SO, WHEN WILL YOU WRITE SO-IN-SO’S STORY?

First, let’s define who “so-in-so” is.” These are the secondary characters (flat characters) in a fiction novel. Although these characters rarely undergo any substantial growth or change in the story, they do provide a supporting role to a story’s main characters.

Not ever secondary character I create will have their story. Remember, they were created to serve a particular purpose in a particular story. However, I’ll go so far as to allow my intuition to take over so the character speaks to me outside of the role they were originally created for. If the character shows me their strengths and weakness, what they fear and what event will spark them to rise up and fight like hell then there’s a fair chance a story is in the horizon for them.

For those readers who’ve followed my writing career, they’ve become intimately acquainted with the Baptiste Clan. As the saga of this family has progressed, many secondary characters have emerged. Two of my favorites are: Alex Robinson and Zachary “Zach” Tate. Many readers have threatened me with bodily harm if I don’t come up with a story line for both of them. Only time will tell, so stay tune.

Until next time – stay well and be blessed!

WHERE DO YOU GET THE IDEAS FOR YOUR STORIES?

A casual conversation with friends, a newspaper article or even a television show can spark the beginning idea for a story plot. So far, the premises of my stories have dealt with the social issues I’ve experienced and/or taught as a public health educator for the past twenty-plus years. Trust me I’m not talking about your typical run-of-the-mill romance story plots, either. I love to take real-life issues individuals face every single day and spin a romance from it.

Now you would think after I’d come up with the idea that sitting down and outlining the story would be a fairly simply process, right? Well, most times it isn’t. Let me share an example.

It was Thursday, May 27, 2010. On this day, I walked through the doors at the Port of New Orleans with gleeful anticipation. After a grueling, but successful two-month promotion for my latest release, If I Were Your Woman, I was about to board the Carnival Triumph. The last thing I wanted to think about was another story. All I wanted was to enjoy total relaxation and kid-free bliss on my four-day sail to Cozumel, Mexico.

However, weeks prior to my cruise, I’d grappled with an idea for my next story. I’d become so acquainted with the persona of my characters, that I knew them as well as I know my best friend. Scenes from this yet to be named story boomeranged in my head. The premise for the story had even settled in my spirit. Still, I couldn’t take all of this and connect the dots. Oh well, I’ll deal with it after the cruise or at least that’s what I told myself.

The cruise was fabulous!! On day three, I spent hours shopping in Cozumel and had a few mango margaritas along the way. After dinner that evening, I made my way to the ship’s lower deck. Alone with the coolness of the night air at my face, I stood with my arms draped over the rail. For a moment, I glanced up and studied the stars. They were crystal clear against the velvet black skies. Then it happened.

Upon a midnight clear, the story I’d struggled with for weeks flashed before me from beginning to end.

No, I will not go on a cruise every time I have trouble outlining a story Here’s my point: The problem wasn’t that the story wasn’t there. It was. The problem was me. I wasn’t in a place to receive it. Before the cruise, I was juggling a zillion projects. But once I got into a setting where I was uninterrupted by the hustle and busy of life, the story manifested itself. Ever been there??

Until next time – stay well and be blessed!

Was it gentle, yet seductive? Or was it greedy and explosive? With the characters in my novels, I pay particular attention their first kiss. In the case of Raphael Baptiste and Laney Houston, the characters in my new release, If I Were Your Woman, I was very meticulous when I wrote the scene for their first kiss. The setting was private, just before dawn, and the chemistry between them was like a lightening rod.

But there’s more to a relationship than a kiss. Raphael and Laney are attracted to the favorable facets of each other’s persona. Relax for a moment and remember the attributes which attracted you to the love in your life. Can you remember? Was it their strong work ethic, their education, or the authority they possess to confidentially confront a dilemma?

We all know the way a person kisses or their personality is not all that’s needed to sustain a relationship. Can you remember the things that keep the spice in your relationship? Perhaps it’s the simple things, which fans the flames like receiving a text message or a quick phone just to say I love you. Aaah those subtle gestures can be explosive!!

So the next time images of the person you love filters through your mind, I trust you’ll remember how very bless you are to have them in your life.

Then stop by my promotional page to enter in your details, your Red Rose receipt/transaction number, and promotional code – WEEKEND – to enter a drawing for a visit to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Your purchase and download guarantees you an entry in a drawing for a FREE weekend visit (hotel and airline) as my guest on March 27th at the Colors of Coffee Book Club discussion of IF I WERE YOUR WOMAN. The more purchases you make, the more chances you have to win!

Winners will be announced on Saturday, March 20, 2010 right here at my blog.

“Blah – Blog” belongs to friend and author colleague Alison Kent. This award-winning writer is known for her sexy, sassy, urban & hip stories of love in the city!

Hop over to see what the topic of discussion is today!!

I’m a “Fresh New Author” to Watch

I’ve released a “Fresh Book” for March

FreshFiction.com provides book lovers easy, accessible, and informative data on current authors and their books. They specialize in genre fiction: romance, mystery, suspense, thrillers, horror, science fiction, fantasy, contemporary, graphic and action novels. The entire site consists of author pages, book pages, reviews, columns, blog, book reviews, news, and contests.

So join the celebration of IF I WERE YOUR WOMAN at FreshFiction.com today!

Here is what Marie Simmons, aka Romance Fan in Baton Rouge, shared with me about reading romance . . . .

Why did you decide to read romance novels?
For my sanity! I’m a native New Orleanian but I’ve been in Baton Rouge since graduating from college in ‘88. We had a house full of hurricane Katrina evacuees that took over the television. A male co-worker gave me a romance anthology, Living Large, to help me escape the chaos we were living thru. I’ve been hooked ever since.

What are the elements of a great romance for you as a reader?
I enjoy strong leading characters that display great passion for not only each other but for their entire life. The romance between the leading characters needs to be part of the story and not the only thing that’s happening.

What is the hardest part of reading a romance/the easiest for you?
I enjoy continuity series and waiting on the next release is excruciating. I’ll go as far as waiting for all of the books to be released before reading any of the books.

What is the most rewarding thing about being a romance reader?
Regardless of what I’m reading, I enjoy the adventure of being transported to a different location. But what’s great about romance is the guaranteed happily ever after. I like the larger than life heroes and heroines. I live in the real word, I read for the fantasy.

Join the celebration and show Marie some love by listening to her review of IF I WERE YOUR WOMAN!

Why?

Well, banner ads can be an effective way to market products and services on the Internet. But more importantly, I’m learning that where those ads appear online makes all the difference in this process. The ideal location for my e-book banner ad is for it to be displayed on a website or online community that has great traffic (of course) and has products and services that compliment what I’m promoting as well. So, I’m advertising my new release at Romance Reader at Heart in a variety of areas suitable to my book’s plot and format:

Contemporary /Suspense Romances
Electronic/Online
African American

Romance Reader at Heart is a romance novel resource from A to Z! What do I mean? Well, this site is not only dedicated to providing romance lovers book synopses and the authors you love along with their back lists (all broken down by subgenre). But they also provide timelines and information about the fashions, and a glossary of terms and some trivia for those eras and places readers love to envision in their reading. You’ll find links to some of the best sources on the web to locate additional information on cultures and history which make romance reading enjoyable for those who love the genre.

Am I seeing results?

You bet! Since I’ve added banner advertising to all my other promotion efforts, I’ve seen a steady rise in the number of “views per day” to my site (not to mention that I’m steadily climbing Red Rose Publishing’s Bestsellers list). So stop by to see my beautiful animated banner ad at RomanceReaderatHeart.com today!

What truly motivates you in general? In your writing?
In general, I crave intellectual stimulation and creative outlets. I take them wherever I can find them! In my life, and in my writing, I’m inspired every day by seemingly ordinary people, places, and things in the world around me. In fact, I write a blog called Lisa Leibow’s Fodder for Fiction devoted to this very aspect of my personality. I share observations about the quirky, silly, deep, and meaningful things in life that not only entertain on the spot, but also contribute to a great store of facts and tidbits I draw from in developing character, setting, and plot in my fiction writing. It’s all fodder for fiction! Visit Lisa Leibow’s Fodder for Fiction .

What are your thoughts on love scenes in romance novels, do you find them difficult to write?
Early drafts of my debut novel, Double Out and Back, contained no sex. My critique partner chided me, “Lisa, you are writing a novel centered on fertility. Your characters need to ‘do it.’”

After turning several shades of crimson to burgundy, I set out to make certain my characters got some sex, and that it was not gratuitous. I checked my nervous giggle at the door and stared at a blank page for a while. It was then I decided to take a break from writing. Delving into my characters’ intimate moments proved to be a great stumbling block.

Like I often do when I’m stuck, I decided to turn to some of my favorite novels and reexamine, with a writer’s eye, what made me fall in love with the tale. It was then I picked up Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead. There are some extremely graphic sex scenes in Fountainhead. I cannot even begin to compare my craft to that of Ayn Rand. However, re-reading the scenes she wrote made me realize that could I write about sex without making my novel pornographic.

Well, it turns out; I’m pretty good at writing about sex. My critique group approved of the steamy new scenes I wove into the manuscript, as did my other early readers, and my editor.

What kind of research do you do?
I love to do research. I’m a recovering attorney, after all. It’s one of the remnants I can really use in fiction writing! I tend to get lost in the research as much as I get lost in the writing. For Double Out and Back, I needed to research not only locations, and medical advances in treatments for infertility, but also the rich history of South Africa, the paths of Jewish immigrants. Of course, the internet is a valuable tool for uncovering information. However, living in the D.C. metropolitan area, I have access to a wealth of information and artifacts through the Smithsonian Institution, Library of Congress, and a multitude of superb university library collections.

By way of example of how information I uncovered along the way impacted the novel, I point to two bits. First, I discovered a database listing where Jews leaving Eastern Europe emigrated at the turn of the century, including their stated occupations, family members, and planned destinations in and out of Liverpool. This gave me some of the background I used to bring Chandy’s grandmother to life in a meaningful way.

The more I read, the more I became fascinated by the melting-pot of diverse cultures in pre-Apartheid Cape Town. I became saddened with what happens when such a rich, cosmopolitan community is torn apart by political extremists. Another intriguing piece of information that influenced this aspect of Double Out and Back is a now-declassified briefing book from the US State Department on South Africa and its implementation of Apartheid. Through this collection, I was able to piece together more of Chandy’s history and the memories that haunt her.

Would you like to write a different genre than you do now, or sub-genre?
I don’t consider myself a genre writer. So, this is a difficult question for me to answer. Double Out and Back is mainstream fiction. It has some elements of historical fiction, multicultural fiction, chick lit, and dark romance. I guess if I had to classify it, I’d call it Smart Women’s Fiction.

That being said, of those “elements” I listed above, what I love writing most the most is historical fiction. I love the challenge of bringing to life a time and place I have not experienced first-hand. It forces me to use my imagination to build a world. I dabbled in this with Chandy’s story in Double Out and Back. I brought to life her past in South Africa during the implementation of Apartheid. With my second novel, which is perpetually almost finished, I explore pre-revolutionary Iran, in the 1960s, where miniskirted women with college degrees are subject to arranged marriages. Here, too, I bring to life a time and place I did not experience first-hand.

However, in each of these instances, the setting is one where I could interview people who had been there to obtain first-hand accounts. I see my interests in historical fiction deepening. Lately, I have been crafting a novel that takes place in colonial America. It will be my first truly historical fiction in that nobody alive today was there. I must rely on historical documents, museums, and the like to build a realistic portrayal of my characters and setting.

Tell us which Red Rose title you will be promoting on this campaign:

DOUBLE OUT AND BACK
Mainstream Fiction: Contemporary, Chick Lit, Interracial/Multicultural
ISBN: 978-1-60435-365-5
Cover Artist: Emmy
Editor: Wolf Cassell
Word Count: 103,130
Release Date: August 13, 2009

Not every woman who rides the fertility treatment roller coaster winds up like Octomom! Who will find friends, family, and fertility?

Three women’s lives are intricately intertwined, as Amelia Schwartz and Summer Curtis struggle with the complex dynamics of intrafamily embryo adoption, and Chandy Markum strives to make her patients’ dreams a reality.

After more than a decade, of mourning her parents’ deaths, anal-retentive Amelia Schwartz decides to take control of her life, pursuing single motherhood via embryo adoption. While her fertility doctor, Chandy, is preoccupied with the destruction of the cosmopolitan Cape Town of her youth and her first love in apartheid-torn South Africa, believing all is lost, her niece, a young, married, overachieving attorney Summer Curtis, juggles zealous career ambitions, demanding bosses, and friction with her husband over family and fertility issues. They must confront the painful reality that, no matter what technology humans devise to manipulate reproduction, prolong life, and construct family units; they have not yet mastered control over their beginnings and endings.

Thrown all into this is one story that can make or break. Are you up to it?

How can readers connect with you online?
Website
Blog
Facebook
GoodReads
Twitter

ATTENTION EVERYONE!!!
For a limited time today from 4 – 8 PM EST — visit -Red Rose Publishing to purchase a copy of IF I WERE YOUR WOMAN. Then stop by my promotional page to enter in your details, your Red Rose receipt/transaction number, and promotional code – LISA – to receive a download of Lisa Liebow’s new book, DOUBLE BACK AND OUT, absolutely FREE!

Your purchase and download today also guarantees you an entry in a drawing for a FREE Amazon Kindle to be given away on Saturday, March 13, 2010 @ 12 NOON PST/2 PM CST/ 3 PM EST right here at my blog.

Thank you so much for joining me and Lisa Leibow on the online campaign for IF I WERE YOUR WOMAN!

Here’s what Shantal shared with me about reading romance . . . .

Why did you decide to read romance novels?
Romance novels often reflect many aspects similar to everyday life. There is a great variety in romance as stories can encompass a wide range of topics and scenarios, so I guess you can say I read for the diversity that can be experienced in romance.

What are the elements of a great romance for you as a reader?
A clearly defined plot, well developed characters, and of course an intriguing and passionate path to a happy ending! The connection and passion between the main characters as well as the obstacles that a couple faces are also important to a great romance novel.

What is the hardest part of reading a romance/the easiest for you?The hardest part of reading a romance book is not neglecting other things in life (i.e. sleep, work, family). I don’t want to take breaks or have interruptions when I’m reading my romance novels. It’s also hard to wait for the next installment if a book is part of a series. The easiest part is simply enjoying the work of a great author.

What is the most rewarding thing about being a romance reader?The escape to someone else’s world and experiencing the ups and downs a couple takes to find their heart…the person they were meant to share their lives with forever.

Join the celebration and show Shantal some love by listening to her review of IF I WERE YOUR WOMAN!