Angela Booth's Writing Blog

Book Review: Fully Engaged

Title: Fully Engaged

Author: Eve Gaddy

Genre: Contemporary Romance/ Romantic Suspense

Publisher/ pub date: Bell Bridge Books, May 1, 2013

ISBN: 9781611943061

I'm a fan of "second chance" books, as well as firefighter books, so I enjoyed Fully Engaged because it combines both. Not only was the romance hot (pardon the pun), but so was the suspense.

Rick Montana dropped out of Callie Kilpatrick's life nine years previously, when he broke off their engagement over the phone. He was unaware that she was pregnant, and that she subsequently lost the baby. When she finally got over Rick, Callie's new fiance, Johnny, was killed in a fire, which was believed to be arson. However, no real investigation ever took place.

Callie can't believe that Rick's back in her life, and that he's a firefigher now. The last she heard, he was a journalist. Not only is he on her firefighting crew, but he's also her partner.

Fully Engaged truly engages readers. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough, and learned a lot about wildfires, and the dangerous life of firefighters. However, the suspense didn't overshadow the romance.

Rick's a wonderful hero. He left Callie because his father lied. As soon as Rick learns that it was a lie, he sets out to get Callie back because he loves her. Callie can't fight her attraction to Rick, however she can't forget Johnny either.

All the characters in this novel are wonderful, the leads, as well as the secondary characters. The book pulls you in; I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. It's action-packed, sensual, and a fast read. And there are animals -- who can resist wild life and their carers? I rarely reread books, but I'll be rereading this one because I enjoyed every moment of it.

Rating: 4.5 (out of 5 stars)

(A review copy was provided.)

Blogging Secrets: Case Studies of Successful Bloggers

Want to become a successful blogger? Issue 57 shows you HOW it's done, with case studies of successful bloggers. They started with nothing. They built their blogs. Some are making millions of dollars. Whether you want to hit the heights of blogging, or just want to make your mortgage payments each month, you can turn blogging into a successful enterprise, when you know how others did it.

via freelancewritingpro.co

How do successful bloggers do it? You can find out today.

Write Your Novel: Yes, You Can Plot

Myth #4: Some people just don’t have the plotting gene.

Truth: Plotting, like most everything else, can be learned. Instead of giving up on plotting altogether, ask yourself why you have such an aversion to it. Is it because not knowing what happens next makes you nervous? Or because knowing too much ruins the story for you?

via lizwritesbooks.com

This week on our freelance writing blog, our theme is writing Kindle fiction.

We discussed plotting your novel. A couple of readers contacted me to tell me that they "can't" plot.

Yes you can.

Play with your ideas. Ask yourself: "What if..." Write a journal entry, as if you were one of your characters.

Book Review: Lady Anne's Lover

Title: Lady Anne's Lover

Author: Maggie Robinson

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher/ pub date: Kensington Books Brava, July 30, 2013

ISBN: 0758289146 (ISBN13: 9780758289148)

It's 1820. Earl's daughter Lady Imaculata Anne Egremont has a mad father who makes sexual demands on her. She responds with outrageous behavior. She's shunned by the ton when she constantly appears in "The List", a London tabloid of the day. Anne, as she prefers to be known, is 19 years old. She needs to hide from her father for two years, until she receives her inheritance. She disguises herself as housekeeper Mrs. Anne Mont, and takes herself off to Wales, where she's hired by Major Gareth Ripton-Jones.

Gareth drinks to excess, and is months away from losing his run-down Welsh estate. He can barely afford to pay Anne. Anne comes up with a solution. She receives her inheritance upon her marriage, so she decides that she and Gareth will enter into a marriage of convenience. Hot-blooded Gareth has other ideas. He seduces Anne.

An excellent book, but...

It's several days since I read this novel, and I can't get the characters out of my mind. This should be the sign of a good book. It is, however the book has serious problems, the biggest one being the way the author handles the hero's alcoholism.

Gareth makes promises, and then fails to keep them. He accuses Anne of being forgetful and clumsy, when in reality, someone is trying to kill her. He harps on about Bronwen, his lost love for too much of the book. Anne's right when she calls Bronwen a "beautiful back-of-beyond femme fatale". He's almost 40, double the age of the heroine. Yes, he has reasons for drinking. He's lost an arm, and the woman he thought he loved.

Although Anne makes excuses for him, Gareth is weak. Anne deserved better.

Despite this, Lady Anne's Lover is a well-written Regency. I read it in one sitting, and enjoyed it. Gareth's character annoyed me so much that I was tempted to mark the book low. However, if you can forget his shortcomings, the book has much for you to enjoy.

Rating: 4 (out of 5 stars)

(A review copy was provided.)

Kindle Worlds Is Ready For Your Fan Fiction

Kindle Worlds is a publication submission platform where you choose a licensed World, read the Content Guidelines for that World, write your story, upload that story, create a cover using free images or your own image, and accept a publishing contract with Amazon Publishing. It’s simple and it’s fast. Every Kindle Worlds story will be featured on Amazon.com and Kindle devices and apps. Review the steps below to learn how to publish your story.

via kindleworlds.amazon.com

Want to write fan fiction? Choose your world, and write your story. Then, upload it to Amazon.

Good luck. :-)

Writing Secret: Finish What You Start

Finish what I write.

It is good advice to finish what you start but I think it's better to lay a story aside than force an artificial finish if you're stuck.

The best writers in the world have gotten stuck in the middle of a story. You know what this is like, right? You have a great idea for a story, you're writing gangbusters and then, after a certain point, nothing. It's like staring off the end of the world.

via blog.karenwoodward.org

"Finish!" That's one of the big secrets of successful writers. Always finish what you start, no matter how pathetic, awful and brain-numbingly bad you think it is.

Here's why.

A week or a month later, you'll read what you wrote, and one of two things will happen:

1. It's not that bad -- it may not be wonderful, but it's OK;

2. You know what the problem is, and you fix it.

If you have trouble finishing, your stories or novels, Fiction Frenzy will help.

400 Years Later, the Bard Re-imagined

Publisher Random House hopes it will bring Shakespeare "alive for a contemporary readership", and plans to kick off the programme with prose "retellings" of The Winter's Tale, Shakespeare's late play of jealousy and forgiveness, from Whitbread award-winner Winterson, and The Taming of the Shrew from the Pulitzer-winning American novelist Anne Tyler.

via www.guardian.co.uk

Jane Austen's 200-year anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice means that authors are lining up to do "modern retellings."

God save us all, the Bard's next in the firing line. Yes, his work is in the public domain... which means that publishers (who ran out of new ideas somewhere near the end of the century before last) are mauling his work.

The excuse? 2016 is the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death.

You Never Know What Will Sell

You never know what will sell

When she wrote her ebook, and posted it on Amazon’s Kindle store, my friend didn’t know the book would start selling as well as it did. It took time to get noticed.

She said that she just made a couple of sales in the first month. She completely forgot about it, and was surprised when the book took off.

via www.justwriteabook.com

I was chatting with a friend yesterday. She wants to write a book about her childhood. Partly so that she can understand what's driving her -- she recently divorced. Primarily however, she feels that the book will be fun to write, and she's learned things which will help others.

She needed encouragement, so I suggested to her that you never know what will sell.

To help shape her book, she's joined Memories. This coaching workshop helps you to become more comfortable writing about your life.

Inspiration, No Joke, It Really Is

For visual mapping, outlining, writing and making presentations, use Inspiration® 9, the ultimate thinking and learning tool. Brainstorm ideas, structure your thoughts and visually communicate concepts to strengthen understanding with the Diagram and Map Views. To take notes, organize information, and structure writing for plans, papers and reports, use the integrated Outline View to focus on main and supporting ideas and to clarify thinking in written form. With Inspiration's Presentation Manager, transform your diagrams, mind maps and outlines into polished presentations that communicate ideas clearly and demonstrate understanding and knowledge.

via www.inspiration.com

I used Inspiration way back in my Windows years. In 2005, I came back to Macs with sobs of joy. Why, oh why, did I stay away so long? (I spent the 1990s on Windows.)

Imagine my surprise when I found my long-lost-love Inspiration mind mapping program in the Mac app store. For some reason I'd gotten it into my head that Inspiration = Windows. I'm an idiot.

It's been a couple of weeks since my purchase, and I've used Inspiration every day, on EVERY project. It's BETTER than I remember. I haven't opened any other mind mapping tool since; I just use Inspiration.

Kudos to you, Inspiration. You truly ARE an inspiration. :-)

Self-Editing Your Novel

Once I’ve finished the first draft, I immediately print it off and start editing. I do this three times in a row. At this point, thanks to my outline and my earlier partial edits, my story should be pretty much how I originally envisioned it. It doesn’t always work out that way, of course, so I am open to making any large changes necessary at this point (a recent WIP required I rewrite the ending six times).

via www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com

Editing your novel can be a minefield. I avoid doing too much editing while I'm writing, because I know I may discard that scene, or an entire chapter, once the draft's done.

Brainstorm Kindle Short Stories

Turn on Your Imagination

We discussed plotting in our article on making money with short stories.

Jenny decides that she’ll spend a couple of hours brainstorming various situations, starting with the words, “what if?”

What if…

• A woman wrecks her car, and wakes up in a medieval street. She’s attacked by a dog, and is saved by a knight on a white horse. (Hey – we’re brainstorming, anything is allowed. Just write SOMETHING. You can work with your ideas later.)

via www.fabfreelancewriting.com

This week on our freelance writing blog our theme is writing Kindle fiction. Short stories are easy and fun to write, and they SELL.

You can brainstorm a whole series of Kindle short fiction in a couple of hours.

Erotic bestseller Fifty Shades of Grey earns £12.6MILLION in just six months

The erotic trilogy by EL James featuring explicit scenes of bondage became a  global publishing sensation and has sold more than 70million copies.

Now accounts for Fifty Shades Ltd reveal turnover of £12.6million in the period to the end of last September, with a profit of just over £8million after tax and costs.

The accounts also show the author has given more than £1million to charity.

via www.dailymail.co.uk

Lovely story about EL James. She deserves her success, having spawned an entire genre, and boosted the publishing industry.

Make Money Writing Short Stories

Short stories: write them and SELL them

Genres in which short stories are currently selling well include: erotica, romance, mystery, and science fiction/ fantasy.

Let’s start at the beginning and decide what a short story is.

via www.fabfreelancewriting.com

Can you make money writing short stories? A few years ago, the idea would have been laughable. All that's changed.

Book Review: To Sin with a Viking

Title: To Sin with a Viking
Author: Michelle Willingham
Genre: Historical
Publisher: Harlequin Historical
Pub Date: July 23, 2013
ISBN-13: 978-0373297504
Available from Harlequin.


This wonderful story takes place in Ireland, in 875 AD.

Caragh O Bannon's tribe live on the Irish coast. The land's stricken with drought and the harvest has failed. Many people have died of starvation, and Caragh's so weak that she knows that she will die soon too. Her parents are dead, and her older brothers have left to find food. Caragh's youngest brother, Brendan, stays to look after her. He's only 17.

When a Viking longship appears, Brendan makes a mistake. He and some other youths capture a woman. He holds her with a knife at her throat.

A Viking lunges at Brendan, so Caragh knocks him unconscious. With help, she drags him into her hut, and chains him up.

Styr Hardrata, Caragh's Viking captive, is married to Elena, the woman Brendan threatened and took captive. Styr's desperate to break free, and find his wife. He vows vengeance on the Irish if she's harmed. He's enraged at Caragh. However, he soon softens towards her. Although he escapes his chains, rather than harming Caragh, he takes her fishing and feeds her and the villagers.

Several days later, Caragh's brothers return. They agree to join forces with Styr to find Elena, Brendan, and Styr's men. They need to sail to Áth Cliath. (Modern-day Dublin.) It's a Viking settlement.

On the journey, Caragh and Styr fall in love.

What I Liked About the Book

Michelle Willingham does a wonderful job in evoking the era. You feel Caragh's desperation that there's no food. The romance was tender, and was the focus of the book, which I read in one sitting.

What I Didn't Like

Perhaps "didn't like" is too strong. I enjoyed the book on the whole. However, an early scene in which the Vikings allow themselves to be captured by starving Irish tribesmen seemed convenient, rather than possible. (The justification was that the Vikings had been through a bad storm, and hadn't slept for days.)

A scene late in the book was disquieting too. Styr's been holding onto his honor as a married man who won't admit his love for Caragh, then something happens between them. (I won't spoil it. You'll need to read it yourself.)

On the whole, I liked the book a lot. What's not to like about hot Vikings? :-)

Apparently Styr's wife Elena is getting her own book, so we have that to look forward to. This book is for you if you enjoy Viking romances.

Rating: 4 (out of 5 stars)

(A review copy was provided.)

Do You Finish Every Book You Start Reading?

"Choosing to terminate a relationship with a book prematurely remains strangely agonising, a decision fraught with guilt," one Wall Street Journal writer argued the other day, adding a newish twist: the hunch that, thanks to Kindles and iPads, the urge to throw in the towel might be getting harder to resist.

via www.guardian.co.uk

I have a 30-page rule for print books. Can't get into it in 30 pages? NEXT...

For ebooks, I give it 15% before I bail.

Life's too short to read what you don't LOVE.

On the other hand, when writing books, my rule's simple: you finish what you start. Always.