightly so. While it took some time to do, it was nevertheless reasonably straightforward. However, it was another matter altogether with my sixth novel. You see, I had decided I would try something new. I would have two main characters and would write from both points of view, according to what fitted best. But I would also write from the points of view of several minor characters, where necessary. In other words, I was venturing into ‘multiple point of view’ territory.

Now being a rookie at such things, I was bound to make mistakes. With my first two novels, I had stuck to omniscient point of view. In fact, back then, I didn’t even know what that term meant! I simply wrote in the same style in which many of the older books I loved were written. Over my next three novels, I gradually refined my style and wrote from the point of view of my main protagonist, although I’m sure I often strayed into omniscient point of view out of habit. But now, in trying to be clever, it soon became clear, from my publisher’s comments, that I had skipped from one point of view to another far too often. Sometimes this was intentional – I felt it worked that way. But mostly, I have to admit, it was unintentional – I had happily hopped into someone else’s head for a few lines, before proceeding to hop to another one – and then to another again! It was as if all my characters were joining in the conversation, each with their own little agendas.

So ... now I had quite a rewrite on my hands. I sighed – I did not need such a large job at that point. However, once I had begun, I soon discovered how much I was learning. In fact, it became an interesting challenge to see how the various scenes could in many cases happen just as easily from the point of view of one of the main characters and not one of those minor characters who kept wanting to get in on the act!

Now I am on the other side of that rewrite – and I hope I have succeeded in vastly improving my manuscript. But all this has served to show me yet again that there is always so much more to learn in this writing business – so many new things to come to grips with and new ways to refine our writing style. Will I ever ‘arrive’ as an author? I don’t know. But I do know I’m going to keep on trying. I want to write the best fiction – and non-fiction – I can for God. As Paul writes in Philippians 3:13, I want to forget what is behind and strain towards what is ahead. I may never write that best seller, but I sure know I can improve from where I am now.

Somehow I don’t think God has finished with me yet, moulding me into the author I am meant to be. How about you? Is that how you feel too?

Jo-Anne Berthelsen grew up in Brisbane and holds an Arts degree from Queensland University. She has also studied Education and Theology and has worked as a high school teacher and editor, as well as in local church ministry. Jo-Anne loves communicating through both the written and spoken word and currently has five published novels – ‘Heléna’, ‘All the Days of My Life’, ‘Laura’, ‘Jenna’ and ‘Heléna’s Legacy’.  She is married to a retired minister and has three grown-up children and three grandchildren. For more information, please visit her website, www.jo-anneberthelsen.com.

The Seasons of Novel Writing

It’s spring in my corner of the world. 

Buds burst forth in greens, whites, and cherry reds. Yellow daffodils open their petals and reach for the heavens. Each morning, I wake to a chorus of birds outside my window instead of the usual rhythmic beeping, or toddler cry. And every evening, the sun lingers just a little longer.

I love this season of new life and hope. It’s a glorious time of year.

Yet, as I pen these words, I know that many of you reside in different corners of the globe, and though I’m experiencing the newness of spring, you may be feeling winter’s grip.  At this very moment, you and I walk through very different seasons.

And isn’t that how it is in our writing lives as well? From the birth of a story idea and growth of a novel, to barren times of waiting and the joy of a book contract, we writers know the ebb and flow of the seasons. 

Some of you may be walking through the season of spring along with me. You’re new to novel writing, or you’ve stumbled upon a new story idea. You’re enthralled with the newness, the potential. Yet, your story is just a seedling. It needs tender care, careful watering, plenty of sunshine. And once it’s written, it needs weeding and pruning—ruthless editing. Overall, this season is a fabulous one ripe with possibilities.

Perhaps you’re in the thick of summer. Your novel is a full-fledged story complete with flowers and fruit. It’s a masterpiece, a beautiful work of art, and you’re thrilled. You’ve spent days toiling under sweltering sun, crafting the characters, weaving the plotline, developing dialogue. Can there be a more beautiful baby?  You’re ready to show your work to a critique partner or editor. They’re just going to love it.

Maybe you’ve taken the plunge and shown your work to a faithful critique partner who tells you your story has potential but yada, yada. The returned manuscript’s sidebar is peppered with comment boxes, and that paper is baptized in red ink. It’s the first time you realize your story isn’t perfect; in fact, its flaws are now evident as a rather large pimple, and you enter a season of winter. It’s a time of reworking, rewriting, rethinking everything. An icy chill grips your heart. Doubts assail. Do I have any talents at all? Do I have what it takes to be an author? You pray, seek out a friend's encouragement, and cry for awhile. But at the end of the day, you smooth out the wrinkles in your shirt and your story.

A few of you may be in the glorious harvest of fall. After much perseverance, hard work, and support from others, you’ve made the revisions. Your story now sparkles—it’s ripe for the plucking. An agent notices your work and then a publisher. You now hold a contract in your hand, or your book is about to release. It’s a glorious time of celebration.

Yet, I imagine, that even after obtaining an agent, or receiving a contract, you may still experience all the novel writing seasons anew. You may once again taste the newness of spring, the heat of summer, the chill of winter, and the joy of fall. And I’m certain I will too.

For now, I press on in this season of spring.

What season of writing are you experiencing? What season is it in your corner of the world?

Melanie N. Brasher is a full time mama of two boys and wife to an incredible husband who understands her bicultural background. She moonlights as a fiction and freelance writer, crafting stories and articles toward justice and change. She's a member of American Christian Fiction writers and a contributing blogger for Ungrind. Though she's an aspiring author, she'll never quit her day job.

Learning to live with vulnerability

I remember the moment it first dawned on me what a vulnerable activity it is to write published novels. One day, I opened an email from my publisher to find an attachment featuring the proposed front cover of my first novel. As I saw my name printed there in bold letters, horror overwhelmed me. What had I done? What would people think about my writing? Had a made a huge fool of myself? But it was too late now – I couldn’t turn back.

Now, four more published novels on, I have discovered one can’t please everyone—and I think I’ve grown a slightly thicker skin too. But I can see my vulnerability levels will soon be tested out again. You see, after producing six novels, I have just completed writing the first draft of my very first full length non-fiction work. Now I am poised to tackle the many re-writes that are no doubt ahead of me as I and my manuscript readers assess it.

I never envisaged I would write non-fiction—I love the freedom of writing my novels, watching a story develop and letting it take on a life of its own. Yet I have loved my non-fiction journey as well and have benefited so much from it. You see, my book is a type of memoir—an account of a spiritual friendship I have enjoyed with a dear, older Christian friend for many years now. To write this, I have delved into my old journals where I kept a record of many of the deep conversations my friend and I have enjoyed while sitting together in her lovely, old home in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. As I read, I saw not only the richness of our relationship but also the incredible grace of God in my life during these years. My friend has met with me since my second year at theological college around fifteen years ago and seen me through many stretching experiences—including embarking on writing my first novel in my late fifties!

Given this is the type of non-fiction I have written, perhaps you can imagine how vulnerable I now feel at the thought of exposing my innermost thoughts and fears to my readers in this way. Many times in my novels I have been able to express my own feelings and opinions through the lives of my characters. But here in this non-fiction work, there is nowhere to hide! Now that I have finished writing it, am I willing, I ask myself, to allow anyone and everyone to read it? Is this even a wise thing to do?

But then I remember why I decided to write it in the first place. I wanted to show what a wonderful gift it is for someone older in the faith to come alongside a younger Christian in an encouraging, supportive relationship and hopefully challenge more mature Christians to do this. I also wanted to inspire those younger in the faith to seek out older Christians to walk with them on their journey. And finally, I wanted to be honest about my own struggles so that those going through similar experiences might feel encouraged and understood and even perhaps given a glimpse of a way forward. So for these reasons I hope this book does succeed in being published—despite my misgivings.

But for now it’s back to editing and re-writing—and then perhaps dreaming of that next novel already outlined on my computer!