Wandering Wednesday - El Paso, Texas & Campo Bom, Brazil ;)

By Patricia Beal | @bealpat 

Hi! Nice to see the writing world beyond editingville.

For the past four months, all I’ve done is edit Desert Willow (formerly known as The Song of the Desert Willow—I edited the title too).

Today I want to take you to some of the places in the novel.

Desert Willow began as a NaNoWriMo in March project back in 2014 and now finally received a much-needed rewrite and edit. It's been on submission before, but it's new and better. My new agent will be reading it in April and then we will see what we want to do next.

This rewrite and edit-again process is so familiar to me. My debut, A Season to Dance, went through seven years of that. One day I will write a novel the easy way—should there be such a thing.

Without further ado, let's wander :) 

Here's the blurb:

Clara Malone is a new college graduate who puts her job-hunting on hold to travel to Texas and deliver her grandmother’s last love letter before the woman’s impending death. Andrew Lee James is a young Army captain whose first shot at love and marriage imploded on the steps of a West Point chapel during graduation week.

When the letter’s recipient, General Mario Medeiros, is delayed in Germany with a weak heart, Andrew is put in charge of Clara’s well-being. Andrew wants to tell off the woman who left him at the altar but now wants him back. If Clara would look at him with the slightest bit of interest, maybe he could. But three generations of women in her family were betrayed and ruined by Army men. Sure, he is handsome and looks just like Prince Harry. But she didn’t date soldiers—not anymore.

Surrounded by cactus flowers she never thought possible and desert willows that sing with the buzzing of hummingbirds, Clara soon finds herself enjoying her time with Andrew more than she should, and as a delay that was supposed to last a few days turns into weeks, she is offered a temporary job she can’t turn down.

Could it be that her mission at Fort Bliss is what she needs to understand her family’s painful history, learn to love them as they are, and chart a hopeful future? It is possible. But a blast from the past threatens to get her off track.

Behind the scenes:

I enjoy this story so much. It has a lot of my grandma’s history in it—life in the German colonies of the south of Brazil before WWII, the beginning of the shoe industry there (still famous worldwide, with women’s shoes always available at stores like Neiman Marcus), the life of the richest family in town, the most influential man (my great grandfather), his death, loss, change. It’s a fascinating slice of history that I hope to share with readers soon.

And then the contemporary story of Clara is fun to write because I’ve worked for the U.S. Army on-and-off since the nineties and have been an Army wife for more than twelve years. There are tons of neat details of Army life to share. This could easily be book one of a series.

Clara and Andrew are fun to write too because I created them in 2015, so by now, I know them well. And I love the antagonist. I should write her story one day. I think I cried for that woman for five whole chapters toward the end.

Emma Stone would be Clara in the movie version ;) Pinterest image.

And Prince Harry would be U.S. Army Captain Andrew Lee James :) Pinterest image.

But I think that what I enjoy the most is making all the connections, showing how the actions of a distant past affect and inform the modern story so deeply. It’s how life works, I believe. To be able to hold all that history in three hundred plus pages, massaged and shaped, can be astonishing and transformational.

Growing up in New Hamburg, Brazil.

The city of Campo Bom continues to honor my great-grandfather and the families that put the city on the map. Here I am with my mom, grandma and uncle.

The city created a great cultural space in the heart of the city to preserve its history: https://www.guiacampobom.com.br/campo-bom/pontos-turisticos/largo-irmaos-vetter

With my grandma at the top of the monument's chimney. The chimney of her dad's factory was the clock by which city life happened. 

Desert Willow

I hope you enjoyed this slice of family history and this look around my writing desk.

Love y’all. See you next time :)

About Patricia

Patricia Beal has danced ballet her whole life. She is from Brazil and fell in love with the English language while washing dishes at a McDonald's in Indianapolis. She put herself through college working at a BP gas station and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Cincinnati with a B.A. in English Literature. She then worked as a public affairs officer for the U.S. Army for seven years.

She now writes contemporary fiction and is represented by Bob Hostetler of The Steve Laube Agency. Her debut novel, A Season to Dance, came out in May (Bling! / Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas 2017). A Portuguese translation will be out in her native Brazil in late 2018 via Editora Pandorga. Patricia is a 2015 Genesis semi-finalist and First Impressions finalist. She and her husband live in North Carolina with their two children.


Goodreads - www.goodreads.com/bealpat
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Web - www.patriciabeal.com

The Difference Between the Debut and Sophomore Novels

A month from now my sophomore novel, Can't Help Falling, will have just been released. Coming just under six months from the release of my debut novel, Close To You, has made for a busy year!

I was thinking recently about the main differences recently between your first and second book releases and thought I'd share four of them today :)

Expectations
Your debut novel is a crazy exciting terrifying time. Your first book baby is being released into the world and you have no control over how readers are going to react to it. However, readers also don't have any expectations based on previous reading experience as to what they expect from a "X Author" novel. You have a blank slate as an author. This changes with the sophomore novel. People have thoughts, opinions and hopes as to the kind of story you might be deliver. Now you feel the weight of hoping, praying, that your new story will not be a disappointment to those who enjoyed your first.

You Know How Really Hard It Is To Get Readers To Take A Chance on a New Author 
With your debut novel you knew this in theory. As a reader you knew how hard it was to convince you to spend your hard earned money on an unknown author when your budget didn't even reach to all those authors you already know and love. But you naively hope that between sheer force of will, your great hook, and feeling like you're wallpapering the internet with all your guest posts/interviews/articles that readers will flock to your story.

With the sophomore novel, you've learned in the trenches that you are the rule, not the exception. You've eyeballed sales figures that have you wondering if the system lost a digit somewhere. You've let out many a silent virtual scream at people assuring you that they can't wait to read your book, they're just waiting for the e-version to be made free. You've seen much coveted positive reviews in sought after publications give your sales figures a low double digit bump that week. You've learnt from experience that this author thing really is a long game.

You've Toughened Up 
You thought that after your years pursuing publication, horrible contest scores, harsh judges' remarks and countless rejections from agents and editors that you had a pretty tough skin. Then came your first one star review, then the next, then the next and you got to process public criticism available for the world to see. You've learned never to look at reviews on a bad day and that life is too short to worry about people who don't know you personally but feel they have a licence to not just review your book but also pass comment on your character.

You know there is little better than hearing from a reader that God somehow used your inadequate words on a page to speak to them and that makes all of the tough stuff worth it. 

Giveaway!
I'm giving away a copy of the winner's choice of Close To You or Can't Help Falling to one commenter. If you're an author I'd love to hear what was different for you between the first and second book. If you're a reader I'd love to hear what has finally made you take a chance on an unknown author :)

Winner will be drawn on 17 September and announced in the comments on 18 September.

Kara Isaac lives in Wellington, New Zealand. Her debut romantic comedy, Close To 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. Her sophomore novel, Can't Help Falling, is about about how an antique shop, a wardrobe, and a mysterious tea cup bring two C.S. Lewis fans together in a snowy and picturesque Oxford, England. 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 her website, on Facebook at Kara Isaac - Author and Twitter @KaraIsaac