Dreaming Of My Romance Novel And Heroes Named Fred

I always dream of my romance novels before I write them. I watch the action in my mind, behind closed eyes, and then write it down. That sounds easy, of course, but finding the right words to capture the action, the passion is challenging.

Lately, however, I have a new benchmark for my romance novels. If I dream of the novel, if I'm that excited about it, AFTER I write it, after I've completed the numerous drafts and edits and other juicy stuff, I regard that romance novel as being solid and reader worthy.

Why is being reader worthy important?

Because while I may write for myself, I publish for the reader. If I'm not excited about the novel, why would the reader be?

I recently finished up the sequel to Selling Forever, my novella to be released July 2009. I dreamt about the two characters, Kaylin and Fred, in that sequel. Yep, I named my hero Fred. The name is not romantic but that's what I love about it. I love finding the romantic in the unexpected.

Likely why I'm writing a novel with a garbage man hero. When I say my hero stinks, I mean it. Literally.

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Kimber Chin's first novel Breach Of Trust is now available from Champagne Books.

I Write Crazy People

I've come to the conclusion that I'm best at writing novels with slightly crazy heroines or heroes. I've tried to write normal. Anne in Breach Of Trust is a fairly normal girl. Sure, she is tech inept and burns water but that in my books (literally) is pretty darn normal. I like Anne, she is a girl I'd like to have as a friend, a buddy, a co-worker.

Maeve, my heroine from Invisible (out in Feb 2009), scares me. She is a nice person, I think. I don't know that much about her. She doesn't talk about herself (that in itself is scary). She suffers from nightmares. I'm not even sure Maeve is her real name. She is slightly off base and…

I LOVE her.

Seriously. Invisible was the most challenging book to end because I didn't want to let Maeve go. She is such a complicated character that I could explore her brain for years and never get tired.

Now, I'm working on the sequel with two as messed up characters. Tavos is a knife wielding vigilante. Grace seems like a victim. Seems being the operative word. She isn't. I love these two also. They're damaged (as most of us are). They hug the gray space between right and wrong.

The two story concepts I have in for test both feature slightly off base heroines. One lies to get a job. The other has panic attacks (and deals with them in a very unique way). I can't wait to tell their stories.

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Kimber Chin's first novel Breach Of Trust is now available from Champagne Books.

Writing The Sequel

I loved Candace's post on writing her sequel (and it not working). I'm writing a sequel myself. Every test reader having read Invisible (my novel out February 2009) has asked me for Tavos' story. Every single one. You know what that means. I don't have much of a choice about the sequel. I have to write it.

Tavos Santos is a knife wielding vigilante with a mouth that would make a trucker blush (most truckers I know are quite polite so I don't exactly know where that phrase came from). His favorite English word is the F bomb (note to self: never write secondary characters I wouldn't want to write an entire book around).

I was honestly intimidated by this character. So intimidated that I wrote a novel and novella after the request. I couldn't find a heroine strong enough to hold her own against Tavos without coming across as a total beyotch. After I finally 'met' her, I caved under the pressure of expectations.

The other issue I had was consistency. I dislike it when a character changes significantly between their secondary character role and their main character role. I was determined not to do that with my own sequel. That meant using the same words, mannerisms, etc. It also meant having an anti-hero. Tavos is a bad man. He kills people. There's no getting around it.

All this makes a sequel more challenging than a fresh book. Yeah, I know. I thought it would be easier too. Nope. More challenging.

I've written the first draft. There is a lot of work left to do on it but I'm happy with it. I don't yet know if my test readers will be. That I'll find out in the fall (after two more drafts). 'Til then I'm biting my nails and eating Nutella straight out of the jar.

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Kimber Chin's first novel Breach Of Trust is now available from Champagne Books. She isn't planning on writing a sequel based on this novel, though more stories about Anne, Stanley, and Nancy can be found on her website.

Firsts

We all remember our firsts. Our first kiss. Our first job. Our first business. Our first love (for me - the hubby, my one and only). Firsts are important, aren't they?

Well, this month has been a whirlwind of firsts for me.

My first novel, Breach Of Trust, has been published. Big, Big, BIG first.

I had my first sale. My big brother, an amazing screenwriter, haunted the Champagne site to capture that honor.

I had my first unprompted reader/author review. Not only that but it was from the hot writing erotica author Wylie Kinson. She said the sexual tension was toe-curling, can you believe it? Yikes and she writes erotic romance! I had to confirm that she read the same book.

I had my first blog ask ME for an interview (rather than the other way around with me begging others for promo face time). Amy Ruttan, author of Love Thy Neighbor (releasing today), wants to ask me questions for an upcoming Six Degrees Of Sexy post. It made me feel like a celebrity. A lot of fun.

Firsts do transition into seconds. They're important too. I have a novel out in February. Now, Invisible is very special to me, don't get me wrong. It was the novel I was meant to write. But Breach Of Trust will always be my first.

You want to be remembered by an author forever? Buy her very first book on the very first day and then email her saying that you did (you don't even have to read it that day, simply buy it).

Do this once a week for the next 10 years and you'll have made a lasting difference in the lives of 520 new authors. I figure that pretty much guarantees your impact will live on in the literary world forever. All from reading first novels. Amazing, isn't it?

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Kimber Chin's first novel Breach Of Trust is now available from Champagne Books.

Contests And Testing Story Ideas

One of my writing buddies is a semi-professional writing contest hound. She enters every contest going. As she has perfected the process and is a great writer, she normally wins.

Me, I almost always lose. On purpose.

You see, I use contests to test story ideas. Right now, I have a couple entries ready to go for The Golden Opportunity Contest, one of the few contests for unpublished manuscripts open to published authors also (as long as the author doesn’t qualify for PAN i.e. she hasn’t sold $1,000 worth of one title).

The entry requirement is the first chapter and the synopsis. Being a plotter, I’ve written the first chapter (rough draft) and the synopsis.

And that’s it.

I don’t want to write more. To write more before getting input on my first chapter and my basic plot would be setting me up for a lot of wasted time and unnecessary rewrites.

The Golden Opportunity Contest is known for giving good feedback. For $30, I’ll get feedback from 3 (I think) high level readers. I’ll then apply that when I actually write the novel (summer 2009 – if it goes well, the novel will be available 2011).

For example:

My original idea was to have a priceless heirloom be the reward in my second novel Invisible (available February 2009). The judges’ thoughts? The reward didn’t pack enough of an emotional punch.

So I thought about it some more and changed the reward to a home, a home the hero Hagen and his late Great Uncle had spent hours, days, years fixing up. Hagen, being an antique lover, could tell you where the kitchen tile came from and why they decided upon the doorknobs the bedrooms have. If he lost the challenge, he wouldn’t simply be losing a house, he’d be losing a part of his history, a part of himself.

Was that feedback worth $30? Absolutely. Was it better to hear that BEFORE writing the entire novel? That was for certain.

This year, I’m testing my garbage man novel. The hero is the CEO of a waste management company. When they first meet, he stinks. Literally. I’ll be interested in hearing whether this completely turns off readers. I’d like to know if losing her job is enough motivation for the heroine. I’m certain I’ll get feedback on many more story issues I haven’t even thought of.

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Kimber Chin's first novel Breach Of Trust will be available in May. Breach Of Trust has, also, never won a contest.

The Seasonal Writer

I have two speeds, off and on. When I’m on a project, whether it is writing or launching a new product, I’m on it. Blinders on. Focusing on that task and that task alone.

That’s why I’m a seasonal writer.

For 8 months out of the year, I play in the business world. I LOVE it. I’m a business gal to my soul.

For 4 months out of a year, the slow summer, I write. I LOVE that also (can you tell that I’m a Gemini?). I wear my daytime pj’s and live full time in my fantasy world. I also get my drafts up to edit level. Have to because by the end of the summer, I need to send them off to my pre-editor (I plot and edit all year round).

It sounds like paradise but not everyone can handle it. A writer buddy of mine NEEDS the craziness of her day job. It inspires her. Other writers NEED to write full time, year round or at least that’s the financial goal. They have no passion at all for a non-writing job.

Me, I’m a seasonal writer and usually it works out well….

Except for the shoulder months. Like now. When I’m winding up a contract gig and starting to think about the next novel. I get anxious. I get excited. I can’t wait. It is torture, this ending, this waiting.

I feel the same about the writing towards the end of the summer. Working on that third or fourth draft, I can’t wait to be done. I count the days to getting back to the business world.

What is your preferred writing schedule? If you’re a reader (and all writers are also readers), do you see a seasonal swing in your reading tastes and consumption?


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Kimber Chin's first novel Breach Of Trust is launching May 2008. That is not helping with her shoulder season craziness.

Words With International Flare

The hubby and I have the travel bug bad. When we bought our house ten years ago, we looked in a price range not hampering our travel habit. All our houseplants can last three weeks without watering (or they died long time past). We obviously don’t have pets as travel is our top priority.

Travel is good and bad for writing. The good includes exposure to many different cultures and people. The bad is that… well… I get so exposed that I absorb these different cultures into my life, part of that culture including regional specific words.

I refer to construction as road works. Some of my favorite expressions include Crikey! and Oi! A gutter is an eavestrough. Taxi is transport (picked that one up in Thailand). Giving someone THAT look is called giving cut eye.

I didn’t realize how much lingo I absorbed until a freelance editor looked at my work. She skimmed through the first chapter, and promptly emailed me, asking what country I was targeting. Yep, it was that bad.

Writers have to be especially careful with characters and their dialogue. Although a real life non-Aussie might use crikey (too much), a fictional character can’t. Not without an explanation as to why and how she picked up that expression (and who needs that sort of unnecessary backstory?). The reader will otherwise assume the character is from Australia. Using crikey is a short cut, a cheat, a way to show rather than tell.

I’ve listed some of my faves. What words do you read or use that scream “I’m from another country” to you?
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Kimber Chin's first novel Breach Of Trust will be released May 2008 from Champagne Books. She wasn't able to purge all the international flare from Breach Of Trust. The hero, Philippe Lamont, is from France.

Writing For Blogs Vs Writing For Print

I’ve been a serious blogger (serious meaning posting daily, not being all frowny faced or anything) for the past 5 years. During that time, I’ve gained a solid grasp on what makes a good post (whether I follow these “rules” is another thing altogether).

I thought to myself… heck, how different can writing for print be?

Very different. Working with my editor on my first novel, Breach Of Trust, I’ve found myself having to “unlearn” these rules. Yep, we’re talking multiple hand slaps for bad blogger habits.

The key habit being my unashamed use of white space. You see on the internet, space is limitless. I can let my words run free, not worrying about the costs of extra pages or binding or shelf space anything like that. Want an extra line for emphasis

Like this?

Then go ahead! It isn’t hurting anyone.

Unless your print publisher prefers your 75,000 word novel not be a 500 page behemoth. Something to prop up the coffee table, instead of sitting on it. No, no extra whitespace for print.

That is a good thing because novel buyers actually READ the pages. I know, the horror! Internet visitors scan. White space is great for people scanning (as are short posts and subtitles and…). It is horrible and irritating and frustrating for those that read.

So this adds a new twist to the common piece of advice that most popular bloggers receive. Why don’t you bundle your posts into a book? Sure, go ahead and do it but know that you’ll have to do some tweaking if you want your print readers to be as happy as your blog readers are.

Write What You Know

My first completed manuscript was a long, long historical romance with every subplot known to the genre thrown in. It was hard work to write. I didn’t enjoy doing all that research. I didn’t care what eating utensils folks used in Regency times. I couldn’t see how that information would ever be useful.

So why did I write a historical romance? Because other than business books, that was what I read. I thought that was what people meant when they said “write what you know.”

It wasn’t.

What I was doing was writing what I enjoyed reading. Not the same thing. At. All.

I had this horrendous piece of fiction looked at by a former Harlequin editor. He asked what my background was. I said business. His advice? Once again, the blasted “write what you know.”

However, this time I understood what that meant. Write about the world I truly know, inside and out… the business world.

I figured “why not?!” and started writing. The words rolled off my fingertips. I’d sit in meetings and watch hand movements and strategy plays, knowing that I could use them in my writing. When I got laid off (project people get laid off quite often), I used that painful experience in a novel (Breach Of Trust, my first, out May 2008). Suddenly everything and everyone around me became research.

And writing was fun again.

Now, you might be reading this and thinking “I don’t know anything. I’m a stay at home wife and mother and that is my world.” Exactly. That is your world so write about your world. An author buddy includes children in every novel. She writes children so well that it is clear that she knows and loves them. Her readership? Mothers. I see them devouring her novels on the bus while their babies sleep in the strollers.

We all know something. Write what you know.

Kimber Chin

Aspiring writers are told “write what you know”.

Kimber Chin took that advice to heart.

She knew two things… business (based on decades in new business development) and romance (based on falling and staying in love with the man of her dreams).

She has combined these areas of expertise to write modern contemporary romances set in the business world. Her first romance, Breach Of Trust, will be released May 2008.

Kimber Chin has led product launches at numerous Fortune 500 companies. She enjoys consulting, drafting capital winning business plans and assisting start ups. She is an entrepreneur, a blogger, and a wife.

For more information and a free sample story every Wednesday, visit her site
BusinessRomance.com