The plan

I wrote this title as if I really have a solid plan, but I don’t. My hope is to finish Warrioress, pick back up on The Fallout, send them both to a few readers then revise, revise, revise! After that I am thinking I will self publish and sell on Amazon and Barnes and Noble with eBooks, then take it from there. See, not much to work with, but there you have it.

Apparently the odds of a self-published book making bestseller is quite slim, the same odds as becoming a lottery winner if truth be told. Yet even knowing this, I have to give it a try. I’m not saying I am writing the next Pulitzer prize winner, and have my doubts on sales but I believe if I stick it out, this will be a path I will be glad to have taken. Nothing worth having in life is easy.

Latest progress: The blog now has a  Bio and Books page with synopsis on Warrioress, so check them out. Word count on Warrioress is now up to 33,379 and I am currently writing chapter 7! So excited to spend most of tomorrow WRITING! (YAY for school!)

Historical erotic fantasy?

Such an interesting group of genres my current novel in progress has! Before I started Warrioress I would have scoffed at someone telling me I would write a book set in 1400’s Scotland with a center of erotic romance and a smattering of fantasy placed carefully here and there. That’s the beautiful thing about creative writing, the rules are truly limitless!

Okay, so it’s a given that we can call Warrioress historical. The heat is simmering to the boiling point with the sexual tension between my hero and heroine so we can definitely say it’s an erotic romance as I get quite- um, descriptive. Where exactly does the fantasy come in, you ask? Well, in this place and time of my book I have added a fictional twist that some people of the world are what I call Seers. I know, I know, before you start in on me let me explain a little more about what a Seer is and how it works.

A Seer is one- male or female- with the ability to see visions of near future or past occurrences. Seers many times are loaded with other talents, such as painting or jewelcrafting. One could be a very gifted Seer with many talents if the blood line was strong enough, for the magic runs genetically. When it is found that one is a Seer, usually in the person’s youth, the Seer then becomes literally the property of their ruling king, lord, shiek, emperor… you get the idea. There is a magical bond created between Master and Seer which makes life very interesting for my heroine, Eleanor. There is a law established that decrees a woman Seer to fight in their Master’s battles as a male Seer would. This law is the Warrioress Law. I’m sure you see where this is going now!

I am not really sure where the inspiration came for this fun novel, but I do know my darling husband has already helped it along in more ways than he knows. 😉

Warrioress

There have been many times in my life that I’ve said I wanted to write a book. Starting from about fourteen I would make up characters, plots and take notes or ideas down in a notebook. I even started a few books many times in my life, to recently get bitten by the bug again. Earlier this year I began a doomsday/apocalyptic young adult novel I have tentatively titled The Fallout. Time will tell if the title will stay or not. 🙂

A few months ago, after a short lull in writing The Fallout, I began a fantasy/historical erotic novel and I have never had an experience like I have writing this book! I am well into it now and it’s been very encouraging. I even have a timeline and series planned! It is titled Warrioress and it is set in Scotland in the 1400’s. I am totally in love with my hero and heroine and have decided to share an excerpt from the very beginning:

She bathed in the lochan in the cloudless night, the moon hitting her nude body and sending refracted light dancing about her it was so full and low. The slight confusion still muddled her thoughts as it always did after observing moon rituals. The water gleamed and sparkled and the leaves of the surrounding trees and shrubs reflected a silver glow from the moonlight. The world appeared a land of mysticism and magic on this warm, clear night. Hearing a sudden snapping of twigs from the woods and the sound of footfalls, she turned her head slightly towards the direction the noises came from and soon he appeared in the clearing. She disliked him intensely on sight. She took a half dozen paces towards the shore behind her lifting her out of the water to her thighs.
“You don’t flee for a maiden who bathes, why not?”
His head cocked slightly to the side as he took in the musical voice, imperious tone and sight of the enchanting creature before him in the water. For the barest instant she had all the appearance of a hunted doe before she calmed her features. She was sure to be a maid, but stood proudly letting the water bead off her overlarge breasts, down her flat belly, into the shadowed apex between her legs and slide down her slender thighs to rejoin with the water she stood in, her hair swirling around her legs. He felt his mouth go dry and he hardened immediately. She wore a complex cascading choker of luminescent oval moonstones set in silver and a matching filet held back the thick hair from her exquisite face. She seemed to be glowing and glittering in the moonlight. He wondered for a moment if he had come across the path of some fairy queen…but that was ridiculous!
“Is there reason I should flee from ye, sweetling? For I swear ye hae captivated me!”
He shook his head, he was clearly befuddled. She smiled, her spells cast about to help protect her solitude have worked their magic every time she used them.
“My laird, I must insist you leave and forget what you saw here this night.”
His brows furrowed and he seemed to be fighting her words. How was that possible? He fought the battle in his head and she took him in. It was dark and shadowed where he stood but she could see that his hair was long, dark and somewhat wild, many curls had escaped the leather strip holding it back, his well muscled body was more than exposed since he was wearing only his kilt, boots, bow and a sword…
“Nae, lady. I have other ideas.”
He started towards her determinedly. She went into a panic. What was going on? How did she lose control of this man? And just who was he? She stood her ground and kept her face serene. Her mind flashed to her weapons on shore behind her with her clothing and it screamed out the danger from the approaching man. Something on his chest flashed and her expertise noted it was an amulet made of precious gemstones.
“I will have ye!”
He reached the water, waded in and took her into his arms.

Warrioress is currently at a word count of 30K+ and once my kids are back in school (Monday!) I should really be getting somewhere. I started this blog to post about my writing journey and share the progress of these novels.

Hints on writing better dialogue

1. Dialogue should be brief.

2. It should add to the reader’s present knowledge.

3. It should eliminate the routine exchanges of ordinary conversation.

4. It should convey a sense of spontaneity but eliminate the repetitiveness of real talk.

5. It should keep the story moving forward.

6. It should be revelatory of the speaker’s character, both directly and indirectly.

7. It should show the relationships among people.

–ELIZABETH BOWEN

In other words, don’t fret over the routine details and keep things simple!