#RomanticFridayWriters story, Fearful Heart, 400 words of #flashfiction.

My #RomanticFridayWriters story this week is a short, worked-over excerpt from my WIP, The Last Cowboy, set on the island of Nantucket, MASS.. The MC, Shakira, has been sexually assaulted at the beginning of the novel, and she and the detective working on her case, Byron, have developed a, er, very close friendship.

Fearful Heart

‘Shakira!’

She roused out of sleep, shaded her eyes from the melting sun.

‘Want company?’

‘Sure! Come!’

She expected him to toss his bike and walk down the cliff steps, but no. He took the steps like a teenager, bump, bump, bump, standing in the pedals. Just a boy under that stern police facade.

He loomed over her, a sea god with his golden hair, floaty white shirt and khaki boardies.

‘No helmet? No shoes? Aren’t you the rebel then?’

He smiled and flopped on the sand beside her.

 ‘What brings you, Mr Detective, the perfect weather?’

‘Hmm. Walk?’

 Byron stood and took her hand, pulling her up like she was fairy dust.  

They walked. The beach was alive with rosa rugosa bushes, tupelo trees and tall grasses.

‘Ow!’ Shakira stumbled.

‘What?’

‘Pesky plum bush caught me.’

‘Let’s see,’ Byron crouched.

‘Please don’t...’

‘No bother.’ He tweaked her skirt. ‘Nasty gash. Must hurt like hell.’

Shakira trembled.

‘God, I’m sorry. What a clot I am. It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you.’

‘I know. It’s not you.’

‘Okay. Let’s wash it.’

When they got to the water blood was running down her leg.

Shakira looked at the red stream, remembering.

‘Mind if I wash it?’ Byron asked, ‘Salt water’s great.’

‘Fine. Go ahead.’ She held her breath.

Byron bunched her dress with one hand and cupped seawater on her leg with the other. Relief.

‘That’s got it.’ He reached into his pocket for a handkerchief.

‘Sit down while I tie it,’ he said, stopping at a sandy knoll.

 ‘You’ll live,’ he said, gently pressing the wound. Kind eyes, yet she saw something else, a flicker…

‘Byron, I…’

‘Shakira, I…’

Both laughed.

‘Kiss me Byron.’

He raised his eyebrows. 'I'm not sure...'

‘Yes.’

His kiss was gentle and sweet, fragrant as wild roses open to the sun. When the kiss was over he drew her close and they sat, bathed by the sun’s rays.

Shakira couldn’t stop her tears.

‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.’

‘Don’t be sorry.’

‘Then why..?’

‘Because your kiss made me happy. Why am I happy?’

‘You’ve every right to be happy. If anyone deserves happiness, it’s you.’

He kissed her tears, healing her with his touch.

She opened her eyes and saw blue sparkling waters shielded by tall grasses that waved like soft green silk.

‘I didn’t think I was ready for that,’ she whispered.

 398 words, FCA.

©DeniseCovey2011

I hope you enjoyed my short extract to fit the theme for the week, Fearful Heart. To read more #RFWer stories, click on the badge at the top of the right sidebar.

All I Need is Love - or I used to...

I write a lot of different genres, which explains why I'm in 8 groups for the current Platform-Building Campaign, but primarily I see myself as a romance writer, I've even dreamed up Romantic Friday Writers so like-minded souls can practise their romance writing or get feedback on their romance WIPs. But romance writing is no longer straightforward or simply formulaic as it once was accused of being. Today romance comes in just about every guise known to man or woman.

Once upon a time a romance writer had a heroine coming up against a classic, alpha male, jump through some exciting hoops, then resolve everything by the Happily Ever After ending. Well, the alpha has become an endangered species, with the vampire becoming the new alpha male, at least for now. He wants to suck blood, mate for a very long life. Well, there's not just vamps, there's werewolves, zombies, and all sorts of paranormal monsters making appearances.

Anyone who's been writing and selling romance fiction for a long time would have had to change with the times. The earlier romances had a single POV (usually the heroine's), sometimes two (hero and heroine), and there wasn't much in the way of sub plot. My, haven't things changed! I just read an interesting post over at Nas Dean's Romance Book Paradise, where multi-published romance author Kate Walker was stressing how romance writing has changed from when she published her first book, 60 books ago! To continue her success, she changed with the times.

Romance-writing boundaries have expanded like a waistline subjected to too much junk food. Now there are multiple viewpoints, subplots aplenty, mystery, suspense and all types of paranormal activity - the whole spectrum from angels to vampires to shape-shifters. But some things don't change...

Love is still central. 

Nowadays romance books are harder to categorise. Some, like me, prefer the title women's fiction. Whatever you call them, these stories reflect the growth of the ever-popular romance genre and the expanding preferences of women (and men) who read them. We all want romance, don't we, and we crave more, just like in real life. 

Want to read more? There is a great article by Agent Scott Eagan on Romance Vs Women's Fiction. He belongs to Greyhaus Literary, who only accept submissions from romance writers.

He likes the traditional take on the romance genre where he says:

    

      • The relationship is the central plot arc of the story.

      • There is a happily-ever-after.

With women's fiction he says:  I have always tried to define this genre as a story that shows the female journey. 

If you write romance of any sub genre, it would pay to read the whole article. 

So if you've thought, romance, ugh, I could never write that, just know that romance has grown over the years and it's still the genre that at last survey, offers the best chance for writers to find publication. And that is encouraging for romance writers of any sub genre. 

• Can you spare another few minutes to tell me what you think? Do you write any sort of romance? 
• What is your favourite type of romance story?

What I did on your Summer Vacation - September 23. I went to South Korea, Madrid, San Sebastian in Spain and Biarritz in France, just for starters...

If you're looking for my #RomanticFridayWriter story, it's here today.

Well I know you guys in the Northern Hemp are saying goodbye to summer's tornadoes and floods and saying hello to winter's snows and winds, but down here in the Southern Hemp we're just saying goodbye to winter's beautiful weather and hello to spring which is actually like summer already. So I had to do a think about Michael's Summer Blogfest, but then, aha, I remembered I actually visited the Northern Hemp this summer, so let's grab out a few of the, ahem 30,000 or so pics and post them! Done!

My followers would know that during the southern winter, northern summer, I travelled to Spain, France - (country and Paris), Andorra and Morocco. I'll post a few pics from each country. I must say except for Spain and Morocco, summer seemed to be strangely absent. It was the same temperature in Paris' summer when we flew out as it was in Australia's winter when we landed at Brisbane airport.

First stop, Seoul, South Korea. Always strange not to see bright blue skies. Here is Songdu City, a new satellite city out of Seoul, where everything is new, green, and strangely empty. I was intrigued how they prop up their trees. Must be a story to that, maybe simply very strong winds.

One of those lucky breaks - happened on The Walk of the Royal Family at Incheon Airport. The South Korean national dress is gorgeous. Pity I can't show more, but...

Welcome to Madrid, Spain, the gypsies sang! They were just so great I stood for ages and listened, clapped and smiled. And yes, Alex, I gave them money!

Blue skies again you'll note! We just happened on a multicultural food and music festival in the Grand Square of Madrid. Here a Bolivian band struts their stuff. Madrid is alive with music! All day, all night! The people own their city!

Did I tell you the Bolivians are tres colourful? We were really blessed to be part of this festival with like a million or so others. Was very hot summer weather so these guys must have been frying. We enjoyed strolling around drinking real cidre (cider).

Watching the flamenco dancers in sumptuous settings and eating sumptuous tapas and drinking sumptuous wine was a treat just up the street from our hotel in Madrid. Went on into the early hours of the morning, then we had to pick up a hire car and get ready to drive north to San Sebastian , heading into France via Biarritz and Bordeaux.

I think I've used up my quota for this 'fest and I didn't even get out of Spain. Never mind, you can always check them out on my other blogs. I've left links to more below, but really, I haven't even started yet!

Ah, what the heck! One more. It is a summer blogfest after all, so I'll leave you with a photo of the carpark at the stupendous hotel we stayed at in San Sebastian, looking north to Biarritz and France. Woo hoo, here I come!

And in case you're too busy/lazy/uninspired to check out my snaps on my travel and Paris blogs, I just want to tell you Biarritz, France, is drop-dead gorgeous! Can see why it used to be a surfie mecca in a past life. It's just being regenerated now and regaining some of its past glory.

And we haven't even gone to Morocco  yet! Well it's hard to beat this for a summer pic. On top of the Sahara Desert in Morocco looking towards Algeria (7 hours by camel) with my 2 Berber guides and smelly, snorty camels who're no fun really to ride, but boy is it a great experience to see the sunset after the climb! I've already posted some Morocco pics on L'Aussie Travel and have just posted more on my Saharan Desert climb. I've just downloaded this memory stick and are there ever some stunners here!

All photos are private. Please enjoy but don't steal. See my copyright warning! 

If you've really enjoyed my pics, I've been posting photo essays on both my L'Aussie Travel Blog and Pichets in Paris blog since returning from my travels. Go there for more deliciousness if you wish.

Social Media - let the editor speak. And a little on queries...

Following on from my Twitter post below, which resulted in some little controversy here and there (not that that's a bad thing!) I thought I'd do what I've been trying to do for sometime - write a short post. This one is a quote I came across today while I was working in the State Library and browsing Writer's Digest magazines.

ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

I like it when an author is Internet savvy. The future of books is digital, so it is a good idea to begin to use that medium as much as possible for promotional purposes now, and to join the pioneers of this movement who are scheduling blog tours, updating websites and connecting with others in and out of the writing community via the Internet. Perhaps most importantly, I think that those online efforts don't go unnoticed by publishers!

Adriana Dominguez
Executive Editor @ HarperCollins Children's Books
Check her out: Full Circle: fullcircleliterary.com/Submissions.htm


ON QUERIES

Adriana says:

Most queries are...too long. Send 3 - 4 paragraphs.
1 short paragraph telling why you chose her agency (she likes to see you've done your homework.)
1 or 2 paragraphs that succinctly describe your project and highlight its potential in the marketplace (homework.)
Final paragraph - your background, education, credits and platform.

• What do you think? Do you think internet promotion works? 
• How else will authors market their e-books?

Can you afford not to be a twit?

Hi everyone! Haven't those malware messages on blogger been a pain! After spending half a day dealing with blogger I got nowhere really. The messages seem to come and go at will. I have an excellent anti-virus program and there was nothing malicious on my site so don't be worried if you visited me and received the message.

Today's post is rather ironic as my twitter account was hacked recently, but I learned a lot as I fixed it up, mainly that a lot of people care...

I was impressed by a post on Raquel Byrnes' blog some months ago and asked her permission to re-post in case you missed it. These are the opinions of Nicole Rodgers who is somewhat of an expert in this area.

Some of us have discussions re social media, especially that upstart Twitter. Some see it as a waste of time, some can't imagine a life without it. No matter what your opinion is, like me, you may find Nicole's insights intriguing...

Over to Nicole.

Just a decade ago if you went to university to learn marketing skills what you learnt had absolutely nothing to do with the reality of the modern media.

Now even 'wasting' time on Twitter is really more useful from a marketing standpoint than any university learning regarding demographics and market trends.

According to Nicole Rodgers, having a strong Twitter following is really one of the most important aspects of running any kind of successful business on the web today. She offers ten tips on creating that following:

1.  Follow Everyone Back

• If someone follows you, follow them back. No exceptions. Even following back a spam bot can be helpful if a dozen other people followed them back, too.

2.  Design a Great Avatar

• Your userpic is the reader's first impression of you. If it looks dull, people are less likely to read that tiny little snippet of text sitting next to it.

3.  Follow the Big Names

• Even if you don't care what they have to say, follow the big social media people, the "opinion leaders" you can find listed at Twittercounter and other social media ranking sites. Even if you could care less, Twitter is all about big numbers. 

4.  Send @Messages to the Big Names

• Ninety nine percent of the time, they're not going to answer you, but that doesn't matter, because here's the trick: people will see that you're sending those messages to some famous person and think "This person must be big, they know (insert celebrity name here)." It's total baloney, of course, but it works.

5.  Link, Link, Link

• Don't just say "this a hilarious video", link to it. Link to interesting articles, pictures, videos, songs, everything. If sixty percent of your Tweets are just links, you're doing something right.

6.  Be an Expert

• People are a lot more likely to look for Twitter accounts focused on a subject they take an interest in than a Twitter account simply dedicated to your own personal thoughts and ramblings. If you know a lot about video games, movie news, antique furniture, whatever, milk that knowledge, and once you've made a name for yourself, don't be afraid to have controversial opinions. Nothing doubles your followers like a controversial opinion.

7.  Tweet, Tweet and Tweet Again

• Most people who use Twitter check their accounts at the same time every day. If they're following a hundred other accounts, then there's a good chance that your Tweets will be pushed off their page by the time they sign on. Post your best Tweets a couple extra times throughout the day to push them back to the top for those who haven't seen them yet.

8. Use Multimedia

• The more pictures, videos and mixed media you link, the better.

9.  Use Easy Tools

• There are all kinds of apps you can get for your phone and your web browser to make Tweeting incredibly easy, keeping you in the loop and letting you text tweets in half the time.

10. Be a Twitter Junkie

• Don't be afraid to be one of those people with their nose constantly buried in the phone, it helps.

We can say what we will about Twitter, but the bottom line is that it's one of the most effective marketing tools ever created, and if you're looking to develop an audience or get your piece of the market share, you'd be crazy not to take advantage.

Nicole Rodgers has been blogging about online marketing for 3 years.

What do you think?

Myself, I've been finding twitter more and more useful, especially the hashtag symbols. I write for #RFWer, #FridayFlash and other  memes as they arise. By using the hashtags, other writers can find your current stories easily, comment and RT (Retweet) to their followers. The current Writers Platform-Building Campaign uses #writecampaign for notices and to reach out to all those who've joined up.

Writers have a world of help open to them by following just some of the amazing tweet helpers such as:

@BookBuzzr
@BookEditorLM
@audaciouseditor
@BookMarketer
@WoMensLitCafe #FF
@BookReTweeter
@IndieBookIBC

and all the Publishers, indy and established are at your fingertips. And you can get all sorts of help with self publishing. Really, except for getting someone to cook dinner for you, it's all there (well, maybe that too!)

Since I started writing this post I've had a bit of a following frenzy. I now have nearly 900 followers and am listed in 95 separate lists. Groovy. Now all these followers can find out who cooked me dinner, ha ha. Seriously, if your followers are linkers you'll be able to access so much info your head will spin. And having Tweet Deck is a great way to see what your your fellow twits are saying. Just don't forget to save time for writing!

•  Are you a twit?
• Did you find any of Nicole's tips useful?
• Did you disagree with the opinions in this post?
• How has twitter been useful to you as a writer?
• Can you add any more writer helpers to my short list above?

If you are really into this, you might like to read Nicola Morgan's post about Twitter and she has an e-book dedicated to answering your questions about Twitter: