November 3, 2005 – 4:15 pm
Boy oh boy, what a day to begin a book. I had forgotten that I had an appointment with the eye doctor today until my PDA alarm started pinging this morning. I spent a total of four hours with my eyes dilated. Still, I managed, somehow, to write ten pages. Chapter One. I like to start off a book with a unique, memorable scene. Oh, and if it’s a little outrageous, that’s okay. I don’t rein myself in at this stage of writing. It’s important to hook the reader within the first ten pages. Have you ever plucked a book off a bookstore shelf, looked [...]
By Kathryn
November 2, 2005 – 4:13 pm
What makes a good book? Conflict. Your character wants something (her goal)–but something or someone else is preventing her from achieving it. Now, to reach her goal, she has to try a new approach. A small change is all that’s needed…at first. This works for while and your character is back on track, making progress toward achieving her goal–until something suddenly changes again and she is forced to try something else, something harder this time, to reach her goal. This shift in her world occurs periodically throughout the story, requiring the character to change in order to finally be able to achieve her goal. This [...]
By Kathryn
November 1, 2005 – 7:45 pm
It’s a big day for me. Big. Because today I am beginning a new novel. It’s a day ripe with possibility, and yes, I admit, a bit of fear too. While How to Seduce a Duke (sexy title, eh?) is my fifth novel, its my first for Avon and the first of a new trilogy. Fear can be great motivation though, and motivation is something I am really going to need because the publication date for this book has been moved up from December 2006 to October 2006. That means I have (insert loud audible gulp here) three months to write, revise, polish and deliver [...]
By Kathryn
