#christian fiction – Claire O'Sullivan

Thanks to Deb at elk lake publishing!

Posted on 09/09/202109/09/2021 by claire o'sullivan

“Romance Under Wraps” has been chugging right along thanks to Deb Haggerty and the Elk Lake Publishing group!

Check out the cool stuff on their website and the YouTube trailer (hint: Go to the ‘O’ and find my trailer):

Authors

To the readers and reviewers, you guys rock.

Thank you also to the latest reviewer who said,

“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.”

Whew! “Rules of Engagement” and then some

Posted on 08/06/202108/06/2021 by claire o'sullivan

Been busy, busy. Rewrites on Rules of Engagement and juggling ARC and TBR books, reviews, promoting Romance Under Wraps, have been a challenge.

(promote, promote right here): Find Romance Under Wraps on Amazon. Free on KU and Audible. Also available on Kindle and paperback. Click:

Two people (editor and my husband) have started cracking the whip on me to finish the rewrites ASAP. UH.

Truth be told those last chapters will be the hardest.

Anyone else stuck in that?

I like keeping posts short. My attention falters with long posts. So, off to rewrites or whatever my calendar tells me to do. Maybe I should get a calandar. Hmm.

Today’s Job

Posted on 04/03/202004/04/2020 by claire o'sullivan

The first pass edit of How to Steal a Romance passed the publishing house’s editing team with three whole blips, which I call a win. Fixed in 3 minutes.

Made those corrections and sent the manuscript back, and it is ready for submission to be published.

Whoosh!

And anxiously awaiting to see what the cover will look like. I know what my brain says, but let’s see what their graphics team comes up with!

So, what are you doing during the ‘stay-inside’ plague?

I am thinkin’ I need to distance myself from social media (mercy! I am already social distancing…!) to do some catchup reading and writing.

Expect How to Steal a Romance on the shelves, KDP/Nook, etc., before fall. YEEEEKS!!

AIR

Posted on 03/09/2020 by claire o'sullivan

Military intrigue. Not my usual genre. Yes… yes. There is some romance. But more of a dude’s novel.

I ‘usually’ write romantic/suspense, however, several years back I started this military thriller/intrigue. By the time I finished ‘How to Steal a Romance,’ it was time to do a rewrite. This is a fictionalized novel loosely based on happenings in 2014.

I’ll leave you to guess what it’s about.

Got a lot done in the past few days on the new novel. I find it truly amazing how much can be accomplished when not on social media… who would have thought.

Anyway, the next steps include: Finishing the last third of the rewrite. Putting this through the paces of my Grammarly and electronic reader. Send it to beta readers (whom I will need, btw, in the event you want a free copy). Then off to my Grammar Nazi who will also rip it to shreds. Then… a copyeditor and off to publishing houses out there and/or agents.

My timeline ‘was’ six months to finish the rewrite. Well, I am almost done. So, the next goal, I continue now at three months to beta readers, six months or thereabouts to copyeditor, minus the copyedit, send off, acceptance by agent/publisher, and their edit requests.

Total time: One and a half years. Max.

You are invited to pray. And that I get it right.

Inching Ever So Closer to August!

Posted on 01/20/202003/05/2020 by claire o'sullivan

In roughly 5 months Elk Lake will be publishing and I will be launching ‘How to Steal a Romance.’

Team is up and reading/reviewing already. I have one slot open. Just one free copy to give away for a confirmed helper to launch this romantic suspense… Facebook, comment here, or DM on Twitter!

THE UPDATE :

Progress is being made. The publishing house/creative graphics department is working on a cover. Yeeks! Can’t wait to see it!

Next, a professional website is close to done and thanks to Bob Phillips, webmaster. This is Bob (well, not really). I am apparently a pain in the neck with my emails and requests…

I am finally on Instagram. Soooo I don’t really know how to use it yet, gimme time. *AuthorClaire1 – got a few pics up…

Expedition in the garage getting fixed up for some road trips. Yay!

The launch team (minus 1) is so on it and I love you guys, you rock!

Whew.

Have you ever…

Posted on 01/12/2020 by claire o'sullivan

… finished a big project oh say like a novel and got a contract and wonder what’s next?

YA.

That’s me. And freakin’ out a bit.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. If you have ANY wisdom do let me know. That’d be awesome. Novel is ‘supposed’ to be out in about 6 months. How to Steal a Romance, ’cause I know you wanna read it. Right?

Whew…

Posted on 11/30/2019 by claire o'sullivan

For the NanoWrimos among us, I suspect you’ve dented your couch and eschewed Thanksgiving as I have done (but not this year).

Image result for turkey roasted

50,000 words, one month, fingertips on fire, total focus.

jim carrey typing

WELL THEN. I am not quite there this year since I decided I really needed to work on those 5 novels already in the works since I began the Nano challenge.

So, after a good chapter + that I worked on, I plowed through Thanksgiving (mostly… foodwise) and didn’t work on it and still was too full to work yesterday.

Image result for too full cat

That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.

How are you doing on your WIP? Oh, and I changed the WIP I am working on. Made more sense to me to edit that one.

voices are back excellent

Hola Hello Gutentag

Posted on 11/21/2019 by claire o'sullivan

I should add perhaps… bon chance (GOOD LUCK!). Bon courage (roughly, be happy, don’t worry…).

Image result for bonne chance mon ami

Have copyeditor, will travel. Before I sent her the MS I found a gazillion gaffs so… I fixed ’em, notified the agent who graciously let me dump the first submission of cover letter/proposal/synopsis/first 50 pages.

Image result for editing manuscript

That being a big, fat whew, I moved on. Now, it’s a condundrum.

Image result for conundrum

Should I really work on Murder in the Mist?

Image result for mist over a lake

Or… back to my romantic/comedy/suspense (noir), Glass Slipper? The immediate sequel to HTSR? A tough edit.

glass slipper2

(Image courtesy S. Spalletta)

What about the wee town of Olvegaart? Where a romantic/mystery occurs (some suspense)? Where the working title is Alex and the Very Dead Doxy?

Image result for forested river valley

Yes… doxy means lady of the night. Or day. Or whatever.

Image result for prostitute

Just needs a cleanup, okay a lotta cleaning up.

Image result for sweeping

AIR, military suspense/romance? Note: Imagination in overdrive. Again.

(Image, courtesy my brain)

AIR

I mean, that is done! But not vaguely edited. At. All.

Well…

Posted on 10/11/2019 by claire o'sullivan

Since I have been procrastinating I haven’t posted.

Because… I have been procrastinating.

Got back into it last night until 2 a.m. My grammar-a-holic I can credit for crackin’ the whip and makin’ me git back to it.

Fearing ProWritingAid’s (PWA) incredibly slow process again, I tried the free Grammarly only to find that punctuation / proofing was not included. Oh, please.

So I plugged the whole MS back into PWA and typed away.

Funny thing happened on the way to (Damascus) this process. I submitted my cover letter/proposal/synopsis/50 pages without the PWA edit — to the agent.

MERCY. Should I tell her? I am hoping she is blind to my gaffs. Otherwise…

Did I get anything done…? Methinks I did!

Posted on 09/15/2019 by claire o'sullivan

My apathy and angst over reading and writing lasted far too long.

Time’s up.

Got the 1st 50 pages proofed (because I can only take fixing stuff a small dose at a time). Then about a week or so later fixed them thar errors.

Today, wrote … wait for it … synopsis, cover letter, and polished proposal.

The awesome thing right here is that an agent listened to my pitch on P2P (Pitch-top-Published) and said, send it!

Sweet! But that was, of course, months ago when I was still having that eReader read through my manuscript. Not quite done with that process I might add.

Sent my grammar-a-holic friend the next 50 pages and the 1-page synopsis and 1-page cover letter.

As I quake in fear.

Once fixed, I will send that into the ether and finish that read-through if’n I can’t finish it in the next few days.

Then, onto fixing one of my 3 other novels, listening to the fire.

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