Monthly Archives: April 2021

Story Behind the Story: The Steel Rose by Nancy Northcott

Authors, Nancy Northcott, Nancy Northcott, The Story Behind the Story, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Historical fiction requires the ability to effectively place wholly made-up characters in a world in a way that gets all the details right. Nancy melds the details of fact and the intricacies of plot with stakes that are relevant today, carefully laying out her series with one well-researched plot point after another. I remember when Nancy, whom I’ve known for literally decades, was just starting to build this series, with her great fandom of Richard III especially evident in its pages.

What’s the theme behind your story? 

I’m never sure how to answer that. I suppose it’s trust. The challenge for both the hero and the heroine is learning to trust their judgment and each other.

What’s the logline?

A wizard’s misplaced trust. A king wrongly blamed for murder. A bloodline cursed until they clear the king’s name.

The Steel Rose is the second book in The Boar King's Honor trilogy by Nancy Northcott.
The Steel Rose by Nancy Northcott is the second book in The Boar King’s Honor trilogy.

The heroine is a magically Gifted seer, Amelia Mainwaring. One of her ancestors, Edmund Mainwaring, unwittingly helped murder two royal children, the boys known as the Princes in the Tower. He flung himself on the mercy of their uncle, King Richard III, who told him to keep silent because of the political situation. King Richard died at Bosworth Field without ever giving Edmund permission to reveal the truth about the boys’ deaths. 

The Tudors came to power after Bosworth. They blamed King Richard for the boys’ deaths and anything else they could. If Edmund had tried to speak up, he would’ve been executed for treason, and the truth would’ve died with him. Tormented by guilt, he cursed his direct heirs to not rest in life or death until the family cleared the king’s name. Now the souls of his heirs are trapped in a wraith-ridden shadowland after they die. This includes Amelia’s twin brother, Adam. She’s desperate to free his soul.

What were you thinking about or what was happening when the idea occurred to you?

Since this is the second book in a trilogy, I was thinking about the structure of the first book. As you know, the first book in a series sets the parameters for those that follow. The first book, The Herald of Day, had two plotlines. One was the hero and heroine’s quest to clear King Richard and break the curse. The other was about their efforts to restore the true timeline after a power-hungry wizard changed England’s history to create a dictatorship of the mageborn.

So I needed a plotline about the blood curse and one that would involve high stakes such as those in the altered timeline of Herald.

How did the original idea change as you went along?

It stayed pretty much the same after the initial plotting session. I’ve been a Ricardian (one who doesn’t believe Richard III was anywhere near as bad as Shakespeare painted him, for those unfamiliar with the term) most of my adult life. I have a pretty good working knowledge of the controversy surrounding the king, so I’ve had the idea for the arc about the blood curse in The Steel Rose for a long time. I also knew I wanted to use a particular magical artifact at some point.

The larger plot, centering on the Battle of Waterloo, did require some adjustment as I read more about the battle. I knew that I wanted Julian, my hero, and Amelia to be involved in the Allied victory, and Napoleon’s return to a France economically devastated by his earlier wars gave me a way to use that magical artifact for something important. The research pushed a fairly amorphous initial idea into a concrete shape.

How did you conceive of your characters for this story and how did they change?

I knew Amelia would be a seer and the hero, Julian Winfield, would be a descendant of one of the characters in The Herald of Day. I also wanted them both to be different from the characters in the prior book. The heroine of Herald is a seer, but she’s untrained and not confident when the story opens. The hero is bitter about the curse hanging over his soul, but he’s comfortable at court or with a blade in his hand.

While Amelia is a seer, she has had years of training in her power and has a fair degree of confidence with it. As she uses it in The Steel Rose, however, it changes, and she must adapt to those changes. She must also figure out how to interpret visions she doesn’t understand.

Julian is a nobleman, but he’s not a Mainwaring and so isn’t cursed. He wants to help Amelia lift the curse, though, because Amelia’s twin brother, Adam, was one of his closest friends. Since they’re researching curses, one of them needed to be bookish, and I chose Julian. He also breeds horses, and leads Britain’s secret network of magically Gifted spies. He’s a book guy but one who packs a punch.

Are you pleased with the results, or do you wish you had done anything differently in the story?

I’m happy with it. I had a relaxed deadline, and my editor was patient with my recurring need to “check just one more thing” during the revision process. I had time to make the book just as I wanted it.

Who would play your leads in the movie if (when!) you make a deal? 

For Julian, Luke Thompson, who plays Benedict Bridgerton on the TV series Bridgerton. He’s handsome but seems able to blend with a crowd, as Julian would have to, and he knows how to project thoughtfulness as well as being physically active.

For Amelia, I would choose Elizabeth Olsen. She’s attractive, has an unassuming but confident demeanor, and can project sympathy, thoughtfulness, and courage.

What else do you want readers to know?

I’ve read quite a few Regency romances and am particularly drawn to those featuring Waterloo or its aftermath. I enjoyed the research, and I learned a great deal. I should add that my version of the fate of the Princes in the Tower tweaks history to suit my story. I actually think there’s a very good chance those boys lived into the reign of Henry VII, who followed their uncle Richard on the throne.

Nancy’s “shameless hucksterism” prompted her to point out that The Herald of Day is free starting April 28 and for a couple more days thereafter (whether or not you’re in Kindle Unlimited) to celebrate the release of The Steel Rose. If you’re not reading this on April 28, 2021, just be sure to check the price before you commit!

Bio:

The Steel Rose is the second book in Nancy Northcott's The Boar King's Honor trilogy.
Nancy Northcott, author of The Steel Rose

Nancy Northcott’s childhood ambition was to grow up to become Wonder Woman. Around fourth grade, she realized it was too late to acquire Amazon genes, but she still loved comic books, science fiction, fantasy, history, and romance.

She has written freelance articles and taught at the college level. Her most popular course was on science fiction, fantasy, and society. She has also given presentations on the Wars of the Roses and Richard III to university classes studying Shakespeare’s Richard III. Reviewers have described her books as melding fantasy, romance, and suspense. Library Journal gave her debut novel, Renegade, a starred review, calling it “genre fiction at its best.”

In addition to the historical fantasy Boar King’s Honor trilogy, Nancy writes the Light Mage Wars paranormal romances, the Arachnid Files romantic suspense novellas, and the Lethal Webs romantic spy adventures. With Jeanne Adams, she co-writes the Outcast Station science fiction mysteries.

Married since 1987, Nancy and her husband have one son, a bossy dog, and a house full of books.

Nancy’s social media links:

www.nancynorthcott.com

Twitter: @NancyNorthcott

Facebook:  https://facebook.com/nancynorthcottauthor

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3468806.Nancy_Northcott

Buy link: readerlinks.com/l/1794929

Story Behind the Story: The Mermaid Mahjong Circle by Claudia Grossman

Authors, Claudia Grossman, Claudia Grossman, The Story Behind the Story, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Claudia Grossman’s first novel is about being caught up in adventure. For Claudia’s characters, it’s how one little MacGuffin sets them off in a way that summarizes the mysticism of true friendship and the joy of art and beauty. But The Story Behind The Story is Claudia’s own adventure, choosing to publish independently instead of waiting for agents and publishing houses, letting her characters drive her story and letting her determination drive her success. Her characters are empowered by the mahjong tile they find; Claudia is empowered by her own creativity.

The Mermaid Mahjong Circle is an adventure for Goldman’s characters and herself.

What is the theme behind your story?

Women empowering themselves through the things that matter the most to them—women whose art is their heart and whose heart is their art.

What’s the logline?

A fantastical, fabulous, feminist fairy tale.

How would you describe your book?

The book is a lot of things; mostly, I hope, a little jewel.

At its heart, it is a modern-day, grown-up fairy tale. It’s the story of two best friends, both artists, and an adventure that takes them from the present to the past and back again, thanks to a tale about a mysterious mahjong tile crafted a century ago.

It is neither about your grandmother’s mahjong nor is it your granddaughter’s fairy tale.

It’s modern because it’s set in the current day, mostly; because the heroines are two grown-up women of a certain age; and because it is about women who create their own destiny and their own happiness. Unlike the fairy tales that so many of us grew up reading, where the woman waited for the prince to come along so that her life could begin, in this fairy tale, the women create their own fulfillment. Fun little fact: except for two very minor characters, all of the characters in this novel are female, even the dog. And that was intentional because I wanted it to be about a woman’s heart and her art and the power of that connection.

The book is also about the creativity in all of us that can lead us to discover new things about ourselves—whatever that creativity and passion might be. It’s about finding and nurturing that spark, and about empowering ourselves to create and, as a result, to enrich our own lives and the lives of those around us.

It’s about the possibility of “what if,” of believing in things that we may not be able to see, of stretching our imaginations and opening our minds.

It’s about best friends and the power of friendship.

On a very personal note, it’s about finding your voice, even if you’ve never had the courage to do so before.

And it’s about bringing a sense of enchantment to life.

Finally, the novel is a love letter to San Francisco, my favorite place in the world. The book gives the reader the chance to see the city through the eyes of an artist and to glimpse its heart and soul.

How did you come up with the book’s title? What is the connection between mermaids and mahjong?

I’ve been fascinated with mermaids ever since I was a little girl. Fairies, pixies, and mermaids—I spent countless hours reading about them in storybooks and I became utterly enchanted. Beautiful, ethereal, and delicate, they were a magical mix of color and luminescence. The storybook illustrations were gorgeous—the mermaid’s shimmering tails and flowing hair, the fairies’ tinted, translucent wings—and those illustrations informed the rich descriptions and colors that I’ve written into the book.

Mermaids were magical to the shy little-girl me; mahjong came from my love of color and art and design.

I find mahjong tiles, with their delicate art, to be so interesting. They are like tiny canvases, each with its own story to tell. And I love the sound they make when they click together. Full disclosure—I’m not a mahjong player myself. But the game always had a presence in the New York Jewish culture that I grew up in, and I was always aware of it.

Here’s the connection: 

One day when the word “mermaid” popped into my mind, I started randomly doodling words that might go along with it because playing with words is a true joy to me. Mermaids and mahjong—it just sounded like fun. In fact, I thought that Mermaids & Mahjong would make a great name for a funky little store in San Francisco that sold vintage clothing and accessories (which do come up in the book, as it so happens). But because I’m a writer, not a retailer, once the combination of mermaids and mahjong came to me, I knew there had to be a story in there somewhere. And, as it turns out, there was.

And circles?

As I say in the prologue to the book, “The beauty of circles is that they go around endlessly, joining people, generations, lifetimes. Sometimes the connections are seamless; sometimes surprising; and many times, magical.” That all proves true.

How did the original idea change as you went along?

I always thought it was a myth when writers would say that their characters took them where they wanted to go—until it happened to me. I found that one scene would often lead to the next in ways I hadn’t originally thought. No sooner would I write one clue to the mahjong tile mystery than a new twist presented itself. But I always knew how the book would end. I wrote it from start to finish (without an outline, which was an adventure in itself), except for the four separate “mermaid stories” within it. Each of those is like a standalone tale and those were written afterward.

Do you have favorite characters? Who and why?

I’m partial to Lorelei, the 800-year-old mermaid who is our storyteller and Evie and Hannah’s fairy god-mermaid, and who is filled with personality. She owns every room she enters. I also love Aunt Venny. She’s headstrong and spirited, with an indomitable, positive energy.

How do your professional life and your creative life blend?

My career has been spent as an advertising and marketing communications copywriter (think Peggy Olsen in Mad Men), so words and wordplay have always been a big part of who I am—like writing headlines, for example, or naming nail polish colors, a job I held for a decade. I love crossword puzzles; I love the Before & After category in Jeopardy; I just love playing with words. Combine that passion for words with a really big imagination, and writing a novel became something I just had to do. It took many years for me to find my story and for my story to find me, but when it did, it was like magic.

Bio:

Claudia Grossman has spent her career as an advertising and marketing copywriter, both in New York and Los Angeles. She has been published in the Los Angeles Times, in Victoria magazine, and in blogs for both More magazine and skirt! magazine, as well as having authored a series of children’s educational books about Jewish culture. She writes a blog of often humorous life observations entitled Rice on Your Head(www.riceonyourhead.com). She and her husband live in LA, although San Francisco will always have her heart.

Buy link:

The Mermaid Mahjong Circle—A Fairy Tale for Women by Claudia Grossman is available at amazon.com (https://amzn.to/3uYFCDa) and other online booksellers, both as a paperback ($15.00) and as an ebook ($9.95).

An Editor’s View of World-Building for Writers

Presentations, World-Building for Writers, , ,


If you’re writing fiction, you’ve got to build a world for your characters. Sometimes it’s easy to cheat; it’s the street you grew up on when you were a kid, or it’s a famous place. But wherever you want your characters to reside, you have to tell your readers about it – where it is, when it is, how it feels to live and work there, what the physics are like, what it smells like, and (very important!) whether the food is any good.

I’ll help writers of every age and skill level understand the essential parts of world-building. My overview will help writers meet the editor and agent test – which will ultimately enable writers to populate the minds and imaginations of their readers with a fiction as real as the world in which we live.

From Westeros to West Hollywood, I’ll help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your genre. You’ll then be able to identify those strengths and use them to tell the story you want to tell. I’ll touch on fantastic places and characters as seen in comics, games, movies, and novels of every kind.

Tune into Discord on Monday April 19 at 6pm Eastern (that’s 2200 GMT, 3 pm on the US West Coast). You don’t even have to join. It’s part of Discord’s Writers of Strange Fiction monthlong online convention!

Story Behind the Story: Crazy, Stupid, Dead by Wendy Delaney

Authors, The Story Behind the Story, Wendy Delaney, Wendy Delaney, , , , , , , , , , , ,

The truth and memory are two important parts of all writing, especially so in the mysteries of Wendy Delaney. The seventh novel in her Working Stiffs mystery series confronts Delaney’s heroine with a death that may not be what it seems to be. Her goal as a mystery writer is to provide the reader with a story that keeps them guessing as they follow her “human lie detector” heroine all the way from the first clue to the solution. (And it kept me going, too, as her editor.)

What’s the theme behind your story? 

The theme behind Crazy, Stupid, Dead (Working Stiffs Mystery #7)—and all the books in my Working Stiffs Mystery series—is that things are not always what they seem. So the truth can take some time to reveal itself, even when you’re a deception detection expert (a.k.a. “human lie detector”) like my amateur sleuth, Charmaine Digby.

What’s the logline?

Drowning in your own bathtub is a stupid way to die—the recurring line that causes Charmaine to question how such a thing could have happened to a friend of her grandmother who was in relatively good health.

Nothing is as it appears in a Working Stiffs Mystery by Wendy Delaney, even with a “human lie detector.”

What were you thinking about when the idea occurred to you?

I’m always on the hunt for ways in which a well-motivated person could get away with murder. One afternoon, while combing through dozens of news stories on the subject (yes, I have an interesting search history!), I read a detective’s comments about how murder by drowning can be easier to get away with. If there are no witnesses and no evidence to suggest that it’s anything other than accidental… So it’s a murder that doesn’t necessarily look like a murder? Perfect! I already had the title I wanted to use—a twist on the movie title, Crazy, Stupid, Love—so all I had to do was to drown my story’s victim in her bathtub so that Charmaine and several other characters could think it was a crazy and/or stupid way to die—and maybe just a little bit suspicious! 

How did you conceive of your characters for this story?  

My mystery series is set in Port Merritt, a fictional popular retirement town located an easy ferry ride from Seattle, so I typically populate my stories with senior citizens whose middle-aged children live close by, and this story was no exception. The whole gang of recurring characters introduced in book 1, Trudy, Madly, Deeply, is back, so it’s always fun to explore those interrelationships as well as come up with likely suspects for them to interact with. I often draw on personal experience when I populate my stories. In Crazy, Stupid, Dead I feature a secondary character with dementia. That wasn’t my original intention, but seven years of caring for a mom with a failing memory taught me that similar nice old ladies can serve as delightfully unreliable witnesses—perfect for a light-hearted mystery. 

Are you pleased with the results, or do you wish you had done anything differently in the story?  

Overall, I’m very pleased with how the story turned out. Many of my readers commented about how I kept them guessing, so mission accomplished in terms of the main plot. Really, what fun would it be to read a mystery that is easy to solve? On a personal note, I love my main characters and want to do right by them in their personal lives. Char has some emotional wounds from the past that need to heal, and I feel like good progress was made in this story for her personal growth—something that leads nicely into book 8, A Kiwi Before Dying, which will be coming soon.  

Who would play your leads in the movie if you make a deal? 

That’s a tough one. I have pictures up on my wall of actors and actresses whom I’ve “cast” for my earlier books. I’d need a time machine for some. For example, Jill St. John. In her fifties, she would have been perfect as Charmaine’s actress mother. Same with Lou Diamond Phillips—the thirty-five year-old version could have been a great fit for Detective Steve Sixkiller. As for Char, since she looks a lot like her mom, the casting could present a challenge, but if Emma Stone would like to gain twenty pounds to play her, fantastic!

What else do you want readers to know?

Since Crazy, Stupid, Dead is the seventh book in my cozy mystery series, I always suggest that readers start with book one, Trudy, Madly, Deeply, not only for a good introduction to Char and her special ability as a human lie detector but because story threads run from book to book. And, yes, her ability is steeped in real science. I became interested in Dr. Paul Ekman’s work way back when and interviewed one of his test subjects, who was kind enough to help me when Char’s character was at the “what if my sleuth could do this” stage. I’ll always be grateful that she was so generous with her time.  

Bio 

Wendy Delaney writes fun-filled cozy mysteries and is the award-winning author of the Working Stiffs Mystery series. A longtime member of Mystery Writers of America, she’s a Food Network addict and pastry chef wannabe. When she’s not killing off story people she can be found on her treadmill, working off the calories from her latest culinary adventure. Wendy lives in the Seattle area with the love of her life and is a proud grandma.

Buy Link

Crazy, Stupid, Dead is available at Amazon and is free to read for Kindle Unlimited subscribers: 

Story Behind the Story: The Way Home by Eliana West

Authors, Eliana West, Eliana West, The Story Behind the Story, , , , , , , , , , ,

Eliana West writes romances in which mistakes are forgiven. Writers can take heed from her own approach as an author for her forthcoming novel, The Way Home, which required her to rework an unsatisfactory first draft to redeem its promise. The result is a novel of which she’s totally delighted, providing a happily ever after for two characters whose heritage is completely different – and yet tangled in America’s history.

What’s the theme behind your story? 

The theme for all of the books in my Heart of Colton series is forgiveness. These are stories about forgiveness, redemption, and, of course, love.

What’s the logline?

A letter from the past will change their future.

What were you thinking about or what was happening when the idea occurred to you?

I was talking with my sister about our family history and the story came to me almost fully formed. I also wanted to figure out a way to tell a story about the complex relationships between the descendants of enslaved people and the descendants of those who enslaved them. 

Eliana West says interracial romance isn’t just for Black readers.

How did the original idea change as you went along?

My hero’s backstory changed quite a bit and new characters that evolved as the story went along, secondary characters that really became crucial to the story. Otherwise, the bones of the story have always stayed the same. 

How did you conceive of your characters for this story and how did they change?

Taylor Colton is kind of a combination of the Property Brothers and Ben Napier from Hometown on HGTV. For all of his success, he’s pretty insecure. When I had the idea for Taylor, I pictured him as a hero who struggles, not wanting to be the hero at first. For Josephine Martin, I wanted a heroine who worked in tech and a character with a strong will and a big heart. Ada Mae is based on my great aunt, and I drew a lot of inspiration from her personality and life. 

Are you pleased with the results, or do you wish you had done anything differently in the story? Why or why not?

The first draft of this story was just terrible and I had a point where I didn’t think I could salvage it. I took my time and did a major rewrite and now I’m so pleased with the result. I’m not sure at this point that I would do anything different.

Who would play your leads in the movie if (when!) you make a deal?

Oh boy, that’s a good question. Maybe Chris Evans for Taylor Colton, and Jaylen Barron for Josephine Martin.

What else do you want readers to know?

What I’d like readers to know is that interracial romance isn’t just for Black readers. Interracial romance is for any reader; diverse romance is just that diverse. If you haven’t read an interracial romance, give one a try. 

My books may be a challenging story for some people. I write stories that confront some uncomfortable aspects of race and history. But at the end of the day, these are romances. Love always wins.  

Bio

Eliana West writes contemporary interracial romance. Her first book, The Way Forward, establishing the Heart of Colton series, was published by Tule Publishing in 2020. When not writing, Eliana can be found exploring the many wineries in Oregon and Washington with her husband, traveling around in Bianca, their vintage Volkswagen Westfalia. She is the founder of Writers for Diversity (https://www.facebook.com/groups/writersfordiversity), a community for writers of all genres writing, creating diverse characters and worlds. Check out www.elianawest.com

Your general time period of preference for post

April/May

Buy link

https://books2read.com/u/38RpRZ