Mollie Blake - My route to publication

Welcome to author, Mollie Blake who has popped along today to tell us about her route to publication.

Firstly I would like to thank Elaine and her colleagues at the RNA for giving me the opportunity to be a part of this blog.

From finance director to mostly full time mum to published author of erotic romantic thrillers –

where to begin? I’ll begin with an ending. Ending a career in finance to become a very part-time pension trustee and a nearly full time mum was like a dream come true. But unlike the dream of being a mum, in which I still delight —at least most of the time—the dream of staying at home surrounded by housework and the odd bit of PTA and church volunteering didn’t last.

What to do with the next part of my life became a constant question. With more “me time” than I had ever had, as our child settled into primary school, I started to read fiction as opposed to technical accounting and legal publications.  I read Fifty Shades, and yes, I did enjoy most of the story. I went on to read a lot of other erotic fiction together with Russian classics, comedies and thrillers.

By now I was reluctantly approaching fifty and needed a distraction. Instead of just reading a book I decided to try to write one. Having no idea where to start—I was a numbers girl, remember—I Googled “How to write a book” and came across an American blogger, whose overall message was “Just start.” So I did. Thinking about the books I enjoyed, there was a mix of romance, thriller and sexy scenes. I attempted to combine these and wrote my first romantic erotic thriller. To begin with friends and family were shocked by the explicit sex scenes, and to this day one of my sisters cannot read my books. But then, and I’m not sure if this is a compliment or not, they were surprised by the fact that I could actually write a good story! Their encouragement and my own indulgent pleasure in writing urged me to carry on. Two years and two books later I sent my manuscript for The Secret At Arnford Hall to Black Opal Books, an American small boutique publisher. I can’t tell you the number of butterflies in my stomach when I got an email to say they loved my story and my writing style.

However, the offer of a contract came with a caveat. I had to make two changes. My original version of The Secret At Arnford Hall was apparently too much for the sellers in the States to take on. Although I don’t agree with every change an editor wants to make to my manuscript, I did agree to amend my story. I know I made the right decision and after great editing by Faith at Black Opal Books I have a better story. All five books are now under contract with the publisher and I am working on my sixth. I am delighted to be a full member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and the International Thriller Writers’ group. I never forget that my priority, the reason I left work, is my son, with my husband a close second. For that reason I love the flexibility that being an author with Black Opal Books provides.

About Mollie:

Living in the heart of Cheshire, Mollie is a regular mum of one son and wife of one husband. Her stories are filled with provocative romance and laced with suspense. Guilty of a love of reading, swimming, fast cars, Prosecco and chocolate, she warned her husband – she kisses better than she cooks.

Book Blurb:

The Secret At Arnford Hall – A Cheshire Love Story

Gabriel Black didn’t give a damn about the world. Until, that is, his seven-year-old son enters his life for the first time. The young boy brings daylight into the darkness of Gabriel’s world. But a single parent needs a distraction. And this single parent has no limits when it comes to getting what he wants…

Grace McGuire lives with a dark secret—one that, if revealed, will destroy her new life. Then her world collides with that of forceful Gabriel Black, a multi-millionaire with a secret of his own—a secret Grace is determined to uncover, for her sanity and all she holds dear.

Links:

Amazon

Facebook  

Twitter       

Website    

Thank you, Mollie and good luck with your next book.

If you would like to write for the RNA blog please contact us on elaineeverest@aol.com

Spotlight on the Sparkling Romaniacs

Anyone attending the recent RNA Conference couldn’t have failed to notice The Romaniac’s ‘Sparkle Spotlight’ event. We asked the ladies to tell us more about the glittering affair.

At the 2015 RNA Conference, The Romaniacs collectively decided to put together a Sparkle Spotlight corner to video some of the delegates and find out a bit more about them. The Romaniacs are eight writers all of whom were members of the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s New Writers’ Scheme and joined together to support each other and blog about their progress.

In December last year, we all met up and had a pre-Christmas weekend, which we named our sparkle weekend and we all came away inspired with lots of ideas. One of those was our Life Cycle Of A Writer feature. Every week, on an eight week cycle, we each do an update on how things are going and we try to feature all aspects of our writing lives. From this, the idea for The Romaniacs Sparkle Spotlight Corner formed. It was a way of saying thank you to the RNA and its members who’ve been so supportive to us and in turn we got to find out about their life cycle as a writer: the highs, the lows, and what they are currently working on.

Having come up with the idea, we contacted the conference organisers (Jan Jones and Jenny Barden) to see if it was possible, and with their approval, we become part of the conference programme.

We got ourselves organised behind the scenes, working out how many appointment slots we could offer and sorting out what equipment would be needed. Posters were designed by Sue Fortin and tickets sent to all those taking part.

Then the conference arrived! The prosecco and chocolates were chilled – we were ready. Originally the plan had been to video in the coffee break area, but the sound of 200+ novelists chatting would have drowned out our interviewees. So instead we camped outside the one-to-one rooms in an area that was just perfect for our red carpet. It also meant that we managed to interview some industry professionals, which was an added bonus. We soon found out Celia J Anderson is a natural interviewer and we all need to work on our clapper board action.

Once home, it was Laura E James who sat down and edited the final videos. She spent a couple of days doing it and we owe her a big thank you for carrying out undoubtedly the most complex of the tasks.

Here is the conference video we put together: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBKFM12lUEw

It gives a real feel of what it was like to be there. The interview videos have been featured on The Romaniacs blog over the past week with more to be released. Hopefully that’s coffee break entertainment covered for a while. It was really a privilege to hear what a whole range of writers have been up to. We’re a talented, determined bunch in the RNA.

And as it’s been so popular, there’s already talk of it happening again next year. So if you are going to conference next year, make sure you sign up for The Romaniacs Sparkly Red Carpet!

Love,

The Romaniacs

The Romaniacs are Catherine Miller, Jan Brigden, Lucie Wheeler, Vanessa Savage, Debbie Fuller-White, Laura James, Sue Fortin and Celia J Anderson.

Thank you ladies, be assured The RNA blogging team will add their names to your list for next year!

The RNA blog is brought to you by,

Elaine Everest & Natalie Kleinman

If you wish to be featured on the blog please contact us on elaineeverest@aol.com

Liz Harris: Essential Research!

Liz Harris visits the blog today to show what hard work research can be when planning a novel.

Evie Undercover, a contemporary romantic comedy set in Umbria and London, is the first romantic comedy I’ve written. My previous full-length novels, The Road Back, A Bargain Struck, and Golden Tiger, which comes out in autumn 2015, are historical romantic fiction, so Evie Undercover was quite a departure.

Apart from the difference in tone, the greatest difference lay in the nature of my research. For my historical novels, I read up on the period, and in the case of A Bargain Struck, went to Wyoming to learn more than books alone could tell about the life-style of second generation homesteaders.

But for Evie Undercover, I had no need of historical tomes, visits to museums or hours spent in libraries--there was only one place I needed to go, and that was Umbria. Needs must, I nobly thought, and I packed my bags and headed for the airport, clutching an online ticket for Perugia.

I had my hero: handsome lawyer, Tom Hadleigh; I had my heroine, enterprising Evie Shaw, on her first assignment from Pure Dirt, the only magazine that would take her on after months of searching, so all I needed was the setting.

 

Forcing myself into restaurant after restaurant in order to decide where to send Tom and Evie; sitting in the piazza in the medieval town of Todi, sipping prosecco while watching the stone walls of the 14^th century cathedral change colour during sunset; walking the streets of the ancient city of Perugia. Yes, there was nothing I wouldn’t undertake in the name of authenticity!

So I had my hero, my heroine and my setting—all I needed was a page-turning story. Evie and Tom gave me that. It started the first night they were in Italy. Anyone who could play the trick that Evie played on Tom… . But Evie had one week only in which to achieve her goal, and failure wasn’t in a word in her book!

 

Blurb:

When libel lawyer Tom Hadleigh acquires a perfect holiday home, a 14^th century house that needs restoring, there’s a slight problem. The house is located in the beautiful Umbrian countryside and Tom can’t speak a word of Italian.

Enter Evie Shaw, masquerading as an agency temp, but in reality the newest reporter for gossip magazine Pure Dirt. Unbeknown to Tom, Italian speaking Evie has been sent by her manipulative editor to write an exposé on him. And the stakes are high – Evie’s job rests on her success.

Pour a glass of prosecco, sit back and enjoy. An ideal summer read!

About Liz:

Liz was born in London. After graduating with a Law degree, she moved to California where she led a varied life, from waitressing on Sunset Strip to working as secretary to the CEO of a large Japanese trading company. When real life intervened, she returned to the UK, completed a degree in English and taught for a number of years.

Liz is published by Choc Lit. The Road Back, A Bargain Struck and Evie Undercover are published in paperback, and The Art of Deception and A Western Heart, a novella, are published as ebooks. She has a short story in each of the Choc Lit anthologies

Liz now lives in Oxfordshire. She is a member of the Historical Novel Society, the Oxford Writers’ Group, and is the convenor of the Oxford Chapter of the RNA.

Links:

website  

Twitter: @lizharrisauthor

Facebook: Liz Harris.
 

Liz, we thoroughly enjoyed your blog post. If the RNA blog falls silent it is because the team are on a world cruise planning our next novels…!
 

The RNA blog is brought to you by

Elaine Everest & Natalie Kleinman
 

If you would like to write for the blog please contact us on elaineeverest@aol.com