Almost There

A few more key scenes and I will be finished with a solid draft of my single title, dark paranormal romance, THE PRENTICE LEGACY. Yay! I'm aiming to complete this by the end of next week...And then the layering and polishing will begin. :-)

With a lot of luck and determination, this novel will be ready to go at the beginning of 2008, and then it will be time to polish the proposals for Book Two and Book Three in the trilogy.

I'm thrilled at the way all my characters--but especially my hero and heroine, Cooper Landry and Elisabeth Prentice--took charge of the story and traveled to those dark places, really upping the stakes. Even when I wasn't sure whether I wanted "to go there"... they were right. LOL! I love them.

Do your characters ever tell you they want to do something other than what you had planned for them? Do you let them? And do you find maybe they were right?

Do I sound insane? ;-)

Hope your writing is going well!

Michele

Okay, this cracked me up...

I always thought Amy had it coming to her. And clearly, so does Meg Cabot.

Have you guys seen her retelling of this American Literary Classic...The way she thinks it should have been written? (Frankly, I agree.) In fact, anyone who has written a novel, or is in the process of writing one, might think the same.

Michele

Meeting Robert Crais

I’ve had this blog entry written for oh…well…over a month now, but I’m just getting around to posting it. Sheesh.

That’s because I’m focused on finishing my dark paranormal before the end of the year. Yay! (I’m sooo in love with these characters and this story.) But I do tend to tune everything else out when I get rolling on a story--except family and friends...and deadlines (those have come up, too).

However, even though I don’t post regularly when I’m in story writing mode, I do read your blogs every single day, as they jumpstart my morning. So, thank you!

Anyway, back to this post.

That’s Robert Crais in the picture…(Oh, and I’m standing next to him, but who cares, right? LOL) ;-)

I had the opportunity to hear him speak at OCC’s October 13th meeting, and he was absolutely charming. He certainly went out of his way to make others around him comfortable. And the cool thing was how he began his speech with how he’d struggled with numerous rejections for his first Elvis Cole novel, The Monkey’s Raincoat, but he didn’t allow himself to give up. Very inspirational.

He also spoke about how his family refused to support his choice to become a writer, at least not until he became a successful one (after he sold his first teleplay). And he offered up point-by-point how he worked damn hard to become the name he is today. Yeah, gotta say this endeared him to pretty much everyone in the room.

He’d written teleplays for “Hill Street Blues,” “Cagney and Lacey,” and “Miami Vice” as well. (And he mentioned the first show he’d worked on, but now I can’t remember the name…I want to say “Baretta,” but someone please correct me if I’m wrong.)

Anyway, I was first introduced to the name Robert Crais when his novel L.A. Requiem was required reading in a novel writing course in college, and that, of course, also became my introduction to the Private Investigator character, Elvis Cole. The setting, the suspense, the well-developed characters, the mystery, the voice…his books have it all. There’s a good reason Crais has jumped from struggling fiction writer to New York Times bestseller.

I thoroughly enjoyed having the opportunity to meet him, and it’s always a pleasure to put a warm and friendly personality with well-known name.

Have any of you read his books? Or have you had the opportunity to meet Crais?


Take Care,

Michele

Online Class with Judy Duarte: Matchmaking 101

Hey, I thought some of you might be interested in this online class called MATCHMAKING 101: A Yenta's Guide to Creating, Sustaining, and Overcoming Conflict.

The information on the class and the award-winning author, Judy Duarte, is below.

Happy Writing,

Michele

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OCC/RWA November Online Class

MATCHMAKING 101:
A Yenta's Guide to Creating, Sustaining, and Overcoming Conflict

November 12 to December 9
(4 weeks)

Instructor
JUDY DUARTE

Class info:
Judy Duarte, award winning author of 25 books, will share her method
of creating a compelling hero and heroine who must overcome all odds
to earn the right to fall in love and live happily ever after.

Learn how to handpick the perfect couple and develop backstories that
will provide a strong, believable conflict. By the end of the class,
you can expect to have the beginning of a solid synopsis that will
jumpstart your plot.

About the Instructor:
Judy's first book was released by Silhouette Special Edition in 2002.
Since then, her stories have touched the hearts of readers around the
world, winning her a National Reader's Choice Award in 2005.
Mulberry Park, Judy's first women's fiction novel and the book of her
heart, will be released in trade size by Kensington in April of 2008.

Enrollment Information:
Cost: OCC members $20 and Nonmembers $30
Enrollment deadline: November 10, 2007

For more infromation, see the website
http://www.occrwa.com/classes_november.htm
or e-mail online class moderator Lori Pyne at luv2write@gmail.com

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