A Little Blog Hop for You with a Giveaway

Writing is calling to me--actually, it's more like proof reading is calling to me, but I got hold of this great character interview and a giveaway opportunity for Deep Cover by Sandra Orchard on Noelle Marshand's blog that I thought I'd pass the link and opportunity on.

I hope you'll head over there and see just how interesting Ginny really is. For those who have read Sandra Orchard's Deep Cover, I'm curious, did you envision Ginny to look like the picture posted on Noelle's blog?

May your day be productive and good luck on any giveaways you've entered as of late!

Surrendering to Him,

Eileen

Takeaway Friday & Winner

Before I announce the winner of Sandra Orchard's LIS debut novel, Deep Cover, I just want to thank Sandra for all her time here at Faithful Romances this week and all that she shared with us. Sandra is a blessing to me, I hope her posts blessed you as well and that if you haven't already, you'll pop by her cyber homes, both website and blog, to get to know her better and start building a friendship!

I see many blogs host a Friday Five, so today I'm going to list five takeaways I got from Sandra's posts here this week. For the record, I've garnered lots more than these five, but here's a taste of them.

1. Perseverance is key to success. And in my personal experience, God uses writing to test this!


2. I'm not as much a pantser writer as I thought I was. Yeah, I'm on my way to conversion! October will most certainly test this as I prepare for NANOWRIMO 2011.


3. I need to share my brainstorming of stories with non-writing friends who are willing to play. Not only will it be fun and informative no doubt, but it could also be therapeutic and a blessing.


4. I seriously need to somehow bring my office into the light of upstairs--white board and post-its in the very least. Since creating my lovely office downstairs, I've discovered it's just too secluded to work comfortably in. I need to be upstairs with my pets and natural lighting. And I need the use of that huge white board to plot, plot, plot!! Fearing my living room may become my new office. What do you think? How weird would it look to have the first room you see as you enter being a writer's office (and our house IS open concept, so foyer is only separated from the sunken living room by an oak railing?)


5. I'm sure I knew this before, but it had slipped my mind obviously--Sandra and I share a math background. I graduated with a BMath degree from the University of Waterloo...many moons ago. Sandra's living proof that a mathie can become a romance writer...and do it WELL!! There IS hope!

And now for the winner of Deep Cover.

Congratulations, Robyn Campbell!!

Send me your snail mail address so I can mail you this awesome book!

Surrendering to Him,

Eileen

Marketing in Today's World & Book Giveaway

We're finishing off our week with Sandra Orchard here on Faithful Romances. It's been a pleasure having Sandra enlightening us this week, and today's topic is Marketing a novel in today's world. I've asked Sandra to highlight what her marketing plan is.

Marketing. The word alone is enough to send icy chills down my spine. Promoting oneself just feels…wrong.

But the days of publishers marketing our books is long gone. (Although with Harlequin, it’s still pretty good.) Readers expect to be able to find and interact with authors online. So at the insistence of my agency’s publicist, I started a Facebook page.

Figuring out how it all worked was a huge learning curve for me, but I have to admit, I’m enjoying it. I still get a thrill every time an email pops up to let me know someone “likes” me. Not sure how pathetic that is to admit. But there you go.

I always click on the person’s profile and learn a little about them. Because ultimately, I’m not there to promote my book, but build relationships with my readers. It’s fun. It’s addictive. It can quickly swallow my time.

For that reason, among many, I had avoided social media like the plague in the past. I didn’t want to spend any more time online than I already was. I wanted to write. When I interact with friends, I prefer one-on-one emails. I’m a fairly private person, and the idea of posting generalized comments for the world to read (or even just my “friends”) was uncomfortable to say the least.

I still feel embarrassed to announce the latest stop on my blog tour, or my latest personal blog post on my FB page. After all, how many times do my friends and fans want to read an interview or review on my new release?

Yet, I want to promote the blogs of the wonderful bloggers like Eileen who invite me to share my story with their readers. Generally, I try to post items that give value to readers, such as the latest free Ebook offerings etc., or share some humorous or newsy items about what’s going on in my life. I’m still searching for a happy balance.

I also started a blog, Conversations About Characters http://SandraOrchard.blogspot.com, and am thoroughly enjoying writing it. I didn’t think I could possibly think of enough things to say in a blog, and am surprised by the ideas that keep coming. I’ve designed it to be interactive, and am very grateful for the comments of my faithful readers. I’ve already made some wonderful new friends.

But to be honest, I’m finding it difficult to find time to actually write my novels!

Since Love Inspired books are only in stores for one month, I decided a blog tour would be the best means to get the word out to potential readers. I was blessed to receive dozens of invitations, and as a result, I have been very busy answering interviews and writing guest posts. I know this is just a season, and once I get caught up, I’ll find my rhythm again.

And hopefully, people who follow several of the blogs that are hosting me, won’t be so sick of hearing about my book that they’ll run the other way at the mere mention of my name!

I haven’t looked into Twitter or the gazillion other marketing opportunities out there. I don’t want to market myself. I want to build relationships with people. So I need to find a pace that works for me. The one thing I’ve committed to do without fail is to personally respond to every reader who emails me. I am sincerely touched when someone takes the time to send me a note.

This is an exciting time to be an author. The opportunities to reach people around the world are truly amazing. Just last week, an editor of a German romance magazine emailed me to ask for an interview for their September issue. I was thunderstruck. I mean, how cool is that?

The best piece of advice I’ve received on marketing came from fellow Canadian author Anne K. Albert. Her editor told her, "Self-promotion is not a sprint, it's a marathon." Now, whenever I feel overwhelmed by the long list of things that publicists suggest I do from press releases to book signings to bookmarks to blogging, I remind myself to pace myself. It doesn’t have to all be done today, or this week, or even for this book’s release. If I do a little each day, that’s good.

Ultimately, the best way to keep readers happy is to write fabulous books and keep them coming.


Sandra, It's been a real pleasure having you visit and share this week. Thank you so much! I wish you all the best with your writing and sure look forward to all your books to come!!

Last Day to Get in on Deep Cover Giveaway:

Leave a comment on this post or any of the posts here this week and you'll be entered to win a copy of Sandra Orchard's debut novel, Deep Cover.

Good Luck everyone!

Surrendering to Him,
Eileen

The Art of Plotting & Book Giveaway

I asked author Sandra Orchard if she'd be willing to share how she plots. As a panster I could use all the help I can get, and after reading Sandra's notes I realized I'm not totally a panster anymore after all. There is hope for me, I guess! Anyway, without further ado, let's hear what Sandra has to say:

Eileen has asked me to share how I plot my stories. I'm not sure I'll convert her from being a pantser. Except to observe, that many self-proclaimed pantsers are really longhand plotters. That is they figure out the story as they write the first draft, but unless they have a really good "feel" for the essential elements of a story, it can take many more drafts to work those elements in.

That said, even as a plotter who had thought through the GMCs of my characters and the main turning points before beginning the first draft of Deep Cover, since I didn't have a solid grasp of essential story elements at that point, the final story evolved over many, many drafts.

In contrast, I submitted the sequel with only minor revisions to the first draft. I wrote a second draft at the request of my editor to add more elements of the heroine in danger and to heighten romantic tension, which I’d polished with the help of my wonderful critique partners, so final line edits were minimal.

All that to say, pre-plotting is only as effective as our understanding of story. The more we write and read and revise, the stronger that becomes. And sometimes it's the story that causes troubles. Some stories seem to write themselves, whereas others, especially if they make us dig into places we don't really want to go, become excruciatingly painful to write.

Enough preamble…

I start with a story idea. It may be a character, an occupation, a crime. For example, while visiting a writing friend who is dying of cancer, her handsome male nurse came to check on her. I remarked that he'd make a great hero for my next book. So… after he left, we brainstormed his story. That was over a month ago, and it's still stewing in the back of my mind as I work on revisions for my third book, and write blog posts etc.

We came up with an inciting incident, a heroine, her complete backstory and GMC (ie goal, motivation, conflict), and several main points of the suspense plot. What I have yet to figure out is the hero's GMC, the romantic conflict, and what needs to change in him before he can be with the heroine. I have lots of ideas, but nothing has gelled yet. And to be honest, I haven't had time to give it much thought.

The important thing to keep in mind at this stage is that the more interrelatedness you can create between each of the hero and heroine's internal conflicts, the external conflict, and the romantic conflict, the better.

From the outset, I find it useful to frame the concept of the story as a "what if?" question. The answer leads to further "what if?" questions, and the answers become the structure of your story. The theme of your story (i.e. what your story is illuminating about real life) often becomes clear in this process. I have one critique partner who is particularly adept at spotting it. Understanding this somewhat ethereal thing is useful, because then you can be more purposeful in the events you bring into the story.

For example, my "what if?" question for Deep Cover was: what if an undercover cop finds the perfect woman, but can’t tell her who he really is or what he does for a living? The theme that evolved was twofold. Does the end justify the means? Or more personally, is it possible to be a man of honor and live a life of lies?

If you're planning on attending the early bird session at ACFW this year, you'll be learning about premise. I find it useful to frame the premise of my story as early as possible, because then I'm always looking for how it can be illustrated in a scene. The premise of Deep Cover is simply that truth overcomes betrayal.

Okay, is your head spinning?

Mine still does when I try to wrap my mind around all these ideas. But that's the fun, and power, of brainstorming. You start to see threads that work together, that share a common theme. As we write, we often intuitively include elements that enrich the theme, even when we haven't consciously figured out what that theme is!

Once I have a general idea of the main plot points of the suspense and romantic plots, and a decent grasp of my hero and heroine's internal, external and romantic conflicts (and it would take many more blogs to detail how I do that), I start writing. I usually write the first three chapters and then email them to my critique partners for feedback.

Writing a few chapters gives me a better feel for the voice of my characters and how well the plotting will work. At this point, I'll make adjustments to my framework as necessary, and then write the synopsis.

I must admit that I hate writing synopses. Pantsers biggest complaint is that all this pre-plotting takes away from the joy of discovering the story and the momentum of writing. Plotting doesn't do that to me. It energizes me, fills me with an overflowing well of ideas to draw upon. However, writing a detailed synopsis does. I prefer to plot the main turning points, black moment and epiphany, and then as I write the story, draw on the other ideas to fill in the gaps.

Clear as mud?


**It is to me now! Thanks Sandra for sharing this wealth of story planning! Since I do use the GMC model, I guess I'm not a total panster. I just need to delve into it a little deeper now to get the full benefit out of it. I'm thinking NANOWRIMO now, must put in my October calendar to do the PLOTTING first!!


Book Giveaway:

Remember, for every comment entered this week up until Thursday night your name will be entered to win a copy of Sandra Orchard's debut novel, Deep Cover. A great read!!

Good luck to everyone!

Surrendering to Him,

Eileen

Meet Debut Author Sandra Orchard & Book Giveaway

I'd like to welcome Sandra Orchard to my cyber home today! It's such a treat to have you visiting, Sandra!

Sandra and I met years back at a writer's conference in Guelph. I remember the first time I saw her, she of course, was volunteering. Standing outside the main building, she helped anyone and everyone who came across her sight line with a puzzled look on their face. I was one of the people she took under her wing.

Later we met in an intense Romance workshop led by Carolyne Aarsen, and since then have kept in contact, and I'm so excited that Sandra lives in pubbed land now! Her debut novel, Deep Cover, is released in September through LIS. Leave a comment on any of the posts this week up until Thursday and you'll be entered to win a copy of Deep Cover. I'll announce the winner on Friday.

Sandra was kind enough to be interviewed by me, so without further ado, here we go.


Q1: Many of us unpubbed writers question how long it's going to take to write a publishable novel. How many novels did you write and prime before selling? What number was Deep Cover?

Deep Cover was my fourth manuscript, although I’d completely rewritten it (and manuscript number three) so many times it felt more like manuscript ten! By the time it sold, I’d written six novels. Deep Cover evolved over several years through many different drafts as I learned about the essential elements of a publishable romantic suspense. In contrast, by the time I wrote its sequel (my sixth manuscript), I finished the first two drafts in less than four months, and once it was contracted I completed the requested revisions in three months.


Q2: I know you've gone to several Writer's Conferences, both here in Canada and abroad over the years. Do you attribute any success to signing a contract from attending these Writer's Conferences?

I have learned so much through conference workshops, and have met many, many writers through them. I highly recommend the investment. For this particular story, I paid for a critique from Margaret Daley at the 2008 ACFW conference. She was very enthusiastic about it, and kept urging me to submit it to LIS. However, it was another year and a half before I did, because I was getting requests at those same conferences from other editors who wanted to see it, and LI doesn’t allow simultaneous submissions. I’m so glad I waited, because at the 2009 ACFW conference, I connected with fellow Daphne DuMaurier finalist Wenda Dottridge. We became critique partners in the months that followed. She had a really good sense of what the editors wanted and helped me edit the manuscript to better suit the line. In that interim year, Margaret (a special needs teacher) had also helped me fine tune the mentally-challenged sister character. As a result, I had minimal revisions to do once the manuscript was contracted, and…I already had the first draft of the sequel ready to submit.

Q3: You've made it to pub land. Congratulations, Sandra! Now, aspiring authors want to know, what do you believe is the single most important attribute a writer must have to succeed in getting that first contract?

Perseverance.

Q4: Are you a Pantster or a Plotter? Which do you like best, first drafts or the editing phase? Can you explain in 200 words or less how you go about doing each?

Oh, no!!! Word count limit—the bane of writers! I’m a plotter. I majored in math at university, very logical thinker, which is probably why I gravitate to mystery/suspense so I can plot out lots of twists and turns. Explaining how I plot is a blog in itself…let’s save that for tomorrow. For now, I’ll just say that I love brainstorming and plotting the best. The actual writing is hard slogging for me no matter what draft it is. Although, on some magical days the words do seem to flow effortlessly.

I do prefer the editing phase over the first draft, because that’s where I have fun layering in details and emotions that make the story breathe. My first drafts are about getting the suspense plot down and the skeleton of the romance and character arcs in place. The pacing is usually atrocious. I love to see the story come alive on subsequent passes. Thankfully, now that I have a better understanding of the elements and how to pace them, it takes me fewer passes to get everything in its place.

Q5: Your contract is with LIS. If you're bestest friend was trying to get a contract with them, what would you recommend he/she do to get noticed there and out of the slush pile?

Write an amazing story that meets the expectations of LIS readers. How do you figure out what those expectations are? Read debut authors. No, I’m not just trying to promote my book.

Established authors can get away with things that untested authors can’t. By reading debut authors, you’ll see what editors are looking for in books for their line.

The basics for LIS are: heroine in danger throughout the story, start in the action/danger (or at least hint at it) from the first line, first paragraph, first page. Introduce both the hero and heroine in the first chapter. They don’t have to meet, but it’s preferred. These aren’t hard and fast rules, but following them will help your chances. Writing in third person pov is mandatory. Keep the romantic tension high. Ensure there is a clear romantic conflict. Why could these two never be together? Craft a story in which they must work together to solve the mystery and/or avoid danger. Meeting editors at conferences, pitching your story idea and working out potential bugs with them ahead of submission will also give you a foot up.

Q6: In writing, there's no instant gratification, no magic wand to cast a spell of "greatness" on our writing, so what words of wisdom can you offer to help us survive the years of just-keep-writing-and-learning-even-though-the-road-seems-never-ending?

First of all, recognize that writing Christian fiction is a ministry. If you have dreams of making lots of money, you should know that most writers don’t. If you still can’t imagine yourself not writing, keep at it and don’t give up.

The coolest thing to me over the past six years was seeing how God used the fact I was a writer to connect me to other aspiring writers who I otherwise would probably have never met, or who would never have read a page of Christian fiction. They’ve become dear friends and I’ve had the privilege of sharing Christ’s love with them in ways I’d never imagined.

I also treasure the online and at-conference friendships I’ve cultivated with fellow Christian writers (both aspiring and published). We share each other’s triumphs and defeats, and carry each other in prayer. Writing can be a lonely business, but in today’s plugged-in world, it needn’t be. So my best advice is to have realistic expectations and enjoy the journey!


Thanks Sandra, for sharing these inspiring answers! If you have any questions, any at all, for Sandra, drop them in the comments as Sandra will be stopping by periodically today.

Tomorrow Sandra will take us into her world of plotting here. Since I'm a frustrated pantster myself, I'm really looking forward to learning about Sandra's method. Praying she can convert me! :)

Remember I'm hosting a GIVEAWAY of Deep Cover this week. Leave a comment with an email addy or link to it to be entered. Good luck everyone!


Surrendering to Him,

Eileen

Introducing Deep Cover with a Giveaway

DEEP COVER by Sandra Orchard
Book One in Undercover Cops Series

Is it possible to be a man of honor and live a life of lies?

Rick Gray hopes so, because as an undercover cop, he’s had to make too many sacrifices, including a future with Ginny Bryson, the woman he loves.

But when she finds herself in the center of an arsonist’s line of fire, Rick’s lies just might be what they both need to save their lives – and the lives of those they love.

I'm so excited to introduce Sandra Orchard and her debut book, a Love Inspired Suspense novel, Deep Cover. Sandra is a fellow Canadian, living in southern Ontario, too! I met her years ago at a Write! Canada conference and this year we'll be flight buddies for the ACFW conference coming up. I look forward to introducing Sandra more on my post tomorrow.

Today we'll be looking at the book, Deep Cover.

Since Deep Cover doesn't release until September 1 (but is available on Amazon for pre-purchase now), Sandra Orchard kindly sent a draft of Deep Cover to my Kindle a couple months back. In fact, Deep Cover christened my shiny new Kindle, and now I just know I'm destined to experience only awesome reads on it. Deep Cover sure set the bar high, though.

I have a confession to make, I've not been a huge fan of the LIS line in the past, unlike I am of the LI line, and for one main reason. Up until reading Sandra Orchard's Deep Cover , I always felt the mystery thread overpowered, leaving little room for relationship growth in the LIS stories. In Deep Cover however, Orchard created a wonderful balance that had me teetering on the edge of my bed not only to discover who kept sabotaging the group home development, but how in the world would Ginny and Rick overcome the lies and hurt they'd caused each other. Deep Cover is a page turner from beginning to end. Even for slow readers like me, you'll finish it in one sitting!

Without giving away too much of the story, I have to mention supporting cast here, too. Ginny's relapsing mother and handicapped sister, Lori, play an integral role in revealing who Ginny and Rick are to the core in Deep Cover. These interesting characters don't outshine Rick and Ginny in the least, but their challenges sure make for telling scenes. There are no empty characters in this book, and no empty scenes, Orchard has mastered it all. I'll be watching for the release of her future novels. They won't come soon enough for me!

Now, if you're like me, an impatient soul, you can order for immediate delivery of Deep Cover from eHarlequin using Sandra Orchard's site. Well, you can that is, if your address happens to be in their database. I'd love to hear if yours is, cause I'm still waiting for them to update it with mine. Insert pouting face here.

Deep Cover Giveaway:

Leave a comment on any of my posts this week from Monday to Thursday with an email link and you'll be entered to win a copy. Each comment you leave = 1 ballot.

Drawing will take place early Friday morning. I'll announce the winner on Friday's post and I'll mail it out as soon as I receive my copies.

Tomorrow, I'm interviewing Sandra Orchard here. Stop by to get to know this debut author and feel free to leave questions.

May your day be filled with interesting stories that make you a better person.


Surrendering to Him,

Eileen