Elizabeth Drakes's Site

Fantasy Romance

Happily-ever-after

Coming Soon: Pirate Captain’s Daughter

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In honor of the pre-order release of Pirate Captain’s Daughter, available on May 13th, I compiled a series of micro fictions happening before the events of the story. I am releasing these over the next couple weeks to introduce you to Sapphire and Sir Matthias.

Sapphire
Sapphire – almost as hard as a diamond, and she has to be.

I have “known” Sir Matthias for over five years, and I am l glad he finally gets his own happily-ever-after. He deserves it.

Sapphire has her own journey, and while it wasn’t always an easy one, she taught me a lot along the way. For me, that makes her happy ending all the more special.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

Book Review: Dual Image

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ATouchofSun
Dual Image was one of two books in this.

As I mentioned in my previous post, my daughter bought me this paperback for mother’s day this past year. It was prominently displayed at Target, and she saw that it was in the romance section. Also as I mentioned before, it turns out that the book is actually two books in one, both written in the 1980s.

Interestingly, this story was timeless enough there were only a few give-aways to the decade. Lack of cell phones/smart phones has definitely had a huge impact on the stories.

This one was better than the first of the two novels. It was an enjoyable afternoon read as long as I didn’t think too much. Certain plot holes were rather obvious after I put the book down, particularly relating to the custody battle over the heroine’s brother’s son.

Other than that, there was some decent chemistry with the characters. The heroine was far more fleshed out than the hero, and as such, I liked her a lot better. The steamy scenes were okay, but they aren’t the type I will reread to help my own writing.

The worst part was the sheer amount of head-hopping. Any character you come across you have the chance of seeing the story through their eyes. Even small incidental ones. This is a lot of head-hopping. In older, more established romance writers, you expected to see the scene through both the hero and heroine’s perspective. This was way beyond that.

All in, I don’t regret reading it, but I won’t read it again.

It did teach me a few things.

First, an external plot is really helpful. Having so much internal, “I am getting over my ex” going on, not augmented by something more, can make it difficult to relate to a character. It can also make it difficult to believe they have gotten over their ex.

Second, my favorite character in this was not the the usual serious and duty-driven one. All of the character building that went into the heroine who was driven more by emotion and living for the moment actually made me like her better. Unusual, but some key character driven elements, such as her compassion for her nephew, drew me to her.

Reminds me how important character development is, and it’s something Nora Roberts does very well in all of her work.

Book Review: Cold-Hearted Rake

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Heroine does not look how I imagined her, but the gardens and manor house do.

This was a book I bought for myself. I had picked up one of Lisa Kleypas’s audio books at my library for a long car trip, and I liked it so much I decided to try the first book in her Ravenels series.

The story is set during the Victorian era as much is changing in land ownership and its place in the social hierarchy. It definitely portrays how vulnerable women were, and our hero is not a man of his times, at least when it comes to respecting women and their wishes. This is par for the course for historical romance. Hard for a modern reader to root for a hero that treats his wife like cattle.

The plot was a combination of the romance between the hero and heroine, as well as a “scapegrace” coming to terms with the responsibilities of a crumbling earldom in a time where landownership no longer confers wealth.

The hero definitely has his work cut out for him, though I am not completely certain why he chose to accept the responsibility. But he did, and it changes him. The weight of so many people needing him, depending on him, helps make him a different man. One capable at the end of truly loving the heroine.

This is also a story where the hero is smitten with the heroine from almost the very beginning. I am not certain I believe it from a “cold-hearted rake”, but I was more than willing to suspend disbelief and enjoy.

It did have some head-hopping. We moved between different characters in the same page, and those characters included people beyond the hero and heroine. I only note this after how much push-back I received from editors for doing the same thing.

All in, it was a great read. Good enough that I plan to purchase the next book in the series.

It also taught me a few things.

First, having a hero you don’t especially like at the beginning is okay if you can make him likable enough and redeemable. The hero was ready to toss all the sisters and widow of the former earl out as the earl hadn’t provided for them in his will. He doesn’t, and that helps build his character and make him likable.

Second, this is clearly the first book of a series. I paid close attention to how she laid the foundation for the characters who will get their own book in this story.

Third, her steamy scenes are fantastic. I need to go back and study them more. I feel like I have learned a lot in my years of writing, but this is something I am always trying to do better.

I am looking forward to reading the next book.

Book Review: Mind Over Matter

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ATouchofSun
Mind Over Matter was one of two books in this.

While I grew up reading Nora Roberts, and she was one of the authors that lured me into this genre, it has been many years since I have read one of her books.

My daughter bought me this paperback for mother’s day this past year. It was prominently displayed at Target, and she saw that it was in the romance section. While it might not be my usual fare, it was a thoughtful gift, and it delighted her to no end to see me reading it.

Honestly, though, that is about where the joy ended.

I kept waiting for the plot to come into focus. I am still not sure what it was other than the heroine being willing to accept who she was and that she could be loved. But even then, there was no real journey to that.

I don’t really have a lot to say about the story. The queen of romance wrote it, so I feel bad saying anything less than positive about it, but the story never gripped me. I never really understood why the characters were attracted to each other or what really kept them apart.

The steamy scenes didn’t make up for it either. And I’ll forgive almost anything for good steamy scenes.

There was also a lot of head-hopping. On one page, we saw the story through four different characters. This is even more head-hopping than you see in many older, more established romance writers where it was expected to see the scene through both the hero and heroine’s perspective.

All in, I don’t regret reading it, but I won’t read it again.

It did teach me a few things.

First, it is incredibly important to have real stakes for your characters. There has to be something keeping them apart. Yes, it can be internal, but a somewhat routine break-up from eight years ago needs a whole more to it.

Second, there has to be something in story that get the character over it. While this book has a happily-ever-after, I am not sure why I didn’t get in on page twenty rather than page two-hundred and seventy-four. Nothing all that much really seemed to happen to make the changes real.

A few things in the story made me pause, like the mention of phone booths and car phones. I checked the copyright date after I finished it. While the book A Touch of Sun was published in 2019, the story Mind Over Matter dates back to the 1980s.

Reminds me how much has changed in romance novels and technology over the last thirty-five years. I might stick to Nora Roberts’ more recent works.

Writing: Finished!

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I finished Siegfried and Sarah.

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Let me celebrate a little!

Yes, the story is only forty-thousand words, but this is how stories work for me.

My first draft are skeletal. I will not be killing my darlings, as frankly, I don’t have many darlings to kill.

bedtime2
He has some really good advice, but I would NEVER let him read me a bedtime story. Ever. I like sleep too much.

But I will later. I will layer on all the things that make the story come to life. Character motivation. What they are thinking and feeling. Maybe even a description of where they are and what they are wearing.
Yes, my first drafts are pretty bare, but they have a beginning, middle and end. They are a complete story, even if they are a very hurried, very incomplete story.

I have come to terms with my methodology of writing. I have learned to trust my inner muse, to let her have free reign on the first draft.

There is only one way to account for stock comp expense, but I believe there is a myriad of ways to write a book. I sometimes think the writing community’s obsession with outlining stems more from our society’s obsession to control things, to understand the process, and then sell that process.

If it works for Stephen King, it must be the correct way!

Except I am not certain this works with creative endeavors the same way it works for accounting. I also think it’s a lot harder to sell the pantsing methodology. You can’t really put together a class on trusting your muse and letting her see you through. And most writers have seen more than our share of classes on how to plot a novel.

I am rambling a bit about process here to hide the sense of loss I am feeling right now.

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Siegfried and Sarah’s story is done. After the hours and hours we have spent together, I have their first draft complete.

It is with great sadness, and more than small feeling of loss, that I say goodbye to them.
I always feel such loss when I finish a first draft. I feel a certain sadness as I complete later drafts, but never as much as I do on this first one.

As I bid them farewell and allow them to enjoy their happily-ever-after, it’s time to turn my focus to revisions.

I can’t wait to introduce you to Sarah and Siegfried, but first, Sir Matthias needs his happily-ever-after…

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Perseverance vs Stubbornness

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When does perseverance become stubbornness?

Said another way, when is sticking with an endeavor the wrong thing to do?

This is a tough question, but also an important one.

Many times, I feel like if things are too hard, we as a society quit. That if something doesn’t come to us right away, there are so many other things to distract us that we don’t have to fight for it.

Success

But some of us don’t know when to let go. Facebook has proven that to me.

There has to be a middle ground.

When I was in high school, I loved tennis. It was a fast sport, kept my attention as I chased the fuzzy yellow ball, and involved no physical contact. But I understood even then that no matter how many hours I put into the sport (and I put in quite a lot), I would never be as good as the best player on our team. In her freshman year, she was already #1 on the varsity team and ranked in the top players in the state.

I didn’t have the raw talent she did, and even with hours and hours of practice every day, I knew I’d never get a college scholarship playing tennis, much less go pro.

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I knew enough to let tennis go and focus on my studies. Not always an easy choice, particulatly with the emphasis on sports in high school, but the right one.

I faced a similar issue with deciding between perseverance and stubbornness on a story I recently started.

I’d based it loosely on Romeo and Juliet…

Except it was two kingdoms instead of two families

And Romeo was a responsible and war-hardened prince

And there was going to be a happily-ever-after.

Okay, so nothing like Romeo and Juliet.

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Still not sure why people think it is a romance.

I had characters in mind for the story and a rough idea of what would happen. This is normal for my pantser self. But more than that, my muse wasn’t just sitting on my shoulder, she was screaming in my ear.

The words flowed until somewhere around the five-thousand word mark, and then my muse turned silent. I plodded along a little more, then I went back and reread my work.

My war-hardened prince was distant and unresponsive.

My heroine waffled between the demure personality I had envisioned and the strong-willed woman she wanted to be.

My external-to-the-romance plot was held together with paperclips and sticky notes.

Yeah, it was a hot mess.

And I didn’t want to edit it. I didn’t want to fix it. And I was only 5,000 words in.

My thoughts kept drifting to the heroine’s older brother, thinking maybe I should tell his story first and come back to her.

This time, rather than jumping into the story, I mulled over his character. How his kingdom fits into my larger world. What the ramifications are of having been a pocket kingdom beholden to an undead abomination. How much the royal family would sacrifice to protect their people.

It helped me create a solid character.

CharactersPlot
Never really had a plot to begin with

His love interest started to take shape at that point. I tried several different characters, until I found one that worked.

As I’m still working through edits on other stories and not ready to start a new novel, I decided to take my new characters on role-playing test drives. Basically, bouncing them through different “what-ifs” to see how they work together.

In each different scenario, I had to do something to “break” the hero to get through the layers of propriety, duty, and honor that defines him.

But it defines him. I can’t break that and have still be him.

After four or five different scenarios, I finally came up with one I think works. Yes, it removes three characters I had thought were essential. (hint: they weren’t).

But it lets the hero be the man he is all the way through the story. No need to “break” who he is to get him to fall in love. And that feels right.

Now, to find the time to write this…

What this taught me was persistence is important, but so is knowing when to let go and try something else. I haven’t given up on my hero, but I did let myself give up on various things that didn’t work to find the one I think will give me the best story.