Do you have the discipline to write, read, and get down time in your day?
Hmm
got it! got it! yay!! it’s three a.m.! oh.
ahhhhhhhhhh
I DO NOT.
Pfft.
Because I have a contract for “Glass Slipper,” I have been binge-writing. I need time to do some more reading.
Have you a cloning machine? Do you need to have a cloning machine? Me too … and the writing one needs to type faster and rewrite as consciously as possible.
AND NOW WE HAVE CHICKENS.
Twelve.
I think they are mostly roosters but I can’t tell. Yet. So we handle these chicks a lot.
Barred Rock Chickens (these are pullets- very young hens. I think they are pullets)
6 weeks old pullets (wee hens) what we have
Hopefully they’ll be at this point SOON. (Hens, right here) 6-8 pound hens.
the most pampered chickens ever
Roosters and 10 pounds – why they are meat chickens …
I know you have projects (like gardens, knitting, baking, cooking for huge families, cows, chickens, goats, sheep, etc), and I want to know what takes up your time – eating into reading and writing!
Writers, tell me please your process. I love hearing from other authors what their process is, do you write by the seat of your pants? Do you plan? Do you do both? How do you build your characters? Before, during, or after the inciting incident? Do you interview them beforehand like you’re the journalist, or use a program?
And last, do you know the beginning, middle, and end before you start? Truth be told I flailed through my first manuscript. I found for my next novel, a software to help develop plot, characters, plot arc, and character arc. So I guess I’m a planster. A bit of both, seat of the pants and planning.
AND my corkboard. So old school, but nothing gets LOST in the midst of a downed internet.
OKAY. Your turn.
Your favorite genre (to write/read)
Planner, pantster, or planster?
Old school?
Programs?
Major distractions?
Binge reader? Binger writer? Or both?
Now it is YOUR turn. Like, subscribe, comment, share (if you so want).
Still on my down-time for reading after publication of “Rules of Engagement.” Whew, 5 days, 4 books, and counting. I am going for another 5 or more before returning to “Glass Slipper.”
Speaking of, “Glass Slipper,” still set in Whiskey River, Oregon, will take on a new look. You won’t know it however, because you haven’t been exposed to the rest of the manuscript I do have. Anyone else have that issue? I don’t mean rewriting/editing. Clear as mud, right?
So I’ll leave it up to you to ponder what I could be up to. It is still a sequel to “Romance Under Wraps,” that much I’ll give ya.
Since I like to keep posts short so your eyes don’t glaze over, I am skeletonizing (forming the bare bones, the framework, the blueprint, outline … oh you get it) the sequel to “Rules of Engagement,” where it looks to already be a sit-down-and-chew-yer-nails read. This will be in the style of “Rules of Engagement,” and is an intrigue/thriller. Again, a lot of players.
I do have a Work-in Progress (aka WIP) title but that’s just so the manuscript doesn’t say, Work in Progress (which we too, all are, not just our manuscripts, but I betcha I can find that as an actual book title).
What are you reading? What’s you’re favorite genre? I really do want to know, so *like, *subscribe, and *comment.
“Romance Under Wraps” has been on the shelf since near the end of the dreaded COVID 19, 2020. A little over a year and chugging along. I’d like to share a review with you.
“Romance Under Wraps” was a labor of love that started with a contest a LONG, LONG time ago in a galaxy far away. My first published novel, with many *many* revisions, rewrites, more rewrites, then a handful more before editing. Then the professional editor. A romantic suspense. A thriller, some have said. Amateur sleuth, Catherine Cade, is a thief. A thief with retrograde amnesia, she steals one identity after another to dodge an ex-partner. Rick Calhoun, homicide detective, is getting in her way. Especially when he catches her red-handed on CCTV, in what appears to be stealing evidence from a locked evidence room. Checking a background cements his fears. Now there’s a confrontation for the ages. Let the chase begin, especially when the dead body of a city VIP tosses the two together.
“This was the most memorable and moving novel I have read all year. The plot took me through a whirlwind of emotions – laughter, tears, sorrow, and anger. The heroine, Catherine Cade, cannot recall a thing about her life prior to an automobile accident. What she can recall all too vividly is the abusive relationship she endured at the hands of a thief and con artist. This man, who convinced Catherine that she was his wife, taught her how to work a con and change her identity. With no real identity of her own, she became adept at changing her persona during frequent moves. Things changed for Catherine Cade when she moved to the small town of Whiskey River. Not only had her surrounding changed, but Cade developed friendships, a career, and a handsome love interest. Her attraction to a detective spurs a great deal of conflict, not only because she is a con artist but because Cade’s personality and values change throughout the book. Eventually, I realized that Cade was running away from both evil and good. She was running to a void, a continuous life of nothingness. The author has crafted engaging plots. No one is what they seem. No one seems to be trustworthy. For crime mystery lovers this is a fiction that you will enjoy with plenty of action, gun play, good guy and bad guy moments, murders, assaults. For mystery/romance lovers you will feel involved in the plot development of what appears to be a hopeless love between a con artist, Catherine Cade and a no-nonsense ex-Marine, detective, Rick Calhoun. For the cozy mystery lovers, you’ll enjoy how the plot develops to encourage the heroine to develop her interests in solving a murder and in opening a bakery. For me, I loved how the plot developed to show the ways in which God may choose to act in our lives.”
“Rules of Engagement” is with Deb Haggerty, Elk Lake Publishing, and her nefarious editor, Mary, who will red-pen my manuscript into another orbit (that means, “Fix this.” “Fix that.” repetitively). “Rules of Engagement” is in a different genre (sort of). A medical military *and romance* thriller. A global disaster loosely based (and I mean very loosely based) on a true story, started some time after “Romance Under Wraps” was mostly completed.
I have no idea what that cover will look like. Kind of hope it includes these pics which are representative of the two main characters (out of a gazillion other characters):
Oops…
Oops? Did you just say, ‘Oops?’
“Glass Slipper” is my next endeavor that I am currently writing. I have a beautiful graphic design for it, but we’ll wait for the real cover release. Heck sometimes titles and cover art are changed. But it might even look like a … glass slipper.
“Glass Slipper” is in a sequel to “Romance Under Wraps” in Whiskey River, a forensics/police procedural (& rom/com) about what else? Forensic science students. Dead ones. Someone wants them out of Whiskey River. Or so it seems. Morose medical examiner, Jack McCloud, meets his match in a new medical examiner’s technician, Mercedes Hall. Jack’s brain works in old movies, Bogie and Bacall’s “Key Largo.” Also Raymond Chandler’s, “The Maltese Falcon.” “The Big Sleep.” And sometimes – sometimes – those 1940s expressions slip out into the modern world in which he lives. And does what he can to solve a serial killer case and dodge Mercedes.
The worst of submitting the required documents to any publisher (or most) has been completed. These fun things include a one page synopsis of the entire book (everything summed up from first to last line in one page);
It was a dark and stormy night …
… the cover letter (Dear Agent/Publisher, thank you for … etc.); the sell page (how will I manage to help promote this novel?); market analysis (How does it compare to the ten million books in the same genre? And what makes it ‘better’ or different than all the rest?); the biography, the blurb (the back flap of the book that may entice you to read); the tagline (oh that funny littlie line that hooks the reader into reading the back flap, then the book).
And of course the first three chapters.
Here is my biggest recommendation to those who are ready to submit. 1. Don’t write it into the wee hours of the night when you are sleepy.
Not like I would ever dare do that. <cough>
AND 2. Edit mother-lovin’ everything before sending it to the agent/publisher or even your editor. Because if you don’t, you may send off an automatic rejection.
And your editor, should you (and please do) employ him/her to edit your work, will find those many, many mistakes that may potentially be extraordinarily embarrassing.
Not like that would ever happen to me. <cough>
I rarely edit my social media and I am sure it shows. But I am not a professional blogger so there’s a lil’ something in me doesn’t care if a comma is off. Should I? Probably. But I don’t.
ANYWHO the whole batch was edited because my editor DID laugh as did I (thank the good Lord I didn’t send that embarrassing bit), but now the whole shebang is into the ether.
FlippinFanFantastic, I say. Now I wait because rejection could be around the corner. At which point, I may have to start this process over.
For now? Imma gonna read. I have another novel in the pike, ready to be written, but my brain needs a break.
“Don’t let the title fool you; this is a suspenseful tension-inducing read. Yes, there is a touching romantic underlying theme, but my interest was a suspenseful crafted story. This novel meets and exceeds my personal interests in both suspense and romance. The author displays a solid knowledge of police work and captures a cops’ thought process and their dry humor (I know because I was once one).
The main character’s, Catherine, on and off again romantic relationship with Detective Calhoun, is peppered with humorous quick-witted barbs. However, you see a growing relationship with each other. The storyline also draws a line of Christian thought through it. A dynamic, dangerous, and complex novel compels the reader to turn the pages to the very end. And what an ending.”
I’m excited to announce that “Romance Under Wraps” is on sale for 99 cents. One week only. Midnight (PDT) June 30th to 11:59 pm (PDT) July 7th. Alrighty then. I asked the publisher why ‘Romance Under Wraps.”
Romantic suspense, clean read, with a dash of police procedural.
Some folks just can’t stop breaking the law…
I can’t tell you how fun this is. I’ve been looking forward to a near-giveaway for months, and Deb Haggerty from Elk Lake Publishing said, “As you wish.”
Well, you know what I mean. And Deb doesn’t look like Wesley. Which is a good thing.
So this is the perfect time to storm Amazon and pick up a kindle copy for 99 cents!
no, it’s better than a TV!
“Romance Under Wraps” is also available paperback, Audible, and Kindle Unlimited.
She’s an identity thief with partial amnesia impersonating a nurse practitioner—trying to go straight. When one of her patients dies a mysterious death, she is faced with an agonizing decision. When evidence points to murder, she must overcome her fear of prison for the truth. Her biggest problem is the cop who caught her.
Rick Calhoun is a homicide detective who knows more about Cade than she does. When he finds a murder scene and catches up with Cade, the chase begins.
She tries to keep her lies straight, and it’s a job while tending patients and opening a bakery. He has to keep the investigation quiet, tend to his homicide cases, and keep Cade out of trouble.
Cade’s biggest worry is the detective who found her. He’s onto her, and she‘s stuck. Calhoun’s biggest problem, he is in love with her and will sacrifice anything to give her safe passage.
Love means never having to hear your Miranda Rights …
I never thought I’d read about, and like, a scam artist and identity thief. But I just did, and I do! Who wouldn’t like Catherine Cade and her effort to get her memory back, and her witty repartee, and her exploits? And who wouldn’t like Calhoun, her sexy detective boyfriend? “Romance Under Wraps” has as many ups and downs and twists and turns as a rollercoaster and just as much action. If you like fast-paced mysteries laced with romance this is the book for you. A very enjoyable read. I give O’Sullivan 5 stars for this debut novel. ~Nadia
In a heart-wrenching story about losing one’s sense of self while driven with a ferocious instinct to survive, Romance Under Wraps dazzles readers with its exploration of love and redemption. It is insanely relatable for anyone who’s found themselves questioning their faith. Cade and Calhoun work together, albeit not easy at first, to show the world how love, alongside God, brings redemption to even the most cunning of sinners. ~ Kara Kelley
I had the pleasure of listening to The Superior Word’s Easter Message, and Jim Dwyer mentioned “Romance Under Wraps.” Starts at min 4:42… Got the print screen time for ya. 4:42
‘Cause he’s a dude, he sees the cop side more than the romance side, and is almost done reading my first novel.
If you enjoy clean/Christian romantic suspense/police procedure you enjoy “Romance Under Wraps” … with the main character off the rail, Catherine Cade, an identity thief, wholly unlikeable, especially when dealing with Rick Calhoun, homicide detective.
Oh, he has plans for her all right. And she is not amenable to his offer but does she have a choice? Not even. Not if she wants to stay out of prison. And not if she wants to solve a murder — with or without the dirty cop.
How many laws will HE break and what will he sacrifice to keep her safe?
What will she do with that?
And many thanks to Linda Rodante for surprising me with a fantastic meme for one so technically challenged (me).
“Romance Under Wraps” is on sale for Valentine’s Day – from the 14th to the 16th of February (which is the month of … Valentine’s Day. Just a reminder) for 99 cents, Kindle version.
Time to grab it literally while it’s as close to a steal as you can get.
Oh, and don’t forget, authors live on reviews, indie and traditionally published.
Yes, yes I did make this on a meme generator and didn’t pay for the program…
![Romance Under Wraps by [Claire O'Sullivan]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51kapqWMMVL.jpg)
Claire O'Sullivan 
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