I’ve always enjoyed learning. Remember, I’m the one that as a bored child wouldl read the encyclopedia. Well, yesterday, I was on the floor of the living room, wrapping presents for what seemed like hours. (hey, it really was hours, I’m tellin’ ya.) And there was nothing on tv. I had my fill of the radio’s Christmas music and NOTHING was on. Until. OH! The history channel. And the history of Christmas. I’ll take it! You see, last year I started a colonial Christmas tale; the only thing is, Christmas as we know it today, was not the same. They did the ‘pagan’ hanging of the greens. And it wasn’t a day to give gifts, really. So, I was kind of stuck. But yesterday’s episode, while confirming my previous research that I had little to describe for a Colonial Christmas, inspired me to take it in a new direction. That’s what writers do, right? We have so many ideas and our creativity is malleable.

That’s why I heart the history channel. I had not really entertained it for research before. I just watched it for fun, like the big nerd I am. (and proud too!) So I’ll keep tuned to this because after all, I am a historical romance writer and “The Heart in History.” (gosh I love my tag. It’s soooo me.)

I recently won a critique of 10 pages of my story by the fab Deb Dixon. The critique was wonderful. I couldn’t have asked for better feedback. Why? Are you thinking she waxed poetically over my story? Glamorized how my characters were like living breathing people? Thought my plot was THE BEST STORY of the year?

No. Of course not. I wasn’t expecting her to. I was expecting the truth, and that’s what I got.

Even better, I got a bunch of why’s with my truth. Deb graciously took the time to explain why my opening wasn’t working. I have to tell ya, this has been a dilly of a story to open. I’ve gotten lots of comments on how this story opening doesn’t work, but nobody took the time to say why, or at least if they did, it wasn’t done it a way where I could understand what the heck they were talking about. I’ve gotten suggestions on new openings, and tried those and all that just made things worse.

What was the secret, you ask? What was the big revelation Deb dropped in my lap?

Personal.

My characters weren’t personal in the beginning. There was nothing there to ground the reader to the characters, nothing to make the reader want to care about the characters. This is something to keep in mind when you start ‘in the action’.

It’s very, very hard to make the characters personal when you drop them in the middle of a gunfight/fire/car chase/fill-in-the-blank. You can’t expect the reader to care about your heroine just because she’s drowning in the middle of the ocean when you open the book.

Personal had gotten lost in all my edits and often drastic changes to the opening. I knew the characters, so I didn’t think about taking the time to letting the reader see who they are.

Don’t forget to let us know who your characters are!

This week, I have a special guest to share her perspective and personal experiences with writing historical Christian fiction that has adventure, danger, and romance. From the names of those who comment, we will draw a name for the winner of a copy of Marylu Tyndall’s upcoming novel, The Red Siren. I’ve had the privilege of writing this and, let me assure you, it’s really terrific. For those of you who know how I can skewer a badly written book, you know this is high praise from me.

Q: Why pirates?

Ever since I was a little girl growing up on the shores of south Florida, I’ve always been fascinated by pirates. Pirates are rebels at heart and I guess I’ve always been a bit of a rebel myself. They also represent freedom, freedom from the conventions of society, freedom to roam, to conquer, to discover, to live their lives by no man’s rules. How many of us don’t sometimes dream of shirking off our responsibilities, if even for a day, and running away from the grind and the expectations of life, and setting our sails for that adventurous horizon? I know most pirates were murderers and thieves and I in no way approve of those actions. It’s more their fearless lust for life that draws me to them.

Q: Tell us about The Red Siren and The Falcon and the Sparrow.

The Falcon and the Sparrow is a Regency spy story set in London around the time Napoleon was starting to show his fangs in Europe. It’s about a young timid girl forced to spy on her homeland Britain or her only brother will be executed by the French. She’s placed as a governess in the home of a British Admiral where she attempts to steal valuable Admiralty documents for the French. But what will she do when she falls in love with the Admiral and his son? How can she choose between them and her only brother?

The Red Siren is my latest release and is about a young British lady, Faith Westcott, who turns pirate in order to procure enough money to buy her and her sister’s independence and freedom from forced marriages. When her father moves them from Portsmouth to Charles Towne, Carolina, she is confronted by a Navy Captain whose ship she pirated before he joined the service and who has been sent there to round up and hang all pirates. When the man is placed as guardian over her and her sisters while their father is away, can Faith continue her pirating activity right beneath his nose?

Q: What got you writing in the first place?

If you’re a writer, than you’ve probably always had the desire to write. You’re probably the type of person who has a dozen or so unfinished stories, poems and novel ideas lying around. That’s the way it was for me when I was growing up. Never in my wildest dreams did I consider I could get published, so I put it on the back burner, got a degree in Math of all things, and pursued a career in computers. All the while, my fingers itched to put pen to paper. I still wrote, but I guess you could call me a closet writer. Well, one day, after seeing the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, I felt the call from God to come out of the closet and write a novel about a Christian pirate. Yes, I thought I had misheard God, too. Anyway, I obeyed and it became a three book series that got snatched up by a publisher within a couple months of submission. And the Legacy of the King’s Pirates was born.

Q: Why did you choose to write for the Christian market instead of the secular market?

Two reasons. One, I am dismayed by the graphic sex and disturbing spiritual themes I see in the secular market. What happened to good, clean, fun stories anyway? And two, my faith in Jesus is the most important part of my life. He saved my life when I was headed down a very dangerous path. He cleaned me off, set my feet upon a rock, and gave me more purpose and joy then I ever could have imagined. And I want others to know this incredible life He offers too. So I write not just to entertain, but to share the love of God through my stories.

Q: What would you like your readers to know about you?

I’m a normal American woman juggling a career, house, husband, 6 kids and 4 cats! I love chocolate, shopping, reading, and snuggling up with a good movie. During the same day, you’ll find me scrubbing toilets one minute and writing an adventurous chase scene the next.

I’ve picked up a couple presents for my little cousins (oldest is 5), but now I’m thinking I should save those few things and buy books instead. There’s a number of reasons I’m considering the change.

First off, I didn’t think of books at first (crazy, I know. I’m a writer and a reader and I didn’t think to give a book the young’uns).

Second, kids LOVE books, at least mine does.

Third, they’re cheap!

Fourth, with the low economy, publishers need all the help they can get to save others from loosing their jobs this close to the holidays.

And lastly, I found this really cool Dr. Seuss book for my little boy. He LOVES Dr. Seuss and it’s a collection of several stories in one. The Big Blue Book Of Beginner Books. My Wal-Mart has this in stock, so I’m thinking of picking them all up.

Got any kid book suggestions?

It’s time to evaluate your end of the year writing progress. I remember this time last year getting excited about the upcoming year and deciding that THIS was the year. My goal was set and I prepared to finish at least one wip and start shopping it around. So, where am I now? Well, I half finished it, and submitted it to two contests; one of which I expect to hear from any day now. I have become more focused on my direction, so I don’t feel that not reaching ‘The End’ is a failure. I’ve grown in writing despite not having met that goal.

So now in this reevaluation, I say that NEXT year is the year. I’ll finish at least one by mid year, or sooner, if I can, and another by the end of the year. I WILL be published. Doggonit.

‘Cause I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggonit, people like me.

So we’ve almlost made to December. Before long, that great holiday will be here! Like we’ll probably go to sleep tonight and then BAM! Tomorrow is Christmas. So let’s get in the spirit here. Let’s talk Christmas books. I can honestly say, I don’t have a favorite Christmas Romance book. I really can’t think of many Christmas’ie books off the top of my head. There’s that one that I can’t recall the name of but there’s these lines:

Something about a ladder and all came a clatter

Something about a quiet house, not even a mouse

And the last line Santa says something about “Merry Christmas to all and to all, a good night.”

If anybody can remember this book, pass me the title! This is really bothering me.

Tell me about your favorite Christmas books-Romance or not!

I’m doing a Christmas Give Away starting Monday-Friday on my personal blog, so stop in and leave comment to be entered!

Today, I sit wondering how to write a Thanksgiving post that doesn’t sound trite. It’s not that I don’t have a great deal for which I need to be thankful; it’s that I have too much and finding the focus is difficult.

So, since we talk about books here, I’m going to focus on how I feel about them.

Yes, I am truly thankful for books. Or perhaps I should say that I am truly thankful for people’s ability to tell stories. Since the list of authors for which I am thankful could take me all day to write, I want to focus on the ones who have shaped my own writing or influnnced me the most. This is not an exhaustive list, but the ones that come to mind now.

Charles Dickens—who taught me how to end a chapter with a bang.

Mary Stewart—who taught me how to use rich detail in setting and sensory detail to hgeighten rather than lessen the tension of a story, how to use setting as a character.

Georgette Heyer—who taught me about showing character rather than telling.

Patricia Veryan—who taught me how to write adventure and romance.

Loree Lough—who introduced me to Heartsongs and Christian fiction in general.

Tamela Hancock Murray—who taught me about writing Christian fiction along with Vickie McDonough and Carrie Turansky. And Tamela for just believing in me enough to take me on as a client and not give up on me.

All the ladies of The Beau Monde, especially Nancy Mayer, Delle Jacobs, April Kihlstrom, and, quite recently, Susan Newman—who have given me so much valuable information regarding history, writing, my own work I couldn’t list it all here.

Therese Stenzel and, again, vickie McDonough—who started and maintain special interest groups for writers, where I’ve made new friends and found like minds.

Susan Lohrer—who said one day that she wanted to be my accountability partner for writing and got me going when I needed to work.

Lena Nelson Dooley and Lisa Harris—who took up my crazy idea of a three-book gold hunt and ran with it, thus giving me my first contract with a CBA publisher.

Louise M Gouge, Marylu (M.L.) Tyndall, Ramona Cecil, Paige Dooly—who are my lovely, encouraging, and talented critique partners.

And last, but not least, my husband—who, although not published in fiction, is a published and talented writer himself and puts up with a great deal living with me, the fiction writer with characters in her head.

I recently read a book that was just awful. The whole first half, seriously the first HALF, was nothing but a strand of one scene after another that did nothing at all to further the plot. I could understand that the author needed three or so of those scenes to further the romance, but trust me, the romance had been furthered ridiculously far.

I scanned most of the first, thinking I would soon get to the heart of the story because there was a decent hook. I was anxious to get to that part and what the heroine did. And then it just got worse. The hook became lost in useless scene after useless scene where the heroine turned unlikable and the hero as well for still loving her and making her forgiven of everything without so much as an “I’m sorry” from her. I only kept reading to see what all these characters would do to each other, but they would still be so madly in love. My teenageness came out with a lot of eye rolling in this book.

Now I don’t know what to do with this book. I would never torture my friends into reading it. And really, they wouldn’t have a fair chance to have an open mind by the time I finished snarking it. Obviously there was some people who liked it since it got published. The idea of simply throwing it away makes me shudder. I can’t just throw away a book. If we had a recycling bin somewhere, I would be more likely to trash it, but I don’t know. I don’t want to take it to my library and have someone new to romance pick it up as an example. I found out yesterday someone I know participates in paperback swap. I’m not sure how this thing works, but I’m going to see if she wants the book.

What do you do with books you don’t like? Anyone familiar with paperback swap and how it works?

i’m full of love. I love myself, I love my job, I love my husband, I love my hobbies, I love my kids. And on and on. Writing is in there too. But how much love is for each thing? Is each entitled to an equal piece of the pie? Or do they each get the whole pie at a time? I guess it’s different for each person and where their ideals and priorities are. I’ll tell you now, mine readjust often. I try to always make my family first, but part of doing that is to work, and work hard. Another part of that is having a piece to myself. I need that to just equalize. All work and no play makes Leigh a dull girl, ya know?

But I do show my love. I want it to show in every aspect of my life. My kids get the most.

Ok. Just to get a laugh from my babies I used to say that I love them from the bottom of my heart, and then I’d say it again from the bottom of my (name body part.) Toes seem to be a favorite. Because, you know, it’s silly. But then I thought about it, and the logic of kids is marvelous. They take some things literally, you know, so from the toes all the way up, well, that’s just a whole lot, ain’t it.

I apply that to writing to say, are you writing from the bottom of your toes?

I’ve been judging contest entries here lately and there’s one thing I’ve noticed on several entries. Characters don’t seem to be acting appropriately for their situation. Now, I’m guilty of this, but have since gotten better—at least I hope I have.

But, your characters have to react in a certain manner for their situation if you want them to be believable. I think Kristin Nelson of Nelson Literary Agency nailed this when she said, “In romance, I can’t stand this scenario: A woman is awakened to find a strange man in her bedroom—and then automatically finds him attractive. I’m sorry, but if I awoke to a strange man in my bedroom, I’d be reaching for a weapon—not admiring the view.”

I’ve started trying to overcome this problem by totally putting myself in the character. Close your eyes. Try to pull your senses into the scene. Let’s say your heroine has just been jerked off the street. A thief robbed her. She was trying to run away, but a big garbage bin had been a hold of her dress. When she ran, it ripped it clean from her body. The thief grabs the ripped dress and takes off. I mean I would if I was that thief. That’s just guarantee she won’t chase you or immediately call for help.

So there you are. Standing in heels. A sexy lacy red bra. The cups cut awfully close to your nipples. Your pearl thong panties aren’t much coverage. What’s the first thing that’s going to hit you? The Sounds. You’re going to be listening. Is the thief coming back? Is somebody coming? What do you see as you searched for something you heard?

Now those raw nerves wear off, what’s next? You got to get help. But you have no phone since that thief took your purse. You can’t call the cops or a friend. If you shout for help, but you’re liable to draw a crowd. Or maybe just the attention of a man that has less than good intentions when it comes to rescuing you. Is it dark outside or the middle of the day? What can you smell? The grime of the trash? A small diner across the street? What are you physically feeling as the truth of your situation sinks in? Cold? Hot? Sweaty?

Now a man approaches. He’s looking at you. What do you do?

So let’s here it. What would you do? What would you have YOUR character do? After he initial reaction, what’s next? When he offers his coat and help, how do you react? What do you see, think?

And as a p.s., if you don’t get enough of me here, you can visit me daily at Everybody Needs A Little Romance.