Cover Reveal - Laura Howard's THE FORGOTTEN ONES

Title: The Forgotten Ones

Author: Laura Howard

Genre: NA Paranormal Fantasy Romance

Expected release date: May 15, 2013

Age Group: New Adult

Cover Designer: Stephanie Mooney 

Book Description:

Allison O'Malley just graduated from college. Her life's plan is to get a job and take care of her schizophrenic mother. She doesn't have room for friends or even Ethan, who clearly wants more.

When Allison's long-lost father shows up, he claims he can bring her mother back from the dark place her mind has sent her. He reveals legends of a race of people long forgotten, the Tuatha de Danaan, along with the truth about why he abandoned her mother.

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Romancing the Writer

by Mary Sutton / @mary_sutton73

Not that long ago, I wrote about a little exercise I was doing to stretch my authorial legs - namely writing a romance novella set in Puerto Rico (a very romantic place, if you ask me).

Well, a week later, I think I'm almost done. The first draft was completed before the weekend. I'm now on rewrite #3 - the point where the changes are small tweaks, not major insertions or deletions.

I do plan to read it once more just to make sure my timeline hangs together (I had to start a notepad file to keep track of the days). But I feel perilously close to the "fiddling" stage. You know, where I'm making changes just for the sake of making changes. And that's really a bad place to be.

I've been asked "how do you know that you're done?" I'm not sure I really have a good answer to that. On one hand, you're "done" when your publisher says so. But in another way, I kind of feel that it's similar to defining pornography. Nobody can give a very good definition, but we all know it when we see it.

That's where I am. I'm not "done" yet, but I'm tantalizingly close. I feel it more than I know it.

And here's the most surprising thing: I've really, really enjoyed writing this novella. It may never go anywhere. But I've had a lot of fun. It's all about character, which I love. I mean really, there are only so many variations on "boy meets girl," right? So with a few minor details, one romance is a lot like another. That means that if you don't have good characters, you're dead in the water.

When I'm writing mystery, there's a lot of "who did what, when, why, how" puzzling that has to be done. No, that guy couldn't have done it, because of this thing I said he did in chapter 1. And the girl couldn't have been there at that time because I already said she was 100 miles away. Keeping track of those threads can be maddening.

So writing a story without those details has been refreshing. Yeah, there are details. The story still has to hang together. But it doesn't feel as technical. I've got a little more freedom. I need to worry more about whether a characters actions are consistent with her personality than whether or not I already alibied her four chapters ago.

So what's next for this story? Not really sure.

But I'm definitely going to go look up those contest rules again.

Updated 5/24/12: I pushed "send" on the entry today. Ack!

What's the one thing you've tried and enjoyed more than you expected?

Stretching My Boundaries

by Mary Sutton / @mary_sutton73

Last week, via Twitter, I got a link to a writing contest from a tweep of mine. Novella length, 15k-50k words. Due by 1 June. I thought, "That looks interesting." Just one problem.

It was for the romance genre.

Okay, I'll wait while you have whatever reaction you have to romance novels.

Now, I've never written romance. Don't really read them either. Not my thing. Not for me. Pass.

Until my husband, who had been reading one of my short stories, said "Are you sure you aren't writing a romance disguised as a mystery?" Whoa.

And that got me thinking: Perhaps I need to stretch my writing legs. You know, go outside the norm. Get out of my "comfort zone," as my friend Amy would say.

So I looked at the contest rules again. The level of "heat" in the manuscript was up to me. Which is good, because I don't think I'm ready to write an explicit sex scene yet. I started thinking. And for some reason, my three-month sojourn in Puerto Rico popped into my head. "What if two people, each looking to get over a heartbreak, met in San Juan? And what would happen if...?"

And thus, a story is born.

I finished the first draft using the #1k1hr tactic of fast-drafting. Don't spend days on an outline, just write. Some in the biz call this "pantsing" - writing by the seat of your pants.

Is the story any good? Well, I kind of like it. It's been fun writing something a little sexy, without the conundrums of "who got killed, by whom, how, and why."

Will I enter the contest? Don't know yet. I'm doing draft #2 now, expanding things, adding some more detail. If I like where the story is at by 1 June, I just might enter. You know, just for kicks.

Wish me luck.