Karen White | Southern Women's Fiction: It's More Than Just An Accent!

When people ask me what I write, I tell them that I write 'Southern women's fiction'. To clarify, I usually follow that with the (hopefully) more clear 'grit lit.' Although that frequently elicits a grin or two, it rarely seems to explain what it is that I try and create on the pages of my novels.

I stick with the adage to 'write what I know' and I know the South. My father's family has lived in the South since before the American Revolution and both of my parents were born and raised in Mississippi--my father on the Gulf coast and my mother in the Delta. I have relatives still living there that most people from other parts of the country would need a translator to understand. But when I hear them speak, I simply feel as if I have found home.

Yeah, sure, I've created more than my share of hunky Southern men who drawl and even use the word 'darlin'. But writing Southern women's fiction is so much more than the accent. It's primarily a sense of place, and stocked with those inherently wacky yet familiarly beloved Southern characters (remember Aunt Pittypat?)--most of whom I've met or find myself related to in real life. It's the heat and the humidity, too, and the strong sense of family, good homestyle cooking (think Paula Deen), and warm hospitality. That's the Southern part, anyway. To make it women's fiction, I make the protagonist a strong but flawed woman at a crossroads in her life. I toss her and the setting together and, voila! Southern women's fiction results.

When I sit down to write, I close my eyes and picture myself at my grandmother's Indianola, Mississippi home--always alive with the sounds and sights of the South--and try to recreate those senses for my readers. My dream is for my readers to close my books with a sigh and a laugh, and for a craving for some really good fried chicken.

Karen White
THE MEMORY OF WATER - NAL/Accent--March 2008
THE HOUSE ON TRADD STREET - NAL Trade-November 2008
LEARNING TO BREATHE - NAL/Accent-March 2007
http://www.karen-white.com/

Natalie Anderson | Being Fearless

Everyone has dreams and ambitions, don't they? At least, I hope everyone does because dreams can be one of the most fun things in life - there is nothing like sitting somewhere (anywhere) and indulging in a daydream. You can dream about anything - let your mind wander and suddenly you can do whatever, be whatever... then, when you've come up with a really good one - you can try to write it down... Cue the start of the author's nightmare!!!

Seriously though, if we didn't dream, we couldn't achieve things right? And often to make your dreams become reality you have to be brave.

It can be terrifying to throw in the good, stable job to chase the career in the high risk area you dream of, it can be damn scary letting your mum read the love scenes in the novel you've written, and I figure it'd be frightening when you've saved every cent you can so you can go jump out a plane at however many thousand feet - just because you've always wanted too ... what were you thinking??!!!!!

I think sometimes, to be able to realise our dreams, to be fearless, we need the help and support of someone else. This is a theme I love to explore in my writing. It doesn't necessarily have to be a lover of course - it might be a coach, mentor, mother or father - just that person who doesn't scoff but who says 'you can do it' - who picks you up when you're down and believes in you. She or he is the bridge to get you through the moments when you've lost belief in yourself (and who might give you that much needed boot in the backside!).

I've two books out soon - PLEASURED BY THE SECRET MILLIONAIRE (in the UK in June) and HIS MISTRESS BY ARRANGEMENT (in the US in June) and the heroine in each of these books is working on achieving her dreams - one secretly and one not so secretly. They're very different characters with very different goals but both have those dreams turned upside down when they meet that certain guy... Of course these women are completely capable of being happy and whole alone, but when they meet that hero they're destined for, then they're spurred on and supported and so go on to become the best they can be. And in turn, the hero develops and achieves too. It's that 'sum of the whole being greater than its parts thing' - Oh yes - I'm a hopeless romantic - and I make no apology about it.

My husband once said to me (regarding me being able to revise a book in the week I'd just given birth to premmie twins) that 'nothing is impossible'.
He was right.

What about you - is there someone in your life with whom you share your dreams and ambitions? Do you think having the support of someone like that enables you to do more than you thought you could? Or do you keep those dreams to yourself and let no one in on them?

Whichever is the case, I hope you soon turn them into reality!!!

Happy dreaming,
~Natalie

www.natalie-anderson.com/
www.natalie-anderson.blogspot.com/

Linda Francis Lee | The Inner Debutante in You

When it comes to debutantes, it takes all kinds to make the world go round. In THE EX-DEBUTANTE Carlisle Cushing is a debutante who has always been a fish out of water, the odd duck in a world of swans. So she hardly fits into any category. In fact, she left her Texas high society world to become a determined lawyer far away in Boston . . . then committed the unforgivable sin (as far as her deeply southern mother is concerned) of becoming engaged to a Yankee. Then all of the sudden she can’t believe it when she gets dragged back to Texas to take over the debutante ball . . . and comes face to face with the man she loved and lost.

Take the quiz below to find your own inner deb!

What Kind of a Debutante Are You?

When you are in line ready to make your official bow, you:

1. hope the deb in front of you face plants into the floor cracking her porcelain veneers
2. have warned the photographer to capture your best side
3. are certain you will be voted Deb of the Year
4. pray you aren’t the deb who face plants into the floor

Under your debutante gown, you wear:

1. nothing
2. a rhinestone thong
3. La Perla bikini briefs
4. granny panties

Your favorite accessory is your:

1. personal life-philosophy tattooed on your back
2. pink diamond navel piercing
3. Harry Winston diamond earrings
4. grandmother’s clip on pearls

On your guest list you have included your:

1. probation officer
2. plastic surgeon
3. childhood nanny and clique you’ve reigned supreme over since kindergarten
4. psychiatrist

At your debutante party the guests are:

1. afraid for their lives
2. gossiping about your infamous, old, ex-rocker dad who still pretends he’s 18
3. vying for a scrap of your attention—or so you assume
4. bored out of their minds

You are a deb because:

1. your mother threatened to tell all your friends your real name is Winifred
2. you do anything that involves paparazzi
3. of course you’d be a deb, hello, your grandmother, mother, and sister were debs
4. your parents bribed you with a new set of leather-bound encyclopedias if you participated

Your “look” of choice is:

1. Look? What #$*@ look?
2. whatever just hit the runways in Milan
3. whatever your personal shopper picks out for you
4. argyle sweaters and penny loafers

TOTAL:

1’s: ____

2’s: ____

3’s: ____

4’s: ____

If you answered mostly with:

1’s: you are a REBEL DEB

2’s: you are a CELEB DEB

3’s: you are a POSH DEB

4’s: you are a DUD DEB


To find out more about more THE EX-DEBUTANTE, hop over to www.lindafrancislee.com for debutante fun facts, photos, and an excerpt.

Happy Reading!
Linda Francis Lee
www.lindafrancislee.com/

Brian Freeman | Are Crime Thrillers Moral?

It’s an odd way to make a living when you think about it. We write about things that would terrify and dismay people if they were real. Murder. Serial killers. Violence. And we do all this to entertain people.

I think about this issue whenever a news show covers an intimate tragedy like the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba or Madeleine McCann in Portugal. Cable news shows play on our love of mystery and drama to boost ratings. The difference is that, unlike a novel, the crime is real. Our news programs treat these dramas as whodunits, to an extent that we often cheapen or even forget the actual tragedy.

The question is: Are those of us who write mysteries any different? We invent our stories, but we strive to make the fear, crime, and drama real for the reader. The best writers make us gasp and cry, afraid to turn the page, but unable to put the book down. My only explanation is that mysteries make us confront difficult moral choices and decide for ourselves. Mysteries also give us something that the real world often cannot. Order. Resolution. Truth. The frustration in watching the news is in not knowing what really happened. In mysteries, in the end, we usually do.

That may explain it, but I’m not sure it gives us moral cover. Would there be a fictional Hannibal Lector without the real-life Zodiac killer? I’m not so sure. Those of us who make our living writing about murders perhaps owe more of a debt of gratitude to the people who commit them than we are comfortable admitting.

BRIAN FREEMAN

www.bfreemanbooks.com/
brian@bfreemanbooks.com

Author of STALKED (2008), STRIPPED (2006), and IMMORAL (2005)

Michelle Styles | Confessing My Sin

Before I decided to take my writing seriously, I was many authors’ worst nightmare. I was the person who always said – some day I want to write a novel. One day when I have time, I want to be an author. You name the eye rolling phrase about wanting to be an author, or desiring to write and I said it. I said it but I did nothing about actually achieiving the goal. People would ask me jokingly if I had finished that novel yet.I won’t bother to rehearse my excuses, just know that they were good and that I never finished a manuscript. I would start and then, something would happen. It never seemed as good on paper as in my imagination. Or life would get in the way.

I won’t bother to rehearse my excuses, just know that they were good and that I never finished a manuscript. I would start and then, something would happen. It never seemed as good on paper as in my imagination. Or life would get in the way.

What changed my attitude? In short, I became ill with gall stones and thought now or never. I became determined to achieve my goal. Nobody else could achieve that goal for me. I had to do it and I was arrogant to believe that I could tell stories.

It was not easy. My family is busy and there are always reasons why I should not be writing. I started getting up an hour early each morning and writing. It became my time for me. I also decided that I would only work on one story at time and I would see it through to the end. One of my problems had been that of other ideas calling. I also decided that I would submit it once I had finished the book. I refused to accept excuses, and protected my time. Basically, I developed discipline and a discipline that worked for me.

When I finished, sent my manuscript out and received my first rejection, I did not quit. Not quitting is important. I became dedicated to achieving my goal. I started trying to make my writing better. I learnt to revise. I kept writing and more importantly kept finishing the manuscripts and sending them out. Submitting can become addictive. There is nothing quite like sending a manuscript out into the world, even now. My stomach always lurches with a combination of sick fear and excitement. Will my editor love my characters? Did I do my characters’ story justice? Will it be a great read?

Finally, I listened to my heart. This took about seven manuscripts. I started writing historical romance. I had tried contemporary romance to begin with, but my real love was history. I had the burning desire to write historical romance. It was another maybe some day goal, until a writing friend said – write what you want to write. Which line do you think you could write 40 books for? What are your ultimate dream stories? So I did some soul searching and decided to make my dream of writing historical romance a reality. I refused to listen to those wiser heads who said that no one would ever publish a Roman set novel, particularly not from an unpublished writer. I was going to make it work. And I knew that desire would not wane.

Eventually in the beginning of June 2005, I received the Call from Harlequin Mills & Boon. And I have just turned in the revisions to my 10th novel set in the Regency period. My books have appeared all around the world and in at least 8 different languages. In other words, my idle boasts of years gone by have become a reality. And it did not come from any place but within me. It took the four D’s and the one P. – Determination, discipline, dedication, desire and perseverance. And I firmly believe the 4 D’s and 1 P are what is needed for any want to be author (insert your own dream here) to succeed. It is my secret of success. Hopefully it will inspire someone else to finish that novel and try. It is the desire to write stories that shows you have talent. What you do with that talent is up to you...

Michelle Styles
http://www.michellestyles.co.uk/
http://www.michellestyles.blogspot.com/