#MySexySaturday: My sexy addiction

by with One Comment ExcerptsOSNB

With BREAKING ALL THE RULES coming out in a few short weeks,  I should probably be giving you a teaser from it.

LynnSexySaturday_bannerBut when I saw this week’s My Sexy Saturday theme was “My Sexy Addiction,” I couldn’t resist. I simply had to pick a scene starring Mike James.

You see, Mike is probably MY sexy addiction. Don’t get me wrong: I love each and every one of my heroes—all for different reasons. However, if I were pressed to pick one, it’d have to be Mike, the sports reporter/stripper/inveterate flirt who captures the attention of not one but two women of Willow’s Grove.

In OPERATION SNAG MIKE BRAD, education reporter Erin starts out lusting after Mike but soon learns life is what happens when you’re making other plans. Mike, who has what he thinks are good reasons for flirting the way he does, secretly longs for the kind of girl he uses his reputation to hold at bay—until a drunken night with coworker Breanne forces him to face his demons once and for all. (That’s OVEREXPOSED, the third Willow’s Grove book.)

These seven sentences are from near the end of Erin and Brad’s story, in which Mike plays a big part. He’s a third POV in the manuscript—a departure for me, since I usually stick to just the hero and heroine POVs.

See? I know Mike better than any other character I’ve created, so he’ll always have a special place in my heart.

***

She followed her roommate’s finger to the couch, where a shirtless Mike snored. A blanket rode low on his hips, exposing the flat, tan plane of his stomach — and hinting at a bottom half as naked as the top. Erin quickly looked away, finding the cat that belonged to the cat condo in the corner of the room. A big, gray furball watched them from its perch on the back of the couch. She suppressed a nervous giggle and jabbed her elbow into Cassie’s ribs. “Maybe he really does sunbathe in November.”

“Maybe,” Cassie replied, appreciatively ogling the sleeping sportswriter. “I’m beginning to understand what you two see in him.”

“Not me. Not anymore.” Sure, Mike’s … umm … man candy was worth admiring. But she meant it when she added, “I prefer something a little — lot — more real.”

Cassie snickered. “Bree doesn’t share your sentiment.”

Sure enough, Bree’s gaze was still riveted to Mike’s bare midsection. Her eyes glittered with interest. Knowing what it was like to lust after something she couldn’t have, Erin took pity on her. With very little effort, she might be able to get the blanket to shift a little lower.

“Close your mouth, Bree. You’re starting to drool,” she muttered under her breath. Then she cleared her throat — loudly. “Yo, James.”

Bree squeaked with alarm. At the same time, Mike smacked his lips and rolled onto his back. The blanket moved a fraction of an inch higher. Crap. “Not what I was aiming for.”

Operation Snag Mike Brad is still unpublished — for now. But if you liked this snippet, check out my Amazon author page for my published stories.

LynnSexySaturday_button

My Sexy Saturday: Putting the ‘stud’ in social studies

by with 5 Comments ExcerptsOSNB

LynnSexySaturday_buttonYes, I went there. Again. If you forgave me the first time, you can do it again, right?

It’s time for another My Sexy Saturday blog hop. For those of you playing along for the first time, here are the rules:

Post 7 paragraphs or 7 sentences or 7 words. The choice is yours. It can be from a WIP or something you already have published. Your post should be live by 9 am US Pacific Time on Saturday. Put those lucky 7s to work for you!

This week, I promised a hot scene between Erin and Brad. They’re the heroine and hero of the first manuscript I completed, the one that wouldn’t recognize itself if it bumped into its first draft in a dark alley — or in a brightly lit corridor, for that matter.

Erin is an education reporter for the Willow’s Grove Journal-Times; Brad is a social studies teacher at the school she’s investigating (with sportswriter/male stripper Mike James) for giving athletes inflated grades. Erin prides herself on not being superstitious — she goes so far as to go out of her way to walk under ladders. But she wonders if she’s jinxed herself to be perpetually unlucky in love.

In this scene, toward the end of the book, Brad has just learned about Erin’s investigation and asks to see her notes — a request she denies, citing freedom of the press.

Sometimes, there’s nothing hotter than a good argument …

***

“I’m familiar with freedom of the press.” Brad’s hand waved impatiently. “I teach government, remember?”

Erin spoke through clenched teeth. Why did he insist on being so obtuse? “Then you should understand why I can’t share my findings. I shouldn’t be discussing the story with you at all before it goes to press.”

He buried his face in his hands. Seconds ticked by, and when he looked up, all traces of warmth in his eyes had vanished. “Just tell me one thing: Are you sleeping with anyone else to get access to their grade book, or just me?”

The question hit her like a punch to the stomach, flattening her hard-won self esteem with one blow. As her surroundings dimmed, all the breath whooshed from her body. “You can’t be serious.”

“As a heart attack. You’ve obviously been cozying up to me so you can snoop through my stuff.”

No. He didn’t — couldn’t — mean it. She refused to believe he could even consider such a thing.

But the look in his eyes told her he clearly did. She ran her tongue over her lips as she gathered what was left of her self-respect, pulling it close as if it could keep her heart from splintering. “If that’s how you feel, maybe you should go.”

Ye-ouch

by with No Comment MusingsOSNB

No doubt about it, writing is hard.

First off, it’s not easy to make the time to sit down in front of the computer. Life — in the form of work commitments and family time — so often gets in the way. Yet we do it week in and week out. Why? Because we love what we do, hard or not.

Getting the characters in your head to behave on paper can be even more of a challenge. My characters, at least, have a penchant for doing exactly what they want instead of what I’d like them to do. I implore, beg, plead and sometimes resort to trickery and still they take off in their own, often unexpected direction.

But the hardest part of writing, by far, is revising.

I know, I know. Plotters will argue that having a road map before writing would eliminate the need for so much rewriting. That may well be true. Alas, I am a pantster through and through. More than half the time, I start scenes with no clear idea where they’re going. They begin as a way to work in a particular line of dialogue or funny situation.

That’s how I wrote my first manuscript — and is no doubt why it’s giving me fits in this, its fourth revision. As I go back in to beef up the “scandal at the hero’s school” conflict (completely nonexistent in the first draft), I’m finding entire scenes that no longer have a point and will have to be excised. Good scenes … funny scenes … but they just don’t fit.

You know what they say: If it does not fit, you must —

Wait a minute. How’d OJ’s lawyer get in here?

But seriously, folks: A scene that doesn’t work anymore simply must go. On Saturday, while sitting at a table in Starbucks, I ended up hacking two scenes — about 2,000 words total. Hence the “ye-ouch” in the title of this post.

It’s painful — really and truly grueling, to strip moments I love from my story … to “kill the darlings,” as it were.

But if it strengthens the story and leads to a publishing contract, I’ll get over the hurt. (Don’t tell Brad and Erin, my hero and heroine, I said this, but it’s even kind of fun to torture them a little bit.)

Too nice?

by with 5 Comments MusingsOSNB

I’m afflicted — cursed, if you will — with being that most heinous of attributes: Nice.

Too nice.

Some people — normal people — might think nice is a good thing. And that is, indeed, the case when you’re dealing with fellow human beings. A little kindness can go a long, long way.

But when you’re an author trying to make life difficult for your hero and heroine, a nice streak as wide as the mighty Mississippi just gets in the way.

Trust me, I know. That’s my CP’s main complaint with the MS she’s reading for me right now — and it was the main point of one of the agents who gave me detailed feedback on my 2011 Golden Heart finalist.

Obviously, it’s a problem for me.

I think it boils down to this: My characters are like old friends (some of them very old, having been knocking around my head since the mid-1990s). As I wrote in a guest post on the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood last spring, they’re folks I’d enjoy meeting for coffee or dinner.

And because I like these people, the last thing I want is to see them suffer.

But suffer they must. In the words of my CP, I need to  “Make them wiggle. Make them squirm. Make them unhappy. Uncomfortable. Put roadblocks in their way. Conflict is what drives a book and keeps the reader wondering how they will ever end up together.”

I can see her point. There’s not much keeping someone reading if they know the hero and heroine are meant for each other halfway through the story, is there?

That means I have to accept that torturing my characters — as much as I hate to do it — will make the story stronger in the end.

So I’m taking off the gloves. Now I just need to figure out how to channel the meanest person I know.

Something else to worry about?

by with No Comment ContestsOSNBquestStories

Thanks to one of my NARWA sisters, I found another contest to enter … a chance to win a pitch with a Harlequin American editor. Since I’ve long envisioned “Operation Snag Mike Brad” as an American Romance, I decided to go for it.

I can’t say I always envisioned it in that line. When I first wrote it, I had the Love and Laughter or Silhouette Yours Truly lines in mind. But since those are both defunct (sadly, if you ask me), I switched to AR.

The entry requires a one-page synopsis — something I’m getting better at writing, I think — and a logline.

Having never heard of a logline before, I did a little poking around at eharlequin.com. Apparently it’s also known as a “concept line” and is designed to give the editor a broad picture of your story.

One way to write one is to start with a well-known storyline, then reveal the twist that makes your story stand out. You can also use a familiar book or movie as your starting point, so you come up with something like “Elle Woods meets the Terminator” or “Beauty & the Beast set in outer space.”

The advice is straightforward enough, but I’m finding myself confused. Maybe it’s just because my MS is a big, confused mess.

I hope not.

Anyway, here’s the logline I’ve come up with so far:

“Operation Snag Mike Brad” blends “How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days” and “Some Kind of Wonderful” — but in reverse.

In “How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days” you have a reporter working on a story and using outrageous advice to get dumped. (Erin is a reporter following a book’s outrageous advice to snag “the man of her dreams” while she’s chasing a big story that’ll get her out of small-town Indiana once and for all.)

In “Some Kind of Wonderful,” you have a guy who thinks he’s in love with one girl but ends up realizing he’s in love with his best friend. (Erin thinks she’s in love with Mike but ends up realizing he’s more like her best friend and she’s really in love with with Brad instead.)

So both flicks apply — at least loosely. The “reverse” part is the whole using the book to snag the guy (not lose him) and the fact that it’s the girl, not the guy doing the falling.

I’m still not wild about it. At least I have a few more days to play.

In limbo?

by with No Comment Blind Date BrideOSNBProgressStories

Sadly, not much writing has happened since Wednesday (and that writing didn’t count toward my Word Count Countdown, because it wasn’t actually writing on any of my WIPs).

This type of limbo is much more fun!

I’m at a certain point: Finished MS but no query or synopsis — and since our NARWA meeting next Saturday is on the dreaded synopsis, I’m kind of trying to hold out before working on one of those.

The query and synopsis on “Blind Date Bride” are mostly finished, but I’m still a little scared to send that one out there. I did get a rave review from one of my NARWA sisters, who described it as “delicious.”

With a review like that, why am I not sure? It’s probably plain old fear of rejection — again. I’ve already gotten tons of rejections on Brad & Erin’s story, so why would I expect this one to do better?

Well, it was written much later. Brad & Erin’s MS was my first, and even though I’ve edited it so much that parts hardly resemble the original draft, it could be that it’s just not good enough. Pat said she can tell a huge difference between that one and “Blind Date Bride,” that my writing has grown and changed.

So maybe it’s time to bite the bullet, finish the query/synopsis and send it out there. It’ll immediately expand my agent pool, since this one’s a single title instead of category.

Working weekend

by with No Comment Blind Date BrideOSNBProgressStoriesSynopses

In an effort to get over the disappointment of not finaling in the Golden Heart, I’ve been a busy, busy writer. 😀

No giving up for me, no sir.

I spent the weekend working on a synopsis for “Blind Date Bride” and reworking the ending on my losing GH entry. (I’m getting rid of their silly argument for a meatier one. There’s probably still not enough conflict, but I think it’s getting closer.)

I also discovered I may be eligible for PRO status with RWA. I’m going to look into that.

What to do?

by with 4 Comments Blind Date BrideMeg & MattOSNBSynopses

What to do, what to do?

I’m at a bit of a loss again. After writing more than 1,000 words on Meg and Matt’s story yesterday, I’ve hit a block. If I take a page of advice from the “write quickly and often” book, I’ll sit down and make myself write something — anything.

But maybe I should continue working on my new synopsis for “Operation Snag Mike Brad” — the one that puts more emphasis on the conflict (you know, the one that may or may not actually exist in the story. I’m trying. It really does have more conflict than it used to.)

I’m not sure it’s worth sending out more queries on that one until I resolve the conflict issue.

Or perhaps I should do something else altogether. “Blind Date Bride” needs a query letter and synopsis. I’m thinking about taking an online synopsis-writing class that starts in March, though … so maybe I should wait on that.

This is the story of my life these days: I seem to have a short attention span. I can’t settle down to any one project. Yet I need to keep making progress on my Word Count Club goal. I don’t want to be the one to fail.

I also need an editor’s note for the next NARWA newsletter. I’m thinking my topic will be … drumroll, please … rejection. I’ve certainly handled enough of it lately to consider myself an expert! 😉

Discouraging day

by with No Comment ContestsOSNBStories

Based on the contest feedback I got on “Operation Snag Mike Brad” today, there’s no way in hell it’s going to final in the Golden Heart.

Guess that means I don’t have to worry about coming up with $425 to pay for Nationals, eh?

I got scores back from a contest I entered right before I sent everything off for the GH. One judge gave me an 80 out of 100. The other two? 60 and 57.

I can buy 60’s assertion that there may not be enough conflict to sustain the story. (She should have seen it BEFORE I beefed up the conflict in one of my rewrites!)

However, I find 57’s comment that I don’t know how to use punctuation insulting. It reminds me of my freshman year of college when my World Cultures prof (who taught art history) tried to tell me I couldn’t write an essay.

I know punctuation, darn it. I’m a freakin’ copy editor for God’s sake. I may not do old-school punctuation, but what I do is perfectly acceptable in journalism. And I should think that if my punctuation was that darn bad, someone else would have pointed it out to me when they were proofing my GH entry for me.

Nary a peep, though. So I’m inclined to write that one off as ravings.

Guess I should be thankful that all my scores were at least a 2 (shows promise but needs improvement).

I’m sure I’ll be able to look back at the scores with more detachment later, so I can get more out of them. Next week … maybe next month … Right now, however, I’m still smarting.

Sad day

by with One Comment OSNBProgressQuery LettersStories

E-mail was not my friend this morning.

Remember the agent who requested more of my MS a couple of weeks ago? Rejected. After careful consideration, they decided it wasn’t right for their agency.

Sounds like a pretty standard rejection, I suppose.

However, there was also an encouraging note.

A very cute concept but this didn’t feel big enough to be single-title for me. Good luck with this project.

So it would seem (though I don’t recall seeing this in their submission info) that they only represent single-title manuscripts. I’ll definitely submit the query on “Blind Date Bride” once I work it up.

Guess I’d better get busy on that, eh?