Medieval Monday with Ruth A.Casie

What is Medieval Monday? Fall in love with new stories and find new authors. Each Monday for the next 12 weeks another author will share the cover and excerpt from their story. Today is my turn.

Knight of Runes

When Lord Arik, a druid knight, finds Rebeka Tyler wandering his lands without protection, he swears to keep her safe. But Rebeka can take care of herself. When Arik sees her clash with a group of attackers using a strange fighting style, he's intrigued.

Rebeka is no ordinary seventeenth-century woman—she's traveled back from the year 2011, and she desperately wants to return to her own time. She poses as a scholar sent by the king to find out what's killing Arik's land. But as she works to decode the ancient runes that are the key to solving this mystery and sending her home, she finds herself drawn to the charismatic and powerful Arik.

As Arik and Rebeka fall in love, someone in Arik's household schemes to keep them apart, and a dark druid with a grudge prepares his revenge. Soon Rebeka will have to decide whether to return to the future or trust Arik with the secret of her time travel and her heart.

Available at Amazon   Nook
Knight of Runes is the first book in the Druid Knight Series. Book two, Knight of Rapture, is scheduled for release March, 2015.
Read an Excerpt

The Top Ten Mistakes New Fiction Writers Make

"Jeez, did I do that?"

Not too long ago, I read an article by Sally Zigmond at Writer's World, The Top Ten Mistakes New Fiction Writers Make. While her article is for short story writers, it fits for authors with manuscripts of any length. Some of her comments made me smile remembering how naive I was when I first wrote Knight of Runes. Other items, well, I find some are still a challenge for me. The good news for me is, at least I know what they are and can how to fix them. Here is a short review of Ms. Zigmond's article.

1. Lack of Editing: The draft is finished. Now what? Is it ready to pitch? No, it's just a rough draft. Now the real work begins. Review your work and make certain the story and character development hold together. Vet out the passive voice, review word choices, ensure the POV is consistent, and layer in emotion. You have to polish and make your story shine.
2. Dull Writing: People want to read about characters who face challenges and change/grow. It's what holds the readers attention. According to Ms Zigmond, many new authors write dull flat characters and seem to be afraid to let their imagination go. They write stereotypical characters and situations. Fiction must be interesting and entertaining.
3. Too Much Irrelevant Detail: This runs the gamut from too much background information (and every piece of research information the writer found) to details about insignificant characters. These don't move the story forward, If anything, unnecessary details slow the pace and muddy the story. Writers must learn how 'sprinkle' in the history/research and backstory and avoid information dumps.
4. No Attention to Language: Clear writing and careful wording is the sign of a good writer. Many new writers rely on "telling" the story instead of "showing" us how it unfolds. And language isn't just about dialogue. It's about infusing emotions and layering in actions into the story to make it pop. It's all about word choice and usage.
5. Absence of Imagery and Reliance on Cliches: Many stories lack lively images. The challenge is to make the reader see what you see, without relying on cliches. Paint your picture with words so reader can be there, in the moment, with your characters.  
6. No Sense of Place: Showing the reader the environment helps to set the mood and goes a long way in explaining the characters reactions. The sights, sounds, smell, even the taste of a place, anchors the story and sets the mood for the reader. 
7. No Shape or Structure: Where you start the story, whose point of view it's written in, how fast or slow the pacing, where and how the tension is built, and how information in provided all must be planned to keep the structure tight and the story moving forward. I agree with Ms. Zigmond. Writing is a craft as much as an art.
8. Poor Dialogue Skills: The dialogue must sound real and be appropriate for the character, the time, and the place. If the dialogue sounds believable, the readers will be hooked.
9. Lack of Technical Knowledge: Nothing screams novice more than poor grammar. If you're a writer, learn the basics of your craft.   
10. Top Tip: When your story is completed, distance yourself from it for a few days. When you take it up again, read it out loud. It's the best way to hear whats not working.

What mistakes have you made or have seen others make? How would you handle them?

Interview with Debut Author Calisa Rhose

Last month, HOME, written by good friend and fellow Writing Diva, Calisa Rhose, was released by The Wild Rose Press. She's here to tell us about her writing life and HOME. I'm excited to feature her debut book and have her visit with us today.

What could a gypsy and a Vietnam veteran have in common?

Silvertown’s outcast, Poppy Tippen, has loved football hero Sam “The Force” Callahan forever. But he never seemed to know she was alive. Now he’s home from the war and she suddenly finds herself comforting him from the demons of “that damn war.” Is his attention merely an escape from the haunting nightmares? Or does she hold the interest of the only man she’s ever truly loved?

Sam Callahan’s only solace from the war nightmares wrecking his life comes in the unlikely form of a gypsy girl with stigmas of her own. He’s known Poppy his entire life, but there’s something different about her now. Something special he desperately wants to hold on to. Can he convince her she’s the only thing he needs to put the past behind him?

1.     How long did it take you to write HOME? It took nine months from the first word to submission to write HOME.

2.     How much research did you conduct for HOME and what was the most interesting thing you did while conducting your research? I did quite a bit of research about clothes and music in the 60’s. The most interesting part of that research was also the most disturbing. I had to know what the Vietnam war did to the soldiers, what emotional turmoil they endured after returning to their homes. I also wanted to know what happened over there that impacted them the worst or best. Some of the information out in the internet is chilling. You may be surprised to know what those men went through. The fact that they put that out there for the world says a lot about the kind of people who fought that war.

3.     Why did you decide to write historical? You may not understand this, but I didn’t choose to write it. I write contemporary and paranormal. This era, the story, chose me in this case.

4.     Do you write multiple drafts or barely need revisions when typing, The End? Of course I need revisions, edits. But I edit heavily as I write so it might be less than someone else needs. With HOME in particular I had maybe an hour of edits through all rounds combined by my editor, Nan Swanson. My first round took me thirty minutes to do. But that doesn’t mean I always get that lucky. A previous submission took several months of revisions before I said enough and pulled it from the publisher. It just wasn’t getting where we wanted it no matter how many rewrites or drafts I wrote.

5.     When you are writing, who is in control? You or your characters? Lol I’d like to say I am. Wouldn’t we all (writers)? But the honest truth is that as compulsive as I am to be in charge of everything in my life, oddly, while writing it’s the only time I’m truly NOT in control. It may seem strange that I choose a career that takes that control from me, but I think it really chose me. I love that freedom to let my characters take over. It’s a charge like nothing in life for me when a character takes over and runs with a scene. I fall into a zone and it’s heaven! Plus the word count at those times can be pretty impressive, even to me! J

6.     Have you had any "ah ha" moments as a writer? Oh sure. Who hasn’t. It took me forever to figure out what my first cps meant when they kept telling me to SHOW this, or SHOW there. Show? I thought that’s what I was doing. And then one day it finally clicked and it was a total AH-HA! moment for me. Since then I’ve become a SHOW-a-holic. It’s maddening now when my cps say “you’re TELLING this, SHOW me!” I know that, and yet I still do it. I wonder some days if there’s any hope for me. Lol

7.     What advice do you have for other writers? Read what you write and write what you read know. And write. Write. Write. I won’t say write every day, I don’t, but write. If you don’t write and never get published you have nobody to blame but yourself when you fail. You can only fail by not trying.

8.     What was the most exciting thing that happened to you after you signed your contract – besides receiving your first check as a published author? Oh wow. There were a few firsts besides the first actual sale. Getting that email with my cover attached was a highlight. I was afraid to open that attachment because What if I don’t like it? I’d already been informed I couldn’t ask for a different one if I didn’t like it. I could ask for corrections to text, but not a new cover. Of course, I needn’t have worried. Tina Lynn Stout did such a perfectly fabulous job! Don’t you agree?

9.     How does your family feel about your career as a romance writer? Most of the years they were shrug their shoulders and go on. Then hubby began pushing me to really submit so I finally got serious in 2005. I think my family was proud, but skeptical I’d publish. I know I was. Now? They are proud and tell their friends I’m a romance writer.

10.  What do you want your readers to take away with them after reading the story? When all seems lost, when everything, everyone you know fails you—there is still someone and somewhere to whom you belong. Home is more than a place. Belonging begins in your own heart. If you can’t accept you, how can anyone else?

11.  What was the defining moment that you considered yourself an author? When I mailed my first submission and got a rejection within three weeks.

12.  With so many changes in publishing over the past year, where do you see the future of publishing going? Into a scary mist where no one will be able to figure out what will happen next. I mean, last week we hear how ebooks are taking over where last year print was the only way to go. Now this week it’s all about indie publishing. It’s enough to make my head spin trying to keep up. No I haven’t self published, but I won’t say I’ll never do it. Why? Because five years ago I said I’d never epublish and look where I published first! Lol

13.  What makes a man attractive to you? Sensitivity. I don’t care for the alpha males who take without giving equally. Oh- and dimples! I adore dimples. ;)

14.  What is the most interesting thing you’ve ever done? I’m five feet nothing and lucky to weigh a hundred pounds, so I get odd looks when people find out I broke horses when I was younger. I mean, saddle up and hang on- broke horses. Of course, I preferred they not buck so I spent a LOT of time earning trust and using ways to keep a horse from bucking if at all possible

15.  What’s your biggest dream? To have a horse rescue. There are so many horses dumped during droughts and severe winters here that they were literally running the city streets during the blizzard of 07. That broke my heart. After a two year drought and then a blizzard there wasn’t enough hay to feed the animals and people were dumping their pets in the streets like a stray dog. Horses can’t fend for scraps like a dog or cat so they were dying of starvation.

16.  If you were a millionaire would you still write? Yes. I can’t not write. I’d just have a high tech secretarial system to take dictation. LOL

Author Bio:

Small-town country girl Calisa Rhose lives in a semi-remote area of Oklahoma with her husband, five dogs, one cat and one horse. All of her three daughters and their families live within throwing distance. She’s a member of RWA and the local chapter OKRWA. She intends to nurture and continue to grow as an author with the help of her family and supporters.

Get your copy of HOME at The Wild Rose Press and on Amazon.

Find Calisa at her website/blog http://calisarhose.wordpress.com

On twitter @Calisa_Rhose and Facebook @Calisa Rhose

She loves to hear from readers so drop her a line at calisa.rhose@gmail.com

Romance novels rock. Romance readers rock. Romance writers rock.

Look through The New York Times and USA Today best-sellers lists. Do you see a disproportion of genres? I thought there would be a stronger representation of romance books on the weekly lists considering the number of romance books sold.  Statistics, available on the RWA website clearly indicate romance fiction is popular has the largest market share of all genres (in the US consumer market), and when compared to other genres makes twice as much as the next genre (religion/inspirational).

I thought I would see a different mix of genres when The New York Times added a separate ebook listing. Everything I’ve read said ereaders were a boon to romance readers who no longer had to hid their lusty covers from on-lookers. Sales of romance ebooks were going taking off and even non-romance proponents, Barnes & Noble, were embracing (every pun intended) the genre.  Julie Bosman had a great article in the December  9th New York Times.

This past Tuesday, I read an article in USA Today that gave me hope for our genre. Joyce Lamb, a copy editor for the news service as well as a well published romance writer, convinced the powers that be to begin a new column, Happy Ever After. You got it, a romance book column. Here is a link to her first blog. I have it from a very reliable source that USA Today will officially announce HEA this Thursday.

According to Ms. Lamb,  the blog will “shower” us with book reviews and author interviews to help us get to know the authors better and isn’t that what we really want.

Here is an excerpt from Joyce’s post:

Joyce Lamb

To kick things off, I thought I'd share with readers some things you might not know about romance writers:

Romance writers come in all shapes, sizes and flavors, and here at Happy Ever After we're going to meet as many as we can, even the ones who write really hot erotica. (Wait, is that redundant?) In other words, HEA is an equal opportunity blog.

Romance writers are incredibly supportive of each other. Seriously. We do virtual high-fives daily as one of us finishes her first book, lands the literary agent of her dreams, makes her first sale (also known as "getting The Call"), holds her book for the first time, buys her first Italian villa, and so on. We just can't get enough of encouraging each other.

Romance writers are fun. If you don't believe me, then take one, or several, out for drinks.

Romance writers, many of us anyway, have a deep and abiding love for Joss Whedon. The TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer embodies everything that romance novels aspire to be. If you're sneering again, get lost. We'll wait while you gather your things. Don't forget to take that judgmental look on your face. (Hums Jeopardy theme song.) OK, now that the unenlightened are gone, where were we? Oh, yeah, why Buffy is so great: Vampire slayer in love with a vampire. Best. Romantic. Conflict. EVER. I love me some Bella and Edward, but Buffy and Angel won my heart first.

Romance writers, some of us anyway, are at least somewhat like the characters in our books (not the villains, of course. Well, OK, maybe just a teeny weeny bit). You know how funny Susan Elizabeth Phillips' books are? She's just as funny in person. You know how Nora Roberts' heroines are kind and passionate and wield a wicked sense of humor? That's her, too. I could go on, but you'll see what I mean as HEA gets going and you get to meet authors you might not have met before.

Romance writers don't sleep much. Many have full-time jobs and families on top of their writing careers. That makes for some late … (soft snoring sounds) … wha? Oh, hello. I think you get the picture.

Romance writers are Smart, with a capital S. And I'm not just saying that because I want you to THINK we're smart. Writing a novel, any kind of novel, is HARD. (I'm not yelling, I'm just emphasizing.) Writing a romance novel isn't any easier just because it's a romance. You know how hard it is in real life to have a balanced, loving relationship while dealing with all the chaos of life? It's no easier in a romance novel. In fact, it's WAY harder, cuz our characters often are totally messed up, in life and in love. At least in the beginning. Another reason we're really smart: We have to know stuff. For example, Suzanne Brockmann could probably, in one glance, identify the make and model of the assault rifle hidden in the back of my closet, just waiting for the apocalypse. (Kidding.) Lisa Gardner could probably profile a serial killer. Jane Graves could probably bake the perfect cupcake. Linda Howard could probably lead you out of the wilderness alive. See? Smart. And if you don't believe me, go visit the awesome Smart Bitches, Trashy Books blog, run by the awesome Sarah Wendell. I'll wait. (Hums theme of I Dream of Jeannie. I don't know why.) Back already? I hope you remembered to bookmark, though I'm sure many of you have already spent many hours there. And, heck, while we're pimping out SBTB, for no other reason than I'm a fan, you might want to check out Sarah's upcoming Everything I Know About Love I Learned from Romance Novels. VERY smart. (Sarah, you're my snark idol.)

Romance writers almost always will tell you the same thing when you ask this question: Why do you write romance? Answer: Because we live for the happily ever after. Life is often hard and sad and depressing, and romances are the great escape. That's why romances are the best-selling novels on the planet. No, make that "in the universe." Why try to spare the literary writers' feelings? They need to accept the fact that without romance writers to support the bottom line, literary writers wouldn't be basking in the glow of their New York Times book reviews. Is that 'tude you detect in my tone? (Shrugs slightly.) Maybe. Earned it, though. And that's why we're here.

Here's some of what HEA has coming up in the next few weeks:

Interviews with Lavinia Kent (Regency author), Jane Graves (contemporary), Virna DePaul (paranormal and contemporary), Jill Shalvis (contemporary), Erin Quinn (paranormal), Shawn Lane (gay erotic romance), Christy Reece (romantic suspense), Desiree Holt (erotica), Keri Arthur (paranormal), Ann Christopher (African-American romance) and Mariah Stewart (contemporary) — and that's just in the next few weeks.

HEA will also have reviews of the latest releases by all the authors above, as well as lots of other reviews and features, including introductions to debut authors you might not know yet and sneak peeks at upcoming new releases.

Let the romance novel love begin.
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Great, right? Leave a comment here and please, if you can, leave a comment on Joyce’s blog, Happy Ever After and tell her Ruth A. Casie sent you!