A Very Valentine's Day Post

In honor of Valentine's Day, I thought it would be a good idea to post my thoughts on romance and how to write it effectively into a novel. Now, I don't write in the romance genre, but I will always have an element of romance in my books. Why? First of all, I enjoy it! When I'm reading a novel, I always think that some sort of romantic story arc edifies the overall story. Romance can be done really well, or really poorly in a story, and as a writer, I've tried to imitate what I think is the best of what I've seen, and avoid the worst. Here are some of the common pitfalls I've tried to avoid in writing romance into my books...

1) Romance that moves too fast.
Romance in a story ought to be a slow burn. It is so much more satisfying to watch two characters slowly grow together over the course of a novel, or a series of novels, than to watch them meet and fall head over heels in love in the first fifty pages of the novel. The progress of romance from hints to resolution is meant to leave the reader with a sense of satisfaction, and if you reach that resolution too soon, the reader can lose interest in the rest of the progress of the character development. It's not as though every romantic story arc in a story has to be long and drawn out, but the ones that are the most important often ought to be. The tension leading up to the declaration of love is more interesting for a reader than much of what happens after. Along these lines too, this is especially true if the author has two characters almost immediately jump into bed with each other. Where do you go from there? If you're going to write a speedy romance into your story, you'd better have a darn good reason for doing so!

2) Why do they love each other?
As often happens with romances that move too fast, this one is tied in with the first pitfall, but I thought it was big enough to be worthy of its own point. Sometimes characters fall so instantly in love that I, as the reader, simply don't buy that they could possibly BE in love yet. This doesn't always happen with the romance moving too fast, either. Sometimes the characters who are supposed to be falling in love are so wrong for each other, I simply can't see them together. Authors sometimes get married to an idea in their heads (such as two disparate oddballs falling for each other) and they hang on to the idea like bulldogs even when they may have written another character into the story that the reader can clearly see would be a better choice for one of the characters who is supposed to be falling in love with someone else (boy, does that sentence make sense?). This often happens when authors try to write clever love triangles. Either way, that loss of secondary belief is the kiss of death to a novel, for me at least.

3) Sappiness.
If it's too sappy and sentimental, it makes my gorge rise. If I can't picture myself or someone else saying or doing what's being described in real life, I'll never buy it in a novel. Romance doesn't have to be overly gooey. Enough said.

4) Age-inappropriate expressing of feelings.
This happens all the time in young adult novels! The two characters falling in love, who are supposed to be maybe sixteen or seventeen, talk and behave like full-grown adults in the expression of their deep love for each other. Now, it's NOT that I don't believe teenagers can fall in legitimate love, because I do. But teenagers have a certain vernacular about them that is different from how adults think, speak, and behave when they are in love. I try very hard to keep my teenage characters acting like teenagers, even when they are in love. The expression of love matures as people mature, and sometimes YA authors lose sight of that and write their teenagers as if they are adults.

5) Surprise! They're not actually getting together!
Authors can get really high and mighty about their art sometimes, and can take it to the point of refusing to bow to crass commercial expectations (nose tilt, superior expression). This sometimes takes the form, in a novel, of an author hinting all along that two characters are going to end up together, and then never bringing those hints to successful resolution. This drives me, as a reader, CRAZY! If you're going to lead the reader into thinking that something is going to happen, then for the love of Pete make it happen. To do anything else is just mean.

These are just a few that came to me off the top of my head, and you may not agree with me on all of them, but that's okay. :) I've so enjoyed getting to the romantic parts of my bigger story (the story arc that covers all six books), and because I knew the end when I started writing the beginning, putting in those little tidbits here and there that would lead to the coming together of two characters was so much fun. If you've read all the way through book 4, hopefully you'll appreciate going back and seeing how Darcy and Tellius interacted in book one when they were really just children. And there's a new romance blooming in book 5... but I can't say much about that yet. Those of you who know my style best will have seen it coming from a mile away.
Happy Valentine's Day, everyone.

The Scroll WIP Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Blog Hop! My friend, the great Hogwarts Professor John Granger, tagged me to carry on the torch this week, so I answered the interview questions below for my Work in Progress: Book 5 of The Gateway Chronicles, The Scroll. You can find John Granger's interview at his blog here.  And do be sure to check out at least one of his many books! My favorite of his is How Harry Cast His Spell.

If you're new to my blog, welcome! Even though I answered these questions for the fifth book in my series, there's still plenty of information about the series in general, so you shouldn't feel too lost. I hope you enjoy the interview!

1. What is the working title of your book?

The working title of book 5 of The Gateway Chronicles is The Scroll. 

2. Where did the idea for the book come from? 

Well, I finished book 4, and I figured I should go ahead and write book 5. 

Seriously, though, anybody who has read the first four books in my series knows that book 4, The Enchanted, gets a little romantic, and some of my male readers expressed that, although they enjoyed book 4, they hoped I would go back to a little more action in book 5. Lucky for them, that was always my intention. It starts with a bang and, I think, continues fast and strong straight to the end. I wanted it to have a good balance of personal story arcs, such as the romance between Darcy and Tellius, but plenty of meaty mysteries, riddles, and fights. It is the final installment before book 6, which is going to be the last book in the series, so it also needs to begin wrapping a few things up. All of these elements drove my writing of the story. 

3. What genre does your book come under?

Young Adult/Middle Grade Fantasy Adventure (and a little Romance now that the characters are older) 

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I get asked this ALL the time! It's very difficult to "cast" my main characters, though, because they get one year older every year, and likewise, young Hollywood changes, well, every year. In my perfect world, when book 1, The Six, is made into a movie, I'd like to see previously unknown actors cast in the six title roles, just as they did with Harry Potter. 

Max Irons

Diane Kruger

For the adult cast of characters, though, there is one actor I am bound and determined to see play Yahto Veli, and that is Max Irons. I could also see Diane Kruger as Voitto Vesa. If Jared Harris were a little older, he'd make a great Rubidius. 

Jared Harris

Drew Roy

 Although Tellius is also a character who grows older every book, and therefore the actor cast as him would have to start out a kid and grow with the movies, there is one actor I have discovered who perfectly epitomizes Tellius at the age he is in The Scroll (19), and that actor is Drew Roy. He has the perfect coloring and overall look! Tan, dark brown hair, brown eyes mixed with green. The only thing he's missing is the smattering of freckles, but that's okay. :) 

Bryce Dallas Howard

I'm also introducing a NEW character in The Scroll named Talutah Shani who could be played handily by Bryce Dallas Howard. 

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

All Darcy Pennington's plans for her future life in Alitheia are put on hold as she discovers something horrible has happened while she's been away from the magical world, which leads to her facing a singular goal: save Tellius, even if it means giving Tselloch something in return. 

6. Is your book self-published, published by an independent publisher, or represented by an agency?

My books are publishing by The Writer's Coffee Shop Publishing House (TWCS), an independent, but thriving, publisher based out of Sydney, Australia. All I can say about the release date for The Scroll at this time is that it will be out later this year! 

http://ph.thewriterscoffeeshop.com/authors/detail/33

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Well, I started in August, but I only wrote about 50 pages at that time as I got really busy once school started back in session (I'm also a school teacher). I picked at it when I could during the autumn months, bringing my page total up to about 150 when November ended. I wrote the majority of the novel, therefore, during the month of December, bringing my final rough manuscript up to 415 pages. 

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

The Gateway Chronicles as a series is like if The Chronicles of Narnia met Harry Potter at a summer camp and decided to become something new together. Books 1-3 in the series (The Six, The Oracle, The White Thread) are more Middle Grade in nature, but just as in how the story in Harry Potter matures as the characters do, so do my books mature as my characters get older. Book 4, The Enchanted, and this book, The Scroll have more of a true Young Adult flavor to them. That being said, I always keep the story lines family friendly. (I know it probably seems hubristic to compare myself with such lofty and successful titles, but this is a comparison many readers have made of my books as well, so I don't feel too bad about it.) :) 

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

These books simply had to happen. They are based loosely off my experiences at a summer camp I attended every summer of my life from infancy to college. My friends at the camp and the camp itself were so influential to me as I grew up that I knew when I started writing that I had to write some stories set there to sort of pay homage to that stage of my life, which is now past. I've always loved fantasy as a genre, so they naturally took the shape of fantasy stories. 

10. What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?

I've had two beta readers read through it, and they had similar reactions to it. One was so mad at me for how I ended it that she refused to talk to me about it for several days. She's mad in a good way, of course, and can't believe I haven't finished book 6 yet so she can continue the story. The other beta reader, likewise, said he thinks this is the best one yet and is also on my case about book 6. My editorial team is also so excited about this installment that they gave me the best editorial review I've ever received. That's always a good sign! 

I will also say this - my readers should expect the unexpected. The Scroll will turn many of your assumptions upside-down. 

Stay tuned to my blog, my Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/K-B-Hoyle/155377154576880, The Gateway Chronicles Facebook fan page http://www.facebook.com/groups/178307558003/, and my Twitter @kbhoyle_author for more sneak peeks at book 5 as the months count down to publication! 


Next Wednesday the Blog Hop jumps over to fellow TWCS YA author T. M. Franklin. http://www.tmfranklin.com/blog. Be sure to check it out!

One Year Ago

I've been reflecting today on all that has happened in my writing career since one year ago. A year ago, I had just begun the process of editing The Six for re-release with TWCS. We'd not even begun marketing efforts yet on that book, and I was looking forward to months ahead of editing, marketing, and writing. I'd barely begun work on writing The Enchanted, and terms such as "blog tour" and "swag" were strange and unfamiliar to me. Over the course of the months that followed, I wrote The Enchanted, edited, re-released (or, in the case of book 4, released for the first time), and promoted all four books, including new cover designs for the first three, took part in an official PR tour, travelled to Texas for a writer's festival, and wrote and submitted book 5, The Scroll. 12 months, five books (two from scratch), one trip, over a thousand E-mails, and hours and hours of quality time with my keyboard.  It was a productive year, to say the least.

Looking ahead, while I'm not one for New Year's resolutions per se, there are some goals I'd like to see realized by one year from today. First off, of course I'll continue editing The Scroll and will be completing all the marketing and promotion associated with that. I will also have completed my draft of book 6 by this time next year, and I hope to have started work on the next series of books I want to write. My sales and readership base have undoubtedly broadened since I signed with TWCS, and I'd like to see it broaden significantly more in the year to come. By this time next year, I'd like to have been listed on some bestseller list somewhere-whether it's through TWCS, Amazon, or the New York Times (hey, I'm not picky!), I just want to see it happen! I have a couple more writer's festivals to attend this year, and I'd also like to schedule some speaking engagements on top of those. By this time next year, I'd like to be a known author, and with enough word of mouth, it could happen!

Thanks so much to all of you who read my books and tell others about them. Your support means the world to me. Keep it up! And maybe we'll see a movie made of my books someday...

Once Upon a Time...

Every now and then I am reminded that my adventure with TWCS Publishing House is still quite new, and once upon a time, not so long ago, I was laboring away as a self-pub author, begging, borrowing, and stealing help wherever I could get it. Many of you who purchased my books before I signed with TWCS know that I had three students working on cover design for me. What you may not know is that they finished the cover for book 4 before I signed with TWCS, which nullified my need for the cover they had created for me as we changed the covers entirely. I thought perhaps some of you might be interested to see the original cover for book 4, however, because the girls did an excellent job of bringing to life my description of an item from the book: Tellius's coronation crown. I believe I described it something like this when I explained it to them. "It's like, sorta, a cross between an Olympic victory crown with olive leaves and a medieval-type simple crown with a single point in the center. It should be gold, and the leaves should touch top and bottom. Simple, but rich-looking. No jewels." And from those scattered thoughts, they created something pretty much exactly like I pictured it in my brain:

It's a beautiful picture, and hopefully it fits what you imagined when you read the coronation scene. I'm glad, however, that I didn't decide to have the crown on the cover of the official version of book 4. As The Enchanted came together, it became a much darker story than I once envisioned it, and the coronation sequence figured in less prominently. Still, though, I love having this image saved on my computer, and I thought it was high time to share it with all of you! 

A Good Day to Finish Book 5

As I told several friends and family members just a couple weeks ago, I needed a Christmas miracle to finish my fifth manuscript. With final exams for my students upon me, three sick children, and planning for upcoming family visits over the Holidays, I didn't see where the time would come from to get the book finished. This was all exacerbated by the fact that with a new baby in the house, my already limited writing time over the fall had shrunk to virtually non-existent, leading me into Christmas break with just under 200 pages complete in the manuscript... My manuscripts usually clock in at around 385 pages in rough draft form. I was having virtual panic attacks trying to think about how, HOW, I was going to finish that book! Well, final exams came and went, my children got better, and family came in from all over the country. We celebrated Christmas (I don't remember much of it), and I picked away at the manuscript, a couple pages here, a couple pages there... fall asleep at laptop, wake up, rinse, repeat... Essentially I ended up in a situation where by the time everything calmed down after Christmas, I faced 5 days until my manuscript was due, and still around 175 (actually turned out to be more like 195) pages left to write. My manuscript was due on January 2nd. To make a long story short (ba dum ching!) I inverted my sleep schedule so I could catch snatches of sleep during the day while my kids were napping, and I stayed up all night, every night, writing. At about 3:30 on the afternoon of January 2nd, I finished! 410 pages, done! I almost cried . . . but I was sitting in Panera, so that would have been awkward. (A special thanks goes out to Maggie Rapier for HOURS of free babysitting!) Now, I could have turned it in then and been on time-as I tend to be a late person and I desperately wanted to be on time-but I just couldn't present it to my editing team full of typos, so I took the next twelve hours, from 3:30pm-3:30am to do a full proofread of the manuscript. So, technically, I finished on January 3rd. The rough draft of The Scroll is complete!

By way of reward that night, I went to see The Hobbit. With all the illness and busyness, it was something I had had to put off, which just killed me! You see, the book The Hobbit has a very special place in my life and heart. It is one of the first books that I can remember independently reading as a child, and one of the first I remember reading over and over again. I've become something of a collector of copies over the years, and that leads into kind of a fun story in and of itself. You see, fantasy literature has always been important to me, and in particular the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, so when I first met my future husband, Adam, in college, I knew that would have to be a love that we shared. Adam and I had just started getting to know each other, and there was undeniable mutual attraction, but he admitted to me early on that he had never really read a book "just for fun." He grew up on a farm, and the only books he'd ever read were those assigned for school. Well, that simply wasn't acceptable, so I thought a test was in order. The first Lord of the Rings movie had just hit theaters (and of course I'd already seen it), but I invited him to go and see it with me (an unofficial date, as we were still in the early friend stage). He agreed, and when the movie was starting, I remember thinking, "If he likes this movie, we're good to go. If he doesn't, I don't think I can consider dating him." Movie viewed, end credits rolled, and I turned to him and said, "So what did you think?" I can still remember the look on his face when he turned back to me and said, "I LOVED it!" Score! And then he said those sweet words, "I think I need to read that book now." *sigh* It was practically love then and there. But here's the thing, you can't read The Lord of The Rings without first reading The Hobbit, and I told him so. He could have walked away then and there thinking I was a total crazy person, but instead he said, "Okay," and he did it! And then he read The Lord of the Rings! By this time we were dating, of course, and we spent many a long car ride with me reading it aloud to him. Nine months later, he took me out to a WWII France-themed restaurant and gave me a collector's edition of The Hobbit as a gift. Written inside the front cover was a proposal of marriage. I said yes, and it's been a match made in literary heaven ever since. So as a first read, The Hobbit was important to both of us, and also important in starting our lives together. The sad part of this story is that we did NOT get to see The Hobbit together in theaters. Adam went with my brother-in-law and father over break while I was writing, but I fully intend not to let us miss out on going together to either of the next two installments. I may not have gotten to see it on opening night, or with my husband, but I did go with my sister, and it was on January 3rd-Tolkien's birthday. To say that I loved it would be an understatement. I'm one of those people who can appreciate that certain things have to be changed to make a book into a more successful movie, so adding scenes or tweaking things, as long as they don't mess with the essence of Tolkien's material, doesn't bother me in the slightest, especially when it's things we get passing mentions of in the books and never really get to see (such as the Necromancer, or Radagast the Brown). But I digress too much; if I'm not careful I'll write a complete movie review. It was the perfect reward for hours of hard writing, and for years of waiting. And I know it may have been the extreme sleep deprivation acting on me, but I spent most of the movie grinning like an idiot and restraining myself from cheering. *sigh* I love being a nerd.

All in all, I just felt that January 3rd was a good day to finish book 5. I achieved a significant literary accomplishment on Tolkien's birthday, then proceeded to go and see a movie based on a beloved book by same said author, and the movie struck to the core of everything I love about the story. All the day really needed was a pint at the Green Dragon at the end of the night and a few of Gandalf's fireworks.

7th Day of Christmas Sale!

On the 7th Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . . $4.99 copies of The Gateway Chronicles! Woo Hoo! Today only, get my E-books on sale just in time for Christmas!

http://ph.thewriterscoffeeshop.com/authors/detail/33

Author to Author Blog Hop, Day 10

We're featuring Angel Lawson today on Author to Author. She's the author of the Wraith series. I enjoyed reading her interview here and especially LOVE her answer to "the best thing about being a writer"! Funny, and very, very true! 

And we have exciting news about the drawing! If we reach 2,000 entries, there will be a second prize package awarded! Enter the drawing at the bottom of the post...

Angel Lawson lives with her family in Atlanta and has a lifelong obsession with creating fiction from reality, either with paint or words. On a typical day you can find her writing, reading, plotting her escape from the zombie apocalypse and trying to get the glitter out from under her nails.

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Ten Questions

1. Who's your favorite author, and why? Impossible to answer question.

I've always been a fan of Stephen King and Barbara Kingsolver. I love Harry Potter and the world building and I'm currently rereading The Hunger Games for the third time and even though I know the outcome I'm still on the edge of my seat.


2. If you could have a conversation with one of the characters in your most-recently released novel, which one would it be and why? 

Ruby, because we could talk about zombies and going to Comic Con.


3. Where do you get the ideas and inspiration for your characters personalities? 

I try to think about what I know or what I want to learn about. This summer a trip to the beach my family has always visited (since my mother was a child) prompted a story I never realized was in my head. Right now I'm drawing on my past as a caseworker and some of the grittier details from that period of my life. But I also love researching new things. Airstream trailers, Parkour, palmistry.


4. What is the best thing (in your opinion) about being a writer? 

Permission to get lost in your mind. I've always been a daydreamer. Now I have an excuse.


5. How did you find your agent/publisher? 

I queried for about 6 months and got either form letter rejections, a couple of requests and very little feedback. During that time I started looking more and more into Self-publishing and it really seemed like the best fit for me and my personality.


6. What's the best piece of writing advice you've been given? 

Always write. Keep writing. And then write some more.


7. Biggest mistake you've made as an author? 

I wish I'd done a bit better editing job on my first book. It had some mistakes that I've gone back and fixed. I hate reading reviews where it comments them. I was overwhelmed though and had read it so many times. At some point you have to trust those working with you. I think at this point I've set up a pretty good system to catch errors. I hope.

8. What would the lead character of your latest novel want for Christmas? 

Probably the assurance of a ghost free Christmas. Oh, and to make out with Connor.


9. Favorite Christmas music? 

Feed the World-BandAid. I loved Duran Duran. My best friend and I had a whole dance to the song with hand movements. Very Napoleon Dynamite.


10. What was the best gift you ever received?

Ugh. I have no idea. I remember getting Barbie Townhouse one year. Oh and a doll that you could put in the bathtub. My mom told me it was too expensive and I couldn't have one. Santa to the rescue!

Thank you, Angel!

You can find her books at CreateSpace, and Amazon.

The Author to Author Blog Hop is hosting a giveaway for a prize package of eBooks from our contributing authors. Enter below, and the winner will be notified by e-mail. You have a chance to enter every day on any of the participating author's blogs - so keep checking back. (Note: eBooks labeled 18+ will not be awarded to a winner under the age of 18.)

The Author to Author Blog Hop Giveaway Prize Package includes:

Legacy of a Dreamer by Allie Jean (16+)

Lessons Learned by Sydney Logan (16+)

Ghostwriter by Lissa Bryan (16+)

Behind Closed Doors by Sherri Hayes (16+)

Fifty Shades of Jungle Fever by L.V. Lewis (18+)

Riverbend by Andrea Goodson

Serial Summer by Angel Lawson (18+)

MORE by T.M. Franklin

Valerie, Daughter of the Dragon by Robert S. Fuller, Jr.

Ghosts of our Pasts by N.K. Smith

My Only by N.K. Smith

The Six by K. B. Hoyle

Damaged Goods by Alexandra Allred

CLICK HERE to enter PRIZE PACK GIVEAWAY