I Got a Liebster? Wow!

Goodness, I'd never heard of the Liebster Award for blogs, but now I've gotten one...and from Zakgirl.  I'm honored because she mentioned in her nominations that Dishin' It Out is filled with fun and interesting stuff to read.  I can't ask for more than that.  So thank you, Zakgirl, for the honor.  I'm flattered.

What is the intention of the award?  To draw attention to blogs that deserve more.

If you're curious about the name, liebster is German for "favorite" or "dearest." I love being someone's favorite anything.  :)

My instructions, since I gladly accept this award, are:

1. Post this award on your blog.   (Check)
2. Thank and link to the person who gave it to you. (Check)
3. Pass it on to five bloggers who have less than 200 followers. (Check, except I'm not entirely sure about the number of followers.)
4. Comment on those five people's blogs to share the good news. (Check, I can hear them groaning already)

Here are my five:


1.  Karen Cote - Romance Author   (Romance...It's complicated) - Karen gets my first nod because of her innovative blog and the creative way she brings authors to readers and makes their books come alive.  Besides, she's an awesome person and a very talented author whose first book captivated me.


2.  Caroline Clemmons (A Writer's Life) - Caroline writes my favorite genre, and I've recently discovered her blog.  Her posts are entertaining and informative.  Plus, I like her style.


3.  Roseanne Dowell (Where Love Blooms and Romance Happens) - Roseanne is a fellow Muse author and good friend with a dedication to her peers that surpasses many.  She's dedicated to sharing her blog and giving a stage to others when she's not promoting her own work.  What a woman!! 

4. Maggie Toussaint (Mudpies and Magnolias) - Now who wouldn't want to research a blog with a title like that.  Maggie is another recent find of mine...both a friendship and an interesting blog.  She deserves to be discovered by more readers.


5.  Anita Davison (The disorganised Author) - I've known Anita longer than any of the other people I've listed, and when asked about favorite authors, she always makes my list.  Her blog is one of the most interesting I've found, and written in the same captivating style as her novels.  Don't miss it.


Okay...I've done my duty.  I've been blogging for quite a time and have an extensive roll from which to choose.  These five were not awarded on the spur of the moment, rather are listed because these women go the extra mile to keep topics interesting and fun.  That draws me in every time.  I assure you, you won't regret checking them out.  Congratulations, Ladies...and again, thank you Zakgirl.  You made my day.

Welcome Anita Davison

Note from Ginger: I'm doubly thrilled to have one of my very favorite authors on board this month.  This wonderful lady has opened my eyes to English history and all the fascinations.  I'm happy to host her as I've read her work with enthusiasm and great interest.

Trencarrow Secret by Anita Davison

Victorian Gothic Romance

I was born in London, a city which has a unique atmosphere; a sense of time passed that I connected with, even when I was young. When the other children on the school trip coach were throwing the contents of their lunch boxes at each other, I was staring out of the window at the ancient buildings, imagining men in wigs and heeled shoes coming out of coffee houses and climbing into sedan chairs on the cobbles outside St Pauls Cathedral.

Strangely it was walking through Paternoster Row with a dear friend, discussing books of course, when the idea for the story of Trencarrow Secret came to me. One requirement of modern writing, is you cannot simply write a story, it has to be categorised, put into a box so it is instantly recognised. My critique group, and my agent, say time and again that romances are the largest market in the fiction genre. In an attempt to break into the world of traditionally published authors, I chose to step outside the world of Restoration London and into the heads of characters of another era. I haven’t managed it yet, as Trencarrow Secret is published by a small company, but I still have some stories to tell which may make it.

Isabel Hart evolved, beginning as a Jacobean character, she turned into a Regency one, eventually finding her own time in late Victorian England. Her reserved character belonged in the rigid, uncompromising days of the British Empire, and I gave her strong reasons for seeing life as many of us do when we are young; in black and white, where right and wrong are clearly defined and there is no blurring of the two. Trencarrow Secret is a love story, and during one fateful summer, Isabel discovers that marriage is no fairytale, but an enigmatic and unique bonding of a couple which may appear unsatisfactory to outsiders, but each comes with its own chance of success.

Isabel’s romantic illusions are dispelled and she comes to realise that people, even those closest to her, are flawed and make mistakes. She has to find the capacity to forgive and move on – and to continue to love them anyway because that’s what families do. Through her unique relationship with her brother, David, Isabel struggles through revelations, self doubt and danger before she finds her soulmate.

The Hart's summer home in Cornwall is a house I have visited often -  also the village of Marazion and St Michael's Mount have not changed much since the late 19th Century, which made them easy to portray realistically. I tend to write about places I know so I can portray them with a level of credibility.

Writing historical fiction is complicated and challenging, but my spirit lives in the past and I cannot imagine myself writing anything else.

Trencarrow Secret is scheduled for release on 10^th June 2011

Available here: https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore2/

Trencarrow Secret Blog:  http://trencarrowsecret.blogspot.com

Anita’s Blog: http://thedisorganisedauthor.blogspot.com

Culloden Spirit coming September 2011 from MuseItUp Publishing
Blog: http://cullodenspirit.blogspot.com

Welcome, Diane Scott Lewis

Severe Self-Editing

Several years ago I wrote and researched a novel set on the remote North Atlantic island of St. Helena during Napoleon’s exile in 1815. Most of the people who accompanied him wrote diaries and memoires…so many details and history. The island itself was a character due to the odd flora and fauna and geographical setting. I stuffed the novel, Elysium, with these nuggets until it grew to over 150,000 words. The first agent that actually read the book said I had too many characters and needed to develop the two main characters more. So I ripped out several characters, fictional and historical, (which left huge plot holes I had to repair) to make room for Napoleon’s POV along with delving deeper into my heroine’s.

With all that introspection, the novel again ballooned to over 150,000 words. The agent rejected me anyway, not on size but theme. Later, I received a publishing contract from an up and coming small press which wasn’t afraid of large or “outside the box” books. The joy! Then they filed for bankruptcy before I even began edits.

I set the book aside for over a year, but the story kept calling to me. I read Elysium again a few weeks ago and said, “What crap! This needs additional severe self-editing.” First I went through and cut extra words: “just” and “very” are good ones. You also don’t need “she/he wondered; she/he knew; she/he saw” in their POV’s. I slashed the “telling” and added more “emotion”. I studied each scene, do I really need this scene, is the info important, or can I move that one line of info elsewhere? “But I loved that scene!” Oh well, no room. In many scenes the characters blathered on too long, repeating themselves…snip snip!

Get to the point faster! Do I really need to name all the unusual plants on the island, even though they’re fascinating to me? More cuts. Do I really need to keep saying “really”?

The experience has forced me to look at my writing in a different light: cut extra words, scenes that go nowhere, remove superfluous characters. Can two, even three, characters be combined into one? Make every word and all the dialog count and move the plot along.

I’m amazed that I’ve shaved the work down to 137,000 words, still large but manageable. Now I lament that I might have cut too much and removed the historical points I wanted to include. I might sneak back and…add a few back in.

My friend, and an extremely talented writer, Anita Davison, designed this cover for my as yet unpublished book.

For more info on my recently published historical novel, The False Light, adventure and romance in the eighteenth century, and my other books, please visit my website.