Writing Challenges

Leave a comment Posted on Book Publishing, Dreams, indie publishing, Life, publishing, Story, Tradition, writing, Writing Challenges

All The Little Pieces

So, I released another book… yup, All The Little Pieces – Book Two In The Omega Security series released on 19th July 2018.  Hadn’t heard? Well that’s no surprise really because I didn’t tell anyone!

Black_AllTheLittlePieces_Ebook_jpeg

In keeping with my reverse marketing approach, I hit the publish button and that was it. This wasn’t intentional and as a matter of fact I had a totally different release strategy planned for this book (yes, I had an actual plan this time). However, my impulsive nature got the better of me (again…) and I changed the plan about three quarters of the way through and decided to set up a pre-order on Amazon. Unfortunately, when I did this, I didn’t realise it would then lock me in to the date I had set for publication – the 19th of July.

Then, of course, life decided to kick my ass and things other than writing had to take priority, so it was all I could do to just meet the publishing deadline.  Marketing and promotion efforts went out the window and things became quite manic!

Throughout it all I had my lovely editor – the wonderful Sheryl Lee – waiting patiently for the finished product. I thank heavens for her incredible understanding and patience!

Shery Lee

The lovely and ever so patient Sheryl Lee!

In keeping with tradition, I asked her to give her editorial opinion of All The Little Pieces on release day.  It’s a bit late but here it is.

“Nobody writes a book about damaged people finding their way better than Roisin.

From the very beginning your heart bleeds for Ruby and you’re in her corner, willing her to let out her pain so she can heal.

Ruby and Snake are two people with troubled pasts. Ruby is a complex person, a person who can’t allow herself to face her demons and overcome them. She is pretending she has put her terrifying experience at the hands of terrorists behind her, but inside she is a broken mess.
Snake could have followed a very different, dark path in his life, but instead he chose the
higher, perhaps more difficult way. He is strong, protective, caring, and perceptive. He sees through Ruby’s façade into her broken heart and he wants to help her to heal.
The situation is complicated, there are secrets on both sides, and Ruby has a long, long way to go before she can be part of a couple. Snake is willing to do whatever it takes to keep her safe and help all her little pieces become whole again.
Roisin writes from the heart. Her characters are not perfect, they are three dimensional, real people. Ruby and Snake come off the pages and into your heart, and you won’t forget them for a long, long time. Fortunately, you don’t have to as there are more books to come in this series, and Roisin has given us a tantalising glimpse into the direction the series is headed, and it’s a cracker.”
So there you have it! All The Little Pieces  – Book Two In The Omega Security Series is available at all good digital retail outlets a click away from you and in paperback on Amazon.
It’s currently on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and ibooks and will be on Kobo soon. Just click the links below.
3D Mockup of All The Little Pieces
1 Comment Posted on Love, publishing, writing, Writing Challenges

The Editor’s View – Someone To Come Back To

They say time flies when you’re having fun but let me tell you it completely disappears when you are trying to launch a book!  I can’t believe my last post was on Valentine’s Day – which seems like a lifetime ago.  Since then I’ve had the big Cover Reveal for my upcoming novel Someone To Come Back To and the response was so phenomenal I’ve hardly had a second to spare since.  The irony wasn’t lost on me, however, that my cover was out there on a plethora of blogs across the globe and not on my own!  So, let me correct that right now.  Here it is – the cover (ebook and paperback) for Someone To Come Back To  – releasing April 13th 2016.

STCBT-for-web

STCBT-print-for-web

 

In my next post (which shouldn’t take as long as this one!) I’ll be talking about the amazing people involved in the production of this beautiful cover but today I’m going to introduce you to another person who has been crucial to the development of my story – editor extraordinaire – Miss Sheryl Lee.

Shery Lee

Sheryl very kindly stepped in at the last minute when another editing arrangement I had organised didn’t work out and am I so glad it didn’t because I could not have imagined a better editor for me!

Sheryl is quick and efficient and my goodness does the woman know her stuff.  Misplaced modifiers and dangling participles – watch out when Miss Lee is about!

On top of being a superb editor Sheryl is a very warm and kind-hearted person and deeply respectful of another author’s work but she’s kinda hard-ass when she needs to be (I’m still smarting over one particular scene!)  She makes the gruelling editing process almost bearable and Someone To Come Back To is all the better for having had her sharp editor’s eye thrown over it.

As I was sending out ARCs the other night it occurred to me that I should ask her to write a few lines about the story – considering she was the only other person in the whole world, apart from myself,  who had read it!  And this is what she had to say:

“A couple of days ago Roisin asked me to write a few lines about what I thought of her new book, Someone To Come Back To. An impossible ask, for how can you write a few lines about a book you loved?

As her editor I got to read this book before almost everyone else and that’s one of the perks of the job!

I love this book, I loved it so much that I kept forgetting to do my job with it. In the end I had to read the whole thing and then go back to edit. That’s how compelling this story is.

The main protagonists, John and Maggie, are wonderfully and realistically complex. Essentially good people, they are shaped by their environment and circumstance. They both have a lot to learn about themselves and what is important to them, and they don’t learn the easy way.

This is a love story, between the main characters, between friends, between family. It has love, romance, action, humour, tears, good guys and bad guys. It has a lead man who will have you swooning, a feisty female lead you’ll be cheering on, and supporting characters you will want to know more about, and will once Roisin gets her writing mojo on with the rest of the books in the series.

I had planned to give out a few teasers, but you know what? I’m not. This is a great book, read it and be enthralled. It’s a world you will not want to leave.”

So there you have it, the Editor has spoken!

If Someone To Come Back To sounds like your kind of read then log on to amazon on 13th April and click on it and buy.  It will be at a special promotional price of $2.99 (U.S.) for the first two weeks.

If you are an author in need of a top class editor then click the link below

http://sherylleee.wix.com/editor

 

STCBT-FB-promos-3

2 Comments Posted on Inspiration, Poetry, writing, Writing Challenges

How Writers Roll

It’s Monday. It’s raining. It’s beautiful.  The kids are gone back to school and I am surrounded by blessed silence tempered only by the drip, drop, pat, pat, pat of raindrops.

School holidays for me mean no writing and as much as I love and adore my children, this causes me a certain amount of frustration, especially because I’m not the type of person who can easily pick up a story, like a piece of thread and just start sewing it together again.  No, I need to ease myself back into it, to pick up the mood and re-acquaint myself with my characters.  That’s just how this writer rolls.

The story I’m currently working on is about a man who has decided love is not for him.  Of course fate has other ideas.  Over the next few weeks I will be dealing with the crux of the story and its main theme – love.  So, in order to “pick up the mood” and find some inspiration for hopefully some decent writing over the coming weeks I’ve been listening to Ed Sheeran and reading love poetry.  Not a bad way to pass a rainy Monday!  In my efforts to find inspiration I came across this stunningly beautiful poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox and I’d like to share it with you.  Its so incredibly beautiful and yet astute in its observation of the physical and emotional state that is love. It blew me away.  Enjoy.

Love’s Language

How does Love speak?
In the faint flush upon the telltale cheek,
And in the pallor that succeeds it; by
The quivering lid of an averted eye–
The smile that proves the parent to a sigh
Thus doth Love speak.

How does Love speak?
By the uneven heart-throbs, and the freak
Of bounding pulses that stand still and ache,
While new emotions, like strange barges, make
Along vein-channels their disturbing course;
Still as the dawn, and with the dawn’s swift force–
Thus doth Love speak.

How does Love speak?
In the avoidance of that which we seek–
The sudden silence and reserve when near–
The eye that glistens with an unshed tear–
The joy that seems the counterpart of fear,
As the alarmed heart leaps in the breast,
And knows, and names, and greets its godlike guest–
Thus doth Love speak.

How does Love speak?
In the proud spirit suddenly grown meek–
The haughty heart grown humble; in the tender
And unnamed light that floods the world with splendor;
In the resemblance which the fond eyes trace
In all fair things to one beloved face;
In the shy touch of hands that thrill and tremble;
In looks and lips that can no more dissemble–
Thus doth Love speak.

How does Love speak?
In the wild words that uttered seem so weak
They shrink ashamed in silence; in the fire
Glance strikes with glance, swift flashing high and higher,
Like lightnings that precede the mighty storm;
In the deep, soulful stillness; in the warm,
Impassioned tide that sweeps through throbbing veins,
Between the shores of keen delights and pains;
In the embrace where madness melts in bliss,
And in the convulsive rapture of a kiss–
Thus doth Love speak.

1 Comment Posted on Writing Challenges

Writing Sex Scenes In A Post Fifty Shades Of Grey World

My journey to being a published author has been a long and colourful one and many manuscripts were consigned to the trash box along the way.  Most of them consisted of stories for children, fantasy and crime fiction.  None of them featured any major sex scenes and since my dreams for international novel- writing stardom mostly consisted of crime fiction, then I thought coming up with interesting and engaging sex scenes wasn’t something I was going to have to worry about.  So it came as something of a surprise to me, when I finally decided on self-publishing, that my first three stories all slotted into the romance genre. And each one of them very much involves sex!  Remember Me, in particular, has sex as being central to its storyline with Flynn Murphy presenting himself as bait to Annabel Smith, a woman who uses sex as a weapon.  More than one friend messaged me whilst reading it to let me know how much  it made them blush!

Front cover of book called Remember Me

Remember Me Book Cover

Now, don’t go getting your panties all in a twist – it’s not THAT explicit and it doesn’t flirt with Erotica or BDSM – even though I’m sure Flynn wouldn’t have minded landing a few spanks on Miss Smith’s perfect buttocks.  However, it does have quite a sex scene in it – with two characters like Flynn and Annabel – how could it not and I have to admit to a blush or two when I wrote it.

This is the thing about writing sex scenes, they push you outside of your comfort zone and the problem with writing a sex scene in a post Fifty Shades Of Grey world is that the standard, run of the mill, sex scene just doesn’t cut it any more. The euphemistic Mills & Boon type scenes of throbbing excitement (erect penis) and crashing waves (female orgasm) are gone the way of the dinosaur. Just look at this for a book cover from Mills and Boon! Judging by our heroines hairstyle and sexy as all hell jumpsuit I’m guessing this was published sometime in the eighties.  Our hero is, after all, showing some skin, which would have been considered somewhat avant-garde at the time.

Seventies style cover for Mills & Boon book

Old Style Cover For Mills & Boon

Writers have a choice in a post FSOG world – write  a sex scene and be red-cheeked or avoid the issue altogether.  With sex being so crucial to the storyline of Remember Me, I felt I would be cheating my readers if I baulked at putting an authentic sexual encounter in the book.

I read a great book earlier this year where the young heroine dreamed of making love with the object of her affections, (who she ended up with in the story and they went on to live happily ever after, despite the horrific effects that war had wrought upon him).  Her fantasies about the two of them being together had formed a crucial part of the storyline and yet the author never included even their first time together.  I felt very much cheated and didn’t want my readers feeling the same way after reading one of my stories.

The problem was that here I was faced with crafting a sex scene in a post Fifty Shades Of Grey world. Now, I might be wrong but I feel the ante has very definitely been upped when it comes to your average sex scene.  Perhaps I’ve lead something of a sheltered reading life but it’s not so long ago oral sex was a taboo subject, never mind a man performing oral sex on a woman!  Shocker!  Nowadays, oral sex is just part of the picture and light bondage is even entering the mainstream.

Whereas I’m not a massive fan of FSOG myself, (I have issues with it from many perspectives) it has definitely brought erotica into mainstream fiction and legitimized female sexual desire like no other piece of published work before it.  There has been an explosion in erotic literature since and it seems the average female reader can’t get enough of the stuff!  Which brings me back to my dilemma – when writing my story – in which the two main characters engage in sexual relations –  I considered sparing my blushes and going with a standard, run of the mill sex scene.  Will this keep my readers happy I wondered?  Or should I introduce more risqué or even controversial aspects?  Hmmmm….. what’s a girl to do I thought?

Book Cover for Fifty shades of Grey

Covers For The Fifty Shades Trilogy

At the end of the day, with Remember Me, I let the characters decide.  I just went with what I felt was right between them and appropriate for the story.  Flynn might be a man intent on revenge but he’s not a tortured soul like Christian Grey and so many of the leading male characters featured in the other erotic blockbusters.  And Annabel Smith certainly isn’t anything like Anastasia Steele!  God only knows what she’d do to Christian Grey if he took her into The Red Room.  Now there’s an enticing prospect!

Sexy legs, stilettoes & red panties

Annabel Smith & Her Infamous Red Panties!