Objective: Write the Best Book I Am Capable of Right Now

Stop making excuses and just write.

The words reverberate in my head – just like earworms, only there is no music.  Just a voice, mocking me throughout each day:  when I check Facebook it whispers “You’re making excuses…”  When I check email, it gets a little louder.  “STOP making excuses!”  When I try to relax by reading, it practically shouts at me.  “STOP MAKING EXCUSES AND JUST WRITE!”

My manuscript IS written.  The first three chapters have been revised and polished because I’ve entered a couple of contests.  The middle chapters have a little sag that I’m editing out, and the last few chapters need more work.  But the manuscript is not finished – not like it should be for submission.  Right or wrong, I want to have a “finished” product before I send it out.

Working toward that goal, I have a printed copy of my manuscript that I'm busy marking up.  I selected a different font for each POV character, so I can easily see if I’m head-hopping.  I have red and blue pens, and highlighters in assorted colors to mark things that jump out at me as I edit.  I have a spiral notebook handy to jot down more detailed notes about facts that need checked, loose ends to tie up, and plot problems to resolve.

The contests have been a great learning tool.  As an entrant and a judge, I’ve seen a variety of scoresheets. I’ve compiled my own list of questions to use as a guideline while editing.  I also have a checklist of words to search, and replace.

But how do I know when to stop?  How do I know when it’s ready to submit?  

I regularly peruse writing websites.  Another excuse?  Maybe, but one I hope will pay off because I learn so much from experiences other authors share.  For example, Holly Lisle (http://hollylisle.com/how-to-revise-a-novel/) suggests setting a completion date for revisions.  “You need to keep yourself going with deadlines. It’s easy to fall into a nasty cycle of second-guessing yourself, revising your revisions, and never getting to the point of actually sending the manuscript out.”

Great advice I need to take.

But more importantly for me, on Holly’s site I found a clue to knowing when my book is finished.

Your objective is to make it the best book that you are capable of writing right now.

No, my manuscript won’t be perfect. But if I make it the best book I can right now, then I can move on to writing the next book and use everything I’ve learned to make it even better than the first!

How do you know when your manuscript is ready for submission?  Is there one thing that is a deciding factor?  Please share.

Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

-Frank Outlaw

Echoes of the Past: Soul Mates by Susanne Matthews

Are soul mates a fantasy, only a dream? The Write Way Café welcomes author Susanne Matthews, who doesn't think so. Check her list of tell-tale signs.

Thank you so much for having me here today. Soul mates, love at first sight. What do both of these have in common? Some would say they’re impossible dreams—pie-in-the-sky theories that don’t exist—and that’s sad. In this busy world of ours, people have little time to form relationships let alone hunt for that elusive Mr. or Ms. Right. Instead, like butterflies they flit from one unsatisfactory relationship to another. For many, the outside appearance is everything. For others, there has to be a connection below the surface, a common interest, something beyond the body. Sadly, there are a number of people today who don’t believe in soul mates. Most settle for what they believe are life partners, life mates, people with whom they’re compatible and happy, but not all of those relationships last. 

American author Richard Bach believes, "A soul mate is someone who has locks that fit our keys, and keys to fit our locks. When we feel safe enough to open the locks, our truest selves step out and we can be completely and honestly who we are."

According to Dr. Carmen Harra, Author, clinical psychologist and relationship expert, soul mates exist, and finding them is the key to real happiness. In Echoes of the Past, neither Michelle nor Tony has been able to have a real relationship. Why? Because these soul mates found one another two centuries ago, and then were ripped apart by those who wouldn’t accept their love. Now, after two hundred years, they have a chance to be together again. To believe in soul mates is to believe in forces and time beyond the here and now. 

Are you looking for love? Here is a short version of Dr. Harra’s Ten Elements of a Soul Mate.

1. It’s in the way they make you feel. In the words of Jerry Maguire, they complete you. You’re whole. You have everything you need to be completely content with life. 

2. They’re familiar and comfortable.  Whether you believe in reincarnation or not, when you meet your soul mate, it’s as if you’ve known them forever. You might even have a sense of déjà vu—that haven’t we met before feeling—because you very well could have in another time and place.  

3. You get one another. Have you ever seen people who can finish one another’s sentences? While you might experience it if you spend too much time with a friend or a family member, when it happens with someone you’ve just met or known a short while, it’s a sign of what Dr. Harra calls the soul mate connection. 

4. You love them for who they are—warts and all. There are no perfect men and women. We are all flawed in some way. Even soul mates will disagree and have ups and downs, but those episodes will straighten rather than damage the relationship. A soul mate loves you just as you are. They don’t try to change you, but accept you wholeheartedly, and love even the quirky things you do that occasionally drive them nuts. 

5. It's passionate. Your relationship with a soul mate is deeper and more intense than anything you’ve ever experienced. This can be both good and bad, but soul mates can get beyond the dark days to the happiness waiting for them.

6. You can do anything TOGETHER. Soul mates are united against the world. They can overcome anything together. The relationship is built on mutual respect and compromise with togetherness as the glue to hold everything in place. 

7. You're on the same mental wavelength. Soul mates often think of one another. It’s not uncommon for them to call one another at the same time. Out shopping they might pick up something the other needs without it even having been mentioned. Life might separate them physically at times, but the mental connection still exists. 

8. You have faith in one another and feel safe. This is a critical aspect. Trust and faith. No matter the size or gender of your soul mate, when you are with them, you feel secure and protected. If the person you’re with plays on your insecurities in any way, even if the other nine points fit, you can be sure they aren’t your soul mate. 

9. You can't imagine life without them. Walking away voluntarily from your soul mate is an impossible task. Many people who lose their soul mates spend the rest of their days alone because it’s impossible to replace them. In the movie, The Notebook, the scene at the end illustrates the power of the connection between soul mates. 

10. You are honest and forthcoming with them. There are no secrets, no hidden agendas between soul mates. You look one another in the eye. Your connection is deep and demands the truth at all times.

Not everyone will find their soul mate, but in Echoes of the Past, Tony and Michelle do. As you read the novel, see if you can find the Ten Elements of the Soul Mate in their story.

Born Mohawk, raised white, forensic pathologist, Michelle Thomas is trapped between two worlds—this one and the spirit world where the ghosts of those who’ve drowned speak to her. Haunted by crippling nightmares of her own drowning death and erotic dreams of a phantom lover, she strives to make sense of her life. When two suspicious deaths occur at the Lake of the Mountain Resort, she’s sent to investigate. She’ll face the greatest challenge of her career when her past and her present collide. One of these men is her future, but which one—the rich and powerful Mayor Ron Davies, or Tony Steele, the hydrology professor who may be responsible for his students’ deaths? Charged by the spirits of her Mohawk ancestors to atone for her previous sins by protecting Lake of the Gods, can Michelle solve the murders, save the sacred waters, and fulfil her destiny?

Release Date July 11, 2014

Purchase Echoes of the Past from SCP.

Check my Website for other purchase options.

About Susanne:  Susanne Matthews was born and raised in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada.  She’s always been an avid reader of all types of books, but always with a penchant for happily ever after romances. In her imagination, she travelled to foreign lands, past and present, and soared into the future. Today, gets to spend her time writing, so she can share her adventures with her readers. She loves the ins and outs of romance, and the complex journey it takes to get from the first word to the last period of a novel. As she writes, her characters take on a life of their own, and she shares their fears and agonies on the road to self-discovery and love.

Follow Susanne on her:  Website    Blog    Facebook page    Twitter @jandsmatt

Amazon author page    and    Goodreads author page

What Books Do

The world is getting bigger. Can you feel it? It’s sort of like when a bell rings, an angel gets its wings. But in this case, when the world adds a new reader to its population, the world expands…for that person.

It’s been amazing to witness the transformation right in my household. The sheer pleasure and pride and excitement are fun to be a part of. I’ll explain.

My husband always encouraged our kids to read, as, of course, did I. They all grew up to be reading adults. The kind of readers who read all kinds of books and enjoy them. But my husband kept hidden from them that he didn’t read. He knew how, but whenever we talked about it he said he wasn’t a good reader. He didn’t like reading. Then a few years ago I pointed out how odd that he so believed reading was a good thing, but he didn’t read. He agreed. But still didn’t start reading.

Another time, I told him my life had been so enriched by the books I’ve read. I talked about learning things and engaging with different places and people than I would ever actually do in person. I told him he’s missing out on all the good stuff. I remember what he said: “You’re probably right. I’ll consider it.”

Well, that was my cue. I bought him a book about running and encouraged him to read it, even if he’s a poor reader, so that he maybe could talk about running with our running kids. That appealed to him. And that was the starting off point of my husband becoming a bona fide “reader.” He reads for pleasure. He reads instead of watching television. From that first book about running he has turned selecting books to read into an adventure. He’s read thick biographies about important people. He reads print and on his tablet. He’s read short books about animals. He’s read adventure books. One of those was the first book he read that he couldn’t put down until it was finished and it was more than 200 pages long. He’s read nonfiction books about sports and race and triumph under terrible circumstances. He finished a Tom Clancy book of about 800 pages in two weeks. He’s even read my three romance novels and given me the gift of being moved by the stories.

Since that first book about running, he has read a list of books that totals 35 various sorts of books. This summer so far he’s read six, including the long Tom Clancy. When he was reading a book about Thomas Edison, he would share tidbits from the book about the man. Did you know Thomas Edison not only invented the light bulb, he also designed an efficient battery and opened a factory, and through his inventions provided hundreds and hundreds of jobs? And did you know he also developed a distribution system for electricity? My husband enjoyed sharing those facts from the Thomas Edison book he read. He loves to talk with me about the books he’s reading and it’s pure delight for me. His eyes light up and his discussion is animated. He’s become a member of an interesting group of people: readers.

Do I take credit for initiating this phenomenon in my husband? Of course. But his transformation is truly all his doing. He proves that people can change, and in doing so, the world expands. Books can do that. Whether it’s fiction, such as the Golden Book The Sleepy Little Puppy, or a romance novel, a classic, or nonfiction, such as the biography my husband read about Nelson Mandela or the sports book about football he read in about three days, books open the world for readers.

I asked him the other day, after he finished another book, if he’s become a good reader. He cocked his head and smiled and said, “Maybe I have.” I said, “It sure looks like it.”

What book got you started in your love of reading? Mine happened to be The Sleepy Little Puppy.
 

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.

-Seneca

Stop Making Excuses

Fear.  A four letter word that writers know well.  It’s a facet of our lives that sometimes gets the better of us.

Sending our children out into the cruel world has nothing on submitting our writing for consideration.  At least our children can fight back, hopefully with the tools of experience we have provided them. But there’s no one to protect our words, except our words themselves.

What if we aren’t good enough?  What if nobody likes what we have written?  What if our work is rejected?

I’ve been writing since I was young.  By no means does that make me an expert.  But I must be on the right track because I’ve gotten positive feedback from people who have read my work.  I know I still have a lot to learn.  And yes, maybe I am just a little bit afraid of having my work rejected.

But I’m equally afraid of being successful. What if I’ve done my homework well enough that my writing is accepted? What are the consequences of success?  Will I be ready for it?  How will success change me, and how will it change my life?

The road to becoming a successful writer is paved with good intentions.  It also has scenic pull-outs that are valid distractions – distractions that enable us to  ignore the fear. Distractions that fuel the fear, too.

Family – I haven’t been very successful at putting my family after my writing.  With my oldest moved out, and my youngest wanting nothing to do with me (he’s a teenager, what can I say?), I plan to spend more time writing. But I also need to nurture my relationship with my husband. Will my family relationships suffer if I reach my goal of being published?

Exercise – I haven’t been very successful at exercising, either.  My day job is a desk job, and although I do a fair amount of getting up and down, sitting all day has definitely contributed to this secretary’s spread! In order to combat the spread, hubby and I often walk in the evenings after dinner.  On weekends, we regularly make trips to one of our local state parks and spend the day hiking. It's good for the hips, and photographing nature while I'm there feeds my creative juices.

Appetite – Unfortunately, I have one.  Especially for chocolate. Therefore I need my family to make me get out and do things, rather than coming home and sitting all evening.  Or, maybe I should invest in a treadmill desk.

Reading – Some of the best adventures a body can have!  Escape into another world and live vicariously through those characters.  Travel the world, and experience places and situations that you might not have the opportunity for in your daily life.

These topics were part of a recent discussion with a writer friend who ultimately told me I was making excuses and that I need to stop making excuses and just write.  Her comments made me think.  I need to find balance in my life.  I can have every intention of becoming a published author, but if I spend all my time on the scenic pull-outs of life, I’ll never travel that road to publication.

Do you allow your fears to be a distraction?  How do you balance life and writing?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.

The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say but what we are unable to say.

- Anais Nin

An Interview with Cait O'Sullivan

Can the tango be tamed? Find out today as author Cait O'Sullivan shares with The Write Way Café the rich background she pulled from to write Taming the Tango Champion.

When did you first have the thought you'd like to write a book? Was that first thought related to writing romance?
I can’t quite remember when I first thought I’d write a book. Sounds horribly pretentious, but I just always wanted to. I never actually thought I’d do it, mind you, so it’s a lovely surprise to be published. Still very thrilling!!

Taming the Tango Champion was the second book I started to write but midway through I saw a call for submissions for Gothic romance which I quite liked the idea of. So I wrote two novellas and then returned to the Tango Champion to finish it off. Originally, the start of the book was about Ava in Argentina falling in love with Matthias and doing that all important making babies thing but I was told it needed to start when Bella was alive and kicking, not just conceived. So I rewrote the start. Those original three chapters are available on my blog though, so if you fancy a quick read, head on over to Cait’s Place! Regarding research, I have a friend who is a professional dancer and I also take my two girls to dancing lessons. Like Ava, I travelled the world and had a great time in Argentina. And lastly, I know what it’s like to be a single mother.

When I travelled, I guarded my heart carefully, as the last thing I wanted was to be hankering (!) after a man who didn’t live on the same continent as me. At the same time, I think it is rather romantic so I got me to thinking, and as I had small children, it seemed natural to bring them into the mix. As an avid watcher of Strictly Come Dancing – I think it’s Dancing with the Stars in America, I started to wonder what it would be like to dance in front of the man you felt very passionately about and who would then have to deliver a critique on how you moved. Not to mention practising with him, up close and personal and, yanno, the kinda things that can happen in those moments. J 

Are your main characters completely imaginary or do they have some basis in real people? Do they reflect aspects of yourself?
Tough one really, because my initial reaction is both Ava and Matthias are imagined but! I have travelled like Ava and am a single mum so, yes, I guess some aspects have crept in there. Only because you write what you know, right? As for the gorgeous Matthias, I did actually have the good fortune to meet such a man (looks wise only though, not a dancer or a rancher!!) when I was in Argentina. His name was Alessandro…happy sigh.

Did you face any blocks writing this book?
Yes absolutely. First up was confidence. Then when I sent the first chapters out and was told I had started in the wrong place, that kinda knocked me for a bit. So I wrote two different novellas and sold them, so that gave me the confidence to return to Ava and Matthias. And in all fairness, I love the two of them. I don’t think I could’ve let them die on the page!!!

What have been the surprises you’ve encountered when writing this book and after?
It was intriguing and gratifying the way the emotional content flowed due to having real life experiences, which were painful but it was cathartic writing about it. The risotto scene, for example!!

What did you learn about yourself, the process, the writing world, dancing for TV and dancing competitively?
I learned it was easier to write about sex than I thought it was, and then that practise makes perfect—there’s a lot of sex in the book!! As regards dancing, it was tough, but I was glued to Strictly Come Dancing (think it’s Dancing with the Stars in the U.S.) and have a friend who’s a professional dancer! ‘Nuff said!! (nothing like getting the hips moving in a tango to warm up a book).

Tell us about your writing space and how or why it works for you.
I write in a coffee shop because I like the background noise and the busy vibe, and I do think that switching off hearing it helps creativity. Quite motivational. Until it comes to writing something a little hotter because it’s tough to imagine my characters having sex when you’re surrounded by strangers and you never know who’s going to walk in!

What are some of your favourite books and why?
I read Gone with the Wind at a very impressionable age and fell for romance. To be honest, I read a wide range of books and the book that has stood out for quite a long time is Papillion. Anything by Jilly Cooper is sure fire read for me. I love her audacity!

What are you working on now?
I’m onto the third draft of Indigo Beach, the first in a fantasy trilogy, set and based on the myths of Ireland. It’s a total departure from romance but, of course, there is romance contained within –I couldn’t do without my romance fix.

Would you like to try your hand at writing a different genre?
See above!! I have also written Gothic romance, (is that a different genre?!) and love mixing it up. I think the age we live in is all about merging and mixing genres to see what emerges. Great fun!!

If you were not a writer, what would your dream job be?
To be honest, as I’m living my dream being a writer, it’s hard to imagine what else I’d do. Although I would love to illustrate my books as well as write them. Maybe even add some music to it. I play the piano and would possibly have explored that further if writing hadn’t already occupied that space in my psyche.

What aspect of writing gave you the most trouble?
The first line always gets me. Starting is so very hard. It’s time to find out whether those expectations within you will get realised or not, whether those characters that you’ve been slowly building have any substance or is it all a vapid dream.

Thanks so much, Lynn and HiDee for having me here today!! I really appreciate the time you took coming up with such great questions and for featuring me. 

London TV presenter, Ava Whittaker, has a baby by twice-former Argentine Tango Champion Matthias de Romero. The problem? He doesn't know. Fast forward two years and Matthias is the judge on a new dance show,  one where Ava is a contestant. But time hasn 't healed the wound of discovering he became engaged straight after their tryst whilst on holiday in the Andes. Although she's in love with Matthias, she carefully guards her secret and her heart from him.

In search of answers on why Ava walked out on him, Matthias takes a place as a judge on a new London TV show, To Dance or Not to Dance. But seeking answers only creates more questions.

Will the glitterball--and her secret--cause their intense feelings to burn out or fan further the flames of desire?

Amazon UK                Amazon.com

About Cait:  Cait O'Sullivan has a deep love of words, music and magic, having had the good fortune to grow up in Ireland. The wanderlust in her blood sent her out to travel the world and now, residing in a leafy suburb of London, it is her thoughts and memories that journey far and wide in order to create her stories.

Cait’s Place                            Facebook                                Twitter

Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.

- Mahatma Gandhi

Writing Paranormal by JoAnne Myers

Author JoAnne Myers is haunted by story ideas. She shares with The Write Way Café where she finds inspiration for her paranormal stories.

When it comes to fiction writing, almost anything goes. That is why I love writing paranormal stories. The author can go completely over the edge and make something unbelievable seem believable. When it comes to ghost stories, I get a lot of my inspiration from real life experiences. Not necessarily my own either. I watch television programs that partake of the supernatural and paranormal flare. Programs from ordinary people who claim they experienced either an afterlife experience or a haunting.

Some of my stories from my upcoming release “Wicked Intentions” are based on actual hauntings. Some stories I read about in the newspaper, and others I watched on true life experience programs.

Blurbs for “Wicked Intentions”

Some of the stories from my paranormal anthology, “Wicked Intentions” are based on actual hauntings. In The Legend of Lake Manor, I placed my young psychic, Cassandra Lopez, in a haunted mansion I fashioned from my knowledge of a three-story mansion in my hometown, and information from television about a restaurant/bar in Ohio, supposedly ruled by demons so violent that the local police are constantly closing it down.

A television documentary about a young mother plagued by ghost sightings since childhood, inspired The Haunting of Barb Marie and her gift/curse.

And The Apartment, in which my newlyweds, Bill and Gayle, are plagued by sightings of evil ghosts that threaten their marriage and theirs lives, originated from a real apartment haunted by the ghosts of two homosexual lovers who died violently. The legend says no tenant is able to stay there until the spirits are chased off by a paranormal investigation team.

On the Discovery Channel, I got the idea for Summer Wind. I learned of the colonial explorer Jonathon Carver who lived during the 1700s and whose ghost is believed to be haunting the Summerwind estate, built in the early 20th century. Carver’s ghost is, supposedly, searching the house’s foundations for deeds to a vast tract of land (10,000 square miles) given to him by Sioux Indian chiefs as a reward for the peace treaty he created between two warring tribes. In my Summer Wind, 29-year-old Ginger is mysteriously drawn to the old mansion, and like the many owners of the real mansion, Ginger and her family suffer a negative and profound profound effect.

Another investigative program concerned one sister’s psychic premonitions about her twin’s murder. This led to my story, Blood Ties, and my heroine, Audra Roper’s dark, disturbing visions of her sister’s disappearance and the roller coaster of risks, heartbreak, and intrigue that followed.

Dark Visions came from reading a newspaper story while sitting in a diner. A young woman began having visions of her father's disappearance that was actually his murder from years earlier. So, my Carrie Reynolds starts having nightmares on her twenty-sixth birthday and believes these ‘dark visions’ can solve the twenty year disappearance of her father.

I set my murder mystery, The Truth Behind the Lies, on Norfolk Island after following a three year long murder investigation on that island from 2003. In my story, Federal Police Inspector Ian Christian faces attacks, more murders, and ghostly occurrences, and the killer is closer than anyone realizes.

So, the next time you get Writer’s Block, or need a new idea, try switching on the television, opening a newspaper, delving into history, or simply looking and listening. You will find something to stimulate your muse. 

JoAnne has been a long-time resident of southeastern Ohio and worked in the blue-collar industry most of her life. Besides having several novels under her belt, she canvas paints.

When not busy with hobbies or working outside the home, she spends time with relatives, her dog Jasmine, and volunteers her time within the community. JoAnne is a member of the International Women’s Writing Guild, Savvy Authors, Coffee Time Romance, Paranormal Romance Guild, True Romance Studios, National Writers Association, the Hocking Hill's Arts and Craftsmen Association, The Hocking County Historical Society and Museum, and the Hocking Hills Regional Welcome Center. She believe in family values and following your dreams. Her books and original canvas paintings, can be found at:

booksandpaintingsbyjoanne.com

Other books by Jo Anne:

"MURDER MOST FOUL" a detective/mystery anthology

"LOVES', MYTHS' AND MONSTERS'," a fantasy anthology

"THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY," a biography true-crime

“POEMS ABOUT LIFE, LOVE, AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN”

Other books soon available:

"TWISTED LOVE," a true-crime anthology available in July

“FLAGITIOUS,”  a crime and paranormal novella collection available in August

Buy Links:
http://www.melange-books.com/authors/joannemyers/WickedIntentions.html

Paperback:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=wicked+intentions&categoryId=100501

Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Wicked-Intentions-JoAnne-Myers-ebook/dp/B00GNRUF40/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1384531716&sr=1-1&keywords=wicked+intentions+myers

Website            Blog         Facebook

Contact JoAnne:  joannetucker98@yahoo.com