#mywritingprocess blog tour

First of all I would like to thank Anna Celeste Burke for inviting me to “play” with her and the other bloggers on the #mywritingprocess blogging tour. It’s been an honor to be associated with such supportive people. Celeste writes the Jessica Huntington Series and the Betsy Stark Series. Celeste’s writing “weaves together romance, suspense, colorful characters, beautiful settings with intelligence and wit.” (From one of her reviews of  “A Dead Husband” by tbandd on Amazon.com.) If you would like more information about her writing process and her awesome mystery/romance series you can check out her website at: http://www.desertcitiesmystery.com

The first question on the tour is: What am I working on?

I have a complete manuscript that I am cutting into more manageable editing/reading portions. The first book in the series is titled Legacy From Yesteryear and is available to read/purchase now. 

Legacy From Yesteryear

I am working on the second book in the series titled Legacy From Yesteryear: All Roads Lead To Love. The story line for the whole series is deceptively simple. Our heroine is Margaret Wentworth, and 18-year-old recent orphan who finds out she is destitute the day after the double funeral of her beloved parents. She has no choice but to go live with relatives she has never met before while her parents estate is settled.

On her way to her new home, she encounters James Cunningham, fifth son of the Duke of Sommerville. She makes quite the impression on our hero, and he is determined to discover her story and find a way to make her life better.

Meg’s arrival at the Haven, her new home, she is informed of all the inconvenience her arrival has caused and is uninvited to the holiday celebration the family has planned. It is then explained that she will become the secretary for the Duchess of Rodchester and will be helping plan all the events she will not be allowed to attend due to her recent loss.

Still in shock from her parents unexpected passing, she quietly accepts her position of unpaid servant and immediately begins with her new status in the household.  Not long after, Meg accidently discovers a journal from an ancestress that holds a scavenger hunt for jewels and an inheritance that will grant her freedom from the tyrant she has for a guardian.

Legacy From Yesteryear ends when she finds the first set of jewels and the second clue. James Cunningham is a solicitor with the firm her ancestress’ will and instructions for when someone discovers the jewels and wins the scavenger hunt. Meg is required to hand over the jewels to Jamie and he accepts the responsibility of documenting her find.

The second book, Legacy From Yesteryear: All Roads Lead To Love, picks up with Jamie returning to London and putting the jewels in the safe until the hunt is fulfilled. The second book follows Meg and Jamie’s romance and her trial and error search for the answer for the second clue.

Second question: How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I think one of the things that separates my work from others is I didn’t stick with just one genre. I enjoy stories with more than one layer. So my genre is: Historical set, sweet romance, adventures with mystery elements. I also enjoy stories with lots of interesting characters that are there for a reason. My stories are more on an epic level with the amount of characters involved. I have never been able to write short stories, and my person interest is in authors that write epic stories and many books to their series.

But I think the biggest difference in my genre is: my female characters. They are all strong women in a time when women were not perceived as strong or capable.

Third question: Why do I write what I do?

When I first started writing, my co-author/mother and I were told, “Write what you know.” At the time all we really knew was: how to be a mother/wife and how to be a secretary. We didn’t want to write a modern story, because our lives were crazy and we wanted an escape. So we decided to write historical set mysteries with a hint of romance.

We didn’t start at the “normal” beginning of a writing career, and we were team writing at a time when very few people participated in team writing. I can honestly say nothing we did, especially at the beginning was anything resembling normal. Our personal lives were not normal, I don’t remember ever being “normal”, so it follows our writing style and stories would not fall into the category of “normal”.  

So we took all the aspects we enjoyed and rolled them into one story that had to sit on a self for several years before it could be dusted off and edited successfully. The decision to Indie publish instead of traditional publish has been very positive for me. We were told that we had too many characters, too many romances and too much going on for one story. We were going to have to divide up the story into acceptable guidelines to get traditionally published. We tried to do what we were told to “fix” our story, but it was just impossible to separate the parts into anything that could stand-alone.

Now, with Indie publishing our story can stay the way we intended, well almost. I am cutting it into several books because I am just not sure very many readers would take a chance on a fairly new author with an epic story. I haven’t determined if this is a mistake or not, but that’s the beauty of Indie publishing. If it is a mistake I have the power and ability to put it all back together in one story.

Last question: How does my writing process work?

When I am in full creative mode, it is craziness around me. I am distracted when the “real” world intrudes and get very grumpy when I lose the train of thoughts that run full speed ahead. Sometimes all I have to do is read a few paragraphs of what is written to be off to the races again. Sometimes what’s gone is gone.

English grammar is something I grapple with constantly in my writing, but I’m learning as I go, I hope. I haven’t written anything other than interviews, blogs and web-content without my co-author. So I will have to develop a new process for story writing when I am ready to write a fresh story line on my own. Right now I have mostly editing to do.

Editing is also a process I am learning, and I am finding my own voice. When Mom and I wrote together, it was like a harmony that worked so well it was hard to say I wrote from this page to that page. Now, I have to preserve that harmony during the rewrites and editing, so the story still “sounds” the same. It will be interesting to see what my writing will be like once I begin anew.

One of the things I enjoy when participating in a tour is finding out more about other author writing process, their characters and the whole behind the scenes of their stories. Next week am passing the torch to Julie Ramesy.

Here is a quick peek at her bio and the link to find out more about her:

My name is Julie Ramsey. I have been a Respiratory Therapist for over 12yrs. I work in adult critical care. I love my job but I also love to read. I have always had tons of stories in my head. I just never knew how to get them to paper. Had tried several times but never successful. About two years ago I started my blog Julies Book Review (http://juliesbookreview.blogspot.com/). It all started when I met an author on Facebook. She had made a comment that she would send me a free copy if I ran a blog. So i started one. About three or four months in, I posted a comment to twitter. I was going on vacation and asked if anyone would like a review let me know. I was booked six months out by the time my vacation started. I soon need help with the reviews. I have about twelve reviewers that work with me and I am always looking for more. The more I read the more the stories in my head wanted to come out. So when a project for school got to long I put is aside and kept it as a start of something. After the class I went back to it and continued. The Wild Bone: the white Alpha of Monroe was born. Now that I have started writing, I can't stop. The characters talk to me and tell me what it up and what needs to happen. And even now new characters want to come and get there stories told. I always laughed when I would read about authors talking to their characters. I totally get it now!

With book one out, I have book two,Restraining an Alpha, in editing. I also am working on a sci fi romance. As soon as that one is off to the editor, book 3 of the White Alpha of Monroe Series will begin. My goal is to get the sci-fi one out and book 3. i also have 2 kids first time chapter books I will try to get out as well (J.J Ramsey). So here is a Blurb for book one and a unedited excerpt of book 2 of the White alpha of Monroe series.