why we write

Naturally, I cannot speak for all writers but will say where it comes to me, every time I bring out a new book, I am uneasy. Is now the right time? How will it be seen by others? That was never more true than with this last one, Round the Bend. It is the book of my heart. How objective can you even be with something that close to you? 

My edginess, where it came to this book, was why I had waited so long. I have mentioned that it took finding the right image for the hero, who had so long been in my imagination. It took something more-- my recognition that win or lose, the book deserved its chance. Books come from so many things. They aren't just created out of the writer but out a whole host of experiences, people, and yes the muses (which might not be the same through a creator's lifetime). I decided I could not stand in its way out of my own fears. This book deserved its chance, these characters deserved their chance, this story of the Oregon Trail deserved its. 

This might be hard to understand, but, as I see it, the story is always more than the writer. Once an artist creates something, painting, photograph, poem, it has an existence also. I don't mean I see it as human, but it is real. I had created a story that had a right to be seen-- rejected or liked.

There are writers where every single book goes into the stratosphere, as they have street teams and fans eager to read every word they write. I am not in that league. I have no street team. It's not that I'd object to giving out a lot of copies ahead of a book's release for reviews. It's that I don't know who would even want them. In view of that, I did all I knew in the way of getting the word out to those most likely to want such a book. Previously, I had joined two writer/reader groups oriented to the type of book I write. It's not easy for me to go out with a blurb, but I did it. I tweeted, blogged, commented, and posted everywhere I had the right. 

When the book came out the 21st, I started editing the book which will come next (Where Dreams Go will be out June 21st). It takes the story of some of these characters farther into Oregon's development as a Territory on its way to statehood. Communities were growing into towns and the people were trying to decide what they wanted them to look like. Working on it was a way to distract myself from worrying about how Matt and Amy were being seen by readers.

With happiness, from the start, the sales were the best of any of my books since I stopped offering them for free days. The only one that had come close was Arizona Sunset. Now these results weren't the spectacular ones of some authors, but for me, they were good. Book One was not immediately falling into Amazon's black hole.

Then I became uneasy when no reviews showed up. Now, I've had some books that never got a review... not one. But I was hoping that this one would get a few. Reviews are supposed to be for the readers, but they mean an awful lot to writers-- even those who have had a ton of them. For me, it would be my first chance to see how readers felt about a book that probably is as dear to me as any I ever wrote-- given the length of time it's been in my life.

Then the first review showed up. Nervously I looked down to read it.

"This is my first experience in reading one of Ms. Trueax's books and I wasn't disappointed. The story was exciting and never got boring. Amy and her family were traveling to Oregon along with Matt, his brother Morey, and father. It was a large wagon train so the storyline had many characters. I just loved St. Louis the Wagonmaster. He was the salt of the earth with so much experience in leading and understanding people. St. Louis had healing experience which was invaluable to those who traveled with him. I've never read a book like this with so many avenues that kept me fascinated. Amy and Matt were lifelong friends but he started feeling more than mere friendship. Amy actually began being courted by Adam, the Wagontrain Scout, but found out "the feeling" just wasn't there and soon realized her love for Matt was more than being a friend. Matt's brother, Morey, was disturbing in this book and led to the violence in Matt's life. The father was also part of the lies and deception that led Morey to hate his brother, Matt. I don't want to spoil this story for you so I won't go on. However, if you want an exciting, adventuresome and mysterious book, this historical western genre is for you. There is some violence and sexual content but the author did a great job in making all actions part of the story itself. I loved it!"

Wow, I was so happy-- a new reader and she loved the book. She saw the things I had hoped others would see in it. I've read how some resent it when a writer calls their book their baby, but it does feel like you sent off your kid into the world, hoping the world will appreciate all their qualities but worried it won't work out that way.

After that, there was another review from a longtime reader. Again I hoped the reader had liked it. Nobody wants to disappoint those who have been reading all you wrote.

"Rain Trueax is at her best from the first sentence. Each phase of the plot and characters are richly developed.
The Oregon Trail experience, physically and mentally grueling, either built character in the hero Matt or caused dangerous psychopathic mental breakdown in Matt's brother Morey. The wagon master St. Louis Jones' experience went beyond previous trips on the Oregon Trail. He had lived with Indians and trappers. He had a depth of understanding of humanity. He was a believable mentor for Matt's amazing growth. Through him Trueax revealed insights to the Indian and emigrants' points of view and their conflicting interests. Obviously Trueax's writing reveals extensive research with exact details of folk and Indian medicine, cooking, weapons, and geography. On fly fishing I thought didn't exist until after the civil war but I was wrong and Trueax was correct to have dry flies and a bamboo rod. I am eager to read more of the series to find out if Loraine finds her true love and the destiny of Scout Adam Stone. Will they eventually get together?"

Her in depth review doubled my happiness. I never know what people will think of my work until they tell me through an email, comment somewhere, or best of all, a review. Writing is pretty much a lonely game, but promoting and talking to readers about what they thought, that's where it becomes less so. This was a book that I knew some might not know what to think. So the fact that it got a pretty good launch made my week brighter.

The map at the top was drawn years ago by my archaeologist daughter when she was still in college. She gave it to me as a gift because she knew I had been writing this book. I appreciated it then and now when I can finally share it with others.

a little history

My history with eBooks goes back to December 2011 when, with some trepidation, I brought out the first contemporary romance. Actually it goes back nine months earlier as that's when I began fine tuning books I had written over a lifetime-- plus creating covers. I had ten contemporary romances, the last of which was out the end of June 2012.

Some of those books made it into the top rankings (33, I think was the highest) of western or suspense contemporary romances but that was a lot due to having free days once in awhile. That used to increase Amazon rankings.It took me awhile to get the message that when a book would have say 1500 free takes over two days, then sell maybe 10, it wasn't working out to be a good idea.

Worse, people would tell me that a book looked good-- but they were going to wait for it to be free. I think that worked better for those who had a series of interconnected books where the first book would lead to sales of the others. Mine, although I had some sharing characters, were stand alone books and not series.

Learning as I went, I continually worked to improve covers, extended one book's length when I had to re-title it since the original title (one I liked) led readers to expect erotica-- and it wasn't.  I also wrote a novella to finish out 2012 (Christmas story connected directly to From Here to There), while I continued to debate what to do with my historicals.

One thing I learned from this-- the only free books will go to friends or someone who might review the book. No more thousands at a time. Even if I still thought it was smart, I learned Amazon changed their system of ratings and free books didn't increase rankings-- only sales get your books into the upper echelons where they can be seen by more readers. It might seem writers want sales for the money, but it's important as a way to get rankings where books can be seen in searches.

Free books had another drawback as it began to create a mentality among Kindle readers that all they wanted was free. It's pretty obvious a writer cannot make a living at writing (not that many do) if they don't sell books. Like duh! But worse, you can give away thousands and still find your book disappearing into Amazon's black hole without regular sales. That's just the way the cookie crumbles-- or something like that.

 

Original concept to be cover for Sam and Abigail before I found out how disdainfully readers viewed artist painted covers. I still like it a lot-- but reality is a writer has to please the potential reader more than themselves. Readers saw a cover a writer painted as being amateur which meant by that reckoning that the book would be also.

So while I worked on covers that would appeal to readers while staying true to the stories, I debated what to do with the historicals. In January-February 2013, I wrote a second Arizona historical romance which follows Arizona Sunset three years later, some shared characters but a new romance. At that point, I was still undecided on bringing out those or the Oregon historicals due to marketing issues.  Writing is something I will always be doing. I am currently researching the fourth Oregon historical romance. Publishing however, that is a choice-- one I had a hard time making where it came to the historicals.

The dithering is over.  Arizona Sunset comes out August 31 on Kindle and hopefully the same day as a paperback. I added that hopefully because we ran into a small glitch with Amazon-- so much to learn and so little time. Adding to the complications is that work here on the ranch has been incredibly busy not to mention my getting a sinus infection which eventually led to the doctor and a prescription for an antibiotic--generic form of augmentin--which is nearly guaranteed to upset your whole system if it manages to cure the sinus problem.

More about Arizona Sunset tomorrow when it is officially published. The following video is on my motivations behind a book that is dear to my heart for a lot of reasons.

What makes a romance novel great

Yes, I get it that a lot of people consider romance novels to be cheap trash. They want a book that they feel worthy for having read and romance novels don't cut it. There are a lot of delusions regarding these books where people think that someone reading them is living a lonely life, not out in the world, maybe leaving their husband in a vain hope of finding that illusive daring, handsome hero.

Romance novels actually are often (according to sociological research) favored by those who live very busy lives and have a lot of stress in their work. Ranching certainly qualifies for that with its ups and downs. Nurses, those with high pressure jobs, as well as someone in finance or anything where there are many demands, and they want a break from pressure.

Based on research, most readers of romance novels are in committed relationships with no intention of running off with anybody except their partner. They read them for the same kind of escape they get from movies-- as well as some spice that they wouldn't want to live but enjoy the break from reality. Some hide the fact they do read them for fear others will consider them inferior.

Whatever the reasons for reading romance novels, the following is for those who are writing them, do read them, or are open to finding out what the heck their appeal is since they sell better than any other genre. After doing some looking around for what others felt made for a great romance novel, I found some suggestions that sounded quite similar to a great book period.

Play to our common humanity

 Personal sacrifice as a powerful emotional act

 Book opens with a hook

 The story flows and there is sexual tension between hero and heroine

 Conflict and friction must be believable

 Characters are likeable and we care about them

 
All of those has been broken by some best selling romance novel that totally blew readers away despite having at least one of the leads unlikeable, no personal sacrifice, no opening hook, sexual tension only at the end, and/or totally unbelievable friction to the point that it seemed ridiculous those two people couldn't get it together sooner.

Because I think actually what makes a good book is more subjective than objective, I thought about the things that have made one great for me.  Most of my beloved romances were not written by best selling authors and were never bestsellers themselves. By now they have been mostly forgotten, certainly are not for sale in any new bookstore. But they still sit on my shelves for a reason-- they speak to me personally.

What I want are strong personalities in hero and heroine. If the blurb talks about a feisty heroine, I'm outta there. I don't want obnoxious hero or heroines but they should not be perfect either. The last straw for me would be some weak little flower of a woman who goes from one stupid mistake to another disaster, from which the hero, for reasons beyond logic, is willing to save her.  If he has to save her, it should be from a situation that even a strong woman could have fallen into. I like it where hero and heroine are capable of saving each other. I am not into Wonder Woman or Superman type hero and heroine.

Then there has to be a real problem to prevent these two lovers from making their relationship into the happily ever after sort. No way can that be some mickey mouse misunderstanding. My favorite books have two people who realize they are in love but they simply cannot find a way to make a life together. Will they overcome the obstacle? If it's too easy then it's not worth taking the time to read.

Personally I like to have danger as a strong element. I am not into romances where the people sit around and talk or work through the kinds of problems I could find in my own life. I don't need a book for that.

Generally speaking, the land and nature will be part of the story. It will be another character where I can feel the terrain, the problems it might present. It might be places I have been or simply have read about. It should register as real although I don't care that it's like a Louis L'Amour where I could go to that place and find the waterhole. I'm fine with some fantasy but it should feel it could have been there.

Back when I had the time to read romances, I enjoyed both contemporary and historical novels. For me, a really good romance I will want to read again. That means I want to own them if at all possible. I have quite a few really old books, those written in different time periods many of which I spent hours in used bookstores to find. I think the oldest publishing date for one of those old ones is 1899-- Janice Meredith, A Story of the Revolution by Paul Leicester Ford); that one I got as a child and still have my address written in the front (the farm where I grew up and our phone number in case it got lost apparently) No, I didn't buy it new ;)

In historical romance, I will mention two favorite authors both of whom wrote series. First is Roberta Gellis. I fell in love with her books Bond of Blood and Knight's Honor after checking them out of the Lake Oswego Library when my children were small. I wanted them so badly, but they already were not available in bookstores; so I found her address-- not as easy before the internet, wrote her and she sold me hardbound copies of both which had a slightly musty smell from being stacked in her garage, unsold. Not long after that her books started appearing as paperbacks in the bookstores and I bought most of them. Like so many authors, I can't say I love all of her romances but considering she's published 25, meticulously researched, set in various periods of English history, it would be too much to expect every one of them would meet my needs. Her stories do have sex in them.

When I looked, Patricia Veryan currently had only two of her books on Kindle but others are still available to purchase used. It's not easy to come by all her titles (30 historicals set in England). Likely those who buy her books keep them. She wrote quite a few series with characters who might've been in earlier books as secondary.  When possible, I bought them when they came out but she wasn't well-advertised and sometimes I had to find them used or through online searches. They are historical romances with suspense, adventure and sometimes mystery involved as different characters worked to save England from villainous plots.  Love, danger, dashing heroes, interesting heroines, often humor, and zero sex.

I could go on but it doesn't really matter what I have loved as the truth is we are all different. Some of the books I've liked best are no longer available anywhere. Some people talk about Kindle as a short-lived way to be published but in reality it could last longer than novels in paperback or hardbound which, unless by big name authors, are usually a store for a few months before you can only find them in used stores-- if there.  eBooks have the potential of allowing books to be available for as long as the internet keeps working (or places like Amazon, Nook and Kobo find it profitable). Finding the ones you don't yet know are great, now that is the trick especially with books which won't be in libraries or in bookstores-- generally.

Series writing and a mystery

Recently we watched a film on Netflix which I had come across while looking through their offerings. I didn't know anything about it but as soon as it began I remembered something. One for the Money was based on a book by the author Janet Evanovich, whose books I had seen around and remembered as a successful author but was vague on what she wrote.

The film was kind of cute as it starred the lovely Kathleen Heigl who is always a pleasure to watch. The other characters (two hunky kind of heroes) were not as well known to me other than Debbie Reynolds as her grandmother and Sherri Shepherd who played a secondary character, Lulu, but is better known for being on The View.

As soon as I heard the name of the bounty hunter heroine, Stephanie Plum, I figured that this book, written in 1994, was intended to be part of a series. Some research after the film told me that Evanovich has written now 19 books with Plum as her heroine. Her last one landed instantly at the top of the NY Times bestseller list. She's obviously doing something right.

Not for me. I won't be buying the books and wouldn't likely watch another movie based on them; but when I see something like this, as a writer, I always wonder what that writer did right. What made it work for so many people? Can I learn from what she did to maybe write something that would likewise appeal to more readers? These stories are mystery/adventures not romances even though there is male female interaction-- and the torsos on those male heroes-- oh my.

What I think works is the family relationships, that this heroine seems like an ordinary woman (even if more beautiful than the average) who can then do these daring things, seeing her succeed, and the humor (although the grandmother shooting the holiday dinner turkey didn't seem funny to me). The stories are based in Trenton, New Jersey, where there is a tight family and also the broader community of which the heroine is part (and from which Evanovich also has come).

Janet Evanovich was a romance writer who decided she liked better the action part of her stories than the sexy parts. She had a reputation as a romance writer and to jump genres takes some toughness. She did serious research into what it would take to be a bounty hunter, weapons, cases, the investigations, etc. She uses that in her books as well as the family interactions and the attraction Plum has with either of those two hunky heroes.

I looked at the reader reviews for her last book, the one that was an instant best seller, and some of the readers who had stuck with her are getting tired of the same old same old. It's not easy to turn out almost twenty books without finding some repetition. In that length of time, stringing out the reader for which man the heroine will choose (if either) sounds a little like Matt and Miss Kitty from the old Gunsmoke TV series. Haven't we gotten past that and why can't Plum figure out who she really wants-- if either? Doesn't that smack of some heroine immaturity as well as hanging the readers out there?

As I thought about the plot in One for the Money, which I am assuming is the plot in its book, I felt it had a lot of phoniness. Through naivete or dumbness, Plum is constantly nearly getting killed and some fluke saves her or in steps one of the heroes to fix whatever she goofed up. I simply cannot get into such a book and can't imagine spending months writing about such a woman. She is the romance heroine in the worst way but without the romance-- sex does NOT equal romance.

What I wondered was Stephanie Plum Janet Evanovich's alter ego? It's not the life Evanovich lives but it's not unusual for authors to relate to one of their characters-- especially if you are going to live with that fictional character for nearly twenty years.

In my own books, the most I have linked together are three (loosely and without the same hero or heroines in each), but  I can see the merit of creating such a series as it's a ready made audience for your next book. Except-- how you avoid being bored with it? Maybe when the heroine is you living this alternate lifestyle?

Anyway, I liked the film better than the critics but won't be reading the book to figure out more of how she has gained such popularity-- unless I can get it used at Bookman's when I am next in Tucson. I don't think I could do her kind of story; but since this blog is intended to encourage other writers who might have the potential to write such a series, it's something to think about. Series writing can be the way to go for building a readership and clearly Evanovich has done something right in hers; but I've said often and repeat again-- a writer can only write what is in them. And when you have to spend months or even years with these characters, it's important readers will like them but even more that you do.