Elizabeth Drakes's Site

Fantasy Romance

Romance Writer

Writing: What I’m Working On

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You hear me bemoan my lack of time quite often, but I thought I’d let you know why I want more time and what I’ve been working on the last four years.

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Time is such a balancing act

I took the keyboard back up in 2015. There are two novels I wrote that first year that will never see the light beyond my hard drive.

Other than those two, I have:

Published:

Deep Into Editing – Hoping for a 2019 Release

  • Knight of Valor
  • A Knight’s Redemption

Sent to My Beta Reader

  • Pirate Captain’s Daughter
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Of course she does. It’s why I send it to her!

First Drafts in Need of the Hard First-to-Second-Draft Edits

(These don’t have title’s yet. I think of most of my books by the names of the hero and heroine, sometimes even after they have a title)

  • Rita and Logan – Rita may get a new name before this is launched
  • Gabriel and Chelsea – introduces elves!
  • Leikar and Annabelle – yes, the same Annabelle as from Seducing the Ice Queen
  • Alexander and Rebecca – yes, the same Alexander mentioned in Knight of Valor
  • Alor and Evie – Set in the same world but well beyond Tamryn. Alor is actually from a dragon clan that survived the purge.
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The editing may even be worse than this.

Future Stories

I have story ideas galore, but ideas in the world of writing are only slightly more valuable that pebbles on a beach.

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Lotta pebbles

But, I do have an idea for one of Rebecca’s brothers from Alexander and Rebecca. Her other brother could also use a story.

Alor has four brothers, all who need stories.

I am currently pondering the people in two small kingdoms that are part of the eastern provinces. There’s at least three stories there – one for the crowned prince and each of his two younger siblings. Possibly stories for those from the rival kingdom as well.

I’ve heard people would like to see Sir Leopold get his happily-ever-after as well as High-Knight Freya.

And one of my beta readers wanted to know if I would at least write a novella to get Marcella and Pike together from A Knight’s Redemption.

This is before we consider the handful of other stories I have planned involving a death knight, a kingdom plagued by insanity, and the elves.

Yes, there will be elves!

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So yes, I need more time.

Now, where to find it…

Serial Micro Fiction: Needs

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LeikarMeetsTam

 

The Tamarian soldiers stared at Leikar, then one nodded toward the Knight of Valor. “Closest Priestess of Thalia is hard half day ride from here. He won’t survive that long.”

Leikar stared at the young Knight, his sword no longer aflame with the god’s light. “I know how to cure zombie rot if you can get me the ingredients quickly enough.”

Several of the soldiers whispered he was a mage and shouldn’t be trusted.

Finally, the soldier in charge met Leikar’s gaze. “Get him what he needs. Quickly.”

Don’t Be a Writer

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At least, don’t be a writer of romance novels when your daughter is in first grade but reading at the fifth grade level, and she wants to read the book you wrote.

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Yeah.

About that…Errr, no.

I tell her the stories in my books will scare her, and there is some truth to that. She has put down more than one book in her few short years because there was death in it. She almost quit reading The Magic Treehouse series altogether because of a book in the series where the kids go back in time, meet an Egyptian queen, but when they return to the present, the queen is a mummy. My daughter was super unhappy about it, saying it was a terrible ending.

I have no idea where she gets it from. *whistles while avoiding eye contact*

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I swear!

 

And I’m totally lying.

But my romance novels are not fade-to-black. And there is no way she is ready for one of them, much less one her mom wrote.

Heck, I’m not ready for her to read them and the barrage of questions that will come.

But she is my daughter, and as we were playing a video game together, her main focus wasn’t on the combat, or maximizing loot, it was all about marrying off the characters. She was especially delighted when that resulted in the parents being “gifted” with an unruly child they had to deal with.

I have no idea where she gets it from. *whistles while avoiding eye contact*

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It was the cat. Yeah, the cat.

 

Kids show you the best and worst sides of yourself.

I’ve toyed with writing her a story just for her, but I’m not sure I can do it. Or that I want to spend my writing time doing it when Knight of Valor is calling to me.

Maybe I could rewrite my current stories and remove the non-fade-to-black scenes.

I’m trying to remember when I first started reading Victoria Holt, and I’m almost certain it was fifth or six grade. I still remember sitting on my bed devouring book after book, and based on where the bed was positioned, I know it had to be before seventh grade when we moved. It wasn’t too long after that I discovered Kathleen Woodwiss and was cemented as a lifelong romance reader.

Granted, it wasn’t until much more recently that I decided I wanted to write what I read. I’d toyed with traditional fantasy, urban paranormal, and science fiction before realizing I could incorporate those into romance and write what I read.

And I’ve never looked back!