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Saturday 30 July 2011

This Week's Crisis

This week hasn't really been a usual week. The migraine decided to have a new symptom nausea... mmm ... not my most favourite of migraine symptoms I have to say and I've spent the best part of the week wondering why Gabrielle and Kyle from Devine Intervention's Halos at Dawn have decided to stop talking to me. So on Thursday night I decided to stop pushing the matter and move on to something more productive. I got out my first novel Life's A Ball? and had a read through.

Its the first time I've given LAB any thought in nearly three months

I so wish I hadn't.

It made me laugh. So I'm impressed with my little old self. But the perfect ending, the one which is the premise for book 3 and 4 and the whole reason for the final in the series, is no longer perfect! My world has just spiraled into chaos.

Oh what to do...?   

Erin

Saturday 23 July 2011

Book of the Month: Nora Roberts Summer Pleasures


After reading The Search I went out and bought another Nora Roberts. I was torn between picking up something from a series that I'd already read before or something new. Summer Pleasures is two classics in one and the blurbs spoke to my heart. Writers and photographers falling in love... awww!

Summer Pleasures The Basics: Second Nature: Perfectly poised in every way reporter Lee Radcliffe wants the first ever exclusive interview with the ever elusive Hunter Brown. The horror novelist agrees on the terms she spends two weeks camping with him. Trapped by his eyes that see into the depths of her soul Lee is soon realising its not just the interview she wants. One Summer: Free spirited Bryan Mitchell takes on an assignment to photograph one summer in across America with the brooding photojournalist Shade Colby. Its not the ideal assignment but she's determined to make it work, except the only thing they can agree on is the sparks that keeping igniting between them.

I absolutely loved Second Nature! I connected with the characters, as a writer I also understood both the successful Hunter Brown's opinion of writing for the joy of writing and Lee's fear of failure and therefore not completing her first manuscript regardless of this acclaimed author telling her that she was good. I got this one on every level and was disappointed I had to put it down to go to sleep, first thing I did was make a cup of tea and pick it up and start reading again. Gripped!
One Summer not so gripped. I did read from start to finish almost. But I was able to put down and pick up at leisure. It started off great. I was hooked but the more Bryan gave in to her fear. The more disconnected from her I became. I will say that Nora Roberts still created that magic with words that kept me involved, One Summer just wasn't for me.

So I'm not above admitting that now I'm hooked. 4/5.
Erin

Tuesday 12 July 2011

Taking a Walk Down Memory Lane

Fellow Writers Blog Hop
Uninspired by the idea of flashbacks I haven't paid much attention to the blog hop this month and in my defence I've had a migraine for 37days (I suffer from chronic daily migraine) and the second title from Devine Intervention is craving all the non-painful non-working hours. But this morning I thought I'd give it ago only to find out that ....

Maybe I should have listened to my teachers all those years ago and read the question properly!


So my writing flashback? What first piece of writing would I post and what advice would I give to my younger self?

Back in December 2009 I found a box under my desk of stories I'd written during my teenage years. These are my first novellas and I took a walk down memory laneThey're all hand written so I can't post them without typing them up and we all know if I was to do this I'd end up posting a re drafted version not the original - LOL - hey I'm being honest!
I think the one that stands as out the most exceptional to me was one about an orphaned girl who ran away from the children's home one summer and fell in love. This was actually the back story. My story began when she returned to the town of her first love after she left the children's home. Naturally true love doesn't run smooth and my character didn't get the happy ever after she went looking for. Her road suddenly looked very long and very lonely. Years of heartbreak followed before she found out who she really was, the knight in shining armour and her happy ever after.
I was swept away by this novella from start to finish. I was blown away by the characters because they jumped right off the page. I experienced emotional triggers that if I could have written then how I write now I'd have cried when the world came crashing down. There I was, twelve year later, slack jawed and blinking at the end thinking Did I really write this? 

What would I say to my younger self?

My innocence was written all over it so I'd tell myself to stop living in a bubble! I'd suggest reading more newspapers and watching more TV because I never did that as kid and get some ideas about real life.

I'd tell myself to think about the setting the scene a little more. Props are good, my characters tend to put their fist through thin plaster boarded walls or throw expensive crystal vases when they're angry these days.

Another one of my most favourites is the senses: touch, smell, taste, hearing and seeing. There is a difference between  the physical way something feels and the emotional way something feels, such as a kiss. The reader is living and breathing these characters. They need to experience what the characters are experiencing.

My final piece of advice would be a skill I don't think I've quite mastered yet myself and it would be to chose your wisely. A novel is 50,000+ words strung together over 175 pages. A published novel is 50,000+ words carefully crafted into an unput-down-able page turner. And Shakespeare isn't famous four centuries later for no reason!

I have re worked Finding Holly and I've every intention of making it one of my single titles but... I'm actually daunted by the prospect of taking on my fifteen year old self.

Erin

Writing Flashback is the topic for this months Fellow Writers Blog Hop

Other blog hops topics include:

Inspiration Where Does It All Come From? - June 2011

Judging A Book By It's Cover - I'm Guilty Are You - April 2011
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The Legal Bit

All characters have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation to anyone baring the same name. They are not inspired by an individual known or unknown by the author and all incidents are pure invention.

The articles, excerpts, and other written work published under the pseudonym Erin Cawood are copyright protected by the author. Guest articles are published by arrangement and also copyright protected by the guest author.

Images of Erin Cawood are provided by Paul Miguel Photography.


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