That!

How sneaky is 'THAT'!
I was feeling quite smug at having completed the first draft and first edit of my next book, 'The Perfect Duchess', Bk,2, in the 'Lords of the Matrix Club' series - and thinking it might not need much more editing before I sent it off to a couple of beta readers for their thoughts!
Sitting in my In Box was  'Heart To Heart', the May-June newsletter from Romance Writers of NZ, and the craft article by Daphne Clair de Jong entitled 'I Couldn't Put It Down' caught my attention. It was all about things to look for in the last edit. Very timely, I thought.
Among other excellent tips was a list of words we tend to pepper through our writing and which are quite unnecessary. (I was going to write 'totally superfluous' here and changed my mind! Guess which of those words is superfluous! And yes, I do realise that 'quite unnecessary' is not much better!)
Anyhoo! I typed 'that' into the 'Find' box of my 223 page ms and there were over 1500! It took me all afternoon but I deleted over 400 of them and the ms was then 221 pages!
THAT is when I realised THAT 'THAT' is sneaky and THAT it likes to be heard and THAT it likes to be seen, and THAT is THAT.
Thanks Daphne Clair de Jong.
(Who writes romance as Daphne Clair and Laurey Bright).

1st Draft Done!

Yesterday I completed the first draft of 'The Perfect Duchess', the second book in the 'Lords of the Matrix Club' series. This would be the first one I have written from start to finish without re-reading or editing anything. I just kept writing to the end! Now I am looking forward to reading the entire story for the first time. Am quite excited because it will be like reading something someone else has written. I went back to check something the other day and came across a piece I had absolutely no recollection of writing. I'm looking forward to this. Hopefully it will help me be much more critical - and observant of the mistakes!
 Now I just have to control my urge to start writing Book.3, 'Hades and His Angel'!

The Writer's Dilemma - and a New Release!

'To write or to market on social media, that is the question!' And yes it is a dilemma because I can't seem to do much of the other if I am doing the first, and vice versa.So I lurch about between the two, either losing myself in the angst and passion of a new scene or in the absolute frustration of trying to become a social media guru.
I guess at least I can take comfort from the fact I have come a long way from the technophobe who just used to throw her hands in the air and storm back to her corner with an A4 Subject book and a pen where she could at least understand and control the words on the page.
All that aside, I have just published another book, the first of my Regency Era Historicals. There are four books in the first series, 'Lords of the Matrix Club.' Book 1. 'The Earl of Windermere Takes a Wife' is available for pre-order on Amazon now. Release date 11th May 2016. Here is the link.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01ENSMA2A
Warning: These are stories of Lords with darkness in their souls and the women who help them find the light. They are sexy, occasionally verging on erotic. You will find profanities where I deemed it likely they would definitely have been used in the powerful emotion of the moment.

Below are a couple of snippets to give you a hint:

Rogan Wyldefell, the Earl of Windermere, had been damaged beyond repair when it came to the intimacies between a man and a woman and he’d vowed never to subject Jassie to that, no matter how his soul hungered for her. She should’ve been his wife long since and a wave of bitterness engulfed him, knowing he could never realize that dream. His only consolation was she’d never accepted any other. He’d not been fair to her, but God help him, if her friendship was all he could ever have, he’d crawl on his belly through acres of enemy infested territory to be with her.

. ‘How long was I supposed to wait? Until we are both old and wrinkled and past caring! I wanted to know! I so longed to know—just once—.’ Jassie cried.

'So within marriage you’re free to seduce him any way you will. But you must consider that if you entice him into your bed, will it be what you want after all? Do you have any idea of what you’re facing, what darkness festers in Windermere’s soul?’

CRYSTAL WARRIOR by Jen YatesNZ. Gut-punched, all he could think was `we've already met and her name is Gina' and he couldn't say that because they all knew they hadn't.Yet he'd stake his life he knew her as intimately as he knew himself, that they were as cosmically matched as clouds to sky.

http://amazon.com/dp/B0197OZPW2

CRYSTAL WARRIOR - by Jen YatesNZ - 1st of 2 books in the 'Crystal Saga'.

"The Warrior Lord, greatest of all the Sons of the Dragon."
Recognition was soul deep, elemental, and centuries old.
But surely, if she'd ever met this lethal weapon carved from flesh and bone she'd not have forgotten.
A woman didn't forget six feet four inches of tanned, muscular, male potency, with eyes that seared to the bone.
Eyes that burned with a deeply accusing ancient knowing.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0197OZPW2

CRYSTAL DANCER - Sequel to Crystal Warrior  - Jen YatesNZ

www.amazon.com/dp/B019A86LHS  

'She belonged to him. His blood surged, his body burned and his mind screamed for her. He knew, even though he slept, he knew she was of the substance of ghosts, but the invisible barrier he would find between them would have the permeability of hardened glass'.

When Life is Stripped to the 'Bare Necessities', what are they?

I was scavenging through my house today looking for items I could give to a friend who is organising a container of relief goods to send to Fiji to help with their recovery after the recent cyclone. The brief is 'whatever you can spare. They have nothing.' What would I really be grateful for if I ever found myself in that situation? Besides the obvious -food, clothing and linen. Kitchen utensils? Absolutely. Pots. Sharp knives. Some odd things came out of my bathroom cupboards - like shower hats from hotel stays (could be used to cover food, carry water), a couple of brand new ordinary toothbrushes - (we both now have dentures). A pair of tweezers and a pair of scissors. Then I thought of the sewing box and all the odds and ends collected there over many years. Buttons, elastic, pins and needles and thread of course. How would you feel to be given a needle and thread so you could mend the only garment you might have been left with? Or dig out a splinter or even sew up a cut? Most households have a myriad of such items excess to actual requirements.
Please find a collection point near you and give whatever items useful for basic survival that you can spare.
Food and medications will be the first things Red Cross and the Relief Authorities will ship in but...
if you were like the folk in Fiji and suddenly found yourself with nothing, what item would you be most grateful for? What would become your greatest treasure?
I think mine might be a sharp knife.