Devon

Clovelly is a very old fishing village in Devon clinging to the side of a cliff. A place where the people clung to life equally perilously as they harvested fish in all kinds of weather.


This is the Red Lion hotel where we stayed and as you can see we were blessed with lovely weather. It was once several fishermen's cottages and was joined together to form an inn a great many years ago.

Early records of the village date back to Saxon times, but  it has been around in something like its present form since the 16th century.  If you haven't visited Clovelly, then hopefully these pictures give you a sense of this charming spot.

The population in the village in 1801, my interest being the Regency, was 714 people and a great many of these would have been children, since families were large and the number of cottages is quite small.

The hillside is very steep so you must have to go up very slowly and you will have to take lots of breaks, but first may I suggest a small libation at the bar in the Red Lion.  We also had a crab sandwich for lunch, which was delicious.


To get down to the hotel by car (as only hotel guests are permitted to do), we used what is called The Turnpike road, which in the old days was very steep and very rough and it is this way that the supplies were delivered to the village at the very bottom of the hill, only to be have to then carried up to the houses.

This is the cobbled alleyway that leads from Turnpike at the back of the Red Lion to the harbour side of the pier.


And here is the harbour as it appeared to us the day we arrived. You can see that the tide is out.

I have to say that we were enchanted with this village which looks across to Wales. 

My question for you is, do you have any idea how they would have brought goods from the bottom of the hill or the harbour up those steep roads to the town?



Until next time, Happy Rambles

Plotting or Pantsing

by Ann Lethbridge

I can't imagine that this topic hasn't been addressed before, so let us be clear, this is just my take on this subject.

I am a pantser. A flyer into the mist, as Jo Beverly says. I have tried to be a plotter. I did plot a complete book once, but I never even started writing it, or at least I had the first page done when I started plotting according to some grand scheme or other, and that is where it sits two years later. I was bored knowing how it all unfolded.

I have to keep going back to my mantra. Every writer is different. What works for one does not work for another.

Then why this article I hear you ask. Or is that me asking? Why bother? Well, to be honest, I just can't help thinking about this stuff.

Here's the thing - story is story. The art of writing story is as old as pictographs. There are certain things stories should have - at least in genre fiction. Certain peaks and valleys every story must touch. We've all taken the workshops, we all understand the concepts and the need for structure if you want readers to turn the pages. Hero's journey, W plotting, three act structure, six stage structure,  any advance on six -- do I hear a 9?  All great, by the way. Great. Helpful. Wonderful that writers have taken the time to offer these tools to other writers.

As far as I can figure it out, what a pantser does (no no there I go generalizing again) what I do, is go back and make sure the story hits the highs and lows required once the draft is done.

These are the questions I ask myself. What are my goals motivations and conflicts for the happy couple? Yes by this time they are the happy couple. Are they clear to the reader and not just in my head?

Where are my turning points? Did I take too long to get there? - thus losing tension along the way.

Is the black moment black enough? Is it driven by the romance or the external plot? Does it work?

For me, the key scene by scene test  is as follows:

What changed? Who is worse off now than at the beginning of the scene? If no one is, then it needs fixing. Could something even worse have happened? How does it tie back to their goal, their worst fear or their conflict. Is what they have decided to do next reasonable and does it lead to yet more conflict?

Are the motivations clear to the reader? In that particular scene, not the whole book.  Whatever the character does, is it clear why the character does it? And the answer cannot be that the plot requires that they do that. If the plot requires an unarmed woman to go into a dark basement for no good reason, the reader will not buy it.

Without plotting the book, don't you go off track?  That is a plotter asking, of course. 

The answer is. Yes. Terribly. The last book I handed in, well I just never did get hold of that sucker by the date it was due.  And that's where your editor and/or your critique group can help.  And that is why you need to go back and use the tools in your toolbelt  to polish and sand and rub.  Or at least I do. And I did. Hopefully it turned out much better.

Well that was fun. My guess is there are all kinds of writers out there:

Pl-antsers   -    they pants a bit and plot a bit, then pants a bit more then plot ....
Plo-sters    -    They get an outline going through to the end then fly off the cliff, catching the odd tree branch
                       they planted on the way down, then leap again
Palonstters -     who knows what they do, but they do it well

I wish to every success no matter how you spell what you are.

Revisions

June has turned into an incredibly busy month. Not only did I have two books out with Harlequin, the full length More Than a Mistress , but the related short story Deliciously Debauched by the Rake came out too.

Then of course there are all the preparations for Nationals in New York, what to take, what to wear.....

And what shows up?  Revisions from my editor.  Not copy edits, or line edits, major revisions.

So I thought I would say a word or two about how to handle them.

First take a deep breath. I am fortunate, my editor starts off by being exceedingly complimentary before she gets down to brass tacks. Or rusty tacks in this case. With jagged edges. Boy, those paragraphs of cool calm logic sting.

And no matter what stage of writing we are at, we have all experienced, the feeling of panic ... I can't write worth a d**n.... Grief. Oh, no she wants me to change that wonderful section that I so enjoyed writing..... Anger perhaps.  She's wrong....

If you have entered a contest, joined a critique group, had a friend read a first draft, you may well have experienced these emotions and more.

Hoping I am not preaching to the converted, I just want to say that this is part of the business. A very important part of the business. And if you are unpublished it is vital to have people critique your work so you are ready for revisions of your contracted work. (And reviews)

My way of handling them is as follows:

1. Thank my editor, critique group, friend, for taking the time to provide feedback.
2. Resist the temptation to argue of justify or defend.  Just absorb.
3. Take a pen and highlight the key points.  The heart of the criticism. Or make a note of what I think the heart of it is. An editor or a critiquer might know something is wrong, but they may not quite put their finger on the real problem. What they see as confusing, you might spot of lack of clarity in motivation or the conflict is missing, etc.This analysis is key to fixing your story.
4. If an editor/critiquer/contest judge makes a suggestion for fixing a problem, think about it, but know that this is your story and if you can fix it a different way, then do so. But do be aware that these people are trying to help. They do not take time out of their busy days to make comments just for the sake of making you sad or angry.
5. Make the changes on a new version of your file. A small detail I know, but sometimes you need to go back and see how it was before. I also keep a file of cuts. Everything I take out that is either a sentence I loved, or is a full paragraph. I have discovered I rarely if ever go back and use those cut paragraphs, but keeping them gives me a sense of comfort.
6. Keep a list of the changes. Especially important when it is a contracted work. You will want to be able to point out to your editor what you did and why, if it is not quite what she/he suggested.
7. Breathe a sigh of relief at the end, knowing what you have is a better novel.

Can you or should you protest to your editor, critiquer, contest judge? Tell them that they are wrong? Obviously, if it is factual, and this can be annoying in a contest if you are marked down for something that is correct, then you can explain in a polite note to the Judge or the editor. But be aware that in fiction perception can be more important than fact. With an editor, I suggest you just fix it the way you feel is best for your story. And if you don't fix it, don't mention it, unless it was a major point for the editor, in which case you may have to buckle in the end.

Personally, I prefer to try to address all the points in some form or another, so I don't have to go round again.  In the case of an editor, she is the one who releases the money, and it is her job to make sure your book can sell as many copies as possible, just as it is yours.

Take comfort in knowing that there are stories which receive almost no revisions....occasionally. Out of the 7 full length stories and 7 short stories, two of the short stories have come back with absolute no changes at all. Talk about big smiles.  These were The Rake's Intimate Encounter my very first Undone for Harlequin, and the one above, Deliciously Debauched by the Rake which is the most recent. Nice little bookends.

Writing is hard, and I for one am grateful for all the help I can get. And I hope this is of some help to you.

I would be more than happy to answer any questions you might have on this vexing but important part of a writer's life

If you are going to RWA Nationals in New York, I will be signing at the literacy and will have Trading Cards for my two latest releases. I am also planning to attend the HHRW AGM so it will be fun to say hello.

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Ann Lethbridge has completed seven of her eight book contract for Harlequin Historicals and eight short stories.  You can find the details of her books and information about her at  http://www.annlethbridge.com .  She also can be found digging into the Regency at her Regency Ramble Blog where you will find not only facts but photos from all over Britain, as well as Regency Fashion and of course the odd squee about books.  Ann is also on facebook and twitter and well all those wonderful places we love to hang out.

Writing Fresh Love Scenes

by Ann Lethbridge

First a little squeeee, if I may.

The cover for my next Harlequin Mills and Boon book, The Gamekeeper's Lady out in hardcover in the UK in December, just found its way on to amazon and I'm thrilled. Mills and Boon have recently updated their cover design. I love the new design and I am very pleased with my first one in the new series. It will be issued in North America in mass market in 2011 and is the first of a two book series about twin brothers.

On with my topic. Having eight books in print along with numerous short stories means I have written upwards of twenty-five love scenes. Well, let's face it there are only so many things your couples can do in a love scene. So how do you keep them fresh and vibrant and well....sexy. I'm not talking erotica here, though I do aim for a high level of heat in my stories, but it is sensual tension that is key, whether you write hot or sweet or somewhere in between.

When you start writing the world is your oyster. You have the freedom to pick whatever place, circumstance, activity you can think of for your couples. But as time goes on your options begin to dwindle, or so I thought. Well yes, we can think of different places, outdoors, in a cupboard, etc. which is challenging to say the least, but is it fresh and more importantly is it enough?

Recently, I have given this some considerable thought, and one thing I have concluded is that making love has to make everything worse, either for one or both members of the couple. In the earlier stages of the book making love in whatever form, has to up the stakes and be one of actions likely to drive them apart emotionally. The more it aggravates a character's inner conflict, the better. Obviously if it is during the resolution, you are dealing with a completely different circumstance.

That doesn't mean that the moment itself isn't enjoyable for them both. It has to be the best they have ever experienced, if they have ever experienced it before. It must certainly be consensual. It also has to be well motivated and a natural outcome of their attraction.

For me, the other important ingredient, the dash of cayenne, the heat, is that it is fraught with conflict for one, or both members of the couple. The outcome must be disaster for someone, a loss of control, a reversal of a key principal, a step backwards in a particular goal. And the reader has to feel both the overwhelming desire and the worry about the problems that will ensue.

The lovemaking itself must be delicious, wicked, hot, pure delight, but for me it is the conflict it creates, the inner turmoil of the characters you have created, that makes it fresh.

I would be very interested to hear what ingredients you feel are key in keeping love scenes fresh.

---

Ann's story The Governess and the Earl In the Mills and Boon anthology New Voices is now available in stores and on line. You can find her at her website or her Regency Ramble blog

Tips and Tricks

of a moderately prolific writer.

Social Networks

by Ann Lethbridge

We are always hearing that a new social network is the place to be. How can a writer who want to produce lots of books keep up with all that? And do you need to?

But can you afford not to?

It is a conundrum. An author wants to do her bit to promote her books.

And it is not just the social sites like facebook, myspace, goodreads, etc., there are your publisher sites, like E-harlequin, Mills and Boon Community, Casablanca Authors, and oh my goodness they have social sites on facebook etc too. And if you are like me and you write under more than one name, you can times all of them by two.

After scrambling madly for a while to be in all places at once, I decided that it is readers who I want to contact, and my websites are the key. I know they find me there, because those websites appear on every site and they send me letters through the site email.

But how to cover off everything else. Will I be missing people if I don't facebook etc? An important part of my website is the link to my blog, http://www.regencyramble.blogspot.com. This is where my alta egos come together as one. This is where I update information weekly, where as the websites are say once a month. And bliss.... I can link my blog (via an RSS feed) to most social sites including twitter. It may seem like cheating, but anything anyone wants to know about me as a writer goes on my blog. If readers find me in both places, they are quickly going to decide where they prefer to meet me. "Do it once" is my new motto. Since the social sites connect to my email, if anyone comments, I can quickly go and respond right away. And if I want to see what other people are doing, then I can visit those sites at my leisure.

I do visit the forums on my publishers' website too, once a week, or more, if something special is going on, but I have time, because I have all the other sites pretty well covered.

Do those sites bring in new readers? I have no idea. The jury is still out. But this is one way you can keep your toe in the water without drowning and keep the words flowing onto the page.

I hope you find something here that helps you and feel feel to friend me at your favourite social site.

Oh, and the picture above? My next book coming out with Harlequin on May 1. Wicked Rake, Defiant Mistress by Ann Lethbridge.

Tips and Tricks

of a moderately prolific writer
By Ann Lethbridge

I hear a lot of authors say they are slow writers. I don’t see anything wrong with that at all. Some of the best writers describe themselves this way. Your process is your process. These tips and tricks are merely ideas I have honed for myself, which I am sharing with you to do with as you will.

First I want you to understand that I am a full-time writer. Last year I completed three full length novels for Harlequin, did revisions for same, and also wrote two short stories and one novella. Because I just landed an eight book contract with Harlequin, four full length and four short stories, I had to sit down and really think about my process and what I wanted to accomplish. I had three questions in mind. Did I want to write fast? And how fast? And when did I want to take vacations? I plan to have this contract completed by June 2011.

My tips and tricks.

1. Know how much you write consistently. I use an excel spreadsheet to track.

2. For a period of two weeks record your daily and weekly word counts. Find out the average per day, then use that as your daily word count.

3. Write to that word count every day, no matter how long it takes. Make writing as much part of your day as cleaning your teeth.

4. Once it feels comfortable, usually after three weeks, increase it by 200 words.

5. Give it another three weeks and increase it another 200 words and so on.

6. Don’t go beyond what is comfortable. If you have a bad day, don’t sweat, add the lost words to the next few days of writing or write on a weekend, or at sometime when you don’t usually write. EG this week my daughter wanted me to meet her for lunch, so Friday was a lost day. I don’t write on weekends but this weekend I wrote my missing words spread over Saturday and Sunday.

7. Once you know how many words you can do a day, calculate your deadline to finish the book and meet it. The calculation is length of finished book in words, divided by number of words per day, divided by number of days in week. I use five, because I usually don’t write on my weekends.

8. If you have a deadline from your publisher, use that to calculate how many words you need to write every day. In my case my publisher asked me to indicate the dates on which I would deliver the books. I work with 2,000 words per day. Don’t leave it and do it in a rush at the end. For me this ends up taking longer.

9. Sneaky trick. Take a notebook with you and write scenes in the doctor’s office or any other time you are waiting. Or find an hour you can carve out of the evening or the early morning. These extra times will up your weekly word count. Make them "extras". If you can beat your deadline, you can increase your output, without feeling the pressure. You can even use these times to write a different book altogether (which is what I did for the short story in the Mammoth book of Regencies pictured to the left)

10. Add editing/polishing time to your schedule. Four weeks for me, because I don’t plot.

11. If you are published, set other milestones in the schedule, date synopsis and three chapters are due. Deadlines you agreed with your editor. The date you should be at the midpoint of the story is another one. You can then see if you are on track before it becomes a problem

12. Add in any time needed for editor’s revisions for a previous book or for copy edits.

13. Add in time needed to promote previous books (this might reduce the daily word count).

14. Establish a send-it-out date and send it out on that date. No quarter given, even if it is only you sending it out as a query. Then start the next book.

Good luck and happy writing.

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Ann Lethbridge has two books coming out with Harlequin in 2010, Wicked Rake, Defiant Mistress, both covers pictured here. It comes out in February in the UK and in May in North America. The second book, Captured for the Captain's Pleasure, will be in stores in June 2010. No cover as yet. There will be three Harlequin Undone's coming out during the year also.
Writing as Michele Ann Young, she has a short story called Remember in the Mammoth Book of Regencies due out in the summer, and a novella in a Mills and Boon Anthology which will be available in the UK sometime in 2010.

Add Sparkle with Secondary Characters

by Ann Lethbridge

When I sold to Harlequin, Mills and Boon, one of the things that the editor said was that she loved my secondary characters. So I thought I would share my approach.

For me, secondary character are little glimpses into history, like a bit of sparkle on a Christmas card. Oh, of course you have to have a plot and a romance and a happily ever after, and the hero and heroine have to have proper settings and language and clothing, but I love writing secondary characters, because I get to play. I like to play.


When I talk about secondary characters in this context, I don’t mean the villain, or a principle character who might end up with his or her own book some time. I mean the walk ons.

These secondary characters give you the opportunity delve into life during the period you are writing about without getting all detailed and scholarly. Thus I find it very useful to learn about the ordinary people who inhabit our world.

Yes, you need to get those pesky titles correct, and the right event in the right year, but to bring your world alive, you need to know about the ordinary people and ordinary jobs, many of which do not exist today.

A crossing sweeper for example. He can make a sarcastic remark while the hero dashes across Bond Street. He doesn’t need a lot of air time, an age, a down-at-heel, ragged appearance, a nose wiped on a sleeve, a wry remark as he sweeps away the steaming dollop of dung left by a passing horse. You can almost smell it can’t you? In this way the character brings life to the simple sentence. Lord Snipperty crossed Bond Street when he spotted Lady Snooty.

We are all familiar with the butler or the maid in Regency stories, but I routinely try to seek out characters who can give a flavour of the day. In the Rake’s Inherited Courtesan our intrepid hero asks directions of a French farm hand. We learn through that conversation how things changed during Napoleon’s rule and how they have changed since. He stops swinging his scythe and speak a couple of sentences, makes his own little joke and he shows and tells us a great deal about his life.

An osler in a tavern makes a brief appearance in the same story, kindly, and hardworking, he spares a moment for a rather anxious heroine as he rushes to meet the coaches coming into the courtyard and lead them into the stables.

In the upcoming 2010 book, Wicked Rake, Defiant Mistress, the coachman, and elderly retainer, offers his own brand horse-sense to his master, while later a farmer’s wife shows off her healing skills.

Secondary characters form a backdrop to the main action. They shouldn’t stand out. They can’t steal the scene. It is easy to get carried away with a particularly interesting and vocal secondary character, but just as we don’t have long descriptions of scenery or surroundings, so we can only provide a brief glimpse of the people who populate our world. And of course they should always help move your story forward as well as charm the reader.

I am sure you have all met your favourite secondary character in a book and I would love to hear about them and what made them so interesting to you.

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Ann Lethbridge also writes as Michele Ann Young, and you can find her snippets of research posted at her regency ramble blog

Grappling the Muse to the Ground

And making her "give it up, baby."
by Ann Lethbridge

And if you are wondering about the eggs -- read on.

Muse: "the presiding spirit or force behind any person or creative act" Just one of the definitions in the OED.

Where do ideas come from? Now clearly anyone who can think the stuff up in my books all by themselves has an over-active imagination. But, since I know I'm perfectly normal, quite ordinary in fact, these strange ideas must come from somewhere else, a muse, an outside force, not under my control.

Naturally a muse pops in to visit with great ideas whenever you need one.

If only. She does pop in unexpectedly. She looks like a cross between Angela Joli and Marg Simpson, and has a weird sense of humor. The ideas she scatters about like fairy dust are badly formed, illogical and impossible. Like a cartoon of eggs dropped on the floor, too sticky to gather up with a dustpan and brush, too runny to pick up with a cloth and too gelatinous to scoop into a container. To make it worse, she then runs away laughing. Leaving me to clean up the mess.

What I needed in my arsenal to deal with this crazy lady was a body slam, a take down stragegy instead of stomping around the house, looking under beds and behind doors, muttering questions like: "Why on earth would a man leave his courtesan to his nephew? Isn't that a bit well...off?" Or. "Why would a responsible man do anything so rash as to take her on?" And. "Why is she fighting it tooth and nail, he's gorgeous?"

Well you get the picture.

Once I found that crafty muse-lady babe, I forced her into my office, sat her on my chair, and plonked into her lap. Gotcha!

Sometimes she still gives me completely wrong answers to my questions, forcing me to write the scene more than once. Sometimes she makes me cry when she reveals the true story behind my characters (bless her). But I learned very early on-- Butt in chair every day or my muse doesn't play at all.

My first Harlequin Historical "The Rake's Inherited Courtesan" is in stores April 1. The day after tomorrow.

April fool's day. I wonder if muse-baby had something to do with that?

Want to win a copy? Tell me about your muse, or your favorite egg dish. Me and the muse will pick the comment we like best.