Speaking to a Stone Wall

At the Romantic Times Convention last April I told my senior editor that I had learned a valuable lesson. When my book, Knight of Runes, was getting ready for release last November I asked her what I should do to promote it. She said write the next book. I thought she was crazy. This is my first book. No one knows who I am. Who will buy it if no one knows about it?

I read up on book promotion and marketing and as a result I did a three week blog tour. I tweeted. I Facebooked. I made swag to send to conferences. I did everything except write the next book. I watched as my colleague debut authors released their second and third book. I still hadn’t put pen to paper.

When I saw Angela in April my new story, a series of five books, was well underway. The beginning of June, Mine Forever , the first of the series was packed up and sent into m editor. It’s not a sure thing so I sit and wait to hear if they want to publish it. In the meantime, my now multi-published colleagues and critique partners encouraged me to start the next story. 

Where is the stone wall? I’m getting to it. 

I work with building my characters before I work through the plot. I admit I laid the ground work for the second story nicely in the first one so I had a head start. But speaking to my hero, Cameron, was like... speaking to a stone wall. He's handsome, outgoing, tall and blond. He's a throw-back to his family's Viking influence but no matter how much I spoke to him, how many questions I asked he didn't reveal very much. I love the strong silent type but wasn't getting the second book written. 

On a whim, I spoke to Lady Barbara, the heroine. She was much more communicative. In a matter of hours I had the goal, motivation and conflict right there in front of me.

My point is sometimes when you can’t get to the route of the issue, problem, action, etc. change your perspective or point of view. For me, the walls came tumbling down!

How to you get around problems? How do you take down those walls?